Giving Thanks ~ Remember, Repeat, Return

I have to say that I like that this year we have an extra Sunday between Thanksgiving and the start of Advent.  While this past Friday kicked-off the official Christmas season with Black Friday and then we had Small Business Saturday and not to be left out tomorrow is Cyber Monday, at least in the church this year we don’t have to start the Advent and Christmas season this weekend, instead we can actually take one more week to give thanks.

If you were with us for the good life series we just finished, you will remember that we learned the single most important key to living the good life was gratitude.  The more we give thanks – the better perspective we have in life, the better we feel about ourselves and the healthier we are physically.  So it is good that today our focus can still be on gratitude.  Even if you have already jumped into the Christmas season with shopping and decorating and getting a tree, this can still be a moment of giving thanks and learning how to develop a lifestyle of thanks-giving.

To live a life of thanks-giving we need to focus on three things, the three R’s of giving thanks – Remember – Repeat – Return.  We find these steps from a psalm of David found in 1 Chronicles 16.  David wrote this psalm when the Ark of the Covenant was first brought to Jerusalem.  The ark had traveled with God’s people during their time in the wilderness and then had been cared for by the priests in the town of Shiloh.  At one point when Israel had been defeated by the Philistines the ark was captured and held for several months but then it was returned to Israel and for 20 years it was housed in the town of Kiriath-Jearim.  When David became king and made Jerusalem the capital city he moved the ark there and on its arrival they gave thanks to God using this psalm:
1 Chronicles 16:8-36. 

While the psalm was written for a very specific occasion, it shows us how to create a lifestyle of giving thanks and the first thing we need to do is Remember.  Look at 1 Chronicles 16:8-9.  Remember what God has done.  Remember God’s wonderful acts.  But we also need to remember who God is.  Remember God’s holy name.

There are many different names given to God in the Bible and each name tells us something about who God is.  God is known as Yahweh which means I am who I am.  This was the name God gave himself when he met with Moses at the burning bush and it tells us that God simply is.  As the I AM, God is eternal, God is ever present and God is the author of all things.  Since God is the great I AM, everything we have comes from God and so for all we have and who we are, we give God thanks.

Another name for God is El-Shaddai which means God Almighty.  This name tells us that God is the source of all power and strength and that we are nothing without God.  While being the Almighty, we do not need to stand in fear of God because Jesus told us that we can call also call God Abba which means Father.  Actually a better definition would be Daddy.  Jesus gave us this name for God which tells us that God is relational and loving and wants to be near us and lovingly care for us as a father cares of his children.  This too brings about thanks and praise for who God is.

Another name for God is Elohim which means Strength.  God not only is strength but this name tells us that God is the one who gives strength.  This is so important for us understand because so often in life we try to be strong in ourselves or think we need to be strong by relying upon our own wisdom and ability and our own inner fortitude, but trusting in our own strength will not get us very far.  We will come up empty every time.  We need to remember that God is strength and so if we need strength we need to ask God for it and find it in him.  In fact, the children’s song Jesus Loves Me tells us this.  We are weak but He is strong.

That song also gives us one more name for God which is Love.  1 John 4 tells us that God is Love.  God is the source of all love so if we want to experience love in our lives and love one another we need to turn to God to find this love.  All the names of God remind us who God is, which in turn causes us to give thanks, but David also tells us to give thanks for what God has done.  1 Chronicles 16:12

The ark was a visible reminder of all that God had done for his people and as they watched it carried into Jerusalem they would have remembered Gods work as creator, sustainer and redeemer.  In the Ark of the Covenant was the rod of Aaron which was a staff carried by Moses and Aaron to do miracles when the people of Israel were still in Egypt.  Moses used the staff to bring on the miracle of the plagues and to part the red sea and so the staff reminded the people that it was God who heard the cry of his people and it was God who took his children and created a nation.  The ark reminded the people of the work of God as creator.

Inside the ark was also a jar of manna which reminded the people that it was God who sustained his people for a generation in the wilderness.  The manna was a symbol of God’s daily provision and the constant guidance and patience that God showed his people.  And the ark itself was a symbol of God’s redeeming work.  It reminded the people that God delivered them from slavery.

So the ark was a symbol of God’s work as creator, sustainer and redeemer and we develop a lifestyle of thanks-giving when we remember God as our creator, sustainer and redeemer.  God is our creator, the one who gives us life and put us in the midst of the splendor and beauty of the world.  This psalm draws our attention to this when David says,1 Chronicles 16:31-33.  All the earth has been created by God and sings God praise and when we remember this it moves us to lift our voice and give our thanks and praise.   

We also need to remember that God is our sustainer.  Every day God gives us what we need for life.  God gives us light and air and food and family.  God is the one gives us the ability to work and serve and love which sustains not just our bodies but a life of purpose and meaning.  God sustains us and this helps us give thanks.

God is also our redeemer, the one who offers grace and mercy so that we can experience forgiveness and new life here as well as the promise of eternal life to come.  David reminds us that God is our redeemer in 1 Chronicles 16:34-35.  David specifically says when we remember that God has delivered us it will cause us to give thanks.

