Our Christian Responsibility of Being Thankful

Well, as we've already had mentioned, we are in a time here in this country where we're celebrating a Thanksgiving Day holiday this coming week. And I'm not intending to try to go through a discussion about Thanksgiving Day or, as we have up here, the pilgrims on the left side of the podium here. I'm not planning to go through that and go through a history lesson, but I do want to talk about Thanksgiving. Not Thanksgiving Day, per se, which is coming up next week on Thursday, but I want to talk about the type of Christian responsibility that we all have. The type of Christian responsibility that we have regarding thankfulness. So it's not so much Thanksgiving Day, because, as you know, if you're together with family or others on Thanksgiving Day, whether that's a day where people are really focused on thanking God, or whether it's a day where they're more or less focused on eating and on football and on shopping and something else, which may be the case. Now, I'm not really wanting to discuss that. I do want to talk about how, as Christians, we have an essential element to our Christianity that involves being thankful, being an individual who thoroughly understands and who actually lives a way of life that is a way that expresses thankfulness. And I hope to point out to you how important that is. It's really very important because not just that it enables us to have a close relationship with God, because we ultimately owe everything to Him. We owe everything as far as our life and everything regarding even our future as far as eternal life. We owe that to God. But I'd like to point out that it is a safeguard. Being thankful is a safeguard against having a hardened heart.

So that's too easy to fall into a category of having a heart that is insensitive, a heart that you could describe as a hardened heart, or even as the Bible describes it, a heart of stone. You know, that's what we're to be coming out of and away from. We want a much different heart, a much more sensitive heart, and yet the whole concept of being thankful, the concept of giving thanks, of being appreciative, of expressing appreciation, of expressing thanks, actually safeguards us against having a hardened heart and actually against a bitterness that people can allow to grow in their heart. And that allows them to not be able to relate to one another well, not relate to God well, not relate to one another as brethren, as family, as husband and wife, as children and parents. Now, there are every reason to think that we should embrace the Christian responsibility to be full, full of thanks. And I want to do this. Most of you are well familiar with the Apostle Paul. He is an author of many of the books in the New Testament. If he wrote Hebrews, which I'm not sure exactly whether that's correct or not, but it seems like he could have.

But he wrote 14 books in the New Testament. He wrote a whole lot of books. He wrote a couple to Timothy and one to Titus and by Lehman. So he wrote some more or less personal direction to certain people. But most of the books of the Apostle Paul are written to whom?

They're written to churches, church members, and the congregations in Rome or in Corinth or in Ephesus or Colossae or Philippi or Thessalonica. Those are all cities in Turkey or the Grecian area close to Turkey or over even into Italy with the case of Rome. He was writing of congregations that in many ways he had been involved in raising up. He was instrumental in God bringing him there, preaching Jesus Christ in the kingdom of God, and then God bringing people to him, bringing people to where they began a church. And of course, he was familiar with those. He could write to them. He often would come and visit with them. And what you find him telling them. When you read through those books, you find Paul greeting, you find him encouraging, you find him giving warnings, you find him correcting, you find him giving directions.

There's all kinds of things that you see that Paul was giving to these congregations of the church of God, such as us today. Such as those of us who are gathered here in God's name and looking to him for guidance and direction in our lives. Now, this is what he was telling them. And I think even though he was used in a remarkable way by God in dealing with those congregations, you almost find it unusual in that Paul describes his life.

He describes what he went through. And I would say this would have to be for about 25 or 30 years. I don't recall exactly when he, I think it was in the mid-60s when he died. So it would be about 30 years after the death of Jesus. And so for 20 or 30 years, he lived an extraordinary life.

And amazingly, when you see how he describes the perils that he lived through, I think it's unusual that we would find that Paul, giving all the directions, all the instruction, all the greeting, all the encouragement, but also the correction and the direction that would need to be given, that you can actually see in all of these books that he could be considered to be an apostle of thanksgiving. Because he tells each one of these congregations over and over again that I want you to be thankful. Let's look at Ephesians chapter 5. This will be the first the first of the verses that I will try to cover here today. Ephesians chapter 5, this is actually it's remarkable to read through the book of Ephesians. There's all kinds of information there. We have reference. Ephesians chapter 6 gives us some instruction about fighting Satan. We also see in chapter 5 instruction regarding husbands and wives.

