A Heart of Gratitude

There is a story of a man who called his real estate agent and said, “I want to run an ad in the paper to sell my home. Get rid of it as quickly as you can. I’m tired of this old place.”

The agent said, “Tell me something about your home so I can run a good ad.”

The man told him how many rooms it had. It had carpet. There were expensive shrubs in the yard. He told about some fruit trees in the back yard and many other advantages. He described the house in detail.

When he finished, the agent said, “I’ll read it back to you and you tell me how it sounds.”

He read the ad—about this beautiful three-bedroom home with two baths, a good stand of grass, fruit trees in the backyard, new roof, central air-conditioning, a remodeled carport for two cars. He kept on reading until the owner stopped him.

“Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Stop. That house is not for sale. All my life I’ve been wanting a place like that, but I didn’t realize I had one until now!”

Israel had everything that they needed for the forty years in the wilderness. Their daily routine went something like this. 1. Wake up. 2. Eat the manna that had fallen from heaven. 3. Pack up the tent and follow the cloud. 4. Unpack the tent. 5. Go to bed.

In Deut 32 is the beginning of Moses’ last message to the nation of Israel. After this message they would begin the travel into the Promised Land. A key word throughout the book of Deuteronomy is that of “Remember”. A thankful life is one that does not take God’s work lightly, but rather remembers what God has done and responds in worship.

God’s Provision

God’s Provision to Israel

Deuteronomy 32:7–14 ““Remember the days of old, Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; Your elders, and they will tell you: When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, When He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance. “He found him in a desert land And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirs up its nest, Hovers over its young, Spreading out its wings, taking them up, Carrying them on its wings, So the Lord alone led him, And there was no foreign god with him. “He made him ride in the heights of the earth, That he might eat the produce of the fields; He made him draw honey from the rock, And oil from the flinty rock; Curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock, With fat of lambs; And rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, With the choicest wheat; And you drank wine, the blood of the grapes.”

manna and water

clothes did not wear out

a pillar of fire and cloud to guide them

The miraculous crossing of the Red Sea

Moses to be their leader

God choosing them out of the desert

Kept Jacob as the apple of His eye.

God’s Provision to Me

Salvation

Money

Food

Vehicles

and so much more

Reception of Provision

Israel’s Reception

Deuteronomy 32:5–7 ““They have corrupted themselves; They are not His children, Because of their blemish: A perverse and crooked generation. Do you thus deal with the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not made you and established you? “Remember the days of old, Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; Your elders, and they will tell you:”

Complained

Went after other idols

Enjoyed God’s provision, but desired to go back to slavery in Egypt

Deuteronomy 32:15 ““But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; You grew fat, you grew thick, You are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, And scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation.”

Israel became accustomed to God’s provision.

Israel thought that they were the reason for their success.

Israel took God’s provision and blessings as entitlements.

Israel forsook the Lord and scorned the Rock of their salvation.

My Reception

Complain

Go after the temporal things of this world

We enjoy God’s provision, but desire to do what we want to do

The Lords Response

Deuteronomy 32:16–18 “They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, To gods they did not know, To new gods, new arrivals That your fathers did not fear. Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, And have forgotten the God who fathered you.”

Deuteronomy 32:19–24 ““And when the Lord saw it, He spurned them, Because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters. And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, For they are a perverse generation, Children in whom is no faith. They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; They have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in My anger, And shall burn to the lowest hell; It shall consume the earth with her increase, And set on fire the foundations of the mountains. ‘I will heap disasters on them; I will spend My arrows on them. They shall be wasted with hunger, Devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction; I will also send against them the teeth of beasts, With the poison of serpents of the dust.”

God took Israel’s sin seriously

God will take my actions seriously.

God is always working to make himself known in my life.

Living a thankful life

Is centered on what God has done, is doing, and will do.

Is not centered on me, my desires, and my view point.

Is seeing everything from the eternal perspective of God.

Is not damaging my relationship with God because of my choosing sin over righteousness.

It is easy for us to take the God of our salvation lightly and become scornful in our actions and thoughts. Moses opens his last message to Israel with the reminder that he is proclaiming the name of the LORD and ascribing greatness to our God. Because God is the Rock, his work is perfect, he is just, he is truth, and righteous.

Deut 32 1-4 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As raindrops on the tender herb, And as showers on the grass. For I proclaim the name of the LORD: Ascribe greatness to our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.

Like the man in the opening illustration. When we change our perspective we can see that we are blessed and God is good. Israel’s perspective was on their comfort and satisfaction, not on who God is and their reasonable service. Is your focus on yourself or on your reasonable service because everything the Lord has done for you.

A thankful life is one that does not take God’s work lightly, but rather remembers what God has done and responds in worship