Psalm 105:1-3
O Give Thanks
In the winter of 1620, the Pilgrims landed in the area which today is
called Plymouth, Massachusetts. The winter was harsh and the settlers
were unprepared for the weather. Many died. When spring came, the
colony began planting their first crops. That fall, with help from
their Indian neighbors, they gathered in their first harvest.
With a spirit of excitement, the Pilgrims invited the Indians, who
had helped them, to join in a three-day feast to celebrate God’s
faithfulness. The meal consisted of wild turkey, venison and
vegetables. This was the first thanksgiving feast and it took place
in 1621.
Two years later, in 1623, Governor William Bradford, of the Plymouth
Colonies, made the proclamation:
Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant
harvest… I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all you Pilgrims, with
your wives and your little ones, do gather at the meeting house, on
the hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday,
November 29th, of the year of our Lord, one-thousand, six-hundred,
and twenty-three, and the third year since you Pilgrims landed on
Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to your pastor and render thanksgiving
to Almighty God for all His blessings.
Today’s Thanksgiving has changed. Most have left the "thanksgiving"
out. Today it is more a "Be Happy" holiday. People still meet with
family and maybe some friends, but instead of being thankful, today’s
activities are hunt, shot, or watch ballgames. In the midst of this,
our holiday has been infiltrated by God-haters who have rewritten and
redacted Thanksgiving’s history to exclude God. Even those who may
want to celebrate a genuine Thanksgiving are no longer sure Who they
should thank.
I read the following story a few years ago:
A fourth grader was assigned to write the history of Thanksgiving for
a school report but the class was also cautioned about making their
report a religious speech. So the child summarized his report as
follows:
This evening, let’s remind ourselves of some truths concerning
Thanksgiving.
I. Giving thanks to God is a choice.
A. Let me read the verses where God gave the Thanksgiving
Offering to the Jews.
Lev 7:12 If he offer it for a thanksgiving,
then he shall offer with the sacrifice of
thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with
oil….
1. Notice the first word of this passage, IF.
2. There are no threats, no requirement, and no demands.
3. Rather, there was an opportunity and an invitation to that
opportunity.
4. That choice is echoed in another passage about this
offering.
Leviticus 22:29 AND WHEN YE WILL offer a
sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the LORD, offer
it at your own will.
B. In fact, every sacrifice is given as an option.
Lev 1:1 And the LORD called unto Moses, and
spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the
congregation, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say
unto them, IF ANY MAN OF YOU BRING AN OFFERING
UNTO THE LORD, ye shall bring your offering
of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the
flock.
1. No offering, given to the Lord, was to be a forced
offering.
2. Even to this day, God would not force anyone, anywhere to
thank Him.
C. However, it is God’s desire that we give thanks to Him.
1. \\#Luke 17:11-14\\ Ten men who were lepers were healed of
their disease by Jesus. The story ends this way:
Luke 17:14 And when he saw them, he said unto
them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And
it came to pass, that, as they went, they were
cleansed.
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was
healed, turned back, and with a loud voice
glorified God,
16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving
him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten
cleansed? but where are the nine?
18 There are not found that returned to give
glory to God, save this stranger.
2. The silence that story ends with is deafening.
a. There were ten men healed, yet only one returned to
thank God.
b. I am certain that every man had his own reason for not
returning to give thanks.
(1) Each man, no doubt, had a family he had not been
within years.
(2) I’m certain that they were all so happy and
filled with wonder, that they probably were not
thinking clearly.
(3) I imagine each was anxious to get on with a life
they thought they would never have.
c. Instead of a single voice of praise that afternoon,
there should have been a chorus.
d. Yet for whatever the reason, 9 men chose NOT to give
God thanks.
3. A man named Doug Henry wrote his own explanation of why
the other nine did not return to thank Jesus, entitled
"How the Nine Justified Their Ungrateful Heart."
The first waited to see if the healing was real.
The second waited to see if it would last.
The third said he would thank Jesus later.
The fourth decided he never had leprosy to begin with.
The fifth said he would have gotten well anyway.
The sixth gave the glory to the priests.
The seventh reasoned that Jesus didn’t do anything anyway.
The eighth one proclaimed that any Rabbi could have done the same.
The ninth excused himself by exclaiming, “I was already much
improved.”
D. While God gives us a choice to thank Him or not, it is my
belief that those who choose to thank God, will have more
things for which to be thankful.
II. Giving thanks to God is a sacrifice.
A. As already mentioned, God created a physical sacrifice in the
Old Testament called a Thanksgiving Offering.
1. It costs the people of that day something to offer it.
2. Our thanksgiving today is no less a sacrificial offering
to God.
B. Two things about a sacrifice.
1. A sacrifice must cost you something.
a. The very word used implies something costly is being
given. It is a SACRIFICE.
b. Does it cost us something to thank God? Yes it does.
(1) It costs us some of our time. Not much. Perhaps
just a second or two of it is a ritualistic
offering, but maybe a whole minute or soul if it
is from the heart. Perhaps that is too high a
cost.
