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Sustaining-an-Attitude-of-Gratitude-Msg · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Thank you for being here. I'm always honored to be
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Speaker 1: invited to speak. And it's not an easy thing to
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Speaker 1: decide on what to talk when you come to the
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Speaker 1: chapel here. I know you recently heard from Charles Stanley.
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Speaker 1: Is that correct? Charles Stanley was here. Great. Never forget
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Speaker 1: the lady who finished the day at our church. We
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Speaker 1: had had our worship service and she came down with
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Speaker 1: one of doctor Stanley's books and she said, I want
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Speaker 1: to thank you doctor Stanley for that message today. She said,
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Speaker 1: I'm very grateful, and I wonder if you'd sign your book.
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Speaker 1: I said, I'll be glad to, so I signed it.
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Speaker 1: I had to remember Charles, not Andy Stanley, so I
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Speaker 1: wrote Charles Stanley and she said, oh, thank you. I'll
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Speaker 1: treasure this rest of my She walked out just so
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Speaker 1: grateful that she had been there to hear doctor Charles
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Speaker 1: Stanley speak that who cares you know? Well? The way
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Speaker 1: we started off today was perfect for what I want
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Speaker 1: to talk on, because I want to talk to you
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Speaker 1: about sustaining the spirit of a heart of gratitude. That's
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Speaker 1: what's on my mind today and I believe in it wholeheartedly.
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Speaker 1: In fact, I think an attitude of gratitude is one
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Speaker 1: of the most contagious of all attitudes we can sustain,
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Speaker 1: and being around a person who is grateful and frequently
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Speaker 1: uses those two marvelous words thank you, often is just
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Speaker 1: a therapy. They make us smile, they lift our spirits.
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Speaker 1: They really do change our environment within and and around us.
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Speaker 1: They impact others. Can be as simple as a little
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Speaker 1: five year old boy who was telling his mother that
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Speaker 1: he was even thankful that he wears glasses, and she
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Speaker 1: wanted to know, why are you thankful for that? And
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Speaker 1: his answer was quick and simple. He said, it keeps
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Speaker 1: the boys from hitting me, and the keeps the girls
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Speaker 1: from kissing me. So glasses work. All that's going to change, buddy,
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Speaker 1: before too long, So you're in for a surprise. I
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Speaker 1: remember the words of the man who wrote, he who
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Speaker 1: forgets the language of gratitude can never be on speaking
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Speaker 1: terms with happiness. Even more profound of the words of
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Speaker 1: Dietrich Bonnoffer, who wrote, in ordinary life, we hardly realize
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Speaker 1: that we receive a great deal more than we give,
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Speaker 1: and it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.
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Speaker 1: Love that line. It's only with gratitude life becomes rich,
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Speaker 1: it is very easy to overestimate the importance of our
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Speaker 1: own achievements in comparison to what we owe. Others have
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Speaker 1: to add along with that the flip side of the
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Speaker 1: same coin, and that is that there is nothing more
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Speaker 1: offensive or oppressive than an attitude of ingratitude, which is
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Speaker 1: a characteristic of our age that shouldn't surprise us. Paul
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Speaker 1: writes of it in Romans one, just as much as
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Speaker 1: in the last piece that he wrote when he wrote Timothy.
