Thanksgiving Service - 2002
Walk out onto stage with pants rolled up
„X Hey Sooze, What do you reckon? She hates it when I embarrass myself like this
„X Okay, so what¡¦s the deal with the pants?
„X Although I love to embarrass Susan, the real reason for rolling up my pants is so you can focus on my shoes
„X because as strange as it may seem, that¡¦s what I want to thank God for
„X You might think, ¡§Shoes, why would you pick shoes when we have so many other things to thank God for?¡¨
„X Well that¡¦s exactly my point ¡V the shoes are representative of all the things we overlook when it comes to thanking God
„X In 1992 Mark Buchannan, a pastor in British Columbia, Canada, found himself in a small town called Wairacka in Uganda. Every Sunday evening, about 100 Christians from the neighboring area gathered to worship. They met under a tin roof lean-to set at the edge of a cornfield. They sat - when they did sit - on rough wood benches. The floor was dirt. The instruments were old. Some of the guitars didn’t have all the strings. But could they worship! They made hell run for shelter when they cut loose. One Sunday evening, the pastor asked if anyone had
anything to share. A tall, willowy woman came to the front.
"Oh, brothers and sisters, I love Jesus so much," she started.
"Tell us, sister! Tell us!" the worshippers shouted back.
"Oh, I love him so much, I don’t know where to begin to tell you how good he is."
"Begin there, sister! Begin right there!"
"Oh," she said, "he is so good to me. I praise him all the time for how good he is to me. For three months, I prayed to the Lord for shoes. And look!"
She lifted her leg so everyone could see one foot. One very ordinary shoe covered it. "He gave me shoes. Hallelujah, he is so good."
The Ugandans clapped and yelled and shouted back, "Hallelujah!"
"I didn’t," says Buchannan. "I was devastated. I sat there hollowed out, hammered down. In all my life I had not once prayed for shoes. And in all my life I had not once thanked God for the many, many shoes I had."
„X Let me ask you, how many pairs of shoes do you have at home?
„X I a bit embarrassed to tell you this, but counting the ugg boots, gum boots, sandles, flipflops etc, I have 15 pairs of shoes at home
„X Susan is a bit of an Emalda Marcos when it comes to accumulating shoes and I thought she would have more than me, but she also has 15
„X How many of you have ever thanked God for your shoes?
„X And this woman in Africa was lucky, because many there don¡¦t even have one pair of shoes
„X Recently went to refugee day at the Peel St Church of Christ and we heard the story of a Sudanese boy 8 years old who walked for 8 years looking for his family
„X What did you do between the years of 8 and 16?
So the first thing these shoes remind me of are all the little things you and I who live in the developed world take for granted and for which we have never thanked God for
The second thing these shoes remind me of is you ¡V my brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ
„X Romans 10:15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, ¡§How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!¡¨
„X Take a minute to look at your feet ¡V How many of you think you have flattering feet?
„X Feet aren¡¦t normally the most flattering part of our bodies ¡V funny shaped feet, some toes longer than others, flat feet, some have corns, some smell
„X And sometimes this is what the body of Jesus Christ can look like on the outside ¡V those ugly exposed feet
„X But is this the criteria by which God calls these feet beautiful?
„X No, God¡¦s Word says, his people¡¦s feet are beautiful not because of what they look like on the outside, but what those feet are achieving ¡V bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to their part of the world
„X Sometimes we winge and complain about the others God has thrown us together with in his Body
„X But we need to look past the quirks and idiosyncrasies of the body and look to what those others are achieving for the Work of the Lord AND for what they are helping us achieve in our lives
„X I have a great job, in the last week,
„X I have sat down and counseled two young people about marriage,
„X I picked up hay bales with a 73 year old, and a 59 year old who didn¡¦t show up until the job as nearly over
„X I had dinner with a single mum and her daughter,
„X sat down with a young woman who is turned on for Jesus Christ to organize the dance tonight,
„X visited a 90 year old widow who recently lost her husband,
„X talked to a trucker at the Bendigo BB stadium,
„X met with our outreach team to plan and pray for the success of our outreach program,
„X met with and prayed for the city of Ballarat with the other pastors of the city
„X all wonderful people
„X What other club or organization throws you together with such a variety of people, yet this is what God does when he invites us into His Body
„X My week wasn¡¦t all roses though, as I received a call from someone in the US asking for prayers, but it was at 3:00am our time
„X Then he did it again the following night at 5:00am
„X I learnt something from everyone of those encounters and hopefully I had some sort of an impression on them as well
„X We have our warts, and sometimes we have our gripes about the others we are thrown into relationship with, but on the other hand there are many wonderful privileges to being a part of the Body of Christ
„X So the second thing these shoes do is to remind me to thank God for all of you
The third thing these shoes remind me of is Jesus. Why? Because He willingly came and walked in our shoes
„X Imagine this scene. There is Jesus sitting on his heavenly throne in all his amazing glory, the Father on His left, archangels behind him, the four and twenty elders casting his crowns before Him, and innumerable company of angels singing praises to Him
„X yet he willing set that all aside, he stepped down from his throne, laid aside his crown, laid aside his scepter, laid aside his robe, rolled up his sleeves, and traded all this for a pair of dusty sandles
„X Does that event cause you pause for a second to contemplate the sacrifice involved in that act of love
„X And we haven¡¦t even mentioned his death yet
„X That same Jesus on the night before his crucifixion then set aside his earthly clothes, bend down, took off the disciples shoes and washed their feet
„X Even the feet of the one he knew would betray Him
„X Then the very next day, in the most amazing act of love the universe has ever witnessed, he allowed the Roman soldiers to take off those sandles and nail his feet to a cross
„X And in a literal sense he did ¡§walk in our shoes¡¨ because we were the ones supposed to die on that cross
„X So shoes remind me thank Jesus for being willing to walk in our shoes
The fourth thing these shoes remind me to do is to walk back each day and express my gratitude to Jesus for what He has done for me¡¨
„X Many years ago, a devout king was disturbed by the ingratitude of his royal court. He prepared a large banquet for them. When the king and his royal guests were seated, by prearrangement, a beggar shuffled into the hall, sat down at the king¡¦s table, and gorged himself with food. Without saying a word, he then left the room. The guests were furious and asked permission to seize the tramp and tear him limb from limb for his ingratitude. The king replied, "That beggar has done only once to an earthly king what each of you does three times each day to God. You sit there at the table and eat until you are satisfied. Then you walk away without recognizing God, or expressing one word of thanks to Him."
