Download 11-20-16 A Thankful Heart

11-20-2016
and honor and power, for you created all things, and
by your will they were created and have their being.”
A Thankful Heart
Forsyth UMC 11-20-2016
Originally from Broadview Evangelical
Probably from Thanksgiving 1986
He determines the rise and fall of nations
and appoints their leaders for his own purposes. God
causes the flowers to bloom in the spring and the
snows to come in the winter. He provides all good
things for us to enjoy. He created us as King David
said, “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my
Soon we will be celebrating Thanksgiving
Day, a day our country sets aside to give thanks to
God for the blessings we have received.
The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in
1621 by the Pilgrims. During the Revolutionary War
the Continental Congress proclaimed a Thanksgiving
nearly every year. George Washington made
Thanksgiving Day proclamations in 1789 and in 1795
and later in 1815 President Madison did the same. In
1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham
Lincoln proclaimed the 4th Thursday in November a
national holiday. In 1939 President Franklin D.
Roosevelt tried to move it to the 3rd Thursday in
November but many states refused to recognize the
change and in 1941 Congress established the 4th
Thursday in November for Thanksgiving and made it
a national holiday.
Canada has a similar day in October.1
As we can see our country has a long history
of giving thanks to God for our blessings. The Bible
also teaches us to be thankful saying,
“And be thankful.” – Colossians 3:15 NIV
body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
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Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know
it.” – Psalm 139:13-14 - NLT
God is the one who draws a man and woman
together as husband and wife which is why Jesus
said, “Since they are no longer two but one, let no
one split apart what God has joined together.” –
Matthew 19:6 - NLT
God is the one who send children as a
blessing to us making us families. God provides our
daily food, beverage, clothes, shelter and all of the
prosperity we enjoy and all the beauty and wonder of
the earth, the sky and the sea.
With all these things God has provided for us
he certainly deserved to be thanked. Many of the
people in our nation recognize that and so we set
aside the 4th Thursday of November for that day
nationally.
“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful
and thankful.” – Colossians 4:2 NIV
“ Therefore, since we are receiving a
kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful,
and so worship God acceptably with reverence and
awe, …” – Hebrews 12:28 NIV
” give thanks in all circumstances; for this is
God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” – 1 Thess. 5:18
2. Thanks for Salvation
As Christians we have even greater reasons
to be thankful as Hebrews 12:28 says, “we are
receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable,…” -NLT
No other religion in the world has a God who
came and died for the sins of mankind. Other
religions try to develop some formula where we can
make ourselves right with God.
No other religion in the world has a Savior
who after he died in our place rose again from the
dead and then ascended into heaven having been
given all authority in heaven and on the earth.
Some religions may claim their founder was
raised from death and ascended into heaven, but no
other religion has a Savior who was seen alive by the
very people who watched him die and left us an
empty grave that is easy to find for everyone to see.
No other religion has the kind of eyewitness
accounts, because it didn’t happen to anyone but
Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
So as Christians we are also thankful for:
a. A sure foundation for our faith – the
Bible.
b. For a home heaven.
c. For forgiveness of our sins.
NIV
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in
every situation, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” –
Philippians 4:6 NIV
Psalms 107, 118, and 136 all begin with
these word, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.” –NIV
The Bible clearly teaches us to be thankful.
1. God Deserves to be Thanked
We need to be thankful because God
deserves to be thanked. God is the Creator of the
Universe, of all things visible and invisible. He gave
us this planet as our home. Revelation 4:11 says,
“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory
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His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you
live in Christ Jesus.” –NIV.
d. For a risen Lord and Savior.
When we see all the things God has done, we see
how much he loves us and deserves to be thanked.
The command, “give thanks in all circumstances” is
not a burden but a joy.
This peace from God is something that the
world cannot take away.
We have seen this truth in our brothers and
sisters in Liberia. Liberia had a life-style somewhat
like the United States, but then came 14 years of civil
war. The country and the economy were destroyed.
Yet I heard over and over again how the Christians in
that country were extremely joyful in their salvation.
In the midst of their suffering, death and poverty
they were joyful and thankful in Christ. Certainly, we
who have so much both materially and spiritually
should be much more thankful and joyful.
3. Giving Thanks Reminds us of what
God has done.
The chief danger of prosperity is not that we
will lose our prosperity but that we will forget the
One who gave us that prosperity.
In Deuteronomy 8:11 God warned the
Israelites about this saying, “But that is the time to
be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not
forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands,
regulations, and decrees that I am giving you
today.” -NLT.
5. Conclusion
When we are thankful to God for all the
things he has blessed us with then we will have a
peace from God that passes all understanding. For
we thank God for he deserves it above everyone and
everything else. We thank God to remind ourselves
that every good and perfect gift physical and spiritual
comes from God our Father. Finally when we thank
God it brings us internal and eternal joy that the
world cannot take away.
Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8-9, “And now,
In his warning to them and to us given in vv.
10-20, God warned that them might forget him and
become proud in heart. He warned them if they ever
got to the point where they forgot all about him and
worshipped other gods he would destroy them.
A thankful heart reminds us that God has
provided all of these things and keeps us from
becoming proud and from losing our salvation.
Imagine receiving a gift from a loved one
and not giving thanks for it. That’s just rude. So
wouldn’t it be rude to not thank God for all that he
has given to us. When I was a child and received
gifts at Christmas I always had to write a “Thank
You” note to the people who sent the gift because it
is the polite and right thing to do.
dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your
thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right,
and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about
things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep
putting into practice all you learned and received
from me—everything you heard from me and saw me
doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”
4. Giving Thanks Brings Joy from
Heaven
If you are thankful, you focus on the good
things God has given you. Psychologically, if you
want to depress yourself you think about everything
you don’t have or all of the bad things in life. I call
that “stinking thinking”. Here is the Apostle Paul’s
cure for “stinking thinking” from Philippians 4:4-6 in
the NLT:
Footnotes:
1
From The American Educator Encyclopedia, Vol. 10, pp. 35693569A. Copyright 1962 by the United Educators, Inc.
Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it
again—rejoice! 5 Let everyone see that you are
considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is
coming soon.
6
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray
about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank
him for all he has done.
4
When we do this there is a promise that
comes stated in v. 7, “Then you will experience God’s
peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.
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