Thanksgiving Sermon for 2023

[00:00:00] Boy is a first time go at it and he's doing pretty well. Perfect. [00:00:10] Ronkeep I didn't prepare a Thanksgiving sermon last week. Last, yeah, last sabbath it could have been. And I thought, well, this is closer to the Thanksgiving day. So I thought I better bring a sermon with some Thanksgiving things in it. And there's two Bible texts that I'm going to be reading, but this one is coming a little later. [00:00:44] I'm going to start with psalm 100 and the stories that are there. Psalm 100? [00:00:55] Yes. Okay. [00:01:00] I've got a little reading. [00:01:03] I don't know when I would do this, but maybe it should do it now. A little reading is an introduction. [00:01:12] What does thanksgiving mean to you? [00:01:16] And here is the most of the US history starts with the pilgrims and the thanksgiving. [00:01:24] And then I read some more about it and I looked up some history and got Pearl involved with the computer as well. So it would be good if you could take the computer, go to wikipedia or something like that and look up thanksgiving in the United States and the pilgrims, trying to find out something about them and what the dates were when they came. And it takes about three weeks to cross the ocean, but they made it in less time. It's more like weeks. [00:02:00] Takes about three months, depending on whether you're fighting the wind or it's helping you. And they were coming from England. That's going the wrong way. The weather patterns go the other way, right. And goes from west to east is what the wind. [00:02:16] And you're coming from England to here. That's the wrong way. [00:02:20] So they still made it an excellent time to get across because they really needed to, God needed to bless them. The people were very ill, sicknesses of one kind or another on board the boat. And I'd imagine the food had to try to preserve that for three months is going to be a big problem. They made it in just over two months, but they still got a lot sick. And then when they got to shore in the United States, they were facing winter right away. [00:02:58] That was going to be more problems. So even more people got sick by the spring, if I'm getting my numbers right. But by spring there was only 50% of them left. [00:03:10] That was pretty grim. And they did get the indian people. There was one fellow that had gone to England, knew how to speak English. [00:03:20] He had been taken over probably, and then he stayed there for a while, but he learned English while he was there and then came back and probably quite a bit before the pilgrims arrived. But he was able to talk with them in English and find out what they needed and tell them about helps and tell them what foods could be was edible. And I was going to bring a pack today. I got a little pack that you carry with you in the woods, and it tells you all the vegetables and fruits and so on. It's edible so that you don't die in the woods. I never thought skunk cabbage was good for anything, but, you know, it's edible. [00:04:02] Smells like skunk. If you have a blossom, they have a flower, smells like a skunk. But I guess a lot of it is edibles. But things that you don't expect. Do not eat apple leaves, apple trees, leaves. [00:04:15] They'll give you convulsions, and rhubarb leaves will give you convulsion. So you do need to have some idea what you're doing when you're out there in the woods. You can say, well, I eat the rhubarb stock, it tastes real good. They make desserts from it and so on, but do not eat the leaves, you'll get in trouble. So you need somebody to tell you what is edible and what is not edible. And we did some really interesting things with people that came from southern California that were formerly from Guatemala and El Salvador. [00:04:51] And first thing, they were really afraid of going in the woods. [00:04:55] Well, why are you carrying that big knife? [00:04:58] It's the habit, deer hunting knife, for skinning the deer and so. And killing the deer. It's just the habit of carrying it. But you can use it for all kinds of things, like making a fire, cutting wood. [00:05:12] So I have to explain to him that I'm not afraid of what's in the woods. [00:05:16] Nothing in the woods in British Columbia. Nothing. [00:05:20] It was down in the coastal area down there. There was black bears. Occasionally there's a few cats around, but they never bothered me, and I didn't bother them. [00:05:32] I was not afraid of the animals. [00:05:35] Anyway, when the people got there and they needed the help becoming of the Mayflower, and then I understand there was three voyages, so they had to go back and start again and go back and start again. And it was is not the greatest of travel times. Back in the 1620 and so on, said it took 65 days to make the trip, and many were sick. Land was spotted in November 10, 1620. [00:06:17] So if you take a year later, because the first year they were just arriving in November year later, they would have known when the appropriate time was for harvest and so on. What kind of harvest? You could do the corn and so on. [00:06:29] And then they had thanksgiving. [00:06:35] Let's see, they found that the harbor that they went to was a good harbor as well as a good stream of water there for fresh water. They survived the first winter with only 50 people survived the first winter. And then the INdians would give the names of the INdians and so on that helped them. And consequently, you'd make this great leap into friendship, and then you could help each other both ways. [00:07:03] So that was a good thing for that to happen. [00:07:08] Yeah. They had to watch out for what were poisonous plants and what had medicinal values and which ones were good to eat in the plant life and how to plant and fertilize and grow corn and other crops. By October, they were prepared for the winter the following year. So then that's when thanksgiving was done. [00:07:34] They ate together and were more friendly then because of the togetherness that had already happened. [00:07:42] Okay, so turn with me in the Bible to psalm 100. [00:07:46] Psalm 100. [00:07:49] Start with the first verse. [00:07:59] This is a short chapter, but it tells us about being thankful to the heavenly Father and to come before his throne in a certain fashion, certain behavior. How do we act when we come before the heavenly Father? And we'll just see how it goes here. Should be pretty easy to pick up a few things. [00:08:24] Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. First verse. It doesn't say, make a beautiful noise. Make a beautiful words and beautiful sounds and beautiful. No, whatever you do to the heavenly Father, it's going to be music in his ears, and he's going to be glad for what you performed, what you did. [00:08:48] Some have a harsher voice, some have a really nice voice, but so does the robin and the Canaries. And so you could go down birds, and some have a harsh voice, and some have a very happy voice. And God doesn't mind. He wants them all to bring him praise. [00:09:06] Second verse says, serve the Lord with gladness. [00:09:11] Come before his presence with singing. [00:09:15] So really, when we sing before prayer and we are thinking about spiritual matters, about the study that we do in Bible study, singing should be a natural thing to do, to praise the heavenly Father in song and thankful. There's many people that can do poetry that matches the music or the other way around, whichever came first. Somebody was able to put words in order for poetry, for a song, and somebody else wrote the music order. Sometimes the other way around. [00:09:50] Know ye, verse three. Know ye that the Lord, he is God and that. Capital l, capital o, capital R, capital D. [00:10:00] Yahweh. [00:10:01] Y-H-V-H that God? Because in their day, they used to come around and say, well, which God do you serve? And they'd give a name for that. God. [00:10:11] Well, our God has a name. [00:10:14] But the jewish people were so afraid of saying it or using it incorrectly that they usually just put Lord in, in their text. So they would never attempt to say God's name and mess it up. [00:10:28] But they knew. They knew what it was. So when you see capital l, capital o, capital R, capital D, you say, well, why didn't they put it in the Yhv? Have you ever tried to pronounce that? [00:10:41] I think there's not enough vowels there to be able to pronounce it. But anyway, we would say that it was Yahweh or Jehovah or something similar. And some of the sounds would be like Jehovah or Jerusalem, the j sound. So there's different letters that came through. And in the king James, I won't tell you exactly where it is. It's on the inside column, down the bottom. In my bible of one of the psalms, it gives God's name. [00:11:14] Wow, look at that. [00:11:18] But there's so many pieces of it that we think of that we know God's name and we don't have to use specific sounds. [00:11:28] We can say, our Father, which art in heaven. He knows who we are, he knows who we're addressing. Okay, so where's that? [00:11:43] It is he that hath made us, heavenly Father made us. God that made us and not we ourselves. [00:11:55] We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. We belong to him every little bit. And whatever you want to call it, we belong to him. He's taking care of us. So verse four. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. We need to know his name. Think about his name. There's other chapters where his name is very important, so we need to know that, but not necessarily use it all the time. We don't want to say, hey, you, or, hi, Jack. [00:12:36] God's name is very delicately saved and protected, and we need to think it that way too. It's easier to say my God or to say my lord, my savior, my heavenly father. [00:12:53] To be using a name that is identifying him into his gates. It's like his area where his house is, what he dwells, and it has a gate to enter. [00:13:05] Now, it's like keeping the sheep in a certain area and the sheep can go in this protected place, but we just need to be coming in his presence, coming to his heavenly father, to the gates where the temple was in Jerusalem. When you'd come in there, you come in with a certain thing on your mind. Thanksgiving. [00:13:28] Come in with thanksgiving. When you're coming in, come into his courts with praise. Think about singing when you're there giving praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. Verse five. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations. We should be able to take that and have something to talk about to the heavenly Father. Lord, you are good. You do all these things for us and around us and about us and protecting and caring and on and on. When the pills lasted way longer than they should, those are blessings that we need to talk about and say, yes, lord, we understand. You're caring for us. You're taking care of us, and we've had such blessings and miracles. [00:14:22] Some people, when you say that to them, they don't think it's right, because they want to say that if you do so many miracles or one miracle, and then if you do a second one, you get a special station in heaven. [00:14:36] I've seen hundreds of miracles in my lifetime. Some of them I prayed for, some I didn't. Some I just watched. It mean. But there's miracles around us all the time. [00:14:47] One was we ran out of gas on the freeway and Pearl was driving and, oh, now what do you do? And there's all these lanes of traffic. And Pearl was able to edge her way over, and there's a ramp right there. Did that happen by accident? [00:15:03] God knows. We went down that ramp and there was a stoplight at the bottom, but we were able to get going again, and we chunked around the corner a little bit, and it just was quick. That was it. That's the end. And right behind us came the guy that did lawn care, and he had a five gallon can of gas. [00:15:25] He didn't want any money at all. I gave him a little that I happened to have, and otherwise he didn't want any money. Put that five gallons in our tank. Otherwise I would be walking with no gas can. [00:15:41] Yeah, God can do real miracles on various levels of protection and care. So, yes, we need to be thinking of that, being able to give a praise to the heavenly Father. [00:15:53] Okay, so we have a fantastic God, and we have his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And we need. The disciples asked, teach us to pray like John taught his disciples. So John the Baptist taught his disciples what was appropriate in saying in the prayer. And Jesus taught his people what was appropriate in prayer, because just believing in the heavenly Father and yet believing that the heavenly Father had a son has a pretty new idea. [00:16:27] So now what do you say, what do you do? How do you handle it? So Jesus was teaching them what to do, what to say. [00:16:35] In Matthew six, it. [00:16:44] Matthew, chapter six. [00:17:02] So when Jesus was telling him how to pray, how to pray said, after this manner, therefore pray ye. So this is in red letters. This is Jesus talking. [00:17:14] Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Our Father. [00:17:20] So we're giving him a high station of family, but we know it's a lot higher than that. [00:17:27] Thy kingdom come. Oh, he must be a king. He's got a kingdom. [00:17:32] The heavenly Father is going to come one day with a whole city and going to land on the earth. [00:17:41] Wow. Okay. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. That's really honoring the heavenly Father as to what he is, who he is, giving authority to him, but giving blessing as well to the heavenly Father. Verse eleven. Give us this day our daily bread. It's not a harsh question. Give it to me for being very polite and gentle. Right. We know that you can supply it. We're asking for your blessings on our daily bread. [00:18:13] And then other requests can be named right there. [00:18:19] And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. You got to think that over. Are we really often forgiving those that owe us something from whether it's respect and honor or food or something that they borrowed and so on? We forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation. That doesn't seem like it's a right translation. God doesn't allow you into temptation. Doesn't send you into temptation, but it could. [00:18:55] So we're very thankful that he protects us. He doesn't play games with our emotions. He protects us and is good for us, but deliver us from evil. Oh, I wish you need that in the world. We're in a lot of evil. For thine is the kingdom that's honoring him for his station and position and the power and the glory forever. Amen. [00:19:22] You know what I like to do in the King James Bible, you read in the front of the book of what they said toward the king James and what fancy words they used, your most majesty, royal person to rule over us. Yeah, they used very fancy words to the king. [00:19:46] What about heavenly Father? Isn't he king? [00:19:50] We need to plan ahead a little bit and really be proud and happy and thankful in a thankful way of who we're dealing with and very careful on how we handle that because he's got a tremendous amount of power. And the next verses just kind of continue there a little bit, but let's go on, turn with me to Luke, chapter eleven. [00:20:16] Luke, chapter eleven, starting with verse one. [00:20:24] And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. Okay. [00:20:42] Like to know exactly what John said to his people anyway. When? In red letters. Then when ye pray, say, our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, which would be here as in heaven, so in earth. The words are just turned over a little bit, turned backwards a little bit. That's fine. [00:21:12] Give us day by day, our daily bread. You usually don't hear that statement made because they pray the other prayer in Matthew. [00:21:25] But day by day, we need to pray every day. And I noticed on the end of one of these, it said one of these stories I was reading, when ye pray or when ye fast, that means you must be doing it. [00:21:41] You must have planned ahead, that there's a time of fasting. You stop things and you say, we're going to fast for this cause we're going to do such and such. We're going to pray. And when you pray, it's not if you pray, that's not there, it's when. So it should be an automatic thing that there's a day every so often when you fast. [00:22:01] Give us this. Give us day by day our daily bread in verse four. And forgive us our sins. [00:22:13] For we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [00:22:25] Forgive us our sins. [00:22:28] The other one said, we were our debts, debt. Stavenly father. [00:22:33] Yeah. When we sinned. But we have to admit that we are sinner, that we goof once in a while we have a problem. We were sinners, and we didn't want to do that again. [00:22:46] But if we did, forgive us our sins. [00:22:51] David, he didn't mess around. He said, I'm a sinner and my family were sinners. And he started praying about how to fix that problem. He didn't say, well, I don't sin, and I, you know, belittle it. No, he just was upfront and said, I make mistakes and I want to be forgiven. [00:23:17] Then it talks about this man that came for the loaves of bread. [00:23:21] Is the next part of that verse. [00:23:25] Luke eleven. Right, got that. [00:23:31] Let me just go down. I put myself sometimes extra notes. Oh, go with me to Matthew five. [00:23:39] Matthew, chapter five. [00:23:41] What do you find in chapter five? Six and seven? [00:23:46] Sermon on the Mount. [00:23:48] Jesus talking to the people. Some call it his manifesto of who Jesus was and what he was going to do, what he was like, who he is. And I sure shocked the people. [00:24:00] He said, he doesn't teach like the other leaders of the church. [00:24:05] He teaches with authority. But anyway, Matthew, chapter five. [00:24:10] And I'm going to start with verse one. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. This was a habit of his. [00:24:25] He needed to be up so that the sound would carry. He's going to talk to a number of people. You have to be up a bit. Sometimes he was on the ocean shore so that the water would carry the voice across the water, and then up the banks amphitheater. They sometimes refer to those situations, but here he found a spot to sit down that was comfortable, and he was going to be able to see the people and speak from there. And when he was set up or set down, his disciples came into him and he opened his mouth and taught them the other people were hearing. [00:25:02] But, you know, many of the other people couldn't believe what he was doing and who he was, and they weren't going to understand. In fact, they had dull ears and so on, just sayings about how the other people didn't hear. If they had heard completely and understood completely, they would have made him king, and that would spoil salvation. Jesus dying on the cross, so he couldn't allow them to make him king. [00:25:32] So he taught to them in parables. And this is one of the sayings. This is what they could learn by. So, verse three. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. [00:25:43] The poor in spirit, the humble in might say, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Wow. [00:25:52] Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. [00:25:57] Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. [00:26:01] Sometimes people joke a little here, and they say the truck drivers can't be meek. [00:26:10] It's a different connotation, right? Different idea. [00:26:15] But the meek people, it doesn't mean that they are wishy washing. [00:26:22] It talks about Moses being meek. [00:26:27] He was leading a million people. [00:26:31] He was straightforward or forthright in how he did things, and he did it under God's rules. So meek is one of those words that you have to kind of say, okay, where is this really going? But they're going to inherit the earth. And you say, oh, I'm sorry for them. Everybody else went to heaven. [00:26:50] No, they're going to inherit the earth. [00:26:56] Right on. Okay. [00:26:59] Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the meat are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Wow. [00:27:15] Nobody's seen God, right? He hides himself. He doesn't allow people. Even when Moses wanted to see him, he said, well, I'll put you in a cave, and then I'll put my hand over the cave, and as I go by, I'll take my hand with me, and you can see the back clothing or whatever was back there behind him. They could see his similitude from behind. That was all. He didn't get to see the face of the heavenly Father. And yet it says that God talked to Moses, like, face to face. [00:27:50] Wow. [00:27:51] Try to figure that one out. [00:27:54] Nobody's seen God but God, the real God. The heavenly Father was right there talking to Moses. [00:28:02] He said, wow, this is interesting. [00:28:05] But they didn't see each other, because no man has seen God. [00:28:12] Okay, keep going. [00:28:16] Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. We'd like to be that. [00:28:23] Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You're going to be rewarded. [00:28:33] It's got a solid thing here. You're going to be rewarded if you serve and witness correctly and get persecuted because of it. [00:28:44] Persecuted for righteousness sake. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. [00:29:05] Blessings after blessing after blessing. I guess there's eight blessings. There. Is there? [00:29:12] Okay, somebody said seven, but I think that adds up to eight. [00:29:18] Let's see. [00:29:22] Go down to verse twelve. Yes. We had to memorize three to twelve when I was a young person who memorized those. That's why I could read it so easy. [00:29:31] I wasn't reading those. Renewing my memory. The beatitudes. And another statement of blessings is in acts, chapter, chapter 20. [00:29:45] Acts, chapter 20. [00:29:54] And verse 35. [00:30:01] Verse 35. [00:30:02] I have showed you all things how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak and to remember the words of our Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. [00:30:21] Those are blessings that we need to think on. I mentioned a week or so ago, honor your father and mother because there's a blessing attached to it. [00:30:32] Here's another one that has a blessing that if we will remember the words of Jesus, how it is more blessed to give than to receive. If you do give with an open heart. There's other verses on open heart and how to give freely and willingly and happily. There's a blessing that goes with that. So I did too much reading in here, took too much of my time. Not really. I loved it. I read about Paul's troubles here halfway back in this chapter, and then I went into the next chapter and read all of that chapter. The blessings that followed Paul and his travels, his work that was going on. And I love the place where they said, in fact, in verse chapter 20 and verse 36, it said, thus he spoke. He knelt down and prayed with them all. [00:31:28] Wow. [00:31:29] I can remember when a minister said, we're going to pray here, and he took one guy under this arm and one guy under this arm, and we knelt down. [00:31:38] That was the experience for me. [00:31:41] And I'd seen a lot of ministers pray and kneel down. [00:31:45] And some people say, I will not kneel down no matter what. [00:31:49] Who are you talking about? Are you better than Paul? [00:31:55] No. This is a rightful thing to do, to kneel down before your heavenly father and give praise and honor and thank you. That's just normal. Some of the Jews prayed this way with their hands out or up. [00:32:09] And in some churches it is really. Nobody puts their hands up. [00:32:14] No, that's not so wrong. [00:32:17] As long as it's being done in love and affection and proper attitude of praise and honor to the heavenly Father, that's not a problem. [00:32:28] Sometimes we get into situations where somebody thinks it's better than thou sort of thing. Anyway, that's one place where it says that. And how about down in next chapter, chapter 21 and the bottom part of verse five, we knelt down on the shore and prayed. [00:32:50] So kneeling is a good deal, a good way of handling things. [00:32:56] I think there's another verse right here, near here, too, that I might have looked up because I was over the next page as well. [00:33:04] Anyway, those are things that you catch when you're just reading the story, just gathering the story, and then you realize how they presented themselves or what they said to the heavenly Father. How did they pray? What words did they use in prayer? That's all good things. [00:33:22] Well, I want to end with a fairly long psalm, but psalm 27. So turn with me to psalm 27. [00:33:42] We actually should do more studying and memorizing of the scriptures, and it is encouraging and uplifting. So psalm 27. [00:34:01] Probably need my magnifying glass. I'll use this one. [00:34:06] The Lord is my light and my salvation. [00:34:11] Whom shall I fear? If that's true, if the Lord. If the heavenly Father, the YHvH, if he's my light and if he's my salvation, whom shall I fear? [00:34:24] Right. [00:34:28] When shall I fear? The Lord is my strength and my life. [00:34:35] Of whom shall I be afraid? [00:34:39] Lots of times when David was afraid, a lot of stories in the psalms about him, as well as in the books where David has talked about when the wicked, even my enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. People that came that was deliberately wanting to kill him, and God protected him and they fell. They didn't get their job accomplished. [00:35:14] Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though the war should rise around against me. In this will I be confident he knows about his heavenly father. He knows the heavenly Father can protect him. He knows where his protection is coming from and who his heavenly Father is, and that he's a friend of God. [00:35:39] David was a friend of God. We could be, too. [00:35:44] So then you don't have to be afraid even when all things look awful? Well, we got an awful lot of trouble in this world. The wars are getting closer and closer together. First they were 100 years apart, and then they were 20 years apart. [00:35:59] And another 20. And another 20 years, another 20 years, another 20 years, another war, right? [00:36:05] Wow. [00:36:06] He's saying, I don't have to be afraid. Though they rise against me, this he can have the confidence of the heavenly Father. Verse four. One thing I have I desired of the Lord that will I seek. After that, I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. [00:36:34] That's in the second place as well. I want to dwell in the house of the Lord that is not just sitting on a bench. It's not just sitting down doing nothing. He's going to be active in that life. He's going to have a life there to behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire of his temple, to be able to talk with heavenly Father and be there in real life, real time. [00:36:59] For in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion in the secret of his temple. [00:37:10] God's got a place of taking care of you. The bad guys won't get you because God's looking after you. Okay. [00:37:20] And do you remember when Jesus was taken to the brow of the hill and they were going to push him over and kill him? [00:37:29] God just took Jesus out of there. [00:37:33] He walked through the crowd. They didn't even know who was there. Just walked through. [00:37:37] He can do that for us. He can blind their eyes. So that they don't see us. They don't understand anything anymore. We can just walk away. [00:37:47] He can protect us. Verse six. And how shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies around about me? [00:37:57] Wherefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy? And I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. [00:38:08] He knows all this. God's going to take care of it so I can give an offering of praise and joy. Verse seven. [00:38:17] Hear, o Lord, when I cry with my voice, have mercy also upon me and answer me. God does hear you. Answer. He will answer. [00:38:31] When thou sawest, seek ye my face. When you said us, seek ye my face, my heart was unto thee thy face, O Lord, I will seek, saying, you said it, I'm going to do it. I'm going to seek your face. I'm going to do the things that you want me to do. [00:38:53] Verse nine. Hide not thy face from far from me. That's a strange statement, because God always wants to be close to you. Heavenly Father wants to be close to you. [00:39:04] But he said, don't hide from me. Don't hold back from me. I want you to be here. I want you to be in my life. [00:39:11] Put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. [00:39:19] Leave me not neither. Forsake me, o God of my salvation. [00:39:26] You know, when you take statements like this, it sounds like he's going back and forth. God, don't leave me. I'm afraid to have you leave me. And then he comes right back and say, I know you, heavenly Father, and I know you won't do that. [00:39:38] So it's kind of back and forth. But you know what? God doesn't mind. [00:39:43] If you're unsure and you're not really knowing what to say and how to say it, just say it. God doesn't mind. [00:39:51] He could have scolded him right here, said, you know better than that. [00:39:55] But that wasn't the problem. [00:39:58] David wanted to be very sure of his following of the heavenly Father and God's protection for him. So in mind, when my father and my mother forsake me and I had a right in over the top of it, the wind didn't sound right. [00:40:18] That's not very good, is it? We should never neglect our children, never leave our children. So what does this mean? I think it's more if something happens and my parents neglect me or forget me. But you won't. [00:40:34] Then the Lord will take me up. [00:40:38] Wow, isn't that neat? God's going to pick you up, your little one God's going to pick you up and take care of you. Teach me thy ways, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, an easy path to follow. Smooth path, but clear path because of my enemies. Don't let me stumble over the edge. Don't let me fall into difficulties. Just lead me, teach me, guide me, deliver me not over to the will of my enemies. [00:41:13] For false prophets are risen up against me and such as breathe out cruelties. [00:41:22] That's true. That's the way life is. The bad guys are bad. [00:41:27] They're not half and half. You should be able to see the difference between the good guys and the bad guys. Not just the white hat of the white cowboy, of the cowboy, of the white horse. [00:41:39] You can tell by their fruits, ye shall know them. [00:41:44] You can test them by their fruits. You'll know who is good and who's bad. [00:41:50] Okay. And he's just praying. Don't let him get me. [00:41:55] Verse 13. I had fainted. I've given up, fallen down. [00:42:00] Unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. While I'm alive, while I know what's going on, while I've got my own wisdom and knowledge, I can acknowledge that the heavenly Father is there and I'm seeing the Lord's goodness. [00:42:19] Look what he can do for me. Wow. [00:42:22] More than I can imagine, he's doing for me. So because I know that I was in the land of the living and I could understand that. So what's verse 14? [00:42:33] Just a small conclusion. [00:42:36] Oh, think this one over. [00:42:39] Wait on the Lord. Sometimes we run before the God. Before the heavenly Father. Run before our help. That's not right. We need to wait on the Lord. Let the Lord do things for us. [00:42:52] Be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. [00:42:59] Don't get in a big hurry. Wait on the Lord. He'll help you. So that's our thanksgiving. The things I wanted to say about thanksgiving. May God bless you. [00:43:10] Bye.