Building a Life of Thanksgiving
1 Chronicles 29:1-22
Today we're celebrating the Together We Build giving campaign with our offerings and commitments. This is the day we've waited for, we've prayed for, we've talked about; we've planned about, considered for about 10 weeks. If you're a visitor, you're our guest; I need to give you a word of explanation about our service. This is not going to be a typical service. This is not normal. This is a special day in the life of our church. What we're doing today has never been done on this scale before. Our Build the Wall giving campaign from 2008 pales in comparison to what we're doing this morning.
We believe, at FFWBC, that Building a Life of Thanksgiving involves both Thanks and Giving. Thanks and Giving go together. One of the major emphasis of our service today, we're going to express our thanks to God by giving an offering. If you're a guest with us today we certainly don't expect you to participate with us unless you feel led to. We want you to just sit back and enjoy the service and realize that this is a special day for the FFWBC family.
"Then the people rejoiced, for they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy."
1. The first key to Building a Life of Thanksgiving is preparation.
a. Submission to God's plan (Solomon....whom God hath chosen) v. 1
b. Sense of proportion (the work is great) v. 1b
c. Singularity of purpose (I have prepared with all my might) v. 2
2. The second key to Building a Life of Thanksgiving is passion.
a. The decisions I make (I have set) v. 3a
b. The devotion I manifest (my affection) v. 3b
c. The designation I (to the house of God) 3c
3. The third key to Building a Life of Thanksgiving is practice.
Psalm 50:14 " 14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:" 2 Corinthians 9:11 " 11 Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, (generosity) which causeth through us thanksgiving to God."
I saw a bumper sticker: "If You Love Jesus, tithe. Anybody can honk."
The Bible says that "thanks" and "giving' go together. Today we're going to do that giving part too. We're going to express our thanks by giving to God. About 350 years ago, a group of people called the Pilgrims, decided to set aside a day in the fall at which they would express thanksgiving to God, bring an offering to God, experience a banquet and joy, and share in fellowship together. Today we know that is called Thanksgiving and we will celebrate it as a national Holiday. But about 3000 years before that, God told His people, the children of Israel, the people who were true believers, I want you to set aside a day in the fall. It was called the Feast of Weeks or the Harvest Festival, at which they would bring an offering to God and express their thanks to God. Today we're just doing, what God told the children of Israel to do 3000 years ago.
Three thousand years ago an entire nation did what we're doing this morning. They came together to give sacrificially to build a place of worship to honor God. They prayed and sacrificed and they gave and it was the largest offering ever. It was an entire nation. In today's terms that offering was about four hundred million dollars given in Jerusalem to build the Temple. After that offering had been given, their leader David prayed a prayer. It's a prayer that I'm sure expresses the hearts of many of us today.
It says this in 1 Chronicles 29 " 13 Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.
14 But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee."
When they gave, they didn't give out of grudge. They didn't give out of pressure. They didn't give because somebody forced them too. They didn't give with a reluctant heart. They gave out of gratitude. They gave with thanksgiving. Their giving was the result of their thanks. When you give with gratitude, it becomes an act of worship.
Ten weeks ago when we started this emphasis I said you can expect four things to happen during the next six weeks.
1. You can expect to see some miracles. And we have. We've received hundreds of letters. I've read some of them to you. Things that have happened, miraculous changes in people's lives and situations.
2. You can expect to grow spiritually. Because we're going to challenge you and stretch you, stretch your faith, stretch your commitment, stretch your priorities, your values, what you're willing to sacrifice.
3. You can expect to be hassled by Satan. Some of you have a story to tell on that one because Satan sure didn't want you to grow or be blessed or even be a part of what we've done in the last 10 weeks. He certainly didn't want this church to be blessed. He tried to hassle you. Remember Bobby and Ann Kennedy's testimony?
4. You can expect to experience joy. That always happens when we put God first in our talent, in our time, and in our treasure.
The medical study that I read this week said that people who had the attitude of gratitude and generosity are far more resistent to disease, getting ill, and are healthier than people who are grouchy and grumpy. ... That shows that the surly bird catches the germ.
