Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20230709 - Wants vs. Needs - Luke 17:11-19

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#20230709 - Wants vs. Needs - Luke 17:11-19 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to the Study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
• 0:08
  Taylor recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co To learn
• 0:12
  more about the many resources available through Abounding
• 0:15
  Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services, visit us
• 0:19
  online at Calvary, Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
• 0:24
  Church app. Now here's Pastor Ed to take us
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  into our study. Good morning.
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  How you guys doing this morning? All right, well, I'm blessed to
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  get the opportunity to be here with you guys.
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  I share with the the earlier services back in 199899.
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  I was at Calvary Chapel Downey and I was in Bible college and I
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  was working in the lunch room there at Calvary Chapel.
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  Downey had a Christian School. And I would do the devotions for
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  the ladies in the lunchroom. There's a lady in there named
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  Penny and she knew Pastor Ed and his wife and family and attended
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  their home Bible study. And so I was in Bible college
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  praying about planting a church in Inglewood.
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  And I was kept hearing about Ed. Every every Wednesday there was
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  a prayer request for Ed Marie and the kids.
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  I had never met Ed. I didn't know him, but I was
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  praying for him every week. Ed Marie and the kids.
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  I knew him, his wife and I knew the kids names and.
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  I heard he finally came out here to see what the Lord would do
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  and so I was hearing the reports of when the church first got
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  started. Ed had a this is how long ago it
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  was. There was a this is before we
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  could stream. There was a tape ministry and I
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  used to order Ed's blue cassette tapes teaching through the
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  Bible. And so I I was getting to know
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  him. I was hearing his teaching, but
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  I hadn't met him. But Ed was a source of
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  inspiration for me because I felt called the plant a church
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  as well. And so for me, every time I get
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  to come here and I look around and I see all the people and all
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  that God has done and is doing, it's it's awesome.
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  Because I remember when this was just a prayer.
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  I remember when this was Edge prayer and his family's prayer
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  and friends were praying. So to see what God has done is
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  encouraging to me. So maybe some of y'all got
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  things that y'all are praying for.
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  We serve a big God. Amen.
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  And this, all of this in here, this is a result of some prayer.
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  And so anyway, I'm blessed to be here.
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  I counted a privilege. And I'm excited to get into
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  God's word with you guys this morning.
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  So if you guys have your Bibles, if you would open up to Luke
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  Chapter 17, we're going to look at, we're going to look at Luke
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  17 verses 11 through 19. When you get it, say, got it.
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  All right, you guys talk back in this service little bit.
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  All right. Oh, OK We're going to see you.
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  All right, Luke 17, I'm going to read it, and then we'll pray and
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  get into the word. So I'm going to read through the
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  the, the, the story with you, Luke 17, starting at verse 11.
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  It says now it happened as he went to Jerusalem that he passed
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  through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
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  Then as he entered a certain village, there met him ten men
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  who were lepers, who stood afar off.
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  And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have
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  mercy on us. So when he saw them, he said to
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  them, go show yourselves to the priest.
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  And so it was that as they went they were cleansed.
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  And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned,
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  and with a loud voice glorify God, and fell down on his face
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  at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
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  So Jesus answered and said to him, Were there not ten cleanse,
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  But where are the nine? Were there not any found who
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  returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?
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  And he said to him, Arise and go your way.
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  Your faith has made you well. And Father, I ask now, as we get
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  into your word, that you would open up our hearts and minds to
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  receive the things that you have for each one of us.
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  You know every person in the room.
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  You know our spiritual condition.
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  You know what we need. And so God, I pray that you
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  would meet us in a special way today.
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  We believe your word is alive and powerful.
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  And so God, speak to every heart, build us up as believers,
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  stir our hearts, stir up our faith and win those that need to
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  be won by you. Today.
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  God have your way in this place. We ask all these things in Jesus
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  name and everybody said Amen. All right, so I titled the
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  message this morning once versus needs.
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  In this story we see these ten men that desperately want from
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  Jesus to be healed, and I completely understand why they
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  would want that. But we'll see.
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  If we look at the story that they had an ever, they had an
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  even deeper need than their desire to be healed.
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  There was even more that they needed from the Lord.
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  And anybody here that's raised kids, I'm sure you've had to
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  explain to your kids the difference between wants and
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  needs and man. They want McDonald's.
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  They need dinner, right? But they, they need some tennis
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  shoes. They want some Jordans, you
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  know, So there's there's a difference between what you want
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  and what you need. And the same can be true
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  spirits. Sometimes people want from God.
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  It's one thing. And God is like, no, you need
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  this. And so we'll look at it as we go
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  through the story this morning. Look at verse 11 with me.
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  It says now it happened as he went to Jerusalem that he passed
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  through Samaria. Through the midst of Samaria and
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  Galilee. And so first thing I want to
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  point out, Jesus being a Jew. If you know anything about the
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  time in which Jesus lived, the Jews and Samaritans, they had
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  some racial conflict and some racial beef going on.
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  I just want to point out that that wasn't true with Jesus.
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  Hey man, that might have been true in society, that might have
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  been true in the world, but that wasn't the issue with Jesus.
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  Most Jews would have skirted around Samaria so as not to go
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  through. They felt that strongly.
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  They had that strong of a dislike for the Samaritan.
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  They would have gone around rather than take the shortcut
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  through. And I just want to point out to
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  us today that if we're in Christ, Jesus is for everybody.
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  Amen. He don't got no favorite folks.
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  I mean, he loved white folk, black folk, Asian folk, whatever
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  you are, he loves your kind of folk.
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  You know, we're all created in his image.
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  And though that was what was the norm in Jesus day, I just want
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  to point out that Jesus didn't succumb to what was normal in
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  society. He was on a whole another
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  mission. And here's what I want to point
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  out. First.
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  Jesus went to where the loss, where he knew there were.
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  I know Jesus knew there was a need and he went there.
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  He went to where the need was. He went where the religious
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  wouldn't go. Any priest or religious leader
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  would have skirted around this city.
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  Genus went right through to where the need was.
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  Anybody in this room that's born again this morning at some point
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  in time. Christ met you where you were.
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  Amen. I was for me.
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  My story is this. I briefly I didn't grow up in a
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  Christian home. I didn't grow up with Christian
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  parents. My parents divorced when I was
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  in between 1st and 2nd grade. Both my parents had struggles
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  with substance abuse, my mom with alcohol, and my dad with
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  drugs. So I I didn't grow up with God
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  in my family or my life. I went to Catholic school.
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  I I got I got about enough God in Catholic school to know I
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  didn't want him. That was it was very nominal at
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  best and and for you guys that understand where Englewood is, I
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  grew up in the hood so I did hood stuff that's that was kind
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  of how I was coming up and so in my teens I got into sexual sin.
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  I got into alcoholism. I so I started selling weed.
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  I was a weed man before the government.
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  Start selling weed. You know that that used to be my
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  job that they took. So that's what my life looked
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  like. When I was 18, I had a child
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  have my I said this the first time I didn't have a child.
