A Recipe For Gratitude

This is, as we heard in the sermon, a fun time of the year. It's a wonderful time of the year when mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and some of us, some of us guys, pull out some of us our most cherished recipes that we have in our possession. We have these recipes that have been tested. They've been tried, and they are true. Ones that have become a tradition to our families, and if the item wasn't prepared at this year's Thanksgiving, things just wouldn't be right in the world. There'd be a problem. Some of our recipes are quite easy, but some of them are quite involved. Some are fun to make, and then others, you've learned just the right tricks to pull it off. That somebody else trying to do it, it would flop on them, but you've figured that one out. Time and years have taught me a lot of life lessons. One of them is dealing with people and their recipes. I think back when I was still wet behind the ears, I'd be at someone's house, so I'd be enjoying the meal, and I'd say, this is fantastic! You've got to give me this recipe! Just email me the recipe! And then there's that pause, them staring at me with that blank look, and then they mutter, it's a secret recipe. I don't share that. And then, of course, I've got that awkwardness that I've now pretty much demanded that they send it, and they can't, and it's uncomfortable. And now, instead of proclaiming that I received their recipe, I still say this dish is really good, but I change it up a little bit. I ask, is this one you're willing to share? Because I understand that some recipes are special, some are unique, and you like to keep them private. I now ask it to avoid that awkward situation, making the question and the answer actually both palatable to both of us. It's a funny thing, this time and experience, and the lessons that we learn. But over the years of cooking, have you ever forgotten a critical ingredient in one of your recipes? How did you come to realize it? How long did it take to realize it? Instantly? Oh, no! I forgot the fill in the blank. I think it's happened to all of us, and when it does, it's usually one of those things we realize very quickly.

Because many critical items go into a recipe, and the same can be said of the emotion and the act of gratitude. That's what I'm going to be spending some time with today. Gratitude is more than just one aspect of being thankful, as we might think of it, but demonstrating real gratitude involves several different components, just like your prized family treasure of a recipe.

In 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 18, let's go ahead and look there. 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 18. Here we have recorded 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 18. In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. In everything, give thanks. The New Living Translation says, Be thankful in all circumstances. I like that, because it doesn't say, Just be thankful when everything's going great, or be thankful when that turkey comes out perfectly cooked and on time. It says, In New Living, be thankful in all circumstances. How hard is that?

How many times have we been tried and tested on being thankful in all circumstances? It goes on to say, For this is God's will for you, who belong to Christ Jesus. That's the New Living Translation. In the book, The How of Happiness, it's titled, The How of Happiness, by Sonya Lubomirski.

It's a difficult name. But in the book, The How of Happiness, she shines a light on gratitude as it relates to happiness. She says, The expression of gratitude is a kind of meta-strategy for achieving happiness. Gratitude is many things to many people. It is wonder. It is appreciation. It is looking at the bright side of a setback.

It is fathoming abundance. It is thanking someone in your life. It is thanking God. It is counting blessings. It is savoring. It is not taking things for granted. It is coping. It is present-oriented. Gratitude is an antidote to negative emotions, a neutralizer of envy, of hostility, worry, and irritation.

The average person, however, probably associates gratitude with saying, Thank you for a gift received. I invite you to consider a much broader definition, she says. She goes on to say, The world's most prominent researcher and writer about gratitude, Robert Emmons, defines it as a felt sense of wonder, thankfulness, and appreciation for life.

She then continues, You could strive to feel grateful by noticing how fortunate your circumstances are and how much worse they could be. By definition, the practice of gratitude involves a focus on the present moment, on appreciating your life as it is today and what has made it so. I thought that was a really profound statement. By definition, she says, the practice of gratitude involves a focus on the present moment, a focus on today, on appreciating your life as it is today and what has made it so. What has made your life so? Finding those positive moments. I really appreciated her words there.

