Grace and Gratitude

Guest (Male): Welcome to PowerPoint with Jack Graham.
Jack Graham: The world thinks they deserve something. We know we don't deserve this. If you would change your attitude to an attitude of gratitude, it would change your life.
Guest (Male): On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how we can show gratitude for everything God has given us. Now, here's Dr. Graham with his message, Grace and Gratitude.
Jack Graham: Our text today is from Luke's Gospel chapter 17. Grace and gratitude are inseparably linked in scripture and in our lives. When we have experienced the grace of God, we overflow with gratitude to God, not just a day, but forever. We are forever grateful. And so this message is all about Jesus in the story of Jesus and his grace and our gratitude. What if I gave you a pill or recommended to you a miracle drug that would make you happier and healthier, would improve your sleep, your work productivity, your creativity, even your longevity that would lessen your physical pain? What if there was a drug like that that advanced your career, that made you a better husband, a better wife, live in relationship that would assist you in decision making? What if there was a drug like that? Would you take it? What is not in a drug, it's in the praise of God. Not in a pill, but in the praise of God because gratitude scientifically proven as Thanksgiving gratitude has been studied by professionals and scientists and physicians, and it is true that gratitude is not only the healthiest of all human emotions, but it is physically good for you. So when you give thanks, when you are a grateful person, then all these benefits come from the blessings of God. When you learn to live in perpetual praise, the psalmist said, I will bless the Lord in all times, and his praise will continually be in my mouth. I learned those verses a number of years ago and have practiced them from that day forward to this day. Blessing the Lord at all times, praising him in everything. The psalmist went on to say, Oh, magnify the Lord with me and come. Let us exalt his name together. And therefore, we give thanks always. Luke 17 verses 11 to 19 is a beautiful and wonderful story with a dark, ugly backdrop, but a beautiful and wonderful conclusion. Verse 11 says, on the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by 10 lepers who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices saying, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said to them, go and show yourself to the priest. And as they went, they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back praising God with a loud voice. Can you imagine? And he fell on his face at Jesus's feet, giving him thanks. And Luke, Dr. Luke, ever the physician, for the detail said, now he was a Samaritan. And then Jesus answered, were not 10 cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except the foreigner? And he said to him, the one returning thanks, rise and go your way. Your faith has made you well. Literally, the word well is the word saved. Your faith has saved you. Your faith has rescued you. Your faith has healed you. It's all about grace and gratitude. First, grace. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. He is a few days, a few months away from the cross and the resurrection. The reason that Jesus came to earth was to die on the cross, to rise again, to give us eternal life for God so loved the world, he gave his only son. So Jesus on this mission of mercy is spending time in the Galilee now between Galilee and Samaria. he's on his way to Jerusalem where he will lay down his life. And while he is on his way for these weeks or months, he has been preaching and teaching and healing and delivering people from demons and presenting himself as the Messiah, the master, the savior and redeemer. And so now in these final months on earth with this journey with Jesus like these disciples, we encounter not one but 10 lepers. And this extraordinary miracle takes place. It is a miracle of glory, but the greatest miracles of all are the miracles of grace. First, a word about lepers. 10 lepers traveling together, socializing together, dying together because there was no cure for leprosy in that time. It was a terrible skin disease, a bacteria driven skin disease. And it was quite common in the ancient world and there was no cure. Everyone who had leprosy was cast out from regular society and culture. People believed it was highly contagious and so no one would get near a leper. A leper was required to identify himself when he walked near a group to say, leper, leper, leper. Condemned to die. It's a terrible way to die, this leprosy. It was a miserable existence to have leprosy and to live with leprosy and to die with leprosy. And not only this, but not only were you cut off from people, no family, no friends except the friends that shared your fate, that shared your living death. They were cut off ceremonially from the temple. And the priest had the responsibility according to the book of Leviticus of making sure that lepers did not infect others and they were cut off from the holy place. So in effect, they're cut off from religion. They're they're cut off from a relationship with God in terms of the Jewish faith. They're just cut off from life. Have I painted this picture? One leper, then 10 lepers. Jesus confronts these lepers. These lepers standing at a distance, the walking dead. You didn't want to die of leprosy. You didn't want to live with leprosy. But as you look at this story as all the stories of Jesus, it's a story of mercy. It's a story of grace, his goodness, his faithfulness, his tenderness, his love for people far from God and his power to heal, his power to change lives. It's a wonderful message, this message of grace. So this tells us this story, the story and the story is all about the Savior's love, his mercy and grace because like these lepers, we are diseased by sin. We all have this congenital disease, this this virus, this bacteria of sin that is in us. And the Bible says the soul that sins, and that's all of us, will die. So it's a death sentence. Leprosy in that era was a death sentence. And with sin comes death. The wages of sin is death. Now, I know this is not what the world says. This is not the world view of the world. The world, maybe your own friends, maybe yourself, you think, well, sin is bad, but it's not that bad. We're all lepers in the sight of a holy God. Lepers would often cover their flesh, their wounds, their open sores with cloths. And these rags were vile and filthy, diseased themselves. You know what God said about our human righteousness? Isaiah the prophet said, our righteousness is as filthy rags. You get the picture? You say, well, that's offensive. Well, it's not offensive that God tells us that we're sinners in need of a Savior. It's not offensive that God loves you so much that he points out if you go to the doctor and the doctor saves your life because he finds a deathly disease in your life, that's love and kindness to tell you the truth. So the truth is that we are lepers. But the good news is that his blood can make the foulest clean. And his blood avails for me. Leprosy is described when it is healed as cleansing. You noticed that when we read it. He he realized they were they realized they were cleansed. Their skin is no longer filthy and diseased and dirty. They're they're beautifully smooth skin and it it was it was such an incredible miracle that take place and it was all of grace when when these 10 lepers approached Jesus at a distance, they're shouting at him, mercy, mercy. There are things that we cannot explain and there's no human solution. There is no human solution for leprosy. God, have mercy. And there's no human solution for the disease of the soul. So we need mercy. We need grace. Grace and gratitude are vitally, essentially, and eternally connected.
Guest (Male): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, Grace and Gratitude. Did you know that you can join Dr. Graham for his daily devotion? It's a study of God's word that will help you grow in your faith, encourage you in your walk with Christ and show you how to navigate through the challenges of life. To sign up, text devo to 59789 and begin receiving Dr. Graham's devotional every day. Again, text devo, d e v o to 59789. When you're walking through a difficult season or ministering to someone who is, you know that easy answers rarely help. What we need is the unchanging truth of God's word. That's why Dr. Jack Graham wrote Diamonds in the Dark. In this encouraging book, he opens scripture to show how God meets us in grief, fear, waiting, illness, and uncertainty. We'll send you Diamonds in the Dark as our thanks for your gift of $10 or more. Your support helps bring biblical hope to people searching for answers through radio, television, podcast, and digital ministry every single day. To give and request your copy, text nov to 59789. That's nov as in November to 59789. Now, let's get back to today's message, Grace and Gratitude.
