1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice Always

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. So I started my day at the juvenile home.

Thankful they let me out. Kind of fun to go from that setting to this setting.

Every Sunday morning, part of my ministry is overseeing all the ministry that happens in our county juvenile home, all the ministry that happens at Lakeside Academy, which our chapel service just got done over there, and all of our ministry at the

ARC Shelter for Youth. And so this morning we had 35 young people in our juvenile home chapel service learning the story of Jesus.

Nothing better than that. Thursday night we do chapel at the juvenile home on Thursday night.

We had seven young people at the end cry out and say,

Jesus, I need you to come into my life. I want to know you. Forgive me. I just want to give you one prairie quest this morning before I introduce our topic of the day.

There's a young lady in the juvenile home right now. Her name is Ayla. Ready for Thanksgiving?

All right. We've got an 18 -pound turkey sitting out in our garage on top of the freezer.

So it's coming up, right? So next question is, are you thankful?

Are you a thankful person? You know, kind of a cool holiday.

We set aside a day to kind of reflect on our blessings, what we're thankful for.

Let me just ask you this question. If you were to pick one person and say, this person is the most thankful person

I know, could you pick somebody? Let me ask you a second question, then, if you can identify someone.

Is this person a joyful person? Are they a content person?

I'd have to say that the most thankful people I know are some of the most happy people that I know.

There is definitely a correlation between thankfulness and joy.

And that's what I want to look at this morning as we approach Thanksgiving. I want to look at some verses in God's Word that talks about how believers are to be thankful.

And I want to give you two reasons why you can be constantly thankful, okay?

So here's a little Bible trivia, okay? Anybody know what the shortest verse in the

Bible is? All right, well, that's in the English. But in the original language of the

Bible, what is the shortest verse? So it's not Jesus' web.

And I'm talking about a Greek word, okay? And this verse is only two words also.

And so I want to show you this verse is really the key to connecting with the joy of the universe, all right?

So grab your Bible and turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1

Thessalonians chapter 5. This is actually the shortest verse in the

Bible in the original language. So we're going to go to 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 16.

Now, if you haven't memorized this verse at the end of this sermon, I'm going to be really, really disappointed, okay?

Because it's like really, really easy to remember, all right? And these are the two words, rejoice always.

Rejoice always. Now, that's a tall order right there.

It's also a commandment. And, you know, God's commands are like, here's what's good for you.

Here's what I want for you, my child, because this is going to ensure that you are a healthy person.

God's commandments are only for our good, for our protection. And he says, rejoice always.

Now, my text for today, starting in verse 16, we're going to read through verse 18.

And let's just pray together that God will speak to us through these words today, okay?

Will you pray with me? Father, what a joy to be able to come into your presence, to your very throne of grace.

And we come in Jesus' name this morning, knowing that you love us with a perfect love, that you are so gracious and so patient with us.

You want to do such great things in the lives of your children. And Father, I know the reality of life.

I know that there are some discouraged hearts in this place this morning. There's some hurting people.

Father, we all have things that are heavy in our lives. And I just pray that you would just show us your beauty, your glory this morning, that,

Holy Spirit, you would be our teacher, that you would take your word, and that you would bring it to life to us today, that it would be you speaking to us this morning.

And I pray that as a result of being together, we would want to know you in deeper ways.

We would want to seek you more than ever. And so just meet with us, and please give us understanding of your holy word.

In Jesus' name, amen. All right, starting in verse 16, God tells us,

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

This joy, this rejoicing, this thanksgiving, based on these scriptures, flow out of two channels.

Number one, knowing his person, and number two, knowing his presence.

As we know and learn who our incredible Father is, as we learn of our beautiful Savior, Jesus, as we learn of the blessed

Holy Spirit dwelling in us, the result is going to be thankfulness and joy.

It flows out of these two channels. Thanksgiving is such an important part of a believer's life.

I hope we'll see that together this morning. Let me just read this little note to you.

