The True Thanksgiving: “Who” and “Why”

The True Thanksgiving: “Who” and “Why”

Nov. 28, 2024

Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer

Co-host: Dr. Gary Dull

Guest: David Barton

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 11/28/24. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Sam Rohrer:       Today is Thanksgiving Day. Well, unbelievable isn’t it? A day officially designated as the fourth Thursday of every November by proclamation of US President Roosevelt. Yet the act of Thanksgiving to God started long before President Roosevelt and even before the familiar day of festivities engaged in by the pilgrims. Now today on Stand in the Gap today I’ve decided to emphasize not just the what of Thanksgiving, but more of the why and the who, the object, the purpose for Thanksgiving. My special guest today is David Barton, the founder of Wall Builders, which many of you I know are very familiar with. They have a website@wallbuilders.com, but David’s viewed perhaps as one of our nation’s leading experts on US history and certainly is the depository of the largest collection of national documents outside probably the Library of Congress that document the clear work of God in our nation, the deep biblical linkage between our founders, our law, our Constitution, and our Declaration of Independence. So I’ve asked David to join Gary and me today as we consider the true Thanksgiving, why and who, and we’ll consider these four things in the four segments today. So you have an idea of the roadmap. We’re going to look first at the purpose for Thanksgiving, then the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving, then look at the Presidents and Thanksgiving, and then we’ll conclude with we the People and Thanksgiving. And with that, let me welcome to the program right now, David Barton. David, thanks for being with us today.

David Barton:     Great to be with you guys. Thanks for having me back.

Sam Rohrer:       You are very, very welcome. There’s no better place to go to understand Thanksgiving, ladies and gentlemen, than the word of God. The word Thanksgiving occurs 27 times in the King James version of the Bible. In numerous places the Bible speaks in terms of offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Nehemiah 11 and verse 17, Asaf, the lead singer actually began the festival of Thanksgiving at that time in prayer and then proceeded to sing songs of praise and thanksgiving unto God. So Gary, let me go to you. I’m going to ask you and David here just to get us going about the purpose. But when you look at the emphasis, Gary, on Thanksgiving throughout the scripture, how would you summarize the purpose for offering as often stated, the sacrifices of Thanksgiving? What’s the purpose for that and why should we do this?

Gary Dull:            Well, it’s interesting, Sam, that you mentioned the word sacrifice, you say for offering sacrifices of Thanksgiving. And when you said that my mind went to Hebrews chapter 13 in verse 15 where the word of God says by him, therefore let us offer that sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. It’s interesting when we look at the of Thanksgiving, Sam, it really is a biblical concept that was established by God back in the days of the pen to give him thanks and praise for who he is and for what he did Back in the Old Testament, we realized that they gave sacrifices and sacrifices were very important to God as they offered the animals and the grains and so forth and so on. But as it comes into the New Testament, rather than offering animals or grain for sacrifices, as believers, we are all priests as it were.

Gary Dull:            We are believers, priests, and therefore we should be rendering sacrifices of thanks and thanksgiving unto God. And as we look at this concept in the New Testament, we would see that giving thanks is called a sacrifice simply because of the fact that it speaks of that which is given to God. And when we read the New Testament scriptures, Sam, we can see that there are two sacrifices that as believers we are to offer. The first one is our body in Romans chapter 12 verse one. And I think that most of us are familiar with that passage. But then the second one is our praise and thanksgiving as is rendered here in Hebrews 1315. And so the whole concept of Thanksgiving is for us as believers to be giving something unto God, to exalt him, to glorify him. And it should be much more than an action. It should be a true attitude of Thanksgiving that God would be honored.

Sam Rohrer:       Sounds, Gary, like you’re describing the concept of worship, which brings me to you, David, because as we look at the purpose for Thanksgiving in this segment, it’s hard to separate the why Ger just talking about of offering of Thanksgiving from the who or the object of our Thanksgiving. So before we get into some of the historical roots of Thanksgiving in America from your own heart, David, speak to the purpose of the who of Thanksgiving or the object of our Thanksgiving, not just in the time that Gary talked about, but today as well. I’m going to suggest throughout every day of the year.