„X And its true isn¡¦t it. It seems the more we have the less we see our need to thank God
„X There is a similar story in the Bible:
„X Luke 17:11-19 As Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria. 12 As he entered a village there, ten lepers stood at a distance, 13 crying out, ¡§Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!¡¨14 He looked at them and said, ¡§Go show yourselves to the priests.¡¨ And as they went, their leprosy disappeared.15 One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, ¡§Praise God, I¡¦m healed!¡¨ 16 He fell face down on the ground at Jesus¡¦ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan.17 Jesus asked, ¡§Didn¡¦t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? 18 Does only this foreigner return to give glory to God?¡¨ 19 And Jesus said to the man, ¡§Stand up and go. Your faith has made you well.¡¨
„X Imagine this scene for a moment. You hear this guy Jesus is coming to town, so you line us as close as lepers can possibly line up and yell at him as he passes by
„X However instead of performing one of his instant miracles like you expect Him to, instead he just says, ¡§Go show yourselves to the priests!¡¨
„X They somewhat reluctantly move off probably moaning and groaning that this is just a waste of time, when suddenly one of your number stops and stared incredulously at his hands¡Kinstead of leprosy, you see fresh skin like a newborn baby¡¦s¡Kyou quickly look down at your own hands and see the same miracle
„X How would you react to such a miracle?
„X You had this terrible disease for years, you an outcast, haven¡¦t seen our family for yonks, and now all of a sudden, this terrible disfiguring disease is gone, what would you do?
„X Race home to your family to let them know what has happened, go to the priests, buy some new clothes
„X They probably did all those things. But only one had the presence of mind to return and thank Jesus
„X Only one, a Samaritan, saw beyond the gift to the giver, beyond the healing to the Healer and threw himself at Jesus¡¦ feet
„X And how did Jesus¡¦ response? ¡§Your faith has made you well¡¨
„X Wait a second; hadn¡¦t they all been made well? Yes, physically
„X What kind of healing does faith bring? Spiritual healing
„X Jesus was saying to the one who returned that he had received spiritual healing
„X The KJV translates this, ¡§your faith has made you whole!¡¨
„X We aren¡¦t really healed until we are spiritually healed, salvation is the greatest miracle Jesus can perform
„X The others received a temporary blessing, a physical healing. But this one received eternal life
„X But Jesus only said this to the one who had shown his gratitude
„X So we see here that ¡§Faith¡¨ and ¡§thankfulness¡¨ go hand in hand
„X When we truly understand what Jesus has done for us it is inconceivable not to want to express gratitude like this leper
„X Nine of the ten lepers regarded Jesus as no more than a miracle dispensing ATM machine
„X He was simply someone who could give them something ¡V a miracle worker who could help them
„X But as soon as they got what they wanted they went on their way and Jesus never saw them again
„X One however wanted more, He wanted a relationship with this One who had obviously come from God
„X Isn¡¦t it interesting Jesus healed all 10 lepers when really only one of them had faith
„X You never hear the ¡§Health and Wealth¡¨ proponents mention this verse, because it flies in the face of those who claim ¡§If only you only had more faith, Jesus would heal you¡¨
„X No, Jesus wants a relationship with us that sees beyond the gift to the Giver, to see beyond the healing to the Healer, in other words He wants us to love Him for who he is, not for what He can give us
„X What parent wants there kids to regard them as no more than an ATM machine?
„X God like a good parent doesn¡¦t always give us everything we think we need because he loves us too much
„X He wants us to trust Him regardless of the circumstances
„X So we see in this instance that true faith is generously laced with gratitude for what God has done for us
„X So these shoes are a reminder to me to walk back day after day after day to thank Jesus for what he has done for me
In Closing, ¡§Thankfulness needs to be a virtue we practice each day
„X 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ¡§Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God¡¦s will for you in Christ Jesus.¡¨
„X Colossians 3:16-17 ¡§Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.¡¨
„X We have set today aside as a special day to remember all the wonderful blessings God has bestowed on us, but as followers of Jesus Christ, every day should be a day of Thanksgiving
„X So next time we change our shoes, let it be a reminder to us to be thankful
„X And thankfully, he can now roll down his pants
