11-22-09 Fundamentals: Giving Thanks

Video Clip: The Ultimate Gift      DVD Chapter: 15     Start Time: 0:53:35     End Time: 0:57:59

What does your Thanksgiving dinner look like? Better than that I hope! Is your Thanksgiving truly a time to be thankful or is your thanksgiving more likely to end in a fight? Does your family actually reflect on what they’re thankful for? What is the likelihood that your family would laugh at you if you proposed going around the table and sharing something you’re thankful for?

I want you to be honest with yourself for a moment. Is it difficult for you to be thankful? If you were to guess, how much of your day do you spend being thankful? How many minutes a day do you spend being thankful? One, five, ten? If we’re honest with ourselves, most of us spend very little time being thankful.

And you might ask yourself why that is. Why don’t we spend more time being thankful? I mean, for most of us, we have much to be thankful for. One of the reasons why we’re not more thankful is because it’s hard work. For many of us, it’s easier to criticize someone or something than to give a complement? It’s easier to badmouth someone, rather than to give them praise, isn’t it?

I mean, let’s take a poll. On thanksgiving, the one day a year that we can all agree on that we should be thankful, how much time to you or your family spend thinking about what you are thankful for? I know that at my extended family gatherings, we spend more time watching the Lions lose than we do being thankful. How about you?

Would you be willing to turn to the person sitting next to you, and take just a minute and reflect with one another on how much time do you or your family spend being thankful on Thanksgiving? How about the other 364 days of the year? Would you do that?

Is anybody willing to share some of your thoughts?

 

Does anybody ever go around the table at your Thanksgiving meal and say what they’re most thankful for? Do people give it a lot of thought? Did you notice in the movie when they did the toast and said what they were thankful for, they were not truly thankful? They were cynical. They made fun of their father. They were thankful, but in a negative sort of way.  “I’m glad we don’t have to put up with him anymore”.

That family had more money and more stuff than you and I will probably ever have, but they weren’t thankful people at all. They just wanted more. We have the opportunity to have something much more valuable than anything that we will ever own and that is we have the opportunity to be thankful.

Some time ago, I heard Shannon, my wife, say something like this at a life group gathering. She said, “It is easier for me to pray when things aren’t going well in my life”. It easier to pray when something isn’t right in my life.  Is that true for you? When things aren’t going well, there’s someone in the hospital, or finances are really tight or negative, or someone’s ill or hurt, then it’s easier for me to pray How about for you? It is easier to pray when I have something to ask for.”

When I heard Shannon say those words, “it’s easier to pray when things aren’t going very good in my life,” God’s Spirit inside of me yelled out, “That’s not right!” It’s my experience and maybe it’s yours that it’s easier to pray when we need something, but that’s not right. That’s like telling my wife that it’s easier to talk to her when there’s something that I need from her, or it’s easier to talk to her when there’s a problem in my life. That doesn’t make sense! That seems insane! That certainly isn’t love, is it?

Since then, I’ve done a lot of thinking about what she said, and about how I’ve felt, because what she said was true for me, like it was true for her, but it shouldn’t be. I’ve pondered it and prayed about it, and this is where God has led me. This may seem off subject for a minute, but come with me for a minute if you will.

We live in a culture where we daily have information overload. Depending on who you ask or where you live, statisticians say that we see somewhere between 3000 and 17,000 ads each day. That means that every time you see a Nike swoosh, you’ve seen an ad or a trademark that makes you think of an ad. Every time you see the word Canon on your camera, or Coke on your can, you’ve been solicited by a brand. 3000 – 17,000 times a day we are solicited by adds.

In addition, you will receive more information today than a person who lived a hundred years ago received in a lifetime. Let me say that again. You will have more information for your brain to process today, than a person who lived a hundred years ago received in a lifetime. And you can see this, can’t you? With all the radio, TV, Internet, all the Ipods, Televisions, libraries, books, CD’s, DVD’s, Palm Pilots, GPS’, and cell phones, we live in a time of information overload.

Add to that, all the papers that come home from school, all the mail in the mailbox, and all the problems at work, and it’s easy to see why we have information overload.

Our brains are so full of information that we rarely have time to process any of it. We, at times, stop thinking. Have you ever driven from point A to B and you don’t know how you got there? Have you ever done that? At times your brain stops thinking. At times our brains stop processing. Our brains are often times tired, overworked, and lethargic. You might think, “What does this have to do with being thankful?”

Being thankful is hard work. Being thankful requires you and I to notice and think. For most of us, being thankful doesn’t come easily, because it requires us to be still and think – to be still and ponder, to be still and observe?

Parents, how many of your kids are naturally thankful? NONE OF THEM! But that’s true not only for our kids, but for us to. Can you imagine how God sees us? Are we any different from our children in God’s eyes? Being thankful is hard work, so why try?

Movie Clip: Bella DVD 21:30 – 23:18

 

“Just an ordinary day in New York City.” The woman and the man with her, couldn’t see the glory that was all around them, but the blind man could! He was in tune with it. The woman couldn’t hardly describe it, she didn’t see it. The blind man had to prompt her. Why? Because “it was an Ordinary day in New York City”. Nothing special, nothing to be thankful for, or is there?

Nina, who could see, who could move about freely, who had resources, received a gift from this poor, blind man. The gift was much more than an origami frog. She was focused on her own difficulties, but her meeting with this man helped her to refocus a bit on the beauty of life.

A thankful, appreciative heart changes the way we see the world. When our eyes are focused on ourselves, it breeds selfishness. When our eyes are focused on the Lord and what He makes and provides, it leads to gratitude and wonder. Only when we take our eyes off of ourselves can we really see. The ability to gain an eternal perspective allows us to reevaluate the severity of those things we call trials, and to appreciate what we formerly thought of as commonplace.
Who was the one that said “Thank you” first? It was the old man. He was thankful! The woman and the man with her thought the old man was a bit off his rocker. Why? Because he was thankful for things she thought were ordinary. The blind man had a way of seeing that she wasn’t used to. She had stopped being amazed by all those things years before, but as she saw the man being truly thankful for those things, you could see that she was beginning to rethink how she was seeing life.

 

Thanksgiving is the food of heaven; the lack of it, the food of hell

 

What did the blind man have? Nothing? He didn’t have his sight. He had a shopping cart full of all his worldly belongings. He was a homeless person. He had very few things in this world, but the things he had were priceless.

Can we watch that clip again? If we can, can we stop the video on the old man when he is naming the flowers? Do you see that smile? That’s a smile! There’s a man with joy, and joy comes from truly being thankful.

Apart from thanksgiving there is no joy.

Several weeks ago, I shared a message series entitled The Principle of the Path. During that time, we said that Direction Determines Destination. We also said that what we focus on determines our direction. In the last message of that series, I said that there are a couple of phrases that we regularly use in our culture. We said that there are things that “Grab” our attention or “Capture” our attention.

Guys, if a nice looking woman walks by, she can grab our attention, and ladies, if a nice looking man walks by, he can grab your attention. As he or she walks by, we might turn and follow him or her with our eyes. This means that we, really without thinking, focus our attention on that man or that woman and as our focus changes, so does our direction. If we chose to “Pay” attention to that man or that woman long enough it can change the direction of our lives. Some things grab our attention and there are other things that we have to choose to “Pay” attention to. When we focus in a given area long enough it changes our focus, and our focus determines our direction and ultimately our direction determines our destination.

Thankfulness is a direction. It has a destination. Thankfulness is the food of heaven; apart from it there is only hell (project). Apart from thankfulness, there is only gray matter. Apart from thankfulness there is only the normal, the gray, the mundane. Apart from thankful hearts, there is just the everyday sort of stuff. Apart from thankfulness, nothing is special. Nothing is glorious. Nothing is remarkable. Apart from thankfulness, nothing is especially good. Apart from thankfulness, there is no joy, there is no peace, there is no love. Apart from thankfulness there is no heaven, only hell.

The first clip that we watched, they had everything, except thankfulness, and because of that, they were living in hell, long before they died.

Thankfulness is a direction. It has a destination. Thankfulness is the food of heaven; apart from it there is only hell

Thankfulness is having eyes to see what is already there. Thankfulness is an attentiveness towards God; it is attentiveness towards what’s good. Thankfulness is seeing glimpses of heaven and giving thanks for them. It is seeing glimpses of God and naming them out loud. Direction of our focus determines destination. Our daily focus is a path and the path of thanksgiving leads us toward a joyous and peaceful heart.

Parents, do you only focus on the bad things that your children do? If you do, you would be in the majority. It’s easy to see the bad, but what about the good? Focusing on thankfulness, makes our minds focus on the good. I don’t know why, maybe because we are sinful by nature, but we automatically focus on the bad. It is work to focus on the good, but how do we do that when our minds are so tired? How do we do that when are minds are filled with so much noise and information and over activity?

Here are a few suggestions. None of these suggestions, if they are a prevalent part of your life will feel comfortable at first. If our minds are overloaded with information, then it seems we need to find a way to slow down the amount of information our brains our receiving. Here are a few ways that I’ve found to slow down the information super highway.

v     Go to bed early and get up early when everything is quiet, your brain is rested, and information overload has not yet begun.

v     Turn off the radio in the car and just allow the silence to sit there. Allow your brain to rest and to ponder the things that you’re most thankful for.

v     Leave the cell phone off or at home more often. Most conversations can wait. Let your brain rest and use that time to give thanks.

v     Let the answering machine get the phone more often, so that you can have quiet time for your brain to rest and give thanks.

v     Don’t spend all your time on the computer playing games, working, Facebooking, twittering, or other such web based forms of communication. Allow your brains time to rest and to focus on giving thanks

v     Turn off the TV. Limit yourself to ½ hour or less a day. Allow your brain to rest and be thankful

 

Being thankful is hard work. We should start our day and our prayers with being thankful. That’s a direction and it leads somewhere.  Being thankful is something that is an intentional direction that leads toward heaven.

Thankfulness is a direction. It has a destination. Thankfulness is the food of heaven; apart from it there is only hell

 
 Life link:

v     What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food?

 

v     Summary of message

 

v     Was there anything from Sunday’s message that you disagreed with, confused you, or struck you?

 

v     Do you struggle with being thankful or not? How thankful are you in your prayer time to God? Please explain.

 

v     Do you think business and information overload contributes to your lack of thankfulness?

 

v     How is thankfulness an important part of loving and worshipping God?

 

v     What role does the Holy Spirit play in helping us to be more thankful?

 

v     What role can prayer play in helping us to be more thankful? (Quiet, meditative, thoughtful time).

 

v     What are you going to change in your life in order to be more thankful?