We Give Thanks

We're starting a new series this week called "We Give." As we ramp up to Christmas and enter the Christmas season, we know that this is a time of giving and receiving. I want to take a look at the Scriptures and what they say about what we are to give to the world.

We had a little bit of technical difficulty, so we only have the audio for this week's message. If you're new to Cross Connect in the last few weeks, I'm not a guest speaker; I am Pastor Miles, the lead pastor of the church. It's good to be back with you all. I'm so glad to be here this morning and thankful to be back in the States. I appreciate the blessing we've had; a group of us just got back this last week from an unbelievable trip. It was really an awesome experience, and it was great to come back and see our kids. This was the longest period of time that my wife and I have been away from our children, so it was wonderful to reunite with them.

My wife and I also got to go on a vacation to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary earlier last month. Our wedding anniversary is in July, but we didn't celebrate until October. We took a group of about twenty-six people, twenty-eight including us, on a trip over to the Holy Land. We started in Rome, then went on a cruise to Crete, followed by Israel, Turkey, and ended up in Athens. We were also with a group of about thirty-one people from Calvary Nexus up in Camarillo. It was a wonderful trip with many great things to see.

As I mentioned, I'm grateful to be back with you and back home with my kids. I'm really thankful to our staff and our lead team here at the church. It's such a blessing when I go somewhere, whether it's to teach or on a trip like this, to not have to worry about anything going on here. I'm so grateful to our team and really thankful for my good friends, Pastors Mickey Stony and Chuck Allers, who were here the last couple of weeks. I hope you enjoyed the messages from those guys; they were really awesome. I was able to listen to them online, and they were truly good.

You may have noticed that I'm expressing a lot of gratitude. It's fitting because, of course, this week we're coming up to what is basically one of my favorite holidays of the year. This is my favorite time of the year. Is it anyone else's favorite time as well?

The year has arrived when the time change happens and when the red cup at Starbucks shows up. I know I am in my favorite time of the year. Celebrating Thanksgiving this week brings a lot of things to think about regarding gratitude and thankfulness. I am just thankful to the Lord for all the things that we have.

I don't know about you, but I am very grateful that the 2016 political campaign season is done. Some of you might be happy with the results, while others might be unhappy. Some of you might be excited about the future, and some might be dreading it. Some of you might even be waiting for the Canadian citizenship office to get back to you. I don't know where you are at, but at the very least, I think we can all agree that we are grateful that it is over.

I was thinking about the Roman Empire thousands of years ago. At the very beginning, when they were the Roman Republic, they would elect two consuls every single year. Can you imagine having to do that every year? That's probably why they became an empire so quickly and did away with that whole system. It would have been rough.

It was a unique experience for myself and the others on our trip because the election was going on while we were about a hundred miles off the coast of Israel. A group of us listened to the acceptance speech of our new president-elect while we were in a taxi cab in Tel Aviv, which was kind of interesting. Then we went to the Old City and walked around Jerusalem. Every single person we talked to, including shop owners in the Muslim Quarter, wanted to know what we thought about Donald Trump. With the sound of the Muslim call to prayer overhead and being about 300 feet from the Temple Mount, I found myself hesitating to answer that question.

It was a unique experience and a very interesting situation. Everywhere we went, everyone wanted to ask about what was going on. It is amazing to realize that sometimes we don't understand how interested the rest of the world is in our nation. The events that happen here have huge ramifications for the rest of the world. It will be very interesting to see how things move forward.

I am genuinely thankful for the opportunity to have been able to go and see some sites that I hadn't seen before and to take some people to these places. It is an awesome thing to experience. One of the things we did on this trip was visit the ruins of the biblically important sites.

The ancient city of Ephesus in southwestern Turkey is significant in many ways, especially for those who have read and studied the New Testament. This city plays a crucial role in several books of the New Testament, including the Book of Ephesians and the Book of Acts. The letters of 1st and 2nd Corinthians were primarily written while Paul was in Ephesus. Additionally, all seven churches of Asia mentioned in Revelation chapters two and three were planted during Paul's ministry there.

Timothy, who is referenced in the New Testament, pastored the church in Ephesus. John the Apostle wrote some of his letters from this city and died there. Mary, the mother of Jesus, also died in Ephesus. It is a very important place, and we had the opportunity to walk on the ancient ruins and streets of Ephesus. We even visited the theater, which is significant in Acts chapter 19. It was in that theater that a riot broke out against Paul's ministry and the work that God was doing there. I was able to teach a Bible study in that very same place where Paul would have been teaching 2,000 years ago.

