Sermon Illustrations for Thanksgiving (2018)
Illustration
Joel 2:21-27 and Psalm 126
That psalm could be for someone who was out of work who the Lord finds a job for. They can rejoice and give thanks for the Lord’s restoration. They will have a happy thanksgiving. Even those still out of work have a Lord who is keeping them alive until a more permanent answer arrives.
We can all find something to be thankful for. Thanksgiving is at least one time when we can make a list of all those things. Some take paper and pen and do that.
California had a time of drought and also a time of flood. We all have ups and downs in our life. During some of the up times in California locust had their time of thanksgiving. What’s down for some may be up for others.
One thing that we can always be thankful for is that we have a God who cares for us. Even in our worst suffering we know that there is a place waiting for us because of the suffering of our Lord on the cross. After his suffering he rose for all eternity and is waiting for us.
There are “dreamers” coming to our country. One of our jobs as God’s people is to help them fulfill their dreams even though our country has some laws against it. It can help to remember that Jesus died for those people as he died for us. That is a message for our country!
One fellow wrote a letter to our newspaper quoting Paul in Romans commanding us to obey our countries leaders to make God happy. I wrote back that God was happy with the Christian Germans who disobeyed Hitler’s law and hid Jews in their attic.
We have to decide which laws are more important. Jesus died for people, not principles. The Pharisees were the most principled people in Jesus’ days on earth.
We can find joy this season by making others thankful for what we might do for them and what Jesus has done and can do for them.
Bob O.
* * *
Psalm 126
Rejoicing is sometimes hard for us. We think about all the limitations around us. We think about what we can’t do, what we can’t have, where we can’t go? We don’t think about all that we have going for us. We seek happiness as if it were something external, something that comes from the world. Yet, happiness, rejoicing comes from inside us, from our gratitude for the giftedness of the world and our lives. There is an asking for renewal and restoration in this psalm, but the joy of the people, the rejoicing comes first.
Today is Thanksgiving Day. Instead of thinking about all that is not right with our lives, with our relationships and with the world, let us rejoice in the gifts we have been given, the relationships we have and the creation in which we reside. Let us sing our rejoicing with gratitude. “Praise God from whom all blessings flow. (Christian Doxology)”
Bonnie B.
* * *
Psalm 126
Augustine offers a hopeful word for the future based on this psalm:
For now the Lord hath renewed us in Baptism, and we have become new men, in hope indeed rejoicing, in order that in tribulation we may be patient... (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol.1:8, p.358)
The psalm refers to God making us like a stream in the desert (v.4). About this, Martin Luther writes:
Second, the stream is the Christian people who are willing and running in the way of God. (Luther’s Works, Vol.11, p.552)
When God’s people are running like a stream, not just as individual drops of water, they are more likely to make more of an impact on the surrounding environment. Collectively, as churches, we can make a difference.
The psalm concludes with a reference to the joy the faithful will experience (v.6). And as the famed evangelist Bill Sunday once said, “If you have no joy, there’s a leak in your Christianity somewhere.”
Mark E.
* * *
1 Timothy 2:1-7
On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the 16th President of the United States. The Republican candidate, Lincoln defeated the Democratic candidate Stephen Douglas. After his defeat, Douglas continued to serve as a United States senator from Illinois. On Inauguration Day, Lincoln approached the rostrum to take his oath, holding a copy of his speech, his cane and his hat. Lincoln laid the cane down, but there was no place to put his hat. Douglas, who was sitting nearby, quickly came forward and took Lincoln’s hat. Douglas told a friend seated next to him, “If I can’t be President, I can at least hold his hat.”
Application: On this Thanksgiving Day we need to be able to show our appreciation.
Ron L.
* * *
1 Timothy 2:1-7
In 1 Timothy 2:6 Paul uses the word “antillutron” or “ransom” to describe what Jesus gave himself as on behalf of fallen man. A ransom is a price paid to purchase someone's freedom. In 1193, the English King Richard I, also known as Richard the Lionheart, was returning from leading a Crusade to the Holy Land. As he was coming back through Europe, Leopold V captured him in Austria. The Holy Roman Emperor demanded a ransom for Richard's release. The price was 150,000 marks, equal to three tons of silver. This was a huge ransom demand, but the people of England so loved their king they submitted to extra taxation, and many nobles donated their fortunes for the king’s release. After many months, the money was raised, and King Richard returned to England. The expression, “a king's ransom,” according to many, comes from this story. Jesus, the King of Kings, was involved in the greatest “king’s ransom,” however, his was different. He wasn't being ransomed. He paid the ransom, so we can be set free. It is the most expensive ransom in the history of mankind. It was paid not in gold or silver, but by the body and blood of Jesus, himself.
