The Grateful Said Revised Manuscript for Nov 26

“The Grateful Said”

Luke 17:11-19

One of the things I had to decide this week was do I preach what I was going to preach on the 19th or do I just press on with my preaching schedule and preach what I was planning to preach for today?  As I was praying about this with Dan, God gave me the answer, oddly enough, through the very passage that I was going to preach last Sunday.  It’s the story of 10 lepers who all experience a great miracle of healing from Jesus.

As powerful and wonderful as the miracle was…only one found the time and the heart to go back and say “Thank You.”  As I thought about it, I realized that if I didn’t preach on that miracle and describe for you the miracle we experienced, it would be like I wasn’t really giving God the glory that He deserves.

Stories of Scandalous Ingratitude can be shocking.  I ran across a stack of them the other day. Some make you smile; some make you grimace; some make you groan; and some just make you plain sick.

A man writing at the post office desk was approached by an older fellow who had a post card in his hand. The old man said, "Sir, could you please address this post card for me?" The man gladly did so, and he agreed to write a short message on the post card, and he even signed it for the man, too.

Finally the man doing the writing said to the older man, "Now, is there anything else I can do for you?"

The old fellow thought about it for a minute, and he said, "Yes, at the end could you just put, 'P.S. Please excuse the sloppy handwriting.'"

Boomer Esiason: Good Samaritan

While driving home after a disappointing 28-24 loss to the Miami Dolphins one day in 1995, New York Jets quarterback Boomer Esiason had to stop his car because of an accident in front of him.

He got out of his car and asked a woman in the car in front of him if she was all right. Her car window was broken, and she was in tears. "She looked at me," Esiason recalled, "and said, 'Boomer?' I said, 'Yes.' She said, 'You guys really (stink), how'd you lose that game today?'"

In 1981, Peter Stankiewicz stopped his car and dove into the Potomac River to rescue a driver whose lumber truck had crashed through a bridge railing and plunged 60 feet into the icy water. After hauling the driver to shore, Stankiewicz was informed that his car had been towed to the pound because it was blocking traffic.

Meryl Streep: Oscar Blooper

In 1979, Meryl Streep won an Academy Award for her brilliant portrayal of Joanna Kramer in Kramer vs. Kramer. During the post-awards festivities, she visited the ladies' room - and forgot her Oscar on the back of a toilet.

Terrible Fate

In 1555, Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of a great Cathedral in Moscow. So thrilled was Ivan with the work of the project's architects, Postnik and Barma, that - in order to ensure that neither would ever build anything more beautiful - he had them both blinded.

Gratitude, it seems, just doesn’t grow on trees…even in religious cultures:

9/10 Americans have some religious affiliation

8/10 Americans say they are Christians

7/10 Americans say they pray regularly

6/10 Teenagers who claim to be Christians will not continue their religious practices into their 20s

5/10 Americans attend church at least one time per month

4/10 Americans have read at least a portion of the Bible

3/10 Americans have read “The DaVinci Code”

2/10 Americans who say they are Christians tithe regularly

1/10 Healed lepers demonstrated gratitude

I have told the story to many people over the last week, but I will tell you how it happened again.  I am not trying to be melodramatic or overly sensational, but if you could have seen how hard the car hit her, you would have thought that she was dead, too. 

But by the grace of God—and to the glory of God—Mary Beth was not really injured at all!  In fact, she never lost consciousness, and when I asked her, “What hurts?”  She replied sheepishly, “My toe.”

Rather than let me explain it, I’ve asked her to tell you what an incredible miracle this is!  She doesn’t like to speak in front of crowds much, so this is a pretty big deal for her to do, so please pray for her as she speaks.

(Introduce Mary Beth)

I suspect that the odds of her walking out of that hospital were about the same as the odds of these lepers being healed.  Yet our God is a miracle working God, and when they cried for mercy, He heard them.

It occurred to me that rather than focus on what the other 9 were thinking…it would be helpful to think of what the one man who was Grateful Said…Thus, I decided last week to call the sermon: The Grateful Said.  (Of course, given that I thought Mary Beth was dead, the title is really ironical.)

• The Grateful Said Thank You for What I did not (Deserve)

EXP: Think of what he was asking for when he begged for Pity or Mercy.  It’s a word that precludes merit.  He wasn’t saying, “I deserve this.”  He was saying, “I need something that I don’t deserve.” 

When you look at the people in the NT whom Jesus healed, changed, pardoned, and delivered…there is never a case where the person said, “Do this for me…I deserve it.”  Once the Jews said of the Centurion, he deserves it…but he said of himself, “I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.”  Let me list some examples for you.

Matthew 15:22

And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to Him, saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed."

