The Foundation of ThanksgivingPsalm 100:3-5PSBC 11/19/00 In a nutshell: Thanksgiving must be given to the one responsible for whatever it is that we are thankful for. Regardless of our blessings, everyone who has a relationship with God can give thanks to God for these three things: The Lord is Good; His love endures forever; and His faithfulness endures to all generations. I. Introduction to Thanksgiving Day A. History In the Spring, after their survival of that first difficult winter, the Pilgrim settlers of Plymouth Colony began planting their first crops. In the Fall, with help from their Indian neighbors, they gathered in their first harvest. With a spirit of excitement, the Pilgrims invited the Indians who had helped them to join them in a three day feast of wild turkey, venison and vegetables, to celebrate God's faithfulness. This first thanksgiving feast in the new colonies took place in 1619. In 1623, Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Colonies made this proclamation... "Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest
of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has
made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and
inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us
from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to
the dictates of our own conscience. On November 26, 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation for a nation-wide day of thanksgiving. He made it clear that this day should be one of prayer and giving thanks to God. It was celebrated by people of all religious denominations throughout this new country. Later, President Abraham Lincoln made a proclamation in 1863, designating the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day, a day for the nation to give thanks to Almighty God. The date was later changed to the fourth Thursday of November, by President Franklin Roosevelt, in order to encourage holiday shopping. But things in the United States of America, started to change in 1962. That was the year the Supreme Court banned state-directed prayers in the public schools. Then in 1963, the Supreme Court banned Bible reading for religious purposes in the public school. Seventeen years later, in 1980, the Supreme Court said schools could no longer post the Ten Commandments. The High Court classified them as "plainly religious". Their ruling said that the existence of the Ten Commandments in a classroom might prompt children... "to read, ponder, revere, or obey these commandments." And that's how our national religious heritage began to be eliminated from public life. William Bennett who served as secretary of education under President Reagan wrote this about these anti-religious court decisions... (front of bulletin) "In too many places in American public education, religion has been ignored, banned or shunned in ways that serve neither knowledge, nor the Constitution, nor sound public policy. There is no good curricular or constitutional reason for textbooks to ignore, as many do, the role of religion in the founding of this country or its prominent place in the lives of many of its citizens. We should acknowledge that religion–from the Pilgrims to the civil rights struggle–is an important part of our history, civics, literature, art, music, poetry, and politics, and we should insist that our schools tell the truth about it." So, this week, the celebration of the Christian based holiday of Thanksgiving can be summed up for many people a fourth-grader summed it up when he stood to give a report about the origins of this holiday. Here's how he began... The pilgrims came here seeking freedom of you know what. B. Illustration Every year, beginning about now, many of us send out Christmas cards to friends and relatives all over the country. The purpose for these cards is to send holiday greetings and messages of love and appreciation to people who matter significantly to us. But the United States postal service will tell you that the messages of many of these cards and letters will not reach the intended people if they are addressed wrongly. I've read that the postal service estimates that over 2 million letters will be stamped, "Return to sender, addressee unknown" this year alone because they have the incorrect address printed on the front of the envelope. And no matter how sincere the sentiments of those cards and letters are, if they aren't addressed properly, they will not get delivered, and the messages will not be received. Well, that's something like Thanksgiving has become in the last 30 or so years in this country. We have a lot of people all over these United States who spend time on this holiday sending messages of thanks for things they have, or relationships they enjoy, or situations in which they live, or blessings they experience... but the messages are not received because the message has been stamped "Addressee Unknown". You see, when God has been taken out of the realm of their thankfulness, thanks is not delivered to the one to whom it rightfully belongs. By definition, thanks is a gift of words or deeds that is given to someone for a favor or kindness received. And the Bible has much to say about to whom we are to give thanks. One
particular verse that comes to mind is found in... James 1:17 James clearly tells us that God is the one who gives every good and perfect gift to human beings. Therefore, God is the one who ultimately deserves our thanks. But when we take God out of the equation of thankfulness, as many are doing in our increasingly un-Christian culture, we are left with something like mailing a letter with no address on the outside. So the message doesn't get delivered. II. Thanksgiving that is foundational Illustration: Many of you have seen a three-legged stool. (Screen) There is an interesting thing about a three-legged stool. It will not stand on two legs, and it will not stand on one leg. It will only stands on three legs. But when it stands on all three legs, that stool becomes a very firm foundation for sitting and resting your weight when you're tired. Well, that's how I've come to understand giving thanks. If I were to ask you what you were thankful for, many of you would name things like family or friends or jobs or pay checks or our church or leaders who are in our lives. But what if all those things were removed from your life? Most of those things that I've just mentioned have a chance of changing–just read about Job in the Old Testament. In a short period of a few days, he lost his crops, his home, his family, and everything he had worked for–even his friends turned against him. Could he have celebrated Thanksgiving Day? What I'm getting at, is that none of the things that we are traditionally thankful for, are foundational to what should be our real thanksgiving. Don't get me wrong, being thankful for those things I mentioned is something that is good and proper. But it isn't the foundation for our thanks. What would happen if we didn't have friends, or family, or jobs, or pay checks, or a church, or leaders in our lives? Could we still be thankful? The answer is YES! Because regardless of what is going on in our lives. Regardless of the circumstances. Regardless of what we have or don't have... We all can give thanks for three things. And these three things make for a three-legged stool that I call the "foundation for thanksgiving." This idea is expressed in Psalm 100. If you have your Bibles, please turn to them and look at verses 4 and 5... Psalm 100:4-5 The three things everyone of us can be thankful for, regardless of what is going on in our lives are... 1. The Goodness of God Let me explain these concepts from this Psalm... A. For the Lord is Good Let's look first at the goodness of God. When we say that, it's important to understand that word, Good. Let me explain what it means... Illustration: When I was a sophomore in college, I was asked by the track coach to participate in the discus throwing event, at the Wabash Relays at Wabash College in Indiana. The Wabash Relays, when I was in school, was the premier track event for NCAA Division 3 schools. I had thrown the discus in high school, and held my high school's record for several years after I graduated. In a field relay event, the best throw of three guys on a team are added together and the total of those three best throws become your score for the event. There were two other guys on this discus relay team with me. One fellow, Marty Medhurst, was a freshman, but the year before, he had won the discus event in the Illinois state high school track meet. He could out throw me by a few feet. The other guy was a senior named Jeff Wright. When the day of the meet came, a lot of schools were participating from all over the country. There was more glitz and glamour than many of us had ever seen. For many of us on the team, it would be the biggest track and field event of our lives. It was cause for a lot of possible nervousness–especially for a sophomore and a freshman. But Marty and I were not nervous at all. You see, we had Jeff Wright on our team. Jeff was Olympic material. His best throw so far that year was fifth best in the country. We were shoe-ins to win this thing. The only question was how long would the record stand, that we would set. We did win the event and set a meet record that stood for 20 years. I threw pretty good that day, Marty did a little better. But Jeff Wright threw fifty feet farther than anyone else who was competing. Jeff could have replaced any member of the team that scored the lowest that day, and that team would have won the meet. And that's the first reason we can be thankful to God–God is on our side. No matter what the circumstances we find ourselves in during the course of our life, when we have a relationship with God, then God is on our team. That's what "The Lord is Good" means. You plus God equals a majority! There is no problem, no situation, no circumstance, no relationship, no habit, no compulsion, no sin, no background that can defeat you when God is on your side. So, the first leg of your foundation of thankfulness is "The Lord is Good"! B. His Love Endures Forever The second leg of our foundation is the fact that God's Love Endures Forever.
This word "love" is also translated "mercy" in some versions
of the Bible, and others translate it "loving kindness". So really we could most accurately translate phrase like this... "God's steadfastness, His compassion, and His strength last forever". The reason we can be thankful for those things is that this steadfastness, compassion and strength of God are all brought to bear on our lives–not just in good times, not just in bad times, but throughout every day and every moment of our lives. Illustration: The farm where I lived growing up was along a stretch of road called Cottage Grove Avenue. On either side of Cottage Grove Avenue for about a two mile stretch was nothing but fields, and three farm houses. On either side of the road were drainage ditches. We lived in an area where the wind would gather significant force during winter storms, and cause snow to blow across the empty fields and pile up as huge snow drifts across Cottage Grove Avenue. Because of that, it would not be unusual for us to get a knock on our door on a winter night, by a motorist who had hit a snow drift and buried his or her car in the ditch. We had a huge tractor on our farm called a Versatile. It was made in Canada.
