Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Thanksgiving had simple roots. Early settlers were just glad they had something to eat.
Now, despite economic troubles, most of us have far more than the richest pilgrim in the 1600s. Today you'll hear a message on three commands all believers must obey, commands that include being thankful no matter what. Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, I'm sure our listeners are very thankful that God has given you a long and rich ministry that has impacted people around the world. Well Dave, I genuinely want to praise God for any ministry that I have had. It has been because of his grace, undeserved grace. You know, the Bible says, who makes you to differ from another?
What do you have that you haven't received? Well, the answer is I have nothing that God has not first of all given me. So we give him the glory. And I want to say this, especially today, which is Thanksgiving Day, I have discovered in my life that when I am genuinely thankful, and not only that, I connect Thanksgiving with worship, I begin to see God as above my circumstances. And I soon learn that Thanksgiving does indeed change everything. So to all those who are out there today, use an opportunity that has been given to you by God to be thankful. Even be thankful for those negative things that you believe God is going to use for his good and for his glory.
So today, amid all of the agendas, let it be a day of Thanksgiving. You know, there are many different ways that we can categorize people. One way that we can do it is to talk about pleasant people and unpleasant people. Now, of course, most of us find ourselves somewhere midway in that continuum. Sometimes we're pleasant and sometimes we're unpleasant.
But today what we're going to talk about is moving from unpleasantness to pleasantness. What's the difference? Well, a pleasant person is somebody who can accept circumstances and can accept others and has a degree of optimism, but an unpleasant person is critical, self-absorbed. They can't see beyond their immediate opinions. Oftentimes they are angry. But the problem is they see themselves as absolutely right in their perspective.
And they honestly believe that if people saw reality the way in which they did, that everybody would agree that they are right. And so oftentimes they are immune to change. That's why we have to trust the Holy Spirit, don't we? Because when God points out our sins and faults, we need to respond. Now, the purpose of this message actually is, first of all, how to live life differently. I've talked about moving from being a unpleasant person to a pleasant one, but also it has to do with doing the will of God and pleasing God. After all, you do want to please God.
The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, and if you were to take your Bibles and turn there for just a moment, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, the Apostle Paul says these words in chapter 4 verse 1. Finally then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so and more. We learn how to please God. Well, by the time this sermon ends today, we'll have learned how we can please God and how we can do his will. And in the process, there's going to be a heart renovation that God is going to take place in us. And you today who are here, I hope that you will leave presently. I hope that I will because we've been in God's presence and in his holy word. Well, what I want to do today is to actually ask you to turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.
If you're in 1 Thess 4, you're very close to the text today. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, and I'm going to give you three commands that are given here in these verses. There are many commands, but I'm simply referring to three of them. Now, it's very important to realize, first of all, that these are commands. You know, oftentimes it is said that we live under grace and therefore we don't have commands. The minute we tell people that there are commands in the New Testament, they say, well, that's Old Testament, but we are under grace today and we have no commands.
That is very false. In fact, there's a woman here at the church who's written a manuscript on all of the commands in the New Testament, and I believe that she's come up with hundreds of them. Love one another, forgive each other, and on and on it goes, commands that we are to obey as Christians. You see, grace does not mean that we are not under commands. Grace means that God grants us the ability to do as we ought and gives us the ability to obey commands. So today, you're receiving some commands, not from me, but from God.
Also, each of these commands is in the present tense. What that means is God says you should continuously be doing these things. This should be a habit. This should be a lifestyle. This should be an attitude. And I believe that these three commands have to be obeyed together.
I don't think that you can take them and say, well, I'm going to do one, but I'm not going to do the other, because if you do one, it shows that you are doing the other. And now to the commands. Then what we're going to do is to give you some assumptions that the Apostle Paul is using in this context. And finally, God is going to change us as we look into his word.
Are you ready for the commands? First of all, you'll notice it says, always rejoice. This is the way we please God. Now we can please him always. First Thess chapter 5, verse 16, rejoice always.
It's a command. Now we find that startling because we say, well, how can God cause us to rejoice or expect it from us? Because for many of us, joy is so closely tied to circumstances. We rejoice in promotions. We rejoice in unexpected windfall of money. We rejoice in good health. But how can we rejoice when we have none of those? Well, in the Bible, rejoicing and sorrow are compatible.
You need to understand that. The reason I mention that is this past week I heard a story that grips our hearts. In Europe, there is a Christian couple, a woman whose husband was in the military and he in Italy drove four hours recently to celebrate her birthday with her.
It was a surprise that he was there on Sunday. And she wrote on her blog all of the things that happened and how much she loved him and how special he was to her. And then she said, I miss him so badly, but I will have to go to my happy place to endure the loneliness.
That Thursday he was killed in a helicopter accident. I was told, she said this, now that my husband is dead, there will never be another happy place. And in it she spills out her soul with all of her loneliness, all of her unanswered questions, all of her grief. Now, are you saying that a woman like that can rejoice? Well, the answer is yes, in this sense that joy is not incompatible with sorrow. We're not talking about the escapism of the Eastern religions here where we pretend that sorrow doesn't exist. No, but Jesus says that your sorrow shall be turned into joy. And in the Bible, in the midst of darkness and emptiness, there is at least joy in some of God's promises and there is hope.
The young man's father at the memorial service said, my son traveled to many different parts of the world and he saw many countries and places that I will never see. And now he's in a place that I have never seen heaven, but this is the place where I go to him and soon I shall be there with him. In the midst of all of that grief, there can also be a sense of hope and a sense of joy because real joy ultimately is rooted in God. That's why it says in the book of Philippians, rejoice in the Lord always.
And again, I say, rejoice. There is a hope that is implanted within us by God. That's why David said in Psalm five, he says, you have put more joy into my heart than they have with wine and the grain that they harvest. God puts it within us.
It is a miracle of a supernatural work of God. Joy sometimes in the Bible, however, is also connected to people and circumstances, not circumstances the way in which we think of it, but it is connected with people. For example, it says, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. In other words, we can take joy in the good things that happen to other people. In Romans chapter 16, the apostle Paul says, as a result of your obedience, he says to the folks at Rome, I rejoice so we can rejoice in others, but ultimately our joy is in God. So the command from scripture is rejoice at all times and our sorrows are turned into joy.
Now you can't keep that command unless you go on to the second command. And the second command is in verse 17, pray always, pray always. Now this doesn't mean that all that we should do is pray.
We should shut everything down and all that we should do is to spend our time in prayer. What it does mean is we don't do anything without praying about it. Jesus said, men ought always to pray and not to faint.
And he said to the disciples, watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. Prayer should be a part of our lives. Now, how can we pray without ceasing though? Well, it means that it should be a reoccurring part of our lives and we can even pray unconsciously.
The apostle Paul here is talking about a soul that is continuously open to God. Day by day, we begin the day by giving ourselves to God, by committing ourselves to him. And then we open our lives to him all day long. We stay connected with God.
What this really means is first of all, we have a sense of dependence. We recognize that we can't get through this day without him. So we begin the day with God. We begin the day yielding ourselves to him and inviting his blessed Holy Spirit of God to help us because we know we can't do without him. And then something else, and that is that we live in complete agreement with God about everything.
Now, let me speak to you very candidly. Why is it so difficult oftentimes for us to pray without ceasing? Because we know that if we were completely dead honest before God, there are things that are out of agreement. Our lives are not in agreement with God, which is what the word confess means. Confession means that I agree with God.
If our souls were open to him, immediately God begins to say, all right, it's fine for you to be open to me and to pray, but look at this. Is there a person here you've not forgiven? What about that bitterness in your life? And what about that deceit in your life? And what about that dishonesty in your life? And what about the secret sins that you are committing? And all of these things you see are matters with which we must agree with God. We must say to God, I agree that it is sin.
I agree that you have the right to take it out of my life forever. And I agree that I'm going to do all that I possibly can to make sure that you give me a sense of deliverance and freedom because I agree with God. Now, if you live that way, you'll be able to pray without ceasing. There are times when you are going to be in a difficulty and even without the difficulty all day long, you're simply saying, father, this is your situation.
Lord, I don't have the wisdom to know what I'm supposed to do here. Lord, this is beyond me, but I keep committing it to you because I pray without ceasing. And parents have had the experience of having a child or a grandchild on their hearts, continually lifting that child to God, praying without ceasing. It should become a part of our attitude.
It is part of the renovation of the soul. Now there is also a third command, and that is in verse 18, always give thanks. Give thanks it says in all circumstances. That doesn't mean that we give thanks for all circumstances necessarily. It does mean that we give thanks in the midst of those circumstances. We can always find something for which to praise God.
I've used this illustration before, but it's wonderful. Matthew Henry, who was a Bible commentator who lived in a previous age, was robbed one evening as he was going home. That night he wrote in his diary, his gratitude to God for four things. First, I was never robbed before.
He was thankful for that. Secondly, although they took my wallet, they did not take my life. Third, because although they took my all, they took my all, it was not very much. And fourth, I'm so grateful that I was robbed and I was not the one doing the robbing. This morning, God gave me an illustration of how I could apply what Matthew Henry had to say.
My wife is still with the grandchildren in Missouri and she has my car, so I drove hers today. And getting up, I didn't have any breakfast. I thought I'd stop by McDonald's and pick up a cup of coffee. And I did that and I took one of those cardboard trays that they gave me and I put it next to me in the seat. And I didn't realize when I arrived here at the church that the coffee had spilled over and the cardboard tray was soggy and there was coffee all over the seat. And I thought, oh, okay, so I'm supposed to thank God for this.
And I remembered Matthew Henry because I knew I was going to use this illustration. I said, Lord, what can I thank you for? And I began to thank him. And I said, Lord, thank you that even though the coffee spilled, not all of it did.
I did have a half cup. And I said, Lord, even though it spilled on the car seat, thank you that it did not spill on me. Then I said, Lord, and I thank you it was only coffee. I thank you that it wasn't syrup. And then I said, sorry to laugh at the fourth. And thank you, Lord, that it happened in my wife's vehicle and not mine.
Well, wait till Rebecca hears about that. Now the question is this, how can we give thanks in every circumstance? How can we give thanks?
As I mentioned, we don't give thanks for evil. The woman who lost her husband in that helicopter crash, she doesn't say, Lord, thank you that my husband was killed. No, but what she says is, thank you, Father, for your grace in the midst of this. Thank you, Father, for your grace that is going to sustain me.
Thank you, Father, that even though I do not experience any comfort at this moment, I thank you that that comfort will come. One day I was counseling a widow whose husband died suddenly. They were very greatly in love and she was contemplating suicide, a Christian woman because she simply could not imagine going on without her husband. And so she wanted some assurance that if she committed suicide, she'd go to heaven.
I mean, how can you go on living? That was her thing. And I remember promising her something. I said, if you live through one year, simply a day at a time, you have only one responsibility each day as you wake up in the morning, and that is to get to the end of that day. And after you get to the end of that day, you get to the end of the next day on and on for one year.
And then oftentimes the second year is also very difficult. If you do that for two years, I said, I have a promise for you. The sun will shine again. Hope will come back to you. The joy of the Lord will be your strength. Many years later, I saw her and asked her, I said, has the sun come back?
And she said, oh yes, the sun is shining again. What does the Bible say? It says, rejoice all the time.
It says, pray all the time. Give thanks all the time. You say, should we give thanks for sin? No, no, it does not say give thanks as I mentioned for every circumstance. In every circumstance, we don't give thanks for sin, but we do give thanks for God's grace in the midst of sin. We thank him for his love and for his mercy toward us so that in everything we give thanks. Many of you know that the man with whom I played tennis for 20 years died just about a year and a half ago.
I visited Mark a number of different times before he died, as often as I was actually able to. And one day I said to him, I said, have you ever given thanks to God for your cancer? I didn't know how he would answer that, but he said, many times, many times, he says, I thank him every day for cancer because he says, the glory of heaven that I have already experienced here on earth, he said to me, heaven was just a concept. And he said, now I look at it so differently. It's a real place, a real reality. And the nearness that I have to God, I never experienced that before because he said, we are so earth bound. Wow. Give thanks in everything. I remember reading an article that my wife gave me.
I wish I had kept it. I'm not sure if it can be found about a couple that had a special needs child. And they said that when this child was born, their entire lives were just thrown topsy turvy and everything was up for grabs because they love to travel. They both had careers. And now in the midst of this, this child needed 24 seven care.
And now this article was being written 13 years later when they had their first vacation in 13 years. And they said that this burden that we thought God was giving us was this incredible blessing. We thank God over and over and over again for this special needs child in everything. Give thanks for this is God's will. The text says in Christ concerning you. Sometimes the will of God is thought of as something so elusive we can't ever find it. Well, here it is.
Here it is. In everything, give thanks. Now, what I'd like to do is to give you some assumptions that the Apostle Paul is making. What are the assumptions that lie behind these commands? Let me give them to you because what God wants to do is I've emphasized is to renovate our hearts. First of all, Paul assumes that God supplies what he demands.
Paul assumes that God supplies what he demands. He demands and requests and commands us to rejoice in all things. If that is to happen, he has to supply the joy because it doesn't come naturally. That's why the Bible says that the fruit of the Spirit is love and the second fruit is joy. Joy is one of the indisputable marks of the Spirit. But God has to put it within us because it isn't within us.
He has to put it there. And if he wants us to pray, he has to give us the grace and the strength to be able to do that. And if God desires that we give thanks, what he needs to do is to give us the ability to see him from a larger perspective so that we can do that. Paul is assuming here a supernatural relationship with God, with power and help from the outside. So that's the first assumption that the Apostle Paul is making. The second assumption is that Paul assumes that our attitude will follow obedience.
Our attitude will follow obedience. Well, this is Pastor Lutzer and I want to speak to you today on this very special day, Thanksgiving Day. And I recognize that there are many of you who have listened who are going through various trials, perhaps sorrow and difficulty. I want to encourage you and let you know that even in the midst of your circumstances, there is still the opportunity for you to experience joy. I know that this demands a longer explanation, but it is possible for sorrow and joy to coexist. That's why as we conclude this program today, my heart for you is that you might be able to be a joyful Christian no matter your circumstance. You say, but Pastor Lutzer, I'm going through a time of difficulty in my marriage, a time of difficulty in finances and relationships, perhaps children who have rebelled.
I understand. But joy is the fruit of the Spirit. It does not come from you.
It does not come from circumstances. It comes because we begin to see God in the midst of our dilemma. And how best to do that is to be a very thankful Christian, to take out time every single day and thank God for blessings that he has brought into your life that are totally undeserved. Let's remember the future.
Our future is secure in Jesus Christ. And no matter what we encounter, we can still experience that joy. Once again, from my heart to yours on this special Thanksgiving Day, be thankful.
You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Thanksgiving has been celebrated since 1621, a day made official in 1789. Thus, it's America's oldest holiday. As believers, we have more reason to give thanks than anyone. And giving thanks is a commandment we're to follow. Next time, more about pleasing the Lord always. Make plans to join us. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
