Thanksgiving Message 2006 - Celebrate the Feast!

Reading: Deuteronomy 16:13-17

For seven days celebrate the Feast to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.  Deuteronomy 16:15 (NIV)

I.   Be Joyful at our feasts! (13-15)

     A.  Celebrate the Feast! (13)

           1.  One of the three Great feasts

                 a.  A celebration of Ingathering

                 b.  A memorial of Hardship

                 c.  A 7-day celebration!

           2.  Celebrate with Joy!

                 a.  Be joyful – for God’s sake

                 b.  Everyone rejoice (14)

     B.  Because God blessed the Harvest (15b)

           1.  Joyful b/c the harvest is abundant

                 a.  Our most natural response (it’s right!)

                 b.  Observe and thank God for His blessing

           2.  Joyful b/c of His faithfulness thru the harvest

                 a.  Thankful not just for the stuff

                 b.  Joyful for demo of God’s faithfulness

     C.  Because God blessed our Work (15c)

           1.  First He gave us the work to do

                 a.  Work curse, but blessing (Garden)

                 b.  Having work gives us purpose/meaning

           2.  2nd He blessed our work so it bears fruit

                 a.  How many have meaningless jobs!

                 b.  But God infuses our work w/ meaning!

           3.  Joyful b/c God wants our joy complete! (15)

                 a.  Complete joy from proper celebration in God’s presence (not vice versa)

                 b.  Elements (14-15)

                       (1)      everyone participates

                       (2)      lavish & long (7 days Nu 29:12-38)

                       (3)      in God’s presence (II.A. below)

                       (4)      remember/celebrate blessings

II.  Worship as we’ve been Blessed (16-17)

     A.  In the place God chooses

           1.  For the Israelites = the Tabernacle/Temple

                 a.  If it’s for Him, He gets to pick the place

                 b.  Danger: everyone doing their own thing

           2.  For us: primarily a place in our hearts
Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”  (Jn 4:21-24)

           3.  Our place is together with God’s people
Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Heb 10:25)

     B.  Don’t come Empty - handed (16c)

           1.  Come with evidence of His love in-hand

                 a.  Not something you did for Him!

                 b.  What has God given you?

           2.  Everyone bring something (16c)

                 a.  Nobody is really poor (vs. spirit of poverty)

                 b.  No excuses, bring someth. to give to God

     C.  Bring a Proportional offering

           1.  Take inventory of how God has blessed

                 a.  Do you notice when He blesses?

                 b.  Remember

           2.  Material/Physical blessings

                 a.  Health, provision

                 b.  General/specific

           3.  Spiritual blessings

                 a.  How has God answered prayers this wk

                 b.  Have a testimony of God’s blessing?

                 c.  Given the cross, 10% seems a pittance!

The Bottom Line:

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