Gratitude: The Recieveing and Giving of God's Grace

Today we begin inching closer to the Holiday season. I can’t believe this is already here. As I am looking back on this year, I can see the hand of God working in my own family as well as in the church. It’s exciting! for this I am very grateful.

So for this week and the next I wanted us focus in on this idea of gratitude.

What does it mean to be grateful?

I read in another sermon this definition that I wanted to share with you.

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

Today we look at an account that by many peoples standard would not be looked at as a time to be grateful. We will look at the account of Noah found in Genesis.

Genesis 7:11–24 CSB

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the sources of the vast watery depths burst open, the floodgates of the sky were opened, and the rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. On that same day Noah along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, entered the ark, along with Noah’s wife and his three sons’ wives. They entered it with all the wildlife according to their kinds, all livestock according to their kinds, all the creatures that crawl on the earth according to their kinds, every flying creature—all the birds and every winged creature—according to their kinds. Two of every creature that has the breath of life in it came to Noah and entered the ark. Those that entered, male and female of every creature, entered just as God had commanded him. Then the Lord shut him in. The flood continued for forty days on the earth; the water increased and lifted up the ark so that it rose above the earth. The water surged and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. Then the water surged even higher on the earth, and all the high mountains under the whole sky were covered. The mountains were covered as the water surged above them more than twenty feet. Every creature perished—those that crawl on the earth, birds, livestock, wildlife, and those that swarm on the earth, as well as all mankind. Everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils—everything on dry land died. He wiped out every living thing that was on the face of the earth, from mankind to livestock, to creatures that crawl, to the birds of the sky, and they were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. And the water surged on the earth 150 days.

Now by all accounts, this is not a pretty picture. I think its often unfortunate that this account has bee told as an almost whimsical tale.

This is the most cataclysmic event to take place in the History of the earth. There has never been a single event since the flood the even come close to the devastation this brought.

In 2018 a great tsunami hit Indonesia and killed hundreds of people and injured nearly 1000. It was horrific to see. Yet even that was a localized event.

This was only a taste of what a The Worldwide flood must of been like.

And if Christ is the measure by which God loves the world that he gave his only son to die for it. We must understand that this judgement was necessary and not desirable.

Now I want you to picture this with me. Noah and his family were in this ark as it was , no doubt being tossed around by enormous waves.

They lost everything they knew literally.

The entire planet was wiped clean.

Every person they knew was gone.

Every location, even the continents were in different places then they were before they entered the ark.

Everything they knew was gone.

They suffered an unprecedented trauma. I can’t imagine anyone experiencing anything worse.

On top of that they lived in the ark with the smelly animals and the same people, his family for about a year.

I mean I love my extended family dearly but a year in the same space, never seeing the face of anyone else that would be very difficult.

The food they lived off of without refrigeration and the amount of moisture and humidity would have been anything but fresh.

If anyone could be justified in complaining by human standards it was Noah and His family.

So let’s see how Noah responds to this traumatic event.

Genesis 8:15–20 CSB

Then God spoke to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, those that crawl on the earth—and they will spread over the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” So Noah, along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, came out. All the animals, all the creatures that crawl, and all the flying creatures—everything that moves on the earth—came out of the ark by their families. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

So after everything they went through we see Noah offering a sacrifice of thanks to the Lord.

I think when we look at this account we often forget the length in which this trial endured.

Because of this we think, Oh well it was easy for Noah to be thankful because he didn’t die in the flood.

But how many of us would still be thankful after enduring something so catastrophic come our out this situation and the first inclination of our hearts be one of gratitude.

Yet one of the first acts Noah does after getting out of this floating wooden box is say thank you by offering a sacrifice.

Remeber this was not commanded. There was no command for Noah to follow. Their was not really any religious structure to follow.

Yet Noah was grateful and sacrificed to the Lord.

Would this be your first act?

Let’s look at How God responds to Noah’s act of Gratitude.

Genesis 8:21–9:1 CSB

When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, he said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.” God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

God makes a covenant with Noah and Blesses him.

But let’s be clear. God Blessing Noah was not a response to His obedience, although God does bless us for obeying.

In this account Noah recieved the blessing because he chose to worship . He chose to be grateful.

What if the hardships that God allows is to go through( notice I didn’t say causes) is a way for God to create a heart of Gratitude in us so that we might receive a blessing from it?

What if a heart of gratitude in itself is the blessing?

Have you ever met a miserable grateful person?

Eucharista

The English word gratitude stems from the Latin word gratia, which means to give thanks. The Bibles takes this one-word definition further. In the Bible, gratitude is the word eucharista, which stems from the word charis, which means grace. Charis (grace) - a favor, an act of goodwill, and loving-kindness for which we do not deserve.

Gratitiude Sermon Series, n.d.

The Bible tells us that God does not desire sacrifice for sacrifice's sake, but that He delights in our expression - our declared praise and adoration, which is an outward expression of what is in our hearts (Psalm 51:15-17).

Psalm 51:15–17 CSB

Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it; you are not pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God.

Gratitiude sermon series

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.

By choosing to practice gratitude, we choose the grace that God has freely offered us and offer it freely back to him and others.

It is important to note that the gratitude we are talking about is much more than just saying "thank you"

Practicing “eucharista” flows out of a sentiment of thankfulness. The gratitude for God's grace is more than a mere recognition of God's grace, but a felt response which intrinsically demands that we express this response to Him and then to others.

Listen to this story

about a police officer responding to a man threatening suicide by jumping off the top of a high building. When The Officer arrived at the scene, the man on the ledge uttered as he positioned himself perched to jump, "No one loves me. No one cares if I die. No one will miss me." The Officer said it was as if the man's despair was painfully evident as he repeated the sentiment over and over.

As other officers tried to talk him off the ledge, The Officer realized the situation was getting worse, not better, and that the man on the ledge was going to jump.

As The Officer witness this man's pain, he said all he could think at that moment was, "I love this man. I care for this man."

So, this is what The Officer offered this man on the ledge – this intrinsic feeling of love that he had for him. As the man continued to vocalize his brokenness, the officer gently stated, "Don't jump. I love you. You are loved. You are not alone, and someone cares for you. I care for you. I love you." The Officer said this repeatedly, and if you find this story on the internet, you can find the audio of him speaking to the man on the ledge.

The surrounding officers testified that these words brought the man out of his trance of despair. As The Officer continued to tell the stranger on the ledge that he loved him, the man climbed off the ledge and fell into The Officer's arm, sobbing. The Officer held him, embraced him, and continued to repeat that he loved him.

When the reporters asked The Officer why he felt this way toward a man he did not even know, the officer replied something to this effect, "I just felt I loved him even though I did not even know him. And it broke my heart to see him feel so unloved. Because I am loved, I knew I loved him."

This is God's grace poured out in an expression of love. When we receive God's grace in our life, we naturally want to express it. We do not always know how it will come out, be used, or where it will go. But when this grace is received, it desires to be expressed.

And as we express gratitude we increase our lives significance. In other words, gratitude drives us to make an impact.

In this impact the grace of God is shown.

Practicing gratitude is the key to living a life of significance.

It is impossible to be truly grateful for the grace we have recieved and not serve the Lord.

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

Are you choosing to live a life of gratitude?