Exhortation: Thankfulness

(Slightly edited transcript of a sermonette preached at Bible Truth Baptist Church, Griffin, GA, on 23 November 2014.)

Around this time of year, it’s traditional (and appropriate) to read psalms of thanksgiving. I’d like to read Psalm 100 to you this morning, because there’s an important word in it: “thankful.”


1  Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
2  Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
3  Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 
4  Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
5  For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. 

Notice the word “thankful” in v. 4. While the words “thank,” “thanks,” and “thanksgiving” each appear numerous times in scripture, the word “thankful” only appears three times: once here, and the other two times in the new testament.

Rom. 1:21, Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Col. 3:15, And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

I’d like to give you a few brief exhortations this morning.

1. The word is “thank-ful.” We should be full of thanks, not sparing. We tend to thank God around mealtime, but we need to thank him “always for all things” as Paul tells us in Eph. 5:20.

2. Speaking of Paul, I noticed that he begins 11 of his 13 letters with thanksgiving. We should begin things with thanksgiving: prayer, correspondence, meals, and other things we do. Everything that we have comes from God, and to thank him (and anyone else) is to acknowledge that he gave you something. “…and what hast thou that thou hast not received?” Paul asks in 1 Cor. 4:9. Nothing, absolutely nothing.

3. Paul even thanks God for the carnal Corinthian believers, some of his most disobedient converts. Principle: find something to be thankful for, and look for people’s virtues rather than their vices. It’s easy to spot anyone’s vices, given enough time, but it takes grace to note people’s virtues, even at low points in their lives...like when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians.

4. Lastly, note the three groups that thankfulness is aimed at.

     a. In Psalm 100, the Jew was told to be thankful, and rightly so. As
     God’s covenant people, they had tremendous blessings that they 
     owed God thanks for.

     b. In Col. 3, the church of God was told to be thankful. As the body
     of Christ, we have been blessed “with all spiritual blessings in
     heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3), so we certainly should be 
     full of thanks for all that we’ve received, amen?

     c. And in Rom. 1:21, God condemns the Gentiles for their ingratitude.
     So God is looking for thankful hearts in all men, since those three
     groups (1 Cor. 10:32) make up mankind.

5. How about you, Christian? Is your heart full of thanks? I hope so. If not, read through Paul’s epistles and see how much God has given you, and may your heart be filled to overflowing with thanks for the grace that you’ve received.