Today, because Thanksgiving is on Thursday and we want to really prepare our hearts and also think through the facet of thankfulness and gratitude in our hearts, I've prepared a sermon pertaining to this topic of Thanksgiving, but the way I've entitled it is "So Thankful for Good Reason." And the reason why is because as I took a moment to think about this topic, I asked myself the question, "Hmm, I am thankful.

I'm super grateful for the many things that are happening in my life, but I have been Christian now for some time. Have I been maturing and growing in my thankfulness?" Or on the flip side of it, I just started kind of asking, "Or have I become just pretty accustomed to Christian life?

And although I'm grateful, it's just not that deep." And as I started to think about that, there was a kind of fear in me. And the reason why is because, yes, I am grateful, but clearly the scriptures calls us as Christians to be the most grateful of all people.

It calls us to really be overjoyed, to rejoice always, and to have this gratitude that's overflowing to God. But then, there's a part of me that wonders, "Have I become so, again, accustomed and trained? My thankfulness is a lot like politeness. It's a lot like etiquette. You know, three times a day, every time you eat, you say the prayer, 'Thank you for this food.

Thank you for this day. In Jesus' name, I pray,' kind of rhymes." And it just goes, right? It just goes every meal and every day. And the fear is not so much because, "Oh, man, I ought to be more thankful." The fear is because if I am thinking about my God appropriately, if I do that, it could potentially be offensive.

You know what I mean? That if the Lord truly has given us such a blessing in all the heavenly realm, such a treasure that it's His very presence and it's the gift of His most precious Son, and the best I can give to Him is politeness, although I'm trying, it could end up being one of those things where although I am trying, it can be offensive.

Because the Scripture has called us to a state of mind where we are literally spilling over with gratitude because God has so filled our hearts and our lives with blessing upon blessing, lavishing His love. And so as I started to think about this, I started having this mentality. I was like, "Oh, goodness.

I need to ask myself the question, 'How deep is my gratitude and my appreciation for the Lord? Is it fitting? Is it appropriate to what I know of God?'" Right? That's the question. "Is it appropriate to what I know of God? Is it appropriate to my relationship with Him?" And that's the way I want to challenge us today.

So please turn your Bibles over to Luke chapter 7, verse 36 through 47. Luke chapter 7, verse 36 through 37. And again, my assumption is should you have been a Christian long enough, you know you ought to be thankful, and I assume that you are. The challenge is not so much stop being so ungrateful and spoiled.

The challenge is from where you are, how deep has your gratitude gone? From where you are in your faith, is your gratitude maturing, deepening, widening, and all the more growing with your understanding of God? So starting from verse 36, the Scripture says this. "One of the Pharisees asked him," that is Christ, "to eat with him.

And he went into Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment. And standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with ointment.

And when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him. For she is a sinner.'" Oh, I'm sorry. Totally. Oh, sorry. "For she is a sinner.

And Jesus answering him said, 'Simon, I have something to say to you.' And he answered, 'Say it, teacher.' A certain moneylender has two debtors, one owed five hundred denarii, and another fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?' Simon answered, 'The one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt.' And he said to him, 'You have judged rightly.' Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, 'Do you see this woman?

I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet. But she has wet my feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.

Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much, but he who is forgiven little, loves little." Let's take a moment to pray. All right, God, we want to thank you for your precious word. We want to thank you because as our heavenly Father, you are teaching us what it means to be thankful.

Father God, we want to repent of the fact that, yes, in many seasons of life and in many ways, we can be so absent-minded, forgetful, and inconsiderate of the fact that we owe you our gratitude. But thank you again, Lord, that you lead us in the spirit. I pray, more than anything, God, you would open our eyes to just see, to see the reality, the spiritual picture of your relationship with us.

And God, from seeing the whole scenario, we would just lavish, Father God, and we would respond to you with thankfulness. It's in Christ, and we pray. Amen. So again, thankfulness, the way that Jesus is describing it, it's pretty simple, right? I mean, all it is is essentially you receiving something as a grace gift from God, right?

