INTRODUCTION
• As we get ready to celebrate another Thanksgiving holiday, I want us to ponder what the thanksgiving holiday is really about.
• We spend time with family and friends stuffing ourselves with turkey, potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie, along with many other items of food.
• The holiday is more than just one day when we give thanks for the material things we have.
• I believe Thanksgiving should have a deeper meaning to us than just something we do once per year.
• There is a spirit to the holiday that should be in us year round.
SLIDE #1
• Thanksgiving can only come from thankful people and thankful people have a certain spirit about them that is evident for everyone to see.
• What kind of a person are you? Are you a thankful person or are you one that is not very thankful at this point in your life?
• Of all people on the planet, Christians should be the example of what it means to be a thankful person.
• I want us to look at Philippians 4:4-7 today as we look at the Spirit of a thankful person.
• This passage reveals four types of spirit a thankful person should possess.
• If we re struggling with being thankful, we can change that. I hope today will give us some insights that will help us to be the thankful people God wants us to be. Thanksgiving can become a lifestyle instead of just a holiday.
SLIDES #2-3
• READ PHILIPPIANS 4:4-7
SLIDE #4
SERMON
A thankful person has:
I. A JOYFUL SPIRIT. (4)
CLICK # 4
• A thankful person will always rejoice in the Lord.
• When Paul penned this statement, he was in prison. It is not like Paul was sitting in a mansion somewhere telling us to rejoice in the Lord.
• The main reason we can have a joyful spirit is because of our knowledge and relationship with the God through Jesus!
• Our inner attitudes do not have to reflect our outward circumstances. Paul was full of joy because he knew that no matter what happened to him, Jesus Christ was with him.
• We can be joyful no matter what because we know that God provides for us and takes care of us.
• SLIDE # 5
• Philippians 4:19 says: 19And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
• How many times have you seen Christians walk around looking like they hate the world or every time that something does not go right, their world and attitude fall apart.
• Paul tells us to rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS! There are no exceptions!
• If Paul can rejoice in the Lord when he is in prison, I think I can try to rejoice in my circumstances.
• In the first couple of verses in this chapter Paul addresses some problems that are going on in the church, yet even though there are problems in the church, Paul tells us to rejoice in the Lord always!
• To rejoice means to be exceedingly glad.
• SLIDE # 6. How many times have we failed to rejoice in the Lord? If we truly believe passages like Romans 8:28, then we can rejoice no matter what is happening around us.
• Romans 8:28 says: And we know that £God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
• The ability to rejoice or to have a joyful spirit is built on or relationship with God, not what is happening around us.
SLIDE # 7
A thankful person has:
II. A GENTLE SPIRIT. (5)
SLIDE #8
A thankful person will treat other people as Jesus would.
• Joy is not always seen, but the way we act toward others is!
• The word “gentle” is a very difficult word to translate into English. There is really no one word that can catch the flavor of it.
• Different translations translate it as gentle, moderate, kind and, reasonable, considerate.
• The word refers to a spirit that is reasonable, fair-minded, and charitable. It describes someone willing to yield his or her own rights to show consideration and gentleness to others. We may find it easy to be gentle with some people, but Paul commanded gentleness toward everyone.
• We are not to bulldoze over people to get our rights all the time.
• John MacArthur Jr states the following in his commentary on Philippians: Gracious humility runs counter to the cult of self-love that was rampant in ancient society, and is rampant in modern society as well. But focusing on self-love, self-esteem, and self-fulfillment leads only to greater and greater instability and anxiety. On the other hand, those whose focus is not on themselves cannot be knocked off balance by inequity, injustice, unfair treatment, lies, or humiliation. They can say with Paul, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am” (4:11). Spiritual stability belongs to the graciously humble.
• This was not a frightened attitude, showing lack of courage. Rather it was a response of strength, inspired by the relation to Christ.
• Paul reminds us that the Lord is near. This thought should motivate us to be gentle as we deal with other people, especially those who are lost. Do you want to jeopardize another person’s salvation because you figuratively run over them with a bus?
• God has put it on my heart to be gentler with people, to be more sensitive to those who are around me.
• We have people around us everyday who are doing tasks to make our lives a bit better; we need to treat them as a child that God loves!
• The Lord is near and we want to please Him! A thankful person will treat others with love and respect.
• It is far better to suffer a wrong than to inflict a wrong on another person!
• We cannot be truly happy and thankful without striving to be a blessing to others!
SLIDE #9
A thankful person has:
III. A TRUSTING SPIRIT. (6)
SLIDE #10
• Circumstances will not shake us!
• A thankful person will have full trust in God!
• This verse literally reads, STOP being anxious!
• We are told to be anxious for NOTHING. This is the scope of our trust. We are to trust God in EVERY circumstance.
• Three prayer terms are used in this verse (prayer, petition, requests). Let God’s power address men’s concern. If divine power could not effect resolution, then none would be possible. That would be cause for worry! And prayer is as wide as life, for “everything” is its scope. (College Press Commentary)
• We cannot let circumstances shake our faith. Knowing God is with us should cause us to be thankful!
• Anxiety can produce irritability and defensiveness. It is a soil in which discord could grow. Indeed matters that might otherwise be of lesser moment can reach swollen proportions when fed by anxiety.
• The word “anxious” means- unduly concerned. It can have a positive spin that means genuinely interested, but that is not the context in which Paul uses the word in this verse.
• The church at Philippi was have some internal problems, it would have been easy for the church to get so wrapped up in the problem that they would stop carrying out the ministry they were called to do. I have seen Satan use that tactic on man churches!
• Satan uses anxiety to keep us from serving God to the best of our ability.
• If he can get you to focus on being anxious, he can keep you off your God focus.
CLICK #10
• Prayer will be our first line of defense! SLIDE #11
• Matthew 6:27 (GWT) 27“Can any of you add a single hour to your life by worrying?
• The cure for anxiety is not inaction, it is prayer! Prayer with action. I can get anxious about getting a sermon ready. I can worry about it to the point of doing nothing.
• On the other hand, I cannot just pray to God that my sermon will get done, I have to pray for guidance and then put fingers to keyboard and let it flow.
• Paul says that in EVERYTHING by prayer and supplication we are to let our requests be made known to God.
• Prayers are a general word for making requests to God. It carries the idea of adoration, devotion, and worship.
• Supplications are a humble cry for the fulfillment of needs that are keenly felt.
• We are called to make specific requests to God. (CHRISTMAS SHOPPING LISTS FROM PEOPLE)
• Whenever we address God, we need to be as specific as we can.
• We are to pray with thanksgiving as we lift our hearts to God. We need to humbly submit to God’s will knowing that this will always be best for us! We are to acknowledge past, present, and future blessings! Prayer without thanksgiving is like a NASCAR driver without a car. Running around the track will not get you too far. SLIDE #12
• Jesus wants us to cast our anxieties upon Him! 1 Peter 5:7
SLIDE #13
A thankful person has:
IV. A PEACEFUL SPIRIT. (7)
SLIDE #14
• His peace will guard our hearts and minds as we live for Him.
• For a troubled church “peace” was the divine promise. Even if specific prayers were not answered, peace still comes to the believer. The image is of a soldier standing guard, which would be particularly relevant in Philippi, a city protected by a Roman garrison. Anxiety is denied admittance to a heart and mind so guarded. (College Press Commentary)
• When things are falling apart around us, we will have a peace within us that we cannot comprehend, we cannot grasp the scope of it, we cannot fully understand why we have this wonderful peace in the midst of dire circumstances.
• All we know is that God gives us the wonderful gift of peace!
• This peace will guard our hearts against attack from the enemy!
• There are times when I experience such peace I cannot fully grasp it. It is hard to explain other than to praise God for it! SLIDE #15
• Jesus said He was going to give us a special peace the world could not grasp! John 14:27.
• If we do not have a peaceful spirit, we will have a hard time being thankful. If there is unrest within us, we will not be able to really thank God for what He has done because we will be fixated on the problems before us. This goes back to the anxiety. An anxious person is a person who cannot focus on anything but the perceived problems before them.
CONCLUSION
• Is Thanksgiving a holiday? Yes it is, but is that all it should be? NO! It should be the attitude in which we live our lives!
• In order to be thankful we need to have a:
SLIDE # 16
I. A joyful spirit
II. A gentle spirit
III. A trusting spirit
IV. A peaceful spirit
• Develop these things and you will see you will become a different person who can be thankful no matter what happens in life.
