Have You Got Thankfulness?

Have You Got Thankfulness?                                                    Kelly Durant  11-26-17

1 Thessalonians 5:18 ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ

2. Thankfulness, most usually expressed by appreciation, is such a complicated quality! Do you want to know who appreciates you, who is thankful for you? How can you find out? You can do one of 2 things either die or win the lottery! When you die everyone shows up to cry and say nice words that they should have said when you were alive! They say words like, one time he (or she) gave me some groceries when I didn’t have any, or they listened and prayed for me when I needed it. 

The hard lesson, as human beings is, we only learn to appreciate people (or things) when we no longer have them! You don’t know what you got ‘til it gone!  Why do we have to wait until we don’t have it to be thankful?

What about winning the lottery? Instant millionaires have to move into a gated community so forgotten old bad friends and family cannot keep harassing them.

Imagine right now being in constant danger, losing your security, getting phone calls all day long, and you have to move into a gated community. Imagine that all of your family, friends, and coworkers after harassing you stop talking you and are then alone. That is what happens when people win the lottery!

Have you read the articles about this? Did you know that everyone who wins usually loses most all of their friends and family? It works like this: Joe won 3 million dollars and he decides to give $2,000 to his barber, $5,000 to his long time buddy, and $100,000 to his son that is losing his house to foreclosure, but gives $50,000 to his daughter that has more money. Do you see what is going to happen? Everyone complains about the other one getting more, everyone hates each other and fights, and no one gets thankful as you had hoped! Material things interfere with thankfulness! To be thankful never compare yourself with others! Both the rich or poor can live happy if God is happy with them!

3. How many of you have ever been around the spoiled children of rich families? Have you observed how they waste things and that they always want more and more and are never happy with what they get?  

Prosperity often provokes an out-of-control consumerism and this also produces unthankfulness! People, and God as well, get angry with the unthankful people who are not humble! God’s hates the prideful, the arrogant, and the ones who think He is not necessary!

Remember how God told Mary she would have a child out of wedlock by the Holy Spirit and what did she do? Did she stress and go crazy and worry? No! She wrote a song of praise to God. Luke 1:48-56. She was perfect in God’s eyes for her wonderful attitude!

4. Also, at Christmas we observe people’s different reactions to gifts. After 24 years of giving away toys we have seen a few thousand reactions! Some people get happy and even cry and are very thankful, while others look at what is in the bag with an attitude and say, “Is that all there is?” I waited an hour here for this?! They actually get mad?!

But here is something you and I and God as well all get mad about, and that is unthankful people! People who don’t appreciate what you do for them or give them!

Unthankful, ungodly, carnal, people treat people the way some kids treat toys. They grab them, use them for fun a short time, and then throw them away! Unthankful people are like demons who are an insult to God, unthankful to God for providing life as they don’t give thanks for anything. Satan, who also has the name the “Destroyer”, is always getting all he can for his selfish motives and then throwing it away to burn, and that is what unthankful people do! He uses fools to bring division and destruction and then throws them away to hell! Unthankful people are doing what Satan does and that is use & abuse people with no inkling of appreciation and thankfulness for their loyalty and sacrifices! May God free us from the curse of unthankfulness.

5. So how do we become thankful people and please God and others? Express it with words and deeds, and attitudes! Pray to be humble! Start praising God more! Take the attitude that you are blessed and you can be happy despite temporary conditions.

Hebrews 13:¹⁵Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.

We must learn to appreciate. Thankfulness has a lot to do with being a good steward and returning thanks. Jesus preached a lot of this matter! Remember the 10 lepers in Luke 17! Only one came back to say thanks out of the ten.  

6. Have you ever seen a father give a car to a son and then he drives it around reckless, and doesn’t even maintain it and even crashes it?  While other thankful sons value the gift with their life and wash it almost every week and maintain it as new?

Now, in the case of the lottery winner, God is sort of the same as Joe, to some He will give out great rewards in heaven for those who responded well to his commands according to how they served Him here on earth but others will not get very much because they did not do what was expected in obedience to Jesus to deserve it.

We must learn from the old adage that you, “Don’t look at a gift horse in the mouth”.  It is true, we should never compare who gets what, the giver has that discretionary authority! When someone gives something, or no matter what others get from God, always be thankful! Maybe it is a test! Next time you may get more or you may get nothing! Remember the parable of the talents in Matt. 25? “To whom much is given, much is required!”

7. Jesus preached a lot on the subject of being thankful and in keeping your donations to God and others in order! How you treat money and things will often reflects on how you treat the work of God and the people around you, either with great care or indifference. Thankful people show care and appreciation over all things, especially the things of God! They support missions, the church and the needy.

As God’s children we are commanded to be thankful for everything no matter what! Philippians 4:12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

This year, like every year, is one in which some people got a lot, and others only got a little, but with a little or a lot we just need to be thankful to God and others who helped and not compare the years before. We must not compare amongst ourselves! Just be thankful for all things, and if you are not so happy that your mate, family, or friend’s gifts to you, if you did not get you what you wanted, cry out to God and ask Him for a grateful heart and for forgiveness for being so ungrateful! We do get tested, if we are faithful and grateful for a little, then we can be proven to be ready for much more in the future!

8. We expect the people of the world, the greedy or even the immature Christians, to not be thankful, but ask yourself how thankful am I for people and things? Unthankful people do not even need to say a word, they reveal with their eyes and body language when they are not happy. How embarrassing to not show gratitude when no one really owes anyone anything! What we owe to another is love, according to the scripture in Romans 13:8.

Christmas time and gifts are comparable to a test in school, some fail and others pass. Those that are thankful appreciate the smallest things, and even are thankful just for kind words of encouragement which bring joy, however, the greedy are never satisfied with anything. This world can supply enough for the needy, but never enough for the greedy!

Don’t you think gift giving provokes a lot of reaction and reflection on how Jesus was God’s gift of love too? He was born as a nobody, amidst the animals to give us peace with God and eternal life, which are 2 things that material things and money can never buy, peace with God and eternal life! Some people react with tears of joy while others are cold, indifferent, and unappreciative! They think that if he cannot be of any material use to get them something they want, then why should one care about Jesus? Thankful people do not complain: they appreciate and they love back!

9. I am thankful to each of you no matter if you give me a gift, a card! Just words of “God bless you!”, or “Merry Christmas”, is enough. I am thankful to you!

So what is thankfulness? Thankfulness is an attitude that goes against our human nature! You and I will always have to fight against ourselves to keep it alive! It is a general quality for everything, you either have it or you don’t. What does the word of God say about it? That we should have it present in everything we do!

Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. In poor South America I learned to be thankful for many things that most Americans take for granted! (like disposable diapers, good razors, etc.)

10. And finally, Ephesians 5:20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  All the time we need to have a, “Thank you Jesus!” on our lips, always thanks for the good and even the trials. Correct others when they whine.

God commands us always to give thanks for everything! If this was a good year for toys or for income or whether it was bad, no matter how good or bad, God commands us to give thanks! But as Christians some have a problem with this! Our human nature wants to complain when it is not as good as what it use to be. We get comfortable with the blessings, but when we are the most comfortable is when we should be concerned about our spiritual state in danger!

God is not as interested in our prosperity and comfort as He is in our spiritual maturity and holiness! If God could get us to be closer to Him by supplying less, then maybe that is why He sometimes lets us get less. Water is usually abundant, but if you are in the dessert you learn to appreciate every drop! We must learn to value and appreciate all things! 

We get mad at unthankful people and God does too! Especially those who are unthankful for His precious Son, Jesus who painfully gave His all! And there are people who would rather get chocolates for Christmas than a Bible or book to teach them more about God’s word!

Gifts have different values but Jesus comes before all of them! He is the best gift ever!

