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Can I please have everyone find their seats and grab their song books? And we're going to turn to page 397. Page 397. We're going to start this Wednesday evening off with little as much when God is in it. Find your seats. Grab your song books. Turn to page 397 and let's sing that out on the first. In the harvest field now ripened there's a work for all to do. Hark the voice of God is calling to the harvest calling you. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus name. Page 397 on the second. Does the place you're called to labor seem so small and little known? It is great if God is in it and he'll not forget his own. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus name. Are you weighed aside from service body worn from toil and care? You can still be in the battle in the sacred place of prayer. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus name. Let's sing it out on the last. When the conflict here is ended and a race on earth is run he will say to all the faithful, welcome home my child well done. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus name. Let's open up on a word of prayer. Father God thank you so much for this church Lord. Thank you for these people coming out here on a Wednesday evening. I pray that you bless the service. I pray that our singing would glorify you Lord and you bless the preaching come. In your holy and precious name I pray. Amen. All right. Turn your song books to page number one hundred and thirty. Page number one three zero. We're going to be singing yesterday today forever. Page one thirty. And let's sing it out on the first. Oh how sweet the glorious message simple faith make way. Yesterday to day forever Jesus is the same. Still he loves to save the sinful, heal the sick and lame. Share the mourners still the tempest glory to his name. Yesterday to day forever Jesus is the same. All may change but Jesus never glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change but Jesus never glory to his name. Page one thirty. Let's sing it out on the second. He who pardoned erring Peter never needs thou fear. He that came to faithless Thomas all thy doubt will clear. He who let the love disciple on his bosom rest. Fits me still with love as tender lean upon his breast. Yesterday to day forever Jesus is the same. All may change but Jesus never glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change but Jesus never glory to his name. He who made the raging billows walked upon the sea. Still can't hush our wildest tempest as on Galilee. He who wept and freed in anguish in Gethsemane. Brings with us each cup of trembling in our agony. Yesterday to day forever Jesus is the same. All may change but Jesus never glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change but Jesus never glory to his name. Let's sing it out on the last. As of old he walked Emmaus with them to abide. So through all life's way he walketh ever near our side. So again shall we behold him, Mason Lord, the day. But will still be the same Jesus as he went away. Yesterday to day forever Jesus is the same. All may change but Jesus never glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change but Jesus never glory to his name. Great singing. Amen, all right well let's go and take our bulletins tonight. We'll look at some announcements. If you did not receive a bulletin on your way in just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you. If you need a bulletin just put your hand up and we will get one for you. The verse this week, 1 Corinthians 15, 58. Therefore my beloved brethren be you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. If you open our bulletin there you'll see our announcements. Of course our weekly church service, Sunday morning service, 10.30 a.m. And we do invite you to be with us of course on Sunday morning on the Lord's day for church Sunday evening service at 6 p.m. And we invite you to be with us on Wednesday night for the Wednesday night Bible study. We're glad you're here tonight. If you look at the soul winning times, the main soul winning times on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. And then we have additional soul winning times on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays at 2 p.m. We aren't going to have any soul winning times on Thursday or Friday this week. So just make a note of that. But generally speaking we have those on Thursdays and Fridays. And then of course if you're a first time guest, if it's your first time here at Ready Baptist Church we're glad you're with us. We have a gift we'd like to give you as you walk out of the church building tonight. So you go through the foyer. If you go out the secondary foyer you'll see a little table set up. And on that table you'll see these little gift bags. Please grab one on your way out as a gift from us to you for being our guest tonight. There are several resources in this bag that we'd like you to have. But the one I'd like to highlight is this documentary that our church made. It's called Being Baptist. Very well made, very interesting. We think you'll like it. We want to give this to you as a gift. So please make sure you don't leave here tonight without grabbing one of those gift bags. And if you are a guest we'd ask that you please take a moment and fill out the communication card which is inserted in your bulletin. If you need a pen just raise your hand and we'll come by and get you a pen as well. And we'd like to send you a little gift but we need your info to do that. So please take a moment to fill the card out. When we're done with the announcements we're going to sing a song. When we're done singing we're going to receive the offering. And as the offering plate goes by you can drop that card in the offering plate. If you look at the announcements there we of course are a family integrated church. What that means is that children and infants are always welcome in the service. We do not separate children from their parents for any reason. We do have mother baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience. So if you have a child that's been distracting during the service or if you need some privacy we would encourage you to please take your children out into the mother baby rooms or the daddy rooms. If you're not sure where those rooms are at you can look at the back of the bulletin and you'll see a layout of our church building there. If you look at the announcements and upcoming events of course we had our worker appreciation Sunday this last Sunday and that went well. And tonight is our pie social. So after the service tonight in the fellowship hall we'll have pie and coffee and just a time of fellowship after the service. So we encourage you to stick around and fellowship with us for that. And then tomorrow is the turkey bowl for all the guys that signed up. That is at 7 a.m. and the address is there for you. And so don't forget about that. And I think there's a sign up sheet or something in the in the in the foyer if you want to go by and look at it. And just one one thing to say to all of the guys showing up for the turkey bowl is if you don't have the mental stability or maturity to realize that this is a game and that it's not worth fighting over with your Christian brother. And Christ then please don't even show up. All right. Because some of you guys think you're in the NFL or something and it's pretty ridiculous. So it's the whole point