Obey God by Giving Thanks

This morning we will be talking about thankfulness. I’m assuming many of you will be having turkey this week so I would like to start by giving you a list of ...

12 reasons to be thankful when you’ve burnt the turkey.

Salmonella won’t be a concern.

No one will overeat.

Everyone will think it’s Cajun Blackened.

Uninvited guests will think twice next year.

Your cheese broccoli lima bean casserole will gain newly found appreciation.

Pets won’t pester you for scraps.

The smoke alarm was due for a test.

Carving the bird will provide a good cardiovascular workout.

After dinner, the guys can take the bird to the yard to play football.

The less turkey Uncle George eats, the less likely he will be to walk around with his pants unbuttoned.

You’ll get to the desserts faster.

You won’t have to face three weeks of turkey sandwiches.

There is definitely some truth to some of those.

Well I really look forward to this time of year. I enjoy the holiday of Thanksgiving. I like the season of fall, I like gathering together with family and friends to have a meal together, and I enjoy taking time to be thankful; to stop and sit and think about how good God is; what He has given to me; how he has been working in my life and those around me.

Giving thanks is an attitude that shows maturity in our walk with the Lord. The Psalmist wrote: “I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart” (Ps 9:1). We can choose to grumble or we can choose to give thanks for what we have, be it a little or a lot. As Paul said, “for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am” (Phil 4:11).

Paul is an extremely reliable person on this topic. He was in prison much of his life, ridiculed by many for his faith in God, and suffered physical pain as well. Paul said, “I bear on my body the marks of Jesus” (Gal 6:17). Being persecuted as he was, he always found time to give thanks.

So this morning, we are going to take a look and see what the Bible says about giving thanks. You may learn something, you may feel convicted as I have as I have studied these passages.

Let’s pray before we begin.

It is a Command to Give Thanks

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 NASB95

Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

It is a command to give thanks. Paul gives three commands here: rejoice, pray, give thanks. It is a command that we are to give thanks to God in everything. It is His will for us that we give thanks always. Therefore, we are in sin if we choose to be unthankful. If we choose to grumble and complain instead, we are sinning. Unthankfulness is disobedience. There are many passages that talk about having an attitude of gratitude. There is no excuse for ungratefulness.

Have you ever thought of that before? Being unthankful is sinful.

To be unthankful is the very essence of the unregenerate heart. The apostle Paul identified unbelievers as ungrateful in Romans 1; they were unthankful to God. Ingratitude is a feature of their depravity. It’s no surprise that unbelievers are unthankful; that’s how they live. But when God regenerates your heart, He gives you a heart that longs to obey Him and give Him the thanks that He deserves. Believer’s are expected to give God thanks.

We give Him thanks in everything. This refers to all that occurs in our life. No matter the struggles, trials, and testings we might face, we must give God thanks. Thankfulness is part of the regenerated life. We are to obey Him completely, and to do anything else is sin.

This is not just good advice to follow but the very will of God. It is God’s will that all who are in Christ should display constant joy, prayer, and thanksgiving. Look back at 1 Thess. 4:3

1 Thessalonians 4:3 NASB95

For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;

His will for us is our sanctification; to be holy, set apart from sin to God. And we can be thankful in all things through God working in us.

Philippians 2:13 NASB95

for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

We are responsible to work and obey God, but it is God who works in us to produce good works and spiritual fruit. God does good works through us by His indwelling Holy Spirit. So because we have the Holy Spirit, we can be thankful to God and thereby be in God’s will.

So it is a command to be thankful to God in everything; it is His very will for us. When the early church would meet together, one of its main purposes was to give thanks to God. We are to express thankfulness and therefore be distinct from the ungrateful, unbelieving culture around us.

God is Worthy of Our Thanks

Psalm 106:1 NASB95

Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Is God good? Yes He is! Our God is good all of the time! He deserves our thanks! If His love is everlasting then it’s impossible to praise Him enough and give Him what He deserves. Israel often was unfaithful and ungrateful to God; we don’t want to be like them. Give God thanks!

You being alive is a great place to start. He has given you life and allowed you to have more time on earth. Take some time to think about all of the things you can give God thanks for.

Thank Him for the beautiful creation we live in.

Thank Him for your close friends and family.

Thank Him for your gifts and abilities He has blessed you with.

Thank Him for your job.

Most importantly, we need to thank Him for sending Jesus Christ to us to be crucified on the cross to take away the punishment for our sins!

He was marred so badly he wasn’t even recognizable as a man (Is. 52:14).

The wrath of God.

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The cup of wrath that Jesus had to drink had accumulated the fury of God against sins of all types. Heinous crimes, adultery, careless words, dishonoring thoughts, lies, unthankfulness — all of it had to be punished by God. God poured out his wrath, full strength, undiluted, onto his Son. Paul summarizes the meaning of this great event in 2 Corinthians 5:21,

2 Corinthians 5:21 NASB95

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Thank God, where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more (Rom 5:20). God chose to save us from our sin. That is who God is. Read through the Old Testament and see that God is constantly the savior of a sinning people. He is worthy of our thanks.

One more truth I want to highlight why God is worthy of giving thanks, why we can be thankful in everything, is found in Romans 8:28.

