Sermon Tone Analysis

We receive gifts all the time.

From people.

From God.

Whether through a well thought out act from another person—such as someone giving you.

Or from a serendipitous experience such as the discovery of the third movement—Adagio—of Segei Rachmaninoff’s 2nd symphony; or the discovery of an old hymn while browsing your iTunes—one you didn’t even know you had—Abide with Me ‘Tis Eventide; or the discovery of a new praise song as I sat in my office with Jeff Culp and he plays his boombox—Sing on the Battlefield.

Gifts come in many shapes and sizes.

But are you moved by it?

What I mean is, are you moved by the goodness that lie beneath the gift?

Never mind that it may not be exactly what you wanted to receive.

Are you moved by the goodness that lie beneath the gifts you receive?

What marks gratitude is that psychological response of

Like these cards we received from you.

We are grateful for...

Because this is what gratitude means.

Gratitude means that you respond with grace to graces received.

Because that is what gifts are.

Graces.

From people.

From God.

And what would we be—or where would we be—without grace?

And when you response with gratitude, you are essentially saying that despite all appearances, goodness and grace trumps rampaging evil.

Despite the evil times, you still find plenty of good people doling out small and big graces.

God is at work in them and through them.

There’s lots of grace still left in this world.

And we are grateful for it.

Gratitude above all is a psychological response to the experience of receiving the gift

It is easy to look at the news and say, “The days are evil and dark.

Good is being effaced, wiped out by rampaging evil.”

And I say, “Have you received a gift lately?”

How did it move you?

Did you turn around and say “Thank You”?

Because if you have, then grace is still here.

Grace will always abound.

Grace will always outdistance and outlast evil.

Why?

Because God sits on his throne.

And because we have people that give away small graces.

And most importantly, we have people that say Thank You!

My family and I would like to say Thank you! today.

And our Thank Yous are representative, not exhaustive.

If we leave you out, please know that in our heart we are grateful for the small and big graces received.

From the bottom of our hearts, “Thank You” for allowing God to channel his goodness through you to us.

We are extremely grateful!