The Gift: Thankful
A happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Hey, yesterday coming to us from all down. I got turkey in your brains and everything. This is what reminded of a story of a man who was in Phenix and his son lives in New York. And the day before Thanksgiving, he he calls his dad and said, Dad, I hate to ruin your day, but we have to talk to the father and begin to tell his son that your mother and I are going to get a divorce after 45 years. Like he they he can't put up with his wife anymore. Like, your mom is just driving me crazy. So soon after 45 years, we have decided to part ways. Somebody. That's my dad. What are you talking about? This. This is you and mom. You guys are being together for 45 years, and you guys were high school sweethearts. But why now?
We're just really sick and tired of each other. I can't take her cooking anymore. If you can't take me, do that anymore. And essentially, Dan, you know what? I'm gonna call my sister who lives in Chicago, and Michelle, a cellist. Don't do anything. And should we call you back so that if the son calls his sister and he's a see mom again and getting divorced, I mean, she's like, what are you talking about?
She hangs on the phone, calls the father back and tells him, my sister and I on our way home so we can talk with your dad. He's on the phone and he says, Sweetheart, they're coming home for Thanksgiving. We don't have to pay for the flight. And it registered. And that's how you had to get your kids home by any means necessary, right?
The moral of that story is that there's nothing like family.
There's nothing like family. More importantly, there's nothing like Thanksgiving to our family. So you the Bible study turn to Luke Chapter 17, verses 11 through 19, Luke Chapter 17 verses 11 through 19. And I'll be reading from good old King James version for my old hands in the house. Hey, man, it's, you know, King Jimmy Page, Luke, 17, verse 11 says And it came to pass after, you know, with King James, right now, we don't see that.
Okay. Those Bible readers, let me just remind you here, this the Bible, every Christian labor, that if the Bible were against you, maybe don't give anything to pass as you went to Jerusalem that he pass through the midst of Marian and Galilee. And as the injury to a certain village there met him, ten men that were lepers which do a far off, and it lifted up their voices and say, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said to them, Go show yourselves unto the priest. And it came to pass. As they went, they were pointing and one of them who saw that he was he'll turn back in with a loud voice, glorify God. And then it fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was it's a miracle.
And Jesus answering him said, we're not were they're not king coins, the world, the nine. There are nothing that returns. You give glory to God. See this stranger? And He said to him, Arise, go now we die. Faith, hand me the Holy Man from a message of my father today is just simply thankful and is simply just thankful. I believe if you keep living longer that you will come to a place, understand that there are some things that only God can fix. You can't do anything. Your mama can't do anything. Your daddy, your granny, your great reigning, all the other great, great grace. You can say they can't help. There's only certain things that we know that God can do. I know that for some of you guys, you got a big Bible and you have perfect tennis and Sunday school class and that's okay. You are then maybe Christian is is quite fine, but at some point we come to realize that there are only certain things that God can do. We all know how it feels to be thinking when we're sick, even to the point of death.
And I understand that with any story in parable, you have to begin to ask yourself, what is Jesus or what is the Scriptures really trying to say? Yeah, so here in Luke, chapter 17, we know that Jesus is walking through Miriam in Galilee. He's somewhere in the middle. And between Mary Galilee, he comes across 10 minutes writing me in all of them cry of Jesus, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Not one, not two, not three, Not for all ten Cry out for Jesus Have mercy on us. And I begin to ask myself, Why in the world is Jesus walking in between Sumeria and Galilee like this? Is Jesus, right? He's in the middle of what we consider is this Mary is right. They are the forgotten the the undesirables. The Galilee is where Jesus done most of his ministry, but he finds himself in the middle, where there's tension. Right. He's he's to let people go to some very but for the right he those are the more favorable ones but he finds himself in the middle. And sometimes that tension is in the middle of where God wants you to be.
Right? That's where he has prescribed to help develop your faith, triumph, thankful for change and you may end. Some of you may not like that because tension is that is uncomfortable with undesirable. But in the middle is where God desiring us to be at times. In the middle of teacher, where you're being stretched, you're being pulled to a place where God's I want to grow your faith and me. See, teaching is the training ground for your face. The tension is the training ground God wants to develop your faith in such a way that you will only lean on Him and teaching will help you go deeper with your walk with God. I don't know about you, but over me. Those those moments of time where I find the seasons in my life where a God, what do I do with the situation?
How do I begin to respond to this conflict? How to begin to respond to what God has had place in my life? Bogosian Ryan, how do you write where I have for want you to be there? Teaching would bring you to the end of yourself and at the beginning where God is right, that teaching is there to help grow our faith resources as the head to introduce you a certain village there met him ten men that were lepers would still a far off and they looked at their voice and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. Now we cannot ask myself how in the world it is these ten lepers? No, Jesus did this. This is the dialog. When I'm reading Scripture, I begin to really immerse myself and begin to place myself into the Scriptures. And if I was one of those two lepers, how would I begin to know who the Jesus is right. Well, maybe. Maybe they heard about how Jesus Hill healed. Mother, like me, they begin to say that Jesus healed the paralyzed. Then maybe, just maybe, that they begin to hear that Jesus begins to eat with senators and tax collectors. Maybe they heard about this man who was born of a virgin, where Jesus in Luke Chapter six. He was a man on the Sabbath.
He was a man by the pool of things. Then maybe they begin to hear rumors about this Jesus and this romance in here where he said, Just speak the word, and I believe that my serving will be healed. Yeah, maybe this is the same Jesus that they're seeking. Maybe, just maybe, these things that you can hear about this man called Jesus and say, maybe you've heard and seen the billboards plastered around the world. The reason for the season is because of Jesus. And He sent lepers quietly, Master, have mercy on us somewhere. Somehow these came in. Believe that the man named Jesus can change their situation. Yeah. Maybe you're here today because this man named Jesus, you have a situation that only God can fix. And not doctors, not lawyers, not your mom, not your dad.
But only Jesus himself can fix your problem. And then think about the Old Testament and to have leprosy. It was one of those things that we were kind of reflect and felt like having AIDS, you know, where people that want to be beside you. Yeah. Okay, maybe to feed him or just keep a roof, right? It's the same thing. Yeah, yeah. Just maybe. You see the Old Testament, if you had lepers leprosy, you had to send a mug shot from far from the crowd that you had to begin. If you're walking apart from everyone else, what do call can't cry out and begin to see unclean. Unclean. The people would know that you had leprosy. You have to go show yourself to the priest so that way he can validate that you were now healed. Truth be told, you were outside Jerusalem. They were outside the church. They felt rejected by society. They felt unclean. They felt that they had made a mistake. And maybe today, maybe today you're that person who's been rejected. Maybe you're that person you felt unclean. Maybe you're that person who just felt that you are not. You don't measure up with everyone else, that you are rejected by society.
More important, how can a goal of a person like me with the sense that I have, how the world can a God who is sovereign and holy want me as broken as I am, as dirty as I am? Does he truly know my track record? Does he know what what I've been involved in? If he know all of my deepest and my darkest secrets, and just maybe your brokenness feels normal, just maybe your dysfunction feels normal.
See these lepers was was broken. There was a function to this. Their condition felt normal among their community. The only time that you feel accepted when others around you are broken is you see disease. These ten lepers build community with one another. You know what I'm talking about? Pardon? All night long, hanging out with the wrong people. You felt accepted because that was your community. Let me introduce you to a new community. A community of believers. A community believes where you can come as you are, begin to do life as you are. But after we're gone, for you to stay. But when you stand next to someone who appears to have it all together, they know every Bible Scripture name in the Bible. They can call everything their holier than thou. And that's when the reality hits. And then you begin to think that I'm different or they're super Christians, right? They're super Christian that go to your job like, you know, they are thing. They're they're perfect and then they you measure yourself up against them. You begin to realize that I'm different initially when you begin to understand, to have a thankful encounter.
