Thank You, Lord

1 Thessalonians 5:18, NKJV

1 Thessalonians 5:18 CJB

In everything give thanks, for this is what God wants from you who are united with the Messiah Yeshua.

Grace and peace, Grace.

Let us pray.

Father, I just want to thank You.

That's it.

That's all.

Amen.

I could keep praying. I could ask Him for something. I could present another petition. I could tell Him about another need. I could remind Him about another situation. But this afternoon, I don't want anything. I just want to say, thank You.

There are moments when the only words available are, thank You.

Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Notice what Paul does not say. He does not say give thanks only when everything feels good. He does not say give thanks only when the prayer has been answered the way you wanted. He does not say give thanks only when there is money in the bank, peace in the house, strength in your body, and everybody is treating you right.

He says, “In everything give thanks.”

That means thanksgiving cannot be confined to favorable circumstances. Thanksgiving must become the language of a heart that knows God.

And so, Grace, the sermon this afternoon is simply this:

Thank You.

That's it. That's all.

There is nothing more to say, even though there is so much more that could be said.

Somebody might be confused if I simply closed my Bible, sat down, and ended the sermon right there. Somebody would say, “Bishop, you didn't preach.”

But maybe there are moments when “thank You” is the sermon.

Maybe there are seasons when you have lived enough, cried enough, survived enough, been forgiven enough, been delivered enough, and watched God work enough that you don't need another complicated theological statement.

You just need two words.

Thank You.

And instead of spending this afternoon telling you why you ought to thank Him, I want to tell you why I'm thanking Him.

Because when I look back over my life, one truth keeps rising above everything else:

God has been good to me.

He has been extremely good to me.

Psalm 103:2, says, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits.”

The danger isn't always that God hasn't done anything. Sometimes the danger is that we have forgotten what He has done.

We remember what hurt us.

We remember who left us.

We remember what didn't work.

We remember the disappointment.

We remember the closed door.

We remember the night we cried.

But David tells his soul, “Don't forget His benefits.”

Don't forget what He brought you through.

Don't forget what didn't kill you.

Don't forget the doors He opened.

Don't forget the doors He closed.

Don't forget the dangers you saw, and don't forget the dangers you never knew existed.

Don't forget.

Because remembrance gives weight to thanksgiving.

My “thank You” has history behind it.

My “thank You” has some scars behind it.

My “thank You” has some nights behind it.

My “thank You” has some mistakes behind it.

My “thank You” has some graves I could have been in behind it.

My “thank You” isn't empty.

My thank You has weight.

The Lord has blessed me in ways I cannot fathom and in ways I cannot quantify. He has been with me when I placed myself in predicaments and circumstances that I could not get myself out of.

And some of us know exactly what that means.

There were situations the devil didn't put us in.

We walked into them ourselves.

There were decisions we made.

Warnings we ignored.

Places we went.

Things we did.

Times when wisdom said, “Don't,” and we did it anyway.

Yet when the consequences came looking for us, mercy was already standing there.

Thank You.

He has been faithful.

He has been kind.

He has been patient.

He has been longsuffering.

He has been tenderhearted.

But He has also been firm.

Firm in His Word.

Firm in His truth.

Firm in His correction.

Firm enough to love me and firm enough not to leave me the way He found me.

And when I put all of that together, thanksgiving isn't merely appropriate.

Thanksgiving is necessary.

Because from the very point of conception, before I understood anything about God, God was already being good to me.

Psalm 139:13-16, teaches us that God knew us while we were being formed in our mother's womb. Before we could call His name, He knew ours.

Think about that.

I couldn't pray, but He was there.

I couldn't praise, but He was there.

I couldn't quote Scripture, but He was there.

I didn't understand salvation, but He was there.

I didn't understand grace, but grace was already working.

He blessed me simply to be formed in my mother's womb.

He blessed me with the first breath I ever took.

And through those formative years, when I didn't understand how fragile life was, He kept me.

There were dangers around me that I couldn't recognize.

There were things that could have taken my life before I understood what life really was.

But He shielded me.

He kept me from hurt.

He kept me from harm.

He kept me from danger.

And here's what gets me:

God was good to me when I didn't even know He was being good to me.

I need somebody to think about that.

How many times did God protect you, and you didn't know you needed protection?

How many accidents almost happened?

How many situations almost went another way?

How many things were happening behind the scenes that you knew nothing about?

You didn't pray because you didn't know there was danger.

You didn't fast because you didn't know there was danger.

You didn't call anybody because you didn't know there was danger.

But God knew.

And He kept you anyway.

That's why my thank You reaches further back than my memory.

I can thank Him for things I remember, and I can thank Him for things I never knew happened.

As I got older, I still didn't understand everything, but the Lord kept blessing me.

I jumped a ramp and didn't break my neck.

Thank You.

I ran into the street and got hit by a car. My body hurt, but not one bone was broken.

Thank You.

A second car hit me while I was riding a bicycle. Again, not one bone was broken.

Thank You.

I fell and scarred my back, but infection didn't take over my body.

Thank You.

I wrecked a car.

Thank You.

I burned the kitchen.

Thank You.

And if I stood here long enough, it would become, “When I... when I... when I...”

Again.

And again.

And again.

He was there.

Even when I didn't recognize Him.

Even when I didn't understand His hand.

Even when I wasn't calling His name.

He was there.

Psalm 121:7-8, says, “The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore.”

Looking backward changes your perspective.

At the time, you called it luck.

Now you know it was mercy.

At the time, you said, “That was close.”

Now you know somebody was keeping you.

At the time, you said, “I made it.”

Now you know God brought you through it.

There are things you don't understand correctly until you survive them.

There are places where you couldn't see God while you were in them, but when you look backward, you see fingerprints everywhere.

That's why my thankfulness has grown as I have grown.

If I only looked from birth to sixteen, I've got enough to thank Him for.

Then if I gather everything from sixteen to twenty-one, I've got more to thank Him for.

Then I start walking through my twenties.

More mercy.

More grace.

More protection.

More forgiveness.

More doors.

More correction.

More provision.

More evidence.

Then I enter my thirties, and my thankfulness expands again.

And now, at this stage of my life, when I look backward, my thanksgiving has become larger than my vocabulary.

There comes a point where you are no longer adequately able to articulate the depth of what God has done.

How do you explain decades of mercy?

How do you describe thousands of mornings?

How do you count prayers answered that you have forgotten you prayed?

How do you measure protection from dangers you never saw?

How do you calculate forgiveness?

How do you quantify grace?

How do you measure the blood of Jesus?

How do you explain Calvary?

How do you describe the fact that the holy God looked upon sinful humanity and still loved us enough to send His Son?

John 3:16, says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”

Before I thank Him for the house, I thank Him for Jesus.

Before I thank Him for money, I thank Him for Jesus.

Before I thank Him for healing, I thank Him for Jesus.

Before I thank Him for the doors He opened, I thank Him for Jesus.

Because if He never did another thing for me on this side of eternity, Calvary has already given me enough reason to thank Him forever.

Jesus took my sin.

Jesus carried my shame.

Jesus died my death.

Jesus paid my debt.

Jesus got up from the grave.

And because He lives, I have hope beyond this life.

So when my vocabulary fails me, I come back to two words:

Thank You.

Thank You for Your many wonderful and marvelous deeds.

Thank You, Lord, for giving me a helpmate who stood beside me while I was still learning myself.

Thank You for my family.

Thank You for my children.

Thank You that You have kept them.

Thank You that You continue to keep them.

Thank You that Your hand has been upon their lives.

Thank You that when death tried to creep around the corner, You said, “Not yet.”

Thank You that Your will for their lives is still being manifested.

Thank You for the additions to a family that started some twenty-six years ago and continues to grow.

Thank You.

Thank You for keeping us when circumstances said we shouldn't have made it.

Thank You for providing when resources were scarce.

Thank You for being present when we didn't know how things were going to work.

Thank You for food.

Thank You for shelter.

Thank You for another morning.

Thank You for another chance.

Thank You for mercy that met me before judgment could consume me.

Thank You.

And Grace, I've discovered something about thanksgiving:

This thank You has weight.

This thank You has length.

This thank You has depth.

This thank You carries something.

And every year I live, it gets heavier.

Every battle God brings me through adds something to it.

Every prayer He answers adds something to it.

Every time He keeps my family adds something to it.

Every time He corrects me instead of casting me away adds something to it.

Every time He gives me another morning adds something to it.

My thank You keeps growing.

That's why 1 Thessalonians 5:18, means more to me now.

Paul says, “In everything give thanks.”

Notice, he doesn't say for everything.

He says in everything.

I don't thank God because pain hurts.

I thank God because pain cannot separate me from Him.

I don't thank God because trouble came.

I thank God because trouble didn't come alone.

God stepped into it with me.

I don't thank God because I cried.

I thank God because while I was crying, He kept me.

I don't thank God because the valley was pleasant.

