Note: I have some simple, not fancy textual slides I used with this sermon. If anyone is interested, I'll send them directly by email if you'll send an email to me at sam@srmccormick.net with the subject: Thanksgiving slides.
THANKSGIVING
I. In his 2nd letter to the Corinthian church, Paul told of an extraordinary experience.
He was caught up to the 3rd heaven (which he also called paradise).
Inexpressible things were revealed to him–unutterable either by their celestial characteristics or by a prohibition against describing them.
So great was the experience that his inability to tell them to others occasioned a “thorn in the flesh,” to torment him – for the rest of his life, as far as we know - preventing him from being lifted up with pride by the singular privilege he had enjoyed.
Fourteen years passed before he told even that much.
About 50 years after Paul’s experience in Paradise, John was taken in to heaven, into the very presence of God on his throne, with 24 elders around the throne, seated themselves on thrones, and 4 “living creatures” on either side of the throne.
John records, “And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain.”
John saw many other things and unlike Paul, was not only allowed, but commanded to write and tell them – one exception being what the 7 thunders said, about which he was told,
Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down. (Rev 10:4).
A. In this scene, I want to focus on the 24 elders before the throne of God.
What were they doing?
Rev 11:16-18 And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, "We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.
Thanks for what, specifically?
And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth."
THE 24 ELDERS WERE GIVING GOD THANKS FOR HIS JUSTICE, and as far as I know, they are still, and forever will be, before the throne, thanking God.
Today I want to offer some thoughts that come to mind as we approach the Thanksgiving season.
B. One of the offerings under the law was specifically a thank offering.
All of them, implied, or explicitly expressed, thankfulness to God.
The instructions for the “thank offering” were given in Lev 7:12-15; 22:29
Like all the offerings, thank offerings were to be given at the place God chose for his name to dwell.
After the Israelites entered the promised land, it was over 400 years before that place was shown to be Jerusalem.
During about 380 years of the Judges and for years afterward, Shiloh was the center of worship.
It’s where the boy Samuel served under the tutelage of the priest Eli.
Years later, when Solomon built a temple in Jerusalem, the glory of the Lord filled it, and the Lord spoke directly to Solomon:
2 Chr 7:12 Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.
“The place chosen for the Lord’s name to dwell,” then, was the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem became the center of worship and was where offerings were to be made, unless the person was too far away.
And that unless will be significant later this morning.
C. When the ark of the covenant was finally brought to Jerusalem, David assigned Asaph and his relatives to give thanks to the Lord.
Asaph was one of David’s chief musicians. At least 13 psalms were titled “A Psalm of Asaph.”
Asaph’s duty was to lead the Israelites in giving thanks to God when the ark was brought to Jerusalem.
1 Chr 16:7-8 Then on that day David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the LORD by Asaph and his brothers. Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!
1 Chr 16:7-36 is that prayer of thanks, closing with:
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!” (v34)
Then all the people said, "Amen," and praised the Lord.
D. At the dedication of the rebuilt wall of Jerusalem 600 years later under the leadership of Nehemiah, we see two great choirs standing on top of the wall, giving thanks.
Neh 12:27-46 tells thet story of how the choirs were arranged on the wall to give thanks.
V43 says the sound could he heard far away.
Notice v46:
For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph there were directors of the singers, and there were songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.
600 years later those songs of thanksgiving were still known about!
E. The Old Testament has a recurring theme of thankfulness to God. This one sentence:
“Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!”
occurs 81 times in the Bible:
1 Chronicles - 10 matches
2 Chronicles - 20 matches
Ezra - 5 matches
Psalms - 40 matches
Jeremiah - 6 match
Giving thanks to God is NO SMALL MATTER. And yet...
II. Thanks are a regular part of ordinary human interaction
We commonly express thanks for the smallest of favors received
We thank the server in a restaurant who refills our glass with water, or a stranger exiting a building who holds a door open while we enter.
It seems important to me that when I make a purchase in a store, the person who takes payment for the purchase thanks me.
Maybe it’s perfunctory and obligatory, meaning nothing to the person who says it, like “Have a nice day,” but I notice it when the person checking my purchase out doesn’t thank me.
And if I realize I have left someone unthanked, it haunts me.
Thankfulness is an attitude, not just a meaningless word.
Attitudes are contagious.
I heard a funny story (from Paul Stookey I think) about a sidewalk newspaper vendor in New York City. A man came cheerfully tooling down the street, picked up a newspaper, paid for it, smiled, and said, “Thank you so much, and have a nice day!” before striding on down the street whistling a happy tune. The newspaper vendor frowned and growled as if angrily “WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH HIM?!” But a moment later another customer purchased a paper. As he was walking away, the newspaper vendor frowned and growled in an angry sounding voice, “HAVE A NICE DAY!”
See, attitudes are contagious. It needed a little polishing, but it was a start.
III. Giving thanks is part and parcel with our relationship with God
A. Thanksgiving isn’t just some obligatory duty on a checklist of things that God requires.while we maintain the attitude:
"I deserve everything I’ve worked for. I have nothing to thank God for."
Charlie Anderson in the movie Shenandoah: Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvest it. We cook the harvest. It wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be eating it if we hadn't done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you Lord just the same for the food we're about to eat, amen.
