Thanksgiving: Another Fruit of the Spirit

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This week, we gather with family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving. There’s an irony in that, though, because even on Thanksgiving, many people will still not genuinely express their thanks to God. They, instead, will be marked by the sin of ingratitude. And make no mistake, ingratitude is not a harmless peccadillo. It’s not a little sin that is sort of a trifle. Rather, one of the greatest sins that man can commit against God is ingratitude.

In Romans 1, Paul indicts all of humanity. He does so with two great indictments. One, they did not glorify God as God, and two, neither were they thankful. Why don’t people give thanks, truly give thanks to God? What are the chief enemies of a heart of thankfulness? Well, there are many we could identify. Let me just give you three key ones that stand out in my mind.

Number one, simply a fallen rebellious heart. In Romans 1:21, I mentioned a moment ago, Paul says, “For even though they [Gentiles] knew God [that is, they knew about God as Creator from all that had been made], they did not honor [glorify] Him as God or give thanks...” The lack of gratitude is simply the fruit of a fallen, rebellious heart against God our Creator.

Secondly, and this is huge, I think another reason we aren’t thankful is a false sense of entitlement that springs from an inflated sense of self-worth. I can’t tell you how many times I hear people say, “I deserve that good thing” or “I don’t deserve this bad thing that I’m facing”. Is that true? Absolutely not! I’m reminded of the prophet Jeremiah when he learned that Judea would be destroyed, and the people carried off into captivity. That’s one of the worst imaginable outcomes in life. He says this in Lamentations 3:39, “Why should any living mortal, or any man, Offer complaint in view of his sins?” Jeremiah says, “When I think about the worst possible thing that’s going to happen, no one deserves to complain about it in view of our sins.” But we have this false sense of entitlement that says I deserve the good and I don’t deserve the bad.

A third reason that we aren’t thankful is simply that we are characterized by the opposite, by a pattern of complaining and grumbling. This was a huge sin of Israel during the wilderness wanderings, and as you know, the object of their complaints was usually Moses and Aaron. In fact, Exodus 16:2 says, “The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron...” But a few verses later, in Exodus 16:7-8, God says, “Your grumblings...” - through Moses. “Your grumblings are not against us but against the Lord.” When we complain, our grumblings are ultimately not against people or circumstances, but against God Himself.

Now, those are reasons that people often don’t give thanks to God for His blessings in our lives. But for us who are in Christ, it’s different because, according to Ephesians 5, the Christian who lives under the influence of God’s Word and God’s Spirit will, in fact, have a genuine spirit of gratitude in his heart, and he will express that gratitude to God.

I want you to turn with me to Ephesians 5 this morning because I want, as we prepare our hearts for the Lord’s table and for this week of Thanksgiving, to contemplate Paul’s teaching here about this crucial issue. Now, in Ephesians 5, we learn that if we are going to walk worthy of our calling, you remember that was Paul’s transition back in chapter 4:1: “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you [plead with you] to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called...” If we’re going to do that, here in chapter 5, we learned that we must walk in biblical wisdom. Notice verse 15: “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise...”

And one way to pursue a life of biblical wisdom, and by the way this is the one to which Paul has been building through this whole passage, is found in verse 18: “And do not get drunk with wine [don’t be under the influence of some substance, but rather], for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit...” Allow the Spirit... And I don’t have time to fully develop that. If you’re interested, you can go back and listen to when I talked through the book of Ephesians. But let me just give you a summary. What Paul is saying, here in verse 18, is allow the Spirit of God to fill you with a deep, rich, illuminating understanding of the Word of God, so that the Word of God that the Spirit inspired, directs you, controls you, controls your thinking, controls your speech, controls your attitudes, controls your actions, just as if you were under the influence of a substance. Let the Word of God, from the Spirit of God, bring you under the influence of the Word of God.

Now, there are three primary consequences of being under the influence of the Spirit we note in verse 18. In verses 19 to 21 you have those three primary consequences. First of all, in verse 19, there is a love for God-centered music. Listen, if you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ and you don’t love singing to the Lord in your heart and with God’s people, there is something desperately wrong with your soul, because believers love to sing praises to God. The entire Scripture is marked with that. And here he says, that’s the result of a Spirit-dominated life. In verse 20 there is a pattern of thankfulness. And then in verse 21, there is a heart of submission, that is, to human authorities, to authorities God has placed in our lives. And he begins, in verse 22 and all the way through chapter 6:9, he develops that idea of submission.

