Thanksgiving 2015
Luke 17:11-19
How would you respond if you were given a miracle?
I ‘m talking about a personal miracle not something for someone else but something truly miraculous that God would do for you.
Something way over the top like these 10 men in today’s scripture passage.
I tell my wife I am getting older all the time and she just looks at me and says – well you’re taking your time doing it.
It’s her way of telling me to realize that I’m much younger than I think and that I need to stop and smell the roses.
I think I remind her that I’m getting older because I realize how short a lifetime is.
I tend to look back on my life and when I do I see many miracles all along the way.
The big events seem to go by so quickly.
It all seems like the blink of an eye.
The Bible reminds us that our life is like the grass, it withers and is blown away. Psalm 103:15-16
We can only live life one day at a time and when we try to live more than one day at a time that’s when we get worked up and bent out of shape.
Jesus warned us about that kind of hurried living.
Matthew 6:31-34
31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Every new day is just that a new day, a gift from God.
We just need to slow down and appreciate the miracle of each new day.
The Bible tells us how we should respond to each new day God gives us.
Psalm 113:3
I think we all too often forget to praise the Lord for each new day.
We get caught up in our routine and chasing the day’s responsibilities, job, family, and what becomes our daily grind.
Get a coffee, get to work, and pay the bills.
Sometimes it grinds on us so hard that we find ourselves under the pressure of the new day before we realize the blessing of the new day that God has given us.
On this Thanksgiving I think we should pause and take a deep breath and look back at all those special events of our life and realize just how many of them really were miracles.
Can you include the day you came to Jesus as a sinner in need of salvation?
Now that’s a real miracle, a very personal kind of miracle.
To be taken from a broken place in life and have the Grace of God make you whole – wow that is indeed a miracle.
But because Jesus offers His unconditional love we can be forgiven and made new just like these 10 lepers.
For me it was not my body that was rotting but rather my soul. I was far away from God and I knew better.
I had been raised in a church and heard the Gospel and even read my Bible on occasion.
But it took the curse of sin to bring me to my knees in order for me to realize that I needed the miracle of salvation.
Our God is generous friends, far more generous than we deserve.
All that you have or ever will have comes from Him. God has a plan for you.
The same kind of plan He had for these 10 lepers.
God wants to make your life whole and wonderful again.
The thing is you have to cry out to Him just like these 10 men did.
When you do cry out Jesus will hear you and He will respond with healing power that will touch your body and your soul.
Today would be a great day to cry out to Him after all it is Thanksgiving Day.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be whole again in body and spirit?
Many of you already know the blessing of salvation yet there are some who are still letting the disease of sin keep them from being made new.
What a strange thing to see only one man return to Jesus with thanks for his healing.
Just one out of ten. I pray we in the church are not that ungrateful for the miracle of our salvation.
Jesus has given us not just a new day but every day for the rest of our lives so that we can praise Him and shout out our thanks for each new wonderful day we live.
Realizing this we should live large and live loud walking by faith and not by sight.
All ten of these men were asked by Jesus to “go show yourself to the priest”.
Back then only the priest could pronounce someone clean from a disease like leprosy.
But one man knew he was clean and disease free he did not need a priest to confirm it he knew Jesus had done it.
He went to Jesus and thanked Him for giving him back his life.
Friends that's what Jesus does for every sinner who wants to be free of the disease of sin.
Jesus heals you and it is a miraculous healing and then He gives you a new life.
It all goes by so quickly Saints, looking back on this Thanksgiving what are the miracles in your life that you thank Jesus for?
We all need to praise God from the rising of the sun until the going down of the same no matter what the day brings.
Because each day is a new day and a new opportunity for us to rejoice in the miracles God has already given us and those we are about to receive. – Amen.
