Contentment that brings a thankful heart
     Thanksgiving Day Service
 
I am sure that many of you have received this publication from “Focus on the Family”. In its November, 2007 issue, it talks about human trafficking that happens all over the world. According to the article, over 27 million people in the world are in slavery - more than at any time in history.

From children to adults, they were taken out of their homes and away from their families and forcefully placed in the locations where they cannot speak the local languages, nor have any means to get back to their own homes even if their homes still exist.

I was staring at this young child's face in disbelief, then the Lord spoke to my heart, “Do you still complain about what you don't have?” Ouch! This child couldn't be more than 12-14 years old and the rocks she is carrying on her head would be more than 30-40 pounds. Her innocent childhood has been stolen by greedy people and she is forced to do hard labor 7 days a week - something the majority of the American children, even adults can not fathom.

Whenever I see the people who are in the third world countries and living in utterly horrible conditions, I have to ask myself, “Why am I still complaining about what I don't have?” Our Father in heaven ever so graciously reminds me what I need to do instead of complaining.

On this Thanksgiving morning I am hoping that the Lord teaches us, again, how to be grateful for what we have from Him rather than complaining about what we don't have, so that we may have thankful hearts that come from the contentment in Christ Jesus.

A. THE REASONS WHY WE DON'T GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD
1) Discontentment that leads to complaining
Numbers 11:1-6 Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord; for the Lord heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. 2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and when Moses prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched. 3 So he called the name of the place Taberah, because the fire of the Lord had burned among them.
4 Now the mixed multitude that were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? 5 We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; 6 but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”
Some of you may disagree with me in this, but I believe that we would have been no different than the people who came out of Egypt with Moses to head out to the Promised Land. When all the excitement of the departure from their slavery position in Egypt had gone, they immediately started to complain to Moses and the God of Israel for what they didn't have like we often do.

They even said that they were happy in Egypt as slaves than expecting the arrival to the Promised Land. Instead of being grateful for the Lord's provision, they'd rather complain against the Lord.

2) Pride that is defiant to God
1 Kings 11:4-10 For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David. 7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon. 8 And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
9 So the Lord became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, 10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the Lord had commanded.
Solomon was wiser than any man in human history, yet he did foolish things by worshiping the abominable foreign gods. Instead of depending on God's faithfulness to protect his kingdom, he intermarried with other kingdoms' princesses who worship their idols so that those kingdoms would not invade Israel.

Being intelligent has nothing to do with being faithful to the Lord. Solomon should have known what was going to happen when he did this. He was warned twice previously by the Lord, yet he became too proud to be obedient to the Lord. He became too important in his own mind and became defiant to God.

Everyone who becomes defiant to God thinks oneself too highly to follow God's instructions. That person doesn't care what God says in the Bible. He is going to do whatever he chooses to do. That is why he doesn't give thanks to the Lord.

B. CAN WE EVER BE CONTENT WITH WHAT WE HAVE?
Philippians 4:11-12 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
Contentment is a great thing to have in life. Here in Philippians, Paul makes it clear that contentment is not the idea of having lots of possessions. According to Paul, we are to be content regardless of what we have or don't have. Our contentment comes from Whom we know. Experience tells us this principle is true because there are so many miserable rich people in this world today. We read about them all the time. Celebrities and sports figures that have power, fame and money, but their lives are falling apart. Why? Because they are not content.

The only place we can discover true contentment is in a relationship with the Good Shepherd. Remember what we have learned from Psalm 23?
Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Everything we need is right there in our relationship with God. We shall not want because He is the Source of everything we need. He satisfies our spiritual thirst, preserving us and promising us guidance and peace. In Him is where we find true contentment.

However, contentment is against our carnal grain. In other words, by nature we do not want to be content. I know a person who has to stir up a problem if she has everything going calm and peaceful. You may wonder why she would do that? Because she has never understood being content.

We have to make a conscious and continuing effort to be content in God by trusting Him in everything. It only can come through knowing the Good Shepherd through His Word and prayers.

C. HOW CAN WE THANK GOD WHEN WE GO THROUGH DIFFICULTIES?
1 Thessalonians 5:18 In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
In her wonderful book, “The Hiding Place,” Corrie ten Boom relates an amazing story about the importance of being thankful. Corrie and her sister Betsy were held in a concentration camp known as Ravensbruk, where they lived in barracks that were plagued with lice. Lice were everywhere - in their hair and on their bodies.

One day, Betsy said to her, “Corrie, we need to give thanks to God for the lice.” Corrie said, “Betsy, you have gone too far this time. I am not going to thank God for lice.” Betsy said, “Oh, but Corrie, the Bible tells us, 'In everything give thanks.'”

