Rejoice, Pray, Give Thanks!

Date: February 2, 2024

Title: Rejoice, Pray, Give Thanks!

Passage: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

INTRODUCTION

Well, today we’re looking at three practical imperatives that has to do with rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks, which according to V. 18 is all part of what it means to fulfill the will of God in our lives.

That’s what Paul wants the Thessalonians to grasp… He wants them to understand that the will of God isn’t some kind of secretive thing that requires a special esoteric knowledge to ascertain.

On the contrary, the will of God is readily available to everyone. It’s not difficult to understand. It’s not hidden from anyone’s eyes. It’s not the type of thing that we need to spend a great deal of energy trying to figure out.

No, the will of God is revealed in plain daylight . There’s nothing ambiguous about it. God has made His will for our lives abundantly clear.

And this isn’t the only time Paul mentioned this either, because back in Ch. 4, this was something he spoke about there as well.

1 Thess 4:1-3, “Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification…”

The will of God is your sanctification.

Grow in holiness.

Live lives pleasing to God.

That this would occur on a “more to more” basis.

That your devotion to God would deepen, increase, blossom.

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Sometimes when people think about the will of God, they’re thinking more in terms of what God wants me to do with my life… what career path should I go choose? Where should I live? Who should I marry? These types of questions…

But the truth is, so long as you’re careful to obey what God has revealed in His word, there’s a lot of freedom you have when it comes to deciding on many of those other questions.

If God hasn’t revealed it in His Word, then you should pray about it so that God, by His Spirit, would lead you, but then you also want to ask the question: what do you want to do? What’s the desires of your heart?

If you’re wondering whether you should marry Suzan or Sheryl and both of them are Christians, go to church, love the Lord, sound in the faith, meet all the biblical qualifications, then marry whoever you want to marry!

So long as your desires are in line with the revealed will of God, then you are free to act in accordance with those desires. Now, you should always pray and ask God for wisdom so that you don’t act hastily or in the flesh. We got to be careful not to do that. But sometimes we can overly complicate what God has made relatively simple.

And thankfully, as we come to our passage, we see how Paul demystifies the will of God for us. So, if you want to know what God wants God wants you to do…

1 - REJOICE ALWAYS: V. 16

Joy is to be a hallmark feature of the Christian life.

It is to characterize who we are.

Christians are to be filled with joy and gladness.

We’re not to mope around with long faces.

We’re not to exhibit attitudes that make it look like we’re dissatisfied with God.

We’re not to live as though we have no purpose in life. We, above all, are to be the most content, most glad, most joyful people in the world.

So, rejoice!

Phil 3:1, “Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord.”

Phil 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”

Rom 14:17, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

2 Cor 13:11, “Finally, brothers, rejoice.”

As you can see, the call to rejoice is not a suggestion, it’s a command. And to take this a step further, Paul even goes so far as to say, “rejoice always.” Don’t just rejoice some times; rejoice at all times!

Now, this is quite the command, but what does it mean?

Are we honestly to rejoice over bad things that happen?

Are we to rejoice when devastating trials bring ruin upon countless lives?

How are we to understand this command to rejoice always when we live in a world of sin—a world where there are so many destructive actions of evil committed all the time?

Well, given the importance of this question, let me clarify what it means to “rejoice always” by telling you about what we are to rejoice in. Obviously there are things we should not rejoice in… (a) We should not rejoice in the slaughtering of millions of babies; (b) we should not rejoice when our enemy falls the Proverbs say… There are things we should not rejoice in, but if that’s the case, then what does it mean and look like to rejoice always?

Under this main heading, I have four sub-points (more could be added).

To rejoice always involves:

1) Rejoicing in the Lord.

With many of the commands that admonish us to rejoice, very often it will thereafter add an adjective. It will say, rejoice… in the Lord, thus qualifying what it is, or in this case who it is, we are to rejoice in.

We are to rejoice in the Lord, which means God is the One in whom we are to rejoice!

As we reflect upon the goodness of His character, the glory of His majesty, the awesomeness of His attributes, the activity of His works, the mystery of His tri-personal being; as we reflect, consider, and meditate on all His divine perfections, it should lead us to rejoice in Him because there is simply no one like Him!

He is the source of all joy.

In fact, He is the source, object, and sphere of joy.

