Transcript

Bishop E.W. Franklin discusses Thanksgiving on the Awakening podcast

Bishop EW Jackson: Welcome to another edition of the Awakening podcast. I'm your host, Bishop EW. Great to be with you again. We are right smack in the middle of the Thanksgiving season. Holiday season. It's about to start. the first time m. You're hearing this, if you're listening to it when it's Posted on Wednesday, 24th November, is the day before Thanksgiving. So I wanted to spend some time today talking about Thanksgiving and what we have to be thankful for. Again. There are always lots of things in the news to talk about, but I think sometimes we have to take a little step away from that and talk about things that are eternal, if you will, things that aren't going to change with the current events. And Thanksgiving is certainly one of those things. I think it's one of the greatest holidays that America has. right at their second, perhaps only to Resurrection Sunday and Christmas, because it was really started, as you know, by the pilgrims as a day of thanksgiving. And by the way, not to the turkeys and not to the Native Americans. No disrespect to the Native Americans intended, but it was not thanking the Native Americans. They were thanking Almighty God for having survived the horrendous first winter. there in what must have seemed to them to be one of the wildest places they'd ever seen in their lives. Cold, forbidding, difficult to farm. And they struggled through it and of course, lost a lot of people. Some of them they lost on the voyage, but some of them they lost in that first winter. I forget the exact number, but they lost substantial number of their people, I think about half of them, in that first winter. And so they got together after that first winter with some help, from some of the natives there. M. Particularly Squantum, who, I think it was, you know what I'm talking about. but the native who had been to England, learned to speak English, and, befriended the settlers and helped them to figure out how to. Squanto helped them to figure out how to, I said squantum. Forgive me, folks. You know what? I've been dealing a lot with quantum physics and mechanics here lately, and I had that on my brain. But, at any rate, look, all of that was the providence of Almighty God. The Fact that he was there to help them, that was all in the plan of God. God had a great plan for this entire continent, and they could not have foreseen what it was, but they had a small part to play in it. And, Squanto and that first Thanksgiving marked the history of this nation. Well, none of that was official. That was just settlers doing what their culture, their Christian culture, propelled them to compel them to do, which is to thank God for the bounty. Thank God for surviving. Thank God for providing the first official Thanksgiving. However, the first official declaration of a day of thanksgiving was by George Washington on, October 3rd of 1789. this was his first official proclamation. It was a Thanksgiving proclamation. I've quoted this proclamation many, many times. It begins, 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 favor and protection. Now, that's. That's our first president's first proclamation. Now, folks, to me, just like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, it lays down a marker for who we are as a people. Well, this is why, you know, I am grateful for the Founding Fathers. Grateful for them, thank God for them. They weren't perfect people any more than you and I are now. Some of them, like Thomas Jefferson, a brilliant writer and political thinker in some ways. Some of them, like Alexander Hamilton, a brilliant financier, a person just brilliant with money. Patrick Henry, a brilliant speaker. Ben Franklin, inventor. George Washington. I think I really believe this, folks. George Washington is the greatest figure our country has ever produced. There have been some great people after George Washington, but I really believe, overall, George Washington is the greatest figure our country has ever produced. Because without him, I think he really was the indispensable man. And without him, we would not have a country. So I am thankful to God for him. but this is his first proclamation. Listen to what else he went on to say. He assigned the 26th of November of that year. he said, to be devoted by the people of these states in 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, that we may all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks for his kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation, to the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the Late war 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, particularly the national one now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed. You know, George Washington was home schooled. He had no formal education. But just think about those words and how powerful they are. And these people want to suggest that our country is not a Christian nation. That our country, doesn't have its roots. Grounding and founding in the word of God are just. Well, we know what they really are. They're not just ignorant, they're liars. They're liars because they want to undermine that foundation so they can take the country in an entirely different way than the founders or the people of our country ever desired. They're trying to shift away from those values and those foundations so they can radically transform this country.

