The Cost of Thanksgiving

I'm gonna invite you, if you can go with me,

I have a message I would like to share with you

found in the book of Psalms, Psalms chapter 119 and verse one.

Psalms 119 · chapter mention

Excuse me, 116, chapter 116 and verse one.

As I was meditating on the word of God

and my time of devotion, the Lord brought me to this Psalm.

There's a couple of verses in this Psalm

that are known, well known and used for different occasions,

different reasons, but the Lord brought me here

and I just wanna share with you a few thoughts.

How many of you are ready for the word of God today?

Amen, somebody say amen, amen.

The Psalmist writes in verse one, I love the Lord

because he has heard my voice and my supplications

because he has inclined his ear to me.

Therefore I will call upon him as long as I live.

The pains of death surrounded me

and the pains of Sheol lay hold of me.

I found trouble and sorrow, then I called upon

the name of the Lord, oh Lord I implore you,

deliver my soul.

Now would you look at verse 16 and 17 with me.

Oh Lord, truly I am your servant, I am your servant,

I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.

You have loosed my bonds, amen.

I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving

and will call upon the name of the Lord.

Can someone say amen?

Gonna preach today for a few moments on the thought

of the cost of thanksgiving.

I'm gonna invite you to pray with me right there

where you are just for one moment.

Let us go before the Lord today.

Father, we thank you for your presence that we feel

so bound to flee in this place.

And we need your spirit to continue to move.

God, as we open our hearts, our minds,

our spirits to your word, God, that you would impart

something that would transform us, that would edify us.

Today, God, encourage us and remind us of all the reasons

why we ought to be thankful, God, for the loosening

of the bonds in our life, God, the redemption of our souls,

the salvation of our lives, God.

I pray today, God, that you would anoint my lips of clay,

that you'll put your word in my mouth, Lord,

that I would glorify you in this hour.

In your name we pray.

In the name of Jesus we pray.

Some would say, amen.

Amen, you may be seated in the presence of God.

After Christmas, Thanksgiving is the second biggest holiday

for spending.

That's right.

After Christmas, this is the second biggest holiday

where many families all around have got to open up

their wallets and spend a little cash.

Why?

Because it's not cheap if you wanna have

a good Thanksgiving meal.

This year, Americans will spend an estimated $1 billion

on Thanksgiving turkeys and other items.

And I hate to break it to you, but with inflation still up,

you're going to spend about 19% more than you did last year.

So you better enjoy that turkey

and you better save some for leftovers, amen.

How many of you like leftovers from Thanksgiving?

Amen, amen, I like some leftovers.

So Thanksgiving dinner is,

and I hope I don't make anybody hungry here

with this picture, but hallelujah.

Thanksgiving dinner is not cheap.

And neither is Thanksgiving praise.

When we look at the whole concept of Thanksgiving

and what it represents, what it means,

it is rooted in the word of God.

And I want to, for a few moments, take us back

to where I believe Thanksgiving finds its root.

In scripture, Thanksgiving is more than a holiday,

more than a feeling, but it is an act of worship.

It is a sacrifice of the heart.

And as we consider the Psalm,

which I read from this afternoon, Psalms 116,

as this Psalm describes, true Thanksgiving

often emerges not from a place of abundance,

but from a place of adversity, true Thanksgiving.

I want to dispel the notion in our minds today

that Thanksgiving is what we render

when things are going well.

It is perhaps what some would consider

like a bonus even, something that we do

with the leftovers of a good year,

something that we do when things are going well,

and when it's a time of plenty good times

and wonderful times, and those times are the times

that people think are the times of Thanksgiving.

But when we look at the scripture,

we will find that Thanksgiving is born

in many other places.

In Psalm 116, this Psalm is part of

what is called the halal Psalms,

which comprise Psalms chapter 113 through 118.

Psalms 113 · chapter mention

And these Psalms were special because they were sung

during Jewish feasts, such as Passover.

These were the Psalms that the Jewish,

devout Jews would sing during festivities,

during holidays, and so they were important to them.

They were momentous for them.

They were significant to their celebration,

their festivities.

And while the author of this particular Psalm is unknown,

it strikes a familiar chord with some of the Psalms

pinned by King David with the imagery and its tone.

So David is not typically attributed to this Psalm,

but as you begin to read it, it strikes a familiar tone.

It has some of the same languages,

some of the same terminology and imagery

often found in the Psalms of David.

And the Psalmist here begins to probe,

whether it's David or not, he begins to probe

into the depths of his personal trauma.

