We have many things to be thankful for. At the very top of the list is God’s love for us. For through God’s love, we see His faithfulness, His graciousness and abundant provision for us. Our thankfulness to God should never be affected by our circumstances that we may be experiencing at any given time. It doesn’t matter if you are experiencing the best of times or the worst of times, the Apostle Paul tells us: “No matter what happens, ALWAYS BE THANKFUL, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” 1st Thessalonians 5:16-18 (TLB) The reason for our thankfulness to God, regardless of what may be happening in our lives, was expressed by David metaphorically in spatial dimensions when saying: 8 “If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast.” Psalm 139:8-10 (NIV) We thank God during all circumstances because God is always with us no matter what the circumstances may be. Paul takes this a step further when he said: “We know that ALL THAT HAPPENS TO US [the joyous occasions and victories, as well as the disasters and defeats, and everything in between] is working for our GOOD if we love God and are fitting into His plans.” Romans 8:28 (TLB)
Giving thanks to God is fairly easy when things are going well. It is not so easy to give thanks when we are traveling those rough and rocky roads of life. The problem for us is that we have such a limited perspective on things. Unlike God, we can’t see the big picture and we certainly can’t see what the future holds—as God surely does. If we will trust in the LORD during those times when life just doesn’t make sense, in the long run, we can look back and see what wonderful things God was working out in our lives—either for our own good, or for the good of others. Looking back, we will see what may have been a painful experience at the time, ultimately worked for “good” through our faith in Jesus Christ. This morning, let me tell you about two people who came to understand the reality of that great truth.
The first person was involved in one of the earliest Thanksgiving celebrations in this country. (I say “one of the earliest Thanksgivings” because we Virginians rightfully claim that the first Thanksgiving occurred at Berkeley Hundred on the James River in December, 1619.[1] The one I am about to describe involved the Pilgrims near Plymouth, Massachusetts in the fall of 1621.[2]
The central person in this Plymouth Thanksgiving was not a Pilgrim. Rather, he was a Native American named “Squanto.” He was a member of the Patuxet tribe that inhabited the area where the Pilgrims would eventually land. The Patuxet tribe was very hostile to any white men who came ashore in the vicinity of Cape Cod. Due to a very tragic event, the Patuxet were not around when the Pilgrims first arrived. Otherwise, there would have been no Thanksgiving to celebrate in the Plymouth area. Why?—for the simple reason that there would have been no surviving Pilgrims to conduct the celebration. The warriors of the Patuxet tribe would have surely killed them all. But, as we will see, the demise of the Patuxet tribe shows us that life has many twists and turns, during which God can take even bad things and bring about unpredictably good outcomes if we will only trust in Him.
When Squanto was 25 years old, he experienced something that seemed, at the time, to be a very “bad thing.” He was captured by an English explorer who sailed him off to England. There, Squanto learned English and was trained to be a guide and interpreter. After staying in England for 9 years, in 1614, he was finally allowed to board a vessel headed back to America. He landed on Cape Cod and found his way back to his old tribe where he rejoined old friends and family members. It was good to be back home. Life was great. Then, one day, he was invited to board an English ship to trade for some goods. But, the invitation was a trap. Once Squanto was on board, he was shackled with chains and shipped off to Spain where the ship’s captain intended to sell him as a slave. As he lay in the hole of that ship, he must have wondered how anything good could ever come out of this awful experience. But, even then, God had plans for Squanto that he could have never imagined at the time.
Once in Spain, he was taken in by Catholic priests where the most wonderful thing in his life took place. It was then that Squanto learned about Jesus and how God’s Son came into this world to die for the English, for the Spanish, for Native Americans and anyone else who would surrender their lives to Christ. Upon hearing this Good News, Squanto placed his faith in God and became a Christian. He prayed to the LORD that one day he might be allowed to return to America. He yearned to be reunited with his tribe where he could once again see his family and friends. In 1619, Squanto was overjoyed when he was able to secure passage on a ship headed to Cape Cod. But, when he got there, his entire tribe was gone! Two years before he arrived, a smallpox epidemic had infected his tribe and killed all his friends and family. The entire Patuxet tribe was forever gone. The land that they had cleared around Cape Cod had produced abundant crops for his people. But now, the land was laid bare and unattended. How could this be? Now, that he was a Christian, weren’t only good things supposed to happen to him? This was the most terrible thing he had ever faced in his life. What possible good could come from this tragedy?
Well, one day, in November, 1620, a ship named the Mayflower could be seen approaching the shores of Cape Cod. On that ship was a group of people known as the “Pilgrims.” They were a Protestant congregation searching for religious freedom from the persecution they’d experienced in Europe. After landing, the Pilgrims found the cleared land that the Patuxet tribe had farmed so successfully. Without doubt, had the Patuxet still been alive, they would have surely attacked the Pilgrims and wiped them out. The smallpox tragedy, as terrible as it was, ended up being a blessing for the Pilgrims by removing a direct threat to their existence.
But then, the Pilgrims were attacked in a different way. They became engaged in an intense battle with winter. The snow, cold weather and lack of food took its toll on the Pilgrims. About half of them died. The problem was that these Pilgrims simply did not understand how to eke out a living in this new environment. And so, they prayed that God would send someone to help them. But, day after day, they looked around and nobody came forward to fill that role. Then, one day, a man walked into the Pilgrim’s little settlement. They recognized him immediately as one of the natives. But, how could they possibly learn anything about survival from him when they didn’t speak his language? Well, they didn’t need to speak his language because God had sent them someone who could speak their language. He was someone who knew all about the survival skills necessary to live in this New World the Pilgrims had entered. The man, of course, was Squanto.
Now, Squanto knew Europeans were the ones who had brought the smallpox disease that had killed everyone he loved. So, why should he help them? If ever there was an enemy of his people, they had to be it. But, when Squanto had given his life over to Jesus Christ, he learned something about enemies. Those priests who had rescued him from the chains of slavery taught that Jesus had rescued him from the slavery of sin. And because of that, he was to treat his enemies much differently than the world threats its enemies. Jesus said to “love your enemies.”[3] And now, as he stood before them, Squanto was at a spiritual crossroad. He could help these hapless Pilgrims by teaching them the skills they needed to live off the land and survive. Or, he could turn his back on these “white” enemies and let them die of starvation. God may have spoken to Squanto in the words of Moses: “I am now giving you the choice between life and death, between God's blessing and God's curse, and I call Heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. CHOOSE LIFE.” Deuteronomy 30:19 (TEV) But, giving them life, when the predecessors of these Pilgrims had brought death to his people, was a hard decision for Squanto to make. Perhaps, the Holy Spirit whispered the words of James into his ear, and he was reminded that “faith without works is dead.”[4] And so, Squanto began to realize that all those bad things that had happened to him throughout his life were used by God to position him to do a good thing for these starving Pilgrims. And so, Squanto chose LIFE and stepped forward to help his new friends whom he could no longer consider as enemies.
An immediate concern was the Pilgrims’ lack of food. So, Squanto taught them how to catch an abundance of fish in the local streams. When spring came, he showed them how to live off the land by planting and fertilizing corn crops and other vegetables. By the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims were becoming self-sufficient in having an adequate food supply that would take them through the upcoming winter. They turned to God and were truly grateful. They remembered the Psalmist’s words: 1 “Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done. 2 Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of all His wonderful acts. 3 Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.” Psalm 105:1-3 (NIV) But, they did even more than that. In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims reached out to the neighboring tribes and invited them to share in a great feast. It was a feast of celebration and THANKSGIVING TO GOD for the great bounty the Lord had given them. Only then could Squanto look back on the arch of his life and begin to reflect on how God had used the “good times” as well as the “bad” to position him to be a vital part in the survival story of this little band of Pilgrims. One of those Pilgrims rightly called Squanto “a special instrument sent of God for our good, beyond our expectation.” [5]
Now, I don’t know what Squanto may have said in response to the Pilgrims’ praise of him. We have no records of his words to articulate his appreciation of God’s Hand in all of this. But, I want to give you the words of someone who has stated the immensity of God’s love for us. Her story is a living example of God taking an extremely tragic event and using it to bring about good.
