This is a call to candid introspection where I really must be starkly honest with myself.

Am I Really Thankful?; I mean really?

Ephesians 4:1-6 b & Colossians 3:12-17

Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church

This morning, we move into Ephesians chapter 4 in our verse to verse gleanings from God's precious word. Please turn to Ephesians 4:1, then mark it in your Bibles and go to Colossians 3:12. Paul wrote Colossians and Ephesians at the same time that he was imprisoned, and so Paul, moved by the Holy Spirit, addressed similar needs concerning the Gentile churches in both letters. Consequently, many of the passages are parallel type passages. In fact, Colossians and Ephesians are generally called parallel epistles. They are not exactly alike, but they deal with themes, urgings, and teachings that are very similar.

As you find Ephesians 4:1, and Colossians 3:12, I want you to know that this is a special kind of sermon this morning. In one sense, it is a continuation through Ephesians, but in another sense, it is special, because this sermon is our thanksgiving word from the Lord in this holiday season. Please read Ephesians 4:1-6 with me now;

"Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." Ephesians 4:1-6

Now, let us read Colossians 3:12-17, and as I read, I want you to notice how wonderfully consistent Paul's exhortation is to the Colossian churches in comparison to the Ephesians letter; Paul says,

"12 So, as those who have been elect of God, set apart, and dearly loved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body;" Colossians 3:12-15

These two passages, when married together, display a holy matrimony that really humbles us into recognizing the bigger picture of what church is all about. How many of you know that love is about the deepest theology that there is? Basic Love 101, is the consuming doctrine of the super-spiritual person. But, we must not act surprised to find out that true love, which is spiritual love of a supernatural origin, has flesh behind it. What I mean is that there is blood, sweat, and tears involved with the doing side of love. The doing side of love is the real test of whether you are loving. Shame on us, if we talk about being Christians where we are in the body of Christ, as the body of Christ, and yet, we only give a superficial kind of spiritualized lip service to the greatest commandment of all time. To love means you are going to hurt sometimes. You are going to have to be humble all the time. And you are going to need to have more grace with people than your own selfishness wants to do at anytime. This is the kind of thing that Paul's talking about. Paul is giving some strong urgings to be living like the body of Christ that we are supposed to be. When you think about where Paul is coming from while he is being moved by the Spirit to teach us, think love, and also be thinking unity. Like it, want it, and do it, (in a sense), with your blood, sweat, and tears. But, I don't want us to stop there. We need to read the rest of Colossians 3:15, on through to verse 17. This is where Paul goes on, and we need to notice how Paul emphasizes another great attribute that we Christians are supposed to have through the blood, sweat, and tears of everyday life. Paul says,

"... and be thankful."

It's short, crisp, and directly to the point.

"... and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another, with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father." Colossians 3:15-17

Notice: Be thankful, with thankfulness, and giving thanks. In the same sense that Paul is moved by the Spirit to hang love pictures all over the living rooms of our lives, he carefully urges us toward the thanks that we,  who are God's living temples, absolutely must give in all things. This is what we are concerned with this morning in this thanksgiving sermon. I ask you to please prepare your hearts for the sacred preaching of God's word, in this Thanksgiving sermon, titled;

Am I Really Thankful?; I mean really? [prayer]

I think it is important for us to recognize that in the Ephesians context, and in the Colossians context, Paul's great focus is that we know that we are the body of Messiah, created in the Messiah, and along with that important truth of what our identity is, we are to act like what we are. In Ephesians 4 it is called a walk; walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called: walk humbly, walk gently, walk patiently; tolerating one another in love, working harder than usual to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is what you are required to do in the Christian stride through the stuff of life. In Colossians it is called putting on. It's like putting on your clothes. Put on a heart of compassion, put on kindness, put on humility, put on gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just exactly in the same way as the Lord forgave you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect glue of unity. Each one of these things is like a piece of clothing that you layer yourself with. When you put on the layers you are wearing your Christianity on your sleeve, so to speak, because you are putting on all the attributes of Christ, and walking like Jesus walked. The idea is that if you don't, then you are shamefully naked, and obscene, though you may not even think so. God requires us to nurture this in intentional obedience. It doesn't come naturally, because in our flesh, we are a bunch of hard heads. It's comfortable being a hard head. It's easy. That's why the Christian walk is an effort that God has enabled us to do by His Spirit through His word, so there are no excuses for any of us to not be about the Christian life of doing this. Any excuse that we give for not walking this way toward other members of the body of Christ, is sin. Of course, You are supposed to shun sinful behavior in others, and avoid their false religious views, which means that you may have to avoid those people, which is another specific manifestation of love that is looking forward to their repentance; but ultimately we are to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, to which indeed we were called in one body. This is what Paul is telling us before he tells us to be thankful. Following Paul's flow of thought, we know what he's getting at, don't we? Ingratitude, and unthankfulness are seeds that destroy the love and peace that we are supposed to be obedient to. Unthankfulness will eclipse your heart of compassion. It will kill mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Ungratefulness is a pure manifestation of selfishness and pride. Remember the question before us this morning: Am I Really Thankful?; I mean really? It's dangerous being unthankful. Being unthankful leads to jealousy, and other self centered attitudes. It is a toppling affect that corrupts God's utmost for us, and it all starts with being unthankful. Once a person is infected by the disease of unthankfulness, then they become consumed with disunity. Love begins to wane.

