“Don’t Forget God!”
Deuteronomy 8:11

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Thanksgiving Day—November 27, 2014

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our message for Thanksgiving Day is based on today’s Old Testament Reading in the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy. Just before they enter the Promised Land, Moses admonishes the people of Israel: “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God . . .”

One time on the Thanksgiving episode of the primetime television cartoon “The Simpsons,” father Homer Simpson asked his notorious son Bart to say grace at the Thanksgiving table. “Dear God,” Bart said, bowing his head, “we paid for all this stuff ourselves, so thanks for nothin’!”

That bit of blasphemy actually represents exactly the kind of ungrateful attitude you and I show to God every day. For do we really think and thank? Think of all the blessings we receive from God; thank him for his kindness and mercy to us?

Instead, we think mostly about the things we do not have. And the things we do have, we don’t really consider them blessings from the hand of God. We look upon our earnings and achievements and possessions as the fruit of our own labors, the work of our own hands: “We paid for all this stuff ourselves, so thanks for nothin’!”

And even in the spiritual realm, we live under the mistaken, misguided notion that we are earning our own way. We imagine that our own works will procure salvation for us; we deserve to go to heaven, if only we do enough.

But, the truth is, we deserve nothing but God’s wrath. We deserve nothing but damnation in hell. The truth is, we can never, ever do enough to save ourselves, to earn our own way. God demands holiness, and we are evil; God demands righteousness, and we are wicked; God demands perfection, and we are sinners.  Sinners, deserving no good thing from the Lord God. Sinners, deserving only divine punishment.

Yet, God is merciful. He is merciful to us, not because of anything we have done, but because of who he is. “The Lord, the Lord,” he proclaims to Moses, “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in love.”

St. Paul says in Titus, “When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”

Mercy is undeserved, unearned love. “This is how God showed his love for us,” St. John says, “he sent his only begotten Son into the world that we would live through him . . . He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in love.”

For God so loved you that he gave his only-begotten son. Jesus paid for all your sin with his life, death, and resurrection from the dead. He earned your salvation; you are forgiven, set free. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, you shall have eternal life with him in heaven.

And in this earthly life, he is with you always to bless you. As Psalm 145 says, “You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.” St. Paul puts it this way in Romans, “If God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

“When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God . . .”  “Don’t Forget God!”

Don’t forget the spiritual, heavenly blessings he gives you in Jesus Christ: forgiving all your sin, blotting out all your transgressions, preparing a place for you in heaven. As Martin Luther says in the Small Catechism: “[He] has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with his holy, precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death, that I may be his own, and live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, even as he is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.”

“Don’t Forget God!” In addition to these spiritual, heavenly blessings, don’t forget all the physical, earthly blessings, you receive from him, the bounty that comes to you every day from your heavenly Father’s hand. As Luther also says in the Small Catechism, “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that he has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason, and all my senses, and still preserves them; also clothing and shoes, meat and drink, house and home, wife and children, fields, cattle, and all my goods; that he richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life; that he defends me against all danger, and guards and protects me from all evil; and all this purely out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me; for all which it is my duty to think and to praise, to serve and obey him. This is most certainly true.”

“All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above, so thank the Lord, O thank the Lord, for all his love!” Thank the Lord, by living no longer for yourself, but for him. Thank the Lord, by serving him with gladness. Thank the Lord, by entering his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, remembering the Sabbath day, worshiping the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. Thank the Lord, by bringing an offering and coming into his courts, returning to him a portion of his blessings to you. Thank the Lord, by living a godly life to his praise and glory. “All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above . . .  For all which it is my duty to think and to praise, to serve and obey him . . .  So thank the Lord, O thank the Lord, for all his love.”

“When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God . . .” “Don’t Forget God!”

Also don’t forget to make your wants and needs and desires known to him in prayer, as St. Paul says in Philippians, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” He promises to help, he promises to hear, he promises to answer your prayers. He knows what is best to give and to withhold, for he is working all things together for your good.

“Don’t Forget God!” Think and thank. Think of all the blessings you receive from God, both spiritual and physical; thank him for his kindness and mercy to you.

“When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God . . .”

“Don’t Forget God!”