There’s a danger hiding in Thanksgiving — and it’s not the green bean casserole. Pastor Josh White pointed it out on this Thanksgiving week message: if we don’t understand why God blesses us, our thankfulness can quietly become something else entirely. We can become thanks getters — people who pile up blessings but never pass them on. Instead, God calls us to be thanks givers.
The Peace of Christ Should Move Us to Action
Paul opens Colossians 3 with a striking sequence. First, he reminds us what we’ve been given: the peace of Christ, called into one body, brought near to God. Then — immediately — he tells us what to do with that.
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God.”
— Colossians 3:15–16
Notice the order: receive → be thankful → then act. Thanksgiving is not the destination. It’s the launchpad. The peace of Christ and the Word of Christ living in us should overflow into how we teach, encourage, and worship together.
The Rich Young Ruler: A Warning About Hoarding
Jesus told a story about a man who got this completely backwards. In Luke 18, a wealthy young ruler came to Jesus asking what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. He’d kept the commandments his whole life. But Jesus cut to the heart of the issue:
“One thing you still lack: sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.”
— Luke 18:22
The result? “When he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.”
Pastor Josh compared this man to a dog who expects food every time her owner walks by with a snack. The dog has developed a pattern: I see food → I get food → I want more. Never content. Always wanting. That describes the rich young ruler — and it’s a picture of what happens to us when we treat God as a cosmic vending machine meant to fill us with blessings so we can hoard them.
Jesus drove the point home: “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
The tragedy wasn’t that the man had wealth. The tragedy was that his wealth had him. He was a container, not a conduit.
Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea: A Picture of Two Kinds of People
Pastor Josh shared one of the most memorable illustrations of the sermon. In Israel, two bodies of water are fed by the same river — the Jordan. One is full of fish, lush greenery, and life. The other is utterly barren. Nothing lives in it or around it.
The Sea of Galilee receives water and gives it back. It passes through. That’s why it’s teeming with life.
The Dead Sea only takes. Salt content ten times higher than the ocean. Nothing survives. Nothing grows.
“Both bodies of water bear witness to a truth of human life: it is in the giving — and then giving back — that life and hope are sustained. The Sea of Galilee is a conduit. The Dead Sea is a container. The first is full of life. The second is full of death.”
This is the wisdom behind Jesus’ words: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
So What Does Giving Look Like?
Pastor Josh gave three specific examples of how we can be thanks givers — not just thanks getters:
- Our words. Proverbs 25:11 says, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” Encouragement is cheap, easy, and life-giving. We all have it to give.
- Our praise. When we intentionally pause to worship God for what He’s done — not just say “thank You” but actively praise Him — it guards us against selfish focus.
- The Gospel. If you’ve trusted in Christ, you have the most valuable thing in the universe to share. You can do it personally (with a friend or family member) or by partnering with your church and missionaries who are reaching people you’ll never meet.
Second Corinthians 9:10–11 captures it well:
“He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for all generosity, which through us produces thanksgiving to God.”
— 2 Corinthians 9:10–11
God supplies. We share. Thanksgiving to God is the result.
A Week to Choose
As you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner this week, you have a choice. You can look at your blessings and enjoy them to yourself — becoming a container that slowly dries up. Or you can receive God’s grace and let it flow through you — becoming a conduit of His goodness to others.
The danger of Thanksgiving isn’t the food. It’s letting thankfulness stop at your own satisfaction. The call is simple: be a thanks giver.
Scripture References
- Colossians 3:15–16 — Thanksgiving as a call to action
- Luke 18:18–29 — The rich young ruler and the danger of hoarding
- 2 Corinthians 9:6–11 — Sowing generously and the harvest of righteousness
- Proverbs 25:11 — Words fitly spoken