Three Things To Include In Thanksgiving Series

Alba 11-10-13 (Revised 11-13-2022)

THREE THINGS TO INCLUDE IN THANKSGIVING

I Thessalonians 5:18

I Thessalonians 5:18 says, Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Sometimes the circumstances of our lives are not always the best. In fact, they may be downright bad. We wonder about the future or our country and the downward direction it is going. Gender reassignment is accepted. Abortion is promoted. Drugs are being legalized.

But still, in all circumstances we are to look for something for which to be thankful! And there is ALWAYS something positive for which we can be thankful!

One morning after a terrible snowstorm, a lady named Susan was outside shoveling her driveway. She stopped to wave hello to her neighbor, and he asked her why her husband wasn’t out there helping her with the chore.

She explained that one of them had to stay inside to take care of the children, so they drew straws to see who would go out and shovel. "Sorry about your bad luck," he said. Susan replied, "Don’t be sorry. I won!"

Yes, give thanks in all circumstances.

Today's message is called three things to include in thanksgiving. As our thanksgiving expands, it should include at least these 3 things;

1) The Blessings of Life.

Picture this: Each evening the wife and mother of the family stands in the kitchen and thanks God for a sink full of dirty dishes. Does she do that? No, she doesn’t! Who would? But we should!

A sink full of dirty dishes usually means that we have been blessed by God with daily food and water. They say that there are many in the world who go to bed hungry every night.

Our prayers are often very general. We say, "Thank you God for all our blessings." But for which blessings are we really thankful? We are to: “Count your blessings...name them one by one...count your many blessings see what God has done.”

What could we include if we were to list the blessings that God has given to us? Someone came up with this list of eight things to remember at Thanksgiving: Be grateful...

* For automatic dishwashers. They make it possible to get out of the kitchen before the family comes in for their after-dinner snacks.

* For husbands who attack small repair jobs around the house. They usually make them big enough to call in professionals.

* For the bathtub -- the one place the family allows Mom some time to herself.

* For children who put away their things and clean up after themselves. They’re such a joy you hate to see them go home to their own parents.

* For gardening. It’s a relief to deal with dirt outside the house for a change.

* For teenagers. They give parents an opportunity to learn a second language.

* For smoke alarms. They let you know when the turkey’s done. -- Gene Perrett

Giving God thanks should be a theme running through our lives. Not only do we need to be thankful for our blessings, blessings result from being thankful.

Because thankfulness forces us to focus on what we have, rather than on what we want. In our materialistic culture, we can give in to a consumerism of the soul that reduces our prayers to shopping lists.

But a sincere thankfulness looks outward, not inward. It realigns our lives so that we revolve around God instead of trying to make God revolve around us.

Also thankfulness highlights grace. To give thanks is to admit that we are dependent upon God. It is our way of saying, "I could not have done this on my own, but You, Lord, helped me."

Thanksgiving removes the temptation to boast, and strengthens the only basis on which we can relate to God: that of accepting our own unworthiness in the presence of God, and of God’s free grace to us through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Gratitude is an attitude of grace. It means that we can see God's grace in all things. That we don't feel that He owes us, or that we have earned His blessings. But rather that everything we have is by the grace of God.

That should make us truly thankful. And also make us gracious to others as well. Those who are truly thankful usually are more giving and more kind to others.

So, we need to thank God for the blessings of life. But, we should also give thanks for...

2) The Burdens of Life.

This is where it gets tough. But our verse in I Thessalonians 5:18 says, "Give thanks in ALL circumstances." Ephesians 5:20 adds we should be, "always giving thanks."

You may think, surely the apostle Paul made a mistake, or even that it must have been easy for him to say. But it wasn’t. Paul suffered from a very difficult problem that he called a “thorn in the flesh”.