Thanksgiving Days & The Sacrifice of Praise: God’s Idea

Thanksgiving Days & The Sacrifice of Praise: God’s Idea  

By Major Kelly Durant  11-23-25

 

Ps 107:22

22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.

Ps 50:14   

14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:

Jonah 2:9

9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.

 

2. It’s our Thanksgiving Day Sunday! It is obvious from the verses of today that giving thanks to God by sacrificing was God’s idea a few thousand years ago, long before the forming of this country! The verses of Psalm and Jonah today are almost 3,000 years old so we conclude that God wants His people to take special days of sacrificing reverencing Him doing it together with others.

 

Do you know how the U.S. Thanksgiving Day began? It began with a group of Christian Immigrants, immigrants just like you and me! Plymouth, Mass. More than 400 years ago was inhabited by Native Indians, and then one day a ship of Englishmen landed to set up a colony. This happened in 1620 as they were escaping religious persecution in Europe. Under the tyranny of King Henry VIII just a few decades earlier and even afterwards an estimated 70,000 Christians (non-Anglican or Catholic) lost their heads for not submitting to the abusive dominating monarchy that imposed their church hierarchy system on them. Are you not thankful you have not lost your head due to an abusive authority? In history, and even currently today, millions have lost their heads over evil religious and governmental persecution!

 

The problem is these desperate immigrants arrived too late in the year to have a harvest of food that would keep them alive throughout the cold winter. But thank God the Natives, or Indians, had compassion on them and gave them some food in a festival. One of the most common foods then was turkey, along with corn, and other vegetables, it was a fall harvest festival. Historically most cultures celebrate the beginning of spring and this coincides with Easter and Passover; and celebrations in the fall follows the tradition of the Jews as they celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. We, as Christians in this new world of America, celebrate Thanksgiving Day. 

 

Thus, the tradition of eating turkey! Many more of those immigrants would have died if they had not been helped! Half the colony later sadly did die of hunger! It was Sqanto, a native slave of the English who taught the new settlers how to raise corn and how to fish. He; recognize it was the Wampanoag tribe that sacrificed their time and food to help these Pilgrim immigrants who were ignorant of living from nature as they had grown up in European cities. God bless the natives!

 

3. But we may deduct that many people have immigrated to many different lands throughout history so what makes thanksgiving festivals so special? Conclusion…

These Christian immigrants took the time to rejoice, and have a party and celebrate, and praise the Lord and thank Him for freedom, life, and new friends, that’s what is special! It is a sacrifice to create a big celebration, many of you here have sacrificed to make lunch specials, and sacrificing your self is what pleases the LORD! Psalm 54:6 I will freely sacrifice to You; I will praise Your name, O Lord, for it is good.

 

Historically it was common that the government authorities, and all the townspeople, would get together to celebrate expressing their faith and thanks to God in the public square. Never succumb to secularists that in this country insist you must keep your faith private and secret! To the contrary, celebrate as is traditional, show God your thankfulness and be public about it anywhere, and everywhere! Be generous and share with others! How ironic that in this country today some people even get arrested for sharing food publicly with the needy! Christians traditionally have fed the needy in shelters and on the streets for many decades and we should not allow bad apples in high places make our traditions un-compassionately illegal.

 

Over 200 years ago congress recognized the importance of the Thanksgiving Day observance, and President George Washington issued a national Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789. He wrote, "Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for His kind care and protection of the People of this Country”...

He understood the basics of being Christian and he recognized the need to set aside a day to show God that we as Americans are thankful for this land under God!

Ps 107:22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.

 

4. Thanksgiving Day in conclusion is about thanking God for maintaining our lives and serves to get us together sharing with others our thankfulness! 

 

In the verses of today we observe that David and Jonah, and all men of God, have always made a special event out of praising God for victories, protection, and supply! The problem in the world today is there is not much of an ‘attitude of gratitude’ anymore! For the past few decades unthankful Godless people have been rudely drowning out the thankful polite God praising people! There are many sins in this nation and many people in power and in the media are like rotten apples that incite bitterness over the past, and they promote hate between races, and insult the goodness of God’s people. But on the first Thanksgiving Day the natives and the Pilgrims were both good people being good to each other! 

 

In our community you would assume people would love to come to worship and thank God for their blessings but instead often they offer only negative comments (the opposite of praise) about personal frustrations. This makes God very sad and angry! God allowed a whole generation of Jews who escaped Egypt with Moses to die in the desert because they were unthankful to Him! 1 Corinthians 10:10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. 

 

Thankful people are happy people who recognize God as their provider and they are blessed by God and they make others feel good nearby them! Unthankful people disturb the peace and bring others down with their agendas to divide and sin as they please. They are on a path to their own destruction being unthankful!

 

5. Just think, this country now has about 50 million Hispanics, and about 30 million have arrived within the past 30 years. I personally am disappointed that most all of them are not going to the church of their choice giving thanks to God?! I have read that about 15% do start going to a church of some kind but that is too few! In their countries about 70% go to church! You and I need to awaken more thankfulness in these new immigrants! We already have too many arrogant, Godless, unthankful people in all sectors of society! Let’s encourage new ones to thank God our Savior! 

