Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Psalm 9:1
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  December 14, 2022

If you ever want to see a group of people who need encouragement in gratitude, just go find people who are waiting. Go to the DMV, and find someone who planned to be out of there for a half-hour but has been sitting for an hour and their number still hasn’t been called. Go up to them and ask them how much gratitude they feel in that moment. Go downtown when there’s an accident and the traffic is backed up and completely stopped. And get out of your car and ask other drivers how thankful they are. Go to the grocery store on Friday afternoon and look at the happy faces of those waiting in the checkout line and encourage them to think of all the blessings God has given them! Just a warning, if my tone wasn’t clear, this is not good advice. (Don’t do this! You might get slapped!) Because if there’s one thing people don’t want to think about when they are waiting: it’s gratitude.

Our theme tonight is waiting upon the LORD with Gratitude, and this is something that is completely unnatural. It can only happen as a fruit of faith, because no one is by nature thankful to wait.  Thankfully we have God’s Word to help us! Our focus verse today is Psalm 9:1,  I will thank you, LORD, with all my heart. It is short and sweet, but also deep. And by the Spirit’s power I pray it will help you to wait upon the Lord with Gratitude.

Now in order to understand this verse correctly, I first need to make a distinction between the English word “heart” and the Hebrew word for “heart”. We so often think about the heart as the center of emotion in English, but that isn’t the case in Hebrew. When the ancient Hebrew writers wanted to speak specifically of emotion they turned to the word kilyot, the kidneys, not the heart. To be sure emotions are not insignificant in terms of religious devotion. The prophet Jeremiah chided the people that their honoring of the Lord was always on their lips, but far from their kidneys, or emotions. But the word for heart in Hebrew is the metaphor of choice when the entire inner life of the individual is in view.

So to say that we will thank the LORD with all our hearts, doesn’t mean that we will always feel like doing it. But that we will thank the LORD truthfully and fully, without reservation. It also means that our thanks will be evident in our actions because gratitude comes out of our inner desire and thoughts. 

And this is where I feel like I’ve come to a dead end. Because I can thank the Lord when things are good and I’m brought to my knees by his undeserved blessings. But wholehearted thanks when waiting? That seems impossible!  When I’m waiting, in a state of dissatisfaction, how can I ever truthfully and fully give thanks to God? Especially when I have this nagging voice in my head reminding me of all the things that need to get fixed! Isn’t it true that our gratitude is so often conditional? We hold back until we get what we want, don’t we? Like holding out a treat to a child, and asking them to say ‘thank you’ before they receive it. They’ll say ‘thank you’, but their motives are mixed, aren’t they? They are saying it because it will end the period of waiting! So too, our motivation is always dubious when we are waiting. 

And our actions are usually even more telling. Because if our thanks isn’t given with all our heart, we don’t usually reflect that thanks in our actions. Lord, I’ll start that devotional habit when you solve the problem in my family. Lord, I’ll start giving offerings when the church starts doing what I want it to do. Lord, I will show gratitude to you by giving to the poor, as soon as you allow me to get the promotion I’ve been going for. I’ll give thanks when the kids are healthy. I’ll give thanks when my parents are pain-free. I’ll give thanks after you take away this addiction. How hard it is to wait upon the LORD with gratitude!

But as Jesus says, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” (Luke 18:27). Gratitude while waiting is where human thinking ends and faith begins. Jesus’ incarnation—God’s truly human birth at Christmas—is the guarantee that everyone of God’s promises is always and only YES in Christ! In fact, it is as good as done already! The apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:6 says that “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus…” He is so confident of God’s power that although we are still waiting to be seated in heaven with Christ, this promise is, in the eyes of faith, a completed fact! In other words, because of Jesus, we wait upon the Lord and yet we already have received every spiritual blessing from him! You will always be waiting on this side of heaven, but you God has given everything to you up front! You can wait upon the LORD with gratitude! You can find in him joy and peace in every circumstance. You can shush the complaining voice in your head and honestly say thankyou in every circumstance. You might not feel like it, but you can show gratitude by the Holy Spirit’s power. 

There’s a story of a husband and wife who had grown apart. He wanted a divorce but she wanted to stay together for the sake of their son. He drafted divorce settlement, but she rejected it. She didn’t want any money, she just had two conditions. They should live for the next month as if nothing was different. And second, that he recall how he had carried her into their bridal room on their wedding day 10 years ago. She requested that every day for that final month, he would carry her out the bedroom to the front door every morning and at night to carry her into bed. He thought it was ridiculous but just to make it bearable he accepted her terms. Well, at first it was awkward, but between their son’s excitement at seeing Daddy carry Mommy and this renewed action of intimacy, the husband began to remember the beauty of the woman who had given him ten years of her life. At the end of the month he called off the divorce and said that he would carry her to the bedroom until death would part them. 

My friends, the same thing can be true of gratitude. As you give thanks you force yourself to recall the love of God who gave himself for you. Let your feelings catch up with your faith and give thanks with all your heart! 

Amen.