In his sermon, Steve Hopkins emphasizes the importance of contentment and thanksgiving in all circumstances of life, drawing from Ephesians 5:17-20 as a foundational text. He contrasts the gratitude of believers, who thank God as the giver of all things, with the ingratitude of unbelievers, who fail to acknowledge God despite knowing Him cognitively. Hopkins highlights the historical gratitude of the United States, noting the shift away from national thanksgiving practices and Christian hymns that once united the country. He recounts the Pilgrims' enduring thankfulness during adversity and the spirit of gratitude exhibited by the Continental Congress. Hopkins discusses the deeper spiritual growth often experienced during times of affliction, citing the examples of Paul and Silas, the Pilgrims, and John Bunyan. He calls believers to remain content and thank God in every situation, as earthly sufferings cannot compare to the eternal glory awaiting them. Finally, Hopkins urges the congregation to thank God for the gift of salvation and His inestimable love, encouraging them to live lives marked by continual praise and gratitude.

Turn with me in your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Ephesians, the fifth chapter. Now let's stand together and read the word of the Lord, Ephesians chapter 5 verses 17 through 20. Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is, and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our God, we praise you and we thank you for your infinite goodness.

Your mercies toward your people truly endure forever. Great God is your faithfulness. Lord, we humbly ask once again that you would give the Holy Spirit to open our understanding once again, and Lord to fill our hearts with praise and with thanksgiving as we seek you by your word. For we do ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

Let's be seated. As we approach Thanksgiving Day 2024, we have so much to thank God for. And I want to begin this morning by telling you that I thank God for this church. I thank God for all of you. I thank God for your faith.

I thank God for your love for Him and your love for one another. I thank God that that he's gathered in this church also a grateful people. I hear it in your prayers, I heard it in the prayers today, I hear it in your prayers every Sunday, I hear it in the prayers of the church when we assemble for prayer midweek. This is a, it's really a grateful church and I'm grateful to be a member. Last week we took a break from our study in Romans to look at the topic of love in the book of 1 John, we found that love for the people of God is one of the eight tests of faith in 1 John.

Love for the people of God is a mark of a true believer. Only the children of God truly love the family of God. In the same way, only the children of God are truly a grateful people and truly give thanks to God. You'll hear unbelievers out in the world say from time to time that they're grateful for this or or they're grateful for that and it always strikes me odd when I want to hear that from unbelievers. Because for gratefulness to truly be gratefulness it must have an object.

It has to have an object and the object of one's gratefulness can't be the object itself. In other words, you can be grateful for something, but you can't be grateful to something. I can't be grateful to my food, but I can be grateful for my food. There has to be an object, there has to be a giver that is thanked. I can give thanks for something, but I can't give thanks to something unless, of course, I'm worshipping and serving the created thing rather than the creator of it, as Paul puts it in Romans 1.25.

He says there, they worship and serve the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. James in James 1.17 says, every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from heaven from the father of lights in whom there is no variableness neither shadow of turning it all comes from God. In Acts chapter 17 and verse 25 we read, God gives life to all and breath and all things. It's all encompassing. God is the giver of life, He's the giver of breath, He's the giver of all things.

And therefore all mankind are obligated to praise and thank Him for life and breath and for all things. The psalmist cries in Psalm 107 21, oh that men, oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men, that they would sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoicing. Giving thanks to God is the duty of all creation. And someone might argue, but everyone doesn't know God. Not everyone knows God.

Paul says they do. In Romans chapter 1 and verse 21, Paul says all men know God. The problem is that not that they don't know God, the problem is that they suppress the knowledge they have of God in their unrighteousness, that is in their willful rebellion against him. All men know God, not in the relational or in a relational or saving sense as with believers, but all man know all mankind knows God cognitively. Paul says in Romans chapter 1 speaking of unbelievers that though they knew God from the created order all about them, whereby God had clearly made Himself manifest to them, even His eternal power in Godhead, that though they knew God, they did not worship Him as God.

