A word has many different meanings, right, depending on its context. For example, spring is a season, it's an action, it's a source of pure water, and it's also a metal coil in a bed. Okay, all right, are we all on the same page there? And it all depends on how you use this. You say, I'm going to go to the spring to get a drink. Nobody thinks that you're going to your bed to rip it open. All right, we understand. The context helps when we talk about words. But similarly, I've practiced that word a lot. That is a word that I cannot say, OK? And if I try to say it again, I will not say it correctly, OK? So if you say it differently, I'm sorry. But that word, S-I-M-I-L-A-R-L-Y, I don't know why it's incredibly hard to say. Try to say toy boat 10 times fast. Go ahead. Yeah, I knew I could get somebody with that. But you know what? There are words that we use so often and they're so common in our everyday language, sometimes the meaning gets lost to us, okay? People often develop the habit of being or repeating something despite not having a grasp of what it is. For example, many people use the word Christian, but there are many people who don't know what it is, can't articulate what it is. Me and Brother Chad one time were out souling and talked to a guy who was his for a living, He rewrote things. So guys would submit books to him and guys would submit company policies to him and he would take them and edit them and rewrite them. And he said he was a Christian. So I was like, I asked him, I said, what does it mean to be a Christian? And I thought we were gonna get like the greatest response that I have ever heard. Cause this is what this guy does for a living is rearticulate what people cannot and make them sound intelligent. And he goes, oh, I have no idea. I'm like, what? Are you kidding me? I mean, we're sitting there on this guy's porch swing out there talking to him, and I'm just like, this is what you do for a living, and you can't even articulate what it means to be a Christian, which gives me a good clue of what kind of Christian that he was. He just didn't know. But you know what, there are many people that don't know some things. Around Thanksgiving time, I see and I hear three words often, all right? They're here. If you were at a marriage dinner last night, they were on a napkin. This was not planned. I did not know my wife was gonna buy these napkins, but I was like, hey, I'm gonna use this in my sermon tonight, all right? So I snuck a, these are not good for wiping any food off your face. We also found that out last night. So we had to break out the real napkins, because these things are awful. But anyway, here's the three words, all right? Thankful and blessed. How many of you hear one of these three words around Thanksgiving time a lot? All right. How many of you hear all three of them? I mean, you walk into the store, you look at fall decor, you're probably more than likely gonna see these three words, all right? And there's a lot of people that put it up on their wall, and they'll decorate with it, and at, if we're not careful, will fail to take into consideration what they actually mean. So, I'm gonna remind you tonight of these three words real quick and what they actually mean, okay? The first word is grateful. The word grateful does not appear in our Bibles, but the concept does 15 times. It is the Greek word eukarysta. It means gratitude or grateful language. It appears 15 times in our New Testament. Without boring us to death, let us define what gratefulness is. It is having a due sense of benefits. It is when you realize what you have. It is the contrast to selfishness, by the way. Pastor Russ was talking about Ephesians chapter 5, talking about marriage last night, and you know what? He hit the nail on the head when he said, you know what? Most of our problem is selfishness, because it is. Most of our problems in life are because we're selfish, all right? And it's true. But you know what? This is the premier passage on the fundamentals of a Christian family. We're talking about family month. And so in those first four verses that we read there, we noticed a few things. It said, number one, we need to follow God, didn't it? We need to be followers of God. That's a good way to start, all right? Number two, we need to walk in love. Why? What does loyalty love do? Love gives. Love is selfless. True love is selfless. By definition, the biblical definition of love is love gives. God gave. God so loved the world that he gave all right that is the that is the motivation behind it and so we see that and then we do see a list of bad things in verse number three it says but fornication and uncleanness and covetousness let those things and and he said and by the way it says let it not be once named among you as become a saint hey those are three things that shouldn't be ever talked about as by a christian or about you know this should never be said about a christian Now, it is sadly sometimes, but the Bible is very clear about that. God doesn't like those things, alright? We're not dwelling on that tonight. But