The Attitude Of Ingratitude

THE ATTITUDES OF INGRATITUDE AND GRATITUDE

THE ATTITUDES OF INGRATITUDE AND GRATITUDE

Introduction

Come with me and I will quickly tell you a

story. Two friends sat at a Waffle House kindly and

quietly eating their meals. Fifteen minutes into

eating the meal, one friend noticed a dirty, drunk,

stank, and disoriented homeless man was sitting in a

booth all alone. The friend did not want any of his

double hash browns and offered the man his uneaten

hash browns. The man accepted the offer, ate three

bites of the hash browns, waited five minutes, and

then screamed at the waitress to bring him free food.

The man shouted, “These hash browns are not good

enough for me, I want some hash browns-scattered,

smothered with onions, covered with cheese, and topped

with chili. The friend who gave away the food turned

to the other friend and said, “Look at that dirty

ungrateful bastard, my food was not good enough for

him. People get blessed by God all day long and do

not look up to God and say thank you. Today we will

learn about topics that we truly need to learn

ingratitude and gratitude.

POINT ONE-INGRATITUDE IS THE FAITH WHICH MAKES SOULS LOST

The first point that I want us to see is that

ingratitude is the faith that makes souls lost. Focus

on religion is a way of being ungrateful which leads

to lost souls or misdirected focus. Religion is not

enough to save anybody. There is no salvation in

religion. The Pharisees lived as the strictest and

most religious group of Jews who believed in our God

in Jesus’ days. These folk always went to pray in the

Temple of God. The Israelites in Moses’ days often

held many religious parties and gatherings but our God

Yahweh Elohim often rejected them but the people often

worshipped other little gods instead of worshipping

the one true God. The Pharisee and several of the

Israelites mentioned in these texts concerned

themselves more with show for the outside world rather

than the state of being for their hearts. They were

more concerned with others praising them rather than

praising God for God’s goodness. They became

ungrateful. Ingratitude makes you unfocused or

possess misguided directions. Brothers and sisters I

tell you this time that there be many individuals who

come to church all the time and their hearts are not

in the right place. They want to be seen and heard

rather than hear and see God’s blessings in the

church. You can come to church all you want but if

your focus is not on God and learning what God would

have you to do to become loving and unselfish you are

being ungrateful of God’s goodness. I must admit that

when I started preaching some six years ago I wanted

to hear the roar of a cheering crowd rather than hear

the roar of God’s movements. I held the wrong notions

but God convicted me and changed my heart. Please do

not just come to the church house but take the spirit

of the church house with you when you leave. Let us

go to the next point.

POINT TWO: INGRATITUDE MAKES ONE LOST

The second point that I want to us see is that

ingratitude is the character that makes one lost. The

Pharisee thought that he was all that because of his

character. He was not a thief. He was not a rogue.

He was not an adulterer. He was not evil like the tax

collector. He stood just as wrong and sinful as

anyone else did however because he was selfish,

arrogant, and self-praising. He pointed fingers at

others and did not even clean himself of his flaws.

Moses reminded the Israelites in the chapter before

chapter ten of Deuteronomy that they were not

righteous enough to enter the promise land for they

had made too mistakes and false judgments but God’s

grace and mercy was moving them into the land promised

to them. Not being thankful to God will cause one to

be stuck on stupid and one’s own character. Good

character is not enough to lead anyone to

righteousness or heaven and let me say that Christians

do not have the monopoly on good character and

morals. I remember when I was fifteen years old and I

tried witnessing to everybody at my high school about

how they needed to be saved. I told others of how bad

they were and how wrong their lives were. I kept

constantly pointing the finger instead of showing the

need to have a relationship with God through the

person of Jesus Christ. I fell flat on my face one

day I realized I was just as dirty as anyone else

was. My life was unfocused and I drew more people