Hello and happy Thanksgiving.
Never really preached before, so this is very new to me.
Yeah, so I don't know. Still trying to figure out how to do sermons, but…
I do at least have some Bible verses, so I know those will be great.
At least that'll be good.
So anyways, it's Thanksgiving and
Thanksgiving is a great holiday. I love this holiday.
It's time to get our focus right because we get distracted by the things in this world all the time.
Whether it's good things and we take advantage of those things and forget to be thankful.
Or if it's bad things and we start grumbling and complaining. And so we all need reminders
Okay, God is good and we should give him thanks.
It's talked about all throughout the Bible. It's a very common theme in the Bible. We should all be thankful all the time.
I'm going to start with just reading in 1 Thessalonians.
It's a verse that you've all probably read before.
This is just kind of a basic theme throughout the Bible.
It's giving…
some exhortations in here.
It's all the rejoice always, pray without ceasing, all that. And then in…
1 Thessalonians 5.
In verse 18…
says, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
It's pretty clear and straightforward in everything, no matter what's going on
Give thanks. This is God's will.
It's not…
It's not saying to be thankful sometimes and when things go your way, but just in everything.
It's very clear about that all throughout scripture.
As I was looking at different verses in the Bible.
They talk about thankfulness.
There's a lot of those verses all throughout the Bible.
And one thing I noticed is all the thankfulness in the Bible
It all points to God is good. That is the reason why we should be thankful. God is good.
It's not for the things in this life or anything like that. It all points back to God is good. And that's why we should be thankful.
I noticed a few things.
that kind of build up to thankfulness.
Sorry, I'm relying a lot on my notes because I'm still new to this, but…
So thankfulness to God is not the same as thankfulness to people. Like if you do something kind, and I should say thank you, like that's the polite thing to do.
But we're on the same level. We're all just sinners saved by grace.
We're on the same level, but God is not on our level. And so I think thankfulness to God is
different than just being thankful to another person. God is on a whole nother level above us.
He's above everything. And he's done so much for us.
So sometimes, like he's so high above us, we can't really comprehend who he is.
And sometimes that makes it hard to really understand how much he's done for us.
So I want to look at
Just kind of three different things. Who is God? Who are we? And what has he done for us?
And I think this
I mean, for one thing, it gives us plenty of reason to be thankful for. God doesn't owe us anything, and yet he's given us so much.
And I think it also explains, if you understand who God is.
That gives you a foundation for why we can be thankful in everything, no matter our situations.
Because God is above everything. He is where our real purpose comes from.
And so let's just go through these three things and then hopefully
I can make it all make sense at the end.
So first, who is God? Isaiah chapter 40.
I love this chapter. It's got a lot of good stuff in Isaiah chapter 40.
And it…
I don't have time to go through the whole picture of what this chapter is saying, but I just want to pick out a few verses that kind of give us an idea of who God is.
Isaiah chapter 40.
In verse 12…
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, measured heaven with a span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure
weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance.
God is clearly not equal to us. He measures heaven with the span. Heaven's like the universe.
And a span is like from here to here.
Guys, that's how big the universe is. We're nothing compared to God. He's bigger than we could understand.
And I don't know exactly
what this looks like. I don't think it's saying a literal hand of flesh and blood
But I think it's saying God is bigger than everything we can understand. God is bigger than all we see, like all of our reality is under
God and who he is. He's bigger and more powerful than everything that we can relate to.
And so
the Bible, it kind of gives these pictures of who God is. And it doesn't really have
the right words that can give us an accurate picture of God.
Because he's above everything that we've ever seen.
Everything in this world, in this universe, God's above it all. He's bigger than it all.
So it kind of lays out these pictures just saying, yeah, God is bigger than we can understand.
Verse 13, who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has taught him?
With whom did he take counsel and who instructed him and taught him in the path of justice?
And taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding.
God…
Again, he's above all. We can't understand the things that he understands.
These are rhetorical questions. No one is the answer. Who taught him the path of justice? God is the standard.
for justice. God is the standard for everything good. He's where all justice and goodness comes from.
He's bigger than everything we can understand. Verse 25…
To whom then will you liken me, or to whom shall I be equal, says the Holy One.
There's no one we can compare God to. There's no one…
that gives us an accurate picture that we can see with our eyes of who God is. He's bigger than it all.
There's no one comparable.
Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number.
He calls them all by name by the greatness of his might and the strength of his power. Not one is missing.
All the stars in the universe, we don't even know how big the universe is.
And God knows every star. He has total control over every corner of the universe.
He calls all the stars by name.
It's just giving this picture. Everything we know
God's bigger than it all.
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is passed over by my God.
Have you not known? Have you not heard the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary?
His understanding is unsearchable.
God, again, he's bigger than everything we can understand. His understanding just doesn't fit in our heads.
We can't understand things the way God does. We can't see things the way God does.
He's the author of Time and Space. We don't even…
have a good understanding of what that means.
is above…
The universe, our lives, he's above it all. He's bigger than it all.
Same idea is in…
Verse 18, to whom then will you liken God, or what likeness will you compare to him?
Again, there's nothing we can compare him to. There's no likeness to him
He's above everything that we have experienced.
In this physical world.
And so with that in mind, let's talk about who we are and
In this passage, it kind of shows us
Who are we without God?
And if we see who we are without God.
And then we look at who we are in Christ.
That's where we see such a big difference.
Let's start with who would we be on our own without God? Like, what are we compared to him?
So look at verse 15.
Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket.
I don't think we use wells very much anymore, but if your mom sent you out to get water from a well.
You come back with one drop in the bucket
You're going to be like, boy, this is useless. How am I supposed to wash dishes with one drop of water?
It's so small. Technically, there's water in the bucket, but it's pointless. It doesn't do anything. It's so small, it doesn't count.
And that's all the nations are like a drop in a bucket.
and are counted as the small dust on the scales. Look, he lifts up the aisles as a very little thing.
And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted by him less than nothing and worthless.
Compared to the Almighty God who's over everything.
Like, if he can measure…
universe with his hand.
the earth would be like invisible for human eyes
And we're nothing.
Without him.
And people often get distracted by their accomplishments.
Oh, I worked so hard. I got all this money. I got…
strength. I got…
all these friends, I got whatever.
But like every good thing comes from God. We aren't anything on our own. We haven't accomplished anything in the big picture. Compared to God.
We're nothing. And so then let's get into what has God done for us.
And this is where things…
get amazing because it doesn't make sense. If we're so small compared to God.
He doesn't owe us anything.
We haven't done anything to deserve his favor. In fact, the only thing we've done is sin and deserve his judgment.
If God even notices us at all, then it should be to judge us.
But he doesn't.
Let's look in…
Let's go to verse 10.
So God is big. He's strong. He's above all. He's the creator of all. He has all power. And then this will show us kind of how God uses that power.
So verse 10 says, Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him.
Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd.
He will gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young.
He had all power. He has…
all knowledge. He has the right to judge our sin.
And yet he cares about us. And he gently leads those that are with young. He cares about the young ones. He cares about the vulnerable. He cares about everyone that needs him.
He loves us. And that's how he uses his power. This whole chapter is one of…
of comforts. You have the God who's over everything. He created everything. He's bigger than everything.
And he cares about you. He loves you. And he wants a relationship with you.
Let's go to 1 Chronicles.
Chapter 29. You just look at chapter 29.
kind of how David saw this in his life.
David was gathering material to build the temple and
David understood that he hadn't accomplished anything on his own. It was all God.
that had done this. God created everything.
And so let's look at the way that David explained it.
In 1 Chronicles…
29 and verse 18.
It says, therefore David bless the assembly
Sorry. Therefore, David, bless the Lord before all the assembly. And David said, Blessed are you, Lord God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever.
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, and the glory, the victory and the majesty
For all that is in heaven and in earth is yours.
Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head over all. Both riches and honor come from you.
And you reign overall. In your hand is power and might. In your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.
Now, therefore, our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name
But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer so willingly as this?
For all things come from you and of your own we have given you.
For we are aliens and pilgrims before you, as were all our fathers. Our days on earth are as a shadow and without hope.
O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have prepared to build you a house for your holy name
is from your own hand and is all your own.
David is acknowledging God is above all. He has all power. He's above the heavens and the earth. He's the creator of all things.
He has all authority and yet he's given us so much.
these materials that David was gathering
David was acknowledging, they come from you, God. You created the trees that we're using to build this. You created everything.
We are relying on God in so many ways that we don't
acknowledge normally.
And then beyond just the physical things, but let's go to Ephesians 2.
Um…
Sorry, I'm trying to stick to my notes so everything goes in order, but hopefully this is making sense.
Ephesians chapter 2.
In verse 4.
But God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses.
