Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

The famous author of Mary Had A Little Lamb had a lot to do with when we eat Thanksgiving turkey.

Sarah Hale was the key person in persuading Abraham Lincoln to proclaim a national Thanksgiving Day.

It was to be on the last Thursday of November, and for 75 years that is when it was celebrated.

In 1939 it fell on Nov. 30, and this left only 3 weeks for the annual Christmas shopping spree.

This was back in the day when merchants felt it was inappropriate to promote Christmas until Thanksgiving was over.

President Roosevelt, in order to help merchants make a bigger profit and keep people working longer, announced that Thanksgiving would be a week earlier in that year of 1939.

What a bombshell that was.

All the football games had been scheduled for the 30th.

How could they expect to fill the stadium if it was not going to be a holiday?

In Massachusetts, where the first Thanksgiving had been celebrated in 1621, there was rebellion.

One Republican Senator said the president just as well try and abolish winter.

They refused to change.

Other states followed, and when the new date of Nov. 23rd arrived the country was about evenly divided.

22 states celebrated it, and 23 said they would not celebrate until the 30th.

Colorado, Mississippi and Texas said they liked both dates and so they had a double Thanksgiving that year.

A civil war over Thanksgiving seemed inappropriate, and so Congress in 1941 passed a resolution that fixed the 4th Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day.

Ever since we have been a nation united on when to eat turkey and watch football.

It is kind of silly when you think about it.

We can't have people in states just going around being thankful anytime they feel like it.

With that kind of freedom there would be eventual chaos, and people would be celebrating Thanksgiving on every Thursday of the year, and the next thing you know some would be sliding over into Fridays, or back to Wednesdays.

You could end up with people being thankful every day of the week, and celebrating Thanksgiving anytime of the year.

Thankfully such chaotic thankfulness was nipped in the bud and limited to the fourth Thursday of November.

I am just kidding, of course, for I know a national holiday has to be limited and specific.

But it is tragic if we think our spirit of thanksgiving needs to be limited by what is appropriate to the state.

There is no limit of time or space to the thankful heart of Paul.

He was thankful at all times, in all places, and for all people in far away places.

In his letter to the Romans Paul demonstrates that which should characterize every child of God.

We see first-

I. THE PRIORITY OF HIS THANKSGIVING.

For Paul thanksgiving, not only comes before Christmas, it comes before everything, for the first thing he says after ending his introduction is, "First, I thank my God."

He never goes on to say second or third.

He just says first.

The Greek word is proton, which is used over 60 times in the New Testament to stress priority.

Matt.

6:33 says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness."

Paul was not just being polite here.

It was a priority of his life to be thankful.

He could have started on a different note.

He had his problems and frustrations, and he could have begun with what he deals with later.

He could have said, "I've been breaking my back to get to you, but this lousy world will not cooperate.

Everything has gone wrong and I've about had it with people and all the bungling I've had to endure that has fouled up my schedule."

This was real, and Paul does get to it later, but the negative is not his priority.

He does not say first let me apologize, or first let me explain my problems, or first let me express my complaints.

No, he said first I thank my God.

The negative will come, for it is a part of life, and it has to be confronted, but it is not first.

The positive is to always have priority in the Christian life.

If you are first of all thankful you are laying the foundation from which you can see the negative from a proper perspective, and better cope with it.

If you start with a negative, that becomes a basis from which you see life, and you become a pessimist.

Paul had more problems than anyone, but he was still an optimist because he gave priority to Thanksgiving.

If you get that on your mental and emotional agenda first, then you can look down on the negatives from that higher perspective, and they do not dominate your life.

If you give Thanksgiving the priority and always look first at what there is to be grateful for, you will seldom be overwhelmed by the negatives.

The thankful spirit keeps you ever alert to the present blessings of life in the midst of its burdens.

It is never too late to be thankful, but the thanks that comes late rather than first is not as powerful in keeping you optimistic and strong in your service for Christ.

It there is anything right now to be thankful for, then be thankful for it right now.

Paul could have waited until he got to Rome to be thankful for the Roman Christians, but he made it a priority to express his thankfulness right away.

Paul's philosophy was, if the blessing is present let the thanks for it be present as well.

Don't postpone thanks and set it aside.

Don't make it secondary and put it on the back burner.

Make it a priority so that in everything you are ready to give thanks.

Henry Ward Beecher wrote, "As flowers carry dewdrops, trembling on the edges of the petals, and ready to fall at the first waft of wind or brush of bird, so the heart should carry its beaded words of thanksgiving, and at the first breath of heavenly flavor, let down the shower perfumed with the heart's gratitude."

It is the priority you give to thankfulness that reveals your personality.

Almost everybody is thankful at some point, but it is those who are thankful first who reveal the true optimist, and Paul was one.

He saw the scar, but first the star.

He saw the blight, but first the light.

He saw the gloom, but first the bloom.

He knew there were thorns on roses, but his focus was on the roses, and he was thankful for them.

Helen Keller had every right to be a pessimist, but she said, "The world is full of suffering, but it is also full of overcoming it."

She was thankful in spite of her handicaps.

This was not just a personal idiosyncrasy of Paul that he did not expect other Christians to imitate.

He did expect all Christians to make thanksgiving a priority, and he urged them to give thanks in everything.

In verse 21 he makes it clear that one of the major reasons for the judgment of God on people is because they are unthankful.

The pagan world became dark and foolish, and descended into the pit of barbaric immorality, because they knew God, but did not glorify Him, nor give Him thanks.

Thankfulness was not even on their list of priorities, and when that is the case you are looking at people who are headed for the sewer.

The non-Christians of the world who did not eliminate thankfulness did not descend to the sewer, but often lived admirable lives that have been a blessing to the world.

Plato said, "I thank God that I was born a man and not a beast, that I was born a Grecian and not a barbarian."

As pagan people can be rated according to their level of thankfulness, so also can Christians be so rated.

The most mature, helpful, and blessed Christians are those who, like Paul, give first priority to thanksgiving.

The depraved have no thanks at all.

The wise pagan is thankful for much.

The Christian is thankful for more.

The wise Christian is thankful first and always, and in everything gives thanks.

Paul recognizes that the pagan world did not have the revelation of God that the Jews had, and that they had not received the Gospel of Christ, but he said that they are without excuse in their state of ingratitude to God.

God had given them abundant and adequate revelation even in nature.

God holds man accountable for being thankful for all the generosity He has displayed in the way He created the world to meet man's needs.

One of the most eloquent descriptions I have ever read of God's generosity is by Charles Jefferson in his book The Character Of Jesus.

He wrote,

"The God revealed by Jesus is the same God revealed by

nature.

The God of nature has always been known as a

generous God.

The days and nights, the sky and sea and

land, the changing seasons, all bear witness to His amazing

generosity.

He is prodigal in all His doings.

He is lavish

in all His benefactions.

He scatters good things with the

bountiful munificence of a King.

He scatters the stars not