Growing in Thanksgiving
Notes
Transcript
Growing in Thanksgiving
Growing in Thanksgiving
Anecdote on Thanksgiving - “Happy Turkey Day”
Bible is so full of references to thanksgiving:
Upward attitude towards God and Outward towards People
“What are you most thankful for?”
Bible is so full of references to thanksgiving:
“What are you most thankful for?”
We go around..
that’s all good.
But the best answer is “I thank God not for something but IN everything.”
“Thank God NOT for SOMETHING but in EVERYTHING.”
Paul said in:
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
IN EVERYTHING.
18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Thanksgiving to God is unconditional.
Can we thank God in any circumstance that we face?
When we are in pain? When things are not going our way? Facing financial crisis?
When you are facing persecution because of your faith?
How can we thank God in the midst of all these hardship and difficulties, challenges?
If you think about this carefully. A lot of times we miss out on the greater blessing.
We stay inward in our thanksgiving, Biblical thanksgiving is both upward and outward.
We don’t feel like thanking the Lord because of tunnel vision.
“Tunnel Vision”
Driving through the Eisenhower Tunnel.
We focus on making it to the other side, I dread the other side especially in the winter. We forget about the beautiful and majestic rocky mountains surrounding us.
This is how we can thank God - dwell on the greater blessing.
Increase the scope of our thanksgiving!
We may have physical limitations in our bodies, but if you are in Christ someday you will have perfect bodies someday.
We may lack in our financial resources but Jesus said you are storing up treasures in heaven if you obey.
You may have a small house or renting a small apartment but Jesus promised us that He is preparing a mansion for us.
Life may be hard but the Lord didn’t promise us a comfortable life.. he promised us the abundant life.
The Lord did not promise us a comfortable life but the ABUNDANT LIFE.
Christianity is not a comfortable faith, you will find out if you choose to obey the Lord that it is actually a crisis faith.
Even crisis within families. Thanksgiving can be full of drama..
Problem with your family, you have a greater family..
29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
focus on family, culture while God’s Kingdom is ever expanding.
Will your resistance stop God’s expansion
God’s Kingdom is unstoppable.
I pray our kids will have this desire to spread the gospel
Don’t be left behind..
Don’t be left behind..
The scope of our thanksgiving should grow with the Kingdom of God.
1 Chronicles 16:
1 Kings
8 In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha began to reign over Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned two years. 9 But his servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him. When he was at Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was over the household in Tirzah, 10 Zimri came in and struck him down and killed him, in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place. 11 When he began to reign, as soon as he had seated himself on his throne, he struck down all the house of Baasha. He did not leave him a single male of his relatives or his friends. 12 Thus Zimri destroyed all the house of Baasha, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke against Baasha by Jehu the prophet,
8 Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! 9 Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! 10 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! 11 Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! 12 Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered, 13 O offspring of Israel his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones!
Attitude of gratitude
Thanksgiving is both upward and outward.
Stop looking inward in our thanksgiving..
We have a tendency to stay inward in our gratitude.
Story of David’s tabernacle
While the tabernacle of Moses is a tabernacle of sacrifice. The Tabernacle of David is a tabernacle of worship.
There is a future reference, a prophecy on the “Rebuilding” of the Tabernacle of David.
11 “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, 12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” declares the Lord who does this. 13 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. 14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. 15 I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,” says the Lord your God.
Amos
The tabernacle of David has prophetic significance.
May sound like it is only a fulfillment of prophecy regarding the nation of Israel but it is more.
Rebuilding the tabernacle of David talks about the expansion of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in the last days and a mighty revival that is to come!
“Rebuilding the Tabernacle of David”
How do I know that?
In the New Testament, in the context of a great debate among the leaders of the early church:
16 As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”
Acts 16
History our feast of thanksgiving and the feast of tabernacles.
History our feast of thanksgiving and the feast of tabernacles.
16 “ ‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, 17 that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things
Paraphrase of the book of Amos.
In Christ Alone...
there’s going to be a great revival and a return to the days as they were in King David’s time. It will be a time of great expansion of the kingdom. In those last days the tabernacle of David will be rebuilt; and this tabernacle will be a refuge and a place of deliverance and salvation not just for the Jewish people – but for an expanded kingdom, so large that it will include a whole flood of Gentile followers who want to follow the King of kings.
We should grow in the scope of our thanksgiving.