Praise the LORD, for He is Good!

John Farley
Pastor-Teacher
Sunday,
November 24, 2024

Praise the LORD for He is good!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

On board that ship were 41 Separatists. Today we call them Pilgrims.

They decided to separate from the established national church under the King James.

They set sail for the New World aboard the ship called the Mayflower.

Conditions on that ship were brutal.

 

They had set sail from Plymouth, England on September 6th 1620.

 

The land of Cape Cod was first sighted on November 9, 1620.

 

 

“…What could now sustain them but the Spirit of God and His grace?”

The Pilgrims started dying.

And then an event happened that marked the turning point in their fortunes.

 

“Have you got any beer?”

 

The following Thursday he returned - and he was not alone.

Samoset had brought with him another native.

He spoke better English than Samoset did. And he was, of all things, a Patuxet.

 

This second native was Squanto.

“a special instrument sent of God for their good, beyond their expectation”.

In 1605, Squanto and four other natives were taken to England, where they learned English.

But monks from a nearby monastery bought Squanto and they taught him about Jesus Christ.

Six months before the Pilgrims were to arrive, Squanto returned to his homeland (Plymouth).

There he learned that his entire tribe had perished.

Then Samoset arrived with big news: a small colony of peaceful English families had settled at Patuxet.

When Massasoit left to return home, Squanto remained with the Pilgrims.

He showed them how to fertilize the ground for planting corn by using fish.

 

Squanto demonstrated the grace of God in the lives of the Pilgrims.

When we were lost and helpless and wretched, God our Father gave us Jesus.

Squanto lost everything - his family, his tribe, his very identity.

If he hadn’t, though, he would not have been there for the Pilgrims when they needed him.

Jesus lost everything too - for our sake.

PHI 4:19-20

 

The Pilgrims
were overwhelmed with gratitude
to the LORD.

Governor Bradford declared a day of public thanksgiving to be held in October.

 

 

Things went so well that their first day of Thanksgiving was extended for three days.

Governor Bradford summed up the Pilgrim experience with words from Psalm 107.

“Our fathers were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord,

and He heard their voice and looked on their adversity,”…

“Let them therefore praise the Lord for He is good; and His mercies endure forever.”

PSA 65:1-13