Part 2 - Thanksgiving Truth

Opening

‘Twas the night of Thanksgiving’, But I just couldn’t sleep.

I tried counting backwards, I tried counting sheep

The leftovers beckoned — The dark meat and white,

But I fought the temptation with all of my might.

I tossed and tossed with anticipation,

Until the thought of a snack became infatuation.

So I raced to the kitchen, Flung open the door,

And gazed at the fridge full of goodies galore.

I gobbled up turkey and mashed potatoes,

Pickles and carrots, beans and tomatoes.

I felt myself swelling so plump and so round,

Till all of a sudden, I rose off the ground !!

I crashed through the ceiling. Floating into the sky….

With a mouthful of pudding and a handful of apple pie,

But I managed to yell as I soared past the trees …

HAPPY EATING TO ALL !! PASS THE CRANBERRIES PLEASE !!

Scripture

1 Thessalonians 5:18

18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Body

There are three things that I want to note from this verse and then we will be finished.

First of all the command to give thanks. In everything give thanks.

1. Give Thanks

This is a divine expectation. This is a decree if you will…

The Psalmist in Psalms 92:1 it says ‘it is good to give thanks to God.’ The famous Psalm 100 says ‘give thanks to Him.’

Of all the people, Christians should be thankful. I love how Psalms 103 says it…

Psalms 103:1-5

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, 4 Who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

He encourages us to thank the Lord. In fact the bible goes as far as to say it is evil not to thank God.

Paul says in…

Romans 1:21

21 … nor were thankful, …

They were not grateful, they didn’t give recognition to God. They acted as they were their own source and sufficiency.

The most taken for granted person in the universe is God. There’s absolutely nothing you do that doesn’t depend on God. God is the source of all good things, the scripture says, and God doesn’t want you to forget it.

The bible talks about 10 lepers in Luke 17. And they came and said heal us, and Jesus said go show yourself to the priest, and as they turned to go show themselves all ten were healed. Only one of them, who actually was a foreigner or a samaritan, and he stopped when he saw his skin become as a little child. He turned around, came back to Jesus and fell on his knees and began thanking God, the scripture says, with a LOUD voice.

He didn’t care who was listening. He bowed before Jesus, glorified God and said THANK YOU!

Jesus asked him a very provocative question, He said ‘I thought there were 10… where are the other 9?’ Let me tell you where the other 9 were… they were enjoying the blessing.

See they were all healed also, but they were so excited about the blessing that they forget the blessor.

Anybody been guilty of that? I’m sure all of our hands could go up.

They had forgotten the blessor… Israel and the wilderness. They’re seeing corn flakes come down from above. Mana from heaven. The mana was floating down, wafers from heaven. Everyday they had just enough for that day, and on the weekends they had enough for two days so they didn’t have to gather on the sabbath.

Guess what they did?

(complaining like) ‘I’m tired of this stuff…I want some friend chicken.’ Well actually quail but same principle.

They said, were tired of this.

Now, at least your eating? They see the miracle, but the miracle didn’t give them what they wanted so they started complaining. ‘We want quail.’

So God sent them quail, and more quail, and more and more, and the bible say’s until it stunk.

And they loved the quail. They were watching a miracle and complaining that it wasn’t a filet miracle.

So instead of being grateful they grumbled.

First, there is a divine expectation, a command to Give Thanks.

Secondly I want to talk about the context of giving thanks… He says’…

2. In Everything

Now, don’t mis-read that. He doesn’t say give thanks FOR everyting… He say’s give thanks IN everything. And that’s a big difference. He’s not saying if your sick give thanks that your sick. He’s not saying if your broke give God thanks that your broke. You’re not grateful you’re broke! That would be giving thanks FOR everything and that’s not what He said.

He say’s give thanks in everything.

To put it another way…. When things go wrong give thanks. Not for the thing that went wrong, but in the midst of the thing that’s going wrong find a reason to give thanks.

In the midst of everything give thanks!

Habakkuk 3:17-19

17 Though the fig tree may not blossom (in other words the produce is not producing, the business isn’t busy, the profit margin isn’t profiting), nor fruit be on the vines; (and for a poor farmer that’s a bad season) Though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; (no yield, the banks foreclosing, things are bad) Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, (the flock, I make my money, is from my flock, so nothing is going right) and there be no herd in the stalls— (Habakuk is saying man, this year is bad, but even though this is the worst year of my life…) 18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, (that’s giving thanks in everything) I will joy in the God of my salvation. 19 The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills.

Even though I cannot praise God for my circumstances, I’m going to praise God…watch this… that He is with me IN my circumstances.

Though I cannot praise Him for my situation, I’m going to praise Him that I’m not in this situation by myself.

Even though there may be storms raging all around me I’m going to thank God that I’m not in this boat alone.

Even though I don’t see Him fixing my stuff, I’m going to praise Him because He fixes me in the middle of my stuff!

Even though He may not remove the mountain, I’m going to give Him thanks that He has made my feet like hinds feet and has given me the strength to endure.

We need to think of Job. He’s lost everything. His wife tells him do what others do and curse God. If ever there was a cussing time now would be a cussing time. Job, if you ever wanted to go off on God, go off on God now.

Job say’s woman you talking like your crazy.

And then he raises this question…

Shall we only receive good things from the Lord?

In other words… Do we measure our relationship with God only by the stuff He gives us?

The Lord that giveth also taketh. Job says, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh…and what did he say??? Bless-ed be the name of the Lord.

So he gets his praise on in the middle of a collapsed life. You don’t get any lower than Job. Children, job, workers, income, health, wife… I mean everything has gone haywire on him…

Why does he thank God… cause watch this now church…

You can’t lose what you never had.

What Job remembered is that ‘I had it to lose.’…. I don’t understand why God took it, and Jobs says, and I’m going ask Him, but while I wait for my change to come… while I wait for my change to come He says… I’m going to bless the name of the Lord because I know who gave it and I know who took it.

It is thanking God in the middle of it when you rise to another level.

Paul and Silas were put in jail unjustly in Acts 16… and it says ‘at the midnight hour.’

The jail keepers could over-hear them singing and praising God.

How are you going to praise God in jail when you’re innocent? Because they gave God thanks in the midst of their situation.

Jehoshaphat was being invaded and was in terror but he fell to his knees and gave thanks. He found a reason to praise God.

So then we ought to give thanks in every circumstance.

There is always a reason to give thanks. It’s just that we’re not used to doing it when we don’t want to do it.

If you’re not used to praising Him when things go right, you know your not used to praising Him when things go wrong.

Which comes to my last thought. The concern. Why should I do this? What is the benefit of giving thanks?

3. The benefit

Why should I give thanks? How am I better off?

He tells you. He say’s this is the will of God concerning you.

Now watch this… this is good stuff…

When you give thanks, you are in the will of God.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

When you are grumbling you are outside of God’s will. How many of us living outside of God’s will?

How many professional grumblers do we have here today?

Now, I’m not saying there aren’t times to grumble. His point is to position yourself smack dab in the middle of God’s will. Now why is that important?

Because of Romans chapter 8…. It says this…

Romans 8:28

28 And we know (hum, see the only ones going to give thanks are the ones that know something. The folk that are grumbling all the time don’t know something. Something has escaped their notice. But those that know what this verse is talking about, even in the midst of calamity, confusing, distraction, destruction, even in the midst of God not answering their prayer they still know something. AND WE KNOW…) that all things (now, if you say all things…that doesn’t leave room for you one thing. We know… the reason we give thanks is because we know something. That all things are…) work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

That is living in concert with His will… that God is working something out.

That God is tweaking and twisting and turning and adjusting and making something happen.

But I know what your saying… I CAN’T SEE IT!

We talk about what you know, NOT what you see!

He say’s AND WE KNOW… that all things are working together for good…

How could Moses mother ever thought that putting him in a wicker basket and hearing him cry a bit and putting him in the Nile river and at the exact time that Pharaoh’s daughter would be taking a bath. That Miriam, Moses’ sister, would go to Pharaoh’s daughter and not only help her with the child, but would offer to Pharaoh’s daughter Moses’ mother to be his nanny.

So Moses’ mother got to raise her own son and get paid for it. When she was only trying to save his life. And God would raise up Moses in Egypt so he would have the understanding of the Egyptian thinking because 80 years down the road God was going to send him back to the old place that he thought he would never go back to again. But God had a bigger plan that he couldn’t see.

If you ask Joseph, how do you give thanks… when your brothers sold you in slavery, when you were wrongly accused and thrown in prison for years and forgotten about. How can you give thanks?

If Joseph were here today, he would tell you God was doing something. I didn’t know it back then, but he had me sold into slavery so that I could wind up in a prison so that I could be in Egypt so that when the famine came and I would be second in command I could give the order to feed my family. God was working something out for good.

If you asked Esther why God made her so pretty… The bible say’s that this girl was pretty… this wasn’t no regular looking girl, this girl was pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty… And when the King saw her he said googogomgommogog I can’t stand it. And he choose her to be his wife. And little did she know that she wasn’t pretty just to win a beauty contest. She was made pretty to be choosen as his wife so that when they were getting ready to kill all the jews she could walk in and look into his eyes and shake her head and say ‘honey we got to have a conversation tongith.’ And when he saw his wife, he changed his mind about the jews…. God was working something out…

God is always working on something…

If I were you, I would find a reason to give thanks. I’d create a reason to give thanks. Because He’s doing something when we give thanks.

And of course, Jesus Christ… He’s there with 5000 men, not counting the women and children, and everybody’s hungry. And all He’s got is a couple sardines and crackers. He’s got 2 fish and 5 barley loaves. And they said, what is this little boy’s lunch among so many. But you got to read the text, because it say’s Jesus said, ‘bring the fish and the bread to me.’ They brought the fish and the bread to Jesus and the bible said He gave thanks.

How you gonna give God thanks over 2 sardines and 5 barley loaves and your trying to feed 5000 men?

Jesus understood something. You give thanks for what you have! Even though you don’t have what you need, and you don’t have what you want, you give thanks for what you have.

So He gave thanks for what they had and when they opened their eyes after the prayer Moby Dick was laying on the beach. God was working to teach the disciples then and to teach His disciples now a lesson. You give thanks for what you have, so you can see God take a little and do a lot.

Now I’ve been around the house during this time of year and seen preparations being made for the meal. I’d see butter, sugar, nutmeg, vanilla… but I’ve never asked to eat a stick of butter! I’ve never asked to eat a cup of sugar. I’ve never asked to drink that nutmeg. I’ve never asked to do that.

Because eating those ingredients by themselves has no appeal to me. If I were invited to the table ‘come let’s have a stick of butter.’ I wouldn’t be interested. If I were asked to come and eat a few cups of sugar I would be interested. Those individual ingredients has no appeal to me.

But, when you add the correct ingredients all together and blend them properly. Turned upside down, inside out, and joined together, then on top of that, they are put in a hot oven.

Now, I’m still not impressed. I’m not impressed when I see the butter go in, the sugar go in, the eggs of in, all the individual ingredients…I’m not impressed. I’m not impressed when it’s first put in the fire. But just give me a little time. Cause all I need is time. You give me a little time, I don’t care where I’m located in the house, in the neighborhood or in the city, you give me time… And the smell of what is happening in the oven is going to get my attention. And I’m going to realize that those individual ingredients had a bigger purpose.

They were not meant for me to understand how each one relates individually but rather how they relate collectively. And when they inter-relate collectively and get FIRED up, all of a sudden I’m going to be levitated from where ever I am toward what was cooked up.

Why? Because the blender took some individual things and mixed them into something worth tasting.

God may have you in a butter situation… a sugar situation… a nutmeg situation…. But He’s going to put it in a blender on His time and your going to find that all those things were stirred together for something that is greater.

He’s got things cooking up… Can you smell what God is cooking? Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.

Can you smell what God has cooking?

Somebody ought to give Him thanks. Somebody ought to give Him glory!