Fuel for Gratitude
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Good morning, family. I hope you all had a good week, and a good Thanksgiving. When Philip Martin called to let me know that he couldn’t preach this week. I started to think about what I should preach on, and immediately I thought about Gratitude.
This is a hard year for Thanksgiving. Our family was not able to go see our family in North Carolina this year. we had a hard spring, a challenging summer, a polarizing election in the Fall and it looks like the winter is going to be difficult with restrictions and stress.
So maybe this year, it was hard to be thankful. Perhaps this year, you didn’t do a great job with gratitude. Maybe you did great! But what I’d like to do this morning is preach a simple sermon to fuel our gratitude.
FUEL for GRATITUDE
THANKFULNESS /Gratitude is a NATURAL response to blessing, protection and love. That’s how God made us. Praise flows from our thankfulness – when we receive blessing our hearts fill with gratitude and we respond with praise.
To be people of Praise we must be filled with Gratitude!
That’s easy – when we feel blessing we feel thankful and we praise God! If we have the right perspective we would always be thankful because we always have the blessing, protection and love of Christ, so that we would always be responding with praise.
BUT, because of sin, we are often blinded by the difficulties and frustrations so that we don’t recognize the BLESSING all around us. INGRATITUDE is ignoring the good all around us and focusing on the challenges – GRUMBLING and COMPLAINING flows from Ingratitude.
INGRATITUDE is a sin. It is a refusal to honor God for his goodness, and it leads to grumbling against him.
Romans 1:21 (ESV) — 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Ingratitude in a hard year, or a lack of thankfulness when you are hurt is understandable, but it is still a sin. Let’s do a heart check real quick. This may reveal a truth about how we think about sin.
When you think that it is sin to be ungrateful to God, does that seem mean? Disconnected from reality? Life is hard, perhaps you’ve been hurt, ignored, passed over, things went south, you did your best and it still didn’t work out, and then GOD is going to tell you it’s SIN not to be grateful!? Get Real!
If there is something of that response in your heart, that response reveals that we think that God is just making up rules for fun, he’s capricious, and unkind.
But, if we can see, that God is good and God loves me, and SIN is what is BAD FOR ME. it is BAD FOR ME to be ungrateful, it is not good and will not lead to joy or peace. IT IS HARD, I may not feel it, but I believe GOD IS GOOD – so I CRY out to Him. help me be filled with gratitude! Help me see Him rightly!
Because that IS THE PATH OF PEACE. Seeing him in my suffering is the way of joy. God’s way, is good, and sin is always bad.
So this morning I want us to look at the SCRIPTURES to FIND FUEL FOR OUR GRATITUDE. Believing it is GOOD FOR US to be Thankful, even when it is hard!
Now, we’re not going to go deep into these, we are going to touch a bunch to give you a lot of fuel to encourage you to go deeper into the greatness of GOD.
First, the most basic and unchanging fuel for our gratitude:
I. Thankful for Who God Is
I. Thankful for Who God Is
God himself. We start here, because this is always true, this is the sunshine that is sometimes hidden by the clouds, but it it always there. even when we can’t see it.
A. God is good
A. God is good
Psalm 118:29 (ESV) — 29 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
We can always, every day and in every circumstance give thanks to God for who he is. HE IS GOOD! and his STEADFAST LOVE ENDURES FOREVER.
When all the world seems bad, when our hearts feel polluted, when we’ve stumbled and failed, when we’ve been sinned against. GOD IS GOOD.
We can know all those things are bad because there is a good to compare it to. We can praise our FATHER because he stands as the rule and measure of goodness! He is good!
Surrounded by hate and anger, God’s steadfast love endures forever! Be thankful that our God is not cruel and petty and bitter but he is love, he is good. And he only and always does good.
See how wonderful that is - if we look in our hearts we’ll find not good, if we look in our neighborhoods, NOT GOOD, if we look at each other - look hard enough and we’ll find not Good, the world - NOT GOOD -
Let’s be thankful that GOD IS GOOD. there is hope there is a good!
B. God is righteous
B. God is righteous
Psalm 7:17 (ESV) — 17 I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.
Not only is God good, he is right. He only does what is RIGHT. He is RIGHTEOUS. We can have good intentions but still do wrong, we can be deceived, we can make a bad choice, BUT NOT GOD!
So we can give thanks! In all the moral confusion of our age, there is a clear, unwavering foundation of truth and RIGHT. It is God.
