Have someone lead “Count Your Blessings”

partially based on other sermon “recognizing gifts from God”

We often think about how blessed we are, but have you ever counted the ways in which you are blessed? I think that many of us couldn't count the ways we are blessed.

Col 3

¹⁷And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Recently Chad and I went over the study with Patricia. As we walked in the door, we saw that her dad was sitting on the floor. He needed help getting to his bed in the other room. Patricia and her mom weren't able to lift him because Patricia has a bad back and her mom recently had surgery and isn't supposed to lift anything. So, her dad had been sitting helpless on the floor for a while. He has cancer and it seems he hadn't been seeking treatment in a while. Anyway, as we talked to Patricia, she told us about the problems she'd been having. They just seemed to be piled on. For me, it just put things in perspective. You think you got problems? She has it ten times as bad. Compared to her, I have no problems at all. It also reminded me that there are so many needs out there. There are people in Africa or other poor countries who would be happy to be in Patricia's situation. They are just barely surviving and don't have access to even the most basic necessities as the poor do in this country. But there are so many desperately in need out there. You could spend your whole life dedicated to helping others and still never get to all of them. But that doesn't mean that there aren't still things that we can do for others.

This was one of the things that Jesus, himself taught.

Mat 25

³¹"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
³⁴"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
³⁷"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
⁴⁰"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
⁴¹"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴²For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
⁴⁴"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
⁴⁵"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
⁴⁶"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

We are to help others. We are to especially help our brothers and sisters in Christ when they are in need. I can just picture how many in Mexico are possibly worse off than any we know here in the US. There is plenty of opportunity to help others, both physically and spiritually. People are not only hungry in the normal sense of the word, but also spiritually. People need answers. Why is life so hard some of the time. Why do terrible things happen? The bible answers these questions that people ask. The bible tells us about how God is in control.

We are warned not to be people who hoard money and only give grudgingly.

2 Cor 9

⁶Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. ⁷Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ⁹As it is written:
   "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor;
       his righteousness endures forever."

¹⁰Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
¹²This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. ¹³Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. ¹⁴And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. ¹⁵Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

This is not to say that if we follow Christ, we will have no problems. On the contrary, he himself warned that Christians will have problems of their own as, perhaps, they go against the will of their families in following Christ.

And Jesus said

Mat 45

...He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Money isn't going to come raining down on you just because you're a Christian. You might still be poor if you were poor when you were called to be a Christian.

This can glorify God in itself.

1 Cor 1

²⁶Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

Think about the statement it makes when a poor person glorifies God. If someone glorifies God and they have what they need, that's good. But when someone glorifies God and they barely get by, what kind of impression does that make? Think of Job when everything was taken away from him. His attitude toward God is impressive BECAUSE he has nothing. He still praises God.

Job 1

⁸ Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."
⁹ "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied. ¹⁰ "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. ¹¹ But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."

[Satan says that it's nothing for a man to praise God when everything is going right. Let's see what happens when things go wrong for Job. And so God allows satan to interfere in Job's life...and he certainly does that...what happens after that?]

...

²⁰ At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship ²¹ and said:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised."
²² In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

I think about myself in my situation in life. Compared to many, I've had it quite easy. But when the big problems come, will I be faithful? This account of Job makes us all ask this. It makes us think about our faith and what it is based on. Is it real? Or is it only there in fair weather?

Now Job had problems. He had huge problems.

Learning from suffering

Romans 5

¹...And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ³Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Imagine what life would have been like if you had no problems. It would be like heaven. But if every time you wanted something on this earth, you got it, what kind of attitude would you have? If you never lost, would you ever learn any humility? If you were never disciplined, how would you behave? We've probably all seen examples of people who get everything they want and never get disciplined. They just continue doing whatever they feel like and it usually doesn't work out very well. God has set up the world so that the negative things in life teach us. Sometimes when we ignore God's word and commit a terrible sin we sometimes see directly what results from it. That in itself may make us much more humble the next time. We may say, “I'll never do anything like that again. Look what happened the last time.” We learn from the negative things that happen in life.

And Paul realized the solution to weathering the bad times in his life, and he had some very bad times. He went through these bad times because of the good things he did. In general, he learned that you should be content with what you have.

Phil 4

⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

...

^11...for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹²I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Good things and bad things happen to us. We should not cease to thank God for whatever he has given us. He's given us hope. Though tragedies in life may appear around us and though people may be against us for our faithfulness, we have such great hope in God that we can look beyond all of this.

We, as humans, love to complain. It just seems to come naturally. We forget it could be ten times worse until it actually is. We are sometimes like the Israelites who complained that they were bored with the food God was giving them, which had kept them alive. And because they complained, it got ten times worse.

I'm definitely preaching to myself as well as you when I say all of this. These are things I'd like to work on.

Often in our lives we pray to God. We ask God for things. We ask for healing for someone. We ask for the necessities. We ask for safety and health. However, we must remember when something is provided for us to thank God. When you are healed of that sickness you were praying about...even if it's as minor as a cold, take time to thank God.

Gifts we may not recognize: children, loved ones, health, safety, food, clothing, shelter, spiritual gifts, guidance given in God's word, brothers and sisters in Christ,

Paul was so thankful for his brothers and sisters in Christ

Eph 1

¹⁵For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, ¹⁶I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.

...also, the holy spirit, the gift of eternal life, ...just a whole host of things to recognize as gifts from God and thank him.

The thankful leper

Luke 17

¹¹Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. ¹²As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy^[1] met him. They stood at a distance ¹³and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"
¹⁴When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed.
¹⁵One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. ¹⁶He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan.
¹⁷Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" ¹⁹Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."

When people raise children they usually try to teach them manners. Say, "please." Say, "thank you." We try to give them a sense of respect. Imagine being healed of a terminal illness. Imagine the rejoicing you'd feel if you thought you were surely going to die and you were offered a second chance. Seems like you'd be grateful but we only see one of these ten here taking the time to go back and thank Jesus. We must make sure in our lives we are not one of those nine who seemed ungrateful. Thank God when he blesses you.

The greatest gift of all is the forgiveness we have through Jesus. It's like a parachute, really. We were on our way towards sure condemnation, just falling. In old testament times, except in a few cases, people besides the Jews were lost. The other countries around Israel didn't follow God. But now Jesus has died for the sins of everyone everywhere so that anyone can be saved if they'll follow God's word. In a way, things are similar today to the old testament times. Only those who come to the Father through Jesus can be saved. In this way, we're saved from falling. We have a parachute. Thank God for his grace.

You think you got problems? Well, it's true, you may have problems. But it could always be so much worse, so be happy with what you have. Perhaps you've heard the saying, “I complained that I had no shoes until I saw a man who had no feet.”

We're going to see those cases as we go through life and we have opportunities to help others. We are given these opportunities by God and he wants to see what we do with them.

[as Nathan Cogburn read the other night...]

James 2

¹⁵Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

James 1

²⁷Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

As a church, we would be happy to help any of you in any way we can. Please come forward...