Thanksgiving was first celebrated in our nation before we were officially a nation. When the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth—some of you may know this, and some of you may not—they came seeking a place where they could worship the Lord with the freedom they longed for. They wanted to live their lives according to His Word. Many of them had been oppressed and persecuted because they believed the Bible was real and did not want to follow the teachings of men, but rather God.
In England, the Church of England had broken away from Roman Catholicism. Although there were some good teachers in the Church of England, many fell back into the ways of Romanism. Today, if you look at the Anglican Church, it is very close to the Roman Catholic Church. Not long ago, the head of the Church of England even made overtures back toward Rome. Because of this, the foundation of that church was considered faulty by many who believed the Bible literally and desired to worship and praise the Lord freely.
These believers were persecuted and initially attempted to move to Holland, where there was somewhat more freedom. However, once they arrived, they found that the attitude and influence of many of the Dutch—especially the younger people—was drifting away from the biblical upbringing they desired for their children. Because of this, they made arrangements to come to the New World, believing they could worship God in spirit and in truth as He had called them to do.
When they arrived, life was not easy. Many died the first winter. By the time spring came, only four adult women who had originally traveled on the voyage were still alive. Many of the men had died as well. They also did not know how to hunt in this new land or how to plant the unfamiliar crops. Everything was different from what they had known.
In the midst of this hardship, God had already been preparing help for them. Years before the Pilgrims came, an Indian man named Squanto had been taken captive by Spaniards and carried away to Spain. From Spain he eventually made his way to England, where he lived for several years and learned to speak English. Later, the opportunity came for him to return to the land that is now New England, where he had originally lived.
When he returned, he discovered that his entire tribe had died from diseases brought by European traders—diseases for which they had no immunity. Had Squanto been there, he would have died as well. But because he had been taken away, he survived, and God used this tragic situation to prepare him for a purpose far greater than he could have imagined.
After the Pilgrims endured their first harsh winter, an Indian suddenly walked out of the woods and greeted them in English. It was Squanto. He told them he was also from England, in a sense, because he had lived there. God used this man to teach them how to plant corn (or maize), how to hunt more effectively, and how to live off the land in ways they had not been able to manage on their own.
The Pilgrims’ early years continued to be difficult, but they celebrated the first Thanksgiving in our land together with many of the Native Americans. In fact, while school illustrations often show many Pilgrims and only a few Indians, the reality is that the number of Indians present was roughly two to one compared to the Pilgrims. They gathered together and celebrated, and the whole point of that first Thanksgiving was to thank God—thank God for the freedom to worship Him and thank God for all He had done.
Thank God for bringing Squanto into their life. Thank God for all of the things and the blessings that he had given them even in the midst of the trials that they had suffered and the persecution that they had endured to get here the Apostle Paul in the book of Philippians writes the following in chapter 4 beginning at verse 5-6.
5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Philippines 4:5-6
I want you to see what Paul said there.
Be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication and thanksgiving Let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6
I just want to pray and then we’re going to come and look at this verse
Father, I just thank you for the opportunity you give to us to to look at what Thanksgiving means How we should have thankful hearts How we should be filled with gratitude and praise how that the first thing from our lips should be thankfulness to you Lord as we look at your word tonight as we look at our lives will you help us to focus and and help us to make it become a thankful people a people who rejoices in you and Who longs to experience Your righteousness your holiness your goodness Your love speak to us. We pray through your word this we ask in Jesus name Amen One of the things that I want you to understand is when Paul’s writing these words He’s writing to the Philippian Church. The Philippian Church is is one of the Churches that Paul planted it was on one of his missionary journeys. He planted this church in Philippi Philippi was not a large city.
It was one of the older cities founded by King Philip the father of Alexander the Great And he’d been the king of Macedonia before Alexander and Philippi was not a large church a lot of times when we read these letters that Paul is writing to these churches We are thinking well The Apostle Paul founded them and the Apostle Paul is in some of them. He’s like for example Ephesus He stayed for three years teaching there. These churches must be really big.
No, most of them are house churches. If you would go and look at to visit some of the areas where these churches were and really study the history of what was happening. They were just small groups of people that God saved and brought together. They came together to worship and praise the Lord so this is a small group of believers and Paul is writing to them and as he’s closing this letter, which is one of his. You can just sense his compassion and love for these people in this letter.
