With Thanksgiving

Colossians 2 6. 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 abounding in your life of Faith with Thanksgiving and I want to speak on those two words today with Thanksgiving God bless you please be seated I was gonna say if you promise to help me preach but I'm going to assume that well in your family I'm sure you have Customs Traditions things that may be your new or Generations old that you practice around various holidays including the Thanksgiving season families tend to develop Traditions over the years I grew up in a very large family that included Six Sisters their husbands and when uh was all totaled 19 grandchildren so there were a lot of us when we got together my maternal grandmother and her six daughters were fabulous Cooks so we always had wonderful meals during every holiday I always always like Thanksgiving because it seemed to be to me to be the most pure holiday without a lot of other trappings except good food and wonderful family and fellowship after my wife and I were married we lived in Jackson Mississippi Mississippi for about 10 years I'm from Miami Florida so my parents live quite a ways away at Thanksgiving for several years we would meet them in the Metropolis of Wewahitchka Florida I know you know where that is actually it's a little tiny town just about 25 miles east of Panama City Florida by Uncle Alan and Anthony started a church there my grandparents retired there it wasn't halfway but it was a convenient meeting place but the free place to stay lots of food to eat and that time of year wonderful raw oysters so we would meet in Wewahitchka Florida sometimes we hunted sometimes we fished sometimes we played a little softball and wee wall hitchka is means water eyes in India there's a river there that runs through wee wall and we played on a softball field and as it got dark which was about three o'clock in the afternoon in Wewahitchka it's right on the Eastern side of the central time zone I'm exaggerating it got dark really early there but as it was getting dark the fog would roll in off the river and obscure sight in the Outfield so if you're playing softball you virtually cannot see anything and pray that the ball was hit to another field but that's what we did in the metropolitan area of Wewahitchka Florida we made a lot of memories there a lot of wonderful meals a lot of family time and as our family has grown up and grown older I have a 40 year old son now we do this year we do alternating holidays so everybody's home for Thanksgiving gone at Christmas and then we swap it next year so everybody was home this year eight adults seven young grandchildren we ate a lot we played a lot of games we enjoyed our first Thanksgiving home when everybody lived in Atlanta Anna after being married our kids had a blast playing outside and inside we have some great weather and a little bit of bad weather but rains arise going over to Uncle Joel and Anna londis and riding on the zip line and we had some fried venison backstrap and uh if it is in shoulder roast girls decorated everybody cooked and worked and our menu went like this for Thanksgiving and ever since then fried turkey homemade cornbread dressing honey baked ham and turkey Cuban style turkey with black beans and a delicious Cuban salad green beans collard greens yellow squash mashed potatoes and gravy sweet potato casserole homemade cranberry sauce yeast rolls pumpkin pie and other homemade holiday desserts and no I am not hungry right now but getting there you know something about eating yesterday you know what I'm saying just have happens again the next day if you ask Google about America's Thanksgiving Traditions you'll find a variety of traditions in America not our family but in America the first is eating way too much food that's a Thanksgiving tradition how many of you have ever gotten the wishbone out of the turkey and didn't ate a wish and broke the wishbone can I raise your hand High because I need older people to raise their hands right now that know what that even is and I didn't know that turkeys were raised on boneless turkey farms and uh a lot of flopping around there people watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade they watched one over all of the three NFL football games that dominate the entire day and keep people out of the kitchen from washing dishes some people watch the Thanksgiving national dog show and many people eat too much food and then some get outside and play Touch football take a hike do something out of doors some families take photos many people take a nap because turkey contains a high level of tryptophan which is an amino acid that makes you sleepy it really does it's a scientific fact some people share things for which they're grateful some people eat too much you have already said that they eat too much food I maybe have already mentioned that some people run a 5k Turkey Trot and I was told after church that one family in our church at least one ran at 10K I told them that's an ostrich truck if tried of his 10K not a Turkey Trot that's 5K some people spent Thanksgiving afternoon strategizing how they're going to shop till they drop on Black Friday or all their online deals that they're trying to find some people on Thanksgiving try to find a way to give back to volunteer to express their gratitude since God has been so good to them and since Thanksgiving is the official start of the Christmas season some people have a hobby of trying to untangle all the Christmas lights from last year that they didn't get to because it was too cold or iced over after Christmas families have all kinds of ideas of what goes with Thanksgiving when I was a boy Coca-Cola if you've ever been to the World of Coke and they have all the history of advertising which is fascinating Master advertisers they introduced an ad campaign that said things go better with Coca-Cola things go better with Coke life is much more fun when you're refreshed food goes better fun goes better you go better with Coke now today I don't want to preach about Coca-Cola but I just want to tell you that everything goes better with Thanksgiving amen everything goes better with Thanksgiving food goes better with Thanksgiving Church goes better with Thanksgiving praise goes better with Thanksgiving prayer goes better with Thanksgiving and your life will go better if you develop an attitude of gratitude life goes better with Thanksgiving go better with Thanksgiving now there in the early church there are some spiritual grinches that tried to Rob Christians of wholesome Pleasures that God created in the Bible in first Timothy 4 gets off to a really heavy start Paul writes about the spirit speaking expressly in the last days that some will depart from the faith giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons speaking lies in hypocrisy having their own conscience seared with the hot iron forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with Thanksgiving they're going to tell you not to eat some things that God created to be eaten with an attitude of Thanksgiving and Paul says by those who believe and know the truth so this is a very serious matter that Paul takes up in first Timothy chapter four people are backsliding giving in to deceptive Spirits they've got lying hypocrisy going on in their life they Seer their conscience with the hot iron and some of them would forbid people to marry in a pretense of celibacy and spirituality there are some churches that teach that for their Ministry Paul warned that these people would even reintroduce dietary restrictions for certain physic God had created to be eaten with Thanksgiving so today I thought this would be a good opportunity to start preaching against keto paleo vegan low carb Atkins all of those diets that are not of God well you know you forgot them this past week so I'm only kidding about all those wonderful diets that you abandoned well you're going to take up January 1st but anyway and then Paul Paul gives this application this is about food goes better with Thanksgiving First Timothy 4 4 for every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with Thanksgiving for it is Sanctified it is set apart it's Holy by the word of God and prayer now commentaries say that this reference to the word of God goes back to After the flood when the Lord told them that all these animals are for you to eat and the Apostle Peter who has this sheet let down with all these different kinds of animals and then that God says to Simon Peter arise Peter's sleigh and eat this food is to be received with Thanksgiving it's Sanctified by the word of God God's permission and then God's provision we pray over our food that God would bless it amen the word of God and prayer prayer honors God as a provider of all we have I've heard people joke before that they don't pray over their meals they come home from the grocery store they put everything in a pile and they pray over all their food at one time whatever somebody you're thinking wow that's a great and your family you may call it returning thanks you may call it saying grace you may have memorized a prayer for your meals which is fine if you pray it with sincerity several years ago I was at a family reunion I had missed a lot of them of the Kelly family and my uncle Harlan had passed away so my grandfather invited me to say that prayer at the family reunion I prayed a pretty good prayer but it wasn't a very lengthy prayer and after I finished praying I had family members there are about a hundred or so people at that family reunion patting me on the back like I had just won the Super Bowl of thing you know family reunion prayers and it was only later that I found out it wasn't the quality of my prayer it was just a short prayer Uncle Harlan prayed for everything and everybody and would go on and on and on and all they cared about is that you know cousin Daryl came and he prayed a really short prayer I don't know what kind of prayer you pray over your food but the Bible said it is good to receive it with Thanksgiving it's Sanctified by the word of God and prayer amen we look up to God as a provider of everything we have and everything we are and everything we eat and we say thank you God for my food amen our grandkids have learned a little prayer that they all like in fact it's a prayer song and I'm going to show it to you right now unrehearsed we should have had another rehearsal but we weren't planning on this here we go thank you guys [Music] [Applause] [Music] not bad they're you know rehearsing you know to be on the praise team one day right amen but pray and thank God that you have something to eat amen Paul warned against people who were trying to take the joy out of Life by prohibiting what God had provided false teachers imposing these heavy