James White | The Worship of Thanksgiving - Revelation 7:12

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If you'll turn your Bibles with me to the book of Revelation chapter 4, as you're turning there,

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I should acknowledge that we have guests and visitors with us, one of whom has tempted me horribly to finish today's sermon by saying, go get married, have babies.

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When you have those babies, teach them in the way of the Lord, when they make a profession of faith as the apostles did, baptize them in the name of Jesus Christ.

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Hi, brother. Today we're talking about thankfulness, and so I should say that I'm very thankful for our dear brothers, including our esteemed guest today,

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Chocolate Knox, in the back. Make sure you go back and say hello to he who is either famous or infamous, depending on where you are in Twitter, as to whether you'll use one of those two terms, but it's good to have him with us here in Phoenix, well, or Mesa, I guess, but wherever we are these days.

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Revelation chapter 4, our topic today, I obviously was looking at the calendar, and we have a very special holiday coming up, and it is a holiday that is celebrated in different places depending on the nation that you're in, if it's celebrated at all.

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But it's a unique holiday. It's unique to cultures that have a

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Christian background to them, and it has become a holiday that, to be honest with you, in the secular world is a reminder of how far we have come, or how far we have fallen, if you might want to look at it in that way, because when you look back over history,

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I've told you the story a couple times about the elder at the previous church that I was at for many, many years, he had a

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New Testament, in fact, I found one on eBay and bought one for myself, it was a New Testament that was given out to all of the military men in World War II, and inside it was a little note from the

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President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, recommending the reading of the

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New Testament and the following of its precepts to all the men in the military. Now, you and I both know that not only would that not happen today, but if someone tried to do that today, they would undoubtedly be brought up on charges and dismissed and everything else.

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The Supreme Court would probably get involved and everything else, but the idea of a recognition of the need to pray to God, when

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D -Day was taking place, there was a general call that went out across our nation for prayer to God, which included calls for repentance and an acknowledgment of God and His role in not only the actions of our nation, but across the whole world.

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That idea, that idea of giving thanks, of recognizing that we as individuals live in a world that God has created and therefore we are to give thanks to God, is something that is clearly missing from the mindset of the secular world, and it has left this holiday of thanksgiving somewhat hanging in the air.

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We have an opportunity as believers to express to others why it is we celebrate

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Thanksgiving and why it is even in the midst of difficulty, even in the midst of poverty or sickness, that we give thanks to God.

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But, obviously, that must flow from a heart that has been disciplined and trained to think in such a way as to recognize the providence of God in our lives each and every day.

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I don't know about you, but I was raised in a Christian family, and so from my youngest years we prayed before eating food.

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Now, I had a professor in Bible college who I did have dinner with him a few times after I had graduated and had started to become a colleague, and his prayer over food was something along the lines of, thank you

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God for this food, in Jesus' name, amen, and that was it. And a lot of people like prayers like that, especially if you're foolish enough to dish the food out and it's sitting right under everyone's nostrils.

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I think there is something wrong about a 10 -minute prayer. That's more torture than it is anything else.

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No one's listening to you after about the 40th word. But there was just the attitude that was instilled in me that this food, in some way, shape, or form, reflects

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God's providence, God's blessing in your life, and therefore you should give thanks.

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And nothing could be farther from the mind of the secularist, hence farther from the mind of the modern

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American, that all the blessings that we have, and we live as kings and queens, we live as kings and queens in this world.

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When you think of what life was like only two or three hundred years ago, almost no one could imagine the luxury that you and I live in.

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They couldn't imagine it. And yet, the more blessings we receive, the less thanks seems to be directed to God for the blessings that are ours.

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And the secular mind, of course, has no way of understanding why there needs to be thanksgiving.

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You got all this by your own hard labor. But the

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Christian heart knows that there is a reason for thanksgiving. But one of the things

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I want to start off with focusing upon is the worship of thanksgiving. We normally, when we come this time of year, there's all sorts of wonderful good things that we do.