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Speaker 1: In Roman one. Romans one, he writes of the magnificence
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Speaker 1: of God's artwork in the natural realm we call it
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Speaker 1: here at the seminary general revelation. And in spite of
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Speaker 1: God writing his glory across the skies, which mankind is
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Speaker 1: able to read every day of our lives, still he
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Speaker 1: remains ungrateful. Still there's an attitude of ingratitude. When I
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Speaker 1: look at Paul's words in two Timothy three, and I
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Speaker 1: read of the savage days in which we live. That's
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Speaker 1: the way one of my mentors used to handle the
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Speaker 1: word difficult in verse one of two Timothy three. In
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Speaker 1: the last days, difficult or savage times will come. And
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Speaker 1: then he begins from there through verse eight to describe
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Speaker 1: the times in which we live, when men and women
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Speaker 1: will be lovers of money and boastful and arrogant and
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Speaker 1: revilers and disobedient to parents. And in the middle of
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Speaker 1: all of it Heath. Heath mentions ungrateful along with unholy,
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Speaker 1: along with unforgiving. Ungrateful. The spirit of thanksgiving needs to remain,
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Speaker 1: and I hope it is remaining. I hope you today
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Speaker 1: have not relegated that spirit of gratitude to a holiday
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Speaker 1: and left it there and fail to bring it into today, tomorrow,
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Speaker 1: next week, the week of finals, the week beyond finals,
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Speaker 1: next semester, into your ministry. As I'll tell you, if
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Speaker 1: a spirit of ingratitude grips you strong enough and long enough,
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Speaker 1: you'll change, and your ministry will change. And it won't
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Speaker 1: take a really insightful person to know that you're difficult
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Speaker 1: to be around, because ungrateful people repel others. Now, why
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Speaker 1: are we so ungrateful? Why are our times marked by
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Speaker 1: such ingratitude as Paul mentions in Romans and in two
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Speaker 1: Timothy and in so many other places. At the risk
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Speaker 1: of being simplistic, in my analysis, I think a major
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Speaker 1: reason is pride proud people don't say thank you. They
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Speaker 1: don't think thank you. Pride is of course filled with
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Speaker 1: self and when that is true, we hold back our
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Speaker 1: thank you to others because we're so self important. I'll
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Speaker 1: tell you who will say thank you and do so frequently.
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Speaker 1: Humble people, broken people, crushed, contrite people are quick to
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Speaker 1: say thank you, thank you, thank you for the little things,
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Speaker 1: thank you for the unexpected things. Paul writes to his
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Speaker 1: friends in Thessalonikah, I'm turning there for the rest of
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Speaker 1: my time with you First Thessalonians, Chapter five. Toward the
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Speaker 1: end of that letter, there's sort of a staccato set
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Speaker 1: of statements. Pa bump, pa bump, pa bump bu bump
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Speaker 1: bu bump, bump, bump their brief and he punches them out.
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Speaker 1: When I was taking OBO in high school, and mister Veolani,
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Speaker 1: who had the chair of uh of first chair of
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Speaker 1: OBO in the Houston Symphony, would calm they they made
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Speaker 1: house calls in those days, and he was my teacher.
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Speaker 1: I loved mister Vallani, and as I would play duets
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Speaker 1: with him, I sometimes couldn't continue. He was so good
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Speaker 1: and I was so bad that it just didn't it
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Speaker 1: hardly blended. But we did a couple of duets at
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Speaker 1: work beautifully, and I, on occasion would stop and I
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Speaker 1: would just look at him, say, you know, how do
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Speaker 1: you do it? How can you play so well? All
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Speaker 1: the time? Of course, he made his own reads, and
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Speaker 1: he'd been playing since he was just a little boy,
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Speaker 1: and from another country had come over, and of all
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Speaker 1: things had worked his way into the symphony. And when
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Speaker 1: we get to those places that were staccato, he would
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Speaker 1: say to me, punch it out, punch it out, put
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Speaker 1: your tongue on that read, and punch out those notes.
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Speaker 1: That's what Paul does. At the end of this letter.
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Speaker 1: He punches out these statements, including the shortest verse in
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Speaker 1: the entire Greek New Testament, It isn't Jesus wept. We'll
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Speaker 1: get to it in a moment, but he begins at
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Speaker 1: verse twelve by reminding us to be grateful for, in
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Speaker 1: this case, in our context, a body of people who
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Speaker 1: pour themselves into your lives, and that would be the
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Speaker 1: faculty of this school. So let's have them in mind
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Speaker 1: as I punch out this twelfth verse with you. We
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Speaker 1: request of you, brothers and sisters, that you appreciate those
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Speaker 1: who diligently labor among you and have charge over you
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Speaker 1: and the Lord, and give you instruction. Appreciate them, he
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Speaker 1: goes on, and that you esteem them very highly in
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Speaker 1: love because of their work is not great. Don't let
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Speaker 1: this semester pass without pausing with each one of your
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Speaker 1: profs for at least a few seconds to look them
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Speaker 1: in the eye, or with your own hand. Not an email.
