Atittudes That Lead to Thanksgiving

[00:00:00] I greet you in the name of our wonderful Savior this morning. It's a real joy to be able to be here and to share together. Welcome visitors. I'm just glad to see the visitors that are here, and we certainly want you to be welcome this morning. Children, you had a blank piece of paper this morning. There's no writing on it. But what I want you to do is I want you to draw a picture here during the message. I want you to listen too. But you can draw a picture of what represents Thanksgiving to you. [00:00:40] Now I'm going to be mentioning some things here in just a little bit, but when you think of Thanksgiving, what do you think about? So I want you to just draw a picture of that, and then turn it into Monica after the service. So we're going to be talking about Thanksgiving today, and I know Thanksgiving Day has passed, but I hope that it's never past for us. I hope that it's something that is a continual part of our lives. [00:01:14] What do you think of as adults? What do you think of when you think of Thanksgiving Day? I know our minds can go to a lot of different things, and different people think of different things. Some people think right away of a dinner with family and friends. You usually have a special dinner sometime around Thanksgiving. We're planning today to have it with our family, have a day of Thanksgiving, a Thanksgiving dinner. [00:01:46] Sometimes, some of you maybe participated in taking dinner Thursday to someone else, a project here in the local community of supplying a dinner to someone and maybe you had a part in that in some way. Maybe you think of traveling. Maybe you usually travel that time. Or some people, it's a big sports day. To some, the day afterward is a big day of shopping. Even they've named it now Black Thursday. [00:02:18] Where that comes from, I'm not sure. So, a lot of different things that people think of when it comes to Thanksgiving. Usually, as far as the history of that day, Our minds usually go back to the pilgrims, and we always see pictures of the pilgrims and their turkeys and all that kind of thing, and I guess it's even somewhat debatable whether they had the first Thanksgiving Day, but that's usually what we look back at. For a number of years, the president here in our country would always, every year, declare what day would be Thanksgiving Day, and finally they decided, let's make it a certain day. [00:03:03] It's kind of interesting even reading the history of that. The merchants already wanted it to have a long time between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas, even back quite a while ago. But finally it was settled in 1941 when Congress passed a law and the President signed it, President Roosevelt signed it, that the last Thursday of November would be always Thanksgiving Day. Okay, one thing that was said, one thing that was said in reading an article was, it said Thanksgiving Day started out as a religious holiday, but now it's secular. [00:03:44] And that's probably really true, it's what's happened as far as across our country. I hope it's not true for us. It used to be that if a merchant advertised Christmas things before Thanksgiving, that was considered tacky. But now tacky's in. And so I seen a little cartoon this week, I think it was Peanuts, that said, one I can't remember which one character said to the other, [00:04:16] let's go downtown, it was right after Thanksgiving, let's go downtown and look at the Christmas decorations. You know, it's too late, they've got Easter up already. So, that's just about the way it's going. But it seems like so many of these things have become commercialized. And even Christmas has almost become a secular holiday for many people. In all of this, it's easy to miss. It's easy to miss what really is Thanksgiving. [00:04:50] And people have forgotten that Thanksgiving, the day of Thanksgiving, is really intended to especially thank God for what he has done for us. And all of his blessings and all the things, but the emphasis should really be to thanking God. Now, the title this morning of the message is Attitudes That Lead to Thanksgiving. [00:05:21] What kind of attitudes are there? And I don't know, I've done a lot of thinking about this for the last while, about Thanksgiving. How do you drum up a thankful attitude? Can you kind of drum that up in your own mind? That I'm going to be thankful. Well, there's probably a certain degree of that that we can, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if we're going to have a thankful attitude in our lives, there's going to have to be some other attitudes that are going to need to be there in order to lead to it. [00:06:01] Because thanksgiving is not just one attitude. Now you might ask, is being thankful, is it an act of something or is it an attitude? Just because we say thank you for something, are we thankful? Not necessarily. We may say thank you for something just as a habit and really not even give it any thought that we're really thankful for. So really it's both. Thankfulness is both an attitude, but an attitude doesn't mean a whole lot if it's not shown. [00:06:38] And so really both of those things are involved when it comes to being thankful. Now I have, I think, three different attitudes here that I think are important for us to really have these if we're going to have a thankful spirit. I think these three things are important. The first one is a humble spirit. I think that we need to have a humble spirit if we're going to really be thankful. [00:07:12] Philippians 2.3 says, In lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. If