Lessons from Thanksgiving

Good afternoon, everyone! And thank you Heather, Heidi, Amanda, and Duncan. That was very beautiful. Love the way those voices blend. That's tremendous. Okay, let's see. Gotta get myself situated here. Ha! I hope you all have been having a terrific Thanksgiving weekend. And I'll say this has long been one of my favorite times of years, long as I can remember. Of course, I like the food. I'm one of those people...

You know, not everybody loves turkey, but I do. Turkey and stuffing and gravy.

Trying to think what else. Yeah, that's enough. But not to mention pie. I like that a lot. And just getting together with family. That's one of the great treats that I enjoy. Sue and Connor and I went down to... Her oldest brother hosted us this year. So that was great. All of us getting together and spending time. And if you're Facebook friends with Sue, you saw that we also had a puppy experience.

That's... Her oldest brother and wife breed puppies. I think they're AKC registered, and they do it all very properly. And this is the second Thanksgiving we've come down there, where they had two different litters of puppies.

So, you know, some little tiny ones that are barely whimpering, and the others that are old enough just about to be adopted, and they're scurrying around. And so, who could not feel good?

It's like the old Charlie Brown saying, happiness is a warm puppy. If you're older, you probably have seen, then remember that. And I gotta say, the oldest brother, Steve, also has one of the best man caves I've seen. So if you like watching football, you know, that was pretty nice. Now, I feel like I should put a disclaimer or an explanation. I know we have brethren probably watching on the webcast that aren't from the United States. And, you know, if you watch our mass media and hear us talk sometimes, you might think, you know, that's what Thanksgiving's all about for those Americans. Stuff in their faces, you know, having days off work.

Well, hopefully we don't give that impression. And I think all of us know, and really we should never lose sight of the fact that, you know, football and family and food, as nice as they are, that's not what Thanksgiving is about. As Christians gathered to worship God on the Sabbath day that He ordained, we have to acknowledge that the National Day of Thanksgiving was established in America. You know, it began as, and it always should be, a day devoted to giving thanks to God.

You know, He's given us many wonderful, gracious blessings, and we never want to lose sight of that. We do want to focus on giving Him thanks. And there's a long history, I think Mr. Porter referenced that, and as well as He tells historical stories, I thought, uh-oh, He's just gonna gut my sermon if He goes. But He didn't, actually, so let it go well. I'd like to read some of the Thanksgiving Day proclamation that George Washington gave on October 3rd of 1789.

He said, Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor. And whereas both houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity, peaceably, to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now I, therefore, do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these states to the service of that great and glorious being who is the beneficiaries author of all good that was, that is, or that will be, that we may then all unite in rendering Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection for the people of this country. I hope you don't mind Washington was a southerner. I thought I should try to sound a little bit like him. But he continued.

In the midst of that, he had some comments about the establishment of the new government. The Constitution had recently been ratified, and he was elected to lead that, but he added another very important point when he said, and also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and ruler of nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions.

He continued on, then, for some other paragraph. And that's set a good tone. A number of presidents made such proclamations. I'd like to read part of another one, if you don't mind, because we look to these two men as some of the greatest leaders in our history.

And the Thanksgiving tradition became more entrenched as a national holiday when, in October of 1865, President Abraham Lincoln made his Thanksgiving Day proclamation. Now, Lincoln was not a southerner, although he was born in Kentucky. He did have a bit of a nasal twang. I've always admired people who could try to sound like him. He said, "...the year that is drawing to a close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and even soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God." Skipping down a couple paragraphs, Lincoln later wrote, "...no human counsel has devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things.

They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed fit to me and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also to those who are at sea and those who are so journeying in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our Beneficient Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly do him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also with humble penitence, for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

And Lincoln followed with some specifics for the day in that year. Those are some moving words I couldn't think of a better way to say them myself. And I find it intriguing that these two great leaders of the American nation not only proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving for God's blessings, but at the same time they asked their countrymen to appeal to God for mercy and forgiveness. They acknowledge that as great as this country is and as blessed as it is, we Americans are not without our faults.

We were not then from the very beginning nor have we been. Lincoln added that special appeal to ask God to heal the wounds of the nation. At that time the US was in the midst of the Civil War, one of the greatest national tragedies we can imagine. And of course in the United States today we're in the midst of a great trial.

This disease epidemic and we're experiencing this not the same but some divisions and disagreements centered around it. I think it would be fitting for our people to fall on their knees across the nation to appeal to God for forgiveness and for healing. But I don't know if the people today are going to do that, but we as God's people certainly can. I'm reminded of several places in the Psalms I wanted to read from Psalm 136 verse 1.

It's a very brief so if you don't turn there I might be there ahead of you. But we see a combination of giving thanks to God and also appealing to His mercy. Where it says, O give thanks to the Lord for He is good for His mercy endures forever. Among some of the greatest blessings we could ever have from God is His forgiveness. As I said, I don't know that the people of the United States are ready to on their own join together to unite in praising God and asking for His forgiveness.

But we the people called into God's church I think we can and we should and hopefully we do. I would love to have been present at your various Thanksgiving dinners. Well, if I were present at all of them I'd probably wouldn't have room. But I know God's people look on this day with a special thankfulness of knowing who we are and where blessings come from. You know, the Thanksgiving celebration didn't originate in 1789 with President Washington. It was already a long tradition, at least in part of the country.

Historians tend to look to Washington and cite his proclamation as the beginning of it as a national tradition. But it had been going on for over a hundred years, beginning with those settlers of New England that we usually call the pilgrims. And I was studying into that a little bit in preparation for this and I was reminded they called we call them pilgrims because they called themselves that. They were wandering and going to a new land and as they were doing so they were felt a close kinship and a connection to God. They looked at what it says in Hebrews 11 and that's where they came up with the name pilgrims where Paul was describing, you know, the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who were looking for a city made without hands. At any rate, I think we can look to the Thanksgiving that they celebrated and learn some lessons from that. As excited as I was to read from Washington and Lincoln, I think it'd be worthwhile to look at what the pilgrims were thankful for in that first Thanksgiving.

You know, the one that's considered the first Thanksgiving by most people occurred at Plymouth Plantation. It was either late September or early October of 1621, which is interesting 400 years ago. We remember that the year what's I find it intriguing that as much importance as we put on it, either they didn't bother to write down the exact day or it just wasn't preserved. Of course, many accounts say that the celebration lasted a few days. As it was, about a hundred American Indians brought five freshly killed deer to add to the meal that their white neighbors were putting together. That meal included corn and beans and squash, as we might expect, bread made from barley that was recently harvested. They had roasted duck, roasted goose, and those were very plentiful in that part of the country at that time. And they did have turkey. Wild turkey were also plentiful. I'm very disappointed, though, that as far as we know, they didn't have any cranberry sauce and no pumpkin pie. And I'm pretty sure they didn't have ice cream. Now, when you think of that Thanksgiving, you've probably seen artistic renditions of it, you know, paintings and such. And we imagine, we may imagine this as these English pilgrims sitting at these long tables with white linen tablecloths and everyone enjoying this meal. Well, if you look carefully in the background, you see a few American Indians sort of looking on curiously. You know, that's the way it's been portrayed. But we tend to forget or overlook that it was largely an American Indian event. As I mentioned, there are about a hundred or so Wampanoag Indians that came to join about 50 English settlers, outnumbering them by two to one. That brings to mind the first overwhelming thing for which I believe those English pilgrims or Puritans were thankful for. They were extremely thankful for simply being alive. They were still there. I'd like to read a paragraph from a book entitled Mayflower. It's by Nathaniel Philbrick. And I realized I wish I'd left the duffs cover on it. I'm not sure where it is, but it's got this beautiful picture of the Mayflower. And this doesn't look like much of a prop, but it's the words that matter. Here we go. He says, the first Thanksgiving marked the conclusion of a remarkable year. 11 months earlier, the pilgrims had arrived at the tip of Cape Cod, fearful and uninformed. They'd spent the next month alienating and angering every Native American they happened to come across. By all rights, none of the pilgrims should have emerged from the first winter alive. Like the French sailors before them, they all might have been either killed or taken captive by the Indians. And I just wanted to read that one paragraph, because it's sort of... he goes on to illustrate the tentative relationship between the new white settlers and the Indians that I'm not going to go into in great detail.

We'll come back to that later, after I turn the page in my notes. It's worth considering that almost all of the earlier attempts to establish a permanent colony in North America had suffered shocking results. Up to this, this point, only one had been successful. And that was in Jamestown, Virginia, founded in 1607. Several others had ended in utter failure. And Jamestown was hanging on by a thread, we could say. During the first year of Jamestown's existence that started in 1607, 70 of 108 initial settlers died. Now, the company that sponsored the settlement continued to send more settlers. So the following winter, after that first year, 440 out of 500 settlers died, all in a space of about six months. It took them several years to get past what became known as the starving times, wherein food shortages were a severe problem, but disease epidemics took the large majority of people away. Compared to this, the Plymouth colony was relatively healthy and safe, but still many died getting it established. So those there for that first Thanksgiving, they were indeed thankful for life. And I ask, what about us? Now, I wouldn't look at that question so much as us as Americans, because we do have an abundant and relatively easy life here. You know, even with a disease epidemic going on, our percentages of people we lose are almost nothing to be compared to what they suffered. I would like to read a passage. If you're still open in Psalms, I want to go back to Psalm 90. This is a very familiar passage. Psalm 90 will begin in verse 10. It reminds us a bit about our life. This was written, we believe, by Moses, who saw a lot of his countrymen die during his 120 years. And he writes this, Psalm 90, verse 10, The days of our lives are seventy years, and if by reason of strength they're eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away. Now you might think I'm painting a pretty bleak picture, but that's not my purpose. I don't want to point us to despair, but rather to encourage us to cherish the times that we do have and realize what a blessing and a gift they are from God. And I want to demonstrate that largely by some lessons that we can find in the book of Ecclesiastes. You can begin making your way there. We begin with a passage in chapter 2. I believe that this book is very widely misunderstood, and that's because at times it seems pretty bleak.

I think that's because in writing Ecclesiastes, Solomon, you know, who was called the wisest man who ever lived, I would say maybe short of Jesus Christ himself, he sort of leads readers through, I think, the journey he went through in life. And, you know, when he was a young king, Solomon had it made. You know, he had power. He was the king of what became the greatest nation in that whole region at the height of its power and wealth. He was the richest king who ever lived. Now I've heard people say when they wanted, they didn't have gold plated stuff, they just got out pure gold to make things. You know, he had good health, good looks, at least if you read the Song of Solomon, it sure seems to describe him that way. But later, after he devoted the first part of his life to excess and pleasure, after I believe he'd lost perspective, he looked back and he wrote this, Ecclesiastes 2 and verse 17. Solomon says, Therefore I hated life, because the work which was done under the Sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity, grasping at the wind. And he spends a fair bit of time going on in that tone, which is why a lot of people, if they start reading Ecclesiastes, don't get much past chapter 3. You know, they might go online and bring up the birds song and stop at that. I think it was the birds, wasn't it? Okay, some of you are younger and you're looking at me. Well, look it up later. It's worth listening. You know, there are Bible scholars and those of the Hebrew language who go back and forth and they debate that what was his point and what was he really getting at. I tend to support the view that Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes late in his life as a cautionary tale. That he learned a lot of lessons the hard way and he was warning people to not make the same mistakes he did. And I think if you look at it from that way, from that perspective, you know, a Solomon who'd learned his lesson late in life wrote to tell us what actually makes a happy life. You know, how to have a life that you can be thankful for every day. And Solomon came to believe, I think, that we should be thankful for life, thankful to be alive, just like I'm confident those pilgrims were in 1621 and we should be in 2021. If you look ahead to chapter 9 in Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 9 will begin in verse 3. You have to bear with us. It's gonna get better. He says, they're at... let me say that in English.

This is an evil and all that is done under the Sun. That one thing happens to all. Truly the hearts of the Son of Man are full of evil. Madness is in their hearts while they live and after that they go to the dead. But for him who is joined to all the living, there's hope. A living dead is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die. The dead know nothing and they have no more reward for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, their hatred, their envy have now perished. Nevermore will they have a share in anything done under the Sun. Now this passage makes me wonder how much Solomon understood of God's plan including the resurrection. And that part isn't entirely clear.

Actually I was going to reference, but keep your figure here. We're going to come right back to this chapter. But back in chapter 5 and verse 18, he gives us a hint of what does make a happy life. One part of it. Ecclesiastes 5 and verse 18 he says, here is what I've seen. It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the Sun all the days of his life which God gives him for it's his heritage. Those are two of the key factors in being able to take pleasure in life. Enjoying the work that you have to do, enjoying the food that you earn from that. I read from Abraham Lincoln's proclamation earlier. I've always been impressed while he was caught up in a nation that included slavery and was divided severely. You know, and to be honest, he was a creature of his time. While he abhorred slavery and wanted it to end, he didn't reach the idea of realizing that every man was fully equal to another. But one thing he said, he said, a slave is my equal and regards that he should be able to put into his mouth bread earned by his own labor. And that he's my equal and that of every other man. I've always appreciated that, you know. Enjoying the fruits of your labor. Before we go back to Ecclesiastes, I would like to turn a few pages back to Proverbs chapter 30 and begin in verse 7. It's thought that this might also have been written by Solomon under the pen name of Agra, the son of Jockey. Of course, that could have been the same different fellow, but he wrote some extremely wise words in Proverbs 30 starting in verse 7. He said, two things I request of you. The you here is Almighty God. This is a prayer. God, I request this of you, deprive me not before I die. Remove falsehood and lies far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches.

Feed me with the food allotted to me, lest I be full and deny you. And say, who is the Lord? That was if he had too much, if he was too wealthy. Or, lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. That balance, that enjoying what you have, what is already enough. That's what Solomon, I believe, came to see would make a life worth being thankful for. And it's summed up in Ecclesiastes chapter 9. So if you'll come with me back to Ecclesiastes 9, I'm going to begin reading in verse 7. Because this is after a time of seeming despair, where he went and he said, I've tried everything. You know, I had more of everything you could imagine. And he said, I despaired of life. But now he seems to come to say, this is what everybody can take pleasure in. As I said, the food that you were. And in verse 7, he says, go eat your bread with joy. Drink your wine with a merry heart. For God has already accepted your works. So enjoy that food, the wine that you have. Let your garments always be white and your head lack no oil.

This could be a way of saying, clean up. Have a shower. Wear nice clothes if you have them. He goes on in verse 9 to say, live joyfully with the wife whom you love.

All the days of your vain life, which he's given you under the sun. All your days of vanity, for this is your portion in life. And in the labor which you perform under the sun. It's funny because Solomon is famous for having a thousand wives. He said, live joyfully with the wife whom you love. A lesson for all of us is, which one do you love? It's the one that you have. For all of us in this country, I'm glad polygamy isn't something we have to struggle with. I sometimes cite a movie that Billy Crystal was in some years ago when he's talking about his marriage. He said, I've already bagged my limit. For you hunters, you know, if you have a tag for one, you've reached it. But taking pleasure in your family, whoever your husband or wife is, living joyfully with them. That's a great source of happiness. And he continues in verse 10, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. For there's no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you're going. I like to refer to this passage, and as I said, I think it shows how happiness can be found in the simple pleasures of life. That you don't have to be rich to enjoy. You know, take pleasure in your work. Whether you're, you know, a corporate CEO, if you're writing software, if you're out cleaning streets, or if you clean people's houses for a living, you can whistle while your work as the, the, I say, who is it in Disney that did that?

The dwarves, I think. You can enjoy your food and drink, whether you're having wine and steak or bread and water. You know, you put in a good day's work, whatever that food is, is pretty good. And be happy with your family. Now, we all have varying situations when it comes to that. You know, I know I came from a broken home in my childhood, and that's a sad thing, but being called into God's Church is sure is that we all have a spiritual family of which we're apart. And we never have to be alone or lonely if we call out for that family. And we do these things when we do them. I believe we can be thankful to be alive. I said, the pilgrims and the others who settled in North America in the 1600s knew that life is precious. And they didn't go around worrying about whether or not they had the newest iPhone, if they had the latest styles to wear, or if they could keep up with the Kardashians. I don't think they knew who they were.

That fall in 1621, pretty much everyone there had lost loved ones. And I know many of us have. And they appreciated the gift of life. We in God's Church, we could go one step beyond that. So I said something that Solomon, I'm not sure if he understood, but I could say while it's very appropriate that we be thankful for life and being alive, we have something yet more. We know that although when we die, we don't have any more knowledge, there's no knowledge or wisdom or power, we know that beyond that 70 or 80 years that we have something more.

I'm starting to turn to 1 John chapter 2, so I should let you know that. In 1 John 2 and verse 25, have a clear statement of what we have to look forward to. Not just this life, but in 1 John 2, 25, it says, this is the promise that he has promised us, eternal life. Eternal life. Of course, we in God's Church, we've come to understand that and we're pretty happy about it, I suspect, but it's also reassuring to know it's not just for us.

I'm not going to turn to John 3 16. I think it was on Thanksgiving. It's the first time in many years I saw that in an end zone. Used to see that every time, all the time on Sundays. Somebody bought the end zone seat and held up the sign that said John 3 16, where it reminds people, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him, whoever, and we believe there's going to come a time in a resurrection when whoever is willing can have their minds open and understand that.

They should not perish, but have everlasting life. I'd bet that most of us in this room are even more thankful for that hope of everlasting life than the life we have right now. Even though we have a pretty good life, I think it was the last time I was assigned to speak and it seemed like it was just a couple weeks ago, maybe it was. I talked about how walking around in my neighborhood, sometimes I force myself to take my mind off of what I've heard on the news and the dread of whatever is going on in the world and look around and say, huh, grass is green, you know, the puppies are playing, the birds are chirping.

Now, a lot of them are headed south for the winter, but I know they'll come back. And at home, I've got food in the refrigerator, you know, drawers full of nice comfortable clothing. Life is good! Now, sometimes life is not so enjoyable, and we understand that. You know, even when we follow Solomon's advice, you know, towards the end of that book, he wrote about how when you get older, you know, you can't see as well.

You can't hear quite as well. You know, your bodies tend to hurt, and we lose people. That's where the hope of the resurrection and everlasting life is so much more important. That's why we don't despair. We don't despair because we have that hope of something better, something ahead, that doesn't depend on our own power to attain. As I said, now there's this, you know, this scramble about vaccinations and palliative medicines and all kinds of things to help overcome the epidemic, but we've got a hope of something that's far more powerful than science or any disease.

We've got a hope of a resurrection and the life that comes. And we look forward to a life then without pain, but I'm sure it's going to be with interesting challenges and experiences. You know, I tell the students at ABC, when I was younger as a teenager, sometimes I'd go, man, eternity is an awful long time to live. I get bored now sometimes on the Sabbath, but I haven't had that happen to me in a long time. You know, as you get older, you start realizing boredom isn't the worst thing.

At least I'm not fearful of that. And I look forward to reuniting with loved ones. You know, I look forward to seeing my parents and my grandparents again. I look forward to spending time with some people that I've never met. You know, I really want to meet and talk to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. And of course, many of the people we read about in the pages of this book, I can't wait to sit down and talk to King David about what it was like leading the Israelites.

What was it like hiding in a cave from King Saul and then having come in to use the bathroom in that same cave? Boy, you guys are a tough audience today. It's okay to laugh.

I'm being serious, but not too serious. You know, I can't wait to meet the Apostles and, of course, Jesus Christ and have him accessible. You know, I'm so thankful to know God's plan, thankful that He gives us life, and He's got a plan to give us a wonderful life that's so much worth living. But as I said, in the meantime, even now, we've got it pretty good. I said, we've got plenty of food, we've got indoor plumbing, we've got... Sorry, I'm flashing back to when I used to teach history and I'd often start off talking about life in the 16 and 1700s and I tell them, you know, we've got aspirin for when we hurt and we've got cotton underwear. They didn't always have cotton underwear. You know how itchy a wool sweater is? I'll leave you to imagine the rest. I will say that those those pilgrims celebrating Thanksgiving, that autumn of 1621, there are many other things for which they were thankful. So let's look at a couple of those as well. You know, the traditional image of English colonists and American Indians sharing a celebratory meal together, that's one of the most heartwarming aspects of that Thanksgiving. And you know, it's easy to poo-poo that, but I'll tell you as an American historian, I believe that's an accurate picture. You know, it's sad that the friendship and goodwill that existed at that time had not always been and it wouldn't last a whole lot longer.

Eventually there would be warfare and the Indians pushed out, but for a time, that special time, the white settlers and the American Indians, they reconciled their differences and they did live in peace and helped each other. And at that time, I'm quite sure they were very thankful to be at peace rather than at war. We members of God's Church can also be thankful for reconciliation. First of all, reconciliation with God. Scripture clearly shows that we've all sinned. And if you'll turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, I'll read a passage that addresses this. We've all sinned and breaking God's law and we know the penalty for that is death, but we also know that God created man with a plan to deal with that. He didn't make us just so we can mess up sin and then be lost forever. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 18 tells us, Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. When we give thanks to God, we should always remember to be very thankful for the sacrifice of Christ. You know, that's what makes it possible for us to look forward to that hope of eternal life. He paid the penalty. He bought us back from what we earned. And that's how we can have this hope. And with all of us being reconciled to God through that, it goes without saying, but it doesn't go without saying it could, but it doesn't, that we can be. We should be. We can say we must be reconciled to each other. We must put aside differences and hurts. I'm going to turn to another scripture that says this briefly in Colossians 3 and verse 13. Colossians 3 and verse 13 and breaking into a thought. Actually, I'll begin in verse 12. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. I like to say we could translate that today as put up with each other, forgive one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. We must forgive each other. Christ was talking about if anyone is bringing a gift to the altar. At that time, the temple was still standing. He said if you remember someone has something against you, put the gift aside and go be reconciled to your brother. I would tell you the chapter in verse, but it slipped my mind and I don't have it in my notes. But we're to be reconciled with each other and then God is much more willing to accept us. He wants us to reconcile with Him. He tells us to reconcile with each other also.

Matthew 18 and verse 15, I won't turn there, but you might jot it in your notes.

If you're not familiar with it, Christ laid out an exact procedure for how to do it. That includes if your brother, you know, you've got something against him, go to him, you and him alone, you know, and talk it out. You know, and if you won't hear you, maybe bring one or two witnesses, but there's no part of that procedure said, post it on Facebook or Instagram and tell her all the world what he did. Or go to your pastor and say, you've got to straighten this guy out.

You know, we're to go and reconcile with each other and humility and peace. And having said that, I know how hard it is to do. That's why we should also be thankful for God's Spirit making it possible. It makes it possible for us to understand his word and to cooperate. I was going to turn there, but I'll just reference John 13 and verse 35, where Jesus said the last night before he was crucified, he said, by this all will know you're my disciples, if you love one another. And that's how they'll know we're God's people.

Now there's other signs that we are God's people, that we live by his law and follow his word, but it should stand out by our love for one another. I'm not sure if I should be pausing. I was pretty sure this sermon was going to end way early, but every time I do that, it's in danger of going over it.

So I want to move on to another point. You know, this famous story of the English pilgrims and the American Indians living at peace together, you know, and working together, usually focuses on one specific interaction. There was a member of the Pothuxet tribe, yeah, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that properly, but a fellow who the English called Squanto, and we still call him that because his real name is hard to pronounce, and so I won't try. But he was an American Indian who earlier had been captured by European fishermen or traders, and he'd been taken away from his homeland.

He lived for a number of years in Spain, then he lived with a master in England, and eventually made his way back to his homeland. But by the time he got there, he had learned how to speak English very well, and he was able to help the colonists learn how to live in that new land. And there are many things he taught him, and I imagine there's many more than were written down in the histories, but he famously explained to them the climate and the seasons in their new land.

It turns out New England's climate was a bit harsher than Old England's, and so he taught them to be ready for when the cold came. The soil in the Plymouth area was not all that fertile. He taught them the Old English... Old English, no. The old Indian trick of dropping a couple small fish into a mound that they planted to help fertilize it.

You know, and he also showed them how they would plant the beans and corn together so the beans could vine up on the corn. Not stuff we'd want to do from modern agriculture. I don't don't advise doing it that way, but it helped them. He gave them these tips. This is how you do it here.

He also introduced them to leaders of other American Indian tribes and helped them to learn to relate and get along. You know, through these many interactions, the American Indians helped their new neighbors to learn what to do and what not to do. Now, we as Christians don't have a multilingual American Indian to tell us how to live. Multilingual that just doesn't roll over the top of the tongue.

But we've got this. You know, God's Word clearly shows us how to live. And I mean particularly how to live a moral life that's pleasing to God. It doesn't tell us exactly how to plant our crops or, you know, prepare for winter. You know, we can get detailed information on that from our parents and from going to school and such. But there's something about more about living that's immensely more important.

Jesus summed it up by saying, man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And God's Word tells us how to live and not just live in this life, but to prepare for that eternal life that we're looking forward to. I'm gonna echo something from the sermonette. If you'll turn with me to Luke chapter 10. Luke 10 beginning in verse 25. This is one of those passages that bears repeating often, so I don't mind that Mr. Porter...

Actually, he looked at Mark's version, and this is similar. Mark 10 beginning in verse 25 says, a certain lawyer stood up and testify... or not testify... tested him. Let me do it this way. Certain lawyers stood up and tested him saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said, well, what's written in the law? What's your reading of it? He answered and said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind.

He was quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 5, and in this version it counts the lawyers saying, and your neighbor as yourself, which we find in Leviticus 19 verse 18. So he quoted those two great commands, and I'm intrigued with how Jesus answered. You've answered rightly. Do this, and you will live.

I want to live. As our pilgrims were thankful to be alive, and the Indians had helped them learn how to live. I want to know how to live, and this sums it up pretty well. Now, there is the other version in Matthew 22 and verse 40, and I think Mr. Porter referred to that. I won't turn there, but Jesus said, on these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets.

We see this as a summary. All the law. We could start with just the Ten Commandments. We say God's law tells us clearly how we should live, and I would say how to love God, how to love our fellow man. I've often thought if you read the Ten Commandments, it's like, yeah, if I'm gonna love my fellow man, I probably would start with not murdering him. Maybe I won't steal from him, or lie to him, or cheat with his wife. You know, those are pretty good. And then, you know, there's other commands that break it down more simply.

But my point is we don't have to wonder or guess at how to live a godly life. The Pilgrims had Squanto to show them things and tell them how to survive. God's Word tells us exactly how to live a godly life. Our challenge is to heed it, to do what it says. Maybe I should add to the list of things that I have to mention again that God's Holy Spirit grants us the ability to understand his Word, and it empowers us to overcome our own nature and live by it. But I didn't find a good way to fit that in with the parallels of the first Thanksgiving. So I thought, I'm not going to try to force more into this message.

But it's fitting on this weekend to remember we've got a long and a noble tradition in the United States of setting aside a day this time of year to thank God. And that's why I remind some of my modern historian friends that the Pilgrims and Indians weren't thanking each other. It was thanks to God. And those who went before us, you know, they established a tradition and others added to it.

And it's worth us looking at their example. They learned to live in a new and different land. We have God's Word to show us how to live in the land, the world in which we're strangers in pilgrims. And Scripture not only shows us how to live a life aligned with God's will, but I believe it shows us how to have a happy life. How to have a life that we can truly be thankful for.

It shows us how to be reconciled to God and to our fellow man. You know, those pilgrims celebrating that first Thanksgiving, they were thankful just to have survived and to be alive. And that reminds us that we shouldn't take this life for granted. And I hope we are thankful, but we can be even more thankful. As I said, we look forward not just to what's around us and ahead of us today, but we've got that hope of eternal life. And for that, we should always be very, very thankful to our great God.