How to Thanksgiving // Pastor Nick Adams

If you don't know who I am,

my name is Nick Adams.

Y'all let me be one of the pastors here,

and I'm grateful for that.

If you didn't notice by some of the songs they just sang,

it's Thanksgiving.

It's hard to be mad and thankful at the same time.

When you sing songs of praise,

when you remember who God is,

it lifts you up.

It brings you out of whatever you're in.

And when I start singing,

when I start remembering what God has done for me,

it's hard not to be thankful,

right? Because it's a response to a gift we've been given.

And when you get a gift,

do you just put it to the side?

No, you open it,

right? You have to receive it.

And I love this time of year.

I love the weather.

I love that you reflect on everything this time of year.

Holiday season is eating season,

right?

But no,

it's my favorite time of the year.

Just because there's a lot of gathering,

there's a lot of meeting,

there's a lot of reflecting,

a lot of celebrating.

And last week,

Pastor Bobby,

anybody remember what he talked about?

He made a couple of slogans,

the Grat pack,

right? Said he was going to make a T shirt.

It says grat pack.

Your attitude.

Do you have an attitude of gratitude or even said something like

gratitude? Are you brat about it?

Are you only concerned about yourself?

Or do you reflect and have gratitude?

Are you grateful for things?

This is kind of part two of that.

How to Thanksgiving,

right? What is Thanksgiving?

Giving thanks.

Right? And we just talked about the gathering priorities over the last

four weeks before last week,

and loving God,

living Jesus,

walking together.

I pointed out last time I got an opportunity to preach,

all of those directives have ing on them,

just like Thanksgiving,

meaning it is ongoing,

it is continued.

So how do you be continually thankful?

That's what we're going to talk about.

Before I keep talking,

I want to pray.

All right,

let's pray.

Lord, thank you for this day.

Help us remember that it's a gift and that's why you call it the presence.

Help us to be present with you right here,

right now,

dear Lord,

I just pray that your holy spirit would just fill this place,

dear Lord,

and that you would pour out in a way that causes us,

stirs us up to make a change,

maybe to make a decision to hear something from you that stirs us up in a

way that people see and come to know you,

dear Lord.

And I pray that we would just have eyes to hear,

eyes to see.

Ears to hear.

And I just thank you for this time.

And I just pray that you just go before me in a way that honor and

glorifies you.

Love you.

Amen. We're in Colossians,

chapter three,

if you have your Bible.

And we're going to read verses 15 through 17,

and then we're going to kind of work this thing in reverse today.

And I'll explain that in just a minute.

But verses 15 through 17.

Thinking about Thanksgiving.

How to be continually grateful,

thankful not just in this season,

not just this week,

not just Thursday,

but every day,

right?

Verse 15 starts off by saying,

and let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.

For as members of one body,

you are called to live in peace and always be thankful.

Let the message about Christ and all its richness fill your lives.

Teach and counsel each other with all wisdom he gives.

Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.

And whatever you do or say,

do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks through him to God the Father.

So how do you continually be thankful?

How do you.

Thanksgiving. It's funny,

the answer to that is in the first 14 verses.

So Bobby kind of gave you this picture of being grateful,

your attitude,

not being a brat,

having gratitude,

right? Not thinking about yourself or what can this do for me?

Me, me,

me, right?

And in Colossians,

in chapter three,

it tells you how to do that.

But before,

it tells you how to do something.

Because I can tell you how to do something.

But if you don't have the heart for it,

if you're not stirred up,

if you're not infected by it,

if you're not affected by it,

you might feel motivated to do something.

You might do it.

But it probably ain't gonna last too long,

is it?

And so what I don't want to happen is me to tell you to do something,

and you go do it,

but you haven't been affected by something.

And just like that,

the songs we sang.

Thank you,

God, for your blood which was poured out for us,

Paul, in every letter.

So Paul is a writer of Colossians.

And in verse 15.

And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.

It's hard to be thankful without peace.

I'm not saying you technically can't do it,

but I know when I don't have peace,

when I don't remember who the Creator and source is of that,

that even when I'm not thankful,

I have somebody to go to.

I have something to go to.

I have the source of peace.

So when I call out to them or I say Lord,

I don't.

I'm not thankful.