Where do you stand today? Are you thankful even though there may be hard times? Can you say with me, “Thank you Jesus!” and really be thankful in your heart that for Christmas just having Jesus is really enough! If you did not get all of what you wanted, from family, friends, or the church, then come and pray and ask God to forgive you to change you and give you a thankful heart! In everything give thanks for this is God’s will for you and me!

Thanksgiving: True Compassion and Gratitude

Thanksgiving: True Compassion and Gratitude           by Kelly Durant 11-19-17

I John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but indeed and in truth.

2. How many of you have ever seen beggars? I mean hungry ones with very sad faces? There are a lot of them in South America and each day I had to have a few pesos ready to give out. If you don’t help you are going to feel very bad thinking about how you did not help someone in need! Right? But you can always observe hundreds that do not care at all and just walk on by!

The first Pilgrim Colonists in 1621 in this country were literally dying of hunger after arriving to this land from England. They arrived in the summer and did not have time to plant for the harvest and they had no provisions for the winter. Immigrants seem to always have a hard time no matter where they move to! Right?

A Cuban I shared a coffee with one time told me he was so poor when he got to Miami that he would catch pigeons on the beach in order to be able to eat! Sometimes we are unaware of how poor some people around us actually are! Also, never judge, appearances deceive!

3. We can be thankful for Thanksgiving Day because it has shaped Americans as a culture to remember to be grateful to God and to be compassionate! Americans have historically been one of the most generous helping people on earth giving over 260 billion to individuals or charity each year! Half of that goes to churches! This is one reason why Satan has been working so hard to divide and destroy our faith and this country! “Tolerance” the past few years seems to apply for every type of religion and all types of evil but “tolerance” is not offered to Christians the ones helping ministries with 130 billion a year! But Satan controls multi-trillions through his despots!

The Native American Indians, and historically most cultures in the world, have a tradition of celebrating the fall harvests which sustains them through winter. Even pagan European cultures knew there was a God that provided and they had festivals as well. It was Pres. Abraham Lincoln that made Thanksgiving Day an official holiday in 1863 to, as in his words, “remember Almighty God”. But it had been celebrated for over 150 years prior to that!

4. It is amazing how the Indians showed compassion on these new strange white immigrants. Everyone today should celebrate this act of compassion and gratitude to God and should express gratitude to our remaining noble Natives! Thanksgiving Day should be a day in which we recognize God’s mercy through others and this should prompt us to show compassion on someone less fortunate in our society.

The essence of being a Christian is that we are supposed to live out compassion and gratitude in our every action, and often we do may meet others that know and practice it innately because they are spiritual. All people still have a God consciousness (as mentioned in Romans 1) and God sees all. How much more Christians must do it!

The scripture of today, of showing compassion, was in its essence being practiced by a people that at that time were be called ‘savages’. Interesting God’s humor in how He used so called “savages” to save the Christians from hunger by throwing a big party and feast! But that set the stage for how every immigrant should be compassionate ever since that Thanksgiving day!

5. This nation, founded by Christians, currently still lives with this standard and tradition of compassion and it is established as an example for all generations so that we must keep the tradition going always be compassionate and feeding and caring for others. I would like to suggest that when we show the less fortunate compassion that we not forget that this includes the widows, the homeless, and the immigrants. (the ones the Bible names repeatedly)

But for the cold hearted and compassionless, hear this warning: Proverbs 21:13  Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.

These Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe gave an example of how all people can without any discrimination of race and class appreciate one another, love and share, and thank God that He is keeping them alive! The best way to connect is to share a meal with someone!

6. Think about this, God feels deep pain when he spares lives and then later these same people become proud and greedy and forget Him! In other words, God gets angry and judges severely people who are non-compassionate and unthankful!

Where do we find evidence of this? In the O.T., Moses freed 6 million Jews from the slavery of Egypt and how did these people respond? Did they praise Him every day? No! They complained constantly against God, they built idols to worship any god except the One who had saved them! Their punishment was to wander lost 40 years in the desert and never reach the promised land!

