Overflowing Gratitude

You know what the definition of a glutton for punishment is? You came and heard me three times today. Some of you said that's a glutton for punishment. So thank you all for coming back. I greatly appreciate it.

Take your Bibles, if you would, to second Corinthians chapter nine. Second Corinthians chapter nine. We're gonna continue with our theme today, thinking about thanksgiving, thinking about gratitude, thinking about what our attitude should be every week of the year. Of course, this week it's a little easier to think about gratitude because of Thanksgiving. So we kind of introduced that idea this morning of heading into Thanksgiving season.

We we kind of thought about thankfulness. We started out in Sunday school talking about how we should really, as a as a demonstration of how thankful we are as as believers, we should be using hospitality to help build up people around us, to help build up community. And wouldn't it be a joy to think that our church, Missouri Avenue Baptist Church, was a place where people felt a sense of community. And what binds us all together, of course, is Jesus. And so hopefully we can learn from some of the things we saw in Sunday school, and then we talked about in the morning service about how thanksgiving, leads us to some things and how it sounds counterproductive to the world, but that really, when we see our great need, instead of feeling desperation, it should lead us to gratitude because we can see that Jesus takes care of that need for us, and that leads us to obey him like we saw in the story of the 10 lepers.

They went and they went to the temple. They had some faith, some level of faith because they went to go see if they were healed. Of course, along the way they were and the one came back and what did he do? He obeyed God and he showed his thankfulness and he came back in gratitude and because of that he was made whole. Well, I want to kind of continue looking at the way we started out this morning on that and when gratitude fills our heart, we have our attitude correct.

If we're really observant to all the blessings around us, I like to use the phrase count your blessing just like the old hymn. If we sit there, if we're having a bad day, if we're depressed, if we're discouraged, if we're anxious about something, if we will stop, I like to do this sometimes if I'm a little bit overwhelmed, I wake up in the morning and I got a lot of stuff to do or I have something that I have to do that I'm kind of dreading, I will sort of pause and just try to close my eyes and to meditate, and I call it counting my blessings. And I will start off sometimes thinking about how I was blessed to have been born in a Christian home, that I was blessed to have had godly parents, that I was born in The United States, and the list goes on and on and on. There are all kinds of blessings in our lives, if we reflect on those, it's going to lead us to gratitude. Interestingly enough, if we're going through anxiety, if we're going through something overwhelming, when we start to count our blessings, what does it do?

It shows us God's faithfulness in the past and it helps us as we look towards the future. And so when gratitude fills our heart, it doesn't stay contained. It spills over into our actions. That gratitude spills over into our attitude. It spills over and it starts to control how we live our life.

And so the message tonight, if I was going to give it a title, would call it overflowing gratitude. Now let me give you a little pause here. This is silly, but I just want to tell it. Okay? So when I was baptized, I shared my testimony.

Instantly, should say thank you to Dennis and Jules. They hosted at their lovely home this afternoon. We enjoyed spending some time and getting to know them a little bit better and sharing our testimony. Part of my testimony was I made a profession of faith as a little child, but I wasn't saved until my freshman year of Bible College, believe it or not. Sometimes you're going hear my testimony, I'll be happy to share it with you.

But because I had never been scripturally baptized as a believer, was rebaptized because I had made a genuine profession of faith in Christ after I came home for, I think it was Christmas break or spring break or something from my freshman year of college. Talk about overflowing joy. So our church was a big auditorium and it had a baptistry like this, but the baptistry was way higher because it's a gigantic tall wall that it's on and so it's like almost on a 2nd Floor where the istry was. So the pastor, what they used to do is they would turn on the hot water and they'd fill the baptistry the night before and it had some kind of heater that would turn it on up in Virginia, know it gets cold and they turn on that heater And then last thing right before the service, the pastor or somebody would go up there and turn on the hot water one more time and top it off just to make it warm. Well, the pastor did it that time and he forgot to turn the water off.

And so it continued to fill and continued to fill and continued to fill. And so then he realized he turned it off right as he's going in, but as he used to wear these waiters that so he would change clothes quicker and he'd have his like his suit coat on, it was all underneath this like baptismal robe and he had his waiters on. You couldn't see him and he got down into the baptistry and when he got in, I'm looking. I'm behind where the people can't see me and he gets in and the water went all the way to the top of the baptistry. It was just like, it's almost like this bead.

The tension was just holding it in place there and I'm looking. I'm like, pastor and he doesn't notice it and I'm like, he's like, come in the water. I'm like, it's full. Come in the water. So, I get in and I go down the steps and I'm going real slow.

Everybody must thought I was nervous. I'm trying not to spill water and then I I get in and the beat is just like rolling up on the edge. Nothing has gone over yet. He says a few words. I give a little bit of a testimony carefully looking at the edge of the baptistry and by the way, the choir was sitting down there.

Congregation is all out there and so what happens? I I'm standing there. Pastor goes, I baptize you. I go under and then when I came up, I hear laughter across the whole church and the water had gone over the edge And I always like to tell people, the day I got baptized, the choir got sprinkled. So anyway, silly illustration, doesn't have a whole lot to do with what we are talking about, I just wanted to tell you.

But the thing of it is, in a sense, that's how our life should be, that we are overflowing with joy. We are overflowing with peace. The world should notice, just like the choir, and we I hope I'd like to think I rubbed off on them a little bit. Now, I didn't didn't do him any good spiritually. But in a sense, our lives should overflow with an apparent difference that the world starts to notice.

So if you're there, look at second Corinthians chapter nine, and we're gonna kinda connect this idea of thanksgiving again to generosity and see if you can follow along. Second Corinthians chapter nine and verse six. And it says, but this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he who soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart. So let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a cheerful giver.

Verse eight. And God is able to make all grace abound towards you that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. As it is written, he hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness remaineth forever. Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both ministereth bread for your food and multiply your seeds sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness. Being enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which calls us through us thanksgiving to God.

For the administration of this service not only the want of the saints, but it is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God. Verse 13, whilst by the experiment of this ministration, they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ and for your liberal distribution unto them and unto all men. And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. So this passage teaches us how gratitude overflows.

Gratitude, thanksgiving, can be seen in practical ways, in powerful ways here. And tonight, I just want us to note that, look at three things, three ways gratitude spills over into our lives and glorifies God. And the first one is gratitude overflows in generosity. Gratitude overflows in generosity. Look at verse six again.

But this essay, who he who soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly and he who soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully every man according as he purposes in his heart. So let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a cheerful giver. Paul begins here by talking about that principle, that idea of sowing and reaping, planting and harvesting. We see that several times in scripture. And he says that though whoever, sows sparingly so if you're cheap, if you're being ultra conservative with your seeds or or your what you're planting, you are going to sow sparingly.

What is going to happen? You are going to reap sparingly. Whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully. Alright, so once again, you all have learned I am new in Florida. I don't know all this about oranges and groves.

I do know there are groves now and not orchards, so I'm coming along. I also know that there's juice oranges, because I see those laying in the intersections all over the place in Central Florida when we come to a stop sign. I know that they're just filled up in the back of those trucks, but then you have the nice pretty oranges that they sell to ship all over the world, the nice attractive looking eating oranges. That's about my extent of what I know about oranges, okay, nothing much. But I do know this, if you want to have a lot of oranges, what do you have to do?

You have got to have a lot of what? Trees. Alright? If you want to have one tree, how many oranges are you going to get? You are going get one tree's worth of oranges.

We have one orange tree in our neighbor's yard, and I wouldn't even know it was there except for some very strange reason. The squirrels like to bring the oranges over to our yard. Don't ask me why. And they get up on the roof and a lot of times in the morning at the crack of dawn, we're awoken to the sound of They hit the gutter. And so they take them up, they play with them on our roof and they roll the oranges down the roof, they hit the gutter and they rush back up.

