How can I say thank you

Psalm 50:14-15 (NKJV)---------14Offer to God thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High. 15Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” --------How can I say thank you? ------7/12/15---11/22/20

As we prepare this week to celebrate the Thanksgiving Holiday, I ask, how do you say thank you when someone shows you kindness? Do you buy them a present? Do you send them a card? What about a phone call, a text, or an email maybe? In each instance, you attempt to express your feeling of gratitude in a small but noticeable way. Our social custom dictates that persons who are recipients of kindnesses should respond by saying "thank you." It is an expected cordiality, whether it is heartfelt or not to always respond to kindnesses with a thank you. Saying thanks or thank you is easy for some; but there are others who find it considerably difficult because they find that saying thank you is a very humbling experience. Well, I don’t know about you but I’m finding more and more people in this world, outside of the church, as well as some in the church, who have a problem humbling themselves and because they have a problem humbling themselves, they have a problem saying thank you. (When you run across people whether in the church or outside of the church that have a problem with saying thank you-----just look at them after you have made a kind gesture to them, but there is no reply, and just say you’re welcome and it will remind them that they forgot to say thank you)

The story is told of two men who received their life’s destiny sealed in envelopes. The first received an envelope that contained the sum total of his life's experiences. The envelope was marked: pleasures. He felt fortunate to have received such a prize so late in his life. As he opened it, his life was showered with exciting events. He traveled around the world and experienced every known sensation. After a while, he had seen everything and done everything. Soon his pleasures diminished into meaningless, boring moments. He returned to his benefactor and complained violently. "Life is boring. I have been everywhere, and I’ve done everything, but there is nothing else to do. Therefore, I feel, I owe you no thanks, for this miserable state I find myself in.

And so, complaining of boredom, the man left unhappy.

The second man in this story had an envelope marked "extras." As he opened his envelope, a mixture of experiences surrounded his life. He had moments of joy, followed by moments of sickness. For every minute of joy, there were also a few moments of pain. After many years, the second man also returned to his benefactor and offered him many thanks. "Why do you thank me?" The benefactor asked, "I gave your friend pleasures and all he could do afterwards was complain and go away disappointed. I only gave you a life of extras and you give me thanks." The man looked at his benefactor, with an attitude of gratitude: and said, “If you had given me only pleasures, I would have soon become bored as my friend. However, you gave me a package that included a life thrills, ills, and chills and you called it extras and this package made my life complete. How many of you know that a complete life is full of joy and sorrows, ups and downs, valley and mountain top experiences.

A complete life comes with the good as well as the bad. That’s why personally, I like living in the northeast. Here we experience all four seasons. Beloved, life is similar to the four seasons. If you’re having a bad time, just hang in there for a little while and a change is on the way.

The man said, Mr. Benefactor, the long and painful nights you gave me, made the sun look better and brighter the next day. And so, I thank you for the extras. I thank you for the ills. And I thank you for the chills because altogether, they have made me a better man. Think about it.

· If God had never allowed the storms into your life to test your faith, you would not be as spiritually strong as you are today

· If you or someone you love had never gotten sick, you would have never known that Jesus is a healer

· If you had never sinned and been separated from God, you would have never experienced salvation and God’s Amazing Grace

And so, as Christians, we have learned the spirit of gratitude. We have learned that thanksgiving is every day. Every day we ought to give God thanks for the sunshine as well as the rain, every we ought to give God thanks for the joy, as well as the pain; every day we ought to give God thanks for our losses and for our gains. Beloved, we have found that we can show our thanks best by keeping our promises to God and continually praising him as believers of Christ Jesus in this sin sick world. Therefore, (I can still say thank you)

· When I’m lying flat on my back

· When my body is racked with pain

· When my money is funny, and my change is strange

· When I’m in the valley low because a complete life brings, thrills, ills, and chills

In our text today we find Asaph one of David’s chief musicians, giving praise and honor to Almighty God. Like David, Asaph learned in the course of his life to give God praise and thanks for every blessing and for every good fortune. He also learned to praise God for his moments of trial and his moments of difficulty. This text includes Asaph’s dialogue with God. It includes his words of praise and his commitment to God, but it also includes God's response. You see, my sis and bro, in these two verses in the midst of dialogue between the psalmist and the Almighty, we find three basic ingredients of life that demonstrates a believer’s gratitude and thanksgiving to God.

