“ARE WE TRULY THANKFUL?”
1 Thessalonians 5:18
Rudyard Kipling, author of “The Jungle Book”, at one time was so popular that his writings were getting ten shillings per word. [about $10!] A few college students, however didn’t appreciate Kipling’s writings; they lightheartedly sent him a letter enclosing ten shillings. It read, "Please, send us your best word." They got back a letter from Kipling, "Thanks."
Since Thanksgiving is just a few days away, I felt led by the Lord this week to finish the series on James next Sunday and today I would like for us to concentrate on giving thanks to our Great and Mighty God this morning. Have you ever taken the time to ponder over what giving thanks really means, or how we should do it?
You have heard me quote 1 THESSALONIANS 5:17 often in my sermons. And by now, most all of you know that it says, “... pray continually.” But today, I want to read to you the very next verse. 1 THESSALONIANS 5:18, says,
“... give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Paul says that you and I are to give thanks in all circumstances. That no matter what happens in life whether life is going great or whether we are in the midst of a storm we can still give thanks to God. In other words, no matter how bad you think your life is there is always something you can be thankful for. There is always something we can give thanks about. The problem is though is that instead of giving thanks for what God has blessed us with we focus on the negative or what we don’t have. And so as Thanksgiving approaches we are going to be looking at 2 types of attitudes this morning:
1. THE ATTITUDE OF SELFISHNESS.
We’re a selfish nation. To many times we focus on what we don’t have rather than being thankful for what God has blessed us with. We become selfish and we want more. Therefore we have this attitude that says: I am really content — until I start looking through the Sears catalogue. I liked my car — until I saw the new Dodge Magnum. I am satisfied with my clothes — until I stroll through the Mall. I love our home — until I think of what it would be like to have a mansion or a log cabin on the shore of some remote lake. I am satisfied with every area of my life — until I start comparing with someone else’s life. I feel like I have enough of everything — until I see someone who has more.
Church we have to quit being farsighted and become nearsighted. What I mean by that is we need to quit looking at what everyone else has and start looking at the blessings all around us that God as blessed us with! The secret of a happy life is not to get what you want but to live with what you’ve got. Most of us spend our lives concentrating on what we don’t have instead of thanking God for what we do have. Then we wake up, our life is over, and we missed the beauty of those blessings.
You’ve heard the old saying that says, “YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’VE GOT TILL IT’S GONE.” Think about it our power is shut off, and suddenly we become thankful for electricity. Our garbage is not picked up, and suddenly we become thankful for the garbage collector’s weekly stop. A good friend dies, and suddenly we discover how much they meant to us. Our water becomes too polluted to drink and suddenly we appreciate having good water.
We take the things that God has blessed us for granted and instead of being thankful we become even more selfish and we begin to have this attitude that says: “But, what have you done for me lately God?” We are much like the little boy who was given an orange by a man. The boy’s mother asked, “What do you say to the nice man?” The little boy thought and handed the orange back and said, “Peel it.” We need to quit being selfish and start being thankful. Sometimes, we get so focused on what we want, we don’t think about giving thanks. And, sometimes, we think so hard about what we want from God, we forget to ask God what He wants from us.
A young man was getting ready to graduate from college, and he was sure that his wealthy father was going to buy him a car for graduation, because they had gone and looked at cars together. Come the night of graduation, the father calls the son into his study. He tells his son how proud he is of him and hands him a nicely wrapped gift. The boy unwraps it to find a Bible. He asked his father why he gave him a Bible, and the father said it was his graduation present.
The young man became furious and said, “With all your money, all you could buy me was this Bible?” And he threw the Bible back on his father’s desk and stormed out of the house, never to come back again.
Years passed and the young man became quite successful. One day he received word that his father had passed away and he needed to come home. He caught the first plane out, and when he got home he realized just how long it had been since he saw his father. As he began to look around, he went into his father’s study, just to find the Bible, still half-wrapped sitting on the desk where he had thrown it.
He picked it up and started softly thumbing through it, when a key dropped from the back of the Bible. He picked it up and saw a card still in the Bible. He opened the card and read what his father had written” “Congratulations on your graduation, Son. Here is a Bible and the key to your new car you picked out. The car is to get you to where you are going, and the Bible is to keep you on the right road while you are traveling there. Love, Dad” In the card was a receipt for the car. It said, “Paid in full.”
How many times have we not received blessings from our Heavenly Father because they weren’t wrapped like we thought they should have been? How many times have we been so focused on what we want that we didn’t recognize the blessing God wanted us to have?
Years ago, I heard a preacher say that God is so much smarter than we are, and that when we have decisions that must be made, we should rely on His judgment, not our judgment. I think that makes perfect sense, but like all humans; I also struggle with the ability to do that. When a decision comes up, the first thing I think of is what I want, not what God wants for me. Why do you suppose we do that?
In 1 SAMUEL, it talks about our pride and arrogance and how we view ourselves as the center of our lives, but that keeps God from being the center of our lives. We rely on ourselves, thinking we have what it takes to get us through, but we should be relying on God because only He has what it takes to get us through.
In EXODUS 34:9, there is a description that fits most of us today. That description is not flattering, but it is true. It is “stiff-necked.” We are stiff-necked people, whether we are willing to admit it or not. We are just like the ancient Israelites.
Moses is worshiping God, and he asks God to go with them and forgive the “stiff-necked” Israelites. What was their problem? They couldn’t seem to rely on God and focus on Him in their lives. And God made a promise to Moses saying that the Israelites would see wonders never seen before in any nation. He said if they would obey His commands, He would drive out their enemies from in front of them.
And God is telling us the same thing today. If we will but turn from our selfish, wicked ways, and rely on Him and quit being selfish, He will do wonders for us as has never been seen before in the world. But we need to receive His blessings in humility and love, and not throw them down as the young man who graduated college did with his Bible. We have to quit being self-centered and become God centered.
2. THE ATTITUDE OF THANKFULNESS
Do you realize we all have something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. How thankful do you think you would have been if you were among the first pilgrims? There were three boatloads that came over from England to make a home in this new country. On the voyage over, the wind blew them off course and instead of landing in Virginia, they landed in Massachusetts. And they landed just before the start of winter.
When winter came, it came with a fury, and within a month, half of them were sick. They had the crudest of shelters and very little in the way of supplies. Over half of them died that first winter, sometimes at the rate of two and three a day!
Come springtime, those that were left had next to no supplies left. Thankfully, the Indians showed them how to plant and raise corn. Their first harvest was barely enough to keep everyone fed. The sponsors of their trip refused to send any more supplies and I can imagine that, being human, many of them probably wanted to go back to England.
I guess it is human nature to choose to go back into bad situations rather than go forth into an unknown situation. After all, the Israelites did the same thing. Just a matter of weeks after being delivered out of bondage, they were complaining and saying they should just go back to Egypt.
What did the pilgrims have to be thankful for? Well, for starters, they had their lives, and because the Indians showed them how to plant and harvest corn, they had enough supplies to get through the second winter. But how was their Thanksgiving different than our day of Thanksgiving?
You want to know how it was different. The pilgrims prayed as if their lives depended on it, we don’t. The pilgrims knew that everything they had was a direct blessing from God; sometimes we forget that. The pilgrims yearned to give thanks for all they had, most often we don’t.
Thanksgiving Day is this coming Thursday, and we need to be reminded of what thanksgiving is really about. When the word ‘thanksgiving’ is mentioned, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Well, let’s be honest for most of us we think of the three F’s, food, family and football. But when it comes to thanksgiving it’s more than food, family and football. The very first thought in our mind when we hear the word thanksgiving should not be food, family or football but rather thanks for the fact that God has given us food eat, that God has blessed us by allowing us to be with family that we love and that loves us and the fact that God has provided us a house with a TV so we can watch football. When we hear the word Thanksgiving we should instantly be reminded of how much thanks we owe God for the abundance we take for granted.
The author H.A. Ironside was in a crowded restaurant: Just as Ironside was about to begin his meal, a man approached and asked if he could join him. Ironside invited him to have a seat. Then, as was his custom, Ironside bowed his head in prayer. When he opened his eyes, the other man asked, "Do you have a headache?" Ironside replied, "No, I don’t." The other man asked, "Well, is there something wrong with your food?" Ironside replied, "No, I was simply thanking God as I always do before I eat." The man said, "Oh, you’re one of those, are you? … I never give thanks. I earn my money by the sweat of my brow and I don’t have to give thanks to anybody when I eat. I just start right in!" Ironside said, "Huh, that’s funny, you’re just
like my dog. That’s what he does too!"
This morning each and every one of us needs to think of some of the blessings that God has given us in our lifetime. Now you might say what do I have to be thankful for? First of all, God has given you physical life. Think about it no matter how rough the road has been that you have traveled on, it must not have been too bad, because you are here today. What else has God blessed you with? If you have food, clothes, transportation, a home and a job then God has blessed you! No, your bologna might not have the first name of Oscar and the last name of Meyer but who cares as long as you have food to eat. No your clothes might not be name brand but at least you have clothes to cover your naked body and praise God for that AMEN! No you might not live in a mansion but at least you have a roof over your head and your car may be a bucket of bolts but at least you don’t have to walk. No, your job might not pay what you like but at least you have money to pay the bills and put food on the table.
