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Muskegon SDA Church

Jason Sliger

Returning Thanks

Father in heaven, we thank you for the tokens of love that you have showered upon us.

Expressions that you are a God who still sits on your throne and works on behalf of your children.

Father, this morning as we lift up our voices to rejoice and to be grateful, Father, I pray that you would fill our hearts with Thanksgiving and That you would quiet the storms in our life Are trying to take our attention off of you.

Father, may your spirit be close to us, we ask.

After a 7 day voyage from San Francisco, California to Oahu, Hawaii, Ellen White and All the other passengers aboard the ship were given the opportunity to get off of the boat for a 12-hour layover in this tropical paradise.

You can imagine after spending 7 days on a boat that To get off of it for even a few hours is wonderful.

As many of you know, she was sent there under not the best of circumstances.

But when they got off of the boat, when the believers found out that Ellen White was on the island, they wanted to hear from her.

They wanted to hear a word of encouragement from her.

And so they set up a place to meet and to hear what she had to say.

But before she did that, she spent a little bit of time touring around the island to kind of see some of the sights.

I mean, if you're only in Hawaii for 12 hours, you want to at least see something.

And while she was touring around, she stopped at the home of the Kers, who were, at least the wife was a Seventh-day Adventist, the husband was not.

And she visited with them for quite some time.

Kerr, to show her gratitude and appreciation, was showering Ellen White with lots of gifts.

Her birthday, Ellen White's birthday was just a couple of days from then.

And Ellen White obviously was very grateful for these things and when the time came for her to get up and leave to go address the church, she got up from the chair, the rocking chair that she was sitting on and she, in a passing comment, said to them that it was an easy chair, meaning that it was a very comfortable chair.

She got up and left and went down to the local YMCA where all of the Adventists on the island had assembled themselves for her to address them.

She shared the message that the Lord had laid on her heart and the hour came that they needed to get back on the ship because it was getting ready to leave for Australia.

And so they all went down and boarded the ship, and when she got on that boat, she found that somebody had dropped off a gift for her.

Kerr who had dropped off his rocking chair.

And that rocking chair was a real source of comfort for her as she made that voyage across the Pacific Ocean to Australia.

She would sit on the deck of the ship and for hours she would write what the Lord had laid on her heart.

And just a couple of days after that, it was a calm, sunny, warm day.

It was Thanksgiving Day and it also happened to be her birthday.

8 times in her life, her birthday fell on Thanksgiving.

She was out on the deck of the ship rocking back and forth in that easy chair as she penned these words found in the Review and Herald, February 16th of 1892, it says this, At times I have been afflicted in body and depressed in spirits, but the Lord has been my Redeemer, my Restorer.

Many have been the rich blessings imparted to me.

In the time of my greatest need, I have been enabled to hold fast my confidence in my heavenly Father." We have much to be thankful for, don't we?

And as we read in our scripture reading this morning, Psalms 35 and verse 18, I will give thanks to thee in the great congregation.

There's a time for praising God with our family, at home, in prayer, but there's also a time for us to praise God in the great assemblies.

And as we assemble ourselves together, we want to give praise and thanksgiving to God.

But before we do that, I wanna just draw your attention to a few quick Bible passages of things that we can be thankful for.

And maybe even this morning, as you share what the Lord has done for you, you have a Bible passage or something that the Lord has taught you in this last year that has been a blessing from his word.

But the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 57, 1 of my favorite passages, but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And I know that there have been times in my own life, and I'm sure that you can say the same for your life when God has given you victory over a besetting sin.

That is something that we can be thankful for.

Scripture says in Romans chapter 16 and verse 3, "'Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.

How many of you are thankful for friends?

Quilla and Priscilla were a great blessing to the Apostle Paul.

Now, I have great friends, but I've never been in a situation where they had to risk their neck for me.

But for Paul, it was a wonderful situation where he was thankful for Aquila and Priscilla and the help that they provided him.

Not just them, but the churches of the Gentiles.

We can be thankful for our godly friends.

Psalms 18, verse 48, the Bible says, he delivers me from my enemies.

You also lift me up above those who rise against me.

You have delivered me from the violent man.

Therefore, I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the Gentiles and sing praises to your name." Do we have enemies in our life?

We don't wanna have any enemies among our brothers and sisters, but we do have a enemy who is working against us to try to destroy us and to try to bring us down, but the Bible tells us that God will deliver us from that enemy, therefore we can give thanks.

First Timothy chapter 1 and verse 12, the Bible says this, I thank Him who has Given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service.

Are you thankful for the strength that God gives to you?

I know sometimes I feel very weak, both spiritually, physically, emotionally, but God gives us the strength to make it through those weak times.

We've lost some of our friends, but God gives us strength and sustains us through that time, amen?

And I find it interesting that in our times of weakness, the Bible tells us that God also appoints us to service.

God has a work that he wants each 1 of us to do.

Psalms 106 in verse 1, the Bible says, "'Praise the Lord, O give thanks to the Lord, "'for he is good for his, ' can you finish it for me?

God's mercy is so great that you may sooner drain the sea of its water or deprive the sun of its light or make space too narrow than diminish the great mercy of God.

What a merciful and gracious God we serve.

And then of course, Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5 in verse 18, in everything...

Yeah, we don't like to talk about that 1.

Or is it just in the good times that we give thanks?

In everything the Bible says give thanks, for this is the what?

It's the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Single, married, divorced, happy, sad, rich, poor, weak, tempted, tired, lonely, whatever it is, in everything, Give.

Somehow there is a silver lining even in the trying times.

And I think if we look for something to give thanks to God for in those trying times, it'll make those trying times a little easier for us to go through.

In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

I wanna share with you just a couple of things that I'm thankful for this morning.

This morning it occurred to me that God has blessed in a way that I hadn't taken notice of.

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Returning Thanks

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