Gratitude | Pastor Mike Holwerda

Psalm 136.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of Lords.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who alone does great wonders.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who by understanding made the heavens,

for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who spread out the earth above the waters.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who made the great lights.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

The sun to rule over the day.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

The moon and stars to rule over the night.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

And brought Israel out from among them.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

With the strong hand and an outstretched arm.

His steadfast love endures forever.

To him who divided the Red sea in two.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

And made Israel pass through the midst of it.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who led his people through the wilderness.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who struck down great kings.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

And killed mighty kings.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

Sihon, king of the Amorites.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

And og, king of Bashan.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

And gave their land as heritage.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

A heritage to Israel, his servant.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

It is he who remembered us in our lowest state.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

And rescued us from our foes.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

He who gives food to all flesh.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of heaven.

For his steadfast love endures forever.

Well, good

morning and welcome everyone to Christ Community Chapel.

My name is Mike, one of our pastors here.

Really glad to be with you.

Hope you had a really wonderful Thanksgiving.

Next weekend we kick off our advent, our Christmas series, which will be wonderful.

This week we're just going to pause on Thanksgiving weekend.

Just ask the question, hey, what does it mean to be grateful?

How exactly do become people full of more Thanksgiving?

And part of that comes from a story Jesus tells in the Gospel of Luke.

In the Gospel of Luke, there's a story where Jesus will heal ten lepers,

and leprosy was a terminal skin condition.

So ten people literally marching their way slowly to death.

And Jesus in his grace, and Jesus

in his power as he has a habit of doing, heals them

completely, changes their life forever with just one word.

Ten people are completely healed

and we learn one out of the ten came back to say thank you.

Nine kept going, right.

Jesus is putting something.

On our attention, putting his finger on something in each of our hearts

that two words thank you often seem like too much, right?

If this math plays out, and I think that it does 10% of you

in this room, you have gratitude down, right?

So congratulations.

You can tune me out for the next 20 or so minutes.

90% of us, myself included.

Gratitude is a struggle.

I've been thinking, why is that?

Why are two words sometimes just too much?

It'd be easy to blame the snow, right?

I don't know when we went from November to February, but we did.

And, here we find ourselves in the middle of winter.

Why is gratitude so hard?

Could it be our culture? Right?

It seems like Black Friday extends itself every year from one day to two days

to probably the whole season, telling us again and again and again, you

you don't have enough, right? You need more.

Hard to be grateful when you hear all the time, hey, you need more.

It could be because of social media.

You can see all around you someone who has a little bit of a better life.

At least appears to be a little bit of a better life than you.

Someone has something that you desperately want, even today.

Hard to be grateful when someone has what you want.

Could be a lot of factors, right?

Some of you might say it's it's actually simpler than that, right?

It's not about Black Friday. It's not about the snow.

It's not about anything else.

If you knew my life right now, if you knew my situation and my story,

the way my health is, where my family is,

my finances, my job, all the things you would say I just.

I don't have much to be grateful for.

There's a lot of factors, a lot of reasons why we can struggle with gratitude.

In Psalm 136, our passage today gives us a different reason.

It suggests to us a different problem for why we struggle with gratitude.

I put it this way you'll see it on the screen.

It says it's our struggle with gratitude.

We look too much at what we have or don't have in this life.

We look around us too much and we look too little.

And what we have and can never lose in God.

The struggle with gratitude is where our attention is.

It's where our focus might be.

We look too much what we have or don't have in this life,

and we look too little and what we have and can never lose in God.

And so Psalm 136 is going to lead us to change our focus,

to redirect our attention even today, to do three things

to look up, to look back and to look ahead.

That's how this Psalm is.

Even divide it up verses one through four.

We're going to look up verses five through 25.

We're going to look back.

And then verses 26 we are going to look ahead.

And so if you are here and you're looking for more Thanksgiving,

looking to be a person marked by a deeper gratitude,

then these are the three things Psalm 136 leads us to do.

Let's start with look up.

Look up begins in the first four verses of this Psalm.

Let me reread them for us

says, give thanks to the Lord,

for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of God for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of Lords, for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him alone who does great wonders, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Three times give thanks, give thanks, give thanks.

Calling us to gratitude.

But notice what the psalmist is directing us towards.

Give thanks to the God of God.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords, and give thanks to God.

And for what?

Right?

It's different than how I might approach you.

Maybe you gathered with your family or friends

this Thanksgiving and you shared what you are thankful for.

All the reasons, right?

Thankful for family or friends or, the Buckeyes

win all the things that we, want to celebrate this weekend.

I'm Iowa Hawkeye fan, so I'm very thankful that as Iowa Hawkeyes

and we reached eight wins, which is a big deal if you're an Iowa

Hawkeye fan, might not be a big deal if you're a Buckeyes fan.

We give thanks for circumstances, right?

And lots of circumstances that we can be grateful for.

But that's not what the psalmist is grateful for.

He's giving thanks to God.

He's giving

thanks for his character, right circumstances as they can change, right?

Your health can change.

Finances can change, right?

Sports circumstances can change all the time.

But the psalmist is giving thanks, giving thanks to God and for his character,

not circumstance.

Two things highlighted in Psalm 136.

The first couple of verses. Right?

When you think about God and you think about his character,

the psalmist gives us two words to lean into, right?

The goodness of God and then the steadfast love of God.

You see that in the first three verses, God's goodness

and then his steadfast love.

And so first we give thanks to God, because God is good

at the core of the personality and the character of God.

God is good.

It almost seems like too weak of a word, right?

Like if someone were to ask you, hey, how was your Thanksgiving weekend?

And then you said, yeah, it was good.

You would say, hey, I liked it, but it probably could have been

a little bit better, right?

We use goodness and it implies a little bit of imperfection.

But when the Bible uses the term, goodness about God implies

no imperfection, right?

Goodness in its purest form, a perfect goodness,

a pure goodness without stain or sin or flaw.

No bad days, no bad moods.

God is perfectly good.

He can do no wrong to you.

We give thanks because God is good the second we give thanks.

Because God is love, right? You can't.

You can't miss it.

In this Psalm,

even in the in the reading of it, the phrase steadfast love repeats again

and again and again 26 times in 26

verses, wanting us not to miss one central thing

about the character of God that God is a God of love.

It's a steadfast love, a strong

love, a heavy duty love.

This past summer, I went

to the beach with my family, and there was one night that we went out

to watch the sunset and the sun was just kind of going over the water.

Just beautiful, right?

If you've been there, colors are just popping and it was great.

Except for the bugs, right?

The bugs were were awful and so bad that it kept our heads down.

Right.

So the sunset is here and our heads are down because of the bugs.

And so we missed it, right?

We couldn't look up because of how we were distracted by the bugs.

And on some level,

the color combination of God's character, his goodness and love is meant

to overwhelm us, to stun us in its beauty and its perfection and its glory.

But life has a way of keeping our head down, right?

Bugs just seem to be everywhere, especially at this time of year.

Schedules are full of things to do,

presents to buy all the things, and our heads just are down.

In Psalm 136 just says, look up.

Let me take care of the bugs, just for a moment,

so you could look up and see the goodness and the splendor

and the perfection of the character of God.

For the goodness of God is perfect, and the love of God is strong.

We give thanks for the character of God.

Second, gratitude flows from looking back.

We look up and see his character.

We look back and we see God's story.

Maybe a week or two ago,

I stumble across an old high school photo of mine.

And, if you are a fan of Home Alone, it was a buzz your girlfriend, Wolf,

kind of moment.

I was ninth grade on the soccer team, and I was trying

to be a tough ninth grader, which doesn't work well for me now.

And didn't work well then, right?

I was 15 going on nine, which is pretty much how I look right now.

So it wasn't great.

My guess is if you have pictures

that you look back on, you realize they're not that great.

You have a wolf kind of moment

and you are so glad, like I am, that I have changed, right?

You dress differently, you look differently, your hair differently.

All the things right.

To be human is to look back on yourself and to be so,

so thankful that you have changed.

In Psalm 136, we're going to look back on old pictures of God

and be so, so glad that he has stayed the same.

In this psalm we see three pictures and then I'm going to add a fourth.

We're going to go back in the photo album of God and see three old pictures.

Then I'm going to add a fourth picture.

The first picture that we see is the picture of creation.

It's in verses five through nine.

I'm going to read one snapshot for us, verses five and six.

It says to him who by understanding

made the heavens, for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who made the great light, for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who spread out the earth above the waters,

for his steadfast love endures forever.

When you go back to the beginning and you go back to creation,

you see that in the beginning there was God, right?

The Bible holds out that the world didn't happen by accident.

