In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of being thankful to God for His blessings. He uses the example of a man who complained about not having shoes until he saw someone who didn't have feet, highlighting the need to have a grateful attitude. The speaker also reminds the audience of the darkness they were in before knowing Jesus and how He has delivered them from the power of darkness. The sermon concludes with the exhortation to continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant and thankful in their requests to God.

Turn with me please to the book of Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1 and verses 3 through 18. Colossians chapter 1 and I'm going to read verses 3 through 18. And I want to speak with you this morning about being thankful. We're coming up to Thanksgiving this Thursday and I think it's good for us to speak about being thankful and the things that we need to be thankful for. And we're saying that hymn, count your many blessings, name them one by one. And I think this is a good time of the year for us to sit down and to thank God and to count our blessings. Sometimes these feasts and these celebrations just become a time of feasting and killing the poor turkey. But I think it's a good time for us to remember the Lord's goodness and the Lord's grace in our lives. So let's read from Colossians chapter 1 and from verse 3. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints. Because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you as it has also in all the world and is bringing forth fruit as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. As you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the spirit. For this reason we also since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, for all patience and long-suffering with joy. Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of overall creation. For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. And so as we speak about being thankful, this is not just something that is a minor little issue in the life of the Christian. This is in fact a very, very important part of our Christian faith, a very important part of who we are and what we do. In the book of Romans chapter 1 you'll read that one of the terrible sins, and it lists all of the terrible sins that the people in the world commit as a result of the fact that they do not respond correctly to the knowledge of God, is the fact that they are unthankful, unthankful. And in the book of Timothy also you'll find that Paul has a list of the vicious sins of the people who have this form of godliness in the last days. And in there also is the word unthankful. And so along with all of the other things that the Bible lists as bad sins, the drunkenness and the fornication and the murder and all of the other stuff, along with all of those sins is the sin of unthankfulness. It's a serious sin. It's just as bad as anything else. And so sometimes we think, well, you know, I complain and we're never happy with what we have, with who we are, with God's blessings in our lives. And we say, well, yeah, it's just a small problem. No, it's a big problem because at the heart of it is that we have not acknowledged God and we've not acknowledged that what we have, who we are, and everything about us is because of God's goodness and God's grace in our lives. And so we live in a time when the spirit of discontent is being sown all the time. That's what businesses thrive on. We've spoken about this before. Advertising is all about making you dissatisfied and unhappy with what you have, with who you are and with your surroundings. And so don't be happy with your motor car. Don't be grateful for the car that God gave you. You must want to have this latest, greatest one. Don't be happy with your life. Don't be happy with your body. We can change you. We can make you a different person. And I'm always amazed by the testimonies of these people who've had plastic surgery of some kind or the other and say, now I'm happy. I mean, can you imagine a bit of silicon makes you happy? But that's how shallow our world is. Don't be happy with the way you are. Don't be happy with your husband or with your wife or with your family. Don't be happy with anything. Constantly disgruntled and dissatisfied, always wanting different, always wanting more. But here in the book of Colossians, and I'm going to just stick to this one book of Colossians this morning, we find that that thankfulness is really at the heart of who we should be as Christians. And you'll see that Paul begins the letter right in verse three already. And he says, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. We give thanks. And you notice that he specifies who he gives thanks to. He gives thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes, and I think that many people celebrate Thanksgiving and they recognize that it has to do with giving thanks, but they don't give thanks to God. I'm not sure who they give thanks to, but I'm not sure that they give thanks to God because they don't even believe in Him. They don't believe that He exists. They don't believe anything about Him. And so it's a time of just being thankful. But who am I being thankful to? Sometimes we're thankful to ourselves. Sometimes we're thankful to good luck. Sometimes