FAITH
PART 4 – Being Thankful
First Baptist Church of Tawas City Michigan
Rev. Bruce A. Shields – 11-13-2005
www.tawasbaptist.org
WELCOME
• Visitors (Visitor Cards & Prayer Request Cards in pews)
• Bulletin last week with incorrect scripture on the cover.
• Our youth group is going to do the Christmas Drive this year, so if anyone feels lead to give donations to the youth for that cause, please see me or Terri, or if you want to donate new gifts or toys let us know. Nest week the youth will begin to raise money for this outreach.
• If someone feels lead to head up the 12 and under group please see me so we can get that started as well.
PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT
The last few weeks we have talked about a few different roadblocks to our faith and without faith we cannot please God, and we keep Him working in our lives.
Unforgiveness, not reading God’s word are some common roadblocks to faith, and today with Thanksgiving coming up, I would like to talk about one of the biggest roadblocks to our faith and God working in our lives, and that is not being thankful.
I think most of us have had the experience at one time or another in our lives where we work real hard for our children to make everything easy for them in their lives, trying to make things better than it was for us when we were kids.
Then all your work and effort completed the child looks at you and says “Is that it? I want more.”
Unthankful ness goes hand in hand with grumbling and complaining.
The Israelites gave us many examples in the scriptures of what grumbling is and how much God despises it.
Their grumbling begins in Exodus 15:24 and continues even after God keeps most of them from reaching the promised land because of their grumbling, through numbers, Deuteronomy, and into Joshua.
Exodus 15:24 – They grumbled, what are we to drink?
16:2 – they complained, against Moses and Aaron
17:3 – They whined, why did you bring us out of Egypt?
Numbers – 14:2 they moaned, If only we died in Egypt or the desert!
Why was God so upset when they were grumbling about the manna from heaven which sustained them?
Because that manna represented something God was trying to teach the Israelites.
The manna from heaven, the bread from heaven, it represented Christ.
John 6:41 – “At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."
Here we are in the book of John and the Jews are still grumbling about the bread that came down from heaven.
The manna from heaven represented Jesus. The grumbling was against the Lord and God in heaven.
Whenever someone grumbles, they are not grumbling about anything or anyone but God.
This is why God hates grumbling. No MATTER what you think it’s about, it is about God.
You can say, “I’m mad about this manna!” But you’re really saying, “God is that it? I want more!”
They were in essence telling God that what He supplied them with, His grace that was sustaining them, the bread from heaven was not good enough for them.
Then they complained about how good they had it in captivity.
Not a good way to say thanks for the deliverance.
Then they longed for death in Egypt or the desert!
But God is not deaf. He is alive and listening.
Numbers 14:27b – “I have heard the complaints and grumbling.”
Numbers 14:28-29 – “So tell them, ’As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very things I heard you say: 29 In this desert your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me.”
They wanted to die in the desert, they received what they wanted.
They never saw the Promised Land because of their grumbling.
I wonder how many today miss out on their promised land because of this.
They never saw what God was doing or preparing for them because they were to busy grumbling to be thankful.
Did they thank God for rescuing them from slavery?
Did they thank God for providing them with nourishment?
Did they thank God for sustaining them in the desert?
Did they thank God for the work He was doing in their life?
Did they thank God for leading them to the Promised Land?
Did they thank God for anything?
They grumbled, they complained and they forgot the Lord and to be thankful.
So they received what they had grumbled for, to die in the desert, without ever seeing the Promised Land.
Are we thankful for what the Lord is doing in our lives and in our church?
Are we thankful for the Lord preparing a Promised Land for us?
Though we may not see it, He has!
In Luke 17:11-19 we read the story of 10 lepers.
Lepers are contagious, diseased and forced to wear cloth over their mouth, not allowed in public places and everywhere they went they had to proclaim “UNCLEAN!”
Their condition was certain death; it was just a matter of time.
When they saw Jesus in verse 13 they LIFTED THEIR VICES, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
They lifted up their voices. This was a CRY OUT. They cried out to the Lord.
Its funny how in our time of need we always remember the Lord.
In our time of crisis, we know whose name to call.
In our hour of despair, we know the magic words to make everything OK again.
But how quickly we forget Him when things are the way we want them.
How quickly we forget the hand that touched us and made us whole after we have received our blessing, after we received our healing.
