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Welcome to the live big broadcast with Derek Greer. We believe this teaching from God's Word will empower you to live a full, impactful life in Christ. Let's dig in. Luke begins in verse 51 saying this. Now it came to pass. This statement is used 477 times in the King James Version and in the updated new King James version, it's used 177 times. Every time you see it in the scripture, let it remind you that whatever you're going through, it too will come to pass. You know, the only thing that really doesn't vary in life is God. Everything else, everyone else changes. I want you to pause for just a moment. I want you to think about it. Most of the things that kept you up just five to 10 years ago, you don't even think about anymore. So never make permanent decisions based on temporary feelings, because this too shall come to pass. Now, it came to pass when the time had come. Ecclesiastes says, everything is made beautiful season. And if you study the life of Jesus, you will notice he lived with an extraordinary awareness of God's timing. Many of us will remember in the Scriptures when his mother Mary asked him to perform a miracle. And after she asked, he responded. He said, woman in the new King James Version, which was respectful, but put some distance between him and mom. And men, if you're gonna raise a family. The Bible says a man shall leave his mother and father and what cleave to his wife. So mama might have been first lady for a season, but once you get joined to your bride, your wife, there's only to be one number one, and that number one is her. So he's putting some distance between him and mom. And he said, my hour has not yet come. Also, the Scriptures speak of when his brothers tried to tempt him and they tried to make him do something more public and a little more spectacular than he was doing in order to prove his credentials not only to them, but also to a wider audience. But Jesus looked his kind of mocking brothers if you read the Scriptures. And he looked at them in the eye and said, my time has not yet come. Now, no one loves you like family. But many of us might have realized over thanksgiving also, no one can tempt you like and test you like family. And no matter how deeply his brothers might have got under his skin, God's timing with Jesus remained number one. Now it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up. The season was changing for Jesus. He was nearing the end of his earthly ministry and it was time for him to return back to heaven and be seated at the right hand of the Father. And the Bible says something about Jesus. It said he steadfastly didn't just say he set his face, but he steadfastly set his face. So when Jesus knew it was his time, he would not let anything deter him from his purpose. You see, the top priority of successful people is not really happiness. Matter of fact, it's funny when you realize this, the happier you become the priority, the top priority in successful people's lives is not so much happiness. It's to be useful. And, and Jesus was not pursuing his own happiness. Nothing happy was about to happen in Jerusalem. They were going to beat him and hang him high. But he lived with a sense of purpose. And that sense of purpose he found fulfillment. The Bible says he steadfastly set his face. Watch this. To go to Jerusalem. So from this verse forward in the Gospel of Luke, he spends the next 10 chapters narrating the journey of Christ's final journey to Jerusalem. And in each chapter, we see the Master get closer. And finally, we're about eight chapters later, Luke 17 and verse 11. Now, it happened as he went to Jerusalem. We are about a week from Palm Sunday. We are only five chapters away from Gethsemane. The clock was about to strike 12 in Jesus life and. And a new day was about to dawn for him, but also the entire world. You know, the choices we make create our future. And the choices that Jesus made in the final chapters of his life are the reason why I'm confident in my own. But then the Bible says something interesting. He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Samaria and Galilee are not the same place. So obviously what he did is he traveled between the boundaries of these two areas. You see, in chapter nine, Jesus was rejected by the Samaritans. Actually, he was so rejected that some of his disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven. In Luke chapter 4, Jesus was rejected in his own hometown. And later on, he was rejected by the Pharisees, the Sadducees. He. He dealt with rejection over and over again. The prophet Isaiah said he was despised and rejected of men. So here we see Jesus forced to travel in no man's land between two borders. He couldn't be with his own people. He couldn't even be with other people. But as painful as rejection can be, the pain of rejection is nothing compared to eternal regret. And Jesus recognized that he had an assignment. And despite what people said and despite what people did, he set his face like Flint, that he was going to accomplish God's purposes in his life. You see, I'd rather stand with God and be rejected by men than to stand with the world and be rejected by God. And he was walking between the borders, and when night came, he entered some village. We're not really sure what side this village was on, but in this village, there met him 10 men who were lepers. These were men with skin diseases. Scripture says Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And if God healed skin diseases, then he still heals skin diseases. Now, I remember when I was in my 20s, I had a problem in my skin. The doctors couldn't fix it. I went back and forth to the clinic, and they'd dig it out, and it would come back and dig it out, it would come back. And I remember in that season, I just gave myself to God's word. I mean, I come home from work and I just listen to tapes, read the Bible, read books about the Bible. And then one night before I went to sleep, I couldn't explain it. It wasn't a voice, it wasn't even a feeling. It was just annoying. And I went to sleep with a problem that had been troubling me for. By that time, it was a couple years, but I woke up the following morning with baby skin completely healed and restored. He's the same yesterday, today. This is not just a story, just to tell a story. If he healed skin diseases back then, he'll heal your skin disease right now. He's the same God. He's a healer, and he will do what only he can do. But then it adds a little more information. These 10 men who were lepers stood afar off. Now, when I've taught this in the past, and I think I mentioned this on Wednesday as well, lepers were required to stand away from healthy people at least 100 paces unless they infected those that were around them. So this caused lepers to have to live in suffering and isolation. These lepers were always on the outside looking in. I mean, everyone else had a chance at happiness, community, going on with their lives, but them, and in reality, all of us in some ways, are like these lepers. All of us have areas in our lives where we feel like a death sentence has been pronounced. You see, I've been pastoring for some time, and I know private things about people no one else knows, and I can't even repeat. But what I've learned over the years is no matter how well healed, how well dressed, how well educated, how much class, charisma, whatever Else a person may have. Everybody has something in their life that causes them pain. It's just that some people are better actors than others. And these 10 men lifted up their voices, perhaps in unison, and they cried out, jesus, Master, have mercy. What I want you to see right out of the gate is how these men prayed. Many times we approach prayer the wrong way, and because of that, we don't get the same results. These men did not say, God, if you heal me, I'll move to a jungle in Africa somewhere, live in a hut under a tree with monkeys right outside my fire. Or, lord, if. If you heal me, I'll give up cigarettes. Lord, if you heal me, I. I won't drink so much. I. I won't do this, I won't do that. You see, this was not a negotiation. These men expressed faith. If you think you can do something to earn the goodness of God, you are sadly mistaken. And in fact, your faith is more in yourself than in your master. They cried out, jesus, have mercy. Master, have mercy on us. They simply called on the deepest part of Jesus mission. You see, Jesus did not have to come to the world to condemn the world. The world was already condemned. The only reason he took on a body was to save the world. He came on a mercy mission. Many of us are trying to receive Christ in a law legal type of mission. That was Moses mission, not Christ's mission. His mission was a mission of complete mercy. Martin Luther made this comment, and it's really, really apropos. He said, prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It's laying hold of his willingness. You see, God wants you well, you don't have to convince him even more than you want to be well yourself. So when he saw them, something about them crying out for mercy made Jesus see them. And when Jesus sees you, he sees the real you and he cares. He didn't say, go swim a river, walk a mile on glass, go apologize to everyone you ever wronged. When they cried out for mercy, Mercy is what they got. And if you keep crying out for what you think you deserve, You might get what you deserve and miss out on mercy. So when he saw them, he said to them, go show yourselves to the priests. What I want you to see here is Jesus. The miracle that happens here didn't occur at Christ's word, as it often did. You know, the Bible said he sent his word and healed them all. And often he'd just say it and it'd be done. But also when we look at the text, that's why we can't put God in a box. Neither did it happen by Jesus. Touch. He didn't lay hands. He didn't touch anybody here. So it wasn't at his word nor by his touch. But the healing occurred when they followed his instructions. And if you are willing to call on God's mercy and do whatever he says, you too can be healed as you go today. And so it was that as they went, not at a word, not at a touch, but when they obeyed and did what he said. And there are things in your