Sermon Central
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Attitude Of Gratitude Series
Contributed by Anthony Zibolski on Nov 30, 2011 (message contributor)
Summary: Being Thankful is a life-long process. It is acknowlwdging god for all His blessings
Attitude of Gratitude
Introduction-
This morning I want to look at having an attitude of gratitude.
Being thankful this Thanksgiving.
I want us to take our text from the man after God’s own heart, King David as he offers up thanksgiving to God.
That is exalting the Lord.
That is worshipping from the holy mountain of God.
That is singing a new song. That is acknowledging God for our salvation.
“It is good to praise the Lord, and make music to your name, O most high, but you O Lord are exalted forever.”
With all my heart, I believe we are a blessed people. We live in a blessed nation. But at the same time, I believe we are the most ungrateful people, and as a nation have forgotten what God has done for us and is doing for us.
We have gone from entering His gates with thanksgiving to complaining and walking away from God. We complain more of what we don’t have than thanking Him for what we do have.
Thanksgiving day was set up to be a day of Thanksgiving.
Reflecting and remembering what God has done for our nation, and for us one of us.
In 1789, George Washington said, “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favor.”
Psalm 100 was written to remind us of our need to be thankful and to maintain gratitude for our God and creator.
The average person spends more time watching T.V. in one day, then they spend in all spiritual pursuits combined for the whole week.
Most have a Bible, but don’t know what is in it.
We call ourselves Christians, but we are not living according to biblical Christianity.
Our greatest enemy in the western world is materialism, spiritual pride, complacency, and self-sufficiency.
Illustration-
I told you about the lady that gave a little boy a orange. His mother said to the boy, what do you say? Peel it!
We have lost the attitude of saying thank you. Being grateful for what we have, more than complaining about what we do not have.
It does not take us long to realize that Israel needed a reminder, and sad to say that we need one too.
Illustration-
Medical missionary has developed a treatment which stopped progressive blindness. So people came to him and he performed the treatment. They realized that without the treatment , they would have gone blind. He said that they never said thank you. It was not in their language. Instead they spoke a word that meant “I will tell your name.” wherever they went, they would tell people the name of the missionary who cured their blindness. They had received something so special that they wanted to proclaim it.
That is what King David is teaching us here.
You realize that God has been so good to you that you can’t keep it inside. You have to shout your joy unto the Lord and others.
This Thursday is Thanksgiving. One day we are to set aside and give thanks. But if we are going to live a life of Thanksgiving, it will be everyday.
When King David or Apostle Paul talk about thanksgiving, the word praise is not to far behind. It will always have in its sentence the words praise, thanksgiving, always, continually, in all circumstances.
Israel grumbled because they had no food, God miraculously provided manna
(bread from heaven). All they had to do was pick it up daily. They grumbled because it was the same thing everyday.
10 leapers are healed by Jesus, only one of the 10 came back to thank Jesus for the healing. The rest quickly forgot where their healing came from.
A baby is ungrateful! I know, you don’t want to hear that about your precious one. You walk that baby with colic all night long. They won’t say thank you. They just crash from exhaustion, or keep crying!
A child has to be taught to be thankful.
They have to be taught to share.
They have to learn that everything they see does not belong to them or that they have a right to have it.
Not only does thanksgiving have to be expressed, but it has to be learned.
3 things to learn here-
I. Express our thanksgiving.
II. Commit to Thanksgiving
III. Thanksgiving is Thanksliving
I. Expressing our thanksgiving
I want to say thank you to all of you that has made this month of pastor appreciation special. I am very grateful for all your support and kindness. Your expressions of thankfulness.
Ever wonder why you park on a drive way, and drive on a parkway?
