Thankful!

Thank you. Thank you. Father in worship, it's also Children's Church Sunday, and so we are just thankful that you're here. We're going to have a word of prayer, and then we will spend a moment reading the Psalms together. Father in heaven, I thank you for Jesus, and I thank you for grace, and I thank you for hope, and I thank you for our church and for being able to gather here this morning to encourage one another, to spend time with one another, to gather around your table and in your word, and I just ask that you would encourage us and strengthen us and be with us as we worship this morning. It's in Jesus' name we pray. The psalm, in just a minute, the first four verses of the 105th are what is called a

call to worship and frequently in the psalms the author of the psalm would invite people to join him or come to worship for example in the 95th psalm the psalmist says this oh come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the Lord our maker and as i think about that my first thought is why we need to be called to worship for reasons, at least for me, is that we're easily distracted. We're easily, our attention easily drifts, chases after all kinds of different things. And one of the things that being called to worship and to praise God does for us is it fixes our eyes back on the one who cares and provides and protects and watches over But also we need to be called to worship because it reminds us of the goodness and the greatness and the graciousness of God.

And so as we read Psalm 105, verses 1 through 4, we are going to be called to worship, to give thanks to God, to call upon his name. So let's go ahead and be standing as we read together. O give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, sing to him, sing praises to him, Tell of all his wondrous works, glory in his holy name. Hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his presence continually. This is the word of the Lord. Let's go ahead and we're going to begin by singing, Come, now is the time to worship, followed immediately by Glorious Day.

Come, now is the time to worship Come, now is the time to give your heart Come, just as you are to worship. Come, just as you are before your God. Come, one day every time we'll confess you are God. One day every knee will bow Still the greatest treasure remains For those who gladly choose you now Come, now is the time to worship Come, now is the time to give your heart Come, just as you are to worship Come, just as you are before your God Come One day every tongue will confess you are God One day every knee will bow Still a greatest treasure remains for those Who gladly choose you now One day every tongue will confess you are God One day every needle bow Still the greatest treasure remains for those Who gladly choose you now

Come, now is the time to worship Come, now is the time to give your heart Come, just as you are to worship Come, just as you are before your God Come, come. Who could carry that kind of weight? It was my turn till I met you. I was breathing but not alive.

All my failures I tried to hide. It was my tomb till I met you. You called my name and I ran out of that grave. Out of the darkness Into your glorious day You called my name And I ran out of that grave Out of the darkness Into your glorious day

Now your mercy has saved my soul Now your freedom is all that I know The old made new Jesus, when I met you You called my name And I ran out of that grave Out of the darkness Into your glorious day You called my name And I ran out of that grave Out of the darkness Into your glorious day I needed rescue, my sin was heavy But chains break at the weight of your glory I needed shelter, I wasn't open Now you call me a citizen of heaven When I was broken, you were my healing Now your love is the air that I'm breathing I have a future, my eyes are open Cause when you call my name I ran out of that grave Out of the darkness Into your glorious day You call my name I ran out of that grave Out of the darkness To your glorious day For more information, visit www.fema.org Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

We are thinking a little bit about thankfulness, I think just about every wedding that I have ever done, I have tried in some way to remind the couple that is getting married that the wedding is more than just the ceremony and the party and the outfits and the joy and the excitement and all of those things that happen on that one day. But a wedding is the beginning of something that goes on and on, and it's much bigger than simply one moment. And I think with Thanksgiving, we kind of have the same thing. Maybe we think of it as a holiday that we here in America celebrate on the fourth Thursday of November. But biblically, being thankful or having this attitude of Thanksgiving is something that goes much deeper. It's not just a call to a day, but it is called a call to the way of life.

And part of the way that we are, as God's people, thankful is coming to this table. In fact, if you've ever referred to this meal that we are about to partake in, as the Eucharist, it just comes from the word that means thanks or to give thanks. And so one of the ways in which we keep our eyes focused upon Jesus and upon his grace, It's one of the ways that we are called from sin and to righteousness. One of the ways that we as Christians are nourished and strengthened and helped is by coming to this table. So we're going to sing about God's grace and then we are going to read about God's grace and partake in the supper together.

