Risk Taking, part 3

How many of you men have purchased an excellent tool for your wife for Christmas? Maybe you picked up the latest skill saw for her or a saws-all. Even if it’s the nicest tool around and can do many wonderful things, if your wife has no “want to” regarding tools, it doesn’t matter how nice the tool is. She won’t like it and it won’t be used, and you’ll be in the doghouse for buying such an un-thoughtul gift!
     

Where are the nine?

Luke 17:12-17 “And as He entered a certain village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; 13 and they raised their voices, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ 14 And when He saw them, He said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And it came about that as they were going, they were cleansed. 15 Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, 16 and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 And Jesus answered and said, ‘Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine – where are they?’”
 

Here we find ten lepers lifting up their voices, asking for mercy. Jesus has mercy on them and heals all ten of them. As they are walking away, completely clean, one of them realizes the wonderful thing that Jesus just did for him. He turns around, begins to worship God with a loud voice, and falls at Jesus’ feet thanking Him.     

Jesus looks at him and says, “Weren’t there 10 of you? Where are the other nine?” I’m going to add some words to this leper’s response (this is the “New Brad Version”. The newly healed leper looks at Jesus and says, “The other nine did not feel compelled to thank you.” He continues, “Jesus, don’t you understand that this is how it is going to be? The majority who are healed, the majority who are saved, the majority who are freed from bondage, don’t have the ‘want to’ to do anything about it. They want their salvation and deliverance but they don’t want to go beyond that.” NBV   
 

If we love our salvation more than we do our Jesus, we lose our “want to” spirit regarding the salvation of others. The “want to” spirit could easily be linked with a first love frame of mind. Do you remember how Jesus rebuked the church of Ephesus for having left her first love? He says, “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Revelation 2:4)

Do you remember when you were first saved? A friend of mine once shared, “When I first surrendered my heart and will to the Lord I was smitten! I couldn’t believe what Jesus did for me. I couldn’t believe He would actually forgive me, and allow me to go to heaven when I die. It didn’t matter what the church had going on – I was there. My calendar of events was determined by the church calendar. I didn’t look at the church calendar and then decide if I could make the various events listed there. I determined what outside activities I would be a part of after seeing what the church was doing first.   

I think I’ve made it clear that I like cars. My family was involved in all sorts of racing from off road racing to dirt tracks to drag racing. We had a racecar we pulled to various drag strips in our area every weekend. That all ended when we got saved. As soon as I gave my life to Christ the thought hit me – I am done going to the track every weekend because that’s when I go to church.
 

I remember going to a Saturday seminar for Sunday school teachers – to help them become better teaches and I wasn’t even a teacher at the time! The pastor said anybody could go to the conference so I went. I wanted to be anywhere where I thought maybe I could sense the presence of God and learn new stuff. If you didn’t have a similar experience when you got saved perhaps you should re-evaluate whether or not you really did surrender your will to Him. When a person surrenders their heart and will to Jesus, His will, then, becomes the determining factor of your life.”
 

The “have to” spirit vs the “want to” spirit

When a person is first saved, they have the “want to” spirit. You don’t have to prod them to do something for Jesus.

Not long ago, I was talking to someone that came to faith in Jesus, and he said, “I really want to do something for the Lord.” New believers want to do things for Him, yet somehow, with time, something seems happen to our “want to” spirit? 

Do you remember when you used to want to do anything you could, just for Jesus? That is how the church in Ephesus started. They started out with a first-love drive and desire that compelled them to work for the Lord. However, if we forsake our first love, we go from the “want to” spirit to the “have to” spirit.

Continued tomorrow