Being Thankful

Well, thank you as well, Mr. Byer and Heather, for the song service here today. Singing some of the kind of newer hymns. I don't know that I've ever sung one of those. Maybe I've heard it, but they're kind of new to me. It's really something that we can benefit from as far as learning some new hymns. But I very much appreciate Mr.

Byer leaving this last song, because it does directly tie in with what I want to cover today. All of us know that Thanksgiving holiday is coming up this next Thursday. And in conjunction with that, I know that we often talk about Thanksgiving. We talk about, we strive to be thankful, I believe. And yet, there really are some very important principles that we can learn as we look at some of the statements that Jesus made.

And I want to start the sermon today by covering a section here in Luke 17, which is a section that is in many ways about Thanksgiving. But you might not initially think about that as what this section is about. But here in Luke 17, we actually find leading up to this that Jesus has been giving a number of parables. Luke 15 is a wonderful chapter to me to be able to read through what he gave in the parables there of Luke 15 that were primarily directed at the Pharisees, directed at how they looked down on other people, how they were not welcoming, they were not receiving of others, they were solely really wanting people to put them through the stress of trying to conform to their view of things.

And so they weren't very receptive. Chapter 16 covers some additional things, I think another parable or two. And this particular section is not directly a parable, but it is one of the miracles that Jesus performed. And one that I think we can benefit from as we think about this particular little incident here that started to be described in verse 11. Jesus had been in Judea. He had been around Jerusalem. And he was then starting to travel up toward Galilee.

As it says in verse 11, on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was going through the region, or as he was coming back through there, I guess maybe from the Galilean area. On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. And so as he was coming through this area where a lot of the people of Judea lived, but then a lot of the Samaritans also lived, kind of up to the north and a little bit to the west of where Judea is.

And it says, on his way came through the region between Samaria and Galilee. And in verse 12, as he entered a village, ten leopards approached him, keeping their distance. Now, of course, why did they do that? Well, I guess they did that out of respect. They did that knowing, and of course being a leper, having some type of a severe skin contagion, whether they were directly leprous or whether it was some other, you know, commentaries mentioned different types of, kind of, categories of things that might have been among this.

So I'm not, you know, I don't know directly other than what it just says. But they all realized that they lived, they lived a different life. They had a very limited life as far as, you know, they were segmented. They were kind of set aside. In many ways, they were looked down upon. They were viewed in a negative light because they had this horrid disease.

And of course, they didn't want that disease to spread. And if you want to read a lot more about it, you can go back to Leviticus 13. I think it is. Well, a better look. I know I read it, but I don't know if I can trust my memory anymore. I believe that's what I read.

Let me see. Yes, Leviticus 13 and 14 as well. So, you know, there's a lot of information that you might be able to read back in the Old Testament regarding how it was that individuals were. You know, they were set aside in order to contain that illness or disease and to keep it from spreading. But in this case, we see this little example. And see, this is the only, only case or only place in the New Testament where this is recorded.

It's not recorded in any of the other gospels. It's the only place. Luke writes down this short account of an interaction with a group of ten. A group of ten who were cast aside. A group of ten who were viewed in a very dim white. And, of course, keeping their distance, they called out to Jesus and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. Now, undoubtedly, they had to know who He was. They had to be able to identify Him.

They had to have heard of Him. And, I'm sure they also heard that He could heal the sick. That He could raise the dead. That He was someone special. That He was extraordinary in everything that He did and what He was doing here on earth. And, of course, they have a very, what you would think to be a legitimate request.

Help us. Help us! We are in real trouble. We're the cast offs of the society. We're not allowed to mingle among the rest of the people. We have this, in a certain sense, a misery that they were suffering with. So, they said, please have mercy on us. In verse 14, when He saw them, He said to them, and so I assume He's going to have to conclude quickly what He's going to do. What He said was, go and show yourself to the preached. Go and show yourself to the preached. Somewhat of an unusual thing.

He didn't say, come over here, I'll heal you. It didn't appear that He reached out, although He was not afraid of doing that. He would have willingly reached out should He needed to, and if He needed to, put His hands on them and anoint them. I'm sure He would do that as well.

But in this case, what He said was, I want you to go and show yourself to the preached. Now, by saying that, see what He was telling them was that I'm going to heal you. I'm going to cleanse this leprosy that you are plagued with. And yet, I'd like for you to obey me. I'd like for you to go, as I'm asking, and go to the preached. And of course, why would they want to go to the preached?

Well, in order to show the preached to exhibit evidence that I'm healed. That's why He told them to go to the preached. And of course, the priests could then get them or help them attain permission to mingle back in the community. That's why He sent them to the preached. And in verse 14, the latter part of it, it says, as they went, so apparently they must have decided we will obey.

We will obey what Jesus said. He said, go talk to the preached. We might look at each other and think, well, we don't look any different than we did a second ago. Why should we do that? But nonetheless, they went ahead and they headed toward, it says, as they went, they were made clean. Amazing. Miracle. The leprosy that they had been plagued with, some of them probably much of their lives, was gone.

In verse 15, one of them, when he found, when he saw that he was healed, he turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And this particular individual was a Samaritan. And so we only get a little bit of glimpse into this activity that's going on. We don't have it recorded anywhere else, as I mentioned. This is the only account that we have of this man being given a new lease on life. Being given a release from this dreaded disease. And whenever he figures out, I don't have this plague on me anymore. He turns around and of course goes back to Jesus and he praises God and he falls before Jesus' feet and thanks Him.

Thanks Him for the wonderful miracle and the blessing that He has given. Actually, in a sense, that's a little bit unusual from at least the other examples that you have, because you have Jesus healing a lot of people. You have Him healing many people at once sometimes, or groups of people, or people. You don't have hardly any accounts of them telling Him thank you. You have very few accounts. I haven't gone through, but as I think back, I don't remember any of the rest of them, where they felt like they needed to come and thank Him.

They were all excited. They were all glad. Some who could then see are running off, and of course He's telling them don't even tell them who's doing this. He was guarded in some ways of doing that.

But in this particular case, verse 16 says, He came back and thanked Him.

And of course, it was the Samaritan who did this. And so it wasn't even someone of the House of Judah, someone who you might think would have a perception of God, because the Jews looked at the Samaritans in a very dim light. They thought, well, they don't know how to worship God. They don't know how to approach God. They don't know the real God. That's what they thought. And so it was interesting to see that this man was a Samaritan. And then Jesus asked in verse 17, We're not ten made clean.

The other nine? Where are they?

Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?

He actually asked several questions. Where are the other nine?

Now, what he was implying was that I healed all of you. I told all of you to go to the priest. I told all of you what to do. And as you did it, you were healed. And yet you're the only one.

You're the only one who came back. And so Jesus asked, verse 17, somewhat of an unusual question.

You know, where are the other nine? Weren't there ten that were cleansed? Where are the other nine that I have made clean?

And of course, there wasn't an answer. There wasn't an explanation. There wasn't a response. It says in verse 19, He said to him, Well, get up and go on your way. He told him, Go ahead and go to the priest. You're going to need to go and ask to be among the community again and obtain permission. Maybe get your nurses slip signed in order to say you were again able to be in the community. But He said to this individual, Get up and go on your way.

Your faith has made you whole. And so we know that in numerous of the different accounts of Jesus' healing, that we learn different things. And in this case, we find that, well, there is some faith involved, or there was, at least for this particular man, Jesus said, Your faith has made you whole. And as all of us, if we are sick and if we want to be anointed, if we want to ask God for healing, we know that it tells us to do that in fact. Anticipate that God not only is able, but that He clearly can. He will heal. And He wants us to do that in faith. And yet, I think when I read through this, I see that Jesus told that to this man. He said, Your faith has made you whole.

