Sermon- Thanksgiving day 2019
- As part of our Thanksgiving Day service, I want to begin with asking,
Q- What are you most thankful for?
- We often answer that question with family, our living status, our life, our abilities,
but the thing to be most thankful for, is often forgotten.
- Wednesday night, in studying the fall of Northern Israel I said, I don’t
understand why this whole nation was so set to forget God.
- Kings were corrupt, Priests we’re corrupt, Prophets were corrupt, but there
wasn’t an uprising, or even a spat that these people were being misled.
- So, back to my question,
Q- What are you most thankful for?
- Let’s read what’s most important.
Philippians 2:6-11
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
- Jesus Christ is Lord!
- He came but as a small babe
- The World didn’t acknowledge Him
- He is the Sacrifice, His is the Savior/Redeemer.
- He is King, Seated in Authority by the right hand of God the Father.
- The Angels bow to Him, the elements answer to Him, His are foes placed beneath
His feet, & we are joined to Him as we honor & bow to Him that was slain.
Prayer
- We are showing our thankfulness this morning as we acknowledge that, because of
Him, we live.
- John wrote of being called up into Heaven Through an open door.
- He saw four beasts that encircled Christ’s Throne, & they continually shouted,
“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.”.
- Then John saw the 24 elders of the church, Listen,
Revelation 4:10-11
10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
- The elders gave praise to Christ, for He is Worthy!
- Our whole idea of thanksgiving is looking back on what has been done for us.
- We give thanks.
- In this moment the elders bow, remembering what has been done for them, those
who were at one time an enemy of God.
Isaiah 53:5
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Q- How could we repay Him for what He’s done?
- The price was too high.
- The cost too deep!
- There is nothing that we could do to pay the price, & there is nothing in which
we could give to repay, but we give You ourself.
- This is the ultimate form of thanksgiving, because we see what truly has
been done to save us.
1 Thessalonians 5:18
18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
- Life has a way of making us forget to be thankful, nothing will ever take this salvation
from you, or the fact that He who saved you also created you.
- As an act of Thanksgiving, cast your crown at the feet of Christ.
- The crown stands for the works that Christ does through us.
- When the elders cast their crowns off. They were giving God the only form of
praise worthy of Him.
- Our Own works are not worthy.
Isaiah 64:6
6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
- The moment we allow God to walk down the path of growing our abilities, talents, or
gifts.
- Well, that’s the moment we are prostrate forward, thanking God, because we are
casting our crown before the creator/the Divine Architect.
* There’s a second part to the atmosphere of thanksgiving, it’s the cheer in the air.
- I know it has a lot to do with food, but think of what’s happening as the kingdom is
being ushered in.
- The bowing, continual praising, casting their crowns, none of this was done out
of fear.
- Instead, It was all done out of love, Joy, great cheer because, Listen,
Psalm 33:12
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
- He, Christ, is God, & yet He chose us.
- Whenever we’re expressing gratitude, it comes with a memory of the gift, or
service that was done for us.
- So Before we go into our thanksgiving meal, let’s stop & think on all the amazing
gifts, crowns He has given us, & let’s praise Him for them.
> Some of the most moving lessons are taught by your students. (Reader’s Digest)
When Mrs. Klein told her first graders to draw a picture of something for which they were thankful, she thought how little these children, who lived in a deteriorating neighborhood, actually had to be thankful for. She knew that most of the class would draw pictures of turkeys or of bountifully laden Thanksgiving tables. That was what they believed was expected of them.
What took Mrs. Klein aback was Douglas’s picture. Douglas was so forlorn and likely to be found close in her shadow as they went outside for recess. Douglas’s drawing was simply this:
A hand, obviously, but whose hand? The class was captivated by his image. “I think it must be the hand of God that brings us food,” said one student.
“A farmer,” said another, “because they grow the turkeys.”
“It looks more like a policeman, and they protect us.” “I think,” said Lavinia, who was always so serious, “that it is supposed to be all the hands that help us, but Douglas could only draw one of them.”
Mrs. Klein had almost forgotten Douglas in her pleasure at finding the class so responsive. When she had the others at work on another project, she bent over his desk and asked whose hand it was.
Douglas mumbled, “It’s yours, Teacher.”
Then Mrs. Klein recalled that she had taken Douglas by the hand from time to time; she often did that with the children. But that it should have meant so much to Douglas Perhaps, she reflected, this was her Thanksgiving, and everybody’s Thanksgiving—not the material things given unto us, but the small ways that we give something to others.
- Now our action of thanksgiving. Be grateful for all that God has done for you, & give
Him praise continually, for He is worthy.
