Muskoka Lakes Ministry of Knox, Port Carling & Zion, Torrance
Sunday Oct 11, 2020
Sermon Series: The Ministry of Jesus
Message: Thanksgiving & Blessing
Reverend Glynis Faith (705-765-3797) (muskokalakesministry@gmail.com)
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Announcements
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Happy Thanksgiving ~ may the Lord smile His favour upon you and your loved ones this Thanksgiving.
The Presbytery of Barrie will meet via Zoom on Tuesday Oct 13 at 7p.m.
Lectio Divina Thursday evenings at 8pm via Zoom. If you would like to take part contact Rev. Faith to receive a Zoom invitation.
If you are planning to attend one of the Outdoor Autumn Worship services, please register in advance by calling the church office (902-365-3797) or emailing (muskokalakesministry@gmail.com). This is necessary for providing a contact-list.
Please check your email before leaving for home to attend the outdoor services. If, for any reason, we must cancel, and email will be sent out by 7:30 a.m. If you are registered to attend, but do not use email, please let me know the number you would like us to call in the event the service is cancelled.
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Call to Worship________________________________________
A Psalm of Thanksgiving. ( Adapted from Psalm 100 )
Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!
Serve the LORD with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
Know that the LORD, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the LORD is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.
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Prayer of Adoration & Confession
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You, Lord, are the great God, the great King above all gods. All of creation belongs to You, for all creation comes from You. You formed the mountains, set the limits of the seas and fashioned the earth. You are awesome and we worship You, our Lord – our God.
We are Your children, made in Your likeness, and we acknowledge that Your care for us is perfect. We rebel, and You respond by sending us Your son to teach us love. We reject, yet You never stop calling us back – pouring grace upon us - - loving us. We deserve Your scorn, but You gave us Jesus instead. For all Your love we give You thanks. For Your grace, we give You our praise. For Your Son, Jesus, we sing praises to You.
If only we would listen – listen to the stories of faith – listen to the cries of the prophets – listen to Your Son calling us back. If only we would take the time to remember – remember the times we felt Your love protecting us – remember the moment we realized Your great love for us – remember committing our lives to You.
Father, You give us more than we deserve.
We confess we too often take Your generosity for granted, thinking ourselves entitled.
You call us to show Your love by caring for the needs of others, yet, we must confess, we are more likely to place our wants and needs before those of others.
You ask us to share Your gifts in our homes and communities. We confess we allow worry over security to limit our sharing.
Lord, forgive us, we pray in the wonderful name of Jesus. AMEN

WORDS OF ASSURANCE
Our Lord is gracious and forgiving. When we acknowledge our sins and seek new life in Christ, God is quick to forgive and guide us in His ways. All thanks – all praise – all glory be to God. AMEN
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Scripture
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Psalm 95 NKJV A Call to Worship and Obedience

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
For the LORD is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.

In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.
The sea is His, for He made it;
And His hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you will hear His voice:
“Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
When your fathers tested Me;
They tried Me, though they saw My work.
For forty years I was grieved with that generation,
And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts,
And they do not know My ways.’
So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

Luke 24:28-31a NIV
As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight
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Message
“Thanksgiving & Blessing”
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Friends, let me begin by wishing you a joyous thanksgiving. It is indeed a good thing to set aside a day to reflect on everything we have to give thanks for, and to take the time to offer God our praise and thanks for His abundant blessings.
I pray that you will indeed take time today to do just that – to count your blessings and give God thanks for each of them!
Taking time to give thanks is a beneficial exercise in opening our eyes to God’s presence in our lives – it enables us to see God.
This is exactly what happened in our reading from Luke. Here we see Jesus invited to share a meal with two men He met on the road to Emmaus.

Although He is the guest, Jesus still takes the time to acknowledge the source of all food, and give thanks to God. When He gives thanks and breaks the bread the men recognize for the first time that the person they have been talking with is the risen Jesus.
How many times do we miss seeing Jesus in our lives, simply because we have forgotten to give thanks – to truly give thanks. Our reading from the NIV says Jesus gave thanks, but other translations, such as the KJ, CE and NRSV say Jesus ‘blessed’ the bread.
Interesting thing, the word blessing. How often do we equate the word blessing with ‘good things’ or ‘something going our way’ – “we were blessed with an abundant harvest” or “we are blessed with good weather.”
Yet, the word blessed has a much deeper meaning. I actually prefer the NIV translation of Jesus giving thanks, because I believe ‘giving thanks’ points us more closely to how we should understand blessing.
In the Old Testament the word for bless or blessed is ‘barak.’ There is a range of meaning to this word, but at its core ‘barak’ is to kneel before God – to give God praise and adoration. Blessing is, therefore, firstly an acknowledgment of the source of blessings.
The New Testament word for bless or blessed is ‘eulogeō’ and at the core of it’s meaning is praise, specifically praising and celebrating God and His goodness.
So blessing is something we have to be thankful for, but to truly bless or be blessed, we must first acknowledge the One from whom all our blessings come. To bless is to open our eyes to God’s presence in all things and to acknowledge that all we have comes from God’s hand. It is to bend our knee in gratitude and to give thanks.
God is the source of ALL blessing, therefore to bless or to be blessed is to remember, or see the source and to give thanks.
We have much to be thankful for – even in the midst of a pandemic. But we are human, and we need to be reminded from time to time to acknowledge God’s loving presence in our lives.
How many of you were listening to the Psalm reading and enjoying the praise, but suddenly felt an uncomfortable shift in the mood of the words. From singing with joy - extoling with music and song – we are God’s people

– we are under his care to don’t harden your hearts – the people strayed – God was angry with that generation.
Many of the Psalms have that sudden shift, and many, like this one, shift to catch our attention – to open our eyes to see God – to realize His provision and care for us – to realize our blessings.
The first part of the Psalm is blessing (‘barak’ and ‘eulogeō’) – acknowledging God and giving God praise. The first part of this hymn celebrates the Creator and bows before Him in awe and wonder.
The second part of the Psalm is the eye-opening blessing – the reminder that it is God’s hand, not ours, that provides. It is a reminder of the rebelliousness of their ancestors, but also a reminder to them of Who brought them out of slavery and Who provided for their needs 40 years in the desert and Who lead them into the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Friends, it is easy to lose sight of where our blessings come from – it is not unusual for us to think that we deserve what we have because we earned it – we, like God’s children in the desert can get restless and defiant and begin to complain about everything that is not going our way. It is easy for us to lose sight of God’s presence.
It is also easy to refocus on God’s presence – we simply need to ‘barak’ (bend our knee to the great Provider) and ‘eulogeō’ (lift our hearts to God in praise). When we bless God, our eyes will be opened to the blessings of God in our lives and we will be filled with thanksgiving and praise.
True blessing begins when we focus on God as Creator – when we look to the Cross of Jesus – when we remember the empty tomb – when we take time to observe the Spirit at work in the world around us.
I pray that however you are celebrating Thanksgiving that you will begin your celebration by counting your blessings and giving God praise for His love and provisions in your life.
Please pray with me:
Lord, we do indeed give thanks for You. We praise Your name. We sing praises to You.
Help us to begin each day blessing You, and as we do, grant us eyes to see Your presence in every blessing. May we, not only see our blessings, but grant that we may be a channel of Your blessings in the world. This we pray in the powerful name of Jesus. AMEN
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Prayers of Thanksgiving & Intercession
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Today, we offer You our thanksgiving and praise. With gratitude in our hearts we acknowledge and praise You, God the Father.
Today, we give thanks for our families, our communities and for the privilege of living in a country where we can freely worship. With joyful hearts we acknowledge and praise You, Jesus, Son of God.
Today, we acknowledge that through this pandemic we continue to see You at work in our lives – calling us to stop – to support one another and to sacrifice our wants for the safety and security of others. We give thanks and praise You, Holy Spirit of God.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we lift up our prayers of intercession praying:
Where there is fear, Lord, bring calm
Where there is anger, we pray for peace
Where hate is spreading, Lord, let love overwhelm
Bring healing to the sick, we pray
Wrap those who mourn in Your loving embrace
Grant us immunity and a safe vaccine against covid
Fill your people with Your Spirit, Lord, that we might be Your hands and feet in this world, reaching out in love, compassion and truth.
Smile Your blessings down upon us as we pray together the Lord’s Prayer…. Our Father, who art in heaven, hollowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, thine will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. AMEN
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Benediction
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Happy Thanksgiving ~ may the Lord smile His favour upon you and your loved ones this Thanksgiving. AMEN