Sermon Tone Analysis

C.S. Lewis “Gratitude looks to the Past and love to the Present;

G.K. Chesterton “When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”

Studies from Harvard Health Publishing have shown that being thankful can help people feel more positive, relish good experiences, improve health values and build strong relationships with others.

Attitude of Gratitude

Francis Frangipane wrote the Shelter of the Most High “It does not matter what your circumstances are; the instant you begin to thank God, even though your situation has not changed, you begin to change.

The key that unlocks the gates of heaven is a thankful heart.”

My Prayer

I.

A Habit is Created of Prayer

a. “ I have not stopped praying… Prayer cultivates Thankfulness.”

b. “The soul that gives thanks can find comfort in everything.

c.

Those who find identity in the Savior, are thankful.

d.

Today we live in a culture with a veritable epidemic of thanklessness.

Just look around.

Everywhere we turn we find abundantly blessed people complaining about what they lack not what they have.

e.

Rather than being thankful for what we have, they complain about, its lack.

In children that trait is called immaturity, In adults it’s called ingratitude.

Illust .

Frank Lundquist talks about Living Prayer, He received the teaching from Maxie Dunham.

Living Prayer: It refers to quiet, whispered prayers and praises that flow from our hearts all day long.

Dunham suggests that we use interruptions, people, situations, and events that break in unexpectedly upon our day, as calls to a specific prayer, long lines in the store, as lifting moments in prayer, and frequent stops in traffic as moments of tidbits of remembering the request of another.

John Milton's Book Paradise Lost “Gratitude bestows reverence...changing forever how we experience life and the world.”

II.

Attitude of Gratitude in Prayer unlocks What is Needed in Prayer

A. The first is "spiritual wisdom," i.e. wisdom that comes from the Spirit, not from the natural mind of man.

In 1 Corinthians the apostle contrasts these two, saying, "our ministry is not according to the wisdom of man, but in demonstration of the power of God" James, If anyone lacks wisdom should ask of God who gives lavishly.”

a. Paul is speaking of divine insights into human situations---understanding ourselves and how the world functions

B. Spiritual Understanding

a. Sanctified knowledge is the Holy Spirit’s greatest helper.

“It carries the torch before faith; it opens the door of eternity to hope; it presents love as a sweet fruit of compassion. it supplies patience with the strongest of motives.

b.

Margaret Cousins "Appreciation can make a day change a life.

Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary."

III.

Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude Thanking God for the now and the next!

A. Ray Stedman “This is what Believers need to discover: what God thinks about life.

That is reality.

If you want to be realistic, then read and study God’s Word, pray with a friend in trouble, comfort a bereaved neighbor, look in the eye of one seething in pain and see His perspective to discover how God looks at things.

Everything else is fantasy.

It’s seeing the pizza commercials without the smell of pepperoni, It is like perfume advertisements in magazines with just a whiff of the fragrance, without the bottle, and it’s like the sweat on the football players without actually being in the stadium!!! Outrageous, out-of-this-world fantasies are the way the world thinks.

If you want to live spiritually, and supernaturally, learn spiritual wisdom, the wisdom of God, the wisdom of the ages.

I read of a Christian businessman who had a cleaning woman named Sophie.

He said to her one day, "Sophie, why are you always so cheerful?

You don't have much in life but you're always cheerful.

What's your secret?"

She replied, "Well, it's the way I read my Bible."

He said, "I read too!

She stopped her vacuuming just long enough to say… "You don't read it right Mr. Jones.

My Bible says, 'Glory in tribulation.'

G-l-o-r-y doesn't spell 'growl.',

grouse, gripe, grumble, moan, mutter complain… That is what you do.

You growl in tribulation.

If you gloried in it, then you'd find yourself looking at it as a challenge, as an opportunity for the Lord to display what he can do.

Every day we start afresh until we learn to do it right.

God is with us.

He cleanses the past continually, refreshes us daily, and purifies us constantly as we allow a spirit of Gratitude Break Forth!