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The Spirit of Thanksgiving
November 23, 2019

Last week we considered advice for youth in the modern world. Sometimes, younger people see the Bible as a book that gets in the way of their life without realizing some of the fantastic advice it contains. Today, we will learn about the importance of thanksgiving. We’ll see that it’s just more than a national holiday spent eating turkey and watching football, and spending time with family. Today's Bible study is joined by a companion sermon and sermon transcript. The Bible gives many bits of information about giving thanks or thanksgiving that we should be giving thanks to all men including those who are in authority that we can lead a quiet and peaceable life. Part of our giving of thanks or thanksgiving is not something that is solely done with God as a religious concept, but it’s something that is wise for us to do as we work with other people. Giving thanks, being appreciative, and showing gratitude is one of the best ways we can live our life because it will allow us to lead a life that is quiet that is peaceable, one in which we can worship God in the way that He would have us worship Him.

1 Timothy 2:1-6
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

One of the biggest reasons that we can forget and ignore a focus of thanksgiving with God are the needs of our everyday life. We all have needs our we will suffer. We have need of food. We have need of water, something to drink, clothes, shelter, companionship. Those are some of the really big needs we have on a physical level. On a spiritual level, we also need to be fed spiritually so we can grow in the knowledge and the grace of God and Jesus Christ. Because we have all of these needs, we can let worry and doubt creep into our life, and the more that we allow worry and doubt to creep into our life, the easier it is for us to ignore the blessings that God can give us. When we look at the ministry of Jesus Christ, he gave us all a very good lesson that we should remember when we are thinking about our needs.

Matthew 6:25-34
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Whenever something great happens, there is the hand of God in that, whenever we get through a difficult situation, getting through that difficult situation involves the hand of God. God is with us in the good times and the bad times and we need to be mindful of the need to always approach God with a spirit of thanksgiving.

Psalm 95:1-11
O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

Getting to that future time of eternal happiness, the Kingdom of God, begins by today doing many things. And, among the many things we need to be doing is recognizing that thanksgiving is something we do on a daily basis. Thanksgiving is not something reserved for a national holiday of a feast. Thanksgiving is something that is done in the good times and the bad times reflecting on the mercy of God. Everything that God has done for us, is for our benefit, and because as people we are imperfect compared to the divine nature of God, God could take any kind of severe action with us. Instead, God chooses to be merciful to us understanding the frail nature of the human existence. In all of our thankfulness with God, and with all of our thanksgiving with God, the fact that God is merciful to us in our frail existence deserves the highest level of thanksgiving, and for that we give thanksgiving to God with praise and with joy.

All verses are from the King James Version.
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