Praying to Give Thanks

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We’re going to be in Psalm chapter 30 tonight, so if you had your Bible art still from this morning, just turn back two chapters, and you’ll be where we are tonight. I’m amazed. I’m amazed when people can go through difficult times and still give thanks to the Lord.

And I’m amazed by this because it runs so counter to what our normal nature is. instead to complain and criticize when we’re blessed. A few years ago, I was at a youth conference, and I was asked, along with a couple of other people, to put together a skit.

I forget what the theme of the night was, what the sermon was we were supposed to be illustrating. But we put together a skit to go along with it, and we wrote up these characters named The Wires. That was their last name.

I think it was Wayne and Wendy or something like that. We played Wayne and Wendy Whiner, and to go along with the whining persona, we were supposed to talk like this the whole time. Everything was just a catastrophe.

And at one point, you know, we were at a Baptist Youth Conference. I wasn’t going to say I played the lottery. But somebody found or I found on the ground, I guess, the winning lottery ticket.

You know, that could be a couple hundred million dollars. Most people would be excited about that. No, not me.

In the skit, I was complaining that it was going to push me into a higher tax bracket. In the skit, our daughter came in to tell us that she and her husband were expecting our first grandchild. Well, it was just a catastrophe.

Because the girl who was playing opposite me said it’s going to be such a hassle to have to keep cinnamon candy on hand like a grandmother would do. It’s going to be such a hassle. And on top of it, you’ve interrupted my playing Sudoku.

I said don’t you know you’re just going to get fat and it just went on and on like this most people would think finding a couple hundred million dollars would be a good thing most people would think a visit from their daughter would be a good thing most people would think having a grandchild would be a good thing and yet everything was a catastrophe and you know what the kids ate it up they thought it was the funniest thing they’d seen at least that day I can’t say it’s the funniest thing they’d ever seen, but they thought it was funny, and they just laughed the whole time. And I thought, if only they know what life is about to do to them in the next few years and how this kind of behavior is going to become second nature to them if they’re not careful.

Because one of the reasons I was able to write that part, and one of the reasons I think I played it so well, is because it’s not that much different from who I really am. I mean, this morning. Folks, we’ve got this new tool that we’re able to use, and this morning in my mind I was complaining because it wasn’t working.

I wasn’t getting things lined up exactly the way I want. I was complaining in my mind. I complain about things in my mind all the time.

And sometimes, and my wife can attest to this, not just in my mind, but sometimes out loud. And I complain about a lot of things, And I bellyache about a lot of things. I’ve complained about my weight when, you know what, I could be thankful that I have enough to eat, unlike so many other people in the world.

I complain sometimes about how much the phone rings or how much email there is when I could be thankful that there are people out there who want to talk to me. Could be thankful that there are people out there who care about it. And people I care about.

You know, we’re so blessed that we don’t even realize it. And tonight, as you’ve seen up here on the screen, tonight we’re going to talk about yet another reason why we pray. Really the fourth reason.

And don’t be thrown off when it says part six and I say this is the fourth reason. We’ve talked about other things before, just the reasons to pray. But the fourth reason why we pray tonight, I think it’s the fourth reason.

Maybe the third, don’t quote me on that. But anyway, one of the reasons why we pray is to give thanks. We need to cultivate an attitude, a habit, really, of praying to give thanks.

Because I find that it’s not only to my wife that I complain, it’s not only to strangers who will listen that I complain sometimes. I find myself complaining to God and asking, I wish this was better. I wish this wasn’t this way.

I wish this. I wish that. When really I’m so blessed, when God has taken such good care of me, that I should be thanking Him instead of complaining about the way things are.

That’s not to say that we don’t have reasons to complain. But that’s why I’m so impressed when people go through difficult times and still are able to praise God, still are able to give thanks. And some of this tonight may sound familiar, because some of the things that we’re going to talk about, we talked about already in the message on why we pray to honor God.

