November 17 & 18, 2001 Sermon

November 17 & 18, 2001

"We Choose to Give Thanks"

Mike Slaughter

Job 1:6-11
6: One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.
7: The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it."
8: Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."
9: "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied.
10: "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.
11: But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."

This Thanksgiving takes on a whole new significance, wouldn't you agree? Time magazine stated this past week, "This is the kind of holiday we need right now, a holiday of paradox that comes at the end of a bitter harvest and yet finds something sweet to celebrate." The first Thanksgiving in 1621 was born in paradox. About half of the 102 people who traveled from England to America died before summer. Yet after that first fall harvest about 50 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans chose to give thanks. Since September 11, we are pilgrims again, trying to figure out how to navigate life in an unknown new world. What do you do when bad things happen? Remember that old expression, when it rains it pours? Just Monday another plane went down in Queens, New York. Do you ever ask this question, "How does a merciful, loving God, who is all powerful, allow this stuff to happen?" As a matter of fact, when I went to the gym on Monday night, several people at the gym asked me that same question.

Job 1:6-11
6: One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.
7: The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it."
8: Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."
9: "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied.
10: "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.
11: But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."

I. When Bad Things Happen
If you have your Bible, open it to the first chapter of Job. This is written as a parable or a story. It was probably never intended to be historical fact, but to give us insight into the nature of God and this very question, "Why does God allow bad things to happen to innocent people?" First chapter of Job, verse 6. "One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, 'Where have you come from?' Satan answered the Lord, 'From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.' The Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job, that there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil?' Then Satan answered the Lord, 'Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a fence, a hedge of protection, around him and his house and all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand now, remove that hedge of protection, touch all that he has and he will curse you to your face.'"
I think you would agree with me that Americans have experienced a long run of blessing. God has blessed the work of our hands and increased our possessions in the land. We have been surrounded by a hedge of protection. We have been isolated from many of the devastating effects of disease, famine, war, and natural disasters that affect much of the rest of the world. We have experienced unprecedented wealth and health. The blessings on America have been so great that they have overflowed as blessings on the world around us. Look at how America has blessed the world through technology, industry, science, education, and faith.

Job 2:9
9: His wife said to him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!"

However, there is a downside to blessing. When people are blessed a lot, people have a tendency to trust in the blessing - in wealth rather than the wisdom of God. Your focus can become finance instead of faith and you can begin to serve commerce instead of the cause of Christ. Americans believe in God. No other nation in the world reports a greater belief in God than Americans. We believe in God but we haven't depended upon God. One of the telltale signs is that in the 1990s more Americans left the church than all of the rest of the century. We believe in God but we don't need to depend upon God. So what happens when the hedge of protection is removed? We have two choices. You can choose to curse God. This was the response of Job's wife in the second chapter, ninth verse. "Job's wife said to Job, 'What is the use, Job? You do everything you are supposed to do and when you try as hard as you know how to try, God doesn't even have your back. So just curse God. We might as well eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. We might as well just do our own thing.'" There is a problem any time you try to go it alone without God. It will always infect your spirit with negativity, cynicism and bitterness. I call this losing your praise. Losing your childlike sense of awe and wonder and your ability to see God's hand in everyday life.
Andy and his wife, Kellie, have just joined our staff team, moving here from South Carolina. We had staff chapel on Thursday morning with the staff sitting in a big circle. Everyone was supposed to share some way in which they had seen God's hand. Andy said, "I can't believe it. I am in Ohio and on Wednesday I saw this incredibly beautiful sunset. Someone told me that there are no sunsets in Ohio - it just gets dark." When you fail to see the sunsets, you have lost your praise. You have lost the ability to see the awe and wonder of God's hand in everyday life. When things go wrong or bad things happen you can lose your praise or you can look for the greatness of God.

Job 1:20-21
20: At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship
21: and said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised."

II. Look for the Greatness of God
Now look with me in verse 20 and 21. "Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped." Shaved his head reminds me of a friend I knew who had to go through chemotherapy. Instead of losing his praise, he was proactive. He wasn't going to wait for his hair to fall out. He shaved his head and told everyone it was a new style. "Job shaved his head, fell on the ground and worshiped. He said, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." Now Job is saying he doesn't understand what is going on. He lost everything. He lost his kids, his wealth, everything. He said, "I don't understand what is going on, but I trust God and that God is in this, working to make something good come from it. Praise the name of the Lord.
I cannot get over the aftershocks of 9/11. I know a number of people who have been downsized in their work. Some have gone from full time to part time. Some have lost benefits. Some have lost jobs. When it rains it pours. Just in the last two months, four people close to me have either been diagnosed with cancer or one of their children has been diagnosed with cancer. How do you keep your praise in the middle of tragedies and setbacks?
There are three things we can do. Sometimes when you are in the middle of it and you can't see the forest for the trees, you need to remember and thank God for your past blessings. Look at what Job did. He lost everything yet he said, "Naked I have come into the world and naked I am going to leave." He is no fool. He knows he can't take it with him. He said God gave for a while and I am going to choose to thank God for what the Lord has given us. When in your life have you not been able to see a way through yet God came through? We choose to give thanks don't we? Right now you might not be able to identify anything good, but all of us can look back and name one thing that God has done to bless in the past. Take a moment right now to name one specific way God has blessed you in the past for which you give thanks.