 

Most immigrants, like the first European ones, recognize that they are strangers in a strange land and they could literally die if they were not having God on their side providing, protecting, and guiding! I know when I moved around in South America I literally cried out to God every time to provide and protect my family because arriving somewhere not knowing how the system functions, not having friends, not speaking the language, and arriving with almost no resources is a situation that will make one desperate and thankful for every place to stay and every plate of food!

 

You who are here today to thank God are special to God!  I am thankful to God for you, and always we must be thankful for our Christian brothers and sisters, because everyone is special to God! Getting together to thank God is comparable to being like that one leper that was healed that came back to give thanks. Ten were healed but only one returned and expressed thanks! Eternally we must praise God and Jesus in recognition of thanks! Sadly, in infamy, there were the unthankful nine others. Never be like one of them!

 

6. In order for one to show one is thankful, one must sacrifice something for God’s work at certain times. You must make a commitment and then keep it.

If you are thankful in life in general, you are always praising, giving blessings, and happy, and you are willing to do anything and willing to give up anything to show God your love and appreciation, and thankfulness to Him!   As David the Psalmist words it, Ps 50:14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High

 

We should all be dedicated to God’s work and to God’s people to have a proof of our thankfulness! Some people serve in shelters and some give food to their hurting neighbors during these holidays, but the reality is you can show thanks anytime!

Serve others with a need! Invite them to eat and tell them about your love for Jesus!

 

It is the tradition of many countries, even here, that when someone has been nice to you and done something special, you invite them to eat with you. Everyone likes to eat, right? What a great way to get to know someone and learn to love and like them!

 

7. Jesus commanded his disciples to travel and basically immigrate or integrate as they preached. No one can understand the full extent of being thankful for a bed and food unless they have had to be at the mercy of others for it! My wife and I have been in this situation many dozens of times in my life! Matt 10:9 Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, 10 nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food. 11 “Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out. 12 And when you go into a household, greet it.  In other words, bless those that bless you! Thank God He never failed us!

 

Back to our U.S. lesson in history, imagine these defenseless Pilgrims in a new land with no homes except the ones they could build before winter, and with no food stored for the winter either! Just think if right now I were to tell you, you are condemned to die in two months! In two months, your life will be over, you will die a slow death of starvation! It would make you desperate! But then if suddenly there appeared a group of strange people of another race unexpectedly put food on your table, just think how happy you would be! The reality is some of them survived in that Plymouth colony throughout the winter yet quite a few of them did die!

 

We praise and thank God this time of year (but we should every day!) and celebrations are good for all of us! And let’s also recall we must thank the Native people for supporting the immigrants because your great-great grandparents were able to arrive here and work and have a life! All of us should thank all immigrants here including Latinos, Blacks, Irish, and Asians all of which immigrated and helped build America’s major cities, railroads and farmlands. The ones before us suffered painfully through extreme hard work and hard times, and their great grandparents suffered as well! People use to die at age 40 something, remember?  We have a super nation full of prosperity with wealthy cities, super highways and mega factories all due to the labor of the many races that make up the population of The United States! 

 

8. Thankfulness to God involves being thankful to those different from you, by accepting and loving them, and respecting them. God’s glory invokes praise for His creation of the entire diverse human race, and the maximum thankfulness we can show Him is to love Him and love one another as Jesus commanded!

 

Because of the lives of those few hundred immigrants that were saved around 400 years ago, we now have a great nation today with many millions of immigrants who are Christian! This is still the most generous nation on earth because many thankful people still have faith in God and want to give back to their communities.

 

Did you know Jesus said He would celebrate a meal with us sort of like Thanksgiving? Let’s look up, Rev 3:20-21

 20'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

Even Jesus offers to eat, fellowship, and celebrate with us! But the food Jesus is offering is not just physical food, it is spiritual which is more important! 

 

It is sad to see people with hungry bodies but we must also see that many people are dying of starvation spiritually! Many of your friends and family are weak and dying inside due to not understanding the roots of why we give thanks to God! Tell them the story of Jesus and take this opportunity to emphasize the story of the Pilgrims. It is your and my job to tell everyone about God’s food, this bread of life, that He offers so ‘whosoever will’ (accept it) can live forever! It is our job as Christians to teach others to be thankful to God for even a cup of water! We must be a light to others in this work of feeding the sick and the suffering! Physical food is just a temporary aspect of life but spiritual feeding is what will keep us motivated to be alive!

 

Now, let us conclude that as we are thankful today, that we will recognize that it is by God and Jesus, and the Holy Spirit through which comes our Salvation. Any of us can die at any moment so being alive today let us, as in the book of Jonah, do our part to be fair with God and honor Him for his goodness and be sacrificial; Jonah2:9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.

 

Ask yourself, have I shown thankfulness and sacrifice to God lately as I really should by being loving and doing something kind for someone else in need as happened on the first Thanksgiving Day?