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  I got someone pregnant who had a child.
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  I just want to be clear, she says.
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  We live in a strange time. So I fathered a child in my
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  teens and and I wanted to do the right thing.
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  And so I I moved. I got an apartment.
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  I let the girl move in with me. And at this is at 19 years old,
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  my life is a mess. I got a baby.
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  I live with someone I'm not married to.
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  I get drunk every day. I do.
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  I'm doing. I sell weed.
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  I do credit card scams. I'm not And I have.
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  No, there's nothing in my life that says you need God.
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  I don't know him. I don't know to look for him.
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  I wasn't raised up. That wasn't planted in me as a
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  kid. And what God did for me,
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  according to his mercy, God saved one of my buddies.
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  At the end of high school, last year of high school, one of my
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  good friends, we grew up in the same neighborhood we used to run
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  together. He really got born again.
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  He was in his bedroom listening to secular radio station and it
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  just switched over to California.
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  There's a Christian station called K Wave and his radio
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  somehow moved over to K Wave and a pastor named Raw Reed preached
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  the message. And this kid who didn't grow up
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  in a Christian home either, he gets saved in his bedroom all by
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  himself and he takes it serious. Amen.
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  So much so that this guy that used to run the streets with me
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  and hang out, we had a whole crew of guys.
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  He just quit coming. And I I remember calling him
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  being like, come on, man, we know we got this, we got that.
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  And he was like, I don't want to go.
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  I don't do that no more. Then This is why I knew
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  something was really wrong. We graduate high school.
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  He married his girlfriend. And I was like, bro, why would
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  you had your whole life in front of you?
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  Why would you, why would you do such a thing?
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  He married her right out of high school and and and the one thing
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  that I didn't realize was I used to shut down most Christians
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  because I could point out the junk that they were doing.
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  Well God gave me a guy that I knew and that I watched him
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  really repent and really walk with the Lord.
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  Of all the apartments that he could have moved into with his
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  new wife, he didn't know where I lived.
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  He end up at my apartment building.
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  Of all the rooms in the apartment building that him and
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  his wife could have ended up in. They ended up in the right
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  upstairs for me apartment. And this guy will come down and
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  just minister to me because he loved me and he he he barely.
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  And he was a new believer. And I remember he would just
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  say, Bill, man, I I love you bro.
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  I don't want you to go to hell. That's why I'm sharing this with
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  you, man. You know he would just give me
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  the gospel. Give me the gospel one day he
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  was sharing with me. I kept asking you know how non
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  believers do. I was asking all these stupid
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  questions to put them off and. He went and bought a book to try
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  to answer my questions. He brought this book to my house
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  called Man's Questions, God's Answers.
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  And I remember he left it at my house.
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  It had a two page of foldout. All about hell, Every verse
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  about hell in the Bible, Outer darkness weeping and wailing,
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  national team firing brimstone forever and ever, ever.
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  The worm dieth not. And I sat there over a 40 ounce
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  reading through that and it was it was getting through.
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  It didn't look like it was getting through, but it was
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  getting through the next day. I went to LAX, the airport.
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  I had a little hustle down at the airport.
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  I'm walking through the airport and a guy walked up to me and
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  handed me a Bible track. This was no normal Bible track.
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  It wasn't one of the nice Bible tracks that said something like,
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  you know, steps to peace with God.
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  This Bible track had fire on the front and it said in big bold
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  print what to do to go to hell. And when you open it up in bold
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  print, it says nothing. And this is the verse that was
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  inside this track says I don't have to do anything to go to
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  hell. It says he who believes in him
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  is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned
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  already because he has not believed in the name of the only
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  begotten son of God. That's John 318.
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  And I'm telling you, I sat there and read that verse and the fear
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  of God hit me it all. In that moment I went from being
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  an unbeliever and somehow it all clicked.
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  That God is real. Jesus loves me.
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  He's trying to save me. I am going to die and go to hell
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  if I reject him. I just believed in that moment
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  and I called my buddy and said, hey bro, I want to get saved.
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  And he was such a new believer. He said, we'll wait till Sunday.
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  I'll take you to church. He did.
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  So I watched a little TV in that week, you know, and I went to
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  church that Sunday. It didn't matter what was
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  preached. I went forward and I gave my
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  life to Christ. And I got a little mini
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  sermonette on counting the cost and and I was amped up.
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  I'm like I've always been 110 percenter.
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  And I was like man, I'm I'm not going to play with God.
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  I went home. I broke up with the girl.
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  She moved out. The cops helped that all ended
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  that was that was that arrangement happened and here's
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  what I would just give to you guys.
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  I'll never forget that when I didn't have the sense to seek
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  God because I was lost. He came to where I was.
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  And he met me where I was. I'm forever grateful for that.
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  Amen. So as we read this here, where
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  Jesus went to where they were, I just want to encourage you guys
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  as believers. We we got to stop waiting for
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  people to come to church or join us here If they do, Praise God,
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  right? I hope you brought some people
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  today. We're going to give it.
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  We're going to give them life today.
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  But we need to go back. We need those of us that have
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  the gospel. God wants us to go back where
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  they are. Amen.
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  And you know where they are because it's where you used to
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  be. And so my wife will tell you
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  guys, I used to go out at night. I was a because I used to be an
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  alcoholic. Anybody that knows about that in
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  LA or California, they stopped selling beer at convenience
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  stores at 2:00 AM. So about 1 something you know
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  you're going and you're like man, we we got to make one more
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  run to 711 and we would run down to 711 to get that last batch of
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  beer. To just go into the morning and
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  I will go to seven elevens at night midnight and just see who
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  was coming and going and witness the people there because that's
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  where I used to be when I didn't know Jesus, when I didn't have
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  the sense to. I wasn't going to be up Saturday
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  at Sunday at church. I was going to be in bed Sunday
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  hung over. And so I just want to encourage
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  you guys. Jesus went to where the loss
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  were and as believers we want to carry that on.
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  If you, if you're blessed to be saved, I pray you will consider
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  this week God, who can I go to? That needs to hear this.
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  You might just need to go next door.
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  Some of you might need to go down the hallway in your own
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  house. But we don't have to go far to
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  find somebody that needs to hear this message.
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  Hey, man. All right, moving on.
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  Let me get to our story. So it says, you know, he he went
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  through the midst of Samaria verse 12.
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  Then he, as he entered a certain village there, met him there, 10
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  men who were lepers. Who stood afar off.
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  And so the ten men that were leopards.
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  I don't want to gross you out with the all the grimy details
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  about leprosy. I'm gonna give you the G rated
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  Sunday morning version. Leprosy was an unattractive skin
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  disease for which the Bible had prescribed quarantine.
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  You can read all about it in Leviticus chapter 13 and 14.
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  It gives you all the rules of you if you find yourself with
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  leprosy. Back in this day, you were
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  quarantined. You were separated from
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  everybody else. Many of the Jewish religious
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  teachers taught that if you were a leper it was God's punishment
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  because they often thought it was a punishment for sin.