This is us without God, dead in our trespasses. We're nothing. We're so small. It's like we're worthless. Dead in trespasses as sinners.
made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus
Like from a human logic perspective, this doesn't make sense. God…
It's so much bigger and better than us. We're so small. We're a drop in a bucket. We're basically nothing.
And God is above everything. He has all rights, all power, all authority.
And here he is raising us up.
With him, he's raising us up to be with him
And in some ways, it doesn't make sense. The only answer is God's love. God's love is…
beyond human reason, it sometimes doesn't fit in with our ideas of fairness and would all
Because we don't deserve anything from him except judgment. And yet he wants a relationship with us and he cares about us.
And he has…
made us alive when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive, raised us up to have a relationship with him.
It's like we went from being a drop in a bucket to being the child of the Almighty God.
And I don't…
entirely understand why God
would do that for me. He doesn't owe me that. He doesn't owe me anything.
But for some reason, he wants a relationship with us and he cares enough to bring us
from what we were without him.
to a relationship with him. And what could be better than that?
God is the king of kings. He's the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
And we get to be in his family. And we get to be his children.
He loves us and he takes care of us.
There's no greater blessing than to be God's child.
There's no better thing than this earth can give you.
Like being God's child, it's the best thing
God is where true purpose comes from, true worth. He's the one that determines all of that.
And he says he loves us and he wants a relationship with us.
So…
Trying to watch time here. This is going faster than when I practiced, so I might get done early, but…
God is above everything and he's good. Just look at his goodness. His goodness outweighs
Everything in this life. God is bigger than everything in this life.
And his goodness is bigger and more important than everything in this life.
So when we have situations in life, whether it's good or bad, doesn't matter. If we weigh those situations against God's goodness.
God's goodness is what really matters. That's the thing that will never change. God doesn't change.
His goodness doesn't change. This life will change plenty.
But God's goodness is bigger and stronger and more important and it matters more than anything in this life
that could ever happen.
So…
I'm going to give some examples. I hope these are okay. But just for in my own life, how I've seen this.
Because there have been times when I had more and times when I had less.
Like last year, I had a lot. Last year, I was a truck driver in Utah and I
plenty. I was making a lot of money. I won't go into all the details, but I was, according to worldly standards, I was living well.
And then the beginning of this year.
I went to Mozambique to be a missionary and didn't end up staying as long as I planned but
It was really good. I enjoyed it.
You've already heard the story.
When I was over there, it was really good, but a couple things didn't go as planned. One thing was
I was at the market and they were selling these impala horns. I'm like, these are cool. We don't have impalas in Utah.
So I bought a couple. And long story short, turns out that's not legal. And I…
I ended up in prison. So looking back on it, kind of a
make for a good story, but…
From the worldly standard, I wasn't doing so well then. I didn't have everything that I had last year.
But when I was sitting there on the concrete floor in prison, I knew there was a few things that had stayed the same.
God was on his throne, sovereign over all creation.
And he's my father. What matters more than that?
What could be more important than that?
There's a song that you probably all know, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will go strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.
Everything in this life, we get so distracted by it because it's what's in front of our eyes. It's what we can touch and see.
But if we look to Jesus, like the things in this world don't seem so big because
God is bigger than it all, and he's better than it all. God's goodness is more important than all of it.
So
Yeah, I'm going to skip the next section. I'm just going to go to the conclusion.
don't actually know if I was supposed to end at this time. I don't know but
Basically, let's use this time, this holiday to get our focus back on God.
Because we all need that. We all get distracted and it's good to have a time
to refocus on God. He's the biggest thing that could ever happen to us.
And his goodness is what matters more than anything else.
And so it's good to have a time set aside to set our focus on him.
Anytime anything's going on in your life, you can just weigh it.
All the things in my life, the good and the bad, and then God's goodness and is what's more important.
And it's always going to be God's goodness. That's the most important thing. So let's get our focus on God.
Because he is good.
He is the reason why we can be thankful all the time because his goodness doesn't change.
When this earth changes, doesn't matter. We still have reason to be thankful because we're his children.
And he loves us. So let's focus on God. He's awesome. He's above all.
And he loves us and he wants a relationship with us. And that's what really matters. And that's why we can be thankful no matter what our situation is.
So anyways, that's it.
I think I went really short. Did I? Okay.
Thank you, David. Thank you, David.
For encouraging us with those words.
Why don't we sing the refrain that he mentioned, turn your eyes upon Jesus. We'll sing that together.
Turn