How To Be Thankful In A Broken World
In Psalm 95, we learn about coming before His presence with thanksgiving. Can I tell you that he's the one who's worthy of all of our thanks and all of our praise? He’s good, by the way. He is good even when we don't understand what he's doing.
I'm reminded of Job years ago. Job, as he lay in the ash heap, wearing sackcloth, after losing his children, his wife's respect, and his friends' encouragement. After all this, he still had a God that was good. The Bible records that Job said,
“The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21)
As we look here in Psalm 95, The Bible says:
“O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. 3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. 5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. 6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. 7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. 10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: 11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.” (Psalm 95:1-11)
As we look in the Psalm here we see those words “Come before His presence with thanksgiving.” I wonder how many of us, so often, enter into God's presence by prayer and the last thing we think about is thanks. We think about what we need, what we want, our problems, our hurts, and other people. We think about ourselves. But how often, Christian, do we think about thanking God? How often do with think about being thankful for the One that gave us all things? In this series, I want to share two simple thoughts as we think about Thanksgiving.
1. An Upward Look
At one time, Rudyard Kipling was so famous that his writings were getting ten shillings per word. Now, that doesn't sound like much to us in our day, but in that day, that was a lot of money per word. Ten shillings per word.
There were some college students during that day who didn't appreciate the writings of Mr. Kipling, so they thought they would pull a prank, and they would do something humorous. So they jokingly sent him a letter. They enclosed ten shillings in that letter, and the letter read only this: "Please send us your best word.” They were making a mockery of the fact that Mr. Kipling made ten shillings a word. They received a response from Mr. Kipling. A piece of paper folded up in an envelope. When they opened the envelope, in the middle of that piece of paper was simply the word “thanks.” Thanks. No better word. Thanks.
Number one, I believe we become thankful when we have an upward look.
A. An Upward Look Brings Thanks for the Power of God.
It brings thanks for the power of God. The Bible says in Psalm 95:1-3
“O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.” (Psalm 95:1-11)
When I think about God, I think about His power. That power that is unbounded, that power that is above my power. That power is above your power. That power is beyond our comprehension and our understanding. Why? Because he's God. As I look up and think about the power of God, it causes me to be thankful that a God who is all-powerful would also love me. A God that is all-powerful would also care about me.
In the summer, you've walked down our city's sidewalks, and you've probably stepped on an ant or two. And as you've walked down the sidewalk, maybe not on purpose, but without even noticing, your foot has crushed ants as you walk. Because compared to you and I, that ant is so insignificant and so small. Why would I even notice it?
When I think about the vast difference between me and the power of a holy God, I realize that he cares for me. I realize that he thinks about me. I realize that he has a plan for me. It causes me to be thankful.
But not only does an upward look make me thankful for the power of God,
B. An Upward Look Brings Thanks for the Plans of God.
We see in verses four and five:
“In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. 5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.” (Psalm 95:4-5)
On our Thanksgiving Sunday, many folks made food for our Thanksgiving meal. We had folks even during the service preparing our dinner. It was planned. It was on purpose.
How many of you remember the first time you ever cooked a turkey? How many of you know that the first time you cooked a turkey was before Google or the Internet?
Now, what you probably did is you called your mom, right? “Hey, Mom, what do I do with this big pterodactyl-looking thing?” And here's what you probably did. You wanted to cook the bird for Thanksgiving, so you got it out on Monday morning, and you got this frozen bird and asked, “How do I cook a turkey?” And then you realize it has to be thawed out. And so you don't have turkey for Thanksgiving.
Or you look and ask, “How do I do this? What do I do?” You don't just go. “Yeah, well, I’ll just cook it however I want. I'll put it in the oven at 500 degrees for 5 minutes and then take it out. That should be good.”
That doesn't work and is also an excellent way to get salmonella poisoning. It's not a good plan. You have to follow the plan. How many of us have ever cooked a turkey and it turned out so dry you thought it was shoe leather in the shape of a turkey? Have you done that before, or maybe you forgot about it?
And because it takes so long to cook, and you set a timer and got busy scrolling Facebook, you got busy doing something at home and with the kids. And you begin to smell something, something burning. And you rushed to the oven only to find a once white bird, now black. Maybe you saw flames erupting from your oven because you didn't follow the right plan.
Now, just as the turkeys we had on Thanksgiving Sunday were planned perfectly, can I tell you that God has a perfect plan? The Bible says about His creation that He made it. God didn't subcontract His work. God planned everything.
And when I look up, I think about the plan of God, the plan of God that has led me and created everything and has done everything. When I think about God's plan, I say, thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord, for your plan, for your perfect plan. Whenever I look up, it brings thanks for the plan of God.
God does have a plan. In Jeremiah 29, we see Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, who preached to a people that would not listen to him; Jeremiah records God saying,
“...I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." (Jeremiah 29:11)
Christian, God has a plan for you, and His thoughts are good. Dear friend, today, would you understand that God's plan is good? His plan is good. Everything God does is good.
If we look back in Genesis and go to the very beginning of the Bible, we see that God created the heavens and the earth, and then it records the days of creation. And it says God spoke into existence. Every day of creation. We can see God's creative power, the end of creation, the end of everyday creation. It says the morning, the evening of the first day, the second day and the third day. And every day, God said, It's good at the end of creation; when God rested, God looked at all of creation and said about His work, His plan, “It's very good. It's very good, very good.”
C. An Upward Look Brings Thanks for the Presence of God
I want you to consider this question: How many of us fear being alone?
Can I tell you the answer is much higher than you would think? One of the greatest fears in our culture today is being alone and being disconnected.
How many of us have gone into the washroom to care for whatever we care for in the washroom and have walked back out to pick up our phone before we go back and shut the door? Why? We've gotten to the point where we don't know how to be alone. We’ve got to have some connection. We’ve got to be connected at all times. We don't want to be disconnected. We don't want to be removed from the connection of others.
By the way, part of that is that God made you that way. You know it's not an accident; we like to connect. It's not an accident that we like to be with other people and around other people. God made us that way. God made us for the purpose of fellowshipping with Him. When God made Adam, the Bible says about Adam that God said it was not good. What was not good about Adam? That he was alone.
He said I'll make a help-meet for him. God wanted Adam to have fellowship and a help-meet. God also wanted Adam to fellowship with Him. That's why the Bible says after Adam and Eve sinned when God walked in the garden in the cool of the day, and He said, “Adam, where art thou, Adam?” Adam, let's fellowship, let's talk. Let's spend some time together. I think maybe the Lord and Adam had a cup of coffee together. I don't know. Maybe it's in the Greek or Hebrew somewhere. But they fellowshiped together. God made you, and God made me to want to connect with other people. But ultimately, God made us want to communicate with God. How wonderful it is that we can have the presence of God! How wonderful we can do so. How excellent that I don't have to be far, far away, but I can have the presence of God.
God loved us so much that He came, became flesh, and separated himself from everybody else, right? No. The Bible says He dwelt amongst us. Jesus walked the same dusty streets of Galilee. He went to the same places as everybody else did. He was there with everyone. The Bible says He was touched by our infirmities. The Bible says that Jesus Christ came, was crucified, and was buried. Then He rose again.
But hold on a minute-when Jesus, God in the flesh, rose again, God wasn't gone. God didn't leave mankind alone. God didn't say, “Okay, I'll see in a few thousand years. Hope you make it on your own.” No, Jesus told the disciples before He left, If I go, I'm going to send the comforter. I'm going to send my Spirit to live with you. And not only to live with you but to live inside of you. I praise God as I look up, and as I think about God, I can think about His presence being with me. I'm thankful.
I don't want to bring up a painful thought for you, but it may be for some of you that this has been your first Thanksgiving without a family member because they passed away this year. And it's difficult. Why? Because you don't have their presence with you. I feel that in a genuine way. I understand what it is to have lost and miss someone who is not here.
I know what it is to sit at a holiday table and look at a chair that used to be filled with someone you love dearly, who’s not there anymore. Can I tell you what I can be thankful for in the presence of God? God's chair is never empty, He said. “I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee.” There's never a time that I can say, “God, where do you go? Why did you leave me here?”
He said, “I'll never leave you, I’ll never forsake you.” I can have the presence of God. How wonderful that is. The Bible says,
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock…” (Revelation 3:20)
By the way, if you don't have the presence of God today, it's as simple as opening a door. It's as simple as receiving a gift. It’s as simple as saying yes to a question, receiving God's presence, and receiving the gift of God; how wonderful that is.
It causes me to be thankful to have God's presence, no matter where I am, what culture I'm in, what happens in my life, and the valley I walk through.
Psalm 23 tells us:
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over." Psalm 23:4-5
God's presence is with us. And we say Thank you. Thank you, Lord. The Bible tells us where two or more are gathered in His name. He's there, in the midst of them. We have the presence of God in this place today.
We thank Him. We praise Him for His presence. As the Bible says,
“2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. ... 6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. 7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice" (Psalm 95:2, 6-7)
Psalm 46 says,
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1b)
Many of us own a car here in Canada. How many of you know that a spare tire is probably somewhere in your vehicle? I drive a really fancy, expensive, new car, a 2004 Suzuki. On the back of my 2004 Suzuki XL7 is a spare tire. And what's funny about my spare tire is that it is actually a better, higher quality tire than the tires on my vehicle. Now it's there. It's a good tire. It's a brand-new tire. It's an excellent tire. Now, if I get a flat, I might need that tire. I hope I never need it. I hope that tire rides around back there, and the sun dries it out, rots, and is never needed.
But if you get a flat tire, can I tell you how many of you have ever had to change a flat tire? If you get a flat tire on the highway and you think, praise God, I’ve got a spare! And you put the spare tire on.
I talked to a friend a couple of years ago. She had a flat tire, and she was going to change it and put the spare tire on. She opened the back of her vehicle and looked inside. It was a Kia Soul. For a few years, Kia decided they wouldn't put a spare tire in their car. So there was no spare tire. It's okay not to have a spare tire until you need it. When you have a flat tire and you don't have a spare, you're in trouble because you need it.
The Bible says that our God is present at the time we need Him. “He's a very present help in trouble.” God's always there. By the way, He's there for you today. We can call upon Him today.
“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13)
It doesn’t say “might be saved.” It says, “shall be saved.”
Ray Steadman talked about Henry Ironside's experience in a crowded restaurant one day. Mr. Ironside was a famous writer and preacher. Just as Ironside was about to begin his meal, a man approached Mr. Ironside and asked if he could join him and eat with him. By the way, nothing is more miserable than eating alone.
Mr. Ironside invited him and said, “Sure, have a seat.”
Maybe you've been there at Costco. When you're trying to find a seat, you've got to sit with somebody you don't know. That's uncomfortable in our culture today. But he sat there with Mr. Ironside, and as Mr. Ironside's custom was when the meal came, he bowed his head in prayer.
When he opened his eyes and lifted his head, the other man looked at him and asked, “Do you have a headache?
Mr. Ironside said, “No, no, I don't.”
And then he said to Mr. Ironside, “Well, is something wrong with you? Something wrong with your food?”
And Ironside said, “No, I was simply thanking God, as I always do before I eat.”
“Oh, you're one of those! You’re one of those!” the man exclaimed, “Well, I want you to know that I never give thanks. I want you to know that I earn my money by the sweat of my brow, and I don't have to give thanks to anybody. When I eat,” he said, “I just start right in.”
Mr. Ironside looked at him and said, “Yes, you're just like my dog. That's what he does, too.”
Can I tell you that we need to give thanks to God for His presence in our lives?
When we look up and think about Him being present with us, caring about us, when we think about His power and His plan for us, it causes us to enter before Him with Thanksgiving.
I grew up on a farm. I'm not a I'm not a city kid. I'm a farm kid. I grew up in the southern U.S. I am what would be called a “hillbilly.” If you don't know that word, you can Google it. You'll probably find a picture of someone with bib overalls carrying a banjo. It’s perhaps one of my relatives.
I'm a farm boy from West Virginia. In the northeastern United States is the state of Vermont. It's a very rural area. There are some cities, but it’s a very rural, beautiful area. And a farmer in Vermont once sat on his porch with his wife. And as he sat there, he looked over at his wife and thought about her. He thought about how much she meant to him. By the way, they had lived together for 42 years.
He was in his sixties. She was the wife of his youth. They lived long lives, reared children, had grandchildren, and did many things together. His wife had been a great help on the farm, a great help in the early years, in the challenging years, and stayed faithful even throughout the long marriage and as he was sitting there and thinking about her and the time they'd spent together in their life, they built together and how she had been such a contribution in his life, and in the life of their children. She had helped in meeting the needs of the family.
As they sat together on the front porch looking out on the farm, he said these words to her:
“Wife, You've been such a wonderful woman that there are times that I can hardly keep from telling you.”
In other words, he never told her. He never paused to say “thank you.” He never paused even to acknowledge.
Christian, I wonder if we really laid our hearts bare before our God, how many times we have failed to thank our God. How many times have we failed to say “thank you?”
