Well, hey, great to see you all this morning. My name's John, I can serve as one of the pastors here at Peace. Welcome, whether you're here in the worship center, over in the chapel, downstairs in the family venue, or joining us online.

Great to be with you all this morning. Y'all excited to celebrate some Thanksgiving this week?

Hope so.

Hey, if you got a Bible with you, would you grab that and open with me to Romans chapter one. Romans chapter one's where we're gonna be this morning, and we're gonna be talking about the topic of ungrateful. What happens when we don't give thanks? Or another title I considered for this morning's sermon, not your grandma's Thanksgiving sermon. No offense to the grandmas in the house. But traditionally on Thanksgiving, we talk about all the sweet, wonderful commands of the Bible to give thanks and even in the smallest of things, and that's all true and good,

but this morning, we're gonna look at the dark side. What happens when we don't give thanks? And as an example of what happens when you don't give thanks, I wanna share with you one example of that from my own life, give you a glimpse into the Delta household, sometimes on Thanksgiving morning.

Happy Thanksgiving 2017.

I get anxiety just hearing those screams again. It's been a little while. If you see those little girls this morning, they're a little older now, so give them some slack. We're not always thankful on Thanksgiving Day, huh? Well, let's get into the Word this morning, take a look at what it has to say about giving thanks and what happens when we don't. Romans chapter 1, we're going to take a look at verse 18 through 23. I'm going to read, then we'll pray, then we'll get into it. Let's read. Romans chapter 1, starting in verse 18. 4.

Romans 1:18-23

18 For the wrath of God lis revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 9 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, nhave been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,7 in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they obecame futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of rthe immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

This is God's word.

Let's pray.

We'll get to it.

Father in heaven, thank you for your word, your truth. God pray that you would pierce our hearts with it this morning, pray that you would convict us and challenge us, God, I pray that you would also encourage us, give us hope through the gospel of Jesus, lift our hearts to give thanks to you.

And Father, I pray that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit as a broken instrument here to bring your perfect word to your people. And may you be glorified, may we all grow from it. Pray this all in Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen. All right, well, hey, I got three things I want

for us to see in this passage this morning. And the first one is this to be ungrateful is in fact, to reject God. Let's take a look at our passage this morning. We're right. We're studying Romans here, the Apostle Paul's writing a letter to the church in Rome, and the thesis statement of this letter comes in verses 16 and 17. Right before the passage that we're in, he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel For it's the power of God for salvation. The book of Romans is the Apostle Paul expounding the gospel of Jesus Christ the good news of salvation through Jesus before we get the good news of the gospel We have to have the bad news Because before the gospel good news and that's what Romans chapter 1 through 3 is all about about. And so our passage is the kickoff of some bad news.

Let's take a look at it. Verse 18 for the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. The wrath of God. Not he's disappointed. Not he wishes we made better decisions, but he Not that's too bad. The wrath of God against sinful people. That's big stuff. You know, over the last few years, Peace Church has come to be known as a big church, which is new for us in the last few years. And so as I'm talking to people around town, I'll hear people say things like, man, Peace Church, you guys are, you guys are kind of a bigger church.

You guys must really water down the Bible. You guys must be like milquetoast preachers, don't take it very seriously, right? That's what big churches do. Well, this morning, I'm here to tell you that we don't water down the Bible.

A lot of people don't wanna talk about the wrath of God, but the Bible talks about the wrath of God. God has wrath when we violate his commands. And news, brothers and sisters, you and I, we are sinners.

Whoa.

You're not gonna hear that every day from everybody.

But I'm here to tell you that we are sinners. We are deserving of God's eternal wrath. Another word for that is hell. The good news of the gospel is that even though we are sinners, even though we are deserving of hell, Jesus Christ came and he lived the perfect, righteous life that you and I couldn't live. He died the death for sin that you and I deserve to die and he was raised from the dead to eternal life so that you and I could put our faith in him and have eternal life forever. Praise God, amen?

Amen. Amen. That's what we're here to preach. That's what it's all about. This morning, we have the bad news that God has wrath against sin. Let me keep going to the passage. One of the things that sinners do is we suppress the truth. If you're reading the news lately, you hear words like disinformation or suppression of true stories by the media, by politicians. Tell you what, that's not new. That's been going on since the beginning of time. Since sin has been around, people have been suppressing the truth. The Bible tells us that all people should be able to look around them in the creation and it says what could be known about God is plain to them. We should be able to look around us and see at least two things are true about God.

