Questions Jesus Asked: Were not all 10 cleansed?

Hello, and welcome to the Kalamazoo church of Christ podcast.

Thank you so much for listening.

We're startup church.

We just planted in September, 2020 and at the Kalamazoo church, we believe that Christianity is done best when it is done together.

And so if you live in the Kalamazoo area, we would love to connect be it coming to a Sunday service, one of our small groups, or even just grabbing coffee with a member to learn more.

You can visit kalamazoo.church in order to do that.

We pray that you are inspired by what you hear today.

In a, uh, in a church this size, there just needs to be a lot of people that serve.

And so you guys are some of them.

We're so grateful.

Joe and Ingrid, I think are serving right now.

Um, the cool thing is the, the more children we have, the, uh, younger churches, obviously, which is good, but also, uh, the, the more kingdom kids teachers we need.

And so again, thank you to everybody for, for all, all your service.

Um, we're going through a series on questions that Jesus asks and, uh, you guys, you guys know, but you guys understood that you guys realize there's, Jesus asked questions all of the time in almost every setting.

And you can point to, we're going to look at, uh, we're going to look at one question Jesus asked.

Yes.

At three different times, actually.

And just this one little section, just to start the PowerPoint, our AV team, uh, forgot to bring, um, a charger.

So the PowerPoint might die.

It's okay.

We got the Bible.

Amen.

Awesome.

So if it does, you don't got to freak out.

You know, I, I've got it right here.

We've got the Bible.

We're going to worship God.

Still.

My prayer was that it lasted through the songs.

Cause I know you guys don't bring songbooks anymore and God answered that prayer, right?

We're, we're, we're one, one and I want to know a hundred percent right now.

Uh, we're in, we're in Luke 17.

I'm speaking of wanting to know, I've got, uh, the Green Bay Packers mug right here.

I was embarrassed to bring it up.

So I, but I did anyways, um, I was going to just bring a water, but we didn't, we didn't have a water back there today.

Uh, anyways, um, uh, we'll get there in just a sec.

Cool.

So today we're going to look at a question that I think it, I hope it challenges us.

It'll challenge you to question, uh, where, where your gratitude level for Jesus is.

I think it'll, I hope it'll, it'll challenge you to question where your entitlement level is.

Uh, if nothing else, it's going to, uh, going to force you to, to, to be challenged in your faith.

And that's really the goal of times that we meet on Sundays is that we can be challenged right here.

And so we can go, go into the world and make changes with our lives.

Amen.

Uh, certainly it's to be encouraged, but if, if all we are is encouraged, then we're not going to, we're not going to end up, uh, growing too much with God.

If that's, if that's the extent of it, or if the encouragement, how we view it is just positive talk and positive thoughts and saying good things.

And if there's never any challenging, uh, conversations, then we're not going to grow today.

I think we'll be challenged.

We're, we're in Luke.

We're in Luke 17.

We're going to read this whole passage.

Then we're going to break it down in three and three little sections.

Um, let's see, this was a little bit early anyways, we'll learn Jesus right now is, uh, he's going through, uh, he's, he started right here in Luke nine.

And then this is Beth, Beth Seda.

He's going to end up in Luke nine.

It says he resolutely set out for Jerusalem, which is right down here.

It's about 80 miles.

And so there's Luke nine, we're picking up in Luke 17 and he's only made it about this far.

Uh, but this is what we're going to read about.

He's between Galilee and Samaria.

And there's a town here, uh, where there's some people that he's going to interact with, but he's here.

He's here.

He's going to end up here.

I don't even know necessarily why I'm doing this, but I thought it was kind of cool to look at Jesus being here.

He's going to end up here.

Uh, the reason why he said that he resolutely set out for Jerusalem is because he knows that's where he's going to die.

And so, uh, again, our, our savior is one that didn't just happen chance by happenstance.

Oh, I just, oh man, I didn't know what I was doing.

No, he decided to do it and then he rose from the dead as well.

Uh, we're in Luke 17.

The title of the lesson is we're not all 10 cleansed.

It says in verse 11, now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee as he was going into a village, 10 men who had leprosy met him.

They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, Jesus master have pity on us.

When he saw them, he said, go show yourselves to the priests.

And as they went, they were cleansed.

One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back praising God in a loud voice.

He threw himself at Jesus's feet and thanked him.

And he was a Samaritan.

Verse 17, Jesus asked, we're not all 10 cleansed.

Where are the other nine?

Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner.

Then he said to him, rise and go.

Your faith has made you well.

So there's, there's a lot here.

There's a lot in the Bible.

We're just gonna, we're going to focus on them in little sections.

It'll be digestible for us this morning.

Let's focus on 11 to 13.

Again, the Bible says Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and he knows he's going to die and be resurrected there.

We saw the map.

He started in Bethsaida and then he moved his way down.

But we see there's 10 men who have leprosy.

And what we understand, I did a little bit of research and I'm not going to put any pictures up because it was, it was a bit horrifying.

So leprosy today is a really, we understand it in that time.

It just encompassed a lot of different ailments and specifically with, with your skin.

And so today it's, it's still the same kind of leprosy, but it's a little bit, they've been able to specify what they're talking about.

Back, back then it was just this general term.

Here they've specified, this is what we're talking about.

It's actually a disease that affects your nervous system.

And so certainly your skin gets messed up, but you could see, you know, certainly Jesus interacted with people that had crippled hands or messed up hands and stuff like that.

And he just touched them and his hand was outstretched.

It says, this is, this would have been somebody who was suffering with, who had leprosy.

It was a disease of the nervous system because over the course of time, what would happen is you would lose sensation in your fingers or your, your, your, your, your limbs.

And so you might just grab something that's hot and your hand would get burned.

You wouldn't realize it and now your hand's useless to you.

And so this would have been something that wouldn't have gotten better.

It would have just been, this is your plight.

These people would have had to congregate outside of the city because it was contagious.

And so there was no hope for them to go back into this place of good standing with their people.

It was, it was horrifying.

Again, if you, if you have the stomach for it, go ahead and look up some pictures on online in your free time of what it, what it looked like.

There was, there's stories or there's cases of people, there's records of it, of people getting, getting their fingers eaten by mice and such because they can't even feel what's, what's going on.

And yes, it's, Asha's face says it all.

She's just, you know, like that, that emoji and that's, that's the extent of, of, of these people.

So think about it.

These 10 right here.

I wonder when the last time they had a conversation with someone who didn't have leprosy was.

It was extremely contagious.

The truth is there's an obvious parallel between the leprosy, the physical ailments, physical ailment and ailment in that day.

And what we're going through on a daily basis in our, in our battle against sin because sin is broad.

It is, it is striking.

It's obvious when you see it.

It affects us by, by just like leprosy does.

It affects us by lessening our sensitivity to, to what is going on in the outside world until too much damage or perceiving, or we perceive too much damage to be done.

And it becomes increasingly difficult to, to make it back to, to a good standing with God or to a good standing with society at all.

The scripture says it's Ephesians four.

It talks about this struggle against sin and he says, don't live how these other people did.

I will pick up in verse 18.

I just got 19 on there.

It says they're darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity and they are full of greed.

We understand this is the battle against sin.

What the devil wants us to do is to just lessen our sensitivity.

And it's not, you know, and you, you understand this is true though.

Uh, you, you understand that sin doing things that don't feel great in the moment or doing things that feel great, but right away they don't.

You understand that that, that doesn't, that, that it only spirals.

It doesn't, it's not just a cycle because you think about the first time you, you told a lie.

I don't know how old you were, but I maybe I've told this.

I distinctly remember being five years old and telling a lie for the first time.

Well, this lie was, well, okay.

So what happened was we were, I think we were, we were worshiping in Milwaukee in a hotel and I think it was a hotel, but anyways, it had a vending machine.

Okay.

And I knew that there were some people that got vending machine candy, but I knew that we weren't a family that got vending machine candy.

And so I, it was a midweek service Wednesday and I had the great idea.

I'm just going to take, take some money from, from my seat on my dad's dresser all the time.

I'm just going to take some money and, and I just took it and I'm like, I got vending machine money now and I'm ready to go.

And I remember my dad asking me, he was looking for the money.

This was before the, the, the Wednesday service and he said, Hey, Jared, did you see my money at all?

I said, I hadn't seen that money.

I don't know.

I've never seen it.

And so we get, I went all the way through the Wednesday church service.

My dad's talking to somebody.

You don't remember this at all.

I bet.

Do you?

Yeah.

My dad's talking to somebody and, but I'm with my mom.

And so I just said, Hey mom, dad said, uh, dad said we can get something from the vending machine.

And I just pulled out.

I have no idea how much money it was.

It might, it was, it was absurd because it was probably 20 bucks or something.

You don't need 20 bucks for a vending machine.

Right.

And, and she said, did he really say that?

