My earlier version had a paragraph that struck me as confusing.
Sermon for Our Nation's Day of Thanksgiving
My God Will Supply Every Need of Yours
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen. St. Paul's letter to the Philippians, from which tonight's Epistle
comes, is not one of Paul's early letters. The author of this Epistle is no
new recruit and no starry-eyed idealist. Philippians was written in
captivity, most likely while Paul was under house arrest in Rome (Acts
28:30-31). Tonight's Epistle was written by a man who had traversed the
known world not once, but three times. It was written by someone who
experienced his full share of suffering, both watching it in others and
feeling it himself. Philippians was written by a veteran of the cross who
now sees and understands things he never could have appreciated in his
uncrushed youth. There is no swagger when the apostle states here tonight,
I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In every and every
circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger,
abundance and need.
This is no a boast. This is the experienced voice of a man down but not out.
A scarred and calloused old man speaks in tonight's Epistle, but
still he speaks with the convinced voice of a schoolyard child: "My God will
supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ
Jesus." Here is the little boy who boasts about how big his daddy is. Here
is the younger sibling who has no doubt that his big brother will handle
anything anyone dishes out.
"My God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in
Christ Jesus." Paul does not say, "Your God will supply every need of
yours," as if he is a rabbi speaking from an antiseptic, ivory tower life;
as if he has never winced with fear or spread his feet to shoulder a load.
Nor St. Paul does say, "Our God will supply every need of yours," as if this
apostle is pretending to be in your soup with you. St. Paul does not fear
your particular fears. He has not confronted your challenges and he does not
claim to know how you feel. Paul has his own cross; you have yours. Paul
says "My God." Paul speaks what he knows so that you also may know-and
speak.
Thanksgiving is a good time for you to take inventory. The unbelieving world
will happily join you in at least part of this annual counting of the
blessings. All the heathen are very happy to survey their possessions and
their joys and on this holiday, to feel thankful for such good things. Even
the most ardent deniers of God will still feel a sense of appreciation for
that which they have. They will feel their appreciation even while they deny
that there is anyone to whom appreciation should be shown.
There should be more to your Thanksgiving than the recognition that the
Triune God has supplied you with abundance. There is more that separates you
from the heathen than your saying what they will not say, that "every good
gift. is from above, coming down from the Father of lights" (James 1:17).
Your Thanksgiving should concern itself with more than what you have been
given.
What I mean is this: As you inventory your books for Thanksgiving, do not
merely take note of what you have been given. Catalogue also what has been
taken away. Draw up an account of your losses. Review that which you have
suffered and take careful note of that which you are now suffering. Look
carefully at these things and say again, "Every good gift. is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights" (James 1:17). Dare to pray, "Thank
you, my dear heavenly Father, for that which You have taken away and will
yet take away." This is where you truly leave the heathen behind on
Thanksgiving Day. Here you do more than name your Provider. Here you speak
the one true faith handed down to the saints: "My God will supply every need
of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In every and every
circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger,
abundance and need.
I have asked it at Thanksgivings past; I now ask it again: Who knows what
the future holds for you, for me, for our dearest loved ones? I have
answered this question before with the same answer I now give again: Who
cares? The Lord our God gives and the Lord our God takes away and for each
action we equally bless His name (Job 1:21). He who has provided you with
forgiveness and life in Christ Jesus will not fail you in other things
(Romans 8:32), and He will do so according to "every need of yours." Make
petition, "Give us this day our daily bread," more than your plea and more
than a reminder of what you have received. Make it your confession of faith.
When you pray to your God in the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily
bread," you are also speaking your Father's assurances to your fellow
Christians-including your dearest loved ones. "Give us this day our daily
bread." No matter how world-weary or battle-scarred you may become, when you
pray this petition you are speaking with a child's incorrigible admiration,
"My God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in
Christ Jesus."
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