DANIEL’S AMAZING THANKFULNESS
DANIEL 6:10
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. During his years in the White House, President Harry Truman began an unusual Thanksgiving tradition. Every year since, United States presidents have used the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to pardon a turkey. A preselected bird is brought into the Rose Garden and the Commander in Chief grants that big bird a pardon. The saved turkey is then ushered to a Virginia farm where he is granted immunity from the carving knife.
2. This crazy ritual always provides levity for those who watch, but it also gives each of us a great reminder at Thanksgiving. But for the grace of God, we are all turkeys headed to slaughter. Our merits haven’t gained his favor. It is simply by his pardon alone that we are saved. It’s a Thanksgiving reminder we can’t afford to forget. [Houston Chronicle, May 27, 1997, p. 8A]
B. THE SIGHTS & SMELLS OF THANKSGIVING
1. At my mom’s house each Thanksgiving is a large gathering of family. Several tables are loaded with food: the Turkey with its delicious stuffing, the mashed potatoes & gravy, the green bean casserole, pecan pies, a ham, lemon squares, sweet potatoes, and many more. Wonderful smells waft around the room.
2. All the couches are full and extra chairs have been brought in for the crowd. Tables for eating are set up all over the living room.
3. Everyone is greeting each other and smiling, anticipating the happy feast. The sounds of conversation, laughter, and background noise of football games fill the rooms with a blaring noise which we all have missed and are glad to hear again; It’s Thanksgiving!
C. TEXT: DANIEL 6:1,3-5,7,9-10
It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom...3 Now Daniel so distinguished himself...that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. 4 At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel... but they were unable to do so. 5 Finally these men said, “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.” 7 [So they] all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except [the King], shall be thrown into the lions’ den. 9 So King Darius put the decree in writing. 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.
D. THESIS; “DANIEL’S THANKFULNESS WAS AMAZING BECAUSE…”
I. AMAZING BECAUSE OF HIS HIGH POSITION
A. MEN WHO CLIMB TO THE TOP…
1. Men who climb to the top of corporate or political ladders usually do so because they are strong, self-reliant types who count on their wits and their subordinates to keep their competitors at a disadvantage. They believe in themselves and their powers. When everything depends on your own efforts, you don’t have to be thankful to God for your achievements.
2. Paul Tillich, says, "The reason most of us do not respond to ’thank you’ or do not say ’thank you’ is because we instinctively realize that it makes us somehow dependent on that person. If I thank you, I am saying that I am dependent on you, and I am publicly affirming it before God and people.”
3. Pride is the root of such thinking. The Bible tells us that God gives us the ability to produce wealth; that God determined when and to whom we would be born. Most success is due to factors beyond our control. This means that arrogance should be replaced with thankfulness.
B. DANIEL’S DEPENDENCE
1. Daniel, even though he was Prime Minister, never lost sight of who had elevated him to his lofty post.
2. Daniel knew that if God wanted him in that post, no mere man could bring him down. Therefore it was all the more important to please God and stay close to God, for God was his lifeline, his friend, and his confidant.
3. Daniel was not ashamed to acknowledge his dependence on God, privately or publicly (and God felt the same way about him).
4. Thanksgiving is our acknowledgement that we are dependent on God for all His acts of deliverance and all His blessings in our lives.
5. While Corrie ten Boom was living in a German concentration camp, her entire body became infested with lice, making a bad situation worse. She was complaining about it one day, and her sister reminded her of the Bible verse that says, "In everything give thanks," and she challenged Corrie to give thanks for the lice. Corrie's response was, "How can I give thanks to God for lice?" But she made a choice to offer thanks for the lice anyway. Later, she found out that the lice had actually protected her from the assaults of the German soldiers.
II. AMAZING BECAUSE OF HIS WEALTH
A. THE PARADOX
1. The tendency is, “ the more material wealth we get, the less grateful we are and the more unhappy we are”. As an example:
*life expectancy has nearly doubled in the past century.
*the average real per-capita income has doubled since 1960.
*the price of food and many durable goods keeps falling.
*By any measure of affluence — health care, leisure, technology — the average American enjoys a quality of life beyond anyone’s wildest dreams even a few decades ago.
2. We have more of everything except, of course, happiness. The percentage of Americans who would call themselves as ‘happy’ hasn’t changed since the 1950s, but the percentage of those describing themselves as ‘very happy’ is down and continues to decline. During the same period, the percentage of Americans and Europeans who suffer a bout of depression has climbed to 25 percent and shows no signs of abating. An estimated 7 percent of all Americans suffer at least one incidence of major, debilitating depression a year.”
3. Martin Luther said, The greater God’s gifts and works, the less they are regarded. A hungry man is more thankful for his morsel than a rich man for his feast. A woman in a nursing home is more grateful for a visit than a popular woman is for a party thrown in her honor.
4. OPRAH’S SURPRISE
The perfect example of this was the Oprah Winfrey show that aired last year. Oprah celebrated her 19th season by giving away new cars to all 276 audience members that day. Oprah began by calling 11 people out of the audience and gave each of them a brand new Pontiac G6. Then she distributed a gift box to everyone in the audience, telling them that one of them contained the keys to a 12th new car. But when the audience opened the boxes, each one had a set of keys. Oprah jumped up and down and yelled: “Everybody gets a car Everybody gets a car Everybody gets a car ” There was pandemonium as everyone yelled and hugged each other. Then they went to the parking lot of Oprah’s Harpo Studios to see their cars, all decorated with giant red bows.
But not all is well in Oprah land. Now the people who received the new cars are complaining. Even though the local taxes and licensing fees were covered as a part of the gift, the IRS is going to take a sizable bite out of their pocket, because the $28,000, which is the value of the car, will be added to their income for this year. Their state income tax will also go up. And their car insurance will increase dramatically. Some of the winners thought that all this should have been taken into account and they should have been given the cash to cover these expenses as well. Richard Whately said it well when he wrote in the 1800’s: “all that is required to make men unmindful of what they owe God...is that they should receive that blessing often and regularly.”
B. NEEDED? A NEW FOCUS
1. Daniel never let greed into his heart; all his possessions belonged to God. The more he had, the more grateful he was. He kept his focus on the Giver, not the gift.
2. We need to check our focus. Do we feel resentful toward God because we don’t have more? Have we learned with Paul what it means to be content? Are we truly thankful for what we have?
3. I want to suggest three thoughts for us to focus on:
*Focus – not on what we don’t have, but on what we do have.
*Focus – not on getting a blessing, but on being a blessing.
*Focus – not on the earthly, but on the eternal things.
III. AMAZING BECAUSE OF HIS CIRCUMSTANCES
At the moment of Daniel’s giving thanks, one has to wonder about Daniel’s sanity. What in the world is he thanking God for? Think of what he must have known:
A. WHAT DANIEL KNEW:
1. He certainly knew what the law stated even before it was brought to the King. Like “Washington Whispers”. Daniel, as Prime Minister, undoubtedly had friends and contacts throughout the government.
2. He knew that this was a plot to destroy him by a). making him compromise with his God, or b). causing him to violate the law.
3. He knew that he would pray anyway, despite the law.
4. He knew that he would probably be caught, tried, and thrown into the lion’s den.
5. If all that is true, why in the world would Daniel “give thanks”?
B. REASONS FOR DANIEL’S EXTRAORDINARY THANKS
1. Because there are a lot of other things to give thanks for.
2. Because God is worthy of our thanks regardless of what our circumstances are like. We are creatures of God; God is the Creator. He is worthy of thanks.
3. The following is a list of SEVEN THINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR NO MATTER WHAT YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES:
a. I CAN BE THANKFUL THAT GOD IS A GOOD GOD. Ps. 106:1; “Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”
b. I CAN BE THANKFUL FOR GOD’S UNFAILING LOVE. Ps. 107:8; “Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind.”
c. I CAN BE THANKFUL THAT GOD IS ALWAYS NEAR ME. Ps. 145:18; “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”
d. I CAN BE THANKFUL FOR ALL OF THE PRAYERS GOD HAS ANSWERED. Ps. 118:21; “I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.”
e. I CAN BE THANKFUL FOR THE BIBLE. Ps. 119:62; “At midnight I rise to give you thanks for your righteous laws.”
f. I CAN BE THANKFUL FOR THE ETERNAL HOME GOD HAS GIVEN ME. Heb. 12:28; “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.”
g. MOST OF ALL I CAN BE THANKFUL FOR THE GIFT OF GOD’S OWN SON. 2 Cor. 9:15; “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. While on a short-term missions trip, Pastor John Hinton was leading worship at a leper colony on the island of Tobago, off the South American coastline. On that trip he saw up-close how leprosy destroyed the bodies and lives of the people.
2. On his final day, he led the music during the worship service and asked if anyone had a favorite song they wanted to sing. When he did, a woman raised her hand and he saw the most disfigured face he’d ever seen. She had no ears and no nose. Her lips were gone. Yet she raised a fingerless hand and asked, “Could we sing ‘Count Your Many Blessings’?”
3. The missionary started the song but he couldn’t finish. Later somebody commented, “I suppose you’ll never be able to sing the song again.” He answered, “Oh yes---but I’ll never sing it the same way.”
4. This lady taught that young man the secret of thanksgiving that day—to be content with whatever God puts on your plate.
B. THE CALL
1. How many of you need grace today to hold you up? How many need peace in your heart and mind?
2. The first step is to stop complaining and start praising. Someone said, “Complain and remain, or Praise and be raised!”
3. How many of you will abandon your complaints and begin to thank God for all His blessings?
4. The key to victory & joy is relationship with Jesus. Have you let Him come into your heart and heal you? Let’s do that.
