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!