November 17, 2024
The Best Thanksgiving Offering
Matthew 13:24-30/Galatians 5:13-26
Reverend Yong Choel Woo
In two weeks, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving Day. We all hope to gather and have a good time with family and friends. As we celebrate this special day, I hope that we all deeply meditate on the grace of God, who has accompanied and protected us, and in doing so, given us countless blessings throughout the year. (slide 1) How can we express our gratitude to Him for His grace and many blessings? And what kind of thanksgiving offerings can we give Him as we celebrate Thanksgiving Day?
If you have any remaining harvest from your personal garden, it would be very meaningful to place a portion of that harvest on the church’s altar for the Thanksgiving service. Or, we may consecrate a portion of the financial harvest God has blessed us with this year and offer it to Him as our thanksgiving offering. We will also be blessing the Operation Christmas Child boxes that will be a blessing to children around the world.
For that purpose, I want to share the kinds of thanksgiving offerings that can please God and how we can prepare them.
In the passage from Galatians that we read today, (slide 2) Paul tells us what a Christian’s life should be like and what spiritual fruit we should bear in our lives. (slide 3) Paul emphasizes that because our Lord Jesus paid the price for our sins on the cross, we Christians can live a new life, freed from sin and strict adherence to the Mosaic Law (5:1). In addition, he explains that (slide 4) Christians, who are privileged to become God’s forgiven children and live a new life in Christ, should walk with the Holy Spirit in order to continue living this new life (5:16).
By walking with the Holy Spirit, we are provided with His wisdom, care, encouragement, guidance, and protection. (slide 5) This enables us to bear the spiritual fruit of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). (slide 6) We should understand that these fruits are borne in our relationships with those around us, including our family, church family, friends, and neighbors.
Paul concludes that by bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives,(slide 7)we can humbly serve one another in love (5:13). Just as the Lord humbled Himself and served us by freeing us from sin and the Law, we should serve one another with the help and power of the Holy Spirit, (slide 8) resulting in our building a strong faith community and growing His kingdom here on earth.
We believe that, throughout this year, the Holy Spirit has accompanied us, both individually and as a faith community, In the parable from the Gospel of Matthew, just as a farmer sows seeds in the field and those seeds grow, (slide 9) the Holy Spirit graciously sows countless spiritual seeds in our hearts, minds, thoughts, and actions so that we can humbly serve one another as our Lord served us, building a strong faith community and extending His kingdom to the local community and the world.
However, in the parable from Matthew that we read today, we see an “enemy” who comes and sows the seeds of weeds in the farmer’s field. Similarly, many evil spirits tempt us to satisfy the desires of the flesh, (slide 10) causing us to bear the fruit of the flesh (or the fruit of evil spirits) that Paul illustrates in Galatians 5:19-21: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, and orgies.
Church, (slide 11) which fruits are we bearing in our lives? No one else may know the fruit we are bearing, but we surely know the answer to this question. We may find that some or much of the fruit we are producing are of the Holy Spirit, while other fruit is not. We may have to admit that some or many of the fruits of the flesh are also present in our lives. In such moments, we may feel disappointed with ourselves and with the way that our lives do not conform with our faith. Moreover, we may feel confused when we see both the fruit of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the flesh growing side by side in our hearts and lives, just as wheat and weeds grow together in the parable of Matthew.
(slide 12) Where are you in terms of bearing spiritual fruit in your life?
As we struggle with our inconsistency with bearing spiritual fruit, our Lord is patient with us, allowing us the grace to gradually change, grow, and mature as His children. He gives us the opportunity to bear much fruit of the Holy Spirit, just as the farmer does not want to pull up the weeds in advance but waits for the harvest, when the wheat and weeds will be separated according to the fruit each plant bears.
(slide 13) God wants us to receive and walk with the Holy Spirit so that we can bear abundant spiritual fruit in our lives. By giving us His wisdom, encouragement, guidance, and protection, the Holy Spirit helps us serve one another humbly in love, live strong relational lives with those around us, and extend His kingdom through our lives.
As we celebrate Thanksgiving Day, it will be wonderful if we can worship Him, acknowledging and thanking God for the grace that has been bestowed on our lives through the Holy Spirit. (slide 14) Let’s think about how we can give thanks to Him with the spiritual fruit we have borne in our lives with the help and power of the Holy Spirit. I am convinced that this will be the best thanksgiving offering we can give Him.
If we are not yet prepared to offer this kind of thanksgiving to Him this year, how about coming before Him and honestly acknowledging our weaknesses and limitations? (slide 15) Let’s confess to Him that at times we have striven to satisfy the desires of the flesh and ask for His mercy and forgiveness. This, too, will surely be an offering He will be pleased to receive from us.
His grace through the Holy Spirit continues in our lives. Let us dare to receive His help and power so that we can continue to bear much fruit of the Holy Spirit, serve one another, build our faith community, and extend His kingdom through our lives. (slide 16) Let’s strive this week to bear spiritual fruit in our lives and bring the best thanksgiving offering to our worship next Sunday.