Podcast Episode 13: A Thanksgiving From The Heart

Episode Transcript:

Welcome to the Ten Thousand Worlds Podcast my name is Luis Urrego and it is an honor to have you listening today on this episode number 13 of the podcast.

I want to first of all thank you for being a listener and subscribing to the podcast and sharing it with others. Also, for engaging with us on our Facebook page which you can go to right now and Like it so that you can be updated with new content and videos as they come out.

We also have a Youtube channel where we have a several subscribers now, and where you can also listen to the podcast there as well as find our videos as well.

So today I will be riding solo, as I’m working on having our next guest lined up. So be on the look out for that Lord willing on the next episode.

But on this episode I wanted to take a moment and talk about being thankful not only to others, but most importantly to God.

That is one of the things I encourage my daughters to be, is that everyday that God gives them on this earth to see live it with an attitude of gratitude.

Because think about it, throughout the night while you were sleeping it was God that allowed the life to go through your cells to help them provide the functions for your different organs for example your brain and heart.

You had nothing to do with that, because let’s face it when we’re sleeping most of us are not even aware of what’s going on at all around us.

Psalms 4:8 says – I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.

And in Psalms 3:5 it says – I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me.

So it’s the Lord that sustains us throughout the night and it’s that same Lord that sustains you with the food you eat, the energy and health you need thoughout the day.

Not only that but if you are a saved born again christian believing the Message for our day, it was God that drawed you unto Him.

Bro. Branham said – It was not you seeking God, but it was God seeking you.

So we always need to have an attitude of gratitude before the Lord as we live our lives for everything. The best way to show that is by the way we live with a thankful attitude.

I want to talk about a story found in Luke 17:11-19 that’s probably very familiar to all of us and it’s the story of the 10 lepers that were healed by Jesus.

Sometimes I think We read the story too quickly. So, we ae going to Slow it down, and I want you to picture it with me.

11And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

Now I want you to notice where Jesus was passing by, he was going through Samaria where there were Samaritans.

The Samaritans were not particularly welcomed by the Jews because of the face that they were part Gentile and part Jew and since Jews wouldn’t have anything to do with Gentiles they looked down on the Samaritans because in their mind they thought that they were the only ones who had favor with God.

12And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:

Let’s talk about leprosy for just a moment. These ten men have the worst disease of their day just like cancer is in our day. The physical consequences of leprosy are horrendous.

What Leprosy does is it attacks the body, causing sores, missing fingers, missing toes, damaged limbs and In many cases, the initial pain of leprosy gives way to something more terrible than that – a loss of sensation in nerve endings, leading to more damage to more body parts.

The disease can take 30 years to run its course, and in that time span, entire limbs can simply just fall off. It is, definitely, a horrible disease.

We probably can’t even fathom what it was like 2,000 years ago, when medical treatment as we know it today was almost non-existent.

Not only did leprosy attack the limbs of the body, but it would also attack the person’s vision, hearing, and smell.

And because their sense of smell was being hindered, hence you would see their noses falling off, they could not smell the terrible smell of their rotting decaying flesh.

The emotional pain of a leper, was even worse than the physical pain. He was removed from his family, from his community. There could be no contact, whatsoever, with his children or grandchildren. None. Immediately removed.

His wife would not be allowed to kiss him goodbye. He would not have allowed it, for fear that she, too, would become afflicted.

So according to verse 12 these 10 lepers were not in close proximity to Jesus, the Bible says that they were afar off.

13And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

Lepers tended to roam together, looking for food, begging for assistance from a distance. They would learn to yell in loud voices, in order to warn others, as well as to beg for help.

In this verse that’s what they were doing.

14And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.

Now I want you to notice that the Bible doesn’t say that Jesus lifted up his voice to them, but that when he saw them he said unto them.

In other words he wasn’t afraid to approach them because of their leprosy, because he wanted to deal with them on a personal level.

That’s the same thing God wants with us, he wants to deal with us on a personal level if we cry out unto him. The bible says in James 4:8 Draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh unto you.

Jesus doesn’t touch them, or pray for them, but what he tells them to do is to go and obey the Word.

In Leviticus chapter 13 you will read the law of the leper. The local priest in that day had duties other than leading worship on each Sabbath. He was also acted kind of like a health official.

If a person was miraculously healed of leprosy, it was up to the priest to inspect the body, to test for a complete removal of the disease, and to announce to the public that the person was healed.

The person would have been cleansed of the disease, and at that point, it would be fine for the leper to see his wife again, to hold his children again, to look for work again. If the priest gave him the OK, that he was healed.

So these lepers by faith take Jesus’ word to go obey the Word and the Bible says that after taking Jesus’ Word by faith and obeying it they were cleansed on the way to see the priest.

They met the high priest first, that actually healed them before they met the regular priest that was going to confirm their healing.

What is the lepers would have said. Sounds good Jesus, we’ll just go back to our cave over here and believe that we are healed. As noble as that would have been They would not have received their healing, because Jesus clearly instructed them to go show themselves before the priest.

Think about it, It was the Word, giving them The Word, in order for them to go and obey the Word.

And what a lesson for us as believers on this Thanksgiving week? You cannot wait until the problems are over in your life to start walking in faith. You cannot put conditions on God.

You cannot say, “Lord, as soon as there’s enough money, I’ll follow your instructions.” You cannot say, “Lord, if you’ll just solve this issue in my family, I’ll start to go back to church again.”

You cannot put conditions on God! Instead, God demands faith from us, before anything at all can be changed in your life.

God might say, “Love me despite of your disease. Obey me despite the lack of talent, or the lack of resources. Follow me now, despite of your depression.

Say no to the temptation, while it still is difficult. Praise me in the darkest of nights, and in the worst of circumstances.”

This God’s nature. God loves you so much, He’ll give you the opportunity to be thankful when nothing about what your going through gives you that motivation to do so.

Brothers and sisters that is the very definition of faith. If you praised God only on the good days, only in the best of circumstances, it would not be faith at all.

Some of you are probably going through terrible circumstances, right now. And what God is asking from you today, this week, this month, this year, is this question. Will you be thankful despite the difficult circumstances?

If so, your faith will become greater and greater. This kind of thankfulness produces faith because it comes from the heart.

You take God at his Word, (Romans 10:17 – Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God) Then apply his Word by faith, and watch the Word fulfill his Word in your life.

So all 10 lepers on their way to the priest were healed of their leprosy. Can you imagine, They headed off in search of the priests. Maybe initially on their way nothing happened, but they kept going. 15 minutes on their way passed and nothing happened, but they kept going.

30 minutes passed on their way and they were still lepers, 45 minutes passed, and nothing, but all of a sudden on their way a hand reappeared, and started wiggling it’s fingers.

A crutch tripped on one of their filthy rags and fell to the ground because there was a leg grown back, healthy, whole, complete.

The skin cleared, and the tiny hairs on one of their forearms turned from white to their original skin color.

One looked at the other, another looked at the rest, and the screaming started. The smiles broke into cheering, and jumping and shouting for joy.

They ran off in the distance towards the priest, in full assurance that their nightmarish tribulation was finally over.

But watch verse 15 – And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,

16And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.

Something happened to this one ex-leper’s heart where it caused him to turn back to thank Jesus for what he had done in his life.

We are not sure if he had seen the priest already or not to confirm his healing to him and publicly. The Bible doesn’t mention this.

But what we know is that something happened in this man’s heart that caused him to turn back to praise Jesus and worship him and thank him loudly, publicly without any shame for what he had done in his life.

I wonder how many of us are willing to do that. When you are really thankful to the Lord for what he’s done in your life, you will not be ashamed to let others know about it.

So many of us try to be secret christians and forgetting that you are who you are and you are where you are because God placed you there and you need to express it from the heart how thankful you are by living a life of worship before him no matter who’s watching or what anybody says.

During this week of Thanksgiving as it is a national holiday here in America, we can be so busy cooking, preparing, and spending time with family that you forget to stop and thank God. Let’s be mindful to do that not just during Thanksgiving, but let that be a lifestyle.

Also, notice that in this verse it says that this man was a Samaritan. One of the one’s that was despised by the Jews and Israelites didn’t care about that either.

