Last week, we shared a message of expressed gratitude, taken from an encounter with Jesus and ten lepers.  Only one of the ten returned to express his thanks to Jesus.  Unexpressed thanksgiving leaves people often feeling “taken for granted.”  One may feel thankful but unexpressed thankfulness is experienced as ingratitude to the other person in the relationship.  It is the expression of thanksgiving that leaves one feeling appreciated and accepted, not the emotion of gratitude.  Hearts naturally gravitate toward recognition and gratitude.

This morning, if I were to ask you for one of many things that you are grateful for, what would it be?  Salvation, family, health, opportunities, love, etc?  I want us to look at a lady who was in desperate need.  The one thing she needed more than anything else was grace.  If we were honest, many people wish that the riffraff would just go away or that they would be punished.  While some can be tough on people, who do things that trouble them and want God’s justice to be poured out, they themselves desire God’s grace.  In John 8:1 – 11, we come to a powerful story about compassionate grace, which clearly teaches that from the perspective of God’s perfect holiness, we’re all riffraff — we’re all sinners who fall short of God’s glory and desperately need, not justice, but mercy and grace. 

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