‘Gratitude’
You know, I love this season. I love this this time of year. One is because we get to eat a man, man, we can eat like like nobody's mama's business. Hey, man, nobody's mama's. That's right. I said no, I'm from the South, I guess. I know I drink too much sweet tea.
I don't know what it is this holiday season. You know, it's. It's all about family and friends and fellowship. You know, we are in a season where we. We party a lot. We have a lot of gatherings, We eat a lot of food. We have friendsgiving. We have potlucks and Christmas parties, right? That's what we're used to in a season.
And I'm reminded to know that not everyone like a potluck, not everybody likes a potluck. Now begin to think about why. Why don't certain people like potluck dinners? Because it is in the word itself, right? You look up in the pot because you never know what's going to be in that pot. But I think more so people don't like potlucks because sometimes you just you just don't know if that person can cook.
Man. And I'm like, you know, you don't know what they're cooking. And I think for me, it's not about what they can or cannot cook because I can almost stomach anything. I'm getting there. But more, more important, I think, is I need to know that you clean. I'm going to say what you want to say. Come on now.
You can't trust everybody. How so? You just don't know how clean they are. You don't know if they have cats walking on top of the counter, You know, just walking. I'm like, You just never know. I'm just I'm keeping it real, right? That's why people always ask me, Pastor, what did you bring right there asking, like, who brought what?
So that way you know what to eat and what not eat. So let me just give you a little bit of a crash course. If you bring a dish to the church, more or less, if you bring a dish anywhere and you take that dish home and it's still full, you might want to go back and reevaluate some things.
I mean, you just want to ask God, what was it? Was it did I put a little bit too much salt in there? You know, what was it? Did I not put enough sugar in it? You know, because sugar makes everything better. Actually. If you fry anything and you fried anything, it typically it's a lot better. But as always, that one person is always that one family member who is late to in event every event.
And normally in my in my family unit is my sister Holly father in the name of Jesus, we just pray for her. Nothing. My sister Holly, there's four of us, right? There's four of us. And my mom started our family, right? This four of us, my brother non be identical twin brother. We have two older sisters. But my sister Holly, she is the second oldest guy.
God bless her. So she is late to every event. And so and often we we she's charged with bringing a dish and we finally got hip to the game because you don't give the person who's late to every event the main dish right. You don't do that. You let them bring water or potato chips. Right. One of those side items that they you know, if they come late, you can you don't you don't worry about it.
But every year, most of the time, as my sister is responsible for bringing the macaroni and cheese in Jesus name and if you don't know, macaroni cheese is a staple to every household family, right. And so we just got to pray for those late people. But I need for my time. God. Both, I tell you. But it's not only just just being late is also, more importantly, what are you bringing to the table right.
You know, when we gather for Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving and Christmas, my question to you today is, what are you bringing to the table? And just in case you didn't catch it, there's a shift there. What do you bring in spiritually to the table? You know, this past Thursday, we celebrated Thanksgiving in, you know, we're grateful and we should be thankful for so much.
But I believe that there may be one or two or just even a few of us that we we struggle struggled this past Thanksgiving. We struggle giving God things. Truth be told, some of us for us to give God things in this season of our life is is is quite difficult. And it could be that this season reminds you of of a person that you lost, a loved one that you lost or maybe that your finances in, or maybe you're you're being diagnosed with the sickness.
Maybe that you're dealing with life challenges right now. So giving God right now is hard. This Thanksgiving, some of us, we are struggling with life. Life with sometimes put you in a place where giving God things is hard to do. And I get it. You may not say me because you don't want your neighbor to know that that's you.
You may not even say hallelujah or you may not even clap your hands. And I understand that because you don't want anybody know that you're you're struggling with life right now. You're struggling with giving God things. Sometimes praising God is not always easy to do. You know, I get it. The Bible declares in Psalms 50, Chapter 150, verse six, and says, Let everything that has breath.
Praise the Lord. Psalms one, two, three. Verse one tells us that Bless the Lord. my. So and all that is within me. Bless His Holy name. See, Psalm 69, verse 30 says, I will praise the name of God with the song. I will magnify him with Thanksgiving. But yes, there are some of us today that were struggling, were struggling, thanking God for what He's done in our life.
You see, I'm not questioning your belief in God. I'm not even suggesting that you don't. You're not grateful. I'm not even believe. Begin to say that you don't have a hallelujah. But I just know right now that may be right now for you. You're struggling to be thankful. But life has gotten so difficult that has robbed you of your joy.
