Thoughtful and Thankful

Some cultures observe Thanksgiving Day, and they set it on various days of the year. Thanksgiving Day is kind of a noble idea, and certainly one that we can participate in with gusto, because it is always good to give thanks. However, you know with spoiled Western cultures, Thanksgiving Day can be about stuffing the turkey, and the turkeys that get stuffed the most are often those who show up to celebrate the day.

We have been blessed a lot. We have received a lot of things. And I sense that as this day has progressed down through time, and the modern concept of evolution has taken more of the focus away from God, it can become, oh, what a great day for me to stop and think about all that I have. It is almost a spiritual event, you know, as you think of, oh, a day with my favorite foods, and my favorite friends, and my favorite relatives, and my favorite football, and all this good stuff, and just filled up as much as we can until you can hardly walk.

You know, and think, oh, I'm so thankful for all I have. It's kind of like when Nebuchadnezzar walked out on his porch and he looked out at Babylon, beautiful city, and he says, ain't this great, all that I've done? Thankfulness can have a missing component. Let's go to Romans chapter 1 and verse 21. Well, it can be good for humans to stop and be thankful. Sometimes they might only do that once a year, you know, I think I'll do that again next year, and be thankful. Romans 1, 21 says, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their hearts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

The message today is not to take away from a proper thanksgiving and a proper attitude of thanks, nor is it to limit it to one deed or day of thanks, but to show where thanks fits in to a godly mindset. Are you and I thankful in the ways that God wants? Or do we have some other human-devised, sporadic, or self-focused gratitude that we conjure up? While giving thanks is very important to God, we're going to see that He wants a combination of loving, obeying, and being thankful. The title of the sermon today is thoughtful and thankful.

Mindful. Putting our minds on something other than ourselves is really required in order to give thanks. Let's go to Matthew 22 and verse 37 and begin to see how we're supposed to combine thankfulness with something. It's not a stand-alone thing that somehow makes us good in the eyes of God or other people. It's not a thing that of and by itself is some notable, holy, wonderful expression that a human can give. Rather, let's see where it should fit in the godly mentality as God and His Son, Jesus Christ, teach us. In Matthew 22, beginning in verse 37, Jesus said to him, So we see this is the first and great commandment. It wasn't to be thankful, was it?

It was that we should love God, and to love God is to obey Him, to submit to Him, to humble ourselves, to honor Him, and to be thankful for what He has given to us. On this commandment, we're going to find a large part of what Scripture is teaching about. Let's notice how thanksgiving to God fits in with loving and obeying Him. If you keep your finger here, don't even keep your finger here. Just listen. That's what David said over in Psalm 69, verse 30. I will praise the name of God with a song. I'm thinking about God.

I'm praising Him. I have faith. Faith without works is dead. It's not just about blah blah, praising God. No, I'm actually trying to emulate God. And I'm doing so with gusto and with a song, and I will magnify Him with thanksgiving.

Those two concepts go together. When we see what God has done for us, it might bring a selfish kind of thanks to say, Oh yeah, I've got a big pile of stuff here. I'm thankful. But when we enjoin with God into godly activity of loving, of serving, of giving Him praise and praising His kingdom, and praising His laws because we're obeying Him, then we are magnifying Him.

And thanksgiving is a very important part of that. Even God's command to keep the Sabbath says that if we keep it and we love that day, we delight in it. We're thankful for it. Well, then that means something to God.

Back in Matthew 22, verse 39, the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. And we didn't read about thanksgiving. So all the law and the prophets and all the commandments are about loving God, focusing on Him, becoming like Him, obeying Him, and loving our neighbor as ourself is part of that. Jesus Christ took the Ten Commandments and expanded them with spiritual principles of loving and helping and serving other people, caring about even enemies.

Notice how thanksgiving with men also fits within this context. Back in 1 Timothy 2 and verse 1, Paul here is talking to the minister Timothy, and we see that loving, serving man, as we're told, love your neighbor as yourself, has a natural appreciation thanksgiving component that comes with it. He says, therefore I exhort first of all that all supplications, when we're talking to God, all supplications, all prayers, all intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men.