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Speaker 1: That's a cheap way to write a thank you. Do
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Speaker 1: it by hand. You who still have some kind of
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Speaker 1: penmanship left, all of us starting to write like physicians,
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Speaker 1: it looks these days. But if you've still cultivated your penmanship,
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Speaker 1: write it in your own hand and say it in
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Speaker 1: a fresh, creative way, specifically naming what particular things stands
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Speaker 1: out in that particular teacher that has meant much to you.
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Speaker 1: Express your appreciation. I am still thanking my profs, and
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Speaker 1: most of them aren't left, but those who are, it
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Speaker 1: is not uncommon when I see them to thank them
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Speaker 1: again for teaching me what they taught me, which was
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Speaker 1: more than an ability to handle the biblical text. It
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Speaker 1: was a touch. I'm kind of like the difference between
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Speaker 1: a piano player and a pianist. It's touch. Great profits
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Speaker 1: help you with touch in lives and touch with the text.
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Speaker 1: And those who work with you in the skill of communicating,
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Speaker 1: they help you do that better. And I'm honest to
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Speaker 1: this day when I preach, I think I learned that
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Speaker 1: technique from that particular person. I think he's gone now,
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Speaker 1: but I think, thank you, Lord for the privilege of
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Speaker 1: rubbing up next to him and sitting in his home
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Speaker 1: in a class of eight individuals, as he poured into
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Speaker 1: us some techniques on communication about still use. And I
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Speaker 1: esteem him very highly in love. And some time a
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Speaker 1: prophet has to reprove and thank him for that faithful
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Speaker 1: of the wounds of a friend, but deceitful of the
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Speaker 1: kisses of an enemy Proverbs, twenty seventy six. I've always
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Speaker 1: loved the story that my Humiletics told us that he
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Speaker 1: had a young man that was convinced he had the
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Speaker 1: gift of a preaching and he didn't. He just couldn't
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Speaker 1: preach as well to a paperbag, And he just was
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Speaker 1: convinced he should preach, and his mother was convinced he
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Speaker 1: should preach, and his grandmother was convinced he should preach.
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Speaker 1: And the prophet just did his best to endure it.
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Speaker 1: And finally, by the third year, which was a particular year,
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Speaker 1: when we came to terms with some of these things,
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Speaker 1: and he just told a young man, look, you just
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Speaker 1: don't have You just don't have the gift of preaching.
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Speaker 1: That takes guts to say that to a young person.
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Speaker 1: Young man, he said, oh, yes, I do. He said, well, okay,
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Speaker 1: the prophet said, then let me put it this way.
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Speaker 1: Nobody I know has the gift of listening to you.
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Speaker 1: So that worked. And as I recall, he didn't go
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Speaker 1: into a preaching ministry, and he went to a successful ministry.
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Speaker 1: I'm not going to tell you what it is because
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Speaker 1: you'll laugh. But thankfully he didn't go into the pulpit,
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Speaker 1: and shouldn't have. Not everybody ought to be in a
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Speaker 1: pulpit to carry out their ministry. We have a prof
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Speaker 1: to thank for telling them, and that's a tough part
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Speaker 1: of your job. Keep telling them, keep telling the truth
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Speaker 1: so that we hear it and we thank you for it.
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Speaker 1: And so let's just make the concentric circles go a
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Speaker 1: little broader, and let's include now our family members. Look,
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Speaker 1: at the end of verse thirteen, live in peace with
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Speaker 1: each other. I urge you. Here's another one of those
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Speaker 1: little staccata moments. We urge you. Admonish the unruly. You
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Speaker 1: have to do that sometime in a family. Encourage the
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Speaker 1: faint hearted, help the week, Be patient with everyone, Be
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Speaker 1: patient with everyone. And then the circle it broadens with
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Speaker 1: friends and with others in life. See that no one
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Speaker 1: repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after
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Speaker 1: that which is good for one another and for all people.
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Speaker 1: And then it begins a real brief statements. Rejoice always.
