Introduction: Americans celebrate many special days: Christmas, Easter, Columbus Day, Valentine's Day, Halloween and so on. Do you treasure any particular holiday? As a child, I treasured ALL of them, because I was so happy to be out of school. Summer vacation was like Heaven. But now that I'm all grown up, I think my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. This morning I would like to share with you four reasons that we should treasure the Thanksgiving season.

WE SHOULD TREASURE THANKSGIVING BECAUSE:

I. The world hasn't been able to commercialize Thanksgiving.

A. The world has commercialized Christmas. As soon as Halloween is over, the mad Christmas rush is on. Buy, buy, buy! Christmas trees, parades, and people dressed up like Santa, ringing bells, begging for money, promising little children whatever they want. The church pushes Advent Season and Chrismon trees, to try to bring our minds back to the real meaning of Christmas.

B. The world has commercialized Easter. Christmas came first, but now when you go to the mall at Easter, there is a man dressed up like the Easter bunny, and little children having their pictures taken. Easter eggs, jelly beans, and marshmallow chicks are sold by the millions. Children wake up on Easter morning to find large cellophane wrapped Easter baskets, and chocolate bunnies scattered around the house. Easter has not been as commercialized as Christmas YET! But the world would love to materialize it even more.

C. But Thanksgiving seems to be immune to commercialization. The only touch of it is in the grocery stores, where they try to sell more turkeys, stuffing, pumpkin pies and cranberry sauce. But we have to eat anyway, so not much harm done. Thanksgiving is still a predominantly religious holiday, so treasure it.

Phil 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Phil 4:7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

II. Thanksgiving is good for families.

All around the nation, families will be getting together to eat Thanksgiving dinner. Uncles and Aunts, Grandmothers and Grandfathers, cousins and people you haven't seen for six months or a year, we all try to get together. Having a family is very important. It is a basic part of what it means to be a human being. If you have a chance to get together with your extended family, do it! The family is a blessing from God. If God has given you a family, give thanks!

Psa 128:1 Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways.
Psa 128:2 You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.
Psa 128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your sons will be like olive shoots around your table.
Psa 128:4 Thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD.
Psa 128:5 May the LORD bless you from Zion all the days of your life; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem,
Psa 128:6 and may you live to see your children's children.

III. The Thanksgiving season makes us remember that America was and is still a Christian country.

As Americans, we have a history that revolves around God. Our forefathers and mothers came to this land seeking religious freedom. And we have always acknowledged God, and been thankful. Just listen to this article from my World Book Encyclopedia (1973) about the history of Thanksgiving in America:

"THANKSGIVING DAY. In the United States and Canada, a day is set aside each year as Thanksgiving Day. On this day, people give thanks with feasting and prayer for the blessings they may have received during the year. The first Thanksgiving Days were harvest festivals, or days for thanking God for plentiful crops....

"In the United States, Thanksgiving is usually a family day, celebrated with big dinners and joyous reunions. The very mention of Thanksgiving often calls up memories of kitchens and pantries crowded with good things to eat. Thanksgiving is also a time for serious religious thinking, church services, and prayer.

"One of the first Thanksgiving observances in America was entirely religious and did not involve feasting. On Dec. 4, 1619, 39 English settlers arrived at Berkeley Plantation, on the James River near what is now Charles City, Va. The group's charter required that the day of arrival be observed yearly as a day of thanksgiving to God.

"The First New England Thanksgiving was celebrated less than a year after the Plymouth colonists had settled in the new land. The first dreadful winter in Massachusetts had killed nearly half of the members of the colony. But new hope grew up in the summer of 1621. The corn harvest brought rejoicing. Governor William Bradford decreed that a three-day feast be held. A Thanksgiving Day set aside for the special purpose of prayer as well as celebration was decreed by Governor Bradford for July 30, 1623...

"The custom of Thanksgiving Day spread from Plymouth to other New England colonies. During the Revolutionary War, eight special days of thanks were observed for victories and for being saved from dangers. On Nov. 26, 1789, President George Washington issued a general proclamation for a day of thanks. In the same year the Protestant Episcopal Church announced that the first Thursday in November would be a regular yearly day for giving thanks, "unless another day be appointed by the civil authorities..."

"By 1830 New York had an official state Thanksgiving Day, and other northern states soon followed its example. Virginia was the first southern state to adopt the custom. It proclaimed a Thanksgiving Day in 1855. President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November, 1863, as "a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father."

"Each year afterward ... the President of the United States formally proclaims a national Thanksgiving Day... (In 1941) Congress ruled that the fourth Thursday of November would be observed as Thanksgiving Day and would be a legal federal holiday."

Many people today are trying to rewrite our American history. They want the rising generation to believe that we are not a Christian country, and never were a Christian country. But history says that we were. I believe we still ARE.

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD" (Psalm 33:12).

IV. Thanksgiving reminds us to worship our Heavenly Father with hearts full of gratitude and thanks.

Psa 100:1 A psalm for giving thanks. Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
Psa 100:2 Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
Psa 100:3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Psa 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
Psa 100:5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

A. We are thankful that God made us. We did not evolve from worms, rats or apes. God made Adam and Eve directly and supernaturally, and He is truly our Heavenly Father. We are not animals. We are human beings, made in the image of God.

B. We are thankful that God is a God of goodness and love, and that He will always be like that. He is not changeable. He is not capricious. He is not cruel. He is not immoral. He is absolutely good. He is worthy of our trust, and so we trust Him to do right forever. This is a great blessing.

Conclusion: Someone once quipped, instead of a day of Thanksgiving, we should have a day of grumbling, and then give thanks for 364 days. That makes a lot of sense. Let's learn to be thankful every day. Let's treasure this year's Thanksgiving season. Amen.