CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD
PRAYER AS GRATITUDE AND THANKSGIVING
DR. JIM DIXON
PASALMS 8:1-4, PSALMS 100, PHILIPPIANS 4:4-7
FEBRUARY 4, 2007
Ike Sutton was born in the State of Hawaii many years ago. Ike Sutton was reared by his mother. Ike had two brothers. His mom did the best that she could to rear the boys. She didn’t have much money, but she saved her money in accordance with a promise that she had made to her three sons. She promised them that one day they would travel together across the Continental United States by train. She saved her dollars, and the year came when they were able to do that. So, Ike and his brothers and his mom took off across the United States by rail. They stopped at a number of train stations and when they came to one station they were there for a period of time. The boys got off the train and so did the mom. They just began to kind of play for a while. Ike wandered off as he was prone to do. Being kind of friendly and mischievous, he found a man sitting on a bench at the train station. Little Ike went right up to this man and engaged him in conversation. The man introduced himself. He said his name was Herbert and wanted to ask Ike some questions. He asked Ike questions and Ike was very polite and answered the questions well.
In the course of time, the mother realized that she needed to gather her sons before the train left. So she went around to gather her sons. She saw Ike standing over there with this man Herbert on the train station bench. When she saw them, she was stunned because she recognized Herbert as the President of the United States. Herbert Hoover, and her son was talking to him. She went up and she apologized to Herbert Hoover. She said, “I’m sorry my son interrupted you and I hope he wasn’t rude. I really apologize sir.” Herbert Hoover said, “Oh, you’ve got a great son. You don’t need to apologize. I really appreciated talking to your boy. By the way, your boy Ike is really smart. He’s got a great mind and I love the way he answered my questions. Someday, Ike needs to go to the university. He needs to go to college. I would recommend Stanford because that’s where I went, and I would like for your son to go to Stanford University. If that day comes and he needs some help in getting in or in paying for it, will you call me or would you write me?”
Of course, the mother was very grateful but she kind of just didn’t take it seriously, but Ike did. Ike took it very seriously and he never forgot that. So, when it came time for Ike to go to college, he wanted to go to Stanford and he wrote a letter to Herbert Hoover, who was by this time the former President of the United States. Herbert Hoover, it’s a fact of history, paid Ike Sutton’s way through Stanford University. After his years at Stanford, Ike Sutton wanted to thank Herbert Hoover face-to-face, so he took that journey. He met the former president. As he stood there and looked at him, he said, “Sir, how can I ever thank you? Words are not enough. How can I ever express my gratitude?” Herbert Hoover smiled and he said, “You can thank me by serving your country.”
Well, in 1964 Herbert Hoover died at the age of 90. In 1974, just ten years later, Ike Sutton finally was elected to the United States Congress, a representative of the State of Hawaii. Ike Sutton did indeed, as a Republican, serve his country and of course it’s a great story.
Here we’re gathered today and we’re talking about gratitude and what it means, what it means to be thankful. I think we should remember this: as we’re talking about gratitude in prayer, we need to remember that before God, gratitude is much more than prayer. I want to acknowledge that from the onset here. Gratitude is much more than prayer. Gratitude has to do with the way we live our lives. If you were to stand before Jesus Christ and say, “How can I ever thank you? Words are not enough. How can I express my gratitude?” I know Jesus would say to you, “Serve My kingdom. If you’re really grateful, if you’re really thankful, then serve the kingdom of heaven. If you’re really grateful, serve the cause of heaven on earth.”
Having said that, having acknowledged that gratitude is to encompass all of our days and all of our being, having acknowledged this, let’s take a look at what it means to give thanksgiving in the context of prayer. I have two teachings and the first teaching is this: God greatly desires gratitude in prayer. I hope you know this.
The Bible is clear. God wants gratitude and thanksgiving from His people and He wants it in the context of prayer. So, Psalms 100, verse 4, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His court with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His name.” Philippians 4:6, “Have no anxiety about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.” Of course, 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, “Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” So this is the will of God, that we express gratitude and thanksgiving.
I think some people have suggested that the Lord’s Prayer does not include thanksgiving but I think gratitude is very much implicit in The Lord’s Prayer. You cannot hallow the name of God without giving Him thanks. You cannot hallow His name as Jehovah-Jireh, “The Lord Who Provides,” without thanking Him. So I think yes, thanksgiving is implicit even in the context of The Lord’s Prayer.
