November 20, 2005
THE INGREDIENTS OF THANKSGIVING
Text: Col. 1:3-14 (focus on vs. 12)
Well, it is certainly hard to fathom today, but Thanksgiving is once again upon us. It doesn’t seem like a year could have come and gone since we celebrated our first Thanksgiving in our freshly completed sanctuary, does it?
But are you not still thankful for the blessing it has been to us over that time?
AMEN?
We, as a congregation, have been blessed in so many ways, have we not?
SAY AMEN!
I want to address the idea of the Ingredients of Thanksgiving this morning.
Now I’m certain that most of you have traditions or traditional foods that make Thanksgiving Thanksgiving at your house…for your family.
For all of us or at least most of us turkey is traditional. Now at our family gathering there is always also a roast or a ham, BUT IT WOULD NOT BE THANKSGIVING WITHOUT TURKEY.
Maybe some of you ladies, or even some of you men, have specific recipes for the stuffing or the desserts that have become a family Thanksgiving trademark.
For most of us here today, there are components or ingredients to our family celebrations that, if forgotten, would most certainly change the mood, if not remove some or all, of what Thanksgiving has meant to your family.
What I want us each to consider today is that
-even as there are necessary ingredients essential to your family celebrations of Thanksgiving
SO ALSO
-There are those things that are SPIRITUALLY ESSENTIAL for Thanksgiving to truly be Thanksgiving.
In the passage we read together, Paul is expressing his thanksgiving for the companionship the Christians of Colossie have afforded him. This whole 1st chapter of Colossians is an expression of Paul’s joy and thanksgiving. But vs. 12 has contained within it 3 necessary ingredients to true thanksgiving. Instructions the Apostle is giving to the church and, indeed, to us today. Those three essential ingredients are:
1. An appropriate attitude
2. The acknowledged agent
3. The acceptance of abundance
I. AN APPROPRIATE ATTITUDE
It’s Thanksgiving Day and the aroma of roast turkey fills Charlie Brown’s house. Snoopy, outside, lying on top of his doghouse, smells that aroma, and he is thinking, “It’s Thanksgiving Day. Everybody eats turkey on Thanksgiving Day.” So he lies there, watching the back door, eagerly awaiting his Thanksgiving dinner.
Finally, the door opens and here comes Charlie Brown with a bowl of dog food, and he puts it on the ground. Snoopy gets off his house and stares at the dog food with a forlorn look on his face. And he thinks, “Just because I’m a dog, I have to eat dog food on Thanksgiving Day.”
Then the next square shows him looking at the dog food more intently, and he is thinking, “It could be worse. I could be the turkey.”
(Melvin Newland – Sermon Central)
I’ve been following with great dismay the letters to the editor in the Wichita paper…written remarks regarding the family who received the beautiful new home following the fire that destroyed their home. You may be familiar with the situation.
- Rose Hill family
- Home burnt last winter or spring.
- Someone submitted their name to one of those
TV shows.
- The TV show builds them a new home.
- Then someone donated a new pickup to the
family
- Then WSU or some benefactor gave the
daughters all full scholarships.
- Some of the remarks in the letters to the
editors have been absolutely venomous.
- People resent them getting so much.
Why is that? Is it not because they resent someone having more than they themselves have?
- Like children who squabble over who got the
biggest piece.
*I don’t know about you, but personally, I’m glad it was not my house that burnt down.
*I’m thankful I didn’t have to live in my in-law’s basement for 6 months. (Boy am I thankful!)
*I’m thankful it’s not me who people now write about so caustically, who people resent.
You see the proper attitude for Thanksgiving is cultivated not by looking at the blessings of others and comparing with our own, but by viewing our own blessings as sufficient in themselves.
Paul says: JOYFULLY GIVING THANKS
Joy is contentment in whatever circumstance.
Joy and discontentment are essentially
opposites.
The proper attitude is cultivated not by looking at what we lack, but rather by an appropriate acknowledgement of what we do have.
Illustration:
The young man was feeling very proud of himself. As a brand new college graduate he had taken the CPA exam and passed with flying colors. Now he as a full-fledged Certified Public Accountant. His father had been an immigrant to the U.S., and now owned his own little business. Filled with self-importance, the young man began to criticize his father’s way of keeping books. He said, “Dad, you don’t even know how much profit you’ve made. Over here in this drawer are your accounts receivable. Over there are your receipts and you keep all your money in the cash register. You don’t have any idea how much money you’ve made.”
The father answered, “Son, when I came to this country the only thing I owned was a pair of pants. Now, your brother is a doctor, your sister is an art teacher, and you are a C.P.A. Your mother and I own our home. We have a car and we own this little business. Now add that up, subtract the pants and all the rest is profit.”
(Steve Shepherd, SermonCentral)
That’s what we each one need to do this Thanksgiving. Add up everything we have, subtract what we began with and realize the rest is pure blessing.
This is an essential ingredient to Thanksgiving - HAVING THE APPROPRIATE ATTITUDE.
II. THE ACKNOWLEDGED AGENT
(Giving credit where credit is due)
Paul says: “Giving thanks to the Father”
Giving thanks to God.
A little boy offered up a Thanksgiving Day prayer for the family and prayed: “Dear God, this is Jimmy. Thank you for Thanksgiving and Christmas and all of the holidays. Thank you for the turkey and dressing and Mom and Dad and even for my little sister, even though some times she can be a pain. Thank you for books and TV and game boy. Thank you for loving us. Oh, yeah, and take care of yourself, God, because without you, we’re sunk. Amen.”
(Joel Vicente – Sermon Central.)
I can’t think of a better understanding to possess than that.
Thank you God…
Because without you, we’re sunk.”
There’s a familiar saying that says: “The self-made man has a fool for a creator”
Paul says exactly that when he writes in Romans, chapter 1.
“Professing to be wise, they became fools.”
WHY?
Because they refused to acknowledge God.
And doesn’t it seem rather foolish to you that someone would observe…Someone would participate in Thanksgiving when they acknowledge no one as the source of their blessings.
Practical Illustration
- Stop and think this morning about the wonderful flexibility of your arms.
*They go up, down
*They have a full range of motion in front of
you.
What’s the one area of restriction in our arm movement?
Our back
Do something with me. Pat yourself on the stomach. Pat yourself on the head. Now pat yourself on the back. You can’t really do it can you? Maybe, just maybe, that’s why God made our arms that way. So that we might understand dependence. That God is behind us scratching our backs for us.
That’s the second essential ingredient in being thankful.
Acknowledging the agent = God
III. THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE ABUNDANCE.
Paul says: “Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of God.”
Have you ever received one of those contest things like the Publishers Clearing house Sweepstakes? “You have already won” You’re a winner” Then inside in the small print “If your number matches… If your winning number is drawn…
Now most of us are certain we are not really going to win.
- The odds are a zillion to one.
But somebody always does win, don’t they?
- What’s the absolute certainty that you won’t
win?
YOU DON’T RESPOND
YOU DON’T ENTER
(even with such poor odds you could win if you enter)
(But you won’t if you don’t)
Let me suggest that’s what Paul is telling us.
- God has qualified us for the grand prize.
- And unlike the others WE ARE GUARANTEED
WINNERS.
(Whosoever will may come)
- He sent us the acknowledgment that we’ve qualified (His love, His blessings).
All we need do is submit our acceptance.
All we need do is send back our reply, “Yes,
I want to claim my prize”.
We do that with our Thanksgiving…
Our acknowledgement that He is the agent of all good gifts around us.
By exhibiting the appropriate attitude – being joyful at what God has done or us.
Conclusion:
That’s the question before each and everyone of us today.
