THE SENSE OF DUTY

LUKE 17:1

A. "WHEN YE SHALL HAVE DONE ALL THESE THINGS WHICH ARE COMMANDED YOU, SAY, WE ARE UNPROFITABLE SERVANTS"
  1. This is one of our Lord's hardest sayings:
    1. It is hard to comprehend the temper of a sensitive person
    2. Is it too much to say that our Lord's suggestion or conclusion comes as a surprise
  2. On the surface:
    1. The spirit of appreciation seems missing
    2. An English man would say, "I did what I could" B. THE SENSE OF DUTY
  3. In the direction to the servant, given by our Lord, as indicated in our text:
    1. He reveals His Divine sense of duty to God and man
    2. His direction lifts the sense of duty far above and beyond the narrow confines of the human concept
  4. Man's concept of duty is by reason of limitation:
    1. Narrow and very incomplete
    2. It is limited by certain man-made standards that may vary according to the concept set up by society
    3. Also, the hardest thing to think of is to be above the average of either the home or the people next to us; we do not wish to be conspicuous in what we do
  5. Human sense of duty is marked to decidedly unsatisfactory for a number of good reasons:
    1. It limits and narrows life
    2. That means that it arrests progress and that in itself makes our service unprofitable to God and humanity
    3. This fallacious attitude is seen in the attitude of the praying Pharisee, "I did this and I did that", "avoided this and I avoided that" - Luke 18:10-14
    4. It is seen further, in the attitude of the prodigal's brother, "I did this and I did that, but you failed to do this and that" - Luke 15:25-30
    5. Also, man's sense of duty centers in what he thinks is profitable to himself first, regardless. C. THE SENSE OF DUTY AS TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE
  6. Centers in what is pleasing to God first and foremost:
    1. "I delight to do Thy will O my God" was the sense of duty of our elder brother - Ps. 40:8
    2. "Not my will, but Thine, be done" - Luke 22:42
    3. "The Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is life everlasting" - John 12:49-50
    4. "Not with eye service, as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. With good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men" - Eph. 6:6-7
  7. The perfect sense of duty:
    1. First, we need an inward personal ideal rising ever above the conventional standard of expectation
    2. The inward spirit must refuse to accept limits from the outward circumstances of class or profession
    3. It must move passed them on a quest of its own
    4. It is thus that the spirit keeps its liberty, and molds and masters the conditions by which it is surrounded, instead of allowing itself to be mastered and molded by them
    5. And let us keep in mind that where there is liberty there is progress
    6. It is only by the power of a free inward ideal that character expands and grows
    7. Moreover, thus capable of progress, such a man that is determined in his own inward life to be the best that he can be, can never fold his hands and say complacently, "I am a profitable servant"
  8. Finally, for the sense of duty to be complete:
    1. It needs to recognition of the infinite claim of God - when He says, "well done good and faithful servant" - Matt. 25:21
    2. Our sense of duty must be measured by its beneficial effects it has on those whom we seek to serve


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