The passage I shared with our group was from Acts chapter 20. Today, we are starting a new series that will take us up to Christmas. Interestingly, Christmas Day falls on a Sunday this year. For New Year's, we will have services, but the service times will be different; we will only have two services instead of three. We will provide more details about that soon.

As we lead up to Christmas, we will be doing a series called "We Give." The key verse for this series is found in Acts chapter 20, which contains Paul's final message to the elders of the church in Ephesus. If you would open your Bibles to Acts chapter 20, you will find it right after the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John—and before the Book of Romans. If you turn about two-thirds of the way through your Bible, you will find the Book of Acts.

The theme or key verse for this series, "We Give," is found in verse 35. Please stand with me as I read this one verse. In Acts 20:35, Paul, speaking to the Ephesian elders, says, "I have shown you in every way by laboring like this that you must..."

Support the week and remember the words of our Lord Jesus, who said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." As we think about this concept today and over the next weeks leading up to Christmas, I pray that these words, spoken by You and quoted by Paul 2,000 years ago, would have an impact on our lives.

Lord, Your word is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, and it is able to transform us. As we read in the Scriptures, Your word transforms us by the renewing of our minds, so that we may be able to show and display what is Your good and perfect will in this world. I pray that this time we have today and in the coming weeks would be transformative for us in the way that we see the world, the way that we understand, the way that we think, and the way that we act. God, minister to us by Your word and by the work of Your Spirit. I ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen." You can be seated.

Paul is quoting Jesus, although these words are not found in any of the four Gospel accounts. Apparently, these were words that Jesus spoke. In some of your Bibles, they may be printed in red; those are the words that Jesus said. As he speaks to the leaders in the Ephesian church, he is about an hour outside the city of Ephesus and the city of Miletus. Paul reminds them that his last words to them are an important truth: it is more blessed to give than to receive.

This brings us to our first point. Your sermon guide is in your bulletin. Point number one: giving is a blessing. I think you'd probably agree with that. It is certainly a blessing to be the recipient of someone's giving. It is a blessing to receive a gift, a blessing to receive a paycheck, and a blessing to receive a bonus. Giving is a blessing for the one who is receiving, most certainly. You have probably received some sort of unexpected gift before, one that you weren't waiting for, and you were blessed by it. But Jesus says it is more...

It is blessed to give than to receive. Not only is giving a blessing for the one receiving, but giving is also a blessing for the giver. I would say that it's even more of a blessing, just as it is more blessed to give than to receive. You've probably experienced that blessing of giving before.

When I think of giving and receiving, my mind immediately goes to Christmas. Just so you know, by the way, Christmas is 35 days away. You probably didn't want to know that, but if you've been to Costco, you knew that like two months ago when they started putting Christmas stuff out. I think of Christmas when I think of giving and receiving. I can remember, and you probably can as well, as a child really anticipating and joyfully looking forward to Christmas, counting the days.

Maybe you remember when the JCPenney Wish Book would show up. Does anyone remember that? As a kid, I would find that big section in there of toys. I would go through it, sometimes falling over a page and circling something. I would get out the BIC ballpoint pen, circle it, and put a number one or number two next to it, indicating what I wanted. I was trying to leave those little hints along the way, thinking, "Oh, I would really love it if I had that."

We would count the days, looking forward with huge expectation to that coming Christmas morning when we could open our presents. I loved receiving gifts, but as you mature and become an adult, especially when you start to have kids, you begin to experience the joy of giving gifts. You start to see things while you're shopping and think, "Ethan would like this," or "Evangeline Addison would like this." You begin to think about those sorts of things and the joy of getting ready for that.

Then comes the anticipation of watching them open the gifts and the joy they experience as they open them. There is great joy in the giving of it. We love to receive gifts, but when you become an adult and start to mature, you also experience the blessedness of giving. There is an amazing joy in giving, and I'm convinced that our Lord knows this. He tells us this because He wants us to experience that blessedness. He wants us to know that blessedness.

Over the next six weeks, we will be considering the topic of giving in this series called "We Give." Since this week is Thanksgiving, I want to think in the context of "We Give Thanks." As I was praying about that topic and thinking about Thanksgiving, the passage of Scripture that came to my mind is a powerful story that has been given to us in the Gospel.

Luke, you're in Acts chapter 20. Just turn to the left; you'll pass the Gospel of John, and then you'll come to the Gospel of Luke. Turn to Luke chapter 17. We’re going to pick up our story there at verse 11.

In Luke 17:11, the Apostle Luke records for us, "Now it happened, as He, Jesus, went to Jerusalem, that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. As He entered a certain village, there met ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. They lifted up their voices and said, 'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.' When He saw them, He said to them, 'Go, show yourselves to the priests.' So it was, as they went, that they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned and with a loud voice glorified God. He fell down on his face at the feet of Jesus, giving Him thanks, and he was a Samaritan.

So Jesus answered and said, 'Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?' He said to him, 'Arise, go your way; your faith has made you well.'

The story begins with three simple words: "Now it happened." In those three simple words, there is a reminder to us that this is not just a story; this is history.

One of the awesome things about being able to go on a trip like we just went on is that you can visit some of the locations that are spoken of in the Bible. You can go to some of the sites. One of the days while we were in Jerusalem, we went down to what is now the Western Wall, the retaining wall of the Temple Mount. A group of people from our church and I went down to the base of that wall, where there is the old Roman Road along the western wall. Wrapping around to the southern part, you can go to what are called the Southern Steps, which are important in the Scriptures.

Walking on this Roman Road, which is 2,000 years old and runs parallel to the Temple Mount, you can see the massive stones piled up next to the road. There are great cracks and craters in the road from these stones that were pushed off the Temple Mount, all in fulfillment of the word of Jesus recorded in Matthew 24. He told his disciples, "You see this temple, this building? Not one stone will be left upon another; they all shall be cast down."

When you visit this site, you can walk on that street and touch those stones that were pushed off the Temple Mount. It becomes clear that this isn't just a story; this is history. This actually happened, and it makes it all the more real. Even though it is history, it becomes radically real to us. The events we read about in the Gospels are not mere accounts; they are stories of actual individuals whose lives were impacted by the life and ministry of Jesus 2,000 years ago.

This reminds us that even today, 2,000 years later, our lives can be and are impacted by the life and ministry of Jesus. The Gospel accounts make it clear that Jesus was on a mission—a very clear mission. He had a task and an objective, which he began to describe to his disciples. This is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16, verse 21: "From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and that he must suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day."

He knew his target, his aim, his objective. This mission is evident in the life of Jesus as he moves toward Jerusalem. In one of the stories recorded in the Gospels, he is passing through the region of Samaria and comes to a town of Samaritans who invite him to stay with them. However, he was on a mission and had to tell them, "I'm sorry, I can't stay here." His face was set, as the Gospel of Luke says, like flint toward Jerusalem; he would not be deterred from this path.

Mission. He was on his way to Jerusalem, but what becomes clear as we look at this story and others in the Gospels is that, though Jesus was on a mission and had a clear task and objective he wanted to accomplish, he never overlooked the needs of those who sought him for help. He never overlooked the needs of the people who sought him.

This is both instructive and encouraging to me. It is instructive in that it challenges me to never think that I am too busy to deal with the needs of those who need ministry around me. Let me tell you, even as a pastor, it's very easy to fall into that. Like you, I come into my week—my week normally starts on Tuesday here at the office at the church—but I come in with a plan. I have things I need to do, emails to send, or phone calls to make. I have things I need to get to throughout the week, and I can get so zeroed in on the task that I miss those needs that are right around me sometimes.

This is instructive because Jesus, who had a very clear and important task, didn't overlook the needs of those who needed ministry. It is also encouraging to me because there is never a time when you or I go to Jesus in prayer and are turned away because he just doesn't have time or because he has bigger things to deal with in Washington, D.C. It is so encouraging that he ever lives to make intercession for us. The Scriptures say he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Though the God of the universe has all kinds of universal issues to deal with, he doesn't overlook the needs that we have.

So encouraging! Now, it happened as he was on his way to fulfill his mission in Jerusalem that, as verse 12 says, he entered a certain village and there met him ten men who were lepers. We don't know which certain village this is; we are given some minor details about where in the world he was. He was moving from Galilee down to Jerusalem. If you know much of the geography...