Yokes of restrictions on Believers so I want you to know that Thanksgiving and food go together if you have enough money to Feast on roast beast then thank God for that food but if it's a peanut butter sandwich or a baloney sandwich and a meager meal then thank God that you have something to eat but the undergirding principle is that we are to be thankful to God food goes better with Thanksgiving amen enjoy it it's Sanctified by the word of God and prayer Church goes better with Thanksgiving the Lord created us with the need for worship and fellowship worshiping God fellowship with brothers and sisters and worship and fellowship go better when you worship god with your brothers and sisters with Thanksgiving the Bible said it is good and pleasant for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity and the Bible teaches that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as a manner of some is and so much the more as you see the day of the coming of the Lord approaching there's a grouping of Psalms in your Bible Psalm 120 through Psalm 134 that are called Psalms of ascent they were written about worship about going up to Jerusalem to worship God it was to encourage people to go to church and then to worship God on the way one of those psalms says I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord Church goes better when you're glad to be there and when you worship God in Thanksgiving amen it's important to come to church but it's also important how you come to church amen when you come to church with Thanksgiving church is going to be a whole lot better and you open your life to the power and provision of God by having a grateful heart we should prepare our hearts in prayer before we walk in the doors but then when we walk in the doors we should come in the door with an attitude of gratitude of Thanksgiving to God Psalm 95 and 2 let us come before his presence with Thanksgiving let us shout joyfully to him with Psalms Psalm 100 verse 4 enter into his gates with Thanksgiving and into his courts with praise be thankful unto him and bless his name now Psalm 100 verse 4 does not say on about the third song when you finally mentally get to church give God Thanksgiving the Bible says that you should walk in the door thanking God that you've got life and breath and the ability to walk in this house and praise God and if you're physically unable to get here right now in your home you should thank God that you're able to praise him and watch Church online amen but if you're watching online and you could have been here you should have been here that's your Thanksgiving free sermon come before his presence with singing enter into his gates with Thanksgiving church just goes better with Thanksgiving it is that attitude that transforms the atmosphere of Common Ground into Holy Ground And as the Bible said it raises us up to sit together in Heavenly places Thanksgiving means giving thanks to God with your voice it's not just thinking thankfully but it is speaking Thanksgiving to the Lord amen now we believe in meditating on God's word we understand the value of sitting in silence in the presence of God and you may even Define yourself as the contemplative kind that likes to think about it but you need to Define your worship not by your personality but by the biblical call to worship amen that you are to come before his presence was singing amen you're to open your mouth and praise the Lord and offer Thanksgiving and you enter his gates with Thanksgiving and into his course with praise amen we start church with Thanksgiving when you come to church it's natural to look around to see who's here and he's not he might be prone to look back on last week and all the things you did wrong and shouldn't have done or could have done it might be tempting to look ahead at the next week or what you're doing after church don't get any ideas or you might get stuck looking down at your device or down on yourself but Thanksgiving transforms your attitude instead of looking back or ahead or down or inside you look up to God Thanksgiving recognizes that there is a God who is the father of all who's above all who's through all and who is in you all amen Thanksgiving lifts you up to focus on the Lord and not yourself amen Psalm 25 1 unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul Psalm 28 2. hear the voice of my supplications when I cry unto thee when I lift up my hands toward thy holy Oracle Psalm 63 4 thus will I bless thee while I live I will lift up my hands in thy name Psalm 134 2 lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord worship and Thanksgiving is about up is about lifting up Church goes better with Thanksgiving amen that we're his people he's made us we're not self-made and Thanksgiving acknowledges that God is the source of every good and perfect gift it all comes down from him amen so when you feel thankful and then Express gratitude to God out loud you're offering the sacrifice of Thanksgiving the fruit of your lips Thanksgiving goes with church and in church we express Thanksgiving to God by praising the Lord so separately I want to talk about praise because praise goes better with Thanksgiving that's how we should praise the Lord Psalm 147 4. sing to the Lord with Thanksgiving saying Praises on the harp to God that's how you sing with an attitude of gratitude the subject of Our Song is Jesus amen we sing to the Lord not just about him amen now there's many Christian songs gospel songs and hymns that are written about life and death and troubles and trials some wonderful lyrics about heaven their songs written to encourage us and to improve our perspective on life but songs we sing in church are sung about the Lord and to the Lord they are songs of Thanksgiving Psalm 147 7 again sing to the Lord not about the Lord but sing to the Lord with Thanksgiving sing praises on the harp to God when you sing to the Lord with Thanksgiving Jesus Christ is the inspiration for the song he is the premise for our praise and he is the audience of one to whom we sing in other words we're singing to Jesus Christ Alone to pray him and to thank him amen when church starts at Atlanta West Pentecostal church and many good churches our goal this is going to be shocking our goal is not to sing to you our goal is not to sing for you our goal is to sing unto the Lord and the hope is that in singing to the Lord you would join the praise team and add your voice of Thanksgiving and that you also would lift up your voice and lift up your heart with your hands and lift up your countenance to the Lord that you would get out of depression get out of whatever's pulling you down and you would get in to the presence of the Lord Praise goes better with Thanksgiving goes better Psalm 69 30. I will praise the name of God with the song and will Magnify Him with Thanksgiving Psalm 107 22 let them sacrifice the sacrifices of Thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoicing Psalm 116 17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of Thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord and Psalm 147 7 again sing to the Lord with Thanksgiving sing praises on the harp to our god so Thanksgiving is the predicate for our praise praise goes better when it is accompanied by Thanksgiving amen Psalm Philippians 4. so food goes better Church goes better praise goes better prayer goes better with Thanksgiving Philippians 4 6. be anxious for nothing that means don't worry about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and Minds through Christ Jesus now we want to get to the part where the peace of God calms us down but you get there through prayer with Thanksgiving in these verses the Apostle Paul uses three words for three kinds of prayer the first term prayer often signifies intercessory prayer for other people which is a heavy kind of prayer the second prayer supplication or petition is an urgent request for God to meet a need that we ask God to address the third type of prayer requests refers to naming specific items that's what you have on your prayer list but every type of prayer these heavy burdens of prayer should be made known unto God and expressed to God with Thanksgiving amen don't worry about anything but pray about everything and when you pray look up to God knowing that God has the power to hear and change the circumstances amen pray with Thanksgiving with Thanksgiving gives the right attitude and perspective on prayer Paul praying for the church in Philippi said every time I remember you I thank God for you making mention of you and my prayers he had a lot of reasons to be anxious for the Philippian Christians they were suffering they were struggling with the lack of unity but his prayer had an attitude of Joyful gratitude to God and he was confident that God that had begun a good work in them will complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ every time he prayed for them he remembered the faithfulness of God and this this little book of Philippians is filled with joy and rejoicing because of God's sovereignty amen Thanksgiving means giving God the glory in everything and making room for God casting all your care upon him as the Apostle Peter wrote for God cares for you but when there is a lack of Thanksgiving and your prayer at least to idolatry a lack of Thanksgiving in your life remember Romans 1 they they knew God but they were not thankful their foolish heart was darkened when you don't look up to God you look to someone else or something else or even to yourself as your own savior but Thanksgiving keeps Idols out of your life and keeps God on the throne of your life amen the absence of Thanksgiving in your life it turns off the power of Prayer without Thanksgiving prayer becomes really a way of just complaining to God about everything that is wrong here's my list God fix it but Thanksgiving and prayer go together Thanksgiving transforms your doubt into faith and it looks up to a God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you can ask or think according to that power that is at work in you Thanksgiving is powerful prayer goes better with Thanksgiving and then I want to finish this passage verse 7 and the peace of God the peace that you so desperately need the peace of God that surpasses understanding will guard your hearts and Minds through Christ Jesus when you pray with Thanksgiving so Thanksgiving establishes the posture of prayer looking up to God instead of looking down so feet goes better with Thanksgiving Church does better with Thanksgiving praise goes better with Thanksgiving prayer goes better with Thanksgiving in fact life life goes better with Thanksgiving Thanksgiving should be our Outlook our disposition toward life Colossians 2 6. our scripture reading in the beginning 