Bill T.
* * *
1 Timothy 2:1-7
The apostle Paul called upon Christians to give thanks to God and pray for all those in authority, not because these leaders were good, but because they had the power of life and death over us, and sometimes they’re just crazy.
During the Civil War, those known as Dunkers or Brethren, along with Mennonites and Quakers, suffered on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line because they refused to take up arms. Things were much worse for those in the South than the North. P.R. Wrightsman of Limestone, Tennessee, wrote after the war about an incident that took place in the summer of 1863:
… Southern soldiers… came from time to time for three years and took my crops and horses.… Their language and manner impressed me that they came with intent to kill me.… I just stepped inside the stable, stood with my hands upwards, and prayed to my heavenly Father, saying, “Dear Father, save me from these men. Have mercy upon them, and turn them from their evil course, and save thy servant.”
I never exercised stronger faith in prayer than at that time. It seemed as if I was speaking face to face with my blessed Lord. When I stepped out to the soldiers I felt that God had answered my prayer, for I could see the Satanic look going down out of their faces like the shadow of a cloud before the bright sunlight.
The soldiers then said to me, “Mr. Wrightsman, can we get some bread? “O yes,” said I, “we are commanded to feed the hungry.” I went at once to the kitchen and requested my sisters to cut off a large slice of bread, and butter it for each of them. They did so and I took it out into the yard and handed a slice to each. They thanked me for the bread, bowed their heads, mounted their horses and rode away, taking my last horse with them, however. Feeling sure the Lord had saved my life, I felt happy, thanked God and took courage. (Quotation from “The Olive Branch.”)
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 6:25-33
One of the reasons we are not as thankful as you would think we Americans should be has to do with our view of God. Though most of us would never admit it, a lot of us are practicing deists -- believing that God made the world and then lets us live, like a clock keeps ticking once the watchmaker winds it up. The most recent poll on the subject, a Harris poll conducted over a decade ago (2006), revealed that nearly half of the population (44%) believes that God is not directly involved in events, is just an observer.
Martin Luther helps us to see that a lot of what we think we are doing is really God’s work. He said that we are just “the fingers of God” (Complete Sermons, Vol.6, p.400) or his “masks” (Luther’s Works, Vol.14, pp.114-115). Fingers and masks don’t deserve much credit. It’s the one who uses them (God) who does the real work. Modern physics provides another analogy for understanding God’s role in our lives. It has developed a largely substantiated theory called The Higgs Boson. It is said to be a fundamental field which, like molasses, functions with objects, holds the fundamental particles of atoms together, so they have mass. This invisible field holding matter together is said to be in all matter. Sometimes called the “God-Particle,” Christians might understand God to be in this invisible particle, to be in all that is, while still transcendent. This concept allows us to agree with Jesus that as birds and lilies can be assured of growth and prey, for God is with them, so we have that assurance he goes with us, holding our bodies and our relationships together, in all that we do. Nothing we do or are is done alone, without God’s presence, and so thanking him for all good we have is most appropriate.
Mark E.
* * *
Matthew 6:25-33
Why do we use only one day a year to show our thankfulness to our God. We should thank him everyday that we live and every hour of the day.
When I was recovering from surgery in a rehabilitation hospital I lay worrying about all the items in this lesson plus many more about my future both there and when I would get out. I decided that a Christians I should pray about those things instead of just worrying and complaining. Finally, I gave up and decided to just watch TV for a while. But the moment I touch the “on” button a figure of Jesus filled the screen and he said, “Have no anxiety about anything…..” I can’t believe that was just a coincidence. I felt it was God answering me, telling me to be patient. So I began to be thankful for all I had endured and for the caring people surrounding me. That experience has made me turn to Jesus whenever I had anxiety about anything.
God doesn’t answer all our prayers right away. I believe he does answer them as scripture promises, but he does it in his time. Some prayers may not be answered for years. My mother had prayed for 30 years that I would become a pastor. I was ordained when I was 30.
This passage could also be for all those in the world who are suffering for the lack of all or any of these things. The Lord may count on us to provide some of those things for others.
As a former missionary to Nepal, I knew many there who were suffering for lack of the things they needed.
The Lord has provided most of these things for us and maybe we can show our thankfulness by providing them for others who may be lacking many of these necessary things.
My grandparents would sometimes invite in a homeless transient for a meal and give him some of grandpa’s old clothes. We enjoyed watching them leaving in one of grandpa’s formal funeral suits with a bowler hat. They were happy and thankful. So were we.
