Lift Your Eyes to Heaven & Give Your Thanks
Notes
Transcript
Dear Congregation of our Lord jesus Christ,
Someone has said that being asked to Be Thankful, is a little like asking someone to kiss you. A forced thank you and a forced kiss kind of misses the point. These are activities that are to voluntarily freely gush from our heart. Andrew Peterson writes a song looking around and feeling in his bones that something isn’t right here in creation, in our lives, yet he continues: Don't you ever wonder why
In spite of all that's wrong here
There's still so much that goes so right
And beauty abounds?
'Cause sometimes when you walk outside
The air is full of song here
The thunder rolls and the baby sighs
And the rain comes down
And when you see the spring has come
And it warms you like a mother's kiss
Don't you want to thank someone?
Don't you want to thank someone for this?
We all, even an atheist feel need to thank someone for the good and the big stuff around us.
But the fact that these can’t be forced or coerced, in no ways means that God doesn’t ask them of us, even command them. This year we have just seen in Colossians that we are not just to be IN CHRIST, but we are to do the duties of our daily life WITH CHRIST. Do you remember that verse:
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Of course the main command is to be doing those duties as unto the LORD, in Christ like manner, for the purpose of him being head of creation and of you and me in His church. But the overlook accompanying action for Christian living is not to be overlooked: as we daily live WITH CHRIST, it is possible and indeed good for you and me and most of all fitting that through CHRIST we offer up a giving of thanks through our days to God the Father.
So too other years we have looked at our calling to pray, to give our worrties an ocnerns our haopes and dreams - to give them to the Lord in prayer. That is a basic Christian activity commanded:
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
But again do you see the accompanying action for Christian living that is not to be overlooked. Your ongoing prayer, your concentrated prayer is to include this other action, distinct from living faithfully with Christ, distinct from being effective in prayer for God’s will to be released in your life and lives of those around you - this distinct action of giving thanks. This type of thanksgiving in your daily work, and in your daily prayer is possible for you in Christ, it is good for you, and is most fitting and glorifying to God. Do you have this accompanying action of thanksgiving growing in your life? Here we can’t just say it comes over us spontaneously, though it is certainly an attitude we should have, it also is a decision, an action, a deliberate and specific giving tot he LORD. Listen to
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
This Thanksgiving i want to lay bedfore you how you are to givie thanks to the FATHER daily through the Son, as well as what the content of our thanksgivings should include.
This Thanksgiving i want to lay bedfore you how you are to givie thanks to the FATHER daily through the Son, as well as what the content of our thanksgivings should include.
First of all the how. Here to examples ought to help us.
Think of our LORD Jesus Christ. You might think that having other people say Thank You to him, would be what would fill his heart. I mean think of all he did, left the glories, comfort, the safety of heaven, became human, exposed Himself to sin and suffering , took it into Himself. Think of how he took the initiative to cross barriers, help , heal, care for people. And yet so many people even his own family didn’t get it, and those he helped, like those ten lepers he healed, only one and not a fellow country men, they didn’t get it they didn’t say thank you. Do you ever get like that? Look what I do running myself ragged in my human duties, people should thank me - why don’t they - that fills your heart. And it clouds your understanding of being recipients of God’s daily mercies - not in a position to demand people’s thanks, nor to receive God’s blessings.
Remember how Jesus described how the human situation with us and with God, with others is:
So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ”
Jesus’ isn’t saying you’re a nothing a door mat, but he is saying, You can’t be a love sponge - exist just to suck up other people’s love, to have them serve you. Just objects for you to use and drain. Remember the parable, worked in the field, the master comes, you don’t sit around and say serve me my supper master, you serve Him. Jesus says, you don’t sit around and wait for the Master to say Thank you, Thank you, Thank You. That's NOT YOUR APPROACH TO OTHERS! And you certainly can’t live that way to God! Later Jesus SAY NO LONGER CALL YOU JUST SERVANTS, BUT FRIENDS. You get what I am about and doing.
So consider the example of Jesus - duties before God, takes time to rest, not living for the thank you’s others owe him - as a human being - He lives knowing God made him to enjoy God’s good gifts daily to him, and enjoying them to say Thank you to God. Think of him at the feeding of the 5000:
And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.
Literally in our ESV he said a good word, it is not that he magically blessed food, and at meeting asked will you bless the food. I said, no but I will pray that it will bless us, and more importantly when we say or pray a blessing before a meal - you know what wee are doing - not a magic spell on the food, we are blessing God - why NIV gets it right - looked up to heaven and gave thanks - Looked a the fish and the bread - looked at the people about to be fed by miracle of God - looked at the green fields of Galilee and the blue and rare fresh water lake in the distance, the sun dancing and sparkling - Like Louis Armstrong, And I think to my self what a wonderful word” -
That’s the how - you look around your life recognize God is giving , caring sustaining , presenting opportunity, even in trial at work - and you look up to heaven - and you say Thank You - only in Christ know head of Creation with a goal and a plan - through Christ say Thank you Father - Good design worked out. Through Christ say not just give food for beasts of the field, feed us with your word,you send by Your Spirit peace on those in Christ Jesus . Like Jesus seeing little people get this Word, receive it, find salvation - deliverance, rest, - Look what Jesus does
At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;
Thank you God for your gospel working your word directing, your grace sustaining, DO you see that and just like Louis Armstrong - recount good God is working around you - say thak you.
This is what Jesus longed to do after died and rose again: Ps22 predicted it die and rise again, but listen to what his desire is after he comes back, and is with you and me and his church in heaven, and by His Spirit now in his church on earth:
Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
But this isn’t just true of Jesus daily posture to God in both doing His work and in His praying, it was also true of his attitude and actions to those around him. Briefly consider his attitude as a child with his parents, longs to continue leading teacher sof the Law in truth in Temple, to purify that Hosue be about Haevenly Fathers’ business, paretns don’t get it, knid of peeved left - but as a child , ihtink with a heart of thankfulness, We read though they didn’t get it, And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them.
And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
You and I are with people that don’t completely get us and what we’re about. Part of life - but like Jesus thankful for the role his parents playing in his life - do you acknoeldge that , them - thankfully live beside them? Think of Jesus at the end of his life - Mary Magdalene so blessed by Christ and like that Samaritan leper express her thankfulness, couple months salary of perfume, and other say thanksgiving a waste. Stop her. Jesus thankful to her acknowledge s she is preparing me for great work of dying and rising - lifts her up in their presence and says where ever the gospel told her story told too. I am so thankful for her. Do you ever do that with the people around you. Listen to Jesus with his disciples on the night before his crucifixion, the plot to kill had grown to maximum intensity, the step of taking on the sins of his people drinking the cup of God’s wrath for his peole anguishing him, but even when life is going well, what’s living in Jesus heart? Not just duty to us or to His Father, but he turns to his close friends and says I am among you as one who serves, and then he says who are you -
“You are those who have stayed with me in my trials,
That acknowledgement is a thank you. Do you say that to the people around you, acknowledge them. Register it with actual words looking at them. Then he actually gives them a gift - A kingdom, like the Father gave me. And you can eat at my table in my kingdom - sit on thrones - jesus says that in similar sense to all he is thankful for … Heart overflows with gratitude not just in words but also deeds.
By way of application then - your thankfulness to God for His work, your thankfulness to those God has put around you - does it over flows with words of acknowledgment - appreciation - don’t move to fast to let the good around you soak in, weigh it - thank it looking to heaven. The good in others around you - not so much that you’ve earned that , deserve that, can demand it - do you graciously receive it, amazed and thankful. Do you see how in Christ God working all things for your Good, so in Christ you thank the Father for all these things. DO you go beyond words, to actions and even gifts?
Well if that is the how, let’s conclude with the What of true Christian thanksgiving.
Give Thanks For: I. God Himself:
The OT prayers of thanksgiving are a greater reminded of this. They didn’t begin their prayers the same way every time, they gave a title for God, not just dear God, but LORD GOD, giver of life, sustainer of the universe, YOU give seed to the sower, bread to the hungry. YOU give food in seasons to the birds of the air and the beast of the fields. Every living creature, open s it mouth and looks with expectation to YOU! Do you get it? Not just thanks for x,y,z. But thank YOU. Parents you know this feeling,little kid opens a gift or just plays with the wrapping paper not caring to much for the gift, but then they turn and look up into your face, and say I Love you, Daddy, Thank you! That’s like
You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you.
Our thanks is to include looking into the Father-heart-of-God and in deep acknowledgement of his goodness in creation and in redemption to say thanks to him.
I. We aer to Give tHANKS FOR gOD hiMSELF,
But Christians giving thanks through Christ, the Son the mediator. Have so much more reason to give thanks than people who only know about God in creation.
II. God in Christ
God in Christ the Son reconciling the world to Himself, Making peace, Redeeming us. We know MERCY AND GRACE AND VICTORY from God in Christ. 2 Cor 2:14 says:
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
What are the ways you thank God for Jesus - ever thank him for HIs perfect life, ow about Christ’s teaching, for His death, His Resurrection, Present work in heaven interceding, How about his present work reigning, future promise to comfort and heal every hurt, to make us new, give us a place in the kingdom and the new heavens and earth!
Do you thank God for the Holy Spirit?
III. The Promise & Gift of the Person of the Holy Spirit
It is striking how the OT promise of the Messiah of the New Covenant, and Jesus own promises in speak of the Holy Spirit as promises and gifts of the New Covenant. If you believe it is His work in you - enlivened your will, gave you a new heart, who opens your blinded eyes, - couldn’t do that own your own, in our spiritual deadness - Needed a new birth and new life from above.
