INTRODUCTION

Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving Day in America? It started with the Puritans. The Puritans in England would regularly set aside days of thanksgiving and prayer, a day to have a laser focus on all that we have to give thanks to God for in Christ, both as individuals, as churches, as cities, and as countries. The Puritans who came over to America in the early 1600’s carried on this tradition, as did the non-conformist Pilgrims who had come from the Netherlands to the New World. The specific event that is tied to the origin of what we now know as Thanksgiving Day was in the fall of 1621, and took place in Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts. The newcomers celebrated the event with members of the Wampanoag tribe, with whom they had recently signed a treaty of mutual protection. This day was held to give thanks for both the peace treaty and for the first harvest they reaped and were getting to eat.

Fast forward a hundred and sixty years, and on Thursday, November 26, 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation for “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.” Fast forward another 80 years, and Beginning in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln encouraged Americans to recognize the last Thursday of November as “a day of Thanksgiving.” A few years later in 1870, Congress followed suit by passing legislation making Thanksgiving (along with Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, and Independence Day) a national holiday. About 60 years later, on October 6, 1941, a bill was passed by Congress to set aside the last Thursday of November and call it “Thanksgiving Day.” President Roosevelt signed it into law late that December, to take effect the following year. So now for exactly 80 years we who live in this nation have celebrated Thanksgiving Day on the last Thursday of the month of November.

Why has Thanksgiving in general been such a big deal in our history? Why was it a focus of the Puritans, the Pilgrims, Presidents, and Congress? The answer to that question is in the Word of the living God, the Holy Scriptures. Thanksgiving is a big deal because the one true and living God commands us to give thanks to Him, such as in the texts like 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Not only does He command it, but the Lord is worthy to be thanked. The Psalmist says, “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High.” After that the Lord himself responds with, “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me” (Psalm 50:14, 23). It is a shame that Thanksgiving Day has become more associated with gluttony and greed, rather than giving thanks to the Lord for all His provisions and providences. It is especially shameful for professed Christians, because those who bear the name of Christ are often no different from the world in this regard. We need to change that by God’s grace. So let us focus on 1 Thessalonians 5:18 and may God equip, and excite, and energize us to be a people who continually give thanks, even and especially on Thanksgiving Day.

DOCTRINE

All creation must give thanks to the triune God, at all times, in all seasons, believers most of all, because this is God’s will for them in Christ Jesus.

I am going to labor to show you four things with applications sprinkled in as we go: I. Who must give thanks. II. When we must give thanks. III. Why we must give thanks. IV. Directions for the promotion of giving thanks.

I. WHO MUST GIVE THANKS? “Give thanks” (1 Thess. 5:18a).

I) Everyone must give thanks, because it is great evil to be unthankful to our merciful God. “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Rom. 1:22). “For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy” (2 Tim. 3:2).

REPROOF

See how evil a thing it is to be unthankful to God! You who are unthankful throw in your lot with the wicked, and imitate them. William Cooper in his sermon on Thankfulness said, “To be unthankful to a bountiful God, is for a froward (difficult) child to beat his mother’s breasts that gave him suck, and to kick his father’s loins.”

II) Believers in Christ Jesus must especially give thanks. “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever” (1 Chron. 16:34)! You should give thanks believer, because you have been healed from the leprous disease of sin. You who are in Christ have made clean through His blood. Not only that, Christ has brought you back from the colony of sin outside the city, placing you in His Father’s house. Even now you are “seated with Christ in the heavenly places” (Eph. 2).

EXAMINATION

Do you give thanks? Ten lepers were healed in Luke 17 when they cried out to Christ for mercy. Only one returned to thank Him and give glory to God. Are you like the nine or like the one? “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever” (1 Chron. 16:34)!

II. WHEN MUST WE GIVE THANKS? “In all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:18b). You and I must give thanks at all times.

DIRECTION I. You should give thanks when you are abounding. ”Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). Give thanks, beloved, for physical and spiritual provisions!

