Deuteronomy 8:7-17
Principals of Thanksgiving
As a church and believers, we celebrate many holidays that are not Biblical in
their origins. Some are critical of those holidays. As I rule, I am not. After
all, we have more history than Bible history.
America is, relatively speaking, an infant nation. Being less than 250 years
old, it has no Bible history at all. In addition, we each have our own family
and ethic backgrounds. As long as those traditions are not against God or the
Bible, I see no reason why we should not enjoy and celebrated the joyful events
of our past. Having and knowing your heritage is, in itself, a blessing from God.
The holiday that we celebrate this week, Thanksgiving, is a holiday with which
I believe God is pleased. It is a time to be thankful. Let’s consider it from a
Biblical prospective.
Notice the warnings and admonitions that Moses is giving the people.
Deut 8:11 Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy…
18 But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God…
17 (An implied beware) And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of
mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.
Moses was warning the people of something that God knew would happen; namely, that
they would forget Him. Let’s notice a few Thanksgiving Principals.
I. No one would have any blessing if God did not give the blessings to them.
A. The Bible makes it clear that all blessings come from God.
Psalm 103:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy
name.
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness
and tender mercies;
5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like
the eagle’s.
Jas 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down
from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of
turning.
B. I know that in America today, many are saying that we need to be
tolerant of the religions of others.
1. For the most part, I agree.
a. While I do not believe in anyone else’s religions, the
Constitution of the United States does provide for freedom of
religion.
b. That is what our soldiers, like Bradley Lagrone, have risked
and given their lives for these many years of our history.
2. However, just because I believe we need to let others believe what
they want to believe does not mean that I have to quit believing
the truth.
a. There is no other God but our God.
(1) Every individual may worship, or not; and of they choose
to worship, they may worship who or what they wish.
(2) However, that does not make them right or what they say to
be so.
(3) America used to know this but it is lost to them now.
b. All blessings come from our God. Again, this is a principal
that we used to know in this country, but we have lost it.
II. Yet, when we are blessed, people forget God.
A. This is a sad principal, but it is implied in this text.
1. When a people need God, they pray and thank Him.
2. However, as they become (seemingly) more safe and secure in their
own abilities, they stop praying, stop thanking, and apparently,
stop believing at all.
B. America has forgotten God.
1. The day that we know as Thanksgiving was first practiced because
the earliest citizens of America wanted to thank God.
a. They did not thank Allah, or Buda, or any other form of deity.
b. They thanked the God of the Bible.
2. Interestingly, compared to what the poorest Americans today have,
these people did not have much.
a. We placed a brief Thanksgiving history into the bulletin today.
b. To be honest, I am not certain the true history of Thanksgiving
is even taught in our public schools today.
c. Even if it is, it doesn’t hurt to have a refresher course.
(1) The Pilgrims had their lives.
(2) They had their crops.
(3) And they had some crude shelters.
(4) But they had hearts full of praise and thanksgiving.
3. Despite this and many other pages of God’s help in our nation’s
history, most of America has forgotten God and His blessings.
(a) We are certainly a blessed people today.
(1) Even as we approach the fourth year of a economical down
turn, I have not heard of an increase in those who are
starving for lack of food in this country.
(2) I imagine that there may be more homeless now than before
but I have not heard that. Perhaps those kinds of
figures are not yet available.
(3) An article on PBS dated June 29, 2009, estimated that from
then until now (2 years) the homeless ranks were expected
to increase by 1.5 million people because of the economy.
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/526/homeless-facts.html
(4) Whether it did or not, I don’t know.
(5) But the very fact that I don’t know tells me that even
most of those who lost their homes must be getting by
one way or the other.
(b) With God’s blessings , America has largely forgotten God.
(1) I will not attempt to prove that statement this morning.
(2) I believe it to be self-evident.
C. Yet, America citizens at large are not the only ones who have forgotten
God.
1. Those who pack the pews of America’s churches have done a fair job
of forgetting God as well.
(a) The fact is that a lot of people who claim Christianity have
not packed any church pews for a long time.
(b) Interestingly, In 2005, the Barna Research Group polled those
who claimed to be Christians and found that 47% attend church
at least once per week.
(1) Then Barna polled to find out how many Christians lie
about surveys they take.
(2) They found out that while 17% of Christians said they
tithe, only 3% do.
(3) So we can figure there are a lot less than 47% of
professing Christians actually attending church at least
weekly.
(4) Some estimate the number to be closer to 26% (Presser and
Stinson).
http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_rate.htm
2. What I would wonder is how many professing Christians do not go to
church at all?!
3. The truth is that even among those who profess to know Jesus Christ
as their Savior and claim to have an active spiritual life, few of
us actually take the time to give God thanks.
(a) And why?
(b) For the same reason as the masses. When we are blessed, we
forget God.
III. When we forgot God, God stops blessing.
A. There are three references to forgetting God in the Bible. None of
them are encouraging.
Job 8:13 So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite’s hope shall
perish:
14 Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider’s web.
15 He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast,
but it shall not endure.
Ps 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget
God.
Ps 50:22 Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and
there be none to deliver.
B. When you forget God, God will soon forget you!
1. I do not want to be harsh or unkind, but this is a lesson America
and especially the professing Christians of America need to learn.
2. It is a fact that in the days prior to this economical crisis,
many who were blessed just did not have time for God.
a. They were too busy taking in overtime.
b. If they were not busy making money, they were busy spending it.
c. If they were not busy making or spending money, they felt like
the Lord’s Day was their one day of the week to do what they
wanted to do.
3. Some of them forgot God and so God forgot them.
a. Many of those have now lost their jobs and their savings.
b. Friend, I don’t mean to be unsympathetic, but if that was or is
your attitude, you helped to bring your condition upon
yourself.
(1) I don’t say that it is totally your fault because I don’t
know that it was.
(2) But I do say there is a principal here and you need to
understand it.
(3) If you forget God, God will forget you.
4. By the way, if you have been bitter at God because of your
misfortunes, you’d better think again.
a. Whatever you have left, you have it only because of the
goodness of God.
b. God can take what you have left away too.
IV. People must choose to bless and thank God.
A. This is one reason why I believe we must be tolerant of the false
religions of others.
1. God operates a salvation by choice not coercion.
2. History has shown us that people cannot be forced to accept the
God of the Bible. It is not God’s way, and it does not work.
B. So we must pray, tell, and reason with people to turn to God of their
own free will.
1. This is the work of evangelism.
2. Tell the truth, and let God convict.
C. But while we are trying to move others to turn to God, we must be
careful that we do not forget Him ourselves.
V. \\#10-11\\ The command to keep from forgetting God is to bless and thank Him.
A. And we come back to the purpose of Thanksgiving.
1. Godly men and women in this country recognized the need for the
people of America to take a day out of their year to consider
what God had done for them and to thank and bless Him for it.
2. Will you thank God for His blessings today?
B. What have I to be thankful for? I do not know. How about…
1. The opportunity to be saved?
2. Perhaps you have the prospects of a few more days on earth.
3. Perhaps you have a family.
4. Perhaps you have a roof over your head.
5. Perhaps you have the prospects of a staying warm this winter.
6. Perhaps you have some kind of income, enough so that you could at
least buy bread to live on.
7. Perhaps you have a change of clothes.
8. Perhaps you have enough strength left that you could work a simple
job.
9. Perhaps you have enough education that you could get a better job.
C. I think with a little effort, we could all find something for which to
thankful.
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