A Spirit of Thankfulness – Part 2: Thankfulness is an Attitude

Well, Father God, thank you so much for the opportunity to come and to worship you once

again. And Father, as we gather in this place, I pray that you would humbly

remind us of your goodness and love and mercy that's throughout our lives. As we

look at the world around us, although there's a lot of things that are broken

and could be better, that Lord, you are very much present. And all the things that

are good and all the things that bring joy, all the things that bring beauty to

this earth, Lord, are a representative of who you are and your desire to be a part

of our lives. And Lord, we just come humbly before you today to just proclaim how

good you are or to give thanks and sing praises. And Father, we're just so

unworthy, so unworthy to be here, so unworthy to know you. But Father, for

whatever reason, you love us enough to have a relationship with us and to put

up with so many things that we do and fail in. And Father, we just want to say

thank you for that. And Lord, we ask this morning that you would speak powerfully

into our hearts as we break up in your word, as we continue to study, Lord, that

you would just guide us and shape us and mold us into the men and women

you've called us to be. And Lord, as always, we bring our requests before you.

God, I pray for Michael Cato this morning. I pray for him and his family as this

young boy is being diagnosed with cancer. And God, we just pray that you would

touch his body, be with his situation, work and move in his life. Lord, for Miss

Crystal, if she has surgery this week and Miss Tammy Scruggs, if she has

surgery, Lord, I pray that you would be with both of those situations, that God,

you would guide the doctor's hands. Lord, be with their bodies. Lord, calm their

nerves. I'm sure there's nervousness involved and so Lord, we just pray that

you would be with all these situations and touch them in only ways that you

can. And Father, as a body of believers, we ask that you would help us to be

mindful this morning of our brothers and sisters. Help us to lift them up in

prayer. Help us to do good to one another in order to be supportive in any way we

can. And Father, this morning we pray that your Holy Spirit would be in this

place, that you would speak and work and move powerfully in our hearts and

lives. And when we walk out those doors that you would help us to grow closer to

you and make commitments in our life to be yours. Lord, we love you and we thank

you and we ask all this in Jesus' precious and holy name. All God's people

said, amen, you may be seated. In Philippians chapter 4 verses 6 through 7, Paul

Philippians 4:6–7

wrote to the church in Philippi and he said, don't worry about anything. Instead,

pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done.

Then you will experience God's peace which exceeds anything we can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And

this month as we talk about having a spirit of thankfulness, you know, we

talked last week about how thankfulness is a tool that we have the ability to be

able to use to grow in our relationship with the Lord, to mature in our faith,

to set us up for the opportunity to grow in Christ. And today as we talk about

thankfulness, I think it's really important to understand that thankfulness

is an attitude. It is an attitude that each and every single one of us should

have as we approach God, as we approach everyday life, as we wake up and we

maneuver throughout our day, week to week, year to year, that this is

something that is part of who we are and our attitude in which we approach

life. Now, attitude is a weird word. And in our culture, I think attitude

usually is associated with negative context. Like, you know, if I say, well,

you got an attitude problem or this kid has an attitude or that's a bad

attitude or something like that. It's always negative. And so I just

thought it was really important to just look it up and make sure we truly

understand what the definition of attitude is. So this morning, number one,

for Merriam-Webster dictionary, the first definition is the arrangement of parts

of the body or figure. The arrangement of the parts of the body or figure.

Number two, a position assumed for a specific purpose. A position assumed

for a specific purpose. Number three, a mental position with regard to a

fact or state. A mental position with regard to a fact or a state. Now,

number four has been able us to have specific responses. It talks about

something being set up a certain way so that there can be appropriate

responses when something comes along. Now, number four starts getting in

maybe to a little more of what we're talking about. So number four is a

feeling or emotion toward a fact or a state. A feeling or emotion toward

a fact or a state. And finally, the fifth definition, which is by far my

favorite and I think the most applicable for us this morning, is a bodily

state of readiness to respond in a characteristic way to stimulus. A bodily

state of readiness to respond in a characteristic way to stimulus. Now,

last week I brought a couple of tools and I still got my hammer, but I think

today the hammer doesn't do us as much justice as the glove does. So as far as

this being a tool, you know, we talked about this practical sense of how we

can approach God, of using thankfulness as a tool to grow in our relationship

with Him, to approach Him. And when you think about this idea of having an

attitude of thankfulness to God, there's a responsibility on our part

to use the tools that God has given us, such as thankfulness, and also be ready

in such a way that we can respond appropriately when certain stimuli come

across our plate. And so we can laugh about this, you know, like you

can have a hammer and if you've never used it before or if you used it

very little, you could show up on a job site and more than likely you're

going to get made fun of, right? You're not going to drive many nails.

