Beloved congregation, today this nation celebrates Thanksgiving Day. When the New England pilgrims in 1621 decided to set aside a day for this purpose, they had but a meager harvest to give thanks for. They had gone through a terrible first year in the new world. And yet being men and women of faith, they knew that whatever they had in the way of food and drink came to them out of the hand of their Heavenly Father. Although they had experienced much hardship and faced also tough times in the future, they looked to God and remembered the words of our text, giving thanks always and for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul writes these words right after he has exhorted the Ephesians not to be drunk with wine wherein is excess, but instead to be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Paul shows us here that thanksgiving is to occupy a major part of our service to God. It is not just one small detail, part of worship. No, it is to be a very important and crucial element in worship. to render gratitude to God, congregation, for all the blessings that we have received day after day. That means that we are to acknowledge God for these things. In other words, congregation, thanksgiving is our duty. In many scripture passages, the Lord exhorts us to give thanks to Him because he is worthy to be thanked and to be praised. Especially on a day like this, when we reflect on the bounties that we have received, should not our hearts overflow with praise? Well, this morning we will try to do that. As I will speak to you about the apostolic exhortation to give thanks unto God. And we will look at five things, five questions that arise from our text. The first question is, what is thanksgiving? The second one is, when should it take place? Thirdly, for what must thanks be given? The fourth thing is, to whom should it be offered? And finally, how should thanks be given? On Thanksgiving Day, it is not superfluous to ask ourselves, what is really Thanksgiving? It is important to know this because unless we bring the proper gratitude to God, he will not accept it. What then is Thanksgiving? Basically, it is a heartfelt acknowledgement of benefits received. It presupposes that those who engage in this activity recognize that the blessings that we receive come from heaven and are totally undeserved. With Jacob, God's people will say, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies which thou has shown to thy servant. Now the apostle Paul has given the reference to thanksgiving earlier already in verse four of this chapter. For there he says, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of things. He would say these things, Not only in this epistle, but throughout all his letters, he often refers to this necessity to give thanks. To the Colossians, for instance, he writes that they should be overflowing with thanksgiving. And that not only because of the physical blessings they receive, but also for the spiritual ones. All those blessings received by believers should be returned to the giver in the form of spontaneous adoration. By giving thanks to God, congregation, we glorify him. And yes, we please him. In Psalm 22, verse three, we read that God inhabits the praises of Israel. It is as where that he lives upon these praises and in the context of these praises. In Psalm 50, verse three, the Lord says, he that offers thanks glorifies me. That's amazing, isn't it? that the Lord considers it an honor when His people praise Him, when His name receives blessings. Blessed be the Lord God for all the things He does for us. And therefore, not to render thanks to God is a terrible offense. In Isaiah 1 verse 3, the Lord complains about his people of this very sin, that they are not thankful. When he says there, the ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know. My people do not consider. What is meant here is that animals usually will know the hand that feeds them. And they will show some form of affection and appreciation. But people, imagine that, human beings, the crown of God's creation, they often take no notice of what great things the Lord has done for them. In Hosea 2 verse 8, the Lord expresses his keen disappointment with Israel, his unfaithful wife, this way, for she did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold. Thanksgiving then is an obligation which all creatures owe to their creator But sad to say, only relatively few people will ever say with David, what shall I render to the Lord for all the benefits bestowed on me? It is only those who are overwhelmed by God's mercies who will stir up their hearts to give him the glory that these services and these mercies call for. The second question that we should ask in connection with our text is, when should we give thanks to God? Paul answers that question also when he says, giving thanks always. always for all things. It is fitting that we give thanks to God on an occasion such as this. We have come together, haven't we, this morning for this very reason, to praise God from whom all blessings flow. But let us never think that we have done our duty in this regard when we have spent one hour in church. on Thanksgiving Day. We are to give thanks always, Paul says. But how can we do this realistically? Well, Paul answers that question also. He says, giving thanks always for all things. It is fitting, therefore, that we give thanks to God on this special occasion, We have come together for this very purpose, to praise God for them, but let us not think that that is sufficient. The Puritan Thomas Manton says, we must always have a heart prepared and disposed to give thanks. And the psalmist puts it very, correctly and strongly when he says, my heart is fixed, oh God, my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise. Psalm 57 verse seven, his heart is fixed, meaning that is the most important thing, his determination to thank the Lord. As long as God continues to daily bless us and load us with his benefits, it behooves us to daily, yes hourly, to bless the God of our salvation. Psalm 69, 68 verse 19. One more passage I will quote to illustrate how important it is. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Haven't you come to see that in your life? Not just once in a while, but every morning. The Lord is there with his bountiful mercies. There is not a moment in which we do not receive some benefit from the Lord. And that is why our thanksgiving should be one continuous song of praise, always. That means in all situations and in all conditions, in times of prosperity, but also in times of adversity, Why also in adversity? Well, because it can never be so bad with us that there are some reasons to give thanks to God. I doubt if any of us have seen as much afflictions as Job has. Yet he was able to praise God for taking as well as giving. For he says, naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. And the prophet Isaiah exhorts those who fear God to glorify God in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel. Why? Because God is present in those fires with his people. He says it in chapter 43 of his prophecy, when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. And didn't the three friends of Daniel experience that exactly when they were cast into the fiery oven of Nebuchadnezzar, and then that king actually saw a fourth person walking with them in that fire, and that we know was the angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here is the test for us. Anyone can give thanks when the harvest is plentiful, when the stalls are full of cattle and the fig tree blossoms, When health is preserved and wife and children bring cheer to your life, oh yes, then it is easy to be thankful. But to praise God in sickness and shortage. When you are laid off or your job security is nil, then it becomes quite a different thing. And yet we read, we read how the saints of the Old and New Testament, they were able to do this. The apostle Paul could say, I have learned in whatever state I am therewith to be content. Philippians 4.11. Yes, I know that he admits that he had to learn it. It was not something that came automatically and easily. There must have been moments also in his life when giving thanks took real effort. But the thing is, he did learn it. By the grace of God, and that is what every child of God should be able to also acknowledge, I have learned it the hard way. in the way of trials and tribulations, in a time of afflictions. Maybe some of you have gone or still are going through afflictions, heavy burdens you bear. And then the question often comes up, why? And how can I be thankful? Also this morning as you were in the pew there, you think of things have happened in your life and are happening maybe right now, and should we then give thanks? Well, the answer to the question is yes, yes. You can be or should be thankful, but then you have to realize that God sends his afflictions for a purpose. Jeremiah says in Lamentations 3, the Lord does not afflict us willingly. That means he does not enjoy afflicting us, placing burdens on us, as if that is his only purpose, to make life miserable for us. No, no, there is a real purpose, and it is that we learn from these afflictions. And when we read in Hebrews chapter 10 or 12 that when God's people are chastened or disciplined by the Lord, it's never pleasant discipline. You know that with children, if you discipline them, if you even have to spank them, then the idea is that they will feel that affliction and that discipline. if it was a pleasant thing that it wouldn't be disciplined. So the Lord disciplines us for the purpose that we should feel it and maybe even cry out under it. But if the Lord achieved his purpose with us, then, as it says in verse 10 there in Hebrews 12, they, that is our parents, verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he, that is the Lord, for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. In other words, it's part of our sanctification, and when we, to our closure to the Lord, and we see more dependence upon the Lord in all our trials, then we will achieve God's purpose. Then it says, no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. So God has that purpose. In your life also, whenever the times become tough and almost unbearable, if it drives us out to the Lord and we find peace through faith in him who loves us, who gave himself for us, congregation, then we can have a Thanksgiving day every day for his love and for his mercy. And God wants to be acknowledged, I said. All things, good and bad, or what we think are bad things, common and special blessings, temporal and eternal benefits, all things. The Lord has given us plenty of all these things, also in this past season. Every day, literally every day, there was food on our tables, wasn't there? We had clothes to wear and perhaps even to spare so that we could donate some of our old clothes or even clothes that we had worn quite a while and we thought that we wanted to buy something new and we gave it to the thrift store. We had warm houses to live in and even cool ones in the summertime. We had a decent vehicle to drive in for most of us, a workplace to drive to. We also enjoyed good health for the most part. And even when we are sick, we may experience the comfort of His nearness. Oh, surely God is to be acknowledged for all these things. And yet, the sad thing is that we so often take things for granted. How easily we can forget that the air we breathe is a blessing, as is the ability to fill our lungs and to exhale again. Just ask emphysema patients how important breathing is to them. My father had emphysema for 20 long years. And it was sometimes hard to witness how he was struggling, breathing heavily, or not at all, gasping for breath. That is an ordeal. But in the Lord's nearness and presence, he would find relief. But in addition to these so-called common everyday blessings, there were also special and spiritual blessings for which we also ought to render thanks. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul writes in, yeah, he says in chapter one of this letter to the Ephesians. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. If the Lord has blessed us, and then especially if he has blessed us with his word applied by the Holy Spirit during the past year. If we, and I hope so for all of you, but certainly there must be some here who have experienced a sense of pardon and peace, a measure of joy when the sermon was used by the Lord to touch our lives. to comfort us in our distress, even to the point that we received a measure of assurance that we are the Lord's. When we tasted His love and His mercy, that was a tremendous blessing for which we certainly should be and will be thankful. The fact that we could go up to God's house even, and hear the gospel preached there by faithful lips, by ministers who preach the truth as it is in Jesus, what a tremendous blessing it is. that we may come to the house of the Lord, not only for God's people, certainly for them, but also for those who do not know the Lord, to have that ability, that occasion to frequently go to the house of the Lord, to hear that gospel. Think of those who never hear that word of God. But also think of those who still go to church, but the church they go to does not preach the true gospel. There are many churches, even many huge megachurches, where they hear some kind of preaching, but it is a preaching of humanism, of self-improvement. of living up to your potential and all those kind of psychological gimmicks that are being brought forth. That is a very sad thing, and I hope that we will never go there. But if we go to a church such as ours here, where the gospel of salvation is proclaimed, count it a great blessing. In a sense, we can say that we are all blessed when the gospel is proclaimed, when we receive warnings and invitations. These are blessings from on high. The next thing that we should ask ourselves is, to whom should we give this thanksgiving? To whom should we offer it? Well, according to Paul, it is to God and the Father. God is the father of Jesus Christ and therefore the father of believers. In a certain sense we can say that God is the father of all men because he is their creator. And that we can say God is the father to everybody in the sense that he blesses them with good things. The Lord's grace is, the common grace of God is given to all. And that is why all people have a cause to give thanks to God, because he made them, he created them, and he sustains them and preserves their lives. But Paul here is speaking to believers. And they stand in a special relationship to God as their father in and through Jesus Christ. And they must therefore acknowledge him as the fountain of every blessing. Every good and perfect gift is from above, James says, and comes down from the father of lights. And the greatest blessing of all is the gift of Jesus Christ. Paul says it elsewhere, thanks be to God, thanks be to God for his exceedingly precious gift of his son. Inexpressibly wonderful it is that God has given his dear son. God so loved the world, this wicked world, that he gave his only begotten Son. And so Paul knows that, and every believer knows, that it's because of this greatest of all gifts that we receive so many other blessings. It is only because of the cross on which the Prince of Glory died so that even unbelievers receive many good things because of that sacrifice of Christ on Calvary's hill. But the sad thing is that people, most people, do not see this. Oh yes, there are people who still know that God should be thanked. They say a few nice words, Thanksgiving Day, about the great benefactor, God, but God is not pleased with such thanksgiving. Why not? Well, because if Christ is not seen as the way to God, as the only one to save sinners as the only one through whom we come to know the true God. You see, there are so many people who talk about God in a generic term. Our politicians, many of them do that. God, they know they should mention it once in a while because that is what many people still like to hear. And so God, the name God is frequently used. But where do you hear of Christ? He's the only way to the Father. No man comes to the Father but by me, he says. And that is also true in the sense of being thankful to God. It should never be expressed apart from Christ. And so it says here, we have to give thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here, the apostle directs us to present our praises to God through Christ, our only mediator between God and man. He is our great high priest, and he stands between us and God. And therefore, we are to put our thanksgiving as well as our petitions into his nail-pierced hands so that he may present our thanksgivings to the Father. What do I mean? Well, Christ did not only obtain all blessings for us and convey them to us, but he also takes those prayers of ours and our thanksgivings and he makes them acceptable to his Father. Why? Well, because even our prayers and our thanksgivings are stained by sin. There's so much of self mixed with those prayers. So much insincerity, so much formality that unless Christ removes all these impurities from our prayers and from our thanksgivings, God cannot accept them as sacrifices pleasing unto him. But now because of Christ's intercession and interception of our prayers and because of purifying them in his blood, the Father now gladly receives our petitions and thank offerings. They are as a sweet-smelling aroma in his holy nostrils. Therefore, just as we ask for mercy and for pardon in Jesus' name, so we also give thanks in the same precious name. He is a mediator of our prayers as well as our praises. Without him, nothing reaches the throne of God. But now my question is, are you, am I convinced of this? Today, yes, we celebrate Thanksgiving Day, but do we realize that to really give thanks to God, we must know him also as our Father, through Jesus Christ, his Son. true thanksgiving can only proceed from a heart that is broken and humbled on account of sin, and yet also has a hope in God's mercy in Christ. What I'm saying is this. We must have a sense, a sense of acceptance with God. before we can expect our thanks to be pleasing to him. You know, a heart that is full of unbelief cannot give thanks. As long as we look upon God only as our judge and as our enemy, yes, that is true by nature, God is our enemy because we are his enemy. We have broken that relationship with him. And now he is the stern judge who will punish sinners if they do not repent and if they do not believe in his son. And so as long as we look upon God as our enemy, how can we have feelings of true gratitude toward him? Nor can he accept such praise. As Spurgeon once said, a soul condemned for its unbelief is not a soul that can be accepted for its gratitude. It cannot be condemned for one thing and accepted for another. And so I hope you see that it is so necessary to give thanks from a believing So it seems to me that your first business today is to ask yourselves, what is my relationship to the Lord? Do I believe in Christ? Have I by grace received this greatest of all gifts? Well, as such, as your Savior and Redeemer, he is offered to you. Yes, and that without money and without price. And so you must receive this all-sufficient Savior by faith and then, yes, then praise Him. Praise Him together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the triune God from whom indeed all blessings flow. And once you may know that Savior, I do not mean with the full assurance of faith that should be so, but it isn't always so, but even where there is that refuge-seeking faith, realizing you are so unworthy of the least of God's blessings, that you still have life and breath, and that you may still go to the house of God, that you're still in the day of grace, and then you cry out to God, oh, Lord Jesus, save me, even me. then you may know that God has begun that good work in you. Then you will never lack anything. As Paul says, Paul says, and all God's people will say with him, he who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things. Paul says that in Romans 8 and he makes that wonderful statement that God has not spared his own son. Another reference, no doubt, is to Abraham's sacrificing of Isaac. Then as Abraham showed that he was willing to obey God and to take Isaac's life, the Lord, through his angel, intervened and he spared Isaac, but he also spared Abraham. He made sure that he did not have to give up his only son, but God did not spare his own son. Jesus went to the cross, but in doing so, God did not spare himself from grief. It was a terrible thing, difficult thing to give his only begotten son. But now Paul said, if God was willing to do that, to give everything that was dear to him, then If he did that, and he has done that, then whatever other needs you may have, God will grant them. How shall he not with him, with Christ, freely give us all things? Becoming a believer is essential. It's the most important thing. But then having received him, you are not spared from all kinds of trials and tribulations. The enmity of the world, even today in this Thanksgiving Day, we live in a community, in a culture that increasingly resists the word of God, despises Christ and his people. And if you are a Christian, you will go through At least some of these trials, even persecution may come upon us in this time. But then we should think of this, how shall he not with him, with Jesus, freely give us all things? Courage, endurance, patience, submission. glorifying God in the fires and through the fires, serving Him, being faithful to Him, and that is what lies ahead of all of us also in this coming year. All things, for this life and for the next, all things, for time and for eternity, as David says in Psalm 84, no good thing. No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. Amen.