I can't get out of this rut.

I mean,

I can't seem to not think about myself.

When I go back to the source,

right? And I remember that peace that transcends understanding,

then I can do something.

Let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.

For we're members of one body and you're called to live in peace and

always be thankful.

So what is peace?

What is that peace he's talking about?

How can I have it?

Anybody ask that question?

I don't know any.

Everybody in here thankful?

Do you always feel thankful?

Everybody always feeling having gratitude,

right? You can,

I mean,

you're not going to normally answer that question,

but a certain way,

especially sitting in here on Sunday.

But when you get out there tomorrow,

back out there in the world,

it's hard not to think about yourself,

right?

Especially when your circumstances change.

Especially living in this fallen world normally.

Especially if you've been getting short end of the stick for a long time.

How. What's this piece he's talking about?

Was a question I had.

Majority of our time is going to be in verses 1 through 14.

Because it's not only going to tell you how,

it's going to tell you why.

And that if you haven't been infected with the gospel,

if you haven't been stirred up,

changed from the inside,

it doesn't matter what you add to the outside.

I love that Paul always seems to tell you who you are before he gives you

a list of things to do.

So this is what he says,

thinking about that since you have been raised to new life with Christ,

set your sights on the realities of heaven.

If you haven't been raised to new life with Christ,

if you haven't been made new,

you got to start there.

If you don't know what that means,

you don't understand what that means.

I would love for you to ask me.

I bet if you ask majority of people in here,

they could tell you something.

Something happened in my life and it changed.

Do not think about only things down here on earth.

For you died when Christ died.

And your real life is hidden with Christ in God.

And when Christ who is your real life is revealed to the whole world,

you will share in all his glory.

That's the peace.

Why? Because we know as believers and receivers of the gospel that all

this is temporary,

right? My peace comes from.

This is not my home.

This is not my final place.

So whatever happens here,

guess what.

I have Christ and I have a hope and a glory and a holiness to look

forward to,

right? That's why I can have peace.

So even when things ain't going the way I want them to,

I can always go back to that.

And it always stirs me up to be thankful.

He says,

when Christ,

who is your real life,

is revealed to you,

when he finally comes back and he's revealed to you,

then we'll be in that.

Then we'll be made whole,

complete and new.

Like I said,

Paul constantly reminds us who we are in Christ and what he's done for

us. And you have to be infected by the Gospel from the inside out,

not the other way around.

The infection produces something kind of like when you get the flu or you

get a virus.

You have symptoms,

but the infection is already there.

You might not know it and you have symptoms.

You can't just add things to your life.

And like I said,

Paul is going to remind you who you are in these next 14 verses.

He's going to do it twice.

He's going to remind you who you are in Christ before he tells you.

This is how you continually give thanks.

Something's got to happen on the inside and what Christ has done for you

should affect you.

There should be some symptoms of being made new,

being saved,

right?

Just like when you have the flu,

you might have runny nose,

cough, itchy eyes.

People can tell something's different about you,

right?

In verse five,

he says,

so put to death the sinful earthly things lurking within you.

Now he's going to give you some things to do.

Have nothing to do with sexual sin,

impurity, lust,

shameful desires.

Don't be greedy for good things of this life.

That is idolatry.

That is coveting.

That's wanting what other people have.

That's putting other things before God.

God's terrible anger will come upon those who do such things.

You used to do them when your life was still part of this world.

But now is the time to get rid of anger,

rage, malicious behavior,

slander, dirty language.

Don't lie to each other.

For you have stripped off your old evil nature and all its wicked deeds.

Put to death.

Kill the sin that is killing you.

You have to take it off.

Baptism is a picture of that.

We got an opportunity to do baptism last week in the ocean.

It was cold,

but it was I love.

We always like toe the line of when it's too cold and it's always toward

the end of November,

but I remember those very well.

But baptism is a picture of Us being buried with Christ,

we're taking off.

You're doing something,

you're taking off that old and you're being brought back up,

made new.

And it's a picture,

it's a witness,

it's a testimony,

it's a statement saying,

this is who I am,

this is who I believe in,

and I want everybody to know and I don't care.

You have to take off,

put to death sinful earthly things.

There should be some symptoms of what has affected you,

right?

Once you do those things.

