In Everything Give Thanks

The Common Misconception of God's Will

0:02 If only I could know the will of God.

0:07 How does someone know the will of God?

0:11 How can I find out God's will for my life? You ever have a question like that?

0:17 I've heard that question many a time.

0:22 Sometimes it's the person coming down to the end of his high school years and he wants to know whether he should go on to college, go into the military. How can I know God's will for my life? Maybe it's a young woman, a young man has caught her fancy. How can I know if this is God's will?

0:38 Should I say yes or should I say no to his request for my hand in marriage?

0:46 These questions are often heard by the servants of Christ. But so often they have an almost exclusive reference to those aspects of the will of God which deal with occupation, calling, or geography.

1:03 Occupation, calling, geography. The sonographer housewife. College, military. Occupation, you see.

1:13 What should be my calling? Geography. Should I go here? Should I go there?

God's Will for Character and Conduct

1:19 But the focus of scripture is not so much upon the occupational and geographical aspects of the will of God as it is upon the character and conduct of the child of God in whatever calling he may be and in whatever location. And so our text this morning is a very helpful text because it tells us the will of God. Do you want to know the will of God for your life? I sure do.

1:45 Well, I can tell you. In fact, I can promise you that I will infallibly declare the will of God for your life tonight. This morning. Now, I didn't say I will infallibly expound this text.

1:55 But I can read the text which infallibly declares the will of God for your life if you're a Christian. Infallible. What is it? Well, it's verse 18 of 1 Thessalonians 5.

2:09 The verse to which we have come in our regular verse. Verse by verse study of this wonderful letter of the Apostle to the infant church of the Thessalonians. In this little trilogy, this triad, simple little commands, but oh how profound and yet how difficult to walk in the light of them. Beginning with verse 16.

2:33 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing. And now our text for the morning. In everything give thanks for. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus to you.

2:50 Or concerning you. What's God's will for your life? Here it is. That in everything you give thanks.

2:58 That is the will of God for you. Oh, but you say I'm not concerned about that. I want to know about His will for my occupation. Yes, I know you do.

3:06 And some of you teenagers say I want to know His will about marriage or no marriage. And maybe some of you out of your teens would like to know the same. And there may be others that would like to know the will of God about this or that. But may I say any itch to know the will of God occupationally, geographically, or in any other area that makes me indifferent to the will of God for my character is simply trying to use the Bible as a crystal ball and God's not in the business of crystal ball games.

3:38 In fact, the only assurance you can have that you will discern the will of God for your occupation or the geographical sphere of your labors is that you are embracing from the heart the will of God for your character. In all thy ways acknowledge Him. That's character. And He shall direct thy path.

4:02 Occupations, geography. And we're a clever bunch, aren't we? Just like we want to live shoddily and pray powerfully, we like to take carelessly these aspects of our lives. These aspects of the will of God for our character.

4:16 But we want infallible guidance when it comes to geography and calling. We don't want to get married to the wrong guy and have a hell on earth. We don't want to have the wrong occupation and be miserable. But we're willing to live with things contrary to the will of God in our character.

4:33 We're a clever bunch, aren't we? And I submit to you young people particularly this morning, do you want to be dead certain that you won't miss the will of God about your life's partner? You want to be dead certain you won't miss the will of God about your life's occupation? About your geographical sphere of labor in the kingdom of Christ?

4:52 Then you get dead in earnest about the will of God for your character. And God promises that geography and occupation will almost take care of themselves. That's why it's very difficult for anyone to find an awful lot of material in Scripture on how to know the will of God for your character, because God simply will not divorce this from the principle of relationship to Himself. So, we come to a text this morning that tells us the will of God for our character, and here it is.

The Duty Stated: What it Means to Give Thanks

5:25 In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus to you, word or concerning you. As we think our way through the text, consider in the first place the duty stated, secondly the duty enforced, and thirdly the equipment needed to perform the duty. The duty stated. And I use the word duty purposely because this comes in the imperative mode.

5:56 This is not a suggestion that God is giving, sending around to the churches a little suggestion box to make things a little more sweet for everybody. This is a mandate from the living God. This is a command. It comes in a present imperative.

6:12 This is a command which is binding upon every saint at every point in his life and in his experience. In everything give thanks. Well, two questions come to my mind immediately as I try to think of this duty herein stated. Number one, what is it to give thanks?

