David [00:00:01]:
Well, here we are, everyone, the Sunday before Thanksgiving. And as I talked about last week, we’re in the midst of the season of giving. And every year, our season of giving begins by giving thanks.
David [00:00:35]:
What a great way to begin. Remember, it reminds me what it says in Psalms 100, verses 4 and 5. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. What a great way to come. God said, don’t come in moaning and groaning and begging and just down about it. Come with thanksgiving and praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations.
David [00:01:09]:
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. So we come first into the season of giving with a heart of gratefulness and thanksgiving. For the Lord is good. He is a good God. His mercy is everlasting. It never ends. It’s always there.
David [00:01:33]:
It never diminishes. It never goes away. His truth endures to all generations. He is always and forever will be. And his truth will stand forever. There are several key reasons that this celebration is important to us, and today I’d like to talk with you about those. And the first one is this Thanksgiving season. One of the key reasons we celebrate it is it’s a historical commemoration.
David [00:02:11]:
I mentioned this last week briefly, and we’re going to drill down into it today. But the Pilgrims, those who first landed on the shores before this was ever the United States, they celebrated Thanksgiving in 1621 as a way to give thanks for their first successful harvest in the New World. The previous winter had been incredibly harsh, with many Pilgrims suffering from sickness, hunger, and exposure to the elements. Only about half of the original settlers survived the first year. However, the Pilgrims were assisted by the Wampapanoag people, particularly by a Native American named Squanto, who taught them vital skills for survival, such as how to cultivate corn, how to fish in the local rivers, and gather native plants that were edible. With the help of these new agricultural skills and the kindness of the Wampapanoe, the Pilgrims were able to produce a good harvest that year. So in the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims and around 90 Wampapanoag gathered for a three day feast to celebrate this bounty. This gathering is considered one of the earliest recorded instances of giving thanks at what would become the United States of America.
David [00:04:00]:
While Thanksgiving wasn’t an official holiday until centuries later, this event inspired the tradition as A way to express gratitude, honor, collaboration, and appreciation for the harvest season. We see the sentiment expressed in Scripture where Paul is writing to the church at Philippi, and in Philippians 1, 3, 5, he said this. This is from the amplified classic version. I thank my God and all my remembrance of you. In every prayer of mine. I always make my entreaty and petition for you all with joy, delight. I thank my God for your fellowship, your sympathetic cooperation and contributions and partnership and advancing the good news, the Gospel, from the first day you heard it until now. Wow.
David [00:05:06]:
The Philippians entered in with Paul, they partnered with him. And what we see from this verse is thanksgiving is about fellowship. It’s about coming together in so many different ways. And a part of this first Thanksgiving we see here with the pilgrims, it was a day or several days. They spent three days fellowshipping together and thanking them over and over again for their partnership, their contribution, all they did to help them. Let me ask you this. I mentioned this last week, but let me ask you again. Who are you thankful for? How have they given into your life this year? Have you let them know? What a great way to begin this season of giving.
David [00:06:10]:
It’s by sitting down, thinking about who you’re thankful for, making a list of those people, and then reaching out to them in some way and letting them know that you’re grateful for them and their partnership and collaboration and fellowship with you. Hallelujah. 241 years later, after this event, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving, national holiday to foster unity and gratitude during a time of national crisis in the midst of the Civil War. At this time, President Lincoln hoped that establishing a day for collective thanks would help bring people together and promote healing across the divided nation. Sarah Josepha Hale, who was an American writer at the time and editor of the most widely circulated magazine in this period before the Civil War, campaigned vigorously for a national day of Thanksgiving. She encouraged President Lincoln to move forward with this. He saw the holiday as a way to acknowledge blessings and encourage a sense of shared purpose despite the ongoing conflict they were in. So President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.
David [00:07:57]:
This declaration formalized Thanksgiving as an annual tradition which has been celebrated by all states in the United States on the same day for the last 161 years. This act helped to create a national sense of solidarity. The word beneficent that President Lincoln there used there to help describe our Father. God means this. It means kindness and charity. Exerted in action Kindness and charity Exerted in action. President Lincoln knew God’s kindness and love would be actively demonstrated if the nation came together in thanksgiving and praise to him. God is our benefactor.
