There are many things that I am thankful for this year.  If I were to ask you, some of you could give me a large list.  While on the other hand there are many of you that would simply state you have nothing to be thankful for.  Take a moment and write down the three things you are most thankful for this year.  I know this sound elementary, but sometimes we really need a reminder.  Now that you have written them down or at least acknowledged three, cross out one of them.  I know it is a hard choice, but do it anyway.  You see the thing we are thankful for are not always going to be with us.  I am thankful for my children, but I know they are going to turn into teenagers one day.  I will love them the same, but they will no longer be little.  Now that you have one of them marked off, look at the final two.  Yep, you know what I am going to ask you to do: mark another one off.  I know; it may seem like I am ruining your Thanksgiving spirit because I just asked you to mark out two of the three things I asked you to write down.  I promise you there is a point.

Look at this last item.  What is it?  What I want to share with you is that if it is not your relationship to God established through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you are missing the one thing you should be most thankful for.  We rewind back to the Lord’s Supper in Luke 22:19-20.  Jesus told his disciples to “do this in remembrance of me.”  Isn’t it sad how quickly we forget.  We forget that Jesus Christ gave his life so that we could have eternal life.  Remember what Psalm 23:1 says? “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.”  It is to this end that I ask you, what more is there to want?  Through Jesus Christ we have a Heavenly Father that provides everything we need.  Letting anything trump our thankfulness for this gift seems rather foolish.

This Thanksgiving I pray that you begin to see the true sacrifice of Christ and you let that take preeminence in your life, it comes first.  I pray that amid the hustle and bustle, the material fulfillment and the indulgence of food, you begin to be truly thankful for the grace we receive through faith.  If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9-10)  Live a great life of thankfulness.

Join us next Sunday @ 10:45 as we begin our new sermon series Unwrapping Christmas with The Integrity of Joseph.