Over the last 2 weeks, this week included 3 weeks, we've been trying to lay down some groundwork for 3 habits that can make a substantial difference in your 2019. The first habit we discussed was tied into the Psalms saying that those who run after other gods, their sorrows are multiplied. And we said that One of the biggest differences you could make in your life is to respond to the sorrows that enter into your life with faith rather than unbelief. And that if you will respond with faith, you will not see those sorrows multiplied. If you respond with unbelief, those sorrows will be multiplied. Last week we said that another key thing we could build into our lives for 2019 would just to be zealous for the Lord, to have a godly ambition for God and His kingdom. And today we're going to talk about practicing gratitude.
Gratitude is an essential part of happiness. You really can't be happy unless you have gratitude.
I was trying to think of how to explain why gratitude is central to really all of human happiness. I was listening to a podcast earlier in the week where they were discussing discussing gender reveal parties, you know, or whatever, when your baby— see, that wasn't a thing when our kids were being born, but the technology was so sketchy we couldn't, you know, is that a finger? I don't know. You know, but now, you know, the technology is sufficient to the point where you're able to say with pretty good clarity, hey, we're gonna have a boy, hey, we're gonna have a girl. And so that now, like, the younger generation, they're doing these gender reveal things on social media and so forth. And of course, 50 years ago, the gender reveal celebration was called birth. You know, where it's like, oh, I have a boy. Oh, I have a girl. But this technology, right, this technology is essentially neutral. It's neither a good thing or a bad thing. We see it as mostly a good thing. We see it as an opportunity to celebrate something, to see something, to know something. But think about how this technology is used in a place like China. Think about the disruption this technology has brought to a population that is only allowed to have one child. So now they're able, through this technological capacity, to discern whether that child is a boy or a girl. Just like we are, but then they're able, right, to make a decision whether they will abort the child, often if it's a girl, based on this very same technology that we see kind of flowered up on Instagram, right? Like the thing that many of you have done as young parents to celebrate, the technology that you've used to do that is used in a horrific tragic way in another place. So there's this piece of technology and two completely different responses to it. And what's the difference maker? It's gratitude, right? Gratitude. I'm thankful for this child. I'm thankful for the child that I've been given.
In fact, I would say that gratitude shows itself with I won't go over there. The gratitude shows itself in childbearing, having children in a significant way so that we see that really no human being can live in its early days without gratitude. The parent has to be grateful that they've been given this massive amount of work in this little 8-pound ball. And if parents aren't grateful, then that child will not thrive, that child may not even survive. So gratitude is just central to everything about life. Your whole kind of nature, your whole kind of personality is in part built on this fundamental question: were my parents grateful for me? Right? I mean, it's just essential to life itself.
Gratitude has become a bit of a buzzword. Speaking of Instagram, you can go on there and see #blessed, #grateful, #gratitude, and so on and so forth. And I actually think overall it's a good thing. You're seeing a lot of online influencers using and practicing gratitude, building it into their daily routines. I noticed this about 6 years ago when it started to happen in some of the popular business books and so on and so forth. I was confused. I didn't remember seeing this previously, but have since realized that the reason for this emergence of sort of a generic gratitude is that about 10 years ago, the social sciences began to study the benefits of practicing gratitude in treating all sorts of kind of life problems. So there began to be these studies to determine, hey, what does gratitude do for a person. So the way these studies work, they're always kind of the same. They usually divide them, the subjects, into two groups or perhaps three groups, and they all have kind of similar life issues and so on and so forth. And they ask one group to journal either daily or weekly about the ways that they have been blessed. And this is obviously in a generic secular way. And then they ask another group to either not do anything or perhaps to list their grievances. Every week, or so on and so forth. Sometimes there's a third group where they engage in something called downward social comparison, where they ask a group of people to compare themselves to other people below them and derive some sort of superiority out of like, I'm better than so-and-so. Well, you're probably not surprised to learn that as they've helped these people, as they've asked these subjects to engage in this this daily habit of gratitude, this weekly habit of gratitude, their lives get better. Like significantly better. So that if you, for instance, struggle with anxiety or depression, even someone who's completely godless, just a secular clinical psychologist, would tell you that you should treat gratitude the way that a diabetic treats insulin. You should just build the practice of gratitude into your life. You'll see somewhere around a 30% to 40% reduction in depressive and anxiety symptoms just based on a daily habit of gratitude. So I mean, there's just like science that's just showing over and over again. They're seeing that people with chronic pain experience a significant, like a 25% reduction in their chronic pain if they're practicing gratitude. They're seeing that those that feel lonely when they begin to practice gratitude, not only do they feel less lonely, but they also kind of become different social creatures that attract additional friends. They're showing that sleep quality is increased because of the practice of gratitude. These are not small kind of hippie-dippie studies. I mean, these are big studies, lots of people, and they're seeing these huge results from the practice of gratitude.
