Derek Grier - The One Who Returned
We are gonna be in Luke chapter 17 and verse 11. Now, it happened as they went to Jerusalem, Jesus was on his final journey to Jerusalem and he knew the beating and the suffering and the cross that was waiting for him down the road. But the amazing thing is Jesus kept walking. And whenever I feel like giving up, whenever I feel like running away, whenever I feel like throwing in the towel, I can't help but think about Jesus. You see, the Gospel is the only story where the hero dies for the villain. But Jesus kept walking. "And he passed through the midst of Samaria in Galilee".
And what he did there is he traveled through pretty much the area of the two borders of the two countries. And these two countries had been in conflict for centuries. Now, they worshiped the same God, but they did it in different temples and also in different ways. I think the situation probably between the Samaritans and the Jews was a little bit like the situation in America between Blacks and whites in the '50s and '60s, between Ireland and Northern Ireland in the '70s, the Hutus and the Tutsis in the '90s, and probably Russia and the Ukrainians today.
So there's a lot of hostility. There was a longstanding conflict and they hated each other and they would avoid each other. They would look down on each other, talk about each other. This was the type of relationship these two nations had, or people groups. "Then as he entered a certain village where..." You know, of course he was gonna, in that area, meet both Samaritans and Israelites. "There met him 10 men who were lepers". Now, most of us know that leprosy is one of the oldest and most dreaded infectious diseases in world history. So it was not only like Covid and the fear that came from it. It had enormous social stigma.
Actually, if you received leprosy, if you were in a nation that worshiped the gods, they felt that you were judged by the gods. And if you were in Israel, you felt that somehow God was punishing you for a deed in your life. That's why when a man that was born blind, the disciples asked, "Well, who sinned? His mother or his father"? Because they felt that these types of illnesses only came from sin and error and bad action. So this leprosy was a serious thing. It included skin discoloration, blisters with pus and oozing, loss of hair. I already got that. Partial paralysis, frequent infections.
And over time, you'd lose sensation in your limbs. And what would happen is you'd burn yourself and wouldn't know it, and there'd be an infection in your body, or a rat would come along at night and start eating your fingers and you wouldn't know it. And that's why many times lepers were missing limbs, sometimes without a nose and all the rest. This was a horrible, horrible illness. "But there met him 10 men who were facing the worst, and they were lepers. And because of their leprosy, they stood afar off". Has there ever been, or have you ever dealt with issues in your life that you kind of had to stay away from? People stay at a distance because there was some unclean areas, some things you didn't feel good about yourself, so you would kind of self-isolate and move away?
So in this time, lepers were required to self-quarantine outside the community. So they couldn't live with their family. They would live in the woods. They would live in caves. They would live in isolated places. On top of that, Jewish customs would require that they would stay six feet away from healthy people. And if the wind was blowing 150 feet away and when they were in the proximity of anyone with health, they had to cover their mouths and shout, "Unclean, unclean".
So this was basically our social distancing and quarantine on steroids. I mean, they really, really, really suffered because of this disease. And these lepers did something. They lifted up their voices. My Bible says, sometimes you have not because you ask not. And if there's one thing I could teach you, it's how to pray. I'm grateful, you know, and I want you to know the Bible, and I teach the Bible, but the reason I wanna understand the Bible is so I can know how to pray. The Bible is basically a roadmap to get you where you're going and you're going to God. And the Bible teaches us how to pray so we can learn how to interact with God.
One of the most important things you will ever learn in life is how to pray. A lot of people wanna learn how to preach, but that's not where the power is. You know, I've said this before, the disciples didn't ask Jesus, "Teach me how to preach". They said, "Lord, teach us how to pray". There was something dynamic. There was something life-giving. There was something viral about how Jesus prayed and got hold of the Father that the disciples wanted above everything else.