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  Many times it was the sin of of slander that they that they
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  accused you of. And so if you guys remember
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  there are times in the Old Testament where God would punish
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  people by giving them leprosy. 1 instance would be if you guys
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  remember Moses. Remember Moses had married
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  little Ethiopian honey. He went and got him a little
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  chocolate drop and his sister Miriam was talking about him
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  because of it. And God hit Miriam with leprosy.
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  And so that's where this comes from.
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  So if if you were a leper in Jesus day, it was you.
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  You not only had a disease and everybody wanted to be far away
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  from you, they also looked at you like you were a cursed of
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  God. Like this is because of some sin
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  in your life. And so it carried a really bad
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  stigma you didn't want. This is the idea.
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  The ancient historian Josephus said that once someone
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  contracted leprosy, they were treated in the same way as a
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  dead corpse. So the Jews would not touch a
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  dead body because it would make you ceremonially unclean.
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  And that's how they looked at lepers, like literally, they
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  were treated like the living dead get away.
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  And so when it says that they were a far off, they had to be a
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  far off. If you were a leper, you had to
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  announce yourself. If somebody was walking down the
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  street, you had to yell unclean so they can go to the other side
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  of the street. And so, you know, this is what
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  it was like in this In Jesus's day, leprosy brought about
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  separation. If you were a husband, like I'm
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  a husband, I got a wife, I got kids.
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  If you were a husband and you became a leper, you had to be
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  removed from your wife because you don't want her to catch it.
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  You had to be removed from your kids because you didn't want
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  them to catch it. You were removed from your
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  community, and you were put in a colony with other people that
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  had the same disease that you had.
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  You also were considered ceremonially unclean, and you
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  could not go to the temple and worship.
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  And so this was a bad, bad deal in Jesus day to be hit with
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  leprosy. And you may be thinking, well,
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  big deal, Pastor, we don't have leprosy.
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  It's fixed today. So, so, so big deal.
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  And you're right. You know, we, I pray that
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  there's nobody in this room that has it.
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  I don't think we deal with leprosy like that today.
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  But we do have an issue that is very similar to leprosy that
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  we're all dealing with. We've dealt with it and we're
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  currently dealing with it and it's called sin.
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  I'm going to give you guys four ways.
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  That leprosy is like sin and I encourage you if you're a note
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  taker to write these things down.
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  Four things 4 similarities between leprosy and sin #1
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  Leprosy like sin. It brings separation, right?
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  Isaiah chapter 59, verse one and two.
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  God says my hand is not short, that it cannot save nor is my
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  ear heavy that it cannot hear. But it's your sins that have
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  separated between you and your God so that he will not hear
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  you. Sin, like leprosy, brings
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  separation between you and God. Amen #2 Sin like leprosy is
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  highly contagious, Paul said in First Corinthians chapter 15
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  verse 33. Do not be deceived.
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  Evil company corrupts good character.
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  Bad company. Evil company will corrupt your
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  good character, he said. Don't be deceived.
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  Don't think you can hang out with people that don't love God
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  and it's not going to rub off on you.
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  A bad company will corrupt your good character.
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  It's contagious sin. Like leprosy is contagious #3
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  sin, like leprosy leads to death.
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  Roman 623 says that the wages of sin is death.
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  That death is a spiritual is separation from God for all
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  eternity in a place that the Bible calls hell.
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  Sin like leprosy brings leads to death and 4th and lastly sin
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  like leprosy can only be cured by a touch from God.
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  There was no medicinal cure for leprosy in Jesus day only.
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  If God would supernaturally heal you, and there's no way to deal
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  with our sin, there's no cure for the the condition of sin
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  that we're all born with outside of us coming into relationship
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  with Jesus Christ. Amen.
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  We're told in Acts 412 there's no other name giving them under
• 19:14
  heaven by which men must be saved.
• 19:16
  It's the name of Jesus. And we got to have an encounter
• 19:18
  with Jesus. We got to come into relationship
• 19:20
  with Jesus Christ to have our sins washed away.
• 19:24
  And so in these ways there's a there's a.
• 19:27
  A a similarity between sin and leprosy and so let's move on
• 19:31
  these lepers they stood afar off verse 13 says And they lifted up
• 19:35
  their voices and this was their prayer.
• 19:37
  They say Jesus master have mercy on us.
• 19:42
  I want you to note the simplicity of their prayer.
• 19:44
  They call his name Jesus. They call him master.
• 19:48
  Same would be the same as calling them Lord.
• 19:50
  And their request was would you have mercy on us?
• 19:54
  I want you to notice a very simple prayer.
• 19:56
  For you guys, some people really complicate prayer.
• 19:59
  You can keep it simple. You don't have to pray in King
• 20:02
  James Elizabeth in English for God to hear you.
• 20:04
  You can pray very simple, clear prayers from your heart to the
• 20:08
  Lord. The Bible says that God knows
• 20:10
  the things that you have need of even before you ask him.
• 20:13
  But he wants us to ask him. These guys cry out, Lord, I mean
• 20:17
  Jesus master, have mercy on us. They lifted up their voice.
• 20:21
  They're yelling out loud. Jesus is probably across the way
• 20:24
  because they have to be far away.
• 20:26
  And I totally understand these guys want to be healed.
• 20:29
  And I believe when they saw Jesus that they said this is our
• 20:32
  chance. They saw Jesus and they said
• 20:35
  this is he can do it. They had, they had heard about
• 20:38
  him, Jesus's healed, the blind, Jesus's raised up cripples,
• 20:41
  Jesus's multiply bread and and fish.
• 20:44
  And so they have heard about him.
• 20:46
  And these guys weren't yelling for doctors, they weren't
• 20:49
  yelling for other people. They saw Jesus and they said he
• 20:52
  can do it and they started crying out to him.
• 20:54
  And I just want you to know that when you cry out to God in
• 20:57
  prayer, it's it's a it's an exercise of faith.
• 21:01
  Your prayer says God, I believe you can help me.
• 21:04
  I believe you can do something that I can't do.
• 21:06
  Otherwise prayerlessness communicates to God your
• 21:10
  self-sufficiency. When we don't pray, it's like
• 21:12
  saying God, I got this. But when we pray it is it is a
• 21:16
  it's a clear declaration to God that we we need him and we
• 21:19
  believe in him. Prayer is an exercise of faith.
• 21:22
  And so these guys cried out to Jesus again.
• 21:26
  They believe that he could do something.
• 21:27
  And so I want you to remember this for later.
• 21:30
  The same fervor and passion that they made their request with.
• 21:35
  We should remember that same kind of fervor and passion when
• 21:38
  the Lord answers our prayers. Amen.
• 21:40
  So often when we when we need something or desire something
• 21:43
  from God, we're passionate and fervoring and asking.
• 21:46
  But we're not always as fervent and passionate in our
• 21:50
  Thanksgiving. And we we want to be fair both
• 21:53
  ways. I want if I'm going to be
• 21:54
  passionate when I asked you, I want to bring that same flavor
• 21:57
  when it's time to say thank you, Lord, Amen.
