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Jonathan Prater

Thanking Through It • Sermon • Submitted 6 months ago • Presented 6 months ago

2 Corinthians 4:7–15

Thankfulness

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There is great power in a grateful heart

I want you to think about this question for a few moments today- does God need our gratitude?

A grateful heart is moldable

In the beginning of this passage Paul is talking about having a life that is like clay. Able to be molded and shaped by the work of God. Too often in our lives we only see hard times as punishment or as failure; but that is a really short-sighted way of seeing our lives. There are times in our lives when we will feel pressure and we can feel uncomfortable and be in the will of God. In fact, it is that very will of God that provides the pressure so that we will be molded into what God wants for us.

The problem is that many times when the pressure is on we lose our pliable attitude and we begin to become hardened and unable- even unwilling- to be molded into who God wants us to be.

There is no context, no situation where the term “hardened heart” is a compliment.

When we keep our hearts grateful we keep ourselves open to what God is wanting to do in us and for us.

But it can be so difficult to be grateful and moldable in difficult times.

"It is a very difficult matter to understand when God permits affliction or loss to come into our lives. Our humanity wants to cry out, "Why me God? I love you and faithfully serve you. Why did you permit this sorrow to happen to me?" . . . one reason for affliction is to make us into instruments which will be of greater use to God. For example, a lump of iron ore is violently ripped from its comfortable place in the earth, shipped to a place far away, exposed to melting heat, poured out into a mold, squeezed by rollers, smashed and pounded in a forge, subjected to electric shock to bond other metals to it and later scraped against grindstones to give it a final shape. The resulting screwdriver or exquisite piece of tableware could never have existed except for the difficult experiences it endured along the way."

A Grateful Heart Can be a vessel of grace

Now, imagine for a bit that your heart is open to being moldable. And God molds that heart of your like a potter and clay. Look at 2 Corinthians 4:10 “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”

This verse can get a little confusing- some translations make this verse a little confusing to read. When it says “always carrying in the death of Jesus” it means that we should always allow the truth of Christ’s death and atonement to carry us- it should be our sustainment in all things. It tells us that when we allow that truth to carry us, then the life of Jesus can be manifested in us.

That means I can be a vessel that carries that presence of Christ anywhere I go.

What’s happening around me does not have to dictate what is within me. Gratefulness is not dictated by situations. Happiness is conditional, gratefulness is not, I can be unhappy about something and still be grateful.

The beauty is that when my heart is moldable and i allow God to make me into a vessel I can carry Jesus into any situation whether it is good or bad.

And when grace is carried; Jesus is glorified. 2 Corinthians 4:15 “For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.”

Even when we are wasting away

Americans spend more than $20billion dollars a year on anti-aging products. Creams, serums, pills and more that are supposed to help us turn back the clock. There is great attraction for people to recapture their youth.

But friends, the Scriptures tell us that the deterioration of our bodies is natural and it is going to happen. There is no avoiding the breaking down of these bodies. Even though we can cover up aging with make up, slow it down with skin care; we can combat it with surgeries and treatments, these bodies are destined to die.

Some of you all in this place today are feeling exactly what I am talking about.

For just a moment today I want to talk to the older folks in our church. I have not been an older person just yet- but I am getting there. Remember I was only 24 when you called me as your pastor- I am 38 now; you guys have literally watched me grow older. But I have been to the hospital and the doctor with a lot of you all and a lot of others in our church. I know that sometimes older folks struggle with the breaking down of our bodies. Your hip is going our, your back hurts, your heart or your lungs are not what they used to be; and it can be very frustrating and even depressing to experience those things; and I know that more than one of our older folks has asked me “what is the point? Why is God still keeping me here in this broken old body?”

Busted up Ibenez guitar....

But catch what the Word says- We do not lose heart! Why? Because there is something greater than what our eyes see or our bodies feel in the moment.

Strait of Gibraltar is the strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. On either side of the Strait of Gibraltar there are two mountains, which were known in ancient times as the Pillars of Hercules. According to Greek mythology, Hercules built these pillars to mark the edge of the world. Remember that in those days people believed that the earth was flat. The pillars bore the warning, "No More Beyond," cautioning sailors to go no further.

But in 1492 Christopher Columbus destroyed the belief that there was "no more beyond" when he sailed far out into the Atlantic Ocean and discovered the New World. In the town where the explorer died, there stands a monument commemorating him. On this monument there is a statue of a lion. The lion's paw is tearing away the word "No" from the phrase "No More Beyond," making it read "More Beyond." Columbus had proven that there was "more beyond."

Whether people believe it or not, there is "more beyond" this world. Heaven is a real place. Will you go there when you die? Jesus said, "I am the way.... No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). Heaven is the eternal destiny of everyone who puts his or her faith in Jesus Christ.

Friends, there is not just more after this life, there is better after this life. By God’s grace and Jesus’ death and resurrection there is a life eternal waiting for us. As Christians we can unlock a gratefulness that the world cannot understand when focus on that.

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