You think they'd say, "Teach me how to tell parables like you. Teach me how to heal the sick and raise the dead like you". But their request was, "Lord, teach me how to pray". And my prayer is that your request would be, Lord, teach me how to pray. Not how the Baptists do it, not how the Catholics do it. Not necessarily how the Pentecostals do it, but Lord, teach me how to pray. "And they lifted their voices". You know, we confuse now prayer with Eastern meditation. We're so influenced by the world, we forgot how to do it.
Now, I can pray in my heart and with my mind, but typically in the Bible it's out loud and with your mouth. When's the last time you had an out-loud conversation with God? I didn't getting no hand claps there. But watch how they appealed to Jesus. Jesus, what's the next word? Master. The word translated Master here is only used in the Book of Luke. It means owner, it means commander, it means overseer. And listen, I do have a problem sometimes with worry, but I have to remind myself, listen, I'm not the owner of my life.
So the problem I'm facing is not my problem. It's God's problem. God is my owner. He is my Lord. I've given him ownership and lordship of my life. And because of that, this problem's not my problem. So why worry, self? Give it to God. Trust the one who owns the problem, the one that can handle the problem. The first step to getting free for these lepers was coming under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. They called him Master. What I've found in my life, what I've found in my ministry, what I've found in my marriage, what I've found in my friendships, what I've found in my family relationships, God is only responsible for the parts of my life that I submit to him.
You see, the problem with dancing with the devil is after a while, he gets to pick the tune. And I've learned that the key to spiritual warfare is not climbing up on some mountain, yelling at the devil, or finding out the name of the principality over the city. None of that. James says, "Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee". There's power in submission. There's power in your yes. There's power in sanctification. You hear what I'm saying? There's power in surrender. So when the devil starts running crazy in my life, I turn to God and say, "Lord, where can I surrender anew, God? What else can I give to you, Lord? What shall I render"? They said, "Jesus, Master".
Christ is either Lord of all or he's not Lord at all. Jesus. When's the last... Come on, come on. I know today. Listen, listen, listen. I know how we are. I mean, we got doctors, we got lawyers. We have jobs and transportation, microwaves, and all the rest. And we don't really think we need God. So we kinda, you know, we kinda run to God when we kind of need something. But Christ is either Lord of all, or he's not Lord at all. And listen, I want Christ not only to be my Savior, I want him to be Lord. I want him to govern the way I relate to that woman in the first row. I want him to govern the way I relate to my children. I want him to govern the way I drive my car. I want him to govern the way I live my life, the speech that comes out of my mouth, whether it's sweet or sarcastic. I want him to govern my life.
My prayer is, Lord, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In heaven there's no problem. The problem's on Earth. I'm on Earth and I want to bring God's solution to my situation. So, Lord, govern my affairs, govern my behavior, govern my life. Cause me to forgive, cause me to let go, cause me to love, cause me to be patient, cause me to be kind, cause me to be good, cause me to be loyal, cause me to be faithful, cause me to be meek, cause me to have self-control, God. Govern my life. And they said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us"! This is important. No other attribute of God would help if Jesus didn't put mercy first. His justice would've doomed us. His holiness would reject us. His power would crush us. His truth would condemn us. And his wrath would obliterate us. But mercy said no.
So when he saw them, he saw their condition, but he didn't see them till they called. There's some things in your life you're not gonna get out of until you call on that name. "And when he saw them". He saw their condition after he heard their appeal. Martin Luther said, he said, "Praying is not overcoming God's reluctance. It's laying hold of his willingness". I don't pray to twist God's arm to do what I want. I tap into what he wants. You hear what I'm saying? That his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And he hears. Because the Bible says his ear is inclined to the righteous. "He said to them, after hearing them, go". They addressed him as Master. But when you call Jesus Lord, he has a right to test to see if you're playing with him or not.
See, it's easy to worship in an environment like this, but when you go home and God said, "Go love your wife. Go love your husband. Go clean them dirty dishes. Go make that bed. Go to work on time. Do what your boss said". That's when he gets hard. You see, faith is not just what you feel. It's ultimately what you do. He said to them, "Y'all call me Lord. You call me Master. Then let me test that". "Go show yourselves to the priests". This was a big because it was the priests that diagnosed and declared that they were unclean in the first place And at this point they were still sick.