we go around thinking that we are better than other people, it's doubtful we're going to be very thankful. If our life is one that is focused upon me, myself, my things, my rights, I deserve this, then we're not going to be a thankful person. [00:07:43] It's just the opposite. Humility is very important when it comes to being a thankful person. We're going to have to admit that we need something. I'd like to turn over to Psalms 116. Psalms is a good book to go to and talks about being thankful. But Psalms 116, verse 16 and 17, it says, O Lord, truly I am thy servant. See the attitude there? Lord, I'm a servant. I'm your servant. [00:08:17] I am thy servant. And the son of thine handmaid. He's talking about, you know, I don't come from a rich heritage, a well-known heritage. A handmaid was a slave girl, so to speak. And I am the son of thine handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds. You've taken away the slavery. But he says, this is what I will do. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord. [00:08:48] See how that humility there, recognizing who he was and so on, led him to an attitude of thanksgiving. And I think that is so important that we can see that. I think it's hard, especially for us as men, to have an attitude sometimes of thanksgiving. An attitude of humility because we like to think about the fact that I can do something. [00:09:21] I can get something accomplished. I don't want to have to depend on anybody else. And when we have that attitude, we're not going to have a thankful attitude. We're going to need to realize that I need, I have needs, and I need help. And I believe that kind of spirit helps us to have a spirit of thankfulness. That is so important, to have a spirit of humility. Secondly, I think in order to have a spirit of humility, we need to have a spirit of joy. [00:10:03] It seems like thankfulness and joy always go together. It's just closely connected with each other. Again, let's go to the book of Psalms. And Psalm 95. Psalm 95, the first two verses. He says, O come, let us sing unto the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with what? Thanksgiving. [00:10:34] And so it seems like a joyful person is a person that is thankful. You take someone that is a gloomy type of person, someone that is perhaps almost a depressed type of person and so on, you don't see much thankfulness from them. But joy is so important. Go to Psalm 100, and that's five verses, but let's read it. [00:11:06] Psalm 100. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates, how? All, again, with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name, for the Lord is good and his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations. [00:11:45] And so, joy and thanksgiving, it seems like they just go hand in hand. But I believe that's a joy that can even be experienced in the midst of disappointment and sorrow. Sometimes we go through times of sorrow, perhaps the death of a lost one, or some other kind of disappointment in life. And I think we can still experience the joy during that time, and the thanksgiving. But I've just noticed that, that it just seems like anyone that is really thankful has a spirit of joy about them. [00:12:25] And so, don't lose that joy and don't lose that thankfulness that the Lord gives to us. You know, sometimes, you know, the Bible instructs us to be thankful in all things. Be thankful in all things. And sometimes we face things and we say, how can I possibly be thankful for this? And yet, you know, I believe that some of the things that God gives to us [00:12:56] that at the time may seem like I can't be thankful for can sometimes turn out to be the biggest blessings in life that we can experience. So, joy and thankfulness really go together. Thirdly, I believe that another thing that goes along with being thankful So, and maybe you might think this is a little bit strange, but I think it's really a part of it, and that is holiness of life. [00:13:30] Holiness of life. Living the way God has planned for us to live. I believe that when we really do that, we are going to have a thankful spirit. Go over to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3 verse 14. He says, and starting at verse 14, he says, [00:14:01] And above all these things put on charity, or put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. And I notice 15, And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which ye are called in one body. And I think here is the result of that, the peace of God ruling in our hearts because we have a clear conscience, because we are living the way that God wants us to live. It says, and be ye thankful. Interesting how that goes together. When we have the peace of God ruling in our hearts, it causes a spirit of thankfulness in us. [00:14:40] I think those two just really go together. Verse 16, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom and teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And what does a lot of our spiritual songs consist of? Praising God and thanking Him, isn't it? It's a spirit of thankfulness. And verse 17, And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. [00:15:17] See how much thankfulness is a part of our spiritual life. And it's a part of really living a holy life before the Lord. Psalm 97. Go back again over to the book of Psalms. Psalm 97 verse 12. It's the very last, I think that's the very last verse of that chapter. It says, Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. [00:15:49] So we give thanks for God's holiness and how that His holiness works into our lives. But now there's also another side of this. There's another side of how that holiness and thankfulness go together. I'd like to go over to Romans chapter 1. There's something really interesting that we see there in Romans chapter 1. And part of Romans chapter 1 is a picture of the downward course of mankind. [00:16:24] And not just the downward course of mankind, but what happens in the individual's lives that leads to a downward course. And we see here, starting at verse 16 in Romans chapter 1, he says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And that's our power, the gospel of Jesus Christ. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed, from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. [00:17:04] And then he goes into the other side of this again. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and upright and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known of God is manifest or made known in them, for God has showed it unto them. Verse 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. [00:17:44] God has made it possible that man can know Him, and through creation and other things, His Word and so on, that God has made it possible that we can know Him. But, man has rejected, much of mankind has rejected that. Verse 21, it says, because that, when they knew God, two things happened. Two things happened. It says, they knew God. People have known God. But there's two things here that we see can happen. [00:18:17] First of all, it says they glorified Him not as God. They did not hold Him up as God, as the Master of their life. They took Him for granted. And they somehow reduced Him to some other idea of some kind. They reduced God for who He is. But secondly, it says, neither were they thankful. Isn't that interesting? You know, usually we think of apostasy and that sort of thing as just people turning their backs on truth, and that's certainly what it is. [00:18:53] But being unthankful is one of the steps in that direction. And I just really find that interesting that that's what happens. Now, here's what happens, here's what takes place when people do not glorify God for who He is, and they become unthankful. It says, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And read on, read on down through that. [00:19:25] And you'll see how that mankind has just went downhill. When they haven't retained the knowledge of God like they should have and became unthankful, didn't appreciate what God has done for them and just took it for granted and instead made man the center of their life. And man is the one that has accomplished all these things, and man is the one that has done this. I have done it, and so on. But it says their foolish heart was darkened. [00:19:58] They give themselves over to sin, and they let themselves into all manner of sin that happens when that takes place. And here again, I believe that is a real picture of what happens to people when spiritually they start to go downhill. And it just seems to take place without fail. Now, those were three attitudes that are necessary for if we're going to really be a thankful person. [00:20:35] We need to have a spirit of humility, we need to have a spirit of joy, and we need to desire holiness in our lives in order to really have that whole spirit of thankfulness. Now, what are some of the practical ways that we can express and show thankfulness? What are some of those practical ways? We say it's a spirit, it's an attitude that we have, and that is really true. But it also needs to express ourselves in some way, if we're going to really have that spirit of thankfulness. [00:21:13] First of all, let's think of ourselves as we are thankful to God. How do we express that? What are ways that we can do that? Well, first of all, I believe that we need to thank Him for just the simple things in life. Just for life itself. And we need to glorify Him as God. We need to speak of Him as God. I believe when we pray, I think that we need to spend plenty of time in just thanking the Lord. [00:21:53] You know, it's easy for us to pray and ask God for things, isn't it? You know, God, give me this and give me that. And help me with this and help me with that. But how much time do we really spend just thanking the Lord and showing Him our appreciation for what He does? We need to want to obey Him. I believe that that is a way of showing God our appreciation for who He is and that that really shows thankfulness to Him. But just to have an attitude, Lord, I just thank You. [00:22:27] Thank You for Your salvation. Thank You for forgiveness of sin. And we can just go on down the line of all the things that God has given to us that we need to have a real expression and attitude of thankfulness to him. Now what about the other people? What are some practical ways that we can express thankfulness and show thankfulness to other people? Are there ways? I think there really is. [00:22:57] First of all, we need to start with our own family. I think it needs to start at home. That we can express thankfulness to others. If we don't do it at home, it's probably going to be pretty hard to do it otherwise. And husbands and fathers, I think we need to lead the way in it. I think it's important for us to have a spirit of thankfulness to our wives and to our children. I think if we expect our children to have good manners and say please and thank you and so on, [00:23:36] then we need to lead the way and we need to show the way in that. We need to express and be a good example of how that is done. I think it's good for us to thank our wives for the meal that they've made