Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

In Everything Give Thanks Pt.1

Well, it's an exciting time! I know a number of you are getting ready to head out for Africa, praise God! That doesn't happen every day. I was sharing with John Bonney as we were coming in that it's going to be a life changing experience. Those of you that are going, you're never going to be the same. It affects you for the rest of your life. If you'll go prepared, if you'll go really expecting Father to minister to you as well as minister through you, you'll be able to reap so much more from this great opportunity. So many of the things that are available to you on this trip. For some of you it's just going to be the broadening of the horizon. We live in a big world and the different cultures. We get so used to living in America that we think everybody is like us. They're not. There are a lot of different cultural differences. Just the travel that you're going to experience; some of you have never had the privilege of jet lag. You're going to be able experience new things there that you don't always get to experience, but the exciting things that you're going to see, the thankfulness. We're going to be teaching on that this morning. The thankfulness that you should have, not just for the abundance and the ease that we have in this nation, but that in our prosperity you're able to go forth in the kingdom of God as missionaries to touch hearts, because we've been blessed and so freely received, that we can freely give.

Don't go over there thinking you're smarter than these people. This is something that you need to realize, the fact that some of these are not quite as educated as we are, but they're not stupid. These are people that-many of them are really sharp individuals. Don't go as an expert, go as a servant. Go as someone that's going to learn, not just teach. The trip will mean a lot more to you. You'll gain from it. Your heart will be touched as you see the overwhelming magnitude of poverty that's in these countries. You'll see the extreme polarization. There are so many poor. The wealthy are very wealthy. The rest of the world doesn't have what America has, middle-class, folks like us. We live like kings compared to the major populous of this planet. Most of the world doesn't have a middle-class. It's something that's unique to our country and the prosperity that we have in our middle-class is unknown everywhere else. So as you see this poverty, it's going to touch you, but keep everything in biblical perspective, because Jesus did say, "The poor you'll ever have with you" (Matthew 26:11). Our goal is not to bring these people out of poverty. Our goal is to bring these people to Jesus. Amen? It's very important that everything stays in perspective. Your life will change and you'll see that you're going to come home with a new appreciation for the blessings of God. So, we're just praying that your lives will be touched and that you'll be used effectively as this ministry goes forth.

Let's turn this morning to the Psalm 100, the classic passage so many of us are familiar with. "Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands." Some of you that are singing off key, at least it's a joyful noise, praise God. We realize that as His creatures He's given us strength and the ability to worship Him. We're going to see this morning as we look at the topic of thanksgiving that thanksgiving has many different facets to it. It's not just a thanksgiving of what we have received, but a thankfulness for who He is and our relationship with Him whether it's brought any manifest blessing in the natural or not. Thanksgiving has its origin in the awareness of the greatness of God. It's so important for us to embrace that. Thanksgiving is expressed humility. Thanksgiving is the expression of realizing, "I don't deserve this. This is something that's been gifted to me. I've been a recipient of the grace and the mercy of God." To truly have a thankful heart is the expression of humility. You don't think you deserve it. A person who thinks they deserve things can never truly be thankful. They may say, "Oh, thank you. Thank you," then throw it over here in the pile. "It didn't quite meet my standards. Thank you."

Are you humbled by those things that are given to you out of love and undeservingly put into your life, or is there an ungratefulness? You see, the opposite of thanksgiving is just an ingratitude. Tragically we live in a society of unthankfulness, of ingratitude. We live among a majority of people who really think they deserve things. You know, people think they deserve to be provided for without working. We call it welfare. It's ingratitude, it's unthankfulness. We teach others that you have rights, you deserve this. As we learn how to relate to Father there's going to become a true heart of thanksgiving, as the Scripture says, "We are to give thanks for the unspeakable gift" (2 Corinthians 9:15). If that doesn't humble you, beloved, then your life is just totally possessed with selfness. Everything we have we've received of the Lord. Amen? And to think that while we were sinners, He sought us out and He bought us, and He drew us to Himself. Praise God! He redeemed us and made us a special treasure to Himself. You know how wicked your heart is, you know what your real worth is. How much we have to be thankful for that He chose us! Amen?

