The Marks of Christian Gratitude, Part 2 | The Marks of Christian Gratitude

Selected Scriptures

 Throughout all the eras of our country’s growth and development, Revolutionary War and independence from England, during the Exploration period and expansion of our country, during the growth of commerce that allowed, was allowed by the transcontinental railroad, all the way up to the time of the Civil War, throughout all those eras, as men, sinful though they may be, as men in our nation’s history, they all understood the need to give thanks to God for allowing them to live and survive.

Thanksgiving had been celebrated through all those years, all through the founding fathers onward and as you know, it was President Lincoln who finally formally consolidated all those many states who celebrated on different days. And so he consolidated all those different celebrations into one thanksgiving observance in our nation, calling for national unity in giving thanks to God. And it’s fascinating to read his Thanksgiving Proclamation. It’s a very short proclamation. You can look it up online. You should read it. It’s dated October 3, 1863 and when you read it, remember it was a U.S. President who wrote that.

After he acknowledged,quote, “the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies,” after he acknowledged “civil harmony, international peace,” even in the midst of a civil war, all of this he acknowledged was coming under the hand of the watchful providence of Almighty God, President Lincoln then wrote this, quote, “No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people.” End quote.

We’ve come a long way, haven’t we? Long gone is that common, general humility of President Lincoln’s era when men attributed the ability to overcome hardship to the mercy of the Most High God. Our country’s endured a lot of hard times, civil war, two world wars, Great Depression, economic collapses, terrorist attacks, and all the rest. But things like national repentance, national fasting and prayer, that’s all gone. The former humility has been replaced by expressions of pride. Hard times become occasions for bold expressions of national solidarity, vows to fight to overcome, “We’re Americans, we’ll pull ourselves up and do it.”

And then times of prosperity, those aren’t occasions of gratitude to God. Rather, they become occasions for self-indulgence. Americans have abandoned giving thanks to God. Instead, they take credit for themselves for protection and prosperity. And while people still express gratitude, it’s generally of a self-centered kind. It’s only for that which benefits them, for that which, those things that bring them their own personal joy and pleasure and satisfaction. But Christian gratitude, it’s not like that. I mean, it thanks God for all those things, but it expresses appreciation for everything, not just that which brings us pleasure, not just over our successes and triumphs.

In my Bible reading earlier this week, I came across this text, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” So gracious. Does your Bible say that? Mine does. So gracious of James the Apostle after writing that says, “Look, if you need wisdom to understand how trials should be counted as joy in your life, ask of God, who gives generously. He’ll give to you.” I was reminded in reading that of the apostles who in Acts 5:41, they left the presence of the Sanhedrin and that is after they had been arrested, commanded not to preach, and then publicly flogged. That is not small beating, folks. That hurts and it’s public, so it’s meant to shame and humiliate as well. After being arrested, commanded not to preach, publicly flogged, just to help them remember the order, “Don’t preach, get a beating for it.” It says in Acts 5:41, “They left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.”

Can you imagine if that happened today here in America? Personalities on Christian radio would be up in arms expressing outrage. Americans Center for Law and Justice and all those folks would be preparing court cases, demanding an end to the persecution, this violation of free speech in America, the impingement of freedom of religion, how dare they! Really expect ungodly governments, ungodly people to hold up godly standards? Listen, if they constitutionally remove freedom of religion, does that mean I can’t freely worship God? No. I’m going to worship God. I may suffer for it, but I’m going to worship God.

Early apostles knew that. They found a painful beating to be a good reason to praise and thank God. The beating for them was evidence that God had counted them worthy to suffer dishonor for Jesus’ name. This is, do we even think that way? It’s a perspective we lost in this country, even among us evangelicals. But, beloved, we can get it back. We can get it back. No one is finding reasons to thank God for severe trials, for cancer, for the loss of loved ones, for the loss of a job, for family strife, challenges, difficulty. No one’s thanking God for those things. Can we give thanks to God for everything, Ephesians 5:20? Even during bad times? Can we thank God, not just in spite of bad times, but for bad times?

I can think of some pretty bad things that have happened in my time and in my life, whether it’s in my own life or the lives of other people. Natural disasters, human disasters, victimization of the weak, injustices perpetrated on the innocent. How do we give thanks during those occasions, in those circumstances for those kinds of things? How is it possible for us to give thanks always and for all things? The truth is, folks, you know this, it’s not possible on our own, is it? Left to ourselves, any of those trials in our lives, they just cause us to grumble and complain and turn bitter and groan, complain and we’re like temper tantrum children, right? Stamping our feet, throwing ourselves on the ground and flailing. What kind of silliness is that? We serve a sovereign God who orders all things.

This isn’t something that comes natural to us, though, is it? We’re learning a perspective that comes to us, as it says there in context, by the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit, one that grows more mature over time. So we understand when baby Christians still throw tantrums. We understand that. We understand when baby Christians don’t see the sovereignty of God and the blessing of God even in a trial, right? But over time we mature, over time we grow and over time we learn it’s all by his grace.

