THANKSGIVING 2013
November
27-28, 2013
Pastor
Timothy J. Spaude
Text:
Deuteronomy 8:10-18
“THE ACTS OF THANKSGIVING”
1.
Acknowledge
2.
Confess
3.
Trust
4.
Serve
Deuteronomy
8:10-18 (NIV 1984) “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God
for the good land he has given you. 11Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to
observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12Otherwise, when you
eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13and when your herds
and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is
multiplied, 14then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD
your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15He led you through the
vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous
snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16He gave you manna to
eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to
test you so that in the end it might go well with you. 17You may say to
yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth
for me." 18But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the
ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your
forefathers, as it is today.”
Either you are thankful or you are
not. You can’t just tell someone, “Be thankful,” and they do it. We’ve all seen
our own version of the little boy receiving a gift of underwear or socks he
needed instead of the toy or game he wanted, hearing the adult say, “Say ‘Thank
You’ for the socks,” and know that such thanksgiving is unmeant and
meaningless. So is any forced thank you from us to God. Either you are thankful
or you are not. Either you are among the group of people who can see that the
list of blessings you enjoy from God far outweigh the in comparison challenges
and struggles that you have or you aren’t. If you are not among that group of
people who sees so many blessings from God then your presence at a Thanksgiving
worship service is hypocritical and probably just done out of family
obligation. God knows that and I urge you to repent while you can. I prefer
however to believe that the people of God who take the time and make the time
as a priority to give worship to God truly are thankful to Him, realize that
their thankfulness year round isn’t what it should be and want to take this
special time to say Thank You, God. With that in mind I offer to you the ACTS
of Thanksgiving because thankfulness, like love, is an attitude that wants to
be seen in action.
Moses helps us to discover and put
into place the ACTS of Thanksgiving. He spoke the words of our text to the
people of Israel before they entered their new home in Canaan. He would not be
able to go with them as a consequence of an earlier sin. He wanted the best for
them while they lived there without him and so he warned them, “You may say to yourself,
"My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for
me." 18But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the
ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your
forefathers, as it is today.” Here Moses
points us to the first Act of Thanksgiving. The A stands for Acknowledge. To
acknowledge means to admit to something and what we need to and want to admit
to is that our gracious God is ultimate source of all of our blessings.
Sometimes in Confirmation Class to help the students see this we ask them what
they do when they are hungry, where do they get food from. “The Fridge!” Oh do
you have a magic refrigerator that keeps itself full? No, our parents fill it.
How? They go to the grocery store? Oh do grocery stores give food for free?
Where do they get it from? You see where that goes. Food has to be produced and
God is in charge of making things grow. Food has to be bought. God gives us
abilities so we can have jobs that provide income. Acknowledge God in this process.
Fill up your physical blessing box on the insert. Make them overflow and then
praise the Lord for all those blessings.
And do something else. “Be careful that you do not forget
the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees
that I am giving you this day. 12Otherwise, when you eat and are
satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13and when your herds and flocks
grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14then your heart will become proud
and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the
land of slavery.” Here is another
Act of Thanksgiving. The C stands for Confess. Moses reminded his people to be
careful. He looked ahead to a time when the people would get so used to
enjoying blessings that they would forget God and His goodness. Sadly that very
thing happened. Sadly the same things happen with us. We want God’s blessings
and get them and sometimes like 9 of the 10 lepers Jesus healed we forget to
back and say Thank you. Let’s confess those sins, own up to our thoughtlessness
toward God and in thankfulness for our forgiveness resolve to never do that
again. Confession reminds us of spiritual blessings from God. He gave Jesus to
be punished for ours sins and so we are not treated as the sinners we are. Each
day we get a clean slate. Fill up the spiritual blessing box on your insert and
see how it overflows with love, peace, mercy, grace and so many more.
And seeing those blessings of the past
leads us to the T of the ACTS of Thanksgiving. “He led you through the vast and
dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and
scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16He gave you manna to eat in the
desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so
that in the end it might go well with you.”
The T stands for Trust. We show thankfulness to God by trusting Him for our
future. Moses reminded his people how God led them and protected them on their
journey through the desert. He called to mind the past ways God provided for
their need with water from a rock and bread from heaven. God was teaching them
to be God dependent in their daily living. Moses was teaching his people to
look at past blessings to promote trust in the Lord for the future. A day like
Thanksgiving gives us a chance to review the past to see how God has led our
lives in the past year. Think! What desert did you walk through? What venomous
snakes and scorpions were along your way? Yet here you are. How about God’s
provision? Budgeting gurus will tell you that the average family should expect
to spend about 32% of their income on housing, 14 % on food, 6 % on healthcare,
20% on transportation, 10% on insurances 5% on clothes and personal items, 10%
on savings and for Christians we’d add 10% in thankofferings. Now if you add
that up you’ve used 119% of your income. Doesn’t work. But God does. So much for the experts! Somehow
God got all of us through the desert and maybe life even looks a little more
like the Promised Land. What about next year? Trust, trust the Lord’s provision
as a way of thanking Him.
And serve Him. That’s the S of the
ACTS of Thanksgiving. They are many ways to thank someone. Can you think of
any? You can say Thank You. That’s good. We are doing that with God right now.
You can give a gift as a thank you. That’s the whole idea behind our regular
Christian giving also known as our thankofferings. There is another way. You
can live your thanksgiving. “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God
for the good land he has given you.” Seeing God’s
blessings we respond. We feel grateful. We love in return. Jesus said, “If you
love me, obey my commandments.” Brothers and sisters our willing obedience to
God’s commands becomes then a most meaningful way to show thanks to God. And it’s
a way we can show all year long.
Charles Dickens once said that we have
things mixed up in America. He suggested that instead of having one
Thanksgiving Day each year we should have 364. Use the one day for complaining
and griping. Use the other 364 to thank God each day for the many blessings He
has showered upon you. He’s close. Truthfully we don’t want to use even one day
for griping and complaining. With how good God is to us let’s practice these
ACTS of Thanksgiving all year long. Amen.
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