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Ridgecrest Baptist Church is located in Dothan, AL and exists to Reach the lost, Build the believer, and Connect people of God to the mission and purpose of God.
Lessons from a leper - transcript - 09.08.24
Open up to the Gospel of Mark. We're in our series, as the video shows us, called The Story of Jesus. And we're going to read a few verses out of the chapter, and I want to talk with you today on the subject of lessons from a leper. Lessons from a leper. You know, there's a commercial out right now that has a song attached to it. I don't even know what the commercial is about, to be honest with you, which may mean that the song is better than whatever the content of the commercial is. I don't know. But the song has this line, and it says, I wish that I knew what I know now back when I was younger. Have you all heard that? I wish that I knew now, or I knew now back then, well, something like that, what I knew.
You want me to try it again?
I wish that I knew what I know now. Back when I was younger. And you've heard that, perhaps, and maybe you've thought that. So it got me to thinking about that whole idea, and I wrote down a few things that I know now that I wish I had known when I was younger. I bet you could make a list, too, couldn't you? Just a few things like this. Like, I know now that real security in this world and the next world is only found in Jesus. Now, I've been a Christian for almost 53 years. But I think when I was younger, I believed that Jesus was security, but I didn't understand exactly what that meant. But now, in the age that we're living in, I count on his security and his control to help me navigate the journey in this crazy world, this crazy age that we're living. Another thing I jotted down was, I know now that success is really found in walking personally with God. I think when I was... When I was younger, I mistook spiritual success with spiritual achievement. And there's a difference. And now I know that real spiritual success is about a deepening walk with the Lord Jesus. And then I jotted down this. I know now that eternity is coming faster than I thought.
So, time is most precious. I think when I was younger, I didn't think about the stewardship of time like I do now. But now I... I understand time. And, you know, I remember when I was young, I... You know, when you're a kid, you think that you'll never become an adult. You think you'll never get to that place where you're older and mature. And then when you get there, you think it needs to slow down. It's going too fast. Then, of course, there are some really dumb things that I could have avoided if I knew then what I know now. And I'm not going to give you that list.
Because there are too many... There are too many of them. And I guess you could put together your own list. I guess most all of us could reminisce about how we could have done some things better or some things right that we didn't do. How we could have avoided some pitfalls. But we all know this. We can't go back and we can't undo or we can't redo things. But we can keep learning so that we don't repeat what we should have avoided and so that we don't squander time. And so that we don't squander the rest of God's journey for our life. And one of the reasons that God has given us the Scripture is so that we won't take a repeated journey and do things that we shouldn't do as we continue. Folks, let's take a moment and pray. I don't know who this is up there, but... Who? Is this Ted? Y'all, let's pray for a second. Lord Jesus, we pray for Ted. We pray your touch upon him right now. And Father, that you will... Be with those who are helping him. And that you will bring him through this episode. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right, let's let them work. And let you and I continue to see what God has to say for us. Okay? Y'all okay? Do y'all need anything? You okay? Okay. Now, we can't go back. We can't undo or we can't redo things. But let's not repeat the lessons that we have learned, right? And you say, well, I haven't learned them all. Well, you haven't. But you can also learn on somebody else's nickel. Do you know Paul writing in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 11 tells us something. He tells us that the things that were written down in the scriptures were written for our benefit. In fact, he says this. This is how he writes. Now, these things happened to them as an example. But they were written down for our instruction. On whom the end of the age has come. By the way, did you notice Paul said the end of the age has come? Back when Paul wrote it, he understood that we were living in the last age. And so, Paul writes and says, these things, what things? He's talking about Israel and Israel's journey and where they blew it. And he said, why are these things recorded as they are? And the reason they're recorded as they are is for our instruction. So that we can learn lessons from them and not have to... To repeat those lessons in our spiritual life. Patrick Hennessey, a British Army captain, wrote an interesting article titled, 10 Army Lessons All Men Can Learn From. And several of his 10 lessons have some very profound biblical connections. There were lessons like this. You can't do everything on your own. Good lesson. The Bible doesn't tell us to. Appreciate your friends. The Bible affirms. How important fellowship is for us. And he writes, there are worse things than being bored. And then, one of the last is, learn from the lessons of others. And so, this morning, I want us to do just that. I want us to learn some lessons from an unlikely source. I want us to learn some lessons from a leper. Now, if you were physically able to do so, would you stand with me as we honor? We honor the reading of God's Word. Beginning in verse 40 of Mark chapter 1. And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling, said to him, If you will, you can make me clean. Move with pity. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, I will be clean. And immediately, the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. He was made clean. Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once and said to him, See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded for a proof to them. But he went out and began to talk freely about it and to spread the news so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places. And people were coming to him from every quarter. Now, Lord, we pray that this morning you will open our minds to the truth of your Word. Father, indeed, that we will learn these lessons from this leprous man who teaches us much about our own condition and also about our Savior. Father, I pray for any in this place today that do not know you, that they would put their trust in you, that they would surrender and recognize, that you are Lord of life, but you are Lord of all of eternity. Father, I pray that you will now use my words, Father. Would you anoint our ears? Would you anoint what I say? Would you use it, Father, for your glory? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Now, we don't know exactly where this part of the story of Jesus takes place, except that it was somewhere. In one of the villages or the towns of Galilee. Verse 39 tells us that Jesus was heading out into the region of Galilee from Capernaum. Now, Capernaum was in Galilee, but there were all these little villages and towns as well. And so, verse 39 says, Now, he was leaving Capernaum, and he was going to the other towns and to the other villages. There he was also going to bring the gospel, and most certainly he would do many of his miraculous works, as well. Jesus' fame and no doubt his compassion had spread by this time far and wide. We knew that because people were searching for him all the time. And it had extended to such a point that people saw Jesus. They were beginning to see Jesus as the great hope and the great help for their life. And they had that right, even if they didn't fully understand the eternal hope that Jesus wanted them to get. And the story of this, this leprous man, I believe holds several lessons that make our personal encounters with Jesus meaningful. So, I want to show you four things this morning, four lessons, lessons from a leper.
The first that I want you to see is the lesson of the man's critical condition.
Keep your Bible open. If you will notice what it says in verse 40, it describes him, a leper. Well, that's enough really to describe his condition. A leper came to him imploring him. The term, leprosy actually is a general term that covers a variety of chronic skin conditions. So, it may not have been pure leprosy in this case. It's very possible, but it could cover a variety of chronic skin diseases. But all of these diseases rendered a person both religiously and socially unclean. And it forced those people with this condition to live outside of the villages and the towns. They were not welcomed socially. They weren't welcomed religiously inside. And there are a couple of things that you ought to know about leprosy. Number one, you ought to know that it was a humiliating disease. You see, a person with leprosy was required to cover themselves with a distinct kind of clothing. The clothing itself would identify them. It was usually tattered kind of clothing, but it was to identify their condition. Not only was it humiliating in their wardrobe, but it was humiliating because they were, they were ridiculed and they were treated with contempt by others. It was embarrassing, as you can imagine. It was embarrassing if you had the disease because you knew you were immediately an outcast. A leper was considered a walking corpse. Their death on feet. Their death walking about. They're going to die. And they were treated that way. They were treated, don't get near me. I don't want what you got. Don't infect me kind of thing. So it was a very humiliating disease. But not only was it a humiliating disease, it was an isolating disease. A person with leprosy was required to shout, unclean, unclean, unclean, any time they got within any distance of others. And further, they were not allowed to have any physical contact with others for obvious reasons, a fear of contaminating or making someone else unclean. And so they were isolated, as I said. They lived outside of the town. They lived outside of the villages. They had to shout. They had to announce themselves so that others could scatter, even. Now notice the passage says that the leper was imploring Jesus. And that's an important word because the word imploring here means to ask for something with great intensity. His intensity represented something. It represented desperation. He was desperate. So desperate was this man that he willingly, willingly violated the law which prohibited a leper from approaching another person. You know, I said they had to shout, unclean, unclean, unclean. That's so the people could get away. But they were not, by law, allowed to even approach a person. Even if they were yelling unclean, they were not allowed to approach a person. And this man was so desperate, he said, I don't care what the law says. I'm going to get to Jesus. It prohibited him from approaching someone, but he didn't care. He didn't care what anyone thought. And I want to tell you this morning, that's what desperation does. It causes you to say, I don't care what anybody else thinks. I'm going to, now I guess that can be a bad thing at times. But in this case, and when it comes to getting to Jesus, it's a good thing. In fact, there are a lot of people I really believe they're going to die and go to hell because their pride wouldn't let them admit that they needed Jesus.