By God’s grace, he teaches us to look at every circumstance. And everything that happens to us is a reason to give thanks. This is the kind of thanksgiving that is completely foreign to the Facebook world, to the entire unbelieving world because it’s not dependent on circumstances. It transcends that. It transcends the ebbs and flows of life, the temporal successes and failures and sees God’s hand, perfect hand of wisdom, and goodness, and kindness in everything.

As the Holy Spirit renews our minds, filling us with Scripture, he transforms our thinking. He makes us grateful always and for everything and because, that’s because, fourth mark of Christian gratitude, it’s because of the object of Christian gratitude, the object. Paul says we’re to give thanks “always and for everything to God the Father.” To God the Father. Listen, the reason we can give thanks on all occasions and in all circumstances is because God is our God. We belong to the God of the Bible and his Word tells us he has sovereignly ordered all things for our good and his glory. “We know for those who love God all things work together for,” what? “For good,” right? All things. Do you believe that? “For those who are called according to his purpose,” Romans 8:28. It means we have absolutely nothing to fear and even less to complain about. Quite the contrary, we have everything to give thanks for.

Notice in this verse that Paul is emphasizing two relational attributes of the same person when he writes, “To God the Father.” Paul’s actually making a distinction there, and it doesn’t show up as much in the English as it does in the original, but first this is about God as sovereign God. And second, this is about God as our Father, so giving thanks to God as sovereign God and to God as Father. We’re to give thanks, first of all, to God. That calls to mind again, God’s role as sovereign Creator. And as our Creator, we benefit from his common grace, for “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the just, he sends his rain on the righteous and the unrighteous,” Matthew 5:45.

Gratitude to God, that’s what we heard in Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation. And while Lincoln acknowledged God as, quote, our “beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens,” that’s a reference to the general Fatherhood of God as the Creator and Sustainer of mankind. But that is not the kind of Father that Paul means here. The term, father here, reminds us of God’s role as our gracious Redeemer, our Redeemer. God has chosen us to receive an even greater grace than the common grace that he spreads on all of mankind. He’s given us a special, a particular grace of salvation from sin, of rescue from divine judgment.

As Paul said, Colossians 1:12, “We are to give thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” Specifically verse 13, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness,” Amen! “And he’s transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.” Folks, that is redemption. And it’s in connection with God’s role as our Redeemer that we address him as our father. We belong to him. He adopted us into his family, and he has granted us direct access to him through the Spirit, through Jesus Christ in his name. It’s all because of Christ.

This is where our moral duty to give thanks becomes most clear as a duty to render worship to God. Worship. When we express gratitude for what God has done, whether it’s for us or for others, that’s called, thanksgiving. But when we express gratitude to God, just for being God, it’s called, praise. In either case, thanksgiving and praise, it’s the essence of true worship. We thank God for what he’s done, for what he is doing, for what he will yet do. We also praise God just for who he is, just for being God, more specifically, for being our God.

Listen folks, we’ve got to get beyond these simplistic, superficial, Facebook expressions of thanksgiving. We, Christians, know God far more deeply than that. Turn, just quickly, and let me show what I mean by going to the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation in chapter 4. In Revelation 4, there’s this amazing window open into the throne room of heaven and what appears to be a picture of the assembled church represented here by twenty-four elders. Revelation 4:4 pictures the church as twenty-four elders seated on twenty-four thrones, clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads. That’s a picture of the glorified church there.

Look at verse 10, Revelation 4:10. It says, “The twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast those crowns before the throne,” which, by the way, he put on their heads. “They cast those crowns before the throne, saying, ‘Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.’” The church there rejoices to express appreciation for God. Worship and praise just because God is God.

Turn over now to chapter 7, Revelation 7, verse 12. Revelation 7:12 and backing up to verse 11. Again, same picture in the throne room, twenty-four elders. “And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen!’” Again, just rejoicing there in God being God.

Folks, listen, that is our end as Christians. This is where we end up, taking pleasure in the fact that God is God. Is it going to matter to you then what your health was like? Is it going to matter to you then what was going on in your job? Is it going to matter to you then any of the stuff that’s trivial, that’s temporal, that’s physical here on this earth? God is on the throne! That’s good enough for us. And here as we can see in Revelation 4, Revelation 7, in our glorified state, absent from all weakness, absent from all sin, this is what we rejoice in doing. I’d like to experience some of that now, wouldn’t you? We can. We can look at all of our circumstances in light of this text, put all our trials and our challenges in an eternal perspective.

One more passage I want to show you in Revelation because it’s so encouraging. Just turn to Revelation 11 because the church is at it again, expressing thanksgiving and praise to God because he is God, his plan is coming to full fruition. Look there at Revelation 11:15. It says there, “The Seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.’ And the twenty-four elders,” they do what those twenty-four elders do.