George Washington established a culture of Thanksgiving

Well, I want to talk a little bit about Thanksgiving from this perspective. You know, George Washington there established. Because remember, he was the precedent setting precedent. He established a culture of, Thanksgiving. See, to me, Thanksgiving Day is not simply a day that we offer thanks to God. We as Christians, of course, should be offering thanks to God every single day of our lives. But he was setting down a marker, just like the Declaration of Independence set down a marker and the Constitution set down a marker. He was setting down a marker for the kind of country we'd be. And to me, George Washington was saying we should be a thankful country. We should be a grateful country. Thankful and grateful to Almighty God for all he's done for us. You know, I'm convinced that there are those. And this is the, this is how revolutions and how, how radical transformations of nations, of a nation like ours certainly would happen. You change the culture of the nation from one of thankfulness and gratitude to one of protest and bitterness and complaint and disenchantment, and anger and division. So instead of thanking God for all we've got. No, no, no. We're complaining for all we don't have and complaining about certain people who we say are the ones who are stopping us from having it. Instead of being grateful to God for this great nation, we're complaining about those conservatives, those fascists. Not we, not you and I. But people are complaining about, you know, it's racism, it's sexism, it's this, this, that, it's homophobia, Islamophobia. Complaining about all this stuff. Much of which is just made up. It's made up. Never pausing to say, lord, thank you that I live in a country in which it is possible for me, when I feel I must, to raise a complaint against my government, knowing that I will not be killed for it, I will not be arrested for it. I will not be punished for it in any way, certainly not by my government. And thank you that I live in a country where we are guaranteed that freedom. But, oh, no, no, no, they don't care about that because they don't want that freedom for everybody anyway. The people who want to radically and fundamentally transform the country, they don't care about freedom of speech anyway because they only want freedom of speech for themselves. They don't want it for you. They don't want it for me. We're fascists, remember? We're Nazis. We're Christian nationalists. We don't deserve to be heard. Which is why whenever a conservative goes on a college campus, there's always some kind of protest to try to stop them from speaking.

