Give Thanks 2 | “Commanding Thanksgiving”

Thank you. We're doing a short series here at Cross Connection as the Thanksgiving holiday is this week, so we're talking about the topic of gratitude. Last week and this week, we are looking at the command in the Bible that we give thanks to God. We will consider why we should do that, how it's important, and some of the things that kill gratitude in our lives.

So, open your Bibles to First Thessalonians chapter 5 and follow along with us. Thank you very much. Would you stand with me, please, and open your Bibles to the book of First Thessalonians? First Thessalonians chapter 5. God is good, amen? If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one.

First Thessalonians chapter 5, we'll begin reading at verse 16. There, the Apostle Paul writes, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

God, thank you that your will is clearly revealed to us. There are so many times and in so many ways when we're doubtful, wondering what it is that you want us to do. Yet, if we would open your word, we find so often that you clearly tell us. Here we have a very simple statement: in everything give thanks. This is your will for us in Christ.

So, God, we pray that you would minister to us by your word today as we have ministered to you through worship. I pray, God, that you would open the eyes of our understanding so that we would know how we are to live and walk in a way that is honoring and glorifying to you because you are worthy.

As we prepare for a holiday this week, as we prepare for a time when we'll see friends and family members that we may not see often, stir our hearts to be grateful, to be filled with thanksgiving. May that in turn give us an opportunity to share how good and great you are.

So, God, minister to us. Open our eyes. In Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed.

Amen. You can be seated.

The Roman philosopher Cicero, in the first century BC, wrote that gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but it is the parent of all the others. About a hundred years later, another Roman philosopher, Seneca, wrote that ingratitude is an abomination. These are challenging words and important for us to consider.

As we reflected last week on Colossians chapter 2, verses 5 through 7, the Apostle Paul wrote, "For though I am absent in the flesh, I am with you in the spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and your steadfastness of faith in Christ Jesus. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted in Him, built up in Him, established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in the faith with thanksgiving."

We considered together that because we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, if you are a Christian today and have received the gift of God in Christ Jesus, then we should be people who are thankful. We ought to be thankful.

What I aimed to do last week was to establish a theology of gratitude, to create an ethic of gratitude. This is what we ought to do as those who have received Christ Jesus the Lord. In receiving Christ Jesus, we receive everything that is in Him, by Him, and through Him. All the promises of God in Christ are yes and amen, so they are all ours. Everything that is in, through, and by Jesus is ours. If you've received Him, then you've received all of that.

Have any of you ever seen that show on TV called Storage Wars?

Come on, be honest. You watch that. I know I've seen a couple of episodes here and there of "Storage Wars." You know the premise: there are these people who go and bid at auctions on repossessed or abandoned storage units. They open the doors, and there's a group of people who are not allowed to go in; they're just allowed to look inside. Then they start the bidding. You might get something great, or you might get a dud. These people are bidding, and the auctioneer is talking really fast, you know, the whole auction thing.

Once you win the auction, everything that's in there is yours. It's all yours—everything in that storage facility. So, maybe it's not the best illustration, but it works here because everything in Christ, when you receive Him, you receive everything that comes with Him. As a result, Paul lays the groundwork in Colossians chapter two that we should be grateful; we should be thankful.

In Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, Paul says that in Christ we have received every spiritual blessing. If you're a Christian, every spiritual blessing that the Bible speaks of is yours. The Bible has a lot to say about blessing; it's one of the overused words in Scripture. So, every blessing that the Bible describes is ours in Christ. He has given you all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.

Not just in Ephesians chapter 1, but also in 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 3, Peter says that by God's divine power, He has given to the Christian everything that pertains to life and godliness. Everything that you need to live this life in a godly way is given to us by God's divine power, and it is through the knowledge of Him, of Jesus. In coming to know Him, we have all of this.

We have what I have termed the ethic of gratitude. We ought to give thanks because of all these things that we have been given. We should be people of praise; we ought to be those who give thanks. But we don't always do that, right? If we're honest, we'll recognize that we sometimes mirror more the children of Israel in their wilderness wanderings than we do a people who are filled with gratitude. The children of Israel in their wilderness wanderings were a murmuring people. So, if we're honest, we probably all confess that sometimes we...

We are often a murmuring group, a group of complainers, and we can easily fall into that pattern. However, as Christians, we have an ethic that calls us to be grateful. As we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, we ought to be filled with gratitude.

In this context, I want to discuss what I would term the imperative of gratitude, specifically in First Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 18. Here, Paul states, "In everything give thanks." The words "give thanks" translate to one word in the original language: eucharisto. In this passage, it is in the imperative form, which means it is a command. It is something we are supposed to do.

Last week, we looked at things we ought to do because they glorify God and align with His will. However, this command is more direct; we are commanded to be a grateful people.

Point number one on your outlines is that the Bible commands Thanksgiving. This command is not merely an "ought to" or "should do," but rather a "must do." Christians are commanded to be thankful. We know that we should be and that we ought to be, but we are also commanded to do so.

This presents a problem on several levels that I want to consider. First, we have what I will call the command problem. I will break this command problem into two parts, starting with the emotional aspect. Because we have been commanded to worship God through Thanksgiving, we encounter an issue with our emotions.

The way I would put it is this: it is not entirely fruitful to command emotions. Our emotions are not necessarily subject to an outside command or our will. We cannot simply turn our emotions on and off at will. While there may be certain actions we can take to increase or bolster a specific emotional response in a given instance, merely commanding an emotion in someone is not effective.

Well, our makeup just doesn't work that way. Let me try to illustrate it in this way. I've used this illustration before because I think it helps grasp the concept well. Imagine yourself driving south on the 15 Freeway, cruising along at about 65 or 80 miles per hour. In front of you, about 50 feet ahead, a pickup truck hits a bump, and out of the back of the truck comes a spare tire, bouncing toward you.

In that moment, do you have to consciously tell yourself, "I will now be anxious"? No, there is an instant emotive response of anxiety. Instantly, you feel yourself become anxious. Of course, there are all kinds of physiological things happening in your body, like adrenaline and so forth, but in that moment, you experience the emotion of anxiety without willing it or commanding it. It just happens; there is an emotional response.

If you've ever had a similar experience that causes an adrenaline dump and that anxious feeling, let's say you dodge that tire. You have mad skills driving, and you get beyond it. Five seconds later, you see it in your rearview mirror. Your heart is racing, and anxiety is still present. Now, try to tell yourself, "I will not be anxious." There are certain exercises you can do to try to reduce the heart pounding and breathing, but it is not subject to your command or will in that moment. It is very hard to command or will an emotional response.

Why bring that up? I mention this because gratitude, point number two on your outline, is a responsive emotion. Gratitude is a responsive emotion. Paul said in Romans chapter 7, verse 18...

The will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. I think that if we were to poll this group, and I'm assuming that many are Christians, there may be some here today who are not yet believers. You haven't put your faith and trust in Jesus, and we're glad that you're here. However, many of you here today would say, "I'm a believer and a follower of Jesus."

There is a will; there is a desire to be a grateful person because it is the will of God. It glorifies God; it is the thing we ought to do. We should do this; it's commanded here in the Scripture. So we say, "Yes, I want to be a grateful person." The will is present with me, but how to perform what is good? We find ourselves, about Wednesday, murmuring, complaining, and not necessarily being grateful people who are filled with gratitude.

Then we read a passage like this: "This is the will of God; be thankful." It is commanded to us. We go, "Okay, be thankful, be thankful. I'm going to be thankful." We try to will it. Now, there are certain things that we can do to increase the likelihood that we will express gratitude, but we need to recognize that expressing gratitude and having a heart of gratitude are different things. They are not the same.

You can say with your lips, "Thank you," and actually not be thankful. Has anyone ever experienced that before? Be honest. We can say it with our lips but not necessarily be grateful for something or have gratitude. Gratitude, which is honoring to the one who is receiving it and satisfying to the one who is giving it, is not merely expressed only with the lips. It is something that is at the heart level; it is an emotion.

It is not easy to drum up an emotion. It is not subject to the command or to the will in the way that maybe just our behaviors are. Our behaviors are subject to the command and the will. We can will ourselves to do or not do something, or to say or not say something. However, to cause the emotion of gratitude to be there is difficult.

So we have the emotional problem. Then we move to the command problem. I have illustrated this like this before, and it works: imagine Little Billy on Christmas Day.

Grandma comes over and brings Little Billy a Christmas present. Billy is excited; he loves Christmas presents. Everybody loves Christmas presents. I love Christmas presents! Billy starts to open the gift, and he is super excited. However, when he opens the box, he finds socks inside.

Billy's mom says, "Billy, what do we say to Grandma?" He squeaks out a thank you. In that moment, he is honoring Grandma with his lips, but his heart is far from her. This situation is scriptural, as noted in Isaiah 29:13. He honors Grandma because he is supposed to, expressing gratitude with his lips, but it is clear that his heart is not in it. He is simply following the command: "Billy, what do we say to Grandma? Thank you, Grandma."