But God is the creator and the maker of everything,

including you made the sun and the moon, the stars and the night,

the mountains and the rivers, the valleys.

God made everything.

And we can talk a lot about how God is the Creator and Maker of everything.

But one thing that struck me the furthest back that you can go.

Page one.

Sentence one.

You see God in the beginning, and in the beginning you notice

one thing in the picture the steadfast love of God.

The first picture of creation shows the steadfast love of God.

The second picture is the one of Exodus.

Look with me. Verses ten and 11.

It says this

to him who

struck down the firstborn of Egypt, for his steadfast love endures forever,

and brought Israel out from among them, for his steadfast love endures forever.

The story of the axis is this amazing story in the second book of the Bible

called Exodus, God's people Israel, are enslaved in Egypt.

They've been suffering and enslaved for 400 years.

And then God raises up Moses to rescue them, to free them.

And how he does it does.

It is through, this verse to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt.

You see, God rescued his people through judgment

and through sacrifice, which is how God's rescue always works.

He rescues through judgment.

He rescues through sacrifice. He.

There was a night where God came and told his people

that I'm

going to strike down every firstborn in Egypt,

which is simply terrifying in my judgment, for their sin.

In my rebellion, I'm going to strike down every firstborn.

What I want for you to do is to sacrifice a perfect animal,

place the blood of the lamb over your door,

and when I pass through that night, I will pass over

every single house that has blood on the door.

My judgment will pass over them, and my judgment will land.

It will land on every house without the blood.

That's exactly what happened.

I was part of God's rescue.

This is a bit of a side tangent, but if you ever wonder

where is the safe place to go from the judgment of God?

The story of the scriptures says there's one thing.

There's one place you can find shelter underneath the blood of the lamb.

And we'll get back to that in a minute.

But we see here in creation, love is from the beginning,

in Exodus and God's

rescue of his people in their suffering.

It was the steadfast love of God again.

And then the third picture we see is of the Promised Land, right?

Creation, Exodus, and now the Promised Land.

He, God, is moving his people from Egypt, and he's taken them to a new home,

a new place, a new place to be the promised land.

And it sounds wonderful, but the journey there was not so simple.

It was not so simple for two reasons.

The first reason the move or the transition from Egypt

to the promised land was not simple is because of the people.

When you read the stories, you will see that they are

grumpy and whining and complaining, and it's the sin of the people

that gives them 40 years in the wilderness.

They just don't trust God.

They just don't believe in God.

They just don't want to follow God.

And the second reason why the journey is not so simple

is because the enemies against God's people, it's their sin is the first,

and then it's the enemies of God's people, which is the second.

I'm not sure if you noticed this,

but there's a lot of kings and rulers named in this song.

Let me show you.

Starting in verse 17, we see kings mentioned to him who struck down

great kings and killed mighty kings, and then calls them out by name.

Verse 19.

Sihon king of the Amorites, and OG king of Bashan.

Right.

You see this list of kings, list of people who are trying to thwart God's people.

Stop what God is doing.

Right on some level.

If you are an Israelite, if you are God's people

listening to this Psalm, you would have stories that would take

you back to the moment where you recognize that these were actual threats to us.

We were facing legitimate danger.

There was fear because these kings were present.

And what the Psalm reminds is that each time a threat came,

each time a new enemy presented itself against God's people, it was the steadfast

love of God that led them in triumph, that God was the victor.

Time and time again, three pictures and two things we just can't miss.

When you read through Psalm 136.

First, you can't miss what God's steadfast love has done.

It was his love that gave life in creation.

It was his love that rescued in the Exodus,

and it was his love that triumphed in the Promised Land.

We can't miss what his love did, and

we can't miss what his love endured.

That his love endured, the suffering of his people in Egypt,

his love endured the sin of his people in the wilderness,

and his love endured the enemies of God's people on the way to the Promised Land.

And this takes me to my fourth picture, right?

Because the story doesn't end with the Promised Land.

The Bible story moves to one climactic masterpiece of a picture

where we see the steadfast love of God again in a beautiful, grand way.

All these themes coming together, which, of course, is the cross of Jesus,

because there was a moment in human history where a Jewish

man named Jesus, the Son of God, was led up to a cross

just outside the city of Jerusalem, crucified by God's enemies.

The Roman soldiers.

And three days later, God

rose him from the dead and mean, you look back on the cross.

There's two things that we can't miss about the steadfast love of God.

That at the cross, this is where new life is given through the death of his son.

That's why the Bible calls Christians literally new creations.

The steadfast love of God at the cross rescued us

through judgment and through sacrifice.

Right?

It was Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God.

The judgment did not pass over him,

so it would pass over all who took shelter under him.

And it was God's love who triumphed on the cross over sin and Satan and death.

How great is the steadfast love of God, gives life and creation

endures our sin, our suffering, our enemies, and endures the cross.

Gratitude comes from looking up at the character of God,

looking back at the actions of God, and then looking ahead

in our own stories.

Forrest Gump is a classic movie,

came out in the mid 90s, which seems like a long time ago already.

It stars Tom Hanks playing this quirky man named Forrest Gump.

And if you've seen this movie, you recognize he just he finds himself in

just extraordinary circumstances time and time again.

And at one point in the movie, he decides to go for a run

and doesn't have a great plan.

He decides he's going to go for a run,

and he just keeps running and running and running and running.

And he ends up running for three years, two months,

14 days and 16 hours.

And then he stops, he says, I think I'm pretty tired now.

I think I'll go home.

And on some level, I wonder how many of us view

God's love in a similar way.

At some point, we're just waiting God to stay.

I'm pretty tired right now.

I'm pretty tired of you right now.

I think I'll go home.

I think I'll stop loving you.

I have a four year old son, Casey,

and a few months back he asked me one question.

You say data,

do you love me when I disobey?

Do you love me when I disobey?

What was he asking?

He was asking me how.

Dad, how strong is your love?

And the fear he had was that the strength of his sin

was greater than the strength of my love.

Why in the world

does this Psalm repeat the

same phrase 26 times?

26 times?

When was the last time someone told you anything?

3 or 4 times outside of us telling you to go to 8:00 service?

But anyways.

Because it's not sinking in

for some reason, there is a clog that we have,

and I'm deeply convinced that the greatest fear in the human heart

is that we will lose the love of God's heart,

the greatest fear that each of us

have, that at some point we will lose the love

that is in God's heart, especially in our lowest moments.

If you are here and you find yourself in a season

of suffering like that in Egypt, you are probably wondering, I wonder,

I wonder what God's love endure this.

If you find yourself in a season like the wilderness

and you are caught up in sin again, that is entangle you.

I'm sure you're wondering.

I wonder if God's love will endure this

if you were even facing significant enemies of God.

If you're under attack again, say, if you're even looking the enemy of death

and it is coming close for you or a loved one, you're probably wondering,

Will the love of God last forever

or just a long time?

It is the most common fear of the human heart

to doubt the love that is in God's heart.

And I'm convinced the reason 26 times

this phrase, steadfast love is repeated.

It's repeated so much because it is believed by

you and me so little.

A few years back there was a hurricane, Hurricane Ike,

and it hit the state of Texas really hard.

And I found this picture that's really stuck with me.

And it really captures Psalm 136.

You see the devastated the entire community.

Every single house is absolutely demolished.

But there is one house that remains,

and I can't think of a better picture of the steadfast

love of God for us.

If you are in a season

and you're wondering if the winds of your sin are strong enough

to blow over the love of God, the answer is no.

If you're in a season of suffering where the waves just seem like

they are too tall, they're going to knock over the house of God's love.

The answer is no.

The steadfast love of God.

It endures all suffering.

It endures all sin.

It endures all storms.

The weight of gratitude,

the weight of gratitude.

It's not by looking around us at the life

that we have or don't have, by looking at our God,

look up at his character and to realize that it is his goodness

that is strong and his love that is perfect.

We look back and his actions, and we look back at every old picture of God.

And we realize from the beginning through today,

he has only acted in one way with his steadfast love.

And so, more than anything else, you can know.

I can know in Christ Jesus there is absolutely nothing

that can take us away from the love of God.

So let me end with verse 26

and tell you for the 27th time, give thanks to the God of heaven,

for his steadfast love endures forever.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for

this Psalm.

And, I pray that

in this morning, God, you would you would surface our fear in our life

that that somehow, in some way, your love will stop,

that at some point, you will just grow tired of us.

And God, thank you that we know with confidence

that it is in and through Jesus

that we have your love, God, and to know you personally,

that we can trust that we will experience your love eternally.

I pray that you would cement that in our hearts and our minds.

This Thanksgiving. In Jesus name, Amen.