Romans 8:28 NASB95

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

What a great truth! Even though we sin, even though we fall short giving in to temptation and our flesh, or we live unfaithfully and selfishly, even with all the evil and wickedness in the world and the mess that it creates, our God is so mighty, His Sovereignty and Providence that He can cause all things to work out for our good if we love Him is amazing! We give Him thanks for that!

This truth helps us to remain thankful, knowing that God is working something out in our lives. He’s setting us up for something down the road, He’s building our character, He’s working on our perseverance, He’s letting our testimony be on display, and on and on. As He sanctifies us, this is why we can always rejoice, not because of what we are facing but because of what God is doing behind the scenes for our benefit and growth. We know that God is fitting everything in our life into His eternal purpose for us.

This happens for those who love him, and 1 John 2:3 says, “We know that we love Him if we keep His commandments.”

God is worthy of our thanks.

Being Thankful is Constant

Colossians 3:15–17 NASB95

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

So whatever we do, either by our lips and what we say or by our actions in our life, all should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:31 NASB95

Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Ephesians 5:20 NASB95

always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;

This clearly affirms that Christians ought to be known by their constant thankfulness. Can people say that about you?

Colossians 2:6–7 NASB95

Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

Not trying to be thankful but overflowing with gratitude. That’s the way people should see you. That’s the way you should be living your life.

Colossians 4:2 NASB95

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;

We are to do everything with an attitude of thankfulness. We are not doing it reluctantly or in a legalistic manner, but we give thanks through Jesus to God the Father.

Whatever you’re doing, we are told to be thankful.

When you work: thank God for your job.

When you drive: thank God for your car.

When you jog: thank God for your athleticism.

The point is that there is always something to be thankful for. I believe it was an old puritan who practice giving thanks every morning. This particular morning nothing special had happened and there was a terrible storm he had to go through to get to the church. When it was time to give thanks, he prayed, “Lord, I’m thankful the weather is not always like this.”

While Paul was being tortured in prison he prayed for the churches that he had started and visited. He cared about the people there. Every single time he remembered them he thanked God for them.

Philippians 1:3–5 NASB95

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.

How much stronger would our churches be today if we all thanked God for our fellow brothers and sisters every time we remembered them? Can you imagine how fruitful the work of the church would be?

And even in times of great anxiety, fear, worry, and stress, a prayerful attitude of thanksgiving should characterize believers (Phil. 4:6-7). This is the next point we will look at.

Be Thankful When Praying

Philippians 4:6 NASB95

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

This is not always easy. You can having serious, difficult issues you’re working through right now.

But Paul exhorted the Philippians to prayer instead of anxiety. Every time you begin to worry, you should see that as a call from God telling you that it is time to pray. This is an important principle to remember: the more you worry, the less you pray. The more you pray, the less you worry.

But a really important concept to catch here with this passage, yes we often think we need to pray when we are anxious, but Paul makes it very clear that we are to pray with thanksgiving. Praying with thanksgiving involves trusting God. Thanksgiving is an attitude of the heart which should always accompany your prayers. Thanksgiving is a demonstration of faith in God’s goodness and provision despite what we see in the moment.

Pastor John MacArthur said, “Spiritually stable people react to trials with thankful prayer.”

Like I mentioned earlier, thankfulness is a sign of spiritual maturity. Thankful prayer is the antidote to worry and the cure for anxiety. When it comes to feeling overwhelmed, Paul writes that your priority should be prayer accompanied with the attitude of thankfulness. So be thankful when you pray.

The Consequences of Not Being Thankful

Romans 1:21 NASB95

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

If you choose to not give thanks to God, you are in for a lot of trouble. Your thinking will become futile (useless). Your heart will become darkened (unable/unwilling to understand).

If you knew God, you would honor Him. But these people that Paul is writing about here “did not honor Him as God or give thanks.”

They did not give thanks. Paul is talking here in terms of living a lifestyle characterized as one of thankfulness to God in appropriate response to who God is and what He has done for us. Our very lives are gifts from God. If you want to say you don’t believe in God, or just simply live your life the way you want to, you are not honoring Him or giving Him thanks.

If you turn away from Him, from the very purpose for which God made you, to glorify Him and give Him thanks, there will be consequences. With such willful rebellion against God, it is no surprise that they became futile in their speculations (useless, worthless, purposeless in their thinking) and their foolish (morally senseless) hearts were darkened. And who did this?

Remember Pharaoh from Exodus? Pharaoh did not honor God or give Him thanks. He did the opposite, he oppressed God’s people. Then what happened? God hardened his heart and the results were devastating. Pharaoh’s country was turned upside down. Pharaoh lost his first born son when God killed him (Ex 12:29). He lost the majority of his army in the Red Sea (Ex 14:26-30).

When you choose to puff yourself up and leave God behind, you will eventually face disaster. Paul said they knew God, because according to verse 19 the truth of God is evident to all men, but there are those who choose to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. It’s a choice that has devastating consequences; futile speculations and a darkened heart.

Conclusion

Giving thanks is something that should be a part of every Christian’s life. Think of things today that you can be thankful for and think about them as much as possible! Take time to be intentional this week, and on Thursday, to be thankful, and maybe start developing that into a new habit. Remember,

We are commanded to give God thanks in every circumstance in life.

God is Worthy of Our Thanks.

Those should result in constant thankfulness in our life.

We are thankful when we pray and speak to our heavenly Father.

The consequences of not being thankful is futile speculations and a darkened heart.

Prayer

Lord, forgive us in our lives where we have been unthankful.