Now before we go on this morning I want to concentrate on the most important thing God has blessed us with this Thanksgiving; a blessing that surpasses all the rest in importance to us. You see God, in His great love for you and me, gave up His Son so that you and I might be forgiven of our sins, be washed in the blood and receive eternal life.
There was a judge whose daughter had received a speeding ticket. He told her that he would have to treat her like any other defendant when it came to her appearance in court, and that he would have to show her the same justice he would show anyone else.
The day came when she appeared. He watched her walk down the aisle and stand in front of him, looking up at him. He asked, “How do you plead?”, and she hung her head and started to weep. Knowing she had to enter a plea, he asked her again. Through her tears, she said, “Guilty” and began to sob.
The judge banged his gavel and said he fined her $100.00. And then he stood, took his robe off, and walked down to his daughter, putting his arm around her and holding her. With tears in his own eyes, he reached for his wallet and took out $100.00 and paid her fine in full.
We can all relate to a story like this that shows the love a father has for his children, can’t we? And that is a perfect illustration of what our Father in heaven did for us. God is a righteous and holy God. And he is a just God. He wrote the rules before He made you and me, and like the judge had to treat his daughter the same as everyone else in court, God has to treat each of us the same, too. All of us have been given the same chance to follow His rules, and to gain entry into His house, but in order to gain entry we must follow His rules.
So, what has God done for us? For those of us who try to follow the rules, God has paid our fines in full. That is the one blessing that God has given us which is greater than all other blessings combined. So what we need to see this Thanksgiving is that God has truly blessed us not just with our physical needs but more importantly our spiritual need.
In closing, on Thursday, kitchens in America will be used more than at any other time of year. And as that day approaches, I want to share with you a list of signs that have been spotted hanging in kitchens:”If you don’t like my cooking, lower your standards.” ”This is a self-cleaning kitchen. You use it; you clean it yourself.” ”We offer 2 choices for dinner; take it or leave it.” And finally: “My next house won’t have a kitchen – just vending machines.”
A radio station in Ohio asked people to call in and tell what they were thankful for. The callers ranged from an 8-year old boy who said he was thankful for Thanksgiving because it meant he didn’t have to go to school, to a grown man who said he was most thankful that his family ate at his parents’ home and he didn’t have to eat his wife’s cooking.
This Thanksgiving as we sit down as families to eat we will give thanks for the abundance of food we have received but more importantly when we sit down this Thanksgiving we need to remember who we are and why we need Jesus. ROMANS 3:11 tells us – “there is no one righteous – not even one.” According to that, every last one of us is a sinner. Why are we sinners? We are classified as sinners because we focus on ourselves instead of focusing on God. And that is rebelliousness.
The Bible tells us that sinners will have a price to pay. What is the price for our sin? It is eternal death. ROMANS 6:23 begins by saying, “For the wages of sin is death ….” That means that if we sin (and according to Romans 3:23 we all have) we deserve to die (which we all do).
And when we die and if we don’t have Jesus in our heart, that means our souls are going to be in hell forever. No matter how bad you think hell will be, it will be a millions times worse than what you can imagine. There are no words to accurately describe hell. And those who think about it make a choice not to go to hell. But the only way not to go to hell is by going to heaven instead. But how do we get to heaven?
The last part of ROMANS 6:23 tells us. It says, “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” What does that last part mean? It means that God has given us one way, and only one way, to escape the torment of hell. That One way is through His Son Jesus Christ. In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me.” If we will just ask Jesus to forgive us our sins, believe that He died on the cross for our sins and rose again and ask Him to come into our heart He will save us. Romans 10:9-10 says, “…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” And Romans 10:13 says, “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
This Thanksgiving we all have different reasons to be thankful, but more than any other reason, I think all of us should give thanks for the things Jesus did for us. This week we need to say thank you, Jesus, for your act of self-sacrifice. You sacrificed your place in Heaven so that you might come to us as man; and we worship You for that. Thank you, Jesus, for making yourself our servant for our sakes. For showing us how to care for one another until You come back. Thank you, Jesus, for giving your very life on Calvary, so that we might live with You throughout all eternity.
As we celebrate another Thanksgiving Day, let us look upon all the blessings God has given us, and as we do, let us realize that it is in the abundance of those blessings that we see the abundance of His love.
“ARE WE TRULY THANKFUL?”
1 Thessalonians 5:18
1. THE ATTITUDE OF ______________.
2. THE ATTITUDE OF ______________.