6:31 And secondly, what is it to give thanks in everything? So, we're going to approach the text in that way. What is it to give thanks? Well, you say that's obvious.

6:40 It's to say thank you.

6:43 Yes, but what are you saying when you say thank you? Well, you say you know. Yes, I know. But did you ever try to put it in words?

6:50 I wrestled for hours. What is it to give thanks? What is it to give thanks? Well, the dictionary helps us a little bit and I've used the dictionary and a little bit of my own material to come up with this definition.

7:05 To give thanks is to make a grateful acknowledgment of something received by or done for me. A grateful acknowledgment. Of something received by me or done for me. An acknowledgment made to or about the one who has benefited me.

7:30 To give thanks is to make this grateful acknowledgment of something received or done for me and that acknowledgment is either made to the one who did it or about him to another person. Now, it's understood in the text that God is the object of this thanks and this is supported by many, many scriptures and it's so obvious the apostle doesn't even say in everything give thanks to God for he assumes that these Thessalonians have come to that elementary understanding that since God is the orderer and controller of all events and things, he is the one to be thanked for all things as they come to us. In other places he actually states, for this cause we thank God, even our Father. First Colossians 1.3 and Colossians 1.12 are examples.

8:31 Then you begin to ask, well what's the difference between thanksgiving and praise? It doesn't say in everything give praise but give thanks. And I think the basic distinction is this. Praise has peculiar reference to the excellencies of the being or the character of God.

8:49 It's praise directed to what he is. Whereas thanksgiving and thanks has reference to the benefits that this God bestows upon us. Now the two overlap. And you can't separate them into hard fast categories but since the Holy Ghost used a different word in scripture and we are not only told to praise him but to thank him, there is a basic distinction.

The Duty Stated: Giving Thanks 'In Everything'

9:15 Praise has reference to the character of God thanksgiving to the benefits of God. So much then for the question, what is it to give thanks? What does it mean to give thanks in everything? Now just like these other commands, the emphasis is upon the everything.

9:41 In the original the wording is backwards. If we were giving a literal translation in the same order that it comes to us, it would be this. In everything give thanks. Just like we had always rejoiced without ceasing pray.

9:58 In everything give thanks. Just as the Apostle assumed that every Christian would have some joy, but his concern is that they have abounding joy. Just as he assumed that every Christian would pray but he wants constancy in prayer, so here every Christian has some thanks. You can't be a partaker of eternal life and not gratefully acknowledge the God from whence that gift of life is flowed.

10:27 You can't know what it is to have been lost, groping in the darkness of sinful night and to have been brought out of darkness into marvelous light without some measure of giving thanks to this God who hath called you out of darkness into light. You see, every Christian has some measure of thanks. What the Apostle's concern is that in everything they would be found giving thanks unto God. Now, the exposition of this verse becomes difficult at this point and most of the commentators missed it and I got halfway through my preparation and had to junk everything I was doing.

11:10 Not because it wasn't true, but it isn't what this text says. Now here's how I was reading it and studying it. For everything give thanks. And boy, I was really making progress and I thought I had a pretty good outline and all the rest until I began to look up some parallel passages and compare them.

11:28 This doesn't say for everything give thanks. That's what he says in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 20. Notice the wording there. It's different from here.

11:38 Here's another duty. Giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. Giving thanks always, that's a matter of time, for all things. But that isn't what this verse says.

12:00 It doesn't say give thanks for all things. It says in everything give thanks. Boy, you say, in that plane of words, what's the difference? You see, here's one of the problems everyone faces.

12:11 If you don't hold the Bible's view of itself, namely, a full and a verbal inspiration, you end up in a normal world. No man's land of doubt and confusion. But once you accept the Bible's view of itself, that every jot and tittle is inspired of God, then that puts an awful responsibility on you to handle the words of Scripture accurately. And at this point, I wish I had a lower view of Scripture, because it'd be a lot easier to preach on this text.

12:43 I've gone around in circles for hours. What does he mean, in everything give thanks? And I wished I were preaching through Ephesians 5, for everything give thanks. It'd be a lot easier.

12:53 But it doesn't say that. And so the duty here is much closer in parallel to that which is stated in Colossians 3.17. This is more like it.

13:05 For he says there, Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks unto God and the Father by him. Well then, I haven't answered the question. I've only made it more of a question. What is it to give thanks in everything, as opposed or in contrast with for everything?

13:25 I believe this is what it means. This is my present light on it. So I said it's an infallible text. I don't know if the exposition is infallible.

13:34 It means that in the midst of every duty, of every privilege, of every joy, of every sorrow, of every disposition of providence, the Christian is to maintain a spirit of thanksgiving. A spirit of thanksgiving to God. In everything, give thanks. For everything? Yes.

13:59 That's looking at the things that come from the hand of God, recognizing they come from Him, seeing that they are worth something to us, and then humbly acknowledging that we didn't deserve it, it's for our good, and acknowledging, thank you, Lord, for this thing. But, here it says in everything, in every circumstance, in the midst of every duty, in the midst of every privilege, every joy, every disposition of providence, give thanks. You mean to tell me that it's my duty as a Christian to manifest the spirit of thanksgiving in the midst of every and any circumstance into which I may be brought by the will of God? Absolutely. In everything, give thanks. That's my duty.

14:54 That is your duty. That is my duty. Now, unless you're convinced of that, you're never going to roll up your sleeve and go to work at performing it. Because this is not a simple duty to perform.

15:10 In everything, give thanks. When you start figuring out what comprises the everything, you begin to scratch your head and say, give thanks in that? Uh-huh. Is that part of the things of your life?

The Duty Enforced: It is the Will of God

15:28 In that thing, give thanks. So that's the duty as it's stated. Now, lest we be staggered and say, wait a minute, that's just too high, that's just too much beyond us, he needs to enforce that duty. And so he buttresses the statement of the duty with this enforcing principle.

15:48 And so having considered the duty stated, in the second place, look with me at the duty enforced. Knowing, hon, how unnatural it is, how unlike the human heart, he's going to enforce the duty. Now how shall he do it? How shall he do it?

16:04 A thankful spirit maintained in the midst of every circumstance has a great therapeutic effect upon the human personality. So the apostle could have given a man-centered motive. In everything, give thanks for this will be health to you. And it will be.

16:22 It will be. The thankful person who maintains that balance of gratitude in everything has good mental health, and many times, he'll have much better physical health. But he doesn't deal with a motive that terminates upon what man gets. Will you notice that the whole climate of the enforcement of this duty is God-centered?

16:43 It is a God-centered motivation. Note it. In everything, give thanks for this is the will of God, secondly, in Christ Jesus, concerning you. It's a God-centered motive.

17:01 It's the will of God. And it's a redemptive motive. It's expressed in Christ Jesus. It has peculiar reference to the salvation which is found in Christ Jesus the Lord.

17:16 It excludes all of this self-help, mental gymnastics, the Norman Vincent Peale kind of stuff, where he says to anybody, just wake up in the morning saying, I can do all things, I can do all things, I can do all things through Christ, even though he's never considered whether or not the person's in Christ or out of Christ. And it's developing positive mental habits, and people get help. People who've lived miserable, dejected, terribly butchered-up lives have become whole, well-integrated, happy people through this kind of mental gymnastics. They have.

17:52 They have. You can find them many places. Paul is not giving self-help prescription. He's saying that this duty of giving thanks and everything is to be enforced not only by the authority of God, but by the redemption of Jesus Christ.

18:10 Now, let's look at its specific meaning. For this is the will of God. The will of God is the expression of His mind or His purpose for His creatures. It's the very thing for which man was made.

18:27 You and I were made to do the will of God. God didn't make man and wind him up to just run out his life in terms of the dictates of his appetites and his drives and the rest. That's the curse and the fallacy of much of modern thinking about man. Adam, even before he fell, who had physical appetites, sexual appetites, intellectual appetites, the desire to succeed, ambition, all of the rest, even before he sinned, here he was made in righteousness and uprightness.

19:00 God didn't just put him in the garden and say, all right, follow your drives, even though they're wholesome and sinless. No, no. He gave him direction. He said, now Adam, with reference to that desire to work and accomplish something, that ambition to go ahead, there's the garden.

19:17 You dress it. You keep it. See the animals? Subdue them.

