Gratitude | 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Introduction

I add my welcome to you today, as today we consider the third in our series of 7 shaping virtues of our family of churches. Today we will look at the virtue of gratitude. Please turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.

It was in September of 1944 that Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie were transferred to Ravensbruck. It was the middle of world war 2 and Corrie and Betsie had been transported into Germany to the most notorious of the Nazi women’s extermination camps for the crime of harboring and protecting Jews in their home in the Netherlands. As they arrived at the camp, Corrie and Betsie were starving and dehydrated and scared. Between 1939 and 1945 around 130,000 female prisoners passed through Ravensbruck. Of those, it is estimated that about 40%, or 50,000 women perished from disease, starvation, overwork, and despair. Another 2% or 2,000 to 2,500 women were murdered in the gas chambers.

Ravensbruck was a lice infested, overcrowded, disease riddled slave camp. The furniture was slimy with mildew and crawling with cockroaches. When Corrie and Betsie arrived at the bed that they were assigned to there were already three other women in it. The five of them slept as best they could together sideways on this one single bed.

But God had already shown them a great grace in that when they were checked into Ravensbruck, the Bible they had with them had not been discovered. They still had God’s word.

In October, they were moved to their permanent quarters. Their numbers were called, prisoner 66729 and prisoner 66730. Names were never used, and they were ushered into their new home. The permanent quarters were filthy. The plumbing had backed up, the beds were soiled and rancid. And the place was full of biting fleas.

As they entered into this place, Corrie desperately asked Betsie, “how can we live in such a place?”  When Corrie asked the question, Betsie prayed to God, “Show us, Show us how.” In moments Betsie had the answer. It was in what they had read in their Bible in secret that very morning. 

Please stand with me if you are able as we show honor to God’s powerful word that shines bright even in the darkest of places.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. This is the answer that God gave to Corrie and Betsie ten Boom in the darkness of Ravensbruck. And it is the answer that he gives to each one of us in whatever circumstance we find ourselves today. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

If you were in Ravensbruck your reaction might be the same as Corrie’s was. Give thanks for what? But they started to look for things for which they could be thankful. They gave thanks for being there together, and not separated as so many other families were. They gave thanks that their Bible had slipped through the incoming inspection. They gave thanks for the overcrowded conditions so that they could share their Bible with so many. And they gave thanks for the fleas. Yes, the fleas. Fleas that they were to realize later kept the guards out of their barracks so that they could have freedom to read and share God’s word unhindered inside. There was reason to be thankful even for the fleas.

My sermon outline today is just three points. First, The Choice of Gratitude, second, The Reason for Gratitude, and third, The Time for Gratitude.

The Choice of Gratitude

First, The Choice of Gratitude. Gratitude is one of the things that we teach our children at the earliest age. Please and Thank you. How often hasn’t every parent when their child has received a gift from someone said, “Now what do you say?” And the child will soon comply and utter the words, “Thank you.” Gratitude is a trait we want to encourage in our kids, and it should be a virtue that we want to pursue in our adult lives as well.

It is hard to overstate the importance of a grateful spirit in the Christian life. A grateful Christian spirit is a very attractive thing. But by the same token, the absence of a grateful spirit is a very unattractive thing. There are few things as repulsive as an entitled, self-centered, unthankful person. Because as we think about thankfulness, the opposite of thankfulness is not unthankfulness. Rather, the opposite of thankfulness is whining, murmuring and complaining.

So we have a choice to make. Will we be a joyful, grateful person who lifts others up and encourages? Or will we be a person who drags others down with our complaining and grumbling? Will we be the person who sees the silver lining around the gray cloud, or will we be the Eeyore that can find a cloud behind every silver lining. The choice we make impacts not only ourselves, but everyone we interact with as well.

First, a grateful spirit has an impact on you. A grateful spirit that is firmly grounded in the goodness and grace of God, will radically impact how you view and respond to everything in your life. Think of how many times in Scripture – and particularly in the book of Psalms – we are exhorted to give thanks, to praise the Lord. Being a thankful people is a recurring theme throughout scripture. Last week Matt taught on the virtue of joy. Over time, choosing gratitude means choosing joy. But the only way we will be able to consistently choose gratitude is by renewing our minds with the truth of God’s Word and by being attentive to every good and perfect gift that God is giving us now, has given us in the past, and will give us in the future.

