In this sermon titled 'Thanksgiving Message 2023', Pastor Steve Hopkins explores the importance of giving thanks to God in every situation. Drawing from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, he emphasizes that giving thanks is the will of God in Christ Jesus for believers. He shares a personal story of encountering a disabled young man named Ray, which led him to realize the need for gratitude and a shift in perspective. Pastor Hopkins also discusses the decline of gratefulness in the nation and highlights the Christian heritage of Thanksgiving. He encourages believers to stay the course, build their lives on Christ, and remember the inestimable gift of God's Son. Ultimately, giving thanks to God is a constant and essential practice for all Christians.

Welcome back to Bernababel Church. This week Pastor Hopkins takes a look at 1st Thessalonians. His sermon is entitled, In Everything Give Thanks. If you would turn with me in your Bibles to the book of 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter five. And if you would stand with me for the reading of the word of the Lord.

1 Thessalonians five, we'll read verses 16, 17, and 18. Let's read together. Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Let's pray. Father, we rejoice this afternoon, God, for who you are, God our maker, Redeemer, and Creator.

And Lord, we rejoice that you're our God and we your children. And we rejoice knowing that you will never leave us and that you will never forsake us and that your mercies truly endure forever toward your people. And God, once again, we ask that you would give the Spirit to work upon our hearts, to open our understanding, and Lord to fill our hearts in a special way this afternoon with praise and thanksgiving as we open your Word and seek your face, for we ask it In Jesus' name, amen. Let's be seated. If you have been a member at Burnet Bible Church for very long, then you've heard me tell the story of a young man named Ray, a young man that I met in Austin, Texas in the parking lot of a Luby's restaurant many years ago.

You remember the story. I was not in a good frame of mind the day that I met Ray. I was in a complaining mood. Things weren't going as I had expected. Things weren't weren't going in in the direction that were in my GPS.

Business was bad. Income was down. Bills weren't being paid. A couple of weeks earlier my grandmother had had died unexpectedly, I loved very dearly. And it just seemed like nothing was going according to my plans.

And so I was in one of those sulking, ungrateful kind of moods, grumbling about things and complaining about things. And I was sitting in my truck in the parking lot of that Luby's cafeteria. I was about to go in and I was trying to pray. Ever been in that kind of situation where you're trying to pray but it's like you know you're not in the right frame of mind? That's where I was at.

And just then I looked up and there was this young man coming across the parking lot and I noticed that one of his hands was crippled and all curled up, and he was dragging a stiff leg, one stiff leg across the parking lot in front of me. And immediately I was crushed. I came under conviction. I came under conviction for my grumbling and my complaining and my ungratefulness. And I got out of my truck quickly, and I met him halfway across the parking lot.

And I said, Hi, my name is Steve, what's your name? And he said, Ray. And I said, Ray, would you like to share a meal with me? I'm buying. And he said, sure.

So we went in and into the restaurant and we went into the restroom to wash up and I washed my hands And Ray washed his hand. And then we got our trays and went and sat down. And I asked him where he was headed that day and where he had come from. And he said that he worked at a car wash down the street and he dried the vehicles as they came out of the wash. And they had just gotten off work and was walking back to the house where he lived with several other young men who had various handicaps.

And I asked Ray if he had a family, and he said that his parents had put him in an institution when he was a little boy, and that he'd grown up in different homes for children. And as we talked, I found out that Ray was a Christian, he was a believer, and that someone who had worked in one of the homes that he had grown up in had taken him to church when he was young, and the Lord had saved him. And after we had lunch together, I drove him back to his, the house where he was staying, And as we're driving, Ray looked over and he said, do you know any Christian songs? I do. And then he began to sing, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

In our opening text this afternoon, the apostle writes, In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. A lot of times as Christians we find ourselves wondering what God's will is for us, and here we have it in a single sentence. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you if you're a believer that in everything we give thanks. That is that in every situation that we find ourselves, in every circumstance of life that we find ourselves in, that we give thanks to God, that we should be giving thanks to the Lord. As we approach Thanksgiving Day 2023, we have so much to thank God for.

