Have you ever thought about how most of us offer our thanks when something good is done to, or for, us? Most Americans say a quick ‘thank you’ and then we instantly go on to other things. Rarely do we ever spend any real or quality time thanking someone for what they have done.
When the Masai tribe in Africa want to say ’Thank You’, they bow down on their knees and put their forehead to the ground and say, ‘My head is in the dirt.’ Why do they do that? It is an act of humility. And there is no way to properly thank anyone for anything unless your heart is humbled in the act of giving thanks.
Which brings me to the thought of how Christians offer up thanks to God for all He has done for us. Again, most of us don’t even offer thanks to God for what He has done, instead choosing to just keep focused on what we want or what we need.
Most Christians, who do offer thanks, do so quickly before immediately putting it out of their mind as they focus on something else. And that leads me to this question: Is it possible to give true thanks when there is next to nothing to give thanks for? To answer that, let’s go all the way back to when the Pilgrims first came to America.
The Pilgrims didn’t have too much of anything, did they? They had no transportation; no indoor plumbing; and they didn’t even have nice homes. Yet they saw reasons to give thanks to God for the many blessings they did have.
What were some of the blessings He gave to the Pilgrims? Well, for starters, God let them get to America safely and He gave them the wisdom to know what they had to do when they got here and the courage do it. In other words, they knew what they didn’t have, but they also knew what they had, and they gave God thanks for it.
A woman went to an art gallery to find a couple of pictures for her newly decorated home, and she took her 10-year old daughter with her. While the mother was busy looking, the daughter went off by herself to look at a few of the paintings.
A few moments later, the mother saw the daughter staring at a painting of an old man sitting at a small table; hands clasped in prayer with a single loaf of bread in front of him. It was obvious the girl didn’t understand what the painting meant.
She asked the mother why he was praying, since the only thing he had was one loaf of bread with nothing to go with it. The mother explained that he was giving thanks because he had the bread, which is more than some people have.
And that shows what we all tend to do. In the middle of abundance, we concentrate on the lack. Maybe that seems to be an unfair statement, but I believe too many of us spend too much time thinking we could be happier ‘IF’: If we had some of this, or if we had more of that.
When we see somebody who has received abundant blessings, don’t we sometimes have a tendency to be a little jealous? We know we are just as good a person as they are, and sometimes we might even be better. So why did they receive that blessing and we never? That is how children react, and maybe that is why we are called God’s children, I don’t know.
On Thanksgiving Day, we will all offer up thanks, but will we be thankful? This morning, I am going to give to you a two-step formula for Thankfulness. I hope we can all find ways to apply this formula to our lives.
1. WE NEED TO START SEEING GOD CLEARLY
Charles Spurgeon once said:
‘Force yourself to be dependent upon God; and you shall come forth rested and refreshed.’
And, in deep humility, he continued -
‘I know nothing which can more comfort the soul; or calm the sorrow; than to speak God’s peace to your troubles.’
One thing all of us needs to do is spend more time thinking about God; and considering just how important He really is to our lives.
In PSALM 145:3-6, we see start to see some of God’s greatness and power.
‘Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom. One generation will commend Your works to another; they will tell of Your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and I will meditate on Your wonderful works. They will tell of the power of Your awesome works, and I will proclaim Your great deeds.’
Two things jump out at me as I read these four verses. The first thing is there will always be enough people in one generation who will pass on God’s greatness to another generation. That means that God’s Truth will never be stopped. It will continue until the very last generation.
The second thing I see is that God is much more than we can understand. He is worthy of our praise. Everything God is should be loudly exclaimed in the everyday lives of every Christian.
And in verse 20, we see that He defends those who love Him. Now that will bring to mind another side of God, won’t it? If you defend something, then sometimes, your attitude must change from one of love and tenderness to one of anger and wrath.
I think one of the least read books in the Old Testament is the book of NAHUM. It deals with the visions that Nahum had regarding Nineveh. I see Nineveh as many American cities today: Large, prosperous, crowded, selfish, and satanic in many ways. It was a city that had turned her back on the Lord God.
