Thanksgiving 2014 Series

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Points Covered: A sermon to be preached for thanksgiving service. This sermon focuses on seven reasons for thanksgiving. Seven reasons for giving thanks to God.

Psalm 136:1-3 1Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. 2Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever. 3Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever.

Today is City Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday. What a great time it is to thank God: God has brought us to the last week of 2014 and we have 2015 ahead of us.

God loves a thankful heart and many times we need reminders to thank our Lord. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses is reminding the Israelites not to forget the blessings of God in their lives. Deuteronomy 6:12 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

It has been 40 years since God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, across the Red Sea, and set them on course for Promised Land. If you truly see the distance from Egypt to Canaan is not a long way off. In 44 days they reached Mount Sinai from Goshen (Egypt).

Now, the distance from Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea, the place from where they sent the 12 spies to the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 1:1-2 1These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan—that is, in the Arabah—opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. 2(It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road.) Mount Sinai and Mount Horeb are both but the same.

So Egypt to Canaan could have been a quick trip, 44 plus 11 days; 55-60 days of journey.

Why did it take them so long? I would say the Israelites forgot to thank God. The Israelites quickly forgot the power of God and His wonderful works in rescuing them from the iron hand of Pharaoh. Soon they focused on the negative, started murmuring and complaining. They were not thankful people and God allowed them to turn a 60-day scenic tour into a 40-year grudge march of toil and mayhem.

Moving forward, 40 years have passed by in the wilderness. A whole generation of adults died, and now their kids were given another chance to enter the Promised Land. Remember they are travelling through the desert. They did not have chicken, beef or ham for Christmas but they had eaten free quail meat for decades now! There wasn’t any rise dosas, idlis, or appams (Indian Food) but God did provide them. I think in my imagination they had prepared manna everyday: Manna idli, manna dosa, manna appam. Then they had fried manna, boiled manna, pickled manna, baked manna, low-fat manna, and manna and banana dessert, and some manna and pineapple forest.

You see, inspite of the wilderness around, God had sustained them. God had blessed them and provided for them these 40 years in spite of their disobedience. So Moses takes some time to recount all that God had done for them and how they shouldn’t forget, but stop and give thanks to God.

Deuteronomy 2:7 The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.

Deuteronomy 6:12 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

Today, we are going to see the blessings of the Israelites and in the process we are going to thank God together.

7 Reasons for Thanksgiving

1. Providence.

Thank God for His providence.

Deuteronomy 2:7 The Lord your God has blessed you…..

Illustration: An old man used to visit an old broken bridge or pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night he would go there with a large bucket of shrimp. The seagulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket.

Many years before, in October, 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea. But there was an unexpected detour which would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life.

Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men abandoned their plane for the ocean. For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, the weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights as giant sharks rammed their rafts.