Sermon Tone Analysis

Today we are looking at / / Learning to Give Thanks Part 2. Like I said last week, I think it is crucially important to take time on a consistent basis to remind ourselves of certain things.

This whole idea of giving thanks being one of them.

The more I think about the Christian life, the more I realize that there is a movement to it, almost like a dance.

It’s not a system that you simply recycle the rules over and over again, but it has a rhythm to it.

And the more you engage in the dance the more you learn and grow comfortable with the dance moves.

The more you move with the rhythm, the more you, as a musician might say, fit “in the pocket”.

When a musician says, “Man, we were just in the pocket there!” what they mean is it just felt right, it hit right.

The grove, the timing, the rhythm the notes, all the musicians just gelling together - everyone is perfectly on beat, not missing any notes.

We’re in sync.

Not N’Sync, JT and the boys, but in that pocket together.

And a great musician isn’t always doing crazy runs, or big moves.

A great musician knows when it’s their time to just sit back and hold the beat, or support another musician.

A great musician knows how to stay simple when needed, and be truly complex when it’s warranted.

I’ll be honest with you, this is the difference between someone like Kelley and myself.

Kelley was dedicated to being a professional musician, she was playing flute in symphonies, marching band and was practicing hours a day.

Rehearsal after rehearsal.

And she got really good.

And she was sought after for 2 reasons.

Yes, because she was really good.

But also, because she had feel.

She has God gifted anointing which she matched with a tenacity to be great.

I was a different story.

I also have God gifted anointing, but not nearly as much tenacity.

In fact, I’ve never liked practicing, and as such, I never really have.

Now, during our time in Toronto that God given part, the feel and anointing on my life got me put into some pretty amazing scenarios playing for some pretty amazing musicians.

Musicians far greater than I was.

Honestly.

But,, and here’s my point, the more I was around people greater than myself, and the more I played, the better I got.

Seems simple, but it’s true.

And because we were at a church that was experiencing a world-wide phenomenon where thousands and thousands of people were showing up and we were conducting 7 church services a week, Not 7 services on a Sunday because our congregation was so big, but Monday was the only day we did NOT have a service, and Sunday we had a morning and evening service.

Then once every other month, and sometimes even more, we would have a major conference where thousands of people would come, and we would have 3 services a day for 4 or 5 days in a row.

So, you can imagine, we were on stage a lot.

And because I was playing a lot, even though I wasn’t practicing, I was getting better.

Here’s why this is important and here’s how it connects to this dance of our Christian life.

The more proficient you are at an instrument, the more you can do when the time comes for you to be spontaneous or expressive.

We had one worship leader, Jeremy Sinnott.

An absolute champion in the faith and one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.

He was one of, if not the most encouraging person Kelley or I had in our lives when it came to our own worship leading.

And I would often play bass for him - unless his son was available who can absolutely put me to shame!

But, there would be certain songs where he would just love to turn around and point at a musician and basically without saying anything, he was saying, “Ok, go for it, play your heart out for the Lord, give us a nice big solo!”

I remember the dread that came over me the first time he did that.

I didn’t know what to play.

I didn’t know where to go.

I couldn’t riff.

I couldn’t improvise.

I wanted to hide.

Why?

Because I was never practicing.

My ability and skill didn’t match the anointing God had given me.

So I just kind of fumbled through.

Played a little bit harder and a little bit louder for a minute...

But the more I played, the more I could do, so when that next time came, the more I was able to express my own heart to God through playing my instrument.

Here’s my point in all of this.

Christianity, like that dance, or like that movement of music, has a rhythm, and it has these ebbs and flows to it, and in many ways, it is what we have put time and practice into that we are able to express ourselves in more in our walk with God.

If I never take time to read the bible, how am I supposed to utilize what it says to know how to live my life?

God could even directly drop scripture into my heart, but if I haven’t read it, I won’t even know...

If I never spend time in the presence of God, or learning to hear his voice, or spending time worshipping, how will I know when it’s him talking to me to lead me in a particular direction in my life?

Again, the reason I’m saying this is because the Christian life is as much an unending journey down a road of new discover as it is a rhythm and cycle of the same and important things over and over again.

/ / It is often in the repetition of the seemingly mundane that we discover the supernatural in our lives.

Our faithfulness to the bible, prayer, serving, coming to church, being a part of a community, joining men’s group or women’s group.

What might seem like little things, over time, produce wonderful results.

And so the cycle or dance of maybe the same moves over and over again, lead us into deeper expressions and moments of those very things.

So, let’s bring that back to giving thanks.

Look at the amount of times Paul talks to us in scripture about giving thanks.

It was important to him to make this a consistent teaching in the life of the early church.

Why?

Because it was an important part of religious culture and tradition in the Jewish faith, and the faith and life of Jesus, that he knew would need to be a constant reminder for us in our walk with Christ.

Christianity is not built like school.

It’s not grade levels.

We don’t learn thanksgiving in grade three and then we move on from it.

Or healing in grade 8. Prophecy in grade 10.

Christianity is a constant learning and relearning, working and reworking, visiting and revisiting.

And in our relationship with God and our relationship with the body of Christ, other believers, other christians, those we are walking with in life, we use these things, and grow in these things together.

This is the reason I love that here, and in Canada as well, although it’s in October, but we have a set time of year where we have this holiday, Thanksgiving.

I know it doesn’t mean the whole nation is giving thanks to God, but as Christians it does remind us to do this, and hopefully there are those who turn their face to heaven and remember why we started this in the first place.

And the origins, although clouded in sometimes historical inaccuracies and sometimes ignorance of some of the tragedy and negative aspects of our past, has these moments of beauty and hope.

And that’s how we need to look at history full stop.

/ / Our approach to history must not deny the wrong that was done, but learn from it so that it doesn’t happen again.

And we must learning from the good and embrace it for the future.

Winston Churchill, most likely quoting the Spanish philosopher George Santayana, said, / / “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

The good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful.

I did not know this until this year, and the amount of thanksgiving things I’ve read over the years, I’m surprised I hadn’t read this until this year.

But originally thanksgiving was not a feast, or a meal, or a party.

Thanksgiving was, in some accounts, a 3-day fast with prayer, meditation and sincere supplication [begging] toward God.

/ / Thanksgiving did not start out as a feast.

It was a call to prayer & fasting.

And at the center of it was repentance with the hope of redemption.

And not hope as in, I hope it happens, but the confident expectation of our redemption in Christ Jesus.

The early Puritan theology always left room for “sinners” by way of saying, / / “If a sinner would only repent, he might return to grace.”

This was a public expression of humility before God.

Which I find so fascinating, that at the center of what some consider to be some of our most horrific atrocities, we find the desire to humble ourselves before God and repent for our wrong doing and misguided ways.

Can I just say this to you this morning.

/ / Don’t ever let the misguided and dysfunctional actions of those who say they believe the same thing as you ruin what you believe.

The bible warns against false teachers, false prophets, those who would use the gospel message for their own gain.

Those who would intentionally lead people astray.

Why?

Because human nature doesn’t always get it right.

There’s warning because it happens.

Don’t let that pull you away from Jesus Christ, the one we are truly following!

So, somehow they got some things right here - We could learn something from these pilgrims 400 years ago who turned to God in thanks for the redemption of Jesus Christ, and in fasting, meditation and prayer they sought God to both heal and restore, and provide for the future.