Luke 18:38

And he cried out, saying, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"

And John the Baptist, who the Lord said was the greatest of all the prophets described himself as not worthy to touch the thong of Jesus’ sandals!

Truly, it is people who recognize their need for MERCY who are genuinely grateful.

One of the really remarkable things about this passage is that this one man was a Samaritan.  The other 9 were Jews.  Jews knew that they had a covenant relationship with God—and that part of that covenant was that God would act mercifully to them.  It might not have been a legal requirement for God to be merciful…but the implications of the covenant…and the history of Israel caused them to expect that God would be merciful.  The Samaritan, as the Bible points out elsewhere about him and us…were not included in that covenant.  We…he included….were strangers to it.  Foreigners to the covenant.

So…the Jewish lepers may or may not have felt they were entitled to that mercy…the Samaritan most certainly knew that he was not.  That may or may not have been why he went back and the others didn’t…but it is certainly interesting…to think of.

Of all the lepers in the world at that time, he didn’t deserve it any more than all others did.  And he knew it.

Maybe one of the reasons we don’t see more miracles than we do is because we tend to think that we deserve them.

And we would have to say today that we didn’t deserve this miracle any more than anyone else did.  Mary Beth is a marvelous person, and I love her with all my heart, but we don’t believe that God did this because she deserved it.  He did it out of mercy and grace.  He didn’t do it because she was good or because I was good…He did it because HE IS GOOD!

When I was telling our friends in Colorado about this, several of them mentioned to me that just in the last month there have been 2 terrible pedestrian auto accidents in Denver, in which people died.  One involved a mother and her 2 preschoolers; another involved 2 teen age boys who were hit and killed.  I heard of another fatal one in downtown Dallas this week.

I have no explanation for why their outcome was different than Mary Beth’s, except to say that God gave us something we didn’t deserve.

And when I think about my own life and all the blessings God has give me, I am struck by the fact that I don’t deserve any of these things!  Why Me?

EXP: And more than Anything, I didn’t and I don’t now deserve God’s Mercy as it relates to salvation.

This year may have been a great year financially or a very bad one.  You may have had trouble in your home; you may have struggled with your health, or even have been spiritually down, but if you have received God’s Mercy, you can say Thank You for something that you really didn’t deserve.

• The Grateful Said Thank You for What I could not  (Do for Myself)

Have you noticed that not everyone who says “Thank You” really means it.  Take a look at this clip from the movie “Shenadoah” and ask yourself if this is really a grateful man.

“Insert Movie Clip”

Do you think he was really grateful?  Not at that Point!

This leper obviously is completely sincere in his gratitude for he knows he has received something he could never do for himself.  He was never going to just get well.  He was never going to make himself well.  Only Jesus could make him well.

We were teasing Mary Beth about how just unbelievably tough she is, but the truth is we know that there’s no way she could have done this for herself.  There’s no way any of us can take ANY credit for it. 

One person that Debbie, Mary Beth’s sister, told her story to, tried to explain it away by saying, “That car must have hit her in just the right place.” (“Uhmmm…Sure,” Debbie replied.)

Someone else asked me, “Did Mary Beth jump up over the car?”  (I love Mary Beth dearly…but she can’t even spell the word jump.)

It doesn’t make sense.  It defies explanation.  It’s just a miracle.

And so is salvation.

We could not save ourselves. 

I know that I could never have saved myself.  Not in a million tries.  I could never have paid the price for my own salvation.  I could never have earned it.

And it’s a miracle that God allowed His Son to die in our place.

And it’s a miracle that God so changes our hearts that we become new creations!

By the way, you may be wondering, “Why DOES God spare some and not others?”  Does he love some MORE than others?

The answer is, “No.  God has already established his love for all of us at Calvary.”

ILL: Man meets an old friend…

One of them looked forlorn, almost on the verge of tears. His friend asked, "What has the world done to you, my old friend?"

The sad fellow said, "Let me tell you. Three weeks ago, an uncle died and left me forty thousand dollars."

"That's a lot of money."

"But you see, two weeks ago, a cousin I never even knew died, and left me eighty-five thousand free and clear."

"Sounds like you've been blessed . . . ."

"You don't understand!" he interrupted. "Last week my great-aunt passed away. I inherited almost a quarter of a million."

Now he was really confused. "Then, why do you look so glum?"

"This week . . . nothing!"

The truth is that God has given us all the gift that we could never have had ourselves, and if we never have a miracle like Mary Beth’s…we still have something wonderful in eternal life.

And for one thing, we should be eternally grateful…and for another we should determine that if God has given us such a great miracle, we are obligated to live completely for His Glory!

• The Grateful Said Thank You for What I cannot (Repay)

Think of all that the leper had restored to him: His health, family; work; dignity; his name; his place in society.

How could he have ever repaid Jesus for any of that?  All he could do was go back to say “Thank You”—something that apparently was too difficult for the other 9. 

And notice what happens when he goes back.  Jesus says, “Your faith has made you well.”  What was he speaking of?  He was not talking about leprosy…he was now speaking about salvation.

ILL: In his book Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them, John Ortberg tells of a young man named John Gilbert. At age five, John was diagnosed with Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy, a genetic, progressive, debilitating disease. At age 25, the disease finally claimed John's life.

Every year John lost something. One year, he lost the ability to run, so he couldn't play sports with the other kids. Another year he could no longer walk straight, so all he could do was watch others play. He lost the ability to do all the outward things that we think of that make us human. Eventually, he even lost the ability to speak….

John Gilbert suffered far more than what most of us can imagine during those years. Groups of students humiliated him because of his condition and because he had to bring a trained dog to school to help him. A bully used to torture him in the lunchroom where there were no supervising teachers. No one ever stood up for him; maybe they were afraid for themselves; who knows?

"What a silly species we are," John writes. "We all need to feel accepted ourselves, but we constantly reject others."

But John had other moments in his life, too. Once he was invited to a National Football League fundraising auction. When it began, one item in particular caught John's eye: a basketball signed by the players of the Sacramento Kings professional team. John so desperately wanted that ball that when it came up for bid, he felt his hand raise up in the air. Not having the funds to participate, John's mother quickly brought it back down.

They watched the bidding go up and up and up. It rose to an astounding amount compared to the value of the ball and especially compared to other items at the auction. Finally, a man made a bid that no one else could possibly match, and he won the prize.

The man walked to the front and claimed the basketball. But instead of going back to his seat, the man walked across the room and gently placed it into the thin, small hands of the boy who had desired it so strongly. The man put that ball into hands that would never dribble a ball down a court, never throw it to a teammate, never fire it from the foul line. But those hands would cherish it for as long as they lived.

"It took me a moment to realize what the man had done," John writes. "I remember hearing gasps all around the room, then thunderous applause and weeping eyes. To this day I'm amazed…Have you ever been given a gift that you could have never gotten for yourself? Has anyone ever sacrificed a huge amount for you without getting anything in return?”

That’s what we have all received in salvation, and it is a greater gift by far than even a great gift of healing or miraculous deliverance.

And there’s always a hidden blessing in gratitude.  The other 9—they received the temporal blessing—the healing…but the grateful---not only the cleansing from leprosy—but also from sin.

Let me tell you that there is still a hidden blessing in gratitude.  Always.  If I approach the day without gratitude, there are things I still receive.  I still have the blessing of a great country; of the day---and so forth…and yet there is so much more I miss.

The same is true about your church.  Without a grateful spirit, there are many things that you still enjoy…but it is so easy to miss the greater blessings if you don’t have that grateful spirit.

It is like Polarized Sunglasses when you go fly fishing.  Can you enjoy it without them?  Yes, but you see so much more with them on! 

Journalist James Glassman declares that "a culture of complaint" has infected American society. The grievances of Americans are many.  Some Americans file complaints against food companies, seeking to hold a corporation responsible for making them fat. Others seek litigation against banks for lending them money even though they were a credit risk. There are complaints about overcrowding in schools, low paying jobs, and cheap foreign labor. The truth is that some of these complaints are unfounded or else ignore offsetting blessings.

According to Glassman, there are many reasons not to complain:

·                     In 1955 the ratio of students to teachers was 30 to 1. Today it is 19 to 1.

·                     Adjusted for inflation, compensation has tripled since 1947, and the cost of necessities has plummeted.

·                     Food in 1950 represented about one third of a family's total expenditures; today, it's one seventh.

·                     The U.S. Gross Domestic Product is more than the total of the next five countries.

·                     The current U.S. unemployment rate of 5.7% is lower than the average rate over the last 30 years and lower than most countries, including industrialized countries.

·                     Americans work fewer hours, and have more cars, cultural institutions, and children in college than ever before.

The U.S. may jeopardize her prosperity if too many citizens demand and expect an easy road through life and complain about the smallest obstacles and setbacks.

The lack of Gratitude doesn’t just affect our national GNP…It affects us spiritually.

It is probable that in most of us the spiritual life is impoverished and stunted because we give so little place to gratitude. It is more important to thank God for blessings received than to pray for them beforehand. For that forward-looking prayer, though right as an expression of dependence upon God, is still self-centered in part, at least, of its interest; there is something we hope to gain by our prayer. But the backward-looking act of thanksgiving is quite free from this. In itself it is quite selfless.

