HoHum:
Thieves robbed Matthew Henry, the one who wrote a commentary on the Bible that many still use today. After being robbed Matthew Henry wrote this in his diary: “Let me be thankful first because I was never robbed before; second, although they took my purse (wallet), they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, and not someone else.”
Along with me many will say that these statements are of a mad man, a person out of touch with reality. A person under some kind of delusion or trance.
WBTU:
No, Matthew Henry obeyed, even to the letter, the command of Scripture to be thoroughly thankful, to “rejoice in the Lord always.”
Doing more than this. Matthew Henry, in his obedience to the command of Scripture, engaged in a spiritual discipline, a habit of joy that is deeply transforming.
Thesis: 3 reasons why thorough thanksgiving intensely works joy in us
For instances:
1. It is an act of recovery
Our natural tendency is to be ungrateful. Through the HS Paul said as much, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Romans 1:21, NIV.
Our natural tendency is to be thankless. Why is it so evil? Why does it corrupt us? We are brushing off God. The most radical of all snubs is to be ungrateful. To be thankless to God is to act as if He doesn’t exist or that He doesn’t matter. Samuel Johnson called gratitude a “species of justice” because to give thanks is to recognize the fundamental truth of our existence; that all we are and have come from God, God made us, and “we live and move and have our being” because of God (Acts 17:28). What could be more perverse than to ignore these facts? But that is what ingratitude does. Every other evil begins here.
To practice the discipline of gratitude is to shine light into the heart of our darkness. Now we are not saved by gratitude; we are saved only by the grace given through Jesus Christ. But since Jesus died for our sins to practice gratitude is to cooperate with God’s grace. “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” Philippians 2:12, 13
Notice what is said next, “Do everything without complaining or arguing,” Philippians 2:14. A spirit of complaint is different from ignoring God, it just accuses him of mismanagement. It leads us to live in God’s world like a dissatisfied customer in a well run hotel.
A spirit of complaining is poisonous even though we regarded it as harmless. Easy for us to complain. With God this is severe. A spirit of complaint caused God to stall the Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years. Tired, hungry and afraid, they blamed God for their troubles. Several places named for their complaining- Massah, the place of testing; Meribah, the place of arguing- the Israelites grumbled their way into a hole they never got out of. To this day, the result of their complaining- consequence of ingratitude- is a warning of the loss that comes when God is accused of mismanagement.
“Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care...” Psalms 95:6, 7, NIV. This says that God is in charge. God is compassionate; he cares for us- after all, He is our Maker, He is our God, we are his people; we are the sheep of his pasture. Everything is done in love and wisdom. Notice the rest of this: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.” So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”” Psalms 95:7-11, NIV. Complaining is a devastating thing.
2. It is an act of hope
When we give thanks no matter what, we act on the promise that the future will turn out beautifully. The next week, the next month, the next year, the next decade or two may be horrible, but He who holds the last hour has assured us that everything will turn out glorious.
“We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Romans 5:2-5, NIV.
Hope is the confidence “that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18, NIV. With this belief, we can rejoice in every situation and give thorough thanks. It’s a kind of reality check.
(Good to have a small mirror as an object lesson for this section)
Plato one time used a cave illustration that might help us. Suppose a man is born in a cave and spends his entire life tied to a post, facing the wall at the rear of the cave. This man only looks forward, not to the right or to the left. The light from outside shines on the wall he faces. Occasionally people and animals walk by the cave’s entrance and cast shadows on the wall. These shadows and the dim light are the only reality he knows. A world outside the cave, made of color and 3 dimensions, would be incomprehensible to him. How would it be if someone gave him a mirror in which he could glimpse the world outside? Everything would change. He would see the shadows in the larger context and deeper reality of a world of depth and color. That’s what hope is to the shadows of this life: the larger context and deeper reality of God’s faithful love to be revealed in the future. Thorough thanksgiving rejoices in what is seen in the mirror. We rejoice in a future more real and permanent that the present.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, NIV. For the Christian, however heavy the present may seem it is as light as a feather compared to the weight of future glory. To give thanks no matter what is to open a little window in this present darkness to let in the light of the glory of the world to come.
3. It is an act of joyful defiance
With bullies in life, things appear huge and terrifying: death, an unfavorable lab report, a job loss, a professional failure, a bad investment. They are bigger and meaner than we are, and they use their threatening nature to push us around and hold us down. However, we can stand up straight, look these thugs in the eye and give thanks; in doing this we stand on a rock they can never shake. “Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm” 2 Timothy 2:19, NIV. To give thanks is to triumph nevertheless.
God’s defiant “Nevertheless!” has triumphed over our sin and guilt and saved us, once and for all, from death and the power of the devil. Though we are undeserving, we got grace in Christ nevertheless. Innocent but he shed it for our sins nevertheless. That’s how determined God was to “be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:26, NIV. God’s “Nevertheless!” spoken on the cross is a holy and defiant act.
If God’s grace is defiant, then our gratitude should also be defiant. If God refused to let our guilt be the final word, then we too should refuse to let any of life’s bullies have the final word. Nothing should ever rob us of our joy because nothing should be given the power to take away our sense of gratitude for God’s defiant grace.
When we feel like staying home from church because we are so defeated and upset about the circumstances of life, we need to praise God anyhow. Booth Brothers- “If each day seems as if a million years, and at night your pillow’s wet from all your tears, and the love of life falls heavy on your brow, fall on your knees and praise God anyhow; Praise God for his love, Praise God for this life, Praise God for his Son who died for me, Praise God for the bad times without them I’d never know the good times, Praise God, Praise God anyhow!” The bullies of this life will not have the last word, don’t let them have the last word in our lives.
Gratitude and joy are organs of awareness; we don’t see to give thanks and rejoice, we give thanks and rejoice to see. “We live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7, NIV. No reason to be joyful and thankful? Rejoice and give thanks so we will! We never see it all whether of evil or good. We never have all the facts. But if God is everything he claims to be, if Romans 8:28 is true: “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.” then we have every reason for gratitude even when our eyes see only the terrible.
God cannot be pleased without faith (“Without faith it is impossible to please God” Hebrews 11:6, NIV), so to exercise faith by rejoicing and giving thanks regardless of the circumstances is pleasing to Him. The discipline of thanksgiving involves thanking God for what we see, and when we see nothing to thank him for, then thank Him for what is unseen.
When young I lived about a half hour from Defiance, Ohio. General Anthony Wayne built Fort Defiance in August 1794. He surveyed the land & declared to General Scott, "I defy the English, Indians, & all the devils of hell to take it." I defy anyone and all the devils of hell to take away our thanksgiving. They cannot do it, in defiance may we give a sacrifice of praise. Sing We Bring a Sacrifice of Praise Into the House of the Lord
