Several weeks later this same small group was on a trip together.  Over dinner one night they were talking about the Fellowship Church and the power of prayer.  This woman, who was by that time going through chemotherapy, opened up her purse and inside her purse were those six communion cups. They all just broke down.

Friends, that would have never happened without community.  It would have never happened without a small group connection.  I want you to have story after story after story like that because you are experiencing a Christ centered community.  Yeah, do the public thing but also the small group thing.  Do that.

Well there is something else that I challenge you to do.  This is something that God has shown me over the years when I have felt down or too focused on my dilemma or too busy throwing a pity party.  Not only are we to take a jump into a Christ-centered community, but also we are to take a jump into the lives of others.  I am talking about ministry within the local church.  I define ministry as using our skill set in a strategic and spirit-led way.  You have unique talent and I have unique talent and we are to use those talents within the context of the church.  When we dive into ministry, we get our eyes off of ourselves and onto others.  I am here to tell you, when people work in our preschool, our jr. high ministry or greet or usher or serve with the sound and technical group, the band or the praise team, they always say they get more out of the ministry than those they are helping.  Think about it.  You can support a Christ-centered community, plus get a huge growth spurt because of it.  On top of that, you are taking your eyes off of yourselves and putting them on others.

I didn’t do any of that stuff, but I have been around it.  I had to fight a couple of times just to survive.  But I thank God for those experiences.

Ed young

There was a guy in a small group who, during a time of confession, began to talk to his small group leader and others there about tithing.  He said, “When I made fifty grand a year, I had no problem tithing.  I tithed five thousand dollars to the church.  But over the last several years, I have been incredibly blessed.  Now, I am making over a half a million dollars and I am choking down on the check, fifty thousand dollars.  I am struggling with tithing.”

This insightful small group leader looked at him and said, “I tell you what let’s do.  We are going to pray for you right now.  We are going to pray that God will reduce your income so you will feel comfortable enough to give.”

Isn’t that funny?  We make a little bit, “Oh, God, here.”  We start making a lot and “Oh, it’s mine.”  We choke on the check.

Ed young

Here is what the Bible says, 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, “Now, about the collection for God’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do.  On the first day of every week (that means it should be a regular thing.  If you get paid weekly, give weekly.  If it’s monthly, give monthly, quarterly, give quarterly), each one of you should set aside a sum of money (It should be a systematic thing) in keeping with his income (It should be a proportional thing).”

Look at Malachi 3:10, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse…”—The word “tithe” means ten, that’s strategically— ‘that there may be food in my house.”

And here’s the only time in the Bible that this is mentioned, God said, “’Test me in this,’” says the LORD Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.’”  Yet most of us, Malachi says, are robbing God.  We are not giving God his due.  Because of that, we are involved in blessing blocking.

Ed young

What should we do with our stuff?  Why do we have more stuff than we need?  Right up front, the Bible says we have more stuff than we need because God wants us to give it away.  He wants us to share.  He wants us to share with the local church.  The Bible says that God wants his church to be fully resourced.

And I am just assuming that those of us here who go by the label of Christ-followers are giving the minimum worship requirement to the local church, which is ten percent of everything we make.  If this is your church, you should give ten percent here.  If it’s somewhere else, give ten percent there.  They are not my words.  They are God’s words.

God being God, could have said, “Hey, you give 90 % and live on 10.”  He didn’t.  He said give a minimum gift of 10 and you live on 90.

Ed young

Now before we dog the other nine lepers, like we almost dogged the Israelites, lets put the spotlight on our lives.  You have been in a situation like this and so have I.  You have received a gift; someone has done something nice for you.  Instead of showing appreciation, instead of saying thank you to them, you reason to yourself that they know how you feel.  Besides you don’t want to track them down.  And you might not know what to say.

I am sure that the other nine lepers went through this whole drill.  After the healed leper had worshipped Christ and showed his appreciation to Him, He lifted him up and asked him a couple of questions.  “Weren’t there ten?  Where are the other nine?  You are the only one who came back and you are a Samaritan.”  Thank you.  Two powerful and life changing words.

Jesus wants you and me in the midst of our manna to be one out of ten.

Ed young

The Bible says that while these ten men were running to the priest, they looked down and to their amazement their leprosy was gone.  The stench was gone.  The limbs had returned to wholeness.  One, that’s right, one out of ten made a 180 and began to run back toward Christ.

Now just for a second let’s put ourselves in His sandals.  You have lived in a leper colony for years.  You have had no contact with your spouse, with your children, with your friends.  And suddenly you are healed and you are running toward the one who healed you.  I am sure he would have hesitated at about 50 yards from Christ but then he would have remembered that he was clean, a new person.

The Bible says he fell at His feet and he said…. Well what do you think he said?  Do you think he said, “Jesus, why did You wait so long to heal me?”  No, he didn’t say that.  He said the two words that catapulted him above the crowd and moved the heart of our Lord.  He said, “Thank you.”  Those are two words, a couple of words, that can change your life and mine as well.

In the Gospel of Luke, the writer records that Jesus was walking on the outskirts of a town.  While he was on the edge of the city, ten lepers stood at a distance and called to Him.

They asked Jesus to have mercy on them, to heal them.  Now leprosy was a horrible, highly contagious, disfiguring disease.  Lepers lived in colonies.  They had to wear bells on their garments.  If someone got within 50 yards of them, they could possibly catch this dreaded disease.  They walked around saying unclean, unclean. Jesus told them, “Go to the priest and the priest will tell you that you are clean, healed.”

I always wondered why Jesus asked them to run to the priest.  Why did He want the priests to tell them they were cleansed?  Well I will tell you why.  For a leper to be considered healed, he first had to get clearance from a priest.