For every Bible, I want you to turn to Luke chapter 17.
I'm also blessed this morning to see Janet Childs sitting back
there.
Amen.
Some time ago, Janet had a stroke that the experts say she
wouldn't be able to do what she's doing today.
But we serve a greater God, don't we?
Amen.
He's continuing to work, so you continue to pray for Janet.
And I'm sorry to point you out, but no, I don't.
No, I'm not.
I'm thankful for what God's done in your life.
And continue to do.
As so many Americans, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite
holidays.
I mean, you know, it's a day of parades and football and turkey
and fellowship, and that makes for a great day.
Sadly, however, in the midst of all that good fellowship,
sometimes the main thing about it has been missed.
More than anything else, it's a day to set aside to thank God
for his many blessings.
To remember where we came from.
That meaning sometimes has been missed.
The forefathers of this country took it seriously.
American history has somewhat been revisited and revised in
recent books.
But I'll be clear, our nation was settled by followers of Christ.
Our American heritage is a Christian one, unapologetically.
The first American settlement in Plymouth was settled by pilgrims
who broke away from the Church of England.
And sailing over on the Mayflower in 1620, they wrote the Mayflower Compact.
Before they ever touched American soil, they stated that they wanted a colony based on biblical principles.
That the colony was to be established, and I quote,
for the glory and the advancement of the Christian faith.
After harvest that first year, Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving and prayer.
It became a custom that became a holiday under Abraham Lincoln.
Over the years, the emphasis has somewhat been mismanaged.
But it shouldn't be.
It's a day to give thanks and praise, and who more should do that than Americans?
How blessed we are.
The only folks that I can think of would be Christians.
How blessed we are.
We have a lot to be thankful for.
But are we?
An encounter in Luke chapter 17 begs that question.
The account says in Luke 17, verse 11,
On the way to Jerusalem, he, speaking of Christ, was passing along between Samaria and Galilee,
and as he entered a village, he was met by ten 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 yourself 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.
He fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.
Now he was a Samaritan.
And then Jesus answered,
Were not ten cleansed?
Where 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.
Jesus was en route to Jerusalem,
and as he entered into the regions of Samaria and Galilee,
he encountered ten lepers.
He spoke healing to them and told them to show themselves to the priest.
But only one of them returned back with thanks,
and Jesus asked the question,
Where are the other nine?
Where are the nine?
This encounter to me is revealing, and God has been so good to us,
we ought to live in response to what God's done for us.
And how should we do that?
Well, I believe this encounter gives us three ways that we ought to,
that Jesus shows us we ought to give thanks.
One is that we ought to speak up and ask God.
Speak up and ask God.
Now these lepers had heard the rumors of healing that had come from Jesus.
And they wanted healing, and they wondered how they could get it.
Scripture says that they stood at a distance from him,
They better.
They're lepers.
Mosaic law isolated lepers from social contact.
They were forbidden to come within six feet of a person.
If the wind was blowing, they couldn't come within 50 yards of a person.
And if somebody accidentally approached them, they were to yell,
Unclean!
So what did they do when Jesus came by?
They spoke up.
They showed enough fortitude, even in the midst of their circumstances,
enough strength under pressure, patient perseverance.
Instead of sitting there hopelessly, they got up.
Most with leprosy didn't do that.
And no wonder they didn't do that.
They suffered from a hideous disease.
And a very misunderstood disease, as far as that goes.
Because leprosy appears to be slowly eating the body away.
It begins by erasing the facial features.
It moves to the fingers and the hands and the feet.
And the hands become like frozen claws before they fall off.
The feet become stumps of sores before falling off.
The odor is nauseating.
The appearance is ghastly.
But Dr. Paul Brand was a man who was, at one time, the world's leading leprosy surgeon.
He worked as a missionary with lepers.
And he came to the very important discovery that leprosy was a neuropathy
that caused people to not feel their extremities.
Without pain, they would develop sores from bumps and bruises.
And it would not heal.
He wrote about that in a book with Philip Yancey.
He wrote several books with Philip Yancey.
But this book was called The Gift of Pain.
It gave an insight about leprosy that we didn't previously understand.
They were outcasts.
They were shut out from the world to live among people of their kind.
It would have been easy to give up.
But they didn't give up.
They got up instead.
Because Jesus was walking by.
And I'll tell you today that if you're discouraged
and you're going through a hard time in your life
and you're struggling,
I got news for you.
Jesus is walking by today.
He's here for you.
Do you feel like you're beside the road?
Maybe you feel like life's dealt you a bad hand
or the future seems dim or you feel cut off.
I got news for you.
This is the first day of the rest of your life.
And you can look up and ask God for mercy
and thank God he'll give it to you.
Speak up and ask God.
The second thing I learned from this is to step out and trust God.
To step out and trust him.
Not only did they come to Jesus and speak up,
but they also stepped out.
Understand that after Jesus pronounced healing upon them,
they were not healed, Scripture says.
It said they healed as they went.
They were still lepers when they left him.
A leper was not supposed to go to the priest until he was clean,
until he was healed.
Yet, once Jesus told them that he would heal them
and to go to the priest,
God was healing them as they went to the priest.
They had to have the confidence and the faith
that that healing would take place before they came to the priest
in order to be in proper protocol.
It took faith for them to go anyway
because they were claiming his healing.
That somewhat something wonderfully strange
was happening within them.
They were healed as they went.
They could have easily said to him after he said that,
you don't understand, we're not well.
We still feel the ramifications of this.
But they didn't.
I want you to hear me today.
They took God at his word.
And if you get up today and ask God for mercy,
God will direct you.
And as he directs you,
and in the way he directs you,
it probably will not be comfortable.
God does his greatest work
in the uncomfortable times of our life.
But you must go anyway.
You must trust him anyway.
It's not enough to simply speak up and ask God.
You've got to get out and trust God.
We start by asking.
We continue by trusting.
And when he does his work in our lives,
if we've been changed by the Lord,
we go back and thank God.
All were lepers.
All got up.
All got up in obedience.
And scripture says all were healed.
And the similarities stop there.
Most celebrated so much over the work of God
that they never bothered to acknowledge God.
Now be honest.
Not with me, but with yourself and with God.
How many times has God pulled you out,
given you new opportunity,
and you simply went about your way?
But what did this one leper do?
He went back, praised God,
threw himself at his feet, and thanked him.
And I believe that's where thanksgiving
comes into the matter.
Because if you're a child of God today,
and if you're not,
I promise you, you can come to him today.
You have to acknowledge your need for him.
Acknowledge the wrong in your life
that needs to be cleansed.
Acknowledge that
he can be your Lord and Savior
and cleanse you and save you and change you.
And then surrender your life to him today.
If that's ever happened to you,
you have a responsibility with that.
And that's to live a life of gratitude for God.
We need to acknowledge him.
Not one time, but all the time.
We need to acknowledge him.
How do we do that?
Well, we need to acknowledge him with our time.
Let me ask you,
how much time do you give to the Lord each day?
I mean, if you're thankful for the Lord
and his salvation and his leadership in your life,
let him lead your life.
Give him the time each day
to speak through his word.
The ladies shared with you a wonderful concept.
With the Bible recap,
a wonderful way to go through the Bible
together with a group of ladies.
I picked up the commentary that goes along with it.
Sound, good, summarizing short stuff.
Good stuff.
It gives you an understanding.
And the podcast goes right along with that.
Wonderful.
A little bit too high-tuned for me,
but hey, I'm not a woman.
But the book is wonderful.
It really is.
Jeff leads men through the Bible through D-Life.
Put someone on a simple reading plan,
not trying to accomplish everything
and read everything.
It's not about the consumption.
It's about the digestion.
You do understand that, don't you?
We put these bookmarks on these offering boxes
and out there for you to have a steady plan.
I read that every morning.
Matthew 1 through 4 is what I read this morning.
And I was touched by the fact that
he went to Peter and Andrew and said,
come and follow me.
And immediately they followed him.
He went to the sons of Zebedee and said,
come follow me.
And immediately they left their father's business
that they were going to inherit and followed him.
And every time I read that,
I'm challenged to think when God says to do something,
when he speaks to my heart and life louder than words,
it's my responsibility to immediately follow him.
That's what God tells me today
by spending time with him.
You have a desire for God's word.
You don't have to wait till January 1.
You can start today.
But we'd love to guide you in that process.
But listen, it's not about winning a badge.
It's not about some great accomplishment.
It's about a relationship.
It's about taking time each and every part of your day
and acknowledging by giving him your time.
Are you thankful enough to give him time?
But it's not only time, it's also our talent.
Our lives of gratitude acknowledge God with our talents.
Are you willing to serve the Lord?
If you are, we'll put you to work.
Are you good with babies?
How about it when they're a little older than that?
We got kid worship now, worshiping underneath us.
If you hear the rumblings coming up through the vents,
just praise the Lord that we got kids down there worshiping.
Are you good at that?
Do you know how to smile?
Can you show up early?
We have a first impressions team that comes
to greet folks as they come in,
to give guidance as they need it.
Do you want to help us
not be interrupted by the mystery for the world?
We got a safety team that does that.
We don't put them big ugly thugs out front
for the fun of it.
We got a meeting coming up
a week after Thanksgiving
on Thursday night, 7 to 9.
If you just have an interest
in knowing more,
how to make sure that we can worship
without being interrupted by the world.
Inviting the world, don't misunderstand me,
but not putting up with a bunch of junk.
That's what a safety team's for.
Do you have a CDL and you're hiding that from us?
We got a bus.
Hide no longer.
Go to work.
Would you be willing to lead kids
to know more about the Word?
I'm telling you,
lives change through the Word of God,
and Awana is simply based on the Word of God
on Sunday nights.
Great place to serve.
Can you handle a middle schooler
calmly and effectively?
Bless your heart.
There's a place for you in glory,
but there's also a place for you
at Pickens First.
Put your work.
Would you like to go and serve in His name?
We do missions.
In the states and overseas,
we do missions.
Do you think you can sing?
Or do you look good?
Because Brian takes folks that can sing
and some that look good.
So, some think they're both.
Try to figure all that out
when you're watching them next time.
Are you willing to encourage a teacher
on a regular basis?
We have a wonderful outreach
called Hearts for School
where we're just trying to encourage teachers
along the way.
And you know there's a sign up
in the foyer for that.
These shoeboxes we were blessed with
with nearly 600 last week.
Put our hands on them
and ask God to bless them
and for every child
that receives one of those boxes.
May they not only get a simple Christmas,
but may they know the love of Christ.
May they commit their lives to Him
and may other lives change
because those children's lives are changed.
You really want to know what that's about.
To get an inside track on that,
that processing center
that he brought up earlier
on December the 1st for us,
for the youth on December the 2nd,
is a blessing.
We've got some spots reserved.
There's some available still.
I encourage you to consider
taking that day on Friday, December the 1st,
and being a part of that
for four hours in Charlotte.
It's a blessing.
I don't know what's in your wheelhouse.
We talked for a few minutes.
I might be able to help you with that.
But be grateful for what God has done for you
and serve the Lord
with how He's gifted you.
I'll tell you another way to do it
is with your treasure.
If all that you have is from the Lord,
and it is,
and if He has called you to be a steward
of what He's given you,
and He has,
and if He's given you clear instruction
to bring your tithe into the storehouse,
and He has,
Malachi chapter 3 verse 10 says,
bring the full tithe into the storehouse,
that there may be food in my house,
and therefore put me to the test,
says the Lord of hosts,
if I will not open the windows of heaven for you
and pour down from you a blessing
until there is no more need.
What is the storehouse?
I'll tell you what it is.
It's the place where they stored the grain
to be used in the ministry of the temple.
It's the place where you're spiritually fed.
The storehouse is where God feeds you.
The tithe is literally a Hebrew word
that means tenth.
It is giving an obedient gift
to acknowledge that
everything that you have came from God,
and God owns all that you have,
but you give back
in a portion of obedience
back to Him.
We are grateful enough,
and I've not left my text,
to go back and thank God
with what He has entrusted us.
