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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
If you hear a little noise in my audio recording, it’s because I’m recording outside in honor of what this special day is.
In past years today in America was known as “Black Friday”. That is not a racial statement but rather a financial phrase. Many retail businesses did so much ‘holiday shopping’ business on this day that they anticipated the profits this Friday would finally bring their business ‘into the black’ for the year (into profitability). Of course with the global internet for shopping and the global Coronavirus restricting movement everything is changed this “Black Friday”.
But this Friday after Thanksgiving has another major global significance. For millions of people this is a ‘family reunion’ weekend which focused yesterday on a day of Thanksgiving, and now for the rest of the weekend on what I call “Restoration” or “Realignment”. For many families, as people come together for this weekend they finally take the time needed to really TALK and LISTEN to each other. Often this weekend helps people realize just how far apart from one another they have drifted in their busyness. Sometimes people discover they have allowed themselves to become suspicious or critical of friends or family and on this weekend they set about to restore frayed relationships and realign their values and priorities. Is some of that needed in your family, my friends?
One other very big thing often happens on this weekend all around the world. It begins with the intentional “THANKFULNESS” of thanksgiving day, when people often spend considerable time thinking about all God has done FOR them and IN them. Have you noticed, as people pour out their thanks to God a very strange thing happens…they actually find themselves being drawn TO God by the power of Gratitude, anointed by the Holy Spirit. A grateful heart often moves us to worship and to a deeper relationship with God! Is that happening in you and your family this weekend?
Join me in 2 Chronicles 31 today and see how the “thanksgiving” of the 2 week long Passover celebration which drew Jews and ‘aliens’ from all over the region, was so fantastic that it achieved, 2700 years ago, what I have just described for our world on Thanksgiving weekend in our day. Restoration of relationships and Realignment of values and priorities brought a unity to the people like they had not experienced in Jerusalem in 200 years! The continual and vibrant worship which took place during this Passover focused the people on God and His love for His people and spiritual revival spread among the people.
Then these people did something remarkable, do you see it in verse 1? “When all this had ended, the Israelites who were there went out to the towns of Judah and smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and altars throughout Judah…” Do you see that their spiritual revival, their realignment with God’s values, and their restored family relationships motivated them to action…a very specific and long overdue action!? They tore down the places of idol worship and the idols themselves which had been erected by their wicked leaders and ancestors. It was a spiritual revolution and a cleansing of the people and the land! Consider that… could it happen in our day, should it happen in our day this Thanksgiving weekend where you live?
As you read through the rest of 2 Chronicles 31 you’ll see king Hezekiah led the people in restoring spiritual order and priorities in the land, and the people responded with great generosity and delight. You see many of the people had forsaken their responsibility to provide tithes and offerings for the Temple and those who ministered there, so many of the priests had to find other jobs or plant fields or raise flocks to feed themselves and their families. But in this great national and spiritual revival, for the first time in a very long time, the people joyfully responded to God with generosity. Look at vs. 5 “As soon as the order went out, the Israelites generously gave the first fruits of their grain, new wine, oil and honey and all that the fields produced. They brought a great amount, a tithe of everything!”
When king Hezekiah saw the joyful generosity of the people, he asked the chief priest about it and look at the response in vs 9,10 “Azariah the chief priest answered, ‘since the people began to bring their contributions to the temple of the LORD, we have had enough to eat and plenty to spare, because the LORD has blessed His people…” (2 Chron. 31:9,10)
Now I ask you my friends…what changed here? There was not suddenly a bumper crop of grain, or a huge harvest of olives for olive oil, or triple size bunches of grapes on the vine for wine making, nor were the flocks suddenly having babies in triplets instead of single births. No… what happened was the spiritually revived people worshiped God with generosity and the needs of Temple and priests were met with abundance!
Do you see the spiritual principle? When our focus is rightly on God and His sovereignty over the uncontrollable things in our lives, His sovereignty over the wickedness and politics and evil in the land, then our response to God is worship and generosity. When our focus eliminates or minimizes God, fear awakens and we become selfish and greedy, fearing what we have won’t be enough for our needs, much less sharing them with God or others. Have you experienced this? So this Thanksgiving…where is your focus, what are your attitudes, what effect is your worship having on your life?
Now finally, one last verse I want to draw to your attention in 2 Chronicles 31:21,21 “This is what Hezekiah did throughout the land, doing what was good and right and faithful before the LORD his God. In everything that he undertook…Hezekiah sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered.” Now this Thanksgiving weekend, ponder this statement as you look at leadership in every segment of your society, wherever you live… business leaders, educators, health care providers, athletes and entertainers, politicians and even church leaders. Of which leaders in your world can you make that statement? And what might happen in 2021 if you and I lived the statement which was made of Hezekiah? And if we challenged everyone we know, especially every leader we know to live like Hezekiah did, what might our world be like come Thanksgiving 2021?
You see my friends, what Hezekiah and the people didn’t know was that in the wonder of their Thanksgiving/Passover “Revival” and “Restoration” and “Realignment” God was helping them prepare for something they didn’t know was coming… the greatest challenge, the most fearful threat to their personal, family and national safety and security, that had been seen in Jerusalem in several generations! We’ll look at that tomorrow. But in closing today, could it be God is looking ahead into your future and mine and wanting to do the same for us this weekend… because He alone can see what is coming in the future?
I found a song my friends that fits so well with these thoughts today… May I urge you to spend some time talking with God as you read through 2 Chronicles 31 and worshiping with this great song. Is ‘restoration’, ‘realignment’ and ‘revival’ awaiting this Thanksgiving weekend for you, your family and your church?
Click to read today’s chapter: 2 Chronicles 31. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
NEW FEATURE: Click here to listen to a dramatized reading of 2 Chronicles 31.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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