LUKE 17:7-19 GRATEFUL VS PROFITABLE2013 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 17:7-19 Grateful Vs Profitable

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2013.

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As we look at Luke chapter 17 verses 7 through 19 this morning, we're looking at a very powerful passage of Scripture. And I love how Jesus is able to just real quickly and easily put so much together in that He protects us

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Both from pride and self-pity at the same time here in this passage. He protects us from pride and self-pity. And so I've titled the message this morning, Grateful vs. Profitable. There's a tension between these two. If you are...

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or you think that you are profitable in the sense of to the Lord, then, well, I would suggest to you this morning that you're ungrateful. If you think you're profitable, you're ungrateful. But if you recognize that you're unprofitable,

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then you will be grateful to the Lord for what he has done. And so there's this tension, this pull between the two. If you think you're profitable, you'll be ungrateful. But if you recognize that you're unprofitable, you will be grateful or thankful to God. And we see that throughout our passage this morning. And so there's two points I'd like to share with you and two sub points for those points as well. But two main points. The first one found in verses 7 through 10 says,

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Is that you are an unprofitable servant. Already you can tell this is not going to be a very encouraging message, right? You are an unprofitable message. And again, here I say God protects us from pride and self-pity as we look at this passage. Verse 7 tells us this. And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, come at once and sit down to eat?

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But will he not rather say to him, prepare something for my supper and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk and afterward you will eat and drink. Jesus continues to talk to his disciples and the people around him, the crowd around him. And now he gives an example, an illustration to help make the point that he is going to make. He says, think about all of you who have servants.

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Now, today as we read this, probably not any of us have servants, but that was common in their culture and their customs that they would have servants. Or actually, a better word, a better translation would be the slave. That all of them had servants or slaves that they had at home. And so he says, which of you who have a slave, you would deal with them in a way that when they're done working out in the field...

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Which of you masters would then have them come and sit at the table and serve your slave? What master would do that?

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Now, again, we don't have that situation. It's definitely not in our culture today. But we do have a somewhat similar comparison. If you consider the employee-employer relationship, there's some similarities. And it's good for us to consider those things as far as application is concerned. But there's differences as well. Because slaves were owned.

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They were owned. They had minimal rights as a result. It was, you know, something, again, that's not part of our culture today. We're not very familiar with it. And so there was a range of situations regarding slavery in Jesus' day. And the range, you know, went from one extreme, which is probably the worst thing that you picture in your mind when you think of slavery. But there was also the other end of the spectrum.

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Where there was a good relationship between the master and the slave. And so much so that the slave, when he had served his time, a lot of times their servitude or their slavery was for a set time period to pay back a debt. But a lot of times, or sometimes, when that slave finished that time period...

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He liked the situation so much. He loved the master so much. He said, I want to be your permanent slave. And so there was that option as well. And so not everything was, you know, the worst that we can imagine. But there was also some good relationships and maybe kind of like some in the middle of the

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the spectrum as well. You know, I was thinking about Mr. Belvedere, you know, shows like that. Like, you know, there was good relationships as well as bad relationships amongst this. And Jesus really isn't addressing the issue of slavery. He's saying, look, which of you masters who have slaves would bring your servant in from the field and then serve them?

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The servant's job was to serve. That was what he was hired for. That was what he was expected to do. There was no, you know, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., you know, these strict guidelines, everything over that is overtime. And, you know, there wasn't those kinds of things as Jesus was addressing them.

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And the servants or the slaves often had more than one responsibility. And you can see Jesus mentioning, you know, they're plowing, they're tending sheep, and then they come in and do the cooking. So it's, you know, one servant serving in a multitude of ways for the master. But the point here that Jesus is highlighting is that the master, no matter what the servant was doing, the master did not serve the servant and say, okay, now here's your dinner.

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As he comes in from the field, he says, look, your job's not over. Don't clock out yet. You got to make me dinner first. And then you can rest and have your meal. That was the situation. That was what was expected. Then in verse 9, he says, does he think that servant, because he did the things that were commanded him. And he says, I think not, or certainly not. Of course not is the idea. Does he think that?

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The servant. Now you and I reading this today. Again we're worlds apart as far as culture is concerned. We read this and we think yeah he should say thank you. But it kind of shows that we don't fully understand the slave position that Jesus is addressing here. Because it's not part of our culture at all. We're disconnected from it. We think yeah definitely he should say thank you. Especially after cooking for him. After working out in the field all day. There should be some type of thanks that is communicated. But

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Jesus is addressing, you know, an entirely different situation than what we are accustomed to. But that situation that Jesus is addressing, although the, you know, slave master relationship isn't real familiar to us, it is something that Jesus wants to use to teach us about our relationship with him. And so, although we might object to the idea of slavery, we might object to some of the things that were taking place in

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Jesus says it's an appropriate illustration for me and you and our relationship and what is expected of you. Because you can see in verse 10, he says, so likewise you. So now he's taking this illustration and he's making it personal. He's pointing his finger right at us. And he's saying, so likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.

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So after painting this picture, the servant in the field working all day, he comes inside, the master says, make me dinner. And then once I've eaten, then you can eat and rest. Jesus says, okay, picture that. That's you. You are the servant. You are the servant. And that makes the point that we're looking at today. Point number one is you are not just the servant, but you are an unprofitable servant. You are...

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An unprofitable servant. Let that just kind of, don't reject it right away. Just let it sink in a little bit. Just open up your imagination for just a moment to possibly consider this point. It's hard for us to think this way. We often don't think of ourselves as the unprofitable servant. But Jesus says, you are an unprofitable servant. Now first of all, you are a servant. You're a slave.

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If you're a believer in Jesus Christ. If you believe in Jesus, then you enlisted voluntarily into this servanthood, into this slavery, when you decided to follow Jesus. You are a servant. That word servant, it's the Greek word doulos, which we often are familiar with. It's the word that means servant or slave. I like one definition of it. A servant is one whose will is

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is altogether consumed in the will of another. In other words, the will of your master completely consumes you. That his will is most important. His will is more important than your own. You're consumed with fulfilling and completing the master's will. That's our position as believers in Jesus Christ. We are to be this kind of servant. Consumed with the Father's will. Jesus

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is teaching this here. He's also taught it throughout his ministry. You might remember in the gospel of John, he says, look, if you love me, then keep my commands. There's a relationship that if you love Jesus, if you've decided to follow Jesus, there's a slave master relationship that has to be involved and you must obey his commands. In another place, Jesus said, you are my friends if you keep my commands.

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Now that's not a kind of relationship that we can really, you know, enforce upon one another. All right. If you want to be my friend, then just do everything that I say. Right? That's, we don't have that kind of authority. But God being God does. And he says, you're my friends if you keep my commands. And if you love me, then you will obey me. But there has to be this servant master relationship between us. So you are a servant. But Jesus takes that further to say, you are an unprofitable servant. Right?

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Kind of hurts our pride. It's a little bit, well, inflicting a little bit of pain to think about the idea of being unprofitable. But it's not as bad as it sounds. As you look at the definition of unprofitable, it might hurt a little bit more. It means useless or good for nothing. So you're a good for nothing servant, Jesus says, right? But I don't think Jesus is trying to give us, you know, the literal definition of the word unprofitable. Here's what I think Jesus is saying.

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An unprofitable servant is one who costs more than he earns. When it costs more to purchase that servant, to purchase that slave, than was able to be paid back by the service of that slave. In other words, it's an investment which does not bring back a full repayment.

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Or extra beyond that. So you go to the store. You buy a computer for $1,000 to help you start this new business. But then you're not able to get $1,000 worth of business with this computer that you bought. It's not profitable. You didn't earn back your money. You didn't make any money on it. It's unprofitable. Or you buy a house to fix it up and sell it. But then you have to sell it for less than you purchased it for.

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It's not profitable, right? You didn't make a profit on that. In the same ways, Jesus says that we are to say we are unprofitable servants. Jesus is helping us to remember and recognize we will never earn back or be as profitable as the cost that he paid to purchase us. The reality is you cost more than you earn. Peter tells us in 1 Peter chapter 1,

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He says,

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And nothing you could ever do for God will have more value than Jesus' life. There's nothing you could ever do for God that would be more valuable than the life of Jesus Christ. He will never get the full value on that investment. It will always be less. Sometimes we get a little bit caught up with ourselves and we think, you know, God's got such a good deal. When

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When I became a Christian. When I decided to follow him, I know he was blessed. You know, it was just... He was like, finally, heaven is complete. Or sometimes we think about it in the other way. We think, man, if only that person would get saved. They could do so much for God.

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Yeah, if only that star, if only that politician, if only that person could get saved, man, they could turn around a culture. They could turn around a nation. They could do so much for God. But when we think that way, when we betray that, we don't recognize the reality that we are unprofitable servants. God does not need us. He doesn't need us. Remember in Psalm chapter 50 verse 12, God says, look, if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you.

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I'm not waiting for you to satisfy my needs, God says. He's the creator. He sustains us, not the other way around. And so Jesus tells this illustration to make the point, you need to understand you are an unprofitable servant. And maybe that hurts our pride, but it's true.

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And we need to recognize this reality. You are an unprofitable servant. Now as a servant, as an unprofitable servant then, well we need to recognize that obedience is owed. You're a servant, an unprofitable one at that. Therefore, your obedience to God is owed. That's what Jesus is saying here at the end of verse 10.

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He says that we're to say we are unprofitable servants. And then notice, we have done what was our duty to do. We have done our duty. He says, after you've done everything that you've been commanded, then testify of this. I have done what I was supposed to do. I have done what was owed. My obedience, well, it was owed. It was not extra. Extra.

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As an unprofitable servant, you owe God your obedience. That word duty, it means that you must or that it's a debt that is owed. It's an obligation. You are obligated to obey God. You're obligated. You're his servant. You're his slave. Now again, we maybe don't like this idea of slavery, but understand that the Bible is quite clear. You were a slave before Jesus.

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Whether you like it or not, or whether you agree with it or not, you were a slave. Apart from Christ, all of us are enslaved. Paul tells us you were a slave to sin and death. You were locked in. You were helpless.

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You were about to receive the permanent eternal judgment that you deserve because your master, you're enslaved to sin and death. And Jesus came on the scene and purchased you with his own precious blood. He redeemed you. He purchased you so that you don't receive the penalty that was due because of the master that you had. But instead now, for believers in Jesus Christ, he's your master and

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Because he purchased you. So it's your obligation to serve him. He created you, first of all. And then he purchased you. So twice, he's your master. He's your master. Obedience is owed. No matter what else happens in your life, you owe Jesus your full and complete total obedience. Think about it in this way. If Jesus never did anything for you,

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Apart from the cross. That would be enough for you to be eternally grateful and your obedience would be owed. Sometimes we like to grumble. Sometimes we like to complain. We get caught up in woe is me and woe is me in my life and there's all this terrible things happening and why isn't God doing something about it? We need to remember Jesus already took care of the biggest issue by dying upon the cross.

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And it doesn't matter what else happens in our life. If nothing else good ever happens to us, He's still worthy of all of our praise. He's still worthy of our obedience because of what He did upon the cross. Now, God is gracious and merciful. And many times He does exceedingly abundantly above and beyond we could ever ask or think. Not just in the life to come, but in this life. And so God's gracious and He does good things to us. But not because He owes it to us, just because He loves to work in our lives.

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But what we need to get through our hearts so that we don't have bitterness towards God, so that we don't have this spirit of or this attitude of expectation like, God, you have to do this in my life. We need to remember He already paid the ultimate price. And if He does nothing else for us, He's still worthy of our praise. He's still worthy of our obedience. We still owe it to Him.

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Now the Pharisees, as they were listening to Jesus, as they were hearing this, they had a different idea. They believed that their righteousness put God in their debt. And many of the Jews believe that. Because I do so much good for God, He owes me whatever it is that we have on our list. He's supposed to keep me healthy. He's supposed to make me wealthy. He's supposed to take care of me. He's supposed to bless me. He's supposed to not let...

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Any of these bad things happen to me. Because look at all the good things. I mean, I read my Bible today. How could I get a ticket on the way to work? That's not fair, God. We think that our good deeds mean that God has to pay us back. But Jesus is reminding us, no, you're an unprofitable servant. Your obedience is owed. God doesn't owe you anything. He didn't even owe us the cross, but he gave it because he's gracious and he loves us.

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But we get in our minds this idea that God owes us something and it's completely wrong. We owe God our absolute and total obedience. So you are an unprofitable servant. Your obedience is owed to God. And the next sub point here going along with this. Again, not really exciting to our flesh but important for us to know. And that is that you are not to expect thanks. Do not expect thanks.

