He Remembers All Your Offerings Series

Text: Psalm 20:1-9

Theme: He remembers all your Offerings (Psalm 20:3)

We had had meditations on Thanksgiving through Worship, through giving to the poor, inspired giving and Levitical offerings. Today I would like to share on Thanksgiving offering. (Psalm 20:3).

Introducing the theme:

We had had meditations on Thanksgiving through Worship, through giving to the poor, inspired giving and Levitical offerings. Today I would like to share on Thanksgiving offering. The sacrificial system of the Old Testament served as a means of grace to restore the relationship between God and humanity. Ultimately, the sacrificial system was inadequate, which is why Jesus came to earth.

Psalm 20:3, “All your offerings”.

Adam Clark: The word minchah mentioned refers to gratitude-offering.

Albert Barnes: The word means an offering of any kind or anything could present to God, except a bloody sacrifice - anything offered as an expression of gratitude to obtain his favour.

Matthew Henry: Let none expect benefit by the prayers of the church, or their friends, who are capable of praying for themselves, yet neglect it. Pray that God would protect his person and preserve his life.

OLD TESTAMENT

There are five types of offerings in the Old Testament.

• The Burnt Offering - voluntary act- Leviticus 1,6::8-13

• The Grain Offering - voluntary act - Leviticus 2, 6:14-23

• The Peace Offering or Fellowship or well-being- the voluntary act of thanksgiving with a communal meal.

• The Sin-offering- Purification Offering -mandatory- Leviticus 4:1-5, 6:24-30

• The Guilt offering- mandatory- Leviticus 5:14-6:7, 7:1-6 Reparation Offerings.

These were legalistic rites one must perform to earn God’s grace. The system was an outward expression of a person's inward desire to restore the broken relationships between humanity and God and humanity and the world. If someone wants to offer everything together: He must follow the orders as found in Numbers 7:16-17: Sin-offering, the Guilt offering, Burnt offering, Fellowship offering with the grain offering.

NEW TESTAMENT

The majority of biblical references to ‘sacrifice’ in the Old Testament prefigure Jesus’ sacrificial death for us on the cross. In the New Testament, almost all the references are about Jesus’ sacrifice – the death of Jesus as the one perfect and complete sacrifice fulfilling all the Old Testament preparation and prediction. NT tells us that there are three sacrifices we can make that pleases God.

Four valid reasons

There are four valid reasons for bringing thanksgiving offerings to God are:

• The Lord is good is righteous

• He delivered my soul and Kept me from stumbling

• He rescued my feet from stumbling

• To honour God

1. The Lord is good

Jeremiah 33:11: the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, “Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, For the Lord is good,

For His lovingkindness is everlasting”; and of those who bring a thank offering into the house of the Lord. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were at first,’ says the Lord.

2. According to his righteousness

Psalm 7:17: I will give thanks to the Lord according to His righteousness, And will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.

3. Delivered my soul and Kept me from stumbling

Your vows are binding upon me, O God; I will render thank offerings to You. For You have delivered my soul from death, Indeed my feet from stumbling, So that I may walk before God In the light of the living (Psalm 56:12-13).

4. To honour God

Psalm 50:23: “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honours Me; And to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God.”

The Prophet Samuel said, “to obey is better than sacrifice,” (1 Samuel 15:22), and Jeremiah likewise negates Burnt Offerings for atonement and says that disobedience results in calamity (Jeremiah 44:23). Leviticus 22:29: “When you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted”.

Three kinds of Offerings: We are settling with three Kinds of Offerings:

1. The sacrifice of our lips-

Hebrews 13:15–16: Singing, telling loudly that we love him. Expressing to others as The Lord is good to me all the time. The writer of Hebrews is calling on us to focus on the words that we use. Are these words, coming from our lips confess Christ as Lord. The metaphor of fruit suggests the idea of seasons: first, we plant the seeds of our words in our thoughts; then we allow those thoughts to grow as we contemplate how to express them; finally, we send them out, finally ready to be harvested.

Steve C Singleton: As we turn our lives to Christ, we experience disappointment and frustration as we discover the tenacity with which sin clings to our internal and external conversations. Let our lips bring ripped fruit. We expect sweetness to satisfy our craving but finding instead only rottenness from the lips of people. We are expecting to be encouraged and inspired, but hearing instead words that are filthy, cold, complaining, or self-justifying from the lips of others make bring more distress.