Intro: Edward Spencer was a ministerial student in Evanston, Illinois, and also a member of a life-saving squad during his school years. In 1860, a ship went aground on the shore of Lake Michigan near Evanston, and Spencer waded again and again into the frigid waters to rescue seventeen passengers. In the process, his health was permanently damaged. Some years later at his funeral, it was noted that not one of the people he rescued ever bothered to thank him.
<>Worse than being merely discourteous, these people displayed a gross lack of gratitude.
-->Especially as believers, we need to be aware that gratitude opens up our lives for God’s will to be done in and through us.
My favorite holiday of the year is Thanksgiving because its beginning and its history have a single purpose: to stop and express thanks.
<>However, gratitude is actually to be a 24-7 attitude...not just a 1-day holiday on the fourth Thursday in November.
I invite you to open a Bible and turn once again to James 1:17.
->Today and next Sunday we’ll be engaged in the sermon series, “Pursuing Thanks.”
<>Being thankful is best understood as a door or a portal through which God can lead us to experience His perfect will.
->And simply put, without it, we’ll miss what God has in store for us.
<>So it’s important for us to understand where gratitude and being thankful “fit in,” where they belong in our lives.
<>1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us straight up that in EVERYTHING we are to give thanks, “for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
-->A 24-7 attitude of gratitude is God’s desire for our lives.
-->So today’s task is to determine your G.Q., your gratitude quotient.
-->Do YOU have an attitude of gratitude?
<>SCRIPTURE TELLS US THERE ARE FIVE SPECIFIC AREAS IN OUR LIVES IN WHICH AND DURING WHICH WE SHOULD BE THANKFUL:
1) IN OUR BLESSINGS. -- Being thankful when things are going well.
--Ja.1:17 -- “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”
-->Unfortunately, the seventeen passengers Edward Spencer rescued who never bothered to even say thank you aren’t that much unlike us.
----James 1:17 tells us God is the source of all good things, and yet too often we don’t say thank you either.
<>Stated clearly: FAILING TO HAVE A SENSE OF GRATITUDE IS ACTUALLY INGRATITUDE.
---ILL>I’m reminded of a story a few years back, where a man and woman gave a generous donation to their church in honor of the memory of their son who lost his life in the war. When the announcement was made during a worship service, a woman sitting in the service whispered to her husband: “Let’s give the same amount for our boy!” Her husband was incredulous. “What are you talking about,” he replied, “Our son wasn’t killed!” The woman looked at him and said, “That’s just the point! Let’s give it as an expression of our gratitude to God for sparing our son’s life.”
--->POEM: Similarly, an anonymous writer said it this way: “Today upon a bus, I saw a lovely maid with golden hair; I envied her, she seemed so happy, and how I wished I were so fair. When suddenly she rose to leave, I saw her hobble down the aisle; she had one foot and wore a crutch, but as she passed, a smile. O God, forgive me when I whine: I have two feet, the world is mine! -- And when I stopped to buy some sweets, the lad who served me had such charm; he seemed to radiate good cheer, his manner was so kind and warm; I said, “It’s nice to deal with you, such courtesy I seldom find;” he turned, and said, “O thank you, sir.” And then I saw that he was blind. O God, forgive me when I whine: I have two eyes, the world is mine! -- Then, when walking down the street, I saw a child with eyes of blue; he stood and watched the others play, it seemed he knew not what to do; I stopped a moment, then I said, “Why don’t you join the others, dear?” He looked ahead without a word, and then I knew he could not hear. O God, forgive me when I whine: I have two ears, the world is mine! -- With feet to take me where I’d go, with eyes to see the sunsets glow, with ears to hear what I would know, I’m blessed indeed. The world is mine. O God, forgive me when I whine.
-<>The Key: Expressing thanks to God for the blessings He has allowed into our lives is the STARTING PLACE for an attitude of gratitude.
--->Next Sunday, part of our worship service will be devoted to allowing you to openly express what it is in your life that you are most thankful for.
--->Being thankful for God’s blessings is actually a no-brainer. Recognizing that every good thing is a gift from God, we should be thankful to Him for them.
-<>But an attitude of gratitude goes far beyond that alone.
2) IN OUR PRAYERS. -- Being thankful as we bring our requests to God.
--Ph.4:6 -- “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”
-<>One of the keys to an effective prayer life is understanding that prayer is to be entered into with an attitude of gratitude.
--->1 Thessalonians 5:18 tells us “in everything give thanks,” but the verse right before it tells us that we are to “pray without ceasing.” -- The two ideas are very much connected.
-<>Unfortunately, many people, especially new Christians, view prayer as a “wish list” of “gimme, gimme, gimme stuff” we present to God.
--->It’s like we’re coming to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him all the stuff we want in our lives.
-----“Give me health, give me wealth, give me obedient children, give me a promotion at work, give me a miracle cure, give me a boyfriend, let me win the lottery, etc.”
--->And although we ARE instructed to bring our burdens, our concerns, our felt needs to the Lord, that’s NOT ALL THAT PRAYER IS.
-<>Look at Philippians 4:6 again: notice the two words that are often overlooked? -- “WITH THANKSGIVING”
--->We’re to be thankful for the very privilege of prayer.
------It didn’t come without a horribly high cost.
--------Jesus shed His precious blood to allow us to come into the presence of the Father again.
------It’s an honor and privilege that we need to be thankful for.
------Every prayer we pray needs to be voiced with remembrance of what Jesus did to make our relationship with the Father possible.
--->We’re also to be thankful for past answers to prayer.
-----We need to be recalling how He’s been faithful to US all along.
-----We need to not be like the rescued passengers who never acknowledged the great gift they received.
-----We need to not be like the nine lepers who never returned to say thank you to Jesus for their healing.
-----We need to possessors and displayers of an attitude of gratitude.
--->And, we’re to be thankful in advance for how God is going to work all things together for the good.
-----We are to pray with the faith and assurance that God’s power and sovereignty will bring about God’s will.
-----We are to be thankful that He loves us so, and that He wants to give us what is best, His good and perfect will.
3) IN OUR WORSHIP. -- Being thankful as we connect with God.
--Hb.13:15 -- “Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.”
--Col.3:16 -- “...singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
-<>We’ve seen in previous messages that worship BEGINS with a sense of reverence toward God.
--->But it begins being EXPRESSED from our lips in thanksgiving.
-<>Let’s look at the words, the lyrics of Psalm 100:
-----“Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful singing....Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him; bless His name.”
--->Psalm 100 was called a Psalm of Ascension.
-----It’s the song the Jewish people sang as they ascended the Temple Mount.
-----It’s the song they’d be singing as they entered through the gates of the city of Jerusalem.
-----And then they’d sing songs of praise as they entered into the inner courts of the temple area.
-<>Stated plainly: Unless you have a heart that is thankful to God, you can’t really worship Him.
----Before we can praise Him, there must be an attitude of gratitude in our hearts for what He’s already given us.
----There must be a sensed thanksgiving for the privilege of knowing God, and being allowed to be a part of His unfolding mission on the earth.
-<>Being thankful then leads us into the more personal and heart-stretching area of praise.
----So we enter His gates with thanksgiving, which then leads us into His inner courts with praise.
4) IN OUR FELLOWSHIP. -- Being thankful for the other believers God has brought into our lives.
--Col.1:3 -- “We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.”
--ILL>It is reported that Howard Hughes, when worth approximately $4 billion, said, “I’d give it all for one good friend.”
--ILL>In the early 1970’s UCLA football coach Pepper Rodgers came under intense criticism and pressure from alumni and fans. Things go so bad, he remembered, with a smile, that friends became hard to find. He described it this way: “My dog was my only true friend. I told my wife that every man needs at least two good friends...and she bought me another dog.”
-<>But for us, God has given us Christian friends...as a free gift from His grace and goodness and as part of His plan for our lives.
----Our view of one another as fellow-believers should be one of gratitude, thanks to God for bringing each other into our lives.
5) IN OUR SUFFERING. -- Being thankful in every circumstance.
--Eph.5:20 -- “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.”
--Col.3:15 -- “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.”
--Ac16:25 -- “But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”
-<>In our natural nature, we’re self-seeking, self-centered.
---So when things are tough, or when things don’t go as we’d like them to be, we tend to complain, and grumble.
---We get upset and even begin to wonder why God has handed us such an unfair hand.
---ILL>I’m reminded of the story of two men who were walking through a field one day and spotted an enraged bull. Instantly, the darted toward the nearest fence. The storming bull followed in hot pursuit, and it was soon apparent that they wouldn’t make it. Terrified, one of the men shouted to the other, “Put up a prayer, John! We’re in for it!” John answered back, “I can’t. I never made a public prayer in my life.” The first man responded, saying, “But you must! The bull is catching up to us!” So John replied, “All right...I’ll say the only prayer that I know...the one my father used to repeat at the table.” With that he began to pray, “O Lord, for what we are to receive, make us truly thankful.”
