Am I Grateful?

Introduction · 4 min

Introduction

Hook

Someone holds the door, and we say “Thank you” without thinking. A check comes in the mail, the test comes back clear, the job offer arrives — and for a moment we are full of thanks. Then the moment passes. A week later the same blessing is simply the way things are, and we are back to asking for the next thing.

Need

Being thankful in the moment is good, but it is not the same as being grateful. Israel sang at the Red Sea and murmured three days later. If our thanks lasts only as long as the feeling, it will not last through a wilderness. Paul asks for something deeper, and the question for each of us this morning is simple: Am I grateful?

Read

Read Colossians 3:15–17 aloud. Ask the congregation to count how many times Paul mentions thanks in three verses, and to notice that each one is a command.

Thankfulness is a reaction to a blessing that fades as the moment passes; gratitude is a chosen, lasting attitude that sees God’s goodness even when nothing good seems to be happening.

• Thankfulness is a spontaneous reaction to a good event or gesture. It is reactive — triggered by a specific moment — and temporary, fading as the moment passes. It is meant to lead to an outward expression: praise, acknowledgment, giving thanks.
• Gratitude is an enduring sense of appreciation for life’s goodness, whether or not something exciting happens. It is a chosen attitude, cultivated over time. It sees goodness even in adversity, and it looks past ourselves to the source — for the Christian, to God, from whom “every good gift and every perfect gift” comes (James 1:17).
• It can be a passing feeling or a settled trait. Paul asks for the trait: “be ye thankful” (v. 15) uses a word for a grateful person, not a grateful moment.
• Gratitude grows where Christ’s peace rules: “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts … and be ye thankful” (v. 15). A heart at peace with God is free to be grateful; an anxious heart is always waiting for the next thing (Philippians 4:6–7).
• Unthankfulness is no small sin. Paul lists it beside the worst of the last days (2 Timothy 3:2), and it is one of the first steps away from God: “knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks” (Romans 1:21).

On screen, one click each

1. Thankfulness A reaction to a blessing, triggered by the moment and fading as it passes. Luke 17:15–17
2. Gratitude A chosen, lasting attitude that sees God’s goodness even in hard times. Habakkuk 3:17–18
3. Be ye thankful Paul asks for a grateful person, not a grateful moment. Colossians 3:15

Illustration

Ten lepers stood afar off and cried, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us” (Luke 17:13). All ten were cleansed, and surely all ten were glad. But only one, “when he saw that he was healed, turned back, with a loud voice glorifying God … giving him thanks” (vv. 15–16). Nine felt thankful. One was grateful enough to come back. “Where are the nine?” (v. 17).

Potential Activity to Recommend

Think about the last blessing you thanked God for. Was it something that had just happened? This week, thank Him each day for something that has been true for years — a spouse, a church family, a Bible on your shelf, a salvation you received long ago.

Transition

Every one of us has felt thankful. The trouble is what happens when the feeling fades. Israel shows us.

We must acknowledge God’s blessings, but thanks that is only felt will fade; gratitude has to be cultivated, by keeping God’s word and His goodness before us.

• Acknowledge the blessing: at the Red Sea Israel sang, “Jehovah is my strength and song, And he is become my salvation” (Exodus 15:1–2). The Samaritan leper turned back and fell at Jesus’ feet, “giving him thanks” (Luke 17:15–16).
• But the feeling fades. Three days later, at Marah, “the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?” (Exodus 15:22–24). A month out of Egypt they wished they had died there “by the flesh-pots” (16:1–3). In the second year they wept for the fish, the cucumbers and the melons — “there is nothing at all save this manna to look upon” (Numbers 11:1–6). Bread from heaven every morning, and they were tired of it.
• Israel struggled with a blessing they could see and taste, and a promised land they could walk to. Ours is harder to hold: signs and wonders we have only as a written record, and a home in heaven we receive after we die. If they forgot so quickly, how much more must we guard against it?
• Gratitude must be cultivated, not just felt. Habakkuk looked at a failed harvest and empty stalls and said, “Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17–19). “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus to you-ward” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18).
• Paul tells us how it grows: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly … singing with grace in your hearts unto God” (v. 16). Gratitude is fed by the word we keep in us and the songs we sing together — remembering what God has done (Psalm 103:2; Deuteronomy 8:10–14).

On screen, one click each

1. Acknowledge Israel sang at the sea; one leper turned back to give thanks. Exodus 15:1–2; Luke 17:15–16
2. It fades Three days later: “What shall we drink?” A month later: “Would that we had died.” Exodus 15:24; 16:3
3. Cultivate it Rejoice in God when the fig tree fails; in everything give thanks. Habakkuk 3:17–18; 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Illustration

When we were growing up, we were often out on a weeknight for a gospel meeting, and sometimes on the way home Dad would pull into a McDonald’s and ask, “Does anyone want a sundae?” There was only one right answer: “Yes, please.” If any of us kids asked for something else, or said anything but “yes, please,” we got nothing. One night enough of us challenged it that Dad simply drove around the McDonald’s and back out onto the road, and nobody got anything. We kids knew how complaining about a gift would be answered. Israel should have known too. God gave them bread from heaven every morning, and they wept for fish and cucumbers and melons: “there is nothing at all save this manna to look upon” (Numbers 11:4–6). They had already seen how God answered murmuring (v. 1). They should not have been surprised when it came again (vv. 31–34).

Potential Activity to Recommend

Choose one way to cultivate gratitude this week instead of waiting to feel it: read a psalm of thanks each morning, or sing a hymn of thanks on the drive to work. When you catch yourself saying “What shall we drink?”, stop and name to God what He has already given.

Transition

Gratitude that is cultivated will not stay inside. Paul’s last word on it is about what we do: “giving thanks.”

Thankfulness is inward and can stay private; thanksgiving is outward, giving thanks back to the Giver as a habit — to our Provider when we have and when we lack, and to our Savior every day, not once.

• Thankfulness is inward — being full of thanks. It should move us to gratitude, but it can stay private. Thanksgiving is outward — giving thanks back to the Provider. It is not tied to the moment; it is a habit: “whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (v. 17).
• Give thanks to our Provider (Matthew 6:25–34). When I receive, I give thanks. When I do not receive, I do not give thanks for the lack — I give thanks that I have a Provider who will sustain me even when my stomach thinks He will not. “Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things” (v. 32). A settled habit of thanks carries me through the lean days, instead of making me an Israelite asking “What shall we eat?” (v. 31).
• Give thanks to our Savior (Ephesians 1:3–14). We thank Him when we are baptized and when we take the Lord’s Supper. But salvation is not a one-time favor we thank Him for in the past tense. Is He still forgiving sins? “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7) — it keeps on cleansing. When I fall and confess, I get a clean slate (1 John 1:9): not partial, not used, clean.
• So our thanks should be as continual as His saving. In Christ “we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (Ephesians 1:7) — all “to the praise of his glory” (v. 14). “Through him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually” (Hebrews 13:15).

On screen, one click each

1. Inward Thankfulness is being full of thanks; it can stay private. Colossians 3:15
2. Outward Thanksgiving gives thanks back to the Giver, as a habit. Colossians 3:17
3. Our Provider Thank Him when He gives, and when He has not yet: He knows our need. Matthew 6:31–33
4. Our Savior Thank Him every day, not once: His blood keeps cleansing. Ephesians 1:7; 1 John 1:7

Illustration

The Lord’s Supper begins with thanks: Jesus “took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it” (1 Corinthians 11:23–24). Every first day of the week we do the same — not to thank Him for a forgiveness that happened once and is over, but for a Savior whose blood still cleanses the Christian who walks in the light. The table is a weekly habit of thanksgiving He gave us Himself.

Potential Activity to Recommend

Make thanksgiving a habit you can see. Thank God aloud before every meal this week — including the plain ones. And when you fall and seek His forgiveness, end that prayer by thanking Him that He is still your Savior today.

Transition

So the question comes back to each of us.

Conclusion · 4 min

Conclusion

Recap

Thankfulness is a feeling that fades; gratitude is an attitude we choose (v. 15). Thanks that is only felt will fade as Israel’s did, so gratitude must be cultivated by the word dwelling in us richly (v. 16). And inward thankfulness should become outward thanksgiving, to our Provider and our Savior, in whatever we do (v. 17).

Gospel

The greatest gift we will ever thank God for is His Son. “Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15). In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses (Ephesians 1:7), and His blood keeps cleansing those who walk in the light (1 John 1:7).

Invitation

If you have never received that gift, do not let another moment pass: believe in Jesus, repent, confess Him, and be baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38; Romans 10:9–10; Galatians 3:27). If you are a Christian and your thanks has faded into murmuring, come back today, and let the peace of Christ rule in your heart again.

Close

Ask once more: Am I grateful? Then read 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 together.