Sermon: Posture for Thanks: Why Gratitude is Good

Well, let's pray before we open God's word this morning and let's ask for his blessing.

Our Father, we thank you for the gift of this word and we do pray that as we open it now and as we hear it, read that you would attend to it, that as we hear it preached that you would attend to it. We say that without your help, without the spirit's blessing, that we might as well be sitting around and watching football over these next minutes. We might as well be going out to lunch or one might as well be taking a nap.

We say that we are in need of your working among us by the power of your word according to the spirit. And so we ask that you would fill our hearts and our minds and our very souls with your truth this morning that you would not neglect us, that as you have promised, the word would not return void, but it would accomplish your purposes in this place for our good and for your glory. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.

James chapter one, verses 16 through 18. This is the holy er, sufficient word of God. Do not be deceived. My beloved brothers. Every good gift is from above coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow do to change of his own will. He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Though the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Well, last week we started what we call our faith focus. And here in January what we do is we take some subject that we feel like we want to see more in the DNA of the church and try and work it in the church by preaching through it morning, evening services, having our growth groups work it, work it through in their small groups and also in our ministry areas. And this year the faith focus is generosity. We are looking at generosity, um, in the, I'm, I'm sorry,

gratitude, which generosity is a form of gratitude, but gratitude, uh, in the Christian life and having a heart of thankfulness. And so last week we looked at that and this week we're going to continue uh, looking at gratitude. And what I want to look at this morning is the posture of things or why gratitude is good. And I wanna start here. Our theology results in a corresponding psychology, and we're gonna see that from our passage this morning.

If we believe in the God of the Bible, then all of life is lived in a posture of gratitude. Now, as we talk about gratitude, wanna return to the definition that I gave you last week? Let me read to you again this definition that I offered to you last week. Gratitude is a spirit of thankfulness lived and expressed in response to a gracious God. Gratitude is the spirit of thankfulness lived and expressed in response to a gracious God.

And so let's start here. What do we believe about God? What do we believe about God? What to think through these two verses in three ways this morning. What do we believe about our God? And then I wanna look at the danger of ingratitude, and then I wanna look at the blessings of gratitude. So let's start with God. James begins our passage with the matter of the mind. He says this, he says, do not be deceived. If you and I were to go back to Genesis chapter three

and we were to look at Adam and Eve in the garden and after the fall when Eve chose to eat from that fruit of the forbidden tree and God approaches her, she will say, the serpent deceived me. I was deceived. And here James says, do not be deceived. Now, James is concerned in the section right before this and what leads into this do not be deceived. He's concerned with temptation and giving into that temptation. Verse 14. But each person is tempted when he is lured

and enticed by his own desire. And then he points out that that desire gives way to sin, but the chain doesn't stop there. Sin he says, brings forth death. If the golden chain of salvation is found in Romans eight, the iron chain of destruction is found here in James one. What do we do to resist going down that iron chain of destruction? But James says, here's where you start. Do not be deceived.

I told you a few weeks ago, I have had the regular experience when someone has fallen tune to a heinous sin kind of life, altering life, adjusting life, destroying sin almost without fail, that person has said something along the lines to me of, I don't know how I ended up here. Or they will say, I don't know what I was thinking.

And this is James's point. Temptation takes a hold. The mind and the heart are blinded from reality and sin is embraced. And now that temptation has developed into sin and that sin just multiplies and eventually he says it leads to death. Now that temptation may come from our adversary, the great tempter, the devil. It may come from our little circle of friends. It may come from the world that is seeking to deceive us, but regardless of the instrument, ultimately

we are taken in by sin because we deceive ourselves

as James says in verse 14, when a person is lured and enticed by his own desire become deceived, which is see this deception from another passage, Romans one there. Paul says, we deceive ourselves from what we know. He says that the unrighteous suppress the truth. And I often think of it like a, a bowl and a swimming pool. You know where you, you push it down, it pops back up. It's there, you, you know that ball is there

and you just keep pushing it down. And he is saying, they the unrighteous, they suppress the truth. What truth? Well, the truth that Paul says is evident in nature that there's a God. He, he says, it is plain before us. It's clearly perceived when you look up at the stars in the night sky, you know that there must be something beyond those stars. Something that put those stars in place. When you see a well ordered world, how is it that all

of this goes together and it doesn't just fall apart? You know, there must be one who sets order. The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim his handiwork. But pulse says they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. They were deceived about God. Do not be deceived. James says again, think back to that initial sin in the garden of Eden. The serpent will come to Eve and the garden.

And God had given all the trees of the garden to Adam and Eve to eat from. He just said, you shall not eat of the tree in the middle of the garden. And if you eat of the tree in the middle of the garden, you shall surely die. And along come Satan serpent to Eve and he says, ah, eve, you shall not surely die. You may eat from the fruit of that tree, but God doesn't want you to because he knows that when you do, your eyes shall be open

and you shall be like him.

Deception. What deception is the serpent offering?

He's questioning whether God is really good as God.

He's keeping something from you. Eve.

He's not really good.

James, do not be deceived. My beloved brothers about who God is. Is God good. Verse 17 is his answer. He gives good. That's where James begins. Every good and perfect gift is from above. And then James, he's just laying down a challenge. Everything you can think of, every good gift, every perfect gift, it's from above. Name it, count it, name it in nature, the glory of the sunrise, the call of the morning, dove, fresh,

fallen snow, the sound of rain, the green of the leaf, the blue of the ocean, the sound of crashing waves, the feel of fine sand. The smile of a child, the softness of silk from above. Good gift from above. Count what you own, your favorite shirt, the warmness of your home, apartment, dorm room, your freshly washed car, the feel of your favorite reading chair, the smell of your favorite perfume, that old hat that fits perfectly.

That your wife wants to throw away the box of shoes that he wants to throw away. Your favorite mug for drinking coffee. Oh, coffee. That is a gift from above.

A more abstract, the loyalty of your dog, the love of your parents. The peace of a Sunday afternoon nap. How about the frosting on a birthday cake? The taste of a alt cookie. Mustard on sandwiches.

All good gifts from above are the joy of good belly laughter.

Or when you see two family members reconciled,

or when you receive that hug from a long lost friend

or a warm fire or fresh sheets or the birth of a child, good gifts from above. Or count what you take for granted that you are sitting upright in a pew right now. It's your eyes, see me that your ears hear me, that your heart is beating. You don't even think about it. It will beat a hundred thousand times today. And you don't give it a thought.

All gifts from above

you count what you are. Your mother, a father, a wife, a husband, a son, a daughter, a friend. You're a safe sinner.

You deserve nothing. You had nothing. And now you are brought as an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. And now you have all things in Christ who is a storehouse of all wisdom and knowledge. You have all things in Christ and none of it is of your doing. It's all just a good gift from above that the son of God would come and live for a sinner like you would die for a sinner like you would bear the wrath of his father for a sinner like you would be buried for a sinner like you

and raised on the third day for a sinner, right like you. And would intercede even now the right hand of the Father for a sinner like you. It's A gift, gift after gift, after gift, after gift after gift. And all from above.

So James wants you to practice some theology.

Why is it that good gifts? Every good gift comes from above. Why is it?

It's 'cause He's above and he's good.

He's good. Theology matters. What you think matters. I've told you before, but it's the most important thought that you will ever have is the thought that you have. When I say the first thought you have when I say God, what is it most important thought you'll have you'll ever have? Because it shapes everything about you. And for James, he does the exact same thing that Jesus does. He runs to God as father. That's where he takes us.

God is our Father. A father who gives good gifts. Jesus does the same thing when you pray. He says, pray like this. Our Father in the sermon on the Mount is a great encouragement. He gives this promise. If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? And James runs right there. He calls God the father of lights.

Verse 17, he's referring to the sun and the moon and the stars. And he is saying, look, the God who created all of these things, he's the creator God. He is a father of all the lights, but he doesn't leave it there. He says, this father of lights who sits enthroned over the heavens is not some distant celestial father. He's our father. Verse 18 of his own will. James says, he brought us forth by the word of truth. That is he is not only your creator, he is your redeemer.

And here is James' argument. God gives good gifts because God is good. Here's right thinking. Here's sound theology.

And notice how good he is. James says verse 17, there is no variation or shadow due to change in him. That is this God who is our Father is the same yesterday, today and forever. He's immutable. He doesn't change like the shadows. There's no shadow in him, no evil, no wickedness, no ill intention, shadows don't ever just kind of creep over his person and change his demeanor.

He's good and ever good. And that's why every good gift comes from above. I dunno if you've ever worked alongside of somebody or worked for someone that that has a changing demeanor. It's like a shadow falls over them.

Uh, there is LBJ was one of these. Lyndon b Johnson, one of the presidents of the United States was one of these kind of people. He was incredibly gregarious. He was incredibly charismatic. People were drawn to him. He, he made a statement once and just as I kind of summarized what he said, he said, give me 15 minutes with anybody in a room and I'll make them my friend.

And it was a true statement. He had that kind of charisma. He was that gregarious, except when he wasn't

a mood would fall over him. There's one secretary that was recalling the day that he had her dial the phone for him and she dialed too slowly. So he threw a book at her head that that's the kind of boss that when you walk into work, you say to the other employees, what's he like today?

You don't ask that about God. There's no shadow due to change. He's light. There's no darkness in him now or ever. He's always good. And he always exercises that good for his people. That's right. Theology.

And what's a right response to this right theology.

It's a posture of thanks. It's gratitude.

I want you to see, before we look at the blessings of gratitude, I want you to see the danger of ingratitude because that's James' concern here. He, he's focused on temptation, giving way to sin. And the way he seeks to combat it is to correct their theology. Do not be deceived. Know who God is. He's good. And he gives good gifts. You, you can rejoice in this. You, you return to this. Don't think he's keeping things from you.

And so you entertain temptation and iib in sin.

So our second point, the danger of ingratitude. Here's the wrong posture to have Romans one, remember the unrighteous, they suppress the truth that they know. They then become I to worshipers. And Paul says this, therefore, God gave them up to their sinfulness and they began to dishonor their bodies by giving themselves over to dishonorable passions. That's a reference to homosexuality. And then he says they were given over

to quote a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. And then he gives a list of all kinds of sins that flow from this. He says, quote, they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness. Evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy. Murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They're a gossip. Slanderous, haters of God. Insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. Foolish faithless. Heartless. Ruthless. What a list.

And do you know what the foundation of that list is?

Do you know what led to that list of sins imbibed and lived? Listen to what Paul says, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.

Paul and James are on the same page.

They did not honor him as God and they did not give thanks to him. There was a lack of gratitude

and gratitude. Wherever it is found is dangerous ground to live on.

When we find ratitude in us, it should be like a warning siren going off. Ah, I'm not believing right about God. I'm not living rightly in light of what I know about God.

And the warning that Paul and James are giving his ingratitude leads to a host of other sins and ultimate leads to death. There are few sins that breed sin like ingratitude. It's like a hot house for sin,

be marked by ingratitude and watch all these other sins pop up.

It's so very dangerous. A man who believes he deserves more respect or more opportunity from his boss in the workplace begins to complain. And that complaint leads to slander. And that slander leads to gossip, which leads to a feeling of entitlement. And before long depression has set in, because something that he should have, he doesn't have.

And before you know it, he clicks on a website. Just one, just gotta release some steam. And that one website turns into more websites. And then he downloads an app on his phone. And then before he knows it, he's putting his information out there and he's meeting some woman. He has no clue who she is.

Life would've looked different if he had simply stopped,

stopped that spiral by thanking God for a job.

I got a job. I have a car to drive to my workplace. I have a lunch hour. They give me two breaks a day. I get a paycheck. A paycheck helps to provide a roof over our heads, provides food for my dinner table every night. I work in a heated building or an air conditioned office. I have a boss. He's not a great boss, but I have a boss. There's organization in this company. It's not anarchy. It's not chaos in this company. How awful would that be?

From the paperclips on his desk to the paycheck at the end of the week to the coworker he enjoys. He had reasons to count his good gifts, all from above.

Understand in gratitude is not necessarily doing something. It's doing nothing

and just doing nothing. It takes over. When Jesus healed the 10 lepers, one of them comes back in gratitude with Thanksgiving. He came back. What did the other nine do? Nothing. They did nothing. Gratitude takes action. It's action that is aimed at God. So many of us think that we are thankful we're living lives at thanksgiving. But the reality is, is that we're not giving things.

I told you this last week, thanks is to be given and is to be given to the God who's bestowed gift upon gift, upon gift to us. But you have to give it, which means you have to speak it or you have to sing it or you have to pray it or you have to confess it. You have to give it

in Romans, they simply did not honor him or give thanks to him. They did not. And when we do not, it can destroy a community. It can destroy a family, it can destroy a church, it can destroy a life.

Gratitude maybe beyond anything else fixes our eyes and our hearts on a gracious God.

It just really, all of this you've given to me

when I deserve none of it. When there's gratitude in the mind, when your mind is renewed in this kind of way where you're thinking, ah, didn't deserve this. And look at this blessing, it grips the heart begins to stir the affections and the natural response

to direct our eyes, our praise in our thanksgiving to the giver of that gift. Gift after gift after gift.

So let's third talk about the blessing of gratitude. Chesterton called gratitude. The highest form of thought and happiness doubled by wonder.

Ultimately, gratitude leads to worship.

Ultimately, gratitude leads to worship. When you're thankful you return to the one from whom every good gift comes there. There's no greater blessing that that I get to return to him. Thanksgiving and praise for all of these things that are undeserved, that in Christ I have all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I have all things in this one who lived and died for me. There's nothing that I'm lacking. And to return to him with worship

and thanksgiving, I wonder sometimes if our worship feels so dry and our private devotions feel so dull and we can walk out of worship on Sunday morning and say, I got nothing out. That

because we aren't people that live in gratitude.

When there's gratitude, when gratitude fills the heart and the mind worship happens,

no one has to tell the saints in heaven or the angels before God's thrown to worship. It's just natural in light of who God is and what he's done. Thomas Watson said this. He said, A godly man is a thankful man. Praise in thanksgiving is the work of heaven. And he begins that work here, which he shall be always doing in heaven. Do you not realize how many things you have to be thankful for? And all of that can be returned

to him in thanksgiving and praise. And you could go on and on and on and never cease in this life. That's why Paul says, let us present our bodies as a living sacrifice to him.

All is worship to him. And do you not realize that day after day after day for all of eternity, this is what you'll be doing. Just giving him thanks and giving him praise for all that he is and all that he has given. And it will never end because the gifts never end.

Gratitude not only leads to worship, it also frees us. It frees the soul from earthly change. It, it it. It gives the the soul wings to soar above all the things that would keep it here on earth. Where you and I covet what this person or that person has or will. We envy what that person is and it frees us. It's a great gift from the Lord. It frees us so that you and I can now enjoy what we have. And you have so much and you can enjoy who you are.

'cause you mean so much in Christ.

Gratitude breeds contentment. And with contentment comes peace. Philippians four, six through seven. Do not be anxious about anything but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will safeguard your hearts in Christ Jesus. You make your requests made known to God with thanksgiving. And do you see the recipe here? Then this piece which surpasses all understanding,

that safeguards your hearts in Christ.

Gratitude also grants happiness. Have you ever met someone who's marked by thankfulness and wallows in self pity? They don't exist.

It shapes and it forms a life. And that life is the blessed life. That's the happy life. How do I know? Because it's God's will for you. One Thessalonians five 18. Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you, gratitude is the greatest inducement to happiness as Paul will explode with joy in two Corinthians nine. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift.

Gratitude also safeguards one another. It is a, an ungrateful spirit that often leads to an angry or a bitter soul that poisons our relationships with others, whether that's in the workplace or whether that is in the family or in the neighborhood, or whether that is in the church or as a thankful person breathes life into relationships

where Paul will call Barnabas that son of encouragement or he will say a philemon, that the souls of the saints are refreshed through you.

I can guarantee Barnabas and Philemon were not bitter men. They were not angry men. They were not complaining men, because that doesn't refresh, that doesn't encourage.

I can almost guarantee you they were thankful men.

Paul says this,

there'd be no complaining, no crude joking, no bitterness but thankfulness.

Nancy Demas wo said it this way to a significant degree. Your emotional, mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing as well as the health and stability of your relationships with others will be determined by your gratitude quotient. Cultivating a thankful heart is a safeguard against becoming bitter and prickly. Gratitude is so good for the soul.

I want you to know it. I want to know it more. God wants you to know it more. 'cause it is so good for your soul

In a right view of God and living in light of that right view. Let me give you a few practical applications. First, establish the right habits of giving. Thanks. Establish the right habits of giving. Thanks. JC Riles said this. He said, habits like trees are strengthened by age. A boy may bend an oak when it's a sap. A hundred men cannot root it up when it is a full grown tree. And thankfulness like water travels down a well worn path.

The more we are thankful, the more we will be thankful. That's just how it works. Saint Augustine said, habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity. It, it just begins to happen. It becomes a mindset. It becomes a way of thinking. It becomes a way of living where you just begin to notice, oh man, that's a gift, man. That's a blessing, man. I don't deserve that. Wow. What a good God.

You create a habit. How do you get rid of something? That's a bad habit. You create a good habit. Replace coveting with contentment and gratitude. With gratitude complaining with thanksgiving. Now that takes work. It's not easy because it rubs against all of us internally.

