Sermon Tone Analysis

This week we had a national holiday: Thanksgiving.

I did not do a thanksgiving sermon last week.

I’ve never done a thanksgiving sermon.

But as I was reflecting on a few things this week I make an decision to preach a thanksgiving sermon after all.

This is not a sermon rant in response to something I saw or heard.

Sometimes last minute sermon changes flow from that sort of this.

That isn’t the case here.

This is just Pastor Kenn, thinking about his Bible and the concept of gratitude.

The concept of gratitude is a distinctly Christian idea.

Thankfulness only makes sense in the Christian worldview.

Think about that for a moment.

We have a national holiday called Thanksgiving.

The early colonist were thankful to God for their first corn harvest and celebrated with a feast.

During the Revolutionary War the continental congress designated one or more days each year for the purpose of offering thanksgiving to the Lord.

After the war was finished, George Washington offered the first Thanksgiving Proclamation.

Here is a portion of that speech:

“Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.”

Though many states adopted official thanksgiving dates, it wasn’t declared a national holiday until 1863 during the height of the civil war and Abraham Lincoln offered these words:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.

To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God...No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things.

They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

And we’ve been celebrating Thanksgiving as a national holiday ever since.

But do you notice that each of those addresses make it clear that there is a debt of gratitude owed to someone specific?

Is it any wonder that gratitude is being increasing lost in a culture that is increasing straying from the Lord?

The day itself is increasingly called “Turkey Day” rather than thanksgiving.

Is that an attempt to divorce the concept of thanks from the feast and celebration?

I don’t know.

But it certainly is an interesting phenomenon to observe.

This sermon is not really about the holiday “Thanksgiving”

It is about the concept of being thankful, which is something we are losing in our culture.

We’re losing it so much that secular psychologists have done significant work to promote the concept of gratitude…though what is often missing the the object to whom we direct those thanks.

This is from the Harvard Health Medical School Blog:

In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness.

Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.

The article would go on to document the research and demonstrate that people who had regular habits of expressing gratitude were healthier, happier, exercised more, and had better social interactions, and the results of focusing on gratitude were greater and longer lasting than other forms of positive psychology methods.

And so the psychologists and therapists start asking their patients to make lists of things they are grateful for, and to let their loves know that they are thankful for them etc....

All the while leaving out what is the most important aspect of gratitude: the object to whom thanks is directed.

Every year we see lists of things people are thankful for but who are they thankful to?

That is our point of emphasis today.

That it isn’t enough to be thankful for.

We must be thankful to.

And that object must be almighty God.

Ingratitude is a Sign of Human Depravity

Ingratitude Reveals Pride

Ingratitude Reveals Independence

Ingratitude Reveals Entitlement

Conversely....

Gratitude reveals Humility

Gratitude recognizes Dependence

Gratitude recognizes out undeserving nature

Gratitude is Practical

It’s the Will of God

It’s part of the antidote to anxiety

Gratitude is a Response to God’s Blessings

Everything we have is from God.

Gratitude that we can be used of God for ministry