Without Him there is no reason to rejoice at all because take God out of the equation and suddenly there is no ultimate purpose to life and no ultimate divine being to pursue.

What a joyless and empty existence that would make for… but thankfully that’s not the case, so rejoice in the Lord! Since God is the ultimate source, object, and sphere of joy, rejoice in the Lord!

2) Rejoicing in God’s Providence.

There’s a lot of evil in the world and while we must never rejoice in evil, we can rejoice in the fact that God uses evil to accomplish His will.

We can rest assured that, even when things are not going according to our plans, and even when unwanted trials seem to keep coming our way in life, we can rest in God’s providence, knowing that He is working all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Now we don’t always see the full picture, but we do have the promise of His Word which guarantees this is so!

And I believe that inasmuch as we rest in His Word, that’s going to determine the extent to which we rejoice in His providence because when your faith is firmly anchored to the promises of God…

… you’re not going to be the type of person who is filled with uncontrolled anxieties over the uncertainties of life because you’ll be too busy rejoicing in the One who is in control of all things, and indeed working all things out for your own growth in grace and godliness.

When we realize that this world isn’t spinning out of control, and that God has a plan and purpose in everything that happens, it gives us a reason to look beyond what we immediately see in front of us. We might not rejoice in the thing itself, but we can rejoice in how God, in His providence, will use that thing or event to accomplish His greater purposes in this world, including our own lives.

So, knowing that God is in control of all things is a huge source of joy to the believer. It gives us a reason to rejoice always. But thirdly, to rejoice always also involves:

3) Rejoicing in our Salvation

Church, we always have a reason to rejoice! If you are a Christian, there will never come a time in your life when it is out of place to rejoice in your heart!

God has saved you.

Born again unto a living hope.

Sins forgiven: past, present, future.

Righteousness has been credited to your account.

The law’s curse no longer hangs over you.

Belong to the family of God.

Eternal life.

Resurrection body is coming!

Psa 13:5, the great musical artist said, “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.”

4 - Rejoicing in our Sufferings.

This is probably the hardest one to swallow, and the hardest one to actually do because at the end of the day, who, among us really enjoys to suffer?

Suffering is not fun. It doesn’t feel good.

It’s uncomfortable to experience bodily pain, and yet if we are going to fulfill this injunction to “rejoice always,” then in some sense we will rejoice in the midst of our afflictions.

*** Now, that doesn't mean we rejoice in the pain imposed on us by the affliction, but the affliction itself is something over which to rejoice because for one thing, it affords us the opportunity to identify with our Savior who suffered for us.

That’s why the apostles, after they were beaten and charged to no longer speak in the name of Jesus, rejoiced. They rejoiced in their sufferings because through those sufferings, they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name… the name of their Savior.

By being able to associate with their Savior, Jesus Christ, who voluntarily suffered for them, the least they felt they could do was rejoice over every opportunity they were given to identify with Him, even if it meant having to bear the brunt of the world’s attack. And so, they did.

But… another reason why we should still rejoice when trials, tribulations, afflictions and sufferings come our way, is because they affect our character. God is using them to make us more like Christ.

Rom 5:3-4, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope…”

God uses suffering to purge all self-reliance and worldly thinking out of our lives so that we would be made to persevere in faith, develop better characters, and increase our hope in that which will be ours in the age to come!

Therefore, suffering is not a reason not to rejoice; it’s a reason to rejoice!

Peter made this clear enough, 1 Peter 1:6-9, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

You know, in our walk with the Lord, we can oftentimes experience mixed emotions… We can be sorrowful and sad on the one hand and rejoicing on the other. We can be, as Peter says, “grieved by various trials,” and yet at the same time, we can also rejoice over the greater good those trials are producing in our lives.

Now, I’m not saying that’s easy to do; by no means am I saying that, but what I am saying is that by the grace of God, we can experience inexpressible glorious joy in our lives, which is the disposition of heart we are called to cultivate.

2 - PRAY WITHOUT CEASING: V. 17

Now, this is one of those commands I think we oftentimes wonder how we are to fulfill… Is it really the case that we are to be praying at all times in all circumstances without ever taking a break? Well, the answer to that question kind of depends on what you mean… in one sense, I think the answer is, yes, and in another sense, no.

It’s not that we are to unceasingly talk to God in our prayer closets otherwise we wouldn’t ever be able to fulfill all the other commands God gives us, so it’s no in that sense. But in another sense, insofar as we are to maintain a spirit of dependence on God, then, yes, we are to pray without ceasing in that sense.

You see, the focus of Paul’s emphasis in these verses is really on the attitude of the heart. When he says, “rejoice always,” it doesn’t mean you are forbidden from ever being sad otherwise he would be contradicting what he, himself, said in other places.

And so, it stands to reason that just as the command to “rejoice always,” cannot simply be reduced down to having happy emotional feelings all the time but rather refers to an inner abiding attitude that finds it’s pleasure in God,

so the command to “pray without ceasing,” cannot simply be reduced down to living in your prayer closet all the time but rather refers to an inner abiding attitude of heart that causes you to live in complete and absolute utter dependence on God.

That’s what I think Paul is after. Now listen, though, because this is important… while you can pray without ceasing in your heart without constantly having to speak to God in word, nevertheless, if you are truly praying without ceasing, I think that’ll be made evident by frequently praying to God in word.

And the same thing holds true for rejoicing. It’s not going to do to say that you’re rejoicing in the Lord in your heart, but rarely do you ever express that joy in word.

Now, of course it may be the case that your inner joy has been eclipsed by another emotion you’re experiencing due to the circumstances of life, but that aside, to say that, generally speaking, you’re a joyful person and yet that joy rarely ever takes on visible form, just isn’t going to happen.

Because the fact of the matter is, whatever comes out of the body reflects what’s going on in the body. And the same thing is true with respect to prayer.

It’s hard to pray without ceasing in your heart, that is, living in dependence on God, without frequently vocalizing your prayer requests to God in word.

And as far as I can see, I think that’s what Paul is getting at with each one of these commands. First, it begins in the heart, it begins with our attitude, but then as an outflow of what’s on the inside, it naturally results in those godly characteristics being externally manifested.

And so again, while “rejoicing always,” certainly doesn’t exclude the experience of other godly passions and emotions, nevertheless, if there is a deep seated joy that resides in our hearts, there will be frequent external expressions of joy that flow out of our lives.

And the same thing is true of prayer. While praying without ceasing, certainly doesn’t entail that you must spend every waking moment of your day on your knees, nevertheless, if there is a conscious awareness of your absolute need for God at all times, then that prayerful disposition of heart will cause you to frequently approach the throne of grace on your knees.

You’ll be like the persistent widow who wore out the unjust judge by her frequent coming. That’s the type of prayer life we want to aim for.

It’s not just always about having one good lengthy time of prayer in the morning and then you’re good to go for the day.

Most of us don’t just eat one big meal a day. We’ll usually eat two or three meals with several snacks scattered throughout the day. Well, perhaps that’s a good way to think about prayer. Have your morning breakfast, but don’t think that’s going to be enough to sustain you throughout the entire day.

Sometimes less is more, and by that I mean: less time spent in one sitting but more times devoted to God.

Spurgeon offered some good wisdom in this regard; his own life was patterned after this principle: “I rarely pray for more than 5 minutes, but I never go 5 minutes without praying.’

That’s some good advice! There was a frequency with which Spurgeon approached the Lord, and we need to do the same. We need to call on the name of the Lord frequently.

When you get up, ask God to fill you with His grace and power.

Before you go to work, ask God to strengthen you.

While you’re at work, dealing with people that are tough to be around, ask God to help you maintain a good testimony.

Before you walk into the house after work and you’re kids are waiting there to see you, ask God to help you love them.

And when you’re at prayer meeting, either with the ladies, men, or entire church, pray that God would pour out His Spirit and bring revival again!

But whatever you do, pray! Don’t depend on your own strength. Don’t lean on your own understanding. Don’t trust yourself. In all your ways acknowledge God, and he will make straight your paths.

Let me put it this way, to pray without ceasing basically means there will never come a time when we say, ‘well since I’ve been praying fairly regularly for the last 5 years of my life, I think it’s time for me to take a little break from prayer now.’

When it come to prayer, we never go on vacation. There will never come a time in our lives when it would be wise for us to think we no longer need to pray.

So, pray to Him. Pray to Him in the silence of your hearts. Pray to Him using your words.

Pray long prayers, medium size prayers, short prayers, bullet prayers.

Pray at home. Pray at work. Pray with your family. Pray alone. Pray with your kids. Pray with your church.

Pray to Him in every shape and form imaginable! And don’t grow weary in it…

Be just as earnest in prayer in the good times as the bad times.

Pray to the Lord fervently, frequently, regularly, consistently, diligently.

Cultivate a spirit of prayer where you are always depending on God for everything. This is what it means to pray without ceasing.

3 - GIVE THANKS IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES: V. 18

Well, given we are to give thanks in all circumstances, I think Matthew Henry was right on target when he said that, “thanksgiving is good, but thanks-living is better.”

That’s what we want to be aiming for! Paul is exhorting us to live a life of thanksgiving, which no doubt involves: (a) being grateful to God for all that He’s given, (b) being satisfied in God for all that He is, (c) being content with what we have in any given situation; when we live with this kind of mentality, a spirit of thanksgiving will be fostered in our hearts!

We won’t be complaining and grumbling over all the things we don’t have; instead, we’ll be praising God for everything we do have!

Thankfulness is a wonderful quality; it’s an attractive virtue; it’s a lovely character trait that flows out of a person who is taken up with the goodness of God.

When you see someone is so humbled by God’s bountiful provision, enamoured by God’s amazing grace, enchanted by God’s beautiful creation, and captivated by God’s infinite glory, it doesn't matter what you throw at a person like that, it’s not going to stop them from being thankful!

And the reason why it’s not going to stop them from being thankful is because their thankfulness isn’t tied to their circumstances; it’s tied to the God who transcends their circumstances.

In other words, people who are very thankful have a very big view of God. They see the fingerprints of divinity on just about everything. It’s almost like they’re wearing a pair of glasses most of us aren’t wearing. They see things through a lens that beautifies what many people deem to be ugly.

The apostle Paul was very much like this, wasn’t he?

Throw him in prison and the first thing you get is a worship concert. It wouldn’t surprise me if he and Silas were singing, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”

You just couldn’t stop the guy! He had learned in all situations to be content, so much so, that in 2 Cor 12 he even went as far as to say, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Who says that!? Who says, ‘I gladly rejoice in my weaknesses! I am content with being the enemy’s target! So bring on the persecution, bring on the hardships, bring on the insults, bring it all on because the only thing it’s going to affect in me is in making me weaker and weaker and weaker… but when I am weak, then I am strong!’

Who says that? Only someone who is filled with the fullness of God.

Paul viewed everything through a lens that helped Him see the Lord’s hand at work in it all… and consequently, he learned to be, not only content, but thankful.

In fact, even within the space of this one little letter we’ve been looking at, Paul has already thanked God for the Thessalonians three times in this letter.

1 Thess 1:2-3, “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 Thess 2:13, “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”

1 Thess 3:9, “For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God.”

Paul did a fantastic job modelling for the Thessalonians (and for us) what it looks like to be thankful… So let’s try to follow his example. Let’s be thankful, and if you’re struggling to figure out what to be thankful for, then I would suggest that you just start counting your blessings and name them one by one.

There are so many reasons why we ought to be thankful, but needless to say, never forget that thanksgiving is another one of those godly attitudes of the heart that brings much glory to God. It pleases Him. It shows Him that we are satisfied in Him more than anything else.

CONCLUSION

Brethren, everything we’ve considered, is what practical Christianity looks like.

Here in 1 Thess 5:16-18, Paul has given us a snapshot into the life of a spiritually minded Christian; he has shown us what will be reflected in the life of someone who walks in close communion with the living God, because the reality is, these practical admonitions we’ve considered today are not works that can be produced by the power of the arm of the flesh.

They are spiritual works that can only be lived out by someone who is keeping in step with the Spirit. You can’t just muster up these qualities without having been dominated by the gospel, and I might also add that these qualities will neither grow nor blossom in you apart from developing your own relationship with Christ.

It’s so important to understand that the extent to which you are moved to rejoice, the extent to which you are inclined to pray, and the extent to which you are compelled to give thanks to God, is predicated upon the extent to which you develop your relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

So, develop that relationship… If you haven’t entered into a relationship with God yet, then do so now.

But in any case, cultivate your relationship with God.

Walk with Him. Depend upon Him. Draw near to Him.

At last, rejoice in Him, pray to Him, give thanks to Him, and do so at every turn.

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

Prayer