Today we are going to be talking about gratitude. We know it’s good to be thankful, but life moves quickly. We can receive an answer to prayer and soon find ourselves focused on the next thing we need. Sometimes we need to pause and recognize the goodness God has already shown us.
Gratitude = Appreciation for something received along with a desire to express thanks
Gratefulness is important:
•
It helps us
remember God’s goodness
•
It keeps us
dependent on Him
•
It gives us
proper perspective in difficult seasons
•
It leads us to
worship
We are going to be using a story in the new testament to help us to understand it a little more. We will be drawing three truths about gratitude. That is the story of the Ten Lepers. In Luke 17, Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem when ten men with leprosy call out to Him for mercy. What happens next is about more than their healing. The story shows us how people can receive the same mercy and respond to it in different ways.
Luke 17:11-19
“11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
1.
Everyone
has a reason to be grateful
v14 — “When he saw them, he said, “Go,
show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.”
• All of the ten lepers had received mercy
• They had all cried out to Jesus and Jesus heard them
• Jesus healed all 10 of them
• They all experience the goodness of God
• Every one of us has experienced the goodness of God
• We all have a reason to be thankful
• While we all have needs and unanswered prayers, we
also have reasons to be thankful to God.
• Some of the things that are blessings in our life now
are things we once prayed for.
• The beginning of gratitude is when we realize the
goodness and mercy God has shown us.
2.
Gratitude
notices what God has done
v15 — “One of them, when
he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.”
• One man noticed that he had been healed and went back.
• On top of that, he was a samaritan man.
• We often imagine why those other 9 men couldn’t come
back to thank Jesus like the one.
• We imagine, if I was them I would have gone back.
• The question is, how many times if someone is looking
at our life would say, “I would have thanked God for that.”
• At times we can be more like the 9 than we are the 1.
• It’s easy to move on to the next need without causing
to notice what God has already done.
• The truth is that the longer we are around a blessing
the more we can take it for granted.
3.
Gratitude
points us back to Jesus
Luke 17:15-19
15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a
loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a
Samaritan. 17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the
other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this
foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise
and go; your faith has made you well.”
• The man turned back, praised God, fell at Jesus’
feet, and thanked Him.
• He didn’t
just appreciate the gift; he returned to the Giver.
• Thanksgiving gives us another reason to come before
Jesus, alongside our prayers for help.
• Let your gratitude become worship: tell Him
specifically what you’re
thankful for.
• When we recognize His mercy, we have every reason to
return with praise.
Psalm 100:4 — “Enter his
gates with thanksgiving and his courts
with praise”
TAKEAWAYS
I.
Everyone
has a reason to be grateful for God’s mercy
II.
Pause
and notice what God has already done
III.
Bring
your thanks back to Jesus
IV.
You
can be grateful for God’s goodness while still waiting on an
answer to prayer
