Gratitude vs. Thanksgiving: There is a Difference!

Well, you know, the week of Thanksgiving is always kind of an exciting week, I think. You know, there's, you know, God's Holy Days we very much enjoy and everything, and they're special. Some of these secular holidays that the country has are very nice to enjoy as well. We're able to get together with family who may not be in the church, and, you know, remember some of the things that happened in our country. And Thanksgiving here, coming up this Thursday, has a meaning to it, and a good meaning, especially, I think, for those of us in the church, because, you know, we are not only thankful for the country we live in and what God allows us to have every day, but, you know, for the calling that God has given us. But, you know, this year, as I've been thinking about Thanksgiving and just thinking about the holiday itself and whether I should even give a sermon on Thanksgiving, you know, which seems like the time of year to do that, I thought I would delve more into the Thanksgiving story. And, you know, I remember some of the basics of it. We all learned it when we were in high school, not in grade school. Some of the elementary kids who were with us could probably, you know, recite a lot of the things to us. But we remember some of the basics of it. The pilgrims, you know, landed in, you know, what we know as Plymouth. Back in 1620, they had an incredibly hard winter, that first year that they were there. They didn't know how many of them would survive. And then, by the next fall, you know, through some really miraculous things, they had a bountiful harvest, and then they gathered together to thank God for that harvest and to thank God for what He had done in their lives. Now, the question, you know, when we talk about that first Thanksgiving, one of the questions people have is, well, what did they eat on that Thanksgiving? Did they really have turkey? You know, you get some mundane questions like that. And as you look at what was plentiful there in the New England area, yes, they probably did have turkey, and maybe some other fowl that was there, probably fish as well, and things like that. But that's really not the story of Thanksgiving. Did they really do it? Yes, they really did it.

It was well-documented what they did. But really, the story of Thanksgiving is not just about that three-day festival, that three-day feast that they had, where they gathered together with the Indians. The story of Thanksgiving has a lot more to it than just a harvest, just a harvest celebration.

When you go back and look at the history of Thanksgiving and put together some of the information that's out there now, you know, you find that there's quite a story that begins there, and the story of Thanksgiving didn't really begin in 1620, when the pilgrims landed there on that coast of New England in Massachusetts, but it really began much earlier than that. You know, there was a time, and you know, some of the history that you read says 1608, because significant event occurred. Others will say it's a little bit later than that, but it makes no difference.

It occurred before 1620. And sometime around 1608, there was an Englishman that was over there in the New England colonies, where Plymouth eventually was settled. And his name was Thomas Hunt, and he was there to trade, you know, and everything, but he noticed all these Indians. I'm going to use the term Indians generically, not out of any disrespect. I could say Native Americans, but I'll be correcting myself all the time.

So you know what I mean when I'm talking about here, but there happened to be two Indian tribes, if you will, in that area. One was the Wampanoags, and the other one was the Naringeset. They happened to be rival tribes, if you will, as it seems so often when we have different tribes in various places. But there were two Indian tribes up there, and Mr. Hunt, he kind of looked at some of these young kids, young boys who were there, and thought, you know what, I can take some of these kids back and sell them.

I can sell them as slaves in Europe. And so he did. He kidnapped a number of them and took them back to Spain, of all places. And among those that he kidnapped and took over to Spain to sell into slavery was this young lad that we now know as Squanto. Remember Squanto from history? I mean, he kind of spoke English and helped the pilgrims out with how to work with the land and everything. This is one of the lads that were there. Well, when he got to Spain, he didn't find it to be the ready market that he intended it to be.

They kind of rejected buying these people from North America as slaves. And so some of the people that were in the religious circles looked at this and were not at all happy with it. Somehow Squanto ended up, and some of the history says it made him get a Catholic friars who got him out of Spain and got him over into England.

And so he was found himself in England here as a 12 year old or 13 year old, whatever age he was, and kind of grew up in that atmosphere. While he was there, of course, he learned to speak English, as the English people did. He learned to understand the God of the people that were there, and that it was a different God than what he was used to worshiping in his land.

And so he had his formative years there learning about a culture that he had really no idea why he was there. Well, in 1619, Squanto, who was now an adult, decided, I don't know if he decided, but he was going to come back to North America. He wanted to go back to the village from where he was kidnapped, be reunited with his family, and live his life that way. And so he found himself back over in North America, going right back to the village he grew up in.

When he arrived there, to his surprise, I guess, the entire village he grew up in was completely decimated. There was absolutely not one living soul left in that village. Somewhere along the line, some plague, some disease, something happened, and that entire village was completely wiped out. Every single person in that village was killed.

Not killed. They'd all died. And so he was the only survivor of that village. History also shows that the only record they have of one of those Indian lads who were taken away, that he's the only one who ever returned to North America, as far as they know. So he comes here and he finds himself in a situation where he's the only one. He has no home, he has no village, and the land that the little village that he was in is just sitting there vacant.

No one else has moved into it. It's just vacant, cleared land that is there for the taking. The rest of the Indian tribe, the Wampanoags, don't want to move in there because something's going on there and they've seen everyone die. And it turns out, history says, that of the Wampanoag tribe, of whose Quanto was, 75 percent, 75 percent of that population was wiped out by the same disease. Now, on the other hand, the Niren gassets, it basically had no effect at all, history says. So something with that population that just sort of decimated them.

So we have this vacant land, and we have this young man who's been schooled and reared in England, who knows the English language, who has understood, doesn't say he worshiped, but he understood the god of the Europeans and the English that are there, that finds himself back here with no family at all.

