I was asked to preach the Thanksgiving Day chapel service at the Chattanooga Rescue Mission this year. In many ways, this service is one of the most difficult for me to prepare. It is easy to call family and friends to give thanks to God when they gather from warm homes around tables filled with food made with love. Gratitude feels almost natural in those moments. But it is something else entirely to stand before men who are homeless, battling addiction, and carrying emotional and physical wounds. Preparing for this message forced me to step back and dig down to the true essence of why every living, breathing person should give thanks to God. As I preached, the Lord visited us in a special way. I had never seen such a response in that chapel. Men with tear-filled eyes and empty pockets lifting their hearts in gratitude to God. It was a moment I will never forget.

Below are my notes from the message:

“What Does God Want From Me on Thanksgiving Day?”
(1 Peter 2:5, 9; Psalm 116:17)
Thanksgiving Day is a beautiful time in our culture. Families gather around tables. Meals are shared. Stories are told. Gratitude is expressed. Yet for many people, especially for men and women who have walked through some hard valleys, Thanksgiving can also stir up a mixture of memories and regrets. Some look back and see blessings. Others look back and see losses. Some look around and see a table full of loved ones. While others are long displaced from the people that mean so much to them.
But no matter where you come from or what brought you through the doors of this mission today, I want you to know something. God is not confused about where you are. He knows your story. He knows your struggles. He knows your hopes. And He knows what He desires from your heart on this Thanksgiving Day.
It is not the turkey on the table.
It is not a list of blessings you feel pressured to recite.
It is not pretending that everything is alright when it is not. No!
It is something much deeper. Much more personal. And much more life-giving.
You may ask, “Brother Ronnie, could God possibly want from me today” The answer is found all through the Word of God. God desires a heart that turns toward Him with gratitude. God desires an offering that rises from the soul. God desires the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
And here is the good news. God is not asking you for something you cannot give. He is not asking you for perfection. He is not asking you for performance. He is not asking you to be something you are not. He is simply inviting you to come to Him with a thankful heart. And if you do not feel thankful today, He invites you to come anyway and let Him create that gratitude within you.
That brings us to my message today. Because before we can offer God anything, we must understand who He is, who we are in Christ, and what spiritual sacrifice He desires us to bring to Him.
One cannot read the Bible for any length of time without realizing the importance that the priestly role plays in the economy of God. We see the role of the priest throughout both the Old Testament and the New. But we must understand that there is a very great difference between the priests of the old covenant and the priests of the new covenant.
Under the old covenant, a priest had to come from a certain family within a certain tribe. Only the sons of Aaron, within the tribe of Levi, could serve as priests. But under the new covenant, cut at the cross of Jesus Christ, the priests do not come from a physical family, but from a spiritual family. Look with me at:
1 Peter 2:5 (KJV) Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
First Peter tells us that believers are a spiritual house and a holy priesthood. Revelation 1:6 tells us that Christ “hath made us kings and priests unto God…” Which means this. If you are saved by the grace of God, then you are a priest unto God. You belong to Him. You have access to Him. You are welcomed into His presence. You are not pushed away. You are drawn close. And if you have not yet been saved, God invites you into this family. He wants you to know Him personally, not from a distance.
Under the old covenant the priest had many responsibilities, but the predominant responsibility was to offer sacrifices. They would bring an animal or a bundle of wheat and they would lay it on the altar as an act of worship. But when Jesus came, He became the sacrifice that ended all sacrifices. His death fulfilled the law’s demand. His blood satisfied all the types and shadows of the Old Testament offerings. Christ is the sacrifice to which every sacrifice pointed.
Yet the Bible still says that we who are saved have a responsibility to offer sacrifices. Not animal sacrifices, but as Peter says, spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
So the question becomes, what is a spiritual sacrifice? That is what I want us to consider. As I look through the New Testament, there are a few different spiritual sacrifices mentioned that every believer is to offer to God. The one that I want to focus on is the sacrifice of thanksgiving. So on this Thanksgiving Day, with all that may be going on in your life, I want you to know that you can still offer this sacrifice to God. Whether you walked in here today with blessings or burdens, victory or defeat, joy or sorrow, you can still offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
And if you are not saved today, you can come to Christ and receive the greatest gift a heart could ever know. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ for your sins. And when you receive Him, thanksgiving will begin to flow from a redeemed heart.
Let’s look at three aspects in this sacrifice of thanksgiving. Notice first of all…
I. The Roots of the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving
The Psalmist specifically mentions the sacrifice of thanksgiving in:
Psalm 116:17 (KJV) I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.
When the Psalmist spoke of a sacrifice of thanksgiving, he was referring to something very specific in the Old Testament. In the book of Leviticus, there was an offering called the peace offering. Within the description of the peace offering, a sacrifice of thanksgiving is mentioned:
Leviticus 22:29 And when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the LORD, offer it at your own will.
This sacrifice was not a required offering. It was not compulsory. It was offered freely, from a willing heart. The Lord said, when you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, offer it at your own will.
The people brought this offering because they simply wanted to acknowledge the goodness of God. They were not paying off a debt. They were expressing love. They were recognizing mercy. They were celebrating God’s grace.
And what is so beautiful about this offering is that only a small portion was burned on the altar. The rest was shared and eaten. The priest and the offerer sat together and ate the offering in the outer court. It was a shared meal in the presence of God. It was fellowship. It was joy. It was gratitude.
You know, when you think about it, we are not far from our own Thanksgiving table. A meal. A shared moment. A reflection on the goodness of God. And though the pilgrims were not under the Law of Moses, they were a people shaped by Scripture. I believe they took the idea of a thanksgiving sacrifice and formed the first Thanksgiving meal out of a biblical understanding that gratitude to God is meant to be expressed.
But what was God teaching through this offering? He was teaching that when His people paused to consider His goodness, His lovingkindness, His mercy, there ought to rise up within the heart a spontaneous expression of gratitude to God. God delights in the thanksgiving of His children.
The table in the outer court symbolized friendship with God. A welcome place. A place where the heart of the worshiper could overflow with gratitude.
I think about my own children when they were little. My daughter used to invite me to play tea party behind the rocking chair. She would put her stuffed animals around, hand me a little plastic cup, and smile with a joy that lit up the room. I was the one who fed her and clothed her and cared for her, but she was the one who invited me into her little world. And it thrilled my heart. It meant something to me.
How much more must it touch the heart of God when we come, not to ask for something, but simply to say, “Lord, thank You! Thank You for Your goodness. Thank You for Your mercy. Thank You for loving me when I was unlovely. Thank You for finding me when I was lost.” God delights in this sacrifice. And He is worthy of it.
The Roots of the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving
II. The Reason for the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving
Now, remember the peace offering or this thanksgiving sacrifice was completely at the will of the offer-er. It begs the question, when was such an offering given?
In Joshua 22, while conquering the Promised Land peace offerings were given. In Judges 20, after a defeat at Gilgal, the children of Israel offered burnt offerings for their sin and peace offerings to God. In 2 Samuel 6, when the Ark of the Covenant was brought up, David made peace offerings.
In other words, whenever God’s people recognized His hand in their lives, their hearts naturally turned toward thanksgiving. These events brought a spontaneous response of the heart of men toward God.
So then why should we offer this sacrifice of thanksgiving? What is the reason for it? What motivates us to give it to God? Notice first:
A. Because of the Character of God
We are to give the sacrifice of thanksgiving to God because of His character, who He is! The Psalmist says,
Psalms 100:4-5 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
We give thanks because God is good. Not just good in what He does, but good in who He is. His character is that of goodwill toward His creation! He is merciful. He is long suffering. If God were not merciful, none of us would be here today. If God were not patient, we would have been swept away in righteous judgment long ago. But He is merciful. His mercy endureth forever.
Psalms 100:5 also mentions God’s truth. We give thanks because His truth endures. He is not deceptive. He is not false. He is faithful and righteous and holy.
And consider His lovingkindness. I have long said that the lovingkindness of the Lord is His love and His mercy and His grace all rolled together in one expression. When we think about who God is, thanksgiving ought to rise within us like a fountain. You may say, “Brother Ronnie, life has been hard for me.” But God has not changed. He is still good. He is still merciful. He is still faithful. And His character is reason enough to give thanks.
Because of the Character of God
B. Because of the Kindness of God
God’s character drives His actions. Because He is good, He does good. Because He is compassionate, He shows compassion. Because He is merciful, He extends mercy.
The Psalmist said,
Psalms 95:2-5 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving. Why? Because the Lord is a great God. A great King above all false gods created by the hands of men. In His hands are the deep places of the earth. The strength of the hills is His also. The sea is His. He made it. His hands formed the dry land. He made it all. He owns it all. He sustains it all.
And the Psalmist says,
Psalms 75:1 Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.
This verse tells us give thanks, because His name is near! His presence is not distant or unreachable. He is not some far off God, but a God that is near in all places! And let us declare His wondrous works. He deserves thanks because of the wondrous things He does. Think about the wonder of the human mind. The wonder of His providence. The wonder of how He has intervened in your life when you did not even realize it. Many of you would not be alive if God had not stepped in. Many of you would not be sitting in this room if God had not reached down into your trouble and pulled you out. Many of you have walked through the valley of addiction or sorrow or failure or regret, yet here you are. You are still breathing. Still standing. Still blessed by His provision. Still living day by day under his mercy and grace.
Psalms 86:12-13 I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore. For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
Some of you know what the lowest places in life feel like. You may have walked in the anguish of addiction, the sorrow of broken families, the burden of bad choices, the weight of guilt and shame. But only God can reach down into the lowest places a life can fall and lift a person up by His mercy. That is a reason for giving thanks to God.
All these blessings are wonderful, but they point us to God’s greatest act of kindness. The Psalmist is clear that God is the only one that can deliver our eternal souls from the lowest hell! He does this by the greatest kindness God could show: In the Person of Jesus Christ. For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He did not wait for us to fix ourselves because we couldn’t. He did not wait for us to get better or to clean up or to try harder because we can’t. He comes to us where we are. He died to save us from our sins. If you want a reason to give thanks, you need look no further than the cross.
The Roots of the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving; The Reason for the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving
III. The Release of the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving
So if God has been this good, and if His mercy has been this rich, how should we respond. How do we offer this sacrifice? How do we express thanksgiving to God? Notice first of all…
A. The Approach We Should Take
Psalms 95:2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
Notice the Psalmist tells is to “…come before His presence with thanksgiving.” The word “come” in that verse carries the idea of eagerness, of making haste, of anticipation. There ought to be an eagerness in our hearts to come before God with thanksgiving. Not because the music excites us, not because the preaching stirs us, but because our hearts are overflowing with gratitude for who God is and what He has done.
Gratitude creates eagerness. When you think about how good God has been, you ought to want to come near Him. You ought to want to speak to Him in a prayer of thankfulness. You ought to want to lift your heart to Him. A thankful heart is a heart that runs into the presence of God.
The Approach We Should Take
B. The Adoration We Should Give
If we know anything about praise and adoration from the Psalms, we know that it is always visible and always vocal! In Psalm 100:4 when it says “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving…” the word translated “thanksgiving” is a word that mean to extend the hand. It is an expression of praise.
Psalms 147:7 Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving…
Sing with a lifted hand! Adoration is visible. It is vocal! It is a good thing to lift your voice in thanksgiving. It is a good thing to lift your hand in praise. It is a good thing to lift our heads and exalt the Lord our Maker. This is not about personality. It is about the heart.
We ought to take this moment to bow our heads and pray to the God of heaven saying, “Lord, I am not here today to ask for anything. I am here to thank You. I am here to adore You. I am here to give You the glory due unto Your name.”
We complain about so much in life. Yet the Bible says that God daily loadeth us with benefits. We are a blessed people. And how dare we approach such a gracious God without adoring Him with a sacrifice of thanksgiving.
The Roots of the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving; The Reason for the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving; The Release of the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving
Closing Appeal
I want to close with a story I read about a little shepherd boy in the highlands of Scotland named Mac. One day at the village chapel little Mac heard the story of God’s love in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. When he heard it, he received Christ as His Savior. His heart was overwhelmed with joy.
The story goes on to tell about how the next day little Mac was out on the hills taking care of his little flock and he looked toward the sky. And as he did, he began to think about all that God had done for him. His little heart began to swell with gratitude to God. And he looked around to the highest hill in sight. And when he found it, he climbed to the very top of that hill, thinking that the higher he could get, the closer he would get to God.
When Mac got the top of the hill, he took off his little cap and began to wave it at the heavens and said, “Man that died, Mac thanks you! Man that died, Mac thanks you!”
When I think about all that God has done for me, when I consider how He found me when I was lost, how He loved me when I was unloveable, how He saved me when I was in my sin and shame, how He gave me mercy when I deserved judgment, something rises in me. I feel like climbing to the highest hill I can find and lifting my hands toward heaven and saying, Jesus, man that died and rose for me, Ronnie thanks You. Ronnie thanks You.
Friend, you can do the same today. Before you can offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving, you must receive the sacrifice God offered for you. Jesus Christ died for your sins, for your rebellion against Him. He rose from the grave. He can forgive you. He can save you. He can make you new from the inside out. And if you will receive Him today, your heart will find a reason to give thanks that will never fade.
He calls you to turn from your sin and trust Him completely If you will call on Him today, He will not cast you out. Friend, do not leave here today without knowing the One who died for you.
Come to Him. Trust Him. Thank Him. Offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving.