If You Are Thankful, Say So!

Texts: Psalm 107:1-9; Colossians 3:15-17

Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah

November 24, 2024

As I wrote in The Weekly this week I will need your help with this sermon. We begin with Psalm 107 which begins “Give thanks to the Lord.” This is a common refrain in the Bible. The direction to give thanks, or praise or glory, to the Lord is given 33 times in the book of Psalms alone.

Thanks is something to be given. We give thanks. Thanks isn’t something to hold onto. It is to be spent, paid out, used and expended. You don’t sit on thanks.

We give thanks to who? To the Lord. Why are we to do this? Because he is good, and his love endures forever.

The Lord is good. It is his nature and character. Aren’t you glad God is good? Have you ever considered what it might be like if the Creator and Ultimate Power of this universe was not good, and what our lives and world might be like?

Not only is the Lord good but His love endures forever. It never ceases or stops.

The Lord’s love endures forever. To endure is to last and keep on. It also means to go through long suffering, to survive what is hard. God’s love suffers with us and because of us. God’s love goes through and outlasts our unfaithfulness, lack of love, selfishness, and all that is ugly, bad and mean in us. His love endures our worst. In fact, our worst cannot put out or stop his love. And that is something to give thanks for.

It says the redeemed of the Lord are to tell their story. They are to say so, to speak this.

In Psalm 107 the redeemed are those who God has rescued.

…those who were hungry and thirsty but have now been satisfied and filled.

…those who were wandering and lost but have found a place to live.

…those in darkness and prison whose chains and bars were broken.

…the foolish and rebellious who were rescued and healed.

…people in storms who lost courage but were brought out of their distress and given quiet.

…the needy who were lifted out of their trouble.

When you read through the entirety of Psalm 107 you will find a pattern: People in trouble or hurting cry to the Lord in the depths of where they are, and he looks down into their depths. And every time God looks down he reaches down in his love and helps them.

And we are to tell our story of how the Lord has shown his love to us. One of the best ways to give thanks is to say it. Our thanks is something we ought to verbalize and give expression to. We need to say so. It is to be spoken to God. I’m not sure there is such a thing as silent thanks for praise. If you are thankful to the Lord then say what you are thankful for, and how you are thankful.

G.K. Chesterton said the worst moment for the atheist is when he or she is thankful for something in his or her life – the beauty of creation or the gift of human love - but there is no one to thank. If you know the Lord you know who to thank. We need to say it.

I want to teach you the Hebrew word for giving thanks is hodaah. Say that with me. Hodaah also means “to admit” or “to acknowledge.” Whenever we give thanks to God or to another person it is really a way of admitting. We admit that what we have received could only come to us through the other. We admit a certain dependence. We admit our emptiness that can only be filled by another. We admit that what we didn’t have has now been provided for us.

When we give thanks to God we admit that everything we have has been supplied and provided to us by the good God.

In Colossians Paul writes to those Christians about bearing with one another with love and letting the peace of Christ in their hearts. And then he kind of tacks on this thought: And be thankful.

Paul says, love, be kind, oh, and by the way, be thankful.

The Message version of the Bible captures part of the spirit of what Paul was getting at when it says, “Cultivate thankfulness”. When we cultivate something we nurture it. We give it time and attention. Cultivation requires being intentional.

Paul goes on to say that one of the ways we do this is by singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in our hearts. And that whatever we do, we are to do it in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Give thanks to the Lord. You know, this isn’t hard. You don’t have to be anything special. Anyone can do it. It’s what those who have know God’s goodness and love are to do.

So will you help me finish this sermon? If you are thankful I want you to stand and tell this church what you are thankful for. How has God shown his love to you? It might be just a very short thing. It might be some experience you have had recently or maybe in the past. Tell how he has worked in your life, what he has done for you, the blessings you have seen, the adversity he has brought you through. Let’s give voice to our gratefulness.

As Psalm 107 says tell your story. Say so! It might be very simple or it might be pretty major. But if we are thankful we can’t be quiet.