"Don't Forget Your Stamps" Sunday Message

INTRO:

SCRIPTURE:

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem he encounters a group of people. And we are going to read about this interaction he has with the people that confront him.

Luke 17:11–19 (ESV)

11 On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

TITLE: Don’t Forget Your Stamps

PRAYER:

Jesus we take a moment to extend our gratitude to you. Before we even take a closer look at your scripture let our thankfulness grow even now because of you finished work on the cross. Let us be reminded of that we have because of how you are working in our lives. We pray that you work and bless this time, that our hearts and minds would be open and ready to receive…In Jesus Name

STORY:

Back in 2009 I would have been a junior in high school. We had a thing called Homecoming. And you know whenever there was dance you had to dress to the nines..like you had to go all out. So Mal and I were friends all throughout school. We went to the same elementary school, middle school, and high school together.

Finish homecoming night story.

Talk abput almost getting in a car accident but I never thanks God for protecting us I just carried on as normal.

THE POINT:

I was thinking about it and we are a lot like the 9 sometimes…We Celebrate the outcome and forget who provided the outcome.

How often in our own lives do we do this? When we go through a situation and everything goes well..then we tend to carry on and forget to thank God for the blessing or favor He has provided? We go through a season or a moment in our lives and are thankful for the outcome but then we carry on and never give it a second thought. It reminds me of the passage that we just read…We can sometimes be like the nine. Sometimes we can be like the nine lepors and receive our breakthrough and celebrate the outcome but forget to thank the very one who set it into motion!

I’m sure the nine were thrilled that they were helped but they didn’t go back to thank the one who gave them the healing.

******This is one of the ways we forget the stamp for our thank you card to God.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

What is thanksgiving?

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Thanksgiving

THANKSGIVING (תּוֹדָה, todah; εὐχαριστία, eucharistia). The act of offering thanks or being thankful, usually to God. Often connected to provision, deliverance, or God’s character. Commonly associated in Scripture with meals and worship.

or Gratitude directed towards God

Why do we give it?

Because Praise and worship to God is not possible without it! Life is a gift from Him!

Without thankfulness to God we focus on what we do not have instead of the many blessings God has blessed us with. When we switch our focus on what we are lacking we can quickly covet what others have. Which causes envy or resentment.

Another reason we give our thanks to God...

Because God is worthy of it and

This morning I want to give us three truths about thanksgiving that we can all benefit from.

POINTS:

POINT 1 GIVING THANKS IS A CHOICE

So being thankful is something that we choose to engage in and its for everyday. The biggest thing that God has shown me is that Thanksgiving is not a holiday that happens at the end of November thanksgiving is a lifestyle…But its an attitude that we choose to engage in!

In Luke 17:15 we see that only 1 out of the 9 made the choose to praise God and thank Jesus.

This Samaritan first choose to step out in obedience…He then gets healed on his way to see the priests. But as soon as he realizes what’s happening he runs back to thank Jesus for the miracle he brought in his life! So he made a choice to step out and obey Jesus, then he choose to praise God and thank Jesus. The samaritan in this story understood the attitude of gratitude. He understood the importance of having a thankful heart and why it was necessary to thank God.

I truly believe the more we can take after the example of the samaritan in this story the more our lives will change!

Can I go pastoral for a minute?

You may be in this place and are saying well Chris it’s not that I’m a negative person and unsatisfied, I’m just “being realistic”. Listen I understand your desire to be realistic in order to manage expectations but being realistic about your circumstances can quickly flow into a pessimistic mindset. Why not focus your energy and praise God before you see the blessing?

I’d love for you to write this down

*****Giving God thanks in every season is not an ignorance to the difficulty of a situation, its choosing to focus on the one who’s working through it.*******

The point behind that is whether we experience a highs or lows in life we are not ignoring the the fact that life is hard, we are choosing to look at a person instead of the problem and choose thanksgiving

But after we CHOOSE thanksgiving, that gratitude will lead to positivity and a remembrance of how God is moving in every situation. Thankfulness and positivity are always closely linked together.

Take yourself out of a thought pattern and focus on words of gratitude.

eventually it will become less of a practice and more of a conviction in our hearts.

****An important question to ask is how do we do that?

Philippians 4 can help us with answering this question.

Philippians 4:4–9 (ESV)

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

This is how we choose Thankfulness. By soaking in the word and doing what it says!

POINT 2 GIVING THANKS PRODUCES JOY

Hear me out for a minute. I don’t want happiness…Because happiness is a feeling…it waivers depending on the circumstances. Joy is a fruit of the spirit…It is eternal. It’s long lasting

We see that the Samaritan in this story had so much joy when he thanked Jesus.

Luke 17:15–16 ESV

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.

I was reading an article recently from Harvard.edu and they mentioned one of many studies done on the topic of gratitude. Wanted to read it to you.

“Two psychologists, Dr. Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, Davis, and Dr. Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami, have done much of the research on gratitude. In one study, they asked all participants to write a few sentences each week, focusing on particular topics.

One group wrote about things they were grateful for that had occurred during the week. A second group wrote about daily irritations or things that had displeased them, and the third wrote about events that had affected them (with no emphasis on them being positive or negative). After 10 weeks, those who wrote about gratitude were more optimistic and felt better about their lives. Surprisingly, they also exercised more and had fewer visits to physicians than those who focused on sources of aggravation.”

So gratitude doesn’t just help us mentally it changes our physical well being as well! So this is the practical aspect of being thankful but the spiritual aspect is that our minds can be renewed in this area when we look in his word for reasons to be thankful!

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 ESV

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

We can write a thank you card no matter what that situation is like!

Why? Because it leads to some many benefits. It takes our eyes off us and puts them on God, it cause us to be more positive, it ushers in Joy!

CVS STORY

Thankful prayers remind me of CVS. Sorry ladies I did not say Marshalls or Target. CVS. Let me explain

Once you choose thanksgiving as a mindset or attitude you’ll quickly realize that it is continuous and contagious.

And it reminds me of CVS because when you buy something you often get a receipt

Once you make that choice to be thankful you will quickly find that it goes on and on and on!!!

Don’t forget your stamps cause

Thanksgiving is a continuous pattern and it produces joy

POINT 3 GIVING THANKS LEAD TO RESTORATION

I want us to go back to Luke 17 and look at one of the most significant parts of this story starting in verse 17

Luke 17:17–19 ESV

Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Jesus says your faith has made you WELL. That word well comes from the greek word Sozo. Which translates “To save or deliver”

But the best part is in the New testament sōzō is commonly described as deliverance from both physical death and sin.

It was all of their faith initially that healed them but it was the samaritan that came back and gave his praise and thanksgiving to Jesus that resulted in full restoration. It was faith mixed with thanksgiving that cause him to experience salvation that day.

*HIS BODY WAS RESTORED BUT SO WAS HIS SOUL*

How amazing?

****If we think about the progression of the Samaritan’s story we see where he started is not where he ended. He started off being unclean but then God made Him clean.

To put things into perspective someone that would be marked as unclean and with leporsy would mean that they would have

Pale white skin with open wounds surrounding their body

Nerve damage and weight loss

But a requirement for the lepor was to shout “Unclean” anytime someone would pass by.

***It would have been a horrible way to live. Some described it as a living death. But the more I think about the Samaritan and how he was unclean by society’s standards the more I think about us. We were all unclean until we said yes to Jesus and allowed him to take us from death to life. But because of his sacrifice we have been made clean. And if we are to go back to the basics our christianity; we can always be thankful for salvation, we can always be thankful for restoration and for the sacrifice Jesus made for us!

CONCLUSION: So lets stand in this place…before we express our love and praise to God if you’ve been listening to this message and have had the realization that its time to reestablish this attitude of thanksgiving to God or activate it for the very first time I want to pray for you today. If you know deep down in your heart that its time to choice gratitude to, to choose joy I’d love to pray with you.