Miracles of Jesus part 5 – The power of thankfulness

Luke 17:11-19

Gratitude and thankfulness was rare in Jesus’ day and the same is true today.

1. The uniqueness of thankfulness:

• There are more who receive benefits from God than will ever praise God for those benefits. God’s common grace is all around us, breath, food, shelter, friends and family. All of us in one way or another will enjoy common grace, but man is so full of ingratitude. Lamentations 3:23
• The number of those that pray is greater than those that praise. This is seen in v13, they all prayed but only one praised. Praise ought to follow on naturally from prayer, your prayer should feed your praise, which feeds your prayer which feeds your praise etc.
• More of us are likely to obey a command or ritual then praise Jesus, in v14 they all go to see the priest. As humans we find the ritual and exercises of living a Christian life easy enough, but letting our heart sing with praise that is a rare thing
• There are more that believe then will praise. The 10 men all had a level of faith, but 9 never came back once they’d received the gift Jesus had given them. So often we do not praise in proportion to the blessing we’ve received. Let’s take every opportunity to praise Jesus this week.

2. What does true praise and thankfulness look like?

• There’s an individual aspect to true praise and thankfulness, in v15 the man comes back and praises alone. True praise comes when we find our own way to praise alone, could be singing out loud on your own, writing down in a notebook statements of who Jesus’ is, taking a Psalm and using it to praise.
• There’s a promptness to it, in v15 the man goes straight back to Jesus after being healed. When you see God do something praise straight away.
• There’s an intensity with praise, in v15 he glorified God loudly and boldly. So often we can push down and dull down when it comes to praise, but instead we must revel in the grace of God and let that be something bold and loud.
• There’s also humility, in v16 after the loud praise he falls at Jesus’ feet. There’s no place more honourable then at the feet of Jesus, true thankfulness lies low in humility knowing what Jesus has done.
• True thankfulness and true praise focuses on you and Jesus, it doesn’t worry about other people. The one man who comes back does not blame or shame the 9 who didn’t come back.

3. The blessedness of thankfulness

• The one who came back was more blessed, there’s huge blessing in thankfulness.
• Thankfulness and praise to Jesus is what we’re called to do. Our hearts are never truly satisfied unless they are glorifying and worshiping Jesus.
• The key to a sweet and intimate relationship with Jesus is thankfulness and praise, it’ll bring a joy to your life like nothing else.
• In praise and thankfulness you see clearly, the one who came back had deep insight in his praise and devotion, you learn so much when you praise and when you’re thankful.
• Finally we’ll receive the most wonderful and largest blessing, in v19 Jesus says to the one leper ‘your faith has made you well’. In some translations it says ‘your faith has saved you’. He was saved not just from leprosy, but he was also saved from sin and given a place in heaven as a son of God.  We all owe so much to Jesus and should spend our days praising and thanking him.

Jesus deserves the highest praise, this week let’s praise Jesus more then we ever have before