Thanksgiving 2019 – Thank Who?
Please stand as we read our newest memory Scripture together …
Jude 1:24-25
“To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy –
“To the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”
And our memory refresher verse(s) for today is(are) …
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
“May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it.”
Please open your Bibles to Psalm 104:24-35
Have you ever gotten a really great gift from someone and you have no idea who gave it to you?
I mean, you LOVE the gift and are so thankful for it but there is something you REALLY want to know! What is that?
WHO GAVE THIS TO ME? I WANT TO THANK THEM!!!
I’d like to show you a couple of short Thanksgiving videos.
The first one is of teens in a High School which starts out with the basic supposition of, “Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to hang out with friends and family.” And, then the interviewer asks not, “What are you thankful for?”, but, “What are you going to do over the Thanksgiving break?”
Play: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgHQpQm0QhM)
What were some of the answers?
Family, watch football, friends, food
Hang out with friends and family and forget about everything that is bad
You get to stay home and be happy and to eat
Pumpkin pie with whipped cream
Lots of food and cranberry sauce
Thanksgiving day (football) rivalries, no sleeping in, gotta get there early and claim your spot …
Now, you may say that they are all just kids (except for the last one), but, what about adults. What are they thankful for?
In this next short video the leading question is, “What does Thanksgiving mean to you?”
Play: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgn1r5R4MMk)
Now, these answers were a little more mature and a couple of them even said the word “blessings”.
In almost every one of these responses you could substitute “I am glad I have or I am glad I will be having” in place of “I am thankful for”.
I am glad we will be having good food …
I am glad there will be football to watch …
I am glad we get a day off from school or work …
“I am glad” does not equal “I am thankful for”
Thankfulness implies that a Thank You is due …
Imagine you get a great gift. It is something you have wanted for a long, long time but you wouldn’t buy it for yourself.
On your birthday, the most important person in your life gets you that “whatever” as a present and they hand it to you. You are excited. And when you open the gift you burst out with, “I am so thankful for this!” or, “I’m glad I have this now!” And then when you meet friends and family members you show the great gift to them and you say, “I am so thankful I have this now.”
Wouldn’t that be just plain weird? Wouldn’t you say, “Thank you” to whoever took the time to buy or make a wonderful gift for you?
Is that what it is like to live in a land of such great blessings and to NOT give thanks to the Giver of all good and perfect gifts?
Is that what it is like to be saved by the Grace of God and not to live in a perpetual state of thanksgiving to the Savior?
The Scripture for today is great example of true Thanksgiving
Psalm 104:24-35
(prayer asking the Lord for help)
Have you ever noticed how the great celebrations of Christianity are gutted by replacing the Lord with something that is not the Lord; either real or imaginary.
The birth of Jesus our Savior has been overshadowed by Santa Claus, Christmas trees, gift giving and parties. It can get so busy at Christmas time that you often need the week between Christmas and New Years just to catch your breath.
What about Good Friday? The sacrificial death of Jesus our Savior on the Cross of Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins is pretty much ignored by the world and is even given just a brief acknowledgement by many who call themselves Christians. Many who call themselves Christians are much more excited about Black Friday than they are about Good Friday …
What about the Resurrection of Jesus the Messiah from the dead? This great day has been popularly renamed Easter which has absolutely no meaning in our vocabulary and it seems that the Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs have risen will above the Resurrection of Jesus our Savior in general popularity.
Now, I fully realize that Thanksgiving is not one of Christianity’s great celebrations at all, but, thanksgiving is supposed to be a part of every Christian’s daily life.
Colossians 2:6-7
“Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
You know, there are times when a person just does NOT feel like being thankful!
Have you ever had a really bad day? A day that you thought would never end? A day when no hope was in sight?
When we have a day like that it is sometimes good to put the day into perspective.
Just try to imagine the violence and bloodshed that was taking place during the American Civil war in which an estimated 620,000 soldiers died and another 467,000 were wounded, captured or missing.
In the midst of this tragedy, when day after day reports of battles and battle field deaths would arrive, President Lincoln would often fall into a great depression over the agony of the war and the loss of life.
At one time he is quoted as saying, “I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me.”
And yet in the midst of this tragedy of civil war President Lincoln made the following declaration one October as the war raged on:
“The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.”
At this point Lincoln goes on to list things for which he is thankful regarding the prosperity of the country and the progress of the war. For these things and more he gives thanks to the Lord when he writes …
“No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”
- Anything good that has taken place in the time of war or peace is not the doing of any man but only by the grace of God.
- “God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, has nevertheless remembered mercy.”
o This makes my heart just want to cry …
o Has this not been the condition for every one of us? Even in our sin the Lord has extended us mercy?
o And, what about our nation? Are we a sinful nation? We absolutely are in ways that are too innumerable to list!
o Sin is washing over our nation like a tidal wave from coast to coast
o How long will our Great and Righteous God continue to show us mercy for our sinful and ungrateful hearts?
Finally Lincoln goes on to say …
“It has seemed to me fit and proper that the [gracious gifts of the Most High God and His mercy in spite of our sins] should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”
What is the one important factor about Thanksgiving.
Giving thanks to God is what keeps our eyes on the One whose grace makes it all possible.
We all know that the earth orbits around the sun. Our distance from the sun keeps us in what is known as the Habitable Zone. If the earth were to move out of the habitable zone we would either die of heat or cold. To leave the Sun would be sure death for all life on earth.
The grace of God has called us into the Habitable Zone of salvation through faith in Jesus our Lord.
Thankfulness to God keeps us in spiritual orbit around the Son of God who gives and maintains not only physical life but eternal life as well.
Without thanksgiving we would soon drift and lose our orbit around God.
If the earth moves from its orbit around the sun the world will die.
If our country moves from its orbit around the Son our country will die.
If we move from our orbit around the Son we will die.
Our orbit around God is maintained with true thankfulness.
Thanksgiving however requires humility.
Humility is NOT a natural tendency.
Humility means that we are NOT the source of anything good.
The opposite of humility is pride.
Pride claims that we ARE the source of good and that thanks should be rightfully given to us!
In pride we forget who the source of all good is …
Abraham Lincoln went on to say …
“To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come …”
Have you forgotten the source from which all good in your life comes?
Are you thankful?
If we were to take the time to stand up one by one and tell what we are thankful for would our thankfulness be centered on the Lord as the source? Or would it just be a statement of, “I’m thankful for __________” without any recognition of the Giver of the gift?
Do the people with whom you have contact know that you are thankful to the Giver of Life, the King of Glory, the Creator of all that is?
Final comments and closing prayer.