It is also important for us to remember what God has done for us personally.  How has God moved in our own personal lives?  Where have we seen God move in our family or in our friends?  When we can name what God has done for us, when we can give this kind of personal testimony, it moves us in real ways to give thanks.  On this weekend of giving thanks, I invite you to once again name something that God has done for you that you can identify and give thanks for.  Remembering what God has done will open the door to a lifestyle of thanks giving.

We need to remember who God is and what God has done but we also need to remember what God will do or the promises God has made.  David tells us this in 1 Chronicles 16:15-18.  David is asking the people to remember the promises God had made with the people.  God promised to give his people land, God promised to be a blessing to the people and God promised to be present with them forever.  The people did have a part to play in this covenant – they were to worship God, but even if the people failed – God would not.  God was, is and always will be faithful to his promises.  God remembers and fulfills his covenant and when we hold on to those promises it will cause us to give thanks.

One promise God has made is that he will never leave us nor forsake us.  Jesus said, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age, and in the psalms God says that there is no place we can go where God is not there.  If we go to the heavens – God is there.  If we go to the depths of the earth – God is there.  If we think the darkness and failure of our own lives will keep God away it says that the darkness shines as bright as the day.  God is always with us.  This is the promise God has made that we need to hold to and when we realize we are never alone – it causes us to give thanks.

So as we remember all this it moves us to give thanks.  When we remember who God is, what God has done and the promises God has made and what God will do in our future, it fills our hearts and minds with gratitude and creates a lifestyle of thanks-giving.  Remembering all this is so important that God says, do it again, and again and again.  Remember is actually the command given most often in the Bible which means that to create a lifestyle of thanks giving we need to remember and then Repeat.  David puts it this way, 1 Chronicles 16:23.

Day after day we need to proclaim God’s work of salvation and sing God’s praise.  Day after day we need to remember God’s glorious deeds among the people.  Day after day we need to thank God for what he does in our lives and how God is working in our world.  Daily repetition is important and this is a disciple we can establish.  To help with this, we have put in the lobby a handout of Praying the names of God for 30 days.  Each day gives a different name for God and helps us remember who God is and what God has done.  This can help us repeat the act of remembering for a month which helps create a habit or lifestyle of remembering and giving thanks.

Remember, repeat and Return.  The last step in developing a lifestyle of giving thanks is to return to God with an offering of our hands and our heart.  David says, bring an offering and come before him.  Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness - 1 Chronicles 16:29b.  We are to bring an offering and worship the Lord.  We are return to God with the gift of our hands and the gift of our heart.

In this season of gift giving - what gift we can give to God?  What offering of our hands and heart can we give to God in this Advent and Christmas season?  The gift of our hands may be a gift of food, a gift of time, a gift of money, a gift of serving others or our community.  There are so many ways we can make an offering to God and today you can begin by signing up to give or help with the Christmas Dinner.  I am always encouraged by the outpouring of support and help that we see through the dinner and it is a wonderful opportunity for us to give back on Christmas Day to the one who gave himself for us on that first Christmas Day.

Another offering we can make is to our Christmas Eve offering.  Each year we give away our entire Christmas Eve offering and invite people to make a gift to some of the most vulnerable and needy people in the world. This year our offering will be going to an organization called Partners that works with refugees we don’t often hear about which means they often don’t get help and support.

The people we are helping this year are the Rohingya people who have been forced out of their homes in Myanmar.  While we seldom hear about their situation on the evening news, these people are being systematically killed and the UN has said it is a text book example of ethnic cleansing.  These refugees are living in camps on the border of Myanmar and Bangladesh where Partners is serving them.  You will be hearing more about this but this is one way we can return to God with an offering.

While an offering of our hands is important, an offering of our hearts is probably even more vital.  Worship the Lord, David says and worship is the practice that truly can shape our hearts and lives and lead us to a lifestyle of thanks - giving.  While this season of the year is always busy, I want to invite you to return to the Lord and worship with us every Sunday during Advent. 

Don’t Miss It.  Don’t miss the moments God gives us to remember who he is.  Don’t miss the opportunity to love God and be loved by God.  Don’t miss the music of this season which tells us of the wonderful things God has done.  Don’t miss the presence of God in this season of buying and giving presents.

Remembering who God is, what God has done and the promises God has made is essential for a lifestyle of giving thanks – but that remembering needs to be more than thoughts and prayers, it needs to be turned into the actions of our hearts and hands.  So yes, we need to remember and repeat but then we need to return to God with the gift of our hands and our hearts as an offering to God.  This is the lifestyle of giving thanks.  Let us close the way the people did generations ago:  Let all the people say:
AMEN!  
Praise the Lord!


Next Steps
Giving Thanks
1. Remember:
• Who God Is.
o What names for God do you know?
o Pray 30 Names of God during Advent.  (handout in the lobby)
• What God has done.
o God is creator, sustainer and redeemer.  What does this work mean to you?
o Identify what God has done in your life or the life of your family.
• The promises of God.
o Name some of the promises of God.
o What promise of God do you need in your life today

2. Repeat:
• Use an Advent Calendar to not only look forward to the celebration of Christ’s birth but as a reminder to name who God is, what God has done and to give thanks.

3. Return:
• Your hands
o What offering can you give to God in this season of the year?
o Consider giving to the Christmas Dinner or this year’s Christmas Eve offering to help refugees.
• Your heart
o Commit to being in worship each week during Advent.
o Consider serving others by helping at our Christmas Eve worship services.  Stop at the connection table or contact Cassie.

The Good Life - Relationships and Trusting God

This month we have been asking ourselves what it is that makes for a good life.  We have seen that the world often tells us that more possessions or more money is the path to the good life, but those are really counterfeit roads that at best come up empty, or as Solomon called it – a chasing after the wind, but at their worst they lead to destruction (remember Adam and Eve).  Instead of seeking more in this world we have learned that the good life comes with gratitude and living with purpose, it comes with simplicity which creates margins that leads to giving.  Today we are going to explore one more path that the world says will lead us to a good life but will come up empty and that is success. 

The message we are told is that success brings the good life, but how do we define success?  One definition that I found said: success is the attainment of popularity and profit and this what we usually think of when we think of someone who is successful.  When we think of successful entertainers we think of those who are most popular or those who have sold the most records or the most tickets.  Success is counted by the number of awards you win or the likes, views or retweets you get on social media.  Success as the world defines it equals fame and fortune.

When I searched for the most successful musical entertainers of all time and I found the same list in several places.  The most successful by most accounts was The Beatles.  #2 was Elvis.  #3 was Michael Jackson.  Did their success bring them the good life? Elvis died alone, face down in his bathroom of a heart attack brought on by drugs and Michael Jackson led a somewhat tortuous life and died of an overdose.  Did fame and fortune bring them lasting peace, joy or fulfillment?  Those two aren’t alone.  The list of those the world defines as successful in all areas of life is full of people who have ended up alone and empty. 

Let’s go back a generation and think about one of the most popular movie stars of all time, a success in many ways, Marilyn Monroe.  Did her success bring the good life?  She died at age 36 from a drug overdose.  Or what about Howard Hughes?  He was one of the most successful men of his generation – wealthy beyond measure but he ended his life living as a recluse, often never leaving his residence.  In the last month we have seen one of the most successful producers in Hollywood and several actors at the height of their career fall from grace to a place where they may never work again.  Did their success bring them a good life? 

Worldly success – popularity and profitability, fame and fortune, do not bring the good life.  Success as the world defines it doesn’t last and it is not fulfilling which is why Jesus rejected this path three times.  Immediately after Jesus was baptized, he went into the wilderness to pray.  While praying and thinking about his future, the devil came and offered Jesus great success.  Matthew 4:1-11.

Three times the devil offered Jesus worldly success.  The first temptation to choose success came when the devil told Jesus to turn stones to bread.  While this would certainly have met Jesus own physical need, think about what else would have happened.  Every person’s physical need for food could have been met which means that Jesus could have simply given his life to meeting our every need.  This would have made Jesus very popular and the reality is that huge crowds did follow Jesus because he met their need for food and healing – but was this the path for Jesus?  Would this offer of success be the path to true life – the good life? 

The second offer of success came when Jesus was told to throw himself off the pinnacle of the Temple, which was the highest point in all of Jerusalem, in order to have the angels of God swoop in at the final moment and rescue Jesus before a foot hit the ground.  Now if this happened in the crowded city of Jerusalem it would be like a video going viral in a matter of moments.  The world would be a buzz about the spectacular abilities of Jesus and his fame would spread.  Would this offer of success be the path to true life – the good life?

The third offer of success came when Jesus was offered all the wealth and power of the world.  This would make Jesus successful by any standard of the world, but would this success lead to true life – the good life? 

Each one of these temptations and offers shows us how the world defines success.  Money, power, fame, popularity, prestige, authority and riches – Jesus was being offered it all and yet he knew that it was all empty and instead of that counterfeit path to the good life Jesus shows us that true life is found by trusting God. 

Each time Jesus is offered success in worldly terms he turns away from that offer and back to God.  He turns to God’s word.  He turns to God’s promises and he turns to true worship and humility.  Success, when it is defined as profits, popularity and power, do not lead to the life God wants for us.  Instead Jesus shows us that what is needed for the good life is a relationship where we trust God.

Now here is what is important to remember about trusting God, it won’t always lead us to profit, popularity and power and trusting God doesn’t mean our problems go away and that the good life will be defined as carefree and easy.  What trusting God does mean is that strength, courage and peace are offered to us during the good times and the bad and King David is a great example of this. 

David was known as a man after God’s own heart.  He trusted God and yet that did not mean everything went well for him.  After he was anointed king, David’s enemies attacked from all sides and he had to run.  He didn’t have worldly success at that moment, he had nothing.  David often ran for his life and hid in caves, but he would find strength and courage and peace because he even during difficult times he put his trust in God.  Look at Psalm 13:1-6.

The first 4 verses show us the difficult time David was having.  He wasn’t popular at this moment, he was feeling alone.  He wasn’t feeling strong and powerful because his enemies were beating him.  Things weren’t going well and yet David was experiencing the good life – Psalm 13:5, I trust in your unfailing love. 