Notice what our prayers are supposed to be about. We're supposed to be making those for others. And what are they involved? Supplications, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for everyone. We are to love and be thankful for others. Being loving and thankful are not inherent traits of human nature. To stop, to think about others, to spend your time, your focus, to admire, to appreciate others, in one sense is an antithesis of our kernel human nature, which wants to focus on itself.

It wants to count its pile of blessings. It wants to think of me and exalt me and pray about me and think about me and blessing me and be also thankful for me and my family and my stuff. But here we're taught a different mindset, like God the Father and Jesus Christ had. And they thought about somebody else and somebody else's needs and somebody else's things, and they came to serve them. We tend to have a different mindset, and that mindset tends to be a little more critical, complaining, belittling. Because, again, we're the one that needs to be shined up and polished up, and everybody else is a little bit less in our mind.

And the cause of that, of course, is the nature. Our nature is about me.

Unthankfulness is a symptom of Satan's nature. He was one focused on himself. And the society that you and I live in and are influenced by is of that mindset. Let's look in 2 Timothy 3, verse 1. Here is a statement, a prophecy, about our day and age, about the mindset, about the human behaviors in our day and age. Here are the things that typify humanity. He says, but know this. 2 Timothy 3, verse 1. In the last days, dangerous times will come. Why is that? Well, for men will be lovers of self, a high degree of focus on the self.

Lovers of money for self. Boasters of self. Proud of self. Blasphemers of God. And of godliness, which teaches us to put our mind on God and others. Disobedient to parents. Unthankful. Unholy. See how those two go together? Thankfulness and holiness, or thankfulness and righteousness, go hand in hand. Unthankfulness, unholyness, unloving, verse 3, which is unthoughtful of others, go together. So, thankfulness is a godly attribute when it's combined with the godly fruit of loving God and loving our neighbor as our self. Jesus Christ is coming to remove Satan and his mindset that permeates society and to replace it with God's, which is love and joy and unity. Godliness is a thoughtfulness of others. God was very thoughtful of you and me before we were ever here, before he even created the universe. He was thoughtful of us. We were chosen in him before the foundation of the world. And he created all the stuff for us, being thoughtful. They'll really like this. They'll really like that. That tree, that flower, that taste, that smell, that activity, that ability that their body will have. They're really going to like God as thoughtful. That's one way that you might define at least a part of love, as being thoughtful of others. God wants us to be thoughtful of him and be thoughtful of his law and be thoughtful of his name and be thoughtful to put him first and to be thoughtful not to say or trample on things that he's made, like the Sabbath, and to be thoughtful of humans, not to kill them, not to steal from them, etc., etc. Be thoughtful of them, but go even beyond being thoughtful and love them as much as you see God loving you love others.

Godliness, then, is thoughtfulness, and it's also appreciation for others. In Psalm 100, verse 3, let's examine some statements by David. Psalm 100, verse 3. Psalm 100, verse 3. Know that the Lord, he is God. That's the thing to just stop and think about right there. Just like in the model prayer, Jesus Christ said, pray, our Father, who aren't in heaven.

Just stop right there and spend some time thinking about someone that's not you, thinking about and marveling about and reflecting on something that had nothing to do with you or you or you. That is, in a sense, a sacrifice. That's why the prayers are sometimes called sacrifices or a sacrifice of praise. It means you're not up here praising yourself. Look what I did. Look how good I am. You're sacrificing. You're focusing somewhere else of your time and your energies.

It is He who made us. Wow! When you stop and think. And I'm always amazed by just the human body, especially when you get around anything medical or you go online and read something, suddenly there are things you just never knew. Things that you just didn't know of all the proteins that your body has or all the amino acids or the various electrical little things that are known, but you never knew of it.

You're just living life. And yet there it all is. And it's just very complex. And He made us with our five senses and our families and our talents and our abilities and our ambitions going on. And not we ourselves. Oh, it's not about me. It's not about us.

We didn't do that. He designed all that we are and all that we enjoy. And sometimes we think, oh, I've been out enjoying some things and oh, it's just great because I'm that special person and I just like that little thing and that area and it just fit. Oh, wait a minute. Why is that? Well, God made that and made you to be able to enjoy that and you've just experienced something that God had planned out and put the potential there for.

Going on, it gets better. We are His people. We are His people, the elect, the ones who have been called at this time. Some one in three hundred and twenty five thousand is what you are. That God has called that God considers His people right now.

Look at three hundred and twenty five thousand. Some towns are not three hundred and twenty five thousand. Many aren't, in fact. Some cities are not three hundred and twenty five thousand. But if you go through every three hundred and twenty four thousand, you won't find a person, probably, as far as we know, that God has called or called His people at this time.

You have to find the three hundred and twenty fifth person and you are one of those. And the sheep of His pasture, the church heading for His kingdom, we are in His corral and His pasture. Verse four, Therefore enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Now, you can't be all of those things just by showing up. You have to participate. You have to have works. You have to have deep trust. You have to have an involvement and a repentance and be forgiven regularly.

You have to be developing the mindset that God wants His children to have in order to enter into His gates with thanksgiving and enter into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name. So we can see again how being thoughtful of God, being thankful, they go together. Thankfulness requires thoughtfulness. You can't do it without being thoughtful. You can't say, oh, thank you very much for if you hadn't thought in advance, what you're going to thank Him for.

Otherwise, you can't complete the sentence. You wouldn't want to say thank you for something if maybe somebody had just punctured the tire in your automobile. So they would have had to do something that made you feel thankful, like helping you change the tire, your punctured tire of your automobile. Well, thank you very much for your help. You have to think of what that person did. They were driving by. They stopped. If I was driving by, I'd want to keep going and get where I was going in a hurry. But they actually came back here. I would want to stay clean. That person is dirty.

I wouldn't want to take in a risk of the person with a flat tire attacking me or something. That person took the risk. There are things to be thankful for. And it's because we stop and we think about it. David stopped a lot to think. He was a man after God's own heart, and he stopped to think about others other than himself. And that's a notable thing about a righteous person. He stopped often to think about and write about God and what God does. All of the book of Psalms is generally aimed right at God, godliness, the ways of God, the blessings of God, the promises of God. Let's go to Psalm 107, verses 21-22.

Psalm 107, verse 21. The entire chapter here is about thanksgiving. And he goes through and takes the time to stop and think about all the things that God has done and is doing currently. Not just in the past, but in his life he was thinking about current things that God was doing. And he comes to a place in verse 21, he repeats this a few times, but, That's one aspect. Yes, we should give God thanks, and it's very important that we do. The second aspect is verse 22.

We should declare his works with rejoicing. It's a combination of being thoughtful to God and thankful, loving, supporting, serving, obeying God, being involved with him, and also being thankful. Now that's what David found. What about you and me? What can we be thankful for? Well, we can be thankful for life. But then we have a responsibility with that life, don't we? What are we doing with it? Are we fulfilling God's will? And what is the will of God for every human? That we do not perish. 1 Peter 3, I believe it's verse 9. Maybe it's 2 Peter 3 and 9. It's not God's will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life. That's the will of God. Parents. Parents. We can be thankful for parents. But we also have another component with parents, don't we? We need to honor our parents. Some can't rise to that level because they didn't get enough from their parents. Their parents didn't treat them like they want them to, or they didn't give them enough stuff, or whatever it was. However, somebody changed your diapers. Somebody sacrificed a spare room in their house. Somebody bought a bunch of baby clothes. Somebody was up in the night with screaming, teething, crying, you know, developing kids. Somebody was there to console and walk and show them life. And maybe we didn't get enough, but I guarantee you there's a lot of honor if we put ourselves in their shoes. That anybody could give to their parents even when there were mistakes.

What about being a parent? You can be thankful when you have a child if God gives you that blessing. But it's more than just thankful for a child, isn't it? You now have the responsibility of teaching that child in the way that a child should go. Helping and loving and serving that child and sacrificing your life to get that child up to adulthood and on his or her feet and moving responsibly towards the kingdom of God.

