And Be Thankful
Notes
Transcript
Preliminary:
Preliminary:
Thanks for testimonies/singing
I want to have a little talk with everyone after the message
Someone once said The two biggest sellers in any bookstore, are the cookbooks and the diet books. The cookbooks tell you how to prepare the food and the diet books tell you how not to eat any of it.
Orson Welles once said, “My doctor has advised me to give up those intimate little dinners for four, unless, of course, there are three other people eating with me.”
Champion archer Rick McKinney confesses that he regularly eats chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. He refers to “the basic four food groups” as a Big Mac, fries, a shake and a lemon tart. A California scientist has computed that the average human being eats 16 times his or her own weight in an average year, while a horse eats only eight times its weight. This all seems to prove that if you want to lose weight, you should eat like a horse.
A young fellow watched as his dad finished a heavy meal and then loosened his belt. “Look, Mom,” he said. “Pop’s just moved his decimal point over two places.”
Thanksgiving
A table heavily loaded with what has become known as the Thanksgiving Meal
Turkey, gravy, dressing, corn, cranberry sauce, rolls, sweet potatoes, green beans (sometimes casserole), & Pumpkin Pie
(or some variation thereof)
This has become what many think of when they think of thanksgiving
But we often take “thanksgiving” in more terms of celebration rather than in terms of worship.
In the Bible Thanksgiving was nearly always connected to worship - to covenantal relations and worldview.
Thanksgiving was directed to God and his covenant faithfulness and goodness.
We see a picture of this in Psalm 100:1-4
1 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
2 Serve the Lord with gladness: Come before his presence with singing.
3 Know ye that the Lord he is God: It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, And into his courts with praise: Be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
Here the Psalmist - who remains anonymous - tells us Enter into his gates with thanksgiving -
This is no doubt referring to the temple gates - and that we were to bring thanksgiving with us - not become inspired moved to give thanks there.
The Psalmist then repeats or reiterates his thought
“Be thankful unto Him, and bless his name”
The Psalmist is calling us to be a people who give thanks unto God as a form of worship and praise.
Back in 1662 the Church of England released its revised and updated Book of Common Prayers
This was a controversial book and lead to a split in the Church of England after a law was passed that required all ministers to use only this book for prayers (they could preach from the Bible - but had to use this book of prayers)
Many saw it as a compromise with Catholicism and other religions.
Those who refused could be defrocked, and pushed out of their pulpits I believe there were around 2000, among whom was John Wesley’s paternal grandfather.
Both of his parents were raised in non-conformist homes - but later conformed to the church of England.
But this Book of Common Prayer had a section of 8 “Thanksgiving Prayers”
Prayers of Thanksgiving for:
General Thanksgiving
Rain
Fair Weather
For Plenty
For Peace and Victory
For Restoring the Monarchy
For Deliverance from the Plague (two prayers)
Listen to the first form of this last prayer -
The Book of Common Prayer, 1662 Thanksgiving
For deliverance from the Plague, or other common Sicknes.
O Lord God, who hast wounded vs for our sins, and consumed vs for our transgressions by thy late heavy and dreadfull visitation, and now in the midst of Iudgement remembring mercy, hast redeemed our soules from the jaws of death: we offer vnto thy fatherly goodnes our selves, our souls and bodies which thou hast delivered, to be a living sacrifice vnto thee, alwayes praysing and magnifyeing thy mercies in the midst of thy Church, through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
This prayer by those coming out of such a horrible time such as The Great Plague of London - lasting from 1665 to 1666 just a couple of years after the release of the book of prayers
No doubt afterwards there were many who prayed this prayer
What these devout Christians and the Psalmist is trying to tell us is
The people of God are characterized by thankfulness, recognizing how much they’ve been given. Thanksgiving:
Shifts focus away from selfish desires
Helps remember God is in control
Reminds us we belong to God
Acknowledges we’ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing
As Dr. Al Mohler profoundly states, “Thanksgiving is a deeply theological act... thankfulness is theology in microcosm—a key to understanding what we really believe about God, ourselves, and the world we experience.”
Sometimes we attempt to take this and make it a demand for worship - a demand for thanksgiving -
But we have to recognize that God doesn’t demand thanksgiving for His own sake. He is complete in Himself and loves genuinely without expecting anything in return. However, gratitude remains the most appropriate response to His abundant gifts
Paul does something both linguistically and theologically interesting in Colossians 3:15-17
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
In this section of Colossians 3:15-17
Paul urges his readers to be thankful three times:
in verse 15, “And be thankful”;
in verse 16, “with gratitude” (KJV has grace - but in this context it means thanks) ; and in verse
17, “giving thanks.”
(J. B. Smith Hidden in Christ: Living as God's Beloved (25 Thankful)(
Colossians 3:15 “15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”
Colossians 4:2 “2 Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;”
Colossians 2:7 “7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”
Being Thankful is good for us we take invent ory
Being Thankful recenter us (think google maps driving in fog disorienting
Thanksgiving transformes d us
