1 Thessalonians 5:16 Rejoice always, 17 Pray without ceasing.18 In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you..
Perhaps this is one of the hardest commands the bible gives us… In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you..
And I think that it is one of the hardest commands that the bible gives us because - like all the commands of God, it offers us no loopholes; no exception clauses, no room for excuses!
IN FACT - This bible verse and several others plainly and simply tell us that God wants our lives to be characterized by thankfulness, by a thankful spirit. He wants us to have a posture, a disposition that is characterized by a gratitude that flows out of our hearts, and is seen in all seasons and in every area and circumstance of our lives.
Q: HOW CAN THIS BE DONE? HOW CAN THIS DISPOSITION BE DEVELOPED?
(TS) WELL I’LL GIVE YOU – TWO THINGS TO REMEMBER TONIGHT – TWO LITTLE TIDBITS IF I MAY THAT WILL HELP YOU TO DEVELOP THIS KIND OF DISPOSTION AND CHARACTER. ONE CHARACTERIZED BY THANKSGIVING…(One is easy to apply, one perhaps not so easy, but doable.)
1. REMEMBER IN THE GOOD TIMES, WERE ALL THE GOOD THINGS COME FROM!
James 1:16 Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Q: Have you ever thought about the fact that we would have nothing good in our lives if it were not for God placing it there?
Remind yourself that - No matter how small or how large, every good gift, has been placed in your life by a good and gracious God.
Things like:
1. The dawning of another day.
2. The meal that we ate today,
3. the meal that we are about to eat tomorrow!
2 Corinthians 9:10a For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. – NLT
After the flood God Told Noah…
Genesis 9:1Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
4. REMEMBER WHEN YOU EAT THAT TURKEY THAT -GOD GAVE YOU THAT TURKEY, YOU TURKEY!
5. The family that may be gathered with you tomorrow, the friends that may be there…remember God gave them to you!
Psalm 68 (NIV)
5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
6 God sets the lonely in families,[c]
he leads out the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.
6. The sleep that you will enjoy tonight – before tomorrow’s festivities God graciously gives to you…
Psalm 127:2b for he grants sleep to those he loves.
7. The Job you trudge off to on Monday Morning.
Deuteronomy 8: 10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
Deuteronomy 8:17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth,
Deuteronomy 8: 19 If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.
REMIND YOURSELF – THAT YOU don’t NECESSARILY deserve any of those things from God - should produce in us deep AND ABIDING ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE…for as the scripture says…
Psalm 103
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
Psalm 103
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
WELL YOU MAY BE THINKING, “OK I CAN AND WILL REJOICE AND WILL REJOICE IN THE GOOD TIMES. AND I WILL REMEMBER THE GOD OF THE GOOD TIMES,
But what about the HARD THINGS AND THE HARD TIMES? AM I TO REJOICE AND GIVE THANKS THEN?
WELL... POINT ONE WAS…
1. REMEMBER IN THE GOOD TIMES, WERE THE GOOD THINGS COME FROM!
2. REMEMBER IN THE HARD TIME, THAT GOD IS UP TO SOMETHING GOOD!
What do I mean?
Remind yourself of …
a) The connection between trials and the life of a Christian.
b) The benefit of trials in the Christian life.
Listen carefully – I’m going to read you two bible passages…
The first one is James 1…
James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Chrysostom called hupomone “The Queen of the Virtues.”
Cicero defines as: “The voluntary and daily suffering of hard and difficult things, for the sake of honour and usefulness.” Christian steadfastness. It is the courageous acceptance of everything that life can do to us and the transmuting of even the worst event into another step on the upward way.
James 1:4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Let it FULFILL IT’S PURPOSE!
Q: AND WHAT IS IT’S AND OUR PURPOSE?
Romans 8 (NIV)
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8 (NIV)
29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Image IN THE GREEK is THE WORD eikon. It is where we get the word icon from.
You know what an icon is? It's a statue, isn't it? It's a replica. And the word eikon is used in four other verses with a similar reference to Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Colossians 1:15 and Colossians 3:10,
It refers to a purposefully derived likeness, not an accidental one.
When you go about to produce an icon, to produce a replica of somebody else, it's not accidental is it?
It is very purposeful, very very, detailed.
If were are being chipped away at by God to become a replicate of the image of Christ, it will be a very detailed, minute, work that God will do, in our lives.
AND the next verse should give us an insight too:
Romans 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.
Predestined = to determine, to mark off a boundary, or limit beforehand. To set the limits or boundaries in advance.
PAUL IS SAYING THAT GOD DETERMINES THE DESTINY, THE UP ANd DOWNS OF EVERY CHRISTAN.
Really?
This Scripture and other, clearly communicate to us that God is sovereign over everything, from the rain and snow that falls (Job 37:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13), to seemingly random events (the lot, Prov. 16:33), to the events of nations (Ps. 22:28; Acts 14:16; 17:26). To the mundane events to happen to us on a personal level.
Psalm 139:16 all the days (You) ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
He ordaines all of the days of our lives before we were ever born (Ps. 139:16). He fashions our hearts (Ps. 33:14, 15)
He orders our steps (Ps 37:23; Pr 16:9; 20:24).
There are some who may argue that when something happens that “This was not in His plan.”
They may argue that God is not control all things.
BUT BELOVED, IF YOU DO THAT, THEN YOU ARE ROBBING YOURSELF OF THE CONFIDENCE – AND THE THANKFULNESS, AND THE JOY THAT CAN BE POTENTIALLY YOURS IN THAT SITUATION!
Douglas Moo writes- Romans 8:28 promises that nothing will touch our lives that is not under the control and direction of our loving heavenly Father. Everything we do and say, everything people do to us or say about us, every experience we will ever have — all are sovereignly used by God for our good. We will not always understand how the things we experience work to good, and we certainly will not always enjoy them. But we do know that nothing comes into our lives that God does not allow and use for his own beneficent purposes.
SO WITH THAT IN MIND WE CAN AS EPH 5 SAYS…
Ephesians 5:20 Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
"Oh, but," you say, "there are some things I cannot give thanks for, there are some things so hard, so difficult to bear, there are some things that lacerate my very soul."
Harry Ironside- Wait a moment. Have you ever undergone a serious physical operation as a result of which you have been delivered from something that was just wearing out your very life? When you had to undergo it, it seemed very hard, but as you look back upon it, can you not give thanks for the surgeon's knife.
Joni Eareckson Tada -I have wrestled with this Scripture. It's not quite like I Thessalonians 5:18 where we are told to, "In everything give thanks." Rather, Ephesians 5 says "… Always giving thanks to God the Father FOR everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." How can God expect us to “do” that?
Joni Eareckson Tada -we can do that because EVERYTHING friend, EVERYTHING falls within the overarching decrees of God’s sovereignty. Isaiah 45:7 assures us, "I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and I create disaster; I, the Lord, do these things."
Joni Eareckson Tada - And of course in Ephesians 1:11 He says, "In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." There you have it! Everything that touches our life comes from His hand (even if it is occasionally His left hand).
Joni Eareckson Tada – FINALLY God asks us to have the point of view of Christ – He sees how it will all fit together IN HEAVEN one day. The trials and sufferings in our lives are there to strengthen us. They are there to help us turn away from the world and toward Jesus. Sometimes God withholds what we desire to possibly protect us from some kind of harm, to sanctify us, grow our faith, to teach us to be more like Jesus, to refine us and grow in us the fruit of the Spirit, and to glorify God. We tend to be a bit shortsighted, only seeing the immediate, but God views not only our life now, but also our life in eternity, for which He is preparing us.
AND So even during hard times we can thank God, because none of our tears are wasted and not one minute of our hardships are without reason.
Let’s pray that God would help us be PEOPLE who are characterized by deep gratitude that goes beyond the Thanksgiving season.
