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Mills River SDA Church

Cory Reeves

The Thankful Choice

This week, as I pondered Thanksgiving, I pondered what does it mean to be thankful?

What does it mean to make a thankful choice?

And today as we look at that, this text pops up.

Psalms 100 verse 4, Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise.

You know, throughout the Bible, we are called to praise Him.

And I think when I'm going into those pearly gates, I think it's going to be super easy to praise Him.

I can't even do it justice right now, so I apologize.

But how do we control thanks as we're called to do that?

As we're called in all times to give thanks, which we'll see here in a minute It seems like so much of the world it's kind of this setup This picture does it justice, right?

He's in in a dark Wasteland if you can't see it Well, all the trees are cut down and he's got a fake picture withholding an apple, making it look sunshiny and bright.

Our social media-driven society drives this culture.

That's not the thanks we're looking for today.

We're looking for a true heart of thanksgiving.

A smile that is driven out of our heart of thanks.

Our devotional exercises should not be consistent wholly in asking and receiving.

Let us not always be thinking of our wants and never the benefits we receive, we do not pray any too much.

We are the constant recipients of God's mercies, and yet how little gratitude we express, how little we praise Him for what He has done for us.

You know, I don't feel as a church family, I don't feel as many of us individuals, we pray enough.

But she goes on from there to say, even though we don't pray enough, we for sure don't think enough.

A lot of us, when we get on our knees, it becomes this request list.

But here it's saying, but we are too sparing and giving thanks.

We need to thank God for all of His mercies.

16-18 Do you guys all have your study guides this morning?

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

It's hard for me to read that normal because 1 of the songs is that song from 1 of the Scripture groups I sent to you.

And it goes through my head whenever I try to say it.

In prior sermons, we've talked about this continual prayer, this continual conversation with God.

Maybe there's an error there, and they mistranslated it.

In Greek, the word is pass, which literally means the entire.

And I want to remind you when the Bible says something, unlike some of us here, we say the fish was this big the first time we tell the story.

By the tenth time we've told the story, the fish somehow is this big and sunk the boat, right?

The Bible holds true and does not exaggerate.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything continually through all time, give thanks for this is the will of God.

God's will for us is to always give thanks.

Not just the easy times when things are good, but when things go wrong.

How is having an attitude of thanks when the worst things in life happen?

You guys are going to have the whole dictionary memorized by the time I get done.

Merriam-Webster tells us, thanks is kindly or grateful thought.

It's simply to be grateful in all things for what our mighty powerful God has done.

God always seems to align our bodies with what is right.

And here, the Mayo Clinic tells us that a thankful attitude actually helps.

Expressing gratitude is associated with a host, I'm quoting, of mental and physical benefits.

Studies have shown that feeling thankful can improve sleep, mood, immunity, gratitude can decrease depression, anxiety, difficulties with chronic pain, and risk of diseases.

It goes on to say, if a pill could do this, everyone would be taking it.

If it was as simple as a pill, everyone would do this.

Remember, quoting still, that behavior changes biology.

Positive gestures benefit you by releasing oxytocin, a hormone that helps you connect better with people.

I said maybe that was just 1 health place.

Guys, there's hundreds of them out there, studies.

You will get the biggest health benefits of gratitude when it becomes habitual and part of your thought process.

But even allotting some time each day or week to prioritizing gratitude can be beneficial.

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The Thankful Choice

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