This is the manuscript of a sermon I preached at Christ Church, Los Angeles, CA on Sunday November 18, 2018. This coming Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. You hear all the time, and it’s certainly true, that you don’t need a turkey, dressing, greens, pumpkin and sweet potato pies to celebrate Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving for people of faith represents more than an annual holiday, it serves as a reminder that giving thanks is part of who we are as believers because we demonstrate faith when we are grateful. But when times are tough it's hard sometimes to be thankful.To hear the audio click on the YouTube image at the end of the manuscript.
This
coming Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. You
hear all the time, and it’s certainly true, that you don’t need a turkey,
dressing, greens, pumpkin and sweet potato pies to celebrate Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving for people of faith
represents more than an annual holiday, it serves as a reminder that giving
thanks is part of who we are as believers because we demonstrate faith when we
are grateful.
All
you need is a reason, and God has given us plenty of reasons to be grateful.
Start
with what you see—the clothes you’re wearing, the food in the fridge, the
beauty of a fall day (and we have a lot of those in Los Angeles). Then think
about the people you love and how they’ve touched your life. Next, think about
the things God has given you that can’t be held in your hands—things like hope,
forgiveness, freedom, salvation, and your future home in heaven. Stopping to
say thanks will remind you of how big God is and how good your life is, no
matter what’s going on.
You
can’t separate gratitude and faith. Giving thanks=gratitude… Giving God thanks
(or gratitude) is an expression of your
faith in His Sovereignty.
It is impossible to understand and
receive all that Christ did for us on the cross and not be grateful. For those
of us who have been given so much, it is important that we continually express
our genuine appreciation to our Heavenly Father both in words and by the way we
live our lives. For the Christian, every
day should be a day of thanksgiving…
THE MEANING OF THANKFULNESS
Thankfulness is a mental
and/or verbal expression of one's acknowledgement and appreciation of God's
person, His grace, His blessings, and His sovereign work in our livea and the
world.
Thankfulness is a skill we
can develop with practice. It’s just a matter of pausing and noticing the
abundance with which God has filled our lives.
We can choose to view life
through the lens of deprivation (noticing everything we don’t have and worrying
that there is never enough for us) or through the lens of abundance (noticing
everything we do have and trusting that a good God will provide for us).
When Should
We Give Thanks?
●
We should give thanks whenever we pray. The reason we should give thanks when we pray
is because when we are thankful we take our eyes of ourselves and our problems
so we can focus on others and on God.
Look at these examples
from the apostle Paul:
Ephesians 1:15-17 (NKJV)15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith
in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,16 do not cease to
give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him,
1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 (NKJV)2 We give thanks to God always for you all,
making mention of you in our prayers,3 remembering without ceasing your work of
faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the
sight of our God and Father,
When we pray with thanksgiving
it helps us to see life through the perspective of God, His principles, His promises, His plan, His
provisions, and His purposes. This focus on God promotes faith and courage
in the face of the trying and painful situations that we all eventually face.
●
Second, we should always give thanks in everything and for
everything
Ephesians 5:20 (NKJV)20 giving thanks always for all things to God the
Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NKJV)18 in everything give thanks; for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
This means that there is
no limit on the time or the extent of
our thanksgiving. God’s will for us
includes constant joy, ceaseless prayer, and boundless thanks.
But when times are tough
it's hard sometimes to be thankful.
That’s what I want to talk
about today. When giving thanks is
tough.
One night the Biblical scholar Matthew Henry was
robbed. When he got home he was still trembling with fear. Yet, he regained his
calm as he prayed This is the prayer he offered and wrote in his journal:
"Father, I thank You first because I was never robbed before; second, I
thank You because although they took my purse, they did not take my life; third,
I thank You because although they took everything I had, it was not very much;
and fourth, I thank You because it was I who was robbed and not I who
robbed"
One of the greatest marks of spiritual maturity is
the ability to give thanks when it's tough. This is what Paul meant in;
I
Thessalonians 5:16-18 NKJV Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give
thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Here is something that I read once. "The greatest lesson I have learned is
to take things with gratitude and not take them for granted. "You say
grace before meals, but I say grace
before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and grace before I
open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, walking, playing,
and grace before I dip the pen in the ink."