But as he comes to the end of it He wants to encourage them on how they should live their lives. And I want you to understand what’s happening in Paul’s life right at this time because sometimes we can have misconceptions as to what Paul experienced in his life. We see the tremendous things that God did through Paul in establishing all these churches and in giving us all of this Biblical doctrine on how to live our lives of showing us the flow of the the Word of God and showing us the flow from the Old Testament to the new and how the New Testament reveals that Jesus is the Messiah and that he he comes out of the revelation and prophecies of the Old Testament And that he came from the nation of Israel and Paul helps to draw this all together for us. But it much of Paul’s life was it not fun to live You can go and read in the book of Acts that as he went to many of these places He was often met with persecution and rejection. Oftentimes he would initially be met by the Jewish Synagogues and they’d be open to what he said But then when he began to talk about Jesus and the resurrection from the dead and Jesus being the Messiah Oftentimes many of them would reject what he had to say and some of them.
Actually sought to have him silenced and driven from the towns He was each actually beat beaten and left for dead on one occasion More than one occasion. He was thrown in jail And this crime preaching the gospel that people could be saved and understand the love of Jesus so Paul at this particular time is writing this letter while he’s in prison. This is what he’s writing to the people He’s writing to them Let all your moderation be known unto man. The Lord is at hand In other words look for the Lord and look to the Lord and Don’t Live in excesses But rather live according to God’s standard And then he says Be careful for nothing.
In other words, don’t let anything prevent you From living your life for Jesus But he says how are you to live your life? He says But in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving Let your request be made known unto God Prayer with supplication and Thanksgiving. What is supplication? Supplication is I intercede on behalf of Others that have a need I am I am seeing others even before my own needs and I intercede and lift people before the Lord and ask God to work in hearts We had some of the prayer requests tonight were that very thing for safety for people that God would open the hearts of the young people in our nation that They would have an understanding of who he is and be led to know his son Jesus as their Lord and Savior that God would work through those that God had placed burdens on to take the gospel to them by preaching on the streets or Sharing and witnessing wherever they are found To pray on behalf of them To pray on behalf of Christians and our brothers and sisters around the world that are suffering persecution right now for their faith in Christ that they would remain strong and That God would protect them and give them witness in the midst of tremendous turmoil But not only supplication he says to prayer with supplication with Thanksgiving One of the things that the Apostle Paul often does is he opens up his letters and closes his letters with the fact that he’s thankful for the believers that he’s ministering to and That God has brought into his life. I Didn’t share one of the things some of the things I’m thankful for as I look at the people that God is currently Gathered together in our fellowship.
I see people that want to learn the Word of God The one to grow in their love for the Lord. I see young couples that want to understand how to raise their children in a godly home and To that their children would know what the gospel is and that they could come to know Christ through the witness of their parents I See older people that are Concerned about the young people that are here and and want to be a minister to them and we’re to pray And we’re it to intercede For to be thankful and one of the things that is very Sometimes difficult to do is when you see all the things happening around us go back to Psalm the author of the psalm Opens up by praising the Lord saying how we need to praise God through music. We need to praise God through prayer We need to praise God through the words that we share And then he comes to the point he says but there’s brutish people You know what a brute is The brute is somebody who is so hard-hearted stiff-necked wicked and evil That all I can seek to do is destroy that which is good that’s a brute He says there’s brutish people Not only are there brutish people But there’s fools As you know right now That we have a lot of fools in our country and unfortunately we have some fools that even Claim the name of Christ and say they’re Christians and come to churches, but they’re really fools What is a fool the definition of a fool We find that in the Psalms as well. It says:
the fool hath set in his heart There is no God.
Now you may ask, “How can somebody come to church and say that there is no God? They are coming to church and claiming to be a Christian.” Well, if you live your life in a manner where you do not praise God, you do not seek to have your actions reflect the character of Christ, and you do not show people through your life that you have been redeemed and saved by the blood of Jesus—then others see no difference between your desires, attitudes, and actions and those of the brute.
You are a fool because you do not know God, and you do not fear the Lord.
The fool does not fear God.
The fool does not know who God is.
We are living in a world filled with brutish people and fools. So how are we going to live? Are we going to allow them to impact us?
The Apostle Paul lived in that same kind of world. In fact, when he was in Philippi, he experienced one of the most difficult times of his ministry. He went there to share the gospel, and a crowd rose up against him with false accusations. They went to the magistrates and leaders of the city and demanded that Paul be thrown into jail for what he was doing.
And that is exactly where he ended up. Brutes and fools threw Paul and Silas—who was ministering with him—into jail.
What were they going to do? They could have sat there and moped. And oftentimes that is our response, isn’t it? It is certainly mine at times when fools and brutes come against us.
But what Paul did instead of moping was praise God. He prayed and sang hymns of prayer and praise. They did not allow the fools and brutes to interfere with their vision or their relationship with Christ. Because they refused to be moved, the Philippian jailer witnessed something remarkable.
When the earthquake shook the prison and the doors appeared to open so that all the prisoners could escape, the jailer prepared to kill himself. He knew that when his superiors discovered that the prisoners had escaped on his watch, death awaited him. But before he could harm himself, Paul cried out, “Do not harm yourself—we are all here.”
Because of Paul’s actions, prayers, and hymns, the jailer and his entire household came to know Christ that night. Scripture says they believed and were baptized.
Now I want you to understand the significance of that. If you were to go to the Middle East today, you would understand the cost of being baptized as a believer in Jesus. In America, we often treat baptism as optional—something to get around to someday. But in the Middle East, if someone from a Muslim background is baptized, they are publicly declaring that they identify with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. They are saying, “As He died, was buried, and rose again, I too have died to my old nature, been buried, and risen with Him as a new creature in Christ. He is my Lord.”
That declaration can get you placed on the hit list of your own family. Your own relatives may seek to kill you because of your faith in Christ. Yet does that stop them from being baptized? No. Because their identification with the One who redeemed them means more than the threats against them.
In the same way, the Philippian jailer believed and immediately desired to be baptized, declaring to the world that he identified with the Jesus who had redeemed and saved him.
Why do we look at this when we talk about prayer and praise? Because it reveals what our attitude should be when walking with the Lord. Our attitude is to be one of thanksgiving: “Let your requests be made known unto God.” From that spirit of thanksgiving flows the character of Christ.
Paul continues in the next verse: “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
God’s peace can keep your heart and mind
I want to bring back What the biblical view of the mind and heart is? When it speaks to the heart, it’s not talking about this mushy lovey deal that Hollywood comes with where I? Fall in love with the girl and my heart is going like this. That’s not what it’s talking about The heart is our mind our will and our emotions our mind our will and our emotions When we come to God in prayer and are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and are transformed by his character And we come to him in Thanksgiving and prayer it says that we have his peace That’s what Paul had when he was thrown in jail the peace of the Lord His mind was at peace his will was at peace His emotions were at peace So that he could sing praises in the face of a very difficult situation one of the things that He’s telling us to do is how do we get that peace? How do we get that right attitude? How is our heart and mind our will and emotions? transformed He said with an attitude of thanksgiving to God, and he says finally brethren It changes the way you perceive and think and the things you dwell on Finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just Whatsoever things are pure Whatsoever things are lovely Whatsoever things are of good report if there be any virtue and if there be any praise Think on these things we live in a world where we’re called to think on wickedness and evil every day It’s laid before us in advertising. It’s laid before us on the news.
It’s laid before us on what’s happening God tells us that we’re to have a different perception And it flows out of a thanks a heart of thanksgiving and prayer and praise and It transforms our way of perceiving and perception so that these are the things that we have as our motivating factor and not Anger hatred bitterness. I’m going to get even we’re going to get that guy. How did Jesus say that? Okay, Jesus told us some amazing things hard things things we can’t do in our own strength like love our enemies and Pray for those that despitefully use us.
That’s impossible for me to do But in Christ I can do it Jesus is dying on the cross for our sins And he cries out with a brief prayer to his father and one of the seven things that he said that are recorded in Scripture and he says Father forgive them For they know not what they do Stephen when he’s being stoned looks up and sees Jesus seated standing at the right hand of the father not seated but standing and He asks God Forgiveness on those that have are Taking his life one of those men That wasn’t casting the stones, but he enabled them to cast the stones was a young man by the name of Saul Because while the other Jews were there casting stones Saul was holding their garments so they could throw the stones Stephen prayed for him Stephen prayed for all of them it flows out of an attitude if we’re grateful to God for what he’s done for us and the Redemption that we’ve experienced and the forgiveness we’ve experienced then we can have forgiveness for those That would seek to harm us as well and we can sing praises when we’re sitting in jail We come to Thanksgiving and I’ll just close it up here But we come to Thanksgiving and oftentimes you forget what Thanksgiving’s for Thanksgiving is not to focus on our circumstance But Thanksgiving is to focus on God and what he has done in our lives