What Are You Reading? Sacrifice and Thanksgiving

Well good morning ladies and happy Monday morning. I don't know if you're like me and you're already shocked that it's November. I don't know how that happened. This year is just flying by and so we're already into November and I don't know what kind of person you are. If you are a go ahead and already start for Christmas, you know, pulling out all those decorations or if when I was growing up we had a rule that not until after Thanksgiving was done then the Christmas decorations could come out but I think I'm gonna break some rules this year and put out some Christmas decorations. I don't know I did it last year too and it was really fun so I don't know what kind of person you are maybe you can say something in the comments but in that vein of thinking about the holidays and of course November is a month of Thanksgiving. We look at Thanksgiving and there was a passage of scripture that just happened to kind of stand out to me. We're going to be in Psalm 50 as well as we're first going to go to Hebrews chapter 2. And so I'm going to go ahead and jump over to Hebrews chapter 2. And here we have this interesting passage and it's kind of like I'm going to give you a message of contemplate Christmas but also be thankful if that makes sense. And hopefully as talk, this will sort of make sense to you. So, I'm going to jump to Hebrews chapter 2, verse 9. And in verse 9, it says, but we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. And I know that's kind of an odd verse to pick out, but as I was, we're in this series, what are you reading? As I was reading this, I started to think about jesus in heaven with the lord and then came down to earth and what he sacrificed what he surrendered to god in order to save us left perfection to come down here to be made a little lower than the angels that then we could experience eternity with him and eternity with the father eternity with the Holy Spirit. And so in that, I just want you to think a little bit as we enter into, I know stores are going to start playing Christmas music. I laughed because on the 31st on Halloween, they already started playing Christmas commercials. So, you know, we are a culture that jumps straight in from one season to the next. And so looking at Christmas, I want you to take time this year, and we still have, I don't even know how many days until Christmas, to really think about the glory that Jesus left to bring glory to the earth. He left heaven to come down here and bring glory to the earth. And so I know we take time Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to kind of think of some of those things, but really just hone in and try and focus on that. That Jesus was made a little lower than the angels. Holy Jesus, one with God the Father, made a little lower than the angels so that you and I could get to know him, that he would be fully God and fully man. And so I want you to think about that. But at the same time, I want us to also be in a state of thanksgiving, a state of thankfulness. Because what I want us to do is now go and look over at Psalm 50. so we look at jesus's sacrifice from heaven coming down to earth and the glory of that and that was his own sacrifice but i want us to think about our own sacrifices to the lord what things do we need to surrender to him what things do we need to thank him for what things do we need to lay down and sacrifice to the lord and in psalm 50 it just kind of hit me you know you i'm in the middle of i think I've told you guys my whole reading plan, how I'm jumping around in the Bible kind of, and you know, I'm in the middle of reading numbers and we have all, and there's all these sacrifices. And yet we get to Psalm 50 and it becomes very evident at the heart. The heart of the matter is the heart of the matter, right? The heart is so important. And so I just want you to listen to this. It says, listen, my people, this is Psalm 50 verse seven. I will testify against you Israel I am God your God I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings which are ever before me I have no need of bull from your stall of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens for every animal of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills I know every bird in the mountains and insects in the fields are mine if I were hungry I would not tell you for the world is mine and all that is in it do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats, sacrifice, thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the most high and call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you will honor me. And then further down in verse 23, it says this, those who sacrifice, thank offerings, honor me and to the blameless, I will show my salvation. So I want you to think about that as we enter into November, as we enter into the season of what we call Thanksgiving, I want you to think about thanking God, just offering thanks and praise to him, that that would be your sacrifice. And it might even be that you're in possibly the worst season of your life. It could be that Thanksgiving and Christmas bring up some of the most difficult memories, you know, longing and loss. Maybe you lost someone. Maybe Christmas, you know, not for everybody, Christmas and Thanksgiving is a great time of year. Sometimes it brings back painful memories. But what if perhaps instead of focusing on that, I'm not saying this is easy, we offer thanksgiving to God. Find something to be thankful for and let that go to God. Praise Him. Thank Him. And that be your sacrifice in the same way or maybe not quite the same way but how Jesus left something that was so wonderful left heaven to come down as a sacrifice for us that we would then live our lives in thanksgiving that we would then live with our eyes on eternity with him and so those are kind of two different thoughts all in one all in one video from two different passages of scripture so we have you know Jesus coming down to um to be with us and you know in Hebrews obviously all throughout the Bible to talk we talk about this but just in Hebrews looking at that and what Christ left to come to come after us you know to pursue us and then we have this passage in Psalm 50 of Thanksgiving and so maybe as we enter into this holiday season as kind of a package deal whether you decorate early for Christmas and then just have that one day of you know for Thanksgiving and then all of as we enter these next two months i want you to think about the sacrifice that jesus made to come for me for you for all mankind that he stepped down and made himself lowly that we could then be lifted up and i'm learning a lot in one class of the culture that um of the bible and how it's a vertical culture and my ladies who are listening here in my class are laughing along with this that it's an honor and shame culture and Jesus reached down to the shame to lift them up to honor and so he stepped down from a place of honor to here on earth that he would then raise us from shame into honor and if that's not something you can be thankful for then I don't know what is and so maybe as you contemplate Jesus coming to earth maybe that's the only thing that you can truly grasp in this season and if it's you know if it's a difficult time that you can praise God and thank him and that will be your sacrifice throughout this month your sacrifice of thanksgiving everything may not be going the way that you want it to but your sacrifice is thanksgiving and praise unto god because like it says right here where is it i lost my spot hold on one second those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me so focus on that this month sacrifice thanksgiving and think of Jesus and what he's done and know that when you do those things you are honoring God. So I hope that encourages you today and hopefully I'll see you next week.

Originally published at warren.church.