Be Thankful
Colossians 3:12-17
There are literally dozens of verses we could turn to examine the subject of thanksgiving.
We could talk about the sacrifice of thanksgiving in Leviticus 7.
We could see the many calls to be thankful in the Psalms.
We have in the New Testament multiple positive commands to be thankful.
We could also study the many times time that being unthankful is condemned by God.
Our text this morning, from which we will launch into the sermon, is I think one of the most powerful.
Paul is writing here in Colossians chapter 3 of the great difference there should be in the life of someone who has found salvation in Christ.
There is a quite a long list of “thou shalt nots” in vs. 5-9.
But in vs. 10 there is a shift to the positive – a list of “thou shalts”
I believe these are more important that the “thou shalt nots”
We are to put on the new man in the image of Christ.
Our affections should be changed, governed by mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, patience and forgiveness.
Peace and love should fill our actions and motivations.
The truth of God’s word should overtake our minds and hearts and come flowing out in singing.
In all these lofty aspirations we should strive towards are two commands regarding thankfulness.
Vs. 15 – “be ye thankful”
Vs. 17 – “giving thanks to God and the Father by Him”
It is God’s stated goal that He desires to develop a spirit of thankfulness and not shy away from expressing our thankfulness.
To be thankful implies a few things.
First, it means that we are not so lifted up in pride as to expect good things to happen to us because we somehow deserve them.
Second, it means that we are cognizant of what God and others are doing.
Third, it means we nurture genuine appreciation for the acts of others.
Fourth, it means that we express this in some way, perhaps in words, a card, or with a hug.
This week, our nation pauses and tries to remind itself that we should be thankful.
Without God this is very difficult, and we see that in how the day has become all about football and feasts.
I wish we could all travel back in time and learn from history just how important the day and the idea are.
I cannot think of a civilization that I have studied that did not have some form of a thanksgiving day.
Usually, it is a festival celebrating the end of the harvest season.
If you study out the Feast of Tabernacles you will find that it, at least in part, celebrated the end of the harvest and the bounty of God’s provision.
Many Christians down through the centuries have marked that time as a special time of thanking God for His goodness.
By the way, in those days you were TRULY thankful for the harvest.
It wasn’t just about decorations and kids dressing up.
They understood if God had not blessed the harvest that they likely would not live to see another.
The survival of the individual, the family, the community was largely dependent on harvesting enough supplies to make it through the winter months.
I think this is, in small part at least, why modern people neglect and reject God.
They do not acknowledge on a regular basis that they would not be alive if not for His blessing and grace.
Traditions are strange things in how they start and which stand the test of time.
There are records of many thanksgiving celebrations in the New World in the earliest days of exploration and settlement.
But none have had such a lasting impact as that of the Pilgrims of Plymouth.
Their story has been under attack for decades, but if there ever were a group to be thankful it was them.
Their story begins many years before the thanksgiving celebration in 1623.
I begin with the founding of the Church of England by Henry VIII in 1534.
There was much battle over what this new denomination would look like, but whatever shape it took it was conjoined to the monarchy as THE official state church.
There were many that were unhappy with what the Church of England believed and taught.
Some sought to reform it – these were called Puritans because they wanted to purify it.
Some threw up their hands and separated from it, these we call Separatists.
To many in those days, to deny the authority of the state church was to deny the authority of the government.
The Act of Uniformity of 1548 under Edward VI made it illegal to hold a religious service that did not follow the official Church of England liturgy in the Book of Common Prayer.
Any minister doing so could lose their status and be imprisoned.
The first offense was prison for six months, the second for one year, the third for life.
The Act of Uniformity of 1558 under Elizabeth I imposed a civil fine of one shilling of each Sunday or holy day services of the Church of England that someone missed.
The Religion Act of 1592 under Elizabeth I imprisoned anyone over the age of 16 that attended unlawful religious meetings, that is, not the Church of England.
John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress was convicted under this law in 1661.
In spite of these laws, people chose to obey God rather than men.
We focus now on just a few of these brave souls.
The year is 1605 and the place is Nottinghamshire, England.
Here there is a sizeable population of Separatists meeting under such leaders as John Robinson, Richard Clyfton, and John Smyth.
They believed the Church of England was too corrupt to be saved and simply sought to worship God according to their own conscience.
William Brewster joined these separatists and allowed them to meet in his home, Scrooby Manor.
But the persecution was too great, and the various Separatist leaders and their followers emigrated to the Dutch Republic of the Netherlands over the next few years.
The Dutch had greater religious liberty than another other place in Europe at this time.
Life was hard for these religious refugees.
They were limited in what jobs they could get and had to work long hours to make a living.
The culture and the language were both hard to assimilate.
The issue that forced them to decide to leave was closer to home.
They watched their children become entranced with the Dutch life and marry into Dutch families.
What good was the freedom they enjoyed if they lost the next generations?
They decided to move to the New World of the Americas.
Not everyone could go at once, so William Brewster led the first group while John Robinson cared for those that stayed behind.
There were 120 passengers plus crew that set sail on the Speedwell and the Mayflower on August 5, 1620.
For history nerds I am going to try to stick with Old Style dates, not New Style.
The Speedwell proved leaky and unreliable, so 102 passengers crammed about the Mayflower and set sail for the New World on September 6.
Roughly half were Pilgrims – 30 adults plus children
The trip was stormy and lasted 65 days.
One passenger and one crewmember died at sea.
On November 9, land was spotted and Brewster led the pilgrims in singing Psalm 100.
Because there was some uncertainty about the legal status of their colony, they laid the foundation for their settlement in the Mayflower Compact.
IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620.
A site was selected and construction began on December 19 and the first common building – 20’x20’ – was finished on January 9.
Many stayed on the Mayflower through the winter.
Lack of shelter and supplies made the illnesses that spread even deadlier.
102 settlers had set sail from England that fall.
One died and one baby born during their voyage.
By March, almost half of the settlers and crew were dead.
But the Pilgrims held on.
They were able to establish good relations with the local Indian tribes.
The surviving settlers saw a good harvest that summer and fall.
They celebrated it with a three-day harvest festival.
52 settlers were there.
It is believed that the foods were prepared by the four adult women along with their daughters and other workers.
Edward Winslow who was present at the first Thanksgiving later wrote:
Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruits of our labor. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which we brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you, partakers of our plenty.
Modern skeptics and revisionists have tried to downplay the importance of the Mayflower pilgrims.
I look back and marvel at these brave souls who risked everything in order to worship God freely and to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
They paid a high price yet did not flinch at the cost.
They truly understood what it was to be thankful for the goodness of God.
The example they set helped start a tradition that still shapes our nation.
In 1777 the Continental Congress designated December 18th as a day for “Solemn Thanksgiving and Praise”
In 1782 the same body marked November 28 as “a day of solemn thanksgiving to God for all His mercies”
In 1789 George Washington proclaimed November 26 as a day “that we may then all unite in rendering unto him [God] our sincere and humble thanks”
During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed three different days as special days of thanksgiving.
In 1941 the US Congress made it an annual holiday on the fourth Thursday of November.
Now I am not preaching to you about America this morning.
I am telling you from the word of God that Christians ought to be thankful people.
I have given you one of the greatest historical examples of thanksgiving the world has ever seen.
How settlers risked it all because of their faith in God, braved unthinkable hardships, and carried on though the losses mounted.
They did not quit but kept on trusting in God.
When God blessed them, those surviving settlers did as many others have done before them and after them.
They paused to celebrate a bountiful harvest thanks to the blessing of God.
That celebration echoes through our history and is woven into the fabric of our culture.
Christian, be thankful to the almighty God who saves you and blesses you through this matchless grace.
Christian, do not neglect to show you thankfulness to God and to your fellow man.
You cannot truly understand thankfulness without Christ.
Get Saved.