Richard F. Harsell
friendshippastor@yahoo.com
11/23/03 Text: Psalm 100
"An Attitude of Gratitude "
One day during the period that Abraham Lincoln served as President of the United States, an elderly lady was ushered into his private office. Lincoln noticed that she carried a covered basket beneath her arm, and he inquired, "What can I do for you Madam?"
Placing the covered basket on the table the lady
replied, "Mr President, I have come here today not to ask any favor for anyone, nor for myself. I simply heard that you were very fond of cookies, and I came here today to present you with a basket-full which I baked just for you!"
As he listened to the lady’s words, tears welled up in the President’s eyes and began running unchecked down his face. He stood speechless for a moment, then said, "My good woman, your thoughtful and unselfish deed moves me. Thousands of people have entered this office since I became President, but you alone are the first to come asking no favor for yourself nor somebody else!"
I wonder, if the Lord doesn’t sometimes feel much the same way as Abraham Lincoln did that day, when He hears the millions of requests and petitions
with which we bombard heaven’s gates on a daily
basis - prayers in which we ask for divine favor or
His intervention into problems which afflict our daily lives.
Yet, amid all those requests for God to meet our every real and imagined need, let’s conside for a
moment how often do we stop and take time to utter a few simple words of thanks for all He has already done for us? A few words of praise for the blessings which He has continually supplied on a day to day basis even without our asking?
I truly believe that many people have the idea that the Lord God is supposed to be some sort of celestial
"sugar-daddy" who exists simply to fulfill our every wish. We sort of expect this as our due, and sad-to-say, seldom pause and take a moment to express appropriate thanks for all He has done.
When I was a kid, I had a playmate named Milton whose grandmother lived two houses down the street from my family. Milton’s parents lived just a few blocks further down the street and as a result, he spent a lot of time at his grandmother’s house.
But the thing I remember most about Milton was that he had more toys than any kid I ever knew. He was the
only son of his grandmother’s only son and the old
lady simply adored him, although he never seemed to notice it or to care at all. She continually lavished him with plenty of spending money and any toy he wanted: all he had to do was ask, or demand, as
he did frequently, and the wanted item appeared like magic.
Sporting equipment, electric trains, toy soldiers, baseball cards, games...you name it....Milton had it
all! Nothing was too expensive or too good for him to have, and I must admit that I thought he was the luckiest kid alive. But there was one drawback in Milton’s character that cancelled out all that he had, because he was a spoiled - disrespectful - unappreciative - smart-mouthed brat!
In spite of all the efforts that his grandmother took to exress her love for him, Milton argued and talked back to her and showed little if any respect, love, or even simple appreciation in return for all she did.
And even as I remember it 45 years later, I think
what a shame it was, both for his grandmother and
for Milton. Like Milton, it’s very easy for us to fall into the same sort of mindset where we take the many blessings which God has bestowed on us for granted and then fail to be properly thankful.
We live in a land of plenty where for the most-part, even the poorest of our people are provided with sufficient food, medical care and shelter.
We are given the opportunity to avail ourselves of an education and to develop our talents to the best of our abilities. We can sleep at night, secure in knowing that there are laws which protect our freedoms and that there are people standing ready to enforce those laws when needed.
We have the best of everything here in America, yet the majority of us seldom stop and consider just how blessed we are.
And I’d pose the question this morning, "Do we have an ’Attitude of Gratitude’ toward our Heavenly Father, or are we a little bit like Milton, and consider all His blessings our just due with little thought of giving thanks in return?
I don’t know if you ever considered it or not, but
we are very fortunate and blessed in that the majority of our basic needs are pretty much met with a relatively small amount of labor. We have ready access to church and trained people who can provide us with religious instruction that gives us ample opportunity to know the One true God through His Son Jesus Christ. And by His grace we are provided with the means by which we can obtain His forgivenss or our sin and gain access to salvation and eternal life simply by just believing and asking for it. We are far blessed beyond our just deserts - and all we need do is take a look at the people of other nations around the world to know it’s true.
Yet. let some little cog slip in our regulated - almost perfectly scheduled lives, and how often do we become upset, angry, and depressed. And we begin to wonder why God has allowed such calamity to occur? Not much of an "Attitude of Gratitude" is it?
I read an interesting article recently which I’d like to share with you: if you think times are tough today
or if you have any complaints about your life,
consider this: Our forefathers went without sugar until the 13’th century; without coal fires until the 14’th century; without battered bread until the 15’th century;without potatoes until the 16’th century; without coffee or tea until the 17’th century; without pudding until the 18’th century; without matches and electricity until the 19’th century; and without canned goods until the 20’th century. Now what was it we were complaining about?
I urge that each of us stop and consider this morning just how good God has been to us in the past year and that we take time to remember the many blessings
which He has bestowed on us, in spite of the fact that we are completely unworthy of a single one of them. Think about the deliverance He had shown in our times of trouble and sickness, and above all the salvation He has offered us simply by repenting of our sin and inviting Jeus Christ, His greatest gift of all into our lives as Lord and Savior.
Let us pause for a moment and look once again to
the words of the Psalmist this morning:
He commands that we "shout for joy to the Lord." Stop for a second and think.....when was the last time you shouted for joy to the Lord? I’d venture to say that most of us can’t remember and even more of us have NEVER shouted to the Lord for joy - in fact if we shouted to the Lord at all, it was more likely out of anger and frustration because He didn’t fix things to suit us or meet some need in our lives in the time frame and fashion which we felt He should!
Maybe you are thinking that to shout joyfully to the
Lord sounds like something they do in one of those
charismatic churches and its something that just isn’t
considered "proper worship form" by we "formalistic
stately Baptists!" Everybody knows we just don’t
engage in that kind of behavior! I’ve been in churches where the members of the congregation were encouraged to just pray out loud each in their own way. And I must admit that it sounded like a bunch of noise and confusion to me. But don’t take me wrong here, I’m not knocking these folks, but I just wasn’t raised to be comfortable with that style of worship.
I believe the Lord is perfectly capable of hearing the prayers of my heart without me yelling them out to Him, and I don’t really believe that the Psalmist is suggesting that we stand on the street corner or even at the altar and actually shout our prayers heavenward. Rather, I think he explains his meaning in the second verse where he instructs us to "worship the Lord with gladness and come before Him with joyful songs"
That’s what worship is all about in the first place.....returning thanks for all God’s goodness to us. As for the joyful songs......I remember the first church in which I pastored. There was an elderly lady named Sister Herman, who had been a member of that particular congregation for years before I came as
her pastor, and she just sort of adopted both me and my friend Bro. John Hunter (who has ministered here on occasion) when we were college freshmen.
We’d give her rides to and from church and she must have fed us both a hundred Sunday dinners in the time we worked in that church. But one thing in particular about Sister Herman was that she never sang during the congregational songs....she just stood there with her hymnal open and her mouth shut. One day I happened to ask why she didn’t sing and she replied that she wasn’t a very good singer, so she just sang with her heart instead of her mouth. And I think maybe she was "hitting the nail on the head," so to speak. The worship of a glad heart is even more important than that of a pretty voice to the Lord.
We are to keep in mind that "the Lord is our God."
He has fashioned us and has given us the gift of life
as well as the ability to enjoy all its benefits.
He has provided the means to redeem our souls and make us His very own people......literally "the sheep of His pasture"
The Psalmist then instructs us to "enter His gates" (or come before His presence) "with thanksgiving and enter His courts with praise." This should be our attitude whenever we come to church. It should not be with the attitude that it’s just another obligation in an already overly-filled schedule, but it’s showing an "Attitude of Gratitude" for all the Lord has done for us as we reflect on all His blessings.
Again the Psalmist instructs us, "give thanks to Him and praise His name!" And he concludes his Psalm by stating that "the Lord is good and His love endures forever"
I feel that many people (even Christians) often have the mistaken belief that God is sitting up there in heaven someplace floating around on a cloud, looking down at us with a frown on His face, and just waiting to zap us with a bolt of lightning if we mess up and displease Him. But such is definitely not the case.
Proper understanding of the overall message contained
in God’s Word assures us that "the Lord is good" and nothing can destroy the love that He has for us."
In spite of the fact that we at times forget His goodness and stray like lost sheep, "His love for us continues through all generations"
I’ve probably made mention of it in previous Thanks-
giving week sermons through the years, but I want to
share a story with you that bears repeating: Most of us have sort of a mental picture of the first Thanksgiving in which the pilgrims are gathered around a table laden down with roast turkeys, corn on the cob, and pumpkin pies, and being joined by the local Indians who have been invited to come take part in the celebration:
But such was definitely NOT the case on that first
Thaksgiving Day! Let me share with you the words of the Proclamation issued that day by William Bradford, the governor of the colony:
"Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game, and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience, Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November 29’th in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Plymouth Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings"
No turkey dinner with all the trimmings, no pumpkin
pies with big dollops of Cool Whip.....just a time
of giving thanks to Almighty God for all His goodness!
Dwight L.Moody was once preaching a sermon in which he used the 103’rd Psalm as his text. When he came to verses 1 & 2 which read "Praise the Lord, O my soul; with all my inermost being, praise His holy Name.....
Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits," he suddenly stopped and said to his assembled congregation....."You can’t remember them all, of course, but don’t forget ’em all, Remember some of em!"
May the Lord help us to have an "Attitude of Gratitude for all His blessings both now and in the
days to come.
Amen!
