ON LOAN
(Psalm 89:11; 24:1;Dan.4:28-35)
You can imagine the feeling, if on a Sunday morning, I came into this sanctuary and a stranger was sitting in this chair and then at 11 am proceeded to get up and lead the
worship and preach the message. The thoughts could easily pass through my mind:
--why is he sitting in my chair
--why is he preaching from “my” pulpit
It would be something like the feeling you may have when Sunday after Sunday you come and sit in the same pew, and then one Sunday you come and some new person is sitting “in your pew”.
When reality settles in, we realize that is not your chair at all- that chair belongs to the church and the only reason you can sit in it is because the church makes it available to whomever is preaching the message and by the way that is not your pulpit- that pulpit also belongs to the church and not to you and if you really want to get it right, Parry, that pulpit belongs to God and whomever He would choose to put in it.
It’s the same when we go to work if we are a truck driver or a machinist. Our employer hires us to drive a truck to make deliveries and pick-ups, but not very long after driving
that truck day after day, I develop the feeling this is my truck and if I come into work and find someone else driving “my” truck, I want to know why just as I would if
I worked the same machine everyday and then months later came in to find somebody
else working “my” machine when all the time the truck or the machine or whatever it
is the desk, the computer, the company car – they are not mine at all but are so to speak
“on loan” to me while I am employed by this church or that company.
I raise this point of ownership with you on this Thanksgiving eve Sunday to makes us
conscious once again that if we are truly to be thankful in this thanksgiving season or in any season for that matter, the question of ownership must be clearly settled in our hearts.
And when it comes down to who owns what, the Word of God is very clear:
Psalm 89:11
The heavens are Yours (O Lord), the earth also is Yours the world and all its fullness, You have founded them.
The north and the south, You have created them.
Psalm 24:1
The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
the world and those who dwell therein.
You and I are surrounded everyday by things we think we own: our car, our home, our children, our clothing, our money, our hidden away collections of coins, guns, dolls,
family heirlooms. Hey, who owns that white contour ford in the parking lot, they have me blocked in? I own this land free and clear and here’s what I’m going to do with it.
Sometimes we joke about the bank owning the car or house because the bank holds the mortgage or title, but beyond the joking is this daily mental perception we have and especially after the loan is paid off- this is really mine:
I earned it; I bought it; I paid it off with my money.
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What I am trying to say this morning is that until we truly believe it all belongs to God; He owns it all, until that perception is clear and bedrock to us, thanksgiving will only be a good meal on Thursday with the family.
Think about when you are truly thankful. Is it not when you’ve had something or someone valuable and then lost it or him or her and then recovered the lost? Maybe it was your health and suddenly you lost the use of your hand to paralysis or you were
in such pain you couldn’t walk but then by medicine or an operation or therapy of some kind your health was restored – how thankful you were.
We see it from time to time in the news when a child is lost or kidnapped and then found safe and unharmed and returned to the parents. Tears of joy and thankfulness flow easily.
And whether it’s our health or child, our job or home- whenever it is lost or harmed-
amidst all the other issues that can erupt, ownership (control) invariably rampages
through our mind- I thought I took care of myself, my health was fine; my child is
seldom out of my sight, but I just got swept up in the crowd at the stadium and
I thought Bill had Bobby and he thought I had Bobby and then there was no Bobby around.
Do you really own your health, your child any more than you really own your job or your house?
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof….O Lord God who is mighty as You are…You rule the raging of the sea; when it waves
rise You still them…You cause the grass to grow for the cattle and plants for
man to cultivate…these all look to You to give them their food in due season; when
You (Lord) give to them they gather it up; when You open your hands (Lord) they are filled with good things. (Ps. 89, 104)
The antithesis of what I am talking about is the kind of pride we see in King Nebuchadnezzar.
He was the king of a great empire and fell easily into the temptation of believing he was the owner and master of many lands and property, and peoples. Daniel, the Lord’s prophet, had
warned the king that the Lord God Almighty would humble him for his sinful self preoccupation. So we read in Daniel 4:29-33………….READ
So much for King Nebuchadnezzar and how important he thought he was with all “his” possessions of land and property and kingdoms. He is only an extreme example of each of us who have failed to settle in our hearts who is truly the owner of my
paycheck and the very air I breathe. It’s all on loan to me from Him, the creator,
for another moment, another day, by His grace even for a lifetime:
When You hide your face (Lord) they are dismayed; when You take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When You send forth your Spirit they are created; and
You (Lord) renew the face of the earth. (Ps. 104:30)
Do we, like Nebuchadnezzar, have to keep losing what we treasure and think we own, before
we realize the truth that everyday and everything of that day is God’s gift to us? Most
likely the answer is “yes”; pride will continue to hamper my thankfulness until as we have
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heard so many times before “we are born again.” Until God greatest gift of all to us, His Son, Jesus Christ, becomes my Lord and Savior, and His Holy Spirit takes charge of my heart and mind, until that conversion takes place daily; the precious diamond studded locket my grandmother gave me will always be mine instead of His and the money I have will remain under my control instead of His. Who are we to think we can change ourselves? Who am I to think I could ever be grateful for anything I have made and accomplished?
Let us not be blind; thanksgiving will come with an inner divine transformation—when God in His creative power- takes hold of your selfish and sinful heart; and with the blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ washes away the old self and gives to you a new self in Christ Jesus.
Then you and I will have that new and true understanding of who owns the cattle on a 1000 hills (Ps. 50:10). We see this inner divine transformation takes place in who of all people but
King Nebuchadnezzar. Remember we left this boasting and prideful ruler struck down by
God living like an animal – eating grass like an ox, his body wet with the dew of heaven, his hair growing out like a madman’s, his nails like bird’s claw.
And then we read: READ Dan. 4: 34-37
Have we gotten the point? Nebuchadnezzar did. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.
Now thanksgiving is more than a family feast; it is a tribute to Almighty God, our owner and keeper, our Savior and friend.
Did you notice too that when God gave the king “a new heart” that he restored the fortunes of
the king just as he restored Job’s fortunes when he too received the inner divine new birth;
and in the restoration came even greater fortunes: “…and I was established, said King
Nebuchadnezzar, in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me.” (v.36)
“…and the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning….(Job 42:12)
Real thanksgiving comes when we accept and live out the truth God has given to us in His word and in His Son. So let us pray for a rebirth of self from our old way to God’s new way, a
rebirth that occurs not once but daily as God continues to transform (change) us from one degree of glory to the next.
Then when someone else is sitting in my chair or my pew or Bobby becomes lost at the Zoo
or worse my most treasured possession or person is taken, there will still resound within
me from my very depths the bedrock expression of thanksgiving…
for I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that He is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. (II. Tim. 1:12)