So you're receiving something, and so you're thankful, okay? But remember, today, we're talking about the depth of your gratitude. We're talking about how you can grow and expand in your gratitude. And so I want to say, even just that simple picture of how you are supposed to receive and then be thankful, that can grow.

Because depending on how you see yourself in the picture, depending on how you see your need, did I need that gift? Depending on your deficiency, you're going to grow in the depth of your gratitude. Depending on what it is you actually think you received, right? Depending on the actual gift itself, depending on the act of grace that you receive, you're going to grow in your gratitude.

But most importantly, depending on the person you see, the one who's giving it to you, you're going to grow in your gratitude. And so in those three ways, I'm going to walk down them one by one now. I want to challenge you to grow in our gratitude. And essentially, as I go through that, you're going to recognize very clearly, we're just rehearsing the gospel.

Rehearsing the gospel and its narrative about who you are prior to knowing God, the amazing gift that you have, and then being able to actually know him. Now first, the way I want to phrase it is, I am so thankful because, because I want to express my gratitude too.

I'm so grateful because I am deeply undeserving. Because I'm absolutely undeserving. I want to show you by this story and parable, and the incident when Jesus enters into the Pharisee's house, what Jesus is emphasizing by his parable. So in his Antidote, he essentially gives us this amazing principle of life.

In verse 47, he said, "He who is forgiven little, loves little." That's a principle he's saying, there is a direct correlation here. You think you've been forgiven this, your gratitude is this. Direct correlation. For our purposes, we can use a synonymous term, much forgiven, much thankful. On the flip side, little forgiven, little thankful.

But I want us to take a second look at that passage, because there's so much more to glean in terms of where Jesus is pointing the finger at the error in the whole scenario. What do I mean? Well, starting from verse 40 again, Jesus answered Simon, because Simon said something.

There's a thought like, "What in the world? You know who this girl is?" And Jesus answers and says, "I've got something to say to you." He said, "Say it." Verse 41, "A certain money lender had two debtors. He owed five, one owed 500 denarii and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts of both.

Now which one of them will love him more?" Okay, so there's the impetus for our question of growing deeper, right? There is a gradient. There's a degree to which one should be more grateful. And Simon answered, "The one I suppose for whom he canceled the larger debt." And Jesus said to him, "You have judged rightly." Then now turning to the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman?

I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in, she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.

Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much." Okay, the error in the scenario. The error in the scenario is not so much that the Pharisees said, "Look at that woman. She's a city woman." Right? That's what they call her. "She's a sinner." Why do I say that's not the error?

Because even Jesus says, "Her sins are many." As a matter of fact, the narrative in the story says, "There was this sinner who came." There's an affirmation of the fact that their sins are many. So what is the flaw? What is the error here? It is the mentality of the Pharisee to presume, "I'm the sinner with the 50 denarii debt." There's two debtors.

Why do you automatically assume you're not the guy with more? When you say, "She's a sinner," it betrays you. Why? Because you say that with the assumption and you're not. What am I talking about here? Remember my point here is this. When we see the depth of our sin, when we see the kind of weight and gravity of our own wretchedness, there is automatically going to be an appreciation for God's grace.

Should you assume, "Oh, what I got was this nice help that I could have used, might have done well with, but I didn't necessarily need," your thankfulness will never be appropriate to what God has given you. And so to talk about that a little bit, I think there is this kind of dangerous mantra of today's culture.

I hear it in the songs, I hear it sometimes on the radio when I listen. And the mentality is, you know, we're all hurt people and all we need is love. I'm not sure if you've heard that. It's kind of sentiment and mentality of our modern culture where they believe all we need is love.

And what I'm going to say to that is, it is true. Every single one of us needs love. We were built with the capacity to love, God desires to show His love, and we need it. But something that's a little off is, is that really all you need? Take a moment to think about that and chew on it.

