Good morning everyone.

Before we get started I would like to share with you some definitions of some new words that I have learned.

Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter = Eskimo Pi

Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement = 1 bananosecond

Weight an evangelist carries with God = 1 billigram

Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour = Knotfurlong

Half of a large intestine = 1 semicolon

2000 mockingbirds = 2 kilomockingbirds

2.4 statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing at Yale University Hospital = one IV League

"I strongly suspect that if we saw all the difference even the tiniest of our prayers make, and all the people those little prayers were destined to affect, and all the consequences of those prayers down through the centuries, we would be so paralyzed with awe at the power of prayer that we would be unable to get up off our knees for the rest of our lives." --Peter Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy, Boston College.

Mr. Tkach wrote in his December member letter:

“The months of November and December, with Thanksgiving and Christmas, provide wonderful opportunities to focus our thoughts on God’s gracious and loving in our lives.” End of quote

In our own house we will probably being getting the Christmas music out in a couple of weeks.

It is such a special time of the year to have Christmas praise music in the house.

Before that though we have Thanksgiving—three weeks from tomorrow.

With that in mind I would like to give you a history of Thanksgiving in America to help us focus on what God has done for us.

The title of my message then is Thanksgiving Service—Beware lest we forget.

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord" Psalm 92:1)

Please join me in prayer.

Thank you Lord for letting us live in America at this time.

Thank you for the freedoms we enjoy in our country.

Thank you for feeding us, clothing us and housing us.

Thank you for freedom of religion.

Thank you for freedom of speech.

Thank you for the freedom to choose our leaders.

These are freedoms not enjoyed by everyone on earth.

Thank you for our prosperous country.

Thank you for making this nation great. It is your greatness not our goodness that makes this country great.

Please bless this chapel service. Let everything be done according to your will.

In the name of our precious Lord, Master and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

I’d like to begin by reading a message from President George Bush at last year's pardoning of the official Thanksgiving Turkey.

Each year the president pardons an official Thanksgiving turkey and saves it from execution. This is a tradition dating back to President Lincoln. This year’s turkey hasn’t been pardoned yet, so I must read from last year’s proclamation.

I think that if I were President I would say chop its head off and bake it.

Here are President Bush’s comments from last year:

"Thanksgiving reminds us that the greatest gifts don't come from the hands of man, but from the Maker of Heaven and Earth. This week American families will gather in that spirit.

“We will remember, too, those who approach the holidays with a burden of sadness. We think especially of families that recently lost loved ones, and of our men and women in the Armed Forces serving far away from home...

“This holiday season, we'll all be joined in prayer that those who mourn will find comfort; that those in dangers will find protection; and that God will continue to watch over the land we love.... May God continue to bless America."

Now for a history of Thanksgiving.

The event we now know as the First Thanksgiving was a traditional English harvest celebration to which the colonists invited Massasoit, chief of the Wamapanoag [wah mah pah no ag] Indians.

He signed a peace treaty with the Pilgrims in 1621—an agreement that was never broken. The two groups enjoyed a peaceful co-existence.

It is not known exactly when the event occurred, but it was between Sept. 22 and Nov. 9, 1621.

All that is known is that it was during the National Football League season.

George Morton was there for the first Thanksgiving. He wrote:

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors.

They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week.

At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted….

And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

End of quote.

Three centuries later, President Calvin Coolidge would say this of the Pilgrims:

"Measured by the standards of men of their time, [they] were the humble of the earth. Measured by later accomplishments, they were the mighty. In appearance weak and persecuted they came -- rejected, despised -- an insignificant band; in reality strong and independent, a mighty host of whom the world was not worthy, destined to free mankind." --President Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)

The first national Thanksgiving was declared in 1777 by the Continental Congress after British General John Burgoyne's defeat at Saratoga, New York, Oct. 17, which marked a turning point in the Revolutionary War.

Samuel Adams from the Contintental Congress wrote on November 1, 1777.
"Forasmuch as it is the indispensable Duty of all Men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with Gratitude their Obligation to him for benefits received, and to implore such further Blessings as they stand in Need of:

And it having pleased him in his abundant Mercy, not only to continue to us the innumerable Bounties of his common providence; but also to smile upon us in the Prosecution of a just and necessary War, for the Defence and Establishment of our inalienable Rights and Liberties...

It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive Powers of these UNITED STATES, to set apart THURSDAY, the eighteenth Day of December next, for the Solemn Thanksgiving and Praise:

That at one Time and with one voice, the good People may express themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor... And it is further recommended, That servile labour, and such Recreations, as, though at other Times innocent, may be unbecoming the Purpose of this Appointment, be omitted on so solemn an Occasion."

The Continental Congress proclaimed yearly Thanksgiving days during the Revolutionary War, from 1777 to 1783.

In 1789, soon after adopting the Bill of Rights, a motion was passed in Congress to initiate the proclamation of a national day of thanksgiving.

Elias Boudinot, who was President of Congress during the American Revolution, said he could not think of letting the congressional session pass over without offering an opportunity to all the citizens of the United States to join with one voice in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings He had poured down upon them.

President Washington agreed with this resolution and issued the following proclamation, parts of which read:

I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the Beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be… for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed…

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplication to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions…

Other Thanksgivings were declared from time to time until 1815.

The holiday then reverted to being a regional observance until 1863.

Both the North and South maintained the tradition of independent state Thanksgivings into the Civil War period.

The Confederate Congress declared a Sunday thanksgiving for July 28, 1861 after their victory at Bull Run, and another for Thursday, September 18, 1862, for their victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run.

The first national Thanksgiving holiday to be declared by the U.S. government since 1815 occurred in 1862 when President Lincoln declared a Thanksgiving holiday for Sunday, April 13, following the Union victory at Shiloh, Tennessee.

Lincoln declared another national Thanksgiving for August 6, 1863, in recognition of the victory at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

On October 3, 1863, President Lincoln again declared a national Thanksgiving year for the last Thursday in November.

This Thanksgiving became the first in the unbroken series of our modern holiday tradition.

President Lincoln wrote:

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity… peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.

I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

Interestingly enough, Lincoln did not become a Christian until late in life.

He wrote: “When I left Springfield, Illinois, to become President I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ."

We are a wealthy nation – the poverty line in the United States is at the five percent level as far as the wealthiest people in the world.

We are not better than our Christian brothers and sisters in the lands we call the persecuted church.

We are not better than our Christian brothers and sisters who are being killed (and worse things than death) by Muslims in Sudan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Mindanao in the Philippines.

We are not better than the people who are starving in many places in Africa.

But we have much to be thankful for living in the United States.

I’d like to take a look at another nation that God blessed several thousand years ago and hence the title of my message today:

Beware lest we forget.

Deuteronomy 6:10-12: When the Lord your God has brought you into the land that he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, houses filled with all sorts of goods that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you have eaten your fill, take care that you do not forget the Lord……..

And on an individual level let’s take a look at Solomon and how he was blessed.

1 Kings 3:3: Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statues of his father David.

He went to Gibeon to sacrifice and God appeared to him in a dream at night and asked Solomon what he should give to him:

Solomon thanked God for his great and steadfast love to his father, David.

Verse 7: “And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.

Verse 8: And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted.

Verse 9: Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?’

I think this verse also gives us an idea of the enormity of the job our rulers have today and how we need to pray for them.

God was pleased that Solomon asked for this and did not ask for long life or riches or the life of his enemies.

So he gave him not only wisdom greater than anyone else had had but also riches and honor all his life.

What was Solomon’s response to this?

1 Kings 11:1: King Solomon loved many foreign women from the nations that God had said to the Israelites: You shall not enter into marriage with them for they will surely incline your heart to follow their gods and this is what Solomon did.

I know that in my own life when things are going well I tend to stray from God and when things are difficult I draw closer to him.

Ancient Israel’s history is one of being blessed, forsaking God, God sending enemies upon them, Israel crying out and repenting and God sending a deliverer.

I have been impressed with what has happened in the United States since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

God is now in the public sphere, and Americans generously donated to relief efforts.

Church attendance increased after the attacks, yet sadly they have now returned to normal levels. It seems like we have quickly forgotten.

I take great comfort in the words that Jeremiah spoke to the people of Judah.

This verse is quoted on the license plate frames from Azusa Pacific University.

Jeremiah 29:11: For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope.

These are nice, comforting words from God and I’m sure that we all believe that--as long as things are going well for us.

In the difficult times, we may at times begin to doubt.

Yet God spoke these words to the people of Judah in a time of great trial.

These words were part of a letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent to the elders and people that Nebuchadnezzar had taken away in exile from Jerusalem to Babylon in 597 B.C.

These were not happy times for the people.

They had lost their homes, their temple, their king and their freedom. They were driven away to a foreign land.

Let’s try to picture ourselves in their situation.

If this happened to us, we would consider it a great trial.

If the blessings are withdrawn from us and trials mount, let’s remember that God has not forsaken us.

CLOSING PRAYER

Lord thank you for becoming flesh, living among us and suffering for us.
Thank you that you suffer along with us even now.
Thanks for letting us live in a free and prosperous country.
May we always remember that these blessings come from you.
We give our lives over to you.
Use us to your glory.
In the name of our precious Lord, Master and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen.