give thanks
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Give Thanks
Main idea: Giving thanks in every circumstance isn’t just a good idea, it puts you directly in the very will of God.
Prayer: “Lord thank you for everything; the good times and the bad. The highs and lows and everything else in between. Please help us learn how to be joyful always, prayerful, and grateful in each and every circumstance we may find ourselves in. We are rich beyond measure simply because we are yours. Amen.”
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, John 11:1-44, 2nd Corinthians 9:6-15
(Doris Day once said, “Gratitude is riches, complaint is poverty.” And as we gather together today with Thanksgiving fresh on our minds, there is so much for us to be grateful for.
Pastor - Take some time to share some specific things you are grateful for… Or things happening in your church community that you’re grateful for. Try and set the tone for the sermon in this time of sharing.
I hope that as I was sharing you were busy thinking of all the things you have to be grateful for as well. I hope you were able to see how truly wealthy you are, that gratitude is riches, and that God is at work in all of our lives.
As you’ve probably guessed by now, our sermon today, Give Thanks, is all about Thanksgiving, gratitude, and gratefulness. The ancient Roman philosopher Cicero said, "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others." It’s well documented that being grateful has incredible mental, physical, and emotional benefits. In fact, the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Did you catch that last part? The one where Paul revealed that giving thanks in every circumstance isn’t just a good idea, it puts you directly in the very will of God.
Main Teaching
Many of us struggle to know what the “will of God” is for our lives. We beg Him in prayer and ask Him to show us what we should do, where we should live, who we should marry, and on and on the list continues. I’m not saying that it’s bad or wrong to ask Him those things, but what if in reply He were to say, “I just want you to be grateful, no matter the circumstance.”
Grateful for the job you have.
Grateful for the spouse and kids you have.
Grateful for the home and city you live in.
Grateful for all of it.
What if this Thanksgiving you took some time to really slow down and take a gratitude inventory. What if you wrote out, line by line, everything you’re grateful for. From big things to small things, from the home you live in to the Keurig machine that automatically brews your coffee every morning. What if nothing were off limits from the gratitude inventory, what would you say?
Pastor - Share a few items that you would include in a gratitude inventory of your life. Include big things and small things, try to really connect with your church on this point.
There’s power in naming the things that we’re grateful for. It helps set our focus on positive things rather than negative. It helps us to avoid the “poverty of complaint” and if we do it often enough, we can develop habits of gratitude in our lives. These habits become very important when adversity enters the picture. It’s easy to be grateful when things are going well, but when things get difficult, we’re quick to default back to complaining and grumbling. I think this is why the apostle Paul advises us to be grateful in every circumstance.
Every Circumstance
I think we can all agree that it’s not easy to be grateful in every circumstance. In fact there are many situations where it’s hard to imagine HOW to be grateful. There are questions that we may never get answered on this side of heaven, and yet, we are called to be faithful, to trust, and to stand firm in our faith.
There’s one story in particular, from John 11, that highlights this incredible truth. It’s the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead.
Read John 11:1-7
1 A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha.
2 This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother, Lazarus, was sick.
3 So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.”
4 But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.”
5 So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus,
6 he stayed where he was for the next two days.
7 Finally, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”
When Jesus receives word from Mary and Martha that Lazarus is sick he is about a day’s journey away. It’s also important to note that Lazarus wasn’t just someone that Jesus kind-of knew or had met here or there. Actually, the note that Mary and Martha sent to Jesus said, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” Our passage goes on to say, “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” This was a family that Jesus not only knew very well but had a special and intimate relationship with. Think of someone in your life that’s not necessarily a family member but who is close to you like a family member. You LOVE them. Now, imagine that you’ve just received news that they are very sick.
I want you to try and imagine taking an extra two days after hearing they’re very sick to respond to them.
Would they feel like you loved them? Probably not. Yet, for some reason, this is exactly how Jesus responds to the news about Lazarus. He stays where He is and he just keeps on ministering before telling the disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” It seems confusing, but actually, Jesus has already given divine insight into what’s really happening in verse 4 when he says, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”
God knows what he’s doing. It may not appear that way to the disciples around him, or to the sisters back in Bethany tending to their dying brother, but this is a reality that we all must embrace. God knows what He’s doing even when we don’t understand it. He is working in and through the situations going on in our lives. The challenge for us is to remain faithful and steadfast even when we don’t get what we want. Even when our prayers go seemingly unanswered.