As you begin to read it, it does not announce itself

as being a Thanksgiving Psalm.

In fact, as I was meditating and praying

and looking over this Psalm, I gotta be honest with you,

there was a bit of tension in my heart.

I thought, well, this is not your typical Thanksgiving Psalm.

This is not your typical Thanksgiving message.

And so there was a bit of resistance in my flesh at first.

I thought, where are you taking me on this chapter, Lord?

Where exactly are we going with this?

Because as you begin to read it,

it starts in a rather dark place.

It starts in a rather contrary place

to what we think of Thanksgiving,

when we think of a time of celebration

or a time of festivities.

But this is exactly where the Psalmist begins.

He begins in the depths of his personal trauma,

a place that he describes as the pains of Sheol,

the pains of Sheol.

Now, I need to break this down for you a little bit

so you can understand where the Psalmist is coming from.

In the original Hebrew, the word for pain

means an oppressive state of physical, mental, social,

or economic distress or affliction.

And this word, pain, is so mind-numbing, so painful

that it only appears in two other places in Scripture.

It's such a profound, such a problematic word,

such a painful word, that it's only mentioned three times,

including this one, in all of the Bible.

And as you begin to understand what this represents

in the Psalmist's life, we can get a picture as to why.

We get an idea as to why this word is used so sparingly

because it really does reflect some of the darkest places

that one may find themselves.

It gets worse as you look at the Psalmist's words

as he ascribes his pain to a particular place called Sheol.

He says the pains of Sheol.

And this word is also very difficult

and hard to digest.

Sheol means the grave, the pit, or the tomb.

And in Scripture, Sheol refers to the underworld

or the realm of the dead.

Sheol is sometimes translated as hell or Hades.

And this tells us about the Psalmist's state of mind.

It gives us an idea of just how dark and how lonely

and how painful the place that he is describing

in this Psalm, he describes the pain of Sheol

or the oppressive state of this grave,

this tomb that he is in.

And he is in such a bad place, such a forsaken place

that he is convinced that his hour of death has come.

He is so engulfed in the waves of adversity,

so engulfed in the grip of his affliction

and the deafening sound of God's silence.

He is so wrapped up in his place of despair

and of distress that he doesn't see a way out.

He doesn't see the light of day.

He cannot even begin to imagine what life could look like

outside of this trial that he is in.

Now, of course, he doesn't go into the specific details

of what it was, but he is describing to us a terrible place,

a place that nobody here today

would wanna find themselves in.

He describing, if I can put it this way respectfully,

his own personal hell, his own personal Hades,

his own personal underworld, like the gravest self

is dragging him into this pit of an experience,

this pit of life.

And so this is where, of all places,

this Psalm of thanksgiving begins.

And it is in that terrible hell of Sheol

that the psalmist begins to layer upon layer

reveal to us some important keys,

some truths about what real thanksgiving is all about.

And this afternoon, I'm only gonna point out

just two of them.

There's probably many more you can find

when you search and dissect these verses,

but just two really stuck out to me.

And the first is this, is that thanksgiving,

someone say thanksgiving.

Come on, let's say that again, thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is born in pain.

If this Psalm had been written by David,

which some scholars believe it was,

and as I read through it, I lean that direction as well.

I think I might be in that same school of thought

that this was written by David.

And had it been written by David,

he might have been reflecting on some of his own

personal Sheols in his life.

One might have been the time where he fled from King Saul,

the man who initially took him in like a son,

but quickly turned against him

and made him public enemy number one

and caused David to flee for his life.

He may have been reflecting on that very dark moment

where everything was going good and overnight,

he found himself running from the spear of a man

he thought might be like a father figure in his life.

And that would, I think, constitute as a personal Sheol.

And when life doesn't go the way you think

it's supposed to go and the people that you thought

you can count on, hallelujah somebody,

you can't count on them or the systems or the structures

you thought you can lean upon, the things that you thought

were trustworthy, all of a sudden turn against you.

You could find yourself in a personal Sheol,

a pain of Hades.

You could find yourself there when the thing

that you thought would be there or the people,

the friend you thought would always be your friend

or the person you thought would always love you

all of a sudden turns their back.

When you find yourself in a place of betrayal,

find yourself someone perhaps stabbing you in the back

or doing you dirty, doing you wrong.

And you find out that they weren't really your friend

or things aren't always as they appear.

You might be in a place like that.

If it were written by David, if it wasn't that part

of his life, it could have also been

the fate of his child with Bathsheba.

The Bible says that his child was born very sick

and that he prayed and that he fasted

and he wept for his child that God would spare this baby,

but he ultimately perished.

And this was a deep and a dark place for David

that this would constitute as a Sheol in his life.

It would definitely qualify as a deep

and painful dark place, a place that is overwhelmed

and engulfed with affliction and with problems

and with anguish and distress.

It could have definitely been that because he prayed.

And it could be the same with us when God doesn't answer

the prayer that you want him to answer, amen.

When God doesn't do the thing that you want here,

you could find yourself in a place like that.

Somebody may find themselves in a place like that today,

maybe not quite as dark, maybe not quite as deep

as David found himself, but you might find yourself

a bit disconnected or discouraged,

just disoriented and disillusioned by the fact

that God's not doing what you asked him to do

or he's not doing it in the way that you want him to do it.

And it's not happening according to your thoughts

and your plans.

And you might find yourself dealing

with that frustration today.

You might say, well, you know what, Pastor Jacob?

Yeah, I know it's Thanksgiving

and everyone's gonna carve some turkey,

but I'm really having to search for reason

to be thankful this year because I've got some things

that didn't quite go my way this year.

It just wasn't my year.

I didn't get the promotion I thought I was gonna get.

I didn't get that job, I didn't get that car.

I thought I would be further along in the process

that I am again, and here we go, hit the reset button again.

Here comes another new year and it doesn't quite feel

because God didn't do what I can.

Can we be real here today, amen?

God didn't really do what I thought he was going to do.

You might find yourself in a place like that.

Another possible paying of Sheol,

if in fact David did write this song,

would have been the painful rebellion

and death of his beloved son, Absalom,

which would have tore David's heart in two.

It tore his heart in two because the apple of his eye,

his beloved Absalom, this son of his

with so much potential, so much promise,

a son that he, if all things would have worked out,

perhaps would have given him the kingdom after him,

but he rebelled against him

and it couldn't pass all the gruesome details.

I can tell you that it ended up in Absalom being killed

and for David it was a, it was bittersweet in many ways

because in a political sense it was a victory,

but in a personal sense it was a failure

because in a political and a military sense,

he overcame his son's rebellion against him,

but in a personal sense he lost his son over it.

How can you even celebrate that?

And someone, you might find yourself in a Sheol like that.

You know, on the one hand, I've got reasons to be thankful.

I've got, because yeah, we won on this end,

but on the flip end, maybe you've still got

some pain in your body and maybe you, you know,

you kind of go to bed at night and it's not all that bad,

but man, if it just wasn't for this one thing

that just won't go away, and I don't know

if there's somebody here today that feels like that,

like man, if I could just, if this is one thing

just got resolved in my life,

it would just be so much better.

Y'all kind of quiet on me out there.

That's all right, hallelujah.

But that's what it was like for David when he lost to Absalom

and that would have been a pang of Sheol

while everyone else was celebrating, hey, we won, we won.

We overcame the revolt and the opposition.

He was kind of like at the celebration party,

the after party where everyone's, you know,

shooting confetti and dropping confetti,

and hey, we won the war.

He's just like, yeah, guys, and he goes back to his room

and he realizes that while we may have won this,

I've lost something that is very important to me,

and maybe you've lost some things this year.

Maybe this year has been a time of addition

and also a time of subtraction,

and that's got you in this place where you're just not sure

how much thanksgiving can I give,

but I want you to understand something today

that no matter what it was, this psalmist,

he found the secret and it all started in prayer.

Someone say prayer.

It all started in prayer.

He declares, I love the Lord, he writes.

I love the Lord despite the pangs of Sheol,

despite the personal hell that I've been going through,

despite everything that I've been through this year,

and yeah, I'm still alive, but I'm not quite, you know,

what I once was or it's not quite the way I wanted it to be,

but he said, I love the Lord because he heard my voice

and my supplications because he inclined his ear to me.

I wanna tell you today that the beginning of thanksgiving

is not the abundance of blessings, but the depth of pain.

Real thanksgiving is not born.

It's not born in those times of abundance,

but those times of adversity.

Real thanksgiving is born in the depths of Sheol

with the revelation that despite everything

that may be coming against you,

despite everything you might be facing,

despite the ups and the downs, that God is still God

and God has not left you nor forsaken you.

I've come to tell somebody today

that no matter what kind of day you're having,

no matter what kind of year you had,

no matter what kind of moment or season you've had,

financially, emotionally, spiritually, physically,

you can still be thankful today

because at the end of the day, God heard your voice

at the end of the day, God's ears were open to your cry

and to your prayer.

Someone here might be in the pains of Sheol,

in the grip of fear, in the pain of a family issue,

in a trial of sickness or the weight of sin,

but God sent me here today to tell you

that he heard your voice and he hears you when you cry.

Somebody should give God some glory

and some praise today for that.

I don't know about you, but I'm thankful

that he still hears me when I call.

He may not give you what you want, brother,

but he's always on the other line when you call on him.

Life may not always go according to plan,

but when you understand that God has control of all things

and he holds the world in his hands

and your life included, and that when you call on him,

he is listening, that right there is enough

to be thankful, hallelujah.

And the psalmist said, he has heard my supplications.

My supplications, what are supplications?

Supplications are, it is to ask or plead for something

earnestly over an extended period of time.

A supplication is that prayer that you pray,

that thing that you have been asking of God,

even begging or bugging of God to do on your behalf.

It is that heart prayer, it is that life prayer.

It is that breath prayer that you pray

with everything you have,

earnestly asking God fervently to do it.

And it is that type of heart cry coming from the depths

of your soul that you so desperately need God,

that if God doesn't do it, it won't get done.

A supplication is the type of prayer

that you pray over and over,

and you're waiting for God to answer,

and yet maybe he has not answered,

but you need to know that God hears your supplications,

that your prayers are not falling on deaf ears today.

Can I just tell somebody, can I encourage you today

and tell you that whatever you've been supplicating,

whatever you've been praying,

even if God has not answered you yet,

keep praying, hallelujah.

I said, keep praying.

And after you're done praying, my friend,

pray some more, hallelujah.

And after you've prayed more, pray again.

Keep praying, you know why?

Because God is listening and you never know,

oh my God, I wanna preach now.

You never know the day or the hour,

the moment where God will answer that prayer.

It's your job to pray and it's his job to answer.

And whenever he answers, it'll be according to his purpose,

according to his plan, but don't give up on your prayer.

Don't give up because God is listening.

Amen.

God is listening and the psalmist says,

hey, because he's listening, because he's there,

because he's right there, he's listening,

he's on the other line, I've got a reason to be thankful.

The second key truth that we glean from this psalmist

is that thanksgiving is born not only in pain,

but is perfected in sacrifice.

Thanksgiving is perfected in sacrifice.

Once the psalmist is delivered from the bounds

that held him down, once he is delivered from this sheol,

from this place of pain, this place of frustration,

this place of disappointment, he comes to this realization

about thanksgiving, he begins to understand

what true thanksgiving is, that it's not just a feeling,

but it is indeed an act of worship.

He said in verse 17, I will offer to you

the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon

the name of the Lord.

Why does the psalmist call it a sacrifice?

Because it cost him something.

It's not a sacrifice until it has cost you something,

something of value, something of worth,

not just a lamb on the altar, not just a goat on the altar,

not just some unleavened bread sprinkled with oil

for a physical offering, which is how they would offer

thanksgiving in the Old Testament,

but it cost him something personally.

It cost him something emotionally, something spiritually.

The reason why this thanksgiving was different perhaps

from all the other thanksgivings that this psalmist

had experienced in his life, had offered unto God,

what made this thanksgiving different from all the rest

is that this thanksgiving wasn't just a giving

of an offering, but a giving of himself.

This thanksgiving was different

because he had paid a price.

He had gone through some things and he had lived to tell it.

He had gone through some things and made it on the other side.

He had suffered and he had endured

and he'd learned the value of thanksgiving.

He learned the difference between giving,

giving an offering and becoming an offering.

He learned the difference and he had gone through

a period of sheol.

He had gone through his own personal trauma,

his own personal disappointment,

his own personal despair and anguish.

And he came through the other side and he said,

when I offer this kind of thanksgiving,

you know, when you go through a life altering

or a near death experience, you wake up each day

with a different appreciation for your life.

When you've lost your job and you're running out of money,

you have a different appreciation for the food

that's on your table, amen, somebody.

When you go through hard times, see anybody can praise them

on the mountaintop, hallelujah.

But it takes faith to praise them in the valley.

I said it takes faith to praise them in the valley.

Anybody can be thankful when you have everything

that you wanna have, but when you've gone through

some personal sheols and you've gone through some times

of distress and affliction and you've gone through

some seasons of difficulty and everything

hasn't added up the way and you're still able

to offer up God a praise.

That my friend is what a sacrifice of praise

is all about, the fruit of your lips.

If you can praise God when you've got money in the bank

and you got food on the table and you've got

a clean bill of health, oh wonderful, that's great.

But when you can praise him when not everything

in your life is going right, when you can praise him

and you got pain in your body, you can praise him

and you're not sure where your next rent check

is gonna come from, when you can praise him

and you're not sure how everything is gonna work out

in your family, when you can praise him

and know that not everything in your life

is kosher and clear, but thanks be to God

that I still got breath in my lungs.

Thanks be to God that I can still lift up my hands.

Oh, I got a witness here today.

Thanks be to God, oh hallelujah,

that I can still bless his name.

That's why the Bible says let everything that has breath

praise the Lord, because even when that's all

that you may have left is my breath and my body,

you've got reason enough to give God glory.

Why don't you clap your hands

and let's just be thankful to God today.

The psalmist had the kind of thanksgiving that comes

when you realize that if it had not been for the Lord

who was on your side, you don't know where you would be.

He has the kind of thanksgiving

that you may have to have this year.

When you sit down hopefully with your family,

your loved ones or your friends and you have a moment,

whether it's a home cooked meal or you go somewhere

or someone cooks for you, whatever it is you do,

but I pray that you'll take a moment to be thankful.

But it may be one of those types of thanksgivings

where you say, you know,

I may not have everything I want,

but I have all that I need.

I might be suffering a little bit in my body,

but I'm not dead.

I may not have a house on a hill,

but I got a roof over my head.

Jesus, hallelujah.

Oh, I may not be everybody's friend.

I may have some enemies,

but I got at least one friend.

I got at least a few people in my life who love me.

I may still have some prayers that need to be answered,

still waiting on God to do some things,

but in the meantime, God's brought me this far

and the same God who brought me to this point.

Oh, hallelujah.

Someone say that I'm a good friend.

I'm a good friend.

I'm a good friend.

I'm a good friend of God at this point.

Oh, hallelujah.

Someone say the same God.

The same God.

Would you stand with me today?

Hallelujah.

Would you stand with me?

The same God who got me here will get me there.

All in all, true thanksgiving and worship are perfected

in the offering of our whole lives unto God.

Paul tells us in Romans 12.1,

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,

that you present your bodies a living sacrifice,

wholly acceptable to God,

which is your reasonable service.

Another translation says,

which is your spiritual worship or your act of worship?

God doesn't just want us to just offer him a thanksgiving.

He wants us to offer ourselves,

and he wants the sacrifice of praise.

He wants for you and I today to say, God, I give you everything.

I withhold nothing, Lord.

I give you it all.

I render it unto you, Jesus,

because of all that you've done for me,

all that you have done for me, my life God,

because you've given me all I can give you all,

and I will give you all today.

I will give you all today.

How many of you want to give him everything today?

The sacrifice of thanksgiving is that we were once bound.

Would you for a moment think about the places

where God has delivered you from?

Would you think about the shiols,

those places of torment, those places of pain,

those places that you perhaps never thought that you would get out of?

Depression you never thought you would get out.

Fears you never thought you would shake.

Sickness you never thought you would get over.

Pain and heartache you never thought you would get over.

But yet here you are today by the grace of God.

Can you think of those places?

Can you think of those, hallelujah,

those pits that he brought you out of?

Hallelujah.

Those low places that he found you.

Where did God find you?

And when you discover that it was the hand of God

and his hand alone that lifted you up out of that place,

that is where thanksgiving was.

And you might be somewhere there right now.

Someone here today might feel like,

you know, I feel like I'm in a place of shio a little bit.

Well, you don't got to wait until everything gets better

to give God thanksgiving.

You don't got to wait until every prayer is answered.

Right there where you are,

you can give God the glory that is due his shift.

I wonder if somebody today can begin to worship him.

I wonder if someone can help me appear on the platform

as we begin to worship the Lord.

I wonder if somebody can give God thanksgiving

that he is worthy of.

Oh, I will bless the Lord at all times.

Oh, hallelujah.

And his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Hallelujah. Come on right there.

Will someone begin to lift up your hands?

Will somebody begin to open up your mouth

and begin to offer him up the sacrifice of praise,

the fruit of your lip?

Somebody today will join with me

in the chorus of all the saints

and begin to thank the Lord

for what he has done in your life.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, thank you.

Let's be thankful today.

If this altar is open,

if there's somebody that wants to come and render

and offer up that thanksgiving praise unto God,

I invite you to this altar today if you would like to come

and you would like to lift up your hands,

you would like to offer up that thanksgiving praise today.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, God.