Ingratitude

Message Transcription

Good morning, Church. It's good to be with you this morning. Glad to see each and every one of you here this morning. I know there are many other places that you could have been this morning. One of the questions I have is, why do you come to church? Why are you here? And one of the things that I want to to explore a little bit is why we as Christians do the things that we do. And the passage that I have to look at today is from Titus. Who knows who Titus is? Was Titus a Jew or a Gentile? He was a gentile. And this letter is written to him when he has been given a task by Paul. How many of you would like the task of going to a church where, you know, there are lots of Jewish people that don't accept that you, a Gentile, even have any place in the Kingdom of God. And you're going to be tasked with appointing the leaders of that church, the elders of that church. You're going to walk into that setting where they're looking down their noses at you and saying, By what authority do you think you have this right? And so Paul is going to write to him and give him some pointers on how he's to deal with that situation. So the passage of scripture that we have today is part of Paul's instructions to tide us about how he's going to deal with that.

Also, the people of Crete are not known for their generosity, their truthfulness, or just being hospitable people. Paul says, you know, there's a saying about Clintons that they're all liars. How would you like to go to a town where you know that what they are famous for is not being friendly? You know, if you come to Lubbock, what are you. What's Lubbock noted for besides sandstorms? You know. They're friendly, except when they drive. But if you're walking down the street and you talk to someone, the people of Lubbock are known for how friendly they are. In Crete, you knew that someone was lying because their mouth was moving. They're known for being good liars. And so this is where Paul sends Titus. You have to wonder, did he even like Titus? You know, you give some people a job because you don't like them. And so one of the things that Paul is going to do is, as he works through this letter, he's going to get down to chapter three, the passage that we have today. And he's going to try to give Titus some pointers about how you deal with the pushback that you're going to get from this church, how you can leave this church stronger and better than it was when you came. How many of you have ever given a gift to someone and you gave that gift and it was obvious that they were ungrateful for your gift.

Have you ever given a gift to someone where you thought they were ungrateful? Did that really encourage you to go out and buy another gift and give them another gift and want to give them something again? You know, my my immediate response is when somebody is ungrateful for a gift, I don't ever want to give them a gift. I actually want to take that one back. You know, that's that's kind of what I want to do. I certainly don't want to go out and buy another one and try again. You know, one of the things that we we do with God is we often see God through the eyes of how we would treat someone. So if God gives us a gift, if he gives us the gift of salvation, sometimes it's our view that if we are not grateful, he's going to take it away from us. Or he's not going to give us any more gifts. There are several problems with that view. One of them is it remakes God in our image. It makes God look like us. And guess what? He's not like us. He's very different than we are. So when we are ungrateful, sometimes we think that God is going to take that gift away and He's no longer going to bless us in the ways that we need blessing. You know, in gratitude can be shown in a great many ways. I went on to the Internet and I found this list of 15 different ways that are sign or signs of ingratitude.

People that are ungrateful, they take advantage of a person's kindness. Another way is they are never satisfied. They are never happy with what they have. They are never happy for others. They're always unappreciative. They tend to use negative and critical language, constantly finding. They are always finding fault with others and with the world. Is there anything that you could find fault with in our world today? Any any reason that you could find fault if you read numbers Chapter 11 from beginning to end. That is a chapter about Israel complaining. One of the things they were complaining about was the food that God gave them to eat. You ever complained about the food you're given to eat? Well, God gave them something that they didn't know what was. They called it manna. You know what manna means in Hebrew? What is it? They didn't know what they were eating. Have you ever eaten anything? You didn't know what was? You know, when I went to England, one of the things that I did was I visited people's houses and I was told as a missionary, one of the things you do is whatever's set before you, you eat it. No matter what it is, you eat it. I went to this house and they set what looked like a hamburger in front of me. And I thought it was a little well done because the the meat was kind of black.

