Praise and Thanksgiving
By Pastor Nick Bibile
The text that I am going to
preach today is from Luke 17:11-19.
Luke
There are
many that pray everyday but how many are praising God and giving thanksgiving
to God everyday. Here in the
1 Chron
and he is to be held in awe above all gods.
Here we see
in our text ten lepers were healed but only one was seized with sudden impulse
to return back and give praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. It shows that only
ten to one would praise. Many are blessed with abundance of mercies yet give a
cold and a dry praises to God.
Verse 13 and
lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”
If you read
in the text all ten lepers prayed to the Lord. In the same way there are many
who would pray to the Lord, specially when they are in sickness and danger,
when the Lord answers their prayers they forget to praise God or their praises
grow sick unto death, their praises are cold, dry and it is not from the bottom
of their heart without any intensity.
Which is more
important? Prayer or Praise? Prayer is for time. We pray only when we are here
on this earth, we don’t pray in heaven. But praise is for eternity, we would be
praising God in heaven for eternity therefore praise deserve the highest
place. All ten believed yet only one
believed and came back to praise Christ for the mercy he had received.
Verse 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they
were cleansed.
Many obey the
ritual than praising Christ. Many attend church as a ritual, the external form
of worship. Many would sing hymns and songs as a ritual, pray and read the
Bible as a ritual and not from the bottom of their hearts, yet how little would
praise God. Not the external praise but internally from their hearts, lying at
his feet and praising him, singing our souls in gratitude for him. Nine obeyed the rituals but only one truly
praised God. Remember there are no rituals in heaven.
There are
more pray than praise, more obey the ritual than praise, more receive God’s
benefits yet no praise to God. You can sin in company and go to hell in company
but when you receive salvation you come to Jesus alone. How many would be
delighted to sing a solo song of praise and thankfulness of their salvation and
pouring out your soul to the Lord.
The true born
again Christians are given a heart from heaven to love God who is in heaven.
The heart that is from the earth will be indulged earthly desires but the heart
that is from heaven will be indulged of heavenly desires and will express
heavenly longings.
We all pay
taxes to the government as the government have built roads and other things for
us and we give revenue to the government. But what about revenue of thanks to
God for all the things that he has given us according to his abundance of
mercy? God’s treasury in heaven would
overflow if the revenue of thanks were paid.
Carnal mind
takes the ritualistic approach by going to the high priest was their duty, but
one of the healed went to Jesus, the spiritual overrode the ceremonial.
Verse 15 Then
one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a
loud voice.
There are
times we give praises a loud in our hearts and sometimes we give praises loud
with our hearts and mouths, because you simply cannot whisper your praise to
the Lord. Here we see the intensity of the healed lepers praise.
When you are
saved from hell to heaven you cannot whisper in praise to God. This man with a
loud voice not ashamed boldly glorified God. Let the heaven and earth hear your
praises to the Lord, May you have a burning glow and a fire in your heart.
Verse 16 and he
fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.
True praise
is always accompanied with humility. There are many who would praise God with
but there is no humility. Praise is not a show but done in faithfulness and
honesty. True faithfulness lies low before the Lord saying “I am nobody in the
sight of his glorious majesty.” Worship
is meaningful when we fall at his feet.
We need to be
occupied with our personal devotion. Here we see Jesus speaking “Were not ten
cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return
and give praise to God except this foreigner?” The man did not reply to Jesus
saying, “Oh, they did not care to come Lord.”
But he was intensely occupied his personal adoration of the Lord at his
feet worshipping him. When you see the glory and the beauty of the Lord at his
feet you are occupied with true worship, loving the Lord with all your heart
and soul.
There is a
great blessedness in giving praise and thankfulness. This man was healed and
blessed but the others were not blessed by the Lord. I love my wife, I love my children, my
parents, I love the doctrines of grace, I love the Sabbaths/Lord’s Days, but I
love Jesus the most.
C.H. Spurgeon
said, “My heart will never rest until I glorify God personally and give thanks
unto Christ personally.”
When you eat
something really good you will ask you made this food it’s really good and you
praise the cook. But spiritual food is more important than physical food. When
we taste the sweetness of Christ how we need to praise him and be indulge in
him.
Prayers and
praises go together side by side. The leper prayed first to the Lord and then
he came and gave praises to the Lord. They go side by side, like rowing a boat
on one side you row the boat with prayers and the other side you row with
praises. Then you go into the deep waters of Christ as he becomes more precious
to you.
The greatest
sinners when they are saved become the greatest praises. Remember the sinful
woman who poured the alabaster flask of expensive ointment on Jesus head and
the tearful praises of repentance and praises overflowed. We see Apostle Paul
one of the greatest sinners became one of the greatest praises. When you
realize what a wretched sinner and how deeply you have sinned against God yet
God in his mercy saved you from the pit of hell to heaven and it makes our
woeful hearts to sing praises to the Lord.
Yes, you
craved the earthly joy before and now you are saved you need to crave for
heavenly joy. You listened to earthly songs of sang earthly songs from your
flesh giving adoration to the so called stars of this earth, you got excited in
watching basket ball games, baseball games and gave adoration for those
excelled in sports but now you are saved where is your adoration, praise and
thanksgiving to the Lord? The Psalmist said, He put a new song
in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. (Ps
40:3)
Did he put a new song in your
mouth and praise to God?
Heaven is a place of praise to God, the angels
praise him daily. If we cannot praise God here on earth you cannot praise him
in heaven. Look at the nature, the heavens declare his glory, the sun, the moon
and the stars praise him daily. The birds in the morning praise him with their
songs and we who are saved should praise him more with thankfulness. We are not
going to praise our Savior not only on this earth but forever. Don’t feel shy
to say, Amen and Hallelujah as we will be praise him with these words in
heaven.
One thing
that the enemy Satan hates is giving praises to the Lord, it is one thing that
he cannot stand, and he will flee from you. See 2 Chronicles 20
2 Chronicles
20 And
they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And
when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants
of
“Give thanks to the Lord,
for his steadfast love endures forever.”
22 And
when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set
an ambush against the men of
Adore him,
love him, worship him as Jesus takes the highest station, let your soul sing
with triumphant praises for the rest of your lives.
If your soul
is satisfied with the richness of God’s word praise him.
Ps 63:5 5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat
and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.