How to Be Thankful

Leprosy was an incurable disease. Sores, scabs all over the body, white flesh turning white. And the law required that isolation be done to that particular person from society. That's according to Leviticus 13.

Jesus Christ encountered ten lepers. Ten lepers who undoubtedly came from their secluded place to come out, to venture out, to meet Him, and to ask for healing. Let's look at it in Luke 17, verses 11-19. Luke 17, verses 11-19. And it came to pass as He went to Jerusalem. He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as He entered into a certain village, there met Him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off. Remember in some of the movies, I think it was in Ben Hur, and people were stoning when they saw any of the lepers come out of their area. They don't want to get this dread disease, which is highly contagious, and a dreaded disease. And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. I guess they lifted up their voices because He was so far away. So they had to speak loudly so He could hear them. And when He saw them, He said to them, Go show yourselves to the priests. And it came to pass as they listened to Him, as they did the will of God, they listened to what He had to say. As they went, they were cleansed. So after they listened to Him, they were cleansed. Now think about it for a minute. You're a leper. You've been isolated. You're sitting here. You're away from your family. You're away from your friends. You can't see anybody. And you call out to be healed, and you're healed. What a wonderful, miraculous act this was, that Jesus Christ performed on these poor lepers. Ten of them. Then we read, verse 15, And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back. And with a loud voice glorified God, Thank you, God, for healing me. Thank you, Jesus Christ, for making me better. Thank you that I don't have to live in isolation. Thank you that I don't have to have these sores and scabs all over my skin. Thank you that I can integrate again into society. And he fell down on his face at his feet, the Jesus Christ's feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. He wasn't even of Judah. He was of Samaria, likely a mixture and probably a Gentile that had been imported by the Assyrians. Verse 17, And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? Were there not ten of you? But where are the other nine? How disappointing. How disappointing. And verse 18, There are not found that return to give glory to God except this stranger. This is the only one who offered thanks. What a tragedy! And he said to him, Arise and go your way, your faith has made you whole. But see, they were already whole, so they didn't have much to worry about. They just went on their way. They accepted this wonderful blessing without any thought whatsoever beyond that. I want to read to you a quote. It's entitled, Only in the Dictionary.

A businessman said, People are ingrates. It took me 61 years to find out. I have 175 employees, men and women. At Thanksgiving, I sent them 175 choice turkeys. Only four thanked me. Two thanked me by notes. And two said, Thank you, when they happened or chanced to meet me in the hall. Because of their thanklessness, I've decided never to go out of my way to be nice again. Someone has said, If you want to find gratitude, look for it in the dictionary. Isn't that sad? Let me read to you another one. It's entitled, Two Angels. There's a legend about two angels who were sent to earth to gather up the prayers of men. One was to fill his basket with the petitions of mankind. The other was to gather the prayers of thanksgiving.

Sometime later, they went back to the father. One had a basket heaped high and running over with the innumerable petitions of men. The other returned with a sad and heavy heart. For his basket was almost empty. The thanks of men were heard but rarely on earth, even though the angel had searched diligently.

Do not let us forget the thanksgiving side of our prayers.

2 Timothy talks about thanklessness in our modern day. He talks about the end time. 2 Timothy 3, he said in the last days, in verse 1, in verse 2, he says, For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents, UNTHANKFUL! UNTHANKFUL! Unholy! It's characteristic of our day. Characteristic of our day. I'll read you a quote from a Toronto Star article in 1999 that I picked up just before I left Canada to come down here and take up duties with the ABC. And it's rather telling about courtesy and gratitude and thankfulness. I'll read that to you a little later. But Romans 1 verse 21 tells us why people don't have a relationship with God, and one of the reasons they don't is they've forgotten to be thankful. Romans 1 and verse 21. Romans 1 and 21, because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful. One reason people get out of sync with God, one reason that people lose their contact with God, their connection, is that they forget to be thankful. They forget to be grateful. He says, but they became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. James tells us in chapter 1 verse 17, every good and every perfect gift comes down from God. Everything we have that's good and perfect and right and wonderful comes from God. He even allows trials as well, because in a sense those are good for developing character, for proving what we're like, for helping us see what we can take and endure and how we can make it through, and building spiritual muscles. Every good and every perfect gift comes down from God. With Thanksgiving less than a week away, it's good to ask ourselves if we are thankful, and will we be able to count our blessings? Which is the title of the sermon, Count Your Blessings. I want to give you a quick synopsis of the origin of Thanksgiving. I'll tell you a little story. When I was a ministerial assistant in St. Louis, Missouri back in 1961-62, between the summer of 1961 and the summer of 1962, I was around Thanksgiving time in 1961. I thought, what more appropriate thing to do than give a sermonette about Thanksgiving? So I prepared this sermonette based on an article that came out from Pasadena. I used that and used some of that, but I had my own scriptures in it, and I gave the sermonette on Thanksgiving. Between St. Louis, where we served in the morning, and Bloomington, Illinois, which we took in the afternoon, 175 miles, the minister there with me, Mr. Baird, he said, I wouldn't give that sermonette in Bloomington. He said, why? It's too close to Chicago. The minister in Chicago at that time, who will remain unnamed, did not believe in Thanksgiving. He taught his church that it was pagan, shouldn't keep it. So since this area used to be a satellite church of Chicago, he didn't think it was going to be good. So I had to prepare in those four hours, or three and a half hours, that took us to go from one church to the other at that time, because he drove to prepare another sermonette. I didn't understand that. I said, why? Pasadena says it's okay. It's in here. I've looked it up. I've read about this. You know what? Yeah, other groups have kept thanksgivings in honor of their gods. But you know what? Other people use eggs to honor their gods. That doesn't get me from eating eggs.