Sometimes you may hit yourself with the hammer. Anybody ever mash a thumb?

Yeah, it takes practice. You got to use it to get good with it. Same

thing with a ball glove. Anybody can have a ball glove. You can buy the

most expensive ball glove that's on the market. But if you don't use it

and you're not ready and practiced up with it, and especially if you don't

position yourself in a way to respond whenever the ball comes your way,

you're not going to be ready to catch the ball, which is exactly what this

tool is meant for. And so as believers this morning, when we talk about serving

Christ and we talk about having this attitude of thankfulness, your attitude

of thankfulness sets you up to be ready to be thankful to God no matter

what the situations and circumstances of life are going to be.

And we talked about it last week. Many of us, even right now, there's something

in our life that we would love to change. Something in our life we would

love to see different. And in the midst of that, there's so many of

those things we really have no effect over. We can't change. We can't make

this season pass and move into the next season yet. And it is what it

is until God decides for this season to be done with or for us to continue

on in this season and learn our lessons and do what is ordained to be

done during this moment in time. But for believers, it is so essential

for us to posture ourselves in a way that we are ready to respond

appropriately as life just happens. Because it does. And you know this,

we laugh all the time about Sunday mornings, Sunday mornings or train wrecks,

right? It is really hard to get here. It's really hard to get here

and not choke each other before you get here, even in the pastor's

house. Okay. Life happens, situations happen,

circumstances happen. And as believers, it's so important for us to have

this attitude of thankfulness that just kind of encompasses and makes

up who we are. So point number one this morning is

thankfulness is a form of preparation. Thankfulness is a form of

preparation. The world is less than perfect. There are

going to be sinful things. There are going to be broken things. There are

going to be health issues, relationship issues,

whatever. And if we're honest, if we do not allow

thankfulness to become an attitude or a posture of who we are,

we are going to fail to respond in an appropriate way

when the time comes. And I'll be honest with you.

So I have my ball glove over there.

And it's a great ball glove, okay. Always done

exactly what it was supposed to. And I never,

ever, from the time that I was little until the time that I was older,

had forgotten anything. I was always so excited to go play ball.

And my senior year, we go down to Liberty High School to play in one of

the conference games. And we get down the road about an hour

and 30, probably about an hour and 45 minutes away on a bus.

And we go to get off and I'm looking through my bag and my glove's not there.

I literally left my glove in the locker room an hour and 45 minutes down the

road. And I was afraid to tell anyone. And I

didn't tell anyone. And so we're on third base and

luckily another guy who played third base was like

over there with me and we were pretty good friends. And we were rotating in an

hour and I was barring his glove. And finally Coach Jones picked it up and

whenever he found out he was hot. Because here's the truth,

it does not matter how good the tool is. And it does not matter how

good you are with the tool. If you're not prepared to use the tool

at the appropriate time when you need it the most,

it does nobody no good. And this morning,

as we talk about being prepared,

life is so hard. And if we are not prepared and ready and

having the attitude of thankfulness in our lives,

we are going to find ourselves in situations

where we are going to be less than thankful and in those moments

we're going to fail. And there's a coach right now and I'm not going to say

names you can probably figure out who he is.

I think a lot of this guy. He's had a lot of success over the past several years

and he's always done a really good job representing the Lord,

speaking about Christ, telling his players about Christ, interviewing, giving thanks

to the Lord. And the past this season's been tough.

And as he's done interviews, there has not been the same spirit of

thankfulness and the spirit of excitement and joy that's

in his life as this season has been extremely difficult for him and his team.

And it's been a little disappointing watching him give these interviews and

saying things that aren't necessarily as uplifting as he usually is.

And I'm not casting shade towards him because let's be honest, if we had

somebody interviewing us after something bad in our life just happened, if we

just failed at work or if we just failed at life or we

just had a fight with our spouse or anything like that

and somebody came in interviews, well how do you think that went? What do you

think needs to happen? Most of us would probably not give a

good interview or say the right words at that moment in time.

So I'm not casting shade on the guy by any means but I'm just saying

you notice stuff whenever things get difficult

it's not the same. Our instinct to respond is not the same.

And so as believers we have to be so careful

that as we serve Christ that we are prepared that we are praying and saying

God no matter what comes this day, no matter what happens, no matter what

misfortune, no matter whether it's good because a lot of times good things will

happen and we may fail to give God thanks for the good.

But most of the time we struggle with giving God thanks during the bad stuff

and it can happen in either one but this is the one we usually struggle

with the most and saying God help me, help me to be

ready to be prepared to give you thanks for everything despite what

this world throws my way.

Philippians chapter 4 verses 11 through 13

Philippians 4:11–13

includes one of the most famous passages of scripture that we love to quote

and most of us don't know of the two verses that come before but we're going

to read them today. And this is Paul he's writing about

what it means to have what he needs or not have what he needs and so this is

what he said. Not that I was ever in need

for I have learned how to be content with whatever

I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything.

I've learned the secret of living in every situation

whether it's with a full stomach or an empty one with plenty

or with little for I can do everything through Christ who gives me

strength. And as Paul is talking about this this isn't like this moment of oh

we we hit this this hard time and we're going to achieve this goal and I

can do this impossible thing because Christ is going to give me strength.

Yes it's applicable in that way but to be reminded

of what Paul is actually talking about when he pins that

extremely popular verse is he's speaking to a group of people

about what it means to be faced in situations with life where life

stinks or life is awesome. And the truth is

for some of us we may struggle more when life is awesome

but most of us probably struggle more when life stinks.

But no matter whether life stinks or life is great

you can do this through Christ you can do this.

It is not going to be your instinct to give thanks

in a moment when life stinks but through the power of Christ and through

his Holy Spirit this can become part of who you are it

can become your attitude to be prepared and ready to give thanks

because that is exactly what you and I are called to do.

To be prepared to give thanks whether it's good or bad whether you have plenty

or little whether you're hungry or you're starving

we are called to give thanks. That's the calling on every believer who

accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Point number two

thankfulness is a witness you know thankfulness

is is it's for us like this is a tool for us to grow

but this is also a tool to use for you to reach the people around you as

believers. And as we said last week you cannot

worship a god that you despise but you can

worship a god that you're thankful for and thankful too.

And you cannot lead a people or some people or a person

to a god that you're complaining about but you can lead people to a god that

you're thankful for and thankful too. Does that make sense? It's not going to

translate it's not going to happen

and many of us in this room have been victims of people who are negative.

You ever been around somebody did all they do is complain

and it's miserable and it sucks the life out of you

it's like you can literally feel them stealing your soul

whenever they're complaining. You ever experienced that before?

It's terrible and I say it's terrible because I've experienced but I've also

been the one to complain and that's a harsh realization.

And so when we talk about complaining if we complain if we're always focused

on or talking about the things that aren't what we want them to be

what it does is it sucks the life the energy out of you

out of everyone else and guess what it fixes?

Nothing.

We have been in a little situation for the past few months

nothing major it's really a very trivial thing

so do not feel sorry for us at all. But as a family we've struggled through

this this season of life where there has been

something going on where the kids who are the ones involved

are absolutely clueless as to what's going on they're having the time of

their life they have no idea anything is not what it should be but for Hannah

and I it has been very frustrating like we've

been sitting back watching things being done things being said things that

shouldn't be and we've like really struggled with this

and we've had to be really careful and remind ourselves as we come home

everybody's healthy everybody's happy everybody's satisfied

this isn't that big of a deal we we have to deal we have to deal with

this and it's been really difficult like we've had to remind ourselves of that

weekly and you think every time we've showed up for this thing that we've

had that like endure we've been like we're so happy to be here you know

it's like no like it's a struggle but it's one of those things that we

you you literally have to prepare yourself and how

you handle yourself in the midst of these situations

is an incredible testimony to who you are who you belong to

and during this process there's been other people who are not satisfied

like verbally open about it complaining going to complaining

complaining out in the open in the midst of it all

and guess what all that complaining did

nothing absolutely nothing did not make a difference

didn't change didn't change the situation at all

if anything it probably made it a little worse

because you're just throwing gas on the fire but for us as believers who are

called by Jesus Christ we have to be reminded in our lives

and we have to remind ourselves and pray for Jesus Jesus remind me

remind me what's truly important remind me to keep my mouth shut remind me to

to just realize this is temporary this is going to be over with and at

the end of the day all is good nobody even is going to care about this in

like a week like it's going to be done and we're all going to be

remind me of this because how we handle these situations in life

especially the less than desirable ones is going to be one of the greatest

witnesses that we have to the people around us

and you choose today what you want to give to other people

because if you say i just need to say this

and i need someone to listen to me you just know today when you need to say it

and you need to voice it out loud you're literally sucking the soul out of

that person like you're sucking energy from them

you're sucking energy from yourself and it doesn't accomplish anything

but giving thanks is very different it's an amazing tool that God has given

us that not only energizes you when you

give thanks but it energizes people around you

it doesn't take away but it gives and it doesn't it's not this depleting

resource it's a it's a renewable never-ending source of energy that God

has designed that when you give him thanks

that it energizes us and energizes the people around you and i can't tell you

i've i'm i'm prone to complaining so when i preach this message i'm

preaching this to myself today because some of you might be

like with James i've heard you complain yes you have

i'm prone to complain i have to remind myself constantly not to complain

and i've been around people who are so thankful and so positive

and so uplifting and it is a hard convicting moment when i see people

like that because i need to be more like them

i need to be more like that because rather than just

stealing my life and stealing my relationship with Christ and my joy and

my hope and my peace in the midst of these

situations circumstances we could still be receiving hope

and joy and peace in the midst of less desirable things that are going on in our

lives and that's something amazing that

Christ offers us that the rest of the world does not have access to

when life absolutely stinks we can still have

hope and joy and peace and we can still be thankful

in Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 through 4

Colossians 3:1–4

Paul wrote again it said since you have been raised to new life with Christ

set your sights on the realities of heaven where Christ sits in the place of

honor at God's right hand think about the

things of heaven not the things of earth for you died to

this life and your real life is hidden with Christ and God

and when Christ who is your life is revealed to the whole world

you will share in his glory and this is something that is so difficult for so

many people to see and understand and I really believe that the only way

that you can see this is if you are 100 percent

sold out to Jesus Christ is that if this life turns upside down

today and everything in it is miserable and

you lose everything and you have nothing and you're sick and you lose your

health and you lose family you lose relationships

and everything in this life turns upside down the

only way you could have hope and joy and peace

is being reminded by verses like this that we have died

to this life and we look forward to the one to come

that we have been crucified with Christ and we've rejected this world

and we look forward to our eternal home in heaven so even if everything in this

life stinks that we are reminded and have

the hope and the joy to know that we are awaiting a home that is perfect

though I may be hurting and in pain and sad here

there's no tears no mourning no pain there

and though I feel like God is is far from me in this moment right now

that when I step through that threshold into that world to come

I will be in his presence for all of eternity

and that is the hope and the joy and the peace that carries us as believers

that even though this life may stink that we can still be thankful to our God

because we believe with all that we are of what is to come

most people are not going to buy into that

the only way you're going to buy into that is if God has radically moved

and done a work in your life and you're surrendered to him

and willing to let him do that

that's a difficult thing and I say that very hesitantly because

I stand up here today and I do not want my life to stink

you with me like I don't want bad stuff to come

I don't want to lose people I don't want to lose stuff I don't lose things I

don't want to lose whatever because that's it stinks when

that happens but if it does we have to be resolved to the

fact of what is to come it's enough

and it's better than anything if everything here was perfect

that's still better and that's what we have to be resolved to

point three thankfulness sets you up for success

and this is not worldly success we're talking about spiritual success and I'm a

little hesitant to say things like this because

I want to remind us today that there's not anything that we can do personally

to have a relationship with God or have eternal life

that was bought for us through Jesus Christ and his blood on the cross

and we are saved through faith and through faith alone

right now in this

the attitude of thankfulness for us to be aware

and to seek out Christ and to pray and say God

fill me with your holy spirit help me to be thankful help me

to have an attitude of thankfulness to be able to respond with thankfulness

despite what comes my way that attitude of humbleness

and submission to say God help me to do this help me to be ready help me to be

prepared for this it sets us up for success because the

worst thing is being there and in the moment and

then all of a sudden it comes and you're not prepared

and you're not ready and you're not able to respond appropriately and then you

find yourself failing miserably in the moment

but thankfulness sets us up for success

it sets us up for the opportunity for Christ to work in our life

for the holy spirit to purify us and to make us holy

and as we said last week we can't worship a God that we despise

but we're more than able to worship a God that we're thankful to

and guys this morning if we can't be thankful to our God here

what makes us think that we'll be thankful to our God there

if we can't if we don't desire God if we don't want to be with God now what

makes us think that we're going to want to be with God then

if we're not praising and worshiping him why would we do it there

if we're not praying here why would we want to talk to him there

it doesn't translate if there's a lack of desire for us here

to do and be who God has called us to be what makes us think that when we cross

that threshold it's going to be done there

there has to be a work done in our life so that we can be thankful

in order to be the men and women that God has called us to be

and in first Thessalonians 5 verses 16 through 18

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18

it says always be joyful never stop praying be thankful in all

circumstances for this is God's will for you who belong

to Christ Jesus it's one of my favorite verses to

just preach to the teenagers all the time whenever I was doing youth ministry

because they're always the one who's like I just don't know what God's will

is for my life I don't know what I'm supposed to be

what college I'm supposed to go to what I'm supposed to do

when I grow up I just don't know I don't know what God's will is

let me show you

and literally in scripture in black and white

plain as day it says always be joyful

never stop praying be thankful in all circumstances

for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus

it doesn't get any more clear cut than that

it doesn't matter whether you're a doctor or a lawyer or you clean toilets for a

living Jesus does not care about that what he

cares about is are you going to follow him are you

going to serve him are you going to be obedient with him are you going to be

joyful are you going to pray are you going to be thankful in all

circumstances for this is his will for those who belong to him

and it's plain as day and black and white and it sounds simple but it's one of

the hardest things we'll ever do

there's not many people who's going to be okay

and be joyful and be thankful in the midst of

life when it just starts raining down on you

it's extremely hard

and that's why we stand here today if we're not prepared

if we're not ready if this isn't the attitude that we've already said God

feel me feel me with your spirit feel me with your presence

give me this attitude help me to be ready to respond in such a way

make this be who i am empty me out of myself

and fill me with who you are so that i can be joyful i can be thankful i can

be ready to respond appropriately no matter what the world

throws my way if it's not in there it's not gonna

happen you can't wing it you can pray and you

can serve God and you can follow him and it's still going to be difficult when it

comes you're definitely not going to be able

to wing it it's not going to be something that

comes natural

the question is

if you love Jesus this morning and you claim him as your Savior are you going

to be conscious enough to pick up that tool

are you going to be conscious enough to practice with it

to get good with it to not only let it become a part of

who you are but let it be the very attitude in which you live your life

that you live with the attitude of thankfulness

you are posturing yourself in a way that pre-determines that whatever happens

you're going to be thankful no matter what

that's only something you can decide let's pray together

Father thank you for this day

thank you for your word thank you for your son Jesus Christ

and God we ask this morning that you would speak powerfully to our hearts

Lord remind us this morning that our ability to be thankful

is not based not based off of

what you can do for us or what we may attain or what we may accomplish

but Lord our ability to be thankful rests solely in

our attitude and how we approach you

Father help us to be faithful with little

so that we can be faithful with much

help us to be thankful in situations and circumstances are less desirable

so that we can truly give thanks when you do bless us

and we we do have wonderful moments in life

Lord we simply want to appropriately

give you the credit and the honor and the glory that you deserve

and I pray in our lives that we would truly be thankful to you

we love you we ask this in Jesus name amen