The Thankful Disciple
Sermon for
October 10, 2004
Psalm 98:1-4
2Timothy 2:8-13
Luke 17:11-19
1. Good Morning! Let’s pray and invite our Lord to bless our reflections upon His Word – Let’s Pray. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. Opening Comments: What does God want the most for us? That we would love Him and know His infinite love for us! And then that we would be His beloved and obedient children – His good and obedient disciples! That’s it in a nutshell. And when we are this – what do we look like? We look like Jesus Christ His beloved Son – we look like Christians! And as Christians we’re most attractive to those whom God is drawing to Himself but we’re also most threatening to the world which wants everything but God’s Kingdom to be established on earth.
What did Jesus know at the core of His very being? That He had a divine Father who loved Him and had a mission for Him to accomplish!
What must you and I come to
believe at the very core of our being if we’re to become great disciples of
God? That we have a divine Father who loves us and has a
mission for us to accomplish.
There’s one more reality that must become a core commitment in our lives if
we’re to become truly great disciples – and it was sublimely true of Jesus
Christ! Can anybody guess what that
might be?
It’s
the absolute certainty that our sovereign Lord is working minute by minute for
good in our lives! That He’s working “in”
us and “through” us for good! The
question is always “will we cooperate with Him” isn’t it?”
This
fundamental fact is contained in the 8th chapter of the Book of
Romans:
Rom. 8:28 And we know that in all
things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose.
God is working minute by minute for good in our lives!!! God is working minute by minute for good in your life and mine!
In other words, you and I this morning are being once again
encouraged to really believe that God
is working for good in every aspect of our lives!
Do
YOU AND I believe this – really believe this?
This is so hard for us to fully grasp and ultimately fully believe isn’t it?
It’s far easier to believe that this world in “random” even “chaotic” and so
too is God and that there really doesn’t seem to be any convincing proof that a
good God “runs” this universe!
Quite frankly, I think most of us believe that God needs our help
and often our suggestions on what “good” really is!
Can
you think of anything in your life right now that you would think God could
change for the better and this would be “good!”
Just
suppose God gave all of us a “God Suggestion Box” on our e-mail page. Don’t you think that most of us we would have that stuffed daily with
suggestions?
But that’s not what Scripture teaches us nor what Jesus Himself teaches us with His own life. For He clearly trusted His Father’s plan and did everything to obey Him and this morning He wants us to recommit our lives to this fundamental commitment that God is truly working minute by minute in our lives for good!
3. Going Deeper. Let’s explore this fundamental belief just a little further.
If you could really believe this – that God was minute by minute working in your life for your good and for the good of those around you – how would that change the way you live out the rest of your life?
Really think about this now . .
. In every minute of your life and mine God is
present and working for the good! In
other words, God is arranging things around us and through us that ultimately
work for the good! That means that if
you and I could see into the future we’d be able to see how all of these
seemingly disparate and sometimes most unfortunate events in our lives all form
God’s perfect pattern in our lives.
It
ultimately means that we get to live happily ever after!
Now
with that reality firmly established in our hearts and minds how will we live
our lives differently?
4. Getting to the point of this reflection: Ah! That brings us to the central point of this reflection.
With
this firmly established in our lives what 2 virtues would be born from this
flowerbed – this flowerbed of God’s infinite love and our experience of it?
Humility and thankfulness!
David Lock reminded us of this on Friday!
Listen to one of the most majestic passages in all of Scripture for they reveal the Christian who is resting in the arms of His sovereign Father –
Phil. 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again:
Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness –
your meekness – your humility - be evident to
all. The Lord is near.
6 Don’t be anxious about anything, but in everything, by
prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Ah! The first
virtue that will spring up within you as your rest in God’s love is – “your
gentleness – your humility – it will be evident to all! Why? Because the Lord is so so so near!”
And then listen to what follows – “Don’t be anxious
about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to
God.”
Ah! “with thanksgiving” – the second virtue!
It’s this second virtue that God wants us to focus in on this morning!
Let’s look at how this
thankfulness works it’s way out in our daily life. We awaken
with real gratitude for God who has given us another day to love and serve
Him. Perhaps we see a beautiful sunrise
which reminds us of God’s enormous power and beauty. Then perhaps we see a husband and wife
walking hand in hand on their early morning constitutional – so we thank God
for our spouse and the wonder of God’s gift to us in them.
And
during the rest of the work day we to look for and happily to discover God’s
fingerprints all around us.
And
finally at the end of the day we thank God for all that has come to us. Some of it is easy to discern as good, while
some of it seems bad or even evil yet we know, deep deep
down, that God is inexorably working good into it all! And so we can, in faith, thank God for
whatever He is doing.
And
then we can go to sleep safe and secure in the knowledge that all is and will
always be well in a world governed ultimately by our good and gracious God!
You
see, the person who lives in this certain knowledge
lives in a fundamentally good world.
Yes, there is evil but it was conquered decisively at
5. Please turn with me now first to the Gospel reading – Luke 17:11-19 and let’s see what our Lord wants to tell us about thankfulness:
Luke 17:11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the
border between
Now why didn’t Jesus simply just say, “OK
be cleansed” as He did another in the case of another leper? But instead He commanded them to go and show
themselves to the priests.
It was because the Levitical
law (Lev 14:2) gave specific directions to this effect to those who were
delivered from leprosy. It commanded
them to show themselves to the priests and to offer a sacrifice for their
cleansing. He commanded them to go as
being already healed so that they might bear witness to the priests.
But now to the point of the whole story –
reading on from verse 15:
15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him — and he was a Samaritan. 17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
It’s important to notice that
it was a Samaritan outcast, despised by the Jews, who ultimately saw all that
had happened to Him and returned to thank his deliverer, Jesus Christ. And clearly Jesus was blessed by his
thankfulness.
Now
it was this one who was not only healed but became a worshipper and follower of
Jesus Christ.
He was healed and “saved” in the sense of “saved for eternal life!”
You
see, the NIV translation is perhaps not as full as it could be. The NIV concludes with these words, “Rise and
go: your faith has made you
well.”
But the New Jerusalem Bible translation closes with these words, “Stand
up and go on your way. Your faith has
saved you.” The Greek word used here is “sw¿ˆzw”
and is more often than not used in the context of “salvation.” This one, this thankful one – was
saved! Ah!
The
other nine were healed but this grateful one was “healed” for eternity! Ah!
Now listen to the words of another thankful disciple:
Psa. 98:1 Oh, sing to the LORD a
new song! For He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm
have gained Him the victory. 2
The LORD has made known His salvation; His righteousness He has revealed in the
sight of the nations. 3 He has
remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of
6. Application:
Thankfulness – living
a life in constant and continual thankfulness is what we’re being called to do
from this moment onwards.
Our heavenly Father knows what’s best for us and I sense
that His heart is aching to bring us to the point where we trust Him entirely
with our lives and are able to join the Psalmist and say, “Oh, sing to the
Lord, sing a new song” . . . for He is
most faithful!”
Now can we all relinquish control over our own lives and give them fully – nothing held back – to our faithful God?
You see, He’s in control anyway isn’t He – so why not let Him not only have us but let Him have our thankfulness and thankfulness when it’s full blown is really worship!
A truly trusting and thankful
disciple of Jesus Christ is the most attractive person in all
the world – why? Because he or she are utterly at
peace. They have relinquished control over their
lives and no matter what comes their way – good or apparent evil – they know
that their sovereign Father is working it all to good
in the end! And what He determines is
good is goooooooood indeed!
What
then is God whispering to each and every one of us right now? He’s calling us to live out the rest of our
lives looking for Him more and more in every minute of our lives and, like the
thankful leper, let us thank Him continually for all that comes to us – FOR HE
IS MOST CERTAINLY IN IT WORKING OUT HIS GOODNESS IN IT!
Let’s Pray:
“Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed by thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven – O Father, you are God and we are not. You are leading Your creation inevitably towards a good ending and you invite each of us to play our part in bringing that to fruition.
Whom have you chosen for each of us to draw into your kingdom . . . because of our lives lived in humility and thankfulness to You our heavenly Father?
Who are they Lord? Reveal them to us and give us the courage and draw them to You with our attractive life of humility and thankfulness. Amen and Amen!”