Sermon: Praying in Gratitude

Well, tonight we are continuing in our theme of gratitude and thankfulness, and tonight we are specifically thinking about gratitude in the context of prayer. So what does it look like to pray with gratitude? I have a, a simple thesis, and here it is. I'm gonna state it at the beginning. So one sentence, gratitude is a posture of gospel grace, which is chiefly manifested through prayer. I'll say that again. Gratitude is a posture of gospel grace,

which is chiefly manifested through prayer. We're gonna unpack this thesis with two statements and two questions. Uh, but first, let me tell you the aim of this sermon. My aim is as we think about the connection between the gospel and gratitude and prayer, my hope, my my desire is that all of us would leave here with a greater desire to pray, grace fueled and gratitude laced prayers that we would all be delighted more

and more with who God is, that we would be more grateful and, and have a sense of indebtedness for what God has done for us in Christ, that we would be hopeful for what God promises to do for us in the age to come and all of this, to lead us into more and deeper prayer. That's the hope. Now, this theme of gratitude and prayer is all over in the Bible. There's all kinds of places we could turn to in the New Testament. We're gonna be in Ephesians chapter one tonight.

So if you wanna open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter one, well-known text that we're gonna look at tonight before we read these verses, let me pray for us and ask for the Lord's help.

Father, I pray as we pause here in a moment to read these verses, verses that are very, very familiar to us. Pray that you would open our eyes, that you would soften our hearts, that we might see more of the grace of Christ, that we might be more thankful and more grateful for who Christ is and what he has done for us. And may all of this lead us into lives that think about and pray more for what Christ has done. So we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

So we are in Ephesians chapter one, beginning with verse 15. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints. I do not cease to give thanks for you remembering you in my prayers. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know

what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age,

but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head, his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all two statements to think about our thesis tonight. First, here's the first statement. Gratitude or thankfulness is a posture of awe that is rooted in the gospel. It's a posture of awe that is rooted in the gospel. We, we considered that this morning in our,

our sermon this morning from James one. And we see it again here in Ephesians one. Notice how verse 15 begins. Look back there. Paul begins with the phrase there for this reason. And then he writes, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints. And then he says, I do not cease to give thanks for you. Paul has heard of something and there's reasons behind what he's about to do,

but he says, I do not cease to give thanks for you. Paul here is filled with an unceasing gratitude. And and why is it unceasing? Well, it's not because of who these Ephesians were, but rather it's because of the gospel grace that is evident in their lives. And Paul knows that these two evidences of grace, they are the fruit of God's saving work, which he demonstrated in the previous section in verses three through 14.

Pause here for a minute and consider for a moment. Imagine you have a, a friend, a good friend, and this friend, uh, decides to do something adventurous. Uh, so he decides to sign up for, uh, a new expedition to some unknown place in Antarctica. So this friend prepares for this expedition, uh, he joins this team, they assemble, and off they go. Now, at some point along the way, as their ship is nearing these, the icy shores,

the engine cuts out. They lose power, all communication is lost. And right before all of that happens, he sends you a message, very simple engine's down, lost power, no land in sight, rough seas, hope to see you again soon. Well, months pass. There's no word from him or anyone on this expedition. There's no trace of the ship. Rescuers have been searching and searching and they finally give up. And you think as most would, would think, uh, they all,

they all died in the seas. We'll never see him again. But then out of the blue, you, you see it on the news, you see this, this breaking news pops up and, and you hear that this expedition has been found that though cold and hungry and frostbitten, all of the crew have miraculously survived. Now imagine the sense of gratitude that you would feel every time you meet your friend. Every time you think of this friend, you would have this overwhelming sense of thankfulness well,

up from with inside you. You, you would be in awe. You would be, you would be amazed that he survived. Your view of him would forever be shaped by this miraculous story of survival and rescue. That's what we see here in verse 15 from Paul. Paul is amazed by the gospel. He's so amazed by it that whenever he hears about these Ephesian believers, he, he feels this constant sense of awe and thankfulness well up inside of him.

That's why it's unceasing for him. It's always there. It's always present and it always comes out. It's not so much for the gift of faith and love, although he's thankful for those things as evidences of grace. But he's thankful for the giver of these gifts. You see, for Paul, their faith in their love reminds him of the God from whom all of these blessings flow. That's why he says, for this reason, for the reason of the gospel, for the reason of who God is.

Whenever I see you, I'm amazed. I'm in awe of who God is. Just by way of reminder, look back to what Paul says about God. In verse three, he says, the Father God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing, that's who Paul's thinking about this God, he says, who chose us in him before the foundation of the world? How amazing is that? This God who has predestined us for adoption to himself

as sons, the God who planned and purposed and willed all of this to happen from his own free grace, this God who in verse seven it says, redeemed us in Christ by forgiving us of all of our trespasses, and then out of his own free mercy and grace, this God who then lavish more and more on us, the riches of his grace, the God who makes known to us the mystery of his will, verse nine and his plan to unite all things in Christ.

