November 2024 – Tri-Valley Baptist Church

THANKSLIVING: It’s better than THANKSGIVING!

Nov 242024

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “THANKSLIVING: It’s better than THANKSGIVING!”

I am not sure when, where, or who first used the term “thanksliving”. Peter Gomes, renowned preacher of Harvard University in the 20th Century, (though not one I am particularly able to embrace the theology he embraced), wrote that he had a friend who kept an old Sunday Bulletin from the 1930’s because of the misprint it contained. It was a bulletin printed for Thanksgiving Day Service-but a typographical error left the title on the bulletin exclaiming “Thanksliving Day”. Gomes said, “What a wonderful mistake! Thanksgiving, as an attitude, should lead to thanksliving as an action!” I was content to credit Rev. Gomes with being the author of such a magnificent metamorphosis: Thanksgiving to Thanksliving. Then, while reading a sermon by the Great Baptist Preacher of the 1800’s, Charles H. Spurgeon, I came across these words: “I think that it is better than Thanksgiving: Thanksliving! How is it to be done? By a general cheerfulness of manner, by an obedience to the command of Him by whose mercy we live, by a perpetual constant delighting ourselves in the Lord and by a submissing of our desires to His will!” That is the earliest reference that have found in reference to Thanksgiving/Thanksliving. John F. Kennedy, though not using the words, certainly expressed the concept. He wrote: “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, (Thanksgiving), but to live by them, (Thanksliving)”. Then, in further study, I came across an even more profound definition of the Thanksgiving/Thanksliving connection. G.K. Chesterton wrote: “I would maintain that Thanks is the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted, or with gratitude!” Henry David Thoreau said: “My Thanksgiving is Perpetual”-that pithy affirmation translates thanksgiving into thanksliving. Clement of Alexandria, a Church Father from over 1900 years ago, said: “There is only one offering we can make to God-A Thankful Heart!”-that is the source of Thanksliving!

I love the Thanksgiving holiday! I love the Thanksgiving history! I agree with O’Henry-“Thanksgiving is ours-it is the only truly indigenous American Holiday”. I love Thanksgiving poems. One of my favorite is The Pumpkin, by John Greenleaf Whittier. But I think my favorite Thanksgiving prank was a St. Louis radio show host that told a call-in lady, (he was only joking), to try his special recipe of adding a cup of popcorn to the stuffing placed inside the turkey). She took him serious! She lost her oven and her turkey! He lost his job! My favorite Thanksgiving Story is told by Author/Pastor Chuck Swindoll. In his book Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back, in the chapter on “Misunderstanding”, he tells the story told him by a friend who had a friend who was a young attorney in a sizable law firm in Texas. Swindoll says, “This young lawyer worked for a traditional kind of boss who had a thing for Thanksgiving. Every year the boss would go through a sort of ritual; at this large walnut table he would place a series of turkeys for each member in the law firm. It was not just a pick one up if you need one kind of arrangement. It was a formal setting where your turkey would be placed in front of you, and when the time came for you to receive yours, you would step forward to your turkey, express how grateful you were to work for the firm and acknowledge the gift of this sizable bird for your Thanksgiving. But this junior lawyer was single. He had no use for such a large turkey. He didn’t know how to cook one, and if he did, he certainly couldn’t eat that much meat. But every year, because it was expected, he received his turkey with gratitude, and then had to find a taker for his bird. This year, his friends had pulled a trick on him. They replaced his turkey, with a paper mache’ bird, loaded with lead, and wrapped just like the others!

