Thanks Be To God! Series

And if those earthly things disappear – and they form the principle basis for your thanksgiving – your joy and hope in this world will disappear as well.

But Paul based his thanksgiving on something else entirely.

Paul based his thanksgiving on the mercy and forgiveness that he had received from God.

ILLUS: Just this week I received a text message from one of the ladies in our congregation. She doesn’t have much in this world, but she wanted me to share with you how thankful she was to have a church family such as this one and all the friends that she enjoys here. But then she wrote: “But most of all I’m so thankful for JESUS giving HIS life so I can have forgiveness of sin and the promise of eternal life with HIM!!!!”

ILLUS: At our Thankspiration last night, Chuck shared a song that he said Roger (a man we’d baptized a few weeks ago) had written the words for. It was a beautiful song, but what struck me was the power in the words. Roger’s poem spoke of the things he was thankful for, but each chorus had these simple words: “But most of all, I’m thankful you forgave me of my sin.”

These people understood the message Paul was trying to get across: true Thanksgiving is more basic than simply a listing of blessings. True thanksgiving is based on how much you really love God. And true love for God starts with realizing how much He’s forgiven you.

ILLUS: In our communion song this morning the chorus said this:

”Lest I forget Gethsemane, lest I forget Thine agony

Lest I forget Thy love for me – lead me to Calvary.”

That song implied that God’s gift of forgiveness can easily be forgotten if we’re not repeatedly led to Calvary. And, of course, that’s why Jesus instituted His Lord’s Supper.

Every week we gather at this table and are led back to Calvary.

Each week as we eat this bread we remember that it represents the body of Christ that was broken for us. And each week as we drink of the cup, we remember that Jesus shed His blood for our sins to forgive us of the things we’ve done wrong.

When people just go through the motions of Communion without being thankful, it can be a sign that they don’t realize how much they’ve been forgiven of. For he who’s been forgiven little, loves little.

But – by contrast - he who has been forgiven much, loves much.

That’s what drove Paul to serve God so strongly and powerfully in his life.

Here in Romans 7 he writes:

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Thanks be to God— through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 7:24 - 8:2

Paul’s thanksgiving began and ended with Jesus Christ because he loved Jesus.

And because he loved Jesus, his thanksgiving was more than just a listing of his possessions and comforts. It was a declaration of how much God had done in his life.