so so So, ¶. ¶ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Amen. We're reading for our lesson today in the book of Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17, reading verses 11 through verse 19. 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 afar off 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' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, we're not ten clans, we are 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. And let's pray together. Lord, we thank you this time together as we come to worship you. And as we study a portion of your word, we thank you for all who are here. All our guests are with us today. And we pray the spirit of God might speak to every heart And we pray for that one who is yet to call upon you as Lord and Savior. We pray today they will trust you for their own salvation. And we thank you, Lord, for all that you do. We just praise this in Jesus' name, amen. Here we see in this passage, Jesus, he's with 10 men. who were affected by leprosy, a very infectious skin disease. It's not common in our country. There are those cases. It's been said there's like 200,000 cases reported each year throughout the world, but that's very rare in our own country. Very infectious skin disease. In Bible days, it seems to be a very prevalent thing. We see it mentioned in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. And if you notice in verse 12, these men stood a far off. They stood at a distance. King James version says they stood a far off. Uh, that was the requirement. requirement by law that they were not to be a part of the community. They could not be with their friends and their family and their neighbors. They had to be separated. They had to be isolated because of this skin condition. In fact, if you want to see a detailed requirement, Leviticus chapter 13 gives detailed information as how to handle in this case of leprosy and the priest were required to examine someone to see if their skin condition had improved and they could be allowed back into society. Well, in this passage, we see Jesus healing 10 men affected by leprosy. And he tells them to go to the priest because that was the requirement. the priest would have to ride out and say, listen, these guys are ready to go back to work. They could go back home. They could get back into the mainstream society. The skin condition is cleared up. And that's what happened. And the men, they made their way back to the priest. And as they were going, they noticed that as they were going, they noticed that their skin began to clear up. They could tell that the leprosy was gone. Now one of them, we see in verse 15, one of them, when he saw that he was healed, he 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. Jesus answered, were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except for this stranger, this Samaritan, this foreigner? And he told this man, rise and go your way. Your faith has made you well. One return to give Jesus thanks. And that's our subject this morning. Giving thanks to Jesus. We ought to do it every single day. I believe we're disobedient unless we do do it every day. We don't have to wait till Thanksgiving season to say thank you. It should be all day, every day. God's been so good, so gracious. There are several things I want to point out as we look at this passage. concerning giving thanks and praise to God. And the first one is this. Giving praise and thanks to Jesus. Number one, it's neglected by so many. It's neglected by the masses of people. Jesus said, where are the nine? All ten were cleansed, but only one came back and said, thank you. Where are the nine? Now, somebody might say, well, don't be too hard on them. At least one did come back and he could say thank you for all of us. Have you ever done that? Go tell, hey, tell so-and-so when you see him, tell him, I said, thank you. Maybe you should tell them in person. Maybe you should make that personal phone call. I want to say thank you, not go through a third party. Where are the nine? But someone said, well, wait a minute, that one, he gave thanks with a loud voice. Wouldn't that be sufficient for all of us, all 10? Where are the nine voices? They're missing. And you know, today there are so many people who receive the blessings of God and all of us receive blessings of God, but so few give thanks to Jesus. They go on their way. Where are the nine voices of praise? There were ten that were cleansed, but only one comes back. And there is today this great neglect of saying thank you. I mean, God is so good, right? God is so good. He's so kind. He's so merciful. He's so loving. He's so gracious to so many people all over the world. Just think of all the blessings that God has bestowed upon us. It's really incredible when you think about what God has done. And, you know, he pours out his blessings on the most undeserving people. The truth is we're all undeserving. The Bible says in Matthew chapter five and verse 45, it says, for he makes his son to rise on the evil and on the good. I like that sunshine, don't you? I think it was last week. I don't know, Patty might say, what's wrong with you? I said, well, it's so cloudy. I get down the dumps, you know, it's so cloudy. And we had some cloudy days. I like that sunshine. but he causes the sun to rise on the good and on the evil and the good and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust. God has been so good, so faithful to bless us. It reminds me of our great hymn in our hymn book. Great is thy faithfulness. You know that song, don't you? Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed thy hand hath provided. A hymn goes on and it says, pardon for sin and peace that endureth. Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide. Strength for today and hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine and ten thousands besides. showers of blessings have been given to so many, but only a few drops of praise go back to God. I mean, tons of grace has been given to us, but only a few ounces of praise are heard in heaven. I just neglected so much. And I just pray that all of us, it not be true of us, that we'll make it a point that we're going to say thank you to Jesus more than we ever have. And when it comes to saying thank you and praise God, let's don't be missing in action. Let's don't be that missing. Where's the nine? Let's be a part of those that say thank you. There's something else I want you to see here in our text. Giving thanks and praise to God is a necessary lesson that needs to be taught. It needs to be learned. We don't come natural. You know, parents will say to their little child, What are you supposed to say? Thank you. Okay, I want to hear that. You don't have to teach a child to be ungrateful. That comes by nature. By nature, we're ungrateful. By nature, we're sinful. And we have to learn this lesson of being thankful. I believe it ought to be a mandated subject in our schools. You know, I teach reading and math and writing. They all have a class on gratitude. Call it the gratitude class. Well, how do you measure that, preacher? How do you grade, put a grade on that? Real easy. Just keep your ears open. Yeah. Here, let me give you a book. Oh, thank you. I like to hear that. And works both ways. Well, this incident here in our Gospel of Luke here is very important. God wanted it written down for us to read. We need to learn something from this. It's necessary. You don't have to be taught to be a complainer, but we have to be taught to be thankful. And you see that in the word of God so often. Now someone might say, oh, I heard someone the other day. I just heard him. I said, thank God. But be careful with that. Sometimes that's just an empty cliche. And it's not really deeply felt. We must teach our children to be thankful, to say thank you. and we must be taught from the word of God. Let me give you a few from a scriptures here. One is Psalms 100. One of my favorite Psalms is Psalms 100. Well, Psalms 100 in verse four says this, enter his gates with thanksgiving and courts with praise, give thanks to him, bless his name. Colossians 4.2, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. Colossians 315, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you are called in one body and be thankful. You got Psalms 100, you got Psalms 34, Psalms 111, Psalms 95, and another favorite is Psalms 103. Psalms 103 says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is with me, bless his holy name, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. He forgives all your iniquity, he heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. You ought to make it a regular habit of coming together as a body of Christ to pray together, but also to say together, thank you, Jesus. Paul spoke of that in Ephesians 5, verse 19. He says, we are to address one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always and for everything to God, the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's something else I see here in our text. This one that came back to say thank you. Giving thanks and praise to God should be an immediate response. Don't put it off. Immediately. That's what the Bible says. It's no telling how long he had leprosy, but the Bible says here, as soon as he knew that he was cleansed, immediately he had to go see Jesus. He went to see Jesus. And his heart was overflowing with praise and thanksgiving. And as he goes, in his heart, gushes forth thanksgiving to God. His response was immediate, was not delayed. You know, I think one of these days I'll say thank you. No, you do it right now. Right now. Give thanks to Jesus. Now somebody might say, well, you know, you need to go back home. You ain't seen your family a long time. You know, your family comes first. You need to go back and see your wife and see your children and see your family. Yeah, the family is important, but first right now, I need to go see Jesus and say, listen, thank you, Jesus. Praise God. A lot of important things that we do, but nothing more important saying thank you to Jesus. I think of that man that said thank you to Jesus. He was a man that was at the gate called Beautiful. He was laid there, he was unable to walk, hadn't been able to walk all his life. He held up a beggar's cup, hoping that people would put some contribution, because that's how he survived. And here come Peter and John. And he lifted up the beggar's cup, hoping to receive an offering from Peter and John. And here's what Peter said to him in Acts chapter 3 and verse 6. Peter said, I have no silver nor gold, but all I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. He took him by the right hand and raised him up. And immediately his feet and ankles were made strong and leaping up. He stood and began to walk. He entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. Can you imagine that? Hadn't been walking all his