Gratitude Against the Odds | Trinity Sermons

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity

Sermons and Happy Thanksgiving! Even though there

seems to be lots that we can be grateful for,

for our family, for food, for housing, sometimes

it's really hard to be thankful. There's also

lots that seems to be going wrong. So what do

we do in those times when it's really hard and

we don't know how to practice gratitude? That's

what Rob is going to talk to us a little bit

about in today's sermon. is from 1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 5:16–24

5, verses 16 to 24. Be joyful always, never stop

praying, and everything give thanks. This is

what God wants you to do because of Christ Jesus.

Do not try to stop the work of the Holy Spirit.

Do not laugh at those who speak for God. Test

everything, and do not let good things get away

from you. Keep away from everything that even

looks like sin. May the God of peace set you

apart for himself. May every part of you be set

apart for God. May your spirit and your soul

and your body be kept complete. May you be without

blame when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

The one who called you is faithful and he will

do what is promised. The word of the Lord. Two

summers ago, our family took a trip to Prince

Edward Island. And while we were at Prince Edward

Island, our trip happened to coincide with the

same time that Charlottetown holds its annual

Big Fall Fair, which is called Old Home Week.

And part of that event is that there is a whole

bunch of horse races that happen at the end of

this fair. So we hung out at the fair, but then

toward the end of the night, we said, well, why

not? Why don't we go? check out the horse races

here at the fair. And so we stuck around, and

in order to kind of make things a little bit

interesting, I gave each of the kids a toonie.

And I said that they could place very small bets

on the horses. And again, I'm not condoning gambling

in any way, shape, or form. But I said, you know,

and what we generally did, I don't know, is there

a slide there? Do we have a slide there, Liz,

to get us started? What we did was we usually

picked the horses that had like pretty good odds

to win. You look in the program, oh, this horse

is supposed to win two to one odds, right? And

so we made pretty safe bets throughout the night.

say that even though we picked the horses that

were supposed to win, we still ended up losing

most of the time. And it got down to, I mean,

sometimes we won, but we got down to the end.

Well, really, we were down to our very last toonie.

And so we said, you know what, let's do one more.

But this time, let's not pick a horse that, you

know, is supposed to win. Let's pick one of the

long shots. So we started looking to the program.

It was the seventh race. We were flipping through

and we found our horse. It was the number six

horse. And the odds of it winning at the time

were five to one, five to one. So we thought,

oh, that's pretty cool. If we put $2 down on

this horse and the horse happened to win, that

means we'd get a payout of $10, which sounded

pretty good. So that was a good idea. And plus,

you know, we actually also really liked the name

of this horse. The horse had this name, Counter

Currency. counter currency we thought oh that

sounds so so sweet right so so we went up to

the voting truck and we put down our toonie and

we said put it all on counter currency and printed

out the little bedding slip and then we ran back

to the track side right where the finish line

is we want it we didn't want to miss a second

of the action of this very last race now I want

to tell you that I told you that counter currency

Oh, by the way, it was actually harness racing,

not like horse racing, harness racing. Counter

currency started at 5 to 1 odds. But as people

make bets and as you get closer to post time,

the odds change. And there's a big scoreboard

in the field that tells you what the odds are

on your horse. Well, over the minutes that followed,

counter currency went from 5 to 1 to 8 to 1 to

10 to 1 to 12 to 1, 15 to 1. When the race began,

the odds... odds of counter currency winning

were 15 to one, which meant two things. One,

we're probably the only people in Charlottetown

who voted or who bet on counter currency winning.

And secondly, if counter currency were to win,

then we would take home a whopping purse of $30

based on our $2 bet. Of course, we didn't have

much hope. We didn't have much hope. Here's a

shot of the girls. This is after the first lap.

Now there's two laps on this half mile track.

So this is these little horses coming around

after the first lap. And I'm going to zoom in

to show you where counter currency is. Counter

currency there. Running dead last as predicted.

