Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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Give Thanks to the LORD

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Opening Prayer

Lord, we do ask that You would help us today as we focus on Your Word, that You would help us understand and appreciate how good You are. We ask Your blessing on the children as they study, open their hearts to understand, to embrace not only the Word, but to embrace You and to love You. We ask all this in Your name. Amen.

It Is Good to Give Thanks

It is good to give thanks to the Lord. Amen.

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18 it says, and do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God or the fear as we head into the Thanksgiving season, I want to remind you of a few things regarding

Thanksgiving Assumes a Personal Object

Thanksgiving. I don’t mean the holiday, but I mean the topic of Thanksgiving. And the first point is this, is that gratitude or Thanksgiving assumes a personal object, a personal object.

What do I mean? I mean, we can’t give thanks to fate, we can’t give thanks to evolution. We can’t give thanks to chance. When we celebrate Thanksgiving, we’re actually making a statement about a personal object.

The point of Thanksgiving is not to thank our government for health care. It’s not to thank the media for entertainment and sports. It’s not to thank big business for jobs and food and all the the restaurants. No, the point of Thanksgiving is rather to thank a personal being. And that personal being is the God of heaven. So when we celebrate Thanksgiving, we are making a proclamation that there is a God in heaven. Amen? Moreover, when we celebrate Thanksgiving, we not only acknowledge that God is in heaven, but we also acknowledge His benevolence or His goodness. In other words, we acknowledge His provision. When we celebrate Thanksgiving, we are saying that all that we have comes from His bounty. Just as He feeds the young lions, the Scripture said, so we open our mouths and He fills them. He says He clothes the lilies of the field, so He clothes us. He provides for all of our needs, our physical necessities, out of His abundance and out of His generosity. Amen?

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publicly demonstrating God’s bountiful provision. It’s a proclamation, not only that God is, but that God is good. And so we put all these goodies on the table, the. bread and the dressing and the cranberries and the corn and the salad, you getting hungry yet? The pies and the cakes. And it is like erecting an altar to God’s goodness. And we’re declaring to our family and our friends his his benevolence. So when we celebrate Thanksgiving, we publicly say there is a God in heaven and he is good. Thirdly, when we celebrate Thanksgiving we proclaim his providence, his providence. God is not simply there and he’s not simply good. No, he’s actually involved in the lives of men and women. He governs by his knowledge and his might and he provides by his providential care. The blessing and the bounty that we enjoy in our lives come to us not fortuitously, not by, not by his hand, not by his hand, not by his hand, not by not by chance, but they come providentially from God. All that we have is given to us by His hand. And at Thanksgiving, we proclaim this truth. We acknowledge His providence in our life. Therefore, as we celebrate, we acknowledge that our prosperity, and we are prosperous in this nation. Our prosperity, our homes, our families, our, our employment, our money, our possessions, that these are not the product of our intelligence, but of His omniscience. They’re not the product of our work, but of His might. It is not our skill, but His promotion and His blessing. Amen? So when we celebrate Thanksgiving, we are agreeing with God who said through Haggai, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit says the Lord. We agree with Jesus who said, apart from me, you can do nothing. We agree with Paul who said, who makes you to differ from another? And what do you have that you have not received? So when we gather around the table this Thursday, that bountiful table with the turkey and the dressing and the cranberries and the pie and the salad and the cake and the bread and the butter and all the goodies, as we erect the altar to God in our homes, we are saying there is a God in heaven and is -he is good and he governs my life and provides for all of my needs through his providence. That’s what we are saying. Fourthly, Thanksgiving is more than just acknowledging physical provision, though. We also celebrate and proclaim God’s spiritual provision. We say that God has, out of his great love for us, providentially provided for our spiritual needs. He has, through the death and burial and resurrection Jesus Christ. He has provided salvation for us. Salvation for us. He has forgiven our sins.

He has removed his wrath from us. He has reconciled us to him. He has made us his friends. Better yet, he has made us his children. He has brought us into his family. We also Recognize the gift of his Holy Spirit that he has given to each one of us who know Jesus His spirit enabled us to commune with God The Holy Spirit is the one who helps our infirmities He is the one who helps us to pray. The Holy Spirit is the one who empowers us for ministry. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives us wonderful fruits like love and joy and peace and long suffering and gentleness and goodness, faith, meekness and self-control. So when you are around the table you do have self-control. The Holy Spirit gives us fruit which is better, better and more satisfying than any earthly food, any earthly fruit that our mouths have ever tasted. But the Lord has also given us the church, a community of fellow saints who instruct us, encourage us, and exhort us, and sometimes even reprove us and rebuke us. Oh boy. He’s given us a community of those who weep when we weep, who rejoice with us when we rejoice, a faithful brotherhood that holds us accountable and reproves us when we stray, The community who loves us and ministers to us the things of God.

The Hope of Heaven

But He’s also given us hope. Hope. The hope and the promise of heaven. You know, as gracious as God is in giving us many earthly blessings, the best is yet to come. When we sit around that table and we are carving up the turkey or the ham or whatever you have. Some of you don’t like turkey, you can send it to my house by the way. And we’re feasting and we’re celebrating. Remember, this is a faint reflection of the marriage feast of the lamb. This is a faint reflection of the fact that we are going to have a celebration and a feast in heaven with the Lord Jesus. The earthly blessings we receive,

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He says to them in 14:1, let not your heart be troubled. Why? Believe in God, believe also in me. In my many mansions or many apartments or many condos. He likes mansions because he wants a mansion. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. I am going to get your apartment ready,

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Revelation 7 is one of those beautiful chapters where we have a heavenly scene of worship, and they’re all worshiping the Lamb and worshiping the Lord God Almighty. Verse 12, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.

Then one of the elders answered saying to me, who are these arrayed in white robes and where do they come from? And he said to him, sir, you know, and he said to me, these are the ones who came out of the great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will dwell among them, and they shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them nor any heat for the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living waters.“ God will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Is that not beautiful? Is that not hope? Is that not something that we can set our hearts on and look forward to and thank God for? That no matter what we go through, even though we might break out because of stress in our lives. We might have a physical malady, we might have financial trouble, we might have tensions in our home, no matter what we are dealing with. We know that some day that we will meet the Lord and the Word of God says that every one of the saints’ tears are kept in a bottle and he sees them and he knows them and when we meet him he’s going to wipe every tear from our eyes because he’s going to heal every hurt in our heart. That’s hope.

Thanksgiving Is a Moral Duty

So in conclusion, let me say this, two general conclusions.

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One, thanksgiving is a moral duty and it’s founded on both the law and the gospel. Look at Exodus 20 for a moment. Exodus 20 is the first publication of what’s called the Decalogue. And it’s reiterated again in Deuteronomy 6.

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You shall not make for yourself a carved image any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God visiting iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands and most scholars believe it means thousands of generations, not just thousands of people. those who love me and keep the commandments.” The first two commandments in the law are about worship and acknowledging God for who He is. In some ways, that is the simplest definition of worship. It is to acknowledge and to proclaim who God is. And the law requires And the law requires this. We are to have no false gods, no false worship. So when we offer thanksgiving, we do acknowledge who God is. We acknowledge the Lord, Jehovah, the God of the Bible, is the true God. We say that he is benevolent, that he is kind, he is gracious. We say that he governs by his providence, through his wisdom and his might and his power. We are acknowledging the true God of the Bible in our thanksgiving. And that is a moral duty that God has laid upon us. But it’s also required by the gospel. We as God’s people living in the age of grace, or what some people call the church age, or some people call the age of the spirit. We of all people ought to be the most grateful. not only for our physical provisions, but also for our spiritual Savior. You know, even the heathen recognized God and often thanked Him for the rain or the sun or the harvest. How much more do we, as God’s New Testament people, how much more do we owe Him thanksgiving and praise since He saved our souls from eternal damnation and is prepared for us, mansions in heaven. How much more? So one of the dangers of this season, as you all know, because I’m sure you all battle it, one of the dangers is that as we celebrate and we acknowledge God’s provision and we eat and we feast, and then as we head into the season where we celebrate the birth of Jesus, and we’re worried about presents and we’re looking at the budget and seeing what we could afford. Then we got to get the tree up, we got to clean the house, we got to get… We get so enmeshed in the material. You hear me? We get enmeshed in the material. When the whole point of the season is to set our, our hearts on heaven and divine things. It is the season to recognize God’s earthly provision as well as a spiritual provision through his son, Jesus Christ. That’s the point of the season. We, God’s New Testament people, have been blessed. We in America, and I’m sure that our guests today could tell us many stories about the poverty and the things they’ve seen in Kenya and other parts of Africa. We have been much blessed physically, but the greatest blessings are the ones of the Spirit. And for these, let us be thankful. Your budget might be tight, but if you are saved, you have the greatest blessing anyone could ever receive.

Ingratitude Is a Sin

Second conclusion is this, that just as our gratitude is a moral duty, so ingratitude is a violation of the law and the gospel.

To put it simply, it’s a sin. I know we don’t talk much much about sin today in the church, and I know we definitely don’t talk about this sin, because I don’t think we appreciate the gravity of it. But when we are ungrateful, when we murmur or complain, what does it say about God?

That’s the question. What does it really say about God? Now, I know some of you would never say anything negative about God. The problem is saying negative things about your spouse, your job, your family, your church, your pastor, and all the other things in your life. But who governed your life? Well, it’s either God or evolution, so I mean, you don’t have a lot of choices here.

And sometimes we should do a study on this, and I actually did a study on this. I went through Exodus and Numbers, and I followed the journey of the Israelites through the wilderness. And 15 times they murmured and complained. 15 times. And the striking thing is there was a pattern. There was a pattern in their ingratitude. And the pattern was very simple. They didn’t like their situation. And, rightly so, because you know what, their situation was hard. It was hard. And so what did they do? Did they attack God? No. They complained about the situation. And then when they got really upset, they complained about Moses and Aaron. And that’s how it works. You’re going to blame somebody. You blame the situation. You blame your boss. You blame your spouse. You blame your pastor. You’re You’re going to blame somebody when you’re not happy. But as you read through the accounts, what you see is a startling revelation. That as the people were rising up in rebellion against Moses, because they’re unhappy with their situation. Now, you know, Moses didn’t make the desert, did he? Moses didn’t make the water bitter. Moses didn’t have any control over what animals showed up in the desert for food. He had no control over any of that, but somehow it was his fault. It became his fault. And so as they rose up from rebellion against Moses and Aaron because they’re unhappy with their situation, God intervenes. And you know what he says? This is the heavy part. You ready? You listening? If you’re listening, say yes. God said to them, you are rebelling against me. Wait a minute, I was just complaining about the food. I was just complaining about no AC out here in the desert. I was just complaining about Moses because he doesn’t look like he really knows what he’s doing. I wasn’t attacking you. I said, oh no, but you were. Because I brought you into the desert. I gave you Moses and Aaron. And you see, we have this strange disconnect between our situation and our God.

Between our family and our God, our church and our God. And so we think that it’s okay to complain about the situation, the person, the people in our life, the boss, you know, that boss. And when we do that, what we’re really saying is God isn’t in control. This is fortuitous. This is random. Well, that’s certainly not true. Is it? No, it’s not true. And so when we complain and murmur, it’s a denial of God’s providence. We’re saying God governed. Or worse, we’re saying God governs poorly. But if the Bible is true, and it is, amen, there is a God in heaven. He is good, and he does govern the world. So when you’re dealing with difficult things, and I understand life can be hard, life can be difficult. I don’t want anything that I’m saying to be interpreted as a lack of sympathy for anybody that is hurting. That is not what I am saying. But there is a difference between going to God and with a broken heart than going to God with a complaining spirit. They are not the same thing. And when you’re hurting, you go to God, You say, Jesus, I’m hurting, please minister to me. That is different saying, God, why did you give me that stupid husband?

Completely different spirit. We must remember, we must remember who God is. We must remember the God of the Bible, not a God that we have imagined.

No one here that I know, none of the members of this church that I know would ever say God isn’t good. But I’ve heard some of you complain. I’ve heard some of you grumble. No member of this church would deny that God governs the world. Yet I’ve heard some of you murmur about your situation and your life. You see, we need to connect the dots.

And the God in heaven is the God who gives you your spouse. The God in heaven is the God who puts you in your work environment. God in heaven has placed you in this church community. And you know what? The God in heaven is good. And if you’re, if you’re having difficulties in home, at work, at church, that it’s a test and it’s for your good because God is good.

Being blessed doesn’t mean you’re always comfortable. Right? No, it doesn’t mean that. James says, brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials? Huh? Counterintuitive? How can we do that? When he says, knowing, knowing that the testing of your faith produces character and wholeness.

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What appears bad is actually for our good. And so often the trials we want to avoid, or what we’re really doing is we’re avoiding The very channel of God’s blessing in our life We’re avoiding the blessing So as we go into this Thanksgiving season we need to thank the Lord for the provision on our table We need to thank the Lord for the provision of our salvation, but we need to thank the Lord for a lot more than that We need to thank the Lord for the difficult things Thank the Lord for the trials. Thank the Lord for everything in our life because God is in heaven, God is in heaven, and God governs our lives, amen?

Closing Prayer

Let’s stand and pray. Lord, you are so worthy, you are so worthy of our praise and thanksgiving. And I pray, Lord, for every one of us, myself included, that you would forgive us forever murmuring against you. Forgive us Lord, forever complaining about our situation. Forgive us forever complaining about our spouse. Forgive us for complaining about our children. Forgive us God, because we repent. We are changing now. We are changing today. We choose to thank you. We choose to acknowledge your hand in the good and the bad.

We choose to believe and confess your word that you are good and that you govern our lives.

We believe it, and I pray Lord that we would walk it out daily. And as the psalmist said, that your praise would be continually in our mouths.

And may it be so for your glory, your glory. Amen.