This morning, we’re continuing on our message series about the power of God. 

With Thanksgiving this coming week, it seemed appropriate to cover the topic of gratitude.  Obedience is the behavioral key to unlock the power of God in and through our lives, but gratitude is the key attitude to unlock the power of God in and through our lives.

Over and over again throughout the Bible, we find that in the midst of lack, in the midst of betrayal, in the midst of hopelessness, in the darkest and most impossible days of life; that gratitude unleashed the power of God to do the impossible!

Have you ever noticed that it is often not those who have much who are most thankful, but those who are in need who are the most thankful?  I recently saw a quote that, “It’s not the happy people who are thankful, it is the thankful people who are happy.”

Choosing an attitude of gratitude, no matter our circumstances, can change everything for us because it changes our perspective.  Even if we have such a rotten attitude that we can’t see anything to be grateful for, we can begin by looking at God.  Just realizing who God is and all that He has done for us and has promised yet to do for us begins to break up the hardness of our hearts and produce in us a more grateful attitude.

Thanksgiving opens the gates of Heaven for us!

Psalm 100:3-5

3 Know that the Lord is God.

    It is he who made us, and we are his;

    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving

    and his courts with praise;

    give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

There is a common thread that we find throughout the scriptures and we’re going to take a look at it today in three separate instances.  In them we find a backdrop of impossible and dire circumstances and how choosing to give thanks in the midst of them unlocked the gates of Heaven and released a miracle to transform them!

Matthew 14:15-21

15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Great need and impossible resources with which to meet it.  Looking to God and being thankful for the little that they had unlocked a miracle that multiplied that little to exceed the need!  There is so much more to this account, but it was the grateful attitude of Jesus that overcame the grumbling and the lack around Him.  This wasn’t the only time, either!

Jesus gave thanks, broke the bread, and gave it all away.

Gratitude, brokenness, servanthood.

Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9, John 6:

5 loaves of bread and 2 fish fed 5,000 men not including women and children with 12 baskets full of leftovers

Matthew 15, Mark 8:

7 loaves of bread and a few small fish fed 4,000 men not including women and children with 7 baskets full of leftovers

Of course, we’re all familiar with this account where Jesus does just the same.  In fact, He does it symbolically as a prophetic act of what He was about to physically do.  Gratitude, brokenness, servanthood.

Matthew 26:20-30

20 When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. 21 And while t