How are you going to celebrate this occasion?
Bob O.
That psalm could be for someone who was out of work who the Lord finds a job for. They can rejoice and give thanks for the Lord’s restoration. They will have a happy thanksgiving. Even those still out of work have a Lord who is keeping them alive until a more permanent answer arrives.
We can all find something to be thankful for. Thanksgiving is at least one time when we can make a list of all those things. Some take paper and pen and do that.
California had a time of drought and also a time of flood. We all have ups and downs in our life. During some of the up times in California locust had their time of thanksgiving. What’s down for some may be up for others.
One thing that we can always be thankful for is that we have a God who cares for us. Even in our worst suffering we know that there is a place waiting for us because of the suffering of our Lord on the cross. After his suffering he rose for all eternity and is waiting for us.
There are “dreamers” coming to our country. One of our jobs as God’s people is to help them fulfill their dreams even though our country has some laws against it. It can help to remember that Jesus died for those people as he died for us. That is a message for our country!
One fellow wrote a letter to our newspaper quoting Paul in Romans commanding us to obey our countries leaders to make God happy. I wrote back that God was happy with the Christian Germans who disobeyed Hitler’s law and hid Jews in their attic.
We have to decide which laws are more important. Jesus died for people, not principles. The Pharisees were the most principled people in Jesus’ days on earth.
We can find joy this season by making others thankful for what we might do for them and what Jesus has done and can do for them.
Bob O.
* * *
Psalm 126
Rejoicing is sometimes hard for us. We think about all the limitations around us. We think about what we can’t do, what we can’t have, where we can’t go? We don’t think about all that we have going for us. We seek happiness as if it were something external, something that comes from the world. Yet, happiness, rejoicing comes from inside us, from our gratitude for the giftedness of the world and our lives. There is an asking for renewal and restoration in this psalm, but the joy of the people, the rejoicing comes first.
Today is Thanksgiving Day. Instead of thinking about all that is not right with our lives, with our relationships and with the world, let us rejoice in the gifts we have been given, the relationships we have and the creation in which we reside. Let us sing our rejoicing with gratitude. “Praise God from whom all blessings flow. (Christian Doxology)”
Bonnie B.
* * *
Psalm 126
Augustine offers a hopeful word for the future based on this psalm:
For now the Lord hath renewed us in Baptism, and we have become new men, in hope indeed rejoicing, in order that in tribulation we may be patient... (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol.1:8, p.358)
The psalm refers to God making us like a stream in the desert (v.4). About this, Martin Luther writes:
Second, the stream is the Christian people who are willing and running in the way of God. (Luther’s Works, Vol.11, p.552)
When God’s people are running like a stream, not just as individual drops of water, they are more likely to make more of an impact on the surrounding environment. Collectively, as churches, we can make a difference.
The psalm concludes with a reference to the joy the faithful will experience (v.6). And as the famed evangelist Bill Sunday once said, “If you have no joy, there’s a leak in your Christianity somewhere.”
Mark E.
* * *
1 Timothy 2:1-7
On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the 16th President of the United States. The Republican candidate, Lincoln defeated the Democratic candidate Stephen Douglas. After his defeat, Douglas continued to serve as a United States senator from Illinois. On Inauguration Day, Lincoln approached the rostrum to take his oath, holding a copy of his speech, his cane and his hat. Lincoln laid the cane down, but there was no place to put his hat. Douglas, who was sitting nearby, quickly came forward and took Lincoln’s hat. Douglas told a friend seated next to him, “If I can’t be President, I can at least hold his hat.”
Application: On this Thanksgiving Day we need to be able to show our appreciation.
Ron L.
* * *
1 Timothy 2:1-7
In 1 Timothy 2:6 Paul uses the word “antillutron” or “ransom” to describe what Jesus gave himself as on behalf of fallen man. A ransom is a price paid to purchase someone's freedom. In 1193, the English King Richard I, also known as Richard the Lionheart, was returning from leading a Crusade to the Holy Land. As he was coming back through Europe, Leopold V captured him in Austria. The Holy Roman Emperor demanded a ransom for Richard's release. The price was 150,000 marks, equal to three tons of silver. This was a huge ransom demand, but the people of England so loved their king they submitted to extra taxation, and many nobles donated their fortunes for the king’s release. After many months, the money was raised, and King Richard returned to England. The expression, “a king's ransom,” according to many, comes from this story. Jesus, the King of Kings, was involved in the greatest “king’s ransom,” however, his was different. He wasn't being ransomed. He paid the ransom, so we can be set free. It is the most expensive ransom in the history of mankind. It was paid not in gold or silver, but by the body and blood of Jesus, himself.
