Sunday, November 20, 2011

Giving Thanks To The LORD



Psalms 103.1-8, 105.1-3, 107.1-3

These are Psalms for Giving Thanks.


Some have referred to the Psalms as the hymnbook of the Bible. These songs take us places in our hearts and souls we may never venture into. They take is places on earth and in the heavens and to God's Throne.


The Psalms we read this week all had a key verse which presented the theme of the Psalm. Each of these give direction in making Thanksgiving what God intends it to be with His people.


1. Remember All His Benefits.- Psalm 103.2

David is communing with his own heart here. We should do that.

Our souls should be stirred when we think of Thanksgiving, giving God thanks.


Benefits= the dealings of One's own Hand. Remember all the good things that have come from the Hand of God. Everything good and perfect has come from Him! He is our Father in Heaven.

As a father has compassion on His children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.-v.13

We have so many blessings traceable to the Hand of God in Heaven. Are we individually conscious of His blessings?

This Psalm is a list of His benefits.


He has not withheld anything that would benefit us- v.5

Psalm 84.11 the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

I Timothy 6.17 God, Who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

His benefits begin with the forgiveness of sins and the restoration of our health for which we have to be thankful for the rest of this Psalm is filled with His benefits as is our lives!

Praise Him and thank Him for them.


2. Tell It Everywhere What He Has Done. Psalm 105.1

Sing of His Faithfulness-Great Is Thy Faithfulness

Publicly proclaim it.

Give God the glory due His Name.

This is the responsibility of those who have been redeemed.


Israel's history encourages us with the might and power that God showed His people in the Old Testament.

Under the New Covenant we have the blessings of the church in the New Testament through this day- Old covenant fulfilled- ended- New Covenant- an Everlasting Covenant.

This is why we exhorted in II Corinthians 9.15

Thanks be to God for His Indescribable Gift!

Our personal "History - His Story" - God's work in our lives - tell it!

Finally as we give thanks we are following in the steps of our LORD Jesus Christ.

John 6.11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks.

We can be very thankful that...


3. His Love Endures Forever. - Psalm 107.1-2

Endures= long duration, everlasting, perpetual, always, continuous, unending

Thinking about His love and talking about His love help safeguard us against ingratitude. A retrospect will help too.

Through homelessness, bondage, affliction, and storms. He brings us:

vs.4-8 From weariness to rest

vs.12-15 From darkness to light

vs.18-21 From sickness to health

vs.23-31 From danger to safety


We have abundant blessings today because we have Christ. Love Him with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength. Serve Him with gladness. Give to Him cheerfully. Give thanks to Him!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Eternal Blessings

Ruth 4.9-22


"From Tears to Great Joy"

Out of tragedy and loss God can bring great blessings.
Out of sorrow God can bring peace and joy.
Out of seemingly hopeless situations the LORD gives hope and eternal blessings.

One of the rewards of faithfulness and love for the LORD is seeing Him work in this way in your life.

Ruth is a story of famine, death and sorrow turning into fullness, new life and joy.

God many times overrules in the lives of men and women as He works out His eternal purposes.

There were blessings- eternal blessings coming upon Ruth, Boaz and Naomi from their Father in Heaven.

Look in verse eleven at

1. The Blessing Upon Ruth. v.11a
Ruth humbled herself- went to the fields to glean. God exalted her. The LORD placed this Moabitetess up with the woman who gave Jacob sons which would become the foundation for the nation of Israel!
Rachel was buried by Jacob in Bethlehem (Genesis 35.19) Now she is being likened to to the mother of Joseph and Benjamin.
built=bana= to give birth to sons.

God was bringing a Moabitetess into the genealogy, the ancestral line of David and of Jesus Christ.
Think of where He brought this widow from!

Psalm 68.6 God sets the lonely in families. We do not know what happened to Orpah, her sister-in-law. Ruth's choices brought her from a widow in a country that because her own to blessings eternal.

2. The Blessings Upon Boaz. - vs11b-13
vs.9-10 show the magnitude of this man, the like the Josephs of the God's Word.
The blessing upon Boaz rings of blessings eternal.

This word "famous" means to be called out and appointed to something special.

For his kindness God richly rewarded him- gave him a permanent honor of being David's greta grandfather and in the ancestral line of the Messiah!

Standing= might and strength like of an army- this was fulfilled too. Boaz went from being a single man to a happily married man. Married to a fine woman, to be the father of Obed and a place in the most important genealogy in this world and forever.

The LORD did not forget about Naomi...

3. The Blessings Upon Naomi vs.14-17
Kinsman Redeemer
being famous throughout Israel
being renewed and sustained in her old age.
A daughter-in-law who loves her/ better than 7 sons (better than the bonds of the law are the bonds of love)
Naomi cared for him- Naomi has a son!

Finally amidst all of this we see...

4. The Blessing Upon the Nation and the World and Eternity
Obedience, love loyalty go way beyond our own family circle- although it starts there!
An alien woman becomes the ancestress of the Messiah.
Ruth, the great grandmother of David, a king after God's Own heart. David definitely had some of Great Grandma's character. I can see that in some of my grandkids- with even their great great Nana. Who you are passes onto to future generations... those not even born yet.

Those fields of Baoz became the place where David watched the family's sheep, probably where the 23rd Psalm was inspired if not also written. These fields of Boaz were in the area where the shepherds watched their flocks when the announcement came that Jesus had been born Savior of the world! The world has a Savior!



Savior Like A Shepherd Lead Us!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

A Prelude To Thanksgiving



Luke 17.11-19

Jesus was on His Way to Jerusalem. We read in Luke 9.51 "As the time approached for Him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem." So on His way to die, on that final journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, He encounters these 10 lepers on the outskirts of a village.

His popularity had grown in the 3 1/2 years of ministry in Galilee and the surrounding area. People knew about Him. Lepers, especially, held Him in high regard and believed that He was indeed the Messiah. No on could heal a leper except Jesus. They were outcasts They still are. In the book about Bob Pierce, Let My Heart Be Broken With the Things That Break the Heart of God, Elmer Kilbourne, of the Oriental Mission Society, is quoted, "The worst part of leprosy is the social isolation connected with it... it happens all over the world, wherever there are lepers. Leprosy can arrested. In many cases it can be cured. But even though a man may survive it, once he has been driven from his home he can't go back. His relatives, friends and neighbors simply will not accept him. So he has to live with other lepers." In Israel provisions were made for a return in the law. Verse 13 "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"

These lepers believed Jesus could help them. They were asking Him to come to their aid in their affliction. The fact He could heal lepers had spread among those afflicted with the disease. He was their only hope.

Now we see the healing here and the subsequent ingratitude. We see it as a horrible thing- this scarcity of Thanksgiving. If you are a person who likes to give to others you have no doubt encountered this issue giving complete when there is that appreciation expressed. When there they like the gift? Was it discarded?

Before we tackle the obvious here let's think about Thanksgiving for...

1. Blessings Seldom Thought Of. v.11
These are blessings we often take for granted.
For example, if you received a public school education being thankful for those who paid the taxes so you could go.

The disciples were walking with Jesus. We walk with Him. Sometime we need to be reminded of His Presence with us, particularly when things are going well!

How about your health? Give thanks you are able to be here this morning. I spoke to our nursery school kids in their chapel this week and we talked about being thankful for our country. With all its flaws, we have freedoms that the majority of the 7 billion people on the earth today do not enjoy. Blessings taken for granted, seldom thought of.

As we think about Thanksgiving...

2. Give Thanks for the Obvious. vs.14-16
Jesus was giving them instructions from Leviticus 14.1-3
The Samaritan man came back praising God in a loud voice and threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked Him.

Thanksgiving springs from humility- an acknowledgment that everything good in my life has come from the Hand of my Father in Heaven Who loves me. (James 1.17)

Often there is a continent of blessing in our lives and just an island of praise. Gigabytes of blessing and kilobytes of thanks.

These 10 men were all touched by God. They were healed. It is wrong to pray for blessings, receive them and fail to thank God for them.

Things right in front of us- v.15 when he saw he was healed... obvious blessings: food, shelter clothing.

Psalm 103.3 Praise the LORD, O My soul, and forget not all His benefits.
More, much more receive benefits and than thank Him for them.

Finally in this prelude to Thanksgiving we see in this passage...

3. A Lesson For All Who Serve. vs.17-19

This man by passed the priest and went to the Great High Priest. The percentage of people who appreciate the work of God through your life will be low. Look to Jesus for approval not to men for appreciation. So often some gets something from the LORD what they want and they never come back. Excitement overwhelms them and they forget to give thanks.

Blessed are those who do not expect much appreciation for they will not be disappointed.

However the rewards of serving Jesus are overwhelming! There is much to give Him thanks for as you serve.


Give Thanks to God for His Indescribable Gift!