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I know the picture is not great, but if you look closely, you will notice Mary, Joseph, the Wisemen, and the Shepherds watching TV while Jesus is alone in the manger. This display, by artist Brian Christensen, is provocative. I personally hope it provokes a challenge for every Christ follower to get away from the TV and spend time alone with God as we anticipate and celebrate the birthday of Christ. Comments?
We are doing something new for Christmas Eve this year. We are asking everyone to pick up tickets to the Christmas Eve service of your choice. As you know, we are having three Christmas Eve worship experiences: 4:30pm, 6:00pm and 7:30pm. Childcare for infants and toddlers is also provided for all three services. Beginning on Sunday, November 28, we are asking everyone to stop by the Welcome Center and pick up as many tickets as you will need for your family. If you have family coming in from out of town who will be joining us for worship on Christmas eve, go ahead and pick up tickets for them as well. You will also be able to reserve tickets online(soon) at stonescrossing.com. The tickets will help us plan more effectively for each worship experience because we will actually have an idea of how many will be attending each service.
This weekend, many of us will be gathering with our families and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving. If your family is like ours, you will probably take a moment before you eat the big meal and have everyone in your family share one thing they are thankful for. It usually does not take long to find something to be grateful for and because of that, we all consider ourselves to be grateful people. But are we really? Just because you feel gratitude does not mean you are a grateful person. And just because you can list all of the things you are grateful for, does not mean you have an attitude of gratitude.
There is a story in Luke 17 that powerfully illustrates this principle. One day Jesus was walking into a village when ten lepers spotted him and cried out, “Jesus, have mercy on us.” Jesus told them, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” The lepers go to the priests. The Bible tells us that as they went, they were healed of their leprosy. All of them had to be ecstatic that they had just received their lives back. Now, they could publicly worship at the temple. They could live with their families. They could get their jobs back. Their deliverance from leprosy was a game changer for each of them. But only one out of the ten who were healed came back to Jesus to thank Him. Just one.
There is a huge lesson here. Were these guys grateful? Undoubtedly, they felt very grateful. They had to be thrilled beyond measure. They probably did not even bother going to the priest. They jumped up and down and embraced their kids and hugged their wives and shook hands with their friends. And they said, “I am healed, I am healed, I am cleansed.” And if the people asked how is it that you no longer have leprosy, what do you think they said? They said, “Jesus healed me. Jesus set me free, the miracle worker, Jesus, the one you have heard about healed us!” Certainly they spent the rest of their life telling their story. They were as grateful as they could possible be. Someone does not give you your life back and you not feel grateful.
Their problem was not that they did not feel grateful. The problem was that they never returned to express their gratitude. The issue here is unexpressed gratitude always sends the message of ingratitude. None of us consider ourselves ungrateful people because at times, we feel very grateful. And because we feel grateful, we deceive ourselves into thinking we are grateful people. But the problem is, unexpressed(not unfelt) gratitude communicates to others ingratitude. Unexpressed gratitude communicates to other people the very opposite of what we are feeling. Jesus asked, “Where are the other nine?” Jesus knew gratitude not expressed feels very much like ingratitude.
Can you think of one person that you need to thank today? Take a minute and return to the person and express your gratitude.
Happy Thanksgiving!
