Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
112520
2020 Thanksgiving Sermon at Grace Bible Church
Actually, this unique Holiday, Thanksgiving, reflects perhaps more than any other ‑ our national and spiritual character.
"Thanksgiving began as a Holiday or a Holy day, created by a group of God‑fearing Puritans who were sincere in their desire to set aside one day each year especially to thank the Lord for His many blessings.
Actually, it should be a day of gratitude with an attitude of “giving thanks.”
It was officially proclaimed as a national holiday by President Abraham Lincoln on October 3, 1863, when President Lincoln, who had a lot of heartaches to deal with that God’s people should concentrate on the graciousness of God.
Notice, “when” he falls not “if” he falls.
One overlooked principle of the doctrine of thanksgiving is that one of the promises that a mature believer will have is that even their children will be protected when the mature believer grows up.
This is one of the promises that will accompany the mature believer, his children will be blessed by association.
No human counsel devised this principle nor hath any human hand worked out these great things.
They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who instead of dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy which is given to all of us.
And why not start out with the grace of God because all of have us failed in some way or another?
The Exodus generation failed in thanksgiving simply because they didn't have a capacity for it.
Just as today, the more garbage you have in your soul, the less appreciation you have for anything that the Lord or His people ever do for you.
A simple act of courtesy;
However, once you start being thankful for all the blessings that God has for you, there is a danger to develop hardness of the heart and at the same time garbage in the soul which can cause you to lose your capacity for appreciation and thankfulness.
- Thanksgiving is an act of giving thanks and grateful acknowledgement of the benefits of the grace of God.
- Hence, it is an expression of gratitude toward God based on your doctrinal capacity to appreciate who and what He is.
- Thanksgiving is the mental attitude forged from cognition and inculcation of Bible doctrine plus subsequent capacity for life from metabolized doctrine in the right lobe.
- Thanksgiving is the expression of your capacity for appreciation of God and the mental attitude of gratitude toward Him.
- Thanksgiving reaches its peak in personal love for God the Father and occupation with the person of Christ.
In fact, thanksgiving is an index of the spiritual status of the believer.
The greater the content of metabolized doctrine in the believer's right lobe, the greater the capacity for mental attitude thanksgiving in the life.
The author of the subject of Thanksgiving should always be our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as He has motivated all of us to be thankful.
For example, in PHI 4:6, Paul commands us, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Or, in 1TH 5:18 in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
In 1CO 15:57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Look what the apostle Paul said beginning with EPH 5:15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise,
EPH 5:16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil.
EPH 5:17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
EPH 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
EPH 5:19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
EPH 5:20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;
In COL 1:12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
Probably, the most overlooked attitude on thanksgiving is found in the Exodus generation.
The Exodus generation, who was controlled by their emotion had no capacity for appreciation.
And if there is no gratitude toward God, obviously there is no gratitude toward people.
And so, in order to give thanks toward God, one has to know God, and one has to know what is revealed about Him, about His person, and about His plan.