A Spiritual Check-Up

“A Spiritual Check-Up”

.

Jesus says in, V:3-“take heed to yourselves…

Pay attention to yourselves, watch yourselves; do a check-up on your spiritual life. Be concerned about your spiritual condition!

Jesus told his disciples back in -“Watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy”.

In -“Jesus says watch out for the scribes; they are hypocrites.

The disciples were to watch out for the sin and hypocrisy in the Pharisees, and scribes. Not everybody who says they know Jesus really does. Watch out for hypocrites, and don’t become one! Today we need discernment, to spot what is genuine, and what is fake. Watch out there are hypocrites!

But here in , Jesus tells his disciples that they need to watch themselves, and pay attention to how they’re living. Check yourself, before you wreck yourself. When you were a kid; did your parents ever say to you, take care of yourself? Eddie, leave your sister alone and take care of yourself!

In school, I would turn around and start talking to someone, and my teacher would say, Eddie, turnaround and mind your own business.

Jesus said to his disciples, take the log out of your eye; then you can see clearly to help your brother get the splinter out of his eye.

It is a lot easier to see the failures, and sins in someone else life; than to see the ones in your own life.

I say to Tess, look at that terrible driver!

They didn’t even turn on their blinker; is it going take them an eternity to turn this corner! One day not too long ago, Tess said to me; you are a terrible driver! You didn’t even turn on your blinker! Don’t you think you should watch yourself, and not the other drivers!

Jesus says to his disciples watch yourself, pay attention to your own spiritual life!

When you get on an airplane, they say: put on your own oxygen mask before you try to help others. Why? They don’t want you to suffocate in 12-D, while you’re messing with someone else’s oxygen mask.

Jesus tells us in these verses, we are to watch our spiritual life first and continually.

In these verses Jesus speaks to his disciples about four areas that were critical to their spiritual life.

He tells his disciples to “watch themselves” in these areas.

I want us to look at these four areas and do a spiritual checkup.

Question number one on the spiritual checkup:

1. Am I Causing Others to Sin?

V:1-2.

Jesus reminds us that we live in a fallen, sinful world, and temptation to sin will come. It is impossible to live in this world without experiencing temptations, and stumbling blocks in your path. We will face temptations from this world, and from our on sinful nature. We live in a world where temptation is everywhere. This world is under the control of the tempter; and he has gotten real good at tempting man.

The advertising industry, the movie industry, the clothing industry, you name it… Survives and prospers by tempting us to give into greed, envy, gluttony and lust.

Movie stars, athletes, politicians, lure multitudes of people away from God by their wicked lifestyles. They make others stumble into sin, desiring to be like them. Temptations to sin are everywhere; Jesus tells us that we live in a world of temptations.

We know this is true, we all experience temptation in different ways, every day.

Every day Satan comes after you with temptations, and digs pits for you to fall into, and puts stumbling blocks in the path of discipleship.

Do not be ignorant of his devices! What is in this world? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Temptations to sin are a part of this world! By the way, being tempted is not a sin; it is giving in to the temptation that is a sin!

Martin Luther said, you can’t keep a bird from flying over your head; but you can keep it from building a nest in your hair”.

Temptation, and stumbling blocks will come…

V:1-“but woe unto him, through whom they come”.

Jesus goes on to say in, V:2, it would be better for you that a grinding stone be tied around your neck and you be cast into the sea and die a horrible death by drowning than for you to cause someone else to stumble into sin.

This is a very strong warning to not be a stumbling block, to not cause others to stumble over you into sin! Do not cause other people to sin!

Jesus says it would be better to die a horrible death, than to cause a little one to stumble into sin!

Jesus said something similar to this in:

-“Offences will come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! If your hand or foot offend you, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for you to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.

Jesus is telling us to be serious about removing from our life’s anything that is causing other people to sin.

Watch yourself, look closely at your life and asked yourself; am I causing others to sin?

Are you causing your girlfriend to sin, by putting pressure on her?