You see in chapter 4 about unity in the church. There are a lot of major, major topics that Paul covers in regard to this one little book. And of course, I believe, under God's inspiration, that it wasn't just that he was writing this to these Christians in Ephesus, but that he was writing this to all of us. He's writing to all Christians throughout the ages because this was inspirational or inspired by God to be available for us. Let's go in chapter 5 starting in verse 15. He says, be careful how you live. Just not as unwise people, but as wise, making the most of the time because the days are evil. Don't be foolish, but certainly understand what the will of the Lord is. And so he was giving them encouragement. He says, you need to be careful. You need to redeem your time. You need to use your time wisely. And so he says in verse 18, don't get drunk with wine because that's debauchery. But he says different from that. But be filled with the Spirit of God. Be filled with the Spirit as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your heart.

And in verse 20, what I want to get to, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's actually, in many ways, a very remarkable statement that Paul was making. He says this is the way you should live, filled with the Holy Spirit, joylessly singing and enjoying your life and your relationship with God.

But he says giving thanks to God at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And of course you can read that statement, a very simple statement, but I'd like to elaborate on exactly what he was pointing out. I want to examine Paul's... See, this is a statement he was making to the church, but it was a statement that he actually lived. And I want to examine Paul's attitude of gratitude, and then we can see how we should be emulating that in our Christian lives today. If you'll turn back, let's go to another one of his books, writing to the church in 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians. And in chapter 11.

2 Corinthians chapter 11, you see, you know, this is actually a... In many ways, this is a defense. Paul is defending his authority as an apostle of God. He is being accused of a lot of things. He's being said to be a phony. He is being criticized. He is being, you know, trying to be pushed out of the way. Don't pay attention to what Paul says. He's not important. He's not significant. Don't you even know who he was? He used to be killing the Christians! Of course, he had a lot of flack that he had to take because of his past, and yet God had intervened in his life. We read in Acts chapter 9, God had intervened and brought him to his knees, and brought him to a point to where he was going to be a servant of God, instead of just serving his own ideas, his own whims, what he wanted to do, what he thought was right.

And he was doing that even as a part of the Jewish establishment. He was doing that as a part of the Sanhedrin. He was quite noted in the Jewish community, and yet whenever God intervened in his life and converted him to be not a Jew, but to be a Christian. See, that's what God did for Paul. That's what he does for us. That's what he does in our lives, to bring us from wherever we were and from whatever we were involved in to where the main thing, the primary thing in our lives, is to be a Christian, to follow Jesus Christ with our lives. And whenever God did that, you know, he actually must have given Paul a remarkable ability that I think we're going to see as we read through this. As I said here in chapter 11, Paul is he's defending himself against false apostles. He was saying some are trying to tear you apart. Some are trying to tear you away. But if we drop down into about verse, let's see, 21, it says, to my shame I must say we were too weak for that, but whatever anyone dares to boast of, and he says I'm speaking as a fool. So here he's saying, well, others have claimed to have this authority and that authority, and they claim to be much more righteous than I am. And he says I'm talking like a fool. I am talking like a madman, he'll say in a little bit. But he says in verse 21, I'm speaking as a fool. I also dare to boast of that. And so he was going to, in a sense, give a defense. And actually, what Paul's going to say is really remarkable. Because if you, and I know many of you, are very familiar with the pages of the book of Acts, you're very familiar with the description that the Bible gives of the Acts of the apostles, because that's what the book of Acts is. It is the works that the apostles did. Initially, Peter and James and John, a few, and then later Paul and Barnabas and others of the apostles. You see a big part of the book of Acts about the life of Paul. And yet, when you read that, you find that, well, he was let down in a basket one time. You know, I don't think he liked that very well, because that wasn't his MO. He usually confronted whoever it was, whatever it was, but in that case, he was let down in a basket, and he got away so they couldn't catch him.