And when we give thanks, ladies and gentlemen, we are honoring God by giving thanks. But part of the difference between praying to honor God is that he’s deserving of honor and he’s deserving of glory because of who he is and what he does, whether he ever did anything for me or you personally or not. If he had never done anything for me or for you personally, he still would be worthy of honor and glory because of who he is and the things that he’s done.

And yet giving thanks brings it home a little bit more and says, I’m going to honor God and I’m going to praise Him and I’m going to thank Him for the things that He’s done for me. Because we need to realize, we need to realize that God has blessed us. God has given tremendously to us.

God has taken good care of us. It’s not just that He took care of the world. It’s not just that He blessed the world.

He has blessed us. And we personally have things to be thankful for. We’re told so many times in so many places to give thanks.

We’re told, and I meant to put these up here, but Psalm 106, verse 1 says, Praise ye the Lord, O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. And that’s one of many verses toward the end of Psalms that starts out with, Give thanks unto the Lord. Colossians 3.

17 says, And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by you. In everything we do, whether we eat or whether we drink, whatever we do, We’re supposed to be giving thanks to God in that same breath. And 1 Thessalonians 5.

18, one of the hardest verses, I think, in the whole Bible to live out. In everything, give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

I know I’ve spoken on this before, so I won’t belabor the point too much. But notice there, it doesn’t say for everything, give thanks. It says in everything, give thanks.

And I want to be clear starting out as we talk about praying to give thanks. That doesn’t mean we have to go to God and say, Lord, thank you for this cancer. No, I’m not telling you that we have to be thankful for the bad things in our lives.

But even in the midst of hard situations, even in the midst of difficult situations, there are still things to be thankful to God for, and we need. You know, I would say God needs to hear from us. God doesn’t need anything from us.

God desires to hear from us that we’re thankful. And you know what? We need to tell God how thankful we are for the things that He’s done for us.

Psalm chapter 30, verse 1 says, I will extol thee, O Lord, for thou hast lifted me up and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me. O Lord, my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave.

Thou hast kept me alive, and I should not go down to the pit. And you may notice if it says this in your Bible, if it gives any notes at all, This is a song that was written and sung at the dedication of the house of David. And there are all sorts of historical theories that go along with what was going on.

Were they talking about the temple? Were they talking about David’s actual house? There were about four or five theories that go along, and I don’t understand all of them.

But the one that seems to make the most sense in terms of the text, in terms of history, was after a famine that had nearly wiped out a big chunk of the nation of Israel. God had again come through and saved his people, saved them from famine, saved them from starvation. And now at the dedication of the house of David, he’s reminded, as he looks at his home, that God has been good to him, that God has ultimately, even in the midst of difficult times, God has been good to his nation.

And it just seems to fit in the context of what’s going on here. But he says, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. Folks, when there’s famine, there’s sickness, and I’m sure the entire nation was crying out to God in the midst of this famine.

I’m sure David was crying out to God in the midst of this famine. You know, when it doesn’t rain for a long time, when it doesn’t rain for a long time, I remember growing up when there would be a drought back home, and there would be no mention of God from a lot of people, and all of a sudden there would be state officials on television telling people to pray for rain. There would be businesses that would run advertisements, full-page advertisements in the Daily Oklahoma.

Say, pray for him. Well, people who don’t normally cry out to God, a lot of times will cry out to God in a different circumstance. And David here, I’m not saying he didn’t normally cry out to God, but he, and I’m sure the rest of the nation with him, cried out to God in the midst of the famine.

And as far as this about not making his foes to rejoice over him, all I can speculate on that is that if the nation of Israel was weak because the people were starving. There were plenty of countries around who were more than happy to come and kick them off their land and come and take their place if they weren’t able to occupy it and be strong. They were surrounded by countries who hated them because they hated God and they hated His righteousness and they hated His people.

And so for God to protect the people of Israel from the countries around them when they’re at their weakest point is an incredible thing. And so with all the sadness, all the trouble, All the despair that has gone on in Israel up to that point, God has brought them through it. And he says in verse 4, Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.

For His anger and endurance, but a moment, in His favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.

Lord, by thy favor, thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled. At one point, he felt as though God was distant, and he was troubled.

Of course, we should be troubled when we’re not in a close walk with God. But instead of running further from God, in verse 8, it says, I cried to thee, O Lord, and unto the Lord I made supplication. Unto the Lord I made requests.

Unto the Lord I poured out and told him the things that I needed most. Verse 9 says, What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall I declare thy truth?

In other words, there was no benefit for him to just die. There was no benefit. And the point had been made earlier before, and I know God knew this, But we see people saying to the Lord, praying to the Lord, crying out to the Lord, saying, Preserve your people because you know, and we know, that if you allow Israel to die the other way, that God.

. . So there was no benefit in David being killed, in David dying in the famine.

There was no benefit in the entire country being dust. He said, Shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth? No, but when God redeems his people from trouble, the world outside notices.

And whether they want to admit it or not, the world outside gets a glimpse of the power of God, that he’s real, and that his power is real, and that his promises are true. He says in verse 10, And hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me. Lord, be thou my helper.

Thou hast turned for me my morning into dancing. Thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness. He said, you’ve taken the mourning, you’ve taken the sorrow that I had, you’ve turned it into gladness.

You’ve just exchanged one for the other. It’s a pretty good trait of it. And he says, you’ve taken my sackcloth.

And when I was a kid, they explained it as a burlap potato sack type of material. I can’t imagine being so miserable that you think wearing potato sacks is a good idea. It would just make you more miserable, I would imagine. But that’s what they did back in that day as a sign of mourning.

They would put on sackcloth and they would wear it and they would put ashes on their heads. He said, you’ve taken away my sackcloth and you’ve clothed me with gladness to the end, for the end result, that my glory may sing praise to thee and not be silent. So that whatever glory I have, whatever good there is about me, would be for your glory.

so that my glory would sing praise to you, God, and not be silent. And he ends the chapter by saying, O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee forever. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a man who had just come out of difficult life circumstances.

Whether we’re talking about the famine that had gone on in Israel, whether we’re talking about all of the trouble he had in his life going back to Saul, all on him to kill him for no reason, whether we’re talking about the fight when he became king, because part of the country tried to split away from David, and it took him seven years to get control of the kingdom that God had said was his, whether it’s the trouble he brought on himself with his adultery with Bathsheba, whether it’s the trouble that had gone on his family with his children running wild, one of his children trying to kill him. Folks, he had gone through lots of trouble in his life, and yet he says, I will give thanks unto thee forever. Some of you may be sitting there tonight, curving, going through difficult circumstances.

And I don’t say this at all to make light of what you may be going through. But there are no circumstances in our lives, I believe, when we cannot find some reason somewhere to give thanks to the Lord. Does that mean you have to be happy about your circumstances?

No, it doesn’t. I’ll give you an example when we lost our second child. Folks, there was nothing about that to be happy about.

And there wasn’t a whole lot of thanksgiving going on in my heart for a long time. But eventually, as I began to think back on some of the memories we had with that baby, and yes, you hear me write memories with that baby, because he was a baby before he was born. I believe it’s a human life before it’s born.

And we got to know that baby. Christian, obviously, got to know Joseph better than I did. But you know what?

I felt him kick also. And I spent time reading to it. And I would feel him kick and feel the reactions when I would play songs on the piano. And I’d play a song in particular that he would just go crazy about, punch and kick.

And I would think back on some of those memories after several weeks had passed. And even though there was no thanksgiving in my heart for the fact that we lost that child, I could look back and say, thank you, Lord, for the time you did give us. Folks, I cannot think of a circumstance in our lives when we cannot find something to thank God about.

Again, it doesn’t say for everything, for everything give thanks. It says in everything give thanks. And tonight, I’m going to have to move through this very quickly, but I found about seven things in this passage.

And go through your Bible, go through your life, and I guarantee you, you will find more than seven things to give thanks to God for, but I found seven in this passage. And the first is that God deserves our thanks because we’re His. God deserves our thanks because we’re His.

I talked about this a little bit this morning, but we’re not just automatically born God’s children. If you believe that, in fact, there’s a Mormon church somewhere in town for you. We are not automatically born God’s children.

We are created by God. But the Bible says that to as many as receive Him, as many as receive Christ, to them gave Him the power to be called the children of God. Folks, we are adopted into God’s family.

as a part of salvation. Salvation isn’t just a get into heaven free part, although that would be great enough. There’s so much more to it.

In this life, we have a relationship with God as his children, and we have peace with the God who made us. It’s an incredible thing to think. Excuse me, I’m getting mixed up between thing and thank and think.

They don’t all sound the same to me, and I want to make sure I’m saying the right words. It is an incredible thing to think that God was under no obligation to save us. That we had sinned against God, we had rejected Him, we had rebelled against Him, and He would have been completely justified in walking away from the human race and letting us all die and go to hell.

And yet, out of His goodness, He chose to send His Son to die for us, not only so that we could have salvation, but so we could belong to Him. He bought us, and He paid for us. He didn’t have to do that.

And so by the very fact that we’re His, folks, that’s something God deserves our thanks for. In verse 4 it says, Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His. And as believers, we’re not just saints, we’re saints of His.

Folks, we belong to Him. He could have left us out in the cold. Just like the father of the prodigal son that I referred to this morning.

The father could have taken the prodigal son up on his offer when he said, I feel like I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Let me be a servant. He could have taken him up on the offer and said, yeah, you’ll get to live in the big house, but you’re going to be a servant.

Instead, he said, you are my son who was dead and now is alive. Folks, God could have just made us servants. That would be good enough just getting to be with him.

But the privilege of being called his, the privilege of being his children is an incredible thing. We never should forget how incredible it is that God chose, and I’m not saying He chose some and chose others not to be His kids, but that He chose to make that status available to mankind, that He chose to give us the ability to be called His children. Folks, we ought to wake up every morning, regardless of whatever else that’s going on in our day.

We ought to wake up every morning thanking God that we’re His. Second of all tonight, God deserves our thanks because He’s holy. God deserves our thanks because He’s holy.

Verse 4 also says, I mean, it spells it out there right for us in black and white, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. Folks, we serve a holy God. We don’t serve one of the gods of the Hindus or one of the Greek or Roman gods who sins or who messes with us for His own pleasure.

Folks, we serve a holy God. As I’ve been studying for classes at school, I’ve done so much reading of so many wrong ideas about God and trying to combat them. They’re not teaching wrong ideas about God.

They’re teaching how to combat wrong ideas about God. But trying to wrap my mind around so many of these wrong ideas about God, just every night my brain has been fried. And one of the objections that they said atheists sometimes give to the whole idea of God is arbitrariness.

And I know the book is not just making this up because I had a professor who used to say this. That if you think about where the moral law comes from, he said Christians will say, and I believe that the moral law comes from God. That God set the moral law in place.

And they will say, but then that means God either made it up, and so it’s arbitrary. And God could have said lying is good, and that would have been true. or it means there’s some deeper moral law that God is subject to.

And so they say either there’s no holy God, or they say he’s not really God because he’s subject to something else. Well, ladies and gentlemen, God’s moral law that he set down did not come as a result of his arbitrary will. God didn’t just say, well, it’s my will that you do this, and don’t do this, and do this instead.

It’s because it comes out of God’s very nature. There’s nothing arbitrary about the moral law. He comes out of God’s nature because He is holy.

Holiness is not something He does. It’s something He is. And the moral law, all the precepts that we’re told in the Bible to follow, all the moral law flows out of who God is.

It’s not arbitrary at all. And He’s not subject to anything else. Folks, we don’t serve a God who could have, if He wanted to, before all this started, said, okay, murder is a good thing, and lying is a good thing, and adultery is a good thing, and drunkenness is a good thing, but instead chose to go the other direction.

We serve a God for whom holiness is his nature. So we don’t have to wonder, is God messing with us? Is God lying to us?

Is this all a trick? Is this a gotcha that we’re going to get to the pearly gates and God’s going to say, no, you didn’t say the magic word, but you were thinking you were getting sick. Folks, we serve a holy God.

And when I look in contrast at the gods of so many of the world religions, the imagined gods of so many of the world’s religions. I’m thankful that we serve a holy God. And that His holiness is not just something He does.

Like us, sometimes we do things that are holy. But His holiness is not just something He does. It’s who He is.

God deserves our thanks because He’s holy. Third of all tonight, God deserves our thanks because He’s just and merciful. It says in verse 5, let me turn back to it.

It says, for his anger endureth but a moment, in his favor is life. Well, there’s anger here, obviously, towards sin. You can’t read very far in the Bible and not see that God is angry with sin.

As a matter of fact, it’s a one-dimensional wrong view of God if we say that God is just love and forgiveness, acceptance. Folks, God is also justice and wrath towards sin. And as crazy as it sounds for a sinful person to say it, I’m thankful that God is just. And I’m thankful that God is a God who does not compromise with sin.

Because if he was a God who did not compromise with sin, he would not be the God we serve. And he wouldn’t be a holy God, like I just talked about. But folks, even though it talks about his anger, it says his anger endures but a moment.

Folks, God is angry with sin. And God will judge sin and will judge it justly, but He’s also merciful. God in His justice, as I said earlier, with the part about adopting us as children, He didn’t have to do that.

Folks, He didn’t have to purchase our salvation either. Well, all of that falls into salvation. He didn’t have to make us His children, and He didn’t have to make us a place in heaven.

In his justice, he would have been perfectly okay. He would have been perfectly just in sending us to hell because that’s what we deserve. And yet he’s a God of justice and mercy.

And folks, one day he will set all things to right. He will avenge evil and he will avenge wickedness and all the things that we look at and say that’s not right. How can that go on?

How can that evil and that suffering go on in a universe controlled by an almighty, all-knowing, all-holy, all-benevolent God? He will set all of those things to right. but he’ll also have mercy on those who ask for mercy through Jesus Christ. Folks, his anger endures just a little bit.

Endures for just a moment. But in his favor, folks, in his grace is life. And I’m thankful tonight.

I’m thankful for a God tonight who’s just enough to give us what we deserve, but merciful enough not to give us what we deserve because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross. Fourth of all tonight, God deserves our thanks because he brings joy and comfort. Verse 5 also tells us, Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

Weeping may come in the night, may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Folks, when we seek God in our most difficult circumstances, when we seek God, we may go through some times that feel like they just rip our hearts out of our chests. And I’ve been there and having heard some of your stories, I know many of you have as well.

But I also know that those who’ve been through things like that and are still here are still here because of what God has done in our lives. Folks, we can go through some of the most horrific circumstances in life. But if we seek God, if we turn to God for comfort, He’s there providing joy and comfort.

He’s there providing joy and comfort. And not to spend too much time talking about this particular experience, but it honestly is the worst thing I’ve ever been through, and so a lot of stories relate to it. But after we lost that baby, I spent a lot of time in prayer.

I spent a lot of time in studying God’s Word, and comfort would come over me as I would pray and as I would spend time with the Word that I can’t describe in any other way than it just felt like God put his arms around me. Folks, we serve a God who brings us joy and comfort. when we need it most. And he deserves our thanks for that.

Fifth of all, God deserves our thanks because he provides. David writes in verse 6, And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. Now we can take a lot of things from the I shall never be moved part, but they had come from a time of famine and they had moved into a time when they were prosperous again.

Folks, God provides for us. I don’t know how he always provides for us, but he does. When it comes to finances, God has always provided.

I’m not a rich man yet. Probably never will be. Every time there’s been an actual need, God has provided.

Now, He hasn’t given me the check to go buy whatever new car I want, but He’s always provided for the needs. And I think I’ve told you a long time ago, I went in for a job interview the first time I was pastoring. Went in for a job interview, and they said, what are your salary requirements?

Because I was going to get a part-time job in addition. They said, what are your salary requirements? And I said, anything.

And the guy said, I don’t understand. I was looking at going back into insurance. He said, well, how much are you making right now?

I said, well, we’re making about $900 a month. And he did an honest, he did a spit take with his coffee. Folks, I don’t know how anybody survives on $900 a month these days.

I don’t know how we did it. But all I know is God always made sure that the bills were paid, there was food on the table on the insurance. Folks, we serve a God who provides.

Sixth of all. It feels weird saying sixth of all, because I don’t like preaching more than four points of the message. I feel like I lose people.

But there was just so much to be thankful for in this passage. Sixth of all tonight, God deserves our thanks because he protects. He protects us.

It says in verse 7, Lord, by thy favor, thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. Folks, mountains were a symbol of stability. Now, there may have been a literal mountain he’s talking about.

But mountains were a symbol of stability. Towers were a symbol of stability that he uses in other places and talks about God being his strong tower. Folks, God protects us.

You may think, well, God hasn’t protected me. Look at all I’ve been through. We have no idea what we could have been through that God has protected us from.

I see some of the things that other people have struggled with, some of the things that have hurt other people, and look at where God has brought me, and I think I’m so thankful. I’m so thankful he’s protected me from that kind of thing. And I don’t say that at all in a sense like, I was reading about the Pharisees the other day, where they would pray, thank you God that I’m not like so and so.

In a way of looking down. Thank you God that I’m not like Brother Ray. I knew you wouldn’t be mad if I put that on.

In a way of putting other people down and making themselves look better. I’m not saying it in that sense at all because it’s nothing I’ve done. It’s things God has protected me from.

God, thank you that I didn’t have to go through that. Folks, we don’t even know and probably we’ll never know on this side of eternity, the things that God has protected us from. But you know what?

We’re still here. We’re still breathing, as difficult as that may be at times. God has protected us from something, and he deserves our thanks for that.

And finally tonight, God deserves our thanks because he hears. I don’t mean just that he hears. He can hear things going on that he’s not deaf.

I mean he hears us. He hears me when I pray. Do you realize how incredible that is?

He hears you when you pray. We don’t have a right to God’s ear or God’s attention because of who we are or how great we are. We have the privilege of God’s ear and God’s attention because Jesus Christ has given us access to God the Father.

He says in verses 7 and 8 and then again in verse 10, Now that’s tied thy face, and I was troubled, he says, So I cried to thee, O Lord, And unto the Lord I made supplication. Because he felt God being distant and he was troubled, he cried out to God. And he made requests, and then it goes on in verse 10 to say, Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me, Lord.

Be now my helper. This is not a futile attempt to get God’s attention. Somebody who knew God as well as David did would only be praying this prayer if he knew without a doubt.

If he knew with absolute certainty that God would hear his prayer and respond. Folks, we can give God thanks tonight because when we pray, He hears us. We don’t have.

. . Folks, I’m undeserving of God’s attention, and I’m undeserving of God’s consideration in the fulfillment of prayer requests and needs, and yet because of what Christ did, God hears anyway.

At any time, day or night, as a believer, as a child of God, we can go to God in prayer with the assurance from His Word that He hears us. Folks, how incredible is that? We don’t serve a God who sits off in the distance somewhere.

There’s so many philosophers that believe that He created the world and wound it up and let it go. And now He just sits back and watches. Folks, we have a God who loves us.