The Cause of Thanksgiving 3

The Cause for Thanksgiving pt. 1 Eph 5:15-20

Last week we talked about how we are to give thanks in everything. This morning I’d like to talk about Givng thanks for everything.

Have you considered the fact that the poorest American is still the envy of almost all of the rest of the world. Let me prove it. Missionary David Thompson has this little four-question quiz. He said that if you can answer three of the four questions with a yes, you are among the 10% wealthiest people who've ever lived on earth:

· Do you own more than one pair of shoes?

· Do you own more than one pair of underwear?

· Do you have a choice of what to eat for at least one meal out of three?

· Do you have your own transportation?

How did you come out?

How many people in India, China, Russia, Latin and Central America, Africa, Cuba, and Iraq would not give anything and everything to exchange places with any of us here dollar for dollar, house for house, health care for health care, and church for church?

I think we can see in all of these things to be thankful for, or the cause for thanksgiving.

1. Thank God for what you have. One lady prayed, "Dear Jesus, please teach me to appreciate what I have before time forces me to appreciate what I had."

While here, do you realize that our forefathers did without,

· Sugar until the 13th Century?

· Coal fires until the 14th Century?

· Buttered bread until the 15th Century?

· Potatoes until the 16th Century?

· Coffee, tea and soup until the 17th Century?

· Pudding and eyeglasses until the 18th Century?

· Eggs, matches and electricity until the 19th Century?

· Automobiles, televisions, computers, and McDonalds until the 20th Century?

And yet as deprived as each of these people were down through the centuries, each generation still had innumerable reasons to be thankful.

2. Thank God for what you don’t have – I am sorry for people who are not well and I give them my sympathy, compassion and prayers, but I do thank God that He has thus far kept me from some things

3. Thank God for what you have had

a. A Holiness (not just Christian) Heritage

b. A home that was sheltered, protected and blessed

c. A Church that has taught me right and stood by me and sent me out to work with their blessings

4. Thank God for what you will have

a. A home in heaven

b. Reunion

5. Thank God for Jesus

a. Birth /life./death/ resurrection/ ascenion

b. Redemption/ atonement

The point of all of this is, we should ever be on the lookout for the blessings of God. The more you look for them, the more you will discover them.

Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Count your blessings, name them two by two and it will surprise you what the Lord can do.

Someone has noted that it is "better to lose count while naming your blessings than to lose your blessings counting your troubles.

Some of the illustrations of this sermon were taken from "http://www.nlag.net/Sermons/Transcripts/mjthanks.htm