Sermon (20-Nov): "Gratitude - Ground Zero"

Scripture:

Genesis 8:15-20 (SLIDE)

15 Then God said to Noah,

16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.

17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”

18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.

19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.

Exodus 12:24-27

24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.

25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.

26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’

27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

Big Idea:

The objective of this message is to realize that gratitude is a fundamental ingredient to a deep and meaningful life.

Intro:

- Within the past two years or so, just about everyone recognizes that we’ve lost a string of celebrities:

- Chadwick Boseman, Kobe Bryant, John Lewis, Betty White, Larry King, and Ruth Baser Ginsburg just to name a few

- When we consider the greatness of each of these people mentioned and mourn their loss,

- We can’t help but, soon after, look inward to evaluate our life’s significance as well

- Looking inward afterwards should help us to slow down and consider the significance of our own experience…

- [SLIDE] As we strive heavenward; most of us have asked these questions:

- What is most important in life?

- How do I fully live so that I am ready to die?

- Will I leave a legacy that benefits those that I leave behind?

- How will I build something in this life to carry into eternity?

- My hope is that we are all striving to make it to heaven

- Wrestling with life’s significance is not uncommon

- Most people desire to live a life of worth and significance

- I believe that God embedded it in our DNA

- Partly because we were made in His image and likeness

- We seek significance because we came from significance, the Most Significant One

- We show our worth because of the One Who is worthy

- Our worth and significance was meant to benefit not just us but the world around us as well

- Most, not all, want to know that their life served a purpose

- To me, our legacy is in some ways congruent to our purpose meaning that as we serve our purpose…

- We are establishing a legacy

- Imagine establishing a legacy that lasts longer than your actual life;

- A legacy that your children’s children hear and talk about

- Or if you don’t have children, a legacy that the community and world talk about

- But most importantly, it reflects gratitude to what God entrusted

- That focus should be the highest on our priority list

- What makes our life significant?

- There’s a host of things that add value to our lives

- I’m referring to work, play, community, our home, investments—all these things matter in our lives

- But they were never meant to define it

- You and I are going to have to dive deeper if we are going to seek and speak to significance in our lives

- Significance in our lives can begin today if we haven’t already sought it

- That’s not to say that we are better than anyone else

- Rather we are looking to make our lives count significantly now and tomorrow

- According to God’s Word, we make our lives significant here and thereafter by practicing gratitude

- How is that so?

- Gratitude allows us to appreciate life’s goodness

- There are tragedies today the world over but consider where you are today

- You may not be at the mountaintop of your life—the pinnacle

- But you’re here today…

- Breathing and moving

- Things could indeed be much, much worse

- What if we paid “whatever we can” forward?

- I remember in one of my Master of Divinity Courses

- We were giving a task to pay it forward—I chose to pay for a person’s grocery bill ahead of me at the local grocery store

- They didn’t have a whole cart full of items, but I completely caught the person off guard

- I recently did it again recently when going out to lunch—without the pressure of doing for a grade

- I’m just thankful that I am blessed to be a blessing and to show God my gratitude

- In taking me from a family of four with a monthly income after taxes of less than $900 to where I am today

- Having an immovable budget to having a lot more wiggle room; it helps me to be grateful

- If we allow it, gratitude can generate a deep sense of happiness and satisfaction

- Which can enrich our relationships, build new friendships—impact our overall society

Transition: So, what are we talking about when we talk about gratitude? Better yet, what is it?

What is gratitude? (SLIDE)

- When we mention gratitude [SLIDE]:

Gratitude is the practice of actively remembering and expressing the grace (benefits we do not deserve) and goodness bestowed in our lives.

-- It is in you to show gratitude for the goodness and grace we receive

- We can go as far back as the first book of the Bible and see gratitude through Noah

- We’ve read Genesis 8:15-20 but let’s look at verse 20 again,

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.

- Noah and his family spend about a year on the ark and then he walks out

- What’s the first thing that he does… he builds an altar, he worships and gives God thanks

- I have read the story of Noah too many times to count

- And I know I’ve overlooked his gratitude and thankfulness to God

- Despite being crammed into an ark with his family for about a year,

- He walks out and the first thing he is thinking about is saying, “thank you” to God

- Let’s consider these things about Noah [SLIDE]:

-- God had not yet given commandments regarding worship

-- Organized religion and faith practices were still a thousand years away from formation (Exodus 20)

-- Noah and his family had been the only followers of God in a world that was becoming increasingly more wicked (Genesis 6:5-6)

-- Offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving was not commonplace; it was usually used in pagan worship to appease the gods to make them happy

- But what we know about Noah, none of these things were on his mind or heart

- Noah could have done a thousand things after he got off the ark

- After being on the ark with every animal on the earth…and your relatives

- He could have wanted to go thousands of miles away from all of them

- First breeze of fresh air, would you build an altar to say, “thank you”?

- That’s something we should at least consider

-- [SLIDE] How does God respond to this act of gratitude?

- God knew Noah’s heart to begin with

- He understood that as Noah leaving the ark and offering a sacrifice was going above and beyond

21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.

- Imagine if you can, the sweet of aroma of Noah’s sacrifice drifting up to the Lord

- A sacrifice given out of a heart that desires to worship God

- That sacrifice and gratitude touches God’s heart

- God’s heart response is this, in short,

“Oh man, look at [Noah], I can’t curse the ground or kill every creature again because of man’s evil nature”

- He blesses Noah

- It wasn’t about what Noah earned with God

- He wasn’t a stellar ship captain, chief architect of the ark, or a proficient caregiver of all of God’s creation on the ark

- The response that he receives from God is about his gratitude

- He wasn’t instructed to worship and thank God

- That came from the posture of his heart towards God

- Noah had a thankful heart and because his heart was full of gratitude

Transition: That gratitude overflowed into an offering to God to give God thanks

Eucharista [SLIDE]

- The English word gratitude stems from the Latin word gratia, which means to give thanks

- In the Bible, gratitudeis the word eucharista, which stems from the word charis, which means grace

- We’ve talked about grace in part before

Charis (grace) - a favor, an act of goodwill, and loving-kindness for which we do not deserve

- So, when we talk about Eucharista [SLIDE],

Eucharista is an offering of thanks out of the abundance of grace shown to us. It is to give thanks to the Lord with pleasure and delight because we have received delight and pleasure from his grace (charis).

Eucharista is not a horizontal practice. It is not a give and take, to and from. Grace does not travel one way and then come back again. Eucharista is reciprocal. It is a cycle of giving and receiving all at the same time. It is grace abounding.

- God doesn’t delight in just any old sacrifice; His delight is in our heart’s expression towards Him (Ps 51:15-17)

15 Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.

- Gratitude is choosing the grace that God has freely offered us then giving it back to Him and others

- This is not just a simple “thank you”

- We must develop a sentiment of thankfulness which comes from understanding and practicing eucharista

- It involves a recognition of God’s grace but it’s more than that

- It’s a felt response that says, “I’ve got to say something, do something to show my thanks”

- Receiving and truly understanding God’s grace in our lives moves us to naturally want to express it

- We have this stirred up desire to express it

Transition: Grace received desires our expression

Grace [SLIDE]

- You can usually recognize grace when the deep demands of life are met

- Or, when we receive unmerited generosity

- Children are the perfect example

- Most parents’ biggest tasks are to raise polite, kind, and gracious children

- So we teach them to say, “please” and “thank you”

- Unfortunately, we find ourselves challenged even in the more humiliating parenting moments—

- When their words and actions are perceived as disrespectful

- Just about every parent can share a story that matches both the time your child made you proud…and less than proud

- Those less than proud prompted us to same something along the lines of, “Be respectful. Say thank you.”

- Something that can seem so small can irritate us the most

- So, when we consider the “smaller” graces in our life, we often fail to recognize God’s abundant grace throughout our day

- Maybe it’s because we may not feel them in the moment, but any view of God’s grace speaks to abundance for you and me

- Here’s a challenge [SLIDE]: Can you identify where God’s grace is operating in your life?

- If it takes you longer than a minute or so, maybe you’re falling short in the gratitude area of your life

- It’s a test that we all should seek to pass with flying colors and not necessarily study for [SLIDE]

- When does God hear me offer charis for His charis in my life? Only at the dinner table?

- How does my response to His grace sound? Do I contemplate his grace and say thank you out of this intentional reflection of the goodness and kindness He has given me?

- Do I take the time to consider moments of God's goodness and kindness throughout my day?

- When we take the time to slow down and recognize charis in our lives, as believers,

- Our desires change so that we desire eucharista

- God’s grace is all around us at work

- He’s working through us

- And we grow a desire to show and receive gratitude at recognizing God's grace; we should do so

Transition: Gratitude becomes our practice and manner of lifestyle

Gratitude: The Practice of Remembering God's Grace

- If you think of the Israelites in Moses’ day and their hardships and enslavements

- You might have overlooked something

- Before Passover night, the Lord gave clear and precise instructions to the Israelite people regarding the actual Passover event

- The Israelites were to leave Egypt and establish the ritual and practices of the Passover tradition for generations to come

- Moses directs the Israelites on that Passover night and then informs them that this is not a one-time occurrence

- This will be an annual commemoration and ritual

- Speaking on God’s behalf, Moses says (Ex 12:24-27) [SLIDE],

24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

- Nowhere in this passage does it mention gratitude or grace

- God knows something…you and I can be forgetful

- Not just individual people but nations repeat past mistakes and God seemingly falls by the wayside

- We fail to learn the lesson

- When we consider the instituted traditions, rituals, and practices,

- God planned them to be more than just a habit

- This abundant act of grace—the Passover—and God’s provision of bringing out the Israelites

- It would have been forgotten resulting in a lack of gratitude towards God Himself

- Similarly, here, we celebrate communion regularly to show our remembrance of Christ

- We show Him our gratitude in what He has done for us

- The older Israelites were to tell the younger generation of why they practice the Passover

- And we are to explain the significance when we remember Jesus through communion

Transition: That is our ritual and practice

Closing [SLIDE]

- As I close, practicing gratitude, receiving, and expressing God's grace is the foundation for building a deep and meaningful life

- Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher Cicero said gratitude was "the mother of all the remaining virtues”

- Listen to what one journal writes about gratitude,

In a scientific journal comprised of hundreds of studies on gratitude and compiled by Berkeley (Greater Good Science Center, "The Science of Gratitude," 2018), research finds that the desire to express and receive gratitude stems from our biological roots – roots that appear to be embedded in our history, the structure of our brains, and in child development. And although gratitude can be heavily influenced by culture, it also appears to be an inherent part of human nature, even in animals.

- Our desire to express, receive, and give grace is what makes life significant

- To live a deep and meaningful life, we must begin by accepting what is freely given and offering this grace back to God and others through regular practices of grace

- This is Thanksgiving week, but here’s a challenge for you:

-- Meditate, journal, verbalize, or share with others the things you are grateful for. Where have you seen the grace, unmerited kindness, and generosity, of God in your life?

-- And as a follow up, identify areas in your life where you can extend grace, unmerited kindness, and generosity, towards others.

- Join me in a word of prayer

Closing Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I ask you to forgive me for all my sins known and unknown, I renounce them all. Lord Jesus, come into my heart. I receive you now as Lord and Savior of my life. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He died for me and arose and sits at the right hand of God praying for me, interceding for me. Lord Jesus, I give you everything. I thank you for saving me, delivering me, and setting me free, in Jesus’ name!