Of the region there in the Middle East, you can look at the map in the back of your Bible. The Galilee is in the northern part of the nation of Israel, both then and now, and Jerusalem is south of that. During Jesus's day, between Galilee in the north and Jerusalem in the south, was the region called Samaria. He is somewhere in between Galilee, where the bulk of His ministry took place, and the city of Jerusalem. He could be in Galilee; he could be in Samaria. However, He comes to an unnamed village. It is not told to us; it is just a random village.

Let me tell you, there are hundreds of random villages between those places. Some of them have been unearthed by archaeologists, and you can go and see them. Many of them have not; they are just mounds of dirt. As you drive through that area, they will say, "That's a tell over there," a hill that means a little town or a little village. There are hundreds of them around this place.

In one of those random villages that Jesus is passing through, He comes in contact with ten men. We are not told a lot about the identities of these ten men; all we know is that there were ten of them, they were outside of the city, and they were lepers. The Scripture says that they stood afar off. They knew their place in society because they were outcasts; they had leprosy.

Today, we know leprosy as Hansen's disease, and we understand the transmission of it. We know that it can be cured with a solid regimen of antibiotics and other medications over about a year. However, two thousand years ago, if you were diagnosed with leprosy, you were considered a dead man. There was no cure at the time of Christ.

The way they dealt with it was different from how we have hospitals and physicians today. If it was thought that you might have leprosy, you would be taken to the priests. In the third book of the Bible, the book of Leviticus, the rules for the priesthood of the day are given. One of the jobs of the priests, as described in Leviticus chapters 13 and 14, was to observe and diagnose a person who was thought to have leprosy. If you received that diagnosis, not only did you face the unfortunate outlook of death at some point because of this disease, but you were also immediately removed from the social life of the day.

Leprosy was a terrible disease; it was incurable and contagious. If you were diagnosed with this disease, the priest would proclaim you unclean. To be unclean meant that you could not be among your family or within the city walls. You could not freely come and go, and you could never go to the temple to worship again. All you had to look forward to was an unfortunate and painful death.

Leprosy attacks your nervous system, causing you to lose feeling in your extremities. Many people would die from this terrible disease because they would cut or burn themselves and not feel it. The leprosy would create a deadness to their feeling, and those wounds would become infected. The infection would often be the very thing that killed them, rather than the disease itself.

People who contracted this disease would often have distorted appearances. They would develop sores and rashes on their skin, and sometimes they would lose fingers or toes from stubbing them or getting infections. It was a horrible, horrible disease.

There were ten men who could not go into the village; they were no doubt outside the city gates, standing afar off. They were the outcasts of society, and everyone would avoid them. Most people would neglect them, and if they saw them, they would overlook them. Sometimes, they would get as far away as possible. These men were the refuse of society, the people that no one wanted anything to do with. Most of the time, their sustenance would come from the refuse heap outside the city. They lived by the dump, scavenging alongside wild dogs and rats, trying to find something to eat. Occasionally, a family member who still loved them might support them and provide scraps from the dinner table, but they remained the outcasts of society.

We are told of these ten men, and at least one of them was a Samaritan. Presumably, the rest of them were Jewish. Samaritans lived in the region between Galilee and Jerusalem and were looked down upon by the Jewish majority of the day. They were an ethnic minority that was hated.

If you were a Jewish person in that day, as a racial slur or put-down, you would call someone a Samaritan. This guy was not only an outcast because of his leprosy, but he was doubly an outcast because he was a Samaritan. Interestingly, those other lepers could see beyond his ethnic position as a Samaritan because they were all in the same terrible condition; they were all lepers. Sometimes, those sorts of things break down the walls, and this was the only company they had. The only community they had was with the offscouring of the world, the outcasts of society.

There they were, gathered together, no doubt near the place where the trash of the city would be brought. As Jesus passed by, we read in verse 13 that they lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." This is what we call the prayer of faith. One of the other New Testament writers, the Apostle James, in James chapter 5, I believe it's verse 15, speaks about the prayer of faith. He says it is the prayer of faith that saves or heals the sick.