Enter 1620, and a group of 102 pilgrims arrive in North America. They arrive in November. They were not prepared for what they were going to encounter that winter. They had no idea that they needed to have a charter to have any kind of settlement there, and the Indians in that area were not at all responsive to having someone settle. In fact, history shows that they would entertain the European traders to see what they had, but sometimes if they stayed too long, they would actually, with force, drive them back out. So we have a group of people on the Mayflower who arrived in North America. It's a very cold winter. They don't have adequate supplies, and they cannot go to the land. The Indians do not want them there. They're a little weary, a little wary of them. And during that winter, you know, history shows 44, 44 of the 102 people that came over died. They died of starvation, or they died of exposure to the element. Of that group of 102, it says there were 18 families that were there. So 18 wives that were there, by the spring, 14 of those 18 wives had died. So only left four women with the families that were there. And, you know, some of the historians say that what happened was food was so scarce that the women would just give up what they were going to eat so that their children had food, and that's what led to their decimation, and then the reduction of their number. But they were there with no place to go. They couldn't turn around and go back to England. They had to stay there for the winter. Come the spring, they ventured off of the Mayflower, and during the winter, the chief of the Wapinag tribe, his name was Massasoit.

You can see where we got the name Massachusets because it's Massasoit. But he saw what these pilgrims were doing, and he actually assisted them a little bit, and he was watching them from afar. And they wandered off of the boat, and lo and behold, they come across this cleared land, this cleared land that was there just ready to move into. And so they moved into it. And Massasoit didn't have any problem with the moving into it. He was watching what was going on, and this land that, you know, they didn't have to do any clearing, they didn't have to do any work on it, just move in.

And so they did. And that Wapinag tribe let them come in without any problem because he was watching things from his perspective as well. He was saying that, my tribe has been wiped out. I've got this rival Narenghasset tribe that's over here. Maybe I can ally a little bit with these people, and so we have some kind of strength in alliances or whatever. And he also had, of course, Squanto as part of that tribe, who was there, who may have been helping hum along to say, you know what, these Europeans aren't that bad a people.

I get them. I know them a little bit. So March comes around, spring comes around, and they introduce themselves. They set up a meeting in March of 1621. Massasoit's there, Samaset is there, and Squanto comes. And, you know, how do you communicate? You're from England. These Native Americans speak a different language.

Well, lo and behold, here's Squanto. He can speak the language he can interpret so that the Indian tribe, this native to America, can communicate with these English settlers that have come here. And so they develop kind of a friendship with each other because they get to know each other, and they're interested in doing and interested in what can be done. Squanto, through the course of the year, begins to help the people understand the land. You know, they America's land is different than England's, just like, you know, when we moved from from Indiana to Florida, I thought, well, we're going to go and we're going to plant some gardens and whatever.

And I learned, boy, Florida soil is a lot different than Indiana, and nothing nothing nothing grew. Well, the settlers there found the same thing. Squanto was able to help them, you know, this is the this is the crop to grow. Here's the maize. It turned out to be a bumper crop. Here's some other things you can do.

You can use the fish from the from the streams in order to fertilize the land. Everything came about. By the end of that year, everything had turned around. They had a bonchus harvest that was just absolutely plentiful. And so the pilgrims, when they when they coordinated this feast, which the consensus is it was probably sometime in October of that year, they say between the middle of September and the middle of November is what they don't know. They don't know the exact date. That they they they had this feast to thank God for everything that had happened. But it wasn't just the harvest because the pilgrims realized everything that had gone on.

Was it just coincidence that there was a squanto that could help them understand the tribes that were there? Was it just coincidence that this land was cleared there that they could just move into without any kind of of conflict with the tribes that were there? Was it just coincidence? No, they rightly attributed it to it was God. It was God who had set all this up. And history without saying as much, you know, says the way things worked out and the way things were there from a very a very dastardly beginning for the pilgrims where, you know, who would come when half of them died and horrible deaths during that first winter.

Then year after year you had more and more settlers that came. As the reports got back to England, they know the land. They're friendly with the natives. The bumper crops are there and more settlers came. So when the pilgrims had that first thanksgiving, yeah, they were grateful to God as they understood Him. You know, God hadn't opened their minds to everything that He's opened our minds to. But, you know, some historians will say that they were very religious. They looked into the Bible and they knew there was a harvest festival back there in Leviticus 23.

And it says, when you gathered in all your harvest, rejoice before God. And so some say that that's what they were patterning that after and that they were coming before God to thank Him for what He had done from all the time. Not just the harvest, certainly the harvest, but everything that He had done to make their settlement in that land possible. So you look at the story of thanksgiving. You see all these things that had happened. Some people, no, not some people, a lot of historians say, what happened there in Plymouth?

Oh, by the way, the little village that they've settled, that's what became known as Plymouth. And that's where people came back to. And they say what happened there on Plymouth. All those things together changed the course of human history. If indeed, if indeed, you know, they had been treated like other people who had come, would they have survived the winter at all? Would they have been sent back to England?

Would have gone back and nothing would have happened? Could the native people that were there always kept the European settlers out? Well, you know, we think we know what God had in mind. And you can see God's hands all over that. My point in giving you that story and looking at the miracles that God had done to help those pilgrims and to settle this land is that think about what those pilgrims went through. You know, we think, well, it's about a meal.

Well, it's about turkey. Well, they had a harvest. It was about so much more. When they did that first Thanksgiving, don't you think that they down in their heart, they were thankful to God in a way that you and I can't understand because we didn't go through the hardships and everything that they did. If we had gone through in our lives, what they had done and seen how it all resulted, I think we would have a deep gratitude for God that only they could understand.

And what they did with their gratitude, because you know they had it, they turned their gratitude into something else besides just the emotion of, I'm thankful for this.

They did something with that gratitude. And in that key, when we do something with the gratitude we have, I think we see a key that God has for his people today. And that gratitude is great and gratitude is something we have, but gratitude has to be turned into an action word, thanksgiving.

