Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

This  is based on notes from a sermon delivered by Rev.Todd Crouch at a Community Thanksgiving Service on Nov, 20th 2012 in Bentleyville, Pa.

We , in America of all people live in a land that has been blessed with so much; we have been given resources, wealth,  peace and in comparison to other lands a free and civil society.

We as a nation have been blessed with power, and dominance, strength; we have been “the head and not the tail” 

All Things From God

We may, when we look upon these things be tempted to believe that it was and is due to our own ingenuity and cleverness and strength that these blessing were secured. But  it is not.

  The Holy Word of God tells us that

 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James: 1:17

All things come from the providence of the Great God and it is to Him that we owe all thanks and allegiance, honor and worship.
 It tells us in His word   Psalms: 92:1-"It is good to give thanks to the Lord". It is good for us to acknowledge the Lord God as the One Who blesses all of us.To know just where all that we have been given truly comes from.

  Yet we as a nation may be on the verge of forgetting from where our great national blessings have come. The Great men and woman who were the founders of this nation understood the necessity of this or any nation to give thanks and honor the Great God who speaks to us from the page of the Holy Bible.

Voices From American History

The statesman Benjamin Franklin wrote to an associate: about his realization that we as a people need God

 “Have we now forgotten this powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth-that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow can fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it.’ I firmly believe this.”   

President Lincoln

America's  greatest president, Abraham Lincoln , who so often articulated a discerning  grasp and insight stated, the need for the American  people to turn their collective hearts and minds toward the God of the Bible and the need for His guiding hand in the life of this people.

Whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”

Thanks Offering

 In the word of God, speaking to the people of Israel , we read:  “Sacrifice thank offerings to God; fulfill your vows to the Most High, Psalms: 50:14

and also;

"He who sacrifices thanks offerings honors me, and he prepares the way (by giving thanks) so that I may show him the salvation of God."  Psalm: 50; 23

The Word here tells us that it honors God when we offer thanks to Him. That is when we as people, or as Christians, bow our heads and give thanks to the Lord God He is honored, and when we thank Him, the way is prepared for us to see His salvation.

Do we thank God, do we acknowledge Him in our lives? Do we take the  time to give that Sacrifice of Thanksgiving,  which honors the Great God? 

 Do we honor God personally and as a people, as a nation? When we honor Him with thanks we prepare the way to see His salvation. The way is prepared to see His mighty salvation work in our lives in ways we may never had thought possible.

 Do we thank him for the blessings that have come upon us in this land? If we as a people, as a nation would give thanks to God could we see His salvation in our great social problems,in education,the  economy, the crisis in leadership at the highest levels of this  nation , in the plague of   government corruption,  community problems and many other challenges and ills that we as a people face? Could we see His salvation made manifest in the breakdown of the families, and see Him restore and bind up that which is broken down. Do we honor Him for all that He is, not just,  for what we have been given.

  Not Just The Material 

 We in America have so much, but do we thank the God of Heaven? But not just  for the material blessings but the less tangible blessings?

We as a nation have long lived in freedom and a civil society. Do we honor Him for these blessing? They are not wrought by our own hands but from Him.  A nation,or  any nation that acknowledges the God of the Bible will have these blessing.  And when this nation, or   any nation does not, then those blessing will fade away. 

That is, true freedom comes from God. Understand, that freedom, in the Biblical sense, is not just the freedom to prosper or  be successful and be comfortable.  True freedom is the freedom to fail; and if God removes from us the potential to fail then we do not have true freedom. 

But with true freedom, we can rise above failures and have success.  This true freedom, that fosters personal responsibility and accountability to make choices and to have free thought that allows for and encourages an  industrious and innovative  people, who will be charitable and fair in their dealings with those around them,  all this comes from the great God and  is sustained by a individual and national relationship and worship of the creator God through Jesus Christ.

 When This is Gone

 However, when a people removes our Lord Jesus Christ from the public conversation out of  the daily living of people , then this freedom will be lost, for Biblical Christianity preserves freedom both individually and nationally.  If you want to understand why a people losses  its freedom; it is because they have traded

 away the worship of God for something else. 

 A nation is made up of individuals  it is the sum of all us,  so if  we as individuals turn our hearts from God then we as a people will have turned our hearts from  Him as well.

Alexis de Tocqueville the French noblemen and sociologist came to America and wanted  to understand why this nation was so blessed and  so great. He traveled across this land and studied American society, his findings were published in his  two volume work Democracy in America-published in 1835 & 1840

Speaking of America’s relationship with and toward the God of the Bible and the blessings which flowed out of that relationship. 

“Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secrets of her (America’s) genius and power”

“America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great”

“Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts-the cradle of its infancy, and the source of its claims” 
   

 That is, de Tocqueville was seeing that the blessing of freedom which produce a great nation is produced guided and sustained by Biblical Christianity which is a relationship with God not a religion.

 

From Him Comes Freedom

  Without acknowledgement to and of the great God  as the  true source of our freedoms, then these freedoms  are unattainable or unsustainable, they will bleed away without us noticing until they are gone.  A person or  a nation, loses National Freedom when they first lose their spiritual freedom. When we as a people as nation begin to look to something other than the Lord Jesus Christ as the answer to our problems then our freedoms, can and will be taken away little by little under the facade of equity and  tolerance.

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All From Who He Is

All the blessings for which our Lord is due thanks and honor come not just by an act that He performs, but come out of WHO HE IS.   Do we honor Him for Who He Is?

 This God who defies description , reaches out to broken humanity, through His Son Jesus Christ.  The Apostle Paul writing to believers in Rome said 

 “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" Romans: 11:34-

We cannot know His mind; but we can know His heart,  He has showed it to us all in His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus Shows us the Father’s Heart,  a Heart that loves us all more than He loves Himself and demonstrated it by dieing in the person of His Son Jesus. Jesus just dose not tell us about God , He showed us about God.

  Do we honor Him with thanksgiving for Who He is? He is there for us to help and comfort and encourage us, seeing us through difficult days and seasons of our lives. We do not have to fear tomorrow because of Jesus,  nor anything, not  even death.

 Yet , when we individually or as a people trade away the worship of the God of the Bible there are problems

Psalms: 16:4-"sorrows are multiplied on those who hasten to “barter” for another “god”"

Yet so many in our nation are now trading away the God of the Bible for some cheep imitation, which promises much but delivers little. Nothing can do for us what only Jesus Christ can do. If you want to understand why we are facing mounting national troubles and sorrows it is because we are tuning from the Great God.

  The Great political thinker President Thomas Jefferson feared the day when his fellow countrymen would ignore and forsake the God of the Bible.

“I tremble for my county when I reflect that God is just: (and) that justice cannot sleep forever” Thomas Jefferson

Give Him Thanks

Not only in this season, and even beyond this season,  but from this day forward when we gather in our homes with family and friends before us and eat together;  take just a moment and give God that thanks and honor Him for all that we have and for all He is and has done for us , and for all the blessings God has blessed us with; and if we do this, then we will see His salvation manifested in our lives and in our nation.

Let us as a people honor the great God and give Him Thanks. 

  "He who sacrifices thanks offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God."  Psalms: 50: 23,  Amen

Rev.Todd Crouch, Pastor

The Fountain of Life Church a Congregation of Grace Communion

Washington, Pa 

Fountain of Life Broadcast heard on RKP Radio 1710 & 1670 AM in Washington, Pa.and 1710 AM in Bentleyville , Pa. And online around the world at www.rkpradio.com