Once again, I'm sorry for not leading you to hand motions. When Don's not here, I can't do the... If you feel like he's praying for you, that's the reason why. If you would, turn your Bible to 1 Thessalonians 5. And this morning we'll come away from our Luke sermon series And prepare ourselves to give thanks this week. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 18. Give thanks in all circumstances. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we thank you for your word. It is true food for us and we need it. We need to be as we are physically nourished as we anticipate this week. sitting at table with family and enjoying a rich feast. We need to have a rich feast laid before us as we sit with our family of faith and to take in your word, the nourishment of our souls. We pray that you would help us to grow God, especially this morning in our gratitude to you. We fear that ingratitude is a close cousin of godlessness. And God, we don't want to dishonor you by failing to give thanks to you, as if there were no divine hand God blessing us with all of the good things that we enjoy in our lives. All of the spiritual blessings that we have been given. As if there is no God who's responsible for all of our bounty. God, we want to acknowledge you and in doing so to give you thanks. We pray that you would, God, that you would cultivate within our hearts a habit of thanksgiving. and that you would do it to your own praise and honor and glory. We pray all of this in Christ's name, amen. This week, we Americans will observe a day of Thanksgiving as we do each year in November. From the beginning of our nation, our civic rulers have understood the need to call the people to prayer. This isn't something that, I mean, in many ways, Thanksgiving at least in terms of our national life. There's a Thanksgiving parade, and there's football, and there's certain traditions that we have as people, but the heart of Thanksgiving is, for many people, is probably assumed, and it is sadly neglected. And the reasons why our actual civic rulers and our forefathers, our American fathers, instituted a day of thanks have really been lost to most Americans, I would imagine, at least in some measure. People may be generally or vaguely thankful. just remembering to be positive, to acknowledge that things are not as bad as they might otherwise be. But this isn't gratitude, not in the biblical sense. This isn't thanksgiving in terms of our Christian duty. And it's not really what our American fathers intended. From the beginning, even before the United States was officially formed and instituted into its own nation, and political entity, there were a series of Thanksgiving proclamations going back all the way to the beginning and continuing on through the first 100 years of its existence. I mean there's instance after instance of Congress actually making a proclamation, calling on the American people to devote a day, and there would be a day put on the calendar. It wouldn't always be in November. It might be in February. But they would call. We need to remember to give thanks to God for all of our blessings and all of His favor shown upon us as a people. And so our rulers have understood the need, historically anyhow, to call the people to prayer. and fasting and thanksgiving upon special occasion. And I fear that by making it an annual tradition, our rulers of religion sort of put it on autopilot. And maybe that's for the best, because if they hadn't done that, they probably would not decide to give thanks to God for our civic blessings and the favor that God's shown upon our nation. But again, from the beginning, this has been a pattern in America. One example of this is the first Thanksgiving. proclamation given by a United States president. This is on October the 3rd, 1789. President George Washington wrote, and this is an extended quote, I want to read the full proclamation to you to get a sense for, this is very common, they all sounded very similar to this. So this was sort of indicative or an example of the kind of proclamations that were issued by many of our presidents. There'd be a joint committee of Congress that would would issue a similar proclamation and so forth. Here's President George Washington. He wrote, And whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint committee requested me to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness. Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these United States to the service of that great and glorious being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be, that we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks." Pay attention to how God-centered this is, and this isn't just cultivating a general sense of thankfulness for good things. We're thankful for our family, but we're thankful to whom? And men like George Washington were very careful to acknowledge the Creator, to acknowledge divine providence. So what are we giving thanks for? Humble thanks for his kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation. For the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of his providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war. For the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed. For the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one, now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge, and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us. and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and ruler of nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions. to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations, especially such as have shown kindness unto us, and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord, to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us, and generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best." I think that's very well said. And that's the sentiment of our national leaders as they institute this day of thanksgiving, which in time would would come to be the fourth Thursday in November every year on an annual basis. Our Baptist forefathers recognized the need for Christians to observe these days of Thanksgiving out of a regular obligation to honor and submit to the civil magistrate, which is a Christian duty after all, and also to incorporate such Thanksgiving as part of our Christian worship. So early Baptists, they were very clear on this, that if your government calls you to observe a day of Thanksgiving, you do it, because you're to submit to the government. For the Lord's sake, God has put them in place over you for your good. But also, these days of Thanksgiving can be a part of our Christian worship. In the Old Baptist Confession of Faith, in a section which gives the elements of true worship, they include, as we might expect, prayer, reading the Bible, preaching, hearing the Word of God, the administration of baptism in the Lord's Supper. But they go on to say, moreover, solemn humiliation with fastings and Thanksgiving upon special occasions ought to be used and in holy and religious manners. And they have in reference there to not just the ordinary giving of thanks in a normal Lord's Day worship service, but to special occasions where we're called upon to give thanks. And just compare the language that these Baptist fathers in England used. Solemn humiliation with fastings and thanksgiving. This was roughly a hundred years before our American fathers in the Continental Congress called repeatedly for national days of prayer, humiliation, and thanksgiving. Very, very similar language there. And I say all this to say that it's not only an American duty, but a Baptist and a Christian obligation to, it's a Baptist practice, conviction practice, and a Christian obligation and duty to obey our leaders when they call us to observe a day of thanksgiving this coming Thursday. And this morning, I want to help you to think about how you might better observe thanksgiving this year. And so if you think of that, you know, this is not just a, not going to just take this day for granted. It's not just a mindless tradition that I'll enjoy food and family and football and all of these things, but I want to take this matter very seriously and the spirit in which these proclamations were first issued to give thanks for all of these these incredible blessings and mercies of God that give thanks to Him above all in a special manner. How might we do this this year? Look with me at 1 Thessalonians 5.18 if you would. Let's consider first the command of thanksgiving in this verse. The Apostle Paul says here first in taking the form of an imperative, this is a command, give thanks. Oftentimes we use the word or the language of praise or glorifying God, praising God, glorifying God, and thanksgiving, giving thanks to God. We use these all sort of interchangeably. But there is a difference between praise and thanks and I think it's worth us reflecting on if we're going to properly give thanks to God. We need to know what is thanks? What is giving thanks? And what does thanksgiving require? A praising or glorifying God is something that we do when we are just thinking about God himself and nothing else. It comes from the fact that God is inherently praiseworthy and full of glory. And as we recognize that He is inherently praiseworthy and He's full of glory, then we're just praising Him for who He is. We're giving Him glory. He already has all the glory. We're not actually adding anything to His glory, but we're just acknowledging it. We're ascribing glory to God. And as we come to know God better, it's our duty, but it's also our great delight to ascribe praise and give glory to God on account of His manifold perfections. It's too easy in our private prayers or in our public worship to begin with ourselves. The worst sort of, I think, it's a lack of Christian maturity and it's really sort of, I think, dishonoring to the Lord to refuse to or fail to give thanks to God and to praise God as a matter of priority, the worst that we can do is we can come directly into our private prayers, our public worship, and just lay out our needs before God as if God is just there to fulfill our desires or to meet our needs and to refuse or to fail to acknowledge God for who He is. Because we're naturally very self-centered, I think, and that's why oftentimes we find it easier to address our needs to God or to, even if we are going to, we're going to praise God, but we're praising Him not for who He is in Himself, but we're really giving thanks is what we're doing for what He's done for us. And isn't it easier to sort of be positive about someone, to offer them thanks when they've done something for us? It's a more natural response even for self-centered and sinful human beings to give thanks or show appreciation when someone has done something for us. But that doesn't require us to love that person for who they are. And so it's important for us to separately acknowledge, and this is a matter of first priority, that God is worthy of praise and honor and glory quite apart from us. And He might never have shown us any mercy, but rather have given us what our sins deserve, and yet He would still be infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. And so he's worthy of just praise. Forget what God's done for me for a second. In light of who God is, he is worthy that all my days I would praise him and honor him and glorify him. And so then when you add to this the inexhaustible reasons for giving God praise and the fact that he has been a merciful God, You sort of add on to praise and glory, you add that God has done a great deal of good for us. That he has been a merciful God, that he even provides temporal goods and earthly comforts to the wicked. He causes the rain to fall on the just and on the unjust. So he's really, in one way or another, God is good to all. And then especially for his people, he's blessed his people with innumerable unearned blessings and favors. When we add to our reasons for praise, we have all the things that God has done for us, although we deserve none of it, then Thanksgiving is added to praise. And so Thanksgiving, in terms of what Thanksgiving is, Thanksgiving is and acknowledging of what God has done for us. It takes stock of what God has done for you, and it acknowledges Him for it and gives thanks to Him. And so, thanksgiving really requires us to cultivate the habit of acknowledging God for every good thing in our life. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father, James tells us. And we ought to constantly recognize this. And I think, unfortunately, more supplications are offered to God than our thanksgivings. Why is that the case? Why are our prayers more likely to seek God's favor and to make requests known to God and seek His help and beg for His mercies? then we're more likely to do this than we are to give thanks to God for the things that he has done in our lives. Well, it's because we have failed to heed the words of Psalm 103 to bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Here in 1 Thessalonians 5.18, the scriptural emphasis takes the form of a command, give thanks. And so at the very heart of Thanksgiving, if we're to properly observe a day of Thanksgiving or we're to have lives that are full of Thanksgiving, then we've got to acknowledge where God has done us good. where God has done us, we acknowledge that, and we respond in an appropriate way in light of that acknowledgement. So this is a really, it requires every part of who we are. We have to, in the sense of an intellectual or mental acknowledgement, we have to take stock, actually think about what has God done for me? What does the Bible say about how God has blessed me? And what can I see just in my own experience as I count my blessings? And then taking stock of that mentally and thinking through, which is important for us to do, then we allow our hearts to become warm to this reality and think, to respond naturally, which is, I love God for this. You know, I mean, I loved him for who he was. But now I have a further reason to love him because of all the things that he's done for me and for my salvation. Not just for my salvation, he has made me, he has created me, he has given me life, but he has given me breath, he has sustained my life. Every day, the fact that I have not ceased to exist The reason why I have been enabled to carry on through many years and endure through life with all of its trials and tribulations is thanks to God's carrying me through and preserving me and causing me to persevere through all of this. And so we give thanks for his providence, we give thanks for his redemption, what he's done to save us through his son Jesus Christ. And we take stock, our hearts are warmed, we express our thanksgiving and prayer and praise and obedience to Him, motivated by not a slavish fear of judgment. We're not trying to please God with our obedience, but we're motivated by gratitude. And so all of these are proper responses to God as we as we give thanks. So give thanks is a command, the command of Thanksgiving. Secondly, we see here the context of Thanksgiving. Paul says to give thanks in all circumstances. In all circumstances. This is a challenge. This takes us beyond just sort of white bread Thanksgiving, just vanilla. Everybody can give thanks to God whenever it's obvious that some delightful blessing has come into my life. Oh man, I've got a raise at work, or a new child has been born, or some kind of just really, no one's gonna dispute this is an unquestioned blessing in my life. Give thanks. Anybody can do that, but it's a Christian perspective that is able to give thanks in all circumstances, which requires a Christian understanding of God and the doctrine of divine providence. The old English Puritans spoke often of God's providence, which refers to providence as God sustaining and is governing all things. It's what God does after creation. He made all things, but then You know, there