22nd Sunday after Pentecost!
Prayer
Luke 17:11-19
Movement One:
Why is it so hard to say thank you? We talked about last week the need to serve
and do for others and God whether or not we were thanked or appreciated or
not. That is an attitude of service and
sacrifice! This is an attitude that all
of us should have; again, it shouldn=t
matter whether someone thanks us. This
is dealing with our attitude toward service.
On the other hand, another attitude we should have is one of gratitude! This deals with the attitude of those being
served. Gratitude that flows from a
thankful heart. If we are really serving
and not expecting or needing to be thanked or appreciated, someone who is
grateful or thankful can really be a surprise.
That is what we are going to look at today; thus the title, “Be a
Surprise!”
Movement Two:
In our scripture today, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem by
way of a region between Samaria and Galilee.
He goes through a village where he encounters 10 lepers. As would have been expected, they kept their
distance from him because they were lepers, but they cried out to him, AJesus, Master, have mercy on us!@
Jesus tells them to Ago
show themselves to the priest.@ In Jewish society, they would have to do this
to be pronounced clean and to again be able to be a part of society. As they go, they are healed. One returns to thank and praise Jesus for
making him clean, and he is a Samaritan!
Jesus asks where the other nine are and commends this one for coming
back to offer praise to God! He tells
him, >your
faith has made you well.@ It isn=t
real clear what he is saying here since he has already been healed of leprosy;
perhaps, there was a spiritual healing that took place here too. It is clear that Jesus appreciated and
commended him for coming back to say thanks and praise God after experiencing
healing. It is also clear, he was not
pleased with the other nine who did not come back!
Movement Three:
Last week, we talked about the need to serve God because God
is God, whether or not anyone ever thanks us for it or whether or not we feel
thanked by God. We talked about
suffering for Christ! God has already
done more for us than we deserve! God
has already blessed us more than we deserve!
We serve God sacrificially, whether or not we are thanked or made to
feel appreciated! It is probably, at least
in part, pride that makes us feel we need and should be thanked!
It is also pride that makes it hard for us to express thanks
to others and to God! As we look at both
sides of this issue, we should serve whether or not we are ever thanked; being
thanked, should come as a great surprise not something we expect, because we
are only slaves, doing what we ought. On
the other hand, we should feel gratitude toward God and every person who has
helped us on the journey, and we should express thankfulness quite freely! We should be some of those surprise thank
yous along the way!
We have trouble expressing thanks. Maybe it is a part of our society again. We feel that we have certain things coming to
us, so if we have it coming to us, why thank anyone or God when we get it? God has given us so much knowledge in
medicine, it is easy to explain healing away as good doctors. We think doctors are just doing their job;
after all, we pay them well for it. Why
thank anyone? We think the government or
someone should provide us with a good living, so we aren=t
thankful when we have a good job or get a good job; after all, shouldn=t we have that coming to us as
Americans? Why should we thank God for
what we have coming to us? People are
suppose to serve God; right? They are
suppose to do what is right; shouldn=t
we just expect it of them instead of thanking them when they do good? After all, isn=t
that what they are suppose to do?
A past experience I’ve had illustrates this. A Vet called in to the office one day. Please understand I do not think all Vets are
this way, no more than I think all people are this way; this is only an
example. He was talking real nice and
checking out the church. He told me he
was a Vet who had been disabled, and he lived in Louisiana in a motel. I was
serving a charge here is Missouri. He
talked like he planned to move to the town where I pastored, so I talked to him
about the churches I served. Then, he
came out with it, what he really wanted was for me or the churches to pay for
his motel in Louisiana for a week or so because we knew how to take care of our
Vets. If we did what we should do, we
would take care of him and pay him some money because of his service. I told him we couldn’t do that, but I would
be glad to pray with him, and if he did move to my town, I would be glad for
him to check in with us and see what we could do then. With that, he refused for me to pray with him
and cussed me out something fierce! He
felt that the church and myself owed him something. I see that a lot when people come asking for
help. I see this as a problem in our
society, this attitude that someone owes us something, that society or the
church owes us something, and when someone does pay up so to speak, there is no
need to be thankful because they have only done what they should. I think we all have a little of this; our
culture has trained us to think this way!
The message last week calls us to sacrificial service whether or not we
are thanked, but at the same time, we should do so from an attitude of
thanksgiving and gratitude!
Our attitude should be that we see that we are greatly
blessed by God! We have messed our lives
up royally, but God loved us while we were still sinners and made a way for us
to have a new start. God has given us
food to sustain life! God has given us a
roof over our heads! God has given us a
way to be here this morning! God has
given us friends, family, etc. God has
given us the gift of life for however long we have it! God has given most of us so much more than
any of this! We are blessed! We should be thankful to God every day! It shouldn=t
be an effort to express thanks to God! It
should just flow out of us! We should
thank God in our prayers! We should
thank God in our words to others! We
should thank God through our service! We
should thank God through our giving!
Too many times we forget to say thank you! An example of this, we make a prayer request;
we have someone put on the prayer list.
We should be that person who goes back and says thank you to God for
answered prayer and thank you to people for praying when our prayers are answered! We shouldn=t
be the person who puts a concern on the prayer list because they are really on
our heart, and a couple months later, the pastor or someone has to call and ask
how they are doing. Oh, they got better
a month ago, or Oh, they died a month ago!
Where is the thanks and appreciation to God for healing or helping the
people through the ordeal, when we just leave a concern on the prayer list that
is not even an active concern? Where is
the thanks to people for praying? Too
many times, whatever answer we get, we forget to go back and say thank you!
We should be thankful to
other people! People have chosen to do
good that has blessed our lives! We
should be thankful to them! None of us
have gotten here today without the influence of other people; we should be
thankful! Contrary to what society says,
we are not self made! We are the product
of the touch of God and many people that God has touched us with along the way! Forsyth UMC is the product of the labor of
many people who have given themselves and continue to give themselves for the
ministries of the church! We should
thank people for their service among us!
We should thank people for their faithful giving and support of Forsyth! We should be thankful, and we should find it
very easy to go back and tell them! Tell
them when they have blessed your life!
We should be some of those surprises along the way that people who
sacrificially give themselves in service for God and God=s
work, not expecting anything in return,
find along the way!
If you feel convicted that
you have not been a very grateful person and have failed in this area of giving
thanks to God or others who have blessed you, bring it to God as we encounter
Christ at the table this morning!
Prayer
of Confession!
Service
of Communion!
Go,
Be a Surprise!
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