WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 You saw the brands of the, uh, of the Denison Forum, all the different things, the Denison Ministries. 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:13.000 One thing that was not on there is that there is a podcast called Faith and Clarity. Any of you listen to podcasts? 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:20.000 Okay, you may be interested in that one. Um, Mark Turman runs that every week. He asked me last week to join him. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:29.000 Excuse me, as we interviewed uh Hormoz Shariat. He is the uh director, president of Iran Alive Ministries. 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:33.000 Really neat ministry. You everyone check that out. That's that's worth looking at. 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:40.000 And uh, we were asking him questions because, of course, Iran is his beloved country. He's been over here since 1979. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:48.000 Came over here to go to Caltech, I think it was, to study and got a PhD in artificial intelligence. Smart guy. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:51.000 Uh, great guy. And we interviewed him. 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:57.000 One thing I was thinking about while we were praying, I asked him the question. 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:06.000 Since Americans, as we pray for people pretty much the way our culture has prepared us to pray for people. We have certain ways we do it. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:18.000 And so I asked him, I said, "Well, what would be something outside of our norm? What might we pray for with Iran?" And his first response was definitely not what I expected. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:26.000 He said, I would pray that with the new regime, the new government, there will not be a spirit of murder. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:38.000 Okay, I had to think through that one a little bit, but he explained it. He said, it seems that in our country for the past uh 50 years, 70 years, whatever, uh, because it goes back before the revolution. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:53.000 He said, "Our way of dealing with something was just to kill somebody." So it's a murder. I would like for that to stop. And I thought, "Wow, what a what a great prayer." It's it's a it's a little bit more of a gut prayer than what we usually pray on Sunday mornings, right? 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:59.000 Pray that that murder will stop. Um, hey, I I've got a new sermon for you this week. I wrote it this week. 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:03.000 I don't write a sermon every week anymore. Can you believe it? 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:08.000 I mean, all those years, every week, it felt like I was writing a book. I had to write a chapter every week, no matter what. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:16.000 And then I had to deliver it in front of people. So, um, Mark, I think still writes one every week. I do not. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:21.000 But this last week, and I've written several for down here, but you you're going to get to be the guinea pigs on this, okay? 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:28.000 And the good thing's about what we are able to do now is I go to different churches so I can try it out again. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:32.000 So when I get through, if you want to mark notes and say change this part, just send it to me. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:36.000 And I'll I'll I'll change that out. We'll we'll do it a little bit differently next time. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:41.000 I'm glad to be here with you. Uh, Tammy and I'll always love being here. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:51.000 Next week, uh, this coming week, actually, I'm traveling traveling to Oregon to help, uh, a pastor, train him a little bit, help him with, uh, several things. 00:02:51.000 --> 00:03:00.000 And, uh, then I'll be preaching on Sunday and then I will be back and then I'll be in Austin next week to meet with some other pastors in a in a conference there. 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:05.000 And so it's it's pretty pretty busy week, the excuse me, month, the month of March. 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:14.000 Well, let's go ahead and turn to Luke 17, if you have your phone with you, your Bible with you, your iPad or whatever you might want to carry, notes in your pocket. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:19.000 Or if you have the whole thing memorized, turn in your mind to Luke 17. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:25.000 And we're going to read a a familiar text, one that you will know. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:34.000 And as I was studying it this week, I found some new things in there. In fact, I found so much new that one thing I do need to do when I finish this sermon is edit it again. 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:38.000 I edit my sermons probably about 10 times before I ever preach them. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:43.000 I start off with something that's really, really big, and then I try to just keep making it smaller and smaller. 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:45.000 Don't y'all like that? Make the sermon smaller and smaller? 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:52.000 And so I still have a few things to edit out. Apologies. Uh, but here we go. We're going to start in verse 11. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:04:06.000 And as I said, you'll know this. It says, "On the way to Jerusalem," talking about Jesus, "he was passing along," and here's the phrase that I took my sermon uh title from, "between Samaria and Galilee." That is an important note in this text. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:21.000 "As he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance. They lifted up their voices saying, 'Jesus, master, have mercy on us.'" So standing at a distance from him, they're yelling this to him. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:33.000 He, when he saw them, he said, "Go show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:38.000 He fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:45.000 Now he was a Samaritan. We just read Jesus was between Samaria and Galilee. This guy's a Samaritan. 00:04:45.000 --> 00:05:03.000 Jesus answered, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?""Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" That phrase right there may stick in your craw a bit today, especially in our environment that we have, right? 