In verse 10,

he says,

in its place,

you have clothed yourselves with a brand new nature that is continually

being renewed.

As you learn more and more about Christ,

who has created this new nature within you in this new life,

it doesn't matter if you're a Jew,

a gentile,

circumcised, uncircumcised,

barbaric, uncivilized slave or free.

Christ is all that matters and he lives in all of us.

So what he's saying there,

you got to put it on.

You don't.

If I went to the gym and worked out,

got shorts,

T shirt and then I decided to put these clothes on and come in here,

you would probably notice,

right? I would smell different,

I would look a little different,

I'd probably be sweaty,

I'd probably look like I just take a shower,

I sweat a lot.

You would notice something different,

right? So you can't just add those things over the top.

You can't just add Jesus to your life.

You got to make them your life.

You got to surrender your life and say,

jesus, I want you to be Lord,

ruler of my life because you're the Creator and the Source.

And I know you know how to do it way better than I do.

So we're all in the process of taking things off,

right?

He mentions that you're continually being renewed as you learn more and

more about Christ.

Guess what?

I'm learning more and more about Christ every day.

Just like you.

The terrible thing we do sometimes as Christians is compare,

right?

Or we try to put on service,

we try to put on attendance records and let that justify our sinfulness,

right? We try to put it over the top of these things and then people can

tell, you say you're,

you're this,

but I don't see any symptoms.

If you're infected with this,

where's the fruit?

Christ is all that matters and he lives in all of us.

And guess what?

It's for everyone.

He just listed every kind of person.

It's for everyone to receive.

I normally Read out a new living translation,

but 12 through 14.

I like what the ESV says and how it says it.

Put on then as God's chosen ones,

holy and beloved.

So he tells you to do something.

Put on.

But before he tells you what to put on,

he reminds you again who you are,

who Christ says you are,

you are chosen.

In Isaiah,

I think 41,

he says,

you are mine.

To know that the creator of heaven and earth and all things says,

you are mine.

That affects me.

When you stop and really think about it.

You're chosen.

You're holy.

Holy don't mean perfect.

Holy just means set apart,

be loved,

beloved. Beloved is just another way of saying be loved.

Loved people Love people,

hurt people,

hurt people,

forgiven people,

forgive people.

When you know that you are chosen,

set apart and loved,

it affects me.

It's hard.

Not when somebody loves you unconditionally and they just keep on and

keep on and keep on.

No matter how you act.

It's hard not to respond to that,

right?

It's hard to respond with sin a lot of times.

What I figured out.

So you have to know who you are before you know what you need to do.

God looks at you and says,

this one's mine.

So now that you know who you are,

there should be some symptoms,

right?

If you don't know who you are,

like I said,

come ask me.

I'd love to tell you who God says you are.

Not because of anything you done,

but because of everything he done.

He goes on to say,

put on them compassionate hearts.

What's compassion mean?

Nobody. Compassionate hearts.

You have a longing for something.

You are passionate about it,

you can't live without it.

You think more of that than you do you.

And when you have a compassionate heart,

guess what follows?

Kindness, humility,

meekness and patience.

Those are the things you should put on men in here.

How many of you want to be described as meek?

The devil loves to try to take the world.

The culture loves to try to take stuff and twist it.

So that's your funeral.

Would you like somebody to say Nick was a meek man?

Probably not,

because for some reason we think meekness is weakness.

Probably because they rhyme and that's not what it means at all.

If you look at the original word translation,

meekness is described as like a bit a bridle for a horse.

If you ever rode a horse,

you know that little piece in their mouth controls.

You have this huge animal,

over thousand pound animal with all its power and strength,

and it is telling you where to go and how to and what to do and when to

do it.

That's meekness.

It's just bridled strength.

Patience. Any of you ever prayed for patience?

What happened?

If you pray for patience right now,

you probably have a flat tire when you leave here.

God's going to give you an opportunity to be patient because he loves you

enough and cares about you enough.

He knows if it doesn't cost you anything,

you're not going to value it.

It's not going to get in here.

So be careful what you pray for.

But if you want to be infected and have symptoms and be able for people

to come up to you and say,

why do you got so much joy?

You got this glow about you,

got this gleam in your eye and your life isn't that great,

what's wrong with you?

