Lev 7:12, 'If he offers it by way of thanksgiving, then along with the sacrifice of thanksgiving he shall offer unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil, and cakes of well stirred fine flour mixed with oil. 
	We are looking at this passage with the emphasis on the fact that we are to be characterized with thankfulness as Christians. This is something that should be inherently bubbling forth from our demeanor and our attitudes and our dealings with others based simply on the truth that we have received the eternal salvation of God in Jesus Christ! If we truly appreciated this fact, there could be nothing that would cause us to be anything less than utterly and absolutely and earnestly and humbly giving God all the thanks and appreciation that our beings could bring forth.
	Consider the following passages from the Psalms as we pick up this thought today. We begin in Psalms 50, with verses 14 and 15.  We have the encouragement from God to consider Him with thanksgiving in the manner in which we come before Him. Ps 50:14+15, "Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High; And call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me." 
	Notice the reality that we are dealing with the Most High Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. He is admonishing us to bring sacrifices of thanksgiving unto Him. He is precisely detailing the fact that we can call upon Him in any of our days of trouble and He will rescue us. This is no meager statement by a person of some authority who will attempt to make things a little better for us. This is the promise of the Most High and Holy One Who has everything concerning us well in hand. He tells us that He will rescue us and He will do so! It may not be in the manner in which we think He should, but it will always be in the way that will bring forth the perfection of His plan in our lives. He will make a way and that way will cause us to bring unto Him all that will honor Him with our utmost thanksgiving for Who He is and what He does. 
	Is this the course of how we think about God at work in our lives? Is this the way in which we know the marvelous and miraculous Hand of God holding us near and dear to His heart every moment of every day? Does our understanding and our appreciation of God and His work fully encompass the knowledge of what is ours in verse 23 of this 50th Psalm? Ps 50:23, "He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; And to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God." 
	You see, we may not fully appreciate what God has done for us in the giving of His Only Begotten Son if we are not characterized by a thankful heart. The full measure and understanding of His salvation does not really penetrate into the core depths of our hearts and minds if we are anything less than in absolute amazement of what Jesus Christ has accomplished on the cross for such as ourselves. This is something that has been working in my heart of late and this is the opportunity given to share together in how we are to view our life now in the graciousness and the mercy of the Lord God.
	Why are we so often and so many times unhappy, filled with gloom, and despair, despondent, and depressed? What is there at work in our lives that causes us to be downtrodden and worried and frustrated and afraid and judgmental of others? This is an attitude that seems to be the emphasis of so many people who call themselves Christians. We each need to ask the Lord to show if this is how we project ourselves in the manner in which we deal with others especially our so intimate family members who know us best. 
How do we view God, Himself, in the course of His dealings with us and the manner in which He instructs and admonishes and causes us to grow? Do we hold against Him anger and resentment and feelings of being deprived from those things that we think we deserve? 
	These are the elements that seem to so often occupy our minds and our attention and the course of our attitudinal dealings with other people. We are always judging and comparing and envying and ridiculing and elevating and surmising, and all those things will serve to eliminate any joy and thankfulness that should characterize us. 
Please understand that the focal point of our concerns will absolutely detail the essence of our understanding of this life that we live. When we are the only truth that matters, when what we have and what we receive and what we think we deserve encompasses the breadth of our daily walk, we will be nothing but miserable and self-centered and selfish and ungrateful and unappreciative of how blessed we are in Jesus Christ! Our daily emphasis will be that of how everything that we endure and deal with is centered in its effect on us. We will care less about the admonition of this passage that He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me. 
	You see, when we are truly viewing our time on this earth, not in terms of what we get and experience, but what God will receive through the marvelous salvation that He has made available through the utmost sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son, our focal point will be unreservedly transformed. We will be less and less worried about ourselves and more and more enthralled with whatever we can do to honor Him in the short time that we have on this earth. 
	Think on the truth of this fact, if we dare. Our time on this earth is very, very short and limited. At best, we may live 90 to 100 years. Most of us will be here much less than that. Yet we put almost every waking moment into the worry of what we can get in that meager portion of time. However, as we are found in Jesus Christ, all of eternity will be opened unto us as the means of fellowshipping in bringing glory and honor and praise unto Our Lord God. Our selfishness of these few years will never bring anything of value into the eternal ages before us. As we learn to set aside our worries and our fears and our frustrations and our animosities on this earth, so will we become more and more prepared to offer unto God the full measure of the glory that He Alone deserves.