• 22:00
  And so let's keep going. These these people, these guys
• 22:03
  saw people pass by every day. But again when they saw Jesus,
• 22:07
  they they, I believe, these guys believe that this was their
• 22:10
  chance and they went for it. And I would just say this to you
• 22:13
  if you were alive and at this time.
• 22:15
  And you saw Jesus and it was your opportunity to to bring
• 22:18
  something before him. What What would you bring before
• 22:21
  the Lord Maybe you're sitting here today and you got some
• 22:24
  requests you got something that that you need God's
• 22:27
  intervention. You you need God's help.
• 22:28
  I want to encourage you to write it down and really committed to
• 22:32
  prayer. You know the Bible says that you
• 22:34
  have not because you acts not sometimes the believers we got,
• 22:38
  we have we have access to the Lord but we don't tap in like we
• 22:41
  should. And if you have something that's
• 22:43
  just weighing, I need God's intervention.
• 22:45
  I need God's help. These guys aren't even
• 22:48
  believers, and the Lord's going to hear them.
• 22:50
  So if you're here, you're a believer.
• 22:52
  You got one up on them. You're a child of God.
• 22:55
  You got you. You and the family.
• 22:56
  That's your dad that you can cry out to.
• 22:58
  And so if you have some, some, some some pit, some pending
• 23:01
  requests, I'm going to encourage you to write it down this
• 23:04
  morning. Look at verse 14.
• 23:06
  It says so when he saw them. He said to them, go show
• 23:10
  yourself to the priest. So it was that as they went they
• 23:14
  were cleansed. First thing I want to point out,
• 23:16
  it says when he saw them, Jesus was important.
• 23:20
  Jesus was busy everywhere Jesus went.
• 23:22
  If you read through the gospels, crowds of people, it says
• 23:25
  multitudes of people with throng around him.
• 23:28
  People were running up to Jesus with demon possessed children
• 23:31
  and handicapped neighbors. And you know they were everybody
• 23:34
  with sicknesses and illnesses. They were bringing them to him.
• 23:37
  There were needs all around him. And even though there was all of
• 23:41
  that going on, when these guys cried out, the Lord heard them.
• 23:45
  It says when he saw them. And I just want you to know that
• 23:49
  with all this going on in our world, the Lord is able to hear
• 23:51
  us. He's he's amazing.
• 23:53
  It could be 5 million people crying out at the same time.
• 23:56
  He hears every prayer specifically and perfectly, and
• 24:00
  he's able to answer each one. He saw them.
• 24:04
  I I love that our Lord is this way.
• 24:05
  Have you guys ever seen a a celebrity or an athlete maybe
• 24:09
  leaving the the stadium and there's crowds of people outside
• 24:12
  waving papers and pens. They want to get a a autograph
• 24:15
  from them and sometimes they've had enough and they just put
• 24:18
  their head down. They walk like they don't see
• 24:20
  you. You know I thank God that Jesus
• 24:22
  is never that busy right. He's never he's he's important
• 24:26
  he's there's nobody ever been more important than him on the
• 24:28
  planet and he's got time for us when we cry out to him when he
• 24:32
  saw them it says. He told them to go show
• 24:35
  themselves to the priest. This is amazing.
• 24:38
  This is an amazing thing he told them to do.
• 24:41
  Jesus told them to do what healed people do, right?
• 24:45
  If you were healed of leprosy, you were to go show yourself to
• 24:47
  the priest. But they haven't been healed
• 24:50
  yet, He tells them, go show yourselves to the priest.
• 24:53
  They could have said, well, Lord will heal us first, then we'll
• 24:57
  go. But that's not what happens.
• 24:59
  In obedience and in faith they go.
• 25:02
  And as they obey in faith, they're healed.
• 25:06
  We see this trend in Scripture where Jesus tells people to do
• 25:09
  things that he know He knows that they can't do in their own
• 25:11
  strength. He told the man with the
• 25:13
  withered hand stretch forth your hand, and as he in obedient
• 25:18
  faith, did it, his hand was healed.
• 25:21
  He tells these lepers, go show yourselves to the priest.
• 25:24
  And as they went in obedient faith, they were healed.
• 25:27
  There's a principle here that I want you guys to get.
• 25:31
  If God tells you to do something, he's going to provide
• 25:35
  the power to do it. Hey man, God.
• 25:37
  Because it would be cruel otherwise if God told them to go
• 25:40
  show themselves to the priest only to go still have leprosy
• 25:43
  that would be jacked up, that would be like a bad joke, you
• 25:45
  know? If God told the man with a
• 25:47
  withered hand to stretch out your hand and he was like, it
• 25:50
  didn't work, you know that would be messed up.
• 25:53
  When God tells you to do something, something you can
• 25:56
  bank on is he's going to provide the power.
• 26:00
  To do what he's called you to do.
• 26:02
  Now this is a word to believers because I know that believers
• 26:04
  still battle with sin. When I gave my life to Christ, I
• 26:08
  had all kind of sin to deal with.
• 26:10
  I had sexual sin. I was an alcoholic.
• 26:13
  There was a number of things that were issues that I had to
• 26:16
  deal with as a new Christian, and alcohol was a big one.
• 26:20
  Right before I gave my life to Christ, I drank every day.
• 26:23
  I have been drinking every day for some years.
• 26:26
  I had tried to quit multiple times, twice.
• 26:29
  Before I got saved on New Year's Eve, I said this is going to be,
• 26:32
  this is my last hoorah, New Year's Eve, I'm a turn up.
• 26:35
  And in New Year's Day, that's it.
• 26:37
  Especially when my daughter was when my daughter was born in
• 26:39
  November and so that December and January came, I said, you
• 26:43
  know what, I got to get my life together.
• 26:44
  I got a kid. Now January came New Year's Eve.
• 26:47
  I said I'm going to do my thing. New Year's Day, I'm going to
• 26:49
  quit. And guess what happened the day
• 26:51
  after New Year's, New Year's Day, I I couldn't do it.
• 26:56
  I got halfway through. That's how you figure out you're
• 26:57
  an alcoholic, you try to stop, and you can't.
• 27:00
  And so after I gave my life to Christ, the week that I got
• 27:04
  saved, I was in my apartment and I was getting ready to mix a
• 27:07
  drink on top of my stove. The first time that God ever
• 27:11
  spoke to my heart as a believer was I was right there getting
• 27:13
  ready to mix a drink. And God spoke to my heart that
• 27:17
  you don't even need a drink. You're just doing this out of
• 27:19
  habit. And I got this sense that God
• 27:21
  was just telling me pour it out. I poured out a whole 5th of gin
• 27:26
  right there, opened up my fridge, and I took all the beer
• 27:28
  in my fridge and I poured it out.
• 27:31
  Now, to be honest, I did this knowing that if the urge came
• 27:35
  back strong enough, I can go buy some more.