Desperation says, I don't care what anybody thinks. I don't care. I had a man in my church in Texas years ago, and he was, I think he was just one of the finest men that Allison and I had ever known. And he was the owner of a major drapery and bedding manufacturing firm. They made all the drapes and the bedspreads for the Hyatts and the Hiltons all over the world. And he was a deacon in our church.
And he was involved in everything, taught Sunday school.
We had a meeting one time, and in that meeting, he went down and he said, I'm not saved. I'm not saved. I need to be saved. And he said that became the point in which he gave his life to Christ. Now, I would have been hard-pressed to believe that that man wasn't saved. He was kind. He was compassionate. He was gracious. He gave my wife a job that we desperately needed. She worked for him, and he was that way at work to all the employees. He was just... He was, by definition, a good man. But he said, and he told me many times after that, nope, that was the day I got saved. That was the day. And I even tried to argue with him. Now, Gerald, come on now. Nope. That's when I got saved. Now, by the way, don't argue with a person when they say, this is when I got saved, if it doesn't fit with what you think fits. By the way, he continued to be a leader in our church. God called him into the ministry. He sold out of the drapery business. And I hired him on my staff in St. Petersburg, Florida, to be our director of single adult ministries. But he said, nope, I wasn't saved. It was all emotions. I'm convinced there are a lot of folks who have done those very things, but they said, I'm too ashamed after serving in a church or being in a church or doing all the church stuff to admit that I need Jesus. But desperation will cause you to say, I don't care what anybody thinks. And sometimes, maybe what we ought to pray for people... ...around us that we are hoping will come to Christ is, Lord, make them desperate. This man was desperate. So what do we learn from this man? Well, we see that just like he had a condition, I think we learn that we have a condition. You see, our condition may not be a skin condition, but we have a sin sickness, the Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You can't fix yourself. You can want to fix yourself. You can... You can try to fix yourself, but friend, I want to tell you this morning, only Jesus can really fix the broken condition of your soul. We have a... We have a condition that has separated us. Your sin has separated you from God. And then we have a condition that requires desperation. Just like this man was desperate, our condition has to make us desperate. We can't fix ourself, as I said. We desperately need Jesus' touch. And the scripture says, As received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God. The problem with our culture today, and many in our church culture today, is that we don't recognize our critical spiritual condition. And subsequently, there's no sense of separation from God. And there's no sense of desperation to be healed and to be restored. Vance Havner used to say this, The tragedy of our time is that the situation is desperate, but the saints are not. The situation is desperate, but the saints are not. Friends, let me ask you this morning. Are you desperate for Jesus to touch down in your life?
Are you desperate for Jesus to touch down in this land? Are you desperate for Jesus to touch down in your family? Are you desperate for Jesus to touch down in your church? You see, are you desperate enough to get to Jesus, regardless of what anybody else thinks? Now, when the church... When the church in America gets that desperate, guess what will happen? God will move across this land. When you get that desperate, God will move through your life. When you get desperate for whatever it is, somebody in your life, when you get desperate, you'll get to Jesus. And Jesus is listening. Jesus is paying attention. This man was desperate, and he didn't care what people around him thought.
But there's a second lesson I want you to learn from this leper this morning, and that is, I want you to learn the lesson of the man's consecrated confession.
