A Spirit of Thankfulness – 5: Thankfulness Inspires

Well, Father God, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today and to sing your

members, Lord, the privilege to be able to baptize people when, Father, it is a

privilege to be in your presence. And Lord, we just invite you in. As always, we pray

for your Holy Spirit to be here, but more importantly, we pray that your Holy

Spirit would be in our hearts and in our lives. And God, I pray if there's anyone in

this room right now who has resisted you or who has failed to let you in or let

you have complete reign, God, I pray that in this moment now you would just lead

them and speak through their hearts so that they would just open up and allow

you to come in and fill them with your Holy Spirit. Father, that you would work

and move in their lives in a way that they've never experienced before. And Lord,

even for those of us who have, that you would come in and move in a way maybe we

haven't felt in a long time. That you would do a powerful work in all of our

lives as we join together in worship of you and adoration. And Father, we just

want to give you this time. Lord, we pray for all of our shut-ins and all

of our people who aren't able to be here. Lord, I just want to specifically pray

for Roy Sanders this morning as he has not been doing well and Tony and Darlene

are at home taking care of him. And Father, we just pray that you would give him a

physical touch, but more importantly a spiritual touch this morning. God, that

you would give Tony and Darlene the words to say and just help them to care

for him in the ways that he needs it to stop. Father, we pray for Miss Crystal as

she's continuing to recover from her surgery and is struggling and we just

ask that you would touch her body. Lord, help her knee to heal and for her to be

able to continue the therapy that she needs to be walking and moving around

like she needs to. Lord, and Father, I know there's many other physical needs

and things that are going on in our hearts and lives right now. And Lord, we

pray for all those things. But no matter what happens with our physical bodies

and our lives and the situations of this world, Lord, we understand that all

these things are temporary and that they will come to an end one day no matter

what. So Lord, we pray that you would be with our souls, that you would cleanse us,

that you would save us, that you would make us new, because we have an eternity

beyond this life that we need to be prepared for. And I pray Father God that

this morning would just be one of those small ways that we have prepared

ourselves to spend eternity with you. Jesus, we love you, we thank you, and we

ask all this in your precious and holy name, all God's people said, and then maybe

seated. We're gonna be in Revelation chapter 11 verses 15 through 17 this

Revelation 11:15–17

morning to begin our service. We've been talking about thankfulness over the

last several weeks. In Revelation 11 verse 15 begins, then the seventh angel

Revelation 11:15

blew its trumpet, and there were loud voices shouting in heaven. The world has

now become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever

and ever. The 24 elders sitting on their thrones before God fell with their faces

to the ground and worshiped Him, and they said, we give thanks to you, Lord God

Almighty, the one who is and who always was, for now you have assumed your great

power and have begun to reign. Thankfulness is not just something that

God has called us to do in this life, it's one of the various few things that

we have in this world that will transcend into eternity. I don't know if

you've ever sit around and actually thought about that, but like there are

very few things that we know of and experience and have in this life that

will actually go with us into eternal life when we put our foot in that grave

and begin that journey to cross that threshold into eternity with our Lord

and Savior. Very few things will make that journey with us, and thankfulness is

one of them. One of the wonderful things that you see in passages of Scripture of

people who are in heaven and they're worshiping God is that they are giving

thanks to God for all that He has done. They are able to see God with their eyes,

they're able to experience Him with the very physical presence in that moment

to be with Him in eternity, and one of the things that they do is express

thanks to Him for all that He has done. So to understand how important

thankfulness should be for us as believers is one of the most powerful

things that we'll be able to do in our lives, and I feel like we've rode this

horse and we've about beat it to death during the month of November, but I

don't think you can say enough how important thankfulness is in every one

of our lives. When thankfulness becomes part of who you are and it becomes an

expression, it's what you've experienced in your life, it becomes inspiring, and

that's what I want to talk about this morning is that thankfulness inspires.