In NAHUM 1:2, it starts by saying,
‘The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on His foes and maintains His wrath against His enemies.’
Nahum tells us that God is jealous and does not want anyone bothering anything that belongs to Him. Now, that is great news for us Christians, isn’t it? He tells us that God will strike back at those who hate Him and will stay the course against His enemies.
In our society, we see many evidences that prove if you have the money or influence, you can pretty much get away with anything you do. When dealing with God, though, we see that we will not get away with anything.
We wonder about that sometimes, because it seems that God is so slow to get off the mark and do anything. I think that instead of complaining, we need to rejoice that God hasn’t already struck all of down for our sin. Let me explain.
In verse 3, we read,
‘The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.’
This tells us God will eventually punish those who do wrong, and He will punish them severely. But it also tells us that He is slow to do so. That is the good news for us, isn’t it? We all sin and should be very glad that God isn’t as quickly to condemn as we are.
Or, let me say it another way. Shouldn’t we seek to be as slow as God in our condemnation of others?
So the first part of the formula for true thanksgiving is seeing God clearly for who He is. The second part of that formula is -
2. SEEING YOURSELF FOR WHAT YOU REALLY ARE
If the truth be known, we all have a pretty high opinion of ourselves. We rate ourselves and how good, or how badly, we are doing on things as unimportant as our wealth or position in the community.
If we really want to see how we are doing, we should be honest enough to look at the real indicators of life. Look at our moral positions; look at how virtuous we are when nobody else is looking; look at our character. Is our character really Godly? By that, I mean; does our character reflect God in it?
Modern man has gotten so unfocused that we really don’t have a clear picture of right and wrong anymore. We look at our little vices of drinking, gambling, reckless driving, wanton relationships, and telling little white lies as okay because it isn’t too awfully bad. We look at how we cheat others, including the government, as a necessity to survive in the business world.
And all the while, we look at others who do the same things with disgust and eagerly condemn them.
May I suggest that we look at ourselves through the eyes of our Lord and see ourselves as we really are? And then may I suggest that we be thankful, very thankful indeed, that God is slow to anger and slow to punish those who do wrong?
We love to do the things we do, even if they are wrong, but we just hate to see ourselves as those who do wrong. We don’t own up to who we really are. Let me take this opportunity to tell you who we really are. We are rebels against God. We are guilty and unclean in His sight. The only thing we deserve from Him is His absolute condemnation. And that gives us reason alone to be thankful for giving us His great mercy and love, which we do not deserve, instead of His wrath which we do deserve.
ROMANS 3:23 tells us who we really are.
‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’
We are all trying to gain a more Christ-like life, aren’t we? And to do this, we must actually try living that life. But we cannot make any headway until we are willing to see ourselves in all our wretchedness. It is like the old saying that says we cannot go up until we have fallen so low the only way to go is up.
There is a pastor at a very big church in Mesa, Arizona, who gets angry and refuses to let the song ’Amazing Grace’ be played in his church. His reasoning is that he is not, nor has he ever been, a wretch. I am not good enough to judge others, but I believe that we are all wretches who have fallen short of the glory of God.
In GENESIS 6:5, it says,
‘The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.’
Let’s look at ourselves as we really are. We are addicted to sin. Now, most of us think that we might be a little bad, but certainly nothing that is evil. But how does God see us? God sees us as dead in our sins.
Let me be even more picturesque. God hates sin, and we are sinful. God punishes those who turn their backs on Him, and we turn our backs on Him every time we have a bad thought or do a bad action. It is a bleak picture isn’t it?
We see how bad the pictures looks in ROMANS 3:9
‘What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.’
But we must be thankful that the formula isn’t finished. Take all that vile wretchedness that we are, and figure in a personal encounter with Jesus. We read some very good news in ROMANS 8:1,
‘Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’
There was a man from the south who went into his local church and wanted to join. The deacons knew of his reputation, so they questioned him. ’How did you get saved?’ they asked.