Gratitude is much more than the same thank you. Gratitude is a deeper, fuller attitude of being constantly appreciative of the life you have. Again, 1 Thessalonians 5, 18, Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

So as we consider the time of the year that we are in, and that Thanksgiving is this next week, let us review the recipe for gratitude. Let us review the recipe for gratitude, and let's consider the ingredients that we need to include. The first ingredient is a helping tablespoon of humility.

I'm sorry, a heaping tablespoon of humility. I was trying to be cute with these words that either started with the letter H and had a tablespoon of it. So bear with me a little bit. It's a heaping tablespoon of humility. A large part of gratitude is recognizing we are part of a much larger thing going on, whether that is in your family or at work or even here within our congregation.

Never are things completely done by and through ourselves. It takes help. It takes other people blazing trails before us. Other people have come before us in our families to bring us to the place we find ourselves. Our colleagues at work have been instrumental in our successes or in our advances. Or here, we have many people over the year to give a lot of thanks and appreciation who have blazed a trail, who started attending. There were members in Detroit that got a congregation together because they wanted to follow God's word. And the pastor was sent out. And we're part of the results of that and the continuance of that. It's a huge blessing. Outside of our physical world, God has done tremendous things in our lives that we can't begin to take credit for. But these things have established our lives on an incredible path. Humility, in part, is recognizing that in and of ourselves, we are broken. When you really think about it, we are broken. But that God can use broken people, and notice what he says in Psalm 51, and a broken heart to do great things. We're going to spend a little bit of time in Psalms again today. Appreciate the sermonette and the time we already spent. We're going to do some more. Psalm 51, verse 16. 16 and 17.

This is Psalm 51, verse 16. For you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise. He wants a broken heart. He wants a broken spirit. Not that we are not able to be used. We think locally of ourselves. But it's the attitude that he's looking for. God can work with someone who has a heart that doesn't think too highly of himself. People use the word broken a lot of times when they talk about a horse that has been tamed. God wants us to tame our hearts from the desires of our own human nature, because they want to run wild. They want our nature to do what it wants to do, without control, at any whim, any desire that our hearts have. But it takes humility to be willing to tame our hearts and to allow them to be broken.

This is why humility is a critical ingredient to gratitude. Note in research this week, there are some things I came across that I'll share today. One of them was the proclamation of Thanksgiving that President Lincoln delivered on October 20, 1863. It was also a little bit before I was born, just in case anybody was wondering. But this is President Lincoln at his proclamation of Thanksgiving. He says, and there are some tricky words in here, so forgive me, It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, and now therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday of November, next, as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and ruler of the universe. And I do further recommend, and here's the key, to my fellow citizens, after said that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust, and from there on offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the great disposer of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land, which it has pleased Him, to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations. I really was taken back that He says on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves. Even our President recognized at the time that humility is needed to truly appreciate and to truly be grateful and to show gratitude for the blessings that we have received from God.

I'd like to notice the Apostle Peter's words in 1 Peter now, in 1 Peter chapter 5, and in verse 5. We had our President make some comments. The Apostle Peter also made comments. 1 Peter 5 verse 5. Likewise, you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and clothed with humility, for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Our great God cares for each one of us in such a special and powerful and unique way.

So we must have humility in our recipe for gratitude. That's the first ingredient. The next ingredient is a cup of contentment. That's our next ingredient that we need to have in our recipe for gratitude. We live as part of a society that struggles with being content. I struggle with being content.

It's a problem that we all have, I think. It's easy to walk through the store to see the bigger TV, the shinier new appliance that's supposed to make my life easier, the bigger SUV. It's easy to walk through life seeing these things, or we drive through our city and we see that new shiny house that's just been built, the green lawn that somebody has cared for meticulously.

We see those beautiful rose bushes that somebody has in their yard, and then we ask ourselves, why can't I grow my roses like they do? It's difficult to be content at times in life. We all suffer from that, but when we lack contentment, we lack peace in our lives. When we lack contentment, we lack happiness in our lives. We lose peace. We lose happiness.

If we want to talk about someone who had every reason not to be content with his life, it would have been Paul. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians 11.

As we consider what Paul went through.

2 Corinthians 11.

2 Corinthians 11 and verse 23.

We'll go ahead and break into his thought here. He says, Are they ministers of Christ, speaking of these other people who were there just for the money and for other things? He goes, I speak as a fool. I am more in labors, more abundantly. And he goes through the difficulties he's had. The stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in death often.

From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have been in the deep. In journeys often. In perils of water. In perils of robbers. In perils of my own countrymen. In perils of the Gentiles. In perils of the city. In perils of the wilderness. Perils just go on and on and on.

In perils of the sea. In perils among false brethren. Verse 27. Weariness and toil, and sleeplessness often, and hunger and thirst, and fastings often, and cold and nakedness. That is quite a list to not be content. You could have that happen in your life and try to struggle with the areas to be content. But then what does Paul say? Let's look in Philippians chapter 4, because he says something else in Philippians. Speaking about contentment, speaking about how he's had to battle attitudes of not being content.

This is in Philippians 4 and verse 11. Philippians 4, 11. Not that I speak in regards to need, for I have learned, notice the key word, learned, in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to be abased. I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

And then this is the key. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We do have times where we lack things that we desire. We have times that we lack things that we think we need. And maybe it's more than it's not just a want. It is a need that we sometimes lack. But Paul says we have to be content in all things. In all things. Because it's Christ who strengthens each and one of us. What would life be like if we could find contentment in every situation?

Imagine that for a moment. If no matter what was thrown at you, you could find contentment in every single situation. What would be it? What weights would be lifted off your shoulder? If in every situation you could find contentment, what level of happiness could we obtain?

Would the joy of God fill our hearts? That joy that's everlasting? That joy that doesn't waver? Whether we're having a good day or a bad day? We have a lot in our lap or we have very little on our plate? That joy that is solid?

That can't be removed? That feeling of contentment that regardless of the situation, God knows right where we're at. What would it be like if we could find contentment in all areas of life? It'd be a change. In Hebrews 13 verse 5, the New Living Translation says, Don't love money, be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, I will never fail you. I will never abandon you. So even something that we need to function in this life, money.

Can't get by without it. You might be able not need the physical dollar, but you gotta have your credit cards. You gotta have some access to your money. We need money to survive. And yet in Hebrews, don't love money. Be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, I will never fail you. I will never abandon you. In his book, titled Jesus, Lord of Your Personality, Bob Russell gives this insight into the thoughts we sometimes battle.

He says, Have you had a taste of the best this world has to offer? You went to Hawaii once on a vacation, so now it's harder for you to enjoy the state park. You've eaten a steak at Morton's, so it's harder to be thankful for a meal at Ponderosa. You've driven a Jaguar, so now you can't be as content with your used Chevrolet.

You've cheered for a national champion, so now it's difficult to be grateful when your team, he didn't put this in here, but the Cincinnati Bengals, has a good season, but doesn't take home the title.

He goes on to say, Generally speaking, the more we have, the less grateful we are. It should be the opposite. The more we have, the more thankful we should be, but it usually doesn't work that way, does it? That's his quote.

It is a rare person, oh, he goes on to say, I'm sorry, I turned the page, he goes on to say, It's a rare person who, when his cup frequently runs over, can give thanks to God instead of complaining about the limited size of his mug. Haven't we all done that at times? I know I have.

It's difficult to be content, but it's one that we can strive for. It's one that we can develop. It's one that we can pray for, asking God to help us to be content with where we're at.

That's why contentment is another one of these critical ingredients for our recipe for gratitude.

The next ingredient is a peck of praise. We do live in such a blessed nation here.

We have such an abundance and a diversity of food. I still, at times, walk into the grocery store, because you see sometimes on the evening news where groceries empty, or I remember being a young kid in Russia, where they show the Russia groceries where there's nothing there. There's one loaf of bread and there's no meat in the counter. Yet, when we go to Kroger, we go to Meijer, and you walk in the produce section, it's full. The vast array of colors to just see how much food God has created and the abundance that we have in this nation. There's a lot of stuff I have no idea what to do with, but it's sitting there. If I did know how to prepare it, sometimes it is just neat to step into a grocery store and to just see the abundance that we have in this nation. We have an abundance of safety, even here in this nation. For the most part, we live in a very safe nation. We have our crime, but we don't live in areas where we have to build walls around our homes and place barbed wires on top of the walls. Does that sound a little extreme? It's actually case in point in South Africa. We had George and Kathy to campus, and one of their sons over when they first moved into Cincinnati, so this is several years ago, they moved from South Africa and they looked out of one of our windows near the table where we were eating and they said, you can see your neighbors. And I looked at them like, what do you mean? We've always, everybody can see our neighbors. She goes, you can in South Africa because every home has its own wall with barbed wire around the top because somebody will break into your house. Every home there has a gate to just get to their house. They can't look out their windows and see their neighbors. The safety that we do have for the most part here is not common in some parts of the world. To be able to look at your neighbor's house and have no fences, no walls, nothing between you and them, and for you to feel secure for the most part, it is a blessing that we have. We also have an abundance of freedom. The freedom we experience here is unparalleled in the world. I try not to take that for granted that we can be here today in safety and in peace. I don't come to church wondering if somebody's going to kick in our door and then haul us all off to prison for the words that I preach. I don't have to worry about that. That is a comfort that we get to have. We have a right to practice our religion and not have to worry about it being forcibly stopped. Some will say we are losing our freedoms. I would agree with that. We are losing our freedoms because people are no longer wanting to stand up for them. But let's praise God and be grateful that we can continue to practice our freedoms today. These are something that we do have. We can praise God that we live in a nation where we can get together on His Sabbath day. We can praise Him. We can worship Him. We can have a potluck. We can be family. That's a blessing that we have here. These are just a few of the physical things we could praise God for. If we really all sat down and shared our lists that are just in our head, we need more wall space to write them all down on than we have here. We have so many physical blessings in our lives. It's a great time of the year to reflect on those. As we've already seen today, the Psalms are a great resource for seeking ways to praise God. You can take your pick, but I'm going to choose Psalm 139 for us to next go to. Psalm 139.

This is the heading for this chapter says, For the Chief Musician, a Psalm of David.

So this is David's words again in verse 6. Psalm 139 verse 6. He's accounting all the things that he's so blessed and so praise-worthy with God. In verse 6 he says, How is that possible? How does the night shine as the day unless it's by God's hand?