journey. You're going to read your Bible and you say, man, if I just reading that verse, man, I thought that would be enough. You might come to a service, the touch of God might come on you. And you say, well, I thought that'd be enough. But sometimes the healing comes in just simply following the instructions. And so it was as they went. Watch this. They were cleansed. You see, you can't walk on water unless you step out of the boat. There are certain things you will not receive from God unless you're willing to do what God says. I love preaching, I love praising. I love God's word. But sometimes victory comes just in the doing and in the going. And so it was that as they went. Watch this. They were what? Cleansed. I want to say something here. You may not like the road you're on, but God did not put you on the road, didn't call you to get on the road that you're on, to punish you. Though sometimes the ups and downs, the ins and outs, and the bandits on the road can make you feel God. Are you trying to punish me? Why am I on the road I'm on? But often he calls you to the road that he's called you to because that road is designed for your healing and your deliverance. And if you commit to the journey. But you gotta trust the journey, you gotta take that journey to really experience the healing that's for you. And one of them, when he saw that he was now these 10 men again, you have. Well, I'm a little bit ahead of myself. We're going to discover it's a mixed group. People that didn't get along became part of this group. And what happened was these men became a group based on the common pain and the common problem. But once healing came, they had to go in different directions. So don't be surprised if you can't hang out with everyone you once did. You know, it's true. Old friends are like diamonds and new friends like gold. Just keep in mind it's okay to outgrow people who refuse to grow. 90% of the time. There's really no need to cut people off. Just grow and they'll fall off. The leper didn't have to say bad things to the other nine. Didn't have to call them names. I'm leaving this church. I'm tired of y'. All. No, all he did was go in the direction that Christ was calling him. And they automatically went in the direction anyway. Watch this. And only one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned. There are 86,400 seconds in a day, and we should be able to spare just a few of them to give thanks. If the only prayer that you prayed from your heart each day is thank you, Jesus, you'd become a spiritual giant overnight. Because you will never fly with eagles running around with turkeys. And sometimes you gotta go in a different direction. I recognize it feels like majority rules. And the other nine kept going and living their lives. But listen, you gotta chart your own course at times. And this man was not unwilling to stand out and be different. And one of them, only 1, 1 out of 10, 10%, when he saw that he was healed, returned. A famous writer wrote, ingratitude is a crime worse than revenge, which is only returning evil for evil. Revenge is just an eye for an eye. Well, ingratitude returns evil for good. And when we're ungrateful, all this good stuff that's been set before us, but we don't have time to acknowledge, we don't have a time to appreciate. Ingratitude returns evil for good. A heartfelt thank you actually does more for the soul of the giver often than the receiver. You see, God is complete in himself. God is absolutely secure in himself. Before there was time or creation, God within himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were at peace. They had joy. The only reason they created things was to share the goodness they already had. So God doesn't ask us to praise because he wants us to help him feel good about himself. The reason I worship is because it's honest. The reason I worship is because it's true. I worship because God doesn't need to hear me say thank you half as much as I do. Never lose your sense of gratitude. Never lose your sense of what wonder. It's good manners to say thank you when someone does something kind. He didn't have to wake me up this morning. He didn't have to give me all the years he gave me. He didn't have to give me my friends. He didn't have to give me my family. He didn't have to give me my wife. He didn't have to give me this place. He didn't have to give me you. But in his mercy, he looked at me and said, live, boy, and you will not die. And every day I experienced the good goodness of God. And the only right response is to say, thank you. Thank you. Thank you has nothing to do with Pentecostal, Charismatic, Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopalian. It's about the goodness of God in the land of the living. I didn't deserve it, but he was good to me, and I am grateful. Now watch him. And with a loud voice, I mentioned on Wednesday, they had to shout from 100 paces. Unclean, unclean. But many of us are like the nine. We're all loud in our sin, loud about our sin, all bold in our sin. But when it comes to Jesus, we're as quiet as church Mass. Our praise is woo, you know, instead of. And with a loud voice, a loud, scratchy voice, a voice that had some experience, a voice that had some life behind it. And with a loud voice, he glorified God. He didn't care who was watching. You know, some of my pastor friends, they expect me to be just as stiff as they are, but I'm like, if he brought you through what he brought me through, you'd be shouting, too. You'd be just as loud, just as vocal, just as adamant about finding ways to give him all the praise, all the honor, and all the glory. Especially when I travel, they kind of look at me. It's like, greer, don't take all that. But my worship is so loud because my wounds have been so deep. Do I have any fellow travelers in this room that know what it's like for your praise to come from a deep place? Deep calls the deep. He's been with me in my midnight. He's been with me in the mornings. It was hard to get up. He's been with me when the sun was shining, darkened, I mean, bright and hard in the middle of the day and I needed shade. He was with me when I was good with me, when I was bad, with me. When I understood, didn't understood. He kept loving me and leading me. And I can't help but say, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. I don't know about them, but thank you, Lord. I can't speak for everybody else, but as for me, God, thank you. Thank you. You didn't have to save me. You didn't have to Cleanse me. You didn't have to get me on the right path. But while I was dead in my sin, you looked at me and loved me, had mercy on me and brought me into the marvelous light. And I can't help but say thank you. And with a loud voice, this man who was a leper, glorified God. Watch this where he did at his feet, giving him thanks. There's no higher place than at Jesus feet. Sometimes we don't give thanks because some things have gone wrong in our lives, but we don't realize how much more wrong it could have gone. You've lost a loved one. I understand. I pray for you, feel for you, weep with you. You lost a close friend, a spouse. You lost maybe a job or some situation is just lost. And I feel your pain. I understand and I pray for you. I pray with you. But what you don't understand was that the devil wasn't just trying to make you lose those people and those things. He was trying to make you lose your mind. But you were sitting here in your right mind. What was supposed to destroy you, God has used to strengthen you and to keep you. We think, you know, man, it should have been better. Could have been better. We kind of withdraw our affection from God. But you need to also realize it could have been worse. We all have reason to praise. My mother used to say the boy complained that he had no shoes until he met the boy that had no feet. There are things that in fact may be hurtful. I'm not minimizing your pain, but what I am saying, it could have been worse. You could be dead in your grave. You could have lived your last day. But the goodness of God, God in your life has done something in you that has kept you alive, kept you moving, and has given you another chance. And the man who came back was a Samaritan. Now, the Bible mentions things because they're important. The Bible would be so long if it mentioned every fact. But this thing was so important. The fact that he was a Samaritan, it was so important for that had to be mentioned. Because we know as Bible students and people of the Word that Jews and Samaritans, they had centuries of conflict. They didn't mix, they didn't get along. And what we see here is that the Samaritan was actually Christ's ethnic enemy. But what you may not realize is the Bible also says that about us. Colossians 2 and 1. Once you got to remember back in the day, how soon we forget. Once you were alienated from God, like I don't like them church people. I don't get that church stuff, all that Jesus stuff. And we're enemies in your mind because of your evil behavior. What's that saying? You would justify yourself and you justify your deeds even though conscience was saying otherwise. You drown it out with a million other things. But what the scripture is saying is at some point we were all Samaritans, enemies of God and everything good and righteous. Here's some good advice. Stop judging people so harshly just because they sin differently than you do. Sometimes I almost want to throw a brick at my television, the smugness on the news channels. But what I understand, we talk about the other camp, but we have Democrats in, Republicans in. Young people sin. Old people sin. White people sin. Hispanic people sin. Asian people sin. Black people sin. Male, female sin. We are all sinners who need a Savior. And you ain't better than nobody else. Verse 22, and I gotta begin to bring it in. But despite our sins now, right now, he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death, to present you wholly, despite all you did, holy in his sight, without blemish, all that stuff on you, he gets rid of the marks and all the rest. And free from accusation, his blood was shed to wash away your past, to give you a future if you would turn to Him. He'll throw your sins into the sea of forgetfulness and then put up a no fishing sign to be remembered no more, never to be drawn out, never to be captured again. Back to Luke 17:17. So Jesus makes an observation. He receives the worship of this man. And if he was just a prophet, that would have been a sin for Jesus because the prophet was not to receive worship, only God. So Jesus answered and said, were there not 10 cleansed? See, when God starts asking questions, you want some tough ground. But where are the nine? You see, the other nine were Jews. Today we'd say they were good church people, but like many of us, they developed an outward religion without inward worship. Now don't mishear me. The Bible says we're to give thanks in all things, not for all things. So when something horrible happens, don't thank God for it. You know the devil did it. No, don't confuse the devil and God. But we are to thank him in every situation. God did not expect this man to thank him for the leprosy. But all nine could have thanked God for giving them the strength to keep going while they had the leprosy. You see, we all have scars and all a scar simply means is that God made you stronger than the thing that was trying to hurt you. A scar is just a reminder of that thing you survived. A scar is just a reminder of that thing that tested you, but it could not destroy you. All of us have scars. You can look at your scar and feel sorry, or you can look at that scar and give God praise. You brought me through that. Oh, God. It was trying to take me down, Lord, but you lifted me up and I'm still standing. I'm still here. And I will give you all the praise. And he continues with the questions. And when God starts asking questions, it's a thing. Remember, they were at the trees, like, did you know? Da, da, da, da. Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God? Then watch this. Except this foreigner. We forget that we too were once foreigners. We also see in this verse here that both Jew and Gentile were in the same boat. No one, whether Jew or Gentile, could receive divine help if God didn't show mercy. One of the most important attributes of God to me is his mercy, mercy. Everybody's screaming about social justice and all the rest. But let me tell you something. His justice would have doomed us. His Holiness would have rejected us. His power would have crushed us. His truth would have condemned us. His wrath would have tormented us. But instead, his mercy saved us. And I am grateful. And this is why I have no apologies about how I thank Him. I have no apologies about how I praise Him. And he said to him, the final statement here. Arise. Go your way. Your faith has made you what? Well? No, he was already healed. All 10 were healed. But his faith made him well. All 10 were recipients of a physical healing. But only the man who came back with a grateful heart got well. Somebody said, we can complain because the rose bush has thorns, or we can rejoice because the thorn bush has roses. And when you look back over your life, you could choose to complain or you could choose to rejoice. You might not have had all the advantages that everybody else had, but you did have something. And sometimes even that thing you didn't have put that fire in you that other people don't have. And the reason you are where you are today, because that fight was placed on the inside of you. And God knows how to work everything together for his good Jesus. Before he went to the cross, they put a crown of thorns on him. But the Bible says he endured the shame for the glory that was set before him, of the joy that was set before him. Jesus dealt with the thorns because he saw you and I as the rose. He saw you and I, despite our sin and wickedness and all the rest. He saw us as beautiful. He saw us as lovely. He saw us as valuable. He saw you as worth it. He took the crown with thorns because he saw you as a rose. Right now, you might be going through thorny situations. You could choose to focus on the thorns or the beauty of the rose. Yes, there's some bad moments in our days, but they're not every moment of our days. If we learn to just magnify the goodness of God and begin not just ignore. I mean, bad stuff happens. Acknowledge it. Sometimes you feel sad and. And don't start being too hard on yourself. Yeah, you feel sad. But recognize that you know what? When I weigh all the good and the bad, the good outweighs the bad. And tomorrow's worth it. And me getting up and going again is worth it. Let me tell you something about God. He's a rewarder. And if I go through the thorny and bad days in a way that pleases him, he'll reward me in a way that all the bad seemed like nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed. But it takes faith to live like that. It takes faith to believe that. And today, does anyone in this room have enough faith? Say God will work it out. God will make this thing worth it in the end. Thank you for joining us. Until next time, remember, you have what it takes in Christ to live big. We also invite you to partner with Derek Greer Ministries in bringing the life changing and impactful teachings of God's Word to the world. Get started by visiting Derekre.com by clicking the link in the description.