Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Circumstances of Thanksgiving*

(Whole Bible)

 

Introduction

 

On lady reported in an article I read not long ago that after a grueling day of training, which had included a ten-mile hike and completion of a difficult obstacle course, her son Eric’s platoon of raw recruits quickly fell into bed.

As Eric lay in the dark, he heard a voice recite a prayer:  “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I should die before I wake, /thank you, /Lord.”

There was a brief pause and then several voices said in unison, “Amen.”

I sincerely hope it will not take such drastic circumstances to bring thanksgiving to our hearts.

A lot of fringe benefits come from being thankful.

When we are truly thankful, our outlook will almost automatically be brighter.

It’s hard to complain when you are being thankful, is it not?

A grateful attitude would make all of us easier to live with, right?

But far more importantly, expressions of thanks will be constant reminders of the love and goodness of God.

We read in Psalm 136: 1) Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

When we are living with a grateful heart, we are constantly reminded that the Lord is /only/ good and that His love is overwhelmingly forever.

/And in that process we are building eternal worth right into our lives – increasingly becoming what we were meant to be.  /

 

To see how invasive thanksgiving should be in our lives and to see how this works out in practice, I want us to take a look at some of the various circumstances in Scripture when thanksgiving is instructed and practiced.

We will get a flavor of the life-changing, life-enhancing and life-enobling characteristic that attach to cultivating a grateful heart.

First circumstance 

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*I.                  **When Times Are Good*

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This probably seems self-evident, but when things are going well, that is a great time to give thanks.

The Bible is replete with people giving thanks in good times.

For example, we have David fulfilling a great desire in his life in I Chronicles 16 when at long last he brings the Ark of the Covenant to the City of Jerusalem after a great deal of difficulty sometime in the late 900’s BC.

You may recall that this was the Ark that dated from the time of Moses and contained The Ten Commandments; a pot of manna and Aaron’s rod – all important reminders of God’s faithfulness to the nation – but most of all, it represented God’s presence with the people.

No wonder David was excited.

We read in verse 1: 1) And they brought in the ark of God and set it inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God.

The burnt offering was given to seek forgiveness from sin.

A primary purpose of the peace offering was to express thanks to the Lord.

In verse 4 we see that 4) Then he appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the Lord, to invoke, to thank, and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel.

In verse 7 David pulls out all the stops: 7) Then on that day David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the Lord by Asaph and his brothers.

It is vitally important that in the good times we recognized the hand of God and thank Him.  /We must never chalk it up to coincidence or somehow think it is due to our own ability that we have been blessed/.

The God who is always good deserves our thanks and recognition.

I think it is interesting that not only are there good consequences for thanking God, there are less desirable consequences that come */from failure/* in this area.

Hezekiah was a good and Godly man, king of Judah, living many years after David between 728 and 699 BC.

By that time the kingdom of Israel had split and Hezekiah ruled the southern two tribes who retained their national identity after their brothers to the north went into Assyrian captivity during the time that Hezekiah was king.

Though he basically ruled well, Hezekiah blew it near the end of his life.

In II Chronicles 32:24 we read, 24) In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death (you can read more about it in II Kings 20), and he prayed to the Lord, and he answered him and gave him a sign.

25) But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him (that is, he gave no thanks), for his heart was proud.

Therefore wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem.

This is an interesting passage because it illustrates the one basic alternative to giving God thanks.

The alternative is pride and it can so easily capture us – /does/ so easily capture us all at times.

You may have heard the story about the woodpecker.

He was pecking away all day on a tree, not making much headway.

I was raised on Woody Woodpecker cartoons and thought a woodpecker could zip through a tree in seconds.

I remember being extremely disappointed the first time I saw a real woodpecker.

It didn’t seem like he was getting anywhere.

Anyway, as the woodpecker in our story was laboring away, a thunderstorm developed and somehow a bolt of lighting struck the very tree occupied by the woodpecker, splitting it from top to bottom.

The woodpecker was knocked to the ground by the strike and stunned in the fall.

As he recovered he got up and brushed himself off.

He shook his head, looked at the damaged tree and said, “Boy, that was some peck!” 

 

Folks, that’s us when we don’t give God thanks for what He has done.

We are taking credit and robbing Him of the honor that is due Him.

You say, “Wait a minute, I did all the work.

God had nothing to do with it.”

May I ask, where did you get the air you breathed?

Where did you get the talent to accomplish the task?

Where did the coordination required come from?

How about the mental capacity?

It is not my intent to deny the hard work and effort you put in, but, just as David did, we need to acknowledge the hand of God in the good events of our life.

Rather than be proud, we should be humbled and grateful for what He has allowed that give us such pleasure and joy.

James 1:17 says 17) Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

Not much to be proud of there, but a lot for which to be grateful.

And it glorifies God to acknowledge His gifts.

*II.

** When Victories Are Small*

 

Let’s go next to the book of Ezra, chapter 3, in our little sojourn through thanksgiving in the Bible.

The year now is 535 BC.

Israel reached her apex of glory in the building of Solomon’s temple in 930 BC, 400 years earlier than this.

Then came degradation, idolatry, */incessant complaining (the anti-thanksgiving, by the way)/* and eventually captivity for the nation.

At this juncture they have returned from captivity and begun to rebuild the temple.

The foundation has just been laid and we find this starting in Ezra 3:11, “11) And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.”

And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.

12) But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, 

 

Interesting picture, isn’t it?

Some are rejoicing greatly.

Others are weeping.

Why do they weep?

Because they, the older generation, had seen Solomon’s temple and they realized that what was now being built was nothing compared to what had been and so they wept.

I suppose they had a right to weep.

But on the other hand, here were some people doing their best in a situation that they couldn’t help and Beloved/, there is something to be said for giving thanks even in the accomplishment of small tasks/.

The reality is, in God’s work there is no such thing as a small task.

If it’s done in the power of the Holy Spirit it is of eternal value.

/You can’t put a price or a size on that which is eternal.

/ I was working a project with one of the faculty secretaries at the seminary where I taught many years ago.

As we talked I made a passing reference to something that was going on in the “little church” that I also pastored at the time.

I did not mean anything derogatory by my comment.

It was more a term of endearment than anything, but that wonderful secretary didn’t take it that way.

She let me know in no uncertain terms you should never speak of anything God is doing as little.

She and her pastor-husband had been many years in ministry and it had been their lot to always serve in small churches.

But she had rightfully learned that there is no such thing as smallness in God’s work.

The application here is clear.

We need to consider all of our work, whether large or small, secular or sacred, recognized or not, as being done for God.

We need to give our absolute best and then thank God for whatever results.

We doing our part – He doing His.

It can’t be any better than that.

When it comes to gratitude, let’s make sure we’re not overlooking the little things.

Chuck Noll, the old coach of the champion Pittsburgh Steelers from the 1970’s used to say, “Champions are champions not because they do anything extraordinary but because they do the ordinary things better than anyone else.”

So if we are thankful for the small things God has entrusted to us, we will give out absolute best and that will glorify Him. 

 

 

*III.

** When There’s Not Enough*

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We find another interesting circumstance for thanksgiving in John 6.  Again, it goes against the grain, but we need to be thankful when there is not enough.