And then he says this, and neither were they thankful. And neither were they thankful. The refusal to acknowledge God and worship God manifests itself in ungratefulness. Paul says, they don't worship the God they know, neither are they thankful. And that spirit is pervasive in our world today.

The spirit of ungratefulness is pervasive in our world today. But true believers are a grateful people and the people who are always always giving thanks to God. John says in Revelation chapter 11 of verse 17, we give thanks to thee, O Lord God. We give thanks to thee, O Lord God, Almighty, who is and who was and who is to come. We're Christians.

That's what we do. That's what we do. We give thanks to God. On a national level, we used to be a grateful nation, because we were once a decidedly Christian nation. Not that everyone in the nation was ever Christian, Something we mean by a nation being a Christian nation or a Muslim nation or what have you.

But we were a Christian nation in that Even the citizens of this nation who did not profess Christ, and the majority did at one time in this country, even those who did not, however, counted themselves blessed to live in a nation that did profess Him. They saw the benefits of it. They wanted to live in a nation where Christ was king, even though they themselves didn't believe in Him. Their property was protected. There was more prosperity.

They saw the benefits of living in a Christian nation. When I was in grade school, I can remember the pictures on the classroom walls, the age of six, seven, eight, pictures on the classroom walls of Mary, you know, pilgrims and happy Indians eating together, the first Thanksgiving meal. And in our history classes, we learned about the historic voyage of the Mayflower and the suffering of our Pilgrim fathers, forebears on the Mayflower. And I remember the history books still had pictures of that famous painting of our Pilgrim fathers kneeling on the shores at Plymouth and giving thanks to God. I can see the picture still in my mind right now.

And there are, I'm sure, young people that are now as old as I am, all over this country, that can still remember that. It was burned into our memory. It was exalted. And it was ingrained then in us and in our consciences. One of our married daughters was telling Sandra and I this past week how she noticed that the stores over the years have almost altogether abandoned Thanksgiving and over time how they've gone straight from Halloween marketing to Christmas marketing.

It's like there's no Thanksgiving time anymore. I guess there's not a lot of money in Turkey and dressing. But it's not just because of marketing. For over 200 years, America was a nation that united together on the last Thursday in November each year to thank God for His abundant blessings. Our national hymns were all Christian.

We sang, God of our fathers, whose almighty hand, words like this from God of our fathers, thy true religion in our hearts increase. It's from the 1800s, Thy bounteous goodness nourish us in peace. We sang, be thou our ruler, guardian, guide, and stay. We want you to rule us and guide us and keep us. Thy word our law, the Bible is our law.

Thy paths our chosen way. Those are the hymns that we sang and we're sung on the military bases. Still seeing, see these old black and white films and the Navy band is playing God of our fathers. The Star-Spangled Banner, the Star-Spangled Banner, one of the lines says, Praise the power, capital P, that hath made and sustained us a nation and preserved us a nation. We used to praise God as a people for both raising up our nation and sustaining us.

If you look for those lyrics by the way, for the Star Spangled Banner on the internet today, many, I was able to find a couple, but most of the lyrics that come up on at least a Google search have removed that line. Praise the power that has made and preserved us a nation. I don't think we can can well see the height from which we've fallen as a country from a place of national unity in thanksgiving to the Creator. And it's a shame because we're a people that's so well fed and well clothed and enjoy such luxuries that billions of people before us have never known and on this planet today have never known. So many enjoy all these things and yet never once look up to heaven and say, thank you, thank you God.

When you go out to eat with your family, sometimes you're the only ones. You might not see another family or another person for months where they bow their heads and they give thanks to the God of heaven for the bountiful feast that they are about to enjoy. It is encouraging, however, to see a new federal administration in waiting that openly acknowledges God. It is a breath of fresh air. How many think that's a breath of fresh air?