What more could we need? Well, I have one, holiness. Because when I say this is what I need, it presumes who I am prior, right? We absolutely need righteousness because we're unrighteous. We need holiness because we have such depravity, wickedness, and evil within us. Let me have you chew on something else for a little bit.

Imagine this, we know through the gospel that we have the certificate of death. We essentially have a ledger with the red markings of our sin. We're absolutely in transgression, okay? Imagine by the grace of God, He says, "You know what? I'm not going to hold that against you." Does He still have to accept you into His kingdom?

For people who have no righteousness of your own, you need Christ's righteousness. Should Jesus not give to us His righteousness, what righteousness do we have? Even if we went from negative three billion to zero, what righteousness do we have? What meritous kind of advantageous, what anything do we have to show the Lord?

The answer is nothing. We need His righteousness. We need not only His righteousness, we need His mercy. Because should we believe we are criminals who have transgressed law, I need mercy. I need sustenance because I'm a child, I'm an infant, and I don't know how to take care of myself.

I need His provisions daily, right? There's so much more that I need. Why am I talking about this? Because yes, it's true, you do need love. But if you thought, "You know, that's all I need." My admonition to you is going to be, "No, your need is so much deeper." Everything you have, you don't have the power to even sustain it.

You could lose it all. Everything you are right now, you owe to the mercies of God. All His gracious acts to you were just that. Everything has been merciful, gracious acts to you. And for you, you are to feel, "And I absolutely needed every ounce of it." Right? They were not just good and nice stuff that we received.

And that's why I want to read to you this passage, 1 Corinthians 4, verse 6-7. Apostle Paul says, "Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sake, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against another.

For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" That's an important phrase for us to understand. So, I have this thought I want to share with you, that not only then are we supposed to appreciate the depth of our sin, but in that light then, we of all people should know the difference of the value of the merciful gifts that we receive.

What I'm talking about is, in the parable that Jesus is saying, there is a clear difference between 500 and 50. Right? Now in order to communicate this a little bit more, I want to share with you sometimes, there are moments when I kind of worry, when I hear people's testimony.

What am I talking about that I worry hearing people's testimony? Sometimes I talk to individuals and they have this testimony where they share. When I ask them, "When did it really make sense to you? When did the good news hit you? This is good news." And they'll say, "Yeah, I was in high school, I was a senior, so much was changing.

I didn't get into the school that I want, my friends were leaving, it was such a rough patch, but God helped me through it." Okay, I heard that and I said, "Hmm, did you say a rough patch?" It's like, "Yeah, it was so rough." It's like, "What do you mean by rough?" It's like, "You know, I was changing because I had so much expectations, I was disappointed, I was wrestling with pressure, just the burden of my parents, and then things happening, and there were so many hurdles, but God helped me through every hurdle." Is that good news to you?

I want you to take a moment to think about that. Is that good news to you? The reason why I worry is because if the good news of the gospel to you surmounts to God helping you hurdle obstacles, you will never be thankful enough, and you will be in danger of offending God.

Now when I say that, I don't say that to diminish people's experience, because if God helps you in the time of need, should you give honor and thank him? Yes. Praise his name, because every season of your life, you're going to need his help. Amen? But you understand my point.

I'm not trying to minimize the story, I'm not trying to minimize the suffering, I'm not trying to minimize the hardship. But you of all people should be able to tell the difference between 500 and 50. You and I as believers should know the difference between eternity with God in heaven versus overcoming two years of suffering, overcoming my senior year in high school, overcoming that weird stage when I was changing, being forgiven so that you no longer face the wrath of God in all eternity in hell versus having the power to go through hardship, pains, and sorrows.

You should be able to tell the difference, and your gratitude should match the difference. That's the point, right? And so I want to give you this matter of admonition, our thankfulness, our thankfulness has to be spiritually exercised. And we see the value, not just simply because of what people around us are experiencing, because I see the value of my need, of my desperate need.

And when are we then going to be like this woman who has this incredible joy, incredible gratitude? Do you think she was crying like that because now she got out of the city? I don't think so. Right? I don't think so. And so that's why I say as a challenge to every single one of us, our challenge to grow in our gratitude is a challenge to accept the depth of our undeserving nature, of our wretchedness, and therefore to see the great need that God has filled.

And so to highlight that, there's a special verse in Luke chapter 18 where Jesus highlights this mentality. Luke 18 verses 10 through 14. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself, "God, I thank you.

I want you to take a moment to recognize that. The Pharisee also thanks the Lord." Okay? And he says, "That I am not like the others, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner.' I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted." If we are growing as Christians over the years, we should all of a sudden be more in tune with the variety of our deficiency. We should all the more see the dependency of our lives, that we absolutely need every ounce of grace, and that the depth of our wretchedness only then inspires the gratitude to see his extensive works.

And so I want to move to the second point, that I'm so thankful because of his extensive works of grace towards me. Because if you were to just focus on your then deep, deep pit of depravity, you would be depressed, rightly so. Look at this. There's nothing more. But it's in that light, in that reality, we see the extensive works of God, then we can grow in love and we can grow in thankfulness.

I want to remind you, the scripture says that God's love is not only deep, but he wants us to understand the breadth, right? It's so wide and varied. And what I'm talking about here is if you have been Christian for some time, are you growing in the knowledge and breadth of the kind of works that God has accomplished?

Are you growing in your appreciation for the details of what he has done? How patient he has been? How meticulously he's been planning our salvation? That his redemptive plan was not any kind of fluke like, "You know what? I think today I'll save some people." That is not the way God has worked in history and that is not the way he's working now.

Remember that God is taking people from the kingdom of darkness, from the reign of Satan, to the kingdom of light. Remember that he's taking rebellious enemies of God and making them friends of the Lord. He's taking you, he's taking me from being abandoned, abandoned children, children of the devil, to then adopted sons and daughters.

He's taking us, those who are lifeless, decaying corpse to abundant fullness of life. He is removing your sins far from you. Only to learn in scripture when he says, "I'm removing it," he's taking that sin and placing it and nailing it right on the cross. Right now what I did is just two minutes go through various avenues by which God has worked.

My question to you is, if someone asks you, "Why are you so thankful for the faith that you have? Why are you so thankful for the salvation that you have?" And the best you can say is, "Well, I know Jesus came, died, and left." The depth of your gratitude is only going to be that.

And yes, surely enough, that alone is going to be causing you tons of praise and glorious songs of thanksgiving. But you need to grow. You need to grow in the understanding of his grace and his work towards us. I want to read to you Psalm 107, verses 1 through 7, which says this, "Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his loving kindness is everlasting.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say, 'So whom he has redeemed from the land of the adversary, and gathered from the land, from the east, from the west, from the north, from the south. They wandered in the wilderness, in the desert region. They did not find a way to an inhabited city.

They were hungry and thirsty. Their soul fainted within them. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble. He delivered them out of their distress. He led them also by a straight way to go to an inhabited city. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind.

For he satisfies the thirsty, and he fills the hungry with good things." Man, I ask myself, am I growing and maturing and understanding? And I want to share with you, this is to our joy that we get to grow in this fashion with God. It's to your great joy that you get to constantly learn, my God is my creator.

To experience, my God is my defender, he's my sustainer, he's my shepherd, right? To all these things, it is to our benefit to grow in every single fashion, to learn he is my judge who's going to vindicate, he's going to be the righteous one who will lead my path.

All of that is to our benefit. All of that is to my benefit. Now here's an area that I want to just highlight for you because there is another danger that's super subtle, which is this. I have now been Christian for 20 years. I've been a pastor for like eight or nine years, you know?

I've been preaching on the pulpit pretty regularly. So if you were to ask that question, "Do you know these things?" Well, my answer, I'm not trying to be prideful, I'm going to be like, "Yes, I preached it." But then there's that question, "Why then do I find that sometimes my gratitude more feels like etiquette than a deep felt appreciation that's moving me?

Why?" And I wonder if you can relate to me and ask that same question, like, "I know the stuff. I know the rationale." He says, "Be thankful for a good reason." I know the reasons. What's the difference? Sometimes it's just small, small, narrow, narrow, like I would say, error in belief that could trip us up.

And in order to highlight that, I want to give you an example, okay? I don't know if some of you guys are like major romantics in here. Unfortunately, I'm not, but I wish I was more. Now imagine that you are a crazy romantic and to the girl that you like, or for you husbands, to your wife, you're like, "You know what?

It's our special day. Maybe it's anniversary, Valentine's Day. I'm going to go all out." So you tell your special lady, "Hey, you don't have to lift a finger. I'm going to plan ahead." And so you plan ahead, you carve out a time, you make the day. And then not only do you plan out the day, you pick the venue, you decide to hire people to go decorate that thing.

So you, you know, use some of the college students here and you're just like, "I'll pay you with food." And then you have them go decorate this place with streamers and pedals and stuff like that. And there's candles and stuff. And they do a great job. And then, not only that, but for food, you plan it out.

You're not a good cook. And therefore, you even plan to have it tested. You do a run through with all the ingredients, you make someone test it, and they're like, "This is good." And then you're like, "That's it." And then you go and you go prepare this thing. You do the whole spread, you turn on the music, everything's beautiful.

Day comes and then she comes in, she's like, "Wow. This is, this is good." Right? And you're just kind of like, "Huh? Huh?" You know? And you're just like, "Wow, this is good." But to your surprise, out of, you know, what should be gratitude, she should say something like, "Thank you so much." But instead she says, "Good job, man.

Now you finally get it." Yeah. I say, "What?" Imagine if she said in response to all that, like, "Good job. You're finally doing your job." What would you say? I wouldn't even know what to say. I'd just be like, "I guess dinner's done, 'cause I'm not even gonna..." Right?

'Cause you just feel like so underappreciated. What am I talking about here? See, we could see all of God's work and you could see all of his wondrous plans. But if in your heart you think God is just doing his duty towards you, your thankfulness will never be there.

If you believe God is just fulfilling his responsibilities to you as God, and then when he doesn't, you look up and you're like, "What are you doing? What are you doing with my life?" Right? If you treat the Lord that way, I hope you don't treat people that way, but I hope you realize that sometimes we are in danger of treating God that way.

I see everything you're doing, but good. This is good. No. I want us to remember, God doesn't even have to listen to us. When I ask him for something and I pray, there is no obligation that is infringed upon God that he has to listen to me. And so in that way, when you see the vast array of his mercies and works of grace towards you, thank him for every single one of them.

Right? Thank him for every single one of them. And then what's more, I want to move to our third point, which is I am even more so thankful because of his absolute greatness. God, in his person, he is powerful. He is loving. He is gracious. He is comforting. To have him is the greater picture.

I want to remind you that yes, learning about our depravity and our wretchedness deepens your understanding of your thankfulness. It heightens your gratitude. And yes, seeing all the little works, all the big works, all the various things God has done, it heightens your gratitude. But the biggest piece of the puzzle is God.

Biblical thankfulness, you've heard this probably before. Count your blessings, right? You might be having a rough season in your life. You might be going through some struggles and people say to you, "You got to really just count your blessings." That's true. It's not bad advice. You should look for the blessings and you should count them.

But if that's all you do, you missed the big picture. All you did is bean counting and you're not going to feel good after that. Count the beans, right? What you should do is you should look to God. He is the greatest source, the greatest power. In your relationship to Him, He is your greatest answer, He is your greatest comfort to whatever it is you need.

He has been your full supply and more. He's the biggest picture. You know what's really interesting is not too long ago, someone asked me, "Is it wrong to be angry with God?" I thought, "Hmm." They said, "Yeah, I'm not like jettisoning the faith. I'm not going to run away and throw him to the curb, but is it wrong to pray in anger to God?

What do you think?" And so I sat there and did my thing. I wrote the question and I started, "Hmm." I was like, "Hmm, let me look for all the places in the Bible I remember people are mad." And I was like, "Oh, there's a lot of mad people in the Bible." Remember Jonah?

He was super mad, right? He was like, "I'm so mad I could die." And then he went off and sat in the sun. That's what he did, right? So I was tempted to be like, "I guess you can." And then I went, "No." And then I said, "You know what?

This is my answer to you. That's stupid." Now, I don't like using the word because it's a little harsh, but let's just use the word maybe foolish. This is absolutely foolishness. So when you start asking the question, "Can I do this in this context?" I'm not sure if you're seeing the big picture.

And that's what I mean by God is the biggest reality. We're talking about God. With a word, he will create the universe. And with a word, he will destroy it. And you're sitting there like, "Do you think I could be angry with him? I'm not sure if that is the right question.

Let's just ask you, 'Are you mad?'" And then maybe someone could counter-argue and say, "Well, now we're children of God. As a son, shouldn't I have the open door to go to God in this fashion?" And my thought is, "No. If you are a child of God, you should know better than anybody else.

This is God Almighty. And this Almighty God is the person you have." And that's why we're forever thankful. You don't have things that you can run away with. You don't have things where we have the tendency to appreciate the gift and forget the giver. Let me show you an example.

Turn over to Luke 17, verses 11 through 19. And Jesus tells this kind of funny story that we made into a children's song. I'm sure you guys are aware of it. And what Jesus says is, "On the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by 10 lepers who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, 'Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.' When he saw them, he said to them, 'Go and show yourself to the priests.' And as they went, they were cleansed.

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. And he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving thanks to him. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, 'Were there not 10 lepers cleansed? Where are the nine?' Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?' And he said to him, 'Rise and go your way.

Your faith has made you well.'" Remember, we are susceptible to be so excited. I don't think all of these lepers were just so ungrateful, spoiled people who were just like, "Bah, forget you." They were just so excited about being healed because they knew their depravity. They knew they were unclean.

They had to say it, "I'm unclean." They had to be isolated. They couldn't participate. They knew their whole lives they were unclean. They're so excited about their healing, they ran off and didn't appreciate the giver. That's just my point, a simple point. All the more we have to appreciate the giver of the gifts.

So with that said, I want to challenge us to the depths of the thankfulness that you have. What are you thinking about? What are you dwelling upon? What are you meditating on? That your gratitude towards God would rise. Yes, it's not going to be perfect because we know, "Lord, I'm not going to fully see this because you're God.

But in as much as you've shown me, thank you so much." Now beyond that, not only do I want to say you need to grow in that kind of fashion, what I'm going to do now is quickly, quickly go through. If your heart is thankful, may we not be like the scenario where only one out of ten comes back because in our hearts we have to express it.

What we feel we have to show. In our relationship with God, we have to reveal, "God, this is my heart. I love you." And that's why scripture calls us to overflow, overflow with gratitude, to always be grateful because this is the Lord's will for us. Now what I want to say then is this.

By way of the expression then, as you recognize what the Lord has done, as we recognize who he is to us, I want you to think about the woman at the dinner table. I want you to think about her. And I'll give you three, three very fast expressions of gratitude that every single one of us can grow in.

Okay? First, is to bless the Lord, to bless the Lord. I want you to think back with me at the woman, the woman from the city, the sinner who came in. She came in and she knew that he was reclining there and she knew that this was an intense scenario.

I just want you to understand that the scenario was kind of intense because the Pharisees are religious leaders of the time and they already felt threatened. Yes? Jesus was a controversial figure. To jump into this meeting would be kind of like if, let's say, our church leadership was in a heated debate with another camp and we were going at it or something like that.

I mean, obviously, it doesn't sound like they were going at it here, but then you didn't know what's happening and you just walked in and you're like, "Oh," and you slowly close the door, right? To want attention in an arena, no one would want that kind of attention. Why do I bring this up?

The risk this lady took, it must have been worth it. Listen to you then. What did she accomplish? You get my flow of thought, right? High risk scenario for a sinning lady who pretty much had a reputation because everybody somehow knew her to come into this arena where there is religious leaders of the time having this dinner to make a scene as high risk must have been worth it.

Then what did she accomplish? What did she accomplish? My point to you is she wanted to accomplish nothing more than to bless her savior. She wasn't there to go make a case, "I'm fighting for the ladies in the city. I'm going to fight for their..." She didn't go in there doing that.

She didn't go in there to correct the Pharisees and say, "You religious leaders, look what you're doing to us, heavily burdening us, basically condemning us." She wasn't there on a corrective rant. She came to bless her savior. When you see the picture, you just start picturing it. This lady came in and she humbled herself to the point where she didn't even feel the right to come in front of him.

Did you notice that it says she was by her feet? She was washing it, but she did it from behind him. She lowered herself and blessed him with the ointment, with her tears, and with her love. If there are ways for us to grow in our gratitude, let us grow in this.

And that's why scriptures in Psalm chapter 103 says, it commands us, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all our iniquity, who heals all our diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." Wow.

That's awesome. What an inspiration for us to show our Lord our gratitude just by blessing him with our praise, with our tears. And what's more, secondly, we can express our gratitude by boasting in God. By boasting in God. If it so fills your heart, if it so edifies, if it so refreshes your soul, it's going to come out in your words, right?

And what the scripture says is beyond just saying, "Oh, thank you." It wants us to literally boast. Takes us out on the next passage. In Psalm chapter 44 verse 8, it says, "In God we have boasted all day long, and we will give thanks to your name forever." Say, "Lord, think about it.

Think on that." The next passage here is Psalm 9 verse 1 through 2. "I'll give thanks to the Lord with all my heart. I'll tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and exult in you. I'll sing praise to your name, O Most High." What I want to share with you is, man, I feel like in this generation, people want to be experts in their field.

People want to know. People want to be able to communicate that they're experts in their field. So we got guys who are experts at sports. We got guys who are experts at cars. We got guys who are experts at this and that. If there is anything you are wanting to boast about, boast about this, scripture says, that you know the Lord, that he knows you.

This is one of the greatest ways for you to show your appreciation for God. Amen? Now, the next part of it is this. Express your gratitude towards God by giving all of yourself to him. Give yourself fully to the Lord. Now, as I talk about this, I want to say, we see that the scriptures show us that there is this growing gratitude.

So I want you to think about times when you've been really thankful. I know that some of you guys receive birthday cards and then everybody, you know, Facebook posts and you're just thankful. Like, man, people really, sometimes they think of you. And then so when they send you a card, you're like, "Thanks for thinking of me." You know, and then you just want to show your gratitude like that.

That's thankfulness. Very good. And then there's a level up thankfulness. When you're just like so thankful, it kind of moves you to tears. About two weeks ago, there was a wedding and then the maid of honor was the sister of the bride and then they were giving the speech.

And then when they give the speech, it's like emotionally really intense, but they start talking about like, "Thank you, like that life lived together, all the moments of like help you gave me." And then they start crying and I'm sitting there like, "Don't cry." You know, like, "Oh no." Because I get moved by stuff like that because I grew up and my older brother, he's about four or five years older.

He's been like the best brother in the world. And then, you know, it's like, you know how it is sometimes it just moves you. And I just sit in there like, "Oh man." And I gave a speech at my brother's wedding, he gave a speech at mine. And I'm so thankful for him because you think about the longevity of the years together.

It's hard not to cry, you know, especially moments of milestone. You're just so grateful, it moves you to tears. When was the last time like that for you? But did you know there's a level up beyond that, what I like to call the ugly cry? Because I see some of you guys at the weddings, right?

When you go to meet your parents after you go and do the unicandle and they say the groom and the bride are going to come and thank the parents and they go over to the parents and it's just like, "Yeah." And you do the ugly cry and you're just like, you know, everyone's watching you, you know, the parents' faces facing that way, your face is just like right there.