So they could have said, "Jesus, this don't make no sense. I've still got plus running out the side of my face. You know, I'm still missing that finger and I still smell bad. And man, I'm discolored. My eyeball feels funny. It itches right on the backside of it. And Lord, I don't want to face disappointment again. I don't wanna go back to them religious people. You know, last time they put me out. I don't want to deal with that again". But real faith says, "I know how I feel, but I'm gonna trust what God says".
Can I mess with you for a moment? So many of us got a feeling religion. When I feel it, I'll do it. When I feel like going home, I'll go home. When I feel like doing right, I'll do it. I felt like... If I did what I felt... Many of us have a feel-good religious set of a do-right religion. And we gotta learn to get past what we feel to do what's right. The cross didn't feel good. Gethsemane didn't feel good. The opposition Jesus faced all the time from religious leaders did not feel good dealing with men always bickering, those 12 men that walked with him and slept around him every night. He had to deal with him every day. It didn't always feel good to have to deal with Peter, have to deal with John, to have to deal with James, have to deal with Thomas.
But Jesus didn't do what felt good. Jesus was in glory in heaven. There were no needs. He never experienced broken presence with the Father. But he humbled himself and came down. And the first thing out of his mouth was not a shout, hallelujah. He cried like every baby. Becoming human didn't feel good, but it was necessary. Talking to this side of the room. There's some things that may not feel good, but they are necessary. And if you call him Lord, you better do what the Master says. "And so it was".
This is the big point today. "As they went, they were cleaned". God, what he promises us is it is not gonna happen because we read about it. It's not gonna happen because we think about it. It's not gonna happen just because we talk about or even just because we pray about it. It's gonna happen because we get about it and we do it. "As they went". Not immediately when Jesus said it, but as they stepped out into what Jesus said. You will not get your freedom or your healing apart from God's instruction to you. "As they went in obedience to the word of the Master, they were cleansed".
Now, here's the challenge. They had to walk all the way to Jerusalem. And I don't know if it was a short walk or a long walk before they got clean. And I don't know if it's gonna be a short walk or a long walk for you before God manifests his promise. All I know is if you just keep on stepping, he who promised is faithful. I don't know anything else except to stay at it. Keep doing what the Lord told me to do. I don't care what people say, what it looks like or feels like. I'm gonna persevere in his purposes.
15, "And one of them, only one of them, when he saw that he was healed," and he got healed on the way. He stopped his journey to Jerusalem while the others kept on walking. You know, many who started with you will not finish with you. in 2023, don't be afraid of being different. Be afraid of being like everybody else. Millions didn't make it. Millions didn't make it. Many will cry, "Lord, Lord". Millions didn't make it. "He returned, and with a loud voice".
And don't miss a loud voice. Loud voice, loud voice. You gotta get past some of this whispering worship. "Loud voice glorified God". He spent years screaming from a distance, "Unclean, unclean". But now he used that same shout to worship Jesus. How is it we do so much when we're dealing with an unclean state, but when God cleanses us and changes us, all of a sudden we get shy. But I worship him in my heart and God knows what I really mean. I don't know what's come over me, but I'm helping somebody. But you gotta break through all that. You've gotta become a worshiper of God.
Unashamed. Unashamed. I am who God said I am. I can do what God said I can do. And with a loud voice. With a loud voice. With a loud voice glorified, glorified, glorified. Come on, glorified. Glorified. Come on. Glorified. Come on, give him some glory. Glorified. Woo! Glorified God. Hallelujah, come on, come on. Give it to him, give it to him. Break it loose, break it loose, shake it loose. Get free of the cobwebs. He's worthy of praise, worthy of veneration, worthy of thanksgiving. He's Lord of all, King of kings.