So I do want to say that, like, this is, this is essential for life. If you're not doing something where you're intentionally cultivating gratitude in your life and intentionally practicing gratitude in your life, you're really selling yourself short. And obviously, as we'll talk about the Word of God in a moment, you're really missing a major point of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Today I just want to talk mostly through the lens of comparing this generic gratitude that the world would commend to you versus a God-centered gratitude. And if a generic gratitude of, well, just be thankful, with a gratitude that is centered on God.
6 · Introduces 2 Samuel 7:18-19 as the text and establishes David's response to divine rejection-yet-greater-promise as the Bible's high point of gratitude expression, setting up the exegesis to follow
So we're in 2 Samuel chapter 7. I want you to see verse 18. God has just told David, no, I'm not going to allow you to run in the the seemingly good ambition that you had to build a temple. Rather, I will use you to build my eternal temple through Jesus Christ. But David's just been told no, but he's also been told yes in a massive way to Christ. And David responds beginning in verse 18 with, I think, I think maybe the high point of all gratitude expressions in the Bible. I don't know of another section of Scripture that has this kind of peak gratitude on display. And so today it's the perfect text to look to, to ask how we can be more grateful, how we can practice gratitude. Let's just start in verse 18. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that you have brought me thus far? And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God.
7 · Announces the sermon's structure (three main points) and states the first: God-centered gratitude is essential because gratitude by definition requires a personal recipient
So, 3 ideas today, and the first one is just the importance of God-centered gratitude. You need to, by definition, have a person that you're grateful for, a person that you're grateful to rather.
8 · Illustrates the personal nature of gratitude with a personal anecdote—receiving a thank-you note in the mail, establishing that real gratitude requires a specific addressee
The other day someone texted me, someone from Providence texted me and asked me for my physical address. Very rarely do people ask for physical addresses anymore, and I wrote back, 'Are you sending me anthrax?' And after multiple questions along the anthrax line, I gave them my address finally. A few days later I got a thank you note from them. And it was a thank you note for something that happened a while back. And it was very nice. You don't get thank you notes in the mail very often. And that's not a solicitation at all, by the way.
9 · Contrasts the personal thank-you note with the absurdity of 'thanking the universe'—a personal anecdote from a dinner in Chicago exposing the incoherence of generic gratitude without a personal recipient
Now, I want you to contrast that kind of experience where you're sending a thank you note to somebody with the sort of generic gratitude that's being put forth. Forth in the world today. So I was in Chicago with my wife. We were visiting some friends that we were connected with that really had not gotten to know them very well at all, and they're not followers of Jesus, but they are, as they would say, very spiritual. And so we sat down for dinner one night. It was a great dinner, beautiful house, beautiful neighborhood, and the wife that prepared the dinner said, 'Let's just take a minute before we eat to thank the universe.' And I remember kind of thinking, 'Well, I'm going to play along.' I mean, this is not the moment to ask a bunch of questions about who is the universe and what did the universe do for us, so on and so forth. But I remember, of course, as we took this moment of silence to thank the universe, saying, 'God, hey, I know it's you. Thank you. Help these people know it's you. Help them thank you.' So this generic gratitude that is not centered on anything, I don't even really know what to do with that ultimately. Because in order for gratitude to be a thing, you have to thank somebody. Like somebody's behind all of this. Where do you address— like if you want to thank the universe, like where do you mail that note? I mean, Does the universe have preferred pronouns? I don't even know, like, what is the universe?