Other people have festivals. It doesn't keep us from keeping festivals. And who was at the beginning, the origin of everything? God. So whose way should stand out? And I can tell you, there are over 100 places in the Bible that talk about thanksgiving, giving of thanks, being thankful over 100 times in the Bible. Most of them toward God, but some of them to men. But I'll give you a quick synopsis of the origin of American thanksgiving. Canadians keep thanksgiving, too, but it's usually right around the feast, around October 10th, 11th, somewhere in there. And they keep it at that time, but it's not the same as our thanksgiving. According to one historical account, early colonists in 1621, about 50 to 90 of them, depending on your particular historical source, this source I had said 90, of them assembled with Indians, friendly Indians, to give thanks for the first harvest they had in the new colony in America. It wasn't necessarily in November, but they had this. In 1855, the South adopted thanksgiving as a holiday. And in 1863, President Lincoln, being begged by a lady, it's called the Thanksgiving Lady, who wrote numerous letters to him and other administrators, saying, Why don't we have this Thanksgiving? It was right during the time of the Civil War. Begged, please, let's do something that's thankful, something that's good. And finally, President Lincoln did make it a national holiday on the last Thursday, or the third Thursday in November. Then in 1941, it went to the third Thursday, and then more recently, it's gone to the fourth Thursday in the month of November. And it was a time to be thankful to God. President Lincoln said we need to thank God for all the blessings we have.

We need to thank God for all the resources we have. We need to thank God for all that He has given to us. So that's the origin of it. Now, to be thankful, and to count our blessings, we need to have three prerequisites. So put these down as prerequisites. This is what you need to do to be thankful. Why is it that people aren't thankful?

Number one, have a grateful attitude. So prerequisites, I'm going to talk about counting the blessings after this. Prerequisites to being thankful and counting your blessings. You must have a grateful attitude.

So many in the world think, I'm entitled to this. The world owes me! Of course I should get this. Of course you should buy things from my store and pay a premium price. And I don't have to say thank you, because you needed that item or you wouldn't have bought it. So why am I thanking you? If you want to stay at my establishment, obviously you're staying here because you needed a place to stay. Why should I thank you? In order to be thankful and count our blessings, we must have a grateful attitude. It's an attitude that the world doesn't owe me. It's an attitude that says, you know what? I appreciate what's done for me. I appreciate what's done to me. It's an attitude the world doesn't owe us and neither do other people. A couple of quotes. Two of them are anonymous and one of them is by David McCarthy, whom I don't know who he was either, but I'll give you his name. Quote, nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart. Nothing is more, and that one was by Seneca, by the way, famous philosopher, nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart. It has to do with your heart. Have you been taught to respond gratefully when somebody does something for you, when somebody says something nice to you, when somebody does something nice to you, when somebody gives something nice to you? Do we have a grateful attitude?

Second quote, a thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all virtues. A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all virtues. Having that attitude of gratefulness, I'm just glad to be alive. I'm just glad to breathe fresh air.

I'm just glad to have a drink of water. I'm just thrilled that we have electricity. I'm just happy that my computer is working today. I'm just thrilled that this is so wonderful. And then here's one by David McCarthy. The man who has forgotten to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.

Let me read it again. These all have to do with a grateful attitude. The man who has forgotten to be thankful has fallen asleep in life. Life is passing him by. He doesn't know what's going on, which leads to the second point, and that is to be observant. But before I get there, I want to read to you just a couple of quotes from this article. It's called, Gratitude Can Be a Life-enhancing Skill from Toronto Star. The date of this is October 9, 1999. I'm going to break into the... just quote some of the sections. It says, Sarah Van Brethnax, simple abundance, or book, simple abundance, became a mega bestseller in 1997 when Oprah Winfrey devoted an entire show to one of its key messages, which was, Get an Attitude for Gratitude. Get an Attitude for Gratitude. The book recommended a simple device of keeping a nightly journal in which you listed five things to be thankful for that day. They didn't have to be big things, they could just be small things. Little things, like... Again, it's not so little to see a beautiful sunset. But little things. When I was at work, I was able to finish this one project. That's a little thing. But to be thankful for some things, even it talks about the play of the sunlight on the autumn leaves. Some days, the only thing you might be thankful for is that the day was over. But the point is, you could be thankful. Five things.

