Tonight, I invite you to turn to Luke chapter 17, as we read a few verses there in connection with Psalm 100. So, Luke chapter 17, and also Psalm 100, as you recall, we have begun to consider together some of the Christian attributes of godliness. We were reminded again this morning in the reading of the law that God calls us to say no to ungodliness and to live godly lives. And what does that godliness look like? We can think of the fruit of the Spirit that we find outlined in Galatians 5 or that new clothing, as it were, that Paul commands us to put on in Colossians 3, along with other virtues that Paul and the Scriptures lay before us. We've already considered together humility and contentment. Tonight, we consider together the godly virtue or attribute of thankfulness. Luke chapter 17, beginning at verse 11 through 19. Hear now the Word of God. Now on His way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As He was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met Him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, Jesus, Master, have pity on us. When He saw them, He said, Go, show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked Him. And he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? Then He said to him, rise and go, your faith has made you well. Psalm 100. Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before Him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us and we are His. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. May God add His blessing tonight to the reading and consideration of His Word. Well, beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ, we find ourselves in the Thanksgiving season once again as Thanksgiving Day, of course, is quickly approaching. Notice I did not say that we find ourselves in that season of Thanksgiving for a reason, because for so many people, they are not thankful. And for them, this season is nothing more than a national holiday or maybe just a day off or simply for the children, just a school break. And on the other hand, for believers, our whole life ought to be a season of Thanksgiving. And yet, in this Thanksgiving season, many, even many unbelievers will take the time to reflect on, to reflect about what it is they are thankful for. However, truthfully, especially as Christians, we know that our focus, first of all, ought to be not on what it is for which we are thankful. We are to be thankful for that which we enjoy. But first of all, to whom we are thankful. Because the what is meaningless apart from the whom. Now, Scripture is indeed clear when it comes both to whom we are to be thankful and for what we are to be thankful. Verse 4, the end of it says, Give thanks to Him, to the Lord. Praise His name. Psalm 106, verse 1 says, Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord. Why? For He is good. His love endures forever. And those words seem to be a refrain throughout a few of the Psalms. We find that again at the beginning of Psalm 107. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever. And then in verse 8, let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men. And we find those same words again, beginning and ending, Psalm 118. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever. So it's very clear, Scripture is clear, to whom we are to give thanks. for what we are to give thanks. James in James 1 verse 17 says, Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights. Paul in Philippians 4 verse 6 says, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, what? With thanksgiving, present your requests. Where? To God. Thankfulness. Being thankful, beloved, is a Christian virtue. It is an attribute of godliness. Now, some godly traits we might describe as being god-like in that they reflect God's character. We might think of love and holiness and faithfulness. Other traits we describe as being God-centered. They center on God because they acknowledge, they exalt God's character. And again, we can think of those we have considered. Humility and contentment. And now tonight, thankfulness. For example, the believer acknowledges God's majesty through humility. As the believer recognizes the sovereignty of God, the majesty of God, the glory and the greatness of God, and compare ourselves to that majesty, indeed, that brings forth from the child of God humility. And therefore, through humility, the believer acknowledges God's majesty. And the believer acknowledges God's grace through contentment. As we realize that all we have is a blessing of God's grace and therefore we are content with that which God gives. And then also the believer acknowledges God's goodness then through thankfulness. Now Psalm 100 is not the only psalm that calls God's people to give thanks as we have already seen through our brief survey. but it is the only one that is specifically identified, and you can see this in a small print under where it says Psalm 100 in your Bibles, probably most of your Bibles, it says a psalm, it doesn't say of David as many of them do, but a psalm for giving thanks. The only one that is specifically identified in that way. And in this psalm, it's clear to see that there is a call to whom we are to give thanks, from whom that thanksgiving is to come, how we are to give thanks, and why we are to give thanks. And all of those things, of course, then centers the believer's thanksgiving on God. And that thanksgiving, beloved, first of all, is honoring to God. It honors God as it is directed to Him. All we need to do is take a survey of Psalm 100. Shout for joy to the Lord. That's the direction. Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before Him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. Verse 4, Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name. It is to be directed to God. And the psalmist there shows us too that all of these things are a demonstration that He lays before us in the psalm are a demonstration of giving thanks, how to give thanks to God. The believer's thanksgiving is honoring to God, but the problem is that thanksgiving is something that is defective in man. It is unnatural for you and me because of sin. We need to be called to give thanks. We need to be commanded to give thanks. Psalm 100 includes seven commands. relating to thanksgiving, thanking God and commanding how that thanksgiving is to be given, what it is to look like. Paul in Romans 1, verse 21 points to this defect in man when he says, For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God. In other words, they didn't acknowledge His majesty and His dignity, nor gave thanks to Him. They didn't acknowledge the bounty of His provision and care, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Unnatural for man in sin. In Luke 17, of all the ten men who were healed from leprosy, only one returned to thank Jesus and he makes it very clear that that one was the one who was least expected. Beloved, we are so quick to ask. We are often so anxious to receive. Yet at the same time, so careless in giving thanks, especially to God. And we know, of course, that there are many in the world today in our society who believe that they deserve to get. And therefore, they see no need to be or no reason to be thankful or to give thanks. We see that especially in our nation with our social welfare programs, These things by many are not seen as a privilege, but they are seen as a right. Yet it is a sin that grieves God to fail to be thankful to and to give Him thanks. It is a sin that grieves God because it is desired by God. It is important to Him. We see this with Jesus. Notice again what He says. Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? Jesus was every bit aware of who was and who was not thankful. You know, they became cleansed, it tells us, as they were on the way. He didn't do it magically as they stood before Him, but the One recognized where it came from. And Jesus was every bit aware of who was and who was not thankful. And the same is true with God our Heavenly Father when it comes to the ordinary and even the unusual blessings that He pours out upon us daily, not trickles out upon us, but pours out upon us daily, and God, our Heavenly Father, knows exactly who is thankful and who is not. It's important to Him. We also see that in Scripture, again, the short survey that we already did are a part of approximately 140 references about giving thanks to God. That's how important it is to Him that we give thanksgiving and praise to Him. He tells us some 140 times, thankfulness is an indispensable part of godliness, desired by God because it is deserved by God. Because thankfulness is an acknowledgement of something given to, something done for, something that benefits us or others. It's for something received. We teach our children at a very, very young age that when they receive a gift or a compliment, when someone does something nice for them, we teach them to say thank you. And it's not just intended to be a polite expression. Our thanksgiving to God is intended to come from the heart. Thankfulness is an acknowledgement of something given to us. It is an acknowledgement of God's provision and God's care, both physically and spiritually. an acknowledgement that all comes from Him and that we are totally dependent upon Him. And He deserves our thanksgiving and praise in all situations. Paul in Philippians 4, verse 6 again says, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. in everything. And that means, beloved, that there is never a situation that is so desperate that we are to fail to give thanks to God as if we are allowed to not give thanks to God. There is never a situation so desperate that we ought to fail to give thanks to God. The late Dr. James Boyce said it this way, Has he given us days of unusual prosperity? If so, it has pleased him to do it. We must be thankful to him for being the good, generous God he is. Now, we might say, well, that's easy. It's always easy to give thanks when things are going well, when everything is in our favor. But then again, remember, the Heidelberg Catechism reminds us that we are called to be thankful in prosperity. Not arrogant, not proud, but thankful. Yet, Dr. Boyce goes on. Has he given us days of troublesome trials and sorrow? If this is the case, we