Thanks Prayer

I’d like to start this with a very clear scripture on the subject.

Psalm 50:14 New International Version (NIV)

14 “Sacrifice thank offerings to God,

   fulfill your vows to the Most High,

Let us look at that verse in context.

1 The Mighty One, God, the Lord,

   speaks and summons the earth

   from the rising of the sun to where it sets.

2 From Zion, perfect in beauty,

   God shines forth.

3 Our God comes

   and will not be silent;

a fire devours before him,

   and around him a tempest rages.

4 He summons the heavens above,

   and the earth, that he may judge his people:

5 “Gather to me this consecrated people,

   who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

6 And the heavens proclaim his righteousness,

   for he is a God of justice.

7 “Listen, my people, and I will speak;

   I will testify against you, Israel:

   I am God, your God.

8 I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices

   or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.

9 I have no need of a bull from your stall

   or of goats from your pens,

10 for every animal of the forest is mine,

   and the cattle on a thousand hills.

11 I know every bird in the mountains,

   and the insects in the fields are mine.

12 If I were hungry I would not tell you,

   for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls

   or drink the blood of goats?

14 “Sacrifice thank offerings to God,

   fulfill your vows to the Most High,

15 and call on me in the day of trouble;

   I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

16 But to the wicked person, God says:

“What right have you to recite my laws

   or take my covenant on your lips?

17 You hate my instruction

   and cast my words behind you.

18 When you see a thief, you join with him;

   you throw in your lot with adulterers.

19 You use your mouth for evil

   and harness your tongue to deceit.

20 You sit and testify against your brother

   and slander your own mother’s son.

21 When you did these things and I kept silent,

   you thought I was exactly[c] like you.

But I now arraign you

   and set my accusations before you.

22 “Consider this, you who forget God,

   or I will tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:

23 Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me,

   and to the blameless[d] I will show my salvation.”

God is laying it out for Israel that they have a covenant and God expects Israel to follow through on their part. Remember there is a difference between a promise and a covenant.

 A Promise is something is going to do like when God told Abram that he would have a son there was no action required of Abram had no part in it it was a promise God was just going to do it.

 Here on the other hand there was action required.

 Jer 7:23

But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.

Here is a perfect thing to show a covenant,

3Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5No longer will you be called Abram ; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

 9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. 13 Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

 15 God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

 17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”

 19 Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” 22 When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.

 23 On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, 25 and his son Ishmael was thirteen; 26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that very day. 27 And every male in Abraham’s household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.

 This is a covenant I will do this

 Okay so we see the difference between a covenant and a promise. We have a promise.

 Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

 Saved from what is the question,

 Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

 1 Thessalonians 1:10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

 We have a promise not a covenant the new covenant has not yet started.

 Leviticus 7:12 "'If they offer it as an expression of thankfulness, then along with this thank offering they are to offer thick loaves made without yeast and with olive oil mixed in, thin loaves made without yeast and brushed with oil, and thick loaves of the finest flour well-kneaded and with oil mixed in.

This is the first usage of thanks offering. This was a peace offering. Would it surprise you that there were different kinds of offerings in the Hebrew scriptures? I don’t have time here to go over them all but you can find them here:

 Different kinds of offerings in the Hebrew Scriptures.

 There are two more in Leviticus 7

 11“ ‘These are the regulations for the fellowship offering anyone may present to the Lord:

 12“ ‘If they offer it as an expression of thankfulness, then along with this thank offering they are to offer thick loaves made without yeast and with olive oil mixed in, thin loaves made without yeast and brushed with oil, and thick loaves of the finest flour well-kneaded and with oil mixed in. 13 Along with their fellowship offering of thanksgiving they are to present an offering with thick loaves of bread made with yeast. 14 They are to bring one of each kind as an offering, a contribution to the Lord; it belongs to the priest who splashes the blood of the fellowship offering against the altar. 15The meat of their fellowship offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the day it is offered; they must leave none of it till morning.

 So as you can see these offerings passed with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ he became these offerings once and for all.

