Special Thanksgiving 2024 Message: Thankful in All Things

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Thanks for listening to the Generations Church Podcast. In today's episode,

Pastor Jeff shares a special Thanksgiving message for those needing a bit of

hope and encouragement during this holiday season.

We pray you feel uplifted and find all you need as you thank God in every circumstance,

trusting in his goodness and sovereignty.

And now here's today's message, Thankful in All Things.

Isn't it good to be in the house of the Lord? Lord. It's so good.

Part of me wants to just not even preach this and just keep worshiping.

But I believe with all my heart that God wants to do something in your heart and in your life.

I know you guys, and I know some of your situations that you're walking through,

and I know the brokenness and I know the pain and I know the hurt.

And I know that for some of us, it's incredibly hard to even want to give thanks today.

But we're gonna be obedient and we're gonna decide that through everything,

through every situation, regardless how hard it might be going right now or

how great it might be going, we have people on both spectrums.

That God is faithful and that God is good and he wants you to trust in him completely.

So I'm excited to be able to bring this message because I've been praying over

you. I've been praying over the text.

I've been praying for your lives and I've been praying for each of your situations.

And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God wants to move in your heart and

in your life if you'll allow him.

So we're gonna pray.

And we're going to continue to talk with the Lord.

He's here in our presence. He's here in our midst.

Father, right now, we ask that you would do what only you can do.

We need you to speak to our hearts.

And so church, I want to invite you to go ahead and ask him right now,

say, speak to me, Lord, speak to me. Just in your heart, in your head.

Ask him to speak to you right now. God, speak to me.

We ask you to speak today, Lord.

And then we ask, Lord, that you would give us ears to hear what you want to

say through your word, through your servant, through your Holy Spirit.

So right where you're at, ask him and just say, Lord, help me to hear you today.

Help me to hear your voice.

Music.

We know you want to speak to us this morning, so we ask that you help us to hear.

That you'd open our eyes to see you, that you'd open our ears to hear you,

that Holy Spirit, as we look at the word of God, that you would illuminate our eyes and our hearts.

And so finally, Father, we pray that you would help us to live out what you teach us this morning,

that we wouldn't hear the word as it's scattered today, but that it would become

planted in our hearts and that you would allow it to spring up in our lives

as we live out obedience.

So just pray that right now. Father, help me to be obedient to you.

Help me be obedient to you.

Help me live out what you teach us today, God.

Father, thank you for each person that's here.

The act of the will that was set into motion this morning to come out to church,

not to check out at church, but because we're hungry for you.

We're hungry for your spirit. We're hungry for you to move and make us more like Jesus.

Conform us to your image. We want to leave differently than the way that we

came in. We ask that you would use me.

I'm a nobody, God, but you've called me, so just use me for your purposes this morning.

We ask it in your name. Amen.

Amen. Well, this week, as I was studying, I came across a poll about how thankful

we are as citizens in America.

We're pretty grateful on the plane, on the average, right?

Of those polled, 78% of Americans said that they feel a sense of gratitude or

thankfulness on a weekly basis.

And what that means is once a week.

So once a week, 78% of us, we feel grateful or thankful for something.

This morning, I'm so thankful for all the love I've received as I shaved off

my goatee and arrived with a mustache this morning and I've been called things like Ned Flanders.

I've been told that I look older. And then Brian took the cake.

He's not my favorite. You're my favorite.

But he said, you look like Tom Selleck. I said, thank you.

So I, I'm so grateful and thankful. So I fit into that 78%. I'll shave later

today, so you're welcome. Hold the snide remarks.

Of those polled, only 6% of Americans said they never have experienced feelings

of being thankful. That's pretty high, 6%?

Have never experienced the feelings of being thankful.

Then the poll showed two different groups, men versus women.

Who do you think is more thankful?

And more outspoken, apparently. 84% of women regularly feel a strong sense of gratitude.

So thank you, women, for your strong sense of gratitude.

And when it came to men, it was only 72% of us.

Come on, guys, I think we can do better because we got these great women that

are so thankful around us, always cheering us up, right? I didn't hear any rights.

When it came to Christians, the poll said 90% of evangelical Protestants say

that they feel gratitude at least once a week.

All right. So we're doing a little bit better, right?

When it came to breaking down gratitude into groups between Christians and non-Christians,

there was quite a difference.

Nine out of 10, right? We just said nine out of 10 Americans.

That's, if you struggle with mass, that's 90%, who regularly attend church services, regularly pray,

participate in groups, and regularly read scripture, say they consistently,

not just once a week, but they consistently every day feel a strong sense of gratitude.

