Dear congregation, Thanksgiving Day is a calling and an opportunity to trace all our gifts and blessings back to the Lord, who is the giver of every good gift. Yet Thanksgiving Day doesn't always come at the most ideal of times, at least from our perspective. In fact, the very beginning when Thanksgiving Day was celebrated in this country during pilgrim times, it was celebrated in the midst of very difficult times. Perhaps you've heard of the original Thanksgiving that the pilgrims celebrated under the leadership of William Bradford in 1621. after the long and treacherous voyage across the Atlantic, the brutal winter in which by springtime they had lost half of the original colonists. And the new land, with all its challenges, was very difficult. They received very kind help from a nearby tribe, Indian tribe. And at the end of that year, They had a wonderful Thanksgiving, but after much hardship. Two years later, they had the second Thanksgiving, and it had been after a long drought that they had experienced. The first national proclamation of Thanksgiving in our nation was during the days of the Civil War, right in the middle of the Civil War by Abram Lincoln in 1863. Whether or not this has been a difficult year for us, we do well to remember that Thanksgiving is always appropriate. Not just one day of the year, but every day of the year. And also in the midst of, or on the verge of, hard and difficult times. You see, congregation, trials need not hinder thanksgiving. In fact, by God's grace, they can help us in the attitude and spirit of thanksgiving. And thanksgiving can, in turn, help us to face whatever trials The Lord sees fit to bring into our lives, and we see this in the words of our text, which you can find in Acts chapter 28 and verse 15. 15b, the very last part there. Whom when Paul saw, he thanked God and took courage. The theme this morning looking to the Lord is an encouraging thanksgiving. We'll see basically the story, we'll sketch the story, and then we'll take three lessons for us today, an encouraging thanksgiving. Well, as we already saw, Paul is on his way to Rome. Having appealed to Caesar, he's been a prisoner for years now. and he has suffered much. Just most recently, he was caught in a 14-day storm of the highest proportion and has suffered shipwreck. Though he and the others were miraculously kept alive, everything else that was with them was lost. We read at the end of chapter 27 that they which could swim cast themselves first into the sea and got to land, and the rest, some on boards. and some unbroken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass they escaped all safe to land." Do you sometimes feel like that? You've survived a year by the skin of your teeth. You feel like these people just clinging, bedraggled, cold, and yet alive, clinging to something that the Lord has allowed you to have to bring you thus far. Well, fresh from the danger of the storm, other challenges are awaiting Paul. Children, all of a sudden, a viper springs out of the wood and fastens itself, not to anyone else's hand, but to Paul's hand. Paul, who together with these barbarous people, as they're called, people whose language they couldn't understand, they're making a fire. How the kindness of these people must have met them. as the kindness of the Lord. And you could say, what a wonderful Thanksgiving day that they were having. Some fire, some food, some fellowship. And yet in the midst of this, something unforeseen happens. A viper is there to cling to Paul, and Satan, no doubt, is in all of this to try to eliminate Paul, who was such a mighty weapon in God's hand. And after the Lord delivered him from that, and he suffered no harm, as the text says, he goes on and he spreads the blessing of the gospel to Publius, having healed there his father, and no doubt preached the gospel to the islanders there on Malta. But then, towards Rome, he must go. And he doesn't know what he will face. And Luke gives us all kinds of interesting details about this journey that takes place from Malta there, the south side of Italy, and then up the coast towards Rome. Luke tells us interestingly that the name of the boat, the name of the ship, was the twins, the twin gods, Castor and Pollux. These were Greek gods. the children of the god Zeus. And why would Luke bring up that name? These were gods who were considered to be protector gods of sailors. And Luke, I believe, is telling us this in order to say that even those things that people worship Idols, all of that must serve the living God. God controls everything. God is over everything and God is accomplishing his purpose. Come what may. May we remember that also in our own day as we see many great ones in our world, many crediting all sorts of things. May we see above all of that, God's almighty hand. and his care also over his people, that the Lord is guiding everything to the glory of his name and the upbuilding of his kingdom. But the interesting thing that Luke draws attention to here, and I wanna focus on that for a moment, is that as Paul is making his way here towards Rome, he stops at these different