It says, In the missionary worker, the story is told of a missionary in China who was living a defeated life.

I'm sure we all know what that feels like, living a defeated life. I do, I feel that at times.

Everything seemed to be touched with sadness, and although he prayed and prayed for months for victory over depression and discouragement, his life remained the same.

He determined to leave his work and go to an interior station and pray until victory came.

He reached the place and was entertained in the home of a fellow missionary. On the wall hung a motto with these words,

Try Thanksgiving. The words gripped his heart and he thought within himself, have

I been praying all this time and not praising? He stopped and began to praise, and was so uplifted that instead of hiding away to pray and agonize for days, he immediately returned to his waiting flock to tell them that praise changes things.

Wonderful blessings attended the simple testimony, and the bonds that had bound others were loosened through praise.

You know, in the midst of a hard time, we have to count our blessings.

You know, so easily do the negative things loom before us like mountains that we have to be intentional about counting our blessings.

One more scripture before the band comes back up. I want you to see the power of praise, so turn with me to Psalm 18.

If you don't have a Bible, we do have Bibles. Is Mike or somebody around? Anybody need a

Bible this morning you want to look on? You don't have one? We have them. Psalm 18.

We're going to read verses 1 through 3. I love you,

O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my

God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation and my strength.

I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.

Wow, that's quite a list right there, isn't it? Do you see God's beauty there, who he is, who he will be to us?

Our strength, our rock, our fortress, my deliverer, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

As David meditated on who God was, he says, I will call upon the

Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. There's a correlation to praising

God and the enemy being defeated. Our enemy cannot abide praise.

It's abhorrent to the devil. It's abhorrent to the demons. You know, you feel darkness around you, start praising

God. Start praising him out loud. Call on the name of Jesus, and the atmosphere will change because the enemy cannot stand praise.

The enemy will flee, and the atmosphere will change. There is power in praise. There is power in these words.

My prayer is, you know, my big application that I have from this message today is that you would memorize these short scriptures, and that you would make it a daily prayer for you and your loved ones.

And I pray this prayer over my family every day. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is

God in Christ Jesus for you. And I just say, Father, help me to live in this manner.

Teach me how to live this rejoicing always, to pray without ceasing,

Father. Teach me to live in your presence. Teach me to walk with you, God.

And that's a daily prayer based on this scripture. So that's my intro. I'm just going to pray, and the band is going to come up.

We'll have a worship time, okay? Let's pray. Father, just thank you for your word that is such a treasure that we get to have your holy scriptures, to be able to hold them, and to read them, and that you speak to us through them,

Father. And I, again, we're praying that you would speak to us this morning. And now, as we sing these songs of praise,

I pray that you would help us to sing with understanding, that we would think upon the words that we are singing, and that they would be true praise to you today.

We love you, and thank you for loving us. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so let's open up our

Bibles, or our phones, or however you do that, to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 18.

This is God's word to us. He says, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Wow. For all, in all circumstances. So I guess that would mean thanking

God more than maybe breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Maybe, right?

To have that continual heart of thankfulness.

How do we nurture that? How do we become genuinely thankful people?

This phrase here, I think, is really important. And it's speaking not just of verse 18, but it's speaking of verse 16 and 17.

Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

It couldn't be any plainer that this is God's will, right? All right? I mean, he comes right out and says, this is the will of God.

And so, you know, I want you to think about what that little phrase means, will of God.

Well, I like to, I don't know Greek, I don't know Hebrew. I know some

Hebrew words, though, and some Greek words. I couldn't put together a full sentence by any means, but I love to look up words in my

Strong's Concordance. It's a great tool. You don't have to know Greek or Hebrew to be able to kind of trace back and see the original meaning of a word.

And I have a program on my computer that actually helps, it pronounces the word for me.

So I just click on it, and it will actually pronounce the Greek word so that I can kind of like, almost like say it like it's,

I'm actually saying the right Greek word. And this Greek word is thelema, thelema for will.

And it simply means a determination that is a choice, specifically a purpose and a decree.

This word is translated in our English New Testament by the word desire, pleasure, and will.

I think desire and pleasure is a really, really good translation. Sometimes we can think of the will of God as something almost negative, you know, like he might send me,

I don't know, to India to work in the slums, and I'm not sure about the will of God, you know, but it says in Romans 12 too that the will of God is good, pleasing, and perfect.

And so it's like God says, my child, I know what is very best for you. I know what is going to bring you the most joy and meaning in your life.

And this is my desire, this is my pleasure for you. So I can confidently say,

Father, teach me how to live in this manner because it's your good pleasure.

This is your will for me that I learn how to rejoice always, that I learn how to pray without ceasing, that I have a thankful heart.

I love that scripture in 1 John 5. It says, this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

And if we know that he hears us, we have those things that we've asked of him. And so there are things that I pray from this book that I know are the will of God, and I pray them daily over my family, my loved ones, the children that God has entrusted me for my ministry.

I know it's God's will that we should love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and I pray that every day for myself and my loved ones.

I just, Father, I know it's your will, I know it's your good pleasure that I should love you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Father, help me to know and believe the love that you have for me. Pour out your love in my heart by your

Holy Spirit, who has been given to me. That's from Romans 5, that prayer, pour out your love in my heart.

When we know that something is God's will, we can claim it. It's like when someone writes you a check, you take it to the bank and cash it, right?

It's a promise. And so we know that this way of life is

God's will for us. Now there's a new book out on prayer,

I would recommend it. It came out of the movie The War Room, which I have not seen yet, but I hear it's really, really good.

And the book is called The Battle Plan for Prayer. And as I was,

Don had asked me, you know, as we're approaching toward Thanksgiving, that I would do a message on Thanksgiving.

And so I prayed about it, and this is what God has brought me to. And so as I've been praying through this, and I was reading that book, this jumped out at me.

And this is from the book The Battle Plan for Prayer. I think it's a really good definition.

Thanksgiving is God -directed, humbly expressed gratitude. While praise focuses more on who

God is, Thanksgiving highlights what he has done or is doing. Just as parents delight in grateful children, we should magnify him with thanksgiving.

Knowing our heartfelt gratitude greatly pleases our Heavenly Father, Psalm 69, 30, and 31.

Thanksgiving is priceless, yet it costs us nothing except the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name,

Hebrews 13, 15. Ungratefulness, however, is very costly and is actually a poisonous sin.

Romans 121, 2 Timothy 3, 1 -5. Jealousy, greed, lust, complaining, theft, envy, covetousness can spring, all spring from ungratefulness in the heart.

Unthankful people are consistently sour in almost all circumstances. They need to complain about everything, never fully enjoying what they have, yet always wanting more.

That's why developing a grateful heart is a major part of God's agenda. His word commands it, 1

Thessalonians 5, 18. That's our scripture for today. His works demand it, Psalm 106, 47, and his spirit inspires it, 1

Corinthians 2, 11 -12. Knowing our heartfelt gratitude greatly pleases our

Heavenly Father. Those two words, thank you, they're kind of nice, aren't they?

Don't you appreciate it when someone just simply says, thank you?

I appreciate that. And, you know, our Heavenly Father appreciates that.

Now, you know, when it talked about ungratefulness being costly,

I wanted to just turn to this Romans 121 for a moment and just read it together.

So turn with me to Romans 121. This verse has always been a warning to me.

God spoke to me through this verse many, many years ago about the importance of knowing him and being thankful and honoring him.

So it's Romans 121. It says, for although they knew

God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.

So it says of these people, they knew God or they knew of him, they had a knowledge of who

God was, but they didn't seek to honor him and they weren't thankful.

You know, out of all that God could have put that characterized these people who had fallen away from his grace, he sums it up in two things.

They didn't honor me and they weren't thankful. And so we begin to get an idea of how important thankfulness is as a believer.

Turn with me to Colossians chapter 2. I just want to let the word of God speak this morning.

So I have a lot of scripture, so get ready to, you know, do some turning.

So we're going to go to Colossians chapter 2 verse 7.

I told our staff, I got to lead devotionals at our staff meeting last

Tuesday and I asked them to turn to a scripture and everybody's pushing buttons on their phone, you know,

I understand that. And I said, man, I miss that sound of those pages turning.

You know, it's just such a beautiful, beautiful sound. And they all got up and they all went and got Bibles and came back to the table just for me.

That was kind of sweet. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 7.

I'm going to start in verse 6 just to get the context. Therefore, as you receive

Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Does that describe your gratitude? Abounding in thanksgiving.

That spoke to me when I read that word, abounding. And I had to check myself, like, am

I really expressing thanksgiving and praise to God as he is worthy?

One more in Colossians chapter 3 verse 15. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful.

There it is again. To be thankful. As spirit -filled believers, praise and thanksgiving are to characterize our lives.

It says in James 1 17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the

Father of lights. Just recognizing, counting his blessings, simple things like the laughter of a child.

Such a beautiful, joyous sound of just pausing. Thank you, Father, for laughter.

You created that. You know, the smell of good cooking. Wow, Father, thank you that you gave us our senses.

That smells so good. Father, thank you that you gave us taste buds. Thank you that you gave us such a variety of food.

You could have just given us manna, that wonder bred from heaven, but such a variety.

When you start looking and counting the blessings of God, there's a lot to be thankful for.

A lot to be thankful for. Thankfulness flows out of two channels, according to this passage in Thessalonians.

It flows out of his person, knowing who God is, knowing his names, knowing his titles, knowing his attributes, like this is my

Father. Joy flows out of that, and gratitude is the end result.

And the second channel flows out of the reality of his presence, that he has promised that he will never leave his children.

Look at verse 16 again with me. Turn back to Thessalonians, if you would. Rejoice always.

Wow, I looked that word always up in the

Greek, and it means always. It means all the time.

That's what this word means. And it springs from knowing that he is always with us, and knowing who he truly is.

That's the only way that we can do this. In this crazy world that we live in, with so many heartaches, so many horrible things going on, you have the complete opposite effect that, man,

I'm just so depressed. Sometimes I just have to stop watching the news, you know, but not for too long.

I want to keep up what's going on in the world, because I pray about what's going on in other nations, and we all should.

Man, what a time for believers to step up prayer, more than ever.

One of my daily prayers is from an Old Testament scripture, where it talks about God pouring out upon his people the spirit of grace and supplication.

And I pray that for believers worldwide, that God would pour out upon us a spirit of grace and supplication, and that we would start interceding like never before.

I mean, our world's going crazy, let's face it. But man, prayer is such a powerful weapon, because prayer moves the hand of God, and the hand of God moves mountains.

And I'm praying for the fourth great awakening. I'm praying for a revival to sweep this nation and the nations, that God, in his mercy, would give us that before his return.

Because there's so many lost people who need to know Jesus. I ask

God to teach me every day. Lord, teach me to pray. That is a great prayer.

Lord, teach me to pray. And you know what, when the disciples asked that question, you know what

Jesus gave us? He said, pray in this manner. They said,

Lord, teach us to pray. And he gave us these words, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

You know the rest of the prayer, right? What is the very first prayer request?

Hallowed be your name. Father, show us. It's a prayer.

Father, may your name be honored. And it goes deeper than just a prayer that God's name may be honored.

It's a prayer saying, God, help us to know your beauty and your glory. Help us to know who you are.

And joy springs out of that. And I see a lot of heartache, oh my word, in my ministry.

Horrible things that some of you might find hard to believe that are happening in our families, in our city.

And I, come on, I get depressed, I'll admit it. But I open his word and I say,

Father, show me your beauty, show me your glory. And I start seeing the beauty and glory of God.

