Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals Church podcast.
Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God and others.
We're glad you're here and we hope you enjoy this message.
Hey, everybody, welcome to Sandals Church.
We are in a series called Generous like Jesus.
It has been such a great series so far, hasn't it, man?
God has blessed it.
And today what I want to do is I want to start by just asking you a question.
And it's an internal question because we believe in being real with self, right?
So if you were meeting someone for the first time or maybe getting to know someone and they
said, describe yourself in three words, I want you to take a minute and think, what three
words would you use to describe yourself?
Like, what would you tell someone about you?
As I was preparing this message, I thought it would be fun to bring my family into this
with me and ask them how they would describe me.
I wouldn't say it ended up being fun.
It was enlightening for sure.
It started off really great.
Wise, loving.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
There was a pause.
Direct.
Yeah, that's true.
Aggressive.
Settle, settle.
Then one of my children quietly said, sometimes scary, but I'm scared to say that.
Why are you scared to say that?
I said, Christmas is coming.
You should have kept that to yourself.
But do you have your three words?
So you've got your three words right here is my guess.
My guess is that there is a word that nobody used to describe themselves.
No matter if you're short or tall, funny, if right now you're hangry, hungry, if you feel
full, if you feel depleted, if you feel discouraged, if you feel joyful, no matter what
your words are, my guess is, and I won't bet, but my guess is that no one chose this one
word.
And here's the word ungrateful.
I bet no one chose the word ungrateful.
And the reason why is because we would all say that we feel grateful.
In fact, if I pulled you up here and said, tell me some things you're grateful for, you
could rattle off a list.
We all feel grateful.
In fact, I think I pride myself on being such a grateful person.
Most of the time.
I feel grateful.
Most of the time.
The question is, is feeling grateful enough?
And regardless of what you may say or how you might answer that question, if you're a
follower of Jesus, it's what Jesus says.
How Jesus would answer that question that truly matters.
Hey, thanks so much for joining us today for service.
I want to take a quick second and invite you to give to the work that God is doing through
saddle church.
You can do so by going to donate SC for now, let's get back into our message with Melody
Workman.
We're going to look at a story today in the Gospels where Jesus gives us some really,
really deep truth.
We're going to read through this together and then we are going to take it bit by bit and
see what God wants to teach us.
We're going to be in Luke 17 and we're going to read verses eleven through 19.
It says, as Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and
Samaria.
As he entered a village there, ten men with leprosy stood at a distance crying out, Jesus,
master, have mercy on us.
He looked at them and said, go show yourselves to the priest.
And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy.
One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus shouting, praise God.
He fell to the ground at Jesus'feet, thanking him for what he'd done.
This man was a Samaritan.
Jesus asked, didn't I heal ten men?
Where are the other nine?
Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?
And Jesus said to the man, stand up and go.
Your faith has healed you.
Now before we move into the rest of the message, I want to bring you into a very genuine
part of my preparation.
Every time I preach God's word, I pray these two things.
This is genuine.
I pray these two things.
I say Jesus, what do you want me and what do you want them to learn about you?
I want him to teach me so that I can teach you.
But then I pray this.
And then, Jesus, what do you want me and then what do you want them to do?
That's important because who we are becoming matters to Jesus.
So I'm going to ask if you would be willing now to pray that prayer over yourself.
Jesus, what do you want me to learn about you?
And then, Jesus, what do you want me to do?
Jesus, would you bless your word for these people for this time?
God, I believe that this is your word.
I believe that this is what you have put on my heart to speak.
But you are the only one with the power to make anything come from it.
So Jesus, we sit together at your feet.
Teach us and then move us.
We pray in Jesus name.
Amen.
Point number one.
Is this my compassion for others matters to God?
I want to give you the context for where we're at.
Okay?
Verse eleven says, as Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between
Galilee and Samaria.
Now, here's what you need to understand.
When you are reading the Gospels, and you get to about midway through the latter part of
every book in the Gospels, and it says Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.
You need to know what that means.
