True Gratitude
True gratitude is recognizing God's presence and work in our lives and responding with sacrifice and giving back.
In this sermon, Basilia Schlink emphasizes the importance of expressing gratitude towards God for His blessings and goodness. She uses the story of the leper who returned to thank Jesus as an example of true gratitude. Schlink explains that true gratitude involves sacrifice and giving something of value to show our love and appreciation. She encourages listeners to turn away from sinful paths and bring sacrifices of money, gifts, people, or things to Jesus as a sign of true gratitude. The sermon emphasizes that God deserves our heartfelt thanks and that expressing gratitude can lead to happiness and richness in our lives.
Full Transcript
God lives and works today. Have we ever thanked him for this, from the bottom of our hearts? Someone once said, the way to receive is to give thanks. And these words are especially true when it comes to experiencing the reality of God.
Today's meditation by Vesalia Schlenk can help our hearts to become thankful again, and thankful people are happy and rich. When our hearts are full of gratitude towards a person who has done much good to us, we feel impelled to give him something in return. We want to give him a precious gift, one that will cost us something.
A couple of words of thanks are too little. Our thankful heart longs to be able to do more. We want to show our love by making a sacrifice, and so a sacrifice belongs to true gratitude.
If this principle applies to human relationships, how much more should it apply to our relationship with God? For no one has ever done so much good to us as he has, and no one has ever had less reason to be kind to our sinners. When God nevertheless showers us with undeserved goodness, surely we must respond with an appropriate expression of our gratitude. And this thank you can't be cheap.
It has to cost us something. When we give thanks to God, we give thanks to God. When we give thanks to God, we give thanks to God.
When the river streams your goodness, overwhelming us with kindness, we taste paradise on earth. In Luke chapter 17 we read about how Jesus healed the ten lepers. Verses 15 and 16 tell us, Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.
When the leper turned back to thank Jesus, it cost him something. Surely his natural inclination must have been to hurry off to his family and loved ones. Neither would it have been easy for him to proclaim in front of all the Pharisees that he belonged to Jesus.
But he brought this sacrifice out of gratitude to Jesus. The Lord is also waiting for our sacrifices of thanksgiving. He's waiting for us to take the next step, to turn away from sinful paths, or to bring him a certain sacrifice of money, gifts, people, or things.
Whatever we might want to hold on to, let's bring it to Jesus now as a sign of our true gratitude. My soul I hold dear, My whole life to Jesus belonging, My heart seeks my Lord to reveal. I follow not close in his footsteps The path that he taught here below, I only desire what he gives me, And only his way I will go.
You have been listening to a program written by Basile Schlenk of the Little Land of Canaan. To learn more about how God lives and works today, visit us at our website www.canaan.org That's K-A-N-A-A-N dot org. If you contact us, we would be happy to send you a free inspirational booklet.
If you do not have access to the web, please contact this radio station for our postal address. God bless you.
Sermon Outline
- I. True Gratitude
- A. Recognizing God's presence and work in our lives
- B. The importance of expressing gratitude to God
- C. The cost of true gratitude: sacrifice and giving back
- II. Human Relationships and Gratitude
- A. We want to give back to those who have done good for us
- B. Sacrifice is a natural response to gratitude
- III. Our Relationship with God
- A. God's goodness to us is undeserved
- B. We must respond with gratitude and sacrifice
- IV. The Cost of True Gratitude
- A. It costs us something to give thanks to God
- B. We must be willing to make sacrifices for our faith
Key Quotes
“When the river streams your goodness, overwhelming us with kindness, we taste paradise on earth.” — Basilea Schlink
“When we give thanks to God, we give thanks to God.” — Basilea Schlink
“My soul I hold dear, My whole life to Jesus belonging, My heart seeks my Lord to reveal.” — Basilea Schlink
Application Points
- We must be willing to make sacrifices for our faith and give thanks to God.
- True gratitude involves recognizing the cost of our faith and the value of our relationship with God.
- We can show our gratitude to God by making sacrifices, giving back to Him, and being willing to take the next step in our faith.