Thanksgiving: Now & Forever

As most of you or all of you know, it is Thanksgiving a a

time in the calendar year to just take a moment to be

grateful for the things that you have in your life that that's

there are gifts and blessings. And and we're going to spend

just a moment in God's word preparing our hearts for

whatever awaits you in the upcoming feast of food.

And as we do that, of course, some of you probably don't need

a sermon because it's been a great year and there's lots to

be thankful for. And I just just look at the

survey of our church and consider just the, the blessings

that I've already seen walk through the door.

There's, there's newborn babies and there's, there's updates of

parole turning people getting out of prison and, and there are

just breakthroughs and family and things you've been praying

for. And so I get to see the

frontline of all of the, the reasons that we have to be

thankful for. And I also know that when you

say you're going to be a certain characteristic on a certain day,

we're on Thursday, we're giving thanks.

I also know that that doesn't always perfectly align with your

heart and your emotion in the circumstances of your life.

And as much as there's people right now going through the, the

banner year in the bumper crop, I know there are also really

hard things that some of you are navigating on a personal level

and on a family level. And we're all going to leave

this place with, I hope, a, an attempt to give thanks anyway.

It reminds me of just the discipline of, of, of how to

give thanks and how a challenge and it could be sometimes.

About a year ago, I noticed that my children, as I was praying

with them at night and just going through the routine of

our, of our nighttime devotion, I noticed that their prayers had

become almost a memorized word that they were just saying thank

you for this day. I pray that anyone who's sick

would feel better will have a good night of sleep and a good

day tomorrow, which is a great thing to, to pray, but they were

praying it every day. So I said, why don't you guys

try to think about some things that are going on in your life

that you can be thankful for. And that's a way to just make

the prayers more sincere, a little bit more responsive to

what God was doing in their lives.

And, and it worked about half the time because there were some

days when they felt very thankful and they had lots of

things that were happening or, or, or things they were

receiving. They just could, could name it.

And then there were some days where they wouldn't want to say

anything. And I'd say, is there anything

you can think of to be thankful for?

And in the honesty of a child, they'd say, Nope, I'm thankful

for nothing. And I love kids because they

teach us what's inside all of our hearts.

There are things right now that if I said just go and give

thanks or when Thursday comes in the the circle time of the

family, you go around and you have nothing that you can even

think of. But I'll encourage you that

those times when I'm with my kids, when I just help them and

and we do our best to just find the thing.

Thanksgiving is powerful because it can actually be the one thing

that you need to get through the hard day.

Some things to be mindful of and and remember that that God has

done that you can't be thankful for.

So today I want to encourage those of you who are having the

banner year, just keep up the good work and keep trusting God.

But for all of the the people that you know, Thanksgiving is

going to happen no matter what and it might not be something

you feel like. I want to talk about how we can

see an example in God's word of even in the midst of tragedy and

hardship and difficulty, you can be thankful now and forever.

And so to do that, we're going to read from Psalm chapter 52.

Psalms 52 · chapter mention

Turn to Psalm chapter 52 a couple weeks ago and giving a

Psalms 52 · chapter mention

preview of where we were going in the word, we finished Titus.

I said we're going to spend some time in the Psalm.

So, so read some psalms of Thanksgiving and just see what

happens. Maybe you'll have read the Psalm

that we all study as a church. And I, I'm going to go out on a

limb and say I don't think anyone read Psalm chapter 52 as

Psalms 52 · chapter mention

a way to prepare your hearts for Thanksgiving.

As we read through this, you will see that this is a Psalm

that David wrote in parallel to one of the most challenging and

difficult moments of his life. And as I give a summary of what

this Psalm is rooted in the history of this Psalm, I, I

think it's safe to say it's one of the most gruesome stories in

the Bible. And we're going to read this as

a way to say if, if there is a if David found a way to turn

tragedy into worship. Thanksgiving in, in our hope is

more than just a circumstance and an emotion.

It's actually a theological movement of your heart.

