There was a young woman who brought her fiancé home to meet her parents for thanksgiving dinner. After dinner, her mother told her father to find out about the young man. The father invited the fiancé to his study for a talk.
"So what are your plans?" the father asked the young man. "I am a biblical scholar," he replied. "A Biblical scholar. Hmmm," the father said. "Admirable, but what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter to live in?" "I will study," the young man replied, "and God will provide for us."
"And how will you buy her a beautiful engagement ring, such as she deserves?" asked the father. "I will concentrate on my studies," the young man replied, "God will provide for us."
"And children?" asked the father. "How will you support children?" "Don’t worry, sir, God will provide," replied the fiancé.
The conversation proceeded like this, and each time the father questioned, the young idealist insisted that God would provide. Later, the mother asked, "How did it go, Honey?" The father answered, "He has no job and no plans, and he thinks I’m God!"
Let me tell you, I am glad I am not God. The job’s taken! Your pastor is not God, he can’t be your Messiah. His job is point to you to the Messiah, he is just the messenger. In fact our job is to point to him. God is the focus of why we are here today. I am grateful that God gets the recognition that He provides. That He is the One who we stop and say “thank you” to for all that He has provided for us. We live in a pretty good country, don’t we? I am grateful that we have a house to live in, funds to live by, food to eat, it is because of God’s abundance and we really need to say Thanks. I know the God’s heart just get a real buzz when we do say thanks. I get a real kick out of my kids saying that, or when they remember to say that. For it speaks to me of a special relationship and bond, it says to me I am connected to my kids, it says to me that they know I love them and would provide for them. I am just glad that we got some people who made sure we did just that by setting aside a special day just to do that. Where would we be if God did not provide? Where would we be if God did not care? Did you know that God’s heart gets broken the moment we stop to give thanks?
Romans 1:18-22 points that out…
18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Rom 1:18-22 (NIV)
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him,” did you read that?
The lack of thanksgiving is an obvious signal that we refuse to acknowledge and worship God as God. It shows that our thinking has gone way off base. It shows we are not reflective enough in our lives to stop and say thanks God! Celebration with God was always on the heart with God. Luke 15 tells the stories of lost coin, lost sheep lost son. The common thread here is celebration, God celebrates with people! That - With lost people. We hit a homerun with God, when we celebrate with thanks, see that Gods throw a party to cleebrate lost things being found. So if we are to imitate God, what should we do? Prepare a feast, give from the fullness of Christ in our lives, abandon ourselves to a God who welcomes us recognizing that he just can’t wait for the party to begin with us, celebrating! Luke 15 really begins with Jesus getting frustrated with the know it alls who just don’t get that.
1Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. 2But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."
3Then Jesus told them this parable: 4"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ’Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
See the picture? Jesus loves it that people who are lost gather round him to hear Him.
OT Deut 14 giving the tithe gives a picture of that as well
But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the LORD your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the LORD will choose to put his Name is so far away), 25 then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the LORD your God will choose. 26 Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice. 27 And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own.
Now wonder Psalm 100 with gusto says…
1 Shout for joy to the LORD , all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his [1] ;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Get the picture? Failure to see God is good, failure to trust that we are his people, failure to celebrate and enter God’s gates with thanksgiving, failure to see we are His, we are the sheep of His pasture, cared for, provide for, loved, will ruin our thinking, our lives, our sense of peace and joy.
How many of you know of the first thanksgiving celebration recorded in North American history? Clue: I am an explorer who celebrated the first Thanksgiving in North America, more than 40 years before the Pilgrims in Massachusetts. Who am I?
a) Samuel de Champlain b) John Cabot c) Martin Frobisher d) Jacques Cartier e) Hernando Cortez
A c) Martin Frobisher — in 1578, in what is now Newfoundland.
Got to remember these folks don’t even have flush toilets and yet they gave thanks!
So you see Canada’s not known only for hockey and “polite” people, which is not a source of thanksgiving these days, it is also the birthplace for the thanksgiving tradition. How about that? Canada’s history tells us that we are a people who have a heritage of thanksgiving. History appears to tell us Canadians are not whiners, complainers, but adventurous, tough yet appreciative of God’s providence. Like the Bible says we have no excuse in ignoring God, just look around, see the rain as an obstacle to golf game or a blessing that we don’t need to water the garden. Just amazed to see the salmon dancing in the streams, if God is not in it, then we are blind, suppressing the truth, it is plain. A complaining heart, a whatever rude, attitude, is a symptom that we have forgotten God is in our midst.
Are you glad we have Thanksgiving celebrations today to remind us God has not forgotten us? Question: How many times a year on average do Canadians eat turkey? a) 3.4 times b) 21 times c) 15.5 times d) 6 times
Ac) 15.5 times. More than half of the turkeys consumed annually are eaten on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
This day we have turkey and all the fixings to remind us and highlight for us that there is a Father, unearthly rich, generous, kind, graceful, giving, who protects us, who loves to provide for us that we recognize and stop and say thanks. That we have a God worth celebrating with and enjoys us while we say thanks! That is what our thanksgiving tradition is all about. Listen to this original declaration given some 400 years ago to the Pilgrims who came to North America for a better life:
"Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.
"Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three and the third year since ye pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings."
Do u see, feel the gratitude the pilgrims have in spite of not having all the conveniences of a 7-11? They came to wilderness, with nothing much as their hearts are tuned into God. God’s heart is longing for us to come home with Him, to enter His gates with thanksgiving? See the festive atmosphere, see the piñata, the joy, the sound, God wants a party and He is inviting us!
Can u smell the roasted meat for the party? I can only imagine what it’ll be like … The ecstatic enjoyment of God when lost things are found. Are you committed to give thanks to God today?
It really takes a commitment of faith in a God who loves us and gave Himself for us to make thanksgiving work! Without it, all that we will see is obstacles to joy. Why that Donald Trump clone fired me… why that jerk just cut me off, …
I don’t know if you have ever heard of the Gurkhas, but we would do well to learn from them. Their commitment to their cause was renowned, because they would simply not give up. They were known as the cream of the elite fighting units in the world. In the book, One Crowded Hour, Tim Bowden tells of an incident from the life of cameraman Neil Davis that speaks of the nature of commitment to a cause that made these fighters legendary in their time.
In 1964, during the confrontation between Malaysia and Indonesia, a group of Gurkhas were asked if they would be willing to jump from transport planes into combat against the Indonesians if need arose. They had the right to turn the assignment down as they had never been trained as paratroopers.
The Gurkhas usually agreed to anything, but this time, to the astonishment of all, they provisionally rejected the plan. But the next day one their NCOs sought out the British officer who made the request and said they had discussed the matter further and would be prepared to jump under certain conditions. When asked what those conditions might be, the Gurkha officer replied that they would jump if the land was marshy or reasonably soft with no rocky outcropping, because they were inexperienced in falling. The officer indicated that they would land in jungle, so that should be no problem, and was there anything else?
"Yes," said the Gurkha officer. "Could the plane fly as slowly as possible and not more than one hundred feet above the ground?" The officer pointed out that the planes always flew slowly, but to jump from 100 ft was impossible, because the parachutes wouldn’t have time to open.
"Parachutes!" said the officer. "Oh, that’s all right then. We’ll jump with parachutes anywhere. You didn’t mention parachutes before."
Commitment! Even without chutes, they were looking for ways to overcome obstacles to get the job done! Anyone of us could use such Gurkha-like commitment and courage.
And this brings us to our sometimes-nightmarish life that deals out deflating defeats and tough times with no hesitation. Our commitment to follow through to what the Bible commands in 1 Thess.5:18 “ 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” will be tested. Giving thanks is not limited to one day, but it is our language, dialect, our Christian way of speaking. God did not say give thanks for the lousy times, give thanks, a commitment to trust God in lousy times as well!
God is looking for Gurkha like commitment When we are committed in spite of obstacles, to Jesus’ call to a God who provides, knowing He is proud of us, we are His, the sheep of His pasture, God will see our dedication, our hearts, and He will be thrilled by your response.
Bottom line! We can be committed to pettiness, or we can be committed to Jesus!
6So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
8See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
9For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
The two cannot co-exist. There is no such thing as a bitter thankful heart! Either you are captured by the way the world sees things or you are living in trusting faith who has given you fullness in Christ! There is no such thing as a fresh salt water stream. There is no such thing as a spiritually mature complaining muttering spirit! Let us get right with God, if we have not been filled with thanks. Because it’s a sure sign we are worshipping circumstances, more than keeping our eyes on God who provides.
Ours job today is to get our eyes off our circumstances or opinions of people back to God, giving thanks. So when the day is done, will there be a commitment to give thanks because He is good, His love endures forever, or will there be a going back to looking at other people’s opinions, or circumstances. What will you choose to live your life by?
Today I am thankful that God has taken the job of providing for life today and eternally, will you join me in giving thanks to Him! My job is to point you to Him, God will provide, will you commit yourself Gurkha like to thank Him everyday who provides in every way?
