If It’s Out of Duty, Then is It Really Thanksgiving?

Colossians 3:15-17

Introduction:

I.     Why is thanksgiving commanded?

 II.    Sad but true, ingratitude is natural to us.    

see Jeremiah 5:21-24

III.  Developing thanksgiving that is not put-on, but genuine.

Application:  

1.  Places to turn to as I become articulate w/ thanks language:

2.  Retraining my heart at becoming more of a giver, less of a taker.

3.  What kind of time do I take for rehearsing the goodness of God? 

4.  Becoming ready with the language of thanks as I speak to others.

Thanks begins by getting right w/ God.  Is Jesus my Savior from sin?

Colossians 3:15-17 ESV

¹⁵ And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Jeremiah 5:21-24 

²¹ “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
    who have eyes, but see not,
    who have ears, but hear not.
²² Do you not fear me? declares the Lord.
    Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,
    a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
    though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
²³ But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
    they have turned aside and gone away.
²⁴ They do not say in their hearts,  ‘Let us fear the Lord our God,
who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us   the weeks appointed for the harvest.’