David Barton:     And that’s a great question and I am the product of what I have learned from so many others and from the scriptures. And so even as I would say, here’s what it is to me, I’m going to quote from John Quincy Adams, who back in the day did a book for 10 year olds to show them how to read the Bible cover to cover once a year. And he starts out by saying, okay guys, we have a God. He made us. We are dependent creatures. We rely on him, therefore we must conform to what he has told us to do. We conform to behavioral standards that he sets and we’re accountable to him for whether we do that. And so Thanksgiving was merely a way that we have of being God conscious and we’re told in Romans one that if we don’t think about God, our behavior changes.

David Barton:     So this was a way in early America and throughout history of saying, Hey, we want to stop and remember the one on whom we are dependent, the one that has set standards to which we are to conform. This is just one way of being God conscious, remembering God, which not only do we owe Thanksgiving to him as scriptures teach, this is a duty we owe him. It’s also something that has great benefit on us and our thinking and our behavior. And so I see Thanksgiving as a crucial day. It’s only a day that we have in a year and people say, what’s the big deal? The big deal is being God conscious. When you keep remembering God, your behavior is totally different than when you forget God. This is one of the best days we have in the national calendars Thanksgiving,

Sam Rohrer:       David, that’s very, very succinct and very, very clear. Ladies and gentlemen, as today, as many of you may be listening to this program right now on many stations right at noontime on the East coast, when you are perhaps eating and sitting down with family, others are listening and perhaps you’ve already sat down with family, but I hope that whether you’re doing it now or you did or take a focus in a remembrance from what we’re talking about today, why are you sitting down? Why are you giving? Thanks? Have you given true thanks, that’d be the rich question. And how have you thanked God? What difference does it make in your life? Has it made in your life this year? David just said it’s a God consciousness. That’s the real overall distinction about real true thanksgiving. Now, when we come back in just a little bit, we’re going to move now in a little bit at the historical part.

Sam Rohrer:       We’re going to begin and talk to David Barton about pilgrims and their observance of Thanksgiving. But we’re going to go back before that because it actually started before that and then we’ll proceed in the next segment after that to presidents and their involvement in Thanksgiving in America. And then we’re going to conclude with you and me, we the people and Thanksgiving get right down to real business on what God says about the consequences of giving thanks and the consequences of not giving. Thanks. Well, happy Thanksgiving to all of you listening to stand in the Gap today. Today this is Thanksgiving. And what a day we wanted to make this a special day by recalling, and we started in the last segment by going to what scripture says about Thanksgiving and offering sacrifices of Thanksgiving, which it says so many times. And we were talking then, and both Gary and myself and our special guest today, David Barton from Wall Builders shared.

Sam Rohrer:       But in this country, when most people think of Thanksgiving, they think of, well, the pilgrims and is that a bad thing? No, no, no, it’s really not. But in fact the pilgrims, well, I would dare say, let’s put it this way, if I could interview today on this program, an early pilgrim father, my guess is they would’ve pointed to earlier Thanksgivings and in fact almost positive they would’ve pointed back to the practice of Thanksgiving as highlighted in the Bible and established as a necessary practice by God himself just as we highlighted in the last segment. But because before there is a what of an event, an event called like Thanksgiving, that is a what in what happens on that day is a what? But before that there is always the purpose, the why. And we’re talking about that when the why is identified, it acts as really the guiding principle to ensure a consistent focus and a consistency throughout generations.

Sam Rohrer:       And so we’re sitting here now, we’re talking about Thanksgiving, many generations from our pilgrims, but a whole lot more generations from what we just referred to in Old Testament passage as a New Testament passage. So David, let’s go here because you are an historian, extraordinaire and people know that I want you to go here from the sum of the what. Now I mentioned the pilgrim’s engagement and thanksgiving was likely not the first time. Gives a little bit of history of demonstrations of thanksgiving that have occurred perhaps here in the North American continent that preceded the pilgrims.

David Barton:     Yeah, there are several and going back even to why we would see these and why it’s not surprised and that we see things before the pilgrims, it’s not like the pilgrims originated this idea, as you said, going back to that book that John Quincy Adams did for young people, he called us dependent being we are entirely dependent on our maker for everything. It’s Ben Franklin verse that he used at the constitutional convention was Acts 17:28 that says, In Him, we live and move and have our being”. And when you have the mentality that I am not self-sufficient, I can’t do this myself, I am a dependent being on him, every breath I take comes from him, then you have a much better attitude of recognition, of thankfulness for what you do enjoy even in difficulties, even as you go through difficulties. There are just great examples of we have Thanksgiving proclamations from presidents and others at the time when you would never expect a Thanksgiving proclamation, some of the big difficulties we face.

David Barton:     So when you have that mindset that we’re a dependent being, we look to him, therefore we are grateful for anything and everything we receive. You can back up to the Spanish world. The Spanish world came to North America well before the English world did and even in the Spanish world, I think it’s in 1541, you’ll find it Thanksgiving that occurred at Pal Duro Canyon. Now that’s far west Texas, but the Spanish were coming through Mexico, went all the way up toward Canada, they would have Thanksgivings at various places along the way. There’s one in and 1598 in El Paso, 22, 23 years before the pilgrims, if you get over into Florida, their Spanish had a Thanksgiving there and I think it was 1561 in the St. Augustine area. Even in Virginia you have early Thanksgivings before the pilgrims. When the Jamestown folks landed at Cape Henry, they had a Thanksgiving there in 1607 thanking God for the safe trip across the ocean.

David Barton:     When you get to 1619 at what’s called Berkeley Plantation, there was a Thanksgiving there. So we have a lot of recorded Thanksgivings, but the pilgrims kind of if you will, stepped it up a notch in that they didn’t just have a Thanksgiving service, they had a Thanksgiving and it turned into a festival. There was three days of Thanksgiving and meals and feasting and fellowship and athletic events. And so that’s the one that has really kind of stuck is for them, it was not just a single event in passing where we have an hour long Thanksgiving service, we’re having three days here of recognizing all the blessings that God has given us.

Gary Dull:            That’s very interesting to know, David, and we appreciate your intelligence and your understanding of history. I believe that you’re the number one historian that I give credit to and listen to when you speak. So thank you for bringing us up to date on that history of Thanksgiving. But let’s focus in a little bit on the pilgrim celebration of Thanksgiving. According to the record of history, and I know that you understand the record of history, why did the pilgrims celebrate Thanksgiving? What was their real purpose for that three day festival as it were?

David Barton:     It’s interesting because I think we look at Thanksgiving and I would say through a wrong lens, we see it as an event, whereas for them it was a reflection of a lifestyle. And we look at it, this is something that happens at this time, the fourth Thursday every November. And for them it was something that happened on a regular basis. Although in the case of the first Thanksgiving, a lot of it was really initiated by the Wampanoag Indians more than the pilgrims because the Wampanoag Indians, when the pilgrims first arrived, they were ready to kill them because back in 1614, captain Hunt had come to the Plymouth area or the had come to Massachusetts area and stolen a bunch of Indians and made slaves out of them. And so when these next group of white folks show up, let’s kill them because we don’t want to be slaves.

David Barton:     And at that point, William Bradford, to his credit, he says, look, what Captain Hunt did was absolutely wrong, is forbidden by the scriptures should not have happened. We apologize. We want to reconcile. We want good relationships. The pilgrims did not take any land from the Indians unless the Indians told them what they could pay for it and how they could have it. So they had great respect. They were very biblical as opposed to being very Christian. And there’s a big difference between the two. Captain Hunt would’ve professed to be a Christian, but he did so many things wrong. The pilgrims professed to be biblical and they tried to make corrections. And so it was really this three day Thanksgiving. It was the Wampanoag Indians who came and said, look, you guys are in really bad shape. You’ve had two bad winters, half of you died. This is bad.

David Barton:     We’ll provide most of the food, we’ll provide most of the people. Out of the 140 people, two thirds of them were the Wampanoag themselves. And so much of the food, the deer, the five deer, they had other things were brought the Indians. And there was a great relationship between the two, which came from having a biblical lifestyle rather than having a Christian lifestyle. So when I look at Thanksgiving, I really see more of a lifestyle involved. I mean we look at the Pilgrim Thanksgiving and we celebrate that, but I look at the pilgrim and say, Hey, these are the guys that gave us religious liberty the first time. You don’t have a state established church in over a thousand years. These are the guys that gave us civil government and elections in America. These are the guys that gave us the concept of private property and respecting the proper property to others.

David Barton:     These are the guys that gave us the concept of racial equality, not only between the Wampanoag and the pilgrims, but the first lot of slaves that came to America is Virginia. The second lot of slaves came to the pilgrims and they freed all the slaves, imprisoned all the slave owners and quoted exs for why they did it. So when I look at the Thanksgiving, I’m looking at an entire lifestyle and this is just one manifestation of that lifestyle is the gratefulness they expressed to God because of the friends that had taken them on and helped them live and helped them survive and they were just God conscious and look for God and everything and they saw them and everything.

