My Fortieth Thanksgiving

Main Scripture Text: Deuteronomy 2:7

Introduction

Now, take your Bibles, please, and open to Deuteronomy chapter 2, verse 7. I’m speaking this morning on this subject: “My Fortieth Thanksgiving.” Here’s our text: “For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.” (Deuteronomy 2:7) That is our text. Forty years ago this year, I was born in the middle of the Depression. I don’t know whether that started the Depression. I doubt it. I believe it may have started one in my immediate family. I’ve had, this past September, my fortieth birthday. But I’m going to tell you, they say that life begins at forty; it doesn’t. It begins at Calvary, when you meet the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. That’s when real life begins.

You know, they’re talking about this, asking this question: Is there life after death? Well, you know, some folks don’t even know life after birth. I mean that they live, but they don’t. Jesus said, “I’ve come that you might have life,” (John 10:10) and this wonderful life begins when you meet Jesus at that place called Mount Calvary. But this Thursday will be my fortieth Thanksgiving, and so I want to use this text in Deuteronomy chapter 2, verse 7, as the occasion, as we think in this pre-Thanksgiving service, to speak on this matter of the goodness of God, and to say with this choir, “O Lord, my God, how wonderful thou art.” I want to look in this text, and I want to give you six sweet peas in a pod here. I want you to notice six things here that we ought to be thankful for, in Deuteronomy chapter 2, verse 7: for His providence, for His perception, for His purpose, for His patience, for His presence, and for His provision.

I. Thank You, Lord, for Your Providence

Now, notice, first of all, we ought to be thanking God this Thanksgiving for God’s providence. Notice what this text says: “For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand.” Now, underscore that part that says, “all the works.” God doesn’t just bless us in some things. God, the great God of the universe, makes all things work together for good to those who love Him. That’s what we call Providence. That’s what Romans 8:28 means. For I’m persuaded, dear friends, that God could take everything, and God mixes these things together, and God causes out of them good to come. And that’s so wonderful, that’s so great, as you look back and see the hand of God working in your life.

I told some of you a while back about a preacher I heard about who got on his knees and he prayed a prayer like this—he said, “Lord, I just hate flour.” And then, he said, “Lord, I just hate baking powder.” Then, he said, “Lord, I just don’t like salt. But,” he said, “Lord, I sure love biscuits.”

Now, you know, a lot of us don’t like things that happen to us when they come one at a time, but we see that when God, through His love, mixes them in the crucible of His care, and bakes them sometimes in the fires of testing and trial, out of them come those things that will nourish our souls—I mean, those big ol’ biscuits, not the kind that come out of a can where you go pop like that, but I’m talking about that kind, brother, that when you butter them up with hot butter and marmalade, and the first bite is a half moon, and the second one a total eclipse. You know what I’m talking about—that kind. God is the kind of a God who can take the ordinary things and the vicissitudes of life, and God arranges them, and God mixes them together, and we know that all things work together for good for those who love God. And so we can say, “Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for your providence.”

Now I’m not saying, if you’re Christian, you’re not going to have any trouble. Christianity is not the subtraction of trouble from life. It’s the addition of power to meet those problems. I’m going to tell you the difference in a Christian’s problems and the unsaved man’s problems. In the first place, the Christian has somebody to bear his burdens for him. And in the second place, every burden becomes the blessing. God takes our tears, and strings them, and makes a pearl necklace for us to wear. And then, in the third place, all of your burdens that you have right now are just temporary. That’s what Paul said, when he said, “I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) And so I’m like that person who said, “Oh, it’s so wonderful to be saved!” He said, “Now that I’m saved, I’m happier when I’m sad than I used to be when I was glad.” And I think there’s a truth to that. Even when a Christian is sad, he can still have, underneath it all, and through it all, the joy of the Lord in knowing that all things work together for good for those who love God.

II. Thank You, Lord, for Your Perception

And so we can say, first of all, “Thank you, Lord, for your providence.” But then I want you to notice, secondly, “Thank you, Lord, for your perception.” For notice what out text says: “The LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness.” Aren’t you glad that, not only does God bless us in all things, but God knows all things about us? He knows our walking through this wilderness. God knows all about you. There’s not a thought in your mind but God knoweth it altogether. God knows when you get up. God knows when you go to bed. God knows what happened to you in the past. God knows what’s going to happen to you. God knows the worst about you and still loves you. You see, we are not valuable. I mean, God doesn’t love us because we’re valuable; we’re valuable because God loves us. The Bible says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) He knows the worst about us and still loves us.

You want to know how many friends you have? How many people do you have that really know all about you—I mean, the worst about you—and they still love you? God is that kind of a friend: “a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24) And not only does He know the worst about you, but He also knows the best about you. Now I don’t really believe that anybody knows the worst about me, and I don’t believe anybody really knows the best about me. I don’t believe anybody knows the worst about you or the best about you. There are a lot of things that are wonderful about God’s things that nobody knows about, but God Himself.

You know, when I played football, I was kind of like a lineman in the backfield. I played blocking back. That means I was in the backfield, and called the quarterback, but I didn’t do a lot of passing. I didn’t do a lot of ball handling, nor running the ball quite a bit. Now I had my share of running the ball when I played fullback, but then I was moved to blocking back, and, you know, I was like a lineman in the backfield. And it was our job to open up a hole in the line and let these other folks go through. And sometimes this blocking back, and these linemen, man, we worked hard, and we’d open up a hole in that line that was one that my grandmother could go through in a wheelchair. And here comes a backfield man, and he goes through, you know, and makes ten, fifteen, yards, forty yards, and a touchdown. And everybody cheers. They’d say, “Isn’t he wonderful?” And these poor slobs would be lying on the ground there with their nose pushed in. Nobody knew about them. Nobody thought about them.

But I’ll tell you something—and all the fellows who play football will know this is true: When you went back to that bench and the coach was there, he knew—he knew. And that makes a big difference, to know that he knows that you did your job right, and he knows what it is to block in that line. And the folks up there in this stands may not know. But I tell you, dear friend, won’t it be wonderful when we meet Jesus Christ, the great coach—I mean, Jesus Christ, who knows and understands? And the Bible says that you can’t even give a cup of cold water in His name and lose your reward. (Matthew 10:42)

Thank you, Lord, not only for your providence—that you caused all things to work together for good to those that love you—but thank you, Lord, for your perception—that you know all about us. Not only this, but, dear friend, He knows your weakness. You know, the Bible says, in Psalm 103, “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14)—and that’s good. You say, “I don’t believe I’ll be able to bear the things that come to me.” Friend, nothing will come to you but what comes through Him first. He knows your frame. He knows what you’re able to bear. Somebody said it this way: “God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.” “He knoweth our frame.” Not only does He know the worst about us, and the best about us; not only does He know our weaknesses; but He also knows our needs. Jesus said, in the Sermon on the Mount, “Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” (Matthew 6:32) He knows your needs, and He’s able to supply your needs. Quit your worrying. Quit your complaining. Your Heavenly Father knows the needs that you have, and God is in the business of taking care of His own.

A little girl had been to school, and she learned about this thing called gravity. Later on, when her mother saw her, she was sitting there with a quizzical look on her face, in deep meditation. And her mother said, “My goodness! What’s a little girl like you thinking so deeply about?” She said, “Mama, I was just thinking about gravity.” And she said, “I have decided that gravity must be God in the center of the world holding all of His people right side up when the world is upside down.”

And I think that’s right. That’s exactly what God’s love is. It is God in the center of this world holding all of His dear people right side up when this crazy world seems to be upside down. He knows what things you have need of. And I can say, “Thank you, God, for your providence.” “Thank you, Lord, for your perception.” It’s great to serve a God who knows: who knows our weakness, who knows our strength, who knows our needs, who knows our sins, who knows all, and yet He loves us.