There was a woman from my congregation in Altoona who battled MS most of her life.  When I arrived at the church, Shirley was confined to bed and couldn’t move.  The world would not look at her and see a woman living the good life – but let me tell you – she was.  She was faithful, she was joyful and she was an inspiration because of her trust in God.  I never saw Shirley without a smile and a kind word.  I never heard her anxious or worried or complaining about her condition.  In so many ways she was living the good life because she knew peace and even purpose in her condition and she lived this way because she trusted God. 

So the good life comes not when we think we need everything the world offers but when we trust that everything we need for life comes in a relationship with God who loves us and is present with us.  This brings us to the final key to the good life.  The good life isn’t just found in our relationship with God, it is also found in our relationship with others.  Relationships bring quality to life.  Relationships bring love which enriches life.  Relationships provide strength when we are weak and peace when we are troubled and relationships are truly what makes our lives good and brings about a good life which is why God spends so much time talking about how to have good relationships with one another.

Think about the 10 Commandments.  While  four of the commandments deal with our relationship with God, six give direction to our relationships with one another.  Honor your father and mother and do not commit adultery address family relationships and do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony and do not covet all talk about our relationship with others.  These commandments provide boundaries so that our bonds of relationships can be strong.  God doesn’t give these laws to control us, he gives these laws because He knows this is the path to good relationships which in turn is a key to the good life.

Jesus chose the path of relationships over success.  After he said no to the devil, Jesus left the wilderness and started his public ministry and the first thing on his agenda was calling people to work with him, it was to build relationships.  Matthew 4:18-22.

By leaving behind the fame and fortune of success that the world offers and building relationships with others, Jesus shows us the real way to the good life is in our relationships.  Family and friends, the church and the community are all relationships that lead us to the good life and once again, it is not just the Bible that tells us this, studies continue to show that the good life is found when we have positive relationships.  The world happiness report (yes, there is a yearly report that looks at where people are the happiest and what makes them happy) says that one of the key factors to happiness is positive relationships and perhaps the most important relationships for us to focus on are in our families.

God created us to be part of families which is why God spends a lot of time talking about family relationships.  These primary relationships are powerful in our development and important to our wellbeing.  Infants need parents to hold and love them.  Literally, babies need to be held and touched and loved if they are going to survive and thrive.  Children need parents to instruct them and guide them.  In time, parents need children who will support them and care for them.  The Bible is filled with guidance on how we need to develop healthy relationships in our families because these relationships lead to the good life and none of this has changed.  We need to stay focused on spending time with our families. 

I shared this last week but let me say it again.  As we enter into this Christmas season and our thoughts turn to gift giving, can we think less about presents to buy and more about giving the gift of our presence.  A couple shared with me last week that their grown children said that their grandchildren had everything they need and so they don’t want them to buy any more gifts.  This Christmas they asked their parents to give their grandchildren the gift of an experience. 

Could they go somewhere together?  Do something together?  Spend time together?  And this doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, it can be the commitment of simply spending time together each week.  Time is the greatest gift we have to give.  To all the parents and grandparents out there – give the gift of your time which will strengthen relationships and lead you and your families to the good life. 

Families, however, are just one of the relationships we need to focus on.  At some point in our lives our family may not be physically with us or our families may be broken – but we still need relationships so can we develop friendships that will lead us to the good life.  Proverbs 18:24

There are times when it will be our friends who will stick with us and support us and so it is important for us to invest in friendships.  When Jesus made a priority out of inviting people to walk and work with him in life he showed us that relationships with people of faith are important and that the church can be a place to develop these relationships.  It is often here that we find lasting friendships that nurture us and encourage us and help us experience the good life. 

Friendships, however, take work and so giving the time to get to know those in this community is important.  Small groups, Sunday School classes, ministry teams and serving together are all ways to develop relationships that can bring us the good life.  The Bible talks a lot about how we develop friendships and these are called the “one another” passages and there are dozens of them in the bible.  For example we hear:

Be at peace with one another
Bear with one another
Forgive one another
Love one another
Serve one another
Carry one another’s burdens

How we interact with one another will determine the kind of life we live.  The good life isn’t found in fame and popularity which are shallow relationships that can’t hold up when problems and pain come along.  The good life is found in honest relationships of love and faith with both God and others

God has shown us what makes for a good life.  It is not more possessions, more money or more success – the world says that’s the way to life but it is an empty life that in time destroys us in body, mind and spirit.  The good life is found with
Gratitude
Purpose
Simplicity 
Giving. 

The good life is found when we
Trust in God 
Love one another. 



Next Steps
The Good Life – Relationships and Trusting God

Success
How do you define success?  Who do you know that you would say is successful?  What makes them a success?

Read the story of Jesus’ wilderness temptation in Matthew 4:1-11.  In what ways was the devil trying to give Jesus his version of “the good life”?  What did Jesus choose instead?


Trust in God
In what ways are you trusting God? 

In what areas of life is God asking you to trust him?

Read and reflect on Psalm 13.


Relationships with Others
How can you strengthen your relationships with family?
What relationships need to be healed or mended?

