Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:06 Guys, let's um, probe the word and then a, I am gonna go straight to Luke 17 so you can get that ready for the screens. But Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you that it is a lamp onto our ed. It is a light unto our path. And I pray this morning that what you have for us is actually gonna light our lives. It's gonna show us things that we've not seen before. It's gonna cut a pathway of clarity into our life and it's gonna literally enlighten us in places that we desperately need it. Cuz that is what your word does. And so we take this moment, we give you our full attention. Holy Spirit, we invite you in. We ask for your presence. We ask that you would take the truth that is in your word and you would interpret it straight into our hearts personally, so that we can chew on it all week long and beyond and become more and more and more like you.
Speaker 1 00:00:58 In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Guys, um, I feel like uh, this morning I'm slightly inspired by um, American Thanksgiving. I know we are not American, but um, if there was ever a festival that I wish we in South Africa would've adopted rather than Halloween, I would've hoped that it would've been Thanksgiving. It's like back from the days in in England, they used to celebrate harvest where they would celebrate a, a good harvest coming in back in the day where it was like literally farm to to fork living. You know, they weren't all the takeaways and whatever. And so there was this genuine celebration of a good crop or a good harvest because people would be well nourished then for the season going ahead. And it was, it's really lovely festival of genuinely stopping and giving thanks for that which has come from the earth to nourish our human bodies.
Speaker 1 00:01:50 And it's evolved into obviously, uh, what it has evolved into in the States. But I love it. I love that people would take time to sit around a table and have a meal together and actually give thanks. I dunno how many of us as families even stop and eat around a table anymore and give thanks. But um, yeah, that is pretty much what has inspired today's word. And I found myself going back to this book that I read probably about 10 years ago. It was a gift from um, gift from a really good friend and it is the gift that keeps giving. And if I were to ever recommend a book to you, I know that I often recommend many things, but seriously, this is the most outstanding soul food type of book. I might even read a bit from it this morning to you guys.
Speaker 1 00:02:38 But um, Thanksgiving, let's just go to Luke 17 and let's kick off over there and see what God has for us this morning. Okay? Read with me guys. Jesus traveled on to watch Jerusalem and he passed through the border. Can you see the screens if I stand here? Okay, I'll just do this. Okay? And he passed through the border region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered one village, 10 men approached him but they kept their distance for they were lepers. Like we can all probably understand this coming out of Covid where we needed to social distance. This is how it was for lepers. If you had that disease, you were not allowed to interact with humanity. You had to isolate yourselves. Okay? Social distancing, it is in the Bible. Who knew? They shouted to him, mighty Lord, our wonderful master once you have mercy on us and heal us.
Speaker 1 00:03:29 And when Jesus stopped to look at them, he spoke these words go to be examined by the Jewish priests. Now for those of you who understand Jewish law at all, what you would know is that if you were unwell or considered unclean for any variety of reasons and then the priest were to or the you, you, you were to get better, okay? You were to be healed, you would then have to go and show yourself to the priest who would have the authority to then say to you, you are now considered clean. You may interact with society again. So what Jesus is actually saying is, I see your uncleanness, I see your leprosy. And then he says to them, now go to the priests. They are still full of leprosy as he says this to them, just by the way. And you'll see that as the next chapter rolls on or the next verse rolls on.
Speaker 1 00:04:13 They said off. Okay? They set off still full of leprosy and they were hailed while walking along the way. I mean it's crazy. It's like a whole nother sermon in itself. But like I don't know, you know at that point you come to Jesus, you expect to be healed. And then he says, go and show yourself to the priest. In other words, he's saying, go and act as if you healed even though they're not actually healed in that moment because they get healed while they are on their way. And so their obedience, even though they couldn't actually physically see their miracle, their obedience, they could have chosen to go this way after having that interaction with Jesus. Or they could have chosen to go that way. And obviously they choose to walk towards the priests just sheer obedience even though they cannot see the miracle yet.
