Giving of Thanks to God

I have a poem and a passage from the word of God I'd like to read here as introduction to the message. The title of the poem is Oh Give Thanks. Thanks not glib or flippant. Thanks, heartfelt and keen. Thanks from earth uplifted to the one who is yet unseen.

Thanks for those who offer life, time, love to him, joy to bring in the morning, light not dulled or dim. Enjoy active Thanksgiving whether it's scheduled or not, brief or prolonged in prayer or in song to him who our pardon has bought. Oh Lord, my God, I will give thanks unto thee forever. Psalm 30 verse 12. Guess what the message is gonna deal with today?

If you haven't been able to figure it out yet, you've just not been awake. I'd like you to listen to this passage from Luke chapter two verses 36 through 38 and then we'll pray before the message begins. Luke two thirty six through 38, if you would like to follow along yourself in your own Bible there. There was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Fanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity.

She was a widow of about four score and four years. That's 84 years old, which departed not from the temple but served God with fastings and prayers night and day and she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of him to all that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we're so thankful that we have the privilege as Dolores mentioned to live in this country that you have given to us. That we still have the freedom to gather together, to worship you according to the dictates of our consciences, and in accordance with your word.

We thank you also, Lord, for the promise that you've given us that where two or three are gathered together in your name, there you are in their midst. So, we claim that promise this morning. We welcome you into our midst. We ask that you would take complete control of this worship service and also of the children's church service, that you will guide in all that is said, that you will work in our hearts. Help us to be open hearted and responsive to your work.

We desire that you would exalt the name of our savior, Jesus Christ. And Lord, we pray that if there are any souls present here in this congregation this morning who need to do business with you, either they need to trust you for the salvation of their souls or they need to get right with you or they need to just yield some aspect of their life to draw into a closer walk with you. What whatever it is, Lord and and you know, I don't know. You know what the needs are in each person's heart including my own. I just ask that your will would be done and your name would be exalted.

We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Just a few things I want to point out here. In case you aren't aware of the context of this passage that I read in Luke, it deals with a woman by the name of Anna identified as a prophetess and she was worshiping God in the temple and this was when Jesus parents, earthly parents, Mary and Joseph brought him into the temple to present him there and Anna, the prophetess, saw Jesus Christ as an infant and she was giving thanks unto the Lord God in heaven for this gift of Jesus Christ. This little newborn baby because she recognized him since she was a prophetess that he was the promised Messiah, the one whom God had promised to send as a deliverer for the nation of Israel.

Many, many, many generations earlier. She saw in this little baby that God had fulfilled and kept his promise and she was giving thanks to the Lord and she spake of him that is of this little baby, Jesus Christ, unto everybody there in the temple who was looking for redemption. The promise of sins being forgiven. Well, I'm not gonna talk a whole lot about this but I just wanted you to see a few things here. A lady is 84 years old.

She's not too old to give thanks to God. She's not too dull of senses to realize that this gift, a little newborn babe was a precious, priceless gift from God. Not just because he was a baby, a new baby, but because specifically, he was the savior that God had promised to send. We are never too old to give thanks to God. I know some of you I didn't mean to put you on the spot earlier here and I don't want you to feel like you're being pressured to speak up if you will feel uncomfortable or nervous doing that.

I understand that but I just want you to understand, we need to have an attitude of thanksgiving to God and be able to express it even if it's just from our own heart to him. For you see, when we express our gratitude to God, it pleases our Lord. I'm speaking now about the Lord Jesus. For he himself often expressed his gratitude to his heavenly father. The one simple word thanks appears either 35 or 36 times in the KJV New Testament depending on whether you trust my bible software but I found another one that it didn't tell me was there.

So, I don't know. 35, 36 times, I didn't actually count them all deliberately but that simple fact that this word thanks, just just that word thanks, not Thanksgiving or thankfulness or anything else. Thanks alone appears that many times would cause us to think something like this. You know, maybe this is something God wants me to pay attention to. Maybe I'm not as thankful as I could be.

Indeed, with each passing year, it seems as if we Americans are less and less thankful at this special time of year that originally focused on Thanksgiving to God, The good giver of all that we have. Does it irk any of you, brethren, when the focus is on Black Friday? Sales, sporting events, instead of God himself, the giver of all the good gifts we have and enjoy. Many years ago, when we were still in Japan, my mother-in-law, bless her heart, she would periodically videotape TV shows that we just didn't have access to in Japan. She'd send us videotapes and we were watching an old Bill Cosby TV show and it was a Thanksgiving special.

And I thought to myself, as I saw them all seated around the great big table laden with all the food and they're about ready to give thanks and I thought, oh boy, they're really gonna give thanks to God. However, I was flabbergasted and disappointed that everyone seated around that food laden table only gave what I call generic thanks. You know what generic thanks is? I'm thankful for something but they never mentioned to whom you're thankful. Alright?

So, not one person mentioned God as the giver of their gifts. I guess it wasn't really too surprised by that but it just goes to show you what the typical attitude is about this matter. Sadly, people are not often thankful for anything these days, it seems. Rather, many times, they feel entitled to all of God's gifts. Any thought of thankfulness, if they have it at all, is usually just really vague and nebulous, seldom acknowledging God as the source of the blessings that they enjoy.

You all know folks like this? You know, you've seen this kind of attitude as well, I'm sure. Well, in this sermon, we're gonna look at some of the 36 instances where the word thanks shows up in the New Testament. Don't worry, we're not gonna look at all 36. And we will see that we can learn or what we can learn about this very important but often overlooked and frequently neglected concept.

Well, first of all, we're gonna look at the example that the Lord Jesus Christ himself set of being thankful and the first thing that came to my attention here as I was looking at these verses was in Matthew chapter 15. I like you to look there. Matthew 15 verse 36. Can you guess what it is? The circumstance was where there was a multitude of people kind of in the wilderness.

They were out away from an opportunity to get food to supply their daily needs of meals and Jesus took compassion upon them and he is going to feed this multitude with just a handful of fish and loaves of bread but before he does anything else, in verse 36, we read and he took the seven loaves and the fishes and what do we read there he did? He gave thanks and then he break them and then he gave them to his disciples and the disciples then gave them to the multitude. The first thing he did before he ate, before he gave it to anybody else to eat, was to thank God for this food. This also takes place or is recorded in John chapter six verse 11. If you'd like to look there as well, it's essentially the same circumstances here but let's just look at it.

John chapter six verse 11. There again, we read. Now, Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples and the disciples to them that were sat down and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. He gave thanks before he ate and before anybody else ate. That's one instance.

Now, in another situation, we see him also giving thanks before partaking of food but that was when he was initiating the Lord's supper. I'd like for you to look at those references please. Going back to Matthew chapter 16, look at verse 27. Should've told you to keep your finger there. I'm sorry.

Matthew 16 verse 27. There we read, Okay. That is not the right verse. That's what we read. Okay, let me see if I got the other one correct.

Luke 22. Let's go to Luke 22. I'm sorry. I don't remember what it was there in Matthew. Luke 22 Okay.

There we go. Verses seventeen and nineteen. Sometimes computers don't help you as much as you like them to do. I don't know how I got that reference wrong there. I apologize but Luke 22 verses seventeen and nineteen and he took the cup and gave thanks and said, take this and divide it among yourselves and then in verse 19, we read and he took bread and gave thanks and break it and gave it unto them.

Also, similar passage in first Corinthians chapter 11. First Corinthians chapter 11, we read in verse four Excuse me, that's the wrong verse there too. 24. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said, take eat. This is my body which is broken for you.

This do in remembrance of me. So also, the apostle Paul followed Jesus' example in this matter. I'm gonna read a passage for you from Acts. Okay? Just listen to this one, please.

The circumstances is they have been in a boat. They're taking Paul as a prisoner across the Mediterranean Sea. They're going to Rome. They got caught in some sort of a fierce storm and they're just being driven before the winds and they're in a circumstance where they hadn't been able to really take time to eat and you'll see how long in a second here. So I read this, Acts 27, Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, except these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved.

The ships, the the soldiers were gonna let down some boats and try to escape and get to land here. Paul said, no, you can't do that. If you do that, we're all gonna perish here. Everybody has to stay in the boat. So then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off and while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, that is to have a meal, saying this day is the fourteenth day that you have tarried and continued fasting having taken nothing, fourteen days, two weeks.

Has anybody gone two weeks in this auditorium without eating a meal? Two weeks, anybody? I've done it two days on occasion, rarely. Two weeks, that's never happened to me. Two weeks they went without food.

But Paul then says, wherefore, I pray you to take some meat for this is for your health, for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you and when he had thus spoken, get this, they haven't eaten for two weeks. He says, eat some food but if you hadn't eaten for two weeks, what would you do? Get me that food, man. Get me that food. I need some food.

No. What did Paul do? He took bread and he gave thanks to God in presence of them all and when he had broken it, he began to eat. He thanked God first for the food. Well, let's just pause and think about these examples here set for us by the Lord and by the apostle Paul.

Shouldn't we follow Jesus? The apostle Paul's example and thank God before we eat? This simple action regularly done will very soon become an ingrained habit so that it will actually feel awkward if we neglect to pray before we eat, even in a public place. Think about what an incredible, silent testimony of our faith this can be. I don't know about you if you've had this experience or not but there are numerous times when both Christians and non Christians have commented to me about what has become to me an unconscious habit of pausing before eating, bowing my head, closing my eyes, and thanking my God for the food he's given me.

People notice, especially if you're in a public place. Some people might smirk, some people might be embarrassed, some people might be blessed, some people might say, woah, what are they doing and why? Right? Good opportunity to realize, to let other people realize that at least you are thankful to God for what he's given you to eat. This is a simple habit to develop but it does require regularly doing it and I find if I'm, you know, there's times when you get busy and sometimes you don't really take time to pray before you eat I find it if I do that, I let that go on very long.

Pretty soon, the habit's broken. I don't want that to happen. I want to be thankful for the food God gives me. It's a good habit. We should all develop it.

Now, I want you to look at a passage in Luke chapter 17. Another instance of something that happened in our Lord's life. Luke chapter 17. I'm going to read verses 11 through 18 here. Luke chapter 17 verses 11 through 18.

And it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. So, this is talking about Jesus and he's in a part of Israel that was predominantly inhabited by non Jewish people. Samaritans, Galilee, there were a lot of Gentiles there. So, as he entered into a certain village, there met him 10 men that were lepers which stood afar off and the situation here is if you had the disease known as leprosy, you were considered to be spiritually unclean. You're not allowed to draw near to God to worship him in the temple.

You're not allowed to interact with other individuals. You couldn't touch them. You had to stand away from them. That's what's talked about here. They stood afar off but they saw Jesus coming here and in verse 13, we read, they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us.

In that time in history, there was really no known cure for this disease of leprosy. They they couldn't expect once they once they had this disease, it would ever be healed unless a miraculous event occurred. So, when Jesus saw them, verse 14, he said unto them, go show yourselves unto the priest and it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. That means they were healed of this dreaded disease. So, they're on their way going to the priest and they're going to obey what Jesus said to show themselves to the priest.

This was what was required in the law. When you are healed of this disease, you're supposed to show yourself to the priest. Well, they hadn't yet been healed. They were on their way and as they were on their way, they suddenly realized, the disease is gone. How would they know that?

Well, this was a skin disease and their skin was it was obviously diseased. So, as they were going to the priest, doing what Jesus commanded them to do, they suddenly realized, they looked down their hands and they saw, we've we've been healed. God performed a miracle. He healed us. Verse fifteen, and one of them, how many were there altogether?

One. There were 10, right? Originally, there were 10 and how many does this? One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at his feet giving him thanks. Here's the kicker and he was a Samaritan.

He wasn't even a Jew. Jesus was a Jew, right? The Jews and the Samaritans didn't have dealings with one another, alright? There's a great deal of prejudice there between those two people groups but this Samaritan, he recognized God performed a miracle. He healed me of this disease and he knew that Jesus was the source of that miraculous healing.

So, he went back, fell on his face at Jesus' feet and praise God. Thanked him for this miracle that healed his body of this dreaded disease and now notice in verse seventeen and eighteen, Jesus answering said, were there not 10 cleansed? Wow. But where are the nine? They are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger?

By that he's referring to the fact that he's not a Jew. He's not of the same nationality as Jesus. Whereas the other nine, they were all Jews. You would expect them at least to give God glory, to come back and thank and praise Jesus for what he'd done. They didn't.