You know, we can liken the plight of the pilgrims to people in the Bible, too. We can see how their lives just totally turned around. We look at, for instance, the Apostle Paul, and where he was and where he ended up. And after his calling, his life totally turned around. He lived his life in a totally different way. And when God opened up eternity to him, when God opened up the promises to him that he had, when God gave him the reason for being alive, to be following him, Paul was deeply appreciative. Paul got it. But Paul was grateful, but Paul did a lot more with his gratitude than just feel it. He did something with it. It's because of what he felt to God that he was able to write a verse like he wrote back here in Philippians. Philippians 4 and verse 6, verse 2, very well. But when he writes it, he is saying something to you and I and to all of God's people. He says in Philippians 4, verse 6, Be anxious for nothing. Don't worry about it. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything. And again, when God uses the word everything, he doesn't mean most things. He says in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. In everything in prayer with thanksgiving, not part of the time, but with thanksgiving as part of your attitude and part of what you do every day, every time you come before God. And in verse 7 it says, And when you do this, the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Paul says, in everything, every time we pray, every time we pray, let it be with thanksgiving. Well, it's always interesting when you look up these words in the concordance and see what the Greek word that's translated thanksgiving there, and it is Strong's Greek number 2169. And here's what the definition of thanksgiving is, or the word that's translated thanksgiving there. It's being actively, look at the word actively, actively grateful to God as an act of worship. Actively grateful to God as an act of worship. Great to have it in our minds, great to have that attitude, great to think I am grateful to God, actively grateful to God. Some action behind it. Thanksgiving is not just one of those attitude words, gratitude is, but thanksgiving is an action word. We do something with it. It changes the way we think when we are truly grateful and we let that gratitude be translated from emotion into action. It's why people like Paul can write what he says, in everything you do, in every prayer, make it known to God with thanksgiving. It's why people like Paul can write in Romans 12, verse 2, you know, that give your life as a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service.

Because Paul, at some depth, understood the calling of God. He was supremely grateful for what God had opened his mind to. And he let that gratitude turn into acts of thanksgiving.

Things that he did, the way he lived his life, the way he thanked God through the things that he did to show his gratitude to God. It's one thing to feel gratitude. It's great to feel it. We should all have it. All the psychologists say it's the key to happiness. You'll never be content if you're not grateful for what you have. It's another thing to take that gratitude and to turn it into action.

Turn it into action. Thanksgiving, you know, thanksgiving to God. You know, we talk sometimes about the Greeks, the Greeks, and it was a tremendous society that the Greeks had. Back then, they, you know, they were the father of so many things that we have even today. And some of their philosophers, while they somehow got stuck on all these gods that they were that they worshipped, which is kind of silly in retrospect, they did were able to look into some human nature and come up with some things that we still talk about today. One of those philosophers was Cicero, and he made the comment that gratitude, gratitude, the emotion, is the mother of all virtues, the mother of all virtues. It means that with gratitude, with gratitude, other things develop. And as we look at someone like Paul's life, as you look at every other man in the Bible and women, you see that when they're grateful to God, when they really are actively grateful to God, things happen in their lives. They do things that wouldn't be just the things that they're comfortable with doing or just find it at ease doing. They do it for a reason outside of themselves. They do it because they are thankful to God. You know, sometimes we tell our kids, just do it because you love me. You know, God says that, right? If you love me, keep my commandments.

If you're grateful to me, do the things. Show me that you do some of those things. And so, this concept of thanksgiving, you know, has a place for us. Let's go back and look at the Old Testament. You know, we find out so many things that God built into the Old Testament rituals that have a meaning for us today as He is showing us, you know, what He wanted the ancient Israelites to do that translate into our lives today. Let's look at Leviticus 7. Leviticus 7, you'll remember that there are five, you know, five different types of offerings that the Israelites were, you know, that they could bring to the Tabernacle or Temple, depending on the time history that they were in. And there were burnt offerings that were, you know, voluntary. There were sin offerings that were required. There were the five that we've talked about. One of those is the peace offering, and we see that here in Leviticus 7 and verse 12. Leviticus 7 and verse 12.

Well, look at verse 11. This is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which He shall offer to the eternal. Now, when they sacrificed, there was action involved in it. It wasn't something you just thought about. It's something you actually had to do. If He offers it for a thanksgiving, okay, thankful for something, and that's what you wanted to show God, you show Him through a sacrifice you make. If He offers it for a thanksgiving, He shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving on love and cakes mixed with oil and live in wafers anointed with oil or cakes of blended flour mixed with oil and so on. They had to do something. To thank God it was great. To think about it was great. To talk about it, to show God thanks as part of the peace offering. They had to do something. God was looking for them to show Him their thanks by something that they did.

If we fast forward to Leviticus 22, Leviticus 22 and verse 29, we see it mentioned again. It says, when you offer a sacrifice, Leviticus 22-29, when you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the eternal, offer it of your own free will.

Do it because you want to. Do it because it comes from the heart. Do it because you truly are grateful and not waiting for someone to say, okay, go thank God. Do it because that's who you are. Do it because you really do appreciate Him, because your gratitude is turning into action and something that He would like us to do. As you go through the Old Testament, we can look at many, many things, but let's look at a few things here in books that we don't normally turn to. Let's go over to Jonah. Jonah, you remember the story of Jonah, who tried to run away from God and what God wanted him to do, found himself in the belly of a great fish of all places. He teaches us, he can't run from what God wants us to do. In chapter 2 of Jonah, Amos Obadiah, Jonah Micah, in that order there in the Minor Prophets, we find Jonah in the belly of the great fish.