	To put it in another aspect of focal emphasis, when we waste our time on this earth bemoaning what we do not have and be muddling ourselves with those cares and strivings after things that just don’t stand the test of the eternity that is before us, we are not adding anything to the glory of God! We should not expect to find ourselves bubbling forth with joy and thanksgiving if we do not value the eternal truth and life that God has given to all who will call upon Him in Jesus Christ. 
As a matter of reality, we are miserable on this earth because we are denying the very life of Christ and His blood shed for us! Our eternal life of bringing glory to God begins at the very moment that we call out to Jesus to save us. It is not something in the great by and by. It is today, right this instant, now! That is why we should never be allowing ourselves to be anything less than utterly thankful to God and praising Him. We are to add to His glory through the joyous manner in which our lives evidence our absolute appreciation for His so great salvation. 
	Again, let us refer to the encouragement that we find in the Psalms, this time Psalms 103:1-8. Please turn to it and read it with me. We need to encourage ourselves with the goodness of the Lord every time that we begin to worry and to lose the joy of our salvation and the gratitude that we hold unto the Lord. 
Ps 103:1-8, Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities; Who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit; Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle. The Lord performs righteous deeds, And judgments for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. 
	This is the God Who saved us! Think on the truth of Who He is and what He has done…Who pardons all your iniquities; Who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit; Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle… How can we not be thankful to Him? How can we be less than thrilled that He is working and effective and manifesting His lovingkindness in our lives for the expressed purpose of bringing forth His glory as the brightness of the noon day? How can we be anything other than sincerely and utterly grateful for the truth that He …is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness?  
	The Psalmist goes on with this encouragement to us to be earnestly and eternally thankful to The Lord in passages such as Ps 107:8+9 in which the wondrous grace and mercy of God are detailed. Ps 107:8+9, Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men! For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, And the hungry soul He has filled with what is good. 
	As well, in verses 21and 22 of this 107th Psalm, we are heartened to join our voices together into the chorus of the praise and the worship and the sacrifice of the thanksgiving that God Alone deserves. Ps 107:21+22, Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men! Let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, And tell of His works with joyful singing. We are to be joining the eternal chorus of the praise of God right now, today, tomorrow, and forevermore!
	This is further emphasized in Ps 116:17-19, as the Psalmist specifically yearns for the opportunity to praise the Lord together with all the people of God. Ps 116:17-19, To Thee I shall offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, And call upon the name of the Lord. I shall pay my vows to the Lord, Oh may it be in the presence of all His people, In the courts of the Lord's house, In the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! This is why we gather together to worship and to praise and to honor and to express utmost gratitude to God as His Redeemed people.
	The Apostle Paul, in 2 Cor 9:10-15, informs us that it is the Lord Who makes the every provision for His Redeemed to bring forth all that would honor Him with praise and thanksgiving through the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. 2 Cor 9:10-15, if you would please follow along. 2 Cor 9:10-15, Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. Because of the proof given by this ministry they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all, while they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! 
	On this basis, as emphasized repeatedly in this passage, there should be evidenced the joyous thanksgiving unto the One Who supplies everything that is needed. Our thanksgiving and expression of it will cause others to join in the chorus of the greatness of the Lord God Almighty! It will begin as a well spring that will flow forth from now to forever in the sacrifices of praise and joy and thanksgiving to God. 
	As so detailed in the Apostle’s Letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 5, verses 17-21, the entire body is to bring forth such praise unto God with all thanksgiving. Eph 5:17-21, So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. 
…So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. This is the focal point of this morning’s consideration. We are not to be foolish, concentrating on those things of this present time which serve no eternal purpose! It is foolish to be joyless and self-centered! It is foolish to let our minds and hearts be dragged down with the cares and the fears and the worries of this realm! It is foolish to not count on the Lord for the every provision and for His ruling and overruling in the lives that we have here and now! Rather, we need to set it all aside and thank the Lord for His will and for His manifest glory being the joy of our thankfulness for all that we have in Jesus Christ! 
Accordingly, the Writer to the Hebrews, in Heb 13:15+16, lets us know that as we so honor God with our thankfulness and appreciation, so will we honor one another with the sacrifices which please God. Heb 13:15+16, Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing; for with such sacrifices God is pleased. These are the sacrifices of our lives that bring eternal glory to the Lord God Almighty. They are offered through the praise of thanksgiving and appreciation for His abiding presence now and always. So be it!
'If he offers it by way of thanksgiving, then along with the sacrifice of thanksgiving he shall offer unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil, and cakes of well stirred fine flour mixed with oil. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Prov 3:5+6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. Amen.