When his turn came, just like the others, he stepped up and received his bird, (not realizing its bogus nature), and left the office with his Thanksgiving Turkey! He boarded the Transit System and headed home, with his bird on his lap. What would he do with it? As he contemplated his annual dilemma a man boarded the bus, and sat down in the vacant seat beside him. The man had recently been laid off; He had been job-hunting all day-no luck. As he shared his sad story with the young lawyer, the lawyer realized that his problem had been solved. This man, with no job, and a large family to feed for the holidays, would be a great candidate to give the turkey to. But not wanting to embarrass him, he offered the turkey for the bargain price of a couple of dollars, (which was the last bit of money the man had). As the man got off the bus, he thanked the lawyer for being so kind as to sell him the turkey at such a reduced price, to help him and his family have a blessed Thanksgiving. He told him-‘I’ll never forget you!’ Nothing could be truer! The stranger walked into his home and announced to his family that a nice man had made it possible for them to have turkey for Thanksgiving in spite of their recent circumstances! Imagine their surprise as they unwrapped the bogus bird only to find a strange conglomeration of paper mache and lead! The Monday, following the holidays, the rest of the firm was so anxious to hear about what the young lawyer thought of his Thanksgiving Turkey! You can only imagine their reaction when they heard that he had sold it, to the stranger in need, on the bus. Swindoll was told by his friend that the entire firm spent the next week searching the bus lines for the stranger who spent Thanksgiving wondering why a fine young lawyer would take his last two dollars and give him a fake turkey. They never found him!” That is a Thanksgiving experience all of us could be thankful to have never had happen to us! Let me conclude this perspective with one of the most powerful quotes I have ever come across on the Transforming power of a grateful heart. It is a quote by author Melody Beattie: “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity; it can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow”. That Attitude of Gratitude Transforms Thanksgiving into Thanksliving!

SERMON: How Can I Say Thanks?

Psalm 150:1-6

I.          TO THE RIGHT PERSON
II.         FROM THE RIGHT PLACE
III.        FOR THE RIGHT PARTICULARS
IV.       WITH THE RIGHT PASSION

Laser-Light Gospel Evangelism

Uncategorized No Responses »

Nov 172024

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Laser-Light Gospel Evangelism”.

I was led to Christ by Pastor Russell Pittman, of the Salem Baptist Church of Decatur, Illinois in early September 1968. The next year, after growing in Christ, I felt God calling me to give up plans to go to the University of Illinois and be a Physical Education major, with the goal of being a coach. My second choice was to be a disk-jockey on a radio station! I know-I was setting my goals extremely high! But God had other plans! I was licensed to the ministry in March of 1969, and began an itinerant ministry of Youth revivals all over the state of Illinois. But I remember an event that affirmed that call in a very emphatic way. It was the Illinois Baptist State Association’s Youth Encounter of 1969. It was held on Dec. 26-27 at the Springfield, Illinois Holiday Inn. Kids from all over Illinois traveled through the snow to attend the conference. There were three main personalities giving testimony and speaking at the Encounter. The first was Debra Barnes. She was Miss America 1968. She was Miss Kansas, and was elected Miss America. She was a devout Christian, and made that plain in her acceptance speech. While she was speaking protesters from the New York Radical Women were waving sheets promoting Women’s Lib, and “No More Miss America Pageants!” Debra was a gifted Pianist and played and gave her testimony. She gave God the glory, and told how holding that honor opened doors for her to share Christ with the world! (Boy how times have changed!). Debra has lived faithfully to the Lord, and currently is Associate Professor of Piano studies at Missouri Southern State University, in Joplin, Mo., and Worship leader for nearly 20 years at The Faithlife Worship Center in Carthage, Mo. The second personality was Terry Bradshaw. Terry was a football star whose father was retired military and a Vice President of a manufacturing company in Shreveport, La. They were strong Southern Baptists, and Terry grew up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. In High School Terry led his football team to record setting years. He also set a national record for throwing the Javelin-throwing it 245 ft! (a record that stood for years, but was recently eclipsed by 10 feet). That feat earned him a spot in Sports Illustrated, where he would appear on the cover three times after winning the Super Bowl in 1974, 1975, and 1979. At the time he spoke to us he was star quarterback for Louisiana Tech University, having been back up to Phil (Duck Dynasty) Robertson in his first two years. Phil choose not to play in 1968. He told Terry, (he now says-“I am going for the ducks, you go for the bucks!”). In 1969 Terry was the Most Outstanding College Quarterback. He broke records in his last two collegiate years! Terry came to the Youth Encounter as a spokesman for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Of course, he went on to be the #1 draft pick of the Pittsburg Steelers, for whom he won 4 Super Bowls (’74, ’75, ’78,’79). Terry unashamedly declared his love and commitment to Jesus Christ as the most important thing in his life, and gave God all the glory for the accomplishments he had been blessed to attain. The third personality at the conference was Ron Hutchcraft. He was a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and leader in the Youth for Christ movement. Since that time Ron has been active for over 55 years in RHM Ministries. He has a radio program entitled A Word With You, and a ministry to native Americans called On Eagles Wings. He was so different! He spoke casually, sitting on a stool, not behind a podium. Every word he spoke went straight to the heart. He clearly held Jesus up as the only way of salvation. But more than that, he challenged these many young people to give their life to something that would matter for time and eternity-“following Jesus with all your heart-wherever He calls you!” He insisted that Jesus wanted us to be “all in” and give ourselves 100% No holding back! I have never forgotten the last service. As the instrumentalists played and sang, I have decided to follow Jesus, he challenged each of us, if we were serious about it, to stand up, in front of all our peers around us, and declare publically-“I HAVE DECIDED TO FOLLOW JESUS-NO TURNING BACK!” I have never forgotten the decision I made that day- almost 50 years ago! What an Encounter! The theme was “STAND UP AND STAND OUT FOR JESUS”. He probably doesn’t even remember that day. I have never forgotten it.

