thanksgiving

sorry for not putting the last 8 sermons up to both of my readers out there, but the good news is... here's a new one:

The foundation for Thankfulness
Heb. 12:28-29


Gratitude: doesn’t it usually seem insincere when it’s even offered today? We say, “thank you,” to be polite, but do we really mean it. I’m sure the business manager you just bought from means it, the sales person whose making money means it – but don’t we usually just get in our cars after that and cut people off and honk our horns and yell at each other. Thankfulness runs shallow in our culture.

Wed. night at Taco Bell. Thank you was not my first thought, it was why me, why now? As long as I am at the center of my thinking, gratitude is light because I’m hardly ever satisfied: don’t we all agree with that?

You can choose churches based on preference, yet Paul and Silas worshipped in prison – which is a sign of gratitude?

You can order Girl Scout cookies, and they say “thank you, here are next years options”. That’s not satisfied, that’s hunger.

You can feed the hungry, and they get hungry again.

Where is the thanks?

In this series on gratitude I hope to present some realities that will cause us to respond with thanksgiving. In these 4 weeks leading to Thanksgiving, a time when this country stops and gives thanks and permits gluttony and then splurges the day after in the biggest shopping day of the year to feed our material hunger, I hope that we can embrace contentment and gratitude, so that Thanksgiving this year takes on a fuller meaning of thanks, not demands, thanks, not expectations, but thankfulness that should characterize Christians.

So this won’t be easy, we’re in election time where everything is screaming at us to demand our rights and fight for ourselves. When do we tell our senators and mayor and governor and president “thank you.” We don’t do that in our culture. So how are we changed ourselves and become agents of change that point to Christ, celebrate with joy and gratitude?


Read Heb. 12:28-29.

These 2 short verses give us the reason to fulfill the command contained: Let us be thankful.

That’s kind of an odd command – Be thankful! Yet we’re told throughout the New Testament just that. It can feel like telling someone that they’re going to go out and have fun, whether they like it or not. I remember my dad trying to get me to go along on something I didn’t want any part of and he would say, it’ll be fun. But I knew better, before long, I would feel like I needed to go whether I wanted to or not, and I needed to like it. Just going along doesn’t change the attitude.

Let’s not go into this looking for mandatory thankfulness, but for deep, abiding, authentic gratitude.

Why should we be thankful?