we're thankful to the economy. But he says we're thankful to God, our Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. That should be, He should be the one that we are thankful to. It's good to be, to have a thankful attitude. And we'll speak about that a little bit more. It's good to have a thankful attitude, but my thanks needs to be directed to someone and it needs to be directed to God. It's no good just being thankful and saying, well, you know, I'm grateful that I have a good life. I'm grateful that I have whatever I have. I'm grateful that I'm alive, but I need to be grateful. I need to recognize where these blessings come from. I need to recognize, as James writes, and he says, every good and every perfect gift comes from where? Comes from above, from the Father of lights with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. And so my blessings come from God. They are not just there by chance. They are not there because of good luck. They are not there because of karma. They are not there because of anything else, but because of God's goodness in my life. And so as we, as we spend this time giving thanks to God, it needs to be thanks to God. Thank you, Lord, for the things that you have done in my life. And so we, he says, we give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says in verse 12, giving thanks to the Father again, he mentions who he gives thanks to, and then he lists a few things that we need to give thanks for. And I'm sure that we can list many other things. Here he's going to deal with the things that relate to our spiritual life. As we sang that song, count your blessings, name them one by one. There are many other things that we are grateful for. There are many things that we should be grateful for. And we need to count them and we need to recognize them. But you know, sometimes we forget that there are spiritual things that we also need to be thankful for. And, and, and I'm not sure what happens on Thanksgiving. I'm not sure what people think about. I'm not sure what they are thankful for, but here are the things that are most important. And, and, and I enjoy it in the, in the evenings when folk give testimonies and they always say, I thank God for my salvation. That's where it begins. I thank him for the many blessings that he's given in my life. But first of all, I thank him because he has saved me. And so here he speaks in chapter 12, chapter 1, verse 12, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints. He has qualified us. To be qualified means that you are fit to enjoy the benefits of whatever it is, that you are certified. If you're qualified to drive a motor vehicle, it means that you are, you're good enough to be able to do it. And if you, if you are not good enough, if you don't qualify, then you are not good enough. You don't make the grade, but God has qualified us. He has made us good enough. And we've been dealing with this in the book of Romans in the evenings and at great lengths as to the fact that God has qualified us, not because we qualify, not because we are good enough, but because of what Jesus did at the cross of Calvary. And because he gave to us Jesus's righteousness, he qualifies us to receive all of the blessings which he bestows upon us. And sometimes we feel unworthy. Many times we feel that we don't really qualify for God's blessings. And I think that there are many Christians who don't experience and don't acknowledge and don't recognize God's blessings in their lives because they don't feel that they qualify for anything good from God. They feel that they only qualify for God's judgment and for God's wrath. They only, they feel that they, they really don't measure up. But Paul says, he says, I thank God that he has qualified us. He has made us worthy. He has made us good enough that we might be able to receive the blessings that God wants to give to us. And so when God says that he has qualified us, we shouldn't feel that we are not qualified. We shouldn't feel that we have no right to, to receive his blessings and to receive the things that he wants to give to us because he has qualified us. He has made us worthy. He has said, you're good enough because, not because we are good in ourselves, as I've said, but we are good because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross of Calvary. And so he has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. So what has he qualified us for? He has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints. What is the inheritance of the saints? Well, first of all, we inherit his nature and we can do a whole study on, on that word inheritance, but that we might inherit his nature. That's the first thing that we're able to inherit. Inheritance is obviously something which comes because of the, of the death of someone. The book of Hebrews deals with that. And he says, well, you know, a testament or an inheritance does not become valid until the testator, the one who wrote the will, dies. And so an inheritance invariably is connected to someone dying. Jesus died that we might inherit these things, whether we might inherit his nature, that we may become like Jesus, that we may no longer be like ourselves or like Adam or like our human nature or like the world, but that we might become like Jesus. So that's the one thing that we can inherit. We can inherit his righteousness, as we've said before, that we might inherit also the promises and the blessings, which he spoke to Abraham. And we're dealing with that on, on Sunday evenings. And so he has promised to us an inheritance and inheritance in heaven and inheritance in that new Jerusalem, that great city, which he has prepared for us. And so there are many great blessings, which he has prepared for us. That's part of our inheritance because of the death of Jesus. And so he has qualified us to be partakers of that inheritance. Now, when do you qualify to be a partaker of the inheritance? Well, normally, if you're part of the family. When Bill Gates dies one day, I don't think I'm going to be a partaker of his inheritance, simply because I'm not in his family. It's as simple as that. But those who are in his family will be partakers of the inheritance of Bill Gates when he dies. And so we are partakers of the inheritance because we are the family of God, because we're born into his family, because we are his children. We are entitled to a share of the inheritance. And the scripture speaks of the fact that we are heirs with Christ and co-heirs with him. And so heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus. And so that's one of the benefits of being a son, of being a child of God, is the inheritance that he has brought us into. And so he has made us worthy. He has qualified us by bringing us into the family of God. And because we are part of the family of God, we're able to receive the blessings. And one of those blessings is the wonderful inheritance that he has for us. And then in verse 13, the other thing that we need to remember, he's giving thanks and he says, these are the things that we should give thanks for, or that give reason for being thankful. Verse 13, he has delivered us from the power of darkness. He has delivered us from the power of darkness. And sometimes we forget how dark it was before we met Christ. Without God and without hope in this world, the book of Ephesians says, we thought that we saw, but we didn't see. Trying to find your way in the dark, trying to find not to fall over things, trying not to stumble over things. And I'm speaking spiritually. Darkness doesn't only speak about the inability to see and the fact that you stumble over things, but it also speaks about the fact of despair and of discouragement and despondency. And you writers speak about the dark days of the war or the dark days of that and that circumstance. Darkness speaks about depression and discouragement and despair, but he has brought us out of darkness. He has brought us out of the despair. He's brought us out of the lack of being able to understand. He's brought us into the light. Remember, Jesus says, I'm the light of the world. So we can see, so we can understand that there may be brightness in our lives. And so he's brought us out of that darkness. And I think that sometimes we forget, and I just made a little reference in the article this morning about those who have forgotten the gutter that they've come from. Sometimes we forget how dark it was without Jesus, how overwhelming our sin was, how gloomily the prospects were, how there was no future, how there was no hope. But he has delivered us from the power of darkness, not just from the darkness, but the power of darkness, the power of darkness to hold us under its control and to keep us from seeing the light and from seeing God and from seeing things the way they are. But he has delivered us, set us free from the power of darkness. And that's something that we need to give thanks for. And as we give thanks, we need to remember that there was a time that we were in the power and under the control of darkness. And he has conveyed us, verse 13, into the kingdom of the son of his love. So he's contrasting the power of darkness and the kingdom of his son, these two things. The kingdom of his son is light. When we speak about the New Jerusalem, which is part of our inheritance, that one of the things about the New Jerusalem you read about in the book of Revelation is that it has no sun and there is no moon. Why? Because Jesus is the light thereof. There is no night because Jesus doesn't set. Jesus doesn't go dark at night. He is always light. He is always bright. And when you see artist's pictures of the New Jerusalem, what the New Jerusalem looks like, there's always this light. That's something that you identify with the New Jerusalem, is always the issue of light. And so he has brought us out of darkness and he's brought us into the light. He's brought us into the kingdom of his son or the son of his love. And so he has not brought us into the squatter camp of Christ. He has not brought us into the housing development. He has brought us into the kingdom. He's not brought us into the prison camp, but he's brought us into the kingdom. He's brought us into a place of wonderful blessing. The kingdom always speaks about prosperity and blessing. And while we don't preach prosperity in that sense, there is a prosperity to be found in Christ. There are blessings to be found in him. And so he's brought us into the kingdom. Kingdom speaks about ruling and speaks about authority and about power and prosperity and blessing. And so he's brought us into a wonderful situation out of darkness