Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Have I told you lately that I love
Speaker 1: you because I do Happy Thanksgiving? You know, since this
Speaker 1: next week is Thanksgiving, I'm pausing my series on Pains
Speaker 1: that we can prepare ourselves for Thanksgiving Day. So you
Speaker 1: know what I did this last week? I read through
Speaker 1: again every reference to gratitude and Thanksgiving in the Bible,
Speaker 1: and there are actually over four hundred passages that mention
Speaker 1: thanksgiving or gratitude. Now, what I saw in my Bible
Speaker 1: study were two big ideas. First, God wants gratitude to
Speaker 1: be the primary motivation behind everything we do, or say
Speaker 1: or think. Let me say that again. God wants gratitude
Speaker 1: to be the primary motive, the primary motivation behind everything
Speaker 1: that we do or say or think we want. He
Speaker 1: wants us to do everything out of thanksgiving and out
Speaker 1: of gratitude. The second thing I learned is that God
Speaker 1: rewards gratitude with a long list of blessings and benefits
Speaker 1: when we live with this continual attitude of gratitude or thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: So today, if you'll get out your message notes, I
Speaker 1: want to share how God blesses grateful hearts, how God
Speaker 1: blesses grateful hearts. And I want to identify a short
Speaker 1: sample list of benefits of gratitude, and then I'm going
Speaker 1: to give you a starter list of Bible verses that
Speaker 1: you can use on Thanksgiving Day. And then we're going
Speaker 1: to practice God's three favorite ways that he loves for
Speaker 1: us to use in expressing our gratitude to him. This
Speaker 1: is what I call God's love language. Now, let's start
Speaker 1: by reading the top two scriptures on the top of
Speaker 1: your outline. Deuteronomy chapter twenty eight, verses one to eight
Speaker 1: talks about the importance of obedience and the blessing that
Speaker 1: God gives when we obey his commands. It says this
Speaker 1: Deuteronomy twenty eight. One day, if you fully obey the
Speaker 1: Lord your God, and if you carefully follow all his commands,
Speaker 1: all of these blessings will be yours. And then he
Speaker 1: gives us a laundry list. The Lord will bless you
Speaker 1: in the city and in the country. He will bless
Speaker 1: your children, as well as blessing your crops and your livestock.
Speaker 1: The Lord will bless your harvest and the food you prepare.
Speaker 1: The Lord will bless wherever you go. The Lord will
Speaker 1: even defeat your enemies when they attack you. Yes, the
Speaker 1: Lord will send his blessing on all you put your
Speaker 1: hand to and bless everything you do. Now. God promises
Speaker 1: these blessings to us if we do what he tells
Speaker 1: us to do. In other words, if we follow us
Speaker 1: instructions for life. He says, I'm going to bless everything
Speaker 1: you do now. This past week, as I was studying
Speaker 1: what God tells us to do about the importance of gratitude,
Speaker 1: you know what, I noticed that five different times in scripture,
Speaker 1: God tells us that gratitude is far, far more than
Speaker 1: just saying thank you every so often. No, No, Gratitude
Speaker 1: is a constant mindset. You might write that down. Gratitude
Speaker 1: is a constant mindset of thankfulness. It's more than just
Speaker 1: saying thank you every once in a while to God
Speaker 1: or to people. It's an attitude of gratitude that you
Speaker 1: make as your lifestyle. God wants us to respond to
Speaker 1: everything that happens in our lives with an attitude of gratitude. Now,
Speaker 1: what I want to do is read the next verse
Speaker 1: aloud together. So everybody look at that first Thesalonians five
Speaker 1: eighteen from the New Living Translation, and let's read it
Speaker 1: slowly aloud together. Okay, Ready, always be thankful in all circumstances,
Speaker 1: for this is God's will for you. Now, always be
Speaker 1: thankful in all circumstances. That about covers everything right, there's
Speaker 1: no loophole there. Always be thankful in all circumstances. For
Speaker 1: this is God's will for you. Now, if you obey that,
Speaker 1: God says, I'm going to bless you in every area
Speaker 1: of your life. And notice that he says, this is
Speaker 1: God's will for you, God's will for your life. You say,
Speaker 1: I want to know God's will for my life. God's
Speaker 1: will is that you are always grateful. You're always thankful,
Speaker 1: You're always full of the attitude of gratitude. Now, of course,
Speaker 1: when God wants us to help us do the right thing,
Speaker 1: he always attaches a benefit or blessings to doing it.
Speaker 1: I happen to have right now in my library seventy
Speaker 1: nine different books on the topic of gratitude. So I've
Speaker 1: studied this a lot, many nine different books just on
Speaker 1: the topic of gratitude. And what I've discovered is that
Speaker 1: both scripture and scientific studies show that having a mindset
Speaker 1: of gratitude yields great, great blessings. This is an important
Speaker 1: message that I'm going to share with you before Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: but you're going to use it the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: This could actually be an entire series of messages, but
Speaker 1: let me just breeze through some bullet points. There on
Speaker 1: your outline, there's a list of bullet points on the
Speaker 1: benefits of the blessings of gratitude. Notice first, gratitude improves
Speaker 1: your brain and your physical health. Did you know that.
Speaker 1: I don't have time to go into all of these
Speaker 1: and talk about them, but doctors say that gratitude is
Speaker 1: the healthiest human emotion. It improves your brain, it improves
Speaker 1: your physical health. Number two, gratitude creates happiness. If you
Speaker 1: want to be happy, develop a thankful heart. The happiest
Speaker 1: people are those who are the most grateful. Number three,
Speaker 1: gratitude helps you sleep better. You probably didn't know that.