The problem with our world today is that there is no moral clarity. What feels right to one person feels desperately wrong to another, and the world acknowledges no other standard! We are not righteous, we cannot be the standard!
So rather than despairing when things are a mess, look and give thanks that GOD IS NOT! he’s not a mess, he is RIGHTEOUS! he is the standard that gives clarity, the foundation of morality, in him there is no confusion! HE IS RIGHTEOUS.
C. God is holy
C. God is holy
Psalm 30:4 (ESV) — 4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.
God is Holy. He is un-taint-able – he cannot be corrupted. He is holy, he stands apart from all sin and wickedness.
There is no shadow of turning with him. not possibility of failure. He is HOLY. Separate always from sin! So as he is good and righteous, he CANNOT BE OR EVER BECOME OTHER THAN THAT.
He is HOLY. There is our stability and certainty. God is unchanging and unchangeable because he is perfect and complete. HOLY. He cannot fade or fail. Be thankful.
D. He is our God
D. He is our God
We could go on about strength, power, wisdom. But if we put all that together, we have this glorious God and we are his people! The sheep of his pasture.
Psalm 100 (ESV) —1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! 3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! 5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
That is glorious. Whatever is happening, what ever befalls us, whatever difficulty our sins and failures brings, or other people’s sins and failures brings.. YET we belong to GOD. we are HIS PEOPLE, the SHEEP OF HIS PASTURE. And he is faithful. So, come into his courts with thanksgiving!!
So lets pause for a moment and give thanks to God for who he is, and that we are his. If you are not part of God’s family through Jesus Christ, come to Christ, come to him and find this wellspring of joy and peace and gratitude to fill your lives today!
Thank you Father, for who you are, you are GOOD, you are RIGHTEOUS, you are HOLY, and I am yours!
II. Thankful for the World God Has Made
II. Thankful for the World God Has Made
Psalm 104 doesn’t include the idea of thanksgiving, it is simply marveling at what GOD has done. But Psalm 105, the next Psalm with a call for response. O Give thanks.
Psalm 104:1–6 (ESV) — 1 Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, …5 He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved. 6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.
And the Psalm goes on… the mountains rose he put them all in their place. he set the boundaries of the sea..
he made springs for drink and grass for the animals… .. God made all things and he rules all things.. what majesty and splendor! So… psalm 105,
Psalm 105:1–5 (ESV) — 1 Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! 2 Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! 3 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! 4 Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! 5 Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered,
Look at the world around you. Look at the WORKS OF GOD! When all things seem broken and wrong. Look at the clouds, look at the trees swaying in the breeze.
Look a beetle crawling along the floor, or a deer leaping gracefully in the distance,
Look at the colors of a sunrise or a sunset splash vibrantly across the sky as it slowly changes and fades, from beauty to beauty, and welcomes the morning or the night.
LOOK AROUND AND SEE the splendor of God on display. Look and see, open your eyes and give thanks!! Praise God!
There is so much to be thankful for!!
It’s a good habit to get in, when you recognize ingratitude in your heart stop and look and find one thing to be thankful for and pause and consider it. - Look around, it may be small, a blade of grass, the way the light plays on a cup of water… but look, see the world around you and use the beauty of this worlds to fuel your thankfulness!
So let’s pause and give thanks for this beautiful world.
Father – we thank you for the world you have made, and the wondrous variety and complexity and beauty of your creation! We marvel at you and praise you for the miraculous wonder of your creation!
But as we give thanks for God’s work of creation, quickly that can lead us to the thankfulness for God’s provision.
III. Thankful for the Good Things God Gives
III. Thankful for the Good Things God Gives
Psalm 111:1–6 (ESV) — 1 Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. 2 Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. 3 Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. 4 He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and merciful. 5 He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever. 6 He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the inheritance of the nations!
God is the provider of all we need. His power is engaged to provide for us. He gives us an inheritance a future. He gives us his Law, his word that we might know him, the record of what he has done! He gives us a covenant he commits himself to us! He gives us food and all we need.
And he gives us these good gifts to satisfy us. they were made for us!
It is when we look for other things, to fill our souls our own way – no longer satisfied in the wondrous works of God, that we weaken and starve. So see what God has done for you today, and be content and thankful for God’s provision -Be satisfied in him and his works!
God gives good things.
Psalm 23:1 (ESV) — 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
God knows what you need, he provides for the birds and the flowers, how much more valuable are you than they!? Be thankful. Jesus, as our model and teacher reminds us, by always thanking God before breaking bread.