Her name is Joni Eareckson Tada. She was an extremely active and athletic teenager who loved horseback riding, hiking, tennis and, especially swimming. July 30, 1967 was a life-changing day for her. At that time, she was 17 years old when she headed out to take a swim in the Chesapeake Bay. She was great at diving, but this time she was a bit over eager to get into the water. Unfortunately, she misjudged the water’s depth. When she plunged in, her head hit the bottom and fractured her cervical vertebrae. The injury was irreversible and, from that point on, she was paralyzed from her shoulders down. For the next two years, she experienced severe depression, anger and even thought of ending her own life. Her faith in God had all but fizzled out.[6] But, one day, she decided to press on with her occupational therapy.
She placed her trust in God for the strength to restore her life. As her faith increased, she found the will to develop her artistic skills by painting. But, with her limbs being paralyzed, how could she possibly do that? Well, she learned to paint by holding the brush between her teeth. She was pretty good at it and was able to sell some of her paintings. Then, she decided to try out her talent as a writer. So, using newly developed voice recognition software, she eventually wrote 48 inspirational, faith-based books. Not only that, she recorded several musical albums and has been a strong advocate for the rights of the disabled.[7] More recently, her faith was tested again when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and suffered through a mastectomy and chemotherapy. Her treatment was thought to be successful, but by the end of 2018 the cancer had returned to the area of chest wall near the earlier the site for which she’d been treated. Radiation treatment followed and she has been cancer-free since 2019.[8] Yes, many “bad things” have happened to Joni Eareckson Tada throughout her life. Nevertheless, listen to what she has to say about how God takes those “bad things” and uses them to bring about “good.” She states:
Scripture is constantly telling us to view life from an eternal perspective. What is transitory, such as physical pain, will not endure, but what is lasting, such as the eternal weight of glory accrued from that pain, will remain forever. Everything else—numbing heartaches, deep disappointments, circumstances completely out of our control—everything else, no matter how real it seems to us on earth, is said to be “light and momentary” [9] compared with what our response is producing for us in Heaven.[10]
Joni admits, early on following her tragic injury, whenever she heard this great truth, she resisted it by crying out: “Maybe you see all of this achieving an eternal glory, but all I see is one awful day after the next of life in this stinking wheelchair!” But, God had not abandoned her. As David indicated in Psalm 139, you might “rise on the wings of the dawn,” or “settle on the far side of the sea” or even hit the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay—but, whatever the circumstances may be, God’s hand will guide you and His right hand will hold you fast. A spark of her faith realized this. The Holy Spirit fanned that spark and a fire grew. Joni goes on to say:
Somewhere after the first five years of life in my wheelchair, I noticed a change in my attitude toward hardships. I was beginning to see how my quadriplegia was working for my good and God's glory—simply put, it meant becoming more like Christ. Suffering was forcing me to make decisions about following God—I was choosing Him more often over my doubts and fears. Suffering was making me more sensitive to others—before my accident, I didn't care much about people in wheelchairs, but now it was a different story. I realized that being paralyzed was making Heaven come alive—not in a cop-out way, but in a way that made me want to live better here on earth because greater things were coming in the next life. . . Now, many years later, I am more sure than ever that when it comes to our afflictions, God's got his reasons. Good ones. . . Suffering increases my faith. Faith is like a muscle that is strengthened when put to the test. If there is never an opportunity for faith to be proved, it will not grow. Suffering provides the gym equipment on which my faith can be exercised. Suffering teaches me that the greatest good of the Christian life is not the absence of pain, but the growth of Christlikeness. . . We aren't always responsible for the circumstances in which we find ourselves. However, we are responsible for the way we respond to them. Endurance of suffering will be rewarded. To endure hardship obediently enriches my eternal estate, increasing my capacity for joy, worship, and service in Heaven. Suffering stretches our hope. Hope is the confident assurance in God's promises and his ultimate victory over sin and suffering. [11]
All of us are sometimes put in difficult positions similar to what Squanto faced during his lifetime. And, to one degree or another, all of us are faced with some very trying times that persist, or even become permanent parts of our earthly lives—as was the case with Joni Eareckson Tada. Maybe it’s a permanent medical condition or disability. Or, maybe it is the death of a loved one. Whatever the case may be, they are the kind of things that many people end up having to live with. And, naturally, the questions arise: What can be the “good” in that? And, why is it that those in Christ can, and should, be thankful, even when we experience those terribly bad things?
Squanto knew the answer to that question way back 1621, and Joni knows the answer to that today. The answer is that this world is not all there is. There is a world coming beyond this one where Christ will reign as King—and, there will be no more suffering, no pain, no tears and no death.[12] The trials and suffering we endure in this life are nothing compared to the joyous things Jesus is preparing for those who persevere in the faith—those who don’t give up and trust in Him.
This Thanksgiving, whatever your circumstances may be, GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD. Do this knowing that you too—like Moses, David, Paul, Squanto, Joni and all those who trust in God—can rely on His Strong Hand to hold you tightly whether you are soaring in those goods times or sinking in the depths of sorrow during times of suffering and pain. And so, to summarize all that I have said this morning, it boils down to a question followed by the answer. We give thanks to God because of His answer to David’s question. David asked the Lord: “What are human beings, that you think of them; mere mortals, that you care for them?” Psalm 8:4 (TEV) God’s response is echoed throughout the pages of the Bible when He replies: “I care for you because I love you. I love you because you were made in My image. And, when you sin, that image becomes more and more marred. But, I loved you so much that I sent my only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him will not remained marred, but will be re-conformed to my image and, thus, shall have eternal life.”[13] And, then God explained further: “I took My Son (the ‘very best thing’) and sacrificed Him to overcome the ‘very worst thing’ (the sin in your life) to give you everlasting life.” That is the Good News of the Gospel message. That blessing was made possible through God the Father, who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to endure on the Cross more pain and suffering than all the pain and suffering in human history. That is why—no matter what the circumstances may be in our lives, we need to raise up our voices in PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING to God. And, in so doing, join with the writer of Hebrews in proclaiming: 12 Jesus suffered and died outside the city, where His blood washed our sins away. 13 So let us go out to Him beyond the city walls [that is, outside the interests of this world, being willing to be despised] to suffer with Him there, bearing His shame. 14 For this world is not our home; we are looking forward to our everlasting home in Heaven.” Hebrews 13:12-14 (TLB) And, for that reason, those in Christ shout out our joy in THANKSGIVING to God simply because He loves us that much!
Let us pray.
Darvin Satterwhite, Pastor
Forest Hill Baptist Church
November 24, 2024
©2024 All Rights Reserved as follows:
Anyone is at liberty to use this sermon or any portions thereof for educational or religious purposes, with or without credit. The pastor believes the material presented herein to be true to the teaching of Scripture, and desires to further, not restrict, its potential use as an aid in the study of God’s Word. The publication of this material is a grace ministry of Forest Hill Baptist Church in Louisa, Virginia.
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[1] Graham Woodlief and Barbara Ramos, “The First Thanksgiving,” Virginia Museum of History & Culture, https://virginiahistory.org/learn/first-thanksgiving [accessed November 19, 2024].
[2] Michael Griego, “A Thanksgiving Story – The Indian Stranger,” Biblical Viewpoint, https://biblicalviewpoint.com/2014/11/27/a-thanksgiving-story-the-indian-stranger/ (November 27, 2014).
[3] Matthew 5:44 [Jesus said:] “But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (NIV)
[4] James 2:26 “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” (NASB)
[5] Ibid.
[6] Wikipedia contributors. "Joni Eareckson Tada." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Nov. 2024. Web. 19 Nov. 2024.
[7] Wikipedia contributors. "Joni Eareckson Tada." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Nov. 2024. Web. 19 Nov. 2024.
[8] Ibid.
[9] 2nd Corinthians 4:17-18 17 These troubles and sufferings of ours are, after all, quite small and won’t last very long. Yet this short time of distress will result in God’s richest blessing upon us forever and ever! 18 So we do not look at what we can see right now, the troubles all around us, but we look forward to the joys in heaven which we have not yet seen. The troubles will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.” (TLB)
[10] Tada, J. E. (2021). Making Sense of Suffering. Aspire Press.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Revelation 21:3-4 3 “I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, ‘Look, the home of God is now among men, and He will live with them and they will be His people; yes, God Himself will be among them. 4 He will wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. All of that has gone forever.’” (TLB)
[13] John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (KJV)