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And, you know, count your blessings, name them one by one. That's not a song that I've heard sung in any of the churches

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I've been at for a long time. But I was raised with that one. Amen? How many of you know that old sound? Count your blessings. Well, see, there you go.

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I'm not quite as old as I thought I was. Wonderful song. And to have people fill out, you know, cards on Thanksgiving of all the things.

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But that should be a daily attitude. That should be something that, as Christians, we think about all the time.

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And sharing that with other people, reminding fellow believers of the blessings that they have in their life that maybe they haven't even thought of.

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I mean, just think how many of us have been thankful that we made it to church today.

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Do you have any idea how many dangers each one of us passed? Every time

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I go through an intersection, I think about the number of times I have seen an accident take place right in front of me.

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And there's nothing anybody could do. They didn't even see it coming. And yet you and I, we travel all over the place.

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And we rarely, upon arriving, go, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Though we should.

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We pray for traveling mercies, and then when we get where we're going, we rarely thank God for having provided them.

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All those things are good. All those things, you know, writing out the cards and counting your blessings, and all those things are good.

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But I think what we need to recognize is that the giving of thanks to God is part of the highest worship of God.

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Look at Revelation chapter 4, beginning in verse 8. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within.

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And day and night they do not cease to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.

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And when the living creatures give glory and honor and eucharistion, thanks, to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty -four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne and will worship

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Him who lives forever and ever and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy are you, our

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Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created.

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Now that term, the term that we're talking about today, eucharistia, is a term that's been stolen from us as believers.

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What do I mean by that? Well, you're probably aware of the fact that in the Roman Catholic system, the mass is called the

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Eucharist, or the Eucharistic sacrifice. And so a lot of people, especially former

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Roman Catholics, tend to want to push away that terminology because it's associated with them, the idea of the repetition of the mass and the fact that it never actually perfects anyone for whom it's made and all that kind of material along with it, and I understand that.

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But it's a beautiful word. It's a beautiful term. We cannot lose it.

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It means thanks, it means thankfulness, it means thanksgiving, depending on the form in which you're using it.

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And here, in the picture we have in Revelation chapter 4, of the worship of God before the throne.

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Remember, Revelation chapter 4, parallel to Isaiah chapter 6. We get to Revelation chapter 5 and now the

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Lamb is standing before the throne as if slain and we start to see the Trinitarian implications, it's beautiful worship, it's a reminder from heaven that no matter what we're going through here on earth,

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God is not in any way losing control, but instead that worship that has been ongoing from the beginning continues and always will.

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But in the midst of that, the living creatures give glory. Now how often do we talk about, we want to give glory to God, I want to live my life so as to glorify the name of Christ, I want my life to be lived in such a way that God receives glory in my life.

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Well that's wonderful. They give glory and honor.

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We must honor God, we must recognize His magnificence and His power and the fact that He has created us.

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But what's the next term? Eucharistion. Thanks. Thanks.

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This is in the highest aspect of worship revealed to us in Scripture is thanksgiving, the giving of thanks.

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This is how God is worshipped. They give thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever.

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When you remember, when you think about Romans chapter 1 and rebellious mankind and mankind in idolatry, what's one of the starkest accusations that is made against man?

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They don't give thanks to the God who created them. It should be an absolutely natural thing for anyone who recognizes that I was made in the wisdom and power and the extension of the creative capacity of God.

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He has made me, He has placed me where I am, He's given me the gifts that He has chosen to give me to fulfill

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His will in my life. Everything I have, every breath I take, every beat of my heart comes from His hand.

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And the natural response to that must be the giving of thanks on one day a year.

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No. It is the giving of thanks, not just daily, but living in an attitude of thanksgiving.

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And here, the creatures who never, these living creatures that are before the throne of God, they don't have to deal with sin and depravity and the fallen nature, they're in the very presence of God, and yet they give to Him thanks.

