Luke 17:11-19, Thanksgiving: The Theological Holiday

Luke chapter 17 verses 11 19 hear the word of the Lord on the way to Jerusalem.

He was passing along between Samaria and Galilee and as he entered a village He was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices saying

Jesus master have mercy on us When he saw them he said to them go and show yourselves to the priest and as they went they were cleansed

Then one of them when he saw that he was healed turned back praising God with a loud voice and he fell on his face

At Jesus's feet giving him. Thanks Now he was a Samaritan Then Jesus answered we're not ten cleansed where the nine was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner and He said to him rise and go your way.

Your faith has made you well May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his

Holy Word Well, we had Thanksgiving last Thursday and now that that's over We got the real fun of Black Friday and then small business

Saturday yesterday I don't know who made that up Bobby small business people and tomorrow will be cyber

Monday And you go online and you buy all the stuff that you couldn't find on Black Friday, I guess or from small businesses yesterday

Now we're so used to that We don't see what a bizarre really absolutely bizarre juxtaposition of contradictory impulses that it is going directly from Thanksgiving Understand what that's about expressing gratitude for all the blessings

We have are so happy and content for them Did that from going from that to the very next day and now actually almost on the same day now to the consumerist?

Selfish greedy urge to grab everything that I think I need that is Black Friday Because I'm not really content with the life that I just said

I was thankful for on Thanksgiving Of course now Black Friday starts on Thanksgiving itself

And so, you know people are thinking now Let's just cut this big meal short so we can go to the mall and buy the stuff that will finally make me happy This stuff that I'm supposed to be happy about for this holiday besides.

I don't like turkey that much anyway, right? Consumerism has now consumed Thanksgiving itself but to blame the destruction of Thanksgiving on to consumerism really misses the point

I think Consumerism is the culprit you can shout Well, it sounds like there's some foreign force that has invaded our lives that if only we can rid ourselves of this invasion

We can then return to being thankful and content and satisfied and worshipful

Like we really all want to be consumerism is the ideology that says that the meaning of life is in the things that we possess

So if you want more life You get more or better Stuff and you get a new gadget

You know your current smartphone isn't quite good enough. They come out with a new one or a newer even higher definition

TV somehow there'll be more definition of the TV than there is in real life soon a new new car or whatever

So the consumerist thinks that's where you get your life from and that's what much of this Season commencing on Friday.

No, excuse me on now on Thursday itself is all about but some people could think then well if the problem is with these stores opening up on early on Friday and now on Thursday and Drawing in people with their deals.

The problem is with the capitalists trying to cash in on our free time if the problem is an ideology

Consumerism is what the sociologists call it. Then let's teach a new ideology So if we couldn't then what we need to do is make the stores close we could do that We could just shut down the capitalists.

We could ban the term Black Friday then maybe We'd finally be thankful and content and satisfied and worshipful

Really what we'd be is just bored sitting at home Eating our leftover turkey and eating up with discontent

The problem is deeper than consumerism if the poisonous fruit the fruit

If the fruit is greed the living for stuff the selfish craving for whatever the newest thing

The consumption of Thanksgiving by Black Friday That's the fruit then the tree is consumerism producing that fruit but the root

The root is our faith in ourselves our narcissism our

Fundamental belief that my chief end is to enjoy myself for as long as I can and everything and everyone including

God himself Exists to help me do that and if they can't

Well, we'll just dispose of them Such people may even be religious but when they

Survey the wondrous cross they see a piece of art I like to have that on my wall and it's on sale down Black Friday.

I'll get that cross put on my wall a great story about love and sacrifice for all for them

It's all about them something not something that demands my life my soul my all so They say all that turkey was wonderful.

So was that pecan pie? Now, let's go to Best Buy and see what's on sale and make me

I could add to my life That's the new American Holy Day Turkey Day slash

Black Friday And that's a travesty because Thanksgiving is

Our truest and most Christian holiday and we see that here in Luke chapter 17

We at least we see why that is true here in Luke 17 Where the one who has faith real faith that saves not only from leprosy but from what the leprosy represents from sin is the one who is thankful notice how

Thankfulness is the fruit produced by the salvation thankfulness sincere

Heartfilling utterly amazed gratitude is one of the surest signs of salvation

Here in Luke chapter 17 Jesus passes by ten lepers and they're at a distance Lepers by law had to stay outside the towns in the cities.

