Thanksgiving Eve, Gratitude of Grace

Last thing I want to share before we conclude tonight. And we have a wonderful banner processional that will be a celebrative end of the evening. And of course I was waiting on the Lord and just asking, you know, what do the people tonight, Lord, need to hear? I just want to share with you, I didn't expect what I heard the Lord say to me. I didn't expect this is where the Lord wanted to go, because the images he put in my mind weren't about thanksgiving and celebration and rejoicing. Those are all wonderful things and things that we appropriately do tonight. But the images that he put in my mind had to do with some things that I think some of you are going through. And it surprised me because I didn't expect this. The Lord began to put images in my mind that are all through scripture about refuge and about shelter and about comfort and about security. How many of you ever raised some puppies or kittens in your home? We had a litter of kittens a long time ago. Actually, carols never secure unless there's at least two cats in the house. And we had two females, one of whom became pregnant. At the same time, the other one became pregnant. So we had a pretty significant mess in our hands. Although kittens are really pretty good about taking care of themselves. But the one mommy cat wasn't a very good mom. And after just a little bit of time, she dumped her little kittens off on the other mom. And we would walk in, remember that? We'd walk in a few times and there'd be like 12 kittens like fighting, you know, to hook up. I mean, they were trying to find a way to get in there while the other mom just kind of walked around like this and actually kind of baggy looking to be honest with you. But what was interesting was how much those kittens were hungry for that shelter, that comfort, that sense of security. In Psalm 91, if you'll help me with that, Donna, please. There was a specific scripture that the Lord put in my mind. It says, He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. And I will say to the Lord, He's my refuge and my fortress, my God, and whom I trust. Is that you tonight, dear one? I was in a conversation with somebody this week and they said this phrase and it lodged itself in my brain all week long. They said, I wish I could have my old life back again. I wish I could have my old life back again. Now, for this person, it was in relationship to the fact that they had had a business collapse that had created quite a calamity in his personal life. But I wonder if there's others here tonight for whom longing for your old life meant maybe life before the storm hit, you know, life before the accident that changed your life, life before the affair, life before the surgery. We were singing, God is good all the time here tonight. And I'll never forget, that was the CD three and a half years ago that someone gave to me when I'd just gotten out of the hospital for back surgery and was flat on my back for nine weeks. And I sang that song, that silly country song over and over and over again. God is good all the time. And in the darkest night, his light will shine. God is good. Some of you are longing for life the way it was before the illness, before the failure, before the wayward child, before your dreams seemed to die. But all you've known lately are days of darkness and some confusion and circumstance. And you would relate to David, the same David that wrote Psalm 91, also wrote Psalm 31, where he said, be merciful to me, O Lord, for I'm in distress. My eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief. My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning. How many of you literally have been groaning over some pain in your life for years? Not just weeks or months, but years. David felt that same thing. My strength fails because of my affliction and my bones grow weak. It's at those times, dear ones, that God wants you to know that he's right there, that he's so close if you'll just reach out and come to him as your refuge. I want you to pray for the Merzlach family tonight. I don't even know if Steve and Joanne are here tonight, but their little son, Michael, needs your prayers. As you know, he has cancer and he's struggling. But we want to say to the Merzlachs, come to God. He's a refuge and a strength. He'll be there. He's going to be there for you tonight too, friend, whoever you are, whatever your circumstance. There are two images that I want to close with that have come to my mind in past months and years. Jesus gave them both in Matthew 12 when he said, first of all, that a bruised reed he will not break. If you drive out of our property, maybe on Sunday, you'll see a lot of the standing reeds from the wetlands that they're not allowed to tear down yet. And some of them are blowing over in the wind. And this image that Jesus used about a bruised reed, there's a picture of sometimes when the wind blows too hard, the reeds will blow over. And if the wind continues to blow, they'll snap. They'll just break off. And I remember a time several years ago here at North Way when things were just so heavy. I mean, there was just so much pressure. And I remember thinking, you know, Lord, I'm not sure I can keep carrying this stuff. And God brought this very scripture to my mind, Matthew 12, 20. And he said, well, why don't you let me bring my shoulder up underneath it? Now, I love some of you men a whole lot and brothers I've known for years. You're big guys. You have big hearts and you come alongside. But you know what? Sometimes only God can shoulder that burden. Only God has big enough shoulders. And there's someone here tonight that needs to know you think that you're going to crack under the weight of something. And God said, if you're a bruised reed, I'm not going to let it break. Let me put my shoulder underneath. Let me share the burden with you. And the second image in the same verse is this. He says, a smoking wick or a dimly lit candle, he will not extinguish. You see that image? Here's a candle. It's just flickering. And you all know what that looks like as it burns down. It's just flickering. There's hardly any light left and just the slightest little wisp of wind. And that candle is going to go out. Right after my surgery, I remember thinking, Lord, if the wind picked up one more mile per hour, my candle's going out. I couldn't take it. And the Lord says, the only wind that's going to blow in that candle is the wind that will reignite the flame. Friend, tonight, whoever you are, I don't know who you are, but God wants some of you tonight to know that if you feel like your candle's about to go out, your candle of hope, your candle of relationship, your candle of a dream, God says, I'm not going to extinguish it. I'm going to bring it back to life. And so I pray tonight on this Thanksgiving Eve. I don't know how it works. I really don't. I don't know how when you pray, somehow God comes alongside and shoulders your burden or he comes alongside and breathes life into your dream. But how many of you would stand in just a moment and say, I don't know either, Jay, but I've experienced it and I know it's true. And I want to thank God with you for it. And then once you're there, once you're in that place of shelter, that place of security, then just stay there until you know God's lifted the burden, until you know that he's taken the labor of it and restored you. It only comes in his presence. And so if you're here today and you've experienced that, that burden lifting, hope renewing love of God, would you stand to your feet and say, God, thank you for that. And if you're here tonight and you need that, would you stand to your feet with me and the worship team would join me right now. And we're going to ask God in his presence to renew our hope, to restore the possibilities that God has for us. We come into that presence where God alone can change us. So let's sing this together as an expression of our faith.