Is your cold heart, of indifference toward Jesus and his church; causing others, especially new believers to say if that’s his attitude, why should I care?

Is your attitude and disposition, and anger causing your spouse to sin?

Are you provoking your children to wrath, by the way that you discipline them?

We can cause others to sin when our actions, and attitudes, by setting a bad example for them.

We cause others to sin when our complaining spirits cause them to be discontent as well.

We cause others to sin when we gossip about someone to them.

Jesus said woe to you if you lead someone into sin, and cause them to stumble in their spiritual walk! You would be better off dead, than be leading people away from God!

The way you act, dress, talk, respond, and live your life should not cause other people to sin!

Yes, of course people have to take responsibility for their own actions, no one sins for you! But Jesus says woe to you who entice, tempt, and introduce some little one to sin!

Tempting people is a very great sin! It is a great sin to lead children into sin! It is going be a horrible day; on judgment day for those who lead children and youth into a lifestyle of sin.

We also must be careful not to lead those who have just begun to follow Jesus astray. New believers are the most vulnerable; and more mature believers need to be very careful not to lead them astray, by their actions and attitudes.

There have been a lot of people turn their back on God, and the church, because of the moral, financial, and sexual scandals that have corrupted the church and dishonor the name of Jesus!

There are preachers, deacons, Christians who have caused people to stumble into sin. Jesus said it would been better for you to die than to cause others to stumble.

Jesus said watch yourself, pay attention, don’t lead others into sin!

Watch yourself; am I Causing others to sin?

Question number two on the spiritual checkup:

1. Am I a Person of Forgiveness?

V:3-4-Read.

Christians are to be concerned about their relationship with each other. As a part of God’s family, God’s church we have a responsibility to hold each other accountable. Jesus says when your brother/sister sins you are to rebuke them.

This is a sin that has been committed against you; notice the personal pronouns. This is not something that we enjoyed doing; you should never find joy in rebuking your brother sister in Christ for their sin against you. But at the same time, we are not to choose to do nothing, and leave them in their sin! If your brother sins against you, rebuked him. This is something that Jesus wants you to do! We have the spiritual responsibility to show them their sin and fault. For the glory of God and the good of that brother or sister we need to confront them with their sin; so they can repent and we can forgive them, and reconciliation can happen.

This reminds us that we do not live our spiritual life in isolation; but in a community of believers, the church.

Jesus tells us exactly how to do this in:

-“If your brother shall trespass against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone: if he shall hear you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear you, then take with you one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it to the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto you as a heathen man and a publican.

Underline, and highlight this in 14 colors:

V:15-“go and tell him his fault between you and him alone”.

Go to the person who has sinned against you and tell them they have sinned against you, and explain it to them. Don’t go and tell someone else that they sinned against you; that is the cowardly thing to do! The courageous thing to do, the biblical thing to do is go to them, and tell them they have sinned against you!

Division, clicks, and hurt feelings have been caused by people not going to the person who has sinned against them and confronting them, but telling someone else.

Do not tell other people about your problems with someone else; go to that person alone!

The Bible tells us what to do when they will not listen, carry someone else; and if they still won’t listen; take it to the church. And if they won’t hear the church then treat them like a person who is lost!

Also the confession of your sin doesn’t need to be any larger than the circle of people you sinned against. Don’t go to a person, and tell them that you have had impure thoughts about them, or jealous when they are clueless. Tell God that you have had impure thoughts, confess your sin to God! Confessing your sin to that person may lead to more sin.

-“Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest you also be tempted. Bear you one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

There is a right way and a wrong way to confront sin. We are to go gently, like a doctor mending a broken bone. Not harsh, judgmental; but demonstrating the tender mercy of God.

We are to go humbly, considering ourselves, but by the grace of God we would be sabotaged by sin.

We are to go lovingly, fulfilling the law of Christ; the law of Christ is love. -“For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; you shall love your neighbor as thyself”.

We are to go prayerfully, praying that God would work through us to restore that person.