into the kingdom of the son whom he loves. And then in verse 14, in whom we have redemption through his blood. Again, we're speaking about this on Sunday evenings and we've gone into great detail about the meaning of this word redemption and the whole process of redemption. But sometimes we forget the word redemption to remind you speaks about a price that has to be paid in order to redeem something. In the old Testament, there are two things that can be redeemed in the old under the law and the old covenant. The one is property and the other is men or slaves. Those are the two things that provision is made for redemption. And so when a man is sold into slavery because he can't afford to pay his bills. And so he says, I can't pay my bills, but I will be your slave. He can be redeemed. A price can be paid so that he can be bought back. The word redeemed is always in connection with bringing something back, buying it back from where it has been sold. You can't redeem something which has not been sold. And so you can only redeem something which has been sold. And so you can buy some person back and you can also buy a property back. And so if the property has been bonded or been mortgaged under the old Testament terms, then somebody else can pay that price and redeem that property and bribe back and bring it back to the family that it originally belonged to. And so redemption always has to do with paying a price. And we use that term in two ways today. Remember, I'm just recapping for those who've forgotten. When you go to a, and some people always get this one wrong. So I'll spell it for you. P-A-W-N, a pawn shop. When you go to a pawn shop and you give them your watch and you say, I need $10. They will keep their watch and you get the $10. And then at the end of the week, you go back and you say, I want my watch back. And so here's the $10 plus the other $10 interest, because that's how much they charge, I think. And so what are you doing? You're redeeming the watch. You're buying it back again. And that term is used in that context. And then in South Africa, we speak about redeeming the mortgage. When the final penny has been paid on the mortgage, the property becomes truly yours. In the meantime, it belongs to the bank. The bank has the title deeds. But when you pay the mortgage, you've redeemed it and you've bought it back. And so it's always with a price that has been paid. And he's reminding us that we have been redeemed, that God has given us these blessings, not just given them to us, but a price had to be paid. And so he has redeemed us and he tells us what he's redeemed us through, verse 14, in whom we have redemption through his blood. That was the price that had to be paid. The scripture says, we have not been redeemed with corruptible things of silver and gold, but we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus. And so the only price that was good enough, all of the silver and all of the gold could not afford to pay the price of our souls. I remember Jesus himself said that, what will it profit a man if he gained the whole world and he lose his soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul? In other words, what price can you pay for a soul? And he's saying the whole world is not good enough. It just doesn't measure up to the price and the value of one soul. The only price that was good enough, the only price that could buy us back was the blood of Jesus. And so we've been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. And I think sometimes we forget, even at the Lord's table, we sometimes forget that it was a terrible price that had to be paid in order that he might redeem us. And I've said before, sometimes when you've been saved for a while, you begin to think I've always been saved. I've just been born this way. This was the way it's supposed to be. No, no, it cost a great price in order to redeem us. And so he has given. And so we give thanks for the fact that we have been redeemed in whom we have redemption through his blood and the forgiveness of sins, the forgiveness of sins. And again, we get these things all muddled up and we say, well, I was redeemed. I was saved by the blood. But there were many, and it's good if you are not able to make it on Sunday evening, get the tapes or the CDs where we deal with us in great detail, but there are many, many aspects to God's great work that he has done and the way that he has saved us. And one of the things that he did was he gave us the forgiveness of sins. Not just did he give us an inheritance, not just did he pay the price and redeem us. There were other things that are not in this passage. He made us righteous, justified us. He did all of these things. And one of the many things that he did for us is that he gave us the forgiveness of sins. He gave us a pardon and doesn't matter how many sins we had committed. It doesn't matter how big they were or how small they were. He has forgiven us because of what Jesus did for us at the cross of Calvary. And again, sometimes we forget that we were forgiven. We forget that there was a debt that we owed. And there's that chorus that we sing, I owed a debt I could not pay. I needed someone to wash my sins away. But Jesus came and he paid that debt that I could not pay in order that I can be forgiven and that my sins that were many