Say that three times real fast. His consecrated confession. Verse 40, note again, it says, And kneeling, that is the leper, and kneeling, he said to Jesus, If you will, you can make me clean. If you will, you can make me clean. A couple of things worth noting about that is that we note that the man's submission. He got to Jesus. He didn't care what the law said. He didn't care what others thought about him. He got to Jesus, and then he submitted. And he had this confession. If you will, you can, you can make me clean. And he knelt down. This man may not have yet known that Jesus was the Messiah, but he knew that Jesus was worthy of his humble submission, and so he bowed down. He got on his knees before Jesus. And I think there's a lesson for us in that. I think we need to spend more time down on our knees before Jesus in humbling worship than standing before Jesus with our grumbling expectations. This man got down on his knees before Jesus. And he said, look, here I am. Here's my need. He submitted. I don't know if he knew he was the Messiah. Look, everybody that came around Jesus knew there was something different about Jesus. When he taught in the synagogue, it says they were astonished because he taught them like one having authority. Well, he did. He wrote the book he was reading. And everywhere he went, people knew there's something different. There's something different about him. I don't know if the leper knew that this was the Messiah, but he knew this man had a connection with God, and he needed that connection, and that connection could change his life. And so he submitted to him. It was an expression of lordship toward Jesus. And he knelt down before him. By the way, if Jesus were to walk in this room today, all of us would bow down. All of us would bow down. Do you know even a lost person will bow down in the presence of Jesus? And the Bible says one day every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess. That means those who got it wrong will confess we were wrong. You are the Messiah. It means that you and I will bow down in worship and adoration. I love that song, Hallelujah to the Lamb. I love it, Aaron. That song is anointed. There's something about that song, isn't it, that reminds us that one day that really is, we're going to be worshiping the Lamb, and nothing else is going to matter. So it is a good idea to get in practice while we're here. But this man bowed down before him, and you and I, we must understand the importance. You know, there are a lot of people out there, a lot of churches, a lot of cathedrals that have kneeling altars are really more ornamental than you. That's why every Sunday I call you. I say, come down to this altar and pray. By the way, don't worry about what people think. Here's another thing the devil does. The devil will whisper and say, if you go down there, people are going to think you've got a problem.
So just stay where you are. You can pray where you are, and you can. I'm not undermining that. But don't ever be afraid to come down here and pray. Because let me just, let me relieve all, those of you who are watching by television, listening by radio, live stream, all that, live audio, let me just relieve you of this huge burden about worrying about if somebody's going to think you've got problems. You do.
So let me just lift that off, because everyone, preacher included, we've got problems.
Kneel before God. There's something powerful about kneeling. I'm not doing that to generate false prayer. So please understand. But what I don't, don't ever be ashamed. Don't ever let the devil tell you, well, somebody's going to think. You know, they're going, what are they going to think? They're going to think this is going on in your life. Who cares? This is about you and Jesus and getting to God. Right? Say amen if you believe that. was good. I only had to ask you once. So note the man's submissions. Second, note the man's confession. I'm still in the middle of it. Under point number two. Notice confession. His submission was in the act of kneeling, right? Y'all know I've told you, you know, my back, I've got these things, and sometimes you'll see me sit down while y'all are singing. I'm just protecting so I can get up here and talk longer.
All right? Thank both of you. Thank you.
But, you know, this thing could go out on me, and if it does, I might just go down in front of you. All right? And one of our staff, I think it was Aaron, told me, he said, Pastor, I've got this figured out. Aaron's having back problems, too, by the way. He just hadn't told you. He's got some back problems as well. But he said, Pastor, here's the deal. If you go down, if it goes out and goes out, he said, just throw your hands up and say, Oh, praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! And everybody will think the Spirit has just fallen on you and everything. And so, but at any rate, we see this man kneeling. That's his submission. We see, second, second, this man's confession. He says, If you will. Now, I want you to understand that, because the first read, you might say, Well, this man is doubting. You know, if, because you remember there's another occasion where a man comes through and says, If, you know, you can heal him. And Jesus says, If. Remember that story? Well, that's not what's happening here. That's, this statement is not the same kind of statement. This man is not saying, If you can. This man was not uttering a statement of doubt. He knew what Jesus could do, he just didn't know what Jesus would do.