In it, and I bit into that hamburger, and that was the worst tasting hamburger that I have ever eaten in my life. I soon realized this is not a hamburger. What it was was black pudding. Anybody know what black pudding is? His blood pudding. So I try to figure out how am I going to eat the rest of this, whatever it is, because I was kind of like, what is it? So I asked them, Do you have Tabasco sauce? I figured you put enough Tabasco sauce on it. You can eat anything. So they bring me a bottle of Tabasco sauce. And this was at the time before they started making green Tabasco sauce. But this Tabasco sauce was green. They had had it so long and sat on the shelf for so long, it's green. You know what I did? I pour that stuff on that. You know, I pour it on there. And I ate that whole thing. They came and asked me if I wanted another one when I was finished. And I said, No one's quite enough. I had enough. You know. We? Get all kinds of things that are surprise to us. And as we look at numbers, Chapter 11, the Israelites were upset because God keeps feeding them this. What is it? And so then he feeds them quail. Do you remember what happens as they're starting to eat the quail? Does anybody remember? It says God's anger burned against them.

And while the meat was still stuck between their teeth, teeth, he killed a whole bunch of them and they named that place. Grave of greed. Grave of greed. So sometimes God does get angry when we complain. But in the early part of that chapter, Moses is complaining about all kinds of things. Does God get angry with Moses? He doesn't. He helps Moses because it's not simply about complaining. It's the way we complain. Can you complain and still be grateful? You know, as we think about our country and the way our country is today, can we complain about something in our country and be still be grateful to God for having this place? It's not simply how we complain. Just complaining doesn't mean we're ungrateful. But we need to be careful. As we complain to recognize the good things in life to the good things that God has given to us. As I was going through that list. There were other things on that list. People are always taking others for granted, blaming others for their problems. They're uncooperative and difficult to work with. You ever had anybody that was uncooperative and difficult to work with? Nobody's ever had that, probably. They often make others feel unimportant. And insignificant. They have an attitude of entitlement. You owe me. They make statements like that. I did you a favor. Now you owe me. No matter what others give, it's never enough.

They have a victim mentality and they're not really interested in the feelings of others. When it comes to our understanding of God, sometimes we put on God, as I said, the way we feel. Does God want us to be grateful for the grace that He's given us? He does. Does he need us to be grateful? Is there something that our gratitude gives to God that He needs that He's lacking? Have you ever thought about that? You know, the reason that we need to be grateful is not because God needs our gratitude, but because we need to be grateful. Because in showing and demonstrating our gratitude, it changes who we are. You know, we just had the Lord's Supper. In some traditions, they call that the Eucharist. Anybody ever heard it called Eucharist? Anybody know what Eucharist means? Some people say, well, that's a Catholic word. We don't use that. It's not a Catholic word. It's a Greek word. Way before there was a Catholic church, there was the word Eucharist. And it means to be thankful, to demonstrate gratitude. And interestingly, if you take that word Eucharist and you take the EU off the front, which is the U part, and you get to that part, that sound. The part that's in the middle is the word carries. The word caras is the Greek word for grace. You see, one of the things that the ancients understood is when you were given a gift, there was a response that was expected.

When anybody gives you a gift, do you think there's a response that is expected? You know, when you graduated from high school or graduated from college and people brought you all these gifts, was there a response when people brought you gifts when you were married? Was there a response that was kind of expected or anticipated? Was there, Chelsea. Write a note to show that you're grateful. Sometimes when you are given a gift, the expectation is you return a gift. How do you give? Any gift back to God that in any sense resembles what God has given to us. Everybody take a breath. You breathe that in? That's a gift. God gave you the very air you breathe. And not only that, the lungs with which to breathe it in. He gave you everything that you have and he expects a response. You know, I have a number of slides that I was going to to use here. You know, many times in the ancient world, they believe that you had to to do more good things than bad things and you had to weigh it out. There's more to this slide than just that, because one of the things, especially Egyptian law, was that your heart had to weigh less than the weight that was on the other side. If it didn't, you know, you were condemned, you went to a bad place. But some version of this is often what we believe.

Some people came to church this morning because they believe this is where they ought to be, because they've got to get their checkmark, they've got to check in because it's going to be on the balance sheet and they're going to get more good things than bad things. You know, there's a real problem with that view. One is it devalues the gift that God has given you because you remember what it said in the passage that we read earlier. And when the goodness and loving kindness of our God and that word there for loving kindness is the word philanthropy. You ever heard of a philanthropist? Will. The idea of philanthropy in the ancient world was they loved someone. And so they expressed their kindness, their. By giving them some kind of a gift. So God in his philanthropy. He appeared, and he has saved us not because of works that we'd done. Not because of works we had done. So if you're going to balance that on the scales, where do the scales come in? You know what God did? He went and put something on the side of your scales that's so heavy that nothing you do on the other side could ever cause the balance to be changed. Thank God. There's nothing that you can do that's going to change that balance, no matter how bad you are, no matter how evil you are. One of the things that I did for a number of years is I went into the prison and I used to go in and and I did the baptisms at the prison.