They simply had to be things you noticed outside of yourself. Outside of your own little routine that you started to notice, which is the second point. Be observant. Be observant or aware. Oftentimes, we're not aware. Oh, how did that happen here? How did that get here? How did that occur?

Oh, well. It's good. I deserved it or whatever. Are we thankful? Are we a grateful people? It simply had to be outside of your own, and they could be small things or whatever, but we needed to feel grateful for them. Another comment, she says in this article, there's nothing trivial about training yourself to develop an awareness of the world around you, to recognize what is good in it, and to be consciously thankful. This Catholic priest said this, Gratitude is a habit that has to be learned.

It doesn't come naturally. Our children have to learn to say thank you. You play games with them. Please, thank you, please, thank you when you ask them for something, please. When they go to ask for something, you say, please, and they say, please. When they get it, you say, thank you before you let it go, and they say, thank you.

You have to teach them. It isn't inherent. We grow up thinking the world belongs to us, and everything is ours. Witness little kids playing. Everything is theirs. That's mine, too. I can have that if I want to. We have to teach them. Interesting. To a Muslim, a heretic is a person who lacks gratitude. In the Judeo-Christian theology, giving thanks to God for the gift of life is the central act of worship.

Gratitude is an appreciation for life. The joys and struggles, even when we get overwhelmed by them at times, it gives us perspective. The horizon of infinity and the promise of life everlasting. Fear may once have been the chief motivation for religious worship, but it is no longer. If you only have fear religion, people only stay with you as long as they can't think about other things.

Fear religion doesn't work. Your life, like this quote, is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God. I thought that's profound and beautiful. Your life is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God. And what you ought to be doing with it, what we all ought to be doing with it, is giving thanks to God.

I've got some pretty neat quotes in that particular article. Pre-requisite 1 was have a grateful attitude. Pre-requisite 2 is be observant. See. Experience. Remember what happens to us in life. Remember what people do. Remember what people say. Remember them. Here's a quote. It has often been pointed out that thinking precedes thinking. Thinking precedes thinking. When we're presented with a gift, it's because we think of its significance and meaning. And I went, wow, this is so awesome! That we are led to express our appreciation. Be observant. Be aware of what's around you, what happens to you, what's done for you, what's done to you.

Be aware so that you can notice those areas to be thankful for. So in order to be thankful, you've got to have an attitude of gratitude. You also have to be observant. You have to see what's happening. And you have to feel what's happening. And you have to remember what's happening in order to have gratitude. And the third one, third prerequisite, and we're going to get to count the blessings, is express our gratitude. Words or gestures of appreciation need to follow. If we have an attitude of gratitude, if we have our observant of what's happening and aware, then we need to express it.

How many times have you felt thankful but never said it? How many times have you felt good about what happened to you but you never told anybody thank you? How many times have we seen things happen to people and know that God has intervened and we fail to thank God for it? Express ourselves words or gestures. And I like this quote. It's anonymous. It is better to say thank you and not mean it than to mean it and not say it.

It's better to have somebody say it to you and not mean it. At least you heard a thank you and you might get by and think he was genuine than someone who's really genuine but never says anything. Well, I really felt good about that. I really felt that was nice.

But never tell you. Gratitude must be expressed. So those are three prerequisites. Let's count our blessings now. Psalms 103, verses 1 and 2. Psalms 103, verses 1 and 2. By the way, your handout is only for you to use as you choose in the Thanksgiving evening or whenever you're sitting around with each other and you want to do something nice.

Ask each other, what do you think is the greatest blessing I receive from God, the blessing from the family? It's the greatest blessing I receive from my friends. And you can think of lots of them. It doesn't have to be the pinnacle. But which one to you is the best? The Psalms 103, verses 1 and 2. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.

Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Verse 2. And forget not all his benefits. Forget not all his benefits. It used to be a song, God. It went something like this. When I'm worried and I can't sleep, I count my blessings instead of sheep. And I fall asleep, counting my blessings. I'd like to encourage us all to count our blessings. And certainly with Thanksgiving coming up, that would be a great thing to do around the table. But even better than that, it's great to do all the time. Count our blessings. Think of all the good that happens to you. Have a grateful heart at whatever you receive.

I want to read to you. I was going to save this toward the end, but I'm going to give it to you right now. You'll like this one. My husband Paul and I have been married 49 years. And he's thanked me with a kiss for every meal that I've made. 49 years, says Sally Poskovich of Sioux City, Iowa. It doesn't matter if it's toast for breakfast or steak for dinner. He always remembers. When he worked, he thanked me for the lunch I packed even before he knew what was in it.

I've made more than a few disastrous meals over those years. For those, he gave me an extra kiss. For effort, he said. Our daughter calculated that Paul has thanked me 53,655 times. Being grateful for the little things that we have. Having an attitude that looks out will help us all. And in fact, this article points out, it helps your emotions. It's good for you emotionally.