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Speaker 1: There's the shortest verse, shortest in all the Bible. But
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Speaker 1: what a what a grand command. I want to be
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Speaker 1: around people like that. I want to be around those
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Speaker 1: that are finding joy in life. Fight other circumstances. And
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Speaker 1: here's another one. Pray without ceasings the idea of a
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Speaker 1: hacking cough. Pray in that kind of consistency. Pray continually, constantly,
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Speaker 1: Prayer on your heart, prayer on your lips, Prayer for
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Speaker 1: specific individuals, specific needs. And here we are in everything,
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Speaker 1: Give thanks for this is God's will for you in
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Speaker 1: Christ Jesus. This has reference to every circumstance, every circumstance,
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Speaker 1: there's not one that he doesn't include in your circumstances. Today,
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Speaker 1: be thankful, grateful. I wrote a piece for our Board
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Speaker 1: of Direct Insightful Living, and I want to read it
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Speaker 1: to you. I don't usually do this, but I want
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Speaker 1: to do it. Today has everything to do with being
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Speaker 1: a thankful person, and I'll try to keep it interesting.
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Speaker 1: Though i'm reading what I'm sharing with you, I'll never
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Speaker 1: forget the day, even though I was only ten years old.
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Speaker 1: It was a Wednesday. It was the day before Thanksgiving.
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Speaker 1: I was standing ramrod straight next to my desk in
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Speaker 1: South Main Elementary School, hand over my heart as we
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Speaker 1: were together as students pledging our allegiance to the flag
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Speaker 1: of the United States of America, which we did every morning.
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Speaker 1: Hanging by the flag that was draped before us in
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Speaker 1: the class was a large framed picture of our president,
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Speaker 1: who was gripped with polio when he was younger. But
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Speaker 1: he had a big, smiling face and it was familiar
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Speaker 1: to all of us because he's a very popular president.
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Speaker 1: And I had to remind myself that he had had
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Speaker 1: polio because it was never emphasized and he never referred
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Speaker 1: to it. There he stood smiling at the class as
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Speaker 1: we pledged allegiance following our pledge our teacher, as she
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Speaker 1: had always done, paused to pray. So she bowed her
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Speaker 1: in prayer, and we bowed with her, and I noticed
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Speaker 1: it wasn't very long before her voice broke. I've never
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Speaker 1: heard our teacher cry. And before long she just couldn't continue,
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Speaker 1: and she just had heaves of sobbing, and my heart
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Speaker 1: went out to her. Whatever it was, I didn't know
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Speaker 1: what it was till later. She was in deep grief.
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Speaker 1: We were, of course, in a double war on each
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Speaker 1: side of our country. It was a pretty bleak time.
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Speaker 1: And she had lost her husband on the shores of
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Speaker 1: normandy Is nineteen forty four, and she was going on
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Speaker 1: without him, and this was her first Thanksgiving, her first
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Speaker 1: Thanksgiving without him, and her heart was breaking. This brave
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Speaker 1: woman refused to allow her grief to eclipse the significance
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Speaker 1: of giving thanks, so she finally was able to get
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Speaker 1: hold of her emotions, and she returned to thanking God
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Speaker 1: for a number of things. I was lost in sympathy
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Speaker 1: for her, in a little boy's pity for his teacher,
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Speaker 1: when I was walking home that crisp November afternoon in
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Speaker 1: East Houston. And that was the day I really fell
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Speaker 1: in love with Thanksgiving. I've loved it ever since, my
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Speaker 1: all time favorite holiday, and I'll tell you why. Momentarily,
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Speaker 1: I stopped on the way home and I thanked God
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Speaker 1: for my teacher, for our school, for my friends, for
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Speaker 1: my church, for my family, for my country. I still
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Speaker 1: remember as a little boy swearing before the Lord that
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Speaker 1: if I ever was able to do so, I would
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Speaker 1: defend our country. And I didn't understand fully all that
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Speaker 1: that meant. But I remember thirteen years later when I
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Speaker 1: had the privilege having earned the right to wear the
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Speaker 1: dress blues, wearing the uniform of the Marine Corps, and
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Speaker 1: standing and pledging allegiance to the flag and more often
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Speaker 1: than not saluting it as it was raised and lowered
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Speaker 1: each morning and evening on the island of Okinawa, because
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Speaker 1: I was eight thousand miles away from home. It's interesting
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Speaker 1: how on those occasions I would remember my ten year
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Speaker 1: old experience and my teacher, and to this day I
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Speaker 1: remember her. Thanksgiving put steel in our bones, us of
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Speaker 1: our enviable, magnificent heritage. He carries us back with grateful
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Speaker 1: nostalgia to that first bitter winter at Plymouth, where less
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Speaker 1: than half of those early pilgrims survived. It speaks in clear,
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Speaker 1: crisp tones, reminding us of the important terms like courage
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Speaker 1: and integrity, determination and discipline, duty and honor, and vigilance,
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Speaker 1: and sacrifice and godliness. Cynics of our day would call
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Speaker 1: those words corning and naive. I call them powerful and
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Speaker 1: essential for our survival. It was those truths our forefathers
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Speaker 1: declared to be self evident and worthy of our best efforts.
