Life to the Fullest

”Life to the Fullest”

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God who is the creator of life, desires that you live your life to the fullest!

-“The thief comes to steal, to kill, and destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”.

An abundant, supreme, primo, life, only comes from Jesus.

There are a lot of people who are not living, there just existing; they are drawing their breath, and drawing their salary. And yet they have no sense of purpose; they cannot tell you why they’re here on this earth.

You can see it on their faces, and hear it in their voice, they have not discovered life to the fullest; because have not discovered Jesus, who alone can give them abundant life!

Maybe you’re here this morning you think:

If I can just married the right person.

If I could just get the right job.

If I could just have enough money.

If I could have more friends.

If I had these things then my life would be fulfilled, and I would be happy.

But none of these things can give you abundant life.

This morning were going to meet 10 men whose life had fall completely apart; and they have an encounter with the Lord Jesus, and he works in their life in the supernatural way.

But only one out of the nine experienced life to the fullest! The Lord Jesus shows us in this story of the healing of the lepers; what actions we must take if you were going to live life to the fullest.

The first action to take is to:

1. Cry out for Mercy!

V:11-13.

Jesus is still on his way to Jerusalem, making his way to Calvary and the cross. He is on the outskirts of an unnamed village between Samaria and Galilee. As Jesus is passing through this certain village, he is met by 10 lepers.

In those days lepers were social outcast who lived in leper colonies on the outskirts of the population.

A Leper suffered Physically:

All of these men were like, all 10 of them, they were lepers. There was no cure for leprosy! The book of Leviticus, tells us that leprosy would start small, grow and destroy a person physically. First the person would feel fatigue, their joints would begin to get sore, then one day little white spots would come up on the flesh, turn into nodules, and spread over their entire body.

Leprosy would attack the facial features first, eating away their nose, and face, then the fingers. The hands were frozen into claws before they simply fell off. There feet filled with sores and become bandaged stumps. Leprosy would also attack their vocal cords, so when they would breathe there was a wheezing sound and their voice became raspy. The odor was terrible, and their appearance was horrible. The lepers suffered a long, slow agonizing death physically.

A leper suffered Socially.

According to the law, lepers were ceremonially unclean. According to , a leper must cover their mouth and cry unclean, unclean.

They would be quarantined, and isolated from their family, friends and village, they would live in a leper’s colony. They were forbidden to come within 6 feet of a person, if the wind was blowing they couldn’t come within 50 yards of a person.

Josephus, the famous Jewish historian, summed it up, saying that lepers were treated “as if they were, in effect, dead men.

You get the picture, lepers suffered total rejection, cut off from their families and the worship of God’s people.

Luke tells us in, V:12-“they stood far off…

Their life had fallen apart!

In that day there was absolutely no hope of being healed. They would never be able to go home again, they could never walk through the gates of the village again, and they could never enter the synagogue and sit on their pew again. They could never hold their wife, hold their children, embrace their friends; their life as they had known it was over! Leprosy serves as a parable of sin; it was an outward visible sign of inward spiritual corruption.

Sin makes you unclean before a holy God!

Sin destroys your life.

No disease in the Bible pictures the devastating results of sin in a person's life like the disease of leprosy.

Our sin and depravity is a disease that distorts and disfigures the person God created us to be. It is a kind of living dead, because the Bible says that apart from Christ, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Friends we are in terrible shape without Jesus Christ! If you could ever see yourself with spiritual eyes as you are without Jesus, you would know that you are the walking dead trying to cover yourself with filthy rags. These men stood at a distance, because they were not allowed to come any closer. But there was something they could do; they could shout to the top of their lungs, when they found out Jesus was passing by!

V:13-“And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us”.

These men had evidently heard the reports, stories, of how Jesus had touched lepers and made them clean, .