To be grateful. In fact, many businesses say, well, you know, as long as we give them a paycheck and don't give them any criticism, it should be good enough. No! Businesses are finding out, and top managers are finding out, that if they don't appreciate and recognize the people that work for them, they will lose those people.

They're good companies that know how to commend their employees. My daughter worked for years, and she almost had a perfect record, my younger daughter, in mail receiving in Pasadena. Hardly ever got to thank you. Hardly ever got it. And I'm not condemning, I'm just telling you story facts. She went for one summer to work for another company, just to be a receptionist.

Every day, those people were so glad you're here. Thank you for being so friendly. I really appreciated the way you handled that call. Thank you for doing that memo for me. She was overwhelmed with the gratitude and the appreciation that came. We, of all people, need to be a grateful, thankful people.

Mostly thanks to God, but it's okay to thank others, too. I thought that was really interesting, that kissing your wife. Fifty-three thousand times, and great gratitude for meals. Let's count our blessings. One more quote. The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings. Here are the three major areas, then, that we may find blessings. Nationally, personally, and spiritually. Three main categories. Nationally, personally, and spiritually. And we're reminded, with Thanksgiving coming up, it's good for us to reflect on these blessings. But not only at Thanksgiving, anytime during the year, and at all times during the year.

Are we thankful, let's look at the first one, nationally, for the blessings we have of living in a country which God has blessed? Are we grateful to be in this particular country? Are you grateful for whatever country of origin you come from? Whatever it might be. I know my granddad, when he went back to Syria, after sixty years of being away and seeing all the accomplishments and all the technologies developed and all the development in America, he went back there expecting it to be so wonderful too. Because he had memories of where he left when he was a young man. When he left in his twenties, came back in his eighties, and he was sorely disappointed that some of the very problems that were there in the earth when he was there were still there, that they had not accomplished, they had not grown. But his memories of it, of his experience growing up, were wonderful. But, blessings that we have. Genesis 22, verse 17. Genesis 22, verse 17. Let's just take a look at a few scriptures that we can see that help us to be grateful and thankful for what we have on this Thanksgiving Day, while lots of people are going to be watching football games, no problem. Lots of people are going to be paying attention to turkey and dressing and cranberry sauce and all the other various side dishes and accessories that go along with that meal. Nonetheless, we need to remember to be a thankful people. It is a time to be grateful and thankful to our God.

Genesis 22, verse 17. God says here, after Abraham had been willing to give his Son and God miraculously intervened and did not let him kill him, but, verse 17, that in blessing I will bless you and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and the sand which is upon the sea and your seed shall possess the gate of its enemies. And, verse 18, and in your seed, your seed, your people, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. You not only will have wonderful blessings yourself, you will be a blessing to the rest of the world. How much aid do we give to the rest of the world? And the rest of the world hates us because we don't give them enough.

We're hated because we have.

We are so blessed as a country to be able to have. When we conquer people, we don't keep their land. We give it back to them and we help them build it up, even at our expense. France ought to come down on its knees and thank us every day. We canceled their debts. We built them up. We spent lots of lives to rescue them a couple of times in wars. And we gave them lots through the Marshall Plan. And we said, it's okay, you don't have to pay us back. We have a beautiful country. We have a Joseph country, a giving country, that cares about others, that could have ruled the world when it dropped the A-bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. That struck fear into the whole world. We could have said, anybody else want to pipe up? We could send a few bombs your way, too. But we didn't! And we helped Japan build itself back up. We helped Germany build itself back up. Why? Because we're God's people, and we don't know it as a nation. We have a giving heart. God said, they'll be blessed through you. And certainly through Abraham, see, all the world is blessed because of Jesus Christ. You know that. Numbers 14, verse 8. The land in which God gave them at that time. And you can parallel that to the land that we have today. Numbers 14, and verse 8. God says, after they gave their report, here's what the good reporters gave, not the false reporters. If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into the land and will give it to us. A land which flows with milk and honey. A land that has so much grain, so much produce, it can sell it to its other nations of the world. It can give it to other nations of the world in times of famine and starvation. God has given us a land that flows proverbially as milk and honey. Just like that expression, it's beautiful and it's abundant and it's plentiful. He's given us a beautiful country. Go to the stores. You see varieties of apples. You don't just see one kind of apple. You see varieties of apples, from Brayburn to Pink Lady to Galette to Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, and you name them, whatever other ones you like. Vegetables. The bins are overflowing. Lettuces and greens. You have all types. How come? Because God has blessed us with abundance. Deuteronomy 8. He does warn us. He does warn us. Here's where the angel that went back to God in heaven in that story was disappointed. Deuteronomy 8.7. For the Lord your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks, of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of the valleys and hills. While Atlanta is having some difficulty, Minnesota has tons of lakes.

Ontario has lakes. So many, they don't even know how many there are. God has given us, in our country, abundance. He's given us blessings. He said fountains and depths that spring out of the valleys and hills. He's talking about Israel back then. A land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates.

