Thankful
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Welcome
Welcome
Welcome and good morning! It is a blessing to be here with you today. I know I’ve been out of the pulpit for a few weeks and it is good to be back here with you.
I know that we all have a busy week this week.
High on my list of priorities this week is getting some pie. I don’t call Thanksgiving, “Piesgiving” for no reason at all. The way I see it, pie always has something to give.
I hope that you can find some time in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the week to find time to be thankful. In fact that is what I’ve titled the message today. ‘Thankful’
The Lexham Bible Dictionary Thanksgiving
THANKSGIVING
1 Come, let’s shout joyfully to the Lord, shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let’s enter his presence with thanksgiving; let’s shout triumphantly to him in song. 3 For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods. 4 The depths of the earth are in his hand, and the mountain peaks are his. 5 The sea is his; he made it. His hands formed the dry land.
[pray]
How long has it been since you shouted out joyfully to the Lord in thanksgiving?
I must be honest that I think our refined sensibilities keep us from shouting joyfully to the Lord. We don’t seem to have trouble shouting during a sporting event or a concert with one of our favorite singers. However, we are resistant when it comes to shouting out to the one who has told us to shout out to him with a voice of praise.
I recall my father calling the Hogs, the Arkansas Razorbacks, even while on his death bed.
However, shouting to the Lord? Shouting in church? Probably many of us would feel weird about that.
Yet, the psalmist makes this a normal part of giving thanks. Entering into his presence with thanksgiving requires a triumphant shout.
Verse 2 says to ‘shout triumphantly in song.’ Yet some of us can’t even do that…
[monotone]I have decided to follow Jesus.[/monotone]
Jesus’ Prayers of Thanksgiving
Jesus’ Prayers of Thanksgiving
Jesus prayed a few prayers of thanksgiving, primarily for meals.
A. In the Feeding Miracles
A. In the Feeding Miracles
4 Now the Passover, a Jewish festival, was near. 5 So when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat?” 6 He asked this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to have a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish—but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place; so they sat down. The men numbered about five thousand. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks he distributed them to those who were seated—so also with the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 When they were full, he told his disciples, “Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.” 13 So they collected them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had eaten.
Now there’s a bold prayer with some power!
When I was a little kid on a few occasions we had some surprise guests stop in around dinner time. My mom would say something about about adding some water to the beans or some potatoes to the roast. She was talking about ways to stretch the meal for more mouths to feed.
Jesus had this opportunity when the disciples brought him a small quantity of fish and bread to feed a large crowd.
Now you and I both know that my mother probably wouldn’t have been able to make a meal like that stretch for so many people.
But Jesus made it stretch and then some.
He did this after being thankful for what he was provided by his Father in heaven.
Some of us might see the little that Jesus was handed and look out at the crowd and say “Lord, this is never going to stretch far enough to feed this crowd!” But Jesus said, “Lord, thank you for what you have provided and make this be enough and then some.”
Jesus knew that this was an opportunity for God to show his power to his people.
I don’t know whether you are having a large crowd over to your house this week. But if you’re trying to make your budget stretch to feed a crowd, don’t forget to be thankful this Thanksgiving.
We can see multiple occasions where Jesus was thankful in the New Testament. Every single account of his feeding large crowds is accompanied with a word of thanks. Let me be clear here that the gratitude is not for the miracle, but for the provision.
Jesus was thankful for what God provided.
B. At the Last Supper
B. At the Last Supper
Additionally, Jesus gave thanks—not once but twice—during the last supper that he had with his disciples before his death.
26 As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take and eat it; this is my body.” 27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
When we repeat this supper every month, as we remember our Lord’s sacrifice, we also give thanks. Our thanks is not for the provision, but for the gift of salvation that was imparted unto us.
We have opportunities every single day to be thankful. Still, some of us struggle with this because of the circumstances that we are in.
How Can We Be Thankful?
How Can We Be Thankful?
1. Put Away Worry & Anxiety
[Show the Prayer Card]
With our prayer number and our little prayer cards that we distribute here in our community I hear from a LOT of anxious and worried people. I hear about issues like, relationship troubles: boyfriend/girlfriend husband/wife, family problems: parents/children, financial trouble: loss of income/no transportation, anger issues, depression and anxiety over illness or death of a loved one.
People around us every day are worried, anxious, grief-stricken and just battered by life.
Let me tell you something, if you are worried you cannot be thankful. But Jesus had a solution for that.
25 “Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? 27 Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. 30 If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith? 31 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. 34 Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
God gave us a promise in his word, in fact Jesus himself told us that God will provide for our needs if we can keep him in the proper place.
2. Forgive and Be Forgiven
Sometimes we let old hurts and hangups keep us from finding thankfulness. The easiest way to deal with those are to put them behind you and move into an attitude of forgiveness.
I should probably do a series on forgiveness at some point. We don’t always do forgiveness very well. You see, forgiveness requires us to have a bit of humility and self-awareness before we can find it within us to forgive others.
Sometimes we need a little bit of help putting these things behind us. That’s okay. We can look to trusted friends, our brothers and sisters in Christ, a minister or counselor. All of these can be good options to find forgiveness.
3. Stop Telling Others What Worries You
Another thing that we sometimes find ourselves doing is rehearsing our worries. We sometimes do this by repeating them to ourselves or to others. But if we’re not going to embark on a counseling session with a trained counselor, there are times that rehearsing our worries binds us to them.
Yet there is one place that we can go with our worries, and that is to God, the Father. God can take our worries and our anxieties and help us to get over them. And when we do that hard work that is required, we can sometimes put our worries behind us in a healthy way.
4. Count Your Blessings
Another way that we can put our worries behind us is by counting our blessings.
Count your blessings Name them one by one
Count your blessings See what God hath done
This may seem too simple to actually work, but believe it or not it can work.
By remembering the blessings that we have and thanking God for them it can really help us to deal with our worries and our anxieties.
And that leads to the final point in my little formula...
5. Tell Others What You’re Thankful For
What good is it if you have all these things to be thankful for and you keep them inside and don’t share them with others. This is not bragging, it’s celebrating God for the work that he has done in our lives.
So here’s what we’re going to do. I’ve setup a few microphones here at the front.
We’re going to celebrate what we’re thankful for.
My dad used to do this every Thanksgiving when we’d gather as a family. And as kids, we thought it was so corny… but it’s not.
Share with us what you’re thankful for.
And let’s get creative, we know you are thankful for your family. We’re all thankful for our families. What is God doing in your life that makes you thankful?
My mother’s family used to get together every Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the old timers would stand up and say “I’m just glad to be here” And maybe that’s all they could find to be thankful for. But tell us what God is doing in your life that makes you thankful.
This is what Thanksgiving is about...
[share thanks]
“Understand this, you who forget God, or I will tear you apart, and there will be no one to rescue you.
Whoever offers a thanksgiving sacrifice honors me, and whoever orders his conduct, I will show him the salvation of God.”