life. God healed him there on the spot, right there. He's got some feet now. So, what do you do? Well, I guess I need to go in that temple there and just say praise God. No, immediately he's walking. Baptists can't dance. You can if you get excited for Jesus. He was leaping and jumping and praising God for what God's done for him. It's not like, well, you know, I don't want to be a spectacle. Kind of reminds me, my Uncle Jim got saved at a revival meeting. We've been praying for Uncle Jim for a long time. I remember as a teenage kid, I'd be sitting in the back of the car, Mom and Dad, we passed Uncle Jim's house and his family. I remember my Dad would say to my Mom so many times, I wish we could get them in church. One night, Uncle Jim was at a revival meeting. He came down front and surrendered his heart to Jesus. There was shouting all over the place. It's a wonderful thing when the Lord touches your life. You know, there's a lot of people like in Jesus' day, hey, Lord, keep them quiet. They're getting out of control. Well, if they stop, the rocks will cry out. Give, let everything that had breath praise the Lord. Well, let's look at another part here. Go to verse 16. Give thanks to Jesus. Hey, it's for all people in all kinds of circumstances. Nobody's exempt. You see, this one who returned to give thanks, he was, look at verse 16, he was a Samaritan. He fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks, and Jesus wanted us to know this. Now, by the way, I don't know if you knew this or not, but let me tell you this, he was a Samaritan. He was a foreigner. It's important to know this. You may not know that, but listen, in that day, Jews and Samaritans had no dealings with each other. You just don't talk to a Samaritan if you're a Jew. You don't have your kids to play with Samaritan kids. They had nothing to do with each other. The hostility went back generations and generations. He was a Samaritan. This one that returned to give thanks was a Samaritan. That was his circumstance in life. He couldn't help it that he was a Samaritan. That's just the way it is. He was a Samaritan. We don't know his name. Don't know what he looked like. Don't know what kind of car he drove or donkey he rode. We know this. He was a Samaritan. He was a Samaritan. You need to know that. These 10 lepers, these 10 men, at least one of them we know is a Samaritan, they did have one thing in common. They all had leprosy. You see, it don't matter if you're A Jew or Samaritan, listen, you got leprosy. You got one thing in common. You got leprosy. You may be different by race. You may be different by a lot of things, but you are the same when it comes to this leprosy. And they all needed help. They all needed Jesus. You know, today people are separated by different circumstances. but we are all sinners in need of a savior. We all need Jesus. The Bible says in Romans 3, 23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The billionaire, the trillionaire, the millionaire is a sinner as well as the poor man don't have a thing. We're all have sinned, come short of the glory of God. And we have a common need. We need Christ. Just like these 10 men, they may be different in many ways, but listen, they all need to be saved. We all need to be saved by the same Lord. And we all need to have that same common ambition to say, thank you, God. Thank you. Verse 16 says, he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Is that a problem? One of our men years ago was visiting, inviting people to our church. Years ago, I can't remember how long ago. And he was up somewhere, he was inviting some people to come to our church, and a lady opened the door. And I'll have to say this because you need to understand this. She was a white Caucasian. And close by her was a little boy behind her. He was a black little boy. We'd like to invite you to come to church with us. Will you come to church? We'd be glad to have you. Here's what she said to him. He told me this. He told me this later on. She said, oh, OK. Then she said, Will this be a problem? I bring this up to you this morning because Jesus brought it up. Jesus talked about the 10. He talked about the one that came back. And by the way, he's a Samaritan. Don't know if that bothers him or not. He was a Samaritan. And Jesus said it, I didn't say it, Jesus said it. He was a Samaritan. Listen, giving thanks to Jesus is for all people at all circumstances. He was welcome at the feet of Jesus. All people are welcome at the feet of Jesus, red or yellow, black and white, they all are precious in his sight. He said, well, I would come, but I'm just a nobody. Nobody knows me. Nobody cares about me. Jesus does. And really, those who truly love the Lord care about you. Well, some might say, my circumstances prevent me from coming to the Lord, but it didn't prevent the Samaritan. He was making his way to Jesus. I've got to go back and say thank you. And I'm sure somebody probably said, wait a minute now, remember who you are. You're a Samaritan and Jesus is a Jew and you're going into Jewish territory. Remember where you're going. I don't care. I'm going to give praise to God. It reminds me of the woman at the well. Remember that story? Jesus, it says in John chapter four in that gospel, he said, Jesus, I must needs go through Samaria. Because the normal route was to bypass. They built a bypass. You know bypasses? They bypassed Samaritan country to get to Galilee. Jesus said, I'm