Being Thankful for the Brethren

Thank you. That was great. Thank you so much. That's just beautiful, beautiful music, and I think ties so well into the sermon that I want to share with you today. Last week in the United States, we observed Thanksgiving, and today we're having a special Thanksgiving potluck. And I think if there was ever a time when we needed an attitude of Thanksgiving, it's today. Not because of what we have, but because of who we are and the times that we live in.

And that's what I want to elaborate a little bit more on today. There's a handout here that I asked Bruce and Emil to help me pass out to you. So you'll be a little distracted to kind of take one per person or one per family.

We're going to go through this, just make it a little bit easier to follow. Why don't you turn over to 1 Thessalonians 1 here to start? And by the way, if you're from Petaluma, this is not the sermon I gave last week. Don't worry. It's a different sermon.

But we can talk about Thanksgiving two weeks in a row. I think that's OK. For those in Petaluma, they're going to hear about Thanksgiving twice. 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 2. Let's connect ourselves to God's word, God's spirit and God's purpose for our spiritual ancestors here in Thessalonica and how it applies to us today. 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 2. We give thanks to God always for you, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ and the sight of God, of our God and Father.

2 Knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God, for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know, what kind of men we were among you for your sake. 3 Notice verse 6. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction and with joy of the Holy Spirit. 4 With much affliction, you see, Timothy had reported to Paul about this special congregation in Thessalonica and how they had grown and the spirit that was there and what was happening.

And Paul wanted to write this letter to them and share with them a message. And that message and that theme is that God is coming soon. Jesus Christ is coming soon, but there are going to be pressures. There's going to be hardships. And indeed, he makes reference in verse six to the fact that they receive this word with much affliction. Nobody wants to be afflicted. And yet that's what they had that we were going through. And I think it's a fitting book to study in the face of so many challenges that we face today in a world that's just just really just being torn apart at the seams.

Right. You know, long standing relations. This week, we had a rift between the prime minister of the UK and the president of the United States. This is one of the greatest alliances of modern times. And when you have leaders of these two countries saying the types of things they're saying, I mean, this is unprecedented in our in our modern post-World War II era.

And we see this going all around. And in this and against this backdrop here in Thessalonika and against today, I think we see from the beginning of Thessalonians here, first Thessalonians, to the end a theme. And that theme is to be thankful because it says right in the beginning, verse two, we give thanks to God always for you, making mention of you in our prayers. And if you go to the end of the book, I just have to turn one page in my Bible, 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 18, we see that Paul ends his book here, his letter to the Thessalonians by saying, In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

In everything give thanks. And as I shared with those in Petaluma last week, the Greek word here for thanks is eucharistio. Eucharistio. E-U-C-H-A-R-I-S-T-E-O. Eucharistio. Now, if you hear that word, there might be something that comes to mind if anybody has a Catholic background, right? And that's the word eucharist. Because this is where the Catholics get the word eucharist. They get it from this word. And this word is a combination of two Greek words. The first being eu, which is the Greek word for good, and karis, which you might recognize as the Greek word for grace.

So it means good grace. Or literally, God's grace works well. It means to give thanks. Being thankful for God's good grace. That God's grace is operating in our lives, and it is good, and it works well in our lives. So that's what being thankful means, and it's all about.

The Catholic Church took this word, and they looked at the Passover service, and they said, well, this actually wasn't a Passover service. This was a giving thanks meal. And so we're going to have this thing called the eucharist, which is a giving thanks meal. And pretty much scholars universally agree that, no, that's not the case at all. That Jesus had a Passover meal with his disciples for that last Passover. And so that's kind of another story.

But when Paul talks about giving thanks, okay, here, he's not talking about basic physical things, right? I mean, we know the joke, right? It's not about saving 15% on our car insurance, okay? This is not what he's giving thanks about, right?

These are deeper, more meaningful spiritual issues that he's talking about giving thanks for here in terms of what the will of God is. And, you know, he says that, you know, God's grace always works. That's what this word eucharistio means. God's grace is good. And if we are fulfilling 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 18, we can't complain about our lives. Because that would say, no, God's grace isn't working good, actually.

God's grace doesn't really understand me, right? God's grace is working. And so that doesn't mean that we're going to blindly accept our tribulation. It doesn't mean we're just going to, you know, roll over, right? It's not what's being described here. We can strive to improve our situations.