look at verse number 4, and this is what I found interesting the other day. Neither filthiness, all right, that's shameful behavior, or foolish talking. I found an interesting definition for that one. The Greek word for foolish talking there is the word morologia, and it's also the same word we get our word moron for, all right? But it literally means, foolish talking literally means to be a buffoon. All right, you know somebody that acts like a buffoon? We all know somebody, we probably were that guy at one point, all right? But it means to take cheap shots, it means to do ridiculous pranks, or to be vulgar, and you know what, none of that stuff has any place in our families, okay? You know what, if you're taking cheap shots at each other all the time, that's not building, we talked about communication this morning. If you're always firing back at each other with cheap shots, you're not doing, you're not helping, okay? But Paul, here's what I found interesting. He says not foolish talking, or filthiness, or jesting, jesting, that the word there is literally witticism, all right? If you want the technical definition, it is ready to turn an answer at a rep RT, all right? But instead of just me sounding like I'm not from Kentucky, I'm gonna bring it down to Kentucky people's level, all right? It's sarcasm. Sarcasm. And if we're not careful, we'll lace everything in sarcasm, won't we? And you know what? We develop a habit of being sarcastic. We're sarcastic and we don't even realize it. I mean, we just are. We just always are. We're just kind of bitey. And you know what? I understand there's some playful jesting you can get away with. You understand that. But at some point, if you're not careful, everything becomes laced with sarcasm and it gets real old real fast. and you'll start with sarcasm, and they'll start with sarcasm, and your husband will start with sarcasm, and you'll start back with sarcasm, or your sisters, you know. I had sisters. Man, sisters are the most sarcastic people in the world. That was maybe just my sisters. Now, they're both sweet, godly young ladies now, but they weren't always okay, all right? There had to be a few things put under the blood, amen? But truthfully, if we're not careful, we'll develop these habits. But here, you say, Preacher, why are we talking about all this? How does this have to do with gratefulness? Because do you notice in verse number four what it says? We need to put away fornication, uncleanness, covetousness. Let those not be named once among you. But look at this, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting. Why? Which are not convenient. Alright, that means they're not proper. And then you see the little word there, but, all right? So there's a contrast coming. So the answer, the solution to all of those problems is, but rather, giving of thanks. Now that phrase there, giving of thanks, is the Greek word for gratefulness. Hey, you know what? I believe this with all my heart. If a lot of people realized what they had, they wouldn't leave it for something else. If they realized that the grass truly was not greener on the other side of the fence, they wouldn't be trying to mess around on the other side of the fence. Hey folks, we've been given a lot. All of us have. Listen, I know there's no perfect marriage, there's no perfect family, there's no perfect setup, and some of you are in less than perfect situations, alright? That happens, and all of us have problems with family. But by and large, we ought to be grateful, we ought to be thankful, and when you realize what you have, it'll make you not want what you shouldn't have. And that's what gratefulness is. And gratefulness is the counterbalance for all of these problems. That actually blows me away. Honestly, Brother Larry, when I read this, I fought it, okay? I was studying this the other day, and I was preparing the message, and I read that, and I'm like, no, that can't be right. But God says it's right. So I can't really argue with it at that point. I'm like, there has to be something more, Lord. I have to have a better solution than just giving a thanks. But God says if I will accept things and I will have a grateful heart, it is what is proper. Those things aren't proper and that is proper. So you know what I have to do? I have to stop and I just say, okay, I got to trust you, God. Gratefulness. You know what? If I am grateful for someone, I will not act in a way that would shame them. By the way, if I'm grateful for my wife, I'm not going to take a cheap shot at her. Nor am I going to subject her to vulgarity. Nor am I going to lace my responses to her with sarcasm. Nor am I going to diminish their opinion by cutting up about it. I was just sitting there last night going, Pastor Ross, you've got to stop. You're just ripping me to shreds, man, all right? You've got to hit something else, all right? But you know what? We need some of that, don't we? We all do. That's what gratefulness is. Gratefulness is realizing what you have. We got a lot to be thankful for, don't we? You know what? A lot of