going through. He went there and saw this woman at the well and asked a drink. Women say, oh, I'm kind of surprised, sir. You know, we Jews and Samaritans, I'm a Samaritan, you're a Jew. We have no dealings with one another. And Jesus said, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that's speaking to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Well, just to make a long story short, Jesus confronted this woman of her sin, and she realized that Jesus was the Messiah, was the Christ. In John 4.29, she goes back into the city. She says this, Hey, come see a man. Come see a man who told me all things that I ever did. Is not this the Christ? Jesus died for Samaritans. So regardless of your circumstances, regardless of your background, Regardless of where you've been or what you've done, you can give thanks to Jesus. When I worked at the prison there in Clifton, Tennessee, I remember hearing some prisoners tell me, I can't go down there to the chapel and I can't put on this image of being a Christian. I have to put on a strong image, you know. I'm big and tough because, you know, Because of my circumstances, I can't talk to Jesus. I can't make my faith known. I remember one of them telling me one time, he says, well, a black guy came to me, he says, you know, and I looked up his record, and believe it or not, he was a Baptist. But now he's associated with the Muslims. Because he's been convinced by other blacks, he says, listen, Christianity, that's a white man's religion. Jesus is for all people. Paul and Silas, they spent some time in jail. Did that keep them from praising the Lord? Acts 16 verse 25, at midnight, Paul and Silas, they're in the prison. Midnight, Paul and Silas, they prayed and they sang praises to God. And the prisoners heard them. And suddenly, there was a great earthquake. The foundations of the prison was shaken. Immediately, all the doors were open and everyone's bands were loose. Last thing I want you to notice here in verse 11, we give thanks to Jesus. We praise him because of his sacrifice on the cross. Do you see what it says in verse 11? On the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. On the way to Jerusalem, what was Jesus facing in Jerusalem? The cross. He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. Jesus is interested in Gentiles. He's interested in the Jews. He's interested in Samaritans. He's interested in all people. He's telling the good news to everybody. He's on his way to Jerusalem because at Jerusalem, he will be nailed to a cross. And we thank God for his life. We thank God for his love. We thank God for every way Jesus expressed his compassion in helping people, healing people, even raising people from the dead. But we thank God also for Jesus becoming sin for us. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He was made sin for us. And Jesus was looking toward that day. He was looking toward that moment. He was looking toward that particular city there in Jerusalem where he would take up the cross and he would die for our sins. Now, Luke also mentions this in chapter nine, verse 51. I just want to read this. It says, when the day drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of them who went and entered the village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them? And Jesus turned around and rebuked them. No. I didn't come to send fire on these Samaritans. I came to give my blood, to shed my blood, to die on the cross for these Samaritans. The disciples wanted fire to come down on those Samaritans. But the fire did fall. It fell on the cross of Jesus. The judgment of God came upon Jesus when He was on the cross. And as Jesus hung on that cross as a sacrifice for sins, His eyes looked upon those who mocked Him. His eyes looked upon those who despised Him. His eyes looked upon those who cursed Him and did not believe in Him. But then His eyes looked up toward heaven and He said this, Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. We give praise to Jesus for his sacrifice on the cross because in Jesus we are forgiven. We are set free from our sins and we give praise to Jesus for what he has done. Verse 19, that last verse, it says when he said this to this man, he says, rise and go your way. Your faith has made you well. And that is true today. You put your faith in Jesus Christ. You can rise up and go your way rejoicing. because there's a change, there's been a transformation that's come into your life. You've got a new life. You've got new hopes now. You've got a home in heaven. Your sins are forgiven. You can go with victory and you can praise God for what he's done for you. We've got a story to tell and it's incredible. Rise and go. So our faith, we believe in Jesus and who he is. He is the son of God. He is the Christ. He is the Messiah. And we thank God for what he has done. He's accomplished great things on the cross, our salvation. And he rose again on the third day. And he's alive forevermore. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for all that you've done Undeserving sinners such as me, as all of us. Lord, we thank you for your compassion and your mercy and the blood that you shed on Calvary's cross. And I pray for any dear soul that has yet to say and in repentance come humbly before you. I pray now that we do that. Call upon your name. Father, we pray you will be done in each life we ask in Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand together as we sing.