Gratitude: The Role Model's Lifestyle by Pastor Sam Adeyemi: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Proper Response to Grace

Psalm 103:1-5 — Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

Grace is receiving what you cannot afford. David — a teenage shepherd boy hidden even by his own father — had God rewrite the royal succession of an entire nation on his behalf. There is no transaction that covers that kind of intervention. The proper response to grace is gratitude.

Yet David does not assume gratitude will happen automatically. He speaks to himself. He instructs his own soul. This is because he has recognised one of the most persistent weaknesses of human nature: we forget.

The Problem of Forgetting

Human psychology is negatively programmed by the nature of sin — to focus on what we lack, to dwell in the pain of the present, to be preoccupied by what others have that we do not. Focus on the negative past, and you project a negative present and a negative future.

Psalm 106:7-15 tells the story of Israel in the wilderness. They crossed the Red Sea on dry ground. Their enemies were covered by water. Not one survived. They sang God's praises. Then — verse 13 — yet how quickly they forgot what he had done. Their desires ran wild. They tested God in the wasteland. He gave them what they asked for, but sent a plague along with it.

The speed with which they forgot is a warning. Temporary pain must never be allowed to reshape your entire perspective of God.

Leveraging Memory

David understood the strategic use of memory. The day he stood before Goliath, he did not focus on the giant's size or the army's fear. He reached back: The God who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the bear — he will deliver me from this Philistine. He leveraged positive memory to project a positive future. While all of Israel called it the army of Saul, David called it the army of God. Saul measured himself against Goliath and was paralysed. David measured the giant against God and the giant was already dead.

The fact that you know how to do something does not mean that is the strategy God wants to use in the moment. David knew how to use the sword — he ran to Goliath after the stone fell and used Goliath's own sword to take his head. But when he walked onto the field, God's chosen instrument was a sling and a stone. The method was God's. The man was available.

Walking With God — Not Just Working for God

David's Psalms are extraordinary because they are the record of a man who talked to God about everything — when happy, when afraid, when confident, when broken. Ministry is first a walk with God before it is a work for God.

Church can be a distracting place. The number one distraction in any church is other people — who greeted who, how someone looked at you, who did or did not acknowledge you. The question must always return: who did you come for?

Absolutely no assumptions about people. In 1 Samuel 23, David twice confirmed with God whether Saul was coming and whether the men of Keilah would betray him — even after he had just delivered that city from the Philistines. He made no assumptions about human gratitude or loyalty. The fact that you helped someone yesterday is no guarantee they will help you today. Let God be your source.

When God said stop defending yourself publicly and focus on the assignment, the scripture that came: He is near that justifies me. Isaiah 50:8. Stop talking. Face the work. I will talk for you. He executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.

What God's Ways Look Like

Isaiah 55:8-9 — My ways are not your ways; my thoughts are not your thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. Paul wrote the letters we now call scripture while sitting in prison, while his contemporaries were building platforms and running conferences. His imprisonment looked like abandonment. But what he wrote was so precisely aligned with heaven's agenda that God made it canon. The path of true influence often does not look like influence.

Thirty Years of Faithfulness

This church began without a drum set — with conga drums bought from the market the day a senior leader came to visit. The first drum set was purchased by pooling contributions from every department to celebrate one year of existence. A mattress on a floor. The last salary from a previous ministry used to pay a pledge rather than kept as provision. A pillow accidentally taken returned out of integrity before the new work could begin.

This far, the Lord has helped. We can say Ebenezer.