Now, as we prepare for celebrating Thanksgiving this week, I just want to focus on the second primary result or consequence of being filled by the Spirit with the Word of God. In verse 20, it is a pattern of thankfulness. Look at it with me. Verse 20: “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father...” Now, you’ll notice that giving thanks is a participle. It’s actually modifying the main verb of the sentence, and that verb is back in verse 18, “be filled with the Spirit”. Thanksgiving, then, is a byproduct. It is a consequence. It is a result of a life under the influence of the Spirit of God and His Word.

Now, as we work our way through this verse, I want to do so by asking several questions and allowing the text, by and large this text, although we will go other places, to answer these questions. So, let’s look at these questions together.

First question: why should we give thanks? Why should we give thanks? And I want to answer that question with just three answers. There are many answers that could be given but let me just have you consider with me a couple of biblical reasons for giving thanks to God.

First of all, because the opposite, ingratitude, is a terrible sin against God. As I mentioned before, it’s not a peccadillo; it’s not a trifle. Luke 6:35, Jesus says, “...for He Himself [God] is kind [now, listen to how he says it. God is kind] to ungrateful and evil men.” Notice the grouping: ungrateful and evil men - the two go together. In Romans 1:21 - I mentioned it a moment ago: they did not give thanks. And that’s Paul’s, one of Paul’s two chief indictments against mankind. In 2 Timothy 3:2, Paul is talking about how things are going to continue to get worse and worse, and he says this, “For men will be lovers of self…” Now, notice the sins around this one. “For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful...” It’s not a little sin. It’s a large sin.

A second reason that we should take this seriously and should be thankful is because Scripture assigns a high value to thanksgiving. Turn back to Psalm 50, Psalm 50 and notice verse 23. This is a Psalm of Asaph and he’s talking about how God’s people should respond to God. Verse 22, he talks about how evil people respond to God and how they should be frightened: ”Now consider this, you who forget God, Or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver.” And then he talks about the righteous and notice how he describes them: ”He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; And to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God.” David makes the same point, over in Psalm 69, about the Importance of thanksgiving. Psalm 69, notice verse 30: “I will praise the name of God with song And magnify Him [that is, I will glorify God] with thanksgiving. And it will please the Lord better than an ox Or a young bull with horns and hoofs.” What he’s saying is, in a day when sacrifices were to be made (animal sacrifices), God is more pleased with a heart filled with thanksgiving than He even was with a sacrifice made in His name. You come to the New Testament, in Colossians 2:6-7 also stresses this high value thanksgiving. Listen to this: “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him [and he adds this], ...overflowing with gratitude.” If you’ve received Christ, then have a life that literally overflows with gratitude. Is that how the people around you would describe your life?

There’s a third reason that I could point out, and this is the obvious one: God commands us to give thanks. In Psalm 50:14: ”Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving And pay your vows to the Most High...” Look at Colossians, Colossians 3. This is the parallel passage to the Ephesians passage. Colossians 3:15. Notice how often Paul comes to this theme of thanksgiving here. ”Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you...” That, by the way, is the parallel expression here to being filled with the Spirit in Ephesians. So, to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled by the Spirit with the Word or allow the Word to richly dwell within you. And then he says, “with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” This is a priority. It is a command. And back to our text in Ephesians 5, that’s what it is here. It’s essentially an implied command. He’s saying, where the Spirit is resident in your life, be filled with the Spirit, and if that happens, then you will have a love for God’s music and you will also have a pattern of thankfulness in your heart. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 also makes this same point. It says, “in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” That’s a pretty clear command. So, that’s the why.

But let’s move on, back to our text, and to the questions that are answered in our text itself. So, the next question is what does it mean to give thanks? What are we talking about? Well, notice that word “giving thanks” or “give thanks”. The Greek word means to acknowledge benefits received, and to express gratitude for those benefits - to acknowledge benefits received, and to express gratitude for those benefits.

