Overflowing with Thankfulness

Every once in a while you hear a sermon that ignites a spark in your soul and you think, “Yes! Now if I can just remember that!”

Today was such a day. I was searching for an effective way to reach out to someone while respecting that it is God’s grace which saves men, not me… not my perfect word choices… not my persuasive character… not even my best intentions or the love that I have for that person.

A friend was praying that the love I have for that person would overflow and flop onto them! 😆 That was rich. But it started me searching through the website of one of my favorite Bible teachers, Alistair Begg, when I ran across a sermon, “Overflowing with Thankfulness – Part One.” From 11/29/2009 – before I was even a Christian. 😌

Here are just a few points that spoke to me.

And every so often, if someone turns us to the Bible, we discover this ugly truth about ourselves, but it is actually in some measure liberating to realize, “Oh, I get it now. The reason that I feel alienated from people around me, the real reason that I feel alienated from myself sometimes when I’m alone, is because the Bible says that I’m alienated from God, that God made me for himself, for a relationship with him. I’m alienated from him. My mind is turned away from him. I don’t think of him. I don’t love him. I don’t look for him. And frankly, my behavior isn’t very good either.” That’s exactly what he says to these people. But he says the good news is that’s what you used to be. You were alienated, but now you’ve been reconciled. [Colossians 1:21-22] Elsewhere, he says, you lived in a dark place, and now you’ve been brought into the light. Elsewhere, he says, you were trapped, and now you’ve been set free. Elsewhere, he says, you were dead and now you’ve been made alive with Christ.

I hope you understand this, because this is clearly not simply the description of those who have decided to revamp their lives. I meet people all the time who are telling me they’re revamping their lives. “Yes, I’m turning over a new leaf. I’m making a change. It’s wonderful. I’m going to be more thankful this year than I was last year.” Good! There’s nothing wrong with that at all. I’m sure your wife is thrilled to hear it for a start, and your children, too. That’s not the description here. The description is not of individuals who decided to revamp their lives, it is a description of those whose lives has been revolutionized by the saving grace of God, that they were once a certain way, and now they’ve been made another way. That’s what it means to be a Christian. That’s what it means to be converted. That’s what it means to know God, à la the Bible.

You see, ingratitude is one of the great marks of the unbeliever. When Paul writes in Romans chapter 1, he says that these people were ungrateful, that although they knew God, they neither gave thanks to him nor glorified him, but they worshipped the creature rather than the creator.[Romans 1:21, 25] By the time Paul writes his final letter to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 and he says, you’re in for some tough sailing here, Timothy, before things get wrapped up. People will be lovers of the money, they’ll be lovers of themselves, they will be ungrateful, inhospitable, [2 Timothy 3:1–5] and so on, but ingratitude is in the heart of it. And one of the real indications that a person’s life has been touched and changed by Jesus is that they overflow with thankfulness. They’re just thankful! You see, thankfulness is the song of the Christian. Bitterness, complaining, anger, victimization, these are all part of the non-Christian’s wardrobe. And in Jesus, says Paul to these Colossian Christians, you don’t wear that stuff anymore. When you heard God’s grace in all its truth, when you turned to him in repentance and in faith, he forgave all of your sins and he came to live inside of you. He indwelt you. You are the dwelling place of God. Therefore, it is now incongruous for those of you who have been united with Jesus to go around wearing the clothes from your olden days.

Purposeful, perpetual thanks to God is absolutely central for Christian character.

when the news is overwhelming, the believer can thank God that God sits enthroned over all the military, political, social, and economic forces of our day. The Christian can face illness, disappointment, bereavement, unemployment, difficulty, sorrow, in the awareness of the fact that the God who has promised to look after the sparrow is profoundly involved in the life and circumstance of those whom he has made the special objects of his love.