This is the same God he says, who gives us an inheritance and then confirms it for us as a guarantee by sealing us with the Holy Spirit. Verses 11 through 14, what a miraculous rescue we have been given in the gospel and all of these glorious gospel realities gives Paul a posture of deep gratitude that there is in gratitude or thankfulness, a sense of being awed by something, something that's surprising to us, something

that shouldn't have happened to us, something that's bigger than ourselves. That's what we do, and we're thankful. That's what we do when we express gratitude. And for Paul, the deeper he goes into the minds of God's gospel grace, the more treasure he finds. And this is what makes him unceasingly thankful. And so we see here in Ephesians one verse 15, Paul's first reaction when he hears of the faith and love that these Ephesians have, his first reaction is

to respond with thankfulness, with gratitude. You see everything and every one becomes for Paul, just another opportunity to be reminded of the gospel and to be thankful for God's blessing and favor. So he give thanks for them continuously and unceasingly, but his thanks is directed to God, the one who works the miracle of redemption on behalf of dead sinners. And so it's word pausing here for a moment and ask yourself this question when you

meet other Christians, when you hear about other churches, other believers, what is your posture in that moment? What's the first response that stirs within your heart? Could you say like Paul here and like he does through all of his letters, could you say that your first response is one of thankfulness? Are you reminded of what is actually occurring when someone truly believes in Christ and then begins to demonstrate Christ's love toward other people?

Paul here is unceasingly, thankful and grateful. We see this all throughout Paul's letters. Let me read a few verses and notice as I read the, the word here always or in all things. So in Philippians one, verse three, Paul says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. Colossians one, verse three, we always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we pray for you, he always thanks God. He's always remembering people with thanks first,

that First Thessalonians one, we give thanks to God always for you, constantly mention you in our prayers later on here in the book of Ephesians, as Paul's reflecting on being filled with the spirit, he says, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, one Thessalonians five, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Gratitude is the posture of a Christian who is amazed

by God and amazed by the gospel. We ought to always continually without ceasing for everything and in everything give thanks because of his miraculous rescue. Everything we have is a gift from God's hand. Every circumstance is ordained for our good and God's glory. So we see here that gratitude is a posture of gospel grace. Here's a second statement. Gratitude is chiefly manifested through prayer. Gratitude is chiefly manifested through prayer.

Here's what the Heidelberg catechism tells us. Question 116, it says this about prayer, prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us. Prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us. So what does gratitude in prayer look like? Let me give us two ways to approach this, two ways of thinking about this. First, it provides a framework for how we pray. And second, it provides a framework for what we pray.

So a framework for how we pray, and we often use the acronym acts when we pray a CTS, it's a, that's a great way to pray, right? We begin by adoring God, adoring him, giving him thanks and praise. We, we confess our sin as an expression of our thankfulness for who God is. Uh, and then there's that t Thanksgiving. We're we're being thankful, being reminded of all the ways God has blessed us and all the ways we see God answering prayer.

And then we come with s supplication. We bring our requests to God, right? But but by instinct, we never end with just an s We, we always go one more step. And what do we do at the end? We always return back to gratitude. We always return back to being thankful. You see, gratitude is the beginning. It's the middle, and it's the end of prayer. This is how we pray as we're coming into prayer. It's a framework for how we come to God in prayer.

Eugene Peterson said this about ending with thankfulness. He says this, all true prayer pursued far enough becomes praise Any prayer, no matter how desperate its origin, no matter how angry or fearful the experiences it traverses ends up in praise does not always get there quickly or easily. The trip can take a lifetime, but the end is always praise. You see, praise is another form of thanksgiving. That's what we see all throughout the Psalms.

Psalm 100 verse four, enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name. And as we've been considering this, uh, one of the points Pastor Jason has made is gratitude is something that must be expressed right? That's why we must come with praise. We must come with thankfulness. And prayer is the daily outlet for our hearts to glorify and thank the Lord forever. That's why prayer is the most important part of thankfulness

that God requires of us, because it's our daily outlet for how we can give God praise and give him thanks for who he is and what he has done. So gratitude shapes how we pray. Gratitude is a framework that also shapes what we pray, what we pray. Now, we know as just considered in some of the verses, I read that for example, as Ephesians five and, and First Thessalonians five, that we're to give thanks in all circumstances, right?

Everything that we have is a gift from the father of lights as we thought about it this morning. And so thanking God for the parking spot or a promotion at work or for sunny days or for arriving safely on a trip, these are all things that we ought to give thanks for. And these are, these are good things to be thankful for. But here's, here's something to consider. What we most often pray for, and what we most often give thanks for reflects

our deeper spiritual mindset, our, our deeper spiritual framework. Here's what Da Carson says, what we most frequently give thanks for betrays what we most highly value. And so it's a good question for us. It's a, a barometer of our own hearts. What is it that you most often give thanks for? And if we only give thanks for material things in good health, those are the, the majority of the things we're thanking God for, then,

then perhaps we're aligned more with the health and wealth train than we might actually realize. But if our hearts are constantly steeped in the gospel, if our thoughts and desires are tested each day with the scriptures, then our minds will be fixed in heaven. Where Christ is seated in all of his glory and minds that are fixed on Christ will seek heavenly things in prayer. That's exactly what we see from these verses

that we read here in Ephesians one. Notice the things that Paul prays for. Look back at verse 17. He prays that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, would give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. Verse 18, he prays that the eyes of your hearts would be enlightened, that we would know what is the hope to which God has called us? What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints?

