Sermon for 11/21/07

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Sermon for 11/21/07
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Thanksgiving Service - SPIRITUAL MILLIONAIRES -

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, AMEN

Main Theme: “Thank you” is a million dollar word! And Christians, who have been given everything they need and more, (by a loving, generous, gracious God) should be spending that word like they are millionaires. There are three things that get in our way from living like we are thanksgiving millionaire; 1) pride, 2) a critical spirit, and 3) carelessness. The fact is – we are rich! Not merely in terms of material or financial wealth – but in terms of Christ’s blessings! And just as those divine blessings are endless, so should be our expression of thanksgiving be endless. We need to spend those million dollar words (Thankyou’s) like there was no tomorrow! It’s time to act like the spiritual millionaires we are! The currency is the word “Thank you!”

1) THANKS! Rudyard Kipling, the author of “The Jungle Book”, was one of the few writers who actually had the opportunity to enjoy his success while he was still alive. You see, his books and poetry made him a great deal of money. This did not go unnoticed by the press, and one day a reporter came to him and said, "Mr. Kipling, I just read that somebody calculated that the money you make from your writings amounts to over a hundred dollars a word.” Mr. Kipling raised his eyebrows and said, "Really, I certainly wasn’t aware of that." The reporter then reached down into his pocket and pulled out a one hundred dollar bill and gave it to Kipling and cynically said, "Here’s a hundred dollar bill, Mr. Kipling. Now, you give me one of your hundred dollar words." Mr. Kipling looked at that hundred dollar bill for a moment, took it and folded it up and put it in his pocket and said, "Thanks."

2) MILLION DOLLAR WORD! As funny as that story is, there is also a tremendous truth woven in the tale. Kipling is right! The word “thanks” is certainly a hundred dollar word! In fact, one could say it is more like a million dollar word. It is, in fact, the currency of a grateful heart. It is a million dollar word that expresses love, and builds relationships! It has the power to transmit joy and transform lives! And if you are a Christian, a follower of Christ, you have an endless supply of divine blessings that is meant to enable you to respond by going out and spending that million dollar word – whenever, and wherever you wish!

3) CURRENCY OF A GRATEFUL HEART! So let us ask ourselves on this special night; if the word “thank you” is the currency of a grateful heart, if it is a million dollar word – how much of it do we spend daily? How many “thank you’s” did you spend, say… yesterday. I don’t know about you, but I confess, I don’t spend it near enough! All week I’ve been thinking about how blessed I am by God, by my family, by my church family… and while I have had countless opportunities to spend a bunch of “Thanks yous” – I have been… well, for lack of a better word… a penny pincher! Which is weird considering that there is no end to our source of blessings, and no end to the source of “Thank you’s” available to us! If one “thank you” is a million dollar word, I have countless trillions at my disposal. Is there anyone here who doesn’t have a “bank account of blessings” that is without end? And yet for some puzzling reason we tend to keep the “currency of a grateful heart” in our wallets and purses.

4) INVESTMENT ADVICE: GIVE THANKS! This is puzzling considering that we have read God’s investment advice on this many times: In Ephesians 5 (19, 20) we read "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, ALWAYS giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." And in 1^st Thessalonians, the fifth chapter (6-18) it said, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." Obviously we are called to spend the currency of “thanksgiving” like there is no tomorrow! Saying “Thank you” is God’s will! It means we recognize that everything we have and are came from a Savior who poured Himself out for us on the cross that we might live and rejoice in His unconditional love for now and throughout eternity! So why do we not take God’s investment advice and spend the currency of a grateful heart at every opportunity? Why, if we have an endless supply of those million dollar “thank yous” do we not spend them in every conversation we have?

5) PRIDE! There are probably more, but I’ve thought of 3 reasons this night for being a tightwad with our expressions of gratitude to God and others. The first is PRIDE! This is the attitude that says, "Nobody ever gave me anything, I worked hard for everything I have." Maybe for years we studied hard and worked hard and now it is finally paying off. With this kind of attitude, we feel that we have no one to thank but ourselves. How many million dollar “thankyou’s” will we spend and share when we are grateful to no one but ourselves? None! Of course, that is the extreme case – and only an unbeliever could be so self-centered as to ignore the fact that everything we have and are is a gift to us from God. And yet, if we are not spending the currency of thanksgiving as if there were no end to our blessings, then could it be that we still have traces of pride in our lives?

6) SPIRITUAL MILLIONAIRES! When I look at the people that inspired and nourished me in my spiritual life, it occurs to me that they were big spenders! They were Spiritual Millionaires! They laid out “thanksyou’s” one right after another! As I go back through the thank you cards and letters I have received in my ministry, I recognize that the people who sent them, were people who had very little pride impacting their lives. Their selflessness came because Christ was living in their hearts, and “self” was continually decreasing as Christ increased within them! They are spiritual millionaires and they lived like spiritual millionaires should – spending the currency of a grateful heart – passing “thankyou’s” out from sincere and generous hearts! It is a Christ-like thing to do! And it is a lifestyle that can only be grasped because Christ destroys our pride with His Holy Spirit and enables us to respond to God’s Love with Love! God’s power strengthens and enables us to continually and victoriously defeat our pride – that we may respond to Christ’s blessings with generous and grateful hearts! Fact is, the more pride we have, the less thank-you’s we spend. The more thanks-you’s we “spiritual millionaires” spend – the more evidence of Christ living in our hearts!

