Give Thanks Lindsay, November 5th,.2011 Pr.

Ruben Dario Sanchez John Angel James was a famous preacher in England. It was his custom each weekend evening at family devotions to read Psalm 103. On the Saturday of the week in which his wife died, he opened his Bible to Psalm 103and he paused with the open Bible before him. He then said to the assembled family, "Notwithstanding what has happened this week, I see no reason for departing from our usual custom of reading the 103rd Psalm." And he began to read, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me; bless His holy name." Psalm 103:1 You and I are constantly asking the Lord to bless us. But Psalm 103 tells us that we should bless the Lord! Of course, you and I can never bless the Lord in the same way that He blesses us. He daily loads us with benefits. That's why the psalmist said, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits." We are too poor to make God rich. We could never bless Him in the same way that He blesses us. What does it mean, then, to bless the Lord? It means to glorify Him and honor His Name 1

By giving thanks and praise for all that He is and all that He does. It means to bring the sacrifice of praise and, from our hearts, thank Him and worship Him. Just as we parents rejoice when our children show proper respect and gratitude so our heavenly Father is pleased when His children bless Him and express their thanksgiving. I think that we need to grow in our thanksgiving. At our conversion, we tend to thank the Lord for what He has done for us. After all He rescued us from condemnation And brought us into the family of God. When we trusted Jesus Christ, God washed away our sins And gave us a new life, an abundant eternal life. But as we mature in the Christian life, we reach a new level of praise. We don't stop praising God for what He has done for us But we also start thanking Him for what He has given to us. We discover how rich we are in Christ. As we read the Bible, we uncover more and more riches in Christ. But I think there is a higher level still in our expression of praise and thanksgiving. As we mature, we discover how wonderful God is.

We start praising Him, not only for His gracious acts and generous gifts, but also for Himselfwhat He is to us. Just as children learn to love their parents for what they are, and not just for what they give So we as God's children learn to praise Him for Who He is and what He is. If we only praise God for what He gives us, what will happen to our praise if He stops giving us His gifts, or if He takes some gift away. God permitted Satan to rob Job Of his family His wealth And even his health. How did Job respond? He said, "The Lord gives, the Lord takes away- blessed be the name of the Lord." I fear that some Christians become bitter and critical when God permits them to go through trials. This proves that their praise is not centered in God Himself, but in the gifts that God gives. Take the gifts away, and they stop praising. What God does for us really depends on what God is to us. As we grow in our knowledge of the Lord, we better understand all the blessings we have because of who He is. For this reason, no trial of life should rob us of the blessing of thanksgiving. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me; bless His holy name." I am not sure that if there is anybody listening just now who are is convinced that they have nothing for which they can praise the Lord. Life has been difficult for you 3

And there are times when you have wondered whether God even cares. If that is the case, listen to what David says in the second verse of Psalm 103 "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." It is here that David puts his finger on one of the greatest problems we have when it comes to thanking God: we have poor memories. Charles Spurgeon used to say that we Christians are often guilty of writing our blessings on the sand and engraving our difficulties in the marble. We remember the dark days And forget the bright days. This, of course, is a sin. David commands us, "Forget not all his benefits." Some of us need a memory course before we can obey this commandment. If we think that God has forgotten and forsaken us, then lets take time to remember. Lets look back over the weeks and years, and lets remember what the Lord has done for us and how He has revealed Himself to us. There are some things in the past that we ought to forget But there are many things we ought to remember. The trouble is, we Christians often remember what God has forgotten, And then forget what God wants us to remember! "Forget not all his benefits." Lets start with the material benefits, if we please. 4

Lets make a list of the ways God has provided for our material and physical needs. How about the social benefits, like family and friends and church fellowship? And what about the spiritual bene fitsthe Bible, prayer, the Holy Spirit, Christian friends, opportunities for service. If we will take time to remember past benefits, I guarantee that before long we will find ourselves thanking God for present blessings that we had forgotten. When we start counting our blessings, we discover that we need a calculator or perhaps a computer! William Sangster, the great British Methodist preacher, told about a crippled girl who lay in a special bed in her home, and all she could do was look out the window. One day someone asked her what she did at night when she couldn't sleep, and this was her answer. "I lie here and look up at the stars. And then I pick out a star for each of my blessingsone for mommy and one for daddy . . . and one for my doctor . . . and one for my home . . . and do you know what my problem is? There aren't enough stars to go around!" Well, beloved, that kind of gratitude puts our thanksgiving to shame. Perhaps some of us need to go to the Lord right now and confess the sin of ingratitude, before we can honestly celebrate a day of thanksgiving. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits."

We should never get the idea that God wants us to praise and thank Him because He is selfish and enjoys hearing His name praised. Certainly our sincere praise does bring joy to the heart of the Father But that is not the only reason for praise. We are the ones who get the blessing! There is a reflex action to gratitude that brings the blessing right back to the giver. It is because of what thanksgiving does for us that we ought to take time daily giving praise to God. What are some of the benefits of thanksgiving? For one thing, it reminds us that we are the creatures and God is the Creator. This helps to keep us in our proper place. Whenever we start acting like we are God, then trouble is on the way. By constantly praising God and honoring His name, we maintain our humble place of submission before His throne. Pride and praise can never live in the same heart. There is a second benefit: we enjoy our blessings more. Why is it that when we have to do something, we don't enjoy it; but when we do it willingly, we experience pleasure? Doctors tell us that a happy conversation around the table makes for better digestion and better health. When we are forced to eat something, it may do us good, but we lose the enjoyment of it. As we praise the Lord, it sharpens our spiritual senses so that we enjoy His blessings more. 6

Our spiritual vision gets keener and we can see blessings that we never saw before. Every time we obey God, we sharpen our spiritual vision. Every time we disobey, we lose some vision How important it is to obey God and keep that vision clean Our spiritual sense of hearing gets sharper and Gods voice is more beautiful to us. Our spiritual taste is also keener, and we can "taste and see that the Lord is good." Instead of complaining about blessings that we don't have we start enjoying more the blessings that we do have. Here is a third benefit to thanksgiving: we get to know God better. You see, His blessings are meant to be windows through which we see Him. It is easy to get wrapped up in the blessing and forget the One Who gave the blessing. If we are truly grateful for God's blessings, then those blessings will help us know Him better and love Him more. The blessings that He gives And the blessings that He withholds Will all help us understand His great heart and mind. A grateful heart is always a heart sensitive to the knowledge of God. Not only at this season of the year, but each day that we live, let us declare to God The gratitude of our hearts. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me; bless His holy name." 7