Title Meaning of Thanksgiving / Exodus 23:14-17
Content Meaning of Thanksgiving / Exodus 23:14-17
We would like to keep today as Macchu Thanksgiving Day. While pondering the meaning of the True Harvest Festival, I wish to receive God's grace and blessings by giving true thanks to God. What is the meaning of Harvest Festival?
1. It is a season to give thanks for the growth of our faith life.
The Israelites always ate what God had given them in the wilderness. However, when I entered the land of Canaan, I worked hard and sweat for the first time, worked and gave the harvested grain, and lived a mature life of faith knowing how to give thanks to God's grace.
As we spend this year's Autumn Festival, we should not be content with only receiving God's grace, but from now on, we must become mature saints who give thanks for the grace we have already received, voluntarily dedicate ourselves, give love, give grace, and reciprocate. From a church perspective, now, as a future-oriented church, we must grow into a church that ignites the fire of mission to the world.
2. You must lead a self-sufficient life of faith.
Just as the people of Israel had to work and sweat to obtain the products of the earth, self-sufficiency in faith arises when we work hard, sweat, and dedicate ourselves according to God's word and will. We must pray, serve, serve, and commit ourselves.
Everyone! Now, please stop living in the wilderness where you depended on others, fell easily, took a test, blamed others, and complained. In particular, those who are at least in office or higher must keep their faith. It should be an example for new families. Other people's beliefs cannot solve my problems. We must lead a self-sufficient life of faith that keeps our faith and position well by doing the holy water on Sundays, prayer life, attendance at public meetings, dedication to service, and tithing.
3. You must devote yourself to the fruits that you have borne.
The Israelites first gave thanks to God for the fruit of the land they had obtained through their hard work. Also, this day is the Day of Pentecost, the day the Lord promised the Holy Spirit came down, and the church received great power and reaped the first fruits of the church that Christ had sown. The Lord said, "We will cut down every tree that does not bear fruit and throw it into the fire." "We know the tree by its fruit." We must now bear fruit as a family and ecclesially. So, we must settle accounts before the Lord.
There are three types of gratitude.
1) If (conditional gratitude): One-dimensional gratitude to give something
2) Because thanks: Two-dimensional gratitude for what has been accomplished
3) In spite of (Nevertheless) Gratitude: In spite of difficult tribulation, God saved me and God is with me in three dimensions. This is true gratitude (refer to Habakkuk 3:17-18). In other words, when God gives thanks for the salvation of Jehovah God in the third dimension, even in the midst of hunger for lack of food, thirst for drink, and death that cannot be turned on because there is no oil. will provide abundantly for all your needs.
So, how should we celebrate the Harvest Festival?
1. We must gather before attention.
Exodus 23:14 says, “Three times a year he shall appear to the Lord GOD.” Even for those who do not usually come out well, when the whole family comes out to worship God during the church festivals, God is pleasing to Him. Where we gather, grace, the Word, and blessings are found. It is only when we gather together that strength arises, fire ignites, and history arises.
2. It must not be airborne.
Psalm 50:23 says, “He who offers sacrifices of thanksgiving glorifies God.” Sacrifice requires a separate sacrificial offering. It is not that God does not have material things. God is the Creator, Owner, and Operator of all matter. What is required of us is to give us greater blessings through our faith. Therefore, those who fail to keep the feasts and miss out on the opportunity of God's blessing.
3. It should be kept with pleasure.
The Lord is pleased if we keep the feasts with a heart of gratitude, obedience, and humility, not by force. What are the blessings of those who keep the feasts well?
1) God is on our side (verse 22).
Wherever we are in the world, no matter what we do, God is on our side, working, helping, and winning.
2) He gives you food and material blessings (verse 25).
He will pour out blessings for you as you eat according to your hard work, and as soon as you enter a city or go out into the fields.
3) He is removed from sickness (verse 25).
The resurrected life of Jesus, and the power of Jesus, all the sicknesses that plagued us will all go away.
4) He blesses his descendants (verse 26).
He said that no one will have an abortion or become barren. It is the blessing of descendants. (Psalm 127:3)
5) He fills our days (verse 26).
Dear saints,
Resentment is the possession of those who are perishing. Those who do not give thanks are proud, foolish and self-indulgent. God is on the side of those who are thankful and uses those who are thankful as builders of heaven. He is grateful for the little things and entrusts bigger things to those who are faithful. He always builds a wall for the grateful family with the fence of the Holy Spirit. Now, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will live a more mature life of faith, a life of self-sufficiency, and a life that is filled with the regenerated fruits of the Holy Spirit that I keep and give and help others.