Transcript: Eric Proctor's Heartfelt Thanksgiving Sermon on Gratitude and Love

Today is, we're going to be preaching on Thanksgiving, a sermon on Thanksgiving. You know, it is a great time, Thanksgiving. It brings us, our families, close together. You know, we can sit down and give thanks to God for the provisions that he has given us. I'm going to read a short thing in Psalms here, and we're going to be doing some bouncing around the day to get some more information on the great holiday of Thanksgiving. So let's go ahead and get started in this powerful sermon on Thanksgiving. We'll go ahead and pray, then we'll get started. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you, Lord, for Thanksgiving, Lord. We thank you for the time that we can spend with our families and time that we can thank you for the meals that we're going to be receiving, Lord, the feast. Lord, we just thank you, Lord, that even in the scriptures that we're going to be reading, Lord, that you, Lord, were the starter of all these holidays, these feasts. And Lord, we'll be able to see that in scripture, Lord. We thank you, Lord, for all the provisions that you give us, Lord, each day, Lord. And we just thank you, Lord, especially for your great mercies and your love. We just thank you, Lord, for brighterdaybaptistchurch.com. We thank you for all our listeners. Lord, let them have especially a great Thanksgiving, Lord, all our listeners, Lord. And we just thank you, Lord, for them. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. So I'm going to read a, and we're going to be in Psalms for just a few, at least a couple of minutes here to read a passage, and then we'll get started on into the other verses. It says in Psalms 100, it says, Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. It says, enter into the gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endure to all generations. Just in that small passage, we should be thanking, giving God the thanks during Thanksgiving. He's the one that what? Made us. We did not make ourselves. so let's go ahead and jump into the other uh verses here and i was wanting to read into uh just give me a couple minutes to get there okay the next one's going to be an exodus and this is to do with the passover uh but this is going to be a few verses in that it says And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, Be in the first month of the year to you. Speak unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of the month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house and the household be to little of the lamb and let him and his neighbor next into his house take according to the number of their souls Every man, according to his eating, shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish and made of the first year. okay so here they are they're getting all this uh preparation made to have a feast right but it was a it was a more important feast it was to put the blood of the lamb over the door and it would change the rest of their lives because not having that blood on the door the death angel would kill their firstborn. But the greatest thing is that lamb, that purified lamb, that blood on that door, right? That death angel did not come in and did not kill their firstborn. You know, and then after that, it was called the Passover. And they still celebrate that. And they're grateful for God for not showing them what they needed to do, you know, giving thanks again for the Passover. Okay, now it says here in the commentary, it says certain holidays were established by God himself. Passover was a holiday designed to celebrate Israel deliverance from Egypt and to remind the people of what God had done. Holidays can be an important today as annual reminders of what God has done for us. Develop traditions in your family to highlight the biblical meaning of Christian holidays. These serve as a reminder to older people and learning experience for the younger ones. So, you know, here again we're seeing being thankful for the God. Put it in a traditional thing when you are like this coming Thanksgiving to be thankful, being thankful. Okay, so we're going to go ahead and continue on here. Okay, we're going to skip over to Leviticus 23. And it says, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and I say unto them concerning the feast of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be a holy conviction, even these are the feast. six days shall work be done but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest and holy conviction ye shall do no work therein it is the Sabbath of the Lord and all things dwelling so here we see again that God is establishing this feast, a feast. And we're going to go ahead and go down here. It says God establishes several national holidays. Each year for celebration, fellowship, and worship, much can be learned about people by observing their holidays. They celebrate and the way they celebrate them, take note of your holiday traditions. What do they say about your values In what ways do your celebration and your holidays reflect your relationship with God So here you see that our values, how do you celebrate your Thanksgiving? Is your values, are you thankful? or are you out just having a great time? You know, lots of times people just get together, have a great time, don't they? And they're not even thankful for what they have. So I have some other stuff here that I'm going to be reading to you by different, I thought it was very interesting to bring into play. thanksgivings from different preachers and what they say about it says here from Adrian Rogers finally we must recognize the dynamic of thanksgiving Adrian Rogers says in my estimate estimation you cannot truly give thanks to God unless you do it through Jesus. He is the dynamic. He is the power of it. Okay. And then we go down to see. just give me a minute here. Okay. The Lord is close to those whose heart are breaking. His resources, those who are humble, sorrowful for their sins. Okay. That's in Psalms 34, 28. okay I'm sorry I was reading something out of that sermon let me back up here go here here's where I need to be at uh the Lord Jesus I know that is apart from you I can do nothing and last a lasting value help me to come to the end of self and allow you to control their reigns of my life and that's from Billy Graham and it says from Charlie Charles Stanley so when we think about Thanksgiving I do not think about turkey I think about almighty God I think about all the things that you have that you have and I have to be grateful for in our life So I want to say this to you, wherever you are and wherever, yeah, wherever you are is to be grateful, is to be grateful for what you have. Okay. And then. So this brings me into my later part of my sermon. And then I'm going to fold this up because this is all on my phone. there is during thanksgiving uh there is family right family family is what is so important family is what god has made you know when man and what man and wife get together and have kids and that becomes a what a family so the family as it grows older and they move away you know and then you have like uncles and aunts and uh you know just huge families right but some of those families uh they have problems you know and those problems break traditions you know and then i know that in thanksgiving is one of those big traditions where families get together and they have problems People have problems and say well you don know what my brother did to me You don't know what my sister did to me. So let's bring into my sermon on my phone. It says, I know that there's a lot of people that is hurting during Thanksgiving. And the family fights. Grandparents don't see their sons or their grandchildren. They call something was said, you know, because something was said during their fight. They don't see their grandkids. They don't see nobody. But anyway, the Bible teaches us to judge not, for we shall be judged. this hurting that you have in your heart can end today. Ask the Lord to forgive you. Then call that someone, your son or your granddaughter, and ask them to forgive you for what you said. And let this thanksgiving be a meaningful one. you know I wanted this sermon to be a powerful one and I'm going to preach out of my heart right now you know you don't know what you have tomorrow you don't know what can come around the corner that granddaughter that brother that sister That aunt could be, you know, right around the corner and die, and you can never, ever say, I'm sorry what I did to you. You know, this Thanksgiving, you know, is about family. You know, it's about being together. Reach out to that person today. don't put it off because that's what the devil wants you to do that devil wants you to build that anger that resentment for years and years and years that's what the devil wants you to do he wants you to feel that resentment in your heart because what that little word said that little that whatever that moment was that fight you know you can't get it out of your mind right but I'm telling you today okay today can be the day of change you can get on that phone right now and say look I'm sorry for what I said forgive me I want to be a part of your Thanksgiving today I really want to be a see the rest of the family I want to see my granddaughter I want to see my brother I want to see my sister don't let that hurt fester anymore. Change your heart. Change your mind. And it'll change your life. That's in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much, Lord, for Thanksgiving. It's a time of remembrance of what you've done, Lord. You are the one that made all these feasts, these celebrations, Lord. You designed us, Lord. You said to be thankful, Lord, always. In all circumstances. To give thanks and joy, Lord. And I hope that my listeners can do that today, Lord. I hope that there's not that hurt, Lord, that the families just can't get together, Lord. I pray, Lord, that they would do the right thing, Lord. I pray, Lord, that they would pick up the phone and they would call that person and say, please forgive me. Please let me get together with you for Thanksgiving. Lord that life is like a vapor Lord you said in the Bible we got to learn Lord that time is short we got to make what we can do now we just thank you for all my listeners I hope they'll have a great Thanksgiving in Christ's name we pray, Amen