Jesus isn't on his way to an Airbnb with mountain views in Jerusalem, okay?
Jesus is on his way to the cross.
That's what is ahead of him.
And he knows that where he is right now, he's anywhere between three to six days away from
Jerusalem, from his trial, from his betrayal, from the crucifixion.
You could say Jesus has a lot on his mind.
What are you like when you have a lot on your mind?
Maybe I should ask your kids.
Here's where I'm at in life.
When I feel overloaded, I have to turn down the music in my car to park.
It's too much.
It's too much going on.
I won't park straight if I don't turn down the music until everybody just stopped talking.
I got a lot going on up here.
And the older we get, it's harder to hold on to everything in there.
Someone's like, didn't I tell you?
I'm like, bro, you told me that a week ago.
I needed at least 27 reminders.
Jesus has a lot on his mind, and he's not getting any alone time.
He's not getting a way to relax, to sort of decompress and prepare himself.
He's got all of his disciples with him.
And when he gets here, he encounters people.
He encounters people that need him.
And I want you to see what Jesus does.
Is he unapproachable?
Is he the guy that can't be bothered?
Here's what it says.
It says, as he entered a village there, ten men with leprosy stood at a distance, and they
were crying out, Jesus, master, have mercy on us.
Jesus, show compassion to us.
Jesus, you have a lot on your mind, but could you please see me?
That's how Jesus wants us to be with the world, generous with our compassion.
I don't know what you know about leprosy, but as I was preparing for this message, I just
did a lot of study.
And short of a crucifixion, I don't know that there was anything worse in these days that
you could get than leprosy.
Leprosy was, it didn't kill you, but it also didn't end.
It lingered.
And most people think of leprosy as a disease of the skin, and that's where it starts.
But it actually begins to attack your nerves.
You begin to get deformities in your bones and in your skin.
Your nose will collapse.
At some point, your ear, your outer ear will thicken.
You will begin to lose all sense of feeling and touch.
In fact, it's recorded that there have been leprosy patients who have had their fingers
bitten off in the night by rats because they couldn't feel it.
There was a doctor who worked with leprosy patients years ago and listen to what he said.
I can think of no greater gift to give my patients than the gift of pain.
Imagine having a disease so terrible that the greatest gift you could receive is the gift
of pain.
Maybe worse than anything is that once it was determined that you had leprosy, you were
shunned.
It was contagious.
You couldn't be around other people.
You lost your family, you lost your life, you lost your home, you lost your job.
The only thing you could do was join a colony of lepers and wait to die.
It was miserable.
It was awful.
And these lepers see Jesus, and Jesus sees them.
There's no greater word I could give you today, friend, than that JesUs sees you and he's
filled with compassion for you.
Where you are, whatever you're going through, pay attention to what the lepers call Jesus.
They say Jesus, and then they use this word master.
Now here's what's interesting about this word, Master.
Most of the time in the Gospels, this word means teacher or rabbi.
Jesus was a teacher and a rabbi, but they were not his students, they were not his
disciples.
They used the word master, and you know what it meant, commander.
The one that's in charge, the one with supernatural authority.
Listen, the way that you talk about someone, the way that you call someone reveals a lot
about your relationship with them and how well you know them.
You ever been in a store, you see a young mom with a cute toddler and he's just sitting
know, being sweet, and within five minutes, you learn that toddler's whole name.
Michael Todd Franklin III.
Whoa, that didn't happen because he was being cute.
When he's cute, he's Mikey.
When he starts acting the fool, and all of a sudden, that relationship, you understand?
That kid knows who's in charge.
I like to call my husband Babe.
He is a babe.
And when he's being sweet, I go, thanks, babe.
That was sweet, babe.
Oh, I love this babe.
And then when things aren't so sweet, I go, hey, babe.
And you tell the difference.
That's the difference.
In fact, the other day he said, we should stop calling each other babe, and we're not happy
with each other.
I'm like, that's a good point.
I'm going to take that.
Noted.
But how do you call Jesus?
They called him by who they knew him to be.
