Theme: Thanksgiving
Text: II Timothy 1:11-12

Hear we are on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and I wonder if you feel very thankful. Some would reply, "Brother Bill, some of us are more thankful than others. It depends on one's circumstances."

You know, it's easy to celebrate Thanksgiving when your family is healthy, your income is ample, your stocks are ascending, your favorite team is headed to a bowl game, your sinuses have overcome the Memphis grunge, and your aches and pains are minimal.  But that kind of thanksgiving can be awfully superficial. God is almost superfluous in such a celebration. It's often just a matter of congratulating ourselves on how well we have done.

Real thanksgiving, biblical thanksgiving, is much greater and deeper than that. It is based not on our circumstances, but on God's sufficiency; not on our production, but on God's provision; not on our performance, but on God's providence. Paul described real thanksgiving with this admonition: "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (I Thess. 5:18).

In the movie, Facing the Giants, Coach Grant Taylor tries to deliver this message to his football team. He said, "We're going to praise God when we win and we're going to praise Him when we lose."

Now I know that is tough! It's hard to feel very thankful if you're a Memphis Tiger football fan, suffering through a losing season; if you're a Republican and your party has just suffered a "thumpin'" at the polls or if your first major car problem came less than thirty days after the warranty expired.

More seriously, it's hard to be thankful if there has been a death or divorce in your family in the past year; if your job is at risk; if your marriage is shaky; if someone in your family is facing a dangerous health problem. It's hard if you have such a multitude of small problems that you can't get a fix on them all. Like the man who said, "I could get this mattress up the stairs if I could just figure out how to get hold of it!"¹

Think about that first Thanksgiving celebration in America. On September 6, 1620, 102 Pilgrims had left Plymouth, England bound for the New World. For two months they braved the harsh elements of a vast storm-tossed sea in their creaky little ship. They arrived in Massachusetts in late November. After a prayer service, they began building hasty shelters. However, there was no way they could have anticipated that harsh New England winter. Nearly half of them died before spring. Nevertheless, on December 13 of the following year, the Pilgrims declared a three-day feast to thank God and to celebrate with their Indian friends. That is real Thanksgiving, when people praise God regardless of circumstances.

In our text for the morning, 2 Tim. 1:11-12, Paul shows us what real thanksgiving looks like. Paul is in a dungeon, chained to a Roman guard. It is dark down in that hole. He can barely see well enough to write. He thinks back over thirty years as an apostle, teacher and preacher.

Most of us in such a situation would have felt sorry for ourselves. Can't you hear us now, crying out, "Lord, you certainly have a strange way of showing your love for your servants. I have sacrificed and suffered for you all over two continents. What do I get for it? I'm locked up in this hole, and I'll probably be executed within a month. Thanks a lot!"

But that's not what Paul said. Instead, he declared, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel." Then he gives two reasons for his confidence, even in a dungeon, even face to face with death. If we can claim these same two reasons, we can celebrate real thanksgiving this week.