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Time for some Thankfulness
Good morning and welcome to another week of church online here at the bridge.
It is the time of year to be thankful for all that we have.
I can say that there is so much that I am thankful for this year.
I am thankful for health, safety, family, this church, and so much more.
Most of all i a thankful for my savior Jesus Christ.
It was this attitude of thanksgiving that got me thinking about next week.
Next week we start the church year over again.
We begin the season of advent.
The beginning of the story and that is something to be thankful for.
I was laughing about this because i had to be reminded by Dustin to not forget that next week is Advent.
The Christmas season is such a joy and it all starts in the best way possible in my opinion.
This wasn’t a biblical thing but is something that is unique to us here in America it is fitting to me that we end our year at thanksgiving and we start our year as a church with Christmas.
Because of that i wanted to focus in on this idea of thanksgiving.
Let’s look at what the word has for us this morning.
What a powerful passage of scripture that turns us to a reason to be thankful.
Let us look a little closer at this passage.
Do not be afraid
This is one of the more common phrases in the Bible that i think we hear.
Do not be afraid.
It is something that is heard both int he new testament and the Old testament.
From the story of Mary to the many times before the Israelite would go into battle we see this phrase a lot.
When i read this that is where my mind went.
It went to all the battle cries of the OT and the preparing of the troops for battle.
Getting the men ready for battle was always important and this was often the cry to remind the people not to be afraid and to trust in God.
We need to cast our fear aside and trust in God.
Yet, this passage is not exactly the same idea with this phrase.
and Joel 2:21
Both of these verses share a common phrase in do not be afraid.
This phrase is not addressing an issue of fear and conquering a fear to do a great thing but is a call to not be afraid any more because Redemption has come.
The best way i thought of it was this was the moment you can breath the sigh of relief because you know that God has this.
That the storm has past.
You can let go of fear because God is comforting and has delivered you already, not that he is going to deliver you soon.
This relief can be seen for us in the rest of the passage in the redemption that God brings to the land, animals, and the fields and even the people.
He does this through many ways but one is...
The Gift of the Rains
It always amazes me how we can see rain in different lights.
There are times that rain is a bad thing.
I think of the beginning of the last couple summers around here.
It seems like may and June are just always raining.
It makes it difficult to do anything because the rain never seems to stop.
Then we Hit July and August and it seems like we never get rain.
Its dry and parched.
Back and forth we go longing for rain and longing for the rain to stop.
Yet, we know that rain is necessary it is what helps things grow.
If we didn’t have rain than life would be very different than what we currently know.
For the israelites this is the position they found themselves in.
They were in a period where they longed for the rain.
If you don’t know the preceeding chapter tells us about the condition of the people of Israel.
There was famine and locust destroying and wrecking havoc on the people.
They were struggling and there seemed to be no hope on the horizon.
Then God promises the gift of the rains.
Yet, this is an interesting passage because it is one that we can read very differently if we pick up a different Bible.
Many of you know that I use the NIV.
The NIV is a good version and honestly we aren’t going to get into the differences of the versions of scripture this morning.
There are times though that we need to look to other versions to get a different understanding of how passages can be translated.
Do you see the difference.
The slight variation in translation of moving from Rain for your vindication, or rains because he is faithful.
This view of vindication or righteousness changes the way we understand this passage.
The promise to Come
We can see it as the coming rains because God is faithful to take care of us and heal us even after our suffering.
The second way that it can be read is a promise of something more and far greater to come.
There are some that see this as a message about a coming teacher who is or is coming to teach righteousness.
Now this is a debated way to read the passage because the truth of the matter is that the rains of faithfulness fits the context of the passage.
It makes sense but there is a possibility that Joel is speaking with two intended meanings in this passage.
We can understand this passage from the context of the coming rains that bring life and will restore the land.
We can also read it and understand it that God is going to send the “rain” of righteousness through the promised teacher or messiah and true redemption will come for the people.
This can be seen with similar passages and translations in...
This idea of the teacher and rain is not new to the Scriptures and it is important that we see that this passage can be read in a way that the promise is coming.
The promise of...
Divine Healing
This promise of divine healing is the promise that we long to have fulfilled.
Like the Israelites at the time there was a longing for the restoration of the land.
There was a longing for the reversal of what had happened to them.
The reversal is seen in Joel 2:25
This correction is something we long for since the beginning.
Sin entered this world because of the actions of one and it has lived in us and moved through the years keeping us from true righteousness.
It wasn’t till the promised teacher came that we find freedom.
It is this promise of the coming rain it is the promise of the return to life that we gain in the spring rain that brings life and sustenance to the land and restores the people that we look to.
It is in Christ that we look to be made righteous.
It is for this reason that we are thankful this morning.
We are thankful because it was his actions the actions of one man who choose to bear our sin and shame for all the earth and return us to life.
To return us to the ability to be in relationship with God and free his people from these struggles.
This morning it is in that light i encourage you to spend some time each day to think about what you are thankful for.
What you have that God has given you.
Most of all always remember that we can be thankful that he died on the cross to forgive us of our sins.
Let us pray.
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