| |
History of Our Church
What We Believe
Worship
Meet Our Staff
|
Ten Percent Thankful
Luke 17:11-19
07/14/2007
While we were living in McAlester, OK I was traveling back early and I stopped for breakfast. When the elderly waitress brought the check I told her that I appreciated that she had done a good job serving me. She kind of looked in disbelief and said, “Nobody says thank you any more." I wonder if that’s how Jesus felt in our story for this morning. We read here this short little story about ten lepers. They are outside the walls of the village, their lives destroyed by this disease which ravaged their bodies. They couldn’t come near anyone, and when they went anywhere they had to cry, “Unclean!” It was not a humane way of treating the sick. And the renown prophet and healer Jesus came by, and these ten desperate men saw their chance. They knew Jesus could heal them. And they asked for mercy. So Jesus told them to do what Leviticus commanded, to go show themselves to the priests who would verify the healing. And as they turned and walked toward Jerusalem, they were instantly healed. You could almost see them jumping for joy! And the Bible records that one of them, only one, and a Samaritan at that, a despised half-breed, turns around, comes back and says, “Thank you.” One of them really appreciated it, and he gives glory to God. He falls at Jesus’ feet which is an act of worship, proclaiming the deity of Jesus. And so Jesus says, “Where are the other nine?” And it leaves us wondering. Why were 90% of them too busy to remember the Source? How must Jesus have felt? Not even a thanks! It is so easy to see the flaw in these nine, but before we throw stones, don’t we sometimes take all that Christ gives us without even a thanks? In the Bible, the disease leprosy is often used as a type for sin. And I find it interesting in this story that all of these men, Jews, non-Jew, they all had the same incurable condition. They needed cleansing. That’s a good picture of us. We all have fouled up our lives. The Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not one. Outside of the grace of Christ not one of us has a chance. But Jesus, in His mercy, said, “I’ll take care of it.” And He hung on a cross and died for us, to pay the price for our healing from sin. And to all who have ever called out to Him, “Have mercy,” He has given eternal life. We owe Jesus our very existence. Yet, how easy it is to go our own way, take our healing and forget about turning around to give glory to the Source. Are there times when you and I are guilty of the sin of ingratitude? Are we ever not more than about ten percent thankful? Let me show you what I mean.
Let’s start with the obvious. Some of us are not thankful for the things we have, even the food we eat. Somewhere we got this idea that is spreading today, that the world owes us a good living and plenty to eat. I am amazed at how few Christians even take time to give thanks before meals. I read recently about a mother took her three children to a restaurant to eat breakfast one morning. The smallest of the three children sat watching the other people being served and eating without stopping to say thanks. It surprised her. When her food came, she shouted out: “Mommy, don’t people ask the blessing in this place?” Everyone turned and looked. Her mother tried to hush her. But, the waitress said, “Yes, we do, sister! You give thanks!” Amazingly, at that very moment everybody else also bowed their heads and offered thanks.
I also believe we act ungratefully when we act as if we are better than others. Maybe we develop a condemning attitude towards others. They do things wrong, maybe blatantly and openly. Please don’t misunderstand me, I am not suggesting that we condone sin. But if we think we are better than others we are out of God’s will. Let me tell you a good cure for that. Before you criticize someone, take a moment to write down everything you can think of that God has forgiven you. Pretty soon you’ll see that compared to the standard of the perfection of Jesus Christ, it’s hopeless for any of us. We must develop loving, thankful hearts which say, “Jesus, thank you for putting up with me. I’ll put up with him or her for your sake.” That’s radical love and it’s a love which will change the world. But it has to change us first. And when it happens people will notice a unique spirit among us. It is so sad that today many in Christendom feel like they have to put on a mask to come to church. They feel like, if only the real person were known, they wouldn’t be loved. And if that perception is there, there will be no substantial spiritual growth. I believe the church, of all places, should be the place where we can come and be authentic, be honest with each other, and share our trials with each other. No one is on a spiritual cloud nine all of the time. We all struggle at times and we need each other as Christians. And we can minister to each other if we develop the attitude of the Samaritan: Thank you Jesus for all you’ve cleaned out of me. It’s awful hard to be condemning if we live that way.
We show our ungratefulness by the way we treat our bodies, either by refusing to take are of them, or by trying to make them something they are not. The truth is, Jesus made you the way you are, and if we neglect or abuse what God created we are not very thankful for it. On the other hand, as we saw a couple of weeks ago, we have the technology to make our bodies what they weren’t created to be, but I believe it grieves the heart of God. Our standard is not the magazine pictures. You are beautiful and precious to God. Psalm 139 says that you are wonderfully and fearfully made! And you will have reached a milestone in your spiritual development when you thank God for who you are. I am not talking about ungodly pride. That is another form of ungratefulness. That is vanity. I am simply saying that Christ loved you and died to redeem who you are and made you the temple of the Holy Ghost. Live thankfully. Train yourself to be thankful and you’ll be free from a life of trying to be something you were never intended to be.We act ungratefully when we refuse to acknowledge God in our trials. God loves us and He promises that if we’ll let Him, He will use those trials to produce proven character in us. Someone bothering you? Thank God for what God is doing in your life through that. Is there something that is hard for you to bear. Thank God for the fruit which will come of that situation in your life. I didn’t say it would be easy. In fact, if you’ve never tried it, you may think it sounds crazy. But I know that if you’ll turn around and fall at Jesus’ feet and say thanks there will come new strength, and a release from that problem you’ve never known before. And He’ll remind you that He saved you for all eternity and He’ll never, ever, let you go. Thank You!And of course, I think it’s amazing here that 10% gave thanks. It reminds me of a principle which is the most tangible way we can say thanks. That is when we receive from God, and turn around and give 10% in return. If we would follow that biblical principle, we would be wondering how to spend all of it. We would have a missionary on our staff, we would be able to staff the church as we need to to fulfill our mission, we wouldn’t have to worry about how to keep up our facilities, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Mostly, though, we would receive the incredible blessing of faithfully kneeling at Jesus’ feet and saying thank you! And that releases God’s blessings into our whole being.It is my prayer that we would be a church which is more than ten percent thankful. And that we would learn the joy of living a life which constantly takes time out from the busy, noisy road of this life to turn around and fall at Jesus’ feet, glorify God and say, “Thanks.” That Samaritan, I believe, got up off the ground with a new perspective on life and a new joy. May that joy be ours today.
|
|
|
