For Thanksgiving, we talked about what it means to be
thankful in all things. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says it is God’s will for us to do
so. It does not say that we are thankful FOR all things, but IN all things. He
shows us throughout the Word HOW we can do that.
In Leviticus chapters 1-7, there are instructions given
on how and what to present in five types of offerings. These offerings, what
they represent, and the order in which they were to be presented give us the
picture of what it is we are truly thankful for. The five offerings were the burnt, grain,
peace, sin and guilt offerings. Below is
a summary of the offerings with details on their purpose, etc.
·
Burnt—bull, ram, certain types of birds—act of
worship (voluntary act of worship) and sign of devotion and surrender to God
·
Grain—similar to burnt offering, similar to
tithing, returning to God out of the thankfulness for the goodness of what He
has provided (bringing a portion of crops)
·
Fellowship and Peace—lots of animals acceptable
(perfect and flawless animals only), thanksgiving offering
·
Sin offering—different animal for each
situation, sacrifice for sin, cleansing and atonement (usually made once a
year)
·
Guilt offering—also called trespass offering,
for unintentional sin and the guilt of sin (guilty conscience attached to sin
If there was more than one offering, there was an order
to be followed. The Sin and guilt
offerings were always done first. They atoned for sin –sin had to be dealt with
first. The next would be burnt offerings, which related to our devotion to God.
Last would be peace and grain offerings. These related to fellowship and communion
with God and with each other.
The peace offering had two parts, fellowship and
thanksgiving. Strangely enough, the thanksgiving offering was to be eaten
together with all the “church” family. It was a communal offering. The fatty portion belonged to God in this
setting. God takes the part that is most
delicious, but it is also the part that is not good for us. In this offering, God took the part that wasn’t
good and left us with what was good and nourishing for us. So, we are thankful for the following, in
order of importance:
1. God deals
with our sin (what separated us from Him and brought death and destruction to
our lives)
2. God made a
way for us to fellowship with Him
3. God has
made available to us His power, blessing and provision
In the Old Testament, these were obtained through
the Law and the offerings. For us, they are purchased eternally through Christ
Jesus – the final and greatest sacrifice. That is something to be thankful for!
When we get focused on being thankful for the right things, in the right order,
we will see all of them begin to operate in our lives. We should always be
thankful for the tangible things in life, but those things come and go. Living
a lifestyle of thankfulness IN all things requires knowing what you are
thankful for.
Philippians 4:6 is the instruction on how to pray,
and the emphasis is to do it with thanksgiving.
We are not trying to by thankfulness manipulate God but thank Him for
what has already been done but that which you have not seen. The thankfulness changes the way we ask, with
confidence that He did it, rather than begging or pleading. 2 Corinthians 3:13 and forward says that as
more grace goes out and more people connect to and receive that grace, then
more people will truly by thankful people. Colossians 2:6 speaks again that if
we get rooted in God’s power and who Christ is, we will overflow with
thankfulness
In Luke 17:11-19, Jesus has an encounter with 10
lepers. They call out to Him and He tells them to go to the priests to show
them they are healed. This is how God operates. He didn’t just tell them they
were healed, but told them to do something and, as they did it, they were
healed. This was a very risky thing for these men to do as lepers for they
would have been banished from the town as unclean. Anyone who touched them
would also be considered unclean, so going into town around many people showing
themselves to the priests (who by being near them would become unclean) was
also an issue.
It says that all 10 were healed as they went, yet
only one of them came back and thanked Jesus. Jesus makes a point that the
other nine were healed, but only this one was thankful. He tells the man that
his faith has made him well. I believe Jesus was talking about more than just
the leprosy. For all the men had already been healed of that. I believe He is
talking about the idea that his thankful heart would not only make him well,
but serve him well his entire life. A thankful heart is the will of God
(remember 1 Thess 5:18).
Finally, the most important part of thankfulness is
receiving the gift. If someone gives you a gift and you never even open it,that
is the epitome of ungratefulness. In Philippians 4:6 we are told to be anxious
for nothing, but with thanksgiving and prayer we make our requests knows and
then we receive peace from God. God gives us the gift of peace in all situations,
but we can choose not to open to gift and stay in fear and anxiety.
At its core, thankfulness is an act of faith.
Praying with thankfulness is not to manipulate God into doing something. You
see, He has already done it all. So, being thankful for those things we are
praying for is connecting to the spiritual realm where the promise already
exists.
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on online media. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
