Unclean! Unwanted! Unworthy! Unloved! Isolated!

I. Misery

1. There are some who don’t pray either because their self-sufficient and/or their life doesn’t have any immediately visible crisis.
2. There are some who pray on occasion as a need arises.
3. And some are desperate prayers.

“If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

1. Misery
2. Compassion

1. Misery
2. Compassion
3. Message

All people are sinful and they’re unclean like lepers. It’s a condition that is deep. It’s a condition that is incurable. It is a condition that makes us insensitive. It is a condition that causes us to live separated from God, outside of the camp. It is a condition that, ultimately, will lead to our death. And God says that we’re all sinners by nature and choice, that because of our sin, we’re in the same position as the leper.

Unclean! Unwanted! Unworthy! Unloved! Isolated!

Clean! Wanted! Worthy! Loved! Part of the Community!

By the power of the Holy Spirit, we’re cleansed. Our identity’s changed. Jesus, in touching this man, will do the same for us. He takes our filth away, he gives our dignity back, and we get a brand-new identity to go live a new life as new creations. That’s what Jesus gives when He touches us!

1. Misery
2. Compassion
3. Message
4. Mission

- In our selfie-centered world, we have become increasingly obsessed with ourselves.
- We have less personal interaction with people, which makes it easy to not care.
- The overwhelming exposure to news and needs in the world is actually desensitizing us.

Those with depression and mental illness
Those who are lonely
The elderly, especially those in a nursing home
Widows and widowers
Those from a different political party
Those of a different race or ethnicity
Refugees
Women who get pregnant outside of marriage
Singles
Single parents
The disabled
Those with cancer
Anyone not in our clique or social class
Or anyone we’re holding a grudge against

If we’re in this room and we can identify with the leper. That is, we’ve been moved from misery to mercy, we are now on mission. It’s time for us to start living that way.