Sermon Tone Analysis

Reading and Introduction

This week, our nation celebrates the long-standing and cherished tradition of Thanksgiving.

For nearly four centuries, the people populating this country have observed Thanksgiving around this time of year, seeing fit to take time to reflect on blessings and remember all the reasons there are to be thankful.

Thankfulness is not simply a proper demeanor or polite attitude.

Thankfulness, at least for the Christian, should be a lifestyle.

Scripture has a great deal to say concerning gratitude and thanksgiving.

If we seek to be God’s children, we must cultivate and live out a spirit of thankfulness.

Over 50 verses in the New Testament address or speak of thankfulness.

We see it commanded, inferred, and exemplified.

Relying on these passages, we can learn why thankfulness is so important, what the characteristics of godly thankfulness are, and what things we should truly be thankful for.

The Importance of Thankfulness

Ingratitude opens the door to sin

Thankfulness is an important way in which we praise and worship God

When speaking about the public worship assembly, Paul mentioned the giving of thanks

Thanksgiving is part of the Heavenly worship given to God

Rev.

Giving thanks brings Glory to God

Giving thanks is not the only form of praise, but it is a key element of praise.

If we wish to praise God, one of the best things we can do is thank God. How often do you thank God? How often do you reflect on the various blessings God has given, and then take time to offer Him thanks for those blessings?

It is impossible to appreciate and praise God fully if we never offer thanks to Him.

There are Spiritual Benefits of Thankfulness

Thankfulness helps replace evil speech

Getting rid of evil behavior is not all there is to Christianity.

One must replace evil behavior with righteous actions and attitudes.

One such attitude is thankfulness.

As we receive and focus on God’s grace, we should develop a thankful spirit.

Doing so will help us maintain a good and proper spirit that is not easily overtaken again by former sinful ways.

Thankfulness helps us remain watchful

Christians must always be watchful.

Discontentment and ingratitude dull our spiritual readiness, and open the door for temptation and error.

When we readily and steadfastly remember God’s grace and blessings, and when we are truly thankful for such, it helps us watch against sin and error that would rob us of our most precious gift of salvation.

Thankfulness helps us be content

Anxiety and worry are often the results of discontentment or lack of trust in God.

If we are ungrateful, we lose sight of God’s care and blessings.

When we do that, it is easy to become discontent, and as we do, we likely grow more anxious and stressed - natural results of trusting in ourselves.

Thankfulness helps curb these problems, because thankfulness keeps us continually focused on, and trusting in, God.

Characteristics of Godly Thankfulness

Abounding

The word “abound” means “to be or exist in abundance with the implication of being considerably more than what would be expected” (Louw & Nida).

Common decency and manners move us to be thankful or express thanks at certain times or for certain things.

Christian thanks should far exceed common manners - a Christian should overflow with thankfulness.

Constant

Thanksgiving is a fun time of year, and it is nice to have a season dedicated to thankful reflection.

Thankful attitudes should not be cultivated just one day or even one season of the year however.

For the Christian, every day should be a day of giving thanks to God.

In All Circumstances

Thankfulness is not just for times of happiness or deliverance.

Everyone is thankful when they survive a car wreck or are cured of a terrible disease.

Everyone is thankful when they get a job after a time of unemployment, or when a loved one recovers.

When difficult times come though, many forget to be thankful, and lose sight of how much they still have.

The Christian should never let physical circumstances change dampen their thankful spirit.

The Christian doesn’t just abound in thanksgiving, they abound in thanksgiving in every circumstance.

Would you describe yourself as “abounding” in Thanksgiving?

Do you frequently and abundantly recognize your blessings and offer thanks to God for them?

Are you constant in thankfulness, and able to be grateful no matter your circumstances?

Is your thankfulness tied to God and thus always abounding, or are you only grateful when material blessings and physical health are present?

Things to Be Thankful For

God’s Provision

The primary example of thankfulness for provision in Scripture is food.

Jesus gave thanks before feeding the 5,000 and 4,000

Jesus said a prayer before eating and drinking during the Lord’s Supper

Food is just one of many things God gives us to sustain us.

Thankfulness for food reminds us to be thankful for all God has given us.

God is the giver and sustainer of life, and the giver of all good things.

We should readily recognize God’s beneficent gifts, and thank Him for all His provision.

Our Church Family

Paul’s greetings in his epistles show a great deal of thankfulness for his brethren (; ; ; ; ; ; ; )

It would be a worthwhile study to review all of Paul’s “thanksgivings” in these introductions to learn some of the things we should be thankful for in our brethren.

It would be a worthwhile study to review all of Paul’s “thanksgivings” in these introductions to learn some of the things we should be thankful for in our brethren.

It would be a worthwhile study to review all of Paul’s “thanksgivings” in these introductions to learn some of the things we should be thankful for in our brethren.

The good example and obedience of other Christians

How often do our prayers include a giving of thanks for brothers or sisters that are good examples?

How often do we thank God for the obedience found in new converts, or the steadfastness of faithful Christians?

Is this a way in which we can be more thankful?

The work of other brethren

We should be thankful for those that work for the Lord.

We should be thankful for teachers, elders, and preachers.

We should be thankful for the work that every single member does.

Not only should we be thankful for such work, we should vocalize our thankfulness to God in our own prayers.

What God has done for us

His inexpressible gift

Inexpressible means, “indescribable, beyond words.”

The gift of salvation is truly that.

For all we know and all God’s Word reveals about His love, grace and mercy that is poured out on mankind through the gift of Jesus, can we truly come up with words to describe the greatness of these things?

Do we value the gift of Jesus as something so great?

Do we love and appreciate what God has done for us?

Do we thank God for it?

Among all the physical things we thank God for, do we also take time to thank Him for Jesus?

Do we thank Him for the cross?

Do we thank Him for suffering for us, and for bearing our sins?

Do we thank God for His inexpressible gift?

Qualifying us for an inheritance

If you feel like you have nothing to be thankful for, remember this: God wants you to live forever with Him!

So much so, He gave the inexpressible gift of His Son to die for your sins.

Doing so opened a way for you to be forgiven, and being forgiven of sins you can share in the inheritance of eternal life.

If that were the only thing we had to be thankful for, we should be more thankful than all the world!

Victory through Christ

We face an enemy that we cannot and would not defeat on our own.

But we don’t have to, because, Christ has defeated him.

Christ has won the victory we could not win.