Dennis Tuuri

I love that psalm. We recited it responsibly today once and we sang it twice. Did you notice that? That first wonderful song is based, of course, on the same psalm as the last song we sang. And I love that psalm for Thanksgiving season and also for the end of the year as we move toward the new year. Of course, in the Old Testament, the harvest was the end of the year. And there’s a sense which we have still, and yet the end of the year comes after the advent of Christ and our celebration of that, and January 1st, really the day of Christ’s circumcision—if we wanted to look at it that way. Or God, you know, today’s special day here every year on the Sunday before Thanksgiving we have special food downstairs, and of course the focus of the service is thanksgiving. Of course, every Lord’s day that’s the focus of what we do, but God, you know, God calls us to do something very simple, the heart of our faith, and that’s to give thanks.

And yet sometimes it’s very difficult for us to do that. Well, today I’ll read a text of scripture from 1 Thessalonians 5 showing the centrality of giving thanks. It’s more of a topical sermon. We’ll be talking about giving thanks for the Lord’s Day, which we call the Lord’s day—thanks for the Lord’s day. We’ll give thanks for the harvest and for the economic blessings that God provides us. And then we’ll talk about, you know, one of the opposites of thanksgiving, which is self-pity.

So that’s what we’ll do today. And we’ll begin by reading from 1 Thessalonians 5. Please stand. I’ll read verses 14 to 18.

So the simple application today is to give thanks for little things. 1 Thessalonians 5, beginning at verse 14. “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Let’s pray. Father, we take this text from your hands and we give you thanks for it. We delight that the will of God for us is not a difficult thing to discern, Father. But you tell us clearly and boldly that the will of God for us in Christ Jesus is to give thanks in everything.

Forgive us, Lord God, for not doing that. Empower us today by the power of your word and spirit with us to be transformed, that we may indeed leave this place a more thankful people than we came here and might continue to develop ruts of righteousness, so to speak, through small acts of thanksgiving in Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated. Last week, just before the service, Patty Evans gave me a clipping through Josiah out of the Reader’s Digest, and I put it in my folder, and I intended to read it, and I didn’t. And then during the week, Tom Dalan had scanned the same little snippet from the Reader’s Digest, sent it to me in electronic form. So this is what it says.

This is the Reader’s Digest for December 2006, issue December 2006 issue, page 26, and the title of this little blurb is “Never on a Sunday.” And then we read this. “So this is current at last—scientific proof of the link between shopping and sin.

A study by Daniel Hungerman of the University of Notre Dame and Jonathan Gruber of MIT found that when states dropped blue laws, which banned Sunday commerce, church attendance dropped by 15% among those who had been going weekly. That’s not all. Churchgoers became as likely as non-attendees to use drugs, and the gap between the two groups’ heavy drinking rates closed sharply. Hungerman’s take: what you do Sunday morning could make a big difference in how you spend Saturday night.”

Well, so evidence of the restriction of commerce that we’ve talked a little bit about the last few weeks, and I’m going to talk a little bit more about that today. And you—why do I come back to it? Well, some questions have come up from some folks about what is the big deal, and if our view of the Lord’s day observance seems like we’re making a big deal out of it, and why is that since so many other churches don’t? And is this really something we want in our church covenant? And is it something we actually would discipline people for? And if so, why? What’s the big deal?

Thanksgiving, Lord’s day—what’s the big deal here? Very quickly: A Lord’s day observance is one of the Ten Commandments, okay? So it’s one of the big ten, and we may not see it that way, but it is. And you know, it’s interesting to meditate a little bit about that. The first three talk about our relationship, I think, to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the immediate application begins then with the keeping of the Lord’s day and that moves on then to honoring your parents. So we go from Lord’s day observance to parents and on into other horizontal relationships. So the way we develop this vertical relationship and transmit it into the week is Lord’s day—fourth commandment.

Secondly, Lord’s day observance is directly identified with covenant keeping. I’ve tried to make that point several times in the last six months or so, but you know there are not many things in the Bible that God says, “This is my covenant.” Well, the Lord’s day is one of them. And as a result of it being so strongly identified with the covenant, that means that it’s very important to keep it. Because the next point—Lord’s day observance is tied directly to blessings and cursings. It’s sort of tied to that point. Keep the Lord’s day and you’re right in the high places of the earth. Fail to keep the Lord’s day and you suffer the curses of the covenant. It’s that simple.

Why did they get thrown into captivity—north and southern Israel? Because they failed to keep the Lord’s day. That’s what God says. Why do we have horrible laws? Well, we read the text from Ezekiel—because we don’t keep the law in terms of observing the Lord’s day. So there’s a cause and effect relationship between that fourth commandment, that sign of the covenant, and whether we’re going to bring upon our community blessings or cursings. Direct relationship. The Bible says—seems like it’s pretty important.

Fourth, Lord’s day observance is one of the big three elements of transformative renewal. This is Nehemiah 13, which I preached on a couple weeks ago. You know, what are the three things that Nehemiah wanted to be remembered for? Well, there was the restoration of the tithe. There’s a restoration of faithful, God-honoring marriage and children, and there was the restoration of the Lord’s day. And specifically, the wording there is commerce.

So this isn’t a little deal. In Nehemiah, at the end of this book—the arc, the story of this church is that we began 23 years ago, whatever it was, by having our hearts burn within us. We felt like Josiah rediscovering the law in the temple. We felt like God had given us some wonderful news, and yet it was news also that needed to be acted upon. And we looked for times of covenant renewal to come in our lives and in the life of the country.

And we turned to Nehemiah—time of explicit covenant renewal. That’s why our covenant statement looks a lot like his. You know, we said, “Well, gee, it’s like Nehemiah’s time. People are no longer tithing. They’re no longer engaging in Christian marriage, and they’re no longer observing the Lord’s day.” And those were three of the specific elements of the covenant drawn up by Nehemiah that he could have put a lot of things in there, but he didn’t. And at the end of the book, those three things are hammered home again. They’re important, folks. God is writing this in really big letters in the sky to the American evangelical culture. Anybody wants to read his Bible and say, “How do you transform a culture?” You know, Dorothy, go home. Repent of our failure to observe the Lord’s day and delight in it. It’s not a burden. It’s something to give God great thanks for.