Pomegranates are very good. We just had one last night. It's awful to do. You get spritzed all over the place, but they're really good for you. A land of pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey. God says, I'm giving you abundance and blessings. A land wherein you shall eat bread without scarceness, you shall not lack anything in it. A land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you shall dig brass. You're going to find all types of resources. A land in which you can develop technologies. A land that leads the world in this and that and the other areas of technology. Giving you so much. What would you do without a telephone? Not only do we have telephones at home, we all have their own telephones. Some of them have them in their ear, so they can get them all the time. What would we do without that? You go to the sink and you just take it for granted. Just turn on the water. There's water. Wait for a few seconds and you get hot water too. Cold and hot, running water, and in many places in your house. If you have several bathrooms or a laundry tub. What a blessing! Think about it! Many peoples of the world don't have what we have. The poorest among us. In much of the world, you'd be considered wealthy. In much of the world. The shabbiest house here would look like a palace in many parts of the world. We are so blessed. Let's not forget these national blessings.

Verse 10, he said, When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land, which he has given to you. Dutch people not only ask a blessing on the meal, after they're finished with the meal, at least according to the tradition I understood, they also stay around the table and give thanks for what they just ate. So, a blessing that they give. I'm not suggesting we do that. I'm just saying that's their...

Beware that you forget not the Lord your God and not keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes, which I command you this day. Remember him for the blessings you have nationally. Be thankful for what we have nationally. Be thankful for the freedoms we have. Be thankful for the economy that we have. Be thankful for the abundance and the resources and the technological advances. What about a washing machine? You know, most of us have automatic washing machines. We don't have the ringer types. You have to stand on there and run them through the ringer. My mom still has one of those. She thinks that's the best way to get your laundry clean. She didn't do it anymore. But even in my dad's 90s, my mom in her late 80s, they were down in the basement. They could barely get down to the steps. But they had to run those things through the ringer and save the water. I had to convince my mom, Mom, you know what? After you've washed these clothes and you put this soapy muck in a laundry tub, and then you pump it back in and use it again, Mom, remember what's in those clothes. That water is dirt from the previous wash. So what you're doing is washing the new clothes that you put in, dirty clothes with other dirty water. Wouldn't it be better off to wash it with clean water? Oh, no, but it's a sudsaver, so that's what they had. Seder suds, and that's what they did. They were used to. But in Israel, when my wife and I were over there in 1983, we had this little apartment. They said it comes furnished. It has a TV. It has washer. Wow, okay, automatic wash. We don't have to go out somewhere to do our wash. Well, we were so excited after touring with the students for a period of time in 1983, came to this apartment. We looked at the washing machine. It was like the size of a mini refrigerator. Okay, we look at it, and okay, how many of you can get very many clothes? We stuffed as many as we could. All right, turn on. Let's let her roll. Turn it on. And we waited, and we waited. You see, it only took cold water. And first thing it had to do was heat all the cold water before it washed the clothes. Then it had to heat the water again so it could rinse them. It took us all day to do a couple of little loads of wash. When I think of the blessings, we had to throw clothes in the washer, put the soap in, close it, turn it on, away it goes. We are so blessed that we don't have to get on and beat things. Our vacuum is out of our Hoover wind tunnels or whatever you have, and you zip through and you vacuum. What do people have to do before? Sweep or beat? Take big rugs up and beat them? Beat the rugs! Get that dirt out of them. How grateful we can be for all the blessings and the abundance. So many things we take for granted. When do we complain? When the electricity is off. When do we complain? When the water is shut off, when you're drinking something in your sewers, and you don't have any water for a while. Can't get any water. What's wrong with you? That's what we notice. What a blessing it is. Most of the time, we just go and use it. Let's be thankful to God for the blessings we have. Deuteronomy 28, verses 3-6, another blessing we have to be grateful for nationally. You can think of a whole lot more. I'm just throwing out some ideas for us all to think about for Thanksgiving.

Deuteronomy 28, verse 3, blessed shall you be in the city. Blessed shall you be in the field. You're going to be blessed. God says, I'll bless you as a country, as a nation. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the fruit of the ground, the fruit of the cattle, and the increase of your cattle and your flocks of your sheep. Blessed shall be your basket, that's your storehouse and your store, what you gather up and what you store. Verse 6, blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. Do we ever thank God? Do we thank Him enough for the freedom we have to go and come as we please? Witness Pakistan, where people are put in prison, they're put in detention centers because they don't quite believe what somebody else does. Aren't you thankful that we can meet and assemble, and we understand that the U.S. is in trouble, big time trouble? We say it in a lot of our literature, and that they don't come and say, okay, that's enough, you bad-mouthed America, get out of here. Aren't we glad that we can assemble on Saturday? They say, you know what? Saturday, you can't worship on Saturday. I may come to that, Mark of the Beast. But right now, you can worship, and you have freedom of worship, freedom of religion. You have freedom of movement. You have freedom of expression. You can even burn the flag. Not that I advocate that. It's a horrible thing. And get away with it. You can even have a counter-organization, intended to overthrow the America and stand up and speak about it. And that's viewed as okay. Freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is never intended to hurt others. Freedom of speech is never intended to be nasty or cruel or hateful. But our country has that. We have freedom, and we should be thankful and grateful for those freedoms. We should be thankful that, as Psalm 33, 12 tells us, Blessed is the nation who has God as its Lord, whose Lord is its God, as God for its... the Lord for its God. Yeah, blessed is that nation. Psalm 33 and verse 12, whose God is the Lord. Our God is God. He rules over the nation. He oversees it. He blesses it until he gets ready to take it down. And we're the recipients of those blessings because of Abraham and all that he did. So nationally, let's be grateful. Next, let's talk about personally. Personally. Another area to count blessings in. What a blessing that you can choose. We have choice in life. We have choice of where we want to live. We have choice of where we want to work. We have choice of where we want to sit. You came in here. Most of you sat back there because you thought I had garlic, and I didn't.

