Sermon – “Gratitude”

6 “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. 11 “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14 when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end— 17 then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ 18 “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

3 “I am Joseph!” he said to his brothers. “Is my father still alive?” But his brothers were speechless! They were stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them. 4 “Please, come closer,” he said to them. So they came closer. And he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt. 5 But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. 6 This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 7 God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors.[a] 8 So it was God who sent me here, not you! And he is the one who made me an adviser[b] to Pharaoh—the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt.

God is good and all the time our God is good so with this being the Thanksgiving message Thanksgiving coming up Thursday anybody like to spare one particular thing that you are specially thankful for this year before I begin a man a man for a simpler. TIME That’s why open it up. For you good make Now I’m not. A man. I knew what better come from that corner over there but that comes from the whole family we are so nice we have so much to give back for anybody else Barbara. Is so grateful that God is great here to children. And listening for all that we’re not for his graciousness where would we be playing that one huge thankful church. That. I can. Read that. You have. Here. He does he’s. Thankful that he’s always there a man is always there and the darkest Valley or on the highest mountain top here surely I’m thankful that we’re in a place that we can. Honor God. I have the proof how that treat. Anybody else this is kind of tradition I do this anyway. We want to give our thanks go for thanks to God give our thanks to one another. Be grateful to have gratitude that’s the message today anybody else only the anybody else when. I was my cancer yet got a new one. But I’m very well aware that here I almost ran me and said I’m grateful I contacted you for brain know why yet somehow years later you have. Your career they don’t mind I can see why guys let me get high it’s not easy to look back and say I met the man God knew you were great for your heart you didn’t know why but God knew why Right yes. I know. Why. We don’t know why but just trust and be grateful no matter the situation I’m not. All right well actually that was a really serious moment so you know the Lord says laughter is good for the soul so I’m going to start off with a little bit of a hopefully a laughter and so now guys I know With Thanksgiving coming up that we we love that big turkey dinner or whatever it’s going to be that we’re going to have and you know we love the turkey and all the trimmings and we love the pot I and all that stuff comes along with it so before you go back for seconds or thirds before you go for that second piece of pie don’t let this little story be you. It was the day after Thanksgiving and Wilma as she went by the bathroom she caught Fred and there he was on the scales and he was sucking he’s got it so it really is he says Fred I hope you know that that doesn’t help Fred says What helps a lot that’s the only way I can see the numbers. Laughter is good result guys don’t give me that guy so think about that little story this Thanksgiving you know how the food on your plate OK All right. All right so now. Gratitude carom cigarette and please share that right with somebody OK that bar scripture this morning comes from Deuteronomy Chapter eight versus six to eighteen and this is Moses given a word to the nation of Israel before they enter into the Promised Land keep in mind that they have wandered in the wilderness for forty years hear the word of the Lord. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God to walk in His ways and to fear him for the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land a land of Brooks and what Brooks of waters of fountains and springs the flow out of valleys and hills I want to pause for a moment just think of that. You could. Not have a land be a good land if you didn’t have sufficient water. If you didn’t have abundance of water but listen this a land of bricks of water of fountains and springs that flow out of the valley so there was an abundance of water you need water if you’re going to grow and have life. And a land of wheat and barley of vines and fig trees and pomegranates and land of olive oil and honey a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity in which you will lack nothing and land who stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper when you have when you have Agent and are full then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which he has given you be ware that you do not do not forget the Lord your God by keeping His commandments by not keeping His commandments his judgments and his statutes which I command you this day blessed when you have eaten dinner for and have built beautiful houses and well in them and when your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and your gold are multiplied and all that you have is multiplied when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage who led you through the great and terrible wilderness in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there is no water who brought water for you out of the flinty Rock who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know that he might humble you he might test you to do good in the end we kind of talked about dead and saddest call to do good in the end we don’t know what the end is but God does that you say in your heart my power and my the might of my hand have Gay me this wealth and you rich and you shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you power to get wealth that he. Establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers as it is this day Amen and they got out his blessings to the here and in the reading of His Holy Word let us pray Heavenly Father we do thank you and praise you first of all that your god that you are a merciful God to cheer merciful and to love us we thank you Father. As we ponder and think of all that you have done for us and all that you have provided for us we give you thanks Father help us to always be grateful and thankful father for who you are in for what you do and Lord help us to always be mindful of your commandments and to walk in