Sermon Illustrations for Thanksgiving Day (2014)
Illustration
Object:
Deuteronomy 8:7-18
Success has a way of making you too big for your britches. In fact, success is often a function of "the cards you've been dealt" in life -- your gene pool (whether you inherited intelligence) and how you get your money. In a recent best-selling book Capital in the Twenty- First Century, French economist Thomas Piketty has demonstrated statistically that the global market is rigged so that those getting income from investments (and many of the wealthy get those as a birthright) will almost inevitably get richer than those living from a salary. (This explains the ever-growing disparity between rich and poor.)
Martin Luther well expresses these findings, reminding us that everything good in our lives is something God did for us or through us:
For when wealth abounds, the godless heart of man feels: "I have wrought these things with my own efforts." Nor does it notice that these are simply blessings of God sometimes through our efforts, sometimes without our efforts, but never from our efforts and always given out of his free mercy... He uses our effort as a mask under which he blesses us and dispenses his gifts, so that there is a place for faith.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 9, p. 96)
This recognition is good for us, cuts us down to size in a healthy way. As John Wesley put it:
The mercies of God, if duly considered, are as powerful a means to humble us as the greatest afflictions, because they increase our debts to God and manifest our dependence upon him. And by making God great, they make us little in our own eyes.
(Commentary on the Bible, p. 139)
Thanksgiving makes you a little less full of yourself, a little easier to live with.
Mark E.
Deuteronomy 8:7-18
Alfred Hitchcock was recognized in the film industry as a director whose movies typically progressed from the deceptively commonplace trifles of life to shattering revelations.
Application: When God instructed the people were to be brought into the good land they were not to forget him during the seemly mundane commonplace, for shattering revelations did await them.
Ron L.
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
William Law is credited with saying that the greatest saint in the world is not the person who prays the most, gives the most, fasts more than others, or is the greatest in temperance, chastity, or justice. It is the person who is most thankful to God, and who has a heart ready to ever give praise.
Paul tells us in the scripture that those who are ready to give will do so with a cheerful heart! What are we ready to give thanksgiving for in our lives?
How about...
...sunshine and showers
...birds and flowers
...freedom and liberty
...family and friends
...salvation and sanctification
...the labor of others -- living and dead
...time and work
...hope and help
...etc!
Maurice Dametz said, "Thanksgiving is a sure index of spiritual health." How thankful are you today?
Derl K.
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
Shouldn't Thanksgiving be a happy time? Shouldn't we find part of our joy in helping others who have no meal? I remember what a reward I felt when a beggar came to me on the street in New Jersey asking for money. Instead of giving him a dollar or two (which he might have spent on booze), I took him into a restaurant and let him order what he wanted (for which I paid). There were tears in his eyes as he thanked me. I felt a great reward knowing that I had helped someone. Didn't Jesus tell us that whatever we did to the "least" of these we did to him?
Sometimes we don't see the person we are helping when we make a contribution in the offering plate, but then we may see a picture of someone who was helped in a church publication.
God has blessed us so that we may be a blessing! God may permit us to use his blessings for a new car or a fur coat, but the greatest blessings come when we know we have helped someone who had nothing. God did not pile riches on the 1% just for their own enjoyment because they have "earned" it.
Someone asked me how much I earned as a pastor. I told him "about $500,000 a year." He looked at me shocked. "What do you do with all that money?" he asked. I answered, "I wasn't paid that much! You asked how much did I earn." There are many who are not paid what they earn. If your talent is making money, it doesn't mean you earned more than others whose talent happens to be different, but just as (or maybe more) important as yours. A schoolteacher's job may be far more important than a stockbroker's or bank executive's, for example.
A lady in one of my churches whose husband was a banker volunteered at a food pantry, and she was so rewarded by seeing all the sometimes homeless people come in and eat! She could see the gratitude in their eyes.
When I was in Nepal we had a morning devotion that was often attended by people who came to our clinic for help. One morning a two-year-old boy who was starving sat so close to me I could touch his tiny head. It touched my heart so much I don't think I will ever be the same. Now when I see ads to help the starving I have an experience in my heart that opens up my wallet. I think how blessed we are in this country and feel that I must show God my thankfulness by contributing to others who are not so blessed.
We show our thankfulness to God by helping others!
Bob O.
Luke 17:11-19
We get so turned off by a lack of gratitude in most people. We just have to live with it. A 2012 poll by the Templeton Foundation found that less than 50% of Americans claim to express gratitude or thankfulness to others frequently. Jesus put up with such a lack of thankfulness in our lesson. As it did not matter to him, did not stop him from doing good, so lack of thankfulness need not interfere with our doing good. It is like Martin Luther once said in a sermon:
Whoever wants to be a Christian must clearly understand the fact that all his good deeds, faithfulness, and service to others will only result in ingratitude, and he must guard against letting that fact move him to quit doing good deeds and helping others.
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 6, p. 427)
But our Father in heaven and our Lord Jesus Christ are the ones from whom we must learn this art. Our Father in heaven makes his sun to shine not only on pious people who will thank him, but also on the wicked who do not thank him, but misuse and abuse every good gift of God.
(Ibid.)
Get over your hang up about ingratitude. God has. He lets the sun shine on us, gives us air to breathe, and feeds us, even when we are ungrateful.
Mark E.
Luke 17:11-19
Cecil B. DeMille produced more than seventy major motion pictures during the course of his career. He did not receive an Oscar until his fortieth year in the business. When asked about the long wait for such recognition, De Mille replied, "I win my rewards at the box office."
Application: Understanding our blessings and being thankful is not to be based upon award commission but upon the impact we make on others. The one who returned to give thanks to Jesus realized it was Jesus approval that was important, not that of the temple priests.
