Rap Sheet 11/29/20

Message: ThanksLiving

REVIEW:

How do we have THANKS to give, when our lives are hard to live?

That is the question we wrestled through this week. How are we thankful when the world around us seems to be falling apart? How do we show gratitude when this year has been so painful?

Did you find it difficult to be grateful this Thanksgiving?

Has thankfulness been overshadowed by the pain of 2020?

We looked at the story of 10 lepers who were healed by Jesus. Once a leper was healed, they had to go to the priest in order to be declared "Clean" and get their lives back! 9 of the Lepers went to the priest as quickly as possible. The other leper, turned back towards Jesus. He fell at the feet of the One who healed him and worshipped Him!

Putting off going to the priest was putting his whole life on hold! Until this man saw the priest, he could not go visit the family he hadn't seen in decades, he could not go visit the home he grew up in, he could not eat a meal with the rest of society, he could not even enter the city limits! This is exactly why the other 9 did NOT turn back to Jesus. They were going to go through the process as quickly as possible!

However, the 1 Leper who returned teaches us an incredibly valuable lesson:

OUR GRATITUDE IS NOT FOUND IN SOMETHING, IT IS FOUND IN SOMEONE!

Even if we have nothing else in this world to be thankful for, we have Jesus who has secured a perfect life for us after this world! When everything else is falling apart, we have someone who gave their life to put us back together!

APPLY:

HERE IS YOUR APPLICATION QUESTION:

What is ONE WAY you will be thankful for Jesus and all that He has done for your life this week?

Instead of focusing on all that we do not have and all that has gone wrong - This week we can choose to be thankful for the One who will someday make everything right! Gratitude changes things! It sounds crazy, but try it and see if you do not have the best week of 2020!

PRAY:

This week, pray prayers of gratitude. Find everything you can think of to thank Jesus for! Allow the Spirit of God to fill your heart while you fill your thoughts with thankfulness!