I crushed some garlic because my wife's having some garlic mashed potatoes today for the Cincinnati North get-together. But I don't have any. I did wash and I took a shower after I crushed the garlic for her. You could sit where you want to sit. You can read what you want to bring. You could take notes. You could read your Bible. You could come here. You could come to the AM or PM, depending on what you sign up to go to.

You have choice in life. You have choice of what you wanted to wear. You could wear it this tie or that tie. You could wear this outfit or that outfit, this pair of shoes or that. We have choices. We have choices about life. Do I want to live? Do I want to die? We have choices. In fact, God puts before us Deuteronomy 30. One of the greatest blessings we have in life is choice. The freedom to choose. Choose every day. Which way we're going to be? Choose every day. What type of an attitude we're going to have? Choose every day. How we're going to affect other people positively or negatively? Every day! We make choices. What a wonderful world it would be if every day we got upset. I want to make sure today I make somebody happy.

If it's just one person, I want to affect their life positively. I hope I do more, but I hope just one. Deuteronomy 30. Deuteronomy 30, verse 19. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life. It even gives you a clue that both you and your seed may live.

A choice for life. Talk to those who've had life-threatening diseases. Talk to those whose lives were threatened with death.

Talk to those who maybe have been put in prison. You know, Paul was a jail bird, wasn't he? So was Joseph. Some pretty nice people were put in jail.

How glad they are to be free. How glad they are to have life. Those who battle sicknesses and diseases. How glad they are for every day of life. I'm told that cancer victims, those who are suffering, have suffered and received roses. I'm told that they can tell you every gift they receive from everybody.

That's how much it meant to them when they were struggling for their very life.

It's important that we value life and that we choose life. But it's a blessing God gives to us. John 10. 10. God doesn't want us just to have life, just ordinary life. He wants us to have abundant life. Is our lives abundant?

John 10. 10. Jesus Christ came that they might be. Thief comes not for to steal. John 10. 10. Kill and destroy. I am come that they might have life. They might have it more abundantly. God wants us to enjoy life. God wants life to be a treat to us, not a treatment. God wants life to be a joy, not a drag. God wants us to enjoy life.

God wants us to see the brightness. He wants us to see the silver lining in the clouds. He wants us to see the rainbow at the end of a storm. He doesn't want us to see the storm only, or the thunder and the lightning, that which causes some people fear. That all depends on us, doesn't it? But it's a blessing that we have. Good health is a blessing. 3 John 2. 3 John 2. Personally, we have good health. Thank God. Every day. I go in for a routine check-up. What are they going to find? Are they going to find this? Are they going to find that wrong with me? Are they going to find I have this problem? What are they going to find? I had a little whort on my chest. I thought, oh no. That seemed to get a little bigger and it seemed to disintegrate. I thought, oh no, it's going to get cancer. I went in and the doctor is doing his chest. Can you take a look at this? Oh, that's no problem. Whew! Good health is a blessing. 3 John 2. Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. As your life prospers, I wish that your health is prospering too. It's a choice we make. Eat right, live right, think right, have a right attitude toward life, and stay healthy. But health, good health, is a blessing. Families a blessing. Psalms 127. Psalms 127, verses 1-5. Psalms 127, verse 1, Accept the Lord, build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Accept the Lord, keep the city, the watchmen wakes, but in vain. What a blessing to have family. What a blessing to have children. Daughters, we have to see the Letterman concert over in Lawrenceburg. And one of the Lettermen, who's almost 50, just had his first son, first daughter about four years before that. He had performed up here in this area five years before, which we also saw, the Letterman for a trio, vocal singing group, Men. And the one was telling us about his daughter, and how when she was born, how many men liked to have a son. But he wouldn't trade his daughter for anything. She's Daddy's girl. He actually did a song called Daddy's Girl. It was beautiful. But he also had a son after that, and he also did a song entitled, The Little Boy's Prayer. Both of them were absolutely beautifully done. But they were touching. They were the appreciation for family, for children, for grandchildren, great-grandchildren, for the warmth that they bring, for the love that they bring into your life, for your wife, for your husband, for your father, for your mother, for your friends. Do we thank God personally for what we have? It's vain for you to rise up early and sit up late to eat the spread of sorrow, so He gives His beloved sleep. Low children are the heritage of the Eternal, what God gives to you and me. The fruit of the womb is His reward. As arrows are in the hand of the mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with their enemies in the gate. Every time I read that, I picture Ben Cartwright riding up with Hoss, Adam, and little Joe. Okay, you've got a problem here! Here comes Ben with his three sons, all toting their guns. Little Joe, he's a warrior on his left side. He's a left hander, I guess. I still remember that. But they're not afraid to speak with their enemies in the gates because of their children. But children and family are blessings. Friends are blessings. Proverbs 27. How much joy does a friend bring into your life? You light up when you see them, don't you? They're special to you. You know they're special to you? They know they're special to you? Friends. Proverbs 27, verses 9 and 10.

Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, so does the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel, because you know he's going to give you good counsel. Verse 10. Your own friend and your father's friend, don't forsake. Neither go into your brother's house in the day of calamity, because if you have problems and you've got friends, your friends will be there for you. For better is a neighbor that is near than a brother far off. If you have friends, they will be there for you. That's a wonderful blessing to have. And Ecclesiastes, chapter 9. With all this, we need to learn to enjoy and appreciate what we have, but to enjoy the blessings that we have. The blessings of life and health and home and clothing and family and friends and employment. But Ecclesiastes, chapter 9, verse 7. Go your way, eat your bread with joy, drink your wine with a merry heart. For God now accepts your work. God wants you to enjoy life. A lot of people think, life is so heavy, life is so hard. Being a Christian is so difficult. Yeah, we do have difficulties being Christians. But if that's all you see, you're missing something. God says, I give you life. Let your garments be always white. Whatever you do, let your life be pure. Let your head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom you love, all the days of the life of your vanity, which He has given you under the sun, all the days of your vanity. For that is your portion in this life and in your labor which is taken under the sun. Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave where you go. So, enjoy life. Enjoy it to the full. Enjoy what you have and enjoy it for your age. My poor uncle, my mom's brother, on his dying bed because he had heart trouble and it didn't work, he was dying. He said the one thing he regretted not being able to do was go on a cruise. The one thing he wanted to do in life was go on a cruise. And the senior citizens in his area went on a cruise. My dad, his best friend, my mom, his sister, they went on a cruise. But this man's wife, my aunt, would not go with him because she didn't want to be a senior citizen, even though she was. He never went because he didn't want to go by himself. He died before he fulfilled that dream. Live life. Live it for your age. Whatever your age is, be happy. If you're young, you'll be old soon enough. If you're old, well, you're going to get older soon enough. Be happy where you are. Be grateful. Live life and enjoy it. Laugh more. Smile more. Do more. The things that are fun. Somehow we grow. You know, this is so good, it must be sin. Why good things have to be sin? Sometimes they are. Tater chips and ice creams. Those things, you know, that's it. Put on the couch. Why do they have to taste it? Why do they make all the good things in nutrients taste better for you?

And let that stuff taste yucky. But it does taste better. You have to make choices again. What's good? What's good for you? So personally, think of things to enjoy. One other quote I have is about a boy. A Sunday school teacher asked her class what they were thankful for. We called it Sabbath school. One little boy said, And when asked why was he thankful for his glasses when most little boys were bitter about having to wear glasses, he said, Well, I'm thankful because they keep the boys from fighting me and the girls from kissing me. So there are things that we can be thankful for in life, even if there are little things that we can notice personally in our own lives.

Finally, then, to count our blessings is the spiritual side of it. The spiritual side. We need to count these mightily and lots. John 17 and verse 3. One great blessing that we all have, one great blessing is that we can know God, and that God knows us, and that we can know who we are, too.

That God knows us, and we can know him. John 17. We can know him, he can know us. John 17 verse 3. This is life eternal that they might know you.

How many people don't know the real God? How many people worship a Trinity? How many people worship a God that they don't even know? How many people worship false gods in this world? This is life eternal that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. A blessing to know God, who he is, what he is, what he stands for, what his character is, what he asks of us, what he'll do for us, what his love is for us, what a blessing, and that he knows us. Someone we can turn to in prayer. Someone we can look to. Notice verse 20 of John chapter 17.

Jesus Christ said, in effect, I pray for you. I pray for you, you who at the end time will believe on me through their word, which these disciples faithfully transmitted. John 16 verse 27. John 16 verse 27. For the Father himself loves you because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. God knows you, and God loves you. And in fact, God calls you his friend. Remember who was called a friend in the Bible? A friend of God? Abraham. Friend of God by name. God calls us all friends. God is your friend. I'll read that scripture to you in John 15. Let's go to that real quickly. John 15. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant does not know what his Lord does, but I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you. Friends share. So I've shared with you all that I know. You're not just a servant that I just tell, do this, do that. You're my friend. You're my friend. Friends you are. He says. 1 Peter 1, verses 18 and 19. How grateful are we for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and his wonderful sacrifice made on our behalf. We might think about that, reflect on that. What it meant to be free from your sins. What it meant to be free from your past. That God gave you a clean slate, wiped it out, whatever it was, whatever you were, was all wiped out in baptism.

