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Three Words That Open The Door To God's Blessings
February 24, 2008
Scripture Readings-
Old Testament – Exodus 16:1-4 The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.”
Epistle – 1 Thessalonians 5:14-18 And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Gospel – Luke 17:11-19 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him-and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
Sermon –
Today our sermon title is “Three Words That Open the Door to God’s Blessings”. We all want God’s blessings, don’t we? What do you think those words are? Maybe it’s “Bless me, God!”, or maybe it’s “Bless me please” – God does respond to that, but that’s not what we’re looking at today. The three words that open the door to so many blessings that you won’t be able to handle all of them are, “Thank You, God!” That’s it. Three words. “Thank You, God!” It’s not that these are magic words and if God hears me say “Thank You, God” I can just run over and open the door and blessing will be dumped on me. That’s not how it works. When we say “Thank You, God!” we see something; we see blessings of the past, we see that God is blessing us now and see more blessings that we could ever possibly imagine. In fact in Ephesians 3:20 we are told that God is able to do more than we can ever ask, think or imagine! And when we say “Thank You, God!” we see all the great things He has done. That is just what we need many times because things go wrong every day and we tend to grumble and complain. But if, in the middle of our day, we would just see the blessings oozing into our life from all directions that certainly would change our attitude, right? That certainly would brighten up our day, right? That would be just what we’re looking for. And by saying, “Thank You, God!” we will begin to see just that.
Saying “Thank You, God!” would have solved Israel’s problems in our Old Testament Reading.
God had given Israel a great deliverance from slavery in Egypt, Pharaoh had pursued them, they passed through the Red Sea and were in the desert. But now what? There’s no McDonald’s every mile and a half in the desert. There was no food and no water and they began to grumble and complain. But saying “Thank You, God!” would have stopped all that. Saying “Thank You, God!” would have helped them concentrate not on the fact that there wasn’t any food or water but would have helped them concentrate on the fact that God had blessed them tremendously and helped them realize that food and water were right around the corner. They could have said, “Yes, there’s no food and water but we prayed and God delivered us from slavery. Thank You God! God spared us through all those plagues. Thank you God! God used the plagues to show us that the false gods of the Egyptians really were false gods because they couldn’t stop the plagues. Thank You God! God defeated Pharaoh when he pursued us. Thank You God! God is sending us to the Promised Land. Thank You God! God has sent us a Savior that will pay for our sins of grumbling and complaining and that ultimately when we die, we’ll go to heaven. Thank You God! Thank You God! Thank You God! And by saying that, a total change in attitude happens. There’s no reason to grumble because all you see are God’s blessings. That’s why those three words, “Thank You, God!” really open the door to see how tremendously God has blessed us.
The Epistle lesson tells us to “Give thanks in all circumstances.” And the question I am always ask is, “Well, Pastor, if I were in the desert, how could I give thanks if there were no food or water?” The Bible doesn’t tell us to give thanks for the circumstance; it says to give thanks in the circumstance. Perhaps there’s no food or water, but “Thank You, God for caring for me. Thank You, God for delivering me. Thank you, God for the gift of a Savior. Thank You, God for my faith. Thank You! Thank You! Thank You, God!” That’s what the Ephesians passage is talking about. When we give thanks in the circumstances the door opens and we see God’s many blessings.
Most people, me included, have grumbled and complained about the election process and the candidates. Candidate A is complaining about Candidate B and Candidate B is complaining about Candidate A. When you actually listen to them, you begin to think that the people running for President are actually the lowest form of life that have ever walked the face of the earth and get disgusted with the whole process. What would really help us through this process is saying “Thank You, God! Thank You, God, that we live in a country where we have free elections! Cuba is going to have an election this week and there’s only one person on the ballot. Thank You, God where anyone in this country can run for President! Thank You, God that we can criticize the other candidate and have laws to protect us from being thrown into jail for criticizing. Thank You, God that we have people who want the job, because it’s nothing but grief and stress and criticism! And, if you do a good job, they elect you for another four years! Thank You, God for the election process. Thank you, God that You have given us a safety net in Romans 13:1that says ‘The authorities that exist have been established by God.’ Thank You, God!” All of a sudden when you look at the election process we see that God has blessed us tremendously. Saying “Thank You, God!” helps us to see the tremendous blessings that God has poured out on us.