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:07.000 We Jesus pointed out we's a foreigner. I will explain that in just a minute. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:20.000 And he said to him, "Rise and go your way, your faith has made you well." Our story begins with a small detail. In fact, the detail looks almost like Luke is just simply giving us directional points. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:25.000 Because Luke says that they were traveling between Samaria and Galilee. 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:40.000 And at first, as I said, it might just be a reference. He's saying, "I want you to know where they were when this happened." But that's not all he's doing, because we need to remember not only is this book holy scripture, but also the Holy Spirit has inspired this book. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:47.000 And Luke is a very careful writer. So when he puts a detail like this in here, it's not a throwaway phrase. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:54.000 It's not a few words that don't mean anything. He wants us to notice something, more than just a location on a map. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:59.000 He's describing a place where two very different worlds met. 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:12.000 Jesus is walking the borderland, the borderland between two regions, along the uneasy line where Jewish territory touched Samaritan territory. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:19.000 Do you remember when Jesus said that he needed to go through Samaria and he met a woman at a well, a Samaritan woman? 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:24.000 And the disciples didn't really want to go to Samaria. You can tell that from everything in it. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:30.000 Uh, all the way to when Jesus is talking to her and he sends them for for, uh, for supplies. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:38.000 This is Samaria. This is where people did not like to travel. And in that day, this boundary represented a lot more than geography. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:43.000 I remember years ago, I went on a mission trip to a European country, a small one. 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:54.000 I'll leave the names out so there's not any uh bad feelings about the country. But as I was being led by uh the young lady who was who was my translator who was going to help me that week. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:59.000 We were driving down a road and I saw that these uh beautiful sunflowers were everywhere. 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:03.000 And all of a sudden they just ended and I saw a different land look altogether. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:18.000 And I said, "Is that part of your country?" And she said, "No. That's a different country." And I said, "Okay, what's the name of that country?" She said, "It's just a different one." That's the way she felt about that country. She didn't want to talk about it. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:24.000 And so when the Jews talked about Samaria, they didn't. They didn't want to talk about it. It was two totally different worlds. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:30.000 For centuries, the Jews and the Samaritans had lived with a deep hostility towards one another. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:37.000 How did that happen? Well, it happened all the way back in the Old Testament when the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians. 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:40.000 For you Old Testament buffs, you remember that quite well. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:46.000 And when they when that happened, the Assyrians did what a lot of conquering people do. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:56.000 They brought in foreign people to populate among the Jewish people so that the Jewish people wouldn't feel quite so Jewish. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:06.000 It's taking away uh patriotism is what they were doing. And so intermarriage happened and when intermarriage happened, inter blurring of religion also happened. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:12.000 So much so that the Samaritans were not quite Jewish in their theology anymore. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:20.000 In fact, they didn't even worship in the same place. And that's the woman at the well was she started talking to Jesus about wanting to argue with him about. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:26.000 So over time, the relationship between these two communities deteriorated very badly. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:36.000 And by the time Jesus was here, many views, uh, many Jews viewed the Samaritans as religiously compromised and socially unclean. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:44.000 In fact, Samaritans rejected the temple worship in Jerusalem and worshiped on their own mountain. 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:55.000 The distrust was so deep. Now, get this. The distrust was so deep that if someone was going from Judea to Galilee, there were a couple of ways to go. 00:08:55.000 --> 00:09:00.000 There was the easy way, and that meant you went straight through the middle of Samaria. And there was the hard way. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:11.000 And that meant that you went down to the Jordan River, you crossed the Jordan River, you traveled along the eastern side far enough you came back over the Jordan River to get to Galilee. 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:12.000 So what's the difference? I'll put it to you this way. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:20.000 When our youngest daughter wanted to move to San Francisco for her first job from Frisco, Texas. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:28.000 She said, she said, "Dad, will you drive me there?" And I said, "Sure." Anything for my baby. You bet. I'll drive you there. So we drove. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:33.000 It took about three days. Those are three easy days. That's driving for about eight hours. 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:42.000 That's stopping to get lunch. That's driving to where when you get to the hotel, hopefully you can get there before or the motel before it's it's pitch black outside. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:48.000 It's getting dinner. It's it's not a big deal. Three days is still a lot of time on the road. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:53.000 But three days turned into five days. That's a rough drive. 00:09:53.000 --> 00:10:01.000 That would be the difference between going through Samaria or going around it. And they were walking, not driving. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:07.000 So you can walk for three days or walk for five days. And many chose to walk for five days. 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:16.000 So when Luke says Jesus is traveling between Galilee and Samaria, he's describing a place where two cultures touched, but did not mix. 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:24.000 And that image, that image, where the reason I'm pushing so much time on that is to prepare us for what happens next. 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:35.000 because what happens in this story, what unfolds in the story of the lepers is not just about the border of geography, it's about the borders of the human heart. 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:39.000 It's the way that we let things in or don't let things in. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:11:07.000 In one way or another, every person eventually finds themselves in a spiritual borderland, somewhere between Jerusalem and or Samaria and Galilee, somewhere between Jesus and not Jesus, somewhere between desperation or faith, between wanting relief and wanting redemption or denying it, between seeking Jesus's help or seeking Jesus. 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:17.000 Those are the borderlands. I lived in those borderlands for three years. And you say, "Well, why only three?" I, well, I came to Christ at 13 and up until I was 10, none of that even mattered to me. I didn't even think about it. 00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:23.000 But about the time I hit 10 years old, I started having questions. I started wondering what was up with life. 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:29.000 My parents had divorced. I was kind of bounced around a little bit. I didn't understand things. I didn't like being separated from half of my family. 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:34.000 I didn't understand why all these things were happening. And I began to hurt. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:37.000 I began to wonder what I could do. 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:46.000 And for years, I traveled in that little borderland of not wanting to do anything that would trust Jesus, but also wanting to have some help. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:51.000 And that borderland's what a lot of people go through. And so let me describe one more thing. 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:57.000 I've I've talked now about the difference between the heart and trusting and not trusting. But let me go one step further. 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:06.000 51. Let me read it to you. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:23.000 It says, "When the days drew near for him to be taken up," talking about Jesus to be taken up out of this world, "he set his face to go to Jerusalem." Why? Because Jerusalem is where it would accomplish what would happen that would take him up. 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:27.000 And that's the cross. It says that he he set his face. 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:37.000 Another translation, he set his face like a flint. And he's traveling to Jerusalem. Why? He's going to Jerusalem for the cross. 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:45.000 Jesus knows it's time for the cross. He knows where he's going. He knows what he's going to do. He knows what's going to happen to him. 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:50.000 He understands that in Jerusalem, something amazing is going to happen. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:13:02.000 People are going to crucify the son of God. And just like Isaiah 57 says, "I have set my face like flint." Flint is a hard stone. It does not bend easily. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:08.000 The image describes determination in the face of suffering. So this is during that time. 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:16.000 51 following, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. He's on his way to the cross. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:24.000 And during that time, there are only four miracles. Now, why's that, why is that important? Because there's a lot before then. 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:31.000 Jesus is is healing the sick, Jesus is helping the lame walk, Jesus is giving sight to the blind, Jesus is even raising the dead. 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:39.000 But when he says he's going to the cross, the miracles no longer have the front scene anymore. 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:45.000 Miracles are only to point people to the message. We're in one of those. 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:52.000 The miracle that happens here is only to point to the message. And that message is one of discipleship. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:14:03.000 Jesus is going to the cross. He's trying to leave those that are following him the words about how to truly follow him, how to be a disciple, what it's going to cost you. 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:14.000 So we call this, theologians call this the journey narrative. And this journey narrative is filled filled with some of Jesus's most famous teachings while the miracles take the back seat. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:20.000 Earlier, as I said, there were a lot of miracle, but Jesus is moving to Jerusalem, something begins to shift. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:27.000 Miracles become fewer. The emphasis turns towards preparation for his his departure. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:34.000 They reveal more about following Jesus. Which is really no no surprise. Discipleship teaching happens on the way to the cross. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:44.000 And that is exactly what happens in the story before us. So Luke says Jesus is traveling along the border and ten men suffering from leprosy approach us, or approach him, excuse me. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:50.000 In the ancient world, leprosy was far more than a medical diagnosis. 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:59.000 Today, if you got a diagnosis and it was a horrible diagnosis, we might see you here next week. You might not look any different than you did the week before. 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:03.000 We might talk to you. You might say I need prayer for this. You might say I need to talk to somebody. 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:14.000 When you have leprosy, none of those things can happen. You can't be here next week. You can't talk to someone. You can't go to someone and say, "I need your prayer." Will you hold my hand and pray? No, it's over. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:21.000 because to have the diagnosis of leprosy meant social separation also. 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:27.000 There's were enormous consequences. It mean the person could no longer live within the community. You had to move out. 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:34.000 It mean you could no longer participate in an ordinary life of a society. It means you were forced to live outside of the town, out in the wilderness. 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:38.000 And this is why they clumped together. There was nobody to be with them. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:45.000 And so these folks who were diseased with leprosy, who were dying of leprosy gathered together. 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.000 And in fact, it was so bad, they could not see their families. 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:57.000 I've heard, I've read traditions where they would find places where they could yell across great distance to their families, but they could not get anywhere near them. 00:15:57.000 --> 00:16:04.000 They couldn't go to the temple. They could not worship. And you need to remember that for just in a moment. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:11.000 They lived on a crazy, lonely borderland where life faded and death waited. 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:14.000 This is where Jesus finds these lepers. 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:22.000 And the law even required them, when they saw someone coming towards them to get out of the way, to cover their mouth. 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:26.000 Isn't that interesting knowing what we've seen in the last few years about mask. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:45.000 Cover their mouth and to yell these words, "Unclean, unclean." Which was the warning, "Don't get near me. I'm trying to stay away from you. I'm trying to warn you. Don't come near anyone." Imagine living that way. Imagine your entire life going on. Imagine not seeing your kids grow up any longer. 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:52.000 Imagine not seeing your wife, your husband, having no one around you, no one that you love. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:17:06.000 And so it is these men who gather together and they yell to Jesus from a distance, "Have mercy on us." Notice what they're asking for. They're not actually demanding healing, they ask for mercy. 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:12.000 And whatever course mercy may take. An immediate death would be mercy. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:19.000 Leprosy, to describe it a little bit further, is when the extremities of your body develop no feeling. 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:25.000 And as they develop no feeling, you do cuts and scrapes and these cuts and scrapes become infected. 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:32.000 As they become infected, you begin to basically rot a part of your body at a time. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:36.000 That's leprosy. It's a horrible thing. 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:39.000 And they knew that they had nothing and they had no more and they were at the end of their resources. 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:47.000 And when we are at the end of our resources, when anybody's at the end of our resources, the same thing that happens here needs to happen to us. 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:52.000 We need to let our needs drive us to Christ. 00:17:52.000 --> 00:18:02.000 There's a time, guys, when we finally realize, I just can't do it. I just am not enough for everything in life. I can't handle this one thing. 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:08.000 It's amazing we think we can handle so much, but there comes a time when we realize I just can't do this. 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:18.000 You know you need help. And if one thing that human be as human beings we know is that we do have needs and we try to hide it, and we try to manage it, we try to convince ourselves we're doing fine. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:27.000 But life has a way of reminding us how fragile we are. Eventually, every person reaches moments when self-confident gives way. 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:33.000 And then you have desperation. And when that happens, people begin searching for mercy. 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:41.000 So that's exactly what these men are doing, what they cry to Jesus for. And in many ways, this is how people first come to Christ. 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:48.000 I was asked one time, said, when you came to Christ, did you come because you loved Jesus? No. 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:53.000 I didn't love Jesus when I came to Christ. What I loved was mercy. 00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:58.000 What I wanted was forgiveness. What I wanted was assurance of heaven. 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:03.000 When I received Jesus, I began to love Jesus. 00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:06.000 Many times when we come to Jesus, it can be for what we would call very selfish reasons. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:15.000 I just don't want to live this way anymore. So sometimes it is pain that God uses to awaken us to our need for Jesus. 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:24.000 But the story is about to show us something important. Coming to Christ because of need may be the beginning of the journey, but it's not the end. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:30.000 And so as Jesus response responds with a command, he says this. 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:38.000 Go show yourselves to the priest. If you think about all the miracles that Jesus has done throughout the book of Luke and throughout the other gospels that we will see. 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:44.000 He does miracles in different ways. There is never a formula. Never. 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:49.000 There is never, okay, step one, okay, step two. 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:56.000 Sometimes Jesus looks down to the ground, spits in it, takes the spittle, wipes it in the mud and puts it on a guy's eyes. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:59.000 Other times he says something and it's over. 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:06.000 At this time, from a great distance, Jesus doesn't give them any commands to do except go to see the priest. 