Thanksgiving Every Day
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 11/20/2011
So with Thanksgiving only four days away, have you thought much about what you’re thankful for this year?
I don’t know about you, but for some reason I always associate Thanksgiving with Charlie Brown. In fact, the kids and I just sat down and watched It’s Thanksgiving Charlie Brown earlier in the week. I remember this one Charlie Brown comic strip where it’s Thanksgiving Day and the aroma of roast turkey fills Charlie Brown’s house. Snoopy, outside, lying on top of his doghouse, smells that aroma, and he is thinking, “It’s Thanksgiving Day. Everybody eats turkey on Thanksgiving Day.” So he lies there, watching the back door, eagerly awaiting his Thanksgiving dinner. Finally, the door opens and here comes Charlie Brown with a bowl of dog food. He sets it on the ground in front of Snoopy who hops off his house and stares at the dog food with a forlorn look on his face. And he thinks, “Just because I’m a dog, I have to eat dog food on Thanksgiving Day.” Then the next panel shows him looking at the dog food more intently, and he’s thinking, “I guess it could be worse. I could be the turkey.”
So if you haven’t thought of anything else yet, you can at least be thankful that you’re not a turkey. The Bible says, “Pray continually, and give thanks whatever happens. That is what God wants for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 NCV). Another translation says, “be thankful in all circumstances” (NCV). God wants us to be thankful, to give thanks no matter what happens in life, no matter what our circumstances. He wants every day to be Thanksgiving Day for those of us who belong to Jesus. Unfortunately, we don’t always live thankful lives, do we?
At the opposite end of the cartoon spectrum from Charlie Brown, I remember watching an episode of The Simpsons when I was kid where Bart, whose been in fourth grade for about twenty-five years now, is asked to give thanks for the meal. He bows his head, and begins, “Dear God, my mom cooked all this food, and my dad worked to earn the money, and we paid for all this stuff ourselves, so thanks for nothing. Amen.” Of course Bart got sent to his room, but could it be that Bart was just saying the prayer that a lot of people have been living?
Martian Luther once observed, “The greater God's gifts and works, the less they are regarded.” Looking at the culture we live in today, I’d have to agree. It seems to me that we tend to exhibit a degree of thankfulness in life in reverse proportion to the amount of blessings we’ve received. This really isn’t anything new, however.
Just think about the Israelites wondering in the desert after they were emancipated from Egypt. When they needed food, the Lord said, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you” (Exodus 16:4 NIV). God supplied them with manna, this wafer like substance that tasted as sweet as honey. Each morning when the Israelites woke up, they would peak out from their tents and see the ground just be covered with the stuff, the sun glistening off the manna like snow covered fields. Each day they would gather as much as they needed, then when the sun grew hot, it just melted away. Every day they experienced a mighty miracle of God; yet they still grew ungrateful and after a while started complaining that their morning meals had become a mundane and bland.
Jesus experienced something similar. In Luke 17, we read that Jesus healed ten men who were all suffering from leprosy—a disease that kills your nerve endings and deadens your sense of pain. Without any sense of pain, lepers would often injure and disfigure themselves because they couldn’t sense that they were being hurt. Jesus healed them, sent them to temple to be assessed by the priest, then the Bible says, “One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!” He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done” (Luke 17:15-16 NLT).
Then Jesus looked around and said, “Weren't ten men healed? Where are the other nine?” (Luke 17:17 NCV). Only one out of ten actually came back to say thank you. I wonder which one I would have been. Which one would you have been?
But because that one returned, Jesus said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19 NIV).
Have you ever wondered why Jesus said that? I mean, obviously he was made well. All ten of them were made well. But I think Jesus had something other than leprosy in mind here. I think he was talking about a spiritual healing. That phrase—your faith has made you well—can also be translated, “your faith has saved you.” His faithfulness and his thankfulness restored his relationship with God. It drew him closer to God.
That’s what a heart of thanksgiving does for us.
But when we’re not grateful, when we don’t give thanks to God, it has the opposite effect. The Bible says, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:21 NIV). Their hearts were darkened. A lack of thankfulness darkens the heart and widens the gap between us and our God.
You may recognize the name Rudyard Kipling as the author of The Jungle Book. He also wrote several other books and poems in his lifetime. He enjoyed great success as an author and poet and made quite a bit of money while he was at it. One time, during an interview, a newspaper reporter told him, “Mr. Kipling, I’ve heard that somebody has calculated the money you make from your writings amount to a hundred dollars a word.”
Kilpling raised an eyebrow and said, “Really? I certainly wasn’t aware of that.”
The reporter reached into his pocket and pulled out a hundred dollar bill, gave it to Rudyard and said, “Here’s a hundred dollars. Now let’s hear one of your hundred dollar words.”
Rudyard Kipling accepted the money, put it in his pocket, looked the reporter right in the eye and said, “Thanks!”
He’s right! Thanks is a hundred dollar word.
It was worth a hundred dollars when the reporter heard it from Rudyard Kipling.
It was worth a hundred dollars when Jesus heard it from the man he healed.
It’s too seldom heard and too rarely spoken.
We’ve got to realize that Thanksgiving isn’t just a holiday celebration; it’s a heart condition! If we all lived with a heart of thankfulness every day, our lives would be changed. The question is—how do we live like it’s Thanksgiving Every Day?