John Henry Jowett, a British preacher of an earlier generation, said this about gratitude: "Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic." What did he mean? He meant that gratitude, like a vaccine, can prevent the invasion of a disgruntled, discouraged spirit. Like an antitoxin, gratitude can prevent the affects of the poisons of cynicism, criticalness, and grumbling. Like an antiseptic, a spirit of gratitude can soothe and heal the most troubled spirit.

And all through the Bible we are told of the importance of giving thanks to God….of showing gratitude to God.  So how do we do that?

How to Show My Gratitude

1. thru my song

This man was praising God…in a loud voice.  I don’t know if it was melodious or not.  But we can do it thru our songs….We can Thank Him!  We can worship and exalt and magnify Him with zeal through our songs.

1. thru my service

This man fell at his feet.  It was an expression of gratitude, but it was also a pledge of service unto Jesus.  He was demonstrating his willingness to obey and to serve.

One of the signs of growth and gratitude in our lives is when we reach the point where we are willing to Obey the Spirit Promptly.

When we feel God speaking to us about taking on some form of service, we need to obey the Spirit and to obey Him promptly.  What service are you involved in for Jesus Christ?  Are you using your spiritual gift?  Are you using your talents? 

There’s a difference between spiritual gifts and talents.  We have both and we need to use both.  For example, we have a great web site up and running because Clint Caraway got a burden for the Lord some time back and said, “I want to use my talent.”  (By the way, there’s room on the team for you if you got similar talents.)

We need some people who have some talents in electronics and technology to be a part of our audio/visual team.  It’s a great way to show your gratitude for what God has done.

Many of you have talents in music.  We need you to use your talents in the choir or the orchestra.

Then there’s ways to use your spiritual gift, as well.  Every Christian has a spiritual gift.  A spiritual gift is an ability given by the Holy Spirit to serve effectively in a particular service as a member of the Body of Christ.

Maybe you have the spiritual gift of hospitality, you need to use it to build up the fellowship in your class or to host nice, fun, parties for seekers.

The problem with many of our spiritual lives is we think we are doing God a favor by coming to worship Him.  That’s why we do not worry if we are in the best frame of mind. Did we get enough sleep?  Are we spiritually prepared to meet God?  In our minds, it is enough to come…God should be impressed that we showed up.  He should thank us for coming, right?  

We couldn’t be more mixed up in our thinking.  That whole attitude stinks to high heaven, and it is in many of our homes…and I mean some of the finest up-standing homes in the church.  And it shows first that we are not on mission for God and even worse—we are far from grateful…we are arrogant and ungrateful.  (You notice, perhaps, that Jesus didn’t thank the leper for coming back to say thanks.  The leper owed Jesus, and so do we.)

1. thru my sacrifice

This man came back and it maybe wasn’t a HUGE sacrifice, but it was a sacrifice of time.  We can show our gratitude to God when we sacrifice our time, our talents, and our treasures… We say, “O God You have given me so much…”  I want to give out of gratitude…Thanks-GIVING.

It acknowledges His goodness; it expresses your heart; it furthers the work.

Do you realize that our church cannot do ministry without the financial support of every single member?  We can give thanks to God thru our sacrifice…and when we do, it opens us up to other blessings we would never have received.

Anne Keegan's article "Blue Christmas" was a collection of Christmas stories told by Chicago police officers. One was the story of George White.

George lived in a rented room at the YMCA. He had one set of clothes, shoes wrapped with rubber bands to keep the soles from flopping, and a threadbare black overcoat. He spent his mornings napping in an old metal chair by the heater in the back of the 18th District office.

Two officers, Kitowski and Mitch, took an interest in the old man, occasionally slipping him a few bucks. They found out that Billy the Greek over at the G&W grill gave him a hot breakfast every morning, no charge.

The two policemen and their families decided to have George as their guest for Christmas dinner. They gave him presents, which he unwrapped carefully.

As they drove him back to the Y, George asked, "Are these presents really mine to keep?" They assured him they were. "Then we must stop at the G&W before I go home," he said. With that, George began rewrapping his presents.

When they walked into the restaurant, Billy the Greek was there as always. "You been good to me, Billy," said George. "Now I can be good to you. Merry Christmas." George gave all his presents away on the spot.

Generosity is natural when a grateful attitude prevails.

I want to say to you that if you look at your life, every single one of you would have to say, “God you have been to me.”  Thanksgiving Offerings…Sacrifices…give us the chance to give something back.

Years ago, I read the little book Fire on the Mountain.   It is the story of how the gospel transformed life in an African village.  There’s a story that came out of a women’s retreat there…. “Thank you Lord!  I am not too late.”

I said last week, It’s not too late.  Well, guess what…it’s not too late for you.  It’s not too late to show your gratitude.  It’s not too late to be saved.