On one particular week that I went to do the baptisms, there was this guy that wanted to be baptized. He was. Charged with murder. But he wanted to be baptized. You know that this person is scary when the guards you have like three guards bring this person in and he is shackled with shackles on his arms with a chain through a belt around his waist and then shackles on his feet. And then they take you to a room where there's a baptistery. They lock the doors on both end, take the shackles off and leave you in there by yourself with that person. The name of that person was Rosendo Rodriguez. Some of you will recognize that name. He was convicted of the the murder of Summer BALDWIN and has since been executed. I don't know for sure whether he was really penitent and really accepted the grace of God at that moment. But I hope and I pray that he did. And you know what? I know that even. With all the things that he had done, the grace of God is greater. Then the sins that he committed. Then the things that he had done. As we. Work through this lesson. One of the issues that comes up is this idea of the scales expresses a certain amount of arrogance.

Some of you may know who Leo Tolstoy is, and he said, An arrogant person considers himself perfect. This is the chief harm of arrogance. It interferes with the person's main task in lies becoming a better person. When we begin to think that God owes us something for how good we've been, how much we've done. That's arrogance. It also devalues the gift that God gave us. It devalues what Jesus did. Jesus paid it all. There's nothing more that we can add to it or need to add to it. You may ask, Well, then, why do I need to be grateful? Why do I need to turn up at church? Because gratitude changes our hearts and it allows the Holy Spirit of God to work in our hearts. When we invite the Holy Spirit in by our gratitude, we are changed. You see this as it goes down by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. So that being justified. By what? By his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. When Jesus died on the cross. Who did he die for? His friends or his enemies? He didn't care with you or a friend or an enemy. He died. You remember what he said while he's hanging on the cross? He's had a really bad day. He didn't get any sleep the night before. You ever had a bad day? Who? Get any sleep? They woke him up.

They didn't wake him up. He never went to sleep. He was praying when they came. You remember how he was praying? How intense was this prayer? Have you ever prayed so much that blood dripped from your face? That blood came from your eyes. He knew what was coming. He anticipated what was coming. And then they took him and they beat him. They nailed him to a cross. You know, I don't know about you, but I would be kind of upset with the people that did that. You know, sometimes I'm upset with people that, you know, I ask for unsweetened tea and they give me sweet tea. Really seems silly, doesn't it? You know what he says? Father, forgive them. For. They know what? No, not what they do. He loved them so much. He's willing to die on that cross. Coming back to Titus. This section is what Titus is given so that he has the authority to tell these older men, these Jewish men who've lived under Judaism, who've been circumcised, who've been studying the Torah for their whole life. This is what he's going to tell them is the reason that he gets to a point. The Elders because of what Christ has done and because he's there to remind them of that. And He understands that and they need to understand that. And he's going to appoint men that will put that forward.

You know, one of the things that we as Americans like is we like something new every week. You know what? I don't want anything new and different from the cross of Christ. It's enough if we talk about it every day, every week, every moment of every day, it's enough. It's what God has done for us. It tells us that God loves us and that He's given everything that we need so that we can have the hope of salvation and spending all eternity with him. But he knows that we need gratitude. We need to be grateful. There's a book written by a man named John Barclay. He's actually got Maggie in the middle. He's a professor at the University of Durham, and he wrote this book entitled Paul and the Gift. And in that book, he really tries to explain grace and how we should respond to that. And I want us to just take a moment to read through this. I want to read it out loud. He said The Gospel Constitution constitutes a mission to self. And a daily return to baptism. Since the old nature and its tendency to arrogance, self-sufficiency must be countered by reminders that Christ has already given all thus grace here. Scores a line through the life of the Christian who is justice as picture. And if you don't know what that means, since it's in Latin, Curtis probably knows what that means. It means we are both.