So what do we see here? At the very least, we see that Jesus is subtly rebuking the Jews in general for not being thankful for God's blessings, for the gifts that he's given to them, the special privileges and prestige that they had to be known as God's chosen people. Every time I read this passage, every time, I'm convicted about my complete lack of gratitude to my Lord for all his abundant, overflowing blessings that he daily pours out on my life. I know how it affects you but that's how it affects me every time I read it. It makes me realize there's plenty of things God's done in my life.

Plenty of blessings, plenty of gifts. Many times, things I've prayed for. God's answered the prayer and I didn't even think to thank him when I didn't even realize he'd answered the prayer. Later on, oh, yeah. I prayed for safety on this trip here today.

God kept me safe. Thank you, Lord. I'm sorry. I didn't think of that sooner. Does that happen to you?

Well, I'm telling you. When that when I realized that it renews the determination in the depths of my soul to be more consciously thankful to my precious Lord. How about you, dear friends? Can anyone of us say that we have been sufficiently grateful to God for his plenteous gifts? I don't think so.

Alright, let's move on though. There's something else here now. We're moving to examples that are being modeled by the apostle Paul and one of the things that he's showing that's important for us to be thankful for here has to do with thankfulness for fellow Christians especially his servants, God's servants and this is being modeled for us by the apostle Paul. Romans chapter 16, listen to what it says in verses three and four. Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their own necks unto whom not only I give thanks but also all the churches of the Gentiles.

Many of you recently took the opportunity to write notes of encouragement and thanks to our churches supported missionaries in the cards that we're prepared to send to them. I can speak from personal experience as a missionary living on a foreign field that receiving such cards meant an awful lot to us when we were missionaries in Japan. There were one or two churches in particular that regularly would do this. Every year, we expected that we get cards, many cards like a card shower, I guess you would call it, from this one church or another church. And they never failed to do it all the years we were in Japan.

Not everybody did that, and that's okay. But the fact that these folks took the time to do that was a real encouragement and a blessing to us. We realized, hey, people didn't forget us. They're thankful that we're here and that we're able to serve the Lord as their missionary servants here in Japan. Notice that Paul called Priscilla and Aquila his helpers.

Another way to say that is his fellow workers. They were working alongside of Paul in the ministry. So none of us is doing the work God has called us to without the assistance of others. This kind of goes to what Sarah was saying during her time of thanking God. Alright?

So particularly our fellow Christians, they're they're helping us in various aspects of ministry. Here at this church, there are folks helping to get this ministry going and doing things that need to be done here at this church. I have no doubt there are countless believers who've assisted on our ministries over the years about whom I know nothing. Seriously, there's people that pray for us. People who sacrificially give.

I don't know them as individuals because they give to their church and their church gives to us. They pray for us. They may never send me a letter or a note. They may never say, hey, Rick, we've been praying for you for twenty five years and I don't even know who they are but I know there are people like that. People who've prayed and given to me personally, for my family, as well as praying for people to whom we've ministered.

We've asked people to pray for these folks numerous times. Japanese people we were ministering to, the churches we worked with in Japan. Now ministry with Grace Dillon Medical Missions. You've prayed for Steve and Katrina Butras, people you've never even met, people with our mission. Right?

People in The Philippines, people in Yap, Chuuk, people in places you don't even know where these places are. And yet you pray for these people. You pray for them by name and you don't even know how to pronounce their names. Okay? You see what I'm getting at.

Paul was thankful for these folks because they were coming alongside and they were helping in the ministry. So, we have a reason to thank God for such faithful brethren. Yeah, I can't say that I'm aware of brethren who have laid down their life for me. It's possible. I just don't know about it but I am aware of many folks who've bent over backwards to help me.

I think of those dear friends who volunteered to load the container that we shipped to Japan the first time we went. I think of those who opened their homes to us while we were on deputation, while we were on furlough, when we first arrived in Japan, didn't have a place to stay. Fellow missionaries opened up their homes to us. Let us stay there with them until we get settled. Folks, friends, missionaries helped us get our stuff through customs.

I remember one, I didn't even know he existed. We got to Japan and the fellow that we were going to live with, he called upon somebody that he knew who was fluent enough in Japanese that he could get our stuff through customs and he talked for hours with his customs agents to help us out. I'd never met the guy until I got there to Japan. So I have a particularly fond memory of gratitude for a brother who actually tore down a building that I was responsible for removing, and I was unable to help him because I was so sick I couldn't get out of bed to help. He did it all for me.

He almost electrocuted himself doing it. What about dear folks right here at Missouri Avenue Baptist Church who faithfully serve the Lord without ever calling attention to themselves. They do what they do because they love Jesus and it wouldn't hurt for us to ask around and find out who some of these folks are and just say, thanks to them every now and then for how they're being fellow workers. The ministry of this church doesn't go on by itself. There are people behind the scenes doing things.

Maybe you know who some of them are, maybe you don't. Find out. Express your appreciation to these individuals, okay? In Ephesians chapter one verses fifteen and sixteen, we read, Paul writing again, wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Also, first Thessalonians chapter one verse two, the first part of it where we read, we give thanks to God always for you all.

That pretty much sums it all up. You know, pray for all of our brethren, all of our brethren, and pray for them all the time. Pretty easy. There's a wonderful thing to thank the Lord for. The faith of our fellow Christians.

Have you ever done that? Have you ever thank God for another believer for their faith, for their their obviously, they're growing in their faith, they're they're demonstrating how their faith is being exercised and they're they're getting stronger in their faith? Doesn't it stir your heart to thank God whenever you are aware of a new believer? Either one who has just been saved or who has taken a step of faith and obedience to the Lord? Doesn't that excite you and make you want to be thankful to God for what he's doing?

Sometimes, you know, we get stuck in our own little room, so to speak, spiritually speaking, and we we don't see what God's doing in in the greater world around us. We're oblivious to what God is doing maybe in the life of somebody sitting right next to you Here in this auditorium. Well, look and see and find out and thank God for what he's doing. Just last week, Becky and I visited church in Brandon in the evening. There, they baptized a man in his seventies who had been saved for decades but he'd never followed the Lord in believers baptism.

Boy, I was thanking God for that brother. I was thanking that he was finally being obedient to the Lord whether he didn't realize it before or whatever. I don't know but he was being obedient and getting baptized. Public testimony of his faith and trust in the Lord. Right here, not too long ago, Jules was baptized.

Few months ago, Pedro and young Joshua Polo were baptized. You know, when we see such evidence of God's working in a believer's heart, do we thank God for what he has done? It's an important thing for us to do. Also, Paul models other instances of thanksgiving appropriate for believers, particularly missionaries. I'm speaking to myself here now.

Second Corinthians one seven through 11. If you want to turn there, you can but I'm just going to read this passage because we're running out of time. Second Corinthians chapter one verses seven through 11 and our hope of you is steadfast knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you be also of the consolation. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life, but we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves but in God which raises the dead who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. Ye also helping together by prayer for us that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons, thanks may be given by many on our behalf.

Here we see that many others prayed for Paul and they were being a great help to him in his ministry endeavors and apparently, at least one time, many fellow believers went together to provide a significant gift that was a great encouragement and help in his ministry. These two instances of prayers and gifts being received are typical items for which every missionary regularly offers up his own prayers of gratitude to our heavenly father. So, I would just like to take this minute right now to let you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ know how grateful Becky and I are for your prayers and your gifts. There are times more numerous than I can mention when we have been aware of the prayers of God's people for us. Every time I witness to someone, I'm conscious of the reality of God's answering prayer for spiritual power and wisdom.

When I get behind the wheel of a car to drive somewhere, I am aware of the fact that God has given me safety and skill behind the wheel and that's an answer to prayer. Sometimes, it's my prayer but many times it's other people praying for me and I don't even know about it. I and my family are totally dependent on the free will love gifts of God's people to pay our living and ministry expenses and he has done that faithfully for over thirty five years. Every single month, every bill always met. God is faithful.

You, dear folks, have a part to play in that every month and I humbly say thank you to each one of you who participates in this way. May God get the glory. Let's go back and look at verse 11 again here. Let me just read that part. Ye also helping together by prayer for us that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons, thanks may be given by many on our behalf.

In that latter part of the verse there, Paul calls attention to the fact that other Christians were giving thanks to God for the labors of the missionaries. What a great reminder to us to thank our Lord for those faithful servants who have responded to his call to go into all the world to be his witnesses. Do you ever take time and just to thank you Lord that, you know, brother and sister Erkins responded to your call in their life and and they uprooted themselves from their home in South Carolina not once but twice and are back in China serving you, being representatives of the gospel and representatives of Missouri Avenue Baptist Church. Right? Do you ever stop and think like that?

We have a whole list of missionaries that are doing that on our behalf as our representatives. Thank God for them. Second Corinthians chapter eight verses sixteen and seventeen, we read, but thanks be to God which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you. For indeed he accepted the exhortation but being more forward of his own accord, he went unto you. So here Paul's thanking God for the work he does in the heart of other believers to make them willing to volunteer to serve the Lord.

This is something every servant of the Lord is grateful to see. Other Christians stepping up to serve the Lord in some fashion. There's something else we need to note in verse 17. First of all, Titus was responsive to Paul's exhortation to participate in this specific ministry need. It's good but even more, I want us to notice the initiative that Titus demonstrated.

He was more forward and of his own accord he went. I have no doubt this was a cause of great rejoicing and thanksgiving to Paul. Can you imagine the Thanksgiving that goes up to God when a pastor or a missionary is blessed to see people volunteering to help out in the ministry in some way and then eagerly taking the initiatives to fulfill that responsibility? I tell you what, pastors and missionaries, thank God when they see him motivating individuals to volunteer to help. Work.

What can I do to help you pastor? There's something I can do, you know? Missionary, what can I do to help out here in the worship service? You know, can I can I pick up the trash out of the parking lot before the service gets started? Something like that.

You know, just people volunteering, taking initiative. That's a great cause to thank God. I've experienced this on many occasions and I'll tell you, sometimes a pastor or a missionary can get to feeling like they're all alone in the ministry but when another brother steps up to help, that is a cause to thank God. I'm not trying to manipulate you or lay a guilt trip on anyone. I'm just trying to make us all a little bit more aware of opportunities that God gives us to thank him.

Finally, let unceasing thanks be given to God for our deliverance from the power of sin and the grave. Listen to these words that Paul wrote in first Corinthians chapter 15 verses 55, six, and seven. Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

That if nothing else is something that we need to be thankful to God for every single day. The fact that he saved us from the punishment that is due to us because of our rebellion and our sins. That punishment that will come to every soul who dies without Christ. In closing, I would like you to listen to these words written by a 17 year old girl. At the age of two, she was horribly burned in a gasoline fire and explosion.

She was irreparably physically scarred and maimed. She could no longer see out of her right eye. Her fingers had to be amputated on both hands. She needs a walker to get around. She had already had 57 surgeries and a 171 blood transfusions by the time she wrote these words at age 17.

That was in fifteen years she had 57 surgeries. I believe she's had more since the time she wrote these words. But she wrote, I am learning what is really important in life. We are just here for a little while, but we will be in heaven forever. Long after I have a perfect body, others will just be starting to know the kind of suffering I have behind me.

Only theirs will be forever. She's referring to folks that she knows who die without Christ. She was burned. She has an idea of what it's like to be burned in flames. She died almost more occasions than her family could count.

God spared her life. God raised her up. He didn't heal her from all the maiming and scarring and the physical disability that she has. To this day, she's she's 40 years old now and she's lived with the results of this accident but she's got things in perspective. You see folks, if you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save you as this young woman did when she was only six years old, then there's every reason to thank God for saving your eternal soul.

For truly, you will never have to endure the fires of hell. I'm gonna close with the same verse that I read at the beginning of this worship service. Psalm one forty five eight. The Lord is gracious, full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. What do you do when you hear those words, when you read those words?

Do you thank God? Do you thank God? Do you thank God that he is gracious, compassionate, slow to get angry at you, and of great mercy. You sometimes have trouble of thinking of something to thank God for? Are you uncertain whether the timing of such Thanksgiving is appropriate?

Just listen to this final exhortation from Paul in Ephesians five twenty. Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's always appropriate every time for everything to thank God. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we have to acknowledge that there are so many times when we have been oblivious to your goodness, how you have met our needs, how you have graciously answered prayers, how you've protected us, how you've taken care of us, meeting unexpected needs that we never knew we had but you knew they were coming and you met them at just the right time.

How seldom do we remember to thank you for your mercy, forgiving our sins, for saving us from the penalty of everlasting separation from you in the flames of hell. We repent of our lack of Thanksgiving. We ask that you will work in our hearts here this morning. Create in us, Lord, not only a clean heart but a thankful heart. We are indeed grateful to you, Lord Jesus, for what you did for us on the cross of Calvary.

In your name, we pray, amen.