B vCOUNT YOUR BLESSINGS
For the Christian, gratitude should be a life attitude.
“Count Your Blessings” was written by one of the prolific gospel song writers of the past century, a Methodist lay preacher named Johnson Oatman. In addition to his preaching and the writing of more than 5,000 hymn texts, Oatman was also a successful business man, engaged in a shipping business and in his later years as an administrator for a large insurance company in New Jersey.
It is good for each of us periodically to take time to rediscover the simple but profound truths expressed by Mr. Oatman in the four verses of this hymn.
In the first two verses he develops the thought that counting our blessings serves as an antidote for life’s discouragements and in turn makes for victorious Christian living.
The third stanza of this hymn teaches us that counting our blessings can be a means of placing material possessions in proper perspective when compared to the eternal inheritance awaiting believers.
Then as we review our individual blessings, we certainly would have to agree with Mr. Oatman’s fourth verse: The provision of God’s help and comfort to the end of our earthly pilgrimage is one of our choicest blessings.
When upon life’s billows You are tempest tossed When you are discouraged, Thinking all is lost
Count your many blessings, Name them one by one And it will suprise you What the Lord has done.
Count your blessings, Name them one by one Count your many blessings, See what God has done.
Are you ever burdened With a load of care? Does the cross seem heavy You are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, Ev’ry doubt will fly And you will be singing As the days go by.
When you look at others With their lands and gold Think that Christ promised You His wealth untold
Count your many blessings, Money cannot buy Your reward in heaven, Nor your home on high.
So, amid the conflict, Whether great or small Do not be discouraged, God is over all
Count your many blessings, Angels will attend Help and comfort give you
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...you are more blessed than the six million who will not survive this week.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation...you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death...you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.
If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead, and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace...you are among the top 8% of the world’’s wealthy.
Imagine Ted Koppel interviewing Noah. "Noah, wasn’’t it messy on board that ship?" Noah answers: Sure it was messy, but it was still the best ship floating!"
I. Most Blessings are taken for granted
A. Most folks only ask for, complain about, and give thanks for financial blessings. What if you had to put a price tag on other blessings?
B. If you bought a new Ford Escort, it would cost you between $13,000-$18,000. If you took that same car to the junkyard and sold it off, one piece at a time, at junkyard prices, it would be worth over $100,000.
C. I’ve read that the human body, with market prices on all our minerals and compounds, is worth about $0.47. If you took this same body and sold it off for parts, how much would you be worth?
D. Look with me at what you are willing to pay, in the time of a tragedy to restore something you are currently blessed with:
1. Coronary artery bypass surgery $15,000 - $20,000
2. Heart transplant $210,000
3. Gastrointestinal Surgery $15,000
4. Fertility Treatment $40,000
5. Kidney Transplant $42,000
6. Liver Transplant $115,000
7. Bone Marrow Transplant $106,000
8. Lung Transplant $105,000
9. Home Nurse $300 / day
10. Insurance man showed article that it costs $70,000 / year to replace your wife.
11. Car accident
12. What would you pay to be able to walk, see, hear, or breathe? All that you had and more.
B. Healing of 10 Lepers (Luke 17:11-19) – Where are the other nine?
Why did only one cleansed leper return to thank Jesus? The following are nine suggested reasons why the nine did not return:
1. One waited to see if the cure was real.
2. One waited to see if it would last.
3. One said he would see Jesus later.
4. One decided that he had never had leprosy.
5. One said he would have gotten well anyway.
6. One gave the glory to the priests.
7. One said, "O, well, Jesus didn’t really do anything."
8. One said, "Any rabbi could have done it."
9. One said, "I was already much improved."
II. Blessings are realized when they are lost
A. Seize the day and be thankful before tragedy comes
B. Consider Job. He has come to represent the epitome of suffering. His children were killed in an accident. He is financially ruined. He has been stricken with an incurable illness--and is in such constant pain that he sits out back of the house on the burn pile itching himself with a broken piece of pottery. His friends falsely accuse him of some great sin that he is hiding and won’t confess. And then his wife gets sarcastic! Yet in the middle of all this suffering, the voice of God comes to Job and makes a very interesting statement to him. In Job 37:14, God says to Job, "Hear this, O Job. Stop and consider the wondrous works of God." From all outward circumstances it seems as though Job has nothing at all to be thankful for, yet here is God coming to him in the midst of it all and saying, in effect, "Job, it’s time to count your blessings."
III. You are blessed!
Fearfully and wonderfully made -- Colorful Creation
Dead cannot praise Him -- Superb Sustenance
By grace are you saved -- Reconciling Redemption
Those predestined, called -- Eternal Election
Psalms 36:5 -- Far-reaching Faithfulness
IV. Give Thanks NOW!
A. We are blessed because Christ is with us in the furnace of persecution
Isaiah 41:10; 43:2 I will be with you.
Daniel 3:23-25 The Three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace
Matthew 28:20 Lo I am with you always...even to the end of the age
B. We are blessed because God will use suffering and turn it into glory
1. Christ was talking about grieving and pain. He used the illustration of Childbirth (John 16:20-22). Christ said, "The same baby that gave the mother pain will also bring her joy.
2. II Corinthians 12:7-10 the same thorn that gave Paul pain also gave him God’’s power and grace to face that thorn.
3. We are blessed when we understand the concept of postponed pleasures. We pay a price today for enjoyment in the future.
C. We are blessed because God’’s spirit and the spirit of glory rests on us now. We don’’t have to wait for heaven for a reward.