19:21 See the world about you? Learn the secrets of its operation. Bring them into subjection under you. All of those drives, what we might call the intellectual drives, were to be subject to the will of God.

19:33 What about his sexual drives? Subject to the will of God. Cleave to that woman that I've brought to you. Be fruitful.

19:41 Multiply. Cleave to her. Those sexual drives are defined expression only in the sacred bonds of marriage and with identification with one woman, unto the end of mutual fulfillment and procreation. Man was made to do the will of God.

19:59 What about his physical appetite and more of his intellectual appetite? There's that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Don't eat of it. All the other trees, you may eat.

20:07 You may gratify your physical appetite. You may become a connoisseur of all the beautiful fruits of the garden. Don't touch that. What's God saying in all this?

20:18 Well, many things. But one of the things that is stamped upon the very face of Scripture is man was made to do the will of God. He wasn't made to be the servant of God. He wasn't made to be the servant of His appetites, even before sin entered, much less after sin entered.

20:36 He was made that he might know the will of God as God revealed it, and he might do it from the heart to the glory of God and to the fulfillment of his own place as a man. Well, that's simple, you say. Yeah, but our own generation is reeling around like a drunken man because it doesn't recognize that simple principle. Simple principle, stamped on the very first page of Scripture.

20:59 And our own generation, from the PhDs down to our school kids, are reeling like a drunken man. Prepare you to grasp this. Man was made to do the will of God as that will was revealed sovereignly by God. So the apostle comes to these believers and he says to them, in everything give thanks.

21:25 And so they turn and say, Paul, why should we? This is the will of God. You were made to do the will of God. Sin perverted you and turned you against that will.

21:35 But the grace of God in Jesus Christ has restored you. For what purpose? That you might do the will of God from the heart. And they learned that lesson when they stepped over the threshold into the Christian life.

21:47 For you remember, Paul described their conversion in 1 Thessalonians 1.9 when he said, For they themselves report of us our entering in unto you how that ye turn to God from your eyes, to serve the living and the true God. They turned with a disposition to do the will of God. What is serving another but doing the will of another?

22:12 As that person reveals his will and your will complies. So the powerful effects of the grace of God had brought these people to the place where they delighted in the will of God because the heart of stone had been taken out and they had been given a heart of flesh and God had written his law upon the heart. So when you come to a Christian, no higher motive can engage his mind than to say this is the will of God. Any other consideration is secondary.

22:44 If you tell a true Christian do this because it's the will of God, that's the end of all controversy. And that's a good way to tell whether or not you're a Christian. How do you respond to the revelation of something when it comes to you as the will of God? Is that the end of all controversy?

23:04 God says it. Why? I must obey. You know, it's a sad thing, a sad thing, when the servants of Christ who were called to rule in his church by means of showing the revealable of God in the word have to deal with professing Christians to whom this book is not the final source of authority when it comes to duty.

23:29 That's a terrible thing. But conversely, it's a delight when a man doesn't need to buttress his proposition with anything more than this. It's the will of God. And to see a people who say, all right, we go with the hand of Scripture leader.

23:44 I thank God that that is for the most part my joyful experience in this assembly. It's the will of God. So, he enforces the duty by that simple statement, this is the will of God. But then he goes on and he says, in Christ Jesus.

The Duty Enforced: 'In Christ Jesus' – Revelation in His Person

24:02 In other words, this revelation of the will of God comes with peculiar reference to Jesus Christ and his salvation. Now, what does the apostle have in mind? And I know this demands that we think. And I don't make any apologies for asking you to think because I've had to think and swept through this thing.

24:20 I've come down on my study several times in the latter part of the week and said to my wife, honey, what does that mean? It's the will of God in Christ Jesus. I don't know what that means. And I woke up in the middle of the night with it still going, Lord, what does that mean?

24:34 And so I'm still not sure, but I think this is what it means. I think this is what it means. Some aspects of the will of God are known by nature. That is, the remains of the law of God are written upon the heart even of sinful men and they know the will of God because of the remains of his law upon the heart.

24:52 Romans 2, 14 and 15 make this very, very clear. Reading now from Romans 2, verses 14 and 15. For when the Gentiles that have not the law, that is the written law, do by nature the things of the law, these not having the law are the law unto themselves, in that they show the work of the law written in their heart. So all men by nature, to a greater or lesser degree, have some knowledge of some aspects of the will of God because of the law written upon the heart.

