The importance of being grateful
Key Passage: Romans 1:20
Date: June 7, 2024
And I think we’re going to get to that subject in times here in a bit on Sunday morning. Romans chapter number one, if you would, please. Romans chapter number one. And just a couple of verses. Brother Gregory did a good job preaching along this line, a little bit of old, maybe last time he preached for us. We did a great job on it. And we’re going to go a little different angle, but kind of starting off in the same place.
Romans chapter number one in God’s word, Romans chapter number one tonight. And when you find that, would you please stand if you’re able to, just trying to show God’s word honor and respect for which it is due?
By the way, look out. Brother Dumpur has a birthday tomorrow. What about that? He will give you his address. You can come by and drop by a gift any time tomorrow. And it could be a University of Indiana logo or something, that would work, especially after yesterday. There you go. You can see him in his Indiana sweatshirt tomorrow. What about that?
Well, you know, second we’ll do if you wear Indiana. I don’t mention Tennessee that often. I mentioned it Wednesday night, and I didn’t even realize they were playing, and they were losing about the time I was mentioning them doing good. Florida beat them, an unranked team. What about that? Brother Patrick enjoyed pointing that out to me later on. He did. Very much so.
Romans chapter number one, we better get to the Bible, you know. Romans 1, verse number 20.
“For the invisible things of Him, of God, from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”
Can I just stop there on verse number 20 for a moment? People know there’s a God, but God had just from creation. Now the fool has said in his heart there is no God. He can say that all day long, but the same fellow says there’s no God. They didn’t get hit by a car first thing out of his mouth, “Oh, God help me!” They know there’s a God. And Romans 1:20, that’s what he’s saying. They’re just from creation, they know there’s a God. Now, they may have a major wound or hurt in their life and they want to deny there is a God, but they know it. And that’s what it’s just from creation: they know there’s a God.
Two fellows standing in a harbor, a beautiful ship comes in, beautiful, massive, one of these ships. And the one guy says, “Wow, that’s amazing. Man, they didn’t know. I wonder who made that.” And the other guy said, “How do you know anybody made that?” “Well, duh, there it is.” You know, about 10 million times more intricate is this universe. Duh, we know someone made it.
And that’s what verse 20 is talking about. So just from creation, and that’s a light. Now, they deny that light, darkness comes. But that’s kind of where it starts.
Now, we’re going to skip verse 21, all right? I have a Schofield reference Bible, and it’s just the notes. It’s a King James, of course, but before verse number 21, the way Schofield words it—and everybody does it a little different—but my Bible, just kind of giving us the topic of the next paragraph, says “The seven stages of Gentile world apostasy.” It’s the decline of a society. We’re going to skip verse number 21, kind of the beginning stages, and we’re just going to kind of go and see how bad it, how dark it gets for a minute, okay? So we’re bypassing it, we’re going to see how dark it gets in a society. I’m looking at verse number 22.
“…professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” To me, I always think evolutionist. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Come on, we didn’t come from monkeys, folks. I mean, you know, it doesn’t take a scientist to figure that out unless—who is Hitler used to say, “You say something long enough, loud enough, anybody believe it.” So you’ve got people who have been indoctrinated. But besides that, you know, never have seen one drop of improving evolution over these years. And so, but you just see the decline.
Verse number 23: “…and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and forfeited beast and creeping things.” The lowering God now to the equivalent of man and animals. You’ll see that in a lot of countries and sometimes in America.
Verse number 24: “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” Boy, you see that, worshiping the creation instead of the creator. There’s much going on. This is the decline of society.
Verse 26 and beyond, just so sad—all of it’s sad. But verse 26: “For this cause, God gave them up to vile…” Now this is what God says about it: “vile affections. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature.” What you’re talking about, and likewise on the other side, also the men leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their heart, burning their lust one toward another, men with men working that was unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error, which was meet.
By the way, God says homosexuality is vile. What God said. Do you hate the person? No, I don’t hate the person. I love them. They need to get saved, but I hate the sin. God does too. God calls it vile. It used to be that’s kind of the typical of society, but nowadays you’re almost, you know, “Oh, don’t say that.” Well, God said that. We’re going to stick with God. Okay? But we love those that are caught in the sin. By the way, I’ve met with some of those, and they’re just chained by that sin. And if some want to get out of it, they’re just chained. Sin, it’ll make you a servant.
But anyway, where are we at? Where we at? We’ll just, verse number 28: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, doing those sayings which are not convenient.” And I’m not going to finish it up. It just gets very dark, all right? Just put it that way, very, very dark.
But I want us to go up, back up to verse number 21 and get some of the beginning stages. All right, I want you to see it specifically from just taking verse number 21. We’re going to look at the second stage. As I mentioned, Brother Gregory somewhat covered the first stage and even more a couple weeks ago.
Verse number 21: “Because that when they knew God, here it is: Number one, they glorified him not as God.” Number one. “Neither were…” What’s the next word? “Thankful.” I mean, as this society goes downhill, if you’re just fond of 21, the second stage, neither were just being thankful. I feel like the Lord wants us to focus on that. We’ll go back there. We’ll finish the verse.
“…but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” The importance of being thankful. It’s the importance of it. That’s the title for tonight.
Maybe the greatest or one of the greatest sins of our generation is ungratitude. Just not being thankful. We have more, really more, than anyone has ever had in the past. We live in the greatest nation on the face of the earth. We have so much, and yet we are so many times not happy. One of the big reasons why is because we’re not thankful for what we have.
You know, it’s God’s will. You say, “I want to do the will of God.” All right. You know what God’s will for your life is: to be thankful. The Bible very clearly says it, 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” In everything, give thanks. He said, “I want to be in God’s will.” All right, start being thankful. Give thanks for everything, right in the middle of it. Say, “I don’t like it.” Right in the middle of it, give thanks. That’s God’s will for your life.
Psalm 103, verse number two: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” Wow, we have so many benefits in our country, benefits in our life.
Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. used to say the loveliest flower that blooms in the garden of the heart is the flower of gratitude. It’s so vital.
They say General Patton, back in World War II or whatnot, he was a hard-driving man, but they say he knew the importance of when he could, he would give his men leave, give him a break for a weekend or whatnot. He knew they’d come back better fighters and better soldiers and whatnot. He knew the value of that, and he would do that. And he did that for a man, and a man wrote him a thank you letter. And Patton said, “In 35 years, you’re the only man that’s ever wrote me or said thank you for that.” 35 years.
We’re not naturally thankful people, and so we must work at that.
When’s the last time? This will do you so much good. If you just get along with God, instead of asking him for things—I’m for that, the Bible’s for that—but just spend some minutes and just get along on God and just spend 30 minutes or so just thanking him for everything. It’ll do you so much good.
It’ll change your thinking. It’ll change your heart. It’ll let you see life differently. It’ll change your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Psalm 100, verse number four says, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving.” You say, “I can’t get close to God.” Well, maybe start off by just giving him thanks for a long time. He’s been so good to us, and we’re not careful. We’ll just be so haphazardly about it and not even thinking about it, and get what we expect it all the time. And God’s been so good, and he likes it when we just say, “Thank you, Lord.” It’ll change you.
If we’re not careful, we think about every bad thing. We spend our time dwelling on all the bad things. Friend, I’m telling you, and by the way, it’s not a matter of what you have in your pocket that makes you a grateful person; it’s a matter of what you got in your heart that makes you a grateful person. Just spending time saying, “Thank you, Lord.” It’ll do something to you.
Just this thing of thankful. Society, the second thing in this, verse 21, just isn’t going down in—is there not? Grateful people? And if we’re not careful, it’ll rub off on us. Can I say this: learn—and you got to work at it; I have to work at it, for sure—but learn to appreciate what you have. It’s so sad, but so many people have to lose something to appreciate it.
What a sad thing. Can I say here? There are some wonderful widowers and widows that would love to have their spouse, and shame on me if I don’t appreciate my wife and my spouse. And what a shame. Some of the people have to lose what they have in order to appreciate it.
I always think about, on this line, of a lady over on Weekly Lane. Myself and somebody else visited her, and she invited this, and we went inside, and she started crying. She said, “You know, my husband’s been gone for so many—I can’t remember how long it was—and she said, ‘I’m amazed how I just miss having a man around the house to hang a picture here or do this or do that, and I miss just having a man around the house.’” And shame on us if we don’t appreciate our spouse. We just sometimes get stuck on the bad, and everybody’s got bad, everybody’s got problems, but what about their good? Plenty there. Just appreciating what we have is so vital, friend, so very, very important.
I think about Paul being here tonight, and he’s got his uniform on. Praise the Lord for that. I love it. It’s a great thing. But you know there are people overseas, and they’ve been over there for six months or a year, and they would love to be able to sit by their wife tonight. Shame on us if all we do is complain and talk about all the bad things. We ought to appreciate what we have.
One of the second things of this society going down here: they just were not thankful. Think about it. Think about what people do for you. Just dwell on that sometimes.
Well, I have a little tough time. I’ll be honest. I have a little tough time. I’m not really thankful, and I just don’t appreciate what I have. Here’s what you do: Go to the nursing home. Brother Tim was there, and some of the Pattersons were there to go to the nursing home. Go to that diversity care there behind the post office where they go, or somewhere. Just go to any of the nursing homes. You’ll find—you’ll find a lot of elderly people there, but more often than not, you’ll find somebody in their 30s that was in a car accident, and they’ll be in that wheelchair for the rest of their life.
Just spend some time and just watch them and see how they can’t do anything, and they can’t feed themselves sometimes. They can’t get from place to place on their own sometimes. And sometimes they can’t even talk like they want to talk, and they’re stuck there, and they’ll be there for 30 years. And we’ve got good ears and good eyes and good mouth and good legs and good hands, and we walk around complaining. I’m saying, man, let’s just have a revival of saying, “God, you’ve been so good to me. I want to be grateful for what I have.”
If that don’t hurt, if that don’t go to Vanderbilt Burn Unit for a bit and see them and those bandages up there and the pain they have up there, and you see them—you spend a little time with them—and you can get around and walk around. Maybe you got some pain. Uncle Arthur, how many got Uncle Arthur bothering you? Yeah, you got all that, yeah, and back and knee and elbow and shoulder and all those things. But friend, we don’t know anything like the pain they’re going through, and some of those go through that for days and days. And I’m just simply saying, I mean, you see some of that. Somebody’s always got it worse off than you. And you look at that sometime and let that help you be grateful for the good things God’s given you. Satan will just get our minds, our hearts thinking about all the bad things that we’re not appreciative of what we had.
I go—my dad sometimes was going through chemo, and we’d take him up to the VA in Nashville there, and you go in that little room, just like a long room, and they’re hooking up IVs, and people are sitting in chairs all over that room, and they’ll sit in that room, and they’ll get those chemicals pumped through their body, and, man, that chemical is just—that chemo just—that’s some bad stuff, some of that stuff. My dad was going through the chemo for a while. He just stared into space; it just wasn’t even there. It just destroys your body. And you see them lining up. They’re aching out in the hallway to get in there. They’re lined up all in there. They’ve got to give them some crackers or whatnot so they don’t get sick half the time. And there’s not always 80 years old; sometimes it’s 40 or 30 years old or even younger, and those cancer patients getting that chemo. And we’ve got good bodies and good health, and shame on me if I’m not grateful for what God’s given me. Might do us good just go visit the chemo centers. Just see what all they’re going through. We’ve got so much.
How many got a good bed with a good mattress on it? How many got that? Amen. How many got heat or air conditioning at your house? How many want the food to get cold or stay cold? Put in the refrigerator—cold or not—in a freezer, you know? You want to warm it up? 30 seconds. I mean, 30 seconds, come on, a minute, a minute and a half in a microwave. I’m saying we’re spoiled rotten. We don’t have to burn a fire to get heat in the house. We don’t have to burn a fire to cook. We don’t have to go out and kill something and go to the grocery store. By the way, praise the Lord if you have a wife or someone that shops for you—somebody say amen right there. Woo, man, you ought to appreciate that for sure, you know.
We got all that. We walk inside the house. We don’t have to light a candle. We just flip a little knob, and all the lights come on. You’re a little cold? All right, push that button there a little bit, and you get warm. I’m just saying we have so much. Shame on me if I’m complaining my life away. Appreciate what you have.
“Neither were thankful.” You’ve heard me tell this over the years about the man that was going to sell his house. He went to the real estate agent and he said, “All right, got a three-bedroom, two-bath house, and it’s beautifully landscaped. Recently added a sunroom in the back, got a two-car garage, got a paved patio, got new flooring inside.”
The real estate agent was writing it all down. He said, “All right, sir, would you read that back to me?” He said, “Well, three-bedroom, two-bath house.” He said, “By the way, I had on there a new roof. Got a new roof on there not too long ago.” He had a new roof. “Recently added sunroom in the back, two-car garage, new flooring.” He said, “Would you read that again?” He said, “All right, three-bedroom, two-bath house, two-car garage, paved driveway, new roof on the new flooring inside. I recently added the sunroom in the back.” And he said, “Wait, wait, wait, wait. I tell you what, sir, just cancel the whole deal. That’s what I wanted all my life, and I’m about to sell it. What the world am I going to do here?”
And if we’re not careful, that’s exactly what we’ve got: everything we want it, and yet we don’t appreciate it. I’m just saying tonight, I’m just trying to stir your and my heart. Let’s be grateful for what we have. I said, “My God’s been so good to me. I’m so blessed.”
Two ways to be rich. Two ways to be rich: Either you get what you want, and as soon as you get it, it’ll last for a couple months, and then you want more. And the more you get, the bigger that—the more you want. Or you can want what you have. You’d be rich that way.
You know how I want to be married to? That lady right there. You know how I want for my kids? And I’m not perfect at all, but I try. I want that to be my daughter. I want to be my son. What kind of truck would you like to have? I like to have a 2009 white GMC. I mean, it’s only two-wheel drive, but that’s what I want. Amen. What church do you want a pastor? Some big church here, there? No, I want a pastor Rutherford County Baptist Church. I love it. It’s my church. Our church, not mine as far as matters. That’s the church I love to be a part of. Want what you have. Where do you want to live? I want to live in Smyrna, Tennessee. What kind of car do you want your wife to have? A white Nissan Altima. That’s what I want. And friends, stop spending your time wanting something you don’t have and enjoy it and want what you have.
I liked the Sunday school this morning. We were coming into Sunday school, and I just liked it. Brother Philip—I’m going to tell him now—but Brother Philip, his wife was coming in, and he said something like, “Hey, beautiful,” something like that, you know, and he was scoring some points. He was getting points. But I liked it. He’s happy what he’s got. I’m telling you, that’s the key of life.
Some people have so much, yet they spend their life complaining and moaning and groaning and wanting something else, and they’re never, never rich. Just want what you have. Enjoy it, appreciate it. I see that—I hope they don’t mind. I don’t think they do. I think they’re like, “That’s so true.” But I think about Brother Glenn and Miss Barb, and they both had precious mates. Miss Reith and Brother Larry—both of them, just wonderful people. And don’t you know they would love to have them back? And we’ve got wonderful spouses that we don’t appreciate them. Shame on us. And spend your life and enjoy what you have and appreciate it. Learn to appreciate it. Work at that.
You become thankful by being thoughtful. I said earlier, I believe being grateful is not a matter of what you have in your pocket, but a matter of what you have in your heart. And that’s true, but can I maybe even change you a little bit? It’s not a matter what you have in your pocket; it’s a matter what you have in your mind.
Next time you sit down at a meal, and you sat down at that table, and you sit down there, and there is a delicious meal out there—I mean, sitting on that table. I came in the other day. I came in, I texted my wife, Liam. She knew I was coming. Man, I came in there, and she had—I’m not talking about these hamburgers you buy where the patty’s already made. I mean, it’s one of those hamburgers. You get the meat, hamburger meat. You just—man, it’s a big old fat, big old—stick it out. It’s not where there’s more bread than there’s hamburger. I’m talking about the hamburger sticking out there. You know what I’m talking about. She had that thing, man. She put all kind of seasoning on there. I mean, it was—I mean, I like putting the seasoning on there, you know, grab it all, everything out of the cabinet, just pour it on there, all of them, you know. She had all that on there, and there was lettuce on there, onions and tomatoes on there. I mean, and, you know, I like the kitchen sink strainer stuff—just put it all on there. Man, she had everything. I came in there, and I sat down. She had it all, and some ranch Doritos. Somebody say amen right there. And we are already planning this. I got a Dr. Pepper for me and a root beer for her, you know. Can you believe my wife’s drinking beer? What about that, you know? Root beer, though, you know.
But here’s the thing: instead of me just sitting down there and saying, “Whoa, look at that,” think about the time she had to go out and buy the food. Anybody out there agree with me? I think they’re going to make you go shopping in, you know, down there, you know. I mean, that’s just not my thing. Now, some of you ladies love it. Oh, my goodness. Wow. I mean, praise the Lord, she went out and she shopped. She got the, you know, the hamburger buns, and she got the hamburger meat. She did all the shopping. And then she—she cooked it all. She cooked the hamburger there on the stove. And she got the lettuce out of the refrigerator, out of the crisper down there, you know, and you’ve got to get it out and unwrap it and take that lettuce off there and tear it on. And then she took the maters—it’s not tomatoes, it’s maters, you understand? Maters and potatoes, you know. That’s just what it is. Then she picked the maters, and she cut them, sliced them up, and she put it on there. I believe there are onions on it. She cut the onions. Man, get your eyes watering. She did all that. She had it on a plate. She had found the ranch Doritos. She knows I like them stuck back in there. I mean, it took time. And the more I think about what all she went through to do that, it makes me more thankful for it. Think about what people do for you.
I’m spoiled rotten. I’ll come home sometimes, and if I come in, we have a big just rug there in the living room, and if it’s got vacuum lines in there, I’m like, “Man, this house is going to be spotless.” Praise the Lord for that. I don’t wash my clothes. You’re going to be like, “Man, you’re spoiled,” and I am spoiled. She vacuums the floors and washes the clothes, and the dishes are washed. I mean, that house just spotless. And I just take a little time to think about what all she went through to do those things. It had to be thoughtful, thankful. Maybe thankful—maybe we should just go ahead and word it being thoughtful. What all people do for us every single day? Thinking about that. Be thankful on purpose.
I’ve got a list. I’ve got a list somewhere. I’m not going to tell you because you might be cheating and looking at it, you know, but I’ve got a list of good things about my wife. In case my fleshly brain and heart wants to go to negative things, I pull that thing out. Just become a person that thinks things through because you want to be thankful people.
How many people ever heard of someone going to a third-world country and they said, “Man, I’m never the same. I appreciate America so much more”? Well, many of you, many of us, you’re never going to have the opportunity to go to a third-world country. So why don’t you just go ahead and be grateful right where you have? Just appreciate what you have.
“Neither were thankful.” I wonder if this society would have just stopped and said, “I’m going to be thankful right where I’m at.” I wonder if it wouldn’t have continued going down.
They say way back in the day—World War II—that there was a couple that came to their pastor and said, “Pastor, our son—of course, our son died in the war—and we wanted to give $200 in memory of our son.” And they say there’s another couple there, and they said, “What in the world are we doing? Our son’s healthy and doing good. We never do anything like that. We don’t want to lose him.” They said, they went to the pastor later on and said, “We want to give $500 this day, and many of our sons are living.” I’m just saying if we’re not careful, we have to lose something to really appreciate it. That’s just—we’re—I love what I have.