10 · Exposes David's relentless God-directedness in 2 Samuel 7:18-29 (ten times 'O Lord God'), then argues via Romans 1:18-23 that generic gratitude, though beneficial short-term, darkens the mind and hardens the heart long-term because it worships the gift instead of the Giver
Well, look at David's gratitude. David's gratitude is extraordinarily God-centered. This is crazy. I'm going to do this real fast. Verse 18: 'O Lord God.' Verse 19: 'O Lord God, O Lord God.' Verse 20: 'O Lord God.' Verse 22: 'O Lord God, there is no God beside You.' Verse 24: 'O Lord God.' Verse 25, 'O Lord God.' Verse 26, 'Lord of hosts, who is God over Israel.' Verse 27, 'Lord of hosts, God of Israel.' Verse 28, 'O Lord God.' Verse 29, 'O Lord God.' David's gratitude is extraordinarily specific. He is speaking directly to God. He is crediting God for all of the blessings that have come His way. Now I want to talk about— there's some reasons why this is so significant. The first one is, is that when you thank God, when you are grateful to God as opposed to being generically grateful, you are thanking the Creator of all good things. You're thanking the Creator of all good things. There's no weird thank the universe stuff here. You're talking to a real person, and this is better than generic gratitude. Now, sometimes generic secular gratitude will tell you to thank other people, right? So one of the popular tools in these studies is to encourage people to thank their parents, right? So thank your parents for what they've done for you, thank your parents for how they provided for you, and so on and so forth. But the question remains, Who do you thank for giving you good parents? Right? There's just this obvious gap in generic gratitude. You don't go anywhere with it. Even if you do find a person who's been kind to you, well, where does that come from? Where did that person come from? Why was that person in your life? So one of the advantages of God-centered gratitude is that it connects you to the source, the creator of all good things. Which means gratitude reorients you. When you are thankful to God, gratitude reorients you into your proper place in the universe. It tells you this all-important sentence that we have to keep repeating to ourselves: there is a God, I'm not him. Right? That is such a life-changing important thing to say over and over and over again to ourselves. So one of the great things that gratitude does is that it refocuses this basic idea: I'm this creature in this world of things, and there's someone over all of this. And my gratitude, my God-centered gratitude, is connecting me to all of that. If you want this gratitude to be an anchor for you, an order of your perceptions, then you've got to run up the chain of causes and get to the ultimate non-cause. In order for gratitude to really be what it needs to be for you, you've got to go all the way up to the Creator of all good things. Now, generic gratitude is showing all of these positive things. Like, if you engage in generic gratitude, you're gonna have less depressive symptoms and so on and so forth. But the Bible actually says that generic gratitude is dangerous in the long run. It may have short-term benefits, but it's dangerous in the long run. So Romans 1:18 says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 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—stuff, things—that have been made. So they are without excuse. 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. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. So what's happening in this verse is that these people are grateful. These people are #blessed. Like, they are grateful. They're grateful for the gifts. That they have, right? They're thanking the gifts. In fact, they're worshiping the gifts. They're worshiping and serving the creation. But because their gratitude doesn't reach its proper ultimate end, which is to God, because they never go up the chain of causes and say, God, you brought all of this into my life, the form of gratitude they're practicing, this sort of godless generic gratitude, may help them in the short term, but in the long run, their minds will be darkened and their foolish hearts will be darkened. Their minds will become futile and their foolish hearts will be darkened. So this generic gratitude may have some immediate benefits, but if you don't learn how to thank God and thank God all the time, then you really are actually hurting yourself.
11 · Applies the theology to daily life with urgency and concreteness—God's blessings are constant ('buckets'), and failure to thank Him hardens the heart
Think of it this way: God is not going to stop pouring out his blessings on you. You're receiving blessings right now. You're in a warm space. You're among people who love you. You're hearing an amazing sermon. Uh, you're— God is just dumping buckets of blessings on you right now. You know, you can't not do something with all of those blessings. You're getting wet. Like, those blessings are affecting you. If you do not develop a habit of gratitude that instinctively, repeatedly throughout the day says, 'Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Thank you, God,' all of these blessings are hardening your heart and darkening your mind. This shower of blessings— God's not going to stop because that's who He is. And so what you must do is you must learn and strive and discipline and grow in this idea of, if I haven't thanked God in the last 15 minutes, what's wrong? What's going on that I'm not consciously aware in real time throughout my day of God's goodness? That's an essential part of living. It's an essential part of happiness to be able to see God's ongoing blessings and talk to Him about those blessings. I think sometimes we don't want to be childish enough about it to realize we ought to just be thankful and happy that the trees look a certain way and that the car is running especially well this morning and that the person at Whole Foods was nice for once. We ought to just be noticing and thanking and thanking because God is indeed pouring out His blessings.
12 · States the second benefit of God-centered gratitude—it connects the believer to God's character, functioning as a daily rehearsal of His mercy, goodness, power, kindness, and faithfulness
Well, the second thing that this God-centered gratitude does is that it connects us to his character. Verse 21, David says, because of your great promise according to your own heart. Gratitude reminds you about the truest things about God, namely that he is merciful and good and powerful and kind. And faithful. So that as you engage in a daily rhythm of gratitude, you are constantly preaching to yourself about who God is and what God is about— the character of God.