God has a way of judging and destroying the nations that are unthankful to Him! All the world’s super powers of the past, Egypt, Persia (Iran), Greece, and Rome, look at them today! They are still bankrupt, in turmoil, and divided! They have been cursed for several thousand years now because their people became aggressors to steal, enslave, and exploit instead of being people who were loving and giving, compassionate worshipping God!

7. Many Native tribes were peaceful and loving and spiritual, but others were war-like and they would invade and kill everyone in the peaceful tribes. This was the same scenario as in Europe where the white tribes of peaceful people were invaded by Vandals, Vikings, and other barbarous war like Caucasian people. Today those past aggressor’s powers have disappeared. And why is that?  Because it was prophesized by Jesus in Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.  But there are still not enough meek ones yet! The evidence is there, God humbles or He exalts nations! It’s all in accordance to how much they obey God.

Are we becoming a nation that is more overrun by greedy deceitful aggressors that will scam and rob and even kill old ladies to steal? Are we as a nation losing our protection and blessings from God because too many people have stopped being compassionate people who thank God for their lives? How have Christians gone wrong to be deceived to follow false doctrines?

8. Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. I propose to you that as many as half of today’s so called Christians are no longer reading and following Biblical principles but rather they are following men and teachings that are filling them with bitternesses and destruction.  Many so called churches are now accepting false ideas and politics and the erroneous liberation theologies. They want justice, but in their own revengeful way and it is painful to see these deceptions at work making people divisive, unfriendly, and isolated.

We believe that the despairing needs of others is solved by obeying Jesus example, and that is having a heart to God and a hand to man! We help as in I John 3:16!

Yet the modern trend is to believe that social justice, which may or may not include caring for the poor, should be by force and carried out by imposing on the prosperous ones steep penalties, taxes and laws so that it permits the shifting of the wealth to themselves. Covetousness is against God’s law but many break it. This is a sign of the times. Listen to what the anti-christ will do.

9. Daniel 11:24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.

What it amounts to is Satan has always wanted to prove He is as good as God to show compassion. Satan wants to appear compassionate! God’s way is the sacrificial way, the laying down of your life for others, the giving of your time, talent, and treasure to others giving them the gospel of salvation in love due to your gratitude to God.  True Christians willingly share with those in need!

10. Satan’s imitation of compassion is destructive and like the warmongering aggressors. Historically between Russia, China, and the rest, 100 million or more have died under atheist Communism. The lie of all lies is that the government under some despot dictator who says he cares for the poor is going to really care for the poor. He robs from the rich but never really shares it. It never happens! We have not seen a model of true compassion happen yet. We have witnessed Russia, China, Vietnam, N. Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela as they give crumbs to the masses of people while the leaders live in ultra-luxury.

 Jesus exposed Satan in John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

God’s compassion is not bound by a race, religion, or place. Jesus example of the Good Samaritan points this out!  Compassion must be put into practice by those that know God or otherwise the world’s (or Satan’s) idea of compassion becomes a method of oppression and destruction!

11.The world can be divided into 2 types of people, the Satanic self-righteous condemning greedy destructive and imposing types who want to take from you, or the sharing spirit –filled caring sharing and loving type that thanks God for everything. Which type are you?

In the end, you are either practicing compassion from God or you are not! If not, then you are comparable to the soon to disappear war-like selfish people of the past that forcibly took what they coveted to consume and destroy. Only the meek will inherit the earth!

Only Jesus love can change hearts that are hell bent on stealing, invading, killing, and disrespecting other races and cultures! These atrocities still continue on today in the world in our metropolis mega cities, and in all countries everywhere. Let’s practice sharing with all! Let us pray for a return to a thankfulness to God and a practice of real compassion! The practice Thanksgiving today is needed more than ever! We must thank God for He is limitlessly good!