your ways and help us to be that light that light on Hill Lord to share your love in your mercy with the world in Jesus’ name amen. Gratitude or gratefulness gratitude is the quality of being thankful it is being five already missed to show appreciation to someone for something they have done for you or something they have given you for a kindness that they have done you know when you go out the way you get great you receive great service at that restaurant show your appreciation to that waitress show your appreciation made with a few greenbacks to sure that you really appreciate what you’ve done or what she’s done for you you know it’s I fear that there’s a lack of appreciation or a lack of gratitude today in our nation. A pastor shared a story of this been a number of years ago and I know that I didn’t remember the stories exactly as he shared it but I do remember it a little enough to be able to share it with you there was a man that I realized as I reviewed my messages we’ve got a lot of stories and share but the stories are about gratefulness and thankfulness So that’s kind of what’s going to speak to us today I hope but there was a man that wanted to do an experiment to see if people would maintain an attitude of gratefulness an attitude of Thanksgiving. So this man went down town and he had some money in his pocket and he walks up to a perfectly good stranger and hands him a hundred dollar bill he said well what’s this for he says I just wanted to be gracious and give some money today so this was a Monday morning and the guy was very thankful man he shook his hand he says so thank you so much you know I really needed this so the following Monday morning the guy goes down the same place and there sure enough is the same man so you walk seventy hands him another hundred dollar bill and the guy says all thank you again thank you so much I really appreciate this it’s going to help the third week the third Monday goes down the same place course the guys learned to expect it now right so there he is he handed one hundred dollar bill and the guy just thank you most away by the fourth Monday morning the guy Hannon out the money he just walks right on by the guy with a smile in the guise of hey where’s my money. Where’s. He thought he had it coming he didn’t do anything to deserve it. So it shows how much he how long it took to lose that attitude of gratitude worth my money. Now I know that our passage in Deuteronomy did not even contain the word thankfulness or the word grateful in this it didn’t even have it in there but you can see that Thankfulness is implied they were to be grateful ones of the unto the Lord they were to remain faithful to him and grateful to him first ten said when you have eaten and are full then you you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which he has given you now I want to reflect back to a mission trip that I went to when a many years ago actually this was the first mission trip I ever went on back in the early ninety’s we went down to South Carolina to help those that were affected by Hurricane Hugo think it was the name of the hurricane Hurricane Hugo and so anyway. You know we go there as a group there was a pretty good sized group that was down there and more wanted to bless them people to help them. But if you would have experience the gratitude that they showed towards us the tears of joy that they shared towards us and the thankfulness we were the ones that were blessed. We were blessed to see their thankfulness So how were they to bless the Lord their God how are we friends to bless the Lord our God with or gratefulness with or thankfulness that blesses God just as those people blessed us with their thankfulness we receive the blessing so it’s there the gratefulness is in that passage used shall bless the Lord and how are they going to bless with their thankfulness and with their faithfulness. Another thing that you can see in our passage from Deuteronomy is the danger of abundant blessing. There can be a danger to abundant blessing because often times when people are blessed with great abundance that’s when they tend to forget the source of their blessing they forget from whom it comes they forget the Lord their God because all I have so much well it’s probably the natural thing to that’s a say Bill bigger barns that’s what most people today will do if God blesses them above the wall will just build bigger arms instead of being gracious and sharing it with someone else that they too can be blessed and be thankful and have an attitude of gratitude listen once again to the description of the land that the Lord has given to Israel for the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land a land of Brooks of water of fountains and springs that flow out of the valleys and hills a land of wheat and barley a vines and fig trees pomegranates the land of all of oil and honey a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity in which you will lack nothing the land two stones are are in and out of the whose hills you can dig copper and we’ve all heard that land called the Land of Milk and Honey. And in which they would lack nothing that’s why is Moses has given them this warning. When you have eaten when you are satisfied when your bellies are full give praise to the Lord your God Do not forget Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God do not fail to observe his commandments in his low in his degrees that he is that I’m giving you this day. Or other otherwise when you have eaten and are satisfied when you build your fine houses and settle down when your herds and flocks have grown large and your silver or gold increase when all that you have is multiplied then your hearts will be lifted up and proud. You will forgive it who brought you into this land he’s warning them do not do that. Do not do that. And that can be for us today do not forget the Lord your God Do not forget who blesses you today you know that blessing that God promised Israel that wasn’t just a temporary blessing. That was thousands of years ago that wasn’t just a temporary blessing his physical hand of blessing the still upon the nation of Israel today. Today all in all though that nation of Israel such a small little nation I think it’s only about the size of Rhode Island maybe or maybe a little bit bigger it’s not a very large nation very small nation and where are they located in the middle waste it’s hot it’s dry so it’s a great phenomenon that they are able to produce all that they produce even today the land of Israel produces most of its own food and exports much of it