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Thank God for life

Harvest Thanksgiving
Sunday, 3rdrd October, 2010

Philippians 4:6

 

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 

 

Shem and the Sugar Puffs

“What does the government think its doing?

They make all sorts of promises and all that ever happens is that things get worse. And now there is no food!”

Dad was in a bad mood. Mum was crying and prone to giving Shem long embarrassing hugs and wet kisses.

 

They had been through the most exciting experiences you could ever imagine. The last one was crossing a sea by walking along the bottom while the sea was piled up by the wind. When the Egyptians tried it they ended up being washed away. That day they all danced until dark. They had finally escaped Egypt!

 

But today is very different.

The land was scrubland and there were no villages or camel caravans to buy food from.

 

That was why Dad was carrying on so and Mum was crying. The food was short and people were hording the little they had, anxious about where the next supplies were coming from.

 

Dad jumped to his feet and stormed out of the door shouting he was going to tell Moses what he thought of this escape plan. Mum called out “ Don’t say something you will regret. But Dad was gone. Shem got another wet kiss and hug as Mum sobbed. He finally escaped slipped out of the tent and followed his Dad to see what was going to happen. There were crowds of men, angry and Moses was surrounded and looking rather small and vulnerable. Everybody was tense and anxious.

Shem felt a bit sorry for Moses, he and his amazing God had done loads of things for us but as soon as things went wrong everybody blamed Moses and God was forgotten. There was even talk of killing Moses and getting someone to lead them back to Egypt. Hunger makes people desperate.

 

Moses backed off and went into his tent. Shem sneaked close to the tent to hear Moses praying, pouring out his anxiety and frustration to God. He was clearly just as upset as the rest of them but he talked to God about it.

 

When Moses returned from the tent he was calm and confident. He told them there would be food tomorrow morning. Shem went and found Dad. He was still in a bad mood. “Always food tomorrow, never food today” he grumbled but he did go home. He told Mum what Moses said that somehow the food would be around the camp in the morning and we could collect it, and a load of rules which did not make sense. We went to bed hungry.

 

The next morning there was a buzz in the camp people who had gone out early were coming back all excited, with baskets and bowls of some sort of grain. Dad did not waste any time, grabbed the biggest basket he could find and strode off so fast that Shem had to run to keep up with him. And there outside the camp all over the ground was this strange grain. First you tried it. It tasted of honey and coriander. Well, that reminds me of … Honey coated cereals… Sugar Puffs! Try some yourself.

 

 

After a few mouthfuls Shem and his Dad started filling the basket. Dad didn’t stop until his basket was pilled high, far more than we could eat in a day. Then we walked home , excited and curious how it came to be there. Moses said God, had arranged it, Dad said. God has been good, a God who sends food, What an amazing God. It struck Shem that dad had suddenly got religion! But food provided by God was rather wonderful and Shem certainly thought God was the best.

Mum was transformed, bustling round , inventing recipes for this new food, which somehow that day got the name  - Manna -  Manna burgers, manna stew, manna and lamb, manna and dates, the list was endless. We had a feast. The next morning pooh! What a stink! The Manna turned mouldy overnight. But there was fresh manna outside the camp, Shem was sent to fill the basket but only level, just enough for the day. Now dad was remembering the rules and Friday morning he came and he and Shem collected enough for the Sabbath. God apparently thought that one day a week there was to be a day off. And if God thinks it’s a good idea, then Dad and Mum decided it was good for them. On the Sabbath morning the manna was not mouldy but fresh as the previous day. God had thought of everything.

 

Talk

Genesis 8:22

22 "As long as the earth endures,
       seedtime and harvest,
       cold and heat,
       summer and winter,
       day and night
       will never cease."

That is a promise from Almighty God.

And it still holds today. World food production is increasing faster than the population. There is more than enough food to feed the world. The harvest has not failed. God has not failed. Greed, and power means that the plenty is not distributed. 

 

God is reliable. Harvest shows it.

So this verse makes sense

6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

 

Today we make a special point of thanking God for food and health and homes.

 

We thank God for life.

 

But if we stopped there we would have missed the best part of the good news.

 

 

God gives more than life. He seeks to be a friend and companion. But we reject his way. We, like Frank Sinatra want to be proud and live so we can say ‘I did it my way’ and we mess up and selfishness and greed spoil relationships, and infect us with disease worse than AIDS, worse than hunger.

 

God sent Jesus to break the hold sin has on your life and my life, to deal with the consequences of sin and restore our relationship with him.

 

So what do I have to do?

Trust Jesus!

Accept his way, receive his rescue package. And then we can stop being anxious.

 

6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

 

Whether you are a Christian or not, this is the place to start today. Hand to him the anxieties about tomorrow however large or small they are.

6 Do not be anxious about anything, that is so difficult to do and we need to step by step hand over to him those things we hang on to worry about.

 

That does not mean doing or thinking nothing

but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

 

The antidote to anxiety is prayer. The cure for sin is receiving forgiveness by asking God for it. The cure for the fear about work, health, relationships is to talking to God about it. And trusting him to empower us by his Holy Spirit to make the right decisions and find a way through this maze called life.

 

Today’s verse tells us how

6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

 

The verse that follows tells us the result:

7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Trust God and you will have nothing to fear. Even death itself loses is grip on you because Jesus promised eternal life – a life beyond the grave, eternity with the one who loves you and gave himself for you. And for now the presence of the Holy Spirit and the way to deal with anxiety.

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