American Thanksgiving | Roots in Divinity | National Day of Prayer | Not Mine Eyes Lord

By Rev. Nicholas Sybrowsky

LIVE UNCUT!

Invocation:

We thank thee, dear Lord, that in this mad world of today so full of chaos, pain, and suffering we can still look up and realize thy presence. We thank thee for this magnificent country which has so long protected us, but which we are now proud to defend. Help us to realize the dependence of this great nation [is] on our physical and mental cleanness and our faithfulness to our appointed task. Through nearness of thee may we be brought nearer to those whom we hold dear at home [and abroad.] Help those who now make war realize its utter destructiveness and uselessness, that the world may soon know peace again. Amen” Adapted from ~Seaman US Navy 1942 (Cite 1)

Opening Word & Reading for Worship:

I’m no King, you’re not a queen. We are children of the King; King Jesus, but otherwise make no mistake Monarchy is dead when you’re a child of God. Only the One True God deserves such honor as a king.

“The children of Israel being oppressed by the Midianites, Gideon marched against them with a small army, and victory, through the divine interposition, decided in his favor. The Jews elate with success, and attributing it to the generalship of Gideon, proposed making him a king, saying, rule thou over us, thou and thy son and thy son’s son. Here was temptation in its fullest extent; not a kingdom only, but an hereditary one, but Gideon in the piety of his soul replied, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you, THE LORD SHALL RULE OVER YOU. Word need not be more explicit; Gideon doth not decline the honor but denieth their right to give it; neither doth he compliment them with invented declarations of his thanks, but in the positive stile [(climbing)] of a prophet charges them with disaffection to their proper sovereign, the King of Heaven.” ~Thomas Paine Common Sense (Cite 2)

Mr. Paine with Gideon (Judges 6:11-8:25 "doing what was right in their own eyes") reminds us that the Israelites got it wrong in a land surrounded by Heathens, they failed to obey the Lord’s instruction to be set apart and to remain faithful to His perfect law so as to have good success. Instead they attempted to mirror the Monarchy & Hereditary successions witnessed in the culture of unbelievers. Let us be holy for our God is holy. Let’s worship Jehovah with song in spirit & truth!

Let me Describe today’s Open Mic: Counting blessings promotes a hotter heart purified by God’s spirit. Whether we like it or not we each have permissive will/control over our personal attitude. Giving thanks promotes the virtue gratitude. Counting the blessings promotes a heart after God’s own heart! During our time of song & prayer the worship team will lead us with music and hymns. Intermittently the congregation is welcome to the mic to share (Online: Leave a comment!).

Whether you’re happy on a peak or sorrowful in a valley low; I invite you on behalf of the church to give thanks today at the community altar! Briefly share in :02 minutes or less details of what you appreciate.

I’ll go first; I appreciate Thanksgiving, our country and our new church family. The transition from military to civilian has been difficult & it continues in some regard, but two constants we’ve had that have proven reliable to us this year. The church and our faithful Master, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Whether we like the event details surrounding our American Thanksgiving holiday or not, let the truth be told. Human history has many details we don’t like. Details we shouldn’t like! The painful reality of these details causes us to recognize our need for the Savior. Instead of doing whatever is right in our own eyes we can allow God’s commanding mercy and graceful power to lead us out of the darkness with His looking glass; the Bible. With God’s help we gain strength to declare, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”(Jer.24:15) Loving the One True God empowers us to fear God rationally(Deut. 6:5), to be the salt & light in the world and to earnestly live an authentic life that is principally centered, doctrinally sound, well balanced, durably flexible, obedient and spiritually ready for the perfect will of God.

With the public holiday we have the opportunity to build the community altar and move from personal victory in the Lord’s glory to providing the same victory to others publicly fulfilling the vision to “go” into all of the world proclaiming the Word to mankind (Mt. 28:19). Please repeat after me. To God be ALL the glory!

Prayer is very important for the shaping of mankind’s heart.

Intro:

Some history on America’s National Day of Prayer; now in her 248th year of nationalized unity with our 47th Commander & Chief President Elect Donald J. Trump. Brief history including the National Day of Prayer & the Constitution. Founding father & Author of the document Common Sense,

Thomas Paine wrote “When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.”

Carefully written by him in Philadelphia in his counting the cost to separate from the United Kingdom and was printed and circulated by Robert Bell near January 10th, 1776 less than six months before The Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. Common Sense is full of Biblical references to guide their young ventures in the Declaration of Independence (Cite 2).