of these events are to fellowship and have fun not to fight like a bunch of women. So and by the way the women played basketball and none of them fought. So help us with that. I appreciate you said you sound pretty angry about it. I am all the time every year. So please help us with that. And that would be great. Music ministry, dinner and training. I'm not even going. That's how not happy I am about those types of things. So help us with that. Please. Music ministry, dinner and training is coming up December 2nd at 6 p.m. So don't forget about that for the choir or not the choir, the orchestra and the musicians. And then baby shower coming up from Miss Katie Rosenberg Saturday, December 10th at 3 p.m. And make sure you sign up for that. Choir and children's choir is practice at 5 p.m. and 5 15. Homeschool group. They've got P.E. class at 10 a.m. on Thursday, December 1st. And then Christmas craft on the 8th. Upcoming cleaning crew. Other things there for you to look at. Please don't forget to turn your cell phones off and place them on silent during the service. They're not a distraction to anybody. If you look at the back of the bulletin, anniversaries for the month of November. We had Adrian Rios's birthday on November 20th. My wife had a birthday on November 22nd. Miss Joanne Jimenez. And Jeremiah Morales has a birthday, had a birthday on November 23rd. Ivy Grace O2 has a birthday on November 23rd. Tina Kolak has a birthday on November 24th. And, of course, we're remembering Titus Vincent on November 24th. Ms. Alexi Beale has a birthday on November 26th. And brother Joshua and Miss Edith Castellum have an anniversary on November 26th. Praise report, money matters, all those things are there for you to look at. I think that's it for all of the announcements. So let's go ahead and take off our song books and go to page number 439. Page number 439. And we'll sing Count Your Blessings as we prepare to receive the offering. Page number 439, Count Your Blessings, sing it out on the first. When upon these bellows you are ten, when you are discouraged thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done. Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your blessings, see what God hath done. Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings, see what God hath done. Four hundred and thirty-nine, sing it out on the second. Are you ever burdened with a load of care? Does the cross seem heavy, you are called to bear, count your many blessings, every doubt will fly, and you will be singing as the days go by. Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your blessings, see what God hath done. Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings, see what God hath done. Four hundred and thirty-nine, sing it out on the last. So amid the conflict, whether great or small, do not be discouraged, God is over all. Count your many blessings, angels, and all those who will attend, help and comfort give you to your journey's end. Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your blessings, see what God hath done. Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings, see what God hath done. Amen. Good singing. We'll have the guys come up. And help us with the offering at this time. And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do thank you for allowing us to gather. Together tonight. Lord, we pray that you bless the offering to give from the giver. Lord, I pray that you would help us to minimize distractions and help us be ready to receive your word. Lord, help us to be ready to hear from you and to draw closer to you. And then, Lord, I pray that you'd bless the time we have set aside for the prayer and then, of course, the preaching of your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. Well, let's go ahead and take our prayer sheets tonight. We'll go through our prayer list. If you did not receive a prayer sheet on your way in, just raise your hand. One of our ushers can get one for you. If you need a prayer sheet, just put your hand up and we will get one for you. Of course, I want to remind you of the way you add a request. The prayer sheet is through your communication card. On the back of the card, there's a place for you to write down your request. Please don't forget to mark whether it's private or public. If it's private, only I will see it. If it's public, we'll put it on the prayer sheet. If you don't mark it, we'll do our best to figure it out. But we usually don't put those on there. They are added in the order that they are received and they are removed after a couple of weeks. Let's go ahead and take these requests to the Lord and let's bow our heads and pray together. Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you tonight asking for these requests from our church family. Lord, we begin with these requests regarding salvation. We pray for Brother Vladi and Ms. Antonina Vakulcik as they pray for their family's salvation. And Brother Ron Edwards as he prays for his mother and his family's salvation. Brother Josh Goselam II praying for the salvation of his co-workers, Bill and Karen. And Ms. Christina Ortiz praying for her children and her grandchildren's salvation. Ms. Dogma praying for her daughter and her family's salvation as well. And we ask for all these individuals, we pray that you would help them. And be with them. And Lord, we ask that you would help them to come to the place where they would be able to hear the gospel clearly, that a soul winner would communicate the gospel clearly to them, that they might get saved. Lord, I pray that you would work in their hearts, that they would be ready to receive the gospel. We also pray for these that have health issues. Ms. Cricket praying for the pain in her tooth. And Brother Josh Goselam II also praying for his co-workers Karen's healing and recovery. She's currently receiving radiation for cancer. Ms. Christine Ortiz praying for her health. Brother Salvador praying for his health. Ms. Dogma praying for her pain. And of course, Brother Edgar and Ms. Selena praying for little Uretzi to continue to be healthy. Lord, we pray for all these individuals. We pray you'd give them health and strength. We pray that you would heal. Bring them home safely. We pray for these that have financial concerns and financial requests. Brother Allen praying for God's provision on his life. And Ms. Christine praying for finances. Brother Salvador praying for finances and work. Lord, I ask that you would take care of them regarding these things. We also pray for these that are asking for their walk and their faith. Brother Ike praying for his walk and to overcome adversity. Ms. Christine praying for her faith. Brother Salvador praying for his faith for their walk with you. And Lord, we pray for all of these individuals that you would help them, that you would guide them, that you would strengthen them. And then we pray for Brother Salvador for his faith here in Sacramento. And we pray for our church plant in Manila and in Pompano. We ask that you would bless all these locations. Lord, we pray that you would meet with us tonight as we open up your word and study the Bible together. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Please open up to Luke 17. Luke chapter number 17. If you need a Bible, put your hand up and I'm not sure why I bring you a Bible. Luke chapter number 17. If you need a Bible, just keep your hand up because you'll come by. Luke 17. We'll read verses 11 through 19. Luke 17 verses 11 through 19. Luke 17 beginning of verse number 11. And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go, show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that, as they went, they were cleansed. 