When RCC started, it wasn’t tough to come to church. We leapt at the opportunity because we had been in churches where all we did on the way home was sort of argue about, you know, or kind of snip about what happened there, you know, because it was tough. Those churches we were in, you know, weren’t tracking with God in many ways. So it wasn’t tough to get together. It wasn’t tough to have a meal together. It was sort of natural, and it was fun, and it wasn’t tough not to buy things that day. We just sort of spent the day doing something else. So, you know, it’s something we’re supposed to give God thanks for. It’s one of the big three elements.

If you look at the eight elements of our covenant statement of RCC, five of them are directly tied—no, more than that, I think. Well, at least five—are directly tied back to Nehemiah, the remaking of the covenant at the time of Nehemiah. That was explicitly done in our part. It wasn’t just sort of interesting. That’s what we did. We looked at his time and then we said, “What should our time’s covenant have?” And it seems like we’re just as bad as them in terms of not observing. We’re worse in terms of not observing Lord’s day as a culture.

So it’s one of the big three deals—ways a culture, a community—we have a community here. A community is transformed. It’s important to prioritize it that way. That’s why it’s a big deal.

And then finally, Lord’s day observance is stressed because it’s ignored. The very reason why some people are saying, “Well, you know, why do we make a big deal out of it?” Because nobody else is. They say, “Why should we?” Well, that’s why we are doing it. It’s because nobody else is making a big deal out of it. And it should be a big deal. It’s God’s big deal. So the very fact that it’s being ignored is why we have to shout broadly from the top of the bell tree. The bells should ring out, out: “Keep the Lord’s day. Not just keep it—thank God for it, delight in it, and receive power from God to transform the world.” That’s why—because it is ignored.

It’s a gift we have that we should minister. We won’t minister the gift if we lose the gift. You know, another reason why this is so important to us is it’s very immediately corrosive of the community and culture. Our story, our story gets ink blotted out and starts to fade away. [It happens] when the keeping of the Lord’s day becomes sort of irrelevant to us. I mean, what—you know, if you don’t tithe, okay, nobody knows what’s going on with that. And if you do certain things, nobody knows. And it isn’t as immediately destructive. Now, if everybody did it, it would be, but it’s not as immediately destructive and corrosive to the Christian culture and community we’re trying to develop here to supplant what’s around us. That’s how we’re supplanters. We’re moving. We’re supposed to grow, you know, and to violate Lord’s day is corrosive of that very thing immediately, right? People see what you’re doing. People talk. The whole thing starts to get watered away.

And then people that feel sorry for you if you do get in trouble, they start telling, “Oh, what’s the big deal here?” You see, it’s an immediately corrosive element because it’s ignored in the culture in general. And that’s why we want to stress it, okay?

So let’s give God thanks for the Lord’s day, okay? Let’s give God thanks for the harvest that he brings us as well. That’s what we celebrate this time of year. This is why I talked last week about that a little bit. I’m going to not review. I’m going to talk about that a little more.

Now we want to give God thanks for the economic blessing. So remember that the points of renewal in Nehemiah included both sanctifying all of our time through the Lord’s day and sanctifying all of our money through the proper use of tithes. And I would say in relationship to that also tithes and offerings. So on your handouts, I hope you have them. We’re going to go through here real fast because I want to get on to self-pity, but I wanted to do this.

Okay, so I’m picking it up. The page says 2 Corinthians 8:9, “The biblical basis for faith pledge offerings.” There’s four little dots there to show I’m not having the whole thing here again. This is what you have from last week. I want to talk about a little bit more.

One is mandatory offerings. The offerings in Malachi 3 were specifically designated for maintenance of worship facilities and food for the priests. So I’m saying here that tithes and offerings isn’t a way of saying the same thing. It’s not a parallelism. There’s two different things going on. And last week in the discussion time after the sermon—which, by the way, I think is a wonderful thing that we do. Praise God that we’re doing that, that he gave us that gift early on. And in that discussion time, a further question was asked about this.

And what I’ve done here—you know, technology is great. Anybody can read this. If you know English, you can read what I say here about this. In Malachi 3:8, this word, it says, “How have we robbed you?” God says, “In tithes and offerings.” And here I inserted into your handout the full article in the theological word book of the Old Testament on this particular Hebrew word.

You know, in offerings in general, Leviticus—the word is corban. It means to draw near. This is not this word here. It’s a specific word. And the theological word book of the old testament, two volumes, is all it is. You can buy a hard copy for almost nothing these days because it’s all in computers and everything. If you know the Strong’s number for a Hebrew word, most all of the words—certainly all the significant words—it has, there’s a—in the back of TWOT, it’s what it’s called, Theological Word Book of the Old Testament. There shows you, you know, the Strong number. You can go to the TWOT number and that’ll then show you in a nice summary fashion what this word is. And that’s what we’ve got here.

So the theological workbook of the old testament tells us how it’s translated: “Contribution offering,” “saving offerings.” Usage of this term roughly parallels those of another word being used both as a general cultic term for various offerings. And I’ve got that bolded. That’s one way it’s used. And as is a term for those parts of the offerings designated especially for the officiating priest. In general usage, it denotes the following. Okay, so here’s what, how it’s used. This is how the specific Hebrew word is used, saves you the trouble of looking up all the verses. They combine it into this thing for you. “Materials contributed to the building of the tabernacle.” So this word, this same Hebrew word refers to the building of the tabernacle. “Contributions of the Persian king and others to rebuild the temple,” “the half shekel atonement money,” “the tithe of the tithe designated for the priests,” and “the sacred precincts of Ezekiel’s temple vision.” So that’s some ways it’s used in terms of the general usage.

