grateful idea (1)

Do you live in a grateful world? Do you go to work with grateful people? You go to work, the boss changes a policy, headquarters change systems and everyone is just grateful they have a job. That’s what happens right? Do you go to school with grateful friends? You go to school, you have to take tests and do homework and everyone at school is just grateful they are getting an education – right? Are you married to a grateful person? They are genuinely grateful. No matter what happens, they are passionately overjoyed that they are married to you. They remind you of that daily too. Are you friends with grateful people? Their kids get is cut from the team or doesn’t play ‘striker’ position and they are just grateful their kids had the experience.

Are you a grateful person? Today I want to talk about the two things you need to be grateful. Honestly, without them, I don’t know how you could be grateful. Chances are, you do not live in a grateful world and that is why we are talking about it.

3:24 Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ…. 12:3 Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. MSG Romans 3:23-24; 12:3

The first thing you need in your life to be grateful is to understand and believe, I am utterly incapable of living the glorious life God wills for me. Have you figured this out yet? In every attempt we make to be who we want to be, what happens? We fail. In every attempt we make to find satisfaction, what happens? We fail. And over years, we compile a long and sorry record of failure. We can’t be who we want to be and we can’t find satisfaction.

You think, “I want to be more disciplined.” You fail. “I want to be that guy or girl.” You fail. “I want to break this addiction.” You fail. “After this busy season, I will be more focused on God.” We fail. “I want to… fill in the blank.” You fail. What is happening? We are failing at all our attempts to be better. We simply can’t be holy. In all our failed attempts to be a better person, we can’t do it and we know it and we and feel bad about it. We are left with a mess, feelings of guilt, shame and fear.

What makes it worse is we try to hide our mess from other people. Every party you go to, every community activity you go to, every school event you go to, every church you attend, it’s filled with messy people trying to hide their mess from others. We act like we have it all together.

Here is an example Paul gives us about many Christians who attend church. They try to hide their failures from others. And to avoid looking at our mess and failures, we can become judgmental of others. That’s why Paul wrote,

Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. 2 But God isn’t so easily diverted. He sees right through all such smoke screens and holds you to what you’ve done. MSG Romans 2:1-2

Sometimes church people will use their church knowledge to weigh and measure other people’s holiness. And guess what? The people they are judging, always come up short. Every time you bump into this, you know, ‘Oh, you’re a mess and you don’t want to deal with it!’

We come up short in our attempts to be holy. We try to hide it. We even try to focus on others by being judgmental. We are a mess aren’t we?

Let me ask you, do you understand and believe, you are utterly incapable of living the glorious life God wills for you? Stop! Don’t compare yourself to others. Can you admit that you are a spiritual mess? If you do, good for you, that is the first step in having gratitude. Genuine joy. The kind of joy that doesn’t need to compare yourself with others to feel better about yourself.

That is why Jesus taught,

“Those people who know they have great spiritual needs are happy, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.” NCV Matthew 5:3

Step one in having gratitude is understanding and believing, I am utterly incapable of living the glorious life God wills for me. When you see your spiritual need, that’s when you get heaven.

I have to stop and ask you something. Do you see that you need God? Do you see your failed attempts at trying to be holy? Do you see sin in your life – what do you do with it? Do you walk with fear, shame and guilt – what do you do with it? Are you judgmental of others?

Here is the second thing you must understand and believe to be grateful; God did it for us. Because we are a mess, God did it all for us. Because our soul is filled with guilt, shame, fear, failure and we can’t do anything to make it better, God did it for us. Like a mother who changes her baby, who did it all the work to clean up the mess? The mom. Like a father who picks up child and puts him in a high chair, who did all the work to make that happen? The dad. God did it all. It was His idea. It was His son. It was His sacrifice. He did it all. And, He did it years before you were born. Please hear me, God did it for us. You and I are a mess so God did it for us.

And just in case you are confused, Paul continue and said, …it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

Do you understand and believe that God did it for you? Actually, to be more detailed, do you believe that the only way to fully understand who you are is by what God is and what He did for you? Do you wake up every morning and think, “I am a mess, in desperate need of God and God did it all for me.” Do you rest in that? That leads to gratitude.

Or do you think, “I have to live out a set of rules today and muscle through life so that God will like me more.” What a train wreck!

How do I find gratitude? Step 1: You recognize you are a spiritual mess and you are tired of hiding it. Step 2: You understand that God did everything to fix it and all you have to do is rest in it.

Please hear me. When you read scripture and believe scripture, you will be the most gracious person who ever walked this earth. “Thank you God, I confess my 100% need of You.” “Thank you God for wiping my soul clean of sin.” “Thank you God, I give You my life.” “Thank you God, never let me forget.”

As simple as this is, as beautiful as this is, as redemptive as this is, many people, who attend and were raised in the church, don’t believe this. They are not reading scripture. They are dazed and confused about this. How do we know?

First, Christians who attend church and are not reading their bibles to find truth, can conclude, “If I was a better person, if I was more obedient, then God would… fill in the blank.” They believe, if I was better, holier, stronger, had more faith, prayed longer, my prayers would be answered or God would move on my behalf. In other words, if I could bring my goodness to God, then God would do things for me. Real life happens, God doesn’t do what we want all the time, and it leads us to feel like we have left God down.

No. Let’s go back to the basic foundation of the Gospel of Christ in scripture. You are a spiritual mess and so God did it all to fix that mess. Don’t ever view yourself as someone bringing goodness or righteousness to God. This unscriptural thought, always leads to bondage, tiredness, feelings of failure, etc.

When you come to God and believe, “If I was better, if I was more obedient, then God would… fill in the blank.” You wrongly believe, you have something good to bring to God. That is treating God like an idol. I will bring good things to the idol to manipulate the idol so that the idol will do what I want it to do. And if that doesn’t work I need to ‘work harder’ or ‘get a new idol.’

I think one of the biggest reasons church people walk with guilt and shame is because they don’t understand and fully believe, I am utterly incapable of living the glorious life God wills for me, so God did it for us and simply relax in that. Instead, we are still working hard so that God will like us more and feel guilty if things don’t work out the way we want.

Secondly, Christians who attend church and are not reading their bibles to find truth, can conclude, I am tired of doing all the right things. Why? Because I am not happier. What is the point of the church stuff, my life is still a struggle?

Do you remember the prodigal son story? A man had two sons. The younger one got his inheritance early, left and blew all the money. He comes home and the father is overjoyed. This is such an awesome picture of God’s love waiting for us when we go off the chain and come back to God.

Who was the most miserable at the end of the story? The son who stayed and worked on the farm. Why was he miserable and unable to celebrate his brother’s return? Because he never rested and enjoyed time with his father. He was busy working for his father. Let’s read the discussion between the father and the older brother.

28 The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ NIV Luke 15:28-30

The older brother has become the whiny victim. Did you hear him? He was ‘slaving’ for his father. He never disobeyed his orders. It sounds like following his father was an awful task. He was tired of doing all the right things. This is a picture of some Christians today. People who are striving and struggling, or slaving, to live out their moral code but never have time for a relationship with God. When you live out the moral code but you aren’t in a relationship with Christ, you think, I am ‘slaving’ for God! You are always too busy building the business, getting the next deal, traveling to the next job site, following your kids to the sports field, you never enjoy God’s grace. You don’t feel any happier, in fact you are tired. Is something wrong with God? Is He failing to do something for you?

No. Let’s go back to the basic foundation of the Gospel of Christ in scripture. You are a spiritual mess and so God did it all to fix that mess. Don’t ever view yourself as someone bringing goodness or righteousness to God. This unscriptural thought, always leads to bondage, tiredness, feelings of failure, etc.

We need to rest. We need to remind ourselves, I’m a mess so God did it all. If we don’t, we are left with all work and no joy of God.

Third, Christians who attend church and are not reading their bibles to find truth, can conclude, following Christ is a pain. Is following Christ a pain to you? “Oh crap, we have church tomorrow. Hopefully it snows and we can sleep in.” “I wish I could go back to the days when I partied and had no responsibilities.” “I go to church to keep my wife happy – honestly, I could care less.”

What’s going on? We don’t believe we need Christ. We don’t see our need of Christ. If you don’t understand and believe that you are a spiritual mess, following Christ would be a pain. You are stuck doing something you don’t think you need to do. Any conversation about being a disciple of Christ is either a bore or offensive. When the pastors on stage yammer about being with God for the 15th year in row, we just faze out. When the pastors talk about, money, forgiveness, sacrifice, it’s nothing we plan on doing!

We create our own weird religion. We attend church but have no connection with Christ. Overtime we will pull away or snap cause we can’t fake it any more. In that moment, did Jesus fail you? Did the pastors fail you? Did the church fail you?

No. Let’s go back to the basic foundation of the Gospel of Christ in scripture. You are a spiritual mess and so God did it all to fix that mess. Don’t ever view yourself as someone bringing goodness or righteousness to God. This unscriptural thought, always leads to bondage, tiredness, feelings of failure, etc.

You need to see your need of Christ. Without seeing your desperate need of Christ, following Christ would be a pain.

Let’s review. You are a spiritual mess, you know this, the condition of your soul screams it. And because of that, God did it for you.

I have to tell you that as I look back over my life, I have created a long and sorry record of failed attempts to be holy. What is worse, I spent years trying to hide my mess. I was miserable inside. In my personal experience, I never experienced gratitude until I saw my need of God. It was in my 20s. Every attempt I made to be better, I failed. I was such a mess. I came to God and finally admitted, “I am such a royal mess, I need you God.” From that day till now, I am learning how to rest in the truth that ‘God did it for me.’