FAITH, REWARDS AND DUTY
Text: Luke 17:5 – 10
Luke 17:5-10 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" (6) The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. (7) "Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the table'? (8) Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? (9) Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? (10) So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"
The first homemaker placed her cake in the oven and went about her duties. With watchful care in time she presented her family a beautiful and delicious cake.
The second homemaker prepared her cake and placed it in the oven and in time was greatly disappointed for the cake was flat and a failure. She had left out one ingredient, the baking powder.
There are ingredients in life that cannot be left out without contributing to failure and defeat.
Among them are appreciation, which is registered in worship and adoration of God. Respect which is included through worship of God. Love which is expressed in worship.
The love and worship of God are the ingredients which put all things under the light of His truth and beauty.
Do not leave out the ingredients!
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What good is a half-baked cake or an incomplete discipleship?
A cake without the necessary ingredients will lack in texture, quality and taste. What happens when we leave our any of the ingredients of true discipleship?
Today’s text seems to come in the middle of one of Jesus’s teaching moments with His disciples. In Luke 7:1- 10 there are four things that Jesus mentions: 1) the warning of sin; 2) the need for forgiveness; 3) faith and finally 4) duty. Though these four things do not seem to be connected, they are the ingredients of true discipleship. This passage of scripture presents us with three things, faith, rewards and duty. If we forget about the sin warning that Jesus gives to us in this scripture, then our ingredients for true discipleship will be incomplete.
FAITH
How do you define faith?
1) Scriptural: Hebrews 11:1 gives us the best answer: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (ESV).
2) Observational: How can we observe faith in action? When we flip a light switch, we trust that the light will come on When we turn on the faucet, we expect that water will come out.
How do we look at faith through our trials and struggles?
1)Purpose: Who doesn’t want the answer when we going through a stormy time? It seems to make a storm more bearable if we can see that perhaps there is a purpose.
2) Growth: God often uses our trials to teach us something about being still and knowing that He is in control. Its a Romans 8:28 kind-of-a-thing.
3) incomplete: All football fans pull for their star receivers to catch the ball and make the play. Yet, we get discouraged when the pass was incomplete.
4) Off-sides: When a football player jumps the gun and gets off sides it usually results in a penalty when yards are lost for the team. Do we get off sides in our faith journey?
“A man found a cocoon of the emperor moth and took it home to watch it emerge. One day a small opening appeared, and for several hours the moth struggled but couldn’t seem to force its body past a certain point.
Deciding something was wrong, the man took scissors and snipped the remaining bit of cocoon. The moth emerged easily, its body large and swollen, the wings small and shriveled.
He expected that in a few hours the wings would spread out in their natural beauty but they did not. Instead of developing into a creature free to fly, the moth spent its life dragging around a swollen body and shriveled wings.
The constricting cocoon and struggle necessary to pass through the tiny opening are God’s way of forcing fluid from the body into the wings. The merciful snip was, in reality, cruel. Sometimes the struggle is exactly what we need”. (Practical Illustrations. Chattanooga, Tennessee: Leadership Ministries World Wide, 2001, pp. 37 - 38). How many times have we gotten off-sides in our spiritual journey where the struggles would have helped us to grow more in our faith?
REWARD
What is our motivation for what we do as disciples?
1) Trophy hunters: Do we do what we do because we want to be rewarded? What if God did give us what we deserve who could stand.
2) Grace and mercy : Psalm_130:3 reminds us… “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” (ESV).
3) Crown: We all want our heavenly crown but we often forget the cross comes before the crown.
Where does forgiveness fit into this reward system for us?
1) The lens of the cross: John 3:16 comes to mind.
2) An undeserved gift:
God gives the gift of forgiveness through Jesus Christ. We deserve to be abandoned because of our rebellion against His love. But, God rewarded this way, “… but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 ESV).
3) Reciprocity: Just as God forgives us , God wants us to be forgiving to others. That is one of the things that Jesus taught us in the Lord’s prayer. Jesus also taught us about forgiveness from the cross when He prayed and asked God to forgive those who nailed Him to the cross because they had no idea what they were doing.
Sometimes we might find ourselves nursing a grudge of an argument where we don’t recall the offense that caused the breach. I once read the story about a man who was facing life-threatening surgery. He spoke with one of his former friends and told him that in the event the event that he did not make it through the surgery he wanted to make things right and make his peace with him. But, in the event that he did make it through the surgery all bets were off and the grudge still holds. [Source ?: (Arthur H. Becker. The Compassionate Visitor. Ausburg, 1985, p. )]. That goes against the grain of Jesus’s exhortation to forgive (Luke 17:3-4).
Is our faith strong enough to forgive an enemy?
We need to remind ourselves that un-forgiveness is a sin that will weaken both us and our witness to others!
One of the most profound examples of forgiveness that we have seen in recent days is Erika Kirk’s forgiveness of her her husband’s assassin. He was assassinated on September 10, 2025 at 12:23 p. m.. I have heard many say that it would have taken them months, maybe even years to reach the place of forgiveness Erika reached in eleven days or less. Famous actor Tim Allen who portrayed Tim-the-Tool-Man-Taylor in the nineties sitcom, Santa Clause in the Satna Clause movies and many other characters was inspired by her. Tim Allen’s father was killed by a drunk driver when he was only 11 years old. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2025/09/25/tim-allen-dad-death-erika-kirk-eulogy-charlie-kirk/86357366007/ It took him sixty-one years to get to that place! Erika’s witness inspired him to finally forgive and let go of the burden that unforgiveness had been for him all these years.
Is there anyone among us who could ever honestly say that they have never wrestled with forgiveness? Are you wrestling with forgiveness now?
DUTY
What are some of the obstacles to duty?
1) Expectation: Perhaps the best answer is expectation. The supervisor has expectation of the employees and the employees also have expectations of the company. The employer expects results and the workers expect a reward or a certain amount of pay.
2) Autonomy: There is that part of our nature that likes to be in control. That part of us---the flesh is at war with the Spirit (see Romans 7:18). Thomas Huxley once said, “A man’s worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes”. (Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press. [Source:(Thomas Huxley, “Address on University Education,” Collected Essays, 1902, III, 236)].
3) Praise of others: In Luke 9:25 Jesus said “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” (ESV). Consider also what Jesus said in Luke 14:27: “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (ESV).
What did Jesus mean by the word duty?
1) Accountability: Jesus meant servitude and humility. Philips Brooks once said, “No man in this world attains to freedom from any slavery except by entrance into some higher servitude. There is no such thing as an entirely free man conceivable. (Glaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press. [Source: Phillips Brooks (1835–1893), Perennials[]
2) Service : we are called to serve God by the way we love God with all of our hearts, soul, mind and strength and we are also called to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Yet, sometimes our selfishness can get in the way. A man dropped into a bank on business and found the customer-service clerk chatting on the phone, discussing new restaurants with her friend. After three minutes of exchanging dark glances with the man, she told her caller, “Hold on a minute? I’m being interrupted by a customer.” Streiker, L. D. (2000). Nelson’s big book of laughter: thousands of smiles from A to Z (electronic ed., p. 388). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.—[im Allen]. Christians are not called to customer service but to be disciples who reach out to the lost.
3) Toiling: Our toiling ---our endless work is not about us but God has called us to participate in the care of our brothers and sisters. The millstone analogy of Luke 17:2 reminds us that we have an awesome responsibility for others in the faith who are in our care. What good is our example as disciples if it lead another astray from what is godly and genuine? In many ways Paul echoes Jesus in Acts 20:28: “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood” (ESV).
In short, our faith in loving obedience and our observable duty as Jesus’s disciples impacts our relationship and fellowship with others both within the Body of Christ and those who are what we call seekers. Our faith is demonstrated in the way we live, the way we work, serve and the way we forgive. If we pray and put our faith in God and allow Him to work through us to accomplish His will, He will give us the strength we need in the midst of all our weakness (see Philippians 4:13).
Recalling an excerpt of a prayer by Peter Marshal before the Senate floor “Help us to do our very best this day and be content …”
James 1:2-4 says “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, (3) for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. (4) And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (ESV).
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