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They reveal to us that the highest form of worship means that those creatures that are closest to the throne of God are filled with thanksgiving.

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May I suggest to you that the closer you are to the throne of God, the more you recognize the reality of your own creatureliness.

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They recognize that vast chasm that separates the eternal, uncreated

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God from those of us who are creatures. They know that they have been made by God.

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And yet, here, pure beings give thanks to God.

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If they do that, how much more should we, who are the recipients of His grace, be people who are marked, not just day by day, not just hour by hour, but minute by minute by thanksgiving?

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Look at Revelation chapter 7, beginning at verse 9,

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Revelation chapter 7. After these things, I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the

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Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands. And they cry out with a loud voice, saying,

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Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing on the throne, and the elders, and the four living creatures.

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And they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, Amen, the blessing and the glory and the wisdom and the

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Eucharistia, the thanksgiving and the honor and the power and the strength be to our

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God forever and ever. We are used to thinking about blessing and glory and honor and power and strength and all these terms that are ascribed to God.

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But have we ever stopped and really thought, how is it that thanksgiving can be connected to these descriptions of God's great attributes,

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His great power? And the answer must come to us that all of creation, when we recognize

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God for who He truly is, must bow and give thanks for our very existence, for the fact that we are even made and sustained by Him.

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And so really, those acts of thanks that we are taught as children, if you were raised in a

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Christian family, those acts of giving thanks to God flow from a much higher recognition of the fact that we as His creatures, made in His image, are dependent at every point in our life upon His grace and His mercy, and therefore we should be marked as a people who are thankful and give thanksgiving to God.

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Of all the things that we are exhorted to give to God, it seems to me this is the one that is easiest for us to forget, easiest for us to slip into the mode and thinking of the world around us, because it requires us to have a specific attitude, an attitude that recognizes who we are, who

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God is, and the extension of His mercy and grace to us every moment of every day.

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Let's stay in Revelation, Revelation chapter 11, Revelation chapter 11, beginning at verse 15.

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Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our

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Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever. I sort of have to stop right now,

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I don't know about the rest of you, but I can hardly read that verse without hearing it in music, right?

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How many of you know what I'm talking about? Hi. We'll talk afterwards, it's great.

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Actually, I had the opportunity a few years ago, Kelly and I went to Grand Canyon, and they had a performance of the

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Messiah there, and the Phoenix Symphony is doing the Messiah again this year, and I have snagged the tickets, and I'm taking certain grandchildren to the

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Messiah shortly after I get back from this next trip, so I need to drive carefully so I get back from the next trip to be able to be there.

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But if you are not a Messiah fan, you need to become one. That's just a necessity.

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But one of the most beautiful of the choruses, songs in the

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Messiah is based upon this very verse. The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our

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Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever. If you ever want to hear, I think, the most beautiful music that's been written from the heart of man, based upon the words of Scripture, Handel nailed it in 1741, and no one's gotten it better since then, so if you've never listened to it, listen to it this year.

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You will be blessed. We continue on. And the twenty -four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped

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God, saying, We give you thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.

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And the nations were enraged, and your rage came, and the time came for the dead to be judged and to give reward to your slaves, the prophets and the saints, and those who fear your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.

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Here comes judgment, and thanks is given to God. The first words of the twenty -four elders.

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They fall on their faces, they worship God, and say, We give you thanks, yes, we are called to give thanks to God when

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He brings judgment, when He begins to reign, when

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He begins to express His power. We are to give thanks to God.

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Reality is, when we think about it, if God does it, we are to give

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Him thanks. If He blesses us, we give Him thanks. If He puts us through trials and difficulties, we give

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Him thanks. Why? Because everything He does is good. And as Christians, we are to live in such a way that we are to seek

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His glory in all things. Believe me, this is not only an attitude and a mindset that the world cannot begin to understand.

