The Power of a Thankful Heart [Philippians 4:6-7]

Brian Larkin

Power • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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The Power of a Thankful Heart [Philippians 4:6-7]

Stand for the reading of the word of God [Philippians 4:6-7]

We continue in our series on power from Philippians 4:6-8. So far we’ve looked at verses 6 and 7 and have seen that the power of a worry-free mind is ready to pray powerfully. A quick review, we saw that we can have a worry-free mind by trusting God instead of trembling, forgiving others instead of fuming, and releasing worry instead of retaining. We’ve learned that prayer provides power for difficult days, prayer provides peace in troubled times, and prayer provides protection from attacks of the enemy.

Today we will focus on verses 6-7 once again and see how a thankful heart is vital to having a worry-free mind and powerful prayer. Notice in these two verses, take out the phrase ‘with thanksgiving’ and the whole feel changes doesn’t it? Don’t worry, pray, and bring requests to God…without thanksgiving becomes almost drudgery. I’ve been around a lot of Christians who are, for lack of a better term, just depressing…they lack a thankful heart.

Thanksgiving recognizes God’s provision, “with thanksgiving” reminds us of God providing for us. I don’t have to worry because God is good all the time. I am grateful I can bring my requests before a holy God who listens and answers prayer. I’m thankful God offers me a peace that passes understanding and promises to guard my heart and mind through Christ Jesus. You see how thanksgiving ties the whole thing together!

A thankful heart lifts our thoughts heavenward! Here’s something for you to chew on. We cannot complain and be thankful at the same time. Friends I’ve see this so much, I’ve been guilty of it myself, complaining about someone or something and then go to God in prayer thanking Him for such and such. You can’t be grumpy and grateful at the same time, yet I’ve been in meetings where God’s people are complaining and almost without taking a breath offer God thanks…I wonder if you’ve been complaining about something or someone…have you prayed about it as much as you’ve complained about it??? Thankful people demonstrate God’s power daily! Because it’s much easier to be grumpy than grateful. Complaining becomes a habit.

We often hear a great deal said about habits, but usually talk about habits is on the subject of bad habits. But why should we spend so much time focusing on bad habits and avoid speaking and thinking about making good habits? Such as the habit of thankfulness. Yes being thankful is habitual, I would say gratitude doesn’t come natural to most people. But we can make it a habit to be thankful. Just as powerful bad habits are to quite just think the power and effectiveness forming a good habit of thankfulness could be in our lives. Where instead of grumbling about the way things are, we are grateful its not as bad as it could be.

Just think how much of the work we do is habitual. For example, I didn’t pick up a guitar one day and said, “boy I really want to play this thing and it happened.” not it took practice, learning how to tune the guitar, learning individual notes, then chords, then chord progressions, and scales…but I just didn’t learn about those things…I made it a habit to practice them. So we don’t just think about being thankful, or talk about being thankful, we make being thankful a habit, practice it. Just like any number of other things you’ve determined to do…you made it a habit. Just consider the value of making thankfulness a habit…[three things] three values of making thankfulness a habit.

Thankfulness increases faith

Remembering what God has done makes grateful people. We are all prone, especially in certain moods, to complain about our lot in life. We’ve all imagined or declared that this or that time is particularly hard for us in the world. It’s easy to focus on the hard or negative things and sometimes not so easy to be thankful. But, if we take the time to stop and ponder on what God has done for us in the past and for His people in the past it’ll increase our faith and help prevent anxiety in the present and in the future.

J.A. Broadus, a well known American pastor of the 19th century said, “When we are fully in the habit of thankfully observing and recalling the loving kindnesses and tender mercies of our heavenly Father, this will make us perceive more clearly, and lament more earnestly, the evil of sin against him; and what is more, this will strengthen us to turn from our sins to his blessed service.”

In Deuteronomy, God had brought the children of Israel out of the wilderness and was getting ready to take them into the promised land when we goes over the 10 commandments again with them. In Deuteronomy 8 He tells them this. “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.”

Over and over again God tells His people remember what I’ve done for you in the past, if you do it will give you confidence in the present and hope for the future.

Thanksgiving should be joined with prayer. Paul joins these two on multiple occasions and tells us in 1 Thess. 5:17, “to pray continually” But he also adds in the next verse 1 Thess. 5:18, “be thankful in all circumstances.” We should be thankful to God in all things, for everything that is pleasant, and for everything painful, in everything…thank God. Our prayers should not be dry and cold but they should be filled with thankfulness.

Much of being thankful has to do with contentment. This what Paul tells us in Phil. 4:11, “I’ve learned to be content in everything.” And Paul faced wealth, poverty, freedom, and slavery, yet he remained content in all of them because it was Christ who strengthened him. It goes without saying, “to have whatever we like is for the most part an impossible dream of human life; but to like what we have is a possibility and a privilege.” Be thankful.

Thankfulness for past answers builds faith for those to come. I realize that in times like we are in it can be easy to focus on how bad things are or how things are getting worse, but remember, even when it’s bad we have grounds to be thankful to God. If we can’t see it in the present, we can remember when God has answered in the past. Present pain can rob us of our joy and gratitude, but recalling God’s faithfulness in the past builds our faith and strengthens us. Remember, that whatever it is we’ve lost, there is always a condition that might have been worse. Whatever we may have lost, there is always something left... and that’s grounds for thanksgiving.

Bible commentator Matthew Henry was an excellent example of this, after being robbed, wrote in his diary the following: “Let me be thankful. First, because I was never robbed before. Second, because although they took my wallet, they did not take my life. Third, because although they took my all, it was not much. Fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed. He had a thankful disposition.

Second value of the habit of thankfulness

Thankfulness improves health

Gratitude is good for you. An article in Time magazine reported on 7 health benefits to gratitude done by researchers from Yale and Stanford Universities. In short they said gratitude,

makes you patient, they said patient people make better decisions about everything.

helps peoples relationships, showing and feeling gratitude toward someone else improves that relationship.

Gratitude improves self-care, they found gratitude improved physical and psychological health. Grateful people were more likely to exercise and eat right

Gratitude helps you sleep. counting your blessings and not sheep will produce better sleep.

Gratitude can help overeating. Gratitude replenishes will power

Gratitude can help ease depression. they had a “three good things” exercise for people who had battles with depression to do, basically recall three good things from the day when feeling depressed.

Gratitude gives you happiness that lasts. A lot of things can bring instant gratification, like a sugary treat, but gratitude lasts.

If you don’t trust Time magazine, the bible tells us that thankfulness is good for our health as well.

Proverbs 17:22, “a thankful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.” This Proverbs reminds us of the intimate and complex connection between the body and spirit. One’s inner state of mind and heart seriously affects one’s health and physical vitality.

The thankful heart not only makes a cheerful face [Prov. 15:13]; but it’s good medicine. The word translated medicine here is only used in this place in the OT. It is however, related to a word in Hosea 5:13 referred to healing of a wound. In both cases it’s medicine or beneficial to the body.

The contrast of the first line in Prov. 17:22 between the second line. A thankful heart is good medicine, a broken spirit dries up bones. A broken spirit is descriptive of a depressed state of mind. That state of mind affects the person inside and out…broken spirit…dried up bones. A mental and spiritual state of mind affects our physical bodies as well.

Spurgeon said, “giving thanks is good ethically, for it is right; it is good emotionally, for it thrills the heart.” There is curative powers in the giving of thanks.

Thankfulness along with prayer provides the peace that passes understanding. The peace of God comes from prayer involving both asking God for earthly needs and thanking God for His presence and provision. A peaceful heart sees even difficulties as a part of God’s design. God’s peace reflects God’s divine character, which is totally separate form anxiety and worry. Such peace is like a squad of soldiers standing guard and protecting your from worry and fret. Such peace only comes through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thankful people find their strength renewed even during difficult times [Ps. 103] is a great Psalm to find renewed strength even when things are tough. One difficulty I see in having thankfulness is due to God’s consistency of blessing. example, there is a made story about...

a day when the sun did not rise. Six o’clock came and there was no sign of dawn. At seven o’clock, there was still no ray of light. At noon, it was as black as midnight. No birds sang and only the hoot of an owl broke the silence. Then came the long black hours of the afternoon. Finally evening arrived but no one slept that night. Some wept, some wrung their hands in anguish.

Every church was filled with people on their knees. Thus they remained the whole night through. After that long night of terror and agony, millions of eager, tear-streaked faces were turned toward the east. When the sky began to grow red and the sun rose, there was a loud shout of joy. Millions of lips said, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” because the sun had risen after one day of darkness.

The very consistency of God’s blessings sometimes seems to dull our gratitude. The wonderful thing about the mercies of God is that they are fresh every morning and new every evening. Let us remember to be constantly thankful to our gracious God

Third value of the habit of thankfulness

Thankfulness instills a desire to be like Jesus

Jesus set the example of one with a thankful heart. In Matt. 11:25, Jesus gave thanks for the revelation of His Father’s will. In Matthew 11 both John the Baptist and Jesus had been rejected in several different Jewish cities. John was rejected for not having enough fun [wandering in the desert]; Jesus was rejected for having too much fun [eating with sinners]. In essence they rejected and would not believe because of the hardness of their hearts and they were unrepentant.

When Jesus could have been down and out because of lack of faith He gave thanks instead for those whom the Father revealed His will too. Matthew 11:25, “Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.”

God has revealed Himself to us by His Son Jesus and through His word, have you given thanks today for God’s revealed will to us? Knowing the will of God is one of those things I hear people ask about all the time…how do I know God’s will for me? I know not everything is crystal clear, but I do know this for sure… God has revealed His will to us through His son and in His word…you want to know God’s will, go to Jesus, read His word, and pray with a thankful heart.

Jesus gave thanks for the provision of food [John 6:11] We know the story, the feeding of the 5,000. Remember a great multitude of people gathered and were following Jesus, this great number of people didn’t have food to eat, where they were at there wasn’t food immediately available, so Jesus said to the disciple, “you feed them.” The problem was they didn’t have enough money or resources to feed that many people. But Jesus took what they had, 5 loaves of bread and two small fish and gave thanks for what they had and gave it out and it feed everyone, with extra left over.

A remarkable miracle it was, but notice even in the midst of the unbelievable miracle is the simple act of thanksgiving for what He had. Often overlooked in light of the vast miracle is the simple act of gratitude for provision. Have you given God thanks for what you have?

Jesus gave thanks at the first communion [Matt. 26:27] This was the night before Jesus would be betrayed and turned over to be crucified. Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. That supper we celebrate today for what purpose? to remember, The shedding of the blood of Jesus for remission of sin. “Jesus took the bread, blessed it [gave thanks] broke it, and gave it.”

We recognize the Lord’s supper as remembering what Jesus did for us on the cross, but notice once again the simple subtle example of gratitude Jesus gives. Jesus gave thanks even when He would suffer and die for the sins of the world. That should cause us to pause and give thanks for Jesus’ blood shed on my behalf. Thank God for Calvary! Thank you Jesus you embraced the cross and took my place. I deserved that punishment but my Lord and Savior hung there for me! Thank you Jesus!!! finally...

Jesus gave thanks for answered prayer [John 11:41] Background, Jesus had just raised Lazarus, Jesus good friend, from the grave. This is another remarkable miracle. Remember Lazarus had been dead 4 days and Jesus came to the tomb where he was, told them to move away the stone, He then prayed and gave thanks to God for hearing Him and called out to Lazarus, “Lazarus, come forth!” And that dead man came out of the grave! Friends this is amazing! Our Lord has power and authority over the grave!

Our Lord Jesus has the final word! When He calls us His own…death looses its sting over us! Amen! That is something to be thankful for! Our Lord has conquered the grave and in Him ours is the victory! If we are in Christ then we should be continually thankful!

Are you a thankful person? Thankful people are motivated to tell others about Jesus. If we have been saved with this remarkable love and grace and mercy…why would we not tell others! As we begin to meet again let’s live mission critical for Jesus. Make it a priority to share Christ with people, to bring people to church, to reach a lost and dying world with the great news of eternal life in Jesus.

If we are thankful people we will be voices of unity and peace to the church not complaining, resistance, and opposition. It’s time to do better for the kingdom of God! I believe this event is a wake up call to the church, how will we respond? Go back to normal or move forward on fire for God?

If we are thankful people we will be encouragers to others. It’s time to stop being over critical and become over encouragers. Build up one another in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.