The purpose of rebuking and confronting sin in another believer is to see them restored in their relationship with God and you! Not to rake them over the coals, give them a piece of your mind, make them understand how bad they hurt you; but to restore them. Jesus says if a person has sinned against you, confront them.

If that person repents of their sin, you are to forgive them, V:3.

Unfortunately some people try to take the word “if” in V:3, as a qualification of forgiveness. They think it means that we have a right to withhold forgiveness until the person comes to us with satisfactory repentance. But this is contrary to the example of Jesus himself, who forgave his enemies even before they asked him in .

Jesus is teaching us that we are to have a forgiving heart toward someone who has done us wrong, even before we talk with them. Surely you don’t think that Jesus meant you can have a heart of unforgiveness and bitterness until the person asked you for forgiveness. This passage is not denying that people need to be held accountable for their actions, are that people need to genuinely repent, and asked you for your forgiveness.

This passage is not denying the proper place for justice, or that when someone else has sinned against you, it takes time to rebuild trust. All those things are addressed in other passages of Scripture. But here Jesus is teaching us here, that we are to have a heart of forgiveness toward those who have sinned against us!

Now it is true, there can be no reconciliation between two people unless when sin is confronted, repentance happens, and then forgiveness comes.

Here Jesus paints the picture of a person being rebuked for their sin, repenting of their sin and then being forgiven. That is the way that Jesus wants it to happen in the life of his disciple!

When someone who has sinned against you, repents, Jesus says you are to forgive them! How many times do you forgive them? Seven times in a day if that’s what it takes. We are to have a heart of forgiveness!

It is a command, V:4-“you shall forgive him”.

To forgive someone means, that you no longer holding that sin against them. It means that you will forgive them, and let it go.

You say, I’m not going to forgive them, if I can’t forget about it. Well I guarantee you that you will never forget about it, if you don’t forgive them.

To forgive them means, you will not bring it up to them again!

To forgive them means, you will not talk to anyone else about it.

To forgive them means, you are not bring it up to yourself again.

I quote Willie Nelson,” forgiving you is easy, forgetting seems to take a long time”.

Yes that is right, forgetting sometimes takes a long time. But every time it comes back to your mind, you refuse to entertainment it or to relive it.

The first step is to forgive that person! You asked, where does this kind of forgiveness come from? This kind of forgiveness comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, who has forgiven you!

The forgiveness I offer others, flows from the forgiveness I have received from God through Jesus Christ. When we start talking about forgiveness, were talking about the heart of the gospel! Jesus died on the cross, and shed his blood to provide forgiveness. Jesus forgave us when we repented of our sins and asked him to forgive us!

And Jesus will give you grace to forgive others if you ask him to! Has God forgiven you countless times? -“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you”.

It is not easy to forgive someone who has sinned against you, slandered you, gossiped about you, lied about you, taken advantage of you, or abused you.

David Livingstone, the great missionary to Africa; decided to go to Africa without his wife. And the rumor mill started, and the gossip said that they were having marriage problems, that’s why he didn’t take her. But that was not true, he left her behind until he could determine that it was safe, and the conditions were okay for her to come. But the slander and gossip hurt him and his wife.

20 years later writing to a friend, he said, “I often think I have forgiven as a hope to be forgiven but the remembrance of the slander often comes boiling up even though I hate to think of it, you must remember me in your prayers, that more of the spirit of Christ will be imparted to me”

We are to be like the prodigal son’s father, when the boy came home and said I have sinned, the father forgave him.

We’re not to be like the prodigal sons brother who would not go into the party of forgiveness.

Watch yourself, are you learning to forgive.

Question number three on the spiritual checkup:

2. Am I Walking by Faith?

V:5-6.

After they hear Jesus say these things, they responded by saying…we need help! Lord increase our faith! They knew that what the Lord was asking them to do was far beyond their ability! Setting a good example for people is not easy, rebuking a brother who has sinned, and then forgiving him is not easy. Asking Jesus to increase their faith may be one of the smartest things the disciples ever did!

The Disciples asked for more faith, faith to live a life free of offense, faith to forgive the person who had sinned against them. Whenever the Lord ask us to do something that we know we cannot do; we need more faith in the word of God, and the grace of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit to help us. Faith to trust God to help us do something that we cannot do on our own; faith to step out in obedience. You say I cannot forgive; you mean you will not forgive; you will not trust God to give you a forgiving heart. If you place your faith in Jesus, he will give you the grace to forgive that person!

People of faith are forgivers!

Abraham forgave lot.

Moses forgave Aaron and Miriam.

David forgave King Saul.

If we are having trouble forgiving, we need faith. We need to believe that God is in control, that he is not sleeping, he knows what has happened. We need to believe he loves us. We need to believe he will take care of us.

Rather than giving them more faith; Jesus said:

V:6-Read.

This is an illustration that tells us it’s not the amount of faith that works miracles, it is who you have faith in that works miracles. The smallest amount of faith in a great God can do the impossible.

Someone said, “It is not so much great faith in God that is required, as faith in a great God that is required”

God can do a lot with a little faith.

V:6-“if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you can say under this sycamine tree…

This tree, is probably the black mulberry, with a vast root system that enabled it to live up to six hundred years. Jesus is not encourage the disciples to cast trees into the sea.” What he desires is a little faith that can produce surprising results.

Faith in a great God can uproot the deepest rooted things in your life! God can uproot anger, unforgiveness, and bitterness from your heart if you trust God and give it over to him and forgive.

Faith enables us to trust God with our future, because we trust in an all-knowing God.

Faith enables us to trust God to provide for us, because we trust a faithful God.

Faith enables us to get past the hurt of broken dreams and shattered promises, because we trust in a comforting God.

Faith enables us to resist the temptation that is destroying us, because we trust in a powerful God.

Jesus said in -“All things are possible to him that believes”.

Question number four on the spiritual checkup:

3. Am I Doing my Duty?

V:7-10-Read.

After Jesus has given these requirements to His disciples; to not cause a person to stumble, to forgive those who sin against them, to walk by faith. A disciple might thing that when they do these things God owes them something.

Jesus corrects such thinking with a mini-parable consisting of three rhetorical questions that are answered with a no, a yes, and a no. The answers come from the relationships of slaves and masters in the ancient world.

V:7-“Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or feeding animals. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come, and sit down to eat’?” No!

V:8-“Would he not rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’?” Yes!

V:9-“Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?” No!

Then comes the wake-up application: V:10- “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty”.

Jesus meant that watching ourselves, rebuking, forgiving, believing, is nothing extraordinary. This is the way we are supposed to live. And when we do it, we are at best “unworthy servants.” Such a life is our duty. This kind of life is ordinary Christianity.

All the things that we have done for God as a servant, are the things that a servant is supposed to do! The master doesn’t celebrate, brag on, pat the servant on the back, and sit him down at the table and serve him; because the servant has been a servant! The point of this parable is; God does not owe us anything! Nothing we have done for God earns us leverage with the Almighty.

If you serve God perfectly all your life; you’ve only done your duty.

We must be careful that we do not serve God, for what we think we can get from God! Then were not serving God, we’re serving ourselves.

The way to know we are serving God and not ourselves, is when we’re getting nothing from obeying God and serving God, yet we serve him anyway. When it’s all done, the servant doesn’t expect anything from the master; rather, the servant says, “I’m just doing my job. I am an unworthy servant. I have only done my duty. I don’t need a pat on the back.

Obedience does not obligate God to the disciple. God does not owe the disciple anything for faithfulness. The disciple is to humbly serve God as part of his duty.

How little we have done for Jesus, considering how much he has done for us! Jesus went to the cross, died for our sins, rose for our justification, prays for us daily, empowers us by his spirit, and one day would take us to heaven!

How did you do on the spiritual checklist?

Are you cause others to sin?

Are you a person who gives forgiveness?

Are you walking by faith?

Are you doing your duty?