all right uh... take it everybody knows what today he was fifteen anniversary of the uh... attack by the terrorists uh... lead to the longest war that we have ever union which is still going on and might continue to go on until the lord comes back uh... we're certainly not likely to win it uh... wall uh... are people in uh... office some of them came say what it is who the enemy is uh... but uh... anyway today is the uh... fifteenth anniversary of that turn in your bible please to first thessalonians chapter five 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. And here in this middle part of this chapter, the Lord puts several short, punchy, pithy commandments for us. some of them just two words three words forward very powerful short commandments first thessalonians chapter five and we'll read verses sixteen through eighteen rejoice evermore pray without ceasing and then here's the text verse in everything give thanks for this is the will of god in christ jesus concerning you and so we'll start here at this verse and i'll speak to you for a while tonight on the subject benefits of thankfulness He said, in everything, give thanks for this. The giving of thanks is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. father would you forgive my sins now and help me as i try to uh... preacher word tonight uh... to do so in the power of the holy spirit uh... i pray that uh... you'll help me to say what uh... i should say and not slowly uh... if i'm not sure that's all you and i pray that uh... you might uh... take the message and bless it to the ends uh... that you have for it uh... help i pray All of your people to receive edification from the Word of God tonight in Jesus' name. Amen. Now the Bible, as you know, contains a great deal concerning the fact that we who are the people of God should be thankful and should give praise to the Lord. For example, the book of Psalms is filled from beginning to end with admonitions to praise the Lord and with examples of praise to the Lord. Colossians 3 and verse 15 gives us the command, be ye thankful. Philippians chapter 4 and verse 6 reminds us that we should pray about everything, but that our prayers should be offered with thanksgiving, the verse says. And so it is throughout the Bible, examples of and admonitions to be thankful and to have a spirit of praise to the Lord. Now, you know, something that I have found to be true with the majority of people is that they either have a thankful, praiseful, joyful spirit or else they tend to be gripers and complainers. Now this is true of most people, and something else is as well, and that is that these two things are not found together. In other words, one who is a complainer does not have a thankful spirit, and one who has a thankful spirit is not a complainer. You see, people who are thankful are not thankful because they have things better than everybody else, and people who are complainers are not complainers because they have things worse than everybody else. It's not circumstances that determine whether one is thankful or whether one is a complainer. its attitude and outlook. You, as I, have known people who were in some of the best circumstances imaginable, and yet they were complainers. And on the other hand, we've known other people who were in some of the worst circumstances imaginable, And yet they were thankful and joyful and had a spirit of praise. It had to do with their outlook and their attitude. I read of a traveler who was traveling in Mexico and being guided to various places. and he was taken to a place where hot springs and cold springs were side by side and he noticed that the women of the little village in the area would come and wash their clothes in the hot springs and then would rinse them in the cold springs. And the tourist said to his guide, boy, I bet these ladies are thankful and grateful that nature has provided them with such a system as this. And the guides said, no, they complained because they didn't also get soap furnished for them. And so, see, they had something provided for them freely and yet they complained. It had to do with their outlook. Now, on the other hand, Matthew Henry, the commentator from back in the 1600s, I believe, was robbed one day, and it was found written in his journal for that day, I was robbed. Let me be thankful for the following things. First, because I was never robbed before. Second, because although they took my purse, they did not take my life. Third, because although they took my all, it was not much. And fourth, because it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed." And so you see, he had bad circumstances and yet he had a spirit of praise to the Lord and an attitude of thankfulness because it had to do with his attitude. And so whether we're thankful or whether we complain and gripe is going to have to do with our attitude, not so much our circumstances. Now, this is why the same identical thing can happen to two different people and they respond in opposite ways. It has to do with outlook. It has to do with attitude. For example, Contrast, if one of us was flying over an area of countryside and we looked out the helicopter or the little plane that we were in and saw a buzzard flying around in the same area, now we might come back and we might say, I saw lovely countryside, and I saw verdant valleys, and I saw beautiful mountains, and I saw rushing rivers. But the buzzard, if he could talk, would say, I saw a dead carcass covered with flies, and I saw a rotting corpse with maggots crawling in and out of it. And I saw a stinking piece of putrefying flesh. Now, why the difference? It's a matter of outlook and attitude. One who looks for something to praise the Lord for will find it and one who looks for something to complain about will find that. And so, now, if you're one who always finds something that stinks about every situation, then I've got a notion which one of these two you're related to. It has to do, I'm saying, with outlook and with attitude. And a person who is not thankful for what they have would not be happy with what they wish they had. Now, I believe that one of the great sins of this day and age— there are so many of them, you know, take your choice— but I believe that one of the great sins of this day and age is the sin of ingratitude. Now, it's a sin that's rooted in selfishness and it leads to all sorts of other sins. that led Lot to pick the best land and take it from his uncle Abraham was the sin of ingratitude. The sin that led David to steal the wife of one of his soldiers who was at that very time out on the battlefield fighting David's battles was the sin of ingratitude. The sin that led King Joash to kill Zechariah, the son of his benefactor Jehoiada, was the sin of ingratitude. The sin that led Absalom to seek to steal the kingdom from his father David was the sin of ingratitude. The sin that led Judas Iscariot to betray the Son of God with a kiss was the sin of ingratitude and we live in a day of ingratitude. Children are ungrateful toward their parents and people just in general have a spirit of ingratitude, a spirit of complaint. Now as Christians, as the people of God, we should try to cultivate a thankful spirit. We should try to develop an attitude of praise and thankfulness, especially and primarily toward the Lord. Now, if we're going to have this kind of attitude of praise to the Lord, we'll have to develop it because it doesn't come naturally. It's not a part of our nature to be thankful. Now, somebody says, what do you mean, preacher? Well, things that you do without having to be taught are a part of your nature, while things that you have to be taught to do are not a part of your nature. A duck. Take a baby duck just hatched, put him in the water. You know what he'll start doing? He'll start paddling. He'll start swimming. He didn't have to be taught that. It's a part of his nature as a duck to swim, and so he swims. A dog doesn't have to have barking lessons. A dog simply barks because it's part of his nature to bark. And so the same is true with our children. You didn't have to teach your children to see something they won't take it without asking. They did that naturally. You didn't have to teach your children to say, give me. Things like that word just naturally appears and comes out of a person's mouth. But I'll tell you what you did have to teach them. You had to teach them to say, thank you. because that didn't come naturally and so therefore it has to be taught. The one little boy that was visiting in an elderly lady's home and she gave him a piece of pie and he said, And she said, I like to hear little boys say thank you. And he said, put some ice cream on top of it and I'll say it again. And so maybe some people have an ulterior motive, but I'm simply saying that as Christians we need to try to develop a thankful attitude of praise to the Lord. Now, let me show you three reasons in the Bible why we should do this or what you could call benefits of thankfulness. And benefit number one is this. To be thankful ensures that the Christian is doing the will of God. Now, I'm not saying that if someone has a thankful spirit of praise that it means that they're doing the will of God in every area of life, but I am saying that it means that they're doing the will of God in that one area at least. We read I Thessalonians 5 and verse 18. Hear it again. The apostle said, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And so then, when a person is thankful, they're doing the will of God in that area at that moment. Now, it's said that the will of God is that we give thanks in everything Now, everything, that means the good things. Now, it also means the bad things and I'll mention that in a moment, but I thought about something and that is this. You know, I'm afraid that some Christians are such ingrates that not only do they not thank God for the bad things, but they don't even thank him for the good things. Now, you know, this is one reason why it's a good idea to thank God for your food. not to mention the example set by the Lord Jesus in the Bible. But it's good to have food. There are places where they don't have any. There are places where people are starving to death and there are people that are hungry in America. But, you know, I could eat something, but I'm not really hungry, and you're probably the same way. But I'm saying God's been good to us just by putting us in a place where we have access to food, and we ought to thank Him for it. It ensures that we're doing the will of God. And he said, in everything give thanks. That means thank God for the good things. Thank Him for salvation. Thank Him for a free country. Thank Him for a healthy family. Thank Him for good friends. Thank Him for plenty of food. Thank Him for provision. Thank Him for protection. In everything you thanks, that means thank Him for the good things that He sends your way. Now, in everything also obviously means not just the good things but also the bad things. Now, though sometimes we fail to do it, it's relatively easy to thank God for the good things. If you've got a good bank account, well, you know, you can thank God for that. Plenty of food, you can thank God for that, and all these good things, but everything includes the bad things as well. This is not as easy to do. It's a whole lot easier preached than practiced. Somebody said, well, but I got problems. Let me give you a three-point sermon and a poem on problems. Point number one, I got them. Point number two, you got them. Point number three, everybody's got them. The poem, Adam had them. Problems are a fact of life. Problems just the way it is. Bad things are common to all of us, but when the Lord said in everything, give thanks, that included the bad things. Now there's another verse that is very similar. to 1 Thessalonians 5.18, and it's found in Ephesians 5.20. And it is especially important because, you know, you've heard, I'm sure, somebody say that 1 Thessalonians 5.18 doesn't say, for everything give thanks. It says, in everything give thanks. Check this other verse out though, Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 20, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now here he said, giving thanks for all things. Now the only way, Dr. Curtis Hudson said, the only way that we'll be able to obey this verse that says that we're supposed to be giving thanks always for all things, is to couple the all things of this verse with the all things of another verse, and that is Romans 8, 28, where the Bible tells us, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. And so when bad things happen, we can be thankful because provided that we're a child of God seeking to do His will, that bad thing is something that God is ultimately going to cause to dovetail together with everything else that happens to bring about good for us. Now, we've seen the Lord do this again and again, how He can take a bad thing and use it to bring about a good thing. I was reading about what happened in Enterprise, Alabama. You know where that is? Anybody know where that is? It's in Alabama. There you go. But now all of that area used to be cotton country. I mean, they grew cotton, grew it and grew it and grew it. But in 1895, there was a plague of boll weevils that invaded that area and destroyed the cotton crop around Enterprise, Alabama. that year and it resulted in some tough times right then, but it led to the farmers in the area starting to plant peanuts and by 1919, the peanut crop had brought such prosperity economically to the area as they had never known while they were growing cotton. So you see, a bad thing came in. It looked like a bad thing, and yet it ultimately resulted in a good thing. And as Christians, as God's people, we should be thankful because to be thankful ensures that the Christian is doing the will of God, at least in that area. In everything, give thanks for this is the will of God. in Christ Jesus concerning you. And so that's benefit number one of being thankful. It ensures that the Christian is doing the will of God. Now benefit number two of being thankful is that to be thankful is to glorify God. Back in the 50th Psalm, Psalm number 50, the Bible tells us this. Psalm number 50 and verse number 23, the very last verse in the Psalm, the Lord says, "...whoso offereth praise glorifyeth Me." And so then, having a spirit and attitude of praise to the Lord, having a thankful, joyful spirit, glorifies God God Himself said that we glorify Him if we offer praise. God is not glorified by the Christian who always has a bad attitude, by the Christian who gripes all the time, by the Christian who complains about everything, but God is glorified by the Christian who has a joyful and a thankful attitude And the Lord receives glory from that. The great Spurgeon in his lectures to his preacher students was explaining to them how they should use their face in their preaching. And he said, young men, when you speak of heaven, let your face light up. He said, now when you speak of hell, Then he said, in that case, your regular face will do. So, to have a thankful spirit and an attitude of praise to the Lord is to glorify God. And then the third benefit, not only does having a thankful attitude ensure that the Christian is doing the will of God, not only does having a thankful attitude glorify God, but benefit number three, having a thankful attitude is good for the one who has it. In Proverbs chapter 13 and verse number 22, we find some medical advice Proverbs chapter, I said 13, chapter 17 I should have said. Proverbs chapter 17 and verse 22 says this, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth the bones. A merry heart, that's a happy heart. That's a rejoicing heart. That's a praising heart. That's a thankful heart. And having a spirit, a merry heart, a thankful spirit, an attitude of praise is good for us. Back in the in the slave days, a fellow saw a slave with a bowl of food, and before he ate the food, he bowed his head and thanked God for the vittles. And the other fellow said, You'd have this whether you thank God for it or not. You do understand that, don't you? And the slaves said, yes, I do. But thanking God for it makes them taste a whole lot better. It's good for the person who has the attitude of praise. In Philippians chapter 3 and verse number 1, the apostle said, Finally, my brethren... I always appreciated how he put finally, and he's still got half the book to go. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. So there we have the command to rejoice, but now notice what the verse says after that. To write the same things to you, to me indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. It was for their safety and for their benefit that they should rejoice and praise God. And so developing a thankful spirit is good for the sake of what it will do for the one who has it, is what I'm trying to say. And so then, benefits of thankfulness, or you could call it reasons to be thankful, and those are three. Number one, to do so ensures that the Christian's doing the will of God. Number two, to do so glorifies God. And number three, to do so is good for the one who has the thankful spirit. And so then, the Lord tells us that we should in everything give thanks. And these are good reasons why we should do so. Father, would you bless now what we've brought forth tonight to the hearts of your people? I pray that you'll help us to inculcate a spirit of praise toward you, a spirit of gratitude and thankfulness. And now we pray for your blessing on the invitation. In a moment, we'll stand and sing a few verses of an invitation hymn.