In verse 19, what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe? You see Paul here in Ephesians and, and all through the rest of the New Testament. He's not preoccupied with material or even circumstantial things. He's thankful for the fact that God from his own initiative and from the riches of his own free grace has blessed us. He's chosen us, he's adopted us, he's redeemed us. He's lavished us with his grace,

and he's sealed us with his spirit. He's so grateful to God for this supernatural work. And his prayer is essentially that these Ephesians and you and I would simply grow in our knowledge of him, that we would grow in our knowledge of him. Paul's prayers are fixed upon Christ because that's where his mind is. He's fixed on Christ. And so he prays with his mind fixed upon Christ. This is a, a simple prayer request to grow in the knowledge

of God, but it's an endless ocean if you seek to unpack it in prayer. And so if you feel stuck perhaps in daily prayer, maybe you don't pray as much as you'd like, or maybe perhaps all of your prayers kind of sound the same. We'll, take this model of prayer for yourself. Begin by thanking God for who he is and what he has done through the gospel. And then begin to pray for yourself. Pray for others to grow in the knowledge of who he is.

Pray to know his power, to know the hope of eternal life, to know his revelation more and more, to know his love, his joy, his peace. The list can go on and on to gratitude his chiefly manifested in prayer. Let me switch over now and address two questions. Those are the two statements. Here are the two questions. First, what happens when we pray with gratitude? What happens when we pray with gratitude? I have three thoughts. There could be lots more we could add

to this list, but three thoughts here to consider. Uh, we heard about this in this morning's sermon as well. So I love how these things kind of just come right together. First thought is this, when we pray with gratitude, we are combating cynicism and bitterness. We are combating cynic, cynicism, and bitterness at its very core within our own hearts. Here's what Paul Miller says. He has a, a great book on prayer. He writes this, nothing undercuts cynicism

more than a spirit of thankfulness. He says, to become thankful is to be drawn into the fellowship of the Father and the Son and the spirit and into their enjoyment of one another. Cynicism looks at reality, looks at what's happening in life. It calls it phony, and it prides itself on its own insight as it pulls us back. That's what cynicism does. But Paul Miller says this, Thanksgiving looks reality in the face and rejoices at God's care.

It replaces a bitter spirit with a generous one. And so in the moment of bitterness or in the moment of cynicism, as those thoughts and desires start to creep into your head and into your own heart, pause and pray with gratitude. Thank God for who he is. Thank God for what he has done. Take your eyes off from yourself. Place them on Christ. So we are combating cynicism and bitterness. Here's the second thing that happens.

When we pray with gratitude, we are resting in Christ. We are resting in Christ. Philippians four, six and seven, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. You, you see, making supplications is very easy. Whenever I am talking to a student

and it's close to exam time, uh, even the most ard and atheist will say, pray that I get a good grade on my exam. Right? It's easy to, to ask for things. Anyone can do that. But praying with thanksgiving, especially when you're in the midst of hard and difficult circumstances, that's what makes Christian prayer so different. Praying with thanksgiving, as we see from this text, is how we experience the rest that Christ offers

because it submits us to his sovereign will, even as we pray for relief or comfort or deliverance, whatever it might be. But when we are under his sovereign care, our hearts and our minds are guarded by his peace. So whenever that moment of anxiety comes upon you, put on thankfulness and pray, it's how we rest in Christ. Here's a third thing that happens. When we pray with gratitude, we are being shaped by what we most love.

We are being shaped by what we most love.

Jonathan Edwards defines gratitude as a religious affection. That's what he calls this whole thing that we're talking about, thankfulness or gratitude. Now, affection is not a feeling, but it's rather, it's a what he would say, a faculty or an inclination of our soul. That's kind of a, a technical language. But think of stuff like love or desire or hope or joy. All of these are ways that our souls move toward things, grab hold of things, express their pleasure

with certain things. And so Edwards calls gratitude a religious affection. It's how our souls grab hold of things and gratitude shapes us because it moves us closer to the thing that we are most grateful for. It's moving us closer to that thing. And so you can think of this in the negative sense, right? There's ways that we might be thankful, but it's actually just a self-focused thanks. So you think of the Pharisee in Luke 18.

You remember what he prayed? Lord, thank you. God thank you that I am not like other men. He's giving thanks. But it is not the kind of thankfulness that God requires. A self infused gratitude does not move us closer to God, but rather it moves us closer to pride and arrogance and selfishness. It moves us away from him, but a true thankfulness to God moves us toward him more and more. How does it do that? Well, it it, it's the way

that we express approval of what God has done. It's the way we express pleasure for what he is doing. It's what gratitude does. Gratitude in this sense is worship because it expresses our comprehension of the worthiness of God's value above all other things. And we know about worship that we become like what we worship. Gratitude in prayer is what fixes our eyes on God's perfections, on his actions, on his nature. And as.