Growing Gratitude | living gratefully with my abilities
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Growing Gratitude • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 29:45
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· 119 viewsGod creates all people with talents and abilities. The key to understanding how God wants me to use my abilities is to understand why God wants me to use my abilities.
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14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
Understanding Faith
Understanding Faith
Faith comes from the Holy Spirit
Faith is a gift from God
James: faith without action is dead
Good deeds of faith are a gift from God as well
Understanding Good Deeds
Understanding Good Deeds
Q. 86
Since we have been delivered from our misery
by grace through Christ
without any merit of our own,
why then should we do good works?
Because Christ, having redeemed us by his blood,
is also restoring us by his Spirit into his image,
so that with our whole lives
we may show that we are thankful to God
for his benefits,
so that he may be praised through us,
so that we may be assured of our faith
by its fruits,
and so that by our godly living
our neighbors may be won over to Christ.
Q. 86
Since we have been delivered from our misery
by grace through Christ
without any merit of our own,
why then should we do good works?
Because Christ, having redeemed us by his blood,
is also restoring us by his Spirit into his image,
so that with our whole lives
we may show that we are thankful to God
for his benefits,
so that he may be praised through us,
so that we may be assured of our faith
by its fruits,
and so that by our godly living
our neighbors may be won over to Christ.
“It is impossible for those grafted into Christ through true faith not to produce fruits of gratitude” - HC 64
"having redeemed" - already done
"is also restoring" - ongoing action
Being a thankful person:
praises God
strengthens our faith
witnesses to others
Growing Gratitude
Growing Gratitude
What do actions of faith look like?
shalom flourishing - using my abilities to lift somebody else
gratitude - they owe me nothing in return
Grace is not free - redemption came at a tremendous cost
my life is a testimony of gratitude