Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of the year. Families gather together for what may be the one time they do so that year. School lets out for a few days. You get a paid day off of work. The fall is here in full force. It’s a great day to sit and watch some football or get out and play some. And who could forget all of the food?
A few years ago, the Peanuts cartoon pictured Charlie Brown bringing out Snoopy’s dinner on Thanksgiving Day. But it was just his usual dog food in a bowl. Snoopy took one look at the dog food and said, "This isn’t fair. The rest of the world is eating turkey with all the trimmings, and all I get is dog food. Because I’m a dog, all I get is dog food." He stood there and stared at his dog food for a moment, and said, "I guess it could be worse. I could be a turkey."
Did you know that in America this year alone 256 million turkeys have been raised, 649 million pounds of cranberries have been produced, along with 1.6 billion pounds of sweet potatoes and 998 million pounds of pumpkin products? The average American will consume 13.7 pounds of turkey this year. I agree with Snoopy. I’m kind of glad I’m not a turkey. Now, granted, not all of this food has been produced or will be consumed on Thanksgiving day. But I would guess that a huge portion of it will be. I hope you don’t eat almost 14 pounds of Turkey this Thursday. But Thanksgiving without the piles and piles of great food just wouldn’t seem right, would it?
But this morning I know that you know that Thanksgiving isn’t about the food. I know you know it’s not about the football. I think you probably even know that it isn’t really even about getting off of work or out of school. We all understand that Thanksgiving is supposed to be about giving thanks to God for His blessings. And I would think that most of us try to do that in some fashion.
Maybe before your family takes part of the great feast set before you, you go around the table and share one thing that you’re thankful for. Maybe you take the time to sit down and write out all the things you can think of that you’re thankful for. Maybe you make a special effort to show your gratitude to those around you. I don’t know what your practices are, but I know that you know that this holiday has been set aside for giving thanks. And it’s wonderful.
But before you know it, Friday rolls around. What a day Friday is. And as quickly as Thanksgiving comes, it disappears. Probably the biggest killer to the thanksgiving spirit is the day after Thanksgiving. For on that day Americans leave their attitude of gratitude at yesterday’s dinner table and exchange it for an attitude of greed. In stead of, “Thank You, God, for your blessings,” it’s become, “Get out of my way, punk, I was here first.” Black Friday is the day that our thoughts shift from thankfulness for what we have to coveting what we don’t have. The spirit of praise disappears so quickly.
I don’t know about you this morning, but I don’t want to be guilty of only thinking about being thankful on one day a year. I want to be someone who practices praise every day of the year, whether it’s Thanksgiving Thursday or Black Friday. I want to be a person of gratitude.
There’re a lot of places in the Bible we could go for a Thanksgiving text this morning. But the one that I think I want to draw your attention to is found in Luke 17:11-19. You probably know this already, but the author of Luke of course is a man by the name of Luke. But you may not know that Luke was a physician. And you can tell that this is true by the way he writes.
Each of the four Gospels was written by a different individual. Each one told the story of Jesus from their own perspective. Matthew wrote his book with an emphasis placed upon Jesus as teacher and preacher. Mark, who was writing to the Gentiles, wrote his account in effort to persuade them that Jesus was, in fact, the Son of God. John also took that approach, but he also placed a huge emphasis on showing his readers that this Son of God was the One who made it possible to be saved. Luke was a doctor, so we see much emphasis placed upon the physical. Many, many miracles of Jesus, especially healings, can be found in this Gospel. Our text this morning is the account of one of those miracles. The healing of the ten lepers. Let’s look at it together…
And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.
You know, we can learn a lot of lessons in a lot of places, unexpected places. A lot of times we learn great lessons from young children. David saw a lesson to be learned from the life of an ant. But who would have thought that we could learn a lesson from a leper? And who would have thought that the lesson we would learn from him would be in the area of gratitude? But somehow the leper in this story today teaches us three important lessons about thankfulness. Let me talk about them for a little while this morning.
I. We Must Begin Taking Notice Of Our Blessings
Lesson # 1: I believe this leper teaches us that we must begin taking notice of our blessings. Jesus is walking with His disciples through the cities of Samaria and Galilee, and he enters into an obscure village, the name of which is not even given. And there He crosses paths with ten men with leprosy; nine Jews, one Samaritan.
