we take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17. As we do so, I had said before that we would have a preparatory sermon for the month of November, and I want to go over something that will set us up for our November to come. You know that we've done seasons of prayer in the past, and we'll do so again. And I think it's really good to set apart these months, especially as we run into the Christmas season. It's one of the unique times of the year that we are encouraged to be thankful, encouraged to remember the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and some of the unique opportunities we have for gospel witness. So it's a great season for us to seek the Lord. Depend on him and to want to be more like him and to intercede on each other's behalf So I pray you will sign up on the list that's gone around and you'll commit to that You'll commit to pray that folks would come to Christ that they would be committed to be More like Christ and be used so that other people can be more like Christ and to that end I I want to bring today's message entitled return to give thanks Return to give thanks. Let's pray together Father, as we are able to look in your Word and on this occasion learn of something that happened in the life of Jesus Christ, we would pray that we would get his point and that we would be changed and impacted by what he said and the situation surrounding it. Lord, we are thankful that we know about you. that you sent your son Jesus, that we could understand you even more, because he is the word of God, the revelation of God. And Lord, we are so thankful that you've made yourself known to us. We pray that we would know you more, and we pray that we would walk in the light of your word. And we pray for that this morning in Jesus' name, amen. Every time trick-or-treat season comes around, I remember all the spiritual opportunities of the season. As we go around the block, my kids get to see their friends, and I get to greet the neighbors who have opened their doors. And that's a wonderful thing, because as winter sets in, it's like people shelter in place until the spring. So it seems like As soon as Halloween is done, people are not out and about at all. Their doors are closed. So to think about the fact that a majority of people freely open their doors, I try to buy up the opportunity and go around town. Now in addition to the fact that during Halloween we're able to make connections in the community, my kids, and a whole lot of other kids for that matter, they get to learn some very important lessons. They're quite simple, but they're quite easy to forget. You know how it is when you go trick-or-treating. You walk up to the house, you knock on the door, you smile, you say, trick-or-treat. And then our kind neighbors offer a candy bar, and then you're supposed to say, thank you. You're supposed to say, thank you. Now, I'm not alone. I'm just like other parents. I've diligently instructed my kids before they go out to be polite and to say at each house, thank you. Like so many other parents, I remind my kids along the way. But seconds after being reminded, the kids get caught up in the sight of a bucket of delicious candy bars and they forget. And then they come back to me, and I bend down, and I whisper, did you say thank you? And they say, oops, I forgot. And it happens again and again and again. It doesn't just happen to me. It happens to parent after parent. I see it every year. So the last day of the month of October is not only one of the best days for making community connections for the gospel's sake, it's also unofficial parenting day. Perhaps there is no other day of the year where parents teach their children to say thank you as they do on October 31st. It's a good start. to thankful November, but I'd like us to have a better start to a thankful November by drawing our attention to the Grateful Samaritan, the Grateful Samaritan. You probably haven't heard of him before. You've heard of the Good Samaritan of Luke chapter 10, but today let's turn to Luke chapter 17. where Jesus met the grateful Samaritan. Read with me beginning in verse 11. On the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by 10 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 priests. 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' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Now this story is part of Luke's story of Jesus, the Savior of the lost. Jesus was the one who came to save, and he went to Jerusalem to do it by giving himself. That's the story of the Gospel of Luke. And he has been journeying from his ministry to Jerusalem, where his ministry would come to a close. That is until he'd be crucified, and then three days later, rise from the dead. He's been journeying to Jerusalem, and as he journeys, he's like a magnet. People were coming to him. Chapter 15 reads this way. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. But not everyone was responding like that. It says the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled. They grumbled. Now we come to chapter 17, and it continues along those lines. 