They had to stay separate So these lepers stood at a distance in verse 12, they see they see

Jesus and they cry out Jesus master Have mercy on us

Notice the way they talk they call him master a lot of respect reverence they plead for mercy

That they know the right words So Jesus says back to them Go show yourself to the priest very simple very direct now the priest in Israel acted as a kind of health inspector to See if someone was really cured of leprosy and they could then come back

You had to get the approval of the priest to come back into regular society back into the towns and cities and go shopping in The ball on Black Friday they could return leprosy in their terms

Was what we now would know of is a variety of skin diseases Including the most serious of the skin diseases what is now called

Hansen's disease It's an infection of the skin and nerves that leads to a loss of sensation.

They particularly starts in the extremities They lose it gets numb. The nerves are destroyed by the bacteria and and then

The people with it can't feel those areas affected areas anymore and they get infected or they get wounded and they don't heal

And they some just drop off sometimes So extremities become deformed and eroded

We saw lepers in Ethiopia missing fingers. I don't mean just like one or two here or there sometimes whole hands with no fingers body disfigured by leprosy

Leprosy also serves in the Bible as a symbol for sin It's leprosy is contagious and disfiguring because it's contagious

Leopards were required to stay separate from the rest of society like here when other people came near they were required to call out unclean unclean

The warning to them like sin leprosy spreads and so must be ostracized

So it destroys relationships when people are eaten up by sin, it separates them from others

It makes us unclean to God and to each other like leprosy sin disfigures us

We were made in the image of God to be thankful to be worshipful to be gracious and loving and giving like God is

But when we get eaten up by the selfishness of sin, we become these these monsters who consume everything

Who take every gift as if it were our right and when we're done with it, we just move on to the next next relationship next neighbor next

God next church to devour for ourselves Here Jesus encounters those with this most serious form of leprosy and they rightly call out for mercy

Okay, their words are right They know the right words to say but their actions will show if they really saw healing as a gift of mercy

When you know something is something you get because it's mercy, you know, it's not deserved and you you're grateful for it

And we'll see here whether they're really where they really see it is mercy or whether they think it is something

They have a right They have a claim to it it's kind of a deserved pay they get because of what they did or maybe

It's it's it comes their way because of who they are because of their status they say they want mercy

If that's what they really thought healing was They would be filled with thank thankfulness when they get it so we'll see as In James is not a matter of talk.

Remember it's a matter of actions Jesus tells them to go To act based on his command notice even before they're healed

He doesn't like lay hands on them and heal them and then send them to the priest notice He says go and in verse 14, they are only healed as they are going.

In other words, they're already on their way to the priest To show them that they're healed.

They set out to go to show them they're healed even before they're actually healed So they're required to do this act of faith, but they had that such faith in Jesus They went at his command, even though they weren't healed yet when they started and they are all healed

You notice that that's important. They're all ten of them are healed They receive this miracle of healing

Now we normally think I think we thought about we would assume that if people are even okay

We understand maybe people are always they're not made grateful kind of by run -of -the -mill Gifts by things they think they earned by by their food and their shelter and their friends and their family

Okay, we get it the people aren't made grateful for that because they think they they earned it or they whatever they just take it

For granted, but surely we think People would be made thankful by a miracle

But a miracle of mercy surely that would make us anyone thankful Surely, we're not so hard -hearted.

Are we that even miracles? Don't make us thankful Are we really that hard -hearted?

Yeah, we are here after ten miracles Only one man is made thankful You know when he saw that he was healed

Rather than go to the priest and then maybe went back home You know could have gone home to his family if he had a wife there or whoever he turns around and he comes back to Jesus and as he's coming to Jesus, you know, just when he sees him from a distance he

Loudly just praising God he just gushing out praise and shouting it out to everyone to hear us and You know saying just you know

Hallelujah, you can see this guy going down the road waving his arms and shouting hallelujah And when he sees

Jesus it comes to him. He falls down. He's just prostrated on the ground He's flat on his face on the ground before Jesus is giving him.

Thanks. He's saying hallelujah. Thank you Lord He's thankful. Now. This is true

Thanksgiving. He knew that he was not over healing. He knew that it wasn't his right something he wasn't something he earned by doing the right ritual or saying the right confession or or by being a moral man or Not something by birthright because he's in the right nation

He just kind of you know, it's coming to him because it's like something he inherited. He knew it was a gift given to him

So he was thankful the others Not so much

It was also a Samaritan Now normally the Jews and the Samaritans didn't hang out together, but lepers were probably, you know, such outcasts

Well, you know, they just didn't care All the society rejects us who cares if we hang out with the Samaritans do

That he was a Samaritan was probably a large part of what made him exceptionally thankful You know if the rest were

Jews They kind of Bobby then maybe they thought They deserved healing is their birthright, you know,

I'm a son of Abraham We will inherit the kingdom of God. So this is what we get.

We get healing. It's who we are We're not like these Samaritans. They're they're foreigners.

They don't deserve it. We do Maybe I thought healing was something that owed them a right to claim

Not a blessing bestowed, but this man though, he was different His head hadn't been inflated with the kind of ego -boosting talk about what is owed him about what he deserves

That he deserves the the healing them the money your best life now

That that it's all yours by right if you'll only name it and claim it the type of religion that panders to Narcissistic people who take everything for granted the narcissist thinks that every good thing that comes his way

It's deserved You know what a narcissist is everything good is

I it belongs to me I get whatever I want That his or her had a baseline of X expectations.

What do you in other words? What do you expect? it at base

In anything more than that you think is a bonus The narcissist baseline of expectations is everything everything he or she wants is expected

That that's how that's where they begin. That's their default setting So, you know, they're not really grateful for anything they get because they should get it

That's their attitude if he or she has leprosy then getting healing It's expected.

I should get it. They think Anything other than that in their mind is the worst injustice that I don't get

The job I don't get You know the money I want I don't get the person the relationship.

I want I don't get the car I want I don't get the healing the leprosy. I want this is horrible.

They're they're wrong. They're cheating me God himself is wrong having leprosy in the first place would be them.

They would think that an undeserved travesty That now the narcissism it narcissists may cry out have mercy as a necessary means for getting whatever he or she wants

But once it is given Once the healing comes once Once they've been given the gift

Once you've done them the big favor Big or small whatever favor they think

Well, that's mine That's that's my right That's my earned wages

That's what I deserve because of who I am don't you know who I am

I'm the one who deserves healing It's my birthright This man though the

Samaritan man didn't think that way The Samaritan ex -leper is on the ground shouting his hallelujahs to Jesus and Jesus notes, you know, we're not ten cleansed

Where are the nine? Why do they think they deserved healing that they're not even grateful for it.

They got it They're not thankful for it Was no one found

Jesus says was no one found to give praise to God Except this for it just occurred to me.

The man is giving praise to Jesus and Jesus says he's giving praise to God One of these divinity of Christ things anyway, the implication though was that the the rest the the other nine

They that they weren't foreigners that they were they were probably Jews and so they should know better Right.

They should have been raised on the Word of God from the child hearing hearing the promises of God the instructions about God They should be praising

God too They should be filled with Thanksgiving, you know, this is this odd overwhelmed heart -feeling

Gratitude instead they think I got what's coming to me finally What I had a right to yeah

You can't earn the gratitude of ungrateful people. I Mean that's sad.

That's a sad reality, but that's the reality. You cannot earn the gratitude of Ungrateful people it doesn't matter what you do for them

You can't earn their gratitude No matter what you do for them You can even heal them of leprosy

Miraculously and they'll shrug their shoulders and think well it's about time But the one who knew he didn't deserve it.

He was filled with thankfulness So Jesus says to that one rise and go your way

Your faith has made you well, or it could just as easy to be translated. Your faith has

Saved you Saved him from leprosy Saved him from the wrath of God if you've been saved through faith be overwhelmed by the

Indescribable gift of your salvation if you've been saved through faith realize you didn't deserve that It wasn't owed you

It's not it's not something you should kind of expect just you begin with this baseline of expectation.

God's gonna save me It's what I what I deserve. No See and said it's a

Something he did for you purely because he is gracious and once you see that Your heart will be filled with thankfulness

You'll be transformed by a sincere sincere heart -filling utterly amazed gratitude

You will look at your life astounded and think So much good

I Received so much good all thanks to God.

It's that understanding That gave us the holiday of Thanksgiving it came directly from what the

Puritans believed and experienced now the typical way of telling the Thanksgiving story is to tell about the first group of Puritans who came to America now commonly called pilgrims landing on Cape Cod in the fall of 1620

Barely surviving their first year many of them dying of diseases because they were weakened by malnutrition and was the harsh

Conditions in North America compared to what they were used to But when they had survived that first year, they had a good harvest

They felt now they were established that there were now it looked like we're gonna make it after all They thought that this was an occasion to thank

God for sustaining them. And so they had a great celebration They had a Thanksgiving inviting the local

Indians, you know to share the Wampanoag's I believe they were called the tribe and and then they said They said we assume they didn't really say this, but we assume they said this this was fun

Let's do it again next year. And so a tradition was born Now the first part's true

The second part about the assumption. No, that's not that's not what really gave us ongoing Thanksgivings The Puritans had ongoing

Thanksgivings because they believe that every like from the book of James remember James every this or that Was under God's control

And so they responded to got what God was doing Every this or that and some of those this or that's our good things

That means God gave it to a you and you respond with Thanksgiving and that and so that's where thanks ongoing

Thanksgivings come from on the other hand if events showed that God was displeased with them They would call days of fasting and humiliation

If there were droughts or shipwrecks or severe Indian attacks or epidemics They saw those as kind of those events as as whips and God's hand to discipline them.

They believed that all things were under God's control so they would obey what we saw in Mary James 5

Weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you and they would call they would weep and howl and call a day of fasting and prayer days of humiliation they said that these days of humiliation were for quote do examination of our ways toward God and consideration of God's ways

Because he's afflicting us toward us So they would they said quote make a solemn and real profession that we justify

God Otherwise these bad things are happening in their lives. There's epidemics people are dying

Disasters and they would justify God they would say to God your ways are right. Oh God what you're doing to us is what we deserve justify

God and judge Ourselves Says a lot about us in our culture that we've abandoned this fasting day days of humiliation and only kept the feasting day

Maybe that's why now our feasting day Our Thanksgiving Day is being consumed by our greed and hollowed out by our consumerism our dissatisfaction.

They were more they were more thankful Precisely because they were more repentant more grieving over their sins more aware of those sins of their own depravity and so more aware

That what they really deserved was judgment They were happier at their

Thanksgiving days because they wept more on their fasting days the great earlier early

Puritan pastor John Cotton wrote Besides the celebration of the

Lord's Day every week today. We sometimes appointed extraordinary occasions either of notable judgments do set apart a day of humiliation or Upon special mercies we set apart a day of Thanksgiving Notice the

Puritans in Thanksgiving. We're celebrating God's work in the present What he had done for them lately.

It was the public expression of an ongoing Relationship with God.

It wasn't like a lot of people think today that they had, you know That first Thanksgiving is this one surviving their first year their first harvest and then celebrating sort of the anniversary of that every year after on maybe on the same day or on the

Fourth Thursday of November. No, they saw God's hand at work now in Recent things that have happened maybe a full harvest maybe peace for the

Indians healthy children a revival among the youth Whatever good thing has happened and then in response to that they recall.

Hey, look what God has done good things Let's have a Thanksgiving between 1632 and 1686

They called 61 days of Thanksgiving. That's 61 Thanksgivings in 55 years a little more than one a year

Of those 20 Thanksgivings were called for improved harvest and better health 31

Thanksgivings were called for peace and unity for good leaders for victory in battle and better relations with England Five Thanksgivings were called for the well -being of England and peace in Europe and then there were five

Thanksgivings They called just because just things are going pretty good You know feel like God is big is blessing us.

He is not destroying us. No specific reason given That it was a sponge. It was spontaneous and dynamic

It was about the present not the past is what makes it kind of difficult for people today Understand because almost all our other holidays are our anniversary things

We remember, you know when Christ was born or a new year or whatever things like that But this was supposed to be

God's done something good. We're gonna have a Thanksgiving, you know Start cooking now

Now we've confined it to a scheduled day of the year. So we made it kind of cyclical cyclical and Repetitious which obscures what it means obscures that it's supposed to be an impromptu response to what we perceive

God is now doing a spontaneous response for something from our hearts of being filled with an utterly amazed gratitude because God has done something new in our lives a blessing and we realize we don't deserve it.

So we're thankful That's what this is supposed to be but I'm glad we still have

Thanksgiving even if we pinned it down and kind of made it repetitious The other thing that makes it difficult for people to understand what is really this this vestige of a tradition that we have left over from the

Puritans called Thanksgiving is that is a theological holiday It's not simply an anniversary of a harvest meal

But it's the reaction sort of a chemical reaction when two doctrines mix in our hearts

Right like putting two chemicals in a beaker and stirring it and it blows up you put two doctrines in our hearts and stir in our life and you get

Thanksgiving when two or three doctrines that the Bible teaches and the Puritan believe come together They combust and they explode in a reaction called

Thanksgiving and those two doctrines are two main ones are depravity and Providence or the sovereignty of God in all things now

First the Bible teaches and the Puritans believed that in the doctrine of total depravity

Human depravity is one of the most clearest and forcefully taught doctrines in the

Bible. Don't believe me Let me quote some verses on that Genesis chapter 6 verse 5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only

Evil continually try to find a loophole in that Psalm 51 verse 5 says behold

I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Isaiah chapter 64 verse 6 says we all we have all become like one who was unclean and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment

Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9. The heart is deceitful above all things and Desperately sick who can understand it in John chapter 3 verse 19 says people love darkness

Rather than the light because their deeds were evil in John chapter 8 verse 34

The Lord Jesus says truly truly I say to you everyone who commits sin and who is that that's everyone is a slave

To sin and Romans chapter 3 verses 10 to 11 says none is righteous

No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God finally

Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 says we are dead in sin

And there are others and that being what we are like That's the description of us left to ourselves without God's grace in our natural condition

Always inclined to evil sinful from conception Desperately sick dead in sin lovers of darkness by nature slaves to sin not seeking

God Even when we think we're being religious since that's what we're like What we deserve

No good thing Now far from the narcissist who thinks that he or she deserves every good thing and takes it for granted

When they get it because they deserve it they think far from that. We actually don't deserve any good thing we deserve

Torment and wrath and hell hell should be our baseline of Expectation, you know

That should be what we know we have earned Anything better than hell that we get for even a second is a gracious gift better than we deserve and Yet we have so many gracious gifts

So much of our lives is better than hell, isn't it? Now the question is Why?

Why do good things happen? to bad people That's the real

Philosophical conundrum that we should just be baffled and amazed by why do bad things happen to us bad?

People why that's far more important far more relevant Part makes much more sense than the so -called question of the problem of evil that these philosophers deal with today

You know, why do bad things happen to good people? It did happen once but you know, it doesn't happen much it didn't happen after that Either they would think they pose this question try to act sophisticated and then they say well either

God is not good For giving us us good people that we are these bad things or he is good

But he's not all -powerful because he's not able to stop all these bad things that we don't deserve

You know, you sort of sound sophisticated until you take a step back and consider the premise

I mean the assumption that they never they don't even seem to examine The assumption is that we're good people that there are good people

Consider that that is wrong Consider that the Bible is right and we are depraved

There were always inclined to evil that even when we think what we think our good deeds are like filthy rags to God Consider that here.

We are We're soiled from head to toe. We're covered and the leprosy of sin

It's eating away at us. It's disfiguring us completely. It's cutting off the the spiritual nerves in our heart

It's numbing us to spiritual things to the things of God Unclean unclean that's who we are and we're standing before a holy

God and we're asking him Arrogantly Why are you treating us like we're dirty?

It's just why because you are dirty Infected to the to the heart what we should be asking instead as the old song goes

Why me Lord? What have I ever done? To deserve even one of the blessings

I've known Why me Lord? What did I ever do? That was worth love from you and the kindness you've shown

Why do that? Why do good things happen? to bad people That's the amazing question

And you could ask I guess well either God is not holy. And so he's not holding us to his standards.

That's why he's Why he's allowing us to have good things because we're so bad. We should be getting bad bad things

But you know, maybe he's not holy it's not holding us to a standard well We're shown throughout the Bible like an Isaiah 6, you know, holy. Holy.

Holy that he is. Holy We know that's not true. So you can mark that out or Maybe some people think

I don't know anyone that really thinks this but try to be logical all the explanations Maybe we us bad people get good things because like before God's not all powerful

He's not in control that he really wants to punish us For our sins he wants to Pour out his wrath on us and you know destroy us

But we keep getting away and we keep getting the good things that he doesn't want us to have Well, the

Bible teaches and the Puritans believe that God is in control as we saw in James chapter 4 verse 15, you know We ought to say if the

Lord wills we will live and do this or that because whether we live and Do this or that is totally according to what he wills

So even the little this or that of our business life every little this good this or that we enjoy is

Under his control and so he gave it to us so you can count that out There must only the only option left the third option

God is generous to us Despite how bad we are So guess what?

We should be thankful Thanksgiving is such a genuinely

Christian holiday because it recognizes that God is indeed in control of it all then the theological chemical reaction in our hearts when we believe in our depravity believe in God's holiness and God's sovereignty leads to Thanksgiving thankfulness comes when we really believe that there is a

God who is at work Giving us all the good things We don't deserve

So when we look at all the good we received Whatever it is, that's a good family or loving spouse good children

At least most of the time good children a home of rewarding work food and drink

Churches where others are thankful to a country where we're free to attend and support those churches, you know, that wasn't luck

It wasn't just because we worked hard and we worked smart. We did the right things. And so we built this

No a gracious God gave it to us Part of what makes it hard for us to understand

Thanksgiving Is that we often think we often think just like modern secular people think

You know that God maybe God is he's there. Yeah, he's the God of miracles. God can do miracles

But the the rest of the world that's not Miracles kind of the cause and effect the things of science the things you can understand the natural laws that that's all out of his control

He's not he's not involved in that that the world is like a machine churning away and he's not involved in that He's a he's the

God of miracles not the God in this world So we think then well we could be thankful for miracles.

Like if I got healed of leprosy By hit by Jesus I'll be thankful for that But if we got leprosy and we were cured by doctors prescribing the right combination of antibiotics

Well, we just pay the bill and you know, we go about as if God had nothing to do with it There's very little understanding

Today even among Christians of the doctrine that made the Puritan so thankful and it made them so thankful that they founded a holiday all

About expressing that thankfulness that that doctrine and distinction to the ignorance of so -called luck luck means you just don't understand it

And the arrogance of the self -made it's called Actually by the name of this little town we're in Providence Providence means that God is in control of even the natural things

The this or that the cause and effect things that we think we understand, you know

Like like the weather our jobs our grades a good harvest We plant the seed we it's watered and it grows and we think okay, that's all science

Yeah, but that's God's in control of that sign Now he's

Providence can be a cure from a disease like leprosy Hansen's disease if we take the right medicine all of that It's Providence.

It's under his control now whether God heals leprosy through miracles or antibiotics. It's still just as much the work of God either way

Now think about it That's hard for us to understand but just think about it for a second, you know,

God is all -powerful right God all -powerful So since he's all -powerful Which is it more more difficult for God to do?

Okay, he's all -powerful. Nothing's more difficult than anything else, right? He's more which is more difficult for God to do heal leprosy

You know send them sent go to the priest by miracle or cure it with antibiotics

Which is more difficult? For an all -powerful God to do

Last 20 years say 16 million people have been cured of leprosy by the the medicines the antibiotics

Jesus here healed 10 by a miracle now, which is more difficult for an all -powerful

God to do neither All -powerful nothing is difficult in any way for you, right

God can just as easily do either Which is more under God's control put it that way the miracle

The name of the priest is that yeah, that's under his control It's a miracle or the antibiotics the doctor prescribing the medicine you go to the pharmacy you get it you take it your cure

Which is which is more under his control Neither they're both equally fully 100 % according to his will

You know, we don't always get that because we think we understand one And we don't understand the other when

God acts beyond the laws of nature like here in Luke 17, we call it miracle Ah, we see

Wow God's at work when he acts through the laws of nature Like in healing through medicine, we call it

Providence but both are equally his work According to his will the only problem really is with us

You know, we see God acting through Providence I can we see Providence act we see things happening and we think we understand it

We said we don't see God behind it often and we take it for granted We can fail to see

God willing Every this or that as though nature is out of his control as though it's just luck or us

Working hard and smart mastering the laws of nature with our science So the cure then is our right there's something we've earned something we've we've mastered we've we've

Harnessed by our own willpower and God was God's out doing miracles and we ever need a miracle

We'll call it a man. But until then we can manage fine without you for now. Thanks God No, that's the attitude.

The result though is we're not thankful It just happens these natural things we think we are we made it happen

As Abraham Lincoln said when he established the the regular the national holiday of Thanksgiving He said because these bounties

The regular the blessings of good harvest the food we have the clothing the prosperity the health and so on He says because they are so constantly enjoyed.

I was Because we have them constantly we repeatedly regularly We're used to them every day

He said quote we are prone to forget the source from which they come

Yeah, well said Abe. Well, think about it if nine of the ten lepers could forget the source of their healing

When it's a miracle take the miracle for granted not be made thankful for a miracle

How much more likely are we? to be ungrateful For the blessing of prop blessings of Providence for all the good things that the

Lord provides through means Through jobs and family and medicine and machines like cards and computers and ovens and smartphones

Things that we think we can understand We're so prone to be ungrateful

Not only because we're narcissistic often Unaware of the judgment we deserve our baseline of expectation is we take all the blessings for granted

And we just so we're not grateful for them. We're not not only are we like that unaware of the judgment we deserve but because we're so We're so flooded with blessings regular blessings constantly blessed

We just get accustomed to it And we shrug our shoulders and and go on then if one little thing we don't have when we get bitter by that Now I don't know whether the story in Luke chapter 17 is meant to be a statistical analysis of human gratitude but if it is 90 % of people are not made thankful by miracles

That's pretty astounding. Isn't it? How much more likely are we to be left ungrateful? by Providence So we take his blessings for granted

We make his constant provision of gifts the baseline of expectation and then get dissatisfied when we don't get more than that The Lord Jesus told us in Matthew chapter 5 verse 45 that the father sends his sunshine on the evil and On the good we all need it

And he blesses the evil with sunshine and good people. He sends rain Also a blessing by the way in a semi -arid land where most of the people were farmers

If you lived in a place like Israel, you definitely want rain and he sends that on the just Those those right with God and on the unjust those who are not right with God.

He blesses them all But few are made grateful for it in Acts chapter 14 the Apostle Paul right after healing a man

Crippled from birth a miracle and the pagans were just amazed by that and they they brought their pagan priests and they were going to Sacrifice a sacrifice to give thanks to Paul as though he were a

Greek. They thought he was a Greek God Paul says that the true God he's telling he talks to these people.

The true God has already been giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons satisfying your hearts with food and Gladness, you know, it's right that what we do and Thanksgiving is eat

God's given us food is a blessing. You know what for? to eat it With and every all of it is good.

He's Paul says if received with It Thanksgiving We're surrounded by God's generous gifts

Yet, we're so seldom thankful for it I've known people have had great favors done for them from small favors like looking after their kids without any, you know

But up taking any pay Having their lawns mowed when they're out of town to big ones like being given the career the business

They wanted to basically just handed to them as a gift and yet they're still not grateful They take it for granted and they end up in fact accusing the people who gave them so much.

I'm not loving you You can't earn the thankfulness of unthankful people

Because the problem is that a lack of a holiday our lack of you know Don't not lack of thank -you cards and go to the store and buy them

The problem is the heart What is needed is a change of heart? We need a miracle

We need a miracle like Jesus healed healed these lepers, but this time we need the healing and what the leprosy pictures that the heart deep spiritual nerve destroying infection of sin the only cure is a miracle a new heart

For God to remove that that old dead heart only

It's only numb it's only stone cold to remove that old heart consumed with greed for whatever shiny new thing that looks good at the moment the miracle of Suddenly seeing something that you were blind to before that you were numb to you couldn't feel it before The goodness of God The sunshine the rain the life and breath

Every morsel of food every drop to drink that it's all a gracious gift

That you don't deserve You see that and having a heart a new heart now.

It's been amazed by that and Even more amazed that the father sent the son