1 Th. 1:2
Thanks to God
Pastor Martin expounds 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10, focusing on Paul's thanksgiving for the Thessalonian church. He develops a 'Christian doctrine of thankfulness,' arguing that true gratitude is always directed to God, is continuous, is a Christian duty, is joined with prayer, and is cultivated by the deliberate use of the mind. Martin challenges listeners to examine their own thankfulness and to consider whether their spiritual lives would provoke thanksgiving or tears from an apostle.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 8 sections · 49 min
- Introduction: Paul's Thanksgiving as a Model for the Church 0:07
- The Characteristics of a Church that Delights God's Servants 3:26
- 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10 as a Rule, Standard, and Model 5:09
- Paul's Consistent Pattern of Thanksgiving in His Letters 9:18
- The Christian Doctrine of Thankfulness: Directed to God 12:32
- The Christian Doctrine of Thankfulness: Continuous and a Duty 23:47
- The Christian Doctrine of Thankfulness: Joined with Prayer and Cultivated by the Mind 31:09
- The Occasion of Paul's Thanksgiving: A Local Church 41:33
Key Quotes
“There is no peace with God apart from his grace, and the grace of God always leads to peace, a reconciliation of the rebel sinner with his God through Jesus Christ.”
“But in this particular passage, he is not thanking God for those common graces that he sees in the Thessalonians, but he's thanking God for those things which only the grace of God can bring.”
“One of the outstanding marks of unregenerate men Romans 1.21 says this neither were they thankful.”
“he said the problem with you Corinthians is you don't understand where your faith came from you're looking to the instrument by which you were brought to faith instead of looking to the God who imparted faith”
“This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you now what is sin sin is failure to do good to do the will of God this verse tells us that giving thanks is an expression of the will of God it's part and parcel of the whole body of his revealed will and purpose for his children therefore to fail to be continuously thankful is to be guilty of sin”
“for you see though we're born with clutching hands we're never born with thankful lips some men are more cheerful than others by nature but nobody's thankful by nature one of the effects of the fall is that we'll receive a thousand of God's gifts and never utter even half a hearty thanks”
“It takes discipline you don't believe it you try it you determine the next time you get on your knees you're not going to ask God for a thing until you've thanked him for five minutes and that'll be the longest five minutes you've spent try it don't take my word you determine you're not going to supplicate until you've thanked human heart you're not going so ungrateful this is one of the great hindrances in our prayer life”
“if everybody in the church were like you would it occasion tears or great thanksgiving to God let me repeat if this church was made up of a hundred you's would it be an occasion of thanksgiving or of tears”
Applications
All listeners
- Study 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10 in detail and cry to God for the characteristics of a delightful church to be true of you.
- Examine your own experience of the gospel using verses 2-10 as a rule.
- Set God-given models for what you ought to be individually and as a church, and press toward them.
- Have a model in your mind, framed by the Word of God, of what the church should be to bring glory to God.
- Consciously thank God for sanity of mind, physical ability, and peace from war, recognizing these as gifts from Him.
- Ensure your thanksgiving is offered through Jesus Christ, as God accepts our praise only when our person is accepted in Him.
- Honestly face the fact that cultivating a thankful spirit is a Christian duty.
- Be convinced that failure to cultivate thankfulness is sin, and learn this holy art by God's grace.
- Teach your children to thank God, making it a conscious part of family devotions and mealtime prayers.
- Discipline yourself to begin prayer with thanksgiving before making requests.
- Analyze your praying to ensure you are approaching God according to His directions, starting with a God-centered perspective.
- Use your mind to deliberately remember and know God's mercies, cultivating thankfulness against indwelling sin.
- As husbands and heads of household, take the initiative to lead your family in remembering and thanking God for His benefits at the table.
- Stir yourself up to praise and thank God, especially in corporate prayer settings, to guard against grumbling and discontent.
- Examine your spiritual life: if the church were made up of a hundred of you, would it occasion thanksgiving or tears from an apostle?
- Show evidence of hunger for God, loyalty to His Word, desire for a holy life, and commitment to the local assembly.
- Cultivate the spirit of thankfulness by directing it to God, making it consistent, joining it with prayer, and using your mind to remember His blessings.
- Trace all blessings back to the sovereign hand of God, fall down and bless that hand, and be able to say, 'We give thanks to God always.'
A full transcript is available on the tab. 54 paragraphs, roughly 49 minutes.
