Understanding the Power of Gratitude.
In this insightful and engaging sermon, “Happy Thanksgiving- Leviticus 23”, explores the power and importance of gratitude, focusing on the biblical book of Leviticus and the early American holiday of Thanksgiving. It emphasizes the importance of the blood of Jesus, the need to be thankful for both physical and spiritual blessings, and the interactive history of Native American Tisquantum and the Pilgrims at Plymouth.
Pastor Timothy R. Carter walks through Leviticus 23, shedding light on the role of rest and celebration in honoring God. The sermon ends with a call for viewers to continuously give genuine thanks in their lives, reflecting the theme of grace and abundant provision in Christianity.
Sermon Outline
Introduction
- Context setting for the sermon.
The Importance of Jesus‘ Blood
- Significance of Jesus’ blood in Christian faith.
- The unifying and cleansing power of Jesus’ blood.
- Addressing misconceptions and criticisms.
The Spiritual Significance of Communion
- Meaning of communion in the Christian faith.
- Spiritual coection and unity through the blood of Jesus.
Gratitude for Physical and Spiritual Blessings
- Appreciating physical comforts and conveniences.
- Acknowledging and being thankful for spiritual blessings.
Thanksgiving Prayer
- Expressing gratitude to God.
Introduction to the Book of Leviticus
- Overview of Leviticus and its teachings on holiness and relationship with God.
The Uniqueness of Christianity
- Comparing Christianity’s principles of love and relationship with God to other religions.
Thankfulness for Freedom in America
- Gratitude for political and religious freedom in the U.S.
- Historical context of religious freedom in America.
The History of Thanksgiving: Tisquantum’s Story
- The story of Tisquantum and his role in the first Thanksgiving.
- The encounter between European settlers and Native Americans.
The First Thanksgiving and Its Significance
- The traditional narrative of the first Thanksgiving.
- Tisquantum’s contributions to peace and mutual understanding.
Thanksgiving in the Bible
- Biblical perspective on Thanksgiving.
- Leviticus 23 and its teachings on gratitude and offerings.
Closing Prayer of Gratitude
- Concluding the sermon with a prayer of thanks.
Time Stamp
00:00 Introduction
00:00 The Importance of Jesus’ Blood
01:05 The Spiritual Significance of Communion
02:06 Gratitude for Physical and Spiritual Blessings
02:41 Thanksgiving Prayer
03:14 Introduction to the Book of Leviticus
04:26 The Uniqueness of Christianity
06:06 Thankfulness for Freedom in America
12:04 The History of Thanksgiving: Tisquantum’s Story
21:31 The First Thanksgiving and Its Significance
24:18 Thanksgiving in the Bible
33:19 Closing Prayer of Gratitude
Sermon
Introduction
The Importance of Jesus’ Blood
The Importance of Jesus’ Blood
We should never forget his blood and be thankful to him for that blood. It’s his blood that cleanses us. It’s his blood that unites us. Unfortunately, some people are offended by the blood.
Some people believe that it is offensive to talk about the blood of Jesus. But that’s blatantly ridiculous. If you’re offended by the blood of Jesus, you’ve got some serious problems because it’s the blood of Jesus that unites us. It’s the blood of Jesus that washes our sins away. It’s the blood of Jesus.
Only the blood of Jesus can free us from sin’s bondage. Only the blood of Jesus has the power to give us eternal life. Only the blood of Jesus can take away the stain, the stitch, the rock that decays our soul. It’s only the blood of Jesus that sets us free. Yes. So, we ought to be thankful for his bood.
The Spiritual Significance of Communion
We’re not partaking this morning, but we will next week. When we participate in communion, it is a symbol of experiencing the blood of Jesus. Did you know that? In the early part of the first century, some people heard the Christians taking up the blood of Jesus in communion, and they thought the Christians were caibals.
Because they didn’t understand that we were taking his blood through a spiritual process, his blood isn’t physically upon us, but it is spiritually upon us. It’s in that spirit realm that we are united together. We are coected with him in that spirit realm; in that spirit realm, we have hope because he has made it that way.
So, as we think about these things, we ought to be thankful for what he has done in the spirit.
Gratitude for Physical and Spiritual Blessings
We can look around us and see things in the physical and understand why we ought to be thankful because We have air conditioning. We have electricity. We have heat. We have indoor plumbing. That’s one thing I’m very grateful for indoor plumbing.
We can be thankful for the physical things, but we ought to be grateful for the spiritual things. We are unaware of many things that happen in the spirit, but we know that our God controls them. We know that he has everything under his control.
Thanksgiving Prayer
Let’s thank Him.
Thank you, Lord, because you are so good to us.
Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank you. You are all-powerful. Thank you, Lord, that you remain in control even with circumstances stacked against us. Nothing can take us away from you, so we praise you. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.
Locate, please.
Introduction to the Book of Leviticus
The book of Leviticus.
That ought to be exciting. The book of Leviticus. Are you excited to hear from the book of Leviticus? Yes. Leviticus teaches us about the holiness of God. The requirements that we have. That God put into place so we can be as holy as He is. This book tells us to be holy as He is holy, and this book tells us how to be holy as He is holy.
This book tells us how He has made provisions so we can have a relationship with him. Did you know that’s the theme of Leviticus? That God desires a relationship with his people. God wants a relationship with his people, and he requires this list of things because he desires a relationship with us.
That’s something we ought to be thankful for. We ought to be grateful that God desires a relationship with us.
The Uniqueness of Christianity
If you look at any other religion outside of Christianity, if you look at any other religion, from what I have found, every other God Requires people to be servants to them or they will be punished.
All religions have people doing things trying to appease the anger of the gods. They have people doing things because they fear the gods will be angry. People will do things because they think these gods will attack them. But our God isn’t like that. Our God is a God of love. Our God desires a relationship with us.
He desires intimacy with us. And for that, we ought to be thankful. We ought to be joyful because our God wants a relationship with us. The creator of all things desires an intimate relationship with you. Wow. When you think about that, the one who created everything, he’s powerful enough to hang the stars in the sky, and they stay there and shine, yet he wants a relationship with me.
The one who creates life wants a relationship with me. That’s mind-blowing. For that, we ought to be thankful. There are some other things that we ought to be grateful for.
Thankfulness for Freedom in America
In America, we thank God for our freedom. I know we, there’s a lot in America we can complain about. But we’re still a free nation. We can complain about our politicians.
For every politician, there’s something we can choose whether or not we like. Regardless of which side you fall on, if you’re a Democrat, if you’re a Republican, or if you’re a no party, you can decide that you like and don’t like things about each candidate. So you can choose to complain or be thankful for what you can be grateful for the things you don’t see. You can be thankful that God is still in control. God is still in power in America. Did you know that America was founded on being thankful to God? People came to America looking for freedom from the tyray of England. There was a king by the name of King James.
Have you guys ever heard of King James? King James, of the King James Bible, was king of England. He was a tyrant. He was forcing people to do things as he wanted them done religiously. Some people decided I didn’t want to be part of the Church of England. I want to have. I understand the Bible differently, so I want to serve God differently than the Church of England makes us.
They broke off. King James didn’t like those people. They called themselves separatists. Which means I’m separated from the Church of England. It was a different denomination, but it wasn’t classified as an organized denomination because the people, not every separatist, had the same views on every issue.
Anybody not part of the mainline church was considered separate from the mainline church. Those people got together, not everybody, but many of those people got together and decided we wanted to have a different religion than the mainline church. Some of those people found their way to America.
America was a continent entirely of indigenous tribal people. Traditionally, we’ve called those people Indians. Because of Christopher Columbus’ confusion, those people became classified as Indians but were Native Americans. Those Native Americans were here on this continent for thousands of years.
They were already working and trading with the European people. European sailors would come by the ports and the eastern coastline of America, making trades with the indigenous people of America. They would get the furs from the animals that the Indians would kill and clean.
They would sell the furs to the European people. And the European people would sell things to the Indians. They’d build up a relationship with them. Eventually, the Europeans decided I wanted to settle here. They settled here in America. And some of them made friends with the Indians, some, excuse me, the Indian Indi indigenous people of America.
Eventually, some of the Europeans, the separatist people, wanted to break off from the European religion. They left and went to Holland. They went to Holland because Holland had a sizeable Jewish population and other immigrants. And Holland had religious freedom, so a lot of Jews who were driven out of Spain were in Holland.
Many European people went to Holland for religious freedom while they had religious freedom in Holland. They could worship God any way they chose, but they were poor. They got tired of living in the textile industry, being poor, and working for wages. They kept hearing about this new country of America, and they decided we should go over there to America.
