Lessons learned from a thankful leper
Luke 17:1-19
Luke 17:1-19
Introduction-
Anyone ever have a bad day? Somewhere everything goes wrong?
One side of this coin is out of our control.
Someone has wronged you. Someone has said some hurtful things.
A miserable boss, a defiant child. Something that you had no control of.
SOMEONE ELSE CAUSED YOU TO HAVE A BAD DAY.
The other side is or was in our control.
We have done a wrong and we are paying a consequence.
Someone warned us don’t do it and we did it anyway.
Maybe even God. Warning us that there will be a consequence.
YOU HAVE CAUSE YOUR OWN BAD DAY
Jesus gave his disciples here laws of Christian life.
If you are a follower of me... listen up
Jesus is a realist
He says things that cause people to sin are bound to come up.
That is the nature of sin.
Sinners sin.
Hurt people hurt people
Woe unto the one who causes little ones to stumble or hurt young and impressionable people.
He goes as far to say it is better to put a stone around your neck and be thrown into the sea than to cause someone to purposely stumble because of you.
(V3) So watch yourself. Remember he is talking to his disciples.
If your brother sins, rebuke him, (correct him) and if he repents, forgive him. Even if he comes several times, if he/she repents forgive them.
After Jesus said that to them- they replied., Increase our faith Why?
Because they realized that they could not do it by themselves.
In ourselves, we cannot forgive, in ourselves, we do not have the kind of faith that moves mountains.
I want mountain moving faith. Don’t you?
I want to uproot things that God is not pleased with,
I want to plant what God desires of me.
I want to obey God. Not once in a while, but all the time.
Jesus says there will be temptations. “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come” (v1)
The Greek word used there is Scandalon, and it is where we get the word scandal.
It has two meanings.
(1) any stumbling block placed in the way to trip us up.
(2) Bait glue-pad.
I don’t know about you, but I have felt like both at times.
I felt like there were stumbling blocks everywhere, and that you are constantly dodging them. I have felt like a bait stripe. I don’t know if you have had any dealing with a bait pad, but one time I stepped on one and had to throw my shoes out.
We need to stop blaming the devil for what we do.
Take our eyes off of others and worry about what we are doing.
Avoid stumbling blocks, avoid those bait traps, and put our eyes toward Jesus Christ.
He Illustrates it in v7-10 read.
Suppose you had a servant, he’s plowing the fields, looking after the sheep, cooking your meals.
He shouldn’t have to be thanked and rewarded for doing what he is suppose to do.
Doing his duty. Listen
Kids today thinking that the parents should reward them for doing what they are suppose to do. They have to be paid to be part of the family.
Employees that feel cheated when they are not rewarded for doing what they are suppose to do. I am not talking about above average, but what they are suppose to be doing. Sleeping 4 days at the computer and working one and considering themselves good employees.
We have people that they think they should be begged to come to church, and if you are not constantly inviting them to their own church or requesting their presence, they feel like nobody cares for them.
Jesus says that there is sin in the world. Expect it.
There will always be stumbling blocks , ones we put in our way and ones from other people.
Our faith will be as much as we put into it. We can have mountain- moving faith or we can have a faith that is tossed to and fro in our lives.
(19) “would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say we are unworthy servants who have only done our duty.”
Here is the thought and the text this morning.
It is our responsibility and duty to nurture our faith.
It is our responsibility to adhere to the things of God.
It is our responsibility to keep ourselves from falling into temptations and traps we know are out there.
It is our responsibility to be thankful and grateful for what the Lord is doing and has done in our lives.
Text today- The ten lepers.
We can learn something from the one that came back to thank and praise God.
we can see a little bit of ourselves in the 9 that never acknowledge what Jesus did for them.
Illustration-
Unless you believe like granny from the Beverly Hillbillies that you can mix crawdads and lizards, mixed with swamp water to create your own healing, we have to believe that God showed up and healed those lepers.
The observation here is that these lepers were shun from society for their disease. It was contagious, it was thought to come from hidden sin in your life. But when Jesus showed up they realized that He was the only one who could fix this.
They called out to Him from a distance, which was required. They were the walking dead.
They realized they had a deadly problem that only Jesus could fix.
Jesus comes to them- meets them at their point of need. The word of God tells us that Jesus will meet us at that point of need.
Without touching him, without the perfect prayer, He tells him to go see the priest.
The priest at the time would condemn and ban the leper from his family, work force, throw them out of the city and the priest was the only one who could pronounce the leper healed and reconnect them to society and family.
(14) “when he saw them, he said, go, show yourselves to the priest, and as they went, they were cleansed.”
