December 1, 2024 SERMON

How to Turn Thanksgiving into Thanks-living
Psalm 107:19-22

19  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. 20  He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. 21  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 22  And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing. 

Let’s pray: Father, like the Israelites in the wilderness, we too have known Your love, and experienced Your care and provision. You invite us to extend that love to the world around us—to care for others as deeply as we care for ourselves. We pray for the many who do not have enough:

enough food to eat, or shelter to keep warm;
enough employment, or money to pay their bills;
enough medicine or medical care. 

We also pray for those who have more than enough, but who still struggle to find meaning and purpose in life; who indulge in dangerous or self-serving activities to dull their pain or loneliness. Lord, Your grace reaches out to all of us. You call us to live as citizens of heaven, working together with one heart and mind. 

Strengthen us to live in a manner worthy of the Good News we have received, offering our lives in service of Your kingdom, where the last are first, and the first are last, and there is grace enough for all. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, Amen.

What do you think of when you think of Thanksgiving Day?

For some Thanksgiving Day is all about the food. Turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, yams, mmm good!

For others, Thanksgiving Day means FOOTBALL!!! They stay glued to the tube as one game is followed by another while the women and kids clamor to see the parades!

For still others, Thanksgiving represents a LONG WEEKEND, a time to rest, to unwind and relax.

Some think of the Thanksgiving Day as the day to prepare for the busiest shopping day of the year, what the media has taken to calling “Black Friday.” It’s time to hit those sales and get those Christmas presents bought.

For some, Thanksgiving Day is a time for family. It represents a family reunion when mom and dad, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts and cousins gather together.

For others Thanksgiving represents history. They think of the founding of our country, pilgrims, Indians and Plymouth Rock.

The most intense moments of thankfulness are not found in times of plenty, but when difficulties abound.

Think of the Pilgrims that first Thanksgiving. With half of their number dead, they were men and women without a country, but still they were grateful to God. Their gratitude was not for something but in something, their Lord Jesus Christ.

The first official proclamation of thanksgiving in America was made by George Washington in 1789. It was made a national holiday by President Lincoln in 1863 during the Civil War and permanently made the fourth Thursday of November by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941.

For those of us who profess to follow the Lord, Thanksgiving Day is not just a time for food, football, fellowship and family. It’s not just a holiday every fourth Thursday in November. It’s not limited to a day at all. For God’s people, everyday ought to be Thanksgiving Day!

What we need to do is turn thanksgiving into thanks-living; that is, to offer to God the sacrifices of thanksgiving.

We thank the Lord, and we say, "Lord, we're so thankful; we're so grateful for all that you've done for us."

If we're thankful, then it really ought to show in our lives. And, by the way, I don't believe that there's any other sin quite like the sin of ingratitude. The poet Milton said that a person with an ungrateful spirit only has one vice, because all of the rest of his vices are virtues compared to ingratitude.

How terrible not to be grateful to God, and yet in America, all around we can find those who are grumpy and hateful rather than humble and grateful.

How can we translate our thanksgiving into thanks-living? Today’s scripture says, we're to offer to God what the Bible calls "the sacrifices of thanksgiving."

Over in 1 Peter 2:9 Peter says that those of us who are saved are priests, and every priest ought to be able to offer sacrifices to the Lord.

I've gone through God's Word, and I've found five spiritual sacrifices that we can offer, not just for a day or a week but for the rest of our life as unto the Lord.

I'm going to call them "the sacrifices of thanksgiving," and I want us to make a little checklist and see: "Am I continually offering to the Lord these five spiritual sacrifices that we're calling 'the sacrifices of thanksgiving?'"

I want to say that talk is cheap. We can say, "Oh, we're so thankful, and we eat a big meal, and watch football." Now, it ought to go a little further than that. We ought to have more in our Thanksgiving than stuffing ourselves and then becoming a couch potato. We need to do something else besides that, in order to show how thankful to God we are.

 I want to talk about presenting our self as a sacrifice. I'm going to call this the sacrifice of our very person, of our self.

Romans 12:1-2 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The very first sacrifice that we're going to offer is what we call a living sacrifice, which is our body.

Notice what the Apostle Paul says: "I beseech you therefore, brethren..." It's as if he's on his knees in front of you.  God was speaking through Paul. Often we talk about our prayers to God. This is God's prayer to us. That's what He's doing.