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Again, verse 9, he says, does that servant, or does he thank that servant because he did the things which were commanded him? I think not. Does he thank that servant? Now again, we think that, yeah, employer, employee, you know, maybe your employer, your boss at the end of the day says, thanks for a good day of hard work. And yeah, that's appropriate. They're supposed to do that. But again, it shows that we're disconnected from what Jesus is talking about. Now, I may get in a little bit of trouble for this, and that's okay. You can talk to George afterwards if you don't like it. But

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As I was trying to help us picture, what's this relationship like, master-slave? How do we understand this in our culture? I think the closest thing to slavery that maybe you and I can grasp hold of and understand is enlisting in the military. When you enlist in the military, well, you're not your own any longer. And you don't have all the freedoms to do whatever you want to do. Your schedule is set by somebody else.

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What you can do, what you cannot do is set by somebody else. You give up your freedoms. You're told what to do, when to do it, and you must obey. And that's a good picture of the master-slave relationship that they understood in Jesus' day. So thinking about it in those terms, does the drill sergeant thank the enlisted soldier for running the laps that he was told to run? No, absolutely not.

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You do what you're commanded, soldier. You do what you're supposed to do. You do what I tell you to do because I tell you to do it. There's no expectations of thank you for doing that. That's not given. Masters do not need to thank slaves for doing what they're told to do. And so if you've turned to Jesus Christ for salvation, understand you were a slave to sin and death. The rewards for that aren't great. It's judgment.

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But Jesus purchased you upon the cross. But so turning to him makes him your master. You're his slave. Now the rewards for that are great. He gives awesome rewards. The promise of eternal life, abundant life here. He gives great joy. He gives peace. He gives fulfillment. I mean, we may object to the idea of master and slave, but he's the best master you could ever imagine. But we're not to expect thanks because our obedience is owed.

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And so again, there's this tension between being grateful and being profitable. If you think, no, I'm a profitable servant. I do lots for God. Then you're not going to be very grateful at what he's done for you. But if you will listen to what Jesus says and recognize, I'm an unprofitable servant. He's done way more for me than I could ever do. No matter what I did, I could never ever measure up to the price that he paid for me.

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then you will be eternally grateful. So are you profitable or are you grateful? Now, sometimes people are willing to pay more for something than it's actually worth. And they're willing to do that because it's special to them. It has meaning to them. It's not what everybody would pay for, but I'll pay extra for that because it's really special to me. And that's a good picture of what Christ has done for us.

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He knew we weren't worth it. It's not a surprise. He's like, man, I got a bum deal. I thought it was going to work out really good. You know, all these Christians, they were going to do so much for me and I don't know what I'm going to do now. No, no, no. He knew what he was getting into. But we're worth it. He knows we're unprofitable. But we're special to him. And because he loves us dearly, he said, I'm willing to pay that price. I'm going to pay more than they're worth because I love them. That's what Jesus did for us. You're an unprofitable servant. Which means...

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God didn't purchase you for what he could get out of you. He purchased you because he loves you. Now as we consider this idea, let's remember the context. Because last week, man, that was a challenging passage. Jesus taught us that we are to forgive those who offend us. Not only that, but he went on to say...

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If that same person comes back to you seven times in the same day for the same sin and says, I repent, I'm sorry that I kept sinning against you that way. Then seven times that day you're to forgive that person. I mean, we talked about that's radical forgiveness. Well, it's right on the heels of that. It's the same conversation, the same context as Jesus goes into the servant illustration.

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So let's get this picture through our heads, okay? Jesus says, forgive that person seven times the same day when they repent of that sin that they did against you. And after you've forgiven them seven times the same day for the same sin, then don't think that God owes you anything or that you're some awesome person. Recognize you're an unprofitable servant. You're just doing what you were commanded to do. Jesus is saying, this is my command, forgive. Forgive.

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But what we like to do is to kind of lift ourselves up and say, I forgave that person four times today. So Jesus says, look, when I give you these commands, you're to obey them because you're a servant. Your obedience is owed. It's your duty. It's not because you're some super awesome person and you shouldn't expect some great reward. It shouldn't be so that, you know, like, well, I

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I deserve some kind of thanks, God. I mean, you should help me win the lottery or something because I did so much in forgiving that person. He says, no, don't expect anything. Just obey. It's owed. It's what I deserve, Jesus says. Now, we can take it from here and we can consider some other commands that Jesus gives too. I would encourage you to maybe kind of think through some of those things. Jesus says, love your enemy.