And so in many cases, and I'm going to say this in not in every case, but in many cases, we find a direct connection between receiving this restoration, this cleansing, and our faith in God.

But it also shows He healed the other nine. They didn't even seem to care. They didn't come back. He didn't acknowledge them as far as their faith. See, the fact is, Jesus could heal whoever He wanted, whenever, however, and for whatever reason, He happened to want to do so. But I bring this illustration up, and this little example of a miracle that Christ performed, to just remind all of us, that in this example, you have 10 who were cleansed. You have 10 who were healed, and yet only one. One reminded Himself, or one had the sense of gratitude, the extent of appreciation to come back and thank Jesus Christ for what He had done. The rest of them didn't.

See, now, as we are thinking about this upcoming Thanksgiving Day, we all know that Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday. It's a day that has a connection to events and our history here in this nation, and it's been a national holiday for, what, 175 years or so since the time of Abraham Lincoln.

And it commemorated something that occurred that was very special here in this country.

Let's say, I think we should think, or we should ask ourselves, are we truly thankful for the many blessings that God has extended to us? Are we reminded of those blessings? Are we reminded of not only the physical blessings, the wonderful, fabulous privileges that we have, of course, as we meet together here in peace and safety, in warmth, and with little difficulty? You don't really find that everywhere around the world.

But see, we have many, many physical and even more so spiritual blessings that I think we should think of. And unfortunately, we find, I think even in the country today, as people celebrate a Thanksgiving Day, they often are not terribly thankful.

You know, that can actually easily be the case. People not really thinking about, you know, the need to be thankful, the need to be filled with gratitude, perhaps in many ways simply taking for granted the blessings of God. Taking for granted, they may not even look at it as blessings from God. Taking for granted for what we have. Because this country has been, you know, extraordinarily blessed.

You know, we take for granted so many things that I simply want to remind you of so that as we go into this next week, that we really will think about being thankful. Think about expressing gratitude for the blessings that God has seen fit to restore us with or to grant us.

See, this country is the most blessed nation on earth. You know, we believe that that's the case because of God's blessing upon Manasseh. We believe that that's the case because you can see how that a great nation was going to rise and it was going to have unbelievable and parallel power and authority at a given time in the future. This is what we read back in Genesis 48 and 9 and 50, when Jacob was blessing the sons of Israel. And yet, most people, you know, most people don't recognize that, at least. I think a lot of people do, but I just point it out to us because whenever we compare what we have, what we can get used to, we can take for granted what we have and not be thankful. Whenever you travel to Mexico, as some of our members did here during the feast, whenever you go to China, whenever you go to other parts of the world, if you travel to Colorado, you know, they're just like the rest of us. You know, they have many blessings up there in the mountains and beautiful scenery. And whenever we go to other places, as I know many of you have traveled to areas outside of the United States, the contrast is remarkable. The contrast, you can go to developed nations and things can be pretty good. But you, I think you'll say that in many ways, it's not quite as good as we have back here at home. And we see just a super abundance in everything. No matter what our, you know, level of financial greatness is here in this country, you know, we have things we take for granted, so many things. It is really amazing. But that should not be the case. And I want to, you know, encourage us to be reminded of that and to think about, you know, this one leper and how that he truly was thankful. He appreciated what had been given.

And of course, you find the bulk of the lepers did not. And we don't want to fall into that category. We don't want to fall into the category of those who were receiving the blessing and yet who didn't think about the need to be thankful. You know, I know here on comparison to other countries, you know, we find other other nations that are in many ways somewhat prosperous and traveling there may be certainly very, very encouraging. And yet you can go to other parts of the world, you know, that would be just appalling. You know, much of the population of India is, you know, very primitive. Many people that you find in certain parts of Asia and Africa, even many down in Latin America, are not just on, you know, not well off. You know, they are many of them in need of food. And of course, you see. You see different advertising on television, at least I do. I'm sure you do at times. You see, you know, people trying to get you to give money to feed the children, which of course is not wrong. It would be a right thing to do if you can do that, if you would like to do that. And yet, whenever you see the type of difficulty that so many people have, it's really hard to imagine. It's hard to imagine that you spend most of your time trying to figure out what am I going to eat? Where am I going to get something to eat? That is just unfathomable to us, here in America. And yet, there are even certain disadvantaged areas here in America, and probably in every city, where underprivileged people need help. They need help from others. I'm sure that's the case here in the United States. But even, and even here in Kansas City, as I mentioned, but you know, we have such abundance. We go to the store. And I'm going to say we, because I'm going to think that you're somewhat similar to me, because I go to the store and I'm just blown away. I'm grown away by, you know, Price Chopper, or Henn House, or I.V., or, you know, used to be Dylans. We don't have Dylans now. You do in Topeka, I believe, still, and in Lawrence. You can go into any one of those big supermarkets, and you can go up and down aisle after aisle after aisle after aisle of food. And, depending on what you need, you can find probably almost everything you need. Probably have six or eight types. And you can decide, you know, well, do I want that can, or do I want this can? You know, that isn't the way that many people look for food. I mean, that's the way we gather food, mostly. Unless we grow something in a garden. You know, we purchase many things at a store, and an abundance in a store. See, the fact is, when you go to the store, and I know I find myself doing this, I even am kind of lulled into not appreciating the fact that all of this is here. And you go into produce aisle, and you've got, you know, all kinds of produce and stuff that I'm sure, after a few days, they're going to end up throwing it away. I can never, I never know when to buy a banana. I can never tell, because if I buy one that's really pretty, by the time I get it home, it's brown. If I buy it green, then I get it home, it just stays green. It never changes. I don't know much about, you know, some things like that.

And yet, the fact was, you had all kinds of things to pick from. And see, instead of realizing and appreciating that fact and being thankful for that, which I should, sometimes I'm frustrated because I couldn't find the size of can that I wanted. You know, I was supposed to find a 10-ounce can of something, and it wasn't one. There were some 16-ounce cans and some 24-ounce cans and a couple of 8-ounce cans, but no 10. You know, you get to where you're looking for particular things, and if they don't have it, you know, they don't have it. Well, look at all we do have. Look at all the super abundance of everything. And if, you know, that is just one example. I know I think of that, and you know, you can buy salmon. You can buy salmon. You can buy fresh salmon or frozen salmon. You can buy salmon in a can. You can buy salmon in a little pouch. You can buy it in a bigger pouch.

And if that's one of the things I wanted, salmon in a little pouch, and then I went there and they didn't have that, and I said, oh, they don't have that. Well, it's really not a big deal. And we had six to pick from there. I need to just get over it. I need to look at it in a more grateful way, I think. And I see the same thing as you go into, you know, most any stores, as far as like any kind of clothes or other items you might want.

If you go into Kmart or Walmart or, you know, any of the, you know, the big box stores, or even some of the bigger department stores that we have around, they just got stuff jammed all over the store. I mean, if you want some clothes, if you want, if I want a shirt, you don't have to go and bite your way through all the shirts that are available to try. And usually, and I'm thinking more so of ones I see in other stores, where, you know, they've just got racks and racks and racks of stuff.

And you wonder, you know, do people all over the globe have this type of access? And, of course, the answer is no. You know, they don't. For the most part, they don't at all. For the most part, you know, they may, you know, certainly need a good amount of this clothing or shelter or food. And yet, they don't always have access to it. And yet, in the same breath, you can go down to the Goodwill store, which I do at times. And you can look through and see if you're wanting to take stuff and give it away, you can do it there.

Or you can go and look through what they've got. They've got stuff that I wear at times. And yet, they're the same way. They've got so much stuff, they can't hardly keep it on a rack. And then they've got, beyond that, truckloads of stuff that they're going to have to haul away somewhere else.

And so, you know, the abundance in this land, I think, in a sense, kind of overrides the appreciation level that we should have or that we have sometimes. And so, I want to just encourage us in that way.

We have, all of us have, again, at least physically, we all have wonderful, wonderful availability and abundance here in this country. And we want to be thankful for that. My wife and I were kind of tied up this week, at least in a certain way, because we had a new granddaughter born.

She was born on Tuesday. She was born here in Kansas City. And having a grandchild born is clearly a wonderful blessing, fabulous privilege for us. And her name is Maisie, Maisie Gray Dobson. She was born here in Kansas City. And yet, every time, you know, we have, of course, my wife and I have two boys. And then both of those boys have two kids now. But every time, with the boys' births and then with the birth of the grandkids, I'm always nervous. I'm nervous. It's exciting. It's draining to me. It shouldn't be, because I'm not really anywhere near involved, except just to see afterwards.

And yet, the experience of going through childbearing can be very difficult. It can be extremely difficult. There can be difficulties that are major. And I think of that, and I know I think of that with both of our boys, both of them having been born, let's see, I guess in Oregon and Oklahoma, where we happened to be when the boys were born. And yet, both of them, as far as their births, was longer than we'd ever anticipated or thought. A little more difficult than some complications with things. Ultimately, okay. Ultimately, fine. But during the process, it was something that I had to think about. This is just very difficult. This is a wonderful blessing whenever this new baby is here.

And of course, I know all of you who have children or grandchildren know what's that life. But I think about it because I've seen some of our own struggles with that. And I think back to my own situation. When I was born, you know, it was a long time ago now, over 60 years ago.

At that time, you know, my dad and mom lived in Oklahoma. And of course, they did have hospitals, and even though they were on the farm, there was hospital relatively close, and they did go there.

But during that process, which had been a difficult process for my dad and my mother, I was born, but my mother died. You know, that was a strange turn of events. And of course, one that I only know about looking back because I obviously didn't know about it right then. But I know how difficult childbearing can be. And of course, dad remarried within about six months. And so the lady that I know of as mom, the only one that I know of as mom, was absolutely wonderful toward me and was such an encouraging person. It's fabulous to even remember, you know, the way that she helped and took care of me. But with that kind of a thought regarding childbearing, I'm always concerned about the boys and their wives and the children that they have born. And if they have any kind of difficulty, and thankfully there wasn't at least much difficulty with Maisie, there were some questions. Questions as far as, you know, if she turned right, is that actually going to work and will more be needed as far as any type of the surgery or anything? Thankfully, that was not needed, but sometimes it is. And yet, it can be very, it can be very exhausting. It can be, you know, it's whenever you're through the process, you think back or you can see the new baby and just marvel. Marvel at God's creative power and ability and how that, you know, how can a hand be that small? How can a fingernail be that tiny? You can't hardly even see it. And yet, it's there and it's fully, you know, fully functioning just like, you know, ours are as we get bigger. And yet, we have so much, so much to be thankful for. And I certainly know that I do and I believe that you do. And one of the warnings we're given back in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 12 and in Deuteronomy 8 verse 14, God told Israel as they came into the land and as they were going to be receiving many blessings, they were going to receive abundance of being there in the land of Canaan, the land of promise, the land flowing with milk and honey. They were told whenever you start receiving all of these blessings, whenever you are given this abundance, don't forget where it came from. Don't forget God. Don't forget that He is the one who provides all of these physical blessings and the one who can give us, you know, the things that we have, the one who is the source of all of those things. And of course, God says He owns all of them. I'd like for us to look in Psalm chapter 50. Psalm chapter 50 is actually the hymn that Mr. Byer sang right before I got up here, the hymn that we all sang.

And it reflects on thanking God, appreciating what it is that God has done for us.

And clearly, I simply want to remind us of that. I know that all of you are thankful, and yet I think we can always be encouraged to remember, to remember not to forget God. Here in Psalm chapter 50, verse 4, it says, God calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that He may judge His people, gather to Me, My faithful ones, who made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. This is what this psalm is saying, that God is talking to His covenant people, His people that He has chosen, that He has blessed, that He is encouraging.

And actually, He says in verse 7, Hear, my people, and I'll speak of Israel, I'll testify against you. I am God, I am your God, not for your sacrifices, who I rebuke you, your burnt offerings are continually before Me. See, here He was pointing out in this particular psalm that He had something He wanted Israel to remember. He had something they wanted them to be mindful of. And it says that, you know, He says, you're bringing Me sacrifices, you're bringing Me bulls and goats, you're bringing Me doves, and yet I don't really want or even need any of those, because I own everything. And I don't eat that stuff anyway. You know, it was used as a sacrifice. And yet He said, what I really want, down in verse 22, Mark this, you who forget God, or I will tear you apart and there will be no one to deliver. See, He said, you know, even though you kind of are going through the motion of obeying Me as My people, Israel, if you forget God, if you forget that I'm the one who is empowering you, if you forget that I'm the one who grants you the blessings that you have, if you forget that, well then, you know, you need to be reminded to change your ways. And He actually says, you forget God when, in verse 16, to those who would be considered wicked in Israel, those who even by lip service said, you know, we are thankful to God, we praise God, we honor God. He says to the wicked, what right do you have to recite My statutes? What right do you have to take My covenant on your lips? For you actually hate discipline. You cast My words behind you. You make friends with the thief when you see one. You keep company with adulterers. You give your mouth free reign for evil. Your tongue frames the seed. You sit and speak against your kin. You slander your own mother's child. These things you have done. And I have been silent. See, what He was telling them is that you're going through the motions of offering offerings. You're going through the motions and yet your heart is not right. Your heart is evil and wicked and you are slandering Me in many ways. He says, what I really want you to do is not so much give offerings, which is again talking to the Israelites about the animal offerings, but I want you in verse 14 to offer God a sacrifice of thanksgiving. What does God really want? Well, He wants us to be reminded as the Samaritan leper was reminded and came back to Jesus to thank Him for what He had done for Him.

Here in verse 14, offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High.

Call on Me in the day of trouble. I'll deliver you. You shall glorify Me. See, He wanted their attention to be on Him. He didn't want them to be complacent. He didn't want them to be indifferent. He didn't want them to be unthankful. Clearly, He said the sacrifice that I want in verse 14 is a sacrifice of thanksgiving. And He accentuates that in the very last verse in verse 23. He says, those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor Me. See, that's the category that we want to fit into. People who are very thankful. People who are extremely thankful not only for the physical blessings, the abundance, the fabulous opportunity that we have of serving God in our lifetime and here in this very, very good setting. We have the opportunity to do that. Now, things are going to get worse. We all realize that, or at least we know that that's what the Bible predicts. We really don't want that to happen, but we know that that's going to happen. It's going to happen before Christ in the means of world affairs. And yet, for right now, we want to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. We want to honor God with the outlook of gratitude. And see, I can say, knowing the folks up in Fulton and all of you, you know, there are certain ones in our congregations that, in a sense, kind of just exude gratitude. It's obvious. I don't know that I fit that category, at least certainly I want to fit that category some of the time, but you talk to others and sometimes it's exciting to be around someone. And I think God probably finds this the same way. He's thankful and delighted to be around a child of His who is extremely grateful, extremely thankful for what He has done, for what He has provided. And, of course, beyond just the physical blessings, we can look in Luke chapter 10. We all have been granted spiritual blessings that far exceed anything that we would ever have physically. We've been granted spiritual blessings here in Luke chapter 10.

Jesus is talking to His disciples after they return. Luke 10, starting in verse 17, the seven to return with joy. They marvel at the fact that the demons respond whenever they are in the name of the Lord, asked to leave. And He says in verse 20, nevertheless do not rejoice at this that the Spirit submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. What's really important in what He was telling the disciples, what He tells all of us, what's really important is that our names are written in heaven. That we have been called to a wonderful calling and to a blessed condition of being a part of the Church of God today and potentially members of the family of God. Potentially sons and daughters of God for all eternity. It goes on in verse 21 at that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, what? He says, I thank you. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and you have revealed them unto babies.

See, that's who we are. We're all maids according to God. Infants. Where He has revealed understanding and information about the plan of God, about the purpose of life, about the wonderful time of rejoicing that we can look forward to as we look into the future and as we look at how it is the plan of God will unfold, we have been granted a marvelous blessing.

And I think even as you see this illustration here in verse 21, Jesus set the pattern, and I think many of us do this, I think, quite well, even though often our prayers might be about us. They might be about what we need, and that's not wrong to pray about that, because we do need to ask God for help. We need to ask Him to help us, to encourage us, to uplift us, to inspire us, to move us. We need help from God, and so we need to request that. But you also find that the example that Jesus sets here in this case, that we can thank God. We can just endlessly thank God for things that He is doing, for what He has done, and for what He is doing for us. And I think that in many ways should make up many of our prayers. You know, if we have trouble thinking about what should we pray about, well, we can be thanking God, and we can enumerate what are the things that I could be thanking God for, because there are many, many things that we could thank God for. And whether they are physical things, or whether, as we talk here briefly about the spiritual things that God has seen fit to bless us with.

You see, that Jesus approached God, you actually see Him in numerous places, saying, thank you. Saying thank you, Father. Thank you for always hearing me. You said that before He raised Lazarus from the dead. Thank you for always hearing me. I know you were always there. I know you were always available. I'm just saying this for these who are standing here and listening, so that they'll figure out who you are and who I am, the Son of God. And that it is through you, through me as the Son of God, that they can have real life. And so then He raised Lazarus from the dead. Here, in this case, He just simply says, I thank you, Father. I thank you. I praise you, Father, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent or prudent, and you have revealed them to infants and babes. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.

See, how special is that blessing? How special is that calling? For God drew us to Jesus Christ, for He grew us to be a part of the Church of God that would make up and eventually be the sons and daughters of God. How special is that? How much of a gratitude do we show to God, that we express to God, that we explain to God that it's so wonderful to be able to know that?

He goes on in verse 23, turning to the disciples, Jesus said to them privately, blessed are your eyes, and see what you see. For I tell you, many prophets and kings desire to see what you see and have not seen it, and yet, blessed are your eyes, to see what you see and to hear what you hear. See, others had wanted to hear what the disciples were being given, what they were the understanding that they were being granted about Jesus Christ and about Him being the Son of God, and about the power and the glory that He has and that how through Him.

We will all have eternal life. This was a special blessing, the spiritual vision, the spiritual hearing that are gifts that come from God.

A wonderful blessing that God tells us to be thankful for.

And again, unfortunately, after services up in Fulton this morning, I was talking to several different people, and they were describing what we sometimes run into even on a Thanksgiving day.

People who are not very thankful. Not that we might be trying to fit that category, but in different settings and in different situations, you really find that there are far more people like the nine lepers than there are like the nine. Far more people who are indifferent to being thankful for God and being able to express gratitude and gratefulness to God.

In Psalm 107, you see how this spiritual blessing is described in Psalm 107.

Verse 1 says, O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. O give thanks to the Lord, for His steadfast love endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say this.

Say give thanks to the Lord. See, that's what it's saying.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those who redeemed from trouble and gathered in from lands from east and west and north and south. See, this whole psalm talks about the type of deliverance. In a sense, when you think about the lepers, they were in prison. They were not in prison, but they were imprisoned by the ailment that they had.

And yet Jesus was offering them cleansing. He was offering to pull them out of that and to make them whole. And yet, as we read through these different examples here in Psalm 107, there are four direct examples and then a couple of others toward the end that just show the spiritual blessings of being pulled out of being lost. That's what verse 4 talks about. There are some who are lost, and yet when God brings us to an awareness of a purpose in life, then we're drawn out of the category of being lost or being confused of not having any idea where or what God wants us to do. Down in verse 10, it talks about those who are imprisoned in darkness and gloom, prisoners in misery. In verse 17, it says, some were sick or afflicted through their sinful ways. And down in verse 23, some went down to the sea in ships doing business on the mighty water, and they saw the deeds of God commanded and raised the stormy wind, and they were tossed about every which direction. See, this is the type of a blessing that Jesus said that He came to give. These are physical descriptions of wandering in the wilderness, of being in prison, being forced into slavery, being sick and afflicted, and being tossed about in the sea.

Those are physical descriptions of what Jesus said in Luke 4, that I came to relieve.

See, here in Luke 4, Jesus said in verse 18, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to bring good news to those who are lost, to those who don't know. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives. That's a part of what we read in Psalm 107. To recovery of sight to the blind, those who needed healing, and to let the oppressed go free. This was a message, a part of the message that Jesus brought. That is, I can provide spiritual blessing and benefit. You have to understand.

You have to appreciate the fact that it is through God's intervention in your life, through Him granting you an understanding of spiritual things about what's the purpose of life, what's the meaning of being a Christian. How is it that you can benefit from appreciating the blessings and the spiritual blessings, particularly from God? See, these are the things that I hope we can all be reminded of as we celebrate a holiday that is regarding Thanksgiving. We want to be thankful for the physical blessings, but we more so want to be thankful for our spiritual blessings, for the calling, and for the opportunity of growing in the divine nature. You talk about a divine nature to most folks, and they think you're crazy.

But see, that's exactly what God is doing with us. He has brought us to an understanding of our sins, and of the need for repentance, and of the need for the Holy Spirit, and then through the power of the Holy Spirit, He gives us the divine nature. See, we want to grow in that nature, and yet many people would find it very difficult to talk about a divine nature, and yet it should be something we can very easily, very commonly think about, and even pray that God would grant us the fruit of the divine nature. That He would give us that nature, and give us the qualities and characteristics that He says He so wonderfully characterizes, and how Jesus exemplified all of those characteristics in His earthly existence, and how He wants to reflect those characteristics in us now.

So these are all things to be thankful for, and so I hope that by going over some of these things here, kind of prior, and if we need to, you know, sometimes it helps me, since my memory is not as good as it used to be, helps me to write things down. It helps me to write lists.

I don't know how many lists you've got, but I've got plenty of lists. I've got lists of things I need to pray about. I've got lists of things that I need to do over and over again. I'm writing new lists of stuff I need to do. Let's see, if we need to write down things we're thankful for, even physical things and then spiritual things, then that enables us and empowers us to actually fall into the category, as we were reading here in Luke 17, and thinking about these lepers, and how that one of them was very thankful. One of them was very grateful, and I hope that, as we think about those things, we can benefit from this Thanksgiving Day. We can actually offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, a very meaningful one. One that, in many ways, in a sense, sets a tone for the way we are toward others, and actually the way I think God wants us to be toward each other and toward everyone, ultimately. But what we read here in Luke 17 was simply that one of the lepers returned to Jesus with the gratitude, appreciation, and the thankfulness that He had been cleansed. Now, that would appear to have been a physical healing, but God also points out that we've been spiritually cleansed and cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. And so we want to be mindful of that as well. And as we also read, the other nine of these lepers remained ungrateful for the mercy that was extended to them.

See, we don't want to fall into that category. We don't want to forget what God has done and forget how much He wants us to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. And so even though the proportions there look, it's much less likely to remember, much less likely to be thankful. And I think we all can fall into the category of that one leper. And so I want to encourage us all to join the one leper who appreciated what Jesus had done for him as we extend the type of thanksgiving that God truly wants us to extend to him and truly benefit from an outlook and an attitude of thanksgiving.