Thanks Beyond Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of the year because, honestly, it's just easy to be thankful. We get to be around family that we don't usually get to see, enjoy some much needed time off from the stresses of life, AND THE FOOD! I believe it was C.S. Lewis who so wisely said, "The cross comes before the crown and tomorrow is Monday morning." We're now a week removed from the holiday and thrown back into the hustle and bustle of daily life. Combine that with the stresses of Christmas and thanksgiving might as well have been decades ago. However, as Christians, thanksgiving should not be a holiday or even something we do when things go our way. Thanksgiving should be the testimony of our lives. It should be in everything we do.

 So why do we spend more time grumbling and complaining to God and less time giving thanks to Him?


We are forgetful people. Its been this way since Adam & Eve forgot what the Lord commanded, in what seemed like seconds after he told them (Gen. 3). And who could forget about those Israelites and their constant forgetfulness in the wilderness. God had just saved them from the horrors and pains of slavery and here they are grumbling and complaining saying, "you have taken us away to die in the wilderness" (Exodus 14:11). This isn't just an Old Testament theme. Don't leave out Peter in the gospels. Here is a guy who understands who Jesus is (Matthew 16:16), but then says "Jesus Who?" three straight times shortly after (Matthew 26:69-75). We are forgetful people. So what are we forgetting that keeps us from realizing how thankful we should be?

1.) We forget what we really deserve

We have an entitlement problem. We demand our rights and think we deserve to be treated with honor and praise. This ultimately stems from the fact that we think we are "good." But the bible is clear on what we truly are and thus must deserve. First of all, the bible says, "All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no does good, not even one" (Romans 3:12). We are all sinful (Romans 3:23, Ephesians 2:1) and because of that sin we are not good and deserve death (Romans 6:23). This is not just a physical death, but a spiritual death. To put it frankly & truthfully, every single person is born with a sinful nature (Ephesians 2:3) and so by nature is running headlong into hell. This is the fate of every man a part from Christ. You have to be perfect to make it to heaven (Matthew 5:48). You have to be holy to make it to heaven (Hebrews 12:14). But what do we know of holiness and perfection? We are sinners. We are not holy. If God is perfectly fair and gives us what we deserve that would be eternal separation from Him. God would be perfectly just to wipe us all out. That's hard to fathom, but it is no less true. This is what we deserve. This is what our sin has brought us.

2.) We forget what we have

We deserved to be wiped out. We deserve to be sent to eternal damnation. But if you're reading this then you're still living, which means that at this moment you're not getting what you deserve. He is showing unbelievable common grace by just allowing you to wake up for another day. Not only that, but the God whom we sinned against lets us enjoy His creation, family, friends, food, and the list goes on and on. But the good news of the Gospel is much greater than receiving some common graces. The good news is that we get what we don't deserve. In Jesus Christ, we get a relationship and life with God. We still need perfection and holiness to get to heaven, but Jesus lived a perfectly sinless life that we could never live because of our inherent sin (Heb. 4:15, 1 Peter 2:22). Not only does he live the life we couldn't live, which is needed to have a relationship with God, but he also took the death and wrath we deserve because of our sin on the Cross (Isaiah 53:5, 1 Peter 2:24). He was the perfect substitute and on the cross we see this great exchange  in that: "For our sake he (God) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteous of Christ" (2 Cor. 5:21). In Jesus, we not only don't get what we deserve (hell and eternal separation from God), but we also get the righteousness of Jesus that gives us the holy, blameless, and spotless standing that we need to inherit eternal life with God.
                                                                                                                                                       

What we deserve	What we have in Christ
Death (Spiritually & Physically)	Life (Spiritually & Physically)
Separation from God for Eternity	Together with God for Eternity
God’s Wrath	God’s Grace
Suffering	Comfort & Peace
Punishment	Heavenly Reward

 
This is why Paul says, "give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thess. 5:17). Thanksgiving isn't just what Christians do when they are feeling "blessed" or when the circumstances are going their way. We are always deserving of judgement, but in Christ we are always receiving grace. Thanksgiving is always there and never ceasing for someone that truly understands what they deserve and what they've been given in Jesus Christ. These truths are not based on our circumstances, but based on the unshakeable nature and character of Jesus Christ. No matter what happens in our lives and what trials we are going through, the gospel will still be there. Its the only anchor we have in this ever changing world. When the world is long gone, the gospel of Jesus Christ will be still be true and for that we are a thankful people.