Thanksgiving Declaration
Eph 5:19 - 20, 1 Thes 5:16-18, Psa 100:1 - 5, Rom 1:21, Th 5:18
November 18, 2002
I. On Sept 16, 1620 Two ships sailed from Plymouth England, The Speedwell and the Mayflower. The Speedwell had a lot of problems as they started among them were many leaks springing in the ship. So, the Speedwell decided to go no further and 42 passengers from the Speedwell joined the 60 passengers and 30 crew members aboard the Mayflower.
A. Of the 102 passengers on board the Mayflower the majority were devout Christians. They were coming to America to shake lose from the bonds of the church of England so they could worship God as they believed scriptures taught.
B. They were excited and they had high expectations. But, it wasn’t long before the trip became difficult for several reasons, as noted by William Bradford a historian on the Mayflower, who would later become Governor of the colony for 33 years.
C. Many of the passengers became sea sick as huge waves would crash over the deck of the ship... The nights were cold, damp and dark.
D. And to make matters worse one of the crew, a very large man would constantly curse and abuse those who were sick... saying he was going to throw them overboard and steal all of their possessions... Bradford records, "BUT IT PLEASED GOD BEFORE THEY CAME HALF SEAS OVER, TO SMITE THE YOUNG MAN WITH A GRIEVOUS DISEASE OF WHICH HE DIED IN A DESPERATE MANNER.. AND SO HE HIMSELF WAS THE FIRST THROWN OVERBOARD. THUS HIS CURSES LIGHT OWN HIS OWN HEAD, AND IT WAS AN ASTONISHMENT TO ALL HIS FELLOWS FOR THEY NOTED IT TO BE THE JUST HAND OF GOD UPON HIM.."
E. That far but ended their problems though, they faced many fierce storms which shook the ship with tremendous force. So fierce that many times they could not even keep the sail out and the force of the wind -- eventually cracked and bowed the main beams .
F. When they had just went over the half way across the Atlantic the passengers and crew wanted to turn back, but Christopher Jones, the ships Master, assured them that the vessel was "strong and firm under water."
G. He ordered the beam to be secured. As they raised the beam, they "committed themselves to the will of God and resolved to go on.
H. These 100 people; cold, wet -- on wooden ship in the middle of the ocean -- put their hope, trust and lives into the hands of God. The battered ship finally came within sight of Cape Cod on November 19, 1620.
I. William Bradford writes, "AFTER LONG BEATINGS AT SEA THEY FELL WITH THAT LAND WHICH IS CALLED CAPE COD; AND THEY WERE NOT A LITTLE JOYFUL..."
J. Before going ashore they decided to write a document know as the Mayflower Compact. At the heart of the compact was a conviction that God must be at the center of all law and order and the law without a moral base is really no law at all.
K. The day the Pilgrims signed the May Flower Compact, according to William Bradford, "they came to anchor in the Bay, which was a good harbor...and they blessed the God of Heaven, who brought them over the fast and furious ocean... and a sea of trouble. And they read the following from the Geneva Bible (the Bible the Pilgrims used) "LET THEM, THEREFORE PRAISE THE LORD, BECAUSE HE IS GOOD AND HIS MERCIES ENDURE FOREVER."
L. This next week we will be celebrating Thanksgiving, and it is important for us to get together with our families and friends, but food and fun is not really what Thanksgiving is all about. Thanksgiving is about expressing to God how much we appreciate all that he does for us.
M. The real first Thanksgiving may have been when those Pilgrims landed on that beach after they had been all those months at sea, and acknowledged that it was God that had seen them through the trials that they faced and God that they should thank.
II. Thanksgiving is really a hard subject to preach about and I think that one of the reasons is that we live in a place where there is so much abundance that we don’t realize how much we have to be thankful for.
A. Being thankful is a lot about our perspective. We many times only thank God for things that other people don’t even dream about.
B. The day to day things that we take for granted many people would praise God for.
C. A girl who had moved away to go to College wrote her mother this letter. "
Dear Mom: Sorry I haven’t written sooner. My arm really has been broken. I broke it, and my left leg, when I jumped from he second floor of my dormitory...when we had the fire. We were lucky. A young service station attendant saw the blaze and called the Fire Department. They were there in minutes. I was in the hospital for a few days. Paul, the service station attendant, came to see me every day. And because it was taking so long to get our dormitory liveable again, I moved in with him. He has been so nice. I must admit though that I am pregnant. Paul and I plan to get married just as soon as he can get a divorce. I hope things are fine at home. I’m doing fine, and will write more when I get the chance. Love,
Your daughter, Susie
P.S. None of the above is true. But I did get a "C" in Sociology and flunked Chemistry. I just wanted you to receive this news in its "Proper Perspective!"
D. Now a "C" in sociology and flunking Chemistry does look a lot different when you were just thinking that you had all those things to deal with.
E. And being thankful for the little things in life is easier when you stop to think about how things would be without them.
F. I think the best example that I can think of to describe that, might be, in how things change when the electricity goes out.