The man replied, ’God did His part and I did my part.’
Well, the deacons figured something was a little wrong with his doctrine, so they questioned him further. ’What was God’s part and what was your part?’ The man said, ’My part was the running and God’s part was the chasing.’
The deacons didn’t understand so they asked him to explain God’s part again. The man said, ’I did my part by running from God as fast as I could. God did His part by chasing me until He caught me, and when He caught me, He loved me and forgave me.’
You know, that’s pretty much how I think we were all saved, isn’t it? Here is a comparison between revenge, justice, and mercy. If someone did something illegal to hurt you on purpose, your first instinct would be to hurt them back. That is revenge.
If you decided to go to the police and report it, that would be justice.
If you, on the other hand, decided to just go to God and pray for them, that would be mercy. Do you think God handles us in His revenge, His justice, or His mercy? Can you start to see why we all need to be very thankful as we enter into this time of Thanksgiving?
I told you about a formula that would help us all be more thankful. Let me restate it.
1) We need to see God clearer.
ROMANS 4:7
‘Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.’
God is the One who blesses, and we are the ones who receive the blessings. Without God, there is no blessings, and we would all be lost to Satan. When we fully realize this, we will start seeing God a little clearer. We will start to see Him as the One who is the giver of all things.
2) We need to see ourselves for what we are.
We are creatures of this world, and since this world is sinful, we are sinful creatures. We deserve nothing from God but His wrath, and we certainly cannot earn anything from Him. Because of this, our lives have no peace.
ROMANS 5:1 tells us that if we trust Jesus as Savior, we have peace. That is something else that we need to thank our mighty God for. The world has no peace, because the world is under the auspices of Satan, and Satan has no peace. He is the prince of chaos.
As we prepare our Thanksgiving Day meals, and use that day of thankfulness to go into the season of the Christ-child, let us do so by understanding just why we need to be thankful.
Someone once said that if we have nothing else to be thankful for, we can always be thankful that we are not the turkey. I think we have much more to be thankful for, don’t you? I think we can be thankful that God loved us enough to chase us; that He loved us enough to forgive us; and that He continues to love us enough to reach down and help us live the life of a believer.
I am thankful that I have the glory of God in a decaying world, and that I find joy in the smallest of things, including times when I might be suffering. I am thankful I have the incentive of Christ in my life.
As we look around us this Thanksgiving season, we will surely see those who have much more than we do, but we will also see many who have much less than we do.
I hope we all realize that every breath we take, every sight we see, and every feeling we feel is nothing more than a very special gift of love from God to us.
And that should bring forth what we all need all the time; a true attitude of gratitude. Our Father will extend His Son to all who wish to receive Him. But we cannot just take an occasional part of His Son. When it comes to receiving Jesus as our Savior, it is all or nothing. It is 100% or zero. There is no gray area. We give Him all of us and receive all of Him, or we don’t give Him anything and we refuse to take anything from Him.
The problem with most modern Christians is that they have forgotten that to be Christians, we must continually strive to be holy in every thought, action, and word we have. Too many times, today’s Christians justify their sin by saying they are the best they can be.
None of us will ever be the best we can be here on this earth. That is why we must continually strive to be in Christ every single minute. As we go into this time of invitation, let me remind you that we are not as good a Christian as we would like to think we are.
You would never run across the freeway with a blindfold on, would you? You would never get in a car and let a blind person drive you to the store. And you would never think of taking a rubber band to a gunfight.
So, why on earth would we assume we can take our sinful nature to the throne of God and get away with it?
Don’t take that chance, because when we take chances with God, we don’t win; lose. When is the last time we felt compelled to tell God just how much we thank Him for all He has done for us? What better way to do that than give of ourselves all over again?
Do you want to do that this morning? Will you do that this morning? All you have to do is walk up here to me and let me have the honor of going in prayer with you to God, asking Him to give you a fresh anointing and His loving peace.
INVITATION