However, dutifully offered gratitude is not truly honoring to the one receiving it if it is given out of duty or obligation. Imagine, for example, that you come home on your anniversary. You remember the occasion and buy a dozen red roses—let's make it two dozen—to surprise your wife. Instead of going through the garage like you normally do, you knock on the door. When she opens it and sees the red roses, her heart is instantly filled with joy because you remembered and went out of your way to surprise her.

But then you say, "I want you to know it is my duty as your husband to buy you these roses." That doesn’t work, does it? All the joy just went out the window.

Gratitude is not honoring to the one who receives it; it is insincere. I would argue that it is not satisfying to the one who gives it either. Jesus calls it hypocritical, and He actually uses the words of Isaiah from Isaiah 29:13 to describe it as hypocritical. When your heart is not engaged in the actions you are doing, we can worship and perform behaviors that look like worship, yet our hearts can be far removed from the Lord. We can give gratitude to people or to the Lord with our lips, but our hearts may not be in it. God said through the prophet Isaiah 2,800 years ago in Isaiah 29:13, "These are people who draw near to me with their lips; they honor me with their mouths, but their hearts are far from me." He says, "I don't want that; that's not what I'm looking for."

In this idea of commanding gratitude, which is very clearly expressed in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, we have two problems. The first is an emotional problem. Gratitude is an emotive response; it needs to be at the heart level, and you can't really command that. Sure, there are certain things we can do to increase the likelihood that it will be there, but in the moment, you can't just command yourself to be thankful. The second problem is that forced gratitude is not honoring to the one who is receiving it.

So, we have the emotional problem and the command problem. Moving from there, we come to what I would call gratitude killers. There are three gratitude killers. One of them we've already considered in the little story about Billy, and that would be enforcement. Forced gratitude is not fruitful; it is ultimately insincere and not genuine. This is a gratitude killer. To force gratitude means there is not real gratitude present.

The second gratitude killer is entitlement. If someone feels entitled to something, it is highly unlikely that they will have gratitude when they receive it. This is not just something we can prove biblically; it is also something we can prove empirically. There has been a lot of scientific research in this area.

Dr. Robert Emmons is a professor of psychology at UC Davis, and he is an expert in the psychology of gratitude. You probably didn't even know there was such a thing. Interestingly, in the last 15 years, there has been a significant amount of research conducted by him and many other universities, both in the United States and in the United Kingdom, on the issue of gratitude.

A lot of people have been looking into this idea. Psychology has tended to focus on negative attitudes, ideas, and traits, but now researchers are recognizing that some of these positive traits deserve attention. They have been exploring the psychology of gratitude, and Dr. Emmons and his team have concluded through their research that entitlement is virtually opposed to gratitude. As feelings of entitlement increase, gratitude tends to shrink in proportion.

For example, when you receive your paycheck, you probably don't say thank you to your employer for it because you feel you deserve it. You worked for it, and you believe it is owed to you. There may have been a time when you were more thankful for it, perhaps when you first got the job, but as time goes on, you might think, "He treats me poorly, and I don't really like him. This job is hard, and I deal with difficult people all day long, so I deserve this." In that mindset, you might feel that you are not going to express gratitude for what you believe is rightfully yours.

An entitlement mindset significantly diminishes gratitude. If you do not receive what you think you deserve, it will not only fail to result in gratitude but may actually lead to verbal ingratitude. You might think, "They gypped me," or "They held back; I should have gotten this." This is a clear example of verbal ingratitude.

We see this phenomenon in our culture because, unfortunately, we are conditioned to feel entitled. Entitlement is a gratitude killer. I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about culture just a week and a half ago, and it had nothing to do with this topic.

This topic brings to mind a story shared by a friend about different cultures. Years ago, when his children were young, they had a German au pair in their home. After a couple of months, his wife became very upset because every night during dinner, the au pair never said thank you. This lack of gratitude bothered her significantly and began to cause serious problems.

Finally, he pulled the au pair aside and said, "Listen, I want to understand. Every night you have dinner, and you've never said thank you to my wife. It's causing a problem, and I want to know what's going on." The au pair responded, "Well, in the manual for being an au pair, it says you are required to give me dinner. It's one of the things you're required to provide." This mindset of entitlement led her to believe that she deserved the meal, so there was no need to express gratitude. Consequently, when she didn't receive what she thought she deserved, it resulted in verbal ingratitude.

This concept of entitlement is something Jesus addresses in the Gospels. In Matthew chapter 20, He tells a story about a landowner who had a vineyard. During harvest time, early in the morning, he went to the marketplace to hire workers. He offered them a denarius, a day's wage, to work in his vineyard. As the day progressed, he realized he needed more workers. At nine in the morning, he returned to the marketplace and hired more people. Three hours later, at noon, he hired additional workers, and again, three hours after that, he brought in more.

Near the end of the day, with just an hour left, he still needed more help, so he went back and hired those who had been waiting. When it came time to pay the workers, he started with those who had come in last, those who had only worked for an hour. He paid them a denarius, and then he continued down the line, paying everyone the same amount, regardless of how long they had worked.

By the time he reached those who had started at six in the morning, they expected a bonus, thinking they would receive more for their longer hours. However, when they were also paid a denarius, they were filled with anger and ingratitude. The landowner responded, "What is the problem? I paid you what we agreed on." Their lack of gratitude stemmed from their sense of entitlement; they felt they deserved something more.

Thus, entitlement is a gratitude killer, and it is closely tied to expectation.

Expectation and entitlement may be closely linked. In fact, there is some crossover between expectation and entitlement if you really start to break these concepts down. Entitlement deals with the deserved outcome: "I deserve this," whereas expectation deals with the likely or probable outcome: "I expect that I'm going to get this."

So, you have two different frames of mind. Someone might say, "Well, I was born in the USA, I'm born in America; therefore, I deserve a good life." That would be entitlement. There are some people who think that way and live their lives accordingly. Then, there are others who say, "You know, I was born in the United States of America, and I think it's pretty likely that I'm going to have a good life. I expect that I'm going to have a good life."

These two approaches diminish and reduce gratitude. If you have entitlement—"I deserve this"—then when it is given to you, you don't feel gratitude. If it is not given to you, you actually feel ingratitude. Expectation is similar in that if you expect a certain outcome and it comes, then you expected it. Why should you be thankful? That's what you thought would happen.

Dennis Prager, some of you may know that name, authored a New York Times best-selling book a number of years ago called "Happiness is a Serious Problem." He dedicates an entire chapter to the idea of expectation, and he says this: "Yes, there is a secret to happiness, and it is gratitude." You catch that? There is a secret to happiness, and it's being thankful—it's gratitude. All happy people are grateful, and ungrateful people cannot be happy.

We tend to think that it is being unhappy that leads people to complain, but it is truer to say that it is complaining that leads people to become unhappy. So, become a grateful person, and you will be a much happier person. He goes on to explain that gratitude is the key to happiness. Anything that undermines gratitude must undermine happiness, and nothing undermines gratitude as much as expectation.

Dennis Prager states that there is an inverse relationship between expectations and gratitude: the more expectation you have, the less gratitude you experience.

You will have what you expect. If you expect to wake up healthy tomorrow and you do wake up healthy, then you are most unlikely to be grateful for it. On the other hand, if you do not expect to wake up healthy tomorrow, you will truly be grateful if you do wake up healthy. Most of us are grateful for what we have only after we are threatened with losing it or actually do lose it, because then we no longer expect to have it.

Gratitude, he finishes, is the most important component of happiness and is largely dependent upon receiving what we do not expect to receive. The gratitude killers are enforcement, entitlement, and expectation. If gratitude has to be forced, there is no gratitude there. If I am commanded to be grateful, whether I want to or not, it diminishes the feeling.

Entitlement is another killer. If I believe I deserve a certain outcome, then I will not be grateful when it comes, because that is what I deserve. If it doesn't come, I will feel very clear ingratitude. Expectation also plays a role; if I expect to get something, I will not be thankful when it arrives.

As Dennis Prager says, happiness is a serious problem. I would say that gratitude is a serious problem as well. It is what Christians ought to have; it is the ethic of the Christian. Because we have received Christ Jesus the Lord, we ought to be thankful and filled with gratitude. It is commanded in the Scriptures, such as in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 and many other places where we are told to give thanks. The Psalms are filled with commands and imperatives to give thanks to the Lord.

Throughout the Psalms, you read those words: "Give thanks." It is a command; it is God's will. Again, in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. If you are in Christ Jesus, God's will for you today is that you have gratitude and be grateful. It is the ethic, the command, and it honors and glorifies God. However, gratitude is an emotion that is not easily forced. It is not something that I can just drum up or will into existence. Although there are certain things I might do to increase the likelihood of feeling grateful, I cannot force it to happen in the moment. Furthermore, it is easily killed.

Enforcement has been killed by entitlement and expectations. So, how do we cultivate gratitude? I am going to give just three ways that we can cultivate gratitude because it is commanded. It is the ethic of the Christian; it is God's will. It honors and glorifies Him, and ultimately, it satisfies us.

First, we need to recognize that God's command for us to be thankful is ultimately a promise for our increased joy. When He commands us to be thankful, embedded in that very command is a promise that we will experience increased joy. You can prove this biblically, and I would even argue that every command of God in the Scriptures, when obeyed, ultimately results in increased joy. It increases our satisfaction in obeying Him. His commands are promises to us for our joy.

I talked about this in a series we did a few years ago called "The Key to Unlocking Joy," and I believe it is true. I believe it even more now than I did then when I was teaching it. When we faithfully obey what God has called us to do, we experience an increase in our joy.

Not only does the Bible make this case, but 21st-century research is proving it time and time again. It is true what God said thousands of years ago. Psychologists and sociologists today are confirming this. In what ways?

In 1998, Gallup conducted research and found that 90% of those surveyed in the United States experienced an increase in happiness merely by expressing gratitude. They found that 90% of those surveyed expressed an increase in happiness simply by being thankful. But it's not just Gallup; there are more scientific studies coming out of universities. A joint study with UC Davis and the University of Miami in 2003 found that an increase in gratitude leads to an increase in overall well-being and improvement in various aspects of life.

The quality of sleep, greater optimism, and connectedness with one another were the conclusions of their research study. An increase in gratitude resulted in overall better well-being, which led to better and more quality sleep. How many of you would say that would be nice? It also resulted in greater optimism and a closer connection with other people.

Not just UC Davis, but a joint study with three universities in the United Kingdom found in 2008 that gratitude has one of the strongest relationships with satisfaction with life of any of the traits they studied. Did you get that? Gratitude has the closest link to satisfaction with life, which is a broad overarching term, of any of the traits they studied. So when Dennis Prager says to become a grateful person and you will become happier, it is being scientifically proven time and time again. The Scriptures point to this as well. The Bible reveals, and research supports, that thankfulness improves overall quality of life and satisfaction.

So how do we increase our gratitude? One of the things is simply recognizing that God says to be thankful. He is actually saying that because it will be better for you to be thankful. It is for your good that He commands you to be thankful repeatedly.

One of the second ways we can cultivate gratitude is by acknowledging that everything we have in this life is an unmerited gift of grace. Everything you have in this life is an unmerited gift of grace, and this is something that we, who live in one of the most blessed nations in the world, really need to latch onto.

Theologians typically split grace, the work of God in this world, into two different categories. They divide it into the common grace of God that all humanity experiences, such as waking up this morning and taking a breath. We can identify the common grace of God through many different things we have. Have you ever asked the question, how is it that I was born in this nation and not somewhere like Bangladesh? How is it that I was born in this nation?

Well, it's according to the common grace of God. You may ask, "What about the person in Bangladesh? Did they not receive the common grace of God?" There are many other things that they have as well, which they could point to and say, "This is according to the common grace of God."

Not only do we have the common grace of God, but if you're a Christian today and you've received Christ Jesus the Lord, then you have received an overwhelming abundance of grace. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. You have an inheritance that is incorruptible, eternal, and with God in heaven. If you're a Christian today, you have grace in abundance upon your life.

What we need to begin to recognize and acknowledge is that every single thing you have—the car that you drive, the house that you live in, the clothes that you wear, the food that you will eat for lunch today—everything that you have, and all the things that you can't even think of right now, are unmerited gifts of God's grace. You didn't deserve it; He gave it to you freely. In fact, if we want to go by what we deserve, there are some people who would instantly say, "That's not what I want."

What do we deserve apart from Christ? Justice and wrath. We deserve that. Therefore, we need to acknowledge that everything we have is an unmerited gift of God's grace. We are entitled to nothing, and God has graciously given us all things. Our only real expectation, because of sin, is ultimate judgment. But God has graciously given us abundant and eternal life in Christ.

We can cultivate gratitude by recognizing that God's command for us to be grateful is ultimately for our joy and our increased satisfaction with life, both biblically and scientifically. By acknowledging that everything we have is a gift from God, we understand that we do not have an entitlement to anything.

Thirdly, and this is point number four on your outline, we cultivate an attitude of gratitude by giving thanks. While the emotion of gratitude at the heart level is not easily forced, I can tell you to be thankful, and you can express verbal thanksgiving and gratitude, but it may not really be from the heart.

Command your heart to experience gratitude. However, I have learned, and maybe you can identify with this, that where the head goes, the heart follows. When you begin to exercise gratitude and express gratitude, one of the things you find is that you are cultivating or preparing the heart to also release gratitude. By merely going through the action of being a grateful person, you will find an increase in gratitude. Research supports this.

Research has proven that intentionally taking time on a daily basis to record and remember those things for which you are grateful will cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Exercising your Thanksgiving muscles is not just about getting ready to eat a lot of turkey. Exercising your Thanksgiving muscles by practically giving thanks to God and to others will increase the likelihood that you will have a heart of gratitude.

One of the simple things you can do is just say thank you. Just say thank you to people and to God for the things that happen. Now, you've probably all driven with that person who thanks God when they get a parking space. Maybe you are that person—God bless you! Sometimes, others might think, "Oh, come on, how trivial!" But no, that person is cultivating an attitude of thankfulness and gratitude. They are recognizing that what they just received was not something they merited or deserved, but something that was given to them graciously, even if it seems small and mundane, like a parking space.

You are more likely to thank God for the big things if you also begin thanking Him for the little things. William Ward once wrote, "God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used even one of them to give thanks?" Acknowledging God with a prayer of Thanksgiving can be challenging, especially every time you sit down to eat.

Partaking of a meal helps cultivate a heart of gratitude. I see this in my children. Of course, children can tend to be complainers because they are just like us, but they do not mask it very well. They tend to express their feelings openly, while we have learned to hide our complaints. We complain to our spouses or to ourselves, but kids just let it out. It is much easier to see and correct their behavior. We hide our complaints so well that it becomes harder to address them.

One of the things I have noticed in my kids is that every time we sit down to have a meal, I remind them that we need to pray and thank God for our meal. It is a simple prayer, but it helps build gratitude in them from a young age. They begin to recognize that giving thanks is something we should do. By merely giving thanks, we are cultivating an attitude of gratitude in them. This is something we need to apply to our own lives as well.

We can cultivate gratitude by recognizing that God has commanded it for our increase in joy and overall well-being. Of course, it is ultimately for His glory, but He is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Research has shown that as we increase our gratitude towards Him, our joy and well-being also increase. Acknowledging this creates a good environment for gratitude to grow.

Additionally, we can increase our gratitude by acknowledging that everything we have in this life is a gift from the Lord. Simply giving thanks is another way to enhance our gratitude. However, one of the secrets to gratitude is to constantly behold the greatness of the glory of God as manifested through His Son, Jesus Christ.

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday this weekend, we need to be reminded that, having received Christ Jesus the Lord, we ought to be a thankful people. God wills that we be filled with gratitude, and He has commanded that we be those who are filled with gratitude.

There may be some gratitude killers in our lives that we need to get rid of, such as a sense of entitlement or the expectation that a certain outcome is guaranteed. We need to build into our lives a recognition that every good and perfect gift comes from Him, from God. We did not merit it; we don't deserve it, but He has graciously given it to us. Perhaps we just need to say thank you. Amen.

Well, let's stand and say thank you to the Lord.

God, I thank You for this church body. I thank You for the friends and family that we have here—friends that we can trust and lean upon, friends that will encourage us when we're down, and friends who might even challenge and rebuke us when we're not acting in the right way. Lord, I thank You for a place where we can gather together. I thank You that we live in a country where we can worship You publicly and openly without fear.

I thank You, God, that every good and perfect gift comes from You and that You have poured out abundance upon us. We experience abundance like very few other people in the world, and Lord, we acknowledge today that every good and perfect gift comes from You.

Lord, we thank You that You have brought salvation. We thank You, Father, that You have given Your only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. We thank You that we can experience in You, Jesus, peace that surpasses understanding and joy that never diminishes or goes away.

Lord, we have in You redemption and every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, along with all things that pertain to life and godliness. We thank You that we have in You forgiveness of sin. I pray that through our gratitude, we would be a witness to others, that people would see in our lives a spirit of thanksgiving, gratitude, and joy.

They’re not experiencing the fullness of life. So many times, we buy the lie that if we just had more, then we’d be more thankful. But, Lord, we have much.

Lord, help us to be grateful. Make it true in our lives and let it be a witness unto You. We ask this in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, "Amen."