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Speaker 1: It was those very true that motivated our minute men
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Speaker 1: in a revolutionary war before we ever had a constitution,
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Speaker 1: to leave home and family and the love of all
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Speaker 1: they held there to face the Red Coats against insuperbowl odds.
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Speaker 1: Surrendering to tyrants and terrorists of any any kind of
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Speaker 1: enemy was unthinkable for our great country then and now.
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Speaker 1: Unlet's never forget that. When Thanksgiving arrived, I was able
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Speaker 1: to hear again in the back of my mind the
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Speaker 1: great voices from the halls of our nation's structures. Those
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Speaker 1: being dead still speak, voices like Washington and Adams and
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Speaker 1: Franklin and Jefferson and Henry and Lincoln and Grant Lee Roosevelt,
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Speaker 1: and then the battlefield, MacArthur and Eisenhower. In the presidency,
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Speaker 1: Reagan and in the ranks of life Martin Luther King Jr.
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Speaker 1: And on and on, I can name them strong words
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Speaker 1: of assurance and secure confidence. The challenge es to trim
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Speaker 1: off a fat of indolence and passivity, and compromise, to
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Speaker 1: rid ourselves of pettiness and prejudice, and the scourge and
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Speaker 1: stigma of hatred and strife that tear our country apart.
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Speaker 1: Thanksgiving arrived without flare or fanfare and left the same
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Speaker 1: way in its characteristic, understated manner. That quiet, unheralded day
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Speaker 1: slipped by and will be forgotten for another year unless
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Speaker 1: we sustain it with the spirit of gratitude. It slides
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Speaker 1: in between jack o' lanterns and jingle bells, arrives without
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Speaker 1: any applause, expecting nothing but grateful hearts. I was thumbing
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Speaker 1: through some things from Thanksgiving in my files and came
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Speaker 1: across a piece I've never read before, and the title
25:35
Speaker 1: it was yellow with age. Almost brought it to show
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Speaker 1: it to you. It was an old irma bomback piece
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Speaker 1: called the Holiday without any of the hooplah, where she
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Speaker 1: as only she could do it. She said, among other things,
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Speaker 1: it's one of the few times a family as symbols
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Speaker 1: for no reason. Whatever isn't being read. No one is
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Speaker 1: getting married, No one's celebrating a birthday. There's no anniversary.
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Speaker 1: No one died. There are no speeches to give, no entertainment.
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Speaker 1: No one has to dress up in the costume. Thanksgiving
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Speaker 1: is like a kiss from your husband or wife for
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Speaker 1: no reason. It's like a phone call from one of
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Speaker 1: your kids who don't want anything but just to talk,
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Speaker 1: and then close by saying I love you. It's comparable
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Speaker 1: to a smile on a baby's face as he sleeps. Oh,
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Speaker 1: that was a good line. There's no parallel with Thanksgiving.
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Speaker 1: Maybe the only thing that's analogous to it is the family.
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Speaker 1: No brilliant flashes light up the sky, bright colors at dazzle.
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Speaker 1: Families aren't Halloween. There are no masks to hide behind.
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Speaker 1: They all know us too well for pretense. If you
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Speaker 1: get uppity over some recent success, families have a way
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Speaker 1: of putting it all in perspective by reminding you that
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Speaker 1: you went to bed at church camp, which I thought
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Speaker 1: was a good line. Families aren't Christmas either. Relationships aren't
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Speaker 1: based on designer gift wrapping or missletoe. We push the
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Speaker 1: pause button and we simply give thanks, unfortunately just once
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Speaker 1: a year on purpose, and the rest is left for
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Speaker 1: the voluntary giving of thanks for little things and big things,
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Speaker 1: for a son that gets off drugs or a daughter
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Speaker 1: that comes off the street, or healing of cancer, for
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Speaker 1: at least a reprieve and the pain for a new baby,
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Speaker 1: and a thousand of the things I could name. When
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Speaker 1: we come to thanksgiving, we're able to look up, look around,
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Speaker 1: and look within, and all of that fits beginning with
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Speaker 1: the word thank you. So here we go looking up.