Thankfulness is one of those things that inspires. As we said many weeks

ago as we started this series is that thankfulness doesn't cost you anything,

it actually gives to you and it gives to the people around you, and so this

morning point number one that I want to start with is that thankfulness inspires

yourself. Thankfulness is important for you personally, it inspires you

personally, and as we've said it, it does not drain you, it doesn't cost you

anything to be thankful, but in fact it actually gives to you to be thankful. It

doesn't cost you energy, it doesn't cost you time, it actually gives you energy,

it gives you the desire to serve God and to see things that you've never seen

before, to inspire you to continue growing and living with Him even in the

midst of painful and difficult circumstances, it inspires us to keep

going. It doesn't cost us a thing, and God has not just called us to be

thankful because He likes for us to give Him thanks. You know, we place

these images on God as far as what we understand in this world, and so we think

about someone who likes for people to give them attention or recognition or to

be thanked, and we think oh well they're conceited and they like to, they like

for the attention to be on them and they like to receive recognition, and God

is not human. I think we forget that a lot of times, like God does not just sit

up in heaven, He's like, I wonder who's going to give me my recognition today, I

wonder who's going to give me what I deserve, and He's just this arrogant

like being in heaven waiting for us to just bow down and serve Him because He's

like this earthly king that we have this image in our mind of, and that's not

who God is. You know, to take that step back and to remind ourselves that God

is the very one who created you. He's not this earthly being who just claims

authority over you and wants what you can give Him, but God created you so that He

can give to you, and yes there are things that He wants you to give Him, but He

also wants to give to you, and thankfulness is one of those things that

God doesn't just sit up in heaven and want you to thank Him because He just

likes being thanked all the time. I don't know about y'all, but actually

being thanked all the time can be a little annoying. You ever been around

somebody who just apologizes too much? You just apologize for everything and that's

kind of annoying? There's that, oh thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank

you, thank you. It's like, at what point does it actually mean something or are you

just saying this blindly? God does not just want us to give Him thanks

because He receives something from it. God wants us to give Him thanks because

there's something that we receive from it. He created us so that you and I

benefit and live and thrive with certain things and thankfulness is one of

those. In Hebrews chapter 12 verses 28 through 19, the author of Hebrew, I'm

sorry 28 through 29, the author of Hebrews writes, since we are receiving a kingdom

that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping Him with

holy fear and awe for our God is a devouring fire. You and I are receiving

something from the Lord. I think we forget that a lot of times that as Christ

calls us to die to certain things of the world and leave things behind and yes

there are things like Jesus said to count the cost and there are things

that we will have to give up but you and I are receiving something so much

greater that we can't even fathom or understand what that is. Now I've been

saved for about 25 years now and I can tell you that being a believer especially

early on it was really difficult to give up some friends and relationships and

some things and some desires and dreams that I had. It was difficult at first

but looking back on that even what I've received in this life since I've

followed Christ has been worth everything that I've had to give up and I have

not received the best that's yet to come. There is something so much more on the

other side that we can't even imagine or fathom for what God has for us but

that is the reason why we should be thankful. The way that we approach God,

the way that we interact with God in this life is giving, it's inspiring, it

inspires us and it's this genuine thing that doesn't cost us anything.

So I say this morning, if you just think that you're just gonna sit here and it's

like okay I'm gonna start be I'm gonna start being more thankful. You can't do it.

We have to give our hearts and lives to Christ. We have to surrender to Him. He has to be the

not just He doesn't just save us but He has to be the Lord of our life. He is the

one who leads us and guides us and as we surrender to God only in those moments

of surrendering can we truly understand and be thankful for all that He's done

for us and all that He is doing and all that He will do. And if you are

genuinely following the Lord, being thankful is not something that's going to

exhaust you. It will be something that is giving life to you. But if you are

sitting here today and you are not surrendered to the Lord and you have not

given everything in your life to Him and you've not allowed Him to have every

part of who you are and you just think well I'm just gonna start being more

thankful so I'll receive more and I'll feel better you're gonna be very

disappointed. Surrender to the Lord and give Him thanks and you will be amazed

at the life and the energy and the inspiration that you receive personally

by doing that. Point number two, thankfulness inspires other believers and

Miss Linda testified just a second ago talking about how there were times where

she was down and but she felt the prayers of other people. There's a

calling in our lives to be faithful even in something as simple as being thankful

