The Lord Blessed Them And They Threw It Away.

We are celebrating this week; its Thanksgiving in our Country. I hope Americans truly understand why we have this great country and where the many blessings come from. I hope we are giving to God what is God's.

91% of Americans have turkey for Dinner. And so... I was thinking about Butterball Turkeys for some reason I know not why. Did you know they have an online help page? Well I went to that computer page and I found some of the problems that people have with cooking turkeys. You may be flabbergasted at what I found. Here are just a few of them:

1. All in the Family

A woman in her seventies, cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the first time, called for help because her mother said it was time she learned how to prepare the Thanksgiving meal.

2. It’s a Wrap

A proud gentleman called to tell the staff how he wrapped his turkey in a towel, laid it in the floor and stomped on it breaking the bones so it would fit in his pan.

3. Carving the Turkey

Another gentleman called to tell the operator he cut his turkey in half with a chain saw and wanted to know if the oil from the chain would adversely affect the turkey.

4. Upside Down Turkey Surprise

A disappointed woman called wondering why her turkey had no breast meat. After a conversation with a Talk-Line operator, it became apparent that the woman's turkey was lying upside down.

5. Keeping it Cooking

One mom called in and told the Help Line operator about how her little girl had asked if they could slow-roast the turkey for three or four days because she liked how it made the house smell. The experts at the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line told her that the turkey should only stay in the oven for a few hours and that it wasn’t a good idea to leave it cooking four days!

6. Turkey Treasure

After discovering a turkey from 1969 in his dad’s freezer, a man called the Talk-Line at Butterball to ask about the best way to cook the 30+ year-old bird. Although the Talk-Line staffer recommended the open roasting pan method to cook most turkeys, but this time she suggested that the first step was to purchase a fresher fowl!

7. State Bird

When a Talk-Line staffer asked a caller: “What state is your turkey in” (meaning how thawed was it) the caller responded with, “Florida.”

*Reference: http://www.rd.com/slideshows/funny-thanksgiving-help-line-calls/#ixzz3JRR6nTJS

Sermon:

Today in our Scripture Text they have many reasons to celebrate and to show Gods Blessings. It seems they are repeating the same mistakes of the past. The mistake is this: Not giving to God what is God's.

In our text today we can see that the Lord gave them many blessings and things to celebrate. I don't think that God just waved a hand and they received all the things they had. I think God gave them, as he does with us today gifts, graces and talents that allows us to serve him fully, to provide for ourselves and our family's. Thus, God Blesses us as we use what he has given us. He has given us so much. He has given us skills, health, to some humility, he has given to us good minds that can learn and use complex things. God has given us physical, spiritual and mental health with the help of Doctors that God has given us. God has given us parents, children and relative that love us. Are we going to repeat history or break from it? Are we truly going to enjoy the Blessings of our God and give Him for all the good things in our lives. I hope we break the family tradition of making the same mistakes over and over!

But its possible that we might not break the family tradition if we don't strive to be what God wants us to be. It's possible and most likely that history will repeats its self with us.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 says:

King James Bible: The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

New Living Translation: History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.

The writer of Ecclesiastes isn't talking about computers and space ships. He is talking about human nature. He is talking about us and what we do with our lives, the things of our lives and who gets the glory of it all.

Have we reached the point in our lives where Deuteronomy 8 has come home to us. That our life has repeated the past mistakes of those that have gone before us just as Ecclesiastes?