Give Thanks!: The Importance of Being Grateful

Thank you VIDEO

WELCOME: Brad

OK So this weekend is thanksgiving weekend.

So happy thanksgiving!

Today we are going to celebrate through worship, some scripture and reflection and share with each other what we are thankful for. We cannot share a mic, so it will be with great full voice that we share with each other.

PRAYER:

God, this year has been hard for many of us here this morning. While this is a gift to be here together this morning, it's also hard for some of us to find reasons to say thank you. For many of us the challenges we have faced this year have been overwhelming, and as we gather today, we do not ignore the fact that these feelings still linger as does the pain. But for this hour, and as we gather with familities anf loved ones and bubbles over these next few days, we remember that you are a God who loves us, cares for us, heals us, and forgives us. In the midst of confinement and seclusion we open our hearts and minds to something bigger and everlasting.

WORSHIP

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Baptism

Fall Fest

Thanksgiving

MESSAGE

Why is thanksgiving good for you?

The human need to express gratitude seems to be a powerful and almost universal phenomenon. But why?

This is Robert A. Emmons, studies gratitude!

Ph.D, a psychology professor at the University of California,

Emmons created a questionnaire that compared “grateful people” to those who were less so. They also found ways to cultivate gratitude in test subjects — keeping a “gratitude journal,” counting one’s blessings, writing letters of thanks — then studied the changes that occurred as a result.

The results of his studies and others give us reasons for being thankful...

I. Why Be Thankful?

A. Boosts your health.

less depression

lower blood pressure

more energy

greater optimism.

B. Slows Down Aging

slowed down the effects of neurodegeneration

atrophy and loss of function of neurons, which is present in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

C. Makes us less stressed

Eventually our minds submit to the mood of the newsfeeds.

Verbalizing what you are thankful for is an antidote for stress.

It ia really about replacing our list!!

Which newsfeed so I want to feel my soul?

D. Makes us more likeable

gratitude increases our levels of oxytocin known as the “bonding hormone” which causes us to be calm and feel secure in relationships

Well those are great!!

Who doesn’t want to be more healthy, slow down aging process, be less stressed, and be likeable.

And I dont think it is an accident that a command to give thanks has health attached with it, that is the point of God’s commands.

But scripture gives us more reasons.

As we read earlier in psalm 100… we are invited to ...

Psalm 100:1–2 NLT

Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy.

We can look that over out of habit, and not recognize the reasons within this text for giving thanks.

This psalm is full of reasons to give thanks.

Not just a command to do so.

II. Greater Reasons to Be Thankful

A. We Belong

one of the greatest cries of our modern world as we spoke about lat week is ....am I loved and do I have belonging

Psalm 100:3 NLT

Acknowledge that the Lord is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

That is not the way the ancient world sees God.

And it is not often the modern world sees God.

Many have a version of God closer to that of Zeus sitting on a throne with a lightning bolt in his hand, angry and ready to pounce!

But scripture tells us that we worship a God that shepherds us. Loves us. And expressed his heart for us by giving up his glory for us.

Like a loving shepherd he walked into darkness and danger for our salvation.

Philippians 2:6–8 NLT

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

As Bruce Shelly writes...

“Christianity is the only major religion to have at its central event the humiliation of its God.”

He is not far off and without empathy.

He tells us we have belonging.

B. We are Welcome

To be called into a kings court was often a threatening place! Summomned to the king is scary in the ancient world, the wave of a secepture could mean you’d lose your head.

But somethign different is going on here..

We are told to come on in and be thankful.

Come on in and enjoy the preseance of this Shepherd-King

Psalm 100:4 NLT

Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name.

Enter in and praise him…Why?

Becasue he is His declaration that we belong and that we are welcome is never ending!

See we are so used to friendship contracts.

We are friends as long as we are getting something out of it. Many marry with a mind of contract rather than the kind of relationship that God invites us into. It i all throughout Scripture that God is in for the long haul.

C. Our Belonging and Welcome are Eternal

Psalm 100:5 NLT

For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.

He is good

unfailing love continues

faithfullness continues

And that is good news!

For those who have been hurt by romantic relationships, where trust and commitment was an issue. Foreveryone who has been hurst by parents where it seemed like love had to be earned or affection was absent, Goid says. you have belonging, you are welcome without reservation, and my love is an eternal love.

And the greatest display of this is ultimately in the cross.

The greatest display of eternal acceptance, of eternal welcoming and of eternal hope is in Christ.

1 John 3:16 NLT

We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.

1 John 4:9–10 NLT

God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

Thats why the invitation of Col 3:16-17 makes sense.

Colossians 3:16–17 NLT

Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

Peace can rule in our hearts because belonging and welcome from the highest authority is ours.

Displayed by a love unearned and unbreakable in the life and acceptance of Christ and his humble love discplayed omn the cross.

So what list lays over and over in your head.

Is it simply the lists of things you fear or is a larger picture allowed to emerge. That is the invitation of this psalm and the gospel.

Many seem content to live lives of unchallenged negativity!

and that steals life!!

in the late 1800s

Edwin Othello Excell was writing songs to encourage Christians to think Christianly about their human experience.

You probably know ghim from his great hit.....

“You Better Stop being Mean”

When upon life's billows You are tempest tossed When you are discouraged Thinking all is lost Count your many blessings Name them one by one And it will surprise you

what the Lord has done Are you ever burdened With a load of care? Does the cross seem heavy You are called to bear?

Amid the conflict Whether great or small Do not be disheartened God is over all Count your blessings Name them one by one Count your many blessings See what God has done

What kind of list do you keep in your mental pocket?

I woiuld challenge you this week. When tslkiogn to each other on a topic, about you life, about the difficulty opf the year to sytart with 3 things you are thankful for.

It is a command of scripture for good reason. It brings health and it brings perspective.

And as Christians the Gospel, the belonging and welcoming and the eternal significance that places on our lives, changes everything.

The way that truth takes root in out lives is through thanksgiving.

Now there is something that happens when we count blessinga in public or to each other.

C.S. Lewis says...

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.

C.S. Lewis

meaning our joy is made more full when we share it.

COMMUNION:

Benediction:

Ephesians 3:14–21 NLT

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.