I said, yeah, no, he really said, he said, well, you can just get vending machine money.

And I was fine.

I'm telling the story.

Okay.

Don't look down on me yet guys.

Okay.

Uh, later on you can, but then, but I, and I remember I, I didn't understand sincerely.

I didn't really understand any of that was bad from when I was five.

I really didn't.

I remember having a conversation then with my dad and mom afterwards, uh, where they just explained, Hey, when you take something that's, that's stealing, but also when we asked you, that's called lying.

And that was the first time that I realized that was what a lie, a lie is.

Um, and from that point on, uh, you know, maybe trust me, there's, there's, there's ignorance.

That's fine.

But from that point on, I understood what lying was.

So that means that every lie that I've told afterwards is me having a full understanding of this is what, this is what lying is.

Uh, this is not good.

Um, and the first time I lied afterwards, it hurt and it felt, I felt something.

But as you, as you go, and as you go, you, you can, uh, you can, you, you realize that the first time you lied, it hurt a lot.

And the second time hurt less so, and so on and so forth, uh, sin is not a cycle.

It's a spiral.

And the only solution, uh, is Jesus for, for you guys though, your greatest struggle in this entire, this, this life is going to be against yourself.

Uh, that, that's, that's just a truth.

Um, and you can, you, you can try to get well, uh, by many means by willpower, by self-help books, by therapy, uh, by talking to somebody, there's, there's a time and place for all of these things, but there's a finite limit to how much they can help you without the healing power of Jesus.

And, and these men realize that because they're going through something and they just say, they call him master and master is used six times in the new Testament, only in the book of Luke.

And it's different than what other people call might call him rabbi, teacher, help us.

They're saying, master, you have full authority to do whatever you want with this.

G uh, Peter says, master, because you say, so I'm going to let my, my net down.

He said, you, you got your king over the fish.

You can do it.

And these guys say, master have pity on us.

You're able to, we trust you.

We know you can do that.

And this is, this is the truth about any of any of your sin in your life.

You can try a bunch of different things and you can get a little better, but it, but it's not going to last forever if you're not calling on the name of Jesus.

Uh, so let's, let's keep, let's keep going here.

Jesus, Jesus sees them and says, when he saw them, he said, go show yourself to the priests.

And as they went, they were cleansed.

You know, what's incredible is that these men, uh, these, these men were not healed yet, but they were acting like they were healed.

If you were to go to the priest, that would mean that you would, that you wouldn't basically, you wouldn't go to the priest unless you were already, you were already clean.

That was a normal practice.

But before you were clean, you wouldn't, you wouldn't go there, uh, in order to get back in a good standing with society, you would have had to go to the priest and show yourself and then you'd be, be clean and you'd be able to be back in full standing, uh, with, with your people.

These men acted in such a way to say, I, I trust I'm going to be clean or I I'm acting like I'm clean, although I'm not yet, uh, you know, there, there's a, there's a couple of a couple of things this communicates, I think for, for you and I, one is, I don't know if you've ever heard it said, or maybe you've even thought it that I can't go back to church until I stopped this in my life.

Or I can't, I can't turn, I need to get this better and then I can go to church.

I need to end this relationship or I need to, uh, be, have integrity in this relationship or I need to, uh, I need to give up my money or I need to, I need to work this stuff out and then I can go to church, then I can get back in good standing with God.

Maybe you've thought it, maybe you're in the, maybe you're in the middle of it, but that's like saying, uh, I want to get strong and then I'm going to go to the gym.

Um, it's like saying, that's like saying, I want to get smart and then I'm going to go to school.

Right?

Yeah.

You don't, you don't wait to stop sinning and then follow Jesus.

No, there, there's, there's no way to stop sinning unless you follow Jesus.

These men, these men were acting like they were good and then, and then God made them so they were, they were acting like they were listening to Jesus and then, and then they were healed.

Uh, and so you can say, well, in regards to sin, that's, that's true.

But I, I think it shows up for, for you and I in, in our circumstances as well, uh, because outside of sin, our circumstances can quickly convince us that there's a better time to follow or there's a better time to listen, or it's going to be more convenient a little bit later on, uh, these men just obeyed and listened.

But you think about, uh, the, these are, these are just things that I've heard maybe in the last, probably in the last six months, um, conservatively in the last year though, when I've invited people and we've started to get serious about following God, or maybe I've just invited them and they haven't been interested, but, but some that have been interested or they're like, I can't yet because, uh, you know, when I get to college, then I'm going to get serious in my faith.

Uh, when I graduate college, then I'm going to get serious in my faith.

Uh, when I'm solidified in my career, then I'll get serious.

When I find the one, my spouse, then I'm going to get serious in my faith.

When I get a better job, then I'm going to get serious in my faith.

Uh, when we, when we have kids or when we get married, then, then I'm going to get serious in my faith and give my kids this background.

When our kids grow up, then I'm going to get serious about my faith.

Uh, you can wait for your circumstances to get more convenient, but it's never going to be more convenient to follow God than right now.

And the reason is because you're going to keep building up sin in your life and the sin is going to tell you to turn away from God at every step of the way.

So following now is going to be the most convenient time.

And also it's, it's never convenient, right?

It's never going to be convenient for you to do the most difficult thing you've ever done in your life.

You know, you know, it's the, the more convenient thing that the Bible says, Peter writes, he just says, his divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

The Bible saying, you, you've got everything you need.

If you're, if you are living and you are breathing, you have the word of God, you've got everything you need to live a godly life.

Is it more convenient at another time?

The answer is no.

You can convince yourself.

Yes, but you've got everything you need right now.

If these men would have, would have given the excuse of their circumstances, they, they never would have gotten physically well.

They listened to what Jesus said and their circumstances changed.

They didn't change their circumstances first.

Let's, let's focus in on this last part.

Then this is probably, uh, this is, this is the most fun part to look at the most, maybe the most challenging.

It's in verse 15.

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back praising God in a loud voice.

He threw himself at Jesus's feet and thanked him.

And he was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, we're not all 10 cleansed.

Where are the other nine?

Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?

Then he said to the, then he said to him, rise and go.

Your faith has made you well.

This man was a Samaritan.

And if you've read the Bible, you understand that.

I don't know why, but maybe you've think, I mean, I don't know why, but God, you know, Jewish people and Samaritans, they don't get along.

I see a lot of negative, basically, uh, there's, there's, it goes back, it goes back hundreds of years, even old Testament times, there's, uh, there was a couple of God's people really had a desire to be ruled by just in the same way that the other nations were ruled.

It started out and God said, you don't need to be ruled like the other nations I'm, I'm your King and I'm your leader.

And they said, no, I really want to be, to be, we really want to be ruled.

Like other nations have rulers.

We want rulers too.

And you can read the book of judges and it's a horrifying book of what, what happens when, when God allows his people to go down, uh, to the depths of their sin anyways, though, there's a separation that occurs between, uh, the kingdom of Israel and there's a Southern kingdom and there's a Northern kingdom, uh, that the Samaritans were, uh, part of this, this Northern kingdom.

That's why when you saw the picture up there, it was, it was North.

If you, if you remember, um, and these people, they, they intermingled their Jewish religion with their neighbor's religions.

Uh, they only identified, uh, the first five books of the Bible is scripture.

They were, they were, they were viewed as half breeds and every, in every sense of the word, if you were a Jewish person, you look down on them and they knew you looked down on them.

You think the racism is bad, even in, even in the darkest stretches of American history.

And, and dare I say it might be, it was probably even worse, uh, in, in that day regarding Jews and Samaritans.

Uh, and so to hear that the Samaritan was the one guy that came back and praised God was something that would have been horrifying for the people.

Uh, it's powerful though, isn't it?

When he, when he, he goes and he looks at Jesus and you get the impression, he doesn't even need to see Jesus's face ever again.

He jumps down.

He's on his, on his hands and knees.

His whole posture is prostrate and he's praising God.

And Jesus asked, we're not all 10 cleansed.

Where, where are the other nine?

That's a fair question.

We don't know the answer.

I'd have to imagine maybe they're with their family.

I don't, they probably don't have much money, but maybe they're trying to find, find a meal or they're talking to somebody.

They're just happy to be involved with society again.

Um, if you ask all the other nine, are you grateful for what Jesus did to you?

Let's say you could just interact.

They say, are you grateful for what Jesus did?

What do you think they would say?

Absolutely.

That's absolute.

You say, are you grateful?

They say, yeah, I'm very grateful for what Jesus did to me.

And yet, if you, if you look at Jesus's response, it's, it's, it's pretty clear that he didn't view their gratitude in the same light as the one who came back.

For, for you and I, you, you can go on the street and you can see it on Instagram bios, you can see it just talking and sharing your faith or you can see it interacting and you say, man, I want to tell people about Jesus and what a lot of people, especially in the Western part of Michigan are saying, Jesus is awesome.

