Great Goals & Grateful Gifts
November 18, 2001
Eric A. Snyder, Minister
Farwell Church of Christ
I am thankful for
The mess to clean after a party because it means I have been surrounded by friends.
The taxes I pay because it means that I’m employed.
The clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat.
My shadow who watches me work, because it means I am out in the sunshine.
A lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home.
All the complaining I hear about our government because it means we have freedom of speech.
The space I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking.
My huge heating bill, because it means I am warm.
The lady behind me in church who sings off key because it means that I can hear.
The piles of laundry and ironing because it means I have clothes to wear.
Weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means I have been productive.
The alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means that I’m alive.
Asked to write a composition entitled, "What I’m thankful for on Thanksgiving,"
little Timothy wrote, "I am thankful that I’m not a turkey."
Thanksgiving is a choice we have to choose to be thankful and find the blessings in our lives. They should be abundantly clear but if you are wondering what to be thankful for there are a couple that we can all agree on.
1. What are you thankful for?
A. Jesus
1 Corinthians 9:15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
The Bible tells us that at one time we were without God. Do you remember what that was like. You were wondering what life was all about. You searched for answers in every place imaginable. No matter what you did you found yourself wanting something else. You couldn’t put your finger on what left this void in your life and so you tried everything possible. Through all this life had to offer, you found yourself empty at the end of the day. You were hungry for meaning, you drank at the well of achievement searching for acceptance, yearning to feel wanted, desperate to be needed, longing for a love that lasts.
The Bible says that God loves us. You may have some trouble believing that. Perhaps when your child died, or your parent passed, or the doctor diagnosed you, or your spouse left, you decided that God didn’t care.
So you wrote him off. If he does exist then you have insisted on living the rest of your life as his enemy.
The truth is you think that’s where the story ends. But when you think that God just watches and doesn’t care. Friends: we serve an emotional God. Jesus wept when he came to Lazarus’ tomb. And the God who created you weeps when your life goes bad, He weeps when you reject Him. He is sorrowed when you blame Him and get angry.
They asked Zack Thomas if he talks to Peyton Manning when they are playing football. Zack Thomas said “no… because I don’t want to learn that he is a nice guy”.
Some of you won’t talk to God because you don’t want to learn that He is loving.
If this God is so loving then, why does bad stuff happen?
Because people have the freedom to choose.
He is a gentleman, he will not force you to make the right decision.
You say I didn’t chose to have my loved one die
I didn’t choose to get sick.
Well you didn’t but when God created humans He created them to live forever. When Adam and Eve chose to disobey God’s one rule they began to die. We introduced sin into this world. So when they ate they introduced sin, death, suffering, hardship, and separation from God into the word.
You say and we should be thankful, Yes Thank God for the choice that you have to be near his love.
The Bible says that God wanted to have a relationship with you so much that He had to make a choice. It was a choice that hurt Him deeply. You see because mankind chose to sin we inadvertently chose to be separated from His love but we also chose to be separated from His holiness, and righteousness.
So His choice was to offer his son as a sacrifice to take our disobedience away. His name was Jesus and He lived a perfect live and took the punishment that belonged to all humanity.
So God knows what it’s like to lose a family member, He knows what it’s like to be treated unfairly, He knows what it’s like to have those He loves leave Him, and he knows what it is like to be handed a death sentence.
Praise God. You have a choice because He made a choice.
Jesus is the answer to life, through Him you will find hope, meaning and a friend for eternity.
B. Vision
Matthew 17:3-4 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
Jesus’ friends are a little misguided in this text. But the part of this text that I want you to catch is this. His followers are thankful for the vision. In this text the disciples are witnessing a supernatural event.
We have been given a vision by God. It is a vision of how the future could look. It is the vision of hiring a youth minister. It is a vision that requires effort and sacrifice from all of us. Note that the disciples were so grateful that they wanted to get right to work. Now Jesus has to set them straight, but for us we need to act of the vision that God has sent us We should embrace this vision from God with open arms and a willing spirit.
Not only should we embrace it we should be thankful for it. Lord it is good for us to be here. Father we thank you for setting this challenge before us and giving us a goal that is great.
We should thank God for what we can see him doing in the future of this church.
C. Provision
Psalm 28:6-9 Praise be to the LORD, for he has heard my cry for mercy. The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever.
It is gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket. Many years before, in October, 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea. But there was an unexpected detour which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life.
Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean...For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The largest raft was nine by five. The biggest shark...ten feet long.
But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And a miracle occurred. In Captain Eddie’s own words, "Cherry," that was the B-17 pilot, Captain William Cherry, "read the service that afternoon, and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off."
"Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don’t know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food...if I could catch it."
And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its intestines were used for bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone sea gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a sacrifice. You know that Captain Eddie made it.
And now you also know...that he never forgot. Because every Friday evening, about sunset...on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast...you could see an old man walking...white-haired, bushy-eyebrows, slightly bent. His bucket filled with shrimp was to feed the gulls...to remember that one which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle...like manna in the wilderness.
We should Thank God for providing for us.
For the first time in my life I am a little scared about thanksgiving.
Given the current state of my family Thanksgiving Day dinner has the potential to get a little uncomfortable. So have been searching for ways that will help me change the subject during my family’s time together.
1. During the middle of the meal, turn to mom and say, "See mom, I told you they wouldn’t notice that the turkey was four months past its expiration date. You were worried for nothing."
2. When everyone goes around to say what they are thankful for, say, "I’m thankful I didn’t get caught" and refuse to say anything more.
3. When they ask me to pray before the meal I plan to pray for a long time.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget what God has done. Especially in a society where we can screen our calls and have a meal within minutes. Thanksgiving Day was a day that was started so we wouldn’t change the subject. It was set aside to allow us to show appreciation, a time for us to stop and come together. For some Thanksgiving will just be a day of football, or hunting or sleeping in. Some will find a way to change the subject or withdraw from participation.
But we chose to give thanks. We will give thanks even though there are problems in our families, We will give thanks even though the turkey may be overcooked, We will choose to give thanks while we live in a world filled with chaos.
We should give thanks for a few reasons
A. Thanksgiving gives our lives perspective
B. Thanksgiving reveals the true nature of our spirit
C. Thanksgiving requires that we look at the positive
D. Thanksgiving means that we anticipate the future
2. How can I show my appreciation?
A. With my Attitude
Isaiah 12:4-6 In that day you will say: "Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you."
A man has been lost and walking in the desert for about five days. One hot day--actually, they’re all hot--he comes to the home of a preacher. Tired and weak, he crawls up to the house and collapses on the doorstep. The preacher takes him in and nurses him back to health. Feeling better, the man asks the preacher for directions to the nearest town. The preacher tells him the directions, and offers to lend him his horse to make it. The preacher says, "However, there is a special thing about this horse. You have to say ’Thank God’ to make it go and ’Amen’ to make it stop."
Anxious to get to town, the man says, "Sure, okay" and gets on the horse. He says, "Thank God" and sure enough, the horse starts walking. A bit later he says louder, "Thank God, thank God," and the horse starts trotting. Feeling really brave, the man says, "Thank God! Thank God! THANK GOD!" and the horse is soon up to a full run!
About then he realizes he’s heading for a huge cliff and yells "Whoa!" But the horse doesn’t even slow! It’s coming up REAL QUICK and he’s doing everything he can to make the horse stop. "Whoa, stop, hold on!" Finally he remembers "AMEN!!!"
The horse stops a mere two inches from the cliff’s edge, almost throwing him over its head. The man, panting and heart racing, wipes the sweat from his face and leans back in the saddle. "Oh!" he says, gasping for air, "Thank God."
The church is a lot like that if we are going to meet God’s vision and move forward we have to thank Him with the right attitude. Moving forward requires an attitude of thankfulness.
B. With my Giving
Deuteronomy 16:17 Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.
When you go to the restaurant how do you show your appreciation?
C. With my Service
Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
Seeing God for who he really is, instills a desire to serve Him.
