Sermon Tone Analysis

A Chain Reaction

Lets play a game.

I”ll describe a situation to you and you tell me what has just happened.

You are watching the jumbo tron and you see a woman crying… jumping up and down saying yes yes yes… what just happened?

What about this one:

A group of kids wearing matching pajamas all looked shocked then one at a time begin to smile, laugh, then hug their parents

What about this...

A young man in the hospital, walking up to complete strangers giving them hugs or shaking hands then giving them a cigar...

Three situations where people react in exactly the same way… but all three caused by different experiences.

Have you ever felt joy like that?

Joy is a good description, but there’s much more going on here.

There’s a life change.

Something happened to you that caused a change in you, and produced a response from you.

Which brings us to today’s text from the Gospel of Luke.

Today we look at a story of Jesus that is completely unique to the Gospel of Luke, it’s the only Gospel that records the encounter.

Lev 13.

Bacterial disease… legions… highly infectious… caused a loss of feeling or paralysis… leading to injuries that often got secondary infections…

UNCLEAN… 6 ft - then 150 ft

Leper colony… Jews and Samaritans… Misery loves company

Years since they’ve been touched or hugged

Lev 14 describes the process for being made “clean”… show to priest and let him inspect… not healed, but accepted.

It took some faith for them all to be healed… they all went… they were all healed…

I imagine their reactions “AS THEY WENT”… skin clearing… fingers and toes

One reaction was different… all were healed… but one was made well.

One experienced saving grace… he was different

What happened to him, did something in him, that now demanded something from him… he went back to worship… to give thanks.

Samaritan was the only one… outsider…

Why is gratitude so important?

Why is it so hard to live with attitude of gratitude?

Human heart… we find ourselves like the lepers… Jesus please have mercy on us… and quickly it becomes… Never mind… I don’t need Jesus after all.

Enemies of Gratitude

Enemy of Gratitude: Comparison

When you compare yourself to others, it’s hard to appreciate your life when all you see is what you don’t have...

Enemy of Gratitude: Entitlement

I want it… I deserve it…

Prodigal and his brother…

The younger brother - I want it now

Waiting in line... Bad service!

What took years or decades for the father to accumulate — took the son weeks or months to squander

We see this today in kids striving to obtain the same lifestyle that my parents have!

Then there’s the other side… I deserve it.

WE saw this in the older brother:

If someone owes you more… how can you ever expect to appreciate what you have?

Where entitlement says this is what I deserve… Pride says see what I’ve done...

Enemy of Gratitude: Pride

Snoop Dog

Last but not least, I wanna thank me

I wanna thank me for believing in me

I wanna thank me for doing all this hard work

I wanna thank me for having no days off

I wanna thank me for, for never quitting

I wanna thank me for always being a giver

And tryna give more than I recieve

I wanna thank me for tryna do more right than wrong

I wanna thank me for just being me at all times

Deuteronomy 8:11–17 (NIV)

11 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.

12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down... 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, ... 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”

Pride sees me as the source… giver of Good things

Enemy of Gratitude: Bitterness

Spoke to it last week… Bitterness extinguishes love...

Bitterness appears to be a wedge between me and another that is actually a wedge between me and God.

I can’t love God and hate my brother…

The other way bitterness works is when we blame God for our problems…

Enemy of Gratitude: Shortsightedness

Circle Maker… Play the Long Game… It’s hard to be thankful sometimes when we can see past right now’s difficulty.

In today’s YouVersion bible reading closed with a prayer… Lord show me there is a greater purpose for my life and that there is more to life than “this”

In today’s text, the Samaritan found that which was more… not just healing… but salvation… salvation that turned him around to praise.

Let your blessings turn you into praise.

What’s the alternative to praise?

The alternative to not allowing blessings to turn us to praise… Pride, Entitlement, Comparison, Bitterness...

One of my favorite old school modern worship songs… i say that because the song is only about

[Verse 1]

Blessed be Your name

In the land that is plentiful

Where Your streams of abundance flow

Blessed be Your name

[Verse 2]

Blessed be Your name

When I'm found in the desert place

Though I walk through the wilderness

Blessed be Your name

[Pre-Chorus]

Every blessing You pour out

I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord

Still I will say

[Chorus]

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name

[Verse 3]

Blessed be Your name

When the sun's shining down on me

When the world's all as it should be

Blessed be Your name

[Verse 4]

Blessed be Your name

On the road marked with suffering