Sermon: Plan for Giving Thanks: How Do We Give Gratitude Together

I invite you now to take a Bible and turn with me to the book of Colossians and chapter three,

Colossians chapter three. You can find that on page 9 84 if you're using a pew Bible. And while you're turning there, let me take, uh, one more opportunity to just remind you what we're doing here in the month of January. We have for a number of years now, taken this month and set it aside to focus on a particular subject that the elders think would be helpful to, uh, consider helpful to meditate on, helpful to try to work

even more into the DNA of our congregation. And so this year, uh, the elders chose the subject of gratitude. Gratitude. Now you might think, why gratitude? Are they thinking that we are an ungrateful church? Let me just be clear. No, no, no. Uh, that is not it at all. Um, we love this church and you are such a grateful church. We want to see gratitude more and more. Mark this church, if you, uh, have already gotten, gotten

to Colossians chapter three, if you just look over, um, the other side of the page to chapter two verse six, the very end or uh, of chapter two, verse seven, rather, it's at the end of that paragraph, those last words, abounding in Thanksgiving. We believe that we as Christians are not only grateful, we are to abound in Thanksgiving. And so that means that all of us individually, all of us corporately as a whole, as a church body, have room to grow.

And so that's why we have chosen and why the elders have thought it would be a good thing this month to study gratitude. So over the morning services, just to refresh you, we've considered a portrait of gratitude. What is Christian gratitude? We've considered the posture of gratitude. Why is it good to give thanks? We have considered persistence in gratitude. What do we do? How do we be grateful even when it is difficult circumstantially

to be grateful? And then in the evening, we have learned what gratitude looks like in various seasons of life, from the earliest of ages to the oldest of ages. And we've also considered how we are to give thanks through prayer. Well, this Sunday being the last Sunday of the month, we've, we've come to the end. Uh, and so we've got two final sermons this evening. Uh, pat will preach a psalm of Thanksgiving and this morning we're going to consider how we are

to give thanks together a plan for Thanksgiving. How do we give thanks together? So let's consider that from Colossians chapter three. Before we do that, let's join our hearts together in prayer and ask for God's blessing upon the reading and preaching of his word.

Oh Lord, we know from your word that we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. And so we ask once more, even as we have just sung, speak to us, Lord, by the power of your spirit. Speak to us with the, the word bearing your authority. Speak to us. And would you make your living and active word alive in our hearts so that we embrace its truth? And he, its exhortations to speak to us

and bless the reading and preaching of the word we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Reading from God's word, Colossians three 12 through 17 put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience bearing with one another. And if anyone has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you. So you also must forgive. And above all these put on love which binds everything

together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. Singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs in your heart with songs, with thanks thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,

giving thanks to God the Father through him. Amen. So this morning we are considering the plan for Thanksgiving, plan for Thanksgiving. How do we give thanks together as a church body? And we're gonna consider this morning how we give thanks together with our actions, with our adoration and with our, all Our, our actions, our adoration and our all. What Paul is doing here in this section of Colossians chapter three is connecting the dots.

He's connecting the dots for Christians, he's exhorting them to live in a particular way. But what he wants them to understand is that this way of life is not at all disconnected but rather is rooted in the gospel. Paul is connecting these dots in several places. But see for example, in verse 12, which we read how he connects the dots there, he says, put on then as God's chosen ones holy and beloved put on. That's the imperative.

Do this, clothe yourselves with these virtues. But this exhortation is a consequence. It's it's a result. It's the fruit we see that for. He writes, then put on then or therefore, here's what is true of you. He says, you are the chosen of God. You are set apart by God. You are loved by God, his loved ones. Therefore, therefore put on these virtues. Paul is connecting the dots for Christians. The way you live ought to be consistent with who you are

or as we might say, whose you are. This might be a a silly example, but it might make the point. I hope we come to expect certain things of people based on who they are or maybe their background. So many of you know about me. I'm Dutch. As soon as I say that you have a whole bunch of expectations about what I'm like. If you're Dutch, then you're probably frugal or as I'd say resourceful. I'm a careful spender. It's good to save.

But we might think about Midwesterners. They work hard, they live practically. We come to expect that because of who they are. In this particular letter, Paul is exhorting Christians to exhibit virtues that are consistent with being God's chosen ones holy and beloved. And so he lists these virtues out. He says, put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness or gentleness, impatience. We might ask why these virtues?

Why these particular virtues? There are virtues throughout the scriptures. So he doesn't give us an exhaustive list. Why did he choose these virtues? While in, in part, it's probably likely that these particular virtues are missing or underdeveloped. In this church they have room to grow in compassion and kindness and humility. But I think it's more than that. I think he chose these particular virtues because they are distinctly Christian, distinctly

Christian, because Christ the one whose name they bear, the one to whom they are united, the one in whose image they are being renewed. In verse 10, Christ perfectly embodied these virtues and he lived them out perfectly.

