“Give Thanks”
November 18, 2012
Psalm 95:1-7
“Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.”
The story is told of two old friends who bumped into one another on the street one day. One of them looked forlorn, almost on the verge of tears. His friend asked, "What has the world done to you, my old friend?"
The sad fellow said, "Let me tell you. Three weeks ago, an uncle died and left me forty thousand dollars."
"That’s a lot of money."
"But, two weeks ago, a cousin I never even knew died, and left me eighty-five thousand free and clear."
"Sounds like you’ve been blessed...."
"You don’t understand!" he interrupted. "Last week my great-aunt passed away. I inherited almost a quarter of a million."
Now he was really confused. "Then, why do you look so glum?"
"This week... nothing!"
Attitude is everything, isn’t it? I remember a time in my life, shortly after I became a Christian, that ingratitude was so ingrained in me that I couldn’t think of ten things I was thankful for. I was negative and depressed and thankless. Life was very hard living that way. Every day was difficult. But I had accepted Christ and in my daily devotions, as I was reading the Word, I read,
“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:16-17
“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 5:18-20
“Give THANKS! What do I have to be thankful for? Life Stinks! You are better off dead!” That was my attitude and philosophy of life back then. Consequently, life was very difficult in those days.
But God brought me to these Scriptures and I could obey them or ignore them. I chose to obey – but I didn’t know how. I was so negative I couldn’t see anything positive. Life was so dark I couldn’t see any light. Then I remember the words of that old song we used to sing in church, “Count Your Blessings. Name them one by one.”
I got a piece of paper, numbered it from one to ten, and then began to write down my blessings. It was HARD! I had to really work to come up with 10 blessings. Now it is as easy as breathing – but then – it was very hard. Those of you who have never wrestled with despair and depression probably find that hard to believe – but it was true for me and it is true for many people today.
Do you realize that God wants us to be a thankful people? We are so blessed above all the nations on the earth – and yet it is so easy for us to see what we don’t have – like the guy in my little story. Like him - instead of counting and realizing our blessings each day, we are overwhelmed by despair from unrealistic expectations of life. That’s normal for most people. The bible warns us,
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” 2 Timothy 3:3-5
We are in those last days. We are an ungrateful people. Why? Because we think we deserve it. We think we are entitled to it. We selfishly think that someone ought to take care of us and make us happy and meet our needs.
That is a very spoiled and selfish mindset. It reveals and attitude of UN-gratitude. It reveals a lack of faith and a lack of love in our hearts. We try to cope with alcohol and drugs and anti-depressants. We try happy entertainment and music and everything we can find. But nothing seems to work. The reason is we are looking through a dark colored window. Every blessing has a dark side. Every positive has a negative. Every gift has a string attached – at least in our minds.
Life is very painful and difficult when we live like this. God doesn’t want us to live this way – spoiled and ungrateful. He wants us to live large; He wants us to live; He wants us to love; He wants us to laugh. But it won’t happen until we conform to the image that He has for us - the image of Christ. Happiness won’t happen until we begin to read and understand and apply the Word of God to our lives.
I want you to notice the kind of people GODLY people were under the Old Covenant. When it was working – it worked well.
“When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with tambourines and lutes.” 1 Samuel 18:6
“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance.” Exodus 12:14
God’s people were a happy people. There were a blessed people when they were living for Him. God instituted a number of feasts and holidays and celebrations. They ate and danced and praised God for His blessings. It was only after they took their eyes off of God and sought the gift instead of the Giver that they fell. And the result was always sorrow and pain and discouragement.
Jesus came and gave us a New Covenant – a covenant of love. Through Him we are provided with everything we need to live the kind of happy life He wants us to and we long for.
Let me share a couple of things that have changed my life from a life of pain and ingratitude to a life of joy and blessings.
First, apply the Word of God to your life. God says,
“Singing to God with gratitude in your hearts... giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:16-17
“Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 5:18-20
“Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18
This is God’s will for you! What is God’s will? That you give thanks in ALL circumstances! That you give thanks for EVERYTHING! This is God’s WILL for you.
