Giving Thanks | Thanksgiving Sermon Series

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Today we are celebrating thanksgiving for this year that God has blessed us with.

Shakespeare said, “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.” “Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend.” Even Shakespeare recognized what it is to have ingratitude.

GIVING THANKS

Ephesians 5:18-20

18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here, Apostle Paul is telling the quality of a Spirit-filled person, A Spirit-filled person’s heart is filled with song and it bursts out of him and then a spirit-filled person turns toward God and he says thanks. Even more one of the aspects of worship to God is to be thankful, is giving thanks and Thanks always is able to say in the midst of anything, good or even difficult, “God be praised, God be praised.” Even more, Do you know that all of the feasts and festivals of Israel were set for thanksgiving?

When are we to be thankful? when should we be giving thanks?

Always!

Ephesians 5:20

always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When are we to be thankful then? Always!

Probably, you may say, “Pastor, you don’t know my problem.” well, Giving thanks in the midst of our problems recognizes that God is in control of our life and that God is certainly, trying to conform you to the image of Christ with all the things that occur.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

If you don’t know what God’s will is, then give thanks. This is the will of God.

Ephesians 5:17

Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the Lord’s will is.

So what is the will of God? Ephesians 5:20 …always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When God brings difficulties into our lives when God brings trials into our lives and we gripe and complain and we don’t understand the meaning of James 1 which says: James 1:2-4 2Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Therefore, thank God even when you are facing a trial because the trials have come to perfect us.

Three Categories Of Thankful People

1. Giving Thanks After The Blessing

They are the people who are thankful after the blessings and that is very easy because after God has just blessed you, you are thankful.

Example

I was ill and the Lord touched my body, now I’m well, I’m so thankful or say, I did not have a job and God gave me a job. Therefore I am thankful for the job he has given me. yes, It is always good to thank God after a blessing. However, this is easy thanksgiving because God has just blessed you and you say, “Oh, thank You, Lord.”

By the way, such thanksgiving is biblical. Look at Exodus chapter 14 we find the likewise, The children of Israel have come to the Red Sea where Pharaoh is chasing them from behind and Moses lifts up his staff and then the Red Sea part and they walk across. He says, “Well if they can do it, we can do it.” Only they couldn’t do it. Because as Pharaoh marched the entire Egyptian army into the dried Red Sea road, the walls closed down and drowned them all.

Exodus 14:28-30

28The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived. 29But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. 30That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore.

Therefore, they started singing to the Lord as their salvation.

Exodus 15:1-4

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:

1“I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.

2“The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.

He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

3 The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name.