Don’t Hold Your Breath
Intro: Rudyard Kipling lived from 1865 to 1936. He was English, yet born in Bombay, India. He wrote poetry and is the author of books like Captain Courageous, How the Leopard Got His Spots, and The Jungle Books. Who was this man? Rudyard Kipling.
-Kipling’s writings not only made him famous but also brought him a fortune. A newspaper reporter came up to him once and said, "Mr. Kipling, I just read that somebody calculated that the money you make from your writings amounts to over one hundred dollars a word.”
-The reporter reached into his pocket and pulled out a one hundred-dollar bill and gave it to Kipling and said, “Here’s a one hundred dollar bill, Mr. Kipling. Now you give me one of your hundred dollar words.”
-Rudyard Kipling looked at the money, put it in his pocket and said, "Thanks!"
-Well, the word "thanks" is certainly a one hundred dollar word. In fact, I would say it is more like a million-dollar word. It’s a small word but it has a powerful meaning. It might only have 6 letters but it gets across a message that few other words are capable of achieving.
-When that little word is missing, we feel it deeply. You know what it’s like when someone doesn’t say "thanks" – you feel hurt, used, ignored, and taken for granted and you wonder why you bothered to do something for the person in the first place.
-No doubt God is above getting His feelings hurt when someone forgets to say thank you. However, gratitude is the proper response to His grace and love that He continually gives to us.
-Thankfulness can be described as the exhale of grace. We breathe in God’s grace when we receive His love and forgiveness and many other blessings. When we exhale we breathe out praise and thanks for who He is and what He has done.
-I’ve noticed something about breathing. Both the inhale and exhale are of critical importance. One might imagine that it is more important to breathe in. However, we can only inhale to the degree that we exhale.
-So, here is the main thought of today’s message:
Prop: God wants our praise and gratitude to be as vital and habitual as the way we breathe.
TS: Let’s look at a couple of thoughts about thankfulness that will help us recognize its importance and give us practical ways to express our gratefulness to Him.
I. The Importance of Thankfulness
[Play video clip- A Heart Fully Alive]
A. It gives us proper perspective- God is the source of all good things. We are indebted to Him. He is the giver. We are the takers. We are totally dependent upon Him.
James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
-There is nothing we have in this world that did not originate in God’s heart and mind, and ultimately come from His warehouse. When He releases His treasures into our care, it is only fitting that we should be grateful, recognizing where our help comes from.
Psalm 121:2 My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.
B. It helps us align with God’s will. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
-It is never God’s will for a Christ follower to be ungrateful. That is one of the quickest ways to miss God’s will – stop being thankful to God. It can also do a number on God’s reputation, affecting how people respond to Him.
C. It helps us see our true condition. Lack of thanks blinds us to our true condition and will stop the flow of grace. It leads to and feeds a sense of self-sufficiency - I have need of nothing.
-Look at Romans 1:20-21 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-- his eternal power and divine nature-- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
-One of the big problems that has plagued the human race is the failure to acknowledge Him as God and express gratitude to Him. Ungratefulness contributed to the downward spiral of fallen man. As a result man’s thinking becomes futile and their hearts are darkened. No light. Blindness to our true condition.
-That sounds like the Church in Laodicea, when Jesus spoke to them about their sluggish, unresponsive hearts: Revelation 3:17 You say, ’I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.
-Thankfulness is of vital importance! It gives us perspective, helps align us with God’s will, and helps us see reality. Let’s take a look at how we can express thankfulness.
II. The Expression of Thankfulness
-The ways to say thank you to God are endless. You can do it with words. You can do it with songs, but you’d better always back up what you say and what you sing by how you live. Live in such a way that genuine heartfelt gratitude streams from you to God.
-I want to share 7 Hebrew words for praise, several of them include or are synonymous with thanksgiving. See, giving thanks is central to worshiping God. Just saying thank you to God is an act of worship- if it comes from the heart.
-Long before Christ was born, Israel gave thank offerings to God, sacrifices of thanksgiving to show God how grateful they were. Thanks shows up at least 30 times in the book of Psalms alone. So here are 7 Heb. words for praise that will give us some ideas on how we can show God that we are grateful to Him for our life, for His love and forgiveness, and for every blessing He has given us.
Seven Hebrew Words for Praise
Hallal: To shine, to rave, to praise, to boast, to be clamorously foolish, to act madly. Psalm 113:1 -- "Praise (HALAL) ye the Lord, Praise (HALAL) O ye servants of the Lord, praise (HALAL) the name of the Lord."
Yadah: To revere or worship, to give thanks or praise (with extended hands), to lift the hands (lit. to throw or shoot out the hand) (the opposite meaning is, "to bemoan, the wringing of hands.") Psalm 92:1 It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High. Psalm 63:4 -- "Thus I will bless Thee while I live, I will (YADAH) lift up my hands in Thy name"
Barak: To bless, to kneel, to salute - Psalm 95:6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. It implies, "expecting to receive a blessing from the Lord."
Tehillah: A song or hymn of praise, a spontaneous expression of spiritual song
Psalm 34:1 -- "...His praise (TEHILLAH) shall continually be in my mouth."
Zamar: To make music, to sing praise, to play a musical instrument, to pluck and twang. I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises (ZAMAR) to Thee among the nations." (Ps. 57:9)
Todah: Confession, praise, thanksgiving - Psalm 95:2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving. Let us sing him psalms of praise. Used for thanking God for "things not yet received" as well as things already at hand. (Lit. extension of the hand in adoration, avowal, or acceptance)
Shabach: To exclaim, to shout, to laud, praise or commend loudly - Psalm 145:4 -- "One generation shall praise (SHABACH) thy works to another and declare Thy mighty acts."
http://itrustyou.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/seven-hebrew-words-for-praise/
Psalm 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, (TODAH) and into his courts with praise (TEHILLAH): be thankful (YADAH) unto him, and bless (BARAK) his name.
[Play Carman’s 7 Ways to Praise the Lord]
Conclusion: I hope that you’re more ready than ever to praise the Lord, giving thanks to Him for Who He is and what He has done! Thankfulness is vital! It gives us the right perspective that God is our source. It helps us align our lives with God’s will. And it helps us see our true condition. We may think we are okay, but if we are really more like the Laodicean Church – wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked – then we had better go to our source for the help we need – then thank Him! Use some of the gestures of praise from these 7 Hebrew words for praise. Find new ways to praise the Lord – but always do it from your heart!
-Don’t hold your breath! Freely breathe in the goodness of God, but when you breathe out, let it be a breathe of praise and thankfulness for all God has done and will do in our lives.
