Today is our Thanksgiving Sunday. A Sunday specially set aside to thank God for what he has done in our lives.
I picked that song because we so easily forget the goodness of God and focus on the tragedies, challenges and difficulties of life. And when we do, the devil tries to make us feel that God does not care.
God does care and loves us and he showed that from the very beginning.
Genesis 1:26-27
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Why did God do that? He wanted us to be special. He created us for fellowship, to have a close relationship with Him.
How do I know that?
Genesis 2:18-22
18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
Man looked at each of this animal and none was suitable. Man needed to have fellowship with somebody like him. So God created the woman.
How did God know that man needed somebody? He created man in his own image.
Man messed it up by listening to the devil.
God continue to show his care and love for man.
Genesis 3:21-22
21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."
Do you mean God does not want us to live forever? Of course man was going to live forever anyway but God did not want man to live forever in that sinful state. Imagine living with sickness, pain, sorrow, heartbreaks, back pains forever.
What God did by kicking man out of the garden, was an act of mercy and love to man.
We became separated from God (we became spiritually dead).
God had a plan to restore us back and that plan was fulfilled through Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:11
Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:17-19
17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
God initiated all these, it wasn’t man’s plan. God wants to have a close relationship with Him.
John 17:3
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
To know God is not mere head knowledge (i.e. knowing about God) God wants you to experience Him personally. In the Old Testament the word is used to describe intimacy between a husband and a wife.
From Genesis to Matthew, God has progressively revealed himself to man but not fully. In some instances, when man had an experience of God. He gave God a name or title to express his experience of God.
YHVH Elohim - LORD God: (Genesis 2:4)
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens-
YHVH Yireh - The LORD Who Sees/provides: (Genesis 22:14)
14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."
YHVH Rapha - The LORD our Healer: (Exodus 15:26).
26 He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."
YHVH Nissi - The LORD My Banner: (Exodus 17:15)
15 Moses built an altar and called it The LORD is my Banner.
YHVH Shalom - The LORD Of Peace: (Judges 6:24)
24 So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
YHVH Rohi - The LORD My Shepherd: (Psalm 23:1)
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
YHVH M’kadesh - The LORD Who Makes Holy: (Ezekiel 37:28)
28 Then the nations will know that I the LORD make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever.’
YHVH Tzidkaynu - The LORD Our Righteousness: (Jeremiah 33:16)
16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.
Finally God revealed himself as Yeshua or Jesus
John 8:58
58"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"
Romans 10:9, 13
9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
13for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Paul was quoting in verse 13, Joel 2:32
32 And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the survivors whom the LORD calls.
John 17:6
6"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.
The word “you” in greek actually means “your name.”
I want us to put the devil to shame this morning by testifying to our experience of God.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5
4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
1 John 5:20
We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
