How Do We Thank God for All His Blessings?

Sermon Message

"How Do We Thank God for All His Blessings?"

Pastor Jerry

Luke 17:11-19 (NLT)

 

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Are you thankful to God for all His blessings?  I want you to think with me this morning about this question: “How do you Thank God?”  Let’s use a hands-on-illustration to help us think about this. When I became pastor of a church in the Shenandoah Valley after graduating from seminary, I decided to jog every morning at sunrise, in order to exercise for my health. One day I'd been out running and felt like I wasn’t going to make it back home. Other people out for a jog were running past me. I complained to the Lord that it wasn't fair to make a healthy exercise so painful for me. I was seriously thinking about giving up. Then it happened. At the intersection: A young woman was attempting to cross the street. She struggled with her balance. She made it to the other side. Then something happened in me. My perception of my situation changed dramatically. I felt ashamed of my gripping spirit. I was blessed that I could so easily run, let alone walk. Beloved people of God, how do we thank God for all the blessings? First we must see ourselves and our Lord clearly. One of the great tragedies of our time is the general loss of gratitude. In our nation today, I wonder how many of us have taken time to see clearly our blessings. Even with the Pandemic, are we focused on what we can’t do, rather, than see how blessed we are with what we can do. The tragedy of our loss of gratitude isn't simply our unrealistic sense of the world in a Pandemic, but a loss of perspective. The general loss of gratitude in our country is not insignificant in our rising tide of frustration, of anger, and violence, hopelessness and disease. How do we thank God for all the blessings? (1) First, we must see our lives clearly. Only when we see our lives clearly will we be able to see our Lord, clearly active in our lives and the world. Jesus, walking the road to Jerusalem, passes by 10 lepers. They called out from a distance to our Lord. They saw their situation very series, wanted Jesus to restore them to their families. Isn't it true, that in those times when we see ourselves clearly, we often feel at a distance from the Lord? How about you?  Do you see yourself clearly?  Do you see yourself clean before God?  No matter how removed from God you feel, there's a Lord who can hear, who can and desires to act. Jesus said, "Go show yourselves to the priest." And they went and did as he had told them to do. This is the second step in thanking God for all our blessings. (2) We must trust God and act boldly. Once upon a time a mother announced guest coming to dinner."Who's coming?" Everyone asked. "The Jones," she replied. The Jones were neighbors from up the country road a few miles who had two mentally handicapped sons. The Jones?" the girls said. "We're going to set out the fine dishes and for the Jones? Those boys won't even know the difference." The mother stared at them with a hard look. The girls understood that their mother, orphaned at a young age and shuffled from relative to relative until her marriage to their father at 17, cared about those boys. The issue wasn't whether the Jones boys would understand or not, the issue was the kindness of a mother's heart and thankfulness for her blessings. How do we thank God for all the blessings? First, we must see clearly yourself before the Lord; next we must act boldly and trust God. The lepers cried out to our Lord for healing, and Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priest. When we hear the voice of God calling, it energizes us to act boldly. The mother had experienced being an orphan. But she'd also experienced the loving embrace of the Lord Jesus Christ calling to her. When those two realities met she simply acted in confident boldness. What about you? Will you be open, as this mother was, to responding with care and dignity to anyone who is ignored, who is pushed aside, or under-valued? How do we thank God for all the blessings? First, we must see clearly yourself before the Lord; next we must act boldly and trust God when He calls to us. The last step to thank our God for all our blessings is… (3) to return in thanksgiving. As I was growing up, my father has a workshop at the back of our house and in it he taught me many skills while working with him.  One of those skills is using an electric arc welder. Now it is critically important to use a special shield for the eyes when using this instrument. The story told of a man who wanted to learn to weld, he bought a welding outfit and began to teach himself. But in his first attempt he ignored the admonition to wear a hood to protect his eyes. After welding he felt fine, until the middle of the night. He woke up with his eyes hurting. Then he began to face the prospect that he would never see again. As he began to emotionally come to grips with this possibility, he had only one wish. If he would never see again, he wanted his last vision to be of his wife and two daughters. He can still recall that picture of them sleeping in their beds as if it was yesterday, and he thanks God for that sight in the midst of a growing blindness. When we see ourselves before our Lord clearly, when we act boldly and trust God, then, it's time to return to God in thanksgiving. Ten lepers cried out to our Lord and 10 were healed. Yet only one returned to give thanks. Only one, a Samaritan. He came back, no doubt, to get a look at the One who healed him, like the man who went, loving to look at his wife and daughters. He returned to honor this One who'd given him his life back. I began this sermon by lamenting the loss of gratitude in our society. Its cure is simple. We need only to acknowledge God and listen to His call and come to Him. Why don't we do it?   Because it's costly. We have to surrender who we are: admit our own neediness before God. The truth is we have to give up trying to be god. But it's here, when we do, that we are set free; it's here that we're healed and loved; for it's here that our faith heals us.   To come to God and give thanks is to let God be God and to let us be His people. How do we give thanks for our blessings? We see clearly, we act boldly, and most importantly of all, like that Samaritan leper, we return to the Lord as the Giver of a new life.