No surprise. No surprise. And obviously not a

lot of thankfulness. Thinking of Thanksgiving.

Not a lot of gratitude at this moment in our

hearts. But just when we were getting ready to

rip up our bedding slip. Just when we were getting

ready to call it a night and get out of there

before the traffic. I got to tell you something.

Something happened. I don't know what it was.

The planets aligned. The universe shifted. The

fates smiled on us. don't know but something

happened that no one could have predicted counter

currency started to make her move she moved from

the seven position dead last to the six position

And then she moved from the sixth position to

the fifth position. And then now they were getting

onto the far side of the field. Again, the last

lap, we couldn't really see so well what was

going on, but we could hear the announcer. The

announcer, counter currency. Advancing on the

outside, it's counter currency. Now in fourth,

I can still hear the name. And then as they rounded

the final bend and they were in the home stretch,

I realized, oh my gosh, this is going to be amazing.

We're going to make history. I pulled out my

camera and I said, we got to catch this amazing

finish. And I'm going to show you that finish

right now. And I want to just apologize in advance

for my ridiculous screaming. I got way, way too

carried away in this moment. But here is the

finish. It was an unbelievable moment. That little

horse that no one believed in, true to her name,

went against the current and came out on top

of the field. And here's a picture of counter

currency in the winner's circle. And as you can

see from the look on Petra's face, there was

a lot of joy. There was a lot of gratitude. There

was a lot of thanksgiving. She asked me not to

dwell on this slide too long. So I'm going to

move to the next slide. But the point is, we

ran up to the voting truck afterwards. And, you

know, we placed our little betting slip down

there. And they gave us $30 of cold, hard cash.

And we took that $30 and we went straight to

Wendy's. Because there was a Wendy's with it.