10 lepers call out to Jesus Christ for mercy. They call out because they had to stay away from everyone else because they had a disease. Kids, they had leprosy, which is a skin disease called Hansen's disease. It's from a bacteria which causes sores and nerve damage. And it was a very serious disease. And they're calling out for mercy because of this disease that they had. And in the story, we learn that Jesus had mercy on them. But on this occasion, he doesn't touch them and they're healed, as he did at other times. Instead, he instructs them to go show themselves to the priest. And on this occasion, all 10 of them believe Jesus' words because they went. They went. And as they went, they were miraculously cleansed of their leprosy. Now what's highlighted in this story is what happened after they were healed. Because the Bible tells us that only one of the 10 returned to give thanks. And Jesus drew attention to that. In other words, if you look in your Bibles at verse 16, 17, and 18, you realize that those words are not essential to the story. You could read the story and jump from 16 to 17, where the man comes back, gives thanks to Jesus, and Jesus simply replies, rise and go your way, your faith has made you well. It could have read like that. But as the one thankful man is on his face at Jesus' feet, Jesus pauses to preach a sermon. with three questions. Look with me at verse 17 and 18. Jesus said, we're not 10 cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? Jesus sounds pretty disappointed, doesn't he? Certainly he was. And his deployment springs from the ingratitude of the nine Jews who did not return to give thanks. That was his point. Jesus believed that he deserved 10 thank yous, but he only received one. And from a Samaritan at that. So this morning, let's draw two points from Jesus's sermon of three questions. Two points this morning. First, every answer to prayer deserves a thank you. Every answer to prayer deserves a thank you. Because Jesus asked, were not 10 cleansed? Where are the nine? You see, the fact that Jesus asks about all 10 makes his point. It was supposed to be 10 who came back and said thank you, but it wasn't. Jesus had answered their plea for mercy. They reached out to Jesus to do for them what they could not do for themselves. And Jesus gave them an opportunity to trust him, trust his word, by going to the priest. And upon their faith, he healed them. They asked and Jesus answered. But most of them just went on their way. Of course they were so pleased. They had no leprosy anymore. Their physical limitations were gone. Their social limitations were gone. The blessings of their physical abilities and the sweetness of social fellowship, that must have just been so amazing. They could do things they couldn't do before. They could be with people that they wanted to be before, but they couldn't be. It's like they had a second shot at life. They had a new start. Whoa, it's great. And they went on their way. But the side effect of their newfound delights was ingratitude. They delighted in the gift, but they forgot the giver of the gift. That's the sort of thing that happens at Christmas all the time. A kid becomes so consumed with the present he gets and forgets about the person who gave it to him. So we can identify with that kind of thing. But the truth is that Jesus answered their plea for mercy, and all of them should have returned with thanks, but only one of them returned. So Jesus asks about the others, as if to say they should have returned as well. And the point is that those who receive the goodness of God should return thanks to God. As you look through the Gospels and see examples of times that people gave thanks, it commonly occurred at mealtime. That's probably the most common occurrence of giving thanks that we all experience from day to day. When Jesus fed the 5,000, he gave thanks. At the Last Supper, when they broke bread, he gave thanks. His example was one of thankfulness for the goods that he had received. And we see that whenever we have a meal, we give thanks. Now, I wanna take this point and press it on our conscience for a moment. Let me ask you some questions. Do you see that you should return thanks for God's blessings? In particular, when you ask God for something in prayer, are you careful to thank him for his answers? To be honest, my initial response to this is that it is quite easy to heap up requests upon God, but not be so careful to go back through the list of requests and thank God for the answers for those requests. So often it's easy to make many requests, but the thank yous are far too few. So what Jesus is doing here is providing light for us by his questions. We're not 10 cleansed, where are the nine? Jesus is making the point that every answer to prayer deserves a thank you. That's point one. Now Jesus' third question, we get from that another point. And that is that God's people, much more than others, should be thankful. Listen to the question that Jesus asked at the end. Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? So a non-Jew showed a better understanding of the situation than nine Jews. And this point is highlighted twice in the passage. If you look at verse 16, Luke, the narrator, pointed out the fact that the man was a Samaritan. And then Jesus, in this last question, points out the fact that the man is a foreigner. That is to say, he's a non-Jew. But why does this point of the identity of the man matter so much? Why not just stick with the numbers? Why not simply say, only 1 in 10 returns? My point then, most people are ungrateful. Paul said that would be typical of the people of the last times, that they'd be lovers of self, that they'd be ungrateful. So we can see that's an easy point to make. Most people are ungrateful. You should be grateful. But Jesus made an additional point by what he said and by what the Spirit led Luke to write. It highlighted the one man's identity. Why? Why is it so important that we know he's a Samaritan? Because that's the surprising part of the story. Especially if we were a Jewish reader, it's what jumps off the page. And maybe to illustrate this, imagine if the story was reversed. Just imagine with me. Imagine 10 lepers were healed and nine of them, who were all Jews, they all returned to give thanks to Jesus. And then Jesus asks about the one person who didn't return. Where's the other one? Didn't I heal 10? Where's the other one? And then the response, well, he was a Samaritan. Well, I understand that. He was a Samaritan. And that's not a slight on some kind of race thing. That is to show that the Jews knew what they should do. They were the religious folks. They knew what they should do. It was striking that this person, a non-Jew, responded the right way. The expectation is that the Jews would respond well to Jesus, but it wasn't the case. And that actually happens a lot in the Gospels. I noted a couple examples for you from the Gospel of Luke, but there are a number of occasions where Jesus points this out. For example, you remember the story of Jesus eating in the home of Simon. And remember how that woman of the city, a sinner, she washed and anointed Jesus' feet. And all the religious folks were taken aback. They couldn't believe that Jesus would allow him to touch her, allow her to touch him. And then you remember what Jesus said that made the whole room uncomfortable. He said that she had done what none of them have done. From the time he came in, She was washing his feet. She was kissing his feet. She was anointing his feet. They showed no such hospitality. They did not give him water for his feet. They did not greet him. They did not give him oil for his head. Jesus made it quite awkward. And the difference that Jesus makes between the woman and the religious folks is that she loved him much, but they didn't. The difference was that she sensed her sinfulness, but they didn't when they should have. So this is another example of Jesus making a note of where the people who should have responded well didn't, and the person you wouldn't have expected did. This happens again in Luke chapter 4, where Jesus says, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. And the expectation is that a prophet ought to be accepted in his hometown. It should be considered a blessing that one place has a man of God who resides there, but no. A prophet's not accepted in his hometown. So Jesus goes on to press the point. It's as if he's already stuck it in. And then he presses it. And he says, you remember that God sent Elijah, the prophet, to the widow at Zarephath, when there were lots of widows in Israel. And you remember how Elisha, the leper, was sent to Nahum, a Syrian, when there were lots of lepers in Israel. What should have been the case in Israel, sadly, wasn't the case. So you see that again, and again, and again, Jesus highlights the fact. Perhaps as John's gospel says, that he came to his own, but his own didn't receive him. It should have been the case that the Jews were responsive to Jesus, but they weren't. It goes to teach us that spiritual privilege can lead to an entitlement mentality. The truism is that familiarity breeds contempt. It's easy for us to take for granted the things that have become a part of daily living. That's why even though we live with the families we have or the church that we have or the country we have, all those things can become stale to us. We can become disappointed in the things that bring us the greatest joys in life. Certainly, when God is so good as to bring up examples like the Samaritan in this passage, who does what others should have done, it's a reminder to us who believe in God, who know God, who know what we should do for God, but often maybe don't. When we see someone else doing it, it helps us to get back on track. Of all people, we ought to be thankful. And as we know in the New Testament, God goes as far as to say, give thanks in all circumstances. 1 Thessalonians 5.18 For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. There are only so many places that God tags the will of God in the Scriptures. And thankfulness is one of them. So this is an extremely significant point. It's something that we need to take to heart. Now I'm coming to the end of the sermon already. But that's because I have several pages of application for us. Because I want us to make some progress together. And actually, I want to set a goal for our church. for the month of October. And there are a lot of reasons that I'm setting this goal for us. A lot of reasons why I think it'd be a good thing and why it'd be a timely thing. We're having a season of prayer. The elections are coming up. There's a lot of good reasons, I think, for this. And for us to take this goal to heart. Because we need to be fleshing out God's will. To be thankful in all circumstances. So I think this goal is going to be a challenge individually, but really wonderful as we embrace it. And