Now I don’t know if you know much about leprosy, but I think we all realize that it was an awful disease. It was a skin disease that appeared in dry, thin, white scales or scabs, either on the whole body, or on some part of it. It usually brought upon its victim seriously violent itching, and often great pain. Albert Barnes writes that “a leprous person may live twenty, or thirty, or even fifty years, if he received the disease at his birth, but they will be years of indescribable misery. The bones and marrow are pervaded with the disease. The problem advances, from one stage to another, with slow and certain ruin… The joints, and hands, and feet, lose their power; and the body collapses, or falls together, in a form hideous and awful. There is a form of the disease in which it commences at the extremities: the joints separate; the fingers, toes, and other members, one by one, fall off; and the problem gradually approaches the seat of life.” The victim is doomed to watch himself die piece by piece. It was a highly contagious disease. So contagious, in fact, that it could infect clothing and even houses, and it was deemed incurable by any human means.
Anyone who was unlucky enough to somehow acquire leprosy was immediately an outcast. They were thrown out of society. They were separated from their family. They were cut off from the religious community. If they ever did come anywhere near those who did not have leprosy they were to make sure that their clothes were torn and their discolored head was uncovered and they had to cry out, “Unclean, unclean.” They were rejected and avoided. They were feared and despised. Theirs was a life of complete misery, shame, and hopelessness.
The Bible tells us that all ten of these lepers stood afar off from Jesus and cried out for mercy. And you know what? Jesus gave it to them. For Luke tells us that Jesus saw them and told them to go and see the priests. Now, this was no ordinary request. You see, in order for someone who had leprosy to be allowed back into society he had to be deemed cleansed by the priests. He had to be checked to make sure that he truly was healed. And Jesus was showing them mercy by telling them to go see the priests? Surely they would be laughed at, if not punished. They were still lepers. They couldn’t go to the priest like this.
But because there was something inside of them that trusted Jesus all ten of those lepers immediately obeyed Him. And because of their faith and obedience, before they got to the priests, all ten of them were cured of that incurable disease. What was impossible with man was made possible with God.
All ten lepers were desperate. All ten of them had faith in Jesus. All ten of them obeyed His direction. And all ten of them healed. But then we see one who becomes different. For while we see ten lepers being healed, the Bible tells us that only one of them, a Samaritan, took notice of the blessing he had just received, and returned to give thanks to Jesus. I don’t know why the others didn’t return with him. But for some reason, just one did.
You know, I think that if we want to be people who practice thankfulness, if we want to be people who have an attitude of gratitude, we’re going to have to begin taking notice of our blessings. I think that far too many of us are living life with a wrong perspective. We always see the negative in anything. We always have something to complain about. We can never see the good in anything. There’s always something to criticize. There’s always something that could be better. There’s always something else that we want.
I heard about a lady once who complained about everything. She was always grumbling about something. Never content. Always critical. At last, her preacher thought he had found something about which she would be happy, for her crop of potatoes was the finest that could be found for miles. When he met her, he said with a beaming smile, “You must be very happy, Sister. Everyone is saying how healthy your potatoes look this year.” But, as she always did, she found the negative. She answered, “True they’re pretty good, but what am I going to do when I need bad ones to feed the pigs.”
Why do we always focus on the negative? Why can we never see the positive? We have it so good, but we only see the bad. We enjoy so much, but we can’t seem to be happy with it. “Well,” you say, “look at my life. What do I have to be thankful for? Everything is going wrong. There is nothing in my life that I can be thankful for.”
It’s kind of like the guy who was sitting in a bar, looking at his drink sadly one afternoon. He stayed like that for half-an-hour. Then, a big trouble-making truck driver stepped up next to him, grabbed the drink from him, and gulped it down in one swallow. At that, the man burst into tears.
The truck driver said, “Come on man, I was just joking. Here, I’ll buy you another drink. I just can’t stand to see a grown man crying.” “No, it’s not that.” The guy said, “Today day is the worst of my life. First, I overslept and was late to an important meeting. My boss was outrageous and he fired me. When I left the office, I discovered my car had been stolen, and the police said there was nothing they could do. I took a cab home, and as he drove off I realized I left my wallet in the back seat of the taxi. I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but when I walked into my house I found my wife in the arms of another man–and she told me to leave. So I stopped by a chemical store, and then came here. I’ve been sitting here thinking about taking my life…when you come in and drink all my poison!”
Sometimes our days seem like they go like that mans’. Nothing seems to be the way it should. We can’t see anything good anywhere. But can I say something that will sound like an old cliché? You can always find something to be thankful for. We just need to change our perspective. We need to quit focusing on all the bad that is around us or maybe part of our lives and begin noticing the blessings.
We need to live from the perspective that Bible scholar, Matthew Henry did. One day he was robbed. Not something to really be thankful for. I don’t really get excited about the possibility of ever being robbed. But that night he wrote this in his diary and showed us his desire to take notice of his blessings. He said: "Let me be thankful first because I was never robbed before; second, although they took my wallet, they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed."
Do you want to live a life of gratitude? I do. I’ll tell you what, there is something that is far more attractive about someone who is positive and thankful; and who has the right perspective on things than there is about someone who is always complaining and grumbling. And if you and I want to be someone like that then we must begin taking notice of the blessings we have.
II. We Must Begin Paying Tribute For Our Blessings
Lesson #2: I believe this grateful leper also teaches us that we must begin paying tribute for our blessings. You see, it wasn’t enough for him to take notice of what Jesus had done for him. I’m sure the other lepers realized the miracle too. How could they not have? But this leper didn’t just take notice, the Bible tells us that he turned around and went back to Jesus and cried out with a loud voice, glorifying God, fell down on his face and gave thanks to Jesus. With the same loudness and intensity he had cried for mercy, he now glorified God. He chose to vocalize his praise.
Did you know that you and I have a choice of whether or not we’re going to be thankful? Sure, the Lord wants us to be thankful. Several verses show us that. He wants us to offer our praises to Him. I would go as far as saying that He demands it of us. But ultimately it’s up to us whether or not we will. And He wants us to choose to do so willfully.
Now when I was a kid and someone would give me something, I remember my mom always saying, “Now, Ben, what do we say?” And I’d always have to speak the words, “Thank you,” whether I liked what that person gave me or not. If I didn’t say thank you I would definitely get a good scolding, if not worse. But there came a point where I started saying “Thank you” without my mom having to give me the eye or ask, “What do we say?” Because it became a habit, it became part of my lifestyle. I began choosing to vocalize my thanks to people.
You know, one thing that I cannot stand out on the road, is when I go out of my way to help another driver out and I don’t get any thanks. I slow down so a speed demon who is about ready to miss his exit can get over in front of me in time. I go out of my way to let someone in who’s been sitting in a driveway for a while trying to get into traffic. I do something that really is somewhat of an inconvenience for me and I don’t get any thank you. No waving of the hand. No nodding of the head. Nothing. Why? Why does it bother me so much? Because I like it when people vocalize their appreciation. I like it when people say thanks.
And I think God is the same way. I think He enjoys it when people tell Him thanks. We are so good at offering our prayer requests. We’re so good at letting God know what we want or what we need. And there’s nothing wrong with that. His Word tells us to bring those things to Him. But too many times we forget, whether by accident or by choice, to thank God when He answers those prayer requests or when He supplies those desires and those needs.
It’s kind of like the lady who was having a very hectic day. She was rushing home from a doctor’s appointment. The doctor had been somewhat delayed at the hospital, and the lab work took a little longer than usual so by the time she left the clinic she was running quite a bit behind schedule. She still had to pick up her prescription, pick up the children from the baby-sitter, and get home and make supper, all in time to make it to the prayer meeting at her church that evening. Things really hadn’t been going all that well.
As she drove to the grocery store it started pouring down the rain. And of course, wouldn’t you know that she forgot her umbrella. So as she began circling through the parking lot, she cried a prayer of desperation, “Now God, you know I’ve had a horrible day already. And you know that I don’t have my umbrella. You see the pouring rain. Would you help me get a good spot so I don’t have to get too drenched?” Just as she finished praying that prayer the back up lights on a car close to the front came on. And it wasn’t just close to the front of the parking lot, it was the best spot outside of a handicap spot that she could have possibly gotten. So she said, “Never mind God, something just opened up.”
I think that many of us are often like that lady. We make our requests to God and then when He answers our prayer we blow it off or forget about it or think it was coincidence. And we don’t pay tribute, we don’t say thanks. I think God enjoys it when we come back and say Thank you. In fact, I think our ingratitude, our neglect to offer praise, hurts Him. I believe the ingratitude of those other nine lepers hurt Jesus that day. For when He sees the one leper who returned to give thanks it seems as though He was looking for the whole group of them. But they didn’t come. They forgot to say thanks.
You know, I think a direct result of changing our perspective and noticing the blessings God has given us is vocalizing our thanks to Him. When I truly realize what God has saved me from, how can I not say thank you? When I truly realize what God done for me, how can I not offer praise? When I really take the time to notice the things He’s blessed me with: my heritage, my wife and daughter, my church family, the opportunity to preach the Gospel, the financial blessings, the friends whose company and companionship I enjoy, the lessons I’ve learned, my health, my home, my freedom, my redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ. When I truly take the time to notice those things, how can I be anything but grateful? And how can I not respond by offering my praise and my gratitude to God for those blessings.
I don’t want to be like the lady in the parking lot. I don’t want to blow off answers to prayer. I don’t want neglect to praise. I want to be like that cleansed leper who realized what God had blessed him with and made the decision to go back and vocalize my gratitude. I too want to glorify the Lord with my lips. I too want to bow at His feet and offer my praise. I too want to lift up my voice in thanksgiving. Because I have so much to be thankful for.
I feel like Andre Crouch who wrote the words, “How can I say thanks for all the things that You’ve done for me? Things so undeserved Yet you gave to prove Your love to me. And the voices of a million angels could not express my gratitude. All that I am and ever hope to be I owe it all to Thee. To God be the Glory For the things He has done. And with His blood He has saved me And with His power He has raised me. To God be the Glory For the things He has done.”
I want to be like that cleansed leper, don’t you? I don’t want to be guilty of neglecting to vocalize my praise. I don’t want to be someone who is quick to make a request but slow to offer a thanksgiving. I want to be someone who takes every opportunity I have to give my praises to God. I want to be someone who gives Him glory every chance I get. I want to be someone who throws myself at His feet in thanksgiving more and more and more. I want to be someone who pays tribute for God’s blessings to me.
III. God Will Begin Adding To Our Blessings
Lesson #3: Lastly, I believe that this leper’s story teaches us that if we will begin to take notice of our blessings and if we will begin to pay tribute for our blessings God will begin to add to our blessings. For you notice that Jesus said something to this Samaritan man that He did not say to the other nine. In verse 19 He says, “Go your way, your faith has made you well.”
Now, did this mean that the other nine lepers really weren’t cleansed? No, the Bible already told us that because of their faith and their obedience that had been cleansed. Was Jesus just offering a compliment to this lone man of gratitude? No, I don’t think so. I believe that Jesus was giving this man a far deeper blessing than the other nine had received. For while they all had been cleansed physically, I believe this man went away spiritually cleansed as well.
You see, a more literal translation of that verse would probably read something like, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you saved.” As Warren Wiersbe puts it, “The Samaritan’s nine friends had been declared clean by the priest, but he was declared saved by the Son of God.” This man not only walked away a cleansed leper, but he walked away a forgiven sinner. He received something far greater than just his health. He received an added blessing that the others did not receive because he returned to offer thanksgiving to Jesus.
You know, I truly believe that those that are always complaining about everything, those who neglect to notice God’s blessings and thank Him for them, those are the ones who often miss out on more blessings that God would have for them. A lady by the name of Nancy DeMoss has said, "After nearly two decades of ministry to hurting people, I have come to believe that failure to give thanks is at the heart of much, if not all, of the sense of gloom, despair and despondency that is so pervasive among people today."
Dr. Dale Robbins writes, “I used to think people complained because they had a lot of problems. But I have come to realize that they have problems because they complain. Complaining doesn’t change anything or make situations better. It amplifies frustration, spreads discontent and discord, and can invoke an invitation for the devil to cause havoc with our lives.” Complaining makes us miserable. Psalm 77:3 says, “I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed.”
If you look carefully you’ll notice that the ones who seem to not be leading a blessed life are those who are always critical and complaining. They miss a lot of what God wants to give them because they refuse to see the good in what He has already given them.
On the other hand I also believe that those whom God can truly bless are those who have made it a point to thank God often for what He has already blessed them with. The Daily Bread tells about a lady in England who is in her mid-eighties. Although she’s housebound and frail, she has an attitude of gratitude. One of her favorite hymns has always been, "Count Your Blessings." One day she remarked to one of her good friends, "I’ve stopped naming my blessings one by one." But then she continued cheerfully, "My blessings are so many, I’m weighing them ton by ton!"
When you begin making it a point to take notice of your blessings and when you begin making the effort to give God thanks for all those blessings, I guarantee you that you’ll have to start weighing your blessings ton by ton. Because not only will you begin recognizing more blessings than you ever imagined you had, you will also be trusted with more blessings. Why? Because you have become a person of gratitude.
The Samaritan leper went away a doubly blessed man. This morning I don’t know what category you fall into. You may be someone who is living a life of gratitude. You may see the good in everything. You may not ever neglect to remember to praise God for His blessings on you. If so, I commend you. Better than that I believe Jesus commends you.
But you may be someone who is neglectful when it comes to being thankful. Maybe you’re too critical. Maybe you’re too cynical. Maybe you complain too much and see too much bad in everything. Or maybe you’re someone who doesn’t think you have anything to be thankful for. If that’s you, can I challenge you this morning, starting this week of Thanksgiving, begin taking notice of your blessings, great and small, and begin making it a priority to pay tribute to God for your blessings. If you do that I promise you, you’ll begin seeing more and more blessings added to your life that you would have missed before. But don’t take it from me… take it from the leper.