We should go to that place and live. We should start our own life over there. They got together. Jamestown, Virginia, was sponsoring. People from England were financing these new ventures so that European people could make money off trading and come to America. These people who wanted to go and start their life over here loaned money to these colonists.
They weren’t colonists yet, but they loaned money to these people. This group of people got together on a boat called the Mayflower. The Mayflower was a rickety old boat. It wasn’t a good, nice cruise ship like you may imagine. It was a rickety old boat. They barely made it, and they were aiming for Jamestown, Virginia.
They got blown off course. They landed in Massachusetts, which we know today as Plymouth. So, when they landed there, they started a colony. They arrived. They didn’t have much.
The History of Thanksgiving: Tisquantum’s Story
The money was no good to them. They didn’t have a lot of food. They found crops already growing. So, they took food from the gardens that were already growing.
Guess who planted those crops? The indigenous people planted those crops. These white people came in, took food out of the gardens, and took animals out of the forest. But the indigenous people that were here saw that as these strangers were coming in and stealing our food. I planted that food for my family.
I planted that food for my village. And these white people are coming in, stealing our food. So, it wasn’t a good approach. These indigenous people saw that white people were coming in and stealing from them. And it caused a difficulty. Let’s back up for a little while. There was an Indian plant. I keep wanting to say Indian because of my tradition.
So, just excuse me. This Indian tribe was in Massachusetts before the white man arrived. This Indian tribe was there. There was a man in that tribe by the name of Tisquantum. Tisquantum, some sources say that he was a teenager. Some say he was a young man in his 20s. I don’t believe anybody knows, but it was in the early 1600s.
Tisquantum was making trades with other men in his village. They were making trades with the white man. John Smith was one of the traders. He was a boat captain and would make trades with Tisquantum and other Indians here in America. After John Smith left one day, another boat showed up. This guy told the Indians, Hey, John Smith is my friend.
His name is, if I remember correctly, Thomas Harden. He said John Smith is my friend, and I want to trade with you. So Tisquantum and 20 other Indian males got on the boat to discuss the trading value. The white man deceived them when they got on the ship and took off into the ocean. So Tisquantum and 20 others were kidnapped.
They were taken from their homes, taken away from their families. He was taken to Spain. He and his comrades were taken to Spain. While he was in Spain, he was purchased by some friars. The friars, being like preachers, purchased these Indians and gave them their freedom. They made friends with Tisquantum and taught him the Spanish language.
They taught him some English. But most importantly, they taught him about the Bible. They taught him about Jesus. So, he learned about the God of the Bible. He learned about Jesus. He had a desire to return to his home. He missed his family. He missed the place where he grew up. He missed his hometown.
Wouldn’t you miss your hometown if kidnapped and taken to a foreign country? Tisquantum wanted to return home. He shared with the friars that his prayer to their God Was so he could return home. They helped him get to Europe. When he got to Europe, He learned the English language more thoroughly.
He became fluent in English. He made friends with a guy by the name of Drimmer. Dreamer was a ship, Captain. He made friends with Drimmer, and Drimmer told him I’d take frequent trips to a new country. In that country, the indigenous people are starting to get riled at these white men who are coming because not all white men who are showing up are honest.
Not all of these white men are treating the indigenous people of America fairly. I need some help. You know their language. You know these people. I need somebody who can help with peace talks. He just wanted them to see the training in that new country as an opportunity to get back home, so he agreed with this ship captain.
I will go with you. I will help you make peace with the indigenous people. So, on the way home, he kept praying while on the ship across South Africa, ocean. He was praying to the God he learned of from the friars that he would one day make it home. He can see his family again. He finally makes it home.
He makes it back to America. He starts making trades. And making peace talks between the traders, the white ship captains, and the indigenous people. The indigenous people had seen many of the ship captains come in who would Kill and harm the Indians. They would hurt, rob, and steal from the indigenous people.
Tisquantum could tell the indigenous people that this white man is honest. He’s my friend. He shared with them how he spent the time coming across the ocean. He helped broker peace between Drimmer and some of the indigenous people to help save some lives. Tisquantum shared that he believed that he could save the lives of many white people and many indigenous people because he helped broker some peace talks.
He decided to stay here on this continent. When that ship’s Captain left, he stayed here on this continent. He wasn’t yet back in Massachusetts, but he was at least on this continent. He started trying to make his way back to Massachusetts. Other white people were showing up, and he would broker deals between them and the indigenous people.