David [00:08:57]:
He is beneficial toward us actively, one who is favorable and generous. He is taking action every day to move in our behalf. The Apostle James spoke of this in James 1:17 18 every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation of shadow, of turning of his own will. He brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruit of its creatures. James here is letting us know that every blessing is God showing, demonstrating, and actively expressing his love for us. He goes on to remind us in the verse that God chose us by his own will. He took action to redeem us by the Word of Truth. Now let’s look a little more into what the word of Truth is here.
David [00:10:07]:
What that means in John 11:4. It says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made in him was life, and the life was the light of men. Then Jesus said to Thomas in John 14, John 14:5, 6, Thomas said to him, lord, we knew not where you were going, and how can we know the way? And Jesus said to him, I am the way, the Truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So now, going back to what James said, he brought us forth by the word of truth. What we see here from these verses is Jesus is the word of truth. He is our perfect gift that came down from the Father of Light above.
David [00:11:10]:
And he is a great reason to give thanks and to praise our God for our nation and for those who saw that as we came together as a nation to give thanks to God, what it would mean to us, and this leads us to the next reason we celebrate Thanksgiving. We come together to express our gratitude for all God has done. This holiday encourages us to reflect on our lives and appreciate the blessing of family, of friends and God’s goodness. Giving thanks is central to the holiday, steam and all. We are grateful for everything. Thanksgiving has long been a time for family gatherings where people often travel long distances to celebrate with loved ones. And I remember as a child that’s what dad would get us. We’d pollen the car and off we’d go to my grandmother’s or one of our uncles and aunt or somewhere and go hang out with all the cousins, eat all the food that everybody prepared.
David [00:12:30]:
This holiday fosters a sense of connection, of gatheredness and bonding, creating family traditions and memories. Wow. In Psalms, the writer of Psalm 127, verses 3 through 5 acknowledges this when he says, behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward. As arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Happy, blessed, and fortunate is the man whose quiver is filled with them. Think about that. Happy, blessed, and fortunate is a man whose quiver is filled with them. I remember my family.
David [00:13:19]:
We all get together at Thanksgiving. We all still try to, even though we live all over in different places now. But I remember watching my dad and all the grandkids called dad Papa. So we all, we all called him Papa. But Papa would be sitting in his little rocking chair, glider chair there off to the side, watching all of us as the grandkids ran and played through the house. And my brothers and I all interacted with each other, still trying to prove he was the strongest or the smartest or the best looking. And I would see him with a little smile on his face, and I’d walk over and say, hey, dad, what you thinking? He’d go, I am so blessed. Blessed.
David [00:14:11]:
I am so blessed. Today is I watch my grandkids. I have a deeper understanding of what my dad was feeling in that moment. This week we get to go spend some time with our grandkids. I get to watch them and be with them. And I know I’m going to be sitting there saying, I am so blessed. Blessed beyond measure. Proverbs 17:17 says this.
David [00:14:47]:
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. My brothers and I laugh at that verse. I’m the oldest of four boys. One of the things my brothers and I enjoy when we get together at Thanksgiving, Christmas, any of the holidays, is sitting around the table and telling stories. And, man, we have some stories. And my mom always says, whew, I’m glad I didn’t know about that. But I remember growing up, my brothers and I, the four of us in the house, we were always wrestling and tumbling and playing, and mom was worried about us. You know, I remember when we were young and we were wrestling and trying to prove he was the strongest.
David [00:15:42]:
All the time she was worried about all this, you know, testosterone that was flowing there in the house. And so she was talking to one of our friends about it, a gentleman, an older gentleman who was friends of our family, telling him about all we were doing, how we were fighting and wrestling, and he laughed and said, oh, don’t worry about them boys. They just showing how much they love each other. And she goes, whew, they must really love each other. But one of the things, growing up with all of that, when I was out in the neighborhood playing with my friends, and if one of my friends and I got in a disagreement and they started telling me how they were going to rearrange my face and what I was going to look like and I better back down, I always remember this. I’d hear behind me, I’ve got your back. And I’d turn and look, and one of my brothers would be standing there. I always knew they had my back and I had theirs.