III. Thank You, Lord, for Your Purpose

Then I would say, thirdly, “Thank you, Lord, for your purpose.” What is God’s purpose? It’s revealed right here in this passage of Scripture. Would you look at it? “For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness.” What is God’s purpose? God’s purpose for you, God’s purpose and plan for me, is that we walk through this great wilderness. Now this great wilderness, to us, is the world in which we live. And the world has become a wilderness through sin. Why doesn’t God just take us on to heaven when He saves us? Well, God is trying to teach us a lesson. And what is the lesson that God wants to teach us? It is to walk through this world with us. God doesn’t take us out of the world, but God goes through this world with us. And God walks through this world with us—through this wilderness—to teach us a lesson. That’s exactly what He was teaching these folks so long ago.

Look in Deuteronomy chapter 8, verses 2 and 3: “And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness,”—now, that’s what He did. Now, why did He do it?—“to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna …”—isn’t that sweet? He made them hungry, so He could feed them—“suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.” (Deuteronomy 8:2–3)

Now, why did God allow them to go these forty years in the wilderness? It was God’s proving ground. It was God’s testing ground. Oh, I know there’s a symbolic meaning, I know there’s a spiritual meaning. I’m not talking about that now. I’m talking about the practical aspect of God keeping them there in the wilderness. God was putting them through His proving ground. God was putting them through His testing ground.

Friend, God wants to make something out of you, and that’s why He hasn’t taken you to heaven right away. You see, a man doesn’t sharpen an axe on a pound of butter; he does it on a grindstone. God could make your way smooth and easy. But He won’t do it. God says, to the contrary, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake.” (Genesis 3:17) “For your sake, the ground is cursed. You’re going to walk through this wilderness, and as you walk through this wilderness, you’re going to learn what the Christian life is all about. It is walking with me one step at a time.” Isn’t that right? “As you have received the Lord Jesus, so walk ye in Him.” (Colossians 2:6) And we’re going to have to learn this, dear friend, as He taught them, as He fed them with manna day by day: “You can’t get enough manna for tomorrow. You have to gather your day’s supply today, because you are going to walk with me.” You see, God is doing something in my life.

Now, if you were to look at me right now, and wanted to criticize me, you could start here, and go down here; you could start here, and go out here; you could start here, and go in here. You could criticize anything, anything you wanted. And I could do the same thing about you, because we’re just a society of sinners—that’s all we are. But listen. Before you criticize too much, I want to say to you what Mike Hopping said to somebody who criticized him. He said, “Don’t be too hard on me. God is not finished with me yet.” Now, that’s pretty good. You see, God is not finished with us yet. God is working with us. God has a purpose. And so we can say this Thanksgiving week, “Thank you, God, not only for your providence that causes all things to work together; not only for your perception, where you know and understand all about us; but thank you, God, for your purpose, that is to teach us to walk with you through this great wilderness that we call the world. Thank you, Lord, so much.” And I want to say, dear friend, notice that it says “through”: we’re coming through.

IV. Thank You, Lord, for Your Patience

Then I want you to notice again the next thing: “Thank you, Lord, for your patience”—because it says He walked with them forty years. Notice what it says: “For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years.” Now, that’s amazing that God walked with them forty years. He must be the God of patience. As a matter of fact, the Bible calls Him, in Romans 15, verse 5, “the God of patience.” (Romans 15:5) He is the God of patience. For forty years He walked with these complaining, whining, fickle, disobedient, unfaithful people. But He never did forsake them. And that is so great. Thank you, Lord, that you kept up with these folks.

Aren’t you glad that God is patient with you? I mean, have you ever confessed the same sin to God more than once, twice—five hundred times, maybe? I imagine there are some things I’ve confessed to God one thousand times, maybe two thousand. Come to think of it, maybe five thousand—and I’m not exaggerating. I imagine there are things that I have confessed to God five thousand times. And you say, “Oh boy, you must be bad, preacher.” Well, I’m not going to tell you what it is. Over and over again, we say, “Lord, I’m so sorry I failed again. Have mercy on me. Forgive me.” You know, you think that God would just say, “No, friend. I am finished with you. After all, Adrian, how much patience do you expect me to have?” But the God who went with them forty years has been with me that same length of time.

You know, the Bible says, in Acts chapter 13, verse 18, “And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness.” (Acts 13:18) “He suffered their manners in the wilderness.” Don’t you like the way that it’s put there? Forty years they had bad spiritual manners. And God put up with it. I’m so glad for the patience of the God of all patience. I’m so glad, when Simon Peter came to Jesus, he said, “Lord, now look. There’s a fellow who’s been bothering me. He does the same thing. Then he asks me to forgive him. And then he does the same thing over again. How many times do I have to forgive this fellow, Lord? Seven times?” And the Lord, with a twinkle in His eye, and a smile playing across His lips, said, “No, not seven; seven times seventy, 490 times.” And the Lord doesn’t mean to stop when you get to 490. This was His way of saying, “As many times as this man sins against you, and he comes and says, ‘I’m sorry; I repent; forgive me,’ you forgive him.” (Matthew 18:21–22) Now, if God expects that out of me concerning Jim Whitmire, how much more does God forgive me when I come?

V. Thank You, Lord, for Your Presence

Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your providence. I love you for your providence. Thank you, Lord, for your perception. I love you for your understanding. Thank you, dear God, for your purpose. I love you, Lord, that you have a purpose in my life as I go through this wilderness. And thank you, dear sweet Lord, for your patience, that you’ve been with me forty years. His grace has led me safe thus far, and grace will lead me on. But then I want to say, next of all, “Thank you, Lord, for your presence,” for the text goes on to say, “These forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee.”

God never leaves us. God never forsakes us. He was with them in the pillar of cloud by day, and in the pillar of fire by night. He is with us in the person of His Holy Spirit. And even before I was saved, the Spirit of God, I believe, was breathing over me, and protecting me, and keeping me, and guiding me. You know, often we say, “Well, the Lord is only with the saved person.” But, dear friend, if you’re unsaved, I want to tell you that God has been with you, and God has been keeping you, and God has been guiding you, and God has been leading you, and God has been bringing you to this moment today that you might give your heart to Jesus Christ. How wonderful, though, that, if you’re saved, to know that, not only does He abide around you, but He lives within you, in your very heart. You know, that’s what Hebrews 13, verses 5 and 6, says—the heart of that text says, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Hebrews 13:5–6) Isn’t that a great promise? “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” In the Greek language, there is a form of the language that is so intensive that it literally says, and could be translated, “I will never, never, never leave thee.”

A young Greek scholar was trying to show this to an old saint, an old grandmother who had walked with the Lord for many years. She didn’t have much education here, but she had plenty down here. And he had his Greek Bible out. Can you imagine this young theological student with a Greek Bible talking to an old saint who’d walked with Jesus many, many, years? And he’s trying to show off his knowledge to her, in a way, and he’s saying to her, “Now, mother, what this really says is, ‘I will never, never, never, leave thee.’ ” She just smiled and said, “Well, son, God may have to say it three times for you Greek fellows, but once is enough for me.” And I say, yes, praise God, He has said this: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

When I was a young man who just started going to church, we had a Training Union joint assembly at Northwood Baptist Church, and we had an old song leader who led music with a twang, and we used to sing a song called, “No, Never Alone”—“No, never alone; He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.” And when we would sing that, he had a way of patting his hand. He’d say, “No, never alone.” Well, after a while, the people there, and the teenagers, and we young folks, would get to stamping our feet. Every time he’d say, “no,” we’d say, “no, never alone,” and we would stop singing it, and we’d start to shout it: “No, never alone.” And we enjoyed that. It got a little raucous sometimes, but it was better than the barren monotony that we’d been going through in that service, and so we would sing it that way: “No, never alone. He promised never to leave me. No, never alone.”

Well, that song came and lived in my heart for a while, and then dropped out. I was called and saved, called to the ministry, went off to seminary, came back, took my first church, and then Joyce and I had a real tragedy come into our lives. One of our children died on Mother’s Day, on Sunday, after I’d just preached on the glory of a Christian home. A young baby, a beautiful son named Philip, died suddenly, instantly, in his crib. Without going into all the details, it was one of those infant deaths.