Well, Israelites, were out of Egypt, but a few weeks and they're already complaining and wanting to go back. That's you, that's me. So you have to be intentional. Now, it's tougher for some of us than it is for others of us because some of us have these deep

lines that we have created in our life, these, these troughs, these furrows of just complaining and in gratitude and taking things for granted. And that's just the path that we've traveled. And so it's deeper. And so it's gonna take longer. It's gonna be more work. Some of us are half glass full, some half glass empty. Some was like what Glass? I was listening this week. Someone said, I thought this was catchy. They said, uh, there are the have nots

and there are the have yachts and there are people that are walking around all the time just saying, I'm a half not, not in Christ.

In Christ. You're not a have not. You're a have a lot.

You have all things. You're have a lots. You have all things in Christ. It's just establishing that new habit day after day where we're just counting our blessings. If we started counting them, we couldn't stop. If you truly were counting them. Third, seek to be the most grateful person in your circle. Seek to be the most grateful person in your circle. That doesn't mean you can't ever discuss hard things. That doesn't mean that you can't ever offer a complaint.

That doesn't mean that you can't ever say how difficult this time has been and how, what a toll it's taking upon your body or your soul or your spirit. No, we do that. And I want to talk about that next week. What do you do in the midst of hard providences? But having said that, we should aim to outdo one another in gratitude.

Push the thankful meter in your family, in your friend group, in your growth group, in your church. Set the tone. Someone sets the tone in every group, someone's doing it. And often it'll be something like setting the tone of, oh, we're gonna be, this person's a complainer. And so they set the tone that in this group we complain. And so others begin to complain. And before you know it, they're trying to outdo one another and complain.

But we do with all kinds of things. We do it with our knowledge of sports, we do it with humor. We do it with our knowledge of politics or music. What about setting the tone with thanksgiving?

Listen to what Paul says. Ephesians five, let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place. But instead, let there be thanksgiving. Wouldn't that be a tone to set in the circles we dwell in. Finally, be intentional. Im patient. Be intentional, impatient.

Becoming a Christian that lives in gratitude doesn't happen overnight because we don't tend to live like this. And I was talking with somebody after the first service, they saying, you know, and it feels like especially over the last years that our society has been breeding this even more. And I think that's exactly right. Just complaint all over the place. Anything we can complain against, we're we're about it. So it's not going to happen overnight.

You're making new paths, you're exercising new muscles, and so you have to be patient with yourself. It's gonna take some time to get those furrows deep in your life and to get those muscles strong in your life so that as the events of life come shadowing over your life, as your life moves through these events in life, it just falls into the path, into the furrow of thanksgiving. It's just natural for you to exercise that muscle of gratitude.

It's gonna take some time and it's gonna take some intentionality.

Would you, over the next 30 days, I'm gonna challenge you. Would you commit to what I'm gonna ask you to do when, uh, over the years I've had a number of husbands come to me in ministry and they will come and they'll say, pastor, I don't love my wife anymore.

What do you do with that? I've sat down with them and I've walked them through the scriptures and talked to them about how they don't have an option not to love their wife anymore. Husbands love your wives. You don't get the option of falling outta love. And we walk through the scriptures and, but then I almost always have given them this practical application. I said, this is what I want you to do each morning while you're taking a shower for the next 30 days

while you're brushing your teeth.

I want you to think of three things that you appreciate about your wife or that you love about your wife.

They have to be three different things every day. And you're gonna find it more challenging as you go along, but you can find three things every day. And then what I want you to do is by the end of each day, I want you some way, some manner to have communicated one of those things to your wife.

Why? Because it's a change of the mind. And as the mind is filled with thanksgiving, so it grips the heart. And as the heart is gripped with thanksgiving, it overflows from the mouth. You have to be intentional.

So would you do this with me? Would you each day get up when you're getting ready in the morning, would you think of three things that you are thankful to the Lord for? Just three. But they gotta be new each day for 30 days. And then when you go to bed at night, would you take one thing from your day? You can find one thing in your day just to offer him thankfulness for thank you for this today. It may be that you just didn't get in a car accident, okay?

But it may be that, ah, my spouse looked at me with love today. Thank you. My child gave me a hug today. Thank you. My boss recognized the good work I've done today. Thank you. I had a thought today about the great grace that you've given me in Christ today. Thank you.

He's a giver of good gifts because he's good. Every good gift comes from above and over time, if you have a posture of thanks, you will find your outlook on life radically changing and you will honor him as God with a spirit of gratitude, which is but preparation for heaven. That's all That is where you will do this day after day. For let's pray.

Father, we thank you that you are a giver of good gifts. I thank you for the great gift that you have given us in your son. We pray that more and more that we would be a people with the spirit of gratitude, living in light of that which we know and which has been revealed to us, that you are God, that you are a good God, and that you are a giver of good gifts to your people. In Christ's name, amen.