Goodness, Mercy, Redemption
John 16:32-33
Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
John 16:32-33 NKJV
Do you believe this? Do you have peace, or tribulation? It’s hard to be thankful in tribulations and trials. If we can learn to be thankful to Jesus then you can be of good cheer. Then we can have joy that surpasses all understanding no matter what situation we may be in.
This is the time of year that life starts to get just a little bit crazier. Life seems to speed up just a little bit more. Stress goes up to the next level. The preparation for Thanksgiving dinner alone will give you anxiety!
We bring our Families together. And sometimes that’s not always a good thing. But we put our differences aside for a few hours to come back together as a family.
We will say a prayer to give thanks to the Lord.
This is the day that we specifically thank Jesus for what He has done.
There’s so many things that I’m thankful for. My wife, who always stands by my side. My sons for their unconditional love, and my future daughter in-law. My parents, My in-laws. My brothers and sisters. My nieces and nephew’s. Aunties and uncles, cousins. I’m thankful for every single one of you. And I can go on and on for the things I’m thankful for.
But as I was thinking about this, what makes all these things happen in our lives? Not just Who, but what?
We will gather together and pray to our Savior and praise Him and thank Him for life and all the blessings.
But I want you to see even deeper today. It’s not just the who but the what and why we give thanks.
This Thanksgiving week we will get to what the core of being thankful is.
The definition of thankful is Grateful, impressed with a sense of kindness received, and ready to acknowledge it.
The definition of thanks is to express gratitude for a favor. It’s to make acknowledgments to one for kindness bestowed.
The word thankfulness comes up in the new Testament 71 times.
Thanksgiving is the act of expressing your thankfulness.
Sometimes hard, rough times come to us, fast and very unsuspected.
We start to get caught up in the circumstances of life. Sometimes it’s so much that we may turn away from God. Even as Believers in Jesus Christ we forget and start to lose sight of where we are supposed to be going because we are stuck in where we are at.
Then we start to become a little bit discouraged. Our thinking starts to change. We start asking the question “why me Lord”.
The reality is why not you.
It seems like the weight of the whole world is not only sitting on your shoulders but crushing you.
So let me ask you, can you still be thankful?
Can you still give the Lord thanks even in these times. No matter what your circumstances are. If so, why?
Psalms 107:1 NKJV
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.
He is Good!
No matter what!
God is Good!
Jesus is pleasing.
He is admirable.
And superior to all things.
He is GOOD!
Thank Him for His Goodness.
There is so much more!
If there’s anything to be thankful for it’s His mercy.
You see, one of the first times The Father showed His loving Divine mercy was in the Garden of Eden.
When Adam and Eve went against His Command and ate from the tree, the only tree he said not to. The shame and guilt they had was so deep. They tried to hide themselves from Him by covering themselves with fig leaves.
But God in His mercy covered them. the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
Genesis 3:21 NKJV
Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
Mercy is forgiving the sinner and withholding the punishment that is justly deserved. Jesus, the only Begotten Son of the Father is the ultimate show of mercy!
His mercy endures forever and forever to whoever will receive it through His Son!
It is no longer the skins of animals but the perfect Shed Blood of Jesus Christ!
The very first thing we should thank the Lord for is His undying, neverending, unchanging mercy.
Where would any of us be without it!
This is a very hard time of year for many.
There is so much going on.
We have wars.
We have protests.
We have the evil of man’s heart being fuelled by hate.
Our families may not be united.
I totally understand the pressure of the world!
It’s hard to stay thankful in such a state of chaos.
But
Psalms 107:2 NKJV
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,
Redeemed means to purchase back, to liberate or rescue from captivity or bondage.
What was your life like before you met Jesus?
What did He save you from? What circumstances. What sin. We might be redeemed from the world, the flesh, the devil, or countless other snares.
All of our circumstances are different. We all have different struggles and we all have things that we battle. But there’s only one outcome if we don’t change our ways, Death. Not just physical death but spiritual death.
Without this enduring mercy We would still be in the hands of our enemy.
Every person that has walked this earth has had to be saved from something.
Where would all of us be if Jesus decided to not go to the Cross?
There would be no Redemption. There would have been no escape. There would have been no exchange. Then all of the stories in the Bible would be just that, stories!
But praise God that there is the Shed Blood of Jesus that we have been purchased with!
We have been redeemed and have been snatched out of the hand of the enemy. We have now been put into the hands of the Creator! The one that created us in His image holds us in His Mighty and more than able hand!
Goodness, Mercy and Redemption!
We must remind ourselves daily of these three foundations of The Lord’s love toward us.
Sometimes we have to look at what has been done for us and not to us, or what we try to do for ourselves.
As we prepare this week for the coming Holiday I challenge you to something.
Meditate on the
Goodness
Mercy
Redemption
The Goodness of His character.
The Mercy in His Heart.
The Redemption in His Blood.
Where would we be if it had not been for the Lord!
That’s it, just these three.
Then let the Lord reshape your thoughts and heart to a lifelong, lifestyle of thankfulness!
Pastor Ed