You see the difference? He knew what Jesus could do. If you will, you can make me clean. Not if you can, but if you will. He knew what Jesus could do. He just didn't know what Jesus would do. And I believe, inferred is, in that whole idea, is that whatever Jesus does or doesn't do is okay. Okay. And that Jesus doesn't have to explain himself. If Jesus hadn't have healed the leper, Jesus wouldn't have had to explain himself. He wouldn't have had to say, Well, here's why I didn't heal the leper. This man, however, expressed faith in Jesus, but he did not, important, command Jesus. He expressed faith, but he didn't command Jesus. Too many Christians today are treating Jesus like he is their genie in a bottle at their beck and call, expected to, to grant them whatever they request. And if he doesn't, then Jesus has let them down. And I believe there are a lot of frustrated people about Christianity because they've come to believe that Jesus is all about me, me, me, me, when it's all about him, him, him, him. It's all about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And here's a lesson for us. Like this leper, we must believe in what Jesus can do, we can and should ask Jesus to do what we need him to do, but we must accept whatever he chooses to do or not to do. Does that make sense? And so this man came, and he has this consecrated confession. You can, you will, will you? I know you are able. Do I fit into your plan?
And then there's a third lesson that I want you to notice this morning. And that is, I want you to see the man's compassionate cleansing. His compassionate cleansing. Verses 41, 42. Look there with me. Move with pity. That's compassion. The word is pity or compassion. Move with pity. He stretched out his hand, and he touched him. Jesus stretched out his hand, and he touched this leper, and he said to him, I will be clean. And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made. He was made clean. We see the lesson of the man's compassionate cleansing. Jeff Kennan, in his book, The Cross-Shaped Life, talks about Dr. Paul Brand. And if you've never read about Dr. Paul Brand, he was a fascinating missionary doctor. And he was a pioneer in leprosy treatment. And found, really kind of developed a modern approach to treating leprosy. And he was serving the Lord, in India, as a missionary. And on one particular occasion, and he ministered to the community of lepers. And on one particular occasion, there's a leprosy patient, a man, who comes to him, and Dr. Brand puts his arm around this leprous man. And then he began to inform the man about the treatment that lay ahead. And as he did, the man began to shake and tremble, and began to say, and sob uncontrollably. And Dr. Brand asked the translator, he said, have I done something wrong? And the translator quizzed the patient, and said, is there something wrong? And then he came and reported to Dr. Brand, said, no, you haven't done anything wrong at all. No, doctor, he says he's crying, because you put your hand around his shoulder. And until you came here, no one had touched him in decades.
Just the touch. Dr. Brand's touch, this missionary doctor, was the touch of Jesus upon this man's life. And that's exactly what Jesus, of course, did to this leper. He touched him, and he cleaned him. It would have been the first physical touch that this man had in our story since prior to his condition, whenever that had occurred, because, again, no one touched a leper. Did you know that in the New Testament, when Jesus touched, when Jesus touched a leper, it doesn't say he healed them.
It says, on every occasion, he cleansed them.
Now, I guess you could argue that it's somewhat the same thing. But I do think it's interesting that in other occasions, it says he healed them. But here, he cleanses the lepers. Now, I want to be careful not to overreach on the text, the passage. But I do want to draw out an interesting passage. Parallel biblical thought for you this morning. And it's this, that we all need the touch of Jesus to clean us first before he heals us of our infirmities.