I thank God because Psalm 23:4, says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me.”

That's the secret.

You are with me.

That's why I can thank Him in everything.

Because everything changes, but He doesn't.

People change.

Money changes.

Health changes.

Jobs change.

Relationships change.

Seasons change.

Circumstances change.

But Hebrews 13:8, says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

So my thanksgiving isn't rooted in the stability of my circumstances.

My thanksgiving is rooted in the stability of my God.

And I came this afternoon not merely to preach thanksgiving.

I came to practice it.

Because there are some sermons that ought to end with the preacher talking.

But there are other sermons where the congregation becomes the sermon.

So now I want to ask you:

What are you thankful for?

Not what do you wish God would do.

Not what are you waiting on.

Not what hasn't happened yet.

For a moment, forget the prayer request.

Forget what you don't have.

Forget what hasn't changed.

Look backward.

What has He already done?

What did He bring you through?

What didn't destroy you?

What should have broken you?

Where did He provide?

Where did He protect you?

Where did He forgive you?

Where did He restore you?

What has God done for you that neither you nor another person could have done?

How good has He been?

How faithful has He been?

When you look back over your life and think about the Lord, what rises in your heart?

Psalm 107:2, says, “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so.”

Then say so.

This afternoon, in this thanksgiving service, I want to open this floor.

Not for a speech.

Not for a sermon.

Not for a long explanation.

I want us to give God something that costs nothing, yet means everything when it comes from the heart.

Come and say, thank You.

Tell Him what you're thanking Him for.

Maybe He healed you.

Maybe He kept your child.

Maybe He restored your marriage.

Maybe He provided when you had nothing.

Maybe He brought you through grief.

Maybe He protected you from yourself.

Maybe He forgave something nobody else knows about.

Maybe you don't have a dramatic testimony at all. Maybe your testimony is simply, “I woke up this morning, and He is still God.”

That's enough.

Luke 17:15-16, tells us that when one of the ten lepers saw that he was healed, he turned back, glorified God with a loud voice, fell at Jesus' feet, and gave Him thanks.

Ten received something.

One came back.

I don't want to be so busy enjoying what God gave me that I forget to return to the One who gave it.

So today, I'm coming back.

I'm coming back with my history.

I'm coming back with my scars.

I'm coming back with my family.

I'm coming back with my mistakes.

I'm coming back with my victories.

I'm coming back with my disappointments.

I'm coming back with the years He carried me when I didn't know He was carrying me.

And I'm laying all of it at His feet.

Thank You.

Thank You for the good days.

Thank You for carrying me through the bad days.

Thank You for the doors You opened.

Thank You for the doors You refused to open.

Thank You for every yes.

Thank You for every no that kept me from something I couldn't see.

Thank You for every “not yet.”

Thank You for every time You let me fall without letting me be destroyed.

Thank You for every time You corrected me.

Thank You for every time You forgave me.

Thank You for every time You gave me another opportunity.

Thank You for Jesus.

Thank You for the cross.

Thank You for the blood.

Thank You for an empty tomb.

Thank You that my name is written in heaven.

Thank You that death doesn't get the final word.

Thank You that one day faith will become sight.

Thank You that one day every tear will be wiped away.

Thank You that one day we will stand before the Lamb who was slain and join the worship of heaven.

My thanksgiving doesn't stop at what God has done.

My thanksgiving reaches toward what He has promised.

So I proclaim my thanks to the Lord publicly this afternoon.

For all You have done.

For all You are doing.

For all You have kept me from.

For all You have brought me through.

For what I understood.

For what I didn't understand.

For what I saw.

For what You handled without ever letting me see it.

For the prayers You answered.

For the prayers You answered differently than I wanted.

For yesterday.

For today.

And because I know who You are, I can thank You for tomorrow before tomorrow ever gets here.

Lord, Your goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life.

And if You give me another fifty years, I still won't have enough time to tell it all.

So when the testimony gets too long...

When the memories become too many...

When the blessings become impossible to count...

When words fail...

When theology has said everything it can say...

When preaching cannot adequately describe the goodness of God...

I will come back to two words.

Thank You.

Grace, if He's been good to you, don't wait for somebody else to tell your testimony.

If He kept you, say so.

If He delivered you, say so.

If He forgave you, say so.

If He provided, say so.

If He saved you, say so.

And if you can't remember anything else right now, reach down, feel your heartbeat, recognize that breath moving through your body, remember that Jesus died and rose again, and tell Him:

Thank You.

That's it.

That's all.

And yet somehow...

that's everything.