Heart Matters: Gratitude
Notes
Transcript
Introduction: Colin Morikawa’s Gratitude to Tiger Woods.
Play Video after worship and before I come up.
Is Tiger Woods perfect? No, but he did blow open the doors for people of color to the world of professional golf.
Do we only thank perfect people? No. But as imperfect people, we need to give thanks to imperfect people for the imperfect things that they have done on our behalf.
Imperfect People Give Imperfect Thanks
Q: which group of people did the Israelites in Jesus’ day despise the most, foreigners or lepers?
Context of this Text is Forgiveness and Thankfulness.
So watch yourselves. “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them.
Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
Forgiveness is paramount for relationships to flourish. But we must be ready to forgive. How much? 7 times.
But I need help with that. If you have mustard seed faith, it is enough to begin the forgiveness process.
Now, suppose a servant does his job, will he get thanked? No. And neither should we when we are doing what is expected of us. We should not expect thanks.
However, the next section tells us that those who have been blessed should thank the one who blessed them.
1. Own your Situation (11-12)
1. Own your Situation (11-12)
Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.
As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance
lepers (they stood at a distance)
they were from different groups (Israelites and Samaritans)
Who are those that God won’t heal? those who won’t admit they are sick.
“We admit we are powerless over our addictions...”
blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.
2. Seek help from God (13)
2. Seek help from God (13)
and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
3. Obey whatever he commands (14)
3. Obey whatever he commands (14)
When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
Naaman
Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”
Naaman was healed because he did it the way that Elisha (the prophet from Samaria) had told him.
Why won’t he do it in a spectacular way?
Why doesn’t he do it himself?
Why the Jordan? I have better rivers than that.
As long as we believe that we are right and God is wrong, our pride resists healing. When we agree with God that we are broken beyond repair, he does the unimaginable by bringing healing.
There’s an old story about a man up on a roof after a flood. A neighbor with rowboat came up and offered rescue. The man told him that God would rescue him. Then a sheriff’s department rescue boat came to him. “No, God will save me.” Then a national guard helicopter came and dropped a basket. “No thanks, God will save me.” Finally, the waves knocked him off the roof and he drowned. When talking to God the next moment he asked, why didn’t you rescue me? God looked at him and said. Are you kidding? I sent a neighbor with a boat, the sheriff’s department with speedboat and finally a national guard helicopter. I tried to save you three times.
For most of us, it’s that we want to fix ourselves.
4. Return the blessing with gratitude (15-19)
4. Return the blessing with gratitude (15-19)
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.
He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?
Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”
Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
Another story of Lepers in Samaria.
Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die?
If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”
At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there,
for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!”
So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.
The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.
Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”
So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there—not a sound of anyone—only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.”
I’m not entirely sure which of these stories from Elisha Jesus had in mind. But both of them share some pretty intense lessons.
1 leper, 4 lepers, 10 lepers. All from Samaria. 3 distinct lessons.
God will heal under his terms, not yours.
The victory isn’t just for us. We need to share it with others.
We need to return to give thanks to God.
Branchline.
We started this message with forgiveness. And there is much to forgive. Many people have done things very poorly over the years. and we need to do better.
But I’m asking you, even if you have the slightest faith like a mustard seed, God will take it. If you can only plant a tiny seed of forgiveness, God will make it a mountain of forgiveness over time. Let him do his work.
Most importantly, we seem to be living in a cancel culture. If we don’t agree with everything a person does or says, we cancel them completely. I’m sure glad that God doesn’t deal with us that way.
There is so much for which we can be grateful!
a DNA of faith
a willingness to try a new leadership style
people who gave generously so that we have the resources we have today. Listen, it is tight financially. But do you remember that we don’t have to pay a mortgage? This physical building was paid for and much of it was constructed by other people’s hands.
God hasn’t forgotten us.
Let’s look to the past…at those who have led the way and championed a hope for Hastings and beyond. We are standing on their shoulders.