God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and his divine nature. The Bible says that you and I should be able to look around and see the trees and the sky and ourselves and be able to say, yeah, there's some kind of creator. There's some kind of designer. And we know that he's eternal, that he's powerful, and that he's not a human, he's divine, he's God. These things should be clear to us, the Bible says, and yet you and I suppress the truth. We don't necessarily want to hear that. Verse 21 tells us the results. And this is where we're going to focus this morning.

Although they knew God, they knew that there was a God, there was a creator, that he made all things. Although that's plain and we know that, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him as God. In other words, Paul tells us that there's basically two approaches to life, two roads that you and I can walk down.

Road number one, when we look around us and we see the creation, we can acknowledge that there is a creator, a God, and we can give him thanks, praise, glory, honor that he deserves. Or road number two, what the Bible says some of us take, is that we can suppress the truth and reject God. Suppress the truth and reject God. My kids sometimes have asked me the question, Dad, how do you know God is real since we can't see Him?

How do you know that this all didn't just happen by accident, just pop out of nowhere? And one of the things that I said to them is, well, look in the mirror. Look at your eyes, look at your nose, look at your mouth. Think about the fact that you are thinking about yourself through the mirror and thinking about Eternal things and reality and and what's the meaning of life that is complex? Do you think that could have happened by accident?

It is way less likely That that could have happened by accident It makes way more sense that there was a designer or later this week when you're sitting at Thanksgiving dinner When you look at the hot turkey, the mashed potatoes, the gravy, if you're crazy, the cranberries. Look around that Thanksgiving meal and maybe say out loud, boy, I bet this happened by accident.

And just see what happens. Just see if there's somebody at the table who might not disagree with that or even get angry about that. Right when we see such complex things, the natural conclusion is that there's a designer, there's a creator, this came out of somewhere, that should be clear to us.

So every Thanksgiving I think of this passage that we're looking at in scripture. This is the first time I've gotten to actually preach a whole sermon on this passage, but I think of it every Thanksgiving because I think it's amazing what it says.

It says that the wrath of God against the world, one of the reasons it comes is because you and I are ungrateful. That's crazy, that's big. Our ungratefulness leads to the wrath of God. Let me show you another passage that I think draws this out.

This is 2 Timothy chapter three, the apostle Paul is writing to Timothy and he's talking about the end times and some of the bad things, the evil things about human beings that leads to the end times. He says, understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. People will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive. These are bad things, right? These are the things you'd expect on a list of bad things. Disobedient to their parents.

Write that one down, put it on the fridge, remind your kids often, make them memorize it. But next one, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good. That's a list of very bad traits about human beings. That's a vice list.

And what's right in the middle of it? Ungrateful. If you were to sit down and make a list of vices, of bad things that human beings could be doing or could be true of them, would you put ungrateful on the list?

It made God's list, it's on his list. Martin Luther, the great reformer, in his commentary on this passage says, notice in the text, the steps or stages of heathen perversion the first step of their idolatry is in gratitude. Martin Luther says, the first step of heathen perversion,

of idolatry away from God is ingratitude. He goes on to say, so Satan showed himself ungrateful over against his creator before he fell. Martin Luther says, what was the first step of Satan towards becoming God's greatest enemy? Ingratitude, ungratefulness, the failure to give thanks to God was Satan's first step to becoming God's greatest enemy. It's big. To not thank God is to reject him as God. When my kids are at home sitting at the table and dinner is set out before them and they start complaining, they hear me say it all the time, if you complain, you don't eat.

If you have not given thanks, then you have rejected your dinner. You get to sit in your room and not have a dinner. When they grumble, that's the result. You don't thank the chef, you don't get your dinner. In the Old Testament, there's a generationof the Israelites that was known for their grumbling. Throughout the rest of the Bible, they become known as the grumbling generation. I think the perfect example is Exodus 15, 16, and 17. Three chapters in a row, three stories of them grumbling. Right? Remember, this is the generation that saw ten plagues come in Egypt.

