We've all been hurt.
We all carry scars.
We can all overcome these things and be healed through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Let's build that relationship together right here.
Welcome to Healing Scars with Pastor Burton.
Hey everybody, welcome back to the sanctuary.
It is so good to have you with us as always.
And for those of you who are joining us for the very first time, let me just say welcome.
Now, of course, next Thursday is going to be Thanksgiving here in the US.
We are on the road to it.
I don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to having some turkey that I don't
have to cook.
Alright, the family is doing it.
Very blessed with that this year.
Very grateful.
I actually get out of cooking.
Not to say I don't have to take something to the table.
I'll probably take a dessert or something, but from my understanding, talking to my brother
and all, is everything has already been taken care of.
So I hope all of you are just as blessed as we are in this respect.
Now with that said, a little bit of a rabbit trail there to start of course.
I know a lot of pastors out there this time of year.
They have their annual go-tos, their sermons about gratitude and friends giving and thanks
and giving.
I know, a lot of originality there, right?
Especially that last one.
Now don't get me wrong, I am not knocking them.
I am not.
There are a lot of great messages out there.
And plenty of people who are hearing those messages for the first time.
However, it's because of that, I did some prayer as I always do, but because of that
I've been led in a different direction this year.
Imagine that, right?
So I'm going to, I have a bit of a Thanksgiving message, but we're going to do something a
little different here.
So bear with me.
We're going to start off here, much like our message this week is different, the way we're
going to start this week is different as well.
Alright so, I'm sure everyone, for the most part, is familiar with the old nursery rhyme
Mary's Lamb.
You know, that's that one that goes, Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb,
you know, and so on and so forth, and its fleece was white as snow, all that.
This of course, is just a modernized version that slightly deviates a bit from the original
poem.
Cute right?
So with that said, turn with me to the book of John, we're going to go to John chapter
10 verse 11.
So John chapter 10 verse 11, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Now, much like the little girl in the poem, shepherds don't just watch their flock, they
love them.
It's not just a job for them, you know, some nine to five thing or a chore, you know, but
something that they truly want and look forward to doing, you know, tending to their flock,
this is something absolutely awesome, right?
And not only that, but they'll protect their flocks from the various dangers that are out
there, knowing it may well be at the cost of their own life.
You know, there's a lot of dangers out there.
You know, it's not just guiding the sheep, you know, to and fro, making sure they get
to their pens and all that kind of stuff, maybe shear them once in a while, you know,
but a lot of things out there, you know, the occasional lamb wanders off, there's a lot
of, you know, predators out there.
If you live in an area like mine, we got coyotes, we have wolves, you know, if you get too far
away, heck, even here in the city, certain times of the year, you know, bear and cougars
and stuff wander in, you know, we do have farmland just right there with sheep and goats
and stuff.
So, you know, the shepherds, they do a lot, they're very involved in the life of their
sheep and Jesus, who is the good shepherd, he loves us and his love for us is so great
that he laid down his life for us.
We are his flock.
Now, that being said, and being the history loving guy that I am, we're going to take
a little bit of a trip down history lane here.
Most of us grew up in school hearing about the first quote unquote Thanksgiving, right?
You know, it's that Thanksgiving that we were all told was had between the Mayflower Pilgrims
who had just recently landed in the Wampanoag's and, you know, that they'd befriended and
they came together and they had this magnificent feast over, you know, a couple days to celebrate
the food harvest and their new friendship.
Now was there a feast?
Yes.
The fact is there's very little truly recorded about this event and there was no date given
based on the English fall harvest celebrations that the pilgrims knew in their own, you know,
in their old country, they brought those with them.
So it could be assumed that based on those old celebrations that this feast would have
happened in the fall time.
And while there were various festivals and celebrations after that, it wasn't quote unquote
Thanksgiving.
You know, many were those legalistic traditions that, you know, that they just had to hold
on to and they brought them over from, you know, the old countries, you know, various
settlers did, you know, as more and more from different areas came, you know.
So it's safe to say we were a little misled to believe that Thanksgiving was a holiday
that started all the way back then and has been celebrated ever since.
Now while there are some roots, it was not what we see moving into more modern times.
Matter of fact, let's move up just a couple hundred years to the actual proclamation of
Thanksgiving.
What?
A proclamation?
What is this?
Yeah, there was a proclamation made here in the U.S. that declared Thanksgiving a holiday.
We're going to talk, we're going to look at that here before we go into the rest of our
message here.
Okay.
So the actual proclamation, it came about during the Civil War.
There was a woman, her name was Sarah Josepha Hale, and she petitioned President Lincoln
quite rigorously, and her argument was that to have a holiday like this could possibly
heal many of the wounds from the war.
Now of course she wasn't necessarily talking about the physical, she was talking about
those mental, emotional, and spiritual wounds.