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. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? They are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening. God, I thank you for your word and for our church. For everyone that's here, please give us all ten hearts at the message. And I ask that you please be the pastor to strengthen them. In the name of the Lord's Spirit, we love you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Alright, we're there in Luke, chapter number 17. And of course, we've been going through the Gospel of Luke, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. We are actually well ahead of Luke chapter 17, but I skipped this portion of scripture, verses 11 through 19. When we were in Luke chapter 17, I skipped this portion so that we could deal with it tonight, of course, the night before Thanksgiving. And in this portion of scripture, we see a story of ten lepers. And of course, we see that they were healed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are several lessons we can learn from this passage. And I'll try to give these to you as quickly as we can tonight. I'd like to preach as short as possible tonight, since we have the pie social and all of that. Try to get all of that going as early as we can. If you're there in Luke 17, if you notice there in verse number 11, the Bible says, And it came to pass as He, and of course we know that the He is the Lord Jesus Christ, as He went to Jerusalem. And if you've been with us as we've been studying the Gospel of Luke, you know that we've been with Jesus on a journey to Jerusalem. Really about ten chapters in the Gospel of Luke are dedicated to all of the different events and things that happen on the way to Jerusalem. And here the Bible tells us that as He went to Jerusalem, that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee, and He entered into a certain village, there met Him ten men that were lepers which stood afar off. And in verse 13 the Bible says, And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And then in verse 14 the Bible says, And when He saw them, He said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests, and it came to pass that as they went they were cleansed. So of course we have this famous story of these ten lepers being healed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're taking notes tonight, and of course I always encourage you to take notes, I'd like to just quickly give you three thoughts regarding this portion of Scripture, these nine verses. And the first I'd like you to notice that we see a lesson on faith. We see a lesson on faith here. And it's interesting to me because there's a couple of things that we see in verse 14 regarding faith, and really regarding what we might refer to as stepping out by faith. The first is this, that stepping out by faith must always be done in connection with the Word of God. Whenever we're going to step out by faith, we need to make sure it's done in connection to His Word. Notice again there verse 14, And when He saw them, He said unto them. That's Jesus' Word. Of course we know that Jesus is the Word of God. He's the living Word. And these are words that are literally coming out of His mouth, physically coming out of His mouth. He said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priest. So I want you to notice that stepping out by faith, and of course as Christians we know that we're saved by faith. The Bible says that the just shall live by faith. We're supposed to walk by faith and not by sight. And when we walk by faith, since it's not by sight, oftentimes it's something that we're doing that we're unsure of how it's going to turn out. The Bible says that faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So when we step out by faith, we are often stepping out into an area where maybe we're not sure how it's going to turn out. We're not sure how it's going to go. But what should give us confidence is that we're stepping out by faith at His Word based off what the Bible tells us to do. You're there in Luke. Keep your finger there. That's our text for tonight. But go with me if you would to the book of Romans, Romans chapter number 10. If you're there in Luke, just go past the book of John, into the book of Acts, past the book of Acts, into the book of Romans. Luke, John, Acts, Romans. Romans chapter 10 and verse 17. Romans 10, 17. And you know this verse, but I just want you to see it. Romans 10, 17, the Bible says, So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So we see that there's this connection between faith and the Word of God. Now the Word of God being preached or being taught or you reading it or memorizing it is going to help increase your faith. But our faith should be connected to the Word of God. So oftentimes people will say something like this. They'll say, Oh, I'm going to step out by faith. And they'll say, I'm going to do X, Y, and Z, and just some radical, crazy thing. And sometimes I want to tell people, God didn't tell you to do that. You know, God did not tell you to give 100 percent of your paycheck to Him. Now if you want to do that, great. Make sure you give it to Verity Baptist Church. But God didn't tell you to do that. Our connection, whenever we step out by faith, it always needs to be connected to what God has said, to God's Word. So if you're struggling with tithing and you say, I don't know if I can do it. I'm unsure how it's going to work out. Well, in that area, you can step out by faith because God did tell you to do that. And though you're unsure how it's going to work out, you can believe His Word and step out by faith. Because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. If you're unsure about maybe going out soul winning and knocking doors and trying to preach the gospel, you're not sure how it's going to turn out. You're not sure if it's going to work out well for you. You can step out by faith in that area and say, I'm going to do it. And have confidence that it will turn out right or turn out well or turn out according to God's will. Because you are basing it off something that God told you to do. So we see this lesson on faith. See, it wasn't just that these ten guys decided, I'm going to go show myself to the priest and see if he'll consider us cleansed. No, it's when they did that, after Jesus told them to, based off the Word of God. He said unto them, that's God's Word, go show yourselves unto the priest. So, stepping out by faith we see must always be connected to God's Word. But I want you to notice, not only do we see here that stepping out by faith, go back to Luke if you would, Luke chapter 17. Not only do we see that stepping out by faith must always be connected to God's Word, but I want you to notice also that stepping out by faith is required to see God's work. It's got to be connected to God's Word, and it is a requirement to see God's work in your life. Now here's what's interesting to me, is that when you look at this story, there's a theme here that is seen throughout the Bible, and I'll point it out for you and I'll show you a couple of examples. In Luke 17 and verse 14, it's really where we get the phrase, stepping out by faith. The Bible says, and when you saw them, this is Jesus, he said unto them, referring to the ten lepers, he said, go show yourselves unto the priest. So, he's telling them, your lepers, the Old Testament law says, that when a leper found themselves healed for whatever reason, what they were supposed to do was go to the priest, the priest would look them over, and he would basically just affirm, yes, you are cleansed, and he would change their status from unclean to clean, and they would be allowed to then go back to their homes, go back to their families, go back to society, because of course leprosy was a contagious disease. So when somebody was diagnosed as having leprosy, they were excommunicated really from all of society. They have to go out and be away from the people, and in fact, if anybody ever came near them, they were to say unclean, unclean, and warn people from coming near them, because they had this contagious disease. But if they were healed, then they would go to the priest, and the priest would change their status, he would affirm that they were healed, they no longer had leprosy. This is what Jesus is referring to. He says, go show yourselves unto the priest. Here's what's interesting. Of course we know that Jesus heals these ten lepers, but I want you to notice when they are healed. He says, go show yourself unto the priest, and the Bible says there in verse 14, and it came to pass that, notice this little phrase, as they went, as they went, they were cleansed. When were they cleansed? As they went. Here's what I want you to understand. When they got up, when they began to step out by faith, when they began to walk in the direction of the priest, when they began their journey to go to the priest, they had not yet been cleansed. They began to walk in that direction, and they began to go in that way solely off of what Jesus said, and believing Jesus' word that Jesus was going to heal them. Here's what I want you to understand. Stepping out by faith is required to see God's work done in our lives, in your life, and in my life, and I would submit to you tonight that if these guys would have just stayed there, sat there, stood there, and said, we'll go when we get healed, they would have never been healed. They were healed because of the fact that they obeyed according to God's word, but they were healed because they literally stepped out by faith. They began to walk in that direction, believing what Jesus has said to them, and the Bible says, as they went, they were cleansed. Keep your place there in Luke chapter 17. That's our text, of course, for tonight, but let me just show you a couple of examples of this. Go to 2 Kings chapter number 7 in the Old Testament. You've got those one and two books. They're all clustered together. 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles. 2 Kings chapter 7. I'll use the example of tithing because it's something that's easy for us to understand and money is something everybody understands now. But oftentimes people, they get this idea like, well, when God supplies money, it's then all tied. What you don't realize is that God is often waiting for you to take the step of faith before he will come in. God is waiting. See, faith is believing at his word and taking action at his word. Stepping out by faith means you get up. He says, go show yourself to the priest. You look around and you say, I still got leprosy. He's like, go show yourself to the priest. You get up, you still have leprosy. You start walking down the road, you still have leprosy. You start making your way to the priest, you still have leprosy. And as they went, at some point along the way, they realized we're clients. That's how it works. God doesn't show you everything right up front. God doesn't give you all of the information right up front. When you step out by faith, believing in his word, he waits to see whether you're going to do it or not. Here's another example, 2 Kings 7. We're talking about ten lepers, so let's continue our theme on leprosy. In 2 Kings 7, we have a story of four leprous men. In Luke, we have ten leprous men. In 2 Kings, we have four leprous men, 2 Kings 7 and verse 3. The Bible says, And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate. Now, I don't have time tonight to go through the entire conversation. I don't have time tonight to go through the entire context of what's going on here. But Samaria, the city of Samaria, is under siege. And because there is an invading army that is surrounding them, not allowing anybody into the city or out of the city, the people inside of the city are literally starving. Elisha the prophet has already prophesied to them. There's a story in the previous chapter where people are eating their own children and all sorts of gruesome things are happening in the city. And the prophet has already prophesied that by this time tomorrow, there's going to be enough food in the city for everyone to survive. And the way this happens is that God uses these unlikely heroes, these four leprous men. Now, these men are not inside of the city when the siege is happening because they're leprous men. They've been outside the entire time. 2 Kings 7, chapter 7 and verse 3, notice what the Bible says, And there were four leprous men at the entering end of the gate, and they said one to another. Here's a word that you should always ask yourself. This goes with our productivity sermon on Sunday morning. Why sit we here until we die? They said, why are we just sitting here until we die? And I love the question because the understanding is this. We're going to die. We're going to die sometime, whether you have leprosy or not, as it is appointed unto men once to die but after this judgment. So why sit we here until we die? If you're going to die anyway, you might as well get something done for God before you die. They said, why sit we here until we die? Look at verse 4. In verse 4, they go through their options. Well, what are the options? We've been sitting here this whole time. We're just going to die anyway. So they said, well, what are our options? 2 Kings 7, verse 4. Here's option number 1. They said, if we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city and we shall die there. They said, people are dying inside the city. We're dying outside the city. If we just go join them in the city, they're dying in there too. We're just going to die with them. Here's option 2. And if we sit still here, we die also. They said, if we go in there, we're going to die. And if we stay here, we're going to die. Both options end up with us dying. So then they said, here's option 3. Now, therefore, come and let us fall unto the host of the Assyrians. If they save us alive, we shall live. And if they kill us, we shall but die. Here's what they're saying. They're saying, if we go in the city, we're going to die because everybody's starving. If we stay out here, we're going to die because we have leprosy and we're starving. If we go to the Assyrians, the enemies, there's a chance they might feed us and save us, or they might kill us. But if they kill us, he says, we're going to, I like how they say, they say, if they kill us, we shall but die. And the idea is when they say, we shall but die, is that the worst they can do is kill us. The worst thing that will happen is we'll die. But they said, we're going to die anyway. We're going to die here, we're going to die there. I often want to say this to soldiers. The soldiers act like, people act like, I don't know about so many, I'm afraid of going out there and knocking on the door. What's the worst that can happen? You say, the worst that can happen is I can die. Let me let you in on a secret. You're going to die anyway. You're going to die here, or you're going to die there. You're going to die sitting on your rear end, or you're going to die working for God. If you're going to die anyway, why sit we here until we die? They said, if they kill us, we shall but die. And the idea is this, you're going to die anyway, you might as well serve God. You're going to die anyway. You might as well stop living for yourself and start living for others. They said, if we go to the Assyrians, they might feed us, or we may but die. I just think that's a good way to look at life. You're going to go out into the ministry? What if it doesn't work out? Well, you may but die. But here's the thing, the worst thing they can do to you is kill you. 2 Kings 7, verse 5. And they, the four lepers, rose up. They got up. They said, let's do something. Let's try to get something done. Let's try to get something accomplished. And I want you to notice, nothing is in the Bible. Nothing is in the Bible for no reason. Nothing is incidental, coincidental, or accidental. Everything that's in the Word of God is in there for a reason. And the Bible tells us, and they rose up, and I want you to just make a note of these three words. In fact, if you don't mind writing in your Bible, I'd like you to underline these words in your Bible. They rose up in the twilight. In the twilight. God tells us when it is that they decided, let's just get up and let's just go over there and let's just see what happens. Let's just see what we can accomplish. Let's just see what we can do. Worst thing that can happen is we die. When did it happen? In the twilight. What's the twilight? The twilight is that time of the day when it's not quite dark and it's not quite light. It's just kind of in the middle. It happens either as the sun is coming down, or excuse me, as the sun is coming up, or as the sun is coming down when we're kind of in between sunlight and evening. And here, the Bible tells us that in the twilight, they rose up in the twilight to go unto the camp of the Syrians. And when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp, behold, this is why everybody's starving in Samaria because of the army that's surrounding them. They get there and behold, there was no man there. You say, why was there no man there? Look at verse 6. For the Lord had made the host of Syrians to hear a noise of chariots. Hey, God came through for them. The Lord had made the host of Syrians to hear a noise of chariots and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host. And they said one to another, lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us. The kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. I want you to understand what's going on. God performs a miracle where he makes the host of the Syrians to hear. They thought they heard horses and chariots coming. They thought they heard this great host of military people coming. And they said, surely the king of Israel, they've hired another army to fight against us, the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians, and they're coming against us. So they thought no one was coming. God just made them hear it like as if it was going to happen. So notice what the Bible says in verse 7. Wherefore, they, who's a they here? This is the camp of the Syrians. They arose and fled. The camp of the Syrians who are encompassing about the city of Samaria, that are causing everybody to die and starve, they arose and fled. They got up and they left because they thought they heard a coming military that was coming to help the city of Samaria. No one was coming. God just performed a miracle, caused them to heard that. They got scared and they left. But I want you to notice when it happened. Verse 7. Wherefore, they arose and fled, don't miss it, in the twilight. In the twilight? Isn't it interesting that the same moment that the leprous men, verse 5, rose up in the twilight to go into the camp? It's the same moment that God sent the noise of the chariots and the noise of the horses that scared off the Syrians. And I just want you to notice something and understand something. That it's not like God sent the noise, the Syrians left, and then somebody came and told the leprous men, Hey, they're gone, you can go now. No, no, no. It wasn't until they got up and they said, let's just see what the Lord can do for us. Let's just see what the Lord might do on our behalf when they decided in the twilight to step out by faith. Then God moved. You said when in the twilight. You say why? Because we often want God to just lay every step out in front of us and show us how it's all going to work out, but God says that's not how it works. That's not how faith works. You take the step at my word and then I'll come through. In the twilight. Let me give you another example. Go to Joshua chapter 3. Joshua chapter 3 towards closer to the beginning of the Old Testament. Joshua chapter 3. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua. Joshua chapter 3 verse 13. Joshua 3, 13. Here we have the children of Israel crossing the Jordan River. This is not them crossing the Red Sea. That happened with Moses. This is happening with Joshua crossing the Jordan River into the Promised Land. Notice what they were told. And it shall come to pass. Don't miss these words. As soon as. As soon as. What does that mean? It means not before. It means when this happens. As soon as. Because God is going to stop the Jordan River from flowing just like he did for the children of Israel 40 years earlier where he split the Red Sea so that the children of Israel would walk through. Now they're going to walk through the Jordan River because it's a river and it's flowing. He's going to stop the Jordan River from flowing so that they could walk onto the other side. You say, when is God going to stop the Jordan River so we can cross? Here's the answer. As soon as the souls of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. Don't miss it. Shall rest in the waters. See what they were supposed to do is that the priests were supposed to, bearing the ark of the covenant, they were supposed to go on ahead. By the way, the ark of the covenant represents the presence of God. They were following God by faith, stepping out by faith, moving through this river. God said, I will part the river. I will stop the river so you can walk through. Great God. When are you going to stop the river? He says, as soon as the souls of your feet rest. You see the word rest? Shall rest in the water. What does that mean? As soon as you put your weight onto the water, notice what he says. The Lord of all the earth. He says, as soon as the souls of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. Shall rest in the waters of Jordan that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above and they shall stand upon and heap. What was it that God was telling him? God was telling him, I don't want you to wait until the water stops and then step out. I want you to step out and when you step out then the waters will stop. See the problem with the average Christian is that they've got some Jordan river in front of them and they're waiting for God to stop the river before they can go forward. And God's waiting for you to go forward before he'll stop the river. So we see the four leprous men had their