You are probably thinking, “How can I do that? I’m not thankful for EVERYTHING that happens in life. There is a lot of bad stuff that happens.”
You can only be thankful for everything IF you have faith in God. He says,
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
We can only be thankful if we believe God; we can only be thankful if we have faith in Him. We can only be thankful if we have read the end of the Book and believe it.
So lesson number one is to read God’s Word and apply it to your life.
Secondly, we need to reprogram our minds.
Romans 12:2 says,
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2
Did you get that? “Be transformed by the RENEWING of your mind.” How do you RENEW your mind? How do you reprogram your mind? It isn’t easy. It isn’t like reprogramming your TV remote. I just push a couple of buttons and – PRESTO! - as easy as that my remote is reprogrammed. Don’t you wish reprogramming your mind was that easy? It’s not. Reprogramming your mind is like reprogramming a computer – you have to wipe the memory banks clean and put new information in. It can be a long and painful thing to do. You renew your mind by putting all the old stuff off – and putting new stuff in its place. The bible says,
“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24
Did you get it? “Put OFF your old self...” “Put on the NEW self, created to be like God.” It doesn’t stop there. It says,
“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin” Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:25-32
It GRIEVES the Holy Spirit when hurtful things come out of our mouths. It GRIEVES God when destructive things come out of our mouths. But it is so natural. We are born selfish and destructive. We need to become new. We need to become a new creation in Christ, the bible tells us.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17
Some Christians think that living like the devil is okay; that it’s our nature. “We are just born this way. It is just the way I grew up.”
No! The old us has to go. We need to become completely new. How do we do that? It doesn’t happen over night. Even when we come to a place in our lives where we confess our sin and ask forgiveness for them; even when we die to our old nature we still need to be reprogrammed and renewed. The Holy Spirit just helps us and guides us to the truth. We still need to die to the old self and put on the new self that is created to be like Jesus.
How do we do that? Become reprogrammed. Years ago I read a book by Dennis Waitley called “Seeds of Greatness” In that book Waitley talk about the reticular activating center. He says,
“You can deliberately program the reticular activating system by choosing the exact messages you send from your conscious mind. For example, you can set goals, or say affirmations, or visualize your goals. Napoleon Hill said that we can achieve any realistic goal if we keep on thinking of that goal, and stop thinking any negative thoughts about it. Of course, if we keep thinking that we can't achieve a goal; our subconscious will help us NOT achieve it.
Second, your reticular activating system cannot distinguish between 'real events' and 'synthetic' reality. In other words it tends to believe whatever message you give it.”
In other words, there is this part of our brain that we can reprogram to stop doing certain things and start doing good things. Waitley trained many athletes for the Olympics. He helped them to reprogram their minds from thinking they can’t do something to believing they could. They experienced phenomenal success with that training and now all athletes use it. But we do, too. If we think we can’t do something, from can’t quit smoking - to can’t stop swearing, we CAN’T. When we think life stinks – it DOES! But when we renew our mind with the Word of God with things like,
“With God – all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13)
“If God is with us – who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31b)
We CAN do anything God asks of us. Folks, it is within your power, with God’s help, to do ANYTHING! With God – you have the awesome power of Almighty Creator God in you. There is nothing that can stop you; there is nothing that can defeat you; there is nothing that can overcome you!
I don’t know what it is you are struggling with this morning, but I want you to know – you can master it. I don’t know what is holding you down or holding you back – but you can defeat it! I don’t know what is keeping you from experiencing the power and the blessings of God – but I know you overcome it.
It begins with believing – and thanking God for the victory. An expression of faith is gratitude. Are you grateful? This week I want you to practice this powerful truth – the power of gratitude. Give thanks in ALL things. Give thanks in all circumstances. Renew your mind. Reprogram your negativity. From being negative – become positive. Life will become so much more enjoyable if you do. When someone asks how you are – answer “Terrific!” Instead of frowning – smile. Renew your life – and life will be worth living; and the future will be out of this world!
SONG:
