Date: October 12th, 2008
Speaker: Kevin Snyder
Title: Raising Our Thanksgiving Quotient
Scripture: Deut. 8
Activity
Explain that the food you are about to divide up represents the
way wealth is shared in the world.
Select 33 people according to the following – give them portion of food for their region as the group forms and send to area across front of sanctuary. Have group brainstorm & share 1 or 2 things about that area
- Asia gets 18 students – 11 food items
- Africa gets 5 students – 4 items
- Latin America and the Caribbean gets – 5 food items
- Europe gets 3 students – 38 food items
- North America gets 1 student – 42 food items
- (Give this person a prayer: “Lord thank you for this food. Please help the hungry who have none so they don’t starve.”)
Hand out food to the groups, announcing the number of food items given to each group.
Have North American person read prayer
Ask:
Which area group has the most people?
And which area group has the most wealth?
Is the problem that there is not enough food? (No – 100 items….33 people)
How do you feel about the way things are distributed?
Who has the ability to answer the NA prayer ?
Given this scenario what should a thanksgiving day in NA involve? Just saying thanks or also giving from our abundance?
Introduction
When I started preparing this message I found myself asking:
What determines my thankfulness quotient?
and How can I raise it?
And I wondered is there any things that directly affect that level?
Got me thinking mathematically:
Does anyone remember “direct and indirect variations” from high school algebra class? It’s been a long time but I think it goes something like this
Let’s say you are trying to evaluate a young man’s height and weight. We’ll call the guy Jake.
Maybe Jake just hit puberty, and so his height skyrocketed last year. Jake grew 10 percent in one year.
Now, if his height and weight are in direct variation, then as one goes up, the other goes up too … in “direct” proportion. So, if Jake grew 10 percent taller last year, then he also gained 10 percent more weight.
]
Indirect variation would be reflected in a situation where Jake’s height and weight necessarily go in opposite directions. In other words, Jake got taller—his height increased—but simultaneously, he lost the same proportion of weight—his weight decreased.
All right, everyone still with me?
Well, let’s apply this concept to our question:
“Does thankfulness grow in direct proportion to anything?”
Does it work like this?
? Thankfulness
For instance,
Does it grow in direct proportion to our blessings?
If so, our North American guy in the example should be of all people on this earth, the most thankful right?
But are we?
My observation is: We have so much and yet we whine and complain a lot…
Africa – I took pens for the kids and used Bible for the pastors. You think I had given them something amazing. They were so thankful.
In contrast take my kids…….just joking
My experience is that my thankfulness does not grow in direct proportion to my wallet.
Well, it might at first….first bicycle was old beat up thing but I thought it was the best. I was so thankful. Now I have basically a new bike and I whine about it because it really is too small. There seems to be a correlation when we go from “nothing to something,” but at some point it seems these arrows go in opposite directions (indirect variable) Not same thankfulness when I go from “something – something better”
And so there must be something else.
Well, I brought that question to Deut 8.
Context:
Great chapter. Deuteronomy is written to the 2nd generation of Hebrew children as they are about to leave wilderness and enter the promised land. If you remember, the Hebrew people were in captivity in Egypt. God sent Moses to deliver them. The plan was to go from Egypt to the Promised Land. However, when they sent the 12 spies into Canaan. 10 came back with a negative report – “giants in the land, we can’t do it.”
2, Joshua & Caleb said don’t under-estimate God. We can do it through his strength.
But the people listened to the 10 and refused to go.
As a result God said none of that generation would enter in the P.L.
They wandered the wilderness for 40 years until all that generation died off. And as they are about to go in Moses gives the people the book of Deuteronomy- (literally means: 2nd law”)
And in chapter 8 he speaks to like a father to a son who just setting out on his own in a new career. He gives him some godly wisdom. And part of that wisdom is the answer to our question:
How do we keep and increase our thankfulness quotient?
What factors are in direct variation to our level of thankfulness?
Deut 8
8 “Be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today. Then you will live and multiply, and you will enter and occupy the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors. 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. 3 Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell. 5 Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good.
6 “So obey the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land of flowing streams and pools of water, with fountains and springs that gush out in the valleys and hills. 8 It is a land of wheat and barley; of grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranates; of olive oil and honey. 9 It is a land where food is plentiful and nothing is lacking. It is a land where iron is as common as stone, and copper is abundant in the hills. 10 When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
11 “But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today. 12 For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, 13 and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, be careful! 14 Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. 15 Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! 16 He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. 17 He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’ 18 Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.
19 “But I assure you of this: If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods, worshiping and bowing down to them, you will certainly be destroyed. 20 Just as the Lord has destroyed other nations in your path, you also will be destroyed if you refuse to obey the Lord your God.
1. Thankfulness grows in direct proportion to our awareness of God as Source
- v. 2 – Remember how God led you…
- v. 7 - For the Lord your God is bringing you….
- v. 10 - Praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you…
- v. 14 - Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.
- v. 15 - Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions
- v. 15, 16 - He gave you water from the rock! 16 He fed you…
- v. 17 - He did all this…
- v. 19 - He is the one who gives you power to be successful
There seems to be direct correlation of the level of thankfulness to the recognition of the source.
Who is responsible for what you have received?
1st week of our “Walk Across the Room” series we asked you to think about “Who walked across the room for you?”
And to go to them, send them a note, and to thank them.
To me it is all about to what degree grace has penetrated our psyche?
You see, if I have a works orientation, I think I am where I am today because of my effort. “I worked hard.”
If I have a grace orientation I recognise that it isn’t me. Everything I have, I am, and hope to be, I owe it all to Christ. It is an undeserved gift.
Whenever you see a turtle on a fencepost you know it didn’t get there by itself. Someone put it there.
And so gratitude grows with your awareness that you didn’t get there by yourself. You didn’t earn the promised land….God gave it to you.
9:6 - It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land. The Lord your God will drive these nations out ahead of you only because of their wickedness, and to fulfill the oath he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 You must recognize that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not—you are a stubborn people.
2. 2nd Direct Variable: Memory
v. 2 – Remember
v. 11 - …do not forget…
v. 18 – But remember…
v. 19 – “If you ever forget…
Our degree of thankfulness goes up proportionately with our memory.
Value of setting aside yearly a day of thanksgiving. It is a day to reflect and remember on how God has blessed you.
What are the people to remember?
v. 1 – His WORDS - his commands
v. 2 His WORKS – how he led them in the desert,
v. 3, 4 – His Wonders - fed them manna, how their clothes didn’t wear out
v. 6 - His Promises – remember his promises to bring you into this promised land
v.7 – 14 – His blessings – land of milk 7 honey, ability to prosper, and settle down, and build flocks
v. 15, 16 – His watchful care – how he provided for you when needed water, in the land of poisonous snakes, how he provided food from nothing
I think we have a tendency when it comes to God and spiritual things to get spiritual amnesia. We ask “What have you done for me lately?”
We don’t look past the hardships of yesterday or perhaps the past week.
Our degree of thankfulness is directly related to our ability to remember the big picture. To remember God’s ways, works, wonders, blessings, and watchful care in our lives.
Remembering Exercise:
- How has God spoken and encouraged you through His Word this past year? What insights have you gained that have changed your life?
- How has God worked in your realm in this past year? Have you witnessed God’s action and work in your family, the church, this community?
- Has God “wow-ed” you at all this past year? Something that has caused you to say ”Wow” Some event or happening where you felt you were on the front row watching God work.
Personally I have had the opportunity this past year to see God work in some wonderful ways in lives, seen answers to prayer, changes in people’s lives.
4. Have you experienced God’s promises in your life this past year?
- Promise that in a difficulty you found he never left you or forsook you.
- Promise of his provision – where up against a wall and somehow, someway God provided for you
- Promise of his strength – faced a challenge that was bigger than you and he brought you through
- Promise of forgiveness – some mess in your life that had you wracked with guilt that God has freed you from
5. How has God blessed you this week – with housing, finances, health to work, protection?
6. How have you experienced his Watchful Care?
- How has God provided for you friends?
- Support?
- Church family?
- Healing & restoration?
Give a few an opportunity to express one of those memories.
“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it “ (W.W. Ward)
Thankfulness is directly correlated to our memory
3. 3rd Direct Variable = Perspective
Graphic
Isn’t it interesting to see the perspective Moses has on this wilderness time.
What does he see?
He sees it all purposeful, significant.
Even the times of hunger
v. 3 - 3 Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell. 5 Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good.
- He saw the hunger times not as God’s abandonment. Not as “woe is me” but as God’s work of humbling them and making them more dependent on him.
- He saw it as times to teach them to depend on god’s word.
- He saw God as a loving father disciplining his son so that he would be more a person of character.
Moses was able to be thankful in the wilderness because from his perspective he saw God’s hand. He saw God’s purposes. He saw how this was to make them better not bitter.
But is that the way the people often saw the wilderness?
At the Lord’s command, the whole community of Israel left the wilderness of Sin? and moved from place to place. Eventually they camped at Rephidim, but there was no water there for the people to drink. 2 So once more the people complained against Moses. “Give us water to drink!” they demanded.
“Quiet!” Moses replied. “Why are you complaining against me? And why are you testing the Lord?”
3 But tormented by thirst, they continued to argue with Moses. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Are you trying to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?”
The people saw the wilderness as God’s abandonment. They saw the hard times as evidence that he doesn’t care.
Contrast the 2 perspectives:
Moses: Thankful for the wilderness for what God produced in them. Moses saw that a lot of good things can come out of the wilderness.
People: Angry at God and Moses for what God did to them.
Our ability to be thankful grows in direct correlation with our ability to see that “all things work together for good for those who love God and live according to his purpose.”
It grows with our ability to ask not “Why?” but “What can I learn from this?”
Schuller – lady who was moved to a desert because of her husbands posting. Angry and bitter and hated it. Complained about all the dust in her house, the heat, lack of landscape
One person shared with her one day:
“Did you ever notice that the stars are brightest in the desert?”
Well she certainly hadn’t, but was moved to check.
Well, it fascinated her. And it got her intrigued and she started looking into other features about the desert. Talked with the native people who lived there for generations. She began reading books, Studying desert plants and bugs. And over time became a lover of the desert and a leading expert on desert fauna.
What happened?
She quit asking “Why God did you put me here? …Are you punishing me? Do you hate me? ” and started asking “What God can you teach me here?”
She had a changed perspective. And she became thankful for the desert.
Let me add one thing that I think greatly affects our perspective.
It is the concept of ENTITLEMENT.
Entitlement means that we think some how we deserve or are entitled to something, or some level.
- We think in North America we are entitled to hot water….and even running water. So when was the last time you felt thankful for water coming out of your tap? Perhaps long time because we feel entitled to it.
- We feel entitled to having our choice of foods…supermarkets.
Often because of that when was the last time you truly prayed a heartfelt thanks before a meal….for me a lot of times they slip into ritual prayers because I come to feel entitled to food.
- We often feel entitled to private transportation, having a car.
Story:
Guy came to my office – moved here from down East, had 4 daughters, wife had died or left. Got job at airport – NE – airport – NW. Good 8 - 10 miles. Get up at 5 am and walk to work . Get home at 7 pm
Gave him bus tickets.
Come home….we lived 3 blocks from the church. My daughter wants to take the car. I said “walk” She’s mad cuz I feel she is entitled to walk – it’s my car, my gas…
She is mad cuz by virtue of living in our house she feels entitled to the car. Anyways we have a big fight. I’m mad at this ungrateful kid who feels entitled to everything. She feels mad because of her stingy, cruel father.
And so in this heated debate I tell her about this guy in my office….walks 10 miles to work & back everyday and you can’t even walk 3 blocks without it being an issue. Get a life….blah, blah, blah.”
‘I am feeling very self-righteous at this point. I got her. Top that. I got the clincher”
And so we are done and my wife hands her the keys…
Anyways, a few days later I find out this guy didn’t live in the area, didn’t have 4 daughters, and didn’t walk to the airport to work….of course my wife tells my daughter and I haven’t heard the end of it since.
You see, whatever we feel entitled to we feel hard done by when it is taken away.
But the issue is: What are we really entitled to?
Deut. tells us “be humble…recognise you aren’t entitled really to anything.
Everything….
- The land we have
- The food we are given
- The abundance it produces,
- The fine houses
- Even the ability to work and make wealth is not an entitlement , it is a gift of God’s grace.
Remember:
9:6 - It is not because you are so good or have such integrity that you are about to occupy their land.
Thursday, Oct 16th is World Food Day. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day
This morning you were given a small bag of rice or beans. That quantity represents a whole days ration for a large percentage of people in the world.
Just think:
- How thankful would you be if tomorrow’s thanksgiving meal consisted of the contents of this bag?” Be ticked. But how would our attitude change if this is all we felt entitled to, and anything beyond this was seen as an act of God’s grace.
- How thankful do you think people who had this or less had your thanksgiving meal tomorrow? Be celebrating.
I want to challenge you this week.
Tomorrow eat a great Thanksgiving meal and be thankful. Put this bag in front of you.
Thursday, in an act of identification with the poor of our world – just eat the rice. I guarantee Friday you will be more thankful.
And then today give an offering to the hungry of the world that reflects your thankfulness for God’s grace.
1Timothy 6: 17 - 19
Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. 18 Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. 19 By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life.
Friends, we aren’t entitled to this wealth. We don’t deserve it. But because God has blessed us we need to see our responsibility to share. To be generous.
We need to see ourselves not as barrels that just collect God’s blessings, but rather as hoses that distribute God’s blessing.
Conclusion
May God give you an increased quotient of thankfulness as you realize this morning
- God as the source of all your blessings
- As you remember his word, works, wonders, promises & blessings,
- And as you have your perspective changed by being humbled. By reducing what you feel you are entitled to.
And may your increased thankfulness spill over into a generous offering for the world’s poor
Amen
Benediction
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and disconnected relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with unrest at the unnecessary injustice of hunger, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from starvation due to war, poverty, discrimination, globalization, or destruction of Creation.
May you reach out your hand in service and be blessed with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, to go out and do what others claim cannot be done.
Adapted from Tearfund
Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible: New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Dt 8:1-20
Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible: New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Dt 9:5-6
Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible: New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Dt 8:3-5
* The geographical name Sin is related to Sinai and should not be confused with the English word sin.
Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible: New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. 1 Ti 6:17-19
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