and in our faithfulness it helps inspire other people when they are not what

they should be in a moment time. You know we're not always on our A-game

right? We're not always going to be thankful. It's not always going to be

our natural instinct to just wake up in the morning I'm so thankful today. I'm so

thankful like poor Nina she got in two wrecks in one week her car got totaled

I'm sure in those moments she was just not I'm so thankful right now. But we're

not always on our A-game. You know several years ago when I was in youth

ministry and I was probably in my mid-20s at the time I was going

through some situations and circumstances of my life that I was pretty

frustrated with I was not happy with some things that were going on and we

had we would have these meetings to plan youth camp. Timmy gets to do all that

fun stuff now. But we were having these meetings to plan youth camp and there was

another youth leader in one of our sister churches and he was probably in

his early to mid 50s at times. He's a good bit older than I am and we would

have these meetings we wouldn't see each other for like a month or two

months or something like that and we would meet and catch up and then

we'd do our business stuff and then we'd hit the road and he just showed up one

week I'll never forget and it's like the Lord spoke to him okay the Lord just

laid this on his heart and it's like you know you go through the old routine

of hey how you doing it's I'm doing good how you doing it's just like that

cordial thing and no one really says actually how they're doing you just say

you're doing good to like move on and go to the next form of conversation and

he just says man I am so blessed I'm so thankful God is so good and it was like

almost fake cheesy like the way that he was doing it and I was just like okay

this is different and he began to explain how God had really laid on his

heart it's like you know the Lord just spoke to me here lately it's like I

just I'm so blessed I'm so thankful and it was like over the top like you know

just gratitude that he had in his life in those moments and I can remember I mean

this happened I'm like okay we'll see what happens then so it's like month

another month passes another month how are you I'm so blessed I'm so thankful he

can't I remember just shaking his hand he's like you're so full of it like

there's no way like there's no way and I can remember being in that moment my

life because I felt like garbage in my own life and I was not thankful and I was

not happy and I remember seeing him and watching him and even though I'm like

huh is this fake or is this real and I remember thinking to myself I should be

more thankful I should have more joy in my life I should like proclaim the

blessing of God more in my life what I am and it's amazing how even when

we're going through stuff it's almost like God just puts people in your life

to convict the hound out of you I mean it's like you ever experienced that

where it's like you're dealing with something you're struggling with

something you're not exactly what you should be and the Lord just places

someone in your life it just makes you feel so convicted and you're just like

I hate being around them it's like he knows because other Christians inspire us

other Christians faithfulness inspires us other people's thankfulness inspires

us and our thankfulness inspires other people in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 1

verses 3 through 5 Paul wrote and said dear brothers and sisters we can't help

but thank God for you you know there's just endless amount of scripture where

they are thanking God and thanking one another and just proclaiming

thankfulness to just the most random things but they're thanking God because

your faith is flourishing and your love for one another is growing we proudly

tell God's other churches about your endurance and faithfulness and all the

persecutions and the hardships you are suffering and God will use this

persecution to show his justice and to make you worthy of his kingdom for

which you are suffering our faithfulness and our thankfulness will be inspiring

to other believers you cannot neglect how important it is that even in the

moment when you are tempted in the moment when you're frustrated in the

moment whenever you are have the inclination to question God or to kind of

push back against him that in that faithfulness and in that moment that you

remind yourself this is not just for me

my response and my words and my decision and my attitude is not just for me this

is going to affect someone else

what I say and do right now in this moment is going to be a witness or a

hindrance to another follower of Christ now not only will it benefit or hinder me

but it's also going to benefit or hinder them and let me just say parents like

those of you have young kids in life right now because we're in this stage

everything that you do and say will have an impact on your children

grandparents same thing those of you who are in school your classmates your

teammates same exact thing co-workers same exact thing it is going to have an

impact you are going to inspire or you are going to hinder and having the

attitude of thankfulness and a spirit of thankfulness in your life will give

you the opportunity to be an inspiration to other people to serve God even if

they find you annoying and even if you feel like they're dodging you and you

feel like for whatever reason you're putting that in their life it will

inspire them whether they're willing to admit it or not because I shook that

guy's hands like you're so full of it and that all that time it was

convicting to me knowing that I should be more like him rather than he should

be more like me I knew it because God was putting it on my heart you may be

the very person to inspire another believer to keep on keeping on as the

great theologian Joe dirt said keep on keeping on and if you didn't get that

I'm sorry point three thankfulness inspires non-believers thankfulness

inspires non-believers you know it's not just what we do and say that has an

impact on on those brothers and sisters in Christ but also to remember that we

have an audience of people who are not believers who are not sold out who have

not given their hearts to Christ yet who we also have the opportunity to impact

them and a true believer that you impact they'll probably come up to you later

and they'll say hey man I just want you to know like you did this you said

this this really inspired me I just want to thank you for being faithful but a

non-believer is probably not gonna come up to you and say hey I just want to

thank you for doing this or thank you for saying this because this really had

an impact on me because they don't really understand exactly what's going on

in their hearts and lives in the moment

they're filtering they're sifting they're searching they're contemplating

what God is doing and how he's speaking to them and they're watching other

people and they're looking for someone in their lives who is going to be a

physical representative of who Jesus Christ actually is for me personally one

of the most powerful things for me to follow Christ was actually witnessing

someone who did it I'd heard a lot of people talk about Christianity I'd heard

a lot of people talk about being saved I'd heard a lot of people talking

about going to church and all those things but to actually be around

someone else who lived it who spoke it and I saw them when they got mad and I

watch how they were different I watch how they handled things I watch how they

responded to other people and I watch how they treated other people who did

not treat them well and that was the most inspiring thing to me to realize

that giving my heart to Christ it would be possible to follow him because I see

someone else who's doing it thankfulness is something that a lot of

people in this world are not familiar with at all you talk about having a

testimony to people who are who are non-believers being thankful and being

filled with joy and giving credit and honor and glory to the Lord for what

he's done in your life especially when things are not good will be one of the

most powerful witnesses that you'll ever give to somebody else you will not have

to sit down and explicitly talk about Jesus Christ you won't have to

explain them hey you should get saved Jesus died on cross you won't have to

give them the whole two minute salvation message spill trying to convince them to

follow Christ your life and your attitude and your thankfulness and your

words and your spirit and the way that you treat people everything about who

you are will be an inspiration to other people because they will see it

and they will want to be more like that they will want to be more like you

your life is the greatest testimony that you have what Jesus Christ has done

inside of you is the greatest testimony that you will ever have you won't have

to come up with fancy eloquent words to preach a message on Sunday morning in

front of a room of people your life will be the greatest testimony that

you'll ever have to bring people to Jesus Christ and thankfulness will be a

or be like somebody who's bitter and unsatisfied do they you ever seen a

person who's poor that you wanted to be like you ever seen a person who's mad

that you wanted to be like you ever seen a person who's sick that you wanted to

be like we want to be like people who have something more than we have we

want to be like people who are following God and showing us that it is possible

to do this it is possible to be thankful in the midst of situations and

circumstances that are not the most ideal and his Thanksgiving his past and

Christmas approaches and the seasons are changing yeah I just want to ask you

guys how committed are you to going and having a spirit of thankfulness in the

coming days as a worship team comes back up and they begin to play and we'll

have one last song you know whether it's for worship or it's an expression of who

you are or the Holy Spirit just being a part of your life thankfulness is an

essential quality that every believer of Jesus Christ should have this is

something that should be a part of who you are how thankful are you going to

commit yourself to being in the coming days what's your spirit what identity

is your spirit going to have as you move and walk through life with your

fellow believers with non-believers with all the people that God's put in

your space that you can witness and minister to how thankful are you going to be