 Leviticus 22:26 The Lord said to Moses, 27 “When a calf, a lamb or a goat is born, it is to remain with its mother for seven days. From the eighth day on, it will be acceptable as a food offering presented to the Lord. 28 Do not slaughter a cow or a sheep and its young on the same day.

29 “When you sacrifice a thank offering to the Lord,

sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf. 30 It must be eaten that same day; leave none of it till morning. I am the Lord.

 Again to get the full picture you need to read the whole chapter to see the context.

 Here is the near context.

 2 Chronicles 29:31 Then Hezekiah said, “You have now dedicated yourselves to the Lord. Come and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the temple of the Lord.” So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all whose hearts were willing brought burnt offerings.

 30 King Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness and bowed down and worshiped.

 31 Then Hezekiah said, “You have now dedicated yourselves to the Lord. Come and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the temple of the Lord.” So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all whose hearts were willing brought burnt offerings.

 32 The number of burnt offerings the assembly brought was seventy bulls, a hundred rams and two hundred male lambs—all of them for burnt offerings to the Lord.

 There are 2 times it is used in 2 Chronicles 31

 31 When all this had ended, the Israelites who were there went out to the towns of Judah, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. They destroyed the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh. After they had destroyed all of them, the Israelites returned to their own towns and to their own property.

2 Hezekiah assigned the priests and Levites to divisions—each of them according to their duties as priests or Levites—to offer burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, to minister, to give thanks and to sing praises at the gates of the Lord’s dwelling. 3 The king contributed from his own possessions for the morning and evening burnt offerings and for the burnt offerings on the Sabbaths, at the New Moons and at the appointed festivals as written in the Law of the Lord. 4 He ordered the people living in Jerusalem to give the portion due the priests and Levites so they could devote themselves to the Law of the Lord. 5 As soon as the order went out, the Israelites generously gave the firstfruits of their grain, new wine, olive oil and honey and all that the fields produced. They brought a great amount, a tithe of everything. 6 The people of Israel and Judah who lived in the towns of Judah also brought a tithe of their herds and flocks and a tithe of the holy things dedicated to the Lord their God, and they piled them in heaps. 7 They began doing this in the third month and finished in the seventh month. 8 When Hezekiah and his officials came and saw the heaps, they praised the Lord and blessed his people Israel.

 Then again in 33

2 Chronicles 33:16

Then he restored the altar of the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings and thank offerings on it, and told Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.

 It is used 4 more times in psalms.

 Psalm 50:23

Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation.”

 Psalm 56:12

I am under vows to you, my God; I will present my thank offerings to you.

 Psalm 107:22

Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of his works with songs of joy.

 Psalm 116:17

I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the Lord.

 We now have 2 references in Jeremiah

 Jeremiah 17:26

People will come from the towns of Judah and the villages around Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin and the western foothills, from the hill country and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord.

 Jeremiah 33:11

the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord, saying, “Give thanks to the Lord Almighty, for the Lord is good; his love endures forever.” For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before,’ says the Lord.

The last reference is in the book of Amos

 Amos 4:5

Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings— boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do,” declares the Sovereign Lord.

 This is also the last place that this is talked about in the word of God it was replaced by a greater form of thanksgiving

 1 Corinthians 11:23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: 24And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

 27 Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

 This last section can be warped into something terrible I was in a church where they taught not to participate unless you were worthy to take part in the communion. No one is ever worthy of taking part in it it all comes from grace.

The question is are you going there to get feed and drink or are you doing this in remembrance of what Jesus Christ did for you? There were many side issues going on in Corinth like those who had abundance not helping those in need. Read the chapter and you will see that there was a great deal going on there.

 One last thing all the prayers listed back in Leviticus it is talked about in Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groaning's. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God’s will.

Speaking in tongues is perfect prayer you can’t go wrong with this so pray without ceasing and pray with the spirit and the understanding

So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding.

1 Corinthians 14:15

Happy Thanksgiving all.