I've never seen anything like it, but they love to play with that. Well, I don't know much, but if you want to have a big crop, you gotta have a lot of seeds. And Paul's using that same principle here as an object lesson, that simple principle of sowing and reaping. And then he connects that principle to giving thanks and to having a thankful heart. And that's where I want us to see that generosity is an expression of our gratitude.

You know, one time we were going through McDonald's in the morning and Olivia and I, this one, she was still in high school. We went a couple mornings a week and we did it just so I could spend a little extra time talking to her in the car. We went and got breakfast. I go through the drive through and when we pulled up, the cashier said, Hey, I wanted to let you know your breakfast is paid for. The car in front of you wanted to buy your breakfast.

She says, It's really neat. They are just it's been going on. People are paying it forward. You've probably heard that. I was like, Well, don't have unlimited sums of money.

I don't want to end up paying for a bus load behind me, but yeah, I'll tell you what, I'll pay for the car behind me. Then we proceeded and I'm being the cheapskate missionary, I was like, Oh good, even after I paid for the car behind me, they only got a coffee, so we still came out ahead. That's that idea that when you you've seen it happen, and I've heard stories that's made the news before where the first car in the morning says, Hey, I want to pay for the next car behind me, and they've said sometimes it'll go on for hours and hours where one person just wants to be thankful and in their gratitude, well, I'll pay for the car behind me, and it just continues on. Well, generosity is expressed through when we have gratitude. When we recognize how much God has done for us, that should compel us to give to others.

Now, I'm not talking about the McDonald's drive thru. That might be how you choose to do it. But when we invest our time, we invest our abilities, when we invest our love, when we invest generosity to other people, it's showing God how grateful we are. Hold your place here and flip over to James chapter one. James chapter one and verse 17.

This is going to kind of give us that that something that we need to remember. We need to be grateful to God because, really, all the blessings are coming from him. James one seventeen. And it says, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. So you see right there, scripture is telling us if we have a blessing in our life, who did it come from?

It came from God. Every good blessing, every perfect gift, every good gift comes from above. And I also love that part there that says, with whom is no variableness. That's what we would call the theological term would be immutability. God doesn't change.

And so we don't have to say, oh, today God wants me to do this, and boy, I hope I can appease him tomorrow. What if he changed his mind? God doesn't change. He's always the same, and he always will be the same. And that should be something we're thankful for because when he blesses us with something, there's no changing, and there's no shadow of turning.

He's not gonna turn his back on us. He's not gonna defy his people. We also know that God loves what? A cheerful giver. You know, I I I can't imagine, but, God, you know, we can see the scriptural principle of learning to to give that the concept of the tithe that we see in the Old Testament, and then we we should probably give even more in the New Testament under our Christian liberty.

We should be wanting to do that, but can you imagine if if every time they took up offering in the church, you're like, great. Here comes the offering plate again. I'll put my money in there because I have to. That is probably not honoring God. He's not gonna be real pleased with that because he wants us to give with a cheerful heart.

Paul says giving shouldn't be done reluctantly. We shouldn't give just because we know somebody's keeping a checklist of who gave. We shouldn't give because we feel like we're obligated to. Because cheerful giving really reflects our heart and that we're thankful, that we're appreciative to God. It's everything is for God.

Every blessing is from God. He has an endless supply, and so our giving is most significant when we recognize it's for him. You know, God supplies what we need. Look back in the main passage there in second Corinthians. Look at verse eight.

It reminds us that God is the provider of everything. Says, and God is able to make all grace abound towards you. And what is grace? God's riches at Christ's expense or getting things that we don't deserve. It says here, He can make all grace abound toward you that ye, all of us, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.

We have the resources. We have the things that we need to follow and do God's plan. When we give generously, we're acknowledging that he will continue to supply our needs. You know, it should be easiest to give when we have a lot, right? Wouldn't you think?