have all been washed away, have all been removed as far as the east is from the west. And so we need to be thankful for the fact that we have been forgiven. And so here are the things. He says, giving thanks, verse 12, to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance and the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness. He has conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love. He has given us redemption through his blood and he has given to us the forgiveness of sins. So here are just some of the things that we need to give thanks for. Now it's easy to sometimes get a little bit muddled and we say, thank you, Lord, for saving me. There's that chorus also we sing, thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. But sometimes we forget that there were many, many things that he did for us, not just saving us, not just an overall thing, but he gave us inheritance. He gave us forgiveness. He gave us each one of these things that he did for us. And so there are so many blessings that comes in the package of our salvation. And sometimes we forget that, you know, there are just all these wonderful things that he has done it for us and as he has saved us and as he has redeemed us and as he has brought us back again. Now let's go to chapter two and verse seven. And the word thanks or thanksgiving appear at least six times in the book of Colossians. So chapter two, verse seven, let's read verse six. And as you therefore have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Now you'll see most translations either don't have those words in it, abounding in it, uh, in there, or you may have a little note saying that it is not in some of the manuscripts and I'm going to read it that way. And so let's read it the way that it is in some of the manuscripts. And I'm not sure which is correct, but I'm going to emphasize that aspect this morning. So abounding with thanksgiving, abounding with thanksgiving. Now you'll say, you'll see that in verse 12, he speaks about giving thanks, but here he's speaking about another step. He's speaking about abounding in thanksgiving, abounding in thanksgiving. Now abounding, we know what that word means. It means super abundantly. It means more than, it means more than enough. It means a lot. One of the many Spanish words I know, mas, abounding in thanksgiving. Now we use that word profuse in thanksgiving or profuse in praise. Now sometimes we give thanks, but that's all we do. We give thanks for our food. We give thanks for what Jesus did at the Lord's table sometimes. But you know, it's just a little bit. But no, he says we need to be abounding in thanksgiving. It needs to be plentiful in our lives. Thanksgiving shouldn't just be something which we occasionally do a little bit of. No, it should be something that abounds in our lives. We should be filled and overflowing with thanksgiving. Remember, Jesus said that those who have been forgiven much will love much. Now, the problem is that sometimes we say, well, you know, that's for people who committed terrible sins and terrible crimes and they've been forgiven a lot, so they'll love a lot. But the fact is that when we come to look at what God has done for us, he has saved all of us from a terrible thing. And we have all been terrible sinners and we've all been forgiven a tremendous amount. It doesn't matter whether we were religious before we came to Christ or whether we were out and out sinners in the world. We were all forgiven much. The difference is that some don't understand what they have been forgiven. They don't understand and appreciate the great work that God has done. And some of us are so conceited to think that we deserve to get saved anyway, because we were so good and so righteous to begin with. And that's why we're not thankful. But when we really understand the great mercy that God has given to us in saving us and bringing us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, when that really dawns on us, we should be abounding in thanksgiving. We should never become so used to God's blessings that we think that that is our right. No, nothing is our right. Our right, what we deserve, is God's judgment. That's all we're entitled to. Everything else He gives us is His blessings. And so we need to be abounding in thanksgiving. And you know, it's wonderful to meet people who are abounding in their thanksgiving to God. Who are just filled with an awareness of God's goodness and of God's grace in their lives and just constantly give thanks to God for His goodness and for His blessings in their lives. And so let's be abounding in thanksgiving. And we've been speaking about the spiritual things that we need to give thanks for, but there are many, many other things that we need to give thanks to God for. And so there's a reason for us to be abounding in thanksgiving, or with thanksgiving. Now chapter 3 verse 15 goes one step further. And here he says, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. So he speaks in chapter 1 verse 12, giving thanks. Then in chapter 2 verse 7, abounding with thanksgiving. But in chapter 3 verse 15, he says, be thankful. Now what does he mean by that? When you be something, when you are something, it means that's your attitude. It's not just something that you do, but it is who you are. When you are expected to be an adult, that's who you are. You're supposed to be grown up. That's what you should be. And here he is saying, I should be thankful. That should be my life. That should be my attitude. It's not just something I do, but it's something that I am. And it's one thing to give thanks to God for the food when we begin the meal, and then we complain because the food is not to our liking. It means that we have given thanks, but we are not thankful. It's something that we have done, but it's not something that we are. But here he's speaking about the fact that not only must thanksgiving be something that I do, it needs to be something I am. Something I am. And how can I be thankful? When I understand what God has done, when I count my blessings. But you know, when we are influenced by the spirit of this age and the spirit of the world that's constantly making us disgruntled and dissatisfied and discontent, then it's hard for us to be thankful because we have all these reasons not to be thankful. But when I turn to the Word of God and I look at what He has done for us, and when I understand that every good and every perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of Light, when these things become real to me, when I begin to count my blessings, there's much reason to be thankful. And you know, I just pray that this would be something that would be real in our lives. That when we eat our food, it's not just something we give at the beginning. We say the blessing and we give thanks. We say, thank you for the food and bless it to us. But every time, every mouthful we take, we do that with a spirit of thankfulness. Thank you, Lord, that I'm able to taste. Thank you, Lord, that I'm able to eat. There are other people who are on intravenous support and other people who are fed through tubes and who have all sorts of other. But thank you, Lord, that I'm able to enjoy food. Thank you, Lord, that you provided the food for me to be able to eat. Thank you, Lord, for your many blessings. And you know, we find all the reasons to complain. We find all the reasons why something is not the way we would like it to be. And we forget that we have so much reason to be thankful for His goodness and His grace. And I'm sure you've heard that story about the man, and I don't remember how the whole story went, but about the man who complained that he didn't have shoes until he saw a man who didn't have feet. And so, you know, we complain because the food is not exactly the way we want it to be until you go to Skid Row and you see people who don't have food to eat. We complain because the house is not the way we'd like the house to be until we see people who sleep out on the streets. And folks, sometimes we need to be reminded of the fact that God has been incredibly good and gracious and kind to every one of us. And so we need to be thankful. So let's give thanks, let's abound in thanksgiving, but let's be thankful. Let that be the attitude of our hearts. Let's be the attitude with which we do everything as we are or we be thankful. And then chapter 3, verse 17, and whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. So whatever you do, he says, whether in word or deed, so not just the things you do, but the things you say, whatever you do, do it with these two things. Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now that's a tremendous check on the things that we do. What you do during the week, the places you go, can you do that in the name of Jesus? Can you do that in the name of Jesus? He says, everything you do, you need to be able to do in the name of Jesus. And then the second thing that you need to do is you need to do it with thanksgiving. So whatever you do, do it with thanksgiving. Now we do many things and we do it with complaining. We do the chores and kids are very good at this. They do the chores with complaining. No, he says, do it with thanksgiving, do it with thanksgiving. So you complain about the fact that you have to take out the garbage or the trash. Do it with thanksgiving because you actually have legs and hands and arms that can actually do it, that you actually have trash to take out and that you're not eating the trash. When we do our jobs, we complain because the work's hard and because the hours are long and no, do it with thanksgiving. Whatever you do, do it with thanksgiving, the hard things and the nice things. You know, the only things we do with thanksgiving are the pleasant things. And so we have, if the children give, they have the dessert with thanksgiving, but they don't have the vegetables with thanksgiving. They have that with complaining. No, let's have the vegetables and the dessert with thanksgiving. Let's thank God for everything that he brings into our lives because he's using all of these things to bless us, to shape us, to mold us, to do the things that he's trying to do in our lives. And so even the hard times, we need to thank God for those times because God is working, remember, all things together for the good of those who love him and other called according to his purpose. And so do everything with thanksgiving. So it's not just something I do with my mouth. I just don't just give thanks. It's not just something I do with my attitude, but everything I do, I do it with thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord, that