In All Things Be Thankful
Dr. Larry Thorson
“Five steps to
happiness.” Sounds like the title of a
cheesy late night infomercial. But five
steps to happiness is what Paul actually gives us in six little verses in
Ephesians 5. Let’s read them in Ephesians 5:15-20
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16
making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore
do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. 18 Do not get drunk
on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19
speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit. Sing and
make music from your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the
Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Today’s New International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
Let me summarize what Paul was saying…
1. Make the most of every opportunity. In other words don’t waste time because wasting
time is where you open yourself up to evil monkey business that will ultimately
steal your happiness.
2. Understand the Lord’s will. You can best learn the Lord’s will from
reading God’s Word daily. For starters
God’s will never involves lying, stealing, cheating or coveting.
3. Be filled with the Holy Spirit as opposed to
alcoholic spirits. What alcohol does is
take over our thoughts and makes us do things that will make us unhappy later
on. In contrast the Holy Spirit also takes
over our thoughts but makes us do things we’ll be proud of later on.
4. Sing and make music from your heart to the
Lord. Instead of using foul language and
negative criticisms try singing to the Lord.
5. The fifth and final step to happiness on this
Thanksgiving week is to always, always and did I say always give thanks to God
for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything includes giving thanks for things
that seem to go wrong for you not just for what we perceive as good. These are Paul’s five steps to happiness and
today I want to focus on the fifth step, in all things be thankful.
Speaking of being
grateful even when things weren’t going right, things were about as bad as they
could get one November. The stock market had plummeted, banks were folding,
entire fortunes were wiped out and the term the Great Depression seemed to be
the best way to describe the mood of the country that November in 1929.
A group of pastors
gathered to discuss how they should conduct their Thanksgiving Sunday services.
Some thought they should only lightly touch upon the subject of thanksgiving because
people had so little to be thankful for. How could they be thankful for their fortunes
lost? Their dreams crushed? Their hopes
deferred? But present that day was a Dr. William L. Stiger, pastor of a large
congregation in the city who boldly said this was not the time to give mere
passing mention to Thanksgiving, just the opposite. This was the time for the
nation to get matters in perspective and thank God for blessings always
present, but perhaps suppressed due to intense hardship.
The most intense
moments of thankfulness are not found in times of plenty, but when difficulties
abound. Think of the Pilgrims on their first Thanksgiving in
But those Pilgrims in
It was that same sense
of gratitude that lead Abraham Lincoln to formally establish the first official
Thanksgiving Day in the midst of national civil war, when the butcher's list of
casualties seemed to have no end and the very nation struggled for survival.
Perhaps in your own
life, right now, you’ve got hardship robbing your joy and you’re experiencing
your own personal Great Depression. It’s time to claim back that joy by finding
something in which to give thanks.
Dr. Jim Moore, a
Christian author and former pastor of the 12,000 member St. Luke's
Ralph Sockman, a
renowned minister of a generation ago used to express it this way. He said,
"A grief is a sorrow we carry in our heart. A grievance is a chip we carry
on our shoulder." There’s a rule in life related to the fall in the Garden
of Eden and that is that all of us must face trouble. None are immune. I stand before you this morning as one whose
clerical robe provides no shelter from misfortune. At one time or another
trouble comes up to all of us and places its hand on our shoulder, speaking our
name, and says to us: "Come and walk with me a while."
In Luke 17:11-19 Jesus
told a story about ten lepers who were healed of their leprosy but only one
came back to say thanks. He asked the
one who returned why it was that nine of the ten lepers never returned to give
thanks to him? We are not told. Perhaps they had become so embittered that they
had all of the thankfulness squeezed out of them.
Don't become
self-absorbed with the issue of "why did this happen to me?" For a little
while it might offer some comfort but in the end it will steal our joy. Besides we never ask that question when joy
comes into our life. We have to learn to become thankful or we’ll become
bitter.
Jesus said, “Let not
your heart be troubled.” At another time
he said, Fear not, for lo, I am with you always. Paul encouraged the Philippians: “Rejoice in
the Lord always.”
As you reflect upon
some of the events of your life this Thanksgiving, I challenge you to ask
yourself this question "if it had not been for God what would I have now?"
That's the question I would like you to focus on for the next four days leading
up to Thanksgiving. Where would you be right now, if it were not for God? Where
would you be? Would you be: Isolated? Mentally broken? Financially ruined?
Physically destroyed? God has not let you down. So, be of good cheer!
If you get to sit down
with family look around at them and ask yourself, where would I be without her?
Where would I be without him? And then consider where would I be if it were not
for God who gave them to me?
If you must sit down
alone for Thanksgiving, look around you and remember the blessings you have had
in your past and know that is only a forerunner for what is ahead for you. If you have opened your heart to Jesus Christ
and accepted him as your Savior then the pain of your present will one day be
replaced by the joy of your future.
May our prayer in times
of trial be "O God, who has given me so much, I pray that you grant me one
thing more, a grateful heart." By being filled with God’s Spirit we can learn
to become thankful and thus overcome discouragement.
When we give thanks
whether we feel like it or not, we reach beyond ourselves. In the Jimmy Stewart
movie "Shenandoah." Stewart plays the father of a very large family
during the Civil War. Each meal time they gather around the table and he gives
the exact same blessing: "O Lord, we planted the seed, then harvested the
crop. If we had not put the food on the table it wouldn't be sitting there. But
Lord, we give you thanks anyway." This is the problem with the thankless
heart. We end up giving credit where credit is not due.
When we give ourselves
to self-congratulation, then we also inevitably set ourselves up for disaster,
forgetting the law of nature that says what goes up can also go down. How
quickly trouble can come. A telephone call and our life is turned upside down.
A national crisis and the Dow takes a dive, retirements are gone, and jobs are
lost. How quickly our lives can change.
Martin Rinkert was a
minister in the little town of
In all, over 8,000
people died, including Martin's own wife. His labors finally came to an end
about 11 years later, just one year after the conclusion of the war. His
ministry spanned 32 years, all but the first and the last overwhelmed by the
great conflict that engulfed his town, tough circumstances in which to be
thankful. But he managed. And he wrote these words to the great hymn:
Now thank we all our
God
With heart and hands and voices;
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom his world rejoices.
It takes a magnificent
spirit to come through such hardship and express gratitude. Here is a great
lesson. Surrounded by tremendous adversity, thanksgiving will deliver
you...with heart and hand and voices.
Jesus died for our sins
so that our biggest problem, our sins would be taken away. Don’t let anyone steal your joy away. Pray to receive Jesus Christ if you haven’t
already done so. Then commit to praying
one prayer of gratefulness every hour during this season. Regardless of your circumstances you’ll
always have the forgiveness of your sins to be grateful for. Amen
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Sermons, Brett Blair and Staff, ChristianGlobe Network, 2002, 0-0000-0000-01