Thanksgiving 2015
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 11/15/2015
There is a lot to love about Thanksgiving. I love the turkey and stuffing. I love pumpkin pie. I love spending time with family and playing football in the backyard. But the best part of Thanksgiving is that it prompts so many of us, even for just a moment, to reflect on the things for which we are thankful.
Have you thought about what you’re thankful for this year? In the spirit of Thanksgiving, TimeOut.com (a parenting website) asked New York kids ages 2 to 12 what they are thankful for. There’s nothing more adorable than asking a child a serious question to see what their candid response will be.
• Lexi, age 7, from the Upper West Side, said, “I’m thankful for my family and friends. And I love to read, so I’m thankful for books—especially Diary of a Wimpy Kid!”
• Griffin, age 4, from Brooklyn, said, “I’m thankful for red apples. The green ones will make you sick.”
• Elijah, age 3, “I’m thankful when bees don’t sting me, but when they do, mud feels me better.”
• Jaisy, also age 3, said, “I’m thankful for my rock moves.”
• Kenzie, age 9, says, “I’m thankful for everything good—and bad—that has ever happened to me. The good makes the bad okay and the bad isn’t really bad because there’s so much good. So, maybe I’m really just thankful for the good since there isn’t really any bad. Ugh, I’ve confused myself. I’ll just say I’m thankful for my sister’s rock moves.”
• Anya, age 10, said, “I’m thankful for a safe warm home and a full refrigerator.”
• Jackson, age 9, from Manhattan, says, “I’m thankful for my grandparents and uncle that have slept at our apartment since Hurricane Sandy.”
• Jillian, age 12, says, “I’m thankful for the doctor who fixed my heart.”
I’m convinced the human spirit shines most brightly when it’s cloaked in gratitude. G.K. Chesterton once said, “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”
The truth is—when we choose to see life through the eyes of gratitude, it changes everything. Especially ourselves. I like how Richelle Goodrich puts it. She writes, “Gratitude paints little smiley faces on everything it touches.”
As you know, the Bible has a lot to say about thanksgiving. It encourages and even commands us to “be thankful” (Hebrews 12:28) and “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). The word “thanks” appears in the Bible exactly 100 times (at least in the NIV). One of my favorite occurrences is found in Psalm 95:
Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. 3 For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. (Psalm 95:1-7 NIV)
Maybe you haven’t been feeling very thankful lately. Maybe life hasn’t been going your way and gratitude has been replaced with grumbling. In this psalm, the author not only invites us to enter into God’s presence with thankfulness, he also offers three reasons why we should be grateful to God. Regardless of your situation or circumstances, each of us can give thanks to God for these three things. So what do we have to be thankful for? First, we can give thanks for God’s character!
• GOD’S CHARACTER
After inviting us to “come to him with thanksgiving” the psalmist writes: “because the Lord is the great God, the great King over all gods” (vs. 3 NCV).
He starts off with God’s very nature, his character. This is about who God is; rather than what God has done. In a word, everything about God is great. His love. His mercy. His patience. His presence. His faithfulness. His forgiveness… it’s all great!
One of my favorite contemporary Christian hymns is Christ Tomlin’s How great is our God! When Chris sat down to write that song, he began with those words—the chorus—how great is our God. And, at first, that’s all he was able to come up with. In an interview, he said he didn’t really know where to go from there. He prayed to God, “…this is all I have Lord, there’s no other words I can summon in the English language to describe how great you are.” For a long time, he just sat there with those words, like a question hanging over his head that he couldn’t find an answer for.
Who could blame him, really? How do you describe the greatness of God!? How do you describe a God that’s beautiful beyond description? What do you say about a God that’s too marvelous for words? What do you even think about a God who’s too wonderful for comprehension?
Another psalm says, “He counts the stars and calls them all by name. How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension!” (Psalm 147:5 NLT).
