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November 22, 2004

NHBC Thanksgiving Worship

Thanksgiving is the act of giving thanks; being grateful.  Thanksgiving is an acknowledgment of benefits or favors especially to God.  To give thanks means to express gratitude, appreciation, or acknowledgment to.  The word gratitude means being grateful or appreciative.  The word acknowledgement is interesting, it means to admit something to be real or true and it means the recognition of the existence of the same. 

This is a thanksgiving sermon about all that God has done for each of us, especially to me.

Here are some Scripture passages

Psalm 40:5 (NKJV)

Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered.

Psalm 40:5 (ESV)

You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you!  I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.

Psalm 40:5 (NASV)

Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done, And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You.  If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count.

Psalm 50:14

 “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving And pay your vows to the Most High;

Psalm 50:15

Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”  

Psalm 50:23 (NKJV)

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

Psalm 50:23 (ESV)

The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!”

Psalm 50:23 (NASV)

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

These scriptures dealing with the thanksgiving offering has their source in Leviticus

Leviticus 7:12-14

12 If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer, with the sacrifice of thanksgiving, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, or cakes of blended flour mixed with oil. 13 Besides the cakes, as his offering he shall offer leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offering. 14 And from it he shall offer one cake from each offering as a heave offering to the Lord. It shall belong to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the peace offering.

The subject for this holiday is; “Thanksgiving for the Christian is more than just the last Thursday in November.

1.    First, we are commanded to give thanks.

a.    Psalm 50:14 Offer to God thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High.  

b.    Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

 

2.    Second, it should be offered.

a.    To God – Psalm 50:14 Offer to God thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High.  

b.    To Christ and in His name –

1.    1 Timothy 1:12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,

2.    Ephesians 5:20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

c.    In Private Worship – Daniel 6:10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.

d.    In Public Worship – Psalm 35:18 I will give You thanks in the great assembly; I will praise You among many people.  

e.    In everything – 1 Thessalonians 5:18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

3.    Psalm 105:1-2 Oh, give thanks to the Lord!  Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples!  Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works!

4.    And when I dwell upon His wonderful deeds, when I meditate upon what the Lord has done in my life.  He has made me glad and I will rejoice for He has made me glad.

5.    But listen again to the Holy Scriptures from three different versions

a.    Psalm 40:5 (NKJV) Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered.

b.    Psalm 40:5 (ESV) You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you!  I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.

c.    Psalm 40:5 (NASV) Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done, And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You.  If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count.


6.    I would like to give one example of His wonderful works in my life.  Many of you know that I am having back surgery but you do not know the results of my last test.  The Mylogram showed that I have movement in my vertebrae one is actually moving over the other, actually it is the L4 moving over the L5.  This is called spondylolisthesis (spon-dy-low lis-thesis) and it explains better why I am having this situation with my back.  It can be the result of how my back developed or it could have happened through the use of my back over time.  What this also means is that the surgery is going to be more extensive.  Along with the laminectomy, the open decompression to take pressure off the nerve root, there will be a posterolateral fusion, eliminating the motion at vertebral segment.  If the Lord had not blessed me to have these last two tests this situation if discovered would have been seen during surgery and that is the best case scenario, again without the tests.  Worst case is that I would require two surgeries.

7.    Here is where the blessing of God is, in all of this.  I have been having back trouble for over thirty years and I have been doing different things for my back and to my back.  Most of you, including Brother Woodmore, I did not know and the ones of you I knew, it was not in the capacity of knowing the Lord or being involved with church.  Two of my children were not even born yet.  Thirty years ago God knew where I would be and in what state I would be today.  And today I can stand here at 4450 Edmundson and praise and thank the Lord, and say this is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad.  I can say ‘Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together.

8.    Here is another one for you.  Thirty years ago, this was my area and territory for Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. installation.  I was responsible for an installation crew who installed telephones in this area and the airport.  And, my brothers and sisters, as big as this edifice is, I do not remember seeing it or driving by it.  God’s providence is understood when we stand in the present and look back at the past especially our own past.

9.    Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works

a.    God gave me, two parents who stayed together and weathered the storm, rearing two boys on the west side of Chicago.

b.    God blessed me, with a brother that not only is in St. Louis with me but attends the same church where I pastor

c.    God blessed me, with a wife who is truly a help meet for me and my closest friend

d.    God blessed me, with three children, a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law, and four grandchildren.

e.    God blessed me, with safety for nine adult years of ignorance of who Jesus Christ really is.

f.     God allowed earth time to catch up to eternity where I began to realize that I was foreknown by Him before the foundation of time, I am predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ,

g.    I was called out of the darkness into His marvelous light and justified and some day this journey will be over and I will be glorified

h.    The Scripture says Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered.

i.     And If that was not enough

1.    He blessed me with true friendship – Brother Willie, Brother Brad, New Hope fellowship

2.    He called me to the ‘good work’ of being a Pastor for His church a teacher of His Word

3.    He blessed me to be able to call you my friends and your family is my family and my family is your family

10. Over thirty years ago, before Amira was born I was in the hospital in traction for the same back that gives me pain today.  Little did I know then what God had in store for me over the thirty years that have past.  But angels would rejoice and God would be glorified by the prayers and love of His saints concerning that same old back situation.

11. I agree with the words of psalmist when he says “Oh, give thanks to the Lord!  Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples!  Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works!”

12. He has done great things, He has done great things, He has done great things, bless His holy name.  Bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name.

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