1

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and ourLord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

One of the first things we are taught as a child is to say is “thank you.”

  • How many of you cannot recall for yourself or have heard someone say to a child……
  • “Johnny, what do you say?”
  • And then you hear the compulsive or even embarrassing, “thank you.”

It is proper that we stop here tonight and reflect and say thank you to God for all we have.

  • All we have.
  • Everything.
  • It all comes from Him.
  • Each day, each of us have gifts; and so each day, each of us owe thanks to God.

Tonight this service includes much singing of hymns.

  • One of the ways to express our joy and say thank you and give honor and praise to God is in our singing of hymns.
  • There are many other ways also.
  • Our prayers. Our offerings. Our care for our fellow man.
  • And on and on the list goes.
  • It is proper that we stop and in the various ways we have, say thank you to our God.
  • “O give thanks to the Lord for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever.”

But that is not always so easy to do, is it?

  • Just as the little child learned as an early lesson, there is more to saying thank you than just saying thank you.

As with most difficulties we face………

  • The problem and challenge of giving thanks to God is not new.
  • It has existed ever since the fall of mankind into sin.

At the time of Moses, to remedy the less than enthusiastic reception of God’s gifts, God had Moses arrange great festivals of communal thanksgiving.

  • The people were to come together in a sort of Christmas spirit…..
  • Consider God’s bountiful gifts……
  • And rejoice together in thanks to God for His great goodness and in sharing His gifts.

There were three great festivals of this kind that God established.

  • The one I would like to focus on tonight is the most joyous of these festivals, the Feast of Ingathering or Tabernacles.
  • This was the culminating Harvest Festival where the barley, wheat, wine, and oil had all been gathered.
  • It sounds a lot like our Thanksgiving festival, that we are celebrating here tonight, doesn’t it?

And to that end……

  • It is believed there is much we can reflect on, apply and learn from what God commanded at the Festival of Tabernacles.
  • For that reason, God’s establishing and describing of this festival was chosen as our Old Testament reading for tonight and forms the basis for our meditation.
  • If we today would take our place in the great company and line of God’s people and have a right rejoicing Thanksgiving Festival……
  • We would do well to consider God’s directions for the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles.

The Feast began with the sound of trumpets.

  • The people came in gay and colorful procession.
  • In the evening there were illuminations, music, dancing, and singing.
  • One of the first principles we can get from this. True thankfulness involves much rejoicing. Much more than a compulsory “thank you.”

It is also important that we recognize God as the giver.

  • Most obvious in the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles were the fruits of the earth.
  • The people brought them to the temple in glad thanksgiving.
  • It was the recognition of God as the giver of all of creation.

Make no mistake, this is God’s world. He made it. He controls and uses it to serve His plans.

  • Recognition that this is His world and He controls it is one of the many challenges we have today with giving thanks.
  • How many people go to the store and buy a loaf of bread, yet do not trace its origin back to God?

Another good example of this is rain.

  • We know so much more now than they did in Old Testament times!
  • Air currents, atmospheric pressures, positive and negative electric charges, cloud formations, and cold fronts—we understand all about them. They did not.
  • Yet in all our knowledge and advancement we have trouble acknowledging and remembering sometimes, that the watering of our plants and land all comes from the hand of God.

I believe we have a trend in modern society to push God away from the everyday things of this world.

  • It puts God at a nice, vague, safe distance.
  • It is only natural that people who make God quite remote feel themselves little indebted to Him.
  • They feel they have been successful by their own actions.
  • No matter how scientifically advanced we become, it is foolish to attempt to remove God from control of His world.

Yet as we acknowledge that God is in complete control……

  • That can leave us in a quandry.
  • As we also tonight remember the many tragedies and heartaches of this past year……..
  • Do these tragedies, and the fact that God is in control of all things, somehow hinder the thanksgiving from our hearts or the fullness of our thanksgiving worship?

We cannot blame God for the tragedies…..yet they happened in His world and on His watch.

  • We may scratch our heads and reflect that we cannot understand the ways of God and grope for answers to all this.
  • And at those times when this happens we would do well not to get lost in trying to understand it all but rather to take hold of those words and deeds of God that He does make clear to us

There are times when the only sure thing we have to hold on to is the Word of God.

  • If, at such times, we have learned to hold on to that Word, we will have a stronger understanding of how God deals with us….
  • And we will not be at all eager to push Him away or exclude Him from “our world.”
  • We give thanks also for God’s Word.

But we also must consider not only the words of God but the deeds of God.

  • From what He has actually done we will better understand His ways as well as what He means to accomplish with us.