Jesus.

He's great.

He's, he's my savior.

Yeah.

I was just listening to, uh, I was just listening to two boxers and, um, I don't know, whatever it was a couple of boxers and one of them is talking about, you know, I praise my, my God and savior, Jesus Christ.

And then in the same sentence is like cursing left, left, right, and center.

And I'm like, I don't know if you can do both of those things in good conscience.

You know what I'm saying?

I, I, uh, you, you're, you're not going to find a shortage of people who are going to want to give thanks to Jesus or at least appear that way.

Um, or at least say they're very grateful for Jesus.

And yet, uh, the, the question begs then, well, what is, what is it, what does it necessitate of us if we are going to be grateful for what Jesus has done for us, uh, again, you ask anybody and they say they're grateful, but, but this man is commended and his faith makes him well, because he goes and does something.

Uh, gratitude, giving thanks.

It's a foreign language for you and I, not because we're bad people, but because we live in a society where it's, it's just not natural.

Uh, anyone who helps us, well, we deserve their help.

Anyone who doesn't show us extra attention.

I don't know what they were thinking.

They, they must've misunderstood me.

Uh, the, the, the truth is this, this pride, we talked about it a couple of weeks ago, um, one of the best ways to fight pride is by being grateful, uh, gratitude.

It's one of the most obvious gauges of your humility.

You wonder, am I humble?

How do I be humble?

How grateful are you is a, is a question to ask yourself.

There's a couple of, uh, there's a couple of scriptures.

This is thematic in the Bible.

I'm not just making it up.

It says in Proverbs 29, uh, 23, pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honor.

And then Jesus even says in Matthew 23, for those who exalt themselves will be humbled, those who humble themselves will be exalted, uh, a humble person is, is one that's going to be grateful, right?

I didn't deserve, I don't deserve it.

And so I've got to be grateful.

Uh, I, I, I actually, when I think about this, I was just thinking, and just this week it's, and it's happened a couple of times.

Um, but Samuel, uh, me and Samuel went out and we got some, we got some, uh, we got an Indian buffet.

Actually, they just brought the buffets back in, uh, the Indian, Indian restaurants.

So we had to try them out.

Um, we, we went and we tried an Indian buffet and then, you know, we were talking, it was a great time to fellowship and to connect and then, um, then later on that evening, Samuel texted me.

He said many times, thank you.

Thank you.

Then later on that evening, he just sent me a text message, you know, thanks so much, grateful for your time.

Thanks for, for the meal.

And, um, and that's not the first time Samuel's done that.

It's a few different settings.

Um, Samuel's Samuel's went out of his way to say thank you.

And it's, and it's been certainly face to face, but then through a text and later on in the evening, I think it's happened at least two or three times, uh, in our, in our, you know, year of knowing each other.

Um, I just began to think about how, how often am I, anyone asks anyone pays for my meal, I'm grateful.

Uh, how often do I over-communicate my gratitude though?

Uh, there's, there's a quote by, um, by a theologian, uh, and he, and he says, uh, external religious exercises are easy enough and common enough.

Uh, so going and showing yourself, he's saying, it's not impressive to go show yourself to the priests.

They're common enough.

That's a religious exercise, but the internal matter, the drawing out of the heart and thankful love, how scarce a thing it is nine obey ritual where one praises the Lord.

This praising the Lord led to what led to his faith, making him well, uh, faith is going to be the difference between you having true healing and just healing where you feel good on this earth.

Uh, you can go to church and you can go to church and feel good.

You really can.

Um, but if you're going to, if you're going to follow God, then, then there's going to be some, some, some struggle that you're going to have to go through.

If you just show up to church, fine.

You can, you can get the, this religious activity and you can do this religious exercise.

And maybe on this earth, you feel good about yourself.

Uh, but if, if, if you're not well, according to your faith, then it really doesn't matter.

You follow Jesus for impure motives, for wisdom.

I just want to get, I just want to be so, so, so wise.

And then I can tell people what to do.

Uh, I just want to feel better about myself.

I just, I just want to learn how to spend my money wisely and then create generational wealth.

All of these, they're going to yield results.

If you follow the Bible, all you're going to yield results in all of that stuff, but it's going to fade eventually.

And it's not going to be worth it in the end.

And so as we, as we, as we close up, I want to, I just look at a couple of, a few, few ways that we can grow in our faith, uh, let's see runway here.

Give me one sec.

And so you're wondering where, where, how do I grow in my gratitude?

Then I realized that I want to be humble.

I realized that I, because I want to be exalted one day, uh, by, by God in heaven.

Um, I don't want to be prideful.

So I go low.

I I'd rather be lowly in spirit.

And so God will get, and then, then I will gain honor in the eyes of God.

That's, that's my ultimate goal.

And if you're wondering how to do that, there's a lot of ways to do that.

Uh, here's just a few, here's just some, how do I grow practically?

Well, I think you can praise God.

Uh, there's, there's, uh, seven Psalms right there.

You can, you can pray through each of those every day, um, or one of those a day.

Um, and that's not an exhaustive list there that you can, you can just, honestly, if you open the book of Psalms, you're going to be able to see so many opportunities for you to praise God.

Um, you can praise God for, for, for the Bible.

Psalm 119, you can listen to a red.

It's about 15 and a half minutes.

If you listen on one of the versions, if you listen to a red and it's just David talking about how much he loves God's word, uh, maybe you just be intentional about thanking people, take the Samuel challenge, if you will, um, or you can show your gratitude or, and you can show your gratitude by partnering with God to do a lot of things by, if you're, if you're truly grateful, then you're going to partner with God to tell people about your gratitude, uh, tell people about what Jesus did for you, you're going to partner with God to, to serve the poor.

You're going to partner with God in so many ways, shapes, and forms.

Um, let's, let's, let's close up here.

Let's go to Psalm 34.

You know, I didn't put it up there.

It's actually, uh, it's mother's day next week.

So one of the ways you can grow in your gratitude is by getting mom a great present for mother's day and showing her your gratitude.

Um, it says in thought, and I had it in my notes.

I just didn't put it up there.

Uh, it says in Psalm 34, just think about the gratitude that David has.

Um, and this is this crazy time.

It says, I will extol the Lord at all times.

His praise will always be on my lips.

I will glory in the Lord, let the afflicted here and rejoice, glorify the Lord with me.

Let us exalt his name together.

I sought the Lord and he answered me.

He delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant.

Their faces are never covered with shame.

This poor man called and the Lord heard him.

He saved him out of all his trouble.

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

Fear the Lord, you, his holy people.

For those who fear him lack nothing.

The lion may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Come my children, listen to me.

I'll teach you the fear of the Lord.

Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days.

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies.

Turn from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil to blot out their names from the earth.

The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them.

He delivers them from all their troubles.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all.

He protects all his bones.

Not one of them will be broken.

Evil will slay the wicked.

The foes of the righteous will be condemned.

Lord will rescue his servants.

No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.

David calling out to God.

You know what is what an amazing truth is, is that there's only one person.

We talked about this before.

There's only one person who's ever lived, who's called on God's name and God hasn't answered him.

And that's Jesus on the cross.

Certainly we understand we will never be able to comprehend the connection between the father and the son and Jesus being fully God, but allowing himself to be nothing.

But what we do understand is he asked for a way out.

And God said, this is the father said this is the only way he was righteous and he cried out, says the Lord hears him.

But then there's a scripture and Jesus says, Jesus says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Pointing to this, this, this psalm in earlier on in the Bible.

Says the Lord is close to the broken hearted.

He saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Jesus was crushed to give us an opportunity to be saved.

Psalm 34.

Jesus gives us an opportunity to to have eternal life.

He gives us an opportunity because he died on a cross.

And because of that, we're able to call out and he will answer us.

Amen.

Let's let's pray.

And then the communion trail will be passed.

Dear God, Lord, we we're grateful to be able to worship you.

We're grateful at the example of of your of your of your son, Jesus.

We we just we can't stand up before your holiness, Lord, to think about and to consider all that you've done for us.

All we can do is is fall at your feet like the Samaritan.

Father, we just want to ask that you will move in our lives to allow us to do that day by day.

But Lord, allow us to grow in our gratitude today, specifically right now, our gratitude for the cross and what Jesus did for us, what he's continuing to do for us.

But what he did once for all to give us an opportunity to be able to call out to you and for you to hear us, Lord, we don't we don't deserve it.

We'll never deserve it.

We're just grateful for it.

We love you so much, Jesus.

This is in your name that we pray.

Amen.

Thank you so much for listening to the Kalamazoo Church of Christ podcast.

If you're in the Kalamazoo area, we'd love to get connected.

Please go to Kalamazoo dot church and fill in your information to come to a Sunday service or any other event that we have going on.

In any case, you'll be hearing from us next week.

So busy saving souls.