FBCWest 634 | Giving Thanks
Recorded On: 11/24/2024
Bulletin
Hymn # 231 “As We Gather”
SCRIPTURE READING – Psalm 50:5 & 6 & 14 & 15
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“In the House”
“Echo Holy”
“Your Promises”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Giving Thanks”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“This Is Amazing Grace”
Benediction “Egypt”
Sermon Notes
Psalm 92:1 – 4 It is good to thank God
1 Thessalonians 5:18 It is God’s will to give thanks
Ephesians 5:20 Give thanks always
1 Chronicles 16:8 – 12 & 23 – 35 An example of praising God
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
Thankfulness. There seems to be several stages in thankfulness. As parents or perhaps when we were children, our parents taught us to be polite and say thank you when somebody gave us something. And then because we hear things like to live a thankful life, it makes you more happy, and so you hear people talk about an attitude of gratitude and that they are thankful for, like I'm thankful for my family or I'm thankful for my health. But there are at least two more stages of thankfulness that the Bible talks about, that people rarely really include in their thankfulness. I encourage you to listen to this message as life.
My mother, like most parents, taught me to be polite and to say thank you when you've got things, but she went a little further than that and hopefully as most parents not only to be polite but to mean it. And so when I was a little boy and my brother had, who was substantial older than me, had been drafted in the army and had been served his time and was living with us. It was Christmas time and I really really really really really really really wanted an electric slot car and track. And so Christmas came and there was this box wrapped that seemed to be in the exact right dimensions of what I had wanted and I was very excited. Now at that time I didn't know that older siblings like to prank younger siblings. I was innocent. I thought this is what I really wanted and I was excited and I tore open the package only to find out it was a plastic truck with wind-up cars, not what I wanted. Now I had been taught to be thankful and with all the internal gusto I could, I said thank you and I tried really hard to sound like I meant it, but I was disappointed. Then after my brother had got his laugh, seen me as disappointed as I was with what he had jokingly got me, he gave me his real present which was the electric car set that I wanted. And so there are times like I said when we are taught to be polite and it's easier to be polite, it's thank you, it's not that hard to say. Sometimes it's hard to mean it, but then we go on and we try to teach our children not only to say the words of be polite and mean it, but we hear people say well you live a better and happier life if you have a life of thankfulness. So we have this attitude of gratitude and people talk about being thankful for things and so you'll hear people say well I am thankful for my family, which I always kind of I find that amusing because usually the people say I'm thankful for my family, can't wait for the like the Thanksgiving dinner to be over so they can go to be with their friends. If they were really honest they should say I'm thankful for my friends, not I'm thankful for my family. But you know that's kind of what you the polite thing that you're supposed to say. Or I'm thankful for my health. We oftentimes talk about thanksgiving as what we're thankful for. But the scriptures want us to go beyond being polite, being generally thankful, and beyond saying that we are thankful for something. So I want us to take a look at this time about being thankful and to see what the scriptures talk about thanksgiving and being beyond that politeness or the attitude of gratitude. And so if you have your Bibles and you should, the first scripture we're going to take a look at is Psalm 92, the first four verses. And it says this, "It is good to give thanks to the Lord." Notice it didn't say it right out the beginning that it is good to be thankful for my family or thankful for good health. It is good to give thanks to the Lord. Who gives us our family? Who gives us our health? Who gives us the things that we are thankful for? And so often Paul we go in our thanksgiving time and talk about the things that we are thankful for and we ought to be thankful for them. We seem to never thank God who is the one who gave us the things that we're grateful for.
So first off, it is good to give thanks to the Lord. That's a step I hope that we continue on to be thankful to Him and to sing praises to Your name almost high.
It's not an attitude of gratitude, it is an attitude of thankfulness to Him. And then I'm not going to say thank You, but I'm going to sing His praises.
And generally while you can sing a dirge, generally speaking, when people sing, they're singing of the blessings and the benefits and those types of things. We're not depressed while we're singing generally. There are depressing songs, but there are most of the time when we're singing it's because we're joyous. So we are to sing praises to Your name almost high.
To declare Your loving kindness in the morning and Your faithfulness by night. Now it is good that our country sets a day to give thanks.
And so much so that we made it a national holiday.
But thanksgiving is not a day event. It is an everyday and every night event.
It's kind of like the joke that says that the guy gets up and goes, "Oh Lord, it's morning." As opposed to, "Good morning, Lord." We have this attitude and so we should be rising up in the daytime saying, "I'm going to declare His loving kindness in the morning because He is awesome to me."
And when my day is over and I'm tired and exhausted and can't wait for my head to hit the battle, the pillow, I'm going to talk about Your faithfulness at night.
You see a person who thanks God in the morning and at night probably doesn't have a lot of time to be bitter during the day.
They are truly thankful. And it says, "With the ten-stringed lute and with the harp, with resounding music and upon the lute for You, O Lord, have made me glad by what You have done. I will sing for joy at the works of Your hand." So then this almost says, "I praise God because of His loving kindness from morning to night."
But I'm going to also acknowledge that He is the one that made me glad. It's not the circumstances that have made me glad. I'm not happy in happenings. I am glad because of the joy that the Lord has given me by what You have done. And I will sing for joy at the works of Your hand.
We can sing about God's creation and we can sing about the love that we experience and we can sing about those things that has come into our life that have been counting our blessings. Those types of things. And so it is good to give thanks to God.
Not just to be thankful for something.
And then it tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5, 28, "And everything you thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." So not only is it good for us to give thanks to God, it is God's will that we give thanks. Now, I find this very interesting in this.
People will write books about God's will and what we should do. And how we should find God's will in various things. And to have a purpose driven life and all these other things that we find and whatever. And yet in a very few words, we are told something that is God's will.
That in everything, we give thanks.
In everything, we give thanks. Now, if you can't do this, why are you going to go on the next time and find out what God's will is for your life? If you can't do the thing that is a very few words for us to do.
So, for instance, the story I just told about my brother pranking me, I can give thanks, how? Because I have a story to tell you about thankfulness. If nothing else, his pranking me gave me a sermon illustration so I can give thanks for that. There are things that we can do and see that God has done. Because again, it doesn't say everything is great.
We're also told in Romans that for those who love God and those who are called according to His purpose, that He takes all things and makes them for good. So we can say, "God, I don't know what you're doing now, but I will give thanks for you for this difficulty, this opposition, this trial and tribulation, because you're working it for my good.
And that I'm going to be a better disciple because of this. Or I'm going to be more understanding or loving or merciful because of this." And so God, and things that I don't like, I can give thanks because it is God's will for me in Christ Jesus.
And in case, well it's one time, in Ephesians chapter 5 it says this,
"Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father." Always giving thanks. Again, it is not a one-day event. It is a morning, tonight,
24, 7, 365 and 66 days a year. So we always give thanks for all things.
Like I said, even those terrible things that we don't quite understand yet.
But God has told us that we are to be thankful to Him for things. And that we are to always give thanks for everything.
So when we are thankful for our families and for our health, we should also be thankful for other things that at that time we may not think is to our benefit.
It is not just an attitude of gratitude. It is a determination that I am going to understand that I am not entitled to anything, that I am not entitled to God's love and mercy and grace, but because of who He is, He gave it to me. If He can give it to me, He can probably give it to you.
And so this "attitude" is not an attitude, it is an understanding
of the blessings that He has given me because of who He is and not entitled to it. And so that I give thanks always for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I am going to now turn to an example in 1 Chronicles chapter 16. Now the context is this. The Ark of the Covenant had fallen into the hands of the Philistines.
And while the Philistines had it, they kept breaking out in boils and diseases, and they decided it wasn't a good idea to keep this thing because they just kept getting sick while they had it. So they brought it and dropped it off at the border. And because the children of Israel didn't understand God's Word, they decided that they would put the ark on a cart rather than carrying it, and the cart almost stripped over on the ark. And to prevent it from falling, a person touched it and God struck them dead because God said, "You don't put it on a cart, you carry it." So just because you did something wrong, trying to stop something else from going wrong is not going to make you absolved of the situation. And so everybody goes, "Whoa, wait, wait. If this happens..." And so they lifted it at this guy's house
because they were scared. The Philistines didn't want it because they kept getting sick. The children of God didn't want it because they struck them down. And then an interesting thing happened. While it was at this guy's house, God started blessing this guy and blessing him and blessing him and blessing him. And David goes, "Wait a minute. This guy's being all these blessings because he has the ark of the covenant. I'm kidding. Maybe I should have the ark." So they decide to take the ark from this guy's house. And David learns from his first mistakes and he has the priests carry the ark. But as they travel, they sacrifice various animals every so often in worship. And then David also dances in front of the ark and his wife was upset because it's not dignified for the king to be dancing in front of the ark and whatever. And so these things are happening. And so as the ark gets to Jerusalem, they decide they're going to put it in a tent because a building hasn't yet been built. And God later tells David, "You're not the one who's going to build the building. I'll let your son do it." And so they're going to put this ark. And at the time, this is the song of celebration and thanksgiving. And so this is what the song says in Chronicles. "O give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name." Again, notice they're not thankful for the ark. They're giving thanks to God and saying, "Call upon the name of the Lord and make none his deeds among the people." Now here's something that's simple to understand. If you can't tell people in here how awesome God is, how you're going to tell people out there how awesome he is. So you can get practice in here telling people about how awesome God is and how awesome his deeds are so that you can as well refine your testimony so when you're out there you can talk about how awesome God is. Sing to him, sing praises to him, speak of all of his wonders. All of his wonders. It could take our lifetimes to tell of the wonders of God.