7) CRITICAL SPIRIT – CONSTANT COMPLAINING! The second attitude that affects our gratitude and our spiritual spending, is 2) a critical spirit or constant complaining. Instead of being grateful, we seem to always find something to complain about! I’m reminded of the lady who was known as an incurable grumbler - constantly complained about everything! At last her preacher thought he had found something about which she would be happy, for her farm crop was the finest for miles around. When he met her, he said with a beaming smile, “You must be very happy Mary. Everyone is saying how healthy your potatoes look this year.” She replied, “True they’re pretty good, but what am I going to do when I need bad ones to feed the pigs?” Do you know anyone like that? Does a critical spirit or constant complaining ever describe the person you see in the mirror?

8) EVIL? OR BLESSINGS! Now I’m not naïve – I’m aware we are living in a broken world, where evil abounds, and Satan is constantly trying to turn us from God by constantly “raining on our parade.” But why go looking for things to complain about, when God says, that nothing – I repeat nothing can keep us from His love! He promises to be with us through good and bad times and will bring us what we need to faithfully overcome our challenges in life! As we said last Sunday – a Christian’s glass is not half empty, it’s half full, and getting fuller! A critical spirit or constant complaining is a nasty habit to have to kick, but the only attitude that brings true life is an attitude of thanksgiving! And it frees us to see God’s blessings where others see only evil and problems.

9) THANKFUL! Christians have received so much from the heavenly Father, they can not help but thankful people. It enables them to be “Thankful” for.........
....the taxes I pay because it means I’m employed.
....the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat.
....a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home.
....the spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking.
....my huge heating bill because it means I am warm.
....all the complaining I hear about our government because it means we have freedom of speech.
....the lady behind me in church who sings off key because it means that I can hear.
....the piles of laundry and ironing because it means my loved ones are nearby.
....the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means that I’m alive.
....the weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means I have been blessed with work.

The truth is, for those whose eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit, God is about the job of blessing us daily. A critical spirit or constant complaining will blind us to this, and prevent us from the spending the currency of a grateful heart! God’s children are in reality spiritual millionaires - so we need to start spending those countless million dollar word’s of thanks – and lay our critical spirits and constant complaining to rest. Only a thankful attitude brings life!

10) CARELESSNESS! The third attitude that keeps us from being “grateful” is carelessness. We take our blessings for granted. Someone once said that if the stars only came out once a year, we would stay out all night to watch them. But they are there every night and we have grown accustomed to them. I think of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, grumbling because they had no food. So God miraculously sent manna (a crust-like bread) to cover the ground each day. Then they started to grumble because it was the same thing every day. They had a miracle - straight from God - every day, but they were no longer satisfied. They carelessly took God’s blessings for granted.

11) FOR GRANTED? We Christians in America take our wealth and living conditions so much for granted! Have we forgotten these facts: that if you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy. If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world. If you can attend church meetings without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than three billion in the world. I don’t think I need to go on any further. We are a blessed people with much to be thankful for! Let us not be careless with what we have! Let us not take our abundant blessings for granted. Can such wealthy and blessed people be anything but thankful?

12) FORGET? Pride, a critical spirit, and carelessness can keep us from being truly thankful for all that God has given us. This is not Christ’s wish for you and me! And yet, it is in our nature to forget! To forget the cross, and the unconditional love it expresses! It is in our nature to forget how freeing are the gifts of forgiveness, and healing, and guidance, and… well the list goes on… WE ARE BLESSED! To forget this would rob us of the abundant life God offers us everyday in Christ!

13) HOLY SPIRIT = THANK YOU! And so He comes tonight to gently stir our hearts with His Holy Spirit – to awaken our memories that we may take another look at our amazing relationship with Him, and with one another – and then to creatively remold our hearts that we may live life with a constantly grateful attitude! …that we may respond to His love with Thanksgiving and Rejoicing! …that we may recognize we are spiritual millionaires - empowering us to spend the currency of a grateful heart - making the word “Thank you” a rich and daily habit. It is a million dollar word that expresses love, and builds relationships! It has the power to transmit joy and transform lives! And as followers of Christ, you and I have an endless supply of divine blessings that is meant to enable us to go out and spend that “million dollar word” – whenever, and wherever we wish! Go now and recognize your endless blessings and tag each one with a “Thank you” – with the Holy Spirit’s help, you will know WHO to give them to! Praise God. AMEN!

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