TEN LEPERS
When you have an active outreach ministry, you soon find modern, real life experiences that match passages of scripture. People don't change, whether they're Christians or Gentiles. Our example for this message could be from Ripley's Believe It Or Not files. We learn two truths from the experience. Turn to Luke 17:11-19.
"Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, 'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!'"
Leprosy was an incurable disease that required those afflicted to be held separate from society. These ten men were not Jews or Christians. In fact, the Gentiles of Samaria were despised by Jews.
"And when He saw them, He said unto them, 'Go show yourselves unto the priests.' And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks; and he was a Samaritan." Our first important lesson is that God loves all of us: Jews, Gentiles, Muslims, Christians. He will work in your life if you believe and have faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. His work may not be according to your desire, but it will be for His purpose AND your purpose. It may require some sacrifice on your part. Good deeds don't cost; they pay.
We continue with verse 17. "And Jesus answering, said, 'Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God save this stranger."' And He said unto him, 'Arise, go thy way. Thy faith has made thee whole.'" You do not have to be a Christian to have faith in God. These Samaritans had faith in God and recognized Christ as the Son of God. We don't know if they became Christians, but we do know they would have to have changed their life style and studied the Word of Christ to reach that status. There are many professing Christians today who accept the blessings of God who don't bother to properly thank Him. If they understand the path to eternity, they should know Christ is The Way, and failure to accept His offer assures you an appearance at the final judgment seat.
The present day unfolding of this lack of thankfulness also sometimes is accompanied by resentment, slander, and pain. An outreach ministry may not have an organization to provide support, and relies on the leading of the Holy Spirit and people who are volunteers. Many of these volunteers give of their time and experience because they cannot support the work with money. They are willing to get their hands dirty to help others. Our ministry, and occasionally our volunteers, are the victims of shady Christians more often than you might believe. These
pretenders frequently proclaim faith while "using" the resources and help of real Christians. God is not mocked, and these fake faith people don't realize God has His way of settling the matter.
When someone receives a blessing such as the ten lepers, there is only one way the blessing is to be received. That way is explained in the scripture above. The glory is to God, and the recipient needs to understand (worship) God's mercy and action. A human may be the catalyst in the blessing, because God prefers that mankind has a part in His work. Every individual who receives a blessing, no matter the size or nature, has an obligation to recognize where the blessing came from. They all come from God. The leper who returned realized that Christ was the Son of God. Being cleansed of the disease was his first blessing. We need to understand the role of faith in blessings, as pointed out to us back in Gen. 12:3. "And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
Read verse 3 very carefully. Your faithful blessing (gift) is recognized by God. There's more to this than what you give, but the sacrificial value of your giving. If you give true value, you give something you need, not just something you can do without. God requires the BEST you have, as we are told over and over in the Old Testament. The sacrificial animal was always to be of no blemish and the finest of the species. He will know if you don't give your best. He will also know why you are giving. If you make a big deal of your generosity to people, you will lose in the value of your blessing. Your blessing is the public acclaim; God's real blessing is handed out in heaven.
So...if you're tithing or giving to God, how can you determine what level of giving to follow? It's exactly like salvation. Ask, and, if you really want the truth, God will lay it on your heart. If you are only giving financially, you have to consider the depth of your faith. As a Christian, do you accept your faith for provision or material provision such as money or real estate. A Christian worships and lives under Grace, and not the Law of tithing. The 10 percent tithe was only the beginning of giving for Israelites. They had several levels of giving that included foodstuffs, fuel and other necessities of life needed by the priests and for the temple. I give some denominations credit for observing some of these practices of special purpose giving.
For those of you who are torn between spiritual and carnal choice, you may as well delete the remainder of this message. You can live strictly by faith or by man's method. God is always faithful, so when I understand He will take care of me as long as I try to fulfill the purpose He has for me, I will live by faith. That doesn't mean I won't work for a living. Man was created to work. Genesis makes that clear. If you understand how God delivered Israel time after time through perfect ways, you might get the idea His ways are best. Would you rely on the noise of beating on pots and pans and marching in circles would bring your enemy down? Or would you rely on smart bombs? Would you believe in money from a fish to pay taxes? Or would you give up when nobody would loan the money?
Now we come to the common denominator---money. Do you put your FAITH in a savings portfolio or God's provision? There's nothing wrong with prudent savings or honest insurance. But man's method of using financial planners (and this includes churches) who do not understand or know spiritual values, will neglect to lead you to practice faith. We are not to abandon financial planning, but are to base it on our receipt of blessings and proper thankfulness. I hear church leaders use two favorite proverbs repeatedly in error. One pastor is adamant that if you teach a man to fish, he will not need welfare. What about a crippled man, a bed ridden man, any person who can't totally care for himself?
This is bigotry. Another of these misused proverbs concerns an ant and a grasshopper. The ant is industrious and works to provide for winter. The grasshopper doesn't store food and perishes. Only the lazy deserve to perish. What about this situation. If you're still with me, read on.
Do you believe God created any species to destroy itself? If the inability of the grasshopper to prepare for winter meant "lights out," why aren't they extinct? What about the 17 year locusts? God created things; He only destroyed things that were evil. What does this have to do with faith, thankfulness and your duty to God? Think about the widow who had only two mites for her offering. She gave out of NEED. The elite gave sizeable amounts of gifts. Christ commended the widow's offering, but not those of the elite. They did not give an amount related to their financial blessings. Think of a man who earns $50,000 a year.
His giving should begin at $5,000. That's about $50 a week. But, that's only the beginning. If any part of the financial tithe is to circumvent paying a tax levy, the tithe isn't a tithe at all. The absence of that money in taxes pushes the tax burden on other people. Yet, this person is ignoring the burden on others while enjoying the fruit of the tax benefits such as highways, the military, bridges and public structures. You see, this switch is actually a sin.
This is in no way a financial plan, but rather a common sense to understanding what God and Christ told us about blessings. Christ made it clear in the gospels how your financial blessings should be used for God's glory. Under GRACE, you have free will to determine how to show thankfulness. In Acts, the disciples preached The Way, which was sharing as needed. I can hear all the church people yelling that is SOCIALISM. If you believe this lie, you need to understand the difference between "isms." Share as needed means no great income disparity. It means no bigotry. It means compassionate people. Is there ever enough money and power for anyone? Did you read about the young ruler in Matthew? How about the wealthy farmer in the Old Testament? A banker I worked for as a very young man told me, "There's never enough."
Thankfulness is not expressed in any material way. It is expressed in a spiritual manner---God's way and Christ's The Way. What did that one leper do to express thanks? He had nothing material to give in return. He glorified God and realized all blessings come from Him. Every American goes to school and has the opportunity to get an education and a job. To show thankfulness to God, every person needs to provide material and spiritual support for the facilities and teachers. Your teachers are God's servants whether they are Christians or not. Like pastors, they should be paid for their service. When you short change God, you should expect He knows what you're doing, and He always evens the account. There's no money in Heaven; the bible tells me so.
Rev. Walbear
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