Giving Thanks With A Grateful Heart 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason -- November 20, 2005
The first American Thanksgiving didn't occur in 1621 when a group of Pilgrims shared a feast with a group of friendly Indians. The first recorded thanksgiving took place in Virginia more than 11 years earlier, and it wasn't a feast. The winter of 1610 at Jamestown had reduced a group of 409 settlers to 60. The survivors prayed for help, without knowing when or how it might come. When help arrived, in the form of a ship filled with food and supplies from England, a prayer meeting was held to give thanks to God.
The Pilgrims did celebrate their first Thanksgiving in November of 1623 following this proclamation:
To All Ye Pilgrims: Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, 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; now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor, and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.
William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Colony.
In a sermon at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, Gary Wilburn said: "In 1636, amid the darkness of the Thirty Years' War, a German pastor, Martin Rinkart, is said to have buried five thousand of his parishioners in one year, and average of fifteen a day. His parish was ravaged by war, death, and economic disaster. In the heart of that darkness, with the cries of fear outside his window, he sat down and wrote this table grace for his children: 'Now thank we all our God / With heart and hands and voices;/ Who wondrous things had done,/ In whom His world rejoices. /Who, from our mother's arms,/Hath led us on our way/ With countless gifts of love/ And still is ours today.'"
Here was a man who knew thanksgiving comes from love of God, not from outward circumstances.
On a lighter note: In Budapest, a man goes to the rabbi and complains, "Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?"
The rabbi answers, "Take your goat into the room with you." The man in incredulous, but the rabbi insists. "Do as I say and come back in a week."
A week later the man comes back looking more distraught than before. "We cannot stand it," he tells the rabbi. "The goat is filthy."
The rabbi then tells him, "Go home and let the goat out. And come back in a week."
A radiant man returns to the rabbi a week later, exclaiming, "Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there's no goat -- only the nine of us."
Our text for today includes: Luke 17:11-19
11As Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria. 12As he entered a village there, ten lepers stood at a distance, 13crying out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
14He looked at them and said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, their leprosy disappeared.
15One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God, I’m healed!” 16He fell face down on the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan.
17Jesus asked, “Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? 18Does only this foreigner return to give glory to God?” 19And Jesus said to the man, “Stand up and go. Your faith has made you well.”
Why did only one cleansed leper return to thank Jesus? The following are nine suggested reasons why the nine did not return:
One waited to see if the cure was real.
One waited to see if it would last.
One said he would see Jesus later.
One decided that he had never had leprosy.
One said he would have gotten well anyway.
One gave the glory to the priests.
One said, "O, well, Jesus didn't really do anything."
One said, "Any rabbi could have done it."
One said, "I was already much improved."
1. We must learn to be thankful or we become bitter.
2. We must learn to be thankful or we will become discouraged.
3. We must learn to be thankful or we shall surly grow arrogant and
self-satisfied.
Do we really perceive the ways that God has blessed us? Not a one of us is hungry, not a one of us is naked, but most importantly, if you are a Christian, you have been given everything through Christ Jesus our Lord. The devil will do his best to keep your mind off the blessings of God. He will constantly tell you how bad you have it, of how everything is wrong in your life. You see, it’s when you begin to realize how much you have in the Lord, that you will truly begin to be thankful, and when you are thankful, your heart will abound with love for the Lord that has so graciously given all to you.
An unthankful Christian is a defeated Christian for he/she has lost their joy.
Note the priority of gratitude in the response of one of the lepers.
When he saw that he was healed, he turned around. Now the Lord had given the command to go to the priest but he delayed, he turned around and went back to the Lord. Why didn’t the Lord rebuke him for this? The reason is because this man realized the priority of gratitude and worship. I believe that this man fully intended to obey what the Lord had told him to do, but he realized that he had a higher calling that must first come first. If you don’t give God thanks, it won’t be long until your obedience just becomes a job to do; you lose the meaning of what God is wanting you to do. You become unthankful. It is fitting and proper to give thanks and praise to the Lord for what He has done in your life.
Note the perfection of gratitude.
As he drew near to where the Lord was, he glorified God. The Greek means that he made the Lord glorious, He manifested the worth of the Lord. He came to Jesus and fell down before Him in perfect submission and gave Him thanks. The Lord asked the question, Were there not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Then note what He told this man, “Arise, go thy way, thy faith has made thee whole.”
This was something that the others did not receive. One scholar said that a new power was given to him that day. He had faith, not just to be healed, but many commentaries state that he had the faith to follow Christ. All people are blessed of God, but not all follow Christ. This man’s thankful heart responded in faith and he was perfected as a disciple of the Lord.
Luke 15:25-15:32
Thanksgiving’s Empty Chair
A woman was visiting some people who lived on a farm, and she noticed a pig limping in the backyard with a wooden leg. She asked the farmer, "What happened to the pig?" The farmer said, "Oh, Betsy is a wonderful pig. One night the house caught fire and she oinked so loud she woke us and we got the fire truck in time to save the house." The woman said, "That’s really something!" The farmer continued, "That’s not all, one day my youngest fell in the pond and Betsy oinked so loud that she got our attention and we were able to pull my daughter out of the pond in time." The woman said, "That’s really amazing! But I still don’t understand why the pig has a wooden leg. The farmer said, "Well, when you have a pig that special, you don’t want to eat him all at once!"
Gratitude didn’t run very deep for the three legged hero.
Just how deep does your gratitude run for God?
Read the passage about the Prodigal’s Brother
On such a great day for thanksgiving, surprisingly every chair was filled except one. It was the chair right next to the robe covered prodigal. It belonged to the elder brother. The good boy who minded his own business, lived by the rules and stayed clear of trouble was coming home after a hard day of chores on the ranch. He heard the commotion but was unaware that the fuss had to do with a surprise homecoming by baby brother.
You would have thought the news would have followed with a heartfelt reunion of two brothers. As far as he figured it, he’d never lay eyes on his brother again. He was as good as dead. Come to think of it, the fact that his younger sibling ever had the nerve to come back begin to muster up some deeply negative feelings. The prodigal basically told dad he was as good as dead by asking for his inheritance before there was any talk of funerals. And while he ran off to live with reckless irresponsibility, who bore the brunt of responsibility but big brother. And how could dad even consider throwing a party for a son that treated him so shamefully. Not to mention, how did he ever let him step one foot on the estate, at all?
It was more than he could stand. His hearty appetite seemed to fade with the news of celebration over his brother’s return to the family farm. It was repulsive and he wanted no part of the unscheduled party. He refused to go in to the house - to welcome back his brother. No forgetting and no forgiving would come from him.
Then something happens, not sure if he sees his older son through a window or gets word of his refusal to join the party- the father steps out to urge his older son to join them at the table. The pleading must have been just too much for this son to bear. Like a dam that gives way, the older son breaks loose with great emotion all the feelings that he’s held back for a long time.
Out comes resentment toward dad for not giving him such treatment. He is embittered by his brother’s unbridled passions and wasted living. He is frustrated that he will again have to share the farm with his brother- the loser. The last thing in the world he wants to do is have a party- and he makes this perfectly clear!
If any one should have been absolutely contented, shouldn’t it have been the older brother?
Amazingly doing all the right things, possessing the benefits of estate living are not guarantees of a grateful heart.
Looking at the interchange between father and elder brother, we discover some things that point to a heart plagued with thanklessness.
I. He was Performance Driven
v.29 “Lo, these many years, I have been serving you...I never transgressed...and yet you never gave me a goat”
This statement uncovers much of the reason this brother lacked joy:
1. The older brother marks time
2. The older brother tracks behavior
3. The older brother feels entitled
II. He was Possessions Blind
v.31 the father reminds the son, “all that I have is yours”
The older brother had everything but still felt he needed something more
Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they haven’t found it, but because they haven’t stopped to enjoy it.
The younger brother learned true riches out of his poor decisions which brought poverty vv.17-18
III. He was Relationally Distant
v. 30- He described his brother as “this son of yours”
was it motivated out of resentment or arrogance?
v. 31- The father had to remind him, “Son, you are always with me”
He took this for granted- he lived on the father’s farm but failed to learn the father’s heart
SO
- he could not understand his father’s nature
- he could not share in the father’s joy
The father ends his discussion with these words (32) “It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.”
What should this mean to the older brother and to us? If we are unable to share in the joy of the Father’s heart, something is definitely wrong!
It’s prodigal-like people that flock to Jesus. Why? They are drawn to the Savior because they are really thankful.
Its elder-brother like people that find this sight offensive.
In arrogance they are blinded by their own achievements.
They are consumed by a want for more- never really stopping to say thank you Father.
They have no room to love because they are keeping record.
DON’T LET INGRATITUDE ROB YOU OF YOUR CHANCE TO GET IN SYNC WITH THE HEART OF THE FATHER
Ephesians 5:19 says, “Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything.” Always is the key word. Not just on Thanksgiving. Everyday.
Dr. Dale Robbins writes, “I used to think people complained because they had a lot of problems. But I have come to realize that they have problems because they complain. Complaining doesn’t change anything or make situations better. It amplifies frustration, spreads discontent and discord, and can invoke an invitation for the devil to cause havoc with our lives.” Complaining makes us miserable. Psalm 77:3 says, “I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed.”
Let me close with this:
The Old Testament prophet Isaiah said: Isaiah 51:1 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. In other words, look at where God has brought you from, remember what God has done for you. Visit again in your mind the place where you first met God and His mercy and grace.
And Give God Thanks for it all.
--Dennis Gleason