Speaker 1 00:05:00 I mean there's something crazy in that and something that we need to take and apply for our own lives. There are a whole lot of times where we just need to walk out in faith before we even see the miracle and trust that on the way, on the way what God has said will happen. So off they go they get healed, okay? They do as they told and head towards the priest, one of them a foreigner from Samaria. Now the Bible is never arbitrary with what information it includes, okay? There are 10 of them, nine of them are not included in this next part of the storytelling. One of them though who was a Samaritan, we just focus in on for a minute. The thing with the Samaritan is they would've been considered the outcasts, okay? Not actually, um, not as up there as the Israelites.
Speaker 1 00:05:53 They would've known it too. So within their hearts they would've actually felt this feeling of like, I don't know, not as entitled perhaps as the Israeli arts because they were not as good in the eyes of the Israelites. Jesus was from Israel, right? And so here you have the Samaritan as one of the 10 and he's the one we're focusing in on. He's the one the least entitled one and potentially the one who within the group would've come to Jesus. Like the most sort of humble and lowly like I don't even know if I should be interacting with this guy because of I am a Samaritan. Okay? So when he discovered that he was completely healed, he turns back to find Jesus shouting out, joyous praises and glorifying God. When he found Jesus, he fell down at his feet and thanked him like over and over saying to him, you have a messiah.
Speaker 1 00:06:53 And then again, as if the Bible's like in case you missed it, it tells us again this man was a Samaritan in other word, take note, the nine who maybe were like, we're all, we are all that are not the people who turned back to thank Jesus, but the one who perhaps saw himself as not all that who perhaps came least entitled and humble is the one who turns around. And I don't know, I feel like there's um, there's so something in that even for us as a 21st century people, you know, I just wonder whether sometimes we do come to Jesus, um, without the humility that we should expecting, you know, super expecting God do this, God do that. And then you know, God does it. And then we just keep walking because we are entitled to it. And yes we are because of what Jesus did on the cross.
Speaker 1 00:07:44 There is an authority that we can rest in. But at the same time, when our hearts always be humble enough so that when, when the giver of good gifts, who is Jesus, who is God our father, when he bestow that on us, we wouldn't be so busy and so entitled that we can't even bother to turn around and with sheer gratitude like thank him genuinely from the core of who we are. That's something we can only gauge within our own hearts. Here's what Jesus said. And here's the second miracle for the Samaritan. Okay? The other nine get their first miracle and or they go amazing. It's amazing, okay? That they can be physically healed of leprosy just by the word of God. Okay? But here's the sky, the Samaritan. So where are the other nine? Jesus asked, weren't there 10 who were healed? They all refused to return to give thanks and give glory to God except you a foreigner from Samaria.
Speaker 1 00:08:41 I mean the Bible definitely wants us to know this was a Samaritan three times over, right? And then Jesus said to the healed man, lying at his feet, arise and go. It was your faith that brought you salvation and healing. It's interesting the way that, that that ends. Okay? And I read, I read this piece of scripture to you from the passion translation because when you read it in other translations of the Bible, for example like the the New Living Translation, it says Your faith has healed you. The amplified says your faith has restored you to health. Um, the nrv says your faith has made you well. And it can be a little bit confusing actually cuz you're like, wasn't he actually made well with, with the other nine? You know, they all got their healing together. Then the one turns around and he comes to say thank you to Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:09:27 And then Jesus says, it's your faith that's made you well. But it's a bit confusing because he was already healed and that's why he turns around and he, here's where the Greek just become so important. You know how much I love the Greek? Hey, but actually that second encounter of healing that we will take and we will in our English language speaking about speak about him being healed is a different word that's used in the first encounter, the first healing encounter. The second word is this word sozo. Has anyone heard of that word? You might have heard of sozo ministry. It comes out of a church called Bethel Church, which I know a lot of people follow and love and but that word sozo actually means to save, to save. And then if you dig down deeper in the word, it also means true wellness and complete wholeness, salvation, true wellness, complete wholeness.
Speaker 1 00:10:19 All 10 of them got their physical healing. The one who was humble enough, the Samaritan who came back to Jesus and with gratitude, with gratitude thanked him. He got sozo as well as his physical healing. He got true wellness and wholeness and salvation. You know the thing with salvation, we often just think we're saved if we believe in Jesus. And so therefore we're saved from hell one day. Okay, awesome. But we're not just saved from hell one day, we're actually saved to appropriate that salvation right here on the earth as we walk out our lives in a fallen world. But we are to appropriate salvation into our lives. Appropriate healing, appropriate wholeness become the light of the world as we walk through a fallen world who's desperately looking for light to follow. That's salvation. It's a journey that like churns within us over and over again until one day, yes, our body expires or Jesus comes back for us.
Speaker 1 00:11:18 That was the last time I spoke. Hey um, who knows which will happen first? Jesus may come back for us before our bodies expire, but either way we are to walk out salvation right now in here and now. And so this is what that guy got. He got true wellness and complete hellness. Look at these um, scriptures in light of just Thanksgiving and how his thanksgiving led to his sozo. Okay, Psalm 50 23 in the Amplified, I'll read it first. It says, yeah, he who offers a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving honors me and to him who orders his way rightly, who follows the way that I show him, I shall show, I shall show the salvation or sozo in the Greek of God actually preferred in the passion translation. I should have read it there, but that's okay. Let's just read it again. The life that pleases me.
Speaker 1 00:12:09 Have you got the passion? Uh, Ellen, thank you. The life that pleases me is a life lived in the gratitude of grace, always choosing to walk with me in what is right. And this is the sacrifice I desire for you. If you do this, more of my salvation will unfold in you guys. Like to just live grateful and to live thankful is actually a seriously powerful like psychological tool. It's so good that psychologists use it. They go and study for seven years and then they just teach you to be like mindful. It's mindfulness, it's a big word. And that psychology field and they tell, they tell us to stop and behold, behold the sunrise. Like hold the gift for a moment, behold it and let it bring nourishment to your soul. I'm all ah, it's just bible. They're just bible me read to you from my book A Thousand Gifts.
Speaker 1 00:13:17 This is Anne Voskamp. I don't know, um, does anyone know this book? Bevin? Yes. Cuz I passed it on Tim to read. Ah, it's one of your wi it's one of your wife's favorite books. Hey Muddy Princess, I hope she's doing so well. Pray for her right now. And Jesus' name. Amen. But um, here's the thing with this woman, Anne Voskamp is her name. She's Canadian, she is a farmer's wife, homeschools her six children, bless her, um, out there in Canada. And um, and just found when she was four years old, I'm not giving anything away cuz you, you really do need to go and read this book. But in the very first page of this book, what you learn about her is that as a four year old, she actually watches her older sister, um, die. Her older sister gets reversed over by a delivery truck.
Speaker 1 00:14:05 I mean, how heavy is that? And literally the parents scoop up this child and the child does not make it. And so from that point on in her household as a four year old Anne Voskamp who's now an adult and raising her own kids, just there's a, there's a climate change in the household. And from what had been a pretty joyous house, now just become something somber to the point that, um, later on in life, her mum even ends up in a psychiatric ward. She cannot get over the loss of this child. And, and so this is how she's raised. She's raised in just oppression and even depression and finds herself just in the monotony of raising her own children and attending church because it's the thing to do and fully believing it, fully believing in Jesus. But at the same time, just feeling like where is the soul health?
Speaker 1 00:14:56 Where is the joy? You know, life can get pretty monotonous. Anxiety can creep in so easily when we just forever are looking to all the things that are not right in the world. And, and this is the space that she finds herself in. And essentially she has a friend who challenges her to hold and behold the gifts that are already in her life, not to look at what isn't and what is lacking and what she wishes was different because we can all do that. We're not living in perfection, right? But at the same time, to just be somebody who goes, look at what you do have, take like, find the moments, hold them and behold them and essentially challenges her to write a list of a thousand things that she goes on to call a thousand gifts. And as she embarks on this journey, it's amazing actually what ends up happening in her soul.
Speaker 1 00:15:48 I mean, it's crazy things that she writes, like it's simple things and then there's big things and then sometimes it's just the most awesome day. And at other times it's a day where like her, her boy comes in, her seven year old boy and he's actually put his hand through a huge industrial fan on the farm and has cut his finger off. And it's like, how do you hold and behold on that day, you know, and she journeys you through life and how she basically finds herself moving from a place of heaviness and oppression and dissatisfaction in life to complete wholeness. And, but it's, it's, it's, it's a journey and it's, and and it's a rhythm and it's a discipline that she feels like she has to continue to live, to live in day by day so that she doesn't slip back into. But here's what she says just early on in the book and I love it.
Speaker 1 00:16:38 She's very poetic the way she writes, just by the way, so hi Darren <laugh>, very poetic. She says this from all our beginnings, we keep reliving the garden story. Okay? This is taking you back to the Garden of Eden Satan who wanted more, more power, more glory. That's what he wanted, okay? He wanted to be worshiped. That was that, that was his story. He didn't want for everyone to be worshiping God. He wanted some of that worship for himself. More power, more glory. Ultimately in his essence, Satan is an ingra. In other words, someone who was not grateful enough for what he was given and what he had. And he sinks his venom into the heart of Eden, poetic Satan sin becomes the first sin of all humanity. It's the Sinn gratitude. Adam and Eve are simply painfully ungrateful for what God gave. Isn't that the catalyst of all our sins?
Speaker 1 00:17:39 Our four was, has always been and always will be. That we aren't satisfied in God and what he gives we hunger for something more, something other standing before that tree, okay? The tree right there in Eden, laid in with fruit withheld. We listen to evil's murmur then and still today in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be open. That's what it says in Genesis three, five. But in the beginning our eyes were already open, our sight was perfect, our vision, it allowed us to see a world spilling with goodness. Our eyes felt on nothing but the glory of God. We saw God as he truly was and is he's good. But we were lured by the deception that there was more to a full life. There was more to see and true there was more to see the ugliness we hadn't be held, the sinfulness, we hadn't witnessed the loss, we hadn't known.
Speaker 1 00:18:44 And we eat and in an instant we are blind and we can think that Adam and Eve are the only people that did that or do that. But we do it over and over and over again. Take our eyes off that which is good and that which is true, pure, lovely of good report. It's a scripture and Philippians and we choose something else to try and satisfy our souls. We eat in an instant. We are blind. No longer do we see God as one we can trust. No longer do we perceive him as holy good no longer do. We observe all the remaining paradise we eat. And in an instant we see everywhere we look, we see a world of lack, a universe of loss, a cosmos of scarcity and injustice. And we are hungry and we eat and we are filled and we are emptied and still we look at the fruit and see only the material means to fill out emptiness.
Speaker 1 00:19:40 We don't see the material world for what it is meant to be as the means to communion with God. It's so good. I could carry on reading like story time, but I won't cuz you guys can take this and you can read and it's almost the type of book that you have to read slowly and keep stopping it and thinking about because um, if you do that it is actually life changing. Like life like it was a game changer for me that book 10 years ago. But she goes on basically, um, within the story and she just, she talks about how we can't always see the hand of God in our circumstance. She talks about how sometimes there's a hard giving things to be made. You know, like the Israelites, when they were taken out of Egypt and they were, um, ushered into what was gonna be their promised land, they had to move, they had to move through the wilderness and they were fed by man, which was just sweet bread falling from the sky.
Speaker 1 00:20:37 And it's amazing. They had never seen it. Literally the name manana means, what is this? Like they saw it and they're like, oh, manna, what is this? And they were fed by that, which they did not understand. They had no comprehension for what it was. And honestly, sometimes it is like that in our lives. We go through these seasons and it's like we do not understand what God is giving us, what he is dealing us. But if we would eat it, it can be sweet to taste and it will be nourishing to our soul. And we can still give thanks even without understanding. And I, I don't know, like we've just been through, I I know I've shared it before, I just feel like we've been through a few years where I have literally it's been like manner what is going on? Like life has looked so different for us in these last few years, but at the same time, what maybe I don't understand, it's okay to eat and be nourished and be filled and satisfied by it.
Speaker 1 00:21:38 Because what I do know and what I do understand is that God is good and that there is a journey. And if you are walking through something and you are heading somewhere, what you do know is that God will give you what you need to get you there. And so trust the giver in the process. Even if you don't understand, you can still give thanks and you know, Jesus. I mean like, I dunno, we've all had to give thanks probably in hard seasons. Some of us seasons longer than others, you know, and it, and it can be just like hard. How do I keep giving thanks trig, <laugh> for this thing, you know? But like none of us had to give thanks for our bodies broken on across. None of us had to do what Jesus did when we take communion. Do you know that scripture that we would read is um, a scripture that talks about how he gave thanks.
Speaker 1 00:22:31 He sat down with his disciples as the last thing he did and he took the bread symbolic of his body and breaks it and give thanks guys. Are you kidding me? Like he knew exactly what he was about to do. He knew that this was gonna be his body broken. How in the world do you give thanks ahead of what you're about to go through when you fully understand what you're about to go through? I mean, it was a time of Roman rule there had people were crucified all around them all the time. It wasn't only Jesus that was crucified. You had walk into the city and there was some guy who had been, you know, gotten into trouble for something and that was just the way the Romans took your life. And so he knew exactly what was coming and he gives thanks in, um, in the Greek, it's this word, Eucharist, which which encompasses our English phrase.
Speaker 1 00:23:25 He gave thanks. I think there might even, oh, look at that. There's a slide and it is the craziest word, guys, to behold and to dig down deep into, because the root word from this word Eucharist, he gave thanks is the word carus, which carus means grace. I think. Ah, look at you Ellen. Kace means grace, okay? Grace skies is his unmerited favor towards us, his unmerited favor and his enabling power in our lives. It's the thing that Jesus did on the cross to be able to give us un merited favor and enabling power as we walk out our salvation because of receiving Jesus and what he did on the cross. So he gave thanks. He didn't give thanks for the pain. We don't have to give thanks for the pain either. What he gave thanks for was grace. He gave thanks for you. And I restored into a relationship with him.
Speaker 1 00:24:33 He saw beyond the pain and what the goal of the pain was, was to have a relationship restored with humanity. And there was no other way. If there was, he would've found it because he was God. And he even asked in the Garden of Eden like Father is there any other way? And then there wasn't. And he surrenders himself to, to death on a cross. And actually is, is, is, is so of course because he's God so like big enough as a person that is not great English, but to stand and give thanks for it. And the thing with giving thanks guys is it, it actually produces a strength in our lives. So we've got this word, Eucharist, and then we've got chars, which means grace, which is what he's giving thanks for. And then if you dig down deeper into the word, it's this, it's this word carer that you get, which is where Carus and then Eucharist comes from.
Speaker 1 00:25:33 And guys, it means joy. Like how it's like this crazy contradiction that here God could like break the bread symbolic of his body, give thanks for the grace and be filled with joy. And the scripture tells us, and I just think isn't, isn't of course isn't Jesus genius because in Nehemiah it actually tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength. We are not gonna make it in this life if we do not have joy because it is strength to our bones to walk through a fallen world. And so if we want that, if we want strength and we want joy, we have got to get good at giving thanks. It's the recipe. It's the recipe for joy. It's the recipe for our strength. Let me read to you, um, Hebrews 12, um, verse two. It actually just puts that whole moment of Jesus giving thanks into beautiful context.
Speaker 1 00:26:32 It says this, his example is this talking about Jesus because his heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be his. He ensured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God. Puts it beautifully. Hey, the joy of the Lord is your strength. I wanna finish with, um, a thought that that actually also comes from here. Um, the kids out there have been doing the creation story. They're making these Christmas boals enjoy those on your Christmas trees, guys. They're talking through day one, day two, day three. They're currently on day six when you know the fish and the birds were created and, and um, know they're on day five. Sorry, day six were gonna talk about humans and the animals being created. But here's the thing with the, with the creation story, God creates Adam and Eve and then he creates all these amazing animals.
Speaker 1 00:27:32 And then he says to Adam, you name them, which is interesting, like Adam didn't name everything, he didn't name the rain, he didn't name the universe and the solar system and you know, Jupiter and satin and whatever. But he says, you name the animals. And I just wonder if it's this beautiful father to son. Lesson and behold, here I have, I have created, I have actually created a whole world for you because I want relationship with you, but you obviously need a place to live. And I've modeled it off of everything that is within me and my biggest spectrum. And here you're gonna have authority and you're gonna have rule and you're gonna have rain and, but we are gonna be friends. Like that was the goal. And then go ahead and just name all of the animals. I mean, could you imagine that moment?
Speaker 1 00:28:23 I dunno how long it took, but Adam would've sat and he would've had to look at the animal and he would've had to come up with something from the inside of him that would be able to brand or, or give voice to what that animal was, okay? Or what that animal should be called. And obviously language has evolved. And so we have the English words and I don't know all the original words, so even what the original language was, but what an exercise in holding and beholding a gift given so that humanity would be able to have that soul health, that sozo, wholeness, salvation hold and behold. And all I can say, you know, in light of American Thanksgiving, God bless America, let's take Thanksgiving this year. Let's take it even into our daily lives when it is and isn't Thanksgiving. And let's get so good at holding and behold, let's get good at listing.
Speaker 1 00:29:27 Even try it, take the challenge. Go ahead and make a thousand, a thousand, a list of a thousand gifts if you want to. And let's see what it might do in our souls. Like look at your kids. Hold and behold, take a minute, you know, um, take a minute. Over the sunrise, there are so many things that are already in our lives. So many things that if we were to focus on that rather than focus on the economy and whatever, let's not list the negative cuz we are here, but focus on them and let's just see if we can actually get that sozo working in and through our lives to a place where you walk in the room and it's like, what is it about these Christians? Because this is how we're supposed to be, right? The light of the world, but how, how do we come?
Speaker 1 00:30:20 How do we become that? I think we, I think we need to understand eucharisteo. We give thanks. We give thanks. Not for the pain guys. Okay? If it's tough for you right now, it is okay. You don't have to be like, I'm really grateful for, you know, no food on the table. Like that's no <laugh>. But there is something to look beyond and give thanks for and then let's be people of deep joy, especially as we come into Christmas. And let's be people that the world can look at and have a light to be able to follow. In Jesus' name. Yes. Amen. Shall we pray?
Speaker 1 00:31:03 Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you that it is always rich, it is always deep, it is always life changing if we will take a minute to stop on it and apply it. And so I pray that as the word has gone out as a plate full of food has gone out, that it would nourish us right to the core of who we are. And I pray for a company of people, a family of church, this church that would be a church that is so good at giving thanks. So good. I pray for that to become a practice in our lives. And I pray for this space to become that it's one so full of joy that it will, it will roll out into our language and even into the way that our face looks because we would be people who are able to shine, able to shine through whatever it is that a dusty world looks like. Would we be people that would shine your love.
