July 12, 2009

Lesson: Ephesians 5:15-20

Sermon Title Foolishly Thankful

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INTRODUCTION

Taxicab Confessions... (1)

A passenger in a taxi leaned over to ask the driver a question and tapped him on the shoulder. The driver screamed, lost control of the cab, nearly hit a bus, drove up over the curb, and stopped just inches from a large plate glass window.

For a few moments everything was silent in the cab, when then the still shaking driver said, "I'm sorry but you scared the daylights out of me."

The frightened passenger apologized to the driver and said he didn't realize a mere tap on the shoulder could frighten him so much.

The driver replied, "No, no, I'm sorry, it's entirely my fault. Today is my first day driving a cab. I've been driving a hearse for the last 25 years."

  1. This really does not have much to directly do with the sermon.

    1. The story demonstrates that each person is following their own inner understanding.

    2. You need to follow the instructions.

  2. It is important to understand the instructions.

Mr. Lee was terribly overweight. So his doctor put him on a diet.

I want you to eat regularly for two days, then skip a day, and repeat this procedure for two weeks. The next time I see you, you'll have lost at least five pounds.

When Mr. Lee returned, he shocked the doctor by having lost nearly 60 pounds. Why, that's amazing! the doctor said. Did you follow my instructions?

Mr. Lee nodded. I'll tell you though, I thought I was going to drop dead that third day.

From hunger, you mean?

No, from skipping.

  1. The objective of this passage is to give thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

    1. At all times?

      1. At all times.

    2. For everything?

      1. Yes, even for adversities.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. Giving thanks is expressing gratitude.

    1. The word is åáñéóôÝù: (2) eucharisteoô, yoo-khar-is-the'-o. to be grateful, that is, (actually) to express gratitude (towards); specifically to say grace at a meal:--(give) thank (-ful, -s).

      1. Giving thanks is gratitude. Gratitude is an attitude.

      2. Frank Lloyd Wright once said: The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen

    2. Gratitude is an attitude

  2. The attitude may be negative.

    1. Have you heard about the woman who went shopping with her daughter?

The crowds were awful. She had to skip lunch because the schedule was so tight. She was tired, hungry; her feet were aching; and she was more than a little irritable. As they left the last store for the car, she asked her daughter, "Did you see the nasty look that salesman gave me?"

Her daughter answered, "He didn't give it to you, Mom. You had it when you went in."

      1. We communicate our attitudes.

      2. The impact is on is wide spread.

    1. It was a Friday at Pick and Save.

It was slow.

Person in the line waiting to be served was sighing, talking to herself, and complaining of how slow it was.

"It always happens to me!"

"I have been waiting 20 minutes.

My frozen food is thawing.

      1. Lines may be slow, especially on a Friday.

      2. You make your choice of the lines

      3. The results may be unpredictable.

      4. There is very little that is positive or helpful in this kind of attitude.

    1. For the Rev. Martin E. Pike, Jr. Kingsville, Texas (3) Three minutes had elapsed since he had taken his seat at the counter in the truck stop.

Waitresses passed me by; two cooks and a busboy took no notice of my presence.

My ego was soothed only because the truck driver seated next to me was ignored as well.

"Maybe this counter is off-limits," I said to him.

"Maybe they are short of help," he responded.

"Maybe they don't want our business," I said.

"Maybe they are taking care of those at the tables," was his reply.

The hands on the clock continued to move.

"Maybe they don't like us," I insisted.

"The air conditioning feels so good I don't mind waiting," he said.

At this point, a harried waitress stopped to tell us that the water had been cut off and the dishwasher was not functioning.

My nameless compatriot smiled, thanked the waitress and left. I did not like him.

Three times I had sought his support for my obnoxious attitude, but he had let me down.

Only later did I realize that he had chosen to practice what I preach.

  1. The preacher ought to know better, but we often don't.

  2. We are guilty of wasting energy with negatives.

    1. Ingratitude wastes energy.

      1. Brother David Steindl-Rast a Austrian-American Roman Catholic theologian, observed

        2. "Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy-because we will always want to have something else or something more."