Does thanksgiving for the unspeakable gift dominate your heart this morning? Are you thankful for what you have or are you always bemoaning what you don't have? "Others have more." Well, you probably have more than you deserve. Amen? There's always going to be somebody that has more. So thanksgiving, then, is the awareness of our lack of worth, the expression of our humility, true gratitude from a heart that doesn't think of itself more highly than it ought to think. "Serve the LORD [verse2] 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 with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. [Say it with me.] For the LORD is good." Amen?

You see, that's what thankfulness is all about. It's recognizing the goodness of the Lord. "Well, if God's so good then how come I seem to be the only person here that's not blessed?" Well, maybe because you don't realize how good God is. Because you're going to see that blessings follow thankfulness. The blessings of God that make rich and add no sorrow with them come after we've been seekers first of the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We seek--as you're going to see in this service this morning, we seek to glorify God. We seek His honor, His praise. We seek to make God big and not ourselves. Remember, it's not a guarantee; I'm not saying that if you spend time in worship and praise and thanksgiving and write choruses that you're going to be blessed. If God is able to bless you without destroying you, then you're going to see that the blessings will follow a thankful heart. But you're going to see that God opposes ingratitude and the haughty. So we encourage you this morning to take some time and ask yourself, "When I come into the tabernacle of God, as we've gathered this morning, have I come with a thankful heart, or is it drudgery? Am I coming because I have to? It's church."

What a privilege to come into the presence of the living God! Do you understand the price that was paid to give you that access into His presence? Not into a building; into His presence, the precious blood of Jesus. Be thankful and bless His name. "For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations" (verse 5). Bless the Lord. He is good.

Turn over to Chronicles for just a second and look at David. Here's a guy who had a thankful heart. "Who am I and my house that we should be privileged to be able to come and honor God to such a degree?" David, the man, when it was offered into his hands, an opportunity to bless God, but it really wouldn't cost him anything. It was the fulfilling of the will of God, but another was going to pay the bill for the thing. David said, "There's no way that I'm going to offer anything to God that hasn't cost me" (1 Chronicles 21:23-25). As Araunah was wanting to give him the threshing floor, that which today is where the temple site in Jerusalem is built, on Mount Moriah. That was going to be given to David. David said, "No way. I'll purchase it from you. I will not give anything to God that has not cost me."

So what we're going to see here is true worship, true thanksgiving, is going to cost you something. It may not cost you in the natural; it may not cost you dinero, but it will cost you a humbling of yourself. It's going to cost you an effort to come to grips with who you really are as you look into the perfect law of liberty, the Word of God, and discover what manner of man you are.

How thankful are you this morning? Have you looked into this law of liberty and really come to grips with the degree of your thankfulness, or is there ingratitude? Do you think that you deserve more than what you have? And even if it's not the deserving of more in the natural-"I deserve more money. I deserve a bigger house. I deserve a better car." How about, "I deserve more recognition. I deserve more appreciation. People don't understand my great gift and my worth to the community. They don't really realize what they have in their midst." As you bless us with your presence each week. "They don't understand what I could be doing out in the secular realm. I could be a star. I could be a millionaire. I could be a shaker and a mover and I've chosen to serve God. There just doesn't seem to be any appreciation for that."

As you're getting ready to go to Africa, I said be careful that you don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think as you go to minister the grace of God. You want to be humble? Just take a moment and go to the Word of God and get God's evaluation of who you are. You want to know what will make you thankful? Who did He choose? He chose the weak. He didn't choose the mighty. He chose the foolish. How thankful we ought to be that we've been chosen. Amen? How do you see yourself this morning? Without an awareness and appreciation for God's perception of you, and that He's chosen to use you and express His greatness through you, you're going to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. And there's going to be ingratitude. You're going to think that somehow you've earned or merited whatever it is that you possess. Everything you have is a gift of God's grace.

So, David, this young man, who was the least of the brethren, the youngest out watching the sheep. All of the other brothers had been paraded before Samuel. They were surely the ones that were going to be raised up king. They were capable. Here's this energetic, apparently undisciplined young man that God put His hand on, because there was something in David, a man after God's own heart. Do you want to know what it was? He was a man that appreciated that he was chosen of God. He was a man that was thankful. He in no way felt that he deserved what he had. He was never, never going to be destroyed by the abundance, because he had a heart of gratitude. Oh, he was overcome. He sinned. The very thing that caused him to be involved in the sin with Bathsheba was commonness with the blessings of God. He began to think, "Hey, I'm king. This is a pretty cushy life. This is pretty nice, man. I'll let the others fight now. I'm going to sit back enjoy my big screen TV. What's on tonight?" "Bathsheba."