13 · Expounds the third benefit of God-centered gratitude—it transforms the perception of present circumstances
Number 3: circumstances. Let me talk a minute about how gratitude affects our circumstances. Look at verse 18 again. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord. You kind of had to have been here last week to understand exactly what the implications of that, but let me try to go really quickly through, through what happened. David starts this chapter by looking at the tent of meeting, the place where God dwelled. It was this literally like, like temporary structure, and he looked at his house and he said, I have a house. God's got a tent. That's not okay with me. And he says, you know, God should have a house. So this is the ambition that I referred to earlier. David gets off of his couch. He chooses to serve rather than to just dwell in this sort of rest stop apathy. And he strives. He wants to do something for the Lord. And it's all spurned by this sense that it's not okay for God to be in a tent. I'm gonna house God's intent. Well, this seems okay. God just says, I don't want that from you, David. In fact, let me do something for you. You want to build me a house? No, I'm gonna build you an eternal house because I'm going to make Jesus Christ the descendant of yours, and you will be responsible for building not a temporary temple but the eternal temple of Jesus Christ, the dwelling place of God in man. So verse 18 says, then King David— this is after Nathan's told him no, the prophets told him no, the prophet said, but you're gonna get Jesus in your family line, and so on and so forth. David is profoundly grateful. Verse 18: Then King David went in and sat before the Lord. That language tells us that he went in to the tent of meeting. He sat before the Lord. Where do you go to sit before the Lord if you're King David? You go into the tabernacle, the tent. So think about this for a minute. Everything we read from verse 18 to 29 is David's ebullient praise and gratitude for God, and it's taking place in a place that he thought wasn't good enough a while ago, but now it's just perfect. It's just, it's just what it needs to be. David thought at the beginning of the text that the tent wasn't suitable, but now gratitude has made the tent exactly all that it needs to be, the place where he can meet with God. This is what gratitude will do to your view of your circumstances. Gratitude probably will, in the long run, actually change your circumstances. But in the short run, circumstances you think are not good enough, circumstances you think are lacking, are insufficient, if you will put on gratitude, will become just right. They'll become what they need to be. Because your focus isn't any longer on the circumstances themselves, but on the goodness of God. He enters in— this is what David does— with gratitude on his mind, he enters into a circumstance he thought wasn't good enough, and he never thinks about its not good enoughness again, because he's there to meet with God. And he's there to be grateful to God. Sometimes, many times, that's all we can do. All we can do is to enter our circumstances with an intention to be grateful, an intention to meet with God and thank God for his kindness. Sometimes that's all we can do, many times that's all we should do, and many times that's exactly what is needed.
14 · Summarizes the first major movement of the sermon—three reasons God-centered gratitude is vital—and signals a shift to the second major movement (the 'who am I' question)
So that's one of the reasons why this God-centered gratitude is such an important thing for us to cultivate in our lives. It connects you to the Creator of all good things, and that's really important because he is indeed creating all sorts of good things. You don't want your heart to be hardened. It connects us to the character of God. We see who God is. The more we dwell on God's kindness and care for us, the more we see his true character. And also, it actually does help us to deal more righteously with the circumstances we're in. We begin to see our circumstances differently when we focus on gratitude.
15 · Introduces the second major movement—David's 'who am I?' question—and states the foundational logic: gratitude is only possible when you believe you don't deserve what you've received
So point number 2, the next thing we see David say is, 'Who am I?' Verse 18, 'The King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house?"' that you have brought me thus far, and yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God. What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord God. Look at that phrase in verse 18: Who am I? This is the second point about gratitude. You can't be grateful, you cannot be grateful for anything you think you deserve. That's not what gratitude is. Thinking you deserve something and then receiving it does not permit gratitude to take place. Thinking you don't deserve something and then receiving it, that's where gratitude happens.
16 · Illustrates the 'who am I?' logic with a personal anecdote—the pastor's wife hugging him on a morning when he felt acutely sinful and undeserving, making the hug a vivid experience of grace and deepening his gratitude
This morning I woke up and I just was so obvious, I was just so aware of my cluttered mind. Maybe you're aware of my cluttered mind right now. I was so aware of just my sinfulness in more of a, like, just a whole being kind of thing. Just so aware of my weakness and my brokenness. And I'm, it's, you know, 7:00 a.m. or something. And I'm packing up to come to the church, and my wife stops what she's doing and she comes up and gives me a hug. And I remember thinking, like, that feels nice. And then I remember thinking, like, this is what grace is. I don't deserve this. I don't deserve this hug. And yet the Lord is working in my wife right now to give me something wonderful that I don't deserve. And that makes the hug even better, right? It makes it way better.
