Thankfulness Overflow

I read a news story once of a woman who was getting ready to jump off a 44 story building in New York City.

Witnesses said that she did not look like the type of person who would do such a thing. She was very distinguished and well dressed.

All the attempts made by the police to get the woman off the ledge had failed.

One of the officers asked if he could call his pastor in to see if he could help. When the pastor arrived, he asked permission to go to the ledge and talk to the woman.

As the pastor neared the edge the woman screamed, "Don't come any closer or I'll jump!"

The pastor took a step back and then said, "I am sorry that you believe no one loves you."

This got the woman's attention and it got the attention of the police. That was something that you don't usually say to a person who is threatening suicide.

The woman took a step towards the pastor and said, "My grandchildren love me and so does my children. My whole family loves me! I have 8 wonderful grandchildren and they love me."

The pastor took a step towards the woman and said, "Well then, you must be very poor, maybe that is why you want to take your own life."

The woman who was a little overweight said, "Do I look like I go without any meals? We live in a very nice apartment. I'm not poor."

The pastor took another step closer to her and was now 3 feet from her when he asked, "Then why do you want to kill yourself? I don't understand."

The woman thought for a moment and then said, "You know, I don't really remember."

The story ends with the pastor and the woman walking towards the elevator as she shows him pictures of her grandchildren. Eventually this woman becomes a volunteer on the city's suicide hotline, helping others choose life.

What did the pastor do to help this woman?

He helped her get her eyes off herself and onto the many ways that God had blessed her.

She learned a valuable lesson that day. She learned that thankful people are happy people.

If you don't learn anything else today, I hope you learn this valuable lesson. Thankful people are happy people.

There is an old proverb that says “A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues.”

In today’s passage from Scripture we read one of the most pure prayers of true thankfulness and gratitude. Here we find David situated on the throne of Israel. The promise that God had made him some 10 years before had come to fruition. It had been 10 years since God anointed David to be King of Israel; I get impatient if it takes 10 minutes to receive what I believe God has promised me! And in that time he had been on the run from Saul, fleeing for his life, leaving his home and family behind; David likely saw more adversity in a day than many of us will see in a year- and yet he remained sold out to the promises of God, and God remained faithful to him.

After all the ups, and all the downs and everything in between he finds himself sitting in the throne room of Israel basking in the glory of being king; and God reminds him of his faithfulness to him and his house; and makes another promise to David. God’s promise- God’s covenant with David is a miraculous promise that brings forth the path for Jesus to enter this world generations later- God will establish his house forever.

But the thought for today is less about the actual promise and more about David’s heart and response to it. David’s heart of thankfulness. And what we might consider today- what does this prayer teach us about a heart of thankfulness?

Pay attention to the first 3 words of this prayer “Who am I?” A heart of thankfulness flows from a proper perspective of who you are. So many times we are tempted to declare THIS IS WHO I AM! We make and construct images of ourselves that we project and declare for the world. We tell our kids “you can be anything you want to be” and perhaps that is true- but the truth is less individualistic than that- I can be anything God calls and created me to be! This idea of THIS IS WHO I AM has blown up to grotesque levels to know we can ignore biology and gender to allow kids to decide what gender they are; perhaps nothing more points to the problem with convincing ourselves that the only person who get’s to define who we are is us.

As Christians and followers of Jesus we find our who we are by not looking inward, but looking upward. I am who I am because God say I am. Our first thought if we want to be thankful should be a reminder of how much we need Jesus and his grace.

In the story of Job we see the wrestling between a man who had everything and lost it and a God who still held everything in his hand; and it astounds me how God answers Job in the midst of Job’s questioning. Listen to a few of the questions God asks Job in ch 38

Where you there when I laid the Earth’s foundations?

Have you given orders to the morning, or showed the dawn its place?

Have the gates of death been shown to you?

Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or seen the barns holding rain?

Can you bind the chains of the Pleides or loosen Orion’s belt?

Do you raise your voice to the clouds?

God is dropping the mic on old Job. He is- in a not so gentle way- reminding him of who he is- you are not the center of the universe Job- I AM.

There are times in our lives when we too get a little too big for our britches and need God to level with us.

But there is another moment in Scripture on the other side. For in Psalm 139 we read some of the other things God says about us:

God knows when we come and go, when we lie and sleep

God knows the words on our tongue before we speak

There is no place we can go where God’s presence is with us

We were knit together by the hand of God in our mother’s womb

We are fearfully and wonderful made

So, just as there are times when we are too big for our britches, there are other times when we are too negative with who we are, and in both cases our first question should be “Who Am I, oh God?”

But it can’t stop there, because David declares something else extremely important in this prayer. 7 times he addresses God as “Sovereign Lord”

David’s prayer is a reminder that a thankful heart is also built from understanding who is in charge. The word sovereign means “possessing supreme authority” For something to be sovereign it means that it is the #1, cannot be overdone or outdone, and will supersede all things in a given situation.

For example, if you fall off a ladder gravity is the sovereign force at work- it will prevail. If you fall, you will hit the ground, there is no willing yourself from stopping it, there is no one else who can prevent it- gravity wins. Now, imagine that same thing in every situation- God’s sovereignty means that God wins and his will will prevail- period.

Can I tell you, there is so much security in trusting the Lord. If you stop and consider all of the things God controls and works on our behalf, and how amazing it is to have a God as BIG as ours who will still be personally involved in our lives; how can we be anything but thankful?

I saw this picture this week:

https://mobile.twitter.com/AliZafarsays/status/1593300901065695233

Where does a heart of thankfulness spring from- well as followers of Jesus it should spring from the place of knowing that a God who breathes out stars, molds mountains with his hands, and forms seas with his words is in amateur interested in our lives and chooses to know us and work for us.

Here is David, a once poor shepherd boy, the least of the sons of Jesse, offering his praise to his God. David is fully aware, at least in this moment, of how far God has brought him and fully aware that the blessings he was able to enjoy are nothing of his own creation.

Also, notice the posture of David in this moment- he went in and sat with the Lord. For a Christian thanksgiving is connected to a heart of worship.

Worship helps us find who we are and why God has placed us here on the earth. When we bow in God's presence with worship, only then are we made complete. - Judson Cornwall

Here is King David- the musician, known for his songs of praise and adoration to God pouring out his thanksgiving. One of the best ways of finding thankfulness in our lives is to be in the presence of God. But let’s be honest, many Christians will go month, years, even a lifetime without truly being in the presence of God. Why? Well that’s a complicated question with a lot of twists and turns in the answer. Perhaps some because they never slow down enough to enter in the presence of God; some may have sin and brokenness that prevent them from the presence of God; others may be too skeptical; still other too prideful- lots of different things. I dont know all of the reasons someone might not experience the presence of God; but I do know that his presence is real and it will change your life.

Have you been in the presence of God lately? I hope so. In fact, I hope you might feel in the presence of God this very moment. And I am not necessarily talking about the kind of presence that causes us to get up and shout, or fall out in the floor. While God’s presence can make those things happen, I am thinking more like the way J I Packer explains the presence of God...

The healthy Christian is not necessarily the extrovert, ebullient Christian, but the Christian who has a sense of God's Presence stamped deep on his soul, who trembles at God's word, who lets it dwell in him richly by constant meditation upon it, and who tests and reforms his life daily in response to it. - J. I. Packer

It seems important to remember that David, the man after God’s heart spent so much of his life in worship- connecting with God.

Finally, notice that for David thankfulness became action.