are some people who believe that God just sort of left creation to its own ends, and he set in place laws of nature and laws of physical and natural laws that the creation would be governed by this, and God's not personally involved. Contrary to that false understanding, Christians have always understood that after God had created the world and all things, that God is personally active in the world to sustain His creation and to govern it according to His will and for His purposes. That's providence. And because everything in our lives is under God's sovereign power and within His wise plan, all things are providential. And so it's good for us to think not in terms of, well, that's good luck, bad luck, but that this is providence, that the turns that my life takes, these are providences of God. God has brought these to pass. This is a part of God's plan. I don't understand. I don't pretend to understand it or very rarely understand God's plan. I think I do. But this is where we have to realize that sometimes what seems on the surface to be a blessing might not be, and something that might seem to be a curse might in fact turn out to be a blessing. We just don't know. We don't have the mind of God. But we can acknowledge that God is good. He is all-powerful and all-wise and totally and absolutely benevolent. And he's accomplishing his purposes in the world because he is an absolute sovereign power and control over all things. And so I look at everything that takes place as being the outworking of God's providential plan. And this is very heartening, I think, Everything that comes to pass in one way or other is brought to pass by, again, an infinitely wise, benevolent, and powerful providence. And in all things, God provides, sustains, governs, directs, and he brings his purposes and his plans to fruition. This is the picture in the teaching of the Bible. So how can you live in a world, the question that I really wonder, you know, this is kind of the absurdity of secular life. If you don't believe in God and you're trying to maintain a secular form of government, or you're trying to maintain a secular worldview, live according to a secular worldview, how can you live in a world of seeming chaos without this confidence that God is in control and at work, in spite of outward appearances? I don't know how you live in this world without succumbing to a sense of despair. But it's even more crucial to understand providence if we're to properly give thanks. Because the old Puritans not only spoke of providence, in particular they spoke of smiling and frowning providences. So that rather than say that when something good happens in my life, I give thanks to God because God is at work. But when something bad happens, then God is not at work, like maybe the devil's at work. Or this is something that God has passed over me and not blessed me. That's not the understanding of the Bible. The Bible teaches that all things, the good, the bad, the ugly, all of these are in one way or another, and not in some way to implicate God in sin, mind you, but one way or another, God is in control, and so he's bringing his purposes to pass, whether our experience of things is good or bad. And so if they're good, then it's a smiling providence, and we can give thanks naturally. because we, who's not gonna give thanks whenever something good happens to you? But as Christians, we uniquely can give thanks to God for a frowning providence. Well, this didn't turn out the way I'd hoped. My life has taken a downturn, and I'm now, I'm sorrowful, and I've got reasons to be discouraged or disheartened, and yet, although this may seem to me to be a dark cloud, that I know that behind as the hymn, I think it was William Cowper who penned the hymn that goes, behind a frowning providence is hidden God's smiling face, or something like that. Maybe you remember the line of the hymn. I'm fairly, I'm paraphrasing. And so we recognize that yes, it's a frowning providence. It appears to be not a blessing, but a curse. But I know that my God is behind it. And if my God is behind it, then what Paul said in Romans 8.28 is true. There the Apostle Paul writes, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purposes. This is not... The ungodly, those who don't acknowledge Christ, who have not faith in Christ, they can't give thanks to God for a frowning providence because there is no smiling face behind that dark cloud. It may well be just a judgment on them. And there's no happy ending for those who go on in their rebellion against God and they refuse to cry out to Christ for mercy, to put their faith in Christ. And so I'm not trying to suggest here that if you don't have faith in Christ, I'm not trying to suggest that everything will be okay, that even when things appear bad, that somehow it'll all turn out for good. If things appear bad and you're outside of Christ, just see that as a forewarning of far worse things to come. Things will only go from bad to worse for you if you're outside of Christ. There is no silver lining to that dark cloud. There's no smiling face behind it. It's just indicative of God's displeasure with you as a sinner. And yet, he has been merciful to you. We'll come to that here in a moment. But I just want to emphasize here that if you are in Christ, then the context of thanksgiving is all circumstances, in everything, we can give thanks. Do you give thanks in all circumstances, I wonder, if you're honest with yourself? Probably there are times when in the best of circumstances we fail to give thanks. To offer that thanksgiving that corresponds to the supplication that we've prayed in days gone by, when God has answered our prayer, we fail to give thanks whenever God has done something that is To us, it seems manifestly good, favorable. There are times that even at best we fail to give thanks as we should, but have you given thanks to God for everything? Because God is working all things together for your good if you're in Christ. And when you think, you know what, I'm not happy with the way my life has turned out, and this is hurtful and it's painful and it's discouraging, But to know that God is in this sovereign control, that he is providentially at work in all things, is to acknowledge that the one who loves me for Christ's sake, with a perfect love, he is ordering it all for my everlasting good. And even if that means that I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death, even if I'm going through trials, those trials are meant, they're ordered by God. for my eternal good. Jesus doeth all things well, as we sang this morning, and that includes His providential work in our lives. So there's the command, give thanks. There's the context. In all circumstances, whether that providence of God is a smiling or a frowning providence, we can give thanks to God. God is ordering it all for our good if we're in Christ. But then finally, there's the Christ of Thanksgiving because, as I've suggested, ultimately you can't give thanks to God apart from Christ, not in the deepest sense. Giving thanks, and especially for those frowning providences, is only possible in union with Christ. We see this here in 1 Thessalonians 5 18. Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. And I take this to mean that apart from Christ Jesus, you may be able to give some superficial thanks, this generic thanksgiving this Thursday, to have just a general and vague feeling of gratitude. Maybe you're even able to thank some higher power, even God Almighty for the good things, but to be able to give thanks in all circumstances, this is something that's made possible by being in Christ. And what does it mean to be in Christ? It means that you are united to Him by faith. that by trusting in Christ, that what's Christ is yours, that you're able to draw from these storehouses of grace and to know truly that your Father only means to bless you and never to curse you. If you're in Christ, you know, I hear people say this, well, obviously God is displeased with me. This bad turn of events, this misfortune in my life is God's punishing me. But believer, you need to understand God is never punishing you for your sin. All your sin was laid on Christ. There is no more sin to punish. And so if there's some misfortune, you have to assume that he's actually doing it, not contrary to maybe your assumption, he's doing it not to punish you, but he's doing it to bless you. But only if you're in Christ. This flows from the wellspring of goodness that is ours in Christ. It's like by faith in Christ we unlock just what Paul says it best I think in Ephesians 1 through 3 that in every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places is ours in Christ. And by faith in Christ you unlock that treasure of grace so that every spiritual blessing is yours. and that God delivers blessing, grace upon grace, even when things seem unfortunate, when they seem to be a curse rather than a blessing, and yet we look to God in faith, we trust his providential hand at work, even in a frowning providence. We trust that it's for our good, and we give thanks to God as we pray together. Father God, we thank you that you are at work in our lives, that you care to be personally involved, God, and to give us far beyond what we deserve, which is only wrath and punishment. God, to know no blessings at all, not even earthly and temporal, temporary blessings that are related to here and now, we deserve none of it, and yet you fill our lives with goodness, with beauty, with truth, with blessing. God, and especially the blessings that we have in Christ are, they are inexpressible, almost unbelievable. We have this, this treasure that's being kept in heaven for us, who are being kept by your power for that day, and we will fully inherit all of these good things. Now, God, we pray that you would give us the faith to see your hand at work when we might not otherwise see it, when we might be tempted to despair. and pray ourselves out of a situation that you've got us in intentionally, that help us to be concerned that you would give us the grace to endure the difficulties in life rather than to be simply removed from them, that we would endure them with grace, that we would grow because of them, that we would grow in our knowledge and our love for Christ, that you would draw us ever nearer into closer and more intimate communion with you through Christ, so that we might give you thanks all the more. We pray that you would make us into a very thankful people and that we would set an example of thanksgiving this week. And we pray all of this in Christ's name, amen. If you would stand and turn with me.