He's saying, "I beseech you; I plead with you." If the Lord Jesus were to come, get in front of you, look upon your face, and say, "I beg you, do this." Would you do it? That's what He's doing here, the Lord is beseeching us.

Here's the reason for it: "by the mercies of God"—on the basis of what God has done for us. Why should we give our body to Him, because He gave His body for us. He suffered, bled, and died upon that cross, and, when we, yes we, drove those nails into His hands, His quivering heart was saying, "I love you; I love you." Those nails were our sins, and our hard hearts were the hammer that drove those nails into the hands of Jesus. And yet, He suffered, bled, and died for our sins.

Isaac Watts wrote: Drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe: Here, Lord, I give myself away, 'tis all that I can do.  

Paul calls us to be living sacrifices. There is a kind of “glad-its-you-and-not-me” element comparing us to animal sacrifices. There is a way in which not to take the act of worship personal when it’s not your personal blood that’s being shed.

And Paul, thinking of the way in which Christ’s blood was shed for us, invites us to place ourselves in the place of the animals.

Paul invites us to take it personal. What does it mean to BE a living sacrifice, to live a life of what appears to be a contradiction in terms.

One gentleman said: “The trouble with living sacrifices is they keep getting down off the altar.” Either we forget or choose not to live a life of sacrifice.

Have you ever realized you’ve been offering your body as a sacrifice all along? It’s true; we do it throughout life. Many people are offering the parts of their body in slavery to impurity and wickedness. Now, they aren’t necessarily aware of doing that, but indeed, that’s what we see all around us.

For example: when people allow their feet to go where sin takes them, to wrong places, to harmful and hurtful places.

When their tongues speak words that hurt and harm, their hands do things that are not pleasing to God, their eyes and ears see and hear the trash in this world, they have sacrificed these parts of their bodies to the world.

But as a child of God, I have the opportunity to offer my body as a living sacrifice to bring glory to Jesus. Instead of using my body in acts of evil and triviality, I can, if I choose to, be a part of God’s eternal plan and have God’s power working through my body.”

Let me suggest three ways that we can present a living sacrifice to the Lord.

The very first thing I want to say is that we must do it voluntarily, nobody can make us do it.

Do you see the word present? He's talking about a volunteer. We must do it willingly. So, that's the first thing. We must willingly say, "Here, Lord, of my own free will, I present myself." Have you laid yourself upon the altar?

Secondly, not only must we do it willingly, but we also must do it completely, that we present our body as a living sacrifice—wholly. Now that word w-h-o-l-l-y means "complete," that we give our self "completely."

You see, a sacrifice doesn't have any more plans of its own; a sacrifice will be slain. We're to die to the old way. Everything belongs to the Lord. Have you said, "Here, Lord, I give myself away—'tis all that I can do;" Have you done it completely.

Not only was it voluntary, not only was it complete, but something else about a sacrifice: there was the Old Testament animal sacrifice. The New Testament sacrifice is compared to that.

The Old Testament animal sacrifice, after the animal was restrained it was bound to the altar. The Bible says to bind the sacrifice to the altar.

Why, because it would tend to slide off. So, there were flesh hooks, and those flesh hooks would bind that sacrifice to the altar. Have you ever made a commitment to the Lord, and then tended to slide off? I have many times.

I mean, I've bowed down and declared, "Lord, that's the last time I'll ever do that;" or, I've said, "Lord, from now on, I'm going to do this everyday. God, you can count on me," and then I just kind of slid off the altar. You see, we need to be bound to the altar if we're going to be a living sacrifice.

Let me mention two flesh hooks that will keep us bound to the altar. Number one is devotion, our love for Jesus; and number two is discipline. Those are two flesh hooks that will keep us on the altar: devotion and discipline.

One is not a substitute for the other, but together they'll keep us bound to that altar, so that we will stay locked in place, a living sacrifice, by devotion and discipline, staying there, giving our self to the Lord.

Offer our self this Thanksgiving to the Lord, and say, "Lord, before I give you anything else, I give you myself completely."

You see, a lot of folks don't want to be bound to the altar, they want to stay free; they want to be loose. That's the reason why some folks won't join a church; they don't want the responsibility of church membership.

That's the reason why some people won't teach a class, that's the reason why some folks won't commit to a church program. They say, "Well now, I just don't believe in making a commitment."

Right; they’re married; they've got a mortgage on the house, a mortgage on the car—they don't believe in making commitments?

What they mean is that they believe in making commitments to everybody else except to Jesus.

They just don't want to make a commitment to the most important thing. They say, "I'll give, as the Spirit moves, but I just don't want to be bound down"? Well, I think it's pretty good to be bound down. I think it's pretty good to get devotion and discipline, and to say I am giving myself, and I am making a commitment.

Let me mention another kind of a sacrifice of thanksgiving, the sacrifice of our praise. In Hebrews 13:15: "By him, by Jesus, therefore let us offer up the sacrifice of praise..."

Have you ever thought of your praise as being a sacrifice?—"the sacrifice of praise to God, continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks unto His name."

God would rather have our praise than our money. Our praise is of more value to God than whatever we put in the offering plate, that is, if it is genuine praise.

Psalm 69:30, 31: "I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs."

Do you know how much an ox was worth in that day? That would be like you saying, "I'm going to give my car." An ox was extremely valuable. A man who had an ox was a wealthy man.

But, God says that our praise, our psalm of thanksgiving, will please the Lord more than our material gifts.

Now, praise is no substitute for our material gifts, but if we could only understand how important our praise is, and that our praise ought to be a way of life.

Look at our verse again: "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God "continually"— (Hebrews 13:15).

You understand that we do not come to church to praise the Lord. We're to bring our praise with us to church. We don't begin our praise here—we continue our praise here.

We are to praise the Lord continually, and the reason that some of us do such a poor job of praising God when we come to church to praise Him corporately, is that we have not been praising him privately.

Psalm 34:1: "I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth."

Nobody ought to have to beg us to sing praises. It ought to break our heart that someone should have to stand before a congregation of people, who are supposed to be saved and know Jesus, and plead with them to worship; beg them to sing.

No wonder the songwriter said, "Let those refuse to sing who never knew our God."

The Bible says, in Psalm 119:108, "Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth"—

God, help us to offer to Him the sacrifice of praise.

There's a third sacrifice I want to mention, it's our prayer; our person, our praise, and now our prayer.

Psalm 141:2: "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and, the lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice." There's our word sacrifice again. "the lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice."

Our prayer is to be like incense; it is to be like the evening sacrifice. Incense is perfume that in order for the aroma to be released it has to be put on the fire and as it is burned, the aroma goes up in smoke.

Now, your prayer—the Bible tells us, in Revelation 5, that incense is the prayer of the saints (Revelation 5:8). Incense, in the Old Testament, that ascends—that sweet smelling smoke that goes up—is like our prayer that goes up to God.

The Old Testament Jews worshipped in the tabernacle, and, if you were to walk through the front door of the tabernacle, there in that outer court is a great altar made of brass that was called the brazen altar.

There was a fire in that altar, and that fire was kindled from Heaven. Now, it's very important that you understand: Aaron, the high priest, nor others didn't light that fire. That fire had to be kindled from Heaven. It was holy fire.

It was on that altar that the animals were sacrificed. That pictures Jesus dying for our sins. That fire from Heaven, pictures the wrath of God—the holy wrath of God against sin.

Then, you walk into the holy place, and in there, on one side, would be a beautiful candelabra. On the other side, there would be a table on which was bread, called showbread, that the priest would eat.

And so, the altar pictures Christ, our sacrifice. The showbread pictures Christ, our sustenance, as we feed on Him. And over here, the candelabra pictures Christ, our light, our sight. Christ, our sacrifice; Christ, our sustenance; Christ, our sight.

Then, we come to another altar, which was a golden altar. This golden altar is right in front of a curtain, and, behind that curtain, is the Holy of Holies.

The golden altar was the altar of incense. As the priest would come in, in the mornings and evenings, to trim the lamps, he would first go and offer incense upon that golden altar.

The fire in the golden altar was kindled by fire from the brazen altar. It's very important that we understand this; the priest always had to make certain that the fire that was in this altar was the fire that was in that altar, and the fire in that altar was fire from Heaven. He would come in with this incense, which was especially concocted for God alone, and he would burn it.

Of course, if there was no fire in the altar, then no incense would rise to God. If there was strange fire in the altar, then there would be swift judgment for offering to God something with fire that God did not ignite.

Remember, the Holy of Holies is where God is. Our aim is to get on into the Holy of Holies. That's where the Shekinah glory of God is: in that Holy of Holies is where we have communion with God. It is in that Holy of Holies where the glory of God—the Shekinah glory of God—was.

So, if the brazen altar is Christ, our sacrifice, if these candlesticks are Christ, our sight, and, if this showbread is Christ, our sustenance, then this prayer is Christ, our supplication—that prayer that ascends to God and that makes its way so we can go into the Holy of Holies with Christ, our satisfaction.

That is where we know the Lord, where we meet the Lord, where we are satisfied, and where the deepest longings of our heart are met. But you cannot come into the Holy of Holies unless you come to the altar of incense, which is prayer.

But wait, you cannot come to the altar of incense unless you come to the brazen altar. Don't try to bring prayer to the altar of prayer that is not based upon the blood of Jesus Christ.

Okay, we enter into the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus Christ. And, don't try to offer any prayer that does not have in it the fire of God's sacrifice and God's holiness.

Then, when I come to Him, I can burn incense to Him, if that incense is based upon the blood of Jesus Christ.

Psalm 66:18 says, "if I regard iniquity in my heart, then the Lord will not hear me." Folks, we have no basis to come to God, except by the blood. And, when you come by the blood, and you come to that golden altar, and you begin to pray, like sweet perfume that goes to God, and that, the Bible calls a sacrifice.

You are a priest. Did you offer any incense this morning? Morning and evening, the priest would go into the tabernacle to trim the lamps. Have you been in there yet?

I mean, you say that you love God. You say that you belong to Him. You say that you are a priest. Have you offered the sacrifice of prayer? That's a sacrifice, not just coming to God to get things done.

Again, Psalm 141:2: "Let my prayer be set before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." The lifting of my hands is the evening sacrifice.

O God, just as that Old Testament priest would go in there in the evening to trim the lamps, O God, I want to go in. I want to enter into that Holy of Holies, and God, I want to just lift up my hands, spread my hands to you, saying I surrender, just as the evening sacrifice.

Understand, Incense with strange fire was judged; incense with no fire is useless. That fire pictures what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Let me mention that the fourth of these spiritual sacrifices is our possessions. Don't think that because something is spiritual that it has to be immaterial. We are to give our possessions. 

Hebrews 13:15 speaks of the sacrifice of praise. Hebrews 13:16 reads:  Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

There again, he uses the word sacrifice. Look at it again: "with such sacrifices God is well pleased."

It means to take our material possessions, the things that God has given us, and when we give, by whatever means or whatever mode—when we give, it is to be a spiritual sacrifice.

So, we want to show our thanksgiving—show it in our giving. Does our giving really show what we think of God? It really does. Proverbs 3:9: "Honor the Lord... with the firstfruits of all thine increase." Firstfruits—not what's leftover.

We don't just give to the church because the church needs it. We don't give to a cause. It's a sacrifice to God.

One last thing, the sacrifice of a broken and a contrite spirit; which I’m calling the sacrifice of purity.

And, by the way, all of these sacrifices are based on what God has done for us; and, we just turn them back for Him, because of what He has done for us. "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). We give to Him, because He first gave unto us, "and of thine own have we given [unto] thee" (1 Chronicles 29:14).

Psalm 51:17: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." That's the last of these five sacrifices I want to suggest this Thanksgiving.

Do you have that sacrifice of a broken and a contrite spirit? Why do I call it the sacrifice of purity? Because David had sinned; what was it that broke David's heart, his sin against God.

You see, God was so good. Notice, in Psalm 51:1: "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions."

Do you know what it was that led David to a broken spirit? It was not David's badness—it was God's goodness. The Bible tells us, in the Book of Romans, that it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4)—not the badness of man.

God is so good. How can we sin against such love? How can we this Thanksgiving sin against one who suffered, bled, and died for us? If we say that we love Him get rid of the sin that breaks His heart. A broken and a contrite spirit.

Oh, how we ought to bow down before our great God, and just say, "O God, in brokenness and humility, I offer You tears of repentance, and purity of life before you, as my sacrifice of thanksgiving.

If the Bible says we're to offer God the sacrifices of thanksgiving, that ought to include our persons; it ought to include our prayer; it ought to include praise; it ought to include our possessions; and, it ought to include a pure life. Just say, "This is what I'm going to render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me." In Jesus’ Name, Amen!