Date:
Text: I Thessalonians 5:16-18; Psalm 103
Title: A Thankful Heart
Theme: God is pleased with a grateful person.
Introduction:
In 1623, Governor Bradford of Ma proclaimed, “Inasmuch as the great father has given us this year an abundant harvest…….inasmuch as he has protected us from the raids, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God, …..I hereby proclaim that you and your families gather at the meeting house between the hours of 9-12, on Thursday, November 29th,….to listen to your pastor and render thanksgiving to the Almighty God for all his blessings.” In 1863, Abraham Lincoln declared it to be a national holiday.
Now, in the 21st century, Thanksgiving Day has taken quite a different path. Many think of it as a holiday signaling the arrival of the Christmas season. To the business world, their focus will be on the day after Thanksgiving, for this will give them an indicator of their Christmas sale. Of course, there is the turkey and when eat too much of it, one particular amino acid in it will cause us to feel sleepy.
In the midst of special sales and turkeys, the increasing secularization of this day, it will be appropriate for us, as followers of Jesus Christ, on this Thanksgiving Sunday to revisit the familiar theme of thanksgiving in our Christian life.
There was a movie scene about a family gathering around the dinner table on Thanksgiving Day. Just when everyone was about to dig in, one person suggested may be they should ask the father to give thanks. Apparently the father was caught by surprise and not knowing what to say and to whom he should give thanks to. After stuttering for a while, he said, “To whoever is out there…..”. Thanksgiving day gathering is a very awkward time for individuals who do not know or acknowledge God’s existence. It is also a very uncomfortable day for those who believe in God yet are proud and who seldom feel content.
So,
to whom do we give thanks? Looking at the scriptures, especially the psalms, it
is clear that we are to give thanks to the creator of heaven and earth. He is
the God of the Bible. He is also known as the Redeemer, the Messiah, meaning
the savior. He is the God who is loving, compassionate and righteous. He is the
almighty God. He is not just a benevolent force, but a unique God. He is not a
God in other religions. His nature and character are clearly defined in his
self revelation, the scriptures. This is the God we give thanks to. In 1 Thess.
II. Know what we give thanks for.
We all have a list of things we are thankful for. We thank God that we live in this country. We thank him for the job we have. Even while we are still looking for a job, he has provided us with food, clothes and shelter. We thank God for our health. This may not be the best of our years, health wise, yet he has given you strength for the day. We thank God for our family members, for his protection. We thank God for all the good that we experienced this year.
However, the scriptures tell us there is more than this. Let’s take a look at the list King David came up with.
1. Forgiveness of sins.
Psalm
103:3, “Who forgives all your iniquity….” We have to remember that under the
rule of David,
Whenever we come before God, we are like coming before a mirror, seeing our true self. We can hide from others what is within us, but not from God. During the last several Sundays, in our study of the Beatitudes, we see how inadequate we are. We see our pride, our insensitivity towards others. We seek power, money and health instead of seeking what is right in God's sight. So often our hearts are filled with anger, bitterness, resentment, immorality. We are far from being pure. When we are honest with ourselves, coming before this holy God, all we see is our sins and unworthiness.
We understand sin’s destructive power in our lives. It blocks our relationship with God, resulting in turmoil in our hearts, leaving us with no peace. Sin destroys human relationships, especially with those who are close to us. But the good news is that: when we acknowledge our sins before him, he forgives us completely. For this, we are thankful.
2. He heals our diseases.
Psalm 103:3, “….who heals all our diseases.” Some would use this verse as a promise that God would heal all our sicknesses. A closer look at the context of this verse will provide us with a different insight. David certainly is not saying that he did not get sick or that every sickness was healed. He knew first hand that when the son he had with Bathsheba was born, the infant died shortly after birth. 2 Samuel 12:13-14, “Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.” David’s sin was forgiven, but his son was not healed, he died.
In Psalm 103, David is affirming the sicknesses that God had healed him. The rest of the scriptures tells us that the timing and the how of healing is in God's hands. He alone decides when and what to do. Often he delays that healing until total healing in the life to come. We thank God for the healing this past year. We look forward to the total and complete healing when we see him face to face.