places, and out from these cities come brethren. fellow Christians, we would say. Brothers and sisters whom he may never have met, but they come there, and they come having heard that Paul is on his way, and they enjoy fellowship with each other. And so Paul comes city after city, and he meets there these fellow Christians. And the names that are given here, the three taverns and Apiaforum and all the rest of that, we're told from history that these were places where there was much ungodliness, much wickedness. One commentator calls one of these places, Apiaforum, a haunt of thieves, thugs, and swindlers. And yet Paul makes his way there, and there's fellow Christians whom he can meet with. And it was a time of refreshing for this weary, traveling prisoner, Paul. Paul had longed to go to Rome. He had written the letter to the Romans years before. In chapter 15, he says, I long to see you and be refreshed in your company. And God is giving that to him, yes, in a very peculiar way, in a way he never expected. He's essentially in chains, but he's seeing fellow brothers, fellow sisters, fellow members of the household of faith. You see, God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform. And in connection with this, we read this remarkable line. He thanked God. and took courage. May the Lord give us such an encouraging thanksgiving as we meet together here in God's house. However we've come here, whatever we've experienced, whatever lies ahead of us, may we truly, by God's Spirit, have an encouraging thanksgiving. Well, three lessons, congregation, as we apply this to ourselves. And the first lesson is, no matter our difficulties, our past, our present, our future, there is always reason to thank the Lord. No matter our difficulties, past, present, and future, there is always reason to thank the Lord. You know, if Paul had looked at his circumstances from a gloomy perspective, he could have said, you know, what really do I have to thank the Lord for? What I really want is to be a free man, preaching the gospel up and down this Mediterranean world, going even to Spain. But Paul, though he may have had his days, as we all do, nevertheless, he was a man who had come to bow under God's sovereignty, would come to kiss God's rod, would come to acknowledge that God is king over all, and that the one who occupies the throne is a good God. who has a heart full of goodness, compassion, mercy, and whose plan and purpose will not fail, and that God will accomplish all things, even in the most unlikely ways, through the most unlikely means, through the most unlikely servants. And Paul had learned, as he tells the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 18, in everything, Give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you in everything. Maybe you've heard the quaint story of Matthew Henry, who once was robbed. And obviously, you don't thank the Lord for being robbed, but he nevertheless found opportunity to thank the Lord, first of all, that though he was robbed, he was not killed. Secondly, that though he was robbed, he wasn't robbed for that much. It could have been much more. And thirdly, though he was robbed, he thanked God that he was not the robber. And so we found matter to thank the Lord, even in difficulty. And may the Lord guide us to do so as well in our own lives. Whatever situation we find ourselves today, We acknowledge that many here today have suffering in their lives, even from day to day. Morning, noon, and night are difficult for you for different reasons. Physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, spiritually. And yet, that in these moments you would find reason to thank the Lord in everything, give thanks. Not least of all for who God is, for what he has revealed himself to be. Not least for who the Lord Jesus Christ is, and for who he has revealed himself to be. Isn't it true, afflicted souls today, that the Lord often uses affliction to make room for himself in our hearts and lives, to draw us away from things and stuff and idols to the living God who we learn to need often in dark ways and through afflictions. The Lord can lay us low in order to help us. Psalm 116 says, I was brought low and he helped us. Someone once said to me, we don't know how much the Lord delights to bring us low because he wants to help us. When we're tall and we're riding high, how can the Lord help us? As we confessed in our Lord's Day, it is a blessing to be able to see God's hand in all things, whether plenty or poverty, sickness or health. The Lord is good all the time, all the time. The Lord is good. And yet we can face also inwardly in our own hearts, we can face such troubling emotions, things that even shock us, our fear, our fatigue, our disappointment. our depression, our sense of loneliness, our sense that no one and nobody cares. And sometimes we can even impute that upon the Lord and say and think he's forgotten, as the psalmist says, he's forgotten to be gracious. He's hid himself from me. I'm out of his mind. In congregation, let us beware of unthankfulness in our own hearts. Not only today, but at all times. The Bible says that unthankfulness is a gross and grievous sin against God. And it leads to other sins. We harbor bitterness in our soul. We really strangle our own soul. Our soul becomes calloused. And it leads to great error and great foolishness and often great sin. Thankfulness in our souls by the working of God's Holy Spirit, it bends our souls, it sheds the callousness, it humbles us, makes us realize that we are the clay. And God is the potter. And we ought to take to heart the warnings against ingratitude in the scriptures. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3 that man by nature is a lover of himself. He's covetous and he's ungrateful. And in the list of sins in Romans 1 that characterize the natural man, the Lord includes this. He says, man glorified him not as God, neither were thankful. Neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." Ingratitude is a stop on the way towards vanity and folly and darkness. Well, let us beware today, whoever we are, of a spirit of ingratitude. My unconverted friend today, You need the Lord. You need his spirit. And you need especially his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, may the Lord make you truly grateful. Because if he doesn't, I fear for you. I fear for you. For today, Thanksgiving Day, and your ingratitude may be a stop on the way. of great darkness in the future. Oh, humble yourself then under this word of the Lord. Whatever your circumstances are, plead with the Lord to make you grateful and look to the Lord Jesus Christ and find it in him. We read of him frequently thanking God. Even on the eve of his betrayal, even in the presence of the one who was to betray him, for 30 pieces of silver who sat across from him or wherever. It says that he broke bread and thanked God. Oh, what a thankfulness was in the heart of our mediator. Oh, what perfect gratitude. And each and every one of us, sinners though that we are, ungrateful of ourselves as we may be, we may come to him and we may draw from him. unholy as we are, holy as he is, we may draw from him this gratitude that we so need. Lord, give me a thankful spirit. Give me Christ. Apply the gospel to me so that convicted and convinced of my ingratitude, I would become grateful. People of God, we need this again and again lives as well, don't we? So often along with faith comes unbelief, and along with gratitude comes much ingratitude. Oh, that the Lord would tune our hearts to be truly grateful for his goodness, for the gospel, for the gifts that the Lord gives us. Spurgeon says, although we may not always be healthy, nor always prosperous, yet God is always good, And therefore, there's always a sufficient argument for giving thanks unto Jehovah, that he is a good God, essentially, that he cannot be otherwise than good, should be a fountain out of which the richest praises should perpetually flow. Well, congregation, in the past year or two, the blood of sprinkling, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has been preached to you so frequently. the Christ of the Scriptures, who, though he was rich, yet for your sakes, for sinners' sakes, for people like you, he became poor, that you, through his poverty, might be made spiritually rich. May the Lord give us the attitude that we find in the Old Testament in Genesis 32, verse 10, I am not worthy of the least of thy mercies. If we're there, we're thankful, we're grateful. No matter what our difficulties, past, present, and future may be, there is always reason to thank the Lord. Secondly, and here's the second lesson out of our text, the fellowship with kindred Christian minds gives reason to thank the Lord. The fellowship with kindred Christian minds gives reason to thank the Lord. There are many reasons we come together as a congregation and visitors to hear God's word, to listen to what the Spirit has to say to the churches. to unite together in prayer, give our tithes and offerings to the Lord who's so worthy to receive it, to become kingdom-minded in the sense that we catch a vision of God's work and God's worth in our world. Well, one very important reason why we come together is also to see one another and to fellowship with one another, to receive from one another, and to give. to one another. And not just the people that we feel a certain natural kinship to or certain familial relationship with, but to one another. The Lord has brought this congregation together from all kinds of classes, races, and backgrounds and families. We wish for more of that. But the Lord has in his providence brought you together, brought us together. And especially after now almost two years that we've endured lockdowns, and many have been sick, many have lost loved ones, and things that maybe we didn't appreciate as much before. We've learned through hard times how blessed it is to be able to see one another in the flesh. And that should give us a heart too for those who can't. And I know that many of you have a heart for those who are homebound, you're calling with them, you're writing letters, you're reaching out, you're praying for them. You know, Paul was a social person