I have a job. Thank you, Lord, that I have these chores to take care of. When you have to vacuum the floor, wash the dishes, thank God that you have dishes, that you have a floor and so on. And so do everything with thanksgiving. And then finally in chapter four and verse two, this is my last one, continue earnestly in prayer, be vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Continue earnestly in prayer, be vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Now in Philippians, he says the same thing a little bit differently. In Philippians chapter four, verse six, he says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. So when we pray, he says, don't come with all your complaints. Don't be like the children of Israel. Remember over and over, God had it against Israel. Why? Because they were murmuring all the time. They were not grateful for the manner that God was providing. They said, but we want the stuff that came from the leeks and the garlics and the fish, stuff that came from Egypt. They were complaining people all the time. And remember in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul says, don't be like them who murmured all the time. And so what is my prayer time like? Is it a time of just telling God about all my problems or do I pray with thanksgiving? Remember when Jesus prayed in John chapter 17 and in his model prayer in Matthew chapter six, he includes thanksgiving in his prayers. And so when we pray, we need to give thanks to God. Let's not just come with our shopping list and with all of our needs and all of our gimme's, gimme this and gimme that, but let's come with our thanksgiving. Let's recognize, Lord, you've done so much for me. You've met so many of my needs. But by the way, Lord, I also have a few other requests that I want to bring to you. But you know, when we come to God in prayer with thanksgiving, sometimes we recognize that the requests that we had really were unimportant because he's done so much for us already. You remember the lepers that Jesus cleansed? He cleansed 10 of them, but only one came back to say thanks. But you know, when he came back, he got a bonus. He got something that he didn't expect. And so let's not be like the nine who went away so happy, but they forgot to say, but he actually healed me. He has done so much for me. And so let's go back to the book of Colossians, and maybe I can encourage you sometime, find a bit of time today. It's a short book, and read the book again, and let's see how that the Lord encourages and reminds us to be thankful, to abound in thanksgiving. And let's be those people who are marked, whose attitude is marked by an attitude of thanksgiving, always grateful that we've been saved, always grateful that we have a great and wonderful God, always grateful for the fact that he has kept us and provided for us and for our every need. You know, when we start counting our blessings, when we begin to count the many ways that God has provided for us, our needs become unimportant and insignificant, because one of the things that happens when we begin to give thanks is that we recognize that God has provided thus far. And if he has provided for us thus far in all of our needs, our temporal, our financial, our spiritual, our emotional needs of God has provided thus far, can I not trust him to provide for the future? Can I not trust him to provide me for this situation or this challenge that I'm facing right now? And when we begin to give thanks, all of that falls into perspective. And it really is no problem to God, because he has done all of what he has done for us thus far. And so let's be a people who are thankful and who recognize that it is God. Let's remember where we began, that give thanks to God. Give thanks to God. Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you, Lord, that you remind us of some of these basic things of giving thanks. And Lord, as we teach our children, one of the first things, Lord, we teach them or should be teaching them is to say thank you. And Lord, that's just good manners. And yet as Christians, Lord, we confess that sometimes we don't even have good manners as far as you are concerned, because we just feel that we deserved what you gave us. But Lord, we recognize that we do not deserve anything. But out of your goodness and your mercy and your grace, you have just given to us so much. And Lord, we want to give thanks to you. Forgive us, Lord, for being ungrateful. Forgive us, Lord, for always complaining and murmuring and for always wanting something else and something different. Help us, Lord, just to cultivate an attitude of gratefulness and of thankfulness and of just worshiping you because of your goodness in our lives. Thank you for your many blessings, Lord. Thank you for financial blessings. Thank you, Lord, for family. Thank you for friends. But above all, thank you for Jesus, the greatest gift and the greatest blessing that you could ever bestow upon us. And so, Lord, we want to treasure these blessings and we want to be a people who are thankful. As we go into go home, Lord, and as we go to our different things that we do, we pray that you would be with us, bless us, keep us, protect us, make us thankful, and bring us together again safely this evening. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.