The general usage says those things. And then if you drop down to the next paragraph: “As a term for sacrificial portions,” so there’s general usage and they’ve given us four ways. And other sacrificial portions designated for the officiating priest. There are repeated references to the thigh of the heave offering. And I got a little note for you there: the heave offering is mistranslated. By now we know Hebrew well enough to believe that “heave offering” simply means a “contribution offering.” So there was a specific part of the offering for the priest that this word is used for.

So you see, that’s the basis—an understanding of what the Old Testament, how it uses that word for my statement about what these mandatory offerings were. And so that’s why I did that little summation thing there, and that helps you to see the difference between tithes and offerings based right on that text from Malachi 3.

And then I got some points about that. And this is why number four: What I just read from TWOT, there’s evidence that the header pole tax was also used to maintain the central sanctuary. So this would have been a mandatory offering, not a free will offering. Every year you had to give the header pole tax. Lots of different views of what that thing was. And that’s why I put it—you know, I’m not sure, but I think maybe that header pole tax was actually used to maintain the central sanctuary. And so that meant that the real property of the church, we could call it, wasn’t maintained by tithes, but through this required offering system.

Well, you know, whether you agree with that or not, it’s not my thing, but that’s, you know, a little further explanation of that part of these mandatory offerings.

But then I also in last week’s handout and in today’s handout I’ve got voluntary designated offerings. So number one on the handout there: the offerings in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 are specifically designated for famine relief. And I actually have the text there for you, okay? So I’ve inserted the scripture text so that you can see what I mean by that. It says there in 2 Corinthians 8:13-15, “He says that your abundance may supply their lack. See that in verse 14: ‘By an equality, that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack.’ And then he quotes the Old Testament: ‘He who gathered little had no lack.’ The people in Jerusalem had little. They had lack. They weren’t, had enough food.”

This was explicitly a free will offering made by various Christians and churches to provide for famine relief. And those offerings were voluntary. 2 Corinthians 8:8. I’ve got the text there for you. “I speak not by commandment. I’m not going to command anybody here to fill out the missions pledge card. But my advice to you, my encouragement to you is for everybody here. I’m talking to you. I’m talking to you. I’m talking to you. I’m talking to every one of you.

I think it’d be good for all of you to try to fill out that pledge form. If it’s a buck a month, that’s okay. And if you’re a child, if it’s 10 cents a month, that’s okay. You’ll take those two pop cans instead of throwing them away every month and you’ll take them to the store and get 10 cents that you can give to help these missionaries overseas in Poland, Russia, and India.

You see, it’s not mandatory. It’s a free will offering. And the Bible talks about these things. So this gives us instruction about those things.

You know, today and last Sunday, churches, a lot of churches, celebrate commemorate International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. And I think our pastoral prayer today may have some stuff in it about that. It’s a, you know, we, it’s a time when churches think about the fact that persecution is ongoing against Christians in the world. And that’s particularly true, of course, with the rise of Quranic Islam, fundamentalist Islam. I mean, [those] that really implement what Muhammad did and what the Quran tells them to implement. So as a result, we’re getting more persecution.

But, you know, even in Russia, there’s an Afghan family there. They got a price on their head by the Taliban. They had to flee to Russia. They’re part of Blake’s group. He’s going to try to get them moved on to some other safer location in 6 months. But in the meantime, these, this family can’t go out in a normal way that other Russians can because the Taliban and Muslim extremists in Russia will kill them. They got a price on their head. A literal price on their head, okay?

So Blake is trying to raise money to pay for Christian education for their kids because they don’t want to turn over to government schools, of course, to provide for their apartment because the guy can’t get normal work, to take care of this family for the next 6 months until they can move him to a safer locale. So, you know, in a way, this idea that we’re supposed to try to help, you know, on the mission field in Russia, Poland, and India is directly related to this International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

So, you know, it’s not required. It’s voluntary. And that’s what the text clearly tells us.

Three, the offerings were a response to and a demonstration of the grace of God. And I stressed this last week in my sermon—grace, grace, grace. Seven times that grace is referred to. The middle time is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. On the text I’ve got there for you in the handout, you know, “We make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia.” So it comes from grace. And then drop down to verse six: “So we urged Titus that as he had begun he would also complete this grace in you.” So it comes from grace. It increases in grace. Grace is the foundation and also the outworking of it.

“Freely you have received, freely give.” So you know, we think about our wonderful blessings and we buy great food and we have a special dinner and we use your contributions, your tithe offerings to finance some of that. And in your homes you’re going to have sumptuous feasts, hopefully, and good community. But in the midst of that, and particularly when that happens, when you realize the grace that God has given to you—it wasn’t your hands that built this city or raised these trees, right? God sent the hornets through and now you got clean houses and fruit trees, and you didn’t really—that’s a metaphor in the conquest of the Old Testament for all of our lives. It’s not the result of our labor. It’s the grace of God.

That’s why we give thanks at Thanksgiving. Thank God for all of it. Every bit of it. And in the midst of our thanksgiving, may the Lord God grant that we would take some of that abundance that he’s given us that we’re thanking him for to minister to those who are in lack, so that there might be more of an equality, as Paul says here. So grace: I urge you, by the grace of God given to you, that your grace would increase, that you’d fill out that mission pledge form some amount—if no matter how small—that over this next year you’d contribute to that particular mission field.

Four, these offerings were committed to for a period of time. 2 Corinthians 8:10. I got the text right there for you. “And in this I give advice. See, again, it’s advice, not commandment. It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago, but now you also must complete the doing of that.” So these verses show us that Paul is talking about a commitment they made a year previous. So in the same way, we’re looking at a yearly commitment from you for one year to support the work in Poland, India, and Russia.

Verse five there on your handout: “I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time and prepare your generous gift beforehand which you had previously promised. Nothing wrong with a church or a minister asking you to promise something that you’re going to be paying over the next year. Paul did it. And if Paul did it, God used it for the blessing of his church. I think that we have freedom to it. We don’t have to, but we have freedom to do it.

