Thanksgiving Day Sermonettes
Jonah 1:17– Thank you, God, for confronting me
How would you have felt? God asked Jonah to go preach in the capital city of one of Israel’s most powerful enemies… because God wanted to show them compassion and love. Would you have been jumping up and down to go? Jonah wasn’t. So he got on a ship that was sailing as far away as possible. But God sent a fierce storm, so fierce the ship was about to break up, the sailors figured out that the storm was because of Jonah. So with Jonah’s permission they threw him overboard…and everything immediately grew calm. But what happened to Jonah? “But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.” Do you think Jonah got God’s message? Do you think he had time to think? Do you think God got his attention? He did…in a very unusual way.
Have we been in Jonah’s shoes, shoes of rebellion against God? God tells us to forgive those who sin against us, but do we say, “No way! That’s his problem; after all HE sinned against ME!” God tells us to put Him first, but do we say, “No! I have my own wants and needs to take care of first, maybe if I have some leftovers I’ll give something to God.” We’ve all had times like that. And what does God do? He wakes us up. Probably hasn’t been with a great big fish, but maybe it’s a sudden challenge in our lives which draws our attention heavenward. Maybe it’s a serious illness that strips us of our “I can make it on my own” attitude. Maybe it’s a long, hard look at God’s law that shows us how greatly we’ve fallen and how desperately we need a Savior. Whatever it may be, THANK the Lord for confronting us with our sin and showing us our desperate need for a Savior. Realizing our sinfulness let us confess our sin to God:
Hosea 3:1 – Thank you, God, for your faithful love
God has taken away your sin. For as high has the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for you; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed your sin from you. You are forgiven. How might you picture that kind of love? I’ll bet you wouldn’t have guessed this one. God gave the Israelites and us an object lesson. God told the prophet Hosea to marry an adulteress, a prostitute. God wanted Hosea to unconditionally and unselfishly commit his life to a woman who had a terrible history of being faithless and unfaithful in the deepest way. How would you have felt if you were Hosea? I think it’s safe to say that no one looks for a spouse who is unfaithful or not-trustworthy. But what was God’s point? Look at the verse, “The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” What’s the point? God still loves the unfaithful.
Although we are the unfaithful ones, unfaithful with the gifts and abilities God’s given us, unfaithful with our devotion to His Word, although that is who we are…guess what… God sent his Son, Jesus, to die for your unfaithfulness. God picked you up and united Himself with you. God still continues to love you. God will not turn away from you, God will never divorce you, God does not leave you. God loves you unconditionally and His abounding love and forgiveness will never, ever run out for you! Is that something to be thankful for? THANK you, Lord, for Your incredibly faithful love!
Jeremiah 32:7-25 – Thank you, God, for reminding me of the big picture!
To understand this next segment, we need to understand the context. Nebuchadnezzar – the Babylonian king – has come with his army and is besieging Jerusalem. He’s already overrun the rest of the country, and is about to destroy the capital city, Jerusalem, and will be killing many and taking many more off into exile.
What do you think? Is that a good time to be buying property? Not so much, right? J
And, yet, that’s exactly what God tells Jeremiah to do. He tells Jeremiah that his cousin is going to come and ask him to buy his field, and that Jeremiah should buy it. So, sure enough, Jeremiah’s cousin shows up, and Jeremiah dutifully weighs out the silver, and buys the field.
Later, Jeremiah’s praying, and he says to God, and it seems like it’s probably with some degree of frustration, “See how the siege ramps are built up to take the city. Because of the sword, famine and plague, the city will be handed over to the Babylonians who are attacking it. What you said has happened, as you now see. {25} And though the city will be handed over to the Babylonians, you, O Sovereign LORD, say to me, ‘Buy the field with silver and have the transaction witnessed.'” (Jer 32:24-25 NIV)
What was God teaching Jeremiah, and us? He’s reminding us that He sees the big picture! Yes, the army was at the gates at that point. Yes, the Israelites were in trouble at that point. Yes, they would be going into exile.
But they would be coming back! It would be years later, but they would come back! God knew the big picture, and would guide His people through it!
And so God will do with you and me. He knows what will happen next month, next year, 50 years from now. Even now He’s guiding and directing all things for the good of His people, including you. In fact, even now God’s causing/allowing things in your life which will be a blessing for your great, great, great grand-children!
Thank you, God! Thank you for knowing the big picture! And thank you for reminding me of that big picture, that I might approach all of life with confidence and joy!
Exodus 17:10-12 – Thank you, God, for Gifting Me in Unique Ways!
Okay, everyone, I want you to do something a bit different. Hold up your arms into the air. Go ahead, hold them up high as you listen to this last sermonette.
The Israelites were on their way to the Promised Land after having left Egypt. Indeed, it wasn’t long after God had begun giving them manna, that the Israelites were attacked by the Amalekites. And God did something, well, strange.
He had Moses stand on the top of a hill, holding up the staff of God (the same staff, apparently, which he’d held out over the Red Sea when God divided it). As long as Moses’ hands were up, the Israelites would be winning the battle; when his hands went down, the Israelites would begin losing. Strange! The challenge, of course, was for Moses to keep his hands up there.
By the way, how are your arms doing? Starting to feel it a little bit? Well, imagine doing this for hours, and the success of the battle depends on you keeping your hands up! Would it be nice to have some help?
Well, that’s what happened! Aaron and a man named Hur stood to Moses’ side, and held his arms up, and so the Israelites won the battle. Aaron and Hur’s contributions were huge! Simple, but huge!
And, you know what’s neat? God uses each of our talents in accomplishing His eternal work! God uses each of our talents – maybe we’re “Moses,” maybe we’re “Aaron/Hur”, maybe we’re one of the “foot-soldiers” in the trenches – to accomplish His eternal work!
All of which leads us to again say, “Thank you, God! Thank you for gifting me in a unique way! Thank you for using me to either hold up my hands, or to help hold up someone else’s hands, or to be blessed by those hands being held up! It may not be obvious to me how it’s happening. It may not be obvious to me how I’m a blessing to others. But You’ve promised that I am. Hands down! J