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Now what would happen if you actually loved your enemy? You know what would happen? At least for me, be like, look at me. I love my enemy, man. I'm really awesome. God must be so impressed. And the Lord would say, you need to remember you're an unprofitable servant. Your obedience is owed. Jesus says, go and make disciples to command. So I go and make disciples and I think, yep.

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The Lord's so glad he got me because otherwise all these disciples wouldn't have been made, you know. He needs me. No, Jerry, you're an unprofitable servant. You do what I command because I tell you to do it. It's your duty. It's owed. The husband comes in and says, you know, I've been really good at loving my wife like Christ loved the church this week. I deserve this and this and this from her. God, you should do this in her because look at how I love her. You owe it to me, Lord.

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Fix her already, would you? I'm just saying what I heard Harvey say. Meanwhile, Elsa's going, I submitted to this jerk for a long time, Lord. When are you going to do something about it? You need to fix him. But Jesus says, no, your role as husband, your role as wife, my commands to you, whatever they might be,

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You're to obey them and it's your duty. I don't have to reward you for obeying my commands. I've already purchased you with my precious blood. I don't owe you anything else. Now he may bless us with more and he may work in our lives in that way, but that's by his own goodness and graciousness. It's not because he owes us anything. Now what did Jesus do

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That put us into his debt to such a degree. I mean this is pretty extensive stuff we're talking about. What is it that he did to make him owe this kind of radical obedience. Without expectation of any return or gratitude. Well that's what I'd like to consider as we head now into the rest of the passage this morning. And point number two. Is that you have received mercy. First of all you are an unprofitable servant. But secondly.

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This is where the, you know, kind of turns our hearts a little bit. And we're like, okay, I can relax a little bit now. Message isn't so hard. You have received mercy. Because this account of the lepers actually pictures what Christ has done for us. This is a very good picture, an illustration of what he has done in our lives. Check out verse 11. It says, now it happened as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

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Then as he entered a certain village, there met him ten more who were lepers who stood afar off. So Jesus kind of wraps up that conversation. Now he's continuing his journey to Jerusalem. And as he journeys, there meets him in this certain village. We don't know where exactly it is. But there meets him these ten men who were lepers. Leprosy was a terrible disease. Right?

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And it would result in, you know, they would lose the feeling. They would begin to lose limbs. They would become disfigured as a result. There would be all kinds of, you know, disease as a result. And lepers were the outcasts of society because...

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Well, they were fearful of being infected by someone who had leprosy. So they were kept outside of the population. And so lepers would often, you know, hang out together, be together because they were already infected. And so they would be cast out from society, but they would spend time together. So there would be leper colonies and all of that type of thing. And it tells us here that 10 of these guys, they were lepers.

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They come in contact with Jesus, but it's not close contact. It says that they stood afar off. Because again, they were not allowed to be close to the people. In fact, they were commanded in the Old Testament to announce, unclean, unclean. So that people would be alerted to their presence and alerted to the uncleanness. So they stood afar off. And from there, they call out to Jesus. Now as we consider this in the picture of

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sin that we see this is well this is a very good picture of our sinful condition that apart from Christ we have to stand afar off we're separated by sin you remember in Isaiah Jesus or God says that as high as the heavens are above the earth that's how high his ways are above our ways we're far off we're disconnected we're separated by sin and so we cannot approach God

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Because of this separation. A lot of times we look to one another and we can compare each other, you know, to each other. And I'm 5'8". Someone else says, hey, I'm 6'1". And like, okay, yeah, you're a little bit taller than me, but you still can't reach the moon. And that's kind of what Jesus is saying here. The Lord is saying that you might be a little bit better than me. Maybe you don't do as worse sins as I do. But regardless, none of us can reach the standard. We can't reach the moon.

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We stand far off apart from Christ. We have no hope of approaching God on our own merits. We're far off, separated by sin. Well, we go on in verse 13. It says, And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. So when he saw them, he said to them, Go, show yourselves to the priests. And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.