It's a breath of fresh air, what we've been through recently. It would be wonderful to see the chambers of Congress, of the coming Congress, I don't think this is going to happen, but it would be wonderful to see the chambers of the coming Congress once again pause and bow their heads before the God who made and sustains us a nation and to do so with penitent hearts toward the one true and living God. At the founding of this nation, the Continental Congress, you've heard me read these before on messages coming up to Thanksgiving and previous years. The founding of this nation, the Continental Congress penned the following words in their 1777 Thanksgiving Day proclamation, recommending that a solemn day be set apart that the people of the United States might with one heart quote adore the superintendent providence of Almighty God. Acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to Him for benefits received.

With one heart and with one voice express their grateful feelings of their hearts and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor." It's Congress, 1777. It goes on, recommending that this day be set apart by all to, to quote, make penitent confession of their manifold sins. It's Congress. Don't forget that on this day of Thanksgiving to confess your sins to God and to make their humble and earnest supplication that it might please God through the merits of Jesus Christ mercifully to forgive and blot their sins out of remembrance. Wow, close quote.

There's Congress. God, may it be once again in our nation, no matter what our nation has to go through. And our nation had to go through a lot to get people to that place. That's where we were in 1777, a grateful people and a penitent people. The scriptures guided our founders and the scriptures guide us today.

And if you would please focus on the last verse with me for a few minutes from our opening text in Ephesians, Ephesians 5 and verse 20. The Word of God here in Ephesians 520 is a tall order. Look at the words here. Ephesians 520, in this the apostle Paul speaking under inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God admonishes Christians, believers, to be giving thanks always and for all things. That's all-encompassing.

To be giving thanks always and for all things. That is, not only continually, but in every circumstance of life in which we may find ourselves. That's easy, of course, when things appear to be going our way. When everything's going our way that's that's easy. Okay Paul, I'll give thanks always and for all things continually and in every circumstance of life in which I find myself, as long as things are going my way.

It's much more difficult when things appear to be going against us with things like our health or our finances or our relationships. But the apostle speaking by the Spirit of God says that we who are believers are to give thanks always and for all things, continually in every situation and circumstance of life. When things are going our way and when things are not going our way, we're to be giving thanks. When everything in our life is right side up and also when everything seems to be turned upside down. Paul says give thanks always and for all things.

When we're in seasons of good health, and even when we're in the grip of bodily infirmity. Give thanks always and for all things. When the springs of prosperity are flowing, and when the springs of prosperity dry up, the Christian is to be giving thanks continually and in every condition and circumstance in which he finds himself. The Puritan Thomas Watson writes, as a godly man expresses thankfulness in every duty, he does so in every condition. He will be thankful in adversity as well as prosperity.

A gracious soul is thankful and rejoices that he is drawn nearer to God though it be by the cords of affliction." Has that been the case with you throughout the course of your life? Have the cords of affliction drawn you nearer to God. When the Titanic was sinking on April 15th 1912 the men of the Titanic's orchestra were on the deck playing nearer my God to thee, nearer my God to thee. While their wives and children, whom they would see no more in this life, boarded the lifeboats, they were on the deck, going down with the ship, playing nearer my God to thee, nearer to thee, Even though it be a cross That raises me Spurgeon once said all the spiritual growth I've ever experienced during times of well-doing, you could fit on the tip of a pen, on the head of a needle. We don't see, we don't seek affliction or adversity as Christians, of course not, but when it comes we are to see God's hand in it and rest on his promise from Romans 8 28 that all that the Christian suffers in this life is ultimately for our good and for God's glory.

John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress, once said, in times of affliction We commonly meet with the sweetest experiences of God's love. Has that been your experience? It's been ours. It's been mine and ours as a family. In times of affliction, we commonly meet with the sweetest experiences of God's love.

Veterans of suffering often confirm it. At midnight, Paul and Silas, after being beaten and put in stock irons in the inner prison, sang praises to God. Sweet experience of God's love in the midst of the greatest trials of this life. One of the Puritans, Philip Henry, once wrote, that is always best for us, that is best for our souls. You know, at the time, brothers and sisters, it's hard for us to see it.