Those are those things.

Compassionate hearts.

You begin to see people not as objects or projects,

like what can they do for me?

Or I know what they need.

You begin to see them as a child of God.

When you look at everybody as a child of God,

a child of the living God who created all things,

it changes how I look at them.

Where are we at?

13. Bearing with one another.

Anybody ever do that?

Another symptom.

You should bear one another's burdens.

What does it say?

Love is patient,

right?

In First Corinthians.

Anybody ever been to a wedding heard that patience is just long

suffering. I'm willing to suffer with you for a long time.

If we said it that way all the time,

you'd think about it before you did it,

right?

Putting up with one another.

I'm willing to put up with your stuff because I see you as a child of

God, right?

You're not just an object for me.

You're not just something I can use.

And if you have received Christ received that free gift that was free to

us, but not to him.

God considers you that.

God considers you chosen,

holy, loved,

be loved.

Anybody got a complaint about somebody?

I know you do.

Sometimes you put them on the prayer cards.

You don't realize it.

Guess what you're supposed to do when you have a complaint about

somebody? He tells you bearing with one another.

And if one has a complaint against another,

forgiving each other,

as the Lord has forgiven you,

so you must also forgive.

So what is he saying?

He's saying,

guess what you're supposed to do when you got to complain about somebody?

You're supposed to forgive them.

Just as for God gave you.

How many times has God forgiven you?

God's forgiven me way more than he needs to.

Supposed to.

God forgives me continually.

I probably got some stuff I need to say sorry for right now.

A lot.

Everybody would say a lot.

He's forgiven us a lot.

Did you get it all figured out and cleaned up and then he forgave you?

No, I don't think so.

Not actually.

He forgave me.

And it is in his forgiveness that he's helping me work it out.

He's helping me straighten it out.

That's how you are to forgive others.

The bad thing about challenging,

thing about church is we're all sinners,

right? And we're all here,

and we're all trying to do life together.

We're all trying to be one body.

Well, when you put two things together and you have friction,

it produces heat,

right?

Probably going to produce complaints after you get enough heat.

One way a preacher described it that I like to think about is just like a

car engine,

you got all these moving parts that produce friction.

And if you don't have oil in there,

it's going to break down.

And the oil he's talking about is forgiveness.

If you can't forgive people,

you're going to have a lot of friction,

probably going to have a lot of complaints.

And then don't matter how much we come in here and try to celebrate and

try to learn that when you get back out there,

people are going to be like,

why do y'all even come in here?

This is how you bear with one another.

You forgive each other.

Maybe you ain't giving it forgiveness because you don't have it.

You ever thought about that?

If you can't forgive,

maybe it's because you don't realize you've been forgiven.

Psalms 38.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Maybe you haven't tasted and seen that God is good and you haven't

accepted his forgiveness.

Just like I said,

forgiven people forgive people.

So if you're constantly complaining about people or constantly thinking

about, how does this affect me,

we probably ain't going to be seen as one body,

right? One big family.

When you do this,

when we live this way together,

like I said,

the world won't have such a hard time seeing why we come in here on

Sunday.

In those 14 verses,

I know I went over them pretty quick.

We could spend four weeks on this one chapter.

When you can take those things off and put these things on,

that's how you can continually be thankful.

That's how you can be reminded,

stirred up,

because you've been infected by something on the inside.

And it starts to come out.

And as Christians,

as brothers and sisters in Christ,

we should be reminding each other that instead of complaining about all

sorts of things,

you feel in the blame.

Instead, everybody's on a journey,

right?

If you just got saved,

guess what?

If you just realized disinfection,

it's going to take a while,

right, for the roots to spread and grow and come out.

So as brothers and sisters in Christ,

we should be encouraging each other and continually forgiving each other

instead of waiting for somebody to offend you.

So you can use it as an excuse as to why you don't come to church or why

you don't live the way you're supposed to live.

So, knowing all this,

let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.

For as members of one body,

you are called to live in peace and always be thankful.

That's how you can always be thankful.

Philippians 4,

6, 7 says,

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.

It'll keep you from doing dumb stuff.

Jesus in John,

John 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15.

In John,

John 14 · chapter mention

chapter 14,

he's talking to the disciples and he says,

I'm leaving you with a gift,

peace of mind and heart.

