One out of ten came back to thank God.
One out of ten.
You say, well, why wouldn't the other nine come back?
Well, look, it's not really that shocking to me because think about this.
Let's say you have spent ten years being a leper.
And then all of a sudden you finally get cleansed.
Are you happy? Of course.
Are you excited? Of course.
But there could easily be an attitude inside of you.
It's not fair I lost ten years of my life.
I'm not going to waste another second.
Right?
I can certainly see that.
Makes sense.
Because these other nine, they felt that they were owed something by God.
It's not fair I got leprosy.
It's not fair I lost years of my life.
And they just weren't that thankful.
But one comes back and he decides to give thanks to God.
He is very thankful that he was cleansed from leprosy.
And Jesus answering said, were there not ten cleansed?
But where are the nine?
They're not found that return to give glory to God saved a stranger.
And He said unto them, Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole.
You know, we go out soul winning.
And we'll say, you know what, hey, we've got...
And by the way, we've crossed between our three churches the 10,000 salvation mark for the year.
Praise God for that.
But you look at these numbers and obviously we've grown as a church quite a bit.
But here's the thing.
People say 7,777 salvation.
That seems like an interesting number you chose, 7,777.
Where are they all?
I'd be like, I don't know.
There's just some are in, you know, around this area.
There's some that are there.
There's some that are probably getting drunk there.
There's some people watching TV there.
People watching Vice Pong eat over there.
I don't know.
They'll say, well, where are they?
And they'll say, if they're not here, they must not have gotten saved.
Well, where in this passage does it say that being, you know, cleansed, really being healed,
you're going to automatically prove by living a good life.
Only one out of 10 came back to give thanks to God.
Well, I only believe one out of 10 got cleansed then.
Is that what you believe?
I mean, that would be a very interesting interpretation of this passage
when it's clear all 10 of them were cleansed and yet only one thanked God.
And you know what?
When we get people saved all the time, a lot of them, most of them,
they're never going to come to church.
You say, why?
They're not that thankful.
That's the reason why.
Doesn't the Bible say that to be saved, it says as many as receive the word,
to them give you power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on His name.
As many as receive.
And yet when the Bible speaks about people getting baptized,
it talks about they that gladly received His word.
You say, why?
Because you can receive salvation without actually being that glad or thankful about it.
You can receive salvation and say, you know what?
I'm just going to go on my own merry way.
I'm not going to dedicate my life to God.
I got to make money.
I mean, life's difficult.
It's like, hey, I'm glad I'm saved.
But I'm never going to serve God.
Now, people are not going to say that to you audibly,
but that's really what's on the inside of their hearts.
You say, well, how do you know that?
Because they're not here.
If you're really thankful, you would be here.
Right?
I mean, people have all the excuses why they can't be dedicated to God,
and yet we have people at our church that come from hours away.
Hours.
There's people at our church that have made real sacrifices to be a part of this church.
You say, why?
Because they are thankful to God.
But a lot of people, they're not that thankful to God.