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"A 2007 THANKSGIVING PRAYER"
by PASTOR DAVE RING
LOS ALAMOS 1ST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 18, 2007

SCRIPTURE TEXT: Psalm 149:1-5 (NIV) -- "Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise in the assembly of the saints. Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the people of Zion be glad in their King. Let them praise His name with dancing and make music to Him with tambourine and harp. For the Lord takes delight in His people; He crowns the humble with salvation. Let the saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds."

MESSAGE: Today's message is a little different -- you might think it unusual. I'm not sure it's a message to you, the people of Los Alamos First United Methodist Church, as much as it's a message to God. This sermon started out to be a "list" -- a list of thanksgivings that I wanted to hold before you on this Sunday prior to our national holiday of Thanksgiving. I was planning to remind you, despite the uncertainties of life here and now, to count your blessings. But it wound up being, I believe under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, more a prayer than a list. A whole sermon that's a long prayer -- of thanks to God. It's a personal statement -- and yet, I'd also like to submit, as your pastor, that it can be a joint, corporate prayer -- from all of us here today, to our God. So as we move through the message, I invite you to adopt it as your prayer -- change it, amend it, make it personal -- and offer it as your thanksgiving to the Lord as well.

Lord God, as I stand before Your assembled people today, two thousand and seven years since You forever changed the world of humanity by entering it Yourself, I'm excited! I'm excited, I'm uplifted -- and I'm amazed! I'm amazed by what I've seen You do in my life -- and in my family -- and in my church -- and in my world, the world of humanity -- during the past year. I'm uplifted by the fact that my God is alive - active - working -- everywhere I look. And I want to let You know how much I appreciate the many great things I've seen You doing. I know before I start that my list will be partial and incomplete -- because there's so much more that You do which I, and most humans, simply take for granted. So before I begin, I ask Your forgiveness for the many omissions from my thanksgivings. But Lord, I do want to praise You - now -- as best I am able, guided by Your great, indwelling Holy Spirit.

Lord, I begin my praises by thanking You for me. In other words, I thank You for the basic gift of life itself. I'm grateful to have a body that is healthy most of the time. I thank You for legs that are capable of walking over the face of the earth; for eyes that are able to see the wonders of your creation; for ears that can hear the sounds of nature and humanity. My body is such a basic gift that I don't often think much about it, except when it malfunctions or becomes ill, or I do something stupid like catching poison ivy. And Lord, as I rejoice in my whole and healthy body -- I ask that You would continue to allow me the opportunity to use this body in Your service. Many there are, I know, Lord, who do not enjoy the blessing of wholeness and health of body as I have this year. Help me to re-consecrate my body to the service of God -- and of humanity.

And Lord, as I thank You for me, I want to further thank You for a sound, intelligent, functioning mind. How exciting it is to be able to read -- to write -- to converse coherently with other people. What a delight to be able to learn, to expand my horizons, to test my mental faculties and find them adequate for coping with the needs of modern life. Thank You for sanity, Lord -- for the ability to perceive reality as it is. Again, O God, how many there are among Your finest creations -- the race of humans -- who do not enjoy the same mental soundness that I take for granted. Help me, O God, to keep my mind clean, open, and useful -- not only for myself, nor even just to my fellow men and women, but most of all to You, my Maker.

There's a third aspect of me that I want to praise You for this morning -- my spirit; my soul -- the portion of myself that can reach out and acknowledge that You are my source. I honestly don't know what it would be like, Lord, to be out of contact with You for very long, because You and I have walked together for many years now. And I rejoice in the fact that my spirit is eternal -- that one day it will return to dwell in even closer fellowship with You in that Kingdom whose name is Heaven. Thank You that you have put Your Spirit into my spirit, that I might have just the faintest inkling of the glory, power, and majesty of what it is like to be Almighty God. I'm your child, Lord -- and what a privilege it is to be a child of the King of Kings! Thank You for that adoption, O God -- and help me to show others how they, too, may be adopted into Your family. I know that it hurts You deeply, Lord -- and it hurts me, too -- that so many of Your potential children have ignored the spiritual portion of themselves -- to the point that their souls have diminished, shriveled, and atrophied. But I know, too, that You can restore every one of them to spiritual health in an instant -- if they but seek Your love. I rejoice with You that, even now, someone, somewhere, is entering Your Kingdom for the first time from among the world of humanity. Thank You for me, O God, body, mind, and spirit. It's a blessing to be human, in relation to my Creator. Use me, Father, to Your glory.

Next, O God, I want to thank You for my family. I thank You for the privilege of having a wife, Fran, with whom I share that most intimate of relationships, which You made a part of the Creation itself in bringing Eve to Adam and joining them as one. I'm amazed to be in the thirty-seventh year of our marriage -- and that there's more and better still ahead for us. I thank You for my three children -- each of them a special blessing in his or her own way. How fascinating to see Dave as a young man, wrestling with counter-intuitive logic - with concepts and information that didn't even exist when I was his age. And I thank you for Jonathan, O Lord, as he struggles to remain away from destructive habits and to focus himself upon positive goals. I know that You have a very special future ahead for Jonathan, Lord -- because he's overcome so many obstacles to get to where he now is. I further thank you for Joanna, O God -- our chosen child and still, even as a young woman, the apple of daddy's eye. I thank you for putting wisdom in the hearts of her birth parents that, knowing they did not wish to raise a child, they were able to release her to us, that we might have the privilege of loving her. Bless those brave two, O Lord, whomever and wherever they may be. I could go on and on, Father, in enumerating the blessings my family is -- and I truly praise You for them as the center of my earthly life. Help me, O God, to rightly lead them, as spiritual head of my household, every step of our earthly journey together as a family.

Immediately following on my list of thanksgivings, dear Father, is this -- this great congregation of Your holy Church on earth, known as Los Alamos First United Methodist, of which You have made me pastor. Thank You for each one of the hundreds of persons who look to this church for spiritual guidance, fellowship, and love in a world that too often confronts them with confusion, loneliness, and hatred. I praise You that the vast majority of them are united in working together to seek Your will for their lives, and to do what You would ask of them. I want to especially praise You for those newest to this church, Father -- the 30-plus new members we have received so far, this year and last, who have each, by their union with the rest, injected new strength, new vitality, new ideas into our Body. I'm excited by those who are newer still -- by the new residents and visitors who even now are looking over this church and considering it as a possible place for their future spiritual nurture. I'm very, very thankful that we have a well-maintained physical facility, buildings which are available to meet not only the needs of those of us who are already part of Los Alamos First United Methodist Church -- but those just arriving in our midst, and many as yet even unborn. You're very aware, Lord, that during recent years we've done a lot of maintenance on these facilities - and much upgrading. For the next thirty or more years, persons none of us here today have yet met will be drawn closer to You, the God whom I and this congregation love, because in 2005, 6, and 7 this church stepped out in faith and love -- and refreshed its facilities to address the needs of the precious people of the future.

And while I'm thanking You for this church's outreach, Lord, I want to also praise you for our Volunteers in Mission teams, our "The Way" volunteers, our Ark Ministry, and half-a-dozen other regular efforts, each and all of which keep us seeking beyond ourselves. Thank you for this church's ready and significant response to each of the urgent special appeals which have confronted us this past year. Honestly, Lord, I don't know a more exciting place I could have served You in 2007 than right here -- and I do praise You for the privilege of being pastor here, today and every day! Help me greatly in this area, O Lord, to be strong, to be faithful -- to be worthy of the mantle of leadership with which You've entrusted me.

I've tried to save the best for last, Lord -- and truly, the greatest of my thanks is reserved for You, and You alone. Thank you for loving me, dear Father, even though I am often one of the least lovable of all Your children. Thank You for sending Your love to me, personally, in the form of Jesus. I praise You for the unimaginable, yet undeniably true fact that, long before my birth on this earth, Jesus atoned on the cross for my sins. I'm flabbergasted by the further fact that, years before I had any interest in Jesus, or church, or anything remotely associated with spiritual concerns -- He was there, gently moving me toward Your love. I didn't know then that You loved me, Lord -- and I still don't understand completely why You love me--but I'm very, very grateful that You do. Thank you, Lord, for saving me from a life of meaninglessness and purposelessness -- a few earthly years cut off too soon by a yawning, hungry grave. And Father, thank You that You called me to serve in a special ministry on behalf of Jesus on this earth. You were persistent, Lord, when I tried to ignore Your call; to make deals with You to leave me alone. Thank You that You didn't give up on me, Lord, and find someone else to preach the gospel of Jesus, as You so easily could have done. Thank You, too, that You didn't allow me to be dissuaded by a first-year seminary experience which was many times far less than spiritually uplifting, but instead chose to baptize me with Your Holy Spirit to provide the assurance I needed when I was ready to give up. Thank You, Father; thank You, Jesus, thank You, empowering Holy Spirit! I praise you, O God, for Your marvelous love to me. And I pray that all I do might reflect Your love, so that everyone I meet might perceive and come to know the reality of the same God in their lives--the great God that I am privileged to know--and to love.

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