As They Went 1974

The line in the hymn we just sang, So may we serve thee here with all our strength and might. If we're honest with ourselves, I dare say that none of us can really say that that's what we're doing. And we have to admit that one of the most prevalent diseases in the body of Christ, here and far away, is stagnation.

And we usually think of stagnation as a state of mind. Our mind is so dull. And what we try to do is get ourselves awake by drinking coffee, or going to a meeting that's going to stimulate us, or finding somebody that we can get into a fight with, or somewhere that we can get our mind on the track again.

But when our Lord deals with stagnation in us, He aims at two things in us that go beyond the mind, really. He deals with the will and with the body. In order to shake us out of our stagnation, Jesus calls forth from us a response which has to be made not just with the mind, and certainly not just with the mouth, but with the body.

He wants us to do something. He calls for us in some way to present our body again as a living sacrifice to Him. And this comes down to some specific act like rising up, or stepping forth, or reaching out, or falling down, or doing something.

And in the process of doing this thing that He asks us to do, we begin to experience His love. Now we see this illustrated in today's Gospel. I just want to read the first part of it.

On the way to Jerusalem, He was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as He entered a village, He was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices and said, Jesus Master, have mercy on us. When He saw them, He said to them, Go and show yourselves to the priests.

And as they went, they were cleansed. Notice that they were not cleansed as they stood there, but they were cleansed as they turned around and started to go. In other words, there was an act of will manifested in the motion of their bodies that opened them up to this healing grace of Christ that was there.

They're moving in their bodies in the direction that Jesus told them to go was their way of saying yes, our Lord's yes to them. And if they had refused to go and show themselves to the priests, this is what would have been as much as their saying no. So now what we try to do is make Jesus give us that thing that we want without making one move.

You know, we say yes with our mouths and we say no with our bodies. We want to be zapped. You know, we want the miracle to happen while we're sitting.

And it never will. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about little sitting.

I think you know what I mean. At the beginning of creation, when the Word of God said, let there be light, the darkness had no choice. It had to obey.

And when Jesus said to the wind and the waves, peace be still, when the Lord spoke through Moses and told the waters of the Red Sea to part, there was no choice. They had to do what they were told. Even the demons, rebellious, ambitious as they are, know that when Jesus commands, they must obey.

But when Jesus speaks to a man or a woman, that person is always free to say no. Never since the creation first began has God ever ranked the human will. If there were a button that God could press inside us to make us turn around and do exactly what he wants us to do, he would never press it.

Suppose Jesus had stood in front of those self-righteous Pharisees and said, All right, you slobs, at the count of three, you're going to have good hearts. One, two, three, boom. And then we see them walking on with a happy smile on their faces, doing everything they're told from then on.

What we have then are people who are no longer people. They're not men, they're sticks. And Jesus could have said to Pontius Pilate at the critical moment, all right, Pilate, you think you're boss, but I'm boss.

And you're going to turn around and you're going to release me and you're going to be my disciple from now on. It could have happened. See, but if this had happened, if Pontius Pilate suddenly begins to walk after Jesus in a hypnotic trance, then what we have here is a disciple who's not really a disciple.

We've got a hobo who's walking after Jesus with a devastated mind. And my friends, this is exactly what many of us are still wanting the Lord to do for us. We want him to come and go, zing, whoop, and we're all set.

Fears are gone. Lust is gone. Our hot tempers are removed and we're just wonderful disciples.

You know, at the count of three. Now, grant you, the power that can turn darkness into light is able to work miracles in our hearts and in our minds and in our bodies. Indeed, but for this to happen, we have to do something.

Don't expect this inrush of light from God to come to you and transform you while you sit there waiting for the lightning of God to strike you. Like you're a blob there. You have to somehow respond to the call of the Lord.

Comes to you maybe from a distance. You have to yield your will to the pull of his spirit. You have to get up and walk through the door that Jesus opened for you.

You have to start to walk along that path that is marked by his footsteps. Don't ever let anybody mislead you into thinking that all this can happen if you sit and wait for the miracle to hit you on the head. Many people imply this, but it is not so.

