Being Thankful / Thanksgiving 11.20.2022

 Being Thankful
Various passages November 20, 2022   

1. Introduction:
   1. Psalm 127 says that children are a gift of the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward…. how blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.  
      1. We have a God who not only delights to bless us but who has joyfully bound himself to bless us and even pursues us to bless us!
   2. It all started with Abraham when God blessed Abraham, told him to be a blessing and then said that through his seed, Jesus the whole world would be blessed!  He took that promise and turned it into a covenant just to assure Abraham of how serious God was about blessing.
      1. We learned just a few weeks ago in the new covenant that God has given some unbelievable life changing at the core of our being types of blessings to his children – things like forgiveness, the removal of the old heart and giving us a new heart and placing his Holy Spirit within us to enable us to live in his ways
      2. Because of Jesus, we learn in Ephesians 1 that we have already been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  Ephesians 1:3
      3. Let’s go a step further the ultimate blessing is the blesser himself!  God and his presence with us and even in us by his Spirit, is the greatest blessing!  Sometimes we can get all caught up in the blessings and forget all about the blesser.
   3. Blessing is simply a benefit that has supernatural fingerprints on it!  
      1. That means it is not just good things that happen or even beneficial things happen.  But a blessing is a benefit that has God’s fingerprints on it!   It originates from God and he gives it to you as a gift!
         
         
         
      2. Sometimes those blessings/benefits come in wrapping paper that looks more like trouble or a trial because our God is using everything in our life, the good, bad and ugly to work out his good purpose in our life!
   4. Going back to Ephesians 1:3 we are called to bless God for all the blessing he has given us in Christ.
      1. Psalm 103:1-2 tells us the same thing.  Turn and read 
      2. To bless God is to speak well of him, to praise him and thank him for these blessings.  
      3. So we are to bless God, praise and thank him for all the benefits and blessings that touch our lives both spiritual and daily practical benefits and blessing!   
         1. We are to do it with all our hearts!
         2. So we are to bless God with all our hearts for all he has done for us.
   5. As we prepare for the Thanksgiving week, which really according to the Bible should be thanksgiving life, moment by moment, day by day in both the ups and downs of life 

• I want to talk to you for a moment about 

1.  Thanking God for his blessing us!   
   1. The word thanks simply means the acknowledgement and expressing appreciation for something you have received from someone else!   
      1. It is the natural response that just flows out of our hearts when someone does something special for us.   It’s like – wow!  Thanks! 
   2. If giving thanks to God is not a natural response that spontaneously flows from your heart on a regular basis; then 
      1. You are not aware of the working of God in your life and the blessings that ultimately come from him James 1 says, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights!”  James 1:17 
         1. The every good thing and every perfect gift includes both spiritual and daily practical blessing and benefits that come our way that have God’s fingerprints all over them.
   3. So if I am depending moment by moment upon Jesus for everything in my life then I should be constantly and naturally from the depths of my heart be thanking him for literally everything in my life
      1. Even the difficult things that come my way that God uses to grow me and build more of the life of Christ within me.   
      2. This should be true all the way from forgiveness in Christ, the ability to live the way he calls us to, to every breathe we take every day!

• So let’s 

1.  Practice thanks for the blessing God has given us!
   1. I hope that we can prime the pump today for a weeklong attitude and practice of thanks that would prime the pump for a day-by-day, moment by moment lifelong thanking of God for his blessings upon us!
   2. Let’s start right now
      1. I want you to take a few minutes and think of the three biggest benefits/blessing over this last year that you are or should be thankful to god.  
         1. Either spiritual or daily practical, or internal or external are fair game!
      2. Now I want you to take a few minutes to actually express to God your thanks for these benefits/blessing 
   3. Close by finding someone sitting close to you and share what one or two of the biggest things you are grateful to God for and how he has spoken to you today.