So I'll give you an example. I think it was just last week we went to Chick fil A and this is big news for us because Sebring, Florida for the first time ever now has a Chick fil A. Nobody could believe it came to Sebring, but we have one after, and it opened with great fanfare and a lot of people was backed up all the way down the highway, people going into the Chick fil A. After things calmed down a bit, we went in one evening to eat, which incidentally, if you want to go to the world's slowest, worst service Chick fil A, head on over to Sebring and we will introduce you to how not to run a Chick fil A. But anyway, we waited a very long time and we got our food, and usually, if you know Olivia, you see her up here, she's our skinny, little, tiny, petite daughter and she eats like a bird.

She eats very little. You know one of those big, old, huge Chick fil A sandwiches and that big, old, huge thing of fries, she usually cannot finish that. She usually eats a pickle or something. I am giving her a hard time. She just rolled her eyes at me.

But she does not eat a whole lot. Usually when we eat at a place like that, she finishes a sandwich, she eats some fries, but most of it she slides over to me and says, Do you want the rest of these fries? I don't need them, but what do I do? I finish the fries of course. Eating I the other day.

Her little container of the waffle fries was turned around so I couldn't see it. It's always full. She never eats them. So I reach around, we call that a dad tip, I look for my tip and I pulled out this huge waffle fry, the biggest one. It looked like it was half a potato.

It probably emptied half of her little thing there and I started eating it and then Olivia with this little smile on her face, she lifts up the container and turns it and nothing comes out. That was the last one and and I was like, oh Olivia, I feel really bad. I ate your last waffle fries. She said, oh, I don't care. It's it's alright.

You see, it's probably a little easier. She's very generous, by the way, especially to her day, but it's a little easier to give away all your waffle fries when you're full, isn't it? But when you take the last one, that hurt a little bit. She maybe she wanted that one last waffle fry that she had her mind set on. You see, when we think about how much God has blessed us with, it is an overabundance.

And just like Olivia with her waffle fries, we should be ready to give it, ready to share it with other people. We tend to have generosity when we have abundance. And so are we seeing God's blessings? If we are, it should lead us to be generous to other people. This week, as Thanksgiving comes, we could look and say, look at all the things God has given me, so now out of appreciation for that, my generosity ought to overflow with the people I am going to encounter.

And that doesn't necessarily mean we have to give them money, we don't have to give them gifts, we don't have to give them an extra turkey, maybe we choose to do it that way, but it just means we're going to invest time, we're going to invest our lives, we're going to invest God's Word in them. And so God is going to bless us as we bless other people and so. Gratitude should overflow in generosity to other people. We are very blessed people and so we should be working to bless other people. The second thing I see here is that gratitude overflows in good works.

Not just in our gratitude, but God's blessings should motivate us to good works. Now, I am going to come back to this in a second, but what does Ephesians two:eight and nine tell us? For by grace are you saved through faith and that not your works, not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So why am I talking about works here? Well, look at verse 10 in second Corinthians.

It says, now he that ministereth seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food and multiply your seeds sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, being enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which causes through us Thanksgiving to God. Paul is showing this idea again that God not only supplies the seeds to the sower, but what does he do? He multiplies it. He blesses the harvest and he leads to what he calls there in verse number 10, end, fruits of righteousness. So that's what our harvest is gonna be.

Fruits of righteousness. We're gonna be blessed in that way. And so gratitude doesn't just lead us to generosity. It fuels good works. It motivates our service.

And if you think about what God did for us, if you think about what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary for us, all that he went through, that ought to be a significant motivation in our lives to do good things. Isn't it great that we can't we don't have to work our way to heaven? Isn't it great? Because if we you know, a lot of religions, it's almost like they picture a big scale. You put all your good works on one side, and you put all the evil, simple things you do on the other, and it's almost like a balance and they have this idea that oops, if you tip over here, what happens?

You're you're on your way to hell. If, oh, wow, praise the Lord. I barely made it. I tipped over here. My works were good.

