Second Corinthians 9, 15. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Let me go ahead and pray. Father, thank you for your goodness. Thank you that we can laugh together as a family. Lord, thank you for your plan, your purpose in our lives. And we pray that as we consider a few more thoughts about Thanksgiving, I pray you'd use this first and foremost for your glory. Second of all, to encourage us and to help us be a grateful people. And Lord, just draw us nearer to you, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. OK, so one good thing about our country, and maybe they have these in other countries, I'm not sure, but our holiday season, our Thanksgiving holiday, is a good time to remind us that we are to be grateful all year round. And so I just want to look at this verse here and three truths about gratitude to help us be consciously thankful. And so number one, gratitude. Make it part of your life. Just that first word, thanks. I think we know, if you're familiar with the Bible, that giving of thanks, gratitude, is something found over and over again. And primarily, as you read it in the Bible, you're to give thanks to who, as this verse says? To God. But at the same time, There's more to Thanksgiving, or should I say, an attitude of gratitude than just giving thanks to God. And so I want to look at just having a sort of this first thought about make it part of your life as having a grateful attitude. So more than just, okay, I want to tell God I'm thankful, I want to talk about being grateful. So in that thought, go over to Colossians, just to give some Bible backup for that thought, Colossians 3. And Colossians 3 talks about being a new creature in Christ. In fact, verse 10 says, And having put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, and so forth. And verse 9 talks about put off the old man, now put on the new man. But I want to jump down to verse number 16 really well, let me just start verse 12. It says put on therefore Okay, here's what you put on gives a whole list of virtues fact. Let me just read it Put on therefore as elect of God you're saved and you're holy and beloved before God bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another another and If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. We looked at that, I think, last Sunday. Verse 14, And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which all see your call in one body. and be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. In fact, this is what I want to look at. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching. So first thing in verse 16, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. So let it have a place of abundance in you. I like to illustrate it with when you have children. Zach and Haley, let me ask you, is there any time ever during the day, night, afternoon, when The children, you know the children dwell in your house because you, even if they're not there, there are times that you can find their dwelling evidence on the floor. Has that ever happened? Okay, everybody has children, they're that young. You know, there are times where it's everywhere. There's evidence! Because it's just, you find it in the hallway, you find it in their bedroom, you find it in the living room, you find it in the kitchen, you know, it's just, I mean, kids dwell here! Okay, and so God says, I want to have evidence in your life that the Word of God dwells in you! It pops up everywhere, all through your life. It makes you think about it when you're at the bank, maybe think about it when you're at work, think about it at home when you come to church. I mean, there's something that influences you. So let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, and as you do so, there will be things that happen. And that's with the next part, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. By the way, What is the parallel? Okay, let me just finish reading and then I'll ask that question. There's a parallel somewhere else. It says, not just the word of Christ dwelling in you, something else dwelling in you. So admonish, teaching admonishing one another, psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, and then singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever you do in word and deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. What's the parallel passage of that found in Ephesians? Yes, Pastor Fricks? Yeah, and so what does 5.18 say, I think, where it begins? 5.7, 5.18, 5.19? Be blank with the Spirit. Filled with the Spirit. And then teaching and admonishing and so forth. So, being Word-filled and Spirit-filled ought to be synonymous with you. Not always so, but they ought to be. So anyway, I said all that, get down to verse 17 again. So, the Word of Christ is dwelling there, and one of the results, verse 17, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. When the Word of Christ is dwelling, you are to be grateful to God. Now, keeping that in mind, jump back to verse 15 again. Okay, let the peace of God rule in your hearts. Okay, really that rule is an aspect of an umpire, is the Greek word used there, so it's to rule, to the which also you're called in one body. And so, because you are one body, whenever you're making decisions, or maybe in your relationship to people, and at times there may be some argument, you know what God says? Make it safe! Okay? He wants an umpire to rule. That make peace the prerogative. If there's something in a relationship, I'll determine what I'm thinking about saying and doing, I'll let peace rule. That's what the umpire says, peace, make it peaceful. But then the last phrase, and be thankful. Now I'm gonna take the end of verse 15, just to get a biblical basis for what I'm trying to tell you, to make gratitude part of your life. I think because the next verse talks about thanking God, I think that be thankful, this says, hey, be a grateful person. Not just to God, and it would include that, but also toward people. Toward whatever situation and circumstances you're in. God says, I want you to have a gratitude. Just be a grateful person. Be one that just spreads out thanksgiving. I put it down this way. Have gratitude always. Show it, share it, express it. Say it, write it, text it. Just be a grateful person. First Thessalonians says, in everything give thanks for This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Who? You. Okay? So God says, I want you to be, and think about that. In everything give thanks. Primarily to who? To God. But also in everything, and I think that speaks of everywhere around us. That you and I are to be a grateful people in everything. Just make that part of what you do, part of your life. And I talked about this this morning, I want to add a little bit to it. To do that, I still think you have to decide to be grateful, not wait until you feel grateful. And I think that's important for us. You obey God because you love Him. And God says to be thankful, to obey God. I love him, but there are also benefits. And if you become a grateful person, there are benefits that come your way. The secular studies have verified this as far as, I mean, the Bible verifies it, but I'll just share with you. I had the Harvard Mental Health Letter of November 2011, so a few years ago. But what they did, they looked up studies that psychologists have done concerning people that they asked them to be grateful and the results of that. And what they found out was when someone has proper, has gratitude, they just said gratitude, not proper to gratitude, but gratitude improves your emotions, your health, physical health. It can help you deal with adversity. It can enhance your relationships. It can make you more productive at work if you just have a grateful attitude. In fact, they said your overall well-being improves. In fact, this was interesting. They said that they decided to do one of the things, they had a number of tests they talked about. One of them was they had a supervisor before, I'm trying to remember what they were doing. I can't remember what they were working on. I think it was something to do with calling and I can't remember what it was. It wasn't the kind of people you hang up on all the time. They asked them to do this one thing and before they started, the one supervisor says, I just want you to know I appreciate all your work you're doing here. I appreciate the, you know, putting the time in and the effort. You know, they were getting paid, but they said thankful. Another person didn't say anything, said here's a task, here's two. They found out the people who their boss said thank you to, and in gratitude, appreciate, that they, I think it was 50% more calls they made than the people who didn't hear that from their boss. And so there was a difference in that aspect of things. Now think about it this way. Some of the studies that they did was writing down events that they could be thankful for for each day. Other times they wrote it down at the end of the week or to write thank you notes or to purposely tell people they were thankful even for minor benefits. And the contrast was if you write down all the things that irritated you. troubled you. And they said the overall attitude of those people, they have a happiness scale, they do in psychology. But the happiness scale was much greater on the person, people who wrote down what they were grateful for. Now here's a thought that I want to think about. The people in those studies, when they were doing this, did they say, okay, write down things you're grateful for when you feel like it. No, people say, are you willing to do this study? And they said, sure. What do you want us to do? Okay, here's what I want you to do. At the end of each day, I want you to write these things down. I want you to purposely tell at least five people today you're thankful for what they did. So it was something they were told to do. If you're going to be in this study, here's what you need to do for us. And they said, okay. And even though it was something that they purposely did for the study, they found out here were the results. Their personal well-being improved just because they were grateful people. And so I thought that was just an interesting thing. So how much more do you and I need to cultivate this attitude of gratitude? Just say, God, you want me to do this. I love you. I want to obey you. And so you tell me to be grateful. So I'm just going to purpose in my heart that I'm going to start participating in expressions of gratitude for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Who? You. So let's remember this. So number one, gratitude. Make it part of your life. Number two, it's still there in 2 Corinthians 12, thanks be unto God. So I put gratitude, see God's hand in your life. And of course, this is the focus of this verse, thanks be unto God. And just a couple things I wrote down, not really, they're not in this verse, because the verse doesn't talk about it, but a couple things that would help us. Number one, and there are a lot of things that could help us be more grateful. Number one, I put it, genuine humility. Pride thinks God or others owe us something. There's little appreciation when you're proud. And let me say, pride, sometimes our lack of gratitude is not because we I think I prayed it this morning because I was just thinking about this. It's not because we are purposely ungrateful. It's just we're so busy we don't pause to think what God's doing for us and what God's doing around us and in us. And so we just miss it. I mean, how many, you know, think about this. How many were thankful for the sun coming up this morning? Okay, good. The rest of us, what happened? I didn't thank God for the sun coming up this morning, but some of us did. All I'm saying is God is so good to us so often that we just take it for granted. There's an illustration my pastor gave when I was younger, and he gave it a couple times so I still remember it. He said, if you went down the block on your block, and you decided, I think in that day he said $10, I'll say $20, and you went down everybody on your block, and let's say there's about 20 people on your block, and you gave everybody a $20 bill. And you did that every week for the next let's say, three months. That's a lot of money, but you're passing out. And then that one week, you decide not to. How many of your neighbors do you think would come to you and say, hey, where's my 20 bucks? I thought you were gonna give it to us. No, I never said I was gonna give it to you, but I have been. And so we look down on someone because, I won't say it, but we expect it. So I'll say is we need to have the time where we don't let things get in our way, that we're conscious of God, to be conscious that God is good to us and others have been kind to us. And so I think humility is an important part of that. And I thought too, There are times, thinking about these little psychiatric studies and all that, that they just told someone, hey, I want you to do this. And in the process of doing that, there was a sense in which they developed gratitude. And I think maybe sometimes we have to just decide, I'm gonna start thinking about all those things God's done for me. And I think that'll tend to bring us some humility and some thankfulness because, okay, I haven't really been thinking about that, but now I am. Why do we, and I ask for some response here, why do parents tell their children, maybe I should start with Zach. Why do parents, oh my God. Why do parents insist that their children say thank you when something's given to them? Do you have an idea? Do you do that? I'm sure you do that. They've got three parents right there in a row. Maybe I should ask Chris. Any of our parents with young kids, why do you say that? Teach them good manners. Okay. Good manners. I heard Larry mention respect. Any other ideas? Why do we tell them that? Is there any long-term goals we have in that? Yes. Keep them from feeling like they're owed something. Yeah, keep them from feeling like they're owed something. When the unexpected, undeserved gift comes, there ought to be some thank you. Any other thoughts with that? Yes. Okay, we're showing gratitude, that's good, amen. Wow, did you tell her that? How'd you do that? That's good. Amen. So sometimes, even though we may be doing it consciously and sort of forcefully, yet it's still making us more conscious of what God's doing in our life. And so, just that humility I think is so important. And then I'm gonna put spiritual insight. When you see God is for who he is, you can't help but be thankful. I mean, truly, if you stopped a moment and considered the greatness of God, just that spiritual insight. I mentioned this morning Romans 121 there at the end of the message, you know, that downward spiral. But I just mentioned then, when we fail to recognize the greatness of God, we don't glorify Him, and we fail to see the goodness of God, we don't thank Him. God is good and God is great, and those are things that ought to strike us, and I think that helps us. Now, of the term here in our text here in 2 Corinthians 9-15, that word thanks, right at the beginning, thanks be unto God. A little word study I mentioned a bit. It's the same word, take a guess, in verse 14, the same word is used, it's translated different, but anyone want to take a guess of how the word thanks in verse 15, same Greek word, is translated differently in verse 14? Anyone want to take a guess? Grace. Yeah, the 150-some times it's used in the New Testament, 130 are translated grace and nine are translated thanks. Again, context shows us, but I think there's a thought here that God says, hey, we are to, God gives us grace and we are to grace God back in the sense of giving thanks. In fact, let me show you how that's used a little further. What do we call it when we, often we pray before a meal? We call it, sometimes call it something. Yeah, saying grace. Go over to 1 Timothy chapter 4. And maybe this is, I don't know where that came from, but some good thoughts about that habit of saying grace. In fact, as I looked it up, it's interesting because it was more than just thanking God for your food. Usually it initially meant more than that. Not a sermon necessarily, but mentioned more than that. So let me check 1 Timothy chapter 4, starting in verse 1. It says, Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Not about devils, but from devils. And so he just gives this warning. Hey, remember, there's going to be contradictions to the apostles' doctrine coming down. People are going to be teaching wrong and thinking wrong and looking at it wrong. It's ultimate source is from the devil. And then he explains those false teachers. Verse 2, speaking lies in hypocrisy. Let me ask you this. If you're teaching spiritually, but you're speaking lies because you're a hypocrite, if you're being a hypocrite, then what are you portraying yourself as? You wouldn't say, hey, I'm a false prophet, so listen to me. That's what they are, but how do they portray themselves? Yeah, it's being spiritual. Hey, let me tell you, I'm right with the apostles, but they're speaking lies and hypocrisy. So remember, false teachers usually don't tell you they're false teachers. So he says they're speaking lies and hypocrisy, and they do it so often, even though maybe initially they knew some of the truth, but they sear their conscience, having their conscience seared with a hot iron. Just a sad note, false teachers. And then he gives some details about some of their teachings. This wouldn't be all of them, but some of them. Forbidding to marry and command to abstain from meats. Let me ask you, just right off hand, what major religious group that would fit in, do those two things. Forbid to marry and abstain from certain foods. Catholicism, okay. It does say that right there. I don't have to name it. You can name it yourself. But let's continue on. And the word meats there doesn't necessarily mean fish and and poultry, and it means just foods. It can be anything from vegetables to fruits and all that kind of stuff. So he said, which God hath created to be received with what? Thanksgiving, okay, and that word does the word Thanksgiving there if you break it down It doesn't come from that root of grace as