All he thought was if Jesus being an Israelite could heal me, how much more would he not receive my gratitude towards him, no matter who is watching or listening.

17And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?

That ex-leper came back to Jesus. He might have caught himself in the midst of the celebration with the other 9 men, and returned to Jesus.

He thought of the Lord and went back, put his family on hold, put the priest on hold possibly, and came back to what caused him to celebrate in the first place. His thankfulness led to action.

Jesus asks “Where are the other nine?”

See Jesus said to the 10 lepers, “Go, and show yourselves to the priests, but Jesus never commanded that any of them express thankfulness to God, or return to him.

Yet, this is what Jesus expected from them.

What kind of action is Jesus looking for from you?

Has God’s Holy Spirit been urging you to do something you are supposed to do? To take action in an area you are supposed to take action in?

Has the Lord been tugging at you to take a step of faith for something in your life? If so, take that action, because you don’t know what God has in store for you as you will see here in the last two verses of this story.

18There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.

If you notice in this verse Jesus was not speaking to this ex-leper, but was talking to the jews around him in order to teach them a lesson.

Jesus called the ex-leper a stranger, referring to him in the third person which seems like he was talking to the people around him.

Jesus seems harsh, but maybe he was trying to sting the people around him to make them see that this man being a Samaritan was the only one that came back to offer thanks to God wholeheartedly.

Not out of duty, or because he was told to do so, but thankfulness towards Jesus was flowing from his heart.

Watch the last verse: 19And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

Now I thought that the man was already whole?

If you look up this Word in the Greek This is the word, “so-dzo,” which means, “saved.”

The Greeks used this word for individuals who got away from dangerous situations. For example a Sailor surviving a storm at sea had been saved, or had been “So-dzo.”

In the book of Matthew at the beginning his he started with what we know today as the Christmas story.

The angel told Joseph to name the Christ child “Jesus,” because that name meant that he would “save people from their sins.” In other words He would “so-dzo” the people.

Another example is When Paul described what would happen to a person who publicly professed Jesus as Lord and savior, he used this same word.

” in Romans 10:9-10 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (so-dzo).

For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved (so-dzo!).

So Jesus did not only save this ex-leper physically, but he saved him spiritually as well because his heart was in the right place.

We know that this couldn’t have been the man receiving the Holy Ghost or being Born Again because Jesus had not yet died, raised, and come back in the form of the Holy Spirit.

But the people of the Old Testament at that time had a form of salvation that would cause them to try to live the Word of God and obey God’s commandments.

Bro. Branham said that the right attitude towards God’s promises will bring them to pass.

We can conclude that this man’s attitude was in the right place which caused not only God’s promise of healing to be manifested in his life, but also spiritual salvation for his life as well.

I just want to conclude this episode, with this last scripture in I Thessalonians 5:16-18
16Rejoice evermore.

17Pray without ceasing.

18In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Always have a heart and an attitude of Gratitude. Be thankful for the relationships around your life, for the things you have, for the salvation and New Birth that you enjoy.

Always keep a Thanksgiving from the Heart. May God bless you until the next episode remember your soul’s worth ten thousand worlds so do everything you can this coming week to feed your soul.

With that, I want to leave you with this quote from bro. Brother Branham from the Message Jehovah of Miracles November 26th 1959:

41 We are Your people; we’re not under any—any bondage. We are free. The Son has made us free, and we are free indeed to serve our Lord and our Father. We thank Thee. Talk about a thanksgiving day for freedom, we’ve got a real… we… Every day’s a thanksgiving day; every hour’s a thanksgiving day.

I, who was once blind can now see; I, who was a sinner am now saved. O God, how free we are, how we can give You thanksgiving, thanksgiving from our heart that Jesus Christ the Son of God is not dead but He’s alive among us tonight, proving Himself alive by signs, wonders, and miracles, pouring out the Holy Ghost upon His church in this last days just before His appearing. And signs and wonders appearing everywhere, marvelous things… And the God of Heaven… Oh, Hallelujah, giving praise and glory unto God.

Oh, how we thank You for these things. It’s a real thanksgiving in our heart. Receive the praises of Your people, Lord. We love You. We know that You are, and a Rewarder of those that diligently seek You.

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