And with this argument and her constant petitioning, she struck a court.
Hey, you know what?
This lady, she has a point.
Something's going on here.
And because of this, this led up to President Lincoln making a proclamation in October of
1863 that Thanksgiving would be had the following month and would become an annual celebration
moving forward.
Now I'm going to read to you just a part of this proclamation.
We're not going to go through the whole thing, but we're going to go through part of it.
And this really is the meat and potatoes of it.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things.
They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for
our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully
acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also
those who are at sea and those who are in sojourning and foreign lands, to set apart
and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to
our Beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.
And I recommend to them that while offering up the Ascriptions justfully due to Him for
such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national
perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become
widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are
unavoidably engaged.
Fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation
and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment
of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.
It's quite a bit there, isn't it?
Beautiful.
Now, of course, Sarah Josephina Hale, excuse me, Sarah Josephina Hale, you could say she
was a woman of some influence, not only then but today.
You see, she was an activist, she was a poet, and she was an author.
And you're probably, most likely, familiar with at least a little bit of her work.
Because not only has she been referred to as the Mother of Thanksgiving, she's also
the author of Mary's Lamb.
Right about here is where Paul Harvey would be wrapping things up and be saying, and now
you know the rest of the story, right?
Well, we're not done yet.
All right.
So while President Lincoln, he didn't write the proclamation, however, he, like the person
who wrote it for him, did recognize where God stood in the lives of everyone in our
nation.
They were at war.
Your country was literally and figuratively being ripped apart all the way down through
the family level.
Healing was exactly what was needed.
So Ms. Hale, she was 100% correct that healing was needed.
And God was exactly who they needed for it.
Just like He is who we need for our own.
There's a contrast in the times, though.
Let's take a look at that real quick.
See, here, President Lincoln was calling out to the nation to look to the Father.
Fast forward to today, and our nation's leadership has really done everything they can to try
to remove him from so many places.
You know, we need to make sure that we're praying for our nation's leader.
That's biblical.
We also need to be praying for our nation.
Really, we need to be praying for the entire world.
Thanksgiving.
You know, this is a time to come together and to give thanks.
Yeah, it absolutely is.
But to whom?
See that's the part that's left out these days.
Like so many other holidays, which is really, you know, holy days, you know, it's become
very commercialized.
The overall meaning is gone.
You know, and I bring this up because at a time when we should be recognizing what God
has done in our lives and praising Him for it, we're seeing something entirely different.
Turn on the TV, turn on the radio, pick up a newspaper or a magazine.
Heck, what comes the day after Thanksgiving?
Black Friday.
Which is so aptly named, isn't it?
We're going to see people standing out in the cold starting on Thanksgiving.
Just to be able to start shopping as soon as the doors open the next day.
You know, and it turns into a mosh pit.
People lose their minds.
They're not civil.
A tempers flare.
And here's the thing, it carries over to the next day.
Small business Saturday is what it's referred to now.
And it goes really all the way through, you know, people kind of take Sunday to stay home
and rest.
And then what happens Monday?
Cyber Monday, right?
They're right back to shopping.
You know, that night, the next day, you know, sporting events are going to be sold out through
the weekend.
But the most important place any one of us can be.
The single most important place.
Coming together as the church in worship.
Those places of worship, those houses of worship, they're going to have some of their lowest
attendance of the entire year.
Many will be virtually empty.
Virtually empty.
You know, if that sounds, you know, distasteful, think about it.
It is.
The weekend that set aside for us to praise God and thank him for all the blessings in
our life.
We don't even put him in the back seat.
We kick him out the door entirely and drive on down the road.
That's something that we all need to think about.
Proverbs chapter three, verse six.
So Proverbs three, verse six, the Bible says, and all your ways acknowledge him and he will
make straight your paths.
You know, worshiping sporting idols, sports idols, I should say, you know, athletes or,
you know, movie stars and so on and all the shopping that goes on and, you know, that,
you know, the fights and the tempers that make, you know, hockey look very mild.
You know, it's a far cry from it, isn't it?
I mean, how are we acknowledging him?
Now I'm not saying, you know, going out shopping and, you know, enjoying sporting events and,
you know, and that kind of stuff is bad in and of themselves because in and of themselves
they're not.
It's when these things get placed before God that they become an issue, when they become
idols.
And that's exactly what they become for so many people, so many self professing Christians.
They have all the time and energy for all these things of the world.
But then when it comes time for God, when it come together as a church, they're drained.
They don't have the energy, you know, or they can't or won't make the time to spend in worship.
Like I said, the meaning behind the holiday is gone.
First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 18, the Bible says, in giving thanks for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Let me read that again.
In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
But those who say they're his children can't be bothered to make the time.
He's not asking for a lot, he's just asking for a little.