So read with me in Psalm chapter 52 as we go from tragedy to

Psalms 52 · chapter mention

Thanksgiving. It says Psalm chapter 52 to the

Psalms 52 · chapter mention

chief musician a contemplation of David, when Doag the Ediomite

went and told Saul and said to him, David has gone to the House

of a of a hamlech. And the Psalm starts with David

responding to this news that he received of what happened when

Doag the Ediomite gave word to Saul.

He said, why do you boast an evil almighty man?

The goodness of God endures continually.

Your tongue devises destruction like a sharp razor working

deceitfully. You love evil more than good

lying rather than speaking righteousness.

You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue.

God shall likewise destroy you forever.

He shall take you away and pluck out of your, pluck you out of

your dwelling place, and uproot you from the land of the living.

The righteous also shall see in fear, and shall laugh at him,

saying, Here is the man who did not make God his strength, but

trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself

in his wickedness. Now the first seven of verses of

this Psalm are mostly David in anger, responding to the news of

what he has just heard. Doag did and so very quickly let

let us understand how David is going to turn this tragedy into

Thanksgiving and how shocking and surprising that is.

So this is as it said in the the the preview of this the

superscription in the Hebrew Bible gives us a story that

David is responding to. It happens in first Samuel

1 Samuel 21 · chapter mention

chapter 21 says the contemplation of David when Doeg

the Ediomite told Saul what did Doeg the Ediomite tell Saul?

So this is a moment in the history of David's life where

you could call him a fugitive from the law.

David was a a man who was growing in esteem and conquest.

And as that was happening in his life, Saul the king started to

grow intense jealousy towards David.

The the people of Israel, Saul's rule started to look at David

with with more respect and honor than they did Saul the king.

And so from that, Saul became jealous and eventually murderous

in his heart towards David, and David had to flee because Saul

was essentially after David's life.

And in David's fleeing, he eventually went to a city where

the high priest and a number of the priest lived, called Nob,

and he went there seeking refuge.

He didn't tell the high priest everything that was going on in

his life, that he was basically a fugitive from the king,

looking for just protection to survive.

And the high priest met with David, cared for David, gave

David some food, even gave David Goliath sword and sent him on

his way. And while all of that was

happening, Doeg, the Ediomite, saw that as an opportunity to

report to Saul what had happened and give a report that would

turn into Saul's anger, not only being vengeful towards David,

but also Ahimelech and all of the priests.

So Doeg sees what David does with Ahimelech.

He goes and says, Saul, Ahimelech, just help David.

David is basically getting, you know, he's aiding and abating A

refugee, and you should probably make Ahimelech pay.

So Saul in his anger allows Doeg to go back to Ahimelech, murder

him, slaughter all the priests, and lay waste to the city of

refuge that David had, killing, killing 85 priests and every

person of the city burned it to the ground, Women, children,

animals destroyed. Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

And I appreciate this moment in the Psalms because I don't know

if we could find a more difficult song as it parallels

with the story it's describing than this one.

David gets word from a survivor of the tragedy that the city

that helped him, the the, the priest that was caring for him,

everything's laid to waste. Bad has just gotten worse.

Terrible has just turned tragic and and the Bible so often will

raise the bar as to what we're looking at so that no one would

be with with an excuse of the Bible not being able to relate

to them. Whatever tragedy you're going

through right now, as I read this and I think through the

tragedies and the difficulties, the terrible news I've received,

I realized that the Bible is holding a bar that I can walk

under. The Bible can relate to your

tragedies. The Bible is a story that is

full of people who were responding not to blessings and

outpouring of goodness, always, forever of their life.

But how do they respond in the trust and worship of God when

they hear about loss and difficulty, when bad gets worse?

And so whatever the terrible report you heard that you can

relate to, that the Lord is is encouraging you right now

through this moment in his word, the Bible can relate to that.

And there is a way in in, in where this Psalm is going where

tragedy does not define your posture and your worship and

your response. And so now we read the rest of

the Psalm. Shockingly, this is a Psalm of

praise and Thanksgiving. David rightfully allows the

first response to be his anger towards the person who calls

caused all this. There there's righteous anger

that exists in your life and your heart.

You can be anger. You can be angry at cancer.

You can be angry at the person who has defamed you.

You can be angry at the circumstances of your life that

have caused plans to break and hearts to break.

And the psalms will relate to that.

But the psalmist doesn't stay angry.

He points his angry towards the tragedy and then he points

worship towards God. Look what it says in verse 8.

But I am like a green olive tree in the House of God.

I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.

I will praise you forever because you have done it in the

presence of your Saints. I will wait on your name, for it

is good. What do AG intended for evil?

The destruction that the report is giving is actually being

turned for worship. And there is something in the

worship moment that David is having that is not simply David

just being more disciplined and diligent than than us to find a

way to grit his teeth and just stay positive.

David is sharing Thanksgiving that is rooted in theology.

It's rooted in things that every single one of you on the ups and

downs of life can come back to and be thankful now and forever.

And the first is that David is simply thankful for who God has

made him to be. In contrast to Doeg, who is evil

and deceitful and is going to be uprooted like a plant that is

tossed away, David realizes that his life is sustained because

God made him to endure. He says I am like a green olive

tree in the House of God. I want to come back to that

metaphor because it's beautiful, often under appreciated in the

metaphors of the Bible. But I'll, I'll start by saying

today, Thursday, now and forever, all of you who belong

to the household of God can be thankful for who God is made you

to be and is making you to be actively right now.

The circumstances of your life, the ups and downs, the

tragedies, the heartbreak. There's something that goes

beyond all of those that is actually your identity that God

has made you to be who God has made you to be.

Like David says, I'm an olive tree.

Last year we looked at another Psalm in in in preparation of

our hearts for a celebration of Thanksgiving.

It was Psalm 100 and the same theology is found in one of the

most famous psalms of Thanksgiving in the Bible.

The psalmist once again says you can be thankful because of who

you are. Psalm 100 verse 3 Know that the

Psalms 100:3

Lord he is God and he, it is he who made us, not we ourselves,

for we are his people and the sheep of his pasture and and

therefore enter into his gates with Thanksgiving.

God made you to be a certain way.

Psalm 100 says He made me to be a sheep in the pasture of the

shepherd of my soul, and for that I can be thankful.

And God has made each one of you to be something that is defined

by who He is, not by what your circumstances are.

This is thankfulness for the sovereignty of God, that God

reigns supreme over the details of your life.

He knows the number of hairs on your head.

Not a Sparrow falls without Him having a knowledge of it.

And there is not one thing in your life that is outside of His

sovereign goodness for who you are.

Look what it says in Acts chapter 17.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

He has made us from one blood every nation of men to dwell on

the face of the earth, and He has determined.

He has chosen appointed times in the boundaries of their

dwellings that they should seek the Lord and hope that they

might grope for Him and find Him.

He is not far from each one of us.

He has determined the place of your dwelling, the time of your

existence, meaning your birth year, the city you live in, the

era of your history, the neighbors that surround you, the

people that you interact with. God has determined these

boundaries and details of your life with the distinct purpose

that they would all be used to turn you into a seeker of God.

That you would grope for Him. That they'd be.

That they'd be like the shepherd's staff pointing his

sheep to who He is, Which means every detail of your life can be

seen under the sovereignty of God.

Purposeful to know Him. And I and I love what Acts

Acts 17 · chapter mention

chapter 17 says that every detail is under his sovereignty

that you would grope for him. It's like reach for him, find

him. It's like when you're walking in

the dark and you're looking for the light switch and you got to

turn it on. You just you'll feel every part

of the wall finding it. And if you're like me, I know

that the searching and the groping moments of my life as I

really survey the times of my life where I've been seeking

God, often times it's because of something hard because life has

brought me to my knees. And once again I'm searching for

the light. And in this God is sovereign.

God will use tragedies to allow you to once again come to your

knees and search for the light. And now we come back to the

great metaphor that David uses. He says Dobeg is wicked, he'll

be uprooted and he'll be gone. But I am like an olive tree now.

That would have been vivid and profound in the day and the

geography of David. We don't have, unfortunately,

such an easy reference point to the beauty, both for the eyes

and also for the mind of what this metaphor of an olive tree

is for our lives. David says I'm an olive tree.

Here's here's something that is so beautiful about the metaphor.

Olive trees are the most durable and enduring tree of all of the

trees. Olive trees are in the in the

conversation for some of the oldest living trees on planet

earth. In fact, I'll share a photo with

you now. This is the olive tree called

Vuvez, and it is an olive tree that is thought to be anywhere

from 2000 to 4000 years old. It has endured drought and

flood. It has endured fire and storm.

And the way that God designed an olive tree is that it would be

able to continually endure over and over and over again.

Not simply for the sake of the earth always having olives, but

that we could see the same God that created the olive tree

creates man. The olive tree is just a picture

of what God wants man to know about how He made us.

Also a fun note about this olive tree is that it is located on

the island of Crete. For any of you who have been

studying the the the journey we've been going on through the

Bible, you know that we just finished the book of Titus,

which takes place on the island of Crete, which mean there was

an olive tree on the island of Crete while Paul was visiting

and then pastoring through Titus that is still alive today.

So you don't don't only imagine the the storms and the physical

endurance, imagine the amount of human history that this olive

tree has endured from war to to paganism to church planting to

church drama. To this day, humans can walk by

that olive tree and see something that has endured from

generation to generation to generation.

And the beauty of it is that the believer in the household of God

can look at the olive tree and hear the history of olive tree

and say, that's like me in God's house.

God has created you to endure. God has created the the spirit

that dwells in you, the confidence that you have that

the spirit that dwells in you is greater than any spirit of the

age. The truth that endures through

the written word of God is is going to endure through all of

the ups and downs of the cultural facts.

The faith that you have will endure all sorts of wood, hay

and stubble events that were never meant for the long term

enduring of the people of God. You are like an olive tree.

I think one of my. I think passages of Scripture, I

think every believer should memorize just to remember that

as Jesus said, in this world you have trouble.

But take heart. I've overcome.

It's a dual promise. Sometimes you just want to get

to the overcoming part. You need to remember the first

half. You will have trouble.

Trouble will remind you and test you and show you that you do in

fact endure. Second Corinthians chapter 4,

2 Corinthians 4:8

verse 8 incredible memory verse opportunity.

The apostle Paul says we're hard pressed on every side, yet not

crushed. We are perplexed, but not in

despair. We are persecuted but not

forsaken, struck down but not destroyed.

In this world. You will be pressed.

It will. You will feel the pressures of

life coming at you. You will be perplexed.

You will feel confusing times ahead.

Or like this morning, you're driving in fog, trusting that

the road is still up ahead. You will be forsaken.

People will hurt you. Friendships will be broken and

lost. But in all of these things, you

will not be crushed. The simple fact that some of you

are here praising Jesus, sitting under the teaching of His word.

For anyone who has put your faith in Jesus and been a

follower of his for longer than a moment, you know it is no

small miracle that you're still here.

You've had moments of doubt. You've had moments of trial from

the outside of the culture that we live in.

You've had moments from within, in the family, in the church.

And yet, like an olive tree, the gates of hell will not prevail

against the church. And that's you.

The other amazing and beautiful characteristic of an olive tree

is not only are they the most durable tree, but they're also

an Evergreen tree, which means as they're enduring through

drought and flood, fire and storm, they are one of the

beautiful pictures of the believer because they can bear

fruit in all seasons. They they can they can in their

green and Evergreen constant ability to bear fruit.

When all of the other trees are withering away, you can still

enjoy olives from the olive tree.

In fact, if you had the chance to visit the island of Crete and

to see the olive tree that is thought to be the oldest tree in

the world, you could still eat olives from this fruit bearing

tree to this day. It is.

It is not only endured with roots in the ground, it is

endured the ability to bear fruit in and out of season.

And once again the metaphor is for the believer, the believers

fruit bearing ability that you can have the fruit of the

spirit, that you can have faith, hope and love.

It is not conditional on your circumstances, which means the

fruit and the reward of being thankful is not something you

have to push pause on. If this isn't the best time for

Thanksgiving in your life right now.

Your. Your gratitude can be Evergreen.

Why? Because your faith is Evergreen.

We live by faith, not by sight. We have faith in something that

is determined by God under His sovereignty.

And your love can be Evergreen. We spent a whole summer studying

the power of what it means to look like Jesus in our love.

And it means that you love enemies, you love people that

spitefully use you you. You love people that you've

helped and they didn't help you back because your love is

Evergreen. It is not dependent on how

people treat you. And of course your joy.

Because of these things being constant and steady in your

life, you can have joy that is non circumstantial.

And for the believer, we can rightfully say just like the the

olive tree that will endure fire and storm and continue to bear

fruit even when life is hard, you can sit at the table, trust

God and give him thanks. You can endure.

And so the first movement of David's example of giving thanks

in the midst of tragedy is to thank God for who he's made you

to be. But in that it would never stop

by just looking in the mirror and saying, well golly, Lord,

you sure did make a great creation inhuman and I'm

grateful to be human. So see you later.

He says I'm an Evergreen tree in the House of God.

Creation points to a creator. The fact that you are a

beautiful, enduring part of his creation is totally designed to

give the creator glory. And this is what David does.

He now looks at his own life and says, I'm going to endure with

fruit and I'm going to praise God.

So the the key, the the preparation of your Thanksgiving

heart for now and forever is to thank God for who he made you to

be and thank God for who he is. You want to be able to worship

and praise God through every storm of your life.

Find the constant storms are challenging because they make

details and plans and relationships seem uncertain,

but there is a constant in all of that and that is the nature

and person of God unchanging. The same yesterday, today and

forever. David says, I trust in the mercy

of God forever and ever. Amen.

You can be thankful for his mercy.

Psalm 136-O Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

His mercy endures forever. Give thanks to the God of Gods,

His mercy endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of

Lords. His mercy endures forever.

I love that David can root his praise to God in mercy, because

mercy reminds us that we deserve nothing.

One of the healthy and good practices of being thankful

people is that it completely humbles us.

It's very difficult to be thankful and prideful at the

same time. You can practice some good

etiquette and you can say thank you, but if the core of who you

are believes that you have what you have because of who you are,

your pride will keep you from realizing that every good and

perfect gift is actually from God in your life.

So a fundamental point of theology is it is God's mercy

that begins the fountain of Thanksgiving.

You deserve nothing and he gave you everything.

David doesn't deserve to be in the household of God any more

than Doac. And yet here he is protected,

cared for, living to write another worship song.

I love that David continues and it's not only rooted in the

mercy of God. He says I'll I'll praise you

forever. Verse 9 because you've done it.

Being thankful is also important because it elevates us above the

present hurts and pains of life. If all you can think about, all

you can talk to God about is what's happening in the here and

now, you'll be like a child trying to thank God on a bad

day. But the discipline of

Thanksgiving is to exalt God so high that he exalts you above

your present. And how do you do that?

Well, everyone of you who came in and sang the praises of God

this morning and you came knowing that you are part of the

family of God this morning. You come standing on the

theology that God has done it. Your your membership of the body

of Christ, your come freely and stand under the banner of grace

and hear his word and and receive the beautiful metaphors

and the conditions of this sermon.

All for you is not because you set your alarm and you know you

were better than the guy who slept in and you made it to

church and you put on your Sunday's best and you're at this

sermon and anything that you get from here on out, it's because

you got yourself here. We are here because God's done

it. God is good.

God has revealed to us his plan for salvation that he so loved

us that yet while we were still sinners, he sent his Son to die.

God has given us the grace to to believe and to receive the

goodness and every spiritual blessing under heaven is ours in

Christ Jesus, done and completed by God.

And so one of the practices of being someone who can praise and

worship God beyond your circumstances is a practice of

having a memory of what God has already done.

If you're struggling in the present, it might be time to

spend some time thinking about what God has done to answer your

prayer for salvation. The prayer you had to someday

have a husband or a wife or the job that you have.

And all the things that sometimes get put on the list of

hard and frustrating intense were once on the list of Lord,

will you please give me these things?

And he's been good and he's done good things in your life.

So remember to thank God for who he is and what he's done.

And then it says this verse 9. And I will praise you forever

because you've done it. And in the presence of your

Saints, I will wait on your name, for it is good.

This might be the hardest part and yet the most helpful part of

our time in the Psalm this morning.

We don't only thank God for what he's done.

We are people that trust that God has given us testimonies of

his goodness in part that we would trust the future

testimonies of its faithfulness. What he has done is not going to

stop at the current trial. And I go back to the very

beginning of trying to preach to a sanctuary that's got a a

variety of life going on right now.

There are some of you who probably are going to take up

all the time when you circle up and say what you're thankful for

cause your list is so long right now.

This year has been amazing. And then there's the rest of us.

And it will be good for you to remember what God has done and

to trust Him for the things that He's answered.

But you also, This is your part of the sermon.

David is declaring the goodness of God in present time for

tragedy that surrounds him. And he says this very important

part of Thanksgiving, the very end.

He says I will wait on your name.

Some of you are going to thank God as you wait and you're

thanking Him in advance. You're not thanking Him because

you know every detail. You're thanking Him because you

know that when you wait on God, you are waiting for Him to do

something good in your life. And so whatever your messenger,

bad news is, whatever tragedy, whatever thing is, is trying to

pull you away from the Thanksgiving table, you are

waiting for God to do something good.

You're waiting for the promise that God works out all things in

His sovereignty for those who love Him and are called

according to His purposes. You are waiting in faith that

it's not good yet, but it will be.

And that is one of the most difficult things you can do, but

it is one of the most powerful things you can do.

If you are going through it right now, your homework is to

leave this place and say place and say, God, thank you for how

you're going to answer. Thank you for how you're going

to provide. Thank you for how you're going

to heal. Thank you for how you're going

to work this out. I am worshipping you in advance.

It'll be some of the sweetest time that you have in your life.

David says in Psalm 27, I would have lost heart.

I would have given us unless I believed that I would see the

goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Therefore, wait, keep waiting. You're going to look back on

this time in your life and you're going to say, you know

what I'm thankful for? When I was going through it, God

gave me the strength to endure and not give up.

Can I tell you how He answered? Just think back to a year ago.

We didn't know all of the things that would unfold, good or bad,

between Thanksgivings. And here you are.

Some some things that have happened this year were such

surprising blessings and you have now the power in your

testimony to say God did it and it's going to happen again.

You're going to go from this Thanksgiving table to another

year of life and God is going to do things.

You don't even know what they are yet, but you can thank Him

in advance. David says I will wait on your

name for it is good. So whether you are running to

the Thanksgiving table ready to praise God in real time for what

He's been giving you and just the blessing of life, or you are

going to thank Him in advance. We are all going to practice

this profound moment the same way we do every week when we

take Communion now to end our time together.

This is like the feast of the believers.

Communion is also called the Eucharist, which simply means

thankfulness. We are giving thanks to God for

what he has supplied, and this entire sermon can be summed up

in the bread and the cup, because we said we thank God for

who he's made us to be. And in the bread and the cup we

remember that he made us to be the sheep of his pasture, an

olive tree that endures sons and daughters of the king.

Not because of what we've done, but because of the free gift of

grace adopted into the family by the good news that God so loved

the world that anyone who believes won't perish.

He made us to be sons and daughter, daughters of the King

of Kings. We hold it in our hands by the

power of His body and the blood, and then we say we remember for

who He is. That's why we're thanking him.

We hold it in our hands. Who is he?

He's no ordinary God, no ordinary idea.

It is the God that sent his Son in, did not consider robbery or

equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself and

came in a Manger to live among us, to die on our behalf.

That's who God is. His mercy is seen fully on the

cross. And then we say we remember what

he did as he lay, as he died on the cross, paying the penalty of

our sins. He said it is finished,

salvation is complete. It is not in question.

It is what He has done. And we said, well, thank him for

what He's going to do. There's coming today and He's

going to put everything into order.

You'll never need a preacher to remind you to be thankful when

the new heavens and the new earth and every tear is wiped

away and every tongue is confessing and every knee is

bowing that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is on the

throne and we're his people. That would.

That's what He's going to do. And as we wait for that day, He

is working every detail of your life together for good until you

see Him face to face. Thanks for joining us today.

If you would like to watch the full service, check out the link

in the description. For next steps and to learn

more, visit calvaryboise.com.