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Generous In Spirit
9.14.22 [Luke 17:1-10] River of Life (10th Sunday after Pentecost)
Last Sunday, we studied one of Jesus’ finest teaching stories—the story of the rich man & poor Lazarus.
In that story, Jesus vividly revealed the nature and purpose of temporal blessings.
In so doing, he exposed the Pharisees’ arrogance & selfishness.
The Pharisees believed their good lives were God’s reward for their good behavior.
And because they believed they had earned these things, they struggled to be generous with all the good things God had given them.
Why share with those who haven’t been as good as me?
Why should I suffer, when I go to great lengths to be good?
Seeing this self-seeking materialism in the Pharisees was good for us.
There are far too many times that we think and behave in their ways.
But there is also a danger for us.
Because the Pharisees were so extremely arrogant, greedy, and selfish, we can begin to view their transgressions like we might the local police blotter—juicy gossip, spiritual schadenfreude rather than a wakeup call.
We should be generous in things, but the Christian life is more than just cutting a check to a local charity or donating to families in need.
Jesus’ teaching today, in Luke 17, clarifies that believers are not just to be generous in material things, but also generous in spirit.
Jesus says two particular things are as difficult for his disciples, as it was for the Pharisees to be generous in material goods.
1) Not causing little ones to stumble & 2) forgiving repeat offenders.
The two examples Jesus provides seem to be random, arbitrary, and almost totally unconnected.
But remember who is teaching.
Jesus.
But Jesus knows these men better than they knew themselves.
(Lk.
9:47; 22:24) They repeatedly argued amongst themselves which of them was the greatest.
In the very next chapter, Luke 18, the disciples will (Lk.
18:15) rebuke those who are bringing babies to Jesus to place his hands on them (Mt.
19:13) and pray for them.
(Mt.
18:21) One time, Peter asks Jesus if forgiving his brother seven times is good enough.
(Lk.
9:54-55) Another time James and John want to call fire down from heaven on a whole village who didn’t want to welcome Jesus.
Jesus recognized it was challenging for his disciples to be generous in spirit.
That’s the commonality between these two cases.
(Lk.
17:2) Don’t cause little ones to stumble.
(Lk.
17:3-4) Forgive a fellow Christian who sins against you seven times in a single day each and every time.
Doing these things demands a generous spirit—humility & patience.
The apostles recognized that & cried out: (Lk.
17:5) Increase our faith!
When we take an honest look at what Jesus demands we come to the same conclusion.
Jesus says (Lk. 17:1-2) Woe to anyone through whom stumbling blocks come to these little ones.
Adults must not say or do things that force children to act spiritually "wise beyond their years.
Kids talk as they hear you talk.
They value what you value.
Your children shouldn’t have to rebuke you for lying, cursing, or gossiping.
But it’s more than being a poor example of Christian living.
We can place stumbling blocks in the lives of our kids when we clutter their lives with things that block their view of Christ and his Word.
If we, as parents, are filling up their weekends with recitals, tournaments, fishing trips, or time in the mountains, we're cheating our kids out of getting to know their Savior.
If we are working such long hours that we are too busy or too tired to lead devotions or pray with them or answer their questions about God & life, we're causing little ones to stumble.
Think of this way.
Some children of divorce only get to spend weekends at dad’s.
Think about why you’ve taken them away from Sundays in their Heavenly Father’s house.
If you had split custody and someone kept your kids away from you for the same reasons you’ve neglected to bring your kids to God’s house, how would you react?
Telling ourselves that our children are old enough to make their own spiritual decisions is no better.
The devil himself devised this fine-sounding deception.
If your child cannot put a roof over their own head, food on their own table, how long will you watch them suffer?
If they still need your guidance in temporal things, they need it spiritually, too!
But, for many of us, the days of raising kids are long gone.
There are still little ones you must care for.
When you go home & grumble about the noisy kid in church, you've created hurdles for little ones the Lord loves.
Little ones also includes the spiritually immature.
Sometimes, we create obstacles when we demand things that God does not.
Maybe we expect that people get their lives together before we will offer them our spiritual encouragement or support.
Or we burden them with all the things that must be done at church.
Or we unload on them all the problems we've seen.
When you minimize the importance of your being in church each week, you are leaving legos on a dark floor for your fellow Christians.
No one has ever come up to me and said you know what, I wish there were less people in church.
It’s getting too crowded.
Yet, time and again, we wonder where so-and-so is this Sunday, and they wonder the same about us the next week.
We are not meant to worship like ships passing in the night.
When we skip Bible class because it’s too basic or we determine it's not challenging enough, we are fashioning stumbling blocks for those who are still finding their footing, spiritually speaking.
Picking up your cross and following Christ is hard enough, but sometimes we make it harder.
Of course, the more time you spend with God’s people, the more likely they are to sin against you.
Multiple times.
Jesus tackles that, too.
He describes this almost impossible-to-imagine situation where the same person sins against you seven times in a single day.
Our gut tells us we are a fool if we believe they are really sorry for what they’ve done after the second time.
But our Savior tells us to forgive them every single time.
How?
When we let the full weight of what Jesus is really saying come down on us, we can’t help but react the way the disciples did.
Increase our faith!
In a sense, the disciples were asking for the right thing.
But based on how Jesus responds to them, I think there’s something more going on.
God gives faith freely.
And God’s gifts are good and perfect, never inadequate or insufficient.
That’s the point Jesus makes in the whole faith the size of a mustard seed thing.
When the disciples cry out Increase our faith!
they’re saying We can’t do this hard thing you’re asking us to do, yet.
And maybe we feel that way, too.
And we’re right.
On our own, we cannot do this.
We can’t help but let our weaknesses, our selfishness, our personal preferences create obstacles and injure others.
We know we should be helping little ones mature in their faith.
We know we should be eager to forgive as we have been forgiven.
But we can’t!
We struggle because we have lost sight of how our Lord has dealt with us while we were still taking spiritual baby steps.
We are reluctant to forgive freely because we have forgotten the tremendous sin debt that Christ erased.
We need an increase in our faith.
So how do we do that?
(Rom.
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