A Sacrifice of Thanksgiving (11-22-12)

Psalm 116:17 - "To Thee I shall offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and call upon the name of the Lord."

In select portions throughout the Bible we read of a "sacrifice of thanksgiving" and a "sacrifice of praise." In the verse above the psalmists says that he will offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, but what does that look like? How do we offer to God a sacrifice of praise or thanksgiving? Sure, we're thankful to God, and we often give Him thanks for the many blessings that He has given us, but is that really a sacrifice? Sacrifice, the very word, implies giving up something completely. It implies cost. You'll remember at the end of 1 Chronicles there was a man named Ornan who had a threshing floor in Israel, and king David went up to buy it from him in order that he might offer on it a sacrifice to God. However, Ornan offered to give the threshing floor, as well as the oxen for the sacrifice, but we read this in 1 Chronicles 21:24 - "But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing.”" David wasn't going to offer God anything that cost him nothing. If there is no personal cost than you're not really making a sacrifice. With that in mind, what does it mean to offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving? The Bible talks a lot about thanksgiving, and perhaps as we travel to many of these different passages of Scripture we will discover what it truly means to offer God a sacrifice of thanksgiving in order that we may be sure not to offer to God that which costs us nothing.  

In Psalm 50:14 the psalmist instructs us to - "Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High." And Jonah says a similar thing in his prayer in Jonah 2:9 - "But I will sacrifice to Thee with the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the Lord." In Psalm 95:2 we're instructed - "Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms." And in Psalm 100:4-5 we're told to - "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations." Of course there are many other verses we could go to, but I think it's pretty clear that God wants us to come before Him with thanksgiving for who He is and for what He has done. When someone does something for us we often say something like "How can I show you my appreciation?" We don't just want to say "thank you" because talk is cheap, it costs us nothing. But we really want them to know that we're thankful and so we want to show it to them in some way. How much more should we desire to show God our appreciation for who He is and for all that He has done for us. In Him we live and move and exist, He has called us to Himself with a holy calling, He paid our debt that we could never pay and He paid it with His own blood. He rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His dear Son. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, and He has done so much more for us than we could ever understand. We shouldn't be content to simply say "thank You" for all that He has done for us, but we should desire to show Him our appreciation and offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and that's exactly what Scripture tells us. In Hebrews chapter 12 the writer is talking about all that we have in Christ and how it is far better than the things of this world because it's eternal rather than temporary, and he says in verses 28-29 - "Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire." The proper response to all that Christ is and all that He has done is to offer ourselves to serve Him. That's a sacrifice of thanksgiving because it costs something. It costs us our lives. Giving all that we have and all that we are, unreservedly to Him to use for His own purpose is costly. In Romans 12:1 Paul says - "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." Presenting, not just our words, but ourselves to Him is our reasonable service considering who He is and what He has done. Giving our bodies as a living sacrifice is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 we're instructed - "in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." Gods will for us is that we thank Him for all things in all circumstances. In Ephesians 5:20 we read - "always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father." This is a sacrifice in itself, because in order to give thanks for all things and in all circumstances we need to deny ourselves and give up our natural reaction when things are tough. In her book "the hiding place" Corrie Ten Boom recounts a time in her life when God showed her that we really can be thankful in every circumstance. She and her family were imprisoned by Nazi Germany during the Second World War for hiding Jews in their home. In the following account she tells of a time when she was moved to a permanent prison house with her sister Betsie.