Do you want to improve your marriage? Focus and be grateful for the good things God has given you in your spouse. Do you want to enjoy your job more? Count the ways in which having gainful employment is blessing your family. Do you want to be a better parent? Give thanks and encourage your children for their good instead of only complaining about their failings. In all circumstances, give thanks. Now are there difficult things in all of these areas? Your spouse is not perfect. There are probably frustrating people at your job, and your kids probably drive you crazy at times. But that does not mean that there are not an abundance of things for which you can give thanks. And that act of giving thanks rather than whining and complaining changes you. It engenders joy in your heart. It makes you a pleasant person to be around. It lifts you out of depression with a “woe is me focus” to a focus of thankfulness to God, an appreciation for others, and a spirit of hope. It makes you into a person that other people want to be around.

Living like that kind of person is not easy, and it doesn’t come naturally. But it is a virtue worth pursuing in our Christian lives. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth in her book Choosing Gratitude says this, “Gratitude is a lifestyle. A hard-fought, grace-infused, biblical lifestyle. And though there’s a sense in which anyone can be thankful – for God has extended His common grace to all – the true glory and the transforming power of gratitude are reserved for those who know and acknowledge the Giver of every good gift and who are recipients of His redeeming grace.”

Loved ones, there is transforming power in gratitude to God. A spirit of gratitude changes everything in you and around you. 

A grateful spirit has an impact on others. Thankful people are a refreshing, life-giving influence on everyone they encounter. Think for a moment about what it normally looks like when someone encounters you and asks, “How are you doing?” CJ Mahaney wrote in his book Humility a helpful and probing question: “What would happen if I crossed your path tomorrow morning? Would I encounter someone who was an alert and thankful observer of answered prayer, someone who in a pronounced way was grateful for God’s many mercies? We also want to continue throughout the day expressing gratefulness for the innumerable manifestations of God’s grace. It’s as if God is placing sticky-notes in our lives everywhere. How alert and perceptive of them are you?”    

 When someone asks you, “How are you doing?” do you tend toward unloading everything that is wrong, or recounting the myriad of ways in which God has shown you grace and mercy? One choice drags people down into discouragement and trial. The other points them to the wondrous grace that we have in our savior. Our spirit of gratefulness has an impact on those we meet every day.

That is not to say that we should always act like everything is just fine even when it is not. Our cares and heartaches and burdens are real, and we should not act as if they are not. We are to share one another’s burdens. Sharing our burdens with our brothers and sisters in Christ is a right, biblical thing to do. But, if your tendency is always dark and gloomy, always leaning to the cares and burdens and what is wrong, while minimizing the blessings God is giving you, the scales are tipped in a dangerous direction that leads to discouragement and despondency.

So how do we become, as CJ says, an alert and thankful observer of answered prayer, someone who in a pronounced way is grateful for God’s many mercies. One way is in reminding ourselves of all of the blessings that are ours as God’s people. We are prone to forget. Psalm 103:2-5 says this, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

We have a natural tendency to forget the benefits that God has given to us in this world and in Christ Jesus. So we must be intentional to remind ourselves. There is wisdom in the old hymn, “Count Your Blessings”. The first verse of that hymn says “When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed, When you are discouraged thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.” 

As we remember God’s blessings and are grateful, that grateful spirit flows out, transforms us and our attitude, and builds up and encourages all of those around us. 

The Reason for Gratitude

Second, The Reason for Gratitude.

Mickey Connolly writes in the October, 2022 Sovereign Grace Journal on our shaping virtues that when the gospel of Jesus Christ is embraced, it produces a culture marked by the fruit of gospel. Gratitude, just like humility, joy, encouragement, generosity, servanthood, and godliness are not virtues that we reach down deep into our souls and muster up on our own. No, each of these virtues, including gratitude, are the fruit generated by the Holy Spirit when we remember, understand, and appreciate the many benefits of the gospel. As good and as desirable each of these virtues are, they are not the thing. The thing is the gospel. It is the glorious truth that God sent His Son, Jesus, to live a perfect life, die the death we deserve because of our sin, and be raised from the dead. It is when we embrace the gospel, when we remember the gospel, when we understand the gospel, and when we appreciate the many benefits of the gospel, that our lives, by the work of the Spirit, will be humble, joyful, grateful, encouraging, generous, serving, godly lives. All because of the gospel.

It is because of the gospel that we can be, are, and should be the most grateful people on the planet. 

Oswald Chambers said that, “The thing that awakens the deepest well of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven sin.” REPEAT

In the book Choosing Gratitude we are provided with this helpful equation. Undeniable Guilt + Undeserved Grace = Unbridled Gratitude.

Every one of us was born in a state of guilt. We were born in sin. Every one of us a lawbreaker, rightly under the just condemnation of a holy God. Without defense. No plea deal to cut. Just undeniably guilty. Never able to be worthy of acceptance. Never able to be good enough to earn God’s favor. One important piece of the equation in living a gratitude filled life is knowing who, what, and where we’d be if God hadn’t intervened and saved us. Undeniably guilty. Hopelessly lost.

But into our hopeless situation, came the undeserved grace of God through Jesus Christ. Because of the gospel of Jesus Christ we have received forgiveness. We have been adopted as children of God. We have received the Holy Spirit as our helper and comforter. We have the privilege of prayer. We have this wonderful body we call the local church. We have been blessed with spiritual gifts for the common good. Christ’s life has become our life. Certain death has been replaced by eternal life. Our abounding guilt has been covered by God’s super-abounding grace delivered to us in Jesus Christ. All undeserved grace!!

But that’s not the end of the equation. Undeniable Guilt + Undeserved Grace should equal Unbridled Gratitude. Is your life filled with unbridled gratitude? If not, the answer isn’t to try to forget your problems, move on, have a good attitude and put on a happy face. The answer is to remember the glory and wonder of the gospel. Again from the book Choosing Gratitude: “It is only by recognizing that our blessings have a single source – a real, personal, living and loving Giver – that gratitude begins its transformation into authentic, Christian gratitude: recognizing and expressing appreciation for the benefits we have received from God and others.” 

Our abounding guilt, when covered by God’s super-abounding grace, should result in super-duper-abounding gratitude.

Gratitude is also a matter of obedience. Listen to these exhortations to gratitude from scripture. Psalm 50:14 – Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High. Psalm 105:1 – Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! Psalm 107:8 – Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! Colossians 4:2 – Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. Colossians 3:17 – And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. 

And we could fill not just the rest of this sermon, but the rest of the day reading Scriptures that instruct us to give thanks. Do you want to be obedient to God? Be a thankful person.

Gratitude is also resting in the revealed will of God. Our scripture for today says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” It can be our tendency in the Christian life to think that God’s will for us is some mystery that we have to figure out. God has a will for me, but he isn’t really telling me, and I have to somehow piece it together and figure out what God’s will is. But the truth is that God’s will is not hidden to us. He reveals it plainly to us in his word. And no example of that can be clearer than our text today. “For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 

Are you single and wondering what God’s will is for you? Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.

Are you in between jobs and wondering what to do? Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.

Are you in a desert season in your faith? Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances.

Whatever is going on in your life, God’s will for this circumstance of your life is not hidden to you. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances. Loved one, by obeying the will of God that you know, you can trust that in your rejoicing, in your praying, and in your thanksgiving, that God will meet you in your need because that is his will for you in Christ Jesus. 

The Time for Gratitude

Third, the time for gratitude. When is it right for us to be thankful?

Well, there is an oh so subtle clue to the answer to that question in our scripture for today. Give thanks in all circumstances. You don’t have to be a biblical scholar to understand what that’s saying. The right time to give thanks is always.

But this is one of those situations in which while the understanding of the command is easy, the application of the command can be incredibly difficult.

How do I give thanks in Ravensbruck? How do I give thanks in the midst of a wildfire? How am I grateful when my body is wasting away with cancer? How do I give thanks when I just lost a loved one? Or maybe the better question to ask is not how do I give thanks in these and all circumstances, but why. Why can I give thanks in all circumstances?

And the why, drives us back to the very character of God. Exodus 34:6-7a: The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.. 

Lamentations 3:19-24: Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me, But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness, “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

Romans 8:28: And we know that for those who love God all things (all circumstances, which is all those times when we are to be giving thanks), work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

We can give thanks in all circumstances because our God, merciful and gracious, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, steadfast love never ceasing, mercies never ending, is working all circumstances together for good. And here is an important part, even when we can’t see it. And the honest truth is that often we cannot see the good, at least not at the moment of the trial. Sometimes time will reveal it to us. But whether we see it or not, we can trust in the character of God that all things are working together for good.

On July 30, 1967, when she was 17 years old, Joni Eareckson Tada dove into the Chesapeake Bay after misjudging the shallowness of the water. She had a fracture between the fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae and became a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the shoulders down. She writes this at age 59 speaking to God’s sovereignty and purpose in our lives:

And so I’ve been giving thanks for most of my paralyzed life. Not only giving thanks “in everything,” as one part of the Bible tells us, but “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything” as another part commands (1 Thessalonians 5:18 and Ephesians 5:20). Most of us are able to thank God for his grace, comfort, and sustaining power in a trial, but we don’t thank Him for the problem, just finding Him in it.

But many decades in a wheelchair have taught me to not segregate my Savior from the suffering He allows, as though a broken neck – or in your case, a broken ankle, heart, or home – merely “happens” and then God shows up after the fact to wrestle something good out of it. No, the God of the Bible is bigger than that. Much bigger.

And so is the capacity of your soul. Maybe this wheelchair felt like a horrible tragedy in the beginning, but I give God thanks in my wheelchair…I’m grateful for my quadriplegia. It’s a bruising of a blessing. A gift wrapped in black. It’s the shadowy companion that walks with me daily, pulling and pushing me into the arms of my Savior. And that’s where the joy is.

I have had the pleasure recently, as many of you have, of hearing Greg tell of his recent experiences in visiting our brothers and sisters in Pakistan. But perhaps unlike you, I’ve had the privilege of hearing Greg tell the story three or four times. And in listening to Greg tell of his experiences, one thing in particular has really made an impression on me. He gets to the part of telling of going into a shack of a stable with the smell of manure filling the air, cattle and goats all around, men, women and children crowded in and sitting or laying on the dirt floor, and him preaching the word of God to these people who are living in severe poverty and their lives literally in danger for their faith every day. And the part of the story that chokes him up every time I’ve heard him tell it, is the way those people sang their hearts out in praise to God. There is a beauty in the people of God exploding in thankfulness and praise, not because of circumstances, but regardless of circumstances.

Do we give God glory and praise only for the part of our life that’s going the way we want it to? Or do we worship Him, trust Him, and give Him thanks because He is God. God even in the dark, painful, hard places in which we live? Job said this, “…Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”    

In this life God has not guaranteed us to be free from pain or to have success or prosperity. In this life he has not promised us perfect health. Teens, he has not guaranteed that you will have perfect parents. Parents, God has not promised that you will have perfect kids. On this earth God has not promised us the absence of stress, trials, difficult relationships or even persecution. 

But what he has promised to every one who is his own is eternal life. What he has promised is that he knows you. What he has promised is that nothing will separate you from his love, from his mercy, from his grace. What he has promised to you by the gifts of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, meekness, and self-control. And he has promised you so much more. Every promise of God is yes in Christ Jesus.

So, when is the time to be grateful. Always. Why can we always be thankful? Because our God is always loving, always merciful, always faithful, no matter the circumstances. And he is at work for your good and for his glory.

Conclusion

So as we look around at this world, we see much that is wrong. We see cruelty and injustice and evil. We see perversion and wickedness. We see fires raging, homes lost, lives lost, and devastation all around. We see broken relationships, and selfishness, and people hurting and in pain. We see a world in brokenness, feeling the impact of the curse of sin. And we may be tempted to ask, like Corrie ten Boom did, “how can we live in such a place?” And today God’s answer rings loud and true, just as it did in Ravensbruck in 1944, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.