Giving thanks to God is not a thing the Christian does one day out of the year on the last day of November, but a thing that we do every day, every day of our lives. In Ephesians chapter five and verse 20, Paul says that we are to be, quote, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, give thanks always and for all things. That's the will of God for us, our opening text says, if we're believers. Whether everything is going the way we hoped and planned, or whether nothing is going the way we hoped and planned.

God's will still remains the same for us. And that is in every situation and circumstance of life, we are to be giving thanks to Him. Giving Thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in everything giving thanks. Understanding the will of God for us in Christ is a great asset to the children of God amidst the daily trials of this life. When we understand God's will for us, the giving of thanks, When we understand God's will for us and practice God's will for us on a daily, even a moment-by-moment basis, life is a whole lot easier to navigate with all its challenges Because we know what God's will is concerning us.

So life is so much easier to navigate. I know what God's will is. In whatever situation, whatever befalls me, His will is that I would be giving thanks to Him. Brothers and sisters, we need to be consciously, proactively practicing the giving of thanks on a daily basis. We need to interrupt every interruption of our plans without births of thanksgiving.

When we start thinking, you know, I thought things were gonna be different by now, We need to pause and give thanks to God, knowing that nothing befalls us but that which is ordained of Him for our good and for His glory. When we find that the direction that we're heading isn't the direction we put into the GPS, our GPS. We need to stop the car and we need to pull over and we need to give thanks to God. When we find ourselves in a grumbling or complaining spirit or frame of mind, because of some present circumstance, we need to stop complaining and start thanking. Thanking God always and for all things.

You know, something happens when we stop grumbling and start giving thanks. The whole course of our lives is altered Every time we stop, we pause and give thanks to God. The moment that we stop the one and start the other, our GPS, so to speak, is rerouted. And we're now back on the course of God's revealed will for us again. Giving thanks is the revealed will of God for us.

That's what he's revealed to us in scripture. What is your will for me, God? It's for you to give thanks to me. That's what he's revealed to us. In other words, that's what he's revealed to us in his Word that we should be doing at all times and in every situation of life.

When things aren't going the way we planned, putting the pedal to the metal in frustration isn't the answer. Pulling over and putting the shifter into park and thanking God for our situation is the answer. Pausing and giving thanks to God acknowledges that He is the one who's in the driver's seat and not us, and that wherever he takes us is the course that he has charted for us. What I've noticed in my life is that sometimes God has to put someone like Ray in my path to turn me around and get my thinking back on track again. Sometimes God has to put someone like Ray in my path to get me back into a humble and grateful place of submission to the divine will.

Has God ever put someone in your path? Ever put someone in your path to get you back on course or pull you out of a pit of despair or discontentment. If we look around long enough, we can always find someone going through something more challenging than what we are going through. If we look long enough and hard enough, we will find someone who is going through something more difficult than what we are going through. And it's a humbling thing when we're given eyes to see it.

And it can help us get back into a right state of mind and back into the will of God, where we're once again thanking God in every circumstance of life that we find ourselves. That doesn't go for little children. They're just reacting to their present circumstances in a very natural way. It's okay. Now I want to talk about gratefulness as a people for a few minutes.

Gratefulness is a rare thing in our nation today. Have you noticed? It's a rare thing in our nation today, and it's a gratefulness is a rare thing in our nation today because genuine Christianity is a rare thing in our nation today. And we're far removed from our foundations. The house has come off of the foundation.

And anyone who's a builder knows where that's headed. One of the hymns that we just sang earlier talked about ruin being nigh, ruin being near. When that's the course that's been set. As a nation we used to be a grateful nation because we used to be a Christian nation. When I say that, I'm not saying that we used to be a nation where every person in the nation was a Christian, far from that.

But the vast majority of the people of America once knew their heritage. They knew once knew where they had come from. They knew their Christian heritage. They knew their history. And whether they were professing believers or not, the masses were happy to live in a country where Christian principles and Christian ethics grounded upon biblical law guaranteed their rights and liberties.

They were fine with that. My liberties are protected. My rights are protected because our nation was founded and grounded upon biblical principles that look out for the rights of people and protect them and protect their property. We lived in a society that acknowledged the God who guided America into existence, and even unbelievers were grateful for their Christian heritage. We used to be a nation that united together in Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November each year to thank God for his abundant blessings and to celebrate together our national heritage.

Even unbelievers with Christians would celebrate our national Christian heritage. When I was growing up, even in the public schools, I remember pictures on the classroom walls and on the windows of the classroom that you could see as you were coming up to the building. And they portrayed pilgrims around this time of year, around Thanksgiving. Pilgrims with the big black hats with the buckles on them and turkeys and happy Indians sitting with the pilgrims around a big long table feasting together. And it was inspiring to me as a child.

Everyone knew that the pilgrims that came over on the Mayflower were Christians. Everyone knew that. Wasn't a big deal, it was just, that's the way it was. They're the reason that we're what we are today. They're kind of at the founding.

They're before the founding of the country. They're the foundation. Everybody knew they were Christians, and everybody knew they suffered greatly to establish a colony in America. God was still honored in the schools in the 1960s. Did you know that?

I was born in 61, so I would have been, what, eight years old, nine years old by the time 1970 hits. Well, God was still honored in the schools, at least in the South in the 1960s. I can remember starting each day, gathered around a flagpole, saying the pledge and a prayer. Anybody else remember that? I can still remember a copy of the Ten Commandments hanging in the hallway of the middle school at Burnet, Texas, until some, I think it was some atheist, you know, threatened a lawsuit or whatever.

It was in the hallway. And I remember the day it came down. But I remember singing the national anthem at the football games and hearing one of the coaches pray over the loudspeaker while everyone bowed their heads. You know, for over 150 years, people of this nation sang the Star-Spangled Banner together with one voice, with one voice. This is our national heritage.

This is who we are. This is where we came from. Listen to these words from that national hymn of praise to God written by Francis Scott Key in 1814. Oh, thus be it air when freemen shall stand between their loved homes and the wars' desolations. Blessed with victory and peace, may this heaven-rescued land Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

People knew those. They knew those words and they could sing them. Everyone used to be familiar with the words of our national anthem. Everyone knew where we came from, our national history, and it was God who made us a nation. He was the power that made us a nation and preserved us a nation.

And you know maybe not most Americans but many many Americans were familiar with the hymn, God of our fathers. God of our fathers whose almighty hand leads forth in beauty all the starry band of shining worlds and splendor through the skies our grateful songs before thy throne arise. Thy love divine hath led us in the past, in this free land by thee our lot is cast. It's God. It was all of God.

Be thou, listen to this line, be thou our ruler. We want you to rule over us, God. Our guardian, guard us, God, and protect us. Our guide, lead us, God, and stay. Thy word our law.

We want your word to be our law. Thy word our law, thy paths our chosen way. Wow. But here we are today in 2023 in a world that has forgotten the God who made and preserved us a nation. You may have noticed that Thanksgiving has more or less been canceled.

Has anyone noticed that? And canceled culture. The date's still in our calendars, but most people don't know why. The yard displays in front of people's homes now go almost immediately from skeletons and witches to reindeer and elves. While there's still pockets of grateful people all over the country, pockets of true worshipers of God, congregations of the saints here and there and yonder, and pockets of grateful believers sprinkled throughout the nation.

As a whole, we've become a very ungrateful people. As a whole, we're a very ungrateful people. Here we live in the richest nation on earth, possibly the richest nation to have ever existed in the history of the world, and yet Americans tend to be some of the most ungrateful people on earth. If you notice that, rarely in the course of our daily lives do we hear public expressions out in the world of gratefulness to God, which is one reason why it's so important when you're out in public with your family and you're eating out someplace, bow your heads and pray. Make sure.

Make sure everyone sees that you're giving honor to God. We need those public expressions. We need those public expressions of gratefulness to God. But Most people in this nation have come to think that we somehow got to the place of being the richest and most powerful nation on earth by our own industry and ingenuity. They won't tell you that, well, it's God.

It's God. Most people, if you ask them, they think that we got here, we pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps. The God of the Bible that our Christian history had been all but erased from the public mind and the public schools were the major player. Yet when I was in grade school, the story of the Pilgrims was still in our history books. Anyone that still have the story of the Pilgrims in their history books?

They're still in my history books. And teachers were still making a big deal about it. At least when I was, you know, six, seven, eight years old. I can still remember the picture in One of those school books of Pilgrim families kneeling down on the shores of Plymouth and thanking God for bringing them to the continent. It made a great impression on me.

And you know what? It made a great impression on the minds of millions of children, you know, for 200 years or more. Children since the 1950s or into the 60s haven't been taught that. They haven't heard how these brave pilgrim families suffered sickness and privation 66 days on the sea between Holland and America on the Mayflower or how after landing it at Plymouth over half of them died the first winter. They haven't heard that.

I can still remember being told the story of these families rationing corn to five kernels a day for each person. You know how many have heard that? I don't know if it's based in tradition or what, but I remember being told that in school, in grade school. They rationed out five kernels of corn a day for each person of the colony so they'd have enough seed to plant in the spring so they could survive. And I remember being taught about how an Indian named Squanto appeared on the hillside one day and was able to speak English and because of his knowledge of the land and planting crops and all, was able to help the pilgrims.

God sent him and William Bradford said he was sent as a special providence of God for their survival. It's hard to believe today, but William Bradford was actually an American hero to school children up until about 1960. How things have changed. It's difficult to comprehend the height from which we've fallen in this nation. The building, as I said, has come off of the foundation.

The building is in ruins, but the foundation laid by our forebears, though it's brittle and crumbling, it continues somehow, have you noticed, to support enough of the structure to avert total collapse. And thank God there are thousands of families like yours in this country that have returned to the foundations and begun to rebuild the walls. Praise God. Thank God for what He's doing. I believe that we are in a Psalms 11 type of situation in our country right now.

Psalm 11, begin with verse three, for lo, the wicked bend their bow, we've been here for a long time, Psalm says in verse three, they make ready their arrow upon the string that they may shoot privily at the upright in heart. That's what they've been doing for decades now, shooting at the upright in heart. They don't like you. They don't like us. They don't like the God who created the heavens and the earth and who brought this nation into existence.

They are shooting privilege. It's been going on for decades. In the following verse, the psalmist asks, if the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do? When everything comes apart, when it's all crumbling and falling apart, what in the world shall the righteous do? The answer follows immediately.

Simply says, the Lord is in his temple. What? The Lord is in his temple. In other words, God hasn't gone anywhere. He is still reigning, and the righteous need to remember it and take it to heart and be comforted and encouraged by it and the wicked need to fear greatly because the psalmist isn't done he says and upon the wicked he shall rain snares fire and brimstone and a horrible tempest, that's a horrible storm, this shall be the portion of their cup.

The wicked need to fear greatly." And then he ends, but His countenance beholds the upright. His face is shining upon his people. His face is shining upon you. The wicked need to fear greatly. The upright in heart need to rejoice and need to be encouraged.

It's easy to get discouraged when we look around and see so much departure from God in our countries, but I wanna encourage you to stay the course. You realize our Pilgrim fathers and families witnessed similar things in England in the early 1600s? Do you realize that? We just think well, you know, they just you know, they had some persecution or whatever going on No, listen to William Bradford in his Plymouth plantation He says this of England religion has been disgraced when the Puritans use the word religion They mean Christianity not Buddhism and all kinds of religions. The Christian religion has been disgraced.

The godly are grieved. This is England. Afflicted, persecuted. Many have been exiled. In other words, they kicked them out of the country.

They kicked the true Christians out of the country. Others have lost their lives in prisons. Sin has been countenanced. Ignorance, profanity, atheism are on the increase. The Christian religion is a byword, a mocking stock, a matter of reproach, so that in England at this day, 1600s, early 1600s, the man or woman who begins to profess Jesus Christ and serve God must resolve within himself to sustain mocks and injuries as though he lived among the enemies of God, Christianity, religion.

