ThanksGiving: A Life Changer

Exodus 2:1–5 NKJV

And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank. And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him. Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens walked along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it.

Deuteronomy 26:1–11 NKJV

“And it shall be, when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days, and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the country which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ “Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. And you shall answer and say before the Lord your God: ‘My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us. Then we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey”; and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O Lord, have given me.’ “Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God. So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you.

Deuteronomy 26:1–11 NKJV

“And it shall be, when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days, and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the country which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ “Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. And you shall answer and say before the Lord your God: ‘My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us. Then we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey”; and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O Lord, have given me.’ “Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God. So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I know that it was this past Thursday, but I also know that as the children of a God who meets every one of our needs.

I know that as children of the God who blesses and takes care of us

I know that as children, joint heirs with Jesus, in everything that the Father holds, Every day should be Thanksgiving.

So, there might not be any more Turkey left over.

We all might be still feeling the affects of Tryptophan or the extra pound that we put on this past weekend.

No matter what, Today is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice in it and be glad

Today is Thanksgiving.

As I told you last week, in our tithing series, the people of Israel were mostly farmers.

Here they were given fields full of healthy crops, buildings that they did not labor to build and other things that the people we were before them had left behind.

And they were told to bring those things, to dedicate those things to the Lord

They were told as I said last week, to bring in the first fruits of the harvest.

Every year, as the weather starts to change, the farmers need to harvest or collect what has grown in the field and bring it into a storehouse where it is safe from the cold and the storms of winter.

This gathering of the harvest was celebrated at the feast of booths. = a reminder of God’s blessing and provision to his people.

I want to say today that this is our thanksgiving.

The pilgrims and the first Americans gathered together to celebrate the blessings of the Lord upon their lives.

Today, in this house, we gather together to sing, pray and give our God the attention that he deserves, because he has been so good.

What has God gathered in, harvested in your life and kept it safe from the winds and rains of the storms of life around you?

What relationships has God worked in this year to restore and to reunite you with?

Where has God moved in the financial situations of your life? and as we spoke about last week, rebuked the devourer

Where has God touched you physically? Emotionally? Spiritually?

Can you all acknowledge with me that we have many things to be thankful for? That today should be a very powerful time of thanksgiving

If you are one person who for some reason cannot relate to the goodness of God because of something that you are going through or a situation that has darkened his blessings to you then look at this verse with me.

Psalm 126:6 NKJV

He who continually goes forth weeping, Bearing seed for sowing, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him.

Maybe the tears are still flowing. Maybe the pain is still very much still there. Maybe the situation has not changed in any way but for the worse.

Sow some seed. For even those who sow seed in tears will come back with a surplus of the blessings of God upon their lives.

The verse before that one says

Psalm 126:5 NKJV

Those who sow in tears Shall reap in joy.

I could related all of those verse to our tithing that we’ve been talking about in the last week, but this is not that message.

I would rather relate it in this way. Our thanks giving is our sowing.

If God has done these things, he deserves our thanks giving

If it seems that God hasn’t done these things, he still deserves our thanksgiving.

Give thanks in all things, in all emotions and in every situation and you are going to experience the faithfulness of God in every area of your life. And then give thanks because you have experienced the faithfulness of God in every area of your life.

Why should I give thanks?

Give Thanks because God is the Source of all Good Things.

First in that is that we are right where we are because God has gotten us here. Look at verse 3 in

Deuteronomy 26:3 NKJV

And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days, and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the country which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’

I declare today that I am in the country, the place, in spite of the situation, that God promised he would lead me to.

Now I am not saying that God leads us to negative situations.

What I am saying is that even in the midst of a negative situation, God uses where we are to lead us to the place that he has created us for.

Now if you are not in the place that God promised you, than I can tell you to look only at one thing. - Your relationship with your God.

It took the Israelites 40 years to get here. Why? They did not trust Him and believe Him.

But He still got them there.

You see, the enemy is out there. He is roaring around like a lion seeking those whom he may devour. But God is still the source of all things.

God can negate his attacks. God can restructure, resurrect, and even recreate what the enemy has tried to rob, kill and destroy from you.

Secondly, That we have what we have in that situation, because God has blessed us. That’s really what Thankgiving is all about.

When we see God as the source of all things, thanksgiving and joy will automatically flow from our hearts.

The problem is that so many times we take those things for granted, or we take the responsibility for those things upon ourselves.

Oh look what just happened. I must be so lucky

The stars must be smiling down on me

No - God loves you, God wants you to know how much he loves you, So God has poured blessings into your life.

It’s amazing to me how quick we are to blame God for something when it goes wrong. Why doesn’t he get the blame when things go right? Because I hear an awful lot of people, many of them Christians, one even myself every so often that like to take the credit for the bad.