He breaks the power of sin and darkness, whose love is mighty and so much stronger, the King of glory, the King above all kings.

Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder, who leaves us breathless in awe and wonder, the King of glory, the King of love of all kings. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love that you would take my place. That you would bear my cross, you would lay down your life, that I would be set free. Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me.

Who brings our chaos back into order? Who makes the orphan a son and daughter? The King of glory, the King above all kings. Who rules the nations with truth and justice? Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance. The King of glory, the King above all kings. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my place. That you would bear my cross. You would lay down your life. That I would be set free. Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me. Worthy is the man who was slain. Worthy is the king who conquered the grave. Worthy is the man who was slain. Worthy is the King who conquered the grave. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my place. That you would bear my cross.

You would lay down your life. That I would be set free Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passion of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy and because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the

heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Father in heaven, we ask that you would help us to see the love, the forgiveness, the hope, the peace, the transformation that is found in the good news of the gospel. Help us as we partake of this bread and this cup to remember where we were and to see where through Christ you have brought us to.

That in this meal you would remind us that you have called us to follow you and to work with you and for you in your kingdom. We ask that you would refresh our souls and strengthen our resolve, that through your spirit you would be at work in our lives. Be with us as we partake of this meal. We ask that you bless this bread and this cup. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen. One of the things that we remember as we partake of this meal is that we are not alone. Paul will continue on. Remember that at that time you were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in this world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Let's partake of this bread together. And in the same way, let's partake of the cup.

As we partake and are encouraged, we are also called to share that good news with the world around us, proclaiming Jesus until he comes again. If you'd like to follow along this morning, we are in the book of James. Next week, to give you an idea of what's happening next, we are going to be beginning our journey toward the arrival of Jesus. And as we enter the Advent season, we look in two directions. One, we look back to the birth of Jesus, and over these next four weeks preceding Christmas, we prepare and we consider, but we also look forward to the time when he comes again. And so, for God's people, celebrating this season is a time to look backward to what God has done, but also to rejoice in the promises of what God has promised to do in the future.

And so we begin that next Sunday, which is December 1st. And I'm looking forward to that journey together. Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer. Father, be with us this morning as we consider and we look at our lives and we look at your goodness. may you help us to see all that you have given us even in the midst of trials and difficulty that you are the author of all good gifts and we ask that you would help us in our discouragement or in our struggle, in our temptation or in our need of repentance or even if we've never come to you that you would help us to see laid out before us is light in our darkness be with us this morning it's in Jesus name we pray amen there are things

that probably all of us maybe in our life have just sort of come naturally to us things that maybe we're just naturally good at but then there are things that probably for most of us we are just naturally bad at for me growing up it was probably obedience right nobody had to teach me to be disobedient, right? It was the other way around. And probably for most of us, right, patience. Nobody had to teach us to be impatient, right? We were just kind of impatient naturally. That patience was a skill that we had to learn and develop in a character trait that had to be built up within us. The same is true for thankfulness. I think, and we'll take a look at some Scripture in just a moment, that will, I think, show us that maybe

naturally, we just are not thankful people. That our tendency is rather to look either at what we can get and be self-satisfied or to look at what we don't have and be jealous and angry. And that thankfulness for us is very, very difficult. And so I want to begin in the very beginning of the Old Testament and we'll work our way toward James over the next few minutes. And what's interesting is especially in Genesis and in the beginning of Exodus, we find very, very little thankfulness. We see no thankfulness in the account of Adam and Eve. We dive very quickly into the first brotherly fight that ends in the first brotherly murder over this gift to God and scholars have pointed out that Cain's gift seems to be about the minimum and seems very thankless

and the families of Isaac and Jacob they spend a lot of time fighting over God's blessings and who's going to get them and how much and fear that someone may usurp their blessing rather than seeing God's hand in those blessings and I think the growing problem of ingratitude culminates in the deliverance of God's people from slavery in Egypt during the Exodus. In Exodus, the 14th chapter, God has done many amazing things. He has brought his people out of Egypt in this great demonstration of power, both by the hand of Moses with Pharaoh's magicians and in speaking powerfully to Pharaoh, but also in God's demonstration through the plagues. And eventually God's people are released and they are free to go and God leads them out of Egypt. And in Exodus 14, you find them stuck in the middle of nowhere, surrounded topographically by mountains with a sea in front of them and soldiers behind them.

Do you know what the response of God's people was? Having seen God's power, having seen God's might, their response is simply this. Were they out of graveyard space in Egypt? Listen to what they say. Is it because there's no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done bringing us out of Egypt? There's no hope. There's not any thankfulness for what God has done. No awe and worship over the power that he has displayed and all of the things that he has done to bring them freedom. Their first response is simply to say Did they run out of graveyard space in Egypt And you brought us out to this deserted place to die And we know what God does He splits the people, the sea in half

The people walk across The Egyptian army is destroyed And then, in the first half of Exodus 15 There is praise, which is very closely related biblically to thankfulness And there's this wonderful song of praise However, by verse 22, God's people forget God's power and his provision and they grumble again. Five verses later in Exodus chapter 16, people forget God's power. They forget his provision and they said, Would that we have died by the hand of the Lord in Egypt when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full. For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger. And so God has brought them out, and they have complained. He has brought them through. They have complained. There's a worship service. Immediately they complain about water.

Five verses later, they're complaining about food, and they come up with this completely fictitious scenario. Remember, they're slaves in Egypt. They're not lounging by the buffet eating all the free bread that they want to eat. They were hungry in Egypt, too. And what does God do? He feeds them with bread from heaven. Let's speed it up just a little bit. Exodus chapter 17. The people thirsted there for water. Remember, God's already provided water and food. And they said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? And it's not very long before we see the law of God written down in Exodus. You have the Ten Commandments and all of the law. And then in chapter 32 of Exodus, what happens? Moses on the mountain speaking to God.

Remember what everybody does? They get all their earrings and their gold chains and they melt it together and they make a calf. And they worship it. They've seen God defeat the Egyptians in the land of Egypt. They've watched God split the Red Sea. They've crossed it. They've seen water, food, and more water. and there's literally bread falling from heaven. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Hello. All righty. You might say, why is this a battle? And we'll see this in context. But one of the reasons is that everything in this world fights against thanksgiving. And if we are not willing to fight back with the truth of who God is, there is this deceit that will lead us into sin. I'm going to read James 1, verses 16 and 17. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Now, it's very easy for us to see how verse 17 fits with being thankful, right? Every good and perfect gift coming down from above, and we go, that's something to do with thankfulness. But James' thought actually begins in verse 16 where he says,

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. And we might think, well, deceived how? Or by what? And there's a lot of questions that this warning can raise. And to understand why James warns us like this, I think we first need to understand the context to which he writes. James is writing to people who are suffering. In fact, this letter begins like this. Hi, I'm James. Prepare to suffer. If you've seen The Princess Bride, James is literally Inigo Montoya, right? Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Now prepare to die. James begins exactly like this. In fact, look at verse 2. Verse 1 is, Hi, I'm James. Verse 2 is, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet with various trials, trials of various kinds. James literally begins with, my name is James.

There's going to be trials and difficulty. And in the paragraph that precedes our text this morning, we find it again. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. And God's people are in the midst of trial, and they're struggling. Maybe in a way different to you this morning, but they may be struggling in the same way you're struggling this morning. And part of the struggle that is found in this text is that some of God's people, as they face this difficulty that weighs down upon them like a burden on their back, is they begin to do what most of us do when things get tough. We may begin to grumble. Sometimes we begin to despair or to lose hope.

And then sometimes we even come to the place where they point their fingers at God and say, this is all your fault. And so James says this, he says, let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. He expands on that in verse 15. And the point James is making is that God is sovereign over all things. He works all things, even your struggles, and even your trials, and even your hurts, even your tears and uncertainties, for good for those who love Him. It's Romans 8. But the temptations to sin do not come up from God. God is not coming up with some sort of evil plan to try to make you stumble is what James is saying.

In fact, he's saying it's just the opposite. God is the one who when everything falls apart around you is the one who holds you close and holds you upright so you do not stumble. And what James is saying to God's people and to us is that when we face uncertainty and difficulty and it feels like it's weighing us down. it is not God who is weighing it down it is God who is holding us up and he has wrapped us in his arms and he says this he says it's not God who tempts you it's our desires and one of the things that happens how easy is it to justify bad behavior when we're suffering let me give you a simple example that's not really bad behavior, but one we probably can relate to, right?

We had a terrible, terrible day, really, really tired. You know what? I need and I deserve, because of the suffering that I have just gone through, I deserve a giant milkshake and a bag of Reese's Pieces, right? Like, I've said that. I'm going to give myself a little treat. I deserve a little treat after the day I've had. Now, we can understand that in that context, but also, when it comes to the suffering of our life, it is often easy to do the same thing. Especially when it comes to sin. And we may not even think about it as sin. It's rather, I deserve this. Or I've gone through so much, I should be allowed this. And James will say, don't let those desires deceive you about God's good gift. Don't let those desires in the midst of your struggle and heartbreak cause you to turn your back on him.

It's easy to justify bad behavior when you're suffering. And the warning James is giving us is one of love. He's not just yelling at us, but he's saying, I love you. He's saying to the church, don't be deceived, my beloved brothers. I'm not giving this warning to shame or to hurt you. And so against the struggle of our constantly tempted and discouraged hearts, I find thankfulness to God to be the answer that we so desperately need. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. So I want to take a look just very quickly at this verse and show you three things or three weapons or three ways to focus your heart and your thankfulness on God.

And it starts just like this. Every good and every perfect gift is from God. And what James is doing here is so wonderful. He's using two different words to describe two different kinds of gifts. And when he says every good gift, the picture here is of those general gifts that God gives to everybody. So if you've ever woken up in the morning and it's a beautiful day, and it's a quiet morning and there's coffee and the sun is shining and the birds are chirping, and you just say, it's a beautiful day, right? That's a gift from God. When you enjoy a meal with friends, as you watch your children or grandchildren play, as you experience those things that throughout life bring joy to your heart, those things that a lot of people experience, those general gifts of God are good.

The warm sunshine that's not too warm and not too cold. Rain at the end of a drought. So many of these things we take for granted. And James says every good thing, Everything in this world that applies to everybody, that's all from God. But then he says, it's not just like candy in a parade, right? Have you ever been in a parade where they're throwing out candy and sometimes they throw it near you and you're able to get some or your kids are able to get some and you can steal it later? And then sometimes they miss you and they throw it to the people down the street. James says, that's not how this works. God distributes his gifts to the whole world, but also he has gifted you specifically. When he says every perfect gift.

Think now about the times when God has specifically worked in your life. Those times when both in big and in small ways God has provided for you in a wonderful way. That word of encouragement from a friend at the moment that you needed it. That help when you thought there was no help coming. And out of the blue, those moments where God very clearly provides for you. Every good thing comes from God. He says, not just the general gifts, but everything in your life. You know what this means? It means that you and I have an endless supply of things to be thankful for. If we are willing to look for it. So there are times, I think my wife can attest to this, that I struggle to find something. Sometimes when it's maybe right in front of my very eyes.

It happened Wednesday night. We were getting ready for our Thanksgiving meal here at the church. And I had turkeys on the smoker. And the big thing with poultry versus beef is you don't want medium-rare turkey, right? Nobody wants medium-rare turkey. And so I had some meat probes in it. So I had an idea that it was about the right temperature. And I'm like, where's my good meat thermometer? And I'm running around the house. I'm running around the church kitchen. I'm looking at all those places that I can think of. Did I put it in my pocket, take it to the office? and I'm just 90 miles an hour, can't see it anywhere, so I use backup meat thermometer, turkey was fine, I think it turned out pretty okay, but then, next morning, pouring myself a cup of coffee, everything was done, most things were cleaned up, and I look down right

where the meat thermometer normally is, and guess what's sitting right there, it'd been there the entire time right i was just so frantic and so busy and running in so many different directions that i didn't have time to stop and look and for many of us this is our struggle when it comes to thanking God we're so overwhelmed with our crisis and with our hurts and our fears and our uncertainties that we're running everywhere and when somebody says what's good we say there's nothing good it's why the psalmist says this i lift my eyes to the hills where does my help come from my help comes from the Lord most of us are so busy staring down our troubles that the psalmist says stop and lift your eyes up and see the goodness of God and so the first

way we fight is by realizing that there is every good gift that comes from God secondly that God is the source of every gift notice that it is from above and coming down from him and this is humbling because it's not something I have procured for myself and notice this God doesn't just have but he is the source of good gifts he doesn't just have all of these things but he is the very goodness that he gives to his people that's what it means when it says he is the father of lights it means that he is consistent in his goodness some have pointed to this father of lights and said what that means is that God is light as John says in his first epistle Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in His wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace Turn your eyes to that hillside Where justice and mercy embrace There the Son of God gave his life for us And our measureless debt was erased Jesus, to you we lift our eyes Jesus, our glory and our Christ We adore you, behold you, our Savior and encourage you And see Christ the lion aware What a glorious dawn, fear of death is gone For we carry his life in our veins Jesus, to you we lift our eyes Jesus, our glory and our prize We adore you, behold you Our Savior ever true Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to you Turn your eyes to the heavens Our King will return for His own

Every knee will bow Every tongue will shout All glory to Jesus Jesus, to you we lift our eyes Jesus, our glory and our prize We adore you, behold you Our Savior ever true Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to you Jesus, to you we lift our cries Jesus, our glory and our prize We adore you, behold you Our Savior ever true Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to you. Oh, Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.

Just a few announcements as we wrap up this morning, this Wednesday. Well, we have a time of evening at 6 p.m. That's Thanksgiving Eve. We invite you to join us for that. Additionally, next Sunday is the day of Advent. As we look to hope and the hope that is found in Jesus, we are excited to begin that journey in celebration. One just quick announcement, one of the things that we do each Sunday of Advent is our kids in sort of a semi-organized mob participate in the lighting of the Advent candles. And so we'd like to give all the kids a chance to be part of that. And so we can, if you talk to me, if your kids would like to participate, just come talk to me and we'll figure out the schedule. A lot of candles to light as we add one every Sunday so we can have some turns.

So it'll be a joyful time and exciting to see our kids participating with this. And they love that they get to play with fire. All right, so that's where we are at. Just in general, we have Children's Church, 2nd and 4th Sunday of each month in Wednesday night Bible study. Although this week, a time of worship for Thanksgiving Eve. Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer. I'll read a verse from Psalm 136, and then we'll sing the doxology. Father in heaven, I thank you for your goodness, and I ask that as we celebrate this week your blessings, that this would not just be a seasonal experience for us, but it would be the reality of how we live, both in those big general ways and in those small personal ways that you would help us to celebrate and declare your goodness to the world in which we live.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. One of the ways we can see in the Psalms that helps us focus our eyes on the goodness of God is in the 136th Psalm, which is just a psalm recounting Israel's leaving of Egypt and the exodus, and each part and each blessing and work of God is followed by the refrain, His steadfast love endures together, and the psalm ends like this. Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him, above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.