The indigenous people were also warring one village against another, one village against another. Tisquantum found himself during these battles. He was kidnapped for the second time, and he was held prisoner. While he’s held prisoner, that’s when the Mayflower shows up. The Mayflower shows up, and Tisquantum is a prisoner when the Mayflower shows up.
After the white man started there in Massachusetts, in Plymouth, where Tisquantum’s hometown was. Unfortunately, all of his family died while he was gone. All of his family got wiped out by a plague. These white men set up their colony. Right there in the same village that this quantum grew up. He’s in a neighboring village as a Prisoner. One of the men from that village came to the white man to investigate what they were doing.
He just makes friends with a white man. They give him some cheese and food, and he tells them about the area. He realizes that they need help, and the other tribes around them are angry with them because they’ve been stealing food from the gardens. So he needs to communicate with them, but he speaks broken English because Tisquantum can speak fluent English.
He returns to his village, talks to his chief, and tells the chief. I need to take this prisoner with me to speak with a white man. So Tisquantum can go as a prisoner to go to the white man and talk English with a white man. And when he’s able to speak fluent English, he’s able to make a deal between the white settlers and the indigenous people.
The white settlers claimed they didn’t realize they were stealing food. He can broker a deal with them where they will pay back for the food they stole. He’s able to talk with them and settle with them. He can teach them some of the things he knows about farming. He teaches them about how to plant corn. He teaches them how to plant vegetables. He teaches them about fur trading, he makes friends with a white man, and they eventually make peace between this new tribe that Tisquantum is part of and the white man.
The Indian tribe lets him go free so he can live among the white man. He’s living there among the white men. And he’s making a lot of deals between the whites and the indigenous people. So why is that important? Why is his story important? What does that have to do with Thanksgiving?
The First Thanksgiving and Its Significance
Tisquantum was part of what is traditionally understood as the first Thanksgiving in America.
There are a lot of sources that you can find that tell variations of his story. But suppose you look at the historian documentation from the Wiipeg tribe of Massachusetts. In that case, they say in this story I’m sharing with you today that he was able to make these deals to broker peace talks between the indigenous people and the white man.
He looked towards the God of the white man instead of the God of the indigenous people. He chose when he died. He died while praying a prayer, saying, I want to go to heaven to be with the God of the white man because he’s the God of love. Although there were rumors that he was doing things that were against the white man and the Indians, he was doing something to prosper himself, playing both sides.
Ultimately, he was a benefit to both sides. He helped save a lot of lives. When they had their first Thanksgiving meal here in America, Tisquantum helped them with their harvest. He helped them plant. He helped them make deals with the local Indians around them to keep from having war. He invited the chief and others to come to the white man’s village for peace and fellowship.
They stayed there for three days eating food. They ate turkey. They ate eel. Have you ever eaten eel for Thanksgiving? They ate eel. They ate other birds like ducks and goose. They ate deer. So they had an enormous feast and were thankful to God for what he had blessed them with. Thanksgiving didn’t happen automatically. It just starts happening every year based on that.
Eventually, the presidents of the United States Declared there to be a national day of Thanksgiving. And that history is fascinating if you want to look it up. George Washington first said it. But it wasn’t put into place until Roosevelt. Roosevelt put it as the last Thursday of November when we return to the Bible.
Thanksgiving in the Bible
We look back at the Bible to find out about Thanksgiving. Did you know there is a Thanksgiving in the Bible? The idea of giving thanks comes from the scripture. The idea of feasting and giving thanks comes from scripture.
Locate, please, Leviticus chapter 23.
Leviticus starts by telling us that people need to make sacrifices. There’s the sin offering. There’s the burnt offering, the peace offering, and so forth. As you remember, the burnt offering is the one you give as a free-will offering to show that you are entirely committed to God. You burn up the entire sacrifice as a sign of showing that in the future, Jesus will give himself simply to the will of God.
And that we give ourselves entirely as a living sacrifice to God. A burnt offering is a free will sacrifice offered to God. We look at Leviticus chapter 23. We see there are various offerings given. We see there are multiple times of celebration given. Did you know there are three significant celebrations that the Jews are supposed to give every year?
One is Passover. They’re supposed to gather. The men are supposed to figure. In the Tabernacle every year for Passover. And there, they’re supposed to celebrate what God has done, rescuing them from the death angel. Do you guys remember that story? So, the Passover event is a celebration they celebrate yearly in the spring.
They celebrate another feast at the end of spring and the begiing of summer. And in this, we call it Pentecost, which is the church’s birth. They celebrate the day of Pentecost. They observe that day and must show up in person at the Tabernacle—this last event, where they must show up in person.
This is the day of thanks, Thanksgiving, or the feast of tents. They’re supposed to camp out every year, even to this day. The Jews that celebrate this camp are out in their backyard. For an entire week as a remembrance that God is our provider. When we read through this, let’s begin in verse 33 and follow.
Leviticus 23: 33-35
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, talk to the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of Tabernacles, for seven days to the Lord.
You can imagine Thanksgiving taking place for seven days. So, all your relatives coming in will stay for seven days.
On the first day, there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it.
So, it’s a day of rest. You start the celebration with a day of rest. Have you ever noticed that God calls us to rest? We talk about doing work for the Lord. But, working for the Lord is resting in Him.
Because we’re not trying to earn our salvation, our salvation is not a work where we please God but rather a rest where we accept the work He has already done. Our salvation is not a result of what we do; it’s a result of what He has already done and what He gives to us. So when we think about why should I complain?
Why should I? complain about my situation? We realize we are not to complain, but instead, we should thank him because he has given us so much. We ought to be thankful for the gifts and the opportunities he has given us. He has given us a time of rest. We ought to rest in the Lord. Speaking of rest, did you realize that in Genesis?
Man is created on what day of the week.? Do you guys remember? The sixth day. The sixth day! And what happens on the seventh day? The rest. So, the first full day that man is alive. What does he do? He rests. So the first thing that man is to do is to relax. God’s desire is for us to sleep. We ought not to strive to please Him, but instead, we ought to rest in Him, rest in our trust of Him, which gives Him pleasure.
When we trust in what He gives, when we trust in what He provides, when we have a truly grateful, thankful heart given to Him, we rest in Him, which provides him with pleasure. Here in Leviticus, we see that we are to start Thanksgiving with rest after seven days. On the 8th day, you are to rest. So, on the 8th day, it is also a rest.
So, you begin with rest in the Lord. You end with rest in the Lord. And in between, what do you have? Celebration. You celebrate with the Lord. They are to give a burnt sacrifice. Remember the burnt sacrifice? It is not a requirement, but it is a person’s choice to show I am entirely dedicated and sold out to God.
I give all of my life to God. I give everything I have to Him. Everything I am, I give to the Lord. I choose to submit myself wholly and entirely to Him. On Thanksgiving, here in Leviticus, we are to start our time of Thanksgiving by resting in Him, and we are to celebrate Him by relaxing in what He does and saying, I will give myself entirely to Him, and we close this time with rest in the Lord, so God chooses us to rest. God wants us to rest in Him. God wants us not to worry but to rest. God doesn’t want us to strive among each other but to rest and celebrate Him. We ought to celebrate. Christians ought to be the most celebratory people on the planet. Over and over again, we see that God gives us reasons to celebrate and even commands us to celebrate this time of Thanksgiving. Thursday is approaching.
We ought to make sure that we celebrate him. Let’s remember to give him thanks. Let’s remember what he has done for us and be truly grateful for what he has done. We are genuinely thankful for what he has given as we look around. We have blessings all around us. Sure, we can find excuses and reasons to complain.
But it doesn’t take much talent to complain about something. We ought to look for reasons to thank Him. Find reasons to give God praise. Look for excuses to say thank you, Jesus. Thank you for that. I am grateful unto God. I am thankful unto God. We ought to have proper attitudes of gratitude towards God when we read through this in Leviticus.
We see these people are told to focus for seven whole days, even the eighth day, to rest. They are meant to focus on giving themselves entirely to God as a way of saying, Thank you, Lord. Because of everything you provide. Shouldn’t we take that same principle and give it to God? We should give Him all that we are.
We should give Him all that we have. Everything that we have. Everything we stand for ought to be to provide him with praise. Everything ought to be to lift Him. Because He is God. He is God. Let’s give Him thanks.
Closing Prayer of Gratitude
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We thank you because of who you are.
We thank you for your blessings. We thank you for your kindness. You have provided it for us. We have nothing that you have not given us. Everything we have has come from you. Everything we are is because of you. Our salvation is a gift from you. Help us to rest in the knowledge that you provide everything.
Help us reflect on you and give you genuine thanks. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Praise your holy name. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you.
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