Thinking About Thanksgiving

Well, I trust you all had a great, Thanksgiving and found much to be grateful for. today, we're gonna be continuing to focus on the subject of Thanksgiving, so I hope that's OK with you. even though Thanksgiving is over, hopefully it's not for the believer. Before we do though, just a couple of things to bring to your attention.

There's a flower here, up on stage to my right. this is in honor of Jonathan Enoch Stenson, born to King Darius. And Nikki Stinson. on November 26th, coming into this world at 6 pounds, 14 ounces and 18.5 inches long.

So, we can rejoice with them over this wonderful precious bundle of new life that God has entrusted to them and pray for them as they seek to bring up their son, in the nurture and discipline of the Lord. The other thing I, I want to draw your attention to is the insert that is in your bulletin for our gifts for Jesus, offering. December 20th is going to be our Christmas service. So the whole service will be devoted to celebrating, Christ's birth.

I'll be preaching a Christmas message and would encourage you to feel totally free, to bring any, any friends. unsaved friends and relatives, with you will definitely be, giving focus to the gospel in a way that will be a blessing to all, who are here and the people will walk away knowing what they need to do to experience salvation through Jesus. In that service, as we have done for about over 20 years now, we will be taking up a special gifts for Jesus offering. And the proceeds of this offering are going to go this year to Lee and Diana Whitworth, who are laboring for the Lord in the state of Utah.

And they, Lee is celebrating his 25th year anniversary as the pastor of Payson Bible Church, and we would love to just be able to take the proceeds of this offering and send it to Lee and Diana. To be a practical help to them as well as a great encouragement to them. Right now, as you'll see on the insert, there's some work that needs to be done on their house to get it ready to sell. Lee is wanting to transition out of being the pastor of Payson Bible Church to being the director, just being more of a directing the other missionaries as they are seeking to advance the cause of the gospel in Utah, and Arizona, and Idaho.

and beyond. and so this will help them in that transition to cover some of these expenses with their house and getting it ready to sell. So, in addition to that, it'd be a great encouragement to them. But we ask you to pray about what the Lord would have you to give in this special offering, wrap it as you would a normal gift, or put it in a gift bag and bring it to this special service, December 20th, ready to come up front and to lay.

this gift at the foot of a Christmas tree or something that we'll have up here. It's a reminder for all of us that this is Christ's birthday that we are celebrating, and Jesus says, in as much as you do anything like this for the least of my brethren, you've done it to me. So these are gifts that we are giving to Him, OK? Well, let me have you, turn in your Bibles, this morning to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

1 Thessalonians chapter 5 for our time of study in the word this morning. We're gonna take a break from Genesis today and we'll be getting back to that, to Genesis next week, so you can be reading Genesis 10 in preparation for next week's, message. But if you want to give a title to the message today, it would be Thinking about Thanksgiving. Thinking about Thanksgiving.

and we're gonna start in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Last week, Carlos Price did a phenomenal job of preaching to us from 1 Thessalonians 5:14 and 15, and I would like to start off this morning in 1 Thessalonians 5:18. We'll look at that verse as well as some other verses, today as we give thought to the subject of Thanksgiving. Last week before Carlos preached, I said to him what I say to all of our speakers.

I said, don't mess up. And this week I'd like to start off on a similar note. by talking about three ways that we need to be careful not to mess up when it comes to this matter of Thanksgiving. The first is the obvious way and that is to be unthankful, to be unthankful.

In Romans 1, Paul speaks of those who know the truth about God, yet they refuse to honor God or to give thanks. In 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 2, Paul tells us that ungratefulness or unthankfulness will be one of the characteristics of people in the last days. And he tells us that this unthankfulness will be a part of what makes the last day so dangerous. Ungratefulness makes people dangerous.

And it is one awful way to mess up when it comes. To this matter of Thanksgiving. But it's not the only way. There's a second way to mess up, and that is to express thankfulness to God.

But to use that Thanksgiving as a guise for self-congratulation. Does this ever happen? absolutely, we actually see this type of thing happening in Luke. In Luke's Gospel in Luke 18, Jesus tells us about a religious man who came into the temple to pray and notice how this religious man starts his prayer.

He says, God, I thank you. How could you possibly go wrong with a prayer that starts this way, right? But notice what he goes on to say, God, I thank you that I am not like other people, swindlers, adulterers, or even like this tax gatherer. I fast twice a week.

I pay tithes of all that I get. What this religious man is doing is what we call today the humble brag. like what people do on Facebook nowadays or in some Christmas letters that you get sometimes. This Pharisee really wants to pat himself on the back and to congratulate Himself and brag about himself and distinguish himself from other people.

Yet he's careful to couch his brag inside of spiritual sounding language of thanksgiving to God. But ultimately, by the time he is done with his prayer, we see that his prayer is really all about himself. And so here's my point, don't think that just because somewhere in your prayer or somewhere in your Thanksgiving, you say the words, I thank God, that that means that there can't be any pride. Or self-congratulation at work in what you say next.

Pride is always at work in our hearts and we need to be ever vigilant, asking ourselves, is there any self-congratulation at work in my heart that is giving energy to what I'm saying, or is my motive truly to glorify God in Him alone? It's not enough to express thankfulness. We must express thankfulness in a way that is truly humble and truly intended to glorify God. Does that make sense?

All right, there's a third way. to mess up when it comes to this matter of Thanksgiving, and that is to express thanks or to direct our thanks to the wrong person. This happened to my wife and I actually, several years ago, we received in the mail a thank you note from a newly married couple thanking us for a washer. A washing machine and a dryer that we had given to them a few months earlier.

And in this thank you note, they were saying, thank you so much for the washer and dryer. We appreciate you helping us out and you guys are amazing. It was a wonderful note that they had written to us and to my delight, this couple enclosed a $300 check with a thank you note, I guess in order to compensate us for the washer and dryer that we had Given to them. And as I read the note and saw the check, I was touched by the thank you note.

It was beautifully written, it was heartfelt. I appreciated the kind things that they said about Donna and me and the note, and I especially appreciated the $300 check. The only problem was I had no memory of Donna and I ever giving this couple a washer and a dryer. Seriously, true story.

I really wanted to check though. So I started thinking, maybe we did give them a washer and a dryer and just forgot about it. that happens, right? You give someone major household appliances and then forget, that can happen, right?

So I took the letter to Donna and I said, did we give this couple a washer and a dryer? And I was hoping she would say, well, of course we did. It was a few months ago. Don't you remember?

How could you forget? But Donna read the note and immediately she said, oh my goodness, they've made a mistake. We gotta let them know that they sent this note to the wrong people. And she started walking toward the phone immediately, but before she got to the phone, I said, honey, wait a minute.

Just before you call, let's think about this. Are you, are you positive that we did not give this couple a washer? And a dryer because I got a letter here that says that we did. But we took another minute to ponder and could not for the life of us remember ever giving them these appliances.

So Donna made the call to this couple and got things squared away. The couple immediately realized their mistake and they asked us to tear up the check. there was a moment where I thought, well, maybe they'll appreciate our honesty. And say, go ahead and take the check.

but they were then able to direct their thanks to the people who were actually the source of the gift. I don't know if anything like that has ever happened to you on that level, but this phenomenon of wrongly directed thanks happens more often than we would like to think. Sometimes people may come to you and thank you for some blessing that they have received from you. And it seems that a whole lot of their thanks, if not all of it, is being directed at you.

Yet, ultimately, this blessing came from God, and you were merely the channel of that blessing from God. So what do you do in such moments? In such moments, it is good to receive encouragement from someone's expression of thanks, but it is very important that we direct praise and thanksgiving to the ultimate giver of that blessing, and that's God. Amen.

This is good for us to remember on the thanking end as well. Sometimes we may thank people for a blessing that we have received from, from them, and too much of our thanks is being directed at the person. And there's too little recognition in our words of the fact that the blessing ultimately originated from God and came from him. This doesn't mean that it's bad to thank people for things, but only to say that our expression of thankfulness to people should embody a recognition that God is ultimately the source of that blessing.

Every good and every perfect gift comes from God, right? So any kindness we receive from others should be received as an expression of the loving and gracious heart of our Heavenly Father and a manifestation of his goodness to us. This is why the apostle Paul is always careful. to thank God for the blessings that he received from Christians that he writes to in the New Testament.

And you find this language in virtually all of Paul's epistles and his thanksgiving always in the end gets directed to God. So all in all, there are 3 ways to get it wrong in this matter of Thanksgiving. We can be unthankful, we can use thankfulness as a guise for self-congratulation, or we can direct our thanks to the wrong person. This means that the way to do things right when it comes to Thanksgiving.

is A, be thankful, B, be thankful in a way that is humble and truly glorifies God and not yourself, and C, to direct our thanks ultimately to God. Having communicated these thoughts, what I want us to focus on in this message are some reasons that we should reject unth thankfulness and embrace thanksgiving to God as a lifestyle. But first of all, real quick, let me explain to you what Thanksgiving means. The Greek expression that is translated as thanksgiving or giving thanks in the New Testament is Eucharisteo.

Which is the prefix meaning good, that's what you means, attached to the word charis, which is the Greek word for grace. Essentially for us to give thanks is to look at life's blessings and consider them to be not only good, but also a grace. To give thanks is to look at life's blessings, large and small. And considered them good graces.

So to be truly thankful, you have to understand grace. Keep in mind that grace is not simply an undeserved favor, it is an ill-deserved favor. Grace is not only something that we have failed to earn, it is in fact the opposite of what we have truly earned. So a thankful person biblically speaking, is someone who knows what he deserves, and he sees his blessings as being the opposite of what he has in fact earned.

And so he looks at every blessing in his life, large and small. And he views them as not only good, but he views them as undeserved favors, as graces. Amazing graces, wonderful graces. As CK Chesterton wrote, gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

Gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. And that is so true, and the humble Christian has great reason to be filled with wonder at the grace of God inside of life's smallest blessings, especially as he, the Christian sees those blessings. Against the backdrop of the hell that he deserves for his sins. So this is the definition of thankfulness to God and with the time that we have today, I want us to just look at 4 reasons as to why we should embrace a lifestyle of thanksgiving to God.

The first reason is because Thanksgiving is the will of God for you and everything. Thanksgiving is the will of God for you. In everything. This is the one constant, you can know that in everything, giving thanks is always the appropriate thing to do.

Paul says in everything. Give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Notice how the verse starts, it starts with the words, in everything, give thanks, which is an imperative. It is a command.

God commands us to give thanks. How's that for a reason to give thanks? Why do we give thanks? One of the reasons is because we are commanded to.

Now, while on the surface, this sounds like a bummer of a reason. To be thankful, think about the heart of God for us and giving us a command like this. This is not a burdensome command that God is wanting us to add to the list of commands in order to weigh us down. This is more like me grilling some delicious steak.

for my family and then bringing it inside and putting it at the table and saying to my children, for example, eat this. Technically, the words eat this is an imperative. It's a command. But if I said that to my children, my children would not say, man, Dad, what's with all the commands?

It feels like we're living under law here. Would they say that? Absolutely not. All my children would have to do is look at my countenance and they would know that I am excited about them partaking of this steak because it is good and wonderful and delicious and I am excited about them entering into the experience of it.

And I want us to feel something of that vibe here. When God looks at you and says, in everything, give thanks, it must be that giving thanks is a delicious practice. It must be that God is in the know about something that he's wanting to bring us into when he commands us to be giving thanks. Part of what God is trying to bring us into is the reality that underlies this command.

The reality that lies underneath this command to give thanks in everything is that in everything, God is always doing something that you can be thankful for. That's why we can give thanks in everything. If you could but see all that God is up to in every circumstance of your life, you would know how true it is that you have much to be thankful for in everything. You are never more connected to reality.

than when you are giving thanks to God in everything. Paul says, for this, giving of thanks is the will of God. You could translate this, the desire of God for you in Christ Jesus. This is Paul's way of telling us that God, the God who loves us, he likes it when we give Him thanks.

It means something to him. It's what he wants to hear from us and it brings him pleasure when he hears us giving thanks to him. Do you realize that when you say thank you to God, you are doing a profoundly relational thing that literally touches the heart of God. Whenever you say thanks.

Going by the word order in the Greek, Paul is saying this, listen carefully, he says, in everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus with regard to you. That's what he's saying. Paul is saying, this is the will of God, this is the purpose of God in Christ Jesus with regard to you. In other words, Paul is telling us, this is one of the fundamental reasons that God has saved you and blessed you in Christ Jesus, in order to turn you into a thankful person.

When you give thanks to God, you are experiencing a pinnacle of God's saving purposes for you in Christ. And Paul, is letting us know that God has done his part by virtue of all that He has done for us, all that He has given to us in Christ Jesus. He's given us countless blessings in Christ. He's given us forgiveness, he's given us power, justification, adoption into his family as his children, and the blessings of relationship with Him.

And now it is God's will that you enjoy those blessings and give thanks to God as you do so. And it is God's will that you take those blessings with you into every circumstance that you face. Whether it be your child's soccer game, Or your surgery room. Mark this down, if you are a believer in Jesus, then that means that you are in Christ Jesus.

No matter what other circumstances you find yourself in, your circumstances always that you are in Christ Jesus. Jesus and His grace and His promises are always a part of your every circumstance, always. And that's something to be thankful for. So that's the first reason we should embrace a lifestyle of thanksgiving to God.

Because thanksgiving is the will of God for us who are in Christ Jesus. But that's not all. We also learn in scripture yet another reason we should embrace Thanksgiving as a lifestyle and that brings us to the next point, and that is because Thanksgiving. Makes you beautiful.

How's that for a reason? How many of you want to be beautiful? Raise your hand. All right.

well, let me ask it this way. How many of you want to be ugly? All right. Nobody.

the truth is that all of us wanna be a beautiful person, right? And the Bible literally teaches us that thankfulness makes us beautiful. Actually, we all know this is intuitively true. Anyway, most of us are attracted to thankful people.

I've never heard anyone say, Pastor Mel, I just feel attracted to bitter. People who are unthankful and who gripe and complain all the time. I just like being around those people. No one talks that way unless they are a miserable complainer themselves.

For the most part, we are all very naturally drawn to thankful people because thankfulness is beautiful and we are all attracted. To beauty. Observe what the scripture says about this in Psalm 147 1. The psalmist gives us this counsel.

He says, praise the Lord, for it is good to sing praises to our God, for it is pleasant and praise is becoming. In this verse, the psalmist commands us to praise the Lord. By the way, what the Hebrew is underneath this command? I'll give you the Hebrew of this and you can walk out of here and know a full sentence in Hebrew.

You ready? Hallelu. Yeah. That's the command in Hebrew, the word hallelujah, Yah, is a command to praise the Lord, and that's how the psalmist begins.

Hallelujah. Yah, Yahweh, Jehovah, praise the Lord. This command should be enough for us, but God commands us, or he tells us more than this. Look at all the extra encouragements that the psalmist throws our way here.

He says, praise the Lord, for it is good to sing praises to our God. The word that is translated as good here is the Hebrew word tov. And in a context like this, the word tove means beautiful. We see this word tove used this way in Genesis 6:2, where we're told that the daughters of men were tov, meaning beautiful.

And Esther 1:11, we're told that Queen Vashti was Tove. She was beautiful. And that's the idea of That expression in Esther 1:11. We know that the context calls for this meaning of the word because of what the psalmist says next.

He says, for it, speaking of praise is pleasant. The word pleasant is another word for beauty, but it focuses more on the emotional reaction of the beholder of the beauty. It focuses, on the pleasured reaction, the delighted response, the pleasant sensation that it engenders in the beholder of that beautiful thing. And then notice the last statement in verse one.

He says, praise is becoming. Some translations say praise is comely, and some say praise is beautiful. That's the idea of this expression, praise is beautiful and it renders the one praising beautiful in that moment. of praise.

By the way, we know that the psalmist equates giving thanks or thanksgiving and praising God. Because later in the Psalm, he says, sing to the Lord with thanksgiving, sing praises to our God. Thanksgiving and praising God are seen as the same thing in the Psalm. To praise God is synonymous with giving thanks to Him.

All in all, we learn here that Thanksgiving beautifies us. It makes us beautiful to God and it's the beauty that God wants you and I to exhibit before a watching world. Our society spends billions of dollars every year on beauty products, cosmetics, lotions, surgeries, and injections, all in the hopes that it might make us more beautiful. Yet we're being told here in Psalm 1471 that the most powerful cosmetic of them all is the cosmetic of praise and thanksgiving.

And guess what, it's free. It's free. Adorn yourself with praise and thanksgiving to God. Apply this cosmetic to your person.

Give yourself an injection of thanksgiving and let it beautify you. Embracing a lifestyle of Thanksgiving is not only the will of God, but it's also something that makes us beautiful. But what, it's hard to be beautiful when we are overcome with anxiety and such. But Thanksgiving addresses that too.

This brings us to the 3rd reason that we should embrace Thanksgiving, where we see Yet another reason to embrace this lifestyle of Thanksgiving to God, and that is because Thanksgiving contributes to peace of mind. Thanksgiving contributes to peace of mind. Anxiety is a real problem in our culture today. Several years ago, a surgeon General report indicated that anxiety is the #1 mental health issue in our country.

Over 20 million people are diagnosed with excessive anxiety each year. These are anxious times in which we live, so we can understand this on many levels. I personally have experienced bouts with Anxiety About a decade ago, I was having Anxieties and heart palpitations where my heart just was skipping beats. It was freaking me out and to such a degree that I went To the doctor at Kaiser and they, they ran some tests and took some blood and the doctor sat me down when the results came in and he told me from a physical standpoint, everything checks out.

We can't find a physical cause for what's happening here. And it was then that he looked at me and he said, what do you do for a living? And I said to him, I'm a pastor. And he said, is there anything going on right now at your church?

And I said, yeah. And he said, my prescription is that you get on it right away. It was very good counsel from him. I went straight back from the office or from his office to my office and with trembling hands.

I picked up the telephone and started a grueling process that ended two weeks later. In resolution to a relational conflict that was going on. And after that resolution, the anxiety dissipated and my heart palpitations went away. There's actually a variety of causes for anxiety.

Sometimes it is a relationship conflict, sometimes it is worry about the future. Sometimes there are physical issues that are involved. Sometimes it is guilt over some failure or some past sin. Sometimes our anxieties are the result of idolatry.

As Timothy Keller says, if you wanna know what your idols are, you will usually find them somewhere near the bottom of your anxieties. Sometimes our anxiety is the result of lack of trust in God. Which is often where my anxieties come from. And it's not that I don't believe that God is able to handle the problem that's making me anxious, it's that I'm not sure that I can trust God to handle the problem the way that I want it to be handled.

And so I carry the burden myself and I stress myself out in the process. And for this reason, I would have to say that most of my anxieties are caused by pride. But look at what Paul calls upon us to do in moments when we are tempted to be anxious. In Philippians 4:6, he says, be anxious for nothing.

You might read those words and say, Pastor Milton, that's one command in the Bible I keep, because I am always anxious for nothing. But that's not what Paul That's not what Paul is saying here. He's saying, don't let yourself be anxious about anything. To be anxious is to brood over some problem, as if there were no God who exists, as if there were no God who's in control, as if there were no God who loves you and who has full power to carry out all of his loving intentions towards you.

Instead of being anxious, Paul says this, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God. Paul is telling us that instead of being anxious, we should pray, we should pray to God and make our request known to him. And he says to do this in everything. But God wants us to do more than that.

The solution to your anxiety problem is not simply to pray to God in everything. The solution is that you pray to God in everything with thanksgiving. God is saying, I want you to talk to me about everything in your life. I want you to pray, I want you to make request of me and everything, and I want you to do so with thanksgiving.

Now observe the promise of verse 7. Paul says, and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Guys, please understand that verse 7 is not, the promise of verse 7 is not for every believer. This promise is not even for every believer who prays.

This promise is not even for every believer who prays in everything. This promise is for every believer who prays to God in everything with thanksgiving. I've noticed in my own life that Anxiety by its very nature is obsessive. We're usually anxious when we obsess on particular worrisome issues to the exclusion.

We become blind to anything else and we are honed in on that matter that is causing us anxiety. We forget other important things, namely God. And his past acts of goodness and faithfulness in our life. We forget his promises, we forget his power, his promises of future care.

We forget His love that He has shown to us in Christ if we are believers in Him. This is the way it is for me at least. Whenever I am anxious, it's because I'm obsessing. I'm so honed in on what is causing me anxiety that I forget about God and sometimes about anything else in my life.

In fact, just to give you an idea how messed up your pastor is sometimes. I don't want to share this, but my therapist told me I needed to, But back in 2008, I found myself in a season of anxiety where all I could see was the thing that was causing me Anxiety and I'd forgotten about everything else. And I was sitting in my room on the edge of my bed, stewing in this anxiety when my daughter Brianna, who was 11 years old at the time, walked into the room. And when I looked up at her as she walked into the room, it was like an epiphany for me.

Literally, I looked at her and I was like, that's right, I have a daughter. That's literally what I thought. And I reached out my arm to her and I gathered her close to my body and I just sat there. She had no idea what was going on in my head, but in my head I was thinking, I have a daughter.

I have a daughter. That's what can happen to us sometimes in our anxieties. We get so obsessed on the problem that we forget about other things that are even more important. Than our problem.

Things that we can and should be grateful for, the most important of which is God. In my moment of anxiety, I should have been sitting there thinking I have a God. I have a God who loves me and who cares for me, and who has been exceedingly good to me in Christ. I have a savior who died for me and has purchased me for Himself and who promises to meet my every need and work all things together for my good.

And I think guys, this is why Paul adds this little prepositional phrase in his council when he says with thanksgiving, he's trying to break us out of our obsession and our worry and get us back, get us to back up and take in the broad view. That includes the full picture of all the things that we can be thankful for, and he encourages us to actually take some time to give thanks to God in our moments of anxiety. And so here's a practice that I would encourage you to do. When you come to God, like in your moments of anxiety and you come to Him to pray and to cry out to Him, take a few minutes to think of 10 things that you can be grateful for.

And then take some time to just thank God. Lord, I just wanna take some time to thank you for these things. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for all of your past displays of goodness.

Thank them for anything that comes to your mind. Thank you for the sunset, the sunrise, the blessings of family, a wife, a husband, my children. Thank you For sending your son to die on the cross that I might be saved. Thank you for your promises and then list those promises that you are thankful for.

Take time to just thank God for at least 10 things. My hunch is once you get started, you're gonna have trouble stopping at 10. When you're done thanking God for these things, your problem is still likely going to be there. Your time of thanksgiving will not take your problems away, but it will set your problems in their proper context and give you a richer and a better perspective.

And it will also make you a better and a bolder prayer warrior when you do begin to make request of God in prayer. Again, here in this passage, Paul says those who pray with thanksgiving will experience the peace of God. Don't we want that? The peace of God will descend from heaven as it were, and will mount guard around our heart and our mind and we'll walk as a sentinel, as a soldier, as a watchman around our heart and our mind and will protect us.

from anxiety. Thanksgiving contributes to peace of mind, but it does more than this, and this brings us to the 4th and final reason to embrace Thanksgiving as a way of life, and that is because Thanksgiving to God is a powerful antidote to sin. It's a powerful antidote to sin. None of us wants to experience the fate of those who are described in the second half of Romans 1.

The second half of Romans 1 starts off talking about those who knew God in their heart of hearts, and yet by the end of the chapter, they are handed over by God. They're doing things. that are worthy of death. And they're manifesting hearty approval towards everyone else who is doing those things that are worthy of death.

In other words, they end the chapter with their souls utterly damned and in complete spiritual ruin. And as you read the second half of Romans chapter one, the question you're left with is how did these people go from knowing of the existence of God in their heart, all the way step by step to the depths. of spiritual ruin. What was the first domino to fall that started this descent?

And what it is? It's unthankfulness. Look at verse 21, even though they knew God, they did not honor or glorify Him as God or give thanks. They refuse to see God's blessings as good and as an undeserved grace, and as something that they should thank Him for.

And so look at what happens next, verse 21, they became futile and their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened, professing to be wise, they became fools. In fact, observe the progression through the flow of the chapter. God clearly reveals Himself to them through nature. They did not honor God or give thanks, verse 21.

God gave them over to the lust of their heart, verses 24 and 25. God gave them over to degrading sexual passions, verses 26 and 27. And then God gave them over to depraved minds that are full of sin, verses 28 through 31, and finally they engage in and give hearty approval to those things that are worthy of death, verse 32. And this whole downward progression started.

With the refusal to give thanks. That's how deadly ingratitude is. Paul is telling us that unthankfulness is the first step on the path of foolishness and total utter spiritual ruin. Al Mohler In a piece that he wrote just this past week, he says it this way, theologians have long debated the foundational sin and answers have ranged from lust to pride.

Nevertheless, it would seem that being unthankful, refusing to recognize God as the source of all good things is very close to the essence of the primal sin. I agree. In fact, we can say safely that somewhere inside the DNA of all sin, large and small, is unthankfulness to God. If this is true, then it would seem that the antidote to all of this sin mess would be gratitude, right?

Thankfulness to God and Paul actually confirms this for us in Ephesians 5:3-4. Look at what he says. He says, but immorality or any impurity or greed. Must not even be named among you as is proper among saints.

Verse 4, and there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting which are not fitting, but rather, are you ready for this? Giving of thanks. Now how many of you, if you had never read this passage before, would have expected Paul to say what he says at the end of verse 4? I think we all would have expected Paul to say something like, but rather holy speech.

And holy conduct. But that's not what he says. Instead, Paul basically says, set aside all of these sinful actions and sinful words, set them all aside and in their place, put this, the giving of thanks. What Paul is teaching us is that to replace immorality and sin and greed with thanksgiving.

Why? Because Paul knows that thanksgiving is the ultimate antidote to sin. Paul knows that thanksgiving is the mother of all other virtues. And Paul knows that unthankfulness is the mother of all sin.

HA Ironside. says it perfectly. Listen to what he says, unthankfulness is connected to unholiness. Thankfulness and gratitude to God, and holiness of heart and life are linked intimately.

Together Practically speaking, let's think about this for a second. How is it that gratefulness serves as an antidote to sin? Here's how. Just, take all of the bounty that God has given to you to enjoy, not only salvation and the blessings of relationship with Him, but also material blessings that God has given to you.

The blessings of human relationships, the sunrises, the sunsets, the beautiful weather we enjoy here in Southern California, this time of the year. Along with all of the material blessing that God has lavished upon you. Think of all of the things that God has given to you, that you can righteously and legitimately enjoy. Take all of that bounty and draw a circle around it.

And then look up in the face of God and you obviously would see a God who is passionate about what he has given to you and about you enjoying that provision. Just like in the Garden of Eden, God creates a whole variety of green plants and trees of every fruit. And God then said to Adam, of every tree of the garden, you may freely eat. Not just eat, but feast upon is the idea.

This is the first command God delivers to mankind in human history. And it's not just a command to eat, but a command to feast upon what he has sumptuously provided. Adam should have been able to look around all of this ample provision and luxury and see the exuberance of God for him to experience fullness and joy. And so we have our own circle of blessings that God has given to us, even in a fallen world, draw a circle around all that God has provided for you, that you can righteously enjoy and hear God when he says, feast upon these things.

Enjoy this bounty with thanksgiving in your heart to me, who have provided all of this for you. And then, upon hearing God say that, dive in and enjoy these things with thankfulness of heart. Because why? As long as you're doing that, you won't sin.

As long as you are walking in God's love and enjoying his luxurious provision for you with thankfulness in your heart to Him, as long as you're doing that, you won't sin. But here's what we often do. We stand on the outskirts of that circle of God's provision and instead of looking inside that circle at all that God has provided for us to enjoy and give thanks to him for, we are turned the other way. And we're staring at the stuff outside of that circle.

We're looking at the stuff God has prohibited. That God has forbidden, and we're thinking, man, that would be nice to have. That would be fun to do. That would fulfill me.

I would love to do that. Or maybe I don't dare actually do that, but I will enjoy doing that in my head. And we start obsessing. On what God has forbidden and it's not long before we find ourselves outside the circle.

of what God has provided for us. And we're doing what God has prohibited. And experiencing a whole lot of hurt and bringing a whole lot of hurt on others in the process. And here in this passage, Paul is saying, here's the cure.