A life of gratitude says thank you
with the time in our life.
Thank you, God.
for the gifts and the passions
and the pleasures that you've given me.
Help me use them for your glory.
Thank you, God, for providing for me
more than we need.
God's been good to us.
Give back to Him,
and let's let other people
be changed by the ministries
of the church.
Thanksgiving is an American holiday,
but I also think that it's almost
even more so a spiritual appointment
for Christians.
It's a time to make sure
that we come before God
and give Him thanks.
So many of us can give testimony
of how the Lord has blessed,
and we need to share that.
You'll have the opportunity tonight
before our meal together
as people are going to the tables
to get their food.
I'll ask for testimonies.
We pray about that.
What would God have you to share?
A short testimony of how God
has blessed your life.
But the question is,
where are the nine?
Too many times,
people never really acknowledge
what God has done for them.
And it's my prayer
as I prepare this message
that may Pickens First Baptist Church
be counted as that rare 10%
that gives credit
to where credit is due.
One out of 10.
Let us be the one
to make sure
that we live lives of gratitude
by giving thanks
by waking up in the morning
with Jesus.
Giving thanks
by not celebrating the gifts,
but celebrating the giver.
Give thanks
by being faithful in worship.
Give thanks
by obeying Him with the tithe.
Give thanks
by resting in Him
for all decisions
that we face.
Give thanks
by telling someone
about the difference
that He's made
in our lives.
Give thanks
by circling with friends
at a table
and with tears say,
thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Lord.
What are you thankful for today?
Footballs, parades,
even turkey
are enjoyable
for a day
or for a season.
But when the Savior
walks down the road
of your life
willing and ready,
that is life
and life
more abundantly.
And there's no better way
to say thanks
than with all of our lives.
One way to do that
is through obedience.
And
I believe that includes
an obedient,
based on what Jesus tells us,
an obedient participation
in the Lord's Supper
as believers.
as we gather
around the table
tonight,
before we ever eat,
we'll take
the Lord's Supper
together.
Before we do,
let's make sure
that our lives
are giving thanks
to God
in every way.
Now,
I want to be clear today.
I don't want you
to twist
what I said.
God can do
what God wants
to do
without us.
God's not begging
us to help Him.
God will provide
every need.
And how does He
provide it?
He provides it
through us.
And I say
what I say
this morning
because I don't
want you to miss out.
There's no
greater way
that you can
say thanks to God
than to give back
to Him.
Your time
and your talent
and your treasure.
And when you
don't do that,
not only are you
robbing God,
but you're
robbing yourself
of the blessing
of serving
the Lord.
May we live
lives
of gratitude.
With every head
bowed
and every eye
closed,
I ask you this
morning,
if there's ever
been a time
in your life
when you've
given your heart
and life
to the Lord
Jesus Christ,
if that's never
happened,
I want you to know
we're going to
stand and sing
in just a moment.
And as soon as we do,
you can come down
this aisle and say,
Pastor,
I need to give my
heart and life
to the Lord
Jesus today.
We'll be happy
to guide you
in that process.
Maybe you're here
and you have done
that,
but you've never
publicly acknowledged
that.
You've never
publicly acknowledged
that by baptism.
You've never been
a part of a church
or you feel like
God's leading you
to be a part
of this church.
I'm not one
to beg
and to push
and to pull.
I just want you
to walk in obedience
to God,
to grow in Him.
And so I encourage
you to be faithful
with whatever God's
telling you
to do this morning.
Maybe you're here
and you just need
to get some things
right and you can
do that where you
stand.
Just bow your head
and close your eyes
and pray instead
of sing and get it
right.
Or you can do it
around these steps
and make it your
altar to get things
right before God.
I don't know how
God's speaking to you
but I encourage you
to let's make the
most of this holiday
week by allowing us
to do it right.
Let's make what's
wrong right in our
own lives with the
power and the hope
of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Lord Jesus,
I love you and I
thank you for the
opportunity you give
us to be in this
place today.
Will you lead us,
Lord, in all that
we do right now?
Help us to simply
be obedient and follow
your lead.
In Jesus'
precious name,
amen.
Stand together.