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Living in Thanksgiving (Hebrews 13:15-16)
10 Plays29 days ago
Long before there was a Thanksgiving Day on the calendar, many godly men and women were giving thanks for their blessings not once a year but daily. I love to reflect upon the rich heritage that we as Americans have in the tradition of Thanksgiving which started with the Pilgrims back in 1621.
Although not explicitly stated, I am certain that thanks to the Lord was offered before the days of Moses by Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc., but s sacrifice of thanksgiving was first clearly and specifically named in Scripture back in Leviticus 7:11-15. It says, “If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the thanksgiving sacrifice…” Leviticus 7:12. So, this could have been the first official thanksgiving back in the days when Moses wrote Leviticus (between 1440-1400 BC).
The point of our study today is that thanksgiving should continue even after the holiday of Thanksgiving Day. Hebrews 13:15-16 exhorts us to continually offer up praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. Let’s see what we can learn about living in Thanksgiving as we go through life.
Opening of Thanksgiving, 13:15
Opportunities for Thanksgiving, 13:15
Offering of Thanksgiving, 13:15
Object of Thanksgiving, 13:15
Oversight of Thanksgiving, 13:16
Overflow of Thanksgiving, 13:16
Outcome of Thanksgiving, 13:16
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Growing in Grace Devotions and Inspirations
Hosted by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Welcome
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message. If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, FBCColumbusTX.org. And now take your copy of God's timeless word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
Thanksgiving: More Than a Holiday?
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace. Hey, Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving Day. ah You know, long before there was a Thanksgiving Day on the calendar, many godly men and women were already giving thanks for their blessings, not just once a year, but I believe every day. I love to reflect upon the rich heritage that we as Americans have in the tradition of Thanksgiving, which began with the pilgrims back in 1621.
00:01:14
Speaker
You know, although not explicitly stated, I am certain that thanks to the Lord was offered before the days of Moses by, let's say, Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. I don't know who, but all I know is this, that a sacrifice of thanksgiving was first clearly and specifically named in Scripture back in Leviticus, chapter 7, verses 11 through 15.
00:01:43
Speaker
There's a verse in there in verse 12 that says, if he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the thanksgiving sacrifice. so This could have been the first official Thanksgiving back in the days when Moses wrote Leviticus. Some Bible scholars say maybe 1440 to 1400 BC, somewhere in there. But the point of our study today is not to go to Leviticus, so don't get worried. But our point is that Thanksgiving should continue even after the holiday of Thanksgiving Day.
00:02:23
Speaker
Hebrews 13 verses 15 and 16 exhort us to continually offer up praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. I want us to look at it together and to listen because I think it'll help sort of prime the pump so that we not only give thanks once a year on Thanksgiving Day, but we use every day.
00:02:45
Speaker
as just an opportunity to see our Lord pouring out blessings and displaying His goodness to us. And so every day can be a Thanksgiving Day. Listen to what it says in Hebrews 13, verses 15 and 16.
00:03:02
Speaker
therefore by him Let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased.
The Struggle and Importance of Gratitude
00:03:24
Speaker
I think that's a great passage to look at whenever you're wanting to talk about Thanksgiving. Once again, not necessarily only for Thanksgiving Day, mind you, any day. And so let's see what we can learn about offering up thanks to the Lord as we go through life. The first thing I think I need, I know I need it, is sometimes I have a hard time opening the gate to Thanksgiving. You know, in Psalm 104, the Lord said, enter his gates with Thanksgiving. But sometimes the gate gets stuck and I need help. I kind of have a flashback when I was growing up, I would go into the back pasture with my grandfather. He would take me for a ride on his tractor. And so we would be going back into the field where the soybeans and the sweet corn were. And so when we would be going through this one gate
00:04:21
Speaker
Rather than him stopping the tractor and getting off, he would lower me down and say to me, hey, Victor, would you go and open a gate so I can drive through? And I would say, yes, I sure can. So I would jump down there and go over there. And I remember one time, it's like the gate was stuck.
00:04:39
Speaker
And I yanked and I yanked and I yanked. And he was saying something, but I wasn't paying attention to what my grandfather was saying until finally he got through and he said, lift it. He said, stand beside the gate, just like you're standing at attention beside the gate and use your right hand and lift it up and then walk and open the gate. And it will it will open if you'll lift it slightly. And you know what?
00:05:07
Speaker
My grandfather was right. The gate just opened up. And so he drove right through and then I used the same technique to close the gate so that the cattle wouldn't get out of the pasture land and get into the soybean field. But anyway, I'll never forget that. Learning, sometimes we have trouble opening the gate. And I think sometimes we have trouble opening even the gate with Thanksgiving.
From Thanksgiving to Thanksliving
00:05:33
Speaker
So what can we do? What can we learn from this passage about that?
00:05:37
Speaker
Well, if you want to open the gate every day, I'm not talking about just once a year, but every day you want to give thanks, then I think the first three words here really tell us a lot. It starts out in verse 15 with these words, therefore by him. Of course, the him there is Christ, therefore by him.
00:06:02
Speaker
You know, it's tough whenever we're trying to give thanks on a daily basis because some days, well, some days are good days, but other days, they're hard days. It can be really challenging. But you know something? Christ's perfect atonement for our salvation is where we find a reason.
00:06:21
Speaker
It's where we find the resources to live a life of gratitude rather than a life of envy, wanting more and more, or a life of bitterness, or a life of regret. So just remember, whenever you're having a tough time getting started at giving thanks, the reason to give thanks?
00:06:41
Speaker
By Him, the resources, so that you can give thanks. Once again, it's by Him. Therefore, by Him. So why don't you try opening the gate every single day by thinking first of Christ and what He's done for you. But let's move on because there's more to learn in these two verses.
00:07:01
Speaker
The second principle I want you to consider would be the opportunities for thanksgiving. He says, therefore by him, let us continually, and you have already heard me read the verse so you know he's moving in the direction of giving thanks, but he's using this hard word here continually. You know, I suppose it's easy to give thanks, is it not? When the doctor gives you a good report on your checkup,
00:07:30
Speaker
any Anyone can feel warm inside when they drive a new car or when they move into a new house. How about after a promotion? You know, a promotion, a raise at work? Hey, usually those are occasions for us to give a hearty thanks to the Lord, right? What about if your team wins the Super Bowl or wins the World Series?
00:07:52
Speaker
While we can be happy and we can be thankful, there are just lots of opportunities to give thanks to the Lord in life. But I find it challenging to let this first sink into my daily thoughts and practice when it says, let us continually. and You know, that means the gratitude to Him never ends.
00:08:18
Speaker
I'm not sure that I'm there then. Are you there to that point? I mean, this takes it to a whole other level where we're not just talking about thanksgiving, we're talking about thanksliving. Can you do that?
00:08:33
Speaker
1 Thessalonians 5 18 says, Give thanks in all, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Ephesians 5 20 says, Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wow.
00:08:53
Speaker
You know, this whole idea of continually giving thanks, hey, that's that's a work area for me. If it is for you, then why don't we work together? Why don't you and I both say, Lord, help me to be thankful on a daily basis and not to wait to a Thanksgiving Day on a certain year and just give you thanks one time a year. Well, that's the first thing. That's the second thing. Let's go to the third thing.
Sacrifice of Praise as Gratitude
00:09:20
Speaker
The third principle is found in verse 15, where he says, offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks. Offer the sacrifice of praise to God. You know in the Old Testament, they offered a lot of sacrifices, didn't they?
00:09:40
Speaker
Well, there were five offerings total in the Old Testament. There was the burnt offering, there was the meal offering, there was the peace offering, a sin offering, and finally a trespass offering. But here, what kind of sacrifice should a Christian be offering to God? Well, look, it says offer the sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks. Wow.
00:10:11
Speaker
that's That's amazing. Should that even be a sacrifice? What is a sacrifice anyway? Well, a sacrifice is when we give something of value to us, to someone else. It'll cost you something to humble yourself and express your thanks to the Lord. Maybe you feel like your job takes care of that. So you're just gonna thank yourself and thank your employer.
00:10:38
Speaker
But you know, this verse says, offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks. You know, I think that's a great thing, a great place to start is with praise to God. We praise God for who He is. That's one thing that can definitely prime the pump of Thanksgiving. When you really get to know who God is, you'll start saying, you know what? The character traits that I see in the Lord You know, holiness, mercy, love, faithfulness, all of those kind of things. That's where a praise to God really means something when we are we're saying it from our hearts because it's what we've discovered in His character. He is worthy of our praise because of who He is.
00:11:28
Speaker
But it says that Thanksgiving is like the crop that's harvested via our conversation or our communication. Let me ask you a question. Now, really think about this. Maybe you'd say, well, I'm always thankful. Okay, let's say you are always thankful on the inside, but you never express it on the outside. So my question is this, can any anyone know of your gratitude to the Lord if you never say anything about it? Remember, it will cost you to say something about your gratitude to the Lord for His blessings and His goodness.
00:12:07
Speaker
I looked at these ah words carefully and I thought, wow, you know, whenever you use the verb offer, I think that's a choice. You know, we have a choice every day. Will I be grumpy today? Will I only offer complaints today? Or will I make the choice of saying, you know what, I want to offer the sacrifice of praise to my God. He's done some things. And so the cost would simply be the word sacrifice, but the catalyst for being thankful would be God's character, like I said earlier. And then the communication, when we're thankful, is what he's saying here with the words, the fruit of our lips. Hey, that's really powerful, isn't it?
00:12:55
Speaker
See, God's not asking you to make a sacrifice of atonement. That's what Jesus did. He offered a sacrifice of atonement. He's asking us to make a sacrifice of acknowledgement.
00:13:10
Speaker
of saying, Lord, I just want to thank you for providing for my salvation. I want to thank you for who you are. You have proven to me how wise and how faithful you are. Those kinds of things. So how about we try to work on offering thanks to God every day as we finish out the rest of this year?
Directing Gratitude to God
00:13:32
Speaker
But then this is another important thing. It says, offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name, to His name.
00:13:47
Speaker
You know, there are some these days that are fine with voicing some, you know, undirected thanks, but their version of gratitude isn't really pointed toward the Lord. They're just happy with the way life's turned out for them, so they're just happy about things in general. And they're glad to be living in the circumstances in which they're living. And I'm glad they're happy. I wouldn't want them to be unhappy.
00:14:16
Speaker
But all I'm saying is, you know, biblical thanksgiving should be directed towards someone, and someone there is with a capital S. We should give thanks to God's name.
00:14:30
Speaker
I think that changes everything. I think it makes it more personal, wouldn't you? I mean, let's say that you were God, but maybe you'd say, i can't I can't even imagine what it'd be like to be God, so let's don't use that illustration. Okay, how about we do it like this? Let's say that you spend your money and you buy a very, very costly and precious to you gift, and you give it to someone.
00:14:57
Speaker
And when they write a thank you note, they didn't write it to you. They write it and say, thank you to everyone in the world. Thank you to every every God that's in the world. you know like what would that It wouldn't mean anything that that Thanksgiving that they're going to offer.
00:15:15
Speaker
You know, over and over again, I see in scripture, like, for example, in 1 Chronicles 16 and verse 34, it says, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. You see what I'm saying? It's just so so personalized and so directed. Colossians 3.17 says, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Ephesians 5.20 that I read earlier says, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I really think there should be an object ah for our thanksgiving so that we're pointing it to Him and we're actually saying, I'm grateful to you for what you have done in my life.
00:16:10
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. It's sort of like where David said, you know, the lines have fallen to me in in pleasant places. And what he's basically saying is, God, you've arranged my circumstances. You've given me opportunities in my life. And I want you to know I am truly grateful.
00:16:29
Speaker
Have you ever forgotten to thank someone for a gift or for some something that they've done for you?
Remembering to Give Thanks
00:16:35
Speaker
I would put that down as another another principle about continually giving thanks and living in a spirit of thankfulness all the time. I think verse 16 hits the nail right on the head with these four words, but do not forget.
00:16:55
Speaker
Do not forget. It almost gives me chills when I read that, you know, because I think, have I forgotten to thank God for what He did yesterday, for what He did this morning? You know, when it comes to going back to the Lord and saying thank you, I'm afraid that sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes I resemble the nine lepers who were healed of leprosy but who evidently forgot to go back to show their appreciation to the Lord for their healing. But in Luke 17, verses 11 through 19, Jesus made a point of including this. In the gospels, he says, Luke included this in his gospel, that there was only one out of 10 who remembered the importance of going back with gratitude.
00:17:54
Speaker
I don't know about you, but I see in this a goal for my life. A goal for my life is, Lord, help me to be like that one that one leper. that every day I go back to you, every day I'm growing and becoming more like that one man who was genuinely thankful. Let's don't overlook the importance of Thanksgiving. Let's not forget that. I mean, there could be other things that we will forget.
00:18:26
Speaker
but I don't think we should forget that. Well, let's move to another principle that I think is included if Thanksgiving is gonna be part of our daily life, and that is the overflow of Thanksgiving, the overflow. you know He says here in verse 16, but do not forget, and he's just said you know about giving thanks in his name, and he says, do not forget to do good.
00:18:55
Speaker
and to share. Hmm. You know, when a person is thankful for all that the Lord has given to them, I think there's a natural overflow of that gratitude toward other people.
Gratitude Overflowing in Actions
00:19:10
Speaker
They enjoy sharing some of what the Lord has entrusted to them.
00:19:17
Speaker
And I'm not saying that those gifts that we would share have to be expensive, not necessarily. It can just be a word of encouragement, or it could just be a smile, or maybe time that we invest with someone else.
00:19:34
Speaker
But this overflow of gratitude to God, I think what we see in this verse here is that it takes the form of two expressions that we make toward others. Did you catch the difference in the two different expressions of the overflow of Thanksgiving? When I'm grateful, there are two different ways I'm going to express it. One is I'm going to do good.
00:20:01
Speaker
The other one is I'm going to share something that I have. So if I were to put that in the way we talk and the way we think and so forth, and definitely the way I literate sermons, I'm sorry, I always do that. I apologize if that gets on your nerves. But anyway, I would put it like this, good deeds and gifts.
00:20:22
Speaker
good deeds and gifts. I see acts of kindness represented when he says, look, don't forget, if you're thankful to God, don't forget to do good to other people. Do something good. Be a blessing to someone else. But then he goes on to say, also don't forget to share some of what you have, to share some of your blessings with other people. I would classify those as gifts.
00:20:52
Speaker
Would you agree with me in saying, you know what? There's a huge difference in obligation and overflow. I think God wants it to be overflow. I think that God wants us to share with other people. God wants us to care about other people because of how good he's been to us. He doesn't want to have to command us to do it and to force us and make us dude do good to someone else. I think he actually wants it to be sort of like, I can't help myself.
00:21:30
Speaker
I just want to share something good with other people. God's been so good to me. Well, what's the outcome of Thanksgiving? I think it's sort of described best with these final words, but do not forget to do good to share. For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. I like the way this text ends.
00:21:57
Speaker
You know, it concludes by illustrating what the end result is when we mature into a grateful rather than a grumpy person. It says, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. You know, sometimes we agonize over how we can make a difference in our world and how we can really glorify the Lord in our life.
00:22:24
Speaker
But I say here that there's a quiet simplicity about this that we may miss. God will be well pleased, he says, if we will just be thankful for what we have.
Community Sharing Beyond Thanksgiving
00:22:39
Speaker
I think that's something that all of us can do, even if we cannot sing, even if we can't give millions of dollars, or even if we can't win thousands to Christ.
00:22:51
Speaker
I think we can truly be a blessing to other people. You know, there's a ah certain group that is in our history books that I have always been inspired by, the pilgrims. I think that they passed down an incredible legacy to us. And maybe at Thanksgiving, you considered ah there their Thanksgiving that they offered up whenever they gathered together. But in case you didn't, I just thought that, you know,
00:23:20
Speaker
We can know some of what was going on through two sources that are not people reading into it. It's like, what did they say happened that day? Well, one source is a letter written by a man who was actually there named Edward Winslow. He wrote to a friend back home and the letter was dated December the 11th, 1621.
00:23:45
Speaker
But the other one is a journal written by William Bradford of the Plymouth Plantation. But I wanted to read a letter that Edward Winslow wrote, and it's just three paragraphs long, so I think we have time before I end this to let me share this with you. Here's what he wrote. This is what happened whenever the pilgrims got together. He says, we set the last spring some 20 acres of Indian corn.
00:24:15
Speaker
and sowed some six acres of barley and peas. Our corn did prove real well, and God be praised, and our barley, indifferent good, but our peas, not worth gathering. For we feared they were too late sown. They came up very well and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom. Our harvest being gotten, our governor sent four men on fouling.
00:24:45
Speaker
that so we might after a more special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They for in one day killed as much foul as with a little help besides serve the company almost a week.
00:25:01
Speaker
At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, and many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest, their greatest king, Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted. And they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor and upon the captain and others.
00:25:30
Speaker
It sounds to me like they had a great time just thanking the Lord. And it sounds like that some of the native peoples that were there, that they actually contributed to the feast and brought some additional things since their harvest had been ah not so good. And so maybe it's that way in your life. Maybe you'd say, you know, it's kind of been ah a little bit of a challenging year. Think about those pilgrims when they were gathering.
00:25:58
Speaker
You know, they had just made a voyage of 3,000 miles under crowded conditions that took two months. They had sailed through stormy seas, breaking the rudder and later the mast snapped into three pieces. Many of their original group developed scurvy while others suffered from pneumonia. The governor, William Bradford, well, he lost his wife when she accidentally fell overboard and drowned.
00:26:25
Speaker
The first winter, they lost half of their original number. That would be 47 out of 102 to starvation, cold, and sickness. And somehow, that group of people gathered with those native ah peoples that must have been almost 100 in total. And I think to myself, isn't that what it's about? That we gather with other people and we say thank you to the Lord? You know you don't have to wait.
00:26:55
Speaker
until November to do that. You can do that all through November and December. You can do it January all the way down through October, every day of every month.
00:27:07
Speaker
we could say, Lord, thank you so much for all that you've done. I want to share some of what I have by maybe having a friend over. Let me share one more a little story that it's a true story. It happened last Sunday night. We had a ah man who was passing through on his way back to San Antonio. He had been in Houston taking care of his family.
00:27:30
Speaker
And this man's name was Mark. And he said, he always looks to see which church along his route on the way home is having a Sunday evening service. And he said, you guys were open. So anyway, he came in and we had such a great time visiting with him. But whenever I ask, how can we pray for those that were gathered, including people that are insiders from here,
00:27:53
Speaker
This man from San Antonio, Mark, he says, pray for me. He said, my wife and I are going to have ah several from our neighborhood over for a meal. And so I talked to him about it afterwards. And I said, that's great. Are you having like a few couples over or what? And he said, no. He said, ah for July 4th, we had 30 people from our neighborhood over. And he said, this time, I think it's probably going to be close to 90.
00:28:22
Speaker
And I just thought, isn't that great that that man and his wife have tasted the goodness of the Lord and they have said, you know what, let's share this with our friends, our neighbors, those that live around us, those that we love and see every single day.
00:28:39
Speaker
You know, I think we can do that. We don't have to wait till Thanksgiving Day. And he was telling me they weren't waiting till Thanksgiving Day because most of the neighbors would already be with family and friends. And he wanted to make sure that he invited them to his house. I think that's great. Why don't we close in a word of prayer and let's pray that God will make us truly grateful every day, not just Thanksgiving Day.
Closing Prayer and Invitation for Growth
00:29:02
Speaker
Father, thank you so much for your goodness. We have tasted it so much through Jesus Christ. I know your word says we're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. But I know that some of my friends may have had a very difficult, very challenging year, may be hard for them. So I pray that you would strengthen them and let them see that there are places, there are ways that they could say, you know what, God has helped me through this. And so please help me and help them help all of us together to grow in gratitude as we go through the rest of this year. In Jesus name we pray, amen. Listen, you have a great day. I pray that God will bless you. And I pray that we will be thankful for however he blesses us.
00:29:52
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.