Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in being occupied with what happens that we forget that there is so much to be thankful for because of what doesn't happen.

For example: Peter Marshall died of a heart attack as a middle aged man with great potential ahead of him as Chaplain of the Senate and popular Washington pastor.

It was a tragedy, and Catherine Marshall has written much about the horrible grief and agony of adjustment, but she has also written about the marvelous blessing of what did not happen to Peter Marshall.

This puts even the tragedy into a new light.

As a young man he was taking a short cut one dark night through unfamiliar territory.

He did not realize how dark it was.

He suddenly heard someone call his name.

He stopped and took a few more steps, and then he heard it again.

He stopped completely still and tried to peer into the darkness.

It was so scary, for he could not see anything.

He fell to his knees and began to feel around him, and to his shock he discovered that he was right on the brink of an abandoned stone quarry.

One more step and he would have plummeted to his death.

There was never a doubt in his mind that God had spoken and spared his life.

By grace all that he did for the rest of his life was made possible.

Later a car killed a friend he was walking with, but it missed him.

He was spared again.

Another time a plane crashed that he had missed, and a boat caught on fire 10 miles out to sea, and he was again spared.

The point is that though he died so young, he didn't die so much younger, which he easily could have done.

He lived long enough by the grace of God so that his early death was a shock and a loss to the whole Christian world.

His life has had one of the greatest impacts on America than that of any preacher in this century.

And it was all because of what did not happen.

It makes me think again of the book of Ruth where, if Elimelech would have died sooner, Naomi would never have been in Moab to meet Ruth.

If her sons would have died sooner she never would have been Ruth's mother-in-law, and all of the influence of Naomi and Ruth on history would never have been.

It was what did not happen that made possible all that did happen.

We need to balance out life and its problems by looking at what did not happen as well as what did.

It is the non-events that help us see the happenings from a broader perspective.

They add light to the darkness, and give meaning to what otherwise may seem senseless.

In almost every negative event of life you can find something that did not happen that enables you to have a basis for thanksgiving.

Your life and mine only have meaning right now because of what did not happen.

It is not likely any of us would be alive today had certain things happened in the past that did not.

One of our members told of an event in his younger years where he was working and a man pulled a large knife on him and threatened him.

The adrenaline poured into his body and he was so angry that he grabbed a clever and so frightened the man that he fled at such a pace that he didn't even open the screen door but went right through it.

That story could have had a different ending with him on the floor stabbed to death.

But that did not happen, and that non-happening is the basis for his great thanksgiving.

We all have stories that could, with just slight changes in the timing, have led us to an early grave.

We are only here because of many things that never happened.

That is what David is thanking God for in verse 3 of Psa. 30.

"O Lord, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit."

David was alive and well, and he was praising God because of what did not happen.

This theme of negative thankfulness runs all through this Psalm.

In verse 1 David exalts God for what God did not let happen.

One of David's great fears never materialized.

He dreaded to have his enemies gloat over him, but he thanks God that it never happened.

He not only didn't die physically, but he didn't die psychologically or emotionally.

I can just imagine David saying, "If that ever happened to me I would just die."

But it didn't happen, and he is grateful for that which never was.

Count your blessings we say, and rightly so, but when you are done with this list you have not scratched the surface of all you have for which to be thankful.

The list of things that are blessings because they never happened is near infinite.

Paul gives us a couple of examples of negative thanksgiving.

In Rom.

14:6 he describes to Christians who are thankful for opposite things.

He says, "He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks."

One is thankful he eats meat, and the other is thankful he does not.

Both are thankful they are not like the other one.

Have you ever said that I am thankful I am not like so and so?

That is legitimate, but it is also legitimate if they are thankful they are not like you.

There are endless numbers of things that make people different, and we can be grateful for these differences we do not possess.

I can be thankful I am not as tall as Wilt Chamberlain, or as short as Micky Rooney.

But they can be equally grateful they are not as commonplace as I am.

This life has endless non-realities and non-events for which we can be thankful.

Paul looked at the mess in the Corinthian church and all of the division that had come over personality clashes within the church, and he writes in I Cor.

1:14-15, "I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you accept Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you are baptized into my name."

Imagine that!

Paul is being thankful for what never happened, even though it would seem to be a positive thing if it had happened.

What if he had baptized a hundred members of that church?

It sounds like something he could have been proud of, but instead he is grateful that it never happened, for this non-happening prevented his success being used for the negative purpose of raising up a competitive cult in his name.

This opens endless doors of potential gratitude.

How many wonderful things have never happened to you for which you ought to be grateful?

What if my father was a millionaire and I would have inherited it and became a rich playboy with no thought of God, but totally devoted to self-pleasure?

I would have missed the love of Christ and service for His kingdom, and the precious hope of eternal life in the family of God.

Not only is life filled with endless negatives that never happened, but it is filled with endless positives and successes that never happened that could have led us to miss God's best.

Thank God for all the burdens and all the blessings that never happened that could have been enemies of my best self.

If we only knew, we could even thank God for prayers that were never answered.

Paul could look back and say that had I been more successful I could have baptized many more people, but thank God that never happened, for in the long run less was better, and failure was my success.

If Christians were successful in everything they did, they would never move on to other challenges God wants them to tackle.

That is why even non-success and non-happening of good things can be a reason for thanksgiving.

What didn't happen was even a basis for the thanksgiving of Christ.

He prayed in Luke 10:21, "I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children."

Jesus was grateful that God did not operate on the same level as the world.

He did not give priority to those with power and learning, but rather to the innocent and helpless.

In other words, thank God that the Christmas story was not given to the king or high priest, but to the lowly shepherds.

What God does not do in history is almost as marvelous as what He does do.

This means that there is no end of things that never happen for which we can be thankful.

Jesus was not born in a palace.

He never joined the ranks of the official religious leaders of Israel.

He never became a legalist like the Pharisees.

He never fell for the lures of Lucifer.

He never gave up on His disciples.

He never took the easy way out when He faced the cross.

The things that never happened in the life of Jesus are the foundation for all our thanksgiving.

Life is not only full of things for which to give thanks, but it is also empty of things for which to give thanks.

Everyone has their problems, but if you add up all the problems, trials, and diseases, and then count how many of them you don't have you will be overwhelmed by the multitude of non-happenings for which you ought to be grateful.

Richard Armor gives a trivial example that illustrates just how near infinite the realm of negative thanksgiving can be.

"Make yourself at home," I'm urged

By hosts when I'm a guest,

But I am very careful not

To do as they suggest.

For if I did, I'd take off coat

And tie and also shoes,