(053) Give Thanks for He is Good
Give Thanks for He is Good
Psalm 118:1; Philippians 2:14-15; Colossians 3:12-15
November 30, 2008
Prep:
· Sermons: Phil. 10, John 7 and 18,
· Leftovers: DPL article
· Col. 3:1ff; Ps 118
Intro:
I think I was supposed to give this sermon last Sunday, but because of the announcement about Peter and Cecil’s candidacy, it was pushed off.
· Please comment this week, before Elders’ meeting.
I still really wanted to preach this sermon about thanksgiving and gratitude because of how much I learned; a whole new perspective of thanksgiving.
· There will be time for Q & A.
prayer
· Mocabees
Try harder!
Part of preparing a sermon is reading other sermons on a topic. This is not laziness, and my work is original, but humility, to recognize that God has spoken through others, but I was disappointed this time.
Most of the sermons I saw on “being thankful” mainly comprised making us feel guilty for not appreciating all of the good stuff we have as Americans and making up lists of these things.
First, guilt motivation seldom produces lasting change. Second, it ignores the fact that we can be in real suffering even in the midst of bounty.
· It’s easy to sneer at Hollywood stars in the midst of trouble because they are “rich and famous,” but they still suffer.
The foundation for thankfulness does not lie is what we do or do not have, or what has happened to us, but it lies in who God is, in his faithfulness, love, and goodness.
· This will be an unusual “thanksgiving sermon” because I’m not asking you to think about what you have to be thankful for.
Becoming more thankful doesn’t consist of trying really hard to think of everything but focusing on how good God is.
· At the end of this sermon, we should all have a better sense of how cool God is and how grateful we are to him.
Ä To get there, we will look briefly at four aspects of thankfulness that we don’t usually think of:
1. Thanksgiving as act of faith.
2. Thanksgiving as an act of humility.
3. Thanksgiving as act of worship.
4. Thanksgiving as act that unifies.
BTW: “Thanksgiving” and “gratitude” as near synonyms, but the difference is that gratitude is the attitude that inspires the acts of thankfulness.
Gratitude: The Heartbeat of Pauline Spirituality
I want to begin by reading from “Dictionary of Paul and His Letters,” a scholarly collection of articles on Paul’s writings:
Gratitude is not only [Paul’s] response to his overwhelming experience of the grace of God; it is also the prospective attitude that he carries — and exhorts believers to carry — into their daily life in the world.
For Paul, thanksgiving marks the dividing line between belief and unbelief, between the obedient and the disobedient heart. It is in the expression of gratitude that one truly honors God as the creator and Lord of the world (Rom 14:6). On the other hand, a lack of gratitude is a primary sin against God.
· The key thought here: “...thanksgiving marks the dividing line between belief and unbelief...”
Thanksgiving as act of faith
Psalm 118:1 ESV: “Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!”
· Notice thanks is given both for the past and present (“he is good”) and the future (“his steadfast love endures forever”).
Thanksgiving and gratitude demonstrate that we believe that God is good; he loves us and cares for us. The fact that he has been good in the past gives us hope that he will continue to be good.
Conversely, ingratitude demonstrates a lack of faith, not believing that God is good, in control, and taking care of us.
· If the action of gratitude is thanksgiving, then the action of ingratitude is grumbling and complaining.
Philippians 2:14-15 ESV Do all things without grumbling or questioning, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world...
What makes this example important is that Paul is alluding to the Israelites. Their example is important because time and time God worked in amazing way to save them, but each time a new crisis came up, the panicked and started grumbling.
Q Sound familiar?
Our habit of ingratitude in the face of hardships demonstrates that we don’t believe the God is taking care of us. How much more so when we fail to thank him when things are going well?
· That probably indicate that we think we earned it.
Faith perspective, not rose-colored glasses
This is not a “Pollyannaish” everything is great, don’t worry, be happy. This is a foundation of faith that allows us to be thankful for what God has done and will do.
This is not about optimism and pessimism, “the glass is half full/empty.” This is about trust that no matter how full the glass is, God has promised to fill it to overflowing.
· In order to be people of thankfulness I think our focus can’t be on our circumstance, which change all the time, but in him.
Accordingly, it is not only possible, but proper to be thankful for something that has not happened. Not even the specific things, but the firm knowledge that God will do what is good.
· Our hope lies in God, nothing more or less.
“But all shall be well,
And all shall be well,
And all manner of things shall be well” (Julian of Norwich)
Ä When our hope is grounded in God, our hearts overflow with gratitude for all he’s done and will do, but there’s a big IF.
Thankfulness as humility
· We will be grateful, IF we are humble.
Thankfulness is an act of humility. A proud person is seldom grateful because he thinks he has only gotten what he deserves.
· A core foundation of Christianity is that we don’t deserve anything, and that everything we are given is grace.
We walk around with this silly notion that our time, our possessions, or relationship are “ours.” But they are all his because he made them as gifts to lavish upon us.
An atheist complained that Christians are “condemned to live in this posture of gratitude, permanent gratitude, to an unalterable dictatorship in whose installation we had no say.”
· To him gratitude is a bad thing.
· How many children do you know who will pass up their birthday gifts rather than saying thank you?
Again, this goes back to faith: The more clearly we see and believe in God’s goodness and overwhelming grace to us, the more grateful we become.
Ä From this position of humility, thanksgiving naturally flows out as praise.
Thankfulness as worship:
We can do absolutely nothing to repay God’s goodness or to earn it, again, that is grace.
· All we can do is draw attention to how God he is, which is another way of describing worship.
Our mission statement says: “We are a Christian community striving to glorify God and engage our culture.”
· I try to touch on one of these points in the majority of my sermons. This week it is “to glorify God.”
To glorify God means that in everything we do, think, feel, or say, we are becoming more captivated by God’s grandeur, love, holiness, and the entirety of his greatness, that we are acting accordingly, and that we are causing others to do the same.
· Glorifying God does not mean that we add to his glory, it means that we more fully see it and help others see it.
When we are a people of faith-driven thankfulness, we are glorifying God and showing the world how good he is.
But when we are chronically ungrateful and complaining, we are communicating to our culture that God is not good, that he hasn’t taken care of me. It’s like “anti-worship.”
Our first response of gratitude or ingratitude, in even the most mundane things in life, demonstrates our attitude about God.
· Everything we do is an opportunity to glorify or dishonor God.
Ä There is one last aspect of thankfulness that you probably haven’t thought of – I hadn’t.
Thankfulness as a unifier
In Colossian, Paul makes an interesting connection. These paragraph breaks follow what is happening in the Greek, in order to show you the main points.
Colossians 3:12-15 ESV Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved,
compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and
patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a
complaint against another, forgiving each other;
as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.
And be thankful.
The context is about unity, and Paul give four commands:
1. Put on all this stuff that builds community.
2. Put on love (bringing harmony).
3. Let peace rule (with the purpose of being one body).
4. Be thankful.
The first three commands are about unity. Do you think the last one is as well?
Q What does thankfulness have to do with unity?
· Everything.
Being ungrateful and disunity have similar roots: pride, fear, self-centeredness, not trusting that God is in control.
But on the other hand, when we are thankful, it means that we are trusting God, we are seeking to glorify him with everything we have, and we are living in humility.
· There is little room for ill will or bitterness when thankfulness prevails.
Q & A
closing/Application:
With all of the struggles and challenges of life, it is easy to get down and lose our spirit of thanksgiving.
· Our goal is to refocus on God and our faith in him, as an act of humility and worship.
As we go into worship, I want each of us to ask the Spirit to show you if you are a thankful person.