The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving & Approaching God With Prayer & Praise

Well, as everybody knows, Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated

primarily in the United States and Canada as a day of giving thanks for the

blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year.

The traditional representation of where the first Thanksgiving was held in the

United States has often been a subject of debate,

though the debate is often confused by mixing up the ideas of a Thanksgiving

holiday celebration and a Thanksgiving religious service.

Thanksgiving has its historical roots in religious cultural traditions.

The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating Thanksgivings,

days of prayer thanking God for blessings.

The event that Americans commonly call the First Thanksgiving was celebrated

by the pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in 1621 and lasted three days.

Thanksgiving has been an annual tradition since 1863 in the U.S.,

when during the Civil War President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day

of thanksgiving and praise to our Beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."

To be celebrated on Thursday, November 26th as a federal and public holiday in the U.S.

It is now celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.

The Founding Fathers of the U.S. were following many biblical words of encouragement,

when they established the observance of an annual day of National Thanksgiving.

The writer of Hebrews has a similar thought in mind.

Hebrews 13, verses 15 and 16 state, Through Jesus, therefore,

Hebrews 13:15

let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confesses name,

and do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

In this passage, the word sacrifice is used metaphorically because animal sacrifices

were no longer used at this time.

While many think of bringing tithes and offerings as a Thanksgiving offering

to God, how many Many think of a simple, sincere expression of thanksgiving.

Jamestown, the first permanent settlement of the colony of Virginia,

was established on May 14, 1607.

The group's charter required that the day of arrival be observed yearly as a

day of thanksgiving to God.

On that first day, Captain John Woodleaf held the service of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving.

As quoted from the section of the Charter of Berkeley 100 specifying the Thanksgiving service, quote,

we ordain that the day of our ship's arrival at the place assigned for Plantacon

in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of

Thanksgiving to Almighty God.

Psalm chapter 50 verses 14 and 15 says, sacrifice sacrifice,

Psalms 50:14

thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the most high and call upon me in the day of trouble.

I will deliver you and you will honor me.

Your vows equal vows that accompanied prayer in times of need,

usually involving thank offerings

and always involving praise to the Lord for his answer to prayer.

Psalm 50 verse 23 says he who sacrifices his thank offerings,

Psalms 50:23

honors me and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God.

So let's look at the ways we can offer up to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving.

First let us thank God for his many gifts to us through people.

I know there's some people maybe you don't think of as a offering,

you know, that they really are the best in your life, but God puts people in our life as a gift.

One is our parents.

Many of us don't have our parents around anymore, but they were the ones who nurtured us.

Some maybe didn't have a parent in their life that nurtured them,

they came from a bad upbringing, but they found somebody to mentor them and nurture them.

Let's be thankful for those people in our life that nurture us.

Be thankful for, many of us have spouses,

because an attitude of gratitude that expresses itself in words of affection

and thanksgiving We'll do much to enrich a marriage and to help solve the problems

that every couple faces.

Be thankful for that gift of a spouse. Be thankful for friends,

especially those who help us grow spiritually.

Just like an exercise group or a walking group, it's good to have that person

that you are accountable to, to make sure you read your Bible, you do your devotions.

My friends.

My close friends, it's good to have somebody that makes sure you stay on the right track.

Let's be thankful for our helpers and those who help us at a time of need.

They may be family members or those that maybe aren't even aware of it.

Could be law enforcement, fire department, doctors, nurses, any type of first

responders, anybody that comes into your into your life, they might not even

know that at that time that they are a blessing to you.

We can also thank God for the gift of spiritual life.

These gifts can be found in scripture.

Spiritual death is a present reality for those who have not yet experienced

the miracle of the new birth.

Psalm 116.8 and 9. For you, Lord, have delivered my soul from death,

my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord

in the land of the living.

Replace my soul with me." And you get, for you, Lord, have delivered me from

death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling,

that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

This verse is for you. Your soul, your life, with God, can be saved.

Spiritual birth and life comes to us through faith in Jesus Christ.

John 1, 12, and 13 states, Yet to all who received him, to those who believed

in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

Membership into God's family is by grace alone, the gift of God.

God. It is never a human achievement.

Doesn't matter how good you are in this lifetime, how many acts of goodness

you do, only through the gift of God, through accepting Jesus Christ as your

Lord and Savior, can you achieve eternal life.

First John 5, 11, and 12 says, and this is the testimony, God has given us eternal

life, and in this life is in his Son.

He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Let us also thank God for leading us in triumph, for victory over evil within.

Romans 7, 21 through 25 says, when I want to do good, evil is right there with

me, for in my inner being, I delight in God's law.

But I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against

the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within members.

Watch a wretched man I am, who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord.

God gives us nature that causes us to hunger and thirst for righteousness.

God gives us the Holy Spirit who seeks to bring about purity within.

God gives us the Bible to help us day by day.

God gives us the church as a family where we can associate with those whose

influence can be elevating.

And God gives us chastisement when it's needed.

It's not something we really like to have in our lives, but as the Bible says, it is needed.

Hebrews 12, three through 11 says, consider him who endured such opposition

from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding

your blood, and you have forgotten the word of encouragement that addresses you as sons.

My son, do not make light to the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when

he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.

Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as.

For sons, what son is not disciplined by his father?

If you are not disciplined and everyone undergoes discipline,

then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us, and we respected

them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live?

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best,

but God disciplines us for our good that we may share in His holiness.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.

Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those

who have been trained by it.

So when you're facing hardships, think of it as a training, as a training on

your way to an everlasting life.

Kind of like how, you know, a diamond in the rough and then it gets all cleaned up and how nice it is.

Suffering and persecution should be seen as discipline and correction.

Also for victory over our enemy, Satan and his false prophets,

1 Peter 5.8. Be self-controlled and alert.

Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

2 Corinthians 11, 13-15 says, For such men are false prophets,

deceitful workmen masquerading as apostles of Christ.

And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

It is not surprising, then, if His servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness.

Their end will be what their actions deserve.

So in conclusion today, praise from these scriptures tell us that action,

praise is an action of will.

Many of the problems faced in prayer life is in letting our emotions get in the way.

Emotions can limit our prayers. They make the picture foggy.

A lot of times emotions, I don't know about anybody else, but it's more about

me. and when things are about me I lose perspective.

It's no, it's about God.

This Thanksgiving let's offer up to God the sacrifice of Thanksgiving.

Give expressions of thanks to persons who are a blessing to you.

Let them know that they are important in your life.

Offer up to God the sacrifices of Thanksgiving for his gift of new life.

Through praise and Thanksgiving we acknowledge the nature of God.

To pray with praise and thanksgiving is to acknowledge God's holiness and majesty.

In prayer we affirm our dependence on the Lord.

Jesus taught us how to approach the Father with praise and adoration when he

gave us the Lord's prayer in the book of Matthew.

For victory over Satan, if you do not believe there is an evil enemy of God,

then Satan has already won victory over you.

James 4, 7, and 8 says, Submit yourselves then to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Come near to God and he will come near to you.

Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Each November, Americans take time to remember and appreciate the blessings of God.

We may even take a moment to recall the first Thanksgiving observed in 1621

won by the pilgrims who arrived at our shores the previous year in a desperate

search for freedom from religious persecution.

In October 1789, with the recently finished draft of the Bill of Rights on his

desk, President George Washington proclaimed a very special Thanksgiving day for the young nation,

declaring November 26th of that year to be set aside for Americans to,

quote, unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great

Lord and ruler of nations.

Washington implored his fellow citizens to thank God for the Constitution,

quote, now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed.

Let us take this Thanksgiving holiday to thank, give thanks for the God who sent, came down,

sent his son to die for us and rise again that we may be saved and have everlasting life.

For true thanksgiving, that's what it's all about.

I want to end our service today as we pray the Lord's prayer.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Amen.