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:12.000 Why would you go to see the priest? The priest is the stop gap, the door. 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:18.000 The priest in this day was like the doctor's office who would look at you, they knew how to do this. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:28.000 It was it's given all the way in the in the Old Testament, exactly how to inspect someone and to look at them and to tell them that they were no longer unclean. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:37.000 About a month ago, I went to a dermatologist. I went because I realized I had not gone in quite a while. 00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:54.000 The reason I realized that is because my internal medicine doctor looked at me and said, "You haven't gone in a long time. When are you going to go?" So I decided to do it. I didn't have a dermatologist anymore. So I started looking online, and I did what anybody does nowadays. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:21:08.000 I I asked chat GBT who I should go to. And it said, "Here's some really good ones in your area." And I dug down into that a little bit and I made a a choice and I went to see a gentleman and I went to his office. 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:14.000 And when I first walked in, I went to the office and it had beautiful pictures everywhere of all these beautiful women. 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:19.000 and it was telling all the procedures they could do for me if I was a beautiful woman. 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:38.000 And I asked that lady, I said, "I'm here to see Dr. So- and- so." She said, "You're on the other side of the clinic." "Oh, I'm not in this beautiful area?" "No, you're over there." So I I walked over there and there was another sweet lady there. She said, "What are you here for?" And I said, "I'm supposed to see Dr. So- and- so." And she said, "Okay, just sit here." And I was 20 minutes early. 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:46.000 And and uh somebody came to the door and said, "Come on back." And I realized I'm the only one on the side wanting to make sure I'm not going to die of cancer. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:54.000 Everybody else is getting beautiful. So anyway, um, I walked in, he never one moment looked at me and said, "I think I can make you beautiful" because he knew better. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:22:05.000 Uh, instead, what he did, I said, "I want a, I want a full scan. I want you to check me out." And so, uh they told me to to uh disrobe to a certain degree. 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:15.000 And they came back in, he and his assistant, and he took a little uh like a, almost like a pin, and he went line by line doing this over my body and looking. 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:21.000 And when he got through, he pronounced me clean. 00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:36.000 It wasn't leprosy I was looking for. It was something a whole lot less, and I'm glad it wasn't. But he said, "No problem, see you in a year." Well, I walked out of there thinking two things. Number one, I don't have to worry about it number uh anymore. Number two, I can tell my doctor, yes I have. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:41.000 So those two things happened. But to go to a priest with leprosy? 00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:49.000 The priest starts looking at you. And he's looking at you closely. He's looking, if you look in the Old Testament, for certain kind of blemishes. 00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:53.000 He's looking for a certain kind of discolorations. He's looking for all this stuff. 00:22:53.000 --> 00:23:00.000 And he's going to check you much more completely than that dermatologist checked me. 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:10.000 Because it's life or death. You cannot put that person back in the community. It will spread. 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:20.000 But do you notice what happens? Jesus tells them to go in their state of leprosy to see the priest, which is absolutely ridiculous. 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:23.000 He hasn't healed them. 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:27.000 But as they are going, the Bible says, they realized they are healed. 00:23:27.000 --> 00:23:35.000 What's that like? If you have a hand that is more than just an age spot, it's leprosy. 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:41.000 There's these just unbelievably ugly blemishes all over you because that's leprosy. 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:52.000 And you're walking and all of a sudden you look at your hand or all of a sudden you look at your friend who is also walking, "Wait a minute." Man. 00:23:52.000 --> 00:24:04.000 You look different. And one by one they stop and they gasp and they start yelling and and shouting and laughing. 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:10.000 And they all run to the priest except for one. One. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:16.000 The Bible says this guy knows he can go home again. 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:24.000 He knows he can see his family again. He knows he could return to the temple and to worship after he goes to to see the priest. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:34.000 But nine kept walking, ten received mercy, and one goes back to see Jesus. 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:37.000 This guy does something that he didn't do just a few minutes earlier. 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:45.000 A few minutes earlier, when I read you the text that said that they were a long way away from Jesus and they screamed for mercy, he goes straight to Jesus. 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:56.000 He falls on his knees, and he's he thanks Jesus. He at that moment falls and what he's doing is worshiping. 00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:01.000 He didn't have to go to the temple. He didn't have to wait. He's worshipping Jesus. 00:25:01.000 --> 00:25:14.000 Earlier in the text, it says all 10 were cleansed, but when Jesus speaks to the one who returned, he says, "Rise, go your way, your faith has made you well." The word translated made you well is a Greek word sozo. You may know that word. 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:19.000 It's the word the Bible, the New Testament uses over and over again for salvation. 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:25.000 Ten were cleansed, one was saved. That's what happens in this borderland. 