17 · Expands the 'who am I?' question into a full theology of gratitude—entitlement kills gratitude, humility enables it
So that David is on to something when he asked a simple question in verse 18: Who am I? Who am I, O Lord, to receive this goodness? Probably, especially when we're young, one of the major reasons why gratitude can't happen in our lives is that we actually think we deserve the refrigerator to be full. We actually think we deserve to have the health insurance our parents work for. We actually think we deserve to have a car to take us where we need to go. We don't even have categories for how little we deserve, and so therefore we can't be grateful. And part of just growing up is realizing, as you kind of see yourself more clearly, how I didn't deserve, I didn't deserve all of this. This was all grace. My parents sold out their lives for me. They literally spent their lives down to bless me. I don't deserve that. This idea of who am I is central to gratitude. It's central to the understanding of if I believe I deserve something, I can't be grateful for it. But if I believe I don't deserve a kindness, a blessing from the Lord, and God gives it to me, well then I can be grateful. There's a humiliation part of all gratitude that has to be there. You have to see how little you actually deserve and how, in fact, truly the Bible says we deserve only bad things. So that when good things come, we see them as exceptional expressions of God's mercy and His grace. Verse 20, David says, 'What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O God.' What more can I say to you? You know me. That's such a big part of gratitude. I think the most beautiful truth in the world and I might be wrong, this is what affects me the most, and I think I see this affect people the most, is God knows me all the way through and He loves me all the way through. I think for me, I think that's the most beautiful truth, that God sees me in my inmost being and He sees He sees sin like an x-ray sees lung cancer. He sees it just riddled throughout. And He loves me. He loves me deeply and fully and patiently, consistently over time. That's part of what it means to dwell in gratitude, right? It's to say, you know, I don't deserve Your kindness, but I see Your kindness everywhere. I know who I am. I'm not worthy of all these blessings. Worthy of your goodness, and yet I have to see it. I see it. It's everywhere. Thank you, God.
18 · Balances the humiliation of 'who am I?' with the exaltation of 'I am Yours
Well, secondly, there's a humiliation, but there's also an exaltation. This isn't all about feeling low, because gratitude doesn't only make you feel low. Gratitude makes you feel special. It makes you feel important. It makes you feel cared for. It makes you feel known. God-centered gratitude basically helps you see you, for who you really are. Isn't that funny how gratitude helps you see who God really is, and then somehow as you see who God really is, you see who you really are? You can really be thankful in a special way when you begin to see how wonderful and kind God is to you. Look at verse 22. Look at the connection that I'm about to read this. Look at the connection between who God is and who his people are. Verse 22: Therefore you are great, O Lord God, for there is none like you, and there is no God beside you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people Whom You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods. You see the connection there? Therefore You are great, O God, and who is like You? There is none like You. Verse 23, and who is like Your people Israel? The greatness of God— gratitude gets us there. We see the greatness of God. We see His power over providence, His ability to move goodness into our lives. And we also see His love, His kindness, His steadfastness. And we see the greatness of God through gratitude. And then we see, wait a minute, You're great and I'm Yours. It's not all about humiliation and debasement and feeling low. Gratitude actually makes you feel special, as you should as a child of God.
19 · Introduces the third major point—God-centered gratitude has a unique relationship with the future—and contrasts it with generic gratitude
Well, third thing about this God-centered gratitude that's unique compared to generic gratitude. And that's God-centered gratitude has a very unique relationship with the future. Generic gratitude is like, count your blessings, name them one by one, look in the past, see the things that have happened, so on and so forth. Now, if you're thanking the universe for this, there's no prediction, there's no reason to believe that whatever's happened to you in the past is going to continue. In fact, it may just be, if you feel especially blessed, and this is how paranoid I can get, and say, 'Man, I've had such an easy life up to my 40s. What's coming? You know, the scales have to tip the other way.' You know, because that would just be a reasonable way to think about it if there's a non-personal entity just kind of randomly throwing out blessings on people. Well, then I'm gonna get some good ones and some bad ones, and I can look back and see the good ones, but I can't predict with any certainty what my future is going to be like.
20 · Illustrates the fear of the future with a personal anecdote—walking through the dark church—and diagnoses anxiety as the mental state of 'walking into the future I cannot see
I realized this week I've made a game out of walking through the church at night without turning on the lights, and I don't know why I do this to myself because I hate it. I really don't know. I think it might be laziness, like literally laziness to go over to the light switch. Or I might just be, you know, I don't know, I torture myself. I go through the building, I don't turn on the lights, I don't know the building that well, you know, like, and so I've gotten in touch with this feeling. And it's this feeling where you don't have any input from your eyes. And so your brain is on high alert. It doesn't have anything it wants, right? And so it begins to like, part of the right hemisphere of the brain is actually world building. It's saying, I think there's probably, you know, a pit right in front of you, or maybe there's something here. And you begin to, your brain is so on, you begin to think about, okay, what's in front of me? What am I about to hit? Am I about to stub my toe? Am I about to break something? That's a problem I have. I break things. And I'm walking through the dark church, and I'm literally just always thinking, Something's about to happen. Well, I have not been, thank the Lord, by His grace alone, I have not been someone who struggled a lot with anxiety in my life. But it's probably the number 1 or 2 thing that I do in biblical counseling. And I've had enough of it to kind of have a sense. And I'll tell you, I actually think in some of you that have anxiety more severely, I think you you should do this experiment. Go into a dark room that you don't know, walk through it. I think what you'll feel is the same thing you feel when you're struggling with anxiety. I think the mind is actually doing the same thing. It's saying, I'm entering into the future I cannot see. I'm moving into a moment I have no control over. My brain is used to having a information to tell me what to expect. I don't have any of that, and so I am at this heightened state of readiness that includes thinking of all the worst possible eventualities so that I can somehow, with this lack of information I'm receiving, anticipate what's coming next. I think walking through a dark room is essentially the same mental state as walking into the future, especially as someone who struggles, especially for someone who struggles with anxiety. So that God-centered gratitude becomes your only hope for dealing with future-concerning anxiety, which I think all anxiety is concerned about, the stuff that's going to happen that I don't know about.
21 · Articulates the 'divine algorithm'—God-centered gratitude creates a formula: look at God's past faithfulness, recognize it as His unchanging character, and extrapolate it forward
It's only God-centered gratitude is gonna allow you to say, all of that goodness that came to me in my life wasn't random. It came because there is someone who loves me and knows me and who is over all things. And as I take my next step into the dark future that I cannot see, the God who was with me 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 2 billion years ago is with me today, and he will be with me tomorrow in the darkness of that next step. So that somehow gratitude, when it's connected to God, doesn't merely look back and say, thanks for that, thanks for that, thanks for this stuff. It doesn't merely look back. It does something very interesting. It creates— I think it's fair to call it an algorithm— it creates a formula that says Look at what God did there. Know that that's His character. Know that it didn't come because you deserve something, because you did the right thing. It came because He is good. Now extrapolate out what you see in the past, in the rearview mirror. In faith, apply it to your future. So gratitude for the future is a uniquely God-centered thing because we actually see that God is uniquely in the future and no one else is. There's nobody else there except for God. And the more you talk to Him and get to know Him and trust Him and walk with Him, the more comfortable you become— maybe not even comfortable, maybe excited, maybe encouraged about the future because Somebody's there. And it's this person you know and love. And He's demonstrated Himself time and time again. And so the future doesn't become a place of dread anymore. It becomes more like what we see with Paul—a place of delight.
22 · Expounds 2 Samuel 7:18-19 to extract David's 'instruction for mankind'—the divine algorithm in full form
This is a key piece of this text. Look at verse 18 again. Then King David went in, sat before the Lord, and said, 'Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that You have brought me thus far?' Verse 19, 'And yet this...' So he's saying, 'Look at all that You've done for me up to this point.' 'And yet this...' All the stuff You did for me in the past. '...was a small thing in Your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of Your servant's house.' for a great while to come. God's in the future. He's telling David, hey, I'm in the future. I'm really far down there. There's going to be a day when this man named Peter preaches a sermon and he uses your name. He calls you a patriarch, by the way, which is kind of cool. And he uses your name. He says you're a prophet too, and that you were leaning into the coming Jesus. God is speaking to David from the future. Listen what he says, what David says. You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come, and this, and this is instruction for mankind. What does David mean, this is instruction for mankind? I believe David's telling us, look back at all the Lord has done for you in the past. This is David's instruction for mankind. Look back at all the Lord has done for you in the past and understand that His future great blessings will be greater at an exponential scale. Lord, you've brought me this far— past. This was a small thing in your eyes. I thought this was amazing. I thought this was the best you could do. By the way, he thought that because he was consistently grateful. He wasn't taking it for granted. So he looks back, he says, This was amazing what you just did to me. And he says, this was a small thing in your eyes. You have shown me even greater things for me in the future. I think David's saying to all of humanity, here is a divine algorithm. In order to project the Lord's future blessings on his people, look back, see his faithfulness, and multiply it by a number you can't ever write down. In other words, whatever you see back there in terms of His faithfulness, multiply that by a massive number and project His faithfulness for you in the future. That is always the rhythm of how God deals with His saints. All of His best blessings, all of His best things are forward in the future.
