Why Gratitude Matters.

Before the parade yesterday we had another event at the church, a widows brunch led be Keri Kondracki and her team of volunteers… Bonnie, Sandy, Tracy, Faith and I’m sure i’m forgetting some, but wow, they made some delicious food and were able to be a great encouragement to some incredible women who are so instrumental to what we do in connecting others to the love of Jesus.

First, one of our members Vawn Donaway plays a big role on the Brookhaven committee responsible for organizing the holiday parade every year and yesterday’s parade was phenomenal! He wishes to express gratitude to all of his Bridge Church Family who showed up in support yesterday manning one of the floats in the parade!

Thank you Vawn for your work and Thank you Bridge Church peeps for showing up and showing some love!

Teenagers and Parents listen closely…tonight at Elevate Pastor Tim and Liz are hosting their annual family dinner…starts at 6:00pm in the student center. It’ll be lots of fun and lots of food!

There’s an old clip of the Andy Griffith Show in which the father, Andy and his Opie are discussing Opie’s allowance —the amount, the work required, and the increase in work with the increase in pay. Opie finds that the whole concept is “just kind of depressing”.

Like with Opie, gratitude eludes us.

In ten men who were part of a leper colony approached Jesus together, but they remained at a distance, as per the law. They called out to Him, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” Without seeming to do anything to heal them, Jesus merely gave the instruction to go show themselves to the priest.

At the moment of Jesus’ instruction, the men were still lepers. No physical change had yet taken place. But, in faith, the men obeyed, As they began to walk to the priest, they were healed. Jesus always required faith on the part of the person who asked for healing. Many times He asked those who wanted to be healed, “Do you believe that I can do this?” (e.g., ; ). He required a demonstration of faith on the part of the lepers in asking them to walk away, even before He had healed them.

The Bible does not record how far they had walked before being healed. However, only one man returned to thank Jesus for the healing. Luke makes special mention of the fact that the one who returned was a Samaritan, a person despised by the Jews (). Jesus expressed disappointment that the other nine had not thought to give praise to God for their healing. From this we learn that God desires for us to express our thankfulness to Him for all He does in our lives.

Even though Jesus did not withhold healing from the nine who did not thank Him, He made a point of noting their lack of gratefulness (). Because they had faith, all ten were physically healed. But Jesus’ final words to the grateful Samaritan imply that this man received spiritual healing in addition to the cleansing of his skin. After the man was already healed of leprosy, Jesus said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (verse 19). It could be that the man’s return to fall at Jesus’ feet gave him spiritual wholeness in addition to the physical wholeness he had received. When we take time to acknowledge the Giver and not just the gifts, we please the Lord as well as enjoy the spiritual healing that comes from gratefulness.

When gratitude is missing from our lives, we are diminished.

Let’s define what we’re talking about.

Gratitude is recognizing and celebrating a benefit, its value and its source.

explains some basic concepts in our understanding of God and the human condition and gratitude is right in the middle of it.

Romans 1:18–25 CSB

For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.

The principle that leaps off the pages when we read this passage of Scripture is that

Anything that competes with or downplay’s God’s glory is out of order! God made all things to display His attributes, character and power.

Well that’s not fair? you might say!

Here’s the reality. God exists for God and His own glory!

You can fight that, fuss at that, argue that, reject it, accuse it, whatever else you want to do with it, but it won’t change a thing.

God exists for God and so does eveyrthing he made. We’re made for him and his glory. Not about us.

“Well, pastor, I don’t like that too much” “Well, friend go and speak your own universe into existence. Then you can make the rules in that one.”

God made this universe. It’s his. He gets to make the rules. And that’s the problem isn’t it? We don’t appreciate God’s rule and God’s rules. So we make our own to our own demise.

This is one lesson this passage teaches us...

When gratitude is missing from our lives, we miss out on God and subsequently, all that God intends for us to enjoy as his children.

We are diminished. We lose something or things that are good for us.

Where did we lose this virtue?

Biblical Explanation 1 - Here we see a perfectly loving God displaying His wrath against “godlessness”, “the absence of God” and “wickedness”. God’s moral values actually make life good and sensible, but mankind rejected those values for their own and as a result were allowed by God to experience the devastating results of choosing our own way.

They failed to give God glory.

-term creates ideas of dazzling beauty, the display of glory. Glory means “heavy” which implies a weightiness or significance.

For example your opinion on our country’s foreign policy is light, but our Presidents opinion is weighty. His opinion has significant impact on our country’s actions.

Giving God glory means weighing God into life as the most important factor to our priorities, values and attitudes.

