Jeff Frazier
Monday, March 10
To listen to the audio version, click here.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. - Romans 12:1
Most people hear the word “worship” and they immediately think of music and singing in church. Similarly, most people hear the word “offering”, and they think of putting money in the plate in church. Offering, not just our money, but our whole lives, is at the very heart of what it means to worship God.
Under the old covenant, the people of God were commanded to offer several different sacrifices to the Lord. We are all probably quite familiar with the burnt offering, which was given to turn away God’s wrath, and the sin offering, which was sacrificed in order to cleanse the worshipper from the defilement cause by their sin. But there were also sacrifices of thanksgiving, given as an expression of the worshipper’s thanks for the Lord’s many blessings.
When you sacrifice a thank offering to the Lord, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf. - Leviticus 22:29.
The sacrifice of thanksgiving is one that would have been part of our worship even if Adam never fell. Sin’s entrance into the world made the burnt offering, the sin offering, and, ultimately, the offering of Christ necessary for fellowship with God. Yet even in a sinless world, we would have been required to show the Lord thanks for all He has given to us. Thanksgiving is an essential part of true worship, and the failure to give thanks to the Lord is one of humanity’s gravest sins.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. - Romans 1:21
How much more, then, should those of us who have been redeemed from sin offer sacrifices of thanksgiving to our Creator today? God has not dealt with His people as they deserve but has atoned for their sin and restored fellowship with them through His Son. A life offered to God in thanksgiving is the only proper response to His grace!
This is the point that the Apostle Paul makes in today’s passage. Paul makes his appeal for us to offer ourselves fully to God on the basis of God’s mercy! Since we have been saved through Christ, how should we respond? Paul answers this question in Romans 12:1, and the first thing he tells us is that we should “present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God”. The kind of sacrifice the Apostle is talking about must be the sacrifice of thanksgiving, because Jesus already offered Himself up as the burnt offering, sin offering, and peace offering, the perfect sacrifice for our sake.
Every aspect of our lives is part of our worship. We worship from the moment our eyes open in the morning to the second they close at night. Worship is magnifying (or making much of) someone or something by our actions, thoughts or words. It is setting anything, be it God or anything else into the place of high prominence and authority in our lives.
Oh God, we offer our whole selves to You today in gratitude and thankfulness for all that You have done for us, this is a true worship - Amen
Friday, March 7
To listen to the audio version, click here.
Psalm 111:1-9 (ESV)
Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the
company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight
in them.
Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his
righteousness endures forever.
He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; for the
Lord is gracious and merciful.
He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his
covenant forever.
He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them
the inheritance of the nations.
The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his
precepts are trustworthy; they are established forever and ever to be performed
with faithfulness and uprightness.
He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his
covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name!
I
have a book in my personal library entitled, “Habits
of the Heart.”
I don’t remember all the content of the
book but I love the title because I believe the most important habits we
develop are habits of the heart.
I
know we all need to develop healthy physical habits like brushing and flossing
our teeth; exercising regularly and getting enough rest; but it’s even more important to develop
healthy spiritual habits of prayer, worship and thanksgiving.
I
found this short piece on the internet:
To live rightly in the presence and communion
of God is to live in a state of constant thanksgiving. For from Him we receive
all that we have – our life and existence, all good things, the hope of redemption,
and the joy of communion. The offering of thanksgiving is the acknowledgement
within our heart that we ourselves are not the author of any of these things,
but are rather the recipients – those who receive gifts from God.
The
Apostle Paul says it this way:
Ephesians
5:19-20
Speak
to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in
your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Did you notice that phrase: “always giving thanks to
God the Father for everything...?”
That sounds like a habit of the heart; the
habit of thanksgiving.
If we go back to Psalm 111 we see several hints as to how to
develop this particular habit of the heart.
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the
company of the upright, in the congregation.
In other words, I will make a habit of sharing worship as
part of a congregation of similarly committed people.
Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight
in them.
Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his
righteousness endures forever.
He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; for the
Lord is gracious and merciful.
I
will make a habit of studying the works of the Lord. I will pay attention to
what God has made and done and will make a habit of thanking him for his grace
and mercy.
