First Wednesday Prayer: Wearing Thanks on your sleeves.

Thanksgiving is the practice of expressing thankfulness to another, often in speech or with celebration.

εὐχαριστία - offering thanks, often connected to deliverance, provision or God’s character.

Think about entering your loved ones home at a holiday. Everyone’s at the door. Knock. Ring the doorbell. Both sides gather at the door trying to hug each other, put down food, take coats off, not step on kids or pets. It’s a moment of collision. You wouldnt have it any other way. You dont want an air traffic controller or engineer fixing that moment. You want that welcoming cluster of hugs and joy. You want the collision.

God wants Gateway Hugs not Gateway Shrugs.

Psalm 100:4 ESV Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Revelation 21:27 ESV

“But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

Ephesians 5:16-19 ESV

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit.

Gratitude up your sleeves has to become Thanksgiving on your sleeves. When you release your Thankfulness there is a release of the goodness and power of God.

So many times we get in ruts of ineffectiveness and disconnection because we feel like we can’t Thank God because we are in need, we are in grief, we are in weakness.

I want to address a few of those things tonight.

I can thank God in the face of Lack, Shortage, Supply, Resources.

Jesus gave thanks before miraculously distributing the food.

John 6:11 ESV

11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.

2. I can thank God in the face of Grief and Death.

John 11:41-42 ESV

41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”

I can thank God in the face of Weakness.

Romans 7:24-8:5 ESV

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. 1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Preaching through the Book of Romans (Why Does Paul Thank God? (7:25–8:4))

Why does Paul thank God? (7:25–8:4)

He thanks God because the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ have set us free from these three bondages:

• Romans 8:1 Condemnation: The blood of Jesus keeps on atoning for my sins even when I fail while trapped in the condition he described earlier (Ro 7:14–25). Though I am still sinning, I am forgiven, and the Holy Spirit does not leave me (Ro 8:33–34). To the born-again heart grace is not an excuse to keep on sinning; it is a lifeline to keep on trying. It prevents frustration and accumulated shame from extinguishing my faith. It keeps me in the process of being transformed. It buys me time to learn how to live free from sin.

• Romans 8:2 The slavery of my spirit to sin and death: There is a new, rightful, governing authority in my life. Sin and death lost their control over me. Because by faith I joined Jesus in His death, I have also been joined to Him in His resurrection. What is His is mine, and since the Holy Spirit raised Him from the dead, that life is in me too. The same Holy Spirit that fills Him fills me (Ro 6:4, 8, 10–11). Joined to Him in death my spirit is set free from Adam’s rebellious spirit, and joined to His life I have constant access to the wisdom and strength of the Holy Spirit. Now I can make good decisions and bring my flesh into obedience to God.

• Romans 8:3 The slavery of my flesh to sin: Though sin will remain in my flesh until the resurrection (Ro 8:23), its moral right to be there and control me is gone. Jesus died for the sin in my body as well as the sin in my spirit. The Father sent Him to become a man with flesh like ours so that when He died, He would rescue our bodies as well as our spirits. The sin that’s there will not disappear until the resurrection, so it continues to tempt us, but because of the cross, it has no moral right to rule us. Now our spirit is the rightful governing authority over our body, and God can help us bring it unto submission.

Even if we’ve gone through tough trials this past year, Paul has given us three wonderful reasons to give thanks. We can all join him and say, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Each of us has received gifts so precious there really aren’t words enough to say, “thank you.” As we bow before Him this Thanksgiving, let’s thank Him that:

• He’s freed us from all condemnation so we can be certain of His love and presence with us in the year ahead. When we struggle with our flesh and fail, we will run to Him not away from Him confident we’ll find grace. (Read aloud together: v1)

• Our spirit is no longer enslaved to the terrible rebellion against God. The independence, pride and selfishness that once ruled our hearts is gone. This means we’re free to discover the good plans He has for us. And when at last my body dies, I know the essential “me” will never stop for a moment. I’ll just step from this life into the next. (Read aloud together: v2)

• My flesh can no longer hold my spirit captive. Jesus Christ redeemed my body as well as my spirit. And because I am joined to Him, the Spirit that raised Him from the dead dwells in me too and gives me the power to subdue the flesh and live a life that’s blessed by God. (Read aloud together: v3)

Let’s say it once more: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Psalm 145:11-12

“They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your might, so that all men may know of Your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of Your kingdom.”

Hebrews 12:28-29 ESV

28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

Psalm 95:1-2

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

Jn 6:11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.

Eph 5:18–20 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our…

1 Th 5:18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Re 11:16–17 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.