Someone once said, I've never met with an instance of adversity which I have not afterwards seen to be for my good. It's interesting that the afflictions we seek to avoid throughout our lives many times proved to be the things that most increase our spiritual prosperity. I would that you prosper, the apostle Paul said, even as your souls prosper. Our tendency is to set our hearts on the temporal rather than the eternal. That's our tendency.

In Psalm 62 10, the psalmist writes, if riches increase, set not your heart upon them, for riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away like an eagle toward the heaven. It's Proverbs 23, 5. Many years ago, someone asked the richest man in the world at the time, Howard Hughes, how much more he would need to to make before he was content. And he responded, just a little bit more.

The same apostle who admonishes the faithful in Christ Jesus to be giving thanks always for all things is the same apostle who says, quote, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. Philippians 4.11. He goes on to say, I know both how to be abased, that is to be brought into a low condition and how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. Paul was saying that his, quote, joyful contentment, as a note of my Bible puts it, that it was not tied to material things.

Neither was it tied to his bodily condition. The Apostle's thorn in the flesh was not removed. We read in 2 Corinthians 12, 7, even after he prayed God three times to remove it, and yet he testified that God's grace was sufficient for him. Charles Spurgeon comments on the passage from Philippians 4 That I read a moment ago. I have learned in whatsoever state.

I am there with to be content I know how to be a base and how to abound everywhere and all things I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. As Virgin comments on this passage, that contentment with the divine will is better than increase of riches or removal of affliction. In other words, it's of great benefit to us when we, through trials, learn to be content wherever God has us at the moment, at a particular moment. Contentment with the divine will is better than increase of riches or removal of affliction. Spurgeon goes on, quote, when men have much of God's providential mercies, it often happens that they have but little of God's grace and little gratitude for the bounties they have received.

When they are full, Spurgeon says, many tend to forget God and satisfy with the earth, they become content to do without heaven. Rest assured, says Spurgeon, though, it is harder to know how to be full than it is to know how to be hungry. It's harder, it's more difficult to know how to be full than it is to know how to be hungry. To know how to be hungry is a sharp lesson, but to know how to be full is the hardest lesson after all." End quote. I believe that's true.

That's the more difficult. The writer of Hebrews puts the life of the Christian into the proper perspective in chapter 13 of verse 4. He says this, He says, here we have no enduring city, but we seek one to come. Here we have no enduring city, but we seek one to come. By Him, therefore, that is by Christ, let us offer up the sacrifice of praise to God continually.

That is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. We don't have an enduring city here. Let's praise God. Let's offer up the sacrifice of praise to God continually. The fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

Oh, that we would praise the Lord for his goodness continually at all times and in all circumstances. The Puritan Thomas Watson once said, praise is the yearly rent that men owe, but most of us are behind on our rent. 150 years before the Continental Congress penned the words that I read earlier, recommending a day of Thanksgiving be set apart, our pilgrim fathers and their families boarded the Mayflower in Holland heading for the New World. It was August 5th, 1620. Little did they know it would be the dead of winter before they arrived.

66 days on the water. In William Bradford's book of Plymouth Plantation, we read about these brave pilgrim families and how they suffered sickness and privation those two months plus in the Mayflower on the sea and how after landing at Plymouth over half of them died the first winter. William Bradford's wife, you know, died when they docked the ship. She fell overboard and drowned before they even got onto the shore, where we see that painting, and that painting Bradford and the others lifting their hands to heaven and praising God and thanking him. She died before they ever came onto the shore.

Over half of them died the first winter. Tradition tells us, you've heard me say it before, that at one point the families were rationing corn to five kernels a day. And that sometimes there were not enough who were well to care for those who were sick and bury the dead. But Bradford in his journal wrote, but those who did survive said, let his holy name have the praise forever to all posterity. They weren't behind on their rent.

Wow. And they gave thanks to God whom they acknowledged to be with them in all their ways. They gave thanks always and in all things. And you have to wonder when you read the story, when you read of Plymouth Plantation, how could they do that? The winter of 1620 took the lives of half their members.

Half of the 102 that were with them when they set sail were dead and gone before February the next year. How could they do that? They could do that because Christians have a hope and Christians have an inheritance that lies beyond this life. No suffering on earth can compare to the eternal weight of glory that awaits the children of God in heaven, So says the apostle Paul, 2 Corinthians 4.17. Nothing can compare.

Like our Pilgrim Fathers, we know that we have no enduring city here, but we have an inheritance reserved for us in heaven. Even our eternal salvation, which is kept by the power of God. Salvation is God's gift. It is by grace that we are saved, not of works, or we could boast about it. Thank God it doesn't depend on us and our works.

I remember our former elder, Mr. Stubblefield, praying time and time again, we thank you, God, for your inestimable gift. How many remember him saying that? Oh God, we thank you for your inestimable gift. Our salvation is a gift that knows no comparison.

At 2 Corinthians 9, 15, Paul says, thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift, His inestimable gift. It might be translated in your Bible. There are no words to describe the wonder of it. There's no words to describe the infinite love and the mercy of it and in it. When doubts and fears arise in our hearts, as they often do, we can say to ourselves, the salvation of my soul is God's gift, and once God has given it, He never takes it back.

Thanks be to God for His inestimable gift, His unspeakable gift. We could say when doubts and fears arise in our hearts as they often do, instead of doubting His Word, I'm going to pray His Word. I'm going to believe His Word. In Christ we have a gift that will never perish. Our Pilgrim Fathers understood that.

They're of the same faith we are. Isn't it interesting? God could have chosen anyone to come and plant that colony from which there are 30 to 40 million Americans today that have come from their line, it's estimated. God could have had brought anyone over, he could have put a boat full of Roman Catholics from Spain, no? They're of the same faith that we are.

In Christ we have a gift that will never perish, an unspeakable, inestimable gift, a gift that no value can be placed on, and that nothing on earth can be compared with. Thanks be to God for it. Thanks be to God for it. As we close, thank him. Thank him today.

One of the brothers said thank him for all these blessings, all these things, these blessings and mercies that we take for granted. All the things that we enjoy in this life, thank God for them. Thank God for them today. And brothers and sisters thank him for his electing love wherewith he chose you in Christ Jesus before the foundations of the world. Thank him.

Thank him that Christ came into the world to save a sinner like you, me. Thank him for bringing the gospel to you and giving you eyes to see and ears to hear the truth. 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 a Savior. Thank Him for the gift of faith by which you came to believe, and the grace of repentance, whereby you were brought to the place where you turned from your sins in brokenness for your sins and called on His name for salvation. Thank Him for the new birth.

Thank Him for raising you from spiritual death to spiritual life. Thank Him for the forgiveness of your sins and that you have reconciliation with God and life everlasting in His presence. Thank Him for removing the filthy rags of your sin and your self-righteousness and placing them on Christ on the cross And for taking His perfect robe of righteousness from Him, including you in it, thank Him. Thank Him for sending His Son into the world to live a perfect life in your place and to suffer and die that you might live. Thank Him that Jesus' blood was shed for you personally.

Thank Him that He laid your sins on Jesus, the Holy Lamb of God, as the hymn says, and poured out His wrath upon Him in your place. That the death of Christ atoned for made satisfaction for your sin debt in the full and that the penalty you incurred but could not pay Jesus freely paid for you in your place on the cross. And finally, thank Him that He cast your sins into the sea of forgetfulness. Amen. Thank Him that He cast your sins, my sins, into the sea of forgetfulness, never to be remembered against us again.

Thanks to be to God for his unspeakable, inestimable gift. Amen. Let's pray. Oh God, we give thanks unto you, O Lord, for your good and your mercy endures forever. We give thanks to you, our God, the God of gods, for your mercy endures forever.

We give thanks to you the Lord of lords for your mercy endures forever. We give thanks to you God this day for the unspeakable, inestimable gift of grace and salvation through Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord. Amen.