Review - turn to Luke 17
Draw a triangle on your outline - at the top write the word God, next to God write the word up - Imagine our lives as a triangle, God created us in life to be connected upward - true meaning in life always comes from being connected to God -
That is where balance of life comes from, if we’re always doing stuff for other people and ourselves life will be out of balance
- we need to be connected to God to for real balance in life. On left side of triangle write ‘IN’ - God not only created us to connect upward, He also created us to connect Inward - meaning we all value relationships, not one of us at the core of our selves does not want to be loved and accepted.
He created us to be connected inward, He created us to be in community, to do life with other people w/in small
communities, small pockets of people that we begin to connect inward to enjoy life with, do life with in network.
On right side of triangle write the word ‘OUT” - with an arrow pointing away - He never created us, the church to just be connected in-network, just us alone w/in these walls - never God’s intention for us to take on this mentality of ‘Us 4 and no more’ - He also created us so we could connect outward, to connect out-of-network, b/c we live in a world of people, that unless they hear it from you or me, they will never ever know. We can never assume that someone else is going to share that love, we can never make that assumption that, “well someone else is going to take care of it” (rom.10)
God created a balanced journey with Him to be a life connected up, connected w/in, connected outward.
Luke 17:11
Jesus is on His final steps towards Jerusalem, here’s what He knows that the cross is coming and the cross is coming soon, we need to know that here, b/c if you and I were on our last journey of life, those things that we chose to teach, the things we chose to do would probably be or something we considered pretty important - if you were on your last weeks of life, how many of you would waste time?
Jesus is thinking, I’m gonna leave behind these few guys who are going to carry on my work, the mission, so... here are the things I want them to know. read v.11
Samaria is a place where a good Jew wouldn’t even let the dust on his sandals get near, they wouldn't even travel thru Samaria b/c they didn’t want the dust of Samaria on their shoes. Samaritans at that time were considered half-breeds, these mixed races that no one wanted anything to do with.
It’s interesting how often you find Christ telling good stories about Samaritans or traveling through Samaria.
In His journey now there’s this interesting exchange about to happen - v.12a
To have leprosy during this time, is not like having a bad case of acne, this is bad stuff, this stuff will kill you, there’s no cure, there’s no treatment - when you contracted leprosy, no matter what race you were you became an outcast (you may want to write in the margin of your bible to remind you, ‘outcast’) So it didn’t matter who you knew or how much you knew, you never associated with a leper, ever, you did not do it - it was commonly thought they will share the disease with you and so when you approached a lepers presence, they yelled, ‘Unclean, Unclean - then they would remove themselves and keep themselves at a distance -
they were outcasts.
As Jesus is traveling here, it says He comes upon a village and He meets these 10 guys w/ leprosy - circle 10, gona come to that - So here is Jesus, the Son of God, on His way to the cross, busy, has a lot to cram into a small amount of time - He really doesn’t need 10 outcasts disturbing the journey, you know what I mean? But Christ often goes against what we think would be the natural route - v.12b-13
They say something here, Jesus, Master have pity on us or compassion on us, it’s interesting they didn’t call Him Rabbi, but Master. You know what Master meant: the one we know that can meet our needs. Umm - they have yelled to others no doubt, but Jesus, this guy they’ve heard of, they know He heals, He gives sight to the blind, enables cripple to walk, has raised people from the dead, there’s hope - ‘pity on us’
v.14, ‘when He saw them’ ahh, big difference here, not with these eyes (eyes) but with these eyes (heart) - there’s a
difference between seeing and Seeing - there’s a difference between knowing there’s a need, and Seeing there’s a need
(Ex. Makeover: see with your heart and it is broken and cries out for them in their plight)
When Jesus saw them, timeout, busy, lot of places to be, lot of things to do - but He saw them w/ the eyes of His heart and then He said this - v. 14 - healed, but not on the spot, as they were on their journey back to see the priest they were healed - read v.15-16 and he was a what?, a Samaritan, the one that really didn’t fit in - we believe all the others were Jews, all healed, no strings attached, all touched with nothing in return. One said thank you, listen, I don’t want you to miss this, but the 9 to Him were worth it. B/c they now knew what their Heavenly Father thought of them, whether they understood it or not. read v.17-19
Meaning he was set free now on the inside - interesting story
I have taught on this passage a few times, always referencing the one who came back - but this story, He healed all ten didn’t He? With no strings attached - I’d like you to write down that little phrase, “With No Strings Attached” -
there’s a message in it for all of us.
