Introduction

Welcome church! I’m so grateful to see you all here today. Doris Day once said, “Gratitude is riches, complaint is poverty.” And as we gather together today with Thanksgiving fresh on our minds, there is so much for us to be grateful for.

I hope that as I was sharing you were busy thinking of all the things you have to be grateful for as well. I hope you were able to see how truly wealthy you are, that gratitude is riches, and that God is at work in all of our lives.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, our sermon today, Give Thanks, is all about Thanksgiving, gratitude, and gratefulness. The ancient Roman philosopher Cicero said, "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others." It’s well documented that being grateful has incredible mental, physical, and emotional benefits. In fact, the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Did you catch that last part? The one where Paul revealed that giving thanks in every circumstance isn’t just a good idea, it puts you directly in the very will of God.

Main Teaching

Many of us struggle to know what the “will of God” is for our lives. We beg Him in prayer and ask Him to show us what we should do, where we should live, who we should marry, and on and on the list continues. I’m not saying that it’s bad or wrong to ask Him those things, but what if in reply He were to say, “I just want you to be grateful, no matter the circumstance.”

Grateful for the job you have. Grateful for the spouse and kids you have. Grateful for the home and city you live in. Grateful for all of it.

What if this Thanksgiving you took some time to really slow down and take a gratitude inventory. What if you wrote out, line by line, everything you’re grateful for. From big things to small things, from the home you live in to the Keurig machine that automatically brews your coffee every morning. What if nothing were off limits from the gratitude inventory, what would you say?

There’s power in naming the things that we’re grateful for. It helps set our focus on positive things rather than negative. It helps us to avoid the “poverty of complaint” and if we do it often enough, we can develop habits of gratitude in our lives. These habits become very important when adversity enters the picture. It’s easy to be grateful when things are going well, but when things get difficult, we’re quick to default back to complaining and grumbling. I think this is why the apostle Paul advises us to be grateful in every circumstance.

Every Circumstance

I think we can all agree that it’s not easy to be grateful in every circumstance ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium