First Baptist Church
January 11th, 2026
      • Bible Trivia
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      • Micah 6:8NKJV

      • John 16:33NKJV

  • Mighty To Save
  • "How Great Is Our God"
  • Doxology
  • Trust In God
  • Gratitude
  • We are in a series called Double Blessing and today’s sermon is titled, An Attitude of Gratitude. Let’s pick up where we left off last week.
    Before original sin, there was original blessing. That sequence is significant. Blessing is God’s most ancient instinct. It sets the tone. It sets the table. Now, God won’t bless greed or pride or laziness. We have to position ourselves for blessing, but God’s posture toward us, God’s default setting, God’s first and foremost reflex is blessing. It’s who God is. It’s what God does. God wants to bless you beyond your ability to ask or imagine. God has blessings for you in categories you cannot conceive of.
    If you have a Bible, you can meet me in I Thessalonians.
    1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 CSB
    16 Rejoice always, 17 pray constantly, 18 give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
    Paul planted the church in Thessaloniki on his second missionary journey. He’s writing this letter a few years later, around 51 AD. The church finds itself in some challenging circumstances, so Paul offers this exhortation in chapter 5, starting in verse 16. These are some of the shortest verses in the Bible, but they pack a punch. Verse 16, “Rejoice always.” Verse 17, “Pray continually.” Verse 18, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
    If we were to play a little word association game, and I said “discerning the will of God,” I’m guessing that many of us, maybe most of us, think logistics. We think who, what, when, where, and how. Discerning the will of God is decision making. It’s making the right move at the right time, and that is a piece of the puzzle.
    God is ordering our footsteps. God is preparing good works in advance. God is setting up divine appointments, and we need to obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit. That said, the will of God is a lot less circumstantial and a lot more attitudinal than we think. In fact, you already know the will of God. Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances.
    Many of us are way too worried about making mistakes or wrong turns. We are afraid that one mistake could bring down the whole house of cards. Let me relieve a little pressure.

    God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go.

    And God is awfully good at getting us there! The will of God is less about logistics and more about cultivating the character of Christ in every circumstance. I said this last week: The circumstances you are asking God to change may be the circumstances God is using to change you!
    In their book, Decisive, Chip and Dan Heath talk about four mistakes we make when it comes to decision making. One of those mistakes is narrow framing. It’s defining our choices too narrowly. It’s thinking in either/or categories instead of both/and. It’s thinking true/false when God is offering us multiple choice. And we do this when it comes to the will of God.
    The Heath brothers tell a story about Father Brian Bransfield, the general secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Father Bransfield makes the observation that when parishioners seek out advice they often have a tendency to narrow frame their options. They find themselves in a dilemma: “Should I marry this person? Should I take this job I’ve been offered in another city? Should I become a priest?” Lots of people lose lots of sleep over these things. Bransfield says: “There’s a myth that there’s only one thing God wants you to do. We spend so much time trying to figure out that one thing and become so fearful of making a mistake.” Ironically, we miss the will of God because we’re afraid of missing the will of God. We miss out because we don’t want to miss out. Does that make sense?
    Bransfield widens the aperture on God’s will. He says, “Actually, there are 18 things that God would be very happy if you chose. You’re not cornered into becoming a priest or not. You’re not cornered into marrying this woman or not.” Bransfield says, “You’re telling me that God looked at you and said, “There is only 1 thing you can do in your life, I know it and you have to guess it or else? Could it be that you are putting your constraints on God?
    All that to say this: the will of God is less circumstantial and more attitudinal than we think.

    Whatever you don’t turn into praise, turns into pride

    James 1:17 CSB
    17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
    This is the genesis of gratitude—it’s all from God, it’s all for God. And it’s not just what we perceive to be blessings. I’m not sure we know enough to know whether something is a blessing or a curse up front. What we perceive to be blessings actually backfire if we don’t steward them the right way. And what we perceive to be a curse, may be a blessing in disguise because it’s the catalyst for growth.
    James said it this way:
    James 1:2–4 CSB
    2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
    Way too many prayers revolve around personal comfort rather than character development.
    According to the Talmud, the Jewish commentary on the Old Testament, “A man embezzles from God when he makes use of this world without uttering a blessing.” In other words, if you enjoy something without giving thanks, it’s as if you have stolen it from God. Anything less than gratitude is grand larceny!
    An observant Jew would pronounce one hundred blessings per day. Those blessings would begin with, Baruch Atah Adonai. Literally, “Blessed are You, the Eternal;”
    They would then fill in the blank with thousands of different things. According to rabbinic tradition, “A man should taste nothing before he utters a blessing.” They would offer a blessing before meals, like many of us. But they would also bless God during the meal for the double blessing of different tastes, different smells.
    An observant Jew would bless God for a new day, a new article of clothing, a new experience. One of my favorite blessings is animals: “On seeing an elephant, a tailless ape, or a long-tailed ape, one should say, ‘Blessed be He who makes strange creatures.” I don’t know why they singled out those particular animals, but I love this approach path to new things. Whenever they experienced something pleasurable, they would praise God.
    I think what impresses me most is the way Orthodox Judaism nuances blessing. They wouldn’t simply bless God for rainfall.
    In the words of Rabbi Judah, “We give thanks unto You for every rain drop You caused to fall on us.” There are 90,921 drops in a gallon of water! They blessed God for each and every one. On that note, there are thirty-seven sextillion chemical reactions happening in the human body at any given time. You are digesting food, regenerating cells, purifying toxins, catalyzing enzymes, producing hormones, and converting stored energy from fat to blood sugar. We owe God thirty-seven sextillion thank you’s!
    And that’s where the double blessing begins. Whatever you don’t turn into praise, turns into pride. Let me push this envelope a little further.