This is when you begin to understand that you have a thankful encounter with Jesus Christ. Verse 14 says this and when he saw that, he said unto them, Go and show yourselves unto the priest and came to paths as they went. They were clean and Jesus didn't say, Be healed, Jesus then say that you are made whole. He didn't say that you are blessed. The only thing Jesus said was to go. God would challenge you to do things that will make you feel comfortable and then here God will make you or had you to do things that just doesn't make sense. You will not even think about it. Oh, a church called one church where we desire to have every tribe, every nation on the entire we're black and brown and white and Carmel and Mocha, whatever you are all together.
It's a worship in one God, about a one region, in different languages. Doesn't make sense at all. First greetings, chapter one, page 27 says this The guy chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise that God chose the weak things of the world. Just saying the strong is another word that God chooses the foolish things to. People found the wise that. In other words, you say that I would choose the craziest thing that you can imagine. And make you think in the kingdom of heaven, right? You forget to begin everything that God's mad in our mouth go out of it to prevent this like the North trying to come a court right? It didn't make sense at all.
But God's man is perfect. God's man is just man. When they begin to obey the Word of the Lord, their lives begin to change. And you put it like this, very moving to obey and apply the Word of the Lord our lives and we'll begin to change our name and watch this every step that they took, they had a fresh perspective. Yes, they begin to obey God. They begin to obey his commands and his decrees. Obedience is a choice that any man, if we decide to obey God, we must disobey ourselves. It's in our obedience to God that we find His will and not our will. But imagine if every step that the lepers begin to take and it would feel like this.
Hey, growing up, my mom had his room. Four kids come home for school. What do you do? Any chores? You know, and my brothers and my mom, my brother, my sister and I, we came down to fight. We knew that was your come off work right now. Know what I'm talking about and what do you do? You wait till the last minute and we're running through the house, grabbing trash and washing dishes and cleaning up and training up because the room was before she got home that we had to make sure that the house was put together right.
It didn't happen all the time. There's been there's been times when you get home and the house wasn't clean and she called us in the very act of cleaning up the church. Let me tell you, let me just put it like this. Partial obedience is still just obedience. Partial obedience is still this obedience that it is God is required something of your delayed obedience, even though that you are beating him. Still disobedience. So we have to get to a space in our relationship with God that whatever he's asking of me. Yeah, whatever. How crazy you may think he may look like you have to obey what God has called you to do because your obedience is connected to somebody else. And I want all my blessing. That man. Yeah. Our obedience is connected to so many other people.
Yeah. And foolish. Now, we did this crazy thing, right? We left a very popular up and coming. God, you say blank. You say Africa-American the only politically very just a very up and coming after black church in Greensboro and God shifted our garden where he was taking us. And we began to play soccer at the soccer campaign court for soccer and a church for Christ, which means that we love an all black church to start going to the all white church like it was all white. Snow White. Yeah, that's how white. And we knew that we were transition. Gosh, there it was time for us to make the change. We didn't know what that was going to look like. Long story short, it was in our obedience that it brought us here today that shifted us to begin to become church planters and church multiply as it begin to really walk out the gospel in a fresh, in a new, different way that we never begin to see the Scriptures.
\And what God wanted to do was in our obedience, it was in our yes that God said, This is what I want for you. Now, in the very beginning, it was it was crazy because we were the only pepper in the salt, but that was okay because he wanted us to be comfortable being uncomfortable with him and but because of our obedience, a roofer touches places downstream was the source. Never know when we're a river that is places downstream, which the source is not. You know, blame me. And I'll say that just to say now, because we see the benefit of our obedience, we get to be a part of a community of believers. Ask yourself where we get to walk and worship and work together and collaborate in gospel in such a way that we begin to see heaven on earth and we can begin to walk out of unity where the war is divided and they want to be divisive and all that.
God is, you know, trying to make sure that we're doing what he's taught us to do. So here we are. You can't let God you tell them to go show yourself to the poor. You. If I was one of those lepers, I'm gonna give you my version. This is Ryan version, the Negro international version. I can see that. You can see this, this movie talking to God. I'm one of lepers and whatnot. My homeboy, you like me in a Jesus way like he just healed is right. Like, why don't you just touch us? You know, we trusted him on the when we heard that story, right? Yeah. Please, can we get a move back? Saw him, remember? He puts a spin move. We're going to ground made it more powerful and put it on an iPad. You let somebody see like Jesus, why can't you just speak the word and we be healed? This is the conversation that we have with Marlon and my homeboys, okay? This is my version. Like, Jesus, why can't we walk? You want us to walk right in front?
It's kid two miles down the road. You want us to walk to the priest and we're going to you. Come on, Jesus. Right through. This is how we do scriptures. Ah, no, don't judge a good story. Jump in a before when Jesus says you bless them with this. How come I get my with Jesus? You gave the friend over here this. Why can't why can't my family have this? Yeah, I've been in the same boat. Just the same. This is the Jesus the shield to take the fight to the black spoke and they were healed. What are you going to make me walk immediately? Make go extra mouth. That's why I'm thankful for my faith. My name is. I have a thankful faith because scripture says as they were walking and meaning that all Jesus had to do is say Go, that must be activated.
My healing. You mean Jesus is there. You know, as I'm walking towards the priest, I begin to look at my foot, my, my body, and I begin to see the scales and the boils begin to fall off. I begin to see the healing taking place in my body for what God wants is to realize that when He tells you to go somewhere, he wants you to go. You know, we're about to get from what he spoke and what he's going to tell you because you're. You to be obedient to what he says. He wants you to be obedient. The Scripture says as they were walking, yes, they became fully verses, King said. This When you have a child, many of us want God to do it so we can so we can go. But God is teaching you that he would do it as you go.
You know, true young I'm talking about been there. God, if you heal me, then I'll go. God, if you provide this for me, I will go, Gosh, that's not how I'm operating here. He wants to grow your faith. He wants you to go even in the condition that you are. He was fully clothed in the condition that you are. So then we can be completely dependent on him. Yes. Yeah. Because if you go because of the healing evil, we're forcing the healing because you're going, you know, forgot. Got to say no, I need your faith to be so great. And when I tell you to do something that you would go despite what the objects were like, go through the military.
James, to say to this verse 18, Ye a man may say, Thou has faith and I have worse show me than faith without words and I will show you my faith by my words. Now believe that there is one God down does well the devil also believe, but would doubt know of any man of faith without worship is there your faith in words has to be accompanied together to God don't know more about fixing mean thinking use McArdle Don't worry by killing me if I can do that words God don't. Don't worry about making that I'm made perfect first before I knew your will even in my condition I'm with you You will, I believe before God take this from me. Yeah. God, if I. If you will help with this addiction, I will become made new. I can have a greater testimony. But your testimony is great already. Yeah, yeah. God is saying, how would I heal you so you can go, but I will heal you as you go. I remember you in second reading Paul wrote. He said three times, Lord, take this from me. But God sent my grief. Migration situation 14th at my grave. Even if I don't take it from you, my grief is sufficient. He wants you to realize this.
I'm God. If I knew that I'm God. If I give you and one of them when he saw he was, he'll turn back and with the boys glorify God or 16. And He fell down in his face at his feet, giving him faith. And when he was a Samaritan and Jesus answered more, they're not ten claims, but where are the nine? Do the math. Two minus one. Bring out the figures for those. And he finished minus one. And that's not a right. One, two, three, four. Where was the other nine. One came back, but the only nine can go. I'm thinking to myself, I know your mother raised you, right? You go back and say thank you, baby. What happened to the other nine?
I believe this verse 15 says this and one of them saw that he was he'll turn back to God with a loud voice glorifying God. I want you to look at the disparity between these two. Look. Look at the verse 12. They asked with the lifted voice and verse 15 they gave things with the loud voice. Oh, we see them one more time. They ask with their voice lifted, but they gave thanks. He gave thanks with a loud voice. Yeah. So let me put it to you like this. They are praying with a lifted voice and they're praising with the loud voice. There's a difference. I'm praying with the little boy, God, help me God and help deliver my friend to God. Begin to bless my my two to God, begin to bless my generation. All of that comes out from there, toying with a lifted up voice. That's good. But over here. Hallelujah. Thank you. Jesus. God, you have to live with my family. God, you have smashed anybody. They believe in God. You have taken the world. They have prayed with a loud voice.
We're playing with a little voice, but yet you're praising with the loud voice. They it we do that because we are placing faith in action. Yes, right. We're thanking in action. I believe this month prayer should lead me to my praise. Well, if I had a hand to be through right now, I'm going. Yeah. That prayer should lead me to my praise. So true. I don't know which you have to be thankful for this morning, but I believe this that our prayers, whatever, except for my prayers to be answered, my praise should be greater than if I've been trained over something year after year, year after year. Now, if I'm a for that much energy to praying, I'm gonna put even greater energy into the praise God.
God is important to me. And so why didn't the other night. Yeah. Give things I put it like this one commentary says this and the other nine was from Galilee. Right. The other nine because the other one was his. Mary says in Scripture that one was from from Mary went back and gave thanks to the Lord, but the other nine kept walking and Jesus was traveling from Jerusalem to Galilee. The he's in between Siberia and Galilee, that somewhere in between that this American knew his hometown, the other we were walking back to Galilee. So I believe this Jesus is from where Galilee? Jesus did most of his ministry in Galilee. A lot of the parables in the stories that we read Jesus find himself going back to Galilee, back into his home region to do ministry for maybe the nine new Jesus.
And maybe the nine were like, That's my boy. We came up. We grew up on the same block. We from the south side of Galilee. What you're talking about right? Well, it's because we were friends. Is it possible that they had a sense of entitlement? Yeah. Oh, do move. Because they knew Jesus, right? They knew who Jesus was. They knew the man. They probably even eight and his table where they grew up with Jesus. And they constantly had a sense of entitlement. Yeah. Yeah. And I love this quote about Pastor Stephen. Fergie says This gratitude begins were entitlement in name is I wish I knew that about the gratitude begins where where entitlement and we live in a society where our kids do entitled people feel entitled.And as believers sometimes we feel entitled. So the only thing that you're entitled to is hell anyway. And that's the only thing that you're entitled to because we're dead in our sins. The only thing that can save a phone, thing that can save you a life is a man being Jesus. Come on, Joseph. The church. Quite right. This last, last thing is just another commentary.
Points this out. Maybe the other guy was waiting for a ride to the temple to give them his. Jesus told them to go show yourself to the priest and maybe they were waiting to get to a plane. Obedient, the church. Right to praise the Lord. Oh, maybe they were waiting to get to that temple, right? Yeah. To say God. Thank you for delivering me. Thank you for healing me. Thank you for sending me three church. You don't need a choir, right? You don't need a pulpit. You don't need a church. A space to give thanks. You can praise them wherever you are. You might see me dropping down window down the hall. Lou, I'm driving you. You might see me driving down Westchester, praising the Lord with my hands lifted, praising him because I know the economy to be in church.
Now, keep this in mind for Satan, that the symbol of ourselves, right? Hebrews tells us that we should be there, we should come together such a way to God where we can glorify God as a community. We need that. We need community, but we don't need a church to praise him. I don't need him praising the praise right now. I don't need a song to praise him because I have anyhow praise. I have a yet praise. Saul Voltage tells us that we can praise him in a sanctuary. We can praise him with the founding of the trumpet. We can praise him with a heart, or we can praise him with the table, with Dancing with Pike's history. We can praise him with symbols. We can praise him anywhere. Because like everything that has gotten great.
The worship king makes their way to the stage. We know. Where are you ready? If you walk with Christ. There's one thing I do know. And because you're here today, you should be grateful that you have breath in your mouth. And if you should be thankful that God has chosen you to wake up today because that everyone has that story, we're all going to need Nino Vega one day. And when you stand before him, he asked you, Why should I let you to my head? My prayer is that you should, because you have our Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ, and that we are grateful that He sent His only son to redeem a broken relationship with God. The Father. And this is why we gather not only service, but we gather with it. The community of believers says we give thanks for God. Today, and if you don't, if you can think of one being repeated. Thank you for that. Keep of your mouth. Thank you for the acting of your voice. And if you have the opportunity to proclaim who he is in your life, you, in you in faith because he loves you and your father.