Recently I heard Ron on the radio. It was his program-A WORD WITH YOU. He titled his program-“A mission with a name on it!” Let me briefly share part of it with you. Maybe God will use him to impact your life like he did mine!

Ron said, “My friend Dave got tired of wearing glasses. But if he didn’t, he was dangerous. After consulting with a specialist, he determined he was a candidate for Lasik surgery. During the procedure, a laser beam was aimed at the parts of his eyes that had limited his vision and the carefully aimed light of that laser changed everything! Guess who doesn’t need glasses anymore! All because of the power of focused light. My Word With You is ‘A mission with a name on it!’ For someone you know, for someone you love, their only hope of ever seeing Jesus may be the power of focused light. You are God’s laser light to their life. Were not talking about single-handedly reaching everyone in your town, your school, your workplace, or your neighborhood for Christ. Were talking about focusing your love, prayer, and efforts on one person you want to have in heaven with you. Someone who, if they died today, probably would not go there. I call it a mission with a name on it. Not just non-specific concern for the ‘lost’. We’re talking about a burden with a name. Andrew met Jesus. The first concern of his was to go and tell his brother Peter. We know the results of that mission (See John 1:40-42). We know Jesus had a heart for just one sheep. He left the 99, to go search diligently for the one lost sheep. A mission with a name on it. (Palestinian Shepherds named their sheep). That doesn’t mean you ignore all the other lost people around you! But you start with one person. God lays that person on your heart. You pray for that person every day. You pray that you, or someone of God’s leading, will cross paths with them, and share the Gospel. You look for ways to love them, in their language of love, demonstrating Jesus’ love for them, in practical ways. You focus the light of Jesus and your efforts like a laser beam on that one life!

In a previous generation, a man named John Wannamaker, one of the most looked to and successful businessmen in America, and founder of one of the first famous department stores in America, was also a lover of Jesus Christ, and a Sunday School teacher. One day he wrote a hand copied letter to each member of his large class. What he said touched my heart. He wrote, ‘If you are saved, humbly trusting in what Jesus did for you in His love on the cross, think of others who are not saved. Be burdened that they will be spending eternity in darkness-separated from God forever! That’s your friend, your relative, your neighbor-Do Something! Settle your mind and heart on some particular person. Pray and work and do not give up til that person comes to Christ. Your help comes from God. It is an undying soul you are laboring for. What a pleasure it will be to have some newborn soul with you in heaven! Do not put it off for a single hour. Hearts grow harder and eternity is close”. He signed his letter to his class-‘Yours in the hope of heaven, and to win our friends to go with us’.” That’s your mission with a name on it! That is your laser beam of Gospel proclamation! Imagine the joy of someone coming up to you in heaven and saying “Thank you-I would not be here if not for you!” Thank God your mission with a name on it had their name!

SERMON: RENEWAL: THE POWER TO GROW UP…NOT OLD

ISAIAH 40:31
I.     THE PENALTY OF GROWING OLD
II.     THE PROCESS OF GROWING OLD
III.     THE PROMISE OF GROWING “UP”

THANKSGIVING-The inner health made audible…praise in it’s complete enjoyment…it’s appointed consummation

Uncategorized No Responses »

Nov 102024

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “THANKSGIVING-The inner health made audible…praise in it’s complete enjoyment…it’s appointed consummation”.