Thankfulness combined with thoughtfulness. The two go hand in hand. God has called you and me. He's placed us in His church. He's promising us His kingdom. If we are led by His Holy Spirit, we're going to be blessed by the first resurrection. Let's go to Colossians 1, verses 12-13. Colossians 1, verse 12. If you're called and you want to be selfish, this would be a miserable experience. The worst place on earth would be God's church if you are really self-focused. Because we're called to get rid of self. We're called to sacrifice the old man, to crucify our old nature, to love and serve others and promote others. But if you really like doing that, if you really are led by God's Holy Spirit, and you really want to become selfless like God is, we can really be thankful for this opportunity. Colossians 1, verse 12 says, And that can only happen if we submit to God, are empowered by Jesus Christ, to get rid of our old nature and adopt His nature, to grow up fully into Jesus Christ, to grow up and be like our Father in Heaven is. Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us through that process to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and is conveying us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Wow, that's something to be excited about, thankful for, if we're on the difficult trail heading for the narrow gate. We can be excited about this journey. You see, thanksgiving doesn't stand alone. We can't sit there and say, well, I'm not going to obey God. I'm not going to do what He wants. I'm not going to think about Him much. I'm not going to think about my neighbor. But I'm so thankful to be headed for the kingdom. I'm so thankful to be in the church. Wow, it's going to be a little surprise, isn't there? Because the two have to go together.

Thankfulness is a gift that one gives to another. You can't take thankfulness. Have you ever heard of somebody taking thanks? Let's go get some thanks. Let's go out there, get your gun, let's ride and get some thanks. No. Can you demand it? Can you command it? Is there a law somewhere where the government will come and take thanks from you? It's something that is like respect, which we'll talk about soon. And submission. It is something that is given.

Now, Hebrews 13 and verse 15 have a couple of different statements in it that are good to consider in this regard. Hebrews 13 and verse 15.

Remember, you can't take thanks. You can't get it. Hebrews 13 and verse 15 says, Therefore, by him, by Jesus Christ, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. Notice, let us continually offer. What is offer? That's a free will offering. The sacrifice. When you sacrifice, you choose generally to sacrifice. It's a choice to lose, to take a loss. I choose to do that. Take a loss of my time, a loss of my selfish focus, and I'm going to choose to sacrifice that. I'm going to give that to God. That is, notice, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. Not to my name, which we often would like to do, but giving thanks to his name. That is a wonderful gift of loving God with your heart, soul, and might. God cannot make you love him. He cannot make you thank him. He cannot make you praise him. He looks to us, and as Paul says here, he looks to us to offer those sacrifices. And in doing so, we emulate him, and he's very pleased. So we see that giving thanks is important here. But here's a warning, because this statement continues in verse 16. Do not forget to do good and share. It's all great to be thankful, sacrificing your time. But don't, going on in verse 16, don't forget to obey God, to live his law and the spirit of the law, the spiritual intent of those commandments. It wasn't just remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. No, it was. Don't speak your own words on the Sabbath. Call the Sabbath a delight. Get your mind off of yourself. Think of the kingdom. So, what we see here is, for with such sacrifices altogether, praise, sharing, doing good to others, God is well pleased. It's a package. They go together. It's a thoughtfulness. It's a mindfulness of others, not just a mindfulness. We call it thoughtful in the, oh, that was thoughtful when you not only thought of somebody, but you did something. Mindful just like is awareness. That's what mindful would be, is more of an awareness, a mental awareness. But thoughtful is that awareness plus a thoughtful deed. And so, thoughtfulness and thankfulness, they combine to summarize godliness. Because in verse 15 and 16, we see the thankfulness and we see the sacrifice of loving, doing good, righteous things. And those two go together.

You can't do those things while thinking about yourself. And that's a wonderful thing. God doesn't want us to be thinking about ourselves. He wants us to be thinking about Him and our fellow man. The self will work itself out. It just will. You can almost drive on autopilot. You can be talking and thinking and serving or whatever while you're driving a car and show up at home and not even know how you got there. You know, the mind will get you there. You'll do all the lights fine. You'll miss all the cars and the bottles. You won't remember it. It's like going through this life. You can think about God and you can obey God and you can serve your fellow man. And you'll wake up sometimes and say, oh, what about my life? What about my house? What about, oh, you know what? It's just fine. In fact, I'm in pretty good shape. In fact, I'm having a pretty good life. It's amazing how those things can work out well. You ever think God stops and says, hmm, what kind of life am I having? You know, we've sure been doing a lot of sacrificing for these people. You know, you had to go down there and you had to die. And you're spending all this time. We did all that creation thing. It's gone on for six, seven, eight thousand years, millions worth of dinosaurs. If we ever think about ourselves, you know, how are we doing, Jesus? You ever read about that in here? They're doing just fine as they love and serve others.