It only takes a moment to say thanks and a few moments to come together with others and
worship and praise.
And you think of all the stuff that's going on, not just in our country but around the
world.
Healing is needed.
But we push the healer out.
You see, as a country we've become very ungrateful.
We sin regularly.
We forget to acknowledge God.
And in general, we've become very selfish.
In pro wrestling, there's a character who's been around for decades called Chris Jericho.
And during one of his runs, his character kept a list.
Here he is, he was the healer, he was the bad guy, he was very comedic.
He was very funny.
And this list is a list of the names of people who had wronged him in some way or had done
something that he didn't like.
It didn't matter how minor it was, if it was something that he didn't approve of, guess
what, you made that list.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
We all know someone who's keeping notes, keeping tabs on all the ways they've been wronged
by all the people who have wronged them.
You might be keeping lists.
Not even realize it.
Because it's called a grudge.
You might be holding that grudge.
I say a lot of people have grudges, they don't even realize it.
In Genesis chapter 50 verse 20, the Bible says, but as for you, you meant evil against
me, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day to save many
people alive.
So while these lists were made to be like a naughty list, when you think about it in
this context, they're actually attributed to sorts because it's these things that develop
your character, these events that taught you right from wrong, these people who helped
you to find the meaning in your own life.
Because that's how, that's what God used.
They were the tools that God used to help you to find it.
They're the various things that, they were hardships at the time, but these were tools
being used by God to mold you and to guide you on your path to Him.
Romans chapter 8 verse 28, the Bible says, and we know that in all things God works for
the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.
You know, let that sink in for a moment.
All those things that are, those hardships, and we've talked about this before, where
entire nations have been wiped away, you know, those bad things, but they were used for good
by the Lord, and our lives individually are no different.
We see a lot of ugly hurtful things, but you know what?
They're there for a reason, to lead us to God.
And on that, you know, on that token here, we're talking about Thanksgiving, right?
This is a holiday that, you know, a lot of food is eaten, right?
This is a foodie day.
Not just a holiday, but a foodie day.
And because it's a foodie day, it goes all in on that food.
Let's take a look at that too.
Turn with me to Numbers chapter 11.
So in Numbers chapter 11, the first nine verses, so Numbers 11 verses one through nine, the
Bible says, now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord.
And when he heard then, his anger was aroused.
Then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the
camp.
When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the Lord and the fire died down.
So that place was called Teberah because fire from the Lord had burned among them.
The rabble with them began to crave other food.
And again Israelite started wailing and said, if only we had some meat to eat.
We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost, also the cucumbers, the melons, the
leeks, onions, and garlic.
But now we have lost our appetite.
We never see anything but this manna.
The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin.
The people went around gathering it and then ground it in a hand mill or crushed it in
a mortar.
They cooked it in a pot or made it into loaves.
And it tasted like something made with olive oil.
When the dew settled on the camp, at night the manna also came down.
So the people had been taken care of.
God was providing for them.
Every night they'd be able to lay down, go to bed, and wake up and they'd have a fresh
supply of manna.
They didn't have to worry about starving.
I tend to look at this picture that's painted for us here, kind of like that scene in Forrest
Gump when they're talking about all the ways to prepare the tuna.
You have manna sausage, manna burgers, manna pie, manna cake, manna salad, manna smoothies,
manna pizza, and so on and so forth.
Point is they had plenty to eat.
Plenty.
God had blessed them.
And when they first entered the wilderness to go to the promised land, they were grateful
for it.
Grateful.
Just like today with us, after a while they stopped seeing it that way.
They got tired of it.
So they began to complain.
They began to grumble.
Just like most of our culture today.
Why?
Why wasn't it good enough?
Well, it's because they weren't seeing God in it.
They weren't seeing it as a blessing anymore, a gift.
Instead of praying to the Father, they complained.
They grumbled.
They moaned.
They developed a, you know, it's right there, the rabble, right?
Some of them developed this strong desire for other things that they didn't have.
You know, and they're talking about the meat there.
You know, they took this blessing, this gift from God, and they started taking it for granted.
The very thing that was sustaining them and carrying them through until they could reach
the promised land, suddenly wasn't good enough.
And you think about it.
They didn't have to hunt.
They didn't have to tend to crops.
They didn't have to trade for it.
They didn't have to do anything.
It was provided for them.
They just had to pick it up and cook it.
And it goes to show that some people don't appreciate the things that they're given.
You know, we see that a lot, don't we?
People don't appreciate things unless they have to earn it for themselves.
You know, when you have to earn something, it means something a lot different, doesn't
it?
You know, suddenly instead of just being this thing that was handed to you, it means a lot
to you.
You're going to take better care of it.
You're going to appreciate it a lot more, right?
God took notice though.
He absolutely did.
