Selected Scriptures When He Had Given Thanks November 19, 2017pm www.newhopefwbc.com 1285 Ne w Hope R oad Joelton, TN 37080 6 1 5. 7 4 6. 6 4 0 3 READ Psalm 100 America has a deep heritage attached to days like Thanksgiving. Its history is pretty hard to trace since Florida, Texas, Maine, Virginia and Massachusetts all claim to be the site of the first Thanksgiving meal observed in America. Whether the Pilgrims were the first or some of the Spanish explorers who preceded them, Christian cultures have often taken a day of prayer and thanksgiving seriously after a good harvest or blessing.1 The first officially declared U.S. Thanksgiving was proclaimed by the Continental Congress in 1777 to be observed on December 18th of that year. After that President George Washington called for a day of thanks to be observed on November 26, 1789. It was heartily observed that year, and a few kept the day on their calendar personally. Many states would often set aside a day of thanks, but it was not officially recognized by the federal government, until a 74 year-old lady, Sarah Joseph Hale, penned a 1 https://www.plimoth.org/learn/just-kids/homework-help/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-history Corey M. Minter Page 1 of 8
letter to President Lincoln asking that he lead the country in establishing an annual holiday celebrating and thanking God for His blessings. Lincoln complied and drafted a proclamation, setting aside the last Thursday of November as the nation s annual day to give thanks. After writing about the blessings they enjoy in spite of being in the middle of a gruesome Civil War, Lincoln wrote: They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. 2 Thanksgiving, for me, is one of my favorite holidays. The day is has the right focus, and in spite of the Black Friday shopping that strangely enough has started earlier and earlier into Thursday, it has remained a day of thanks and introspection. I love it for its simplicity and closeness. That idea of giving thanks has been on the forefront of my mind over the last few weeks, as many of you have taken part in our 30 Days of Thanks challenge on social media. I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing your posts. This evening, let s take a step back and ask Why. Why should we be thankful? It sounds prideful to even ask, but if we are not careful some of our pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps theology sometimes gets in the way of our thanks. Do you remember the old James Stewart movie, Shenandoah? I can vividly remember watching it as a kid. The family gathers around the dinner table, James Stewart s character the father, Charlie is prodded 2 http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm Corey M. Minter Page 2 of 8
to pray thanks over the food, and he says, Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it and harvested. We cooked the harvest. It wouldn t be here; we wouldn t be eatin it, if we hadn t done it all ourselves. We worked dog-bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you just the same anyway, Lord, for this food that we re about to eat. Amen. Why should that rub the Christian so wrong? Why should we not gather our family around the dinner table this Thursday (or every evening) and pray a similar prayer? It might seem elementary, but let me remind you of two reasons. 1. Because God created mankind to live a life of THANKS What Charlie forgets in his prayer is that God gave the breath, the strength, the health, the life to do all that work. At the beginning of time, man was a pile of dirt, but Christ stepped into the scene and weaved veins and arteries, tissue and organs, muscles and bones, nerves and brain synapsis. He formed man from the dust of the ground, but what then? The created thing just lay there stiff and unmoving. It was not until God breathed into him the breath of life that man became a living soul. I am convinced that God allows sickness into our lives at times to remind us that we have very little control over even our most basic needs like our own health. You can eat right, not smoke, exercise, wash your hands and still come down with the common cold. Giving thanks to God is the most natural response, anything less is perverted and simple-minded. David Mathis wrote, God created humanity for gratitude. You exist to appreciate God. 3 It s true. He needs nothing 3 https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-true-story-of-thanksgiving Corey M. Minter Page 3 of 8
from you, but when we give thanks, we are living up to our highest potential in this life. What has struck me in my personal study on thanksgiving this year has been the numerous times that Jesus, Himself, prayed and thanked His Father. His thankfulness is seen in almost every recorded prayer that He prayed. Which brings me to my second reason to give thanks. 2. Because Jesus exemplified living a life of THANKS I hope you have your copy of Scripture with you tonight because we will spend some time in four different passages where Jesus is sure to thank His Father in prayer. I have talked before about the seeming irony of Jesus praying to God the Father. When He said things like I and My Father are One, it must have confused His disciples even more to hear Him pray to God and say You instead of Me. When Jesus prayed He gave us an example He shows us how we can have real communion with God through prayer. It was not just an object lesson; it was true communion that He enjoyed when He prayed to His Father. Matthew 11 Jesus thanked God for His grace 25 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. 26 Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. Corey M. Minter Page 4 of 8
Jesus had just a few verses earlier sent out 70 of His followers to be like evangelists, sharing the Gospel with surrounding towns and cities. These 70 were uneducated men by the world s standards. They had not taken classes on rhetoric or public speaking, but nonetheless, they return celebrating, jumping up and down, rejoicing that God had used the. God gives grace in that all we need in coming to Him is nothing. But nothing is the one thing that some people do not have. He entrusted His Gospel to these 70 babies by the world s standards, and they remained faithful. Matthew 15 Jesus thanked God for His provision 32 Now Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way. 33 Then His disciples said to Him, Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude? 34 Jesus said to them, How many loaves do you have? And they said, Seven, and a few little fish. 35 So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. 36 And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude. Corey M. Minter Page 5 of 8
37 So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left. 38 Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. Jesus had been teaching, preaching and healing a particular crowd for three days, and they found more energy in His words than they would have in a meal. However, He looks on them with compassion, seeing how physically haggard they were. He had already fed the 5,000 prior with five loaves and two fish, but when He asks His disciples how much bread they had with them, they respond with the same skepticism that you and I would have had we been there. Seven and a few little fish They all sit down, and Jesus prays, thanking His Father for the food and then miraculously, as He broke it, it multiplied, feeding over 4,000 people with leftovers. God s providing for our daily bread is just as miraculous. Never lose the wonder that God wakes you up, gives you breath, provided you a job, blessed you with food. Those who do not have one or more of those realize the miracle of provision in a big way. John 11 Jesus thanked God for hearing Him Corey M. Minter Page 6 of 8
41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me. 43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth! 44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, Loose him, and let him go. God heard and God answered. God hears you and God always answers. I said it a few weeks ago, God answers prayer with Yes, No, and Not Yet, but I was wrong. He answers all those ways, but there is a fourth. Paul writes about it in Ephesians 4 20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. God s fourth way to answer is Yes and even more! Which leads us into Jesus s fourth prayer of thanks. Luke 22 Jesus thanked God for His plan of salvation Corey M. Minter Page 7 of 8
17 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. 19 And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me. 20 Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you. Knowing full well what the spilled out wine and broken bread symbolized actual cuts, gashes, piercings and bruises Jesus thanked God for His plan of salvation. We pray to God and beg SAVE ME! He answers with Yes and even more I will not just save you from eternal death and destruction in Hell, but I will give you all these good things. Jesus knew full well and thanked His Father. As we sit around our tables this week, let us be thankful for His grace, His provision, His hearing us and His plan of salvation, and may each around the table be able to give a first-hand testimony to each. Corey M. Minter Page 8 of 8