Episode 60: A Theology of Thanksgiving

To the Ruled Church podcast.

The Son, the King, and the Local Church

This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas? You see that one in Pechote, Mexico?

Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

The church is not a democracy.

It's a monarchy.

Christ is king.

You can't be Christian without a local church.

You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible-believing church, and spend your life serving Jesus in a local, visible congregation.

It's been a while, Eddie.

Yeah, it's been like 40 seconds.

Ha ha ha. This is like one of those rare times that we're getting to record back-to-back, to kind of build the queue back up, you know?

Because we've

Your beard looks exactly the same.

Yeah, and what about the Christmas tree?

I gotta get mine up, man.

It's all over already.

No, it's actually, in this episode, we're in the future.

Yeah, it's in November.

It's November. Happy November.

Yeah, almost Thanksgiving.

Are you participating in No Shave November?

I think I will be. Of course, right. I mean, I didn't shave today, so I guess I could go ahead and start in October.

I'm participating in No Shave November, but it's also basically no shave every other

Ever.

Ha ha ha ha ha. So, yeah, so it's November, so we thought we'd do a little episode on

I may have killed a massive buck by now.

Yeah.

I just don't know it yet.

Man, I wish we could talk to future Eddie.

Yeah.

Deer season, yes, but also one of the favorite American traditions in America. Ha ha ha ha. I don't know where I was going with that, but is the holiday of Thanksgiving. So we'll talk a little bit about the theology of Thanksgiving and the reason that we should be a thankful people.

So I'll turn it over to you, Eddie. Start us off on this convo.

Gratitude, the Image of God, and Thanking God in All Circumstances

Yeah, well, I really wanted us to think about what does it mean to be thankful? Who are we thankful to? And what are we thankful for? You know, when we think about what gratitude really is, gratitude necessitates that we're thankful to someone.

I was having this thought just yesterday. You know, everyone expresses gratitude to some level. You know, even the most militant atheist will say, you know, I'm so thankful for the universe or whatever.

Well, no, you can't have the category of gratitude because who are you grateful to? You can't have the category of gratitude to nothing. And so I think even the idea of gratitude, it's so ingrained in us because the reality of God is so ingrained in us.

We can't escape that image of God in us. We can't escape the invisible attributes of God as Roman one says that are so evident. And because of that, everyone, even those who are trying to suppress the truth and unrighteousness cannot escape the fact that we ought to be thankful.

Yeah.

The Bible, of course, this is a pretty popular verse here, but the Bible commands us to be thankful. First Thessalonians 5, 18 is an example. Give thanks in many circumstances. I was seeing if you're listening.

Is that what it says?

I was writing something down.

Ah.

In all things.

Yeah, ESP here, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus for you. So if we believe in the sovereignty of God, we can even thank God in difficult circumstances. How can that be true?

You know, I think there's a couple of ways. One, we can be thankful in difficult circumstances when we see an outcome that we're able to say, I can see how the Lord used this. But I think we can also be thankful in difficult circumstances when we don't see the outcome, but because we trust in the character of God.

We know that ultimately God has a plan and a purpose even beyond what we can see. And both of those are helpful because when we can see the thing that God has worked out, I think that we can say, thank you, Lord, for allowing us to see that.

But even when we don't, we ought to be thankful that God has given us faith that we can trust him, that he's accomplishing things, eternal things. You know, think about what it says in 2 Corinthians chapter four, that he's working things for an eternal weight of glory.

And so we can be thankful in all circumstances because God, we trust in and rest in the wisdom of God.

You know, this is easier to talk about. It's easier to get right on paper. It's easier to discuss than it is to live out. I am too prone to worry about situations, or to be heartbroken or disappointed or, you know, but a theology of thanksgiving means that we are able to be grateful even in difficult situations because we believe in, understand, know, and trust the providence of God.

We have a hard time. I'm just gonna speak of myself. Quatro has a hard time appreciating the reality that God loves me infinitely more than I love me. And all the things that he brings into my life are ultimately for my good and for his glory, even if I can't see it.

And it's hard sometimes, but having this understanding presses us to be able to say, okay, God, thank you. I do not like the fact that President Joe Biden is our president, but even with that, I have, again, this does not paralyze us.