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 abounding in your faith with Thanksgiving Paul wants these colossian Christians to live out what they've received and what they've been taught he said you receive Christ into your life you were filled with the Holy Spirit so now that you've received salvation I want you to walk in it don't make it a one-time experience don't make it something that you just experience on Sunday when you come to church but walk this out let your experience grow into a relationship live out what you've been taught he said I want you to be rooted deep and to be built up strong in your faith in Jesus Christ I want you to be established in your faith not baby Christians not immature but I want you to be built up in your faith amen as you have been instructed in other words you've been taught to do this in Atlanta West you've been taught to do this to grow past experience into relationship but then Paul wants to remind them to never allow discipleship Walking with God to degenerate into drudgery got to give up this Gotta Die daily take up my cross follow Jesus Christ it's a narrow way for sure one of these days if I can make it I'm going to go to heaven Paul said in this life turn your experience into a relationship go deep get strong you've been taught this but he said I want you to abound in this I want you to abound in your faith with Thanksgiving now a pound means to overflow with thanks to God that means you're not really careful about measuring you know you I know some of you don't want to wear yourself out in worship you're saving yourself for what comes after church you need your strength so you're very cautious but Paul says I want you to abound in Thanksgiving I wanted to flow out of you your life will go better with Thanksgiving [Applause] we're blessed to enjoy delicious food with Thanksgiving we're blessed to enter into the gates of worship with Thanksgiving we're blessed when we praise God with the Heart of Thanksgiving we're better when we pray to see answers when we pray with Thanksgiving the result of being thankful is that our life of faith in God is going to abound with Thanksgiving it's going to flow out of you and you're going to have a more joyful life a more full life a bigger World instead of shriveling down into depression and loneliness you're abounding with Thanksgiving will grow you into an attractive Christian that people want to be near and like [Applause] but depending on your frame of mind and the circumstances of your life Thanksgiving may not come easy and when Thanksgiving doesn't come easy when the list of things that you can think of to be thankful for has gone really short then you need to go to this next dimension and offer a sacrifice of Thanksgiving Hebrews 13 15. therefore by him let us every once in a while oh wait every let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name I'm not talking about making noise in church for the sake of making noise I'm not talking about just generating some kind of a fervency or feeling that something happened talking about the biblical mandate to offer to God a sacrifice of praise that is what is produced by your lips by your voice by lifting up your voice to God I've watched people who love the Lord but they never receive the gift of the Holy Ghost because their love for God stops right behind their teeth but Paul said she's he the writer of Hebrews said Let It Be the sacrifice of praise unto God it is the fruit of your lips giving thanks to his name now under the Old Testament law there were five main sacrificial offerings the burnt offering the grain offering the peace offering the sin offering and the guilt offering some offerings were prescribed and the process was specific and it was mandated other offerings were called Thanksgiving offerings or free will offerings and it meant just that Leviticus 22 29 refers to this type of offering and when you offer a sacrifice of Thanksgiving to the Lord offer it of your own free will you see I believe and was raised by and practiced that the first 10 percent of your increase belongs to God I don't have to calculate it or think about it it just belongs to God I would say that it's somewhat mandated by the principles of scripture but above that you can do whatever you feel to do whatever you want to do next Sunday Christmas for Christ nobody's going to ask you to give a certain amount these offerings were to be offered at your own free will you could give as much as you wanted you could be stingy and give as little as you want it now in the Old Testament there are thousands and thousands of blood sacrifices these offerings were offered throughout the Old Testament but when Jesus Christ gave his body on the cross he offered himself once for all people and all times and the sacrificial system of blood ended amen Jesus did it for us but there is still a sacrifice that God will accept from everyone every time and that is the sacrifice of praise the fruit of your lips giving thanks to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and there's no budget set there's no minimum requirement and you can give as much as you want and as much as you are able so I wonder on this Sunday after Thanksgiving if anybody has a sacrifice of praise and you'd like to stand to your feet and give it to God without reservation without limitation a sacrifice of praise because life goes better with Thanksgiving thank you