Every time we ask God, He blesses us, but we don’t properly thank Him. In the story of the Ten Lepers, we learn the proper way to thank God for His blessings. It isn’t enough to say ‘thank you’ standing in front of our icons at home. We must come to spend time with Him, in Church to properly give Him thanks. God has already blessed you today. Now, go to the Church and thank Him in person.
My brothers and sisters, in this morning’s miracle story, we are taught a very important lesson about gratitude. These 10 lepers approach Christ and begged for his mercy. We know from the story there were nine Jews and one Samaritan. All 10 went to Christ, “Lord, have mercy on us.” And Christ says, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” You see, in the ancient world, in the Old Testament, my brothers and sisters, there was an entire section of the Old Testament. Go and read it. An entire section of the Old Testament where the people would go to the temple specifically to thank God for their blessings.
We think, maybe it’s because of Hollywood, I don’t know, but we think they went to the temple to negotiate with God. “I’m going to give you an offering God so that you can heal me, so that you can bless me.” But in every example of the Old Testament, when they went to give an offering to the church, to the temple, it was to give thanks to God for something that God has already done for them. It was not a negotiation. So my brothers and sisters, that gives us an important enlightenment about our relationship with God. God has blessed us more than we will ever imagine, and more than we’ll ever know. When he asks us, [when we ask Him] he blesses us.
Even when we don’t ask, he blesses us. And what do we do? “Thank you, God,” if that. We are so filled with our own self-righteousness we think we deserve the blessings from God. We think we deserve the healing from God. We think, and I’ve heard it before, we think we deserve the miracles from God. And so when we receive his blessings, we’re like the nine who don’t go back to him. We go about our life. Sure, we say thank you in front of our icons. But do we come and spend time with God that very day sometimes? Our church, one of the only churches in America, open seven days a week to come and spend time with God. Do we take advantage of it?
Or do we go about our day? And then when Sunday comes, now admittedly, we are here today, but when Sunday comes, do we forget what God did for us on Tuesday? We have already gone about our life. My brothers and sisters, this is not a way to give thanks to God. The Samaritan went back to God in his presence and knelt in front of him and bowed and worshiped him. And he said, “Your faith has made you well.” And then he says, “Where are the other nine?” They were healed. He didn’t take away the healing from them, but they went on their way without returning to God.
We can change that in our life. We can make God a real priority in our life, not just with the words that come out of our lips, but the time we spend in our day. Not just standing in front of our icons, that’s important, but coming here in his physical presence, any day of the week that we need him, any day of the week that he has blessed us and we want to come and thank him. This is that great blessing that we have that others do not have. We have God in his physical presence in the church.
Don’t lose sight of that. …….[child crying] Don’t have to leave. You don’t have to leave. Don’t leave. She’s okay. She’s not bothering me. Is she bothering you? She’s not bothering me. Children are part of our family. We don’t just take the kids out just because they’re a little squeaky. I said a little squeaky. She deserved to be with God too. Why take her out into the foreign world when she can be here with God in his presence? This is that great gift that we must take full advantage of, not just today, but every day. And I promise you, when we make God that much of a priority for our lives, he will bless us at every turn, even when we don’t recognize him. Glory to God for all things.
