“Things We Should Be Thankful For” - Sermon Outlines. Org
“Things We Should Be Thankful For”
2 Samuel 22:47-51
TEXT: 2 Samuel 22:50
INTRO. We are living in a society full of ingratitude. No one seems to be
thankful for the blessings they have received. Too often our grati-
tude is dependent upon the circumstances of life. A beautiful
hymn to counteract such thinking was written by Martin Rinkart
during the Thirty Years War (1618-48). Rinkart was a pastor in
Saxony, Germany as these turbulent years unfurled and for a
season he was the only pastor in Eilenburg. His pastoral duties
caused him to preside at nearly 4500 funerals in 1637 alone. In
the context of this calamitous era, Rinkart penned the words to
NOW THANK WE ALL OUR GOD. It is a hymn of unconditional
gratitude to God. Whether or not you know this hymn, the back-
ground of its authorship provides a good motive for learning it dur-
ing this thanksgiving season (1).
Gratitude should be the attitude of every born-again believer in
Christ Jesus, but too many times we allow the flowing of our
blessings to determine the feelings of our hearts. And when this
happens we tend to be ungrateful and unthankful. Even though
we can’t have all we want, we ought to be thankful we don’t all
get what we deserve (2). A man gave a little child a piece of
candy. The mother was quite embarrassed when the child imed-
iately stuck the candy in his mouth and ate it without so much a
word of thanks. The mother immediately said, “What do you say
to the nice man who gave you a piece of candy?” The little boy
looked puzzled as to what she wanted him to say, but suddenly
a smile came to his face, and he said, “Can I have more!” The
manner in which the child reacted to the man’s kindness seems
to be the response of our society today to the blessings of God.
Romans 1:21 says, “Because that, when they knew God, they
glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain
in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
The word thankful in Romans 1:21 in the Greek language means
“to express gratitude.” We live truly in an ungrateful society. In-
stead of thanking and praising God for what he has done for us,
many times we are like the little boy holding out our hands, and
saying, “Can I have more!”
Society today seems to feel that everyone owes them something,
and if something is owed someone, why express gratitude for it?
But there are so many things which we should be thankful for, and
all these things come to by the Grace of Almighty God! Let me
share Five things we should be thankful for,
WE SHOULD:
1) Be Thankful For Our Faith
It is our faith in God that makes us become great men and women for God. “Faith enables persons to be persons because it lets God be God”-Carter Lindberg (3).
Hebrews 11 is known as the FAITH CHAPTER. It records the exploits
of men and women who through faith did mighty things for God. The
words by faith or through faith occur nineteen times in this chapter. But
the focus of the chapter is not on the exploits of those listed there, but on the faith they had in God and on God’s power. V39 tells us, “And all
these, having obtained a good report through faith…” 1 John 5:4, “For
whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith.”
WHAT DOES OUR FAITH DO FOR US? Three things I want us to see:
1. Our faith is a CHANGING FAITH. When we accepted the LORD
Jesus Christ as our Savior, we became a NEW CREATURE in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all
things are become new.” This new creation is brought about by
the Holy Spirit, the Agent of regeneration (Titus 3:5) and the giver
of divine birth (John 3:3, 6-8). God’s new creative work, begun in
each one who believes in Christ, will one day be consummated [in
glory] (4).
That does not mean that we are perfect, but it does mean our faith
in Christ has changed us, and immediately in our lives, “..old
things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” New
does not mean made over, but made anew. When a person
receives Christ as his Savior, that person becomes a new, never
before seen, creation in Christ Jesus.
The sinful things we once enjoyed, we no longer enjoy. And the
things we didn’t enjoy, all of sudden we now enjoy. We are now
a NEW CREATURE in Christ Jesus. But all of this is because of
our Faith in Christ Jesus. We should be thankful for our faith. It
is truly a CHANGING FAITH.
2. A CHARTING FAITH.
Our Faith not only has CHANGED OUR LIFE, it also CHARTS OUR LIFE.
The reason why so many today have their lives messed up, is be-
cause they do not have a faith to CHART which way they are to
go through life. Because of that, many:
-Go through life guessing, hoping they are doing the right thing.
-Go through life depending on fortune tellers, horoscopes, and
physics to tell them what they should do.
-Go through life listening to the advice of people who are as
confused as they are.
But in truth, what they do is go through life making one big mis-
take after the other.
But, we have a faith based on God’s inspired, inerrant, infallible
Word, and it charts out the direction we should go, in every area
of our lives (Proverbs 3:5-6; Psalm 119:105). We should be thankful for a faith that CHARTS.
3. A CHALLENGING FAITH.
There are many challenges in life, sports, business, life in general for many is a challenge. But the most challenging thing on the face of the earth is our Faith.
-There are people who are so bashful they would never speak
before a class, or group of people, but are now preaching be-
fore thousands.
-There are people who would never pray in public, but now they
pray in public frequently.
-There are people who have never been leaders, who are now
leading and teaching a Sunday School class.
We have a CHALLENGING FAITH. Whom God calls He also
enables and empowers. With God all things are possible (Mark 9:
23—“…all things are possible to him that believeth.”
We should be thankful unto the LORD for Our Faith-It is a CHAN-
GING FAITH, a CHARTING FAITH, and a CHALLENGING FAITH.
(2) We Should Be Thankful For Our Friends
An old Puritan, Charles Bridges, said, “If you have found one friend in
A lifetime, you have found a great treasure.”
It is sad, but true, that we all have many acquaintance, but few
friends. I wish it could be said that we all have lots of friends.
Proverbs 17:17—“A friend loveth at all times..” There are many people
who we call friends, who as long as things go the way they like they
will be our friends. But the moment that things do not go the way they
want them to go, they will become the worst enemies that we have.
There are many “sunshine friends.” When the sun is shining and
things are going great, they are right there beside you. But when the
dark clouds began to appear in our lives, they will abandon us like a
rat on a sinking ship.
But thank God for TRUE FRIENDS. The Bible says, “A friend loveth
at all times..”
(3) Be Thankful For Our Foes
Some today might say, Bro. Bryan, I am thankful for my FAITH, and for
my FRIENDS, but you want me to be thankful for my FOES? Did you
know that our foes keep us sharp, and one our toes?
ILLUS. When a boxer is training to become a great boxer, the abso-
lute worst thing he can do is to box with someone who is
under his skill level. If he is boxing with someone who is under
him, he will get careless, and drop his guard. But when he is
boxing with someone with greater skill, he knows he cannot
become careless, he must not lower his guard. Because if he
did his opponent would take full of advantage of him.
The same thing is true of us as Believers. If we are constantly sur-
rounded by friends and love ones who love us and forgive us for our
short-comings, we would lower our guard. But we realize our enemies
are always looking for a chance to get the advantage over us. And we
cannot nor must not drop our guard.
We tend to seek God and draw close to Him, when we are surrounded
by our enemies. Read some of the Psalms of David Especially 25-30
and look at the intimacy David shared with God when He was bothered
so greatly by his foes.
We should be thankful unto the LORD for our foes.
(4) Be Thankful For Our Family
The one thing in life that we take for granted more than anything else,
is our family.
One of the saddest things in this life, is to be at the funeral home, with
a family standing beside the casket of a loved one, and family mem-
bers crying:
-“I never told them I loved them.”
-“I never hugged them.”
-“I was always to busy to visit them.”
This is one of the saddest thing that can happen.
But there is something even worse, that is a person who stands beside
the casket of a loved one asking for forgiveness, knowing that loved
one cannot hear them.
-If you are going to show love to a loved one, the time to do it is while
they are living.
-If you are going to visit a loved one, the time to do it is while they are
alive, because it does them no good when you stand beside that
grave.
-If you are going to say nice things to a loved one, the time to do it
is while they can hear you.
We should thank God today for our families, because there will come a
day when we will not have them to enjoy. And then all of a sudden, all
those things which we considered so important, will no longer matter,
we will see how foolish we have been, to put those things before our
family.
(5) Be Thankful For Our Fortress
Psalm 91:2—“I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my
fortress: my God; in Him I will trust.”
The word fortress in the Hebrew means “Strong protection.” The word
refuge means “shelter from danger.” David was saying, “I know one
thing, I know the LORD, He is my SHELTER FROM DANGER and my
STRONG PROTECTION…” David knew where to flee when trouble
came. He found safety in the LORD!
-When some people have a problem, they run to the liquor store.
-When some people have a problem, they run to the medicine cabinet
to grab a pill.
But David said, “God is:
-MY REFUGE
-MY FORTRESS
-MY GOD
-IN HIM WILL I TRUST.”
We have so much to be thankful for (Psalms 139:17-18)! 2 Samuel
22:50 describes what how our feelings of thankfulness should be!
CLOSING: Are you thankful for God’s goodness to YOU? We should be:
Thankful for our FAITH, our FRIENDS. our FOES, our FAMI-
LIES, and our FORTRESS.. How grateful are you?
In August of 1620, Puritans from England left their homes and
the comforts they had known to begin a new life in the New
World. They boarded two small ships, the Speedwell and the
Mayflower, to pursue religious freedom in America. Not long
after leaving, the Speedwell developed leaks. Most of her
passengers and crew transferred over to the Mayflower before
the Speedwell turned back. A total of 102 Pilgrims suffered
through 67 days of rough sailing before they arrived at Ply-
mouth Bay in November. There was nobody to greet them, no
stores for supplies, nor homes to buy. They endured the hard-
ship of a very cold winter and the perils of sickness. At one
point, only six people were well enough to care for the sick
and dying. By March of the following year, only 51 of the
original 102 were still alive and it would be another two years
before a ship arrived with more supplies. Nonetheless, these
brave pioneers celebrated their new found freedom to worship
as they desired. This may have been a difficult year for you,
but the fact remains, we still have much for which we can be
thankful. Even in hardship we can rest in God’s presence and
plan as defined in Philippians 1:6 (5).
NOTES: 1. Raymond McHenry. In Other Words. Volume 7. Fall Quarter
1997. Issue 4. PP. 14-15.
2. Albert M. Wells, Jr. Inspiring Quotations-Contemporary &
Classical. Pg. 202.
3. 3. Wells. Pg. 68.
4. John F. Walvoord & Roy B. Zuck. The Bible Knowledge Com-
mentary Of The New Testament. Pg. 568.
5. McHenry. In Other Words. Volume 9. Fall Quarter. Issue 4.
Pg. 17.
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