A few years ago, Barb and I took a trip to San Diego. I was invited to speak at a conference in San Diego. It was a national conference for pastors for the Nazarene denomination. They were gracious enough to ask me to speak. I normally don’t accept invitations like that, but this was in San Diego in the wintertime. In any event, Barb also has a sister in San Diego and we wanted to spend a little time with her. We were looking forward to the flight out there because we had first class upgrades. Barb and I normally fly coach. I’m 6’3.” I’m king of long-legged and sometimes coach class feels a little bit like a sardine can but that’s how we normally fly. So we were really grateful to have these first class upgrades.
We got in first class and it was great. Comfortable chairs, and we were sitting around, and they gave us menus if you can imagine. They gave us menus and we actually were allowed to make a selection and it was all very good, but we noticed that right across the aisle, still in first class, a couple there were complaining. They were complaining about the menus, the lack of selection and the items on the menu. They were just complaining. I guess they travel first class a lot and they just were expecting more and better than this. They continued to complain to the flight attendant throughout the meal. At the end they ordered dessert as did we. They chose this lemon deal which I also chose. They called the flight attendant over to complain. They said, “This is horrible. You need to taste this. This is so bad.” Of course, I thought it was wonderful. I sat there thinking, “Wow! Complaining in first class!”
I thought maybe this is analogous to how God views America. Don’t we complain in first class? I mean God sees the whole world and I can tell you the United States of America is first class. You can look in the 2/3rds world and people are not so blessed as we’re blessed. We’re traveling first class here. There are people all over the world that would gladly eat what you put in your garbage disposal. We’re blessed. Are we thankful? Are we grateful? Or are we complaining in first class?
I think sometimes even when we thank God in prayer, I wonder if it doesn’t seem a little humorous to God. Speaking of humor in prayer, in the context of giving thanks, I’d like you to see a little clip from the movie, “Talladega Nights” with Will Ferrell as a race car driver.
Supper’s ready. Come on y’all. I’ve been slavin’ over this for hours. Dear Lord Baby Jesus, or as our brothers in the South call You, Jesus, we thank you so much for this bountiful harvest of Domino’s, KFC and the always delicious Taco Bell. I just want to take time to say thank you for my family, my two beautiful, beautiful, handsome, striking sons, Walker, and Texas Ranger, or T.R. as we call him and of course my red hot smokin’ wife Carly who’s a stone cold fox. I also want to thank you for my best friend and teammate Cal Naughton, Jr. who’s got my back no matter what. Shake and bake! Dear Lord Baby Jesus we also thank you for my wife’s father, Chip. We hope you can use your Baby Jesus powers to heal him and his horrible leg. It smells terrible and the dogs are always botherin’ with it. Dear Baby Jesus… “Hey, Sweetie, Jesus did grow up. You don’t always have to call Him Baby. It’s a bit odd prayin’ to a baby.” “I like the Christmas Jesus best and I’m saying grace. When you say grace, you can say to grown up Jesus or teenage Jesus or bearded Jesus or whoever you want.” “You know what I want? I want you to do this grace good so that God will let us win tomorrow.” Dear tiny Jesus, in your golden fleece diapers with your tiny little fat balled up fist pawing at the air… ” “He was man! He had a beard!” “Look, I like the baby version the best. Do you hear me? I win the races and I get the money.” “I like to picture Jesus in a tuxedo T-shirt because it says like ‘I want to be formal but I’m here to party too. I like to party so I like my Jesus to party.’ “I like to picture Jesus as a Ninja fightin’ off evil Samurai.” “I like to think of Jesus like with giant eagle’s wings and singin’ lead vocals for Leonard Skynyrd with like a angel band.” ”Hey, Cal. Why don’t you just shut up!” “Yes, ma’am.” “Okay, dear 8-pound, 6 ounce newborn infant Jesus who don’t even know a word yet, we just thank you for all the races I’ve won and the $21.2 million. Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Love that money that I have accrued over the past season. Also due to a binding endorsement that stipulates I mention ‘Powerade’ at each grace, I just want to say that Powerade is delicious and it cools you off on a hot summer day and we look forward to Powerade’s release of Mystic Mountain Blueberry. Thank you for all Your power and Your grace dear Baby God. Amen.”
Well, that’s got to be the craziest prayer scene in movie history. I don’t think that there are many people in America or around the world who pray to the Baby Jesus, the Christmas Jesus, but I do think it’s true that there are millions of people around the world who would just as soon keep Jesus in the manger. They would just as soon keep Him in the context of Christmas. They’re not looking for a grown-up Jesus. They’re not looking for King of Kings and Lord of Lords. They’re not looking for a Jesus who reigns. I think that’s true, but I also think it’s true that a lot of times people don’t know how to pray prayers of thanks and they don’t know what to thank God for and maybe their prayers do seem kind of humorous to God or maybe even to ourselves. Maybe we struggle with what it means to express gratitude to God in the context of prayer.
This morning I would like to just suggest a couple of things practically. One would be that as you thank God in prayer you learn to sing to Him, that you would sing hymns to Him or praise songs to Him. We saw this a couple of weeks ago in the context of worshipping God in prayer and it’s also true of thanksgiving and gratitude. We can express thanksgiving and gratitude through music. There can come a point in your prayer where you just stop and you just pray and you just sing.
I don’t know how many of you have heard of Thomas Ken. Thomas Ken was a British hymn writer. He was the first Englishman to write hymns. He came along long before Charles Wesley who wrote “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” which we sang this morning. He came along long before the Britisher, Isaac Watts, who was just a great hymn writer and wrote “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” and “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today.”
Thomas Ken came along in the 17th Century when, in England, they only sang Psalms. They never composed hymns. They just took the Psalms out of the Bible and they sang those because they were kind of afraid to write their own words and so here came Thomas Ken. The year was 1674. In 1674 Thomas Ken wrote three hymns. He was the Chaplain at Winchester College and he had previously been a student at Winchester College. Now as an adult he came back and was the Chaplain at Winchester College. In 1674, he wrote three hymns – a morning hymn, a noon hymn and an evening hymn. He meant for these hymns to be sung before the morning meal, the midday meal, and the evening meal. In each of these hymns, he concluded with the same common stanza and today that common stanza has become the most sung stanza in the Christian world. It is called the Doxology so that each of the three hymns, the morning, noon and night, ended with, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.” Of course, our choir and Randy sang that for us today. It’s beautiful, 1674. You can sing it and your voice is beautiful to God.
I notice sometimes during our praise singing when I’m in a situation where I can look out and see you, like during Communion, I can look out and I can see you and I notice that about half of you are singing. I can see your mouths moving. About half of you are just listening and you’re not singing. I think maybe some of you are self-conscious about singing and maybe you don’t want to sing in public. I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago too that in the privacy of your home as you’re having devotions, it’s just you and God and He loves your voice. God created your voice. God gave you the voice you have and your voice is beautiful to Him. If you would sing the Doxology in the context of your daily prayer time, how beautiful would that be. By the way, Thomas Ken went on to become the personal chaplain for King Charles II, King of England. Then later in his life, King James II, King of England, threw Thomas Ken in the Tower of London and he suffered greatly because he had leanings towards Protestantism. He died on March 11, 1711. He had a sunrise service and at that service you know what they sang. They sang his Doxology, “Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow.” There are just great hymns like that that we can sing in times of prayer.
Some of you might have heard of Martin Rinkart. I wouldn’t bet on it but it’s possible that some of you have heard of Martin Rinkart. Martin Rinkart was a Lutheran pastor in Northern Germany which was then called Saxony and he was the pastor in a town called Eilenberg. Eilenberg was a walled city in Northern Germany in the 17th Century. Unfortunately, Martin Rinkart ministered during the 30 Years War. Of course the 30 Years War ravaged most of Europe from 1618 to 1648 and that was the time that Martin Rinkart was ministering inside the walled city of Eilenberg. The Armies of Sweden came south, and I know it’s difficult today to think of Sweden as having vast armies, but in the 17th Century their armies were formidable. They came with an army of 15,000 and surrounded the walled city of Eilenberg and they destroyed 800 homes outside the walls. Inside the walls, the people were shut off from supplies, so they began to starve. People began to starve inside the city. Then disease, as the conditions grew worse, began to just become rampant in the city. Martin Rinkart tried to minister to people. Over the course of time, he was the only pastor left within the walled city and he was doing 50 funerals a day. Can you imagine? One funeral he did for his wife. His kids barely survived. Ultimately it was Martin Rinkart who negotiated the peace with Sweden but Martin Rinkart, in the midst of the 30 Years War, in the year 1636, wrote the great hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God.”
I know at Thanksgiving time, many of you and maybe all of you have sung that hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God.” These are the kinds of things that can be used in prayer. If you have a hymnal at home, if you don’t you need to get one, get it out and look through for some of these hymns of gratitude and sing them in the context of prayer.
Another thing to do is just open your Bible to the Psalms. The 100th Psalm which I shared with you this morning is one of many Psalms that are gratitude songs, songs that are rooted in Thanksgiving to God and you can read them as part of your prayer. Or even better, memorize them. Memorize these Psalms that express gratitude and thanksgiving to God and use them in your time of prayer. If you’re praying the names of God as we talked about a couple of weeks ago in the context of worship and prayer, when you come to Jehovah-Jireh, “The Lord Who Provides,” enter into a time of thanksgiving and sing a couple of hymns and read a couple of Psalms. It will enrich your prayer life and it pleases God because God greatly desires that we express gratitude in prayer. I think that as we pray with thanksgiving, we need to express that thanks mostly for the cross and for Christ and for forgiveness.
There are three Greek words in the New Testament that are rendered thanks and they all point to the cross. They all point to forgiveness, each of the three words for thanks. The first word in the New Testament for thanks is “charis.” This is the word that the Apostle Paul often uses for thanks. You see Paul saying, “Charis de tu Theos,” “Thanks be to God.” He says that in Romans and he says that in 1 Corinthians and he says that in 2 Corinthians and so he uses this word, “charis.” The curious thing is that normally in the Bible the word “charis” is translated “grace.” Normally “charis” is rendered by the English word, “grace.” But in the Hellenized world, in the Greek-speaking world, “charis” was normally rendered by the English word, “thanks,” and so we should forever link thanks and grace so that when you give thanks it should be for God’s grace. Thanks should always be coupled with grace, God’s unmerited favor, His forgiveness, His salvation, and yes, the cross. It’s proper when we give thanks to think of the cross.
The second word in the New Testament for thanks is “eucharistia.” Eucharistia is built on the root word “charis” and eucharistia is often used in the context of Communion or The Lord’s Supper. When you look at 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, or when you come to Luke’s Gospel, the 22nd chapter, you see Jesus breaking the bread, serving the cup and giving thanks. The word used there is eucharistia. So therefore, Communion, The Lord’s Supper is sometimes called The Eucharist but it means, the thanksgiving. So again, you see thanks linked with Christ and the cross, His body broken, His blood shed.
In two weeks we’re going to celebrate Communion here on Sunday morning together and it’s right that we thank Him but we should thank Him every day as long as we draw breath. Every day we live is a gift and we should thank Him every day and we should always thank Him for His body broken and His blood shed, not just during Communion. So eucharistia is tied to the cross.
The third word for thanks in the Bible is the word, “exomologeo.” Exomologeo is a word that is used today by the Greek Orthodox Church as a name for the Confessional so when you go in the Confessional Booth in the Greek Orthodox Church, it’s called the Exomologeo. Why would that be? Because exomologeo is built on the word which means, “to confess.” In the early church, they viewed thanksgiving as something we were to confess. We confess sin but we also confess gratitude and so they used confess in this way. It is also true that exomologeo became a popular word for thanks because it was linked to the confession of sin and so often gratitude is expressed for sins forgiven. So again, these words are linked to the cross and I would just suggest to you that as you pray and as you give thanks, you remember to focus not on the delectable Taco Bell but on the cross and sins forgiven and the grace and all of that. That’s really what we need to focus on.
You look at Luke, chapter 17, and you see Jesus traveling between Samaria and Judea and you see the ten lepers who meet Him. They stand on the hillside at a great distance in accordance with Hebrew law, Jewish law, Rabbinical law. They stand at a great distance and they say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us.” They cried out to the Son of God for healing. You know that Jesus healed them by the power that was His. Long distance, He just said the word and they were healed, all ten of them. Then Jesus told them to go to the synagogue priest and to go through the ritualistic examination so that they might be pronounced clean so they could re-enter society. Jesus cared about them.
You remember lepers were relegated to dens and caves of the earth and banished from society. Jesus wanted these ten to be able to come back into society again and in order to do that, they had to be pronounced ceremonially clean. Jesus sent them on healed and only one, you will recall if you read Luke 17, only one came back and said thank you. Only one came back to the Son of God, fell down and said, “Thank You, thank You, thank You.” Jesus said, “Did I not heal ten? Where are the other nine?” So He wants all of our gratitude.
I don’t know about you, but I know that I’m a leper. I know that my soul is leprous and just ulcerated. Jesus has had mercy on me. He has had mercy on me and He’s forgiven me. He’s pronounced me clean and I’m forever thankful. I’m forever grateful. So in prayer we want to express gratitude for His mercy and His forgiveness and really for everything. I just want to say that nothing is more important than your heart. God knows whether your heart is grateful or whether it isn’t.
I was thinking this last Christmas, Barb and I have kind of a tradition at our house. Of course, we do the Christmas Eve services here and Christmas Day our kids come to join us and our grandkids and we gather at our house. We always start with a brunch. After brunch we open the Bible and we go through the Luke and Matthew accounts of the Nativity and then we have a time of prayer together. Then after we’ve prayed, we begin to open gifts. Most of the gifts under the tree Barb and I have purchased. We kind of play Santa Claus. We have the gifts and we open them one at a time. Through the years things have kind of changed. Years ago, when the kids were little, sometimes they would fake it. If they didn’t like it, they would pretend they did. They would open it up and they would go, “Oh, wow!” but then they would never use it because they didn’t really like it. But now we’ve begun to hear questions like, “Did you keep the receipt?” Of course, we know what that means, that they want to exchange something. That does not bother us because we know there is gratitude in their hearts and they show it every day so we see the thankful hearts that they have. That’s what God is looking for. God understands that you’d probably like to change some things in your life and may you would like to exchange a few things. God understands, but He’s looking to whether or not you have gratitude. Are you really thankful to Your Heavenly Father? That’s what Jesus is looking for and He desires this greatly.
A second and final teaching this morning is simply this: gratitude to God will bless you. Gratitude to God will bless me. Gratitude to God will always bless us. This is very clear. Of course, God knows this and one of the reasons that God wants you to give thanks to Him is because God knows it will bless you.
So, we can look back on the history of our country. You can look back to August, 1620, when the Pilgrims left Plymouth, England. Of course, they were Puritan Separatists. The Pilgrims were puritans. They left on two ships. They left on the Mayflower and then they left on the Speedwell. The Speedwell was not seaworthy so you might remember the people were removed from the Speedwell onto the Mayflower so that everybody was on that one ship. I don’t think we can imagine the suffering, 102 people on the Mayflower. It’s only 30 yards long. It was more of a boat than a ship and 102 people, 67 days at sea crossing the Atlantic must have been incredible misery. They came to Provincetown and then around Cape Cod to Plymouth Rock. They arrived there in December and the first thing they did was give thanks. They got down on their knees and they gave thanks. They got down on their knees and they gave thanks. Fifty-one of the 102 died that winter but when the spring came they got down on their knees again and they gave thanks.
Have you ever wondered why America is so blessed? I think people all over the world ask that question. People in other nations pose the question, “Why is America so blessed?” Maybe, at least in part, it has something to do with the fact that our country began with thanksgiving and our country began with gratitude to God and God blesses the thankful.
I know that you’re all familiar with the events of the Exodus in the Old Testament and you recall how the Hebrew people, for 400 years, lived in the land of Goshen. Archeologists today believe that Goshen was in the Nile Delta, that it was north of Heliopolis, north of Memphis, north of modern-day Cairo, and so for 400 years the Jews lived there in Egypt and they were slaves. Their lives were not their own. They lived in bondage and they were put to work.
In the course of time God freed His people. Perhaps it was the 13th Century before Christ in the time of Ramses II, we don’t know for sure, but we do know God delivered His people. He raised up Moses and they crossed the Red Sea and entered the wilderness of Sur and the Sinai Peninsula, but I think most of you know they began to complain. The Hebrews began to complain. Read Numbers, chapter 11 or even 1 Corinthians, chapter 11. Looking back, they began to murmur, grumble, complain. They said, “We were better off back in Goshen. We were better off when we were slaves. We were better off when we were in bondage. Here we are in the wilderness.” They began to mumble and complain and God became ticked. God did not like this because God had blessed them. It was God who had raised up Moses. It was God who had parted the Red Sea so that they could cross as if upon dry land. When the Egyptians tried to do the same, they were drowned. It was God who gave them food supernaturally, manna from heaven, that they might have food in the wilderness. It was God who gave them water to drink in the desert. In a parched land, He brought forth water from the Rock at Meribah, supernatural water.