23 · Contrasts the believer's hope with the world's empty optimism—only the believer can say 'my best days are ahead of me' and mean it, because only the believer has a God in the future who loves, knows, and has overcome sin
That's where we're— that's just such a rare thing to say. No one else can say that. No one else can say, I don't No one else can say, 'My best days are ahead of me,' and mean it. It's all a bluff without someone in the future who loves you and knows you and has overcome your sin. It's all a bluff to say, 'My best days ahead of me.' The only person for whom that is actually sayable and meanable is the believer in Jesus who says, 'My God is in the future. My best days are ahead of me.' And I'm not talking about slightly better. I'm talking about extremely better. Better to the extent that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived better. That's a very unique piece of God-centered gratitude.
24 · Signals the structural shift to five practical tools for practicing gratitude and issues an urgent pastoral charge—gratitude is medicine, not a suggestion
So now let me spend just the remainder of our time giving you 5 points of application. We'll shoot through the rest of the text. 5 ways that gratitude— 5 tools, let's call them tools, that you have at your disposal right now to begin to practice gratitude. Before I do that, I'm dead serious. Y'all need to, like, if especially if you're struggling with depression, so on and so forth, this is medicine. Take it seriously. Do not be apathetic. Do not be complacent. Do not be lazy. Go home and start practicing gratitude. Take a journal or Write out God's blessings to you. Do it consistently. You will see things improve. Gratitude is a practice. It's an act. It's a discipline. You've got to make it something that just becomes a habit, but it won't be a habit at first. It will feel awkward and phony.
25 · First tool: the Word
So, 5 tools in this practice of gratitude. Number 1: the word. Repeatedly throughout this extended text, David responds to what God has revealed. He says in verse 19, 'You have spoken.' Verse 21, 'Because of your promise, you made it known to your servant.' Verse 22, 'According to all we have heard with our ears.' A central piece of gratitude is an ongoing interaction with God's Word. And think about this. God's Word— let me just make this super simple. You read your Bible. Was it a win? Was it not a win? What came of it, right? Let's say you read your Bible every day. You say you're still being faithful to your New Year's resolution to read the Bible every day. You're on day 20. So far, so good. What's a win? What are you looking for to say, this was a win, I did something good here? Gratitude. Just, that's all you need to say. Just find a thing to be grateful for in your time with God's Word. That will be a win. Everything above that is great, pursue it, but let's just assess our time in God's Word by one simple thing. Am I more grateful to God as a result of reading this? This is just a simple choice I'm doing as I'm sitting down and reading God's Word. I will not, I will not stand up until I can be grateful.
26 · Second tool: the people of God
Number 2, the people of God. Verse 22, your relationship with the people of God are an essential tool in your toolkit for practicing gratitude. David, even though he had been remarkably blessed, he doesn't just kind of see his blessings through the lens of his own life. Verse 22, therefore you are great, O Lord God. There is none like you, and there's no God besides you, according to all that we've heard with our ears. And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt a nation and its gods? And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever, and you, O Lord, became their God. Listen. If you love people, you'll always have at least, at least, somebody else's victory to celebrate. You may not have one today. You might not have one this year. That's the great thing about the church though. Somebody here is winning. Somebody here is doing well. Somebody here has done well at their job this week their marriage is hitting its stride, or a child has said a sweet thing. I walk among the saints even on my darkest day, and I see somebody's doing okay. Now, if I'm a bitter, jealous, small-minded idiot, I'm not helped by your victory. But if I love you, I really love you, and you're winning, Sometimes I am more thankful for your win than you are. You don't necessarily even see it, but, but somebody else can. When you love God's people, you're connecting yourself to a whole network of people that God is working in. And some of us are doing great, at least for a minute. And sometimes when I need to reach out and find something to be grateful for, I can say, I see the Spirit of God at work in this person's life. That's proof to me that God's real for right now. This person is different as a result of what God did just then. So that's proof right now, and right now I need proof, and that's my proof. Connecting to the community of saints means that you'll always have something to be thankful for, even when your life may be especially dark.