well the same in fact. It's the Eucharist but chorus is grace, and so it's Thanksgiving so anyway, but so created to receive with Thanksgiving of whom it's of them which believe and know the truth." So we're talking about Christians. When Christians, whenever you receive meat, realize you give thanks and God says, I've given you that. So jump down to verse number... Let me just say one other thing here. I just forgot. I had one other thing I wanted to say. I want to talk about abstaining from meats. New Testament days, Paul's day, the early church, where would concepts about abstaining from meat, where would that naturally come from? You think coming in... Well, I don't know if idols would have something else in the early church. Unclean. Where did that come from? Where did that come from? Why did some people think some are clean and some are unclean? Okay, mosaic law. So probably as Paul's talking here, and I'm surmising because it doesn't say exactly, but that would tend to be some from the Jewish background, the Old Testament. Here's what you eat, here's what you don't eat. So some of that would come to, and so maybe some of the early Jewish believers, or maybe some Jewish people in the church that weren't believers, okay, may or may not have been saved, but that would tend to say, hey, don't eat that, don't eat that. That's not good. Don't eat that. So putting Gentiles back under the Jewish laws or those restrictions in some way, shape, or form. But God says, Timothy, we want to make sure you're correct that all those meats, God has created them to be received with thanksgiving for every believer, for those who believe and know the truth. So he said there's no reason to hold them back. So verse 4, he continues explaining. 4. Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving. So God says, hey, you come with an attitude of gratitude toward me, it's all okay. You can't eat ham. You can't eat shrimp. You can eat donuts. I'm not sure if that's the best thing. It may kill you. But anyway, so whatever you eat, it's okay. I guess every created thing of God, maybe we should. I'm not sure if donuts is a created thing of God. But anyway, they do taste good. So let me go down to verse five, and this is interesting. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. So that what you're about to partake, it's sanctified. What's sanctified mean? Set apart. Why is it set apart? Set apart for what? I'm sorry? Okay, set apart for God's glory. So some reason the food that you give thanks for, it's set apart for God's glory. Now, what are the two things here that are mentioned? One, the word of God. So let me ask you, do you have to have the Bible on your table so you can eat something that's been set apart and pleases God when you eat it? Do you have to put your Bible on? What does that mean? The Word of God. Some thoughts. Why does it say it's set apart, it's acceptable in God's eyes, it's not magical, it's not ritual? Think about it this way. Old Testament. This food was acceptable. This was not. This was acceptable. This was not. New Testament. This is sanctified. This is not. I thought he said all things. Yeah, it is. But what makes it sanctified? Well, one's the Word of God. So how does the Word of God sanctify your food? Correct. So one aspect of that would be the teaching of Jesus. Jesus said that it goes in your mouth and in your stomach and comes out the end. Food is all good. So that would be one thing. God said very clearly that the food has been taken care of. So I'd add a little part to that. Well, I'll just say that. So we're not under the dietary restrictions. So like when I went to India, there were strange things I'd never seen before, but I just ate them. They were on my plate, and so I ate them. And some of them were good, some of them were different, but I ate them, okay, to ask no questions. And then a second thing, I think, along that line, the Word of God, by the Word of God, we know God's a creator. And in all of that stuff that he's created, it says here that every creature of God, every creation of God is good, they realize God's the one that made this, therefore I can give thanks to Him who created it. He made it and He supplied me with a portion of that creation. And we need to be thankful for Him for that. The third thing that I would say is along that line. So the Word of God, we're not under the restrictions of the Old Testament dietary, where God's a creator and a supplier, He's met my needs. And then the third thing, I'd put it this way, is that the things that you're doing along with your meal is according to the Word. Now what do I mean by that? Here's an absurd thing. If you went into the store and you shoplifted some food, you brought it out to the curb, you sat down, you said, God, thank you for this food. Is it sanctified? No. That would be a meal that God says, this is not clean. This is unclean. Because of the life you've lived to gain this food. If you were eating your meal so you could go rob a bank, you needed some strength. No, that would not be a sanctified meal. And so God says, hey, you're living a life that's in chord with what I want you to do, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, all to the glory of God. And so I think there's an aspect there that God says, hey, this food is defiled in my sight because of the life you're living. I don't care how much you pray. My Bible says you're supposed to live a certain way. So if someone may pray, but if they're living in open adultery, You know, somehow the foods that they're taking is not glorifying God. It's not a meal that God's pleased with. And then the second thing, and I think this one's a little easier to understand by prayer, and so there needs to be a sincerity and honesty as you pray. Let me ask you this, and I don't think this is wrong. How many often pray the same prayer before a meal? Okay, I do too. I don't always pray it differently, but I mean what I say. And I'll be honest, and I think all of us, if we're all honest, maybe sometimes we're thinking more of our food than we are of God when we're