victory. They had God come through for them in the twilight. When they rose up in the twilight, God had the opposing army. It's interesting because if you look at 2 Kings, you don't have to go there. But if you look at 2 Kings 7-5, the Bible says, and they rose up in the twilight, referring to the four leprous men. Verse 7, they rose and fled in the twilight, referring to the army. It happened at the same time. And oftentimes God does not begin to move until you and I begin to move. So we see this lesson, a lesson on faith. Go back to Luke chapter 17. We see a lesson on faith where the Bible says in verse 11, It came to pass as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers which stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priest. And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. We see a lesson on faith. What is it? Stepping out by faith must be done in connection to God's word. And stepping out by faith is required to see God's word. And I'm just here to tell you, I'm not trying to hurt your feelings and I'm not trying to talk down to you. But some of you have never seen God work in your lives because you're not willing to step out at his word. You're not willing to take the first step and see what God will do. So we see a lesson on faith. But I'd like you to notice, secondly, tonight, not only do we see a lesson on faith, but we also see a lesson on follow-up. A lesson on follow-up. Just real quickly for the soul winners, look at Luke 17 and verse 15. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, remember, ten lepers of man go. 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, at whose feet? Jesus' feet. Giving him thanks and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Jesus says what we're all thinking, were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found that return to give glory to God save this stranger. It's interesting that here Jesus heals ten and only one comes back. Now in the Bible, leprosy is a picture of sin. These people were physically cleansed from the physical ailment. But leprosy is a picture, like leaven, it's one of the types of sin in the Bible. So when these men were healed of their leprosy, it is a picture of salvation. They were healed from the sin that had overtaken and corrupted their entire bodies. And here's what's interesting is ten were cleansed and one came back. And here's just a lesson on follow up for you. For every ten people we get saved, one might come back. One might come to church. We recently had a soul winning seminar and I talked about the statistics that for every ten salvations, if we follow up on those ten converts, if we work with them and work on them, pray for them, not forget about them, for every ten salvations, one may come back. One may come to church. Those are the numbers. And what we find is that oftentimes people are asking the same question Jesus asked, where are the nine? But people will say to us, you go out and you set a hundred soul winners out every week and you say you got all these people saved, you say you got all these people saved, but only a handful come back to get baptized. And they ask, well where are they all? Where are the nine? Well it's interesting because Jesus was asking the same question. Where are the nine? Here's what I'm saying is if Jesus cleansed ten and one came back, do you think you and I are going to do any better? If Jesus trained twelve and one was a devil, you think our numbers aren't going to be much better? We've got 190 here tonight. Divide that by twelve and that's how many devils we got. Most of them are going to show up for football tomorrow. So we see this lesson on follow up and it is this, that not everyone that gets saved comes back. Not everybody comes to church, not everybody gets baptized, not everybody follows the Lord Jesus Christ. And we just have to realize Jesus is just stating the obvious. He's saying, I thought there were ten. Now let me ask you this. Did the ten get cleansed? Yes they did. But they didn't come back. So it's not, we're not saying, well the nine must have not got saved. No, no, the nine got cleansed. But just realize that not all of them come back. Years ago I heard a pastor of a very large church. He said if you could get ten people in your church to actively and consistently follow up on ten converts, then your church could have a baptism every week. I don't know if that's true or not, but we found that for every ten converts you follow up with, you can count on one coming back. Jesus healed ten and one came back, and I think those numbers are probably true. So we see a lesson on follow up, and I don't say this to discourage you, I say this to encourage you. What to God at Verity Baptist Church that there would be ten, we have a hundred soul winners, what to God that ten of our soul winners would get on fire for God and decide, I'm going to work hard and I'm going to work at following up on converts, and when I get somebody saved I'm going to follow up with them and pray for them. I'm going to do what I can to disciple them and get them in church. And by the time you get ten people saved and you've got ten people you're working on, then you'll see one come to church and you'll see a convert that you've had baptized sitting next to you in church. So we see this lesson on follow up. And then thirdly tonight, go back to Luke 17, we see a lesson on faith, we see a lesson on follow up, and then thirdly, I want you to notice that we see a lesson on thankfulness. Thankfulness. Of course I kept this passage aside, I did not preach through it when we were in Luke 17 because I wanted to preach on it tonight because of course tomorrow is Thanksgiving. And the purpose of the holiday of Thanksgiving is supposed to be that we might take some time and be thankful and consider and be thankful for all the things that God has done for us. Unfortunately, I will say this, most people are not thankful. And I'm not talking about just Thanksgiving, although I think you'd find that most people even on Thanksgiving are not thankful. Most people on Thanksgiving are covetous and just thinking about the next spiritual holiday, Black Friday, and all the things they want to buy. But this passage is here to highlight something for us that most people unfortunately are not thankful. Look at Luke 17 verse 15, notice what the Bible says. And one of them, 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, talking about Jesus, notice the words, don't miss it, giving him thanks. Now here's what I believe, if you would have stopped the other nine on the way, if you would have stopped, look, I'm sure the nine, I don't know how long they had leprosy. I know this, for however long they had leprosy, they had not been home, they had not embraced their wife, they had not embraced their children, they had not embraced their mother, they had not embraced their father, they were proud people, I'm sure they were excited when they got healed, I'm sure they were excited to go get this business done with the priest so that they could go home and see their family. I understand that, but I just want you to know something, if you would have stopped the nine and asked them, hey, are you happy? I'm sure they all would have said, oh yeah, I'm happy. If you would have asked them, are you thankful that Jesus healed you? I'm sure every single one of them would have said, oh yeah, I'm thankful that Jesus healed me. But please understand, only one took the time to go back and communicate that to Jesus. 