Now listen, Paul's principles are still in effect, in a certain way with unthankful people. What I means is that when anyone is having an attitude of unthankfulness, they are still being obedient. But, the shameful fact of the matter is that they are being obedient to their sinful inclinations, and so they are taking Paul's principles and twisting them to align with their felt needs of being unthankful. Felt needs is a popular term in our day. Felt needs is a buzzword for human centered religion. Felt needs are the biggest liars sitting on our shoulders, trying to speak the world's goals, attitudes, directives, and values into our ears every day. Consequently, what happens is that God's children, in spoiled ungratefulness for both the little things, and the big things, really are putting on something--but what they are putting on is disunity. They are walking--but they are walking in disunity. It is a sad trait of a huge number of spoiled Christians in our day. But, the problem is worse than immediately recognized--that is--if it is recognized as a problem at all. What I mean, is that once you get infected with the disease of unthankfulness, you become infectious. An unthankful person is every Pastor's thorn in the flesh; every parents problem child; every employers worker that is about to be fired. An unthankful person is every spouses mate that is secretly despised. When it comes to the household of God, which is the church of the living God as the pillar and support of the truth, unthankful people get into fellowship, and then they become divisive. Sooner or later, they will usually leave the group. But before they do, their self contrived angst has infected others around them. It is as Paul warns in 1 Corinthians, where he says,

"33 Do not be deceived: 'Bad company corrupts good morals.'" 1 Corinthians 15:33

What happens is that the disease of unthankfulness starts to show its symptoms throughout the whole body. And so people start to see things that they think are wrong, rather than focusing upon what is right, or making every effort to try and find what is right to focus upon. The shift occurs when we start to identify things with a critical heart. There are people who always seem to be this way. We typically call them critical people. If we are always being critical, then we are failing to see through the lens of recognizing God's sovereign blessings. This is not the kind of person that glorifies God. This is why Paul says,

"18 in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:19

"Everything," means everything. So, the word of God is after us this morning, and we see that there is a real necessity to ask ourselves: Am I Really Thankful?; I mean really? The only way we are going to give thanks in everything, is when we start recognizing God's sovereign hand in every little detail of life. It means we need to recognize God's sovereign blessings, even when we don't think they are blessings. It will bring the thankfulness in everything that God expects, and it will push aside all the other malcontents around you that are fault seekers, grudge keepers, and side line sleepers.

Continuing with Paul's flow of thought, he states what is the foundation for what we measure our thankfulness with. Paul says,

"16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another." Colossians 3:16

In other words, we do not know about what to put on in respect to being thankful, or how to walk the way God wants us to in being thankful, if we are not learning what, and how, to be thankful from the word of God. I heard a Christian author being interviewed on the radio this week. He made many good points in respect to certain trends that are occurring in the contemporary church that are detrimental to the body of Christ. At one point he made a comment concerning the trend of church growth oriented methods in our modern culture. He talked about how preachers have been taught over the last couple of decades that they need to preach simple sermons that cater to what are called "felt needs." Then the man made a very profound statement; he said,

We do not know what our needs truly are, until God reveals to us what our needs truly are.

How absolutely profound. We do not know what our needs truly are, until God reveals to us what our needs truly are. Otherwise, in our selfishness, and our trendiness, and our spiritual immaturity, everything that we want is considered a "felt need;" everything we are interested in, is considered a "felt need," and everything we want to be thankful about, is only what we think is our felt need. The man's biggest point is that we are only going to know what we need, and what the provision of God is, through comprehensive preaching, teaching, and study of God's word. The problem is that one felt need that self consumed Christianity feeds upon is the felt need of unthankfulness. How does it work? Well, its simple. If you don't feel like you need to be thankful about something, then you won't. If you feel like being ungrateful, unthankful, and unappreciative, then you will. After all, it is your felt need.

Unthankfulness is epidemic among huge portions of the body of Christ, because we are being taught that only certain temporal problems in our daily lives are worthy to be addressed from the pulpit. Only certain inspirational books are hyper marketed as the ones we need to buy to help us with our Christian lives. Felt needs are being catered to in a human centered, rather than a God centered standard of what is relevant. True thankfulness must come from the word of Christ, and it must richly dwell within you in the first place, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another. According to the word of God, you and I are only going to get it, when we receive what God has for us, according to the way God has it set up, which is from the word of Christ spoken to you with all wisdom, (not just partial wisdom that caters to your felt needs). It's going to mean teaching and admonishing one another with words that may offend you. It is then, and only then, that you will truly know what your real needs are. What you and I need to do, so that we can truly be about putting on, and walking in, thankfulness to our God, is to look at what is spiritually relevant. What we need to do, is look at what is spiritually relevant from the same statement that the man made on the radio. In other words, we only know what is relevant for our lives when God tells us what is relevant from His word. But here is the really important part of all of this that can easily get missed; we must even thank God for when He interrupts us and tells us what is relevant, and what to be thankful for. In other words, you must thank God that He is the one telling you what is revelation for understanding what He thinks your true needs really are. If you don't do this, then you are a person who is putting on, and walking in, philosophical deception. You know, Thanksgiving Day is coming up, and then shortly after that, Christmas will follow. Many of us here celebrate both Thanksgiving, as a Holiday, and also Christmas. What is interesting is that there is an underlying Christian aspect to the celebrations that only Christians recognize, and are concerned with. But, here is the point that I am wanting us to seriously think about for a moment as we ask ourselves whether we are really thankful:

What would happen to your Thanksgiving Day celebration, if you had to skip out on the traditional Thanksgiving dinner part? What would you think about it, if the only thing you could do, is get together with friends or family, (or whomever) to pray and give thanks to God for the privilege to live, be in the church, and glorify Him. Would it really be Thanksgiving to you anymore?

Now, what about Christmas. Christmas, literally means Christ is sent. For Christians we recognize the holiday as a special time to worship God in celebration of the coming of the Messiah.

What would happen to your Christmas Eve, or Christmas day, if you had to skip out on the gifts, and all the fancy food, the music, and all the other trappings of what Christmas has become? Would you be content--would you be thankful to God to get together with others to read the story of Christ's coming straight from the Bible, and then spend the rest of the time in praise, worship, and thanks to God for sending His Messiah, and for the great privilege that God has mercifully given to you of knowing the Messiah as your Lord and Savior?

Think about these things, because they will reveal to you how strong your felt needs really are in this world in molding your way of thinking. This is why I say that we must thank God that He is the one telling us what is revelation for understanding what He thinks our true needs really are. If we don't do this, then we are people who are putting on, and walking as those who are easily molded by our culture. Now, listen because this is so important; Because someone is walking in deception, they will think that they are growing spiritually, and that they are mature. Then when someone preaches the whole word of God, or preaches something that seems difficult to them, or preaches something that does not make them feel good, or preaches something that isn't telling them how to be happy about their own self, then they will be unthankful to God for what God has done in bringing an important word into their lives. They will completely miss it for what it is. They will miss it as the huge, immense blessing that God has given them in the middle of our desolate time and culture. And I'm not talking about me as a preacher in particular. I am talking about when any brother or sister in Christ, speaks God's word into your life to help you mature in your walk. If you are not thankful, you will look at them with disdain. And so what happens, is that you become that person who is a problem child for your Father in His God glorifying church. You thought the problem was whatever you are unthankful for, but in reality, you are the problem. You have missed the blessing because of your own standard. This is why contextual, verse to verse, Bible teaching is so important. This is why personal Bible study is so important, where you go to God's word and read the whole context to learn what God has to say in what he meant to say.

