Eucharisteo: Fully Alive. Here. Now.
Appreciate to Open the Gate
Our quest is to determine if one can be fully alive, here, and now. Is the abundant life for you where ever you are and whatever you are experiencing right now?
Let’s say that life comes in three categories:
• Ordinary
• Extraordinarily difficult
• Extraordinarily delightful
Does Christianity offer abundant life in all three categories?
We are discovering that the essence of Holy Communion and the Christian life is in the giving of thanks. Mark 14:22, 23
Psalm 50 illumines an exceedingly helpful insight into the giving of sincere thanks to God…..from God’s perspective.
In Psalm 50:7 God will “testify against you, Israel.” God, their God, is presenting oral argument against them.
God’s charge against Israel is not regarding their external acts of worship. Psalm 50:8
God’s charge is that Israel is doing their external acts of worship without the primary internal act of worship, which is thankfulness.
God emphatically states, “I have no need” of your external acts of worship! Psalm 50:9
This is powerful! Everything involved in your external act of worship already belongs to God!!! Psalm 50:10-13
Maybe the most prevalent external act of worship in our culture today is the giving to God of our words.
God however, already possesses every word in every language. John 1:1
Giving God your words is like Israel giving God an animal. God already owns the animal and He already owns the words.
God doesn’t need our words!
He loves it when we chose, of our own free will, to be thankful for his provision, protection, and presence.
Notice in verses 14 and 15 that the thank offering comes before the “I will deliver you…”
In verses 16-21 we see the people who are doing all of the external worship practices, yet they hate God’s instructions and cast God’s words behind them.
The conclusion of the 50th Psalm is the anchor of today’s message title, “Appreciate to Open the Gate.”
He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God. Ps. 50:23
Appreciation creates new destinations.
As you go to the prayer pods and take up the bread and cup of Holy Communion, you from the depths of your soul give the offering of thankfulness.
• Your offering of thankfulness honors God.
• Your offering of thankfulness prepares the way for God to show you His fullest
salvation.
• Your offering of thankfulness makes you fully alive, right here, right now.