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Speaker 1: Thank you, Lord for your sovereign control over our lives,
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Speaker 1: all the details and every circumstance. Thank you, thank you
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Speaker 1: that none of it is accidental, that all of it
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Speaker 1: will work together for good. Thank You for your holy
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Speaker 1: character and for your standard in spite of our selfishness
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Speaker 1: and sinfulness. Thank You for your word that shines like
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Speaker 1: a lamp to clean up our minds, our thoughts, and
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Speaker 1: to guide our step. Thank You for your love that
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Speaker 1: warms our hearts when they would otherwise grow cold, and
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Speaker 1: for holding us close to you and to others when
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Speaker 1: we would otherwise seek isolation. Thank You for your compassion
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Speaker 1: and all our sorrows, and your mercy in all our messes,
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Speaker 1: and we have a lot of both. So looking up,
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Speaker 1: Thank you Lord, thank you looking around. Thank you Lord
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Speaker 1: for our wonderful nation, so blessed, so bountiful, so beautiful,
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Speaker 1: such a pleasure to be living in it. Thank You
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Speaker 1: for our school. Look at this, you're a student here.
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Speaker 1: Look at that. Think about that. They accepted you, They
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Speaker 1: said yes, They're willing to teach you and to love
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Speaker 1: you in the process, and to pray for you and
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Speaker 1: not forget you when you're gone. I can tell you
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Speaker 1: that's true. Thank You for our family, so valuable, so affirming,
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Speaker 1: so accepting, so forgiving, so understanding. Thank you for the
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Speaker 1: joy of watching children mature and stub their toes and
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Speaker 1: make mistakes and grow through them and ultimately do a
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Speaker 1: better job at parenting than we did. Thank you for
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Speaker 1: our kids. Thank you for the comfort of our home,
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Speaker 1: for clothing that's warm in the winter and comfortable to wear,
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Speaker 1: good food to eat more than we need, clean water
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Speaker 1: to drink in abundance. Thank you for friends who encourage
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Speaker 1: us and enrich our lives every day. Every day. I
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Speaker 1: have friends who write me, send me emails, send me notes.
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Speaker 1: They are simply there for me always, always, regardless, And
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Speaker 1: as several of them say to me, you need something,
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Speaker 1: you call me anytime. Forget the time. I'll be there
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Speaker 1: as soon as I can crank up my car and
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Speaker 1: get there. That's a friend I got, circle of them.
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Speaker 1: I don't deserve one of them. Thank you for our calling,
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Speaker 1: which enables us to make a living and to reach
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Speaker 1: truth fulfillment. And now looking within, Thank you Lord for
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Speaker 1: the gift of good health, hidden treasure so easily overlooked.
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Speaker 1: For eyes that can see, and ears that can hear,
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Speaker 1: and tongues that can articulate words. Last Sunday I had
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Speaker 1: a man come up who's had a stroke, and he
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Speaker 1: talks like this. Two months ago he could speak better
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Speaker 1: than any of us. Most likely that's changed. Thank your
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Speaker 1: Lord for the ability to speak. For the wide range
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Speaker 1: of stimulation brought on by taste and touch, how seldom
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Speaker 1: we thanked him for that can taste our food, we
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Speaker 1: can touch our babies and grand babies. Thank you for
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Speaker 1: hands and fingers to work and to write with, and
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Speaker 1: legs to walk and run with. For a sense of
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Speaker 1: humor that brightens our day and brings healing to our souls.
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Speaker 1: I could go on and on these and a thousand
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Speaker 1: other benefits come our way every day, every day because
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Speaker 1: of our gracious God. The holiday is correctly named Thanksgiving,
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Speaker 1: not thankskeeping. We keep enough things for ourselves. Let's get
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Speaker 1: better at giving things. Just give it away. You don't
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Speaker 1: need to give it to somebody by Him. Therefore, let
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Speaker 1: us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. Continually.
