“An Attitude of Gratitude”
Philippians 4:6

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Thanksgiving Day—November 28, 2019

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Our text for Thanksgiving Day is from today’s epistle reading in the 4th chapter of Philippians.  St. Paul writes, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

What comes to mind when you think of Thanksgiving Day?  Turkey and dressing; time off from school and work; parades and football games on TV; family feasts and overeating?

Thanksgiving Day is more than just turkeys and ball games and family get-togethers.  Thanksgiving Day is a special day set aside by proclamation of the president of our nation for all citizens of this land to give thanks to God for the many great blessings we enjoy.  But, instead, many of us, perhaps even most of us, will spend this day as we do many other days:  Instead of giving thanks for what we do have, worrying about the things we do not have.

Ever since Adam and Eve fell into sin, it has been part of our sinfulness to be dissatisfied with what we have, and to worry about what we do not have.  Adam and Eve lived in paradise.  Everything was perfect:  no illness, no hunger, no hurting, no fighting, no anger.  A perfect couple, a perfect marriage, a perfect world.  What more could they ask for?  What more could they want? 

But even they fell into the devil’s trap called dissatisfaction.  The ONE thing they could not have, the forbidden fruit, THAT the serpent convinced them, was the one thing they MUST have to be truly happy.  And, so instead of giving thanks and being happy with the surpassingly great blessings they did have, Adam and Eve yearned for that which they did not have.  In the process they ruined their perfect lives, ruined their perfect marriage, and brought sin and evil into our world.  Trying to obtain what they did not possess they lost the greatest earthly blessings anyone ever did possess.

Still today, the devil tempts us into that old trap called: dissatisfaction.  Still today, instead of giving thanks for what we DO have, we worry about the things we do NOT have.  Still today, we go so far as to ruin our lives, ruin our marriages, fall into all sorts of sin and evil—just to get our hands on the forbidden fruit.

A few years ago there was a story on 60 minutes about a special minimum security prison in Florida.  It is sometimes called the country-club prison, because most of the inmates were once successful businessmen or politicians.  Many of them are still worth millions of dollars.  One man said that at one time he had made as much as two million dollars a day.  What more could a person want?  These men had it all, but even they threw it all away to reach for the forbidden fruit.  What they had wasn’t enough.  They even broke the law to get more, in the process ruining their lives.

What percentage of divorces do you think are blamed at least in part on disagreements over money?  According to the experts, money problems are at least partly the cause in over 90% of all divorces.  And most are not poor people.  They are people with good jobs and nice homes, comfortable people who already possess all the little luxuries of American life.  And yet, instead of living together in love and giving thanks for what they DO have, many couples fight and argue and worry about the things they do NOT have, in the process ruining their relationship in the quest for more and more things.  That’s why Proverbs says: “It’s better to eat a simple meal in a house filled with love, than a fancy feast in a house full of hatred.”

It is part of our sinfulness to be dissatisfied.  To forget the blessings we DO have to always be worrying about the things in life we do NOT have.  Our materialistic society makes it even worse.  Like the subtle temptations the serpent whispered in the garden, we are subtly trained throughout our lives in our society, through advertising and the media, that our main purpose in life is to acquire things, to be the ultimate consumer.  Advertising leads us into the trap of believing we cannot be truly happy with what we have, that happiness comes from acquiring things—and it is exactly the things we do not yet have that finally will bring us happiness.  But, then the fashions change, or a new and improved model comes along, and once again we worry that we do not have it all.

Do you have in your mind a short little list of things you think you must have?  And once you get these things, then you will finally be happy, finally be satisfied, finally be thankful, right?  Wrong.  An attitude of dissatisfaction sticks with you; you will simply move your sights and worry yourself about other things.

How can we put an end to this vicious cycle of dissatisfaction?  How can we learn to be happy, satisfied and thankful?  St. Paul gives us the answer in our text:  “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” 

Instead of an attitude of dissatisfaction, live life with “An Attitude of Gratitude,” giving thanks to God for his many blessings, especially the greatest blessing of all:  Sending his Son to pay the penalty for your sins, forgiving all your sins for Jesus’ sake.

God does forgive all your sins because Jesus shed his blood on the cross for you.  God even forgives your sins of thanklessness and dissatisfaction.

God promises to hear and answer your prayers, to provide for your wants and needs.  Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given you, seek and you will find, knock, and the door shall be opened unto you.”

St. Paul puts it this way in Romans:  “If God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, will not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”  As Jesus says in today’s Gospel Reading from the Sermon on the Mount:  “Therefore, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?  And why do you worry about clothes?  See how the lilies of the field grow.  They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”

A little baby is totally dependent upon its parents.  They provide for all its needs because they love their child.  You are the beloved child of God.  God made you his child in Holy Baptism, when he washed away your sins and implanted faith in your heart to trust in Jesus as your own, personal Savior.  God your heavenly Father will provide for your needs.  “Cast your burdens upon the Lord, for he cares for you.”

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”  Live life with “An Attitude of Gratitude.”   “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”