Giving Thanks for All Things

Introduction

Have you ever held the door for someone at the gas station only to have them walk by you like you don’t even exist?

They don’t smile.

They don’t nod their head.

And they don’t say thank you.

They just ignore you even though you did this nice thing by holding the door open for them.

When this happens, what do we call it? RUDE!

Have you ever given candy to a child on Halloween without them even acknowledging you?

They don’t even look you in the eye.

They just shut their little bag and run off.

And they certainly don’t say thank you.

They just ignore you even though you were very generous with the good candy.

When this happens, what do we call it? RUDE!

Have you ever given someone a wedding gift or a housewarming present without them ever recognizing your generosity?

They don’t say thank you at the wedding or the housewarming party.

They don’t send a thank you note.

They don’t communicate ‘thank you’ in anyway at all.

They just ignore you even though you contributed (albeit in some small way) to their future happiness.

When this happens, what do we call it? RUDE!

Ephesians 5:20 calls us not to be rude toward God but to give Him thanks.

Those who walk according to godly wisdom give Him thanks.

Those who are filled with His Holy Spirit give Him thanks.

As Ephesians 5:20 says, they are…

Ephesians 5:20 NASB95

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

[TS] Let’s talk about this verse in two PARTS…

Major Ideas

Part #1: Give thanks.

[EXP] A medieval legend (or really more of a parable) tells of two angels who were sent to earth to collect the prayers of the saints. One was to gather the petitions and the other the thanksgivings.

The angel responsible for gathering the petitions could hardly carry them back to heaven because the load was so heavy.

The angel responsible for gathering the thanksgivings, however, was able to carry his load back in only one hand.

A story like that is meant to teach us that many of us are far more likely to petition God than we are to thank God.

Now, surely we have many needs, and we are commanded in Scripture to present those requests to God, but listen to what Philippians 4:6 says…

Philippians 4:6 NASB95

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

So even when we are bringing our petitions to God, we are to also be bringing our thanksgivings to God.

In terms of the medieval legend, the angels should’ve been carrying equal loads of petitions and thanksgivings back to Heaven.

To give thanks is to show gratitude. It is to express gratitude in the heart, a gratitude that overflows the heart and comes forth from the mouth.

It is God’s grace that leads to this overflowing gratitude, to this thanksgiving.

Unless our hearts have been changed by God’s grace and unless our hearts are continually amazed at His grace, we won’t overflow with thanksgiving to God.

Grace leads to gratitude.

[Grace Leading to Gratitude]

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians begins with two chapters on God’s grace to all believers. He actually began with “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” (Eph. 1:2). Then Paul unpacked that grace for the Ephesians…

Ephesians 1:3 NASB95

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

He chose us in Christ!

He predestined us in Christ!

He adopted us in Christ!

He redeemed us in Christ!

He revealed His salvation to us in Christ!

He secured our inheritance in Christ!

And then Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:1-9…

Ephesians 2:1–9 NASB95

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

This is God’s grace toward us in Jesus Christ! And it’s God who deserves the glory! It’s God who should receive the thanks!

In Ephesians 3 Paul then recounts God’s grace to Him in particular.

God saved Paul by grace!

God revealed to Paul that grace wasn’t just for Jews but for non-Jews as well!

God even called Paul to preach that grace and suffer for that grace!

This is why at the end of Ephesians 3 Paul calls for thanksgiving…

Ephesians 3:20–21 NASB95

20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Grace leads to gratitude!

And the longer we grow in grace, and the more grace grows in us, the more thankful we are!

[ILLUS] Cheryl and a friend were talking about the different stages that children pass through.

There’s infancy and then the pudgy toddler years and then the learning independence years.

Cheryl said that she would love to be able to press pause on some of those stages just to enjoy our children at those points for a bit longer.

But Cheryl’s friend said, “Yeah, but you know, that are different things to love about then in each new stage.”

The grace of God is like that.

[APP] In each new stage of our growth in the grace of God, we discover something new to thank God for.

We never cease to thank Him for the death and resurrection of Jesus in the past, but His grace grows in us so that we thank Him for the intercession of Jesus at present and the glorious return of Jesus in the future.

In light of all of God’s grace toward us in Jesus, how could we not show Him gratitude?

How could we not give Him thanks?

[TS] …

Part #2: Give thanks always and for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.

[EXP] To thank God always (i.e., at all times) would necessarily mean thanking Him for all things (i.e., in all circumstances). But we must understand the phrase “all things” in its context.

Remember that this command to thank God always and for all things comes to us not only in the context of walking wisely in the way of Jesus, it also comes to us in the context of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Those filled with the Holy Spirit will thank God for all things; but if we are thanking the Holy Spirit, then we will be thanking Him for all holy things.

This phrase ‘all things’ is also governed by this directive “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”.

When we learn to pray in the name of Jesus, we don’t learn just to add “It’s in the name of Jesus we pray” to the end of all our prayers. To pray in the name of Jesus means that we pray according to His will. We want what He wants. We ask for what He wants.

So, when we give thanks for all things in the name of Jesus, it means that we gives thanks for those things that are according to His sinless, pure, and righteous will.

And the phrase ‘all things” is also governed by that last bit in v. 20, “to God, even the Father.”

Paul means to bring in the Trinity here. He means to bring in the Holy Spirit, the sinless Son, and our good Father as he tells us to give thanks for all things.

When we give thanks to God the Father, we give thanks to our good Father who only gives good gifts.

In Matthew 7:11 Jesus asked…

Matthew 7:11 NASB95

11 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

In James 1:17, the Word of God says…

James 1:17 NASB95

17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

God did not actively bring evil into this world.

We did by rebelling against Him.

God does not actively bring evil into our lives.

It’s a byproduct of living in a sin-fallen world.

God is good and God is sovereign.

He gives us good things for which we thank Him in the name of Jesus as we are filled with the Holy Spirit.

And in His sovereign goodness, He even graciously works all the bad things for our good and His glory.

As one commentator put it…

The Message of Ephesians c. Gratitude: Always and for Everything Giving Thanks in the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father (Verse 20)

For we cannot thank God for absolutely ‘everything’, including blatant evil. The strange notion is gaining popularity in some Christian circles that the major secret of Christian freedom and victory is unconditional praise; that a husband should praise God for his wife’s adultery and a wife for her husband’s drunkenness; and that even the most appalling calamities of life should become subjects for thanksgiving and praise. Such a suggestion is at best a dangerous half-truth, and at worst ludicrous, even blasphemous. Of course God’s children learn not to argue with him in their suffering, but to trust him, and indeed to thank him for his loving providence by which he can turn even evil to good purposes (e.g. Rom. 8:28). But that is praising God for being God; it is not praising him for evil. To do this would be to react insensitively to people’s pain (when Scripture tells us to weep with those who weep) and to condone and even encourage evil (when Scripture tells us to hate it and to resist the devil). God abominates evil, and we cannot praise or thank him for what he abominates.

So then the ‘everything’ for which we are to give thanks to God must be qualified by its context, namely in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.

We cannot thank God for blatant evil because He is not the creator of evil.

We must thank God for being God especially as He turns bad things to our good.

[The Extraordinary and the Ordinary]

The phrase ‘all things’ includes the extraordinary and the ordinary.

Extraordinary things are things like salvation, answered prayers, unexpected blessings—the miraculous things.

We usually do well at thanking God for extraordinary things.

[ILLUS] I had a seminary professor who had a cancerous tumor about the size and shape of an egg in his body. The doctors had performed all their biopsies. They had seen the tumor on the scans. He would have to have surgery and then some type of chemotherapy or radiation treatment. The surgery was scheduled, but just before they wanted to do another scan to make sure nothing had changed with the tumor. But when they ran the scan, they found that the tumor was gone. It had disappeared.

My professor said that one doctor looked at the scans and said, “There has to be some explanation.”

Another doctor said, “Well, that’s God!”

When extraordinary things like that happen, we are likely quick to thank God, but what about thanking Him for ordinary things.

Ordinary things are things like food, water, shelter, clothing—the ‘daily bread’ things.

We probably need to thank God more often for ordinary things.

We probably need to understand that many times the ordinary things are quite extraordinary.

[ILLUS] Yesterday Cheryl and I took the kids to Langan Park (a.k.a. as the Duck Park). We strolled around the park for awhile and then headed back to the car. As we did, we passed by one of the picnic pavilions and Dalton caught his foot on its concrete foundation. He fell toward the concrete but caught himself with his hands. I was concerned because he already has one skinned-up knee and I thought he was about to get another. I asked, “You OK buddy?” He replied, “Yeah. I’m just glad I have hands.”

Hands might seem pretty ordinary to us. Most people have them. They hand from our arms everyday. We use them to all sorts of stuff and only rarely think about them themselves. But hands really are quite extraordinary, aren’t they?

Dalton protected himself with his hands.

We take care of ourselves with our hands.

I typed this sermon with my hands.

When’s the last time you thanked God for your hands?

A little earlier at the Duck Park, we were walking across the wooden bridge, and Lydia said to me seemingly out of nowhere, “I’m glad God didn’t make me a duck.”

Not being a duck is pretty ordinary for me. I’ve never been a duck, so it never occured to me to thank God that I wasn’t made a duck. I don’t know if you have ever thanked God for not making you a duck, but maybe now you will.

It really is an extraordinary thing to not be a duck, but it’s an extraordinary thing to be made in the image of God.

[TS] …

Conclusion

In the end, if we are going to give God the thanks He deserves, we will have to trust Him and obey Him.

Giving thanks to God requires that we trust His goodness.

Giving thanks to God requires that we obey the command to thank Him even when we don’t feel like it.

Joni Erickson Tada has said that thanking God is about obedience not feeling.

As a paraplegic who deals with constant pain and suffering, Joni knows that sometimes we thank God even when we don’t feel like it.

I’m not asking you if you feel like thanking God this morning.

I’m telling you that the Word of God says that we ought to thank Him.

We ought to thank Him for His grace.

We ought to thank Him for His goodness.

We ought to thank Him for His sovereignty.

We ought to thank Him for the extraordinary and the ordinary.

And we ought to thank Him for a billion other things too.

Will we trust and obey and give Him thanks?