"Therefore I Will Give Thanks Unto The Lord”

The mother immediately said, “What do you say to the nice man who gave you a piece of candy?” The little boy seemed somewhat puzzled as to what she wanted him to say, but suddenly a smile came on his face, as if he finally realized what she wanted him to say, and he said, “Can I have some more?”

The way this little child reacted to the kindness of the man seems to be a reaction today that we often see in our society. We live in a society that is truly ungrateful. The fact is, we all probably should get on our knees and asked God to forgive us for our ingratitude.

WHAT HAS CAUSED THIS INGRATITUDE IN OUR NATION?

One cause is the politicians who promise to give people all kinds of things they want, to get them to vote them into office. Campaigning today by these politicians seems to be a contest to see who can give the most away to get in office. But that creates another problem - with all this giving, someone has to pay for it.

Illus: Margaret Thatcher said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”

Well, our nation has run out of other people’s money, but we still have those who feel they are entitled to more.

One of the best ways to destroy…

• A child is to give him everything he wants, making him think he is entitled to everything he receives.

• A nation is to give them everything they want, making them think they are entitled to everything they receive.

• A Christian is to give him everything he wants making him think he is entitled to everything he receives.

Illus: I like what Abraham Lincoln said; “You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.”

In a nation of entitlements as ours has become, instead of being grateful for what they receive, people feel they are entitled to receive what they receive and much more! They are holding out their UNGRATEFUL hands, and they will take anything and everything that you put in them.

WHAT IS AN ENTITLEMENT? Let me tell you what an entitlement is not. Social Security is not an entitlement. Those who are 65 years old and older who receive Social Security, had to put their hard-earned money into it and they expect to receive it back.

But today, we have people who have not made any kind of investment in any way in any public fund, and they feel they are entitled to be receiving all kinds of benefits. The least they could do on “Thanksgiving Day” is to send all the hard working taxpayers ‘THANK YOU’ NOTES.

There are so many things we should be thankful for, such as, we should …

I. BE THANKFUL FOR OUR FAITH

Illus: Suppose you were a child living in a third world country. All you had was the clothes on your back and you were so hungry that you ate bugs to survive.

• Suppose some rich person came to where you lived and adopted you as his child

• Suppose he helped you to live a life you never knew existed before. Wouldn’t you be grateful?

That is exactly what God did for us. We were poor, hungry and spiritually naked, but the Lord Jesus took us and made us a child of His.

HOW DID WE BECOME A CHILD OF GOD? By faith in Jesus Christ, God’s Son; by receiving Him as Savior - that makes us A CHILD OF GOD.

Hebrews chapter 11 is known as the FAITH CHAPTER. All of the great men and women listed in this chapter are listed there because of their FAITH in the God of this Bible.

WHAT DOES OUR FAITH DO FOR US? Our faith does many things, but let me show you three things. Our faith is…

1. A CHANGING FAITH

All who accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior became NEW CREATURES in Christ Jesus.

Look at 2 Corinthians 5:17, we read, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Listen, I am not, nor are you the same person you used to be. As Christians we are not perfect, but thank God we are not what we used to be. By faith we all have been made NEW CREATURES!

The moment we placed our FAITH in Christ Jesus and accepted the Lord as our Savior, the Bible tells us “…old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

• Before we gave our hearts to the Lord, we used to make excuses for why we could not come to church

• Before we gave our hearts to the Lord, our money was our money and we never gave God the tithes that belonged to Him