Thanksgiving Power Series

Almost everyone has heard of Leo Tolstoy the author of War and Peace, but few have ever

heard of his grandfather Prince Nicholas Volkausky. This old man took 8 of his slaves on his

country estate and formed them into an orchestra. He taught them how to play the finest

classical music in the world. Every morning at 7 o'clock this slave symphony was set to go

off like a modern clock alarm. They assembled under the master's window, and when the

signal came that he was awaking they began to play this beautiful music. There hands were

rough like sandpaper, but they produced an atmosphere of loveliness. Then they went off

the slop the hogs, spade the garden, and fix the fence.

They were just 8 men of humble origin, but because the master chose them and gave

them instruction they had this great privilege of creating beauty. They pleased their master

and then went to their labor with a spirit of joy because they were partakers in the beautiful.

This is the picture we have in the Old Testament of God and His people. He called them to

develop the gifts of praise and thanksgiving. The best music in the world to God's ear is the

voices of thanksgiving. God's taste has never changed in this regard, and we read in Heb.

13:15, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise-the

fruit of lips that confess His name."

The sound of praise and thanksgiving is the best offering you can give to God. Not only

does such music please God, it sends us into life with thanksgiving power. When David

brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem, the first thing he did was to appoint

Levites to make petition, to give thanks and to praise the Lord. To give momentum to this

goal he wrote a Psalm of Thanksgiving himself, and he gave it to his worship leader Asaph.

There are not many songs that are repeated in the Bible, but this one is repeated in Psa. 96.

It teaches us many things, but there is just two important truths about thanksgiving that I

want to focus on.

I. THANKSGIVING IS VITAL.

Vital means essential to the existence of something. It is so basic to the life of the spirit

that to remove it is equivalent to removing the heart from the body. A spirit without

thankfulness is a dead spirit. If you feel down and spiritually lifeless, there is a good chance

that you are low on thankfulness. You body can get lifeless if you lack potassium, and your

spirit can get lifeless is you lack gratitude. Jesus said, "Without me you can do nothing."

And so when we feel like we can do nothing it is because we have pulled the plug that links us

to Christ, and we are trying to operate on our own power. When we are plugged in and we

are worshipping our Lord we are capable of saying with Paul, "I can do all things through

Christ who strengthens me." That is thanksgiving power. The degree of our optimism and

thankfulness is easily seen. The fruit of the spirit is not hidden. It hangs on the tree where

it can be seen. If we are gripping and complaining, it is rather obvious that we have quenched

the Holy Spirit and have decided to govern our own life. If we are letting the Holy Spirit guide

us the fruit will be conspicuous, for love, joy, peace, and all the others are positive things that

can be easily seen in a person's life.

Thanksgiving then is a vital ingredient in the Christian life. It is the means by which we

measure our obedience to God's will. If you find yourself being less and less thankful, then

you are going to the wrong direction. If you are seeing more and more for which you are

thankful, then you can know you are walking with God in the right direction.

When people are thankful and praise God they look on life with a perspective that lifts

them up and enables them to see all of life from a heavenly viewpoint. One of the purposes

of worship is to get our eyes off self and the world, and get them focused on God. He is the

one who can give us a hopeful perspective whatever the circumstances we face on earth. You

will observe that this Psalm of thanksgiving is God focus from beginning to end. It is His

works and wonders for which we are to be persistently thankful. Verse 34 says we are to give

thanks to the Lord because He is good and His love endures forever. The things we will

never cease to give thanks for are permanent, but the things for which we gripe and grieve