Ron L.
Success has a way of making you too big for your britches. In fact, success is often a function of "the cards you've been dealt" in life -- your gene pool (whether you inherited intelligence) and how you get your money. In a recent best-selling book Capital in the Twenty- First Century, French economist Thomas Piketty has demonstrated statistically that the global market is rigged so that those getting income from investments (and many of the wealthy get those as a birthright) will almost inevitably get richer than those living from a salary. (This explains the ever-growing disparity between rich and poor.)
Martin Luther well expresses these findings, reminding us that everything good in our lives is something God did for us or through us:
For when wealth abounds, the godless heart of man feels: "I have wrought these things with my own efforts." Nor does it notice that these are simply blessings of God sometimes through our efforts, sometimes without our efforts, but never from our efforts and always given out of his free mercy... He uses our effort as a mask under which he blesses us and dispenses his gifts, so that there is a place for faith.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 9, p. 96)
This recognition is good for us, cuts us down to size in a healthy way. As John Wesley put it:
The mercies of God, if duly considered, are as powerful a means to humble us as the greatest afflictions, because they increase our debts to God and manifest our dependence upon him. And by making God great, they make us little in our own eyes.
(Commentary on the Bible, p. 139)
Thanksgiving makes you a little less full of yourself, a little easier to live with.
Mark E.
Deuteronomy 8:7-18
Alfred Hitchcock was recognized in the film industry as a director whose movies typically progressed from the deceptively commonplace trifles of life to shattering revelations.
Application: When God instructed the people were to be brought into the good land they were not to forget him during the seemly mundane commonplace, for shattering revelations did await them.
Ron L.
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
William Law is credited with saying that the greatest saint in the world is not the person who prays the most, gives the most, fasts more than others, or is the greatest in temperance, chastity, or justice. It is the person who is most thankful to God, and who has a heart ready to ever give praise.
Paul tells us in the scripture that those who are ready to give will do so with a cheerful heart! What are we ready to give thanksgiving for in our lives?
How about...
...sunshine and showers
...birds and flowers
...freedom and liberty
...family and friends
...salvation and sanctification
...the labor of others -- living and dead
...time and work
...hope and help
...etc!
Maurice Dametz said, "Thanksgiving is a sure index of spiritual health." How thankful are you today?
Derl K.
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
Shouldn't Thanksgiving be a happy time? Shouldn't we find part of our joy in helping others who have no meal? I remember what a reward I felt when a beggar came to me on the street in New Jersey asking for money. Instead of giving him a dollar or two (which he might have spent on booze), I took him into a restaurant and let him order what he wanted (for which I paid). There were tears in his eyes as he thanked me. I felt a great reward knowing that I had helped someone. Didn't Jesus tell us that whatever we did to the "least" of these we did to him?
Sometimes we don't see the person we are helping when we make a contribution in the offering plate, but then we may see a picture of someone who was helped in a church publication.
God has blessed us so that we may be a blessing! God may permit us to use his blessings for a new car or a fur coat, but the greatest blessings come when we know we have helped someone who had nothing. God did not pile riches on the 1% just for their own enjoyment because they have "earned" it.
Someone asked me how much I earned as a pastor. I told him "about $500,000 a year." He looked at me shocked. "What do you do with all that money?" he asked. I answered, "I wasn't paid that much! You asked how much did I earn." There are many who are not paid what they earn. If your talent is making money, it doesn't mean you earned more than others whose talent happens to be different, but just as (or maybe more) important as yours. A schoolteacher's job may be far more important than a stockbroker's or bank executive's, for example.
A lady in one of my churches whose husband was a banker volunteered at a food pantry, and she was so rewarded by seeing all the sometimes homeless people come in and eat! She could see the gratitude in their eyes.
When I was in Nepal we had a morning devotion that was often attended by people who came to our clinic for help. One morning a two-year-old boy who was starving sat so close to me I could touch his tiny head. It touched my heart so much I don't think I will ever be the same. Now when I see ads to help the starving I have an experience in my heart that opens up my wallet. I think how blessed we are in this country and feel that I must show God my thankfulness by contributing to others who are not so blessed.
We show our thankfulness to God by helping others!
Bob O.
Luke 17:11-19
We get so turned off by a lack of gratitude in most people. We just have to live with it. A 2012 poll by the Templeton Foundation found that less than 50% of Americans claim to express gratitude or thankfulness to others frequently. Jesus put up with such a lack of thankfulness in our lesson. As it did not matter to him, did not stop him from doing good, so lack of thankfulness need not interfere with our doing good. It is like Martin Luther once said in a sermon:
Whoever wants to be a Christian must clearly understand the fact that all his good deeds, faithfulness, and service to others will only result in ingratitude, and he must guard against letting that fact move him to quit doing good deeds and helping others.
(Complete Sermons, Vol. 6, p. 427)
But our Father in heaven and our Lord Jesus Christ are the ones from whom we must learn this art. Our Father in heaven makes his sun to shine not only on pious people who will thank him, but also on the wicked who do not thank him, but misuse and abuse every good gift of God.
(Ibid.)
Get over your hang up about ingratitude. God has. He lets the sun shine on us, gives us air to breathe, and feeds us, even when we are ungrateful.
Mark E.
Luke 17:11-19
Cecil B. DeMille produced more than seventy major motion pictures during the course of his career. He did not receive an Oscar until his fortieth year in the business. When asked about the long wait for such recognition, De Mille replied, "I win my rewards at the box office."
Application: Understanding our blessings and being thankful is not to be based upon award commission but upon the impact we make on others. The one who returned to give thanks to Jesus realized it was Jesus approval that was important, not that of the temple priests.
Ron L.