John 6:11 (ESV) — 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.
Jesus never sinned the sin of ingratitude. But he gave thanks always for every good thing.
This is an easy one, we just need to get into the habit of saying thanks to God. look around and say thanks. It’s good to thank God before your meals, not because it’s a rote habit, but because it is a good habit to make you stop and remember that God gives you every good thing. FUEL YOUR GRATITUDE!
So let’s pause and thank God for his provision!
FATHER, thank you that you have given us all we need, your word for our souls, food for our bellies and clothes for our backs! You have made an everlasting covenant with us AND redeemed us from Death! Oh God fill our hearts with thankfulness! And be praised!
This thankfulness is harder when we are suffering.
IV. Thankful for the Hard Times
IV. Thankful for the Hard Times
We don’t give thanks for hard times because we enjoy pain and suffering. That would be absurd – unnatural and fake.
Romans 5:3–5 (ESV) — 3 … we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
We can be thankful for suffering because we KNOW what GOD does through it.
God is at work in us to will and to work for his good pleasure, many times the way God works in us is through suffering.
We can endure hard times with gratitude because through them we realize that God is Teaching us, in a way we would not learn otherwise, that HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT. That is how we come to KNOW THAT, not think it, but TO KNOW IT. That he is good, and his goodness transcends our experiences.
1 Peter 1:6–7 (ESV) — 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
In the suffering our FAITH is TESTED and proved true… IT IS WORTH IT! We can be thankful because our Good God is doing good even through the difficulties of our lives and by looking FIRST at him then we can know that God has allowed this hard time into our experience for our Good.
Romans 8:28 (ESV) — 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Let’s pause and give thanks to God for overseeing our suffering -
FATHER – we thank you for being so wise and so powerful that not one ounce of suffering is wasted! Thank you that even in the pains of life we can know that you are good and right and always do what is good and right!
But the GREAT FOUNDATION of our thankfulness – is Jesus Christ - the very image of the invisible God.
V. Thankful for the Grace We Have Received Through Christ
V. Thankful for the Grace We Have Received Through Christ
1 Corinthians 1:4 (ESV) — 4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,
Romans 5:1–2 (ESV) — 1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
We didn’t deserve it! We deserved death! We sinned! We deserve Hell and suffering, we rejected the God of goodness!! And God would still be GOOD and RIGHT while condemning us to hell. He was in no way bound to give us grace and salvation!
Ephesians 2:4–5 (ESV) — 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
In God’s grace – simply because of his great mercy and love, we have been changed!!
2 Corinthians 5:18–20 (ESV) — 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
This grace which we have received fills us with grace so that we are changed to live for Christ in the great work of reconciliation! We can be thankful that God has filled our lives with purpose and grace!
We have the privilege and responsibility to proclaim the grace of God to the world! we have been given the high positions of Ambassadors! We have been changed! We have been given NEW LIFE!
Romans 6:1–4 (ESV) — 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:17 (ESV) — 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
Here is the foundation of our gratitude, in JESUS CHRIST we have received the grace of God, and we have been transformed by the Grace of GOD, to live for him! what joy, peace and purpose for all those who believe on Christ.
In Christ we come to know the goodness, righteousness and holiness of God - and we are not obliterated by that! instead God changes us, covers us with his righteousness so that we can stand before him!!!
Is that you today? Are you believing in Christ? Then believe him friends! Believe in who he is, and what he has done! Believe that God is for you in Christ, believe in the love of God in Christ for you and live for him. be filled with GRATITUDE!
Colossians 3:15 (ESV) — 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 (ESV) — 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
If you have not believed on Jesus Christ, then take this moment to consider your life, your heart, your future. You have sinned, ingratitude eats at us, living for self never satisfies it only eats us up, wanting more, others never serving us well enough.
2 Corinthians 5: 20 (ESV) — 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
John 3:16 (ESV) — 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
That is for you, if you will believe in Jesus Christ and call on him,
and in that eternal life you will find GRATITUDE that fills you up with peace, joy and praise.
Come and believe on the Jesus, Cry out to him, and live!
PRAY - FATHER we thank you above all for sending your son Jesus Christ into the world to die for our sins, and in his love we have found love, in his light we have found life, work in our hearts and our lives to know more of your truth so we will be filled with THANKFULNESS and live lives of PRAISE!
Sing: My Heart Is Fill with Thankfulness
2 Corinthians 13:14 (NASB95) — 14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. AMEN