Now, among Americans who seldom participate in these activities, it goes down to 62%, 62%.

And so from this, you see that it shows there's a closer relationship with the Lord.

Oh yes, 58% of non-Christians, 62% who say they're Christians,

but they're not actively involved.

They're not attending church. They're not praying. They're not singing.

They're not doing life in community together.

And so 90, if you're super involved and you love the Lord and you're pursuing

hard after him, 62%, if church is not very important, Christ is not very important,

and 58, there's hardly any difference between those bottom two.

But it shows us that the closer your relationship is with the Lord,

the more you have a sense of gratitude, the more you feel gratitude.

Now, this is particularly interesting to me. And so I'm just going to quote

it and I'm going to put it up there because this is really interesting.

It says, in addition, feelings of gratitude are common among a wide variety of groups.

For example, more than three quarters of Americans with less than a college

education, 77%, as well as those with a college degree, 79% feel gratitude and

thankfulness on a weekly basis.

Those at the low end of the economic ladder or adults who earn less than 30

grand per year are equally as likely as better off Americans to regularly feel thankful.

Why is that? It's because regardless of your income, being thankful is not based

on your financial situation.

It's not based on whether or not your bills are paid. It's not based on how

much food you have in the cupboard.

And here's the big idea for today. And I want you to catch this this morning and it's in your notes.

You see, thankfulness is not an emotion or based on circumstances.

But instead, thankfulness is a decision of the heart.

It's a decision that we are able to make.

If you have your Bibles with you this morning, and I want to encourage you,

always bring your Bible to church, whether it's on an iPad or your smart phone.

But this is what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18.

He said, rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in what?

Come on, church, say it with me.

Everything. Why? For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Give thanks in everything for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

A lot of us, we want to find out what's God's will for my life?

What's God's will for my life? Here it is.

God's will for our lives is that we're rejoicing always, that we're praying

constantly, and that we're giving thanks in every circumstance that we come across in life.

Number one, thankfulness is a command, not a feeling. It's a command.

Jeff, are you kidding me? God wants me to rejoice always?

Always. But you don't have any idea of what I'm facing right now.

I can't rejoice right now. I might be able to pray a little or just give God a sentence or two,

but there's no way I can give thanks right now because I'm facing an impossible situation.

Listen, the reason why we can be thankful today in spite of our bank accounts,

in spite of broken relationships,

in spite of maybe bad news from the doctors, maybe you got a diagnosis that

is uncertain or bad, in spite of our work situations,

in spite of our bank accounts, in spite of everything.

You can make the decision to rejoice.

You can make the decision to be thankful.

And I know, I said it earlier, I know life is hard and I know some of your situations.

Man, I was blessed this morning by hearing you guys sing about the goodness

of God when I know some of your situations.

Some of the people on the platform this morning are walking through incredibly painful things.

Maybe some of the most painful situations they've ever been through in their life.

But they determine that the life is hard. God is good. And I'm gonna praise

him in the storm because he's with me.

And I'm gonna thank him because he's good and he's faithful and he's loving.

One of my favorite passages in the Old Testament comes from a book written by a guy named Habakkuk.

Don't go naming your kids Habakkuk. You just put H on your name tag at school, H.

Habakkuk. But he often spoke of infinite danger and the Babylonian invasion that was coming.

And the book of Habakkuk was written during a time of violence and social injustice.

Everything was like political turmoil and it was just a bad situation.

And Habakkuk wrestles in this conversation with God about how could all of this

injustice and how could all these bad things be happening? How could you let this happen?

And he did something that many of us may need to do today.

Habakkuk 3 says, Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the

vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,

though the flocks disappear from the pen and there are no herds in the stalls,

yet I will celebrate in the Lord.

That's the statement right there that some of us need to make.

In spite of what we're going through, I will celebrate in the Lord.

I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. Why? Because the Lord is my strength.

Did you know that the word thanksgiving, one of its synonyms is blessing and celebration?

He's saying, yet I will bless the Lord.

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. Yet I will be thankful in the Lord because it's

the Lord that's my strength.

It's not my strength that's gonna get me through every day.

Whatever you're walking through, whatever you're facing, rely on God's strength, not your own.

Habakkuk had nothing left.

His business had dried up. His crops had failed. There were no flocks, no herds.

He had nothing in the world to celebrate, nothing in the world that he should

rejoice about or that he should praise over.

But he was able to stand in the middle of his circumstances and say, yet I will rejoice.

Yet I will be thankful in the God of my salvation.