I think it's gonna invigorate us as a church as we do it together. So there's no chapter and verse for this exactly, but I have a challenge for you. And the challenge is that I'd like each one of you to commit to writing a thank you note for each day of the month of November. So I need Gary again. All right, so he's handing out something that I hope will be a help to you. I have, for kids, who really aren't really great at reading, they just have a big piece of paper with numbers. And they're used to a piece of paper numbered 1 to 10. This is numbered 1 to 31. And the rest of us have some extra reading because we can read, all right? But I put together this handout, which has verses on thankfulness. It has really significant passages on thankfulness, like Psalm 103. Where it says, bless the Lord, all my soul, and forget not all his benefits. That's a wonderful passage for us to meditate on as we think of the things to thank God for. Or I have on there passages like Ephesians chapter 1 that lists the ways that we have been blessed by God the Father in Christ. So those are there for your meditation. I also have a list of reasons there, a list of biblical examples, front and back, of reasons to praise God, of ways to praise God, of things to praise God for. And those are there for your meditation. But what I believe, as you go through those things, and you may want to memorize those things later this afternoon when you take the time for it, But the point I'll make for you is this. God often blesses us through other people. And God often encourages us through other people. It's true that gratefulness to God and gratefulness to others go together, as does ungratefulness too. People who thank God for things also thank God for others. So our thankfulness to God is usually directly related to our thankfulness to other people. And that's because people who are thankful to God take time to reflect on the blessings that they received. And as they do that, they realize that God blesses through people. So my challenge today is that you would commit to consider the blessings that you've received and that you would respond to that reflection, to seeing how much God has blessed you by writing thank you notes. I'm hoping at least 31 of them for the days of November. And I'm not telling you to mail it on the day or have, you know, you can do it however you want. Whether or not you want to get it all done the first day of the month or before the month, whatever you want to do. But I'm asking you to commit to a thankful November by taking time to write 31 thank you notes. And as you see in the manuscript, I tried to lay it out how that can be done really easily. So let me go over a couple of cues that'll help us get it done. You have a list already, 31 lines. So take the sheet of paper that's already numbered one to 31 and start writing names. Start writing your names of your family members, your spouse, your kids, your parents. Start with that. Go on to your church family. Write down their names. And then write down your close neighbors. You're probably getting close to 31 already. Probably. But keep going. You don't have to stop when you reach 31. I know that my list is far more than 31 right now. But once you've written down their names, which might only take you two minutes, kids, I understand it takes you longer because you can't write as fast, that's okay. Just take some time and write their names, it's okay. But take five minutes, write down their names. And then go back through quickly and write the first blessing that comes to mind with each person. Spouse, kids, mom, dad, I'm going to go through the church directory and such here. The first blessing that comes to mind with each person. And then maybe that'll take you five minutes. And I believe that you'll very quickly be able to get through that list. Now, you might get stuck with someone's name. Don't get stuck. Just keep going. Jot down notes on the ones that come to mind readily. And then walk away for a while. Come back to the list a couple hours later. My guess is that things will have come to mind, and then jot those down. And then if you still have names on your list that you just can't think of the ways that God's blessed you through them, just bring it to God in prayer, in your devotion time. Lord, help me to be aware of how my parents have blessed me, how my wife's blessed me, my kids have blessed me, and I didn't realize it. I think God would answer that request. And then keep the list with you, because I think God will bring those things to your mind and answer to your prayer. So you have the list of names, you have the list of things that they've done for you. Now just start writing the notes. And as you start writing the names, addressing those letters or paper, whatever you wanna do, just start writing them and tick through the list. And as you do so, don't get stuck. Sometimes the hardest way to write a letter, the hardest thing about writing a letter is figuring out how to start it. It can be really simple. It can be something like, as I reflected during thankful November about God's blessings in my life, I thought about you. And then just say what came to mind. Or say something like, I remembered something you did for me and I wanted to write you. Really simple. But just find a way to start and go ahead and write it. And then get