Jack Graham: Here's something interesting about the stories of Jesus healing the lepers. Recorded by Luke in Luke chapter 5, he healed him one way and touched that leper. Jesus is not afraid to touch lepers. God came very close to leprous sinners like you and me. That's why he came. So Jesus touched the lepers, but in this case, he didn't initially touch these 10 lepers. He told them to go to the temple and show them in themselves to the priest. He did that for one reason, to test their faith, and another reason as an act of obedience when he spoke to them. But it was all a matter of faith. He said your faith has made you well. But the fact is that that he healed one one way and the others another way. When you when you read the scriptures and these stories of Jesus, how he encountered individually, they all were a little different. Nicodemus story, a righteous rabbi is compared to a sinful Samaritan woman who was a failure at life and marriage. And so all the people that Jesus met, both rich and poor, he dealt with them at the point of their need. He dealt with them differently. And and what I want to say to you about that and make a very important point is that Jesus doesn't deal with us all the same way. If if we were to give testimonies here today of how we came to Christ, there are a multitude of ways. Some as children, some as adults, some out of addiction, some out of self-righteousness, some out of church, some off the streets. And and God may have used various tools and ways to get us to Jesus. It might have been a church service. It could have been a friend knocking on your door. I I could go on and on. People met Jesus in various ways and and he doesn't treat people all the same way. Here's the point. There's only one way to the Father. Jesus said it in John 14:6, I am the way, the truth, the life. And no one comes to the Father except by me. Jesus isn't the best way to heaven. He is a a way to heaven. He's the only way. He's the one way to heaven. That's what he said. But while there is one way to the Father, Jesus Christ, there are many ways to get to Jesus. You see that? So God by his spirit moves in various ways in our lives to get us to Jesus. You may come out of religion. You may be a person completely of a different religion. I'm hearing stories in the Muslim world about dreams, supernatural dreams in which Muslim people are meeting Jesus and seeing Jesus and finding someone to tell them the story of salvation. That's an unusual way, obviously. But whatever ways or paths God has given us to get to Jesus, then Jesus is the one and the only one who gets us to salvation. Salvation is in Christ alone. Neither is anyone saved apart from him. It's all of his grace. He is the only one who gives grace, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So these cry out for mercy and that's what we need. They had no other hope, no other solution, no other way but Jesus. Their pathway was through a terrible disease. Sometimes God uses sickness and illness to get us to a place where we are desperate. They came to Jesus. They cried out mercy, mercy, mercy. In salvation, God is sovereign. He will choose to use whatever means and methods and ministries to get us to himself. So they are recipients of the miracle of grace. It's wonderful when we are physically healed by the hand of God. But greater than the miracles of glory, these great supernatural effects upon people's bodies are the miracles of grace. The greatest miracle is his mercy. The greatest miracle is his salvation. It cost him his life. He poured out his life. He gave his blood to ransom us, to save us, to cleanse us. And every Christian in this room, we know something. We have been some given this without merit. We haven't deserved any of this, none of it. The world thinks they deserve something. We know we don't deserve this. But Jesus gave us this gift and we who were lepers, vile and unclean, are now made whole. And therefore, there is this gratitude, gratitude. All 10 lepers are healed at the word of Christ. They realize they are healed on their way to see the priest. There was no history at onyx. There was no dramatics recorded by by Luke. They just suddenly suddenly realize that they are cleansed. They are clean. So nine go on their way, never to come back as far as we know, but one came back. One returned thanks. And he's shouting. There's a lion in his lungs. He's shouting with praise to God for this healing, this hope that he now has. And he falls on his knees and he clasps the the the the the body of Jesus and he worships him and he's saying no doubt if you can imagine this, thank you, thank you, thank you. He represents every man and woman who has received grace in their lives and mercy from Jesus. The mark of a true Christian is someone who is forever grateful. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Thanksgiving can be felt, but it is better told. He is saying it. He is shouting it. He is praising God. That's the mark of someone who has been saved by faith. Jesus then asked him the question, where are the nine? Where are the other nine? Because Jesus wants to make an important point for all of us. And that is in gratitude is the height of pride and arrogance and selfishness. Where are the nine? 90% did not come back to say thank you, Jesus. 90% were selfish and walked away. Maybe that's the percentage of the world. I don't know. 90%. Paul talked about it in Romans 1:12 talking about the lost world, people without God, without hope. He said, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful. An unthankful heart is the sign of an unbeliever. If a grateful heart, a thankful heart is the sign of a believer, an ungrateful heart is the sign of an unbeliever. And I don't know. I I hope to see these in heaven because somewhere they believed and trusted in God, but Christ, but in my mind, 10 were healed, but only one was saved. 