Thanksgiving 2020

Don’t Miss out on being thankful

Luke 17:11–19 NKJV

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.”

Intro:

1 Thessalonians 5:18 NKJV

18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

What about going through hard times. You don’t have to thankful for the hard time, but you can be thankful through the hard times

Thankful for my salvaion

Wife. Kids, Gradkids

Elab being in going to Georgia

Elab my job

Ealb thankful to live in America. (VA Health care)

We live in a day where there seems to be less thankfulness then in times past. (By the way, if you do something for someone and you do expecting thanks, you are doing it for the wrong reason)

Giving a thank you to someone who has done something for you is important. (Elab at work Jabeano)

Most importantly. Giving thanks to God for all He does for us. How often do you really give thanks, I mean a true thanks from the heart. A thanks that really means something.

This is one of the many miracles of Jesus, but one of only a few recorded in the Bible.

I. Look at our own Condition. VS 11-12

1. Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem, to the cross. That had to be on His mind. He would suffer, not only physical pain, but the pain and suffering of all sins of the world would be put on Him that day.

a. But Jesus didn’t think of Himself, He was always thinking of others. Now that’s something to be thankful for.

b. We live in a busy time, seems that most of the time people are too busy to do something for other. But not everyone is that way.

c. Our Lords is not that way. Since He always has time for us, we should find time for Him.

2. He takes times for the lepers. Elab on them. Outcast, even from the own families. They were looked as being unclean.

a. LOOK AT THE LAST PART IF VS 12 “which stood afar off” They stood at a distance. Why? Why not run up to Jesus and fall at His feet?

b. They call out to Him because they had heard of Him, and knew that He could heal them, so why stand of at a distance? Because they knew they condition.

c. When we look at ourselves for who we really are, when we look at our own lives and the condition we are really in. And realize that we have a loving merciful God that loves us. That should help us to be thankful.

d. When we know who we are what we are, and see God for who He is and know that we need Him and can do nothing without Him, we call out to Him. And do so with faith.

e. In spite of who you are or what you have done, He loved you. Jesus loved the lepers when no one else would.

II. Call out in Faith. VS 13

1. In unity they call out to Jesus. They had a great desire to be healed, to be made clean.

a. “Have mercy on us” They wanted to be healed, they had heard about Jesus, they believed that Jesus was able to heal them. They wanted that compassion that He had, had for others.

b. We can also call out to Jesus for His mercy.

PS 6:2 “Have mercy on me Lord for I am weak”

PS 27:7 “Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice; have mercy also upon me, and answer me”

PS 51:1 “”Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy loving kindness: according unto the multitudes of thy tender mercies blot my transgressions”

c. When you call out to Jesus, and grants you His great mercy, we can

III. Celebrate with a thankful heart. VS 14-19

VS 14

1. Going to the priest to be pronounced to be clean. This was part of the ceremonial law.

a. He is merciful, He is compassionate, He is caring and loving and He meets our needs. When we call out to Him in faith, our faith will be honored.

VS 15

1. He was in need, he knew the condition he was in, he called out in faith and He was healed. And now he gives God the glory.

a. While the other went to the priest, he back to the savior. With a load voice he glorified God. We have put glorifying Him first in our life.

VS 16

1. Notice that he was a Samaritan. Why did the Holy Spirit let us know that the one man that came back was a Samaritan? I believe it showed that one day in the future many at would respond to Jesus would be Gentiles.

a. This is real worship. There is a lot more to worship than holding up your hands when singing, (but you can worship through singing)

b. There many ways to worship, we can worship in our giving, when Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac, he said they were going to worship.

c. A great way, maybe the greatest way to worship is by thanking God for what He has dome for us. (Word from the Pastor this week)

VS 17-18

It’s possible that the other 9 were Jews. (VS 16)

a. 1 out 9 were thankful. The one that came but to give thanks did so to give glory to God.

b. Te others were still healed, that wasn’t thanking away. But what didn’t come back to give God the glory.

c. Are you being as thankful as you should be?

d. We need to be thankful for what God gives us and not complain about what he what we don’t have.