Thanksliving - Return Some of Our Blessings to God

As we approach Thanksgiving, it would seem natural for us to think about all the reasons we have to be thankful. Now this is both right and appropriate. I believe it's impossible to be grateful to God if we're not willing to recognize that we've been blessed. But having said that, I don't think we should stop at just listing our blessings. At some point, it's necessary for us to consider how we might express our thanks. In other words, after we offer God our gratitude, how are we going to respond to the blessings that we now have? Put another words, how can we move from thanksgiving to thanksliving? 

Last year, through the month of November, we worked to answer that question. I'm republishing these messages. During these four days before Thanksgiving Day, we'll consider four simple ways to express our thanks to God.

During this first message, we considered how we might express our thanks to God by returning some of our blessings to him.

The multiverse, also known as a maniverse, megaverse, metaverse, omniverse, meta-universe, or The Conglomerate comprised of “parallel universes”, “other universes”, “alternate universes”, or “alterverses”. In Dublin in 1952, Erwin Schrödinger gave a lecture in which he warned his audience that what he was about to say might "seem lunatic". He said that, when his equations seemed to describe several different histories, these were "not alternatives, but all really happen simultaneously". The American philosopher and psychologist William James used the term "multiverse" in 1895, but in a different context. The term was first used in fiction and in its current physics context by Michael Moorcock in his 1963 SF Adventures novella The Sundered Worlds. And if all this isn’t convincing enough, the idea of alternative realities was given empirical weight by the introduction of what’s called Bizarro World in that noted scientific journal, Action Comics, issue number 263, published in April 1960.

Now, even though I’m not Carnac the Magnificent (The fact that I know who that is shows I’m getting old), I’ve got a pretty good idea about what y’all are thinking right at this moment: What does this have to do with our focus during the month of November? Well, since we don’t live in another universe or some alternate reality or even in Canada, for Americans, this really is the month we can think about giving thanks. I mean, since it’s sort of shoved between spooky October and festive December and since it culminates with Thanksgiving for crying out loud, November would seem to be the perfect time to integrate a little more thanks into our daily living. And I’ll tell you, that’s the reason I’ve entitled this series, “Thanksliving.” In other words, over the next four weeks, we’re going to talk about how we might live the thanks that we, as followers of Jesus Christ, feel toward God.

And this morning, we’ll start with what might be the most obvious way we can express our thanks, namely, by returning to God some of the blessings he’s already given us. And to do that, we’ll consider three things that we may assume belong to us but which are actually gifts given to us by God and I’m talking about our stuff and our talents and our time. And so, when we leave here today and get ready to watch the Colts play the Steelers, we’ll have one way to live our thanks.

And like I said the most obvious way do that is to make the decision to return to God some of the blessings he’s passed on to us. And I’ll tell you, if that’s what we decide to do, the place to start is simply giving back some of the stuff with which we’ve been blessed. You see, that’s the first thing we can return to God. And when you think about, that’s pretty easy for us to do. I mean, even though it may not apply to a majority of the world’s population, let’s face it, God’s been really, and I mean really good to us; therefore, most of us have more stuff than we know what to do with. And to demonstrate what I’m talking about, let’s do a little experiment. If you own your home, I want you to close your eyes and visualize your attic or your basement or your garage. Now if that doesn’t make you cringe, I don’t know what will. And then when we add the financial stuff we’ve shoved into annuities and money market accounts and mutual funds to augment pensions and social security, now that’s what I have in mind when I use the word “stuff.” Man, stuff we got, and we know it. What we may not know or at least want to accept is that this stuff is from God. It’s like Paul wrote to Timothy, “Warn the rich people of this world not to be proud or to trust in wealth that is easily lost. Tell them to have faith in God, who is rich and blesses us with everything we need to enjoy life. Instruct them to do as many good deeds as they can and to help everyone. Remind the rich to be generous and share what they have. This will lay a solid foundation for the future, so that they will know what true life is like.” [1 Timothy 6:17-19, CEV] Now that’s what Paul wrote, and I’ll tell you, I think that perspective really explains why Jesus said this: “Don’t store up treasures on earth! Moths and rust can destroy them, and thieves can break in and steal them. Instead, store up your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy them, and thieves cannot break in and steal them. Your heart will always be where your treasure is.” [Matthew 6:19-21, CEV] No, what we’ve been either given or given the opportunity to earn, this stuff is really a gift that we can use to offer our thanks to the giver. And I’ll tell you, to do that, we can give some of it directly to God, you know, to demonstrate that really we do love him with our heart and soul and mind and strength. But you know, we can also use some of our stuff to make the lives of others better. And isn’t this what John had in mind when he wrote, “We know what love is because Jesus gave his life for us. That’s why we must give our lives for each other. If we have all we need and see one of our own people in need, we must have pity on that person, or else we cannot say we love God.Children, you show love for others by truly helping them, and not merely by talking about it.” [1 John 3:16-8, CEV] And so, if we’re serious about thanking God by returning to him some of the blessings he's given to us, we can start with offering him some of our stuff. That’s the first thing we can do.

And second, we can also offer up some of our talents, you know, our knowhow and our skills and our training. In other words, we can return to God some of those things that he’s given us the ability to do and to do well. And I’ll tell you, according to Paul, there’s no question that our talents are actually gifts. I mean, he wrote this to the Romans: “God has also given each of us different gifts to use. If we can prophesy, we should do it according to the amount of faith we have. If we can serve others, we should serve. If we can teach, we should teach. If we can encourage others, we should encourage them. If we can give, we should be generous. If we are leaders, we should do our best. If we are good to others, we should do it cheerfully.” [Romans 12:6-8, CEV] Now that’s what he said. And if you want to see some examples of folks who are doing this very thing, man, you don’t have to look any further than our congregation. My gosh, I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that this church runs as a result of folks who offer their talents right here. Now I’m not going to rattle off any specific names or even initials, because I think there are really too many to mention, and according to Paul, one gift isn’t better than any other. You see, whether it’s maintaining our building or teaching our children, whether it’s leading a study group or keeping the financial records, whether it’s preventing a meeting from going off the rails by making a timely comment or brightening a person’s day by just letting loose with a sincere smile, God has given each and every person their own collection of gifts and talents. And take it to the bank, each and every one of those gifts and talents can be used, to offer a great, big “thank you” to the giver. I’m telling you, if we’re serious about thanking God by returning to him some of the blessings he's given to us, right along with offering him some of our stuff, we can also pass forward some of our talents. And that’s the second thing we can do.

And third, we can also offer God some of our time. And you know, when you think about it, our time here on earth, you know, our lives may be the most precious gift we’ve been given, but sadly, often it’s not appreciated until it’s nearly gone. Our very lives are a gift from God, it always was and always will be. I mean, according to Genesis, “The Lord God took a handful of soil and made a man. God breathed life into the man, and the man started breathing. The Lord made a garden in a place called Eden, which was in the east, and he put the man there.” [Genesis 2:7-8, CEV] You see, the very force, the spirit that enables us to live was breathed into us by God. And this was something that Paul also understood when he said this to a crowd in Athens: “This God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he doesn’t live in temples built by human hands. He doesn’t need help from anyone. He gives life, breath, and everything else to all people.” [Acts 17:24-25, CEV] You see, the very life we have is a gift from God. Therefore, it just makes sense that he’s concerned about how we’re using it. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Act like people with good sense and not like fools. These are evil times, so make every minute count. Don’t be stupid. Instead, find out what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t destroy yourself by getting drunk, but let the Spirit fill your life.” [Ephesians 5:15-18, CEV] And just listen to this warning from James: “You should know better than to say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to the city. We will do business there for a year and make a lot of money!’ What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears. You should say, ‘If the Lord lets us live, we will do these things.’” [James 4:13-15, CEV] You see, just like the stuff we possess and the talents that we use, the time we have is a gift from God. And for that reason, it can also be used as a way of giving thanks. For example, we can choose to focus at least some of our time on growing in our relationship with Christ, something that I certainly believe God wants us to do. And I’ll tell you, we can do that by praying and reading our Bibles and concentrating our attention on him. But we can also decide to focus some of our time on helping others. I mean, give me a break, there are all kinds of volunteer opportunities right here in Weirton, places that are desperate for folks to roll up their sleeves to help their neighbors. In fact, right here at the church, I’m sure we’ve got plenty of things for people to do, if they’re willing to demonstrate their thanks to God by offering a little of the time they’ve been given. And that’s the third thing we can do.

Of course, this only applies if we remain in the universe in which we’re living right now. I mean, give me a break, who knows what giving thanks means in the Bizarro World, where up is down, people say hello when they leave, and Batman is the world’s worst detective. But you know, I really don’t think we should lose sleep about drifting into the multiverse. Instead, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that if we decide to offer God some of the blessings he’s already given to us, you know, things like our stuff and our talents and our time, I mean, if we decide to do this, I think we’ll be taking one big step toward genuine thanksliving. And next week, we’ll talk about another step we can take, namely how we can thank God in worship and prayer.