1 Chronicles 16 Thanksgiving 2008
How do you thank God?
Have you ever received a gift and a mere “Thank you” was just not enough?
I feel that way at various times in prayer, probably most acutely at the Lord’s Table when we thank Jesus for giving up his life so that we might be forgiven and given life.
We may wonder how to give thanks for the big things that God does for all of us through Jesus – but it might be that just “thank you” doesn’t cut it for individual prayers and requests that God has given you.
How do you respond to the general grace that God gives all of us?
How do you respond when God blesses you specifically – he heals you or a friend, he redeems someone you love, he provides for you miraculously…
This message, of course, assumes that you want to give God thanks. If you have troubles with welling up the emotion of Gratitude within you, checkout previous Thanksgiving sermons on the web.
We’ve been looking at David stories for the last couple of months. David was the most famous king of Israel, he was a great warrior, and a great leader. But he was also in intimate relationship with God and he was a poet and a musician.
When David brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, he composed a Psalm that might teach us how to give thanks when God does great for us.
Read 1 Chronicles 16:1-36
I think that the first section can help us greatly if we look at the things David tells us to do.
Give praise to the LORD, call on his name;
Giving praise is an emotional act, and the feeling of thanksgiving can drive it. Even if we feel like words are not enough, they are needed. When I give a gift to someone, I want to know if they like it – I can see it by the expression on their face, but I will only know if they tell me.
We begin our thanksgiving by giving voice to it in praise and worship to the Giver of all good things.
Song, dance, posture, speaking out God’s qualities…
make known among the nations what he has done.
The nations – the gentiles – the unbelievers
My knee story – tell people – tell people that it is hard to tell – say it in the best way you can so they can understand it.
It may be easier to tell people about less supernatural things – when we tell people that we feel blessed by our family, by our friends, by our situation, or that we feel like God helped us through a tough time. People can receive those things as nice sentiments with out thinking we are crazy.
But when we tell people about miracles that we have experienced, we are taking a risk that they will think we are irrational. Miracles might be a little irrational, but that doesn’t mean that they are not acceptable. I think that the reason that many people don’t accept miracles is they don’t hear about them from credible sources. They hear about them from TV preachers who seem to have ulterior motives for telling the story. Most of us here are pretty sane credible, witnesses. When we tell our story, people have to give it a second thought, and it may open the door for them thinking that maybe they could have the same experience of God.
The first reason that I was even open to the Toronto Blessing was that two of my close, fairly sane, friends had experienced it, and as weird as it was, they were blessed by God in it. If they had not embraced it, I might not have given it a look in.
We need to learn to tell the stories of God’s impact on our life – in ways that our non-Christian friends can hear it. If we use a lot of Christianese like “sanctified” and “Justified” and “cleansed by the blood,” or even quoting scripture like “by his wounds we are healed,” they are not going to even understand our story, never mind accepting it as true. Tell people about what God has done for you!
We might think that this is a good way to draw people into faith in God, but in the context of thanksgiving, telling people what God has done is first about honouring God, it is first about giving him his due.
He repeats the couplet of praise, and telling the story
Sing to him, sing praise to him;
He is more specific here – that our praise should be expressed in singing – sing out your praise to God – connect your heart to His through song.
This is why we spend so much time singing in worship here at Runnymede – one, we are told to, but many of us find that it is through song that we make that heart connection with God – we enter his gates with Thanksgiving – Psalm 100
tell of all his wonderful acts.
– Don’t keep anything that he has done hidden from your friends and family.
I love how Peter, after talking about what Jesus has done for us, and how he will come again says “even the angels long to look into these things.” (1 Peter 1:12) if even the angels long to look into these things, I think that there are more people who want to hear about them that we might imagine. If God’s wonderful acts are told with grace and compassion, I think many people long to look into them too.
Glory in his holy name; - boast, gloat
How do you glory in someone, something?
End zone dance – glorying in personal achievement
How do you glory in something someone else has done – we do it all the time as spectators in sports – I gloried in Simon Whitfield’s silver medal finish in the Olympic triathlon – you might glory in a great goal or a home run, or win of an important game, almost like you were there and were part of it yourself.
We need to do this with God – to jump up and get excited when he does something amazing. – like a spectacular sunset, or a new baby…or a healing, or a new job…
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
Look to the LORD and his strength;
seek his face always.
Part of giving thanks is knowing what it is we depend on God for. We need to look to him and ask for the things that we need that only he can provide. But it is also about relationship – we look to his strength, and also seek his face. You might have friends or family who you see only when they need something from you – it might not be a bad relationship, but it is not a complete relationship. In our gratitude, we need to seek God’s help and seek his company.
Remember the wonders he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
Call to mind the things hew has done for you
Set up reminders of the miracles in your life – set up an “Ebenezer.”
1 Samuel 7:12
Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us."
He tells us to do all these things, then David does it: verses 14-27
28 Ascribe to the LORD, all you families of nations,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
Tell him how good he is – tell everyone else how good he is! - it is a way to thank him .
29 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come before him.
A thanksgiving offering: - a type of offering in the OT (Leviticus 7:12-15) – a feast before the Lord in the temple – you could have a thanksgiving feast before God, you could make a offering of money, art, service… to God as a thanksgiving marker for you and those around you that he has blessed.
It might feel crass to give back to God something that he has given you, but it is also a way to give thanks – that when God does something amazing in your life, that you would make a sizable gift to him. This might sound like a conflict of interest for me – because giving to God often means giving to the church, but you can give God an offering in many different ways, to many different places.
– the difference of giving to get, and giving to thank.
Don’t give to get – God does bless our generosity, but it is not a business transaction, it should be part of our lifestyle as generous people, not a twist of God’s arm
Worship the LORD in the splendour of his holiness.
Our main way to give him thanks is to enjoy him in worship.
Then David invites all of nature to join in: 30-33
So this is more than just the words, “thank you”
Praise
Tell
Glory in him
Seek his strength and his face
Give a thanksgiving offering.
