THANK YOU
With Thanksgiving just days away, this is the time of year when we focus on the reasons we are thankful. That might be harder to do this year with COVID but we still need to be in a mode of giving thanks. We should be in thank you mode the entire year; yes, even this year. There are still reasons to say thank you to God and each other. Maybe enduring through 2020 has caused you to put even more heart behind your thank yous. Two little words but they mean so much, don't they? When we receive a heartfelt thank you it warms our hearts. And when it doesn't get said it can make us angry or sad. Thank you-two powerful words.
1) Thankless.
Why is thank you so hard for some people to say? One reason is a feeling of entitlement. I don't need to say thank you since I deserved it in the first place. For some they might be socially inept. Since they weren't brought up to say please and thank you, they aren't in the habit of saying it when they ask for something or receive something. Not that it's an excuse, you're never too old to learn the importance of being polite.
It could be the other way around. Maybe you were forced to say please and thank you when you were growing up. Kind of like when you were forced to say, "I'm sorry" after you were fighting with your sibling. So you made up your mind that when you were older you would only say it if you meant it.
You shouldn't have to force yourself to say these things, but the question is, why don't you feel compelled to say it more often than you do? Why is there not a sense of humility to say 'please'? Why is there not an attitude of gratitude that moves you to say, 'thank you'?
Pride is another reason. I'm embarrassed that I needed whatever it is you're giving me; whether it's help doing something, money, food or whatever.
What about when it comes to saying thank you to God? Some people are thankless for what God has done for them. In Rom. 1 starting in vs. 18, you see Paul talking about God's wrath toward mankind for its sin. There's something interesting in vs. 21.
Rom. 1:20-21, "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened."
When you read on you'll see that because of this reality and the fact that they exchanged the real God for man-made gods, God gave them over to their sinful ways. Paul lists those sins throughout the rest of the chapter. It's not a pretty picture of mankind.
In Paul talking about the depravity of mankind we see that it all started with people's refusal to glorify God or give thanks to him. We see that ingratitude is linked to futile [fruitless, ineffective, wasted] thinking and having a foolish and darkened heart. A thankless person's heart and mind are in bad shape.
"For although they knew God." They knew the truth about God and they knew what God wanted from them but vs. 18 says they suppressed the truth by their wickedness. They chose to silence the voice of God and instead listen to the voice of Satan. God made the truth plain to them but they smothered it; they blocked it out. So, God let them have what they wanted.
If they had worshiped God they would've been joyous and thankful but since they didn't they were full of envy, murder, strife and malice. Being thankless is a miserable existence. I could be experiencing joy and fulfillment but instead I live in misery and bitterness. Having a heart that doesn't glorify God and give thanks to him paves the way for all kinds of immorality. A thankless person will be a sinful person.
2nd Tim. 3:1-5, "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them."
As I read through this list of sins did you catch that one near the middle: ungrateful? You might think being ungrateful shouldn't be included in the same list as brutal, abusive and slanderous, but there it is. There's a direct connection between thanklessness and unrighteousness.
"Having a form of godliness." Like in the Rom. passage, these people knew about God but it's obvious they didn't submit to and follow him. They may have followed a set of religious observances but they didn't give God their hearts. Their hearts were given over to depravity instead.
"But denying its power". This goes with what I said last week about God's divine power giving us everything we need for life and godliness. These people would obviously disagree with that. "I prayed but it didn't do any good so forget it." "I tried tithing but God didn't open up the floodgates of blessing so I stopped." "I tried going to church but I don't feel any different so this God thing doesn't work." "I gave God a chance but all my problems didn't disappear so don't talk to me about that God stuff anymore." I wonder why none of this "worked"? I wonder how much God has done for people like this but they just weren't grateful for it?
Luke 17:11-19, "Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well."
All ten were cleansed, all ten were given the opportunity to return and give thanks but only one did. It's likely that when the one turned around and started heading back the other nine would've noticed. "What are you doing?" "I'm going back to thank Jesus." "Oh, ok; see ya." Were the other nine happy that Jesus healed them? I'm sure they were. Ten lepers cried out for pity but only one was thankful enough to come back and cry out in praise.
And only one got to hear, "your faith has made you well." Only one was spiritually transformed by that divine power. The other nine were outwardly changed by it, but only one was inwardly changed by it. We all experience the divine power of God, everyone has had God bless them, but how many "come back" and praise him for it? Being thankless is a serious issue; it's a serious sin.
2) Thanking God despite our circumstances.
Daniel was in exile in Babylon. By the time we get to chapter six, King Darius was ruling. He set up his leadership team of 120 satraps (local governing authorities), with three administrators over them, Daniel being one of them. Vs. 3 says Daniel had so distinguished himself by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to put him in charge of the whole kingdom.
The others got jealous and tried to discredit him but they couldn't find anything to get him so they decided to use his devotion to God. They got the king to put a decree in order that for one month no one could pray to anyone other than the king. Not a good situation for Daniel to be in. What would he do?
Dan. 6:10, "Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before."
Prayer isn't just about asking for what we want, it's about thanking God for what we have and for what he's done. It's interesting that after Daniel hears about the new 'pray only to the king' rule, he goes and prays to the real king. And though the situation is tense and problematic, Daniel still gives thanks to God.
When we hear discouraging news do we go and pray? If we do are we thanking God during that prayer? It's one thing to pray when we face a bad situation but to give thanks in that prayer is something else. But that's what Daniel does.
"Just as he had done before." This phrase didn't just apply to before the decree but also to the time before the exile. Daniel was enjoying his life in Judah until King Neby besieged Jerusalem and took Daniel and the others to Babylon. Although God allowed this to happen Daniel still honored God through prayer and thanksgiving. It was the same now just as it was before the decree, before the exile, when things were better in Daniel's life.
We might think back to a time when things were better for us. But giving God thanks shouldn't change just because our situation changed. Daniel's situation changed drastically but that didn't stop him from saying, 'thank you' to God. This Thanksgiving holiday will be different than it ever has been. Have you found yourself being less thankful than you were last year? It's understandable, but let's be like Daniel and give thanks despite our situation.
3) A psalm of thanks.
If you have headings at the beginning of the chapters in your bible you might see this when you go to Psalm 100: "A psalm for giving thanks." What's in this Thanksgiving Psalm?
Psalm 100:1-5, "Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations."
We see some things we need to be doing that start each of these verses: shout, worship, know, enter. And the last one ties it together: 'for the Lord is good'. We see some emotion as we get into this psalm-shout for joy, worship with gladness, joyful songs. It sounds like there should be some excitement associated with our thankfulness.
Kind of like the thank you you'd say to the person who bought you a new car for Christmas, verses the thank you you'd say to the person who got you the belly button brush for Christmas (yes, it's a real thing). And please wait until after the sermon before you google belly button brush. Thank you!
Our thank you to God should be heartfelt and genuine. There should be joy attached to it. Thanking God can be a routine but it shouldn't feel routine. The psalm talks about shouting and worshiping so we should verbally express our thanks to God-even in front of others; perhaps especially in front of others. People need to hear us praising God. When something good happens and we're around others, even strangers, there should be a 'praise God' or a 'thank you, Jesus' coming out of us.
Vs. 3: "know that the Lord is God". Last week I talked about knowledge is power. Know that God is the one and only. Be convinced that Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Believe in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. He is our creator. When we're born again we are his sheep.
People who know this are thankful that they have the privilege of knowing God and being known by such a loving, powerful, all knowing God. When think about the vastness of God and the smallness of ourselves, it's humbling to know God wants to have a relationship with us. He wants to bless me; he wants to teach me what he knows; he wants to give me the ability to be like him. What's not to be thankful for?
We give thanks to him and praise his name. Why? Because the Lord is good all the time, his love endures forever and his faithfulness continues through every generation. He is unchanging, he is unmoved by calamity, he is unwavering in the face of evil; he is the rock.
So we thank God for being our refuge in the storm, we thank him for his gentleness and his strength, we praise him for his patience and forgiveness. God deserves to receive our psalm of thanks. He deserves our praise, our devotion and our gratitude because he has done so much for us.
4) Give people a reason to say thank you.
Part of what God wants us to do as a result of all the wonderful goodness he's given to us is to give others a reason to say thank you. We are to do good deeds as a show of godly love toward them.
Deut. 24:10-13, "When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into his house to get what he is offering as a pledge. Stay outside and let the man to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you. If the man is poor, do not go to sleep with his pledge in your possession. Return his cloak to him by sunset so that he may sleep in it. Then he will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the LORD your God."
God is addressing through Moses the practice of loaning and taking something as collateral. God wants us to show compassion. We see that in some cases all a person could offer was his own coat. And he was so poor he had to use it as his covering at night to stay warm.
I'm assuming the lender was not obligated to give the garment back. We typically don't say thank you when we receive something owed to us. You don't thank your boss because he paid you this week; you earned it. You might say, thank you when you're handed the check, but that's more of a courtesy, since the one handing it to you is probably not the one who signed it.
So, although he might not have been forced to give the item back before the loan was paid, God tells him to anyway-since the person would need it to stay warm at night. Then, the person who sees your sympathy will be grateful. When we do something for someone a natural response is thank you.
They will see that you just did something you didn't have to do but was willing to do-for them. That registers with them and it registers with God, too-he calls it a righteous act. When we do things that cause people to be grateful we show ourselves to be like God.
The instructions about returning the cloak in Deut. were first given in Ex. 22:26-27, "If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it to him by sunset, because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate."
God gives the example of the person who does not return the cloak and that causes the person to cry out to God and God listens to his cries because he's compassionate. So the lender has a choice-he can keep the cloak and cause someone to cry out to God in misery or give the cloak back and cause someone to have gladness of heart and say, thank you.
Since God is compassionate, he tells us to be compassionate. We get outside of ourselves and perform acts of kindness; gestures that warm people's hearts. We reward God's compassion toward us by being compassionate, generous and kind to others.
Doesn't it feel good when people say thank you? It doesn't have to be because I did something grandiose; it can just be a listening ear or an encouraging word. Whether it's helping someone through a difficult time and lifting their spirits or doing work for them or buying them something, these things will generate a thoughtful thank you.
Let's give people a reason to say thank you so we can have an opportunity to point to God and glorify him.
