Give Thanks to the Lord

What are you thankful for? Or in light of what you are facing in life, does it feel close to impossible to be thankful? It's tempting to believe that when life is completely broken or full of betrayal or sorrow that thankfulness feels unimaginable.

But Jesus has shown us a better way.

The night before Jesus was crucified, He instituted the sacrament of Communion. He passed the cup and broke unleavened bread, telling us to eat and drink in remembrance of Him and His crucifixion. Yet, before He passed these things around the table, Jesus gave thanks.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving, and enter into the Christmas season, what is the cup that is before you? What is broken in your life, and feels like it can never be put right? Are we willing to give thanks for these things, even though grief and sorrow are our companions? Do we realize that when we give thanks to the Lord in the midst of our sorrow and trouble, this is also a way that we show the Lord's death and resurrection until He returns?

Friends, I know life is difficult for many. But today, my challenge to you and to me, is to look around and ask the Lord to help us find things that we can be truly thankful for. 

Scriptures Referenced:

• Luke 22:14-20
• Matthew 26: 27-28
• 2 Corinthians 10:3-6
• Philippians 4:6
• 1 Thessalonians 4:17, 5:16-18
• Hebrews 13:5
• Psalm 103
• Isaiah 61:1-3

You can find me on Instagram / Threads

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:08

Hey everyone, happy Thanksgiving. Welcome to episode 9 of Honey from the Rock. And I want you to know, not only this week am I so glad that you're here because I say that every week, but today, guess what? I am really thankful. I'm really thankful that you're here. And that is not a lie. I don't know why I am feeling particularly emotional about the fact that I am putting a ninth episode out into the world. Probably because, as my friend and former boss, Gary keeps texting me when I post an episode, he cheers me on. I'm so thankful for you, Gary, um, with how much more I have done as a podcaster than most people who start a podcast. Um, I've made it past episode three, and I am almost, you know, I'm about to hit episode 10 and all of the things. And so I just really appreciate the encouragement. But also, I every time I record an episode, my mother can attest to this. She'll ask me what I think about it. I'm like, it's fine. I think the Lord got what he wanted. I just have to put it out there and kind of walk away from it. But today, today, as I sit holding my microphone and I watch these squiggly little lines go up and down in my Audacity app, which I record in, I for the first time really in recording an episode, I have an overwhelming feeling of joy. And just I think what is really overwhelming me in this moment, and I am, I am sorry, I am about to get my cry voice on, but like this year, I know I have talked about it. This year has been so hard, it's been so full of grief and loss. And for Jesus to say to my heart in the midst of this that I needed to start this podcast, and I did it with a great amount of trepidation and fear and insecurity, just confessing that to all of you. I'm sitting here and I am overwhelmed with gratitude for what Jesus has done. Not only because precious, precious people have emailed me or texted me or messaged me and told me that they've been encouraged by the podcast, which is, I mean, beyond my wildest dreams. It's so amazing. But I'm overwhelmed with joy and gratitude because of what Jesus has done in me. And it's actually a little bit what I want to talk about today in this episode, with Thanksgiving being literally tomorrow. To sit and talk about my journey, to sit and talk about the things that the Lord has shown me in his word, to remember his faithfulness, to declare his goodness, his forgiveness, his cleansing when we repent, his love, his joy, his kindness, his goodness, to declare those things and to put myself in a place where, as I share with you what the Lord has done for me, that remembrance has really provoked a persevering gratitude within me. That no matter what I'm facing and and and no matter what I'm trudging through, no matter the depth of grief and struggle, of suffering and affliction, that astonishingly, when the scripture talks about us remembering what the Lord has done, it actually has a specific purpose for us. It is that in recalling and bringing to our minds what Jesus has done for us, it births and grows hope within us. Faith, I was listening to a Tim Keller podcast, oh gosh, probably two months ago. And he said, faith, we put faith in Jesus and who he is and what he has done, right? His crucifixion, his burial, his resurrection, the gospel that he preached, the the gospel record that we have. We have faith in Jesus and who he is and what we had, what he has done. And then we hope for the future. And our faith in what Jesus has done carries us into the future of what he will do, which is he will return. He will avenge his people. Those who have died in Jesus will resurrect, and those who are of us who are still left on the earth will be caught with him in the air, that Jesus will come back. And and just thinking about those things, that scripture is true, it cannot lie. The Holy Spirit wields that scripture sometimes as a sword to cut through the clutter and chaos of our minds and our souls and our spirits and our hearts and our emotions. And sometimes he pours it out as as oil, as a word for the weary in a time of trouble. And and today I'm just, I am telling you, I am sitting here and I am over, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. And and which is appropriate for the season that we're in. But obviously, we know as disciples of Jesus Christ, being overwhelmed with gratitude towards him is appropriate in any season. And actually, that is something that Jesus modeled so beautifully for us, and that is where I want to go today. Because I know that this year, I was I was talking about it with a friend on Sunday night. This year, 2025, has been so incredibly difficult for so many people. I I don't know one person in my sphere of friends and church and community that hasn't experienced some sort of difficulty. And I don't know why that is. I'm I'm not gonna try to um armchair theologian the Lord and try to explain things. I know that Jesus has been with his people, has ministered to his people, has helped his people. Even in the midst when we when we've not been able to discern him or tangibly feel his presence, he promised to never leave us or forsake us. And I know there are also in the midst of difficulty, I know there are so many circumstances that the Lord has moved, that the Lord has moved in and made himself known. But no matter what this Thanksgiving holiday is about to look like for you, whether it is a bountiful table filled with friends and family and laughter and joy, or perhaps it is a somber table because there is a person that you have lost this year that used to sit to your right or to your left. Perhaps you're having to do, like my mom and my brother and I do new uh traditions because of loss and because of grief. Whatever you are looking at, I I pray that today this episode encourages you, and that Jesus ministers to you in it to hold you, that we can walk as he walked, we can follow in his steps, that he literally is resurrecting in us, and he wants to continue to teach us how to walk as he walked. And and the example that the Lord led me to in the word and where I finally landed for this episode is actually the night before Jesus is crucified in Luke 22. And Luke 22 is such a powerful chapter. There's there's so much going on. Um, Luke shows us that um Jesus um is about to be betrayed by Judas, that the feast of the un of unleavened bread has come, and he sends his disciples to the upper room. He tells them to go find the man with the jug, right? And and and that man will lead you to the place where Jesus is going to prepare his supper with his disciples. And then we have the institution of the Lord's Supper. And this picture here, I think, is so beautiful and it and it's so subtle. And yet, when I was reading today, I know that the Lord caught my attention because He wanted, He wanted me, He wanted me to grow in this area. He wanted me to gain a bit of deeper understanding, not only regarding the Lord's table, but regarding the disposition of Jesus the night before he was crucified, and and how who he is and what he does, and how he walked in the flesh can and does inform and shape and change us so completely on the inside that we too, in the in the darkest moments of our life, in in the times of deepest distress and difficulty, we can give thanks. And so I'm going to read Luke 22, verses 14 through 20, and I'm reading it from the ESV. And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him, and he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, Take this and divide it among yourselves, for I tell you from now on, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. And in Matthew 26, when he institutes the supper, he says, And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. And what struck me in reading this is the night before Jesus is crucified. I mean, John tells us that he is already in distress, that his spirit is distressed. He gives us the Lord's Supper. And before he takes up the unleavened bread, which is the symbol of his body, before he breaks it, he gives thanks. And then he shows his disciples that his body is symbolized by this unleavened bread. Unleavened bread meaning meaning no leaven in it, right? And and leaven in scripture often representing sin. There was no sin in Jesus. This bread was was completely free of the things that defile you and I, right? Jesus is perfect life, he holds it up, he gives thanks, and then he breaks it. And he tells them to eat it in remembrance of him. And likewise, the cup, the new covenant, which is written in his blood, his blood, which is shed for the remission of sins, and he gives thanks for the cup. He gives thanks for the cup. And then he tells his disciples to drink it and to do these things in remembrance of him. My friends, what I want to encourage you with, where I want to challenge you and myself, where I want to preach the gospel to you and me today, is what cup is before us? What brokenness sits before us? And obviously, it's not in the same way. The cup that is before us is not the pouring out of our blood for a new covenant or the breaking of our body for the forgiveness of sins, but in that we walk as Jesus has walked, right? A disciple is not above his or her master, right? Uh uh a