"An Attitude of Gratitude"

Isaiah 43 - you were designed for praise

Isaiah 43:21 ESV

the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.

Isaiah 43:7 ESV

everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

Designed for a specific purpose, used for another?

Let’s begin with the basics...

Gratitude defined:

Concise Oxford English Dictionary Gratitude

gratitude

■ noun appreciation of kindness; thankfulness.

—ORIGIN Middle English: from Old French, or from medieval Latin gratitudo, from Latin gratus ‘pleasing, thankful’.

Thanksgiving defined:

Concise Oxford English Dictionary Thanksgiving

thanksgiving

■ noun

1 the expression of gratitude, especially to God.

2 (Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day) (in North America) an annual national holiday marked by religious observances and a traditional meal, held in the US on the fourth Thursday in November, and in Canada usually on the second Monday in October.

The antithesis of gratitude…complaining

What does the Bible (therefore, God) say about complaining?

1. Common sense - energy used in complaining robs energy from positive practices, like...

Joshua 1:8 ESV

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

2. It robs us of our strength...

Psalm 77:1 HCSB

I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and He will hear me.

Psalm 77:2 HCSB

I sought the Lord in my day of trouble. My hands were continually lifted up all night long; I refused to be comforted.

Psalm 77:3 (HCSB)

I think of God; I groan;

I meditate; my spirit becomes weak. Selah

Psalm 77:4 HCSB

You have kept me from closing my eyes; I am troubled and cannot speak.

Psalm 77:5 HCSB

I consider days of old, years long past.

Psalm 77:6 HCSB

At night I remember my music; I meditate in my heart, and my spirit ponders.

Psalm 77:7 HCSB

“Will the Lord reject forever and never again show favor?

Psalm 77:8 HCSB

Has His faithful love ceased forever? Is His promise at an end for all generations?

Psalm 77:9 HCSB

Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger withheld His compassion?” Selah

3. Besides…do we really have the right to complain about anything?

Lamentations 3:39 HCSB

Why should any living person complain, any man, because of the punishment for his sins?

4. Persistent complaining can become more than a habit, it can become a culture…consider the people of Israel.

Remember the children of Israel? I know what you’re thinking: “Finally!” Talk about a bunch of whiners. They complained while they were in Egypt

Exodus 3:7 ESV

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,

Exodus 5:21 ESV

and they said to them, “The Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

They murmured in the wilderness

Exodus 14:11–12 ESV

They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

They didn’t like the water

Exodus 15:24 ESV

And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”

Exodus 17:3 ESV

But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”

or the food

Exodus 16:3 ESV

and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Numbers 11:5–6 ESV

We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

5. A culture of complaining robs God of our trust, and blinds us to the works of His hands

Israel became such a nation of grumblers that by the time Jesus began His ministry they couldn’t see him as the Messiah. They only saw all the rules that Jesus broke – another thing to complain about.

Be terminally weird:

1 Thessalonians 5:5–6 ESV

For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.

1 Thessalonians 5:7–8 ESV

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

1 Thessalonians 5:9–10 ESV

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.

Practice gratitude with one another

1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

1 Thessalonians 5:12–13 ESV

We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.

1 Thessalonians 5:14–15 ESV

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

Put gratitude in practice

1 Thessalonians 5:16 ESV

Rejoice always,

1 Thessalonians 5:17 ESV

pray without ceasing,

1 Thessalonians 5:18 ESV

give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

1 Thessalonians 5:19 ESV

Do not quench the Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 5:20 ESV

Do not despise prophecies,

1 Thessalonians 5:21 ESV

but test everything; hold fast what is good.

A reason to praise

1 Corinthians 11:23 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,

1 Corinthians 11:24 ESV

and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

1 Corinthians 11:25 ESV

In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

1 Corinthians 11:26 ESV

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

PRAISE!