I think one thing that can help us stop grumbling and complaining the way the Israelites did is to keep things in the proper perspective.
Consider what the Pilgrims had been through prior to that first Thanksgiving dinner in 1623. They had uprooted themselves and sailed for America, an endeavor so hazardous that published guides advised travelers to the New World, "First, make thy will." The crossing was very rough and the Mayflower was blown off course. Instead of reaching Virginia, where Englishmen had settled 13 years earlier, the Pilgrims ended up in the wilds of Massachusetts. By the time they found a place to make their new home—Plymouth, they called it—winter had set in. The storms were frightful. Shelter was rudimentary. There was little food. Within weeks, nearly all the settlers were sick.
William Bradford, a historian aboard the Mayflower, who became governor of the new settlement, later recalled, “That which was most sad and lamentable was that in two or three months’ time, half of their company died, especially in January and February, being the depth of winter, and wanting houses and other comforts; being infected with the scurvy and other diseases.... There died sometimes two or three [people] a day.”
When spring came, Indians showed them how to plant corn, but their first crops were dismal. Supplies ran out and their sponsors in London refused to send help. On the surface, there wasn’t a whole lot to be thankful for those first couple years. But on November 29, 1623, the entire settlement gathered at the meeting house on the hill “to listen to the pastor and to render thanksgiving to Almighty God for his all his blessing.” They thanked God for the corn, wheat, squash and other vegetables they managed to harvest. They thanked God for the forest abounding with game and the sea that flourished with fish and clams. They thanked God for protecting them from hostile natives, pestilence, and disease. And they thanked God for granting them the freedom to worship him according to their understanding of the Scriptures!
The Pilgrims knew what it meant to “be thankful in all circumstances.” Folks, we have it so good and most of the time we don’t even realize it! The Bible says, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17 NIV).
You and I are those who are rich in this present world!
The film, End of Spear, tells the true story of five missionaries—including Jim Elloit and Nathan Saint—who were speared to death by the murderous Waodani tribesman living in the jungles of Ecuador. Amazingly, the wives and children of the men who were murdered stayed put and were eventually able to reach out to Waodani people with the message of Jesus. In time, Steven Saint grew up and befriended Mincayani, the man who killed his father. Decades later, Steven brought Mincayani to the United States for a visit. He was absolutely amazed by what life is like here. My favorite moment is where Mincayani tries to explain McDonalds to his wife back home. He tells her there’s the houses have windows in them, that you can drive up to. “You tell the woman of the house what you want and she just makes it for you, puts in a bag and hands it out the window. And you don’t have to give her anything in return!”
Steven jumps in at that point to correct Mincayani. “That’s not exactly true, I have to give her this,” he says waving his credit card!
Mincayani shakes his finger and say, “No, no, she gives it right back!”
We have it so good, don’t we?
People who are truly thankful don’t complain; rather, they find a reason to be grateful. Matthew Henry, who wrote a commentary on every book of the Bible, was once robbed. The thieves took everything of value that he had. Later that evening he wrote in his diary these words, “I am thankful that during these years I have never been robbed before. Also, even though they took my money, they did not take my life. Although they took all I had, it was not much. Finally, I am grateful that it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed.”
What are you thankful for? I’m thankful for a lot of things…
• I’m thankful that after seven years, my wife still loves me and that she still takes my breath away.
• I’m thankful that my son is learning how to read and now I don’t have to read everything to him.
• I’m thankful that my daughters don’t know how to read and I still get to read everything to them.
• I’m thankful that we have a comfortable couch, because apparently a two-year-old girl is strong enough and pushy enough to commandeer at least half of her parents’ queen size bed!
• I’m thankful for people who pray for me.
• I’m thankful for people who think of me as a friend first and a pastor second.
• I’m thankful that popcorn is low in calories.
• I’m thankful that I get to stand up here and share God’s word with you week after week.
• Most of all, I’m thankful that God is good and that Jesus loves me.
Earlier this week I logged in to Biblegateway.com and search for the word “thanks.” Interestingly, the word thanks appears in exactly 100 verses in the Bible (NIV). And I discovered something else—many of those verses have a recurring theme:
• Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. (1 Chronicles 16:34 NIV)
• The trumpeters and musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: “He is good; his love endures forever.” (2 Chronicles 5:13 NIV)
• With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD: “He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.” (Ezra 3:10 NIV)
• Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. (Psalm 106:1 NIV)
• Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever. (Psalm 136:2)
• Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever. (Psalm 136:3)
• Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.
(Psalm 136:26)
• Give thanks to the LORD Almighty, for the LORD is good; his love endures forever. (Jeremiah 33:11)
Did you catch the common theme? Ultimately we’re called to live lives of thanksgiving not because of all the toys we have, or the house we live in, or even the family gathered around the table, but because God is good and he loves each one of us. Now, I want to encourage you to meet me back here again next Sunday—same time, same channel—and I’ll share some practical ways that you can demonstrate your thankfulness for God’s love in your life.
Invitation:
In the meantime, we’re going to stand up and sing our invitation song—I want to invite you to give thanks to Lord, for he is good and his loves endures forever.