The night shines like as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to you, meaning he has complete control over both. They are nothing. Light, darkness, they are nothing to God. He's that powerful, that worthy of our praise. Verse 14, I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. Verse 17, How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! David was just full of praise in this passage here, full of even the way that our bodies are created, the miracle in that art we can wake up, that we can have rest, that we can have food, we get nutrients, that we can run. We could go on and on in just the miracles of human life, and yet we have it. He's given it to us. Praise is something we can do at any point of the day. We don't have to do it in the morning or only at the evening or only when it strikes us. We have opportunity in the blessing to be able to praise God in any circumstance that we find ourselves in. This is another reason. Praise has to be part of our recipe for gratitude. The next ingredient is a twist of time. A twist of time, and that's for your notes. T-I-M-E, not T-H-Y-M-E. It's not the herb or the spice. Okay, that joke didn't go over so well. I'll work on it next time. It's a twist of time is what we need in our ingredient for gratitude or in a recipe for gratitude. Like any recipe that you prepare a meal for, it takes time. And if it's one like one of those really special recipes, it may take a great deal of time to make. Taking time to actively consider our life and the things we are grateful for is part of our recipe for gratitude. If we never take time and consider what we are grateful for, then we will never have gratitude. If you do not take the time to be grateful, there is no such thing as gratitude. It doesn't exist. That's why we must take the time. Time is critically necessary. In reading about how some have developed more gratitude in their lives, many have built into their day an activity of journaling three to five things they are grateful for, similar to what Mr. Stewart mentioned that list. Many people every single day start off their day by journaling three to five things that they are grateful to. Some have decided to do this once a week on a set day. Maybe it's every Sabbath morning. I'm going to wake up, get my coffee, and then I'm going to journal five things that I'm grateful for that happened either yesterday or this week. Most do it on a daily basis when they start off their day with their coffee. This can be incorporated into our prayer times as well. But the key is, and what studies have found, is that those who take time will naturally begin to be happier with their lives. In doing this, people actively consider on a regular basis what they are grateful for. This brings to their minds on a more regular basis positive and happier thoughts. In normal life, what do we get most passionate about when things go right in our life or when things go wrong in our life? What do we get so passionate about? So how many times have you had a really good service in a restaurant or that mechanic fixed your car perfectly? The garbage man picked up your trash on time on the right day? And how many times when all these things are going great do we reach out and contact their managers and tell them, great job! We really want you to know how much I appreciate that.

Or when you have that really bad service, you go to the store and you can't find somebody to wait on you and you're waiting and waiting and so you need to let the manager know they need to hire more people. Which of the ones do we normally reach out and contact the management over? The good days when things are going well and everything seems to be clicking right? Or is it those difficult days when things just don't seem to go right and somebody else needs to fix this?

It's those days and if you're like me, it's more times the poor service than it is with the good.

In normal day-to-day life, we get caught up with the negative things that happen quite a bit around us and that's what often ruffles our feathers. Bringing to mind more often the things we are grateful for brings to mind positive and uplifting things that naturally change our mood. So if we go through day, we know we had good things that happened to us today. If we really sat down right now and said, what good things happened today? We all woke up. I mean, one right there. Most people, I think, probably ate something for breakfast, which means you had some food in your home.

We could just... that's simple. It doesn't have to be these extravagant thoughts of gratefulness or these long drawn out offerings of just praise because we had all these things happen. It's the little things in life that matter so much. It's the fact that, you know what, the hot water heater was working today. It could get a hot shower. Even those types of things. But focusing on those positive things changes our outlook for the rest of the day. It changes our outlook when those bad things happen. Yeah, I got a flat tire on the way to church, maybe. But you know what? At least I have a car to drive to church. Or at least the car was running. It wasn't the engine that blew up, which is going to be a lot more expensive than just a flat tire to fix. Carl and Liza know that first hand. But it's that attitude, it's that mindset of bringing to mind more often things we are grateful for, which are positive and uplifting, and that they naturally change our mood.

It's hard to be thankful for your spouse or your children. At the same time, be frustrated with them. What about a sister or brother? If you're really trying to be positive and uplifting and thinking good things and appreciative of who they are, it's harder to be critical of them at the same exact time. All of this takes time, just like preparing that perfect recipe. So time is also a very vital and needed ingredient for gratitude. The next ingredient is an abundance of action.

For our recipe for gratitude, we need an abundance of action. Being grateful for what we have been given should move us to action in our lives. We know that God is the ultimate source of all of our blessings, and we must express our gratitude to Him. This is actually called transpersonal gratitude, because if I was to say thank you to you, that's personal gratitude. But to God, who is not in our presence in a physical form, it's called transpersonal gratitude. But it's the most important gratitude we can have, because we have been given so much by God.

If we were to create a list, like I said earlier, we'd be here all day going down the list of things that we are grateful to God for. Not talking physical, we're just talking the greatness of God and things that we are grateful to Him for. Some things you can be grateful for, and you can call. I'm thinking, this is my spice mix for our recipe. This is part of my spice mix for our recipe.

Some of the things that you can be grateful for, or that I'm grateful for, is one of them is my own personal relationship with God. I get the opportunity to have a one-on-one relationship with the Creator of the universe. His Father, our great Dad that just wants to talk with us, wants to have that relationship with us, any time of the day, any time of the night. He's there.

He's not at work and, well, He's on a plane someplace. You can't talk to Him right now.

He's not too busy for us. He's not watching Netflix. He's there any time that we want Him to be. We have our own personal relationship with God. Another aspect of the spices. We have the knowledge and understanding of His truth that we have. This knowledge, which is a miracle to have one of our minds opened to His truth. It's one thing to just be able to read it and to know what the Bible says, but then to be motivated to act on it. That's a miracle because so many people have chosen not to. Scholars who know the Bible better than any of us do in the church, yet they don't want to be here. They don't feel moved to be here. They don't feel moved to keep the Holy Days.

The knowledge and understanding we have is a miracle. Let's look at Luke 10 because Jesus Christ Himself addresses this miracle. Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 and verse 21. Luke 10 and 21. Jesus says in that hour, Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes, even so, Father, for it seemed good in your sight.

Verse 23.

Christ Himself speaks of this miracle of being called, having our minds opened, and then for us to act on it and how wonderful this knowledge and understanding is that we have.

Another aspect of the spice mix is God's mercy.

As Mr. Stewart referenced in Psalm 118 verse 29, give thanks to the Lord. His mercy endures forever.

Wasn't in my notes. It is now. The wonderful Scripture is mercy endures forever.

As a physical creation, we like to measure things. We like to be able to accurately see and understand the vast space of something, to measure the size of our solar system, to be able to minutely measure pieces that go into cars, things like that that make them work. We like, as a physical creation, to measure things, but we can't measure the depth of things on a God level. To measure God's mercy would be a wasted time because it's impossible to measure. But for me, I have tried to measure God's mercy. There is one passage I think can help us a little bit. I like to look at how God himself described the lid on the Ark of the Covenant. Let's look at this in Exodus 25.

Because we can't measure God's mercy, but this gives us a little insight to just how the extent of his mercy is given to us. This is Exodus 25.

This is when Israel was commanded to make the Ark of the Covenant.

Exodus 25. Yes, in verse 10. So starting in verse 10, God starts laying out what kind of wood it should be made of, what its dimensions should be made of, how it should be over-made with gold. And in verse 17, Exodus 25 verse 17, God says, you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold.

Two and a half cubits shall be its length, and at cubic and a half its width. So he calls it his mercy seat of pure gold. He goes on in verse 21. You shall put the mercy seat on top of the Ark, and in the Ark you shall put the testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you.

God says, and I will speak to you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim, which are on the Ark of the testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel. God says this is where his presence would be with Israel, is on this mercy seat. And I find it so encouraging when you consider that he called it his mercy seat. Because he could have called the lid, which symbolizes part of his throne, part of his presence among Israel, he could have called it many different things. He could have said, God's holy seat. It would have been accurate. It would have fit. He could have said, God's great seat, God's mighty seat, God's powerful seat, God's eternal and everlasting seat. All of those words would have fit. Because all of those words could be used to describe God's throne. It's that great. It's that wonderful. It's that powerful. But what does he call it? I think this shows us a little bit of the extent that his mercy goes that can't be measured. He called it his mercy seat, symbolizing the great, unmeasurable extent that he goes to pour out his mercy on us.

It's powerful when we consider that of all these things he could have called it, and it would have been fitting. It would have been appropriate. Yet he wanted Israel to know the extent and the greatness of his mercy that he called the grid that goes under the Ark of the Covenant, his mercy seat.

It's powerful when you really think about the extent that his mercy goes before us.

It's another aspect of our spice mix is God's love. You want to talk about another unmeasurable aspect of God? His love. His love being so great that he did not even withhold from the world his own son's life. We know in John 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

God's love, again, is unmeasurable. Another aspect of our spice mix, God's law.

Again, as Mr. Stewart referenced, Psalm 105 verse 5, and his truth endures to all generations. God's truth, God's law, God's commandments. We have tested God's law, haven't we? We have tried God's law, haven't we? We see that this way works. This way works. It's the only way that works. Man's laws, man's ideas, ends up in ditches. That's where we end up in life. We end up in ditches because you have to have one law to pull yourself out of the ditch, and then you end up in the other ditch on the other side of the road. You need another law to pull you back out of that ditch.

But with God, we don't end up in ditches. It's a wonderful aspect of God's laws. We've tested, we've tried it, but a lack of obedience indicates an attitude of being ungrateful.

A lack of obedience shows that we're not grateful to God for this wonderful thing He's given us.

I put all of our spice mix, everything that we just went through, and you could add your own aspects of what God means to you. His greatness, everything that is about Him for you personally. This is that part you get to kind of customize the recipe a little bit because you have a unique and personal relationship with our Creator. But I put our spice mix under the action ingredient on our recipe list. But how do we actively express our gratitude to God in these things?

We do it by actively sharing in all that God has given us as an outward action to those around us.

God has given us so much. He's shown us so much about who He is. He's extended so much to us.

This is the action part that we extend it to others as we interact with them.

There's a quote from John F. Kennedy that says, As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. Our highest appreciation to God for all that He has given us is not just mere words of gratitude, but then to live a different life, to be helpful, to be encouraging to people, to be loving, to be merciful with others. Our expression of thankfulness to God will lead us to extend what He has extended to us as we interact with others. We all enjoy when others are grateful for us, or they're grateful for the things that we do, and then when they express that gratefulness, that thankfulness, that appreciation to us, we enjoy that. It does feel good. It does feel good. But as we enjoy these things ourselves, we should also be willing to share these same thanks and appreciation with others. As you can put in your notes, Matthew 7, verse 12, says, Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets, the golden rule, do unto others as you'd want them to do things to you.

When we talk about actively demonstrating gratitude in our lives, there's another passage in James, chapter 2, I'd like to go ahead and turn to. This is in James.

James, chapter 2.

Here, James speaks to the need of works in our life, not just, we don't just live by faith alone.

But we have works that we are also to do because we believe in this way, because we desire to walk in newness of life. Here in James, chapter 2, verse 14, he says, What does it profit, my brethren? If someone says he has faith but does not have works, can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled, everything will be fine. I said the words, everything will work out, everything will be great, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? What good is it? It's powerful to consider that we have a responsibility to one another, to those outside of our walls here, to care and to provide for their needs. It's part of the outward demonstration of God's grace and his mercy and his love to each one of us, something that we need to. Our gratitude to God should move us to actively care for others and their needs, to do helpful and appreciate things for others. Action, and that's why action is another one of our ingredients for gratitude.

There is one aspect I'd like to look at as a warning, as a danger that we have to be aware of, because it needs to be covered, and that is the danger of ingratitude. We do have quite a few of examples in God's Word of people, or even entire nations that have seemed ungrateful for what God has done for them. God wants to pour out onto us so many of his blessings, and he has a mind for us, and his blessings that he has in mind for us. Just as a good father today would desire to give his children so many blessings, that's the father that we have. In Deuteronomy 8, we have God describing these blessings and also giving a warning. Let's turn there to Deuteronomy 8.

This is Moses giving a reminder from God's Word, because God says it, but he's reminding Israel of what God has in store for them, but also to recognize where these gifts come from. One of the key takeaways to this passage is to remember to give credit where credit is due, and to remember God's instructions for our lives. This is in Deuteronomy 8, verse 7.

Here, God outlines everything that he desires for this new physical nation that he's bringing about. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which he has given you. Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, his judgments, his statutes which I command you today. Thus, when you have eaten and are full and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who led you through that great and terrible wilderness in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water, who brought water for you out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know that he might humble you and that he might test you to do you good in the end.

Then you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.

Verse 18, And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers as it is this day.

An attitude of being ungrateful or lacking gratitude has been all too common over the age of men. In time, Israel did become ungrateful for all that God has done for them. They fell away from the established truth of God's word. In such a blessed nation as ours today, we must also be careful that we do not do the same. This wasn't just the case for Israel, but we also see the Apostle Peter reminding his readers not to forget God's wonderful blessings.

This is in 1 Peter chapter 1.

First Peter chapter 1 and verse 2. 1 Peter 1 and verse 2.

Peter says, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctification of the Spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace be multiplied.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though as tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Here Peter is talking about the spiritual blessings we have received in God the Father and in Jesus Christ. Blessings we must never forget and constantly show our gratitude for, because it is a tough world at times. It is a difficult world. We do have our trials. We do have our persecutions even at times. But it pales in comparison to the greatness that we have, the indwelling of God's Spirit, the difficulties, the things that trip us up, sometimes time and time again, but that God has given us His Spirit to overcome, the down payment on eternal life we have.

Our names are written in the book of life. It's powerful. These are things that we have to remain steadfast on and remain grateful for, not to get caught up in times where we have so much abundance in this nation and we have so much freedoms and we have so much, so much, so much that we lose sight of what God has for us. Eternal life, wonderful things. So it is a warning. We do have to watch out for an ungrateful attitude, because life will hit us hard sometimes, like a board right across the forehead, and in these times it can be difficult to maintain that mindset of gratitude. But as the definition of gratitude that we went over earlier says, gratitude involves a focus on the present moment, on appreciating your life as it is today and what has made it so. I was reminded this week of a powerful example of someone who maintained attitude and attitude of great gratitude in the midst of dealing with the disease that would eventually take his life. Lou Gehrig, the iron horse of baseball, famed for his 2,130 consecutive games played streak, made one of the most memorable speeches in the history of sports.

Heartfelt and direct, this man with less than two years to live shared his feelings to a captivated audience that left tears rolling down the cheeks of many. It was on July 4, 1939, Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day, when the long-time Yankee First Spacemen uttered the famous words at a home plate ceremony in Yankee Stadium. Lou Gehrig says, fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for 17 years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. Look at these grand men, he said, referring to the other other ballplayers. When you wouldn't consider it, which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to be associated with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat and vice versa, sends you a gift. That is something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies. That is something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you and squabbles with her own daughter, that's something. When you have a father and a mother who works all their lives so you can have an education and build your body, it's a blessing.

When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed, that's the finest I know. So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for. Just a powerful example of a man realizing his life is going to come to an end. The sport and profession that he's enjoyed playing for so many years has to stop because of this disease. It's just a powerful example of someone recognizing the time and opportunity they were able to experience in the midst of finding out tragic career ending will be eventually life-ending news. Yet he showed gratitude for the opportunity to do these things. He showed gratitude to the fans who offered their support. Even a team that would hate for them to win one game the whole season sent him a gift because they recognized this is this is hard. Life is hard. This situation is hard. And he was grateful for everything that he had in his life.

It's a powerful example. As we consider over the next week which recipes we plan to get out and the wonderful meals we will prepare, let us consider a more important recipe and that is the recipe for gratitude. As with any recipe, you may have your own twists and your own takes in preparing it just the way that you enjoy. But I think the core of the recipe would be very similar for each of us.

This recipe consists, again, of a heaping tablespoon of humility, a cup of contentment, a peck of praise, a twist of time, an abundance of action, and our own special spice mix of thankfulness for all the wonderful spiritual blessings that God pours out to each one of us personally. And if we prepare this recipe on a regular basis, it will land sweetly on our lips and bring a warm feeling of gratitude to our hearts.