Even I, as your pastor, I can testify that sometimes my situation has silence, my praise, that my circumstance has covered my hallelujah, that my outcomes in life has caused me to overlook my blessings. I know that I should be grateful. I know that I should say thank you. But right now, the realities that I'm facing in life, the challenges that you may have in giving things to God, is difficult.
See, we can look all throughout the Bible for how God tells us that we should be thankful, that we should be grateful, that we should have a posture of gratitude. Which reminds me of a story today where we going to lift up our scripture, which is Luke chapter 17, verses 11 through 19. I'll be reading from the new King James version.
The Apostle Luke is writing with pen and paper, and he writes this Now, what happened as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Sumerian Galilee. Then AC enter into a certain village there met him ten men who were lepers, who stood to far off, and they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us.
So when he saw them, this is Jesus. And when Jesus saw them, he said to them, Go show yourselves to the priest. And so it was that they went. And as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them church say one and one of them, when he saw that he was healed, he returned with a loud voice, glorifying God and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him things.
And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, Were there not ten clans? But where are the nine were? Why? Where were they found? And who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner, this Samaritan? And he said to him, Arise, go your way because your faith has made you well. The title of my message today is Giving thanks, giving thanks.
You know, as parents, we we teach our kids to say please and thank you. We that's basic parenting skills right along with the please and thank you The other basic parenting skills is and we should teach our children about gratitude. I would feel as you pass if I didn't teach you about gratitude or being thankful, because our worship requires an expression of gratitude.
Our worship requires an expression of gratitude. And so my point for number one for today is it's a thankful encounter. Thankful encounter. Let me just just kind of sum up what's taking place in in Luke chapter 17, Jesus enter to a town and he encountered ten lepers. See, lepers are those who are walking around. And if you walk walking in close proximity to them, they're posed to scream out unclean, unclean.
But they believe that there's this man, this man, this name Jesus that can change their condition. They encounter a man by the name of Jesus, who, as they lift up their voices and their pleading, asking God mass to show mercy upon us, and they begin to believe that they can change. He can change their lives. This man name Jesus.
Those ten lepers cry out and says, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. They weren't individualizing themselves, that Jesus have mercy on me. No, Jesus have mercy on all of us, all ten of us, because we all struggle with the same thing right now. So, Jesus, master, my Savior, have mercy on us. And they then begin to ask him, Can you make me better?
Can you make us whole again? Can you heal us? So, God, can you help a brother out? And Jesus, He doesn't say anything. He doesn't say what we think He will say, right? He doesn't say that you're here. He doesn't say, Go take a bath in the lake. Go, go, go. Wash yourself with him. But he doesn't say any of those things.
Jesus tells us something completely different in verse 14. This is what the Scripture says. So when he saw them, he tells the ten lepers to go, Go and show yourself to the priest. I'm like, Really? Jesus. I'm like, I thought you was the the priest of all priests. You're telling me to go see a man for my healing like this?
Math and math and. Jesus. Come on, now. Jesus. You want me to go see a man? He says, Go show yourself to the priest. Pause. Rewind and repeat. Go show yourself to the priest in crying now Jesus, Master, have mercy on us And see, I believe that these these two lepers, they've heard about this man named Jesus, like, Come on, Jesus, light it.
Chapter eight. And Luke, you just. You just healed the woman with the issue of blood. And all she had to do was touch the him of his garment. You're telling me to go see a priest? She's to spare 5000 men. 5000 with two fish and five loaves of bread. And you want me to go see a priest? Jesus, you just pass it out.
Demons of a man called Legions. And you're telling me to go walk and go see a priest? Where's my healing coming from? See, the priest had to confirm that those who had leprosy were cleansed. See, the lepers had to go before the priest and begin to show them shall show their body. They had to strip down and show all of their body to prove that they were cleansed, that they were healed.
Then they can go back into general population. The Scripture says, as they went, they were cleaned as they went, they went on the word of God. They heard the word of the Lord. They began to walk. And as they begin to walk, I can just imagine they begin to walk and they keep walking and it begin to look at their bodies and their bodies become cleansed in the spots that they had on their hands and on their neck and their nose.
They begin, my God, I am becoming healed. I'm going to become a making hole. God is healing my body right now. The Scripture says as they went to see the problem with some of you that you guys are staying got to you to go. Come on now. Come on, Church Some of you are looking for a change in the same position, but God is saying, I told you to go.
I gave you my word. My word would not return void. But you're still sitting in the same place, the same situation. And I'm telling you to get up and go, he says as they went church, you have to begin to start walking in the word. The word told them to go in the beginning was the word war was with God.
The word was that God was God. Right? The word, the word, the word walk in the word, you know, for signal assembling ourselves, Hebrews 1025 Romans Chapter 12, verse one. I beseech you, brother, that you present your your body as a living sacrifice is wholly acceptable from God, which is a reasonable service. James Chapter one. My brother and I counted all joy through various trials and situations that the testing of your faith produces patience and patience.
We'll have his perfect word. Come on now. Probably chapter three, verse five and six that you should trust in the law all your heart and lead not to your own understanding. Walk, walk, walk in the word, walk, walk, walking the walk, walk, walk, walk into word. That's what God wants you to do. As they begin to walk out the word, their situation, their circumstance begin to change.
As you begin to walk in the Word of God, your life, things may begin to change. And I'll say this it may not be your circumstances may change, but your perspective of your situation and your circumstances may change because you're walking with the word of life. So when he saw them, he said to them, Go show yourselves to the priest.
And so it was that they went and they were cleansed. One of them went out of the night, caught the revelation and said, My God, do you see what I see? I'm just imagining because I know how we do when we with our people, right? With with our people as we be cutting up and everything. So I was my posse of ten people, you know, the disciples and we just hanging out, do whatever and we talk and we all jacked up, messed up the flow of right.
And we all in the same condition. And you got, you know, bumps and bruises everywhere. But then as you begin to walk, the scales start falling off. Then you start looking at your homeboy, your home grocery. You're wondering, you don't you don't look the same and you begin like, bruh, you you look pretty good now. All right, I'll be right back.
I'm gonna go back. Let me let me go see this man named Jesus. Now, let's. He told us to go see the priest. Now I'm gonna go thank the man who gave us the word. I'm gonna go think the word itself. Tell your neighbor. Just keep walking. Come on, I'll tell him. Keep walking. It may not look like nothing is happening, but keep walking.
It may not look like something is getting better. But keep walking. You may not look like you're being here, but keep walking. You may not look like that it but keep walking. You may not see the changes in your message, but keep walking. You may not see the changes in your job, but keep walking. You may not see the changes in your your finances, but yet keep walking.
You may see the changes in the tension in your family, but you keep walking. You may not see the things that you want to see, but God is saying Church, keep walking and keep walking. Church Keep walking.
Point number two we have a thankful encounter. We also should have a thankful revelation. Verse 17 tells us that Jesus answered and said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? So let me let me put it in 2022 vernacular. Jesus said Jayden had ten quarters and if Jayden has one quarter left, then what happens? Jayden broke, right?
That's 2021 vernacular. So Jayden broke in, Only one comes back. Even Jayden, no. Okay. Church The Samaritan understood what it meant to have a thing for an encounter and a thankful revelation that one understood that giving things meant more than going see the priest. He understood that giving thanks. He had to open up his mouth. He understood that giving thanks meant that maybe sometimes you have to clap your hands.
He understood that giving things. Sometimes that means that you have to say a hallelujah. That sometimes giving thanks means that you're standing on the rock, the rock of all ages, the rock who is our redeemer And see the revelation for me was this is that when he said of far off and then it says that they saw Jesus afar off the Scripture says that they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us.
They said from afar of that they lifted up their voices. But when he came back to see Jesus, he didn't lift up a voice. He had a loud voice. Then that means that there has to be a shift, a transition that your your your prayer is lifted, but your praise should be loud. come on, now. If I was in a Baptist church, my Hammond organ would come in here right now, you know what I'm saying?
Yeah. Come on, Church Yes. Right. Among wives trying to climb in a front row, see, I tell you. See? See, we pray with a lifted voice, but we know, boy, I tell you, he's about to come out. but we praise with the loud voice. See, we pray with the lifted voice, but we praise with a loud voice.
So you went from praying to praising to proclaiming. He proclaimed who Jesus was. He begin to proclaim that He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, that He knew that His where his help was coming from. If what you've been praying for has been answered by God, you would think that your praise would be louder than your prayer.
Because this easy to pray for some things, right? But the manifestation of your prayer being delivered and being walked out before you should be greater, right? Because if I have 10,000 tongues as to kind of worship him enough, right, I could have praise him enough. But the question still remains where is the other nine? Like, where's the other nine?
And let me just some theologians says this. Some say that the other nine was waiting to praise God when they got to the temple. Imagine that. That they wanted to wait till they got to church. They said, God, you know what? I'm a wait to get to church to give you my praise. See, it's easy to give God praise in a temple, but the one went back to the table, sees easy to praise God in the sanctuary, but the one went back to the streets.
It's easy to praise God when He gives you the prayers that has been answered. But will you praise Him regardless of where you are? See, I believe that the Samaritan was in sight of the temple. I just believe that they got he got so close to the temple, he had the temple in sight. But he said, You know what?
I'm gonna go back to the tabernacle. See, there's a difference in a temple, in a tabernacle, you'll see a tabernacle is a transient place where we worship God. A barnacle is a stationary place. And see God. If you read scriptures, he talks about the tabernacle and he says that my tabernacle goes where I want us to to praise it.
Now, don't get me wrong, we can praise him in the temple. Yes, that's great. But your praise should be mobile. He was willing to sacrifice his time. He's willing to sacrifice his energy. He's willing to sacrifice his friendship. But watch this. When he approached Jesus the second time, he didn't ask Jesus for anything. Oftentimes when we approached God for the second or third time, we're always asking or coming with over a list of things.
See the Samaritan. When he approached Jesus the second time, he didn't ask for anything. This is easy. To be a Christian when you need God is easy to pray when you're sick. It's easy to praise God when you know when life is hard or you know you need an uplifting. You know, it's easy is always asking God what you're looking for God to deliver in your life.
But this Samaritan went back because he didn't he didn't have a need at all. He didn't have a need at all. He just went back to, thank God, thank the person to, the man, the true high priest. We give you three quick things. My point number three is this a thankful lesson? We have a thankful encounter. We have a thankful revelation and we have a thankful lesson.
This lesson that this Samaritan learned was a lesson of faith. It was a lesson of trusting God even in a lesson of obedience. So let me give you three biblical steps for gratitude. I just want to point out what a thankful posture is. But if you're wondering, how do I begin to thank God for what He's done in life, when we can see this in first Thessalonians chapter five or 16 or 16 says this Rejoice, always pray with ceasing and in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.
So three things that you can do to be grateful. Three things that you can do to be thankful is to rejoice. Always rejoice, always and see. Your experience of joy may not be the expression that you want, but your experience is often the precursor of your expression. You may not be experiencing joy right now, but express it anyhow because your expression will speak towards the experience.
Pray continually and recall to pray without ceasing, and that we should give things in all in all the circumstance this is begin to wrap up and we have our worship team to come back up to the stage. And I want to kind of close with a story about King David as he writes in songs. Chapter 137 David shows us in this particular psalm, it says this How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?
So let me translate that for you and give you some context. The Babylonians has taken captivity of the Israelites and taken them to a foreign land. They begin to the Babylonians, begin to press in unto the Israelites and say, What you sing as one of those songs, and you know what? You go ahead and just worship God. Give us a song that will of give us joy to our hearts in the ears.
The is saying, How can we sing a song in a land that's foreign? So you may be asking yourself how you sing a song or how can you praise God? Or how can you be thankful in a place that you are dealing with right now in a foreign land that your situation may seem foreign to, that where you may be dealing with right now?
It is for that it is not comfortable. But I'm glad that David wrote songs 1 to 37 because it gives us some insight. But I'd be more grateful to know that David wrote Psalms 136 as well because I'm glad that he gave us Psalms 136 before he gave us Psalms 137 because Psalms 136 tells us how to really walk into what God has called us to be, how God called us to become.
And this is what Psalms 136 says it says, give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His mercy endures forever. Verse two says, give thanks to God of all Gods, for his mercy endures forever. Verse three says, give thanks to the Lord of Lords for his mercy, endures. Go back and read Psalms 136 See, David wrote 136 to give us prepped up for 137 because he told you that you been going through hell or high water.
136 and then see you two 137 then. Well, he wanted to encourage you first to remind you that your call to give thanks because God's mercy endures forever. All of 136 tells you, and it admonishes you to say, you know what? give thanks to the Lord because his mercies endures forever. Then he hits you with the one two punch, and then you find yourself in a situation asking God, how can I give you things?
And just in case that doesn't work. We ended with the Book of Psalms of 150, the very last chapter of Psalms, and let me just give you some encouragement of what the Scripture tells us to do. It says, Praise the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, praise Him in his mighty firmament, praise Him for His mighty, praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Praise him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise him with the lute in our heart, praise him with the timber and dance, praise him with string instruments and flutes, praise him with loud cymbals, praise it with clashing cymbals. Then it says, Let everything that has bread praise the Lord. So what the God, what God is telling us what Scripture is, letting us know that we should be thankful, even in the midst of what we may be dealing with.
So I understand that you may not have a hallelujah now, but praise anyhow. And one of the best ways you can do that is by making Jesus the center of your life.