INTRO.- It’s Thanksgiving time!
ILL.- Someone said, “Thanksgiving is when millions of Americans get together to drink, talk, eat, and go home again. It’s known as the four G’s: giggle, gabble, gobble, and git!”
ILL.- Someone else said, “On Thanksgiving Day all over America, families sit down to dinner at the same moment - HALF-TIME.”
ILL.- One grandmother said, “As our family was enjoying a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, my four-year-old granddaughter stopped chomping on her drumstick long enough to look at her mother, smile, and say, “I REALLY LIKE TURKEY ON THE COB.”
Brethren, for many people, Thanksgiving is merely T-time, that is, Turkey-time!
ILL.- A couple of years ago a woman called the Butterball Turkey Talk-line (yes, they really have one!) with a minor emergency. Her little Chihuahua dog jumped into the bird’s cavity (you know, where the stuffing goes) and he couldn’t get out!
The woman tried pulling on the dog and then shaking the bird upside down, but nothing worked, that is, until the Talk-line suggested carefully cutting the opening a bit wider. It worked, and Fido was freed! What a dilemma!
Brethren, turkey is good on Thanksgiving, BUT BEING THANKFUL IS BETTER! Being a thankful person 365 days a year is better than having turkey any time!
I Thess. 5:18 “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Many people want to know what God’s will is for their life. Well, His will is that we become thankful people!
ILL.- Someone said, “An ingrate is neither ‘in’ nor ‘great.’” Amen to that! An ungrateful person is certainly not a “great” person in God’s eyes.
ILL.- Someone else said, “Giving thanks is a course from which we never graduate.”
ILL.- Another person said, “If you have nothing to be thankful for, make up your mind that there is something wrong with you.”
No matter how little we have, we still have something for which to be thankful.
ILL- A certain business man said, “People are ingrates. It took me 61 years to find out. I have 175 employees, men and women. At Thanksgiving, I sent them 175 choice turkeys. Only four people thanked me. Two thanked me by sending a note and two verbally said, ‘thank you’ when they happened to meet me in the hallway. Because of their thanklessness, I’ve decided never to go out of my way to be nice again.”
I can understand something of how that man felt. If you just keep on dishing out and dishing out to people and you never hear a “thank you” or “God bless you for sharing” or whatever, then you would be inclined to stop dishing out good stuff!
BRETHREN, HOW DO YOU THINK GOD FEELS ABOUT US? What if He never heard a “thank you” from us? In any form or at any time? Do you suppose He might stop dishing out His good stuff? It’s possible.
For granted or gratitude? Are we taking our blessings from God for granted? Or do we express gratitude to God for His blessings?
PROP.- In this message I want us to think about these two thoughts.
1- Blessings - taken for granted. OR
2- Blessings - taken with gratitude.
I. BLESSINGS - TAKEN FOR GRANTED
Luke 17:11-19 Here we have the story of the 10 lepers who were cleansed or healed by Jesus but only one returned to give thanks.
What was wrong with the nine? Why didn’t they return and give thanks to the Lord? Several reasons have been suggested.
- Perhaps they didn’t notice they were cleansed. The one leper “saw” that he was healed. HOW COULD THEY NOT KNOW THEY WERE HEALED? Leprosy is such a terrible disease that surely they knew they were healed?!
Are you blind to your blessings? Are you blind to your healing and forgiveness? I don’t know how anyone could be.
- Perhaps they didn’t attribute their cleansing to Jesus.
Occasionally, someone will say, “Nobody gave me anything.” But we all know that’s not true. “Every good and perfect gift comes from the father...” James 1:17
I Cor. 4:7 “Who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?”
Everything good that we have comes from God! We may have worked and made the money to buy something, but essentially, it came from God! God gave us life, breath, health, the ability to work, the job, the money from the job, and whatever it is that we purchase with that money.
IT ALL COMES FROM GOD! And our cleansing and forgiveness definitely comes from Him! We don’t/can’t cleanse ourselves. Cleansing from the filth of sin is only possible through the blood of the Lamb!
- Now it may be that these 9 lepers felt that they deserved their cleansing or healing. Some people are so egotistical as to think they actually deserve all the good things they get in life.
Brethren, some people think that just because they’re Americans or Christians that they deserve every good thing they get in life. NOT TRUE.
I honestly don’t think that any of us would dare ask God to give us what we deserve! WE MIGHT BE SURPRISED WHAT WE WOULD GET!
We are not naturally grateful for the good things we receive in life. This is something we have to learn to do.
ILL.- There was once a lady who complained about everything and everybody. Finally, her minister found something that she couldn’t complain about. The lady’s crop of potatoes was the finest for miles around. He said to her, “For once you must be pleased. Everyone is saying how splendid your potatoes are this year.”
The lady glared at him and said, “THEY ARE NOT SO BAD, BUT WHERE ARE THE ROTTEN ONES FOR THE PIGS?”
Instead of being grateful, she was grouchy. Instead of realizing her great blessing, she took it for granted. It was as though she was saying, “So what? I always have good potatoes, but there should be more.”
ILL.- I read one time about a six-year-old boy who was frantically opening his Christmas gifts. There was an aquarium, and all kinds of toys, etc. He would tear open one gift while reaching for another. And after unwrapping the last one, he said, “IS THIS ALL I GET?”
We are often this way. We have so much that we fail to appreciate what we have already been given.
ILL.- Someone wrote: “Our power is shut off, and suddenly we become thankful for electricity. Our garbage is not picked up, and suddenly we become thankful for the garbage collector’s weekly stop. A good friend dies, and suddenly we discover how much he meant to us. Our water becomes too polluted to drink and suddenly we appreciate having good water.”
Most of us are guilty of taking our blessings for granted.
ILL.- Someone else said, “Suppose we could compress the population of earth into one town of 1,000 people. In this town there would be only 60 Americans. And yet we 60 Americans would receive half the income of the entire town. We would own 15 times as much per person as all our neighbors. We would eat 72% more than the maximum food requirement. Many of the 940 people would go to bed
hungry.”
Have we taken the blessing of being born and raised in America for granted?
ILL.- Houston, TX, Nov. 14, 2000. A 57-year-old woman underwent a surgical gamble in which doctors temporarily removed her heart, cut out three rapidly growing tumors and returned the repaired organ to her chest. Doctors were cautiously optimistic after the surgery. Only one other patient has survived this type of surgery.
Joanne Minnich’s heart rested in a bowl while the team of cardiac surgeons at Methodist DeBakey Heart Center worked on it. Doctors said the malignant growths, one as large as a lemon, were on the wall of her heart’s left atrium, restricting blood flow, and could have killed Minnich in as little as two weeks if not taken care of.
Joanne Minnich of New York said the surgery was the only way she had a chance at life. A business manager who has three children, said, “Of course, it’s scary, but I have no other choice. I don’t have time to wait for a heart transplant.”
Brothers and sisters, I’ll bet Joanne Minnich is not taking her life for granted! If she was able to survive and live, I’ll bet she will forever be a grateful person.
Please, please don’t take any good thing for granted! We can be humbled at any moment. Any one of us. Any good thing and all good things could be taken from us at any moment, including our lives. Please don’t take God’s blessings and goodness for granted.
II. BLESSINGS - TAKEN WITH GRATITUDE
Instead of taking our blessings for granted, we should take them with gratitude! Lots of gratitude! Tons of gratitude! Never-ceasing gratitude!
I Thess. 5:18 “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
No matter what is going on in our lives, no matter how bad the circumstances may be, we are still to be thankful and give thanks. Good, bad or otherwise.
It’s easy to give thanks when things are going good. When the work is going well, the marriage is ok, the children are behaving, we are able to pay the bills and enjoy some of the pleasures of life. BUT WHAT ABOUT BEING THANKFUL AND GIVING THANKS WHEN THINGS ARE NOT SO GOOD?
ILL.- The famous Bible scholar Matthew Henry was once robbed of his money. Later, he wrote these words in his diary, “First, let me be thankful, because I was never robbed before. Second, let me be thankful that although they took my money, they did not take my life. Third, let me be thankful that even though they took all I had, it was not much. Fourth, let me be thankful that it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed others.”
Henry was a thankful man even though he had been robbed. Being robbed is not a good circumstance, still he gave thanks for his blessings.
ILL.- Here’s a better story. My preacher friend Boyce Mouton wrote this story when he ministered in California many years ago. He said, “In 1954, a young missionary recruit to Alaska was stricken with a paralytic disease which left her bedfast for the last 10 years of her life. Her name was Marie Napier.
“The first time I met Marie was in her home in Sunnyvale, CA. As I stepped into the front room, I immediately discerned the sickening pulsation of her breathing machine. It was a rocking bed, the first one I had ever seen. The bed, patient and all, was rocking back and forth in large gyrations.
“Marie was emaciated and pale. She had not moved in over five years. I awkwardly tried not to stare at her shriveled body.
“I clumsily looked at my feet to conceal the expression of shock on my face. I raised my eyes to concentrate on her face, and there I saw a broad and understanding smile.
“Gradually, I grew more comfortable in her presence and we began to talk. It was evident that even a simple conversation was a difficult task for Marie. She timed her words to coincide with the proper movement of the bed and spoke in short sentences. When I left there that day I walked with an invigorated step. I had been exposed to a contagious mixture of warmth and courage.
“I visited Marie on other occasions and each time I found the same emotion when I left. I had come to give, but I had left receiving.
“The last time I saw Marie before her death was in the Santa Clara County Hospital in San Jose, CA. A power failure had stopped the rhythm of her bed, and by the time she arrived at the hospital the flame of her life was burning very low. I came the next day for scripture and prayer. The pulsing collar of the iron lung had left her neck chaffed and raw. The doctor had given her a brief respite from the painful lung to a less efficient device that did not hurt her neck. It was a ‘breathing shell’, which was placed across her torso. As I stepped to her side she looked up with tired eyes. A faint smile broke out on her face and she gasped, ‘I’m so thankful for my shell.’”
Boyce Mouton went on to write, “At a time when many people would have cursed God for the paralysis, the power failure, the pain, and the thousands of heartaches associated with suffering, Marie Napier speaks from the grave a sermon in one sentence. ‘I’M SO THANKFUL FOR MY SHELL.’”
CONCLUSION--------------------------------------------
May God help us to give thanks always and in all circumstances, for this is His will for our lives.