I think you see another incident where he was stoned. I'm not recalling that exactly. I think that might have been the case. I believe you're going to read, as you read through that book, he talks about being shipwrecked and about, you know, suffering that. Or, being there and having to throw all the stuff over the boat and hoping the storm calmed down to where they could actually get back to shore. You see a few things that Paul went through in reading the book of Acts, but you don't see anything. You don't see anything like he describes in his life. Let's go on here in verse 22. In again defense of those who were criticizing him, he says in verse 22, are they Hebrews? See, that was one of the criticisms of Paul, and this was actually criticism coming from other sectors of the Jewish religion, because they claimed to be pure. They claimed to have the pure language, the Hebrew language, as opposed to other languages or the Greek influence in their life. He says, are they Hebrews? Do they speak Hebrew? Well, he says, so do I. So am I. See, he spoke Hebrew as well as several other languages, and yet he says, well, they're not ahead of me in that. He says, are they Israelites?

Well, of course, he can easily answer, well, so am I. You know, he describes in other places how that he has a lineage that goes back through Benjamin and through the house of Judah, and he was clearly a descendant of a Jewish background, and he goes on, and are they descendants of Abraham? Well, of course, so am I. I'm a descendant of Abraham as well. In verse 23, he says, are they ministers of Jesus Christ? Now, he says, I'm talking like a madman. I'm talking as a fool. He's going to go ahead and say something that he knows is just utterly ridiculous to say because it could appear to be bragging, but he was trying to make the point. He says, are they a minister of Jesus Christ?

He says, I'm a better one. I'm a better one with far greater labor, with far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often very near death. See, Paul makes some real major claims here, because again, he was defending himself, and he was having to point out, well, look, you know, I am an apostle of God. I have been serving the Gentile world that God called me to serve, and he was telling the Corinthians, I'm the one that God used to even bring you to be a part of the Church of God. And yet, he describes himself as having gone through Ben in prison. I don't think that would be too pleasing. I don't think that's pleasing today, although I'm sure the conditions today are much better than they would have been back then. He talks about being in prison, he talks about being flogged or scourged, he talks about being very near to death.

Now, let's go on in verse 25. He says five times, I've received from the Jews 40 lashes minus one.

Now, I didn't read about that in the book of Acts. Now, there may have been one time when the Jews were getting after him and scourging him. And yet, what he says in this particular verse is that for five different times the Jews caught up with me, they were so angry with me, and with what I was doing in teaching the Word of God, that I've been flogged five times. And of course, the striping, described here, it's described as 39 stripes. The provision for that comes out of the book of Leviticus, and it's 40 stripes in the particular scourging. And yet, they would always back off one, be sure they didn't go over. They weren't too excessive. And actually, if they did go over and something happened to the man, then the person who was doing the scourging also was scourged. So, they didn't want to do that. That's why they did the 39 stripes. And of course, we're all familiar with the fact that Jesus went through a scourging and flogging at the end of his life, and right prior to him being put to death. But I don't know that we normally think of Paul having been flogged in a similar way, maybe five different times. But that's what he says. He says, verse 24, five times, I've received from the Jews forty lashes minus one, and three times, in verse 25, he says three times, I was beaten with rods. Now, what's that talking about? Well, it's describing a beating that wasn't really Jewish, but was actually Roman. You know, they didn't scourge with the whip like the Jews did. This was being beat with rods. And that was a Roman punishment that they would put on people that they thought deserved that. And yet he said three different times, I went through that. And of course, Paul shouldn't have gone through that, since he was a Roman citizen, and they shouldn't have been doing that to a Roman citizen. But apparently he wasn't always in the most controlled environment. He was often in the mob where they were out of control. And as it describes here, not only having been flogged by the Jews five times, but three times by the Romans having been beaten with rods. And in verse 25, he says, once I received a stoning. Now, I'm not sure I didn't look back to see, I thought I recalled something about a stoning. Maybe it wasn't directly about Paul in the book of Acts. And yet what's the purpose of stoning? You know, what's supposed to be the outcome if someone's going to be stoned? Are they trying to break your leg? Are they trying to just injure you some so then you get up and walk away? Well, no, the purpose of stoning was to kill. That was, you know, a punishment. That was a judgment that was placed on someone. So he says, I've been lashed by the Jews five times, three times, the Romans have beaten me. Once I was stoned, virtually to death, three times I was shipwrecked.

Now, I know that Paul was in the Mediterranean area. He was in the area around Jerusalem. He was up in what we would know of as Turkey today and up into Greece. He was over into Italy. This is the general area. And yet what he describes here was three times I was shipwrecked.

Now, again, pretty easy to read, but what did that really say? Well, I don't think that Paul was actually getting on, you know, the luxury cruise liners that we have today.

You know, he wasn't. And maybe he was, he got on one around Italy that crashed. I don't know. But nonetheless, you know, that wasn't the type of boat that Paul was generally getting on. He was usually on some type of a commercial transport and they were taking things from merchandise from one place to the next. And sometimes they would take some passengers. I didn't, I don't think they had the type of cabins that normally you would see on a cruise. I haven't been on a cruise myself, but some of you might be very familiar with cruises. And usually it's quite a bit nicer. And usually there's at least a cabin to stay in. And a lot of times, at least from you see on the commercials, you see big buffets and people eating all the time. And swimming pools, you know, Paul didn't have any of that.

And actually, whenever he says three times, I was shipwrecked. You know, he was saying, you know, exactly what the fear was. Actually, when you read a description of what it was to, you know, sail at that time and in Paul's, let me see if I can find some of this description.

It certainly was not pleasant to be sailing at that time. And actually, in writing about this, it says, men regarded a sea voyage as taking one's life into one's hands.

You know, it was a very perilous thing to do. If you were going to go out to sea, you didn't know whether you would end up where you were planning to go. You didn't have the type of a, you know, Dan's got his thing in his hand here. He can tell what the weather's going to be.

You know, that's not what Paul had. He had no idea what the weather was, and actually, they were hoping. And actually, normally, they were only going to travel at certain times of the year because other times were way too dangerous, and they would travel at certain times. But what Paul describes here, and the fact that he had been traveling by boat a number of times, but at least three of those times, you know, he says he was shipwrecked. Three times I was shipwrecked. And he says, for a day and a night, I was adrift at sea. Now, you can see pictures of that type of thing in movies and television. You usually don't think about that being somebody you know, but that's what Paul said. He was out there on a piece of driftwood. He was out there during the nighttime, and then during the day, and again, at that time, I don't believe they were sending out the helicopters. They weren't sending out the rescue, the search and rescue equipment.

It was a matter of, we don't know whether you will survive that type of an episode.

But whenever you see what Paul describes, in many ways, it's almost in understandable. How could he possibly go through this in 20 or 30 years? He was beaten numerous times. He was stoned and left for dead. He was shipwrecked three times. He spent a day and a night in the deep. He goes on in verse 26, I was on frequent journeys. I was in danger from rivers. I was in danger from bandits. And most of us don't walk the streets of New York City, and we don't walk the subways of other places that would be very dangerous. You know, we feel relatively safe here in Kansas or Missouri, although I don't know that we always should. We should realize that trouble may be lurking about. But certainly at that time, Paul had been traveling in areas where robbers were prevalent. And he even says this. He says, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own people, in danger from the Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the wilderness, in danger at sea, in danger from false brethren, in toil and in hardship, and through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, and often without food and cold and naked. And besides this, I have the daily pressure because of the care of all the churches. He was describing the way he had lived his life and what he had endured, and many of the perils that he had lived through as a servant of God. And clearly, the Corinthians had to be impressed with what he did in order to try to serve them.

But I point this out, referring back to what we read earlier, where Paul was telling the Ephesians, you need to be thankful to God. You need to be thankful to God at all times, and to be thankful for everything. This is what he was telling them to do, and so you're going to assume that this is what he also, this is what he lived, this is what he projected. How could he be able to be thankful in all of these situations? It just doesn't seem that that could be. But that's what we find Paul repeating over and over and over again to the congregations. He says, I want you to understand that you've been called to be a thankful people. You've been called to have a wonderful blessing of knowing God. And I think we have to say that thanksgiving, or the giving of thanks for Paul, was really a daily reality. It wasn't something that he just thought of occasionally, and it wasn't something he wrote only periodically here in these letters. It was his way of life. It was what he always referred to. It was a daily reality that changed his life and made him a joyful person in every situation. Now, I'm sure that couldn't have been very easy in many of the descriptions that he gives. That would be very, very hard. But brethren, we don't want to allow a spirit of ingratitude to harden our heart and to chill our relationship with God. And of course, nothing turns us into bitter or dissatisfied people more quickly than having an ungrateful heart. This is an admonition that is wonderful to see because we all have an opportunity and a responsibility to be grateful and thankful to God. I'd like to point out three things here in the remainder of the sermon. Three things that are very obvious about Paul's gratitude and his thankfulness. As I said, his attitude of gratitude. The first thing is, you know, Paul makes mention of counting your blessings. He makes mention of being thankful for the physical things that we have. And clearly, I think some of those were enumerated last week. All of us. All of us can think about and clearly in this country we enjoy a level of abundance that is remarkable. We have available to us just many, many physical blessings. And yet, let's look at Philippians chapter 4, the book of Philippians. Again, one of Paul's writings.

And I'd like for us to focus on just how it is. You know, right now we have brethren and then there are millions of others who are suffering the loss of their homes and loss of many much of their property in the Philippines. And yet we are far removed from that. We can be concerned about them. We can be praying for them. We can contribute to aid to help them if we desire. But let's see what it is that Paul says about being thankful for physical things. Here in Philippians chapter 4, chapter 4, it says in verse 10, I rejoice in the Lord greatly. Actually, he was telling the Philippians, and the Philippians were a very stable, a very strong church. They were able to help others. They were able to give to others and send things to others, which they may need, just physical abundance. He says, I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have received, or excuse me, you have revived your concern for me. And indeed, you were concerned for me, but you had no opportunity to show it. He was telling them that he thanked them for the gifts that they had given him and the help and support that they were providing for him. He says, I know you wanted to do that, but you couldn't physically do it. It wasn't something possible. But he says, not in verse 11 that I'm referring to being in need, for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. See, Paul had a lot of ups and downs in his life. I'm sure at times things were quite abundant, things were quite available. And then certainly at other times, and clearly from his own description, it was not only dismal and poor, it was terrible. And he was in great distress.

But he says in verse 11, not that I'm referring to being in need, but I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have a lot. I know how to abound. I know how to have little, I know how to have plenty, but in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret. I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. He says there's a secret to recognizing, looking at physical things. He says you need to simply be thankful and look to, as he goes ahead to say in verse 13, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. See, he was looking to Jesus Christ. He wasn't looking to those physical things. He wasn't focused on the physical things. He was simply thankful for whatever God provided, whatever God provided, either through support from the churches or if it was a good time or if it was a bad time.

And so you find Paul, he says in verse 14, in any case it was kind of you to share my distress. He says I'm thankful that you were concerned about me. But he says I've learned regarding physical abundance that there are times when it will be good and times when it will be bad. And I think all of us perhaps can think through our lives and in many ways we'd like to see things steadily increase and improve. And for the most part that may be what we enjoy. But that isn't always what we enjoy. We can go up, we can go down, and exactly like Paul did, you know, we can have, you know, if we're constantly preoccupied with what we do not have, then we're going to be frustrated. We're going to be distressed. So I think we could ask ourselves, are we constantly preoccupied with what we do not have? Or have we learned to thank God for what we do have?

See, that's again what Paul was saying. He was preaching and teaching that. And actually, if you back up to verse 4 here in this same chapter, he says, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone.

The Lord is near. Don't worry about anything. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ. See, he was actually pointing out, you know, the first thing he can mention is that, well, physical abundance is great, but you need to realize that, well, that's going to go up and down, and you want to be thankful for whatever God has provided at the time.

And here, in chapter 4, he mentions being thankful, or up in verse 4 and 5 and 6, he says, The peace of God can come to you if you are thankful for the physical abundance that God has provided whatever level that might be. The second thing he mentions, and of course he is, in a sense, mentioning this to most of the churches. He's talking to each of the churches about this, is the fact that, you know, we want to be not only thankful for the physical abundance, but for the spiritual abundance that God has made available to us.

I'd like for us to look in Colossians, again, another one of his books. In Colossians chapter 1, he writes to the congregation here, and he tells them this is something to be thankful for. He says in verse 11, May ye be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power. So he's talking about being empowered by God. Colossians chapter 1 verse 11, May ye be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power.

And may ye be prepared to endure everything with patience while joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. To hear he was telling them, you know, you need to be abundantly thankful. You need to be joyously thankful that God has caused you, and I don't know that we think of ourselves as saints.

You know, maybe we do, but normally I don't think of myself as a saint. I, you know, just don't think of it that way, but that's the way God describes those that he had drawn into the church. And so he said, giving thanks to the Father, joyfully doing that, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.