William Hendrickson, the great Presbyterian commentator on the book of Romans, points out that for there to be thanksgiving, there have to be 3 prerequisites. If you’re going to have a thankful heart this thanksgiving, these three things have to be true first. Number one, there have to be personal blessings received. Check. That’s all of us. Secondly, we have to acknowledge those blessings and that they are many and varied. So, not only do they have to be blessings, but we have to recognize them as blessings, acknowledge them as blessings. And then thirdly, and this is key, because without this there will be no thanksgiving. We have to recognize that we have done nothing to merit or earn them. We are completely unworthy. You see, if you think you deserve them, then you’re not going to be thankful because you had something to do with it. But if you realize you don’t have anything God didn’t give you and you didn’t deserve any of it, then you will have a thankful heart. We will acknowledge the benefits we’ve received and express genuine gratitude for them. William Hendrickson concludes this way. He says, “Gratitude is that which completes the circle, whereby, blessings that drop down into the hearts and lives of believers return to the giver in the form of unending, loving, and spontaneous adoration.” The blessings just keep pouring down on us and, in the truly Christian heart, they turn into praise and thanks and return to God. That’s what it means to give thanks.

A third question we need to consider is when. When should we give thanks? Look again in verse 20: “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father...” Always! Now, that doesn’t mean, obviously, continually, every waking moment. That’s, frankly, impossible. When Paul was preaching, he wasn’t giving thanks. So, what does it mean? It means that, as a constant pattern of life, we are to give thanks to God.

Let me give you some context in which the Scripture says our lives are to be filled with thanksgiving. First of all, daily in private worship. Thanksgiving should mark your daily time of worship. Daniel 6:10: “Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying [listen to this] and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.” Daniel’s pattern was to take time out of his busy schedule, as a leader of Babylon, to spend time with God giving thanks. It was what marked his personal worship, his private worship, and it should ours as well.

Another context is in all our prayers. You realize that your prayer should always contain thanksgiving? With the Psalms, there are one or two exceptions here and there that are just petitions, but they are almost always characterized, as well, by thanksgiving. That’s because this is what the Scriptures teach. Philippians 4:6: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Even when you come to God, asking Him to meet the needs of this life or your spiritual needs or the needs of others, you come with thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2: “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving...” So, thanksgiving is to mark all of our prayers.

Some of you use the acronym ACTS for prayer: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. That’s good. That’s helpful. I have to tell you, I kind of mess with the acronym a bit. For me it’s ATCS: Adoration and Thanksgiving followed by Confession, followed by Supplication, letting your request be made known to God. But our prayers are to be marked by thanksgiving.

We’re also to pray before meals. I remember years ago; I heard a very well-known Bible teacher say (you would know him) say on radio that praying before meals is just legalistic; there’s no biblical warrant for it. Well, let’s just consider that for a moment. John 6:11: “Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted.” The apostle Paul, in Acts 27:35. Remember, this is the setting - is when they’re in that storm, thinking they’re going to lose their lives in a shipwreck and Paul assures them that isn’t going to happen. And then it says, “...he [Paul] took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of all, and he broke it and began to eat.” This is following the warrant of the command of 1 Timothy 4:3-4, talking about false teachers: “men [they] who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.” And then he says this, “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with [what?] gratitude...” This Thanksgiving, you can have ham, you can have turkey, you can have prime rib, you can have shrimp. You can have whatever you like but offer God gratitude for what He has provided.

Another expression of this “always” is in corporate worship. Psalm 35:18 says, “I will give You thanks in the great congregation; I will praise You among a mighty throng.” As the Old Testament believers thought about giving thanks to God, they did so in the corporate worship. The same is true for us. In 1 Corinthians 14:16-17, you know, Paul is dealing with the problem of tongues in Corinth. But he says this about a first century worship service. He says, “You need to give thanks in such a way that everybody understands it.” Giving thanks was part of the Old Testament worship. It’s part of New Testament worship as well. It should be the constant practice of our lives, a pattern of thanksgiving.

That brings us to a fourth question to consider, and that is, for what should we give thanks? For what? There are two answers to that. One of them is found in our text and that answer is: for all things. Notice verse 20: “always giving thanks for all things...to God...” So, what does it mean to give God thanks for all things? Well, it means we thank Him for everything good that we enjoy. This is where the temporal blessings of this life come in. We ought to give God thanks for those things.