Read John 11:17-22
17 When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days.
18 Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem,
19 and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss.
20 When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house.
21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.
22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”
When Jesus finally gets to town, Lazarus has already been dead for four days. When Martha comes out to meet Him she says, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Mary eventually comes out to meet Jesus as well, and says the exact same thing her sister Martha did, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Martha and Mary both feel that their brother Lazarus wouldn’t have died if Jesus would have “shown up.” They wanted and expected Jesus to answer their prayers in the way they wanted and they are obviously sad that Jesus didn’t come in time to save their brother.
Have you ever felt frustrated with God? Maybe you’ve even said the same thing at some point in your life that Martha and Mary said, “Lord, if you had been here…” But it’s important to remember that Jesus was operating on a different and divine timeline. He had an ultimate purpose and plan for showing up when and how he did. Which we only learn later in the story.
Read John 11:38–44
38 Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance.
39 “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”
40 Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?”
41 So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me.
42 You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.”
43 Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”
In this section we learn that Jesus’ knew Lazarus would live and He knew that it would bring incredible glory to God the Father. When thinking about living a grateful life it’s important to catch something that Jesus says in this section, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” Jesus “thanks” the Father for hearing Him, and mentions that the Father “always hears Him.”
This truth is so important to remember as we consider the difficulty in being grateful through every circumstance in life. We must remember that the Father loves us, that He has a plan and a purpose in all things, and most importantly, that He always hears our prayers. Not that He always answers them the way we would want, but that He always hears and knows what we need.
When we root ourselves in the sovereign love of God the Father, we have all we need for any and every circumstance that may arise in life. Even when things aren’t going the way we would want them to, we can humbly say, “Thank you Lord.”
Thank you for listening to us.
Thank you for knowing us.
Thank you for providing all that we need.
We are truly “rich” in you and your love.
Conclusion
Wealth beyond measure
If gratitude is riches then let’s focus this season on living extravagant lives of grateful praise. Instead of focusing on all that we don’t have, or all that we think we should have, let’s focus on what we do have. And let’s specifically thank God for all of it, sparing nothing from His glory…
Read 2 Corinthians 9:6-8
6 Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.
7 You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.”
8 And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.
As you live gratefully, remember to sow generously… For God is ready and able to supply all that you and I need to be generous in each and every situation. Think about how this applies to a season like Thanksgiving and to a life of grateful praise.
Where do you need to sow more generously in your day to day? Where do you need to trade complaint for gratitude? Riches for poverty? Is there any specific situation or circumstance that you are withholding from the grace of gratitude?
The ultimate goal is to give it all over to God. To trust Him completely. To abide in His good and perfect will for our lives.
To, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18… Then and only then will we be able to proclaim, just like the Apostle Paul did in 2 Corinthians 9:15; “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”
Being thankful is so important
I was listening to a podcast this week will working on the house, it was the unashamed podcast by some of the duck dynasty people and one of the guys said something that I thought was very insightful.
They were talking a this very Idea with original sin..
you see being in-content, or ungrateful just doesn’t just make us a grumpy person that is hard to be around, even thought is that is true, people don’t like to be around people who complain, or are ungrateful, or in-content.
being an ungrateful person ultimately leads us to sin. and this is what the guy on the podcast said he said that we mistakenly think that sin is a violation of an arbitrary command that God has given to his people.
That is how we typically define sin, it is a missing of the mark or the standard of God, and it is that but.
What this guys said that I found very interesting was sin is a mistrust in the revelation of God, sin is to say God I don’t trust you that you are powerful enough to do what you say you are going to do, or to say that God you are not good enough because you don’t have my best intrest at heart.
Being ungrateful will lead us just like it lead Adam and Eve to a place where we are not in communion with God , because we focusing on something other than God and what his word has promised us in our walk with him.
Thanks be to God, indeed.
Let’s pray together.