    1. Gratitude is an attitude.

      1. Why do companies lose customers?

      2. The American Society for Quality Control has found these reasons why companies lose customers:

        1. Died 1%

        2. Moved away 3%

        3. Influenced by friends 5%

        4. Lured away by the competition 9%

        5. Dissatisfied with product 14%

        6. Turned off and turned away by a bad attitude on the part of a company employee 68%

    2. Does this have anything to say about the church?

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  1. A positive attitude creates positive energy.

    1. One my favorite illustrations that demonstrates positive energy is the story of Harold Russell.

    2. It is told in his book, with Victor Rosen, Victory in My Hands. (4)

    3. Harold Russell was a sergeant in charge of a demolitions unit in WWII.

In training for combat he lost both of his hands. Eventually he was fitted with two hooks that he learned to use very skillfully. His initial reaction was one of resentment when strangers approached him to talk about his hooks. Finally, however, he recognized that they were only trying to be friendly. He tells of the day when hew resolved his feelings. In a Chinese restaurant a stranger had watched him eating with chopsticks. The man came over from another table and started a conversation.

"I was noticing," he said, "how well you manage with those things."

"These?" I held up the chopsticks.

"No--I--er--mean those--" he swallowed hard and nodded at the hooks. "Well--those"--

"Oh! You mean, my hooks."

He sighed with relief. It was obvious he had been embarrassed to call them by their right name.

"I couldn't help noticing how skillful you are with them," he said. "You can just about do anything with them, can't you, sergeant?"

"Everything," I said, grinning, "except pick up a dinner check."

When he could make a joke over his disability, he had really arrived.

Russell learned to live with his handicap by putting it in its proper perspective.

He wrote:

"....It is not what you have lost, but what you have left that counts. Too many of us squander precious energy, time and courage dreaming of things that were and never can be agin, instead of dedicating ourselves to realities and the heavy tasks of today. I think I speak with some authority on the subject. I wasted many weary months trying to wishfully think back a pair of hands. (5)

      1. This is energizing.

      2. Now it took Russell time to get there, but he got there.

      3. We can get there as well.

      4. Remember gratitude is an attitude.

    1. This poem "All in the State of Mind" is circulating underground, with e-mail copies galore.

      1. Its author is unknown.

      2. It speaks to a powerful "thumbs-up" movement in our culture, which is good as long as there is, alongside it, the bowed-down movement that recognizes God is able; not "I am able," but that I can do "all things ... through Christ, who strengthens me."

If you think you're beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you'd like to win, but think you can't,
It's almost a cinch you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you've lost,
For out in the world you find
Success begins with a fellow's will;
It's all in the state of mind.

Full many a race is lost
Ere ever a step is run;
And many a coward fails
Ere ever his work's begun.
Think big, and your deeds will grow;
Think small, and you'll fall behind;
Think that you can, and you will.
It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you're outclassed, you are;
You've got to think high to rise;
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the one who wins
Is the one who thinks, "I can."

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CONCLUSION:

  1. With this kind of gratitude we are enabled be filled with the Spirit

    1. One of those New Yorker cartoons shows a woman opening a package.

Taking the lid off, she looks up at her husband and exclaims, "You perfect angel. You got me exactly what I needed to exchange for what I wanted!"

  1. That's good theology.

    1. We have to work with what we have, and sometimes we need to exchange what life has given us for something better.

    2. Sometimes we need to bend history in a God-ward direction.

      1. 19as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves,

      2. singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts,

      3. 20giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

Amen!

1. Posted by: Diseverything on Jun 17, 2009 at 06:48:05 AM. http://my.telegraph.co.uk/go/tag/view/blog_post/jokes?num=10&pg=2

2. Strongs Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries. G2168

3. Rev. Martin E. Pike, Jr. (Kingsville, Texas), The Upper Room, February 14, 1996.

4. Harold Russell and Victor Rosen, Victory in My Hands (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1949) p. 151

5. Ibid, pp. 279-280

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