Glory in his holy name.
Glory in his holy name. And again, notice the thankfulness here. It isn't God. You've been so wonderful to me. No, God I'm going to just glory in who you are.
That I'm going to treat your name as holy,
holy and lifted up. I'm going to glorify your name. Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad. Now you can tell somebody you love them. You can tell the Lord you love.
But I suspect they won't believe it if he said, "I love you." That really sounds convincing.
Let your heart be glad. Let your heart be glad. You tell them.
Seek the Lord and history. Seek his face continually.
And again, notice they're not saying seek the stuff. Seek the blessings.
Seek the things that you are thankful for. Seek the Lord and history.
And I suspect if you have his strength, you'll have more than enough strength to do whatever he has called you to do. And seek his face continually. There was a gentleman by the name of Moses who would meet God.
In order to meet God, his countenance shone. He had to cover his countenance for two reasons. One kind of spooked everybody that he had this shiny face. And the second thing, it was when he was not with God for some period of time, his shiny face started to dim. And he didn't want people to notice that the shiny face started to dim.
Because it was distracting. So I'm trying to tell you to do something, and all you're looking at is my shiny or lack of shiny face. So he did this.
How different would we be? Not just the shiny face, but how different would our lives be? How different would our testimony be if we sought continually the face of God?
When you do that, you are obviously different than everybody else. Unfortunately, even Christians.
Remember his wonderful deeds which he has done. His marvels and his judgments from his mouth. So again, it's not inappropriate to thank God for what he does. Because what he does is awesome.
I mean, if you start from let there be light to I'm giving grace to Joe Davis.
There are innumerable things that we can praise him for.
Later on in the Chronicles it says this, "See the Lord all the earth."
You see, singing to God's praises is not limited to we believers.
Everybody ought to be singing to the Lord. All the earth. The Scriptures even says that because of our sins, nature itself is groaning for deliverance. And it says that if we don't praise him, even the rocks will cry out. All the earth seeks to proclaim his awesome deeds. Proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day. Not just one day. Day to day.
Tell it his glory among the nations. His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. Again, we are to tell of how awesome God is within our sanctuary, within our people, within our congregation, and we should do so. But we should not be limited to here. And quite frankly, we're not. It's why we film it and put it on various social medias so that we might demonstrate who God is throughout the whole world. To tell all the peoples his wonderful deeds. For great is the Lord. For great is the Lord. And greatly to be praised. We have a great Lord who is entitled to great praise. He is also to be feared above all gods.
We need to let people know that our God is God. That he is great. That he has been, who he has been all the time of earth existence. Many of your people say, "Well, the God of the Old Testament is not the God of the New Testament." I've just been reading from the Old Testament. It's talking about how merciful and loving kindness the Lord is forever and ever and ever. He's not different. He's the same. The God who delivered his people out of bondage of sin is the God who died on the cross and led us out of the bondage of sin. And did so not because we deserved it or as entitled to it, but because of who he is. We need to be thankful to a great and awesome God. It is good to give him thanks. It is his will for us to be thankful.
When we come close with one parable that Jesus gave, it doesn't have to do with gratefulness.
But it has the same concept.
Jesus is without a banquet. He was talking to a bunch of religious people.
And they couldn't believe how God treated this sinner and what she was doing and all these things. And he goes, "I got a question." If a person was indebted a small sum, we'll say in our parlance, $100.
And he forgave that $100. And another person was indebted to the same person for a million dollars. And he gave that $100. And he gave that $100. And another person was indebted to the same person for a million dollars. And he forgave the person a million dollars. He said, "Who would be more grateful? Who would love the bastard more?" And not wanting to say, "I suppose the one who was forgiven much." To whom much is forgiven, much love.
When we understand exactly who we are, we should be like the person forgiven the million dollars, grateful for every single thing that God has done.
And not only has he forgiven our sins and our trespasses, and not only has he made a way for us to be called the children of God, and not only have we been given the opportunity to dwell in his house forever, and not only do we have the situation where we walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil because he, you, are with me.
He also gives us blessings upon blessings upon blessings upon blessings, those that we see now and those that we perhaps will not see for an additional period of time, if at all. But he still does so. Not because we are entitled to it, but because that's who he is.
And so this time of thanksgiving, it is my challenge to me and to you to give thanks, not just for thanks, but to give thanks to him because he deserves it, because that is his will