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. Most people are not thankful, now when you ask most people, are you thankful, they're going to say, oh yeah, I'm thankful. But when you ask people, do you communicate that thankfulness? In fact, when's the last time you even thanked someone for something? You might find that it's a different story. Here's what's interesting to me about this story. What's interesting to me, and what I have learned in ministry, what my wife and I have learned in ministry over the last 12 years of ministry is this, that people have no problem communicating their need. People have no problem when they're hurting, when they need something, when they need you there and they need, they have no problem. Same with these guys. Look at Luke 17, 13. Before they're healed, when Jesus was walking by, Jesus, who they've heard, heals people, cleanses people, helps people, saves people. When Jesus passed by, Luke 17, 13, the Bible says, and they lifted up their voices. They had no problem communicating at that point. They lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. When they needed to be healed, they had no problem going to Jesus, opening their mouth and saying, will you help us? But after they were cleansed, they didn't think to go back to the same Jesus and open the same mouth and say thank you. The truth is this, unfortunately, most people are not thankful. You say, why is that? Why is it that most people are not thankful? Here's the reason. Most people are not thankful because, let's just be honest, most people are not humble. We all struggle with pride. Look at this man, Luke. You say, what was different? What was the difference between this guy? There was one major difference between this guy and the rest. Luke 17, 16. And fell down on his face, at his feet, giving things. Notice what the Bible says. And he was a Samaritan. And he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found that return to give glory to God. He says, where are the nine? I can't find the nine, Jesus says. Save, the word save means accept this stranger. You say, why does Jesus call him stranger? The word stranger is the word foreigner. He says, where are the nine? The only one that came back was this foreigner, this Samaritan. The text seems to indicate that the nine were Jews. The one was a Samaritan. And the Samaritan, the stranger, is the one that came back. And you say, well, what's the big deal? Real quickly, we got to do this fast. Go to John chapter 4. John chapter 4. Samaritans were despised. I'll give you one example. We've actually talked a lot about Samaritans since we've been through the Luke gospel. John 4, 9, then say, this is Jesus with the woman at the well. Remember the woman at the well? Very famous encounter of Jesus. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him. The woman at the well was a Samaritan woman. How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? Notice what she says at the last part of verse 9. For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. See, this Samaritan, even when he was healed, even when he was whole, he was not good enough. He was used to being disliked. When they said, hey, you got leprosy, go over there. We don't want to talk to you. He's like, I'm already used to that. Because before he was a leper, he was a Samaritan. And the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. They look down upon the Samaritans. They mock the Samaritans. So now this guy gets healed. But this guy, because what often happens is when you have a situation like this, look, we are not by nature humble people. But those of us that are humble, praise God, if we can say that, it's because we've been humbled. It's because God has humbled you. The Samaritan was humble not because he was humble. He was humble because he'd been humbled. But what you see in this humble Samaritan is something that is connected to humility. And it is gratitude. The only one that thought to be thankful was the humble one. The despised one. The one who knew he didn't have it all put together. The one who knew that the priest that he was supposed to go talk to probably wasn't going to want to talk to him. The one who had been looked down upon. And here's the point that I'm making. The reason, and again, you stop denying, you ask, are you thankful? Oh yeah, I'm thankful. See, some of you are saying, well this isn't for me because I'm thankful. The question is not are you thankful, the question is have you communicated gratitude? Because here's the truth. No one is a self-made man. And no one is a self-made woman. All of us owe a debt of gratitude to someone. But you know, that takes humility to understand that. This Thanksgiving, let's work at being thankful. Not just eating turkey. I'm not against you eating turkey. Why aren't you being thankful in the process? You say, who am I going to be thankful for? Well, how about God? The Bible says that every good gift cometh from above. How about being thankful for your spouse? Look, whatever you think about yourself, you did not get yourself there. There have been people that have came alongside you, that have loved you, they put up with you, they're there for you. Hey, you ought to be thankful for what? Just for putting up with you. I mean, the thing is this, it doesn't matter where you are in life. Someone told me a story one time about a turtle. They were walking, somebody was walking down the road and they saw a fence and there was fence posts and they saw a turtle up on one of those fence posts. And they asked, what do you know about that turtle? And he said, I don't know anything about that turtle, but here's what I do know. He didn't get there on his own. And I may not know everything about you, but here's what I do know. Whatever you are, by God's grace, you did not get there on your own. So how about you be thankful to your wife? How about you be thankful for your husband? How about you stop looking at all the negatives and all the criticism and find something to be thankful for? How about you be thankful to your parents? Young people. I'm talking to you. You know what I've learned about young people? Except they're idiots. They're proud and they're foolish. They get to a certain age and they think, well, I just got here all on my own. You did not get anywhere all on your own. Somebody helped you get wherever you're at. Somebody raised you. Somebody helped you. Somebody financed you. Somebody paid for those clothes you wear. Somebody paid for the food you ate. They took care of you. You got to be thankful. You got to be thankful for your parents instead of criticizing your parents. Well, my doubts are not everything. You're not either. Well, my mom thought everything that she should. Neither are you. But you know what? You ought to be thankful and realize that I did not get here on my own. You young people, you look at your parents and you say, well, pastor preaches XYZ and my parents don't match up. Okay. Well, when I preach about you, you don't match up either. In fact, let me let you in on a little secret. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So before you start getting all proud and arrogant and critical about how everybody's not a good Christian, why don't you just be thankful? Thankful for your spouse. Thankful for your parents. Thankful for your pastor. Thankful for your pastor's wife. And for many of you, I'm the only one that tells you the things you need to hear. Which is also why you don't come to me. When you tell others to not come to me, it shows a little bit of your own pride. But you know what you need? You don't need a pastor that's your best friend. You need a pastor that's going to look you in the face and say, thou art the man. You are the problem. How about you be thankful for your fellow church members? How about you be thankful for your boss? Instead of complaining about your boss all day, you got a job. They gave you a job. You got to be thankful. You know why we're not thankful? Pride. We think we're God's gift to. I don't know what you think you're God's gift to. Football? The truth is this. That most people are honestly, they might say thank you. Oh, thank you for whatever. But they're not thankful. Because they're not humble. Because when somebody realizes, when somebody realizes, I didn't get here on my own. Look, I'm here to tell you, Pastor Jimenez, for whatever it's worth, for whatever God has allowed my wife and I to do, I just got a message today. My wife was reading me a message and somebody was thanking me for a video that got their mother saved right before her death. And you know what? Praise God for that. And praise the Lord for that. But it'd be foolish for me to go, well, look how amazing I am. You know, I've had parents and I've had a faithful, amazing Christian wife and I've had pastors along the way and faithful friends and people that have invested in me and helped me and helped me get to where I am. Whatever I am, by God's grace, I am what I am. But here's what I know. Whatever I am, I didn't get here on my own. And people who are humble are also grateful. Now, here's the interesting thing. Let me appeal to your selfishness since we're so close to Black Friday. Go back to Luke 17. When you're not thankful, when you're not grateful, when you allow your pride to just puff, I don't need a pastor, I don't need my parents, I don't need my spouse, I don't need anybody, I'm a self-made, you're nothing. You're an idiot. Here's what's interesting. When you humble yourself, become humble, you become thankful, you become grateful, you actually open yourself up for more of God's blessings. Because here's the interesting thing. Ten were cleansed. One came back. Luke 17, 18. There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger, and he said unto him. He didn't say unto the ten, because the nine weren't there. But the one that was humble enough and thankful enough and grateful enough to say thank you, he said unto him, Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. Here's the truth. When you and I are thankful, when we're humble enough to realize that it's not about us, whatever we are, whatever we've accomplished, we did it with a lot of help, and God did not do it because of us, God did it in spite of us. When you come back with gratitude, God says, I have so much more. See, so many of us are limiting what God wants to do in our lives. Because of pride. Because of arrogance. Because we say, God, you put all the ducks in order and then I'll step out. And God says, no, no, no, you step out and then I'll put the ducks in order. The problem is pride. So this Thanksgiving, I want to encourage you. Be thankful. Think about somebody in your life that has blessed you, that has helped you. That has been there for you. And genuinely, humbly thank them. This is why I had to not want to pray. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for the Bible, thank you for these stories. Lord, I pray you'd help us to understand them, help us to be motivated by them. And Lord, help us not to be proud of people. Pride is so ugly. It's such an ugly thing. The scariest thing about pride is that we often cannot see it in ourselves. Or we see it in other people. I mean, we can identify it in everyone else but ourselves. I pray you'd help us this Thanksgiving to spend some time thanking you, God, for all you've done. And then thinking about all the people that have helped us along the way. For some, there's been a faithful spouse there. For many, there's been parents that have invested in them and brought them to a church like this. There's been a pastor, a pastor's wife. There's been other men and women, godly people, that have came alongside you. Help us to realize we did not get where we are on our own. Help us to take the time to turn around and say thank you. In the matchless name of Christ, we pray. Amen. All right. Well, I want to just remind you that we've got our pie social tonight. So we're going to go ahead and sing a final song. And when we're done singing, we're going to pray to dismiss the service and also pray for the pie over there. And then you can make your way over to the fellowship hall, and we'll have pie and a time of fellowship. So please help us out with that. And then, of course, don't forget about this turkey bowl. I really sure hope that you'll all be on your best behavior for this turkey bowl or you aren't listening. And that's okay, too, I guess. But I want to remind you that there is a turkey bowl. And if there's anything we can do for you, please let us know. Don't forget there is no soul winning on Thursday and Friday this week. So Saturday and Sunday, we're back to a normal schedule. But, of course, Thursday and Friday will be Thanksgiving, and there won't be anybody here to lead those things. So please make a note of that. If there's anything we can do for you, please let us know. Happy Thanksgiving. God bless you. We hope you'll stick around for some pie. And if there's anything that we can do for you, please let us know. We'll have Brother Moses come up and lead us in a final song. Please turn to your song books, page number 441. Page number 441. We're going to sing Great Is Thy Faithfulness. Page 441. And let's sing it out on the verse. Great is thy faithfulness O God, my Father There is no shadow of turning with Thee Thou changest not Thy compassions they fail not As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be Great is Thy faithfulness Morning by morning new mercies I see All I have needed Thy hand hath provided Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me Summer and winter and springtime and harvest Sun, moon and stars in their courses above Joined with all nature and manifold witness To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love Great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness Morning by morning new mercies I see All I have needed Thy hand hath provided Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me Let's sing it out on the last. Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide Strength for today and pride hope for tomorrow Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside Great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness Morning by morning new mercies I see All I have needed Thy hand hath provided Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me Great singing. Let's close in word of prayer. Father God, thank you so much for this church, Lord. Thank you for this sermon. I pray that we would all remember to be thankful. Not only for the clothes on our back and for our families, but for everything you've given us. I pray that you would bless the fellowship after the service. I pray that you bless us with our bodies. And I pray that everyone would have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow. Your holy and precious name I pray. Amen. Thank you. Thank you.