And some of us, we need to choose.

We need to choose thankfulness. We need to choose to be obedient and say, I will give God praise.

I will give God glory. and I will thank him even though I don't feel like it.

So number one, thankfulness is a command, not a feeling. And number two,

thankfulness is rooted in God's character.

All throughout scripture, we find verse after verse after verse connecting thankfulness

to the character of God, his goodness and his faithfulness and his love and his grace and his mercy.

For the sake of time, you're welcome.

I'm only going to give you two.

Psalm 136.1, and these are so short and simple, yet so powerful.

He says, give thanks to the Lord.

Give thanks. Why?

Why? Because he's good. That's all the reason in the world to give thanks to the Lord.

First Chronicles 16 says this, Give thanks to the Lord for he is good.

His faithful love endures forever.

When you feel that you are at the end of your rope and there's nothing that

you can possibly be thankful about, remember his goodness.

Remember his faithfulness, remember his love for you.

God so loved you that he sent his only begotten son, Jesus, to die for you and

to take your penalty and your place on the cross that was rightfully mine and

yours because of our sin.

That's reason enough for us to be thankful.

Author and speaker Sherry Strange is a PhD and she said this.

I just thought this is really good.

Thankfulness begins with acknowledging who God is.

Thankfulness begins with acknowledging who God is. God is good,

not just in the things he gives us.

Because right, most of the time we look at our thankfulness as a situation of

God's given me this, God's blessed me with this, God's given us food.

God's given us a house. God's given us this. So I can be thankful.

But that's not what we're supposed to be thankful in. It says,

not just in the things he gives us, but in his very nature.

He has always been good, long before we even realized we needed him to be.

His goodness is unchanging and eternal.

I love what William Law, he's a theologian from the 1700s.

And when you read him, it sounds like it. But he said this, For as thankfulness

is an express acknowledgement of the goodness of God towards you,

so repining and complaints are as plain accusations of want of God's goodness towards you.

Let me tell you what that means.

Being thankful acknowledges God's goodness, but being unthankful or ungrateful

accuses God of not being good.

When we're ungrateful, when we're unthankful, we are accusing God of not being

a God that has character of thankfulness and goodness.

We're saying, God, you're not really good. You're not really all that you say you are.

Any of us, any of you wanna look at God and stand before him and say,

God, you're not as good as you say you are because that's what we're doing when

we're being ungrateful, when we're being unthankful.

So number one, thankfulness is a command, not a feeling. Number two,

thankfulness is rooted in God's character.

And then thirdly, thankfulness transforms our perspective.

Thankfulness transforms our perspective.

And these should be on your notes that you were handed when you came in.

But thankfulness shifts our

perspective in several ways. And let me just give you a few as we wrap up.

And here's the shift from anxiety to peace.

How many of you want some peace right now in your life and you're struggling

with anxiety or you're struggling with worry?

When we have a correct view of God's goodness and we practice thankfulness in

our lives, it transforms us from an anxious mind to a peaceful mind.

Paul said in Philippians 4, don't worry about anything, but in everything through

prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And here's the result.

When we begin to be characterized by being thankful in every aspect of our lives,

the shift happens. And Paul says this in verse seven.

When we're thankful, the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

That shift will begin to happen in our hearts and in our lives,

and we'll move from anxiety about our situation to peace. It's important.

Next, that transforms us from complaining to contentment.

Complaining to contentment. Paul said in verse 12, I know how to make do with

a little and I know how to make do with a lot.

In any and all circumstances, I've learned the secret of being content,

whether well-fed or hungry, whether abundance or a need.

He says, I've understood what the key is, what the secret is.

What was Paul's secret to being content?

In Philippians 4, verse 9, he says, Do what you have learned and received and

Philippians 4:9

heard from me and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. What was Paul's secret?

What allowed him to have peace and experience the presence of God in every situation

that he ever went through, whether he was shipwrecked or beaten,

or they were trying to stone him, or he was in prison, he was cold.

He went through more than what we would go through in our lifetime.

What was that that provided for him, that empowered him, that protected him, that gave him peace?

It's that he trusted in the complete sovereignty of his God.

He trusted in the complete sovereignty of God. Let me ask you this question this morning.

Do you trust him? Do you trust him with your life?

Do you trust him with your relationships? Do you trust him with your business?

Do you trust him with your children?

Guys, you can trust him in every single situation, not because you have what it takes,

but because God is God and you can rely on him and he is good and he loves you

and he is working all things together for good because you love him.

Trust in the sovereignty of God, even when you don't understand,

even when you don't like it.

There's a lot of times we don't like what's going on and we want to rewrite

the story. God, I'm not okay with this situation.

Trust him anyway.

Next, it moves us from chaos to clarity.

We have four kids. I understand chaos. We all understand chaos, right?

Colossians 3 says, and let the peace of Christ to which you were also called

in one body rule over your hearts and be thankful. There's that command again.

Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you. What's the word of Christ?

The word of God. Be people that are in the word and consuming it and letting

it work in your life and transforming you.

It's God that transforms you, not your efforts. Remember that.

And all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms,

hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

Verse 17, Paul says, and whatever you do in word, in deed, do everything in

the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

There's this continual thread that weaves through scripture and through the

story that God is writing. It's sovereignty.

It's trusting him in every situation.

Thanksgiving shifts our mind from doubt to trust.

Some of you guys need to claim this this morning. We're going to trust. We're going to trust.

Psalm 100 says, enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him and bless his name for the Lord is good and his faithful love endures forever.

His faithfulness through all generations.

See, thankfulness takes our doubts and it reminds us of God's enduring,

faithful love and it turns our doubts into trust.

And I wanna remind you this morning that you can trust God with whatever you're

facing today, whatever you're going through, trust him.

Psalm 28, David said, the Lord is my strength and my shield.

My heart trusts in him and I am helped. therefore my heart celebrates.

There's that word, thanksgiving, praise.

I give thanks to him with my song.

And then finally, the last shift that happens in our mindset when we focus on

thanksgiving, it will shift us from the temporary to the eternal.

From the temporary life to the eternal life.

2 Corinthians 4 says this, Indeed, everything is for your, say it with me, benefit.

Oh, church, say it again. I know it's Sunday and it's tired and everything is for your benefit.

Now, getting better. I should have been a chiller. Everything is for your benefit.

Everything is for your benefit. As grace extends through more and more people,

it may cause thanksgiving to increase to

the glory of god therefore because it's for your benefit because god is sovereign

because we're able to be thankful in every situation therefore we do not give

up even though our outer person is being destroyed you may feel like your life

is being destroyed right now.

It's not. Your inner person is being renewed day by day.

Some of you need to tattoo that on your mind this week. Everything is for my

benefit. Everything is for my benefit.

I have no money. Everything is for my benefit.

Say it again and again and make it personal.

Everything is for my benefit. Last night I was out running and I know I don't look like a runner,

but I was out running in George With and I was, a lot of times when I run,

I listen to preaching and I was listening to a pastor named Chuck Swindoll and

he's a great pastor. I think he just retired.

I want to say he's close to 90. He might even be 90 now. But he told a story.

Somebody like, you need to go running more and listen to more preaching. I am, okay?

But he told this story, and it's a true story, of a man named William Cowper.

And when I got done running, I rewound the podcast about six,

seven times to hear it because I was just like, man, this is what it's all about.

This is about trusting in the sovereignty of God. and this is what the people

at Generations Church need.

This is what my friends need to be reminded about.

I said, I'm going to go home and I'm going to listen to it and I'm going to

write it down and I want to give it to you today.

But William Cowper was born in 1730.

His father was a pastor and William was raised in the church,

but he never had a relationship with Christ well into his 30s.

He became a very successful businessman success

was all around him but instead

of finding himself thrilled about his money and finances there was something

that happened inside William that he began to struggle with depression and loneliness

so much so that he became consumed,

with one thing, one thing consumed him,

suicide.

William Cowper got so deep in discouragement and disparity that he tried to commit suicide.

He wanted to end it all. And so the first thing he did is he drank poison.

And God graciously led someone to him where he was found unconscious.

They took him to the hospital. They pumped his stomach and they saved his life.

God's in control. He's working all things together for good.

He was released a few hours later. and

upon being sent home he hired a horse and carriage to take him to the Thames

River where he planned to jump off the bridge to end his life but as he was

exiting the carriage he revealed his plans to the driver of the carriage and

the driver grabbed hold of his,

suit coat and yanked him back in and said no you're not jumping off the bridge

on my watch I'm not going to have that on my conscience.

And he giddy-upped, and they took off, and he dropped him off at home.

Two failed attempts. But the day was far from over.

When he arrived at home, he pulled out a knife, and he decided to fall on it to end his life.

But when he fell on it, the blade broke off the handle, and it did him no harm. True story.

He was enraged that his third attempt also failed.

So he went and found a rope and attached it to his bed frame and he jumped off

the bed for his fourth attempt only to break the bed frame that was holding

the rope and it crashed into a pile onto the floor and him among it.

