Thankfulness / 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
You guys can grab a seat.
Tonight, we are going to be diving into the topic of Thanksgiving, of thankfulness. Based on the holiday we just celebrated, it is appropriate to bring some much-needed attention to this subject. Specifically, we want to see some of its effects: what thankfulness impacts, and why it matters so much to God.
Why Thankfulness Matters to God
Why is thankfulness such a big deal to our Lord? I want to briefly highlight three passages that show why it matters so much to Him.
First is 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18. The summation of the Christian life can be identified in this passage, and right at the center is the truth that God desires us to give thanks. That is His will. A lot of us walk around wondering, “What is God’s will for my life?” It is right there: that you be thankful.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NASB)
Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
In Psalm 50, God tells His people, the nation of Israel: “Look, I don’t need the blood of bulls or goats. I don’t need cattle. In fact, I own the cattle on a thousand hills. If I were hungry, I wouldn’t tell you.” He says what He truly desires is thanksgiving. Offer to God a sacrifice of praise—that is what honors Him.
Psalms 50:14-15 (NASB)
‘Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving And pay your vows to the Most High; Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.’
Thanksgiving is a big deal, and its opposite is just as significant. Some of us ask the question: Why is life in this world so difficult? As believers, we understand that from the fall of humanity, tracing back to our first parents, sin entered into the world. The result was destruction—destruction of our intimacy with God and the resulting brokenness of creation.
In Romans 1, the Apostle Paul gives us a glimpse into why God’s wrath rests upon humanity. He writes that even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but became futile in their speculations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Did you catch that? Thanklessness actually invited the wrath of God. Having a thankless heart is a serious issue.
Romans 1:21 (NASB)
For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Where does thanklessness come from? Why do so many of us struggle with it? Isn’t it rooted in the underlying assumption that we deserve a good life? Deep down, if we are honest, we believe we deserve a successful, pain-free life. When things take a turn for the worse in our lives or the lives of those around us, we immediately start asking, “Why me?” Usually, those questions are directed at God: I don’t deserve this. I deserve better. In those moments, thanklessness becomes the temptation instead of thankfulness.
The Misery of the Outcast
That happens when relatively unfortunate things occur in our lives. I am not trying to undermine real hardship—maybe this past week has been one of the hardest weeks of your life. But tonight, I want to look at a passage that highlights ten individuals whose lives were literally horrific. They were in the absolute worst circumstances life could throw at them.
In Luke 17, starting in verse 11, Jesus encounters ten lepers on His way to Jerusalem.
Leprosy was a horrific disease that affected your physical body and your entire lifestyle. It deadened nerve endings so that you couldn’t feel your limbs, fingers, or toes. As a result, you could burn yourself without knowing it or injure extremities without realizing it. Lepers were completely cut off from the community. It has been said that lepers were, of all people, the most to be avoided. If it was discovered that you had this contagious disease, you were removed from all social contact. The only people you could ever associate with were other lepers.
The people you needed most—loving family and friends—could not come near you for fear of catching the disease. You were alienated from all normal life, left only with others in the same misery. People believed that lepers had been cursed by God and cursed by man.
Medically, the skin loses its color and becomes thick, glossy, and scaly. As the sickness progresses, thickened spots become open sores and ulcers due to poor blood supply. Skin around the eyes and ears bunches up with deep furrows, so that the face begins to resemble that of a lion. Fingers and toes drop off or are absorbed. Eyebrows and eyelashes fall out. A leper emits a terribly unpleasant odor from these open sores. You could see it, feel it, and smell it.
As I was preparing to dive into this passage, I thought: When was a time in my life when I felt like an outcast?
I immediately remembered being about thirteen years old, standing in a circle of friends. My best friend at the time, Eric Toledo, was standing next to me. I said something stupid trying to be funny, and it completely fell flat. Eric gave me this look—he just stared at me. He might as well have said out loud: You are an idiot, you don’t belong with us, and you should leave right now. I felt so outcasted in that moment. I felt ashamed, thinking, Why do I even talk?
If we took a survey in this room and asked for your top five outcast moments, you would all have them. If you think you don’t, let me give you two words: middle school. Those are trigger words for a lot of people.
Yet, as tough as our experiences might be, to be a leper meant being an outcast until the day you died. That is an entirely different level of suffering. None of us can truly relate to what that felt like, but these ten men knew it intimately.
Cleansed on the Way
When Jesus travels through this region on His way to Jerusalem and ultimately to the cross, these lepers meet Him. Jesus demonstrates compassion, sympathy, and divine power. He completely undoes what everyone assumed was an irreversible curse.
Luke 17:11-14 (NASB)
While He was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; and they raised their voices, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ When He saw them, He said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they were going, they were cleansed.
When I read the Scriptures, I often have to read a passage multiple times before it really sinks in. On a bad day, I can fall into the self-righteous trap of thinking, Well, I checked off my Bible reading today. But when someone asks what it said, I can barely remember. We need to read God’s Word until it comes to life, until we see Him speaking powerfully through it.
As I read this, I imagined the scene. Here is a band of ten men who have formed their own desperate community. Their bodies are broken. Their vocal cords are deteriorated from the disease. You can hear them shouting with raspy, cracked voices: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” They are belting it out, hoping against hope that Jesus, passing through with the crowds and His twelve disciples, might turn and hear their cry.
Jesus looks over at them, walks toward them, and gives them a simple instruction: “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”
Put yourself in their shoes. You hear those words, look at each other, and start walking. As you walk, you look at your friend, and his face is no longer destroyed—his skin is completely restored. You look at him and say, “Dude, your face is normal!” He looks back at you and says, “Yours is too!” Can you imagine the reaction? I would be jumping, dancing, shouting, and running toward the priests just as Jesus commanded.
The One Who Returned
Then, one man out of the ten does something entirely unique.
Luke 17:15-16 (NASB)
Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan.
To understand the weight of this, remember what lepers had to do. Whenever they walked near clean people, they were required to shout, “Unclean, unclean!” They had to warn everyone that approaching them meant risking contamination. Imagine walking through life with that as your identity.
Some of us can relate to that feeling. Maybe your reputation went before you, and whenever people looked at you, they saw your past and labeled you “unclean.” We all carry tarnished reputations to some degree. But for these men, it was an everyday reality.
Yet this one man, when he sees he is healed, turns around. He leaves the other nine, runs back to Jesus, falls on his face at His feet, and glorifies God with a loud voice, giving Him thanks. And Luke adds: he was a Samaritan.
What would you do if you had been treated like a monster, avoided like the plague, and suddenly you were made completely whole by the words of one Man? This Samaritan realized that as wonderful as the physical healing was, Jesus Himself was better. Jesus was the treasure he needed most. Coming into contact with the One who had the power to heal him created a desire to know Him and be near Him.
Luke 17:17-18 (NASB)
Then Jesus answered and said, ’Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine– where are they? ‘Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?’
While the other nine went on to reclaim their lives and live their own way, this Samaritan returned to Jesus, the Author of life, to give glory to God.
There had to be an element of reverent fear in him. In Isaiah 6, the prophet Isaiah sees the Lord in His temple and is terrified. He cries out, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” When you catch a glimpse of the holiness and power of God, you fall down in awe. This Samaritan caught a glimpse of God in Christ, and he fell at His feet.
Isaiah 6:5 (NASB)
Then I said, ‘Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.’
Then Jesus speaks to him.
Luke 17:19 (NASB)
And He said to him, ‘Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.’
The phrase “made you well” in English doesn’t fully capture what happened. In the Greek, the word used is sozo, which is the New Testament word for salvation—to be saved. In verse 14, the ten were externally cleansed. But in verse 19, this Samaritan was internally cleansed and saved. He did not settle for mere physical relief; he drew near to Jesus and received true life.
The Giver Over the Gift
How often do we treat God like a cosmic vending machine? We say, “God, if You just get me out of this bind, then I’ll praise You. If You take this problem away, I’ll start going to church, I’ll give more, and I’ll stop that sin.” We think: I’ll put in a little effort, God will give me what I want, and then we’re good.
I believe the nine lepers who never returned represent that mindset. They received their cleansing and thought, Now I can go back to living my life the way I want. In that culture, priests were the health inspectors who officially declared someone clean. The nine were eager to get that official stamp of approval and move on.
But the Samaritan was entirely different. He recognized that only God could reverse a disease like leprosy. He recognized Jesus as the true treasure. He wanted God Himself, not just what God could give him.
That is a crucial challenge for us today. Many people approach God only when things get rough: “I pray when I’m in trouble, He helps me out, and then I go on my way.” That is the response of the nine. The Samaritan demonstrates what it looks like to come to Jesus because He is the prize.
Do you love God for who He is, or only for what He can do for you? When Jesus fed the five thousand, the crowds came back looking for more bread and more miracles, but they didn’t truly want Him. The nine lepers were enamored with the gift rather than the Giver.
Until Christ is the treasure of your soul, you remain trapped in circumstantial living—your joy will only ever be as good as your current circumstances. But when Jesus is your treasure in life and in death, you have unshakeable security. You can say: Once I was unclean, but because of what Christ did on the cross, I am made clean.
Living as a Thankful People
What would our church look like in this city if we were known as a genuinely thankful people? When we gather to sing, we don’t have to manufacture hype or emotion, but we also don’t have to be cold and rigid. When you truly grasp who Jesus is, what He has done, and the wrath He absorbed on the cross on your behalf, genuine gratitude and praise will naturally flow from your heart.
When someone who didn’t grow up in church hears the gospel, their reaction is often amazement: “You mean all my sin can be forgiven just by putting my trust in Jesus?” They are overwhelmed by grace. Sometimes, those of us who have grown up around church can slip into routine: “Well, this is just what we do; we show up and sing songs.”
God invites us into something deeper. Psalm 37:4 says to delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalms 37:4 (NASB)
Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.
That doesn’t mean God becomes a genie who grants your selfish wishes. It means that when you delight in Him, His desires become your desires. His love fills your heart, and you begin to want the very things He created you to pursue. You experience the fullness of joy that comes from knowing Him.
When you love someone, you naturally want to talk about them. Right before our gathering, I was talking to a guy who was sharing how much he loves someone. You could see the joy in his eyes and hear the excitement in his voice. When you see the Grand Canyon or a stunning sunset, your immediate instinct is to say, “Look at this! Check this out!” We are created to celebrate what we love.
How much more should we respond that way to Jesus? When we recognize who He is and what He has done, the only fitting response is to fall at His feet in worship and thanksgiving, rather than taking His gifts and walking away.
As we move into a time of response through singing and baptism, let’s not let these moments become routine. Don’t just sing words because they are on the screen. Remember that Jesus is here, looking at our hearts. He desires genuine worship, not mere lip service. Scripture promises in James 4:8 that when we draw near to God, He will draw near to us.
James 4:8 (NASB)
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
For some of you, responding tonight means singing with a grateful heart. For others, it means taking a step of obedience through baptism. Don’t let comfort or convenience hold you back from stepping closer to Jesus.
Let’s pray together.
Father, would You fill our hearts with the joy of the Lord? God, grant us such delight in knowing You that we desire You far more than Your gifts. As good as Your blessings are—even down to the very breath You sustain in our lungs moment by moment—You alone are worthy of our praise. Open our eyes to see more of who You are. We know that apart from You, we can do nothing, but as we abide in You, You bear fruit through us. Make us into a thankful people for Your honor and glory. Minister to our hearts now as we respond in praise and baptism. We pray all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.