작성일 : 25-11-20 04:31
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2025년11월16일 주일말씀 English sermon "Great Harvest Thanksgiving " Deuteronomy 16:13-17
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Sermon English Text AKFPC / November 16, 2025 Rev. Yongjin Park
“Great Harvest Thanksgiving” (Deuteronomy 16:13-17)
May the grace and love of God be upon you who is listening to God’s voice today in this worship.
Let the grace and love of God is upon you who is listening voice of God today in this worship service.
When I visited Plymouth to see the ship Puritan boarded, it was surprisingly too small for more than 100 people. It cannot be imagined that many people boarded a small space in a ship for months in ocean while they were sailing from England.
Half of them died during the first winter in new land because they had no skill to get food or grain. They were desperate to have faith and freedom from persecution.
They offered the first harvest to God when they got the harvest with great Thanksgiving. It was 1621 autumn. The first president George Washington declared Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday to memorize faith of Pilgrim.
Today is Word of God for Thanksgiving celebration on people of Israel.
Let us read together Deuteronomy 16:13-17,
“Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your Feast, you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the Feast to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete. Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the Lord empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.”
The Feast of Tabernacle is Thanksgiving of people of Israel that God established in wilderness. While The Passover is the celebration of liberation from salve in Egypt, and Pentecost is the celebration of the spring harvest, The Fest of Tabernacle is celebration of autumn harvest. These three Feast are all celebration to keep Thanksgiving for grace of God in their history and life.
Pilgrims offered their first harvest in the new land under hard situation. But their faith to give Thanks to God led them prosper and success life and history.
All nations and people had their own Thanksgiving celebration. And all Thanksgiving Feast has three elements: confession of God’s grace, joy of their harvest, and pleasure with their family and community.
God gives us blessing through these three Thankful things. When we have this kind of thanks we are perfectly blessed.
In the Feast of Tabernacle, people had to build a tent at yard and to stay in one week, in reading Word of God to remember the life of wilderness of their ancestor with God. All families stayed in the tent to celebrate God’s protection on their life by keeping this Feast.
Christian keeps Thanksgiving Sunday according to tradition of Pilgrim who did seek faith to God in hard circumstance as people of Israel glorify God by Feast of Tabernacle.
One common thing of all Thanksgiving Fests from many traditions is to offer harvest to God without empty handed.
Verse 7 say,
“Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you.”
Certainly, we worked hard by our own hand to get harvest in the year. We confess that we can get nothing without help of God.
If someone farms truly, he is desperate to keep crops and produce, he cannot rest until completing their harvest. He must check continually condition of crops in all year while rain, wind, disease, etc., everyday he must pray for God to keep their own. If one of these conditions fails, all their harvest might fail.
And he understands all human labor can get fruit only by God. I remember one word, “daughter of house of orchard cannot eat good apple.” good produce had to sell at market. She can est only apple with blemish.”
Thanksgiving means giving Thanks to God when we work in our best by our own resources because all thing comes from Him not me.
So, we come to God when we get the first gain of harvest with evidence of blessing from God. That is offering to God as our faith and our love to Him.
Life giving thanks is blessed life. Life without thanks is failed life. All life starts with thanks and completes with thanks. God say that the first one is mine. All life belongs to God.
Thanksgiving calls more thanksgiving. God made it is.
Psalm 136:25 say,
“and who gives food to every creature. His love endured forever.”
One daughter brought it to her parents as thanksgiving gift when she received her first salary after graduation from college and had job. Her father and mother wept before her and gave thanksgiving to God who has been with their family and blessed their daughter who grew up with faith and love on God and parents.
Psalm 136:21 say,
“and give their land as an inheritance, His love endures forever.”
Verse 24 say,
“and freed us from our enemies, His love endures forever.”
God be with all of you. Amen.
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