This does not make us passive. Doesn't mean we just say, well, this circumstance, I guess I'll just won't do anything about it, you know? No, but even in that, I can say, thank you, God. Thank you, because, and it's not, by the way, it's not just, so some situations we say, well, let me just try to find the silver lining here.

It's not just that. Now that's true, but it's also like, even the fact that Joe Biden is president, God is teaching us some things. This is an evidence of the judgment of God. It's a reminder of God's justice.

It is a reminder of the necessity of the church to wake up, right? Lord, you know, all these, so, you know, these are just things I'm thinking of off the top of my head, but we really can give thanks in all circumstances.

And also let me say this. Sometimes we're prone the other way. Things go really, really good. And we forget to be thankful.

That's right.

So things go bad. We find it hard to be thankful. Things go really good. We forget to be thankful.

Right, that's right.

These are sins that we should repent of, take to the Lord, and seek to be a grateful people.

Yep, that's right. So what are some things you're thankful for, brother?

Well, I wanna do that. I do wanna do that.

Oh, as I jump in the gun a little bit.

No, that's okay. I do wanna do that. But what I wanna ask you is, how can we maintain this theology of thanksgiving? How can we incorporate that into, okay, so by the way, that should be year round.

Right, sure, yeah.

And we should incorporate it year round into our services and things. But are there any ways that we can incorporate that into our church life? And also, specifically this time of year, and then also, how can we incorporate that into our gatherings as family here?

And now, when this episode comes out, it's like two weeks away. How do we incorporate a theology of thanksgiving into our gatherings with others as we feast? And by the way, there is a time to feast.

Really?

Let's feast. But how do we incorporate this idea of thanksgiving into our church life and into our celebrations of this holiday?

Thanksgiving in Church Life, Family Gatherings, and Gospel Witness

You know, I think one thing that we oughta do first of all is we need to understand the importance of putting the focus on others. Oftentimes, what can happen in our thanksgiving is we can say, what are you thankful for?

And we start, well, I'm thankful for the food I have, or I'm thankful for my home or my family. Those are all good things. But one thing that we can do that I think will grow a heart of gratitude in us is when we focus on the needs of others, that will cause us to be more thankful, more grateful, and not just focusing on ourselves.

I think it's one of the most important things we can do is not just focus on the needs others have, but even meeting those needs will cause us to be more thankful and more grateful ourselves.

Yeah.

So thinking about like James chapter two, you know, we don't wanna be the people who say, oh, go, be warm, well-fed, while we're doing nothing for our brother. Rather, we wanna be the people seeking to meet a brother's need.

And ironically, what's gonna happen in that is we're gonna be more thankful for the way the Lord meets all of our needs.

Yeah.

I think practically, too, one of the things in church life, and again, this should be year round, but something as practical as writing a note, you know, you think, well, I've gotta buy something for somebody, and that's okay, and that's good.

Hey, you got a local coffee shop in town, and you wanna buy, you know, some coffee cards for some people in church, or, you know, just something small and not too expensive for some people, by all means, do that.

There's some ideas, you know. Even more simple than that is just writing a little note to those in the church and just telling them you love them, you're grateful to God for them, and specifically, write something you're thankful for.

You know, so for example, not I'm just thankful for you, but I'm thankful how you're always here. You're always, you know, serving in this specific example, whatever it may be, and sometimes that can really be a way to encourage the brothers and sisters in the church, and you're holding up some cards right there.

Yeah, so a couple weeks ago, some of the kids in church, you know, in Sunday school, they wrote these little cards to me. Look, that is so valuable, you know, just to show, you know, appreciation, you know, as the pastor, but it doesn't just have to be to the pastor.

You know, all of us can be just doing things like this, just a little extra thank you, or like you said, writing a little note, something, or even just sending, I do think there's something to writing an actual handwritten note because it's so rare anymore.

That has some extra weight, but you know, even just remembering a person and sending a text, you know, if a sister in the church asked for prayer, you know, this last Lord's Day about something, and you send her a text, hey, I'm praying for you about that.

A couple of days later, you know, that has to go a long way. So yeah, I think there's so much value in just those little things that tell them, hey, thank you for what you're doing. I'm grateful for you, praying for you.

I got a text message last, or I got a text message this morning about last night. Jacob, Pastor Jacob here just sent me a text this morning and told me, thank you for preaching what I preached last night.