Here are these ten outcasts, these men who had only to look forward to a painful, lonely death. Then, here comes a multitude of people passing through their random village. Somehow, in some way, they knew who this individual was that the multitude was thronging around. The awesome thing is that earlier in Jesus's ministry, we believe this is nearing the end of His three to three-and-a-half-year ministry. However, early in His ministry, it's recorded in the Gospel of Mark, chapter one, and the same story is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter eight, that Jesus had previously healed a leper.

At that time, no one was ever healed of leprosy. There are some stories in the Scriptures of a few who were healed of leprosy, such as Naaman, the leper spoken of in Old Testament times. But when you got leprosy, it was over; there was no cure, and you were going to die. No doubt, the news of this leper, even though Jesus had told him not to go telling everybody, had spread quietly.

Ten guys had heard about this Jesus, and they saw a multitude of people coming. Somehow, they deduced that it was Jesus, and with one voice, they mustered the strength to cry out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy upon us." Their prayer, their supplication, their request, and their petition were acts of faith.

Their faith recognized three things. First, they recognized the person of Jesus by calling Him by name. Secondly, they recognized the position of Jesus by referring to Him as Master. Thirdly, they recognized the power of Jesus by saying, "Have mercy on us." By faith, they acknowledged His person, His position, and His power. They lifted up their voices; they did not hold back. They were not ashamed to cry out after Jesus for His help.

The prayer of faith is not the least bit ashamed to cry out after Jesus for His help. However, one will never cry out enough after Jesus in faith until they realize they have no other hope. These men recognized they had no hope beyond this Jesus. There was a rumor going around that He had healed a leper; this was their only hope.

When Jesus saw them, these were the guys that nobody ever acknowledged. Of course, people would see them, but they never wanted anything to do with these kinds of people. There are still such people today. They may not have leprosy, but we all experience the temptation to intentionally overlook certain individuals.

You know how it is: that person you see at the same corner, always asking for help. When you pass them, you don’t even want to make eye contact. I understand that feeling. We diminish their dignity because we don’t want anything to do with it. If I look at them, they might talk to me, and then I know what they want. I don’t want to give them anything.

These ten men were that kind of person, and they represent the people we often blind ourselves to, intentionally overlooking them as if they are not even there. We might not even hear what they say, but we pretend we didn’t hear it and just go on our way.

Did Jesus see them? Not only did He see them, but look what it says: when Jesus saw him, He said to them. He engages with them, acknowledges that they are there, and begins to engage with them. He said to them, "Go show yourselves to the priests."

Point number two on your outline: Jesus sees and answers those who call to Him in faith. Jesus sees and answers those who call to Him in faith, even the dirty ones, even the unclean ones, even the ones whose lives are stinky, dirty, and rotten. He doesn't first require that they go make everything right and clean themselves up. He doesn't say, "Get yourself straight before you come talking to Me." He sees and answers those who call to Him by faith, and that is such a wonderful encouragement.

It would be burdensome if we were required to fix our lives before He answers our cry of faith. He is the one who actually has the power to fix lives. He knows that we are completely impotent to fix our own lives; we do not have the power or the ability. So, He sees and answers those who call to Him by faith, and He says to them, "Go show yourselves to the priests."

Why did Jesus send them to the priests? Well, as I mentioned a few moments ago, in Leviticus chapter 13, it was the priest who would diagnose an individual with leprosy. It was the priest who would set over their life this testimony, this word "unclean." The priesthood would declare that they could no longer come to the temple, could no longer associate with their family, and could no longer interact with the people in society. They were outcasts.

However, it was also the priests who had the command given in Leviticus chapter 14, verse 2, that if by chance someone might be healed of leprosy, they had to return to the priests. The priests would examine them and then declare them clean. Not only that, the priests would reintroduce them back into the temple and offer a sacrifice to God for them. In fact, in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 8, the previous time that Jesus touched a leper and made him clean, He said to him in Matthew chapter 8, verse 4, "Go your way, show yourself to the priest and offer..."

The gift of Moses that Moses commanded was a testimony to them. He says, "Listen, don't go telling everybody this. First, go to the priests and just show them I'm clean." I guarantee the priests, when they saw that former leper made clean, were blown away. This is how it happened: "While I meant this Jesus guy, he touched me. He touched you? Not supposed to touch you? Well, he made me clean." Well, you are clean as a testimony to them.