Speaker 1: That's a recent discovery, but the Bible told us that
Speaker 1: literally thousands of years ago in the Book of Proverbs.
Speaker 1: Gratitude Number four is the antidote to toxic emotions. In
Speaker 1: other words, it defeats things like worry and depression and
Speaker 1: anger and fear. You can't be grateful and worried at
Speaker 1: the same time, or depressed and grateful the same time,
Speaker 1: it defeats those toxic emotions. The next one, gratitude improves relationships.
Speaker 1: You want better relationships, become a more grateful man or woman.
Speaker 1: You know what, if you expressed gratitude more to your spouse,
Speaker 1: you'd have a whole lot less conflict. And then gratitude
Speaker 1: opens the door to people and to other opportunities. I
Speaker 1: had a personal example of that. I could tell you
Speaker 1: this week, but I don't have a time to tell you. Gratitude.
Speaker 1: When you were expressed gratitude to people, you make friends.
Speaker 1: It opens doors, it gives you opportunity. Gratitude, the Bible says,
Speaker 1: is the evidence of spiritual maturity. You want to know
Speaker 1: if your spiritual mature, how grateful are you? How much
Speaker 1: do you live with the attitude of gratitude. Glossians two
Speaker 1: nine says, this look on the screen. Plant your roots
Speaker 1: in Christ and let him be the foundation for your life.
Speaker 1: Be strong in your faith, always overflowing with circle. This thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: all right, it is a mark of maturity. The more
Speaker 1: mature you are, the more grateful you'll be. And then
Speaker 1: gratitude pleases God and it brings his blessing. The Bible says,
Speaker 1: it's the sacrifice that God loves most, the sacrifice of gratitude. Now,
Speaker 1: what has always baffled me about Thanksgiving Day is how
Speaker 1: very little actual time is given to thanksgiving of God.
Speaker 1: We spend a full day preparing the meal. We spend
Speaker 1: several hours watching football and talking and maybe just hanging out,
Speaker 1: and maybe one or two minutes thanking God in prayer
Speaker 1: because you don't want the food to get cold with
Speaker 1: a long prayer. So even though it's Thanksgiving Day, it's
Speaker 1: what we do the least of on that day. So
Speaker 1: I want to give you some homework. It's a homework
Speaker 1: assignment for Thanksgiving Day with those that you have Thanksgiving with.
Speaker 1: Here is a starter list for thanking God this Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: He said, I don't know what to be thankful for. Well,
Speaker 1: it's a list of verses. And what I would encourage
Speaker 1: you to do is, when you're sitting at the table together,
Speaker 1: ask everybody around your table to read one of the verses, okay,
Speaker 1: And then after all the verses have been read, you
Speaker 1: might start a discussion simply asking well, which of these
Speaker 1: verses are you the most thankful for? And it may
Speaker 1: be something that's already been mentioned, or maybe something that
Speaker 1: hasn't been mentioned. What does God want us to be
Speaker 1: grateful for, not just a thanksgiving but all the time. Well,
Speaker 1: as we go through this list of verses, and again
Speaker 1: didn't give you any blanks, so just circle the reason
Speaker 1: in each verse. Okay, here are some reasons why we
Speaker 1: need to be the most grateful people of all people. First,
Speaker 1: because God gave us life. God gave us life Psalm
Speaker 1: one thirty nine, thirteen and fourteen. You created informed me.
Speaker 1: Circle that you created informed me in my mother's body.
Speaker 1: So I thank you because you made me. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: even be alive if it weren't for God. That's reason enough.
Speaker 1: Number two, we can be thankful that we're still alive.
Speaker 1: Are you glad you're still alive from a year ago?
Speaker 1: Ecclesiastes eleven eight says, be grateful for every year you live.
Speaker 1: That's another thing to be grateful for. Number three, we
Speaker 1: can be grateful that He saved us Psalm thirteen, verse five.
Speaker 1: My heart is happy because you saved me. Number four,
Speaker 1: we can be grateful because God is good. God is good.
Speaker 1: Circle this. I give you thanks because you are good,
Speaker 1: says Psalm fifty four, verse six. Here's another one. I
Speaker 1: can be grateful that God answers our prayers Psalm one
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty one. I praise the Lord for answering my prayers.
Speaker 1: And I can be grateful that he shows us how
Speaker 1: to live Psalm sixteen, verse seven. I praise the Lord
Speaker 1: because he guides me. Here's another one I can praise
Speaker 1: the Lord. I can thank God that he forgives me
Speaker 1: Psalm eighteen, verse one. Tell the Lord how thankful you
Speaker 1: are because he is kind and always merciful. And then
Speaker 1: number eight, I can be grateful that he will never
Speaker 1: stop loving us Psalm one oh seven, verse eight. Give
Speaker 1: thanks to the Lord for his unfailing life. Now, I
Speaker 1: want to spend the rest of our time together looking
Speaker 1: at what I call God's three favorite ways. God's three
Speaker 1: favorite ways for us to express gratitude to Him. This
Speaker 1: last week, in my study of every passage in the
Speaker 1: Bible that references gratefulness of thanksgiving, I found at least
Speaker 1: a dozen different ways that God tells us to express
Speaker 1: our gratitude he tells us, But I want to focus
Speaker 1: on just the three most mentioned ways because they are
Speaker 1: mentioned more than all the others put together. These must
Speaker 1: be God's favorite expressions of gratitude because, as I said,
Speaker 1: he refers to them, these three that I must share today,
Speaker 1: more than all the others combined. Now, the Bible has
Speaker 1: a lot to say about the songs of Thanksgiving, the
Speaker 1: offerings of Thanksgiving, and the top of Thanksgiving. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you're aware that we all have, as human beings, different
Speaker 1: love languages. Your love language is different than the language
Speaker 1: of your spouse. What makes your spouse feel loved is
Speaker 1: different than what makes you feel loved. We like to
Speaker 1: be told that we're loved in different ways. That's because
Speaker 1: we're all different. Well, so does God. And what I'm
Speaker 1: going to share with you today are God's three top
Speaker 1: love languages. These are the ones that bring him the
Speaker 1: most pleasure. So let's look at the first one. The
Speaker 1: first habit of expressing gratitude is this write it down,
Speaker 1: singing back to God, singing back to God. Now you
Speaker 1: may not know this, nobody has ever told us to you,
Speaker 1: but God is a singing God. Did you know that
Speaker 1: the Bible tells us that God sings. In fact, and
Speaker 1: here's the shocker, he sings about you. He sings love
Speaker 1: songs and joyful songs about you. Zeph Andiah three verse
Speaker 1: seventeen says this, the Lord your God is with you,
Speaker 1: and he is your mighty savior. He takes great delight
Speaker 1: in you, calming your fears with his love, and he
Speaker 1: rejoices over you with singing about you. Did you know
Speaker 1: that verse? God rejoices over you with singing about you. Now,
Speaker 1: let me just say this. Think about this. You've never
Speaker 1: heard God sing over you. But one day in heaven,
Speaker 1: you're going to hear God sing about you. And it's
Speaker 1: gonna be the most beautiful, joyful sound you've ever heard.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to hear pure perfect joy. We have
Speaker 1: joy on this planet, but it's a broken joy. It's
Speaker 1: an imperfect joy. When God sings, it is pure, perfect joy.
Speaker 1: And you're gonna get to hear God sing over you
Speaker 1: one day. That's something to look forward to. Have you
Speaker 1: ever listened to a mother calm her baby by quietly
Speaker 1: singing to that baby. I could never forget the sacred
Speaker 1: moments of listening to my wife, okay, love our children
Speaker 1: with lullabies. I can hear her voice in a soft voice,
Speaker 1: humming and singing to our babies. That's how God loves you.
Speaker 1: God sings. You didn't know that In fact, the only
Speaker 1: reason music exists in the universe is because God invented it.
Speaker 1: God is a musical god, and since you were created
Speaker 1: in his image, you like music too. Horses don't like music.
Speaker 1: They're not created in his image. Worms don't like music.
Speaker 1: They're not created in his image. So let me show
Speaker 1: you just a few verses of scripture where God tells
Speaker 1: us to express our thanks to Him through singing Psalm
Speaker 1: one seven, verse seven. Sing out your thanks to him.
Speaker 1: Sing praises to our God Psalm ninety five, verse two.
Speaker 1: Let us come before him with thanksgiving, that's what we're
Speaker 1: talking about, and sing joyful songs of praise. Now now, friends,
Speaker 1: this is one of the main reasons for coming together
Speaker 1: to worship together instead of just watching a service online.
Speaker 1: You miss the value of singing praise together. You may
Speaker 1: not realize this, but you sing better when you sing
Speaker 1: with others. Right. Yeah, I don't like to hear myself sing,
Speaker 1: but I don't mind singing when there's five hundred or
Speaker 1: one thousand other people out there. Colossian three point sixteen
Speaker 1: says this, sing psalms and hymns and sacred songs, singing
Speaker 1: to God with thanksgiving. In your hearts. This is the
Speaker 1: first habit of thanksgiving that God loves singing back to God.
Speaker 1: Are you doing that, Somi, I don't sing. Somebody saying
Speaker 1: I can't sing. Somebody said I've lost my voice, Sir,
Speaker 1: I never had it. Listen, listen closely to a pastor
Speaker 1: who loves you. God loves your voice. He gave it
Speaker 1: to you. He gave you your voice. He wants to
Speaker 1: hear your voice from you, not somebody else's, not you
Speaker 1: trying to be somebody else. He wants to hear your
Speaker 1: voice because he gave it to you. And if you
Speaker 1: are embarrassed about singing with your voice, I'll just be
Speaker 1: honest with you. You've got a pride problem. You got
Speaker 1: an ego issue. You need to learn to accept yourself
Speaker 1: the way God does. You need to treat yourself the
Speaker 1: way God does. God enjoys hearing you sing praise to Him.
Speaker 1: God wants you to learn to sing to Him all
Speaker 1: the time. Look at this verse on the screen. So
Speaker 1: I'm forty four to eight. All day long we praise
Speaker 1: our God, not just in service and worship on the weekends.
Speaker 1: All day long, we praise to God. We are always
Speaker 1: grateful to Him. Now, some of us hum more than
Speaker 1: we sing. At least some are thanksgiving song. That's okay,
Speaker 1: he said, well, okay, all day long. What about it night. Well,
Speaker 1: if you're not gonna wake anybody else a single way,
Speaker 1: go right ahead and sing away. But if you've got
Speaker 1: a full house at your home. Psalm sixty three, verse
Speaker 1: six from the Message says this, if I'm sleepless at night,
Speaker 1: I spend hours in grateful reflection. What because that's not
Speaker 1: going to bother anybody. The first habit of gratitude is
Speaker 1: singing back to God. Singing back to God, it's one
Speaker 1: of God's three favorite ways for you to express your
Speaker 1: gratitude to him. Now here's the second habit of gratitude,
Speaker 1: giving back to God. Write that down, giving back to God.