"Betsie and I followed a prisoner-guide through the door at the right. Because of the broken windows, the vast room was in semi-twilight. Our noses told us, first, that the place was filthy: somewhere, plumbing had backed up, the bedding was soiled and rancid. Then as our eyes adjusted to the gloom we saw that there were no individual beds at all, but great square tiers stacked three high, and wedged side by side and end to end with only an occasional narrow aisle slicing through. We followed our guide single file--the aisle was not wide enough for two--fighting back the claustrophobia of these platforms rising everywhere above us...At last she pointed to a second tier in the center of a large block. To reach it, we had to stand on the bottom level, haul ourselves up, and then crawl across three other straw-covered platforms to reach the one that we would share with--how many? The deck above us was too close to let us sit up. We lay back, struggling against the nausea that swept over us from the reeking straw...Suddenly I sat up, striking my head on the cross-slats above. Something had pinched my leg. 'Fleas!' I cried. 'Betsie, the place is swarming with them!' We scrambled across the intervening platforms, heads low to avoid another bump, dropped down to the aisle and hedged our way to a patch of light. 'Here! And here another one!' I wailed. 'Betsie, how can we live in such a place!' 'Show us. Show us how.' It was said so matter of factly it took me a second to realize she was praying. More and more the distinction between prayer and the rest of life seemed to be vanishing for Betsie. 'Corrie!' she said excitedly. 'He's given us the answer! Before we asked, as He always does! In the Bible this morning. Where was it? Read that part again!' I glanced down the long dim aisle to make sure no guard was in sight, then drew the Bible from its pouch. 'It was in First Thessalonians,' I said. We were on our third complete reading of the New Testament since leaving Scheveningen. In the feeble light I turned the pages. 'Here it is: "Comfort the frightened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all...'" It seemed written expressly to Ravensbruck. 'Go on,' said Betsie. 'That wasn't all.' 'Oh yes:'..."Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.'" 'That's it, Corrie! That's His answer. "Give thanks in all circumstances!" That's what we can do. We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this new barracks!' I stared at her; then around me at the dark, foul-aired room. 'Such as?' I said. 'Such as being assigned here together.' I bit my lip. 'Oh yes, Lord Jesus!' 'Such as what you're holding in your hands.' I looked down at the Bible. 'Yes! Thank You, dear Lord, that there was no inspection when we entered here! Thank You for all these women, here in this room, who will meet You in these pages.' 'Yes,' said Betsie, 'Thank You for the very crowding here. Since we're packed so close, that many more will hear!' She looked at me expectantly. 'Corrie!' she prodded. 'Oh, all right. Thank You for the jammed, crammed, stuffed, packed suffocating crowds.' 'Thank You,' Betsie went on serenely, 'for the fleas and for--' The fleas! This was too much. 'Betsie, there's no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.' 'Give thanks in all circumstances,' she quoted. It doesn't say, 'in pleasant circumstances.' Fleas are part of this place where God has put us. And so we stood between tiers of bunks and gave thanks for fleas. But this time I was sure Betsie was wrong."

She continues further on in the chapter - "Betsie and I made our way to the rear of the dormitory room where we held our worship "service." Around our own platform area there was not enough light to read the Bible, but back here a small light bulb cast a wan yellow circle on the wall, and here an ever larger group of women gathered. They were services like no others, these times in Barracks 28. At first Betsie and I called these meetings with great timidity. But as night after night went by and no guard ever came near us, we grew bolder. So many now wanted to join us that we held a second service after evening roll call. There on the Lagerstrasse we were under rigid surveillance, guards in their warm wool capes marching constantly up and down. It was the same in the center room of the barracks: half a dozen guards or camp police always present. Yet in the large dormitory room there was almost no supervision at all. We did not understand it. One evening I got back to the barracks late from a wood-gathering foray outside the walls. A light snow lay on the ground and it was hard to find the sticks and twigs with which a small stove was kept going in each room. Betsie was waiting for me, as always, so that we could wait through the food line together. Her eyes were twinkling. 'You're looking extraordinarily pleased with yourself,' I told her. 'You know, we've never understood why we had so much freedom in the big room,' she said. 'Well--I've found out.' That afternoon, she said, there'd been confusion in her knitting group about sock sizes and they'd asked the supervisor to come and settle it. But she wouldn't. She wouldn't step through the door and neither would the guards. And you know why? Betsie could not keep the triumph from her voice: 'Because of the fleas! That's what she said, "That place is crawling with fleas!'" My mind rushed back to our first hour in this place. I remembered Betsie's bowed head, remembered her thanks to God for creatures I could see no use for."

That's an amazing illustration of these verses. God expects our sacrifice of thanksgiving in every circumstance, even when we don't understand why. It wasn't easy for these girls to thank God for their extremely hard circumstances, but by faith they did what Gods word says, and later God showed them His reason, at least in part. Colossians 3:15-17 says - "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father."

Hebrews 13:15-16 - "Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased."