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