Count Your Blessings

Count Your Blessings

November 18, 2001

Luke 17:11-19

County Home Devotional

Introduction

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world¡¦s wealthy.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend church meetings without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than three billion in the world.

And if your parents are still alive and still married, you are very rare, even in the United States

When was the last time that you told God that you were truly thankful?

We often thank God for our food and ask Him to bless us. How often do we forget to count the blessings God gives us?

Count your Blessings

Count your blessings; name them one by one,

Count your blessings; see what God hath done,

Count your blessings; name them one by one,

Count your blessings; see what God hath done,

11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" 14 When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. 15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" 19 Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well." Luke 17:11-19

Body

I. Christ discerns our needs

A. Christ see the desperation

1. The reality of leprosy

2. Christ stops His journey

B. Christ discerns your needs

1. Christ sees the realities of your life

2. Christ is waiting for you to come to Him

II. Christ dispatches our needs

A. Christ met the needs of the lepers

1. Christ understood the depth of their desperation

2. Christ saw the depth of their humility

3. Christ dispatched their needs

B. Christ desires to meet your needs

1. Christ has provided solutions for your life

2. Christ is waiting for you to come to Him

III. Christ deserves our gratitude

A. The gratitude of one who was healed

1. The man praised God

2. The man thanked Jesus

B. The question of the healer

1. Where are the other nine?

Why did only one cleansed leper return to thank Jesus? The following are nine suggested reasons why the nine did not return:

One waited to see if the cure was real.

One waited to see if it would last.

One said he would see Jesus later.

One decided that he had never had leprosy.

One said he would have gotten well anyway.

One gave the glory to the priests.

One said, "O, well, Jesus didn’t really do anything."

One said, "Any rabbi could have done it."

One said, "I was already much improved."

2. The proclamation of Christ

C. The reality of gratitude

1. Christ has wonderfully blessed your life

a.) Take just a moment to count your blessings. We have been given so much by God and we have been so blessed that we far too often take His blessings for granted

b.) Thou hast given so much to me, Give one thing more--a grateful heart. Not thankful when it pleases me, As if Thy blessings had spare days, But such a heart, whose pulse may be Thy praise – George Herbert

2. Christ is waiting for you to come to Him

a.) Christ deserves your gratitude

b.) Christ deserves your worship

c.) Christ deserves your devotion