He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his
covenant forever.
This
one is perhaps the easiest! I don’t know about you but I eat at least three times a day
and each time I take food to my lips is an opportunity to express thanksgiving
for God’s provision.
He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them
the inheritance of the nations.
He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his
covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name!
The
three phrases: “the inheritance of
nations; his redemption; his
covenant”
all refer to the promise of
salvation.They point to the hope of the gospel itself.
So,
how do we develop the habit of thanksgiving in our lives?
We
worship with a congregation every week.
We
pay attention to and study the works of the Lord. We train our hearts and eyes
to notice the beauty and mercy of God in the things and people all around us.
We
connect the provision of food to thanksgiving to God.
We
remember often the great hope of salvation promised in the gospel.
Finally,
we make a habit of expressing our thanksgiving to God in worship and prayer;
and to others in word and deed.
Ask
God to help you learn the habit of the heart called thanksgiving.
Pastor
Brian Coffey
Thursday, March 6
To listen to the audio version, click here.
Psalm 111:1-9 (ESV)
Pastor Brian Coffey
Psalm 111:1-9 (ESV)
Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the
company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight
in them.
Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his
righteousness endures forever.
He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; for the
Lord is gracious and merciful.
He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his
covenant forever.
He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them
the inheritance of the nations.
The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his
precepts are trustworthy; they are established forever and ever to be performed
with faithfulness and uprightness.
He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his
covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name!
Several
years ago I had to travel by plane somewhere; I don’t remember where I was going or why. But I do remember
that the weather was stormy and that the flight was pretty rough. Now I don’t have a fear of flying but I do
have a bit of a fear of landing. Landings make me nervous.
As
the plane approached the landing it got really rough; shaking and bouncing; you
could just imagine the pilot struggling to keep the wings level and the plane
on course. We hit the runway hard, bounced a couple of times, and finally,
after what seemed like an eternity, rolled to a stop. The passengers erupted in
spontaneous applause, something you don’t see at the end of every plane flight.
As
we filed off the plane the pilot had opened the cockpit door and was standing
in front. As I got to him I did something I usually would not do. I
spontaneously said, “That was a good landing! You
did a great job getting us down, thanks!”
He
looked up at me kind of surprised and said “Thank
you.” Something in his face and tone told me that he had
been worried too, and that it had probably been a long time since he heard
anyone say, “Thank you.”
We
live in an extremely critical and thankless culture. We live in a culture of
rights. We know our rights and we demand our rights. We live in a land of
service. We pay for good service and we expect to get it.
The
result is we do not live in a culture of gratitude; rather, we live in a
culture of discontent and complaining. In fact, I might go so far as to say we
live in a culture of “habitual ingratitude.”
I
look at my car and instead of being grateful for having reliable
transportation, I can feel ungrateful because others have nicer cars.
You
can look at your house, and instead of being grateful for having a warm home
during a cold winter, you might feel ungrateful because the water pressure in
your shower is a little weak.
Read again the words of the psalm
writer:
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the
company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight
in them.
It wasn’t until the third or fourth time reading the psalm
that I noticed the connection between the words studied and delight.
The writer is saying that the
works of the Lord are great to those who study them; and those who study
them are those who delight in them.
It make me ask, “What do I take delight in?” Do I delight in the kindness and generosity of God? Or
do I delight in complaining about that which I do not have?
When I delight in something I tend
to think about that thing more; I tend to study that thing more so I can, in
turn, enjoy it more.
So it seems to me we all have a
choice. We can learn to delight in the great works of the Lord, which leads to
studying them and therefore discovering greater and greater delight; or we can
settle for delighting in our complaining and envying of those who have more, continue
to study the perceived inequity and therefore achieve greater and greater
ingratitude.
Where is your delight?
Wednesday, March 5
To listen to the audio version, click here.
Psalm 111:1-9 (ESV)
Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the
company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight
in them.
Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his
righteousness endures forever.
He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; for the
Lord is gracious and merciful.
He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his
covenant forever.
He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them
the inheritance of the nations.
The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his
precepts are trustworthy; they are established forever and ever to be performed
with faithfulness and uprightness.
He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his
covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name!
A
few weeks ago a missionary and pastor named Tom Randall, was arrested in the
Philippine Islands and thrown into prison on false charges.
Tom
happens to be a good friend of my brother’s and had just been hired to join the pastoral staff
at my brother’s
church. I had the privilege of getting to Tom way back in 1982 as we played
together on a Sports Ambassadors basketball team that traveled to China.
As
I watched Tom’s ordeal
from a distance, seeing daily updates on Facebook and twitter from my brother,
I saw two seemingly contradictory things happening at once. On the one hand
there was undeserved suffering. Tom had been falsely accused so even though he
had done nothing wrong he had to spend almost 3 weeks in a dirty and very
dangerous jail. He was so dehydrated and sick that he actually lost
consciousness on several occasions and his life was at risk. On the other hand,
Tom repeatedly expressed his thanksgiving and praise to God for allowing him
the privilege of sharing the gospel with the men with whom he was incarcerated.
What
kind of person thanks God for being in prison? The kind of person like Tom
Randall, who believes what the Apostle Paul wrote:
1
Thessalonians 5:16-18
Be
joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is
God’s
will for you in Christ Jesus.
Remember
that Paul was a man who understood suffering and persecution. He was writing to
people who were being abused and ridiculed for their faith in Christ. Yet he
says, “Give thanks in all circumstances.”
This
is a hard one.
Hardly
a week goes by that I don’t hear of a person or a family in our church going
through some painful or extremely difficult journey. It might be cancer; or the
loss of a loved one; or extended unemployment.
And
we pray every week for God’s care, deliverance and healing for all of them.
But
Paul encourages us to also give thanks in those situations.
I
think what he means is that God is in every circumstance and is sovereign over
every circumstance, and can work through every circumstance. Perhaps his work
will be healing; perhaps it will be deliverance; perhaps his work will be
developing perseverance and maturity; perhaps his work will be to build the
church or enhance his own glory. In Tom’s situation God eventually delivered him from prison
and he is home now. Several men became followers of Christ in that prison cell;
the faith of all those who prayed for him was built up; the church was
strengthened and God was glorified. But sometimes we can’t see at all what God is up to, we can only trust that
he is doing something good and so we are to be thankful.
So,
are you currently facing a circumstance in which you struggle to find anything
good? Ask God to show you what he might be doing in and through your
circumstance, and find some way to express thanksgiving; perhaps not for
your circumstance, but rather in your circumstances.
Pastor
Brian Coffey
Tuesday, March 4
To listen to the audio version, click here.
Psalm 111:1-9 (ESV)
Psalm 111:1-9 (ESV)
Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the
company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight
in them.
Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his
righteousness endures forever.
He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; for the
Lord is gracious and merciful.
He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his
covenant forever.
He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them
the inheritance of the nations.
The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his
precepts are trustworthy; they are established forever and ever to be performed
with faithfulness and uprightness.
He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his
covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name!
Even if you don’t watch
“Duck Dynasty” you
have probably heard of the goofy reality show featuring the Robertson family
from Louisiana. The men of the family have bushy beards, dress in camouflage
and love to hunt; and most of the wives and children work in the family
business, which is making and selling duck calls.
In August 2013 the season
premier of the 4th season drew 11.8 million viewers, making it the most watched
episode of a non-fiction series in cable television history.
What makes the “Duck Dynasty” phenomenon
even more interesting to me is that every single episode ends with prayer.
The Robertsons are unashamedly
open about their Christian faith and even though the producers of the show have
tried to get family patriarch Phil to drop the prayer scenes from each episode,
to this point he has refused because he believes he would be denying his faith
and dishonoring God to do so.
In other words, he believes
returning thanks to God is non-negotiable.
The Apostle Paul would agree!
In Romans Paul points to the failure to give thanks to God as a telltale sign
of a heart darkened by sin.
Romans
1:21
For
although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to
him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
19th century preacher and
theologian Charles Spurgeon commented on this text:
Did
you know, dear friends, that unthankfulness was such a sin as this? Have you
ever thought of it in this light before—that men were without excuse because when they knew God they were not
thankful? Unthankfulness is a sin for which there is no excuse if it be
attended with knowledge. I fear there are thousands who call themselves
Christians, who are not thankful, and yet they never thought themselves very
guilty on that account... I tremble both for myself and you when I see want of
thankfulness thus set in the front rank of sins.
We
can see why murder and stealing and idolatry would be called sin. But why would
unthankfulness be considered a sin?
Because
when we fail to give thanks we dishonor God by taking all he has made and given
for granted. We are like the spoiled child who sits down at a table covered
with his favorite foods, eats his fill, and leaves the table without ever
acknowledging or thanking his mother who spent all day preparing the meal.
When
we take God has made and all God has given for granted we are acting as if we
either created everything we have or that we deserve everything we have.
Notice
that the writer of this psalm refuses to take what God has made for granted:
Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight
in them.
Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his
righteousness endures forever.
He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; for the Lord
is gracious and merciful.
There
are two primary reasons we are to be thankful.
First:
we are to be thankful for what God has done; for the beauty and wonder of his
creation and for the many blessings he has given.
And
second: we are to be thankful for who God is.
So
when you begin your day; or when you sit down to a meal at work or with your
family; refuse the temptation to take for granted; refuse the temptation to be
ungrateful! Rather, seize the opportunity to express your gratitude for both
who God is as well as the blessings he has bestowed upon you.
Pastor
Brian Coffey
Monday, March 3
To listen to the audio version, click here.
Psalm 111:1-9 (ESV)
Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the
company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight
in them.
Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his
righteousness endures forever.
He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; for the
Lord is gracious and merciful.
He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his
covenant forever.
He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them
the inheritance of the nations.
The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his
precepts are trustworthy; they are established forever and ever to be performed
with faithfulness and uprightness.
He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his
covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name!
So,
are you tired of winter yet?
I
think it was Shakespeare who wrote, “Now is
the winter of our discontent.” Actually, it’s not even “winter” anymore, now it’s called a “polar vortex!”
Whatever
it is, I’m tired
of it.
A
couple of weeks ago it snowed all day on a Monday; we got something like 7
inches of fresh snow. I had to be out all afternoon and evening and so didn’t get a chance to shovel my driveway
until late that night. Once I finally got home I went out with one of my boys
and we worked for 30 or 40 minutes in the cold and dark to clear the driveway
so we wouldn’t have
to do it first thing in the morning.
The
next morning, Tuesday, I had to get out the door for my usual 7 am meeting and
was feeling pretty proud of myself for having shoveled the driveway the night
before.
I
got in my car and backed out of the snow-free driveway but as as I got to the
end of the driveway, I hit what felt like a bank of snow and got stuck.
Evidently
the snow plows had come along sometime after we had shoveled, in the middle of
the night, and piled up like 18 inches of ice and snow right in front of my
driveway.
So
I had to get out of my car, get the snow shovel and hack my way through a pile
of snow to clear the same driveway I had already cleared the night before!
I
suppose I could have been grateful that I live in a community that is affluent
enough to have plow trucks clearing the roads at all hours of the night. But,
as you can probably guess, I wasn’t feeling particularly thankful! In fact, at that
moment, I was profoundly ungrateful!
This week we’re looking at the first nine verses of Psalm 111,
which are all about thanksgiving.
Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the
company of the upright, in the congregation.
When most of us hear the word “thanksgiving” we
think of the holiday called “Thanksgiving.” We think of turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie; we
think of gathering with family for a day of food and fun and maybe some
football. While all of that is good, the psalm writer is telling us that
thanksgiving is first and foremost an act of worship.
As the psalm begins we see that
thanksgiving has both a private and a public dimension. Our gratitude to God is
to begin in our hearts and then well up and overflow into expression of worship
in the company of the congregation.
How grateful is your heart today?
Is your heart full to overflowing with thanksgiving for all God is and all he
has given? Or have you allowed the long, cold winter or some other lesser thing
to distract you from the goodness and beauty of God?
Have you joined the “company of the congregation” to offer your praise and thanksgiving to God in the
context of corporate worship?
Ask God to grow your capacity to
be thankful and so to worship him with greater devotion!
Pastor Brian Coffey
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