Introduction: Paul's Thanksgiving as a Model for the Church
Let us turn again this morning to Paul's letter, first letter to the church at Thessalonica. First epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians. It's interesting, when I was at these meetings, Monday through Thursday night, at a little church in Paradise, Pennsylvania, I got talking with the pastor there, and he mentioned something about Thessalonians, and I said, well, are you preaching through Thessalonians? He says, yes, Sunday mornings.
I said, well, when did you start? Well, we checked our notes, and we found out that both of us started the same morning. Now, I'm sure that's just a coincidence, but I could not help but wish, cannot help but wish, that they shall receive the prophet that I trust we are receiving, and that he as a pastor will receive the prophet in the preparation of his messages, which I have received in the preparation of these messages to share with you as a congregation. The church at Thessalonica, as we saw in our first study, was founded on Paul's second missionary journey in this very strategic city, and Paul had to leave after a relatively short time, for it was his custom to stay, you remember, 18 months at Corinth, three years plus at Ephesus. He didn't know anything of this fly-by-night type of evangelism that is so popular in our day, but he had an evangelism that planted churches and built up stable leadership, and so he's concerned about the infant church. He sends Timothy as his representative to find out how they're doing. Timothy comes back with this glowing report of their steadfastness, of their stability, and with a heart mingled with fullness of joy and pastoral concern, the apostle begins to pen this letter.
We have studied the first verse in which we saw the senders of the letter, Paul, Silas, and Timothy, the receivers of the letter, the church of the Thessalonians, its position in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus, and then last week we looked at the apostolic benediction or blessing that's in these words, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the tremendous significance of those words, and especially the order. There is no peace with God apart from his grace, and the grace of God always leads to peace, a reconciliation of the rebel sinner with his God through Jesus Christ. Now this morning we begin to study what we might call the body of the letter itself. We know who sent it, to whom it was sent, this general word of salutation and greeting, and now the body of the letter itself, and in a very special way, verses 2 through 10, are more or less a description of Paul's thanksgiving to God as he thinks of the church at Thessalonica. You notice the first words, we give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing. And then he goes on to list the things that he remembers, and the thought of those things brings forth this great volume of praise to God.
The Characteristics of a Church that Delights God's Servants
Verses 2 to 10 then are more or less the listing of the things that cause Paul and Silas and Timothy to rejoice before God. Now this should be very instructive to us. As we go through that paragraph, verses 2 to 10, and we see the things which made these three servants of God get on their knees and lift up their voices with praise, we then are going to learn the characteristics of a church which bring delight to the true servants of God. You don't want to know what makes a true pastor happy and makes him praise God?
Well, you read verses 2 to 10. These are the things that make true servants of God rejoice when they think of a church. Do you want to be a church that makes the servants of God rejoice? Well then, you've got to study in detail verses 2 to 10, and where you see certain things there that are not true of you, you ought to cry to God that they would be true by His grace.
We're going to see in the same paragraph the specific things which are a peculiar sign of a work of grace. You see, Paul did not here thank God just for general blessings, but he's thanking God for those peculiarities and peculiar things that only the gospel can bring. Now, if these people were kind and sweet and nice and good neighbors, well, I'm sure Paul would be thankful for that, that they weren't rowdies and drunken bums or the rest. But in this particular passage, he is not thanking God for those common graces that he sees in the Thessalonians, but he's thanking God for those things which only the grace of God can bring.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-10 as a Rule, Standard, and Model
Now, that's significant, he's thanking God for these things that make his heart as a pastor rejoice, and secondly, he's thanking God for those things that are the peculiar marks of a work of grace. Now, does that say anything to us? Yes. These verses, 2 to 10, can become a rule by which we may examine our own experience.
When the gospel came to those people, what did it do? Well, Paul's going to tell us what it did. Well, the gospel's come to you. Has it done the same thing for you?
You see, if the gospel has come to you with the same power with which it came to them, then it ought to do the same things for you that it did for them. Well, how do you know that the gospel's done its work in your life? Well, verses 2 to 10 become a rule by which you and I may examine our own experience of the gospel. And then they become, in the second place, a standard by which we should mold our ambitions.
Do you have any ambitions for yourself? For your family and particularly in this case for this church? The other day I took Joel by the James Caldwell High School here. They were having a baseball game.
The JVs were playing junior varsity between Verona and Caldwell and they were having a track meet and Joel had never seen a track meet. And so we stopped by and looked a little bit at the track meet, a little bit of a ball game. And I was interested when they brought out this young left-handed pitcher James Caldwell High School did to pitch the last inning. It's obvious that this fellow has studied Sandy Koufax, the great left-handed pitcher, who was formerly with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
And it was interesting because I've seen Koufax on the television a couple of times. I never saw him in person. And this fellow was a tall, kind of gangly left-hander and just the way he held his glove and the way he took his sign and the way he walked, everything about him. You could tell that he had set as his model Sandy Koufax and had studiously labored that every motion would be just like Sandy Koufax.
You see, he had set his model out here and all of a sudden all of his athletic ability and energies was directed towards somehow approximating that model. Now, if people will do this in the realm of the sports where the issues are certainly at best temporal, how much more should we as the children of God have before us certain God-given models of what we ought to be individually and in this instance what we ought to be as a church. And we should be pressing toward that model that God has given us. He has given us in the scriptures.
Every pastor and every intelligent church member ought to have two churches. The church they're a part of right now with all of its warts and blemishes and crooked limbs and all the rest and all of its problems and that church that they see set forth in the scriptures as the ideal and they have that model before them and by the grace of God together they move toward that particular model. This is the model. This is not the work of a pastor alone.
Very few pastors even have it. It's amazing how few pastors have any long-range model and goal to which they're pressing as a church. And if this is true of the preacher how much more is it true of people who sit where you sit. I'd ask you very frankly this morning do you have any kind of a model in your mind that's been framed by the word of God of what we should be as a church if we are going to be the church that will bring glory to God.
Do you have any kind of a model?
Well here's a beautiful picture of it. As Paul thanks God for these different characteristics we are going to see not only a rule by which to examine our own experience but a standard by which to mold our ambition and then in the third place we have a model of true thanksgiving. Paul says in verse 2 we give thanks to God always for you all and as we study his thanksgiving we have a beautiful model a beautiful model of true thanksgiving. A beautiful picture a beautiful analysis of what's involved in true thanksgiving.
Paul's Consistent Pattern of Thanksgiving in His Letters
Now let's look at verse 2. This has all been by way of sort of general introduction so that we could feel the climate of these verses that we'll be studying over the next weeks. Verse 2 We give thanks to God always for you all making mention of you in our prayers. Now it's interesting that in no less than probably six or seven other letters Paul begins basically the same way.
Will you turn please to the book of Romans and we'll move through and notice this pattern of praise and thanksgiving to God which Paul follows in the writing of his letters. Romans chapter 1 After addressing himself to the saints that are at Rome verse 7 to all that be at Rome beloved of God called to be saints grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ first before I do anything else before I give you any instruction before I deal with any problems before I ask any questions first I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. The first thing he does when he contemplates these people to whom he's writing is to express his thanks to God for the evidence of the grace of God in those people. Turn to 1 Corinthians with all the problems this church had and it had its problems let's never forget that there was much there for which Paul could thank God. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 3 the general greeting grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ and then immediately I thank my God always on your behalf
for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. And then he begins to list those different things that were an evidence of the operation of the grace of God. Now when you can start writing a letter to a church that had the problems that Corinth had and start with praising God and thanking God you've learned a vital lesson concerning the Christian doctrine of thankfulness. And then over in Philippians chapter 1 we find a similar greeting and I'm not using this just to fill up time the Lord says the Lord knows I've got more material than I'm afraid I'm going to get through this morning.
But I want us to see the pattern of thanksgiving that's followed in these letters. Philippians 1 verse 2 grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you all making requests with joy. You find the same thing in Colossians 2 Thessalonians 2 Timothy and 5 Thessalonians Now what conclusion do we make? Well either Paul was a big liar social lies or he had learned the secret and the art of a thankful heart.
The Christian Doctrine of Thankfulness: Directed to God
When you can write to all these different people and say every time I pray I thank God for you you're going to use up a lot of your prayer time thanking God. So either we've got to say that Paul was just sort of giving little social white lies or there is something in this whole area of prayer of thankfulness to God that Paul knew that perhaps few of us know. And so this brings us as we confront this second verse of 1 Thessalonians we are confronted with what I'm calling this morning the Christian doctrine of thankfulness. First he says we give thanks to God for you all making mention of you in our prayers.
You say oh I thought we were going to get some deep profound study and we're just going to consider the Christian doctrine of thankfulness but what do you know of thankfulness? What do I know of thankfulness?
Can you say with Paul first I thank God? No most of us have to say first I beg God this and I beseech God for that. We can't say as Paul could with such consistency that whenever his mind and heart were turned to prayer about a given people first of all his spirit was lifted up in praise and in thanksgiving. You see there's more in this matter of the absence or prayer presence of thankfulness than meets the eye.
One of the outstanding marks of unregenerate men Romans 1.21 says this neither were they thankful. Amidst all those gross sins listed in Romans 1 terrible sins he says neither were they thankful.
The scripture tells us that this is going to be one of the characteristics of the redeemed in heaven that's going to go on. You see petition will end the moment you're glorified petition will end outside of that group that's under the altar there in Revelation crying out O Lord how long before thou avenge our blood upon those avenge the blood of the martyrs upon the earth. You don't find petition in heaven but you do find three references to thanksgiving Revelation 4.9.7.2 and 11.17. This is a holy art that is going to go on for eternity. There'll be no more confession of sin in heaven.
There'll be no more petition but there will be thanksgiving there will be praise. And so if you and I would be Bible Christians then we must not be strangers to the Christian doctrine of thankfulness. Well you say Pastor what do you mean by thankfulness? What's the difference between thankfulness and worship?
Well if we could make a difference it would be this. Worship is the ascription of praise to God for who he is. It's ascribing worthiness to God. Whereas thanksgiving is more particularly expression of gratitude for what he has done and what he has given.
Worship relates more directly to who he is. Who shall not worship the old Lord God? True and righteous are thy ways. You see worship is directed to what God is in himself.
Thanksgiving is directed to what God has given in his grace and his mercy. One refers particularly to his person the other particularly to his gifts and his and both those characteristics meet in the true Christian. He is not only a worshipper of God but he is one who is full of thanksgiving. Now has that whetted your appetite to study verse 2 in some detail this morning?
What is the Christian doctrine of thankfulness? Well we have all the basic ingredients right here. Notice in the first place we give thanks to God. Christian thankfulness as Paul experienced it is always directed to the living God.
Paul sat and thought upon what had happened to Thessalonica when he was there and no doubt his mind went back over how God had closed the door into Asia and how the vision had come from the man of Macedonia come over and help us and how he established his witness in Thessalonica and how the opposition came and yet in the midst of it God had laid hold of the people and brought them to repentance and faith and then Timothy brought word that they were going on with God and that the gospel had spread abroad through them and you read all of these wonderful things in the remaining part of chapter 1 they became in samples to all the believers the word of God sounded out from them their reputation for spiritual reality had penetrated the whole area and as Paul thinks of all of this his heart instinctively looks away from these people and looks upward to his God and he says we give thanks to God ah but wait a minute were not Paul and Silas and Timothy the instruments through whom these wonderful things had happened didn't Paul found the church didn't he faithfully preach didn't Silas and Timothy have a part ah yes but Paul is simply telling us the truth here that he tells us in Corinthians in more detail notice his words in 1 Corinthians 3 verses 4 to 7 for while one saith I am of Paul
and I am of Apollos are ye not carnal or fleshly who then is Paul who is Apollos but ministers by whom ye believed even as the Lord gave to every man I have planted Apollos watered but God gave the increase so then here's the conclusion if all I did was plant the seed and if all Apollos did was water the seed and almighty God gave the increase here's the conclusion verse 7 so then neither is he that planteth anything neither he that watereth but God that gave the increase he said the problem with you Corinthians is you don't understand where your faith came from you're looking to the instrument by which you were brought to faith instead of looking to the God who imparted faith and he says when you see that why then you'll never say well I'm of Paul I'm of Apollos your attachment will be to God he to the living God who gave the increase and so the first and perhaps most basic aspect of the Christian doctrine of thankfulness is that it's always directed to the living God the Thessalonians were the ones from whom the word sounded out they were the ones who became examples but Paul doesn't thank them for he recognized as he said in 1 Corinthians 4 7 what hast thou that thou didst not receive
why dost thou glory as though thou hadst not received it you see Paul's theology is what shaped his thankfulness he recognized the truth of Romans 11 36 that of him and through him and unto him are all things to whom be glory forever and forever the Christian doctrine of thankfulness has as its foundation the Christian doctrine that God is over all and above all and the giver of all the truth of James 1 17 that every good and every poor and every perfect gift cometh down from above from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow cast by turning sometime you men when your wives aren't around you have to make yourself a sandwich you don't make the sandwich and then sit down and thank yourself I hope you say thank you to your wife when she fixes it for you you just don't go over and grunt and munch the sandwich down I hope you say thank you your dog at least wags his tail when you put his dish on the floor and I hope you at least say thank you but when you make your own sandwich you don't thank yourself you see the very concept of thanksgiving is that this has come from another and so there can be no cultivation of a true thankful spirit until the mind is soaked in the truth that everything comes from the living God that of him and through him and unto him are all things without exception now let me be very personal
how many of you have consciously thanked God during the past week for sanity of mind that you're not a stark raving maniac have you thanked God for a sound mind even once during the past week how many of you have consciously deliberately thanked God so you've actually framed it if not in your words in your mind oh God I thank you that I'm able to plant my two legs on the floor another day how many of you have consciously thanked God that we've not been held in the grip of the ravages of war I think it would be embarrassing to take a poll but I think it would be you know why we don't thank him we really don't believe that these things come from him we really don't believe that because if we believe it the expression of it will be in thanksgiving and that's why Paul had cultivated such a spirit of thanksgiving it's because his concept of God was such that he was the giver of all good don't be deceived by the fact that God may bring these things through second causes look behind the causes and understand who gets them and then Paul adds a word in Ephesians 5.20 that explains why some of you can't be thankful he says we are to give thanks in all things
by Jesus Christ he says in Romans 1 I thank God through Jesus Christ indicating that even our thanksgiving is unacceptable unless we are savingly joined to Christ for God cannot accept our praise until he's accepted our person and that's why we are to give thanksgiving and our person is never accepted until we're accepted in the beloved one that's why the scripture says even the prayer of the wicked is an abomination unto God the prayer of the wicked is an abomination unto God why? for you see until God accepts our person anything we bring to him is unacceptable our praise our thanksgiving is unacceptable until it comes through Jesus Christ and so Hebrews 13 says by him let us offer the sacrifice of praise and by him are there some of you here this morning who've been trying to thank God and yet you have not been joined to his son Jesus Christ that praise is unacceptable it must be directed to God through Jesus Christ well we hurry on to the second factor in the Christian doctrine of thankfulness notice we give thanks to God when the sun is shining and the bills are paid and all the churches are behaving themselves and the Roman government is treating me good we give thanks no he said we give thanks to God always the second factor of the Christian doctrine of thankfulness is that it will be
The Christian Doctrine of Thankfulness: Continuous and a Duty
a continuous exercise we give thanks to God always now that does not mean that every moment of his waking hours were involved in praising God he never would have gotten anything else done he says in other places that he prayed continually that he labored continually but it does mean that his thankful spirit was not something that was sporadic and something that came by fits and starts but it was a consistent part of his Christian experience now do you think it's because he always felt thankful I doubt it Paul had feelings like you and I have feelings and God doesn't despise our feelings he seeks to capture them and bring them subject to himself he seeks to help us get feeling in the right place if you live on your feelings you're just walking on thin ice God doesn't despise you God doesn't want you to live on your feelings he wants you to live with them but not on them you see there's a difference and feelings have a part and Paul was not some kind of a a super saint who had no feelings there's some clear indications that at times he became very agitated and disturbed he had the capacity to be angry other times discouraged so why did he continually praise his God and thank God how could he say I thank my God always for you all well I think the answer for this is found in 2 Thessalonians
verse 3 of chapter 1 he adds a little word here after saying in verse 2 grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ notice what he says in verse 3 we are bound to thank God always for you brethren as it is meet or as it is right the word bound here is the same word used throughout the New Testament for a debt you remember that parable in Matthew 18 where this man had a big debt and he went to his master and said please forgive me my debt what I owe you it's the word used continually for a debt Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 1 3 we are bound in other words we are indebted we are under obligation we are bound by necessity or duty the reason Paul had cultivated this grace of thankfulness manifest in being continuously thankful is that he recognized it as a Christian duty not something that was optional now again I think it would be rather embarrassing if I were to ask how many of you have ever honestly faced the fact that cultivating a thankful spirit is a Christian duty now if I were to say how many of you believe that being holy is a Christian duty you can all raise your hand
so speaking the gospel to others when you have opportunity is that a duty you'd all say yes God commands us but have you ever recognized that thankfulness is a duty I never did until preparing for this message and I had to do some fessing for I could go on too far in the preparation and what is neglected duty in the Bible term S I N what is sin any lack of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God now you say pastor you mean you'd be able to do that you'd be able to do that you'd be able to do that you'd build the whole doctrine on that one little thing that we ought or we are bound to give thanks no I wouldn't build it just on that I'd build it on something a lot stronger than that will you look at chapter 5 and verse 18 of 1 Thessalonians in everything give thanks for what's it say this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you now what is sin sin is failure to do good to do the will of God this verse tells us that giving thanks is an expression of the will of God it's part and parcel of the whole body of his revealed will and purpose for his children therefore to fail to be continuously thankful is to be guilty of sin
