Thankfulness - a rare bird

America is a culture of complaint. Marketing makes you dissatisfied with you current state in order to make you but stuff.

This is a command, it is not optional!

Thanksgiving is for the christians what regular animal sacrifices were for the Jews.

Ps 50:23. The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;

I. How

b) Persistent

c) In the name of the Lord

II. For what - Everything

a) spiritual blessings

-forgiveness of sins (we are prideful because we take it for granted)

-for being part of his kingdom and to be under his authority

Hebrews 12:28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

-for his care and presence (He is better than anything else)

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

b) earthly blessings

-Food

-Shelter

-Kids

-Wife / Husband

-Health

III. Why?

a) Consequences for being unthankful and grumbling

-God’s wrath

Israelites

Numbers 14:28-30 Say to them, ‘As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, 30 not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell.

-depression

-miserable life

Conclusion:

For his person. It is not about the gifts but about the giver. God is giving all these things so we can.