MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(Revised: 2014)
A. Many holidays have two different celebrations or connotations - one worldly, & the other, Christian.
The world celebrates Easter with Easter bunnies & Easter eggs & new clothes & spring breaks - heralding the coming of spring.
But Easter is a holy day for Christians, a time when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, His victory over sin & death, & our hope for eternal life. It is a very special day for us.
Christmas is another such holiday. For the world it is Xmas, & Santa Claus coming down the chimney, & toys.
But for Christians, Christmas celebrates the miracle of the virgin birth. And we realize that God loves us so much that He came into our world to live & die among us, & teach us how to live both now & for all eternity.
Likewise, for many, Thanksgiving has become just a "Turkey Day," a day to throw our diets into the wastebasket, engage in a ritual of overeating, & watch football until we're fast asleep.
But for Christians, Thanksgiving is a day to acknowledge that everything we have is a gift from God, & to lift our hearts in thanksgiving to Him.
B. But we're not very good at saying "Thank you," are we?
ILL. We're like a little boy I heard about. On his return from a party, his mother asked him, "Bobby, did you thank the lady for the party?" He answered, "Well, I was going to. But the girl ahead of me said, ‘Thank you,’ & the lady told her not to mention it. So I didn't."
It almost seems that we have to be trained to express gratitude, doesn't it?
ILL. Ethel and I have 9 grandchildren & 4 great-grandchildren. And of the great-grandchildren, one of them is going through that traumatic phase of life called "The Terrible Twos" & another one is approaching it.
One thing I've noticed about kids going through that phase is that no one had to teach them how to say "No!" No one had to teach them to grab something & yell "Mine!" And no one had to teach them to cry when they were unhappy. They did all that without any coaching at all.
But they had to be taught to say "Thank you," & "please," & to be unselfish with their toys. You see, by nature, we're not normally thoughtful & thankful for what we receive. In fact, we often completely overlook many of the blessings that come our way.
ILL. Gene Perrett suggests that we have more things to be thankful about than we realize. For example, he lists these things:
"Be grateful for automatic dishwashers. They make it possible for mother to get out of the kitchen before the kids come back for between meal snacks.
"Be grateful for husbands who attack small repair jobs around the house. They usually make them big enough to call in professionals who'll do it right.
"Be grateful for children who put away their things & clean up after themselves. They're such a joy to have around that you hate to see them go home to their own parents.
"Be grateful for teenagers. They give parents an opportunity to learn a second language.
"And at Thanksgiving, be grateful for smoke alarms. They let you know when the turkey's done."
ILL. Now in a bit more serious tone - I am thankful for:
The sound of the alarm clock early in the morning because it means I’m alive.
The clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have plenty to eat.
A lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, & gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home.
All the complaining about our government because it means we have freedom of speech.
My weary & aching muscles at the end of the day because it means I have been productive.
C. We have so much for which to be thankful, don't we?
Listen to Luke 12:22-24, "Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.
‘Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!’"
One thing that particularly touches me in this passage is that Jesus says that we are valuable in God’s sight. He cares about us, & He showers His blessings upon us even though there are many who have turned away from Him.
I'm convinced that we do need a day of national Thanksgiving to God who provides for all our needs, both now & for all eternity!
I. “I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE”
Now, in talking about God loving us & providing for all our needs, both now & for all eternity, listen to these words of Jesus recorded in John 6:35.
"Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty."
To those of us who are Christians that is a familiar & wonderful statement. We thrill at what Jesus is saying & what it means to those who follow Him.
But I wonder, as familiar a passage as it is, do we really understand what Jesus is saying & why He said it? To help us understand, let’s open our Bibles & turn to the 6th chapter of the Gospel of John.
The first 15 verses of Chapter 6 tell about Jesus blessing & multiplying a little boy’s lunch of 5 small barley loaves 2 small fish into enough food to feed 5,000 men, with 12 small baskets of food left over.
John 6:14 says, “After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, ‘Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.’”
In other words, some of the people were beginning to say, “He is the Messiah that God promised to send – the Messiah that we have been waiting for, praying for, for nearly a thousand years.
“With him leading us we’ll drive the Romans out of our land, & we’ll never be a conquered people again!”
But as we read further along in the 6th chapter of John we discover that not everybody was ready to proclaim that Jesus was the Messiah. And this is the argument that they were making:
Moses was their greatest prophet. God had used him to free the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. Moses had led them during the 40 years of waiting before they could enter the Promised Land.
And all during those 40 years they did not go hungry because they were miraculously supplied with manna. It was like nothing that they had ever eaten before. It was truly “bread from heaven.”
Now those who were arguing against Jesus being the Messiah were saying that the Scriptures plainly teach that the Messiah would be greater than Moses. And Moses supplied their ancestors with heavenly manna, while Jesus had only taken some common earthly food, loaves & fishes, & used that to feed the multitudes.
That is when Jesus said in John 6:48-51, "I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
Now I could spend some time right now going into a much longer explanation of all that is involved in calling Jesus the “Bread of life.” But may I just simplify it by saying this:
Because He loves us, Jesus came to seek & to save the lost – to redeem us from our sins – to die upon that cruel cross – to be raised from the dead – to ascend back to His Father & our God – to prepare a place for each of us. And because of all that –
“If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy, let Jesus come into your heart.
Your sins He’ll wash away. Your night He’ll turn to day. Your life, He’ll make it over anew.
If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy, let Jesus come into your heart.”
II. GOD PROVIDES THE BREAD
Another thing we notice in our Scripture text is that God provides the bread. Without God there would be no bread. And as we have just pointed out - the true bread, bread that takes away death & provides life, comes only from God.
ILL. Years ago, Fulton Oursler, a famous author, told about a maid who worked for his family. She had been there when his mother was born, & she had also attended his birth.
As a little girl she had been a slave in southern Maryland. He wrote, "That woman taught me more about thanks giving than anyone I ever met."
He said, "I can remember as a boy seeing her sit at our table in the kitchen. She would sit there with her old crusty hands folded across her starched apron, close her brown twinkly eyes & say a simple prayer. ‘Thank you, Lord, for our vittles.'"
Oursler said, "I would ask her, ‘Anna, what's a vittle?' She would say, ‘Vittles, them's the things we eat & the things we drink.’ He would say, ‘But you would get vittles even if you didn't thank God.’ ‘That's right,’ said Anna, ‘but things always taste better when you're thankful.'"
ILL. 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 & a dirty little face.
The little boy looked up at the big American & said, "Peo, Senor. Bread, Sir."
He was a little beggar boy, & Lucado said, "There are always little beggar boys in the streets of Brazil. Usually I turn away from them because there are so many, & you can't feed them all. But there was something so compelling about this little boy that I couldn't turn away."
"So, taking his hand, I said, ‘Come with me’ & I took him into a coffee shop." He told the owner, "I'll have a cup of coffee & give the boy a piece of pastry, whatever he wants."
Since the coffee counter was at the other end of the store, he walked on, & got a cup of coffee, forgetting about the little boy because beggar boys usually get the bread & then run back out into the street & disappear.
But this one didn't. After he received his pastry, he went over to the big American & just stood there until Lucado felt his staring eyes. Lucado said, "I turned & 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 & said, "Thank you, sir. Thank you very much."
Lucado 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 & said, ‘Thank you.'"
APPL. I wonder if God feels the same? I wonder if His heart bubbles inside when we, His children, beggars all, come to Him & say, "Thank you, Sir. Thank you very much."
III. MAN DOES NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE
Finally, we need to remember that man does not live by bread alone. Jesus said, "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life." (John 6:27)
A. How are you doing with your thanksgiving list this year? Have you been able to think of many things for which you are thankful?
We usually have trouble because we have so much. Most of the things we take for granted, or feel that we have earned them.
ILL. I like Snoopy & Charlie Brown cartoons. A few years ago, one strip pictured Charlie Brown bringing out Snoopy's dinner on Thanksgiving Day. But it was just his usual dog food in a bowl.
Snoopy took one look at the dog food & said, "This isn't fair. The rest of the world today is eating turkey with all the trimmings, & all I get is dog food. Because I'm a dog," he said, "all I get is dog food."
He stood there & stared at his dog food for a moment, & said, "I guess it could be worse. I could be a turkey."
B. You know, there is always something for which to be thankful.
ILL. Some students had been asked to make a list of things for which they were thankful. One little boy couldn't seem to think of a thing.
But finally he wrote: "Thank you, Lord, for my glasses. They keep the boys from hitting me & the girls from kissing me." There is always something for which to be thankful.
ILL. A letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune was written by a man who had just buried his wife of 40 years.
In it he said that after all the relatives had left, he had wandered around their house for a while, looking at the furnishings the two of them had bought together - & remembering.
He recalled 40 years of marriage, 40 years of companionship & happiness. "We went through some hard times," he wrote, "but she never complained. Even when money was the tightest, she always had a good hot meal ready when I got home." Then he added, "But never once do I remember saying ‘Thank you.'"
His letter was published in the Chicago Tribune as an appeal to husbands & wives to turn to their spouses & say, "Thank you. Thank you for making my home. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for being my companion."
SUM. There is always something, you see, to cause us to be thankful.
CONCL. This Thanksgiving Day we'll sit down with our family & some of us will remember. We'll remember good times we have shared. We'll remember some of the blessings that have come our way, & we'll try to express our thankfulness to our Savior & our God.
ILL. In his song, My Tribute, Andrae Crouch sings to God:
"How can I say thanks for the things You have done for me?
Things so undeserved, yet You give to prove Your love for me.
The voices of a million angels could not express my gratitude;
All that I am & ever hope to be, I owe it all to you..."
