Being In Touch: Being situationally aware (our environment, our culture, our world)
Being In Touch: Being self-aware (knowing who and whose we are)
Our God is In Touch with us: He is in touch with the world that He has placed us in and He is also aware of who we are as individuals since He is the One who created us. He gets us!
For we have not a high priest (JESUS) which CANNOT BE TOUCHED (He is in touch) with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore COME BOLDLY unto the THRONE OF GRACE, that we may OBTAIN MERCY, and FIND GRACE to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:15-16 KJV)
• Mercy is God Himself!
• Grace is God Himself!
The story of the 10 leppers
Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 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.
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 Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 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.”
(Luke 17:11-19 NKJV)
• All 10 lepers found the mercy of God.
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. (Luke 17: 13-14 NKJ)
• “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us”
• Jesus is our master, and we serve Him as His servants. But there is always a distance or separation between a master and a servant. No intimacy.
I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. (John 15:15 NLT)
• The one who came back wanted to know Jesus.
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. (Luke 17:15-16 NKJ)
• He realized He was healed by the High Priest Himself.
• He needed The High Priest, Jesus Himself. The One who was in touch with him. The One who is situationally aware of the culture and him as a person. The One who gets him for he is, a Samaritan.
This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses (In Touch: our culture, our world, our family, with all the flaws), for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15 NLT)
• That day he met The One who would accept him and not reject him. The One who would give him something called hope.
• Hope: a confident expectation for something good in the future.
• The Samaritan lepper did not want to go back home without this hope. Hope to be made well!
• There is a big difference between being healed and being made well.
• Being healed – was his leprosy cleansed (on the outside).
• Being made well – was his soul (on the inside)
“ARISE, GO YOUR WAY. YOUR FAITH HAS MADE YOU WELL.” (Luke 17:19 NKJ)
• The important word here is “Well” translated from the Greek word “sodzo”.
• The same word that is used in Romans 10:13- “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be SAVED.”
• Here’s what Jesus was saying: “Go home. You are saved!”
CONCLUSION:
What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?
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