A Table of Blessing

A Little History:  The pilgrims did not have it easy on that first trip.  They landed in November near Plymouth Rock and had no time to prepare for winter.  They had to rely on whatever they could find by foraging and getting by on what they could find. 

Governor Bradford proclaimed a time of celebration after their first harvest. 

In Psalm 9, David writes,

I will thank you, Lord, with all my heart;
    I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.
I will be filled with joy because of you.
    I will sing praises to your name, O Most High.

I will praise the Lord at all times.
    I will constantly speak his praises.
I will boast only in the Lord;
    let all who are discouraged take heart.
Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness;
    let us exalt his name together.

I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me.
    freeing me from all my fears.

Testimony:  The Upchurch Family (5:36)

Psalm 66

Shout joyful praises to God, all the earth!
    Sing about the glory of his name!
    Tell the world how glorious he is.
Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
    Your enemies cringe before your mighty power.
Everything on earth will worship you;
    they will sing your praises,
    shouting your name in glorious songs.”

Come and see what our God has done,
    what awesome miracles he performs for people!

Give Thanks for all those around us! 

We do it all for Jesus! 

I do nothing for the applause of man, but I do everything for the applause of his nail scarred hands.

We have been in this facility for almost 16 years. (31:34)
We began in a house in 1910 and now, for many of you, you are back in your house!

We have lost some of our saints this week.  (34:00)

But we celebrate!  We know where they are.

You can listen to the message here:

You can watch to the message HERE.

“The Perfect Prayer for All Circumstances!”

 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NAS95)

Let me just confess, up front, that I have been tested on this sermon… every step of the way this week. I am preaching this message to you as a fellow learner of the Way of Jesus. So much has been going on and frankly, not a lot of it has been praiseworthy. As we approach this teaching, I do so with humility towards its application, but with conviction of its truth!

Please pray with me…

I was taught that when you don’t know what to pray, then you say the most important two words you can say to God—“Thank You!” Thanksgiving is worship!

“Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Today, I am going to emphasize and try to make sense of “in everything give thanks” because Paul teaches us that “this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” As hard and nonsensical as this command sounds, Paul backs it up with a statement that cannot be denied… it is the will of God to give thanks in everything.

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification.”

There is that big statement again, “the will of God”… but this time, it is for our sanctification!

Let’s play the wonderful systematic theology game called “connect the dots”: our ability to give thanks in all circumstances is connected to our sanctification. Here is the interpretation that has a built in application: I cannot fulfill the will of God to give thanks in all circumstances apart from the consecrating work of God to make me holy unto His plans and purposes—my sanctification. The only way to pray the perfect prayer of thanksgiving in all circumstance—to cultivate the attitude of gratitude—is by being in union with Christ, yoked to His easy yoke and light burden, abiding in His vine, carrying my cross, built on the rock…

“But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.”

This is getting deep! How deep are you willing to dive into God’s Word? Our ability to give thanks always for all the people who are the beloved brethren of the church is not dependent on our abilities, but is connected to the reality that we, each one of us, are the chosen of God, who have been set apart/consecrated for this purpose by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

Thankfulness is a work of God’s Spirit that has been gifted to us and is being worked out in us through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit as walk by faith and not by sight.

Let’s follow the logic loop here and see the importance of this to our discipleship: God’s will for my life is that I pray without ceasing while always rejoicing and giving thanks to God in all circumstances. This is possible because God’s will for my life is my sanctification, which is God’s work to choose me and set my life apart, make me holy, consecrated for God’s plans and purposes, for His glory and my good. When I am able to sincerely pray the perfect prayer, it is because I am on the journey of sanctification! Therefore, the more I can honestly say “Thank you” to God in all my circumstances the more God is at work in me for His glory.

“Thank. You. Those two hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.”[1]

Your sanctified self, the best version of you to the glory of God, is always giving thanks and always rejoicing because the more we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33), the more we will then trust that God is working all things together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28)!

“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.”

Do you know the big fancy word for being conformed to the image of His Son? Sanctification!

The ability to pray the perfect prayer is intimately connected to God’s perfecting work in our lives. It’s that simple. Our gratitude and ability to intimately express it to God is a shining light to God’s glory in us—the reality that we are in union with the One to whom we give thanks!