Secondly, for everything consistent with His will and plan. That includes His person and work. Have you ever thanked God for who He is? Scriptures is filled with that. For example, Psalm 106:1: “Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” Psalm 107:1: “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

So, we thank God for who He is, but we also thank God for the spiritual blessings we enjoy, for salvation. Colossians 1:12: “giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.” We thank God for sanctification. You remember in Romans 7, Paul is struggling with his own flesh, and he says in verse 24, he says, “[Oh] Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” And in Roman 7:25, what does he say? “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” He thanked God that someday he would be free from the controlling, dominating sin of this life. He thanked God for glorification. At the end of 1 Corinthians 15, as he talked about the resurrection that’s coming, he says in verse 57, “but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” You are to thank God for your salvation, for your sanctification, for your coming glorification.

But to thank God for all things not only means to thank Him for those things that are good we enjoy, for those things that are consistent with His will and plan, but even to thank God for the fact that He can bring good even out of evil circumstances that are contrary to His commands in nature. You see, and be very careful here, we cannot, we must not thank God for evil itself. Remember, God hates evil. He abominates evil. When Paul wrote this, he was in a Roman prison. And according to Acts 21, he was there because he was imprisoned unjustly under false charges. Paul was not thanking God for injustice, because God is a God of justice. He hates injustice. So, he doesn’t mean that you should thank God for things that are contrary to God’s word and God’s nature.

For example, he’s not calling you to thank God for someone’s terrible sin against you. He’s not calling you to thank God for a spouse’s, adultery, for a woman’s rape, or some other violent crime. He’s not calling you to thank God for the death of someone you love. He’s not calling you to thank God for a Christian’s sin or for a church’s fall.

So, what is he saying? He’s saying we can thank God because He is so good that He can and does bring good even out of people’s evil. You remember Genesis 50:20. This is what Joseph said to his brothers. He said, “As for you, you meant [it for what? You meant it for?] evil...” God held them responsible for their evil. He wasn’t condoning their evil. It was wrong of them - what they did to their brother. ”...but God meant it for good...” God was superintending and directing that for His own purposes. So, we can give God thanks not for the evil itself, but for the fact that God is so good He can bring good even out of evil. That’s what Paul means when he says we should give thanks for all things. He means in all circumstances. Notice not for all circumstances - not for sin. But in all circumstances, in all things.

There’s another way we’re to give thanks, or that for which we’re to give thanks, and that’s for all people. It’s found in 1 Timothy 2:1. He says, “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men...” We’re to thank God for all people. Paul does this consistently at the beginning of his letters, especially for his fellow Christians.

I have a list in my notes. Let me just give you one example, 2 Thessalonians 2:13: “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.” You ever thank God for these Christian brothers and sisters around you? You ever thank God for the way He’s used them in your life? We’re to thank God.

So, we’re to give thanks, Paul says in Ephesians 5:20, “for all things”. That’s physical and spiritual blessings. That is ordinary blessings. That is extraordinary blessings. We’re to thank God for the past blessings we’ve enjoyed, for the present blessings we enjoy, or even for the future blessings that we will enjoy. We’re to thank God for what He has given. We are to thank God for what He has taken away. We’re to thank God for what He has withheld, for everything we enjoy that’s good, for everything consistent with God’s will and plan, and even for the fact that He is so extraordinarily powerful and good that He can bring good out of evil. He can bless us in that way. And we’re to thank Him for all the people that He brings into our lives.

Again, don’t misunderstand. There are people that have come into your lives who have done you great evil and harm. God is not saying you need to thank Him for that evil. But it’s back to the same principle. You are to thank Him that He is so good and so powerful, that He can use even the evil actions of others, for which He will hold them accountable, for good in your life, to bring good out of it.

There’s a fifth question Paul answers here, and that’s to whom should we give thanks? Verse 20: “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ [notice this] to God, even the Father...” Now, understand that thanksgiving is to be given primarily, but not exclusively, to the Father. There are other passages, for example 1 Timothy 1:12, where we’re to give thanks to Jesus: “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord...”, Paul writes. But primarily in Scripture, our thanks are addressed to the Father.