Five, these offerings were spurred on by written and personal exhortations. Well, that’s what we just read. He sent these guys trying to encourage them in the doing of it. Paul exhorts the brothers to go to them ahead of time in verse 5 that we just read. So the idea is he’s actually spurring on them to do this. And that’s what we’re doing today. We’re not going to spur you on the rest of the year. We’re not going to talk about what you committed to. I probably will never even have the time to look at what you did versus what you committed to. I, that’s not our, we’re not doing that. But we are urging you at the beginning of this time to try to make these kind of commitments. So it’s proper to do it. That’s what Paul did. That’s all we’re doing here.

Six, these offerings were not intended to decapitate the giver. This [is] where we diverge from the hocus pocus magic of faith pledge or faith promise, whatever it is. Don’t pledge more than you can afford. Now, cut a little bit into things that you might not need to do. Be self-sacrificial, but the idea is not to decapitate the giver. And he makes that quite clear. He says, it’s your gift is accepted—not your gift is accepted according to what one has, not according to what he does not have. So don’t try to give what you don’t have and expect God to make up the difference. It comes from what you do have. You see, you just repositioning it. So instead of a 42-inch flat screen, you’re going to get a 37-inch. I don’t know what it is. Something makes me think of Dan P.

You know, we have this: “Hebrews, we have not yet resisted the point of shedding blood.” And Dan says, “We have not yet res—you know, we have not had to yet cut off our table,” you know, “haven’t sacrificed that much yet.” Okay?

So he says, “I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened.” He doesn’t want you to become poor through this thing. That’s not the point. So you’re supposed to not be decapitated by what you pledge. Don’t pledge what you can’t follow through on.

And some other scriptures there about that. On the other hand, there is a liberality. Seven: these offerings were to be generous, relying on God’s provision. He says, “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So far, each one give—so let each one give as he purposes in his heart. [Loves] a hilarious giver.” That’s what the word means—hilarios in the Greek here—”cheerful giver.” Hilarity, you know, it’s like bust out laughing kind of cheerfulness. And God says, “That’s what you’re supposed to have. It’s not supposed to be a burden.” “Boy, this is really tough and I’m going to try.” No. God loves a cheerful giver. A hilarious giver. A guy laughs as he’s given the money that God has given to him because he’s so thankful for what God has done. And he’s thankful for God’s provision that he’ll experience over the next year as well.

“Verse 10: Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness.”

So there’s an expectation that God’s going to bless it. Usually materially, but you’re not supposed to decapitate yourself. Be liberal, but don’t be foolish. Don’t be magical. Don’t try to manipulate God.

And then finally, eight, these offerings were overseen by godly men to ensure financial stewardship. Verse 20: “Avoiding this: that anyone should blame us in this lavish gift which is administered by us, providing honorable things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.” At this church, we got deacons, faithful stewards. They know what they’re doing. They’re businessmen and committed guys who are good financial stewards and they oversee, you know, your benevolence offerings. They see what’s going on. We got multiple elders here who look at this stuff. We have financial stewardship in place because we don’t say just trust God. We want what we’re doing to be wise also and acceptable in the sight of men. There’s nothing wrong with that.

All right. So we give God thanks. And by one way we very simply can give God thanks is today to make sure you take home at least that back page with the pledge offerings in it. I’m talking to each and every one of you to pray. Commit right now to pray about what you’ll do. Can we do that? You’re listening. But now I want you to act in your heart, in your mind, and I want you to commit to take this thing home. Pray about it. Decide individually, as a family, however you do it, you know, is this something we can do and is this a way that we can kind of keep involved in what’s going on in one of these fields, be an encouragement to them, pray for them, and also sort of be an accountability factor for them, right?

If we get more people reading those reports, then we’re going to start asking questions that maybe we could improve this or that.

So can we do that right now? You know, what do they do with every heart, every hand, head bowed, and every eye closed? No, that’s not it. I don’t, I don’t, I don’t know what it is, but do that, okay? I mean, I’m not going to ask you to raise hands, but I am going to say please purpose in your heart right now to pray about this with your family or by yourself if you’re an individual. All right.

Third part of the sermon: self-pity.

I read an article, so that wasn’t really complicated what I just did, right? We’re to give God thanks for the Lord’s day. And hopefully you see the importance. And we’re to, we’re to give God, so we thank God for all of our time by thanking for the Lord’s day. We thank God for all of our money by thinking about specifically taking our thanksgiving for the material possessions that we celebrate at harvest time and then using some of that to give to others. A great song by Bruce Coburn: “It only lives when you give it away” or “if you give it away.” So you know, that’s kind of how it is. You hoard manna, it evaporates. Invest it for the kingdom, you get immediate threefold increase because in Poland, at least, because your money is worth three times as much there. So that’s not hard.

I know I gave these verses. I went quickly through the list again. I wanted you to see that what I was talking about last week has this clear solid biblical basis from 2 Corinthians 8. But at the end of the day, thank God for time by thanking him for the Lord’s day and recommitting yourself to keep it. Thank God for people and the harvest by thanking him for the material resources you have to provide help for people in another part of the world who are trying to evangelize and reform their country at great sacrifice to each of them. And now we thank God in everything and we try to get rid of, put off the old man, put on the new man.

The old man is self-pitying man. The new man is thankful man.

I read this little article I don’t know probably seven, eight years ago and I put it in my file and I said someday I’m going to preach on that little article on self-pity. And so this isn’t the full thing. This is a short sermon on being thankful versus being self-pitying, but it’s at least the beginning foray into this discussion. This is part of what I read:

“Those who are full of self-pity are a disgrace to the name and cause of Jesus Christ. They think everybody, including God, owes them. They are pessimistic, full of self-pity and irrational fears. They are easily offended. They often whine and complain. They constantly demand others to come through for them with answers, support, and encouragement. When others fail to do this, they become even more bitter and discouraged.

