Thankfulness Series

SERMON BRIEF

Date Written: November 11, 2012

Date Preached: November 11, 2012

Church: Oak Park BC (AM)

FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS

Series: A Series On Thankfulness (Book of Esther)

Title: Thankfulness in General

Text: Esther 2:17 [NLT] READ NOW!!

17The king loved Esther more than all the other women. She won more favor and approval from him than did any of the other young women. He placed the royal crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti.

ETS: Even though Esther’s life may seem difficult and with problems, Esther had much for which she was thankful.

ESS: Even though our own lives may seem difficult or fraught with problems, we have MUCH for which we should be thankful!

Introduction:

We are entering into the Harvest season of the year and it is also the time when we focus on being thankful!

Far too many people today focus on what is wrong and what they believe to be hardships in their lives, and they miss out on the basic thankful opportunities they have each and every day!

This morning we read about a young lady who has known nothing but exile and captivity her entire life. She has probably cannot remember her homeland from which she was taken…

She has lost her parents, has been taken in by her uncle, and now has been taken away from him by the king to become part of his harem… a concubine. NOT by her own choice, but because the King could do these things!

There are so many things that Esther had to fret over and be anxious about, but we do NOT see Esther fall prey to this attitude of doubt and despair, but what we do see is a young woman who was thankful for what God was providing for her…

Like Esther there are many of us here this morning who have had a life that was far less than what we had dreamed about or maybe life has just ganged up on you and beat you up and left you bloodied and wounded…

The point of this story from Esther is that even when the picture painted for our lives seems grim and dark… We can and should be thankful!

In looking at the life of Esther I can see three general areas where we can find thankfulness, even when all else points toward pain and hardship, we can find thankfulness!

The first area is a general thankfulness for our general physical blessings…[Esther 2:5-8 HCSB]

5In the fortress of Susa, there was a Jewish man named Mordecai son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjaminite. 6He had been taken into exile from Jerusalem with the other captives when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took King Jeconiah of Judah into exile. 7Mordecai was the legal guardian of his cousin Hadassah (that is, Esther), because she didn’t have a father or mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was extremely good-looking. When her father and mother died, Mordecai had adopted her as his own daughter. 8When the king’s command and edict became public knowledge, many young women gathered at the fortress of Susa under Hegai’s care. Esther was also taken to the palace and placed under the care of Hegai, who was in charge of the women.

When we look at Esther, we find that even though she was a captive in a foreign land… even though she had lost her parents and now had been taken away from her uncle’s family and was taken into the King’s harem… Esther still have many things to be thankful for…

Esther was blessed by God in her captivity… she had air to breathe, she had water to drink and food to eat. Esther was blessed with shelter and good health…

I know you may discount all these things… but I want us to take stock of these things and understand how important these things are to our lives today!

It is said that the human body can do without oxygen/ air for a maximum of 3-5 minutes… God has seen fit to place you on a planet that is just far enough away from the sun and just close enough TO the sun that our atmosphere creates the conditions for the production of Oxygen… God provides you with the very air you breathe!

The water you drink… do you know that you are blessed to be able to walk to a sink and turn on the water and drink that water! MOST countries throughout our world do not have drinkable water available…

Water is a commodity and is fought over and hard to obtain! OR it is something you have to search and work for… but here in America you live in a country where the water is not just plentiful but it is drinkable and safe! For this we must be extremely thankful!