Our Most Crucial Desire

 And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God….

Luke 18:29 (ESV)
 
It may look like those who serve the needy never get a worldly reward, yet there is a reward coming that is out of this world.
 
Those who have given up the comforts and pleasures of this world to serve our King will not regret that decision.
 
God is honest and will reward those who love Him and people with a reward that will be far more meaningful than any earthly reward.
 
One day, our most crucial desire will be that we stand before God with no regrets. That will not happen by accident.
 
For now, the choice is ours.

Equal Ground

 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, "How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

Luke 18:24-25 (ESV)
 
Being wealthy can easily destroy people. Wealth itself is amoral. Trusting in wealth is evil. Being distracted by wealth is easy. Feeling superior to the poor when wealthy is common. Both of these results are destructive.
 
The poor and the rich struggle, yet we are warned that the rich have increasing opportunities to lose focus on what is essential in life.
 
Citizens of the United States of America are wealthy, and they will one day stand before God, without their wealth, to be judged along with the poor of the world. Perhaps then we will see clearly what role the resources God entrusted us with should have played. That day will be one of rejoicing or regret. For now, the choice is ours.

No Comparison

 And a ruler asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”

Luke 18:18-19 (ESV)
 
Good is a meaningless word and should not be used to describe God. When this ruler used the word good, Jesus questioned what He was saying. This is because good is a word that needs comparisons to understand what you mean.
I am a good basketball player if I am playing against someone who cannot dribble or shoot. I am a terrible basketball player if I am playing against an NBA all-star.
 
God is so unique that there is nothing or no one to compare Him to, making the word good impossible to use. It would be better to say that God is right; therefore, He is good. This makes the term good dependent upon being right or wrong, and it gives us a basis for understanding what was actually said.
 

No Burden No Bother

 Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."

Luke 18:15-17 (ESV)
 
Those who love God love the most vulnerable of this world and are glad to demonstrate that love. The United States of America is in a barbaric stage where the lives of the most vulnerable, the unborn, can easily and legally be destroyed.
 
We are a nation that has protected irresponsibility, even defended it, and encouraged it at the expense of the vulnerable. We made these actions legal to try and normalize such behavior.
Evil people do evil and make it normal, even admirable.  Children are to be loved and nurtured. They are not a burden or a bother.
 

Proper Understanding. Proper Responses.

 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt: "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

Luke 18:9-14 (ESV)
 
It is hard in a culture where each man does what is right in their own eyes to recognize sin rather than justify sin.
 
All have sinned, and all are sinners. There is no exception. If one is not awed by God's mercy and grace, they have never properly seen their sinful condition.
 
Proper understanding leads to appropriate responses.
 

Love, Walk, Enjoy

 

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. Luke 18:1 (ESV)   We often hear about the importance of prayer. Why is it important? Is it important because God cannot do His work without us? Is it because we need a way to get what we want? Is it to elevate our importance in the kingdom work? Is it to make me feel like I did everything I could? Is it because God needs my ideas on how to solve a problem?   Those who know God and love God, pray to God. Those who want to appear to know God and love God, pray to the God they think they know.   If I love God, walk with Him, enjoy Him, and know Him, I will pray. The other day I got a random call from my daughter, who had some good news to share with my wife and me.  Something good happened; she communicated with those she loves.  It’s what happens when you love and are in relationships.

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Those who see, pray.

 

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. Luke 18:1 (ESV)   "While Christian was in the Palace Beautiful, they showed him all the remarkable objects in the armory, from the ox-goad of Shamgar to the sword of the Spirit. And amongst the arms, he saw, and with some of which he was arrayed as be left the place, was a single weapon with a strange, new name—'All-prayer.’ When I was a child, I wondered much what this could have been—its shape, its use. I imagine I know something more about it in these later years. At any rate, I think Bunyan found his name for it in one of the New Testament Epistles: ‘Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit’ Eph. 6:18). It so happens, also, that we have two parables of our Lord given us in the eighteenth chapter of Luke to one end, ‘that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.’ One of these parables teaches the lesson of importunity, the other teaches the lesson of sincerity. And it does not need that we draw from this collocation the subtle suggestion that want of importunity and want of sincerity are what weaken the weapon of all-prayer, and render faint the heart of the Christian who wields it. We know that we do not pray always, and that we do not always pray." (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)   Those who see the world as it is pray continually. Those who see the world as the answer only pray when their worlds are falling apart.

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No life apart from Christ

 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.

Luke 17:33 (ESV)
 
All life comes from death. The food that sustains us comes from a living animal or plant and has to die to sustain our lives. The plants in the forest are sustained by the death and decay of the foliage that used to be alive. The fish in the sea are sustained by the oxygen that plants put in the water that are sustained by the nutrients given by the decaying bodies in the muck layer.
 
We have been born again, given life, by the death of Christ.
There is no life apart from death, and abundant life is dependent upon abundant death.
Just as the physical is dependent upon death for survival, the purpose of our lives is unlocked by dying to self and living for the will of God and the love of our fellow man.
Death was not a part of this in the beginning. We brought it on ourselves, and one day, it will be a part of our past because of Christ. Amen.

The Conquerer, The Sustainer and the the Promiser

 Remember Lot's wife.

Luke 17:32 (ESV)
 
"If this story of Lot's wife be true, and do live in our memory, then, why should not we stand and admire, and say, Lord, how unsearchable are Thy judgments, and Thy ways past finding out? Here are four, and but four that came out of Sodom, and yet one of the four were destroyed. God may deliver our family in the time of common calamity, and yet some of our house may suffer. God in the midst of judgment doth remember mercy; in the midst of mercy He remembers judgment. " (W. Bridge)
 
Sometimes we look back on what God has delivered us from with fondness. Like the children of Israel, we see the bondage we were in as something positive, even though we were miserable while we were in it.
 
For some reason, we tend to use the past to be miserable. We look back on the "good ol’ days" and think that we can never match the memories, or we look back and see how bad it was and become the victim of the past.
 
Either way, the past can become the most significant hindrance for the present, and block the future.
 
Jesus conquered the past by forgiving our sins. He sustains our life today by giving us the power over sin and delivers hope for tomorrow by His promise of removing us from the very presence of sin. I must rejoice in Him and look to Him, not my past.

Clarity

 Remember Lot's wife.

Luke 17:32 (ESV)
 
Lot's wife's look was a little thing, yet we are told not to emulate her behavior. Is God speaking of being careful about the little things? Should we make a list of little things to avoid?
I think not.
 
Lot's wife, like Eve, knew the simple instructions God had given and disobeyed them. God was clear. His request was something that was well understood. Lot's wife was capable of following His command. Yet, for some reason, she chose to ignore what He said.
 
Was it because it was a "little" thing? Was it because she was forgetful? Was it because _________?  The Bible does not tell us why she ignored God, but it does tell us to remember what she did and to not be like her.
 
God's instructions to us are clear, simple, and something we can do. God offers us life, whereas the world offers us the pretense of life.
 
For now, the choice is ours.

God’s simple and clear instructions

 Remember Lot's wife.

Luke 17:32 (ESV)
 
Lot's wife's look was a little thing, yet we are told not to emulate her behavior. Is God speaking of being careful about the little things? Should we make a list of little things to avoid?
I think not.
 
Lot's wife, like Eve, knew the simple instructions God had given and disobeyed them. God was clear. His request was something that was well understood. Lot's wife was capable of following His command. Yet, for some reason, she chose to ignore what He said.
 
Was it because it was a "little" thing? Was it because she was forgetful? Was it because _________?  The Bible does not tell us why she ignored God, but it does tell us to remember what she did and to not be like her.
 
God's instructions to us are clear, simple, and something we can do. God offers us life, whereas the world offers us the pretense of life.
 
For now, the choice is ours.
 

Remember Lot's wife.

 Remember Lot's wife. Luke 17:32 (ESV)

 
"Over sand-bars and hidden rocks in the sea are sometimes placed buoy-bells, which are rung by the action of the waves. So God has set great danger-signals in the sea of time. Such is the story of Sodom and Lot's wife.

1. Remember her surroundings. Sin is often seemingly beautiful and attractive. Beware of the alluring power of evil associations.
2. Remember her danger. This world is a Sodom, and against it has been declared the       condemnation of God's law.
3. Remember her warning. Sacrifice everything. Look not back for companions or            possessions.  Delay not for a better opportunity, for greater conviction, etc. Linger not in  the plains of a professed morality.

      4.   Remember her delay. Procrastination is most perilous.
      5.   Remember her disobedience.
      6.   Remember her doom. Disobedience develops into the deadly fruit of death." (G. Elliott.)
 
Lot knew what was right, and was even troubled by wrong, yet placed himself and his family in a position to absorb all that is wrong. The absorption eventually proved devastating.
Being troubled by sin, as Lot was, is not a substitute for intentionally removing one from sin's influence. Wise people do both.

Hope?

 "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all."

Luke 17:26-27 (ESV)
 
Corruption brings about its own troubles that are often multiplied exponentially until the seemingly swift judgment takes place.
 
Mankind will be judged. Those who live Godless lives experience the "fruits of the Evil One" while alive, and God's judgment after death. They live a loss now, loose later in life with no hope for anything getting better at any time.
 
Offering people hope for life apart from God is like offering a drowning person a cement block to aid in their rescue. The person who offers the block is foolish, and the person who grasps the block is doomed.

The Encounter

 On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" And he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well."

Luke 17:11-19 (ESV)
 
When we have a problem, we focus on the situation. When we see a viable solution, we focus on the solution. When the problem is solved, we focus on our new life.
 
When healing occurs, we want to forget the pain, yet remembering the pain and healing process yields the most incredible joy as it gives us the greatest contrast.
 
The lepers' lives were dramatically different after their encounter with Christ. Only one acknowledged the source of the change. May I never neglect the source of my transformation.
 

Doing our Duty

 "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 afterward you will eat and drink'? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 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.'"

Luke 17:7-10 (ESV)
 
"A.L.O.E., in "Triumph over Midian," writes: ‘You have not your due,’ were the words which a wife addressed to a husband, who had been deprived of some advantage which she considered to have been his right. ‘May God be praised that I have not my due!’ he replied. ‘What is my due as a sinner before God? What is my due from a world which I have renounced for His sake? Had I chosen my portion in this life, then only might I complain of not receiving my due.’” (Biblical Illustrator)
 
"The faithful performance of duty in our station, ennobles that station whatever it may be. There is a beautiful story told of the great Spartan Brasidas. When he complained that Sparta was a small state, his mother said to him: ‘Son, Sparta has fallen to your lot, and it is your duty to adorn it.’ I (the Earl of Shaftesbury) would only say to all workers, everywhere, in all positions of life, whatever be the lot in which you are cast, it is your duty to adorn it." (Biblical Illustrator)
 

Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?

"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 afterward you will eat and drink'? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 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.'"
Luke 17:7-10 (ESV)
 
"We used to be roused and stirred by the clarion call of duty, as well as soothed and comforted by the tender breathings of love. And here the call comes to us loud and clear, waxing even louder as we listen and reflect. ‘Do your duty; and when you have done it, however laborious and painful it may be, remember that you have only done your duty. Do not give yourselves airs of complacency, as though you had achieved some great thing. Do not give yourselves air of martyrdom as though some strange thing had happened to you. Neither pity yourselves, nor plume yourselves on what you have done or borne. Do not think of yourselves at all, but of God, and of the duties you owe to Him. That you have done your duty—let this be your comfort, if at least you can honestly take it. And if you are tempted to a dainty and effeminate self-pity for the hardships you have borne, or to a dangerous and degrading self-admiration for the achievements you have wrought, let this be your safeguard, that you have done no more than your duty.’ It is in this strain that our Lord speaks to us here." (S. Cox, D. D.)

No Thought Of Self

 "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 afterward you will eat and drink'? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 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.'"

Luke 17:7-10 (ESV)
 
"We are not to think about ourselves at all, but of God, of what He has been to us and what He has done for us, and of what we owe to Him; and then, when we get to a right and proper estimate of that, our most arduous efforts and our most costly sacrifices will seem so small in comparison, that we shall be ready to exclaim, ‘We are unprofitable servants! All that we have done does not begin to measure the greatness of our indebtedness to Him for whom we have done it!’” (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)

The One Thing…

 "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 afterward you will eat and drink'? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 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.'"

Luke 17:7-10 (ESV)
 
"The one thing on which our Lord wishes to concentrate our attention is not the spirit in which God deals with His servants, but rather the spirit in which we should serve God—not what God thinks of our work, but rather how we should regard it ourselves." (W. M. Taylor, D. D.) 
 

I often wonder….

 "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 afterward you will eat and drink'? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 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.'"

Luke 17:7-10 (ESV)
 
I often wonder if we have become obsessed with being praised for the things in life that we should be doing. When I was in high school, I asked my dad if I could skip the graduation ceremony and go to camp. I honestly felt like there was nothing to celebrate. I was forced to go to school, was responsible for getting good grades, as I was supposed to, and finished my course work, as was expected. I did not do anything out of the ordinary, certainly nothing to be celebrated.
 
I often wonder why a culture celebrates doing things they are expected to do? Is it that doing what we are supposed to do is unusual?

If we have faith.

 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"

Luke 17:5 (ESV)
 
"Men are just like the disciples. They hear religion preached; they believe the things that are said; and at times the truth glances through the exterior coating and strikes their moral sense. The ideal of truth presented to them seems beautiful and sweet. In a white light it is to them. Thousands and thousands of men there are who hear the gospel preached every Sunday, and think there is nothing more beautiful than meekness, nothing more beautiful than humility, as they are presented to them. These are excellent qualities in their estimation. They believe in love. They believe in everything that is required in a true Christian character. It meets their approval. Their reason approves it. Their judgment approves it. Their taste approves it. Their moral sentiments approve it. And yet, when they ask themselves, ‘How shall I practice it?’ they fall off instantly, and say, ‘It is not possible for me. I never can do it in the world.’”
 
"No man can change his faculties, any more than he can change his bodily organization; and yet, his disposition may be changed! The Lord says, ‘If you have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, you can say to this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the roots, and cast into the sea.’ Hard as it is to transplant the tree of your soul, difficult as it is to sever the roots that hold it down, the Master says, ‘There is power to do it.’”
 
"However many faults you may have, that branch their roots out in every direction, and difficult as it is to transplant them by the ordinary instrumentalities; nevertheless, faith in the soul will give you power to pluck them up by the roots, and east them from you, or transplant them to better soil, where they will grow to a better purpose." (H. W. Beecher.)