people don't realize what they have. A lot of people don't realize what they've been given. A lot of people don't realize that somebody had this put in his head for us. A lot of people don't realize that somebody took one of these and put it more than likely right through here and put somebody on a cross for us. Gratefulness. And if you're grateful. It'll lead you to be thankful. All right. That's at first, I was always wondered why they were arranged in this order. Grateful, thankful, blessed, because you can't be thankful unless you're grateful. Right. You know, I know a lot of people that aren't thankful because they're not grateful. If you give them something, they don't care. You buy them a present on Christmas, they get presents from everybody else. They don't care. That's why sometimes in my family, I want to slow down and say, you know, a few years ago, we just, we got a big family. And so everybody buys everybody presents. And then before you know it, you end up with a ton of presents. And I'm like, guys, can we just cut back on all that? A, saves me money. Okay. I don't have that much of in the first place. But B, it's like, listen, people have so much, they're not grateful for anything that they have. I mean, come on, you remember growing up when you had one or two toys and you were the happiest kid in the world? And kids nowadays have more than anything and they're less grateful than they ever have been before. Why is that? Why are they not thankful? Because they have everything. They have everything. What do you buy the person that has everything? Nothing. You've got to get real creative, don't you? And you know what usually impresses the person that has all the money in the world? Something thoughtful. Something personal. You know what? Gratefulness. But you know what? Gratefulness will make us two. Number two, gratefulness will make us thankful. You see, gratitude is inspective, and it should lead to thankfulness, which is expressive. Gratitude is the feeling or sentiment excited by kindness. Thankfulness is the expression of that sentiment. All right? So you can be grateful and not be thankful. All right? You can love the Lord, and love everything that He's done for you, but when was the last time you expressed it? That's why I like it when people say amen in church. Now, I'm not pulling for amens. That's not my goal. Because I've been in churches where people say amen all the time, and then they don't go out and live it in their life. And I've said that before in any way. I'd much rather you live in amen than saying amen. But I'd much rather you do both sometimes, alright? Especially when the preaching's good, okay? Alright, maybe that's why you don't say amen. But anyway, that's a different story. But you know what, thankfulness, listen, when we are grateful, and I'm grateful to the Lord, I'm grateful to my family, I'm grateful to my wife, I'm grateful to my children, I'm grateful to my parents, I'm grateful for all these people, and you know what, it is lost if I do not learn how to express it. Here's what the Bible says about expressing it. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good. That's found a lot of times. I wrote down First Chronicles 1634. Matthew 1536, Jesus Christ is about to feed 5,000 people, and he takes the bread, and the Bible says he'd break it, and when he had given thanks, he offered it. You know what? I can't find a Bible verse that says you have to pray before you eat. You're like, preacher, I forgot a few times. All right, I'm off the hook now. But when you do that, I can find a lot of evidence that we should. But when you do that, what you are doing is you are cultivating an attitude of thankfulness. That I am going to stop before I eat this food and thank the Lord for his provision in my life. Now, I can't always pray and ask the Lord to bless the food, all right? The Lord can't make ice cream healthy, all right? I mean, He can't not make a deep fried, you know, feast from a fast food restaurant good for you, all right? Some people say, Lord, please bless this food to my body, you know, and I'm looking down at this big mac going, I don't know how that's possible, Lord, all right? So instead, I pray, Lord, thank you for taking care of me and thank you for providing for my needs. So I got to change it up a little bit. Now if it's salad, I can say, Lord, please bless this. Thank you for this food that you've given me and bless it to my body. Well, the Lord ain't blessing a bit. He's blessed a few Big Macs to my body, all right? But I think that's more of a curse. But anyway, I don't even like Big Macs. I'm just using it as an illustration. But you know, I'm just being goofly. But you know folks, we ought to cultivate a heart of thankfulness. Luke 17, a leper comes back. Ten lepers were healed, one leper comes back and thanks the Lord. Luke 17, 16. And you know what Jesus says? Go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. But you know what he also said? Where are the nine? Where are the nine? You know what, I don't know if that's the percentage in Christianity, but you know what, there's a lot of Christians who get saved and then that's the last that you hear about them. Because they love that part. Lord, I'm so thankful and grateful. I'm so grateful for what you've done for me. You know how you express your thanks with your mouth and your actions and your life? Hey, the Lord is good, and then we never show it. No one ever knows about it. I think we've missed the meaning. Thankfulness. 1 Thessalonians 5.18, we know this verse. In everything, give thanks for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning you. First Corinthians 15 57. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be thankful. Number three, and we're done. Grateful. It'll make you thankful. And then there's the last word, which is blessed. Now, this is the word and we don't have time. We could do a whole message on this. We have before and probably will again. A lot of people that hang the sign blessed out that really are OK and really have no idea what it means because the word blessed is happy and there's a lot of people that aren't happy. They put out a front, but at the end of the day, they're not. And you know what? By the way, blessed is the word we don't have time to cover, because do you realize that the word blessed in your Bible, okay, it is used hundreds of times, but there are ten different applications for it, alright? So there are ten different ways we can use it. And I'm just going to remind us of some of those. So every time you read the word blessed in the Bible, it doesn't mean the same thing. There's five definitions in the Old Testament, there's five definitions in the New Testament, alright? If you want to do a little study on that, that'd be a great study for you. Get your Strong's Concordance out, and go through and look up the word blessed, and look up all the different usages of it. It's pretty interesting. I did it this week. I enjoyed it. It took me, I don't know, three or four hours probably. So you can pick through it. And it's a good study. It'll give you a better appreciation for what a word means, alright? Just like spring, spring, spring, and spring. Okay, alright. You can go bless, bless, bless, bless, bless, bless, bless, bless, bless. Alright, there we go. Ten different ways you can be blessed, or it you blessed. Here they are. Blessed, all right, the first one, to be happy. Things that are right again. Genesis 30, 13, Leah said, happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed. She had had children, it had been a while since she hadn't had children, and actually Jacob has a child by her handmaid, and so she says she is blessed, all right? Things are right again. And so that's the first application we see of it, and one of the first definitions of the word blessed there. And it just means things are right again. Aren't you happy? Hey, come on, aren't you happy when things have been going wrong for a while and things start to go right again, you know? You know what? That's a blessing, isn't it, alright? Because sometimes you're just like, you feel like you're just treading water, you know, and then when you're finally out of that, you're like, man, things are good again, alright? That's an application of the word bless. That's not the most common one in the Bible, but it is one. There's the word blessed which means to give benefit to man or praise to God Genesis 1 22 by the Bible says in God blessed them. All right. I'm thankful that God has blessed me here. All right I'm thankful for that He's given a lot of benefits to us that should make us grateful and then that should make us also what church? Thankful. All right. Hey, we're learning something. Amen. Psalm 68 35. Oh God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places. The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed be God. Now this is David, who is grateful, by the way, and who is now expressing his thanks and being thankful and he is blessing God. One of my dad's pet peeves. I'll just share it in church is when is when someone says bless God in the wrong way, you know, oh bless God, you know people will say stuff like that and You know what and my dad sometimes will stop him. I've seen him do it. I've seen something in YouTube know what it means to bless God you know but some people just use that like an expression you know like well bless God I'm gonna do this or you know and my dad works with college students and you know they're all trained to be preachers you know and even the girls no I'm just kidding but anyway but there are you know and some of some of them will get a little fired up and they'll say oh bless God we're gonna do this you know bless God my dad'll just stop and be like do you really know what it means to bless God And they'll be like, oh, well, no, brother. I love watching them do that. But anyway, it's just a funny moment for me. But at the same time, we ought to thank the Lord for what he's done. And we ought to say, blessed be God, who daily loads us down with benefits. You know what, but it's an us to God thing, not an us to you thing, all right? So