Thanksgiving—exposing The Quality Of Your Faith(2025)

THANKSGIVING—Exposing the Quality of Your Faith—

Luke 17:11-19

*Attention-1:

How many of you expect certain things at your family Thanksgiving celebrations?

You look forward to certain items being on the table because you might not eat it at any other time of the year. Maybe appreciate the way a certain person makes an item as opposed to all other recipes. In fact, if you will admit it, right now, you’re thinking about those particular foods! As the years go by, you yourself may now be responsible for cooking those dishes. But as hard as you try, yours isn’t quite the same ‘aunt Sally’s’ Thanksgiving dressing. Or maybe your collards are missing some small something that made uncle Bill’s collards memorable.

Those menu items help bring back memories of favorite relatives or friends that you haven’t seen in a while—a next-door neighbor, a coworker, a sibling, an aunt, uncle, or cousin, or grandparent.

Your expectations may be of specific ‘family activities’ that take place only on Thanksgiving.

One family I know of, used to invite the entire neighborhood to a huge Thanksgiving lunch, which that particular family would prepare for everyone, by renting out the church facilities.

In the midst of all of that family interaction, there are a multitude of ‘things’ that we’re all truly thankful for.

But, I invite you to consider a question today...

?To whom is each of the people at your Thanksgiving celebration thankful?

?To whom is their ‘thankfulness’ offered?—Is it to some ethereal, untouchable, nameless, flesh-derived ‘god’ of their own creation, that bears no resemblance to the true God of glory?

?Where is YOUR ‘thankfulness’ directed? To Whom is it directed?

*The way you answer those questions in your heart of hearts, fully ‘Exposes the Quality Of Your Faith’ for what it really is!...either truly saving or merely temporal. THANKSGIVING—Exposing the Quality of Your Faith—

Luke 17:11-19

Need:

Even though Thanksgiving is a nationally designated holiday in our country, there is NO CERTAINTY that everyone who celebrates it, is truly thankful.

Nor does it guarantee that the thankfulness of those who celebrate it, is directed toward the TRUE Creator & Provider!

Our ‘Thanksgiving’ Celebrations will be hollow if our thankfulness is limited to the things & people of this earth, but not directed toward YHWH-God’s loving provision for us.

Attention-2:!THIS ILLUSTRATION UNUSED!

Back in the day, when my wife & I were first married, we lived in Savannah, GA. We joined the local Sierra Club. One of the things that our group was ‘into’ was canoeing. We loved canoeing thru swamps like the Okefenokee & Ebenezer Creek, & also on black-water rivers, like the Ohoopee, Ogeechee, & Alapaha Rivers.

Conoeing requires that you know how to properly tie a certain few crucial ‘knots.’ Two essential knots are a ‘Trucker’s Hitch’ & a ‘Bowline.’ Before the days of the internet & YouTube video instruction, we learned how to properly tie them from our fellow canoe-ers. Those knots are necessary in order to transport your canoe from the storage area, to the canoe ‘put-in’ on the body of water you’re accessing. Because the knots are used to tie a canoe to your vehicle.

The proof of the quality of the canoer’s knot-tying expertise, is in the knot’s ability to securely hold a canoe to the roof of a vehicle, (1)While driving the interstate at 70mph, (2)While taking 55mph curves in the country, (3)While having to come to a sudden stop for animals, while trying to find the river/swamp put-in, & (4)While putting your vehicle into precarious positions in an attempt to get as close to the ‘put-in’ as possible before unloading!

I still use those knots today! Though we no longer canoe, we still have a container full of various lengths of rope. Since we have moved so often in pastoral ministry, those same knots have come in handy for securing furniture inside of moving trucks.

Jesus’ interaction with 10 lepers, elicited/drew contrasting responses of Gratefulness for Jesus’ mercy.

Gratefulness to YHWH-God is determined by the quality of personal faith in Him.

--OR--

The quality of your personal faith in YHWH-God, determines the quality of your Gratefulness for His mercy.

But:

?How does Gratefulness expose/express the quality of our faith?

3 means of measuring your personal faith by the personal Gratitude you exhibit.

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Gratefulness exposes the quality of your faith thru....

1. Personal STRUGGLES(:12-13)

2. Personal TRUST(:14)

3. Personal ACTIONS(:15-19)

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3—Gratefulness exposes the quality of your faith thru....

Personal ACTIONS(:15-19)

Explanation/Argumentation:(:15-19)

:15—“And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, & with a loud voice glorified God,”

:16a—“and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks....”

A. Come to terms w/ the Reality of God’s handiwork

Ps. 103:2-5 “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness & tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”