Why should you and I give thanks for physical provisions? Because, (i) God provides you with physical food and drink. (ii) God provides you with physical shelter and domestic comforts. (iii) God has provided you with a physical vocation to serve the Lord Jesus in, do good to your neighbor, earn a living, and be able to give offerings for God’s glory. (iv) God provides you with physical strength to fulfill your duties. (v) God provides you with family, both physical family through ordinary bloodlines and church family through the bloodline of Christ. Parents are a blessing the Lord gives. A husband or a wife is a blessing the Lord gives. Children are a blessing the Lord gives. Brothers and sisters are a blessing the Lord gives. Now, God has reserved for some of you most of your family blessings to be in the Church, and that should be just fine with you. This is family (points around). (vi) God provides you with friends, even brothers and sisters in Christ, which is really half-way between physical and spiritual. Everything that you have ever used or enjoyed has been a gift that God has mercifully given to you.

Why should you and I give thanks for spiritual provisions? Because, (i) God provides you with spiritual food through the Scriptures both read and preached. (ii) God provides you with spiritual delights through the Lord’s Supper. (iii) God provides you with spiritual medicine through the Promises. (iv) God provides you with spiritual direction through the Law and commandments. (v) God provides you with spiritual care through the church, her pastors, and deacons. (vi) God provides you with spiritual comfort through the Holy Spirit. (vii) God provides you with spiritual protections by His wise providence. (viii) God provides you with the spiritual map and fuel to enable you to fulfill the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. He furnishes you with the map and fuel for this through the holy Scriptures, the holy Church, and the Holy Spirit.

EXAMINATION

Do you give thanks for physical provisions? If you were only allowed to keep the physical provisions today that you gave thanks for this last week, what would your life look like? Do you give thanks for spiritual provisions? If the only spiritual provisions that continued were the ones you offered to God a sacrifice of praise for last month, would you have a Bible? Would you have the Lord’s Supper? Would you have His promises? His Law and commandments? The church, her pastors, her deacons? Would you have the Holy Spirit? Would God’s providence still protect and preserve you? You and I should give thanks when we are abounding! Give thanks, beloved, for physical and spiritual provisions.

DIRECTION II. You should give thanks when you are afflicted. “Though he slay me, I will hope in him” (Job 13:15). Why in afflictions? You and I should give thanks in Afflictions because, (i) Through afflictions God prevents sin and pursues it from us. “To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited” (2 Cor. 12:7). “By this [affliction] therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged (Is. 27:9). (ii) Through afflictions God is always afflicting us less than we deserve. Zophar was right when he told Job, “God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves” (Job 11:6). (iii) Through afflictions God disciplines us so that we may share his holiness. “[The Lord] disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:10-11). (iv) Through afflictions God better prepares us for being and savoring Jesus in glory. “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:16-17). “The stone that is most hewed, cut, carved, and polished, is usually set in the chiefest part of the building. So are suffering saints prepared for the highest degrees of glory” (William Cooper). (v) Through afflictions God conforms us more to the image of Jesus Christ. “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death (Phil. 3:10). (vi) Through afflictions like sickness that make you miss public worship, God makes you more appreciate and delight in those spiritual benefits. Believers, when you are kept from the Lord’s Day gathering because of sickness, God will use that to make you more appreciate it. Mothers, this applies doubly to you who are not only kept from public worship when you are sick, but also when you kids are sick. (vii) Through afflictions like persecution, God makes the world less appealing and Christ more satisfying! “Rejoice and be glad!”

We must give thanks to God in afflictions and for what God does through them, not necessarily for afflictions in themselves, properly speaking. We should not thank a knife when it cuts, but when a Physician uses it to cut out our cancers, we must thank the Physician himself who uses the knife. We should not thank the rod when it smacks us, but when the Good Shepherd uses His rod to beat us away from a cliff and back to green pastures, we should thank the Shepherd for using His rod.

EXAMINATION

Do you give thanks in afflictions?

III. WHY MUST WE GIVE THANKS? “For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess. 5:18c).

REASON 1. Thanksgiving is the revealed will of God in Christ Jesus for you, believer. He commands it.

REASON 2. Thanksgiving is the Christians’ reasonable response to all the benefits that are ours in Christ. Psalm 103:2 “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits” (Psa. 103:2). What benefits are yours in Christ? (i) Election is yours in Christ—God sovereignly chose us before the foundation of the world. (ii) Predestination is yours in Christ—God predetermined that you would be conformed to the image of His Son. (iii) A Definite Atonement is yours in Christ—Christ took your name to the cross and paid for your sins, believer, not hypothetically or potentially, but in reality. (iv) Regeneration is yours in Christ—those whom God elected, predestined, and those for whom Christ died will, in time, be brought to life from spiritual death. (v) Effectual calling is yours in Christ—those for whom Christ died will in time hear the gospel and brought effectively to Christ by the Holy Spirit. (vi) Conversion is yours in Christ—God changes those He saves, turning them from serving idols to serving Him, the one true and living God. (vii) Faith is yours in Christ—Those for whom Christ died, the Spirit regenerates, and the Spirit effectually calls, are given the gift of faith so that they really do trust in and submit to the Lord Jesus Christ. (viii) Justification is yours in Christ—God has forgiven you of every one of your sins, and clothed you with Christ’s righteousness, believer. He then declares you, “Righteous” in His sight. (ix) Adoption is yours in Christ—the Father has not only justified you in His courtroom, He has also brought you into His chamber as His child. (x) Assurance of God’s love—God the Holy Spirit pours the love of God into our hearts, assuring us that the Christ who bought me, the Spirit who regenerated me, and the Father who adopted me truly does love me. (xi) Sanctification is yours in Christ—Whom God saves from the penalty of sin, He delivers from the pleasure of sin, and the power of sin, and more and more from the practice of sin. (xii) Peace of conscience is yours in Christ—because God has made peace with you, if you trust in Christ and seek to obey His revealed will, your conscience will be at peace. (xiii) Joy in the Holy Spirit is yours in Christ—those who have had their cup filled with salvation will also have their cup filled with joy. (xiv) Hope in future salvation is yours in Christ—we do not have a cross-your-singers hope like the world. We who are in Christ have a confident expectation of future salvation. Christ will come back to chase away all sadness and make us happy in His presence forever. (xv) Perseverance in faith is yours in Christ—God will bring to completion the good work that He began in you. You may fall, but God will keep you from falling away totally. You will persevere Christian, because God will preserve you. (xvi) Glorification is yours in Christ—Christ will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body. That day we all long for is coming. There are more benefits in Christ than you could ever dream of! Trust in Him and all of them will be yours.

COMFORT

See all the benefits that come to you through the bleeding wounds of Jesus Christ, dear ones. Just as thankfulness must be offered to God in Christ Jesus, so all the benefits of God’s grace comes to us in and through Christ Jesus. If the Father elected you He will never expel you. If Christ bought you He will never break you. If the Spirit quickened you He will never quit you. Say to yourself, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits” (Psa. 103:2).

REASON 3. Thanksgiving glorifies God, which is a Christians chief duty and delight. “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me” (Psa. 50:23). Do you want to glorify God? Then thank Him!

DIRECTIONS FOR THE PROMOTION OF GIVING THANKS

DIRECTION 1. If you would give thanks at all times, beware of those things which quench or strangle a thankful heart. Namely, watch out for complaining and pride. 1. Complaining and murmuring, which are signs of discontent, quench a thankful heart like a bucket of water quenches a fire. “Murmuring is the scum of discontent, by which we entertain crosses with anger and blessings with disdain (Thomas Manton). 2. Pride strangles thankfulness in the heart like a noose strangles the neck.

DIRECTION 2. Stir yourself up to thankfulness by thinking on all of your physical provisions, spiritual provisions, and the benefits that belong to you in Christ.

DIRECTION 3. Make Thanksgiving Day in your home a sanctified time of thanksgiving to our triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit. Start new traditions that stir you up to thankfulness. Focus on thankfulness in Family Worship and Private Worship that day. Make thanksgiving Christian again.

CONCLUSION

Remember that a life of thanksgiving is shown not only by your thoughts and affections; a life of true thanksgiving will culminate in thanks-living.