How many of you have kids in Keene High School? I love parent’s night. That’s when you go in to school, attend the classes, meet the teachers, and see how your kid is doing. It’s a great night. But the High School has scheduled Parent’s Night on Thursday, March 20th from 6:30 to 8:30. Thursday, March 20th is Maundy Thursday. I was really upset about that. But the Bible says “Give thanks in all circumstances so let’s start giving thanks. “OK. Thank You, God, that I can call the High School and ask them to change the date. Thank You, God, that the ‘High School Police’ won’t come to my house and beat me up for doing that!” In some countries that would happen. “Thank You, God, that when I’m here for the Maundy Thursday Service, someone from the High School doesn’t come and drag me off and force me to go to Parent’s Night.” That happens in lots of places in this world. “Thank You, God that for us, March 20th is not just another Thursday, with a blank calendar and so we schedule Parent’s Night! Thank You, God, that we see something the rest of the world doesn’t see. Thank You, God, that we see this as the night that Jesus was betrayed to pay for our sins. It’s the night that He wanted a “Yes” answer from God, a night where He ask to get out of His suffering, but God said “NO!” and Jesus was obedient and went to the Cross and suffered and died for us. Thank You, God, that we can come into Church and praise and worship Him for that! Thank You, God, that during this Holy Week You instituted Holy Communion where You promised to be present in the bread and wine during Holy Communion, come to us and assure us of Your forgiveness. Thank You, God, that we see this!” It changes everything around and we can say, “God, You have blessed us tremendously, Thank You God!” It really does rearrange your whole outlook on life. It really does open the door to seeing the tremendous blessings that God has given us.
It was time to do the grocery shopping and I said to Jimmy, “What kind of crackers do you want?” He told me he wanted Wheat Thins. OK, simple, you go to the store, find the cracker aisle and get some Wheat Thins. Simple, right? Not that simple! There are 13 different varieties of Wheat Thins at the grocery. I didn’t know what kind to buy, even if I did pick something, I only had a 1:13 chance of getting it right, so I didn’t buy anything and I went back home and ask Jimmy exactly what variety of Wheat Thins he wanted. Later that day, I went back to the grocery thinking, “You know how much work I had to go through to get the right kind of cracker? Life is so complicated!” Then I remembered the Thessalonians passage: “Give thanks in all circumstances.” Thank You God for Wheat Thins – all 13 varieties! This is the amount of blessing God has poured into our lives. The Bible says God will do more than we can ask, think or imagine, even in regard to crackers! This is the kind of God we have. Thank you, God for all those varieties, You have blessed us tremendously. When we say “Thank You, God!”, the door opens and we realize that there are just so many blessings that we can’t handle them all! It really does rearrange our opinions. Thank You, God that we have a grocery where we can get such variety that we don’t know what to do with it. Thank You God for the way you reach down and provide for us. Thank You God that, in this country, we have so many blessings even the poor are rich by the world’s standards. Thank You, God for all you have done for us. God says that He will pour out so many blessings we won’t know what to with it? I mean, what are you going to do with 13 different varieties of Wheat Thins?
In the wilderness, God tested the Israelites to see if they would obey Him. When they followed Him and trusted in Him, He provided water and He provided food in the form of manna (like crackers, but only in one variety!). God has blessed us even more than He blessed Israel. Tremendous blessings. But we only see them when, in our circumstance, we stop and say “Thank You, God!” When you begin thanking Him, the door opens and we start to see the tremendous blessings we have, things we never saw before. You feel humble. You feel incredibly grateful. You never want to complain again. And the only thing left to say is… “Thank You God!”
Prayer -
Lord, the only thing we can say this morning as we look all around us is “Thank You, God!” And we pray this in Jesus’ Name. Amen
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