The Bible says "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God." The Bible says everything you do, you should do with a grateful heart. Everything you say, everything you do, should be done with an attitude of gratitude. God says I don't want thanksgiving to be an event in your life, I want it to be a lifestyle.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 " 18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." If you want to know God's will for your life, there it is. Give thanks in all circumstances. Circle "in". It does not say, "Give thanks for all circumstances." There's a lot of things God doesn't expect you to be thankful for. He does not expect you to be thankful for the evil in the world. That'd be crazy. When someone gets raped, when someone gets AIDS, when someone comes down with cancer, when someone is killed in a car crash, when there are wars, when there are hurricanes that destroy homes and lives, God doesn't expect us to be thankful for those things.
But He says, "In every circumstance give thanks". How can I do that? When there are bad things happening in my life, when there is evil in my life, how can I give thanks in every circumstance?
Because of what I know. Because the Bible says God sees it all and I know that. I know God sees it all. I know He cares. He knows my name. I know He can help. He has the power to change the situation. I know He has a purpose behind every problem. He can turn it around. I know that I will be rewarded in heaven if I respond correctly. I know all these things so even in the dark days I can give thanks in every circumstance.
What I'm talking about this morning is an incredible spiritual power that if you will appropriate the attitude of gratitude in your life, you will see miracles happen on a regular basis.
One of the good examples in the Bible is Acts 16. It tells us Paul and Silas, two preachers, went to Phillipi to speak and the crowd didn't like them so they got stoned, literally. After that they threw them in jail.
And at midnight in a dark, dank jail their wounds being undealt with, in the middle of darkness, Paul and Silas started thanking God, started singing songs, praising God, praying to God, doing the very things we just did, thanking God. And God did a miracle because of their gratitude. In the middle of the circumstance, the Bible says God sent a miraculous earthquake, shook so heavily, that all the doors of the jail opened and their chains came unloosed and they were set free.
The jailer, who was Roman, saw this, and he was shaken by the whole thing and almost committed suicide. "When they find out all the prisoners are free, they're going to kill me too." Paul said, "We haven't gone anywhere. We're just here praising God." The soldier said, "What kind of prisoner are you?" And they shared their story and the man was converted and became a follower, a believer in Christ right there. It says he took Paul and Silas home to care for their wounds, in the middle of the night, woke up his family, they all became believers and were baptized that night.
The power of thanksgiving has the power to set you free from the prison you are in. It may be an emotional prison -- fear or anger or bitterness or guilt or depression or worry. It may be a financial prison that has you in bondage and you think you're never going to get out of the mess, you're too far in debt. It may be a relational prison -- "I can't get on with this relationship. I can't get out of this relationship. I'm stuck."
What prison are you in? Thanksgiving is the power to set you free. If you will start thanking God in the situation, before it's finished, before it's resolved, before the problem is gone, you thank God in the situation, God sees that, sends power from heaven and begins to do things you could not imagine. In our text David says:
a. Give willingly (I have given) v. 3d
b. Give wonderfully (over and above) 3e
c. Give worshipfully (bowed down their heads and worshipped) v. 20
4. The fourth key to Building a Life of Thanksgiving is praise.
How do I praise God? I GIVE THANKS TO GOD BY SINGING ABOUT HIM!
Psalm 147:7 " 7 Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:" Psalm 100 "1 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
2 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations."
Nothing makes you aware of God's presence faster than singing praise to God. When you sing praise to God, you sense His presence like you don't in any other single way. That's why it's important for you to give thanks to God through singing.
Some of you are thinking, "I can't sing!" The good news is you don't have to. The Bible says just make a joyful noise. You can do that.
I know that some of you are prison singers. You're always behind a few bars and you never have the right key. You have a voice that should be cultivated -- it should be plowed under. The fact is, you couldn't carry a tune in a bucket if you had to. But the Bible says, "Make a joyful noise."
Christianity is a singing faith. There are more songs about Jesus Christ than anything else, even love. There are more songs about Jesus written throughout history than any other single topic. So you need to learn to sing your thanks to God, give it back to God in joyful praise.
I have discovered that in the times when I least feel like singing, that's when I need it the most. When I don't feel like praising God, when I don't feel like singing thanks, when my heart is cold, when I'm under a burden, I'm tired, fatigued, whatever, that's when I need to be renewed and restored and recharged through singing thanks to God. In the hectic schedule that I keep as a pastor, often driving from one emotionally draining experience to another exhausting experience or responsibility that I will often pop a tape in and begin to sing praise to God and He renews my soul. He restores it through singing, through praising.
Surely God must be pleased when you sing to Him. But that's just one of the ways that we give thanks to God.
a. They praised God for his person (thou art exalted as head above all) v.11
b. They praised God for his power (in thine hand is power and might) v. 12
c. They praised God for his proprietorship (all things come of thee) v. 14, 16
d. They praised God for his purity (thou hast pleasure is uprightness) v.1
2. BY PRAYING
Psalm 105:1 " 1 O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people." Philippians 4:6-7 " 6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." That's one of the most difficult commands in the Bible to do -- Don't worry about anything. But the answer is the second part of the verse -- pray about everything. If you do the second part of the verse, the first part is easy. If you would pray as much as you worry, you'd have a whole lot less to worry about. God says don't worry about it. When you start to worry, start praying.
Those of you who are parents, you wouldn't like it if your children only made requests of you and never expressed appreciation to you. If your kids only said, "Give me this... give me that... I gotta have this, Dad.... Mom, I want this..." and they never stopped to say, "Thank you." Thank you for what you've already done. Thank you for what you've given me. And God is the same way. He wants us to make our requests to Him. He's our loving Father. He says over twenty times in the New Testament, Ask. But He also wants us to be grateful too. And He says, When you ask, ask with thanksgiving.
The Bible says that the more specific you are in your prayer, the easier it is for God to answer it. God wants you to be specific, not just say, "God, bless my life." What's a blessing? How specifically do you want to be blessed? Financially, health wise, relationally. Be specific. The more specific you are the quicker God can answer. God tells us to be specific in our request.
Likewise, He wants us to be specific in our thanksgiving. He doesn't want us just to say, "Thank You God, for everything." That's a pretty bland prayer. Thank You, God for the whole world." Why don't you just be specific. Make a list. Here are ten things, God, I'm thankful for. I count my blessings. Just like sometimes you ought to write down your list of requests in prayer, you ought to write down your list of things you're grateful for in prayer so that you are specific.
When I say to my wife, "I'm so grateful for you." She says, Be specific. She likes for me to tell her what I appreciate about her and what I'm grateful for about her and what I'm grateful for that she's done. So when you pray, the Bible says, you can express thanks through your prayer.
Today, as we focus on thanking God for all the good He's done in our lives, I'm also aware that life runs on two tracks. There's good things in your life and bad things -- always at the same time. Your life is never always, all good or all bad, but both at the same time. Today we want to pray for those of you who are going through tough times. We want to pray for those in our family who are going through difficulties, who are hurting this morning. We want to focus on that. Some of you need a miracle. Some of you are out of work. Some of you are separated from a loved one right now. Some of you have just lost a loved one. Some of you just can't figure out what direction God wants you to go. Some of you have a crisis in your life in your health or in your emotions or with somebody that you deeply care about. Maybe you're discouraged, maybe you're just worn out. Tell Jesus Christ your problem. Tell Him what your deepest need is. It may be a hurt, a worry, a loss, a grief, a broken heart, a fear. Tell Him your problem -- financial, health-wise, whatever. Tell Him passionately. It's ok to shed tears. Tell Him your problem.
Now, tell Him with gratitude, that you thank Him for the good things in your life. Even though this bad is there, there are many things that we can thank God for. We can thank God that He sees us, that He knows us by name. He cares for us. He can help us. We can thank God that He has a purpose for our lives. Thank God. With your request be thankful. That's miracle working power.