27 · Third tool: ask for more
Third tool: ask for more. I think a clear indicator that you understand and that you are grateful is that you will ask God for more. I think a clear indicator of your understanding of God's character, that he is disposed to kindness and mercy, toward generosity towards those who are in Christ, is to ask for more. Verse 25. David, David is so gutsy sometimes. God just said, 'No, David, you got it wrong. I'm not going to let you build a temple. I'm going to give you Jesus instead. I'm going to extend your household for all eternity.' David says, verse 25— well, he says thank you, verses 18 through 24, and then he says, verse 25, 'And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken.' Well, this is slight heresy here. I mean, He just said it. Why do you need Him to confirm it? Because David says earlier, 'Who am I?' And he knows the answer is, 'I'm a guy who's tended to unbelief. I'm a guy who's tended to doubt. I need Your help. I need more. You've given me everything. You've given me this massive thing. I need more. I need more from You, God.' This is not an evidence of ingratitude. It's an evidence that you know who God actually is and what God's actually about. So he says, 'Do as You've spoken.' Verse 26, 'Your name will be magnified forever, saying, "The Lord of hosts is God over Israel," and the house of Your servant David will be established before You. For You, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to Your servant, saying, "I will build You a house."' Therefore, your servant has found courage to pray this prayer for you. A great evidence of gratitude, that you're actually functionally counting your blessings and you're going through life as a grateful person, is courage. Because you see consistently that God has been faithful, that he's brought you this far, and it puts this courage in your belly and you're able to ask for and aspire to even more.
28 · Fourth tool: love God's glory
Number 4, the fourth tool: love is glory. Love is glory. Verse 26, 'Your name will be magnified forever, saying, "The Lord of hosts is God over Israel," and the house of Your servant David will be established forever.' Your name will be magnified forever. I said this like 3 weeks ago. I felt like the Lord said this to me one morning, Chris, I'm gonna glorify my name today. If you're into that kind of thing, you're gonna have a good day. If you're not into that kind of thing, you're not gonna have a good day. One of the basic kind of tools in our toolkit for gratitude is simply the question of, am I on board with what God's about? And what God's about is that he will glorify his name today. Even on my worst day, God will still check off on his to-do list I've glorified my name today.
29 · Fifth tool: a simple mantra—'You are God
Number 5, a basic mantra. It doesn't get any more simple than this. Look at verse 28. And now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true. You have promised this good thing to your servant. Now therefore, may it please you to bless the house of your servant so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever. I'm gonna give you One sentence, three phrases that is just simple fuel for gratitude. It's in verse 28. 'You are God. Your words are true. You have promised.' 'You are God. Your words are true. You have promised.' Over and over and over again, all day. 'You are God. Your words are true.' you've promised. There's your tool for gratitude. Just say that like 100 times tomorrow and you'll see all sorts of gratitude come flowing in.
30 · Brings the exposition to its redemptive-historical climax—God answered David's prayer in Jesus Christ, the eternal patriarch over David's house
In verse 29, David says, now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever. The Lord answered that prayer. Jesus Christ is the eternal patriarch over the house of David. He's the prophet, the priest, the king, and everyone here who is in Christ is a member of that royal family.
31 · Brings the sermon to a close by connecting the Lord's Supper to the sermon's central themes—the table is evidence of God's power and generosity, the two realities that fuel gratitude
And this table set before us is a family table for sons and daughters of the true King. So this table set before us today is evidence of God's kingship, of Jesus' kingship, His rule and reign over all things, and His generosity, which is the two things you see in gratitude, right? He's powerful, He's over everything, and what He does with His power is He gives. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life. This is the royal table that shows his power over history and his inclination to give, his desire to give himself. So let's approach the table today with gratitude.
32 · Closing prayer confessing the congregation's ingratitude and asking God for the gift of gratitude as a daily discipline
Let me pray. Gracious God, we thank you for your faithfulness and kindness. And one of your faithfulnesses, one of your mercies is— God, what is the percentage? What is the percentage of your goodness that we actually even notice or thank you for? I mean, it has to be infinitesimally small that this massive percentage of your kindness and faithfulness toward us goes unrecognized by us entitled idiots. We don't see, we don't see, we don't see Your kindness, Your faithfulness. We're not actively thankful. We often presume upon You. We often take You for granted. Lord, it is actually impossible for us to be as grateful toward You as we need to be. So that, Lord, You demonstrate even in that fact that You are not pouring out Your blessings, Lord, so that we see every one of them and name every one of them and thank You for every one of them. You're pouring out your blessings because that's who you are. That's your character, that's your heart. You've done all this, David says, according to your heart. And Lord, if you could give us the gift of a daily discipline of being grateful, then we would know your heart, we would see your heart, we would love your heart. Would be able to step into the future knowing you're there, like a child jumps off the diving board to his father's arms. Give us faith, God, to see your goodness, and give us the daily discipline to expect, to long for, to cultivate a continual habit of saying, 'You are God. Your words are true. You have promised.' Give us grace to come before You, Lord, to say, 'Who am I?' To say, 'Here's who You are.' And Lord, to say, 'Your past faithfulness tells me all I need to know about the future.' God, we can't gut this out. We can't will it to happen, though we won't see it happen unless we exercise our will. But Lord, please, one more gift. One more gift for us, Lord. Give us the gift of gratitude. In the name of our treasured gift, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.