Thanksgiving for Thanksgiving sermon

Dave was asked to give the thanksgiving sermonette (approx 15 min) in our church service on Wednesday night. God was again faithful! He gave Dave the grace he needed to speak His truth faithfully. I am blessed to be married to a man who has such a high view of God's Word!

I was thinking to share a summary for people who weren't there..

The main verse he used was 1Thess 5:18: "Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.". He explained that giving thanks means to express gratitude for and acknowledge what God has done. He went on to say that the bar is set really high: "give thanks in all circumstances". All that followed was explaining how that's possible. We know this is God's Word and that God means what He says.

Some things are easy to be thankful for, but what about when circumstances are hard, when there is discomfort, pain and conflict? Dave said that people who believe what the apostle Paul believes are able to give thanks always. He encouraged and helped us to look at Paul's theology on suffering and looked at 4 main things:

1. Paul's circumstances

Here, he read 2Cor 11:23-28 : "Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches."


The circumstances that most of us face are probably far easier to deal with than Paul's.

2. Paul's Hope

He must have had a serious hope to be thankful in those circumstances. This hope is a sure hope.

Rom 8:28,29: "And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purposes. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son so that he might be the first born among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified and those whom he justified he also glorified."


This hope is the sure hope that God works all things for the good of believers. We must be careful that we come up with our own definition of "good", but that we understand God's definition. We find it in verse 29 : "to be conformed to the image of His Son", who is holy. And having been conformed to Christ and given "the holiness without which no one will see God" (Heb 12:14), we will spend eternity in glory with Him.

3. Paul's Perspective

Paul's perspective is not surprising given his hope. We find that perspective a few verses earlier, in Rom 8:18: "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."


2Cor 4:17,18: "For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."

Jonathan Edwards summarizes this perspective well. It is the perspective of someone who sees "the shortness of life, the certainty of death and the length of eternity"

4. The Purpose Paul sees in his sufferings: God's Glory!

2Cor 4:15: "For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.". "It" refers to the suffering Paul experiences in spreading the Gospel. "Grace" refers to the grace of the gospel. Which brings us back to thanksgiving:

1Thess 5:18: "give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you"

It is God's will because it brings glory to God.

Ps 50:23a: "The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me"

Ps 69:30: "I will praise the name of God with a song;
I will magnify him with thanksgiving."


Amen!

City on a Hill

The "City on a Hill" Conference was a very refreshing and edifying time. I think it's really amazing how God can refresh you through His Word being faithfully preached. It reminds me of what J.I. Paker said in "Knowing God" that those who know God have great energy for God and a great commitment to God. It's really encouraging to see that fruit being created in your heart by good preaching.

Anyway, I don't have time to share too much about it, hopefully the sermons will be online soon.. I just wanted to share two funny moments in the conference.

The first one was when Philip Ryken opened his sermon during the last session on Saturday afternoon and shared parts of the conversations he'd had with people over the lunch break. So he was telling somebody that we, as Calvinists, believe in the doctrine of total depravity. And not only do we believe in it, we also practice it. So true!

The second moment was after Steve Lawson finished his excellent seminar on Jonathan Edwards. He was taking questions from different people. One person raised their hand and asked "How come you're not a Presbyterian?". Dr Lawson didn't really have the time to answer that question but made the comment that usually it's Presbyterians who invite him to preach..

I just want to express my gratitude to God for providing the church with these wonderful men of God, that He gave them such a passion for Him and His Word, that He gave them the understanding and grace to do their ministry so faithfully! We have a great, good, perfectly holy God! Praise to the LORD, the Almighty, the King of creation!

Jesus, Our Treasure

Lately I've been reading Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening Daily Meditations. It's been really good to get encouraged and edified by the "Prince of Preachers". I think it is also amazing how somebody who loved God so much and had such a great desire to benefit God's people can have such an impact on the church today. I find that to be a great encouragement to the people of God to do "the good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them".

I'm really thankful that God created us with the strongest need for Him, that He helps us realize that need and then He also meets it. I'm thankful that He teaches us that reality about ourselves, through trial and error, through our best moments in His presence where there is fullness of joy, and our worst moments of rebellion and turning our backs on Him. The other day, Spurgeon was meditating on Col 2:6a "So, as you have received Christ". Here is part of what he says :

"While we are without faith, Jesus is a mere name to us—a person who lived a long while ago, so long ago that his life is only a history to us now! By an act of faith Jesus becomes a real person in the consciousness of our heart. But receiving also means grasping or getting possession of. The thing which I receive becomes my own: I appropriate to myself that which is given. When I receive Jesus, he becomes my Saviour, so mine that neither life nor death shall be able to rob me of him. All this is to receive Christ—to take him as God’s free gift; to realize him in my heart, and to appropriate him as mine.

Salvation may be described as the blind receiving sight, the deaf receiving hearing, the dead receiving life; but we have not only received these blessings, we have received Christ Jesus himself. It is true that he gave us life from the dead. He gave us pardon of sin; he gave us imputed righteousness. These are all precious things, but we are not content with them; we have received Christ himself. The Son of God has been poured into us, and we have received him, and appropriated him. What a heartful Jesus must be, for heaven itself cannot contain him!"

That's pretty crazy. To know that at any(and every!) point during my day or night, I have Christ, He is there with me, always, a friend, a treasure, a high priest who can sympathize with anything I'm going through! A refuge, the perfectly patient, kind, loving friend who sacrificed his life for me. The perfect Lamb who was slain so that He might receive glory, honor and praise from His church, perfected and glorified, forever! The perfectly pure, perfectly holy, Almighty King of the Universe is mine, He is the water that my soul thirsts for, His Word is the only light that can guide my steps. How would I ever need anything else? How would I ever desire something that grieves His heart? How would I ever choose to drink stinky and polluted water after tasting the purest, most fresh and satisfying water that He offers? How would I get angry at people when He will make perfect justice? How would I not tell the world about this wonderful counselor, Mighty God, Lord of Lords and King of Kings, who created the universe by His Word? How would I not pray with my whole heart, that He would come back again, to destroy anything that doesn't give Him the glory He is worthy of?

I think it is because I don't keep my eyes fixed on Him. I don't think about the fact that He is mine. I don't trust Him to be true (which is crazy! "Every word of God proves true; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him" !).. So I'm thankful that my Heavenly Father knows that I am but dust. And that He graciously gives me His Word everyday and He continues to feed me and grow me and help me. I am thankful that He exulted His Name and His Word above all things.

Here are some verses that God used today to confront me and help me see how He sees my sin

Prov 11:6: The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their lusts.

v9: With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered

v12: Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent

v19: Whoever is steadfast in righteousness will live, but he who pursues evil will die. (this made me think about Rom 8:13 and Rom 1:17, I love this version: "The one who by faith is righteous shall live")