Thanksgiving did not become an official holiday until 1863 by Abraham Lincoln

Well, Thanksgiving did not become an official holiday after that declaration, at that proclamation by Abraham Lincoln. It, did, forgive me, by George Washington. It did not become an official holiday until Abraham Lincoln in 1863, signed an executive order making the last Thursday in November a day of Thanksgiving from year to year. That's when it actually officially became a holiday. Now, by the way, folks, I don't know whether you're familiar with this history, but, you know, and I did not know this until I was doing some research in preparation for my Thanksgiving Day message. I did not know that Thanksgiving was a controversial holiday. And it was controversial because Abraham Lincoln signed the proclamation, for Thanksgiving in the middle of the Civil War. And so the Southern government, the Confederacy, resented it because they said basically that it was nothing but a Yankee holiday and that it was nothing but a cloak of abolitionists. They thought, you know, this is nothing but a cloak of abolitionism. And they were, always somewhat skeptical about it anyway because they saw it as a Yankee holiday. You know, who cares what happened at Plymouth? You know, I'm thankful to God that our nation held together. I really am. I'm thankful to God that we held together. Because, as you all know, you, know, I was thinking about this recently. You know, there's people who say, and they. They get a lot of resentment when they say it, that the Civil War wasn't about slavery. Well, you know, they have a point. They have a point, I think, on some level. Now, please, for those, folks that will hear this and one will see. See those black conservatives, they're denying reality on a certain level. The Civil War really wasn't about slavery. The Civil War was about the nature of our country. It was about whether, as you've heard me say before, whether the Declaration of Independence, the signing of the Constitution, the ratification of the Constitution meant that we were one indissoluble union, or meant that we were a voluntary union that any state could leave any time they wanted. See, because that issue is not really addressed in the Constitution, is it? The assumption, I think, on the part of those who entered into the Union was that it was permanent, but there probably were some who signed it thinking, well, if it doesn't work out, we'll go our own way. And as I've said, we had a. A secession crisis in 1833 with South Carolina, over the tariffs that Andrew Jackson passed. And, I think it was John Calhoun, who, who was his vice president at the time, who basically stabbed Andrew Jackson in the back over this thing and said, you know, because he felt he was South Carolinian, felt that it. This violated their rights. M And South Carolina threatened to secede then, and Andrew Jackson threatened to march troops into South Carolina if they tried it. So see, even then, and this had nothing to do with slavery. Even then, that issue, that issue of the nature of our union was in play. And believe it or not, folks, it's still in play. Even though I think the issue of secession has been settled. we've got California, Illinois, the two most prominent, I would say Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Maine. We've got states now that act like the Supremacy clause doesn't exist. And they can do whatever they want to do. They can defy the federal government. If they don't like it, they can ignore it. Now, I don't get into all that to undermine what I'm saying about being thankful. Here's what I'm saying. The folks who think this way and are constantly raising these kinds of issues against our country and against our government, these people have no gratitude for the constitutional republic that they've been blessed to have. They have no gratitude for it. They just as soon rip it apart as to see it flourish and prosper. And it really is, it is. You know, to me, it is blasphemy against almighty God to look at this wonderful country. And rather than being able to say, lord, thank you, thank you so much that you made me an American. Thank you so much that I get to enjoy the liberty and the hope and the opportunity that abounds in this nation. Thank you. That I live here and nowhere else. You know, most of them simply won't say that. Although you ask them where else would you live? They have no answer. You know, Rosie o' Donnell can go to Ireland all she wants and these people can go anywhere they want. But I tell you what, they wouldn't have become rich and famous in places. Mm They can go to those places now and have a platform because the United States of America made it possible for them m to become rich and famous. And when you become rich and famous in America, guess what? You become rich and famous throughout the world. And these people don't have a lick of gratitude for what they've been able to achieve and what they could only have achieved in our country. They'll have a liquor gratitude for this nation. And I really believe that we've got to restore a culture of thanksgiving in our country where we are thankful. I mean, all this resentment against the flag, the flag triggers me, the flag is racist, all that. It's a lack of gratitude because we see. When I look at the flag, I've got a flag right over my right shoulder right now. When I look at the flag, I look at all of those people who fought under it and bled under it and died under it that we might be free. I think of the revolutionary war in which so many of our people lost their lives that we might be free. I think of my children, my grandchildren and the country that they get to grow up in. A nation of individual liberty where they get to fulfill their God given potential and talents and abilities and go to the highest place it will take them as opposed to Europe and China and Russia and countries of Africa and even Australia or South America or most of the Middle east, you name it. There's no place, including Israel, and I love Israel, but there's no place including Israel where anybody can make anything of themselves. They have the gift, the talent and the will to make of themselves. And we ought to be grateful. We ought to be thankful. We ought to be thanking God every single day of our lives that we are Americans and not something else. I mean, I look at my own life and how many people in other parts of the world could have been born into poverty, grown up in foster care and then after foster care, raised by a single dad who had a sixth grade education and was a third class welder and sonship building and dry dock company in Chester, Pennsylvania. And in what other country is it possible for that man's son to serve in the United States Marine Core, graduate from college, go on to the top law school in the country, become a lawyer, practice law, write books, speak all over the country, run for office, even ran for president of the United States. Now, where else is that possible? I'll tell you where else. Nowhere. Nowhere. Because in most places of the world, what you're born as is what you die as. Well, you might be able to make a little headway, but we are an upwardly mobile society, and most societies in the world today are frozen societies. They are stagnant societies because the elites in those societies protect their positions and the positions of their family members and their friends and the people who are part of their circle and keep everybody else down. Now, does some of that happen in our country? I have no doubt it does. There are people like that, but I tell you what, they can't stop anybody who's determined because there are too many doors of opportunity. You can't close them all. Folks, I am thankful to God in every single American. See, that ought to unite us. Instead of people looking at us and pointing the finger. Christian nationalist. You know, this nonsense, fascist. Everybody in America ought to be able to join hands and say, look, we may not agree on much else, but thank God we're Americans. Thank God we were born in the land of the freedom, the home of the brave.

