Pay Attention To Yourself

You can be turning to Luke chapter 17. It's a sermon that our Lord gave as he's on his way to Jerusalem.

And this sermon all started because the Pharisees and scribes were upset. The tax collectors and sinners were coming near him and listening to him.

Jesus accepted them and even ate with them. These were people who were new to the faith. And Jesus was careful to show how precious they were to him.

He spoke a parable of the lost sheep, a parable of the lost coin, and a parable of the lost son to talk about how precious these ones were to him.

Today we finish the sermon. We'll hear Jesus exhort his disciples to pay attention to themselves as he further describes how precious these little ones are to him.

Let me read from Luke chapter 17. And he said to his disciples, Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come.

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea that he should, then that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.

Pay attention to yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in one day and turns to you seven times saying, I repent, you must forgive him.

The apostles said to the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, Be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you.

Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, Come at once and recline at table?

Will he not rather say to him, Prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterwards you will eat and drink?

Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, We are unworthy servants.

We have only done what was our duty. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for this passage. And in one sense, the Strongness Of what Jesus points out Is alarming.

And we understand the apostles' response In one sense. But, Father, I thank you that Jesus' response, Jesus' teaching Shows his heart.

I thank you, Father, For A savior Who will go to the map for his people. I thank you for a savior Who is willing To say how Careful We must be for one another.

And especially for those little ones That you love. And I thank you, Father, For the way you spoke this So as to include us.

I pray that you would use it in our hearts. I pray that you would help us to hear And heed the warning. And I pray that you would help us To be The kind of servants In this Passage That do What is expected Because it is their responsibility.

I pray that your spirit would help us This morning And that you would be with us As we look together At your word. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I've I've entitled my message Pay Attention to Yourself Because it's a phrase In the middle of this passage In the middle of the first part of the passage That I think Links several things together.

And so Two of our four points Are simply going to be Pay Attention to Yourself Or a close version of that. As Jesus has Preached this message On his way to Jerusalem And I mentioned That it was because Of all these tax collectors And sinners Being saved And how the Pharisees And the scribes Were treating them.

Jesus says He's getting closer to Jerusalem Wants people to make sure They know his thinking About this situation. And so He begins Talking about temptations But he says In a sense Pay attention to yourself And he's going to talk about How to pay attention to yourself In these first few verses Pay attention to yourself.

This is something That you and I Should take note of. It's something that we should Be careful to pay attention to. Because if Jesus Tells us to pay attention To ourself That's something We should definitely Pay attention to.

He starts out in verse 1 Talking about temptations. Everyone faces temptations. All The lost And the saved Delight Face temptations.

It's a universal thing Because we're sinners. Because we were born in sin. But Jesus is addressing His disciples here. So he's talking to people Who are trusting him.

And I want you to make sure To know that At this point He's not talking to Just the twelve. In fact At no point Is he just Speaking to the twelve. He's speaking to the disciples.

And the Pharisees Are hearing this. And so He's speaking to us. Every one of us As Christians Face temptations.

It just happens. We're sinners. We're born With a sin nature. And even though Christ has redeemed us And is making us More like Christ.

We still have that sin nature. And we are tempted to sin. Everyone faces Temptations. But as Jesus Is addressing this situation And bringing this Particular sermon To a close He wants us to see That we need to be Very careful As disciples As those who are Following Christ Lest we be The cause Of those temptations.

Now I think I think Jesus is also Flashing a word of warning To the Pharisees And the scribes Who are listening Because they are Still listening. And I think Part of what Shocking Parable That Jesus Gets into Is for their sake It's not all for their sake It is for our sake Be careful Lest we be the ones Who cause The little ones To be caught In temptation We should be people Who are careful Now he says He uses this word Temptation Causing someone To be tempted To sin And he's telling us That causing someone To sin Is a Serious situation Now First of all Who are the little ones And I've alluded to this The little ones That Jesus

Referred to here I think Initially Points us back To Luke Chapter 15 And verse 1 And it He may be Directly referring To the tax collectors And sinners The ones he accepted The ones he ate with The ones who were Coming to him Who were receiving him And he was receiving them And so as he's thinking About this This command To the disciples And to be heard By the Pharisees Jesus is speaking About these people Who have just come to him From some of the Rougher parts Of society It's A diminutive term Diminutive terms You know He's saying Little ones Now Was he only Speaking of children Here No He was probably Mostly speaking Of adults People that As we looked at In a crowd Tax collectors And sinners We'd see

The hardened faces We'd see The long Wrinkle lines We'd see The carrying Of The burden Of many years Of going their own way And living In their own For their own Desires But yet Jesus is looking At these ones And calling them The little ones It's a diminutive term That's speaking about Yes Their youngness In the faith But it's also Talking about Their tenderness To him Don't you When you see A child In distress Aren't you More concerned If there's a child And an adult In distress Aren't you Often more Concerned For the little one Your heart Goes out To see a little One suffer And if there Was a fire We'd probably Run for the little One before We would run For the big One Because we Just care About these Little ones And I think Jesus is Talking about These new Ones to the Faith But really At this point Everyone who's

A disciple Is probably Fairly new To the faith And so I Think he's He's speaking To not just Those tax Collectors And sinners He's talking To us And I think Even as he Goes along He uses Terminology And he addresses Situations That are Not just Things that The tax Collectors And sinners Could be Guilty of There are Things that All kinds Of christians Could be Guilty of So I Think there's Also not Only this Aspect of Showing his Heart to These tax Collectors And sinners He's showing His heart To his Disciples This is a Savior Who has Taken on Flesh for Them This is a Savior Who's lived And faced All the Temptations That man Would face For them For us We are His dear Ones We are The ones That he Cares about We are The ones That he Would go To the Mat For

We are The ones That he Is jealous To protect And so He says Temptations Are sure To come But woe To the One Through Whom They Come And he Uses This Illustration Of a Millstone Not a Little Millstone Like you Might see In someone Jarred We are Talking A large Millstone The word Is a Millstone That a Donkey Would have To be Hitched To a Stick A large Thing Several Ton And it's Over dramatization How would you Ever take A four Ton Millstone And put it On the Head of Anyone And then Cast that Whole thing Into the Sea But he's Showing the Seriousness Of the Situation One Who tempts Someone To sin Is in a Serious Situation It's It's Like It's Like When we See someone Offend Someone How we Wished we Could do Them Much Greater

Harm Than we Could ever Do It's Dangerous To tempt Someone To sin Now I'll just Stop here And say Don't Think That if You're A Christian And you Tempt Someone To sin That God All of a Sudden Turns on You And is Ready to Wipe You Out That's Not That's Not What he's Getting At It's Getting At the Seriousness Of causing Little ones To stumble And as I Prepared this Message I Thought how Many of us Have already Caused People to Sin How might We be the Ones Through whom Temptation to Sin may Come Paul makes Much of This In Romans 14 And 1 Corinthians 10 People Use Their Liberty And cause Some people To sin In doing Things That were

Okay but They had a Conscious Against And they Did those Things and Then they Felt guilty And they Thought so And so Did it And Paul Addresses Their Teaching which Could well Have been Built on This saying We need To be People who Are careful Even in Our liberty Things that We know Before God We can do But some People have A struggle To know Whether they Can do It Our use Of liberty Can cause People to Sin Our Entertaining Of sin In our Own Lives You an Angry man Are you An angry Woman You can Be one Who tempts Your children To learn To be Angry Are you A person Who is A gossip You can Certainly Tempt Others To be Gossips Are you Faithless Do you Never believe