10 got their healing, but one got the healer by trusting in Jesus. One came back to surrender his life to the Lord. The rest went on their way. We don't know what happened to them. All we know is they were in ungrateful. And sadly, we see it today in the world and sometimes we even see it in the church. People who have been graced and rather than being humbly grateful, they are mumbly hateful. They don't rise and shine. They rise and whine every day. Negative, cynical, suspicious, churches get like that. It's full of division and strife and people questioning and critical constantly about this, that, the other. Not grateful for what God has done, not thankful for the work of Christ in their lives and in their church. I mean, you know, this you can come to church, you can find something to complain about. There's plenty to complain about, I'm I'm sure. Or you can find the blessings. You can experience the richness of the grace and the fullness of the fellowship. Complainers and cynics and critical, it's just not becoming of a man or a woman graced by God. If you would change your attitude to an attitude of gratitude, it would change your life physically, emotionally, relationally, and certainly spiritually. I know it sounds clichéish by now. We've heard it so many times, but truly cultivate this attitude every day of gratitude to God for all that he has done. It's all about your focus. Jesus looked at the man and he said, your faith has saved you. Your faith has saved you. It's our faith in Jesus Christ in his grace that saves us. And then it is our focus on the blessings that continues to make us whole. No wonder we're commanded in scripture on multiple occasion to give thanks always because God is working in circumstances and conditions positively, purposefully in our lives. Romans 8:28 is right where it's always been in the Bible. He's working all things for good. And therefore, we can praise him knowing that God's providential care and purposes in our lives will bring us into his presence. We will celebrate him forever. Grace and Gratitude. Clearly, this man's life is brand new. And so he lays his life at Jesus's feet. And he says, thank you, Lord. And Jesus said, your faith has saved you. Have you experienced this miracle of grace? And do you have the gratitude in your heart to always praise him because of what he's done for you?
Guest (Male): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, Grace and Gratitude. Every day, someone turns on the radio, opens a podcast, or watches a message online looking for hope. Many are carrying burdens no one else can see. Through your support of PowerPoint Ministries, they're hearing the life-changing truth of God's word exactly when they need it most. And as our thank you for your gift of $10 or more, we'd love to send you Dr. Jack Graham's book, Diamonds in the Dark. It's a reminder that God is present, faithful, and working even through life's hardest seasons. To give a gift and request your copy, text nov to 59789. That's nov as in November to 59789. Did you know that you can join Dr. Graham for his daily devotion? It's a study of God's word that will help you grow in your faith, encourage you in your walk with Christ and show you how to navigate through the challenges of life. To sign up, text devo to 59789 and begin receiving Dr. Graham's devotional every day. Again, text devo, d e v o to 59789. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today?
Jack Graham: In the early days of the space program, an atheistic Russian cosmonaut went into outer space in one of those 10 cans that they call spaceships in those days. But he came back from his short trip into outer space, a mile and a half up basically. And he said, we have searched the heavens and we have discovered there is no God. A mile and a half. We have searched the heavens and there is no God. John Glenn, the American astronaut, went up a few months later and he came back and he said, they said, what did you see up there? And he said, I see God everywhere. It's all about your focus, isn't it? If you know Jesus, you see God's wonders and God's greatness and God's glory and God's goodness everywhere. God inhabits the praises of his people. Do you want the presence of God in your life? You know what it is? p r a i s e. The Lord inhabits the praises of his people according to Psalm 22 and verse 3. So if you were if you want to text God, if you want to know his text address is p r a i s e. Praise puts us in the presence of Jesus and elevates us and shames the devil and fills our lives with with hope. The psalmist said, Psalm 106, give thanks unto the Lord for he is good. It doesn't say give thanks to the Lord for because you feel good because we don't always feel good. It doesn't say give thanks to the Lord when you feel good. It says give thanks to the Lord because he is good. And the one who is good does good. And he's working all things together for the good to those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. And this is the reason that in every circumstance of life, we can praise God.
Guest (Male): And that is today's PowerPoint. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about how it takes more than money and possessions to be rich. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham.
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