Sunday Worship Service Sermon (11-24-2024)
A
Worship of Grateful Faith to God
(Genesis
4:1-9)
1.
We thank God for crowning the year
with His Bounty. We also thank God for calling us to a special assembly to
offer Thanksgiving Sunday worship to God. In the future, 'Thanksgiving
Sunday' will be the day when God takes us to our eternal house in heaven, just
as farmers gather their harvested grain and store it in the barn. So God,
who wants to take all the people on this earth to their eternal house in
heaven, commanded: On Thanksgiving Day,
you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites,
the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns should be
completely joyful and give thanks to God in the place chosen by God (Deuteronomy
16:14). Therefore, Thanksgiving Sunday, which has this meaning, is the most
joyful day, the happiest day, and the most thankful day of all.
This morning, I would like to share
with you the story of two people who held the first Thanksgiving service in
human history.
2.
God gave Adam and Eve two sons. The
first son's name was Cain, and the second son's name was Abel. Abel kept
flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of
the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought
an offering – fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. These
two people were the first to worship God, who had given them grace, after they
had gathered the produce.
However,
the Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his
offering he did not look with favor. This is God's word to us
that while it is important to worship God, it is more important to worship God with
the right attitude so that He looks with favor on the worshipper and his/her
offering.
I wonder: Why did God look with favor
on Abel and his offering, but did not look with favor on Cain and his offering?
God gives us the reason in the Bible
(Psalm 50:23, Hebrews 11:4, 6): God commended ‘Abel for his right act of
worship’ (Psalm 50:23). (=God said that ‘Abel brought God a better
offering than Cain did’) (Hebrews 11:4).
So, how can we make our act of worship
right in God’s eyes? (= how can we offer our worship in a way that is
viewed favorably in God's eyes?)
God's answer is recorded in Psalm
50:23 and Hebrews 11:4, 6: (1) “He who sacrifices thank
offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him
the salvation of God.”
When we worship God, the right act of
worship that God favors is to worship Him with a ‘thankful heart’ (=a grateful faith).
God receives glory when we worship Him with a thankful heart.
Let me ask you a question: Why do you
worship God?
We worship God to give thanks to Him because
we are so thankful for the grace and love He gives us every day, and for saving
us. Therefore,
even if we worship God, if we do not have ‘thankful faith’, it is no longer
worship but merely a religious act. And God does not accept worship without
thankful faith. The most important thing in worshiping God
is a thankful heart (faith). God looks with favor on worship offered with a
thankful heart. (2) God said in Hebrews 11:6: “And without
thankful faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him
must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him,
and come with a thankful heart.”
Just as God observed Cain and Abel
when they worshipped Him and with what kind of heart they worshipped Him, He
also observes whether we worship with a grateful heart or in a formal way that
lacks gratitude.
Then, how does God know that we
worship Him with grateful faith? (or a grateful heart?)
God said in Hebrews 11:4 that “Abel
brought God a better offering than Cain did,” and God spoke well of his
offerings.
After the harvest that year, Cain
brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. He, a
farmer, did not bring the best of the first fruits of his crop that year to
God, but he simply brought some of the fruits that he had harvested as an
offering to the Lord. But Abel brought an offering of fat
portions from some of the firstborn of his flock - that is, the best of what
God had given him. He acknowledged that all the flocks he had acquired came
from God and that they all belonged to God. The fact that he offered the fat
portion of the firstborn of his flock to God showed his faith and expressed his
gratitude to God through this action.
Even though these two people are
brothers, aren't their attitudes toward God, their hearts of gratitude, and
their motives for worship different? Abel expressed his
grateful faith as he worshipped God with a grateful
heart for the grace he had received from God. Even with our
eyes, can’t we see that Abel truly worshipped God with thankful faith? Because
of this, God looked with favor on Abel and his offering, who worshipped God
with ‘thankful faith.’ God said that He saw Abel’s ‘thankful faith (heart)’ in
his offering. And God acknowledged (saved) him as ‘righteous’ who had thankful
faith and worshipped God with a thankful heart. As Psalm 50:23 says, God gave
salvation to him who glorified God by offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving.
But
God did not accept Cain and his offering because He saw that in the worship and
offering that Cain offered to God, he did not show gratitude faith (=heart) to
God.
Today’s text shows Cain
after he worshipped God without a thankful heart.
Because of this, Cain was very angry
and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are
you angry? Why is your face downcast?” And, knowing that Cain
was full of thoughts of killing his brother, God told him, “Sin is crouching at
your door, it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” God also told
Cain, 'Do Good.' That good is living in gratitude to God.
However, Cain did not listen to God’s words, and he attacked his brother Abel
and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”
“I do not know,” he replied and complained, “Am I my brother's
keeper?”
This is the daily life attitude
that Cain revealed to God and his brother after worshiping God.
If he had been a person who worshiped God with gratitude, he would not have acted
like this after worshiping God. This is the typical
appearance of a person who is not grateful to God.
A person who worships God
without a grateful heart will not be grateful in his daily life.
A person who worships God with gratitude will not live like this. A
person who is grateful for God's grace in all circumstances will not live like
this. A person who is not grateful in his daily life will not be
grateful when he worships God.
3.
(Psalms 50:23) “He who sacrifices
thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the
salvation of God.”
The thing that glorifies
God the most is being thankful to God. The thing that
pleases God the most is for us to be thankful to God.
Do you want every day to be a day
that glorifies God? Give thanks to God. Do you want your worship to be
one that God looks on with favor and that glorifies God? Give thanks to God.
Do you want to be saved? Give thanks
to God.
I hope that you will not
only worship God with a thankful heart, but also live a life overflowing with
gratitude in your daily life. Then God will receive
glory through you and God will say that you have lived well. God will praise
those who live like this as righteous and give them the gift of salvation. He
will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands
(Deuteronomy 16:15). He will lead you to the kingdom of God at the end of time.
Amen!