It didn't go unnoticed at all.
Numbers 11, verses 18 through 20, the Bible says, tell the people, consecrate yourselves
in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat.
The Lord heard you when you wailed.
If only we had meat to eat, we were better off in Egypt.
Now the Lord will give you meat and you will eat it.
You will not eat it for just one day or two days or five or 10 or 20 days, but for a whole
month until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it because you have rejected
the Lord who is among you and have wailed before him saying, why did we ever leave Egypt?
You see what happened here is that the people weren't looking to God, much like our politicians
today, much like our people in our country.
They're just looking to their leaders and expecting them to handle anything and everything,
just like we do.
Meanwhile, they sat back and complained about everything.
They didn't contribute anything to help resolve their situation or anything.
They didn't have volunteer ideas, how about if we did this, how about if we did that?
They just sat there and complained like, hey, Moses, what are you going to do?
Much like us, we put people in seats that are supposed to be doing our will.
They could care less and we don't hold them to it, but we expect them to answer us when
we say, hey, what are you going to do?
What they should have been doing is the same thing that we should be doing as a nation,
praying.
You see, even though this was a temporary measure to get them through until they reached
the promised land, it wasn't satisfactory to people.
They wanted more.
That sound familiar yet?
Because we're living out the same thing.
I'll tell you what, the military, if you're out in the field and everything, we all have
our MREs and they don't do great things to the body.
I'll tell you that much.
Our MRE is great.
Sometimes they're wonderful, other times they were the most hideous thing you ever tasted,
but there comes a point where you're just grateful to have that to eat.
You know it's not forever.
It's just while you're there, you're going to get back and you're going to get to have
a nice good meal eventually, but you learn to appreciate things.
Coming with me to numbers 11, we're going to go back to verses 33 and 34 now.
The Bible says, but while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be
consumed, the anger of the Lord burned against the people and he struck them with a severe
plague.
For the place was named Kibroth, Hatzavah, because there they buried the people who had
craved other food.
People had a hole in themselves.
They had this space that needed filling, this void.
And again, the problem was they didn't pray about it.
They didn't go to the Father.
That's where they went wrong.
That's where we go wrong.
See, they didn't pray about it and they ended up falling into sin, craving more stuff, trying
to compare the times that they were into the good old days.
They became greedy.
Instead of taking their needs to God, they obsessed over what they didn't have.
Instead of being happy with the very things that they did have, the good that was in their
lives.
They had gotten free from Pharaoh.
They were no longer slaves.
They were on their way to the promised land.
They didn't have to worry about food.
The Lord was with them and was providing for them, but instead they got bitter.
They made a list of what they didn't have.
They made a list of what was wrong.
All their grievances, not their blessings.
Instead of focusing on the Father and His will for them, where He had them headed, they
were focused on the world around them in themselves.
They were selfish.
We see the same thing, people wallowing away in a bottle of booze or trying to fill that
void in themselves with relationships.
We see it in men and women.
Then they get angry and depressed when things don't work out, but they never included the
... The Father was not put first.
They go out and they find these adrenaline rushes, you get those adrenaline junkies out
there looking for that next high, so much more.
Drugs.
Some will say, oh, I went to God, but He didn't answer.
But they never stop to think about their own actions.
It's always someone or something else.
Sometimes we have to go to God more than once about things as well.
Sometimes we get those answers, but we don't listen.
Like when we go headstrong in the jobs or relationships that we know we're not a good
fit to begin with, and yet we expect God to make it work out anyways.
It doesn't work like that, people.
Anything and everything in our lives, God needs to be first and foremost.
As a country, we need to remember this.
We need to start putting Him back into places that He's been removed from.
Government, jobs, school, so on and so forth.
Our families, our families depend on Him.
Philippians chapter four verse six, the Bible says, do not worry about anything, but pray
and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks.
Meaning we need to go to God with everything in our lives, the good and the bad.
When something is wrong, we need to go to God right away.
When something is good, we need to go to God right away in praise.
In this season of Thanksgiving, we all need to take a step back.
We all need to re-center and we need to focus on what the holiday should be.
We need to put the meaning back into Thanksgiving and show it to others so that they can see
the light of Jesus Christ in our lives.
This is a great time to take notice of all the things that you do have and to give thanks,
all the blessings.
Take out of all the things that you've been able to overcome because of God's grace and
give thanks.
To be grateful for the things that you have and not focused on the things that you don't.
Look back to Sarah Hale, Sarah Joseph Hale, and take to heart what Thanksgiving should
be about.
Healing, healing.
And there is no better place and no better person to go to than the great physician himself.
Remember, you are loved.
Now go and be the light.
Go and be the church.
Thank you all for joining us here today at Healing Scars with Pastor Burton.
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We look forward to hearing from you all.
God bless.