You could see it from the track. And we went

over there. And we've shot the works. We blew

it all on frosties and fries and stuff like that

to celebrate our historic win. Now, what is this

story even about? Well, for some reason, this

week, as I was thinking about Thanksgiving, the

name of that horse, counter currency, just came

to my mind again and again and again. Because

if you think about what does counter currency

mean? It means going against the flow. And in

a culture like ours, the currency of a culture

like ours is, you know, power and wealth and

influence. And to go counter to that, to be counter

currency, is to move in the opposite direction

of all of those things. And today on Thanksgiving

Sunday, I want to suggest to you that is precisely

what Christian gratitude is all about. gratitude

runs counter to our culture. See, society runs

this way, runs on comparing and competing and

complaining and consuming. Society runs this

way and says, you know, you don't have enough,

you need more. Society wants to break us all

down into winners and losers. But counter currency

running counter gratitude runs in the opposite

direction and gratitude says no no no we can

be grateful and we can trust in god's grace giving

us everything that we need now that kind of gratitude

is actually pretty hard to come by when you think

about it in our culture. It was also pretty hard

to come by in Paul's culture. Paul, who wrote

this letter to the church in the city of Thessalonica

2 ,000 years ago. People there in that city,

they were not unlike us. They too were trying

to get ahead. They too were trying to climb the

ladder, trying to win the race. And in those

days, in Thessalonica, there was this thing called

the patronage system. And the patronage system

basically worked this way. That if you wanted

to get a job, or if you wanted to get a loan,

or if you needed help in any way, then you had

to basically suck up to the rich people. You

had to suck up to the powerful people of your

day. And so for that reason, gratitude wasn't

so much. about being spontaneous it was about

being very strategic right you might say oh thank

you thank you thank you you're the greatest you're

the best but what you were really trying to do

is butter them up right you weren't you weren't

that because they might give you a favor later

on right you weren't necessarily feeling grateful

in fact you were just trying to survive right

and in those days life really was like a horse

race if you were one of the few people in that

culture who won then great you might be grateful

but most everybody lost in those days and so

real gratitude was pretty hard to come by it

was the counter currency of that day as well

now what i want to say is into that culture 2

000 years ago in thessalonica and into our culture

in 21st century mississauga paul said some pretty

radical words here's what he says he says rejoice

when you win no let me read that again rejoice

when everything works out for you no rejoice

when you come in first place no he just says

rejoice always Pray continually, give thanks

in all circumstances for this is the will of

God in Christ Jesus for you. In other words,

Paul is saying, go against the current, go against

the flow, rejoice, just rejoice, pray and give

thanks. And what Paul is proposing here is this

type of gratitude that isn't based on luck. It's

not based on hard work. It's a gratitude that's

not based on your accomplishments or what someone

did for you, but it's based solely on the grace

of God. It's a gratitude that does not come from

what is happening around us. It's a gratitude

that comes from what God has done for us. And

that kind of gratitude, man, that kind of gratitude,

you can live by that kind of gratitude. You are

going against the current of culture. In fact,

N .T. Wright says to live that way is almost

to live in a whole new world, right? Christian

gratitude isn't based on luck. Thank you. It

is based on grace. And I mentioned N .T. Wright.

He said this. He said, where was it? Where's

my N .T. Wright quote? There it is. When Paul

urged the Thessalonians to give thanks in all

circumstances, he was calling them to live like

a brand new world. It's a world where grace,

not fate, not luck was in charge, and where gratitude

replaced anxiety as the true source of faith.

So listen, what that means is you don't need

to wait for your luck to change in order to start

being grateful. You don't need to win the race.

You don't need to win the money before you can

give thanks. You can give thanks right now as

an act of faith, even if you don't have rich

friends, right? Even if you don't have a good

job, even if you're out of work, even if your

girlfriend has left you, even if you're flunking

out of school, that is okay. You can still give

thanks. Why? Because you have grace and you have

Jesus. Gratitude is not tied to the ups and downs

of your life, to the wins and losses of your

life. Instead, it is anchored to the faithfulness

of God, which means this, that you can, in fact,

be grateful even though you're running in last

place. After that first lap, I have to tell you,

I don't think that jockey looked particularly

thankful. And when we were standing there on

the sidelines there, we didn't feel particularly

grateful in that moment. I know that we weren't.

But gratitude isn't something you wait to feel

after you win. It's something you practice when

you're still in last place. Because Paul says,

he says, give thanks in... all circumstances

now we need to talk about that little preposition

in he does not say give thanks for everything

but he says give thanks in everything it's it's

not like we're supposed to celebrate and give

thanks for all the bad things that might be happening

to us but right in the middle of them There is

lots to be thankful for, and that is a very big

difference. And I want to say, let's be honest,

there's plenty of things in our lives and in

the world today that we are not thankful for,

right? We are not thankful for sickness. We are

not thankful for job loss. We are not thankful

for heartbreak. We are not thankful for loneliness.

We are not thankful for family conflict. We're

not thankful for this, you know, broken world

that we see. But Paul says we can still give

thanks in those moments, right in the thick of

them, because even there, God is present and

God is at work. After one lap, you know, counter

currency was dead last. You could just feel like

the energy fading. I felt the energy fading.

But she kept running in last place. And there

are people here today who feel like they're in

last place. Some of you feel like you're financially

in last place. You're trying to stretch your

paychecks and it just don't stretch anymore.

Some of you feel emotionally in last place. You're

just exhausted emotionally. right? Some of us

feel relationally like we're in last place. We're

carrying with us hurt or rejection or something

like that. Some of us maybe even feel spiritually

like we're in last place. We can't remember the

last time that we felt close to God. And if you're

honest, this whole language about gratitude is

the wrong language for what you're feeling right

now. Paul is not asking you to pretend to be

happy. Gratitude certainly does not ignore the

real problems that we are facing. But it opens

our eyes to see that God is still at work in

the middle of all that. So Paul is not saying

fake it. He is saying, can you find God in it?

You know, Eugene Peterson wrote this little book.

In this book, he says this. He says, the mature

Christian is not thankful for suffering, but

thankful in suffering because he knows that God

is not yet finished with the story. So you see,

this is, I think, very fascinating. Being grateful

in difficult times is not denial. It's actually

defiance. It fights against the current. If faith

and gratefulness is a way of saying, I may not

be winning the race right now, but God is still

with me in the race. I may be running in last

place, but God's love, God's love has not fallen

far behind me. It is choosing to see God's hand

in the hardship. It's choosing to see God's grace

in the grind. It's choosing to see God's mercy

in the mess of our lives. And maybe that is why

the early church clung so much to this verse.

Because life for them was definitely not easy.

They faced persecution. They faced poverty. They

faced pressure. And Paul wanted them to know

that gratitude is not reserved for the winner's

circle. It is for the faithful people in the

midst of the struggle. And I can almost picture

some of those early Christians gathering in homes

with so little material blessings, and yet there

they were giving thanks that God, not giving

thanks for what they were suffering, but giving

thanks that God was near. And what they were

doing is they were learning a lesson that we

too need to learn, and that is that even in last

place, God is still running the race with us.

Even in last place, the race isn't over yet.

I guarantee you after that first lap, a lot of

people were ready to tear up their slips on a

counter currency. There were lots of cheers for

the horses that were leading. There were not

many cheers for the horses that were behind.

And certainly I think we were the only family

cheering for counter currency. Why were we cheering?

It's because we were hoping. And we were believing

that there was more to come. And that's what

gratitude does. It cheers before the finish line.

It says, God, I want to thank you right here.

Not because I'm winning, but because you're still

running with me. And God, I know that you specialize

in come from behind wins. And God, you can take

something that looks like a defeat and you can

turn it into a victory. Now you might say, well,

what do you mean by that? Well, look what Paul

says. He says, give thanks in all circumstances.

And then he says, for this is the will of God

for you in Christ Jesus. What does that mean?

Isn't that just Paul attacking on a nice sounding

religious ending to a very famous piece of scripture?

No, this is the reason you can give thanks in

all circumstances because of Christ Jesus, right?

Our gratitude is not grounded in luck. Or in

circumstance, our gratitude is not like grounded

in optimism. It is grounded in a person. And

that person is Jesus Christ. So what that means

is we don't give thanks to God because we think

we're going to win in the end. We give thanks

because Jesus already did. You see, the cross

looked like complete defeat, right? The ultimate

last place. I mean, this was, the crowd had stopped

cheering a long time ago. The disciples had left.

I mean, 15 to 1 odds. Jesus had a billion to

1 odds against him. It looked like his story

was over. It looked like sin and evil and death

were miles ahead of him. And if you were a betting

person, you never would have put any money down

on the crucified Messiah. But, like counter currency,

God wins in ways that the world just doesn't

seem coming. And three days later, God turned

the scoreboard upside down and the tomb was empty

and Jesus had risen from the dead. And that resurrection,

it wasn't just like a comeback. It was a complete

reversal, completely counter, completely counter

to everything the world thought it knew about

success and winning and power and all that. Tim

Keller wrote that the resurrection means that

the worst thing, which is what? Death, is never

the last thing. And God's grace can turn even

apparent defeat into victory. God's grace can

turn the last place horse, the long shot, into

a champion. What I want to say then is that the

Christian life, I'm not just trying to propose

that Christian life is about wishful thinking.

But it's actually about resurrection hope. Because

life doesn't always work out. We don't always

win the race. Sometimes we don't even finish

the race. Sometimes the marriage does not survive.

Sometimes you lose the job. Sometimes the doctor

calls and it is not good news. But resurrection

hope believes that God brings life even out of

death. Hope out of despair and victory out of

apparent defeat. Gratitude, therefore, is not

pretending that we've won, but it's remembering

who has won. That's how we can give thanks in

all circumstances because we know that... On

our behalf, Jesus has already crossed the finish

line. And that we are standing not in our winner's

circle, but in his winner's circle as his followers.