I. The solid shake (a kingdom that cannot be shaken)
a. We are given a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Let’s ponder that for a minute: through all the hard times, the terror of living today, our kingdom cannot be shaken.
b. Just this week I was dutifully at work at the office and the phone rang, it was Amy. Always glad to hear Amy’s voice, I asked how her day was going and she said, well, I have a situation. I thought back to Wed. night at taco bell and thought the kids must be up to something. Turns out it wasn’t the kids at all, but a rather aggressive person at the door trying to get in. They were claiming they needed baby formula, for a 10 month old (normally at 10 months you can eat at least baby food, if not cereal, and some adult food). It sounded fishy, and I was 3 miles and 20 minutes away. My mind was racing, we live in a day when everyone works – none of our neighbors would be home, no one does the work at home anymore (except Amy). So I knew help was not close. We worked out a plan and Amy spoke with the person trying to get a name and address where we could deliver help, or a phone number that we could call. They didn’t have a phone and didn’t want to give her any more info. Amy told them about the Rescue Mission, get help there, They said they called their earlier in the day and help wasn’t available. Hmmm… no phone yet making calls. By now I’m ready to come home and start acting like a wild man. The person leaves, and Amy says it’s over. So we hang up and I thank God nothing happened, and then the phone rings again, apparently a friend of whomever has shown up and is in the street on a bike acting like they’re coming off a bad high. They ended up leaving after we decided to call the crime watch. At that moment, when the friend showed up and Amy hit redial, I couldn’t help but trust God and the unshakeable kingdom. No matter what bad or good would happen, know that right now our God is for us. He is for you believer and he is giving you an eternal kingdom and it cannot be shaken. There is always refuge in the storm and hope in the crisis.
c. This kingdom is the Kingdom of Christ.
i. Jesus, let’s review, was born to a teenage virgin mother over 2000 years ago in a hick town with a terrible reputation (Nazareth, nothing good can come from there). He came into life a miracle, grew up and worked miracles to confirm He is the Son of God and the message He brought. The people liked the miracles and not the message and killed Him, on a cross. In so doing they did God’s pleasure, to sacrifice His son for the sins of everyone. Christ became our righteousness and the mediator between God and man. Until that time people killed animals as sacrifices to remind them of their sin and need for a good bath. Heb. 9:11-15. In Christ there is now freedom for everyone who believes: freedom from sin and the law that leads to death and freedom to live in the Spirit that leads to life. Christ, v. 15, has paid the ransom. When the ransom is paid, the trapped are freed, never to be trapped again. The wrongs we’ve done are gone from God’s site. Christ is our hope and salvation and because we have Christ we can enter God’s presence through the Living One, Jesus, and receive the eternal inheritance that he has for us. We, in other words, can enter into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And once we are with God, who is it that can oppose us? No one. What can separate us from His love? Nothing. The cross of Christ is the ground of gratitude.
d. When we live ungratefully we trample on the cross. We declare that Jesus and the cross are not enough and that our sin appetite hasn’t been filled with the ransom, it still wants more, and when we don’t get it, we complain. So the ground of gratitude is Jesus. The place of his execution is also the seed of thanksgiving, and joy. So first and foremost hold to Christ, cherish Him, learn about Him and from Him and grow in gratitude.
II. This kingdom cannot be shaken…
a. But what about the really hard times – you’re diagnosed with cancer, a friend dies, a marriage disintegrates, our sin catches up and we’re distraught, or we lose a job. How can we be thankful for that?
i. The cross was costly, yet we are thankful for Christ on it. Jesus did His Father’s pleasure on it. As horrible and painful, it was also necessary and joyous. The hard times of life can cultivate greater gratitude. How to develop a mindset of gratitude:
ii. Hebrews 12:1-12 (read).
1. Discipline is a sign of love, thank you dad, for the spankings. It never felt that way, but its true. Some of you probably long for a dad who cared enough to discipline you and not just give you a key and credit card and say “don’t screw it up.” Such parenting is illegitimate. A note to parents, let your discipline be love and don’t think that letting something slide doesn’t matter, it shows your lack of love – and possibly selfishness. Discipline has the good of the one being corrected in mind.
2. Fix your eyes on Christ – he endured for you, as an example, and brings promised joy. His example encourages us to go on.
3. V. 10b – God disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness. Look at the end of the road, not the potholes: discipline produces a harvest of righteousness and peace. Don’t run from it, the wise man heeds discipline. Embrace it and learn from it. We’re growing into the image of Christ, that will one day be made complete when our bodies are resurrected and made new. In that day, at the end of the road, we have reason to rejoice!
III. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for “our God is a consuming fire.”
a. Our grateful response to God for this loving discipline and unshakeable kingdom is worship, with reverence – consider Christ, and awe – consider the love of God!
b. Our God is a consuming fire, a fire must be fed and he wants all of you, not for an hour on Sunday morning, but 24/7. He wants a generation of Super Walmart Christians that are never closed to Him but always open and available.
c. This quote comes from Deuteronomy, the 2nd reading of the Law in the OT. The last of the books written by Moses, and the law that Christ has fulfilled. Here is the original sentence:
i. “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” This statement concludes a section on idolatry: read deut. 4:15-24.
ii. The problem with idols is that they look great, are popular, but are mute, deaf, and statues (usually, but money can be today). They don’t hear our prayers, speak to us, or work for us. They’re powerless. They are of the kingdom of the earth, and usually an image of creation. They attract us but have no power beyond attraction. The cross of Christ, and his teaching to take up your cross and follow, is not attractive, but it is powerful. God is a jealous God – he wants our worship and all of it, no worshipping porcelain thrones or green paper or power or cars or songs or grades or a better life. Worship God alone. He deals decisively and finally with evil and sin. Back to Hebrews, 12:25-27. In Moses’ words we were warned on earth, in Jesus we have been spoken to from Heaven. There is a final shakedown coming, only the unshakeable will remain. The attractions of life, material goods, idols of our day will be shaken out. God is a consuming fire that wants all, not part, and in the end we will, thankfully, gratefully, eternally, be His in Christ. If you’re in Christ. If you’re holding to something that will shake out, why treasure it? God’s wrath isn’t popular, but popularity doesn’t determine validity. It is real. Hold fast to the grace, hope and love of Christ, for our God is a consuming fire. And be all the more grateful.

Pray.