Bill T.
* * *
1 Timothy 2:1-7
The apostle Paul called upon Christians to give thanks to God and pray for all those in authority, not because these leaders were good, but because they had the power of life and death over us, and sometimes they’re just crazy.
During the Civil War, those known as Dunkers or Brethren, along with Mennonites and Quakers, suffered on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line because they refused to take up arms. Things were much worse for those in the South than the North. P.R. Wrightsman of Limestone, Tennessee, wrote after the war about an incident that took place in the summer of 1863:
… Southern soldiers… came from time to time for three years and took my crops and horses.… Their language and manner impressed me that they came with intent to kill me.… I just stepped inside the stable, stood with my hands upwards, and prayed to my heavenly Father, saying, “Dear Father, save me from these men. Have mercy upon them, and turn them from their evil course, and save thy servant.”
I never exercised stronger faith in prayer than at that time. It seemed as if I was speaking face to face with my blessed Lord. When I stepped out to the soldiers I felt that God had answered my prayer, for I could see the Satanic look going down out of their faces like the shadow of a cloud before the bright sunlight.
The soldiers then said to me, “Mr. Wrightsman, can we get some bread? “O yes,” said I, “we are commanded to feed the hungry.” I went at once to the kitchen and requested my sisters to cut off a large slice of bread, and butter it for each of them. They did so and I took it out into the yard and handed a slice to each. They thanked me for the bread, bowed their heads, mounted their horses and rode away, taking my last horse with them, however. Feeling sure the Lord had saved my life, I felt happy, thanked God and took courage. (Quotation from “The Olive Branch.”)
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 6:25-33
One of the reasons we are not as thankful as you would think we Americans should be has to do with our view of God. Though most of us would never admit it, a lot of us are practicing deists -- believing that God made the world and then lets us live, like a clock keeps ticking once the watchmaker winds it up. The most recent poll on the subject, a Harris poll conducted over a decade ago (2006), revealed that nearly half of the population (44%) believes that God is not directly involved in events, is just an observer.
Martin Luther helps us to see that a lot of what we think we are doing is really God’s work. He said that we are just “the fingers of God” (Complete Sermons, Vol.6, p.400) or his “masks” (Luther’s Works, Vol.14, pp.114-115). Fingers and masks don’t deserve much credit. It’s the one who uses them (God) who does the real work. Modern physics provides another analogy for understanding God’s role in our lives. It has developed a largely substantiated theory called The Higgs Boson. It is said to be a fundamental field which, like molasses, functions with objects, holds the fundamental particles of atoms together, so they have mass. This invisible field holding matter together is said to be in all matter. Sometimes called the “God-Particle,” Christians might understand God to be in this invisible particle, to be in all that is, while still transcendent. This concept allows us to agree with Jesus that as birds and lilies can be assured of growth and prey, for God is with them, so we have that assurance he goes with us, holding our bodies and our relationships together, in all that we do. Nothing we do or are is done alone, without God’s presence, and so thanking him for all good we have is most appropriate.
Mark E.
* * *
Matthew 6:25-33
Why do we use only one day a year to show our thankfulness to our God. We should thank him everyday that we live and every hour of the day.
When I was recovering from surgery in a rehabilitation hospital I lay worrying about all the items in this lesson plus many more about my future both there and when I would get out. I decided that a Christians I should pray about those things instead of just worrying and complaining. Finally, I gave up and decided to just watch TV for a while. But the moment I touch the “on” button a figure of Jesus filled the screen and he said, “Have no anxiety about anything…..” I can’t believe that was just a coincidence. I felt it was God answering me, telling me to be patient. So I began to be thankful for all I had endured and for the caring people surrounding me. That experience has made me turn to Jesus whenever I had anxiety about anything.
God doesn’t answer all our prayers right away. I believe he does answer them as scripture promises, but he does it in his time. Some prayers may not be answered for years. My mother had prayed for 30 years that I would become a pastor. I was ordained when I was 30.
This passage could also be for all those in the world who are suffering for the lack of all or any of these things. The Lord may count on us to provide some of those things for others.
As a former missionary to Nepal, I knew many there who were suffering for lack of the things they needed.
The Lord has provided most of these things for us and maybe we can show our thankfulness by providing them for others who may be lacking many of these necessary things.
My grandparents would sometimes invite in a homeless transient for a meal and give him some of grandpa’s old clothes. We enjoyed watching them leaving in one of grandpa’s formal funeral suits with a bowler hat. They were happy and thankful. So were we.
How are you going to celebrate this occasion?
Bob O.
