The Bounty Of God's Blessings

The Bounty of God’s Blessings

Selective verses

Illustration-

You heard of the lady that was fighting to find a parking spot in a busy mall, had a lot to do and it started to rain, asked God to help find her a spot near the front door. As soon as she said that a car began backing up right in front of the doors, she went right for it and said “Never mind God, something just opened up.”

We laugh about it, but how many times do we ask God for something and when we receive it, we behave as though it was a coincidence and we fail to give credit where credit is due?

Introduction-

This morning we are going to look at being thankful. But being thankful has to be more than a word that says you are glad to have received something.

Someone gives you something, you say thank you. (There is an exchange)

You are thankful for dishwashers. Cars, vacuum cleaners…(Mechanical items that make your life easier)

You are thankful for smoke alarms, but only after they have warned you of danger and/or saved your life… or you don’t even know they are around.

So this morning, let’s specifically look at what it means to be biblically thankful and what does the bible teach us about being thankful.

We are one week away from turkey day and we call that Thanksgiving- A day we fill our face with all kinds of food till we are almost comatose and then need a long Nazarene nap- but is that Thanksgiving?

Prayer-

Father, today help us to see that being Thankful, grateful, humble, all begins in knowing who you are and what you have done for us.

Thankful is an act of worship to you that filters down to those we are around.

Being Thankful is a lifestyle of a believer, seen by unbelievers to move them toward a relationship with you.

May we today and everyday be thankful for what you have done for us and have given us. In Jesus Name…Amen.

Psalm 136:1- “Give thanks to the Lord”

It does not take very long to realize we live in a thankless age- there are people who have more than they ever had, but because they don’t have everything they want, they live lives unthankful.

Certainly not everyone, but there is a part of society that if left unchecked, is not grateful, but greedy.

To avoid falling into that mindset, we must understand and live out biblical thankfulness and gratitude.

It is not normal to be thankful, but for a believer, who lives not according to the standards of the world, being thankful is what our lives ought to look like.

Say it another way- most kids if not trained to be thankful, will be ungrateful and not willing to share. (We all have seen it)

Will have the mine! Mine! Attitude.

Illustration

My children when they were very young learned a valuable lesson on being grateful. One Christmas, they were given several gifts, quite a lot, and when they finished opening them, looked around and said, is that all! I want more! Began crying because there was no more. (After opening a room full of presents)

They did not know the sacrifice made so they could open what they opened. They were ungrateful for what was given, because their heart was wanting more than being thankful for what they got!

I took what they were given away for awhile and explained to them that what was given is a gift, and that what was given was out of love, and to receive gifts, it must be taken with a grateful heart.

It was a hard lesson for them and it is a hard lesson for most today.

Apostle Paul, who to me is the biblical example of someone who made such a drastic change of heart once he became a believer. He was privileged, his own words of praise of himself was “ circumcised the eighth day, tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.”

This guy thought he could not get any better… according to world standard and his puffed up ego.

But when he received Christ as Lord, his words changed…

Philippians 3:5-14

“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ- the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.” (10) I want to know Christ- yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participate in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”