When you look at the rest of these verses, here, you see that this person bringing their tithe in thanksgiving had to recount where they had come from.

It brought back to remembrance who they were without God.

It brought back to remembrance how they got where they were

And with those thoughts came a heart of true thanksgiving.

Giving thanks reminds us who our provider is

Giving thanks reminds us who the faithful one is

Giving thanks helps us remember who is in charge. Can anyone say AMEN???

Giving Thanks will cause you to be generous.

It is true that we cannot out give God, but I would like to add that when we see how much God has given, we will be moved to give ourselves.

Look down at verse 11

Deuteronomy 26:11 NKJV

So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you.

So you will rejoice with those who are among you.

How did the Levite receive their blessings?

They were the priests. They weren’t allowed to own land.

They were given a plot of land for the Levites as a group, but their system of pay and advance was different than every other tribe.

They got their food and their supply by the other 11 tribes bringing in their tithes and offerings.

The same with the aliens or foreigners among them. They were blessed simply by being with and following the same principals that the Israelites were told to follow.

Here is what happens in this situation.

When you understand how much God loves you

when you begin to get a hold of how much God has done for you

Something begins to change in your heart.

I watched It’s a Wonderful Life last night (First Time)

I saw this principal played out. When everything in the world seemed wrong, George Bailey is screaming and nasty and wanting to take his own life. He can see no way out.

But when he is shown (from Heaven’s perspective) that the world is not wrong, but that more has gone right than wrong and that he is a blessed man and because of that he has blessed others

That the world is a very different place because of George Bailey and how he has given and taken care of people around him, there is a very happy ending.

For the people here, the farmers of Israel, it was a reminder that what they had never belonged to them any ways.

These were fields that were planted by other people

These were houses that others had built

And here God gives it to them.

The truth is that we cannot hold on to what isn’t ours. It all belongs to God.

What would God (knowing who God is now) what would God want us to do with his bounty and his surplus.

When we are giving thanks to God for all that he has given to us how can we look at our world and not take a part of being a blessing to others.

How can we not give to the red kettle

How can we not feed and clothe the poor

How can we not be God’s hands reached out to the broken

Because if we are honest, we were those broken, not too long ago.

You see thanksgiving becomes thankful giving

Our thanks to God becomes thanks to man (the people that he has put into our lives)

One Pastor writes in a thanksgiving blog - Two missionaries in Kenya, helped me to realized how blessed we are in this country.  We don’t have to plan our meals around shopping trips to a large city.  We don’t have to wash every vegetable, every piece of fruit once we begin preparing a meal.  We don’t have to re-wash our laundry because the water isn’t as clean or wear stained clothing because of the water.  We don’t have to share internet time with an entire community. And, we certainly don’t have to walk everywhere.

helped me to realized how blessed we are in this country.  We don’t have to plan our meals around shopping trips to a large city.  We don’t have to wash every vegetable, every piece of fruit once we begin preparing a meal.  We don’t have to re-wash our laundry because the water isn’t as clean or wear stained clothing because of the water.  We don’t have to share internet time with an entire community. And, we certainly don’t have to walk everywhere.

When was the last time you simply thanked God for electricity?  Or flush toilets? Or a bed to sleep in?  Or the car, cell phone, TV, computer, you not only take for granted, but are usually annoyed with?  Like those early immigrants from England to this land, we too would have nothing, without God’s providence, overflowing generosity, kindness, and love.  We have much to thank God for in this life.

So I want you to know that giving thanks is sharing God’s Blessings with others.

And lastly,

Giving Thanks will fill your Heart with Joy

2 Corinthians 9:7 NKJV

So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.

Have you ever seen a parent tell a child to go and thank someone?

Have you ever been the person on the other end of that thank you?

How do you feel? Not very thanked right?

Why, because it didn’t come from a joyful heart.

It was a heart that was compelled, or made to do it.

How do we want people to thank us? With a smile and a reaction that says, man this was great.

Well so does God.

That’s what Paul is saying here.

Don’t give your tithe, or your time or your thanks from a heart that’s been guilted into it.

Don’t give your thanksgiving from a heart that has been forced to sit at the Thanksgiving table.

Give your thanksgiving because you want to. Have a smile on your face. Have a joy in your heart about what you are giving.

And this will take us right to where we will pick things up next week.

but I want you to think about how you give thanks to God

I want you to think about how thanksgiving touches your heart to give to others

I want you to think about his inside and outside of church, wherever you live life.

God wants us to give thanks, because he is worthy

He wants us to give thanks, because something happens in us when we do

He wants us to give thanks, because it spreads his glory around the world.

He wants us to give thanks because it defeats the enemy.

Let’s be a church of thanks givers today. Amen?

PRAY