Thanksgiving - Where are the Other Nine?
Talk about Thanksgiving - we’re having fowl weather!
Thanksgiving is coming soon so let’s talk about Thanksgiving. It’s just more than just Turkey day as some are calling it now, and it’s more than just the day before the black friday shopping day, or day to watch football! It’s a day to offer up our praise and Thanksgiving to God! I hope you will take at least a moment this year on Thanksgiving day to pray and truly thank God for all He has done!
Psalm 100 (a beautiful thanksgiving psalm)
100 Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
3 Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
5 For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.
Kids fighting say sorry
Have you ever seen when kids are fighting and the mom steps in and tells them to tell each other sorry, what do they do? Quick, off the cuff, sorry. Then the mom says, no, say it like you really mean it! And another quick, off the cuff, sorry. Lol. These days, the mom just sighs, rolls her eyes, and gives up, right!? How do you teach someone to really mean what they do?
We say things and don’t mean it sorry, thank you.
Sometimes we do so many things and don’t mean it. Things like sorry or thank you are just words sometimes. Hopefully, when you say you love someone you really mean it, rilght? We give presents and don’t mean it, send flowers and don’t mean it. (ugg).
Have you ever gotten a card or letter that was sent to 10,000 people on a list and telling you how it was a personal thank you when you know they didn’t even have you in mind when they sent it! People don’t do that sort of thing. Do what you mean and mean what you say! Especially, your kids and family know when you’re pulling that stuff on them! If you are doing that to friends, it is a way to lose a friend.
Seminary sign
At seminary, there was a sign over the cafeteria door that really meant a lot to me that said: Complainers are not thankful and thankful people do not complain. Let’s try to be less as complainers, and more and more thankful to God for all the good things He has done for us! Complaining is sort of the opposite of praise! Complaining is worse than not praising!
Cultures that never say thanks or sorry!
Some cultures never say thanks! I worked with a guy like that once!
I think people in those cultures are sad people. No one appreciates anything you do for them so why would they want to do anything for you?
Do you want people to be good to you? Be good to them too? (golden rule: do unto others…)
If someone is good to you and you bite them back do you think they will want to do anything good for you ever again? Don't be that way! Be thankful!
We don’t always mean it when we pray / worship.
Even when it comes to God, sometimes people pray and even fast and don’t really mean it!
God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food. Was that really for the Lord? Did you really pick up the phone (analogy) and make a real connection with God or were you just going through the motions and ignoring Him? We must be careful not to just go through the motions where it becomes meaningless. We should be thoughtful in all that we do.
When we Worship God we should worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, not with just lip service.
So let’s offer up our Thanksgiving to God this year in spirit and in truth and be thoughtful as we give our thanks because God truly deserves it because He is worthy because He loves us and has done so much for us!
Do you recognize miracles?
Do you ever recognize when something really cool happens? Like when the boss gives you a $5000 bonus, do you freak out and do a happy dance or do you just say ho, hum, the boss should have given us $10,000! Or do you just forget about it as if it never happened? A sizable amount like that, I hope everyone in here would offer a “thank you” back to the giver!
Luke 17:11-19 - Where are the other nine?
11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
Ick Samaria
Samaria and Galilee were considered unclean by Jewish people.
Samaritans were half-breeds and Gentiles. Ick! (seems a bit racist)
Jews would walk all the way around Samaria, rather than go through it because they hated Samaritans so much!
Jesus however went straight through to Galilee.
12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
Leprosy like Sin
In one of the villages (it doesn’t say which one) there were Lepers.
Leprosy was sort of synonymous with sin. Sin eats away at our body and soul and eventually will kill us. Many thought that the reason you got illnesses was because of sin. The Pharisees asked Jesus once about an ill boy, who sinned the boy or his parents? It was assumed someone sinned! Sin requires death (or mercy from God).
Have mercy on us meaning
So when the men said, “Have mercy on us”, it was more than just heal us, but maybe forgive us too! If true, that sort of tickles your spiritual goosebumps some doesn’t it? Whether they realized it or not, they needed physical healing, but they also needed spiritual healing, and maybe even healing of their traumatized minds and relationships, etc.
These men were in horrible shape, they couldn’t get close to anyone, they were dying a bit every day and without hope! When Jesus came by, He was their only hope!
14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
Leprosy cleansed, go see priests
Now you have to wonder how often someone who had leprosy was healed and would go show themselves to the priests! Pretty much it never ever happened! Then, hey people start showing up in droves at the Priest’s office being healed of leprosy, wouldn’t that throw up some flags? What’s going on here? Hmm. Jesus is in town!!! The Bible said the Messiah would come with healing in His wings! Wouldn’t this be an indicator of that event? Shouldn’t they have been ecstatic?
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. 17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”
After being healed, dull to what happened
Now these verses are of course the crux of the story! All ten were “miraculously” healed but only one returned to thank Jesus! How is it that only one was thankful for this miracle? It boggles the mind! The Bible notes he was a Samaritan. Is it that Jews just aren’t thankful?
After being healed, ho hum, welp that's fixed, what's next? Squirrel! Short term memory!!! Did they forget what just happened? Did it not sink in that something really cool happened?
Gold Fish have a short term memory. Each minute is a new life and the previous minute is gone. Finding Dory? Don’t be a goldfish!!!
There are also people who can’t recognize faces or things. How horrible it must be to not recognize faces or things! How do you recognize when something cool happens?
What about us, are we dull?
But what about the rest of us? Are we so dull that we do not recognize when something cool takes place? Do you eat a cheesecake and not recognize that wow that was really good?!!!
These guys were: one minute, destitute, despondent, no hope, no way to fix the problem, a horrible way to live a horrible quality of life, beyond inconvenient, about to die at any time!
How much would they be willing to pay to fix their situation? 1 million, 1 billion?
And then bam it was all fixed for free by Jesus! The great Physician doing His thing!!!
How thankful they should have been. Well, at least one was.
A problem they could not fix - debt couldn't pay
It was a problem they could not fix. There was nothing they could do. There wasn’t anyone they could even pay to fix their problem? Does that remind you of something?
You see we have a similar problem that we can not fix, there’s no one we can pay to fix it for us! We have a sin problem and like leprosy, sin brings death, and we are doomed even to the second death which is a devil’s hell.
And then, bam, Jesus went to the cross and fixed it for us for free!
But wait, there’s more!
One recognized and thanked Jesus!
The one man turned and recognized where his help came from and turned and thanked the Lord. And he said, go, your faith has made you well. Now, think about it for a second. Salvation is sort of the same, Jesus died for all people, red, brown, yellow, black, and white, they are all precious in His sight! But not everyone will be saved? Why is that? It takes faith.
The Bible says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. With the heart man believes and with your mouth confession is made unto salvation. Pray to receive Jesus as your savior. He’s offering you the gift of salvation, all you need to do is pray to Jesus that you trust in Him for your salvation. Is it the same percentage that recognizes salvation (1 out of 10)? Wide is the road that leads to destruction, narrow is the way that leads to life!
Recognize that God has done so much for us!
He has done so much for us. Yet we never stop to thank Him sometimes.
Some people don't even recognize that they need to be thanking God.
They take their life for granted. These men cried for mercy, a thing they couldn't fix.
How can you not say thanks for that... It wasn't some small thing that was done, it was a huge thing. Salvation is also a huge thing. We have a debt we can't pay?
How are you going to pay for it? Someone who is facing death would pay whatever they could to heal them but really everyone is facing death and even facing a fate worse than death in the second death. Someone facing hell, what would they pay? You can’t! You need Jesus’ mercy!
Don’t blame God when things go wrong
We often blame God for things that are not His fault at all but In our minds we make up things
that God is out to get us! Maybe you don't do that, but I have to be careful not to do that because sometimes I get in a weird state of mind and blame God for silly things that I know He would never do. I then have to beg forgiveness because of my stupidity of doing that. I can just imagine after I blame God for something he says, not my fault! Have you ever done that?
Give God the Glory!
Instead of blaming God for all the bad things that happen, instead thank God for all the great things that happen. The Bible says every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above! If so, where do you think every bad gift comes from? We need to be careful about our own minds. We need to get rid of that stinking thinking and renew our minds daily! God loves us, don't ever forget that! Don't ever take that for granted either! He loved this so much that he sent his son to save us! That was no little thing he did for us! Certainly we should thank him certainly, certainly, certainly!
Offering praise to people but not to God?
You know sometimes you see people clap for a singer or athlete but if anybody deserves praise it's God! He should get more than just a short standing ovation! I mean I don't expect anybody to necessarily do this but he deserves a whole day of thanksgiving devoted to him! Maybe a whole week or a month or a year or the rest of our lives right! Never stop ceasing to pray and thank God for all the wonderful things he has done for you! I'm sorry for doubting you Lord!
Cherish everything the Lord does for you and be thankful for all the things He gives you, and experiences He gives you, and friends and family He gives you, the food you eat, the clothes on your back, so much we don't deserve but for the grace of God it could be so much worse. His grace is sufficient for us!
We are unworthy, but He still loves us very much!
We are undeserving to even unbuckle his sandals as John says. And yet he showed himself a servant to us. Behold what manner of love the father has for us that we should be called His children? We should be so thankful for our salvation, and to be called joint heirs!
It should give us unspeakable joy to know that he loves us so much! He has given us so many good things that we should never forget that we should be thanking him all the time for everything he's done.
When you have that kind of mind, like as the mind of Christ, how can you not have joy in your heart knowing all the great things he's done for us! How can you not be thankful rather than grumpy.
Let’s do Thanksgiving right!
As we have our Thanksgiving holiday, let us remember what it’s really about, giving praise and Thanks to God for what He has done. Don’t let Thanksgiving turn into a meaningless party day. Let us be thoughtful when it comes to the Lord and let us remember every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above. When we say grace, let us really mean it: God is Great, God is Good, let us thank Him for our food!