--->Well, prayer IS an integral part of expressing gratitude, but it’s to be more than just words said out of a habit or simply reciting some set of words we repeat over and over.
-<>An attitude of gratitude brings about a CHANGED PERSPECTIVE in our lives.
----It affects how we look at, how we perceive, how we view difficult times that we encounter.
---ILL>A mom and dad brought their son into the living room for a stern discussion of the boy’s report card. Showing all “F’s” on the card, the dad asked the son, “What do you have to say about this, son?” The son replied, “Well, you COULD be proud of me, father!” The father, taken aback, asked: “Proud?! Why would I be proud of you when you bring home a report card like this?!” The son then answered, “Well, one thing you know for sure: I didn’t cheat!”
-->Similarly...
---ILL>In Budapest, a man went to a rabbi and complained, saying, “Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?” The rabbi answered, saying, “Take your goat into the room with you.” The man was incredulous at first, but the rabbi insisted, assuring the man, saying, “Do as I say and come back in a week.” A week later the man came back looking even more distraught than before. He told the rabbi, “We can’t stand it. The goat is filthy.” So, the rabbi told him then, “Go home and let the goat out, then come back in a week.” A week later the man returned, radiant. He told the rabbi, “Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there’s no goat, only the nine of us!”
-->And...
---ILL>One day Matthew Henry, famed Bible scholar, was robbed by a man with a weapon. Writing about the event later, Henry revealed a faith-based perspective, saying, “I have so much to be thankful for: I am thankful that God wrought such a change in my heart that it was I who was being robbed, and not the one doing the robbing. I am thankful that even though the young man took my money, he did not take my life also. I am thankful that even though he took my money bag there wasn’t much inside of it. I am thankful that I alone was injured, and not any additional persons. I am thankful that my life is so much more than the earthly possessions God has granted to me in my sojourn here, and I am thankful that even should I have lost my life in this encounter I know heaven is awaiting me, where the riches of God’s glory far outweigh the total of all man’s possessions on earth.”
-<>When Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison for preaching the gospel, we might have expected them to feel sorry for themselves and complain about it.
----After all, they were unfairly treated, they were brutally beaten...all for trying to do something good.
--->But instead, they were praying and singing hymns, praising God in their prison cell.
-<>When Peter and John were arrested and thrown into prison, placed in the darkest part of the dungeon, and threatened with their lives if they ever were to talk of Jesus again, they refused to remain silent.
--->Then, when they were released the following day, they thanked God for the honor of being persecuted as believers, being identified as followers of Jesus.
-<>How could each of these pairs do it?
----How could they be thankful in the middle of what had to be their worst day / night of their lives to that point?
-<>The key is that they had learned the secret of having an attitude of gratitude.
----An attitude that isn’t stymied by bad circumstances.
----An attitude that takes a licking and keeps on ticking.
-<>Similarly, Paul wrote the book of Philippians while he was in jail for preaching the gospel.
--->Do you know what the theme of the book of Philippians is? -- JOY in the middle of trials.
--->How could he do it? How could he be joyful while chained to a Roman guard in the darkness of a jail cell?
--->Paul explained that he had learned the “secret” of being CONTENT in whatever circumstances he found himself.
------He learned through first-hand experience and a faith stretched through times of trials and testing, that being thankful, possessing a 24-7 attitude of gratitude opens up our lives for God’s will to be done in and through us, and for God’s glory to be shown in how we handle the difficulties.
<>SO, LET’S BRING IT HOME...
-->What’s YOUR G.Q.?
-----What’s your gratitude quotient?
-->Are you thankful today?
-----In the middle of whatever circumstance you’re going through?
-----You CAN be.
-----Philippians 4:13 is penned immediately AFTER Paul has explained his learning the secret of being content in whatever circumstance he found himself, therefore, he stated, “I CAN DO ALL THINGS through Christ who strengthens me.”
-----In other words, I’m confident God will bring me through and bring me to victory, regardless of what things look like at the moment!
-->Are you practicing 1 Thessalonians 5:18 -- “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you?”
-----If so, I invite you to stop right now and thank God afresh.
-----However, if gratitude is not a 24-7 attitude in your life, I invite you to pray right now and ask God to change your perspective, to stir up within you what He wants to bring with you...an ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE.
