Happy Thanksgiving!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father bring us, together, into His presence today. Father, refresh and restore our hearts until we are overflowing with thankfulness. Help us to rejoice in how you have provided for us today Father! Even if all we have is the breath in our lungs to praise you, may we be grateful to you. But we have more than breath, Father. You have given us your Son to free us from sin and lead us forever into eternity with you. In the name of your Son, Jesus, and by the Spirit, help us to live grateful lives. May we be a people known as "Eager to Give Thanks" and "Quick to Be Grateful." Please share your delight with us as we seek out your will and obey it.
Your Morning Song: "Gratefulness" by Rend Collective
Your Morning Scripture: Psalm 100
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.
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Happy Thanksgiving from your brothers and sisters in Christ here at Stuart First Congregational Church! And without quite meaning to, this greeting has put into practice what God is saying to us through the Psalm above.
What is the uniting principle upon which our greeting rests? Not the holiday. Not the name of our slice of God's Kingdom. Not even our wonderful family labels, brother, sister. No. It is, "in Christ" upon which our greeting to you rests.
Read through the Psalm again and look for the same idea. Similar to so many other well-known verses, such as Psalm 23 and John 3:16, it is God who upholds and makes possible all good things. It is He who gives and provides and rescues and restores.
God's goodness and enduring love is so great, so wonderful, so indefatigable, that the right response of the whole world is to shout for joy, to worship with gladness. But not all of the world will respond this way.
But we will. Brothers and sisters united in Christ, as you celebrate together today this day of Thanksgiving, remember who you are. We are made and loved by God. We belong to Him. Not just as His creations, but also as His children, His dearly loved sons and daughters. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.
Brothers and sisters. We belong to God in a deep and abiding that we do not deserve. It reminds me of the times that my children have been bad but I decide to take them somewhere to play or get a treat anyway. I always tell them, and they now know by heart...
"I am taking you somewhere special. Do you deserve it today?"
"No." (Delmar usually grunts or growls).
"Then why am I taking you if you don't deserve it?"
"Because you love us."
God calls us, son, daughter, to come to Him today and every day! And we will never deserve it. It will only ever be because He loves us. What incredible freedom to be unchained from "deserving!" In His presence, as His children, we will certainly be rewarded each according to what we have done or not done. But we have all been called to come to Him! And this undeserved invitation to the wedding feast between the Lamb and His Bride is the foundation upon which all our hope and joy rests.
Let us enter His gates with thanksgiving and come into His courts with praise. May our Thanksgiving Day be marked with thankfulness and praise to our Heavenly Father. For He is the one who loves. We are the ones loved. Let us live in the peace and rest and joy of His making, His claiming, His pastures, His gates, His courts, His perfect goodness, His everlasting love.
Children of God, shout for joy!
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