The following blog post contains notes and application questions from our December 1, 2019 message, Thankfulness. For more from this series, check out This Is The Life.

Discussing and Applying the Sermon

• For the next seven days, every day, write down 3 things you are thankful for.
• Who is one person in your life that you are thankful for? Reach out to them and tell them as much

Summary

Have you ever met someone who always seemed to be grateful? What about someone who never seems to be grateful? What differences come to mind as you think about both people? As we continue our series, “This is the Life,” John Elmore teaches us about thankfulness.

Key Takeaways

Thank God FOR the good.

• Thank God for the good because ego is an enemy of gratitude.
• Thank God for the good because entitlement is an enemy of gratitude
• Thank God for the good because grumbling is an enemy of gratitude.
• Anytime you find yourself grumbling you are following the fall of Satan.

Thank God IN the bad.

• We don’t thank God FOR the bad; we thank Him IN the bad.
• We thank God in the bad because this is not the end.
• We thank God in the bad because it changes our heart.
• We thank God in the bad because He is always at work.

Thank God there’s nothing to add.

• We thank God there’s nothing to add because of grace.
• We thank God there’s nothing to add because we are sons and daughters.
• We thank God there’s nothing to add because it’s all been nailed to the cross.

Memorable Quotes

• “...to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers…" -Abraham Lincoln
• "When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude." -G.K. Chesterton
• "Cultivate the thankful spirit! It will be to you a perpetual feast." -Macduff
• "It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Mentioned or Recommended Resources

• Suggested Scripture study: 1 Thessalonians 5:18; Proverbs 16:18; James 1:16-17; John 3:27; 1 Timothy 6:17-19; James 2:5; Proverbs 15:16; 1 Timothy 6:6-8; Luke 17:11-19; Proverbs 15:15; Ezekiel 28:17; Isaiah 14:13-14; Proverbs 3:25-26; Ephesians 5:20; Proverbs 17:22; Philippians 4:4-7; Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:28; Ephesians 1:11; Proverbs 19:21; Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 8:14-15
• Sermon: Entitlement & Gratitude
• Sermon: The Lost Virtues of Thanksgiving and Humility (part 1)
• Sermon: The Lost Virtues of Thanksgiving and Humility (part 2)