[The following is a manuscript of my sermon delivered on Wednesday evening, the 23rd of November, 2016, Thanksgiving Eve, on the occasion of a joint service between Emanuel Reformed, Paul's Chapel, and Pilgrim Reformed Churches, held at Paul's Chapel Church.]
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, a day set aside for feasting and football. Some people even take a few minutes to give thanks to God. But we know we should give God thanks for more than just a couple minutes, and definitely more often than one day a year. After all, we owe God so much, don’t we? Or do we take too much for granted?
As He so often did, Jesus used an incident that occurred During one of His healings as a teaching moment for us, to provide us with a lesson in gratitude. It began a few days earlier while in conversation with His disciples. Listen and follow along as I read from the Gospel account of the Apostle Luke, chapter 17, verses 7 through 19, from the New King James Version of our Bible…
As He so often did, Jesus used an incident that occurred During one of His healings as a teaching moment for us, to provide us with a lesson in gratitude. It began a few days earlier while in conversation with His disciples. Listen and follow along as I read from the Gospel account of the Apostle Luke, chapter 17, verses 7 through 19, from the New King James Version of our Bible…
7 “And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? 8 But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. 10 So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’”
11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and 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!”
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.
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.”
--Luke 17:7-19 (NKJV)
Let us pray… Father God, we come into Your presence this evening in the name of Your beloved Son and our Savior Jesus, to worship You, to give You our thanks, to praise You, and to listen for Your voice, for the message You wish us to hear. Speak to us now, Father, that we might better know Your will for us. In the holiest name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
The food editor of a local newspaper received a telephone call a few days before Thanksgiving from a woman asking how long to cook a 12-pound turkey. “Just a minute…”, the editor muttered, turning in her chair to consult a cooking chart. “Thank you very much”, replied the novice cook, and hung up!
Well, at least the lady was thankful for the information she thought she’d received. But I sure would have hated to dine at her house that evening.
She thanked the editor, and seemed genuinely grateful. And I believe most of us generally thank someone who is doing something for us, even if we’re paying them to do it. We thank our server in the restaurant. We thank the cashier at the grocery store. We thank the folks who deliver our mail and our paper and our packages, even if only once a year.
But sometimes, especially if we’re paying for it, we expect the service we receive, like the master and the servant in the first few verses of our scripture reading. We expect them to put us first, and take it for granted when they do so. We don’t worry about any needs that they may have. Even if we utter the words, “Thank you”, we may not be truly thankful for what they have done.
Jesus cleansed ten lepers, but nine failed to go back and thank Him. I wonder what kind of excuses they had ready in case they were asked why not. Maybe they were waiting to see if the cure was real and would last. Maybe they were in a hurry to get to the priests and thank them instead. Maybe they just had somewhere they had to get to before they were late. Maybe they just figured it was no big deal after all. I wonder if once they realized they had been healed, they were just so thrilled that all they could do was run off to find their families they had left behind long ago and celebrate with them.
For whatever reason, the nine lepers who showed no gratitude took for granted what Jesus did for them. They never gave Jesus, or His words, another thought. In a way, it’s like they expected Him to do what He did. As if He were the servant in the first few verses, that was only expected to do His job with no thanks necessary. Even though something great had just happened, these nine seemingly ungrateful but now cured lepers did not take the time to go back and give glory to God – or even to simply say “Thank You, Jesus”.
Sometimes, even when everything is going well for us, we can get so wrapped up in those good times that we forget to thank God for all He provides us. But that doesn’t excuse us, does it? Shouldn’t we be like the Samaritan leper who returned and glorified God, thanking Jesus for the healing?
The Apostle Paul certainly thought so. Listen to his words from his 1st letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 5, verses 16 through 18…
The food editor of a local newspaper received a telephone call a few days before Thanksgiving from a woman asking how long to cook a 12-pound turkey. “Just a minute…”, the editor muttered, turning in her chair to consult a cooking chart. “Thank you very much”, replied the novice cook, and hung up!
Well, at least the lady was thankful for the information she thought she’d received. But I sure would have hated to dine at her house that evening.
She thanked the editor, and seemed genuinely grateful. And I believe most of us generally thank someone who is doing something for us, even if we’re paying them to do it. We thank our server in the restaurant. We thank the cashier at the grocery store. We thank the folks who deliver our mail and our paper and our packages, even if only once a year.
But sometimes, especially if we’re paying for it, we expect the service we receive, like the master and the servant in the first few verses of our scripture reading. We expect them to put us first, and take it for granted when they do so. We don’t worry about any needs that they may have. Even if we utter the words, “Thank you”, we may not be truly thankful for what they have done.
Jesus cleansed ten lepers, but nine failed to go back and thank Him. I wonder what kind of excuses they had ready in case they were asked why not. Maybe they were waiting to see if the cure was real and would last. Maybe they were in a hurry to get to the priests and thank them instead. Maybe they just had somewhere they had to get to before they were late. Maybe they just figured it was no big deal after all. I wonder if once they realized they had been healed, they were just so thrilled that all they could do was run off to find their families they had left behind long ago and celebrate with them.
For whatever reason, the nine lepers who showed no gratitude took for granted what Jesus did for them. They never gave Jesus, or His words, another thought. In a way, it’s like they expected Him to do what He did. As if He were the servant in the first few verses, that was only expected to do His job with no thanks necessary. Even though something great had just happened, these nine seemingly ungrateful but now cured lepers did not take the time to go back and give glory to God – or even to simply say “Thank You, Jesus”.
Sometimes, even when everything is going well for us, we can get so wrapped up in those good times that we forget to thank God for all He provides us. But that doesn’t excuse us, does it? Shouldn’t we be like the Samaritan leper who returned and glorified God, thanking Jesus for the healing?
The Apostle Paul certainly thought so. Listen to his words from his 1st letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 5, verses 16 through 18…
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
--1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NKJV)
In everything give thanks! During the good times as well as the bad, in everything give thanks to God.
Thanksgiving Day was first proclaimed by President George Washington in 1789 as a nation-wide day for public thanksgiving and prayer to the Almighty God for His many blessings over this country. We generally point to an earlier part of our national history that set the precedent for this day of giving thanks. After a perilous two month Atlantic crossing under miserable, cramped conditions, that group of people from Europe we now call the Pilgrims landed in the New World in November of 1620. One of their first actions upon arrival was to be led by William Brewster in the reading of Psalm 100 as a prayer of Thanksgiving. Let me read that prayer to you now, in what may be the same Bible they read from, the King James Version. It comes from the 100th Psalm…
Let me repeat verse 4: Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.
The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony landed in November, too late to even think about planting crops. That first winter proved nearly disastrous. By the spring of 1621, only 47 colonists survived – the rest having succumbed to either the harshness of the winter or to disease contracted aboard ship.
But they did survive and that fall they celebrated their first harvest alongside their Native American neighbors, without whose help and the blessings of God they most surely would not have lasted the year. After reaping a successful crop and with their time of desperation behind them, they rejoiced and gave thanks to the Lord.
In everything give thanks. Enter into God’s presence with thanksgiving and praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His holy name. Be truly thankful, for God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good. So give Him thanks all the time.
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks - for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Give thanks unto God, in the blessed name of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, You give us so much that sometimes we just kind of take your many blessings for granted. It isn’t that we don’t appreciate all You do for us, Father. We just get used to everything You provide, and we forget to stop and give You our thanks. Please forgive us, Father, when we are ungrateful. Forgive us when we get too wrapped up in our daily lives and fail to thank You for Your great and constant generosity.
Hear us now, Father, as we come to You in the silence, speaking directly from our hearts with thanksgiving and praise, repenting of our disobedience and seeking Your forgiveness…
Lord Jesus, You cured ten men of their leprosy but only one returned to thank You. The ingratitude of the nine made you sad, Lord, just as we must sadden You during our times of failing to give You and our Father the thanks You so rightly deserve. Forgive us, please, Lord Jesus. Help us to see our many blessings in the bad times as well as the good. Help us to remember to stop and give thanks unto God, for He is so good to us.
This we pray in Your glorious name, Christ Jesus, our Lord and Master, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith. Amen.
Thanksgiving Day was first proclaimed by President George Washington in 1789 as a nation-wide day for public thanksgiving and prayer to the Almighty God for His many blessings over this country. We generally point to an earlier part of our national history that set the precedent for this day of giving thanks. After a perilous two month Atlantic crossing under miserable, cramped conditions, that group of people from Europe we now call the Pilgrims landed in the New World in November of 1620. One of their first actions upon arrival was to be led by William Brewster in the reading of Psalm 100 as a prayer of Thanksgiving. Let me read that prayer to you now, in what may be the same Bible they read from, the King James Version. It comes from the 100th Psalm…
1 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
2 Serve the Lord with gladness: come before His presence with singing.
3 Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath 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 unto Him, and bless His name.
5 For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.
--Psalm 100 (KJV)
The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony landed in November, too late to even think about planting crops. That first winter proved nearly disastrous. By the spring of 1621, only 47 colonists survived – the rest having succumbed to either the harshness of the winter or to disease contracted aboard ship.
But they did survive and that fall they celebrated their first harvest alongside their Native American neighbors, without whose help and the blessings of God they most surely would not have lasted the year. After reaping a successful crop and with their time of desperation behind them, they rejoiced and gave thanks to the Lord.
In everything give thanks. Enter into God’s presence with thanksgiving and praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His holy name. Be truly thankful, for God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good. So give Him thanks all the time.
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks - for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Give thanks unto God, in the blessed name of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, You give us so much that sometimes we just kind of take your many blessings for granted. It isn’t that we don’t appreciate all You do for us, Father. We just get used to everything You provide, and we forget to stop and give You our thanks. Please forgive us, Father, when we are ungrateful. Forgive us when we get too wrapped up in our daily lives and fail to thank You for Your great and constant generosity.
Hear us now, Father, as we come to You in the silence, speaking directly from our hearts with thanksgiving and praise, repenting of our disobedience and seeking Your forgiveness…
Lord Jesus, You cured ten men of their leprosy but only one returned to thank You. The ingratitude of the nine made you sad, Lord, just as we must sadden You during our times of failing to give You and our Father the thanks You so rightly deserve. Forgive us, please, Lord Jesus. Help us to see our many blessings in the bad times as well as the good. Help us to remember to stop and give thanks unto God, for He is so good to us.
This we pray in Your glorious name, Christ Jesus, our Lord and Master, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith. Amen.
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