And though they fled to Holland and later the New World of Puritans who remained in England eventually witnessed a great revival. Do you know that a great revival under Cromwell and the overthrow of Charles I, there was a great revival. The Westminster Confession came out of that revival. Do you know that? I pointed Eric because he's the Westminster guy.

He's my Westminster champ. So, you know, it was a great revival, but this is what was going on before that. So we need to be encouraged. I think our enemies in this country, the enemies of God, are weaker than the enemies were of England at that time. They're not as dedicated as the enemies of Christianity at that time.

There's some things that people are willing to fight for, some things they aren't, and I think that a man, a woman growing a beard is not something they're willing to fight to the death for. And the Puritans turned separatists and pilgrims who came to America on the Mayflower profoundly influenced multiple generations after them and are still influencing them today. Almost 150 years after their landing at Plymouth at the founding of our constitutional republic, the influence of our Pilgrim Fathers was still being felt. Listen to these words from the Continental Congress in 1777. So there's 150 years later after Mayflower, after Plymouth, And they're making a national proclamation.

They understand their history. They know where they came from. And listen what it says. They're setting apart a day to give thanks to God, a solemn day called Thanksgiving, so that the people of the United States might, quote, adore the superintending providence of Almighty God, and acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for all the benefits received, and that with one heart and one voice, they might express the grateful feelings of their hearts and consecrate themselves to the service of God, their divine benefactor. And it's a day, they said, set apart so that we can make penitent confession of our many sins, whereby we've forfeited every favor and make our humble and earnest supplication that it may please God through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot our sins out of remembrance.

Folks, that's not some right-wing radical Christian extremists talking. That's the Congress in 1777, who would be considered right wing Christian radical extremists today. That's the Congress, 1777. And people like us all over this country get it, And we're still setting apart the day, just as they did then. And though the nation has drifted far from the shores of Plymouth, God's doing amazing things in our time.

I think we should be encouraged. I don't want to just get in, you know, you hammer down all the bass if it's going on. No, there's great things that are going on in this country. Look around you. In this very room we have tremendous evidence of a mighty work of God unfolding, and I see it in churches around this country.

I see multi-generational families here, Young people who grew up in this church, in churches like this church, and you've embraced the faith of your fathers, the faith once for all time handed down by Jesus to the apostles, and the faith that God brought to the new world through a handful of dedicated Christian families on the Mayflower some 400 years ago, you're still on the same path. And you have a biblical view of church life, and you have a biblical view of marriage, and you have a biblical view of family life. These are things to be encouraged about. This is the work of God, and you're getting married, or you're seeking marriage, right? You know, you that are not married are seeking godly spouses, spouses in the faith, husbands and wives in the faith, and you're having children, or you're seeking to have children.

You aren't using devices and chemicals to eliminate or prevent children, like the world. But you're hoping and praying to have children. You want to bring them up when God blesses you with them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And you're building your houses and homes and establishing them on Christ and it's a work of God. It's a mighty work of God It's not something that man could put together It's not like I'm gonna start this movement and then you know, we're gonna somehow know it's a work of God and you see it all over this country.

And remember this, that nations have never been changed by majorities in the history of the world, dedicated minorities. That's where things change. Dedicated to God, willing to die for the faith and for the truth and for righteousness. Be encouraged. No house has ever been built in the history of the world from the shingles down.

You have to start with a foundation. And God's laid a foundation, I've seen it for decades. You're laying your foundation, a foundation on Jesus Christ and you're building your homes on his word, on him and on his word. And you can be sure that God has a purpose in it for his glory. You can be sure of that.

You and young people like you all over this nation are like the launching of a second Mayflower. Don't get discouraged when you see the wicked spreading themselves like a green bay tree. We read it earlier, a horrible tempest shall be the portion of their cup. But God's countenance, his favor is upon you, his countenance beholds the upright. God is with you.

God is with us. And his face is shining with favor upon us. In our opening text, as we draw to a close here, we read, rejoice always, pray continually, in everything give thanks, which means in every situation, no matter the circumstance, that's the will of God for you and that's the will of God for every one of his children. Whether we face great times of trial and affliction and adversity like our pilgrim forebearers came over on the Mayflower or circumstances and situations that try our souls which inevitably we will. May God grant us grateful hearts and grace to pause.