“They feel as if they rarely do anything right. They think they need others to help them with everything they do. If they do something for others, it’s usually to get something in return. Watch them and you will find them living in misery, wishing they were dead, blind to their effect on others, walking in despair, leaving behind a path of drained relationships. They struggle to prove themselves to themselves, but always find cause to wallow in bitterness, resentment, and ingratitude.”

I had a meeting once where Anna Fukuda was and somebody said something and there was silence in this group and she went, “Ouch, that’s got to hurt. Ouch.” Kind of hits close at home in some ways, doesn’t it? It does to me. I think it probably does to most of you. That was part of the article that I read and I wanted one way to get up here and rail against self-pity. Preaching to myself, preaching to you. And that’s what I’m going to talk about today.

Thanksgiving is a cure for one of the most prevalent of our sins, and that’s self-pity. So they’re kind of opposites, and that’s why I thought this would be a good day to do this. But having read that quote just now, some of you are already slipping into self-pity because it hit too close to home and some of you may be slipping into false guilt. So I think that what I want to do here is to sort of give a picture of this that maybe isn’t quite as strident as I thought about seven or eight years ago when I first read the article and wanted to just get up and blast the way this article did.

I think the article’s sound, but I also think that there’s another ditch in this thing. So I’m going to start first by talking about proper pity. There is a proper pitying that should go on. The story of Matthew 18—God condemns the lack of a proper pity. You know, we frequently read Psalm 22 at Easter time and at the middle of that some people could say that Jesus is sort of exercising a little bit of self-pity. He talks about the miserliness of his condition, okay. But that must be a proper complaint if we want to call it that about his plight.

So what I’m saying is we got to be a little careful on this self-pity thing by taking it a particular direction.

In Matthew 18, the idea is the debtor who’s in debt and then he doesn’t relieve other people’s debt. And so the master says, “Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you?” And Matthew 18, the point is if you don’t have proper pity for people who you may think are having a pity party and engaging in self-pity, if you don’t recognize their difficulty of condition, God says you won’t have compassion from him. So there’s a proper pity. So we want to be careful while railing against self-pity.

Job 19. This is interesting. He says Job actually calls and calls upon his friends to have pity on him. Let’s see verse 21 of Job 19. Turn to Job 19. This I think is kind of important text for us. Verse 21: Job says, “Have pity on me. Have pity on me, oh you my friends. For the hand of God has struck me. Why do you persecute me as God does and are not satisfied with my flesh?”

Now, is Job doing a good thing or a bad thing here? Well, if you’re not careful with the whole idea of something, you say, “I guess self-pity and terrible guy just whining and complaining by asking his friends to have pity on him. But the funny thing is that you know a couple of things here. One, verse 21 is preceded by a bunch of other verses.

Look at verse 8: “He has fenced up my ways that I cannot pass. He has set darkness in my paths. He has stripped me of my glory, taken the crown from my head. He breaks me down on every side and I am gone. My hope he has uprooted like a tree. He has also kindled his wrath against me and he counts me as one of his enemies. His troops come together and build up their road against me. They encamp all around my tent.

“He has removed my brothers far from me and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. These are real facts, by the way, folks. This is really what he was going through. My relatives have failed. My close friends have forgotten me. Those who dwell in my house and my maidservants count me as a stranger. I am an alien in their sight. I call my servant, but he gives no answer. I beg him with my mouth. My breath is offensive to my wife and I’m repulsive to the children of my own body.

“Even young children despise me. I arise and they speak against me. All my close friends abhor me and those with whom I love, those whom I love have turned against me. My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.”

Now, if you let those verses soak in and recognize that the text tells us this really did, this really was his state. Why would we not have pity on him? Whether it’s his sin or not, we should feel pity and compassion upon that guy. The other servant was not pitiful toward those who are in debt. Debt represents sin. But still, God called him to have compassion on them. God says we should have compassion on Job. His friends were lousy comforters for this very reason. They might have had good things to say, but when they said it, they had no compassion for the man.

I think he’s saying correctly, “Have pity on me.” Now, you could say he’s being self-pitying and a whiner. I don’t think so.

Look at verse 20. If you’re not convinced yet, look at verse 23: “Oh, that my words were written. Oh, that they were inscribed in a book that they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead forever.” Ha! In the midst of this cry for pity, he also prays to God for something that God has obviously done. We’re reading the book. We’re reading these words. God answered this prayer. And then look at his confession. Is he in a sinful state of mind? I don’t think so. Verse 25: “For I know, I know my redeemer lives. He says, ‘And he shall stand at last on the earth. Believed in the resurrection after my skin is destroyed. This I know that in my flesh I shall see God.’ This is profession of faith.”

“Whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold and not another. How my heart yearns within me.” His heart yearns just for what we yearn for—the presence of God, full salvation and redemption, and you know, his redeemer living in his presence. No, I think Job was correct in asking his friends to pity him. So we want to be careful, right? There’s a proper pity and there’s a proper compassion.

Reformed folks, I read an article in Reformation, read a bunch of articles. One of them was all about: man, I just cringe when I hear some reformed guy get up and start talking about self-pity because he’s going to crank away at how we should never be self-pitying and maybe shouldn’t be very pitying of other people either. And of course, that’s absolutely contrary. You know, they were supposed to, the Corinthians were supposed to have pity on Jerusalem and be moved to action to help them. We don’t know why they were—you know, was it their sin? Was it just whatever it was? They were moved with compassion. We have to remember that.

So Job says that—Proverbs 19:17 says, “He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord and he will pay back what he has given.” You better have pity on the poor because if you don’t, you’re not going to heaven. That’s basically what Matthew 18 says.

It’s interesting. In Exodus 4, verses 10 and 13, Moses, and this is the call of Moses. He says, “Ah, Lord, I’m not eloquent. Neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech, slow of tongue. Okay, okay. So now Moses is being self-pity. I just, I can’t, I’m not eloquent.”

Is that God rebuke him? No. God encourages him. So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go and I’ll be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.” It’s not a rebuke. It’s an encouragement. God is having pity on Moses. Then he tries to bolster.

Wait a minute now. I made your mouth. Don’t fear. I’m going to be with you. So in response to Moses—what we could say is self-pity—God gives encouragement and compassion. But then look what happens. The next thing is Moses says, “Oh my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else you may send.”

Well, okay. So he’s rejected the encouragement. He remains self-centered, self-pitying, thinking about his own abilities rather than God’s call. By the way, we do that all the time, don’t we? “I’m not up to the task. If God calls you to a task, you’re up to the task. Don’t worry about it. You’re not ready to get married. That’s okay. God calls you to marriage, you’ll be ready. Ready enough. Okay? So we rely upon the calling of God. Moses doesn’t do that. He’s self-pitying now. And now he’s moved into, he’s rejecting the comfort of God.”

Now the Lord does rebuke him. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. And he says, “What do you, I’m going to send somebody. I’ll remember Aaron. I’ll give him for you.” But he’s, God’s angry with Moses after Moses rejects compassion, encouragement, and a call to move away from potential self-pity. And when Moses engages in self-pity again, now God gets angry at him. Okay.

So the idea is here there’s, you know, two ditches in the road. We want to avoid the road of self-pity, but we also want to avoid the road of denying reality and not being, not commiserating with other people and even to a degree ourselves on our own difficulties and shortcomings. There’s a proper pity.

Jonah. God, Lord says to Jonah, “You have had pity on the plant.” End of the book of Jonah. Jonah’s sitting outside the city, you know, sulking, feeling sorry for himself. And he—the metaphor for that is this plant that he has pity for that died. And so he’s out there whining. And the Lord says, “You’ve had pity on the plant for which you have not labored nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And Job said, ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m going to pity that.’ Yeah. God says, ‘Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which are more than 120,000 persons, children who can’t discern between his right hand and his left, who need knowledge and need help.’”

Job’s—or Jonah’s rather—self-pity is urged by God to be turned toward proper pity for other people who really do should have compassion upon them. So Jonah clearly is involved in a sinful self-pity as was Moses. There’s a proper self-pity, but there’s also an improper self-pity. And that’s the next part of the outline: its prevalence.

Genesis 3:4 and 5. What’s that? That’s the story of the fall. Serpent says, “Oh, as God said—no, that’s not really what it is. God doesn’t have your best interest at heart.” And so Eve says, “Hm, well, maybe I. That’s true. And we could maybe it’s a little stretch, but in a way she’s feeling a little sorry for herself that she doesn’t have something that’s neat and cool. And the serpent encourages her, doubting God’s love for her, and she begins to think of other alternatives.

So I think that the fall has within it at least some element of self-pity, at least an incient original moving towards self-pity. And then by the time we get to Cain and the continuation of the fallen man, he certainly is involved in self-pity. His offering wasn’t respected. Cain becomes very angry and his countenance fell. Started to feel anger and sorrow. His countenance falls. Cain’s involved in self-pity. The old man was birthed to a certain degree in a sense of self-pity—not being content or thankful for what has been given to Eve and doubting the goodness of God toward her in her circumstances. And Cain is the same thing.

So that the old man is perpetuated by men who engage in self-pity, improper self-pity. And I got in the outline here: “Calvinism is not enough.” If by Calvinism we mean the sovereignty of God, if the old—because that’s what the serpent did. You’ve been here a long time. You know this story. God identifies himself as the Lord God—Lord is covenant God, father. We could say God is all-powerful one, master. So God is both father and master. Sovereign Father. Sovereign.

And when the serpent addresses Eve, he only refers to God by sovereign. He doesn’t use the covenant name of God, Lord Yahweh. So now, you know, well, to the serpent, maybe his relationship is different. Maybe that’s the name that’s proper for him. I don’t know. But I know that what it tells us in the text is that Eve is being driven to doubt not God’s sovereignty ultimately, but his care—God’s care for her. The dropping of the term father, and then the idea that God is selfish on this thing and your circumstances really aren’t good.

Calvinism, the sovereignty of God, is not enough. It has to be linked to the essential character of God, which is love toward us. If God is all-powerful and all-loving, then what happened to me when my ears plugged up the last couple of weeks? This was the providence of God, his decree that came from the hand. Is he in control of it? Yes. Is his control hurting me or helping me? It’s helping me. God is always inclined toward you. See, unless you move to high-handed, rebellious sin, and even there, the judgments bring you back to repentance.

So sovereignty alone is not enough. Sovereignty and love is what helps us avoid self-pity, okay? But the point here is that this is a very prevalent sin. It’s all over the place.

Hebrews 12 talks about another Old Testament saint. It talks about Esau, who, you know, it says, “We’re to be looked carefully lest any one fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up cause trouble.” So he’s going to give an example of what can wreck our faith and our walk. And the example he gives is Esau. “Afterwards, when Esau wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance. Though he sought it with tears, he cried.”

He was like Gollum though. He didn’t cry. Those weren’t tears of repentance. It wasn’t an evangelical sorrow. It was a self-pitying sorrow from Esau. That’s what creates roots of bitterness. This self-pity can become bitterness and it can ruin our lives. Absolutely eat us up.

And so, and so the Bible tells us there’s a horrible improper self-pity. And the contrast between Esau’s self-pity and true biblical sorrow is given to us in 2 Corinthians 7. He says, “I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted. But the sorrow of the world produces death.”

The sorrow of the world—self-pitying, feeling sorry for ourselves because our conditions aren’t good enough, God doesn’t love us, whatever it is. We’re thinking about ourselves and not God and others. We’re thinking about ourselves instead of 120,000 kids that God’s in the process of saving in Nineveh. That sort of self-sorrowing, pitying, that sort of sorrow leads to death. It’s a step to death. It eats us up. Don’t do it.

On the other hand, evangelical sorrow leads to life. What does it look like? Observe this very thing: that you sorrow in a godly manner, what diligence it produced in you. Pastor Wilson’s verse right here—when he counsels folks about repentance, Chris W., this is what he uses, and it’s a great verse. Look at that. “What diligence it produced, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication—in all things you proved yourselves to be clear in the matter.”

Evangelical sorrow leads to a desire to clear oneself, to get it right. A heartfelt sorrow to God to move back to the right track. Self-pitying sorrow leads to death. Esau is the example.

So the ungodly line are marked by this characteristic, very prevalent sin—self-pity. Its story is one of victim or helplessness. Lamentations 3:39 says, “Why should a living man complain? A man [complains] for the punishment of his sins? Let us search out and examine our ways and turn back to the Lord. Are we a victim? Are we helpless?”

No, we’re sinful. That as some people say, we should always be thankful because we’re never getting what we deserve. We don’t get eternal damnation in hellfire. So why should we complain about the punishment for our sins? Well, that’s not always punishment for sins, but a lot of times it is. And why should a man be self-pitying about that? He shouldn’t be, is the point.

So we tell ourselves a story that we’re a victim when in point of fact we’re culpable for our actions. And a lot of times our actions have led to the problem. So, and then the other story we can tell is we’re helpless. You know, we can’t do anything about it. “Poor me. I’m stuck in this position. Gee, I don’t have any friends or gee this happened to me or gosh I’m not having a good time at work”—and we start thinking about all the problems in our lives, and now some of those are real, and we should have compassion for people in them, but at the end of the day, you see, the problem is we turn ourselves into a victim—somebody else did something to us—instead of recognizing we’re part of this situation, okay? We make a helpless story for ourselves. You know, we think, “Well, it’s really, we have no control over.” Oh, a lot of times you do, and if you are helpless, you can always cry out to God and he hears and answers, and whatever.

So, you know, it comes from this sort of telling ourselves a story—poor us.

Third, its cyclical nature. And I got to, I want to read from a political commentary here on a civil matter of contemporary purpose. The certainty I foretold and testify: that although this cloud should pass away—so we’re in the throes of this election, defeat, right? So this is like a political commentary. “This certainty I foretell and testify that although this cloud should pass away, we can get back the house and senate, and we yet remain in the same condition of listlessness, sloth based on self-pity. We shall again have to suffer much heavier evils than those we are now dreading. [It’s] going to get worse. For I do not so much fear the wrath of the emperor as your own listlessness.”

Now, that was a political commentary by Chrysostom, who lived in the late fourth and early fifth century. So, well, you got the emperor, and sometimes that guy’s really down on Christians. Our problem isn’t the emperor. Our problem is our own sinful listlessness, self-pity. “Oh, the emperor is doing it to us again. Oh, the Democrats. Oh, the Republicans. Oh, somebody else caused all this to happen.” And as a result, we get listless, and we get more listless after bad things happen.

And Chrysostom says, “No good—get involved. Don’t be self-pitying. Start to take some action relative to yourself.”

One commentator compares self-pity to “soap opera religion.” In soap opera religion, life is without dominion. Instead, it is a forever-abounding mess met with a sensitive and bleeding heart. Soap opera religion is the faith of the castrated, of the impotent, and the irrelevant. The devotees of soap opera religion are full of impotent self-pity and rage over the human predicament, but they’re devoid of action.

You see, self-pity—Elizabeth Elliott said, “Self-pity is a death that has no resurrection, a sinkhole from which no rescuing hand can drag you because you have chosen to sink. You’ve chosen down.” A horrible cyclical nature to self-pity—leading to more problems and more self-pity.

Its root. Matthew 16, verses 22-24. Its root is this: complaining about our problems and a desire to have what we want as opposed to what God is providing. Jesus said in Matthew 16:24, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Then he began to show to his disciples that he must be crucified.”

And it’s in this context just before this that Peter, you know, was upset about Jesus going to be crucified and encouraged him not to do it. So the root is a desire to save our own life and a focus on ourselves. Self-pity is self-centeredness. It is quite simply a rejection of God’s providence, a rejection of his blessings, ultimately a lack of faith. But it’s this desire to hold on to something of ourselves. And God says, “You can’t do it that way. He who comes after me must take up his cross daily.”

To complain about our petty problems is, in the words of this original article I read, to spit in the face of God. Now, there’s—I’ve thrown in the caveats. You know, Jonah complained about his problems. They weren’t petty. They were real. He didn’t complain about them, but he asked for his friends to have compassion on him. Okay, that’s one thing. But to complain and to whine: “Oh, God always does this thing to me, and I can’t ever. Oh, it’s so difficult my life, yada. Oh, I don’t have any friends.”

To do that is, I think he’s right—this writer—to spit in the face of the grace of God, because God has given us so many blessings, and we remember that at this time of year. Self-pity is ultimately a lack of faith in the God who is sovereign and loving toward us and does all things for our purposes.

I want to read a quote here about R.J. Rushdoony, and he has a book called “The Politics of Guilt and Pity.” He talks about the dynamics of guilt in this book. In this way, he states that the human race is, quote, “deeply involved in a rebellious claim to autonomy and in the guilt which flows from that claim.” Rushdoony articulates the great lengths to which mankind will go to dissolve his guilt himself. So rather than accepting the atonement of Christ, we tend to work with our guilt ourselves, believing unconsciously in irrational patterns of psychological sadism and masochism.

Sadistic, self-empowering, and masochistic, self-degrading behaviors manifest in these circumstances in people whom Rushdoony describes as those who, quote, “take pleasure in displeasure.” That’s what self-pity is—a taking pleasure in displeasure. He defines the “injustice collector.” Now, this isn’t just Rushdoony. This is a common term in sociological journals for self-pity. They’re referred to as injustice collectors who masochistically place himself into positions in which he is sure to feel offended and then sees himself self-righteously as the one sinned against and hence innocent.