The first ingredient is that we should always offer thanks to God. Verse 14 says offer to God thanksgiving. In giving thanks to God, the emphasis is always on the spirit demonstrated in the offering, rather than the offering itself. For instance, many people think that simply coming to church is offering enough to God; they think that because they got dressed up and decided to give the Lord a few hours at the beginning of the week is offering enough. Well, someone ought to remind these people that the Word of God says that obedience is better than sacrifice and anything you do for the Lord is out of thanksgiving and gratitude for the things that He has already done for you.

Case and point, Cain and Able both gave offerings of thanks to God. The two brothers came before him with gifts that represented the best of both the fields and the herds. Yet God received Abel’s offering and rejected Cain's. It was not that Abel’s offering was better than Cain’s, but Cain’s actions and his attitude after he was rejected indicates that he may have brought his offering with anything but a humble and obedient spirit. You see, jealous because his offering was not received, Cain committed the first murder and killed his brother Able. Now had Cain come before God in humility and found his offering rejected, he would have sought ways to have his offering better received, rather than killing his brother.

Instead, his actions revealed the real motive of his offering which was pride. And so, today, we should give thanks to God out of gratitude for his goodness. The spirit of humility is more important than empty outward expressions. Consider three men who were asked to give thanks to God for something. Two of the men were believers; the third was a non-believer who liked to appear as part of the group. The first man held up his hand and said, "I want to thank God for holding my hand, for when I was sinking, he lifted me up." The second man held up his glasses and said, "I want to thank God for opening my eyes to his goodness, for I was once was blind, but now I see." The third man had no testimony but recalled something he heard somebody else say. He reached down, took off his shoe, waved it in the air and yelled, "I thank God for saving my sole!"

Beloved this third man said the right words, but they came more from the bottom of his foot rather than the bottom of his heart. You see, my sis and bro, when God has been good to you, it should not be difficult for you to give Him thanks. Giving thanks to the Lord for what He has done, is doing, and what He will do in the future is, should never be difficult.

And so, the first ingredient of this text is to always give thanks to the Lord, but secondly the text says always call upon the Lord in times of trouble. Now, my sis and bro, it may seem odd that God would list calling upon him as a way to show gratitude, but in reality, it isn't strange at all. There are many people today who call on God with their lips, but in times of trouble they put their trust in everyone and everything but God. There are some people that when trouble comes their way, they turn to quack doctors, palm readers, special potions consultants, or just plain old powerless human beings, but they seldom look to God.

But in verse 15 God told Asaph that in the time of trouble, "to call upon me." He told Asaph then and tells us now, show your trust, show your confidence and show your faith in me, by calling on me when you need help. Throughout the Bible our God tells His children to trust and call upon Him in the time of trouble. The Bible says:

· Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

· God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

· The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him.

· The Bible says some people trust in chariots and some trust in horses, but we who are called by His name are to trust in the Lord

And so, we find that Asaph’s boss King David also trust in the Lord. In Psalm 27:5 David wrote, “For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock." You see beloved, there are many people today who have discovered what David and Asaph knew all along and that is whenever you are in trouble and need some help, all you need to do is just call His name. In Biblical days Asaph and David would call Jehovah:

· Sabbath-------The Lord is our Host

· Nissi--------The Lord our Banner

· Shalom------The Lord our Peace

· Jireh--------The Lord our Provider

· Rohi------The Lord our Shepherd

But in these contemporary times, in these last and evil days, in this dispensation of grace, when you find yourself in trouble, just simply, stop, drop and call on the name of Jesus. Why Jesus? Because the Bible says that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. In the time of trouble call Jesus because there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved. If you are in trouble call Jesus, He’s only a prayer away.

And so, thus far we have found out through the word of God that if a believer is to truly demonstrate their gratitude and thanksgiving to God, they must always offer thanks to God, they must always call upon Him in the time of trouble but lastly before I take my seat they must always demonstrate their gratitude to God by telling the world about His goodness! You see, the world needs to know about the goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord expects us to tell the world what He’s done, because what He’s done is too good to keep to ourselves. In Psalms 105:1-3 David says" O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk of all his wondrous works. Beloved, when God has done something good for you, you should be willing to glorify him and show your appreciation and gratitude. You should be willing to tell it everywhere you go. And so, with an attitude of gratitude, tell the world how the Lord picked you up, turned you around, and placed your feet on solid ground. Tell the world that you are thankful for all the Lord has done for you. And every time you think of the goodness of Jesus and all that He has done for you, just thank Him. Thank Him!!!!

Mercy, Grace, His Goodness, Life, Salvation, Eternity, Calvary, every day because every day is a day of thanksgiving.

How can I say thank you?

By always offering thanks to God

By always calling upon the Lord in the time of trouble

By always telling the world about the Lord’s goodness