That's not how it works. There's no amount of works that we can do to tip the scale to make us good enough for God. It's not by our works. Jesus tipped the scale for us. He did everything that we need.

He appeased a righteous God. He appeased the wrath of God. God was satisfied. That's that idea of the word propitiation. The sufficient sacrifice was Jesus.

But we ought to tip the scales in favor of God. We ought to want to work. So back over in Ephesians two eight nine, I just read, not of worse works, lest any man should boast. But I love Ephesians two ten. It says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

You see, we don't have to work our way to heaven, but because of our salvation, we ought to want to work. And so basically, what I see here in this passage is not only should gratitude overflow in generosity, gratitude should overflow in good works. Now, how do we do that? Well, we can participate in the ministries of the church. We can help those that are in need.

Maybe I've known people that will go cut the grass of an elderly person that can't handle their yard anymore. Maybe you run errands for somebody. Maybe you go and you help at a rescue mission. Maybe you volunteer at a school. Maybe you encourage your pastor.

Maybe you write a note. Maybe you pray for somebody. Maybe you make phone calls. There's a whole list of a million things that we could do that would be considered good works. But those things get done out of appreciation for God.

Back in verse 11, it say it shows how that our generosity and service should result in thanksgiving to God. It says, being enriched in everything to all bountifulness which calls it through us thanksgiving to God. So I just picture here this idea, you know, you go and you picture the the first Thanksgiving with the pilgrims and they had this bountiful harvest and there was this abundance of food and they had all these things. All of us will have bounteous amounts of food at our house on Thursday for Thanksgiving or wherever we're at. Well, that's what we see here, but it's talking about in spiritual things.

We are so blessed and so it should result in us having good works. You ever heard the expression, It's better to give a gift than to receive a gift, right? I don't think you fully understand that or really appreciate that until you have children. I love to buy my children now are 19 and 23 years old. My little baby is 19 years old.

They kind of laugh at me. I guess I cannot quite grasp them being that old yet, so I still walk through the toy section sometimes at Walmart I will say, Oh, isn't that the cutest thing? Olivia is like, You know I am 19 years old. I am like, Yeah, I know that, but isn't it cute? If you were little, I would still buy that.

She said, I am not little. Okay. It is almost like you like to reminisce a little bit. After we had children, the excitement of Christmas morning is not what I am going to get. It is not what I am going to open up.

Is that I want to see them open up what they get or what they are going to receive. Really what is going to happen is, just like we saw this morning, it is not that we want to be like those nine lepers that we just want to receive the healing, we want to meet the healer. In the same way, we do not want to just receive a fire escape from hell. We want to please God. We want to give a gift to him, not because we have to, but because we can.

I have never really liked those white elephant gift parties, like where you have a Christmas party and you have to buy some weird little gift and exchange it. Our Wednesday night class at our church in Sebring does that every year. Somebody started this thing. They brought a taser to the party. That was their white elephant gift.

You know the little things you shock people with? It wasn't the kind that the police use. It's just like on the end of a thing, you could push it up and shock someone with it, and that thing has been passed around every year, So I ended up with the taser last year. And so I guess I have to give the taser again this year. But I don't really like white elephant gifts.

Why? Because I find that the people that receive the gift, they don't really want it. So I don't feel like I've really done anything that great. But what about our service for God? Is it like a white elephant gift?

We're just given because we're obligated to. When we realize how much we've been given, it ought to lead us and it should make us want to live for Christ. It's gonna change our attitude. It's gonna change our worldview. It's gonna change our lifestyle, and it's gonna be an overflow of what Jesus has done for us.

And then the final thing I want us to see, number three, is gratitude overflows in worship. Gratitude overflows in worship. Paul ties it up all together by showing how gratitude and how generosity lead us, should lead us to worship. Look at verse 12. And it says, for the administration of this service not only supplied the want of the saints, but is also abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God.

Who received the glory? Who received the thanks? God did. It was working and not only met the practical needs, but it also resulted in God receiving the glory, God receiving thanks, overflowing thanksgivings to God. You see, gratitude is contagious.

Have you ever noticed a lot of times the environment, our attitude, it's very, very contagious. What if you go in a room and somebody is in a bad mood? If you have a family member that wakes up in a bad mood? You woke up in a good mood, they wake up in a bad mood. What usually happens is kind of contagious, isn't it?

They're in a sour mood and then next thing you know, we're in kind of a sour mood. In the same way, when we're giving God glory, when we are recognizing how good God is, people are gonna notice that. And generosity tends to gratitude tends to be contagious. Gratitude reflects the gospel. So in verse 13, there's this giving, there's a serving, it reflects our confession of the gospel.

It says, whilst by the experiment of this ministration, they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ and for your liberal distribution unto them and to all men. When we live with gratitude, we are demonstrating the grace that we've received in Christ. It's kind of like we're a mirror. We're reflecting Christ into the world. We should be that light.

We should be that hope. We should bring that joy to people all around us. And how do we do that? Just like Christ, we're gonna mirror him. The more he loves us, the more we should love others.

The more God gives to us and blesses us, the more we should give and bless others. The more he forgives us, ouch, this one hurts, the more we should forgive others. So what does all this lead to? All of this gratitude, all of this submission, all of this overflowing gratitude, all of this overflowing good works, it should lead to overflowing worship. Know, the scripture talks about at the the day is gonna come when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And so all of this is gonna lead to that final part. Verse 14, it says, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Paul is encouraging us to worship the ultimate giver, God. And what was the gift that he gave? Jesus, his son.

The ultimate expression of gratitude is worshiping God for the gift of Jesus Christ. So as we finish up, let's ask ourself, is my gratitude leading others to worship? This Thanksgiving Day, am I reflecting on just the food? Am I just enjoying the time with family? Those are good things.

There's nothing wrong with that. But is my gratitude really centered around what God did, what Christ did for me? And what it should do is lead us to do what? To worship the Lord. Gratitude isn't just something that we feel, it's something that we live.

It's an attitude that we have to have. So this week, I wanna ask you to ask yourself, how can I give generously as an expression of my gratitude? How can I give to others? And we're not just talking about cash. We're not just talking about money.

We're not talking about gifts, but how can I generously give to others? How can I serve others with a thankful heart in everything that I do? And most importantly, how can I lead others, myself and others, into worshiping God? May that be what we do this week and every week in our lives. Let's pray.

Father, again, I thank you for another example from scripture of the importance of thanksgiving. Father, I thank you for the importance of gratitude. And, father, it is so easy for us to sometimes forget what Christ did for us. I know there's an old song that talks about the wonder of it all and the wonder that Jesus came that you gave your son and that he did all of that for sinful man. That is an amazing thing.

And as young people or whatever point in our life when we come to understand the gospel and we are saved, at that moment, we are often overwhelmed. Sometimes people will cry or people will have tears of joy. They are just overwhelmed by the glory of the story of what God or what Christ has done for them. But as time goes by, it's easy for us just to take it for granted. Father, I ask that we will never take for granted the sacrifice that Christ made.

We will never fail to recognize the many blessings that you give us. Father, may our lives overflow with gratitude for all your many blessings. Father, may our lives overflow with good works, not trying to save ourselves, not trying to earn our way to heaven, but as a way to show you how much we appreciate you. And, Father, may our lives overflow with worship as we reflect on your goodness to us. Father, I thank you for everybody that's here.

Thank you for their faithfulness to be here again tonight. Father, as you be with pastor Rick and his family as they travel, may it be a time of refreshment, a time for them to enjoy meeting with their family and friends, give them safety as they travel back and forth and around in Virginia and Ohio father, may your blessings be upon this church here, that it can build a community that will lead others to worship you. In Jesus name I pray, amen.