Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

When was the first official Thanksgiving Holiday?

Believe it or not, it wasn’t 1621!

In the fall of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued two landmark statements.

The first was the famous Gettysburg Address in which Lincoln commemorated the battlefield of Gettysburg.

The other statement, made just weeks before, may be a bit more surprising.

On October 3, 1863, President Lincoln instituted the first official Thanksgiving holiday.

Lincoln wrote, “It has seemed to me fit and proper that [the gracious gifts of the Most High God] should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.”

Thus, Lincoln set apart the last Thursday of November as “a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father.”

Apparently, in the midst of the worst war our nation had ever seen, Lincoln thought the time was ripe for gratitude.

We may be tempted to think Lincoln’s statement of gratitude was inappropriate, naïve, or even offensive.

Reading the entire text of Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, however, disabuses the modern reader from the conclusion that he had (somehow) forgotten about the Civil War.

Lincoln candidly addressed the horrors of the Civil War, a war “of unequaled magnitude and severity” that had transformed tens of thousands of Americans into “widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife.”

But he coupled this hardship with hope, recognizing the hand of God guiding him through the valley of the shadow of death.

Conflict and gratitude.

Hardship and hope.

Lincoln wasn’t confused.

He was seeing thanksgiving through a biblical lens.

While it might not seem natural to have hope or be thankful in the middle of difficult times, this is what we see from Christians around us and this is what we see prescribed for us as followers of Christ today from the Bible!

See, Christian Thanksgiving didn’t start in 1863… it didn’t start in 1621… Christian Thanksgiving has been around for 2,000 years as followers of Jesus Christ have paused at various points in time to simply give thanks to God for what Jesus has done for us.

During this busy and crazy week and season of the year, let’s be sure that we pause and remember why it is that we truly give thanks today.

It’s not just because of the turkey, pie, or family reunion coming up later this week… we give thanks because of what our Savior has done and what He commands us to do today!

This morning we’re going to study out of the book of Colossians in the New Testament.

If you turn about 3/4 of the way through your Bible, you’ll probably be close!

This book was written by Paul to a group of Christians in the city of Colossae.

This is a primarily positive letter as Paul simply reminds these Christians of 3 simple words over and over: Jesus is King!

Colossians helps unpack how we should live our lives in light of that reality.

Today, let’s study in Colossians 3:11-17 and see how we can have genuine Thanksgiving because of the truth that Jesus is the King of the Universe.

Christian thanksgiving is more than happiness or having a positive attitude.

Christian Thanksgiving extends to our heart.

Christian Thanksgiving is Based on Fact, Not Feeling (12a)

We live in a world where people have trouble at times giving thanks.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that we’re living in a world that struggles with manners nowadays.

Some of you were raised to say yes sir, no ma’am, thank you, and no thank you.

Today we live in an age of individualism where so many are concerned primarily about self that manners are a foreign concept in the same way that Latin is a foreign concept to 99% of the world.

What has changed so much in our world?

Our identity.

There was a time in which people treated others well and gave thanks and encouraged others not necessarily because it was easy but because it was seen as the right thing to do to other people.

There was a corporate view not just an individual view.

This has changed so much in recent decades to the point that our feelings determine almost everything about us.

What we think matters most of all.

If you don’t feel good then you kind of have an excuse to treat others poorly because you don’t feel good.

If you feel like you’re right then you’re obviously right, because feelings matter more than anything.

If you think this is crazy and not happening then you’re partly right because it is crazy, but believe me it is happening in our world.

People place a higher priority on feelings than facts.

This is called Expressive Individualism.

We feel certain things and what we feel inside should express itself outwardly.

Our society says that what we feel is ultimately authoritative and what we feel must be affirmed by everyone else because feelings matter most of all.

Feelings do matter.

God created us to feel certain ways and certain things.

Suppressing all of our feelings is a bad thing!

The problem comes whenever we think that our feelings determine reality.

This is a Greek word called bologna.

It’s not true!

What determines reality?

Truth does.

See, our feelings change.

One minute you might feel happy, the next you might feel sad.

As a child you probably thought that the opposite gender was weird and one day that feeling changed as you began to have some interest in the opposite gender!

Feelings change and this is a normal part of being a human.

If we change and if our feelings change, what do we all need?

We need an anchor.

We need an objective standard for truth that exists outside of ourselves.

We need something to look to to guide us in this thing called life, especially whenever our feelings and thoughts change a little bit.

Where can we find that type of standard?

As Christians we know that the solution is God’s Word! God’s Word determines what is true - we have to submit to what God’s Word says.

So, what are the facts according to God’s Word?

We are sinners who are separated from God

Jesus Christ alone saves sinners

It doesn’t matter what you or I feel, we have fallen short of God’s standard and this is bad news!

Even if you feel like you’re a pretty good person, the Bible shares that we’re all sinners and that separates us from God.

The solution isn’t to try harder or be a nicer person, the solution is to repent of your sins and place your faith in Jesus.

Regardless of our feelings, these are the facts of God’s Word.

How do these facts help you and I throughout this life?

On the one hand we don’t like receiving bad news because it might make us feel like a failure to come capacity, but on the other hand these facts and other facts in God’s Word can guide us and provide us with hope because they will never change.

There will never be a person who doesn’t need Jesus and there will never be a sinner too bad for Jesus to be incapable of saving them.

These are good things whenever you find yourself in a bad place!

The facts from God’s Word are authoritative and they are there to encourage and challenge and convict us.

Look in our text this morning, Paul begins this text by talking to his brothers and sisters in Christ and he starts out with that pesky word: therefore.

What has he just gotten done talking about?

He’s discussed how we are united in Christ.

Who is united in Christ?

Those who are Christians!

Those who were walking in darkness and who have been raised to walk in newness of life.

Those who have put off the old self and who have put on the new self

So who is Paul talking to in verse 12 and following?

Christians!

What does the Bible say about Christians?

Verse 12 calls Christians, “God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved.”

Church, here’s some good news.

You might feel like an absolute failure at times, but if you’re a Christian, that failure has been forgiven.

You might feel like you don’t have a home, but if you’re a Christian, you’re a dearly loved brother or sister and you have a family to call your home.

One preacher traveled to Istanbul, Turkey and was talking with 3 elders at a church and they were all of different ethnicities: 1 was Turkish, 1 was Armenian, and 1 was a Kurdish.

If you know those people groups at all, you know that they have some violent history and lots of bloodshed in recent years!

Yet, here 3 of them are not only in the same church but they are pastoring together as equals in that church.

How on earth can that happen?

Because they understand that even though they might not always feel the same way and even though they might have feelings of bitterness against things that have been done against their ethnicities in the past, they have been called by God and God has brought them into the same church family!

The fact of being called God’s chosen, holy, and loved people transcends our human feelings.

This is how it works with thanksgiving as well in the life of a Christian.

We might not always feel like giving thanks in this life.