Developing a Grateful Heart
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever received a gift that left you grasping for what to say? Here are eight such responses:
8. Well, well, well, now, there’s a gift!
7. No, really, I didn’t know that there was a Chia pet tie! Oh, wow! It’s a clip-on too!
6. You know, I always wanted one of these! Jog my memory—what’s it called again?
5. You know what?—I’m going to find a special place to put this!
4. Boy, you don’t see craftsmanship like that every day!
3. And it’s such an interesting color too!
2. You say that was the last one? Am I glad that you snapped that baby up!
And the number one thing to say about the gifts you didn’t like is: “You shouldn’t have! No, really, I mean it, you really shouldn’t have!” (https://ministry127.com/resources/illustration/8-responses-to-weird-gifts)
Have you ever found yourself in a position where it was hard to be thankful? Have you ever been miffed that someone wasn’t grateful for something that you gave them or did for them? You are not alone. Our natural response as humans tends to be selfishness, not gratefulness. You cannot become a thankful person instantaneously and expect it to last, we need to practice gratitude habitually if we expect to become a thankful person.
Two men were walking through a field one day when they spotted an enraged bull. Immediately they ran toward the nearest fence. The storming bull ran after them in hot pursuit, and they realized that they were not going to make it. Terrified, one man shouted to his friend, “Say a prayer, John. We’re in trouble ” John said, “I’ve never prayed out loud before. I don’t know what to say. “But you have to ” yelled his companion; “The bull is catching up to us.” “All right,” said John, as he ran with all his might; “I’ll say the only prayer I know. My father used to say it at the table: Oh Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly thankful.”
34 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,
19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,
20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is good and he is worthy of our praise and Thanksgiving! This is enough for our continual thanksgiving to the Lord - no matter how things are going, we should be giving thanks to God for all that he does for us. The question for us this morning is how do we go about doing that? What can we do to be a thankful and grateful people all the time? We are going to stay practical this morning. We are going to talk about some habits that we can create within our lives that will help us become people who are grateful and practice thankfulness regularly.
Regularly practice giving thanks.
We should make a habit of expressing gratitude. Thankfulness rather than criticism should be our default position. It is extremely hard to be grateful when we have a critical attitude, as that will skew us to see the bad and not the good in our lives. When you see something good in your life, point it out. Thank God for it. When someone does something nice for us point it out by being grateful. When someone serves us in an unexpected way by grateful. Express that gratitude to others as appropriate. It can be anything from a simple thank you to a thank you card to a hand written note. Sometimes it is the hand written notes that I receive occasionally from people that cause me to be the most grateful.
We all complain occasionally, but practice responding to your own complaining by finding things to be thankful for. Believe it or not, this helps to rewire your brain to be as proficient at recognizing the good in your life as you are at identifying the bad.
Express gratitude regardless of the situation.
18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Paul tells the Thessalonians to give thanks in all circumstances because God wills it. Why? We never see the full picture. We can’t look at every situation and clearly understand why it’s happening.
It is easy to look at the bad of a given situation, particularly when you are in the middle of it. It can be hard to find good when things seem to be going terribly. However, in the moment we cannot always see the good that can come out of a situation.
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
We can only know God is at work in these situations and working them out for our good and his glory. Regardless of what’s happening, we can thank God for his presence. He is redeeming the situation and sustaining us through it. On our own, we focus on the current situation. We rise above the situation when we purposefully look for what God is doing in the middle of it. A.W. Tozer says, “Perhaps it takes a purer faith to praise God for unrealized blessings than for those we once enjoyed or those we enjoy now.”
The current pandemic is a prime example of such a situation. It has changed so much about our day to day life and it is easy to look negatively no matter where you fall on things such as masks or social distancing or staying home. One of the ways that I have found to recenter myself and pull myself back to gratitude is by keeping myself in the Word. When I am feeling down or getting frustrated about being at home so much I go outside for a moment, or maybe for a short drive. I think it is vital that we all find what those things are for us that help us to reset and recent.
Praise God when all is well.
Is praising God a regular part of your daily routine? Is it really? Even when things are going well are you still praising God continually? You may believe this is obvious, but it’s critical we do it. We’re conditioned to believe that life will go well for us. When life runs smoothly, we don’t tend to see this as God’s gift to us. We don’t see how He protects and guides us along the way to green pastures and still waters. Sometimes it takes something bad happening to get us back into a posture of of praising God again.
Learn to see how bad experiences can produce good outcomes.