Paul says and reminds them in chapter two verse six, you received Christ Jesus the Lord. So walk in him pattern your life after his life. Paul then continues with these virtues. He says, bear with one another, forgive one another, love one another and live in peace.

What's only implicit in that first set of virtues becomes explicit here in this set, these virtues are to be lived out in community. They're to be lived out in community. We see several times, one another, one another.

You were united in one body and called in one body. These virtues are not only to mark individual Christians. They are, they are to mark the church as a whole. The church of God is to be known by these fruits, these virtues. So to go back to connecting the dots, here's what Paul is saying. Since you the church are composed of those chosen by God, set apart by him, and loved by him, you ought to exhibit these virtues, compassion, kindness, humility,

meekness, so on and so forth.

You ought to exhibit these in your fellowship with one another. This is who you are. This then is how you should live. It's after that list of virtues that we come to the one that we have focused our entire series on. Paul says at the end, and be thankful right alongside these prominent virtues for which Christ was known and for which the church of Christ ought to be known and and often is known, we're known for our, our love

or our kindness, right alongside those prominent virtues. Paul includes the admonition to be thankful, to be thankful. But it's not an afterthought for Paul. It kind of seems like it as you're reading these list of virtues, he just sort of tacked it on at the end. Not at all. You see, and you heard in these verses, Paul doesn't just say, be thankful or give Thanksgiving once, just in these three verses. He says it three times. And if you were

to read this entire book of Colossians, this is a prominent theme in this book. He says something about Thanksgiving in every chapter of the book of Colossians, to be thankful, to give Thanksgiving, to pray with thanksgiving, to sing with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is to be a defining characteristic of the church.

Now we've learned that throughout this month. I hope you've caught onto that by now. I hope you've also learned over this month that Thanksgiving is an act. It's an act. Gratitude should be expressed, even implied in the word Thanksgiving is that we give thanks, we offer it, we give it. So thanksgiving is an act. Gratitude should be expressed. But I want you to consider again with me this morning, pastor Jason's definition that he's given a couple of times

over these sermons. He says, gratitude is a spirit of thankfulness lived or expressed in response to a gracious God. Say that once more. Gratitude is a spirit of thankfulness lived or expressed in response to a gracious God.

Gratitude can be lived. Gratitude is not only expressed or given. It can be lived out. How? Seems sort of odd. We don't normally think that way. Perhaps how can gratitude be lived? How can we give thanksgiving together? And what I want to say this morning and have us consider is first we can do so with our actions toward one another, with our actions toward one another. Maybe you're aware of this, that over the centuries

of the Christian Church, there have been many debates about the place or the role of good works in the Christian life.

So even still today, variations of these questions remain. Does our obedience earn merit? Do our good works earn merit toward our salvation? Another question, do we undermine the biblical teaching? That salvation is by grace alone? If we use such a term as obedience, we even conceive of that. The Bible makes clear we are not saved by good works. We can never be. And if we were to suggest, so it would be to diminish the grace of Jesus Christ, the free offer

of the gospel, the beauty of it. We are not saved by good works. Rather, we are saved for good works, not saved by good works. We are saved for good works. They are a fruit of our salvation. They are not the root cause of salvation. With that being the case, then you might ask, okay, well what motivation is there to do good works? Is there any motivation for why I should do good works If they don't merit anything before God

or toward my salvation? Why should I do good works? Why should I be a virtuous person? And here's the answer, gratitude. Gratitude. Because you're thankful to God for the salvation he has given to you and accomplished for you. Listen to how one author puts it. He writes in the glad recognition of our indebtedness to God. Thankfulness is the one true motive for Christian living. When we have considered the full weight of our sin

and misery and admired salvation's beauty, we present the only possible response Thanksgiving. So to try to put a point on my thoughts, our motivation to live out these virtues here in Colossians three and elsewhere throughout scripture,

our motivation to live them out among one another is gratitude to God out of gratitude for all that God has done for us, we live for him. That's what motivates us. Thankfulness for all he has done. You notice this logic even in this passage. Look at verse 13. At the end of it, it says that we are to forgive each other and says there at the very end, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. It's not you must forgive, then you'll be forgiven.

No, that's all wrong. It's as the Lord has forgiven you. So you also must forgive because we are grateful for how God has forgiven us. We forgive others. Our obedience is motivated by gratitude. It is to be marked by gratitude. So our actions toward one another exhibit our thankfulness to God. We show our gratitude to him by relating to one another in a manner consistent of who we are in Christ. We are set apart and loved by God.