• 27:37
  But in that moment I was obeying what I felt the Lord was telling
• 27:40
  me to do. And as I obeyed and poured those
• 27:43
  things out, there were moments of temptation that came.
• 27:46
  But I didn't have it in the house.
• 27:48
  And so I had. I had a victory, my first
• 27:50
  victories. And then God said, now you, you
• 27:53
  can't hang out with your old friends.
• 27:55
  If you hang out with them, you're going to fall right back
• 27:56
  in the old all the same traps. God called me away from all my
• 27:59
  friends, He said, Just cut it, cut them, cut everybody.
• 28:03
  There's no way you're going to walk with, hang out with them
• 28:05
  and walk with me. And So what I found was this
• 28:08
  combination. There were things that God knew
• 28:11
  I could do, and he was calling me to do what I could do.
• 28:14
  And then God would help me with the part I couldn't do.
• 28:18
  Right there is Gaza. You can, you can cut those
• 28:19
  relationships. You could not go to a party.
• 28:21
  You cannot put yourself in harm's way.
• 28:24
  So that's what you do. Get it out of your house.
• 28:26
  Get away from the people. You do that part and I'll do the
• 28:29
  part you can't do. And God began to give me
• 28:32
  strength. And the months started rolling
• 28:33
  by and I started to enjoy victory over alcohol, many
• 28:37
  temptations, many weak moments. But God was giving me strength
• 28:40
  to overcome. And I'll never look back.
• 28:42
  I haven't had a drink to then. I don't.
• 28:44
  I don't. This is not a boast.
• 28:46
  This is a boast in the Lord. I've never drank again since
• 28:50
  October of 1995, when I gave my life to the Lord.
• 28:53
  Amen. I have stumbled.
• 28:57
  I have. I have stumbled as far I've I've
• 28:59
  gone as far to buying a drink and going home with it.
• 29:03
  And then the Lord, just the conviction of God just being so
• 29:06
  strong. I bought a beer one time and I
• 29:08
  went home all by myself and I opened it and when I smelled it.
• 29:12
  God gave me a visual flashback of everything I used to hate
• 29:16
  about being an alcoholic. And I poured it out and I threw
• 29:19
  it away and I cried and I repented again.
• 29:22
  But I didn't drink it. And I I believe that there there
• 29:25
  may be people here today that you're battling.
• 29:26
  You're a Christian, but you're battling.
• 29:29
  And you got to know this. There's a part that you play in
• 29:31
  this. It's a it's a cooperative
• 29:33
  effort. You need to choose to obey.
• 29:36
  And as you choose to obey, you're going to find God's power
• 29:38
  to do so. Amen.
• 29:41
  And so. Don't stay stuck.
• 29:44
  Don't stay in bondage. You take radical steps to to to
• 29:47
  to get the freedom that Jesus died to give you.
• 29:49
  Christ died not just to forgive you the penalty of your sins.
• 29:53
  He He died to deliver you from the power that sin had over your
• 29:56
  life. He died to set us free.
• 29:58
  Amen. And so if you're a believer but
• 30:01
  you're not experiencing that freedom, you want to make some
• 30:03
  new decisions. If you're if you're in a
• 30:06
  relationship that you don't belong, and that's a a common
• 30:09
  thing where believers are wanting God to bless their life
• 30:11
  and they're in relationships that God's like, I can't bless
• 30:14
  that. If you're in a relationship,
• 30:15
  you're single, you're unmarried. If you're in a relationship with
• 30:17
  someone and y'all are sinning against God and you're break up,
• 30:21
  leave. I mean, I mean that in the best
• 30:24
  way possible, best thing you can do for your relationship with
• 30:27
  the Lord. That's the number one love
• 30:29
  relationship in your life is your relationship with Jesus.
• 30:31
  Amen. And if you got a man or a woman
• 30:33
  that's messing that up, leave them and be with Jesus so he can
• 30:36
  bring you somebody that loves him too.
• 30:38
  Hey man, that's for free. I hope you take that to heart.
• 30:42
  And so let's move on. So these guys obeyed in faith.
• 30:46
  And as they went, they were healed.
• 30:48
  Look at verse 15 and 16. And one of them, when he saw
• 30:52
  that he was healed, return and with a loud voice glorify God
• 30:56
  and fell down on his face at his feet giving him thanks.
• 30:59
  And he was a Samaritan. So we know there were ten guys.
• 31:04
  It just says one of them, one of the 10.
• 31:06
  When he saw he was healed, he went and showed himself to the
• 31:08
  priest and he saw he was killed and he went back.
• 31:12
  He made his way back to Jesus. And I want you to know something
• 31:15
  very important. It says one of them.
• 31:18
  When he saw that he was, he'll return and with a loud voice he
• 31:22
  glorified who God this man is coming back.
• 31:27
  He he acknowledged that Jesus is what God.
• 31:31
  Jesus is not just the dude that can heal me.
• 31:33
  Jesus is not just the the miracle worker.
• 31:35
  No, no, no. This guy comes back and says no,
• 31:37
  no, this is God. This this guy is God.
• 31:40
  I'm going back to worship God and he came back to Jesus.
• 31:44
  And he fell down at his feet, and with that same fervor and
• 31:47
  passion that he made the initial request with a loud voice,
• 31:51
  enthusiastic unashamedly on his face, he got down in the Ian was
• 31:55
  talking about the posture of worship, raising your hands, you
• 31:58
  know, putting your hands out, kneeling down before the Lord.
• 32:00
  This guy got on the ground. And what that says is God, I'm
• 32:04
  getting as low impossible as possible to make you as big as
• 32:07
  possible in my life. And he kneeled down before the
• 32:09
  Lord and humble. Praise and worship.
• 32:12
  And the only one that's worthy of praise is the Lord.
• 32:15
  Amen. And this guy is giving God
• 32:17
  praise. He's thankful to the Lord.
• 32:19
  And it it lays out here, this guy was a Samaritan, and this
• 32:24
  would have kind of been a jab to all the Jews there, because they
• 32:27
  should have known that this was the Messiah.
• 32:30
  They should have known that Jesus was God.
• 32:32
  They should have come back and given him glory.
• 32:34
  But this guy, the guy that made it back.
• 32:37
  That the the good guy in the story happened to be a Samaritan
• 32:41
  who the Jews didn't feel so great about.
• 32:44
  But this guy falls down at the feet of Jesus and he worships
• 32:47
  him and it says he was a Samaritan 17 and 18.
• 32:50
  It says so Jesus, I'm sorry. So Jesus answered and said were
• 32:56
  there not ten cleansed? But where are the 9 And were
• 33:01
  there not any who were found to give glory to God except for
• 33:04
  this foreigner? Jesus had an expectation that
• 33:07
  they would have all come back to give him thanks.
• 33:09
  And so he asked this guy, hey, it was 10 of y'all where your
• 33:13
  friends at? Where are the nine?
• 33:14
  He had an expectation that they would all come back.
• 33:18
  I find this is interesting about the Lord.