The only way to wait for God, my friend, is on your feet. And those feet better be moving. And when you see the face of God, then fall on your face.

Because before very long, you're going to find that the hand of the Lord will reach down, pick you up, and say, all right, now go on your way. And you'll find yourself moving again. Let's walk in the spirit.

If we live in the spirit, let's walk in the spirit, says Paul. In today's gospel, he says, you know, walk by the spirit and don't fulfill the lust of the flesh. And my friend, you're going to fulfill the lust of the flesh as long as you're sitting still, dreaming, thinking about it, filling your mind with all kinds of garbage.

The only deliverance from this is to start moving in the spirit, not just meditating, walking. Now, you sit down to eat a meal, fine. Sit down to receive a teaching, excellent.

Sit down to take a rest, beautiful. But if after you have been sitting for a while, you don't get up and do something and walk and move in God's will, you rot. Your spirit may indeed be seated with Jesus in heavenly places.

But my friend, your body, flesh and blood on this earth is to be in motion, continuously given up as a living sacrifice to God in deeds, acts, movement. Notice how most of the pictures that we have of Jesus in the New Testament portray him as moving. And as he passed, as he was on his way, it says that in the gospel, on his way to Jerusalem, he's moving.

He passed through the between Samaria and Galilee, moving again, entered a certain village, moving again. He was met by ten lepers. And in order for these lepers to get anywhere near Jesus, they have to move, too.

They have to make sure they get to the right place at the right time. They have to do that much. Who lifted up their voices as they stood at a distance because they're lepers.

Praise God, they lifted up their voices. They put some life even to their Jesus master, have mercy on us. The way we sing hymns and go through this liturgy must be an abomination to God most of the time because there's no life in it.

We're not putting anything in. And when he saw them, he said to them, go show yourself to the priest. And as they went, they were cleansed as they moved.

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned around, turned back, motion again. And with a loud voice, started glorifying God. Some more effort, some more moving through his life, through his whole body, right down at Jesus feet, giving him thanks.

And so we see that this man turns around, faces the direction of God, draws near to God by bodily action. His will, the exercising of his will is manifested in this fashion. Never mind that he's a Samaritan outside the covenant of Israel.

Never mind that he's the only one who does this. The fact that this man turns and exercises his will in this way opens him up to the stream of God's grace. And Jesus can say to him, as he did not say to the other nine, rise and go your way.

Your faith has made you well. Now, the faith that made him well, understand, was not some kind of goose hump, pimply feeling that came over him as he meditates in his chair. But it's a faith which is a disposition of his will that moves bodily when it sees which way to go.

He doesn't care what the other nine do, and he doesn't care what anybody thinks. All he wants to do is put himself down at the feet of this one who has shown him such mercy. Body, mind, spirit, hands, feet, eyes, everything.

Frequently, when we're out there in the streets, we are given tracts which have been more or less along the same line for years and years and years. That sound very clever when you first look at them and they say something to this effect, that religion says do and salvation in Jesus says done. Now, who can argue against the fact that salvation in Jesus is a thing done? It's often done by God.

You know, it was done on the cross. The blood that atones for our sins was shed. That was a thing done for us.

That's beautiful and that's true. See, but does this mean that now we sit and wait for the end to come in our little chairs, knowing that we're saved? It's done as so many, many people really are doing. The only proof that you have entered into the thing which God has done for you is that you start to do.

And if you don't do, it ain't done for you. Look how often Jesus uses that verb. Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not.

Not everybody who says, Lord, Lord, is going to enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father, who is. Do this and you shall live. Go and do thou likewise.

Be doers of the word and not hearers only. And this devastating passage which says we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive. Each of us, good or evil, according to what we have done in our bodies.

Now, for those in this place right now who are still standing in the doorway of the kingdom and have not gone through the door, you're looking in, but you haven't entered. And, you know, you haven't entered. The message is that everything necessary.

For your complete and total salvation. Has already been done for you from God's side. Yet you must do something to appropriate this.

You have to open the door of your heart. To God. Even as God has already opened the door of his heart to you.

Now, God isn't going to force that door open. He's going to let you keep it shut. If that's what you will, even if by keeping that door shut, you propel yourself straight into hell, which you may do.

You have to open it. You have to confess what's in here. And you have to ask Jesus to come in and clean up the mess.

Don't sit around waiting for him to hit you with lightning. Ram through the door and bring his mercy in there. Do something.

You know, whatever it has to be for you to prove to yourself and to God that you're opening the door of your heart, whether it means getting on your knees or lifting up your voice or whatever you have to do. And then as you do this, as you open the door, God will cause the veil of his heaven to open and you will see the light coming down on you and you will know that you are indeed God's child. And for those in this place right now who have perhaps already entered the kingdom, but you know very well that you're stagnating.

And you're dull. And you're not putting all your heart, mind, soul and strength in the loving of God. And, you know, the message for you is that everything necessary for your being made awake and alert and alive in God has been done from God's side.

There's not an obstacle in your heart that cannot be dissolved by the blood of the lamb. And there's not a dark place in you that can't be made daylight bright by the spirit of God who is now given. But you and I must ourselves step into God's will, continuously step into it hour by hour, day by day, moment by moment, constantly.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Bill read in Sunday school this morning, how true. And I will pray the father.

And he will give you another counselor to be with you forever, the Holy Spirit. But you have to do that. And in most cases, we know what we got to do.

You know, just hold, you know, sit still for a minute, but don't sit too long. And let the spirit show you. You have to go and ask forgiveness of that sister.

You have to go make that wrong thing right. Get on the telephone to that brother. Take some money over to that family.

Break that copper mind. Get out of that relationship which has in it the seeds of uncleanness. Pin yourself down to functioning as a member of the body of Christ in this particular or that particular body of believers.

Take on that ministry, which you know, God has shot right under your nose and you're still trying to turn away from it. Do the thing which God has already made very clear. His revealed will for you that you still won't pick up.

It's there, but you won't take hold of it. And if there should be somebody in here today, a believer who still says he doesn't know what God wants him to do. You can be sure of this, that before the sun goes down today.

He will make it clear. If you are willing to submit yourself to the childlike faithful performing of whatever he shows. Too many of us have been sitting disciples instead of walking disciples.

And the Lord is saying to us today, rise up, get under this yoke with me. We don't stand under this yoke. We walk.

And I will show you then how to walk in the spirit. And I will show you moment by moment how to do the father's will. And you will have peace.

On the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by 10 lepers who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices and said, Jesus master, have mercy on us. When he saw them, he said to them, go show yourselves to the priests.

And as they went, they were cleansed. Now, there's some specific thing that Jesus is telling each one of us to do. And in the doing of it, the life of God will come surging into us.

And if like the one leper, we will continue the doing of it, you know, and not just stop with the first shot of power that comes in, but walk continuously. We will find that we will indeed have the continuous presence of God's spirit to guide us and empower us all the way to that moment when we welcome our Lord back to this planet. Let's pray.

First of all, Heavenly Father, we're praying for those who may be among us right now who are still hesitating at the door of your kingdom. Should there be any here that you just give them such encouragement to rise up and come into the arms that are stretched out for them right now. And to open those hearts that are so timid and afraid.

And to do the needful thing and to put their lives at the feet of Jesus. And we pray that if there should be any such people among us that you deliver them from every form of self-consciousness and pride. And show them exactly what you have them do before they leave this place today.

And for all of us, Lord God, who consider ourselves to be indeed disciples and followers of Jesus. And who know all too well that we haven't been alive and alert and awake and strong to do your will. Give each one of us, Heavenly Father, before we leave here today, something definite, something definite to bite into.

And in the doing of that thing, Lord God, may we begin to experience your light. Father, we know that if any of us starts to move in a direction which is really not your will, that you'll correct this, you'll show us. And we just thank you and praise you for your guiding light with us right now.

In Jesus' name, Amen.