Finally, he was able to successfully hang himself from his doorframe until he lost consciousness.

It had only been a minute that he'd been unconscious when the rope broke.

And he fell and hit the ground, going into convulsions.

And he woke up with this deep sense of self-hatred because he was unable to

kill himself five times.

Five times.

And in his despair, in his agony, in his just complete and utter disparity,

he opened up the Bible to the book of John and he read.

And then he thumbed over to Romans three and he got down on his knees and he

gave himself to Jesus Christ.

And here's what he wrote in his personal diary as God opened his eyes to the

grace and the beauty and the goodness of the gospel.

Here's what he said. Immediately.

Excuse me, I received the strength to believe it. And the full beams of the

sun of righteousness shone upon me.

And I saw the sufficiency of the atonement he made.

My pardon sealed in his blood and all the fullness and completeness of his justification.

In a moment I believed and received the gospel.

My eyes filled with tears and my voice choked with transport.

I could only look up to heaven in silent fear, overwhelmed with love and wonder.

Years later, he was a renowned hymn writer.

And he wrote hundreds of hymns, and he penned these lyrics in one of them years

later. God moves in mysterious ways.

His wonders to perform. He plants his footstep in the sea and rides upon the storms.

Deep and unfathomable minds of never failing skill, he treasures up his bright

design and works his sovereign will.

God is working his sovereign will.

Listen to James 1 from the J.B.

Phillips paraphrase. It says this, when all kinds of trials and temptations

crowd into your lives, my brothers and sisters, don't resent them as intruders.

Don't get defensive of all the things that are coming into your life right now.

Don't try to dismiss them away, he says, but welcome them as friends.

Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance.

But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed and you will

find you have become men and women of mature character with the right sort of independence.

And if in the process any of you does not know how to meet any particular problem,

he has only to ask God who gives generously to all men without making them foolish,

making them feel foolish or guilty.

And he may be quite sure that the necessary wisdom will be given.

Listen to me. As you go through these tough things, God is extending grace to you where you need it.

And as he extends more and more grace,

it shifts our focus from the

hardships of today to the hope of

tomorrow that's why Paul was able to say therefore we do not give up yes life

is hard yes sometimes we want to give up but these hardships are temporary and

God is working on our behalf God is working in your current situation for his

purpose even though you may not see it.

That's the secret that Paul knew that he could practice thankfulness in every situation.

Thankfulness will transform us and it will lead us to greater joy,

greater peace, and greater hope.

Would you pray with me?

Heavenly Father.

Father, your word is true. Your word is life to us.

Thank you for the word which speaks. Holy Spirit, convict us to not give up

in well-doing, to not give up, to not quit.

Help us to lean into you today to trust that you are good, that you are faithful,

and that you are working all things together for good.

These things that we're going through are for our benefit. May we give you glory

and may the world look at us as we go through these hard things and say there

is something different about them,

that they can give thanks this week, that they can give praise this week,

that they can rejoice this week.

May it cause people to praise you, to seek you and to glorify you ultimately with their lives.

One of the things that we said when we planted Generations Church was that we

wanna always, we wanna be all about the gospel.

You heard from the announcements. We are serving and we are giving and we are being used up for Jesus.

We wanna serve our community and our world.

We wanna be the hands and feet of Jesus.

But maybe you're here today and you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And so it's really hard to be thankful to him for what you haven't experienced yet.

I want to tell you, there's no better day than today to make that decision to

follow Jesus, to yield your life to him and say, God, I give you my heart. I want to live for you.

I surrender. I'm gonna stop living for me and I'm gonna start living for you.

I'd like to say it's as easy as ABC. Admit that you're a sinner in need of his saving.

Admit that he is Jesus, that Jesus is God, fully God, fully man.

He came and he died for our sins and then believe in him and then confess that he is Lord.

If that's you today, I just wanna encourage you.

God loves you so much and Christ died for you.

If that's you and you made that decision, I'm gonna stop living for me and I

wanna live completely for him.

I'm not gonna embarrass you, but would you just raise your hand because I wanna

pray for you. Just slip it up real quick.

Thank you. Thank you.

God's working here and he's moving and he's got a great plan for your life.

Do things his way submit to him.

Seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will be added unto you he

loves you he'll take care of you choose to be thankful in this moment.

Music.

In Jesus name amen,

You've been listening to the Generations Church Podcast. If you'd like more

information about Generations Church, feel free to get in touch with us at info

at generationchurch.us or head over to our website, www.generationschurch.us.

Thanks for listening.

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