First Presbyterian Church of Inglewood
100 North Hillcrest Ave
Inglewood, California 90301
Telephone numbers: (310) 677-5133 Fax (310) 330-8342
Electronic
mail: PRESBYTS@SBCGLOBAL.NET
Sunday,
September 6, 2009
Rev.
Dr. Harold E. Kidd
Luke 17: 11 - 18
THE
FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING
‘Jesus
asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found
to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”’
“Praise God from
whom all blessings flow; Praise Him all creatures here below; Praise Him
above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost.” The doxology which we sing every Sunday upon reception of
the offering serves as a reminder to the church and every believer that God is
the source of all our blessings. Amen. Whether the blessing has come directly
from God or come to us from God through another agency, our faith is one that proclaims
God is the giver of every good and perfect gift.
I can remember many years ago one of my mentors in
ministry, Rev. Howard Bryant, and I were talking about how one goes about
getting their needs met; surely one has to work, surely one has to pray, surely
one has to use the industry and intelligence that God has given to them, but
what Howard said made a lot of sense. He
said, “If God doesn’t give it to you, you don’t need it.”
In other words if God doesn’t open the door, if one has
to compromise their ethics or values, if one has to become dishonest to this
game of trying to get ahead, then you don’t need it. Because God is the giver
of every good and perfect gift.
Solomon wrote in Proverbs 10:22, “The blessing of the
Lord brings wealth, and He adds no sorrow to it.” The gifts that God gives you,
you don’t have to look over your back in fear of the police or the IRS coming
after you. The gifts of God will enable you to sleep in peace at night, with a
clean conscience because the gifts, the blessings of God are good and without
trouble. Amen.
When considering God as the source of our blessings, the
psalmist put it this way, “Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Who forgives all our iniquities, Who heals all
our diseases, Who redeems our life from destruction, Who crowns us with lovingkindness
and tender mercies, Who satisfies our mouth with good things, so that thy youth
is renewed like the eagle’s?”
In this 103rd Psalm, David’s praise of God
focused on the goodness of God, his experience that God was the source of his
blessings. David could have complained
about life with the trouble he had seen, but when he stopped to consider the
blessings of the Lord in his life, he had to confess in this Psalm of praise,
“Bless the Lord O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.”
And we can learn from this Psalm that, even when things
are not going as well as we would like them, when the clouds of gloom and
despair seem to quench the joy bells of our living, just pause to remember how
good God has already been, remember what the Lord has already done, and you
will be thankful that you are blessed! Life may not be a bed of roses, but
we’re blessed! We may have yet some tangled knots in our living, but we’re
blessed.
Now where the Lord is leading me in this message is that
we should be thankful for what we’ve got. Amen. Rather
than be ungrateful for what we do not have, be thankful for what the Lord has
already done. Because sometimes we can become overly preoccupied with what we
do not have, what isn’t working out the way we’ve planned it, when good is
never good enough.
Many times, because the goodness of the Lord is so
consistent, we can begin to take our blessings for granted and fail to see how
blessed we truly are. That’s why the good Lord allows everyone to have seasons
and days when life is held up under the lenses of trial and tribulation, so
that we can be reminded of how precious the blessing is.
When we fail to appreciate the blessings the Lord has
already given in our career because we want more. It may not be what you want,
but thank God we do have a job. For most Americans these are difficult economic
times.
And we would do well, rather than focusing on what we do
not have, to go back to those days when daddy and momma scrimped and saved, put
food on the table and clothing on our backs, sometimes shopped at the Good Will
to save a few dollars, we drank Kool Aid for soft drinks and ate a whole lot of
Spam, and we didn’t know that we were poor, but we made it to the House of the
Lord every Sunday to praise God for His blessings. “One more day, one more day, I thank You just for one more day, one more
day, Lord has made a way, I thank You just for one more day.”
When we fail to appreciate what the Lord has already done
to bless our family in the midst of the trials and the tribulations that I
would imagine all families must go through at one time or another. When we fail to see the blessings God has
already given to our church because we want more. What got the devil into trouble was that he
was not content just to be one of God’s most beautiful, majestic of all the
holy angels, he wanted to be God. The Bible says that pride comes before a fall.
Our text for today tells us of the healing of the ten
lepers. Jesus was on his way to
Luke tells us in vs. 12 “they stood at a distance”,
probably because by Jewish law they were required to stay at a distance from
the community for fear of contamination. When they saw Jesus they called out to
him with a loud voice, “Master, have pity upon us.” It is commonly believed that lepers,
according to Jewish law, had to call out “unclean” in warning to would-be
passersby. What a dehumanizing custom.
But the Lord never shrank from touching anyone.
Notice in this healing that Jesus does not touch any of
them, as he did on other occasions in the healing of lepers. He merely speaks
the word of healing, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. Is our faith of such a confidence in God that
we will act in obedience to the Lord’s command even before the miracle is seen?
What a mighty savior we serve. Jesus doesn’t have to be in the room with us,
all he has to do is speak the word and it will be so. You can be at the beach
looking at the waves of the Pacific Ocean, in a classroom taking the SATs, in
the mall or the waiting room of a hospital; and wherever we are, whatever the
need, all we have to do is just ask Him, and He will answer. “Call Him by His name. Jesus will answer; just call him by His name.”
They called, and He answered, “Go show yourselves to the priests.”
Now the sad commentary on this healing is that of the ten
healed only one returned to thank him. Nine got so caught up in the blessing
itself until they forgot Him who was the source, the fountain of the blessing.
Healed, but without any inspiration to express thanksgiving to the healer. Made
whole again, but without any thought of making a whole-hearted commitment to
the One who had made them well.
Yes, now able to return to their families, their careers,
and to their communities, they received his healing, but they walked away
without giving anything in return. You’ll notice that the nine who walked away
got healed, but they didn’t receive the greater spiritual blessing of knowing
Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. Why just receive the earthly blessing
in a healing in the flesh, a blessing confined to human mortality, and walk
away from a greater blessing of eternal life in Christ? We wish we knew, but
people do it every day.
Why get the earthly blessings, and come up short on
eternal life? All ten were “cleansed”, meaning they were healed in the flesh. But in verse 15 something else is given. For
one of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud
voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him – “and he was a
Samaritan.” An act of yielding to Jesus, an act of worship, of homage.
The one who returned and gave Jesus thanks had a
conversion experience, wherein he became a worshipper of God. And Jesus said to
him, “Your faith has made you well.” A better translation of this verse would
read, “Your faith has saved you.” I have not just healed in your flesh, but I
have been saved in your soul. Jesus is
the fount of every blessing. Hallelujah.
In Christ we have redemption through His blood. In Christ
we have been made to sit in heavenly places. In Christ, God has blessed in the
heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing.
In Jesus we have become the Heirs of Salvation, and joint
heirs with Christ. God has laid up for us joys unspeakable, blessings beyond
the imaginations of the human mind and heart.
“But
it is written, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what
God has prepared for those who love Him.” Because Jesus is the
fount of very blessing, we cannot imagine all that God has in store for us when
we get to heaven. Hallelujah! But God is going to create a new heaven and a new
earth. We shall reign with Christ for ever and ever! And knowing the blessings
that await us gives us hope and courage to press on in this life, to endure
hardship, to face trial and temptation, knowing that this world is not all
there is, and the best is yet to come.
“And
it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear,
we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as he is.” 1 John 3:2