The ones who sit on their thrones, they got off their thrones again and “before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, ‘We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged but your wrath has come, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.’” What a perspective. All terrorism, all the rage of violent men, time will come for divine wrath for all to be judged and for God’s servants, summarized by “those who fear God’s name,” all of them to receive their rewards, whether small or great. That is when God will destroy, as it says there, “the destroyers of the earth.” Isis, beware, beware.

Listen, the only way to move from acknowledging God for his role in our lives as our Creator and Sustainer, to then appreciating him for his role as our Redeemer and the object of our eternal worship, the only way is to through salvation in Jesus Christ. If you’re not saved, you don’t understand this. This doesn’t make sense to you. This doesn’t fit with your thinking. I understand. We have to be in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ before we’ll ever have this perspective on life. So freeing, isn’t it?

I’d like to see more Christians abandoning the trivialities and truly thanking and praising God for who he is just for his being God. But we can only do that if we’re in a right relationship with him through the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what comes next. Look at the fifth mark, the final mark of Christian gratitude. Go back to Ephesians 5:20. The practice of Christian gratitude. The practice of Christian gratitude. How do we give thanks always and for everything to God the Father? The secret is in that final phrase, “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It’s Christ-centered, right?

To do something in the name of somebody else means we act on that person’s behalf, as his representative in a way that’s concordant, commensurate with him and his character. We represent the person in a way that’s consistent with who he really is, consistent with his character, with his actions, his words, his behavior, his life, his purpose. So when we thank God in the name of Jesus Christ, we better make sure our hearts, our words, our motivations are lined up with what accurately reflects the thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You say, “Well, how am I going to know how to do that?” Good question. Thanks for asking. It’s easily answered. If you read some of the expressions of thanks from the biblical writers themselves. That’s what they’re there for, to help us understand even how to express our gratitude. Follow their patterns in giving thanks to God and make sure that your heart reflects the reasons for gratitude that you are expressing, that their hearts are expressing. You’ll be giving thanks in a way that’s commensurate with the heart of Jesus Christ himself. Okay?

For example, I’m just going to move through some of these very quickly. You can read them more thoughtfully on your own, but Paul gave thanks to God throughout his Epistles in a way that was consistent with Jesus Christ. He thanks God, 2 Thessalonians 2:13, for choosing believers, for salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief in the truth. He thanked God, 1 Thessalonians 2:13, for the Thessalonians accepting the preaching of the Gospel, not as the word of men, not as though, “That’s just the preacher.” No, but as the Word of God. He thanked God for God’s grace given to Christians in Christ, 1 Thessalonians 1:4 and 5, 2 Corinthians 4:16.

He thanked God, and there are a lot of Scriptures on this, he thanked God for salvation and spiritual growth, faith in the Lord Jesus and love for all the saints. He thanked God for growth in Christian maturity among Christians, the work of faith, labor of love, steadfastness of hope. He thanked God for the abundance of joy that comes from Christians who are standing firm in the faith, 1 Thessalonians 3:9. He thanked God for long-term partnerships in the Gospel. He thanked God for the generosity Christians showed in giving. Why? Because it increased in Gospel ministry fruitfulness. Why? Because it increased in thanksgiving to God. He thanked God for the spread of the Gospel around the entire world, Romans 1:8. That’s just a small sampling, folks

Is all of that, what I just read from Paul, is that in your mind when you give thanks to God? Or are your thoughts dominated by temporal and physical issues? Listen, we decry the prosperity gospel and prosperity gospel preachers and rightly so. The prosperity gospel is not a gospel, but it’s a damning false gospel that leads people to hell. It keeps them ensnared in love for the world. But how often, we have to admit, our prayer life reveals a prosperity theology at a practical level. We thank God for too many temporal, physical things. And we only thank him for that.

Beloved, that’s bondage to this world, not freedom. When we give thanks to God, we just need to apply these marks of Christian gratitude as a pattern and we’ll find freedom and joy in thanksgiving. When you’re giving thanks to God, you cannot be at the same time grumbling, complaining, self-centered, discontented, conflicted and restless. Instead, when you express thanksgiving to God, you’re humble, satisfied in him, contented in him, at peace with him, pleased in him, joyful in him. All that and more is what God wants for us, his redeemed people.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you. We do thank you. It seems like such a small word, so insignificant, and yet, it’s all you require from us. You want thanksgiving, a broken and contrite heart you will not despise, and our thanksgiving you will not turn away. Help us to be sincerely thankful to find good reasons for giving praise and honor and glory to you. Help us to reflect the praise of those multitudes in Revelation who throw themselves before you at your feet, bowing, casting their crowns from their head, taking no credit for anything you’ve done and giving you all honor, praise, glory, honor and might. We love you. We thank you for the opportunity to reflect on this issue of Christian gratitude and we ask that you would make us more consistent with this truth in our lives, in Jesus’ name, amen..