Sermon Tone Analysis

Thoughtful Giving

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Intro: I still remember that Christmas night a long time ago when I was about twelve or thirteen years old.

It was a Sunday night and all of our gifts had been opened.

My family and I had settled down in the den to watch TV, when suddenly we saw car lights pull into our driveway.

I soon spotted my uncle and his family getting out of the car with Christmas presents.

My mom yelled “Christmas presents.”

Uncle Gordon and aunt Ruth had never come to our house, not at Christmas, not anytime.

As for Christmas presents, we had never exchanged gifts before, now with no warning they were approaching the house bearing gifts.

My mom went into a panic.

The most unacceptable thing in all of the world, at least for mom, was to be given a gift, but not have a gift to give in return.

A plan quickly formed.

She told my dad to entertain them while she and I would quickly wrap some gifts for them.

I think we gave them some of the gifts we had received that Christmas.

That bottle of High Karate after shave lotion that my uncle received that night didn’t have a lot of thought put in it.

It was a gift of necessity.

It was a gift of duty or obligation.

It was gift born out of social pressure.

It happens to the best of us.

When I worked at the hardware store many years ago, men would come into the store searching for a Christmas gift for their wife.

They often came in on Christmas Eve and the look of desperation covered their faces.

In those days a lot of wives ended up with toasters, waffle irons, blenders, and a new set of pots and pans for Christmas and they never knew that a young clerk at the hardware store choose their gift for them.

I wonder how often God receives from us a lot of pots and pans that He didn’t ask for, didn’t want, didn’t appreciate because they were substitutes for the gifts He desired most.

What I mean is that we often give God stuff that are substitutes for what He wants.

Unthoughtful giving is worst than no giving at all.

It’s a gift that’s all about us.

We often do it in order to not look bad.

We don’t want to be criticized or talked about.

We give because it’s our duty, or our obligation.

The right kind of giving doesn’t focus on us, but on the one who is to receive the gift.

The

In our text for today, the Psalmist, King David, shows us that thanksgiving should come from the heart.

It shouldn’t be the product of duty, obligation, or because it’s the fourth Thursday of November.

In these two short verses we see a man who has thought deeply about the God who made him, who called him, who guided him, and who protected him.

Read with me our text in .

It’s also found in your pew Bibles on page 572.

I’m sure I’m not thankful enough.

If I was as thankful as I should be, I’d never have a pity party, never get depressed, or ever get upset.

Being thankful is all about focusing on the positives.

This is something our nation has largely forgotten how to do.

This is something that we often forget to do.

But then there are those times when I experience moments of thanksgiving.

They are wonderful times.

They produce joy, peace, and contentment as I reflect on the blessings that fill my life, blessings that come from family, church friends, and others along life’s journey.

This is what king David did.

He took time to reflect on God’s blessings.

We too need to reflect on God’s blessings.

I. Reflect on God's Blessings

Look at what he says in verse one.

“I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.”

Thankfulness should come from the heart.

It should involve the whole heart.

Unfortunately, one cannot muster up an emotional, heartfelt thanksgiving.

It must be spontaneous.

It must be uncoerced.

It must be stimulated by something outside of ourselves.

It must be the effects of someone’s action.

The key to a heartfelt, genuine, joy producing, expression of thanksgiving, is simply recounting or reflecting on what God has done for us.

David describes them as wonderful deeds.

David understood a great truth about our God.

He’s not some distant deity that rules the universe in a far, far, far away land.

He lives among us.

He watches over us.He intervenes on our behalf.

He blesses us daily and continually.

But David is human just like us.

Life is busy regardless of our nationality or our place in history.

We have to be intentional.

We have to take time to be thoughtful.

When my uncle and his family showed up that Christmas night, there was no time to be thoughtful.

We wrapped whatever we could find and presented them with gifts.

Sadly, this happens all too often.

Suddenly the day is upon us.

Suddenly , we are piling the kids in the car, giving it the gas, arriving a just in time, or a little bit late, and then quickly finding a place to sit.

Unfortunately, we never got around to giving much thought about the person we came to visit—God.

You see, coming to church is often like going to visit the relatives on Christmas.

We are rush to get ready.

We rush to the house.

We then rush to our next appointment, or place to visit.

But we never took the time to think about the person we went to visit or the God we went to worship.

Reflection starts with what we see and have seen.

In life we are to walk by faith and not by sight.

But when it comes to thanksgiving, we need to use our eyes.

We need to look at the blessings around us.

We need to look at family and friends.

We need to look at our jobs and provisions.

We need to look at our blessings of the past, present, and the ones we are, by faith, praying for.

If you, your spouse, or your family, are healthy, give thanks for it.

If you have sufficient financial resources to keep your bills paid up, a drive-able car, a roof over your head, and clothes in your closet, give thanks for it.

Do you realize that there are people living on the streets of major cities in America who give thanks for a large cardboard box to live in or a stray grocery cart to hold their belongings.

As I sat in my office yesterday, I gave thanks for blessings in my family.

I gave thanks for blessings in our church.

I gave thanks for a church that is blessed with youth, children, and babies.

I gave thanks for people who are willing to work with our youth, our Sunday School kids, our Junior & children church kids, Wednesday Night children ministries, our babies in the nursery, the Christmas programs, and vacation Bible School.

Do you ever give thanks for the people who serve in the kitchen, in the video/audio booth, and the music ministry?

Do you ever give thanks for our beautiful sanctuary?

Do you ever give thanks for ever new face that walks through those doors?

Do you understand that all these things I’ve mentioned are blessings?

Do you understand that these blessings don’t just happen, they’re from God?

The Bible says in NLT,  “Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens.”

Examine this verse.