" A Thankful Life - Part 2"

A Thankful Life – Part 2

We’re going to be thinking about Thanksgiving Day today. You may be thinking to yourselves, Why? Because Thanksgiving Day is important. It’s not a one day out of the year thing, it should be every day when we understand the goodness of God. When we really realize all he’s done for us and that he wants to be in us, we should become thankful. And there’s this wonderful story found in Luke 17. Notice how the story unfolds.

Luke 17:11-17 (NIV)

Jesus looks at this man who came back and he celebrates with him, but he asks the man a question: Where is the other nine? Here is my challenge to you this Thanksgiving season, and here is my challenge to you for the rest of your life: Be the one. Be the one among the ten who actually looks. I mean, all of them as they are walking along, they’ve been out of society, their skin is leprous, and as they’re walking it changes, it’s transformed, they’re healed. And one goes back to the origin, to the source of the healing, and says thank you. The other nine went all kinds of places. Who knows? To show their family, to celebrate, to go to the temple to worship, to do things they couldn’t do before.

But they went that direction, and one went back to Jesus and thanked him. Are you going to live as the one, who as you walk through life actually stops and notices the goodness of God, the grace of God, the presence of God, and says thank you, God, I notice and I’m thankful.

(Psalm 136:10-15, 136:24)

God’s Deliverance

This is a declaration that you have to chew on a little bit because some of things in here are challenging. This is talking about the greatest moment of deliverance in the history of God’s people in the Old Testament, the Exodus. They were slaves in Egypt for 400 years, they were oppressed, they were being abused and they wanted to be set free, and this declares that freedom.
The people of Israel looked back to this moment over and over because it was this definitive moment when they were set free. This was the time in history when the Passover Lamb was slaughtered, and the blood was put on the doorposts so the judgment would pass over their homes and not come upon them. It was a picture pointing ahead to Jesus Christ, to the Cross, to his death on the Cross for all of our wrongs, for all of our sins, for our thoughts, our words, our actions that were against God.

Jesus died on the Cross, his blood was shed so that when we put our faith in him, that blood is placed on the doorposts of our hearts and our lives, and all judgment passes over us. And like Israel looked back to that moment when they were delivered from Egypt, we should look back to the moment we put our faith in Jesus if we have. And if we haven’t yet, to understand that he opens his nail pierced hands and says, “I welcome you home if you’ll come to me, if you’ll turn from your sins.”

Do you look back to that moment if you’re a follower of Jesus, whether you were five years old or 75 years old, and say, “I remember the One who delivered me, his love endures forever, and I am thankful.” No matter what the market is doing, no matter how the economy goes up and down, no matter where we are relationally in our lives, I know this: There was a moment when I was lost and I became found by Jesus, I put my faith in him, he delivered me from sin, death, hell, judgment, and the power of Satan, and he set me free, and on any given day I can be thankful for that. I know that’s true, and I hold that in my heart, and it guides my life.

On any day, if you know Jesus, you can be thankful for the deliverance he has brought to you through his death on the Cross. If you’ve never cried out to Jesus, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, he stands with his arms open and says, “You are welcome to come to me, just confess your sins, put your trust in me, and follow me and I’ll give you a new life.” He stands waiting. And if you know him, celebrate it, thank him for his deliverance, for his salvation.

(Psalm 136:16 and 136:23)

God Leads Us Through The Desert Times

Here’s the question: How have you experienced his presence in the desert? We all walk through tough times, it can be a relational desert, a financial desert, an emotional desert, or a spiritual desert. All kinds of things that make you feel dry and arid and wonder, “Am I ever going to get through here.” In the 40 years that the people of Israel wandered in the desert, they spun like a top in the desert, and those 40 years God never left them. He did some of his greatest wonders and miracles while they were in the desert. You know what they mostly did? Complained. He provides food every day and they say, “But we’re tired of this food.” He protects and provides and they missed it. They became like the nine that didn’t notice and didn’t thank, not like the one who came back and said, “Thank you, Lord.”

What’s your desert right now? Here’s what God wants you to know: He’s with you right there, he’s never left you alone. If you’re not in one right now, I can tell you something for sure, you were in one a while back or you’ll be in one sometime in the future. Life has deserts, it’s part of the journey we walk. But to know that he is with us and that he leads us through them, what thanks that brings. Maybe all you can do right now is through parched lips in the middle of the desert say, “But God, I thank you that I’m not alone, I know in the desert you are still with me, and I hold on to that.” And if he has delivered you from desert times, thank him for that.

(Read Psalm 136:21-22)

God Gives Us A Place

God gave them a place, a place to belong. We should look at the place that God has given to us on many levels, where you live. Well, it’s not as big an apartment as I wanted. Well, I’m here and I’d rather be there. Well, I’m on a military base but I don’t have the connections I want. Well, the house isn’t quite the way I want it. We can all find something we don’t like about where we are, but you have a place, thank God for that. Even if you’re saying, God, I thank you for the shelter I’m staying in right now because other people have helped to provide a place, God, thank you for that place. Where you are, notice it and say, God, you provided a place for me.

There is a spiritual place called the church. The church is God’s people, but God has given us a place to gather together, a place to be his people in community, to stand alongside each other and say, “We will pray for you, your family, your kids, and we’ll be a community to help point everyone towards Jesus. We will be your friends, we will walk alongside of you, we will be a community of faith.”

What if believers in this church, whom I know are very grateful, started to not just be grateful, but paused and turned that gratefulness into thankfulness? Can you imagine what a guest would feel if they came into this church and they observed a group of people being genuinely thankful for one another—but also not just for one another, but thankful for God?

In fact, here’s the beauty of this truth. This truth is one of the reasons why we come to church. It is one of the reasons why I love TCC, and I love coming to church on Sunday afternoons. It is a time, in our busy weekly schedule, where we slow down and come together. And through prayer, song, giving, fellowship, and the preaching of God’s Word, we can turn our grateful into thankful. It is a time where we can specifically and honestly demonstrate our thankfulness to God, both publicly as a corporate body and privately in our own hearts and minds. So, every week, including today, let’s pause and turn our grateful into thankful.

(Psalm 136:5)

God Provides

We see that God provides. The question is, how is God providing? I can tell you this: Nobody is sitting here today without having had provisions because there are chips, muffins, cookies, and drinks available here. Every snack you have, would you stop and become that one who says, “God, thank you for this snack. It may not be exactly what I want, it may not be all that I want, but God, you provide daily bread, thank you, Lord, bless you.”

(Psalm 136:26)

God Is Worthy Of Thanks

The last verse declares that he is worthy of thanksgiving every day of our lives. This is my challenge to you: Be the one. Ten lepers were walking down that road and right in front of their eyes the leprosy fell off their bodies and they were healed. Nine kept on walking and one came back to Jesus. Will you be the one who says, I want to return to Jesus, I want to thank him.