We all need to be cleansed first. And that's why in other healing matters, Jesus tends to deal with the soul before he does with the body or the infirmities. We all need the cleansing touch of Jesus. The Bible says it. It teaches us, Psalm 51, 7, Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. And John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. The touch of God for cleansing is a touch of compassion. Jesus felt pity for the leper. He felt compassion on him. He knew he was helping him. He knew he was helpless. In your worst state, Jesus knows your condition. And do you know Jesus feels pity on you? Jesus feels compassion for you. I was working on the message and I thought about Matthew 9, 36. Matthew 9, 36 is one of those occasions where Jesus comes upon a hillside and he sees a multitude. They're gathered. They're all gathered there and they're gathered, you know, most likely so Jesus will feed them or he'll heal them. You know, a lot of things, in human nature, haven't changed, have they? What can you do for me? What can you do for me? Aren't you glad Jesus is, I'll do for you what you need, God? I know what you need. And that he feels compassion on us. And it says in that passage, when he looked at them, he felt compassion on the multitude. It says, because they were scattered and they were like sheep without a shepherd. They didn't know what to do. They were helpless. It even uses the term in Matthew that they were helpless. They were in need. Need, but they were, and he felt compassion upon the multitude. You know, when Jesus looks at your life, he looks at me, he feels compassion for us. Aren't you glad? Especially when you know, I don't always deserve compassion. I don't always deserve mercy or grace. But Lamentations 3.22 says, the Lord's loving kindness never ceases. For his compassions never falter. Isn't that great? It never ceases. And I know we don't deserve the loving kindness, but we call that grace. And God's loving kindness continues. His compassion never fails. Listen, the good news this morning is no matter who you are, God loves you. God knows your condition. He knows how corrupted you and I are. And yet God loves us. Paul explained it this way in Romans. For I'm sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. So here's the lesson, maybe the biggest lesson from the leper in this whole message. And don't miss what I'm about to say. This is, it's very complicated, but it is, is the lesson, I believe, of all the lessons in the story of the leper. And I'll just tell you, I've got, I've got a lot of hours of work in this sermon. But this is the lesson. This is the lesson above lessons, perhaps. Are y'all ready for it? Here it is. All of these hours of work, this is the lesson.
Jesus loves me.
Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong. You're a little one, by the way.
Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. For the Bible tells me so.
By the way, our youngest grandson, who is three, has a little Bible book, Bible book, and he walks around with it. And every once in a while he says, I'm going to preach. And, and, he tells his mom he's going to preach from this book. And this is, you know what he calls the book, his little Bible book. He calls it, My Jesus Tells Me So Book. I'm going to preach from the Jesus Tells Me So Book. Well, he's pretty right. This is what Jesus says. So this is what I'm going to preach about. The lesson for us from the leper is that Jesus loves you. Isaiah said, Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become wool. You realize how much love is expressed through the scriptures toward you? He loves you.
Then there is last the lesson, the fourth lesson that I want to give you this morning. And that is the lesson of the man's commanded communication. We learned something about what Jesus told him and what he did. In verses 44, Jesus says, See that you say nothing to anyone. Don't go out and do this. But just go to the priest and go through the process that they expect you once you've been cleansed from leprosy. You go and do, go through the process. But don't go and tell, don't go tell everybody that I touched you and cleansed you.
He said, Just follow the ceremony. Why did Jesus do that? You would have thought, Was it because Jesus really didn't want the gospel getting out? Was it that he had more? Was it more than he could handle? Was it all of that? No, it wasn't any of that. Look at the last part of verse 45 and I'll give you the answer. He went out and he began to speak freely. And then it says, Jesus could no longer openly enter a town. Now, why is that? Because Jesus knew. Why did Jesus tell the man not to go speak? Why did he command him not to say anything? Why? It is because Jesus knew that so many people would suddenly begin coming to him that the authorities would not allow it. And it wasn't time. And so Jesus said, Don't say anything. It'll bring more people into the cities and the villages and that'll bring the authorities into the matter. And by the way, anytime the government gets involved with God, it's a disaster.
And he said, Don't let the authorities get... And that... Time out. Since I said that, let me say this. That does not mean that God shouldn't get involved in government. All right? And if you ever want to have a discussion about church and state, I'd be glad to have one with you. And I don't think you want to have that discussion with me. Because I know our history. And I know how that arose. It's not in the Constitution either, people.
It's a Jeffersonian doctrine that came from a letter to Danbury Baptist, Danbury, Connecticut, Baptist in Danbury, Connecticut, who were concerned that the government, the government was going to overextend its reach into the church like the church in England. And they said, We want to be able... We want to be able to worship. And it wasn't written to say that the church could not be involved in the government. Don't ever believe the lie out there that you'll hear on the left, the progressives and all of these left-wing people. I'm going to just say it that way.
Where was I?
Jesus didn't want the authorities... He didn't want the authorities coming in because he knew they'd take it out on the people. They'd take it out on him. They did eventually, but he knew they would take it out on the people. So he told the man not to talk about it. All right? But the man did.
Years ago, I pulled up behind a car in Clearwater, Florida when I was pastoring down there. I pulled up behind a car, and I don't think you see as many bumper stickers as you used to. You know, there seemed like there was an era where everybody had bumper stickers on their... This one car had one bumper sticker on the back of it. I think it's my favorite bumper sticker ever. It may not be that impressive to you, but I loved it. And on the back of this car was a bumper sticker. I had a red light and looked, and it said,
I tried to contain myself, but I escaped.
Well, that's what happened to this man. He tried. He tried to contain himself and not speak about it, but he escaped. He couldn't keep it to himself what had happened in his life. He was so excited. He was so high on Jesus that he could not stay silent. He couldn't keep it to himself. Can I ask you this morning? When's the last time you got... You got so excited about Jesus that you had to tell someone?
Frankly, when was the last time you got as excited about Jesus as you have done watching your football team?
Listen, don't misunderstand this. I don't care how excited you get about your football team. I really don't. That's not... But my point is that Jesus is worth getting excited about.
Look, I wish you could... Every pastor in America wishes they could take the enthusiasm that was multiplied across this nation yesterday and bottle that stuff and then spray it out over their congregation on Sunday. you imagine?
Man, I'd like to be able to do that. But think about it. We get so excited about, in this country, things that are fun to get excited about. So don't walk out of here and say, well, he's against... I'm not. Man, I love sports. I love all of that. So this isn't about that. But you get... You understand what I'm saying? It's about Jesus deserves at least equal, actually greater. I mean, think about this. When was the last time a person didn't get up and go into work on Monday because they were so exhausted from worshiping God on Sunday?
And by the way, I'm not talking about you guys. You're here.
But when you and I think about all that God has brought us through, all that He will take us through, all that He has forgiven us for, amen, and then on top of that, how can we do anything other than talk about His grace and His mercy?
The psalmist said, My heart is steadfast, O God. I will sing and make melody with all my being. Awake, O harp and lyre. I will awake the dawn. I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the people. I will sing praises to You among the nations, for Your steadfast love is great, above the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let Your glory be over all the earth.
And listen to what's going on in heaven by the four living creatures and the 24 elders. Listen to what's going on. Day and night, they never cease to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. And the 24 elders then fall down before Him who is seated on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. And they cast their crowns before the throne saying, Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power for You created all things and by Your will they existed and were created. And the host of heavens, then I looked and I heard around the throne the living creatures, and the elders, the voices of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory. And might forever and ever. And John said,
I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire. And also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God and the song of the Lamb saying, Great, and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God, the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of nations, who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name. For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you for your righteous acts have been revealed.
What's the lesson of the leper? It is how can we remain silent.
Enough said, right? Father, help us to learn these lessons. Submission and worship and putting ourself at your feet and praise and honor and exaltation and telling the world the good news about who you are. Lord, I pray for any in this place today who've never called on you that this morning they would do just that. They'd call on Jesus Christ. They would cry out and say, Lord, I'm desperate. I need you to, to change my life. I want you to come in and be my Savior. And then for those who have just wandered away from you, Lord, those who have distanced themselves and have lost the dynamic, Father calls them today to cry out to you. Restore unto me the joy of my salvation. Lord, would you speak in these moments before we're gone. In Jesus' name. Amen.