• 33:19
  There's not many things that God is wanting or needing.
• 33:22
  He's God. He's selfsufficient.
• 33:24
  He owns the cattle on 1000 heel, all the silver and all the gold.
• 33:27
  But if you search the scriptures, you know one thing
• 33:29
  God is looking for? It's it relates to you and me.
• 33:32
  It's it's the one thing that's not his by default.
• 33:36
  I got 2 verses for you going to write these things down.
• 33:38
  The two things that I I found that God is looking for.
• 33:41
  First one is in second Chronicles chapter 16 verse
• 33:44
  nine. God is looking for loyal hearts.
• 33:46
  It says the eyes of the Lord are going to and fro throughout the
• 33:49
  whole earth seeking to show himself strong on behalf of
• 33:54
  those whose hearts are loyal to him that he might show himself
• 33:57
  strong on your behalf. God is looking for loyal hearts,
• 34:00
  he said. He's looking for people whose
• 34:02
  hearts are loyal to him. And I believe this.
• 34:04
  I believe that when we've been washed in the blood of Jesus,
• 34:07
  when we've been, you know, God has sought you out and found you
• 34:10
  and forgiven you and saved you. That the the response from us
• 34:14
  out of be a life of devotion and sincerity and loyalty to the
• 34:18
  Lord. Amen.
• 34:20
  I mean, if you're going to be loyal to somebody, get out of
• 34:22
  me, to the Lord. Nobody's been as good to you as
• 34:25
  he has. And so God says I'm looking.
• 34:27
  I'm searching for loyal hearts. So I can show myself strong on
• 34:30
  their behalf. The second thing God is looking
• 34:32
  for is true worship Jesus. This is in John 4/23 as Jesus is
• 34:37
  ministering to the woman at the well there it's and and and and
• 34:41
  John Chapter 4 verse 23 he said but the hour is coming and now
• 34:47
  is when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and
• 34:52
  in truth and it says for the Father is seeking such to
• 34:56
  worship him. That God is looking for those
• 34:59
  that will worship him genuinely. You know you can worship God in
• 35:02
  a fake way right? Just give God some lip service.
• 35:05
  I love you Lord but you ain't obeying nothing that he says.
• 35:08
  You know, Jesus said to wonder why do you call me Lord, Lord,
• 35:11
  but you don't do what I tell you to do.
• 35:12
  He's I'm looking for true worship.
• 35:14
  I'm looking for those that are genuine in their worship of me.
• 35:17
  God deserves our worship and nobody else is worthy of it but
• 35:20
  him. And he says man I'm I'm looking
• 35:22
  for those things, loyal hearts and true worship.
• 35:26
  And I would just encourage those of us that have been met by the
• 35:28
  Lord and touched by the Lord. Maybe today God would just
• 35:31
  remind you of the goodness of God in your life that you would
• 35:35
  recommit yourself to to be loyal to him, to be faithful to him,
• 35:38
  to worship him, that it would be real, that you got a real reason
• 35:41
  to worship the Lord. And sometimes we can get so
• 35:44
  caught up in daytoday life, we forget what God has done for us,
• 35:48
  don't forget what He's done for you.
• 35:50
  Keep it at the forefront of your mind.
• 35:51
  I think that's why God tells us to have communion.
• 35:53
  He wants us to remember on a regular basis the broken body
• 35:56
  and shed blood. His body that was broken for you
• 35:58
  and his blood that was shed for you.
• 36:00
  He wants us to be mindful of it all the time.
• 36:03
  That's my why. That's your why.
• 36:05
  Why would I die to my flesh? Because he died for me.
• 36:08
  Why would I serve? Because he died for me.
• 36:10
  That that's going to be our why for everything that we do.
• 36:13
  Amen. And so I want to encourage you
• 36:15
  guys in that. And so he said no one came back.
• 36:17
  Except for this foreigner. And then look at verse 19 and he
• 36:21
  said to him, Arise and go your way.
• 36:24
  Your faith has made you well, this is interesting, right?
• 36:28
  This guy has already been healed.
• 36:30
  But now Jesus says your faith has made you well.
• 36:34
  The word well here is Speaking of the spiritual and eternal
• 36:38
  salvation that's granted immediately by God to those who
• 36:41
  believe in Christ. So it's not physical.
• 36:44
  This is spiritual. This guy, your faith has made
• 36:46
  you well. This guy not only got healed of
• 36:48
  his leprosy, this guy got his sins forgiven.
• 36:51
  This guy entered into a relationship with the Lord.
• 36:53
  Amen. He believed that Jesus was God.
• 36:56
  He worshiped him as God, and now he is receiving something from
• 36:59
  the Lord beyond physical healing.
• 37:02
  And so the other lepers, they they got whole bodies, but sick
• 37:06
  hearts, sick hearts. They got what they wanted from
• 37:09
  the Lord, but not what they needed.
• 37:12
  This guy has a whole body and a whole heart.
• 37:15
  He got what he initially wanted from the Lord is physical
• 37:18
  healing, but he also got what he desperately needed, salvation
• 37:22
  from the Lord. And so this guy now has a
• 37:24
  relationship with the Lord as their issue was leprosy.
• 37:28
  And I've told you guys that our problem is sin.
• 37:30
  As as we come to a close, I want to I want to point something out
• 37:34
  to us. I want to, I want to show a
• 37:36
  relationship between. For for you and I that are that
• 37:40
  are believers and even those that are here that maybe don't
• 37:42
  believe yet. I want to show you what the
• 37:44
  Bible says your relationship to God is before you get saved.
• 37:50
  If you ask me, before I got saved, you know what's your
• 37:52
  relation? I thought I was a pretty good
• 37:54
  person. Most people create a standard of
• 37:57
  morality that suits them. When I wasn't saved, I had a
• 38:00
  standard of morality that suited me.
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  Why do you think you should go to heaven, Bill?
• 38:04
  Because I'm. I think I'm a good person.
• 38:06
  How so? When I go to the liquor store
• 38:07
  and I see a bum outside, I buy them a beer and I bless them.
• 38:12
  I mean, I mean, I'm a good dude, you know, I'm a weed man.
• 38:14
  And sometimes when people are hard up on the, I'll hook them
• 38:17
  up, you know, Like, I really thought, like I'm pretty
• 38:20
  generous. I mean I help people out
• 38:21
  sometimes, you know, I'm a good guy.
• 38:25
  It's it's so funny when I wasn't saying that some of the things I
• 38:28
  remember, I had a friend and I won't say they had a certain
• 38:32
  kind of car and they they they were missing a hubcap.
• 38:36
  And I ended up seeing that same car at the movies.
• 38:40
  So I stole the hubcap. And I thought I was really nice
• 38:43
  of me. I I stole the hubcap to give
• 38:45
  him, you know, forgive me. This is, this is the unsaved
• 38:47
  person thinking, you know, but here's, here's what the Bible
• 38:52
  says about us as as, as, as as sinners before we meet the Lord.
