Stop And Give Thanks

Text

Luke 17:11-19 “11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. 17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.””

Introduction

This is the last Sunday in the month in which our theme was Giving Thanks.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving with family and friends.

I want to remind you that we should give thanks all of the time. Through tough times as well as the good.

Don’t let Thanksgiving be the only time you say thank you, bless your food, and everyone sitting at the table tell what they are thankful for.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Jesus

Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem. He took the long route because the people of Samaria didn’t receive Him previously.

He met ten men who were lepers along the way.

Now Jesus was a Jew and the Jews despised Samaritans. There was racial strife between the Jews and Samaritans.

When Assyria conquered northern Israel, they brought foreigners to settle in the land. These foreigners and some of the Israelites intermarried and they brought forth racially mixed children called the Samaritans.

The Samaritans and the Jews lived in separate communities, and so did the Lepers.

The Lepers

People with leprosy were isolated from the rest of the community. Leprosy was a highly contagious disease of the skin.

Whenever they got near other people in the community, they had to tell everybody they were about to come close to someone, they had to announce themselves as lepers.

I wonder if the Jews and the Samaritans got along with each other as they lived in what was called a Leper colony in those days?

Before they caught leprosy, they didn’t have anything in common. Now they shared something that before Jesus came, there wasn’t anything they could do.

We have a similar problem in our society now. In the past six years, racism has resurfaced, causing a further divide in our communities.

But when COVID, Monkeypox, CRP and other diseases, and gun violence came on the scene, we all had something in common that only Jesus can fix.

The ten lepers took a chance because they could’ve been stoned. But they went anyway to a man they heard had healed many people of all manners of diseases and delivered many from demonic possessions.

When they saw Jesus passing by. The 13th verse tells us they lifted up their voices - they shouted; “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

They didn’t care what anyone thought they wanted Jesus to help them. They didn’t care about being stoned, they wanted Jesus to heal them. Because of the barrier leprosy placed between them and the community, and Jesus, they had to life up their voices, they had to shout at Jesus for help because there was a great distance between Jesus and them.

We can take notes from these lepers. Many times we are in a situation that only Jesus can fix. But we have our barriers too:

1-Pride

2-Disbelief

These are two of the things that hinder us from receiving the fullness of God. Some of us won’t confess we’re wrong. Some of us won’t acknowledge Jesus as being our only source for everything we need. Some of us won’t accept God’s word as the final authority over our lives.

The Action

The 14th verse tells us that Jesus told them; “Go show yourselves to the priests.”

There is so much to appreciate whenever we read passages showing Jesus in action.

There are many people who are saying Jesus did away with the Old Testament. This shows that’s not true. It is written in Leviticus 13 that anyone with leprosy had to show themselves to the priest. And Jesus commanded them to the same.

Jesus commanded the lepers to “go”. There was an action needed before the lepers would experience the power of God.

You see. When we ask God to do something for us, we have to believe He will do it.

If they had stood there nothing would’ve happened. They started going to the priests before the healing took place. The 14th verse says, “And so it was, as they went, they were cleansed.”

What are you believing God for? As a church family, what are we believing God for? Let’s do like these Lepers did! Let’s go forward as though we’ve already received it, like these lepers did!

Testimony of the young woman in Roberta Georgia

Conclusion

Now I could go into about the Leper not being obligated to go to the priest because he wasn’t a Jew.

I could go into how a person despised by the Jews and hated Jewish people could turn and worship Jesus who is a Jew when the other nine lepers, who were Jews didn’t thank him.

I could go into how Jesus can heal anybody, but everybody won’t worship Him.

I could go into how leprosy represents sin in our bodies and those of us who have been saved and will be saved should thank the Lord now!

All of that is relevant, but I want to highlight this one point...

Remember to thank the Lord before, during and after our prayer.

One of the Lepers who turned around and came back to Jesus opened his mouth and with a loud voice glorified God.

Do you have something to be thankful?

STOP, TURN AROUND AND GIVE GOD THANKS!!!

Communion…Read 1 Corinthians 11:23-28

Invitation to discipleship