Those of you who are facing away from the circle of God's righteous and good provision, turn around and look at all that God has provided for you to righteously enjoy and give thanks to God for those things and then dive in and feast upon these things with an attitude. of thanksgiving and gratitude to God. I really want us to ponder how powerful Thanksgiving is. How Thanksgiving can really be the antidote to sin in our lives from day to day.

When you're tempted to enjoy some sinful pleasure outside of the circle of God's loving provision for you, you should say, is your response should be, is my life under God so dry that I must find refreshment here? Are there no pleasures God has given to satisfy my lust for life? And for cheer, and then turn from the wickedness and dive into enjoying God and all that he's provided for you to righteously enjoy. Live inside.

That luxurious circle and enjoy God's every blessing with humble thankfulness of heart. That is a powerful antidote to sin, and it's what Adam and Eve should have done in the garden. Listen to what Al Mohler says as he explains this. What explains the rebellion of Adam and Eve in the garden?

A lack of proper thankfulness was at the core of their sin. God gave them unspeakable riches and abundance, but forbade them the fruit of one tree. A proper thankfulness would have led our first parents to avoid that fruit at all costs and to obey the Lord's command. This is exactly why Paul is calling us.

To replace sin with Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving is the most powerful antidote to sin that exists. And I think that's what the British pastor of the last century, John Henry Jowett, meant when he said these words, I love this about gratitude. Gratitude is a vaccine. An antitoxin and an antiseptic.

To that list, I would only add that gratitude is also the mother of all other virtues. And boy, do we need more gratitude. In our lives. So for Christmas this year, I am sure you're going to be asking for many things.

How about going to God? And asking him to give you the gift of a grateful heart. Say to God with the poet George Herbert, I love this, thou hast given so much to me. Give one thing more.

A grateful heart. And if you have never embraced Jesus Christ as your Lord and as your savior, you're in the right place this morning. I'm so thankful that you're here, that you get to hear the heart of God for you through this message this morning. I would ask you to realize all that God has done in order to provide salvation for you.

He sent His Son into the world to live the life that you failed to live, to die the death that you deserve to die. God raised Jesus to his own right hand. For Jesus from that position of absolute lordship is now giving out righteousness and freedom and love and salvation and grace and forgiveness. To all who see their bankruptcy and call upon his name.

To reject Jesus as your Lord and Savior is the ultimate act of ingratitude. What God wants is for you to see all that He has done for you to provide a way of salvation for you and for you to repent of your sins and turn to God and say to him, thank you God. Thank you, God. I receive your gift of salvation through Christ with thankfulness and I will spend the rest of my life thanking and praising you.

The greatest act of gratitude, the greatest act of gratitude that anyone can ever engage in. is the act of receiving God's gift of salvation. Through Jesus Christ, with joy in their hearts, receiving His grace, receiving His forgiveness and his atonement, and then exclaiming thanks be unto God for His unspeakable, indescribable gift. If you've never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I pray that you will do so today with gratitude.

Let's pray together. Lord, you're such a good God. A good savior. I pray that if there are any that are here this morning that do not know you as their savior, as their source of peace, as their comfort, as their friend.

As their Lord and Savior, that you would just touch their heart. Awaken them, Lord. And help them to see you and all of your beauty, to see their sin and all of its ugliness, and for them to come running to you to fly to Christ and say, oh Lord, I received this gift of salvation. I receive it with thanks, and I will forever.

Live my life praising and thanking you. For those of us who know you, Lord, many times we do not live consistently with what we say that we believe. We say to you this morning, we believe, but we ask that you help us with the unbelief that still remains often in our hearts. Help us to live consistently with the things we've learned today, to be immersed in your word, to see the blessings you provided, Lord.

And to enjoy your provision for us. With gratefulness and wonder. You've given us so much and it's a blessing for us, even at this point of our service, Lord, to return to you a portion of what you have blessed us with. We ask Lord that As we worship you over the next few moments and give our offerings to you that you would receive these funds and do much with every penny that is given for the glory of Jesus and for the spread of this amazing good news of the gospel through him.

It's in his name that we pray, and all God's people said, Yeah.