Finding Peace in my Pieces

Luke 17:11–19 (NIV)

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.

As he was going into a village, ten 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 he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.

He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten 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 whole..”

Introduction

My son Jaden loves Legos. If you were to walk into his room today you would find Lego creations on just about every wall. We have put them on shelves and we’ve displayed them by lighting them up with LED lighting. He has turned his desk into a lego building workshop. He has sorted his pieces by times, color, use, and application.

Jaden has a system for the building of his legos and it really is amazing to see.

He’s been told multiple times how cool his room is, and I hope he never forgets who helped him with displaying all of those awesome Lego displays. I hope he never forget who helped him install that LED lighting.

But that’s not the point.

Here’s why I say all of that.

Over the years of watching my son build lego set after lego set, I’ve learned that what is on the outside of the box looks nothing like what is on the inside of the box.

As a matter of fact, let me prove it to you.

When I open this Lego box I have pieces.

Everybody say pieces.

I have pieces of Legos and it is my responsibility to create this out of this.

So in order to do that, I’ve got two ways that I can approach this build.

The first option is I can open up every single bag and spread the legos out everywhere. I can then put this box up, like the days of my childhood when I would eat a bowl of cereal while meticulously studying the back of the box, and then begin to build this set by only looking at the box.

Or my other option is to set the box aside, open up the manual, and begin to build this set of legos according the manual.

Which of the two options do you think is going to ensure that I build this set the way the designer intended for it to be built?

Transition

And yet, I need to speak on this today because so many of us are building our lives by putting the manual aside, and looking at a box. Or worse yet, we’re looking at another person’s box that isn’t even connected to the pieces that the designer put inside of your box.

A Box Called Bad Expectations

The box that I am talking about of course isn’t a physical box, but it is a digital box.

You see, even though we have been given a manual and we have been surrounded by a community of other people who are also building their set, we fall victim of trying to use our pieces to build something based on someone else’s box.

What is that box?

It’s social media. It’s Instagram. It’s reels. It’s someones stories.

And what we do is we see the picture someone has taken of their box and uploaded to their socials, and while we are supposed to be building what’s in our box, we start trying to build according to what’s on their box.

Here’s the problem with that:

Their box is not your box. You have been fearfully and wonderfully made. You are one of one. Don’t lose your originality to become a duplicate. Tell your neighbor, “you are an original, so stop trying to be a copy!”

Their pieces are not your pieces. You don’t have the pieces to build what is on their box. And likewise, they don’t have the pieces to build what is on your box.

If you try to build your life based on their box, you’ll be missing pieces. You will lose your peace over what you thought were missing pieces.

Anxiety is on the up.

I personally believe that the increase of anxiety is connected to our increase of comparison.

Because we have more access into the lives of other people, instead of sharing in the joy of what is happening with other people, we fall into comparison with what is happening with other people.

Let me just remind you that comparison is the thief of joy.

You were doing good with what you had until you started looking at what other people had.

Your new car was enough, until you looked at the new car that your coworker just bought.

[Humor]

You two have the same job, and you know that her salary isn’t commensurate with the car she drives. And instead of continuing to thank God for what you do have, you’re getting salty over what she has.

Are you tracking with me?

So we lose our joy, and when we lose our joy, we lose our peace.

Speaking of Peace

Let’s talk about peace for a minute because it’s important that we understand how God views peace.

When we think of peace, we have an American context of peace, which means it is the absence of conflict.

Do you remember the slogan “Peace in the Middle East”?

We think that peace is just the absence of conflict, and what God wants for us to to just be free of conflict.

But that’s not depth of what God’s peace is.

The Hebrew word for peace is Shalom.

Shalom is not just the absence of conflict, but it is wholeness or completeness.

I love the Bible’s definition much more than I love my American definition. The original language shows me that God’s love towards me is that not only would my life be free of conflict, but more importantly, that I would experience wholeness in my life.

Missing Pieces

Let get back to playing with Legos…

If I tried to build my Lego set by only looking at the picture, I’m going to come to the very end of my build, and I am going to have left over pieces. Meaning, what I have built is not whole. From the outside, it might look like it is, but when I see that I have all of these missing pieces, I will know that what I have built is not complete.

When I’m trying to build something else with my pieces, the problem is even worse.

So when I am trying to build something without using the manual that I have been given… and it gets even better Lighthouse. Imagine not only having access to the manual, but also having access to the designer of the Lego set? Imagine being able to pick up a phone and FaceTime the person who designed the entire Lego set and consult with him?

This is what you have Lighthouse.

We have God’s word to us. It is a light to my feet, and a lamp to my path. I don’t have to wonder what God’s will is for my life, I can read it here in the text.

And whenever I need to speak to the designer, all I have to do is fall to my knees and I can begin a dialogue with the almighty!

[Build it up here]

I have everything that I need so that I can be whole.

I have everything I need so that I can be complete.

I have everything I need so that nothing is missing in my life.

I don’t need to look at what other people are doing.

I don’t need to compare what God gave me and what he gave other people.

I’m going to stay right here and I am going to run my race.

I’m not going to get distracted.

I’m going to celebrate what God is doing in the lives of others. But make no mistake, I’m building what God gave me with the pieces he gave me.

Back to the 10

I need to take us home, and I need to get back to my text in order for you to see how this looked in the life of these 10 Lepers.

In the text that we read, 10 lepers cry out to Jesus. They asked for mercy.

That’s particularly important because these lepers believed that their outward condition was a punishment for something that they had done. Leprosy was viewed as God’s judgment on an individual.

These lepers didn’t ask for healing, they asked for mercy.

They believed that if they asked for mercy their offense would be forgiven and they would no longer be leprous.

Jesus’ response was for them to present themselves to the priest. This was the custom in their time. Whenever a leper recovered from their leprosy, it was responsibility of the priest to perform an inspection.

Not a doctor. A priest.

Why?

Because their outward condition was a sign of their inner condition.

So as we read in the story, the 10 were healed in the act of walking towards the temple.

Let me make sure you get that… they had not yet seen the priest. They were healed while walking to the priest.

One of the ten noticed that his outward condition had changed. He was healed. So what he did next was run back to Jesus to give him thanks. The other 9 kept on walking. They weren’t wrong to do so. That’s what Jesus said to do.

But one, had the wherewithal to come back to Jesus and thank him.

And what happens that follows is point of everything. To the one who came back, Jesus said, “your faith has made you whole.”

The other nine were healed and happy to be healed!

But this one man, he received something even greater than healing, he received wholeness. He received shalom.

And so this man, having been healed and made whole, runs back with the other nine and together they present themselves to the priest. They are allowed to re-enter the community, their families, and their friends.

But as amazing as that was for them, there was only one returning to his community in wholeness.

The other nine? Things looked great on the outside. But inside, there are pieces that are missing. When they were ostracized from their family resentment took something from them. Anxiety took something from them. Shame took something from them. Trauma took something from them.

They were healed, but they weren’t whole.

But for the one man, his mind was restored. His anxiety went away. The anger about his situation is gone. He’s not coming back PTSD. He’s coming back whole and complete.

The pieces that his experience tried that take from him, were restored to him and he was able to build his life on the Shalom of God.

Shalom restores to our life what was taken through our trauma.

Conclusion

I live this visual on our sermon series. Knowing what you now know, we understand that no present, no new toy, no technology, no new car or a new home, will be able to bring you peace. God gives us peace. The Bible says that he is the Prince of Peace.

Do you want peace? Do you want wholeness?

Then ask the Prince of Peace to come into your heart today.

I’m going to close us in prayer, and while I do that, I’m going to have everyone who is getting baptized come up at this time and follow the direction of our team.

If at the end of this prayer, you feel convicted to take this next step of Baptism, I’m happy to let you know that you can do this today! We have everything you need to get baptized right now. Today. And if you want to make some phone calls, we’ll baptize you at the end of our 11 AM service and you’ve got some time to get your family here.

But today, we’re going to see six people continue on their journey to wholeness. They are pursuing shalom in their life.

Let’s pray.