“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”

Does it sound impossible to give thanks in all circumstances? Does it sound impossible to pray the perfect prayer every time in every situation?

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”

Say “Thank You” to the One who can bring about His will in your life in every circumstance. Turn to Him each and every time. He invites us to complete surrender—absolute dependence.

That is what this is about—it is about a life-perspective that looks for the opportunity to be a part of God’s perfect and pleasing will in all things, but it requires an emptying of self, a forsaking of the paradigm—my will be done. You have heard me say: “every crisis is an opportunity.” That is truth, but it requires a sanctified mind to see that truth and believe it in the way we respond.

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

What does it mean that this presenting of yourself as a “living and holy sacrifice” is “your spiritual service of worship”? It is the ultimate commitment of praying the perfect prayer no matter what—it is faith in God and trust in His will; it is thanksgiving unto God for who He is, what He has done, is doing, and will do in every circumstance!

Your spiritual service of worship is to be sanctified to a place of continual praise to know and walk in what is God’s will, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. It is the life of believing God for His promises!

The perfect prayer of giving thanks in every circumstance is God’s will for your life because it will transform you through the renewal of your mind. It is circular logic and it requires to grace to enter into the flow. It is the river of life and its current will nourish you and lead you.

We cannot live lives of gratitude until we have surrendered ourselves to the One who has given us all things and in all things teaches us to give thanks. We can only bear the fruit of gratitude as we love Him and give ourselves to Him. And the more we love Him and give ourselves to Him the more we learn to trust Him, the more we thank Him, the more we love Him and give ourselves to Him.

It is a perpetual cycle of thanksgiving, which is our eternal destiny—our perfect union in glory—the life of complete worship, which truly, to be frank, is the life of absolute surrender! This is the only way to have rest for your soul—it is the life of the yokefellow who has learned to be completely submissive to the will of the Father—gentle and humble in heart—like Jesus, who lived by the power of the Spirit. It is the life that abides in the Vine and bears much fruit.

The perfect prayer… those two hallowed words… Thank. You. I can’t think of a time when it is not the perfect prayer even though I can think of plenty of times in my own life when it was not the prayer I prayed. May the Lord close the gap between my will and His will until there is not a  circumstance in my life that thank you is not the first and last words on my lips.

You can listen to the message here:

You can watch to the message HERE.

Footnotes:

[1] I don’t expect many people to catch this, but I just want to point out that this is a modification of a memorized section of General Douglas MacArthur’s 1962 “Duty, Honor, Country” speech that all West Point cadets must memorize and recite so many times in their Academy years that it is tattooed to their brains. J

“Three Church Marks that Lead a Pastor to Give Thanks!”

1 Thessalonians 1:1-3 (NAS95)

Last week, Pastor Ken opened up our November sermon series on “Responding to Jesus by Giving Thanks” and today, I continue from the same book of the Bible: Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. Please turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 1:1-3,

Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father.

From this passage we learn three characteristics of the early church that caused the early church leaders to give thanks to God always for all of the people.

Before we examine these three characteristics, I want to make two quick observations from this Scripture:

Now, what can we learn from the three characteristics of the early church that caused the early church leaders to give thanks to God always for all of the people? According to 1 Thessalonians 1:1-3, church leaders; hence, the people of the churches should focus their thoughts or “bear in mind” these three areas: (1) Work of Faith; (2) Labor of Love; and (3) Steadfastness of Hope.

“But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Biblically, these are the three areas we should excel as Christians in character and conduct, as individuals, as families, and as communities. This is how we are called to stand out and shine like stars in these dark days!

Let’s now apply them to our lives. It has been said,

“Faith rests on the past; love works in the present; hope looks to the future” (Moody Bible Commentary, 1879).

1.  Work of FAITH!

“Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”

“work of faith … in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father.”

While this applies to all three of these points, I will only say it once, all that I am teaching today invokes the teachings of every sermon series from 2020: we are called to the work of faith, the labor of love, and the steadfastness of hope in response to the Plans of God, the Passion of Jesus Christ, the Priorities of Jesus, the Promises of God, and the Presence of God. All that we have been discussing this year, through each of the sermon series, is being called forth in this passage.

“Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.”

“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.”