This is the generation that saw the pillar of cloud in the day. They saw the pillar of fire at night. They followed a cloud of fire out of the sky. They saw the Red Sea split so they could walk through it. And just a couple chapters later, Exodus 15, they start whining and complaining,

Moses, there's no water. We saw God split the sea, we saw the fire, we saw the clouds, that's all great. There's no water. Unbelievable, right? The God who split the sea,

you don't think he's gonna provide water? Exodus 16, oh, Moses, there's no meat I know God made this this bread just like Appear out of nowhere to feed us in the middle of the desert and did all the other great stuff But there's no meat we want a balanced diet And then exodus 17

Back again to the water Moses. There's no water again. There's no water for all eternity, that generation will be known as the grumbling generation. That's how they're described in the Psalms and the prophets. How do you want to be remembered for all eternity? And that's the question I want to leave you with is this, are you quicker to grumble or to give thanks? Are you quicker to forget all of God's goodness to you, all the ways that he's provided and taken care of you, or are you quicker to forget it? Are you quicker to remember that God is always good? Even when times are hard, you can remember back to the times of God's goodness and faithfulness.

When the road gets bumpy, what do you do? Do you thank God or do you forget and reject God?

Second thing I think we need to see in this passage, to be ungrateful is to worship something else. Let me walk you through this. We've already seen there's basically two paths in life that we can take, right? You can see the creation around you, see the world around you, you can acknowledge God and give him thanks. Or you can see the creation around you, you can suppress the truth and reject God.

But actually the next couple of verses are going to tell us that actually human beings never really just reject God, we also replace God. You see, human beings were made to worship. We will always worship something. So if you're gonna suppress the truth and reject God, ultimately, you're gonna go find another God.

Let me show you this in our text. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals. Keyword in there, exchanged. We were made to worship. When we reject God, we will always

find something to take His place. This is the history of unbiblical religions, right? People worship the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, the water, the animals, right? We'll always find something to worship. Or the modern version, right? This is where for me this phrase is so revealing. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. We think we're so much more enlightened, right?

We don't worship the sun or the sky or the birds. We worship ourselves. Life's all about me and my happiness and what I can get and what I can do and my freedom. And unfortunately, this is even the history of God's people. To pick on the Exodus generation again, go back, right?

The same generation that saw the plagues, the pillar of the cloud, the peril of the fire, the splitting of the sea. This is the same generation that Moses goes up on the mountain, he's gone 40 days. Remember he goes up and he says, I'm gonna go talk with the God of the universe. I'm gonna receive some words for him I'm gonna come back but 40 days apparently was too long He's up there and they decide man. We can't see God now Moses is gone. He can't tell us about God I don't know who split the sea. I don't know who did all his plagues I don't know where the the food came from and all that kind of stuff. You know what? Let's make a golden calf. I Bet you that's the God who rescued us out of Egypt. Right, it's crazy. But when you reject God, you have to replace Him with something. For them it was the golden calf. For us, let me ask the question, what is it for you? How are you replacing God?

And you might be thinking to yourself, well, I don't have any golden calves. I don't have any statues in my house that we go and bow down to and worship and sing songs to and all that kind of stuff. But what your words, your actions, your thoughts, how do they reflect that you have exchanged

the glory of God for something else? God in his goodness designed some things for us. Where have you rejected those things and replaced them with something else? Let me just give you some examples. Where have you exchanged sex within marriage for pornography? Where have you exchanged living within your financial means that God has given you, whatever, however much or little God has given you? Where have you exchanged living within your means for living in debt or being filled with covetousness, wishing you had so much more than you had instead of trusting what God has given you. There are so many ways that you and I, each day, exchange God's goodness for us with something else.

And what you're always saying when you do it, we're always saying when we do it, is that I know this is what God has for me, but I think I know better.

This is what God has for me, but yeah, I've got a better plan for my happiness, for my freedom, for my goodness. How are you exchanging the glory of God for something else? Third and finally, to be ungrateful leads to a dark heart. Let's go back to verse 21.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. When you and I reject God, suppress the truth, replace God, fail to give him thanks, over time our hearts, they get hard, they get cold, they get dark.

It doesn't get easier to worship God and to walk with him, it gets harder. I think of in the Bible, I think of King Nebuchadnezzar. You remember King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon? The story is told in Daniel chapter 4, if you want to read it later today. But is the king over the greatest, biggest, mightiest nation in the entire earth at the time, right? Conquering everybody.

And one day Nebuchadnezzar's walking around on the roof of his palace, and he looks and he says, look at all this. This I have built with my mighty hand.

Good job, me.

I did this. You remember what happens in the story? You read it Daniel chapter 4 read later God causes Nebuchadnezzar to lose his mind and he acts like an animal and he lives with the animals for seven years Ungratefulness leads Nebuchadnezzar to a literally very dark place Losing your mind and acting like an animal.

That's a pretty low, dark place. So to that point, let me address two groups of people that I think are in the room. Number one, for some of you, times are going really well, praise God for that. But unfortunately, you're tending to forget God and not praise Him for that, to not thank Him for that.

You're saying, man, good job me by the strength of my hand, by the wits of my brain. I got this life thing figured out. I'm taking care of myself, my family. I got what I need. Things are going really well. Times are going well. Have you forgotten to give the credit, to give the glory, to give the thanks to God? Do you realize that even though you may have done some great things in this life, the God of the universe holds your life on his pinky finger.

Your life rises and falls by the power of God Almighty. We might think that we're great and that we can do a lot, but it only takes an instant for God to show us otherwise. He sent Nebuchadnezzar into the woods to act like an animal for seven years. All right, so that's group number one.

Group number two, I think for some in the room, the whole time that I've been talking, you've been thinking, well, that's not a struggle for me. It's not a struggle for me to forget God when times are good and to think that it all goes to me? You know why?

Because this morning, times are bad, and how could I ever thank God? What do I possibly have to thank God for? You might have gotten some terrible news this week.

It might be what the doctor said.

It might be that your husband did something, it might be that your wife left, it might be something that happened to your kids.

It might be saying to yourself, you don't know what has happened to me. You don't know what he did, you don't know what she did, you don't know what the doctor said, you don't know what's going on in the life of my kid.

How could I thank God?

Ten years ago this summer, I got asked in this very room to preach a sermon on 1 Thessalonians 5.18. 1 Thessalonians 5.18 says, give thanks in every circumstance, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. I got asked to preach that sermon just a few weeks after, again, 10 years ago this summer, just a few weeks after my wife and I had lost our first baby to a miscarriage.

And I said, God, really? First Thessalonians 5.18, give thanks in every circumstance. That's what I get to preach. But I want to say to you, now what I said then, the text is quite clear. It doesn't say give thanks for every circumstance. It says give thanks in every circumstance. You might be going through something right now for which you can't give thanks. And I'll tell you what, you don't have to.

Not every circumstance in life will be something that you want to give thanks for. But the Bible says that in every circumstance, you can give thanks. I think in every circumstance, God, by his grace, gives us the opportunity to give thanks for our past, our present, and our future.

Our past, Jesus Christ, the son of God, lived, died, and rose to save you from sin and eternal death.

We go through really hard things in this life, and yet we can always be thankful for that. Present. God tells us that he is always with us.

People in this room could give you stories, they could tell you that even when you feel like you wanna abandon God, God will never abandon you. In the present, we can give thanks that God cries with us, he sits with us, he weeps with us, he hears us when we cry out and we complain about the difficult things that we go through.

The future, you and I have hope that one day Jesus is gonna return and all things will be made right. You might think right now that whatever it is that you're facing, there's no way this could be made right. There's no way this could be made up for. And yet, God tells us that that's exactly what will happen.

That the new heavens and the new earth sitting with Jesus, it will be made up for. The pain that we endure in this life will be made up for. It hurts so much and yet our lives are this small in the scheme of eternity. I wanna share with you a passage as we get ready to celebrate communion. Comes from Matthew 26, this is Jesus instituting communion. I think he covers these three tenses, the past, the present, and the future. Y'all know the word communion actually comes from the Greek word eucharist, which literally means give thanks. Matthew 26, let me read you what Jesus says. As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, broke it, and gave it to his disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body.

They took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenants Which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new With you and my father's kingdom The past Jesus says his body and his blood broken and poured out to take away your sins to take away the wrath of God the wrath of God for our sins, taken away because Jesus bore it on the cross. He gives us something to give thanks for in the past, in the present, he says take and eat, this is my body. What he's saying is I'm with you, I'm still with you, I have not left you, I have not abandoned you. As you hold the bread in your hands and you taste it in your mouth, the cup, Jesus is with us. He has not abandoned us. The future, that last verse, he says, I tell you, I will not drink of it again until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. Jesus gives us hope for the future. There will be with Him and everything will be made right. That's what you and I get to hope for. So brothers and sisters, my last question for you is this, will you trust and will you thank God even when it is hard.

The good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ, He lived, He died, He rose to take away your sins and to give you eternal life that will be so much more than you and I can even imagine in this life. even imagine in this life. Let me pray for us.