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Muskegon SDA Church

Jason Sliger

Ten Prayed One Praised

Dear Father in heaven, we are grateful that you have given to us as your people opportunities to share the gospel.

We thank you, Father, for the way you've blessed it locally.

We Thank you, Lord, for how you bless it globally as well.

Father, this morning, as we take a few moments to meditate upon your word, we ask, dear Lord, that you would speak to us through it.

Imagine with me if you would, that you are suffering from a incurable disease.

There's nothing that physicians can do to heal you of this sickness.

It is thought to be very contagious and because of that you have to be quarantined from everybody, lest the infection is spread to others.

And so you're wrenched away from your family, you're wrenched away from your friends, your social network, all that means anything to you, and you are put among other people who are suffering from the same malady.

Of course, there's a little bit of comfort being with other people who know what you are going through, but that never substitute for being with those that you love.

1 day while you are there with these people, separated from everybody that you love, you hear about somebody, some physician who has come up with a cure for this disease.

And immediately in your mind, you want that.

You want to go back to your former occupation.

And immediately, the group begins to formulate a plan on how they can find this physician.

You go to the gate of the city with everybody else.

You look for this great physician who's supposed to come to the city that day.

Of course, you know what I'm talking about.

The incurable contagious disease is thought to be leprosy.

And the physician who's the only 1 that could heal it, Jesus.

And the story that is being referenced is the story of the 10 leprous men.

Go with me in your Bibles to the book of Luke.

Luke the 17th chapter, and we'll begin in verse 11.

I think it's hard for us in a Western society to understand the transformative effect of being healed from leprosy would cause somebody during the time of the Bible.

I think we'll just get a little glimpse into it today.

Luke, the 17th chapter, beginning in verse 11, the Bible says this, and it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

There met him 10 men that were lepers, which stood afar off.

And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us.

And when he saw them, he said unto them, go show yourselves unto the priests.

And it came to pass that as they went they were Cleansed that little phrase right there If you unpack it has a lot in it as they went they were cleansed and 1 of them when he saw that He was healed Turned back and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his feet, at the feet, sorry, fell down on his face at the feet, at his feet, giving him thanks.

And Jesus answering said, "'Where there are not 10 cleansed, but where are the 9?

"'There are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger.

Can you imagine the joy that these 10 leprous men had?

Bible says, as they went, they were healed.

I mean, moments before, their body is rotting off of their skeletal structure.

They are in immense pain in certain areas.

Other areas, they have no pain because of the paralysis and numbness that has taken place.

And Jesus says, go show yourselves unto the priests.

They turn and as they're going, their body begins to heal as they take 1 step after the other, "'closer to where the priests are.'" Transformative effect the word of God had on the life of these 10 leprous men.

And as they are going, I am sure that the excitement was building inside of them.

And as their body began to rejuvenate itself and begin to work and repair and heal itself, they're getting more and more excited, and they're moving faster and faster to where the priests are.

But 1 of them, when he realizes, he looks at his hands, he looks at his arms, he looks at his body, and he sees that he is healed, instantly he stops and he says, there is something that must take place.

I cannot take 1 step further in the direction of where the priests are.

They all obtained a blessing, but only 1 of them praised God.

All 10 of them received a blessing from God.

All of them were healed, but only 1, a tithe, one-tenth turned around and said, I need to glorify God for the blessing that I have received.

We have, as Americans, as Adventists, we have a lot to be thankful for.

And of course, this is the time of the year where we tend to think of it a little bit more than other times of the year.

I know it's cold, but I think if you go home this afternoon and you sit and think long enough and hard enough, you'll probably find a few things you're thankful for about the snow.

Life, health, strength, eyesight, hearing, relationships, friendships, finances, the list goes on.

I mean, we could compile quite an extensive list of things that we ought to be thankful for as God's people.

10 were healed, 10 were blessed, but only 1 had the attitude of gratitude.

And I believe very firmly as a pastor that not a whole lot has changed in the last 2000 years.

As people, we tend to be more open about our prayer requests, but less reluctant to share our blessings.

And I believe it should be turned on its head.

Not that we shouldn't give prayer requests.

I think prayer requests are very important.

I appreciate our prayer request time because it educates us so that we can go back and beseech the Lord and have answer to prayer so we have something else to praise the Lord about.

But we tend to keep track of our prayer request lists a little bit more accurately than we keep track of our blessing lists.

And I think it should be turned on its head.

The attitude of gratitude shouldn't just happen once a year at the end of November, But it should be something that extends throughout the year, where if I came to you and said, what are you thankful for?

You would have several things right off the top of your head that you are thankful for.

Even amidst the trials and difficulties that we may go through, there is still a blessing that can be found.

The next thing that we find is that 10 prayed.

They said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

They all were praying and asking God to heal them of their sickness.

They all had genuine desire to be healed.

But only 1 of them came back and praised God when their prayer request was answered.

I don't think a whole lot has changed since then, but I think a lot should change now.

That as we pray, yes, we all pray, and we should, we should bring our prayer requests before the Lord and make our requests known.

But as we bring those requests before God, we should keep an eye single to finding the answer to that promise and then praise the Lord as that 1 Samaritan did.

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Ten Prayed One Praised

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