Speaker 1: At Thanksgiving or any other time, we give thanks by
Speaker 1: giving back to God. We give thanks by giving, We
Speaker 1: give back the first part of what He has given
Speaker 1: to us. Let's look at some scripture on this Psalm
Speaker 1: fifty four, verse six of this, I will offer a
Speaker 1: sacrificial offering as a special gift to thank you Lord,
Speaker 1: because you are so good. That's a thanksgiving offering. We
Speaker 1: talked about a thanksgiving song. But the Bible talks about
Speaker 1: a Thanksgiving offering, an offering where we give to give thanks.
Speaker 1: You know, about four hundred years ago, a group of
Speaker 1: Christian believers who were being persecuted for their faith left
Speaker 1: Europe and moved to North America in order to establish
Speaker 1: a colony that allowed religious liberty so they could worship
Speaker 1: God freely. And those original people who came four hundred
Speaker 1: years ago from Europe were called the Pilgrims. Four hundred
Speaker 1: years ago, they established with the Native Americans in their
Speaker 1: area a Thanksgiving Day in the fall to give thanks
Speaker 1: to God. That's where the whole Thanksgiving Day got started.
Speaker 1: Of the modern days, now a lot of nations have
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving Days. One hundred and fifty years later, after the Pilgrims,
Speaker 1: America's first President, George Washington, created, at the urging of Congress,
Speaker 1: the first national Thanksgiving Holiday. If you'd like to see
Speaker 1: Washington's proclamation, just write me a note and give me
Speaker 1: your email on a card. I'll be glad to send
Speaker 1: it to you this week. You might want to read
Speaker 1: Washington's original proclamation. It'll blow your mind what the President
Speaker 1: of the United States said about the necessity of being
Speaker 1: grateful to God. And it's pretty clear. So that happened
Speaker 1: four hundred years ago, the first modern Thanksgiving, and then
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty years later the first Thanksgiving holiday
Speaker 1: for a nation. But did you know that three thousand
Speaker 1: years before that, three thousand years before that, God had
Speaker 1: told the nation of Israel to establish a thanksgiving festival
Speaker 1: every year called the Feast of Weeks, and they were
Speaker 1: to celebrate God's goodness, and they were to expel pressed
Speaker 1: their gratitude to God by bringing him a special thanksgiving offering.
Speaker 1: That's three thousand years before the modern Thanksgiving day. Deuteronomy
Speaker 1: chapter sixteen, verse ten, and eleven says this, I love
Speaker 1: this in the TeV version, celebrate the harvest festival. To
Speaker 1: honor the Lord your God by bringing him a free
Speaker 1: will offering in proportion to the blessing he has given. You.
Speaker 1: Do this at the place of worship. So in the
Speaker 1: original Thanksgiving day, they were to bring a gift of
Speaker 1: thanksgiving to the place of thanksgiving, that's the temples where
Speaker 1: they worshiped. Now, this thanksgi offering has been practiced by
Speaker 1: God's people for thousands and thousands of years, and we've
Speaker 1: practiced it here at saddleback since our church began forty
Speaker 1: two years ago, So this week we're going to be
Speaker 1: doing our angle Thanksgiving offering. It's mentioned many many times
Speaker 1: in the Bible, such as in Psalm one sixteen seventeen,
Speaker 1: where King David says, this, I will sacrifice a thanksgiving
Speaker 1: offering to you. Now listen. This is God's second favorite
Speaker 1: way of being thanked. He talks about it over and
Speaker 1: over and over. The Thanksgiving offering is mentioned many times
Speaker 1: in scripture. In Psalm fifty, verse twenty three, God says this,
Speaker 1: those people who truly honor me are those who are
Speaker 1: they who bring me offerings to show thanks. Those people
Speaker 1: who truly honor me, God says, are those who bring
Speaker 1: the offerings to show thanks. And I God save those
Speaker 1: who do that. It's one of God's favorite love languages.
Speaker 1: Singing back to God and giving back to God? Is it? Are?
Speaker 1: You know? Examples and illustrations of gratitude. Anytime we give
Speaker 1: an offering to God, it actually represents three kinds of gratitude.
Speaker 1: It's a three D gratitude past, present in future. When
Speaker 1: I give an offering to God, it represents I'm grateful
Speaker 1: for God's blessing. In the past. I'm grateful for God's
Speaker 1: blessing today, and I'm grateful in faith for God's continued
Speaker 1: blessing in the future. I thank you for the past,
Speaker 1: I thank him for today, and I thank him that
Speaker 1: He's going to keep on taking care of me in
Speaker 1: the future. Three kinds of gratitude. So what kind of
Speaker 1: offering are we to bring to show our gratitude to God. Well,
Speaker 1: the Bible says it over and over and over and over.
Speaker 1: We are to give God the first part of our income,
Speaker 1: not the leftovers. Not well, I pay all my bills
Speaker 1: and whatever's left I'll give to God. We are to
Speaker 1: put God first in our finances. Now. God knows this,
Speaker 1: this skuy of faith putting him first, which is why
Speaker 1: he tells us to do it. Because it's a step
Speaker 1: of faith. God is more interested in your faith. He
Speaker 1: certainly doesn't need your money. God doesn't need your money,
Speaker 1: He owns it. All the money you got in really
Speaker 1: yours it with somebody else. That's four years that yours
Speaker 1: right now on loan is be loaned to somebody else later.