How can you strengthen your relationships with friends?
What relationships need to be healed or mended?

How can you serve others during this holiday season and with whom can you serve? 


Thanksgiving
Take time this Thanksgiving holiday to give thanks to God for all that God has given.  Spend quality time with family and friends.  Commit to making this Christmas season simple and full of purpose.  Give in ways that reflect your faith and trust in God.  This will lead you to the good life. 

The Good Life - Simplicity and Giving

This month we are asking what makes for a good life and where does this good life come from?  The world has all kinds of ideas about what makes a good life and last week we looked at how some people look for the good life in the accumulation of more possessions.  In the Old Testament, King Solomon pursued this path and once he had everything he could ever want or need, he realized it was all empty and the pursuit of more was a chasing after the wind.  Getting more stuff is a counterfeit path to the good life – the real way to get the good life is through gratitude living with purpose, the greatest purpose being to love God and to love others.

Today we are going to look at another counterfeit path to the good life and then two roads that can get us there.  Similar to the accumulation of more stuff – the accumulation of more money is often seen as the road to a good life.  If we just had more money we would be happy, secure, and fulfilled.  If we had more money than we wouldn’t have the stress we have now, we wouldn’t have the problems we have now and life would be good.  We hear this message all around us and at some level we believe it to be true – but it is not.  Money can’t buy us happiness, it can’t buy us security and it can’t buy us the good life.

Now it is important to understand that money is important in our lives.  We need money to live and we need money to support and sustain our families and an increase in salary or getting more money from a second job or good investments is not a bad thing – those can be good things.  What we have to guard against is thinking that more money will make us happy and make things good.  It won’t and once again studies show us that this to be true.

Over the past 10 years, Median Income has increased 28%.  This is good.  It means we are all earning more and taking more home at the end of the week.  But during the same 10 years the Cost of Living has increased 30%.  What this means is that many of us are supporting our lifestyles with increased debt.  We are living beyond our means and sustaining our lifestyles buy purchasing things now and paying for them over time and with interest.

The average credit card debt per household is $6,662 but if you take out all the people who have no debt, the average credit card debt per household with debt is $16,748.  We can add to this the average car loan is $30,000, the average mortgage is $106,132 and now they are keeping statistics on medical debt and 44% of the population has medical debt over $5,000.

So you can see that while we are earning more money – we are also spending more money and our debt continues to grow.  What this tells us is that more money doesn’t always bring financial security and if we think more money will solve our problems and make us happy – it won’t.  When we turn to money to solve our problems we always think that more will be needed.  When you ask people at every income level what they need to be happy and financially secure they will tell you that they need more money.  People can have millions of dollars but then say that in order to feel secure they will need millions more.

More money doesn’t bring financial security and more money doesn’t bring less stress.  Studies have shown that the #1 stress people experience in life comes from financial issues and the third leading cause of divorce are financial issues.  The problem isn’t that people need more because people are getting more, the problem is that we are trusting in our money to solve our problems and bring us a good life when it can’t.  More money doesn’t bring stability and security and as the Beatles told us a long time ago – Money can’t buy you love.  So if more money doesn’t bring us the good life – what does?  The good life doesn’t come with more money, it comes when we learn how to manage what we have and the answer to how to manage our money is really very simple.

Seriously, the answer is simple, it is to simplify our lives.  If we can create a standard of living that is below what we earn, we create financial margins in our life and it is these margins that bring us peace and security.  The answer isn’t to try and get more money the answer is to simplify our lives and live below our means.  Jesus said that we can’t serve both God and money which means that we can’t allow money to be our focus.  We can’t give our lives to getting more, instead what we need to do is set a standard of living that frees us from thinking that more is the answer.

One way to learn to live below our means is to create a budget and spending plan for our family.  What are the basic needs we have?  Have we set aside resources for emergencies?  Do we have financial goals that we are working toward?  Without some clear financial goals, our money will disappear.  When I first started working with a financial planner, he asked me some hard questions about where my money was going and what I wanted to do with my money.  The truth was that I wasn’t sure where my money was going and I had no goals and so at the end of every month I had no money.  Together we created a plan that has helped me do things with my money that I wanted to do and he helped me set aside money every month for emergencies and the future.  It hasn’t always been easy, but it has been helpful and it has created margins in my life that provide stability and peace.

Money itself won’t bring us a good life but how we manage our money can and how we spend our money also makes a difference.  If we use all our money to buy more stuff we will end up like Solomon, empty and disillusioned, but if we spend our money on experiences that support and care for our loved ones, we will develop deeper relationships and cultivate healthier families.  If we spend our money on things that support our values and help others then we will experience a greater sense of purpose.  Studies have shown that people who don’t amass all their money to give to their families after they die but give that money away while they are still alive and can see their family and friends use it and enjoy it are happier and more fulfilled.  So how we use our money can also help us experience more of the good life.

This leads us to the second key to a good life when it comes to money and that is to give it away.  Giving leads to the good life.  If we can create margins in our life and live below our means we then have money and resources to give and the act of giving is a key to a good life.  We hear this in 1 Timothy 6:9-10, 17-19.

This is often one of the most misquoted passages in the Bible, in fact, I was just reading an article this week about a Christian athlete and either he or the magazine said, money is the root of all evil, but that is not what it says here.  What it says is that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  As I said earlier, money is not bad, it is not evil, in fact it is a necessity for life and can be used for good and for God but a love of money, or greed, is a source of all kinds of evil and it does not lead us to a good life.  What Paul tells us is that a good life is found when we have hope in God, do good deeds and when we are generous and willing to share.  Giving what we have leads us to the life that God wants for us.

And what God wants for us is to experience that good life.  Paul says that God provides all things for our enjoyment which means that God wants us to enjoy life but he is also clear that there is one path to this good life.  When Paul tells us that giving helps us take hold of the life that truly is life he is saying that there are other ways of living that don’t lead to life.  The life God wants for us comes when we are willing to give and share what we have.   The good life comes when we simplify our lives and create margins so that we are able to give both our time and money to others.

What is interesting is that the only teaching of Jesus which is quoted outside of the gospel is this idea about giving.  In Acts 20:35b Paul quote Jesus and says, It is more blessed to give than to receive.  And the reality is that we know this is true.  For everyone over maybe 10 or 11 years old, we know that there is more joy in seeing people open the gifts we give on Christmas than in opening gifts ourselves.  There is more joy in giving, there is more satisfaction and fulfillment in giving and the good feeling that giving brings lasts longer than the feelings we get when we receive.  Not that receiving isn’t special and meaningful, but we all know we are more blessed when we give than when we receive.  The good life is found when we are willing to give.

Let me close by sharing a few ways that we can explore giving in this season of the year.  We can start right now by giving a shoebox.  This simple act of giving can encourage and inspire us as we hear about the difference this gift makes in the lives of children.  We can also give to the food bank that always sees an increase need this time of year and we can give toys to the toys for tots drive.

We can also explore healthy ways to give to our families at Christmas.  There is a great book called The Advent Conspiracy which invites us to spend less and yet give more.  Can we spend less money on stuff for our family and give more of our time and more of our presence and more of our love.  A gift of an hour playing games as a family every week for a year doesn’t cost a dime but provides a priceless gift to our children.  I don’t remember the gifts I got as a child but I remember the times I played cards with my grandmother and checkers with my Dad.

We also cultivate the good life by looking at how we give to God and the work of God in the world.  From the very beginning, our giving to God have been a key part of faith.  Cain and Able weren’t told to give an offering to God but they realized all they had came from God so they returned a portion of their lives to God.  Their offering was not just a means of giving thanks – it was their worship.  They didn’t sing songs or listen to sermons or read scripture, they gave.  Worship was an act of giving to God and our giving to God is also a form of worship and it is worship that shapes our hearts and lives.  So giving to God can help us learn to give and be generous and lead us to the good life.

Many people ask what we should give to God and the biblical example is the tithe – or 10%.  When Abraham was victorious in battle he gave a tenth of what he received to King Melchizedek for the work of God in the city of Jerusalem.  That was the beginning of what we know as the tithe.  Generations later, Jacob made a vow to give God 10% of all that God was going to give to him and then this idea of a tithe was written into the law.  Leviticus 27:30.

What’s interesting is that 10% belongs to God whether or not we give it to him.  If we don’t give, it is like we are robbing God of what is rightfully his and for generations this is what Israel did.  In response to their lack of giving, God issued this challenge:  Malachi 3:10-12.

Did you hear the promise of a good life in there?  If we give to God, God will give back to us so much blessing that nothing will be able to hold it all.  When we learn to give freely and generously and faithfully, we will get all we need for a good life.

So the good life isn’t found in getting more money, it is found in how we use our money.  When we simplify our lives so that we are living below our means we create margins that bring peace and security.  And in time those margins help us give more.   The good life is not found in our money or in getting more money but in how we use our money and how give to God and others.
 
Next Steps
The Good Life – Simplicity and Giving

1. Take some time to evaluate your financial situation.
• What are you earning?  What are you spending?
• What is your debt?
• What have you saved for emergencies?
• What is your current giving to the church?
• What are you financial plans for the future?
• What financial goals have you set for yourself?

2. How can you create financial margins in your life?
• Where can you save money in your monthly budget?
• What could you do without for a few months to create more financial margins?
• How can you decrease your debt or the interest on your debt?

3. Create a budget
• Work with a financial planner to set financial goals.
• Get help from agencies that specialize in financial planning.
• Consult resources from money management experts like Larry Burkett and Dave Ramsey. (see selected books in the library)

4. Give
• What percentage are you giving to the church and the work of God in the world?
• Take a step of faith and commit to a church tithe in 2018.
• If you are tithing, consider increasing the percentage you give to God and the work of God.
• Give to Operation Christmas Child and/or the food bank.

The Good Life - Gratitude and Purpose

What makes for a good life?  I’m not asking what make life good – that’s easy, it can be found on any number of t-shirts. 

What makes life good is camping, pets, music, picnics, hiking waterskiing and the list goes on and while these can make life good and enjoyable, can they make for a good life?  Chuck Colson, who spent 7 months in prison for obstruction of justice during the Watergate Scandal, went on to become the founder of Prison Fellowship and the author of many books on living out our Christian faith and one of those books was actually called, The Good Life.  Chuck Colson said that he looked forward to retirement when he could spend all of his time on the golf course.  Chuck retired to one of the many golf communities in Florida and spent all of his days golfing and what he found was that golf makes life good but it doesn’t make for a good life.  Golf soon lost its luster and Chuck realized that there was more needed to make a good life. 

People have been asking how to make a good life for centuries.  The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrestled with this very question when he explored the issue of Eudaimonia – the state of having a good indwelling spirit – or a good life.  Aristotle and other poets, thinkers and philosophers throughout history have explored all the different avenues of what makes for a good life and while they may come to different conclusions, one of the avenues they have all explored is the accumulation of material possessions.  From the very beginning there has been this idea that the more we have – the better life will be.  The thought is that more possessions equals a good life.  The person who really tried this out was Solomon and we hear what happened to him in the book of Ecclesiastes.

While the author of Ecclesiastes is just known as the teacher, there are many who believe Solomon wrote this about his own pursuit of finding a good life.  Whether it was written by Solomon or someone reflecting on Solomon’s life, we find here some profound and timeless truths about what makes for a good life.  Ecclesiastes 2:1-11. 

Solomon had it all.  He had absolutely everything there was to have in life and he actually made the pursuit of gaining all these things his focus.  It says that Solomon did not deny himself anything that he wanted.  He acquired land, homes, gold and silver.  He surrounded himself with servants and slaves to cater to his every need and he was known to have hundreds of wives or concubines to fulfill every physical desire and pleasure.  He was the wealthiest person in the world at the time and yet when he reflected on all he had accumulated, he realized that at the core – his life was empty.  Everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 

It is believed that Solomon lived about 900 years before Christ which means that for 3,000 years we have had this teaching telling us that more stuff doesn’t make for a good life and yet what do many people do?  They work to accumulate more stuff thinking that their possessions will make the happy, give them security and bring an inner peace and joy.  If I just had a new house I would be happy.  If I just had a better paying job I would be secure.  If I just had a new wardrobe, a new car, or a new phone I would have a good life.  If I could just win the lottery or be the next publisher’s clearinghouse sweepstakes winner I would have a good life and yet what Solomon told us 3,000 years ago is that more stuff is not the way to a good life.  More possessions doesn’t equal a good life and if you don’t believe this then watch a few episodes of Hoarders. 

Not only does the pursuit of more stuff not make for a good life, it can actually bring pain and destruction.  Let’s go back to the story of Adam and Eve.  They were given everything they could ever want or need in the garden.  They had a good life – a really good life, paradise in fact, and yet they were not content or satisfied with what they had and they tried to get more.  While they were told they could eat from any tree in the garden but one, they were not satisfied so began to think about eating from that one tree.  They thought having more would make life better.  So they made that pursuit their focus and once they got it, they lost everything.  When we try to get everything we can in life and when we try to fulfill every desire we often lose it all. 

We know all of this is true because we are seeing it played out in the scandals coming out of Hollywood.   We have been hearing all kinds of stories about people who have been living with the same mindset as Solomon.  I denied myself nothing my eyes desired.  I refused my heart no pleasure.  This is how many people in Hollywood have lived.  They have so much and yet they want more, but this is not just a problem of Hollywood, political leaders or those in powerful, it is the disease we all struggle with.  We think getting more will make us happy.  More stuff will equal a good life and yet the pursuit of more is meaningless because it is a chasing after the wind.  We never get enough, it always comes up empty, we search for more and we risk losing everything we have. 

So the picture the world gives is that a good life comes with more possessions and more wealth but God tells us that path is meaningless and leads to being empty and disillusioned.  So let’s do some reframing and learn where the good life comes from.  It doesn’t come from more possessions it comes from being content with the possessions we have and we can learn to be content with what we have by doing one simple thing – giving thanks. 

Gratitude is the first key to a good life.  We will be looking at six keys to making a good life and probably the most important and powerful one is gratitude.  The single most important factor to seeing life as good and actually being healthy and happy is being grateful.  This is not just me saying this because it sounds like a good thing to say in church, study after study have proved this. 

Dr. Robert A. Emmons is the world’s leading expert on gratitude.  He is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, and author of several books on gratitude and giving thanks.  Through his research on gratitude he has discovered that people who weekly kept a list of what they were grateful for exercised more, had fewer physical problems and illnesses, felt better about their lives and were more optimistic.  In other words, people who practiced giving thanks were happier and healthier than those who didn’t. 

Young adults who kept lists of things they were grateful for reported being more alert, enthusiastic, determined and attentive to what was going on around them and they helped others more often.  Those who were sick and entered into a 21 day gratitude experiment reported having better moods, a greater sense of feeling connected to others and they experienced better and deeper sleep.  Children who practice giving thanks daily had more positive attitudes toward school and their families. 