25:30 Then there is a fuller revelation of the will of God in the written law and this came particularly in history as the embodiment of the mind of God to the Jewish nation, although its binding quality is not upon them alone. They were simply the depository of that law. And so he says in verses 17 and 18, If thou bearest the name of a Jew and restest upon the law and gloriest in God and knowest his will. You see they had a fuller and more accurate revelation of the will of God in that they had those ten words of Moses and all the application in the ceremonial and civil law that came from God.

26:13 Ah, but now there is the fullest and most complete revelation of the will of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now follow me closely. Just as the revelation of God in the law given through Moses did not cancel the law of nature but only enforced it, so the revelation of God in his will in Jesus Christ does not cancel either the law of nature or the written law. So Paul says, Do we make void the law of God through faith?

26:47 Nay, we establish it. Jesus said, Think not that I came to destroy the law. I came not to destroy but to what? Fulfill.

26:55 So there is not cancellation but progression and amplification. You see the difference? Not cancellation. The law of Moses cancelling out natural law and now the law of Christ cancelling out both mosaic and...

27:08 No, no. All that was typified in the ceremonial law has found its full expression in Jesus Christ and so according to books like Galatians it's done away with in Christ. But the standard of conduct which God imposes upon his creatures that comes to its fullest expression in the Lord Jesus. So the Lord Jesus uses words like this.

27:34 A new commandment I give unto you. Right? John uses the same expression in 1 John. A new commandment I give unto you.

27:41 What does he mean new? Is it something entirely unique? It's contrary to? No, no.

27:47 It's the fullest expression. That's why John could say it's a new commandment and yet it's an old commandment that you had from the beginning. It's new but it's old. Well in what sense is it new?

27:56 Full expression. See? Full expression. Of that which was there in germ form.

28:02 Now you say what are you doing all that for? Well I'm trying to explain a little phrase. It's the will of God in Christ Jesus. In other words this duty of being thankful in everything is the will of God most completely revealed in the person and work of the Lord Jesus.

28:22 I think that's what he's saying. If that is what he's saying then I ask the question. Well how was the duty of perpetual thankfulness in every disposition of providence clearly revealed in Christ Jesus in a way it was never revealed before? Well I would suggest in the first place it was revealed in his person.

28:46 In his person. Such a life of unceasing thanks is revealed. What do we see in the Lord Jesus when we view his life? Unceasing thanks in every disposition of life.

28:59 In every disposition of God's providence and will for him. When he has to sit down and feed a multitude with the kind of meal that most of us would turn up our nose at. A few dry crusts of bread and some stinky dried out gefalda fish. It says he gave thanks.

29:22 He gave thanks. May I just say a little word? Don't ever ever turn your nose up at anything that's set before you. If there's anything that literally just burns me up I think it's with holy anger.

29:36 It's when I go to these camps and conferences and I see kids look at something boy what crummy food. And I feel like saying oh I wish I could ship you over to Korea or Vietnam for three weeks. Crummy food. Shame on them.

29:50 Shame on them. Here's our blessed Lord with some little kids dried out lunch for that was the day before Saran Wrap. And that was arid desert burning climate. And when they've been around a couple of days following Jesus carrying his lunch with no Saran Wrap I think you could have played what?

30:19 Billiards with those little bricky loaves. But he gave thanks. In everything he gave thanks. We see our Lord in the midst of a situation of death.

30:38 His friend Lazarus has died and his weeping mourning relatives are all about him. Disappointed. And it says in John 11 41 Jesus gave thanks saying I thank thee Father that thou hast heard me and I know thou hearest me always. In a situation full of heaviness and death and discouragement despondency and unbelief our Lord says in every circumstance he found that for which he could praise the Father.

31:08 If you turn to Matthew 11 our Lord had just completed his preaching tour in these great cities. Capernaum. And he has to say to that city oh if only the works had been done in you had been done in Solomon and Gomorrah they would have repented a long time ago. Impenitence.

31:27 Hardness of heart. Indifference to his message. And yet it begins in verse 25 immediately following that description of unbelief and rejection. It says in that season in that hour I believe the rendering in Luke is Jesus gave thanks saying I thank thee Father that thou hast heard me and I know thou hast heard me always.

31:44 In that season in that hour I believe the rendering in Luke is I thank thee Father Lord of heaven and earth thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent hast revealed them unto days. What an unlikely situation in which to be giving thanks. Unbelief. Rejection.

32:00 Turning aside the message but in everything to thank. Now he is about to go to the cross. That foul devil filled person Judas about to do his work. And it says Jesus breaks bread and says give thanks.

32:23 Take ye this is my body. He wasn't thanking the Father just for a little repast. This is in the very climate he is going to the cross. The very thing that would cause him in the garden of Gethsemane to tremble and to quake and to sweat as it were great drops of blood.

32:43 And he gives thanks. When Paul says in everything give thanks this is the will of God in Christ Jesus I think this is what he is saying in the Lord Jesus himself. We see such a life of unceasing thanks. He that sayeth he abideth in him ought to walk even as he walked.

The Duty Enforced: 'In Christ Jesus' – Revelation in His Teaching

33:02 But then I believe it also involves not only that in his life we see such an example but in the words of Jesus. Such a light is enforced. What did Jesus teach about light and the many things that comprise light. Sorrows disappointments joys blessings apparent curses.

33:28 Jesus taught these three simple principles among others here they are. Number one that all of light was governed by the perpetual providence of the Father. Remember what he said to his disciples in Matthew 6. He says there is not a sparrow that falls to the earth without your Father.

33:51 Now what does that mean? It doesn't mean just without your Father's knowledge but without the very appointment of the Father. He said your very hairs are numbered. For some of us that means a lot of mathematical work for the Lord doesn't it?

34:07 We leave a few more on the pillow every morning and the hairs of your head are numbered. What is he teaching? He is teaching that every facet of the life of the child of God is governed by the perpetual providence of the Father. Everything is ordered no accidents.

34:27 If everything is ordered then in everything I can what? Give thanks. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus.

34:39 He revealed it. Made it very clear. Second thing our Lord made clear by his teaching is touching this principle is that the perpetual providence of God has as its goal the molding of our character. As one servant of God has said the whole drift of our Lord's teaching is that not getting more but being and becoming greater is his will.

35:05 Not pleasure but holiness is his purpose. Not success but heaven is the goal and end of his disciplining of us. Isn't that what our Lord taught? Don't fear those that can hurt the body and after this have no more that they can do.

35:25 This is the will of God revealed in Christ Jesus that God's determined to have children that look like him. To have a parent more than to see his own likeness projected in his children. And to have a child who wants nothing more than to be like him. I had one of my children say to me the other day about a certain thing well why do you want that that way?

35:51 Well because it would be like you. Well why do you want to be like me? Well because you're my daddy. No other reason.

35:59 You're my daddy I just want to be like you. I can't explain it don't ask me silly questions. Why? I'm just your son I'm your daughter I want to be like you I want to be like mommy Why?

36:12 Because you're mommy because you're daddy. And what pleases a parent more than to have a child who wants it for no other reason than that than that that relationship has been established. Now you press that into that concept our Father who art in heaven. And what's he committed to?

36:30 Listen he's not committed to filling your pocket with tootsie rolls but filling your heart with holiness. He's not committed to see you dressed out so everybody will say oh didn't he look nice? He's committed to rubbing off the rough edges that are unlike him. Until people seeing you I say it reverently see a little Christ.

37:02 That's what God's committed to. Jesus taught us that. So in everything we give thanks. Why?

37:08 Because if the providence of God is ordering everything and if everything is being ordered to make me like him then no matter how unsavory this thing may be to my flesh if it's his purpose to make me like him so that he sees more and more of his image I can thank him that he's that concerned about me and I can praise him. In everything give thanks. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus revealed in his own life revealed in his teaching that life is governed by a perpetual providence that this providence has as its goal the molding of character. The third thing that comes out clearly in our Lord's teaching is that God's will is the will of God in our Lord's teaching is that the disciplines of life are explained only by the reality of eternity. Jesus made this clear again and again. He said the time's coming when men will revile you persecute you beat you about like a little football he says rejoice be exceeding glad why? Because that activity set in the backdrop of eternity makes sense.

38:16 Great is your reward where? In heaven. Put that against the backdrop of eternity it'll make sense. Don't lay up treasure on earth.

38:27 Why not? Moth and rust break through the steel. Lay up treasures there. Why?

38:33 Either moth nor rust corrupt and thieves do not break through the steel. You see our Lord in his teaching was continually emphasizing that the disciplines of life are explained only by the reality of eternity. So the will of God in Christ Jesus is that in everything I give thanks. Why?

38:54 Because all of the apparent pressures in the context of time God is doing things that will come to blessed fruition in eternity. Well you see the child of God says I'm sorry I'm not a part of the now generation. Sorry. You'll have to forgive me if I'm not maud because that's not the perspective that scripture allows me to have.

The Duty Enforced: 'In Christ Jesus' – Made Possible by His Work

39:24 You see? Can't do it. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus shown in his own life this thankfulness shown in his teaching but in the third place by his work such a life is possible. By his life we see it exemplified.

39:41 By his teaching the instruction but it's only by his work that such a life is possible. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. If you're in Christ Jesus you are able to give thanks in everything but if you're not in Christ Jesus can't be done. So the will of sin has so twisted us that we'll snatch at God's gifts and never give thanks but then we'll grumble like crazy when he withdraws those gifts as though we had a right to them.

40:13 Isn't that what sin has done to us? If you don't believe me you go out on a day like today. How many people you'll meet who'll say thank God for the beautiful sun? They'll say it's a nice day but how many will say thank God for the beautiful weather?

40:29 You let us get a couple days of rain and we'll grumble like crazy. Isn't that true? Sure it's true. Parents, you know how true this is of your kids.

40:40 By nature every morning you have the breakfast there at the right time. Every time they go to the drawer the clothes are there. They go to the closet the shirt is there and pressed. That can go on for three months but let them go one morning and they find that something didn't get pulled out of the dryer or something didn't get ironed.

41:03 Grumble and complain. Oh, you've put them into the washer and into the dryer and taken them out and folded them long after they pillowed their heads on their bed. Never say that. You just assume they're there.

41:19 So it's day old having it there. See? It's not like us. In everything give thanks.

41:25 No. One of the evidences of the terrible effects of sin in the fall is that we'll constantly receive and snatch the gifts that others would hold to us without saying a word. The attitude is basically and radically changed so that we at least begin to be sensitive of the source from which our blessings flow and then the source which orders even our apparent disappointments. And we say with Job the Lord gives the Lord takes He hasn't changed blessed be His name.

Equipment Needed: Renewed Heart and Vigorous Faith

42:03 So by the mighty saving work of Christ who has saved us and who has brought us to Him He has given us a new life a new life that is totally different than the real one for which we've been saved by Christ and the glory of God in this world and in all of the world and in the world that we in Christ Jesus. Now, what equipment do you need to perform that duty? May I suggest several things? You need, first of all, a renewed heart.

42:48 Such fruit doesn't grow on unrenewed Adamic branches. Jesus said, Make the tree good and its fruit good. You must be born again. Some of you will never perform this duty until you're born of the Spirit of God.

43:04 Your pride has so deceived you that you think you deserve all that you have from God and your rebellion to God is so deep-seated that when anything happens that you don't like, you'll just grumble. You won't give thanks in everything.

43:18 Even some unregenerate people will give thanks when things are going well. But the man who's been born of the Spirit, who's come to a sight of God and read, as I said, the heart of God in the wounds of Christ is the man who knows if he did that for me, anything else he does must be motivated by the same heart. So you need a renewed heart. Secondly, you need a vigorous faith.

43:41 A vigorous faith. Natural thanks runs out in the face of adversity. But a vigorous faith looks beyond the immediate circumstance and remembers the words of Jesus that the disciplines of life are to make me holy, not necessarily happy, to make me wealthy with spiritual wealth, not necessarily with material gain. God may have to strip me materially to make me wealthy in things that will not die and corrode.

44:10 And it's a faith that is active and vigorous. It lays hold of God and in everything gives thanks. And then I need, in the third place, an honest humility.