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So standing afar off, they can't come close to Jesus. They call out and they say, Jesus, have mercy on us. Now we can learn a few things about these lepers from this encounter. They believed in Jesus. They didn't just, you know, go group together and call out to every person that walked by. No, they recognize there's something different about Jesus. We've heard that he's healed other people. They believed in Jesus, even calling him master.

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They said, we're unprofitable servants. Have mercy on us. They believed that Jesus could heal because they called out and asked for mercy. Have mercy on us. They also believed that it was not owed to them because in their request for mercy, they're asking not for what they deserve, but for what they don't deserve. We can also see that they believed Jesus because they obeyed. Jesus said, go show yourselves to the priests.

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Now Leviticus 14 talks about this for us. When a leper was cleansed of leprosy, which could only happen miraculously, there was no cure for it. When that miracle took place, then the former leper was to show themselves to the priest. The priest would examine, would verify. He really is clean and he would be allowed back into society at that point. So Jesus says, go to the doctor, get checked out, let the test be shown. You're cleansed. You're healed.

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And you can be accepted back in society. So Jesus told them to obey Leviticus 14. And it says, as they went, they were cleansed. As they went. These guys believed in Jesus. Now this morning, as we consider this passage, of course, we need to ask the question, do you believe in Jesus? Have you believed in Jesus? Do you call him master? So then you can also say, I'm the unprofitable servant. Have you called out to him for mercy?

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And have you obeyed him as he has spoken? Well, that's the first sub-point we see on you have received mercy and as a result, obedience brings cleansing. Obedience brings cleansing. Again, it says, as they went, as they obeyed, they were cleansed. When a person decides to respond to Jesus' call of repentance, repentance,

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When a person decides to follow Jesus, there's a promise that he gives. And that is that, well, you'll be forgiven, cleansed from sin. At first, we stand afar off, separated from God by sin. But as we respond and obey Jesus' command, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. As we obey, He cleanses us from sin. When does that happen? When we obey.

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He paid the price for sin on the cross 2,000 years ago. But that cleansing happens when we obey, when we repent, when we do what he called us to do. This is not to say that we make up for our sin with our good works. But Jesus says, here's the way to receive the forgiveness and cleansing of sin. Repent and believe in me. When we obey that command, he cleanses us.

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1 John 1.9, of course, tells us that if we confess our sins, that God is faithful and just to cleanse us our sins and all unrighteousness. But there's that condition. If we confess, when you obey and you confess your sin, you testify to God, yes, God, I agree. I am sinful. I am unworthy. I deserve judgment. When you agree with Jesus about that and you repent and you say, I'm turning away from sin to follow you.

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As you go, as you obey, obedience brings cleansing. And so if you're a believer in Jesus Christ this morning, you have received mercy. You deserve judgment. I deserve judgment. But calling out on the Lord, we have received mercy. Cleansing from sin, washing, forgiveness, being set free from the guilt. It's God's great mercy upon us.

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However, if you have not believed in Jesus Christ, you have not received this mercy, you've not been cleansed of your sin, and you will receive the penalty for sin, which Paul tells us the wages of sin is death. But the good news is it's not too late for you. You can receive mercy when you obey, when you make Jesus your master. Repent and believe and obedience brings cleansing.

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Well, not only that, but we also see in the example of this encounter with the lepers, obedience brings cleansing, but then also we are to give thanks. You have received mercy, so give thanks.

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Praise the Lord. Look at verse 15. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So you picture the scene, right? Jesus says, go show yourself to the priest. As they cry out, have mercy on us. And so they believe Jesus. All right, we're going to go. Let's go show ourselves to the priest. He's walking. He sees his arm.

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You know, he's like, look, I'm healed. I'm clean. And he runs back to Jesus, glorifying God. Praise God. Hallelujah. Thank you. He gives thanks. He gives praise. As he recognizes, he realizes he's received the mercy from Jesus. How many of you get a thank you note from your landlord or mortgage company every month? Anybody? Anybody?

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Wells Fargo sends you a note and says, hey, we just want to say thank you for paying your mortgage. Now, what do they send you? Here's your bill for next month. Make sure you pay it by this date. If you pay it by this date, we're going to charge you more. They don't send you a thank you note for something that you owe. Now, maybe if you pay your rent late, you know, for a few weeks in a row and then pay it on time the next time, then maybe the landlord says, well, thanks for paying it on time. But you don't usually get thank you notes for something that you are

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When this leper comes back to thank Jesus, it's not because that Jesus owed that healing to the leper. When you say thank you, it's an acknowledgement. I don't deserve this. You didn't have to do this. I didn't earn this. That's what it means when we say thank you.

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That was more than I deserved. As this servant or this leper comes back and says, thank you. He's saying, I didn't deserve this. You didn't owe me this, but you had mercy. And so I praise God. Thank you for what you've done. Now, not everyone is grateful as we see in the next couple of verses. Verse 17. So Jesus answered and said, were there not 10 cleansed? But where are the nine?

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Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well. Jesus says, There was ten of you. Where's the other nine? And the only one that returned, it's kind of a surprise, he was a foreigner. He was a Samaritan. He wasn't Jewish. He would expect them to return and say thanks. And to be grateful to God. But it's the foreigner who...

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turned back and said thank you now check this out the other nine lepers were still healed i mean if you ever want to just be blown away by the grace of god just camp here for a bit jesus he knows what's going to happen right he knows the hearts of men he doesn't just heal the one that's going to say thank you and leave the other 10 in their misery i'm sorry the other nine he could have done that though and that wouldn't have been unjust i mean it was merciful either way

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But he shows his abundant mercy and grace as he heals even those who won't say thank you. They still received the healing, but they were not grateful. And we can look at this and say, man, how could that be? Until we recognize that, well, you know, this still goes on today. Not only do we owe God our obedience, we owe him our thanks. We owe him our praise. Because we, like these lepers, we were cut off. We were far off. We had no hope, no help.

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All we could do is beg for mercy. And Christ is willing to give it as we obey. But it's mercy. It's grace. It's not deserved. And so we should say thanks. There needs to be this gratitude in our hearts. This gratefulness to God recognizing you didn't have to forgive me. You didn't have to die on the cross for me. You didn't have to heal me. Thank you.

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You're so good to me. You're so gracious to me. I don't deserve it. Are you grateful in that way? These other nine were like, all right, good. All right, I'm clean now. Okay, now I got to get to work, man. I got so much to do. I got to get to the priest and get cleansed. And so then I can get back to my family and start to earn a living. And I imagine this, you know, isn't written here in the verses, but I imagine that

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They thought, great, now that's done. Now I can get to do all the stuff that I've always wanted to do, but I couldn't do because I was a leper. And so they didn't think about going back to say thank you. They didn't have time for that perhaps because, well, I got to do all this other stuff because now I'm clean. And so they were happy about being cleansed, but they didn't express their gratitude to the Lord. There's a clip of a message from a guy by the name of Matt Chandler that my wife really enjoys saying,

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Because he's talking about the amazing opportunity we have to get to know God. And if you will consider that, it's mind-blowing the fact that we get the opportunity to know God, to walk with Him, to hear from Him. The God of the universe wants to reveal Himself to you, he's talking about, right? And he quotes, you know, kind of the average Christian and says, no, no thanks, you know, I'm just trying not to cuss when I drive.

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That's what I'm trying to get out of this. You know, I'm coming to church because I want to clean up my life, because I want to go do this and I want to go do that. It's not a, I'm eternally grateful to God because he cleansed me of my sin and now I have everlasting life and I can get to know God, the creator of the universe. That was in the heart of one of these ten lepers. The rest of the nine said, alright, I'm clean, I'm going to go to the priest and then I'm going to go do what I want to do. I would ask that we would consider this morning, where is your heart?

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Are you just trying to get out of this something so that you can benefit? I'm trying to go to church so I can get my life right, so I can get these bills paid, so I can take care of that, so my kids have some kind of future, whatever it might be. These are my objectives. And if that's your heart, if that's your mentality, then you need to understand it's completely wrong. It's completely wrong. Are you grateful? Or do you think that you're profitable? There's the tension between the two.

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If you think you're profitable and you're doing God a favor by being here, you're not grateful. You're not recognizing really what he has done for you. But if you'll stop and understand the extent that he went, the great price that he paid, then your response will be that of gratitude. You are an unprofitable servant, which means that your obedience is owed. Don't expect things.