And I'm like, Father, you can, you're the remedy, like that song that we sing.

You're the remedy. And his beauty and his glory, they renew me. Oh, I read less and less books about the

Bible as I get older. Because this is the treasure, this is the beauty and the glory.

I can read a book on prayer and I can get discouraged like, man, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that.

Oh, I fall so short. And I get discouraged. Or I read a book on discipleship and I get discouraged like,

I'm not a very good disciple. But when I open this book, God just speaks to me through it.

He talks to me through his word and it lifts me up. It doesn't discourage me.

It nourishes the soul. And especially as we see his beauty and his glory.

If you get a chance today, look up Exodus 33, 18. Just a very simple prayer.

And it just simply says this, Moses prayed this prayer, please show me your glory.

Simple prayer. I pray it every day. Please show me your glory.

Every day I pray that prayer. And you look and see what God did after that. God said,

I'll show you my glory. He said, well, first of all, if you see my full glory, you'll just explode.

You can't handle it. But I'll give you a glimpse. And he put him in the cleft of that rock.

And he passed by him and gave him a glimpse of his beauty and his glory.

And he proclaimed his name. God is delighted to answer that prayer, to show us his glory.

Joy flows out of knowing who he is. Let's just look at a few verses in the

Psalms on this. Let's go to Psalm 105. Psalm 105 verses three and four.

This is our call. This is what we're called to do. Psalm 105 verse three and four.

Glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.

Seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his presence continually. Look at verse three.

It says glory in his holy name. I looked up this word glory.

What does that mean to glory in his holy name? Right? I mean, really.

Glory in his holy name. What does that mean? I looked it up. And it's a

Hebrew word. Halah. Does that sound like a half a word that we know?

Halah. Hallelujah. It's the first part of hallelujah.

Halah. And it's a really, really cool word. Here's what it said.

To make a show, to boast, and thus to be clamorously foolish, to rave, and it should cause you to celebrate.

Now, that's kind of crazy if you think about it. Okay. To make a show or boast, to boast, it doesn't mean like, you know,

I'm going to entertain you by my praise to God. But this word, it says to be clamorously foolish, to rave, to celebrate.

You know, it makes me think of like, you watch people who are so into sports, man, their favorite team just scores a touchdown.

They're like, you know, I mean, really? Okay. You know, it could look kind of silly if everybody else around them wasn't.

The picture here is someone who is so enraptured with who God is that the joy just bursts forth in celebration.

That's a picture of this word glory, that as you begin to get a revelation of who he is, and you begin to get a glimpse of his glory, that it just would cause you to celebrate, to dance before the

Lord or something like that. It could be kind of crazy, maybe, right? But it's okay.

It's just like, Father, I praise you. You know, he's not saying get wild with praise or anything like that.

But it's saying, man, God has something to get excited about. That's what this word points to.

God has something to get excited about. Look at verse three again.

Glory in his holy name, let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. So I looked up this word rejoice.

Okay, he wants us to rejoice in his name. And this word sounded really cool in the

Hebrew. Samach, you have to hach on the end, you know, so that's how they did it.

Samach, you know, sounds a little Hebrew, doesn't it? It's a very, very beautiful word.

And it said this, it said, to brighten up, that is to be or make blithe or gleesome, to cheer up, to be or make glad, joyful, be merry.

So I knew what all that meant, but blithe, right? Oh, you certainly look blithe today.

What's that mean? So of course, you know, I had to look it up.

And the definition for blithe was joyous and merry in disposition, glad and cheerful.

This is saying glory in God, glory in his name, get a clear vision of who he is and the result is going to be joy.

It's going to brighten you up. It's going to brighten your day. It's going to brighten your outlook as you get a vision of who

God is and what he can do and what he can be in your life.

Oh, I have a lot of verses on this one that we don't, we simply don't have time for.

Look at Psalm 106, verse 1. Praise the Lord, oh, give thanks to the

Lord, for he is good. So if you have a little note in your Bible like mine next to praise the

Lord, it's the Hebrew hallelujah. So there it is. Praise Yahweh, praise the

Lord, hallelujah. We are to praise his name.

Look at Psalm chapter 5, verse 11. This is all through the

Psalms. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice.

There's that word again. Let them ever sing for joy and spread your protection over them that those who love your name may exalt in you.

Psalm 9, verses 1 and 2. I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.

I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exalt in you.

I will sing praise to you, oh, most high. Psalm 32, 11.

Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, oh, righteous, and shout for joy, all upright in heart.

And there are so many references just in the Psalms where we are called to rejoice in his name.

That's where that kind of joy springs from. That's the only way that we can rejoice always is by meditating on his name and learning to live in his presence.

You know, as you study this out, it becomes so apparent that the children of God should be joyful people.

And so if we're not experiencing this joy, then we have to ask ourselves, what is wrong?

What am I missing? Why am I so sad all the time? And I know we go through sad things.

And I'm not saying, you know, we're going to be happy all the time. Happiness is based on circumstances.

But even in the midst of sorrow, you can still experience joy as you get your eyes on who your

Father in heaven is. This book right here, deepest revelation we have of God.

Now, I love nature. Man, that rainbow the other day was beautiful, wasn't it?

God's glory in nature. You see, wow, Father, you are such a divine artist. You are so beautiful.

And yet nature doesn't reveal who God is like this word does. And so the thing that I treasure the most and really the deepest core of this book is a revelation of God and how we can know him.

That's what this word is at its deepest core, to help us have that personal relationship.

And so when I read this word, one of the things that I primarily look for is who he is, what our history names, what are his attributes?

One of the things he's called the Alpha and Omega, right? You've heard that that means alphas at the A through the

Z, right? One of the things that I love to do, and when our daughter lived in Kentucky, and we would drive down there as often as we could to see her and her family,

I would start with the letter A. And I would go through all the names and titles of God that I could think of through the alphabet.

And I would just meditate on each one as I, and I could literally go hours driving in my car going through the names of God.

So I've just listed A through G, and these aren't all of them here, okay? And I have references for all of these.

Of course, I'm not gonna, we're not gonna look them up, we'd be here all day. And I'm not gonna read the reference to you.

But if you would like my notes, you can give me your email address, I'd be glad to email this to you.

So here we go. He is Abba. He is the Advocate. He is the All in All. He is the

Almighty. He is altogether Lovely. He is the Amen. He is the Ancient of Days.

He's the Author of Eternal Salvation. The Author of our Faith. The Anointed One. He is the

Balm of Gilead. He is the Beginning. He is the Beloved. He is the Bishop of our

Souls. He is the Blessed and Only Potentate. He is the Blessed Hope. He is the

Branch of the Lord. He is the Bread of Life. He is the Bridegroom. He is the

Bright and Morning Star. He is the Builder. He's our Banner. He's the Captain of our

Salvation. He's the Commander of the Army of the Lord. He is the Chief Cornerstone.

The Chief Shepherd. The Christ. Christ our Life. Christ the Lord. The Consolation of Israel.

The Counselor. The Creator of all things. The Covenant of the People. He is the

Day Star. The Day Spring from on High. The Deliverer. He is a Diadem of Beauty.

He is the Door of the Sheep. He is the Desire of all Nations. He is the Elect. He is

Emmanuel. God with us. He is Eternal Life. He is the Everlasting Father. The Everlasting God.

The Everlasting Light. The Everlasting Strength. The Faithful and True Witness. The Finisher of our

Faith. The First and the Last. The Firstborn from the Dead. The Firstborn of every

Creature. Our Fortress. Our Foundation. He is the Friend of Sinners. The Friend that sticks closer than a brother.