The Feast of Tabernacles also commemorated God’s great act of deliverance.

  • It was called the Feast of Tabernacles because at this feast the people dwelt in booths, imitation tabernacles, or tents decked with branches and greenery.
  • This was to remind the people of the great deeds of God when their forefathers had dwelt in tents in the wilderness.
  • They had been in slavery in Egypt and God had wonderfully delivered them from their bondage.
  • With this great saving act they were to recall and know that God was a God who was near to them, a God who heard their prayers, saw their need, and saved them.
  • This is the same God who we worship and does this for us also.
  • Again, we give thanks to God.

At the Feast of Tabernacles there were not only the sacrifices of thanksgiving but also the sacrifices for sins.

  • The wages of sin is death.
  • For our sin we must die.
  • The only hope is that another die in our place.
  • On each of the 8 days of the Feast of Tabernacles, a young goat was offered for the sins of the people.
  • The death of the goat told the people of the dread consequence of sin and gave promise of another dying in their place.

And now today we know that God did not spare His Son, but delivered Him for us all.

  • Christ died that we might be forgiven and have that joyous life that God so abundantly plans for us.
  • This is the God to whom we have gathered and thank and worship tonight.

Therefore, our thanksgiving today is not with calculations of how we did or our bottom line finances.

  • God has not promised that our income will always exceed our expenditure.
  • Does a decrease in wealth mean a decrease in thankfulness at Thanksgiving?
  • Of course not.
  • Ours is the God who at times may let us go hungry and suffer loss, and through these give us unthought-of blessings.
  • There are times when our only certainty that God cares for us is in nothing of our circumstances but only in His Word.
  • He has given His promise that His love will never fail us.
  • He will not leave us or forsake us.

Right thanks means right using….And right using means sharing.

Think back to a time where you or someone you knew was away from home.

  • And they got a package of cookies or goodies from home.
  • Maybe perhaps, someone away at college.
  • The natural thing is that they tell their roommates and then share with them.
  • There is more joy in telling and sharing with your friends than keeping it all to yourself.

And as the cookies are devoured, there will be some exclamations…..

  • “What a lucky fellow you are.”
  • “What a great cook your mother must be.”
  • Receipt of that package was a happy time and the happiness was multiplied with the fun and the thanks of the friends who helped to devour the cookies.

This is the sort of fun God wants us to have with all the gifts He sends us from home.

  • Associated with our Thanksgiving Service tonight, we have several ways to share with our fellow man.
  • We have the clothing, mittens, and toy collection going on.
  • And tonight, through Sunday, we are collecting money and food items in the Narthex for Community Care.

But just as our saying thank you may be taken as an obligation, our sharing can also not be genuine and from the heart…….and not appropriate in response to God’s generosity to us.

  • Perhaps the problem is, God sends us so many gifts and sends them so regularly……
  • That we get so used to them that we do not recognize them as from Him.
  • And we don’t share them and so we don’t have the full joy in them…..
  • And we do not truly thank Him.

Once more we look at what God tells us in the Feast of Tabernacles.

  • How we are to use and share all the great gifts God has given us is suggested by the last four groups identified in our Old Testament text…….
  • The Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.

God gives to us that we may grow to be like Him.

  • God has delight in giving.
  • The more we are like God, the more joy we have in giving and sharing our gifts with others.
  • What He does for us, He wants us, in turn, to do for others.

First the Levite.

  • He stands for the church and those who serve it.
  • If we have really come to know God as our father in Christ, we won’t be able to keep it to ourselves…..
  • But we will want to share that which gives meaning and purpose to our lives.
  • The church is given to us for giving on further the Gospel.

Next, the stranger, the one who feels that he or she doesn’t belong.

  • We all know of these people don’t we?
  • It is a hard thing to be a stranger.
  • Loneliness can disintegrate a person.
  • God has given you much for another year so that you may share and welcome the stranger.
  • Make them feel that he or she belongs.

Finally, the fatherless and the widow.

  • These represent those who are defenseless and who can only get on with your help.
  • You meet them quite often.
  • But there are many more that you don’t meet.
  • The church helps us together help those who are in need.
  • We give thanks when we look for opportunities and share with those in need.
  • The church helps us do more together in this.

You see, saying thank you is really more than saying thank you.

  • There are so many ways and opportunities to do this; both to God and to our fellow man.
  • And we are to do it with a sincere and joyful heart.
  • “O give thanks to the Lord for He is good; for His steadfast love endures forever.”
  • Amen.

Please remain seated….Now may thepeace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

We now continue with hymn #895 (Go back over to seat)