as well. Sometimes we have this idea about Paul that he was kind of this lone ranger, that people were fine but he could do fine on his own as well, but the opposite is true. He writes in 2 Timothy 4 verse 16, all have forsaken me. No one is with me. No one stood with me. And you can hear the pain in his heart as he speaks these words. He's been in prison now for years. And though much of this was probably not absolute isolation, Paul was a social person. He loved meeting people, new people, old people, old friends, new friends. And as he comes here towards Rome, all the predicament that lay behind him and all that was ahead of him, the fact that he could face fellow Christians, brothers and sisters, people in many cases whom he didn't know, but that he was with them. He shared life with them in Christ. He recognized them and they recognized him. And it was something that the Lord Jesus Christ had spoken about Hereby the world will know that you are my disciples when you love one another. You know, when in our world people are saying that Christians are isolationists, grumpy, tight-fisted, holier-than-thou, unyielding, ungenerous people, well, may we never give cause for that. And if we have, may we repent and humble ourselves. It's a sad thing when the world thinks of Christians like that. One of the reasons why the ancient church grew so vigorously, so feverishly, was that people recognized them as loving, as generous people who cared for the people no one else would care about. For orphans, widows, oppressed, they would take them in. They didn't have the social system that we have today in our world, but that shouldn't be an excuse. Christians should be known for the sake of the gospel as kind-hearted, generous people who yield one to another within the family of God, but also wherever they find need. Well, congregation, we're thankful for what the Lord has enabled us to do, but may he increase this among us as well, for each of us in our own hearts, that the Lord would make us truly open-handed, generous, kind, loving, that we'd come to this place eager to see who it is that the Lord would make us to cross their path and to be something for one another. Now, I know we all have our own gifts, and perhaps being in public like this and with a lot of people is hard for you, but pray the Lord and find ways in which you can. And the Lord can also increase that gift in you. And the Lord can really magnify His name in all this. And shouldn't we even go to the place where we are ready to lay down our lives for each other and others if need be? Isn't this the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of our Master? And doesn't He shed that Spirit abroad? whereby we are ready to go for the sake of others, not just an extra mile, but even into prison, or even unto death. And congregation, should then not our lives be a thank offering unto the Lord by his spirit and through his son? And should we not have that spirit also today, what shall I render to the Lord? And should we not keep in mind then those around us, those in our community, those who meet us, and that we would give tangible evidence of our love to the Lord by helping others around us. The Lord can meet us in fellow Christians. Seeing their faces in distress can be such a gift from the Lord. Where two or three are gathered In my name, the Lord says, there am I in the midst. May the Lord give us, not only today, but into the future, that mind, that heart. May we be given that. May we be given also repentance for where we failed. I'm sure we all sense that, that we've been too selfish, too self-oriented. May the Lord melt our hearts. Make those hearts to overflow with love, with compassion. And especially for those who are not converted, that we would care deeply for their souls. More deeply than they do themselves, because they don't. They don't care for their souls. Stories told of Scottish minister, generation or two back, Douglas MacMillan. Some of you have heard him preach, actually, from our pulpit. But he lived without the Lord for a long time, though he was raised in the faith. And there was this old lady that would just target him in prayer, pray for him, pray for him, pray for him, all the time. And he felt uncomfortable around her. Every time he would see her in the marketplace or wherever, he would make a wide circle around her. He didn't want to face her gaze. There was something about her he just couldn't relate to, didn't like. She kept on praying, kept on praying, kept on praying for him. She cared more for his soul than he did himself. One day the Lord powerfully converted Douglas MacMillan. And that very day he saw that lady on the marketplace, and instead of walking a circle around her, he went straight up to her and she said, son, you've been converted, isn't it? And he said, how do you know? She says, you're changed, you're entirely changed. Your eyes tell the story. You see how God knits people together who are otherwise estranged by his converting grace. May the Lord do this too. That we would have overflowing hearts of love for the lost. And in prayer, and in our lives too, we would care deeply for those who will not care for their own souls. And so we see here that the fellowship of kindred minds always affords us reason for thanksgiving. And lastly, our last lesson here is an attitude of thankfulness will encourage Christians for future battles. An attitude of thankfulness will encourage Christians for future battles. We already said Paul is on his way to Rome. Great challenges lie ahead. He would be under house arrest. He would have a few more years here of life on the earth. He'd write some letters. He'd witness here and there. He'd pray many prayers, but he would suffer a lot. And in the end, he would die, as history tells us, by execution. There were great battles ahead for the Apostle Paul. And this would require strength, courage in his soul. And Paul had a courageous heart through the gospel and through the Lord Jesus Christ. But there were also days in which he felt discouraged and was discouraged. And in this particular instance, his thanksgiving, his thankfulness for God's provision that the Lord had showed him, it was the means to put strength in his soul, to put courage in his heart, to face whatever it was. He may have come to these different assemblies of these friends with a heart that was sad, that was faint, that felt weak. But when he met with these people, when they prayed together, when they spoke God's word together, he walked out of these places and out of these meetings with a newfound strength, with newfound courage. I wonder if that's ever happened to you. You've come through these doors, or you've been in your own home and you've been discouraged, at a loss. But a Christian friend came, or you came to this place and you can meet with people who cared for you, and you heard about the God who cares for people. And though you came weak, you left encouraged. The Lord puts strength in your soul. You see, congregation, thanksgiving, true thanksgiving can do that. He thanked God and took courage. And I think, congregation, one of the reasons why Thanksgiving can do this is because true thanksgiving, it humbles us. You can't be proud and thankful at the same time. To be thankful means you ascribe to God blessings, gifts, mercies. You ascribe it to God. Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be the praise. And that humbles us, doesn't it? Makes us to feel small, which is what we are. Makes us to feel weak in and of ourselves. But when the Lord makes us to realize that God doesn't owe us anything, and that whatever we have received has been from out of his bountiful heart of mercy and grace, when we are humble, Then we look up to God, and God is all strength. God is all courage. God is all fortitude. And then in our weak and our discouraged heart, there can flow this courage, this strength from Almighty God. That's what this word actually means. He took courage. It means that literally strength was drawn and driven into his soul. In weakness, he was made strong by the Lord. How is that possible? Well, you know, don't you? It's possible in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, who though he was in the bosom of the Father, God of God's light of lights, rich, he came so low. He came and was found in fashion as a man. He humbled himself. He became a servant. He washed feet. He cared so very deeply, even for sinners. Sinners who wouldn't care for themselves. He suffered in weakness. He said to his disciples, he said, pray for me. For I'm in great distress of soul. even unto death. He knew what it was, humanly speaking, in His human nature to lose heart, distressed even unto death. He was crucified in weakness in order that He in the gospel, by His Spirit, can give strength to those of you who have no strength. So much so that in the gospel, you can say, when I am weak, Then am I strong, because his grace is all sufficient for sinners. While we were yet weak, while we were yet in our sins, Christ died for the ungodly, for thankless sinners. He died that you, dear friends, might be saved and strengthened and helped and given a true, thankful spirit. As your days, so shall your strength be. We started the year with those words. We didn't know what days would meet us this year, but the promise of God is the same. As your days, so shall your strength be. In and through and for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, And so, congregation, I ask you today, come to Christ. Fall at his feet. Find in him everything. Come as a sinner. Come with all your ingratitude. And find in him everything. And you will take courage for whatever lies ahead. And as a congregation, too, we know not what lies ahead. We pray for a short vacancy, but what if it is not so? These things can discourage us, but may we give thanks and take courage, no matter what lies ahead. God is on the throne. He will perform His good pleasure. He will make for His people to go from strength to strength, no matter what weakness lies in between those strengths. that He gives, and He will do it all for Jesus' sake, all for His cross' sake, and all for His glory. Let us then, today, give thanks and take courage. Amen.