praying. But that's not what it should be. And so I think that as we're, even if we pray the same prayer, if we're thinking about what we're praying, we're genuinely thankful to God for the things that he's provided, then God is pleased with that. And I think another note, and this is, I don't know if this would apply quite here, but, and I know I've shared this before, but why does, We usually eat how many times a day, normally? Okay. In some countries they eat two, but two or three times a day would be a normal time. Why did God create us so we couldn't just eat once a week? Man, think of all the time that would save, all the money that would save if you could just eat less. And some of us say, well, I probably should eat less, but that's not what I'm speaking of. What I'm speaking is if God, see God created us, so we often have to go back for the things he's created and supplied and say, again, Lord, thank you. And I think one of the reasons it's like that is so we can remember daily, several times a day, you need me. And so we say, Lord, I need you. Thank you for the food, but thank you for you, because I need you in so many ways. So let's remember, back to our text there, give thanks to God. God has given us grace in our life in so many ways, and then in a sense, we grace God back. God graces us with His goodness, we grace Him back with our thanksgiving. And so God says, that's what I want you to do, and so praise Him for His goodness and grace. And the last part there, back from 2 Corinthians 9, 15, is we thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gifts. So number three here is gratitude considers God's gift to your life. Probably the gift, if you look, I'm not in that text, let me get back there. If you jump back up to verse number 13, I think probably the focus of that gift is mentioned here. Whilst by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ. And I think that's probably it, the gospel of Christ, salvation in Him. That's the unspeakable gift that we have. And the word unspeakable is indescribable. It is beyond the ability of human words to describe the unfathomable salvation we have in Christ. The songwriter put it this way, Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made, Were every stock on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade, To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry, Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky, O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong, it shall forevermore endure, the saints' and angels' song. Let's say a family went to the Grand Canyon over the summer and they came back and as school started that the third grade teacher, one of the people that went there, a young lady, went to the Grand Canyon. So as in third grade, she could write, says, how was your summer trip? And so she decided to write about the Grand Canyon. So her vocabulary would somewhat be limited, but she could describe the joy she had with her family going to the Grand Canyon. She described what she could with her vocabulary. And then let's say her dad was some kind of blogger, and on that blog he was sharing with Others, their trip to the Grand Canyon. And let's say he did right, that was what he did as a professional, but he happened to have a family blog and so he's sharing that or whatever. Now his description would be much more detailed, maybe more colorful, more exact. But let me ask you, would it be any more real and genuine and true than the third grade girl? No. But the description would be different. And so no matter where we're at on our spiritual growth and understanding, there's always more to learn about this unspeakable gift. There's always more to know. There's always more to experience in the fullness of our salvation in Christ. And so folks, let's remember the gift that God has given us in Christ is beyond the ability of humans to describe it. There's always more to understand. There's always more to gain. And because of that, I think we come back and down to that spiritual and say, Lord, help me to understand the fullness of what I have in Christ. Paul even prayed for that a number of times in Ephesians. One of them says, you know, that they might know the breadth and length and depth and height and know the love of Christ. And I can't remember the next part. There's something beyond measure there. But Ephesians 1, let me just read this. It says in Ephesians 1, 17, Paul said, that God may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of your calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power." So, before we go, 2 Corinthians 9.15. It says, the Spirit of God says to us, through the Apostle, as he writes to the Corinthians, thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. Attitude of gratitude. Have it to be an overall attitude, just of your life. And then to acknowledge the benefits God gives you often. And then let's just be growing in our understanding of that unspeakable gift, primarily of salvation in Christ. And may he bless us with that truth. Father, thank you again for what you've done for us in Jesus. Lord, we thank you, as was testified, that we don't deserve it. Lord, we're often going in the very opposite direction, yet you pursue us. You're seeking such to worship you. Father, we do thank you for that. Father, I pray that you'd open our eyes, both as a congregation as a whole, but also as individuals, Christians, that you would open our eyes to be more conscious of your kindness, even in days that seem to be filled with difficulties. that we would see the, we'd hear the birds singing, we'd see the flower blooming, we'd see the smiling face. We would also on our side, that we would be a bringer of encouragement, a bringer of blessing to other people, because we wanna be a Christ-like spirit wherever we are. Lord, use us, give us that gratitude in our attitude. so that we may honor you, so that others may see what you've done in us and how you're working through us, and Lord, influence them for Jesus. Again, thank you for your unspeakable gift. We pray this all in Jesus' name, amen.