Thanksgiving Eve

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Thanks for coming. A Our Thanksgiving eve service is a time to celebrate. God’s goodness, his provision, his faithfulness. To thank Him. That is what we want this time to celebrate. God is the one that we are to be thankful to. Though we may have worked hard… Of all of God’s gifts…

I deeply enjoy the book of Isaiah. Isaiah wrote about Jesus Christ coming to save us before it even happened, so many times in the book it . What God would do through Jesus Christ for all who believe.

Isaiah 25:8-9 (ESV) 8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. 9 It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation indeed. But if we are going to thank the god of the universe and His son Jesus Christ, we should do it properly. What are we thanking God for? What did Jesus do and what will Jesus Christ do for us in saving us? We should know so we can thank him properly.

He will swallow up death forever He will swallow up death for us. V8 Why can we be thankful and rejoice? God has swallowed up death for us. If we can think of the greatest enemy we have. Through Jesus Christ, the death we all deserve because of our sin is swallowed up forever. That is something to truly celebrate. For those who have trusted Jesus Christ as their savior, death, that penalty for sin is no longer something that they have to pay. Jesus Christ has swallowed up death, by dying the death we should have died. If we have trusted what he has done on the cross by dyin for us, it means we will never truly die, this earthly heart may stop beating, but I will live eternally with God because of my faith in Jesus Christ. That is truly something worth celebrating, rejoicing in and praising God for. And telling others about. You want a great conversation starter around your Thanksgiving table tomorrow? So how are we gonna fix death?

and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, God himself will wipe away tears from all faces for us. This life is hard at times, and God knows that. This life is torn by sin and the rebellion of people against their God. This life is full of hardship and pain as sin and the fall works their way into every crack of our world and our lives. We cry, we mourn, we weep at what would have been, could have been, and should have been. This world is not as it should be. And there is a place for biblical lament and grief. This world should be resounding in praise and obedience to God and therefore have no more pain, no more tears. God knows that. And through Jesus Christ He is in the process of remaking the world the way that it should be. He is at work restoring this world to how it should be. He isn’t going to do it yet in a top down, power from on high way, that will come later. At the moment he is in the process of restoring all things by coming into lives of normal people like you and me as we trust Jesus as our Savior and He does the work of renewing us, he does the work of sanctifying us, he does the work of restoring us and as the great comforter not only wiping away our tears in compassion and love, but one day Jesus will return and all of our sorrows will be vanquished, all out tears of pain and mourning will be wiped away and only tears of gratefulness will remain for those whose trust is in Christ. I am thankful that Jesus will set everything right. That everything that is broken will be restored.

He will take away sin & reproach for us. and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, Isaiah was writing about a day when salvation would come. He already told us that death would be swallowed up in the death of Christ, and that all that is wrong will be made right with the world, but now he wants us to know that not only will everything one day be right with the world, one day everything will be right with us. He will take away our sin and reproach. Jesus has died to take the penalty of our sin and reproach for us, but he has also died to give us something. Not just to take away our sin, but to give us perfect standing before God. Jesus not only swallows up death for us and makes everything right and wipes our tears he also gives us the gift of perfect righteousness and relationship with God. For those who trust Christ he offers us a reconciled relationship with the God who loves us and created us. He takes away our reproach, our sin, our hatred of God and gives those who believe instead perfect standing before God. Though we were rebels in our sin, God sent Jesus to take away our reproach and instead give us his own perfect record if we trust him by faith.

for the LORD has spoken. End of v9 When God speaks. Things happen. If God has said it will happen, it will happen. Can we be thankful that God always keeps his word? I mean what more do we need than to know that God will handle it? How much time and energy have you and I wasted worrying about things in this last couple years rather than trusting that God is going ot handle it? What else do we need as far as safety and security, then to know that the Lord has spoken and that that doesn't just mean the end of it but that means the beginning of it as well. Because then we get to see all that God is going to do to bring his word to pass. It requires trust. And let me let you in on a little secret. A heart of thanks, is also a heart of trust. I heart of thankfulness to the Lord is also a heart of trust in the Lord. And that's some of what we're going to talk about in our testimony time what has God done get we need to testify too?

9 It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” This is the God we have waited on. To rescue us. To restore us. To save us. This is the Lord we have waited for him. And 800 years after Isaiah writes, Jesus comes onto the scene. That we might be clad and rejoice. What do we have to be thankful to God for? Of all the things in the world that we should be thankful to God for and celebrate and be glad in. This is the greatest thing. That God sent his son to die for sinners like us and that those who believe would be saved, reconciled to Him and welcomed, fully accepted not because of their good track record, because of their trust in Christ and what Christ has done for them on the cross. That is something worth celebrating, that is something worth trusting, that God the creator of the universe would send his son to die, so that those who believe might live. As we celebrate God’s faithfulness, Let us always remember and celebrate and trust that the greatest thing we have to celebrate is salvation through Jesus Christ. And then tell the world.

Father thank you for your bountiful goodness and provision for us. Thank you for not only giving us all things that we need to live and survive, but we praise you for giving us life even more abundant than that through Jesus Christ. I pray that those of us who have trusted Christ as our Savior would continue to rejoice and trust what you have accomplished on the cross. I pray for those who haven’t trusted Christ as Savior that they would and in so doing today be able to rejoice with a grateful heart as they experience your great love in giving your son to die for them. That you would swallow up death for them, that you would dry all of their tears and begin to set right what is wrong in them, and that you would take away their sin by giving them instead a reconciled relationship with God through trust in Christ. Thank you Father for giving those who believe salvation full and free. In the strong name of Jesus we pray, Amen.