Grateful (1)

Grateful

I Thought I Was

Good morning CHURCH!

Are you ready to be equipped today?

Let me see your Bibles.

Start my timer.

Let’s go to the book of 1 Thessalonians for this week’s wisdom Vaccination.

This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

It is the will of God for us to rejoice always.

(think about the worst of times) (you have to really know God and know that He is good to rejoice always)

Pray without ceasing.

We should always be in an attitude of prayer.

(is prayer our go to)

And we should be able to find something no matter the circumstance to be thankful about.

If you stop letting your expectations that everything has to be perfect get catch you off guard, you’ll be better equipped to still be thankful.

This is where what we talked about in GroupMe would help you.

(Roll with the punches)

Today we are starting a new series titled.

Grateful

How many of you are grateful?

(God, if married for your spouse, your parents, your children)

Today’s message title is:

I Thought I Was

This series is of course not for you adults in here.

It’s for you to teach your kids.

Point #1

Gratefulness vs. Thankfulness

Theses words are at times used interchangeably in scripture.

The word grateful is not even used in the KJV Bible.

The message Bible uses grateful 11 times in the N.T.

And the Passion translation uses grateful 4 times in the N.T.

No other translation uses it more than twice.

The Oxford Dictionary defines the word thankful as “pleased and relieved.”

(“Man I’m thankful it didn’t rain.”)

The Oxford Dictionary defines the word grateful as “showing an appreciation of kindness.”

(“I’m so grateful for what they mean to me that I’m going to do something special to show them.”)

Neither is a negative.

Grateful - showing (and expressing) a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation.

It’s kind of like a family where there are 4 or 5 young children and the mom’s birthday is coming up.

Although the kids may be thankful that the parents keep a roof over their heads, close on their bodies and food in their bellies, one of them decides to show their gratitude by making a card at school for mom’s birthday.

It is the expression of the thankfulness that makes the difference.

Point #2

Gratefulness comes with actions

Luke 17:12-19 ESV The healing of the ten lepers

12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? 18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

(Has made you well = has saved you)

The lepers were of course at a distance from Christ because they were not allowed to be close to healthy people.

Jesus told them to go and show the priests. And as they went which was an ac of faith they were cleansed.

Now these men were a distance away and then as they went, they were even more of a distance away.

But the one who was grateful came back.

Not only to the initial distance but now being healed came all the way to Jesus’ feet.

He could have been thankful to God as he hurried to the priests.

But Christ expected him and the other 9 to return to him to give glory to God, thus expressing gratefulness.

The story doesn’t tell us about the other 9. They may have been thankful as they went to the priests but Jesus expected more from them and expects more than just vague thankfulness from us.

The one leper that did return by doing so closed all the distance not only naturally but spiritually as well. As he was before called a foreigner but now salvation has come to him.

I see the same thing happening in almost every relationship.

Gratefulness expressed closes the gap between relationships.

Point #3

Gratefulness keeps away pride

2 Timothy 3:1-5 ESV

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

Gratefulness is so important because without it pride raises up in us and at the very least, we take for granted the one or one’s we should be grateful for.

Scripture says people will be lovers of self and lovers of money.

You could literally say that those two things leads us to becoming all the others.

And then we see people being lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

You can’t truly be grateful if you love fleshly pleasures more than you love God.

If you’re watching online or here in the room, I have a very important question to ask you.

What is Holy Spirit saying to you right now?