Faith in a Great God

In one paragraph

Pastor Ray preached from Luke 17:1-10, walking through four teachings Jesus gave specifically to his disciples: warnings about enticement to sin, the call to forgive, the nature of faith, and the place of service. He argued these are not four disconnected proverbs but a single coherent word to anyone who follows Jesus, then and now. The Lord's Supper closed the service, with Pastor Ray drawing a...

Read together

1. Luke 1:3 Luke's stated intention to give Theophilus an orderly account
2. Luke 17:1-10 the main passage preached, covering false teaching, forgiveness, faith, and service
3. James 3:1 not many should be teachers because they will incur a harsher judgment
4. Matthew 18 elongated version of how to forgive and win your brother
5. Ephesians God has steps he wants us to walk in
6. Romans 12:1 presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, our reasonable service
7. Matthew 28:19-20 the Great Commission, teaching all nations to obey all that Jesus commanded
8. 1 John dear little ones referring to new believers in the faith
9. John 13 upper room discourse, source of the benediction about loving one another as Jesus loved

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ray described false teaching as bait in a trap, pulling people toward either legalism or licentiousness on either side of the 'good old gospel way.' Where have you felt that pull in your own life, and how did you recognize it?
2. Pastor Ray said a rebuke, at its core, is assigning 'the value that is fitting the situation,' like a road closed sign, not a personal attack. How does that picture change the way you think about giving or receiving correction from someone in your church family?
3. When the apostles heard Jesus teach on forgiving someone seven times in a single day, their immediate response was 'increase our faith.' What does it tell us that their reaction to a teaching on forgiveness was a request for more faith?
4. Pastor Ray quoted Leon Morris: 'It is not so much great faith in God that is required as faith in a great God.' What is the practical difference between those two ways of thinking, and which one do you find yourself defaulting to?
5. The servant parable closes with 'we have done only what we ought to have done.' Pastor Ray applied that to our reasonable service, shaped by our individual gifts and sphere of influence. What does your own reasonable service look like right now, and is there anything you have been holding back?