1 Thessalonians 5:16- 18 – The Attitude of Gratitude

October, the 10^th month of our year is annually remembered as Thanksgiving month at Eastside. We do this deliberately to keep the culture of thanksgiving alive. The Thanksgiving offering built upon the biblical principle of thanksgiving, supplements the ministry and projects of our church. At this time we would ask you to consider giving generously to your  church,  as our financial resources are being  steadily eroded. We trust that you see the value of this church’s ministry, and your generous giving would very much affirm that.  This morning’s  sermon  is not designed to manipulate you, as many prosperity preachers  would  do in our day, but to help you to continuously live  a life of thanksgiving to God.

Our text from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians reads,   “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”  [vv. 16-18]. The text contains three imperatives:  “rejoice always”, “pray without ceasing” and “give thanks in all circumstances”.   Rejoice always – that is not a suggestion, but a command. Pray without ceasing – not a suggestion, but a command; give thanks in all circumstances – again, not a suggestion, but a command. Paul is speaking about our state of mind, our general attitude in life.  Christians ought to be always  joyful, always prayerful and  always thankful.  God wants us to respond to Him in ways that demonstrate our deep gratitude for what He has done for us and in us.  It arises from the great work of God in our souls. 

• The  Psalmist  in  30:11-12 says: ''You turned for me  my mourning  into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory  may sing  your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.'' The Psalmist was quite overcome by the goodness and mercy of God.  

• In a sermon on Psalm 100 (Make a joyful noise  to the Lord all the earth … enter into his gates with thanksgiving)   Charles  Spurgeon  had this to say:  In all our public service the rendering of thanks must abound; it is like the incense of the temple, which filled the whole house with smoke… [the] sacrifices are ended, but those of gratitude will never be out of date. So long as we are receivers of mercy we must be givers of thanks. …Be thankful unto him. Let the praise be in your heart as well as on your tongue, and let it all be for him to whom it all belongs. And bless his name. He blessed you, bless him in return; bless his name, his character, his person. Whatever he does, be sure that you bless him for it; bless him when he takes away as well as when he gives; bless him as long as you live, under all circumstances…

• In Psalm 103:1-5 David preached to himself: " 1 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, (and he begins to list them)  3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 5 who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. And David's list goes on.

In the context of  Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians  this  joy, this prayerful spirit, this thankful spirit arises out of the fact that  they knew that God had chosen them to be His own  (1:4). The gospel had come to them not only in word, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction (1:5). They had received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit (1:6). They had turned to God from idols to serve the Living God (1:9)

Now as you listen to this you may be tempted to say, “Well, that all sounds all very nice and good, but it sounds somewhat idealistic. This just isn’t a reality for me. Joy regularly escapes me, prayer escapes me and thanksgiving escapes me.”  So, is Paul idealistic or sentimental when he says this? Isn’t this the problem with Christians – they are just a bunch of idealists?   

Well, let’s see. Paul says two  things in this challenging verse

(i)               Give thanks in all circumstances

(ii)             For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus

1.     Give thanks in all circumstances:

This little phrase  requires careful thought. It’s easy to be thankful   when things go well, but when things don’t go well for us, are we still to remain thankful? We need to read this carefully.  Hear then what Paul is not saying. He is not saying “for everything give thanks”. He says, “in everything give thanks”. There are some circumstances for which we cannot give thanks.  I could not say, when my cousin was brutally murdered his home on the 18^th June 2016, "Lord, I thank you for my cousin’s murder”. No one can give thanks for the brutal murder and dismemberment of that little girl, Avihe Cheryl Ujaha, (granddaughter of Pastor Seth Kaimu, an uncle of our Pastor Spencer Tjijenda) in recent months. You may have been at the receiving end of evil in your own life, and for this the LORD God is not asking you to give thanks in itself. That is not what Paul is asking you to do.But Paul is saying that in every circumstance, no matter how catastrophic, you are to acknowledge His presence and sovereignty in and over these things. For His own good reasons, God allows evil things to happen, and we are not always able to see the outcome.  He allowed His Son to be killed on a cross by evil men. We now know and understand the outcome.  It is very important that we maintain an understanding of the sovereignty of God in all things.   This is very important, because we can get so easily lost in our ugly emotions, as we will easily  take ownership of such  a situation and  become bitter, angry and murderous  in our own thoughts. God is perfectly  aware  of everything that happens to us, and He counsels us not to retaliate  (see Romans  12:17-21).

Let me give you an illustration to help us understand. You may have heard this story of Matthew Henry (1662-1714), the famous Puritan commentator  and  preacher  who was once  robbed. In his diary he records the event,

8^th  March 1713. Lord's-day. In the evening I went to London. I preached Mr. [Samuel] Rosewell's evening lecture, Psalm 89:16  -- the joyful sound. As I came home I was robbed. The thieves took from me about ten or eleven shillings. My remarks upon it were, -- 1. What reason have I to be thankful to God, who have travelled so much, and yet was never robbed before 2. What a deal of evil the love of money is the root of, that four men would venture their lives and souls, for about half a crown a piece. 3. See the power of Satan in the children of disobedience. 4. See the vanity of worldly wealth; how soon we may be stripped of it. How loose, therefore, we should sit to it.

Somewhere along the way, his meditations upon the event were reported as a prayer: Lord, I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed.

This is the spirit of our text in 1 Thessalonians 5:18. In these circumstances, though they were awful, Matthew Henry found reasons for thanksgiving.  Matthew Henry certainly knew how to make lemonade out of a lemon. Now that is how God expects us to react in such times, and we need to train ourselves to think like that, so that we are prepared for such events.  For you see, thanklessness toward God is the first step in backsliding from God. We see this in Romans 1:18-21.  Here Paul describes the path people take in departing from God, and at the heart of it is  an attitude of ingratitude. Paul says, “For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or gave thanks to him.” (Rom 1:21). A life of  ingratitude or thanklessness  leads to many bad choices. When we take God’s’ blessings for granted and neglect to give him thanks, we slowly have little time for God, little time for worship, and little time to help others. We become self-centered. Before we know it, we have wandered far away from God, and we wonder what happened to that  relationship we once enjoyed with God. That is why we must worship and give thanks to God. Gratitude toward God leads to peace, joy, and satisfaction.

You may know the remarkable story of Helen Keller (1880 – 1968) who became blind and deaf through a virus when she was only 19 months old.  Despite her immense disability she went on to become an author, political activist and a lecturer. I am not entirely sure of her  spiritual roots, but when she was  young  she was introduced to  Phillips Brooks,an Anglican clergyman  who introduced her to Christianity, Keller famously saying: "I always knew He was there, but I didn't know His name!" She said, “For three things I thank God every day of my life. Thanks that He has vouchsafed me knowledge of His works; deep thanks that He has set in my darkness the light of faith; deepest thanks that I have another life to look forward to—a life joyous with light and flowers and heavenly song. Helen Keller may not have been thankful for the circumstance of being blind and deaf, but she was thankful in that circumstance. And that is precisely what Paul is saying to us. In every circumstance, we are to give thanks.

2. Why we should give thanks

I draw your attention  now to the second part of that statement: “Give thanks in everything, for this is God's will for you.” That means at least two things.

(i)               God wants you to give thanks in everything, and therefore, you ought to do it. It's just like when your mother says,  “Eat your broccoli”, and you say, “why?”, and she says, “Because I am your mother – that’s why!” God wants you to give thanks because He says so!

(ii)             But there is more to it than that. God wants  to teach us to be a thankful, joyful people, whose delight is in Him. He wants a people  who do not get lost in their circumstances, but  who get lost in in Him! This is who  Paul  is in a Philippian prison. And even though  we live in a fallen world in which there are many things  for which we cannot be thankful, we should  not miss  out on seeing the grace of God extended to us in these experiences.

How to give thanks: Here it is  in just three words, "In Christ Jesus." When  my friend Pastor Roland Eskinazi lost his first wife Sharon, in an accident  with  a taxi in Johannesburg, my abiding impression was that of a brother, friend and pastor,  who as he held his dying wife  committed her to the grace of the  Lord Jesus Christ as he was praying the 23^rd Psalm. There is not a trace of bitterness or anger in my friend today. He committed  her with a thankful heart  to the Lord Jesus in whose presence she now dwells. 

If you have  seen the  face of God in Christ, if you have tasted the love of God and the goodness  of God, you  will know that all that is taken from you  ultimately never was yours. They are His.   And therefore you rest in His grace, and you thank him for what you have. And the greatest treasure we have is Jesus! Amen.