Consider the Pharisee’s thanksgiving.
Read Luke 18:10-14
(He pretended to give God credit for his imagined superiority)
Even to the point of I am thankful to you, God, that I am better than this man is.
Though both said thanks, do you see a true attitude of thankfulness in either Charlie Anderson’s or the Pharisee’s prayer?
Neither is a model for thankful prayer.
The two are similar--both reek with self-congratulation.
Standing out like a sore thumb among the people God will not justify a self-promoting, self-praising person.
B. Thanksgiving glorifies God (unlike the Pharisee and Charlie Anderson, whose prayers glorified themselves).
2 Cor 4:15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
God does not need our thanks or our approval of his actions, as if his judgment is in question without our reinforcing stamp of approval.
The need for thanksgiving is contained within our reason for existing - to glorify God.
While he is deserving of our thankfulness, God is also glorified by it.
That appears to be its purpose, and directly or indirectly, the normal response to grace (gifts).
C. Thanking God for everything is fitting even when there are some unhappy things in our lives
We have members and know of others whose lives are overshadowed with worry.
1. Thanksgiving is a sacrifice, but not like the kind where we do without something we want or need.
It was demonstrably so for Daniel.
Dan 6:7ff tells the story of Daniel in Babylon, in the service of a pagan king.
Incited by Daniel’s enemies, the king decreed that
Whoever makes petition to any god or man for thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions.
Daniel chose to face the lions over not praying.
What was so important in Daniel’s prayer?
Daniel 6:10 When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.
The only specific thing we are given is that he “gave thanks.”
What did Daniel have that he appreciated enough to thank God for, at great risk?
He was in captivity in a foreign country, his homeland was vanquished, the kingdom toppled, its capital city of Jeruslem lying in ruins, as Jeremiah had prophesied:
I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant. Jer 9:11
And why did Daniel face the vanquished capital to give thanks?
God, long before, had made it a sacred place by choosing it as a place for his name to dwell.
Deut 12:10-11 But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, then to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord.
Daniel could not return to Jerusalem, so he faced the place God had chosen for his name to dwell.
Prayer is our avenue for thanking God. If we give thanks a lot, we--like Daniel--are praying a lot.
2. David, his wrecked life notwithstanding, thanked God incessantly.
• His son Amnon violated his half-sister Tamar
• Absalom, Tamar’s brother, plotted and carried out Amnon’s death.
• Joab, in direct violation of David’s orders, put Absalom to death.
• David sinned by illicit relations with Bathsheba, a married woman
• David plotted the death of her husband Uriah, and it was successfully carried out.
• Because of David’s sins, the child he conceived with Bathsheba died in infancy.
There’s much more. David led a troubled life. And yet…
The Psalms are full of thanking God – 56 times, “thankfulness is expressed.
There are many other Psalms of thankfulness that are not in the 150 chapters of the “Book of Psalms.”
3. Jesus gave thanks for the bread and cup that were to be the symbols of his own death.
Luke 22:17-19, Matt 26:27
Was he simply thankful that food was provided for the occasion?
Or for the meaning he was about to assign to that meal—his own suffering and death?
How could Jesus be thankful for what he knew the bread and cup meant?!
Because he understood the purpose in it.
D. Giving thanks neutralizes our differences before God, making us equals even if we seem to be at odds.
The one who eats and the one who abstains do so “in honor of the Lord,” since they both give thanks.
Rom 14:6 …The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
1 Cor 10:29-30 …why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience?
If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?
We had better be very careful about disapproving one whom the Lord approves. If we both receive God’s blessings thankfully, any differences we have melt like summer snow.
IV. Thanks vs. Complaining
Did you ever give someone a gift and instead of thanking you for it, they criticize the gift and complain that it’s not something else?
God has.
Thanksgiving and complaining – oil and water
The Israelites complained that they were hungry, and when given manna to eat, complained that it wasn’t the fine food they had in Egypt.
They were out of Egypt, but Egypt wasn’t out of them.
God gives us what is best, and provides everything we need.
Though it may seem otherwise, God will never send anything your way that isn’t for your own good.
Thanksgiving or complaining - these words express two incompatible attitudes found in God’s children in regard to His dealings with them.
Lam 3:39 “…why should any living mortal, or any man, offer complaint in view of his sins?”
V. Conclusion
Thanksgiving is more than an American holiday to enjoy turkey, pumpkin pie, and football.
It’s a godly way of life. A thankful heart is the will of God for his people:
Psalm 100:3-5 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.
A supreme challenge - be thankful at all times and for everything
Eph 5:18-20 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
Notice where it leads - giving thanks always and for everything
Do we do that? Can we do that?
How would even Jesus do that?
Rejoice always and give thanks.
1 Thess 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
God doesn’t want us to be thankful only when things are going well.
He wants us to rise to a higher and more challenging plane:
…give thanks in all circumstances
The soul that gives thanks can find comfort in everything; the soul that complains finds comfort in nothing.
My counsel for you is enjoy the season, enjoy your family, good food, and thankful for it all.
Do not let dark clouds destroy your thankfulness for what is good in life.
Take the season and all times as occasions to glorify God with your thanks.
