A Word about the Church as a Grateful Creation

Today I want to share a word about the church as a grateful creation.  

This reminds me of the story of a man who fell from the roof of a 10-story building. As he passed an open window on the 5th floor, the occupants of the room heard him yelling, "So far so good! So far so good!"  That poor fellow was grateful for that which he could be grateful. We, of course, have a great deal more to be grateful for than that unfortunate fellow.  In 1 Corinthians 15:50-58, Paul reminded us of several of those things:

What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption. Listen, I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body must be clothed with immortality. When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, death, is your victory?

Where, death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Let’s review a few of the things that God has bestowed upon our lives as we take time during the Thanksgiving season to be grateful.

We Should be Grateful for God’s Grace:

A former colleague of mine has a wife who loves Christmas. She loves everything about it, but she especially loves decorating their house. She has trees in every room, and outdoor lights and stockings on the fireplace and every imaginable decoration possible. They had to purchase a storage building to hold it all, off-season. My colleague and his wife begin decorating their home the weekend before Thanksgiving, and they work at it day and night until everything is just right. 

On the other hand, I know of a fellow who has more money than he does time. He and his wife enjoy Christmas, but they don’t want the bother of doing all the decorating themselves. So, they hire the job out. They bring in a special company that does theme-based decorating, and the result is beautiful. This man openly confesses, “I don’t like hassle, and I love turn-key arrangements. I just don’t like the bother.”

In truth God did not have to bother with us. He is perfect, and holy, and just, but we are 180 degrees out of phase with Him. We are limited, and sinful, and flawed.  Romans 3:10-18 tells us,

As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and wretchedness are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Isaiah 64:4-6 says, 

From ancient times no one has heard, no one has listened to, no eye has seen any God except you who acts on behalf of the one who waits for him. You welcome the one who joyfully does what is right; they remember you in your ways. But we have sinned, and you were angry. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins? All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

God could have decided we were too much trouble and thrown us away. He had every right to do so. We had problems unsolvable by human means. Fixing us was going to cost Him everything precious to Him. Like Pilate, He could have washed His hands of us. We were like a knot so tangled you cut it out of a rope.

Instead, He gave us His grace. Instead of punishment, He gave us love. Instead of what we deserved, He gave us blessings we didn't deserve. Instead of leaving us, he drew closer to us.

When we know how much trouble we were to God, then we are grateful for God’s grace in our lives.

We Should be Grateful for God’s Intervention:

We all know the saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” What that reminds us of is that good intentions are not enough to address the serious issues in human life. Only when action is taken can anything be accomplished. The bystanders taking pictures with their phones at an accident don’t help the victims. The person who is always “intending” to take care of a problem never does. As the motto of a transportation company reminds us, “Nothing happens until something moves.”

Thank God! He took decisive action on our behalf. When no half-measures would do, God put forth the full measure of devotion that we might have life. He intervened when we were helpless and He saved us from ourselves. This passage shows the kinds of interventions He made:

• Intervention which changes people and gives life.
• Intervention which changes corruption to incorruption.
• Intervention which changes mortality to immortality.
• Intervention which results in victory.

So, what should our response be? We will let the Scriptures teach us. Let’s read Luke 17:11-19.

While traveling to Jerusalem, he passed between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten men with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” When he saw them, he told them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And while they were going, they were cleansed. But one of them, seeing that he was healed, returned and, with a loud voice, gave glory to God. He fell facedown at his feet, thanking him. And he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus said, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Didn’t any return to give glory to God except this foreigner?” And he told him, “Get up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.”

When we know how God acted to clean-up the mess of our lives, then we are grateful for God’s intervention in our lives.

We Should be Grateful for God’s Power:

When we are in trouble, and in our natural state we are in the deepest trouble of all, we need outside intervention. But, as needful of that intervention as we might be, action without ability can be fruitless and dangerous. 

First, plans without power will never be put into practice.

In the foyer of my home church hung an architectural rendering of a church sanctuary. We were a church plant that had existed for two decades when Geri and I left it after we got married and went into the Army. All that time we had been meeting in our “first unit building,” which was supposed to be replaced by the new sanctuary in due time. The whole time that we attended our home church, which was one of the best churches we were ever a part of, that painting hung in the foyer, but we never had the financial strength to make it a reality.

It is also true that plans which are unfinished frustrate and disappoint.

In my hometown, during my teen years, a new four-lane expressway was built extending east to west across the northern neighborhoods of the city. When it arrived at the Chattahoochee River, a tall, modern, and very impressive bridge was built across the steam into the neighboring state. And there, it stopped, because the plans had not been coordinated between the two states, and there was no ability to connect it to roads on the other side. You may remember the infamous and controversial “Bridge to Nowhere” project in Alaska. Well, my hometown had its own bridge to nowhere. The failure to complete this project left citizens on both sides of the river fuming and frustrated.

We also must see that plans without power can also be dangerous.

I recently mentioned the power of the M1 Abrams main battle tank. It is a beast of a weapon system, but it is outrageously heavy! When an M1 has experienced a failure of its engine or running gear, two tracked armored recovery vehicles are required to tow it in for repairs. One recovery vehicle pulls the M1, and another is attached to the rear of the tank to add braking power. Without the second set of brakes, the M1 would be uncontrollable, especially when going down a hill. The results would have disastrous consequences. Something similar happened once with a flat bed tractor trailer hauling a D-7 dozer. Somehow, the air brake lines had been reversed, and the trailer brakes were useless. The truck, the trailer, and the dozer went flying down a hill and wound up buried inside a house. Plans without power can be just as dangerous.

Blessedly for us, however, God did, and still does, have the power to intervene. He is omniscient and omnipotent and omnipresent as well as being omnibenevolent. He created the rules for this world, and He can suspend them whenever He desires. He can rescue us without endangering Himself.

We must see how we have benefitted from His exercise of power on our behalf!  Death is swallowed up in victory! Death does have a sting, but for us it is not long lasting because God has given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord!

When we know how God’s power is applied to problems and limitations, then we are grateful for God’s work in our lives.

We Should be Grateful for God’s Demands:

One of the economic factors that revolutionized life in rural areas in the early 20th Century was an innovation that the U.S. Postal Service called COD, or Cash on Delivery. A person who lived far from town could make a mail order for a product out of a catalogue, and pay for it, in cash, when it was delivered to them by their mail carrier. Of course, if you didn’t pay, you didn’t get to keep the item.

In contrast, the salvation offered to us by God through Christ is free to us at the point of delivery. In fact, we were helpless to pay the cost of our salvation. Once we have been saved, however, our Lord does require our obedience. Jesus, Himself said,

If you love me, keep my commandments.

In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Paul put our situation this way:

Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.

Again, we don’t work for our salvation, but we work because we are grateful that He has saved us. He is our Lord and Master, and we should obey Him. And when we do obey Him, He is the one who makes our work successful. When we obey Him, our work produces wonderful fruit. We can have high morale, too, because our work makes a difference.

When we know how great a salvation we have received at the hands of Christ, then we will show our gratitude through our steadfast, consistent, and joyous service to Him!

Conclusion:

My wife and I recently travelled to Branson, MO, and there we saw a tremendous outpouring of appreciation for our veterans who physically protected our way of life. How much more should we be grateful to our God for all of His provisions for us, physical, spiritual, and emotional!