I keep a list of prayer requests and praises that come up or are shared with me in a given week. I have been doing this since early in the pandemic. I am finding that it is helpful to be able to go back and look at how God has been answering prayer. It is encouraging and reminds me to be grateful that God is continuing to work even in the midst of this pandemic.
Similar to my prayer list, we should all take some time to consider the benefits, the good things, that come out of the difficult times in our lives. After a period away from a given situation, we should be able to see the good that came out of those experiences. The good may look different depending on the situation and where we are in life, but by looking back we should be able to see how we grew, how God stretched us, or maybe even how God used a situation to bring someone to know him.
Often you’ll be able to see how those bad experiences helped you gather strength and momentum for something that comes in the future. It can be rewarding to be able to look back and see how God used a given situation and your experience from that situation to prepare you for something else.
I’ve told the story before about how I am able to look back and see how God used situations or placed me in specific roles to prepare me for pastoral ministry. Certainly I was unaware at the time and some of the situations were real struggles in various ways. Regardless, learning to see past trials and experiences through eternity’s perspective enables us to be more thankful during times of struggle.
Make gratitude a part of your interactions with other people.
Gratitude should impact both our relationship with God and our relationships with other people. Rick Warren once said, “To appreciate means to raise in value. That’s not only true of things, it’s true of people. When you appreciate somebody, you literally raise their value. We ought to appreciate people because it increases their self worth.” Make it a regular practice to say thank you to people in your life. Often, the people we express gratitude with the least in our lives are those the closest to us.
There’s another aspect to our interactions with others when we are grateful for them. Their value not only increases, we see them differently and even love them better as we are called to as believers. We are less likely to get frustrated when we think someone might be taking advantage of us and also more willing to forgive if they hurt us in some way.
Lean into the strength gratitude provides.
I know many people who have been through extremely tough situations. I’ve noticed those who are the most grateful and have learned to see God’s work regularly show the most perseverance. Thanksgiving is a superpower. It enables us to see past our experiences and embrace how God is moving. Not only are thankful people able to draw strength from gratitude, but they’re also able to empower others with their perspective as well.
As we wrap up this morning, we need to realize just how powerful it can be if we get intentional about developing grateful hearts. We need to pray that God would move our hearts toward thankfulness and that he would help us to be intentional about developing habits that help us develop an attitude of gratitude.
A man got on the bus one day, found a seat, and sat down. On the next stop, a lady got on and had to stand up because there were no seats. The man who had boarded the bus earlier stood up to give her his seat as he was taught to do as a boy. When the lady sat down, she fainted because she was so astonished that someone would offer his seat to her.
When she came to, she thanked the man. Then he fainted out of shock that somebody would be that grateful. (Evans, 434)
Let’s be intentional about developing whatever habits we think will be beneficial in our own lives to develop this posture of gratitude. If us Christ-followers did that, maybe we wouldn’t be as shocked as the lady and man in the account we just heard, that people would expect to see gratitude versus what we would expect in our world today. The church can help to influence the culture towards gratitude.
Pray leading into communion.
COMMUNION
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread,
24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.
28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.
29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.
RITUAL
The Communion Supper, instituted by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a sacrament, which proclaims His life, His sufferings, His sacrificial death, and resurrection, and the hope of His coming again. It shows forth the Lord’s death until His return.
The Supper is a means of grace in which Christ is present by the Spirit. It is to be received in reverent appreciation and gratefulness for the work of Christ.
All those who are truly repentant, forsaking their sins, and believing in Christ for salvation are invited to participate in the death and resurrection of Christ. We come to the table that we may be renewed in life and salvation and be made one by the Spirit.
In unity with the Church, we confess our faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. And so we pray:
PRAYER OF CONFESSION AND SUPPLICATION – ENDING WITH:
Holy God,
We gather at this, your table, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who by your Spirit was anointed to preach good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, set at liberty those who are oppressed. Christ healed the sick, fed the hungry, ate with sinners, and established the new covenant for forgiveness of sins. We live in the hope of His coming again.
On the night in which He was betrayed, He took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, gave it to His disciples, and said: “This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
Likewise, when the supper was over, He took the cup, gave thanks, gave it to His disciples, and said: “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.” Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
And so, we gather as the Body of Christ to offer ourselves to you in praise and thanksgiving. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us and on these your gifts. Make them by the power of your Spirit to be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the Body of Christ, redeemed by His blood.
By your Spirit make us one in Christ, one with each other, and one in the ministry of Christ to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.
And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, let us pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
EXPLAIN ELEMENTS
The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken for you, preserve you blameless, unto everlasting life. Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.
The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for you, preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.
CONCLUDING PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING AND COMMITMENT