The Attitude of Gratitude

We have exactly 4 Sunday’s until Thanksgiving so I figured starting a sermon series about gratitude would be appropriate. Like love, gratitude it a mindset that is developed over time. It doesn’t happen immediately and isn’t just a given. In fact for most of us it goes against the very fiber of who we are.

The Reality: with the intro of sin into the lives of humans most things that were God given have become a challenge for us to do. From tithing, to compassion, to gratitude living to the biblical standard is difficult, but there are benefits to living to the standard of Christ.

The attitude of Gratitude creates within us a deep sense of happiness and satisfaction which reduced stress and anxiety in our lives. It isn’t just being happy with what you have but Webster dictionary defines Gratitude as

Affording (To bear the cost of) Pleasure or Contentment.

I don’t like paying for many things, but the idea of bearing the cost of pleasure seems ideal. It gives the idea that by putting forth the effort of changing our mindset we will reap pleasurable things.

Biblical Gratitude

Biblical gratitude though is a little different.

The Practice of actively remembering and expressing the grace (benefits we don’t deserve) and goodness given to us.

Noah is the a good example of the attitude of gratitude and the benefits gratitude brings.

Genesis 8:15–20 ESV

15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark. 20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Noah spent a year on a boat, if anyone had room to complain and gripe it would have been Noah. Not only was he locked in a boat for a year, but him, his wife, and his kids. Sometimes we can’t even make it to church without arguing about something and we live down the road. Could you imagine a year in a confined space. He touched me, She looked at me. EWWW the EMU farted. Dad did you see what the rhinos where doing.

The first thing Noah does when we walks off the boat is he takes time to set up an alter and offer thanks to God.

How many times after a difficult journey do we set up and alter and offer thanks to God? And by set up an alter I mean go to our prayer closet where we spend time with God and specifically thank him for what we learned and that he brought us through it.

The other idea we have to understand is that sacrificing for being thankful was a new idea. This sacrifice was before the law. Before God gave Israel their feasts. It was before God commanded things to be done.

AND

It was against culture at that time.

The only time people sacrificed to gods in Noah’s day was to appease them and stave off their anger towards them it wasn’t to be grateful or thankful. When you try to develope this attitude of gratitude it’ll go against everything you know and people will take notice because being grateful isn’t apart of this current culture. Our culture wreaks of entitlement. Not gratitude.

2. God’s Response to Gratitude

Genesis 8:21–9:1 ESV

21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” 1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

God responded to Noah’s attitude of Gratitude with a promise to never again curse the ground because of man.

This is an interesting idea because we know the ground was cursed because of Adam. The ground was further cursed because of Cain, but the curse of the ground being filled with water and destroying man kind again was staved off, but we see that

Noah’s attitude of gratitude and his sacrifice pleased God and moved God to be gracious instead of vengeful.

When we embrace the attitude of gratitude we we position ourselves in a place of blessing instead of a position of suffering.

We know the original curse of Adam won’t be removed until the new Earth is brought down which is talked about in Revelation, but we can better position ourselves for blessing when we become greatful for what God is doing rather than being focused on the negative that is happening.

This Positioned Noah in a place of blessing.

Genesis 9:20–21 ESV

20 Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. 21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.

Noah turned to farming and his farm was fruitful to the point that he had an abundance. The issue is that he used this abundance to sin and further cursed his family through his younger son, but what would have happened if Noah would have used his position of blessing to incur further blessing instead of enticing him to sin?

3. The Foreshadowing of Christ

Noah’s offering wasn’t a cure all for the sin that ravaged the earth. We know this because it wasn’t soon after landing and giving a thanksgiving offering that Noah got drunk in sin and caused the further cursing of his family, but

This sacrifice staved off the anger of God and stopped a further cursing of the ground and earth we walk on and Noah’s sin spoke to the end for something more or someone more. It spoke to the need of Jesus Christ and his offering of his body which brings us to the last supper.

The Greek term in the for thanksgiving is

Eucharista- Means being thankful

It’s where we get the term Eucharist which is what God provided at the last supper. Eucharist, athough many people think it’s the bread and grape juice offered, is actually the prayer giving thanks for the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross.

Despite knowing that Jesus was going to suffer and die Jesus gave a prayer of thanks at the last supper. He showed his gratitude to God despite the coming suffering.

This thanksgiving season, as Christians, I challenge you to find things to be thankful for in spite of suffering. Suffering will always happen until one day we are reunited with Christ, but we can either choose to continually look at our suffering or we can change our thinking embrace the attitude of grattitude and position ourselves to see the blessings around us through the vail of the suffering we endure.

Ultimately Christ bore our sins and our punishment for those sins. He chose to give us the option of life over the option of death. Yes we still toil. Yes the earth is still cursed and yes work doesn’t always make us happy, but what has God blessed you with?

I want to challenge you, not the facebook of challenge of 21 days of thankfulness, but I want to challenge you to truly contemplate daily on what you are thankful for. What are you grateful for? What can you thank God for today. We know the world gives us many reasons to see why we are cursed, but focus on where you are blessed.