A Heart of Thanksgiving

Well, happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving week.

This morning I would love to talk some about Thanksgiving.

And as a talk about that, I would like to talk about what often gets in the way of being thankful.

A few weeks ago I I tapped this Instagram ad.

I tapped that Instagram ad uh because uh it looked like a good-looking blazer.

This looked like the kind of guy I want to be.

Looks like maybe he's maybe he's in a marina, I don't know, but I was like, that looks like I could I could be like that.

I actually never wear blazers, but my ideal self wears blazers.

So I tapped it.

Um and you know he's not he doesn't look as anxious as I am.

He's just cool and calm, and maybe I could be that good looking, I don't know.

Um I could maybe I could look like that, right?

Like if I had that blazer, and so now, of course, for weeks, all I have seen is blazers, like uh on YouTube, when I Google something on Instagram, like some they are now finding me over and over again.

Uh it's also catalog season, so for the last couple weeks I've been saving just like the the cat my favorites that have come in the mail.

Uh styles of outdoor brand free people.

Free people's big deal in my house, teenage girls, anybody?

Young ladies, free people, that's a big deal.

Um Johnny O.

Uh, okay.

REI, it's classic, Sid Mashburn, again, the ideal self.

I actually don't really have any of those clothes, really.

Uh Orvis came, um, which that's like outdoor brand and fly fishing stuff.

Uh, and so I I you you won't believe what the Orvis fly rod Helios 4 has come out.

I read the whole article.

It's amazing the technology that's happened from the Helios III to the Helios 4.

I couldn't believe it.

I know you can't believe it.

Um, and I'm just super excited about the Helios IV.

I didn't know I needed it until I read about it, but it's gonna change my life one day.

Um so we're we're being pursued, aren't we?

Like we are being hunted down.

Like, like stuff wants to find us.

We're being pursued with a promise of a new life, a new me, right?

Like if I could if I could look like that guy in that marina, uh, what would be possible for my life?

If only I could look like that, if only I could have that, then maybe my problems could go away.

Then maybe I could be thankful.

Maybe I could be at peace.

And so maybe you're like me and you get duped this easily with this stuff.

Listen to what Jesus says about stuff and our hearts, Matthew 6, 19 through 21.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

So Jesus is teaching against materialism.

Materialism is the treasuring of things, material things over intellectual and spiritual things.

It's the day-to-day preoccupation with things and attempting to draw value from them.

Materialism is that big nothing bunt cake, and you have the first piece, and it's so lovely, and then you think to yourself, I need a second piece.

So you go and you have the second piece, and then by the end of the second piece, you're sick.

The very thing you want makes you ill.

The more you have, the more you think you need a little more.

Point number one is this thankfulness is difficult when we treasure shiny things.

We have this growing problem in our coat closet.

So our coat closet, right when you come in our front door is this little closet, not big cloak closet, little closet, little door, and you open that thing up.

And it's it wasn't a problem years ago, but you know, we've just added a new jacket once a year, a new vest once a year.

And now to get something in there, you low you have to lower your shoulder.

I'm not kidding.

You lower your shoulder to get the little edge, and then you just kind of jam it in.

And so what it means is I finally gave up and I I take some jackets out.

This is my mountain hardware jacket.

I bought this thing 15 years ago.

What I can still remember walking through the RDI aisle, this thing was on sale for 50% off.

I could not believe I was getting a mountain hardware jacket.

I'd never owned a mountain hardware jacket, and for the price that I got, it was an unbelievable deal.

It had been my winter jacket for years and years and years.

It used to be a very big puffy jacket.

Now it's like a it's like a windbreaker.

It's been it's been it's been 15 years.

It's broken down, right?

And it now no longer lives in the coat closet, it now lives in the garage because I wear it when I do yard work.

That's what happens.

It breaks down.

Eventually it won't even live in the garage, right?

It'll get thrown away.

And what Jesus is saying to that process that happens with all of our stuff, as wonderful as it is, is he says, use stuff.

Buy stuff and use it.

Just don't treasure it.

Because it just doesn't last.

It's an incredibly practical argument by Jesus.

And then he takes the practical argument and he goes into our hearts in verse 21, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

And point number two is this our heart is the origin of treasuring.

It's what we esteem, what we think about, and what we adore.

Jesus says that treasuring's a heart issue.

Jesus wants us to go to the desire under the desire, right?

The desire for the blazer, the desire for the helios for, not the helios three, heaven forbid, if you're on the river of the helios three.

That'd be ridiculous.

The treasure, what we think about, what we adore.

That's a heart issue.

Go past that initial because there's a desire under the desire.

Why do you feel more important or more valuable?

Because you have that new blazer.

Why didn't you feel important or beautiful or meaningful before?

Jesus would say, your heart is resting in the wrong place, it's treasuring the wrong thing.

Jesus is saying, treasure something that can never be taken from you.

Treasure him.

Verse 22, the eye is the lamp of the body.

So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.

If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money.

The word money is the word mammon.

So it's it's money or things and material things.

Point three is this when our hearts treasure things, we are blind to what has true value.

Jesus moves from talking about treasures to talking about our eye.

In ancient culture, the eye was reflective of a man's character.

So Jesus is saying, as the heart moves from using things to treasuring things, our very character, the very core of who you are is being corrupted.

When we go from using things to treasuring things, the very core of who we are is corrupted because we're losing sight of what has true value.

My oldest daughter turned 16 this year, and so she got my 2008 Toyota 4Runner.

I've been driving that 4Runner for a long, long time, so she got it.

I went out and bought a brand new Toyota 4Runner.

I've never bought and driven a brand new car.

I could not believe this happened at age 45.

Brand new, black with like knobby, cool tires.

I was driving around like a 16-year-old.

I was like, what's up?

You know, like pulling out the red line.

Could not believe it.

All the new tech, big tire.

I mean, I felt amazing.

I was cool again.

And then one Saturday, I was taking another daughter's soccer game, and she got out of the car and she went to warm up.

I stayed in the car for a little bit.

I'm in the car in the parking lot.

I'm sitting there Saturday mornings, having a little moment to myself, you know, and I hear.

And it wasn't another car.

I knew that because it was too small of a thump.

And it's just sort of like, like, I was parked.

I was like, what?

Like, and then this moron walks by right by my, right by my driver window, like we're right, and he walks by.

He does not turn his head, nothing, and he has a chair on his back, like a backpack chair.

Yeah.

And he gets about 100 yards up, and I'm just sort of like piecing, like what?

Like, what was the noise?

And I was like, that moron, or that chair.

So I got out and I I walked to the back, and sure enough, on the back corner of the car was a half-inch scratch.

I I could I lost my mind.

I had an identity crisis for days.

I'm not kidding.

I Googled what to do about this, how do I solve it?

I called a friend of mine who's into cars.

He couldn't believe it.

He couldn't believe what happened.

He was like, he the car the guy did what with his chair?

I was I was out of it, right?

A mini identity crisis.

Half inch.

Half inch scratch.

Did this.

The crazy thing is, is uh it's just a car that I use to drive around.

Like that's all it really is.

But somehow it snuck into me, right?

Like, like kind of went from using the treasuring.

And it started to, I started to pull personal value from it.

So the scratch wasn't really a scratch, like the scratch was an indictment on my value, which is materialism, which is Jesus' argument.

Don't do that.

It doesn't last.

It can be taken from you, stolen, it'll rot, it'll rust.

This connection of material things to personal values become a cultural belief.

We are swimming in this.

It is pursuing us.

And Jesus is saying, don't treasure things that can be taken away.

Drive it, wear it, buy it, use it, have it.

Just don't treasure it.

Don't let it define you.

Because if you let it define you, it will enslave you.

I saw that new Orvis Heliosphore and what it can do.

I read the whole article, just drooled onto the pages, and I thought, man, I I can't believe what it's gonna do for my cast if I can get this rod, right?

If I can only get this rod for a thousand dollars.

For a thousand dollars.

So I'm not getting the rod.

I have a fly rod that costs$400, which that's ridiculous, right?

Like that's ridiculous.

What's interesting is that the Helios four, not the three, ridiculous, but the four.

The Helios four for a thousand dollars.

At first, I was, man, like the technology, what it can do, what you can do with oh my gosh.

And what was interesting is like all that inspiration, excitement, it slowly started to condemn me.

Because suddenly the thing I had wasn't enough.

Isn't that interesting?

That the$1,000 rod condemns the$400 rod, the$50,000 car condemns the$30,000 car, the$30,000 car condemns the$10,000 car.

We all know this.

We've done it to ourselves.

When we get in the comparison game, the thing that all we're having so much fun getting inspired by, and all of a sudden it begins to condemn us.

That's us using things for joy and peace.

Rather than just enjoying them, using them.

Paul wrote this about where we find our joy.

Philippians 4, 4 through 6.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I will say, rejoice.

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand.

Do not be anxious about anything.

But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving.

Let your request be known to God.

This sounds like an incredibly content position.

Doesn't it?

Like our joy is set in the Lord.

We're gonna be thankful.

We're gonna make our request known to God.

Paul's like taking us to the desire under the desire to pray for love and joy and peace, and we're gonna rejoice in the Lord, find our joy in him.

And then verse 7, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Point number four is this as we rest more in God's love for us, we don't need to use things to define us.

We can just use things.

We can live in nice houses, we can live in okay houses, we can just use things.

But they don't have to define us.

We're resting in God's love.

A new study this year researched 50,000 older women, followed them for four years, and found the more grateful they were, the more grateful they were, they were 10% less likely to die from any cause.

So Harvard participated, the Harvard School of Health participated in this research study, and they came out and they said, that's actually not that big of a percentage, 10%.

They said, but the amazing thing about this is this gratitude is available to anybody.

This beneficial emotion and state of being that can be beneficial to your life, it's free.

And it's for it's not just for the healthy and the wealthy, it's for anybody.

Harvard concluded when we're not feeling grateful, there's six questions that can just help us with gratitude.

I think these are helpful.

What happened today that was good?

What am I taking for granted that I can be thankful for?

Which people in my life am I grateful for?

What is the last book I read, or movie, show, or social media clip I saw that I really appreciated, and why?

What am I most looking forward to this week?

Month and year, and why?

What is the kindest things someone has said or done lately?

Now listen to how much God values a thankful heart.

Psalm 69, 30 through 32.

I will praise the name of God with a song.

I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs.

When the humble see it, they will be glad.

You who seek God, let your hearts revive.

Isn't it amazing that the thing that God values is the very thing that's beneficial to you?

Isn't that lovely for us?

That to grow in gratitude is something that God values and calls us to, and at the same time is actually good for us.

Now, the only problem with all of this is that we are not always thankful.

And we're not perfectly thankful, that's for sure.

We're not remembering to be thankful for everything that we should be.

The good news of this is after this Matthew 6 teaching, where he teaches about treasuring things and treasuring him more than things, he comes off the mountain from teaching and a leper comes up to him, approaches him.

And the leper comes up to him and says, Lord, if you are willing, make me clean.

And everybody around is thinking, Ain't no way Jesus is touching this leper.

Nobody touches a leper.

And sure enough, Jesus touches him, reaches out his hand.

The crowd would have gasped.

And at the same time, you have to think, there's probably people in the crowd that thought to themselves, if Jesus can touch someone like that, maybe he will touch and relate and love someone like me.

And the point is that Jesus shows us a way of gratitude.

But he also comes toward us in our mess and our sinfulness and our selfishness and our coveting and envy and comparison and lack of gratitude.

So maybe this morning, when it comes to materialism, you're anything but clean.

And point number five is this we can be thankful because even when we are not thankful, God loves us.

The cross really is enough.

Our sin is put upon the cross for the forgiveness of all of our sin.

And his righteousness is given to us, so we're fully beloved in God's sight through Jesus alone.

We don't have everything we want.

We never will.

But we can all be thankful.

I'm wondering what you're thankful for this morning.

Maybe you're thankful for the Auburn win.

Amen.

Auburn fans, amen.

Georgia fans, amen.

Georgia fans aren't sure.

We're still working out what it means.

Maybe you're thankful for your health.

Maybe you're not healthy.

Maybe you're sick.

But you're thankful for your friends and your family.

Maybe you went for a lovely walk this week.

Maybe you woke up in a warm bed and you had a warm cup of coffee and you had a warm shower and you got in a warm car and you came to a warm church.

Let's read Psalm 6930 again.

Let's read it together.

Let's say it together.

I will praise the name of God with a psalm.

I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

Now, perhaps you're here and you have a question about any of that, or you have another spiritual question, and I'll be down front afterwards.

I would love to speak with you.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you love us in our thankfulness and you love us even when we are not thankful.

God, would you help our hearts to treasure you something, a profound love and validation definition, forgiveness and worth that is beyond this world, that does not rust or give out and cannot be taken from us?

Help us to live profound, deep lives, rooting deeper, resting more in your love for us.

Help us to use things, to enjoy things, but help us not to treasure them.

Would you grow us in gratitude?

Would you increase in our hearts sight of what is important, what's valuable, what matters.

And would our hearts be filled with gratitude.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.