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:32.000 That's what happens. One man wants more than just what Jesus can do for him. He realizes he wants Jesus. 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:38.000 Luke tells us that when this man realized he had been healed, he turned back. 00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:44.000 Instead of continuing down the road with the others, he reversed direction. And when he reached Jesus, he fell on his face. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:50.000 And at the beginning, when he couldn't get close, now he can, because faith does not remain distant. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.000 Faith turns, faith bows. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:59.000 Luke began the story by telling us where it happened, between Galilee and Samaria, a borderland. 00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:06.000 Two men stood together there in their suffering, but when the mercy of Christ entered their lives, they did not remain together. 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:13.000 Nine went down the road, one turned back. And that's why Jesus's question still echoes to us today. 00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:15.000 Where are the other nine? 00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:20.000 All throughout our country, there are a lot of people who are the other nine. 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:29.000 There are a lot of people who've received something from Jesus. They may have received salvation, they may have received his blessings. I promise you they have. 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:35.000 I was listening to a story the other day, and someone was complaining about all the things that were happening to them. 00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:43.000 And it reminded me today of how that we can easily let something begin to change our whole life, our whole day. 00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:47.000 This morning, I made a tragic mistake, tragic. 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:52.000 I got up and where we stay as the pastors when we come to stay, there is a Keurig there. 00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:59.000 And I looked at that Keurig and it's changed a couple of times and so I always have to put my glasses on, look at it, see how do I work it today? 00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:03.000 If you've ever noticed Keurigs, I think if you go to buy one every week, they're different. 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:11.000 So I looked at it. I'm measuring out the water and I pour all that and I got it ready and I put the K-cup in and I pushed it down. 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:14.000 I put the mug under it, then I pushed it down. 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:28.000 And it brewed and I thought to myself, "It doesn't smell right." I just about ruined my whole day. I made caffeine-free coffee. 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:36.000 I smelled it. I think I was thankful to God that I did not actually taste it. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:44.000 poured it down the drain, rinsed my cup out from that foul stuff, and started again. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:50.000 You know, that's if if that's the worst thing that ever happened in my life, man, I would be a blessed man, right? 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:57.000 But we live as though those little bitty moments are huge. All these moments we think are such a big deal. 00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:00.000 And I'm teasing, obviously about the other. I don't care. I just made another cup. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.000 But it's amazing what we let bother us. 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:13.000 It's amazing how we simply become the other nine without even thinking about it. We take time for everything but Jesus. 00:28:13.000 --> 00:28:22.000 This man came back. When we receive the mercy of Christ and simply continue down the road of our lives, that's not worship. 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:26.000 So, will we turn back to the one who gave us our life? 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:32.000 Because mercy of Christ is meant to bring us somewhere. It's meant to bring us to his feet each and every time. 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:43.000 Every person must eventually decide what they will do with Jesus, or we remain in another borderland, a borderland between discipleship or serving ourselves. 00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:49.000 At falling at his feet or staying on our own two feet going wherever we want to go. 00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:53.000 Today, the challenge for this text is simply this. 00:28:53.000 --> 00:28:56.000 Will we truly be the one that falls to worship Jesus? 00:28:56.000 --> 00:29:07.000 Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, as we look at your word, we're challenged each and every day by understanding that you cross all boundaries. 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:15.000 You cross the boundary between life and death when you died on the cross and after that death, rose from the dead. 00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:28.000 Your whole time on this earth is about crossing boundaries. It's about talking to spiritual sounding people, religious people, and telling them that they still need God's grace. 00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:36.000 It's about talking to people who thought they could not have God's grace and telling them that God's grace was readily available. 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:43.000 It's about crossing over to reach disciples, your disciples, that no one else would have chosen as disciples. 00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:48.000 It's about offering grace and peace. It's about offering deliverance. 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:56.000 And today as we look at your word and we understand all that you have done for us and we remember that and that is the key that we think about it and we remember. 00:29:56.000 --> 00:29:59.000 May we be the ones who fall and worship you. 00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:08.000 May we be the one out of ten that truly, truly gives back our thanks. 00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:14.000 We're thankful we can be here today. Thank you, Lord, for these these great folks. I pray that you'll give us a good rest of the day. 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:18.000 And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:28.000 (Background murmuring)