And the peace I give,

the world cannot give.

So don't be troubled and afraid.

I got stuff the world can't take away.

And when you are reminded of that,

it stirs me up to be thankful,

to be grateful.

And I don't know about y'all,

but when you come in here and you have a heart and an attitude like that,

and you're singing and praising God,

it affects me.

It's hard to not be happy when you see people responding to what God's

done for them.

One last thing I'll say.

Verse 15,

16, 17 is just how to be being reminded,

to be thankful.

The message about Christ,

the gospel,

the good news,

all its richness and fullness,

let the message about Christ fill your lives.

What you put in is what's going to come out.

Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom that he gives.

Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.

And whatever you do or say in everything you do and say,

do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks through him to God the Father.

That's how you be thankful.

So in thinking about this,

like I said,

thanksgiving is an offering.

What are you offering to others,

to God.

You can't just add God to your life.

You have to give him your life.

So I got three young kids.

Anybody know about VeggieTales?

So there's a book,

and it might be an episode of VeggieTales,

but there's a little song that says,

a thankful heart is a happy heart.

I don't remember the rest of the song.

A thankful heart is a happy heart.

Something, something.

When you start for the love that he shares,

I know he cares.

That's why I say thanks every day.

That is actually a verse they just reworded a little bit.

Proverbs 17:22.

Proverbs 17:22

A cheerful.

Some translations say,

a thankful heart is good medicine,

but a broken spirit saps a person's strength.

So I got about two minutes and thinking about all this last night,

I was,

what are some things I'm thankful for?

And I just started listing them.

And when you write stuff down,

it hits a little bit different than when you just think of it in your

mind. And I could list all sorts of things,

but I'm thankful for Jesus and salvation.

I'm thankful for my wife,

who I wouldn't be standing here today without.

I'm thankful for my kids,

who bring so much joy into my life and remind me of just of how God looks

at me.

The way I look at them is how God looks at me.

And that's why kids are such a blessing.

My family around me,

my mom,

my brother,

my uncle,

they all live within 15 minutes.

And my brother lives right down the street.

My mama lives beside me.

Like, y'all get the sanctified version of me.

Can you imagine what you would get if I didn't have all that?

They hold me up.

I'm thankful for my in laws,

Chrissy's mom and dad.

Chrissy's dad's like a dad to me.

I'm thankful for this gathering.

I'm thankful for y'all.

Y'all don't know it,

but y'all get me up here a lot of times.

The way you worship,

the way you celebrate,

the way you're in relationship with each other,

that's what makes this gathering a gathering,

right? That's what church.

I'm thankful for Bobby.

He's like a dad to me.

I'm thankful for Charlie,

my dog.

I'm thankful for modern medicine that treats my daughter's diabetes,

who 100 years ago would have died,

treats my nephew,

who has leukemia,

who 100 years ago would have died.

I'm thankful for air conditioning.

We live like Kings and queens and don't even realize it.

And sometimes it distracts us from things above.

Right? I could go on and on and on,

but when you start to realize just how richly God has blessed you,

it stirs something up on the inside and it affects you.

And you start to have symptoms.

And those symptoms people see,

can you continually be thankful?

And when you can't,

go back to the peace that is guarding your heart.

And if you don't have that peace and don't know that peace,

please ask me.

It will change your life.

It will change the rest of your life for eternity.

Let's pray.

God, thank you for a lot of things.

Dear Lord.

Help us not to be in such a rush,

dear Lord,

not only this season,

but each and every day.

Help us not to miss what you're doing.

Help us to stop and reflect and remember what Jesus did for us.

Help us to be thankful,

dear Lord.

Help us to remember that when we think less of ourselves,

that you put more things in us that not only help us,

but help others.

And there's no greater gift than seeing and being a part of that,

dear Lord.

And I just pray that as we sing this last song,

that if anybody hasn't received that,

doesn't know it,

don't even know what I'm talking about.

They would just have the courage,

dear Lord,

to ask,

to look to you and to say,

I want what you got.

I want to be chosen.

Holy, loved God.

I just pray that in these next few moments that we would just respond

whichever way you ask us to.

And I love you.

I ask it all in your name.

Amen.