This is part 2 of our series, "In __ We Trust," where we examine the things that we wrongly put our trust in and compare them to the God we should trust in. In this message, Pastor Zac teaches about the importance of gratitude in our lives. We choose to focus on our ingratitude and negative experiences when we should be grateful and focus on the blessings we have instead.

In Gratitude I Trust

In our story for this message, Jesus heals ten lepers, but only one of the ten return to thank him. While many of us are unfamiliar with leprosy today, in Jesus' day it was a deadly disease. Many of those who contracted leprosy would lose feeling in their limbs, causing any minor wound to become infected. Quite often, lepers lost limbs because of this. Much like sin, leprosy destroys the body from the inside out.

Leprosy and sin have more in common as well. Both are more than skin deep and both infect a whole person. Leprosy caused a person to be cast out of society, while sin, much more seriously, causes people to be cast out of God's kingdom into hell. Both lepers and sinners are essentially dead men walking. Finally, just as the only hope for the lepers was healing through Jesus, the only hope for sinners is salvation through Jesus. What can we learn about showing gratitude from this story?

We can cry out to Jesus, our Master

When we recognize Jesus as Master, we subjugate our sinful desire to reject authority. At its core, sin is rebellion against God, and when we cry out to Jesus as Lord and Master, we put him back in charge.

When we walk in obedience, miracles happen.

We must choose to walk according to what God designed. The lepers were healed when they did what Jesus told them to do. If we ever want to see miracles in our lives, we must walk in the way God laid out for us.

We need a rapid return to gratitude

We should be as quick to show gratitude as the tenth leper was to return to Jesus. Some of us are very quick to show other responses, but how often are we quick to say, "Thank you"?

In God's healing I trust

We must recognize that Jesus is the healer and we should look to him first when we need healing. God might work through modern medicine or doctors or any number of means to heal us, but all good things ultimately come from God. Turn to God first.