Sunday Matters #9: Transforming hearts from grumbling to gratitude.
For a quick refresher on WHY and HOW we’re using this resource as a team for this season, click on this previous blog post: “New Resource for 2024”.The chapter this week really gets down to street level, right? Did you, like me, find one of the opening statements something that has too rolled easily off your tongue this season? Or maybe you added your own statement at the end. I think sometimes we might just expect God to respond by knocking us on the head and exclaiming, “Just stop complaining!”. I know my mom had to do that more times than she should have had to as I was growing up. I’m sure I deserved it every time too! However, thank God, that’s not how the Gospel works by pummeling our hearts every week on the Lord’s Day. Corporate worship is more like a built-in discipleship program for our hearts. I love that Paul Tripp says that it “progressively” silences the grumbling heart and, over time, replaces it with a gospel gratitude. Gospel transformation happens as we expose it to God’s Word and God’s people over time. It’s the work he’s committed to bringing to completion! God designed the Lord’s Day as a constant rhythm of grace.
This quote below stuck out to me because it reminded me that when my heart is grumbling, it usually means that i’m lacking something I think God owes me:
“Want is more natural than worship” (pg. 48)
As we engage within the gospel-shaped liturgy patterns of our worship service, our hearts are being transformed from grumbling to gratitude. It’s not natural, it’s actually supernatural. I’m not talking about a bumper sticker theology where we glance at a trite saying that momentarily offers a positive outlook on life and then we’re good to go for another week. No! I’m talking about the regular, necessity of a balanced meal that nourishes one’s body and helps it to grow consistently healthier bite by bite. We must see the need to feast on the gospel in this way in corporate worship each week. So, let’s invite Jesus to challenge our hearts when we “feel” like we don’t have what we need to make it through the next day, the next trial, the next disappointment, the next temptation. Let’s let gathered worship be the consistent tool God intended it to be to keep working on us. Transformational worship happens as we see how Jesus, the Good Shepherd, pursues us and leads us to drink from the soul-satisfying waters of his provision.
I encourage you to join me praying through Psalm 23 as a way of preparing our hearts to battle the lies that tell us that God is holding out on us in some way. Let this psalm lead us into Sunday as we gather to worship, serve, and progressively silence our naturally grumbling hearts with his supernatural goodness.
Psalm 23
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell
in the house of the LORD forever.
Our Green Room Prayer:
Oh God, in our gathering as Four Oaks Church today, silence our weak, grumbling hearts and help us to dwell on all that you have provided for us in Christ. Fill us with gratitude as you meet us in our struggles, disappointments, and temptations. And let us be assured again that you delight to provide for all our needs. Amen.