David [00:16:50]:
Funny story about this is I remember one day my best friend and I were at the end of the driveway in our yard playing, and I to this day don’t remember what, but we got into an argument about something, and he started telling me what he was going to do to me and all the stuff, and I better get ready because it was going to hurt. And in the midst of that argument, I heard behind me, I got your back. I turned around and looked. That was my youngest brother, Kevin. He’s three or four at the time. I think he was three. I got your back. And he was standing there with his face scrawled up, yeah, it’s fist.
David [00:17:34]:
Stuff like this. And my best friend looked at him and started laughing, and it was funny. I started laughing. And so my best friend and I started laughing at Kevin. And we didn’t remember what we were fighting about. And it was all done. To this day, Kevin tells me, I saved your life, dude. And I always tell him, no, you didn’t.
David [00:17:59]:
I could have taken that kid with one hand tied behind my back, I got your back. When we think about family and friends again, who’s got your back? Who’s there for you? Who’s with you? This is a great season to express our thankfulness and our gratitude for all God’s done for us and for all those God has put in our life, all of our family. The third way we celebrate the season of giving is through the celebration of harvest. Thanksgiving falls at the end of the harvest season in the US and in Canada. This serves as a way to give thanks for the abundance of food, food and other resources as we gather to appreciate the fruits of our labor. Psalm 85:12 says this. And this is from the Amplified classic. Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its Increase.
David [00:19:21]:
Harvest is a time of increase. On my dad’s side especially. Much of my family were farmers. My Uncle Doyle, who married my dad’s sister, my Aunt Edna, he had a huge farm. At one time it was 1000 acres. He raised cattle, beef cattle. He had a dairy farm. He raised corn, he raised peanuts, he raised watermelon, all the stuff.
David [00:19:54]:
Pigs, all of it. One of the things I remember is harvest time at Uncle Doles. And we’d get out there in the field, we said we were going to help. I think we played more than we helped. But I remember climbing up in the back of that trailer and seeing all that grain, all that corn, all the peanuts, all the stuff. Harvest time, and we’d come together and Uncle Doyle would deep fry turkey or roasted turkey, and the whole family would come and we’d have a day of celebrating all that God had did once again. Wow, what a special time. Second Corinthians 9, 10, 11 says this now.
David [00:20:55]:
May he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality which causes thanksgiving through us to God in all of this. He is our source and our supply. He is the God of increase, the God of multiplication. We are enriched in everything which causes thanksgiving through us to God. Hallelujah. Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the season of celebration in the US which leads to Christmas and the New Year. This makes it a time of extended celebration and significance. We have two months of giving thanks, of celebrating what has come, celebrating all that God’s done for us, and celebrating what is coming in the New Year.
David [00:22:20]:
What a blessing that is to us. Overall. Thanksgiving is celebrated as a time to honor history, to cultivate gratitude, to strengthen family bond and reflect on core values of unity and generosity. Today I want to close with the chapter we started with last week, Psalm 100, verses 1 through 5. King James says this. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing.
David [00:23:07]:
Know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he who has made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and to his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name for the Lord good. His mercy is everlasting and his truth endures to all generations. Do this throughout your Thanksgiving celebration throughout Christmas and throughout the New Year celebration as we enter into 2025. Give him thanks.
David [00:23:53]:
Rejoice over the Lord our God what a great privilege and honor it is to be a part of the family of God and come together to celebrate his goodness his blessing in our lives let’s bow our heads in prayer Father we come to you God I’m just humbled today when I think back on all that you’ve done all the stories a couple of them I shared today I thank you Lord for your goodness I thank you Lord for what started 403 years ago with the pilgrims thank you Lord that President Lincoln had the foresight to establish a day of giving thanks our beneficiary God and Father in the heavenlies thank you Lord for all this day means to us and may we remember it and may we share it with our children so they understand the significance of it and we thank you for it today Father in Jesus name amen Pastor Connie’s coming with a closing word and prayer Go out and be thankful today Share your gratefulness with all those around you how will.
