Welcome to another week of our Hymn-sing! And Happy Thanksgiving!

1 Timothy 4: 4-5 – “For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.”

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For “littles” and “young at heart”

Prayer of Thanksgiving:

(Feel free to say each line and have your child repeat what you say or say it as you pray together.)

Dear God,
Dear God,
Thank You for this place called home.
For family, food, church and fun,
For the freedom to worship and pray,
For keeping us safe until we can sing and be together in church again.
Thank You for loving us and giving us your son Jesus.
Amen.

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Love Your Neighbor

Thanksgiving Day Prayer for the ‘older’ kids (ages 16 to ?):

I thank You Heavenly Father for our land and all those who peopled it.
For Native Americans who loved, respected and protected the earth.
For pilgrims who came in search of freedom to worship.
For immigrants who came in search of freedom to speak their beliefs.
For those who came against their will but who adapted and worked to
achieve America’s dream as their own.
For those who tilled the soil, forged the frontiers, built the cities, cooked,
cleaned and raised their families, and held together their communities.
I thank You God for all who worked for justice and sacrificed their lives
to make us a freer and better nation.
On this Thanksgiving Day, I thank You for America and for the dream we must
seek to fulfill for all each and every day.
God bless the world and every child, teenager, adult, and elder throughout America.
Amen.

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Now Thank We all Our God

Hymn Background:

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
2 Peter 3:9

Robert Robinson had a rough beginning. His father died when he was young, and his mother, unable to control him, sent him to London to learn barbering. What he learned instead was drinking and gang-life. When he was 17, he and his friends reportedly visited a fortune teller. Relaxed by alcohol, they laughed as she tried to tell their futures. But something about the encounter bothered Robert, and that evening he suggested to his buddies they attend the evangelistic meeting being held by George Whitefield.

Whitefield was one of history’s greatest preachers, with a voice that was part foghorn and part violin. That night he preached from Matthew 3:7: “But when he saw many of Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Bursting into tears, Whitefield exclaimed, “Oh, my haters! The wrath to come! The wrath to come!”

Robert immediately sobered up and sensed Whitefield was preaching directly to him. The preacher’s words haunted him for nearly three years, until December 10, 1755, when he gave his heart to Christ.

Robert soon entered the ministry, and three years later at age 23, while serving a Methodist Chapel in Norfolk, England, he wrote a hymn for his sermon on Pentecost Sunday. It was a prayer asking that the Holy Spirit flood into our hearts with His streams of mercy, enabling us to sing God’s praises and remain faithful to Him. “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” has been a favorite of many since that day.

Robinson continued working for the Lord until 1790, when on the morning of June 8, he passed away quietly during the night at the age of 54.

LYRICS

1. Come, thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love.

2. Here I raise to thee an altar; hither by thy help I’ve come;
And I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood.

3. O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, how I feel it, prone to leave the God I Love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

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How Majestic is Your Name