Now, Jonah is as good as dead. You can imagine yourself, you know, you've been swallowed by this fish. There's no way you're going to fight your way out of it. There's nowhere to look. There's no way to call out. Your cell phones don't work from the belly of a fish. There's no signal you can give. You simply are captive there, and Jonah finds himself in a situation, you know, that we can only imagine. But let's read through his prayer here and some of the recognition he has in Jonah chapter 2. Verse 2, he said, I cried out to the eternal because of my affliction, and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol, he knew he was kind of in the grave. He was dead. He was dead. He wasn't going anywhere. Out of the belly of Sheol, I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas. The floods surrounded me. All your billows and your waves passed over me. Now, there's Jonah. But you know, if we think about our lives, we can find ourselves, and maybe at times in our lives we found ourselves in exactly the same situation Jonah was in. Not in the belly of a great fish, but times that things just kind of wave over us, and one wave comes and knocks us down, and then another wave and comes and knocks us down. You know, maybe it's financial troubles, maybe it's relationship troubles, maybe it's health troubles, and they come over and over and over again, and we just feel there's no way out. There's nowhere to look. No matter what I do, nothing works. We can kind of identify with Jonah, who's in a situation that we maybe can't identify with, but as we apply the words to our lives, maybe we've seen ourselves or felt ourselves in some of the same situation that he is in. We've tried everything. We wear ourselves out. I'll do this, I'll do this, I'll do that. Maybe Jonah was trying to kill the fish. Who knows what was Jonah was doing? But he said, this is what is going on. In verse 4, he says, Then I said, I've been cast out of your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple. It begins to dawn on him what he needs to do. The water surrounded me, even to my soul. The deep closed around me. Weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains. The earth with its bars closed behind me forever. Hopeless situation. Yet you have brought up my life from the pit. O eternal, my God. When my soul fainted within me, when I was just about to give up hope, I couldn't go on anymore. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered God. I remembered him. I remembered that he can deliver from anything, and my prayer went up to you, into your holy temple. Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy. When they look to those other things to deliver them besides God, they forsake their own mercy. But I, I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I'll lift up my voice in thanksgiving to you. I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the eternal. Jonah came to that recognition.

Jonah said, I'll offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving. I'll praise you with what I do. I'll turn my gratitude for you delivering me into action. Into action. Verse 10, God answered that thought, so the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

Doing the things of thanksgiving. Doing gratitude. Let's go back a couple books to Amos. Amos 4.

Amos. You'll recall from times we've been in the book of Amos, God wasn't pleased with the ancient nation of Israel. Here, as we pick it up in chapter 4, and at this time of Israel's history, they were a very relaxed, comfortable nation. They had plenty. They were at ease. As you read the first few verses there of chapter 4, you see God chastening them, if you will, because of the ease with which they lived their life. And they were just kind of laying back and letting things happen to him. And in verse 4, he kind of is a little bit sarcastic with them. He says, come to Bethel. Come to the house of God, if you will, and transgress. Come to my house, but you're still sinning. At Gilgal, multiply transgressions. You're still sinning. You're not changing. You're kind of doing what you always have done and maybe even multiplying it.

At Gilgal, multiply transgressions. Bring your sacrifices every morning. You're going through the ritual of it. You do that. Bring your sacrifices every morning. Your tithes every three days. Might mean every three years, speaking of the third tithe that's back in Deuteronomy.

Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. But he says with leaven. They were doing the things. They were going through the motions, but that wasn't the offer of the sacrifice of thanksgiving. It was unleavened they were supposed to be doing with. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. They were doing the things, but there was no heart behind it. It was just ritual. It was just ritual.

And God can see through that. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Proclaim and announce the freewill offerings. For this you love, children of Israel, says the Lord of God.

I see through what you're doing. He says you need to see through what you're doing.

Do it for the real reason. When you offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving to me, do it. Do it as it comes from your heart and because you're truly grateful and not just because it's something routine. Let's go back to Jeremiah. Jeremiah 30.

Speaking of a time yet ahead of us, as we'll see in verses 18 and 19, there will come a time when God brings Israel back to the land that he promised it.

Chapter 30 of Jeremiah verse 18. Thus says the eternal, Behold, I will bring back the captivity of Jacob's tents, and I'll have mercy on his dwelling places.

The city will be built upon its own mound. The palace shall remain according to its own plan.

Then out of them shall proceed thanksgiving. In that day when I brought them back, then when they are living my way of life, then what they say will proceed from them thanksgiving.

Not gratitude. Gratitude is great. Gratitude begins things. From them will proceed thanksgiving, and the voice of those who make Mary. I will multiply them, and they shall not diminish. I will glorify them, and they shall not be small. Thanksgiving. An action word. Something we do, whether it's praising God, giving him the glory for what has happened in our lives, or the way we live our lives as a living sacrifice to him because we're grateful to him for what he's done, pulling us out of what in essence is the great fish's belly, and giving us life, giving us life, and the possibility of eternal life if we follow him the way he expects us to do. Finally, let's go back to Psalm. Many, many Psalms. David talks about thanksgiving, the action word thanksgiving. Let's just look at this one, and maybe as you approach Thanksgiving Day here in another three or four days, you'll look at this Psalm and some others and see what David is saying here. Psalm 107 is an interesting Psalm that begins in verse 1 with, O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. And throughout this Psalm, God shows what he does for us. He talks about all these situations that we can find ourselves in, that we can't find, that we can pull ourselves out of, but God does. And I'm not going to read through the whole Psalm. You can do that, but let's pick up, you know, as you look through here, you can see the various stanzas of Psalm 107 are here. Let's look at a few of the ending verses. In Psalm 107, verse 8, at the end of it when God is talking about they were wielding in the wilderness, they didn't know what to do, God showed them way. Verse 8, Psalm 101, O that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness.

O that they would give thanks to him and for his wonderful works to the children of men, for he satisfies the longing soul and this the hungry soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness. That's what he does. We're hungry. He'll fill us. Go down. You just look through the next situation. You see this situation that you might identify with as you read through those verses. And in verse 15, he says, O that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men, for he's broken the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron in two. He gives us freedom. He gives us possibility.

As you go through the next stanza, he talks about another situation men can find their situation in, but at the conclusion of that stanza, we find something new. Let's pick it up in verse 20.

He says, He sent his word and healed them. He delivered them from their destructions. Well, we can all identify with that. God's delivered us all from something that we found ourselves in. O that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoicing. Give thanks to God. Do something with those thanks. Give the sacrifices of thanksgiving. Do something in your life to show God you're grateful. If it's talking about it, if it's living your life, as Paul did, as a living sacrifice, that God would deal with him and he would do whatever God asked because he was that grateful. He translated that gratitude into anything you ask God. I am so thankful to you for what you have called and opened my mind to and the future that you have opened my mind to. We can go down to verse 31. Excuse me, verse 31. O that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people and praise him in the company of the elders. He's done it. He's seen it. Give him the credit. Do something with it.

Talk about it, if nothing more. And you can read through the rest of it, but let's look at the concluding verse here in verse 43. Whoever is wise, whoever is wise, will observe these things.

They'll read through that. They'll get what God is saying. They'll be able to apply those verses to their lives. Whoever is wise will observe these things, and they will understand the loving kindness of the eternal. So as we look at Thanksgiving, I hope we're beginning to see there's something we do. It's not just something we think.

And that follows the pattern in the Bible for so many of the traits that God wants us to develop.

You're all familiar with James 1, verse 20, right? James 1, verse 20, talks about one of those virtues that all Christians must have—faith. Faith in God. What does James say? Faith without works is dead. Great to have faith. Great to believe. You've got to do something with it.

That faith should generate some works in you because God says faith without works, faith without doing something with it, it's dead. 1 John 3, 18, he says the same thing about love. Actually, in James, if you read the verses leading into verse 20, there, it says, faith without works is dead. He talks about love, agape love there, too. But 1 John 3, verse 18, said, Don't let your love, don't you let your agape just be in word, let it be indeed and action.

It's great to say, I've got love. It's great to say these things. Do something with it. Show that you love. Show that you have agape. Show that there's something more than the emotion.

There's something you do with your life. If you're living love.

Same thing with sorrow, right? Someone can bring to our attention. God can bring to our attention. The word of God can bring to our attention. Something that we're doing and we realize, man, we've been doing something wrong. We haven't been honoring the God we should. There's a sin that we're doing. Maybe not just a matter of the commandments, but we read some of the things in the Bible that it says is sin, even though it may not be in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 of the commandments with attitudes that we have. We're sorry when we find that. That remorse that we have is good. That remorse is good. But if all it is is remorse, if we just feel sorry and it doesn't go anywhere else, it's meaningless. It's meaningless. It has to lead to something that makes a change in our life. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 7. Paul talks about this in good verses to keep in mind. You know, sorrow, godly sorrow isn't just like, man, I'm really sorry I did that. I really feel bad about it. Godly sorrow leads to action. It leads to choices. It leads to something different in our life when it was what God wants. And as we look at 2 Corinthians 7, you remember that the book of 1 Corinthians, God is chiding the people in Corinth. They have questions he's answering, but there's things they haven't done right. And there was a man in the congregation there. They had to ask to not be part of the congregation until he recognized, acknowledged, and repented of the sin that he had. And as Paul wrote that letter to the Corinthians, he knew that they were going to be sorry over the things that they had to do.

He says in verse 8, 2 Corinthians 7, verse 8, he says, For even if I made you sorry with my letter... Well, we might get a letter like that, right? If someone sent us a letter and said, you know what? You've been doing this and that and whatever. It might be, oh man, I didn't realize or I didn't even understand that I was coming off in that direction. Even if I made you sorry with my letter, I don't regret it, he said. Though I did regret it. He didn't want. No one wants to make someone feel bad. But he says, I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. Your sorrow led to some action, some necessary action in your life. Because repentance isn't just one of those words we just say, it's not just I repent and therefore it is, it's a change, it's action in your life. Just like love is an action you take, just like faith has to be met with works. For you are made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation.

It starts as sorrow, but it turns into something that's action and beneficial. Repentance, learning to salvation. Repentance, turning from your old way, turning to God's way. Not to be regretted, but with the sorrow of the world. When it's just sorrow, I feel sorry for a while, and then it just sort of fades away. I go back to the way I did before I get over what I was feeling. For the sorrow of the world produces death. And then you remember verse 11, when they repented, the energy that it generated in them, for observe this very thing, you sorrowed in a godly manner. What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what seal, zeal, what vindication. And all things you've proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Look what it produced. If they had just said, I'm sorry, or as you hear sometimes on TV, if you just pray this little prayer, just get on with your life.

No, that's not at all what God is looking for. Gratitude God is looking for. Gratitude we must have. He's looking for the action of thanksgiving. And as Christians, we need to be looking at that and understanding that as well. You know the pilgrims? I mean, they went through these hard times. They lost 44, 44, you know, at least of the 102 that were there. They worked hard. They watched all these things that were coming up. They could have just said, you know what, we we see God and what we have done and what has happened here. And they could have just done that. But they wanted to take action to show God what they, to thank Him for what has gone on. And here it was when you read the history, it said that in all likelihood it was those four women, remember four women out of 18 survived. Those four women who prepared all that food for the 53 or 50 whatever 58 survivors, whatever it was, I think it was 53 by the time they got to the Thanksgiving. 53, and when they asked Massasoit to bring some of his people too, he brought 90. So four women, along with some help, I'm sure, from the children and men, prepared a feast that lasted for three days with all this food for 140 some people.

They could have said, is it worth it? We can kind of just gather together and pray to God, and He'll be happy with that. They wanted to do something and show God their thanks that it had and it left a deep impression on them. They knew they had to do something about it.

If we're truly grateful to God for His calling, we do something. Our gratitude turns into Thanksgiving, and it shows in our lives, and oftentimes it's going to translate and help us develop some of those other virtues that God wants us to have. Now, we can't discount God's Holy Spirit because it produces all the fruits in it that are listed there in Galatians 5.22.

But we need to have an attitude of Thanksgiving if those things are going to be gendered in the way that they should. Now, we can see that in the Apostle Paul when we bring it down to him.

Well, we remember who he was, and his life was going nowhere. He was a dead man in the direction he was going before God called him, and he completely turned his life around. He completely yielded to God. And throughout his writing, you see him always using that word thankfulness to God, Thanksgiving to God. In every single epistle that he wrote, except for Galatians, he says to the people, he says as he writes to them, I'm thankful to God for you.

I'm thankful to God for you. As Paul looked at his life, as Paul began doing the things that God led him to do, you know it helped him to see to love the people of God because he knew God loved his people. When God called and put people in his congregation, he loved them, and he expects his people to love each other. And Paul loved those people. He could get irritated with them at times, he could get frustrated with them at times, but he loved those people. So every time he wrote to them, and they knew he wasn't just giving a word, I thank God for you. I thank God that he's called you. I thank God for what I see, God working in you. He loved those people. No doubt in anyone's mind that Paul loved the people of God. Every single one of them, in Galatia, in Colossae, in Ephesus, in Thessalonica, everywhere he went, he loved the people of God. He was thankful to God for his calling. He was thankful to God for what he had done for him. And he loved the people, and as he remembered, in everything I do, there's thanksgiving. And what I do, I'm thanking God.

I'm thanking God for what he's done for me. But you know, it extended beyond God's people as well. Let's look at 1 Timothy here. 1 Timothy 2.

1 Timothy 2 and verse 1. As Paul is writing to this young minister, he writes this. He says, Therefore I exhort, first of all, the supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, supplications, prayers, intercession, and giving of thanks be made for all men.

Not just church members, for all men. Now, when the Bible says all, it means all, and he explains it. In verse 2 he says, For kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and reverence.

Paul came to the point where he loved all men. Even those who persecuted him, even those who he beat him, even those who he was shipwrecked with that blamed him for what was going on, even through all the things that he did, he was thankful to God that he was doing his service. He came to love all men and was thankful for all men. You know, as we look at our calling, are we thankful for all men?

Are we thankful for everyone we come in contact with? Do we see the good in them?

Or do we only see the negative? Or do we look down on them? If we're thankful to God, if we're letting him and using that thankfulness and that thanksgiving, that's an action word, guide our lives along with his Holy Spirit as part of what our prayers are and part of what our decisions are each day as we remember God and don't forget him, as Jonah had to remind himself, find ourselves loving and being thankful for all men, even those who might, even those who might. Something doesn't happen right away, but even those who might persecute us, because we know God loves them all. And if we're thankful to God, we want to please him. And so we would be thankful and love them as well. In the book of Colossians, you know, Paul uses this Greek word that's translated thanksgiving in a number of places in Colossians. Let's look at a few of those, and we can see where he led, where that action of thanksgiving led him and what he's kind of telling the people as we read through a few of these verses here in Colossians. Let's begin in verse chapter 1.

Verse 3, here's one of the common things that he says to the people he's writing to, he says, we give thanks. We give thanks. It's an action word. I'm praying to God about you. I actively give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.

Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of the saints. And he goes on and talks about the hope they have and everything, I thank God for you. He remains a man. You know what? Paul did. And you can see it in the love that he had for the people. If we drop down to verse 9, it says, Well, that's a nice prayer to pray for someone, isn't it? You know, maybe we pray for people who have physical ailments. God, please heal them of this. God, please heal them of that. Maybe this would be a good prayer to pray for each other. That God would fill us all with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That we would take it to the next level and let God pray for each other that his will will be done in us and that we will let him do that will in us. That we pray for each other's spiritual health even more often than we might pray for each other's physical health. Because sometimes the two go hand in hand. And they'll be physically healthy. We need to understand the spiritual application of that as well.

For this reason, if we go on, for this reason, since the day we heard it, we don't cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding that you get what you're doing, that you understand what God's will for you is and what his word is encouraging us to do. That you may walk worthy of the Lord.

Not that you may know it, not that you may just kind of be able to recite it, but that your life, what your life, what you look like, what you're doing day to day, you're walking worthy of the Lord. Look what he's given you. What do you give back and thanks? That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power for all patience and long suffering with joy. Well, that's a prayer we could try praying for each other and practicing praying for each other. Verse 12, giving thanks, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Remembering what God has done for us, and so we would pray for others, turning the gratitude and the acknowledgement of what God has given us into something that we give to others as well, and pray for them.

That they may understand, that they may get it, that they may have the depth of understanding of what God has called us to and live their lives accordingly in sacrifice to God because we recognize and appreciate what he has opened our minds to. We drop down to chapter 2. Chapter 2, verse 6. Paul says, As you therefore have received Jesus Christ the Lord, or Christ Jesus the Lord, you've accepted him, you've recognized him, as you have received him, so walk in him. Do the things that he says to do. Follow his principle and his example, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it, abounding in it with thanksgiving, living your life with thanksgiving, every aspect of it, always keeping that thanks to God at the forefront of what we do, the choices we make, and reminding ourselves of what we owe to God. Never forget to be thankful. Use the tool of gratitude turned into action in thanksgiving to help you keep on the path and ever growing in the way that God wants us to grow and become who he wants us to become.

You know, Paul did that. Keep your finger there in collages. We'll be back in a minute. Let's turn back to Romans 7. Romans 6 and 7, you know, you probably know those chapters well. Paul, you know, we all look at Paul and we could be thankful to God for the example that Paul set. But boy, he went through a lot in his life, but we learned that Paul had to endure the same thing we do. He would find himself sinning and weak in certain areas, and he would realize, I'm not the perfect man I am or I'm not the perfect man I should be, and I keep getting into these things, that sin, as it says in Hebrews 12 verse 1, that does so easily beset. And he knew that he needed to overcome that. And as he goes through chapters 6 and 7, he talks about all those things. And the conclusion here in verse chapter 7 and verse 24, he says, Oh wretched man that I am. You know, when I look at myself, what a wretched man I am. I'm not at all living in the perfection that God wants me to. Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death. I can't do it on my own. If I do things my way, eternal death is what's in store for me. And he reminds himself, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin, I have to remind myself I'm thankful to God for what he can do and that he's given me the Holy Spirit that can help me and give me the strength to overcome, to say no to self and yes to what his will is. Thankful to him, using that and turning that gratitude into an action word that can help us do what God wants us to do. You know, it's always helpful when you're talking about something like Thanksgiving to, you know, God shows us what happens when we are thankful people. We can see the examples of what it can do. Let's turn back to Romans 1 and see what happens to some people who don't have an attitude or, you know, the action of Thanksgiving as part of their life. Romans 1 is a chapter you're probably familiar with as well in it. God talks about in the latter part of it all the sins of the Gentiles, the depravity that is there and the things, the debauchery that really defines the human life apart from God.

In verse, we'll read through some of the verses here. Verse 18, Romans 1 verse 18, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. Here they are, they're people, they just want to do with the way with the truth, and so they suppress it. They try to stamp it out because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made.

He's saying if you just look around at the universe, come on, it's not by accident, it's not by coincidence that we have a solar system, it's not by coincidence that things grew, it's not by coincidence that we have the life that we have, that people are created male and female, they reproduce, and God has his plans, it's not by accident. It's only silly people who would think that. For since the creation of the world, the invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so they are without excuse because although they knew God, they didn't glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

They didn't glorify God, they weren't thankful to God. It wasn't part of their being.

They just kind of took it for granted. You know, the first sermon that I gave back years ago at Thanksgiving time, I looked at that verse, and as I read that verse and read the commentaries and understood what Paul was saying, it had an effect on me that has never disappeared, and when I look at that verse, I always see those three words, nor were thankful. And the commentaries, and if you look at that, what Paul is saying is, if we don't have that attitude of Thanksgiving, if it's not active in our life, the same thing that the Gentiles did, you and I could do too. Our hearts can be darkened. Our minds can be darkened. We can find ourselves doing the same things that are listed here in the latter part of this chapter. If we don't maintain that attitude and that action of Thanksgiving, if we don't keep that thankfulness and that thanksgiving to God active in our lives, let me read to you from one commentary that I think that he did a very good job of highlighting what that verse means. This is from the Kaufman's commentaries on the Bible. Commenting on verse 21, he says, it's a frightening and sober thought that all of the carnal debaucheries and gross vulgar conduct revealed a little later in this chapter as marking the wickedness of those ancient Gentiles should have begun with so mild and apparently innocuous a thing as neglect and failure to give thanks to God. What a powerful warning. This speaks to countless Christians of the present generation who regard neglect of giving thanks as a very casual and minor admission of duty. All people should take this to heart because forsaking or neglecting the giving of thanks might be compared to the pebble cast loose from the top of a mountain that becomes a roaring avalanche to crush a city or civilization beneath it. It's a sober warning. But you know, you and I, if we've been around for a while and we have been in the church, we've seen people that this various thing happened to. And they're no longer there. And they, you know, you can look at some of the things that God talks about here and it defines them. But somewhere along the line, they no longer were practicing thanks to God. They kind of let it slip. And as we let it slip and as we let it slide, our minds become darkened. Thanksgiving, the action of Thanksgiving, gratitude is great. Gratitude is necessary. Turning it into Thanksgiving is necessary for us to stay alive, if you will, spiritually. It's a sober warning to us of what can happen if, if we allow that to wane in our lives. Well, let's go back. Let's go back to Colossians and look at a couple more places where Paul talks about this word that is actively grateful, actively grateful to God. Colossians 3.

Let's pick it up in verse 15.

Let the peace of God, remember back in Leviticus 7, peace offering, sacrifices of Thanksgiving, they were part of that. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which you were called in one body and be thankful. Called in one body. God working with us individually, but working together with us as a body. And one thing we have to remember is, you know, the bride of Christ is one bride of Christ, not 144,000 different individuals, 144,000 brides or whatever the number is that God has in mind. One bride made up of 144,000 or whatever the number is of people who have become at one with God, at one with each other, of one accord in unity for him.

One bride comprised of a number of people, the same thing he's trying to work out in us as we are in congregations today in bodies that he puts us into. That he wants us to become one.

Working with one another, bearing with one another, encouraging one another, being thankful to him and doing the things that have to do with Thanksgiving.

He wants us to be committed. Committed to what our calling is, committed to where he puts us, committed to what we're doing. Let's drop down. Well, I'm not going to read through the rest of chapter 3 here.

Well, let's read chapter or verse 16.

Called in one body and be thankful, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Do that. He's talking about being with one another, helping with one another, a body that is becoming one.

And then he says in verse 17, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord, giving thanks to God the Father through Jesus Christ.

Everything you do, give him thanks. Keep that in the forefront. And then he goes through. He goes through relationships, you know, husbands, wives, children, fathers, employees and employers, bond servants and masters. John in chapter 4, you know, he talks about the employer-employer. Remember, love all men, be thankful for all men, not just those that are in the church, but be thankful and do well by them as well. Be a blessing to them.

Masters, give your bond servants what is just and fair, knowing that you have a master in heaven.

Continue earnestly in prayer, chapter 4, verse 2, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.

Being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.

Remember that. Keep that at the forefront. Be committed to God. You know, the pilgrims.

They were there, and when the Mayflower went back in the spring of the next year, all those people that died, they endured all of those hardships. And they were all given an opportunity to go back to England on the Mayflower.

Been a hard time. If you want to go back to England, you can go back.

Not one. Not one pilgrim decided to go back. They wanted to stay and see it out. Now, maybe they had met Massasoit at that time. Maybe they had gotten to cleared land by that time. Who knows? They were committed to following through with the quest and the mission that they had left England for. Not one, despite all those hardships, despite all that starvation, despite all that agony that they went through, they all stayed. They were committed to the cause.

It should remind us of the verse in Hebrews, right? In Hebrews, remember, it talks about those who died. Horrible deaths, some of the people. All those people that were listed in Hebrews 11. And it says, if these people, if they had been mindful of the country from which they came, they had an opportunity to go back. They could have gone back into it. But they didn't. They held dear what God had called them to. They held it in high esteem. They committed to it. No commitment. Phobia among the people of God. Committed to Him. Committed to the calling that He's given. Committed to the body that He's placed them in. Not afraid of it. Committed to His way of life. You know, Jesus Christ. You know, if you remember in Luke 9, at the end of Luke 9, He talks about people that He called. And remember, He says, you know, I called this one, and they said, you know, let me go bury my father first. Remember those verses back there? And another one, He said, you know, I call you. And He says, I'll let you go hide people at my house. Let me go do that verse, and then I'll follow you. Remember what Christ says at the end, in the very last verse of Luke 9? He says, anyone putting His hand to the plow, anyone putting His hand to the plow and looking back, does not fit for the kingdom of God. I'm looking for people who are committed to me, committed to letting me develop them into who they should be, how I see fit, people that are thankful to me, people who are doing the things that I say to do, and because they're grateful for the calling I've given them, letting me and reminding themselves to be thankful as Paul was, and other people we could talk about as well, to follow Him implicitly and not look back.

Pilgrims, not one of them, not one of them went back. We would hope that not one, not one in the churches of God would ever go back. And yet, sadly, sadly, several have.

Over the years. Gratitude is great. We need gratitude. It has to be turned into thanksgiving and active, and active gratitude. Let's go back and look at one more, one more warning that Christ gave in Luke. Luke 17. This is the parable you remember of the 10 lepers, right? 10 lepers who, you remember leprosy? It was a death sentence. There was no cure for it. They couldn't go to a doctor, and they couldn't take a shot. They couldn't go through a treatment. They couldn't take a vitamin. Leprosy was a death sentence. There was no cure of it. The only cure was Jesus Christ. Nothing else. If you had leprosy, there was no hope. They were dead men walking. Luke 17, verse 11, says, it happened as Christ went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a certain village, there met him 10 men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us.

We're dead men. There's nothing we can do. Our lives are hopeless. So when Christ saw them, He said to them, go, show yourselves to the priest. They had to do something. They followed His command, and so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that He was healed, returned and with a loud voice glorified God. Not just in His heart, not just with His things, but letting it be known, I'm glorifying you for what has happened to me. And He fell down on His face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And He was a Samaritan. And Christ answered and said, weren't there 10? Weren't there 10 cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found to return to give glory to God except this foreigner? And He said to Him, go your way.

Your faith has made you well.

10 people healed. 10 people that Jesus Christ took the death sentence off of them and gave them life. Now, we might read about leprosy and think that's a disease that's done, but you know what? What God has done for us, He's taken the death sentence off of us and given us life. The same thing He did for those lepers, He's done for us. Jesus Christ, through His sacrifice, He's given us life. He's taken the death sentence away. Of those 10, only one, only one, came back to actually give Him the action of thanks and to tell Him thanks and to say it loudly so people knew. 90% didn't. 90% just took that life sentence that Christ paid for them, just took it for granted. Went there away.

Several years ago, an older, much older, elder in the church, told me that he had a statistic that showed, of all the people who have ever been baptized in the Church of God in the modern era, dating back before United, that 80 to 90% of those who were baptized left the church. 80 to 90%.

I read that verse, and I think what happened to that? Let's just say 90% who were baptized, who said, I will follow you, who Jesus Christ, they accepted His sacrifice and He took the death sentence off of them, gave Him His Holy Spirit, but somewhere along the line, they're not here today. Somewhere along the line, something happened. What happened?

Could it be that they failed to give God thanks and to have that part of their life, every day of their lives, that they didn't keep that first and foremost, and they let other things creep into their lives little by little, and little by little, their minds were darkened, their minds were closed, and they gave it all away?

That's a sobering thought. But a warning to us when we read things like this, give God thanks. Make it part of our daily life with every prayer, with every supplication, with everything we do. Be thankful to Him and let that show in the things that we do.

When the Pilgrims had that first Thanksgiving, they were thankful for more than just the harvest at the end of the thing. They were thankful for all the things that God had done in their lives, all the miracles, because they saw the whole pattern before them. If we look at our lives, the same fabric is made of our lives. We see God involved back probably till the time when we were children, and we can think back on things and realize God was working then, kept us from doing things, opened doors that we had no idea, developing us through jobs to understand what it is that He wanted us to do, not doing just the things in church, but every part of our life designed for what He has in mind for us. We have to be thankful people. And as we observe this national day of Thanksgiving Thursday, I'd say enjoy the turkey. Enjoy the family you'll be with, or wherever you're going to be. Even enjoy the football that you might watch as part of that day. But make sure, make sure that you are giving thanks actively to God in that day and every day of our lives.