In the same fashion, Jesus says to these ten individuals, these ten lepers, "Go show yourself to the priest." We read in verse 14, "And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed." The ten lepers had faith enough to call upon Jesus, but they also had faith enough to follow his command. A lot of people call out to Jesus in prayer, but many will never follow him by faith.

Perhaps you have one of those friends, family members, neighbors, or co-workers who you know would never come to church with you. You've even invited them, but they respond, "Oh no, I'm not into that church thing. I don't want anything to do with that church thing." However, when some crisis or failure comes into their life, they come to you, kind of looking around, and say, "Hey, can I talk to you for a sec? Yeah, hey, you do that thing, you know, that thing you pray? Yeah, that's it! You pray to that Jesus. You think maybe you might do that for me? 'Cause I have a problem."

There are a lot of people who are willing to go that far and call out to Jesus, but there are far fewer who will, by faith, follow his command.

Point number three: faith in Jesus must produce obedience to Jesus. In fact, obedience to Jesus is a sign; it's a declaration that you actually believe in him and that you actually trust him.

These ten men followed His command. We don't know whether or not the healing of these lepers was dependent upon their obedience to His command, but we do know that as they went, they were healed. Finally, we come to what is the focus of our study: verses 15 and 16.

One of them, when he saw that he was healed, let's stop right there. I wonder how he realized he was healed. What was it that made him realize something had changed as he went? Have you ever had that experience before where you wake up in the morning and you can't feel your hand? It's completely dead, and your whole arm feels the same way. You realize how heavy your arm is and think, "Whoa, what is wrong with this thing?" You're trying to get it to wake up, but it feels completely dead. You feel like you could take a needle and push it through, and you wouldn't even feel it.

After a few seconds, maybe a couple of minutes, you start to feel that tingly sensation—the pins and needles feeling. Now, feeling is starting to come back. Maybe it was that. Who knows how long he had experienced numbness and no feeling whatsoever? Now, all of a sudden, there was a tingling. I wonder what went through his mind as he felt something for the first time in years. Perhaps he looked down at his hands and saw new skin where the sores and infections had been. At some point, he realized, along with the nine others, that he was well.

So, what did he do? One of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned with a loud voice, glorified God, and fell down on his face at Jesus's feet, giving Him thanks. He was a Samaritan, the outcast, the non-religious. As I said previously, presumably the other nine were Jews. We don't know for certain, but they were on their way to Jerusalem to go to the temple to see the priest.

Probably they are, but the one outcast of the Jews, the Samaritan, comes and falls down at the feet of Jesus. This is an awesome thing that takes place here because all ten obeyed the command of Jesus to go, but only one returned to Jesus to give thanks.

The Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon, said that the number of those who pray is greater than the number of those who praise. Isn't that true? There are many people who would never go through the doors of the church or identify as Christian. In fact, we have a growing number of people in our nation who are no longer identifying as religious or Christian. Oftentimes, they'll say, "I'm not religious; I'm spiritual." They might actually offer up some prayer, and the number of those who pray far outweighs the number of those who give glory to God. There are far more petitions for blessings than praises for blessings.

Spurgeon also said, "Let us chide ourselves as we acknowledge that we offer much more prayer than praise." In that, there's a recognition that I was thinking about this week. It's true for me too. I constantly offer up those kind of "In-N-Out Burger" prayers: "I'll have this and this, and don't hold back on that. Can I have a little bit more of that? And God, take care of this and take care of that, and fix this and fix that." Yet, there's not the same compulsion to offer Thanksgiving and praise.

Even the number of those who obey sometimes the religious rituals and commands of God is greater than the number of those who praise God. The number of those who receive the blessings of God outweighs the number of those who thank Him for those blessings. In fact, every single one of the seven point four billion people who populate this planet, as they wake up this morning, are inheritors of the blessings of God. As they take a breath, we all are the recipients of what is referred to by theologians as the common grace of God. Yet, far fewer are the number of those who praise Him for those blessings. Ten were healed, but only one returned.

When that one returned, he humbly bowed himself at the feet of Jesus and worshiped Him. He was a Samaritan. Those who would be expected to recognize the glory of God in Jesus Christ, because of their faith and background, were the Jewish individuals who failed to see it. Where is the one upon whom the religious people cast the word "sinner" merely because of his ethnicity? He was the one who was pious towards God. They were religious; he was pious.

We read in verse 17 that Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?"

Point number four: God acknowledges gratitude. Here's the frightening part: God acknowledges gratitude and ingratitude. He notices when there is a lack of gratitude, when there is no praise. One of the strikingly cautionary passages of the New Testament is found in the book of Romans. You don't have to turn there; I'll just read it, but you can note it down. Romans chapter 1, verses 18 through 21, the Apostle Paul says this: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest to them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse."

Why are they without excuse? Verse 21 explains: "Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, neither were they thankful." They are without excuse because, although they behold the glory of the grace of God and His blessings continually, they refuse to give Him glory and thanksgiving for all that He has given. God takes notice, and there is an implication in this passage that there will one day be justice for this.

Our ingratitude aside, this one leprous Samaritan humbly praises Jesus for His glorious grace. Jesus responds to him, saying, "Arise, go your way; your faith has made you well." The King James Version states, "Arise, go your way; your faith has made you whole." All ten were healed of their leprosy, but only the one who came praising was given a sense of wholeness.

What is this wholeness? All ten were saved temporarily from the disease they had, but one of them was saved eternally from the greater disease. Leprosy pictures the disease called sin, and that freedom, that wholeness, was given to the one who praised the Lord, the one who gave Him thanks.

Point number five on your outline: Jesus brings wholeness to those who praise the glory of His grace. Why do we gather on Sunday mornings and have musicians come up here to play these songs? It's not just a 25-minute gap to make it easier to get here for the message. Some of you might have thought that was like the trailers at the movie theater, something you could miss.

Jesus gives wholeness to those who praise the glory of His grace. What are we doing when we sing? I hear many of you say you can't sing, but why do we do that? We do it because Jesus brings wholeness to those who praise the glory of His grace.

I was pondering the question the other day: Why do we give thanks?

Honestly, I think I could come up with fifty things, but I have one minute and forty seconds, so I'll give you six. If you want to write them down, you can count on the back of your sermon guide.

We give thanks, number one, because it acknowledges God's greatness. It acknowledges God's greatness. Secondly, we give thanks because it testifies of God's goodness. It tells other people that God is good. Third, we give thanks to God because it glorifies God's grace. These things that we have received are unmerited; we don't deserve them. It glorifies His grace.

Fourth, we give thanks because it amplifies God's glory. It declares to the people that He is awesome. Number five, we give thanks because it exalts God's throne. This man humbled himself before the feet of Jesus, and our praise exalts His throne; it lifts Him up.

Number six, we give thanks to God because it invites His blessing. Giving thanks to God invites His blessing. Isn't there a sense in our lives that those who give us gratitude almost stir us to want to give more to them? When someone lacks gratitude and is filled with ingratitude, we tend to think, "I don't want to give them anything." This praise to God, this thanksgiving to God, invites His blessing. It stirs His heart to say, "I want to give more to you." What an awesome thing! What an awesome reality!

Especially as we consider that in just a few days, we have a holiday dedicated to giving thanks: Thanksgiving. Now, unfortunately, in our nation, the Thanksgiving holiday is now just the beginning of the shopping season for Christmas, or it's just a day to gorge ourselves on turkey and stuffing and all those sorts of things, or to watch football, or to not go to work, or whatever it may be. But let us remind ourselves that, first and foremost, it's an opportunity for us to...

Give thanks, which may require that you take just ten minutes this week to sit down and reflect on what you are thankful for. I think you would be surprised; there is a lot to be thankful for. I experience this every single time I do it. When I step foot off the plane back in the United States of America, I am instantly reminded that I have much to be thankful for.

We have an opportunity to give thanks, to honor our God, to glorify His grace, to exalt His throne, and to invite His further blessing. Those are good things.

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer?

Father God, thank You for Your grace towards us. We can't even fully comprehend the goodness of Your grace. In fact, in the ages to come, Ephesians 2:7 says that You will be revealing to us the exceeding riches of Your grace towards us. We can't even grasp it here in the temporality of this world; it will take eternity for us to see it.

But God, right now, this week, as we prepare for Thanksgiving, would You remind us of some of the things that we should honor You with gratitude for? Lord, I pray that we would do that publicly among people who may not yet know You, that You would be honored, lifted up, glorified, and exalted before them. Every good and perfect gift comes from You, and we thank You for Your good and perfect gifts. We thank You for the greatness of Your grace.

Lord, teach us to be those who give thanks. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.