(Cathleen and I moved here in ‘96 for ministry purposes and we believed someday we’d Pastor. We came with a
message LAF, we gotta LAF - Love, Accept, Forgive - listen, ‘with no strings attached -
it’s not about the one who comes back, we’re about all 10)
Jesus modeled this for us and He left us with the commission to go into all the world and tell the good news, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Sprit. B/c God is all about others. He wants us too, to be all about others
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything” Matthew 5:13
Jesus said, ‘If a seasoning has no flavor, it has no value. - So if we... Christ followers make no effort to affect the world around us, well... It is our job, our call to be the salt.
To affect those in our realm of influence the way Jesus did -
THE S.A.L.T. APPROACH
SEE COMPASSIONATELY
So that we can see with these eyes(heart), not these eyes (head) - here’s the deal, we’ve talked about partnering w/ YWAM in Montrose and helping all those people, up to 150 a week, now how many of them have ever returned to say, ‘thank you’? - So should we quit?
They don’t line up outside of the Y each Sunday yearning to come in here and grab a seat - so why do we go?
B/c God has taught us to see compassionately, to see w/ the eyes of our heart.
When we see w/ the eyes of our hearts we say, “they have no hope unless we go” We want to make a difference for the Kingdom of God, it’s not about our church, it’s about THE Church and we can’t make the assumption that someone else will do it.
When he saw them, ( here’s the difference - when we see someone hurting or who needs help from here [head] we say, “ahh, that’s too bad” but when we see it from here [heart] it tears us up, keeps you up at night - you see people wandering around at night and they’re hopeless, no future, no direction - we are called to be a people who see
compassionately- not for what we get in return, that is not the issue, we do what God has called us to do - does that make sense?) he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. Luke 17:14
ACCEPT FREELY
The lepers had the social stigma of the day - they were the outcasts, no one wanted anything to do w/ them -
and the guy from Samaria had a doubly bad time
God has called us to be there for people who don’t even want anything to do with God, much less Christianity. “Ahh those people are a bunch of hypocrites, they only want your money” or whatever...
Until you walk into their lives and love them w/ no strings attached, you love them until they say why?
Why in the world would you care about me, care for me?
You know the answer? B/c that’s what my Savior did for me.
Did any of you have anything to offer God? I didn’t - It’s kinda like a gag gift - we get Heaven, streets of gold, eternal feasting and so forth... God gets us
He accepts freely - the down and out, the broken-hearted, the broken dreams, and He’ll help you put the pieces back together again
God did not call us to get up on our soap box and call out everything everyone is doing wrong, does it mean we
condone sin? NO, but they may not know any better or even care about it right now, but it doesn’t matter, that’s not our job! We have been called to accept freely. W/out judgement, w/out condemning, "Why haven’t you been at church? What’s wrong w/ you?" - not our job, just accept freely.
(photos - accept?)
As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him… He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Luke 17:12+16
LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY
We are called to love others. That’s what God wants, “love you neighbor as yourself.” In living a balanced life we
connect up, and w/in and out-of-network.
However it’s not always that easy to love others is it?
We don’t always feel up to the challenge do we? There are some freaky, weird, wacked-out people out there, and I’m not just talking about your extended family.
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?" Luke 17:17-18
All were healed, Jesus didn’t hold anything back, He did not withhold His love for the others, b/c oh by the way, Jesus knew, He knew they were not going to return, but He did it anyway, He loved them all the same.
On our cell phone packages that we pay monthly, it always cost more to connect out of network, right? I mean we pay our monthly fee, it includes a certain amount of minutes and in-network is free! But to connect out of network, you’re gona pay for that.
Isn’t that true in life, it may cost us more to reach out to the unlovable, the unwanted, those who may not give anything in return, but you never know the day you walk into their life may have been the day they were considering walking out on life, ending it all, giving up completely. That’s what God has called us to do, and that’s what He has modeled for us to do. Not to be a church that says, hey everybody come here, but He called us to GO - be salt to those who need LAF, be salt to those in your realm of influence.
TOUCH PRACTICALLY
You know one of the things I love about Jesus’ life is that when He gave He meet physical needs, nothing in return.
Hey when we love this way, our lives will change and others will notice - is this the way our world loves? No, we love w/ strings don’t we? I’ll love you if you love me, ever do break-up in H.S. we’ll still be friends, no you won’t, you’ll never speak again - you begin to love w/out strings, the world will notice and be careful what it may do to you
Can you imagine what would happen if all of us started to LAF to Love, Accept, Forgive others unconditionally, what do you think would happen? Oh WOW, the world would wonder where you came from, “yer not from ‘round here is yas?”
…they were cleansed. Luke 17:14b
We are called to be salt of the earth, to See
Compassionately, Accept Freely, Love Unconditionally,
and Touch Practically.
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