• 38:57
  6 verses. This is true about everybody
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  before they meet Christ. Number one, we're all sinners.
• 39:03
  Romans 323. All have sin and fall short of
• 39:07
  the glory of God before you meet Jesus and Savior.
• 39:09
  We're all sinners #2 We are dead in our trespasses and sins.
• 39:15
  We are spiritually dead. According to Ephesians chapter 2
• 39:18
  verse one, before you come to Christ you are spiritually dead.
• 39:21
  You're dead and your trespasses and sins #3 Before you meet
• 39:25
  Christ you are separated from God by your sins.
• 39:29
  Isaiah 59 one and two. His ears not death, his hands
• 39:32
  not short. But it's your sins that have
• 39:34
  separated between you and God #4.
• 39:37
  Before you meet the Lord, you are spiritually blind. 2nd
• 39:40
  Corinthians 4 four says that the God of this age, Satan, has
• 39:44
  blinded people so that they don't even see their need for
• 39:46
  God #5. This is a tough one for a lot of
• 39:49
  people. If you're not a believer, Satan
• 39:51
  is your daddy, spiritually speaking.
• 39:53
  And John 844, Jesus said to a group of religious leaders, you
• 39:57
  are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father
• 40:01
  you want to do. He was a murderer and a liar
• 40:03
  from the beginning. If some people think that we're
• 40:06
  all God's children, not true. The Bible says that we're all
• 40:10
  God's creation. You got to be born again to be a
• 40:13
  child of God. Amen.
• 40:14
  So it's not by default that you're a child of God before you
• 40:17
  become a Christian. You're not a child of God.
• 40:19
  Satan got some kids too. And we need to know that number
• 40:22
  six. Lastly, before you meet Christ,
• 40:25
  you have a spiritual death sentence hanging over your head.
• 40:28
  Roman 623 The Wages of Sin is death.
• 40:32
  Now here's the amazing thing, right?
• 40:34
  Because of who Jesus is, the Bible says that God loves you
• 40:37
  and me so much even though we were flawed, even though we were
• 40:40
  sinners. He loves you.
• 40:41
  And he said I'm going to make a provision for these flawed,
• 40:44
  sinful people that I love so much.
• 40:46
  They can never do it. They'll never live a perfect,
• 40:48
  sinless life. And so I'm going to send my Son
• 40:51
  from heaven. And God the Father loved you so
• 40:53
  much that He sent his Son Jesus. And Jesus came to earth and did
• 40:56
  what Me what you or I could never do.
• 40:59
  Jesus lived the perfect, holy, sinless life.
• 41:02
  He never sinned. Not one time.
• 41:04
  He endured his whole life that way, and he died.
• 41:06
  He took your sins and my sins upon himself.
• 41:09
  God the Father treated Jesus like he was supposed to treat
• 41:13
  you and me. All of our sins, the Bible says,
• 41:15
  were put on him and he was put on the cross.
• 41:19
  He was flogged, and he was crucified, and ultimately he was
• 41:22
  killed. He died in our place for our
• 41:25
  sins, and in three days later he rose from the grave, and
• 41:29
  Victoria victoriously conquered sin, death, and Satan and the
• 41:32
  resurrection. And now the Father says, if you
• 41:35
  will receive my son by faith, if you will put your faith in the
• 41:38
  finished work of Jesus, that he died in your place for your
• 41:42
  sins. And he rose from the grave.
• 41:44
  God says, I'll forgive you and I'll receive you.
• 41:46
  You'll be my children. I'll be your father.
• 41:49
  We'll have a relationship together.
• 41:50
  And so when you do give your life to Christ, that list of six
• 41:54
  things, everything changes. You go from being a Sinner to
• 41:58
  being a St. Y'all.
• 41:59
  Know that. But I'm St.
• 42:01
  Bill, if you didn't know right. We we all are new.
• 42:05
  Our classification is not no longer sinners before God.
• 42:08
  We become Saints. We're no longer spiritually
• 42:12
  dead. Now we're spiritually alive.
• 42:14
  We're no longer separated from God by our sins, but now we're
• 42:18
  reconciled to God through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.
• 42:22
  We're no longer spiritually blind, but now we have spiritual
• 42:25
  sight. God has opened our eyes.
• 42:27
  We see and understand things that we did not see and
• 42:30
  understand before, because God has opened our spiritual eyes.
• 42:34
  Satan is no longer your daddy. Now God is your heavenly Father,
• 42:38
  and you can cry out all but Father, Daddy to the Lord.
• 42:41
  Amen. And number six, you do not have
• 42:44
  a spiritual death sentence hanging over your head, but now
• 42:47
  you have the promise and the hope of eternal life in heaven
• 42:51
  through Jesus Christ. Amen.
• 42:53
  And so for the believer. Amen.
• 42:56
  So for the believer. God has taken even this thing
• 42:59
  out of death. Because you know, I know death
• 43:01
  is coming for each one of us. We have a date with death.
• 43:03
  But for the believer, death is going to be the best thing ever
• 43:06
  happens. Death is how I go be with Jesus.
• 43:09
  No sorrow, no suffering, no pain.
• 43:11
  Where God where I'm healed of anything and everything.
• 43:14
  It'll be the best day of your life.
• 43:16
  Every believer that dies. And I live this life with that
• 43:19
  hope in front of me. And when believers die before I
• 43:23
  do, I can take hope that they're with the Lord.
• 43:27
  That they don't want to come back.
• 43:28
  That they're they're enjoying the they're they're literally
• 43:31
  having their best life now. And when believers die, it's not
• 43:35
  goodbye. What is?
• 43:36
  I see you later because I, I, I plan to make it where you are as
• 43:40
  well. Hey, man.
• 43:41
  And so this is all made available to us through the
• 43:43
  person of Jesus Christ, like these lepers.
• 43:46
  That there was nothing that they could do to save themselves but
• 43:49
  throw themselves at the mercy of Jesus as sinners.
• 43:52
  There's nothing you can do to cleanse yourselves.
• 43:54
  You got to come to Jesus. You can't clean yourself up and
• 43:57
  come to God. You got to come filthy.
• 43:59
  The day I got saved, I was still living with a girl.
• 44:01
  I still had weed to sell. I had guns to sell.
• 44:04
  I had. I had credit cards.
• 44:06
  I had scam credit cards on me. I mean, my life was a mess, and
• 44:10
  the Lord took me just like that. But He didn't leave me like
• 44:12
  that. And He won't leave you the way
• 44:14
  you are either. But you, you come however you
• 44:16
  are. If you're here today and you
• 44:18
  need to begin or to return to a relationship with the Lord, I'm
• 44:23
  going to ask that you do not leave this place.
• 44:25
  And the condition that you came in, That would be a shame.
• 44:28
  Amen. The Lord loves you.
• 44:30
  He's present. He's willing to forgive the
• 44:32
  cleanse. God can begin a whole new era of
• 44:35
  your life beginning today, if you'll surrender to him.
• 44:38
  And so I want to pray with us and for us that God would.