When we fail to give God glory we give weight to something or someone else, making decisions and shaping priorities by it. That becomes our idol and we diminish God’s value, God’s influence, God’s glory.

And that damages us. In devaluing God, we devalue ourselves.

They failed to show gratitude.

Viewing God’s gifts in their circumstances and relationships became entitlements. They expected them. Without them, they became frustrated and dissatisfied. They were diminished.

Gratitude in understanding who God is and glorifying His infinite value isn’t for God’s fulfillment, it’s for ours.

Giving God glory and showing gratitude will infinitely improve our lives!

What exactly do we lose when gratitude is missing from our lives?

Without gratitude...

We lose our sense of wonder.

John Piper argues that “our fatal error is believing that wanting to be happy means wanting to be made much of!”

It feels good to be affirmed, doesn’t it, but that feeling is rooted in the worth of self, not the worth of God.

Affirming our self worth as a pathway to happiness and fulfillment is an illusion!

ILLUSTRATION: This past October I was visiting the Carpathian Mountains in Romania and one afternoon as I stood on the porch gaping at the mountains surrounding me, I didn’t think “Wow, this is really increasing my self-esteem”. No, I didn’t gape at the mountains to increase my self-esteem, but I did do it to increase my joy.

And so it is we gape at God and the beauty of His splendor and we experience great joy. We experience great peace. We experience fulfillment and happiness, but not as a result of glorifying ourselves, but glorifying God.

We lose our sense of value.

Gratitude elevates worth! When we express gratitude, we value the role of someone or something in our lives...

During a simple haircut appreciating the effort of the stylist to learn their trade and employ it with sometimes difficult customers elevates her value!

Teenagers, when you fail to express gratitude for the simple provisions and protection of your parents you devalue their role in your life.

Not expressing gratitude to a radio station or a pastor or teacher devalues their role and they become expectations and objects rather than gifts and avenues for God’s grace to be appropriated into your life.

Notice in the passage, they weren’t dminished as a result of a lack of love but a lack of gratitude.

Many spouses say “I love you” multiple times a day, but how often do we say, “I’m grateful for you”? Gratitude elevates worth.

When the 9 lepers failed to return to give thanks to Jesus, he was devalued. He was nothing more than someone who gave them what they wanted.

But the one, not only received physical healing, but spiritual. He not only walked away with new skin, he had a new heart and a new family and a new identity.

Gratitude helps us remember who we are in Christ. We elevate His value as Savior & redeemer!

We lose our sense of rest.

In the Lord’s prayer we pray…Give us today our daily bread and when he does we express gratitude. When we don’t express gratitude for God’s daily provision we get lost in a sea of greed and restlessness.

And so we strive and work work work to acquire what doesn’t satisfy.

But Gratitude unlocks the fulness of life!

It turns what we have into enough.

it turns denial into acceptance

it turns chaos into order

It turns confusion into clarity

It can turn a meal into a feast! I stll remember that one Chick Fil A sandwhich. It was only 1 and it was shared in pieces of 4, but I still say it was the best CFA sandwhich I’ve ever eaten! We gave thanks!!!

Gratitude can turn our problems into opportunties.

It can turn our failures into successes

it can turn an enemy into a friend!

When we use gratitude as the fertilizer for a weary and exhausted soul, we experience a rest like no other!

Finally,

We lose sensitivity of heart.

Ingratitude hardens our hearts.

Our daily habits shape our character over the long haul. If we choose to tell the truth today and again tomorrow, we become people of integrity.

LIkewise, if we express gratitude today, tomorrow, and the following day, we not only experience more wonder, value and rest but our character changes. Our heart softens. Gratitude actually helps us become more aware of the needs of others around us.

With gratitude, we truly begin to reflect the character of Jesus.

But you have a choice!

You can be grumpy or you can be grateful.

Gratitude begins when we truly understand the grace of life.

This is where the lepers went wrong.

This is where the world went wrong.

We suppressed the truth about God.

We failed to give God glory.

We didn’t show gratitude.

We deserved death for our sin but instead were offered eternal life in Jesus by the grace of God!

Do you have that life? God promised to give you eternal life if you believe in His Son Jesus for it.

Some practical application steps to put this into practice this week. Try these things this week.

Make time each day to reflect.

Reflect on the splendor of God.

He is eternal

He is infinite.

He is matchless.

He is love.

He is powerful!

Express thanks to God in a written prayer.

When someone gives us a gift, we write a thank you note. Try doing that with God. Write him a thank you note. You’ll be surprised at how much you can write!

Experience the wonder.

Experience the value.

Experience the rest...

Experience his compassion...

Communicate thanks to at least 1 person each day this week.