I have a feeling that I will say this often during the next 500 days, but this was my favorite sermon so farJ It is just so foundational and Piper really explains it well, giving his one point, in the context of his message, over and over again. PROUD PEOPLE DON’T SAY THANKS!!!!
He starts off the message by explaining the universal truth that God created all things and all things are for him, through Him and to Him. The only proper response is THANK YOU!
For those who, by God’s grace, love the truth and don’t want to suppress it, creation becomes a dazzling lesson book in theology. It teaches the open mind that there is a deity, an infinitely marvelous Being, who made the world. It teaches that this Being has stupendous power and that he is eternal. The world in its molecular and visible and galactic structure and order bears the mark of an Architect. And if he is the Architect of all that is, then he was not brought into being by anyone else and is eternal. An eternally powerful, infinitely marvelous Maker of all things is evident from the lesson book of creation. But that’s not all we can read in this book.
If there is such an all-powerful, infinitely glorious God who made all things, then I, too, am his creature. And everything I have is from him. Who but the Creator gives to all men life and breath and everything (Acts 17:25)? Standing before the irresistible logic of the lesson book of creation, I have to admit that everything is a gift. It is inconceivable that the Creator should ever owe me anything. For when could I ever give a gift to him that I should be repaid? “For from him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:35–36). I am not my own; I belong to my Maker. My existence is owing to him, and therefore my existence must be for him.
But what can I give my Maker? If he were hungry he would not tell me, for the world and all that is in it is his. The birds of the air, the bugs in the field, the cattle on a thousand hills belong to him (Psalm 50:10–12). Everything that is, is God’s. I cannot improve him. I cannot enrich or add to him. I am utterly and inescapably and always the recipient. “He is not served by human hands as though he needed anything” (Acts 17:25).
The question to all of this is:
How, then, shall I live for him? How shall I please him?
And the answer is:
The answer to that question, too, stands written in the lesson book of creation mirrored in our own conscience. I must be thankful to him! If I cannot add to his glory, then I must honor his glory. If there is an eternally powerful and infinitely marvelous God who made all that is, then there is only one righteous destiny for his creatures—to live for the praise of his glory … to join our Maker in his manifest purpose to make his power and glory known and loved among the nations. How shall a mere creature honor the glory of his Maker? We all know the answer to that question: We honor his glory by cherishing it and being thankful. “He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies God” (Psalm 50:23).
Gratitude honors God. Gratitude is the echo of grace as it reverberates through the hollows of the human heart. Gratitude is the unashamed acceptance of a free gift and the heartfelt declaration that we cherish what we cannot buy. Therefore gratitude glorifies the free grace of God and signifies the humility of a needy and receptive heart.
It is really amazing how much we can know of God and our duty simply by honestly pondering the lesson book of creation: that there is an infinitely marvelous Being who made all things, who has eternal power, to whom we owe life and breath and everything, and therefore whom we should glorify and thank from the bottom of our hearts day and night. Nobody who will own up to the reality in which he lives needs the Bible to know that he should glorify God and give him thanks. It is written in the sky and in every human heart—but nobody does it.
But we have rejected the truth about God so we can be wise in our fooliness.
The reason the human heart hates the truth that creation teaches is because it is too humbling. From sea to shining sea the creation shouts that God has eternal power, God is the infinitely marvelous Being, God is the Maker of all that is, and we are utterly dependent on his absolutely free choices to create and sustain our life or not, and we should therefore glorify him and not ourselves and give thanks to him and not take credit for ourselves. But proud people don’t say thanks. Gratitude is the echo of grace reverberating through the hollows of the human heart. But proud people don’t need grace. They don’t think their hearts are hollow without God. They are filled with wisdom! So “claiming to be wise, they exchange the glory of the immortal God for images.” Proud people don’t say thanks. Tight-lipped, they take the diamond of God’s glory, enter the pawn shop of pride, and hock it for the broken marble of self-reliance. Then they take this little idol home, set it on the mantle of their mind, and bow down to it in a hundred different ways every day. “Although we knew God, we did not glorify him as God or give thanks to him but became futile in our thinking … claiming to be wise.” Proud people don’t say thanks.
So, how do we receive that grace from humility? Consider His glory through His creation and let thankfulness ring through your life…
Steve Allen
ACTION Zambia
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