Bradley United Methodist Church

November 19, 2006
Rev. Terry D. Campbell
Thanksgiving Sunday

Remember Thanksgiving!
Deuteronomy 8:10-20

¹⁰When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. ¹¹Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ¹²Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, ¹³and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, ¹⁴then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹⁵He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. ¹⁶He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. ¹⁷You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." ¹⁸But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.
¹⁹If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. ²⁰Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.”

If Thanksgiving were not already established in America, would we be able to create a national holiday for saying thanks to God? Would we think it important enough to try? However you answer this question, it says something about us as a people. You and I need to remember Thanksgiving!

I. Saying “Thank You” to God is the right thing to do.

Warren Wiersbe told about a ministerial student in Evanston, Illinois, who was part of a life-saving squad. In 1860, a ship went aground on the shore of Lake Michigan near Evanston, and Edward Spencer waded again and again into the frigid waters to rescue 17 passengers. In the process, his health was permanently damaged. Some years later at his funeral, it was noted that not one of the people he rescued ever thanked him.[i] Something about this just seems wrong! We need to express appreciation for great gifts. It is the right thing to do to say, “Thank You” to God.

It was the Pilgrims’ settlement at Plymouth, Massachusetts, that is most often remembered as the site of the first Thanksgiving. Governor Bradford ordered a three-day celebration in October 1621. In keeping with the biblical instructions in Leviticus 23:39 for the Feast of the Ingathering, its purpose was to give prayerful thanks to God for the blessing of the harvest.

There are at least 140 passages of Scripture that deal with the subject of thanksgiving from a personal or corporate point of view. Thanksgiving is a combination of words joined to express thanks to God. It is gratefulness followed by expressions of that gratitude.
The National Turkey Federation (NTF) estimates that approximately 45 million turkeys are eaten at Thanksgiving, 22 million at Christmas, and 19 million at Easter. Ninety-one percent of Americans surveyed by the NTF eat turkey at Thanksgiving. The average weight of turkeys purchased for Thanksgiving is 15 pounds; that’s about 675 million pounds of turkey consumed in the United States on Thanksgiving Day.

Some people think turkey causes sleepiness after the Thanksgiving meal. Think again. Studies have shown that there is no scientific evidence that turkey makes you sleepy. It is likely that the large servings of carbohydrate-rich foods served with the meal are what make you sleepy rather than the turkey. The food releases tryptophans in the brain, causing drowsiness.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, May 20, 2006 reports that, “An estimated 97 million adults in the United States are overweight or obese.”[ii] We have a lot of reasons to remember Thanksgiving.

II. Saying “Thank You” to God can stimulate your faith as you review your blessings.

Name your blessings and stimulate your faith. Move beyond taking life for granted. See how God has taken care of you in the past. The future won’t be any different.

This is not about being a Pollyanna, but celebrating that you are not alone and that God is not only with you but ultimately working all things together for your good.

In a sermon at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, Gary Wilburn said: “In 1636, amid the darkness of the Thirty Years’ War, a German pastor, Martin Rinkart, is said to have buried five thousand of his parishioners in one year, an average of fifteen a day. His parish was ravaged by war, death, and economic disaster. In the heart of that darkness, with the cries of fear outside his window, he sat down and wrote this table grace for his children: ‘Now thank we all our God / With heart and hands and voices;/ Who wondrous things had done,/ In whom His world rejoices. /Who, from our mother’s arms,/Hath led us on our way/ With countless gifts of love/ And still is ours today.’” Here was a man who knew thanksgiving comes from love of God, not from outward circumstances.[iii]

When bad things happen, we have a choice—look to our circumstances or look to the Lord. We can turn to gripping or God, complaining or Christ. You can thank God that He is still with you and that He will carry you through this trial.

A lone ship wreck survivor on an uninhabited island managed to build a rude hut in which he placed all that he had saved from his sinking ship. He prayed to God for deliverance, and anxiously watched the horizon each day to hail any passing ship.

One day he was horrified to find his hut in flames. All that he had was gone. To the man’s limited vision, it was the worst that could have happened, and he cursed God. Yet the very next day a ship arrived.

All is not good, but God is good all the time. Though we are weak and wounded and attacked, God is able to carry us and in the end will win.

We need to be saved from the danger of self-idolatry. As the text says, saved from thinking, “I did all this.” Our power and our strength gave us this—ours and ours alone. “I am the greatest.” “I am the Source!”

Do we mean our “Thank You” to God or is it just something that is done in polite society? Do we take seriously our saying that God is the true Source of all we are and have or do we think that WE are really in charge and we can just politely tip our hat to God while retaining control?

A pastor was visiting in the home of one of his parishioners. A small boy in the home started reaching for the potatoes before the blessing was said. His mother gently scolded him.

The boy was confused. Why were they at the table, except to eat? As the adults bowed their heads to say grace, the child suddenly caught on. As his father started to pray, the boy shouted, “Hey, Dad! Could I be the one who talks to the plate this time?”

There are times when payers have so little forethought and passion that those who are offering these prayers could easily be talking to their plates.[v]

In the New Testament we read how Jesus constantly gave thanks to the Father and one year risked His life to celebrate the thanksgiving festival. He expressed disappointment when of the 10 lepers He healed, only one returned to say “Thank You.” And in Romans 1:21 Paul describes those under the judgment of God as people who “though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks” (NASB).

The story is told of a man who found the barn where Satan stores the seeds he sows in the human heart: envy, greed, anger, hatred, lust, and so on. The man soon noticed that Satan had more seeds of discouragement than of any other kind. He learned that those seeds could be made to grow almost anywhere. When Satan was questioned, he reluctantly admitted that there was one place in which he could not get them to grow.

“And where is that?” asked the man. Satan replied sadly, “In the heart of a thankful man.”

There are those in our land who would forget God and say that the greatness America has been and achieved is by our power and strength. It’s a lie. Certainly people have helped, but without the provision and goodness of God, all this would not have been possible. It is only in relationship to God that we can see living in the proper perspective. We MUST remember Thanksgiving and celebrate in HIS NAME! Amen.

	Bradley United Methodist Church AN HISTORIC CHURCH LIVING FOR TODAY, WITH A VISION FOR TOMORROW 210 W. Main Street, Greenfield, Indiana 46140-2097 Telephone: 317-462-2662 E-Mail: info@BradleyUMC.org Our purpose is to grow people to: magnify God, become members of Christ and His Church, be mature in Christ, minister through Christ, and be in mission with Christ.
Home Bradley's Staff Calendar Sermons Programs Current Newsletter (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader®) Bradley Preschool Video Tour (requires Real Player®)	November 19, 2006 Rev. Terry D. Campbell Thanksgiving Sunday Remember Thanksgiving! Deuteronomy 8:10-20 ¹⁰When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. ¹¹Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ¹²Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, ¹³and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, ¹⁴then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹⁵He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. ¹⁶He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you. ¹⁷You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me." ¹⁸But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. ¹⁹If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. ²⁰Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.” If Thanksgiving were not already established in America, would we be able to create a national holiday for saying thanks to God? Would we think it important enough to try? However you answer this question, it says something about us as a people. You and I need to remember Thanksgiving! I. Saying “Thank You” to God is the right thing to do. Warren Wiersbe told about a ministerial student in Evanston, Illinois, who was part of a life-saving squad. In 1860, a ship went aground on the shore of Lake Michigan near Evanston, and Edward Spencer waded again and again into the frigid waters to rescue 17 passengers. In the process, his health was permanently damaged. Some years later at his funeral, it was noted that not one of the people he rescued ever thanked him.[i] Something about this just seems wrong! We need to express appreciation for great gifts. It is the right thing to do to say, “Thank You” to God. It was the Pilgrims’ settlement at Plymouth, Massachusetts, that is most often remembered as the site of the first Thanksgiving. Governor Bradford ordered a three-day celebration in October 1621. In keeping with the biblical instructions in Leviticus 23:39 for the Feast of the Ingathering, its purpose was to give prayerful thanks to God for the blessing of the harvest. There are at least 140 passages of Scripture that deal with the subject of thanksgiving from a personal or corporate point of view. Thanksgiving is a combination of words joined to express thanks to God. It is gratefulness followed by expressions of that gratitude. The National Turkey Federation (NTF) estimates that approximately 45 million turkeys are eaten at Thanksgiving, 22 million at Christmas, and 19 million at Easter. Ninety-one percent of Americans surveyed by the NTF eat turkey at Thanksgiving. The average weight of turkeys purchased for Thanksgiving is 15 pounds; that’s about 675 million pounds of turkey consumed in the United States on Thanksgiving Day. Some people think turkey causes sleepiness after the Thanksgiving meal. Think again. Studies have shown that there is no scientific evidence that turkey makes you sleepy. It is likely that the large servings of carbohydrate-rich foods served with the meal are what make you sleepy rather than the turkey. The food releases tryptophans in the brain, causing drowsiness. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, May 20, 2006 reports that, “An estimated 97 million adults in the United States are overweight or obese.”[ii] We have a lot of reasons to remember Thanksgiving. As a Hebrew proverb tells us, “Put something where you can see it so your eye will remind your heart.” Hang a cluster of Indian corn tied with an attractive bow on the front door. Remember the thankful spirit of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Lovingly assemble a harvest display with seasonal produce as your centerpiece. Through a food bank or Christian agency, discover local needs. Decide together how you will help. This is the season to share with others. The real celebration of Thanksgiving is thanksliving. The best way to thank God is to live in a spirit of gratitude. II. Saying “Thank You” to God can stimulate your faith as you review your blessings. Name your blessings and stimulate your faith. Move beyond taking life for granted. See how God has taken care of you in the past. The future won’t be any different. This is not about being a Pollyanna, but celebrating that you are not alone and that God is not only with you but ultimately working all things together for your good. In a sermon at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, Gary Wilburn said: “In 1636, amid the darkness of the Thirty Years’ War, a German pastor, Martin Rinkart, is said to have buried five thousand of his parishioners in one year, an average of fifteen a day. His parish was ravaged by war, death, and economic disaster. In the heart of that darkness, with the cries of fear outside his window, he sat down and wrote this table grace for his children: ‘Now thank we all our God / With heart and hands and voices;/ Who wondrous things had done,/ In whom His world rejoices. /Who, from our mother’s arms,/Hath led us on our way/ With countless gifts of love/ And still is ours today.’” Here was a man who knew thanksgiving comes from love of God, not from outward circumstances.[iii] When bad things happen, we have a choice—look to our circumstances or look to the Lord. We can turn to gripping or God, complaining or Christ. You can thank God that He is still with you and that He will carry you through this trial. A lone ship wreck survivor on an uninhabited island managed to build a rude hut in which he placed all that he had saved from his sinking ship. He prayed to God for deliverance, and anxiously watched the horizon each day to hail any passing ship. One day he was horrified to find his hut in flames. All that he had was gone. To the man’s limited vision, it was the worst that could have happened, and he cursed God. Yet the very next day a ship arrived. “We saw your smoke signal!” the captain told him.[iv] All is not good, but God is good all the time. Though we are weak and wounded and attacked, God is able to carry us and in the end will win. III. Saying “Thank You” to God inoculates you against self-idolatry. We need to be saved from the danger of self-idolatry. As the text says, saved from thinking, “I did all this.” Our power and our strength gave us this—ours and ours alone. “I am the greatest.” “I am the Source!” Do we mean our “Thank You” to God or is it just something that is done in polite society? Do we take seriously our saying that God is the true Source of all we are and have or do we think that WE are really in charge and we can just politely tip our hat to God while retaining control? A pastor was visiting in the home of one of his parishioners. A small boy in the home started reaching for the potatoes before the blessing was said. His mother gently scolded him. The boy was confused. Why were they at the table, except to eat? As the adults bowed their heads to say grace, the child suddenly caught on. As his father started to pray, the boy shouted, “Hey, Dad! Could I be the one who talks to the plate this time?” There are times when payers have so little forethought and passion that those who are offering these prayers could easily be talking to their plates.[v] In the New Testament we read how Jesus constantly gave thanks to the Father and one year risked His life to celebrate the thanksgiving festival. He expressed disappointment when of the 10 lepers He healed, only one returned to say “Thank You.” And in Romans 1:21 Paul describes those under the judgment of God as people who “though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks” (NASB). The story is told of a man who found the barn where Satan stores the seeds he sows in the human heart: envy, greed, anger, hatred, lust, and so on. The man soon noticed that Satan had more seeds of discouragement than of any other kind. He learned that those seeds could be made to grow almost anywhere. When Satan was questioned, he reluctantly admitted that there was one place in which he could not get them to grow. “And where is that?” asked the man. Satan replied sadly, “In the heart of a thankful man.” What will you do now? There are those in our land who would forget God and say that the greatness America has been and achieved is by our power and strength. It’s a lie. Certainly people have helped, but without the provision and goodness of God, all this would not have been possible. It is only in relationship to God that we can see living in the proper perspective. We MUST remember Thanksgiving and celebrate in HIS NAME! Amen.
	[i] Our Daily Bread, February 20, 1994. [ii] Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Curtin LR, McDowell MA, Tabak CJ, Flegal KM. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United States, 1999–2004. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2006; 295:1549–1555. [iii] Gary Wilburn in a sermon at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles. [iv] Michael Hodgin, 1001 More Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking, Grand Rapids: ZondervanPublishingHouse, 1998, p. 255. [v] Michael Hodgin, 1001 More Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking, Grand Rapids: ZondervanPublishingHouse, 1998, p. 257.

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Bradley United Methodist Church

AN HISTORIC CHURCH LIVING FOR TODAY,WITH A VISION FOR TOMORROW

AN HISTORIC CHURCH LIVING FOR TODAY,
WITH A VISION FOR TOMORROW