2 Corinthians chapter 9, let's stand for the reading of God's Word. We're just going to look at one verse as a place to begin this morning. 2 Corinthians chapter 9, and we'll read verse 15 in unison. 2 Corinthians 9, verse 15, the word of God says, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. And let's pray. Lord, we're glad that we could be in your house today. Our hearts have already been blessed by the good music, the smiles, the handshakes, the time together. But Lord, now we gather around your word and we need you to speak to us. It's not important what I have to say, it's important what you have to say, and I pray that you'd speak to the very heart and the soul as we speak to the ears, and that we would have, as listeners, we would have ears to hear what the Spirit has to say to us today. And Lord, there's a lot of reasons in life to be sad and discouraged, depressed, but Lord, we have so many reasons to be grateful and give thanks. And I pray today that you'd remind us of these three important reasons and then help us to build a habit of gratitude and a heart of thankfulness. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. This is a powerful portion of scripture, and we'll get to the the meaning of it here in just a moment. But during Thanksgiving week, our heart are turned to two things, food and gratitude. Now, it probably doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out, but I am a large man and I enjoy eating. I love food. And the older I get, I don't get the opportunity to eat as much as I used to, and even trying to slim down some. So the food that I eat, I want it to taste good. So good food. When I was younger, it was just any food, right? Volume was more important. Quantity was more important than quality. But the older I get, just stopping to have a nice bite. a good cup of coffee. Isn't that a blessing? A nice bite of food that just tastes good. And I look forward to Thanksgiving, you know, and every family has their little Ways that they go about it, but turkey, of course, and the stuffings and the sides, and I couldn't imagine Thanksgiving without some kind of green bean something, you know, a nice green bean casserole and a nice sweet potato something. I love stuffing. I don't care if it's regular stuffing or cornbread stuffing. I just, I love all of it. But the real meaning of Thanksgiving is gratitude, thus the name, right? It's not food-eating holiday, it is Thanksgiving holiday. And sometimes the Thanksgiving part gets overshadowed by the wonderful food and family aspects. But I think the heart of most people has also turned to gratitude this week During this week, we're reminded to be grateful, but I want to encourage us today that you don't have to wait for Thanksgiving to be grateful. It's actually a Christian grace, a Christian discipline that all of us, a spiritual discipline that all of us should practice gratitude. And to the extent that you are grateful in your life is gonna determine about how enjoyable this life is to you. I'll make some statements in just a little bit, but gratitude is one of the most important things you can have in this life because it begins to color your life and it also chases away all kinds of negative emotions. And so gratitude. And today we find in our text this concept, thanks be unto God. Thanks be unto God. You know, we have a lot of reasons to give thanks. And in today's message, I'm going to show you three specific things the Bible says that we should give thanks for or we should be thankful for. But just by way of introduction, I want to just remind you the importance of gratitude in general. What is thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is simply the act of rendering thanks or expressing gratitude for favors, gifts, or mercies. So Thanksgiving is just simply the discipline to recognize something as good and then express gratitude for it. So we have two problems, don't we? First thing is, sometimes we're just not very good at recognizing the good around us. Sometimes we miss the good. We're very good. We're experts at noticing all the bad things, aren't we? It's too hot, it's too cold, it's too big, it's too small, it's too close, it's too far. Whatever in life, in any situation, we are experts at finding out what's wrong. But what we need to do is become experts about finding out what's right. And then the second thing that we need to do is express that gratitude. Sometimes we notice good things, but we don't say it. We don't express it. I think it's a good thing for people to say thank you. It's a way to express gratitude. If somebody cooks you a meal, whether it's your mom or your dad or your husband or your wife or a friend or family, when someone takes the time to place a meal in front of you, it's always a good idea to say thank you. You're doing, you're expressing gratitude. Yesterday I was somewhere and a man held open a door for me. I looked at him and said thank you. It's finding the good things and then taking the time to say, I recognize that and I'm going to express my gratitude. Wouldn't that be a blessing? Wouldn't the world be a better place if we spent more time looking for what's right and pointing that out than we did looking for what's wrong and pointing out those things? And so this idea of thanksgiving. Consider the thanksgiving versus luck. Thanksgiving versus luck. People are born with the understanding that there's something good outside of themselves that's responsible for giving them good things. You can go to anywhere in the world, and unless they've been educated out of it, people are born with the belief in a higher power. There's something outside of me that's responsible for the good that comes my way. How many of you have ever heard someone say, thank goodness? Thank who? Thank what? Goodness, what's that? Goodness, you know? How many of you ever heard someone say, oh, you better thank your lucky stars? I have a lucky star? Where is it? How can I get to it? I was talking to someone yesterday and they said something. They said, well, knock on wood. And I always chuckle at that because what good does this do? What purpose does this serve? I had to knock on wood about that. We're gonna trust the gods of wood to protect us and bring us good things. How many of you have ever said, heard someone say, oh, you're so lucky? Oh, that's lucky. What luck? So we have some concept that there's something outside of us bringing us good things. Some people call it fate. Ah, fate's good to you. Some people call it karma. Some people nowadays, they don't wanna recognize God, but they'll say, wow, the universe really worked in your favor there. Ah, the universe is gonna bring good things to you. Or sometimes it's this idea of luck. No, fate and karma and the universe and luck all have a name, and his name's God. The Bible says that God is the giver of all good things. James chapter 1 verse 17 says, And so we understand that God's the giver of all good things, and people understand that there's some force, something out in the universe that's responsible for kind of equaling the equation, or bringing us good things occasionally, and what we have to do is recognize that no, this isn't some impersonal force, this is God Almighty who's the giver of all good things, and that creates in me thanksgiving, because now I know where to place my gratitude. I'm not gonna give my gratitude to the universe, or to luck, or to wood, or anything else. I'm going to say thank you, God. Thanks be unto God. Isn't that a blessing? Consider the ideas of gratitude versus expectation. I want you to ask yourself a simple question today, and this is just some thinking by way of introduction. Do you have a spirit of gratitude Or do you have a spirit of expectation? See, the spirit of expectation says, I deserve this. Why would I thank you for my food? I deserve it. You have to feed me. You're my mother. And kids that feel that way, they don't say thank you. You have to do that. You're my wife. And husbands that feel that way, they don't say thank you. You have to do that, you're my husband. And why does it feel that way? They don't say thank you. You see the difference? We're living in a world today where more and more people, even in America, are beginning to believe that they are owed things, so they're not grateful. They're not grateful for freedom, they're owed it. They're not grateful for funds. They're owed it. They're not grateful for these gifts. The very fact that I'm alive means that you owe me. And I'll just tell you, that is a terrible way to live. Because you spend your life with a victim mentality, being upset at all the things you feel like you should have been given but didn't. rather than being grateful for all the gifts you have been given. You see the difference? So gratitude literally changes how you experience the world. Gratitude will change your marriage, it'll change your family, it will change your work. Remember when you first went to that job and how glad you were to have it? And you went to the job interview and man, you took a shower, imagine that. You took a shower, you combed your hair, You brushed your teeth, you put on the good airs, I mean you walked in, you were buttoned up, you were good to go, yes sir, yes ma'am, that's right, oh yes, oh I'd be happy to, yes, yes, yes. You walked out, woo, I got the job, and now these years later you're like, that boss is such a loser. I hate this job. Maybe you should hate your job, because some jobs aren't very good. But why is it that we used to be grateful for it, now we hate it? Why is it we couldn't wait to marry that person, now we can't stand them? And if you search your heart, you're gonna find out a lot of it goes back to gratitude versus expectation. How can someone disrespect, how can a child or a teenager or a young person disrespect the very mom that gave them birth to bring them into this world? How can they talk back to a dad that goes to work, working himself to the bone to provide? You know why? You owe me. Versus a young person that says, thanks for bringing me into this world. Thanks