My Soul, Give Thanks!

Sermon: FCC Afton 11-24-2022 My Soul, Give Thanks! Scripture: Psalm 103:1-2; 20-22 (HCSB) We come together this morning to examine the imperative that the Bible gives for giving thanks to our God. We're going to look at what it means to live a life of thanks before God, as well as why it is so important for thanksgiving to become one of the main focuses of your life- and how to accomplish that goal. -Giving thanks, giving praise, pouring ourselves out in appreciation and admiration before God is good for our souls. God's command to "give thanks," found in its various forms over 170 times in the Bible, is not just about praising God and giving Him the honor that He is due- it's a reminder that we have a Creator and Savior who desires intimate relationship with you and me and that He desires us to live in the fullness of His joy and love for us. It is a command for us to live in an appropriate attitude of thanks to this God who gives us everything. -We have this tendency to puff ourselves up in importance, to be the masters of our own fates, and to compress God down to a "miracle in a box," only to be opened in case of an emergency, to shoot up a quick prayer asking for aid, and we ignore God's intricate involvement in the very fiber of our beings. We do well to remember who God is and that we have nothing without Him- and, in turn, to give everything we have back to Him. If we look just in the vicinity of Psalm 103, we see the overriding theme of Psalms: "My soul, praise Yahweh!" -"Give thanks to Yahweh!" - "Give thanks to the Lord!" - "Give thanks to the Lord!" - "I will sing praises!" - "God of my praise" Read Psalm 103:1-2; 20-22 here. Pray here! -Giving thanks, surrendering ourselves into this act of worship, removes us to our proper posture before God and returns God to center stage in our lives. Why does David give himself the command in Psalm 103- "My soul, [literally, every fiber of my being] praise the Lord and everything that is within me, praise His holy name!"? It is such an important task, and one that we should refocus ourselves on each day, not than just once or twice a year! The definitions of praise and give thanks are interchangeable. Both phrases mean "to show appreciation and admiration." When David cries out for his soul to praise the Lord, we can also understand him to be saying, "My soul, give thanks to the Lord!" When we give thanks for the things God has blessed us with, we are giving Him the praise that He deserves. When we sing "We pour out our praise," we are also saying, "Thank you, God, for being so good; I am literally nothing in your sight and yet you sustain me through each day." Context: History of Thanksgiving: Genesis 8:20- "Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar." -The first thing that Noah does when disembarking from the ark, even in the face of the vast destruction, mess and hopelessness that they were faced with, is to build an altar to the Lord and give Him sacrifice. He acknowledges and praises God for His providence in getting Noah and his family through the worst disaster in human history. Exodus 15:21- "Miriam sang to them: 'Sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted." -After being led by God out of Egypt and delivered from Pharaoh through the supernatural parting of the Red Sea, Moses and Aaron's sister Miriam led the people in praising and giving thanks to the Lord. 2 Samuel 6:15-18; 21-22 - "He and the whole house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of the ram's horn. As the ark of the Lord was entering the city of David, Saul's daughter Michal looked down from the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent David has set up for it. Then David offered burnt offering and fellowship offerings in the Lord's presence. When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of Yahweh of Hosts.... David replied to Michal, 'I was dancing before the Lord who chose me over your father and his whole family to appoint me ruler over the Lord's people Israel. I will celebrate before the Lord, and I will humble myself even more and humiliate myself." -David offers sacrifices and fellowship offerings to the Lord, and then dances before the Lord, humbling and humiliating himself to celebrate the Lord. [Aside: If this isn't a case study for the idea of not being "unequally yoked" and for not marrying someone before you know who they are and whether they're going to come to despise your worship style, then I don't know what is!] Matthew 14:19 - -Jesus gives thanks to the Father before the miracle of the two fish and five loaves. Even Jesus gave thanks before a meal, establishing a precedent for His followers to continue. Question: How are you humbling or humiliating yourself for the Father? How are you putting aside things, maybe even good things, so that you can focus on Him and honor Him? -The modern holiday of Thanksgiving was first celebrated by the Pilgrims after harvest in 1621. Though their losses were heavy through the previous winter, they poured out their thanks to God for breaking the sickness that had plagued them all winter, for a peace treaty with the Indian tribe, and for what they had learned about farming and fishing in the New World. That first day of Thanks in the New World in 1621 lasted for 3 days of celebration and thanks. [Aside: We can't even make it through dinnertime without bickering about politics, religion or football- and then we head off for Black Friday shopping where the very worst in people comes out as they try to find the best deals. We've even extended Black Friday to Thanksgiving Day and before in some cases.] -The Continental Congress issued several calls for days of prayer and thanksgiving. The first was observed in 1782 in the Revolutionary War; it reads in part: "It being the indispensable duty of all nations, not only to offer up their supplications to Almighty God, the giver of all good, for His gracious assistance in times of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner, to give Him praise for His goodness in general, and especially for great and signal interpositions of His providence on their behalf." -A Day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed by President Lincoln in 1863 in the Civil War by President Lincoln. Main Idea: Giving your thanks to God is vital! It is an element of your praise and it reflects how you live your life for the Lord. It is an opportunity to surrender yourself, not to the rules of the church or of religion, but to the saving righteousness of Jesus Christ. -We are consistently called to be separate from the world and to be good witnesses to it. One of the ways that we do this is by being those who show our thanks to God for everything He does. -Read Luke 17:11-18 We must be like the Samaritan who returns to Jesus and throws himself at Jesus' feet in thanks. Not that God won't still heal and bless those who do not thank Him, but we need to show Him appropriate praise and thanks because of who He is. How do we show God our thanks? By how we live. Step 1: Give thanks to God by living a life rooted in trust in God- Present everything to God with prayers and petitions of thanks. (Be a David- trusting God through dangers, through trials and through his own poor decisions.) -Phil. 4:6 "Don't worry about anything. But in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." Step 2: Show thanks by committing to a life of giving thanks in all circumstances. (Be a Daniel- committing to pray, even when prayer had been outlawed.) -Eph. 5:20 "Giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." -Begin with the little things, especially in times where you find yourself discouraged, depressed, or angry. Begin giving thanks for the little things- thank you, God for the breath that fills my lungs, thank you for rain, thank you for trees- prime your heart with thanks so that your spirit and will become ready to give thanks in all circumstances. Step 3: Show thanks by committing to a life of sacrifice to God, to sanctification and drawing closer to God's holiness each day. (Be a Peter- overcoming his disbelief to lead the Church and give his life for His Savior.) -Psalm 50:14 "Sacrifice a thank offering to God and pay your vows to the Most High." -Show your thanks by, like David, stepping out and worshipping no matter who is watching. By doing that thing that you think would humiliate, but you know would honor God. Show your thanks by living a life of thanks! Reasons to be thankful out of Psalm 103: He forgives your sins; He heals your diseases; He redeems you from an eternity separated from God; He crowns you with love and compassion; He satisfies you with goodness; He renews your strength like an eagle; Because of His compassion and grace, He is slow to anger and is rich in love; Because of His faithful love, He removes our transgressions and has compassion on us. [Aside: As far as the east is from the west, He has removed our transgression against Him- literally, there is no recovering them. On a globe, you travel east or west perpetually- you will always travel in that direction as long as you are facing that way- our sins are cast further afield than anyone could ever go to retrieve them.] -So we serve a forgiving, healing, redeeming, rewarding, satisfying, just, compassionate, faithful, maintaining, ruling God- who wants to be intimately involved in your life- yet how we struggled with being appropriately thankful to Him. Prayer: Let my soul give thanks to the Lord! Giving thanks is an act of praise and an opportunity to surrender yourself- not to the rules of church and religion, but to the saving righteousness of Christ and His Lordship over your life! -Close with example of Gomer Pyle serving Andy after Andy saves him from a fire. We should do the same and abundantly more for the God who loves us and sent His son to save us!