Bible Text: Col. 3:12-15
Sunday, 6 October 2019
“Those who are appreciating, their lives are characterized by God’s favor ”
In the verses leading up to verse 15, the Apostle Paul is in many ways like a coach telling his team how the game should be played:
Verse 12: He says if you are going to make it in the Christian life, you need to clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, and gentleness.
Verse 13: You need to forgive people who have hurt you.
Verse 14: But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
Then in the middle of all your relentless activity, you need to know the stillness of the peace of Christ ruling in your heart.
The evident of the peace of God is to be thankful for all things
Verse 15a: “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts” He does not say ‘be peaceful’. The source of peace is not you, it is from Jesus Christ,
Mark 4:39 Jesus confronts the violence of a great storm on earth. And he is able to say, “Peace, be still” and there is a great calm.
But Verse 15b: “And be thankful!” The gift of peace is something that can only be given by Christ, but the response of thankfulness is something can only come from you.
So, be thankful. It’s a response God expected from us! There’s something intentional about it, and this choice involves three things.
Three Areas That Encompass Thankfulness:
Recognize the role others have played in your life.
The thankful person remembers the people who contributed to his or her life. The ungrateful person forgets these contributions and takes all the credit.
Think of all the people who have contributed to the course of your life:
Trinity, Parents, Pastors, Sunday school teachers.
People who have given to you, those who love you.
People who have worked with you to achieve things that were important.
Friends who were thoughtful.
That person who said something at just the right time when you needed a word of encouragement.
Make a conscious choice to recognize and remember the people who have touched your life.
It is very interesting that in Romans 1:21, Paul gives a description of what he calls a godless and wicked person. He tells us that this person makes three very clear choices:
1. They suppress the truth about God, although the evidence of God is all round about them in creation.
2. They refuse to worship God.
3. And, they do not give thanks.
The result is that their thinking becomes futile. They live in a make-believe world in which they enjoy the gifts without any acknowledgment of the giver.
In contrast, the choice to give thanks to God is at the very heart of what it means to be a Christian:
We choose to embrace the truth.
We choose to worship God
And, we choose to be thankful.
So when Paul writes to Christians and says “Be thankful,” he is saying something that goes to the very heart of what it means to be a Christian: We recognize that all we are and all we have comes from the hand of God.
2. Affirm the value of something done for you.
Our gratitude should always reflect the value of what is done.
Don’t be little things done or given to you
What you don’t appreciate, will depreciate (no value), you become unthankful. Romans 1:21
Value your salvation. Value your life , family, church, pastor, members, nation and work.
3. Express your pleasure at something received.
Pleasure is a feeling of happy satisfaction and enjoyment.
Psalm 16:11 “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore”
John 3:27 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven”
What are your feelings of happy satisfaction & enjoyment about things you have received?
Here is the point: You cannot separate gratitude from pleasure. Where there is pleasure gratitude is easy, without pleasure gratitude is difficult, and often false.
If you give a gift to someone else, the reason you do it is to give them pleasure. That’s what you want to happen. If it brings pleasure to them then your goal in giving is fulfilled.
Parents know all about this. You give a gift and as the kids open it, their pleasure is your pleasure. In that experience, we have some insight into the heart of God.
Be Thankful.