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Thanksgiving Eve - Pastor Stiemke |
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Thanksgiving Eve, ??06 (11/22) Luke 17: 11-19
Emmanuel, Ashville, NC
Sir, we would see JESUS!
In the name of Jesus!
?¨Giving Thanks to our Merciful God?Æ
by Rev. Frederick A. Stiemke, DD
Beloved,
please pray with me: Gracious God and Father, Your mercies are new unto
us every morning. Indeed great is Your faithfulness ?± so faithful that
You sent Your only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to seek and to
save the lost. You even grant us so very many earthly gifts and
pleasures. For all Your love and kindness we praise and adore Your holy
name. Through the gift of Your Holy Spirit grant us such sincere
gratitude that we thank You not only with our lips, but also with our
lives; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
In the name of our glorious God and Savior, beloved children of the heavenly Father:
For
anyone who loves and follows Jesus, not just Thanksgiving Day, but
everyday should be one of thanksgiving. St. Paul knew this when he
wrote, ?¨Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father through Him.?Æ [Colossians 3:
17] Centuries before that, the Psalmist urged the people of the living
God, ?¨Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; His mercy lasts
forever.?Æ Psalm 136: 1] With those entreaties these men of God
confronted a major problem in our sinful nature. We are very inclined
to take God??s gracious gifts for granted. Therefore, it is right and
proper that we pause again this Thanksgiving Eve to see that we have
every reason to give thanks to the Lord with genuine gratitude.
Admittedly
in trouble and danger, when needs press on us, most people turn to God.
Back in WWII a common saying was, ?¨There are no atheists in foxholes.?Æ
That??s quite true of life. When down, we are forced to look up. That
was certainly true of the 10 lepers in Jesus?? day on earth. They had a
serious disease that often led to death. In the ritual law given to
Moses, because leprosy then was highly contagious, God commanded that
anyone with this illness had to be excluded from the community. Thus,
in their isolation these men came together in an attempt to find
strength and support from one another. No wonder, once they heard that
traveling through their area was Jesus, who had healed others with
leprosy, they hastened to seek Him and His help, crying out, ?¨Jesus,
Master, have mercy on us! [Luke 17: 13]
I see a parallel to this
in what a reporter penned the Sunday following the great San Francisco
earthquake, ?¨All that is left of San Francisco attended religious
services today. Never in the history of the city has there been such an
outpouring to divine services. All San Francisco was on its knees. Men
who have never been to church in their lives were among the most devout
worshippers today.?Æ That devastating earthquake was a powerful
persuader that people needed the Lord and His blessing. That??s as it
should be, for our gracious God encourages His people through the
Psalmist, ?¨Call upon Me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and
you will glorify Me.?Æ [Psalm 50: 15]
Unfortunately, as already
indicated, when trouble leaves, the natural, sinful reaction of people
is to forget rather quickly our dependence upon God. Often people fail
to continue to thank the Lord for being their Deliverer and Helper.
That certainly was true of 9 of the 10 lepers Jesus healed. Only one
returned to give Jesus his thanks, with the result that our Savior
laments, ?¨Where are the other nine??Æ [Luke 17: 17] The prophet, seeing
this same human response in his contemporaries, likewise wrote, ?¨The ox
knows his owner and the donkey his master??s crib, but Israel does not
know; my people do not understand.?Æ [Isaiah 1: 3]
How about us?
Are there times when we take our earthly blessings for granted? When is
the last time you thanked our heavenly Father for the gift of your body
and all that its various parts can do? I trust that we all begin our
meals with a prayer of thanks, but are there times when the words
merely come without our hearts and minds also being genuinely thankful?
Our gracious God has provided much more than food for our bodies. Just
to name a few: Do any of us lack safe drinking water? The Lord has
given most of us family to love, and we in turn are loved by them. I
personally do not know of anyone sitting here tonight who does not have
true and loyal friends. The Lord has provided us with health and
resources, so that none of us lacks adequate clothing and shelter. We
do have quality schools for our children. Why, Emmanuel has even been
blessed with its own excellent Christian Day School.
In spite
of all the threats to the United States, we are still a free country
with all its many freedoms and blessings. We are gathered here this
evening without the threat of being arrested and hauled off to jail for
our Christian faith and practice. Look again at the magnificent
mountains in which we live with its multitude of plant and animal life.
We have again experienced good weather with adequate sun and rain in
the past year. Listing all these blessings from our Lord, we have
barely touched the surface of the many material blessings our loving
Lord showers upon us every day.
Yet bundle all our earthly
blessings together and they are so very small compared to the spiritual
blessings the Lord freely gives us, His children. God has not in just
judgment for our sins taken His Word, the Bible, away from us. You know
that Jesus has done everything necessary that you might have
forgiveness and peace with our holy, sinless God. Day by day our Lord
increases our joys and happiness. In days of trouble and testing, the
Lord is with us to grant us His grace sufficient for all needs and His
strength even made perfect in the midst of our weakness. In our life
together our Lord gives us many opportunities to serve Him and one
another. In the bond of faith in Christ Jesus, our merciful God
transforms our daily labors and toil into another means of serving Him
and others. He reaches out through the power of His Spirit to bind us
to Himself and to one another in love. Why, through the saving love of
Jesus, our Lord even promises us a place in the heavenly mansions where
in great joy and glory we will be able to serve our glorious God in
perfection of beauty forevermore!
With a clear vision of God??s
immeasurable grace and gifts in our minds, let us return once again to
the account of the healing of the 10 lepers. Who returned to Jesus to
give Him thanks and praise for the healing? It was the stranger, the
Samaritan! Hopefully that will help us to remind us that many times we
have been among the 9, rather those who walk in the footsteps of the
Samaritan. Surely we have cause to confess humbly that far too often we
fall short of the glory of God, not being the grateful folks we should
be. Hopefully we see again the leprosy of our own sin, which strives to
destroy us by separating us from the love of God.
Yet I pray
that our loving Father through the gift of the Holy Spirit enables you
to look beyond your failings and sin to the Divine Healer to whom that
healed Samaritan returned ?± Jesus Christ. He is not only the Great
Physician who has the power to heal and cleanse the leprosy of sin.
Jesus also in extraordinary grace and love does just that when we cry
out, ?¨LORD, HAVE MERCY ON US!?Æ He doesn??t ignore our cries. He died on
His cross long ago and rose again in triumph to wash and cleanse us
from our sin and transgressions. Even now Christ sits at the right hand
of His heavenly Father to intercede for us. Now as daily we turn to
Him, Jesus cleanses away from the leprosy of our sin, so that we stand
before Him restored and healed. Rightly Micah describes our Lord??s
mercy in these words, ?¨Who is a God like You, who pardons sin and
forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do
not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have
compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl our
iniquities into the depths of sea.?Æ [Micah 7: 18-19]
Surely we
have every reason to join the Psalmist in saying, ?¨Oh, give thanks unto
the Lord, for He is good. His mercy lasts forever!?Æ [Psalm 136:1]
Please join me in humble gratitude for all of God??s mercy and blessings
by repeating those words of sincere gratitude: ?¨Oh, give thanks unto
the Lord, for He is good. His mercy lasts forever!?Æ Gracious God and
Father, as we prayed before, with Your Spirit??s power help us to thank
You with both our lips and our lives! Amen.
+ + +
And
now may all of God??s wondrous grace and blessings fill you with great
joy and peace in believing, enabling you to show increasing gratitude
to our Triune God for all His bountiful goodness until we all can do
that perfectly in heaven. Amen.
© Reverend Frederick A. Stiemke, DD
Vacancy Pastor
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 10 April 2007 )
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