Thanksgiving
"GIVING THANKS AT THE CROSSROADS OF LIFE"
Genesis 32:9-10
This week our nation celebrates the holiday of Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I’m afraid that a lot of people in America today associate Thanksgiving more with the Macy’s parade, a special meal and a football game...than the actual giving of thanks.
The act of showing appreciation for something received isn’t as popular as it should be in American society. Actually we could probably learn a lesson in
Thanks from other cultures....At least one..
A missionary from the African country of Zimbabwe has told of an interesting custom the people have there:
In Zimbabwe, whenever you receive a
gift from an acquaintance or friend, the recipient has to extend two hands to receive it.
Even if it’s just a match to light a fire, two hands are socially necessary to grasp it. If you don’t hold out two hands, it means... you’re not thankful for the gift.
Let us read the Scripture
9 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,’
10 I 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.
As we think of that custom of the people of Zimbabwe holding out two hands as a way of properly saying thanks.......Jacob stands today as an example of one who held out two hands, in prayer, to thank God for all the blessings God had given him.
We see Jacob.... the Old Testament patriarch here in the Scripture and he was standing at a crossroads point in his life,....
He was facing a crisis,...and a bit uncertain of what his future would be.... But
even at this critical point, he found a moment to lift up his hands in a prayer of thanksgiving to God.
I hope that we Christians can do the same on this approaching day of Thanksgiving and even many days if not every day..
I want you think with me today about
"GIVING THANKS AT THE CROSSROADS OF LIFE"
As we think of giving thanks at the crossroads of life... it is a great place for us to recognize at least 3 things.
I. Reminding ourselves of God’s promises.
II. Remembering our unworthiness. AND
III. Realizing God’s blessings.
What do I mean when I talk about "crossroads?"
We all have them in our lives.
They can be milestones, like marriages, births, anniversaries, or graduations.
Or they can be crises, like the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, a terrible financial predicament.
Each is a crossroad.
Jacob found himself at a crossroad that day as he stood facing the Jordan River, about to return to the land of Canaan, the land of his birth.
He was returning from 20 years of exile. During those 20 years he had worked hard on the estate of his great-uncle Laban, and had gone from poverty to riches.
He had gained huge herds of livestock.
He had gained servants.
He had married and now had many children.
But he comes to a path of returning to his homeland.
One might ask "Why did he leave his homeland in the first place?"
Because, years ago, he had cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright.
Esau had sought to kill him, and he fled. Now, twenty years later, Jacob knew that he would be meeting Esau and his army of servants the next day.
Would Esau still seek revenge? Would he kill Jacob and his family and take his wealth for his own?
Jacob was at a crossroads,....
He was facing a terrible crisis.
He understood that the path he now found himself on was a very threatening one.
And at that moment as he stood at a crossroad in his life....he did what a lot of us would never think of doing -
He offered up a prayer of thanksgiving!
It’s interesting to see the words he uses in the outpouring of his heart....his prayer,
"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...’"
It’s almost as though Jacob is reminding God of His promises!
"Remember, God -.... you promised!
You said that you’d prosper me!
But Jacob knew God’s faithfulness.
He knew the Lord never forgets a promise.
I think what Jacob was really doing was reminding himself of God’s promises!
Standing there, facing what looked like certain death at the hands of his brother, he was trying to put aside his fear and remember that God could not possibly abandon him..
God wouldn’t abandon him......God had promised to prosper him.
Have you faced a place of crossroads in your life recently?
Perhaps your at the crossroads right now.
If not count on it ...that somewhere in the not so distant future the crossroads of life are coming up.
So as we approach this Thanksgiving holiday...it is a good time for us to recall the promises God has made to us.
But what promises has God made to me?
What has God promised you?
God promises to provide for your needs,
In Matthew 6:33 Jesus said
"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
He promises to meet our needs but also......
He promises to deliver you from trouble,
In Psalm 34 :19 God has said
A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all"
Now no one is totally free from trouble—regardless of who they are..... But when we are God’s children we can trust God’s deliverance....
God promises to meet our needs
To deliver us in times of trouble... But
God also promises to
forgive the sin that’s been weighing on your conscience.
In Isaiah 44:22 God says
I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you."
And of great pleasure and importance is the promise of a place in heaven.
In John 14:2 Jesus says
"In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." --
So when we reach a place of crossroads in our lives.... it’s good to remind ourselves of God’s many promises.
At the closing weeks of the year 2003 there is still much uncertainty in the world......But rest assured ....
GOD NEVER DOES BREAK A PROMISE.
This we know for sure...
In this holiday time are you remembering and thanking God for the promises.
II. The next thing we notice as a step in Jacob’s prayer of thanksgiving is sort of surprising - .....he admits to his own unworthiness. He says, "I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant.."
The word Jacob uses to describe himself means,
"Lord, I am small. I’m way too small for you to have expended all this mercy and grace on me; there’s nothing great enough in me that deserves all these blessings!"
We too should pray that way ..... but perhaps it’s difficult.
After all ...we live in a society of wealthy cooperate executives and flamboyant superstars who figure you don’t get anything in life that you didn’t work hard for and earn for all of your own doing.
Society tries to teach us that we can thank ourselves for our great accomplishments and heights attained but the wise person knows that the glory and the thanks belongs to God.
If the day of Thanksgiving is going to mean what it ought to mean.... we must realize how a great and mighty God full of grace and love and mercy has blessed a sinful and needful people who desperately needed Christ’s forgiveness.
Let us break out of that mold of societal self thanks and give thanks to God.
A young man once confessed privately to his pastor that he didn’t really feel very thankful toward God.
He was having trouble seeing God’s
hand in his life.
The pastor told the young man his problem.
He said
"I can tell you your problem right now,"
"You’re not.... nothing.... enough!"
He said to the young man
“"You’re not.... nothing.... enough!" “
What the pastor meant was this:
to be thankful, a Christian has to be humble enough to admit God’s greatness.
He has to be weak enough to admit God’s strength.
He has to be nothing enough...in order to
admit that God is everything!
Jacob was nothing enough.
In his prayer he humbly admitted his own unworthiness. He didn’t say “God, mankind is unworthy and therefore I too am ..but rather he said “I.....I am unworthy.”
Then in his prayer of thanksgiving...Jacob reached another step - by realizing God’s blessings.
He says, "I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups"
God has given us a great hymn and a great expression for when we or someone around us begins complaining....,
It’s called "Count your blessings."
Pastor it is too cold in the sanctuary...
Count your blessings that we have a building with a furnace in it at all.
Pastor these old wooden pews hurt my body.
Count your blessings that we do not have to choose between sitting on the floor or standing the whole service.
Pastor I didn’t like the way the musicians played that song it was too fast...
Count your blessings that we have instruments and people able and willing to play them.
Now draw into to the point I am making here....
At that moment if Jacob really concentrated and thought about it ... to count his blessings would have taken him all night!
When Jacob left Canaan his worldly possessions had amounted to the clothes on his back and the walking stick in his hand.
BUT NOW A GRACIOUS LOVING GOD had blessed him.
Now God had given him a large family, scores of servants, and herds of livestock that stretched
to the horizon.
So much had God blessed him with that he had to separate the mass into two groups as he stood at the crossroads.
From one stick in his hand to a two massive groups.
Oh how Jacob could count his many blessings.
How do you and I count our blessings?
You may not realize it but our blessings are abundant.
The material things are the easiest for God to provide;
The job that God has given you,
the paycheck He puts in your hands,
the roof He puts over your head
and the food He puts on your table.
But what about the bigger things,
Things that are immeasurably more valuable?
How often do you pause to realize the blessings of your family - your parents, your spouse, your
children?
How often do you stop to thank God that you live in one of the countries of the world where the religious freedom to worship Jesus Christ is right before you.
How thankful many in other countries would be that they could openly share their faith or sing praises in public of our God.
How often do you thank God for establishing this church right here in this town. Where would you be if God had not given passage for Mt. Pleasant to come about.
Be thankful for this church....His church.
And while we’re on the subject of realizing God’s blessings, let’s not forget the big one. When Thanksgiving has come and gone as a holiday...The focus will shift to another celebration of the season.
A time of remembering God’s greatest gift to us -
The gift of His Son.
"God so loved the world that He gave His only- Son, that
whosoever would believe on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." -- Jn 3:16.
To a wretched, and ungrateful world of mankind ,... lost in sin,....... He sent His Son.
The everlasting King became a pauper, and made his sinless life into a gift of righteousness for us.
He shed his innocent blood for us, and died
All so that we might know that we are going to heaven, and there live forever with our Lord who has given us eternal life.
This Thanksgiving, let’s say thank you to God
as they do in Zimbabwe with both hands!
With a prayer that signifies TRUE GRATITUDE.
And let us realize unto God
The great many promises He has made to us.
The truth of our unworthiness
and The multitude of His many blessings given to us.
Most of all salvation.
Let us thank the Lord that at the crossroad places of our lives and that at all places we can give thanks to Him.
He is worthy of our abundant thanks.
A good portion of this work is to be recognized from the assistance of Rev. Paul Naumann