I am so overwhelmed with the life changing power of God's word. I hear it all the time. People will call me on the phone, and say that they just found something in the Bible that hit them hard. They will tell me that they are going to change their way of thinking and doing based upon the truth the just discovered. They are the same person they were the day before, but now they will be changed in what they put on, and how they walk from now on. The same thing happens after the preaching of God's word. It changes lives--that is, if you're thankful, and you let it. The point is that when you get into specific in depth study of the scriptures, you go beyond trying to find proof texts to bolster up whatever you want to hear concerning a felt need, and you go on to maturity, where you are being blessed by what God has preserved in the fullness of His word for you to know.

"16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another." Colossians 3:16

What I am talking about is the foundation for all wisdom. This is the foundation of how we build up one another. God wants you to be teaching and admonishing one another, but He wants you to do it according to what He says needs to be said. Notice that God did not say that you have to be a preacher. God says to let the word live in you in such a way, as if it is alive and active, with all wisdom teach and admonish the body. "All" wisdom means that we don't pick and choose what doctrines we like, and what doctrines we don't like. It is a very unthankful, sinful, humanistic minded person who tells you, or tells a preacher, not to preach something from God's word because it is not light, and easy to understand, or it is not usually accepted by most people, or it is too controversial. Make no mistake about it, what the person is really saying, (in lack of faith,) is that they are not thankful to God for all He is saying to every single one of His children in His word, and they are saying that they are not thankful to God for the teacher that He has gifted, called, and motivated to preach against the tide of our culture, by preaching the whole counsel of God.

Next, Paul moves directly into activity that all of us are to do together as a unified body. He says,

"with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God."

Paul is specifically talking about three different kinds of music. Psalms were from the Old Testament psalter, which is the book of Psalms. Early Christians sang the psalms to music, much as we do today. Then Paul mentions Hymns. Hymns were expressions of the wonders, and majesty of God. There are hymns of praise, and worship. Then Paul mentions Spiritual songs. Spiritual songs usually emphasized testimonies such as Revelation 5:9-10. Spiritual songs generally express in song what God has done for us, is doing with us, and will do. Spiritual songs are directly contrasted to carnal songs. Paul's point is that we are to be singing Christian songs in togetherness, and we are to be praising and worshipping God together with thankfulness. God is the object of our devotion. He is the one who made us and gave us the privilege to exist. He is the one who saved us out of the domain of darkness. He is the one who adopted us, and blesses us with eternal life. We are to thank Him in songs of praise and worship. Praise and worship songs are special forms of prayer where the whole body operates together, and fulfills its purpose in glorifying God. This, by the way, is not a felt need. It is a God want. So, we see from our passage that God wants to praised, and worshipped with thanks in our hearts. God wants glory from us. Do you see why it is so vital to search the depths of our hearts, and get painfully honest with ourselves, and ask if we are really, truly thankful.

Recently, there has been a series of events that express where humanistic felt needs eclipse the sovereignty of God in His glory, and so, in a stark and morbid way, the events demonstrate how thanks to God, and glory to God, is replaced with hatred, contempt, and complete dissatisfaction with God. What happened, is that last month, a man violently took captive a small Amish schoolhouse full of children. In the whole hostage ordeal, the man ended up killing 5 Amish school girls before taking his own life. Much of the world was stunned. "How could someone do such a thing?", people would ask. The answer is that the man was lost in his sins. He was in rebellion against the sovereign God of the universe. In the following days after the events, details about the murderer began coming out. Apparently, the man left a suicide note where he mentioned an incident that happened 9 years earlier. You see, the man's daughter, Elsie, was born prematurely, and subsequently died 20 minutes after delivery. The news report gives us the last message that was left by the murderer. It was in a suicide note. He said,

"Elise's death "changed my life forever, ... I haven't been the same since it affected me in a way I never felt possible. I am filled with so much hate, hate toward myself hate towards God and unimaginable emptiness it seems like every time we do something fun I think about how Elise wasn't there to share it with us and I go right back to anger."

These are the words of a man who does not recognize the sovereignty of God as always good, always right, and always perfect. It is a statement meant to de-glorify God by hating Him. In his lostness, the man took unthankfulness to the extreme. Contrast this to a quote from another man in the same news report. His name is Sam. He's a 63 year old Amish woodworker who lives a few miles away from the schoolhouse where the murders took place. Sam told reporters that his grandchildren were full of questions when they came home from school. He went on to say that the victims' families will be sustained by their faith. Now, I want you to pay special attention to what Sam said next,

"We think it was God's plan and we're going to have to pick up the pieces and keep going. A funeral to us is a much more important thing than the day of birth because we believe in the hereafter. The children are better off than their survivors."

What a contrast--What a contrast to the bitterness, hatred, and unthankfulness of the murderer concerning the death of his newborn daughter nine years before. The killer didn't think that his daughter's death was better off than her survivors. He was thinking purely from felt needs, from a sin filled heart. Sam's words, on the other hand, are words of a man who recognizes that it does not matter what he thinks he feels. What matters is what God wants. What matters is God's glory, and being thankful to Him, in everything, as Paul says. God desires to be glorified in His sovereignty, and the way we glorify Him, is that through the pain, and through the blood, sweat, and tears, we thank Him for what we don't think feels very good, knowing that in His sovereignty, it is all somehow good. In everything, which means even in the little seemingly mundane things of life, Paul's says,

"Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31

But, again, let's ask ourselves that painfully beautiful question that opens us up and lays our heart out before the world, "Am I Really Thankful?; I mean really?" The reason why we need to ask ourselves this question, is because it is so easy to sing a psalm, hymn, or spiritual song that you are reading off of a screen on Sunday morning. It's so easy to sing a song when you've memorized the words, or you are following along in a hymn book. It so easy, but Paul doesn't let any of us off the hook. He says to sing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, but he says we need to do it in a spirit of thankfulness. In other words, your singing isn't doing what it is meant to do, if you are not truly thankful. Did I just confuse you? Let me put it to you another way; Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are meant to bring glory to God for Who He is, all He has done, and all He is doing. If you are not thankful to Him for all that He has done with you, all that He is doing with you, or with others around you, then you are not glorifying Him in your singing. You are just repeating a lot of empty words. This goes for all our actions too. God's glory in all our actions is what Paul gets to next. Paul says,

"17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father."

Part of the problem of our age is that contemporary Christians make much ado about whether Jesus is Savior, or whether He is Lord, or if He is both. And so you will find people going round and round about whether you receive Christ as Savior only, or as Savior and Lord, which is His actual state of being etc. etc. Let us put the controversy aside for a moment. Let us let God speak to our needs, whether we feel the needs or not. What I mean is that verse 17 is a concise definition of Lordship Salvation. Look at how simple, and straightforward it is;

"17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father."

This is the way that we operate as the body of Christ, in the body of Christ, to bring honor to Christ. As usual, all of Paul's teaching concerning how we operate in this world, comes back to the Lord Jesus. Christ as the initiator, motivator, and mover, (and our understanding of these things) comes from the basic principles of His word dwelling in us richly. We do all in the Lord Jesus' name, to God's glory, by abiding in the principles we learn from His comprehensive word. Once we understand this, then we realize that there is no activity so small, or so private, that it is not to be done in the name of Jesus to God's glory. The great Scottish preacher Alexander Maclaren writes concerning whatever we do in word or deed in the name of the Lord Jesus, that the principle

"hallows and ennobles all work. Nothing can be so small but this will make it great, nor so monotonous and tame but this will make it beautiful and fresh" (p. 333).--Maclaren

When you do all to the glory of God in Christ's name then you are agreeing with God that His ways are good. Thankfulness is agreement with God. Are you agreeing with God? Its appreciation that recognizes God's sovereignty in our lives through the blood, sweat, and tears. Are you appreciating God. It recognizes the bigger picture. Thankfulness, means we realize that we have it good no matter what the world deals out to us. But, we can only be thankful when we focus on God and His will and not upon ourselves. Do you realize how good you have it? or are you always realizing how good you want it? Appreciating God in all you do, is what it means to have Jesus as the Lord, in Lordship salvation.

I pray that this sermon has blessed you to really consider, before God, whether you are really thankful. I urge you to start nurturing the mind of thanks. It will bless God, it will bless others, and it will bless you too. This morning we are going to partake in the Lord's supper. It is a worship experience of remembrance. As we do this together this morning, I want us to have a special attitude in our hearts. I want us to be thankful. Let us give special thanks to God for the great New Covenant He has blessed us with through the sacrifice of His Son.