You begin to be comfortable in the blessings of God and that's what destroyed him, and that's what will destroy you and me. Being a man after God's own heart, when he was aware that God had been robbed of His glory--"Look at this powerful man who took this one little sheep that belonged to another. What do you think ought to happen?" "That guy ought to die." "Thou art the man" (2 Samuel 12:1-7). When you begin to think you deserve what you have, when you begin to forget where you came from, a citizen of the world bound with all the lusts and the fears and the pride and the selfishness that they have. God set us free from that so that we're free to serve and free to worship.

You know, as you watch people, you can find out who has a thankful heart, people that are free to worship. When I mean worship, I don't mean dancing, swinging their hands around in a worship service. I'm talking about people that are humbled in the presence of God. We sang this morning, "As we stand in awe how, God, could you choose me?" "Who am I? Who are mine that we would be chosen to be able to give into Your glory, to give our lives, to offer up our lives, our livelihood?" What a privilege to have the hand of God upon us, to have been called out and separated a peculiar people.

David says it this way over in 1 Chronicles 16, as they were bringing the ark together and into the tabernacle that was being built. Chapter 16:1 says, "So they brought the ark of God, and set it in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it: and they offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings before God." The burnt sacrifices, the "ola" is what it was called. It was symbolic of being wholly offered up to God. "Present your bodies living sacrifices holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service," Romans 12:1 tells us. The offering up of our whole being, that burnt offering that ascends into the nostrils of God as a sweet smelling savor. As David was preparing this ministry to the Lord--and that's what thanksgiving is, it's ministry to the Lord. It's making God big. Thanksgiving is verbalizing the goodness of God so that He's made big in the eyes of others. "Well, you know, I'm just thankful internally." Well, that's good but that's not what you've been called to do.

We saw in Psalm 100 that there's to be an external expression. God is to receive His glory in the midst of the congregation. God is to be made big, the fruit of our lips giving thanksgiving to His name. Praise God. That's what you're offering up to God. That's your offering, telling people how good God is and how big He is, how blessed you are. "Well, when I get blessed I'll tell somebody." You are blessed and don't even know it because you're blinded by your own pride and selfishness and lust. Anybody who has access to the throne of God and says "when I get blessed." is bound in idolatry, because there is no greater treasure than the presence of God.

This is what we're reading about in this chapter. David is offering the sacrifices, and when David had made an end of offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord. Now watch, here's the external. Here's what so many people are interested in. This is what a lot of people count the blessings. "And he dealt to every one of Israel, both man and woman, to every one a loaf of bread...," [a pound of meat and all the mustard you can eat. I used to hear that at the races when I was a little boy.] I don't know where that came from all of the sudden. "A loaf of bread" did it. Isn't that funny of word association? I can still remember that vendor walking. It was just one vendor. They all had their own little personalities and the ways they tried to do things. This one vendor would walk up and down through the bleachers. "A loaf of bread, a pound of meat, and all the mustard you can eat! Soaked in Bardol! Hotdogs!" How many of you know what Bardol is? Bardol is something that was an additive to the different lubricants. That was the big thing back then. Bardol was the great additive of that day. "Soaked in Bardol!" I have to have one of those!

So he offered everybody a loaf of bread. (Watch! I can get through it this time without going crazy.) ".A good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine. And he appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of the LORD, and to record, and to thank and praise the LORD God of Israel" (verses 2-4). Now look at this. This was a ministry. This was what they were appointed to. What a high calling! What's your ministry? "Thanksgiving." Wouldn't that be a great ministry to have? That's what you've been called to. "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). That's your ministry.

As we go on in the study a little bit, we're going to ask ourselves a question. Are we people that are fair weather worshipers, or can you give thanks in everything? What about when things aren't going real well? Can you still say God is good? Can you stand when your heart is broken and your treasures have been taken from you, and as you choke back the tears, from a heart of thanksgiving you can say God is good? "How can you say that?" Because He is, and His mercies endure forever. Nothing that can be taken from me, nothing that can be taken from me is where my focus can be, because He said I'll never leave you or forsake you. That's your treasure. That's what we're thankful for. Everything else in life is temporal. It's like a vapor. It will come. It will go. Riches will take wings and fly away. Life is as a vapor. It'll pass. Your loved ones will go. The tragedies of parents who lose children, what a tragedy! It's not supposed to work that way. They're supposed to watch you go. What a tragedy when that happens. The main course, those that are close to you--if you live long enough you're going to watch you're parents go and that's not where your treasure is.

So as we look at the Scriptures and we begin to see the calling of God, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God concerning you. Have you come to that place yet, where you can give thanks in everything? It doesn't matter what the circumstances are. You realize what you have is grace. What you have is the mercy of God. What you have is the love of God having been expressed to you. What you have is because God is good and His mercies endure forever, and for that I am eternally thankful.

So here's David worshiping and he sets up worshipers. He wants God to be glorified. He said, "I'm going to see to it that God is glorified, twenty-four hours a day if necessary. We're going to have around the clock worship." So they break out the psaltery, the harp, the cymbals, the trumpets, and it says they ministered, verse 6, continually before the ark of the covenant of God. "Then on that day David delivered first this psalm to thank the LORD into the hand of Asaph and his brethren. Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name..." Now see, the average believer today says, "Call upon His name and if He gives you what you want, give thanks to the Lord." "Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people." You see, this is what it's all about, beloved. It's about making God big. Thanksgiving is about making God big because of His goodness, boasting in the Lord. Have you taken that on as part of a real conscious ministry, just to tell people how good God is to you? In everything giving thanks. This is what the Scripture has called us to. It goes on to say in verse 9, "Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD. Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually. Remember his marvelous works that he hath done."

Do you constantly put yourself in remembrance of the good things that God's done in your life, or are you just taken up with the things that you don't have yet? Are you obsessed with that next conquest, that next great advancement in life, that next plateau that you want to rise to in the area of ease of life, recognition of men, appreciation of all of your contributions, or do you remember all the good things God has given you? You see, that's the heart of worship. That's the awareness of the goodness of God. Are you truly thankful?

As you look at these things in life and in everything you give thanks. As you all have been going with me and have prayed for me and walked with me through the trial that we've been coming through in our own lives. It's not a resentment of the early loss;. it's an appreciation for the 12 years that were given to us by the grace of God. What are you going to focus on? The goodness of God, how blessed you are, the remembrance of all the good things that He's done in your life; or the ingratitude for what it is that you think you should have that you don't have at this moment? The comparing of ourselves by ourselves--so and so has this. Oh, beloved, if you even see a hint of that in your children's lives, whatever it takes to purge it out, bring them to that place of humility and the awareness of the goodness of God and the thankfulness for the things that we've so freely received, and bring them to the awareness of what it is that they deserve. They don't want justice. They want mercy. Amen? We don't want what we deserve in this life. What you deserve is a devil's hell. You don't want what you deserve. You're goodness is as filthy rags. You stand guilty in your own merit. You don't want what you deserve. You want what God has graced you with through the free gift, the unspeakable gift of Jesus' blood. You don't deserve it. We lose sight of that.

Look over at Luke 17 for just a second. A passage that we're all very familiar with, but I think this would be an appropriate time for us to look at it. I think of this so often, and I'm sure you do. Luke 17:10, "So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do." You know, so many of us seem to think that there's some great merit in our giving and our tithes and our offerings. That's what's required of you. Some of us seem to think that there's some great merit in our attendance to services. That's what's required of you. "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together" (Hebrews 10:25). Some of us seem to think that there's some merit in serving one another. No! That's what's required of you. You freely receive, you're to freely give. Prefer others better than yourself. "No greater love has any man than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends. And you are my friends if you do whatsoever I've commanded you" (John 15:13-14). Unprofitable servants. He deserves all the glory. He deserves the praise. You see, what happens is, we begin to take for granted because of our relationship, because now that we're family we lose sight. We begin to count common His presence, His blessings.

