Christian joy is an experience that springs from the deep down confidence in the Christian

that Christ is sufficient and God is in perfect control of everything, bringing it all

to our good in time and eternity.

Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. It's become a day more associated with travel, eating, and football games than what American President Abraham

Lincoln envisioned. It was in 1863 that Lincoln declared the first official Thanksgiving,

a time for remembering, quote, the gracious gifts of the most high God. And what's perhaps

most significant about Lincoln's declaration is that it came right in the

middle of the U.S. Civil War, a reminder that even during serious troubles, God is gracious and

merciful, and he deserves our thanks. Well, on this Thanksgiving Day in the United States,

John MacArthur shows you why, if you're a believer, you two can give thanks in any circumstance.

Today's message is titled, Rejoice Always. But first things first, John, happy Thanksgiving to you

and to Patricia and to your family. What would you say you are rejoicing for on this Thanksgiving

day? Well, more than we've ever

rejoiced for on any other Thanksgiving Day because we have another year of Providence,

another year of incredible divine blessing. Amen. Thanksgiving is a unique event for us as a family.

It always has been because it's not cluttered. I mean, even Easter, as much as you want to celebrate the

resurrection, gets cluttered with spring and hats and rabbits and Christmas, the same thing,

gets cluttered with Santa Claus and presents and all of that. But Thanksgiving has escaped

the cultural, I guess, cloaking that has obscured other holidays as much as they can obscure them.

And so for Thanksgiving, we just have a time of going around the table, going through the

families, little children, teenagers, adults, all the way through the family, and rehearsing what the Lord has done. And I think that is a

biblical thing to do. I think you have that in the Old Testament. God's people are told to remember

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