THANKSGIVING
November 27-28, 2019
Pastor Timothy J. Spaude
Text: Genesis 32:9-12
THANKSGIVING HAPPENS…
1. When You Realize Why You are Blessed.
2. When You Remain God Dependent.
Genesis 32:9-12 (NIV 1984) “Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ 10I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups. 11Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”
To me Thanksgiving is one of those things in life, like teaching your kids how to handle their mistakes and sin. What do we tell them? “Now say you’re sorry.” “I’m sorry!” Are they? You are teaching them but the fact of the matter is either they are sorry or they are not. Your kid gets a gift. “Say Thank you.” “Thank you.” Are they? You can usually tell. “Thank you for the socks grandma.” “A new Xbox! Are you kidding me? Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” You see, when you are thankful no one has to tell you to be thankful or say “Thank you.” You are. Thanksgiving just happens. There were times in our country’s history, maybe in your history, that a gift of socks would elicit heartfelt thanksgiving. If it does not today it is because we have been affected by a pernicious gratitude stealer we will talk about later. I know all of us are gathered here today because we are thankful to God and to help us maintain and grow that attitude of gratitude let’s learn from the life of an Old Testament believer named Jacob.
There are certain points in life when the gravity of your situation forcibly reminds you of how little you are in the big picture. It may be something like getting caught in an earthquake and being flung around like a rag doll. Or think of you would feel if you fell overboard in the ocean with no boats in sight. Or maybe how a husband feels while his wife is in labor, cognizant of all the things that could go wrong. Or how you feel as you wait for the test results and you are not expecting them to be good. You are not in control. You feel what is always the case. You need your God.
Jacob found himself at such a point in
his life. He was about to have a family reunion with his brother Esau. What was
on Jacob’s mind? All the good times they had had playing as boys? The bond they
shared as brothers? Yeah, no. He was remembering the time Esau came back from
hunting super hungry and Jacob made Esau “sell” his birthright for some stew.
What a nice brother! He was remembering the time he and his mom tricked dad,
Isaac, into giving Jacob the blessing Isaac wrongly wanted to give to Esau so
Esau got very little. That had angered Esau so badly he said he was going to
kill Jacob, so Jacob ran away. Many years had passed and Jacob was coming home.
Esau was coming to meet him-- with 400 men. Jacob had his family and his
servants. He turned to God in prayer. “Then
Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who
said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you
prosper,’ 10I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You
have shown Your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but
now I have become two groups.” Jacob was a wealthy man in his day. Some
would say his shrewdness got him there, his wise business dealings. Jacob said
otherwise. He was unworthy of the blessings God had given him. He didn’t
deserve them because of his many sins. Jacob knew why he was blessed. Not
because he was so good but because God was so good. So thanksgiving happened.
The same goes for us. I mentioned
earlier that there was a time in our country when the gift of new socks would
evoke heartfelt thanksgiving. Your smiles told me not so today. What’s changed?
An insidious and pernicious attitude has infected the people of our country and
that means us too. It’s best described as entitlement. And while we are
probably more comfortable talking about other people’s sense of entitlement it
is better for us to look into the mirror of God’s law and see we have it too.
God has put us in a time of affluence. We get used to it. We think we deserve
it. We are entitled. Why should I be grateful for socks? I should have many
socks. That is my due. Don’t give me presents I need which is my due, give me
what I want! Why do I have more money than others? I work harder. I am smarter
with my money than they are. I deserve to have nicer things than they. I am
entitled! How we Americans have fallen! Look on page 9 of your service folder.
1777. Look at that underlined portion! That at one Time and with one Voice, the good
People may express the grateful Feelings of their Hearts, and consecrate
themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor; and that, together with
their sincere Acknowledgments and Offerings, they may join the penitent
Confession of their manifold Sins, whereby they had forfeited every Favor; and
their humble and earnest Supplication that it may please God through the Merits
of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of Remembrance; There is no
entitlement there. Forfeited God’s favor. They knew why they were blessed. Only
because of God’s goodness. So Thanksgiving just happened. Brothers and sisters,
let’s grab that back. Why are we in easy to live times? Why aren’t we living in
a third world country? We came into life naked and with nothing and look now
what we have. We don’t deserve God’s blessings. Like Jacob we have plenty of
sins in our own past to own up to. We don’t deserve anything put punishment so
thank you God, for socks and shoes and food and heat and Jesus and all our
other gifts.
And thank you God that we can continue
to depend on you. When you give up your sense of entitlement, when you are as
painfully aware of your sinfulness as you need to be and when you come to a
point in your life that you are painfully aware of how desperately you need
your God to survive then you might wonder how God will deal with you. Again we
learn from that Old Testament believer Jacob. His prayer went on. “Save me, I pray, from the hand of my
brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers
with their children. 12But You have said, ‘I will surely make you
prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot
be counted.’” Jacob’s scheming and conniving and deceiving is done. He had
done what God had put into his hands to do. He had reached out to brother Esau
and sent him gifts. But he knows the truth. He is at one of those points in
life when he realizes how little of his life he is in control of. But he knows
who is in control. The Lord. And he knows why he can go to the Lord. God had
made promises. God had promised to make Jacob prosperous and give him many
descendants. Since God had promised Jacob would rely on Him.
That we remain God dependent people is
another way Thanksgiving happens in our lives. Again as American Christians we
are disadvantaged. One of our core values is, or used to be, independence. Pull
yourself up by your bootstraps. Be a self made man. We don’t have to live
hoping just to get enough food for the next day. And it is true that like Jacob
we are to do things God has given us to do. Financially we are to work. We are
to spend wisely and save frugally. We are to eat well and get sleep to take
care of ourselves physically. But in the end our best planning and our best
efforts will not provide for our future health or wealth. God does. Best eating
and exercise does not stave off cancer or accidents. We are God dependent.
Thanksgiving happens when we remain God dependent people, praying to Him and
trusting Him for our future well being.
And can we? Yes, we have promises to
rely on. God has promised to give daily bread, to never leave nor forsake, to
work all things for the good. And every promise He makes is yes, in Christ
Jesus. While Thanksgiving time does remind us to count our blessings and the
physical ones are the easy ones to see, it’s the ones we can’t see that matter
most. In Jesus we have forgiveness of sins, we have the proof of God’s love, we
have the sure hope of heaven. Now, does anyone really have to tell us to say “Thank
you!” Never. For us thankfulness happens. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment