Sunday's Message - A Time to Be Thankful for Our God

November is a special time to focus on giving thanks. With that in mind, during the four Sundays before Thanksgiving Day, we'll consider how we might effectively use this time to consider why we might offer our thanks to God. We'll consider the following:

• November 2 - A Time to Be Thankful for Our God
• November 9 - A Time to Be Thankful for Our Savior
• November 16 - A Time to Be Thankful for the Bible
• November 23 - A Time to Be Thankful for the Church

On Sunday, we’ll began this series by looking at how this might be a perfect time to be thankful for our God. Below is a video presentation and the text for the sermon. You can stream the service by going to the Sligo Presbyterian Church YouTube Channel on Sundays at 10:00 a.m. (EDT).  You can hear a podcast of the service at the Sligo Presbyterian Church YouTube Channel or the Sligo Presbyterian Spotify Page.

Well, here we are. Halloween is over. Our clocks have fallen back. And we’re already on the second day in a brand new month. And so, with that in mind, let’s all say together something we’re all thinking: I can’t believe it’s November already. I mean, give me a break, it seems like just yesterday, we were cutting the grass and complaining about the heat and looking forward to fall. And now, fall is about half over and it was sure chilly walking the dog this morning and before you know it, we’d better get ready to deck those halls and trim those trees. I don’t know about y’all, but time seems to be flying by. Of course, before we break out in a cold sweat, we need to remember that we’ve got 53 days before Christmas and standard shipping for Amazon is typically 3–5 business days.

But even though we probably don’t need to worry about December 25th quite yet, Thanksgiving will be here in just twenty-four days. And even though that gives us plenty of time to attend to the turkey, noodles, mashed potatoes, and stuffing, it just makes sense to start thinking about the reason for this particular season, and I’m talking about some of the reasons we have to be thankful. And I’ll tell you, that’s what we’re going to start doing this morning. You see, during the four Sunday services before our annual worship of food, family and football, we’re going to take time and focus on four reasons for offering thanks in preparation for Thanksgiving, starting today, as we look at how we can be thankful for our God.

And you know, whenever I think about the reasons we have to thank the Lord, my mind goes to an old comic strip I saw decades ago. You see, in the first two of panels in this four panel comic, a woman puts food in front of her dog, Roscoe, and he thinks, “She feeds me every day and takes care of my every need. She must be a god.” Now, I’ve got to tell you, personally, I believe this cartoon is remarkably profound because in it, that dog actually recognizes something we often kind of miss, you know, to recognize that we really do have an awesome God, one who deserves both our respect and thanks.

And so, with that in mind, for the next ten minutes or so, we’re going to look at three reasons we have to be thankful for our God. And for each, we’ll use some scripture to illustrate what it means and then how we might respond.

For example, first, I think we can be thankful for our God, because he protects us. In other words, as we try to navigate through all the mess this world can throw at us, God is always there to help, you know, to see us through, something that I think the Psalmist certainly knew all about when he wrote this:

I look to the hills!

    Where will I find help?

It will come from the Lord,

    who created heaven and earth.

The Lord is your protector,

and he won’t go to sleep

    or let you stumble.

The protector of Israel

doesn’t doze

    or ever get drowsy.

The Lord is your protector,

there at your right side

    to shade you from the sun.

You won’t be harmed

by the sun during the day

    or by the moon at night.

The Lord will protect you

and keep you safe

    from all dangers.

The Lord will protect you

now and always

    wherever you go. [Psalm 121:1-8, CEV]

Now that’s what he wrote. In other words, no matter how difficult living becomes, no matter how great the dangers appear to be and no matter how disappointed and discouraged we might feel, the Lord is our protector. And no matter where we go or what we do, he’s right there at our side. And when we’re so frustrated or so frightened that we want to just curl up into a ball, the one who protects us and who is present with us is also the creator of the heaven and the earth. I’m telling you, the one who has our back also has power. 

And because of that, I think we can decide to trust. For example, we can decide to trust that worthless and evil people will never win in the end. And we can decide to trust that the one who protects us, the one who is present with us, and the one who has power over everything, man, he’s going to pass some of that strength to us so that we can face our own problems and pain. And we can decide to trust that we’re going to feel his protection, we’re going to feel his presence and we’re going feel his power when we tighten our belts and straighten our shoulders and obey the one who told us to love others as we’ve been loved. And I’ll tell you, when we do, we’ll be walking in some pretty important footprints. I mean, just listen to what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians:

Finally, our friends, please pray for us. This will help the message about the Lord to spread quickly, and others will respect it, just as you do. Pray that we may be kept safe from worthless and evil people. After all, not everyone has faith. But the Lord can be trusted to make you strong and protect you from harm. He has made us sure that you are obeying what we taught you and that you will keep on obeying. I pray that the Lord will guide you to be as loving as God and as patient as Christ. [1 Thessalonians 3:1-5, CEV]

I’m telling you, we can be thankful for our God, because he protects us; that’s one.

And second, we can also give thanks to God, because he saves us. Man, he saves us from the consequences of trusting ourselves more than him, of doing what we want rather than following his word and of assuming that we have the ability to pry grace and righteousness and compassion out of his reluctant hands. You see, in a very real sense, God saves us from ourselves, something I think Paul understood when he wrote this to the Ephesians:

You were saved by faith in God, who treats us much better than we deserve. This is God’s gift to you, and not anything you have done on your own. It isn’t something you have earned, so there is nothing you can brag about. God planned for us to do good things and to live as he has always wanted us to live. This is why he sent Christ to make us what we are. [Ephesians 2:8-10, CEV]

Now that’s what he said, that we experience salvation by simply believing that it’s been given to us by God, that it’s been given to us even though we didn’t deserve it, because it’s been given to us as a gift. I mean, based on what Paul wrote, if we have any delusions that we’re saved because of where we’ve been or what we’ve done or who we are; man, we better sober up and step down from the high horse we’re riding, because, as I’ve been reminded about myself more than once in the last 68 years, we may not be nearly as strong or as smart or as spiritual as we think we are. But you know what, God saves us anyway. And he’s given humanity the ability to live just like he always wanted us to live, if only we had the sense to see it. And I’ll tell you, he even sent Jesus Christ into our time and space to show us how to do it. Did we get saved? No. Are we being saved? You bet your life.

And for that reason, we can decide to offer God all kinds of praise. I mean, we can decide to praise God for answering our prayers, especially when we’re following the instructions of Jesus Christ and offering up something like, “Come and set up your kingdom, so that everyone on earth will obey you, as you are obeyed in heaven.” [Matthew 6:10, CEV] And we can decide to praise God for sending his son to communicate both word and will. And we can decide to praise God for leading us into a community that’s dedicated to sharing this message, this word and this will, to the world around us. In fact, in response to our Lord, we can do what the Psalmist did when he wrote this:

I praise the Lord

for answering my prayers

    and saving me.

The stone that the builders

    tossed aside

has now become

    the most important stone.

The Lord has done this,

    and it is amazing to us.

This day belongs to the Lord!

Let’s celebrate

    and be glad today.

We’ll ask the Lord to save us!

We’ll sincerely ask the Lord

    to let us win.

God bless the one who comes

    in the name of the Lord!

We praise you from here

    in the house of the Lord. [Psalm 118:21-26, CEV]

You see, we can be thankful for our God, because he saves us; that’s two.

And third, I’m telling you, we can be thankful for our God, because he loves us. And he loves us with an intensity that’s actually hard for us to even imagine. It’s sort of like Paul wrote to the Romans, 

In everything we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us. I am sure that nothing can separate us from God’s love—not life or death, not angels or spirits, not the present or the future, and not powers above or powers below. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord! [Romans 8:37-39, CEV]

Now that’s how Paul described God’s love for us, and personally, I think his words are really important to remember. You see, when Paul said “nothing,” I think that’s exactly what he meant. You know, he didn’t end his statement with a “but.” And he didn’t end it with a “if.” And he didn’t end it with a “when.” In other words, he didn’t make God’s love limited and conditional nor did he suggest there was something we needed to do in order to deserve or to earn or to get it. Instead, in the Contemporary English Translation, the sentence ends with an exclamation mark, showing that nothing, including our own weakness, nothing “...can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord!” [Romans 8:39b, CEV] You see, God’s love is just that strong.

And I’ll tell you, if that doesn’t move us to respond, frankly, I don’t know what will. I mean, just knowing that God loves us totally and that God loves us unconditionally and that God loves us eternally, man, that really should move us to do what he’s called us to do, shouldn’t it? And just knowing that God’s love is really what motivates him to protect and to save us, that really should move us to be more gracious and more compassionate and more merciful to others, shouldn’t it? And just knowing that we did nothing to deserve or to earn or to get God’s love, that really should move us to tear down those walls, you know, those barriers that we construct that make our love limited and conditional, shouldn’t it? In fact, maybe our awareness of God’s love for us, maybe that might move us to respond in the same way suggested by John in his first letter:

God is love. If we keep on loving others, we will stay one in our hearts with God, and he will stay one with us. If we truly love others and live as Christ did in this world, we won’t be worried about the day of judgment. A real love for others will chase those worries away. The thought of being punished is what makes us afraid. It shows we have not really learned to love.

We love because God loved us first. But if we say we love God and don’t love each other, we are liars. We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don’t love the people we can see? The commandment that God has given us is: “Love God and love each other!” [1 John 4:16b-21, CEV]

You see, we can be thankful for our God, because he loves us; that’s three.

And I’ll tell you, when we come to this awareness, I believe we’re moving closer to the attitude of that dog, Roscoe. I mean, remember that, when his human fed him, he thought: She feeds me every day and takes care of my every need. She must be a god. Now that’s a powerful lesson. But remember, I said this was a four panel comic, and Roscoe is only in the first two. In the last two, that same woman puts food before her cat, Muffin. And of course, being a cat, she thinks, “She feeds me every day and takes care of my every need. I must be a god.”

Brothers and sisters, let’s be more like Roscoe than Muffin. In other words, as we move toward Thanksgiving, let’s be thankful for our God, because he protects us. And let’s be thankful for our God, because he saves us. And let’s be thankful for our God, because he loves us. And you know, when we do, well, that may be the first step in turning November into a genuine time to be thankful.