We’d never had any death in our family. I come from a large family. My wife comes from a large family. And our parents are still living, our brothers and sisters, their children. We’d heard about the comfort that God gives. We’d even preached about it. But we never really experienced it. And I can remember, as I came back to Joyce, as I came back from the hospital, we turned to the Bible for comfort, and I found a passage of Scripture that I’d never seen before, the first verse I turned to—and this was it: “Blessed be God … the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort [others] by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:3–4) And I said, “Oh, thank you, Lord. I know, if I don’t know anything else, that you have done something in this young preacher’s heart: that you are going to prove to me that the comfort that you have is real, so I can comfort other people.”

But as we pulled out of the driveway that Sunday night to go down to West Palm Beach, leaving Fort Pierce, the little church where we pastored had gathered together, heartbroken for their service, and coming out of the windows there—the windows were open, no air-conditioning—we heard them singing this song:

I’ve seen the lightning flashing, I’ve heard the thunder roll.

I’ve felt sin’s breakers dashing, which almost conquered my soul.

I’ve heard the voice of my Savior, bidding me still to fight on.

He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone!

No, never alone, no never alone,

He promised never to leave me,

Never to leave me alone.

—LUDIE D. PICKETT

And I thank God for that. I thank God these forty years, as I look back, I can say, “Thank you, dear God, not only for your providence; thank you, dear God, not only for your perception, and your purpose, and your patience; but thank you, Lord, for your presence.” No, never alone. “These forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee.”

VI. Thank You, Lord, for Your Provision

Then I’d like to say, last of all, “Thank you Lord. Thank you so much for your provision.” For notice the last part of that verse: “Thou hast lacked nothing.” Thank you, Lord, so much for your provision. “Thou hast lacked nothing.” There’s nothing, dear friend, that I have needed that His hand of mercy has not provided. Psalm 34:10: “The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.”

A. The Check

Let me give you a check that you can carry to heaven’s bank and cash. Do you want it? All right here it is—Philippians 4:19: “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” That’s the check. The number on the check, again, is Philippians 4:19. “My God shall supply all your need.” Now God’s check will never bounce. His promises are yea and amen in Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:20) That’s the check.

B. The Amount on the Check

The amount? How much is on the face of that check? “All your need.” I’m glad He didn’t say “all your wants” for two reasons. In the first place, I have wanted some things I didn’t need. One of the worst things God could ever do to us is give us everything we want. And in the second place, I needed some things I didn’t want. When I was a little boy, sometimes they used to say, “You need a spanking.” And I did, but I didn’t want one. And a lot of times the things that we need we don’t want. But isn’t it wonderful that the Bible says, “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory”?

C. The Capital Behind the Check

Now, that’s the check number; that’s the amount on the face of the check. What about the capital? Do think that He will be able to pay? Well, the capital is “according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

I heard of a rich Texan one time who wrote a check, and it came back: “Insufficient funds”—not you, us: the bank bounced.

Now you’re not going to bankrupt God’s bank. I don’t care what your need is, God’s got the riches. When the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon, she said, “I’ve never seen so much. Why, the half has not yet been told.” (1 Kings 10:4–7; 2 Chronicles 9:3–6) The Bible says, concerning Jesus, “A greater than Solomon is here.” (Matthew 12:42; Luke 11:31) Oh, the riches of His glory! The riches of His glory! This is the amount in the treasury. This is the resources of the bank. You can be certain, dear friend, that your check can be cashed.

D. The Signature on the Check

And then I want you to notice the signature on this check. “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Christ Jesus has signed this check in the crimson ink of His own blood. Now you can carry it to heaven’s bank and cash it, but there’s one thing you must do: you must endorse it. It’s made out to you, but you must endorse it. You must say, “Yes, I will link my name with the name of Jesus Christ, and by faith I will take the provision that God has given me.”

Conclusion

Will you do it? Then this Thanksgiving can be a great Thanksgiving, because you can begin to thank God for His providence, for His perception, for His purpose, for His patience, for His presence, and praise God for His provision.

Rogers, A. (2017). My Fortieth Thanksgiving. In Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive (Dt 2:7). Rogers Family Trust.