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An up-and-coming account executive was on his way to a very important and potentially lucrative meeting with the CFO of a major corporation. The commission alone, should he land the account, would be more than triple his annual salary. But he had miscalculated the time needed to get to the company offices, and the traffic was horrible, and he was in serious danger of not arriving there on time.

Now this was not a praying sort of man. In fact, he was far from godly. He drank a lot, he was an inattentive husband and father, he was uninterested in going with his family to church…  But as he arrived in the downtown area, there wasn’t a parking space anywhere to be found. So much was riding on this meeting, and there was no time to look for a parking deck. He had only moments, and he knew he was in dire straits.

So for the first time since he was a kid in Sunday School, he prayed. “Oh God, I know I don’t deserve to ask You for anything. I know I’ve ignored You all these years. But I’m desperate, God! If I’m late for this meeting, I’ll never get another chance to speak with these people. Please have mercy on me and give me a parking spot! If You’ll do this one thing, I’ll stop the drinking and be a better husband and father and start going to church. Amen!”

At the precise moment he uttered the last word, a car pulled out of its parking spot right there, not 10 feet in front of him, and it was almost directly in front of the very building to which he was going! What did he do? He leaned out the window, looked up, and said, “Never mind, I found one.”

Having just celebrated Thanksgiving, I figured it would be a good idea for us to talk about “giving thanks where thanks is due”. Let me share a few ideas I have about the giving of thanks.

First, giving thanks doesn’t just happen. It is intentional. Saying “Thank you” doesn’t occur automatically the way saying “ouch” (or worse) happens when we hurt ourselves. When we say “Thank you!” we are acknowledging that we have received something, and showing thoughtfulness toward the person who gave. People appreciate recognition when they’ve done something kind that they weren’t obligated to do.

Even when you do something kind without any expectations, even when it’s a little thing, isn’t it nice to be thanked? Expressing appreciation is doing for others as you would like done for yourself – part of what it means to fulfill the second great commandment. And that’s about as much as needs to be said about thanking people when they do things for you.

Primarily I’d like us to consider what it means to direct our appreciation vertically. There is so much said in the Scriptures about giving thanks to God, that it almost seems an injustice to treat it in the span of a brief sermon. But because we are so prone to take things (and people) for granted, I think it’s very important that we talk about it.

Psalm 92 is entitled A Song for the Sabbath day. We pray through it often here at Shema. And it is a model of thanksgiving. Watch how it begins…

Ze Tov! (It is good!)

It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;

(At all times…)

To declare Your loving-kindness in the morning and Your faithfulness by night,

(In all ways…)

With the ten-stringed lute and with the harp, with resounding music upon the lyre.

(And for good reasons…)

For You, O Lord, have made me glad by what You have done, I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands. How great are Your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep.

We have a lot to be thankful for – especially those of us who are followers of Yeshua the Messiah. Our names are now inscribed in the Lamb’s Book of Life! Scripture calls us mamlechet kohanim – ‘A kingdom of priests’. So if you are New Covenant participant, whatever your previous status was, you became a Cohayn! Congratulations on your promotion!

Let me invite you to open your Bibles to 1 Chronicles 16. I want you to see something there that’s really interesting. While you’re turning there, let me give you some context. Did you know that there was a group of men in Israel whose actual job description was to thank God? It’s true! Asaph, whose name means ‘gatherer’ – who composed Psalms 50 and 73 through 83 had thanks-giving as his vocation. Look with me at 1 Chronicles chapter sixteen and see for yourself!

And they brought in the ark of God and placed it inside the tent which David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God.

This is referring to the Ark of the Covenant. The very same ark that had been skillfully crafted in the Sinai wilderness and which went before Moses and the sons of Israel, and which had been at Shiloh in the days of Eli and young Samuel, was at last coming to its resting place in Jerusalem where it ultimately belonged! How exciting! Let’s continue:

When David had finished offering the burnt offering and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord. He distributed to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread and a portion of meat and a raisin cake.

If there isn’t food, it isn’t a Jewish celebration. And what a celebration! After four centuries, the Ark of the Covenant was coming home. But they weren’t done just because the sacrifices had been offered and portions of food distributed. We read on: He appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the Lord, even to celebrate and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel: Asaph the chief, and second to him Zechariah, then Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-edom and Jeiel, with musical instruments, harps, lyres; also Asaph played loud-sounding cymbals, and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests blew trumpets continually before the ark of the covenant of God. Then on that day David first assigned Asaph and his relatives to give thanks to the Lord.

There you have it – Asaph and his family were officially assigned by King David to give thanks to Adonai on guitars and drums! Okay, actually it was stringed instruments and cymbals. Players of wind instruments were also part of the praise team.  They apparently took their being commissioned seriously, as Asaph went on to write several of the Psalms.

In fact, Asaph wasted no time in writing music to glorify God. Right then and there they sang to the Lord: Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; Speak of all His wonders. Glory in His holy name; Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad.

The Obligation to Give Thanks

I should say something here about the importance of our thinking the right way about God. Scripture tells us to give thanks to God, to bless Him and to offer Him praise. And while each of the Hebrew or Greek words for these actions has its own nuance and visual imagery, never, ever should we think that God needs this from us. He exists in infinite perfection. There is no such thing as God needing anything. If you refuse to give Him thanks, I promise you, it will not leave Him suffering for lack of appreciation.

On the other hand, ingratitude will make your life miserable. Adonai instructed us to be thankful, not because He needs it, but because we need it. Have you ever had to deal with someone who believed they were entitled to everything? A few years ago, while on my way back from New Orleans, I sat down next to a man at the gate and asked him if he was headed to Detroit. He was, but his flight, which was supposed to have left five hours earlier, had been cancelled because of a young man who refused to check his guitar but insisted on bringing it on board, and broke one of the overhead bins trying to stuff it in, and by FAA regulations, aircraft are not allowed to take off with broken equipment. His selfish actions caused 30 other people a five-hour delay. And he wasn’t even apologetic about it. When I arrived, he was harassing the agent, still demanding that the guitar not be checked, and was oblivious to the frustration and anger he had caused everyone. It was all about him.

Well, the fact is that everything that has come to you from the day of your birth is that much more than what you brought into the world. You didn’t come pre-supplied for your parents’ sake with extra time, money or even a few spare hours of sleep to help offset the expense and exhaustion you demanded of those who raised you – you didn’t even bring an instruction manual! You were no help at all! In fact, we came into this world needing stuff. And lo and behold, here we are all these years later, alive, decently fed, and well-dressed.

Giving thanks would come naturally to us if we were not a fallen race. But because human nature was broken as a result of the rebellion in the Garden of Eden, we have to be reminded to be thankful to God. For the people of God, thankfulness is a way of life. They appreciate what God has done for them, and they’re also quick to show appreciation to others.

It’s no coincidence that Asaph means ‘gatherer’. After all, would you rather hang out with cheerful people or disgruntled people? There is an intrinsic connection between gratitude and contentment. It’s almost like a snowball effect; the more you give thanks and appreciate what you have, the more cheerful you become, and it’s contagious. People will want to be around you, hoping that some of it will rub off on them; and then you can point them to the Source. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise, wins souls (Proverbs 11:30).

The Rightful Recipient of our Thanks-giving

Hodu l’Adonai kee tove; kee l’olam Chasdo! Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His love endures forever! In Him we live and move and exist. He is the one who gave us life and purpose and friends and loved ones. If you have food, clothes and a roof over your head, tell Him “Thank You!” Appreciation for what you have is the secret to contentment. But because of our inherent selfishness, it doesn’t come naturally. It is a learned thing. It’s something the Author of Life is trying to shape in our character.

That process is sometimes painful. It’s hard to be thankful in the midst of emotional or physical pain, but it is possible. I have known people who were thankful in spite of terrible pain, and I know people who are in perfect health but are never content. I’ve concluded that it all has to do with your focus. In the world of art and photography the words, ‘focus’ and ‘perspective’ are used synonymously, and for good reason. Your focus will, in large part, determine your perspective. The one tends to dictate the other. As we sang earlier this morning, we are better off when we contemplate the things above, rather than dwell on purely material things. When you set your sights on the Lord and on others, you get your mind off yourself, and though it sounds counter-intuitive, that is the secret to contentment.

Jesus… Others… You. When it’s in that order, you have JOY.

Think about the things you can thank God for. If nothing immediately comes to mind, then you need to think longer. We can all find things to thank Him for. He is the rightful recipient of our thanks-giving. The twin sayings of the New Covenant are true: Rabbi Paul declared I can do all things through Messiah who strengthens me. And Messiah Yeshua declared …apart from Me you can do nothing.

When Paul wrote to the believers in Thessaloniki, in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Messiah Yeshua he was not being unreasonable, nor demanding we do something impossible. We are able to be thankful in everything, and thankfulness is what God wants for us, because He knows the alternative, and it isn’t pretty.

The Peril of Thanklessness

In Romans chapter 1, Paul describes the abysmal downward moral spiral of civilization once God is not honored or appreciated. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened(Romans 1:21). Failure to give thanks to God has disastrous consequences. If the nation is blessed whose God is the Lord, the opposite is true for the nation that ignores or disavows Him. They will be cursed. Thanklessness is perilous.

Let me invite you to turn with me to Luke 17, beginning at verse 11. In this chapter, we’re going to read about ten lepers who cried out to Yeshua, begging Him to be cured. There was just about nothing worse in all the ancient world than to be a leper. You lived on the periphery of society, in isolation. People went out of their way to avoid you. In Israel you were required to call out “unclean!” as you passed, to give people warning. What a stigma to have to live with! Who could blame those ten men for crying out to Yeshua to be made well?

While He was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing between Samaria and Galilee. As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; and they raised their voices, saying, “Yeshua, Master, have mercy on us!” When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going, they were cleansed. Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan.

Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine– where are they? Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:11-19).

That grateful and appreciative Samaritan has been memorialized forever in Scripture for doing the right thing: returning to declare his gratefulness to Messiah, as opposed to the other nine (presumably fellow Jews) who were also cleansed, but just went on as though it didn’t mean much. It wasn’t the only occasion when those who should have given thanks were indifferent.

In John chapter five, Yeshua healed a man who had been crippled for thirty-eight years. The man got up, left, was questioned by the Pharisees, and when confronted later on by Yeshua and warned not to sin anymore, this guy went back to the Pharisees and informed on Him. He is regarded as one of the most contemptible men in all the Scriptures – and it all began with what he didn’t do. He didn’t even thank Yeshua for the great miracle He received.

The Outcome of Giving Thanks

By contrast, a great example of appreciation is the story of Zaccheus the tax-collector (Luke 19:1-10). In First-Century Israel, nobody was held in greater contempt than tax-collectors. These were Jewish men who exacted taxes on behalf of Caesar from their fellow Jews, and whatever they could collect over and above Rome’s demand they kept for themselves. They were considered traitors and sell-outs. Zaccheus had the additional stigma of being short in stature. You can just imagine how much contempt his neighbors had for him.

As Yeshua came into Zaccheus’ town, thousands of people crowded the streets in order to get a glimpse of the now-famous rabbi from Galilee. Zaccheus wanted very much to see Yeshua too, but couldn’t see over the crowd. So at the risk of embarrassment, Zaccheus climbed up into a sycamore tree to get a view. I’m sure the people around there who saw it hurled insults at him – “Hey, shrimp, what’s the matter, can’t see anything?”

And I can imagine the scene. Zaccheus climbs the tree and sees Yeshua from afar and says to himself, “Ah, so that’s him!” But then he notices that Yeshua and His disciples seem to be turning in his direction, and as they get closer, Yeshua is now looking at him… and so is everyone else! Oh boy, how humiliating is that? But Yeshua came right up to him and said, “Zaccheus, come down, for I must dine at your home today.”

In First-Century Israel, to entertain a rabbi in one’s home was a high honor. And this was no ordinary rabbi! Well the crowd grumbled at this, but Zaccheus was so overwhelmed with appreciation to Yeshua, that he publicly declared his intent to liquidate his estate and distribute the proceeds to the poor, and to repay – fourfold – every instance of fraud. And Yeshua declared “Today salvation has come to this house!” All of this resulted from Zaccheus’ genuine appreciation for being treated kindly.

Let me close with Rabbi Paul’s words to Timothy (1 Timothy 6:6-11):

But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.

When you’re in right relationship with Adonai, and content with what you have, you are wealthy in a way with which the world can’t compete nor fathom. Learn the divine mystery – the delightfulness of simplicity and contentment.

I stress this, because we are warned against the opposite: dissatisfaction and envy, which lead to greed, resentment and spiritual ruin. I know that sounds alarming, but it’s what Paul wrote as he continued:

But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.

The opposite of thanksgiving and contentment is complaining, resentment and bitterness. Don’t let your life be characterized by bitterness over what you think you lack. Instead find all around you reasons to give God thanks. And if you find in Him the capacity to begin being appreciative, thank Him for that, too. If for no other reason than that our lives are on display and the world is watching, learn to be thankful and content. But in the process, you will be blessed for it.

We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks, for your Name is near; men tell of your wonderful deeds. The words of Asaph, ‘the one who gathers’.

Avinu Malkaynu, our Father and our King, may we truly learn the art of thankfulness, and may others see the shalom we experience, and want that for themselves, and many, many more come into Your kingdom.