disciple is not above his or her teacher. Jesus tells us that many, many times. And so there is there is a cup before us, there is brokenness before us. And in these things that we are looking at, where Jesus, Jesus is is standing with us, will we give thanks for the cup that is before us? And will we drink all of it? Will we give thanks for the bread that is before us, the brokenness in areas of our life that we don't understand, that are so hurtful, that are so distressing, that are difficult. But in there, can we find a place where we can give thanks? And and the challenge that the Lord has given me is that in the midst of a season of unimaginable loss and so much grief, and and and the Lord hasn't been chastising me and on me like you better be thankful. He has not been that way. But he has led me and he has shown me ways where I can, in the face of overwhelming despair, sometimes, where despair tries to latch a hold of me and bring me down, in the face of the devil who wants to lie to me about the character of my God, and who wants to deceive me into believing that my Lord does not care for me or love me or that he has left me or he doesn't see me, that even in the depth of my brokenness or drinking the cup that he has appointed to me, that in my giving thanks I stand in an act of defiance against every lie and evil thing from the world, the flesh, and the devil that wants to raise itself against the Lord, right? As Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 10, we take every thought captive, every high thing that tries to raise itself against the knowledge of God. We capture it and we cast down strongholds because the weapons of our warfare, they are not carnal, but they are spiritual and mighty to the tearing down of strongholds. And friends, what I want to encourage you and me today, as I preach the gospel to myself again, as I stand, as I stand at the end of this year and on the threshold of a holiday season, where where the where the place settings to my right and my left are empty of treasured family members, where my mom and my brother and I walk together in Jesus to build new traditions, to forge a new way forward out of such deep loss, that our act of defiance is to stand in gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ, to stand in gratitude to the Father, to the Holy Spirit for who they are and what they have done. The night before Jesus goes to be crucified, he thanks the Lord for the cup. Jesus, this this cup, this new covenant blood that Jesus sheds for us. Do we know what cup Jesus had to drink? He had to drink the cup of the wrath of the judgment of God, to the point where all sin is laid on him and the Father forsakes him. His body so completely shattered and broken, even in the garden, where he is resisting sin and he is resisting temptation to the point where he sweats great drops of blood. Right? This is Jesus. This is Jesus who surrendered to the cup of the Lord that that the Lord appointed, that the Father appointed, and who drank the whole cup. Now he drank the cup of the wrath of God, so that if we come to him and we trust him and we surrender our lives to him, and we absolutely pursue him and and and and trust him in faith, right? It is by grace through faith that we are saved, then and we belong to Jesus, and Jesus belongs to us. We will not drink the cup of the wrath of God, but there is still a cup appointed to us. This life is not absent suffering, my friends, or affliction, and there is joy in the midst of it. There can be joy. Joy and grief can coexist together. And part of how we provoke and bring forth that holy spiritual joy, it's not manufactured, it's not fake, it's not false. It is the strength of the Lord manifest in us when we thank the Lord, when we worship Him, even when our hearts are broken and the tears are streaming down our face, when we say, This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it. Again, that's not that's not a mustering up of a fake gladness, but it's it's it's it's an ability, even in the midst of devastation, to say, Lord, I still belong to you. I still trust you with my life, I trust you with my circumstances, and I give thanks to you because I know that there is not one thing in my life that I have that has not come through your hand. Every good thing you have given me, Lord, and you have supplied yourself, your grace and your mercy and your loving kindness in the midst of my difficulty. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me, Lord Jesus. Holy Spirit, you have ministered truth to me in the midst of the lie, trying to pull me away. I will give thanks. How many times does Paul tell us to pray with thanksgiving? Don't stop praying, right? Rejoice always, give thanks always, never stop praying, right? Pray without ceasing. You know, make your be anxious for nothing, but in everything with thanksgiving, make your requests known unto God. Whatever you do, do it with thanksgiving, give thanks. I mean, it is it is everywhere in Scripture. And that's part of what has been such a huge blessing for me. Like I was talking about earlier, the remembrance of who Jesus is and what he has done for me. What he has done for me, I will, I will declare what the Lord has done for me, the truth of who he is, the the absolute truth of scripture that testifies to the character of the Lord. And I will give him thanks. I will worship him. And so, my friends, as we look down the barrel of the holiday season, which is difficult for many, it is lonely for many. Jesus knows that. And he is not, he is not ignoring. He is not, I want to encourage you, my friends. He is not ignoring you. He is not ignorant of your suffering. He's not ignorant of your loneliness. But he is also worthy, worthy of our worship, worthy of our thanksgiving, even when what we can offer him at times is just the widow's might, right? The widow's might of those things. That is still a far better sacrifice to the Lord than sometimes our off-handed Thanksgiving thankfulness when everything is going good, right? And so, for so many that I know that are listening, again, I don't know what your Thanksgiving is going to look like. I don't know how many pies are going to be on your table. I don't know what kind of mashed potatoes you're going to have and what kind of turkey you're going to eat, or if you're even going to eat turkey. I don't know if you know the lions are going to be the packers. I don't know if the chiefs are going to lose or win. I really hope they lose. I don't know how many naps we're going to take. I don't know how much loneliness is going to crowd in. I don't know how much tension sits at your table. I don't know what kind of difficulty you are facing. In the joys, in the silliness, in the frivolous things, and in the devastating and heartbreaking things. I don't know exactly where you're at, but I want to encourage you: whatever cup is sitting before you, whatever brokenness is in your life, take a moment. Quiet yourself before the Lord. And think about and ask the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind how the Lord has shown up for you. Look at your life. Look at your life. The fact that you are still breathing. The fact that in some way that you probably don't even know, you are a living witness of hope and perseverance to someone you don't even know is watching you. You are the hands and feet of Jesus to your family members, being uniquely and beautifully made as Jesus has made you. You have no clue how who you are and what you do ministers to the people around you. You know, so often we're so blinded by our own pride or insecurity or difficulties or quirks or worries or concerns that we completely miss what the Lord is doing around us, right? So I am 100% guilty of that. But today, my friends, as Jesus did the night before he was crucified, look at the cup, look at the bread, look at what was broken and poured out for us, and the disposition of our Lord and Savior. Before he poured out these things, he gave thanks. And in the midst of whatever you are facing, I pray that you can find, you can find something in your life today where you can lift, you can take it and you can lift it to the Lord as a sacrifice of praise, as a thanksgiving offering. Friends, I I pray, my prayer for you and for me is in the difficult areas of our life, in the grief and in the sorrow, that we would not lose sight of Jesus, but that we would trust him to do the deep and secret work of deepening our faith and our trust in him. That above all things, we would choose to love him. We would choose to trust him, even when it is so difficult and we can't see a way out of our situation, or we can't see our way out of the grief, we can't stop crying, or we're sick of the sorrow, or we're we're sick of the health issue, or whatever it is, wherever we find ourselves, that we would pause. We would pause and we would take a step back. And we would look at this life that Jesus has given us. Though it be hard, it is holy. Though there be ashes, we trust that the Lord will give us the oil of joy. Though to us it just looks like broken shards of unrealized dreams or the loss of family or whatever it is, that still the Lord brings beauty from it. And that we would allow those seeds of Thanksgiving to be planted in us, that they would bring forth the fruit of hope, the fruit of faith, the fruit of love. And so as we go into Thanksgiving and this coming Sunday being Advent, as we move into the season of anticipation of Christmas, Christmas where we celebrate the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as flesh, flesh, human, human man, right? Incarnate God and man, that that underneath the the waves and the billows of whatever we are facing, we would lift up holy hands and give the Lord our gift of thanksgiving. That in the midst of all that life holds, we would look up and we would give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, right? As Psalm 103 says, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. That is my prayer for you and yours this Thanksgiving, my friends. As you go to break bread, as you go to a friend's house, or maybe you have to work wherever you are, I pray that you would know that Jesus Christ is with you, He sees you, He knows you, and He loves you, and that this life, this life, if we will, if we will trust Him, and if we will give thanks, He will bring forth fruit that we could never imagine, my friends. And so I bless you in the Father, I bless you in Jesus, and I bless you in the Holy Spirit, that you would find joy, that you would find his love, that you would see his comfort, and that in everything you will be able, and I will be able to give thanks.