Sam Rohrer:       David, that’s a lot of information there. I know probably most of our listeners never, never knew. So it’s a lifestyle which what we’ve already talked about, Thanksgiving should not be in a Christian’s life, a one day event. It should be a lifestyle as you’ve talked about. But I’d like you to go here a little bit though and expand a bit on the concept of the pilgrims. A lot of what I have read, I mean there were accounts of them when the weather got bad as an example and their crops were suffering, they got down on their knees and they prayed to God and there was a relationship between God, Thanksgiving to God and understanding that their relationship to God had a connection with his blessing on them and ultimately this new nation. Would you expand upon that just a little bit?

David Barton:     This goes back to their understanding that we are dependent creatures. Everything we have comes from Him and Him. We live, we’ve have our being. And while they had that first Thanksgiving, very grateful and while the Wampanoags providentially provided them all the knowledge they needed through Squanto and Samoset first and Squanto on how to live there and that turned their life around, it is significant that the very next year after that Thanksgiving as the spring came and they had learned from the Indians how to plant crops and how to live in that country, no rains came. And so here they are having lost 50% of their people in the first winter, 50% of the remaining people in the second winter, they rely on crops because they’re getting nothing from England and they come into a drought. And so as Governor William Bradford records in his writings, they called for a day of prayer and fasting.

David Barton:     And this was in the early spring. And interestingly, the event would be much like what we see in the Book of Kings where when Elijah prayed that small cloud appeared and then it came and it brought rain and that ended the drought they’d had for three and a half years. And that the testimony of the Indians is we saw you guys pray, we saw God sent rain and we’ve never seen rain like that. When rain comes in the spring, it’s always accompanied by storms and hell and other things that beat our crops down. And we saw a gentle rain come and sit over the crops and water the crops and fall gently on the crops. We want to know the God you pray to because we’ve never seen this before. And it’s interesting that that also became a tradition as well in the New England area.

David Barton:     You would have in the fall, a day of Thanksgiving, but you would have in the spring a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer. And that was just I important as Thanksgiving was. They didn’t do one apart from the other. So while we today as Christians like Thanksgiving, we don’t really like that day of fasting, humiliation and prayer so much, even though that is still a New England colony in the 15th of April, for example, Massachusetts called Patriot Day, that annual fast day, but this became so much a part of the American culture that we seek God, we thank him for what he gave, but we also seek him to get those blessings and humiliation, fasting and prayer.

Sam Rohrer:       And ladies and gentlemen, I have to break away David humility, prayer, fasting, worship object, God purpose, attitude of gratitude, all wrapped up in what Thanksgiving is all about. We’ll come back, we’re going to talk about presidents and thanksgiving from the first pilgrim thanksgiving and recognition of God’s blessing and protection, his guidance and his wisdom. Other US leaders continued the practice in one way or another and driven by the same understanding of God as the focus of our attention and the giver of all good things, ultimately US presidents driven in many cases by order of various congresses proclaimed days of Thanksgiving leading to what we are observing today here on the fourth Thursday of November. Now some of those proclamations were rather incredible. Let me share just a couple of words in the first proclamation issued by our first President George Washington regarding the first Thanksgiving issued.

Sam Rohrer:       At that point, let me read just a little bit just in part and then we’ll talk about this with our special guest, David Barton in that Washington said, whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits and to humbly implore his protection and favor, it says that a day of public thanksgiving and prayer be observed by with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of almighty God a day devoted by the people of these states to the service of that great and glorious being who is the beneficial author of all the good that ever was. That is or that will be astounding, isn’t it ladies and gentlemen. But David, what I just read in part shows at least from the heart of our first President, the heart of Thanksgiving, the who focus and the why purpose that we’ve talked about. But before Washington issued this proclamation, and we’ll get into some of the other presidents, there was a space of time between what we were referring to in the last segment, the pilgrims and Washington. Was there anything significant during that period of time that you can point to in our history relative to Thanksgiving that would help our listeners to understand the continuity of this thing we call Thanksgiving?

David Barton:     Yeah, I think that what we point to in that period of time is we have such a dependency on God that this was still part of our thinking. By the time you have Washington issue, this proclamation you had had well over 1000 government issued proclamations for Thanksgiving or for fasting before Washington. So this was deeply embedded as part of the culture. One of the things we saw, for example, back in 1746, as the French and English had been at war for a hundred years, you have the English colony of Massachusetts and the French are sending their navy to just destroy this English colony. And so the governor calls the people to a time of fasting and prayer, and lo and behold, a storm comes up on the sea, watch out every single French ship, the Navy is gone. And guess what they did? They didn’t say, wow, are we lucky?

David Barton:     They said, no, look what God did. Let’s have a significant day of thanksgiving. So this is the kind of thinking that you see throughout that time when something good happened, we didn’t just say, wow, how lucky, how fortunate, how blessed were we? We said we need to stop and thank God. And I think Sam, the proclamation you made read from Washington captures the essence of what was instilled in those a hundred and something years between the pilgrims and Washington. Washington starts out and there’s five words I think are important or actually six. He says it’s the duty of nations and the word duty and their dictionary is defined as a legally binding contractual obligation. Now that’s like signing a contract. It’s the duty of nations, not just individuals, but it’s a collective body. We have the duty and many list four verbs. He says, we have to acknowledge the provenance of God. We have to obey his will, have to be grateful for his benefits and implore his protection that’s legally binding contractual obligation. And that’s what you see instilled in the heart minds and thinkings of Americans in that 150 years between the pilgrims and Washington.

Gary Dull:            David, I’ve often been amazed at that first phrase of Washington’s proclamation there and as both you and Sam have rendered it out, whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, it would be tremendous if our leaders would do that today. I’d love to hear something like that. But after Washington’s proclamation, others like President Lincoln and Roosevelt gave proclamations as well. I’m wondering, David, if you can share with our audience what they did and how they individually recognized the God of heaven and the purpose for their Thanksgiving. Why did they give it? Why did they render those proclamations?

David Barton:     Yeah, great question and it’s really kind of sporadic, whereas the governors had annual proclamations. That was not always the case with the presidents. What you had in the case of Washington was he issued a couple of national proclamations for Thanksgiving and then John Adams comes in and he didn’t issue any national proclamations for Thanksgiving, but he asked you two national proclamations for humiliation, fasting and prayer. And so as you go through the various presidents, you’ll see proclamations issued across time and by the time you get to Abraham Lincoln, Sarah Goddhall who ran a magazine had really been lobbying presidents for 20 years that we need an annual day of Thanksgiving like the governors have like we had in New England. And Lincoln says, you’re right. In the 1863, he issues his famous Thanksgiving proclamation. By the way, proclamation more famous than Lincoln’s 1863, Thanksgiving is his 1863 fasting proclamation where he just really goes back through the scriptures and talks about how we’ve been blessed so much we’ve forgotten God.

David Barton:     But the 1863 one stands out to me Thanksgiving proclamation because we are in the middle of a civil war. I mean we are in the middle of the nation divided against itself. Hundreds of thousands are dying. And as you read that proclamation, you would never know that anything was going on in the nation. He still found things to be grateful and thankful for even in the midst of the most horrific event that’s happened in American history where we fought brother against brother, I mean Lincoln just had a remarkable, remarkable viewpoint of God and the sovereignty of God and really our dependence on God. So it was not until Roosevelt because Lincoln said from now on we’re going to do one every year. And so Lincoln started the concept of the annual Thanksgiving and then FDR is the one who standardized and said, Hey, let’s make it the fourth Thursday in November every year because the other presidents, they would kind of move around from month to month, from week to week. But that’s kind of the history of how we have the current Thanksgiving we have now.

Sam Rohrer:       David, build that out a little bit here. Next, and this is what I’d like to talk with. We’ve now covered this some ground between Washington. We’ve focused on Lincoln, we talked about Roosevelt actually the one that makes it standard the fourth Thursday of every November. But in many of these proclamations, although similar, there is a variance between president to president and how they refer to, as we’ve talked about, the God of heaven, the giver of good things, that kind of thing. Here’s my question, the culture in America, and you’ve already referred to there were times where there were very difficult things happening and yet there was a recognition of Thanksgiving tied together. If there is anything that you can note between proclamations as coming, let’s take from presidents as an example, the proclamations relative to Thanksgiving and God by presidents and the connection to our national culture because certainly the culture has changed in this country. We know that. Can you track any kind of parallel there?

David Barton:     Yeah, the culture has changed. We separately become less God conscious. Going back to Romans one, we talked about the opening the Bible makes really clear that the more you think about God, the better your behavior is. And we’re at a point now where that we have lost that sense that God consciousness also with it goes a sense of accountability. I find it interesting that even non-Christian founding fathers like Ben Franklin who was a definite God believer, even in the original 1776 Pennsylvania constitution, he said, look, in this state, you’re not going to hold office unless you believe in a future state of rewards and punishments. If you don’t believe you’re going to stand before God and account for what you say, think and do, we don’t want you anywhere close to our government because you’ll do too much damage. And so that sense of accountability to God very much is a gone today.

David Barton:     Most people do not think in terms of being accountable to God. They think in terms of being their own standards. We no longer are God conscious in the sense that he is the creed or God and we are dependent on him. As Jeremiah says, he’s the potter, we’re the clay. He can squish us into nothing and remake us if he wants. We don’t see that. We see only a God that is made in our own image, and most Americans today do make God in their image. Only 9% of Americans today, of Christians today read the Bible, but only 6% of Americans actually see issues the way the Bible lays them out. And that is unknown. In previous generations, we used to see things the way the Bible saw them. We taught that we had a fear of God in a very real sense, and we just really don’t.

David Barton:     Today God’s my buddy and I’m not accountable to him and he’ll understand if I want to do something different. And we see that changing even in our proclamations. We also, in addition, having an annual Thanksgiving, we have an annual national day of prayer. And this past year is the first prayer proclamation ever issued that didn’t even mention the word God and praying. That’s just a reflection of how the culture has changed. And I think that getting away from basic to doctrines that were trans denominational, they covered the Jewish faith, the Christian faith, they covered all denominations. You are accountable to God. You will answer to him. We are dependent on him. We’re grateful for everything we experienced because it comes from his hand and we really need to seek him when things go wrong. Those are mentalities that we really don’t have in the culture today. We’re too self-sufficient. We see ourselves too much as our own creator, and that’s not good.

Sam Rohrer:       Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is the heart of true Thanksgiving that we’re talking about. As we’ve said many things, the object, if it’s not God, it’s not true Thanksgiving. If it’s not a matter of recognizing he’s the giver of all good things, it’s not true Thanksgiving. If it’s in a one-time event in our life rather than our lifestyle, then it’s not true Thanksgiving. And that’s what we’re talking about. I’m hoping as you’re enjoying this day and celebrating Thanksgiving, that you are really thinking about who God is, the relationship to him, and that he is the source of blessing. The next segment, we’re going to now move to the concept of what we, the people, how we relate to Thanksgiving. Well, as we enter now into our final segment today, it’s been a real honor to be with you in your home or wherever you may be listening to this program today on this Thanksgiving day, Gary, and I’ve enjoyed being with you and our special guest.

Sam Rohrer:       We’ve enjoyed having him with us and I know you’ve appreciated him. David Barton, he is the founder of Wall Builders and their website, wall builders.com. I’m sure most all of you are familiar with him and the work that they have done. And as we close out this program, our theme today being the true Thanksgiving, who and why? The true Thanksgiving? Who that’s God and the why? Well, to bring glory to His name, but also to demonstrate that we understand that we can’t go this life alone and that all things come from him in the end. Whether we, the people celebrate Thanksgiving today on the fourth Thursday of November or some other day. And as we’ve talked about, really it’s an attitude, it’s a lifestyle we’ve talked about that should characterize our lives and the lives of our families every day of the year. When we do that, if we look it this way, if we don’t do that, our lives and our families will not be blessed and our nation will not be blessed.

Sam Rohrer:       If we do, then there are certain things that follow. Now in a personal sense, Thanksgiving I believe is at the core of spiritual growth and victory and joy. For instance, in Philippians four six, it says, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made note unto God and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep preserve, guard your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus. But there’s also a national perspective. So as we’ve talked about presidential proclamations and governor proclamations of the past, those were from a national perspective, a state perspective. And God throughout the scripture made it very, very clear, particularly the Old Testament, that thankfulness and the worship of God go hand in hand. A lack of thankfulness to God is always equated with pride and selfishness and oh yeah, here’s the word idolatry, because you see where there’s pride, selfishness, and idolatry, that’s where man says, we don’t need you, God, God’s taken off the throne.