The promises You can Be one Who tempts Others Even Worse Some of These Especially The Pharisees And scribes Were people Who held To false Doctrine And they Could Lead People To sin Now You might Say I've Done That I've Lived In such A way I can See how My kids Are angry Just like I was And And they Is God Ready To throw Me In the Ocean With A Millstone Above My Neck Is he Ready To drown Me Is he Ready To do Me In Again I don't Think that That's where He's Going Here He's Talking About The Seriousness The Concern You And I Need to Have In our Own Lives That we Live A life That is Careful Not to Teach And lead Others Into Sin So you Say Okay Pastor You've Touched

The Button In my Life And now I Feel Bad Because My Kids Are Angry Kids Because I'm An Angry Man Or I'm An Angry Woman What Do I Do What Do I Do You Do The Same Thing Everyone Who Sins Before God Does You Repent And You Run To Christ And It Happens We Are Sinners We Teach Other!

Sinners! Sin But We Need To Be People Whose Heart Longing Is I Want To Be A Good Example I Want To Be Example Of One Who Trusts Christ We Can't Have A Flippant Attitude About Our Life We Can't Say It Doesn't Matter How We Live There Is The Offense Of Little Ones At Stake Your Physical Little Ones The Ones Around!

You Those Dear Ones To Christ That Are Here We Can't Have A Flippant Attitude And Say It Just Doesn't Matter So If You Have Been Guilty Of That And What One Of Us Has Not Sinned And Led Others To Sin We Need To Be Quick To Be People Who Repent Confess To God And I Would Say Also If You're An Angry Man And You've Taught Your Children To Be Angry You Ought To Be A Man Who Says Son Dad Was Wrong It Was Wrong For Me To Be Angry And I've Confessed It To God And I'm Coming!

To You Saying It Was Wrong For That I'll Point Them In This Right Direction So Repent And Confess To God Repent And Confess To Those You Have Caused To Sin Run To God Remember That All Our Sin Was Placed On Christ And As We Trust Him Even Those Ways We've Caused Our Own Little Ones To Be Tempted To Sin Christ Pays For That Christ Knows And Has Provided Redemption For That And So Jesus Ends These First Couple Verses By Saying Pay Attention To Yourself He's Speaking To The Disciples And So I'll Say To You Be Careful Of The Use Of Your Liberty!

There Are Others Watching Be Careful What You Teach Others To Be True There Are Others!

Watching Be Careful To Live In Accordance With The Truth And Not Your Own Opinions Because There Are Others Watching Be Quick I'm Sorry Be Quick To Yourself To Repent Of Sin And Ask Forgiveness Very Quickly Lest You Teach Now Dad You Say Oh I'm Struggling With This Sin And I'm Afraid My Son's Going!

That's A Good Concern But When He Sees You Sin And He Sees The Repentance And He Sees You Run To Christ He's Going To Know That's The Way It Should Be So Pay Attention To Yourselves Pay Attention That We Not Be People Who Cause Others!

To Sin Do You See Jesus' Love For People Here Our Lord Cares That Nothing Causes Any Of His People To Fall Into Sin He Calls Us His Little Ones And He Doesn't Want Us Being Turned Away He Cares That We're Not People Who Are Turning Others Away So Brothers And Sisters Let's Be People Who Pay Attention To Ourselves That We're Careful Not To Be An Exam Or A Temptation To Push People Into Sin Now This Is a This Phrase Pay Attend To Yourself The Last Word Yourselves It's

Just Like A Sermon We Did A Week Or Two Ago The Word Yourself People Argue Because The Greek Can Be Translated Pay Attention To Yourself Or Pay Attention To Those Around You And I Think Because Of What's Going On Here He's Talking About What We Would Do To Others In The First Couple Verses And How We Need To Be Careful To Watch For One Another In The Next Couple Verses I Think This Verse Is Put There With This Word On Purpose So That You Can Look At It And Say I Need To Be Careful What I Do To Influence People Into Sin But I Also Need To Pay Attention To One Another Now You Say What Is He Getting Into He Is Talking About As As We Read Into This He Goes On Let Me Read Verse Three Again Pay Attention To Your If Your Brother Sins Rebuke Him And If He Repents Forgive Him And If He Sins Against

You Seven Times In A Day And Turns To You Seven Times Saying I Repent You Must Forgive! Him Jesus Is Saying! To The!! We Need Sin!