A believer who is justified, but we are at the same time a sinful human being. The grace of God is working in our hearts, but it hasn't finished its work. Moving on and a believer only as he or she becomes one repeatedly in faith. Paul's polemics against works of law are taken to be directed against an external and no longer valid definition of worth tor a practice, but against the subjective evaluation of one's own good works as effective for salvation. We don't earn our salvation, even turning up here every Sunday, if you've turned up here every Sunday for your whole life. That's not what's going to save you. Now. I hope you've turned up here every Sunday for your whole life because you're grateful and you want to express that gratitude to God. And that gratitude. It won't save you either. But what it does is it keeps you in contact with the grace of God, which does save you. It lets that grace be effective in your life, not because it's ineffective any other time, but God will not force himself upon you. Have you ever had anybody force you to do something, tell you you had to do something? That's in a sense, what Titus is going to do. He's going to tell them they have to appoint these people elders. How do you like to be told what to do? Most people don't like it. Sometimes it's good. But most of the time people don't like it, especially if you're telling them to do something they don't want to do.

Titus is going to tell these men who the leaders of their church is. It's to be. But at the same time, he's going to share the gospel with them to remind them you think they've ever heard the gospel. They probably heard it a thousand times. But he's going to remind them. All of us need to be reminded of the gospel a thousand times a day. When we go to the restaurant, we get. We get terrible service in the restaurant. We have a choice. What are we going to do? Are we going to give them a bad tip? No tip at all. Or maybe take the tip and multiply it times ten. They're having a bad day. I'm going to make it a better day for them. What would Jesus do in that situation? What did he do? In that situation. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior appeared. He saved us not because of work's done by us and righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. So that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal salvation. You know how many people I've counseled, and they're getting near to the point of death. And they asked me this question.

How do I know if I've done enough? How do I know if I've done enough? And one of the things I. They asked, Do you think I've done enough? You know what my answer is? What I'd like to answer is, Oh, yes, because some of these are some of the most loving and kind people I've ever met. I'd love to say yes. You've done enough. You know what my answer is, though? No, you haven't done enough. They may be 80, 90 plus years old, and they still don't understand the basis of the gospel. The basis of the gospel is grace. It's a gift of God. Not given to us because of who we are, but because of who he is. Not because of what we've done, but because of what he's done. Not because of how much we love or any of the things that we do, but because of how much he loves. He calls us to recognize that and in that recognition. To express our gratitude in the world in which we live. By being like him. Showing grace to others, love to others, giving them what they don't deserve. So that waiter or waitress, they didn't deserve, you know, the $10 tip I gave them. In that moment, I have an opportunity given to me to express my gratitude not to them for their service, but to my Lord, for what He's done for me. And I'm reminded.

That he doesn't give me what I deserve, because if he did, I wouldn't get a tip either. I wouldn't get anything. If we continue to walk in arrogance and walk in that place, we are separated from the grace of God, not by God, but by our own heart. God's reaching out all the time. You know, there may be some of you who have not yet accepted the gospel, have not yet accepted the grace of God, have not yet reached out, and just allowed God to fill your heart. You know, there was a time when every service that we had, we ended with an appeal for people that had not yet accepted Jesus Christ to come forward and to be baptized. And baptism is its great, but greater than baptism is accepting Jesus Christ and what he's done in our lives. And one of the signs that we have accepted is that we're baptized to show not only him, but to show us and to mark a point in our life. Our life is going to be different from this moment on. There may be some of you here today who have not yet made that. Acclamation that affirmation that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior. In just a few moments, we'll have a song. And there are people here that will help you with that. And if you want to be baptized, we'll we'll baptize you right here and now, if that's what you want.

The water's ready. At least I hope it is. If not, we'll fill it up. But just as Jesus is ready all the time. We're ready all the time. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the grace that you give us through Jesus Christ. And, Lord, we ask that you would help us to be reminded each and every day that our hearts and our lives should overflow with gratitude. We should be grateful, and it should be expressed in every breath that we take. We have so much to be grateful for. The world may be falling apart. But Your Grace continues to transform our hearts and our souls into something better every day that we will allow your spirit to touch our hearts. Lord, I ask that you would be with each and every person here today, and especially with me, Lord, help me to be reminded. Of your loving kindness. Of your philanthropy. Of your giving. Of Jesus Christ. To demonstrate to us a new way. A different way. A way where the power of God is demonstrated not through mighty acts. Of explosive power. But through the mightiest act. Of transforming the hearts and souls of human beings into what you knew they always could be. Or you've created each one of us unique. Help us to be all that we can be. So that we can truly be. The people that you. I have always dreamt that we could be. Lord, we pray these things through the most holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen.