Well, behind me is the Ephesians in Christ, and that's what we've been studying on Sunday mornings. But today we're going to create an interruption. All right. Some of you might remember this from your TVs. You know, if you're over, I don't know. Nate, have you ever seen this on your TV? You have? Man, I'm blown away. Wow. Let me see. Let me see who else. Asher, have you ever seen this on your TV? Like, really? Man, don't get old, dude. I'm like, I'm dead. I thought I was like the only guy in my age and older and stuff like that. But that was usually the interruption type of screen. And we are. We're going to change it up a little bit for the next few weeks, basically for the remainder of this year. We've been going through Ephesians and the portion that would correspond for this Sunday and into Christmas is that important part of Ephesians 5.22 through 6.9, which is how you apply the principle of submission, okay, of that of what the Lord says that we should submit to one another, how it looks like in the marriage, and at home, and then at the workplace. And the more I thought about it this week, the more I started praying, and then thinking about Christmas time, and I'm like, I'm going to be singing Christmas carols and preaching through Ephesians 5. It just didn't have the right feel. It really didn't. Because then, you know, I have to preach today, then I have to take a break next week, because next week is, you know, travel Sunday type of scenario. We have some folks already out. then come back in December to finish that up and then before you know it is December 25th and we haven't talked anything about Christmas and it just doesn't feel right. So, I'm going to have to put a parenthesis for now. I'm going to talk about Thanksgiving this Sunday and next and then through the month of December we'll have some, we'll focus on Christmas and what it means and what it doesn't mean and all that. And then in New Year we'll revisit or we'll resume, it's better said, this study of Ephesians and hopefully we'll finish through the end of by the end of February and then in March my idea, I was sharing with a couple of members, is to go through the I am statements that Jesus makes. I am the light of the world, I am the resurrection, the life, I am the way, the truth. the life and so forth and so on uh... through march leading up to the end of april we have resurrection sunday in april people ninth so uh... so at by the end so i'm already in my mind my preaching schedule as the lord reroutes me and he has every right to do so uh... he uh... it's this is where we're going so uh... will pick it back up road willing in in January, and it's better to reschedule than to push forward and not give it the right, you know, attention that it requires. So bear with me. So Thanksgiving it is, excuse me, this Sunday and next. In his book, Respectable Sins, Confronting the Sins We Tolerate, Jerry Bridges, I've shared this before with you, but he writes something that we need to be reminded of. It's on the screen. Giving thanks to God for both His temporal and spiritual blessings in our lives is not just a nice thing to do. It is the moral will of God. Failure to give Him the thanks to do Him is sin. It may seem like a benign sin to us because it doesn't harm anyone else, but it is an affront and an insult to the One who created us and sustains us every second of our lives. And if, as Jesus so clearly stated, loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind is the great and first commandment, then the failure to give thanks to God as a habit of life is a violation of that greatest commandment. Ingratitude shouldn't mark the Christian. One person, Bob Coughlin, rightly states there on the screen there, the fact that we don't see many reasons to be thankful should make us question our blindness, not God's goodness. And that sometimes we need to see, because we tend to see life through this set of eyes, instead of looking for a Godward view of things. And if all you're seeing is the temporal, all you're seeing is what you can accomplish, is what you can forge through in your own human power, it can become bleak. When you find yourself griping a lot, you have a spiritual problem. Okay? When life is only about griping, and bitterness, and anger, and irritation, listen, the problem is not emotional, it could have some issues with your mind, but if you're a child of God, it is rooted in your relationship with God, because you have stopped seeing the goodness of God, and all you're seeing in your blindness is how life stinks. And you and I are called to see life differently, a Godward view of life. It doesn't mean that the problems are any less. It doesn't mean that the problems become trivial. It doesn't mean that the issues of life and the diagnosis and the ruptured relationships and the challenges here and the challenges there are any less. It just means they take on a different view. Because the God that we behold is the God that controls us. And He's the one who rules and overrules. So ingratitude shouldn't be part of the Christian's life. Not a way of life. Yeah, we can fall into that rut. I've been there, done that. Got a couple of t-shirts along the way. All right? But the reality is we shouldn't. In fact, when Paul in Romans chapter 1 starts listing all those awful sins that leads to the Lord just saying, here, that's it, I'm handing you over to a depraved mind. One of those sins is ingratitude. One of those sins that mark a society that has lost its bearing. that's lost a Godward view of things, that have lost the respect and the fear of the Lord, it's ingratitude. By the way, in that list, amongst all the other ones, is also disobedience to parents. Go figure, right? All this stuff, and a society that promotes anarchy, a society that promotes the separation where kids can get things done at school without the parents finding. That's telling. That's telling. Because you're undermining the authority of the parent. Well, that's just another telltale sign of a society gone run amok. But that's for a different sermon. But just, again, you see things from a Godward view. You know, those, what's going on in our schools, what's going on in our cities, what's going on in our counties, what's going on in our state, what's going on in our nation has great implications. Great implications. Keep an eye on what's going on in the government. Roe v. Wade strikes down the constitutionality. Nothing more, nothing less of abortion. And yet you just, I don't know if you're paying attention, but what went through the Senate with 37 Republicans, all the Dems, voting in favor of codifying, of a path to codifying what Roe v. Wade undid, which means a federal mandate. Not to the states anymore. Listen. You better keep your ear to the ground. You better start keeping your finger on the pulse and start praying and seeing life from a Godward view of things. Because then don't just curse the darkness. Be the light. Be the light. All that was free. It's nothing of my message here. But it's on my heart. It's on my heart. Amen. Amen. The Bible repeatedly stresses the importance of giving thanks. Let me just give you some Bible references. Psalm 50, offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Another psalm reads, let them give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness and for his wonders to the sons of men. Let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and tell of his works with joyful singing. Psalm 92, it is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High. We saw this last week, Ephesians 5.20, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we parked there, remember, we parked there. Because there's an extent to our thanksgiving and a context to our thanksgiving. We talked about it, so I just want to remind you, because when the Bible says you give thanks for everything, listen, that's the extent, but the context of it is a thanksgiving that is consistent with the fatherhood of God and His loving Son. So when life is dark, we don't just thank God for that darkness, we thank God for the light that He provides, so that darkness then can be redeemed. We talked about it last week, how there's not this blind thing that says, oh, I'm going to give thanks for everything. So my spouse's infidelity, my child's death, my mom's diagnosis and departure so quickly. Oh, I'm thankful. No, no, no, no, no. That's life being life. What you and I give thanks for. Context is that in light of all that, in the midst of that darkness, the beauty of the light of Christ shines so much that it helps us and it comforts us and in that we give thanksgiving. Okay? There's a balance, there's an extent for everything, but there's a context. in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then Colossians 3.17, and whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Thanksgiving should permeate our speech, our songs, our prayers, our actions, in short, our lives. We're going to see some of that this morning. So in your Bible or your Bible app, you open to Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17. If you need a Bible for the day, just check with Landon back there, and he'll get you a Bible that's there you can use or keep, or if you have the Bible app, you can do that too. Luke chapter 17, verses 11 through 19, a familiar portion of Scripture. But again, hopefully as we revisit and as we see what's going on here, the Lord will speak to us in a new way. Luke chapter 17, 11 through 19. I'm going to read, you're going to follow along. I'm reading from the English Standard Version, and it reads, On the way to Jerusalem, He 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 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. 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. In this passage, ten people encounter the goodness of God, the miracle that Jesus performed on their lives. Ten people, and only one returns to give thanks. I'm not saying that the other nine weren't grateful. That's not the point, I think, of the passage, necessarily. but it's that one that returns, one that experienced the power of the blessing returns to acknowledge the source of that blessing. And in doing so, not only does he receive something physically, he also receives something spiritually. Ten people were blessed physically that day, but only one was blessed spiritually. So don't miss it. One out of ten. One out of ten. Let's dig in. The leper's condition, verses 11 and 12. We're introduced to some folks. On the way to Jerusalem, that's Luke's way of saying he's heading toward his death. 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. There are lepers. The word leprosy in biblical times designated a wide variety of skin diseases. Okay, it's not just leprosy as you and I know at Hansen's disease, but it was from ringworm to true leprosy. A person with leprosy was considered a walking corpse. Walking corpse, okay. In Leviticus 13, there were seven forms of skin diseases that are described there. Leading one of them is the leprosy. In a book called Unclean, Unclean, the author writes about the horrors of leprosy. It will be on the screen behind me. He writes, the disease which we today call leprosy generally begins with a pain in certain areas of the body. Numbness follows. Soon the skin in such spots loses its original color. It gets to be thick, glossy, and scaly. As the sickness progresses, the thickened spots become dirty sores and ulcers due to poor blood supply. The skin, especially around the eyes and ears, begins to bunch with deep furrows between the swelling so that the face of the afflicted individual begins to resemble that of a lion. Fingers drop off or are absorbed. Toes are affected similarly. Eyebrows and eyelashes drop out. By this time, one can see the person is in this pitiable condition as a leper. By a touch of the finger, one can also feel it. One can even smell it, for the leper emits a very unpleasant odor. Moreover, in view of the fact that the disease-producing agent frequently also attacks the larynx, the leper's voice acquires a grating quality. His throat becomes hoarse, and you can now not only see, feel, and smell the leper, but you can hear his rasping voice. And if you stay with him for some time, you can even imagine a peculiar taste in your mouth, probably due to the odor. So when we say that 10 lepers approached, this is something that you and I I don't know. We can't begin to imagine. We may see some Netflix originals. Unless you've been in a leper's colony, then you can instruct me and you can instruct us. But most of the time what we know is through documentary or a movie. But to be there, to see it for your senses, to register the horrors of leprosy, it's a different thing altogether. This man experienced a pitiful existence. Not only was he physically in problem, but also religiously. He was excluded not only from his social environment, but also from his religious environment. That's why in verse 12 says, they stood at a distance. They stood at a distance. The rabbis taught that you'd had to be at least a hundred paces from anyone else. And every time lepers saw people, if I was approaching, what would they have to scream out? Yeah, unclean, unclean. I don't have that. You know, I sometimes scream that out when I get home from the gym. Unclean, unclean. I smell like a horse. Unclean. But that's not this. That's not this. This is unclean. Stay away. Because if I just touch you, you become now unclean religiously. And you have to be, there's a prescription there in the Old Testament how you have to deal with that. Not only that, but I can actually then infect you. Leprosy brought all anguish at all levels, physical, mental, social, and religious. Only twice in the Old Testament record does God cleanse a leper. Only twice. In Numbers 12 and in 2 Kings 5. In the Bible, leprosy is far more than a disease. It's a graphic illustration of sin. Lepers in ancient Israel were vivid object lessons of the presence and the power and the destructiveness of sin. He was a living parable of it. While no one in this room is a leper, not that I know of, we all suffer from what leprosy can illustrate, which is sin. In Leviticus 13, we're given the regulations for diagnosing and dealing with leprosy. And let me draw some parallels between leprosy and sin. On the screen, number one, leprosy is deeper than the skin. Leviticus 13, 3. And so is sin. The outward manifestations of sin are merely a window into the heart. Listen, take this with you. Let me see. Hopefully, I'll say it right. You sin, I sin, because I'm a sinner. I am not a sinner because I sin. That's not heresy. That's biblical. Why do I behave the way I behave? Why does my life outside the grace of God in Christ do and does and behaves the way it does? Because I'm a sinner at heart. I'm rotten to the core. Now, you may look at it and go, yeah, you're right, but I'm not. That's exactly the symptom. That's exactly the symptom. Okay? It's not, and again, it's not that we're the devil incarnate. That's not what depravity of sin means. The depravity of sin means that the sin principle, that which you and I are born with, that innate rebellion against God, no one teaches us how to lie. No one teaches us how to be deceptive. No one teaches us how to be self-centered. That comes from inside. That's the sin principle at work. And total depravity means that nothing in our lives, no area and aspect of our lives has not been infected and affected by sin. That's what we're talking about. Sometimes if we're just judging behaviors, that's where we go wrong. We try to impose a counter behavior, and all you end up with is legalism, which I conform to the outside, but on the inside, I'm still the same. What's the illustration I usually give you? You look, and Nate's a little kid, and I'm picking on Nate today. So he's a little kid, and he's standing up on a chair while he's eating, and Milena's telling him, sit down. And he's still keeping up, and sit down. And she walks over and applies some motherly discipline, and he sits down, and she goes, I told you you need to sit down. And Nate looks at Milena and says, yeah, but in my heart, I'm still standing. That's you and me with the Lord. That's you and me with the Lord. We play games as if He doesn't know. And that's what leprosy is, deeper than the skin. Number two, leprosy starts out small, but then it spreads. Leviticus 13, 7. At one time, the leper may have seen just a tiny white spot. Days later, it's a lothal disease. What a picture of sin. Look at David. A little spot of laziness. When kings should have been at war, he's back home. He's taking a walk. A little spot of laziness leads to a life of disaster. It turns into adultery, an unwanted pregnancy, lies, and murder. It spreads. It spreads. Let down the walls a little here, and it happens. Again, you don't get to hear spiritually, off the mark, overnight. You don't. Some of us would love to see that because that would be great. That explains how I got here. No, the problem is there was an intentionality. And the intentionality means I failed to root my life and to live my life for the Lord here. And what happened was my little compromises were here. in this relationship, and I'm going to compromise in that relationship, and I'm going to compromise in this area of my life, and I'm going to compromise in that area of my life. And the Lord doesn't really mean what he says, but when he says this about it, no, no, no. And then he really means, he knows my heart. That's what happens. Same thing with leprosy. Starts small, but it spreads. And not only that, number three, leprosy defiles everything it touches. Leviticus 13, 44 through 46. Sin has a way of poisoning a person's entire life. It does. Again, an Old Testament guy comes to mind. His name is Achan. And he was aching after a while. But Achan, you know the story. Book of Joshua. They say, hey, when we attack this city, don't take anything, don't leave anything. Total destruction. Total annihilation. Try to justify that or reconcile that with a God of love only. Right? But it's the same God in the Old Testament and New Testament. And He tells these guys, wipe them all out. wipe them all out. But what happens with Achan? He hides a little bit of gold and something over here. He hides it thinking that it doesn't affect him and it affected because then it affected the entire Israel. You know what it did? It ended up costing the life, his own life and the life of his family. Again, ask King David if a few stolen moments with another man's wife was well worth the hell that came upon his life. Ask him. Because leprosy has the ability to defile. Fourthly, leprosy isolates. The leper was isolated from the camp of the clean. He was forced to dwell alone in the fringes of society. Sin can isolate. You can get to the point where your sin is so resolute, you are so impenitent, you're so rebellious that it affects familial relationships, it affects work relationships, it affects relationships, period. Because that's what sin does. That's what sin does. It isolates. And lastly, in Leviticus 13.52, leprosy destines things for fire. You can get the picture there. Remain in your sin long enough, and God will judge you in your sin. And He will send you to an eternal, conscious place of torment, a lake of fire. So what do these lepers do now that they're facing this pitiful? Listen, these guys, we don't know how long they've had leprosy. The text doesn't tell us. You can speculate all you want. That's fine. I'm not going to fight you on that. We don't know. We know they're a mixed group. We know they're a mixed group, Samaritans, Jews. We don't know anything else about them. What age? We don't know. We don't know. But what do they need now? They need to be healed so they turn to Christ. So you go from the condition to their cry. Verse 13, they cry out. And lifted up their voices saying, Jesus master have mercy on us. Have mercy on us. Again, they were completely helpless before the onslaught of this deadly disease. My friend, if you're here this morning and you haven't trusted in Christ, you are helpless before the onslaught of disease called sin. You're helpless. God does not help those who help themselves. Because no one wants to help themselves. God helps those that can't help themselves. And they cry out for mercy. They cry out for grace. He's on the border of Samaria. It's a mixed group. And this mixed group, let me tell you, there's a lot of prejudice, ethnic prejudice, between the Samaritans and the Jews. There's this rooted in racial pride. the Jews to the south of Samaria they said no we were always the seed of Abraham we haven't been that lineage has not been diluted you Samaritans have been because in 722 when the Assyrians came and they took and destroyed the northern kingdom they integrated them and they forced to mingle and so they didn't stay as a unified kingdom So your lineage is not as pure as ours. So there was this racial pride. There was also a political one in nature. We don't belong to you. We're the South. You're the North. There's a religious conflict. The Samaritans had their own places of worship. The Jews said, no, no, no, no. The Torah says that you should go to Jerusalem. They had Mount Gerizim. Some of them even created their own type of writings. They accepted these writings. They didn't accept the others. There was bad blood. But yet, when calamity hits, they're all together. Isn't that what happens? That which divides us phases, disappears, dissipates when calamity unites us. Calamity unites them. They're there. Jews, non-Jews. Jews, Samaritans. Everything had come down to this moment. So they cry out. So what does Jesus tell them? What's the Savior's command? The Savior's command, verse 14. When He saw them, He said to them, Go and show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed. Stop there. Jesus doesn't immediately heal them. He does that sometimes, other times He doesn't. There was a legal prescription in Leviticus 14 that you should show yourself to the priest to be declared clean. But you did that after you were cleaned. Notice the peculiarity of this command. He says, listen, go and show them. When he says go and show them, they're still lepers. And as they go, the skin clears up. He's commanding men to act on a reality that is not yet actual. He says, he sees them, cry out, Jesus, Master, have mercy on me. He looks at them and he says, okay, go, show yourselves to the priest. At that moment, go, they're still lepers. There's no indication from the text that says Jesus healed them and then said, Complete your prescription and the Old Testament law says, go to the priest to receive a certificate at your cleanse. You can unite, your life is back to normal. That stage of life, that season of life of just being an outcast has come to an end and you have certification from the priest. Well, that came after the fact. He's telling him, no, no, no, no, go do it now. And on the way, they get healed. You know that the last time they probably remembered someone being... healed from leprosy. Can you think of it? Remember. Remember. Yeah. You know how long ago was that? About 800 years. Eight centuries. Naaman, also a foreigner, had received the miracle of being cleansed. There's no other recorded instance in the scriptures until right here. Do you understand that the priest was being told, hey, do this, and the priest couldn't probably remember how to do it? What was the last time? It's like telling me something, and I'm like, man, I've never done this. I gotta go back to the manual. And all this to attest to the power of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. This is a big deal. Can you imagine? Imagine, and he says, go, and as they go, As they go, verse 15 or 14, they were cleansed. Verses 15 through 19, the one leper's celebration. Then one of them, one out of ten, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell on the face of Jesus, on the 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 this foreigner? And he said to him, rise and go your way, your faith has made you well. Again, no doubt that as these ten are going and they see the miracle, I have to believe the common, just common sense, common reaction. Those other nine, not that they were wretched sinners, They may represent something different, and we'll get to that in just a moment. But I am sure that they were grateful. All of a sudden, these white spots on my shirt, they're gone. I'm healed. This could only be a miracle of Yahweh. Yahweh is to be praised. Maybe they did. Maybe they went to the temple, that temple that did not represent the glory of the Lord anymore. Maybe they were grateful and they went, wow, this is something else. I got to go tell my family. I'm the recipient of a miracle that hasn't happened in, to the best of my knowledge and recollection, in eight centuries, I think. I mean, I remember this rabbi one time saying something about some other foreigner, Naaman or something, under the ministry of that great prophet, Elisha. So I'm not saying that they didn't, but one really saw, saw, and that's the difference here. Let me give you three distinctions. Number one, one out of 10 truly perceived the work of God in his life. So he perceives it. The word saw there, it points to not only knowing, but perceiving it, to understand what truly has happened. We're not do well with perception, of understanding what's there. You know, in my house, I live in a townhouse of two stories, and I know how many steps are from one, from the top to the landing, and from the second landing to the bottom, because I've counted them. Because at night, sometimes when the light is dark, I'm like, okay, I reach and I go. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. No, I don't turn on the light because I'm a thrill seeker. 