We Also Have A Responsibility To Warn Our Erring Brothers And Sisters Who Are In Our Amidst Jesus Loves These Little Ones So Much That He Also Tasts Those Little Ones With Watching One Another Watching Out For One Another That Your Brother Here Refers To Anyone Who Is Your Christian Brother Or Sister Who Has Sinned We Have This Responsibility We're To Pay Attention To Ourselves We're To Know One Another Brothers And Sisters We Have A Responsibility To Notice!

When A Brother Or Sister Sins And Does Not Repent We Have A Responsibility Not Just To Take Note Of It We Have A Responsibility To Take Action Now I'm Not Talking About Us Being The Kind Of People Who Are Looking Over One Another And Picking Knits You Know Oh I See This About You You Comb Your Hair Funny That's Not What We're Talking About We're Talking About Watching One Another And When A Brother Or Sister Is Caught In Sin We're Not Going To Leave Them There Jesus Loves These Little Ones He Doesn't Want Them If They Fall Into Temptation He Doesn't Want Them Left There He Wants Them Brought Back He Says You Go And Rebuke Them And This Is Not A Lording It Over Them I You I've Been Righteous Fifty Years And You Fall And Let Me Be Here To To Cast Some Shame On This Is A Direction You

Shouldn't Be Going We're To Be Helping A Brother Or Sister To See What They Don't See That's So Often Sin Is Deceiving If I If I Am A Person Who Is Having Trouble Believing The Promises Sometimes I Don't See It And Sometimes I Need Someone To Come Up To Me And Brother From What I He You Say You're Just Not Believing God Here And Remember The Scripture Says This And Remember The Scripture Says That You're To Watch For Me And I'm So Thankful I I I I Rejoice In This It's It's A Shameful Rejoicing Shameful In That I Have To Have Somebody Do It But I'm So Glad I Have People Who Come Up To Me And Put Their Arm On Me And Say Dave You're Not Thinking Right Here I'm So Thankful For That Because I Get Stuck In Patterns Of Thought I Get Stuck In Ways That That I Don't Even See Or I See And I'm

Like Help I Don't Know How To Get Out Of Here I'm Drowning And We Need To Be Brothers And Sisters Who Are Helping Each Other To See What They Don't See Helping Brothers And Sisters!

Temptations To Sin Is Talking About The Stick It's You Remember The Old Cartoons Where There's A Box And There's A Stick There And When The Animal Gets Under It Somebody Pulls A Rope And The Box Falls Down Well That Temptations To Sin Is That Stick And Sometimes We Get Caught And We Don't Even See It But We Need A Brother Sister Who Sees What's Going On And Steps In And What Does This Look Like Well Paul In Galatians 6 1 Says Brothers If Anyone Is Caught In Any Transgression You Who Are Spiritual Should Restore Him In A Spirit Of Gentleness Keeping Watch On Yourself Lest You To Be Tempted And There's Several Good Things There We've Talked About This Before I Only Highlight Them We Should Be Watching For One Another There To Encourage We're There To Draw We're There To Watch We Should Be Meek

In The Process We're Not Trying To Display Our Knowledge Or Authority We're Here To Serve In A Gentle Loving Way Working Expressly For Their Good And Remembering Always That The Word Of God Is Our Standard Not Our Own Wisdom And Then Paul Says!

Another But Be Careful Be Careful That We're Not Sucked In What They Are Dealing With Could Just as Well Be A Temptation For Us If You're Helping A Man Deal With The Sin Of What He Sees On His Computer Be Careful That You Do Not Let What You're Dealing With Become A Temptation For You But That Should Never Stop Us From Saying I Want To Help Those Around Me Because They're Jesus' Little Ones And He's Very Concerned What Happens To His Little Ones And He Not Only Charges Us To Be Careful Not To Be A Temptation To Sin To Others He Also Charges Us To Be Those Who Are Watching For Them And Quick To Speak!

Into Their Lives But Being Careful So Glad For This Because This Is Me Way Too Often In These Situations We Are To Forgive A Repenting Brother So If He Repents If He Sees That He's Doing Wrong And He Admits It And He Turns From It We're To Forgive Now This Could Be Talking About Something About That's Against Us Brother I Can't Believe How You Spoke To Me You Called Me An!

You Know That Scripture Talks About I'm Sorry Brother That Was Wrong Of Me And What If He Does It Again I Mean He's So Accustomed To Calling People Idiots That Five Minutes Later Ten Minutes Later An Hour Later You're Hammering Something And He's Holding The Nail And You Hit The Wrong Nail Idiot I'm Sorry Brother It's So Ingrained In Me I've Done It Again Forgive Me You Forgive Him Seven Times In A Day We're To Forgive All Seven Times In A Day Now Is Eight Too Much No No Seven Is That Number Of Perfection Jesus Is Saying Forgive And

Forgive And Forgive Forgive And Forgive And Forgive Why Because It's His Little One And You're His Little One You're Not God You don't Get to Say When It's Enough I've Had Enough Of You Calling Me An Idiot It's His It's God's Little One And He Would Have You To Forgive And To Forgive And To Forgive And To Forgive On And On The Love Of Jesus Is Evident Again Here He Not Only Cares That The Little Ones Are Not Tempted To Sin But He Cares That We're Not Stuck In Sin Loves Us So Much That He Would Say We Need To Be Watching From One Another He Loves Us So Much That He Would Call Us Not To Give Up On One Another After One Or Two Failures Or To Continue To Forgive Our

Repenting Brother Over And Over Even In One Day Is Our Savior Not So With Every One Of Us Have You Not Gotten The Wrong Thought Stuck In Your Mind And Gone To The Lord With It First Thing In The Morning Second Thing In The Morning Tenth Thing In The Morning After Lunch Three Times Before Supper And Twice Before You Go To Bed And When You Confess And You Ask Forgiveness Does He Not Forgive You Based On His Word Those Who Come Confessing He Is Faithful And Just To Cleanse Us From All Unrighteousness And To Forgive Us We Need To Be That Kind Of People With One Another But See The Love Of Christ Here For Us He Is Watching Out For You As His Little One He Would Have Us To Watch Out For One Another As His Little

Ones Ephesians 4 Be Kind To One Another Tender Hearted For Giving One Another As God In Christ Jesus Forgave You As We Get Into Verses 5 And 16 That The Apostles Now The Apostles Have Been Mentioned Before In In The Book Of Luke And Luke In Writing This Is Not Saying That Jesus Is Only Talking To The Apostles But These Twelve Have Heard Enough And They're Hearing What Jesus Is Saying And Saying Whoa This Is Heavy Do That The Way We Are Lord Increase My Faith Make Me Stronger Make Me Better Able To Do This And Jesus Gives This Amazing Response!

He Says If You Had Faith Like A Grain Of Mustard Seed You Could Say To This Mulberry Tree Be Uprooted And Planted To The Sea And It Would Obey You Mulberry Trees Were Known For The Roots One Said That If A Mulberry Tree Got Planted Its Roots Were Going To Be There For 500 Years No Matter What Anybody Did With It And Jesus Is Saying If You Have The Faith Of A Grain Of Mustard Seed You Could Say To That Tree Be Uprooted And Cast Into The Sea Now We Don't Go Around Tempting I Confess As A Kid I Prayed Once For A Mountain To Be Cast Into The Sea It Didn't Happen We Shouldn't Tempt God I Know I Said My Faith Was Small And That's Exactly Not What Jesus Is Getting At Here Jesus Is Saying He's Not Saying You Need Greater Faith He Does Not Say That If You Had Greater Faith So That You Could Say To

This Mulberry Bush He Says If You Have The Smallest Of Faith That Mustard Seed Was The Smallest Common Seed That Men Would Know If You Have The Most Minute!

Do This Now This Is Not A You're Good Man You Can Do It This Is Not A Bolstering Them Of This It's Not A Matter Of Their Size Of Faith Could They Pull The Mulberry Bush Out No They Couldn't God Can The Fact Of The Matter Is We Have The Smallest Of Faith If We Have The Smallest Of Grace Faith We're Trusting In The Greatness Of Our God The Smallest Faith Can Trust God To Do Great Things You Already Have The Faith To Trust God To Do What He Called You To Do So We're To Pay Attention To One Another Right Now They Were Saying We Can't Do This Until You Give Us More Faith And Jesus Saying You Can Do This You're My Children You Are Trusting Me You Have Faith You

Have Faith And God Can Do This You Just Need To Trust God Christian Are You Waiting Until You Have Greater Faith To Enter Into The Kind Of Body Life In The Church Where You Feel Like You Can Come Up To A Brother And Rebuke Them When They're Caught In Sin If You're Waiting Until You Feel Like You Have Or You Will Never Do It God Has Called You Brothers And Sisters To Watch For One Another Right Now But I am I am Little I am Small My Faith Is Little But Your God Is Big He's The One Who's Going To Do The Work Anyway Jesus Expects Them To Carry Out Their Responsibilities In Fact That's What He Speaks Of In This Last Parable

A Master's Instructions Are Your Expected Duty And So He Says Will Anyone Of You As A Servant Plowing Or Keeping Sheep Say To Him When He's Come Home From The Field Come In At Once And Reclined At Table The Answer By The Construction Of The Language There And Everyone Knew Was No You Don't Send A Servant Out To Do The Normal Chores And Have Him Come In And Treat Him As If He Has Just Performed Brain Surgery Upside Down In A Submarine He's Doing What He's Told

That's What You Would Expect Now When He's Done Doing All Those Duties You Go Oh I Can't Believe You're Such An Amazing Servant Just Thank You I Know You Spent Six Hours In The Field And I Know You Came Home And I Know You Made My Dinner And I Know You Changed Your Clothes And I Know You Cleaned Up And You Haven't Eaten Yet Oh You're So An Amazing Servant Would He Do That No Because It's The Normal Job Of A Servant Now He's Not Making!

Are With Him He Honors Them He As The Master Serves The Servants Jesus Is Talking About An Illustration Here He's Saying The Normal Duties Of A Servant Should Be Carried Out By That Servant Do What You're Called To Do You Are Not Doing More Than You Are Expected So He's Telling These People He's Telling Us It Is Our Responsibility To Be Careful Not To Trip Someone Into Sin To Tempt One Into Sin He Says Now He's Not Qualifying It He's Not Saying Pastors It Is Your Responsibility Not To Do This He's Speaking To The Disciples Not Just The Twelve But All Who Are Following And No Doubt Some Who Were Following Were Those Very Tax Collectors And Sinners That He Is Addressing As Little Ones Are Your Normal

Responsibilities It Doesn't Take A Pastor Or Someone Else To Watch For Their Brothers And Sisters It Is The Job It Is The Normal Job It Is The Expected Job Of Brothers And Sisters In Christ To Watch For One Another And To Be Able To Rebuke And To Forgive And To Forgive And To Forgive These Instructions Are For All Who Follow Christ And So My Question To You Are You Paying Attention To Yourselves Are You Paying Attention To One Another That's What He's Called Us To Do Let's Pray Thank You Father For Our Dear Dear Dear Sweet Savior Who Has Done So Much For Us Lord May

We Follow His Instruction In These Are I Pray That You Bless As Now We Partake Of The Lord's Supper I Pray That You Would Help Us Help Us To Be Encouraged As We See Again That Which Illustrates What Christ Has Done For Us May We Stand On Its Truth As We Fellowship Together Around The Lord's Table In