We can examine ourselves. We can examine the situation. We can look for avenues for improvement. That's perfectly acceptable. But when difficult time comes, we accept it is what it is right now. God's grace is working, and we're thankful. And we're going to give thanks because this is the will of God. And I think even more so as the time becomes closer and closer and these dangerous times that surround us. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 1, you've probably heard this many times, I won't turn there. It says, follow me as I follow Christ.

And if there was ever an example from the Apostle Paul about something, it was giving thanks. In thanking God for the brethren, for fellow believers, and for whatever challenge might come his way. Not just in Thessalonica, but in Philippi, in Colossae, and indeed just about every letter he wrote to the churches.

And today I want to start out by looking at his words of thanks and examine what we can learn from Paul's example about being thankful. And his exhortation later on to be like-minded and his admonition to rejoice and to pray without ceasing, as it says here in verse 16. Rejoice always and pray without ceasing, 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 and 17. To reground ourselves in the spiritual reality that our eyes often don't see.

A spiritual reality of hope, of truth, and of certainty. These are things, these are commodities which are sorely lacking in our world. And sometimes we can become a bit adrift in this material world, wondering, well, what is certain? And what is truth? And what is hope? So let's start by looking at the words of Paul. You've got this handout here now, so why don't you just take that out? Put it up there. For the folks on the webcast, you'll have to kind of follow along in your Bibles.

What I've listed here are 14 books. There are 13 books in the New Testament which have, specifically at the beginning, Paul named as the author, Romans to Philemon. And there is a 14th book which for about 1500 years was attributed to Paul. It does not say Paul at the beginning. And so there is some discussion about who the actual author was because the author is not named, but I've added it here because traditionally Paul has been considered to be the author of the book of Hebrews.

And so if we look at these 14 books, what I've listed here is the fact that in pretty much all of them, you can count, I think it's nine, nine of these 14 books begin with some sort of comment about being thankful for the brethren. If you look at Romans 1 verse 8, it says, I thank my God for you. I've underlined those in bold in the handout. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 4 says, I thank my God always concerning you.

In the second letter to the Corinthians and in Galatians, there's no reference in the beginning, which actually I think is helpful in the sense that it shows us that Paul was not just by rote just saying this.

It's like, oh yeah, that's the first thing I say to you. I thank God always for you. Did he or did he not? We don't know, but that's just what he always says. And so I think the fact that these two books don't have this, I think reinforces the fact that Paul very genuinely felt this way about the brethren in these different churches around in the region. And he was truly sharing his heart and what really he was doing and what he was feeling.

It goes without saying, the book of Galatians, if you look in Galatians, that is a book where Paul, he's got something to say and he's going to get into it right away. And he's pretty upset about what he's hearing is going on in Galatians, right? If you look at Ephesians 1 verse 15 and 16, it says, therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.

Philippians 1 verse 3, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always and every prayer of mine, making requests for you with all joy. Colossians 1 verse 3, we give thanks to God and Father of Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all the saints. We read for Thessalonians 1 verse 2 already, so you can see that there. But also in 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 3, it says, we are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly and the love of every one of you all abounds towards each other.

1 Timothy does not have a reference to him being thankful for Timothy. He gets right into what he wants to share in 1 Timothy. But in 2 Timothy, Paul does pause before he begins his second letter by saying, I thank God whom I serve with a pure conscience as my forefather did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day. Titus does not have a reference like this in the beginning.

He gets right into the instructions that he's intended for Titus. But in Philemon, in his letter to Philemon regarding the slave Onesimus, he says, I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers. So if there was ever an example to follow in prayer for us as Christians today, this is an example. We see this over and over and over again.

Should we consider perhaps praying for one another in the congregation? Now, this doesn't mean that Paul didn't have difficulties with these congregations. Paul's not whitewashing these congregations saying, I pray for you and you're amazing people. He actually, if you take a look in Corinthians, let's go over to 1 Corinthians 1.

And let's just see an example there. We don't have to have perfect relations to thank God for one another. 1 Corinthians 1, and we see in verse 4, I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Christ Jesus. Paul is thankful for the Corinthian brethren. But if anybody studied the letters to the Corinthians, Paul had a lot of issues that he wanted to go through with them. Look in verse 10, Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

And then he's going to get really more specific. Verse 11, So just because Paul said he was thankful doesn't mean that he was going to just ignore the things that were happening in the congregation. He was going to get into those things. And if you go just turn the page over to 1 Corinthians 3, verse 1, he's going to get pretty specific.

Look what he says here, 1 Corinthians 3, verse 1, And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. Could you imagine if I got up and said, you know, all you people, you're just physical. You're just children in the Lord. I mean, you would be like, throw him out, right? I mean, that's offensive. That's offensive. Paul was very, very concerned about this congregation, and he was going to get right into it and say, You people have got a lot to learn, but you know what? I'm thankful. I'm thankful that God has called you, and I pray for you always.

So it doesn't mean that we're just whitewashing these things. Look over in Ephesians 4. Again, we know he greeted the Ephesians with a similar prayer of thankfulness and thanksgiving. But Ephesians 4, verse 25, he also tells the Ephesians now, again, you could say, well, why did he say this? But it says Ephesians 4, verse 25, Therefore putting away lying, let each one speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

I mean, he's kind of implying that there's a bunch of liars in the congregation. People were lying and not speaking the truth. Now, I could give many other examples in these letters, but I think we get the point. That being thankful doesn't mean we initially all get along. Praying for one another and thanking God for one another does not mean that we necessarily have the strongest or best relationship. And like the first century, I think our world is filled with all sorts of contentions and difficulties, and frankly, a lot of injustice and a lot of ingratitude.

And I think being thankful would be a powerful spiritual medicine for this. San Lefkowitz is quoted as saying, When asked if my cup is half full or half empty, my only response is that I'm thankful to have a cup. That's, I think, where we should start when it comes to gratitude. I want to read you an article from Inc. Magazine, dated January 15, 2016, by Jessica Stillman. It's titled, Gratitude Physically Changes Your Brain. New study says, and this is from Inc.

INC. period magazine, January 15, 2016, it says, mental health is hugely complex, but the research on how to promote basic day-to-day well-being couldn't be clearer. Just cultivate gratitude. Something as simple as writing down three things you're grateful for every day for 21 days in a row significantly increases your level of optimism, and it holds for the next six months.

The research is amazing, Harvard researcher and author Sean Angkor told, Inc. Other studies show gratitude increases willpower, helps keep you calm, and can even boost employee morale. For the study, a team of researchers out of Indiana University, led by Pratik Kinney, recruited 43 subjects suffering from anxiety or depression.

Half of this group were assigned a simple gratitude exercise. That is to say that half didn't, right? So there's a control group, and then there's a group that had this simple gratitude exercise. Writing letters of thanks to people in their lives. And three months later, all 43 underwent brain scans. So basically, they did what Paul did. They wrote a letter to people in their lives of thanks.

Thank you. Thank you for being who you are. Thank you for all the things that you do. Just a letter of thanks. And they did that to people in their lives. And then all 43, the group that had written the letters and the group that had not written the letters, underwent brain scans. During these brain scans, the subjects participated in a gratitude task, in which they were told a benefactor had given them a sum of money, and were asked whether they'd like to donate a portion of the funds to charity as an expression of their gratitude. All right? So all 43 people were told, you know, you've received this money, and would you like to donate a portion of the money to charity?

Those who gave away money showed a particular pattern of activity in their brains. So those that said yes, well, they noticed that there was a particular pattern when they decided to give away this money. But that wasn't the most interesting part of the findings. What was? The participants who'd completed the gratitude task months earlier, those that had written letters to people in their lives, thanking them, not only reported feeling more grateful two weeks after the task than members of the control group, but also months later, showed more gratitude-related brain activity in the scanner. The researchers described these profound, quote-unquote, profound and long-lasting neural effects as particularly noteworthy.

Psychology writer Christian Jared explains in the Science of Us blog, the result is interesting for neuroscientists, but it's also potentially useful for the rest of us. It suggests that the more practice you give your brain at feeling and expressing gratitude, the more it adapts to this mindset. You can even think of your brain as having a sort of gratitude muscle that can be exercised and strengthened. The more of an effort you make to feel gratitude, one day the more feeling will come to you spontaneously in the future. In short, practicing gratitude seems to kick off a healthful, self-perpetuating cycle in your brain. Counting your blessings now makes it easier to notice and count them later. And the more good you see in your life, the happier and more successful you're likely to be.

That's from Inc. magazine in January of 2016. Paul said this 2,000 years ago, right?