So I guess I just want to say that practically

what that means is even though life for you might

not feel like a victory, and if you're still

in the middle of difficulty and pain, we can

give thanks. When you... When you face grief,

say, over the loss of a loved one, you can still

whisper thanks because death doesn't get the

last word anymore. And if you're facing failure

or you're thinking about some of the regrets

of your own life, you can still whisper thanks

because grace is greater than all your mistakes.

And if you're in the midst of uncertainty, you

don't know where your life's going to go, you

can still whisper thanks because... you know

your ultimate future is secure in Jesus Christ.

You know, when counter currency crossed the finish

line, we started to just cheer like crazy, right?

And that's what resurrection does. It gives you

reason to celebrate. Paul begins that whole passage

that Kevin read. He says, rejoice always. He's

saying, if you really believe this, if you really

know that God's goodness runs deeper than your

circumstances, if you know that resurrection

wins in the end, then your joy is going to be

the natural overflow of all that. And so no matter

what is going on for you today, today is a day

of celebration. And not because all your prayers

have been answered and not because all your problems

have been solved. We already talked about that.

But because Jesus is alive. Which means that

hope is alive. And that is worth celebrating.

I just want to ask you, how are you going to

celebrate that today? You know, it's Thanksgiving,

and normally we have these big Thanksgiving celebrations

this weekend, which is great. I just want to

tell you, your celebration does not have to be

big and fancy. I mean, after Arwen, we took 30

bucks and we went to Wendy's. And I still remember

sitting there with Sally and the girls, and I

just remember, you know, eating the fries and

the Frosties and thinking, man, I'm so grateful.

This is so wonderful. It wasn't fancy, but it

was joyful. And that is something that gratitude

does. Gratitude takes those ordinary moments

of your life, just the ordinary moments, and

makes them holy, makes them supercharged with

joy. It turns the Frosties into a feast, right?

It takes the little that you have and it makes

it more than enough. And so maybe this Thanksgiving,

you're not going home to carve a great big turkey.

Maybe you're just going to be heating up leftovers.

And maybe this Thanksgiving, the table's not

going to be as full as you'd hoped. And maybe

there are people missing from the table this

year. And maybe your life this Thanksgiving doesn't

look anything like you hoped it would look a

year or two ago. But Thanksgiving, just remember,

it's not about... extravagance. It's just about

being aware of what you've been given. You don't

got to compete with Martha Stewart, right, to

celebrate Thanksgiving. All you need to know

is what you've been given in Jesus Christ, and

that is worth celebrating. Just in wrapping up,

that's what we do when we come here to the table.

uh every week i don't know if you guys know that

the lord's supper was called the eucharist by

the early church and the the word eucharist literally

means thanksgiving and what we're going to have

here does not look like much it's just a little

bit of bread it's just a little bit of wine but

what we're celebrating here is exactly what paul

told us to do we are giving thanks in all circumstances

You know, just think that it was on the night

before Jesus' death, when betrayal was about

to happen, when the odds were hopeless. He was

about to be dead last, Jesus. He took bread,

and he broke it, and he gave thanks. And then

he lifted up a cup of wine, and he knew what

that wine symbolized, and he gave thanks again.

Jesus, gratitude in last place. There's this

guy named Alexander Shmaimon who wrote this beautiful

book about communion. And he said that the Eucharist

is the revelation that life can be thanksgiving.

That everything in creation can become communion

with God. Your whole life can be Eucharist. Your

whole life can be thanksgiving. Because when

we live in Christ Jesus, when we see the world

through resurrection eyes, then every little

moment is an opportunity for thanksgiving. So

today, let's be people who are grateful against

the odds. People who celebrate even when we're

in last place. Some of you, you're probably leading

the pack. Others of us, we are limping behind.

It doesn't matter whether you've got turkey and

stuffing, whether you've got fries and Frosties,

whether you're laughing or cheering or whether

you got a bit of a tear in your eye. Thank God

for what you have in Jesus Christ. Because he

is running this race with us. And the race isn't

over yet. And Jesus has already crossed the finish

line. Thanks be to God. Amen.