3. He redeems us.
Psalm 103:4, “who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you
with steadfast love and mercy.”
David is thinking of how God redeemed the Israelites from
In our personal life, we thank God not only for forgiving our sins, but also redeeming us from the bondage of sins. We are no longer under the control of sin. Yes, sin will still influence us, but cannot control us anymore.
More
over, David is also talking about how God redeems, saves, pulls him up from the
pits of our lives. He can definitely remember certain moments in his life when things
could not get any worse. The time when he had to pretend that he was crazy in
order to survive. He had to run and hide from Saul, or his betrayal by his own
beloved son, Jonathan. Or the time when his daughter was
raped by one of his sons. Nothing could be worse than that. However,
David knew that he didn’t stay in the bot
I
can think of how some of us felt that you had hit bot
4. A renewed strength.
Psalm 103:5, “Who satifies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” David is not saying that he would get younger and younger. He is not advocating that God will help us to live till 150 to 200 years old. Instead David is saying that as God gives me what is good for my spiritual well being, my inner strength will be renewed like that of an eagle. Paul gave us a good commentary on this. 2 Cor 4:16, “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day..”
As we walk closely with God, even though our physical bodies get weaker and weaker as we go through the aging process, our inner spirit is being renewed everyday.
III. We give thanks in circumstances that we do not call for.
1 Thess 5:18, “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Please note that it does not say “give thanks for all circumstances”. We do not have to give thanks for the sickness or other tragic events in life. We do not give thanks that we have lost our loved ones or jobs. We do not thank God for the broken marriages around us. Instead, in all situations, we give thanks to God. This is difficult. We all face difficulties in life. How we handle our difficulties is what makes the difference. I would like to suggest two reasons we can give thanks in all situations, even when it is difficult and definitely unwelcome.
First, when we are in difficult situations we are not alone. Isn’t it true that loneliness is something we fear most? In that familiar Psalm 23:4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Isaiah 43:1-4, “…..Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…Fear not for I am with you…”
You see, its not just anyone, or any warm body that is with us, but it is the creator of the universe, the one who loves and died for us. With him by our side, whom do we have to be afraid of?
Secondly,
when we are in difficult situations, we give thanks to God because we know he
is there working. Romans
Frances Havagel was a hymn writer. She had written almost 8000 hymns. Many of her hymns are found in our hymn book. Such as; “I gave my life for you”, “Like a River Glorious” and “Take my life and let it be”. She lost her eye sight after a botched surgery. The surgeon felt so guilty he couldn’t forgive himself and went to a different city. Later on in her life, in an interview she was asked what would she do to the surgeon if she met him again. Her response, “I would say, thank you, thank you, thank you.” You see, even in that tragedy, God was working for the good of Frances Havagel. Not only for Havagel, but also for the good of the entire family of God.
Conclusion:
What does all this mean to us as a church family? I feel sad that several of our elderly members have left us and went to be with the lord, bringing great loneliness to their spouses and families. Yet on the other hand I see you beginning to come out of that dark valley of sorrow. For this we are thankful. I think of individuals who shared of the freedom they experience in Jesus Christ. One individual after the heart wrenching breakup of her marriage by her husband, who filed for divorce, shared with me that she is feeling so close to God. There are those who have recommitted themselves to God and the ministry at this church. My heart is so touched when I see Dong Dong’s father getting baptized this morning. Nothing hurts a parent more than seeing your young child receiving chemo or radiation therapy. Yet in the midst of such pain, Xue Jun has decided to publicly express his faith in Jesus Christ through baptism.
As a church we certainly have gone through a lot this year. We do not thank God for the crisis we went through in June. To do so is wrong and not biblical. For what happened was not pleasing to God. Personally, we may have also gone through great pain, or still in the midst of it. But in the midst of such crisis, we thank God for his goodness and faithfulness towards us. We thank God that when we, the church went through the deep water and blazing fire, He was there with us.
What
did he do in those days that we can be thankful for? For me to give you an
answer will only sound superficial. However, I would like to share with you again
these familiar words from “God Moves in a