When our work is the work of faith (when our trust is in God) we manifest the “fruit of the Spirit”, but when our work is of any of source, we show the world ourselves—the “deeds of the flesh”!

Work of faith proves who we serve and to whom we belong! What you do is important because it is the only way you can show the world the life of Christ that is in you… This is a life that brings thanksgiving to Paul!

2.  Labor of LOVE!

“And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain— for He says, ‘At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you.’ Behold, now is ‘the acceptable time,’ behold, now is ‘the day of salvation’— giving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.”

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

When we labor in love, though we may not get the results we want (success vs failure), we will live lives that give glory to God and invoke thankfulness from our faith communities! Love does not always win in this world, as the world defines winning and losing, but God’s love never fails. But, without God’s love, even if you score a win in the eyes of the world, you still lose! We must do all things in God’s love if we are truly giving thanks!

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.”

And that leads us to Paul’s final admonition…

3.  Steadfastness of HOPE!

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

What leads Paul and church leaders to give thanks? The people of God maturing in Christlikeness and reflecting Him in this life, more and more, one day at a time, until the Day of His royal visitation.

You can listen to the message here:

You can watch to the message HERE.

“In All Things”

1 Thessalonians 5:12-18

It is my privilege and honor to be able to bring the message today that I believe God has given me to share with you, His beloved children. Let’s stand for the reading of God’s Word as we turn to our passage today:

 “We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.  And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle (undisciplined), encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.   See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”                1 Thessalonians 5:12-18(ESV)

I am thankful to be working with Pastor Jerry as we serve this body of believers here at FBC. I am thankful for a group of elders and trustees that have come around us that have joined in this partnership to lead this church. I am thankful for Jody and Kevin as the ministry directors as they work with us in leading the NextGen ministries. I am thankful for the volunteer leaders that serve in the various ministries, for without them, we could not do or offer these ministries. And most of all, I am thankful for the people of FBC who love and support all of us!

As I was reading through this first letter to the church of Thessalonica, it could have been written to our church here in New Castle. In the first 3 ‘chapters’ of this letter, Paul was thanking God for what was happening in the church even after he had left. He was encouraging them to keep being faithful, letting them know he was praying for them. He also was encouraging them to keep spreading the Gospel until Christ’s return by living out their faith in their daily lives so that others would see the message of hope being ‘fleshed out’ in front of them.

He precedes these words with how we can do it, and then proceeds to tell us why. So let’s look at those together more intently (or intensely, as the case may be)

1.  HOW?

“…who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work…”

-over you in the Lord (led by the Spirit)

-admonish you

DEFINITIONS OF ADMONISH: 

to indicate duties or obligations to;

to express warning or disapproval to, especially in a gentle, earnest, or solicitous manner;

to give friendly earnest advice or encouragement to;

to say (something) as advice or a warning

Expositor’s Bible Commentary says:

“admonish” means correction administered either by word or deed. It implies blame on the part of the one admonished. Naturally, this process arouses resentment, since discipline is never pleasant. Still the apostle presents admonition as necessary for the congregation and requires respect for those who exercise it.

Esteem in love:   This is a part of respect that has been lost or forgotten  In this day and age of “my rights” and “me first”,  we have pushed love out of the picture.

encourage the fainthearted

help the weak

be patient with them all (Jerry quote)

“See that no one repays anyone evil for evil…” (v15a)

“Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing.”

“always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.”(v15b)

Hebrews 13:16

“And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God

-Always joyful…in all ways…full of joy

Philippians 4:4

“Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, rejoice!”

~What could he mean by that?

Expositor’s Bible Commentary:

“Intimately related to constant joy is incessant prayer—the only way to cultivate a joyful attitude in times of trial. Uninterrupted communication with God keeps temporal and spiritual values in balance. “Continually” does not mean nonstop praying. Rather, it implies constantly recurring prayer, growing out of a settled attitude of dependence on God. Whether words are uttered or not, lifting the heart to God while one is occupied with miscellaneous duties is the vital thing. Verbalized prayer will be spontaneous and will punctuate one’s daily schedule.”

Colossians 3:17

“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.”

Philippians 1:3-4

“Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy.”

2.  WHY?

BENEDICTION:

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24(ESV)

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”                                                                     

You can listen to the message here.

You can watch the message HERE.