The Bounty of God’s Blessings
Selective verses
Illustration-
You heard of the lady that was fighting to find a parking spot in a busy mall, had a lot to do and it started to rain, asked God to help find her a spot near the front door. As soon as she said that a car began backing up right in front of the doors, she went right for it and said “Never mind God, something just opened up.”
We laugh about it, but how many times do we ask God for something and when we receive it, we behave as though it was a coincidence and we fail to give credit where credit is due?
Introduction-
This morning we are going to look at being thankful. But being thankful has to be more than a word that says you are glad to have received something.
Someone gives you something, you say thank you. (There is an exchange)
You are thankful for dishwashers. Cars, vacuum cleaners…(Mechanical items that make your life easier)
You are thankful for smoke alarms, but only after they have warned you of danger and/or saved your life… or you don’t even know they are around.
So this morning, let’s specifically look at what it means to be biblically thankful and what does the bible teach us about being thankful.
We are one week away from turkey day and we call that Thanksgiving- A day we fill our face with all kinds of food till we are almost comatose and then need a long Nazarene nap- but is that Thanksgiving?
Prayer-
Father, today help us to see that being Thankful, grateful, humble, all begins in knowing who you are and what you have done for us.
Thankful is an act of worship to you that filters down to those we are around.
Being Thankful is a lifestyle of a believer, seen by unbelievers to move them toward a relationship with you.
May we today and everyday be thankful for what you have done for us and have given us. In Jesus Name…Amen.
Psalm 136:1- “Give thanks to the Lord”
It does not take very long to realize we live in a thankless age- there are people who have more than they ever had, but because they don’t have everything they want, they live lives unthankful.
Certainly not everyone, but there is a part of society that if left unchecked, is not grateful, but greedy.
To avoid falling into that mindset, we must understand and live out biblical thankfulness and gratitude.
It is not normal to be thankful, but for a believer, who lives not according to the standards of the world, being thankful is what our lives ought to look like.
Say it another way- most kids if not trained to be thankful, will be ungrateful and not willing to share. (We all have seen it)
Will have the mine! Mine! Attitude.
Illustration
My children when they were very young learned a valuable lesson on being grateful. One Christmas, they were given several gifts, quite a lot, and when they finished opening them, looked around and said, is that all! I want more! Began crying because there was no more. (After opening a room full of presents)
They did not know the sacrifice made so they could open what they opened. They were ungrateful for what was given, because their heart was wanting more than being thankful for what they got!
I took what they were given away for awhile and explained to them that what was given is a gift, and that what was given was out of love, and to receive gifts, it must be taken with a grateful heart.
It was a hard lesson for them and it is a hard lesson for most today.
Apostle Paul, who to me is the biblical example of someone who made such a drastic change of heart once he became a believer. He was privileged, his own words of praise of himself was “ circumcised the eighth day, tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.”
This guy thought he could not get any better… according to world standard and his puffed up ego.
But when he received Christ as Lord, his words changed…
Philippians 3:5-14
“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ- the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.” (10) I want to know Christ- yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participate in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”
(12) Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Paul is giving thanks to the Lord!
He has no confidence in his own flesh, but is thankful for what Christ Jesus has done for Him!
In fact, everything he has and everything he was, is based on what Christ has done for him and who Christ says He is! Amen. Amen.
There are some things you can do to keep a grateful and thankful heart- you want to keep a heart of thanksgiving, look to the Psalms-
In God, we boast continually, and give thanks for your name forever.
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise.
Thanksgiving is a time for family to gather around the table and enjoy a lovely meal together. It will vary what is on the menu for many different reasons. Before the meat is carved, the family is welcome to join hands and offer up a prayer of thanksgiving for the food before them. That varies too…
Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub to an elaborate prayer of thanksgiving from the heart that truly offers up a prayer of thanks to God.
We have some who belly up to the table and have one thought, let’s demolish as much as humanly possible and get into the nearest chair to watch TV and then have the TV watch them.
Even looking at the pilgrims of 1620, the pilgrims said a prayer of thanks as they ate with native Indians and looked to the Bible to express gratitude and thanks for their first harvest. Looking to God to give thanks for all He has done. If we are to give thanks, it must always be to put God first at the center of our hearts. Our first offer of thanksgiving is to Him for all things.
Thank God for the material things that He gives you
Thank God for people in your life who are a blessing
Thank God in the midst of a trial (Not for the trial)
Thank God for our salvation in Jesus
Thank God for His presence and power in your life.
Two blessings this week-
Sitting across a table sharing a meal with someone I respect very much.
Talking with my wife about some deep things going on in our lives and having God’s presence in the conversation.
There are the two things I hope to unpack this morning.
Gratefulness
Thankfulness
And living out those two things, we will find God gives us peace.
“Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great king above all gods. Psalm 95:2-3
Directives found in God’s Word-
Give thanks-
I will (personal)
Do not (warning)
Let us. (Community)
Individually and corporately we should be grateful for what God has already done for us and corporately we should be worshiping and responding to his love with an attitude of praise.
Even when things are not going well
Especially when things are well and we have a tendency to forget what God has done.
Wash, rinse, repeat. Wash, rinse, repeat. Do it until it comes natural.
When it becomes natural, you begin to see something happen… God intervenes.
Truth is, when you allow God in your life, and you are living the principals of God, you will notice that God is in your life.
When are you to be Thankful
Apostle Paul tells us to be anxious for nothing and thankful in everything.
There is a difference in being thankful “in everything” and “for everything.”
“In everything” we see God intervening for our good and we wait patiently for God to complete what He has started in our lives.
In everything, means we trust God even in those times that we cannot see him working in our lives.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 -
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Many times, we offer thanksgiving to God only after He has done something or answered a prayer.
Paul’s understanding of God’s will for our lives is that we are to be always joyful and the only way we can be always joyful is to not look at our circumstances to find Godly joy and that true Joy is a fruit of the Spirit of God and is not dependent on good or bad circumstances.
Galatians 5:22-
“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit on our lives; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
Talked to several people this week struggling in their faith-
How much more faith would be in your life if you had more of the Holy Spirit of God In your life and the fruit of the Spirit operating in your life?
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. “
Amen. Thanks for coming! In everything can be done only when the fruit of God’s Spirit is operating in your life. This is not something you can do on your own.
Do you thank God for the pain in your life?
Do you thank Him for times when things get worse?
Do you thank him when the preacher hits you right between the eyes and you know those words are from the Lord?
Yes… if you are allowing God to work in your life through the fruit of the Spirit.
But thank you I am not doing this alone Lord.
Thank you that though I cannot see you working, I know that you are.
Thank you Lord for the good that can come out of tough circumstances.
Why we are to be Thankful
The Bible teaches us that in the last days that people will be characterized by un-thankfulness.
2 Timothy 3:2-
“For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy.
People are angry, they are ready to fight, their ready to hurt other people. We see it every day in the news. We see it every day in churches in America.
God calls us to be different, not to act like the world. Peculiar? Yes, …different! Acting not like the world.
Football players on TV that score touchdowns, and then do a ho-down dance. That is their job… act like you been there before instead of the first time.
God tells us to act like we are suppose to… and live his principals to a world that desperately needs him and needs to see how Christians should be acting.
The best way to protect your heart is to keep yourself thankful to God.
The best way to fall away from God is to be unthankful.
Romans 1:21
“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.”
Why are we thankful?
It is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you!
Illustration-
Years ago when I was first getting into ministry an old man of the church (Corpus Christie TX.) pulled me aside and gave me some advice. I never forgot him and the advice he gave me.
Ministry is hard and few make it without being hurt several times.
Scripture is like a diving board where you launch out into deep waters.
You must keep your heart open to God and His principals and not let circumstance dictate your response.
Those stick for life!
You will never be able to do spiritual warfare with an ungrateful heart.
You will never see a revival in your life or the life of the church with ungratefulness.
Here is what happens in our heart once we allow God in with grateful and thankful hearts-
We see what we have been overlooking our relationship with God and want it back or receive it for the first time.
When seek renewal instead of being dead right and winning meaningless arguments that don’t build the kingdom of God.
We humble themselves and allow the Spirit of God to work in our lives.
We allow the fruit of the Spirit to work
Even the ones we struggle with.
One preacher put it this way-
Move of God in one service is – “Touch of the Spirit”
Longer period of time- “Move of the Spirit”
Extended time where God moves and you just want to get out of the way so you don’t stop it- “Revival”
I want revival- How about you? I want it to begin in my heart, and this congregation, and then I want it to flood over into our families and in our work places and wherever God brings us into contact people. Amen.!
“If my people, who are called by my name will humble themselves and confess their sins, then I will hear from heaven and heal their land.”
It comes from humbleness
It comes from thankfulness to God first and then lived out in our lives to God and too others.
Closing,
You get into the presence of God and you will be grateful! You will be humbled. You will not want to leave his presence.
We say that we would be more thankful if we had more.
The truth is if you are not thankful with what you have, you would not be thankful if you were given more.
It is why most people that inherit a great deal of money quickly in their life they cannot handle it.
Sports, actors, kids with inheritance.
It is because ungrateful is ungrateful, it does not have a dollar value.
What are you thankful for? Thankfulness to God is also expressed to the people God has put in your life to be a blessing.
I am thankful for my wife.
I am thankful for my children and the grandkids that they have given us.
I am thankful for my family, friends, church family, a place to worship, and my health.
(None being perfect)
I am most thankful for Jesus. I am thankful for the salvation that comes through Him and the relationship I have with Him.
Lets take time to be thankful!
Prayer-