If all this isn’t enough, here is what else they found.  Grateful people placed less importance on material goods; they were less likely to judge their own and other people’s success in terms of possessions accumulated; they were less envious of others and they were more likely to share their possessions with those in need.  So really, it is pretty simple, a good life comes with a lifestyle of giving thanks.  There is perhaps no greater force in creating a good life than gratitude and this is an attitude and practice that we can learn and cultivate in our lives.  Gratitude starts by simply taking some time every day to stop and give thanks for what we have.  The simple act of saying grace before a meal gives us three opportunities each day to give thanks.  When we stop to thank God for the food we have it is the beginning of a life of gratitude. 

Some people have a tradition of going around the table on Thanksgiving and sharing one thing for which they are thankful.  Wouldn’t it be interesting if people in your family started a list today of what they are thankful for and then after dinner while you waiting for the turkey to settle and make room for the pumpkin pie people could go around and share those lists.  If we learn to give thanks for what we have we become content and we spend less time thinking about what we want and think we need which can literally free us from wanting more stuff.  This is an important attitude of the heart to develop before the rush of Christmas.  We need to remember that a good life and a good holiday isn’t going to be found in boxes and stockings but in a heart of gratitude.  We can and need to start shaping that heart today.

There is one box however, that can help bring a good life to someone else and that is these shoe boxes.  These boxes remind us of all that we have and that we have so much to be thankful for.  The toys and items in these boxes will not be what makes a good life for the children who receive them, what will make their life good is knowing that they are not forgotten by the world, that their lives mean something to someone, that they are loved and that they are loved by God.  These boxes can make a difference in the life of a child and in our hearts and lives as well. 

So gratitude makes for a good life which is why Paul said, Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.  God wants us to experience a good life so tells us that the foundation is a heart of gratitude and giving thanks at all times. 

To understand the second key to a good life, let me tell you about when I first went to college.  When I thought about starting college hundreds of miles away from home in a new state and among new people I thought it was the perfect time to remake my life.  I decided that I wanted to be more like Solomon – not wise, but finding pleasure in all that the world had to offer.  I wanted to party and have fun and I even asked God to bring those things into my life so I could experience it all.  God did just that and put me in the best place to experience all the excesses of college life – an all-male dorm and an all-freshman floor.  I could have had it all and yet I found out very quickly that there was actually nothing lasting in what I saw around me.  Drinking, drugs, relationships that developed and died over a weekend didn’t bring people a good life – it was a chasing after the wind and often led to destruction. 

At the same time I got involved in a Christian fellowship where I saw people living life differently.  They had a lasting sense of joy and they had something I deeply wanted at that time in my life – a sense of direction.  I came to realize that what helped them experience a good life was a deep sense of purpose.  Purpose makes for a good life. 

We all need an underlying sense of meaning and direction in life.  Not what we do from day to day, not our jobs or families or callings and careers – those add to our purpose, but when I talk about living with purpose I am talking about something more fundamental. 

Let’s go back to Solomon’s story.  Solomon looked at everything in this world to make a good life and it all came up empty, except for this.  Here is the end of Solomon’s story, Ecclesiastes 12:13 – Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter; Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.  So what makes for a good life is living with a sense of purpose and our purpose is simply this, fear God and keep his commandments.  Now to fear God doesn’t mean living in fear of God or to be afraid of God but to be in awe of God, or we might say to love God, and to keep God’s commandments might be summed as loving our neighbor as ourselves.  So the greater purpose that makes for a good life is the Jesus Creed – it’s loving God and loving others.

This is what I saw lived out in my friends in college.  In the dorms I saw people looking to accumulate more stuff; more drinks, more relationships, more possessions and among my friends in IVCF I saw people loving God and loving others.  In the dorm I saw people empty at the end of the night or worse, I saw them in pain at the end of the weekend, among those I knew through IVCF I saw people content, at peace, joyful and more fulfilled. 

Two pictures of the good life – but one was counterfeit, one was false, one was fake news – more stuff doesn’t make a good life and it doesn’t even make life good.  A good life comes when we learn to give thanks and when we live with a greater sense of purpose, a purpose that comes with a deeper relationship with God.  Now is the time to learn how to make a good life.  We can’t let this upcoming season define what makes for a good life, instead we need to start today to give thanks and every day we need to continue to allow our love for God and others to shape the choices we make in living and loving. 

Next Steps
The Good Life – Gratitude and Purpose

1.  The Good Life
• In what ways have you been looking for the good life? 
• Where have you turned to try and make a good life? 
• Where have those roads led you? 
o What was good?  What was bad?
• Read about Solomon’s search for a good life in Ecclesiastes 2:1-11


2.  Gratitude
• Start a gratitude list or journal. 
• Every day identify three things you are thankful for and add them to the list.
• Pray and thank God for these things every day.
• Share this list with your family and friends on Thanksgiving Day.

3. Purpose
• What is the purpose of your life?
• What did Solomon say was the purpose of life in Ecclesiastes 12:13? 
o Do you agree that this reflects the Jesus Creed?
• How can you keep loving God and loving others as part of your purpose (and your family’s purpose) during the upcoming Holiday season? 


Give thanks in this season by supporting both the ministry of Operation Christmas Child and the Christmas Food Drive for the Food Bank.  Shoeboxes and food items are both needed at the church by November 19th.  Giving in this way cultivates both gratitude and purpose.