5, 6, 7. And then I go like this. I turn to the other landing. And I go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Booyah. Then I turn on the lights. I'm crazy that way. I'm crazy that way. Perception. Perception. It's understanding. what's going on, okay? Do you and I really perceive the many ways God has blessed us? As we go into this Turkey Day, as we like to call it, Thanksgiving, a great opportunity for the sin of gluttony to prevail. I have to fight the same urge too, folks, okay? Just confess it ahead of time. But I digress, I digress. Unthankful Christians on the screen there. Unthankful Christians are defeated Christians for they have lost their joy. That's what I was telling you earlier. You show me someone who just looks bitter. There's no joy. They're defeated. They're defeated because the relationship with the author of joy, the author of the best that life has to give you, this side of heaven and on that side of heaven, something is a disconnect. Again, it doesn't mean that you walk around with a fake smile, but there's a demeanor. There's a demeanor. We've learned to suffer well, so there's a joy. One out of ten perceived the work of God. Number two, one out of ten gave priority to gratitude. See? Where are the other nine? Where are the other nine? Oh, they're busy with their family. Good thing! They're busy going back to their normal lives. A good thing. They're busy with family and fun and fellowship and restoration and man, it is a great day. That's a good thing. But good is always the enemy of great if you're not careful. The great thing was for one to have the priorities in order and that one person said, realized a priority of gratitude and said, listen, I need to go back to the source of this blessing. Because there's more at work here than just my skin got cleansed. One out of ten, lastly, experienced the complete work of God in his life. He comes back, and there's three things that you see here that tell you that this one out of 10, there was something at work in his life. They all had enjoyed the common grace of God, that common grace that lands on believers and unbelievers, on those who love Christ and those who don't love Christ. The rain literally falls on both people today, kind of people, those who know Christ and follow Him wholeheartedly, destined to heaven, and those who don't know Christ, don't want to follow Him, and they're destined to the opposite, hell. Rain falls on both. That's a common grace. The sun rises. God blesses you and allows everyone on this planet to take up space on His earth, breathe the air that He provides, and live the life that they think they should live. Common grace. The common grace of medicine. The common grace of human government. Common grace. But there's more here. There has to be something at work because this man is perceiving. He does something with it. Where are the other 10? This guy, he comes back and he praises God. Makes a big deal about it. Makes much of Him, as John Piper likes to say. Makes much of Him. Praising God with a loud voice. He received physical healing, but he drew near. He drew near. And he worships. And he worships this healer. And he has to know that there's more to this Jesus of Nazareth that meets the eye, because he falls at His feet. And He worships, and He gives thanks, and He was a Samaritan. And Jesus tells him, your faith has made you well, has made you well. Please note that the word that's there translated in the phrase, made you well, is not the same, is not the word used in verse 14 for cleansed. Verse 14, when he saw them, he said to them, go and show yourselves to the priest. And as they went, they were cleansed. It's not that word. It's not the word in verse 15 that says, then one of them, when he saw that he was healed. No, it's not that word. The word there in made well, the word well, is the word that most frequently is translated in the New Testament in association with being saved, rescued from sin. There's a spiritual component there. And this is what it tells us on the screen. Trust in Jesus, not ritual, sacrifice, or works, brings one into a right relationship with God, making one whole in body and in spirit. God may choose to physically heal you or heal a person from a distance. I mean, He can. But tell you what, no one comes to Jesus Christ, no one comes into a right relationship, a good standing and a right standing with God from a distance. We all must come to the foot of the cross. We all must come before the Lord Jesus Himself. Not from a distance. It's not your parents' faith. It's not your Bible teacher's faith. It's not your favorite Christian's faith. It is your faith in Jesus Christ, in the finished work, in the person of Jesus Christ that provides that. You're justified by faith alone in Christ alone. And that's what you see here. And the message is that true faith gives thanks. True faith gives thanks. Again, as we're just days away from the gorge, not the purge, the gorge. How thankful will we be that day when we gather? It's so easy. I've been to Thanksgiving dinners with my side of my family, and it gets lost to just have a moment. And what are we grateful for? I mean, that's why we're here. I mean, if I just want to gorge, I don't have to do it on Thanksgiving. I can do it on any day that ends in Y. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. But on Thanksgiving Day, we're setting a day apart as a nation to recognize, at least that's what, you know, no matter how you rewrite history, the reality is that you're setting a day aside in the year to give thanks to God. Here, the 10 lepers were grateful, but gratitude is not just an abstract. Gratitude is rooted in the goodness and the kindness of God. So we thank God for what He gives us. We're not just grateful, you know, where the teacher says blessed or grateful. That's great, but who gets the glory? Who gets the glory? See, that's why the Bible teaches us we're thankful to God for. So I thank God for you. I thank God for that. God is the author and the anchor of my gratitude. It finds it there. So what can we take with us this morning? Let me just share with you two important truths that emerged from our study. Number one, not everyone who trusts God for blessing trusts Him for salvation. You see it there. It happens all the time, right? I mean, I'm not saying this, this is not, shouldn't be like earth shattering. Groundbreaking. We know it, we see it. We are people, we've been guilty of this perhaps even now. That when we face a problem, it's like falling, you know, we find ourselves in a big deal, in a situation, and we need God to deliver. We need God to show up. And man, do we pray. Boy, do we pray. God has to show up. He has to show up. You know what happens when God shows up? And then what happens to you and me? We don't anymore. I mean, God showed up to these 10 guys and we're surrounded by a community, we're surrounded by a society that welcomes the goodness of God. They just don't want any claims of that God upon their lives. So as long as God can help me out and God gets me out of the jam and God shows up here and shows up there, I'm cool with that God. But when that God starts making claims, No, no, no, no, no, no. I don't want that. You see, and that's where you and me have to lead the way. We must model a faith that says there's more to God than just His blessings. There's a God that keeps His faithful promises even when life doesn't make sense. John MacArthur in his commentary writes the following, this incident is not merely the story of ten individuals. The one who was redeemed and the nine who were not are representative of a general attitude toward Jesus. The nine represent unbelieving Israel who had only a superficial interest in Jesus. The people wanted what they can get from him, healing, food, deliverance from demons, rescue from the oppression of Roman rule, but refused to acknowledge him as God and worship him. On the other hand, the penitent man pictures the believing remnant among the Jews and any non-Jewish repentant sinners who will enter the kingdom of God, Matthew 21. Both groups enjoyed the benefit of Jesus' power and basked in the wonder of His teaching and miracles, but the majority were content with the superficial temporal benefits they could only get from Him. Only a few humbled themselves, glorified Him as God, worshipped Him, and desired that He transform their hearts. All people faced the same two choices. They can be content with experiencing the common grace of the God who causes His Son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous, Matthew 5. Or they can embrace Jesus Christ as Master and Savior and cry out in penitence, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Only the latter will be justified and enter God's eternal kingdom. Not everyone who trusts God for the blessings will trust Him for salvation. And secondly, if you're not careful, if I'm not careful, Believers can focus on the benefits of Christ when we should focus on Christ Himself. The nine welcomed, and listen, I welcome the blessings of God, but the reality is that I cannot, I can't just stay there and God becomes utilitarian. God becomes a means to an end. and I enjoy the blessings from God. I enjoy the gifts of God at the expense of enjoying the giver of that gifts. Everyone knows and despises being taken advantage of. Can you imagine how God feels at times? Can you imagine? None of us like to be taken advantage of, taken for granted. Can you imagine how God feels when His children take Him for granted? If you're married, You don't like when your spouse takes you for granted. My wife is not here. She would have been said, amen. Not that funny, Tanya. Not that funny. None of us do, but we do it to God all the time. And we're his kids. And we're his kids. It's important that you and I put the Lord first, regardless of His blessings. We've been blessed beyond measure. Amen? If the Lord chose not to bless us again, we're good. We're good. We really are. We're good. Is that what's in your heart today? Let's close our eyes, bow our heads for just a moment. As we prepare to sing and respond to the study of God's Word, With your eyes closed, what's the Lord, what has He impressed upon your mind even now? Perhaps you need to go before the throne of grace and just be grateful. Be grateful. While you go before the Lord, would you reach out to Him and just express gratitude for who He is? Perhaps a year ago today, you were fighting COVID. Perhaps a year from today, you were burying someone because of COVID. Maybe a year ago from today, life was different. Here's the good news, God hasn't changed. Draw near to Him. Draw near to Him. So Lord God, we ask that you would do that. That you would welcome us as we have drifted, second-guessed your goodness on our lives, perhaps even taking you for granted. expecting you to be that which we think you ought to be. Forgive us. You're a God and we're not. Help us to refocus even this morning as we sing, come thou fount of every blessing. Help us. Our hearts are prone to wander. Bring us back. Give us eyes to perceive. Father, for those who are here and do not know you, please do not shorten your hand of salvation. Continue to be patient. And for those who do know you, help us not to be stiff-necked, but to be humble and cry out to you to have mercy. Lord, we love you and we trust you. In Jesus' name, and God's people said,