Andrew Fountain - How to become a Thankful Person

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Full sermon notes - How to become a Thankful Person

At the end of this talk my goal is that you will be

  • more thankful
  • as a result you will be happier
  • and less likely to be depressed
  • people will like you more
  • but much more than any of that
    • God loves us to be thankful
    • so you will increase his pleasure in you.

Thankfulness

  1. What determines your happiness?
  2. What are we thankful for this morning?
  3. What did Jesus give thanks for?
  4. How to become a thankful person

1. What determines your happiness?

2. What are we thankful for this morning?

  • Can you suggest some things have we to be thankful for?

Basic necessities

  • Food
  • Shelter
  • clothing
  • Safety and Security
  • Freedom from physical pain
  • Access to healthcare
  • Hygiene
  • Stability of life

Added Blessings

  • Excellent food
  • Beautiful and comfortable homes (comparatively)
  • Wonderful freedom of choice of clothing
  • Free time—don’t have to work 24/7
  • Access to culture and entertainment
  • Education
  • Easy transport
  • Communication with friends and family
  • Opportunities to make a difference to the lives of others

Spiritual Blessings Now

  • Forgiveness of sin
  • Peace with God
  • Loved and adopted by God
  • God’s care over our lives now
  • The gift of his Spirit within us
  • An opportunity to significantly serve God
  • The community of Christ

In Eternity

  • Secure for eternity
  • A future inheritance which is unimaginably wonderful
  • To reach the potential God has for each of us
  • To experience the love of Christ in its full intensity
  • hand out cards and explain them

3. What did Jesus give thanks for?

  • There are 12 prayers of thanks recorded from Jesus
    • 2 thanksgiving that God revealed the truth to the humble
    • 1 for answering prayer to raise Lazarus from the dead
    • 9 ...? (for food)
  • Some people regard it as legalitic to always say grace before eating
    • it can be if it is a ritual
    • but it’s very Jesus-like
  • Why do you think Jesus modeled it so strongly?
  • What about the followers of Jesus?
    • the pattern continues in the N.T. with the early church giving thanks for food more than any other single thing

Colossians 2

  1. Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,
  2. rooted and built up in him and firm in your faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
  • So we are to be overflowing with thankfulness
  • How is this to be when many of them lived terrible lives
    • brutal slaveowners
    • very little healthcare
    • injustice
    • inadequate diet
    • most people would not have the opportunity of marrying for love
    • low life expectancy
  • Paul warns Timothy to avoid unthankful people:

2 Timothy 3

  1. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy... lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
  2. They will maintain the outward appearance of religion but will have denied its power. Avoid such people.

4. How to become a thankful person

  • How do you become more thankful?
    1. Think about what you have to be thankful for
    2. Compare yourself with those who have less, not those who have more
    3. Give thanks! (especially by singing)

When Christians meet together

  • Col 3:16-17 & Eph 5:19-20
  1. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
  2. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
  3. addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart,
  4. giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
  • both passages are pretty broad:
    • Everything we do should be done with thankfulness Col 3:17
    • Not just words, but in our hearts Col 3:16
    • Always and for everything Eph 5:20

Encouragments to Thankfulness

  • “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts... And be thankful!” [Col 3:15]
  • “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” [1Th 5:18]
  • We are going to put this into practice this morning
    • Take a moment to finish marking your cards
    • I would like people to come up to the microphone and share items of thanks


Psalm 100

  1. Shout out praises to the Lord, all the earth!
  2. Worship the Lord with joy!
    Enter his presence with joyful singing!
  3. Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
    He made us and we belong to him;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
  4. Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
    and his courts with praise!
    Give him thanks!
    Praise his name!
  5. For the Lord is good.
    His loyal love endures,
    and he is faithful through all generations.

based on NET Bible with some changes by amf



Psalm 107

  1. Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!
  2. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble
  3. and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
     
  4. Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in;
  5. hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.
  6. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
  7. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in.
  8. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of men!
  9. For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.
     
  10. Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons,
  11. for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
  12. So he bowed their hearts down with hard labour; they fell down, with none to help.
  13. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
  14. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart.
  15. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of men!
  16. For he shatters the doors of bronze and cuts in two the bars of iron.
     
  17. Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction;
  18. they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death.
  19. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
  20. He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.
  21. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of men!
  22. And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!
     
  23. Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters;
  24. they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep.
  25. For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.
  26. They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their evil plight;
  27. they reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits’ end.
  28. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
  29. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.
  30. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.
  31. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of men!
  32. Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
     
  33. He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground,
  34. a fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the evil of its inhabitants.
  35. He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water.
  36. And there he lets the hungry dwell, and they establish a city to live in;
  37. they sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield.
  38. By his blessing they multiply greatly, and he does not let their livestock diminish.
  39. When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, evil, and sorrow,
  40. he pours contempt on princes and makes them wander in trackless wastes;
  41. but he raises up the needy out of affliction and makes their families like flocks.
  42. The upright see it and are glad, and all wickedness shuts its mouth.
     
  43. Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.

based on NET Bible with some changes by amf


Updated on 2014-09-22 by Andrew Fountain