In verse 14 we see the Lepers cleansed by Jesus.
“As they went” in the Bible means they had decided that their path would follow the Lords ways.
They decided to be obedient.
And we know that obedience ALWAYS brings the blessing of God in our life.
You want to be blessed by God, be obedient and see what happens.
10 lepers cleansed, but only 1 came back and gave God all the glory.
9 leave forgetting Jesus.
9 took what they needed from God, and went on their way forgetting the Lord, just as the Israelites did, just as some of us do.
I wonder how many here today have been cleansed by the Lord, healed by the Lord, saved by the Lord, yet we have never truly thanked Him or gave Him all the praise and glory.
Oh we ay be thankful that the doctors found nothing, or thankful that “it all worked out OK”, or praise God it was nothing serious.”
No, don’t be thankful the doctors found nothing with more tests. Be thankful for God’s healing you!
Don’t be thankful it all worked out OK, be thankful God worked it out!
Don’t praise God it was nothing serious, praise God he removed it, changed it, and erased it!
My Knee, I praised God!
Doctors found bone fragments, God erased them!
Doctors feared torn ligaments and acl, God repaired it!
I had to wear a metal leg brace to walk, God took it and threw it away!
Not the doctors, not time, not coincidence, not luck, not chance, GOD!
So many times God works in our lives and we forget to give HIM the praise and glory for working!
When you’ve had test after test telling you something, and you and your church pray or the Elders pray for you, and the next test shows nothing wrong, HELLO, you have just been touched by the Lord! Praise GOD!
Psalm 107:8-9 –“Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men,
9 for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.”
When we complain about our situation, what we are saying is “God, you are not giving me what I want. God you are not doing things the way I want. God, you are not supplying what I think I need.”
Like an unthankful child, “Father, I want more!”
When we complain or grumble about our situation, our life, our church, our leaders, what we have or don’t have, we are really complaining and grumbling against the Lord.
Luke 12:15 – “Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed (NOT JUST MONEY); a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
Psalm 106:1-2 – “Praise the LORD. [a]
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
2 Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the LORD
or fully declare his praise?”
Psalm 69:30 – “I will praise God’s name in song
and glorify him with thanksgiving.”
Psalm 100:4 – “Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.”
King Solomon expressed thankfulness in 1 Kings 8 for divine faithfulness and goodness.
Deuteronomy 8:10-14 – “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”
Be thankful when you have little, so when God blesses you with plenty you will not forget the Lord and become prideful.
Even Jesus thanked the Father in heaven for what He received.
John 6:11 – “Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.”
We don’t see Jesus saying, “GOD, how am I to feed all these people with a couple loaves of bread? Father in heaven, give me more bread.”
Jesus didn’t ask for more, He thanked God for what He had received, and was then blessed with more.
His thankfulness opened God’s heart to bless Jesus and the crowd that day.
Philippians 4:6 – “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Colossians 2:6-7 – “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
Are we overflowing with thankfulness?
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 – “Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
What am I thankful for?
• My wife, my children, our church.
• Our country and our freedom.
• Salvation
• Christ’s Blood
• Security in the Lord, the blessed assurance.
• God who supplies.
• The Lord who blesses.
• Souls that are saved.
• The Holy Spirit.
• The way of the cross.
• The saints in our church. And so much more… let us pray.
Father, I praise you and thank you for all you have done in my life, and in this church.
I thank you for all you’re going to do, for the things you have already planned for us.
I pray that we never lose sight of the land you have already promised us.
I thank you for this country and the freedoms we have to worship you Lord.
Lord, for salvation. I pray we never take it for granted.
Don’t let me ever get over Christ’s blood and the crucifixion Lord.
I thank you for our security, our assurance that heaven is awaiting us Lord. Our eternity fixed.
I thank you for all the needs you meet in this church Lord, and praise you for the needs that you have already planned on meeting that haven’t happened yet.
I thank you for your provisions.
I thank you for the souls you have saved Lord. All the angels rejoice in heaven over one soul saved, I pray we do the same here on earth Lord.
I thank you for the Holy Spirit Lord, without Him there would be no conviction, and no conversion. Without that we would all be bound for hell when we died.
I thank you for the saints in this church, the workers, those who tithe, the faithful servants you have given us.
