Scripture: Psalm 105

November 21, 2004

Rev. John W. Fowler

As you gather with family and friends this Thanksgiving, what especially will you be thankful to the Lord for? The Psalmist says:

Let us pray:

The Psalmist of the 105th Psalm, which was a Psalm written especially for the nation of Israel as they were gathered for the Feast of Tabernacles, they were to remember what God had done in their lives; they were to give thanks to God for the many ways that He had blessed their lives. How important it is when we learn to give thanks to God and remember what God has done in our lives.

The Psalmist writes:

Karen O’Connor, writing in a little article called “The Blessing Bag”, remembers a time fifteen years ago when she was not thankful, because life for her was a sea of pain and confusion. Her son was living in a car. One of her daughters was living over in Europe, especially to get away from the aftermath of her divorce from her father. She had a strained relationship with the other daughter that was living with Dad. And even though she was remarried to a good man, he was out of work; they had a lot of financial problems. So at that time it was very hard to give thanks.

But she went to a seminar at Church and she and her husband talked with a woman about the problems that they were going through. They prayed, but then the woman said something to her that really kind of startled her.

She said, “You need to back up your praying with action. That means that it is important to pray, but if you don’t back it up with action, you are going to go right back into worrying and fear and even grumbling and complaining. You need to take some action.”

She suggested some action that, again, was surprising: “Write down what God has done for you. Write down what you can be thankful to the Lord right now, and you will be amazed if you begin to do that, what God will do in your life — when you begin to give thanks to the Lord.”

Well, it’s not exactly what they wanted to hear, but they thought they might as well try it. She said that she went and got a little shopping bag out of the closet and she put it up near the dresser and she got a pad and a pencil and at the beginning in January, each day or whatever day they felt thankful, they would write it down; they would drop it in the bag.

Almost a year went by and Thanksgiving Day came and they realized that bag was pretty full. They had a lot of anticipation; they began to take it out and to read some of the blessings that they were thankful for. They were thankful for a trip they had taken to Kentucky back in October, and it was just beautiful and they could just see all of God’s amazing creation in the leaves and the colors. They gave thanks to God that their daughter had married a wonderful Christian man. One thing they pulled out that they gave thanks for was their new grandchild. And yes, they pulled out a note that said they were giving thanks to God for the job that her husband had received. By the time they got through that bag, they were teary-eyed, because they realized God really had been good to them and had brought them through a difficult year.

What will you give thanks to the Lord for this Thanksgiving? In the Bible, Psalm 105, especially this is a Psalm to remind the people of Israel what God has done in their lives and there are three Bible heroes that give us three specific ways to thank God on this Thanksgiving Sunday.

The first hero is Abraham, and especially we give thanks for our faith. Are you thankful for your Christian faith? Are you thankful that Christ has come into your life and your heart and it has changed you — given you eternal life, given you abundant life, given you an assurance of forgiveness? Are you thankful for your faith?

Verse 9 says: . . . the covenant he made with Abraham,

God’s ways are different from ours. I mean, if you were going to start a nation, would you go to a seventy-five year old man and a sixty-five year old woman who had no children? But that was the promise: Abraham, I’m going to make you the father of a great nation. It was a promise that was difficult to believe. But Abraham, remember, is a man of great faith. He had ups and downs. Sometimes he would get under pressure and have times of famine. He would lie about who his wife was: “Well, she’s really my sister.” It was kind of a white lie. He would take matters into his own hands, as far as with a concubine having another child. I mean it wasn’t just a straight ascension of faith, but a child finally did come. His name was Isaac; it means laughter. And they did laugh. They had joy. And even when he was called to sacrifice the child on the mountain and God provided the substitute sacrifice, his faith was great. We give thanks to God on Thanksgiving for our faith.

Oftentimes adults can learn a great deal from children about the faith. Fred Craddock was one of my favorite preachers and teachers when I was in seminary and he tells the story from one of James Moore’s books about having a morning with his granddaughter, Kristin. She was three years old at that time. They went to the park; they looked at the squirrels and the butterflies, and they played and had a good time together.

Then they came back home for lunch and he fixed lunch and she said, “Grams, now it’s time to give thanks.” That’s fine.

And so she says, “God is great; God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. Amen.”

Dr. Craddock said “Amen.”

But she said, “Grams, you didn’t do it right.”

“What’s the matter?”

“You didn’t put your hands right.”

So she came over, like a skilled instructor, got his hands, put them just right and said, “Now if you don’t do it right it won’t work.”

So she went back over, said the prayer again, and this time he held his hands right. And Fred Craddock said, “You know, it worked. Kristin was grateful; I was grateful.”

We give thanks for our faith.

His name was William. Can you imagine that at age sixteen he was orphaned, how devastating that much have been.? He was introduced to the Christian faith by his uncle, who was part of a group called Separatists. They weren’t the Puritans, believing that the Church of England needed purifying; they just believed that they needed to separate from the Church of England. They had had an encounter with Jesus Christ. They wanted a freer form of worship, even to the point that they were willing to go to Holland and look. . . (tape change).. his wife Dorothy. But this is the man though, that after that first harvest that God brought them through, he is the one that declared a public day of Thanksgiving to the Lord and invited their friends, the Native Americans, to and join with them. Why? Because he had a strong and deep faith in Jesus Christ. We give thanks this morning for our Christian faith.

And second, we also give thanks to God for His help in difficult times. And of course the example we have here is Joseph. It says in verse 17:

And he sent a man before them — Joseph, sold as a slave.

The nation of Israel has the Twelve Tribes of Israel; they are the twelve sons of Jacob. Joseph is the favorite. He had the coat of many colors, and up until age seventeen life is good, until his brothers become so jealous, so resentful of him that they sell him into slavery. That’s bad enough, but then he is falsely accused by Potiphar's wife. He has a great gift of leadership and administration. It just seems like anything Joseph does is blessed. But he is falsely accused as Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce him and he is put in prison. Now, to be sold into slavery, be falsely accused and be put into prison, I think that is grounds for being bitter and resentful. And Joseph, I’m sure was tempted, but did not give into that. And Joseph, one day, was remembered by a cupbearer when the pharaoh had a dream about these skinny cows swallowing up these fat cows. What in the world does that mean?

“Oh, well, I remember there was this guy in prison who could interpret dreams.”

And they sent for Joseph and Joseph told them that God would give the interpretation, and that means a famine is coming. “You need a man that can not only save the people of Egypt but everyone from this famine that is coming.”

And they decided that Joseph was the man. Joseph knew that God had brought him through difficult times. Yet there is a temptation when God does bring us through difficult times, we forget to give thanks. In Luke chapter 17, in verse 11, it talks about Jesus in His ministry. One time there were ten lepers standing on the edge of town. I mean, when you are a leper, it is bad enough with a horrible disease, but you also had to stay away because you are so contagious. It was so emotional. It was very difficult experience to go through, being isolated from your family and loved ones and friends. As they cried out to the Lord to have mercy, He had mercy; He healed them. Wow.

And He told him, as it is written in the Scripture: “Go show yourself to the priest,” to be sure it is a definite healing.

And they go, but then only one comes back to thank Him. And Jesus is grateful for the one that came back to thank Him for being healed of leprosy, but said,

Have you had a thanksgiving, a blessing lately that is God’s answer to prayer, but you have forgotten to thank Him? You’ve just moved on with your life? Don’t take His blessings and those answers to prayer for granted.

On this Thanksgiving we know we give thanks for the Faith and thanks for the ways that God has helped us through the promise that we encounter in difficult times, but we thank Him for His calling upon our lives. He reminds us that He put us on this planet for a reason and He wants to use us to touch other peoples’ lives with His love. An example we have here is Moses. In verse 26 it says: He sent Moses his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen.

After Joseph brought his family to Egypt — at that time the nation was only seventy people — there arose a pharaoh in Egypt who did not know Joseph and so, slowly but surely, the Israelites became slaves for over four-hundred years. Moses was one of those children but he was discovered on the River Nile by Pharaoh’s daughter and grew up in the palace. At about age forty, though, he was burdened for his people; he saw one of his own people being mistreated; he killed that man. He had to flee. As far as Moses felt, his call was gone, but God hadn’t forgotten Moses or his people. In the burning bush he heard the call that said, “I heard the cry of my people. Go now. I am going to send you to tell Pharaoh to let my people go.”