Jseus said that power is yours for the asking:
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
You do know that just having the Word without the Spirit you will dry up, and having just the Spirit without God’s word - blow up, but the Spirit with the Word you will grow up. Listen to how Paul describes in
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
It is the Spirit who pours the love of God in our hearts, he who grants you a gifts a talents to use for building others up, its the spirit who cries in you Abba Father - spirit of adoption that drives out fear in your life. Do you thank God for this power and Person, so you now live a life better and different than ever could on your own? How about God’s WORD
IV. God’s Word
Haven’t you experienced this as a lamp to your feet? Not just precious life truths, but God’s inspired Word revealing the Living Christ to you? These words inspired without error, preserved from generation to generation , so read these with the Spirit - you will truly see and know Christ. You will abide in Him by abiding in His word.
and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
How many of you have heritage of reading God’s word at table, of doing devotion, thankful for own copy - ever thank god for what the word is doing
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Ever thank God for his word faithfully upheld and trumpeted publically here? Ever say Thank you God don’t ever take away this lamp , or snuff out this candle from us here!
V. Prayer
One of the saddest stories of all the Scripture is that of Saul:
And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets.
Oh what a sad sad thing, when all someone can do is throw up angry fists and selfish requests, as it were God in heaven has made the clouds like a lead shield that can’t penetrate into the holy of holies. No access, because fellowship with the Mediator cut off. But you have one who stands in heaven in your place, who has won God’s ear for you. In repentance you have found - turn to God’s holy hill from any location, in any part of your life - he has promised as you ask in Christ, - not only hear but answer - Eager to have you ask!
You live by the Robinson Crusoe prayer approach:
and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me.
Answer according to wisdom and love. He is too wise to err in how he answers and too loving to cause an ounce of unnecessary suffering. Do you thank God for the avenue of prayer, do you thank him for his answers in all forms to your prayers?
VI. The Church
The church is really kicked around a lot today. Even and maybe especially by church people. My church should do this, that or the other thing, it is no good , our church , your church, my church. We need to take a step back, the church isn’t this building or that, the people who have volunteered to have this kind of ministry or that. The church isn’t a social club or social justice activists organization. The church is first of all the body of Christ, the family of God. It literally means those God has called out for a purpose, those He has called to himself, community that lives with worship at the cemtre - and reaches out. Instead of thanking God for the church, the action often associated with church is criticism.
Have you thanked God that the church isn’t an exhibition of perfect people, but a school for imperfect ones. Have you thanked God that its not a union or business of likeminded individuals, but a colony of refugees who have received citizenship in God’s kingdom. Have you thanked God that this is not a place for put together people who don’t need grace, but a hospital and emergency room for those who do.
Look around - is there not a fellowship here goes deeper than blood and more wonderful than anything this world can offer. Have you thanked God for the fellowship of his church?
But there is a last waht to these thank you’s that are to be the bread and butter through out the doing of Christain duties and wrok as well as our praying. And that is
VII. “You”
Actually the way that this word thanks appears most in the New Testament. I thank God for .... drum roll please… you? Me? Yah you. Found all over Paul’s letters - I thank God for you all of you in Rome
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.
I thank God for you Corinthians as many problems as you have, some tearing church apart, others in gross sin, many hurt and scratching head…
I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,
Then there are those that he names usually at the end of the letter. Do you thank God for the Christian friends he’s bringing into your life. Sure we pray for needs and petitions and jobs, and sicknesses, and struggles opportunities, but do we give thanks to God. There is real solid and lasting grace .There is faith that won’t fail - Do yo realize how hard doing the Christian life would be alone. We ought to thank God he puts us in covenant fellowship. Kononia. Ought to actually thank God for each other and also thank each other!
CONCLUSION: This is the what and we’ve had the how of thanksgiving , but let me leave you with a motivation the why of thanksgiving. God could have just given all this blessing to us and we could just take them and get busy using them. Why pause to turn around and say thank you? Story I heard - call boomerang blessing
This is the what and we’ve had the how of thanksgiving , but let me leace you with a motivation the why of thaksgiving. God could have just given all this bllessing to us and we could just take them and get busy using them. Why pause to turn around and say thank you? Story I heard - call boomarang blessing
This is the what and we’ve had the how of thanksgiving , but let me leace you with a motivation the why of thaksgiving. God could have just given all this bllessing to us and we could just take them and get busy using them. Why pause to turn around and say thank you? Story I heard - call boomarang blessing
Janitor at hope college - Donald Barnhouse - I can undertand God bless me, but how can I bless God. CHildren, Chirstaims gifts. Mother help chose, who pays, I do.
“you pay for the Christmas presents which your babies give you. You’re so glad that they talk about it and have secrets with mother. ic an remember when my own children were growing up, how wonderfully excited there were that Came an said: Daddy, here is a blessing for you. It came from me but it was blessing because it had come as the BOOMERANG OF LOVE.
So it is when we cry blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving. We bless Thee, O LORD. What with? With the blessings that He puts in our lives. Everything you have is from him, and we ought to delight ourselves to offer it back to him in thakgsgiving - to say before the world all I have is from Him.