November 6, 2020

65 Are you really thankful for your family?

Thanksgiving Message

Are you really thankful for your family?

1 Thessalonians 1:2-3; 3:9

“We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God.”

Intro:

For most people, Thanksgiving Day brings warm memories of getting family together to eat, celebrate, catch up, watch football, play football, eat turkey, run in a 5k Turkey run, and whatever other tradition your family has put together for that day.

Everyone has their own favorite dish to make and to eat. Mine is a green bean casserole, but my most favorite is eating a turkey sandwich on Thanksgiving Day night. But who doesn’t love the turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes?

And I would imagine most families go around the table and ask everyone to share what they are thankful for. And even if there have been some political arguments or hurt feelings before the meal began, most everyone at the table will say that they are thankful for their family. And even if you wanted to stray from the party line and say you were thankful for something else, you would still say something about your family.

Obviously, there is nothing wrong with being thankful for our family. We should be thankful for them, they are a blessing from God.

But what I would like to challenge us with is to go a little deeper and to be more precise in our thankfulness. The easiest way to start is to ask, “Why are you thankful for your family?”

What is it about individuals that you are thankful for?
Is there a particular characteristic or attribute about someone that reflects the character of Christ?
Has someone in the family gone through something difficult in their life that you could all give thanks to God for bringing them through that difficult time?

Are we thankful for these people OR are we thankful to God for these people? It is possible to idolize our family, giving lip service to God but without a true heart of thankfulness for what He has done in and through them.

I Thessalonians is a letter the apostle Paul wrote to the church in the city of Thessalonica. As you read through the letter (and it only takes about 8 minutes to do so) you realize the deep relationships that Paul had with the Thessalonians. And he is thankful for them. This comes right at the beginning of the letter in verses 2-3:

And then again in chapter 3 verse 9,

“For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God.”

This little letter to the church in Thessalonica is teaching us to rightly understand that family relationships and spiritual brotherly and sisterly love relationships are wonderful and bring us great joy, but our thankfulness is directed toward God.

This does not undervalue the people we are thankful for. Everyone we are thankful for has tremendous value. But that value is given to them by God himself. Remember we were created in the image of God. Man was not created in his own image. And so being created in God’s image and for the purposes that He created us is what gives us value. And this is what we are ultimately thankful for, whether we realize it or not.

So, yes, it is good and right to be thankful for family and friends because God has placed them in our lives and He uses them to bless us.

I would imagine that most people who we say we are thankful for are a bit embarrassed when we say it. But why? They know deep down that whatever good they have done to cause you to be thankful for them is something that they did because God’s Spirit moved in them to do. And they would really want to the thanksgiving to go to God instead of them.

But again, I will still emphasize that we should communicate whether verbally or with the pen to those we are thankful for and why. Because they need to hear the gratitude. It is extremely encouraging when someone says they are thankful for you.

Finally, don’t wait til Thanksgiving….

Thanksgiving needs to be a daily part of our prayer life and how we encourage others. Get specific in your prayer life, write out specific things that you are grateful for. They can be anything; material, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. God has given us gifts beyond our comprehension and we should delight in offering thanksgiving to him at all times. And when you pray for people in your life you are thankful for then pray FOR them, not just about them. Pray that God would continue to use them to build up the family and the body of Christ.

Encouraging others should also be a daily habit. Each day there are people in your life that you are thankful for, so let them know you are thankful for them. And let them know why.

Thankfulness breeds joy. Thanklessness breeds bitterness. Would you rather be joyful or bitter? It’s your choice and if you don’t put some focus on how God has provided for you in a myriad of ways then bitterness will creep in and steal your joy. But if you start your day with a grateful heart, reminding yourself of all the things God has done for you, is doing in you and will do for you then your whole perspective is changed and there is not room for bitterness.

This gospel removes bitterness and breeds joy and thanksgiving. And we all know, it’s the gospel that changes everything!

Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash