Giving Thanks
Thursday is Thanksgiving, a time when we come together with friends and family and enjoy the blessings of God. We fix large family meals, sit around and eat until we are full, stuffed actually and continue in conversation, laughter and relaxation. This is the atmosphere for those who are fortunate to have something. There is another group of people who this time of year brings about, not Thanksgiving, but a sense of depression, a sense of loss, a sense of waste. Although they have everything that they could want, they are not happy and seeing others enjoying a time of celebration with family and friends is painful for them – mainly because they do not have them. Finally there are those that this time of year is not special, just another day to survive for them. Actually this is the worse time of year in some ways because they do not have the “daily necessities” it takes to live as we do. They do not have the normal things that we take for granted things that they would cherish that could be found in our trashcans. We are the privileged. When we reach out and help someone less fortunate than we are, we wear it like a badge of honor. I hate to see shows that are trying to raise money for the needy and they parade these kids around who are obviously in need in order to play on the sympathies of those who are watching. Maybe our bowels of compassion would not be open if we did not see the need. We are the blessed, we are the privileged, we are the ones who can make a difference – but do we?
I read a story that was told by Joel Lohr. It goes like this: “The story is told of two old friends who bumped into one another on the street one day. One of them looked forlorn, almost on the verge of tears. His friend asked, “what has the world done to you, my old friend?” The sad fellow said, “Let me tell you. Three week ago, an uncle died and left me forty thousand dollars.” “That’s a lot of money” his friend said. “But two weeks ago, a cousin I never knew died and left me eighty-five thousand free and clear.” “Sound like you’ve been blessed…” “You don’t understand!” he interrupted. “Last week my great aunt died passed away. I inherited almost a quarter of a million.” Now his friend was really confused. “Then why do you look so glum?” His sad friend said “This week I have gotten nothing.”
I want to relate this true story to you that was told by Carla Powell. “A Money magazine article several years ago told of the life of a woman who saved 80% of everything she earned. She invested it all in the stock market and turned it into a $22 million fortune within 50 years. This would appear to be a true success story. As you read the article you begin to wonder whether her sacrifice was worth it to make her money. She made the money legally and with hard work, but in the process of building her fortune, she alienated her family and made no friends. She walked to work to save the cost of bus fare. She wore clothes for years until they were tattered and worn. She limited herself to spending a few dollars a week on groceries. In the middle of all of this thrift though, she never bothered to invest in any relationship. She died without a single friend. In the last five years of her life, she did not receive a personal phone call. Her broker said, “A big day for her was walking down to the Merrill Lynch vault near Wall Street to visit her stock certificates.” Though her financial portfolio sounds successful, this story is a tragic illustration of a life driven astray by a misguided set of priorities.”
What is the significance of these two stories? It is simple, one talk about entitlement and the other talks about priorities. Two very different concepts that I want to mold together as we look at why we should give thanks. Remember what I talked about last week – Getting Beyond “I Can Do” and how this relates back to our attitude. Our ability to give thanks is also directly related to our attitudes. Let’s examine the first story: In this story the man had received financial gain through the deaths of family members. It had happened three weeks in a row. In the 4th week he was depressed and feeling down because no one else had died and left him anything. It is amazing what happens when we receive something on a regular basis – when it was new, we appreciated it, then we begin to expect it and finally we begin to believe that we are entitled to it. If you look at the process that we go through, in the first stage when it is new, we can give thanks. But as we transition from it being new to us receiving it on a regular basis, we begin to take it for granted – as far as giving thanks. Finally we stop giving thanks altogether because now we are entitled to it and therefore we do not “have” to give thanks for it. The feeling of entitlement shuts down our ability to give praise. I am guilty of this just like you are. There have been many times that I have failed to thank Nikki for preparing a wonderful meal – even if it is something simple. I have failed to say thank you to my kids for doing simple things for me – why, I too think I am entitled to some things. All of us have failed at some point to thank God for His blessings. I mean, we pray often, but most of the time we are asking for something and not just praising or thanking Him for what He has already done. We expect God to take care of us and sometimes in that process we fail to appreciate it or thank Him for it. Remember entitlement shuts down your ability to give thanks.