There's probably a chance that before they had leprosy, maybe they were at the wedding of
Cana.
Maybe they watched Jesus on the hillside and they got a little hungry, and he gave them
some fish and bread.
Maybe they'd been at Lazarus's tomb.
They called Jesus by who they knew him to be.
My question is, who is Jesus to you?
Who do you know him to be?
How do you call him?
How we call him, how often we call him reveals a lot about our relationship with him.
Does your voice sound familiar to him?
Does Jesus feel weird when you say it, or does it feel like you're talking about your best
friend?
After they call out to Jesus and he sees them?
This is incredulous, mind blowing.
This is why I love studying Jesus.
Verse 14 says he looked at them and said, go show yourselves to the priest.
And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy.
Now, here's the part about leprosy.
If you were thought to have leprosy, you got quarantined, and after a certain amount of
days, you would come back and show yourself to the priest, and he would say, oh, you're
good.
You can rejoin society.
If you had leprosy and somehow you were cleansed and cured, you had to go show yourself to
the priest.
For the priest to say, you are healed, you may have your life back.
You had to show yourselves to the priest when?
After you were healed, well, it feels like Jesus missed a step.
He said, go show yourselves to the priests.
And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy.
Now, here's what's interesting.
None of the lepers stopped and said, jesus, I know you have a lot on your mind, but you
forgot to actually heal me.
I'm supposed to go to the priest when I'm healed.
No one stopped and said anything.
They just went.
They just obeyed.
Don't miss this.
Their obedience preceded their healing.
Jesus said to go, I'm going.
Don't know if I'm healed yet.
Jesus said to go, he's the commander.
He's the Master.
I'm going because he told me to go.
They called him commander.
It was as if before they asked him for anything, they had already decided that they would
obey him.
There is a word in there for us.
My obedience matters to Jesus.
You know what's interesting about obedience and disobedience?
It's so easy to see it in someone else if you're a parent.
Any parents out there?
Is it hard for you to recognize when your children are being disobedient?
Is that what they're doing right now?
I can't tell.
Is that defiance I sniff in the air?
It's.
You just know it.
And come on, kids.
You know when you're being disobedieNt, when you're like, bro, you know, I said, no, you
did it.
You disobeyed.
I remember when Addison was about three or four, Addison was spicy, you guys.
She came out of the womb just like her dad, okay?
I mean, that was genetics.
Anyway, we were going to the store.
Addison couldn't say her R's when she was little.
And she was mad at everyone all the time.
She wasn't saved yet.
And so we had a situation worked out.
Whenever we went to the store, I picked her up.
She sat in the cart.
And in my bag, it was full of bribes.
I mean, nutritional snacks so that I could get through the store.
So we walk into the store this day, I was shopping for me, okay?
Just looking for something a little cute to wear and went to put her in the cart.
And she always used to suck these two little fingers and she took them out and she said, I
don't want to ride in a cart.
I'm a big gale.
I was like, okay.
I said, mommy knows you're a big girl.
Mommy wants you to ride in the cart.
Remember my bag of snacks?
She's like, I don't want to ride in a car.
I'm a big gale.
So now I have a decision to make.
Are we going to stand up here and fight over who the biggest girl is or am I going to just
try to find myself a cute little sweater?
So I said, listen to me.
This was pre COVID.
You guys, don't judge.
I said, you hold on to this cart the entire time.
You do not let go of this cart.
This is how you stay attached to Mommy.
I've told you about bad people in the world.
You stay and this keeps you safe.
Do you understand?
I understand because I'm a big.
Okay, we're not going.
So we're going through the store, going down an aisle.
Every 10 seconds.
I'm glancing back.
She's holding Bunny, she's holding the cart.
She's busy.
She's got two hands busy.
And I start perusing the racks and I take a minute and I pick out a sweater.
And I'm sort of looking at it, looking at the price tag, and then looking at how cute I
might look in the sweater.
And I glance back, and she's gone.
And I knew it was bad because Bunny had been chucked into the cart.