• 44:41
  God would move in our mitts right now.
• 44:43
  Would you guys pray with me? Father, we thank you for this
• 44:45
  day. We thank you for your word.
• 44:47
  We thank you for your amazing love for each one of us.
• 44:50
  God, we thank you for the the story in the scriptures where
• 44:52
  you show us. You're always teach us about who
• 44:54
  you are. You're a merciful God.
• 44:56
  You're a compassionate God. You love sinners.
• 44:59
  You made a way for these guys and you've made a way for us and
• 45:02
  God. We're grateful and we're
• 45:03
  thankful. And I pray now, Lord, if there
• 45:05
  are people present with us that they need to be forgiven, they
• 45:08
  need to have their sins washed away.
• 45:11
  God, I pray you would you would stir up their hearts.
• 45:13
  You would bind Satan who blinds give them, give them soft hearts
• 45:16
  and open eyes to see that they need you.
• 45:19
  And I pray you would draw them to yourself as only you can.
• 45:21
  Lord, have your way. We access in Jesus name.
• 45:25
  Everybody said Amen. So I want to do this.
• 45:28
  I'm going to ask right now that if, if you're present, I am
• 45:31
  asking people to do kind of a bold thing, right in the same
• 45:34
  way that these leopards is very bold of them to yell and cry out
• 45:38
  and acknowledge their need for Christ.
• 45:41
  I'm not going to ask you to yell, but I'm going to ask if
• 45:43
  you're here and God has spoken or is speaking to your heart, if
• 45:47
  you're here. And you would say, you know
• 45:48
  what, I need this. I need to.
• 45:50
  I need to begin a relation. I need to take God serious in my
• 45:53
  life. I want to be forgiven.
• 45:54
  I want to be reconciled to God. I'm going to actually you would
• 45:57
  stand to your feet and and for you this is, this is a, this is
• 46:00
  the bold step of obedient faith. We're asking that you would just
• 46:03
  stand up and acknowledge that what God is, what God died on
• 46:07
  the cross to offer me, I want to receive.
• 46:11
  And I'm going to just give a few moments and I'm going to ask if
• 46:13
  you're in this room and this is for you.
• 46:15
  God has spoken and is speaking. I'm going to ask that you
• 46:18
  respond in that way that you would just stand to your feet.
• 46:21
  And by standing up you're saying, you know what I'm I'm
• 46:23
  acknowledging God bless you, wonderful, wonderful.
• 46:25
  And and we can celebrate them as they do.
• 46:27
  Amen. All over this room.
• 46:29
  Go ahead and stand to your feet. There is there is absolutely no
• 46:34
  shame in standing up and saying yes, Lord, this is everybody.
• 46:38
  This is, we've all come in the same way.
• 46:41
  And the rest of your walk with the Lord will be just like this.
• 46:43
  We'll be taking bold steps of a faith of faith and obedience.
• 46:46
  Anybody else? You're sitting there and your
• 46:48
  heart's beating. Don't, don't, don't resist.
• 46:51
  Don't get good at resisting. God.
• 46:52
  Get good at yielding and submitting to the Lord.
• 46:55
  Some of us are in the condition that we're in because we've been
• 46:57
  resisting them for so long. Yield to them today.
• 47:00
  Anybody else got to speaking to you that you need to.
• 47:03
  You need to be forgiving. You need to receive them.
• 47:05
  Amen. For those that are standing, I
• 47:08
  want to. God bless you guys.
• 47:09
  Wonderful for those that are standing up.
• 47:10
  I want to encourage you in this way.
• 47:12
  One the Lord loves you guys. He's made a provision for you.
• 47:17
  Whatever it is, He knows your heart.
• 47:18
  He knows who you are, know that he loves you.
• 47:20
  God's not turning anybody down. Romans 1013.
• 47:23
  God says all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
• 47:27
  He wants you so bad, He He desires to save you, to rescue
• 47:32
  you, to forgive you, to renew you, forgive me.
• 47:35
  And so as you respond to him, this is, this is, This is why he
• 47:39
  came. He came to seek and save the
• 47:41
  lost. I want to invite you guys to
• 47:43
  pray. We're going to pray a prayer out
• 47:45
  loud. There's no magic prayer to save.
• 47:47
  It's your faith in the finished work of Jesus.
• 47:49
  You stand believing that he loves you, that he died for you,
• 47:53
  and that he rose from the grave. Your faith in him is what saves
• 47:56
  you. But the Bible calls us to
• 47:57
  confess him publicly, and we're going to do that together.
• 48:00
  So I'm going to invite you guys to pray out loud with me.
• 48:02
  Believers. We can pray with them.
• 48:04
  Say God thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending your son
• 48:10
  Jesus. To die on the cross for my sins.
• 48:16
  Thank you that he rose from the grave and conquered sin, death,
• 48:24
  and Satan for me. Jesus, I confess you to be the
• 48:29
  Lord of my life. I asked that you would forgive
• 48:34
  me of my sins, That you would fill me with your Holy Spirit.
• 48:41
  And give me strength to walk with you from this day on In
• 48:48
  Jesus name. Amen.
• 48:51
  Amen. I want to encourage you guys.
• 48:52
  Amen. I want to encourage all those
• 49:00
  that that pray to receive the Lord.
• 49:02
  Before you guys leave, you guys will come down.
• 49:04
  They're going to be pastors and leaders in the front.
• 49:06
  Love to pray with you and give you some things to help you just
• 49:09
  to encourage you to your your first steps in the Lord and just
• 49:13
  a verse that came to my heart as as as we're praying as Peter
• 49:17
  priest in Acts 3/19. He said repent therefore and be
• 49:21
  converted that your sins may be blotted out so that times of
• 49:25
  refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.
• 49:29
  And I pray that those that are turning from sin and turning to
• 49:32
  Jesus today I pray that God would just refresh you.
• 49:35
  In a supernatural way. Amen.
• 49:37
  God bless you, guys. Oh, conclusion to the message.
• 49:45
  This is for everybody. Conclusion four or five things
• 49:49
  here. Let's go where the needs are
• 49:52
  like Jesus did. Amen.
• 49:54
  Let's deal aggressively with sin or anything that separates us
• 49:57
  from God. Bring your impossible issues to
• 50:02
  our all powerful God. Let's walk by faith in the
• 50:06
  victory that God has given us over sin.
• 50:08
  Lastly, forgiven people should enthusiastically praise God in
• 50:13
  every season. Let's be careful not to
• 50:15
  complain, but to give thanks. Amen.
• 50:18
  God bless you guys. We pray that you've been
• 50:21
  encouraged by this Bible study delivered live from the
• 50:24
  sanctuary of Calvary Church for prayer.
• 50:26
  Call us at 87730 Grace. That's 877-304-7223.
• 50:36
  To listen to this message in its entirety or to join us for our
• 50:39
  live stream services, visit us online at Calvary, Co dot Church
• 50:44
  or download our free Calvary Church app, Be Blessed As You
• 50:48
  Worship Jesus this week.