In the second story we have a different situation. Here we have a woman who set her goal in life was to become wealthy. That was her focus – nothing else in her life mattered. Her life work was to save money so that she would have it and watch it grow. She did not seem to have an attitude of entitlement, but one of I will work for what I want and I will keep it for me. When she died, she was rich in “worldly money” but poor in the things that makes life worth living. No human contact or support. She did nothing to support others with the financial gained she had earned. When she died, she could not take it with her; it was left to be used by those who she never knew. Only God knows her state now. But look at her priorities. Look at the focus that she had for what she wanted. Can you imagine what would happen to our world if we had the focus that she used to build her wealth to evangelize the world? But back to my original point about priorities and how it relates to thanksgiving. Where you set your priorities tells a lot about you and your relationship with God. It is hard to give thanks when your focus is on attaining things. Enough is never enough so you are not able to be thankful because you still have not achieved what you are seeking. When you are in a period of want or lack, it is hard for us to be thankful. When our priorities are misaligned, it is hard to be thankful because we are focused on something that we may never receive. All of us at some point must answer this question: “When is enough enough?” Whether you are talking about money and job advancement, the largest house, the biggest car, when is enough enough? If you never understand when enough is enough, you will never appreciate what you have and what God has and is currently doing for you.
Write down this Scripture: Philippians 3:7-14. I want to relay this to you as a conversation, as if we are sitting down having a talk and I am giving you my testimony. In order for me to do this, I want you to write the Scripture down so that you will remember it and then close your Bibles. I am now going to enter into a one-sided conversation with each of you as I give you my testimony; Philippians will be read out of the Contemporary English Bible so that the conversation is natural. Now I want each of you to pay attention to me just as if we were having a one on one conversation.
The Conversation
Thanks for asking about me I am doing well. I want to share something with you, something that I have been thinking about for a while. You know I have a good job and I make good money; I live in a nice house, not the biggest or the smallest, but it is comfortable for me. My family, although we have our issues sometimes, we love each other and we are doing well. But this time of year, Thanksgiving and Christmas, I find myself reflecting on what is important, what truly matters in life. You know what I have found out – it is not my job, it is not how much money I make, not my house or my car. It is not whether or not I am famous, but I am realizing, as I get older, that it is about Christ. You see, I grew up very focus, very career minded and I thought serving God meant I had to be perfect according to the letter of the law – the Law of Moses. Vs. 7 “But Christ has shown me that what I once thought was valuable is worthless.” Everything that I have worked for, everything that I thought was important, worthless. Even in my strict religious worship ways, my thinking that if I do everything right, in a certain way, by certain processes and snub those who are not like me or do like I do (and who will probably go to hell) – is worthless. What I have learned is that vs. 8-9 “Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ and to know that I belong to Him. I could not make myself acceptable to God by obeying the Law of Moses. God accepted me simply because of my faith in Christ.” I do not have to have the best, look the best or be the best, He accepts me because of my faith in Christ. I never knew acceptance like this – without me having something to offer. He accepts me. With that understanding, vs. 10-11 “All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him to life. I want to suffer and die as He did, so that somehow I also may be raised to life.” I know that I am not perfect, but I want to be like Christ. I want to know Him; I want Him living within me. If I die to self, meaning that I put away the things that drive me and focus on the things of Him, if I must suffer because of Him, so be it. I want to know the power, the love that kept Him on the cross and the same love and power that raised Him from the dead. I know that God loved me enough that He sent His Son to die for my sins. Jesus loved me enough that He suffered and stayed on a cross until death – for my sins. How can I ever repay something like that – are you hearing me? And that power of love, that love for me, raised Him from the dead. How can I not be thankful? I have a lot to do and I am trying. Vs. 12-13 “I have not yet reached my goal, and I am not perfect. But Christ has taken hold of me. So I keep on running and struggling to take hold of the prize. My friend, I don’t feel that I have already arrived. But I forget what is behind, and I struggle for what is ahead.” My focus now is on heaven. I am not trying to get the most; I am not trying to be the best, the most known heaven is my goal. Vs. 14 “I run toward the goal, so that I can win the prize of being called to heaven. This is the prize that God offers because of what Christ Jesus has done.” Christ gave Himself for me; my new goal is heaven now. When I think about what hell could possibly be like, I am thankful that I will not know it. But I want to share with you this, (Chpt. 4 vs. 1, 6-7) “Always be glad because of the Lord…don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer your prayers and requests to God. Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand and this peace will control the way you think and feel.”
As you prepare your Thanksgiving meal with your family and friends, think about the true meaning. What are you truly thankful for? The things that God has done and is doing for you, are you entitled? Is your priority is life to receive more, to give more? Think about how God has blessed you. Think about how you have in the past been a blessing to others. Think about “how” God is telling you to be a blessing. Thursday night in Bible Study Min. Fulks lead a discussion around evangelism. One of the things we discussed is that it is the everyday, one on one interactions that draws people to Church and to the Lord – what are your one on one interactions like? This is a time of giving God praise and thanks, but let us not lose sight of the fact that this is also a time for us to be a blessing and help others find their reason for praising and thanking God.
In your celebration, do not forget to give God thanks, not just when you are blessing the food, but make it a part of your day, 365 days a year.