must thank him for that, knowing that he is wise and gracious even in allowing such hard times. That's a lot more difficult, isn't it? Do you find him to be wise and gracious? when you face times of difficulty and hardship and extreme trouble? Dr. Boyce is right. Even then, we are to give him thanks for being the wise and gracious God. Thanksgiving is honoring to God because he is the giver of every good and perfect gift, the greatest gift of which is a relationship with him. The believer's thankfulness in the second place demonstrates a relationship with God. Verse 3 says, Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. We enjoy a relationship with Him. And we know that relationship, first of all, is that He is our Creator. He is the One who made us. We didn't just appear one day. We didn't evolve from a gooey mass of whatever. But God, as David says in Psalm 139, created our inmost being. He knit us together in our mother's wombs. We are not our own, but we belong to Him on the one hand by virtue of His making us and giving us our very being. Yet also as believers, we know that we enjoy a relationship with Him as our Redeemer. Paul says in Ephesians 2, we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus. we enjoy that perfect deliverance that we were so beautifully and powerfully reminded of this morning Psalm 100 points to this relationship with God as our Redeemer and says we are His people we are the sheep of His pasture who is the He? who is the His? right before that he says know that the Lord is God know by faith believe that the covenant God, the One who said, I will be your God and you will be My people, the One who has redeemed us is not one of many, but He is the One and Only, the Sovereign God. Know that the Lord is God. The One and Only. And we are His people. We are the sheep of His pasture. As believers, we are the sheep for whom the Good Shepherd laid down His life. And therefore, as someone has said, Thanksgiving is a normal result of a vital union with Christ. It is to be something that flows naturally from that union with Christ by faith. And the quote goes on, Thanksgiving is a direct measure of the extent to which we are experiencing the result of that union in our daily lives. Our thankfulness is a measure. A yardstick, if you will. of that union that we understand and know and enjoy with Christ day by day. Thanksgiving to God demonstrates faith. And therefore the unbeliever sees no reason to be thankful while the child of God sees every reason to be thankful. Because He is our Creator, He is our Redeemer, and He is our Provider. Sheep are needy and dependent. But as the psalmist says once again in Psalm 107, verse 8, Let them give thanks to the Lord. Why? For His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for men. That's a refrain that is repeated throughout Psalm 107. But also then, we are told what those deeds are. Verse 9, For He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. And the psalmist goes on to talk about God's rescue and deliverance from both physical and spiritual peril or His provision of water and fruitful harvest or His care of the needy. He is our provider. Our Creator. Our Redeemer. Our Provider. And therefore, He is to be our focus. He is to be our focus. Our focus is to be on Him. Our focus is called to be on Him in worship. We are called to know Him. To know Him by faith as our covenant God. To know Him in that intimate, faithful way. to know of our favorable relationship with Him and our favorable position in Him. In worship, there are many ways in which we are called to demonstrate thankfulness to God. And the first response of God's people is indeed to be worshiped. Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before Him with joyful songs. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name. That's worship language. And when the psalmist says, worship the Lord with gladness and come before Him with joyful songs, we are to understand that that points to the thrill of liberation. The thrill of being set free from slavery to sin. Again, that perfect deliverance from death, from sin, from Satan that brings forth gladness and brings forth shouts of joy. And therefore, we are called to worship Him, beloved, for who He is and what He has done. And indeed, our worship includes that chief part of thankfulness as the Heidelberg Catechism instructs us, which is prayer. Prayer by which we express our thanksgiving to God. Prayer is a demonstration of thanksgiving, of heart and mouth, showing confidence in the only one who hears and answers prayer. Our focus is to be on God in worship, but also in our work. As you know from some of the older translations of Scripture, Psalm 100, it doesn't say, worship the Lord with gladness. It says, serve the Lord with gladness. Our focus is to be on Him in worship and our service in worship, in our work. In Romans 12, verse 1, Paul points out that the thankful believer really is nothing short of being a living sacrifice offered to Him. Again, our thanksgiving is to be demonstrated, can be demonstrated in so many ways, in our worship, in our singing, in the giving of our gifts and offerings that shows that we trust Him, that which He has given us in the first place, we trust Him to give us again. But also in our work through obedience, delighting in obedience to God, knowing that it delights Him. And even through serving others with kindness and compassion and love. And beloved, the believer's thanksgiving then not only honors God and demonstrates a relationship with God, but in the third place, it testifies of God. Demonstrating thankfulness to God provides a witness for Him. A witness of Him. Verse 5 says, For the Lord is good, and His love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. It testifies of God, acknowledging His character, acknowledging that He is good, that He is love, that He is faithful. God's goodness is His attribute that displays His love and kindness and faithfulness, His benevolence in giving abundantly to we who are completely needy. And God's kindness is seen in all that we have. And indeed, we know, of course, all that we have, first of all, in Christ Jesus. But I would also draw our attention to those things which probably come most natural to us for which to give thanks, our possessions and our privileges. Indeed, God's kindness is seen in all that we enjoy in this life, in the physical blessings of health and strength or work and opportunities or companion and fellowship. Look at your life. Examine your life. And see all that you have for which to be thankful. And God's kindness is seen even in that which God withholds from us. That which He doesn't give us. Because He knows that it would not be for our good. That it might destroy us. That it might draw us away from Him. And by withholding it, He is kind in that He molds and shapes us and draws us closer in our dependence on Him. Thankfulness testifies that all we have and all we are is from God while also promoting the believer's humility. You see, by nature, we're proud, aren't we? By nature, we are proud and we are prone to take credit ourselves for any success that we might enjoy in this life or for the stability that we have or for the abundance that we have in this life. We are prone to take credit for it. But true thanksgiving, beloved, is an act of humility. Recognizing that it's not we ourselves, it's not we at all, but it is God and only God. Notice, the healed man, when he came back, boys and girls, what did he do? It says he threw himself at Jesus' feet. He gave Himself completely in that act of worship and He thanked Him because He knew that it was completely from Christ alone. It was nothing from Himself. In Colossians 3, verse 17, Paul says, 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. You see, beloved, if it was of us, if it was from us, if it was our doing, why would Paul tell us to be doing it, giving thanks to God the Father through Jesus Christ? Because we are to be reminded that it is indeed all of Him, even the very work that we are given, the very strength that we have. It testifies of God acknowledging His character, promoting the believer's humility, and also it stimulates the believer's faith. You might say, how does it stimulate the believer's faith? As God's people, as we remember and meditate upon God's provision and His previous mercies, as we look back and we see all that God has done for us, as we recognize the faith that we have been given in Christ alone, that indeed encourages us to trust Him for all that we need for the rest of today and for tomorrow and forever, All because, indeed, of that greatest kindness poured out, that greatest kindness and love and faithfulness of God poured out upon us in Jesus Christ, that most valuable gift to fill our most desperate need, the need for salvation and eternal life. Indeed, beloved, we have every reason to continue in thanksgiving, to never let up. The believer's thanksgiving is honoring to God. It demonstrates a relationship to God. It testifies of God. And in the fourth place, it is cultivated by the blessing of God. Thankfulness, beloved, is the result of the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart and my heart, the Holy Spirit who works it in us. But we do not remain passive in that. He has given us new life in Christ Jesus, new desires, new goals, and we too, empowered and enabled by the Holy Spirit, are to put forth effort to cultivate thankfulness in all things, To work toward it. That means to examine what it is we have to be thankful for. To cultivate thankfulness, first of all, through meditation on His Word. As we feast daily on the Word of God, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to and reminds us of God's history of revelation, His history of redemption, His plan to save a people for Himself, which includes whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's you too. That's me too. Oh, our names might not be personally recorded in the pages of Scripture in that history of revelation and redemption, but we are there. It includes us. And we also see as we feast upon the Word of God, we see God's promises that were made and fulfilled to Israel in the Old Testament and ultimately in Jesus Christ for you and me. And therefore, as we feast and our eyes are opened, we are able to trust, called to trust, that all God promises us in His Word for both this life and the life to come that we can be fully confident in all that God promises, that all His promises are true and they will be fulfilled. Meditating upon the Word of God. Indeed, His Word of thanksgiving for you and me by which to lead us in our thanksgiving to God. Showing us all that we have for which to be thankful. Cultivating thanksgiving also through reflecting on your life and my life. The simple song, the children's song, says, Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God has done. Indeed, beloved, your blessings and my blessings are intimately, inseparably connected to what God has done. Count your blessings. Name them one by one. It's a good idea. It's a great idea. It's impossible. You and I might be able to sit down and come up with a half a page, a page, maybe even a page and a half. But our minds are limited and we would be limited in what we write down, not because God's blessings are limited. Those indeed are numerous. But some are easy to recount because they are the big things in life like a house or work or family or good friends, the desires that we enjoy or maybe a vacation, healing from a major surgery or a major illness. Boys and girls, young people making the team. Some are easy to recount. Others are hard. Because they are such a natural part of life, we take them for granted. The air, gravity, lungs, And a heart that will work automatically. You don't have to change the battery. For Jerry Vanderbile, he has to change the battery. But we're thankful for those batteries. A glass of water. A pair of socks. A toothbrush and toothpaste to put on it. Healing from a common cold. Or how about a simple band-aid, boys and girls? And, of course, the greatest blessing, which is the foundation of all of our blessings, that we are His people. We are His sheep. And we are His people. We are His sheep always, no matter what. Because God's love endures forever for the sake of Jesus Christ. What a blessing to remember, especially when the difficulties and the distresses and the disturbances of life come upon us. What a blessing to remember that we belong to Him. And even then, He has our best interest. He has our good in mind. Count your blessings. Write down your requests. Record when they are answered, whether yes or no. And see God's answers. Thank Him for hearing you. You see, again, we are very good at asking from God, but often we are very poor at remembering to thank Him for answers received. And therefore, may we pray continually that God, by His Holy Spirit, would open our eyes to His goodness, His love, His faithfulness. It's all around us. It's in our heart by the very desire that we have to pray to Him. but that He would open our eyes to this so that our hearts would always, always be filled with thankfulness to Him when we rise in the morning and open our eyes to a new day to thank God for that night of sleep and His watchful eye when we lay down at night before we close our eyes to remember His blessings throughout the day and remembering His blessings most of all in Christ Jesus over all of this. Indeed, as we have said, the ultimate reason for the believer's thanksgiving is because of God's grace displayed and poured out in Jesus Christ. And as our eyes are opened to our sin and misery, to what we deserve, and also to our salvation and deliverance that we have received through the work of Jesus, we cannot help then but to respond with thanksgiving to God from a new heart, that new heart by which the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to our entire life, protected in His hands. And beloved, thanksgiving then also promotes our humility before God and it promotes our contentment in God. The believer's thanksgiving is honoring to God. It demonstrates a relationship with God. It testifies of the goodness of God. It is cultivated by the blessing of God. The believer's thankfulness is a never-ending season of thanksgiving because of the never-ending love of God in Christ Jesus that endures forever. Amen. Let's bow together in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, indeed we have so much for which to be thankful. Everything for which to be thankful. For indeed, Your goodness and Your kindness is so generous to Your people. And Father, even in those times when You may allow us to wonder where our next house payment might come from or when we are running low for groceries, even when things look desperate in our lives, yet we may have the confidence that You are the One who has all things under control and that you will continue to shower your kindness upon your people and grant us all that we need because your blessings are new every morning. Father, we pray that you would increase our thankfulness. That you would increase that thankful heart in us moment by moment, day by day, and open our eyes more and more to the blessings that you continue to pour out upon us so richly, so freely in Jesus Christ our Lord. we thank you and praise you for your goodness in jesus name we pray amen