Now, this is so important. You know, there are many people in our world who take full credit themselves for what they have and what they’ve accomplished. They really do think of themselves as self-made men and women. They really believe that they alone are responsible for what they enjoy. But frankly, there are very few of those people because most people understand that others have had some part in their success in this world. And so, they express their thanks to other people. And, by the way, that’s right; we ought to do that. But that’s where most people stop. They’re happy to acknowledge secondary causes, but not the first cause of those blessings. But the truth is, ultimately, all of our thanks should be directed to God as the ultimate source of every good thing. James 1: “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from [what?] the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” Even if we thank someone else, ultimately, God is responsible for that person being in your life and for the involvement that person had in your life. God is the only true ultimate object of thanksgiving in the universe.

And for me, that is what makes the Thanksgiving holiday so tragic and why I think so many in our culture are just skipping over it these days. It’s kind of going straight to Christmas, sort of the secular version of Christmas. Why? Because they don’t have anybody to thank. They celebrate Thanksgiving, but they never truly express thanks to the One who has provided every good thing. But for us it’s different.

Notice, Ephesians 5:20 says our thanks are to be offered “to God, even the Father.” Now, why does Paul say it that way? Well, notice those two designations, God and the Father, remind us on the one hand of the goodness of God, and on the other hand, of the goodness of God. He is our Father. He is our loving Father who powerfully, as God, providentially directs our lives for our good. That’s why so many of the Psalms say, “Give thanks to the Lord for He is”. He’s good. To whom do we get thanks? To God, even the Father.

There’s one more question for us to answer and that’s, how should we give thanks. How? Verse 20: “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father...” In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, under His authority or through Him. Jesus Christ is the channel through which all of our thanks should be offered to God. The New Testament is replete with examples of this. For example, Romans 1:8: “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all...” Colossians 1, or excuse me, Colossians 3:17: “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”

Now, why does the New Testament make such a point of this - giving thanks through Jesus? There are two reasons. Reason number one is that it is only through Jesus Christ as our mediator that you and I can come before God at all, to approach Him at all. As Hebrew says, he is our “great High Priest” or, there in another passage in Hebrews, He is “the veil” through which we enter into the presence of God, His torn body at the cross. So, it’s through Jesus, because that’s the only way you and I can ever approach God.

But there’s another reason it says, “in the name of [or through] our Lord Jesus Christ” and that’s not one that most people think about. And it’s this: every blessing we enjoy, whether temporal or spiritual, ultimately, flows to us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Listen to John Piper. He says, “For redeemed sinners, every good thing, indeed every bad thing that God turns for good, was obtained for us by the cross of Christ. Apart from the death of Christ, the sinner gets nothing but judgment. Apart from the cross of Christ, there is only condemnation. Therefore, everything that you enjoy as a Christian is owing to the death of Christ.”

You ever thought about that? We looked at that when we worked through Roman 3:25-26. Not only did the death of Christ purchase our justification, but it also vindicated the justice of God in letting us live a moment longer than our first sin. It vindicated the justice of God in doing good to those who deserve exactly the opposite. If He hadn’t done what He did at the cross, God would have been sullying His holiness to treat us with kindness, because justice demanded exactly the opposite. Every blessing flows to us through Christ in the cross. Romans 8:32: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? - with Him, through Christ, all things.

This is true, by the way, of even the simplest of human joys. You ever thought about this? I remember the first time this really struck me. My kids were younger. And it was a night I got home late from a meeting. My young kids, the girls, were asleep and I went into their room, and I kissed them goodnight. And I just stood there for a moment, watching them sleep and thanking God for His goodness in allowing me to be a Dad, being their Dad. And I just stood there for a moment and reveled in God’s goodness. And then it struck me, because I’ve been reading some of these things, and it just struck me as I stood there that I don’t deserve anything good from God, not even that simple moment. The only thing I deserve is God’s eternal wrath. And Jesus Christ and His death bought that moment for me. And all of the blessings of this life, all the good things you will celebrate this week of family and love and earthly joys and good food and warm homes - all of those blessings, ultimately, trace back to what God did as a cross, because if He hadn’t done what He did there, He would have sullied His own holiness by letting you live a moment longer than your first sin and doing any good to you whatsoever, just as was true for me.

It also is true, of course, of our spiritual blessings. Jesus Christ and His death on the cross bought you election. It bought you salvation, it bought you justification, it bought you adoption, it bought you sanctification, it bought you glorification, and it bought you eternity with God Himself. So, offer thanks to God in the name of, or through Jesus Christ, because what He accomplished through His death and resurrection made it all possible. Everything you will thank God for this week is ultimately because of Jesus Christ - through Him. So, folks, what Paul is saying here is when a person is truly under the influence of the Spirit, with the Word dwelling richly within him or her, there will be a pattern of thanksgiving.

Now, understand, this is, in the end, a test of your faith. If you’re here this morning and you say, “Oh yeah, I’m a follower of Jesus Christ”, then understand here’s a test of whether you have the Spirit. The absence of a thankful heart may very well indicate that you don’t have the Holy Spirit at all. If your life and your heart are marked more by complaining and grumbling, rather than thankfulness to God, it’s very possible you’re simply not a Christian, and you are marked by the same grumbling, ungrateful, unthankful spirit that unbelievers are. It’s also a test of your maturity, if you are in Christ. It’s a test of the extent to which the Spirit has filled you with His Word because as you grow in maturity, guess what happens? You will grow increasingly thankful.

What can we do this Thanksgiving season to promote thankfulness in our hearts and lives? Here are a couple of ideas for you. Consider, these aren’t inspired, just a couple thoughts to make this passage real in your celebration this week. First of all, schedule time alone to give thanks to God. Take a block of time, maybe dedicate an hour this week, at least, to say I’m going to get alone with God and I’m just going to express, from the beginning of my life to where I am today, thanksgiving to God for who He is, for His spiritual blessings, for His physical blessings in my life.

Number two: schedule time, somewhere during your Thanksgiving celebration with your family and friends, to take turns expressing to each other what you’re thankful for. Recite - what are you grateful for? And, by the way, I would encourage you to do that in categories. We kind of get stuck in the temporal because that’s where we live a lot. So, do it this way. Say, “Let’s start with what are you most grateful for about God? What have you learned most about Him this year that’s changed how you think?” Then, “What spiritual blessings have really punctuated your life this year?” And then come to the temporal blessings of this life?

Number three: plan time for prayer together, to express your thanks to God. It’s one thing to say, “I’m thankful!” A lot of unbelievers do that. It’s another thing to take time to actually thank God.

And number four: focus your thanks especially on the gift of Christ and salvation. Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through Him [Christ] then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” You see, the greatest source of your thanksgiving, the greatest cause of your thanksgiving this week, should be Jesus Christ - His perfect life, His substitutionary death, His resurrection, His glorious coming that we sang about this morning.

One way that we can remember and express our thanks to God for Christ, is in the way He gave us, and that is through the Lord’s table. Take a moment and prepare your hearts as the men come to service.

Our Father, we begin by thanking You that for most of us in this room, or for many of us in this room, You have changed our hearts, that we are no longer characterized by grumbling and complaining. We are no longer that kind of person. We’re no longer ungrateful and evil men and women. But You have turned our hearts by Your Spirit to a pattern of thankfulness, because we have experienced so much that we do not deserve. Lord, thank You for that change. And yet, even as we have thankful hearts, we have to admit to You that we are still influenced by our flesh, and we are still tempted, again and again, to have ungrateful hearts. Oh God, forgive us. Forgive us for becoming so accustomed to Your blessings that we become numb to them, indifferent to them, that we take them for granted. What do we have that we did not receive from Your hand? Father, this week, I pray that You would tune our hearts to truly sing Your praise, to give You thanks for all that we enjoy from You, for who You are, for what You have done. Not only do we acknowledge the sin of ingratitude, but there are other sins that we need to confess to You, and each of us now does so in our own hearts, whether sends of thought and attitude, or speech, or action, whether sins of omission or commission, sins against You directly, sins against the people around us, against those made in your image. Father, for all of these things, we seek Your forgiveness, not because we have earned it or deserve it. We don’t. All we deserve is Your eternal wrath and curse. And yet, Father, You have given us Christ. And so, we cry out for forgiveness, based on who You are, that You are by nature a Redeemer, a forgiving God, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, that You are good and ready to forgive, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon You. And so, Lord, we plead those promises. We plead Your nature. Forgive us and cleanse us and let us take up the Lord’s table in a way that honors His sacrifice for us. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen!