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

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

By Kelly Durant  11-23-14 Re 11-24-24

 

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 around 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. 404 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 lost their heads for not submitting to the abusive dominating monarchy that imposed their church hierarchy system on them. Are you thankful you have not lost your head due to an abusive authority? In history and even today millions have lost their heads, or lives, over 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 food in a special fall 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 to celebrate in the fall as well as did the Jews celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles and the Torah, Rosh Hashanah, while Christians have traditionally come to 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 did die of hunger anyway! It was Sqanto, a native slave of the English who taught them how to raise corn and fish eel. He sacrificed his time and food to help these immigrants who were ignorant of living from nature since they came from large European cities. God bless the natives!

 

3. But many people have immigrated to many different lands throughout history so what makes this thanksgiving festival so special? 

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 sacrificed to make our food together special, 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.

 

Before 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 that 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 and we should not allow lawmakers 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!

 

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

Thanksgiving Day in reality is all about thanking God for maintaining your life and for sharing with others your thankfulness! (repeat)

 

In the verses of today we observe that David and Jonah, and we know well that 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 people! There are many sins in this nation and many people 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 acting as good people being good to each other! 

 

In our community you would assume people would come to worship and thank God for their blessings but instead often they offer only negative comments (the opposite of praise) about personal frustrations or unhappy situations, and this makes God very sad and angry! God allowed a whole generation of Hebrews 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 and they are on the path to their own destruction!

 

5. Just think, this country now has 65 million Hispanics, and about 40 plus million have arrived within the past 30 years. I personally have a hard time understanding why most all of them are not going to the church of their choice giving thanks to God?! I read 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, worship God, and be good neighbors involved in the community! 

 

Most immigrants, like the first European ones, recognize that they are strangers in a strange land, and that 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 you are the special ones of God! Being here to thank God today is comparable to being with the one leper that was healed that came back to give thanks. Ten were healed but only one returned and expressed thanks! Eternally we praise God and Jesus in recognition of thanks. Sadly, in infamy, there are the unthankful nine others. Never be one of them!

 

6. In order to show you are thankful, you must sacrifice something for God’s work from time to time. You must make a commitment and then keep it.

If you are thankful in life in general, you are always praising and happy, 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

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 really 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! 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!

 

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 the woods! In two months, your life will be over, you will die a slow death of starvation in the cold!

But then if suddenly there appeared a group of strange people of another race unexpectedly putting 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 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, superhighways 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 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 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 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’ can live forever! It is our job as Christians to teach others to always 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 and to live eternally!

 

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; Jonah 2:9 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 right now, 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?

Thanksgiving: True Compassion and Gratitude

Thanksgiving: True Compassion and Gratitude           by Kelly Durant 11-19-23

I John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but indeed and in truth.3

2. How many of you have ever seen beggars? I mean hungry ones with very sad faces? There are a lot of them in South America and each day I had to have a few pesos ready to give out. If you don’t help you are going to feel very bad thinking about how you did not help someone in need! Right? But you can always observe hundreds that do not care at all and just walk on by!

The first Pilgrim Colonists in 1621 in this country were literally dying of hunger after arriving to this land from England. They arrived in the summer and did not have time to plant for the harvest and they had no provisions for the winter. Immigrants seem to always have a hard time no matter where they move to! Right? 

A Cuban I shared a coffee with one time told me he was so poor when he got to Miami that he would catch pigeons on the beach in order to be able to eat! Sometimes we are unaware of how poor some people around us actually are! Also, never judge, appearances deceive!

3. We can be thankful for Thanksgiving Day because it has shaped Americans as a culture to remember to be grateful to God and to be compassionate! Americans have historically been one of the most generous helping people on earth giving over 500 billion to individuals or charity each year! Half of that goes to churches! This is one reason why Satan has been working so hard to divide and destroy our faith and this country! “Tolerance” the past few years seems to apply for every type of religion and all types of evil but “tolerance” is not offered to Christians the ones helping ministries with billions per year! But Satan controls multi-trillions through his despots!

The Native American Indians, and historically most cultures in the world, have a tradition of celebrating the fall harvests which sustains them through winter. It is a time of sharing and generosity! Even pagan European cultures, apart from Christian ones,  knew there was a God that provided and they had festivals as well. It was Pres. Abraham Lincoln that made Thanksgiving Day an official holiday in 1863 to, as in his words, “remember Almighty God”. But it had been celebrated for over 160 years prior to that! 

4. It is amazing how the Indians showed compassion on these new strange white immigrants. Everyone today should celebrate this act of compassion and gratitude to God and should express gratitude to our remaining noble Natives! Thanksgiving Day should be a day in which we recognize God’s mercy through others and this should prompt us to show compassion on someone less fortunate in our society.

The essence of being a Christian is that we are supposed to live out compassion and gratitude in our every action, and often we do meet others that know and practice it innately because they are spiritual. Most people still have a God consciousness and God sees all. How much more Christians must do it!

The scripture of today, of showing compassion, was in its essence being practiced by a people that at that time were being called ‘savages’. Interesting God’s humor in how He used so called “savages” to save the Christians from hunger by throwing a big party and feast! But that set the stage for how every immigrant should be: compassionate ever since that Thanksgiving day!

5. This nation, founded by Christians, currently still lives with this standard and tradition of compassion and it is established as an example for all generations so that we must keep the tradition going always being compassionate and feeding and caring for others. I would like to suggest that when we show the less fortunate compassion that we not forget that this includes the widows, the homeless, and the immigrants. (the ones the Bible names repeatedly)

But for the cold hearted and compassionless, hear this warning: Proverbs 21:13  Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.

These Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe gave an example of how all people can without any discrimination of race and class appreciate one another, love and share, and thank God that He is keeping them alive! The best way to connect is to share a meal with someone!

6. Think about this, God feels deep pain when he spares lives life and then later these same people become proud and greedy and forget Him! In other words, God gets angry and judges severely people who are non-compassionate and unthankful!

Where do we find evidence of this? In the O.T., Moses freed 6 million Jews from the slavery of Egypt and how did these people respond? Did they praise Him every day? No! They complained constantly against God, they built idols to worship any god except the One who had saved them! Their punishment was to wander lost 40 years in the desert and never reach the promised land!

God has a way of judging and destroying the nations that are unthankful to Him! All the world’s super powers of the past, Egypt, Persia (Iran), Greece, and Rome, look at them today! They are still bankrupt, in turmoil, and divided! They have been cursed for several thousand years now because their people became aggressors to steal, enslave, and exploit instead of being people who were loving and giving, compassionate worshipping our true God Jehova!

7. Many Native tribes were peaceful and loving and spiritual, but others were war-like and they would invade and kill those in other tribes. This was the same scenario as in Europe where the white tribes of peaceful people were invaded by Vandals, Vikings, Germanic, and other barbarous war like Caucasian people. Today those past aggressor’s powers have faded away. And why is that?  Because it was prophesized by Jesus in Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.  But there are still not enough meek ones yet! The evidence is there, God humbles or He exalts nations! It’s all in accordance to how much they obey God.

Are we becoming a nation that is more overrun by greedy deceitful aggressors that will scam and rob and even kill old ladies to steal? Are we as a nation losing our protection and blessings from God because too many people have stopped being compassionate people who thank God for their lives? How have Christians have gone wrong to be deceived to follow false doctrines?

8. Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. I propose to you that as many as half of today’s so called Christians are no longer reading and following Biblical principles but rather they are following men and teachings that are filling them with bitternesses and destruction.  Many so called churches are now accepting false ideas and politics and the erroneous liberation theologies. They want justice, but in their own revengeful way and it is painful to see these deceptions at work making people divisive, unfriendly, and isolated. 

We believe that the despairing needs of others is solved by obeying Jesus example, and that is having a heart to God and a hand to man! We help as in I John 3:16!

Yet the modern trend is to believe that social justice, which may or may not include caring for the poor, should be by force and carried out by imposing on the prosperous ones steep penalties, taxes and laws so that it permits the shifting of the wealth to themselves. Covetousness is against God’s law but many break it. This is a sign of the times. What the anti-Christ will do?

9. Daniel 11:24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.

What it amounts to is Satan has always wanted to prove He is as good as God to show compassion. Satan wants to appear compassionate! God’s way is the sacrificial way, the laying down of your life for others, the giving of your time, talent, and treasure to others giving them the gospel of salvation in love due to your gratitude to God.  True Christians willingly share with those in need!

10. Satan’s imitation of compassion is destructive and like the warmongering aggressors. Historically between Russia, China, and the rest, 100 million or more have died under atheist Communism. The lie of all lies is that the government under some despot dictator who says he cares for the poor is going to really care for the poor. He robs from the rich but never really shares it. It never happens! We have not seen a model of true compassion happen yet. We have witnessed Russia, China, Vietnam, N. Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela as they give crumbs to the masses of people while the leaders live in ultra-luxury.

 Jesus exposed Satan in John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. 

God’s compassion is not bound by a race, religion, or place. Jesus example of the Good Samaritan points this out!  Compassion must be put into practice by those that know God or otherwise the world’s (or Satan’s) idea of compassion becomes a method of oppression and destruction! 

11.The world can be divided into 2 types of people, the Satanic self-righteous condemning greedy destructive and imposing types who want to take from you yet boast they are compassionate, or the sharing spirit–filled caring compassionate and loving type that thanks God for everything and spreads the blessings. Which type are you? 

In the end, you are either practicing compassion from God or you are not! If not, then you are comparable to the soon to disappear war-like selfish people of the past that forcibly took what they coveted to consume and destroy. Only the meek will inherit the earth!

Only Jesus love can change hearts that are hell bent on stealing, invading, killing, and disrespecting other races and cultures! These atrocities still continue on today in the world in our metropolis mega cities, and in all countries everywhere. Let’s practice sharing with all! Let us pray for a return to a thankfulness to God and a practice of real compassion! On Thanksgiving Day we are reminded of it so practice Thanksgivingness today as it is needed more than ever! We must always thank God for He is limitlessly good!

 

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

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

By Kelly Durant  11-23-14 Re 11-20-22

 

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 around 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. 402 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 lost their heads for not submitting to the abusive dominating monarchy that imposed their church hierarchy system on them. Are you thankful you have not lost your head due to an abusive authority? In history and even today millions have lost their heads, or lives, over 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 food in a special fall festival. One of the most common foods then was turkey, along with corn, and other vegetables, it was fall harvest festival. Historically, most cultures celebrate the beginning of spring, and this coincides with Easter and Passover; and to celebrate in the fall as well as did the Jews celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles and the Torah, while Christians have come to 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 did die of hunger anyway! It was Sqanto, a native slave of the English who taught them how to raise corn and fish eel. He sacrificed his time and food to help these immigrants who were ignorant of living from nature since they came from large European cities. God bless the natives!

 

3. But many people have immigrated to many different lands throughout history so what makes this thanksgiving festival so special? 

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 sacrificed to make our lunch special, 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.

 

Before 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 that 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 and we should not allow lawmakers 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 reality is all about thanking God for maintaining your life and for sharing with others your thankfulness! (repeat)

 

In the verses of today we observe that David and Jonah, and we know well that 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 people! There are many sins in this nation and many people 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 come to worship and thank God for their blessings but instead often they offer only negative comments (the opposite of praise) about personal frustrations or unhappy situations, and 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 and they are on the path to their own destruction!

 

5. Just think, this country now has 63 million Hispanics, and about 40 million have arrived within the past 30 years. I personally have a hard time understanding why most all of them are not going to the church of their choice giving thanks to God?! I think I read about 15% do start going to a church of some kind but that is too few! In their countries about 80% 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! 

 

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 you are the special ones of God! Being here to thank God today is comparable to being with the one leper that was healed that came back to give thanks. Ten were healed but only one returned and expressed thanks! Eternally we praise God and Jesus in recognition of thanks. Sadly, in infamy, there are the unthankful nine others. Never be one of them!

 

6. In order to show you are thankful, you must sacrifice something for God’s work from time to time. You must make a commitment and then keep it.

If you are thankful in life in general, you are always praising and happy, 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

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 really 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! 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!

 

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 no 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!

But then if suddenly there appeared a group of strange people of another race unexpectedly putting 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 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, superhighways 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 the lives of those few hundred immigrants that were saved almost 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 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 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’ can live forever! It is our job as Christians to teach others to always 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 right now, 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?