I Will Not Be Ungrateful, But Grateful To The Lord

Bible Study #654-Church in the Houses From: October 5 - 11, 2010

TOPIC: "I Will Not Be Ungrateful, But Grateful To The Lord" Luke 17:12-19 Until this day Jesus has not stopped performing miracles. When we realize this, our faith is activated to receive miracles in our lives and to pray so that others will receive miracles. We must understand that every miracle is to glorify God. No man can glorify himself because after all we have all had leprosy in some area of our lives. Only God receives the glory that only He deserves. Jeremiah 18:15 says, “…because my nation has forgotten me…” The miracles must be conserved in our memory so that we won’t forget God. For some it is easy to forget Jehovah because the world is full of attractions to provoke attention, so that everything else can be loved more than God. 2 Timothy 4:10 “…because Demas has deserted me, loving this world more…” This is the way the Apostle Paul speaks of the brother Demas who abandoned the Lord loving this world more. We were all lepers, we loved and desired sin, but God had mercy of us. Let us ask ourselves, what is God in our lives? He is the Creator, the Healer, the Liberator, the one who gave everything for us. He is the one who loves us, who fortifies us and knows and lives in our lives. Then, why does the town forget that He is the one that sustains and takes care of us and our home? Let us recognize that nothing happens because of our strength but rather the powerful God is the one to sustain us. Why is it so easy for us to forget everything that God has given us? Let us give glory to God, if we have anything it is because God has worked with His powerful hand. But, men do not like to live life in righteousness, a clean life. Human beings walk behind vanity glorifying what is not important. It is easy to fill the eye of others to impress them. We should be solid persons because our lives have been sanctified and we owe ourselves to a powerful God. Let us be careful when we speak and with what we pretend before others because we go after what is vain, then we stumble turning back to dissuade. It is God who wants to work in us. There is no reason to be confused, we have an eternal life; this world will pass. God is willing to do great miracles, let us not exchange that for vanity. Only the brave who conserve their faith will be the ones to conquer. In those times leprosy was an illness unpleasant to God, like a punishment. Man’s ingratitude is a very common sin. By law, people with leprosy could not be among other people. Ten men with leprosy were not too far away when Jesus was passing by. They were looking for food near the village, because of their illness they could not work. They had no family and nobody wanted them, they were despised by everyone. Everything was limited to those men. And Jesus arrived. He arrived for them. Jesus arrives for everyone. These men could not come close to Jesus; the disciples were not going to allow it. They were far, but when Jesus is going to perform a miracle, He does it, from the third Heaven He looks to the world, He does not lose sight. From a distance those men implored to Jesus to have mercy upon them. To go about life we depend on God. For our spiritual needs it is better to keep our head low. Pride and vainglory is like a spiritual leprosy. Spiritual leprosy cannot be seen, it is worse than that physical leprosy that was seen in these ten men. Those who live in humbleness always live with their head low knowing that life is hard and that we cannot waste the greatness of God. The humble ask for mercy. Let us not approach Jesus only when we have a necessity, let us have faith always in our walk. Those leprous men had faith, they did as Jesus asked them; they went to Jerusalem and showed themselves to the priests. Let us believe Jesus because He is powerful to do, let us get closer to Him. This path is not and will never be as we desire. As long as we are in God’s will He will perform the miracle we may need. Let us walk in God’s will and not hold back because our faith is going to reward us. If we believe, He will do. Without faith we will not receive our reward. The ten leprous men were healed, but only one returned to thank the Lord for his healthiness. The priest was the one to declare to everyone that the person with leprosy was healed. The man who was grateful did not go do the priest but to the one who performed the miracle, Jesus! Who is going to want us with a sinful condition? No one! The other nine men decided to go to the priests. When we know what we want we know where we are headed first. It is best to understand that the power belongs to God and return to Him and not to mankind. The power is in Christ our Lord. When we were sinners nobody wanted us, and when we were cleansed everyone wanted us. Let us not give glory to the men of this world. When God sees us walking in our duty according to what He wants for us, then He heals and delivers us. Let us not offer incense and glory to what is vain, where we weren’t wanted, Jeremiah 18:15 “…burning incense to what is vain…” That man with leprosy went to Jesus, he threw himself at Jesus’ feet thanking Him, acknowledging and giving glory to the powerful God. They all demonstrated that they had faith because all ten were healed. They all had faith to become healed, but only one returned to thank the Lord, and he was a Samaritan. The Samaritans had no prestige; they were not loved by the Jews. Those who activate their faith learn how to worship God and give Him glory, because He and no one else took away the leprosy from us. Glory is given to the one who transformed our lives and not to any man from this world. That man threw himself to the ground at Jesus’ feet to glorify Him. How difficult it is for us to worship! But if we could understand what He did for us we would worship Him. Let us not offer incense to what is vain. The other nine returned to what is vain, to work, to marry, to meet with the priests who never loved them. Even though the healing was confirmed for the other nine, Jesus told the only one who returned to thank Him that his faith had saved him. Nine were healed and only one was saved! John 5:14 One who is healed has to be careful because he may return to hatred, to the quarrel, to the same sin. The leprous man remained healed and saved and surely with a future watched by the Lord. We become healed, but let us not forget that the essence of this is salvation, because the body perishes. We must not love what we left behind. Many times we offer incense to our job, our family and many other things, but the worship and the incense is for God. Those who remain healed, saved and thankful are in the hands of God each day; they will be cared for by God in the present and in the future. Amen.