Ian McPherson, Scottish novelist (1905-1944), tells about traveling across England by train one hot summer day. As the train rolled to a stop in a little village, through the open windows of his train car, McPherson could hear someone outside shouting, “Praise! Praise! Praise!”. MacPherson said he stuck his head out the window expecting to see a bearded Hebrew chanter singing one of the Old Testament canticles- like Psalm 150. He was surprised to learn it was the conductor calling out the name of the local station which was P-R-A-Z-E, England! He later told the conductor, as he disembarked the train, “It must be a wonderful thing to live in PRAISE (PRAZE)”. In Psalm 150 the very Hebrew Psalmist who wrote that Psalm encourages us to make sure that “our new address is living in praise”-Our Heavenly Father deserves it, and we definitely need it! Can you think of anything we need to cultivate more than a grateful heart? To live in an attitude of praise would make life sweeter and better for all of us. Thanksgiving reminds us of three things-We have a PERSON to thank; We have PARTICULARS to be thankful for; and we should have PASSION in our Thanksgiving!

First of all, Thanksgiving reminds us we have a PERSON to Thank! October 2, 1940, the Scottish Trawler, the Theresa Boyle, was bombed by Nazi Bombers, and sank into the North Sea during WWII. The ship went down quickly. The small crew escaped with their lives. But the exhausted crew was so cold and weak they could not row anymore, after fifty hours! All seemed lost. They heard a droning plane coming, which did a low pass over their lifeboat. It then headed back fifteen miles to lead to minesweepers back to rescue the crew. After they were safe on the minesweeper, and the plane flew away, one of the crew asked to use the radio to contact the plane. The pilot asked if anything was wrong? He responded, “no we survivors just want to tell him-THANK YOU!” Katherine Mansfield, a New Zealand writer and poet, wrote to a friend, “I have just finished my new book. I finished it last night at 10:30. I said, ‘Thank God!’ Oh, how I wish there were a God. I am so longing to praise Him!’ ” As Christians longing to praise someone, have that SOMEONE WHO DOES EXIST…TO PRAISE!

Thanksgiving reminds us we have PARTICULARS TO BE THANKFUL FOR! November 6, 1620 The Mayflower left Plymouth, England with 100 passengers aboard. As the boat lay in anchor in Cape Cod Harbor, Nov. 11, 1620 The Mayflower Compact was signed by 41 passengers under Governor William Bradford. for a permanent settlement at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Three years later the Governor decreed a three-day feast beginning on Thursday Nov. 29, 1623. In spite of severe losses, great grief, and innumerable hardships…they found much to thank their Heavenly Father for, and set a pattern for all the world to follow their tradition! We need to be reminded of that today. I love Andre Crouch’s song “My Tribute”- “How can I say thanks, for the things you have done for me, things so underserved!” Amen? The best Thanksgiving sermon I ever heard was by a Seventh Day Adventists named George Vandemann called…”I Wonder How to Thank Him?”. Thanksgiving, counting our blessings, is a healthy thing to do! Dr. A.J. Cronin, a British doctor who gave up his practice to become a writer. He told of a fellow Physician who was known as the “Thank-you Dr.” He made it a practice to prescribe to his emotionally disturbed patients six weeks of thanking anyone and everyone for any good deeds done to them or for them! He found that to have nearly a 100% cure rate! C.S. Lewis called praise “inner health made audible!”

Thanksgiving reminds us to have a PASSION about our Thanksgiving. C.S. Lewis, in his book Reflections on the Psalms, writes “The world rings with praise-lovers praising their misses…readers their favorite authors or poets, walkers praising the countryside, players their favorite games, praise of weather, actors, cars, colleges, countries, children, rare stamps, even politicians and teachers! Praise almost seems inner health made audible. Men praise what they value, and urge us to do so also. ‘Isn’t she lovely?’ ‘wasn’t that glorious?’ ‘don’t you think that is magnificent?’ We delight in praise because it not only expresses our delight…it completes it! We are told in a confession of faith, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever!” Thanksgiving does just that! Change your address so that you are “Living in Praise!”

SERMON: OUTLINE STEPS TO A GENUINELY THANKFUL HEART

I. HE SAW SOMETHING

II. HE SAID SOMETHING

III. HE SHOWED SOMETHING

Catacoombs Conquering the Colieseum

Uncategorized No Responses »

Nov 032024

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Catacoombs Conquering the Colieseum”.

Things aren’t always as they appear. A recent magazine carried an article on the Coliseum in Rome. It spoke of it as the place where “Christians died for a faith, that is now taken too lightly”. i.e. “taken for granted”. We look back to that famous historic amphitheater as the place where Christians were a spectacle to be pitied. It is true that many Christians, facing the Caesar, greeted him as “those who were about to die”. They were ridiculed, mocked, faced starved lions, and died for the blood-thirsty passion of the spectators of the day. Their blood was spilled so freely in the arena that a vistor, asking about relic to mark his visit to Rome’s coliseum, was told, “take a handful of sand from the Coliseum, it is all martyrs!”. That Flavian amphitheater seated over 50,000-85,000 spectators. In its arenas gladiators and wild beasts fought for the entertainment of the public. On the Emperor’s birthday over one thousand exotic animals were slain in one day! Christians weren’t the only victims to this madness. This show place, still standing in modern day Rome built by Jewish slaves, and had surrounding walls costing over 50 millions dollars to build. The great Southern Baptist Preacher Vance Havner once said, “If we had sat in those grandstands amidst the granduer that was Rome we might have been deceived. For it was not the howling mob in the Coliseum that determined the course of history. Underground in the catacoombs another force was working. A handful of men and women who worshipped another King called Jesus, who had died and risen again and was coming back again some day-here was the beginning of an empire within an empire, The Christians beneath the Caesars that would change the world. They crept along the subterannean passageways and tunnels, among the tombs and caverns, haunted and persecuted, were the scum of the earth, in Rome’s eyes. If we had prowled around in these gloomy depths we might have come upon little companies singing songs, listening to a Gospel message, observing the Lord’s Supper. We would have said,’they haven’t a chance!’. BUT THE CHRISTIANS UNDERGROUND EVENTUALLY UPSET THE CAESARS ABOVE GROUND. THE CATACOOMBS EVENTUALLY OVERCAME THE COLISEUM AND PUT THAT GREAT AMPHITHEATER OUT OF BUSINESS”. (Havner Hearts Aflame. 1954).

On January 1, 404 B.C. A Christian monk, from Asia Minor, modern day Turkey, was led by an inner voice to go to Rome, and plead for an end to the gladitorial games. He followed the crowds into the Coliseum. Two gladiators were fighting. Telemachus tried to get between them to get them to stop the fight. Three times he cried out, “in the name of Christ forbear!”. Some stories go that he was killed when he was run through by one of the gladiator’s sword. Actually, a more historic accuracy is that the frenzied crowd, angry at his attempt to stop the entertainment, actually stoned the Christian monk to death. The historian Theodoret’s Ecclesiastical history Book V, Chapter XXVI: Of Honorius The Emporor and Telemachus the Monk, says “when the abombinable spectacle was being exhibited, Tememachus stepped down into the area, endeavoring to stop the men who were wielding their weapons against one another. The spectators of the slaughter were indignant, and inspired by the triad fury of the demon who delights in those bloody deeds, stoned the peacemaker to death. When the admirable Emperor was informed of this he numbered Telemachus among the number of victorious martyrs, and put an end, once for all to that impious spectacle!” THE CHRISTIANS HAD CONQUERED THE COLISEUM!

We live in a pagan world. We are headed toward a very perilous age for Christians. We are given very little chance to impact our world. But as we read Christian history remember-Committed Christians who “love not their life to the end” even in numbers of courageous single Christians, even living underground, in their own self-imposed catacoombs, can rise up in Spirit-filled courage, and make an impact! We must rise up, stand up, refuse to back up, shut up, until we are taken up. Who knows? History might just repeat itself!

SERMON: A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT
I. A WORD OF PRAISE
II. A WORD OF PROMISE
III. A WORD ABOUT PRAYER