for taking care of me. Thanks for giving me a house to live. Thanks for buying clothes. Thanks for making me food. Thank you, there's food in the cupboard. I think you have a winter coat to wear. See how it changes everything? We get focused on the car we wish we had, the house we wish we lived in, the things that we wished we had, the things that we didn't want to happen to us, all the things we missed, and we go through life stumbling over God's blessings, complaining about other things. when it changes everything when you learn to say, thank you, God. Thank you, God. Isn't that interesting? Problems begin when we don't acknowledge God's goodness. Romans 121, Romans chapter one gives kind of a staircase downward of civilization. How do civilizations fall? How do they get so corrupt? It begins in a surprising place. All the bad things in the world, many of them begin with ingratitude. Listen to this verse, Romans 121, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Think about that. How much pain and suffering is birthed in ingratitude? How much heartbreak and sorrow is spawned from an unthankful heart? It says they became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Watch this. The Bible teaches us that gratitude brings light to the heart. But when gratitude leaves, darkness rushes in. There are certain things that I like to call super emotions. These are like the superheroes of your emotional world. And I submit to you this morning that gratitude is a super emotion. Gratitude is more powerful than negative emotion. And when gratitude moves in, all the negative emotions have to move out. Did you know it is impossible to be grateful and depressed at the same time? It's impossible to be grateful and angry at the same time. How could he do this to me? How could she do this to me? Well, maybe we stop and think about all the things they did do. You know what happens when you focus on gratitude is the anger goes away. Just like when you turn on a light in a dark room, the light's there and the darkness runs to the shadows, it runs to the corners. When you choose to be grateful, when I choose to be grateful, it's like turning on a light in my heart and all the negative emotions have to run away. Gratitude's a super emotion. It drives away negative emotions. If you don't believe that, try it. And don't try it for like two seconds and be like, I tried it, it didn't work. Right? Thanksgiving is the act of giving thanks. Thankful happens when you give thanks so much that now you're full of thanks. Make sense to you? If you went to your gas station and you filled up your car and you put the spout in and you held it down for three seconds and then took it out and put it away, how far down the road do you expect to get? What if you keep holding that thing? and you keep filling that tank up with gas, now you expect to get somewhere. And gratitude's the same way. Gratitude's not something that you do once or twice and you expect for it to take you 100 miles. It's something that you do, and you do, and you do, and you do, and you do, just like filling up that tank. And pretty soon you won't just give thanks, you'll be thankful. The truth is you'll be giving thanks for everything because as you're full of gratitude, as you're full of thanks, you notice God's blessings everywhere. When your tank's empty, notice all the bad things. And so this idea of gratitude is so powerful and so amazing. And this Thanksgiving, I want you to focus on being thankful to God even more than the food. Now eat your food, amen? Gobble till you wobble, that's my mantra on Thanksgiving. And then go watch some football, fall asleep, and then get up and make a cold turkey sandwich, amen? That's my holiday day. But don't forget the gratitude aspect, and the fact that we can not just spend time once a year focusing on giving thanks, but it ought to be a daily process, a daily discipline to the point where your heart's so full of thanks that it boils over. How many of you know someone that's truly thankful? They're just like so full of thanks. Aren't they nice to be around? How many of you know of someone that is, I mean, their gratitude tanks on empty. Everything's a problem. Everything's an issue. They always point out the bad. They're so cynical, they're so negative. How do you feel when you're around them? Make you feel better or worse? Do you look forward to being with people like that? we get the opportunity to be the other guy. Amen? Be full and be grateful. So let me give you three things today in the scriptures that the Bible says we should be thankful for. Thanks be unto God. The first we find in our text, 2 Corinthians 9, verse 15, thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. Now, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 are two of the premier chapters in the Bible about Christian giving. How do you give? Why do you give? What do you give? These chapters talk all about giving and how we should give, but isn't it interesting that this chapter, one of the most important chapters on giving