He is the Father of Glory. The Father of Mercies. The Father of Lights. The Father of Spirits. And that's only

A through F. All right, I'm going to stop there. Those are just some of his names.

Isn't our God something? Isn't he amazing? I mean, wow,

Father, give us, show us your beauty and your glory. Show us who you are.

Help us to know your names and we will rejoice always knowing that this is our

Father. This is our Lord. This is our Savior. This is who he is. This is who he will be for us.

Man, I just love to call him Father. What a privilege to be a child of God.

Man, we should be thankful. This is our God. This is our Father. No wonder he says rejoice always.

Pray without ceasing, he says. You know that word, and I'll wrap this up now.

He says rejoice always. And that made me think of Romans, or Romans, Matthew 28 20.

Jesus said all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Go and make disciples. And then he said, and lo,

I am with you always. He said,

I am with you always. Same word, always rejoice. And Jesus says,

I am with you always. He promised to never leave us.

Hebrews 13 5 and 6, he said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?

He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Isaiah 41 10. Fear not, for I am with you.

Be not be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

He promises to never leave us. The joy of his presence.

If you get a chance today, read Psalm 39 1 through 12.

Does God know what's going on with you? Does he know your heart? Does he know your name?

Does he know your struggles? Will he hear your prayers? It says that his spirit fills the heaven and the earth completely.

He asks the question, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? And the answer in Psalm 139 is nowhere.

He is the ever -present one. He is only a prayer away. I'm working on silent prayer or mental prayer.

I love to pray out loud, but you can't always pray out loud. But the reality is, is he hears us just as much as if we say it in our heart without speaking it out loud.

Because it says in Psalm 139 that he knows every thought that we think.

What is the application? Simple. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks.

That's the application. Pray without ceasing. He says, I want to have a continual conversation with you throughout your entire day.

And it doesn't mean that you pray non -stop, because we can't do that, but we commune with him throughout the day.

Pray without ceasing. If you memorize it in the NIV, it's only two words.

Pray continuously. Very simple, easy to memorize.

I challenge you, if you have not memorized this, that you would memorize it, and that you would make it a prayer for your life.

Let us seek him more than ever. Let us daily learn more of who he is. Let us constantly remember and recognize and acknowledge his presence.

And let us abound in thanksgiving for all he is, and for all that he does for us.

He is so worthy, and he is so amazing, and he is so awesome, that when you read his word, just pray and say,

Father, show me your beauty, show me your glory, speak to me through your word, and then listen for what he wants to say to you.

I brought a little tool, and I'm just going to leave these here on the podium, if you want one.

It's called Creating a Vocabulary of Praise, a 31 -day Focus on God's Attribute.

And so you can use it two ways. You can follow the calendar using this. So when

I, in the past, when I've gone through it, I just folded it up and kept it in my Bible, and read the number that corresponds to today's date.

Or you can just start on number one. You could choose to just meditate through this list.

But there are 31 attributes of God on this, with the scripture references.

Just a beautiful tool to maybe take one each day and focus on who he is for the next 31 days in that way.

So let me pray, and then we're going to do communion. And I apologize that I should have been done five minutes ago.

I hope you'll forgive me. Father, just thank you for your word.

And all the preachers on this earth could preach your name non -stop for the next million years, and it wouldn't cover who you are.

Because you are so amazing. You are beyond our understanding. Great is the

Lord, and greatly to be praised, it says in your word, that you are beyond our understanding.

And yet you've given us a beautiful revelation of who you are. And I pray that this gift would not collect dust, but we would be seeking you, looking for your beauty and glory, crying out to know you in deeper ways.

And that we could begin to truly experience this kind of joy, this kind of communion that you call us to.

And that we could learn to abound in thanksgiving, Father. Just help us to be more thankful people.

Lord, not to focus on all the negative, but to focus on your blessings also. And to pray about the negative, because you can change it.

We love you, Lord, and thank you for loving us today. Thank you for your holy word, in Jesus' name. Amen.