In Philippians chapter 2 verses 3 and 4, we're encouraged to get our focus off of ourselves. Philippians 2 verse 3 says, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. Hmm. Well, that sort of is different than what my typical life started out to be. It was all about selfish ambition and conceit. At some point, God revealed that to me and I repented of that and came to hate it and got baptized. But what about yourself and putting yourself first? He says, don't do anything promoting yourself, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. You don't sort of go through life and say, hmm, how am I doing? How am I progressing? How am I, you know, maybe becoming superior? How am I growing? How is my position? How are my looks? How impressive am I? You know, by this time in life, I should be rising up pretty big. How am I doing on the scale? Kind of like the one you had as a kid, you know, as you grew. People begin to think that, well, by age 30, you should have that career really stuck. By age 40, you know, you should be in senior management. By 50 or 60, you ought to be the CEO on several boards. How many boards am I on? And so on and so forth. By 70, you should have, you know, the ranch paid off and, you know, the second home and the jet, I guess. I don't know. Did you see how selfish ambitions and conceit work? Well, here with God's mind, we find, let's esteem others better than ourselves. Verse 4, let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Well, how's their career going? How's their life going? How's their family going? How's their property? How are their dreams? How are their experiences? You know, in the time that we have on this earth, how are the others enjoying it as well, or prospering, or benefiting? Or what stumbling blocks do they have? You know, how can we help one another? This thoughtfulness of others is very important. It's the opposite of me and my. It's like it says in Hebrews, let us consider one another to stir up love and good works. Consider one another means to stop thinking about me and consider others, and that then will stir up love for others and good works for others. Thankfulness is very important. It is one of the things that God Himself needs. If I can say that. I didn't say required requires, but needs. It's something that you need. It's something that every human being and every thinking being needs.

Everyone needs for others to stop and recognize the contributions and sacrifices in some way and for a very important reason. It seems that one can push him or herself to great lengths to sacrifice, but then they're spent. They're done. It's meant mentally, physically, financially. That was a big event. Without thanks, the ability for them to repeat that is very difficult. Let me give you some examples. Let's take a look at Thanksgiving time at the pie and the eater. Pies seem to be synonymous with Thanksgiving. Pies take a lot of work, it turns out. I was getting my hair cut this week, and my barber is a woman. I have many barbers. I never know which one I'm going to get, but they're all women. This week, the one was cutting on my hair. I said, what are you doing for Thanksgiving? Oh, baking the pie, the annual pie. Did you only bake one a year? Believe me, she says, just one. Only do this once a year. I said, kind of a labor of love. She says, it is a huge amount of work, but I'll do it once a year. So it kind of tips you off that pies take a lot of work. So, you have the baker and the pie from the baker's point of view. I don't know how many of you make pies. I've never made a pie in my life. I've eaten many, but I've never made one. But when you look at how a pie is made, you know, there's that crust. The crust seems to be the big stopping point from people making a lot of pies. If you grind up the flour and you figure out how to make the crust and you roll it out and you get it fashioned just right and you pre-bake it or whatever you do to a crust, then you can put the filling in. And in order to get the filling, you have to get the fruit. And if you do it fresh, you have to cut the fruit and you have to maybe bake the fruit or boil the fruit or whatever you do with the fruit. And you have to get it just right with all the sauces and the sugars. And just, it's got to be special because, I don't know, it's something about pies. They have to be special and unique. So you get all that and then there's the covering. Some people cut strips and then they'll weave the strips over the top of the pie. And I asked my barber, I said, are you going to weave the top of your pie? And she said, no way!

Nope. She says, I won't go to that much work. Others decorate the pie. I saw a pie this morning that had the outside, instead of just being a little crust with a fork that kind of makes a nice little design, this one had cut leaves of flowers stuck all the way around the edge of the pie. Very, very beautiful. And then there's the baking of the pie. This is where the real nerves come in. This thing's got to bake, but you don't want to leave it. And it's got to have just the right number of holes at the right temperature, just so long. You don't want the pie to burn, nor do you want it to be uncooked, you know, with a gooey stuff that didn't get cooked. And so it's just a little art, and not too many pies are made too often, and so, you know, there's not a whole lot of fresh experience in making pie. So it's kind of pie-making time, you know? Finally, the pie comes out, and then it's cooled, and don't touch the pie. Don't even look at the pie. Don't go close to the pie. Keep the pie over in the corner. Now we've got to transport this pie at a grandma's house or wherever we're going. And, you know, pies... I asked my wife, we were transporting a pie. I said, do you have something to put it in? No? So you don't have a pie-ship container? No? I don't know. They make those things. Well, here's the precious pie that can't be hurt. And there's, you know, you want to hold it in your lap? Set it by the dog? The pie... I was in charge of transporting the pie. The pie was difficult to transport. So you have this pie. Now, you have a mess from the pie. Flour everywhere. Stuff and open cans and things cooked on, and pies that went into the oven. It set off the smoke alarm, and now it's baked, you know, into the oven liner. This is the pie. Now, here comes the eater. The eater shows up and says, Hmm, pies, which one would I like? Hmm, I don't know. Maybe a little piece of that one, a little piece of that one? You know? Crunch, crunch, crunch with a knife. The leaves fall off, you know, the little design, the crunchy little thing there. Off it goes on a plate. You want some whipping cream on that? Can't even see the pie anymore. Smash and eat, smash and eat. That was good. Take about, you know, two minutes, and it's gone. Just gone. Now, what happens at that point? Do you think the pie maker is going to make another pie for the person who just...

Depends on what the pie eater says, doesn't it? Really depends. My mom used to make better pies than that. Oh, no, no, no. No pies in your future. Or how about, that is a really nice crust on that pie. And yummy, this is really, really good. So, if the baker hears that, all the effort they went to, the baker's saying, you know, I might make another one of those pies someday. See how you're able to go in and do the same thing? You know, believe it or not, it's the same with God. We would put God way up there and say, oh, no, He would never have anything like that. Let's go to Psalm chapter 50 and verse 14. Here again is David being inspired. Psalm chapter 50 verse 14. I find it no small coincidence, by the way, that David is a man after God's own heart, and there's more thanks that come out of his life and out of his works than probably anybody else who writes in the Bible. The combination there is very strong of obedience, of loving, of becoming godly, and also being thankful. And so he says here in Psalm 50 verse 14, Offer to God thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High. Now here is God inspiring him to say this. Why? Read on verse 15. Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you. Do you want to be delivered by God? God delivered the Israelites once. What experience did he have? Do you remember? What was the experience? The sum of all of that Israelite out of Egypt, the Ten Plagues, Mount Sinai. He said, I'm going to burn them up. You know? I'm going to burn them up. Just kill them all. And Moses had to plead with him not to do that.

But God says, Offer to God thanksgiving and I will deliver you. The two go together. The two do go together. God responds to thanks. Let's notice that in Luke 17, verses 10 through 19. Jesus Christ himself on earth, in the flesh, doing the work. Luke 17, beginning in verse 10. Let's begin in verse 11. Now when he was... It happened.

He went through Jerusalem. He passed through the midst of Sumerian Galilee. Now, as if... Okay, we've got a geographical location. But wait a minute. Let's go back. With the thankful mentality, not thinking of ourselves, let's put ourselves in his moccasins and walk a mile or two. Now, it happened as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. He was making a long journey on foot. This is a very difficult journey. He probably had people that recognized him along the way. There were meals to eat, probably some meals missed. There was sleep. There was danger.

He was traveling to Jerusalem to do something there. And it was with great difficulty that he got there. And then he entered a certain village, and there met him, 10 men who were lepers who stood afar off. From these 10 men's perspective, Jesus Christ had done a great sacrifice, a great journey with great effort to come to them, to come to where they were. And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

And so when he saw them, he said to them, Go show yourself to the priests. And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. A lot went into this. It wasn't just, oh, you know, it's nothing. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God. And he fell down on his face at his feet and gave him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. True story. He wasn't even a Jew. He was a Samaritan. And Jesus answered and said, Were there not 10 cleansed? Where are the nine?

Why would that matter to God? If thanks was not something that God needs. Didn't say requires, but if God doesn't need it, if it's not helpful, if it doesn't refill the well. He goes on, Were not any found who returned to give glory to God except the foreigner? He's saying, Of the people that I called and delivered out of Israel, their descendants, and brought them here, brought them back from Babylon, brought them here. Not one of those has returned to thank God for what was given to them.

And he said to him, Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well. Your trust in God. Your belief has been recognized. It's the same with parents. It's hard for parents to give to a whiny kid who's never satisfied. It's hard for parents to serve that ungrateful adult that they've fostered who is never satisfied, never filled enough, never full enough.

It's difficult. I don't know if they give up. I don't know what happens. The same with friends. You have what are called fair-weather friends. Sometimes it's difficult for a friend to give and give. And pretty soon you take advantage of your friends. You say, Oh, well, you know, I'm in this pickle again.

Come bail me out again. Oh, I did it again. Come bail me out. Oh, you're not doing anything. Just come over and help me and come over and make my life better. And on and on. You know, friends can sort of steer away if there's no real appreciation. Sometimes we all have things that we need help with. But refilling that well is required almost for those events to continue or for them to be able to help others. Teachers, bosses, etc., etc.

Sometimes we can complain about others. But if they're sacrificing for us in order to give us opportunities, and we're not thankful, we're not grateful, they've gone out on a limb to take a chance on you or me in a job or responsibility, and we're not appreciative of it. We just sort of treat it and let them down.

It's going to be difficult for them to not only show that to you again, but to anybody again. Come of the mentality. If you want it done right, do it yourself. Don't even hire other people. And so on and so forth it goes.

Imagine the concept of a party. If I said, party tonight, everybody's like, great, just the word. Illicit something, I don't know, fun. Just because the word party. If you said, there'll be a social at our house.

Oh, it's just a social? But a party? Oh, a party? Now, what happens at a party? Well, I guess you have to plan in advance, maybe for some weeks you have to develop some objectives for it. You spend hours preparing for it, maybe cooking, recording music. There's expenses for it. There's hosting it. There's cleanup. And after an event like a party and everybody goes home, you can bet that the people who put that party on are asking themselves one question. Was it worth it? Was all we went through worth it?

Would we do this again? You know? When the last door closes and all the smiles and everybody's gone, you assess. And what did they come up with? Would I go through all that again? And their conclusion will be based on the thanks that was shown. On the response from those. And if the thanks was there and it was highly appreciated, the well will be filled and they'll say, you know, we ought to have another party again sometime. Or, we're never having a party again.

Thanksgiving comes around once a year. Each human has a different view of that concept or that day if they even observe the social custom. God doesn't want us to be thankful once a year only. God wants us to be perpetually thoughtful and perpetually thankful. Perpetually thoughtful of Him and our fellow man. Thoughtful in the sense of actively thinking and helping and doing and loving. And perpetually thankful. We find in Ephesians 5 and verse 20, it says, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's a mindset that accompanies obedience and that thoughtful love and deed that we do for God and our fellow man. In conclusion, thoughtful and thankful are combined traits of those who have God's nature growing in them. Thoughtful of God and man and thankful, they're a combination that you tend to find. You'll find it in the Scripture. You'll find it in David. You'll find it in Jesus Christ. You will find it in those who have their nature growing in them. They're almost indicators of how we're doing, how we're growing. Let's conclude by reading Colossians chapter 2 verses 6 through 7. Colossians chapter 2 beginning in verse 6. It summarizes our calling and our ambition to grow in godliness. You and I have been called. We have this precious sainthood that God has given to his elect. Paul says, As you, therefore, have received Christ, Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. That's the thoughtful part. That's the active, thoughtful, loving that he commanded. I command you to love one another as I have loved you. I command you, love your neighbor as yourself. Love God, first of all. As you have received this, this Holy Spirit, you've received Jesus Christ living in you with God the Father. So walk in him. Verse 7. Root it and build up in him and established in the faith.

As you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Thankfulness and thoughtfulness. Let's continue in this work that God has given to us of converting our mindset to that of God's. Converting our nature with his help to his nature. In doing so, you and I will become more like our Father in Heaven. More like our elder brother, Jesus Christ. Ready to assist him in making this world into a place where people are thoughtful and thankful.