Sermon Central
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Thanksgiving Can Change Your Life
Contributed by Donnie De Loney on Apr 30, 2014 (message contributor)
Summary: The art of being thanksful for all our blessings.
Thanksgiving Can Change Your Life
The day before Thanksgiving an elderly man in Phoenix called his son in New York and said to him, "I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; 45 years of misery is enough. We’re sick of each other, and so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her."
Frantic, the son called his sister, who exploded on the phone. "They’re getting divorced," she shouted, "I’ll take care of this." She called Phoenix immediately, and said to her father. "You are NOT getting divorced. Don’t do a single thing until I get there. I’m calling my brother back, and we’ll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don’t do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME?" The man hung up his phone and turned to his wife. "Okay, honey. The kids are coming for Thanksgiving and paying for their flights."
The Thanksgiving Holiday gives us the perfect opportunity to transform our lives from those of griping and dissatisfaction to lives of joy and gratitude. Thanksgiving is a good holiday for us to turn the corner and become grateful people. God wants nothing more than for us to be people of thanksgiving and gratitude.
Alan Perkins says, “A thankful spirit is one of the key distinguishing marks of a Christian. It sets us apart from the world, it makes us different.”
Psalm 118:1 says, “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love endures forever.”
I. THE BENEFITS OF A Thankful SPIRIT
A. Why do you think being a thankful person is so important?
1. Because Thankfulness is good for us. There are a many ways being a Thankful person can benefit you.
a. Being a Thankful person can INCREASE YOUR PERSONAL HAPPINESS.
b. Most of us think that our happiness is determined by our ciircumstances.
On a scale of one to ten how happy you are right now, you might say, “Well, I’m about a 2 on the happiness meter because of my circumstances.”
We’ve been taught that our happiness is somehow dependent on how well things go for us. But really our happiness is determined by attitude. It is really in how we see things. The apostle Paul wrote these words from prison (yes prison). "Rejoice in the Lord always," he wrote, "and again I say it rejoice." (Philippians 4:4).
Paul was happy despite being in prison and how, he learned to thank God in everything he did. It was really his perspective His outlook on life.
I am Thankful for.........
....the taxes I pay because it means I’m employed.
....the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat.
....my shadow who watches me work because it means I am out in the sunshine.
....a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home.
....the spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking.
....my huge heating bill because it means I am warm.
....all the complaining I hear about our government because it means we have freedom of speech.
....the lady behind me in church who sings off key because it means that I can hear.
....the piles of laundry and ironing because it means my loved ones are nearby.
....the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means that I’m alive.
....the weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means I have been productive
Happiness is really determined by our perspective in life not by circumstances. If we learn
to be Thankful people despite circumstances that will greatly improve our happiness.
II. Being a Thankful person can also IMPROVE YOUR WITNESS FOR CHRIST.
A. Having a noticeable countenance of thankfulness and joy will certainly make us better witnesses for Christ.
What is sad is that some Christians are the most negative, sour people in the world. Mean spirited and ungrateful lugs. We act like we have
been baptized in vinegar not in the Holy Spirit. It is no wonder people don’t want to have anything to do with us.
1. But when we are thankful, joyful, upbeat people. We attract the lost with our spirit of gratitude because the world is so dark and depressing
and ungrateful.
2..Have you looked at this world lately?
a. People are so discouraged?
b. Yet if we can learn to be different, upbeat and thankful, we will attract them. We have something they don’t.
1 Peter 2:12 reads, "Live such good lives among the pagans that they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day
he visits us."
B..Living a life of thankfulness will attract the lost.