Be thankful. Eucharistio recognized God's good grace always, and he practiced it nine of these 14 letters we can see. If gratitude is like a muscle, the Apostle Paul must have been very accustomed to using it. And I think that Paul could see beyond the personalities. He could see beyond the communication styles. You know, the early New Testament church was a church that had a great deal of diversity. It had Jews who had grown up in Judaism, and then it had all these non-Jews, what were called Gentiles at the time, who were coming in. And Paul was saying, you don't need to be circumcised, and you don't have to go through all the rituals that the Jews go through, because we have the Son of Promise, as we understand from Galatians. He was writing these things, and the people who grew up in Judaism were like, well, no, you've got to be a Jew. And the people over here, well, I don't think we do. And so they had all these different things that were going on. And people coming out of these pagan practices, did they always come out of these pagan practices? Well, we know that some people had issues with meat sacrificed to idols. Some people had issues being vegetarians. And there were all these different attitudes and beliefs going on. Yet Paul saw beyond all that, and he said, I'm thankful that you were called. I'm thankful that you're my brother in the church. I'm thankful that we can imagine being in the kingdom together. These are the types of things that Paul describes. Go over to Philippians 4, verse 2. We'll see an example where he was urging unity among the brethren. And again, we know that he began the book of Philippians with this prayer of thanks for the Philippian church.

Philippians 4, verse 2, Paul says, I implore you, Odea, and I implore Cintish to be of the same mind in the Lord. Here these were two people, likely Deaconesses, who were having difficulty getting along. And he says in verse 3, and I urge you also true companion.

Now, we don't quite know who this true companion is in my inspired margin. Okay, I'm an ambassador of college. I wrote Luke. It could be Luke. It could be someone else. But there's somebody who he calls this true companion. Help these women who labored with me in the Gospel with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers and whose names are in the book of life.

These people's names are in the book of life, and yet they couldn't quite get along. They weren't quite of the same mind. And he implores his companion, please help them, encourage them. And he's imploring them to be of the same mind. Paul had said the same thing earlier in Philippians 2, verse 2, if you just turn back one page. Philippians 2, verse 2, he says, fulfill my joy by being like minded, having the same love. What is that love? That's the love for Jesus Christ. That's the love of the truth. That's that love that comes from God. Being of one of cord and of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others and let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. This is how Christ thinks and we're all striving to grow into the image of Jesus Christ. So have love one for another and recognize that you have the same goal. You're on the same team. You're part of the same family. You're friends and be of one mind.

What happens sometimes in God's church is that we have issues. We have hurt feelings.

Somebody says something and we feel offended or we feel hurt. We don't necessarily go to that person.

Or maybe we kind of brush it off and say, don't worry about it, but it affects how we treat that person. Even though we're like, oh yeah, it's no big deal. It kind of affects how we behave around that person. Sometimes those hurt feelings and those misunderstandings and disagreements, they can cause some of that tension. I think Paul was saying consistently, pray for one another and thank God for that other person. I think that's a good place to start if we have that, whether it's somebody here in this congregation or whether it's somebody in another congregation. Paul was able to rise above these disagreements in the church and he was able to just put it out there and say what needed to be said. I learned an acronym a couple weeks ago that I wanted to share with you. I thought it was a pretty interesting acronym. I looked up, I tried to find who came up with this. I could not find it, so I'm trying to make sure I give proper attribution. It's the acronym called WAIT. It stands for Why Am I Talking? Sometimes when we're having dialogue and conversation one to another, we should ask ourselves that question. I've been asking myself that question. Why am I talking? I have to ask myself that all the time when I come up to give a sermon. I ask God that it would be his words, not mine, because why would I be talking?

You don't need to hear from me. You want to see what is God's word. What does God want you to hear?

And so we should ask ourselves, why am I talking? Because when we're talking, then we're not praying. We're not listening. We're talking. Stephen Covey once said that most people do not listen with the intent to understand. They listen with the intent to reply.

And I think I fall right in that category. I'm listening. Yep. Okay. What am I going to say? I'm going to say something back. No. I need to listen to understand what the person is saying. What are they trying to tell me? And sometimes we have to listen with our eyes, too, right? The body language, the words, the tone. I think we need to pray more, talk less, and listen.

And I think if we would follow just some of those basic things, we might be of the same mind.

We might be willing to make progress on certain things. And I think we're all making progress at different speeds. Some people are going a little bit faster, some a little slower, some a little deeper in some areas. Right? And so we can appreciate one to another where that other person is making progress vis-a-vis where we're making progress. And we can learn. Like, oh, that person is really exploring that in a little more depth, and I can learn from that if I would just listen or I would be aware. Let's look over at Matthew 26 verse 26 to understand better the mind of Christ. Because, again, Paul says, let this mind be in you. That was in Christ Jesus. And he's talking about imploring these two deaconesses, these two women, to be of the same mind. And so let's just examine it a little bit, an example of the mind of Christ when it comes to being thankful.

Matthew 26 verse 26. We read this every Passover. You know this verse very well, but let's look at it in this context. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to his disciples and said, Take, eat. This is my body. And when we read that for the Passover, we focus on the body, don't we? We focus on the bread. The bread is there before us. We're about to take the bread. And that's appropriate. That's right. But we gloss over something in the beginning of that verse. He says, as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it. He blessed it. Now, in my margin, the word blessed has a little numeral one there. And in the margin, it says that he gave thanks. He gave thanks for that bread. Now, consider that for a moment. He gave thanks for that bread, knowing that within 24 hours, he would be dead. He knew he was going to die within the next 24 hours. And he gave thanks. He gave thanks for that bread, knowing that within a matter of hours, he would be arrested and beaten. He gave thanks for that bread, knowing that after he would be brought before the authorities, that he would be falsely accused, he would be mocked, and he would be tortured. Look at verse 27.

Then he took the cup and gave thanks. He gave thanks.

I mean, could we do that? That's the mind that is in Christ Jesus. He was going to be betrayed by somebody who had been close to him for three and a half years, and he gave thanks.

He was going to have a crown of thorns placed on his head, and he gave thanks.

He was going to suffer the worst type of execution that the Romans could create, and he gave thanks. What did he give thanks for? Verse 27, he took the cup and he gave thanks, and he gave it to them, saying, drink from it all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for the many, for the remission of sins.

But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it, new with you in my Father's kingdom. What did he give thanks for? He gave thanks for God's plan. He gave thanks for God's plan that he was going to take all of our sins on him, and that all of his friends were not going to die, but they were going to live. They were going to have an opportunity for eternal life. He gave thanks for the future time when he would get to take that with them again in his kingdom. He gave thanks because he looked beyond just this next 24 hours, 72 hours. He looked to the kingdom and he was thankful. That's an attitude of thanks.

And just to put a fine point on his thankfulness, in verse 30, it says that he sang a hymn.

What is a hymn? We heard a hymn. It's a song of praise. He praised God with a hymn.

He praised God knowing that he was about to suffer unimaginable pain. He praised God with a hymn knowing that all his friends were going to abandon him. He praised God knowing that he was going to take on the collective sin of each and every one of us, that even God the Father was going to have to look away from him and he was going to be forsaken.

That's the mind of Christ. That's the example of Christ. That's what it means to have the mind of Christ when we give thanks always. What excuse do we have to complain with that kind of example?

What possible offense? What possible difficulty? What possible trial that we could encounter could ever raise to this level? The half-brother of Jesus Christ who came to understand the truth of who he was said in James, we won't turn there, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.

Let's go back to Philippians 4 verse 4.

Philippians 4, we'll just continue the thought because after he talks about being like-minded and he urges them to work through their issues, in verse 4, what does he say? He says, rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. Isn't that interesting? We have to think that's almost out of context. And you know there's an exclamation point on that last rejoice. It's almost out of context and yet it's not. He's talking about working through issues one to another. He's talking about being thankful. He's talking about being of like mind. And that's a joyful thing. That's something to rejoice about. We are to rejoice that we are brothers and sisters in Christ working towards the same goal to be with God in His kingdom. Verse 5, let your gentleness, let your gentleness or some translations say graciousness or forbearance. Others translations say fairness. Let your fairness be known to all men. Your graciousness, the Lord is at hand.

Let that be known. Let that be your reputation. Be anxious for nothing, verse 6, but in everything by prayer and supplication with Eucharistio, that's the same word, with thanksgiving, let your request be known to God. Bring it to God.

Bring that request to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Be like-minded. Be thankful. Pray for one another.

This is a powerful spiritual medicine for our time. I pray that we can pray for one another, that we, every Sabbath, every day, we can pray for one another, and that we can come before each other and say, you know, I've been praying for you. I've been praying for this congregation. That would be a beautiful thing. That would be imitating Paul as he imitates Jesus Christ.