A Reason to Be Thankful
Romans 8:28-39
SICC 11.24/02 – Morning
I am going to help you out this morning, so listen closely. I don’t know where you are celebrating Thanksgiving, but beware, your host may have read an article in the newspaper, or worse yet in one of those family magazines and she is planning a special Thanksgiving celebration this year. What does that mean? It means you are on the spot. She is going to ask you and everybody else what you are thankful for. Husbands, you can never go wrong saying your thankful for your wife & family. Unless someone has already done it, especially if that person is eloquent. He says something like, “My dear wife. You’re in my heart. You’re in my soul. You’ll be my breath should I grow old. You are my lover. You are my best friend. You’re in my soul.” I know it’s a Rod Stewart song. I’m a preacher not a poet. Anyway suppose somebody gets up and says something like that. You can’t be next and say, “I’m thankful for my wife too. She does a great job washing behind the kids’ ears.” You need to be ready for that moment. You’ll sleep a lot better from now until then if you are ready. Let’s think together this morning of a good reason to be thankful. You don’t want to look like a Jerry Lewis character at a Toastmaster’s convention. What are we going to say?
We can always be thankful for the prosperity we enjoy. No one feels prosperous, but most of us are. Prosperity, at its heart means abundance. To have an abundance means you have to make choices. You have to choose between options. We live in a society where we have choices. The choices of prosperity. Think about meals. We have a myriad of choices when it comes to meals. There are hundreds of restaurants where we can eat. There are hundreds of take-out places. If we want to eat in we can cook a fancy meal, or simply fix sandwiches. One thing we don’t have to worry about is going hungry – unless you make that choice. In many parts of the world there is no choice concerning food. A good meal might consist of one cup of rice and another of warm water. We certainly can be thankful for our prosperity. We are a prosperous people. That prosperity is a blessing that comes from God. Proverbs 28:25 tells us that he who trusts in the Lord will prosper. We are prosperous. Prosperity is a gift from God. Be thankful to God for your prosperity.
Be careful though. Prosperity can be a trap. It can distract you from that which you should be truly thankful for. Solomon also tells us in Proverbs 23: 4-5 that you should “not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches and the are all gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.” Riches are a blessing from God, but they should not be the focus of our attention. Prosperity is a byproduct of faithful life, and frankly, God’s definition of prosperity may be different from mine. I may not like his. When I think about it, just don’t bring it up.
What else can we be thankful for? Here is one that is certainly in vogue, as it should be. We should be thankful for the great nation we live in. We are truly blessed to be a part of the United States of America. We are the freeest, strongest, and the most compassionate nation in the world. It is good to be an American. In America we can
• worship where, whom, and how we want to
• earn, save, and spend our money how we want to
• live wherever we want to
• travel freely from state to state
• raise our children however we want to
• criticize or protest whomever we want to – even the government or military
In this nation we have
• an abundance of natural resources
• some of the greatest scientific minds in the world
• the greatest medical system in the world
• a great diversity of people who each contributes to the fabric of this nation
Let’s be thankful for the nation we live in. God’s word tells us to pray for our civil authorities. Let’s pray a prayer of Thanksgiving this year for the nation in which we live. As great as it is, it is not the main thing I am thankful for. If It were taken away from me, I would still have something to be thankful for.
I would be thankful for my family. God has truly blessed me with a great family. Two great families actually. My parents raised me with love. They taught me how to love God and be committed to Him. They taught me how to be self-sufficient and survive, even thrive in society. They modeled and continue to model for me a marriage, that weathers the difficulties of time and continues to grow stronger through them.
God has blessed me with my own family. My wife and kids are truly the joy of my life. In Rebekah I see a love for me and the kids that is only exceeded by God’s love in its persistence and depth. My children are healthy and by the grace of God have unlimited potential in their life. More importantly, they are a joy to be with. I am indeed thankful for my family.
Let me pause for a moment on this point. Many people have not been blessed with a happy childhood. Many parents divorce, many other husbands and wives stay together, even though they argue and don’t trust one another. You may have grown up in a family like that. Maybe right now you are in a family like that. A single parent, or a wife whose husband is not what you would like or vice versa. I want to encourage you this morning as well. Don’t be defined by your circumstances or environment. Seek God’s help to rise above them. You may never be able to be thankful for godly parents because you may not have had them. If you begin right now seeking God in your life – as a parent or as a single – next year at this time I am sure you will be thankful to God for the blessing he has shown you concerning your family.
Family is great. I am certainly thankful for mine. I hope you are for yours as well. I still haven’t gotten to what I am most thankful for though. How about my faith?
I am thankful for my faith. It is the greatest thing in my life. I believe that Jesus is God’s son. I believe that he lived a sinless life here on this very earth. That he was tempted in every way, yet without sin. I believe that he died as a sacrifice – once for all – for the forgiveness of my sins and the sins of everyone who believes in him. I believe that he rose from the dead three days later and that he lives and reigns to this day and through all eternity in heaven with the father. One day I will be with him in heaven and enjoy all of eternity praising and worshiping God with the multitude who believe like I do in Jesus. I am thankful for my faith. My faith gives me a hope that is not based on my circumstances– even the ones for which I am thankful: my prosperity, nation, and family. If they are all taken away from me in some catastrophe reminiscent of the those that befell Job, I still will have my faith. My faith will keep me strong. Or will it?
One thing that I have learned throughout my life is that I am not above doubting my faith.
• You know what? I don’t have any doubt that if for some reason I were destitute and living on the street, getting my next meal from the dumpster behind the grocery store, I would question God.
• If my nation were defeated in war and suddenly I were to lose all those freedoms I spoke about earlier, I would begin to look for another God to trust in.
• If my family abandoned me, I could not trust God.
I am thankful for my faith, but it isn’t what I am most thankful for, because it isn’t the most consistent thing in my life. My faith, when I get down to it depends on other things. Maybe it depends too much on the circumstances around me right now. I hope that I will mature beyond that. I hope that my faith will one day depend solely on one thing that is never changing. There is one thing that provides more certainty than my prosperity, my nation and my family all put together. It is God’s faithfulness toward me. That is what I am truly thankful for. That is the one thing that I can not do without. If I lose everything else, taken away from me in one fell swoop, God’s faithfulness will never change. He is faithful in prosperity. He is faithful in poverty. He is faithful in America. He is faithful Afghanistan or China. He is faithful through loving and healthy families. He is faithful through broken or dysfunctional families. God is always faithful. Let’s look at some scripture to help us remember that.
And we know that in all things God words for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gavae him up for us all –how will he not also, along with him graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
No in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who love us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:28-39
Like me, you probably have much to be thankful for. The greatest of these is faith. God’s faithfulness toward you. It is through his faithfulness that all blessings flow.