Speaker 1: God just wants to know if you trust him. Now,
Speaker 1: as I said, with every principle, God gives us that
Speaker 1: God gives us. He also attaches a promise. There are
Speaker 1: more promises in the Bible related to giving back to
Speaker 1: God than any other promises in the scripture. Proverbs three
Speaker 1: nine and ten is a good example. Proverbs three nine
Speaker 1: and ten says, this, honor the Lord by giving him
Speaker 1: circle this the first part, circle first part. By giving
Speaker 1: him the first part of your income. And here's the
Speaker 1: promise that was the premise. Here's the promise. He will
Speaker 1: fill your barns and barrels to overflow with more. God says,
Speaker 1: giving him an offering is not just an act of gratitude,
Speaker 1: it's an act of faith. And God always honors faith,
Speaker 1: so he promises to bless you back. That's why I
Speaker 1: said there are more promises in the Bible attached to
Speaker 1: giving and generosity than the other subject. What God wants
Speaker 1: his children to be like him. God is a generous God.
Speaker 1: Everything you have in life is a gift of God's love.
Speaker 1: God is the number one giver. God so loved the
Speaker 1: world that he gave. You can love. You can give
Speaker 1: without loving, but you can't love without giving. God so
Speaker 1: loved that he gave. And if you love God, you're
Speaker 1: gonna give, and if you love others, you're gonna give. Now,
Speaker 1: he says, here's the promise. Give me the first part,
Speaker 1: and I'll overflow your barns and your barrels. In other words,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get back more than you could possibly give
Speaker 1: to me. God is that you give to me, and
Speaker 1: I'll give to you, and we'll see who wins. Now,
Speaker 1: Jesus expanded and extended the promise. We just read Proverbs
Speaker 1: three by saying it this way. In Luke, chapter six,
Speaker 1: verse thirty eight, look up here on the screen. This
Speaker 1: is from the New Living Translation Luke six thirty eight.
Speaker 1: If you give, this is Jesus talking. If you give,
Speaker 1: you will receive, and your gift will return to you
Speaker 1: in full measure. And then he says, press down, shaken
Speaker 1: together to make room for more. Like you've got a
Speaker 1: bag of beans. You keep shaking it so it can
Speaker 1: hold more. Press down, press down, shaken together to make
Speaker 1: room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use
Speaker 1: in giving larger from wall, Jesus is talking, it will
Speaker 1: be used to measure what is given back to you.
Speaker 1: Do you believe that verse? Do you believe that if
Speaker 1: you give, God will give back? More to you? How
Speaker 1: much do you trust God? Do you think Jesus is
Speaker 1: a liar? You know what, I've never understood, friends, I've
Speaker 1: never understood why do people trust Jesus to forgive their
Speaker 1: sin and save their souls and take them to heaven,
Speaker 1: but they don't trust the same Jesus with their finances
Speaker 1: and the promises he makes about that. It makes no
Speaker 1: sense at all. If you can't trust Jesus with your finances,
Speaker 1: why do you trust him for your salvation? Really, this
Speaker 1: is a faith issue. How much do you trust God?
Speaker 1: What we're talking about, of course, giving the first part
Speaker 1: back to God is called the principle of tithing. Tithing
Speaker 1: is the old English word means ten percent. It's not
Speaker 1: twelve percent, it's not twenty it's not one percent. Tithing
Speaker 1: means the first ten percent. If I make ten dollars,
Speaker 1: the first dollar goes back to God. If I make
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars, first ten dollars go back to God.
Speaker 1: First we give the first ten percent of our income
Speaker 1: back to God in faith and gratitude, and then He
Speaker 1: blesses the other ninety percent. Look at these last two
Speaker 1: verses in this section Deuteronomy fourteen twenty three Living Bible.
Speaker 1: Bring your tithe that's the first ten percent. Bring your
Speaker 1: tithe to the Lord the first of all you earn.
Speaker 1: The purpose of pything is to teach you to always
Speaker 1: put God first in your lives. Now you may say, well,
Speaker 1: God's first in my life. Well, let me see two things.
Speaker 1: Let me see your calendar and let me see your checkbook,
Speaker 1: because the way you spend your time and the way
Speaker 1: you spend your money tells me what's really first in
Speaker 1: your life. And then, one of the greatest promises of all,
Speaker 1: it's the only promise in the Bible where God says
Speaker 1: you can prove that I exist. It's a good verse
Speaker 1: for atheist. You want to prove God's exist pithe here's
Speaker 1: what God says. Malachi three to ten. Bring your whole
Speaker 1: tithe that's ten percent to my storehouse, says the Lord,
Speaker 1: so there will be food in my house. You bring
Speaker 1: the first ten percent on the first day of the
Speaker 1: week as an act that God is first. And what's
Speaker 1: first day week Sunday is an act of worship. You
Speaker 1: bring it to my storehouse, says the Lord. You don't
Speaker 1: give your tithe to your sister or or to some
Speaker 1: nice organization. After belongs to God, it goes to his temple,
Speaker 1: it goes to his story. Ouse says that there will
Speaker 1: be food in my house, and then he says this.
Speaker 1: Test me in this, God, dare you try it? You
Speaker 1: like it? Test me? Here's the Pepsi challenge verse. Test
Speaker 1: me in this, and see if I won't throw open
Speaker 1: the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing
Speaker 1: you won't have enough room for it. Wow. God says,
Speaker 1: this is the way you can prove God exists. Tithe
Speaker 1: all right, Tithe put him first. And that is God's
Speaker 1: second favorite way of being told you trust him, of
Speaker 1: being told you're grateful. We sing songs of thanksgiving and
Speaker 1: we give back to God in Thanksgiving. Now. Both last
Speaker 1: week and this week, those of you who came to
Speaker 1: worship at one of our campuses, you received the offering
Speaker 1: envelope for our annual Thanksgiving offerings, our annual offering to go.
Speaker 1: We do it every year. I told you last week
Speaker 1: I didn't want you to give. Last week, I said,
Speaker 1: take it home and pray about it, because you really
Speaker 1: need to thank God and ask God about it. And
Speaker 1: I told you take it home, pray about it, and
Speaker 1: if you're ready, you can give your Thanksgiving offering when
Speaker 1: we sing in just a minute. But if you haven't
Speaker 1: really prayed about it, you can take your envelope home,
Speaker 1: you can mail it in during a Thanksgiving weekend. You
Speaker 1: can bring it next week. And of course, if you
Speaker 1: set up online tithing like most of us have, that's
Speaker 1: what Cay and I have, you can do that. You
Speaker 1: can just tithe online. You know. Every single week, you guys,
Speaker 1: I received the most amazing letters and testimonies from people
Speaker 1: expressing their gratitude to God through generosity. One recently was
Speaker 1: from a guy who a number of years ago was
Speaker 1: down on his luck and he came to Saddlebacks Free
Speaker 1: Clinic and he, you know, he we helped him in
Speaker 1: his time and need. And a few years later he
Speaker 1: sent a check and it was for one hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: Let me read you just one letter that I received
Speaker 1: this week, and then we're going to give our Thanksgiving offering.
Speaker 1: Here's the letter. It says this, it's not addressed to me,
Speaker 1: it's actually addressed to you. Dear Saddleback Church. Is from
Speaker 1: a woman back in the Midwest. She says, Dear Saddleback Church, family,
Speaker 1: I've been watching online services from my home in the
Speaker 1: Midwest since the onset of COVID in March twenty twenty. Today,
Speaker 1: your services have been a real blessing to me. I'm
Speaker 1: often singing and crying alone as I have found inspiration
Speaker 1: from the services of Saddleback from week to week. Now.
Speaker 1: These twenty months have been trying in so many ways.
Speaker 1: So the messages about hope and grace and even pain
Speaker 1: today which was last week, have never been more real. Yes,
Speaker 1: she writes, sometimes I ponder what my real purpose is,
Speaker 1: but God has blessed me well financially, so it may
Speaker 1: be that part of my purpose is to help you
Speaker 1: continue to build your saddle Backed Church. She says, I'll
Speaker 1: probably never get to worship in the new facility you're in,
Speaker 1: although it looks incredible, but my heart will certainly be
Speaker 1: with you and be with all of you there. So
Speaker 1: continue your fabulous work. And she signed your name, and
Speaker 1: she sent a check this week for fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: This is a woman who's never even been to our church,
Speaker 1: but she says, I want to support the building of
Speaker 1: Saddle Backed Church and all its campuses now right now,
Speaker 1: as we begin to look at God's third favorite way
Speaker 1: of us saying thanks tim expressing gratitude to God. I
Speaker 1: want to ask the ushers at all of our campuses
Speaker 1: to begin distributing the communion elements while I'm speaking. You
Speaker 1: go ahead and get up right now and begin passing
Speaker 1: out those elements. Now, we said that the first of
Speaker 1: God's three favorite ways that he loves to be shown
Speaker 1: gratitude is singing back to God. And the second favorite
Speaker 1: way that God has is for us to give back
Speaker 1: to God. And we've seen the Thanksgiving song, and we've
Speaker 1: seen the power of the Thanksgiving offering. But now we
Speaker 1: come to what's called the Thanksgiving cup, and what we're
Speaker 1: talking about is taking the Lord's Supper together as an
Speaker 1: act of gratitude. God's third favorite way of being told
Speaker 1: that we love him is through communion through the Lord's Supper.
Speaker 1: The third habit of gratitude is this, write it down
Speaker 1: communion with God. First Corinthians, chapter eleven, verses twenty three
Speaker 1: to twenty seven. Up here on the screen, it's not
Speaker 1: on your outline. It says this. On the night that
Speaker 1: he was betrayed, Jesus took bread, and when he had
Speaker 1: given thanks, he broke it, and he broke the bread,
Speaker 1: and he said, this is my body, which is for you.
Speaker 1: Do this in remembrance of me. Then in the same way,
Speaker 1: Jesus took the cup, and he said, this cup is
Speaker 1: the new covenant in my blood. And whenever you drink it,
Speaker 1: do this and remembrance of me. And he says it twice.
Speaker 1: Do this in remembrance of me. Communion is to help
Speaker 1: us remember what's remembering for, so we can be grateful.
Speaker 1: Whatever you remember, you can be grateful for. He says,
Speaker 1: I've given you this memory tool, communion. The bread and
Speaker 1: the wine, the juice and the wafer. I've given you
Speaker 1: this communion tool to remember the good thing that I
Speaker 1: did for you, the suffering that I did for you,
Speaker 1: what it cost me to pay for yourself, Jesus. The
Speaker 1: Bible says this, for whenever you eat the bread and
Speaker 1: you drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death. It's
Speaker 1: a remember remembering of God's great gift on Calvary, Jesus'
Speaker 1: death on the cross. You proclaim the Lord's death until
Speaker 1: he comes again. He didn't stay dead. He's coming back again.
Speaker 1: That's what Easter is all about. And then the Bible says, therefore,
Speaker 1: whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the
Speaker 1: Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning
Speaker 1: against the body and the blood of the Lord. What
Speaker 1: does that phrase mean? An unworthy manner? You know, as
Speaker 1: a young Christian, I often wondered and was even a
Speaker 1: little worried what that meant, to take the Lord's supper,
Speaker 1: to take communion in an unworthy manner. But I now
Speaker 1: believe that taking the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner
Speaker 1: includes taking communion without truly being grateful for all Jesus
Speaker 1: paid for with his death on the cross. To take
Speaker 1: it in an unworthy manner is to reject the power
Speaker 1: of the cross. It is to take communion without fully
Speaker 1: understanding and fully accepting and fully being grateful for Jesus'
Speaker 1: sacrifice for me. This is Jesus's third favorite way of
Speaker 1: us expressing our thanks to him. He gave us the
Speaker 1: memory tool of communion. Now you've probably heard that another
Speaker 1: name for the Lord's Supper, or another name for communion
Speaker 1: is the Eucharist. Have you heard that word the Eucharist.
Speaker 1: That's a Bible term. It's in the Bible. You know,
Speaker 1: the New Testament was written in Greek. Eucharist is a
Speaker 1: Greek word. You know what it means, thanksgiving. Eucharist is
Speaker 1: the Greek word for the thanksgiving. The communion is to
Speaker 1: be a model of thanksgiving. It's a way we give
Speaker 1: thanks back to God, first through the thanksgiving song, second
Speaker 1: through the thanksgiving offering, and third through the thanksgiving cup.
Speaker 1: One Corinthians ten sixteen says, this is not the cup
Speaker 1: of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in
Speaker 1: the blood of Christ, and it's not the bread that
Speaker 1: we break participation in the body of Christ. When we
Speaker 1: drink from a communion cup and we eat the bread,
Speaker 1: we are participating in one another of God's favorite ways
Speaker 1: to be told, thank you God. By our eating, we
Speaker 1: are saying Father, thank you, thank you, thank you for
Speaker 1: sacrificing yourself to send your son to come and die
Speaker 1: on the cross for our sins so that we can
Speaker 1: be forgiven. And we remind ourselves of the high price
Speaker 1: that Jesus paid to save us. And our only response
Speaker 1: is gratitude. Colossians two thirteen and fourteen says this we
Speaker 1: were spiritually dead because of our sins and our sinful nature.
Speaker 1: We were dead separated from Christ. But God gave us
Speaker 1: new life. We didn't turn over new leaf. He gave
Speaker 1: us a whole new life. God gave us new life
Speaker 1: with Christ. He forgave all our sins, and it counseled
Speaker 1: the record that contained all the charges against us, and
Speaker 1: he took it and he destroyed it by nailing it
Speaker 1: to Christ's cross. That's what the Bible says. What is
Speaker 1: our response to such overwhelming love? It is First Corinthians
Speaker 1: fifteen fifty seven, which says that how we thank God
Speaker 1: who gives us victory over sin and over death through
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, our Lord. This is the Eucharist, This is
Speaker 1: the cup of Thanksgiving. Now, I now want us to
Speaker 1: take the elements together, if they've all been served to
Speaker 1: everybody by now, as an expression of our gratitude to God.
Speaker 1: We have saying sung together. We've sung together in thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: We have given back to God in thanksgiving. And now
Speaker 1: we're going to drink the cup together in thanksgiving. But
Speaker 1: we have to do it in a worthy manner. That
Speaker 1: means you've accepted the gift of salvation in your heart.
Speaker 1: Communion means nothing if you haven't already accepted the gift
Speaker 1: by faith in your life. And if you've forgotten how
Speaker 1: grateful you ought to be be for the death of Christ.
Speaker 1: That's why we're to take commune to remind ourselves of
Speaker 1: the sacrifice. So I want you to bow your heads
Speaker 1: right now, and with your head bowed, I want to
Speaker 1: ask you, have you ever completely fully accepted the gift
Speaker 1: of God's salvation by faith? Have you accepted the grace
Speaker 1: of God in your life? Have you accepted His forgiveness
Speaker 1: realizing that you can't earn it, pay forward, or deserve it.
Speaker 1: It's just a gift. And have you expressed your gratitude
Speaker 1: back to God. If you haven't, say so right now
Speaker 1: in your heart, say Dear God, thank you, Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you for dying for me. Say that thank you
Speaker 1: for paying for my sins. Say that thank you for
Speaker 1: dying on the cross so that I could be forgiven
Speaker 1: and that I could go to heaven and so that
Speaker 1: I could have a purpose for Livingjesus Christ, I opened
Speaker 1: my life to you, and I give myself completely to you.
Speaker 1: And I want to develop these habits of singing with gratitude,
Speaker 1: giving back in song, of giving back financially, and of
Speaker 1: taking communion to remember your sacrifice. I ask you to
Speaker 1: accept me into your family in Jesus' name. Amen. At
Speaker 1: the end of this message, I'm going to ask you
Speaker 1: to let me know about your decision if you did.
Speaker 1: But here's my challenge to you, all of you this weekend.
Speaker 1: My challenge is that you'll begin to develop the mindset
Speaker 1: and lifestyle and gratitude to God in every aspect of
Speaker 1: your life. Now, I want you to take the little
Speaker 1: way for right now. The Bible says that on the
Speaker 1: night Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and he broke
Speaker 1: it and he blessed it. He said, this is my
Speaker 1: body which is given for you. Do this to remember me.
Speaker 1: As you eat this bread right now, I want you
Speaker 1: to say, Jesus, I am so grateful that you died
Speaker 1: for me. Eat it and say that in your mind, Jesus,
Speaker 1: I am so grateful that you died for me. Tell
Speaker 1: him how grateful you are that he did what you
Speaker 1: can't do for yourself. The Bible says them the same
Speaker 1: way that Jesus took the cup of the New Covenant,
Speaker 1: he so, this is the cup of the New Company,
Speaker 1: representing my blood, and he said, I want you to
Speaker 1: do this to remember me, he said, as often as
Speaker 1: you drink it. Do this to remember me as you
Speaker 1: drink this little cup. Right now, I want you, in
Speaker 1: your own words to express your gratitude to God for
Speaker 1: Jesus saving you. Just say it in any way in
Speaker 1: your heart that you want to say it. Just say
Speaker 1: thank you God for saving me when I could not
Speaker 1: save myself, and drink that cop I hope you're going
Speaker 1: to make these three habits, the habit of singing back
Speaker 1: to God, giving back to God our tithe and communion
Speaker 1: with God to the elements a regular part of your
Speaker 1: Christian life. Colossians three seventeen sums up everything I've been
Speaker 1: trying to teach you this weekend. It says this. So
Speaker 1: now everything you do circle word everything, everything you do
Speaker 1: or say, should be done in the name of our
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus with thanksgiving. Circle back with thanksgiving to God
Speaker 1: the Father. So take out the garbage with thanksgiving, wash
Speaker 1: the dishes with thanksgiving, pick up the kids with thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: go to bed with thanksgiving, do everything, take a shower
Speaker 1: with everything God wants Thanksgiving to be the habit of living.
Speaker 1: It is a mindset, not simply saying thank you every
Speaker 1: once in a while. Now, since that's what that scripture says,
Speaker 1: let me ask you, will you commit? Will you personally
Speaker 1: commit from this day forward for the rest of your life,
Speaker 1: since you know that God wants everything to be done
Speaker 1: with gratitude, will you commit to regularly expressing your gratitude
Speaker 1: to God by singing back to Him, by giving back
Speaker 1: to Him through tithing, and by taking communion. If so,
Speaker 1: I want you to drive a steak in the ground
Speaker 1: today that you never forget it. I want you to
Speaker 1: let me know of your decision. I want you to
Speaker 1: pull out a card in your program and I want
Speaker 1: you to write your name and your address on it. Okay,
Speaker 1: these are going to come directly me. And I want
Speaker 1: you to write two words, I'm thankful. Write your name
Speaker 1: and your address and the phray our email and the
Speaker 1: phrase I'm thankful. As you're committing to these habits for
Speaker 1: the rest of your life. Now, if you're not thankful,
Speaker 1: do nothing, Do nothing. If you're not thankful. But if
Speaker 1: you are thankful and you want to thank God in
Speaker 1: the ways he likes to be thanked the most in
Speaker 1: his love language, he did everything for you. You owe
Speaker 1: him everything, your own life, your salvation, all those things
Speaker 1: we looked at. If you, if you are thankful, get
Speaker 1: out a card, write your name and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: contact information on it, and write the phrase I'm thank
Speaker 1: That's it, the phrase I'm thankful. Now, as we close,
Speaker 1: I just have to mention one more way to show
Speaker 1: God's gratitude, and here it is by telling other people
Speaker 1: the good news. By telling other people the good news,
Speaker 1: when you witness, when you invite people to church, when
Speaker 1: you share a book, when you tell other people about
Speaker 1: the Lord, you share a testimony, that is the representation
Speaker 1: of gratitude. Isaiah twelve, verse four says this, thank the Lord,
Speaker 1: praise his name, and tell the world what he's done.
Speaker 1: They all go together. You thank the Lord, and you
Speaker 1: praise his name by telling the world he has done.
Speaker 1: Who have you told about Jesus? Who have you told
Speaker 1: about the good news? When was the last time you
Speaker 1: talked to anybody about the good news? Second Christians four
Speaker 1: point fifteen says this, This is a verse that's been
Speaker 1: a theme verse of Saddleback for forty two years. In
Speaker 1: Corinthians four point fifteen, the grace that is reaching more
Speaker 1: and more people will cause thanksgiving to overflow to the
Speaker 1: glory of God. Why do we keep growing, why do
Speaker 1: we keep reaching out? Why do all our campus keep
Speaker 1: moving and getting in bigger buildings and better locations. Because
Speaker 1: as more and more people experience the grace of God,
Speaker 1: it will cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
Speaker 1: And anytime you invite somebody to come with you to church,
Speaker 1: it is an expression of gratitude to God. We're getting
Speaker 1: ready to start Christmas season. Next week, we start Christmas
Speaker 1: season together. More people are likely to come at Christmas
Speaker 1: than any other time. Why don't you plan to bring
Speaker 1: somebody with you next weekend? For the next part in
Speaker 1: our series. I love you, I'm praying for you, and
Speaker 1: I thank God for you. I'll see you next weekend.