and for all the things that they do. I think that we need to show that expression and give that expression to them. When our children do a good job with something, say thank you and give them some praise for it. [00:24:11] It's important that they hear that from us, that we appreciate what they are doing. And so I think that, again, that is something that is important that we do at home. What do we do as we relate to other people? As we do business in the stores, as we meet the clerks, and perhaps we meet them at the garage or something. How do we express ourselves to them? [00:24:42] And we might say, well, we pay them money. We don't need to thank them. No, I think we need to thank them. I think we need to express appreciation for the job that they do. We need to be pleasant to the people that we deal with and show appreciation to them. I think nothing can hurt our Christian witness quicker than being rude to people. I think that hurts it. And it is something that is not pleasing to the Lord and something that can give the Lord a bad name. [00:25:17] What about our government? How do we relate to them? Do we show appreciation to our government officials? And what about when we pay our taxes? Do we show appreciation? Do we do it pleasantly? And, you know, that type of thing? Or are we grumpy and complain and so on? And here again, I think that those types of things express a lot in how that our real Christian life is. [00:25:54] If we have a real vital Christian life and a walk with the Lord, I believe it's going to come out in a thankful attitude to other people. I don't think there's any way to get around that. I believe that when we really know the Lord, we're going to have a spirit of thankfulness. In closing, I'd like to have us turn to Psalm 136. I've been reading quite a bit from Psalms here this morning. [00:26:28] But Psalm 136. This is a Psalm of thanksgiving. And one of the interesting things about this psalm is that at the end of every verse, it says, For his mercy endureth forever. And that is what the psalmist is saying he is thankful for. He's thankful that God's mercy endures forever. And one of the things that happens as he goes through this psalm is that he relates some of the history of Israel. [00:27:05] And the different things that happened in their history. And he gives just a little bit, and then he says, and his mercy endures forever. You know, I didn't do this, but I thought it would be interesting to write our own history. The things that has happened in our lives. And as we take little bit by bit of it, after one little detail in our life, say, his mercy endures forever. Wouldn't that be interesting to do? Maybe someone wants to do that and read it for us. But that's what the psalmist did with the history of Israel. [00:27:42] In closing, I would like for us to take and to stand, and I'm going to read the first part. I'm going to read the first part of these verses, but I want you as a congregation to, in unison, read the, For His mercy endures forever. Let's do that together. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good. O give thanks unto the God of gods. [00:28:15] O give thanks to the Lord of lords. To him alone doeth great wonders. To him that by wisdom made the heavens. To him that stretched out the earth above the waters. To him that made great lights. The sun to rule by day. The moon and the stars to rule by night. [00:28:53] To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn. And brought out Israel from among them. With a strong hand and with a stretched out arm To him which divided the Red Sea and departs And made Israel to pass through the midst of it But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea [00:29:25] To him which led his people through the wilderness To him which smote great kings, and slew famous kings, Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and gave their land for an heritage. [00:29:56] even in heritage unto Israel his servant who remembereth us in our lowest state and hath redeemed us from our enemies who giveth food to all flesh and let's read it together the last one O give thanks unto the God of heaven For his mercy endures forever. [00:30:30] Can you take the details of your life? The things that have happened to you? And take those little bits and pieces of them? And after each one say, for his mercy endures forever? It's a challenge, isn't it? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you so much that we can call upon you as our Heavenly Father. And Lord, we just come to you this morning in a spirit of gratefulness, a spirit of thanksgiving. [00:31:08] Lord, you have been so good to us, way far above what we deserve. We really don't deserve anything, Lord. Every one of us deserve a life in eternal torment. The Lord, you have saw fit to save us. You saw fit to make it possible that anyone who comes to your son Jesus can have eternal life. That greatest gift of all. [00:31:41] The Lord, help us to see. Help us to see that the things that have happened to us, the things that we are experiencing perhaps right at the moment, Lord, there's a part of your mercy in our lives. Lord, we don't understand it. We think sometimes it's just the opposite. But Lord, help us to have that faith and confidence and trust in you that it is your mercy. Lord, I just pray that you would continue to work in our hearts. [00:32:15] Help us to have the right kind of spirit and the right kind of attitudes in order to really be thankful. To you and to one another. Thank you Lord. Dismiss us now with your blessing. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.