It was a massive four-wheel drive tractor with an enclosed cab, and about as
much power as a diesel engine could produce. Here's the essence of this second pillar. I don't care what kind of mess your life is in right now. I don't care how screwed up things have gotten–you can be thankful to God for this fact– He stands ready with compassion (not guilt or condemnation), unmovable in his steadfast love for you, and with all the strength of the most powerful force in the universe to help you through that difficult situation you find yourself in. I'm not saying there won't be consequences to bad choices in your life. I'm not saying everything will be rosy all the time. But God stands ready to bring all of who He is, lovingly to bear against your problems to help see you through. Not just once in a while, but always. So, the second leg of the foundation of thanksgiving is "His love endures forever." C. His faithfulness endures through all generations Finally, the Psalm writer talks about the third leg of the foundation for thankfulness. He says, "His faithfulness endures through all generations." The best illustration I can think of comes from the time when Israel was wandering in the wilderness, and they came across an enemy nation who wanted to destroy them. They went to battle, and listen to what happened... Exodus 17:8-13 The phrase, remained steady, is the same word as faithfulness. Just like Aaron and Hur held Moses' arms so they remained steady when he had no strength of his own, so Israel could win the battle...that's the way God is in our lives. He holds us up when we are weak. He's never going to leave us–even in the most difficult situations. And the Psalmist says that he demonstrates this faithfulness–this steadiness–through all generations. In other words, that promise was true throughout your great grandfather's life, and your grandfather's life, and your father's life, and your life, and your children's lives. God is always by the side of his child, ready to give you whatever help you need to accomplish the purpose He has for your life. What an incredible truth! That's faithfulness! III. Conclusion A. It's Conditional Now I have to close by saying that not everyone in this room this morning, may have these three things to be thankful about. Some might not have this foundation of thanksgiving. It's not because God isn't Good, or His love doesn't endure, or He's not always faithful. But it's because these three foundational things are only available to a certain group of people–if you go up to verse three, you'll see what I'm talking about... Psalm 100:3 Whenever you see the word Lord in all capital letters, like it is in this verse, that is the Hebrew word, Yahweh –the personal name of God. In the Old Testament, only God's people could use that personal name. Friends, the privilege of being able to thank God for the reality of His goodness, and the reality of His steadfast love, and the reality of His faithfulness in your life only comes when you belong to Him. We call that, knowing Him personally–or being a Christian. B. Entering into the relationship Since the beginning of time, God has wanted to know every one of you personally. But that couldn't happen because there is sin in each of our lives. And the holy God cannot tolerate sin of any kind in His presence. That's against His nature! So, He provided a way for this relationship to happen. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross–to take on Him the wrath of God that each one of us deserves because we are sinners. And now, He is waiting for you to decide to complete the relationship–for you to want know Him personally. What I'm talking about has nothing to do with religion. But it has everything to do with a relationship. And you enter into a personal relationship with the good, loving and faithful God of the universe in this way. 1. You agree with what God says in... 2. You believe –that means you put your complete trust in something–that
something is that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin.
That's what the Bible means when it says, in John 3:16 3. Finally, you seal the deal. You officially enter into this relationship with God by praying a prayer in the quietness of your mind, that goes something like this... Jesus, I'm a sinner and need your salvation. I believe You died for me and rose again. I now call upon Your name and ask You to save me. Thank you. And by doing that simple act–so simple that even a child can understand it–you have entered into a relationship that will never end–a relationship with the good, loving and faithful God. C. Why would you settle? Why would anyone want anything less than God's goodness, His steadfast love, and His faithfulness. Settling for less would be like settling for a broken down bicycle with two flat tires, instead of a brand new Rolls Royce with a lifetime warranty. Would you like God's very best for you today, so you can really experience something to be thankful for? You can have it today... |
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This page was last updated on Sunday, October 31, 2004 03:38 PM
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