Have you ever tried counting the stars? Three hundred years ago astronomers believed there were just over a thousand stars in the universe, today we know that there are over 300,000,000,000 stars in our galaxy alone. If you counted every single star in our galaxy, one per second, it would take 2500 years. You couldn’t do it in your lifetime. But God not only counts the stars, he knows them by name! That’s how great and awesome our God is. This is a God we can be thankful for!
We don’t want a small God. We don’t want a God we can control. We want a God who controls the universe. One who can never be conquered or fully understood. We want to shout with the psalmist, “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom” (Psalm 145:3). Here we are, trying to wrap our heads around His greatness, when it’s “so vast and deep” (AMP), it “can’t be grasped” (CEB). It’s immeasurable, “unsearchable” (ASV), and “beyond discovery!” (TLB). We are worshipping an unrivaled, uncontested God of infinite might and power and glory and awe! There is no one like him! Aren’t you thankful that He’s there? Regardless of everything else in life, we can give thanks for God’s character—his infinite, unfathomable greatness. Next, the psalmist says we can be thankful for God’s creation.
• GOD’S CREATION
Harriet Martineau was a renowned sociologist and novelist. She was also an atheist. One beautiful fall morning she and a Christian friend enjoyed a cup of coffee on her front porch. As Harriet saw the brilliant sun peeking through the haze, the frost on the meadow, and the brightly colored leaves making their way lazily to the ground, she was just overwhelmed by the wonders of nature and burst forth with “I am so thankful. I’m just so grateful for it all.” And her believing friend asked, “Grateful to whom, my dear?”
For Harriet Martineau, her question just hung in the air. But the psalmist answers that question for us when he writes, “In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land” (Psalm 95:4-5 NLT).
Every mountain peak, every drop of rain, every blade of grass and every falling leaf give us another reason to give thanks to God. The universe and everything in it was custom-tailored by a God who expresses His imagination and artistry in swirling galaxies, mellowing sunsets, and glistening snow.
Any time you feel the sun on your face, the wind at your back or the ocean splashing over your feet you can give thanks to God. I think there are several sportsmen or outdoorsmen here who can relate to this verse. Some call it Mother Nature, some the great outdoors, and others God’s country. Regardless of what you call it, though, if you spend much time outside, you’ll quickly notice that the fingerprint of God is unmistakably on creation.
Whether you’re seated on a deer stand at dawn, cutting across a smooth lake for a day of fishing, or watching a mountainside for an elusive elk, you’re faced with the realization that there is no way any of this could have happened by accident. Behind it all, there had to be someone who put it together.
The Bible says, “Ask the animals, and they will teach you. Ask the birds, and they will tell you. Or speak with the earth, and it will teach you. Even the fish will relate the story to you. What creature doesn’t know that the Lord’s hands made it? The life of every living creature and the spirit in every human body are in his hands” (Job 12:7-10 GWT). God hand-crafted this world and every living thing in it, including you and me!
In the next verse, we read, “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” (vs. 6 NLT). The same God who scooped out the oceans and sculpted the mountains created you and me. You are not an accident. You’re not fluke of nature or a bi-product of irresponsible parents. You were handmade by God Himself. God prescribed every single detail of your body. He deliberately chose your ethnicity, the color of your skin, your hair, and every other feature. He custom-made you the way He wanted you. Your life is a miracle. You were fashioned and formed by the God of all creation. He’s big enough to breathe out stars and sculpt mountains, yet intricate enough to lace together the trillions of cells that make up every facet of who you are. If you’re looking for something to be thankful for, be thankful that God created you. The world around us and your life in particular is a gift—let’s be grateful for God’s creations. Finally, the psalmist urges us to give thanks for God’s care.
• GOD’S CARE
One of Charles Schulz classic Peanuts comic strips features Charlie Brown carrying a bowl full of leftover turkey and stuffing out to Snoopy’s dog house. “Here you are Snoopy… Happy Thanksgiving,” Charlie says. “Thank you,” Snoopy thinks to himself with a crooked smile and wagging tail. Then he look down at his bowl and back up again. His smile turns to a frown and he thinks, “What? No, cranberries?”
We have a tendency to do the same thing. We look at our bowl and focus on what we don’t have instead of being grateful for all that we’ve been given.
The psalmist urges us instead to give thanks for all that God provides: “Let us come before him with thanksgiving… for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care” (Psalm 95:1-7 NIV).
Just as Charlie Brown dutifully cares for his dog, the Good Shepherd tends his flock. In other words, God didn’t just set creation in motion and then leave us to fend for ourselves. He cares for us. He continues to be involved in the affairs of human life. He provides for our needs. He lacks nothing and gives everything!
The time we have on Earth is a gift from God. The energy or mobility we have that enables us to get up and go to work in the morning or come to church is a gift from God. The talents or skills by which we earn an income are gifts from God. The combination of all these, our productivity and accomplishments, are gifts from God. Our purpose in life is a gift from God! Our families, parents and grandparents, a good husband or wife—I’ve spent years trying to convince my wife that I’m a gift from God. Our children are all God’s gifts. Homes we live in, covers to keep us warm on a cold winter night, and friends with whom we can share our joys and sorrows are all gifts of God. And when we count our blessings we shouldn’t neglect the spiritual ones. Salvation, redemption, forgiveness, and eternal life are all gifts of God. The list just goes on and on.
A 4-year-old boy was asked to pray before Thanksgiving dinner. The family members bowed their heads in expectation. He began his prayer, thanking God for all his friends, naming them one by one. Then he thanked God for Mommy, Daddy, brother, sister, Grandma, Grandpa and all his aunts and uncles. Then he began to thank God for the food. He gave thanks for the turkey, the dressing, the fruit salad, the cranberry sauce, the pies, the cakes, even the Cool Whip. Then he paused, and everyone waited—hoping he would finally say ‘Amen’. After a long silence, the young fellow looked up at his mother and asked, “If I thank God for the broccoli, won’t He know I’m lying?”
It just goes to show you we have so many things for which to be thankful—even broccoli. As author and poet David Sper once wrote: “When we consider all God’s gifts and all that we possess, a grumbling mood of discontent gives way to thankfulness!”
Conclusion
Max Lucado tells about living as an American in Brazil. One day, as he was walking along the street on his way to the University to teach a class, he felt a tug on his pants leg. Turning around, he saw a little boy about 5 or 6 years old with dark beady eyes and a dirty little face. The little boy looked up at the big American and said, “Bread, Sir.” He was a little beggar boy. The streets of Brazil are full of them. “Usually I turn away,” Max writes, “because there are so many and you can’t feed them all. But there was something so compelling about this little boy that I couldn’t turn away.” So Max invited the boy to follow him into a nearby coffee shop, where he told the owner, “I’ll have a cup of coffee and give the boy a pastry… whatever he wants.” Since the coffee counter was at the other end of the store, Max walked on and got a cup of coffee, expecting the little boy to grab his pastry and disappear. But he didn’t. After he got his pastry, he went over to the big American and just stood there until Lucado felt his staring eyes. Max writes, “I turned and looked at him. Standing up, his eyes just about hit my belt buckle. Then slowly his eyes came up until they met mine. The little boy, holding his pastry in one hand, looked up and said, ‘Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.’” Max said, “I was so touched by the boy’s thanks that I would have bought him the store. I sat there for another 30 minutes, late for my class, just thinking about a little beggar boy who came back and said, ‘Thank you.’”
God has given us so much more than a pastry. Let’s not forget to say, “Thank you!” Regardless of your situation or circumstances, we can give thanks for God’s character, God’s creation, and God’s care.
Invitation
As our worship team comes forward I want to invite you to do just as the psalmist writes: “Come let us sing for joy to the Lord, let shout aloud to the rock of our salvations, let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.”