in the Bible, ends with gratitude for God's great gift. Because of all the gifts that we could possibly give to one another or to anybody, God gave us a gift that outshines every other gift that could possibly be given. This gift is unspeakable. It's breathtaking. It makes you speechless when you think about it. Have you ever been given a gift that made you speechless? It's a blessing. Just recently, within the last year, my wife and I both had gifts that made us speechless. Several months ago, my wife, we got a phone call and we had to wait until, asking if they could talk to Sarah and I, we had to wait until Sarah was able just to have a brief phone call. And her niece and her husband, Jacob and Rachel, They were expecting a baby, and they were having a baby girl, and they told Sarah, we're gonna name her Sarah Lynn, and we're gonna name her after you. What do you say to something like that? It makes you speechless. Just recently, I got a call from my sister, and They had had a baby, and they wanted to talk to us, and I wasn't even thinking about it, but they said that they had named the baby Archer Paul, and that they were naming him after me. And his name's not Archer, his name's Archer Paul. They just call him Archer Paul. And they're like, what do you think about this? And I'm like, what are you supposed to say? You know? Speechless. You know, there is a gift that when you really stop and think about it, it will steal your breath away. And that is the fact that God made heaven available to you and I. That no matter where you've been, no matter what you've done, God says, I will cleanse your soul. I will remove every stain. I will make you as clean as the fresh snow. And I will take you to heaven to me, to be with me for all eternity. What do I have to do? What's it gonna cost? It'll cost you nothing. What do I have to do? Believe. Where do I have to go? Nowhere. All you have to do is humble yourself and say, I need a savior because of my sin. And I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died on the cross for my sin, was buried and rose again. And I'm trusting Jesus as my Savior. And in that moment when you exercise heart, faith in the person and work of Christ, you're born again. Your soul is clean. You have a place reserved in heaven. You are a new creature. I tell you, my friend, that'll take your breath away. No matter what's going on in your life, there is never a day where you can't look up to heaven and say, thank you for saving me. Thank you for taking me to heaven someday. Whether you're on your deathbed or you're far away from it, you got years to go. Whether you are completely healthy or you have a terminal illness, there is never a day when, if you're saved, you can't look up to heaven and sincerely say, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Isn't that a blessing? Of course, if you're not saved, why in the world wouldn't you be? Of what in the world are you waiting for? I don't need that. That's ridiculous. You need help opening the pickle jar. I don't need God's help to go to heaven. You can't fix your own car. You have to go pay some guy you don't know hundreds of dollars doing you don't know what. But you're gonna get to heaven on your own. You gotta go to the doctor when you're sick. And the list goes on and on. Think about all the things you're incapable of doing, and yet some people have the gall to look to God and say, I don't need you! And then he's up in heaven chuckling when you can't open the pickle jar. He's up in heaven tuckling when you stub your toe and you feel like you're gonna die. When's the last time you honestly stubbed your toe? It's a life-changing experience. You're just going about your day. Ah! It's like the world stops. And right after that's done, I don't need you. Come on. That's ridiculous. We all need God. And all it costs us to be saved is to lay down our pride that God, if you're there, I need you. I know I'm not perfect. Jesus died on the cross for me. And if you'll save me, I wanna be saved. That's an unspeakable gift, amen. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter eight. So never a day should go by where we don't thank God for our salvation. Let me give you another one. 2 Corinthians chapter eight. We see the phrase again, but thanks be to God. 2 Corinthians 8, verse 16, but thanks be to God which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you. So the first one is thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift of salvation. Number two, thanks be to God for people who care. We underestimate the value of people in our lives who care about us. We take them for granted. If you have anybody in your life that loves you, that's a reason to be grateful. If you have anyone in your life that cares about you, that's a reason to thank God. Sometimes we feel like no one cares about us. Sometimes we feel like nobody cares about our situation. I'll be honest with you, I've had seasons in my life where I wondered if God forgot about me. Like you're put in a pit, or you're stuck in some prison, and everybody's forgot you're there. The psalmist felt that way in Psalm 142, verse two says, I looked on my right hand and beheld, but there was no man that would know me, refuge failed me, no man cared for my soul. Imagine thinking that no man cared for my soul. But if you're alive today and you're in this room, you can't say that. Because there's people that care about you. But there's a lot of other people that care about you too, aren't there? Sometimes people that should have cared for us didn't. Sometimes parents fail us. Sometimes spouses betray us. Sometimes children go astray. Sometimes friends or family walk away. But folks, you have people that care about you. And if you don't recognize that, you're gonna feel very alone. But I'm telling you right now, you have a church in Curtis Corner Baptist Church that cares about you. You have a preacher that cares about you. You have a Savior that cares about you. You are not alone. God places people in our lives that care about us. Moms, dads, siblings. Spouses, friends, sometimes we're blessed with step parents who care about us. Pastors, teachers, Christians. Listen to this statement. If you think that no one cares about you, you're either hanging out with the wrong crowd or you're not looking hard enough. Sometimes you'll think no one cares about you because you've been hanging around with people that don't care about you. That's not a good idea. But if you think nobody cares about you, you're just not looking hard enough. And we ought to give thanks for the people in our lives that care about us. And then the other side of the equation is we can be the one who cares for others. Sometimes we're so worried about wondering how many people care about us that we forget we have the opportunity to care about other people. Who are you showing your love to? Who are you actively saying, I want to be your friend. I care about you. I support you. You've got a friend in me. This is the Christian way. We should allow God to so fill our hearts with love that we become his representatives, loving the unloved in this cold and harsh world. You ought to keep an eye out for people that are separated and go after them. Reach your hand out. Reach out a hand of friendship and fellowship. Sometimes they'll smack it away. It might just be because they've been hurt. It might just be because they're not used to anybody caring. Then you take it as a challenge. Sometimes I'll tell people, I'm gonna love you whether you like it or not. Everybody wants to be loved, don't they? Everybody wants to be accepted and cared about. We get the opportunity to do the loving and accepting. The Bible says in John chapter 13, a new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that you're my disciples if you have love one to another. Honest and sincere love, honest and sincere caring is the badge of a Christian. The sheriff walks around wearing a badge. The police officer walks around wearing a badge. It's his sign. It's our way of seeing, oh, he's somebody. They're working for the town or the state. And love is the sign to the world that, oh, they're a Christian. Now, let me warn you. Love doesn't mean that I'm just going to rubber stamp whatever you want. Sometimes love is telling you no. Sometimes love is saying that's wrong. But love is always possible. with God's help, amen? Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Thanks be unto God for people who care. And then lastly, thanks be unto God for the victory. Let me show you two verses and we'll be done. 2 Corinthians chapter two. 2 Corinthians chapter two. I love this verse. It's a good one to mark and know where it's at in your Bible, so when you feel like you're getting beat up, you can turn to this verse and remind yourself you're on the winning side. 2 Corinthians 2, and look at verse 14. Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to what? Triumph in Christ. and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place." Well, that word triumph's an interesting word, isn't it? When's the last time you used the word triumph in your daily life? It's not a word that we hear often. Perhaps you hear it occasionally in the sports world. But why does God use the word triumph here? We know that it means something next to victory. But this word here is a very special word in your Bible. The word triumph here is used to signify a triumphant procession. So imagine back when the New England Patriots were winning a lot. They would win the Super Bowl and you would see streets lined as the team would come back from winning the Super Bowl, they would have a parade, wouldn't they, a victory parade. And they'd have the people going down in the parade and the streets lined with cheering people, waving uniforms and having all kinds of paraphernalia. Yeah, we won. That's the word triumph. It was a celebration. The word was used to describe a Greek or Roman general returning victorious from the battlefield. They would often have parades of chariots and soldiers marching, and sometimes if they came from certain places victorious, in one procession history records that they had elephants in their procession. In one place, it's said that Mark Anthony had lions in his victory procession as he came back home victorious. And folks, this is the word that Scripture uses to describe our victory in Christ. We are always victorious. Maybe you don't see the parade right now. Maybe the streets aren't lined with people cheering for you and for Christ and for what we're attempting for Christ. But there is a great cloud of witnesses watching that is cheering us on. And one of these days, regardless of how your life looks today, Forgetting about how you feel in this moment, we must all understand that Christ is giving the victory. We are on the winning side, and one of these days, we're going to walk in one of those victory processionals if we stay faithful to Christ and His Word. Isn't that a blessing? We can give thanks to God for the victory. Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ. If you're on Christ's team, you're always the winner. You can lose a few rounds and still win the match. You can lose some innings and still win the game. You can be behind for three quarters and three and a half quarters. But you can win that final game, can't you? And sometimes it feels like we're losing. Sometimes it feels like that everything's falling apart and that we're not on the winning side. But dear friend, when you turn to Christ and you're on Christ's side, regardless of how life looks today, you know that in the end, you're the winner. Isn't that a blessing? Let me show you one more portion of scripture. I don't think you're as excited about that as you should be. Like, yeah, I'm a winner. How do I? Yeah, that's great, triumphant, yeah, that's right. That's exciting business. 1 Corinthians 15, let me show you a final passage here. 1 Corinthians 15, thanks be unto God for the victory. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the Bible says that we even have victory over death and the grave. Isn't that a blessing? Unless the Lord Jesus returns in the rapture, we're all gonna leave this world through the door of death. This old body, if Jesus doesn't return in my lifetime, this old body's gonna grow old and it's gonna die. But death is simply the doorway through which the Christian enters eternity with God. Even in death, we are victorious. Look what it says in verse 53, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Verse 55, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Folks, you're so victorious that even in death you win. Isn't that a blessing? My grandma passed recently. We're glad that she'd made a profession of faith in Jesus. She's with the Lord today. You know, she's a winner. Parkinson's got a hold over the last three or four years of her life. The last few weeks of her life were not fun to watch. You know, she's a winner. My father-in-law passed away just a few months ago. It was hard to watch him after the stroke and his mind wasn't working right. Hard to watch those last days as his body slowly gave in to death. But you know, he's with the Lord. He's the winner. We're still stuck here. Don't feel bad for him. I'm aching in places I didn't even know I had five years ago. People are like, your beard's turning gray. My hair's turning loose. Folks, none of us get out of this world unscathed. The body stops working, the brain starts getting slower, can't do the things we used to. The hard part about getting old is you're smarter than you've ever been and you're too tired to do anything about it. I would be awesome if I had some strength and vitality. I just want to take a nap. But even in all of that, even as our body is corrupted through sin and age and eventually dies, we are the winners. We're victorious. Jesus Christ purchased our salvation on the cross with his shed blood. He defeated death as he rose from the grave. And folks, Christ took care of the biggest problem you and I would ever have. That's our sin. Make no mistake, he can give you the victory over whatever you're going through now. Isn't that a blessing? See folks, we have a lot of reasons to give thanks to God. if we're paying attention? And I guess that's the question, isn't it? Is your life characterized by negativity, cynicism, anger, disappointment, frustration, bitterness? Or is your life characterized by gratitude, by thanksgiving? And when gratitude moves in, It's got a roommate called joy. It's got a roommate called happiness. When gratitude moves in, it chases away the negative emotions and empowers us to see the world with new eyes. Amen? Thanks be unto God. Let's pray. Lord, we appreciate the time we were able to spend together in your word. And we covered a lot of ground today. But the main thrust is just we have a lot of reasons to be thankful for. Be thankful for you. Thanks be unto God for our salvation. Thanks be unto God for people that care about us. Thanks be unto God for victory. And I pray for those who aren't born again, that don't know for sure they're saved, that they would