These individuals collect these injustices committed against them and indulge themselves in self-pity regarding them. We often see these behavior patterns in, for instance, formerly abused women.

So that’s a it’s a great line. Think about that. You listening? I know I’ve talked a long time, but listen to this sentence. “These individuals—people that are self-pitying—they collect injustices, supposed injustices committed against them. They keep a list and they indulge themselves in self-pity regarding them.”

What does the scriptures tell? Love doesn’t keep a list of wrongs suffered. You want to keep a list of wrongs suffered? Go ahead. But you’re going to end up in a self-cycling down of self-pity. You’re going to go downward into the abyss. That’s what you’ll end up doing. Let’s not do it. Let’s put off that behavior.

“The leech has two daughters: ‘Give, give.’ There are three things that are never satisfied, four never say enough: the grave, the barren womb, the earth that’s not satisfied with water, and the fire never says enough.”

We have a leech mentality in our country. A self-pity mentality, and it will affect us.

So self-pity’s cure: giving thanks. That’s what we’re doing today—simple acts of thanksgiving. Ephesians 5, you know, the text from Thessalonians that I read, or Philippians rather that I read at the beginning—1 Thessalonians 5. We are to give thanks in everything. Give thanks. This is the will of God in Christ for you. And by the way, that’s preceded by a call to have compassion upon people: “Exhort the unruly, but comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but rather do what’s right and good. Then he says, ‘Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.’”

And some, I’ve heard guys preaching this: “Well, supposed to give thanks in everything but not for everything.” Well, in Ephesians 5, what it says is we are to “give thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is part of being filled with the spirit. That’s the context here. We’re not supposed to be drunk with wine, but be filled with the spirit. That spirit is the spirit of thanksgiving. He will lead you to give thanks for everything in the context of everything. The giving of thanks is the key, the reverse of self-pity.

To give thanks for our circumstances, as difficult as they are—not Pollyanna-ish, ignoring our difficulties. We can be put in times like Jonah was of great physical problems or whatever it is, loss of friends, difficulties with families or spouses. Those things are all real. I have compassion for you. I ask for you to have compassion on me in my particular sufferings. We want that to flow. But at the same time, we want to give God thanks in everything because his hand is not shortened. His care is not restricted to the big things in our lives. His love is in every atom of your existence. He’s foreordained it. He’s decreed whatsoever comes to pass, and we’re to give him thanks in everything. This is the calling of God.

First Kings 19, verses 4-15. I won’t read it now. It’s the story of Elijah, of course, when he gets a little difficulty and he’s kind of, he actually contemplates—or at least says he’s thinking about—suicide. He prays that he might die. Says, “It’s enough now, Lord. Take my life for I am no better than my fathers.” He’s in such hard times. He should have compassion on him. And what happens is God doesn’t rebuke him, but God does get him moving. God sends an angel who touches him—compassion—gives and commands him, “Arise and eat. Do an action.” And then he eats. He sleeps. Angel comes back. And then God—he listens for God. And God isn’t in the great things. God’s in the still, small voice. He’s in the little details of life. The spirit of God is moving. And when God comes to Elijah, the call is to go and anoint a king.

So Elijah’s temptation to self-pity is met through compassion, and it’s met through getting him moving, taking care of some of his needs—physical needs, food, sleep, etc. These are good things for us to do, but then to get moving.

I, it’s probably a dangerous thing to do. I was listening to the radio as I prepared my sermon yesterday afternoon, the final draft of it, and I was listening to Bruce Springsteen, and I heard Bruce Springsteen give—he was talking [in] an interview several years ago I listened to—and he said that the key to their band’s success was that their basic philosophy was to get people’s behinds moving and their spirit will follow. So you do the music enough and they get moving, and after they start moving, then their spirit will follow.

I think that’s absolutely correct, and that’s what the scriptures say. If you’re prone to self-pity, give God thanks and get moving. Put your behind in motion through an act of the will and giving thanks to God, and the spirit of God will continue to motivate you and move you along the proper path. We’re not supposed to sit around and wait for, you know, a feeling to happen. We’re to respond with simple acts of obedience, and those will be the way that get us out of that horrible cycle of self-pity.

What do we got here? Simple. We give thanks to God for the elements and we eat it.

Today’s application is real simple. Well, confess self-pity to whatever degree that’s infiltrated your life. Put off the old man. Put on the new man. The new man is the thankful man. The new man is the one who gives thanks to God in everything. That’s all I’m asking you to do.

Tomorrow morning, give thanks. The beginning of the day, throughout the day, little tiny things happen—give thanks. Things happen, give thanks. Don’t assume it’s all, you know, just normal. No, that water, that food, that touch, whatever it is, that all comes from God. That car, that house, this community. Whatever it is, give thanks to God for it this week. Prepare for Thanksgiving on Thursday by developing the run of righteousness of giving thanks in little things.

And you know, if you do that, when real tough times come, you’ll have developed a habit and a pattern of doing what’s right, giving God thanks in the midst of difficulties. And you’ll remember also that the pastor said that our own temptation to self-pity is also a reminder to have pity on other people. We’ll be Jonas. We’re tempted to have self-pity. We give God thanks though. And then we say, “Who should we be having pity on? Compassion on? Who should we be showing compassion to?” Missionaries in Poland, brother, sister, whatever it is, other people at church.

Lord God says that self-pity is this horrible, noxious weed that if we let go in our lives, we’ll develop a sinkhole that’ll tear us down. Get rid of it. And get rid of it through the simple developed habit of thanksgiving.

Let’s pray. Lord God, I pray for every soul that comes forward and even those that sit in their pews. May they, Lord God, get moving in thanksgiving. I preach to myself and to them. Father, help us to avoid the horrible sin of self-pity. Help us to believe you, Lord God, that you’re decreeing all things for our well-being. And help us not to insist on what we want, but to be submissive to what you’ve provided for us. And Lord God, make us a compassionate people. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.