Sacrifices of Thanksgiving 1984

It certainly sounded as though, this man, everybody's going to be saved, everybody's going to make it. If he takes away the sin of the world, everybody, everybody's sin, then who can be lost? Yet Jesus, the Lamb himself, laid down his life for the sin of the world, makes clear that even though the heart of God opens so wide as to provide cleansing and healing and light for everyone who has ever been or will ever be born, there will still be a hell, and it will be occupied. Reading from Matthew 7, 13, Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.

For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard, that leads to light, and those who find it are few. So who gets in? We know the answer that we ourselves give very often. You know, we believe and teach and confess to people.

Those who open their hearts and receive salvation, those who reach out and take this gift of life that God gives, by faith, they make it. And yet we have to understand again that Jesus says, there are those who do all those things, they open their hearts, they receive salvation, they take it by faith, and still something goes wrong. For instance, the man who was forgiven, the servant who was forgiven a million dollars by his master, received salvation, that was his salvation, he was given life.

And he has it now. See, but then he turns around and grabs his fellow servant by the throat for $75, and he loses what he had. The seed that is sown on rocky soil is real seed, it has real life, and it grows up, but then it dies.

The seed that's sown among the thorns in our Lord's parable is real seed, and it has real life, and it grows, but it never bears mature fruit. So, what do we do to get through that narrow gate? What is it that will take us on that narrow way all the way to the city of God? What kind of faith is it that remains steadfast, that never burns out, that keeps right on going, and is sustained by holy joy in the midst of the darkest storms? Reading from Luke 17, starting at verse 11. On the way to Jerusalem, he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee, and as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

When he saw them, he said to them, go show yourselves to the priests, and as they went, they were cleansed. Then, one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now, he was a Samaritan.

Then said Jesus, we're not ten cleansed. Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? And he said to him, rise and go your way. Your faith has made you whole.

Your faith has made you well. But what about the other nine? Weren't they made well? We're told that as they went their way, they were cleansed, and it's true they were cleansed, and yet their cleansing never got below their skin. The leprosy is gone, see, but the heart is still hard as a rock.

The inmost life is still as sick as it ever was. Only to the Samaritans does Jesus say, rise, go your way. Your faith has made you whole, because this is the only one of the ten who has healing that gets below his skin and transforms his inmost life.

Now, to be touched by the healing hand of God, even on the surface of our lives, is absolutely wonderful, just wonderful. You know, whether it's leprosy, or some gnawing fear, or an addiction, or depression, or whatever it is that we have wrong with us, to have the hand of the Lord come down and touch us, and this thing lifts and goes away, it's so wonderful, it's frightening. And many of us here, perhaps most of us here, have experienced that in some way.

But again, many of us are really like those nine lepers. We got touched, we got healed, we got some of the leprosy taken away, but somehow it never got down in. The heart, still hard.

The spirit inside is still heavy. And we know that the supernatural work that touched us on the surface, inside us, is incomplete. When you see a building that's half finished, you say, pretty soon it's going to be completed, and it will be alive, it's wonderful.

And you look forward to that. See, but if that same building stands there two, three, four, five years, especially if it's in Mako territory, you know, they get angry. You know, that thing is no longer something that inspires hope, that's an eyesore, that's a trouble-sore, that's an eye-sore, that's a trouble-sore, spot.

We have to get rid of that. And many of us are like that. And the thing that makes us like half-finished buildings that remain half-finished for years and years and years, is the same thing that caused the nine lepers to go on their way.

The same thing that caused this man who was forgiven a million dollars to go and grab his fellow servant by the throat for 75. The same thing that causes the seed that is sown on rocky soil to spring up and then wither away, and the soil seed that was sown among the thorns to grow up and choke down. Somehow, either because of our pride or because of our preoccupation with ourselves, if that's any different, we never get around to saying, thank you.

You see, when we never say thank you, with our mouth and with our life, our hearts very quickly harden against the grace and the mercy of God. See, eternal life is not something we get after we die. Not for us, at least.

For us, we're exposed to life now. Now is the time we get it. Everlasting life begins the moment we begin to say thank you for the mercy that comes with our life, with our mouth, with everything we have.

See, the life of the Lord does not ignite us. We don't catch fire with it until we begin to say thank you. Psalm 116 verse 12.

What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord.

I will take the cup of salvation. I'll receive the grace, the healing, the life, the mercy that has come to me, and I will begin to say thank you to this. I will also offer back my life as a living sacrifice, a sacrifice of thanksgiving, like the leper who threw himself down at Jesus.

The book of Romans, as you know, goes for 11 chapters, describing in great detail the mercy of God, mercy of God, and mercy of God. Then we get to chapter 12, verse 1. Bam, he says, I beseech you therefore, because of this mercy which I've just described, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice. What kind of sacrifice? A sacrifice of thanksgiving in response to this mercy.

Then he goes on to say, and don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And the renewed mind that is no longer warped with the atmosphere of take, take, take, take, is a mind that eats and sleeps and walks and talks thanksgiving all the time. Look at the example of our Lord.

His whole life was a sacrifice of thanksgiving offered back to his Father. He came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. And he did it with an atmosphere of continuous gratitude and thanksgiving.

I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babe. Yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will. Thank you, Father, for these five loaves.

Thank you, Father, for these two fish. And then he passes them out, and he feeds them multiply. Thank you, Father, thank you for this bread.

This is my body, which is given for you. Thank you for this cup of wine, Lord God, my Father. Take and drink.

This is the cup of the new covenant, my blood shed for you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. All the time this man, our Lord, says thank you.

Never gets tired of it. The apostle Paul, read his epistles, and you find every one of them just saturated with thanksgiving. Thank you, thank you.

All the time he says this. Example, Philippians chapter 1, verse 3. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy, thankful for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Never tires of giving thanks.

And in every one of his epistles, he also includes exhortations to us to give thanks. And so we read in Colossians 3, 15. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called into one body, and be thankful.

And let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your heart, the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Here we see the difference between flash-in-the-pan revival that flares up and lasts for six months and then dies, and revival that lasts forever.

What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? What are we rendering to him for his awesome mercy? See, are we taking the touch that we received, the healing, whatever it was that came to us, and running with it like the nine leopards? Or are we, like the Samaritan, turning back and offering ourselves, body, soul, and spirit, as a sacrifice of thanksgiving? Now a sacrifice of thanksgiving has three parts. Part one, you say it. You say thank you.

Example, Luke, again from this passage, then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. Part two, you do something to show that you mean thank him. And he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.

Part three, you spend, you live the rest of your life as a thank you to God. And Jesus said to him, rise and go your way. Your faith has made you well.

And the way he went was the way of thanksgiving. First, you say it. You say thank you.

I mean, if this was the way our Lord did it, all the time saying thank you, and if this was the habit of the Apostle Paul, thank you, thank you, thank you, this must be, there must be something worth doing about this. And so we learn to say thank you, all the time. We begin the day, you know, go along someplace, somewhere in a corner, and we begin to say thank you.

This day, thank you. I mentioned before a few times, but I mean, appropriate here. Years and years ago, I went to the Nova Scotia Hospital, a mental hospital outside of Halifax, and went to see this patient, and she said, you've got to meet somebody.

And she comes back and brings this woman who comes running into the room. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.

God is so good. And she says, I was out on the streets of Halifax, it was wintertime, and the policeman came and arrested me. They took me in the police car.

They brought me here. I got a shower, fresh clothes, good food. This is a wonderful place.

Wonderful. And, you know, you just couldn't knock her down. She was just full of gratitude and thanksgiving.

And Hilda, the one that I was visiting, said, you know, since she came on the ward, the whole place has changed. She gets everybody around the piano, and they're singing songs, and they're thanking God. And it was funny, you know, I was leaving the room, visiting with these two women, and the assistant superintendent of the whole hospital, his name was Dr. Bentley, says, come over here.

He says, what do you think of her? And I said, you know, I said, looks okay to me. You know, as I look back, what I should have said to him, man, she's miles ahead of us. You know, I don't know where she is now, but all I know that she was functioning as an angel, because she could say thank you all the time.

When we break bread, when we eat, thank you for this food. Thank you. When we come together in this fellowship, what a difference it will make in our worship, our relationships with each other, if we start saying thank you.

Thank you for these brothers and sisters. What a privilege to be able to be with them. Thank you for that.

Instead of, uh-oh, here she comes. Oh, you know, where she's been three weeks. You know, so it's thank you, thank you.

When we're thankful to God for each other, what a blessing this brings. And then finally we go out into the world, you know, and we go out there with thanksgiving. Thank you for the people walking down the street, Lord.

Thank you for the air we're breathing. Thank you for the rain. Thank you for the blue sky.

And then it's not only thank you for the gifts that you have given me, Lord, but thank you for yourself. You know, our goal is God himself, not the blessing, but God. Thank you for you, Lord God.

Thank you. Step two. We do something to show that we mean thank you.

The leper turned and fell on his face. He prostrated himself physically at the feet of Jesus, giving him thanks. Then there was Zacchaeus the tax collector.

He stood up at dinner and he said, half my goods I give to the poor. From now on, I'm giving half of my money, everything away. And if I've cheated anybody, I'm going to give it back fourfold.

As an act of thanksgiving for the mercy and the love that had visited his house, that thing in Jesus was salvation. He did something. It was worth it.

I mean, he could do without half his goods and still be. I mean, he's far ahead. Then there's another tax collector, Levi.

Jesus walks along one day and says, come on, Levi, get out of there. Come with me. And in great joy, Levi leaves his office and his desk and everything and trots off after Jesus.

But the first thing Levi does, first thing he does, doesn't seem very religious, but he sends out invitations to all the tax collectors on the northern shore of Galilee. You know, he says, I want you to come to dinner. I want to have a big bash.

I want you all to come. I'm so, I want you to rejoice with me. I've been called to follow Jesus and I wanted to meet him and I want you to meet these other guys.

And so they all come. It's wonderful, you know, and it was an act of thanksgiving. Jacob, as a young man, is scared to death.

He's running eastward to keep from getting killed by his brother Esau, who has reason to kill him. And he's alone and he's in danger. And that night as he sleeps, he sees his vision of a stairway going up to heaven, angels coming and going, God up above, Yahweh up there.

And in the morning, when he wakes up, he pours oil on the stone, which was his pillow. And he promises 10% of everything from now on. Abraham, coming back from the battle of the kings to rescue his nephew Lot, meets or is met by Melchizedek, the king of Shalom.

Melchizedek means king of righteousness, and he was king of Salem, which later becomes Jerusalem, king of peace. And he offers to and gives to Melchizedek, who is the forerunner of the Christ, 10% of all the spoil. And then he takes all the rest of the spoil and gives it to the other kings who helped him.

And he keeps nothing for himself. As an act of thanksgiving. The woman who comes in, when she finds out that Jesus is having dinner at the house of Simon the Pharisee, and starts to wash his feet with her tears, wipes them with her hands, covers them with expensive oil, is doing something to show that she means thank you.

What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? What am I doing? Have you ever done some specific thing? You bought your mother, if she's living, a card or some flowers? You did something. It truly helps. It seals it to do something as an act of thanksgiving to God.

Whatever it is, somebody who needs, you know, a hundred dollars down in, you know, North Carolina, or somebody who's, you know, or send somebody to care, whatever, do something, whatever it is, some specific thing as an act of thanksgiving. Finally, we're to spend, to pour out the remainder of our lives as a thank you to God. And that's really what Paul's talking about in Colossians 3. Let the peace of Christ dwell in your hearts, to which indeed you were called into one body, and be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father Our lives no longer belong to us. They belong to Him.

They've been ransomed. We've been bought out of pop, you know, and now we belong to Him. And our life is to be now a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

We are no longer here to be served, but to serve. And I say, what did I get out of it today? No, what did you put into it today? Did you pray? Did you give somebody some encouragement to be served and to lay down our lives as an offering of thanksgiving to God? And this translates in specific things to daily living. You know, so it's like this, you know, you eat food.

Now you put a new kind of salt on this food. You know, it's not going to give you high blood pressure or harden your arteries. It's a salt of thanksgiving.

You can be a three-shaped person or a pen-shaped person. It doesn't matter. It'll make a better Thanksgiving with your food, your daily work.

You're fixing the car, you're changing diapers, you're planting a tree, you're looking after the flowers. Whatever it is, you're writing a letter, you're listening to music, you're walking down by the river. Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving.

Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. And those who enter by it are many, for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Now, the thing that makes the gate so narrow and the way so hard is very simple.

Our heads are so big, we can't get through. And our hearts are so hard, we're sagging down. Our ungrateful hearts and our ungrateful heads, the minute we begin to say thank you, we find rest, we find a true Sabbath rest on the narrow road.

And we get right through that narrow gate, we slip right through like we're an eagle, no problem. And when we begin to offer our lives back as a sacrifice of thanksgiving, his yoke becomes easy and his burden becomes light. And when we start spending every hour of every day as a thank you to God, we mount up on wings like eagles, we run and are not weary, we walk and never.

What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows now in the presence of all his people. I will offer to thee a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Let's do it. Let's begin. Lord God, we just ask that you'd help us to see how easy it is to come off our high horse and to take off this phony big fat mask and to come down to be children and to say thank you again, and perhaps for the first time.

And we pray that our hearts are stoned by the help of your spirit, would be softened and turned to hearts of flesh, and that today, this very day, we would begin to become as never before a people of thanksgiving. Thankful, thankful, thankful in every situation where we find ourselves. And may an atmosphere of thanksgiving transform our hard hearts, our cynical, judgmental natures, our seedy eyes into something that's kind and truly of you.

We ask it for your mercy, sir.