This coming Thursday is Thanksgiving! Do you ever wonder, when Thanksgiving Day is over if you ever remembered to be thankful?
Or is it more like this video?
(Forget Something? Video from Sermon Central)
Let’s read some of the “leaves” on the Thanksgiving Tree
(We have a Thanksgiving Tree where people write their Thanks on paper leaves and hang them on the branches of the tree)
Are there any praises of Thanksgiving today?
What are you thankful for? (Open to the congregation)
Psalm 100 (NASB)
“Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth. Serve the LORD with gladness; come before Him with joyful singing.
“Know that the LORD Himself is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
“Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations.
Why would the people of Israel want to “shout joyfully to the LORD” or “come before Him with joyful singing” or “enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise”?
In Deuteronomy 16:16 (NASB), God commanded the Israelites:
“Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths ...”
Three times each year all the men and usually at least part of their families would journey to Jerusalem for a feast. Try to imagine it! Those in the farthest outlying districts would be virtually alone as they started toward Jerusalem and the Temple. As they got closer to Jerusalem there would be more people on the road, groups would join up and conversations would start. Perhaps you would meet some folks you had traveled with on previous occasions.
And, the closer you got the more people there would be until just outside of the city you would be in a mass of celebrants headed to the feast with all of the offerings and sacrifices. You would be able to see the city and the temple from a distance because they are raised up on a mountain and the excitement would start to grow. Once the climb to the city of Jerusalem was accomplished there would be the final climb to the Temple mount.
Can you imagine the excitement? Going to the great festival in Jerusalem? It would be awesome! We can see an example of this in Luke chapter 2 where Jesus accompanies His mother and Joseph to Jerusalem for the Passover. And afterward when they headed home there was such a crowd that they did not even notice that Jesus was missing for a full day and were not able to locate Him in Jerusalem for three days! What excitement!
Going to the City of God, Jerusalem. Going to the great Temple where the Ark of the Covenant sets in the Holy of Holies! Making sacrifices for the forgiveness of sin. How awesome!
Or, would it be like this for you?
I can’t believe it! It’s already time for another trip to Jerusalem? When we went last time the lamb was undercooked and the unleavened bread was not gluten free! My feet hurt from all that walking and that priest didn’t even shake my hand after the sacrifice! Do we have to go again???
Thanksgiving or giving thanks is a choice! Is your focus on God or is your focus on you?
The Bible speaks constantly about choices! The book of Proverbs is full of choices, here are a few:
Proverbs 10:1-2
A wise son brings joy to his father,
but a foolish son brings grief to his mother.
Ill-gotten treasures have no lasting value,
but righteousness delivers from death.
Proverbs 10:4-5
Lazy hands make for poverty,
but diligent hands bring wealth.
He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son,
but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.
Proverbs 10:6-7
Blessings crown the head of the righteous,
but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked.
The name of the righteous is used in blessings,
but the name of the wicked will rot.
John 3:18
“Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
Matthew 10:32-33 (NASB)
“Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.”
Life is filled with choices & Thanksgiving or giving thanks is a choice
If it weren't for the optimist, the pessimist would never know how happy he wasn't.
Illustration
Henry Frost served for many years as a missionary to China. In his journal he wrote of a very difficult time in his life. He says,
“I had received sad news from home, and deep shadows had covered my soul. I prayed BUT the darkness did not vanish. I summoned myself to endure, BUT the darkness only deepened. Then I went to an inland station and saw on the wall of the mission home these words: ‘TRY THANKSGIVING.’ I did, and in a moment every shadow was gone, not to return.”
So, what about you? Are you in the middle of some unbearable situation? Are you praying with thanksgiving or without thanksgiving?
How about the apostle Paul and Silas?
In Acts 16:23-25a it says:
“After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God …”
What? Singing hymns and praying out loud????
And, look at the opening of many of Paul’s letters to various churches:
Romans 1:8a - “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you …”
1 Corinthians 1:4a - “I always thank my God for you …”
Philippians 1:3 - “I thank my God every time I remember you.”
Colossians 1:3 - “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you …”
1 Thessalonians 1:2a - “We always thank God for all of you …”
2 Timothy 2:1a - “I thank God, whom I serve …”
Philemon 1:4 - “I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers …”
Was Paul just making some kind of “form letter” that he could use for each church or did he really mean what he was writing?
I think he really lived a life of thanksgiving even when facing death!
Have you ever had the experience where God has not answered your prayers and you were disappointed but later on found out that it was best for you?
Well, I don’t know if Garth Brooks is much of a theologian or not but he does make an interesting point in his song Unanswered Prayers
Sometimes I thank God, for unanswered prayers
Remember when you’re talkin’ to the Man upstairs
That just because He doesn’t answer doesn’t mean He don’t care
Some of God’s greatest gifts, are unanswered prayers.
The apostle Paul prayed for his “thorn in the flesh” to be removed. He says in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 -
“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
Can we actually thank God for suffering?
Can we actually thank God for false imprisonment?
Can we actually thank God for unanswered prayers?
Can we actually thank God in the midst of trials and tribulations?
In the book The Power of Giving Thanks, Jeff Jacoby says,
“In a sense, gratitude is an expression of modesty. In Hebrew, the word for gratitude - hoda’ah - is the same as the word for
confession. To offer thanks is to confess dependence, to acknowledge that others have the power to benefit you, to admit that your life is better because of their efforts.”
Pride and arrogance are stumbling blocks to thanksgiving
If you are filled with intellectual pride you will not be able to give thanks for the gift of learning from someone else.
If you are filled with pride in your physical power you will not be able to ask for help.
If you are arrogant about anything you will not be able to ask for help or acknowledge the help once received. You will always have to say, “Well, I really could have done it myself.”
It is humbling to have to confess your dependence on someone else. The first time it is hard to do but it becomes easier and it becomes a bonding experience.
When I need your help with something and you help me and I sincerely thank you it puts a little bit of glue in our relationship.
We all need each other and we all need God.
Weakness, a helping spirit, a receptive spirit, a thankful spirit, these are all things we must have and will inevitably need from others.
Are you weak? Do you have a spirit of willingness to receive help from others? Do you have a willing, helpful spirit? Do you have a thankful spirit?
One of the great things we can do as Christians is to take the Word of God to those who do not have it in their own languages. There are several organizations whose ministries are Bible translation; to provide God’s word to those who do not have it in their own language. And, languages do have their own quirks.
I love this example of a tribe which has no word in their dialect for “thank you.”
Roland Allen tells about a veteran missionary who came up to him one day after he had delivered his sermon. The missionary introduced himself and said,
"I was a medical missionary for many years in India. And I served in a region where there was progressive blindness. People were born with healthy vision, but there was something in that area that caused people to lose their sight as they grew older."
But this missionary had developed a treatment which would stop this form of progressive blindness. So people came to him and he performed his treatment, and they would leave realizing that they would have become completely blind, but because of him their sight had been saved.
He said that they never said, "Thank you," because that phrase was not in their dialect. Instead, they spoke a word that meant, "I will tell your name."
Wherever they went, they would tell the name of the missionary who had cured their blindness. They had received something so wonderful that they eagerly proclaimed it.
This Thanksgiving day, let’s suppose that we do not have the words for thank you.
Suppose instead of saying, “I’m thankful for my parents” we would say “Mom and Dad did were and are wonderful parents.”
Suppose instead of saying, “I’m thankful for all of this good food” we would say, “The dedicated farmers of this country do a wonderful job of supplying us with potatoes and turkey and wheat for bread and stuffing and cranberries and pumpkins for pie and vegetables … yes … even vegetables.”
Suppose instead of saying, “I’m thankful that I’m saved” we would say, “I had wandered far away from Jesus and all that I knew was right and righteous but Jesus called me to Himself, Jesus forgave my sins and Jesus adopted me as His child and Jesus is the name that I will tell wherever I go.”
What a way to say Thank you!
Closing prayer of thanks.