And he has rescued us, he has salvaged us from the power of darkness, and he's transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. To hear he was talking about, well, you need to be thankful to the Father for the spiritual abundance that you've been provided. Having been drawn by the Father to Jesus Christ, having been forgiven of my sins, having been given the hope of eternal life, setting toward the kingdom that is before us, that's something to be thankful for.

That's not something to take for granted, or to overlook, or to misunderstand. You actually see in chapter 2, he refers to this in several, actually in each of the chapters here in Colossians. But in chapter 2, in verse 6, he says, as you therefore have received Jesus Christ, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding, abounding in thanksgiving.

See, again, he says, I want you to recognize the need to be thankful, thankful for the spiritual abundance, thankful for the riches of God, not the physical things, but the spiritual things that God has made available to us. And I think we could add to this a number of things if we just think about it. And we could add, you know, the people that God has in our life, the people that God has in our congregation.

We come together, you know, I can be thankful and should be thankful for each of you, for each of you and your involvement in the work that God is doing, for your involvement in the congregation and in building up the congregation and to help us all to grow in the love of God.

You know, that's a part of the responsibility that we have. And yet he tells us to be thankful. And I know I was reading, and there was an article in the latest Good News that regarded the example, I believe it's in Luke, of the woman who came in who washed the feet of Jesus.

And of course, she was criticized for that. And he was in the Pharisees house, and they were making a big to-do about it. But Jesus said, no, she's doing the right thing. And actually, she is providing a living sacrifice. She is living her life in service.

Now, did she need to be reclaimed? Yes. He said, I forgive you. Go. Your faith has been accepted. So he was able to provide her the benefits that he had available. But he was telling her that, you know, your example of living a life of serving others, that's something to be thankful for, something to be grateful for. And actually, whenever you see what Paul went through, the fact that he was beaten by the Jews and beaten by the Romans, probably I would say later, because he wouldn't be getting there until later in his life. The fact that he was shipwrecked so many times. Why would he even get on the boat whenever riding a boat, traveling by sea, was taking your life in your own hands? Why would he even do that? Well, because his purpose was to serve the church. His purpose was to go to the congregations and go to the places where God directed that he would go ultimately to Rome. I think it was on his trip to Rome whenever they were having, you know, the problem with the winds and the waves and having to pitch everything over the boat and needing to pray that God would rescue them, which is what they did. But see, Paul had a mission. He was a living servant, and so he was, you know, living his life in service, and of course that's what we're told to do as well. And the final thing, you know, Paul encouraged others to be grateful for the abundance physically that they had. He encouraged the churches to be deeply grateful, joyfully grateful for the spiritual abundance. But then the last thing, I think, ties very directly into what we described about the suffering, the things that he endured, the things that he suffered during his life. He said we need to be thankful, and he was thankful, even in the midst of the trials and the despair and the disappointment and reversals and even distress that we suffer. See, some of us, you know, almost always are sick of one thing or another.

Unfortunately, as we get a little older, we tend to have different things that aile us. Sometimes loneliness is a distressing situation. There are a lot of different factors that could come up, and certainly there can be a lot of disappointment in our lives, and I would think that Paul would have to be very familiar with that. From everything that he endured, we can keep in mind, certainly, that God is fully aware of whatever distresses we go through.

I know Mike and Holly have got to be concerned about their little granddaughter, Quinn. That's a frustrating situation of not knowing exactly how to help or what to do except to look to God. And he actually tells us, well, I want you to learn to be thankful even in a distressing situation. All of us have these distressing situations, and I'd like for us, we can cultivate a spirit of thankfulness even in the midst of trials, even in the midst of heartache, and we certainly don't pray for trials. We don't pray for problems, but there's an amazing verse in James 1 verse 2 that says, "...count it all joy, brethren, when you fall into different temptation or trial." Now, I've studied that, I've read that, I've thought about it, I've read it in other translations.

It seems to be a difficult verse. A difficult verse not to read and understand, but to actually do. Very hard to count it joyful whenever you fall into some disaster. And yet, undoubtedly, that's what Paul had in mind. He had that in mind when he was focused on his life. He could be grateful for the physical things, he could be grateful for the spiritual things, and for the care of the churches and their growth. But he was also even thankful, he said he was, as he endured the trials and the distresses. Let's go to 2 Corinthians, back up a few pages here. 2 Corinthians 4.

2 Corinthians 4. You see Paul in this section of the letter to the Corinthians.

You see him describing his focus on the work that God was doing in his life, and he was extending that in helping others to understand their spiritual development. He says in verse 6, It is God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He says, It was God who has brought us, brought the Corinthians, brought those of us who are Christians today, he has brought us to an enlightened state of mind.

And he says in verse 7, We have this treasure, this treasure of having been drawn to Jesus Christ and having been allowed to have a close relationship with God our Father. We have this in clay jars. You know, we're still physical. We're still in a physical form. So that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and didn't come from us. And so it wasn't because of me that God has allowed me to be a part of the church and work of God today and a part of his family as we go forward. But he says in verse 8, We are afflicted in every way, but we're not crushed. We're perplexed, but we're not driven to despair. We're persecuted, but we're not forsaken. We're struck down, but we're certainly not destroyed. See, he realized, and certainly through many of the trauma that he lived through, he had to be able to say at times, well, Father, I don't know why you're allowing me to go through what I am, but I thank you for letting me be a part of the work that you are doing, and I'm needing your help to be able to get through this. But I want to be thankful even in the midst of these trials. And of course, that's a big part of what I think God wants us to learn, that if we can learn to be thankful in the midst of trial, thankful in the midst of disappointment, then we will find. And I know I certainly have not always done this. I've tried this a few times whenever I feel distressed, and I've tried to be thankful even for the fact that I'm distressed over whatever it is. And what you actually learn in that case is that, well, God is with you even in that distress. We like to be rescued, but we learn that God is with us. Even as you read in Psalm 23, where it says, yea, though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you shall fear no evil. Why? You're going through something very difficult, not always talking about dying, because it talks about walking through. I think it's verse 4 there. Walking through this, he says you're not going to be afraid because of what? Well, because of the fact that I am with you. I'm with you in that despair. I'm with you in that disappointment. I'm with you, and I will help you, and you can certainly benefit from looking to me and being thankful to me in that regard. There are a lot of other verses that we could read, but I'll just go to a couple of others here in Romans 8. In Romans 8, Paul told the Romans, the church there in Rome, he told them, brethren, you want to be able to realize that as you endure affliction, that you can even come to thank God for that affliction. In Romans 8, verse 28, he says, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to His purpose. See, that's what he was teaching the churches, and he was, in a sense, a living example of the type of gratitude and thankfulness that he wanted them to know, that God would work things to their benefit. He would work things to their good, and that may not easily be seen by each of us as physical beings. We might not see that, but see, God sees that, and God is able to work those things out for good.

So, if we think this last verse we can go to in 1 Thessalonians, if we are trying to see the type of gratitude and attitude of gratitude that Paul had, in 1 Thessalonians 5 is where I'm going to ultimately conclude here. We can be thankful for the physical things that God has blessed us with, and we should be thankful for the spiritual abundance that we've been given.

We can even come to be thankful and know that God is with us even in our down times, even in our distresses, even in the difficult things that we endure. And yet, we don't want to allow an attitude of ingratitude to harden our heart. We want to remain softened in that way, and we want to draw close to God. As he says here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, Paul is concluding this book. He's writing this to another one of the churches, the one in Thessalonica. He's giving them a number of appeals here at the very end of the book. He's giving them exhortation.

He says in verse 15, See that none of you repay evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another. He says in verse 16, To rejoice evermore. Verse 17, To pray without ceasing. In verse 18, he says, Give thanks. And this is very similar to what he said in Ephesus, but a little bit Ephesians, a little bit different. He says, Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Jesus Christ for you. He said that the will of God is for you to learn to give thanks, to be, as Paul was, a grateful individual, a thankful individual, to do that in all circumstances and in all ways. And I would hope that this is not directly tied into, say, this coming Thanksgiving Day, which I hope will be a blessed day for you. But see, it's not just talking about a day of the year. It's talking about a Christian responsibility that we should live every day. You know, it's not just a certain time or a certain day that we should be thankful. It should be, as it was with Paul, a daily reality to be thankful for everything that God is doing with us and for us and through us. And whenever we do that, you know, then we can truly, I think, express the type of joy that He wants us to have. So I hope in going over this that this can be helpful for us today. I hope we can enjoy our Thanksgiving meal here this afternoon. I hope we can enjoy that even throughout the coming week, knowing, you know, that God is the one who gives us every reason to give thanks.