I guess buNny's not a big gale.
I go, Addison.
I mean, it had been seconds.
Addison.
And then I pulled out the middle name.
Addison Reese.
Nothing.
No movement.
Nothing.
Now I'm starting to panic.
Mommy has fruit snacks.
I'm trying everything.
Nothing.
Now I'm starting to.
I was I looking to these children.
So I walk to the end of the aisle, and I'm starting to raise my voice.
Addison.
Addison Reese.
People are starting to look at me.
I'm starting to feel like, okay.
And I turn back and look.
And there she is, sucking her fingers by the cart.
I walk back, I looked at her, and I said, what did I tell you?
You disobeyed, Mommy.
I said, you stand right here.
You hold onto this cart.
And the whole time I'm talking, she's just sucking her fingers.
No lie.
When I stopped my rant, my very wise rant, she took out her fingers and she said this.
I walked away from you because you mean.
And you ugly's repented.
Here's what I have to tell you if you ever want to know if you're growing spiritually.
My child did not meet Jesus that day.
You wonder why?
Because he strengthened me and sustained me.
Her disobedience was on full display.
Me and everyone else in the store who started to look for her.
And I'll just give you the end of the story.
I didn't get a cute sweater that day.
Okay?
We went home and decided we were done having kids.
That's what we did that day.
But here's the point.
It's so easy to recognize that kind of disobedience.
But I wonder how good we are at recognizing disobedience in our own lives.
How I felt being disobeyed by my daughter.
How does God feel when we disobey him?
And some of us are praying for healing.
Some of us are praying for God to heal our marriages.
And God is saying, have you obeyed me?
And how you're loving and honoring your spouse.
Some of us are praying over our finances.
And God is saying, are you being obedient with how I've told you to give?
Some of us are praying for new friendships.
I just need new friendships.
All my friends.
Well, how are you doing with gossip and being petty and being in constant friendship drama?
Some of you singles.
You're praying.
You're praying to be married.
Are you honoring God with your purity?
Some of you are praying, God, please heal my job.
Give me a new job.
And God's saying, how are you doing with the one that you have?
Sometimes our obedience precedes our healing.
And listen, if you don't think obedience matters, listen to these words in James, James 122
through 25.
Don't just listen to God's word.
You must do what it says.
Otherwise you are only fooling yourselves.
For if you listen to the word and don't, here's the word, obey.
It is like glancing at your face in a mirror.
You see yourself and walk away.
You forget what you look like.
But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it
says and don't forget what you heard, God will bless you for doing it.
Some of you are crying out to God, God, why haven't you healed me?
And God is saying, why haven't you obeyed me?
And as they went, they were healed.
Note what I am saying here.
There is no formula with God.
We do this, he does this.
He cannot be manipulated.
He is God and we are not.
But what I am saying is that oftentimes God is generous with healing, and we are stingy
with our obedience.
Before they got the blessing, they obeyed.
And look at what happens next.
One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus shouting, praise God.
He fell to the ground at Jesus'feet, thanking him for what he had done.
And this man was a Samaritan.
And here's why that matters.
Because Jesus was a Jew and there was major racial tension.
But here's what I love about this.
You know what kills?
Discrimination?
Desperation.
Who cares if you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan?
We both have leprosy.
Let's be friends.
Sometimes we're not desperate enough.
That keeps us feeling justified by discrimination.
Point number three.
Is this my gratitude?
Matters to Jesus.
When he saw that he was healed, he came back to Jesus.
I love to imagine these scenes.
Here are these ten men running through the strEets.
Can you imagine what they sounded like?
Probably like fools.
Probably like they'd had too much to drink and they hadn't had a drink.
They just were filled with joy beyond belief, because Jesus had just given their life back.
And this one, as he's running, I imagine he's beginning to look at himself and beginning to
realize he has feeling back.
And he's touching his nose and his ear, and he's seeing scabs and wounds be healed, and he
can't go forward anymore.
He has to come back.
Do you want to know why?
Because he understood his own leprosy.
He understood what had just happened.
He understood how terrible it was, how disgusting it was, and how Jesus had just made him
new.
I have to tell you, as I've been studying, and I decided to look up some images of leprosy,
and I'm glad you don't have your phones, because I don't want you to do it right now.
If you're at a campus, wait till the end of the sermon.
Okay?
I'm going to be real.
They were hard to look at because leprosy, it's gross.
The people are not gross.
Hear what I'm saying to you.
But it was gross.
Like, what happens because of it.
They were shunned to live in poverty.
They couldn't bathe.
They couldn't shower.
Their hygiene.
And then the deformities.
It's hard.
And we all have those things that are hard for us to look at.
Maybe there's a smell or a sight or something that when you think of it, you kind of like,
oh, that's hard.
My oldest son used to love watching these pimple popper videos, and I was trying to bond
with him once, and so he's like, mom, let's watch these.
And I'm like, all the puss.
It's just gross.
He's like, isn't this awesome?
I'm like, no, it's gross.
It's gross.
How do you handle things that are gross?
What's your reaction to something that's gross?
Early on, when we were parenting and our kids were little, Adam and I came up with an
agreement that when one of our kids puked, because Puke is definitely gross, I was
responsible for the kid, and he was responsible for the puke.
Now you say that doesn't sound fair.
Well, I'm here To tell you it is fair, because before we got married, Adam had a job where
he had to clean up dead people.
So if that's what you had to do for a job, I know you can handle some things, and I am the
mother, so give me my child and let me nurture and comfort them.
And you have to do that over there.
And what's with the middle of the night?
Like, can't these kids get sick during the day?
You're in a deep sleep enjoying rest from the Lord, and you feel that poke, and then you
can smell it on them.
It's about 230 in the morning, I feel that poke several years ago.
And when I heard what my child said, I knew how bad it was because here's what they said.
Mom.
I threw up through my nose.
Listen, I said, you're probably dreaming.
Go back to sleep.
Maybe it's a nightmare, but still, go back to sleep.
I did what anyone loving mother did.
I woke up my husband.
I said, we got a tag team.
Here we are, one flesh.
We moved into our assignments.
I moved to the child and began to go into the bathroom and draw a warm bath and get them
out of their pukey.
And I see Adam walking to survey the scene.
Now I can smell the scene, and it is gross, okay?
And I hear him make some noises and then I see him come back down the hall and I'm in the
bathroom and I'm saying, it's going to be okay.
And we're trying to take care of it.
And a few minutes go by and I fully expect to see Adam loaded down with, like, the cleaning
know, the Lysol, the mop, the buckets, everything.
He has a few things, but what was more alarming to me was how he looked.
He had dressed himself from head to toe so that no skin was exposed.
He was basically in a homemade hazmat suit.
He had tied a T shirt over his nose and tied it in the back.
I said, are you going to rob our children or clean his room?
Nothing.
He didn't.
He had nothing exposed.
And I thought, this is going to take him a while because you throw it through your nose.
That's bad.
That's gross.
He was done pretty quickly, and next thing I know, he's walking down the hall and he has
his arms full.
I said, what are you doing?
He has the rug, the comforter, the pillows, the sheets.
I said, what are you doing?
He goes, I'm throwing all of this away.
I said, why?
He goes, because it's gross.
Because I'm not putting this in the washer.
We can just buy all new stuff.
I'm like, this kid's going back to his room like he was going to a jail cell.
We took everything out.
He goes, Melody, it's gross.
He's dry heaving while he's trying to tell it to me because it was gross.
And you have that thing in your mind that's gross.
To me, leprosy was gross.
Why did this man come back?
Because he recognized his own leprosy.
And how good are we at recognizing our own leprosy, our spiritual stench, our spiritual
poverty?
Have you ever considered that there may be things in your life that God is looking at, and
he's saying, that's gross.
That's making you sick.
You say, I don't have leprosy.
You don't have a leprosy that shows up on your skin.
But what about the leprosy that's living in your soul?
There's a leprosy in our lives that's deadening our spiritual nerves.
And, oh, by the way, it's contagious.
And sometimes we just think, it's not that bad.
It's not that bad.
Our worship is anemic because we're not that bad.
Like, let's look at Galatians 519 through 21.
It says, the behavior of the self life is obvious.
Another translation says, it's clear that our flesh entices us into practicing some of its
most heinous or gross acts.
Let's see if anything on the list registers with us.
Sexual immorality, lustful thoughts, pornography, chasing after things instead of God,
manipulating others, hatred of those who get in your way, senseless arguments, resentment
when others are favored, temper tantrums, angry quarrels.
Only thinking of yourself, being in love with your own opinion.
Should we check our social media?
Being envious of the blessings of others.
Well, why did she get that and I didn't?
Murder, uncontrolled addictions, wild parties, and all other similar behavior.
Do we understand our own leprosy?
It made him come back.
He stopped in his tracks and had to come back to Jesus.
And God never overrides our free will.
But there are things in our life that I imagine that God, as a loving father, would love to
come down the hall, scoop up in his arms and say, we're throwing this out because it's bad
for you.
Here's what I know, that there's a shift that happens in us when we recognize our own
leprosy and what Jesus has done for us.
It makes sense when we see how this man responded.
He fell to the ground at Jesus'feet.
Don't miss this.
Before there had been a distance, he had to cry out.
Why?
Because leprosy created a chasm.
He couldn't get close to Jesus even though he wanted to.
He couldn't come close.
But because of Jesus'grace and compassion and healing power, this man got as close as he
possibly could.
He came right to the feet of Jesus.
He had to get close to him.
You know what's beautiful?
Jesus invited him to.
I imagine Jesus watching this guy run, stop, come back.
And I imagine Jesus inviting him in.
Come close, come close.
Jesus was so special to him for what he had done for him that he had to get up close and
give his gratitude.
He probably still smelled.
He probably didn't look the best.
Didn't matter to Jesus.
He invited him to come close.
I don't know if in your life you've ever had the opportunity to get close to maybe, like,
someone that you idolize, maybe a famous athlete or a movie star or someone that you loved
watching when you were growing up.
When I was in junior high and high school, I played basketball, and I was a point guard.
And you're like, we know.
We didn't think you were the center melody.
But I loved playing point guard.
And even though I was an East coast girl, I loved Magic Johnson.
Magic Johnson to me.
Now, children, you don't know who he is.
Just pay attention while you learn something here.
He, to me, was the greatest all time point guard.
We're not here to argue.
I'm preaching the sermon right now.
I had a poster of him on my wall.
I'd lay in my bed at night with my basketball and just.
I would go into a big gaMe, and I would view my rival like Larry Bird.
Everyone's laughing over 40 right now.
That's what's happening.
I just loved Magic Johnson.
And so I become an adult, and then we move out to California, and a few months ago, I'm
invited to a Dodgers game to watch the Dodgers game in, like, a suite, which was, like,
super special.
And as we're walking down the hall, someone says to me, that's Magic Johnson's suite.
So I walked in.
No, I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
I was like, are you serious?
And I'm, like, telling my husband, that's crazy.
And it was like, ours was, like, ten suites away.
But once we were sitting out where you could see the game, you could look down and you
could sort of see Magic Johnson.
I'm like, this is wild.
I know he's still far away, but he's right there.
And I'm reminiscing, like, my dribbling days, all that stuff.
And so about halfway through the game, my husband says, hey, let's go get a soft pretzel.
So we had to leave the suite and go to the concession stand.
So we're walking down the hall, and you guys, there's Magic Johnson in the hallway.
He's left his suite same time.
I'm like, it feels like this is.
And so we're walking behind him, and there's people talking to him, and my husband's like,
oh, my gosh, babe, you have to get a.
I'm like, okay.
Like, just give me a know.
I typically don't have a hard time embarrassing myself.
I don't really care, but I just couldn't do it.
And listen, I want to show you how close I got to Magic Johnson because I took a picture.
That's Magic Johnson, you guys.
And that's the only picture I got because I didn't call his name.
Everybody that was calling his name, hey, magic.
Hey, magic.
He was stopping and taking photos with everybody.
And my husband's like, babe, just call his name.
Just like, come on.
And I didn't do it.
If I would have called his name, I would have a different story to tell.
You call on the name of Jesus, you have a different story to tell.
You know what didn't happen.
Magic didn't turn around.
See me go.
Melody, come close.
It's like he doesn't know me or something, but Jesus.
Psalm 145 18.
The Lord is close to all who call on him.
This leper came close.
He called Jesus his master.
He came close and knelt at Jesus feet.
Do you know what the title for this story could be when gross meets grace?
And the more I thought about it, that could be the title of my story.
That could be the title of your story, because you know what's gross better than anybody
else.
But you also know that Jesus, who has so much grace, has invited you to come close.
He came to the feet of Jesus shouting, praise God.
Listen, when gross meets Grace, there can only be one response, and it's gratitude.
It's gratitude.
He fell to the ground at Jesus'feet, thanking him for what he'd done.
Another translation said, when he realized he was healed, he turned around.
He came back shouting his gratitude, glorifying God.
It's interesting he didn't come back with his arms folded, singing a worship song.
How about that?
He didn't care how he sounded.
He didn't care who saw him.
He didn't care if he looked like an idiot.
He had been changed by Jesus, and he didn't care who knew about it.
Another translation says he prostrated himself face down at Jesus'feet.
And you know what Jesus led him?
Jesus didn't say, get up.
Get up.
Jesus enjoys our gratitude.
Look at what his gratitude moved him to do.
It says, he came back.
He shouted, he fell to the ground.
He thanked him.
Here's what I don't want you to miss.
Real gratitude gives.
It moves.
It's active, it's audible, it's tangible.
There is movement and action to real gratitude.
And I want you to see what Jesus says.
Don't miss this.
He says, didn't I heal ten men?
Now, it's not like Jesus didn't know.
Jesus is real good at math.
But with his rhetorical question, he's teaching us something.
Where are the other nine?
Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?
So let's go back to the beginning of the sermon.
Is feeling grateful enough?
With these five words, Jesus tells us it's not.
Where are the other nine?
You don't think that Jesus knew that the other nine felt grateful?
Of course they did.
Jesus had just given their lives back.
They were jumping and shouting and so excited and feeling grateful.
And it wasn't enough.
It wasn't enough to be generous with gratitude.
Listen, here's the lesson Jesus wants us to learn.
Feeling grateful is not the same as practicing gratitude.
They're not the same.
And one of them is not okay with Jesus felt.
But unspoken gratitude is of no value.
What is all the gratitude in your heart doing for the people that you're grateful for if
they don't know about it?
What is it changing for them?
What is it doing for God that you're full of gratitude in your heart but you haven't told
him or shown him?
Here's what's interesting.
In the Bible, there's a lot of verses on giving thanks, but not one on feeling grateful.
Every time you see it's give thanks.
Enter his courts with Thanksgiving by prayer and petition.
Make your request known to God with Thanksgiving.
Whatever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to
God.
Everything has action when it's connected to gratitude.
He fell to the ground.
I love meditating on Scripture because I just sat and thought about what that was like,
that he fell to the ground.
Like, what made him do that?
It's so, like, undignified.
Like he could have just come back and looked Jesus in the eye, man to man, maybe even with
tears glistening his eyes, and put out a hand and said, hey, thank you so much for this.
But he couldn't.
He couldn't.
He couldn't do that.
Something about what Jesus had done for him moved him to his knees on our wedding day,
which was a long time ago.
23 and a half years I've been married.
It's easy.
Listen, when your husband looks like a movie star, it's easy.
It's not a sacrifice.
He's so mad at me right now, by the way, but I've never shared this publicly.
Adam did something on our wedding day that I had no idea he was going to do.
But when we went to say our vows to each other, and we both turned to get our ring, and we
turned back to each other, Adam got down on one knee to say his vows.
So I want to show you the photo now, listen, just pause here before we move on.
When you got married in 2000, it was, go big or don't get married.
Big veil, big hair, big dress.
Why have one wedding official when you could have three?
Go big.
Big wedding party.
It was like 37 people.
I didn't even know half of them.
I'm like, hey, I got to have a big wedding.
Can you be in it?
What's your name?
Marie?
Jen?
Whoever?
Yeah, you look great.
But I turned back around, and here was Adam, like, kneeling to say his vows to me.
And of course I cried.
And I asked him, we haven't talked about this in years.
But I thought about it, and I said, why did you do that?
Why did you kneel when you said your vows to me?
And I said, can you just write down some thoughts?
He said, I knelt because of the weightiness of the promise I was making to you.
I proposed to you on my knee, and I felt like, how can I not make my vows the same way I
couldn't see myself standing above you while saying those vows.
In fact, I couldn't stand.
Listen.
I felt compelled to show you physically what my heart was feeling inwardly.
So humbled, so overwhelmed, so committed, and so grateful.
I wouldn't have been able to stand if I'd wanted to.
Now, Adam did say, make sure you tell these people I wasn't worshipping you.
He wasn't worshipping me.
There's nothing heretical happening at Sandals Church right now.
But when I read those words, I felt compelled to show you physically what my heart was
feeling inwardly.
Here's what I wrote in my journal.
When is the last time that the weightiness of my gratitude caused me to kneel at the feet
of Jesus?
When's the last time that I was so aware of my leprosy and what he has cleansed me of that
I couldn't stand if I wanted to, to say thank you?
Psalm 95 six says, come, let us worship and bow down.
I want to ask you a question.
Are you ready to graduate in your gratitude?
Are you ready to move from feeling grateful to practicing gratitude?
When's the last time that the weightiness of God's goodness dropped you to your knees and
you couldn't stand if you wanted to because he's just been that good to you.
I'm going to invite us to do something as a church right now.
From wherever you're watching, from here in the studio, if you're in your house, if you're
at a campus, if you are physically able, I'm going to invite you to kneel right now,
wherever you are.
And I get it.
Kneeling feels weird.
It feels vulnerable.
It feels strange.
Maybe for some of you, you do this all the time.
Maybe for some of you, you've never done it before.
But as we move into this posture of gratitude, if you can't kneel and you're sitting, just
open your hands up.
Would you just take a moment to think about how good God has been to you?
Feel your breath.
God has been good to you.
Take note of the fact that you're thinking thoughts right now.
That's because God has been good to you.
If you came here with someone you love or someone that loves you, grab their hand and be
reminded that God has been good to you, think about where you were before you knew Jesus
and the fact that he came for you.
God has been good to you.
Has he healed you?
Has he rescued you?
Has he met your greatest need?
Has he provided when you were at the very end?
As you reflect on the goodness of God in your life, just right where you are, begin to
offer up your own prayer of gratitude.
Jesus, we tell you right now, we couldn't stand if we wanted to because of how good you've
been and how grateful we are.
But that feeling grateful isn't enough.
Jesus, what you are inviting us to is to practice gratitude with our lives.
Not just with our lips, but with our lives, with our worship, with our giving.
God keep us in a posture of humility because of how much we've been given and not because
we deserve it.
But just because you saw us the way you saw those lepers.
You invite us to come close.
Even in our sickness, you never shun us.
You never turn us away.
Nothing about us makes you want to gag.
You are so rich in love and mercy and goodness to us that we fall to our knees with
weighted gratitude, saying to you over and over and over again that we thank you.
We thank you, Jesus God.
As we continue to pray about generosity, may our generosity be coming from hearts that are
overflowing with gratitude.
How could we not give for all that we have been given?
We tell you collectively, Sandals church, that's on our knees together as a church.
We tell you that we love you and we are grateful in Jesus name.
Amen.