    Praise God for partial miracles

    In the gospels, there’s a two-part miracle that I find fascinating and encouraging.
    Mark 8:22–25 CSB
    22 They came to Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and brought him out of the village. Spitting on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” 24 He looked up and said, “I see people—they look like trees walking.” 25 Again Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes. The man looked intently and his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly.
    Jesus lays hands on a blind man, and this man experiences a partial miracle. His sight is restored, but not completely. People still look like trees walking. We’ll call it 20/100 vision. This is where many of us doubt God instead of praising God for the partial miracle. This is where many of us give up because we didn’t get the whole miracle. Some miracles happen in stages. All too often, we withhold our praise for partial miracles, and then we wonder why the whole miracle never happens. Why not praise God every step of the way, even if it’s two steps forward and one step back!
    On July 2, 2016 Pastor Mark Batterson prayed a brave prayer. After forty years with severe asthma, God healed his lungs. He has not taken an inhaler from that day to this day! But there is a backstory to the miracle. About a month before this all happened, he was climbing Cadillac Mountain in Maine. It’s certainly not the tallest mountain, but he managed to do it without the use of an inhaler. For Mark, that was huge! In fact, he then went another four days without using the inhaler. He privately wondered if the Lord had healed him, but then had to take a puff of the inhaler on day five. But instead of focusing on the fact that he had to use the inhaler again, Mark decided to praise God for the four days without it. In fact, Mark felt like he should share that partial miracle at a prayer night. And that’s exactly what he did. It was less than a week later that God finished what He started and healed Mark completely from asthma! To this day, Mark believes that publicly praising God for the partial miracle was one small step, one giant leap toward the double blessing of two healed lungs.
    Praise God for partial miracles!

    Your focus determines your reality

    In case you care, this is what Quigon said to Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode 1. I know this sounds like a Jedi Mind Trick, but Paul preached this gospel two thousand years ago! Philippians 4 says,
    Philippians 4:8 CSB
    8 Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things.
    A few decades ago, a study was done with college students that consisted of two questions: 1. How happy are you? 2. How many dates did you have in the last month? The researchers found a weak correlation between the level of happiness and the number of dates. Then they flipped those questions: 1. How many dates have you had in the last month? 2. How happy are you? All of a sudden, there was a strong correlation. What happened? Well, the sequence of questions made those students focus on their dating status or lack thereof. Psychologists call this the focusing effect.
    A professor at Northwestern University, Vicki Medvec, found that bronze medalists were quantifiably happier than silver medalists. This makes no sense! Silver medalists beat the bronze medalists, which means they should feel better about the outcome than those who lost to them. But here’s what Medvec discovered. The silver medalists tended to focus on how close they came to winning gold so they weren’t satisfied with silver. Bronze medalists tended to focus on how close they came to not winning a medal at all, so they were just happy to be on the medal stand. The technical term for what’s happening with those Olympic medalists is called a counterfactual. And there are two kinds of counterfactuals, upward and downward. An upward counterfactual is focusing on how things could be better, like winning gold instead of silver, and it produces feelings of frustration. A downward counterfactual is focusing on how things could be worse, like not winning a medal at all, and it produces feelings of gratitude.
    Let’s go back to Philippians 4.
    Brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
    Joy is not getting what you want.
    Joy is appreciating what you have.
    In Philippians 4:11
    Philippians 4:11 CSB
    11 I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself.
    Paul is writing this particular letter from prison! That is what packs this punch. Paul says, “I 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.” Contentment is not circumstantial. It’s attitudinal. Your focus determines your reality!
    I want you to hear what I’m about to say:

    You can be stressed and blessed at the same time.

    I said it last week: blessing is not zero gravity. It’s not no problems. In fact, the blessings of God will complicate your life. But it will complicate your life in the ways it should be complicated.
    At the end of the day, there are two ways to process the things that happen to you. And it’s a focus issue. Either your theology will conform to your reality or your reality will conform to your theology. Let me say it this way: don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshipping what’s right with God.
    If you are looking for something to complain about, you will always find it. If you are looking for something to be grateful for, you will always find it. We don’t see the world as it is. We see the world as we are. The key to seeing things the way God does? Make a beeline for the cross! No matter how bad our circumstances get, you are worth the cross to Christ. Your sin is nailed to the cross. The curse of sin is broken. And according to Ephesians 1:3
    Ephesians 1:3 CSB
    3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.
    Our reality check isn’t our circumstances. Our reality check is the character of God. And God is good, all the time. In fact:
    Psalm 84:11 CSB
    11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord grants favor and honor; he does not withhold the good from those who live with integrity.
    At the end of this message, take a few minutes to count your blessings! I’m a proponent of something called Appreciative Inquiry. You’ve got to identify what’s right before you deal with what’s wrong. Again, don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshipping what’s right with God.
    The last time I checked, we enter his gates with thanksgiving. You don’t even get in the front door without the attitude of gratitude. May we grow in the grace of gratitude!
    (Pastor: Give some time for folks to count their blessings. If you use a church bulletin include an area where congregants can count their blessings. If you’re feeling really brave, let people shout their blessings out loud, one by one.)
    Let us pray.

      • 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18NKJV

      • James 1:17NKJV

      • James 1:2–4NKJV

      • Mark 8:22–25NKJV

      • Philippians 4:8NKJV

      • Philippians 4:11NKJV

      • Ephesians 1:3NKJV

      • Psalm 84:11NKJV

First Baptist Church
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