Thank God we produce heroes in every generation who have fought for our liberty

Thank God we produce heroes in every generation who have been willing to fight and bleed and die for our liberty. And thank God we're a nation founded on the principle that rights and liberties do not come from some beneficent human being, some dictator, some potentate, some president, some king, but rights and liberty acknowledged by our declaration and Constitution. Rights and liberty come from almighty God, as the preamble to the Constitution says. It is written to secure the, blessings of liberty. And by the way, that preamble, as I'm sure you know, written by Gouverneur Morris was who was the most avid anti slavery founding father in the bunch. And he wrote that the purpose of this preamble, purpose of this constitution, is to secure the blessings of liberty. See, and they may, some of them may not have meant it, but he meant it for everybody, regardless of the color of their skin. And his words were prophetic. You know, I've made some people angry when I say, you know what? I don't care how my ancestors got here. I'm just glad they got here. And I'm not backing off of that. I am glad. I know that some of my ancestors probably went through horrible circumstances in slavery. I Realized that. Not that the world was any island or oasis, a, ah, paradise. Not that they would have lived wonderful lives if they had not been enslaved. But slavery takes away your liberty. It takes away your autonomy. And that is never what God has in mind for any human being. He wants us free to serve him and to fulfill his plan for our lives. So my ancestors paid a price. But I'll tell you, I am so glad they did see. I say they didn't see me. My ancestors didn't see me coming, but God did. You think about those of you listening to me right now. You know, maybe your ancestors were poor Irish, or maybe they were poor Italian. maybe they came over here and struggled. at times they couldn't. They could barely put food on the table or shelter over their heads and went through all kinds of struggles. And you right now may be living up, you don't have to be a millionaire, but living in a nice house. And, maybe you're retired, or maybe you've got a small business that you run, but just think about what you have that your ancestors who came to this country two centuries ago, a century ago or more could not have foreseen, but God did. God did. So see that indentured Irish or Italian, servant that came over and found themselves under the yoke of bondage for 7 to 10 years or whatever it might be. In some cases, when they tried to break free, they were told, no, no, you owe more time. And sometimes they were held in bondage a lot longer than their, indentured servitude called for. But just think, those people serving in those circumstances, some of them suffering tremendously under the yoke of some really wicked, twisted owner of their indentured servitude, they must have thought, well, maybe one day I'll be out. But they probably never thought of you. You, the great, great, great grandchildren. That person who would, who would live a life they couldn't even have dreamed of. See, that that's why we need to be grateful instead of griping, because the hand of God has been in this, working it out for all of our behalf. God is in the blessing business. You know, God doesn't. He didn't make us to suffer. If he had, he wouldn't have planted Adam, and Eve in a Garden of Eden. He made us to enjoy life. But sin came in and caused a lot of suffering. And God is always the one who comes in and out of that suffering. God brings redemption and peace and joy and love. So, yeah, my great grandparents were slaves, but I've never been one. It probably. My great grandfather probably worked his fingers to the bone, working the land, picking cotton, who knows? But I never did that. And yeah, I grew up in poverty. I never lived in a home until, my wife and I got married. I was out of law school and we bought our first home. I lived in apartment, little apartment buildings, my father and I. Before I left for the Marine Core, my father and I were living in an apartment building, on the back of a barbershop. And we had the second floor and the back of the barbershop. So sometimes we would come in through the barbershop when it was closed, walk in through the barbershop, and then open the door to our apartment through the barbershop. I don't live in the back of a barbershop now. Hallelujah. and you know what I say? Only in America. Only in America. And I think if God, if you'll allow God to deposit the appropriate gratitude in your heart, in other words, to let you see what has been done for you. And I say this not to you all listening, because. Or watching because you all feel the same way I do, but we got a bunch of knuckleheads out there who think America is the worst place in the world. I mean, and they're just as, oh, my goodness, like I've said about Tim Kaine, you got to rein their IQ. You got to raise your IQ 200 points to get to dumb because they're in negative territory, man. I am passionate about my love for this country because my love for this country grows out of my gratitude to God. My desire to serve this country is an act of thanksgiving. I'm grateful. Therefore, I give all of you activists out there and people are working to try to stop what you know are godless, evil, wicked policies that are against the will of God. You are serving God and serving your country, all of those. You have put on a uniform and taken the oath to the Constitution and potentially put yourself in harm's way. You are serving God and your country. You're serving your country out, of gratitude to God and your country. I, ah, had somebody come to visit me not too long ago and they were trying to find my house because we are in a rural community, and our house doesn't sit right on the road. You know, you won't. You'd have to really kind of be looking for it to see it. You can see it, but, you know, you're not going to just glance and see it because it sits Way back from the road, but somebody's coming to visit me. And when they found the house, they said, well, when I saw that flag, he said, I knew I had the right house because my flag is prominently displayed on my lawn. It sits on a 20 foot pole, billows in the breeze, because that symbolizes how I feel about my country. So we've got so much to be thankful for.

When Abraham Lincoln declared a day of Thanksgiving in 1863, it was controversial

Now, here's another little interesting piece of history. did you know that, when Abraham Lincoln in 1863, I think I mentioned this a little earlier, declared a day of Thanksgiving, it was a controversial act. And it was controversial because, of course, in the middle of a Civil War, with the Confederacy hating Abraham Lincoln and of course hating the north too. And there had been resentment even before the Civil War of Thanksgiving because they thought it was a Yankee thing. And even then there was a lot of regional pride and also regional division even before the Civil War. And when Abraham Lincoln issued the proclamation, who cares what Abraham Lincoln thinks? But there were some states who realized that Thanksgiving transcended regional differences and it transcended state differences. And believe it or not, the first state to acknowledge Thanksgiving as a holiday, even though they knew it had begun really in NewSong England, was the state that ultimately became the capital of the Confederacy. Virginia. Virginia in 1855 recognized Thanksgiving as a holiday. You know, there were some states who didn't recognize it until 1947, namely Mississippi and Arkansas. And it's not because these people weren't thankful. It was because they simply didn't distill that cultural aftermath of the Civil War in which people didn't feel they wanted something forced on them. But, you know, this is why folks, oh, my goodness gracious. I could talk about this all day and I can't do that. But this is why this country was able to knit itself together, was able to knit itself together after losing over 600,000 of our precious people, north and South. And by the way, this is often forgotten, there was that many people or more who were so severely handicapped, so severely injured that they were handicapped for life. We don't even think about that. Not only did you have over 600,000 dead, you had about 600,000 lost eyes, lost limbs, couldn't walk. I mean, all kinds of terrible things had happened. How do you put the country back together after trying to rip each other apart with physical violence that way? Well, I'm convinced that's what did it. What did it is the fact that we all knew we owed God a, debt of thanks for Every good thing we had. And I think that's the foundation. That's the common thread that knits and sews the nation back together. Well, you know, we human beings, we have to have a little bit more humility about life. That's why I say about slavery. You know, I say, you expect me to get all worked up about slavery in America when slavery was happening everywhere in the world. Everywhere in the world. And it wasn't Europeans, it wasn't the white evil. White people say, I mean, give me a break. Asians practiced slavery, and Africans practiced slavery, and Europeans practiced slavery, and Indians practiced slavery, and Middle Easterners practiced slavery. Slavery was practiced everywhere in the world because it was simply a symbol and an activity that grew out of the sinful nature of human beings estranged from Almighty God. Because owning a human being gets a fallen human being where they. Where their father, the devil, wants them to be in a position to act like God. So give me a break. You know, these people running around, they want black folks to hate white people because white people. Give me a break. You know what? I guarantee you this. I've never done a statistical analysis on this. But I guarantee you, if the African slave trade, the Atlantic slave trade, had never started, had never started, you'd have had as many Africans enslaved in Africa and other places in the world just the same. They just never crossed the Atlantic to Europe. But they'd have been enslaved anyway. Because it's not a racial thing. It's a. It's a sin thing. It's not the skin. It's the sin. So I was going to say, you know, so the irony here. Here's the irony. What? I love the South. I love the South. Sometimes I think, well, I'm where God called me to be. I'm in my ancestral home, Virginia, where my great grandfather was born and my grandfather was born. My history goes back 200 years. My great grandfather was born the year before Washington, George Washington died. This is my ancestral home. I'm not going anywhere, and I'm not going to let these lefties take it over, even though it's looking bad right now. But I love the South. I love the south, man. You know, And I say often, if the Lord hadn't called me here, my only regret is I didn't move further South. So it's ironic. After World War II, because of segregation, you had all these Americans of African ancestry heading up north because jobs were here and a little bit better treatment, and you didn't have legal segregation, in the north. you had some of the, similar problems, but there wasn't legal segregation, and so they just flooded up here by the millions. The great northern, northern migration. And now guess what? A, bunch of them are heading back. But, you know, that's the irony of history. You just. People just need to get over the past, because all the past, whatever wrongs you think were done in the past are simply. Are simply a symptom of the much deeper problem. And the deeper problem is sin. And sin has no racial or ethnic boundaries. Man, I'm so grateful to God to be an American. I don't know what to do. I can preach the gospel. I can go stand on any street corner in America right now and start preaching the gospel, and nobody can stop me. They can't stop me. And if anything, they might be saying, well, you're disturbing this merchant. and that might be. The merchant might say, you're keeping my customers away. And so can you make a little bit of an accommodation? But nobody can stop me and say, well, you can't say that here. I'll say anything I want. I mean, people stand about on the street and curse and use all kind of profanity and blaspheme God's name and all that. I can certainly stand up and preach the gospel. And have done it, by the way. Have done it. You all didn't know that, did you? Oh, yeah. I preached in the street. I preached on a soapbox on a corner. Absolutely.

 Let me read Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation

And might even do it some more before it's all over, you know. Listen, I am not above getting on a soapbox and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to anybody who. Who's coming by, who's willing to hear. Because it's the greatest story ever told. It is the only truth that will set people free. And I'll say it from the rooftops if I have an opportunity. I'm so grateful to God to live in a country where I can say that with conviction. Because you can't do that in most places of the world, Saints. You cannot do it. We ought to be grateful to God. Let me. Let me get to, Abraham Lincoln's. Let me find it. Abraham Lincoln's, Thanksgiving Proclamation. here we go. Because it's very, very interesting. Now, this is when Thanksgiving becomes an actual holiday. Now, here's what Abraham Lincoln said in 1863 in the Middle of a civil war. He says, the year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. This is an excerpt, by the way. So if you read it. You'll see. It reads. You know, you'll see things I've left out because I don't have time to try to read the whole. These bounties are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come. In the midst of a civil war of unequal magnitude and severity, peace has been preserved with all foreign nations. Order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theater of military conflict. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, which was a tool for making clothes. The ship iron and coal have yielded even more abundantly. Population has steadily increased. No human council has 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, because Abraham Lincoln believed the Civil War was God's judgment on the whole nation for the sin of slavery, he says, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, have 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 at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November, next day, next, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent father who dwelleth in the heavens. Now, he said that in the middle of a civil war. Now, you know, I'm sure that there were southerners who just ripped that up and turned. Who cares what he says? But I guarantee there were people even in the south who read that and said, you know, he's right. Because there were parts of the South. Not much. I mean, based on Sherman's, march, but still, there were parts of the south that were relatively untouched. The further south you got, the less. I mean, most of the Civil War was fought in the northern part of the south, right? So there was a whole swath of the country that was virtually untouched. When you think about it. I mean, our western parts, California, Oregon, Washington, they weren't. They were territories then, for the most part, but they weren't. They weren't touched. Abraham Lincoln was looking for something to be thankful for, and he found plenty. And I want to say to you, this Thanksgiving holiday, maybe you got some problems, you got some Challenges. Lord knows I do. You know why? Because all of us, all of us have challenges. All of us, all of us have problems. I say there are many universal truths. Here's one. Everybody's got problems. I don't care if you are Elon Musk or you're the homeless person on the street. Everybody's got problems. They might be a little bit different, and the solutions might be different, and the way you approach them might be different. But I guarantee you, you got problems because that's the human condition. But Abraham Lincoln had problems, but he was looking for. He was looking for things for which to be thankful for, to God. And I would say to you, we've got to do the same thing. And, you know, you don't have to look far. You really don't. There's plenty to be thankful for, folks. I mean, you know, there's an old song says, he woke me up this morning and started me on my way. The Lord is blessing me right now. We can be thankful that we were seeing another day, just another day. The Lord has blessed us, we get to see it. Psalm 139, 16 says, all our days were fashioned when as yet, there were none of them. We could be thankful that God has brought us from a mighty long way. You know, the longer you live, the more you appreciate the fact that so many others have gone before you and are not here. I mean, a portion of health and strength. I know some of you watching me right now may be shut in or something. you know, you may be infirm, but I guarantee you there are people who are worse off. Some of them, of course, are far beyond infirmity. They're done on this earth. But even more importantly than that, than, you know, food in your cupboard and shelter over your head and clothes on your back and shoes on your feet and, and health and strength to do what you have to do and make some money to spend to pay the things you need to pay. And eyes that see and ears that hear and a tongue that talks. And they say, well, in fact, I've got a blind person in my church. But you know what? She's got a wonderful brain and she can hear well and she can speak well. She is very articulate, very intelligent, and very steeped in the things of God. We're believing God for her sight to be restored. But I tell you what, she's way ahead of a whole bunch of people I know who can see.

There's so much to be grateful for, but most importantly Jesus Christ

There's so much to be grateful for, but most importantly that God the Father Sent Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, to die on the cross for our sins, to pay the awesome union price for every wrong thing we've ever done. He suffered, bled, and died on that cross. In the heat of the day, he died for us. His spirit went down into hell for us. But the word of God says, you shall not leave his soul in hell, nor suffer your Holy one to see corruption. On the third day, he got up, and picked up a resurrection body, an immortal body, who, a man is now seated at the throne of God, who is both God and man, because he was God come in the flesh. But he surrendered all of that. According to Philippians chapter two, he was found in likeness as a man. He humbled himself and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And my brothers and sisters, God can't die, but Jesus did. That means that Jesus gave up, his divine power and authority in order for death to touch him. His status never changed, but his authority and power was gone. Gave it all up for you and me. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, shall he not also with him freely give us all things? But on the third day, the Father said, your throne, o God, is forever a scepter of righteousness, the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore, God, your God, has given you the oil of joy above, your brethren. I believe God raised him from the dead. He now has all power, all authority. Everything he gave up, he's got it all back and more. Because now the Father has given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he's Lord, to the glory of God the Father. We better be careful. I'm liable to start preaching in here. Whoo. Folks, I tell you, we've got so much to be grateful for. We're on our, way to heaven. The rest is gravy. We didn't earn it. Jesus paid the price for us. And we live in this wonderful country that there are those forces trying to destroy. But we thank God for our country, and we're fighting the good fight of faith to make sure that we don't lose this wonderful gift that God has given us. So, my friends, I hope that all of you have a wonderful thanksgiving. I hope that all of you enjoy it with your family, maybe some of your friends, and that all of us, all of us across this nation will help restore a culture of thanksgiving to this nation. Yeah. There's some things wrong in our country that we want to correct, but I'm still grateful for the United States of America. This is. This is my home. This is our country, the nation we love because God has given it to us. And we're not going to let the devil take it away. So God bless each and every one of you. I love you. I'm praying for you. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. until we talk again. You know what to do. Stand up, step up, speak up. And refuse to back up. Because we cannot be defeated if we will not quit. Because we are. Ah, on God's side. God bless everybody.