A "Real" Thanksgiving"

Intro: The Holiday season is upon us. Over the years, I have noticed that for many, the holiday season is a mixed bag of excitement and nostalgia, anxiety and sadness.

Most of us I think reminisce of when we were a child. Many of us wish we could feel that way again. Which often leads to even greater feelings of disappointment.

Often all the pressure to be “happy” around the the holidays can make suppress our true feelings making feel almost hollow inside but today I want to tell you how you can be real yet thankful.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (CSB)

18 give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

The most common Hebrew noun used for “thanks” (תּוֹדָה, todah) derives from the verb “to praise, confess” (יָדָה, yadah).

In Greek:

Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 33.349 εὐχαριστέω; εὐχαριστία, ας

33.349 εὐχαριστέωa; εὐχαριστία, ας f: to express gratitude for benefits or blessings—‘to thank, thanksgiving, thankfulness.’

In some other languages the word for “thanks” is expressed this way:

“You have made my heart warm”.

Isn’t that beautiful.

Isn’t their a part of us that longs for the warm and fuzzy feeling that the holiday movies portray.

How often do we seek in the holiday season the very feeling that is supposed to be a result of us resting daily in the goodness of God?

The problem is that no earthly celebration or object can truly do in us what a grateful heart toward God can.

Is it no wonder that often we often overwhelmed when the holidays come and then once they pass we feel underwhelmed by the experience. Nothing can take the place of knowing God. To know God is to be thankful. To experience God is to have peace.

Thankfulness is a two way experience as we recognize the goodness of God and praise him for it.

Something happens in us. Our hearts are filled with peace.

Psalm 28:7 CSB

7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart celebrates, and I give thanks to him with my song.

In many of the the thanksgiving Psalms you will see this pattern that takes place.

Praising God - Trusting God- Peace

This is the context in which our text today makes sense.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 CSB

18 give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

In every season of life if we call to remember the goodness of God, we will also remember that he can be trusted and live in peace.

When we remember the goodness of God and praise Him for it.

we can say with others, “you have made me heart warm”

Trans: But there is a danger of a false thanksgiving. To illustrate this let me read to you the following account:

We may offer fervent expressions of gratitude in the prayer meeting and sing aloud in the praise service, but our real sense of indebtedness must manifest itself in more practical ways. A king had saved the life of one of his subjects, and every day afterwards she came to his gate with protestations of gratitude. “I can never begin to pay the debt I owe him,” she bewailed. One day the king, in his chariot, passed her cottage. He saw in her garden a tree bearing some luscious fruit, and was seized with a desire to taste it. When he sent his servant with the request that he be given some of the fruit to take to the king, she replied that she only had enough fruit to meet her own needs. She thus laid bare the fact that her expressions of gratitude had been mere words which lacked the element of truthfulness.

AMG Bible Illustrations, Bible Illustrations Series (Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 2000).

Here is the reality the King needs nothing from us. Yet he desires from us a grateful heart. He only asks from us fruit of which he himself has already graciously provided for us.

Yet how often do we remember him with our lips yet forget Him with our lives.

True thankfulness will always result in a heart that is generous with God. In this we will be truly greatful with out lives.

Psalm 116:12–19 CSB

12 How can I repay the Lord for all the good he has done for me? 13 I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. 14 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. 15 The death of his faithful ones is valuable in the Lord’s sight. 16 Lord, I am indeed your servant; I am your servant, the son of your female servant. You have loosened my bonds. 17 I will offer you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord. 18 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, 19 in the courts of the Lord’s house— within you, Jerusalem. Hallelujah!

Today we are going to spend some time together thanking God for his goodness.

To help with this idea we have provides these Card. Once you have filled them our. We will read them out lout and then attach them to this cross. In Remembrance for what God has done.