the note that you wrote ready for the mail. Find their address. Get the stamps ready. And that said, I want to encourage some of you with writing some notes to people that you're not going to mail because they're not alive anymore. But it's still worth you writing that letter. And if the case might be correct, you might wanna pass along that note to a child of that person to encourage them. That might be something you could do. But obviously, by you writing these notes, a lot of people are gonna be encouraged just by the fact that perhaps they were a blessing in your life and they never realized it. You never know what a thank you note might be and how it might be so encouraging. Those of you who know me know that the top left drawer of my desk is nothing but thank you notes. And it's just good for me to have a whole stash of those things. So write the note, make the list, take the notes, write the cards. But before you send it, this is how I want it to be part of our season of prayer. Bring it to the Lord. In other words, as you have that note to your spouse, to your kids, to your mom or dad, to a church member, thank God for the blessings that he's given you through that person and use it in your time of prayer. I think that the task of writing 31 notes is really not as hard as we might not as we think. I think most of it could be accomplished in 10 minutes as far as the preparation for it. We could do it easily this afternoon and then set for ourselves some kind of schedule going through the month. I think that would do us very good. Now to perhaps jog our thoughts a little bit more and our memories, let me ask you these questions. And they're listed in your manuscript, so if you don't have a manuscript, today would be a day to get that. But here's a question. Who has God used in your life to point you to Jesus? You say a pastor, a parent. Great, write down their name and write what it was right when it was. Maybe it was a Sunday school teacher, it was a camp counselor, it was an online sermon. Some people here heard the gospel online. Go ahead and write a letter to that person. It's fine. Maybe it was a book. You're going to have to get really creative writing a letter to a person who may be past who wrote a book. But go ahead. Think of the people who pointed you to Jesus Christ, particularly perhaps for your salvation. People who encourage you to be like Jesus. Second, who prays for you? Or who has prayed for you? That would be a great person to write a note to. Who's rejoiced with you when you rejoice? Who weeps, who has wept with you when you've been weeping? That would be a good person to write a note to. Who's kept up with you over the years? Who checks in with you? Week in, week out, month in, month out. Who does that? That'd be a good person to write a note to. Who gathers with you to worship God on Sundays? Week in, week out, year in, year out. Or maybe someone who did and was always such an encouragement to you in years gone by. Who is it who's given you things like money or possessions or a meal or they gave you their time? Who gave to you? Write them a note. Who's forgiven you when you ask them for forgiveness? Who's overlooked your sins when you didn't ask them forgiveness? That'd be a good person to write a note to. Who's taught you, kids? Who's taught you? Say mom, dad, Sunday school teachers, counselors, teachers at school, coaches. Who's shown kindness to you? Write them a note. Who's challenged you personally? Who's challenged you spiritually? It really, it is overwhelming to think back all the ways that God has blessed us through other people for decades. Some of us live for decades. And the Lord just showers us with blessings. So my hope for us is that we will reflect on God's blessings through other people. And certainly, we are at a season when this week, there's gonna be a whole lot of parents who are telling their kids, and when they give you the candy, say thank you. Halloween day is unofficial parenting day. It's the day that we teach all the kids to say thank you. We never thought of that before. But what we have for us is a far better cook-off to a thankful November. It's that Jesus gives us encouragement that we should return thanks. And let me close with one passage on thankfulness from Hebrews 12. It says, therefore, let us be grateful. And then it's almost just, Hard to appreciate the words after. Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. God will bring us into his kingdom. That just blows your mind. Blows my mind. Let's praise him this month. Lord, as we consider your word, as we are encouraged by Jesus Christ to be thankful people, we pray that we would make some serious strides together. Individually, we'd make strides. As a local church, we would make strides. To be unlike the world, full of ungratefulness and griping and complaining and murmuring and despair and anxiety, But Lord, Your will is that we would give thanks in all circumstances, for all things. This is Your will. So Lord, we pray that we would give ourselves to this, commit ourselves to this, and Lord, that it would bless us exceedingly. and that in particular, that our prayers would be more thankful perhaps than they have been in the past. And Lord, would you use this in our hearts, would you change us in this month as we commit to doing this together, in Jesus' name, amen.