Throughout the Scripture, we hear the call to give
thanks.
Thanksgiving is really faith in action:
1 Chronicles
16:8 NIV Give
praise to the Lord , proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has
done.
When you give thanks in tough times, it does three
things...
I.
Cultivates Your Character
Did you notice that the Scripture that we read from
1 Thessalonians says that giving thanks is is the will of God.
Cicero, the Roman poet, observed: "Thanksgiving
is not only the greatest of all virtues, it is the parent of all virtues."
Talking about parents, they recognize this principle
when raising children. One of the first virtues they try to instill in their
children is the virtue of thanksgiving. Without it, they grow up to be selfish,
narcissistic, manipulative, complaining, and thinking that the world owes them
a living.
Remember the hymn that says;
"Count
your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord
has done?" When we do that we are look at what we do have not what we don't
have.
As the psalmist said,
Psalms 103:1-5 NKJV Bless the Lord , O my
soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord , O my
soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who
heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you
with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good
things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
II. Thanksgiving Increases Your Joy
II. Thanksgiving Increases Your Joy
Again number one; giving thanks cultivates your
character. Number 2 giving thanks
increases your joy.
Notice the connection between verses 16 and 18 in I
Thessalonians 5 verse 16 says; “Rejoice always”, and verse 18 says “Give thanks
in all circumstances”.
The words thanksgiving
and joy come from the same Greek
root, charis, meaning
"grace."
Thanksgiving is eucharis,
and joy is chara. If you don't give
thanks, what will you give? Anger, resentment, doubt, complaint? The secret to
abounding joy is the gratitude attitude or thanks.
Gratitude is the world’s healthiest human emotion.
It actually increases your immunity to sickness. There are studies that show
that happier people are healthier people.
Ungrateful
people tend to be unhappy people. Nothing ever satisfies them. They never have
enough. They are “when-and-then” people who think, “When such and such happens, then
I’ll be happy.”
But the Bible gives us another way.
But the Bible gives us another way.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 GW Whatever happens, give
thanks, because it is God’s will in Christ Jesus that you do this.
Gratitude can change everything. For example, try this: If you’re feeling depressed, make a list of 50 things you can be grateful for. Your gratefulness will help shift your focus away from your problems and toward everything good God has done and is doing in your life.
We take too much for granted. Develop the attitude of gratitude and watch your stress level go down—because there is always something to be grateful for.
Gratitude can change everything. For example, try this: If you’re feeling depressed, make a list of 50 things you can be grateful for. Your gratefulness will help shift your focus away from your problems and toward everything good God has done and is doing in your life.
We take too much for granted. Develop the attitude of gratitude and watch your stress level go down—because there is always something to be grateful for.
III.
Thanksgiving Conquers Your Problems
Okay number one; giving thanks cultivates your
character, number 2 giving thanks
increases your joy, and number 3 giving thanks conquers your problems.
No, I don't mean that all your problems go away when
you give thanks. I mean that your problems stop being such a problem. You live
from the inside out. What goes on around you no longer controls the condition
of the world within you.
You can't control the problems that come into your
life but you can control how you respond to them.
There's a saying; "Bitterness comes to all. It
sours some; it sweetens others”. Use the bitterness of your problems to sweeten
your spirit even in the midst of them through thanksgiving and praising
God. Not for the problems but in the
middle of them. When we praise God and
thank Him the focus is on God and no longer on the problem.
Thanking God delivers us from a victim mentality and
gives us a victor's mentality.
Romans 8:31-39 NKJV What then shall we say to
these things? If God is for us, who can
be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up
for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall
bring a charge against God’s elect? It
is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also
risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for
us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is
written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep
for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through
Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels
nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor
height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
I once read that nothing can help the person with the wrong mental attitude, and nothing can stop a person with the right mental attitude. The right mental attitude to overcome your obstacles and win your battles is thanksgiving.
I once read that nothing can help the person with the wrong mental attitude, and nothing can stop a person with the right mental attitude. The right mental attitude to overcome your obstacles and win your battles is thanksgiving.
Change your way of thinking;
Philippians 4:8 NKJV Finally, brethren,
whatever things are true, whatever things are
noble, whatever things are just,
whatever things are pure, whatever things are
lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these
things.
And thank God.
Giving thanks cultivates your character, increases your joy, and conquers your problems.
A friend sent me
this a couple of years ago.
“Imagine the God of
the universe speaking these words to you… ;Thankfulness takes the sting out of
adversity. That is why I have instructed you to give thanks for everything. There is an element of mystery in this
transaction: You give Me thanks (regardless of your feelings), and I give you
Joy (regardless of your circumstances). This is a spiritual act of obedience—at
times, blind obedience. To people who don’t know Me intimately, it can seem
irrational and even impossible to thank Me for heartrending hardships.
Nonetheless, those who obey Me in this way are invariably blessed, even though
difficulties may remain.
Thankfulness opens
your heart to My Presence and your mind to My thoughts. You may still be in the
same place, with the same set of circumstances, but it is as if a light has
been switched on, enabling you to see from My perspective. It is this Light of My Presence that removes the
sting from adversity.
Being thankful in
all things doesn't mean faking it either but we'll talk about that next week.
We
Thanksgiving is more than a one-day family gathering with lots of good
food. It’s a way of living, a daily act
of expressing gratitude to our Maker who first
gave to us.
In this one Psalm
there are a number of instructions listed that can help us live our
Thanksgiving . .
● Make a glad sound to the Lord
● Give worship to the Lord with joy
● Come before him with a song
● Be certain that you acknowledge that the Lord is God
● Come into his presence with joy, and into his house with praise
● [Remember] for the Lord is good . . . his mercy is never-ending . . .
his faith is unchanging
Let me end with the
thing that we should thank God most for …….. salvation.
The Bible
tells us that we are separated from God because we have sinned.
Isaiah 59:1-2 NKJV Behold, the Lord's hand is not
shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But
your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His
face from you, So that He will not hear.
Romans 3:23 NIV for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God,
Romans 6:23 NKJV For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Psalm 118 is a song
of thanksgiving to God for His salvation, verse 14 of that Psalm says
Psalms 118:14 NKJV The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my
salvation.
That salvation is
by the grace of God and our faith in which we acknowledge the sacrifice of
Jesus to atone or pay the penalty for our sins.
God loves
us—He loves you, He loves me—and He wants us to be part of His family forever.
He loves us so much that He sent His only Son into the world to die as a
perfect sacrifice for our sins. All we need to do is reach out in faith and
accept Christ as our Savior and Lord:
Romans 10:9-10 NIV If you declare with your
mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are
justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
Have you
opened your heart to Jesus Christ? If not, turn to Him with a simple prayer of
repentance and faith, and thank Him for what He has done for you. If you have never
done this we can do it now. Come on down and I’ll help and lead you in a prayer
of repentance and faith. If you’re shy
and don’t want to come up here that’s OK come talk to me after service and we
can do it where there’s nobody but you and me and Jesus.
If you do
know Christ, how long has it been since you thanked God for your salvation? We
should not let a day go by without thanking God for His mercy and His grace to
us in Jesus Christ.
"Lord, teach me to
offer you a heart of thanksgiving and praise in all my daily experiences of
life. Teach me to be joyful always, to pray continually and to give thanks in
all my circumstances. I accept them as Your will for my life (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). I long to
bring pleasure to Your heart daily. Break the power of the enemy in my life.
Defeat Him through my sacrifice of praise. Change my outlook and attitude into
one of joyful contentment with my present circumstances.
Jesus, I want to be like You who obeyed the Father
without complaint. You embraced the chains of humanity when You walked this
earth. Convict me whenever I complain or compare myself with others. Give me
Your attitude of humility and thankful acceptance. I want to be like the
Apostle Paul who learned contentment in every circumstance. I choose to
continually offer You a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that give praise
to Your name (Hebrews 13:15). I long
to bring a smile to Your face. Teach me the power of a thankful heart. I know
that Your truth dwells in a thankful heart.
The
Lord bless you, and keep you:. The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be
gracious unto you:. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you
peace Numbers 6:24-26.
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