And when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cry out to the top of their lungs, Jesus, master, have mercy on us! In their cry they are acknowledging that they were unclean lepers, they are acknowledging that Jesus was a healer, that he had the power to heal them. Do you hear these men crying out for mercy? Their cry for mercy is a good example of the way all sinners ought to cry out for mercy. Are you here this morning and you are living far away from Jesus because of the leprosy of sin? Cry out for mercy!

Have you allowed your sin to separate you from your family, friends, and everyone who cares about you? Cry out for mercy!

How do you ask God for the help that you need to get your life back together? You cry out to Jesus, the loving and saving son of God, who alone is able to help you in your desperate time of need!

The lepers when they cried out called Jesus master; the word master, is the word commander. Jesus commanded demons, disease, and even death and they had to obey him.

Who has the power, authority to conquer sin in your life? Jesus the Master!

Cry out for mercy!

Listen, do you want your life back? Do you want to live life to the fullest?

Then do not call the psychic hotline!

Do not call the fortune teller!

Do not call Dr. Phil!

Do not call Judge Judy!

Call on the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy, healing, help, power, a miracle!

Do not miss the fact that these men cry out for mercy. They know they do not deserve anything, and they’re not waiting until they think they’re good enough for God. They come right out and asked for mercy, that only God can give. This is the kind of prayer that God loves to answer!

God answers our deep cry for mercy just as he answer the prayer of these lepers.

Please do not miss the fact that they do not ask for justice; they asked for mercy. They did not asked Jesus to bless them on the basis of what they deserved, they cried out for mercy!

I heard about this guy who had his picture taken, he was very upset with the photographer and didn’t like his picture. He went back into the photographer and said, look at this picture of me!

This picture does not do me justice! The photographer looked at him and said, Mr., with a face like yours, you don’t need justice you need mercy.

And that’s what we need, we need the mercy of God!

Some people live in constant defeat because there holding out for justice. Maybe someone has wronged you and you harbor resentment for years. You won’t justice.

Some have been abused, and they won’t justice. But justice belongs to God; give it over to him. Truth will always win in the end. Our cry should be for mercy!

The Lord Jesus was passing by and these men did not want to miss the master, so they cried out for mercy.

This morning the master, the Lord Jesus is passing by; will you cry out for mercy? You’re sitting there in that pew this morning and Jesus is passing by, he has passed by your way before, but you have never called out to him for mercy.

You have tried to put your life together yourself, or tried to find help from your friends, but your friends don’t have the power to transform your life.

The first action to take to live your life to the fullest is to 1. Cry out for mercy.

The second action to take is to:

2. Step out in Faith!

V:14.

Jesus heard their cry, Jesus saw their pitiful condition, and Jesus spoke to them.

He told them to go and show themselves to the priest; implied in this command is that if they would do what he said they would be healed.

The fact that they obeyed what Jesus said is evidence that they believed he would heal them. But they were not healed when Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priest; they were not healed until they were on the path of obedience to see the priest. The Law of Moses commanded that a leper was to show himself to the priest after he had been healed, not before. It took faith for these men to act in obedience to Jesus word, to go show themselves to the priest while they were still lepers.

And the Bible says, V:14-“as they went, they were cleansed”.

Put yourself in their place for a moment, they have a choice to make; will they go in faith even though there still lepers? To hear Jesus command to go to the priest is one thing, but to actually get up and go to the priest with nothing but faith in Christ word is another thing.

They stepped out in faith to Jesus word; believing that if they obeyed his command they would be healed. The miracle of cleansing, the miracle of help came to them on the path of obedience. This reminds us of a great fact; the only way to test the value of God’s word is to obey it! You say I don’t believe God’s word in this area, therefore I’m not going to obey it. Well then you will never experience the miracles that come into a person’s life who obeys the Bible!

These lepers take Jesus at his word, and they start to walk, they are headed to see the priest. They are stepping out in faith on the word of Jesus.

Some of you this morning are spiritual lepers, you’re unsaved, because you have never believed the word of Jesus!

,-“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”.

