Today in honor of the Thanksgiving Holiday, we are going to step out of the wonderful book of Luke and concentrate on Thanksgiving. For it is one day each year which we set aside time to truly give thanks to God. Yet we have so many reasons to give thanks each and every day.

We are thankful for the team from Los Angeles that come every year to serve in our area. We are thankful for our high school team which are doing some amazing things in our community. We are also thankful for YOU, First Baptist – for the work that God is doing in our hearts.

52 times in the word of God we read Give Thanks- It may seem like a command to give thanks- Yet thankfulness cannot be commanded. It must come from the gratitude of our hearts.

Gratitude means thankfulness, counting your blessings, noticing simple pleasures, and acknowledging everything that you receive. It means learning to live your life as if everything were a miracle and being aware on a continuous basis of how much you’ve been given.” Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and even more.

In Colossians 1: the apostle Paul wrote giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

In this world we are qualified – qualified to be a part of God’s Kingdom and to receive an inheritance. The inheritance is available for free- it has been purchased and conveyed to us through the redemption that is available to us through his Blood, the forgiveness of sins.

Today I urge you to be thankful for Jesus’ Death, Burial and Resurrection which deems you qualified to partake in an incredible inheritance- give thanks!