Well, here's the deal, I already knew he was grateful. We talked last night and he was very grateful, and it really touched me last night. You know, I was like, praise God, you know, because you talk about the pressure of preaching in front of other preachers.

Well, if you have a plurality of elders, you have that pressure every week, you know? And so I was really grateful, but you know what? Getting that text from him this morning, like, it was such encouragement.

Like, he didn't have to send that. And it wouldn't have, like, it wouldn't have hampered my day or dampened my day if I didn't receive a text. I wouldn't be like, oh man, is Jacob gonna text me? It was just like, he just texted me.

It was just like, and like, it was really encouraging, you know, and so you don't know sometimes just the little things that you can do to send a text message or take the time to buy, you know, the 60 cent card and write out a note.

And I'm just gonna say, our generation, Eddie, and down is really bad about that. Right. And it's something that, you know, we can complain about generations that's gone before us and things that got wrong, okay.

But one of the things that got right was handwritten notes, you know, and the thank you. So try to incorporate some of that, you know, in the church. And then just practically speaking, and then we can say some things we're thankful for.

I do wanna say that, like, I know, Eddie, you have like, how many Thanksgivings do you go to? Like 18 or something?

No, we don't do a bunch of Thanksgivings.

Oh, it's in Christmases?

It's Christmas that we do that, but that's not anything like it used to be. We'll talk about that another day.

So we typically have one Thanksgiving feast, you know, and it'll probably be like around two o 'clock on that day. And, you know, just practically, now you can do the, like, let's go around the table and say, okay, that's fine.

But I would encourage you, if you're hosting, or if you're not hosting, maybe you could ask the host to read scripture at your Thanksgiving feast and remember why it is you're gathering. Yes, we are gathering, certainly, because we have this American, you know, culture, tradition of being thankful.

But as Christians, this is still a Christian holiday in the sense that it's not commanded in scripture to have this, you know, holiday or whatever, but it is a holiday that we are celebrating that we're thankful for because of who God is and what He has done.

And so read the scriptures at your Thanksgiving, and I would encourage this at any kind of, you know, Christmas, Thanksgiving, the 4th of July, you know, whatever the case may be. Like, when you gather together to celebrate, why would you not incorporate the Bible?

Birthdays, you know, like, yeah, let's do better at that.

Mm-hmm, yeah, that's right, that's good. That is really good.

Take the opportunity to share the gospel.

That's right.

One of the reasons I'm most thankful, and that could be a lead-in. One of the reasons I'm most thankful, hey, I'm grateful that you're all here. I love my family. God has blessed me with this family, and I just want to share with you one of the reasons I'm most thankful is because of what Jesus Christ has done.

He is truly God who became man, who was born of the Virgin Mary, who fulfilled all righteousness, kept the law on our behalf, and then He died on the cross for sinners. He was crucified, He was dead, He was buried, and then He rose again on the third day so that those who repent of their sins and put their faith in the finished work of Christ will not perish but have eternal life.

And you've just shared the gospel, and however long that took, 35 seconds.

That was good, yeah, that's right, that's good.

And I would say most, like your gathering, probably, Eddie, my gathering, most of our gatherings, probably most people there profess to be believers, but it sure doesn't hurt to rehash the gospel.

That's right, that's right. Especially, I mean, they may profess to be believers, but in most extended, you know, if you have a, I have a really large extended family, and so, yeah, there's people, there's no doubt unbelievers, you know, amongst the group.

Yeah.

So.

So we have, I don't know, maybe 10 minutes or so. Let's talk about some things. You wanna talk about some things we're thankful for, huh?

Yeah, so the first thing I would like to say is thankful for the fellowship we have with other brothers. You know, one of the things that can happen sometimes is we can find ourselves in an isolation.

And that is one of the worst things, I think, for the soul of any person, to feel isolated. Even if we're around other people, if we're isolated from other people who hold our worldview or hold our biblical views, man, that can really be hurtful.

And I know that we would talk about, well, our local church, and that's right. Our local church is paramount where we need to be finding this kind of fellowship. But even beyond our local church, or maybe even within our local church, the brothers in our local church, brothers and sisters, but those people who the Lord has put in our lives, those close friends that we can rely on, I would say that kind of fellowship, that is something that we ought to be thankful for.

Amen, amen.

So grateful for.

And I just wanna be clear, and neither one of us are assuming this, but we're grateful, first and foremost, for Christ and for His grace. We're both not only recipients of grace, but we have been able to understand and grow in areas of theology.