Jesus command requires faith! You must believe that if you will do what Jesus says, you will be saved! Many spiritual lepers, whose lives are fallen apart never start walking in faith. But until you start obeying the word of Jesus, things in your life are never going to get better!

Jesus speaks to us through his word, we hear his word, believe his word, obey his word, and we experience healing, help, direction, miracles!

Only on the path of obedience to the word of God do we experience supernatural things!

Can you picture them as they start down the road to the priest, V:14-“and as they went they were cleansed…

We don’t know if they took 20 steps, walked a quarter-mile, or 5 miles; but while they were walking in faith to the word of Jesus, they were healed! One of them looked at the other and said your leprosy, it’s gone! He looks back at him and says, yours is gone too! It was an instant, dynamic change in their lives! From there deteriorated faces, reemerged a nose, eyebrows, eyelashes, hair, their feet, and toes, and hands, are suddenly healed! Suddenly new fingers emerge, their voices clear up, and their skin becomes soft again. They are jumping up and down, full of joy, there physical lives have been restored by the power of God!

There are a lot of people who cry out for mercy, but far too few who step out in faith.

You can recognize that your life is covered with the leprosy of sin, and your life is not what it should be, and you have long diagnosed yourself as a person who is messed up.

But all you do is cry out for mercy, you never step out in faith in what Jesus says in his word.

· You know you’re bitter-but you won’t forgive, like the Bible says.

· You know you’re not the spouse you should be-but you won’t obey the Bible.

· You know you’re living in sin, but you won’t repent of the sin as the Bible commands.

· You know you’re not obedient in the area of tithing, but you won’t obey the Bible.

Crying out for mercy is necessary; but miracles only happen as we step out in faith to the word of God!

Had these men not stepped out in obedience to Jesus word they would have missed the miracle!

To live your life to the fullest; cry out for mercy, don’t miss the master. To live your life to the fullest; step out in faith, don’t miss the miracle.

The Third action to take is to:

3. Bow down in Thanks!

V:15-19.

As we look at these men, we see they were all lepers, they all called on Jesus, they all stepped out in faith, and they were all healed. But that is where the likeness ends. Stand with them on the road for a moment… They see they had been healed, they celebrate their healing, it is an amazing moment. They stand there just for a moment… Then I imagined one says; I haven’t held my wife in months, and months, and there he goes running down the road toward his house.

The second one says, I haven’t seen my children in years, and off he goes.

The third one says, I haven’t been to my shop in a year, and there he goes down the road.

One by one they’re all gone; until there’s only one left standing in the road. The other nine lepers are never heard of again.

He is also looking down the road toward home. He also has a family, a business, and friends. But something is more pressing, somethings more important, something is more urgent to him.

V:15-16-“And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan”.

His heart is filled with gratitude for what Jesus has done for him! And he doesn’t want to miss this moment to give Jesus thanks!

What about you? Once you were in a crisis, once you cried out for mercy, once you stepped out in faith, and Jesus saved you, healed you, turned your life around; but it’s been a long time since you bowed down in thanks!

Notice that Jesus said, V:15-“and one of them…

Only 1 out of 10 came back to give Jesus thanks, it’s too bad that we don’t know this man’s name, he is simply referred to as “one of them”. He is one of the nameless people in the Bible who teach us the way that were supposed to live our lives! And this morning he is saying to us, turn back, fall down, and give Jesus thanks for what he has done for you!

If you were standing near this man when he came back to Jesus, you would have to turn down your hearing aid because the Bible says in, V:15-with a loud voice he glorified God…

The word “loud”, is the word megaphone, he is using his voice as a megaphone to praise God!

He is not trying to hide his thanks to Jesus for what is done for him!

Try to picture this man in your mind; he is shouting hallelujah to God, he is praising God for healing him!

The word glorified in V:15, is the word doxology, a doxology is simply a hymn of praise, giving glory to God.

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;

Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

He praises God, V:16, and then he falls at Jesus feet and thanks Him!

Why is it that so many of us are like the 9 who call on the Lord when were in a time of need and so few of us turned back and fall at Jesus feet in praise and thanksgiving like the 1?

When the Lord Jesus has saved our soul, transformed our life, the only appropriate response is to thank him! From the time we were little children, our parents had been teaching us to say thank you, when someone gives us something. How much more should we thank the Lord Jesus for what he has done for us! What do you say?

Thank you!

Jesus made it a point to tell us that this man who turned back, glorified God, and fell down at Jesus feet giving him thanks was a Samaritan.

Do you see the difference here? In, V:12, they stood afar off, but now we find this man at Jesus feet. That is what cleansing will do for you, you change your location, from separation, to reconciliation.

Being a Samaritan meant that he was not a part of God’s covenant people, he was an outcast, a stranger to the covenant promises of Abraham. He was like the woman at the well, and the man on the Jericho Road, the Good Samaritan. Here we see again the missionary heart of our Lord Jesus.

Jesus loves and receives all people who come to him! Then Jesus asked two sad questions in;

V:17-“Were there not 10 cleansed? Where are the nine?

Yes there were 10 cleansed… But the nine, where are they? The shocking thing is not that the 1 came back to give thanks; the shocking thing is that the other 9 didn’t! Only 1 man out of 10 bowed down to give thanks to Jesus for what he had done for him; that is shocking! I’m afraid that too many times my response is shocking!

Often God does so much for me, and I never turn back and glorify him, bow down and thank him like he deserves!

Why didn’t they return? Did they feel they deserved this miracle? Ingratitude is a way of saying that God owes us whatever he gives us, and that we owe him nothing in return, not even thanks. Which is a complete reversal of the truth, God owes us nothing and we owe him everything! How quick we are to complain; and how slow we are to thank!

God help us to be like the one man who thanked Jesus, and not like the nine who didn’t. What we see in this story is a glimpse of humanity.

The sin of ingratitude is one of the characteristics of our sinful, fallen race. -“they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him”

Paul goes on to say and , that unthankfulness will be one of the sins of the last days.

We think of ingratitude as a minor sin, but in the Bible it is a major sin. Do you count your blessings and thank God for them? Or do you take God for granite, forgetting to praise him for everything he does for you?

When I look back at my life, and think for a moment; I become thankful.

I do not deserve to have the wife I have.

I do not deserve to have the children I have.

I did not deserve to have had the mother and father I had.

I do not deserve to have the health I have.

I do not deserve to pastor the church I do.

I do not deserve to have the friends I do.

I do not deserve to live where I do, in this blessed country.

I do not deserve to have been saved from the leprosy of my sin, forgiven by the grace of God, washed in the blood of Jesus, transformed by the power of God, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Song-I am who you say I am…

Jesus said to this man down at His feet giving him thanks, V:19-“Arise, go your way: your faith has made you whole”.

The word “whole” is the familiar New Testament word for being saved from sin. This man is placing his faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Savior; and his faith in Jesus saves him eternally. This man is saved from his sin, set free from the penalty of sin which is death and separation from God.

Yes he has received a physical healing just like the other 9, but he experiences a spiritual healing, forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to God and eternal life.

What brought about the spiritual healing? His faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior!

The other 9 men wanted what Jesus could do for them; but they didn’t want Jesus. This man was thankful for what Jesus did for him, but he wanted a relationship with Jesus. Don’t settle for the things that Jesus can do for you; come to know Jesus in a personal way, as your Lord and Savior!

Warning Wiersbe said, “Instead of going to the priest, this man became a priest, and built his altar at Jesus feet”. Jesus gave this man a clean heart, to match his clean skin! This man was clean on the inside because he placed his faith in Jesus Christ!

Do you want to live your life to the fullest?

1. Cry out for mercy!

2. Step out in faith!

3. Bowed down in thanks!