But you're just so thankful, you can't help but ugly cry. But there is actually a level of thankfulness even beyond that, right? Whenever you felt a level of thankfulness behind that, typically it is only when your savior has done for you what you know there was no other option.

What you know you could not do and you did not deserve. What you know took incredible sacrifice. There is a kind of thankfulness that moves you to say, "I don't know how to thank you from words, from crying, from whatever it may be. You know what? I'm yours. You tell me what you need me to do, I'll do it." It's the kind of servanthood gratitude.

It is not a repayment of his gift to you. You're just so thankful and inspired, I feel like I just want to give to you. I'm yours. I'm at your disposal. Have you felt that? Have you felt that? Because the kind of gratitude that we're supposed to have is this incredible gratitude that is, yes, at some points and moments in our lives, maybe we think, "Oh, is this right?

Is this kind of like the debtor's ethic?" And that is false. It's just a fine line. The debtor's ethic is false, okay, which says this, "Oh my goodness, I am such a wretched sinner. Oh my goodness, you had to die for me. I feel so bad. I wish it wasn't like this." And then God says to you, "What are you doing?

Don't act like you could have done something to prevent Jesus from going to the cross, to make that not necessary." See that's the debtor's ethic. I have this incredible payment that you paid and I feel super bad for it and I wish there was a way to not burden you that much.

And God Almighty will say, "Son, you had no other option but to put your burdens on Christ. You can't have a debtor's ethic. What I'm talking about is the ethic of thanksgiving where you say, 'You've been so generous to me. I am both inspired, I'm vulnerable, I'm open to give back to you and whatever you want, it's yours.

I'm all yours.'" That's the height of thanksgiving. Take a look at this passage in Psalm 116 verse 12. Psalm 116 verse 12. The psalmist says, "What shall I render to the Lord for all of his benefits to me? I'll lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.

I'll pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of his people." I'm going to boast in the Lord. "Lord, I am your servant. Lord, I am your servant. You lose my bonds, I'll offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. I'll pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in the midst of Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord." My question to you, have we felt that gratitude that is so powerful it moves you to say, "God, I'm not trying to repay you because I know I can't. I'm not trying to make up for stuff because I can't make it up, but I am at your service because I'm so thankful.

I owe you everything. You've given me everything. It doesn't matter if I'm here or there, in front of people or in private, I am yours." This is the kind of gratitude that I hope we will aspire to because this is the kind of transformed life that gives glory to God.

Let me repeat that. The kind of gratitude that moves you to freely give of yourself to the Lord, that's the kind of gratitude that glorifies God. There's a passage in 2 Corinthians 9 that says this, "You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion.

And through us, your generosity result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord's people, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Your generosity, your transformed life, because you received so much, it points to God and people thank and exalt the Lord." Another passage I want to show you, 2 Corinthians 4 verse 15, "For all things are for your sakes so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of things to abound to the glory of God." Today we were talking about growing in the depth and breadth of our gratitude to the Lord.

And I pray that we'll be inspired that no matter where you are currently, there has to be this growth. And as you do that, understand that as you are being filled, God has so designed it to transform you from being self-preserving, self-focused, self-attaining individuals to be people like Him.

Altogether powerful, altogether generous, altogether gracious. Let's take a moment to pray. Our Lord, we want to give you thanks. God, we cannot even begin just to enumerate all the ways by which you have been merciful and loving towards us. But I pray, Lord, that although it's impossible for us to exhaustively do that, that God, that we would never grow tired.

We would not grow weary of giving things to you. Lord, because you are deserving. Father God, you are so deserving that for eternity forward, people, your people, your hosts will sing praise to you. And I pray, Father God, that you would continue then to inspire us by faith, to help us to see you, so that in every day, Lord, we would render to you our worship.

Father God, thank you for your word that speaks to us to examine our hearts. I pray, Lord, that we would not sit on these things, but Lord, our expression would come forth. Father, I am yours. Absolutely yours. We thank you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.