Psalm 33:11
11: But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.

The second way to keep your praise in the midst of tragedy and setbacks is to thank God for what God is going to do in the future. God created you with a future hope. God did not make you for destruction or failure. Just because you are experiencing problems doesn't mean that God's promise or purpose for you has changed. Listen to what it says in Psalm 33:11, "But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of God's heart through all generations."

1 Chronicles 16:15
15: He remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded, for a thousand generations,

Listen to I Chronicles 16:15, "God remembers his covenant forever, the word he commanded for a thousand generations." Just because you are experiencing problems right now doesn't mean that God's purpose for your life has changed. It is why the grave couldn't hold Jesus. God's purpose could not be changed. God is the turnaround specialist when it comes to the purpose and promise he has for your life. Thank God ahead of time for the victory that will come into your life through Jesus. So right now with whatever it is - your marriage, your children, your job - even if you can't see the forest for the trees, thank God for what God is going to do in the future. Just because you are experiencing problems right now does not change God's promise.

John 11:1-6, 21
1: Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
2: This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.
3: So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick."
4: When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it."
5: Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
6: Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
21: "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

The third thing we do is to look past the problem to God's greater purpose. By no means do I believe that God has caused the problems or tragedies that we are experiencing in America. But I believe God uses problems to get us to focus on the greater purpose. Jesus had a friend by the name of Lazarus who had two sisters named Martha and Mary. We read about their story in the Gospel of John, chapter 11. "A certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed Jesus with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair. Her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, 'Lord, the one whom you love is ill.' But Jesus didn't show up." In verse 21 we read, "When Jesus came, Martha said, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.'" Can you relate to that? Have you ever said that to God, "Where were you?" He loved you, Lord. He served you. If you had been here you could have done something about it, but he died. Jesus in verse four said, "It isn't about death and dying, it is about God getting the glory." I say this every week, but can I say it again? Life is not about you and me or what we are experiencing in any given moment. It is about what God wants to do through you and me. It is about what God wants to give through you and me. It is about what God wants to accomplish through you and me. So we need to trust God with the bigger picture. God does not create or cause the problems we are experiencing, but God uses the problems we are experiencing to get us to focus on the greater purpose.
Picture a line that represents the continuum of time. You and I can only see this microscopic dot right here on the continuum. Time keeps going forever that way and forever this way, and here we are just on this little microscopic dot. It is all we see and because this is all we see, then for us this is the absolute beginning and this is the absolute end. We get all caught up in what is happening right here on this little microscopic dot. God is not limited to the microscopic dot. God is on both sides of the dot. It is what Jesus meant when he said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die." God uses the problems that we are experiencing in this microscopic dot to focus on God's greatest purpose. The forces of evil thought that if they could create terror in this country, if the hedge of protection would be lifted, Americans would curse God. But instead, Americans went back to church!
God has taken a higher profile in American life. People are praying. Did you know that right now half of Manhattan is going to church? That is an unchurched place. Around the rest of the country attendance is 5-10% higher. Bible sales are up 42%. God has taken a higher profile in American life. God does not create the problems in our life, but God uses the problems to get us to focus on the greater purpose.
Public schools in New York are giving classrooms to Muslim children this month so they can celebrate Ramadan. They are talking about opening classrooms during Lent so priests can come in and mark kids' heads with ashes. In the 70s, 80s and 90s we worked really hard to keep God out, but now we are finding ways to get God in. I read a quote Ophah made in O magazine this week. "There has been so much talk about getting back to normal, but I really hope we don't. I pray that we transcend what was normal for many - this being pre-occupied with meaningless things, obsessing about things that in the long- and short-run don't matter. But I pray to God that we don't go back to normal." On September 11, God didn't create the problem, but God can get us to focus on a greater purpose. All those folks who gave their life on September 11 demonstrated what mattered. People were calling home expressing love in their last minutes. They were demonstrating faith and they were turning to God in prayer. Life is too short to be pre-occupied and obsessed about things in the long- and short-run that don't matter. People of Jesus, it is time to phone home. I am not talking about going back to church on just one weekend, or giving thanks on a national holiday. I am talking about a lifestyle where we turn in a deeper way and give ourselves to God. I am talking about a lifestyle of thanksgiving where we truly sacrifice and give ourselves for other people. Wouldn't that be a movement of God's spirit? Wouldn't that be a new place, a bigger picture place to go?
You might find yourself facing what might seem insurmountable obstacles or a hopeless situation. Jesus is the turnaround specialist. Jesus came to turn things around. The word repentance means to turn things around. I know no better time than this - as we stand in the week of Thanksgiving - to say, "We give ourselves anew to you, Lord Jesus." To depend upon you, to be thankful to you. We give ourselves in sacrifice for the wellbeing of folks all around us. There is no better time than now to make that declaration to Jesus Christ.
Let's pray: Lord we come before you, not because we can always trace the direction of your hand, but because we trust the intention of your heart. We choose to give thanks. Though bad things will happen to innocent people and though evil is still loose in our world, we choose to give thanks. Even when your greatness is momentarily hidden and the storms of life have yet to cease, we choose to give thanks. However long it takes for you to turn things around, God, and however deep the grave would appear, no matter how black the night of suffering should become, we will trust in you, the God of Resurrection. Because of Jesus, we choose to give thanks. Amen.