THE POWER OF A THANKFUL HEART
Steve
W. Reeves
INTRODUCTION:
A. May
I tell you about three types of people?
1. Some people are never thankful for
anything.
a. Have you ever known someone who was
“grumbly hateful” rather than “humbly
grateful?”
b. A very demanding man was asked by his
wife what he wanted for breakfast. He
ordered a lavish breakfast to be
prepared specifically to his demanding
specifications. Included in his
order were two eggs. One was to be fried, the
other was to be scrambled. When he
sat down at the meal he turned up his nose
and said, “It’s no good, you
scrambled the wrong egg.”
2. Some people are thankful about some
things.
a. Have you noticed how people respond
to good things that occur by saying, “God
is good.”
b. They are correct. God is good.
However, God is good all of the time, not merely
when something good has happened to
us. Even if something bad befalls us it
does not affect the goodness of
God.
3. Some people are thankful for all things.
a. Two boys were part of a research
project about the impact of environments on
attitudes. The first little boy was
always complaining and never thankful for
anything. He was placed in a room
filled with toys. The second boy had a sunny,
cheerful disposition. He was placed
in a smelly, dirty, stinky barn. An hour later
the boy in the room filled with toys
was crying because there were no more toys
to play with. The little boy in the
barn was happy as could be. When asked why
he replied, “Are you kidding me?
There must be a pony in here somewhere!”
b. Listen to the words of the apostle
Paul in Ephesians 5:20, “Always giving thanks
for all things in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.”
B. To
begin this month of Thanksgiving I want you to see how the power of a thankful
heart is evident in three specific ways.
I. IT WILL MAKE YOU A BETTER PERSON
A. The story is told of a man who toured
the garden of hell. It was filled with all types
of seeds. There were seeds of lying,
treachery, deceit, murder, envy, immoral
behavior, jealousy and strife. The man
noticed a box of seeds that appeared to be
well used. “What are those,” he asked?
The Devil replied, “Those are the seeds of
discouragement and discontentment. They
will grow in any heart that is not filled
with thankfulness.”
B. Notice three passages of Scripture.
1. Psalm 92:1-2 – “It is good to give
thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to Your
name, O Most High. 2 To
declare Your lovingkindness in the morning and Your
faithfulness by night,”
2 Philippians 4:6 –.”Be anxious for
nothing, but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. “
3. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 – “In everything
give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in
Christ Jesus.”
C. Why should we have a thankful heart?
1. God is obviously worthy of our thanks
for all He has done.
2. A thankful spirit will make a huge
difference in your life.
a. A recent study done by the
University of California San Diego School of
Medicine suggests that people
who are grateful have better heart health, less
depression and less fatigue.
Other scientific studies suggest that a heart of
thankfulness strengthens your body’s
immune system.
b. People who are thankful
experience less stress, lower anxiety and an
overall improvement in their
mental, emotional and physical health.
II. IT WILL STRENGTHEN YOUR FAMILY
A. May
I tell you two words that will destroy your family and two words that will save
your family?
1. The two words that will destroy your
family are “I want.”
a. “I want” you to act better.
b. “I want you to give me.”
c. “I want you to change.”
d. “I want this or that item.”
2. The two words that can save your
family are, “I appreciate.”
a. “I appreciate you.”
b. “I appreciate my blessings.”
c. “I appreciate my spouse,
children, parents.”
d. “I even appreciate my
difficulties.”
B. When the people of Israel left slavery
in Egypt they had so much for which to be
thankful.
1. God had delivered them from bondage
and back-breaking toil.God had
eliminated the threat of Pharaoh.
God provided them with food, water and
guidance. God brought them to the
threshold of the promised land that “flowed
with milk and honey (Numbers 13:27).
2. Rather than being grateful for these
things they began to complain about the
negative things they encountered.
The people were large and strong. The cities
were heavily fortified. It was not
long before the entire nation began to grumble.
3. We are living in a time of grumbling
in our homes, our families and the church.
We are so richly blessed in each of
these things and yet we often consider only
the negative things and grumble
rather than express thankfulness.
III. IT WILL MAKE YOU A BETTER FRIEND.
A. Who do you want to associate with?
Someone who is always negative and
discouraging or someone who is
encouraging and inspirational?
1. One lady took a cruise. Nothing could
satisfy her. She was constantly
complaining about something. The
staff would turn and walk the other direction if
they saw her coming. When the cruise
ended the captain saw her and said,
“We’ve dropped the anchor.” She
said, “It doesn’t surprise me, it’s been hanging
off the side the whole trip. You
should’ve put it away.”
2. I heard of a woman in her eighties
who had to leave her home because of health
concerns. Her family made
arrangements for her to move to an assisted living
apartment. On moving day the woman
was happy and excited. “I’m going to love
my new home,” she said. “How do you
know? You’ve never been there,” replied
her granddaughter. “I’ve made up my
mind I’m going to like it,” the woman said.
B. 1 Corinthians 15:33 states, “Bad company
corrupts good morals.”
1. A man had a canary that sang a
beautiful tune. During the summer he put its
cage on the back porch. In the back
yard there were trees filled with
mockingbirds. Before long the
canary’s sweet song was replaced by the shrill
chirp of the mockingbirds.
2. I once knew a woman who worked in an
office where all of her co-workers talked
disparagingly about their husbands.
Several of them divorced their husbands.
Would it surprise you to lean she
eventually left and divorced her husband?
C. There was a man in the early church
named Barnabas. His name means, “Son of
Encouragement.” Every time you read
about Barnabas he was serving others.
1. In Acts 4 he sold a parcel of land
and gave the money to help those in need.
2. In Acts 9 he met the newly converted
Paul and brought him to the apostles.
3. In Acts 11 he was sent by the church
in Jerusalem to encourage Christins in
Antioch.
4. He accompanied Paul on the first
missionary journey (Acts 13-14).
5. He was willing to give John Mark a
second chance in Acts 15
6. Why was Barnabas such an
encouragement? I believe he had a profound sense
of gratitude for the blessings he
had been given.
7. You can be a Barnabas!
CONCLUSION:
A. A man received a phone call from his wife.
She was very upset and tearful as she
told him she had lost the diamond out of
her engagement/wedding ring. It was not a
large diamond but as a college student he
had saved and sacrificed to buy it for his
fiancé Now that they had been married over
twenty-five years the diamond wasn’t
even noticed that often. The prongs holding
it to the ring had become loose. The man
searched the house and his wife’s car and
didn’t find it. He went to the parking lot
where she worked and began searching.
Suddenly, he saw something shiny. There
was the diamond on the pavement. He ran
into her office holding the diamond high in
the air. For days to come the diamond was
the center of their attention.
B. We
often fail to be thankful for things until we lose them. Sometimes we are not
thankful for people until we lose them. My
hope for you this Thanksgiving season is
that you will discover and retain the
amazing power of a thankful heart.
