Thank God and Each Other – Sermon 31 May, 2015

Thank God and Each Other
Psalm 118
The last Saturday of May is National Day of Thanksgiving, which is run by a non-denominational group of volunteers across the country.
The National Day of Thanksgiving is a unique opportunity for Australians to celebrate and give thanks for our God given heritage as a nation, and to demonstrate the values of honour, respect, thankfulness and gratitude towards our fellow man. It is a day for Australians to pause as a nation and say thank you to God, and to each other for those many things we often take for granted, those things that really make our lives worth living. Let us use this Day each year to be a blessing to those who have been a blessing to us.
Imagine a day when the walls of our church are as wide as the boundaries of our community!
Imagine a day when our local government comes to our church for help!
Imagine a day that puts a smile on the faces of the poor and disadvantaged people in our community!
Imagine a day when the lonely find they have a friend!
Imagine a day when the body of Christ across our Nation comes together in one voice of thanks to God for the Nation we live in and the blessings we enjoy in this great Southland of the Holy Spirit!
We are called to be a thankful nation. Thankful for all the blessings we have.
This reminds me when our son was very young sometimes we asked him to say grace before we had our lunch and happily he did saying. “Thank you God what we have, thank you for mum and dad, thank you for grandma and grandpa, the food we have”, and then opening one eye and looking what was on the table he continued “thank you for the bread, for the folks, for the spoons, for the knifes, for the cops, for the drinks …” It was so funny and he used to do this every time he was asked to pray.
In simple words he was being thankful for everything.
Are we thankful for everything we have? Are we grateful people?
The simple act of saying grace before a meal is an act of gratefulness.
We should always give thanks to the Lord for everything we have!
But why? Why we should give thanks to the Lord?
Today’s first reading, Psalm 118, gives three reasons why we should give thanks to the Lord.
1. Perseverance (1-4).
God the Lord is our perseverance. God loves us and He always shows His mercy to us. That is His promise. When we see and feel that everything is falling down, we should know that we can count on God, His love and mercy. And also we ought to know that His love does not change and endures forever. He urges all people to express their gratitude because there is so much to be thankful about.
So the Psalmist says, “Let the people of Israel” say it. Let the spiritual leaders say it… Let those who fear God say it… God’s love endures forever!
2. Presence (5-18).
God is always with His people in every situation. The Psalmist describes times of great distress. He was in anguish and he cried asking for help. He was in trouble, but as he prayed, he discovered an important and eternal truth, that God is with him.
God is with us, no matter how bad it is going, God is present. We should always trust Him. According to the Psalmist it is better to trust the Lord than to put confidence in any human source. He pictures his troubles; surrounded by enemies, swarmed him like bees, surrounded by fire. But soon he discovered that God has the power to save and help him.
When we trust in Him, He sets us free, and we sing a victory song with thankful heart. So the rest of the psalm starting at verse 19 is a song of thanksgiving.
3. Preservation (19-28)
God preserves His people. He answers prayers. He gives salvation to the faithful. And this salvation comes through His son. This salvation is God’s work. This is His doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.
We are to give thanks to God for His love, presence with us and for His preservation marvellous work in our lives.
The Psalmist says: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!”
If we look around we will see and hear about terrorism, war, murder, abuse in its many forms. But we should be assured that He is still good. No matter what happens to us that is not good, it does not change God’s goodness. It does not change God’s goodness to us.
We are precious in the sight of God. And we should be thankful. It should come flowing right out of us.
I encourage you to slow down and recognise how good God is. He is good and is our only hope. And this is why we should give thanks—for His love endures forever!
So let us give thanks to the Lord…for He loves us, He is with us always no matter how bad it seems or how bad it is going, the Lord is on our side and He is worth trusting and saves us and preserves us forever; for the stone that was rejected became the cornerstone of our faith and there is salvation in no one else; only in the name of Jesus.
My question is: Are we thankful to God? Do we come before Him with thankful hearts and seek His blessing?
And today on this special day are we thanking each other?
Paul the great apostle was grateful to God for His love, presence and preservation; but he also was always thankful for his colleagues, brothers and sisters in Christ and his fellow men. In each of his letters we find special words of thanksgiving, as is the case in the letter written to the Philippians.
He prays for them with joy for their partnership with love.
So let us thank God for all He has done and also let us thank each other.

Krikor Youmshajekian