I could be a Christian, but not understand the sovereign grace of God. And I praise God for all these things, for what Christ has done. Who are we, Eddie? Who are we? That we're sitting here on a podcast.

We have the opportunity. There's been seasons in both of our lives where we couldn't have done this, because of other things we've got going on. And I believe we're being good stewards of our time. This is a opportunity for both of us to refresh ourselves, and then also, hopefully, to offer, to help edify other saints.

But so grateful for what God has done for us in Christ, and the forgiveness of our sins that we don't deserve, and we'll be celebrating eternally with Him. Praise God. So I do wanna just not assume that.

The other thing I was gonna mention, Eddie, is I really am, I wanna echo what you said, the fellowship. Man, hasn't God brought some great brothers in our life over the years?

Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.

You know?

Go ahead.

Even last night, our association meeting, and some of the brothers, I'm just like, man, it's an amazing thing. These guys could be anywhere. Here they are here. And guys like you mentioned before, last episode, Bruce Short, Randall Easter, Jonathan Murdock, Harold Smith, Wade Lentz.

I hate to mention all these people, because I'm gonna forget somebody. Right, right.

We could mention a hundred people.

My former pastor, Gene Tanner. Yeah, I mean, so yeah, go ahead.

Well, I was just, I was even telling Randall, I found myself at a point in my ministry, oh, it's been right at 10 years ago, I guess. Would that be right? When did you become the pastor at Emanuel?

2013.

Yeah, so it's been 10 years ago, and I felt this kind of isolation. I preached at our association, and I met this guy, and it changed my life. Obviously, we won't go into the whole story of how you and I met, but I did meet you then, 10 years ago.

Really meeting you and all of the brothers that you just said, I don't think I would have known, had the Lord, the Lord providentially, through my relationship with you, has opened the doors to most of these other relationships, if not all of them.

And so, yeah, the Lord's gracious in giving us brothers.

I do think it's funny. I do think the part of the story is like, you preach, you preach your guts out, it was so good. Prayer, prayer, salvation is trash, all that kind of stuff you're talking about. And at the end of the message, I'm like, it's kind of like my shibboleth.

I was like, hey, brother, do you know Paul Washer? Ha ha ha ha ha. You ever heard of Paul Washer?

And

And I said, did you just hear that sermon?

Yeah, yeah. And then we, I think we stayed there talking for like hours after the meeting. But another thing I wanted to mention, and I'm not just saying this, but of all the things that we've been through as a church, I just wanna state how grateful I am to be one of the pastors of Providence Baptist Church.

Like, this isn't just a job for me. This isn't like, well, this is what I do, and I just can't wait. I go in, I punch the clock, and can't wait to get home and get to my real life. Like, this is my life.

These people are my family. I love these brothers and sisters here. I love what God is doing here. I pray for our community and that God would continue to work here. I want, and honestly, it burdens my heart.

It hurts my heart, knowing some of the people who have left or seeing people not get what we're doing here. And it burdens me and it hurts my heart because I think, man, what God is doing here is so beautiful.

And I've often prayed in the last year, God, please don't let me mess it up. Because I'm just a, like, please don't let me mess this thing up because I love the church and I'm so grateful. I'm grateful for our other pastor here, Jacob.

I'm grateful. I can't start naming names in a church, God, I'll forget somebody.

No, no, no, don't do that.

But I'm so grateful for the membership. I can do Jacob because he's the other pastor, but so grateful for the membership of the church, the hunger for the church. I preached last night. This will be a couple of weeks because this comes out in a couple of weeks, but I preached last night at our associational meeting.

And we had, like, maybe not 20 people from our church, but, like, you know, if you count kids and stuff, 15, 17 people, something like that. Like, and they were, like, so encouraging. You know, I'm like, it's a church that loves her pastors, loves theology, you know, and it's like, so I just want to really reiterate how grateful I am for the church.

And, of course, I can't go through this episode without mentioning my physical family, the six children, baby Margie, my beautiful wife, so grateful for my sons and daughters. Like, when I was growing up, I don't know, I couldn't imagine, I have three sons and three daughters, right, a godly wife, you know, so God has been very good.

And I really like the song says, "'Praise God from whom all blessings flow.'".

Yeah, you know, I was preaching this last Sunday from Philippians chapter four, verse one, and Paul says there, of the Philippians, that they are his brethren, who he loves and longs for, his joy and crown.

You know, that's the heart that pastors have got to have for their church. Listen, if a guy's just punching a clock, he's gonna preach the sermon on Sunday morning, and that church over there is where he works, man, you can't do that.

You can't really pastor the people that way. You've got to love them. Paul tells the Philippians in Philippians one, that he holds them in his heart. It's right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart.

And when I think about Marshall First Baptist Church, these people that God has brought here, he's totally transformed our church in the last three or four years. And these people, I hold them in my heart.

I miss them.

If I'm not here or they're not here, man, we miss them because they're our people.

You know, and we love them. Invited to go somewhere, you know, I'm like, which I'm very grateful for that. And I have, I do go places, preach, it's wonderful. But one of the things I do think about, I don't like stacking things too close to each other.

Right. Because I end up, not because the church is like gonna get mad or something, it's like, I just miss the church.

Right, yeah.

Recently this year, I had to miss basically three weeks in a row, two weeks. It was only one Sunday out of all that, but two weeks I was in Mexico. And then we came back. And then the following Monday we left to go to G3.

Well, that was hard.

Yeah.

It was hard because I'm so grateful for the church, so.

Right, right. And then obviously, so thankful for our local churches. And then, like you said, just thankful for our families. You know, I'm so thankful for my sons. You know, I was telling, I was teaching yesterday on the church and I was teaching on elders and just thinking about my sons.

And I was telling them, you know, it's horrible that the stereotype in our day is of how bad the pastor's kids are. Because actually, it's supposed to be that you ought to be able to look at the pastor's home and see whether or not he can manage the church, right?

Is his household in order? And so I just look at my sons and I say, I don't take any credit. I just say, praise the Lord for giving me these young men, you know, to raise up and to see them draw near to the Lord.

So I'm thankful for my sons, thankful for my wife, you know, who's so supportive and so helpful and, you know, just love my wife. And these are good gifts that the Lord just gives to us. He doesn't have to give us good kids and good wives, you know, but he does in his kindness.

And he calls us to love them well and to lead them well.

Amen.

And so.

And we could have a thousand episodes and not exhaust all the things that we are grateful for.

I would like to share one more.

Yeah.

I know we gotta get done. Let me share one more. And this is gonna go along with everything we've already said. But I think we ought to be thankful for our stage of life. Man, if there's any younger guys than us listening, don't be like, oh, I can't wait till I'm done with seminary or I'm done with college or I'm done with, you know, I'm doing this.

You're doing some part of ministry that you're ready to get onto the next phase. Man, don't rush through that. Be thankful for that stage.

Amen.

And guys that are where we're at, we're in the middle probably of our ministry years. Man, let's be thankful for these years and for what the Lord's doing in our churches. Even while we're like, man, there's a lot more we wanna see done.

And there's a lot more growth we wanna see happen. Yeah, but let's be thankful for the stage where we're at in our lives, in our ministries, in our communities, instead of just always being like, well, I wanna be there.

Or we can start thinking the opposite. You know, as we get older, you know, I'm quite a bit older than you, Quatro. And as we get older, we can start kind of looking back and, oh, I wish I were young again.

Instead of just saying, no, I wanna be, I wanna glorify God where I am here in this part of life.

Amen.

And you know, this is something else I wanna mention, but the time we have left, I've got to jump on a Zoom call, but the time we have left doesn't justify how grateful we ought to be. But isn't it a wonder that we have the Bible in the English language?

Amen, yes.

What a blessing that is. So I'll end with that. Go read your Bible. Thankful for God's word. Eddie, I'm grateful for you, brother. I'm grateful for the technology and the podcast and grateful for those who are listening, those who offer feedback.

Hey, if you're listening and this benefits you, a text message or an email or a message to us some way, let us know that you're enjoying it, that that would be an encouragement to us. So feel free to do that.

Eddie, as always, brother, grateful. I look forward to getting together next week and I'll let you, I'll tell everybody bye and let you sign us off.

See you guys next week.

The Church as God's Work and the Call to Respond

If you really believe the church is the building, the church is the house, the church is what God's doing. This is his work. If we really believe what Ephesians says, we are the hoemas, the masterpiece of God.

How are you gonna respond?