This took faith on the part of all ten lepers.
They were not instantly healed- as they went, they were cleansed.
They realized they had a problem only Jesus could fix.
They admitted their need and cry out to God.
They accepted by faith, the words that he spoke for them.
God’s power was not released until they stepped out in faith.
They stepped out in faith and experienced His healing power.
Faith is trusting and obeying God even if you don’t have any evidence supporting your decision. They didn’t say Jesus heal me first Then we will go show the priest. They moved by faith at the words and direction of Jesus Christ.
Apostle Peter while scared in a boat in a raging sea yelled at Jesus- tell me to come to you on the water. Jesus said come- and Peter was able to beat all odds and walk on water. When he took his eyes off Jesus is when he began to sink.
The word says of the lepers “As they went, they were cleansed”
(15) “One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He throw himself at Jesus feet and thanked him- and he was a Samaritan.”
There is a lesson here.
10 lepers got healed- one came back.
90 % of the people did not acknowledge the healing. Only one 10 % came back.
Jesus said the one that came back was a foreigner, a Samaritan.
Meaning the Jews, the chosen people of God did not and a foreigner was acknowledging and praising God.
I want you to see something else.
The Jews hated the Samaritans. But when crisis hit these 10 lepers, they bonded together. The barrier of Jews- Samaritans was broken.
Sometimes God has to bring us to hard times to get some barriers broken. Sometimes to cause us to come back and say thank you.
Acknowledge what God has done and is doing rather than focus on what is not happening, or what we do not like. Most will not come back and thank Jesus for the things He is doing. Most will center in on what is not happening or conveniently forget what He did.
Illustration
H.A. Ironside was in a crowded restaurant and was about to eat his meal when a man approached and asked if he could join him for dinner. Ironside invited him to have a seat. Then, as was his custom, Ironside bowed his head in prayer. When he open his eyes, the other man asked, do you have a headache? No, I don’t. Well, is there something wrong with your food? No, I was simply thanking God for my food before I eat. The man said, oh, your one of those, are you? Well, I want you to know I never give thanks. I earn my money by the sweat of my brow and I don’t have to give thanks to anyone when I eat it. I just start right in. Ironside said, “Yes, your just like my dog. That is just what he does too.
If there is one sin that prevails today, it is the sin of ingratitude.
WE FORGET GOD
Illustration
we are much like the boy who was given an orange by a man. The boys mother asked, what do you say to the nice man? Peel it
Closing
Feeling thankful, being grateful is different from giving thanks.
(17-18)
“Jesus asked, were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner”? Then he said to him, rise and go, your faith has made you well”
I am sure all were grateful. Why wouldn’t you be... but only one was thankful and expressed gratitude.
Illustration
There was a father and mother of a young man killed in the military in a little church. One day they came to the pastor and told them they wanted to give a monetary gift as a memory to our son who died in battle. The pastor said, that’s a wonderful gesture on your part. He asked if it was okay to tell the congregation and they said that it was. So the next Sunday he told the congregation of the gift given in memory of the dead son. On the way home from church, another couple were driving down the highway when the father said to the wife, why don’t we give a gift because of our son? And his wife said, but our son didn’t die in any conflict Our son is alive Her husband replied, that is exactly my point.
That is all the more reason we ought to give in thanks to God.
We laugh about Mr. Rodgers, most don’t know him. His old sweater, teaching kids about moral values. Teaching us that please and thank you are ways to express our gratefulness instead of an attitude of expectation- peel it
There is a breakthrough when we throw ourselves at the feet of Jesus and thank him for what he is doing.
Illustration
I read about a women who was in the hospital when she got a bad report. She was so mad at God she went into the hospital chapel to tell God off. She was angry because she thought God had been fooling people by telling them he was a God of love. As she approached the front of the chapel she tripped and fell on her face. When she looked up she read what was engraved on the bottom step of the altar. “God, be merciful to me a sinner”. At that moment, God broke her heart and she realized she had no business blaming God, instead she should be asking for His mercy.
Have you done that? Blame God and put your demands on Him. This morning are you going to look at what Jesus has already done for you and fall at his feet and be grateful or are you going to focus on what has not happened yet?
Are you going to be the 9 or the one?
I assure you this morning, that each and every one of us is one or the other.
I want to be the one that knew God cured him. The one who thanked God.
The one that knew Jesus was Lord and Master. That is why He fell at his feet and praised Him.
The one that realized he was cleansed by the mercy and grace of almighty God.
Some of us need to fall at the feet of Jesus.
Altar Call
