Are we thankful?  Are we truly thankful?  Psalm 34 talks about us blessing the Lord, and the Scripture then emphasizes “at all times”; amen?  “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”  There’s “continually” being reiterated.  “My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.  O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together,” hallelujah!  Now, we like to go down to the next verse.  “I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”  Thank God for that and the other promises that follow.  But look what precedes, “I will bless the Lord at all times...”  You want fear driven out of your life?  Bless the Lord at all times; amen?  You want anxiety gone?  Then bless the Lord at all times.  Most anxiety comes because we’re anticipating and fearing that what we are wanting, what we have placed value on, may not, in fact, manifest itself.  We’re wanting this new position at work.  We want the title, we want the money, we want to be able to go buy the new house.  Whatever all of these things that we think might be.  So, this is something that we’re pressing toward, we’re longing for, and you’ll never be content if you always want more and you’re not thankful with what you have.  “More” is not wrong.  We’ve looked at it many times.  “The blessings of the Lord, will maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it”; amen?  But you see, the blessings of the Lord do not come when we are anticipating them, when we’re seeking them, when we’ve put a label on how we want to be blessed.  God will bless you.  These riches that will overtake you originate in His heart, not yours.  And He’ll bless you exceedingly, abundantly beyond anything you could ask or even think, if you stop thinking about the stuff and start worshipping Him, hallelujah! Jesus said it so concisely, didn’t He?  Seek first the kingdom of God, His righteousness, and all the other stuff will be added.  The blessings overtake you; you don’t chase the blessings.  You seek God, you praise God for what you have.

Think back when you were younger in the faith.  Hopefully we’re living there, now, or still experiencing that great grace of God, but you remember when you first got saved, you didn’t need anything else but Jesus; amen?  Absolutely, there was no other object that had value, even close to that of our Savior.  Something I’ve never done over all the years, but it was the subject we were talking about when we were in India just recently, and how many of the hot-shot preachers set a fee for coming to preach.  They demand a five-star hotel.  Some want to be picked up at the airport in a Rolls Royce.  Many, for one hour, want at least five figures.  And Paul says in 1 Timothy 1, “I thank God for blessing me and putting me in the ministry.”  Amen?  Paul was thankful just to be privileged to preach. I know when I first got saved, I would have paid them to come, and, in fact, I would have probably had to pay them a lot to get me to come.  Can you imagine?  Thankful.