THE KEY INGREDIENT TO EVERYTHING

THE KEY INGREDIENT TO EVERYTHING 1 Thessalonians 5:18 November 20, 2005 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction In Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s awesome little book, Life Together. He writes, “Only he who gives thanks for little things receives the big things. We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for daily gifts…We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things?” We are to be a thankful people. I’m here again with a Thanksgiving week sermon to remind myself and you to renew the habit of giving thanks. We believers who have the advantage of the indwelling Spirit of God are uniquely able to see and appreciate what God is doing in and around our lives. And we are called to to honor the One who gives every good and perfect gift. Here’s a prayer worth praying: “Lord give us eyes to see the small, giant blessings in our lives, and a heart of gratitude toward You.” A.W. Tozer: “Gratitude is an offering precious in the sight of God, and it is one that the poorest of us can make and be not poorer but richer for having made it.” You know, when you come to such a familiar and famous text, it is a good idea to start studying it from scratch, lest all you think you know about it gets in the way of what the Holy Spirit might like to say to you through it. I did that this past week and here’s the fresh idea that surprised me. If Paul commands believers to be thankful in all circumstances, he must know that thankfulness is useful and proper for us in every single circumstance in life. The KJV translates this phrase In everything give thanks. I therefore conclude that the key ingredient to everything is thanksgiving. My message is brief this morning, so I can’t speak about everything, so I will limit my remarks to three biblical concepts for which thanksgiving is the key ingredient Our text this morning is 1 Thessalonians 5:18 …give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Thanksgiving is the Key to Prayer With the opening lines of nearly every one of his New Testament letters, the apostle Paul gives thanks to the Lord. To the Corinthians he wrote, I always thank God for you… (1 Corinthians 1:4) I would have you notice it is a good thing to thank God for fellow believers, and it is a good idea to tell them that you do. In Philippians 1:3-5 he wrote, I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel… Of all the blessings we have from God, one of the greatest is the people around us—family and friends—with whom He has allowed us to connect in such meaningful ways. And our connection is all the deeper when we have our Christian faith in common. Thank God every time you remember one another. Being thankful as a priority in our praying somehow deepens our prayers, permits us into more advanced levels of intercession. So Paul repeatedly exhorts us to include thanks with our prayers, like he does in Philippians 4:6 – Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. If you’ve ever felt that thanksgiving is too difficult when you are hurting or troubled, the Bible reminds us that prayer in all circumstances is good for us, and we should work at being thankful even in the grist and grind of life. The life of thankfulness, biblically speaking, is lived in full view of the hard things of existence. Giving thanks when it’s hard to give thanks deepens us, matures us. In this discipline we discover the more mature prayers of thanksgiving. These are not those offered for the obvious blessings, but those spoken in gratitude for obstacles overcome, for insights gained, for lessons learned, for increased humility, for grace we received in our need, for strength to persevere, for opportunities to serve others. While on a short-term missions trip, Pastor Jack Hinton was leading worship at a leper colony on the island of Tobago. A woman who had been facing away from the pulpit turned around. "It was the most hideous face I had ever seen," Hinton said. "The woman's nose and ears were entirely gone. She lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked, 'Can we sing Count Your Many Blessings?' " Overcome with emotion, Hinton left the service. He was followed by a team member who said, "I guess you'll never be able to sing that song again." "Yes I will," he replied, "but I'll never sing it the same way." Thanksgiving is the key to real worship Thanksgiving is also the Key to Worship There is a little verse tucked away in Hebrews 12:28 that is instructive for us. After we are told in the preceding verses about the indestructible, unshakable kingdom we are receiving as our inheritance in Christ, we read, …let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe… Our very attitude of thankfulness qualifies our worship as acceptable. How does thankfulness do that? Humility is the first step in true spiritual worship, and if you are thankful, you are humble. Bible translators report that the Masai tribe in West Africa have an unusual way of saying, "I thank you." They say literally, "My head is in the dirt." When the Masai express thanks, they literally put their forehead down on the ground. They want to acknowledge gratitude with humility. If we are thankful before the Lord, our head is in the dirt. The humility of gratitude is key to worship. We simply cannot approach the Lord in pride. Pride whispers in our ear, “You’re worthy! You’ve done enough to please him! If He receives others who are not as good as you, you may enter His courts.” Lies! It is only in Christ and what He has done for us that we may come before the Lord. And that approach demands of us a heart of thanksgiving that admits we have nothing to offer but what Christ has offered for us. No wonder in the Psalms thanksgiving is almost considered the pre-requisite for worship. Let us come before him with thanksgiving… (Psalm 95:2) Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. (Psalm 100:4). Thanksgiving is the key to worship. Amy Carmichael admonishes us well in her book, Edges of His Ways: I believe that if we are to be and to do for others what God means us to be and to do, we must not let [thanksgiving] and Worship slip into second place, "For it is the central service asked by God of human souls; and its neglect is responsible for much lack of spiritual depth and power." Perhaps we may find here the reason why we so often run dry. We do not give time enough to what makes for depth, and so we are shallow; a wind, quite a little wind, can ruffle our surface; a little hot sun, and all the moisture in us evaporates. It should not be so. Thanksgiving is the key to Experiencing the Peace of the Lord We looked at Philippians 4:6 a little earlier, but let’s go back and finish the sentence there. Verse 6 reads In everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God… There is the command, but here comes the blessing to those who will pray with thanksgiving – And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7) Please know this—no matter what troubles you or makes you anxious, God is able to give you peace that is unfathomable to you. You will literally say, “I can’t understand it—with all I’m going through, I still have this peace!” That is God keeping your mind and your heart in Christ Jesus! Your prayers with thanksgiving lead to the peace of God in your mind and heart. And when you are kept in Christ Jesus in that kind of peace, you are no longer a slave to your circumstances. Do you mean God will deliver me out of them? Better yet, He will deliver you in them! Negative circumstances are always trumped by thanksgiving. Conclusion That’s why we really ought to learn to live in a constant state of thanksgiving. Hey, that’s exactly what our text said, isn’t it? Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. We should be the people of God, and smother with a thick layer of genuine thanksgiving all of our prayer and our worship and our trying circumstances.   [Back to Top]