In Everything Give Thanks!

Hello, this is Will Hardy with ManTalk Radio. We are all about breaking down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few minutes.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. If not forgot, with Michael Zwick, we are in one of my favorite places, especially to get a sweet treat and coffee, Cupcake Cuties. And before we hand the phone to our special guest host, we're going to ask Dave Compton to set the stage. Where are we, Dave? We're in historic Wahlberg, North Carolina, downtown Wahlberg. We are at Cupcake Cuties.

By this time it gets on the air, it'll be a worldwide name, right? But we love coming down here. It's a blessing, but we're sitting around a table and it's one of those businesses that they love these kind of meetings. We've had a lot of prayer in here.

We've had some struggles. Next to Pastor Jay, we've had some great time sharing the Lord and encouraging other folks. Michael Zwick, you are now the host of Truth Talk for this quick segment on giving thanks. I'm going to hand it to you. We're going to talk about why this is such an awesome time of year.

It is, man. And Thanksgiving is coming up this Thursday. What does Thanksgiving mean to you? I'm glad you asked that question. We are in the middle of a really cool study, and we're going through the book of 1 Corinthians. And the Lord just put on my heart, because I was talking to Pastor Jay about this, and we were going back and forth, aren't we, Pastor Jay, on the Psalms? We were kind of trying to find something, weren't we, to land on?

That's true. We talked about Psalm 100 as well as what you're going to talk about today. Yeah, the great 100, Psalm 150. What's it like being a pastor, having to come up with a sermon for all these things all the time? Well, you refurbish a lot of sermons.

The truth never changes. You just try to come at it with different angles, but the Word of God is still the same. And I love Psalm 100, and David using all that temple language in there about worship and singing, and not just that, but doing it loudly, not being ashamed. So it's a great time of year to teach and preach and encourage your people to give thanks.

Amen. And I came across one of my favorite verses that I quote at Thanksgiving all the time. And I realized I never taught on this verse. I never really studied this verse. So that's what God has put on my heart. And we're going to sing a song to everyone too, Zwick. But the verse is 1 Thessalonians 5 18. And it simply goes like this.

And if you guys know it, say it with me. In everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. So here's how you have five A's for Thanksgiving. An A plus Thanksgiving. There's five A's in that verse. There's the A of the amount. In everything, there's the A of the... You ready for this? Action. Give thanks. If you don't take that step of action of giving thanks, it ain't going to happen. But it's also a reaction.

Then there's the A of attribution. Where's it all go? What's the point of it all? I'll tell you what the point of it all is. This is the will of God. This is God's will. But then there's the A of the access in Christ Jesus. If Jesus Christ hadn't come to us and brought us to God, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father except through him. There's one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ came from God to us and he brings us to God. He reconciled us to God. So he's the access in Christ Jesus. Then there's the application. We are the beneficiaries of a trillion dollar estate, eternal infinite value, more than the cattle on a thousand hills. And that estate is what we give thanks for.

We are the application. So you got the amount in everything. You got the action, give thanks. You have the attribution. This is the will of God. You have the access in Christ Jesus.

And then the application concerning you. So that verse God's put on my heart heavy. But thanksgiving is so important.

Is there anything more important than that? Yet this little season gets tucked. I heard you preach on this pastor, Jay, this little season gets tucked in between the two highest grossed in seasons of the year, Halloween and Christmas.

So why do we lose Thanksgiving? Which arguably is what the Bible talks about. You can't open the Psalms without finding that.

Well, that's true. I think our society skips right over it. We go straight from one to the other without taking time to, we should be thankful every day of the year. The Psalmist says, bless the Lord who daily loads us with benefits and so grateful for the mercies that are new every morning and so thankful for his faithfulness. And so, but specifically at Thanksgiving, we dare not just skip that time that is set aside for us to be grateful each and every day.

And so, yeah, I think it's important that we don't fly past it, that we recognize the importance of this wonderful holiday. Yeah, I mean, there's a story in the Old Testament where Moses is leading the people out of captivity. And I don't know if you remember this, but it's right after the sea parts and they go to the other side. And when they go to the other side, God literally just parted the sea so these folks could walk through. And then once they get on the other side after the other side, after a few days, they said, Lord, there's no food for us. There's nothing for us to drink.

Everything is wrong, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so it kind of reminded me that they weren't being thankful for what God had already done and they weren't trusting God for what he was going to do. So when I think of Thanksgiving, I think about thanking God for what he's already done and then future tense, trusting him for what he's going to do.

That's really good. We don't want to mix up Thanksgiving with thanks-taking. So often, if you put that verse, by the way, in reverse, in nothing, you're taking, right? You're out of God's will. Jesus isn't even in the picture and it's all about you, right? But you know, it's interesting in that verse, the concerning you ends up at the very end because we are the beneficiaries and all we can do is give thanks. I can't match what he did on the cross.

I talk to you all the time. Well, I'm trying to get back. I'm trying to get back at God.

I'm trying to help God. I'm trying to pay him back for, you know, he paid this debt. Now I got to earn it back. No, I can't earn what he paid.

What does he want me to do? He wants me to give thanks. He doesn't want me to give, you know, to buy myself, to buy grace. Grace has been paid for and I'm sitting next to a guy who sells a ton of Bibles, a ton of books.

He's been a Truth Network partner for years, loves Jesus. He's got eight kids. What are their names?

Dwight going. What are your kids' names? Just hearing these names just gives me a big grin.

What are they? Josiah, Titus, Phoebe, Chloe, Cyrus, Shadrach, Isaac, and Lucas. You really should have thought about Bible names, Dwight. I mean, Uncle Dwight, these kids are unbelievable.

They're all masters of piano. They work in the bookstore. You've got all these home schoolers that come in. People drive hours from five states to go to Goliens Christian Supply. Two, three, four, five thousand used Christian books across his locations.

But Dwight, you've told me many times that, you know, it's crazy. You think a bookstore guy would just be hyped about Christmas. You think a bookstore guy would say, man, I'm counting the days till Christmas.

Not him. Yeah, he'll do great at Christmas time. Yeah, everyone wants a King James Bible wrapped up for their relative, which is a great gift, by the way.

But let me tell you something. He's excited about that lost holiday, the one we're talking about today, that is a very biblical holiday in terms of its name and its import, its intent. The holiday of Thanksgiving.

Why is that, Uncle Dwight? It's the most wonderful time of the year. Well, I just, my family, we always like to make a big deal of it. And we, I think it's important to be thankful to God. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. I mean, we can't put it into words how, what a blessing it is, the gift, the present of his son and of salvation. But beyond that, I think it's a time when we need to realize that we need to be thankful to one another. So I encourage my children at that time, and then going forward all the way leading up to that special season when we celebrate and remember the birth of Christ, which is that part of that unspeakable gift, but to be thankful to one another and express that thanks and to go looking for opportunity to be grateful and to have a heart of gratitude to one another.

I love it. Now, Jeff Hoover, you serve Christ in Palestine for years playing basketball. I don't know when the Indians taught the Palestinians how to plant corn and how they have Thanksgiving over there. I'm not sure how they celebrate it, but what goes to your heart when you hear about this great celebration of Thanksgiving? Well, I've always loved Thanksgiving, but the thing that's actually interesting for me on the mission field was that no other country celebrates Thanksgiving. Interesting.

Wow. We, it is an American holiday and, and it has to do with reconciliation. Reconciliation, you know, of the pilgrims and the Indians, but I was able to use it also on, on the mission field to show reconciliation to God. And, uh, so as a witness to, uh, I would celebrate Thanksgiving with my basketball team, with my club, and it just kept spreading to where we, at the last, the last part I had, and the reason, the only reason I stopped is because it got too expensive for me.

I was spending, uh, close to a thousand dollars on turkeys only. And then we had, uh, somewhere between five to 800 people coming to, uh, they were bringing the vegetables and everything like this. And then we'd have a little, I would speak a little bit about reconciliation between, uh, and the Palestinians. It was a witness to them, but also to draw them, both Muslims and Christians that I had coming together from all kinds of different teams and all over Bethlehem to, uh, to really, uh, draw close to the Lord, be thankful for what they had and also, uh, thankful for the gift that God had given, uh, the God's given his son to reconcile us to himself. When everything gives thanks, this is God's will in Christ concerning you. We're wrapping it up.

Dave Compton, a legendary radio voice for nearly half a century, and he's been a huge mentor to me. Part of the Truth Network is going to close us with Thanksgiving prayer. By now, you may be working down some leftovers. You may be having chicken salad. You may be having turkey salad. You may be having turkey soup. You may be having turkey sandwiches.

The gravy and the potatoes were flowing, the yams, the sweet potato, the pecan pie, all these things. But Dave Compton, just take us home with the Thanksgiving prayer, will you, and just give us all some perspective as we wrap up this special edition of Truth Talk. I'm reminded, Stu, of the scripture, Psalm 118, verse 1, O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good.

His mercy endureth forever. So everybody take that with you, too. And some people refer to Thanksgiving Day.

You hear it all the time, I'm sure, Mike. Turkey Day. Happy Turkey Day.

Well, I love the turkey as good as anybody, but it's Thanksgiving Day. So Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness. Your mercy does endure forever. Thank you, Lord, that there's a roof up above me. I have a good place to sleep.

Food on my table and shoes on my feet. We give you all the glory for your goodness extended to us. Thank you for this gathering here on this fabulous Friday before Thanksgiving here in Wahlberg, North Carolina. We love you, Lord.

Thank you for loving us in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Share this, will you, this podcast when we make it a podcast with others, just encourage them. And I hope this gets out after Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving isn't a season. Thanksgiving is the reason for all seasons. Amen. So on three, we're gonna say Happy Thanksgiving.

One, two, three. Happy Thanksgiving. We're gonna go out singing. In everything give thanks, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ concerning you. God bless you from Cupcake Cuties. Happy Thanksgiving to all you and your family from Stu and Truth Talk and these awesome guys, Uncle D. White and Dave and Brother Hoover and Mike Zwick and Pastor Jay. God bless you guys. This is the Truth Network.