Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas
Pastor Chuck Trusty — Sunday morning service, November 1, 2026 Give Thanks · Lesson 4 · Luke 17:11-19
► Watch this lesson on video (41:21)
This is the lesson the way it was preached on Sunday morning - near word for word. The “uh”s and the starts-over are taken out; the sentences are left the way they were said. Bible verses are printed exactly as they read in the King James. Anything marked GOING DEEPER was NOT preached on Sunday morning - it is extra study for anyone who wants to dig further.
THE ONE POINT
ALL TEN GOT THE MIRACLE - BUT ONLY ONE CAME BACK TO THE MASTER.
I. Ten Prayers, Ten Answers, and One Thank You
All right. Our text verse this morning will be Luke 17. Luke 17. And we’re going to talk about ten prayers, ten answers, and one thank you.
Now again, we’re going to kind of focus our lesson on the concept of a staircase. And you know, in our Christian lives, we don’t go from the first step all the way up to the top step in terms of fellowship in just one fell swoop. Our whole life after we are saved is pretty much a description of climbing a staircase to have a closer, more personal relationship with the God that saved us. And we take one step, we learn things, we experience life, and we take another step. And that’s pretty much a summary of how we spend our whole life - going up a step, going up a step, going up a step, getting closer and closer to the God that saved our souls.
Now, last Sunday the first step down this staircase that we’re talking about was a thank you that never got said. Well, this morning we’re going to look at ten men and nine thank-yous that never got said. Luke 7 - beginning in verse number 11 - or pardon me, 17. Luke 17, beginning in verse 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 shew 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? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.” (Luke 17:11-19).
Now, so we have ten men. These ten men prayed the same prayer. The ten men that prayed this prayer, they all received the exact same miracle, but only one went back to Jesus to say, “Thank you.” And Jesus asked out loud, “Well, where are the nine?”
So, our one point this morning is that all ten got the miracle, but only one came back to the Master.
And kind of to plant a seed in our minds this morning where we’re going: everybody in this auditorium is probably saved. But how many of us, after having received God’s gift of salvation, have gone back to the Savior to tell Him thank you? Or have we just wandered off like Demas? Not worried about hell anymore. So now I can get out into the world and have fun. That’s kind of the mindset here of the nine that refused to return.
II. What All Ten Had
Now, what did all ten of these lepers have? All ten of them were lepers. Now, leprosy is a disease that actually eats away at a person’s skin. Doesn’t kill them all at once. It’s just kind of a long, miserable existence. And the law of Moses put a leper outside of the city. If you had leprosy, you were not allowed to live in the city and cohabitate with the town dwellers. You were taken out of the city. You were removed. You couldn’t live with your family. You get the idea. You just had to camp out basically on the outskirts of town.
Notice Leviticus 13 and verse 46. Leviticus 13 and 46. We learn here that the leper had to dwell alone outside the camp. And this was a picture of what our lives would be like today if there was no church for us to worship in after we were saved. We would be outside. Okay? No way to fellowship. You get the idea. I say it’s just a picture of what it would look like. Leviticus 13:46.
“All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.” (Leviticus 13:46).
Now this is why the lepers stood afar off - no hugs, no church, no family table. Remember an example a lesson or two ago, where this person got fed through a crack in the door. They sort of got the goodies from fellowship with the family, but they had to stand afar off. And when it became mealtime, they didn’t get to go put their feet under the table with the rest of the family. They got fed through a crack in the door. Well, that’s pretty much a description of what it’s like for us in terms of spiritual food. Well, preacher, I know for absolutely certain I’m saved. Well, yeah, I attend church. I’ve been attending church for like forever. But if you’ve not been properly baptized in that church, you’re getting a plate handed out to you through a crack in the door. Okay? There’s something that we are missing when we fail to commit to proper baptism and become part of the church. Attending church is not the same thing as being part of the church. All right?
All ten of these men prayed, and they prayed a good prayer. There was nothing wrong with the way that they prayed. They said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” There was no bargaining, no “well, but” - just mercy. That’s all they asked for. And all ten of them even obeyed. Jesus said, “Well, go to the priest and show yourselves.”
Now, you see, only the priest back in this time could say that the leper was clean and send the leper home. I want to point out that the priest did not heal the leper. The priest was the inspector. The priest inspected the leper and said, “Okay, you’re good.” Well, what does the church do? The church doesn’t heal anybody, but there are some boundaries in the church that define: this is what God teaches, this is proper worship, and this is outside proper worship. So the church does not heal anyone’s lives, but the church inspects the foundation of our lives. Somebody says, “Well, if you’re building your life on this foundation, you can expect that house to crumble, because it’s built upon the sand.” You get the idea.
So only the priest could say that the leper was clean. And it’s interesting to note here, all ten of these lepers started walking while they were still sick. The Bible says as they went, they were cleansed. Now, all ten of them believed, and all ten of them obeyed before the healing actually arrived. The Bible teaches us that salvation is through faith. And where a lot of the world gets balled up is what comes next. Fellowship afterward is found through thanksgiving. If we never tell God thank you, that doesn’t mean that we’re not saved. It means that our fellowship with God is about this much, when a couple of thank-yous could make it this much.
You know, the nine men that didn’t return, they were not bad people. They were blessed, they prayed, they obeyed, they were healed, and they were on their way to the priest just exactly the way Jesus told them that they should do. And their skin was pure again. That was proof that God was good. But what do you think their failure to return to Jesus showed? What did that indicate? Yeah, God saved my soul. I don’t have to go to hell. I’m not afraid of that anymore. God healed my leprosy. But the fact that they refused to return and thank the One who healed them - what attitude do you think that promoted? Do we understand what it means to love the gift more than we love the Giver? Do we understand what it means to get caught up in the glitz and the glamour of the world and sort of put what God wants on the back burner? Fact check, folks. If it weren’t for God, we wouldn’t be able to even notice the glitz and the glamour of the world. Who do you think is responsible for arranging circumstances so you can just go down and use a credit card and get something to eat at Walmart or some restaurant? You know, there’s been generations in this world that had to scrounge for something to eat, literally. All right. Who do you think’s responsible for all the leisure time that we have? You know, sometimes - fairly often - I think we take God’s blessings for granted.
Is there something that we look at as, well, that was a bad thing that happened, and we kind of carry that chip on our shoulder? We carry that anger around with us, and maybe have for several years, and not ever once realized that that wasn’t really something bad. And even after that realization, we never turned around and thanked God for it.
What I’m getting at there, there’s a real-life example. Back in the 1970s - actually 1970 - you may or may not remember the Apollo program, the space program. Apollo 13. There was an astronaut, Ken Mattingly, and he had trained an entire year to make this flight on Apollo 13, and he knew the command module. He knew all the procedures just like the back of his hand. Well, three days before Apollo 13 was due to launch, the doctors discovered that this lead astronaut had been in the same room with one of the other astronauts’ sons who had German measles. And that’s it. He didn’t have the measles, but he had been exposed to it. Well, the flight surgeon said, “Nope, we’re not sending you in space, okay, because you’ve been exposed and you’ve got no immunity. You know the drill.” So NASA pulled Mattingly off of the mission. The backup man took his place, and this lead astronaut stood on the ground and watched Apollo 13 go into space without him.
Well, two days into the flight, what do you think happened? An oxygen tank blew up on the ship in space. The three men that were on the main ship, they were going to go to the moon, so they had the little lunar module. They had to abandon the main ship, crawl into the little lunar module to stay alive. Well, to get home, the crew, when they did their little deal on the computer and headed back, they had to crawl back into that cold, dead ship that they turned off. And they had to turn the main ship back on in just the precise order. Flip this button, wait two seconds, flip this button, wait four seconds, and move this little lever over. It had to be done just exactly right, because the battery was just about dead. And if they did it just right, they’d have just barely enough power to do things the way they ought to be done, get through the atmosphere and land safely.
Well, who didn’t NASA call to do this? Who do you think? The man who was exposed to the measles and never caught them and was removed from the mission. Well, Mattingly reported he lived in the simulator to figure out the right procedure to do all this for several days. He worked it all out. They called him on the radio and told them what to do and when to do it. They splashed down four days later, alive.
Well, I go through this to point out that the worst day of this lead astronaut’s life, from a vocation standpoint, was being grounded. But where did that disappointment put this lead astronaut? Nobody else could have done what he did, because nobody else was familiar enough with the main ship to be able to figure out the right procedure. Okay, this disappointment put this astronaut in the right place to bring these men home. The disappointment was the blessing. All right. But this astronaut, he wasn’t able to see the blessing from the launch pad.
GOING DEEPER · THE LORD WAS NOT THROUGH WITH MATTINGLY
Not preached on Sunday morning — extra study.
And the Lord was not through with Mattingly either. Two years later he flew to the moon on Apollo 16.
Well, think about 9/11. I remember hearing stories about some passengers on some of those ill-fated airplanes who had missed their flight that day. The passengers who missed the flight that day were disappointed at the time. But think about the blessing in that empty seat of a doomed airplane. All right, you get the picture.
Getting the blessing is not the same thing as giving thanks. All ten lepers got the miracle. Now, if it had been 9/11, then all ten of these would have been passengers who missed their flight, but only one of them made the connection to what God had done for them.
III. What Only One Received
Now, what did only one of these lepers receive? Now, all ten of them were cleansed. All ten of them received the miracle. But there was something that only one of them received. When he saw that he was healed, the one man looked down at his own arms. Okay? Where’d all the scabs go? And he made a connection of the fact that he was healed to the Master that he had prayed to, just like the passenger who understood what the empty seat meant on 9/11. Okay? And you probably remember similar stories. Okay? And he gave God the glory.
Well, the moment this leper saw the empty seat, if you will, he turned back. Now, he didn’t turn to the disappointment, the flat tire, the sick child, the lost ticket, the long line that kept him off the plane, whatever it was that messed his plans up. He didn’t focus on that, but he turned to the source of the blessing. Now, the original destination that he was going to, where he had planned to go, that could wait. But the trip to see Jesus and say thank you, in his mind, in his heart, that couldn’t wait another second.
It says, “With a loud voice” - with the same loud voice that cried for mercy, that voice now shouted thanks. And you know, sometimes we’re anxious to receive God’s blessing. Well, yeah, I’ll say thank you, but we say, “Lord, help me.” He helps us and we say, “Thank you, Lord.” The point is, the cry for mercy was public. So in this particular instance, the thank you was just as public and just as loud.
He fell down on his face at Jesus’s feet. Now, this is the one who realized exactly what he had received, and he realized who he had received it from. And of all things, he was a Samaritan. The significance of that: an outsider, a Samaritan. They were big-time prejudiced. All right, there’s just no other way to say it. They were big-time prejudiced. And these Samaritans, they were practically dogs, subhuman. They had nothing to do with them. So what we find here is the man who had the least religion came back with the most worship.
And then we see the treasure in this - the thing that this one received that the nine didn’t.
“Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.” (Luke 17:19).
Now, we can take a look at the Scriptures and we can see different layers. And if we want to preach this just as salvation, that’s fine. Nothing wrong with that. But if we want to peel back a layer or two, we can see two different types of cleansing that occurred here. The nine received salvation, but the one who returned received an abundant life after salvation. Now, Demas was saved, but he had a lost life. The Apostle Paul was saved, but he had a whole life. And that’s the connection I want us to see here.
Matthew 5 and verse 45. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 45. God tells us that he sends the rain on the just like he does on the unjust.
“for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45).
Now, before the rain begins to fall, the rain doesn’t look down and say, “Well, I’m not going to fall over here, because these are not good. I’m just going to fall over here.” Rain falls on the man who thanks God for it, and also on the man who cusses the mud. All ten get rained on. Nine of them can walk off wet and satisfied, but one returned around to find out where the rain came from.
Are we saved and satisfied with having escaped the flames of hell? Or have we fallen in love with our Savior? You know, “saved; yet so as by fire” is one side of the coin, but receiving a “well done, thou good and faithful servant” is the side of the coin that so often times we lose sight of.
Again, attending church. People say, “Preacher, I’ve gone to that church down there for twenty years.” That’s fine and good, and it’s good that you do, but attending is not the same as being baptized into that church. Dating somebody resembles marriage. Okay? But is dating the same thing as marriage? Uh-uh. Well, my point: attending is like dating, but proper baptism is the commitment and the blessings that go with a marriage.
Now, everybody here can recall a disappointment in their own life that was actually a blessing in disguise. What I mean by that is it turned out to be an empty seat. Okay? We’ve all received a blessing in one form or another. But how many of us have received the whole blessing? Now, I mentioned most, if not everybody here, has been saved. We’ve received the miracle of cleansing our souls. But how many of us have turned around and gone back to thank our Savior?
