The Foolishness of Ingratitude

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“I wonder if one of the sins we are entertaining beneath all other sins is discontentment, a lack of gratefulness, a lack of thanksgiving. What if when the serpent came, instead of entertaining him, [Eve] thanked God for what He gave her thus far? ‘I’ve got God and I’m thankful! I’ve got all these other trees and I’m thankful!’”

~Jackie Hill Perry, writer, poet, and hip-hop artist

“The thing at bottom is, that men have low thoughts of God, and high thoughts of themselves; and therefore it is that they look upon God as having so little right, and they so much.”

~Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) New England minister and theologian

“Sin is the dare of God’s justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love.”

~John Bunyan (1628-1688), writer and preacher

“A madman is not someone who has lost his reason but someone who has lost everything but his reason”

~G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), author and literary critic

“Time and again, studies have shown that performing simple gratitude exercises, like keeping a gratitude diary or writing letters of thanks, can bring a range of benefits.…. [T]he more practice you give your brain at feeling and expressing gratitude, the more it adapts to this mind-set ... a sort of gratitude ‘muscle’ that can be exercised and strengthened.” 

~Dr. Christian Jarrett, British cognitive neuroscientist

“Remember that this God in whose hand are all creatures, is your Father, and is much more tender of you than you are, or can be, of yourself.

“Consider solemnly, that though the things you fear should really happen, yet there is more evil in your own fear than in the things feared…. Fear is both a multiplying and a tormenting passion; it represents troubles as much greater than they are, and so tortures the soul much more than the suffering itself.”

~John Flavel (1627-1691) in Keeping Heart

SERMON PASSAGE

selected passages from Proverbs and Romans (ESV)

Proverbs 3

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

 and do not lean on your own understanding.

6 In all your ways acknowledge him,

 and he will make straight your paths.

7 Be not wise in your own eyes;

 fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.

8 It will be healing to your flesh

 and refreshment to your bones.

9 Honor the Lord with your wealth

 and with the firstfruits of all your produce…

Romans 1

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.