Sam Rohrer:       We’re put on the throne. But when that happens, God’s blessings are shifted to God’s judgment on that nation. Any nation for instance. Lemme just read just a couple of verses here and then I’m going to go ask David and Gary for their thoughts relative to how we, the people can observe thanksgiving all the time. But Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse 18 and through 20, this comes on the heels after God. It was promising Israel, I’m going to say here by application our United States as well. Our founders referred and made that link. So God promised them great blessings. He said, boy, I’m going to give you so many blessings if you fear me and keep my commandments so many blessings that they’ll literally overtake. You said that in Deuteronomy 28, verses one and two, but then he said this in chapter eight, verses 18 to 20, but now you shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant, that he swore to your fathers as it is today.

Sam Rohrer:       And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you will surely perish just like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. Well, David, the verses I’ve read summarize the truth known by our founders, but nearly forgotten by the leaders of our day. And that is that God’s blessing comes from obedience to him. So speak directly if you would here in the closing moments. We the people speak to we the people today and to any pastors or government official or leaders that may be listening as well as to how we can demonstrate true Thanksgiving to God.

David Barton:     One of the things I would point to would be something I learned from a founding father, Benjamin Rush sign of the declaration from Pennsylvania. John Adams said he is one of the three most notable among all of our 250 founding fathers. He said, George Washington, Ben Franklin, Benjamin Rush and Rush was an evangelical Christian, started the first Bible Society, the first Abolition society started the Sunday school movement. And I own a number of his handwritten journals and papers and among them, it’s interesting in trying to be a good Christian and be thankful, he actually starts thanking God for things I’ve never thought about before. But it goes to this attitude of dependency and attitude of gratitude. He says, I thank God for all the times I have not fallen downstairs. Wait a minute, what? Well, I thank God for all the times I’ve driven to the store and didn’t have a wreck.

David Barton:     I thank God for all the times I’ve merged them to interstates and didn’t get plastered. I mean, it’s being thankful for even the little things he says. And I thank God for all the times I’ve been in streets and haven’t been attacked at night walking into the states and just think of all the things that didn’t happen and be grateful for that. So the attitude of gratitude is to see God in every single aspect of our life. Nothing is luck, nothing happens by accident. God is the one who controls our lives. And having that attitude of gratitude is something I really learned from Benjamin Rush, even in the smallest things of life to recognize God,

Sam Rohrer:       David. So very, very practical, ladies and gentlemen. Isn’t that something that all of us can do? How many times have we prayed just like what David just referred to, not just thanking God for what he has done that we can see, but how many times God has protected us in ways that we have not seen? Wow. Gary, let me go to you for some final words now on this very same thing. How do you think, and what would you recommend to those who are listening just like David did, practical way that those listening can practice true Thanksgiving, not just today, but every day.

Gary Dull:            Sam, it’s interesting that one of the things I find in the study of the scripture is that God not only tells us to give thanks, but he enables us to give thanks. When you read Ephesians chapter five, we are told to see that we’re not drunk with wine, but rather filled with the spirit or controlled by the Holy Spirit. And then it gives a series of things that will result from being controlled by the Holy Spirit and one of which is giving thanks. It says in Ephesians chapter five and verse 20, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so when you take that passage of scripture and look at it, it clearly teaches us that when we obey the word of God and we are allowing the Holy Spirit to control our lives, Thanksgiving will be that which will naturally flow from everything that we are.

Gary Dull:            We talk about thanksgiving being a lifestyle and Thanksgiving being an act of worship, but it all goes back to obeying what the word of God says and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in their lives. And when we do that, I think that that Thanksgiving will be expressed in our voice. That isn’t what we say in our attitudes. That is what we portray as well as in our actions. And I think that it’s very important for us to so allow the spirit of God to work in our lives. That Thanksgiving just is that which flows out from us as we recognize who God is and what God is doing in our lives on a day by day basis.

Sam Rohrer:       Gary, so very practical. David, again, what a pleasure to have you with us today on Stand In the Gap Today. And we’re at the close of the program now, but we pray for you and your ministry all year. Thanks for being with us, Gary. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you again for allowing us to be we today and for you taking time to be with us. And I just really pray and trust that some things we’re learned today that will help you and well all of us to better every day. Look to the God of heaven with grateful hearts and in prayer, being anxious for nothing, but with everything with prayer and Thanksgiving, let a request be made. Note unto God, he will hear us. Ladies and gentlemen, go out from today be a blessing to someone else.