Sermon on Ingratitude – Overcoming Ingratitude*
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INTRODUCTION:
A. Every day should be a day of thanksgiving on the Christian’s calendar.
1. The Bible teaches us by direct command to be grateful
a. “Giving thanks always for all things to God” (Eph 5:20)
b. Paul said, “abound with thanksgiving” (Col. 2:7)
c. It is God’s will that we be thankful – “in everything give thanks” (1 The. 5:18), and we must do the will of God to go to heaven (Mat. 7:21).
2. The Bible teaches us by example to be grateful
a. Jesus was thankful (Mat. 11:25), and He is our perfect example (1 Pet. 2:21-22).
b. David (1 Chr. 16:7-36), Daniel (Dan. 6:10), Paul (Acts 27:35); even the angelic hosts give thanks (Rev. 7:11-12)
B. We ought to be very concerned about overcoming ingratitude.
1. The ungrateful will miss heaven
2. Thus, how can we develop the attitude of gratitude?
DISCUSSION: (Discussion of this sermon on ingratitude.)
A. REMEMBER NEVER TO FORGET
1. “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits” (Psa. 103:2).
a. Forgetfulness is a foe of gratitude
b. Though Joseph befriended him, the butler forgot him (Gen. 40:23)
c. Only one of the ten lepers that Jesus healed remembered – did not forget to thank Jesus (Lk. 17:11-19)
2. It has once been said, “Blessed are those who give without remembering and those who can receive without forgetting.”
See Lest I Forget
B. DO NOT MAJOR ON YOUR TROUBLES
1. We need to count our blessings, not our bruises.
a. How often have you see people date matters from a given tragedy…”that happened in the year of the tornado”
b. If we are not careful while we walk the pathway of life we will never pluck a rose, but will pluck many thorns and wear them on our hearts
c. Because she did not major on her troubles, Fanny Crosby, who was blind, could still write, “with numberless blessings each moment He crowns,” in her wonderful hymn, “A Wonderful Savior.”
2. In fact, we should be grateful even for our troubles and so-called inconveniences.
a. One young boy thanked God for his eye glasses, for they kept the boys from hitting him and the girls from kissing him.
b. Matthew Henry, after having his house robbed, wrote in his diary, “Let me be thankful (1) he never robbed me before (2) he did not take my life (3) it was he that robbed and not I.
3. We must firmly believe Romans 8:28
4. See Why Do The Righteous Suffer – “Why Me, Lord?”
C. THINK HOW MUCH BETTER OFF YOU ARE THAN SO MANY
1. What would happen is we were reduced to the same level of many people in the world?
2. In the book entitled, The Great Assent, Robert L. Helibroner describes what would happen if we were reduced to the yearly income of more than billion people in our world
3. Here are the results…see Heart Diseases and their Cures p. 22
D. COUNT THE BLESSINGS YOU DO HAVE, RATHER THAN CONCENTRATING ON WHAT YOU DO NOT HAVE
1. The Bible says:
a. 1 Timothy 6:8
b. Hebrews 13:5
c. Yet, so often we fail to remember the things with which we are so remarkably blessed.
2. How many times have we sang, “Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done,” and yet, fail to do what we sing?
a. Try to count our spiritual blessings (Eph. 1:3)
b. We should try and count our physical blessings
c. We will come to see that these blessings are innumerable
3. Despised Blessings Or Are We Thankful?
E. EXPRESS OUR GRATITUDE
1. We must express our gratitude verbally
a. Psalm 107:1-2
b. Weary and burdened with the cares of the day, a preacher’s little girl came into his study, climbed up into his lap, and said, “Daddy, I did not come to ask for anything. I just came to tell you I love you.” The statement so warmed the preacher’s heart that he soon forgot his weariness.
c. In like manner, God the Father desires for His children to express their love and gratitude.
2. We must express our gratitude by our lives as well as by our lips.
a. Thanks saying is not necessarily thanks giving, but thanks living is.
b. Psalm 116:12
c. In gratitude we will give unto God our love, our time, our talents, our money, our live; yea, our all!
3. SeeSermon on Gratitude – For This, I’m Thankful
F. DO NOT TAKE THE COMMONPLACE THINGS OF LIFE FOR GRANTED
1. We many times are thankless because we are thoughtless. Think and thank come from the same root word.
2. In our thinking it is easy to let the ordinary blessings of life be forgotten and unappreciated.
a. For example, if the sun did not rise one morning, we would become hysterically frantic; but, what about the many days – yea, day after day – that the sun does rise?
b. We tend also to take our everyday material blessings for granted … appliances, televisions, electric lights, washing machines, etc.
c. Perhaps an old Kentucky “recipe” for washing clothes will help us appreciate our modern conveniences … “build fire in the back yard to heat the rain water … set the tubs so the smoke want blow in your eyes … shave a whole cake of soap in boiling water … sort the clothes in three piles – 1 pile of white – 1 pile of colors and one pile of rags and work britches … rub dirty spots had on a scrub board … spread towels on the grass and hang rags on the fence … pour rinse water in flower bed … scrub porch with the soap water … turn tubs upside down … put on a clean dress … brew some coffee … sit and rock a spell and count your blessings.
G. AVOID OVEREMPHASIZING THE LUXURIES OF LIFE
1. Luke 12:15
2. We must be thankful for the simple necessities
3. We need to be thankful for, and put the emphasis on, the spiritual things.
H. DO AWAY WITH MURMURING AND COMPLAINING
1. Instead of remaining continually grateful for their deliverance from Egypt, Israel soon began to murmur and complain (Num. 14:2)
a. Complained about what they didn’t have and about what they did have.
b. We need to avoid duplicating this spirit (1 Cor. 10:10)
2. Though Paul was in prison he still penned:
a. Ephesians 5:20
b. Philippians 2:14
3. Sermon on Complaining – Complaints in the Camp
4. Finally, in this sermon on ingratitude…
I. REALIZE THAT WE ARE A RECIPIENT; AND, NEVER FORGET THE GIVER OF THE GIFT
1. All that we have we have received from God
a. James 1:17
b. Paul was deeply aware of this … 1 Corinthians 15:10
c. The rich farmer failed to realize this (Lk. 12:16-21)
2. We must never forget the giver in the gift
a. Are we more interested in the gift than the giver?
b. “Daddy, what did you bring me?” … many adults act this way also
CONCLUSION: Are you grateful? (End of this sermon on ingratitude.)
*Gleaned from Wendell Winkler (Heart Diseases and their Cure)