A GRATEFUL HEART

For most of our nation Thanksgiving Day it a time to practice the art of gluttony while watching football. I found this post while searching for an appropriate Thanksgiving illustration. It wasn’t what I was searching for, but it was funny!

SIGNS YOU ATE TOO MUCH FOR THANKSGIVING

The doctor tells you your weight would be perfect for a man 17 feet tall.

You are responsible for a slight but measurable shift in the earth's axis.

Paramedics bring in the Jaws of Life to pry you out of the EZ-Boy.

The potatoes you used set off another famine in Ireland.

You receive a Sumo Wrestler application in your e-mail.

You set off 3 earthquake seismographs on your morning jog Friday.

Pricking your finger for cholesterol screening only yielded gravy.

You consider gluttony your patriotic duty.

Representatives from the Butterball Hall of Fame called twice.

As much as I enjoy a good football game, and sampling the bountiful feast that is always prepared for Thanksgiving, I recognize that there are other things that we should be thankful for. While most of the world focuses their gratitude on temporal things, such as food, clothing, shelter, and toys, I would like to encourage us this morning to focus our gratitude on spiritual things.

If you have not done so already, please turn to . Beginning this week we will be taking a break from our study of the Gospel of Matthew, and start a new series for the upcoming Christmas season. The title of this series is: PROVISIONS OF THE INCARNATION. And today’s passage can be seen as a prologue for next weeks passage, in which we will look at the first provision of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. For today we are going to look at A GRATEFUL HEART.

As believers in Jesus Christ we should be filled with gratitude to God because of the salvation we have found in Jesus Christ, and for the process of sanctification which causes us to grow in the knowledge and grace of our Lord and Savior. As we explore our text this morning we will look at an attitude of gratitude, a persistence in prayer, and a joyful expression as these all relate to the wonderful redemption we have in Christ Jesus.

Let’s read our passage together. For today, I am reading our of the Christian Standard Bible, as I like the way it presents this text. I have provided a copy of this passage from this translation in your bulletins if you prefer following along in the same translation I am using.

Colossians 1:3–14 CSB

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and came to truly appreciate God’s grace. You learned this from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and he has told us about your love in the Spirit. For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Let’s look at:

AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

Always be Grateful

Expressed Through Prayer

Direct Your Gratitude to God

Through Jesus Christ

Christ is our link to God

Be Grateful for What God is Doing in the Life of Others

Be Grateful for Gospel Growth

Be Grateful for our Spiritual Parents and Church Leaders ,

A PERSISTENCE IN PRAYER

Philemon 23 NASB95PARA

Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you,

,

Colossians 4:12 NASB95PARA

Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.

Colossians 4:12 CSB

Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. He is always wrestling for you in his prayers, so that you can stand mature and fully assured in everything God wills.

Cultivate the Heavenly Triad — faith, hope, and love (vs. 4-5)

Philemon 23 CSB

Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings, and so do

1 Corinthians 13:13 CSB

Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.

A PERSISTENCE IN PRAYER

We Should Engage in Intercessory Prayer

Our Prayer Should Focus on Spiritual Growth

Understanding God’s Will

Living Lives that Reflect Christ

Ephesians 4:1 CSB

Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to live worthy of the calling you have received,

“To live a life “worthy of the Lord” (axiōs tou kyriou) probably means to live a life that is commensurate with what the Lord has done for us and is to us. It may also suggest acting in conformity with our union with Christ and with his purpose for our lives.”

(Vaughan, C. (1981). Colossians. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Ephesians through Philemon (Vol. 11, p. 178). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)

One of the problems in the Colossian church which Paul will address in this letter was that certain teachers were declaring a false gospel. This false gospel had the appearance of spirituality, but in fact it was based on “asceticism, which is the attempt to achieve holiness by rigorous self-neglect, self-denial, and self-infliction.” (MacArthur Study Bible). Addressing this issue, Paul wrote:

Colossians 2:23 CSB

Although these have a reputation for wisdom by promoting self-made religion, false humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.

Michael Bird wrote:

“The true test of religious learning is its ability to transform behavior, precisely what the philosophy lacks (see 2:23). Hence, Paul’s prayer for the Colossians is that through apprehension of this knowledge they walk worthily of the Lord and pleasing him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work.” (NCCS Commentary).

The main reason we should pursue a transformed life is that:

This pleases God

This produces fruit

This increases our knowledge of God

This strengthens us in our walk

A JOYFUL EXPRESSION

Joyful Gratitude for our Heavenly Inheritance

“The word hikanoō means to make sufficient, adequate, or qualified (see ). Ironically, whereas the Father has qualified them, the Colossians are giving ear to those who want to “disqualify” them (see 2:18).”

(Bird, M. F. (2009). Colossians and Philemon (p. 42). Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.)

Bird, M. F. (2009). Colossians and Philemon (p. 42). Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.

Joyful Gratitude for Our Spiritual Deliverance

Joyful Gratitude for Our Spiritual Deliverance

Acts 26:18 CSB

to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

Joyful Gratitude for Our New Citizenship

“We have here the language of wide scale transportation as the word transferred (methistēmi) can be used in regards to the transplantation of entire peoples (Josephus Ant. 9.235). God has picked up his people and transplanted them into a whole new territory. Paul frames salvation in terms reminiscent of the exodus where believers experience a new exodus and a new redemption by entering into the imperishable inheritance of God.”

(Bird, M. F. (2009). Colossians and Philemon (pp. 43–44). Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.)

Joyful Gratitude for Our Redemption

Ephesians 1:7 CSB

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 11: Ephesians through Philemon C. Prayer of Petition (1:9–14)

Redemption and forgiveness are not exactly parallel or identical concepts, but by putting the two terms in apposition to each other, the apostle teaches that the central feature of redemption is the forgiveness of sins.

As I begin drawing this message to a close I want to consider how this passage points to Christ.

This passage points to Christ:

As the link between us and God the Father (vs. 3-4)

As being the object of our faith (or reason for our faithfulness?) (vs. 4)

As being the King, and the Son of God's love (vs. 13)

As our redeemer (vs. 14)

All of this should spur us on toward an attitude of gratitude. It should prompt us to persevere in prayer for one another — not merely praying for health issue, although that is important as well, but praying for one another’s spiritual growth in Christ. Finally it should prompt us to express our gratitude to God for our redemption, as the old Swedish hymn states:

Thanks to God for my Redeemer, Thanks for all Thou dost provide! Thanks for times now but a mem’ry, Thanks for Jesus by my side! Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime, Thanks for dark and stormy fall! Thanks for tears by now forgotten, Thanks for peace within my soul!

Thanks for all Thou dost provide! Thanks for times now but a mem’ry, Thanks for Jesus by my side! Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime, Thanks for dark and stormy fall! Thanks for tears by now forgotten, Thanks for peace within my soul!

Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered, Thanks for what Thou dost deny! Thanks for storms that I have weathered, Thanks for all Thou dost supply! Thanks for pain, and thanks for pleasure, Thanks for comfort in despair! Thanks for grace that none can measure, Thanks for love beyond compare!

Thanks for roses by the wayside, Thanks for thorns their stems contain! Thanks for home and thanks for fireside, Thanks for hope, that sweet refrain! Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow, Thanks for heav’nly peace with Thee! Thanks for hope in the tomorrow, Thanks through all eternity!