(2) It costs us some of our attention. We are
naturally ungrateful. To thank God not only on
Thanksgiving but every day, we must purposely
keep God on our minds and hearts. That is a
difficulty that requires us retraining
ourselves. Perhaps that is too high a cost?
(3) It costs us some our pride.
(a) For a human to thank God demonstrates the
relationship between God and man is the
relations of the Giver to the receivers.
i. Does God thank us?
ii. No. Why? Because we have nothing to
give Him.
iii. Should we thank God?
iv. Yes. Why? Because we would have
nothing except God gave it to us.
James 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) It grates against man’s pride to acknowledge
that we cannot provide for ourselves, that
we are dependent upon the God of Heaven for
our very existence.
(c) BUT WE ARE! We are dependent upon God for
life, strength, ability, reason, and
breathe.
(d) Perhaps that is too high a cost to pay.
(4) Whatever the cost it must be high for we offer
God so little in the way of thanksgiving.
2. Sacrifice is an act of worship.
a. Jews and Christians are not the only ones to offer
sacrifices to a deity.
(1) Heathens offer their sacrifices too.
(2) And although there are NO OTHER DEITIES, God
curses that practice.
(a) Why? Why would God be bothered if there are
no other gods.
(b) Because giving praise, even to an imaginary
being is worship, and God is the only One
worthy of worship.
b. So when we choose to praise God, we are worshipping
Him.
(1) Have you worshipped God today?
(2) Have you rendered to God any praise?
III. Giving thanks to God is a command.
A. It might seem a little contradictory that I first said that
giving thanks is a choice and now say that giving thanks is a
command.
1. However it is.
2. When God gave us a freewill, He gave us a choice to obey
His commands or not, but that does not change the fact
that God has commanded us to do certain things, among
them to give Him thanks.
B. There are many verses where we are commanded to give God
thanks.
Psalm 50:14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay
thy vows unto the most High:
Psalms 147:1 Praise ye the LORD: for it is good
to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant;
and praise is comely.
1Chron 16:8 Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon
his name, make known his deeds among the people.
C. These commands are not just in the Old Testament.
Colossians 3:17 And whatsoever ye do in word or
deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
1Thessalonians 5:18 In every thing give thanks:
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you.
Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in
every thing by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto
God.
D. These commands make it clear.
1. As good Americans, we ought to celebrate Thanksgiving.
2. But as good Christians, we ought to give thanks to God
every day for the many blessings that He has bestowed upon
us.
I want to close by reading something that I wrote in 2009. It’s in an
answer to a question that I don’t have the time to discuss in detail
but believe it is too important not to mention at all.
It is entitled: Why should I be thankful?
Why should I be thankful?
A full stomach, a job, and luxuries that would make the richest
king of the last century green with envy. Perhaps you own your
own home, perhaps you rent, but either way it is built secure and
sound. It is your own private living quarters. You leave it with
the assumption that your worldly possessions, which themselves
are blessings, will be secured until you return; and you are
seldom if ever disappointed. In addition. you probably have an
automobile that has heat, cooling, and entertainment. You probably
have more clothes than you could wear in a week and more shoes
than you should possess at all.
But why should I be thankful?
Most have good health. Most are free from perpetual pain, most
can stand on their own two feet and walk unassisted. If you
cannot now, you probably could at one time. Most have strong
enough arms to do what you need to do and sound enough minds
to reason with. If you do not have all of these you probably have
doctors who help you, medicines that make your life more
tolerable, and family members or friends who aid and comfort you.
And if even all of this is missing, you can have hope in eternity
of having a body with no pain, no weakness, and no short comings.
But why should I be thankful?
You have been given life, liberty, freedom, and the privilege to
be an American.
You have the opportunity to worship, to be saved, to be lost, to
own a Bible, to listen to this message or to get up and walk
out if you do desire.
You can be thankful for the education you have received, the fact
that you can read and write, work whatever job you can train
yourself to work, that you likely have a forty hour work week
with time and one-half for the hours over that you work.
You can live wherever you desire, marry whomever you wish, have
as many or as few children as you want and raise your children
in whatever manner you deem appropriate.
You have the right to protect yourself, determine your country’s
form of government, elect your officials, and even run for office
yourself if you so choose.
You have access to a judicial system, an appeal system, a
political system, and a free-enterprise system.
But why should I be thankful?
Whether you have accepted salvation or not, it has been provided
for you. God came in the flesh to die in your place. He taught us
about Himself, about ourselves, about sin, and about freedom from
sin. Jesus supplied us with the Manual of Life. He gives
teaching—with illustrations—on finances, child rearing, marriage,
success, peace, happiness, ethics, and overcoming.
No matter what you have done, your past can be forgiven and your
future is as bright as the promises of God. The remainder of this
life is yours; the Bible is yours; the Holy Ghost is yours; the
church is yours; a ministry can be yours; and eternity is yours.
All of this means you have hope. Hope in this life and hope in
the next. Of all the many blessings God has given us, perhaps
that hope is the greatest of all.
But still I ask, "Why should I be thankful?" No, the question should
have been all along, "How can I not thank Him, the One who has
blessed me with so much?"
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