Maybe the height of ungratefulness, the height of not being thankful, is for us to be born-again Christians, and God’s been so good to us, and we never even really acknowledge it much. God’s been so very, very good to us all. His mercy endureth forever. Aren’t you thankful for that?
We have His written word. Praise the Lord. I got an old King James Bible that I can stake my life, my eternity, my finances, my marriage, my childhood. I can stake it all on that. I have every word Bible I hold in my hand. Aren’t you glad? A lot of people don’t have that, friend. You have God’s word you can hold in your hand. You have an English Bible you can depend on. If you’re a born-again Christian, you’re not going to go to hell for a second. You’re not going to burn. You’re not going to reap and gnash. You’re not going to experience it. You’re not going to smell the brimstone. You’re not going to scream. You’re not going to have gnashing of teeth. You’re not going to dread being there forever. You’re going to heaven, and woe be to me if I’m not grateful for Jesus’ blood.
He’s been so good to us. I can go to him. I’m a sinner just like the rest of you, but I can go to him in prayer. If I’m truthful and honest and confess, I can get forgiveness, and I can go to my Heavenly Father, his throne of grace, and I can have answers to prayer. I’m simply saying, we’re blessed people. Amen.
Even tonight, we’re sitting in a wonderful church. We got padded chairs, we got lights galore, amen, you know. We got a heated place, we got a grand piano, we got an organ, we got guitars, we got all that. I mean, we got a PA system. You just name it, friend, we’re blessed people. So-and-so’s got this. Who cares what so-and-so’s got? You got a lot. Be grateful, appreciate it.
Just God’s unconditional love. I mess up a million times just like you. And if you’re a born-again Christian, he still loves you. And just the security in that—you’re loved. I mean, underneath there’s never-ending, never-failing, everlasting arms of God. I just see all the bad. And yes, everybody’s got bad, but everybody’s got a whole lot of good.
“Every good and every perfect gift is from above.” Well, we just—just maybe in our prayer closets the next couple days or next tonight or tomorrow—just spend a long—or tonight starting at the altar—just spend a good amount of time: “You’ve been so good to me, Lord. You’ve been so good.”
The story is told, a true story from what I understand—I’ve read it—years and years ago, a missionary was in the jungle, I’m not sure what country. And a man had been mauled by a lion. He was so bad off the people there just said, “Well, he’s going to die.” But the missionary took him, and took the man, and they didn’t have a whole lot of hospitals, if you will, there and all that. The missionary took him in and nursed that man back to health. It took a long time. The missionary’s family just doctored, had been doctored in the night, and the man got back to health. And they did not—they did not charge him; they didn’t do all that. Of course, they tried to witness to him. But sure enough, the man left. And they say they didn’t know what was going to happen. They say months later, I believe it was, the man came back—this is amazing, this is going on there. I’m not agreeing with this part, but they say he came back with him and his six wives and his children. And he said, “The law of the jungle is, if you save a man’s life, then the rest of that man’s life, he serves you.” Wouldn’t it be ungrateful if we didn’t serve the Lord after he saved us, gave us a home in heaven? Just spend our life out of gratitude serving the Lord.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Our heads bowed, eyes closed. I just need it, friend. I need it. Oh, shame on me. I don’t appreciate sometimes what I have. Let’s just spend the night loving on God and thanking God and being grateful to God.
“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, just courts with prayer.” Let’s just enter in tonight. “Thank you, Lord. I owe you everything.” Would you do that tonight? Would you just spend the invitation being grateful and loving on him and thanking? Would you do that? Would you please stand? I want to have a word of prayer. You’d be obedient. Just spend the invitation loving on him and thanking. Would you do that?
Father, thank you. Oh, what a shame sometimes I complain, think about the negative, that the days and hours and minutes go by just not appreciating your goodness to us. Please bring revival to my and our hearts tonight. Help us be grateful, thankful for your goodness. We owe you everything. We love you. We’re so privileged to be your children. Change your hearts for you tonight. We’ll thank you, Lord, for what you do. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - - The Importance of Being Grateful - Sunday PM 252022