4 Essential Qualities of Being a Spiritual Pilgrim

Regarding the journey of Christopher Columbus, it's been said in a humorous but poignant manner, when Columbus started out, number one, he didn't know where he was going, number two, he didn't know where he was when he got there, and number three, he didn't know how to tell people where he was once he got back.

How would you like him for a travel agent? The message I'm going to share with you today, because as people that are on a journey, are on a voyage towards the kingdom of God, need to be better served to understand your movement and my movement and our movement towards the kingdom of God. But first, I'd like to share another voyage with you that occurred some 400 years ago. I'd like to take you about 66 days into that voyage, which would be ultimately three months coming across the Atlantic Ocean. And to look at this and to understand what was going on.

On the seas was an old, renovated wine merchant boat. It'd been at sea for 66 days, long and dade, but shorter than the 13 years that its passengers had gone back and forth between England and Holland, and trying to secure for themselves and for the next generation religious freedom. They survived in the hull of the ship on the autumn waves of the Atlantic. They survived on a diet of salted meat, hard biscuits, fried peas, and preserves.

They found it nearly impractical to be able to change their clothing down there in the darkened hull with all of the people there. The ship was only 128 feet long, as it was. What is interesting, a lot of America went known, and even some of our church members may not know this, they called, they amongst themselves, called themselves the saints. They called themselves the saints. They called themselves the saints. And the others that were on board were called the strangers. This is a very famous book dealing with the subject of Plymouth that is called Saints and Strangers, which is one of the best resources to draw upon to understand exactly what happened before, what happened before you having your turkey on Thursday afternoon next, and before everybody got to sit down with the saints and with the strangers and with the native local Native American tribe.

This is what led up to this, and to recognize that amongst the strangers then were the crew, soldiers, and the captain, Myles Standish, of which you maybe have heard through long fellow literature. And again, I mentioned saints and strangers. Among the names of the saints, among the names of the saints, were names that maybe some of us will recognize. And what you need to recognize is that there were only eight families, eight families of saints.

You know, so often you think, well, at least there must be no, we get in our mind because we haven't centered, oh, there must have been a hundred or two hundred of them and they settled into this place. There were only eight families of the saints. Names like Carver, names like Bradford, names like Brewsters, names like Aldens, names like Mullens. Eight families.

They, each of them, each individual, had sought relief from a world that had grown foreign, had grown perverted to them and their particular understanding of God. And they were forced to meet in secret. Back then, in England, you had the Anglican Church, the Church of the Kingdom, the Church of the King, who's the temporal leader. You had the Anglicans and you had the Puritans. But you also beyond the Puritans had what are called separatist.

The pilgrims were separatist. They were really, in their minds, coming out of the world, coming out of Roman Catholicism, coming out of the direction of the Pope and the things that have been added, which I'll speak to in just a couple minutes.

So important was their way of life that they indentured themselves and literally became a bondservant to a merchant company to establish what is called a particular plantation. They gave themselves away in that sense that they might have freedom of religion. In seeking a sponsor, they had advertised themselves. They had a promo. Do you want to hear it? Here was their promo. It is not with us as it is with other men, whom small things can discourage or small discontentment caused to wish themselves at home again. As I share their travels, and just to bring you on board for that very moment, all of a sudden the boat has rocked. All of a sudden a wave has crashed up against this wine ship, which is now called the Mayflower.

And they're jostled. The beans sag. They're holding up the top deck. They're down in the hole. And there would be a chorus that would come up from the pilgrims from time to time and said, yet, Lord, thou canst save. People of faith. They would make landfall in early December as winter was approaching. I've been there before. They landed. They didn't establish there, but they landed. Maybe some of you have been there in a town called Provincetown, which is at the very tip of Cape Cod.

They call it back east. They call it P-town, just to make it simple. And that's where they landed. As they landed, think of some of the cruises. Maybe some of you have had the opportunity and the pleasure of being able to be on a cruise. And, you know, on a cruise it's really special. Of course, you pay for it, but you get pampered. And the biggest decision you have to make in your life is, how much am I supposed to eat during this cruise?

Because instead of a cruise, they should call it an eats, because that's what you do on a cruise. Even at nighttime, you have the midnight cafe or the midnight supper. When they came upon the tip of the Cape, there was no rope to capture to pull the boat in. There was nobody there to throat the rope. There was no dock for that person to stand on the dock to throw the rope out.

In all of New England, say perhaps a fur trapper or maybe an individual in the woods, other than the Native Americans, they were it. There they would stay. They had been pushed into Massachusetts Bay because of the unsettling stormy weather of late autumn. And there they would be. And then they would land in the place that we've come to know as Plymouth. And they began to build. You know what day they began to build upon, which is of interest? They began to build on December 25th.

Because Puritans and separatists didn't keep Roman Catholic Holy Days. And so they just kind of wanted to do it to the Pope right there. They said, this is when we're going to start. This is how we're going to start. We're going to start building right here on December 25th. And they would begin to build. They assembled 19 one-room houses and three public buildings and walls around their compound. I've walked in the reproduction of those walls, which is quite interesting. Here's what I want to share, though, with you, though. Only 50% of the strangers, only 50% and on board, in total, were 102 peoples, what the records show us, saints and strangers. Only 50% of the strangers would last that winter. And only five of the eight families of the pilgrims would in any way remain intact. Why is that? Well, because they've been on board already coming across three months. And, of course, scurvy was a scourge when you were on the high sea. Many of them were catching scurvy. And then, while the men were building this particular plantation called Plymouth, where were the women? They were out in the middle of Massachusetts Bay in the winter, in the boat. Can we in our comfort-ridden society even begin to understand what that was like? But with them, it was not like other men that discouragement or discontentment would wish them to be home again. And they lived on. Why is that? Now we come to something that we're familiar with, a happy scene. We all like happy scenes. We think of the woods of New England. We think of the tables. Maybe there's still a few autumn leaves that are down on the ground at that time of the year. Not too many. I've been talking to my friends in Ohio, and all the leaves are down there. So you know, in New England, the trees are naked. But maybe there's some colorful leaves, and they had a feast. Probably didn't really have a big, big feast. They probably had deer, wild. They probably had wild turkey. They probably had some maize, corn, that we would call it today, that they'd learn from the Native Americans. Probably, just to let you know, probably, and I don't think this will be on your Thanksgiving table, if so, let me know, they probably had eel. They probably had crabs. They probably had maybe shrimp, because you're in the New England marshes. And by the way, how many of you have ever been to Plymouth? Can I see a show of hands? The river that just runs north of Plymouth is called the Eel River. Got it? You're in New England.

If you've been invited to that supper, that probably for we as church members would have been a good way of losing weight. Okay? It would, etc. So I think that's kind of interesting. But here's the thing that I want to share with you. Why were they able to give Thanksgiving after everything that had come their way? Two things. Number one, this is going to be the basis of the sermon. Number one, they took time to think. And when you take time to think, you will take time to think. It is that simple.

When you take time to think, you will take time to think. And in their lives, there were not a lot of distractions that you and I have today of where everybody wants to rent space in our mind, rent free. And it gets crowded, and it gets crowded. And we don't just simply take time to think. Now, I share this even with what our announcement period was and what we discussed there about some of the challenges that are facing our members today in the here and now that will face each and every one of us. Life is not problem-free. Challenges will come to each and every one of us. Have you ever noticed that what you've planned isn't exactly what happens at the end? Life is what's happening that you haven't planned for. And so I bring you this message as we come to the time of Thanksgiving to be able to understand some things that I think we need to understand. Just a little bit more about the pilgrims. Early on, these folks were called, they weren't called pilgrims for a couple hundred years. They were called the Oldcomers. They were called the forefathers. It wasn't until 1820 at the Bicentennial in a rock that they put up there, which probably wasn't the rock. If there was a rock, there's a lot of mythology, too, that goes along with the pilgrim story. But Daniel Webster was there, the great order of the early 19th century. And he's the one that brought out the term a pilgrim. I'd like to give you a definition of pilgrim for a moment, because we may not have belt buckles on like the pilgrims today. We may not have those hats. We may not have a musket—hope, not church. We might not have a musket over our shoulders as we're marching to the Thanksgiving table. But we are all pilgrims. I think it's important to kind of understand what a pilgrim is. I look at Webster's dictionary. A pilgrim is a wanderer, a sojourner. It's a person traveling to a shrine, a holy place. Roget Cesaras puts it this way. A pilgrim is a wayfarer, a traveler, a settler, a pioneer, one that is a devotee, or devotee, one who is utterly devoted. Therefore—let's put this all together—therefore a pilgrim, as a traveler, does not put down roots in a location of his own choosing. As soon as he does, he is no longer a pilgrim. And it is so very easy and tempting unless we are fully committed, as were the forefathers of our nation. Friends, God has put the term, the title, of pilgrim on each and every one of us. Join me if you would in 1 Peter. In 1 Peter 2, verse 9. In 1 Peter 2 and verse 9.

Peter speaking, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. You're a holy nation. His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light, who once were not a people but are now the people of God. We're a scattered group of people. We would not know one—are you with me? We would not know one another unless God himself had set us apart for this calling of pilgrimhood.

We would know one another. We who were not a people are a people. Those saints in 1620 that were from different parts of England but gathered together who had not been a people became a people. And they had the same goal in the sense that you and I do. You read it later on with Winthrop's letters, as in 1630, the Puritans are coming over and getting around Boston and Salem. They literally thought that instead of the the Red Sea, they were crossing the Atlantic. They thought this was the new world. They thought that this was the land that they were to be God's vessels. That was the thought that they had. I think that's the thought that the pilgrims had as well. And so we take a look at this and we recognize that we are in the—to use a pun with what we're talking about. We're all in the same boat of pilgrimhood. Notice further what it says here then, who once were not a people but are now, now, and you know that now was written almost 2,000 years ago, but it is a forever now. It is alive as much in our Bible as when it was first written by Peter under God's auspices, but now the people of God who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy and beloved. I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstained from fleshly lust which wore against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the gentiles that when they speak among against you as evildoers they may by your good works which they observe glorify God in the day of his visitation. Pilgrimage and Exodus is nothing new to the chosen and to the people of God down through the ages. We think of the patriarchs. We think of Israel and the Exodus experience, all pilgrims, and most importantly what I'd like to share with you, who is the ultimate pilgrim? Who is the ultimate pilgrim? The ultimate pilgrim is Jesus Christ himself who came from above and came to this earth on a pilgrimage, on a devoted mission for each and every one of us, and he came and he became like us, he became flesh, but he didn't put roots down and say, Father, you can't pull me up. I've decided to change our business. I was about my father's business, but now I'm going to, hey listen, I kind of like it down here. It's not too bad. He is, he came, he died, he resurrected, he went up, because the quest that God the Father has put for him, before him for us, is not completed. But he came down and he tinted. You might want to jot down John 1 verse 14. And he dwelt amongst us. Powerful words. He tinted. The same word there, dwell, meaning tinted, is the same word for tabernacle. He tabernacled with us. He dwelt with us. He is the ultimate pilgrim. And it was not with him as it is with other men that discouragement and small discontentment could wish him to be back up in heaven. He went through the job that God gave him.

And throughout his ministry, he taught us in the sense, in different words, yet Lord, thou canst save. Interesting. In Psalm 119 verse 154.

Psalm 119 verse 54. David speaking, your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. Even David, as a king, understood. And pilgrims come in all sizes and in all strata of society. Abraham became a man of wealth. He had families to take care of. He had a whole almost a tribe to himself up there of family. Pilgrimage is a state of mind. Pilgrimage is a state of heart. Pilgrimage is a matter of recognizing that we're just passing through and not to get overloaded, which is so easy to do in our life, isn't it? I've shared this story before about the man that came to visit the very famous world-known rabbi, and he thought he was really going to kind of walk into a really nice pad over in Europe. And so the tourist came down, and he put down his suitcase, and he looked at the rabbi, and he was quite startled, and he said, Rabbi, it's nice to be here. But in looking around, all I see is a cot on the floor, and you have that chair, and that's all you're sitting in. I thought there would be more. He said, no, not at all. He said, you've come here, and you're passing through, and you've put down your suitcase, but you've got to understand that I'm just passing through. That rabbi, what worked for him, was to recognize not to get centered on this earth. Now don't go home tonight and throw out all your furniture. That's not what I'm talking about. I think you understand that. But to recognize it's a state of mind of being a pilgrim. Friends, we don't want to go the way of Columbus. And sometimes we've been on the journey for so long that we forget how it started, and forget that when God began to impact us, and to share himself with us, and to call us. But sometimes you can be on the road for so long that we forget. We don't want to make the mistake of Columbus, and at the end of the day, not be able to explain our adventure, our journey, our voyage towards the kingdom, and to be able to do that. Allow me to give you four essential qualities of being a spiritual pilgrim. We'll try to go through these quickly. We start services somewhat late, so don't worry about the clock. I will, but we won't go too long. Four essential qualities of being a spiritual pilgrim. And as we do, here's what I like to share with you. And this is what I really, dear friends, want to drill into all of you, and you that are streaming with us today as we come up to Thanksgiving and every day. Put think and thank together. You cannot thank God for what you're not thinking about and what you're focusing on. So let's start by turning to the pilgrims of old, long ago. Hebrews 11. Join me if you would there. In Hebrews 11, and let's pick up the thought in verse 13, okay? Hebrews 11 verse 13. These pilgrims lived forever. Does anybody have that translation? Speak your peace now, or forever hold your peace, or speak your point. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek, oh, they're still in motion. They seek a home, a homeland.

They seek that. Amazing. A home. Homes are about relationships. It's not just about plywood and two-by-fours and concrete and the structure. It's about relationship that's worth giving your life for. And truly, if they had called a mind, that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. God didn't put an anchor on them. They could have gone back, but they did not. For they were like the pilgrims of the 17th century, of which small discontentment and discouragement did not wish them to go back home again, because they had the big picture what was in front of them. But now they desire that as a heavenly country, therefore, God is not ashamed to be their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Let's break this down for four steps towards developing our household of pilgrimage before God. First of all, we'd notice this when we go up a little bit further. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them. So let's take a look at this. Number one, the first pillar that I'd like to talk about is vision. It says that they saw the promises afar off. Far off. They had the vision of what God was doing with them.

I like you to go to Proverbs 29 and verse 18. In Proverbs 29 verse 18, a verse that we've heard many a time over the years in our journeys. But let's nail it right here, right to begin with. Proverbs 29 verse 18. Where there is no revelation, in the Old King James English, where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint. In the Old King James English says they perish, but happy is he who keeps the law. The bottom line that you and I have got to do to keep on going, going, is to keep the big picture in mind. I remember hearing that first 60 years ago by an elderly gentleman in Pasadena. You've got to keep the big picture in your mind, because the little ones will nibbly up. That same gentleman used to talk about Bill Tilden, who was a very famous tennis player during, I think, the 20s or the 30s, somewhere in there. And Bill Tilden always had this expression, which fathers have always given to their sons ever since, in baseball or tennis, keep your eye on the ball.

Keep your eye on the ball. Keep that big picture. You know, it's interesting that Viktor Frankl, famous biographer, almost autobiographical person of the death camps in Germany, the concentration camps, said that it was very interesting that those that survived, the survivors, were not always the brightest. They were not always the tallest. They were not always the strongest. They were not always the most intelligent. But they had a vision. They saw something beyond the death camps.

There was something that was burning inside of them to allow them to live another minute, another day, and that, do I dare say, Hades' hole. I'll use a little Hebrew to disguise what it was really like. And it was a Hades' hole. It was a death pit. It was a grave pit. That's how important it is. What is our vision? Join me, if you would, in Isaiah 46. Our vision needs to be God's vision. In Isaiah 46, and let's pick up the thought in verse 8. This is spoken by the I AM, the same one that is the pre-incarnate Jesus of Bethlehem, the one that led Israel and spoke to the people of God in the past. And notice what it said here, Remember this and show yourself, men. Recall to mind, O you transgressors, and remember the former things of old. For I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me. He's basically saying, wake up! Know who I am, for I am God, and there is none other. I am God, and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand. His counsel shall stand. Then notice what it says, and I will do my pleasure. I will do my pleasure. It's not going to wind up Hamas's pleasure. It's not going to wind up Hitler's pleasure. And just to bring it down home locally, it's not going to wind up just how we figured it out. But he's going to do his pleasure, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes my counsel from a far country. Indeed, I have spoken it, and I will also bring it to pass. I have purpose, Dad. You know, a lot of people today, they don't have a purpose. They're not getting out of their house. They're looking at their computer. They're going back and forth with their head going, boing, boing, boing with TikTok. There are people that ought to be working that aren't working and having everybody else support them. They are having people that work and their mind is not on the job. We have young people that are not being educated today. Do you want to know what I really think? I just told you. They are lacking a purpose. They're even lacking the resolve of that God, in that sense, purposed this country to be a light to the world. And even so, that light is going out. They have no sense of purpose. And that's why I'm even sharing a little bit about Thanksgiving, which is there is their mythology to Thanksgiving. Absolutely. Absolutely. But there's something underneath all of that that is so deep of a people that were shorn apart, lost their wives. Five of the eight pilgrims' wives died.

And yet, they had a goal in front of them. Hmm.

1 Corinthians 2, verse 9.

1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9. I'm here to remind you of something. You have something very, very special. I was just talking to somebody that had an operation before services. This is God's operation. 1 Corinthians 2 and 9. But as it is written, I has not seen nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed the things which God has prepared for us through his eyes, through his spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been given free to us by God. And all of this I want to just share a very simple thought for you that maybe you want to think about and thank God as we come up to this evening and each day till Thanksgiving. God has given you eyes that only the body of Christ and those that are within it around the world. God only knows who are his. But he's given those people eyes. You are seeing something beyond what is happening right now in America, beyond what's happening in the military, beyond what's happening in the Middle East, beyond what's happening between the quagmire between the Slavic cousins of the Ukrainians and the Russians as they go at it, one or another, in the mud fields and in the woods of the Ukraine. God has given you eyes. Do you know how precious those eyes are? H.G. Wells at the beginning of the 20th century wrote an essay. It was called The Country of the Blind. It's a story about a man that was traveling and exploring and he fell over a ravine and fell down into a trip, fell down into a ravine and down into a valley. And there were inhabitants there, but none of them had eyes. They just had bulbs in their eye sockets in that sense, but they could not see. And so the man that had fallen into the country of the blind was talking to them about things that they didn't understand because their whole world is simply what they could smell, what they could touch, what they could feel, what they could hear. And he would talk about clouds in the sky and that there was a sun. He was expanding their life, trying to give them a gift of what really was.

But they didn't believe him. They thought he was mad. They thought he was cuckoo, and that he was crazy. And they came up with the solution. You know what the solution was? The eyes have it. The eyes have got to go because that's what's creating his madness, what's creating his delusion. And so they were ready to take out his eyes. Those eyes that were such a gift and so beautiful and brought so much life beyond what life is as he looked around.

And he escaped.

And he went up the canyon walls, and he sat on the ledge. And as the dawn came up, the sunrise came, and he saw it once again. You see, brethren, you have special eyes, and people will dismiss them. They will make fun of them. They will ridicule them or simply ignore them. As we come up to Thanksgiving, give thanks to our God above that God has blessed you with spiritual insight. He's given you light within the darkness. He's given you an understanding that Jesus was not just one more Jew from Bethlehem, but he was the anointed. He was the Christ. He was God's solution to draw us back to him. Vision is so important. How important is vision? Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12.

With those eyes that I just talked about, right? Because we know who Jesus was. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, for the joy that has been set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. This ultimate pilgrim, this ultimate pilgrim, allowed him to look beyond what he was going through. Hands, feet, wrists, ankles, whatever, nailed to a piece of wood. And watching the pilgrims going up to Jerusalem, just over the valley, to slay the Passover lamb, not recognizing that he was God's ultimate pilgrim, ultimate Passover lamb. And yet he had vision, even as the sweat and even as the blood from the crown of thorns on his head did not block his vision. He saw ahead, and for the joy, notice that was what? Set before him. What was set before him was in him, and it became one and allowed him to be your Savior and mine. What is the first step towards further developing our household of pilgrimage? It's the aspect of vision. Number two, let's notice again in Hebrews 12—let's go back to the source, try to go through this as quickly as possible—Hebrews 11, and we pick up the thought here. These all died in faith, not having received but having seen them afar off, were assured of them. It also says in the Old King James English, persuaded of them. What's that mean to you and me? To be persuaded that we really have—are you with me? The real deal. A pilgrim must have faith that what God promises he can deliver. He must have—you and me or she must have—profound strength that lies beyond the margins of human understanding, and thus leaning on his promises. Realizing that God is going to perform this will and bring it about, but it's not going to go around every corner that we think he should go around. And sometimes, humanly, it will seem like literally dead ends, rather than ultimately an avenue towards the kingdom experience. And we need to understand that. Job had to come to understand that more than anybody. He took 42 chapters, but then he finally said, you know, there are things that you are doing that are so wonderful that I just don't simply understand. And you know what? My three friends don't understand. Send them away. He gave it to God. Interesting. This is what the Oldcomers did. God gave to them, and he gives to us, superlative, incredible promises, but at times, perfectly neglected to fill in all the details. Can I talk a moment? Isn't that just the hardest part?

When at times, he gives us the superlative promises, and he gives us the framework of what he has in store for us, but we don't necessarily have all of the pieces. So then we get out our jigsaw puzzle pieces and say, God, let me take care of the middle. It's going to be all right. Let me take care of it. He says, hold on, son, and hold on, daughter. When you were baptized, you gave yourself to me unconditionally. And you told me, through your studies and through what you said when you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that he is the path. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. And that hasn't changed. Patience. Hard to do. Hard to do. As fellow pilgrims, let's ask ourselves, how often did Father Abram put down stakes in his tent, only to be told to pull them up, to get up, to get out, and to get going? Just think about that for a moment. He never was allowed to put down roots. And he's the father of the faithful. And there's a reason why he is. That he had the vision that God had called him out of earth for a purpose. He had a vision that, ultimately, that the nations of the world would be blessed through the seeds of his loin, that the Christ would come from him as much as he could understand that at that time in 1900 BC. But he did. But to think about it, you and me, to be able to, can we just rest? Can this just be home? Can this be the end? Can I just settle? And to recognize that God comes in his interruptions and pokes at us as much as he came to Thomas there in that room. Thomas wasn't expecting that. But God does the same with us. There are times when he's going to just drop into our lives. He's going to interrupt. He's going to interrupt, and he's going to do something for us to help us to understand. As we come up to thanksgiving, you think this year with things that have happened in your lives, which I can only imagine, that there are times when we've had to, we thought everything was settled, and then we had to what? We had to, the voice came to us, we had to pull up. Get out. Get going. And yet, are you with me? Just like Abram and later Abraham, wherever he went, he took his tent with him. And wherever he went, this is the most important part I want you to share about pilgrimage. And Abram is the ultimate, other than Jesus Christ, is that his pilgrimage consisted of two items—simple person, simple guy, a tent, and an altar. Right? Are you with me? A tent and an altar. So he's asked to pull up the tent, he would take the tent. A tent that could, was not permanent, but could be pulled up. But wherever he went, that next step on his pilgrimage, he never changed gods. He never changed his worship of God. He always built an altar, same tent, but he would build an altar and would worship to the one God. He would never worship on the altar of the gods of the people around him.

In Romans 4, verse 20, something about Abram, being persuaded, everything that came his way, even to the point of God asking him to sacrifice his own son. Notice what it says in Romans 4, he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced, fully persuaded, that what he had promised he was also able to perform. And therefore, it was accounted to him for righteousness, for righteousness. He did not stagger like the pilgrim forefathers. We are not like other men who can become discontent, who can become discouraged, but we will go forward.

You know, when you think about things, about even end-of-life experiences, and being persuaded, that ultimate pilgrim, Jesus Christ, on the cross, on the skull of Gogotha, was fully persuaded that as it was now finished, what did he say? Into your hands, I commit my spirit. He was assured that after three days and three nights, that he would be resurrected. He was convicted. He had the vision. He was persuaded. And can I say something, friends? I'm only talking to myself. I'm not on a cross. But we all have certain crosses to bear, don't we? Preverbally. That seem as heavy as the cross that came out of Jerusalem. And to recognize, in all of this that I speak of, on a day of thinking about pilgrims, is to recognize that Jesus never said that it would be easy. But he said that it would be worth it. And that's the vision we have to have. That's the conviction that we need to have. That's the persuasion that we need to have. Now, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to save the next two points for next year at Thanksgiving. Because otherwise, I'm going to go, go, go, go, even though we started late. But we're not done. Number six.

Number six. These are going to be readings. Not a lot of explanation, because sometimes the Bible explains itself. Israel, those that had been a people that were not a people, or were a people that had not been a people, now they're on the Exodus. And the Exodus is the flow of Scripture from the Old Testament to the New Testament. Of God breaking the rule of a tyrant, of calling a people, of crossing barriers that seem unnatural to be able to cross like the Red Sea and offering a promised land. That's the vision.

But Yahweh, the I Am, the one that would later on say, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. I have come to lead you. Notice what he said here. And this is what I want you to think. Dear friends, brothers and sisters, and those that are online, here's what I want you to think about. And we have to think about it to be able to be thankful. You have to think to think. And you almost have to squeeze it right there. Like your television sometimes freezes. That's what you have to do with thinking. You have to freeze it. Get all the noise out of your head, your own personal noise, much less what everybody else is trying to put in there. That God is saying this to us. Speak to Aaron in the sun, saying, this is the way he shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them, the Lord bless you and keep you in your pilgrimage. My word's at it. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you in your pilgrimage. My word's at it. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you. And give you peace. Then notice what it says at the end. So they shall put my name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them. Put his name sealed, set apart. As we come up to Thanksgiving Day in America, let's understand one more thing about Thanksgiving. Why is it a national holiday today? Until the 1860s, it was more of a regional function up in New England. But in 1863, three momentous days leading up to July 4th, when soldiers were battling one another, whose grandfathers had been at the table of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were in the midst of a horrible civil war. The death toll was staggering. And even in that, in that time of utter ghastliness, Lincoln was thinking, and he was thinking, and he made Thanksgiving by proclamation, a national holiday. In the midst of despair, in the midst of anguish, Lincoln was, perhaps why he's at this point the number one president in all the lists of presidents. I do like George Washington, but he was basically saying, there's a God. He may not have understood God as we understand God, but he recognized the deity, he recognized the sovereign, and he recognized that God had given America this land for a purpose, like the Israel of New, across a different body of water. And here we were fighting one another, and we needed his guidance. We had been wrong. We had been not appreciative of what God had given us, and the great emancipator made that proclamation about Thanksgiving Day. He recognized that we needed to turn to a higher source. Join me if you would in Psalms 121. This is the same source that the pilgrims looked to when things were going bad and the barrels of wine or whatever were coming down the hull of the ship, and they dodged them, and then bumped into the post, and yet they all joined in chorus saying, Yet Lord, thou canst save. Let me find in Psalm 121 in verse 1. I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence comes my help, and my help comes from the Lord. That's meaning I looked up to the hills. The hills were normally where man put his force. Man put his citadels. But David is saying, I am looking beyond that. I am looking to the sovereign God, who says there is no other God beside me, who gave his Son for me, who is that second Moses, who is leading this pilgrimage today, and recognize what God had in store for him. You read the rest. Think and thank. One last verse, Colossians 3. Remember, I'm going to save the next two for next year, okay? You've got to remind me. But I want you to come back to church.

But you know, right now, it's the most important thing you're hearing.

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. What a strong word. Two things. Rule. Now, maybe just pass through with a little twinkle, but to rule. And rule what? Your brain? Your words? That's too late. He's going right to the engine. He's getting under the hood, as we say. It's the heart that makes the rest of the body tick. Not just the blood that goes out, but the whole aparata of what we are and who we serve. And notice, when you do that and be thankful, be thankful. When we allow keeping that big picture in mind, when we keep our eye on the ball of the kingdom, when we seek the kingdom and his righteousness. See, the kingdom is, in a sense, a destination. But righteousness is a way of traveling towards that kingdom on our pilgrimage. It's not enough to say, oh, I'm, you know, I'm headed for the kingdom. I'm making progress. No. The kingdom is real. But so is God's righteousness. It's not enough to say, I have the big picture of the kingdom. You've got to see yourself in that. You've got to see yourself. So often we see everybody else, and so we go, oh, poo poo, nobody loves me. And you walk out of the picture. God has you in that picture. You're the only one that can take yourself out of that picture. But not only by looking at the kingdom as the destination, but a way of traveling. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Notice at the end, giving thanks to God, the Father through Him. Follow pilgrims. Follow pilgrims. We that were not a people but are by the grace of God. Just write down two words, is all I ask. Is that I try to share my thoughts with you today. If you take two words out of this, think and thank.

Be still and know that our God is God. And He will be exalted above all the nations in the future. But right now, for the spiritual pilgrims of today, He needs to be first and foremost exalted in our hearts. Look forward to seeing you after services.