Equipment Needed: Honest Humility and Disciplined Spiritual Sight

44:22 What in the world do I deserve anyway? As one servant of God said, if I find myself anywhere but in hell, I have every occasion to thank God. I think that's pretty good, isn't it? If you're sitting with Job on ashes with boils all over and a nasty wife breathing down your neck saying, curse God and die, and three misdiagnosed friends, hurling accusations,

44:50 you have reason to give thanks. You're not in hell. You have reason to give thanks. And it's true humility that acknowledges that.

44:58 What hast thou that thou didst not receive? What do I deserve anyway?

45:04 Shall we receive good at the Lord's hand and not evil?

45:08 Well, the answer's obvious.

45:11 You see, we're so full of pride. We really think God owes us a pretty good deal. And when we don't feel God's come up to our deal, we're pretty much going to let Him know. If not by outwardly complaining, by saying, all right, God, I won't praise you for a while until things go my way.

45:26 God says, here's my will for you in everything that affects. That's my will for you in everything. Give thanks. And then the last thing, part of the equipment, we need a disciplined spiritual sight.

45:38 You say, what do I mean by that? Well, I mean a sight that sees what it ought to see. And I want to close with two illustrations that greatly blessed my own heart. I couldn't even hold off when I had to come down from the study and share them with my wife, not knowing by then that at that time she wouldn't be able to be here.

45:56 Heidi's come down with a tonsillitis again. But listen to this example of a disciplined spiritual sight. A servant of God was out one day making his calls. And he passed by a cottage and was attracted to its door by the sound of a loud and earnest voice.

46:16 It was a bare and lonely dwelling, the home of a woman who was childless, old, and poor. No children, little possessions,

46:27 her life behind her. Drawing near to this little, humble, poor cabin, the stranger at length made out these words, All this and Jesus too. All this and Jesus too. They were repeated over and over in tones of deep emotion, of wonder, gratitude, and praise.

46:53 And his curiosity would so rouse to see what it could be that called forth such fervent, overflowing thanks. He drew near and looked in at the patched and broken window and there in the form of a gray, bent, worn-out daughter of toil at a rude table with hands raised to God and her eyes fixed on some crust of bread and water sat piety, peace, and humility, contentment exclaiming, All this. All this. And Jesus too.

47:29 What in the world do we know about thanksgiving?

47:34 What had this woman that we don't have? She had disciplined spiritual sight. She didn't see her cracked window. She didn't see her wrinkled face.

47:46 She saw a crust and she ought to have had the flames of fire, the judgment of God. She saw in that water something more than just H2O. This was the token of a gracious God. God.

48:01 All this. And Jesus too.

48:06 They got poor eyesight, dear ones. Bad eyesight. Bad eyesight.

48:14 Surrounded with so many things.

48:18 So narrow in our praise. So niggardly in our thanks.

48:24 The other example, and I'll just summarize it briefly. A little girl was kneeling with her mommy.

48:32 They had just lost the daddy. He had died. And she was saying her evening prayers with mommy and this was always the way she prayed. And Lord bless mommy and daddy.

48:43 And as she came to the praise and Lord bless mommy and she stopped. And she looked up to her mommy and she said, Mommy, I can't just take daddy out of my prayers all at once. So can't I pray this way?

48:58 Thank you God that I once had a good daddy and that way I can still keep daddy in my prayers. And the mother said, Oh, I learned a lesson from the simple spiritual sight of my little child. Instead of being bitter, why? God, take my daddy.

49:14 Thank God I had the privilege for a little while of having a good daddy. You see, that's the result of disciplined spiritual sight. What do you see? This little girl did not see an absent daddy and therefore complain.

49:31 But she saw a gracious God who gave her the privilege of having a daddy for a while. And so she gave thanks.

49:39 You see, this won't come overnight with us. Our sight is so perverted we look at the wrong things constantly. And may God help us to learn this disciplined spiritual sight. There's the duty in everything you think.

49:55 Here's the enforcement of it. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. There's the equipment, a renewed heart, a vigorous faith, an honest humility, and a disciplined spiritual sight. May God grant it to us that we as his people may be marked not only by constant joy, but by the by consistent prayerfulness, but by continuous thanksgiving.

50:24 That's the kind of life that speaks to the reality of the power of the gospel to a world full of bitterness, ingratitude, and unthankfulness.

50:38 It's a misnomer to talk about an unthankful Christian. May the Lord help us, have mercy upon us, and enable us to perform this duty of continual thankfulness. Let us pray.