October 13, 2019
1 Thessalonians 5:18
Reasons To Be Thankful
Pastor Bryan Watson
Good morning. Happy Thanksgiving!
Our scripture passage for this morning is from 1 Thessalonians 5:18. - “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Let’s pray.
As we gather together this weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving, I want us to ask ourselves one simple, yet profound, question: what are we truly thankful for this weekend?
Are we thankful for the long weekend? Are we thankful for watching football?
Are we thankful for getting together with family? Playing games and just being together?
Are we thankful for our toys? The cottage? The quads? The cars or trucks or tractors? The houses?
Are we thankful for our good food and our freezers filled right up to the top?
Are we thankful that we can come together and worship freely?
We give thanks for ALL these things. And we should! It’s good to be thankful for what we have.
But what about the people who don’t get a long weekend? They can’t be thankful for a long weekend they don’t get.
What about the people who aren’t getting together with family, or maybe they are, but it does more harm than good?
What about the people who don’t have the toys, or a place to go when it’s cold outside… those people whose bed is going to be a park bench, and their house is a cardboard box?
What about the people who really do have nothing to eat, foraging in the trash along with the crows and the rats?
What about the people who are in prison, or risk being arrested, merely for coming together to worship God? How can these people be thankful?
Do we realize that our worst meal and our tackiest clothing would actually be the answer to someone else’s prayer?
Is ours a cheap Thanksgiving? Are we merely celebrating the weekend? Is it our circumstances that make us thankful? What is it that levels the playing field such that all people can be thankful, regardless of their circumstances?
Well, I want to change your perspective on Thanksgiving this morning. I want to give you a list of 10 things that the Bible specifically says we should be thankful for. 10 things that we as believers can thank God for, no matter what our circumstances are. Here they are, in no particular order:
For the Church
First of all, we can be thankful for The Church. And by that, I don’t mean the bricks and mortar that make up the church building, although it would be appropriate to be thankful for that. No, I am talking about the family of God. I am talking about being thankful for each other.
The apostle Paul certainly understood this. In Philippians 1:3, Paul starts off his letter by saying, “I thank my God every time I remember you.”
Paul was grateful for other believers, and we should be, too! Here, together, we can find unity in our love for Christ! We may not agree on every little detail, but we do agree on our love for Christ and our longing to be His followers. We are there for each other.
Listen to what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 - 9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! 11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? 12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
That’s what we are like when we come together: a big, thick rope that cannot be broken. And our fellowship with each other should bring us joy. Again, Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 3:9 - How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?
Yes, the Church, our family in Christ, is something to be thankful for.
2. For the Kingdom
Second, we should be thankful for the Kingdom of God.
The Bible says in Hebrews 12:28 - Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful…
You see, Christians have a dual citizenship. While we are citizens of our respective countries here on earth, we are also citizens of a Heavenly Kingdom that we are inheriting. Paul tells us in Philippians 3:20-21, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.”
I love having that on my passport – that I am a citizen of Heaven, and I can fully expect that my Saviour will transform this broken-down body in this fallen world to be like Him. I can’t wait.
3. For What God Has Done
Third, we should be thankful for What God Has Done.
The Bible says in 1 Chronicles 16:8 - Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done.
And again, in Psalm 75:1 we read, “We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks, for Your Name is near; men tell of Your wonderful deeds.”
Now, the problem with this is that if you’re like me, it is easy to forget the good things that God has done when my circumstances aren’t all that great. If I’m honest with myself, I’m a lot like the Hebrews in the desert, eating meat one minute, and then the next minute complaining about something else.
I’ve learned to keep a little prayer journal that reminds me of answered prayer. Every once in a while, I look back at it. The Hebrews used to set up rocks as monuments to things that God had done, like crossing the Jordan river as they entered the promised land. It was a reminder to future generations about the faithfulness of God.
Find something that helps you to remember what God has done for you, and thank Him often.
4. For Christ
Fourth, we should be thankful for Christ.
The Bible says in Colossians 2:6-7 - So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Even if we have nothing else, we should be overflowing in our thankfulness for Christ. Because without Christ, even the most prosperous person on earth is doomed to destruction, and everything he or she has will end up as garbage.
That’s the mindset we should have when we remember Jesus through the act of Communion. We remember His sacrifice, and we give thanks for what He did for us. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:16 - Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?
So we should be giving thanks for Christ. Plain and simple.
5. For the Lord’s Righteousness
Fifth, we need to be thankful for The Lord’s Righteousness.
The Bible says in Psalm 7:17 - I will give thanks to the Lord because of His righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.
Now, why do we need to be thankful for the Lord’s Righteousness? Well, it’s a little bit of theology here, but the Bible says that we don’t have any righteousness of our own. As Romans 3:10 says, “None is righteous, no, not one;” Isaiah 64:6 explains that “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;”
So, if even our best acts are like filthy rags because of our sin, what can we do? Well, we can be thankful for The Lord’s righteousness, because he transferred His righteousness to us.
As an example, Galatians 3:6 says to us, “Abraham ‘believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’”
So we can be thankful for The Lord’s Righteousness, because we don’t have any of our own, so He gave His to us.
6. For the Lord’s Help
Sixth, we should always recognize and be thankful for The Lord’s Help. There are so many ways that God helps us, and often we don’t recognize it. We pray, and when we receive what we have asked for, we quickly move on to the next thing, and forget about God.
In Luke chapter 17, we read about 10 men who had leprosy, who came to Jesus for healing. Jesus spoke the word, and as the 10 men went on their way, they were healed. One man, who wasn’t even a Jew, turned back and threw himself at the feet of Jesus, thanking Him. 17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” (Luke 17:17-18)
Let me read for you what God’s Word says about being thankful for the Lord’s help:
Psalm 28:7 - The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him in song.
Psalm 30:11-12 - You turned my wailing into dancing; You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give You thanks forever.
1 Corinthians 15:57 - But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 2:14 - But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.
God is active and busy in the lives of His people, and we should be thankful for His help!
7. For His Love & Faithfulness
Seventh, the Bible says that we should be thankful for His Love and Faithfulness.
The Bible says in Psalm 100:4-5 - Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.
And again, we read in Psalm 107:1 - Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.
You know, the love that God has for us is something that we can never understand on this side of Heaven. We can try to use reason and logic to explain His sacrifice for us, but within the shallow depth of our human understanding, we cannot wrap our heads around this.
John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. You do realize that God didn’t have to do this, right? I mean, He’s GOD… He doesn’t need our affection. And yet He loves us to the death, simply because He loves us.
Let’s look at it from another angle. What if, as the spikes were being driven through His hands and into the cross… What if Jesus would have said, “OW! OW! STOP! It’s too hard! Save yourself!” and walked off into the crowd? He could have. He had every right to do so. But He didn’t. Because He loves us. Otherwise, the story would be much, much different.
8. For Who God Is
Eighth, we need to give thanks for Who God Is. Our culture today tends to define God as our buddy. Laid back, easy-going. He’s our buddy. We tend to forget that He is holy.
Psalm 95:2-3 says - Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.
Psalm 118:28 says, - You are my God, and I will give You thanks; You are my God, and I will exalt You.
Psalm 136:1-3 says - Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords: His love endures forever.
Do you see a pattern here? He is more than just our friend. He is also our Lord, and we need to give Him the proper place in our lives.
One more… Revelation 4:9-10 says – “Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and worship Him who lives for ever and ever.”
Thank God that He is who He is. Otherwise, how could he do any of the things that He does for us?
9. For the Things God Gives to Us
Ninth, we need to give thanks for the things that God gives to us.
In 1 Timothy 4:3-5, the context is that Paul is speaking about false teachers. However, listen closely to what Paul is saying about being thankful. 1 Timothy 4:3-5 - They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 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.
Sometimes as people we get sucked into the false thought that everything we have has come from our own hand. Now, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t work because God will just hand us everything. That’s not true. Even God won’t try to steer a parked car. But anybody who claims to be a self-made man or woman is lying to themselves.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4:7 - For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
Everything we have is something that God has given to us. Let’s receive it with thanksgiving.
10. In All Circumstances
And tenth, we need to be thankful in all circumstances.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, the Bible says “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.”
And in Philippians 4:6, we read - Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
In these situations, thankfulness is an attitude, a choice, and an action. Sometimes we don’t feel thankful when our circumstances are not what we would choose. I’m not saying we should FEEL thankful when something bad happens to us. But I’m saying we should BE thankful for ALL THESE OTHER reasons that I just explained. We can be thankful for Who God Is, and for what He has done for us, and that He will take care of us regardless of our circumstances, and that He has prepared a kingdom into which He will receive us, if we make Him our Lord and Saviour. And we can be thankful for a church family who supports us.
11. BONUS: For Our Glorious Hope
And that’s a great segway to our next point. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’m going to give you a bonus reason to be thankful this year. We can be thankful for Our Glorious Hope.
Now, what do I mean by “Glorious Hope”? Quite simply, it is the hope of eternal life that we receive when Christ becomes our Lord and Saviour. Listen to what the Bible says about this hope in Revelation 21:4 - He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
Who wouldn’t want that kind of hope? No more tears? No more death? No more pain? It sounds too good to be true! Is this just some kind of crutch that Christians use to comfort themselves?
Well, a lot of times when something sounds too good to be true, it is. But not this time. Not today. Today, we can believe that Christ really can do what He says He can do. The Bible says in Ephesians 3:20-21 - Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
How would you like to have that kind of hope? I’m telling you that you can… right now. Jesus Christ is standing at the door of your heart right now, waiting to be invited in. In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me.” Won’t you open the door for Him this Thanksgiving? If you want to find out more about that, please come and see me or Pastor Dennis after the service. We would love to talk with you and pray with you.
Amen. Let’s pray.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~