So, He goes on and he instructs us more in this. He said, "Look be careful that you don't forget who it is that you are. And what you're doing is not above and beyond, it's just what's expected of you." And as He went to Jerusalem, the Scripture says, "And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when [Jesus being moved with compassion] he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed" (verses12-14). On their way to the priests they're cleansed. All of the sudden I'm clean. The leprosy is gone. "I have to beat feet down to the priest, man. If I get down to the priest and show myself, I can be placed back into society. I can go back and take my position back and begin to gain my wealth back. I can come back to my family, my friends, my social life is back intact. My economic life is back intact. As soon as I can get back to the priest and he pronounces me clean, I'm back in the game." And as they go, nine of them kept going, man. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed--you see, the priest is man's institution. Giving gratitude to man--"Thank you for reinstating me. Thank you for recognizing me for being clean and whole. Thank you for allowing me to return back to my family. Thank you for allowing me to go back about my livelihood." The priest doesn't deserve the thanksgiving, God does. "And one of them, when he saw that he was healed turned back, and with a loud voice [Say it] glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: [And here's the tragedy of the story] and he was a Samaritan" (verses 15-16). And many of us that are Christians are not thankful. We think we deserve something. "I mean after all, I give my time." You're an unprofitable servant. You're only doing what's required of you. There are Samaritans out there that are more thankful than a lot of Christians for what's been given to them of God, and they recognize it as God. They may not even be born again Christians. They may not have bowed their knee to the lordship of Jesus and surrendered their life to the effectual work of His blood, but they know that what they do have in the natural is of God, and they're thankful for that.

Where's your heart this morning in thanksgiving? Do you find yourself scurrying to the priest? Weren't there ten? "Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole" (verses 17-18). They all had physical healing. One of them had an encounter with God. One of them realized the source. One of them realized who it was that deserved the attention, the glory. It's so important, beloved, that this becomes a part of our lives and something that we instruct our children in.

Those of you who are going to Africa, keep your heart open. Let God share with you this need of thanksgiving. And I don't mean, "Oh, I'm so thankful for the mall." Some that are unthankful, "My friends have their own car. I have to drive dad's car around." None of them have cars at all. "We have the slowest computer of anybody in class. We have to wait like a whole millisecond for this thing to work." The abundance of our society breeds unthankfulness, ingratitude, our will on demand. We lose sight, beloved, of this ministry of verbalizing and expressing through obedience our gratitude for what God has blessed us with, by our willingness to administer it to others, to declare it to others, so that God would be big in their sight. Instead, all we speak of is what we don't have, what we're hoping to have, what was taken from us, and not how blessed we are to have God in our lives, to enter into His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.

Let's finish with this for this morning. Colossians 1:12, go ahead and turn over there and we'll finish up with this one. "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet [able] to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." Thanks unto God, which has made us able to be partakers of this inheritance. Now think about this; the inheritance of the saints. What is it that the apostle is speaking to? As you read Paul's letter here to the Colossians we realize that there was a rejection of the deity of Christ. He's writing this epistle to the people in Colosse and he's reaffirming, contrary to the Gnostic teachers, the deity of Christ. That becomes the whole issue of this gospel that we're out sharing. I don't want to get sidetracked into that. We need to always focus on that one question. "Who do men say that I, the son of man am?" You see, many people are willing to make Jesus a good man, a great religious leader, a prophet. He was all of those things in the natural; in the eternal realm, very God. So we make Him who He is and we boast in His goodness. Not just what He has provided for us but who He is, His worth, His deity. That's what's going to separate you from the masses. The people aren't going to hear that. The people that you're out there talking to, they'll play around with the religions of the world. They can handle a Buddha. They can handle a Mohammed. But they can't handle the God-man, the incarnation, the virgin birth, the perfect man, because it makes them guilty and accountable. They're afraid of Him. We talk about how good He is because we know Him. We boast in our liberty from the world's influences and the flesh's dominance and the fact that sin no longer has power over us. That's thanksgiving, beloved, telling people! "I know what you're talking about. I used to be just like you. I was blind but now I see, praise God! I used to be full of leprosy and now I'm white as snow."

You see, unless we've embraced the inheritance of the saints--This thanksgiving should be flowing out of your innermost being. Being a witness, telling people how good God is should be as natural to you as breathing. How thankful are you? It's not something that you have to work up. "Well, I guess I'm obligated to go out and tell people how good God has been to me." Does that sound like thanksgiving?

So the apostle speaks here in this first chapter of Colossians, and he says, verse 9, "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it [of your commitment to the Lord.] do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." You see, this begins to give us a little insight into where thanksgiving comes from. It comes from knowing God. If you know Him, if you know what He's done, you can't help but be thankful. Worship, thanksgiving, gratitude is the natural byproduct of the knowledge of God, having a relationship with Him, being aware of what He's done in your life and the heart of the Samaritan, not thinking you deserve it like the self-righteous Jews who went on their way and only the Samaritan returned.

[So that you'd come to the knowledge of God and] "That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the [There it is again] knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance..." (verses 10-12). Is thankfulness an obvious part of your life? Look what follows this phrase right here. "...Which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light..." Give thanks. He has made you a partaker of the inheritance. What inheritance? [Having] "...delivered us from the power of darkness..." [If that doesn't make you thankful, if you've lost sight of what redemption is all about, the Devil's hell from which you've been snatched by the free grace and mercy of God, as a brand from the fire, and there's no appreciation for that, then you need to come to the knowledge of God.] ...and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." The privilege of sonship, the benefit of prayer, the Word of God having been shed abroad in our heart that we might have an illumination of the great love and mercy of God toward humanity; if that's not working in you there is no thanksgiving. Ingratitude is the fruit of selfishness, of pride, the very root of Adam's sin. Everything but this one tree, and he wasn't thankful for everything because there was one thing that he couldn't have, and it totally overshadowed all that God had provided him. We look at it in retrospect and we go, "It's insane!" Yes it is. And it's just as insane for you to be depressed today over the things you don't have when you have the inheritance, the free inheritance of the saints and the illumination of God's love for you. Do you have a thankful heart this morning? Are you aware of what God has placed freely into your hand? Do you have the spirit of the Samaritan that can turn and not be motivated by all of the external benefits that are going to come from the healing, but to return to the healer in a heart of humility, because He didn't have to do that? This leprosy, a sign of sin, is who I am and God chose to set me free. I deserve darkness. He has given me the inheritance of the kingdom of light, and for that I am ever grateful. For that unspeakable gift there will always be the fruit of thanksgiving on my lips. I will enter His gates with thanksgiving; I will fill His courts with praise, for God is good and greatly to be praised.

Father, we thank You this morning for Your Word. In a society that's inundated with ingratitude, a people drunken with abundance, help us to be a thankful people. When so many around have been deluded, seduced, deceived, help us to see who we are as unprofitable servants. You owe us nothing. We owe You everything.

Is the "thank you" that comes from your mouth originating from your heart? What is your heart feeling when the words, "thank you" come from your mouth? Are you humbled by God's involvement in your life? If you are it will be so easy to share the goodness and the greatness of your God, for He is great and greatly to be praised.

Let's stand before Him this morning. As Gary plays for us, we'll take a moment in His presence. What do you have to be thankful for this morning? "I'm so thankful that I have a job." That's good. "I'm so thankful for the small apartment that I have." That's good. "I'm thankful that my children are serving God." Yes! Amen! "I'm thankful for a spouse that's seeking God and fulfilling their role, recognizing His lordship, fulfilling His ministry." Yes! "I'm thankful that even though I have symptoms in my body, it could be worse. I'm thankful for that." Yes! But you still haven't returned to give thanks, the inheritance of the saints in light. I am so thankful, Jesus, for the unspeakable gift, for You having chosen me, for the free access through Your blood, the pearl of great price. Thank You for the knowledge of Yourself that's been gifted to me, that I could see You, that I could know You. You can take everything else, but take not Your Holy Spirit from me. And like Job, though everything else goes, our integrity stays intact because we know the goodness of our God. If Your spirit resides, in the midst of everything else I can raise my voice and say, "God is good, and I an unprofitable servant."

Let's worship Him as we sing that this morning. "With My Hands Lifted High." Oh, with that heart of thanksgiving! Oh, sing it again. Just worship Him. Hallelujah! You're worthy, Lord! Hallelujah! Just take a moment and tell Him how thankful you are. Just make Him big in your life and glorify Him for who He is. Hallelujah! Oh Lord, we're forever thankful for that unspeakable gift. We stand in awe of you, Father. We stand humbled. Struck dumb by Your love. There are no words and "thank you" sounds so shallow. So all we can say, Father, is You are good. You are good. You are great and greatly to be praised! Strengthen us to serve You, to worship You. Give us the knowledge of Yourself that we could make You bigger in the eyes of others. And cause us to never lose sight of where we've come from, sons of Adam, and where we've been brought to, sons of God, heirs and joint heirs in Christ Jesus. For that we say, "Thank You," in Jesus' name. Amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "In everything give thanks." Amen. Go in peace, God's love go with you.

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