Developing An Attitude Of Gratitude

Developing an Attitude of Gratitude

Luke 17:11-19

Pre-Sermon Icebreaker:

Today is Thanksgiving Sunday. This time next week we’ll all have a new determination.... a determination to lose the 10 pounds we put on in one week!

I have a "Top Ten List" of ways you can know you overdid Thanksgiving.

10. Paramedics bring in the jaws of life to pry you from your Lazy-Boy Chair.

9. Your after-dinner moans are loud enough to signal Dr. Kevorkian.

8. The "Gravy Boat" your wife set out was a real 12’ boat!

7. The potatoes you used set off a famine in Ireland.

6. You received a Sumo-Wrestling application in the mail.

5. You set off the earthquake seismographs while on your Friday morning jog.

4. The rash on your stomach turns out to be a steering wheel burn.

3. Representatives from the Butterball Hall of Fame call ... twice.

2. You consider gluttony your patriotic duty.

1. The leftovers are gonna last until Christmas!

How appropriate it is that we set aside one day as a national holiday to give thanks to God for his protection and provision. I think you will find this passage from Luke 17 to be appropriate.

[11] Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.

[12] As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance

[13] and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

[14] When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

[15] One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.

[16] He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him —and he was a Samaritan.

[17] Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?

[18] Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

[19] Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Can you imagine what the Lord feels like when we show so little gratitude? Jesus healed ten people of leprosy. Out of the ten only one person returned to give thanks.

What did Jesus think about that?

God invites us to be grateful and to express thanks.

Cultivating thankfulness is essential to developing a positive attitude and spiritual passion.

May I offer a few tips to help us develop an “Attitude of Gratitude”?

(I) AN ORIENTATION TO THE GOOD

Pessimism is as much a choice and a learned behavior as optimism. As I have told you before, some people remind me of Eyore the donkey of Winnie the Pooh fame. There default setting is “woe is me.” That makes gratitude almost impossible.

Philippians 4:8 (KJV)says:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Choosing gratitude as a way of living is a choice we make.

How to Observe Thanksgiving

Count your blessings instead of your crosses;

Count your gains instead of your losses.

Count your joys instead of your woes;

Count your friends instead of your foes.

Count your smiles instead of your tears;

Count your courage instead of your fears.

Count your full years instead of your lean;

Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.

Count your health instead of your wealth;

Count on God instead of yourself.

(I) AN ORIENTATION TO THE GOOD

(II) THE BELIEF THAT LIFE IS A GIFT NOT AN ENTITLEMENT

One stormy night in Lake Michigan, a side-wheeler steamboat was rammed by another boat. The steamboat sank just a mile offshore from the village of Winnetka, Illinois. Out of 393 passengers on board, 279 drowned.

A man named Edward Spencer plunged into the lake and swam to the drowning people. He towed one person to safety and went for another. In all, he rescued seventeen people. However, the strain on this young man caused him to collapse. The nerves in his legs were so completely destroyed that he could never walk again. He was an invalid wheel chair victim for his entire life.

On his eightieth birthday, someone asked him to relate his most vivid memory of that dreadful day. He replied, "Not one of the seventeen returned to thank me."

That’s hard to believe isn’t it? But some people go through life with an entitlement mentality and, in doing so, fail to grasp the goodness and pleasure that exists in gratitude.

(I) AN ORIENTATION TO THE GOOD

(II) THE BELIEF THAT LIFE IS A GIFT NOT AN ENTITLEMENT

(III) THE ABILITY TO LIVE IN THE MOMENT WITHOUT UNDUE EXPECTATION