The man who returned, the man who returned to Jesus, his life was made whole. Now, obviously, if he receives the picture here by faith, “thy faith hath made thee whole.” Well, yes, our faith saves our soul. But then if we continue to live in faith, what happens? Do we do that to maintain our salvation, to keep from losing it? No. There, you look in the third chapter of Corinthians. I always get mixed up. I can’t remember if it’s first or second Corinthians, but there’s only two. Just take a look at chapter 3, and in both of them you’ll find reference to gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and stubble, and a reward, or being saved, yet so as by fire. That’s what we’re talking about here. “Thy faith hath made thee whole.” Your faith has given you an abundant life. Not just you’re saved by the skin of your teeth. Nine got a miracle and missed the Master. But one of them got both the miracle and the Master.
GOING DEEPER · THE THANK YOU WAS FAITH TURNING AROUND
Not preached on Sunday morning — extra study.
A guard on this point: the man was not made whole because he said thank you. It says, “thy FAITH hath made thee whole.” His thank you was his faith turning around and coming back to Jesus. We can experience salvation and live our entire lives outside the church - the body of Christ.
Now, basically, or quickly: the truth that we talk about so much is not just a list of rules. The truth that we talk about, the truth that we’re supposed to keep, guard, protect, and practice, is actually a Person. Notice John 14 and 15, and also John 14 and verse 6. John 14 and 15, and also John 14 and verse 6.
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15).
Now, John’s not telling us here, “If you love me, keep a list of rules.” He’s telling us, “If you love me, connect your life to Jesus Christ.”
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6).
Now, the nine that didn’t return, they treated Jesus like He was a place to take their needs - a location. I’ve got a problem, I need to take my problems to this particular location. But the one who returned, he treated Jesus like a Person, a Person he could go back to over and over and over. Now, salvation is equal to coming to Jesus in faith. But the abundant life after salvation is equal to returning to Jesus over and over and over. Now, thanks is the only thing that we’re able to return to the Giver. That’s the only thing we’re capable of returning to the One who gives us whatever gift it is. The other option, we could just forget about saying thank you and run away with the gift.
Well, where are the nine this morning? Some of us are in the church pews. We’ve been healed. We’ve been helped. We’ve been saved. But like the nine, we’ve just gone quiet. We see the empty seat. Okay, we understand this disappointment really wasn’t - it was a blessing. We see that. But instead of returning to say thank you, we just continue on to the ball game, or wherever we had in mind to go.
Now, this quiet child of God, one of the - that represents the one of the nine that didn’t come back. Now, I want to reassure you that that has nothing to do with proving that we are not saved. It does not mean that we’ve lost our salvation. It means we just don’t have room in our life for God. We’re content with being “saved; yet so as by fire,” because we have not yet learned the importance of the abundant life. We’ve never really experienced it. So we think it must not be important.
So, the one point to our lesson this morning: all ten got the miracle, but only one came back to the Master.
IV. Turn Back for One Old Mercy
Our homework for this week: do what the tenth leper did. When you see the empty seat in your life - and you know what I mean by that - put your life on hold. Stop what you’re doing. The original destination, what you had planned, can wait. Turn around and go back to Jesus and tell Him thank you. Now, we don’t go back to Jesus and tell Him thank you so that we can add another item or two to our list. But we go to Jesus and thank Jesus for an old blessing, for a prayer that He might have answered a year ago, ten years ago. A prayer that we have never gone back and thanked God for answering. You know, and I’m talking about a disappointment that we finally saw as an empty seat on a plane of disaster.
GOING DEEPER · AN OLD MERCY, NOT A NEW ONE
Not preached on Sunday morning — extra study.
Think of the old mercies: the surgery that went right, the child that came home, the job that came through, the day we were saved.
You know, we can’t see the things that God sees. We can’t understand a lot of times why God does the things that He does do. But you know, the one promise that just covers everything: does God love us or not? What do you do for people that you love? You do everything in your power to keep those that you love from being harmed. Well, we’re talking about God, who can speak worlds into existence. And far too often we’re just caught up in the here and now. But Jesus is blessing us so that in eternity we will be wealthy, rich, however you want to phrase that. Okay? It’s everything to do with our relationship with God, our spirit with His Spirit. That’s what God focuses on. And that’s what it means when He says everything works together for the good. Not that our bank account will get better. Not that we’ll be richer here, but so that our relationship with God will grow and be stronger.