G. There are so many things that we do that involve electricity, and when something happens to knock out the electricity it forces us to realize how much we depend on it.
H. We have no lights, we can’t watch TV or do anything on the computer,(that was sarcasm). We don’t have a decent place to cook food, or to keep what food we have from spoiling and making our family sick. We have no heating or cooling, and for a lot of people in this area that means that we have no running water, and when we have no running water we have we can’t flush the toilet, or take a bath and the list goes on and on.
I. The thing that we miss in this too much of the time is that this is the way that a big majority of the people in the world live all the time.
J. We have so much in this country to be thankful for that we just take for granted until something happens to make us realize how different it makes our lives.
K. And the point is that we should take the time to realize how much we have to be thankful for every day. God has blessed every one of us in so many ways and a lot of the time we don’t even stop to appreciate it, or we get upset because we don’t have more so much that we forget what we have.
L. Joe was a good man -- he was a hard worker -- he was a family man.... he loved his family very much. There wasn’t anything he would not do for his family... he worked 2 jobs so his kids would have a decent house and decent clothes to wear... he used his savings to put his kids through college.
1. He put several mortgages on his house to help his children as they started their new families... he has had his house for 35 years and still owes 4 times the original price on it...He helped raise his families children....He didn’t do it for glory or for praise he did it because he loved them....
2. His wife died not many years ago, he is alone now... his health is not too good , all those years of hard work have taken there toll. His kids don’t need his help anymore... they don’t call, they don’t write -- they don’t visit.. even though they live just across town.
3. And so this year Joe will spend another thanksgiving alone, looking at old photos of his family... eating from a can of beans... and if you look closely you would see a tear in his eyes and if you could see inside you would see a heart that was broken.
4. His children don’t have time for him... though they should celebrate thanksgiving with the one who gave them so much to be thankful for... they don’t even give him a second thought as they celebrate with their friends.
5. It is a shame that his kids don’t take the time to show their appreciation to the one who sacrificed so much to give them so much, He gave everything to give to them and they don’t even talk to him, much less thank him.
6. I hate ingratitude its an ugly thing.... by the way you might know the father his real name is GOD ALMIGHTY... and I think you might know his children too.
III. A lot can be said for perspective can’t it. It is so easy to see ingratitude in other people, but it is a little different when we discover it is really us that we are looking at.
(Eph 5:19 - 20 NIV) Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1 Th 5:16 - 18 NIV) Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
A. To be thankful in all circumstances we need the right perspective. We need to look at our circumstance for what they really are, and our God for who he really is, because only then will we be able to always have something to give thanks for.
B. One of the things that keep us from giving thanks always is our Pride.
1. We are privileged to live in a country where we have such a great history.
2. We are born with more opportunities than most people will ever see, but the one thing that hinders us in being thankful is that we live in a country that was carved out of a wilderness.
3. We have a history of pioneers that worked hard and accomplished much, and we as a nation have developed a "pull yourself up by your own boot straps" mentality while we forget that it was God that gave us the boots to begin with.
4. It is God who gives us the talents and opportunities that we have, but many times we get the "Nobody ever gave me anything" mind set.
5. I have worked hard for every thing I have ever gotten. I studied hard and now it is paying off, and with that kind of attitude it is easy to begin to think that we have nobody to thank but us.
C. Another thing that can make it hard to be thankful is a constantly seeing the bad and not the good, being too critical. I love this story because it reminds me of us so much at times.
A lady who was a constant grumbler always complained about everything. But, her preacher thought he had found something that she would have to be happy about. Her farm crop was the best for miles around. When he met her, he said with a smile thinking he had her this time, `You must be very happy Mary. Everyone is saying how good your potatoes look this year.’ `She said "True they’re pretty good, but what am I going to do when I need bad ones to feed the pigs.’"
1. If we always look for the bad, if we always see the things that we don’t have instead of what we have, it will be hard to find anything to be thankful for.
D. Another thing that keeps us from being able to be thankful is oversight. If the stars only came out once a year it would be an event and everybody would walk out and stare at them, but since they are out every night we take them for granted.
E. God performed miracles and brought plagues to bring the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, he parted the Red Sea, and destroyed the Egyptian army, and when they grumbled about not having food he sent Manna everyday, and they griped because it was the same thing everyday, and there was no variety.
F. Strange that we can see what they were doing and totally over look the same things in our lives isn’t it
G. How many of us overlook the miracles from God in our lives everyday because we take them for granted. To be thankful we have to see that we have a lot to be thankful for.
IV. It is important that we declare our thanks as I said a couple of weeks ago our praise or thanksgiving, brings us into the presence of God.
(Psa 100:1 - 5 NIV) A psalm. For giving thanks. Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his ; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
A. I have been talking about prayer and worship, and thanksgiving is a big part of both, we have to declare our thanksgiving to God because it is a vital part of our being in his presence, and it has positive effects on our lives.
B. In Luke 17 there is a story about ten men who were healed by Jesus of their leprosy. Out of those ten men only one came back to give thanks.
C. He was the only one willing to take time to go back and say "thank you." Because of that Jesus said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."
D. I have wondered why he said that and I’m not positive yet, but here is an idea anyway. Maybe this man’s healing had more to it, maybe he was healed in ways that the others were not, by what he did.
E. Maybe the faith that brought him back to give thanks to Jesus, allowed him to be healed spiritual and mentally in ways that the others didn’t.
F. Psychologists today tell us that sincere gratitude, or thanksgiving, is the healthiest of all human emotions.
G. Hans Selye, who is considered the father of stress studies, has said that gratitude produces more positive emotional energy than any other attitude in life.
H. Maybe we would all be more whole if we thought of all the things to be thankful for instead of all the things that we didn’t have.
I. God appreciates our thanksgiving. In the Old Testament the thank offering was the only one that was not required, and it was the only one that did not require the shedding of blood.
J. Think about it for a minute, when you do something for your children and they come and really make you feel that they appreciate what you have done for them, how does it make you feel about your relationship with them?
K. Don’t you think that God looks at it in about the same way? Sometimes the best way to see the benefits of the positive is to look at what the negative brings, (Rom 1:21 NIV) For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
L. Hmmm...could it be that if we don’t stay focused on all the things that we have to thank God for that it could have bad effects on the rest of our minds? It seems that verse says that.
M. So what are some ways that we can say thank you to God?
1. Well we can let him know that we appreciate him by spending time with him.
2. We can let him know that we appreciate him forgiving us, by forgiving others.
3. We can let him know that we appreciate the gift of salvation that we have been given by sharing it with others.
4. We can let him know that we appreciate His care for us by reaching out to people that are hurting.
5. We can let him know that we appreciate what he gives us by not complaining all the time about what we don’t have..
6. And we can put enthusiasm into our worship and praise to him.
N. We can always find a way to be thankful no matter what the circumstance are.
Two school teachers who hadn’t seen each other in several years met at a convention, and they began filling each other in on what had happened in their lives since the last time they had visited together.
One teacher said, "I got married two years ago." "Oh, that’s good," her friend said.
"Well, no, not really," the first one said. "My husband is twice as old as I am." "Oh, that’s bad," her friend said.
"Well, no, not really," she said, "because he is a millionaire several times over." "Oh, that’s good," her friend said.
"Well, no, not really," she said, "because he turned out to be mean, and he won’t give me any money at all." "Oh, that’s bad," her friend said.
"Well, no, not really," she said. "He did build us a $300,000 house." "Oh, that’s good," her friend said.
"Well, no, not really," she said. "It burned down last month." "Oh, that’s bad," her friend said.
"Well, no, not really," she said. "He was in it when it burned down."
O. Even people with the wrong attitudes can find things to be thankful for surely those of us who claim to be children of God can find much more to be thankful for.
V. God expects our thanksgiving. Paul says in the verses that we read earlier in (1 Th 5:18 NIV) give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
A. It is God’s will for our lives that we give thanks for what he does for us. There are a lot of people who say I want to know what God’s will for my life is well there you go it is definitely God’s will that we give thanks, and maybe if we worked on that one more we would know more about the rest of his will.
B. When we give thanks we acknowledge God’s presence in our lives and we show that we have faith in Him and his abilities.
C. Harriet Martineau was an atheist. One morning she and a friend stepped outside into a beautiful fall morning. As she saw the sun peaking through the haze, and the frost on the grass, and the bright colored leaves floating to the ground, she was filled with the beauty and said "I am so thankful. I’m just so grateful for it all." And her Christian friend asked, "Grateful to whom, my dear?"
D. When we give God our thanksgiving it testifies of who we believe in.
E. Thanksgiving is important to our relationship with God. It helps us look at life from a perspective that reminds us of all the things that God has done for us.
1. It helps us keep our pride in check.
2. It helps us to stay positive, and have a good mental attitude.
3. It is a vital part of our communication with God , and it lets God know that we appreciate him and it brings us into his presence through praise.
4. And it is a testimony to who we believe in.
F. But it is impossible to do if we don’t have the right attitude.
The story is told about two old friends who bumped into one another on the street one day. One of them looked forlorn, almost on the verge of tears. His friend asked, "What has the world done to you, my old friend?"The sad fellow said, "Let me tell you. Three weeks ago, an uncle died and left me forty thousand dollars." "That’s a lot of money."
"But, two weeks ago, a cousin I never even knew died, and left me eighty-five thousand free and clear." "Sounds like you’ve been blessed...."
"You don’t understand!" he interrupted. "Last week my great-aunt passed away. I inherited almost a quarter of a million." Now he was really confused. "Then, why do you look so
glum?"
"This week... nothing!"
G. That’s the trouble with receiving so much on a regular basis. Even if its a gift, we eventually come to expect it.
H. We have been blessed with so much that we that we come to expect it, but I hope that this Thanksgiving holiday that you will take the time to look at all that God has blessed you with and you will declare your thanksgiving to God.
I. 1 Th 5:18 NIV) give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