Still, Corrie did not want to thank God for the lice. As it turns out, Corrie and Betsy were trying to reach the other women in their barracks with the message of the Gospel, and they had been holding Bible studies. Corrie found out later that because of the lice, the guards would not go into those barracks, and therefore, they were able to have their Bible studies. As a result, they led many of the women to the Lord. So it turns out that God can even use lice.

If the Bible said, “In some things give thanks,” I would say, “No problem there!” But it says, “In everything give thanks.” That is not an easy thing to do.

This verse doesn't say we should give thanks 'for' everything as much it says 'in' everything. There are some things that happen, and I'm not glad they happened. But I am glad that, in spite of the tragedies, God is still on the throne, and He is still in control of all circumstances that surround my life.

D. WITH WHAT CAN WE GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD?
Have you ever faced the situation the birthday of your family or close friend is coming, but that person has everything you can think of? And for everything he has given you make your words “Thank you” seems so inadequate?

If anything, you feel like you want to do something special for that person, to show your appreciation.

In the same way, when we consider all that Christ did for us on the cross and what He continues to do for us today, it feels so inadequate to simply tell Him, “Thank You.” He has given us eternal life when we didn't deserve it.

Like an old hymn, when we “Count your blessings one by one”, we pretty much lose the count. But this is a good habit for us to do time to time just to remind ourselves how blessed we are by the Lord. Even recount is good, not like some runaway election results.

It would be hard pressed not to say, “Wow, God is great! How can I thank Him for everything He has done for me? What can I possibly do to show my appreciation to Him?”

Fortunately, Scripture gives us a good blueprint for some ways that we can show our thanks to God.

1) We can give Him our praise
Psalm 63:3-4 Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. 4 Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.
It's funny that we think it's perfectly normal for people to wear their favorite team's jersey to a sporting event, and go wild when their team scores. But on Sunday morning and someone is lifting their hands up during the worship time, people stare and call them a fanatic.

If there is any time to go wild about our God, it is when we worship Him. If there is any time to lift our hands to Him, it would be when we worship Him. If anyone wonders if that is biblical, I say, “Read the Book of Psalm.” Instead of following the examples of what the Book of Psalm teach us, we were wrongly trained by man-made denominations not to lift our hands and clap hands during our worship time.

So, next time when you worship and praise the Lord in songs, lift your hands and voices to Him, only to Him. You will be pleasantly surprised by what you've been missing because of so-called traditions.

2) I should keep my promises to God
Psalm 116:18 I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people.
When we prayed to receive Christ, we made a promise to God that we would turn away from our previous sinful lifestyles. We pledged to follow His commands.

Of course, we are still flawed humans and we won't always do exactly as He says, but we still need to be obedient to His will and keep that promise we made to Him.

Many people can sing their hearts out and lift their hands high without their lives to back it up. It is more important to give thanks to the Lord with our lives, not just words.

3) We can honor the Lord by bringing our offerings to the Lord
1Chronicles 16:28-29 Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Give to the Lord glory and strength. 29 Give to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering, and come before Him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
When we are a child, it is hard to wrap our minds around the idea that giving is better than receiving. We were more concerned about what people are going to give us. But as we get older and become a parent, we discover the joy of giving. We actually find more pleasure in giving a gift than in receiving one. But some Christians have not arrived in that place yet. They still like to receive rather than giving; they still like to be served than serving.

Jesus gives us another reason why giving is so important to Christians in Matthew 6:19-21.
Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

In other words, Jesus is saying that it is wrong to put all of our hope in earthly treasures with nothing waiting for us on the other side. Why? Because these earthly treasures simply will not last.

When you play Monopoly, it's fun to put up hotels and collect money and try to win. But once the game is over, that Monopoly money isn't worth anything. You can't go down to the car dealer, pull out those orange bills, and buy a new car. Monopoly money can't do a thing for you in the real world.

When we get to heaven, all we have on earth will have no value if we do not invest it properly. You can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead. How? By investing in the work of the kingdom of God.

E. APPLICATIONS
1) We have to make a conscious and continuing effort to be content in God by trusting Him in everything. It only can come through knowing the Good Shepherd through His Word and prayers.

2) In spite of the tragedies, God is still on the throne, and He is still in control of all circumstances that surround our lives.

3) Next time when you worship and praise the Lord in songs, lift your hands and voices to Him, only to Him. You will be pleasantly surprised by what you've been missing because of so-called traditions.

4) It is more important to give thanks to the Lord with our lives, not just words.

5) When we get to heaven, all we have on earth will have no value if we do not invest it properly. You can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead.
 
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