Please remember that, just pause, pause. And give thanks in everything. You hear Christians ask many times, I just wanna know what God's will is for my life. Well here it is, in black and white, in everything give thanks, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Every one of you, and every one of us.

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Colossians 3, 17 says, and whatsoever you do in word or deed, now here's your instructions, your marching orders, do all in the name of the Lord. Jesus doing what? Giving thanks unto God and the Father by him. That's our marching orders.

In everything we do, whether it's in word or in deed, is give thanks to God. Do it in the name of Christ and for the glory of God. And then I'll close with this this afternoon. In 2 Corinthians 9 15, the apostle Paul writes, thanks be to God. He said that often, didn't he?

But he says in this passage, thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. And he's referring to the unspeakable or inexpressible gift of his Son. That God so loved the world that he didn't leave the world without a Savior. Amen? But gave his own Son that whosoever believes on him would not perish but have everlasting life.

These are words to wonder at. Consider the love and the mercy in them. You know, no matter what we're facing or may face in this life, whether Thanksgiving flows from our lips spontaneously or at times seems to be more kind of forced, we can always pause and thank God with rejoicing for the inestimable gift of His Son. It's like maybe there are times where it just isn't flowing from your tongue because of your present situation and so you can't just go, well God I don't want to thank you for this circumstance that I'm in right now, even though we should. But you could always stop and thank him for the inestimable, inexpressible gift of his son.

Every Christian can do that. You can stop and you can thank him for his electing love whereby he chose you in Christ before the foundations of the world according to Ephesians 1. You can thank him that Christ came into the world to save a sinner like you as the Apostle Paul said. You can thank him for bringing the gospel to you and giving you eyes to see and ears to hear the truth of his word. You can thank him for the convicting power of the Holy Spirit whereby you were made to see your miserable and lost condition and your need for Jesus.

You can thank him for that. You can thank him for the gift of faith by which you came to believe. You can thank him for the grace of repentance that turned you from your sins to call upon his name. You can thank him for the new birth, for raising you from spiritual death to spiritual life. You can thank him for the new birth, for raising you from spiritual death to spiritual life.

You can thank him for the forgiveness of your sins and life everlasting in his presence. You can thank him that you're no longer dead in trespasses and sins but alive in Christ, both now and forever. You can thank Him that He removed the filthy rags of your sin and self-righteousness clothing you, that you were clothed in and took them off of you and put them on His Son and put His perfect righteous clothes on you. You can thank Him for sending His Son into the world to live a perfect life in your place, a life you couldn't live and I couldn't live. And to suffer and die to save you from your sins.

You can thank him that Jesus' blood was shed for you personally. You can thank him that your sins were laid on Jesus and the wrath of God was poured out upon him instead of upon you. You can thank him that the death of Christ atoned for your sin debt in the full and paid the penalty you incurred but couldn't pay. That Jesus freely paid for you on the cross. You can thank him that he cast your sins into the sea of forgetfulness.

Amen? Oh, thank you, God, for casting my sins, the guilt of my sins, into the sea of forgetfulness, never to be remembered against me again. You can thank him that Christ's offering once for all has absolved you from all of your sins. You can thank him for raising Jesus from the dead on the third day and that he's now ascended to the right hand of the power on high and interceding for you every single moment of every day, 24 hours a day. And you can thank him from delivering you from the tyranny of sin and Satan and translating you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the light of his dear son.

Thanks be to God for his inexpressible, unspeakable, inestimable gift of his son. Rejoice evermore, This is where we began. Pray without ceasing and thank God always and in every situation, no matter the circumstances. Let's pray. Oh God, that we would, that all men, oh Lord, would praise You for Your goodness and for Your wonderful works to the children of men.

We thank You, Lord, and we praise your glorious name. And I pray, God, that we might all sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, as your word says, this day and every day, and declare your works with rejoicing. For God, you have done mighty things for us and we praise and thank you for it. In Jesus name, Amen.