Order of Service – October 26, 1994

Call to Worship

Hymn 23 Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven

Opening Prayer

Bible Reading Luke 17:11-19

Prayer

Reflection “A Parable on Modern Life” – The Song of the Bird, p 154-5

Hymn 509 Take Time to Be Holy

Devotion

Hymn 18 Now Thank We all our God

Benediction p 48 Still Waters, Deep Waters

ILLN – The lost art of thankfulness. Too busy lamenting what we have lost.

APPLICN – Gives us a negative focus. There is a lot to be thankful for in our churches, in our families, in our lives as a whole.

Look at three reasons for rediscovering thankfulness.

1. Saying thanks builds up others. When we take time to say thankyou, we affirm one another’s giftedness and worth as a person. It takes a lot to offer yourself up front to a people, even to a person. ILLN – IYF services at RBC. Nerves of each individual. To feed back only negative could destroy anything they might learn or do in the future. APPLICN – Your own experiences of giving yourself to another, unsure of response when you do. A thankful response builds up the other. Your thanks might be enough to send another great christian on their way to great things for God. Thankfulness is the seed of great deeds.

2. Acknowledges our dependence on one another, and on God. In saying thanks, we are acknowledging our need of one another. To not say thanks is to pretend that we did not need the words of encouragement of another. Scriptures echo many words of thanksgiving. Give thanks to God. In the parable we are told after the one returned and gave thanks that his faith had made him well. What about the others? They were not healed fully because they neglected the source of their life. Their leprosy may have gone, but they were not healed fully because they were not restored in every way; they were yet to acknowledge their dependence on God in health. ILLN – Easy to cry for help to God when we are in despair. It is when we give thanks to God at other times that we continue to acknowledge our dependence on Him. APPLICN – When we are a thankful people, we recognise our dependence on God and on one another. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” Col 3:15

3. Recognises the possibilities of the hand of God. ILLN – Paul and Silas, imprisoned for preaching the gospel in Philippi, having been stripped, beaten, humiliated – singing praises. A prayer of thanksgiving!? Why? APPLICN – Paul and Silas recognised that God was in control. How easy for us to forget. When we begin to complain about our circumstances, and not thank God for them, we are saying that God has no control. (There is a time and place for this type of prayer.) But we need to recognise the hand of God and its possibilities in all things. Do we too easily forget? That God sent His own Son to die for us? Do we forget the faithfulness of God? Do we forget the depth of God’s love? The promises of God for the future? If we cannot thank God for where we find ourselves, we are saying that God is powerless to help.

Conclusion: How thankful are we? to God – and to our fellow Christians? The church needs thankful people. We need thankfulness to be the people that God has redeemed us to be.

Gary Heard