Long before the Thanksgiving holiday is declared a national annual day of prayer, we can witness throughout scripture and human history the act of repentance, humbling of oneself before the Lord Almighty and giving thanks to our primary benefactor and the merits of Jesus the Christ our Lord. We see it in the OT and heart of David in the Psalms. We see it exemplified throughout the NT Covenant. Before the American—British Revolutionary War of 1812 during James Madison’s presidency, Before the war of 1812 the First National Proclamation of Thanksgiving was given by the Continental Congress in 1777 from its temporary location in York, Pennsylvania, while the British occupied the national capital at Philadelphia. Delegate Samuel Adams created the first draft. Congress then adopted the final version:… George Washington, leader of the newly declared sovereign nation & its armed forces, proclaimed a Thanksgiving in December 1777 as a victory celebration honoring the defeat of the British at Saratoga.[49] While he and his Army encamped at Valley Forge for the winter. Tributary to the Creator for permitting such a will in mankind. The 16th president & first to be assassinated

Abraham Lincoln said “In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord [AD Jesus Christ] one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.” ~Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863.[Thanksgiving 11][Changing Traditions 60]

Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States. The holiday superseded Evacuation Day, a de facto national holiday that had been held on November 25 each year prior to the Civil War and commemorated the British withdrawal from the United States after the American Revolution.[61]

Thus, I’ve shared in brevity the history of this coming holiday. Many of the prayers and proclamations made in the House of representatives among and by congress are available. I recommend they be read by all American’s interested in understanding the traditions carried out amongst them. It is a public day of prayer & thanksgiving traditionally. I venture to suggest that most of our American Brethren miss the purpose of this public holiday. Thankful for it am I none the less! (Cite 3)

Main Text:

MEV Psalm 95:1O come, let us sing unto the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms! 3For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the heights of the mountains are also His. 5The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. 6O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker. 7For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today if you hear His voice, 8do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, and as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, 9when your fathers tested Me and tried Me, though they had seen My deeds. 10For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways”. 11Therefore I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter into My rest.” (Ps. 95:1-11 MEV)

1. The Heart of God.

At the core of who God is we discover Love & Mercy. God is just and God’s love is unconditional yet to enter His rest we must change to meet and practice His conditional standards. Peter wrote in his epistle 1Pe 1:1 & :16 “To the strangers scattered…Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ…16 Because it is written [in the Law & the Prophets], Be ye holy; for I am holy.”

:8 at Meribah & Massah [The children of Israel tested the Lord & He provided Water from the Rock Exodus 17:7 (Meribah means contention or strife)] Massah meaning “temptation”. At Rephidim, Moses named this particular place while they “journeyed from the Wilderness of Sin”. In Rephidim there was no water. What was the temptation that caused them contention &/or strife? They were upset at Moses the man of God because they were physically thirsty. They desired to be back in their former captivity. Their temptation was doubting God despite witnessing their miraculous deliverance from Egypt. Exodus 17:7 indicates the children of God “tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us, or not?” It was here that the Amalekites were defeated when Moses held up his hand and Aaron & Hur supported the Jehovah Nissi lift (17:15).

:11 Therefore I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter into My rest.” For those who have ears let them hear. When the Lord delivered the Israelites out of bondage and slavery to the Egyptians, they complained about the new unfamiliar life provided by their Savior, God Almighty. Although God loved them unconditionally, God says in :10 “For forty years I loathed that generation…they are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways”.

What are God’s ways? This is reference to His merciful unearned favor. God’s grace and the Ten Commandments written for them to have and rely on to lead them here on earth. Yet we know they failed with the evidence of historical literature available to us in Judges & various other books. Here in this main text in :8-:9 David shares a word of the Lord their God, “[they ought] not harden their hearts, as at Meribah and as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers tested Me and tried Me, though they had seen my [miraculous] deeds. The heart of God indicates that He is faithful even when we are not. Not suggesting your unfaithfulness lacks consequence. GOD LOVES YOU!

2. The Heart of Man.

The core attribute of a man/woman in isolation is character defect. Sin separates us from God and furthers our proclivity to wander astray from God; Scripture declares “man’s heart is wicked from its youth” (Gen. 8:21)

:10 “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways” :8 “harden[ed] hearts[s] as at Meribah”

In the hardened heart. In the spirit of heaviness. In the besiege of the adversary hosts. In the valley of death. Put on the garment of Praise. Praising God is a shaping of our hearts. With a mustard seed of faith, we promote a positive change of attitude. Instead of an crab-itude we gain gratitude. (See Ex 17:15; Mt 17:20)

Crab Bucket Illustration

Sometime before 2012 I had begun to recognize cynicism ruling within me. Causing a stoic hard outer shell. Determining that this wasn’t healthy I did what many do near the coming new year, I resolved to make a change. My decision was to stop complaining and start doing something about it. I know this sounds vague, but it was simple. My habit of complaining without getting involved to be part of the solution wasn’t getting me or anyone else an improved quality of life. I adopted a new maxim: “Complain less & do more.” This simple maxim set me on a new path toward an improved personal attitude and better quality inner & outer life.

The historical records of our American Thanksgiving holiday has many details. Year after year, leader after leader, season after season. I could spend many days and nights researching the background of this public day of prayer. Yes, as a child I learned of Plymouth Rock and the pilgrim feast shared with local native American Indian people. It was mostly the pretty story of fellowship, food &friendship. Of course, as I’ve grown older and allowed further investigation, I’ve discovered other details of long ago that aren’t very pretty. The same holds true in my relationship with the Word of God. Human history has dark details that are hard to accept. Despite all the darkness I’ve found prayer to be paramount to overcoming personal & public darkness. Prayer empowers us wholesome alignment (mind, body & spirit) enabling us to think win/win in our interdependence upon one another.

3. The Heart of Prayer.

The core quality of this spiritual discipline is connection & communion with the Creator. This form of communication in the spiritual realm is how we align our mind with the spirit and lead our flesh out of a fallen place into the holy presence of our Creator. Jesus describes heathens & false doctrine to be lacking life in the spirit, proclaiming that despite their physical life existing they are dead spiritually & on the path toward a second spiritual death (Note 4). With the crazy demon possessed man delivered at Gadarenes Jesus proved, to me at least, that the spirit in mankind is stronger than the mind of mankind, hence his worship expression in (Note 5).

The Poem Attitude by Charles Swindoll is available (Cite 6) at here on the blog at URL: IntheBookofLife.blogspot.com or google search it.

Thirty Minute Sermon Digression about Attitude!

Gratitude is a virtue.

We are not born with an attitude of gratitude. If we are to learn to grow & develop an attitude of gratitude, we can start by sharing thanksgiving to God in our personal prayer conversations with the Lord. I believe the sooner we learn to take ownership of our attitude the sooner we will exercise the practice of thanksgiving and grow an attitude of gratitude. Why not start with giving thanks to God for the basics? Breath of Life, Water, Shelter, Fire & food to sustain our physical bodies. Praise God for the revelation that we have from Jesus’ time in the desert a spiritual life that is sustained by the very Word of God (Mt & Lk 4:4 KJV).

Over the course of using the maxim described, I did my best to reach further within myself and beyond myself to improve my thought life. Only I didn’t see it as thought life clearly at the time, hindsight vision is much clearer than the foresight of that period. For the sake of time I’ll put it this way. I became open to the idea of paradigm shift and these changes happened within me immeasurably over the course of 3 years.

In time I came to relate to the very darkness of Human & American history and saw within myself the epitome of the character defects that are hard to accept. Instead of allowing the darkness to further consume me I allowed the forgiveness of Christ Jesus to enter into my dark bottomless pitiful soul. He shared with me that life as I know it could be salvaged by His substitutionary work upon the cross. Not long after accepting that I am a sinner in need of saving I started to count blessings of grace & mercy. Unknowingly at the time, instead of coveting my neighbors’ grass, I began watering my own & witnessed a transformation of my physical, spiritual, mental, social & emotional conditions.

In my opinion all this came about because I deliberately made the choice that I want to be part of the solution to social issues instead of being part of the problem. Instead of complaining I choose to look through the perspective of God’s lenses which helps me sustain the paradigm shift necessary to progressively move forward as a partner in salvation. Practicing thanksgiving has improved my thought life & leads me away from depression & darkness. It made straight the path (Cite 7) to Jesus’ substitutionary work upon the cross. The cross prepares us to be received & to receive the covenant promises of God.

Next Week: Return to JSM | Uprightness .14 | Devotion Prayer .2

Conclusion:

Children of the Creator. Despite our failure to accept God’s character as true, even while we are sinners, yet he still loved us by sending deliverance to the Israelites; providing them manna in the wilderness and then quail. Despite their testing complaints, the Lord demonstrated mercy giving them water from the rock & victory against heathenness Amalekites in the promised land. God helps those who help themselves & those who can’t help themselves too!

Exhortation:

Contrary to Aztec (ancient Toltec wisdom) philosophy of Miguel Ruiz author of the 4 agreements, Take it personal! Guard your prayer life in the Lord. I’m not suggesting prideful arrogance. But warning you in a world that competes for your spiritual time. When we personally & secretly give thanks prayerfully, we proclaim, our spiritual eyes and activate life in the spirit.

It’s a spirit that says, “Not my eyes, but Yours Lord!”

We declare that our world view is empty & purposeless without the Lord’s priority. We overcome neglecting to observe the book of the law (Jos. 1:8) & the many love letters to the local church. We remove spiritual blindness and promote God’s promises to manifest in the covenant life anew. In the Spirit we develop godly character and strength to grow a sound Biblical worldview (Jos. 1:9, Ro. 8, Gal. 5). Real love is sacrificial and sometimes avoiding “taking it personal” drives us to self-reliance and isolation from others. In essence by it we may miss the call to deny ourselves, follow Jesus and carry our own cross daily (Lk 9:23). We are better together! The church is God’s design. (Cite 8)

Altar Call to Action/Suggested Response:

Start a Thanksgiving page (personal practice in journaling past). Thanksgiving wall. Here at DCAG we launched a large tree that we share in the sanctuary.

The Gratitude Tree

This tree was intended to come down after a few months but remains on the wall. Please let us continue to add leaf hands to our tree. It’s not quite as full as I sense the Lord is leading us to build. This practice promotes endurance and the overcoming of some circumstances beyond our control. Those that are painful begin to change or are the contrasted highlighting changes to be in proportion to reality. Mole hills remain mole hills and mountains remain mountains! It also helps us become bold in prayer invoke God’s perfect will, magnifying the manifestation of His power! Moving heaven and earth!

It’s up to each of us individually, we can “go astray” or we can “go” proclaim the gospel (Mt. 28:19).

Prayer & song.

Please repeat after me. To God be the glory! And all of God’s people in agreement said, Amen.

I Need You to Survive by Hezekiah Walker

Benediction:

“[3] Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, [4] who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. [5] For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. [6] Now if we are afflicted, [it is] for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, [it is] for your consolation and salvation. [7] And our hope for you [is] steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also [you will partake] of the consolation. [2Co 1:3-7 NKJV]”

Next Week's Message:

Credits, Citations & Notes:

Seaman’s Prayer 1942 transcribed from picture as an Basic Engineering Common Core Hull Maintenance Technician Apprentice School as a Senior student re-visiting the Great Lakes, IL USO in 2014.
We The People | Documents and Writings of the Founding Fathers | Sweet Water Press | pg. 16 Of Monarchy & Succession; pg. 41 Of the Present Ability of America, with Some Miscellaneous Reflections. Link to recommended book)
Continental Congress and other historical references at Wikipedia follow links above for a rabbit hole investigation. Leave yourself a cookie trail to avoid ending up in the oven! 😏
Spiritually dead See Mt. 6:7; 8:22, Lk 9:60, Acts 4:25 & Heb. 6:1.
Demon Possessed Man Delivered See Mt & Lk 8:28 and Mk 5:1 and follow Link for more about the region.
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude is more important to me than facts, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, say or do. It’s more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company…church…or a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we embrace for the day. We cannot change our past…We cannot change the fact that people will act a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so, it is with you…We are in charge of our attitudes. ~Charles Swindoll”
See Blue Letter Bible Word search “make straight” Emphasis on the Gospel of John and the prophet Esaias (Gk. form of the name Isaiah)
Note regarding The Four Agreements by Mr. Miguel Ruiz (“self-help” literature). These agreements proved helpful in a time of wandering spiritually. I appreciate the experience I had, yet this one agreement (take nothing personal) became problematic. To some degree I apply the principle today, but it’s more of a boundary marker. “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” ~Theodore Roosevelt 26th U.S. President (Arguably). The habit of not taking it personal can be a form of self-protection and personal defense; even stoicism. Unfortunately, it only furthers the isolation caused by sin and unforgiveness. We must learn pity & true forgiveness. In a time of shamanic-like practice of my faith I later discovered this idea was damaging my ability to be empathetic & preventing authentic compassion. Hence a warning to the Christian to watch out for syncretic beliefs that thwart or prevent living as a disciple of Jesus Christ. It’s a form of hardening of heart. Watch out! Guard your heart from hardening! (See Gen. 6:5; Deut. 6:5; Pro. 6:18, :21; 7:3; Jn. Hos. 10:12; Mt. 5:8, 13:15; Mk. 16:14; 12:40; Acts 7:54, 28:27; Ro. 1:21, 2:29; Eph. 4:8; Heb. 4:12).

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