Untitled Sermon (3)

As I was sitting down to prepare for this weeks sermon the distractions were everywhere. From the scheduling of all the running around next week for Thanksgiving, to planning and writing sermons for both today and the youth on Wednesday to all of the news of the day and the general craziness that seems to be life right now.

And I gotta be honest with yall I started to grumble a little bit. I mean can I be real transparent with yall this morning. Ok here goes.

It started to be too much. When I looked at all the different things I have going on some I’ve shared and some I won’t I was not in a thankful place. I was grumbling and getting mad. And I noticed that the more I focused on all the things that are going on with me and around me the less thankful and more bitter I became. I mean some of us in here a family meal isn’t necessarily something we are looking forward to right? It kind of brings to mind part of Psalm 23 right…you know the part…You prepare a table in the presence my enemies. Come on now yall can laugh at that.

For some we have strained relationships for some we have empty chairs and for some we just want a day of peace and quiet because the world just doesn’t stop hitting us. And we don’t feel very thankful.

For others of us our finances aren’t stretching as far as they used to and we are starting to getting anxious with Thanksgiving and buying food and we start worrying and we don’t feel very thankful.

And when all of the drama, stress, strife, commotion, and loneliness kicks in we don’t feel very thankful and then we being to wonder what do I have to thankful for. Look at this mess.

Brings a whole new meaning to saying look at this mess right. I mean I say that every year when I look at all the stuff I have to clean up but a lot of us over the past couple of years have said look at this mess with the knowledge that we can’t even make a dent in it without help.

I want to tell you this morning that you can smile when you say look at this mess. You can breathe easy when you say look at this mess. You can relax and get not stress when you say look at this mess.

AND

YOU CAN GIVE THANKS WHEN YOU SAY LOOK AT THIS MESS.

You see when you begin to shift your focus away from all the stuff, the drama, the bad news of the day, the family strife, the empty chairs and you focus on God and and the great and wonderful things He has done your heart begins to fill with Thanksgiving. You begin to be thankful for things that really matter....Eternal things.

Let’s look at Colossians this morning. Starting in Chapter 1 verse 9 through verse 14.

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Paul speaks often throughout his writings of giving thanks. In fact there are a ton of mentions in the Bible to be thankful and giving thanks. What is the one thing most of us say when someone does something for us. We say thank you right. We give thanks. If someone buying me a red bull or holding a door open for us or helping us out with a project deserves our thanks how much more so should we be full of thanksgiving to the God who created us and saved us through His son Jesus Christ.

And what’s amazing that the more you think on the wonders of Christ the less all the other mess seems to matter. You see what I want you to hear this morning is that Christ is bigger than our finances. Christ is bigger than our drama. Christ is bigger than our family strife. Christ is bigger than our empty chairs. JESUS IS BIGGER. Give thanks this morning because Jesus is Bigger AMEN.. ..

In the Old Testament book Lamentations in chapter 3 it says this:

Starting in verse 21

21  But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

22  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

23  they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

24  “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in him.”

His mercies never end and are new every morning. Anybody need the Lord to show some mercy....IT NEVER ENDS. Be thankful today for God’s mercy.

Psalm 107 says

8  Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,

for his wondrous works to the children of man!

9  For he satisfies the longing soul,

and the hungry soul he fills with good things

Be thankful for God’s Love and His wondrous works. He is the only thing that satisfies. Nothing else on this earth under the earth in space or in the sea can satisfy but Christ alone.

In Psalm 136 I mean really sometime this week read the whole thing it is an amazing Psalm but the first 3 verses give you the tone....

136 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever.

2  Give thanks to the God of gods,

for his steadfast love endures forever.

3  Give thanks to the Lord of lords,

for his steadfast love endures forever;

Then going to back to the scripture we started with

12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

He has transferred us over to kingdom of Jesus who is our redeemer and gave Himself for the forgiveness of our sins. Be thankful today that we have a redeemer.

Be thankful for a savior that chose to lay down His life so we could have life. You see putting your focus on Him brings gratitude. Even when everything is going haywire. He said for us to take heart because in this world we will have trouble. But HE has overcome the World.

So what do we have to be thankful for. A lot. Even when we say Look at this mess. We can say it with thanksgiving in our hearts. We can be thankful in all things because of Christ who loves us.

As I’m about to wrap up let me remind you of the love that He has for us. God’s love is so great so powerful that while we were sinners Christ died for us. Be thankful for that love. Be thankful this morning that there isn’t anything that can stop that love either....

In Romans Chapter 8 Paul writes this about the Everlasting love of God....

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As the band is coming up...

If you are here this morning and your bitter, or ungrateful, or tired and frustrated…Give thanks....shift your focus from looking at the mess to looking at your Redeemer, your savior, the Creator and Sustainer of everything.

If you are here this morning and you don’t know Jesus, you haven’t yet surrendered your life to Him He is waiting. He loves you, He died for you, He wants you to come home. Why don’t you make that decision today and enter His gates with Thanksgiving....