Scripture text: Psalms 100:4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
Happy Sabbath! Let’s start with a word of prayer. Happy Thanksgiving! Did you have a good Thanksgiving? I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! What would a wonderful thanksgiving look like? Lots and lots of turkey. Or maybe lots of time to sleep and relax. Would these things make a good Thanksgiving? What do you think would make this Thanksgiving holiday most wonderful? What if you had many many things to be thankful for? Were you thankful during these past few days? Did you take the time to realize how much God has blessed your life? Were you happy because of the many blessings that you have?
I recently listened to a tape of a female chaplain who worked at the Severance hospital at Yonsei University. Let me share with you some of the things that she spoke about. One day, this chaplain was in the lounge with the janitors. She heard the janitors talking about how they envied the cooks in the cafeteria. They envied the cooks because they received official recognition as hospital employees. So this chaplain went to go visit the cooks. She told them about how the janitors envied them. The cooks said, “We cook at home and we cook at work.? “Do you know how hot it is in here?? “We envy the office workers who have air conditioning.? So this chaplain went to the office workers and told them about how the cooks envied them. So the office workers said, “Why do they envy us?? If you want to work in the hospital, you have to be at least a nurse.? “You need to have direct contact with the patients.? “We envy the nurses.? So the chaplain went to the nurses and told them about how the office workers envy them. Their reply was, “Why do they envy us?? “The patients always want to see the doctor.? “They despise us.? “We envy the doctors.? So the chaplain went to the doctors and told them about how the nurses envied them. This is how the doctors replied. “Do you know how hard it is to be a doctor?? “There are so many strange diseases.? “And when we heal them, do you know what the patients say?? They say, “we are well because the chaplain prayed for us.? So us doctors become unimportant. We envy the chaplain. So obviously the most happy person in the hospital must be the chaplain, right? Wrong. Do you know who the chaplain envies? The female chaplain envies the pastor. She says, “I envy the pastor because I have to retire when I am 60, but the pastor can work till he is 65.? “And the pastor receives a bigger salary.? “And when I go to see the patients, they despise me.? “They always want to see the pastor.?
I’m sure that you see the point. People always find happiness by comparing themselves with others. And by trying to get what they don’t have. People without houses envy those with houses. A person with a little house wants a bigger house. A person without a job wishes they had a job. A person with a blue collar job wants a white collar job. We all do this don’t we. I admit it, I do it to. I’m trying to break out of this habit. But yes I do it.
By comparing ourselves with others do we find happiness? Do we find happiness by trying to get what we don’t have? Most of us spend a lot of time thinking about what we want. We do this for a simple reason. We believe that if we get what we want, we will be happy. But this really isn’t true. If you look at the workers of the Severance hospital in Yonsei University, you know it is not true. When you look back on your own experience in life, you know it is not true. You grew up. Your received a diploma. You earned rewards. You received a promotion. You raised a family. Many, many times in your life, you received exactly what you hoped for, but the happiness seems to disappear. Let me help you understand why this happiness seems to disappear. Let me share with you what I learned from a book called Shortcut Through Therapy by psychologist Richard Carlson. By the way, Richard Carlson is well-known for his best-selling series of books called Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff. According to this psychologist, happiness comes when we can lessen the gap between what we have and what we want. Our problem is that once we get what we want, we have a bad habit of letting our minds drift towards something that would be better. Our drifting minds keep us from having a spirit of thankfulness. Many of us have not learned to appreciate what we have. Instead we have learned to believe that the next desire, or the next achievement will be better. If we are in the habit of always focusing on what we want, we will always feel dissatisfied. For example, let’s say you won 10 million dollars in the lottery. Of course, we don’t play the lottery. But this is just for an example. You could win 10 million dollars in the lottery and still feel dissatisfied or worried if you focused your attention on the taxes the government would be taking out of your winnings. Do you understand what we are saying? It is where you place your attention that determines how you’re going to feel. So if we want to be happy, what should we do? We need to move away from focusing on what we think would make us happy. And we need to learn to focus on what we have. We need to learn to focus on what we have. We need to learn to be thankful for what we have.
Isn’t that what the bible says. In Hebrews 13:5, it says, “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have…” “Be content with such things as you have.? God says, “Be happy with the things that you have.? Psychologist Richard Carlson did not come up with some great theory about happiness. It’s been here all along in the Bible.
During this time of Thanksgiving, did you take the time to reflect on all that God has blessed you with? Was your heart overflowing with praise and thanksgiving to God. Could you sing Psalms 118 with David. David says, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for His is good! For His mercy endures forever.?
Or did you have difficulty finding things to be thankful for? A few weeks ago, I listened to a tape. It was about a pastor who lived for 18 years in a leper colony. He tells about an experience where a leper came running in from the field. The leper says to the pastor, “Look, look, one of my fingers fell off.? You are all aware of what happens when you have leprosy. You loose sense of pain, and your limbs begin to fall off. The pastor looks at the leper and says, “Why are you getting so excited about that?? The leper replied, “I am excited because I still have 4 fingers left. And with these four fingers I can continue to work in the fields.? Was this person content with what he had. You bet he was.
Friends, how many fingers do you have? Did you ever thank God for the fingers you have?
There is a story in the Bible about 10 lepers. It is found in Luke chapter 17. I’m sure you are all familiar with this story. Ten lepers came to Jesus for healing. Did Jesus heal them right away? Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priest. It was on their way to the priest that they were healed of their leprosy. How many of the lepers returned to give thanks to Jesus? One leper returned to give thanks. The others went their way, forgetting Him who had made them whole. How could these lepers be so ungrateful. This is what Ellen White says in Desire of Ages p. 348:
How many are still doing the same thing! The Lord works continually to benefit mankind. He is ever imparting His bounties. He raises up the sick from beds of languishing, He delivers men from peril which they do not see, He commissions heavenly angels to save them from calamity, to guard them from "the pestilence that walketh in darkness" and "the destruction that wasteth at noonday" (Ps. 91:6); but their hearts are unimpressed.
How are our hearts this morning? Are they unimpressed? Our Scripture text this morning was found in Psalms 100:4. “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.? How did you enter into this church this morning? Was there thanksgiving and praise in your hearts? Are we grateful for this church that we have. We are blessed to have nice comfortable pews to sit on. Aren’t you thankful for the heater? It is cold outside. Aren’t you thankful that there will be a nice delicious potluck waiting for us.
Many of us know that we should be thankful. But for some reason we just don’t feel it in our hearts. For too many years we have lived our lives with ungratefulness. Now it has just become habit for us to be ungrateful for the things we have. In many places Ellen White writes about the need to cultivate gratitude. We need to learn to be grateful. It takes practice. We need to develop habits of giving thanks.
Do you remember the last time you were very thankful? Maybe somebody did something for you. How did you feel? Didn’t it feel so good inside? It feels great to be thankful. What if we lived with an attitude of gratitude? How would we feel all the time? We would always be feeling great, would we not? Did the apostle Paul live with an attitude of gratitude. I think so. In 1 Thessalonians 5:16 he says, “Rejoice always.? How could he be rejoicing always? In verse 18 he goes on to say, “in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.? He was always giving thanks. That is the reason for his rejoicing. Thankfulness leads to rejoicing.
Let’s look for the many blessings that God has given to us. And let’s thank Him for them. The chaplain who worked at the Severance hospital encountered many patients. She met this one man who lost his legs in a car accident. He had to wear prosthesis’s (artificial legs). It was so painful for this man. If his leg grew a little, the prosthesis wouldn’t fit right. It would cause him pain. And so he would have to take pain killers.
Can you imagine how miserable it would be for this man? But there were people that envied this man. The chaplain met a former doctor who had the lower half of his body amputated because of diabetes. This person wished so much that he could be able to use artificial limbs even if it hurt. But he could not. This person said that he would give all the money he had if he could only receive one of his legs back. This person would have to move around in a wheel chair for the rest of his life. Could you imagine how miserable such a life would be? But there are people who envied this man. The chaplain met a person who was paralyzed from the neck down. This person could not even turn his neck from side to side. Someone had to be by this person’s side 24 hours a day and turn his body from side to side. This made it so difficult for his whole family since someone always needed to be by his side. He envied the people who were paralyzed from the waist down. He wished he could move his two arms. He envied those people who could ride around in a wheel chair. Could you imagine being paralyzed from the neck down. Hard to imagine. But there are people who envied this person. The chaplain met such a woman. You see, her husband was in a car accident and now suffered brain damage. The woman says, “My husband cannot see me.? “He cannot hear me.? “Even though I’m by his side all day, he doesn’t even know it.? “I’d prefer that he was completely paralyzed, but able to respond.? The woman said, “I don’t care if he made a lot of money.? “I don’t care if he could even walk.? “There is just one thing I want.? “I want to hear him say ‘yuh-bo’”. “If I could hear this one word, how happy I would be.?
Friends, take a look at your lives? Take a look at your spouse. Take a look at your children. How blessed are you this morning? Isn’t God good? I don’t know how you entered the church this morning. I don’t know what was on your hearts as you came in. But as we leave today, can we leave with hearts full of thanksgiving and praise? And although the Thanksgiving holiday is over, may we begin a journey. A journey of learning to give thanks to God. May we learn to thank him everyday for the rest of our lives.