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God may thank you. He may be gracious to you. He may even bless you even more abundantly. He loves to do that. But that's not because he owes you anything. Maybe consider it this way. It's kind of like if you were to involve a child in some hard work that you're involved in. You know, maybe you're lifting something heavy and you're like, I need some help. But there's a child there. Now, maybe it's your child. And maybe your child wants to hang out with you and help you out and say...

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Dad, let me mow the lawn with you. So you're there pushing the lawnmower and there's he, you know, holding up and pushing the lawnmower with you. Now, when you involve a child in a work like that, you understand it's not actually helpful. In fact, many times it just adds more work to you. It makes it more difficult. But you involve them for their sake.

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And for the relationship. And for their benefit. And for their growth. You involve them. It's important to involve them. But it's not because you receive some benefit. And the lawn gets mowed faster or easier. No. It's more difficult. The Lord does the same with us. He involves us in the work of the kingdom of God. Not because he needs our help. Not because he gets something for it. That we're so beneficial for him. He involves us for our sake. He commands us for our sake.

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Because we benefit when we obey. We benefit as we follow His instructions, as we get involved, as we do what He's called us to do. We benefit not just from the process, but then also the being with Him. And then He loves to reward us for doing what He's commanded us to do. But none of that is His obligation to us. It's just the expression of His love for us. And so embrace this understanding, even if it hurts a little bit. You are an unprofitable servant.

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But knowing that, he purchased you. He called you to himself. He said, walk with me, follow me. I've got great things in store for you. All the while, I need to understand, on my best day, I'm an unprofitable servant. And that's true of all of us. I mean, this may sound a little bit offensive, but Billy Graham, on his best day, unprofitable servant. Go down the list. Chuck Smith, Greg Laurie, whoever you want to mention, unprofitable servants.

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We'll never make up for the price that was paid for us. But Jesus isn't asking us to. He says, I know you're not worth as much as I paid, but you're worth it to me. And so I'm willing to pay that price. Now follow me. Obey me. It's what you owe. And so for those who have received that, you've received mercy. Your obedience has brought cleansing. And so you owe not just your obedience, but your gratitude, your thanks to God.

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But if you've not received that, well then you need to understand you're still a slave. With or without Christ, you're a slave. But the rewards for those who are not slaves to Christ are not good rewards. It's judgment, penalty, punishment for sin. That is right and just. And so like the leper who stands afar off, that's where you are. Afar off, separated from God. But you can cry out to him like those lepers did. And say, Jesus, Master Jesus.

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Have mercy on me. And as you obey, as you respond, as He calls you to repentance, as He calls you to believe, as you respond and obey, you will be cleansed, forgiven of all sin, given right relationship with God, given new life in Jesus Christ, given great mercy and the promise of abundant glory as you obey. And so you're a slave either way. You get to choose. Stay enslaved to sin and death and receive the judgment that comes from that.

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Or choose a new master, Jesus. And in serving him, you will find there's abundant life. Choose this day, Joshua said to the children of Israel. Who will you serve? That's, well, one of the unique things about this master-serve relationship for us today. You get to choose your master. And you choose by how you respond to Jesus. Let's pray. Lord, I pray that you would help these truths to penetrate our hearts.

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Lord, that we would not be puffed up and full of ourselves in great pride, thinking that you owe us so much. But Lord, that we would recognize how great a price you paid for us. Lord, that we might respond with our total and complete obedience. Lord, that we would be all together consumed with your will, seeking your pleasure, doing what you desire for us to do. Help us, God, to accept that, to walk in that.

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That we would be completely obedient to you. And God I pray for anyone who's a far off. Lord you love them. And you died on the cross for them. Just as you did for everyone else. And it wasn't their great value. As far as what they could do. It wasn't because they earned anything from you. Or deserved anything. But just because you love them. Lord I pray that you would remove. Blinders that the enemy has placed there.

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That those who do not know you would be able to see clearly how much you love them. Lord, let them see it. Show them, Lord. Reveal yourself. Because it's your kindness that leads us to repentance. And so, Lord, I pray for anyone who's afar off, that you would help them to respond as these lepers did, to cry out for mercy. Because you said, Lord, that you would not cast out anyone who comes to you. Your mercy is guaranteed. It's promised.

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And so I pray for each one that they would respond, that they would obey, to believe in you, to turn from sin, to follow you. Lord, help them that they might receive the forgiveness that you offer by believing in Jesus. It's in your precious name I pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.