Psalm 116, verse 12. Psalm 116, verse 12.
“What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?” (Psalm 116:12).
Now, are we willing to say what God has done for us out loud, like the leper did? We should be willing to go to God in prayer, whether it’s in church, whether it’s at the supper table where our family can hear it, and realize that we weren’t embarrassed when we cried out for mercy. Why should we be embarrassed to say thank you in the same setting?
I once - I was in church, you know, little kid, and there was an old man, when he was called on to pray, he’d pray for ten minutes. Okay? But I remember one of his prayers one time. He was in the Navy on a ship, and to make a long story short, he was thanking God - and this was, he was an old man then, years and years later - the ship came within like three degrees of capsizing, in whatever war it was. Of course, if it had capsized, practically everybody would have been dead. All right. Though all those years later, he was still thanking God for that blessing, and he did so in public. All right. It wouldn’t hurt a thing in the world for some of us to mimic things that we are thankful for.
Notice Mark 5 and 19. Mark 5 and 19. This is the leper, okay? The one that came back. Jesus is telling him, “Howbeit” - he wanted to follow Jesus.
“Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.” (Mark 5:19).
You know, and I begin to think, well, what are some of the things that I am thankful for in my past? Very quickly, first thing that pops into my mind: I’m thankful for Summer. Okay? The home turns around Summer. Without Summer, nothing would be the same. And then you’ve got Haley and Sarah. Well, they are a result of Summer. Then Andy and Mark. Okay, Summer’s example to Haley and Sarah resulted in their choice of their husbands. Then you’ve got the grandchildren, and they have parents that give the right kind of example to them. Well, as the family keeps growing, what there is to thank God for also keeps growing.
Now, I realize, okay, I’m putting a lot of weight and responsibility on Summer as the wife, as what Paul calls the weaker vessel. I totally get the fact that the husband is the head of the family and has great responsibility. But I want to point out that there are things that a God-fearing man simply cannot do without the helping hand of what is often referred to as someone that’s weaker, the weaker vessel. The hands of the man may build the cradle, but the hands that rock the cradle which the man builds are the hands that build the home. And I suppose it’s my home and all the help that I received to build it that I’m truly the most thankful for.
You might say, “Well, preacher, you know, I noticed you were talking about things you were most thankful for. You didn’t even mention the church. Do you think more of your family than you do the church?” Well, not at all. But listen to this. Did you notice how the role of the wife and the mother was the hinge upon everything that is good and positive in the home? Well, the reason the family is so important is because of how our families pretty much play the same role in the church as the wife and the mother plays in the family. No wife or mother, not much of a family - scattered and weak. No families, not much of a church - scattered and weak. The church is not a collection of individuals. The church is a gathering of families. Guard our families, and we guard the church of the next generation.
Notice Luke 17 and 17. Luke 17 and 17.
“And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?” (Luke 17:17).
Well, what will Jesus say about us? Well, there were ten families that I blessed in Dardanelle. Ten families I know that are saved, but I only see one of those families in the church that I put in Dardanelle. And I’d ask our musicians to come forward, prepare for an invitational hymn.
The one point to our lesson this morning: all ten got the miracle, but only one came back to the Master.
You know, if the blessing in our life is - you fill in the blank - how many of us will give God the glory for that blessing? Have we ever laid in the hospital bed and begged God to get us out of the hospital, and “if you do, I’ll serve you”? Have we ever had loved ones in the hospital and practically begged God, “If you’ll let my loved one live, I’ll serve you”? Well, we got healed. Our loved ones got healed. Now, then, we’re healthy enough to go to the lake on Sunday. We’re healthy enough to fill in the blank. But for some reason or other, spending an hour in an air-conditioned building on cushioned pews in church, we’re just not healthy enough for that. Where are they at? They’re on the lake. They’re at the ball game. They’re at wherever. Okay? They’re not in church. Where does that hit anybody’s heart this morning? We’re all guilty. We’re all guilty.
How much is too much love for what God has done? Can we ever love Him enough? I don’t care what level we’re at.
Hymn 403.