1 Peter 1, verses 18. For as much as you know, you are not redeemed with corruptible things, the silver and gold, from your vain conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot.

Verse 20. Who was fairly foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was shown openly in these last times for you.

Saved from death, saved from destruction, saved from sin, saved from pollution of this world through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

You might want to remember that. Luke 11, verse 11. Another beautiful gift that we can count, a blessing we can count. Receiving the Spirit of God. Luke 11. These are just some. You know, to know God, to know ourselves, to have forgiveness, to have hope for a better world, to be a part of the church of God that God has called us into.

The Holy Spirit, God's laws, God's ways, all of these are areas that we can be grateful for, and many more blessings that we have from being a part of God's work and God's church. And that God has called us into a relationship with Him. Luke 11. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? If he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?

You know the answer. Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a snake or a scorpion? If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? And the most precious gift we could ever receive is the Holy Spirit. It's the connection to God. It makes us different. It's what gives us the down payment of eternal life. It's what enables us to grow in godly character. It's what gives us the mind of God. It's what helps us to will, as Mr. Smith mentioned, and to do of His good pleasure. It's what gives us that soundness of mind and that love of God in our lives. Precious Holy Spirit, thank God for that. Words of Life, John 6. What a blessing to have a Bible across your lap. A friend of mine gave me a Bible that has, I think it's parallel Bible, that either has four or six different translations all in it. Now we can go to the computer and get all types of them off of that. What a blessing to have the Bible so abundantly around us. But John 6, verse 63, it doesn't matter how many Bibles you have, if we don't read them and use them and follow them. John 6, verse 63, it is the Spirit that quickens, the flesh profits nothing, the words that I speak to you. They are Spirit and they are life. God has given us words of life which we can understand, because He tells us in Matthew 13, verse 13 to 15, Blessed are your eyes, because they can see. Blessed are your ears, because they hear. Because many people would like to know and see and hear and cannot understand the precious words that God has. What a blessing to be able to understand. What a blessing to have brethren in the church who are like family to us. Mark 10, verse 28.

Peter said, Lo, we have left all and followed you. We don't have anything. We left it behind. Our dad's fishing business, we have left that. People, all the fishermen have isolated us and avoid us. In verse 29, Jesus answered and said, Verily I say to you, there is no man that has left house, brothers, sisters, father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the Gospels, but that he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time houses, brethren, sisters, mothers, children and lands, yes, with persecutions and in the world to come, eternal life. We have brethren. We have people who are just like our brethren. Toronto, Canada, I'll tell you there were many people up there who did more for me than my own family could do. I marvel at this one lady when my wife had epileptic seizures and from time to time when somebody needed to come over and stay with her, when I'd go visiting, this girl would come over and stay. I think first of all, I don't like to be around that. That's a horrible thing. I've been around plenty of them. But I wouldn't put myself into that position. This person did it.

More than my own family would do, because my family wasn't around. But I know it would be awkward for some of them to even do that. God's people are like family to us. And we need to recognize and be grateful and thankful for that. Finally, Titus 1, verse 2. In this area of spiritually, how we should be... This area is a broader area where we can count our blessings. Titus 1 and verse 2. One blessing I think of is that that I have hope. Hope. People without hope, there's nothing for them. People without hope. There's nothing that they look forward to. There's nothing that they look upon that could be glorious or could be a benefit or a blessing. Titus 1, 2. In hope of eternal life. God has given us a hope that nobody can take away from us but us. God won't even take it away from you. You have to tell him you don't want it. And show him you don't want it. In hope of eternal life. Something that transcends what this world has, the disappointments or the blessings or the successes, goes beyond that to eternal life. The movie Titanic. At the end, a woman said, there's this whatever his name was, Hockley. And I understand he had lots of riches. He married, of course, inherited his millions, but then he lost it all in the Great Depression. And I understand he put a gun in his mouth and ended it all. Why? Because we don't have any hope. His hope was money. His hope was wealth. Our hope is eternal life. In the kingdom of God. Beautiful, wonderful. I've given you the handout to trigger thankful discussions. You can use it as you choose. It's for you. And I hope that it can be helpful for you as you approach thanksgiving. Ephesians 5, 20 tells us we need to give thanks to God always. Giving thanks to God always. And in Psalms 100, verse 4, Psalms 100, verse 4, by last scripture, I have one more little quote. Psalms 100, verse 4, Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him, and bless his name. Most of all, let's be thankful to God. Let's not forget to thank people. Let's not forget to thank others for what they've done for us and what they do for us. So let's remember on Thanksgiving Day and every day to be grateful and to count our blessings.