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Speaker 1: Man is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to
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Speaker 1: his name. Lot that verse sacrifice of praise. That means
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Speaker 1: when it's hard to praise and we praise him. I
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Speaker 1: close with a true story that leads to a him.
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Speaker 1: You won't know. It's okay. Travel back to me of
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Speaker 1: the year sixteen thirty six in the little German village
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Speaker 1: of Eilenburg, Saxony, where a man named Martin Rinkert r
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Speaker 1: I n ka RT Lutheran pastor, was ministering day and
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Speaker 1: night to a congregation broken by grief and sorrow. Times
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Speaker 1: were at the most treacherous. The Thirty Years War was
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Speaker 1: raging through Germany. The relentless Ddish army had encompassed the
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Speaker 1: little village's gates. Inside the walls, there was nothing but
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Speaker 1: plague and famine, fear and death, eight hundred homes had
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Speaker 1: been destroyed, and people were dying in increasing numbers. There
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Speaker 1: was a tremendous strain on all the pastors in that village,
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Speaker 1: who spent every bit of their strength preaching the truth
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Speaker 1: and caring for the sick, mainly burying the dead. Many
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Speaker 1: of the pastors perished while in the process of serving
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Speaker 1: others in their perish It was estimated that Martin Rinkert
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Speaker 1: alone buried five thousand of his own parishioners in one year.
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Speaker 1: Some days he conducted as many as fifteen funerals, some
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Speaker 1: days more than that do the man. Finally, the encroaching
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Speaker 1: army demanded a huge ransom. It was Martin Riker who
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Speaker 1: left the safety of his home and the city, walked
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Speaker 1: through the gates and began to negotiate with the enemy, hostile, dreadful,
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Speaker 1: brutal enemy that they were. But the suffering came to
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Speaker 1: a halt thanks to his wisdom and patience and grace.
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Speaker 1: Though his parish was ravaged by death and economic disaster,
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Speaker 1: he knew there could be no healing without thanksgiving crucial
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Speaker 1: line in the story, there could be no healing without thanksgiving.
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Speaker 1: So he sat down and wrote out this table grace
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Speaker 1: for his children, that they might learn in every thing
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Speaker 1: to give thanks. This became, to his surprise, a hymn
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Speaker 1: for the survivors of Eilenburg Saxony. They sang it together,
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Speaker 1: and before too many years it began to be known
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Speaker 1: and sung around Europe and ultimately around the world. Now
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Speaker 1: thank we all are God, with heart and hand and voices,
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Speaker 1: who wondrous things had done, in whom this world rejoices,
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Speaker 1: who from our mother's arms had blessed us on our
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Speaker 1: way with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today. Oh,
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Speaker 1: by this bounteous God, through all our life, be near
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Speaker 1: us with ever joyful hearts and blessed peace, to cheer
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Speaker 1: us and keep us in his grace, and guide us
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Speaker 1: when perplexed, and free us from all ills in this
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Speaker 1: world and the next. All praise and thanks to God
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Speaker 1: the Father now be given the Son and Him who
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Speaker 1: reigns with them in highest Heaven, the one eternal God,
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Speaker 1: whom heaven and earth adore. For thus it was is
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Speaker 1: now and shall be evermore. Amen. Amen, Amen, Oh God,
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Speaker 1: how thankful we are, How thankful we are for you
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Speaker 1: and all you keep doing for us, including what you
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Speaker 1: withhold what you deny. Thank you for what you take,
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Speaker 1: as well as for what you give us. To you,
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Speaker 1: you alone able to guard us from stumbling, and to
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Speaker 1: present us faultless before your presence with great joy. To
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Speaker 1: the only wise God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
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Speaker 1: be glory and majesty, dominion and authority before all time,
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Speaker 1: now and forevermore. Everybody said Amen. The preceding message, Sustaining
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Speaker 1: an Attitude of Gratitude was copyrighted in twenty eighteen and
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Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, and the sound recording was copyrighted in twenty
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Speaker 1: nineteen by Charles Parceling Dall Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
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Speaker 1: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited