One Returned

 Read Luke 17:11-19

Read Psalm 100

Lord, please help me with this month’s bills

Lord, please get my kids home safely.

Father God, please help my nephew overcome addiction.

Lord God Almighty, please don’t let me lose custody of my kids.

Jesus, Precious Jesus, help him pull through this operation.

God, I know you know my situation, please help.

What happens when somehow, the bills get paid?

What happens when somehow the kids all arrive safely?

What happens when the chains of addiction are broken?

What happens when you get to keep your kids?

What happens when the operation is successful?

What happens when the very thing you asked God for is delivered?

Is thanksgiving our first response or is it on to the next problem?

Is thanksgiving our continual response or is it a one-and-done?  C’mon God, I said thanks.

Do we awaken each morning thanking God that we have a roof over our heads and something to eat?

Do we consider in the course of our day that we are provisioned to live in this modern age?  We have electricity, a phone, a car or at least someone to give us a ride? Do we give thanks to God for these things that are so easily taken for granted?

Do we thank God that we had a job yesterday and it is still there today? We don’t have to go to a gathering place like day workers who hope someone will hire them.

Ten men had leprosy.  All ten were healed but when they realized they were healed, only one returned to give thanks to God.

That means that 9 out of 10 just went about their business.  Now that business was to make the sacrifice required by the law, but it was absent genuine thanksgiving.

That’s human nature.

Human nature leads us to just go through the motions, to just do the next thing, to live without giving much thought to thanksgiving.

Our nature as new creatures must always include thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is a part of who we are now.

We are told that Satan has blinded unbelievers, but we are believers and we have eyes to see.  What do we see?

Blessings. In every direction and in most every circumstance we can see blessings.

I was playing golf one day in January with Jim Fisk and Ned Fite. If you can play golf in January in Oklahoma, that’s a blessing unto itself.

I had hit a terrible tee shot into the woods.  There was no good way back to the fairway.  Even if I hit back to the tee box, I would have to squeeze between trees.

Ned looked at my situation and remarked:  I always try to find one good thing about each shot.

I looked at him suspiciously and he continued:  The good thing here is that it’s not my shot.

Seriously, we have eyes to see blessings in most everything, even in our trials.  Because we can see God at work everywhere, we should be thankful.

We should give thanks.

We should be known as a grateful people who give thanks in all circumstances

Let us approach not only this month but every day with Thanksgiving.  Let us be known as thankful people.

Let us always look for reasons to thank God.

Let us conclude as we began this service with Psalm 100.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

   Worship the Lord with gladness;

    come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

    It is he who made us, and we are his;

    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

    and his courts with praise;

    give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Even if all others seem to just being going about their lives business as usual, let us be the ones to return and give thanks.

Amen.