despite the conditions Israel’s cows produce more milk then the United States Europe and Australia. The land of milk and honey it is considered a world leader in milk production this stork will notation of honey in the Old Testament is sometimes to believed believed to be a day Tawny and the land of Israel and harvest is tens of thousands of date trees even today each tree produces three hundred fifty pounds of dates a year dates and poems were important in the scriptures and those from the area of Israel were known throughout the ancient world Roman emperors actually would order these dates to be delivered to them today Israel’s dates are still famous throughout the world they export nearly twelve thousand tons of dates each year to twenty different countries those small and desert like the land is still experiencing God’s hand blessing. In milk and honey so let’s transfer Moses as warning to the nation of Israel that day to day. Brothers and Sisters nation hear God’s warning after you have built mice homes and have plenty to eat your cupboards are full after you have your nice clothes in your closet full after we have our beautiful S.U.V. seven in the driveway do not grow proud and think that we are separate made men and women. Go Proud and think we did all this by the power of our own hands. But we know that that perhaps in our nation. Than our nation would we. Why fear that we have because greed is driving so many in this nation today. So many have forgotten where the thirty has come from so many has forgotten. From our friends. Back home. OK intermission. We I’m not going to say you we must be careful that we do not forget the Lord our God that we do not forget the one who has provided all the things that we call blessings today. That we thank him for them every day many people have noted over the years that being a fluent does not necessarily make one grateful. Oftentimes it makes us less thankful whenever we are blessed with many blessings. Bob Russell wrote this in his book his book was titled Lord Jesus Lord of your personality he says you have tasted the best the world has had to offer you went to Hawaii once on vacation so now it’s harder for you to enjoy the state park you have eaten a steak at Ruth’s Chris so now it’s harder to be thankful for a meal at Ponderosa. You’ve driven a Jaguar So now you can’t be as content with your old you Chevrolet I kind of like now you several A you’re cheerful or you cheer for a national championship team so now it’s kind of hard to be grateful for the team when they have a so-so season generally speaking the more we have the less grateful we are right Bob Russell it should be the opposite the more we have the more thankful we should be but it usually doesn’t work that way does it it’s a rare person who when his cup frequently runs over can give thanks to God instead of complaining about the limited size of his cup be thankful when our cup runs over. As I said I had a number of stories today so I’m just going to follow that with another story in this was a very moving story. It was gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the Eastern Sea coast of Florida every Friday night until his death in one thousand nine hundred seventy three he would return walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp the seagulls would flock to this old man and he would feed them from the bucket every Friday night many years before in October one thousand nine hundred two Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B. seventeen to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea but there was an unexpected detour which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of ready you fuel ran dangerously low so the men ditched her plane in the ocean for nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water and the weather and the scorching sun they spent many sleepless nights recalling against the Sharks ramming the raft the largest raft was nine by five the largest largest shark was ten feet long but of all their enemies at sea one prove most formidable starvation eight days out the rations of food were long gone or destroyed by the salt water it would take a miracle to sustain them and a miracle occurred and Captain Eddie’s own words Sherry that was the be seventeen’s pilot Captain William Sherry read the service that afternoon and when finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise there was some talk but it tapered off and what. Off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep the keep some of the glare out I dozed off now this is still Captain Rickenbacker talking something landed on my head I knew that it was a seagull I don’t know how I knew I just knew everyone else knew also. No one said a word but tearing out from under his hat brim without moving his head he could see the expression on their faces they were staring at the SIEGEL The gull meant food if I could catch it. And the rest as they say is history Captain Eddie caught the gall it’s flesh was eaten it’s intestines were used for bait to catch fish to survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone Siegal uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land offered itself as a sacrifice you know that Captain Eddie mated and now you also know that he never forgot because every Friday night for the rest of his life he would go down to that pier and feed to sea gulls and gratitude for the one that gave its life that spared them that is a true story as shared by Paul Harvey. Colossians three fifteen through seventeen says and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which also you recalled in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ well in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and him and spiritual songs sing with grace in your hearts to the Lord and whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God the Father through him. And then in first US alone aeons five sixteen to eighteen rejoice always pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you so even if I were to get that gallstone I have bought son in law is going to remind me quick general wine and give thanks which are one kidney stone that’s it I go mine which are wanting to give thanks in everything give thanks it doesn’t say in some things give thanks it doesn’t say in the good things give thanks in everything give thanks unto the Lord this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus how many people have said over the years oh oh I just wish I knew what God’s will was for my life well my friends there it is. You want the answer I just read it to you this morning in everything give thanks for this is the will of God. In Christ Jesus I am telling you what the will of God it is that you would give thanks that you would be grateful that you would always have an attitude of gratefulness that is His Will for us yes there is other things but this I am certain of that God wants you to bless him with your thankfulness Amen not know that we all remember the story of Joseph Joseph in the Coat of Many Colors and we know that Joseph was sold into slavery but his story goes back even long before he was sold into slavery it was already mentioned a Coat of Many Colors colors you know he was the favorite son of his father Jacob or Israel whichever you want to call him because he was born to him in his old age of Rachel who had been bared for many years he and his brother Benjamin were the only sons of Rachel the others was from Leo so he was a favorite son and so his father did making that coat and you know when you think about that every time the father would send him out to the field or go out or there’s a brother was seen walking there he was walking in that fancy multi-colored coat you know he was proud to wear he loved his father but every time they seen him with that coat it was just like twisting that dagger in their side they grew angrier and angrier and angrier when I’d see him but then he added to his troubles because God would give Joseph dreams. Well he was foolish enough to share those dreams with his brother and we know the story had a dream that one day his brothers rebalanced down to him. So he goes and he shares that dream with these brothers that someday you know I had just dreamed you were all bound down to me so that just twisted that doggerel bit more they got angrier nagware and we know the story all shortened up they sewed him they they actually threw him in a pit with the intent to kill him. But his brother Ruben came to his rescue and said no let’s just to selling but sell him into slavery so they sold him and off he went down Egypt and he wound up and part of first house. And all this time Joseph remain grateful he remained thankful he didn’t get angry with God. And when he was sold into slavery instead of be a man he learned the language he learned about the Egyptian culture he learned things that God might use to fulfill God’s purpose for his life then we know that ponderous wife tried to seduce him that lands him in prison but again he remained grateful we didn’t get angry with God then we know what happened we know that there was a great famine to come and God gave him the interpretation of the dream so Pharaoh made him second only to Pharaoh and each and all of age I’m so grateful are grateful Joseph was even was grateful when the hard times he was grateful in the darkness in the valleys while he was in prison while he was a servant but he also remain faithful to God when he had abundance because he was second in command over all of Egypt during that time of famine but he still remembered the Lord is God He was still grateful I want to read a passage whenever he reveals himself to his brothers his brothers had to come to Egypt to try to buy grain. So they wouldn’t starve they thought he was long dead or long gone Genesis forty five or six three through eight Joseph says I am Joseph he said to his brothers is my father still alive but his brothers were speechless. They were stunned to realize that Joseph still was standing there before them front of them please come closer he said to them so they came closer and he said again I am Joseph your brother whom you sold into slavery in Egypt but don’t be upset and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me and to this place it was God You sent me here ahead of you to preserve your for your lives this famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your family is alive to preserve many survivors not only pause and not only did it keep his family alive but many. His faithfulness to God spared probably millions of lives so it was God who sent me here not you. And he is the one who made me an advisor to Pharaoh the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt he knew that it was God’s plan he remained great for he remained thankful and God blessed him forward God used him Do not forget God Joseph did not forget God while he was in that prison. He did not forget God in His abundance. He remembered God we can learn to demonstrate a spirit of gratitude even in the darkest valleys in our lives knowing that the Lord has great plans for you are gratefulness should be expressed to God every day no matter how dark the valley the matter how low that pit we might be in Joseph found himself in a pit but no matter how low that we might be in we must remain grateful to God. You know oftentimes as a person who has had something significant taken away from them that learns the lesson of gratitude. You know we’ve often said we don’t appreciate some things until we lose we lose the electric for four days we are really grateful when it comes back on our way. When Robinson Crusoe was wrecked on his lonely Allen a wise pastor once noted he drew up two columns what he called evil and good he was cast on a desolate island of course that went under the evil column but he was still alive and not drowned like his crewmates so that when in the good column he had no clothes that went in the evil column but it was in a hot climate where he didn’t need them so that was good he was apart from human society. But he was not starving he was without any means of defense but as he looked around on this deserted island he saw no wild beast where he would need any means of defense. He had no one with whom he could speak but God had sent the ship so near the shore they could get out of the all the things necessary for his basic needs Robinson Crusoe could be grateful even though he assumed he was on a deserted island. How would you respond when I deserted island. Would you be grateful Would you count your blessings. Would you count your blessings my friends that’s the message today let’s count our blessings let’s name them one by one if you want to get that white board out or top or to make a column do so but count your blessings I feel that if we would count our blessings every day and be grateful to God. It would bless God it would help us not to forget from where our help comes from that we not it would help us not to forget whom our provider truly is our providers not that employer we work for it is God is God who provides for us it is God who blesses us. Let’s be grateful to him amen and.