Quite a compliment, but can you imagine having to go to the most powerful man on the face of the earth and say that, “I realize we have been in bondage for four-hundred and thirty years, but my God says, ‘Let my people go.’ ”

And as you have read the story, or if you haven’t, he didn’t want to let them go. In fact, God had to back it up with a lot of plagues to let them go. And finally the plague of the first born of the Egyptians dying is what — “Get out of here, Moses, and take your people with you.”

He changed his mind, Pharaoh did, and came after them and they were at the Red Sea. Moses is praying and the Lord tells him, “Now quit praying and get up and go.”

Sometimes you need to quit praying and get up and go. And the Red Sea parted and they went across. Of course, the Red Sea came back on the Egyptian Army. Moses had a call upon his life to deliver the children of Israel.

How has God called you to touch other peoples’ lives? I have found that when don’t give thanks for the calling, it is easy to become weary in well-doing, or discouraged.

His name was Squanto and he discovered his reason for living, in 1620. In 1605 Squanto was taken captive by an Englishman and brought back, along with four others of his tribe, to find out more about his tribe. He learned the ways of the English and about nine years later came back with John Smith. Another time he was brought on board to barter with another Englishman who wanted to barter for more than just goods. He clapped irons on him and this time he was taken to be sold into a slave trading place on the coast of Spain. Fortunately, some of the Friars, they would buy back some of those who had been sold into slavery, and so Squanto was introduced to the Christian faith in a monastery. After staying there for a while he went back to England and then had another chance to come back to America in 1619. But this time, another great disappointment: He found that as he came ashore to Plymouth, something had happened to his tribe; they were all gone. Can you imagine, coming back to Lenoir, coming back to your home, and it is not there! It is just you. And he was despondent. He wandered into another tribe and just lost all hope until about six months later he heard of a group of peaceful Pilgrims that were certainly going to starve if someone did not show them how to live in the wild. They took him over there. He found his reason for living. He showed them how to catch eels. He showed them how to plant corn the Indian way. He showed them how to fish. They said, “We have only caught one fish since we have been here.”

“Well, you need to get your nets ready because they are coming.”

“Well, OK.” And sure enough, they didn’t just catch fish; in about four days they harvested them as they came on down. And he saved their lives. His life was changed because, now, he knew what God’s calling for his life was, how God wanted to use him to touch other peoples’ lives.

We give thanks to the Lord on this Thanksgiving for our faith, our faith in Jesus Christ. We give thanks to Him for the many ways He has displayed His power and answers to pray in helping us in difficult times. And we give thanks for the call upon our lives.

As you gather with family, probably one of the best ways, between now and Thanksgiving, is to go back over the year. You might not have a literal blessing bag as Karen O’Connor did, but if you did, what would you pull out? Well, I’d pull it out. First of all I’d think of celebrating twenty-five years with a wonderful wife. That’s a high point for me and I am thankful for that. I’m thankful for graduation of my boy from Carolina. I remember that day and I am thankful for that. I’m thankful for this summer, going to a Church camp and seeing my son Stephen and being thankful for what God is doing in his life. I am thankful for my daughter Cat. I’m just thankful to have her, but I tell you, when she announced that she was going to Carolina, it was a “Thank you Jesus.” It wasn’t just because I am a Carolina Alumnus, because, boy, she was serious about going to New York City. I thought, Jesus, this just can’t be Your will. But I prayed, and I hope I prayed her out of New York City. That’s all I can say, but I’m glad she’s at Carolina. I’m thankful for the people that take care of my Mother. They are caring people in the nursing home. I am thankful for that. I know, as we gather, that we will especially be thankful for my brother. I have two brothers; he is the closest in age to me so we grew up pretty close together, but he was in a serious car accident a couple of weeks ago. He is essentially walking away from it. I mean, he is better; he is in full recovery. I am thankful for that.

What will you give thanks to the Lord for this Thanksgiving? Let us pray.