you don't just bless God just because you say it, all right? You got to do something that's blessable, okay? Number three, the third one, Psalm 1-1, blessed is the man, right, that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinner, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. That is blessed. That is the one we like, right? That's happy, all right? That means happy. Happy is the man that does those things. Happy is the man that doesn't do certain things. Happy is the man that does do certain things. I've preached Psalm 1 before. I'll probably preach it again because I just love that passage. You know what? I take note when the Bible says blessed is the man that. Why? Because I want to know what comes after that because I want to be happy, amen? I want to be happy. That's how happy. Blessed, there's another one. It implies prosperity. Psalm 21 6, For thou hast made him blessed forever. The fifth usage in the Old Testament is blessed. It means to kneel and give adoration to God. It's only used five times in our Bible. All of them are in the book of Daniel. Want to know why Daniel was so close to God? Because Daniel knelt down and gave adoration and praise to God. Have you ever described a baby as being adorable? I have. You know what that means? Worthy of adoration, alright? And you know what? Sometimes if we're not careful, we'll say, oh that's adorable, or that person, you know, that's adorable. And I'm not going to deny that a baby isn't adorable, alright? What I'm saying is, that word is mainly ascribed to God. Because He's the only one really truly worthy of adoration. You know what? By the way, that's why when they mocked Him, they adorned Him with the crown of thorns. They were mocking Him. He's worthy of our adoration. He's worthy of our praise. Blessed. There are five New Testament usages, and we'll be done. Blessed means supremely blessed, fortunate, well-off. You know this one from Jesus, don't you? Matthew chapter 5, blessed are the meek, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the poor in spirit. You know what that means? It means prosperous, well-off. And you know what we need to do? We need to remember that if we want to be those things, Jesus said, blessed are those people, alright? And so we strive to be those folks in Matthew 5. There's another one, blessed, it means to give thanks. This is what we do before our food. We've already alluded to that one. Matthew 14, 19, Jesus, when He had break, He gave thanks. By the way, that's why we do it. We acknowledge Him. The other one is worthy of adoration. It's the act of adoration. Jesus is asked this by the high priest in Marks 14, 61. He says, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? You know what Jesus says in the next verse? I am. First time, he said nothing. The second time, the high priest pushed the issue. He said, Aren't thou the Christ? Aren't thou the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am. He's a crucifier. He's a heretic. He's a blasphemer. You know what? He's the only one worthy of adoration. Blessed, to be happy. Mary said this when God chose her to carry Jesus in her womb. She said, I'm blessed. I'm happy. And I know it has a similar definition, but it's a different word. And then in Acts 3.25, it means to confer a benefit. Blessed, to confer a benefit, to be given a benefit. Hey, folks, listen. You know what? When I look at it, I am blessed. But you know what? You'll lose it if we forget what these mean. I need to be grateful. I need to be grateful. God, if you're here tonight, you're saved. There are hundreds of millions of people that are saved, and there are hundreds of millions of people that aren't, by the way. And you could have just as easily been born into their family as you are into the one that you're in. You could just not, you could just as easily tonight be lost as you could be a child of life. You know what it would make us grateful? By the way, God's given us some good friends, hasn't he? God's given us, you say a preacher, I don't like everybody in my family. God's given you some good family members, hasn't he? God's given us a lot. We live in America. We live in America. This week, we're going to eat more food. This week, Americans are going to throw away more food than a lot of countries eat. And you say, well, they shouldn't do that, all right? We're not going to get into all that tonight. Okay. But you know what? We need to be grateful. And if we're going to be grateful, we need to be thankful. And at the end of the day, we'll look back, and if we'll follow God's Word, what we can truly say, I'm blessed so much more than I ever deserved. I'm blessed. He's been faithfully keeping His Word. I am. I'm blessed. I love songs about being blessed. I love singing. I have been blessed. God's so good to me. Precious are his thoughts to you and me. No way I could count them. There's not enough time. So I'll just thank him for being so kind. God has been good. So good. I have been blessed because I have. Amen. Let's not forget this Thanksgiving. Grateful, thankful, blessed.