Thanksgiving Week Sermon

This is the sermon I preached at both my local church and at a community Thanksgiving service held at the county high school auditorium.  Mind you, this is what I planned to preach...the Holy Spirit took it beyond...far beyond.

Philippians 4: 4-7

4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  It is a special time of the year when family draws close and spend time together in fellowship, dining on a great feast, reminiscing about times past, and just making it a great time together.  I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving with my family as I hope everyone here is as well.  Today I want to take a moment to look at what giving thanks really means as well as get a little clinical about what this holiday truly means to us as Americans. 

Adam Lawrence, the youth minister at our church, shared a quote last Thursday night from Max Lucato, that is:  “Thanksgiving is never-ending praise to God”.  Not the holiday, but the term…means giving praise.  Just as teachers do their research in order to present a lesson, preachers do their research for sharing a message about God’s word.  I use a wonderful resource called Naves Topical Bible, where all scripture relating to a particular topic is indexed.  When you look up “Thanksgiving” it says:  “See Praise: thankfulness”.  For us Christians, thanksgiving is a time of praising God.  Today’s scripture tells us to present our requests to God with thanksgiving…with praise.  Perhaps we should rename the 4^th Thursday in November “Praise God Day”. 

Across America how many households will gather together and forget to praise God on Thursday?  Taking God out of Thanksgiving is like taking Christ out of Christmas.  No one should celebrate either day without acknowledging God is the very reason for the celebration.  I’d like to share from President George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation:

The Thanksgiving Proclamation

New York, 3 October 1789 

By the President of the United States of America (George Washington): a Proclamation. 

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor--and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me `to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.' 

Did you get that?  “…A day of public thanksgiving and prayer”!  This is what the president said after both houses requested the establishment of a day of thanks. 

Brothers and sisters, the foundation of this nation is built upon praising God.  We cannot thank Him without at the same time praising Him.  Praising God is something that stems from having joy in our hearts.  Some of us hold back on the praises…perhaps because we lack the joy in our lives from which the praise stems.  

At a conference for the Presbyterian Church in Omaha, people were given helium filled balloons and told to release them at some point in the service when they felt like expressing the joy in their hearts. Since they were Presbyterians, they weren't free to say, "Hallelujah, Praise the Lord." All through the service balloons ascended, but when it was over 1/3 of the balloons were unreleased. Let your balloon go.

We're not a bunch of Presbyterians with balloons but I'm feeling the joy this morning.  If you are too, can you join me in a praise God?  PRAISE GOD!

It can be difficult to give praise if we’re not feeling the joy that comes from loving The Lord.  Today’s scripture begins with the command to rejoice!  That is, re-experience joy.  Not once does Paul say to rejoice, but for emphasis, a second time he says, “I will say it again, rejoice.”  It is through the cultivation of a sense of joy in our hearts that we grow to praise and thank The Lord.  

Let me share the story told by author Leo Buscaglia. He tells about his mother and their "misery dinner." It was the night after his father came home and said it looked as if he would have to go into bankruptcy because his partner had absconded with their firm's funds. His mother went out and sold some jewelry to buy food for a sumptuous feast. Other members of the family scolded her for it. But she told them that "the time for joy is now, when we need it most, not next week." Her courageous act rallied the family.

We can't wait for joy to come into our lives, we need to invite it; pursue it; cultivate it.  We need to make it a mindset or lose the opportunity to experience it.  Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar has a couple of good sayings that we can lean on when it seems that things aren’t going our way.  He says to “Get a check up from the neck up” and if we find that we’re not able to create a genuine sense of joy that we “fake it ‘till we make it”. 

As we go into the holiday season, let us do so with joy, so that our praises, our thanks, are genuine and powerful. 

Oh, what joy there is in knowing that God sent his only son to take on the sins of the world. 

What joy comes from knowing that the Holy Spirit is here to be our comforter, and helper.

What joy there is in knowing that we could have been born anywhere other than in America, where we’re blessed to live so well.

Simply having a roof over our heads and food in the refrigerator makes us wealthier than most of the people alive on the planet.

Being free to worship our God when and where and how we want makes us truly blessed, and worthy of wanting to give praise.

A helpful way to bring about a true sense of thanksgiving in our hearts is to pray the ACTS method:

A is for Adoration, where we express our awe at the greatness of Almighty God.

C is for confessing our shortcomings and failures at being like Jesus.

T is for thanksgiving; thanking God for forgiving our sins; thanking Him for his son, Jesus; and thanking God for all we are blessed to have.

S is for supplicating The Lord for the things that matter in our lives; for the needs of others; for the desire to grow more in the Spirit; for the future of our nation - whatever we turn to God for, we ask only after adoring, confessing and thanking Him.

May we all have a blessed Thanksgiving Day, remembering that the reason for the day is to praise and pray to God Almighty.

 

I'm From Detroit....Bail Em Out!

My friends, family, and acquaintences are from Detroit...and the surrounding area.  I vote for a bailout of the industry.  I do this from a Christian perspective.  There are literally millions of people who depend upon the health of the auto industry to live from day to day.  

When I say a "Christian perspective" I do not say so with a faint heart.  The dollars are enormous and the predicictability of it being successful is dubious.  Nonetheless, I support it.  Why?  Because so many people's security is at stake.  Lee Iococca bailed out Chrysler.  Successfully, I might add.  It was with the help of good ole Uncle Sam...but he did it.  I think that the scrutiny placed upon the current leaders of the big three will make them change their ways.  Traveling to DC on private jets sent the wrong signal to the rest of America.  They feel it and will change.  They will change...they being the very leaders of the automobile industry.

I believe that the very fundamental notion of survival will influence those in charge to change their ways.  I also believe that the unions will be more understanding in what it takes to run a successful business.  Thier security lies in the viability of the companies for which they work for ( I know...ending a sentence with a preposition is a no no...did it anyway).

These are trying times for the automobile industry, which employes millions.  Uncle Sam can help, and help, I pray he will.  These fine folks will rise to the challenge and do a great turnaround.  They will sacrifice, foregoe previous arrangements, and break through with great products.  I believe in the American dream...as does those in Detroit and other cities that feed this great machine.  

Just my two cents worth.

Marty

My Boss Stopped By

In the United Methodist faith we have an hierarchy. My boss, the District Superintendent, came by for worship with us. He was on his way to a group meeting in the same town so he stopped by my church on the way to capture the essence of our worship. I think it went well. As it would happen, we had no piano/organ player, so the first part of church was ah Capella, till one of our piano players came in and finished out the service with piano and hymns. But the flavor of our worship was evident.

I had numerous interruptions to my sermon (which I always love) and I think it hit home on the topic of being hypocrites, as was the lectionary passage today from Matthew 23. Got a firm handshake from the boss afterwords and a compliment. So, I won't read anything into that. With or without the boss there, it was really good worship. Tears were shed, smiles and frowns shared, and the Word was spoken. Can't ask for a better medley of events at any worship service, let alone one where the boss was there. T'was good!