that's why when the apostle is naming all those terrible sins in Romans 1 he puts right in the heart of him neither were they thankful it's not as though he's saying well this is sin and this is sin and this is just human weakness he puts it in that whole category of sin against God and I believe dear brethren that until we are convinced that failure to cultivate the grace of thankfulness until we're convinced that that's sin we're really not going to get desperate about this thing now Paul did not learn this overnight he had to learn to cultivate this holy art of thankfulness for you see though we're born with clutching hands we're never born with thankful lips some men are more cheerful than others by nature but nobody's thankful by nature one of the effects of the fall is that we'll receive a thousand of God's gifts and never utter even half a hearty thanks we're born clutching but we're not born thanking and so just as the Christian must learn other Christian duties by the grace of God and the power of the spirit so we must learn the holy art of thankfulness if you don't think it's hard you try to teach it to your children I try periodically in our own family devotions to have the children now before we pray anything we've got to thank God
now what are we going to thank him for and it's amazing how we can sit there sometimes for a couple of minutes and so hard to pull out things we ought to thank God for last night when we did this Heidi said looked up very innocently and said I'm going to thank God daddy's home and he's not going away for a week she said that was what she was thankful for but you see how much this is ingrained in us when you have your devotions today when you have your thanksgiving around the table just go around and ask the children what should we be thankful for today and notice how hard it is for them to enumerate what we should be thankful ask them what should we ask God for and boy the request just comes snowballing in but what should we thank him for you see the human heart is not by nature thankful and we must learn the grace of thankfulness and one of the aspects of it is continue it so that when the clouds mount above us and it's not natural to thank God we're going to do it anyway because it's a Christian duty we're going to do it because this is the will of God in Christ Jesus well hurrying down to the third principle notice Christian thankfulness it's directed to God recognizing that all things come from him it is continuous it's a duty it's not sporadic thirdly it's joined with the exercise of prayer notice we give thanks to God always for you all brethren making mention of you in our prayers this matter of thankfulness is joined
The Christian Doctrine of Thankfulness: Joined with Prayer and Cultivated by the Mind
to the exercise of prayer probably in this case where Paul uses the word we he is actually referring to Paul and Silas because where he writes a letter without them being with him he says I thank my God and those where he says we thank our God are the letters where he introduces Paul and Silas or Paul and Silas and Timothy so he was probably referring to stated seasons when Paul and Silas and Timothy got together and they got on their knees to pray and they got on their knees to lift up their hearts in intercession on behalf of all the churches but he says this exercise of prayer was always seasoned with the holy exercise of praise and particularly of thanksgiving now when Paul turns around as he does in Philippians and he says be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God he was simply telling us to do what he himself had learned to do you read Paul's letters and you realize he had learned how to mingle all of his praying with thankfulness to God and that's a frightening thing when you realize that your children are going to pray the way you do basically would they learn that inseparably joined to all true intercession should be the flavor of thanksgiving
and gratitude to God the apostle Paul learned it and probably Silas and Timothy learned it from praying with him they probably noticed as they prayed that never did he with all the pressures of the churches and all the responsibilities and the letters would come of all the problems and Paul had enough to drive him into his closet and blurt out all of these things but never never did he come with simply supplication thanksgiving to God prayer and supplication with thanksgiving it takes discipline you don't believe it you try it you determine the next time you get on your knees you're not going to ask God for a thing until you've thanked him for five minutes and that'll be the longest five minutes you've spent try it don't take my word you determine you're not going to supplicate until you've thanked human heart you're not going so ungrateful this is one of the great hindrances in our prayer life God commands us to come before his presence with singing to enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise do we do it? I still have a sneaking suspicion I emphasized it a lot when we were going through the sermon on the mount on the Lord's prayer that most professing Christians think there's something unspiritual with analyzing their prayer you say well if I love the Lord and want to pray I just blurt out
the first thing that comes and it must be acceptable to God what makes you think it is?
suppose a king gave gracious invitations for all his subjects to come before him to ask certain things certain favors but with those invitations he gave certain directions he told you how to come how to be dressed how to approach his court what to say what do you think the king would think if you just came crashing into the throne room waving his promises to give you nice things and the king says wait a minute I told you how to come you say oh I have no time for that the thought of coming was so wonderful here I am king give me this give me that give me this give me that he says wait a minute I told you how to come in the same way God has not only given us promises and invitations to come he's told us how to come after this manner pray ye our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name start with the God centered perspective in your praying with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God that's not optional that's teaching us how we're to pray so if we're to pray right there must be the activity of the mind analyzing our praying how am I coming maybe bringing yourself up short do you do that when you're praying at times just bring yourself up short and say wait a minute this is an insult to God here I come crashing into his presence give me this give me that and I haven't thanked him for a thing Lord forgive me I'm going to start all over again do you do that I have to do it all the time I have to do it all the time just stop
say that's an insult to God talk to myself stir myself up to praise that's what Paul is talking about we give thanks to God always making mention of you in our prayers and then notice in the fourth place not only is the Christian doctrine of praise one which directs us to focus our praise upon the living God our thanks not only is it continuous not only is it mingled joined with praise prayer but it was cultivated by the deliberate use of the mind notice we give thanks to God always for you all making mention of you in our prayers remembering you can't separate that first word of verse three from all that precedes in verse two we give thanks to God remembering and then verse four knowing it's what Paul remembered and what he knew that made him thank God indicating that the gracious art of holy thankfulness involved the diligent use of his gray matter he remembered certain things and he knew certain things the word remember here is the same word used in the gospel of Luke where Jesus says remember Lot's wife oh you know about Lot's wife but he said I want you to think upon the lesson of her life remember means to use one's mind to call into focus a certain issue a certain event it's the same word that Paul uses in Acts 20
31 and 35 remember where he speaks to people and asks them to remember certain things that were true it means to consciously call to mind certain things the word knowing means to have an intelligent perception of something so Paul's thankfulness was cultivated by the deliberate use of his mind remembering and knowing now left to ourselves we remember what we should forget and we forget what we should remember that's part of the fall see if you don't reckon so much of this is bound up with a reckoning of the problem of indwelling sin why should I who've been redeemed by the grace of God I ought to be in hell but God has rescued me he's rescued you by his grace why should we have to actually use our minds to remember the mercies of God it's because of indwelling sin and corruption that would utterly stifle every remembrance of the goodness of God and if you don't live as a Christian continually aware of that betrayer within of that power of indwelling sin you won't get very far you're living in a fool's paradise and so Paul would teach us concerning this matter of Christian thankfulness it must be cultivated by the deliberate use of the mind will you turn to Psalm 103 we sang it this morning I chose that hymn purposely and notice how David recognized this
you read the Psalms and you say oh he just had the gift to the gab when it came to praising God he just had he just sort of had a happy heart as a king he didn't have many problems didn't have to worry about paying his bills all the problems that I have I can't be expected to be full of praise like he was well how do you get that way well listen to it Psalm 103 now notice is this Psalm directed to God to men or to himself look bless the Lord oh my soul he's talking to himself you say well if I do that my husband will call a doctor let me have an examination think something's wrong with me if he found me talking to myself now that's alright just depends where you're talking to yourself and in what situation well David got into his closet to pray and he started talking to himself he didn't talk to God he talked to himself first and he says bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord oh my soul it's as though his soul didn't hear the first time he said hey don't you hear me bless the Lord oh my soul and what forget not all his benefits see David talked to himself because he realized that left to himself he'd utterly forget the benefits of God he'd come grasping for the gifts of God and then he'd never so much he'd be like those nine lepers who never returned to thank the living God who granted deliverance do you talk to yourself
gotta talk to yourself you've got to use your mind to call to remembrance the blessings of God now to make this intensely practical may I challenge each one of you husbands who's the head of the house I hope you're the head if you aren't shame on you but take the initiative at the table today when you bow to thank God for your food you go around the table and say now look we're going to remember the benefits of God what can we thank God for and get all the things you can thank God for see try to cultivate this spirit of thankfulness you must stir yourself up stir your family up if we're to be appraising people when we come to prayer meetings that's why sometimes we have a period at the beginning of the prayer meeting and I almost act like a pope I'm so dogmatic about it I say no petitions nobody ask God for anything if you ask God for anything you're out of order we're just going to thank God we're just going to thank Him we're just going to thank Him for certain things see if you don't come to prayer you miss something I get more blessed sometimes with those periods of thankfulness than I do with the periods of intercession as one after another begins to thank God then you realize what a fool I am what am I complaining about what am I grumbling about oh how God is showered an abundance of mercy and blessing upon my head and it isn't long before your soul is filled with thanksgiving to God and then the last thing that we see in this passage concerning what I've called the Christian doctrine of thankfulness
The Occasion of Paul's Thanksgiving: A Local Church
it was occasioned by what he saw and heard of a local church notice he said we give thanks to God always for you all well who's the you all well the you all is the people to whom the letter was sent to the church of the Thessalonians it was what Paul heard of and saw in the church at Thessalonica that moved him to direct this praise to God continually mingled with his prayers rooted in the activity of his mind as he thought of certain things now remember what this fellow Paul believed he believed that unless people were marvelously transformed by the power of God they'd perish in hell and yet he could say I thank God he believed that unless people gave evidence of pressing on the road of biblical holiness without holiness no man shall see the Lord he believed that he believed in the judgment to come he believed in the necessity of the new birth and yet when he heard news of these people he said I thank God for you all now he didn't do that with everybody he said in Philippians he said I tell you now even weeping of certain people when Paul sort of thought of certain people even in the churches his heart broke but when he thought of these people his heart was full of thanksgiving and praise to God
I think you see the closing application I want to make this morning if everybody in the church were like you would it occasion tears or great thanksgiving to God let me repeat if this church was made up of a hundred you's would it be an occasion of thanksgiving or of tears it's a pretty serious question isn't it because see the church is made up of you's the church is not some nebulous thing out here it's people it's you people it's me with all our weaknesses and the rest is there some evidence that God has done something in us that would cause an apostle when he heard report of us to say I thank my God for you all or would he have to say I tell you even with weeping well if you simply come and fill a chair and there's no evidence of hunger for God of a desire to live a holy life and be a witness and have Jesus Christ the sovereign of your home and of your heart I tell you what Paul would write I tell you weeping but if with all the failures and all the areas
where you need growth if there's evidence of a hunger after him a loyalty to his and to the work of the local assembly you see as we're going to see here there's no such thing as a Christian in the Bible who isn't tied in and bound up in the work of the local church no such thing recognized in the New Testament well in spite of all the failures if there's that evidence of hunger for God hunger for the word desire to live a holy life desire to spread the news Paul would say I thank God for you I ask the question again if this church were made up of a hundred you's would Paul say I thank God or would he say I write with tears you know that's one of the most sobering responsibilities of the pastor he's got to do one of two things rejoice or weep over those in his charge Hebrews 13 17 says submit to them who are over you as they that must give an account that they may do it with joy and not with grief it's an awful thing to know that one day I must give an account if I had to today with some of you I'd give it with grief not because you hate me you may but I don't know that you're very nice to me but I don't see those positive evidences of spiritual life
that would make me write a letter and say I thank my God for you thank God there's some of you of whom I could say I thank my God for you but in the long run my evaluation doesn't count what would he say that's what counts as we seek to cultivate by the grace of God this spirit of thankfulness that Paul demonstrates here let's remember those principles I give them to you again as we review and seek to bring this to a close this morning we give thanks to God Christian thankfulness is always directed to God in recognition that all that we have comes from Him it's a consistent exercise we give thanks to God always for you all it's a Christian duty we must learn to cultivate it along with every other Christian duty it's inseparably joined to true prayer making mention of you in our prayers it involves the deliberate use of the mind remembering without ceasing knowing brethren there were things he remembered things he knew that provoked his praise and it was occasioned by what he heard of a local church and as we learn individually and corporately to cultivate this holy art of thanksgiving it will glorify God for the scripture says who so often offereth praise glorifyeth me it will guard us from sinful discouragement it will strengthen our faith for future blessings
it will keep us from sinful discontent I'm shocked at some of the discontent that I find rising in my own heart and rising in the hearts of God's people what will keep you from discontent you just keep thanking God for all you've got all you need to do is see someone who has the loss of sight or a loss of a limb and you'll see that you're not and you come to pity them and they say thank God I'm alive or thank God I'm not in hell and you feel pretty cheap for complaining that maybe you can't have the nicest choice of meats or some other stupid thing makes you feel pretty cheap and it ought to for you see ingratitude is never linked with a spirit of thankfulness let us this day by the grace of God trace all of our blessings back to the sovereign hand of God and when we see them there let's fall down and bless that hand that gives and be able to say with the apostle we give thanks to God always may the Lord help us to cultivate and to develop the Christian grace of thankfulness let us pray let's fall down and bless that hand that gives and be able to say
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
This passage is the primary text, serving as the foundation for Martin's exposition on the Christian doctrine of thankfulness, drawing out its characteristics from Paul's example.
Texts Expounded
Also Referenced
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