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Fizzing chemicals have no basis for giving thanks to anyone for anything. But sadly, in much of what is called

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Christendom, there is little understanding of God's absolute sovereignty,

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His decree, His power, His accomplishment, and my role therein. And therefore, we tend to focus so much upon ourselves and our experience of God's providence that it's very easy for us to question

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God's goodness in our life. Why me, Lord? Why has this come to me?

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I know other believers. They have it easier than me. They have more than I have.

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And it's so easy for us to slip into that attitude. That's why I can't even begin to understand how anyone falls for the word -faith stuff.

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I've just never understood it. I don't know how you read the New Testament and think that it's actually just a big, long invitation for you to be rich and wealthy and have white, straight teeth.

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Never understood it. You can't possibly be reading the same New Testament that I'm reading, because there are blessings of God upon His people, sure.

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But there is also the recognition that God disciplines and God brings

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His people into situations of trial and difficulty to conform them to the image of Christ.

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And therefore, when we are called to give thanks for everything, there is a foundation to that.

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And that foundation is the recognition of the sovereignty of God in His creation.

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And when you don't have that as a central aspect of what is proclaimed regularly in the church, it just becomes something you do toward the end of November, rather than something that marks our everyday attitude and a recognition,

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God has a decree, He's working out in this world. I am a part of that.

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What I experience comes from His hand, and I can trust Him that in everything that takes place in my life,

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He is going to use this to conform me ever closer to the image of Jesus Christ.

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Again, the world, if the world listens to this, they have no way of understanding what we're talking about.

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It's like I'm speaking a foreign language. Once in a while, when

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I'm not here, and I have the opportunity, I've set up in the RV some place, I'll tune into the

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YouTube channel, and inevitably, inevitably, the comments and conversations on the right -hand side of the screen have absolutely, positively nothing to do with what

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Jeff is saying. Nothing. They normally wander off into the wildest, craziest, strange stuff, and I would imagine that there are a lot of people, we have a lot of people who tune into our stuff just looking for things to criticize.

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And when we start talking about giving thanks to God in the trials of life, that's when

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I think a lot of those folks really tune out. How many of you, and I've asked this question before, but how many of you have read

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The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom? That's about 40%.

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Brother, did you put your hand up there, back there? I can't see you.

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If you smile, I'll be able to see if you're smiling. Did you put your hand up? You did.

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Okay, you've read it. Good. All right. Thank you. I'm not wearing my glasses, so it's hard to see all the way back there right now.

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There's a great film, if you're not a big book reader, but I highly recommend it to everybody.

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In fact, I'd recommend you read it more than once. Maybe read it on a regular basis, partly just to be reminded of the depravity of man.

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To recognize that there were people who were willing to risk everything to save others and to be a witness to Christ.

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But if you're not familiar with the story, it's the story of the Ten Boom family in Holland, what we call the

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Netherlands today, and their willingness to risk themselves during World War II to smuggle

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Jews out of the country, to hide them from the Nazis who were, of course, taking them to death camps and killing them.

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And the fact that they were eventually discovered and they themselves were put in prison, most of those who were in prison died in that context.

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And Corrie and her sister Betsy were put in the Ravensbruck concentration camp, a concentration camp for women.

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And one of the stories that has haunted me, because I've visited some of those concentration camps.

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I've not been to Ravensbruck. I've been to, I've driven past Buchenwald, and I actually got to tour

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Sachsenhausen, which was Hitler's private, sort of private special concentration camp just outside of Berlin.

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And so I've seen these places, I've seen the gas chambers, I've seen where many thousands of people were murdered.

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And one of the stories that is told is they were transferred, there was, a miracle took place.

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It's, Corrie had this tiny little Bible that she was able to keep with her and smuggle into the prison.

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Now, when you think about it, that should never have happened. They were very often disrobed. She would hang it around her neck on her back, and how it couldn't be seen by the guards, it's simply a miraculous thing.

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But what they would do is they would try to teach their fellow inmates that love is stronger than hate.

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And even though they were surrounded by hate, and they were surrounded by death, and they were starving, and they were being beaten, that if they gave in to the hate, they would be no different than the people that were hating them.

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That there was a better way, that there was a way of peace with God, and therefore peace with their fellow man, and it was through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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And they would do Bible studies from this little Bible. And they were transferred into a barracks, and when they got into it, they realized it was absolutely infested with fleas.

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They were everywhere. Rotting, straw mattresses,

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I mean it was, it was meant to kill as many people as possible without having to waste ammunition, basically.

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And once they realized what was happening to them, these fleas were all around them, they're being bitten constantly,

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Betsy, who died there in Ravensbrück, Betsy said to Corey, the

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Scriptures tell us to give thanks in all things, and so Corey, will you pray with me and give thanks for our new location and for the fleas?

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At this point, Corey's like, no, Betsy, you can't be seriously asking me to give thanks for these infernal fleas.

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And you know, I think most of us would be able to understand her position, but she said,

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Corey, the Scriptures command us to give thanks in all things.

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Let's be obedient. I think most of us would come up with reasons to get around that one.

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And they did pray and give thanks. I have a feeling that for Corey, it wasn't the most heartfelt prayer that had ever been uttered from her.

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But if you know the story, you know what happens. It's only a matter of days before all of a sudden they realize, you know, if we're in the inner part of this barracks, we can have

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Bible studies and we can invite everyone and we're not being interrupted.

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Because then all of a sudden they realized the guards would not come in that barracks because of the fleas.

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They wouldn't come in. And so they could openly study the

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Bible and present the gospel and even sing together in the midst of the fleas.

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And eventually, Corey gave thanks for the fleas. I don't know how

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I would respond. None of us knows how we would respond in situations like that.

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But there is the recognition on their part. And it took a little moment for Corey to see, oh,

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God was behind this. God was behind the fleas.

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So I do need to give thanks for all things. And the only way that makes sense is if you understand that the

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God that we worship and we serve is the God of Ephesians chapter 1, who works all things after the counsel of his will, a

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God who's reacting to us, a God who's trying to make good come out of a lot of evil but he didn't know it was coming and he didn't really have a plan and he sort of just plan

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B then plan C and so on and so forth, is insufficient to be the one to whom we give thanks.

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Turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul says in this second or what may have been third letter written to the church at Corinth, indeed we had, beginning at verse 9, indeed we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not have confidence in ourselves but in God who raises the dead and rescued us from so great a peril of death and will rescue us, he on whom we have set our hope and he will yet rescue us, you also joining in helping us through your prayers on our behalf so that thanks may be given on our behalf by many persons for the gracious gift bestowed on us through the prayers of many.

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Notice what is central in Paul's thinking. We are facing death.

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God has rescued us from persecution and beatings and shipwrecks and everything else.

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We have set our hope upon him, he will yet rescue us and you also joining in helping us through your prayers on our behalf so that thanks may be given on our behalf.

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You see our mindset is that God may be glorified and are being rescued. Well that's true, but in the

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Christian mind, do we ever think, do we ever think of our lives in this way, in our action this way, in our endurance in this way,

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I want to endure what God, the trial God has placed me in so that thanks may be given to God for the grace he's given me.

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Have we ever thought that way? It's rare to hear it presented in that way, isn't it? We want

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God to be glorified, yes, and what is one of the ways the Bible tells us he is glorified, that thanks, thanksgiving is given to God.

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They're to pray and when they see God rescuing the apostles, they give thanks to God and that is an aspect of worship.

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We are so focused on, well God will be glorified, that's true, well God will be honored, that's true,

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God will be thanked. Do we want our lives and our examples to be such that God is going to receive thanks for how we live our lives?

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Think about it. In the same way, in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, the same idea is expressed.

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2 Corinthians chapter 4, beginning of verse 13, 2

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Corinthians chapter 4, beginning of verse 13, but having the same spirit of faith according to what is written,

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I believe, therefore I spoke. We also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that he who raised the

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Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.

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Have you caught that before? Oh yes, yes, the gospel's going forth and it's going to more and more people.

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People are hearing about the grace of God and rejoicing in that. That's wonderful and that's going to abound the glory of God.

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We skip what Paul actually says, may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God.

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God is glorified when His creatures on earth give thanks to Him for His providence and His grace and His mercy.

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When we talk about glorifying God, we glorify God in our singing, in the preaching of the

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Word of God, in the proclamations, we think about all those things, but a central aspect of the

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Bible's teaching is that God is glorified in the giving of thanks.

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Because to give thanks is to recognize who He is. He is the source of all things.

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Yes, we who are the Reformed should be some of the most thankful people that there are because we recognize the consistency of seeing

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His sovereignty, His decree, His complete otherness, His holiness, and how that interfaces in time with we,

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His creatures, and how He is conforming us to the image of Christ. And we give thanks, therefore, for our blessings, yes, but we also give thanks for the trials and the tribulations and the fleas in our lives.

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Ephesians chapter 5, verse 3, but sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you.

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As is proper among saints, nor filthiness and foolish talk or coarse jesting, which are not fitting.

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So here in the middle of a very practical exhortation that our speech and our words should reflect what is in our heart and our mind, and our heart and our mind should not be filled with any sexual immorality or greed, filthiness and foolish talk, coarse jesting.

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That's a problem especially these days. We don't take those things seriously.

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But what's the last phrase? Instead of all that, but rather giving of thanks.

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Now this may be one of those situations that Votie Balcombe talks about, if you can't say amen, say ouch.

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But I just have to ask us, all of us, when we gather together, when we are not in a worship service, we are just together in situations of fellowship, it may not be even a specific meeting of the church or reach group or anything like that, we're just out in a restaurant or something like that.

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What marks our conversation as believers with one another?

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How often do we bring up how thankful we are for what

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God's doing in our lives? Even when we are talking about trials and difficulties and the hard things going on in our lives, is there a giving of thanks?

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Is that a part of our attitude? You know that just a few verses later in verse 18 of Ephesians 5,

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And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the

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Lord. Always giving thanks for all things, in the name of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father. There you have it.

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We could have started there, but I wanted to show you that in Revelation, in Paul's thinking, this idea of giving thanks is not a side issue, it's not a once -a -year issue, it is central to his understanding of how

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God is glorified. And here's the command. Always giving thanks for all things.

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And we're to do so in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the

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Father. There is something specifically and uniquely special about how

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Christians can give thanks to God, because we are coming to Him in the way that He has opened, through the incarnation, death, burial, resurrection, and enthronement of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And we, when we give thanks for all things, we can give thanks in the name of the one into whose image we are being conformed and transformed.

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And that is thanks that is pleasing to God. Because you see, it is in Christ that He is summing up all things.

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Remember, beginning with Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 1, He's summing up all things in Christ.

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So when we give thanks in Him, this is the very fulfillment.

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Here are these rebel sinners that I have set my grace upon.

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I have drawn them by my Spirit. I have changed them. And now listen, as they give thanks to me, they know me.

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They know I'm the source of their life and their blessing, and they're giving thanks to me.

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This is the fulfillment. This is what we're going to be doing for eternity. Why would we not want to be entering into what we are going to be doing for eternity now when we're given the opportunity to do so?

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Oh, but it's going to be imperfect now. So what? Start. Begin.

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Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, who God even the Father. We are called to this.

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We are commanded to do this. This is how we have peace.

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Let me say one other thing about how this applies to us now. If you've read any of the

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Puritans, if you read much even in church history at all, you will know that one of the main themes that certainly strikes me amongst the godly down through history in the history of the church was one word that I just don't think we use often enough, contentment, contentment.

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We live in an economic system that literally seeks to expand itself by convincing you that you should not be content with what you have, right?

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Almost every advertisement, visually, audibly, in whatever way it's communicated to you, is trying to tell you to be discontent with what you have and who you are.

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You'd be discontent with your clothing. Oh, that's so last year. You can tell that one doesn't really work much for me, much to my wife's chagrin, but that's so last year.

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Your car may be working just fine, but you know, that new model's really, really nice.

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You've only got a 40 -inch flat screen? Have you seen the 70 -inch flat screens?

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I mean, man, in those football games, they come right through the screen and tackle you. It's incredible. It's wonderful.

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There's always something new, and you shouldn't be satisfied with what you have.

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Contentment. The secular world has no foundation for even defining the word.

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What do you mean contentment? It is what it is. But for the

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Christian, contentment means God has given to me what

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I need. And I am to be thankful for what

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He has given to me. I am not saying that we should not be hard workers, that there's something wrong with seeking to improve our lives and to get a new position at work, but how many people have worked hard to get that new position at work, only to discover that not only did it not provide them what they thought it would provide them, but it's actually taken away from their ability to be involved in ministry, taken away from their time with the family.

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We have to think these things through. And the most joyous people

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I have ever known in my life were content with the things that God had given them.

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And I'm not just meaning – I don't just mean things as in physical things, but things in the sense of the gifts that God has given to you as an individual.

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Your physical attributes, your mental capacities were each unique.

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I love to watch people who can fix things. I can fix a few things, but in fact

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I understand we've got some handymen in the church. I need to talk to you after service.

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I have a whole list of things that I need to hire you for, because my house is well over 50 years old now and stuff happens.

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So I love watching people. I love watching woodworkers who are just so skilled at what they do.

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I think anyone who I can clearly see, this is a person who has great skill. I love watching them do what they do.

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God gave them those gifts. And to be content with who

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God has made you to be. To be content with where he's placed you in life.

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The people that I have known that have had the most joy in this life, who were able to respond to the trials and pressures and difficulties of this life in a way that was most reflective of Jesus Christ, were the people that would be marked by that one word, contentment.

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Contentment. I think of a great saint that I visited the day of his death and the testimony he gave of trusting in his

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Savior and his imputed righteousness. And when I think about that man and his mild speech, he didn't have much of the world's goods, he was weak in the flesh, but he was a man marked by contentment.

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And that brought joy and peace and fulfillment in his life.

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There's nothing that can replace that. Nothing. And I submit to you the heart that is filled with thanksgiving.

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The heart that knows what it means to give thanks in every situation.

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To give thanks for the extension of God's mercy in your life.

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As you get older, you start realizing how many times

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God saved you from you. Right?

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Anybody out there? Yeah. How many times did you set your heart on something and you thought it was the most important thing in the world, and God said no, and you now look back and you realize, wow, he's a lot wiser than me.

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Man, I would have made a mess of that. And then do you give thanks?

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Give thanks for the answered prayers when the answer was no?

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Give thanks for the protection that God has given you? Give thanks the many times he brought you through sicknesses?

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Now I'm getting a little tough here. Can you give thanks when you have continued physical problems now?

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Because even the world's perspective, you look at the people who don't have those things and you want to complain to God, why me?

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Why are you giving that person the blessing of good health when I have to constantly struggle in this way?

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If you want contentment, if you want the peace that passes all understanding, you have to see that God has a purpose.

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And you give thanks to him because he's good. You give thanks to him.

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I hope she won't mind, but someone that I know who, poor thing, for the past 13 years has kept me functioning physically, was telling me once about a situation in her own family similar to this.

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She gave the wisest answer in the world when it was asked, why me? And this is the best answer that I can give to anyone either.

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The difficulty and the challenge you're facing is there, because without it, you would not be as much like Jesus as you will be with it.

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That's a hard pill to swallow, unless you recognize that God is actually sovereign in all things, and God is accomplishing his purpose in all things, including in your life.

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And when I look back at some of the greatest men of God in the past and the physical maladies and things that they lived through in their lives, what made them such great men of God?

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They did what they did because they were content and they gave thanks to God.

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Those two things are absolutely intimately connected. You will never be content if you're not giving thanks. It'll never happen.

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Of all the attributes of the Christian life that at this time of year we're reminded are important, one that we should be speaking of in, let's see, what's six months, in May, half a year away, one that should still be central to our thought every day,

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Thanksgiving. I love the turkey. I was crushed.

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My heart was truly crushed when my dear daughter said this past week that turkey really stinks.

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How did I fail? How did I fail? And my dad, my dear, sainted dad, who passed away in February of 2022, was spinning in his grave because he made the best turkey in the world.

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Now, I know what she's going to say. Well, you've got to bury it in salt and butter and everything else to even make it edible.

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Okay, we can have that debate. I love turkey and dressing. And you know what?

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My dad made the best dressing that has ever existed on the planet.

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And now that he's gone, we can get close to it once in a while. We have the recipe. I mean,

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I literally have a photocopy. It came off of the back of a stuffing box from like the 1960s.

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And it's awesome, and it's wonderful. And yeah, he tweaked it some, and maybe we don't tweak it the way he did. I don't know.

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But he made the best dressing in the world. I love Thanksgiving, and I love everything that that represents, and the family gathering, and the giving of thanks, and playing games together, playing pit together.

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Anyone ever play pit? A few of you play pit? Yeah, yeah. We've got some stories that we could tell of our family on Thanksgiving and Christmas playing pit.

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I love all of that. It's wonderful, and I do give thanks for all of that.

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Those are wonderful memories. But if we had no turkeys, if we had no feasting, if we found ourselves in a situation that many

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Christians have found themselves in down through the centuries, you know what still marked all of them?

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They gave thanks. They gave thanks. Something that convicts me is

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I think of the fact that those pastors in China who are in prison, fellow believers in Muslim countries who are in prison, what marks them in prison?

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They give thanks. They give thanks. And when we can do that, we demonstrate that we are being conformed to the image of Christ.

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Because when you look at Jesus' life, look at what He does. Even the one who made the heavens and the earth, when

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He breaks bread, gives thanks. That should not be something that's just rote for us.

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It should flow from a heart that truly understands that everything

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I have, everything that's good, that's a blessing, and everything that is meant to conform me to the image of Christ, it comes from His hand, and I am to give thanks.

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We're going to come to the table, and it's the table of thanksgiving. And I hope and pray that as you come forward, as you partake of the bread and the wine, that in a renewed way, as you take that bread, as you take that wine, your heart will be filled with thanksgiving for what has been done for you, the price that has been paid for your redemption.

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May God, by His Spirit, fill our hearts with true thanks for what

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He's done for us, true thanks for one another. As you stand in that line, you see these fellow believers, and you remember that there are many believers that are in prison, they can't be with others, they can't sing these songs together.

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Our hearts should be filled with true thanksgiving. If I read the bulletin correctly, maybe

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Elliot can confirm we're singing It Is Well during the supper,

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I don't know about the rest of you, but It Is Well with my soul is just under the

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Messiah in being one of the most heartfelt expressions of Christian thankfulness.

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So when we sing it during the supper, it's especially appropriate.

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And I hope that today, having looked at the centrality of thanksgiving and thankfulness, that when we sing and when we partake, we will do so with thanks that is pleasing and glorifying to God.

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Let's pray together. Father, your word reveals to us that in heaven right now, the worship being given to you, the glory, the honor, the power, likewise includes the pure giving of thanks.

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Lord, we confess that our hearts are very often not filled with the thanks that they should be.

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We would pray that not only in this season, but throughout this coming year, that no matter what trials and difficulties you bring our way to make us more like Christ, we will fulfill the commandment of Scripture to give thanks in all things.

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Help us to see that in so doing, we are acknowledging that you truly are our

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God. You are sovereign and you are good. We thank you for all these things we pray in Christ's name.