We are his chosen ones that ought to make you thankful. And then out of your thankfulness, we respond by putting on these virtues and obeying God with our life. So our gratitude can be lived, our gratitude can be lived, but it can also be expressed. And that's what we find in verse 16 where it says that we are to sing with thankfulness in our hearts to God. So we thank God with our adoration, we thank him with our actions, we thank him with our adoration.

This probably comes as no surprise to you all. My guess is that, uh, as you were coming in today, one you were planning on and intending to come and worship God, to give thanksgiving to him. That was your intent. My other guess is that as you came in and you're thinking, how do we give than together? I know one way our worship. Yes, that's exactly right. Our prayers, our giving, our singing, we do it all out of thanksgiving for

what he has done for us. And here in Colossians three, verse 16, we are reminded that singing together is an especially fitting means to express our gratitude. Now, before we explore that reminder a bit more, I want you to notice briefly two other things that happen when we sing together from this verse. When we sing together, we fulfill the exhortation at the beginning of verse 16, to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly.

That is the teaching about Jesus Christ, the the truth of his person and his work. It ought to reside in us. It it ought to dwell in us richly.

My oldest daughter for Christmas received a boombox. You know, it's about this big. Um, it's got a plug, so you actually have to go plug it into the wall. When you do that, you can listen to the radio, you can put CDs in there and it'll play music. So some of you probably like me, thought those things were long gone. As soon as the iPod came into existence. I'm here to tell you they still exist. So our oldest got one for Christmas and she has loved it.

She's been using it every single day. And one of the CDs that she's been listening to is a hand me down from my youth. It's a CD titled, hide Them in Your Heart, hide Them in Your Heart. It's a CD of bible verses that have been set to music and it's sung by Kids for Kids. And it seems rather straightforward. What is the purpose of that particular cd? Well, to help kids hide the word of God in their heart. The publisher of that CD knows

what Colossians three verse 16 communicates. Songs teach. Songs teach singing is a very effective means for letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly. And so it's really important then because songs teach and because we want the word of Christ to dwell on us richly. It's very important that our songs are biblical. They're informed by scripture and lead us to scripture. And the reason is because we want the word of Christ

to dwell in us ritually. So a practical way of giving thanks today and this week and in weeks to come is to go find John Anderson and his team and thank him for his good hard work of finding songs that are singable so that we can fulfill this command and that teach us well what the scriptures teach. So when we sing together, we let the word of Christ dwell in us ritually. But we also, when we sing Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, we minister to one another.

We minister to one another. Have you ever considered that, that your singing does something?

I fear that sometimes oftentimes people have a perspe uh, a perception about church that they are to get something out of church. You do. But it's not only that you are also to give, you are also to give you minister to one another. And we do so practically through our singing. It says here that we teach and admonish one another in all wisdom. Singing psalms in hymns and spiritual songs. We teach and admonish. This is the, these are the same terms that Paul uses

to describe his own ministry. In chapter one verse 28, he says, him, we proclaim warning or admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present, everyone mature in Christ. It's not only the the preacher of God's word who does ministry on Sundays. You yourselves are ministering to one another through song as you gather and sing.

So for those of you who are maybe hesitant to sing, let this be a motivation for you to, to try it, to do your best, to sing you. You are helping your brothers and sisters in Christ. Let the word of Christ dwell in them. So we sing on Sundays, we sing in our growth groups. We sing at dig. We sing in our homes at family worship. And when we sing, we sing not just for ourselves but for one another.

But even more crucial than that, we sing for God to God. That's where our songs are primarily directed with thankfulness in your hearts to God. We sing about God, we sing to God, we sing for God. When you are here on Sundays and you're singing and sometimes the the music, the instrumentation goes away. You stop singing because you're concerned what others might think. Are you singing too loud or that you're singing off pitch

or maybe that you're stumbling as you're still trying to learn these songs that are familiar to everybody else or concerned that someone heard you when you came in too early on that verse.

Instead of being concerned with what other people think. Be concerned with the posture of your own heart as you sing. That's what, that's what we are to learn from this verse. We are to sing with thankfulness to God in our hearts, with sincerity, with zeal, with thankfulness. That's our songs ought to spring forth from our hearts. And thanksgiving ought to accompany it. Maybe you've noticed this before, uh, so this will be a good reminder for you,

but maybe this is new to some, some of you other people. This is what Christians do, they sing together. We find all throughout the scripture corporate songs, especially of Thanksgiving. So in Exodus 15, right after the Israelites have been delivered from the Egyptians through the Red Sea, Israelites stopped to sing with Thanksgiving for their deliverance. That leper in Luke 17 who returns to Jesus, it says that he praised Jesus

with a loud voice. Now maybe it is that he just was a inflammatory with his words, but perhaps also he was singing because he was so moved. And of course we have Psalms of Thanksgiving, many of them, in fact, you sung one this morning, the very first hymn, all people that on earth do dwell the Psalm 100, a Psalm of Thanksgiving that you sung to one another and to God. And when we get to heaven, we will join the saints triumphant in the angels who

ever sing thanksgiving to God. We have so much to be thankful for so many reasons to express our Thanksgiving. But just consider these with song. You have a voice to sing with a song to sing. You have someone to direct your song to that hears you and delights in the melody from your heart. Ephesians five says, you can be thankful for the truth that's contained in the song, thankful for the way that in it instructs you or rebukes you or reproves you

or trains you in righteousness. You can be thankful for the comfort that it provides. You can be thankful that when we sing in eternity, we will sing for eternity. You can be thankful that your singing ministers to others and thankful that when others sing, they are ministering to you. How do we give thanks? Together we sing with our adoration and thankfulness in our hearts to God. So we've considered two particular ways

that we can give thanks to God together with our actions and with our adoration. And finally, we have in this passage one all encompassing how with our all, with our all. I can't can't really think of a a more fitting verse to end this passage, but even just to end this whole series, Paul writes, whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. I hope by now, at as we come to the end of the month

of January that you are understanding why we give thanks and how we give. Thanks more than that. I'm hoping that you see that gratitude is not just something we do. We do offer gratitude. But gratitude is who we are. It's to be part of us, part of our DNA. Listen to how one commentator writes this, he says, the regular offering of thanks to God is almost synonymous with being a Christian,

Christian and giving thanks. They go hand in hand and it's the Christian who realizes that it's not just certain things that we do that can be done in thankfulness to God. It's the Christian who realizes that their entire life belongs to God. And so all we do, everything can be done with thanksgiving. Listen to how GK Chesterton applied this verse. He says, you say grace before meals. Alright, but I say grace before the concert and the opera

and grace before the play and the pantomime and grace before I open a book and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink, Chesterton practiced what Colossians three 17 teaches us to do. Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Maybe some of you have picked up on this trend that some have pointed out to me

and been able to ob observe on my own. It seems that recently football players have been given a greater opportunity, a bigger platform to be able after, after the game is over and their post post-game comments to say whatever they want. But it seems even more common now, uh, than it has before that football players are taking every opportunity that they have to say something about their faith. And oftentimes it goes something like, I want to thank God

and I wanna thank Jesus Christ my savior, for giving me this opportunity. I have to admit, as I was reflecting on this verse this week, I, as I've been reflecting on how often this seems to be occurring nowadays, that I frequently am dismissing what they're saying, discounting it, thinking. I don't know if that's genuine or if they're only saying this because they are on TV and because people care about what they think.

I had to stop myself as I was thinking about that this week with this particular verse in mind. Maybe I better give them the benefit of the doubt. Everything we do, whether in word or deed, can be done with thanksgiving to God through Christ everything.

So kids that are doing schoolwork, you can do schoolwork, giving thanks. You can drink coffee with thanks to God. You can play football, you can knit a sweater, you can read a book with thanks to God. Whatever we do, very all encompassing, whatever we do in word or deed, we are to give thanks to God the Father through Jesus. So instead of maybe calling this or thinking of this as Thanksgiving, it would be better to think of this as thanks living

one, sustained and repeated expression of thanks to God for all he's done for us. We recognize, don't we, that all we have, all we are comes from God. And if we do, then, then it makes exact sense that we are fundamentally then grateful people. We realize that everything we have is undeserved. Everything we are, everything we have, everything we will have for all eternity comes from God doesn't come by chance, but it comes from God, from his fatherly hand.

And the better we understand, the more we understand that everything we have comes from him, the better, more able we will be to do everything, everything with Thanksgiving in our hearts to God. So as we conclude our faith focus, don't stop giving thanks.

Don't let the conclusion of this faith focus series be the closing of the book. Let it be like the end of the preface or the end of the introduction. It's just the start. This is just the beginning of living a life of gratitude and seeking to work it more and more into your own heart and also into your relationships here at the church. Let us seek to cultivate a spirit of gratitude and let's live it out together with our actions

and let's express it to God with our voices as we sing and in whatever we do all for his glory. Amen. Let's pray.

Oh Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for how it instructs us, how it encourages us, rebukes us, how it trains us in righteousness. And we pray, oh Lord, for this word that has just gone out through reading and preaching. And we ask, oh Lord, that it would now bear fruit in our lives. That we might be thankful people, that more and more we would be a thankful church, that more and more we would abound in Thanksgiving, all to your praise

and glory for you have been so abundantly good and gracious to us. Everything we have has come from you. And so we simply say thank you. Oh Lord, help us this week to put this into practice for we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.