Back to the book of Psalms. We
started looking last week at the topic of Thanksgiving. And
if you want to go ahead and turn to Psalms 116, that's where we'll
be looking at the first verse. But I'm going to reread the verse
that we looked at last week just to kind of get us into where
we left off. We read last week Psalms 140
verse 13 that says, Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto
thy name, the upright shall dwell in thy presence. And we've seen
here that Thanksgiving is tied to our dependence upon
God. Whenever we are a dependent people,
whenever we find our dependency in God, we are thankful people. We show gratitude to God for
all the things because we are dependent upon Him. The opposite
of dependency is independency. And whenever you're independent,
you're not thankful to other people because you've done it
yourself, right? But yet the child of grace knows
that all things that have been given to them and that they have
experienced in this life is all by the Father. As a matter of fact, the Bible
says that all great gifts come down from the Father of lights.
And so we're thankful and that is our dependency, shows our
dependency on Him. And it says there, the upright
shall dwell in our presence. That also is the significant
sign that we are trusting in Him. We dwell in His presence. We look to Him for everything.
We stay before Him. And we don't do that by our own
nature, we do that because God keeps us there. God draws us
nigh unto him and we are kept by his power and we dwell or
our solace, our place of refuge is in him because we are again,
once again, dependent upon him and so there's this connection
between the righteous being thankful and dependent upon God and we
looked at that last week but this week let's look at a few
places in scripture where Thanksgiving is shown and how it's shown in
Psalms 116 And if you look with me at down
at verse 17, Psalms 116 verse 17. It says, I will offer to thee
the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of
the Lord. So one thing we see that thanksgiving
is whenever we are thankful to the Lord and give thanks to the
Lord is the Scriptures declare that this is a sacrifice or a
offering of thanksgiving, a sacrifice. So it's a spiritual sacrifice
that we give unto the Lord whenever we are thankful to Him. We are
offering up a spiritual sacrifice unto Him. We are looking away
from ourselves, looking to Him again in dependence and thanksgiving
for what He has done and what He is doing, what He has provided. And so we see that the Bible
teaches that Thanksgiving is a spiritual sacrifice, but look
here It's also tied once again, and we'll call upon the name
of the Lord We talked a little bit about the name of the Lord
his authority God's sovereignty We look to God's power, His authority,
His sovereignty. He controls all things. He is
above all things. He is before all things. He is
in all things. He is everything to the child
of grace. And so we give thanksgiving and
we call upon His sovereign rule because we need Him. And That
to me, again, if we go by what we read last week, that is the
demeanor or that is the life that the child of grace has through
the new birth. Again, whenever we talk about
all these admonitions about how we should be, how we should walk,
how we should think, how we should do, all these things in scripture,
those are teaching us what the life of Christ in us is like. It's telling us who we are. It's
the manual to the Christian. It's not a manual to do, it's
the manual of what it is. It's not the instruction manual,
but it's the product manual. We have, in my line of work,
we have Whenever we sell a piece of product, especially whenever
we sell a piece of software, we have a instruction manual,
we have a service manual, and we have a product manual. There's
three different manuals there. The service manual is for the
service guy. It tells him what to fix and
how to look for this and that that's broken and knows how to
trace it down and to fix it. Then you have the instruction
manual which tells the user how to use the product. But the thing
that's before all that, that they get before they ever get
the other manuals, is a product manual that tells you what this
product is and how this product operates. the characteristics
of what this product does. It describes this product, does
this, and this is what it does, this is what it does, this is
what it can do, and everything that's about that product. It's
a product manual. And so that's what we see when
we look at the scriptures and all the admonitions of scriptures.
It's a product manual. It's telling us this is what
the child of grace is. This is what the child of grace
does. Whenever Christ's life comes into us, This is how we
are. We are thankful people. We call upon His name. We look
to Him. We trust in Him. We dwell in
His presence. We love Him. We, you know, all
these things that we see through scripture, and that's what it's
telling us we are. And this is no different. It
says, I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and
will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto
the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the courts
of the Lord's house, in the midst of the old Jerusalem. Praise
ye. the Lord. And so whenever we come together,
we offer up praise and thanksgiving. The Bible says that that is a
spiritual sacrifice unto Him. Look with me, if you would, to
2 Thessalonians. Again, we have an admonition
from the Holy Spirit by way of the
Apostle Paul. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Look at verse 13. It says, but we are bound to give
thanks always to God for you. Now let's just stop there, there's
more to come, but we are bound to give thanks always to God
for you. So one of the things of the Christian
is that we are to give thanks for each other. Give thanks to
God for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Whenever you go to
the Lord in prayer and thanksgiving, do you thank him that he has
given you the fellowship of brothers and sisters in Christ? A lot
of times we don't even think about how blessed A fellowship
of believers are together. A lot of times that just, you
know, is oblivious to a lot of people. And especially, you know,
a lot of people are just so lone ranger Christians that they think,
well, I don't need anybody, just me, myself and I is all I need. But God has divinely built the
Christian life to be very, very communal. He's not intended for
the most part, that's not to say that there's not going to
be times and seasons, that there's going to be time apart from community
and communal fellowship with other Christians, but he has
designed the Christian life to be an associated, gathered, part
of life Because he is given to each one gifts that some others
don't have and those gifts are for the building up And if you
just take those things and you say well, hey I'm a little Christian
over here in the corner and I don't even have to have any fellowship
with anybody I'm just gonna be my own self over here doing my
own thing and and I don't need all that out there well, what
about the gifts that God has given to other people and for
your building up. That means you're not being built
up. See, God has designed us together. That's why Hebrews tells us,
don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Why?
Because God has designed a rich blessing in the gathered worship
of the people of God. There is a blessing that comes
from us being edified one to another. And so we need that. And so here we see, we are bound
to give thanks always to God for you. For who? Brethren, beloved
of the Lord. Who are the ones that we are
thankful for? We are thankful for the brethren. We are thankful
for the ones that God has brought us into fellowship with that
we can minister to and minister with and be ministered by. Okay? We are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. Now, one of the things
that we are to give thanks for is the fact that God has elected
you, that God has chosen you. God has chosen you from the foundation
of the world and we give thanks to God that He has done so. Now
the thing I wanted to get out of this more than anything, not
the reason why we are to give thanks, but the fact that we
are bound to give thanks. We are bound to give thanks.
That word bound, it means we're constrained or we're tied to
or we're called and kept to give thanks. And so that seems to
me like it's a pretty important thing. Paul thought it was a
pretty important thing. And as I mentioned last week, if you
look at every one of these epistles, whenever you open it up, it always
begins with thanksgiving to God and for the people. I mean, Paul,
in almost every letter, wrote that. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus,
unto the church of the Thessalonians, in God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to thank God always
for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth
exceedingly and the charity of every one of you all toward each
other aboundeth. There's thanksgiving there. You
look at 1 Thessalonians. Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus
under the church of Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God
always for you. All making mention of you in
our prayers. And almost every salutation is
a salutation of thanksgiving. and love towards those people.
So, I almost hate to use the word because it can be misconstrued,
but it's like as if God says that we have a duty to give thanks
to Him for each other. Now, I'm not saying that we have
this duty faith stuff. I don't want to be misconstrued
on that, but Paul here is saying there is an important thing in
the life of the Christian to give thanks to God for each other. Now, why would that be so? Why
is it important for us to be bound to give thanks to God for
each other and their salvation? Well, I think one of the reasons
why is in all prayer for each other is that continues to deepen
the intimacy and love for each other. See, whenever I'm always
going to God in prayer for somebody, it's really hard for me to be
upset and antagonistic towards them if I'm truly loving them
in my heart and going to God on their behalf and praying for
them, lifting them up before the Lord in whatever it might
be. And so thanksgiving to God for each other. whether it's
in prayer or just vocalization of it, whatever it may be, brings
an intimacy and a deeper love for each other as we grow in
the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and in our
relationship one towards another. As we begin to see, you know,
whenever I see things in the Phillips that I don't see in
my family of the Lord. I give thanks to God for that.
Why? If God had not brought them to us, then I may have not seen
that glimpse of God anywhere else. And same thing with Sister
Louetta and Sister Beth. The Lord has shown glimpses of
himself and things of himself through them that he hasn't through
everybody else here. And so we thank the Lord for
their salvation. We thank the Lord for their inclusion
into the fellowship. We thank the Lord for bringing
us together. Why? Because their life and his
life in them working out lets us see Him, lets us experience
Him, lets us grow and see ourselves. And it's just a wonderful thing.
And like I said, one of the best things I can think of it is,
and I hate to say this because it sounds so hippie and new age-ish,
but it really is a communal thing. We commune together and whenever
we commune together, whenever we live our lives together in
such a bond of love towards one another, then we find that we
are blessed beyond measure by the Lord, that we are strengthened
in times. I've shared with you guys many
times here before about how whenever we began to see the doctrines
of grace and was beginning dissatisfied with the doctrines that we were
hearing and the way church was being handled and all these things
and we left our church and began to look for church and as I began
to look and the Lord calling me to preach and things like
that I It was a wonderful, wonderful blessing to have many of the
brethren that we fellowship with that really didn't know us very
well that came alongside of us and gave us love and gave us
help and encouraged us. May have not agreed with us on
everything, but they came and they encouraged us. and didn't
try to discourage us and it was a wonderful thing and we grew
together in our relationship where we're we have a strong
bond now that we didn't have before and it's it's amazing
how you can have that strong bond with people that you don't
even know that some people live hundreds of miles away and you
can have that Bond with them But there's this love between
the people of God and then whenever you can actually experience that
when we gather together corporately There's just a blessing that
the Lord gives that and so that's why I believe that the Holy Spirit
had Paul Write these words to us so that we might know that
there is an importance about giving Thanks to each other because
what God has given to us in this bond of unity in this group of
people is something that should be praiseworthy. He has given
us something that the natural flesh, you know, whenever a group
of people gets together, and I've seen this too much in academic
environments and in work environments, when you get a group of people
together, especially people who don't agree and not the same
on each other, there's not a lot of unity, and at some point or
another, it gets to be a little hairy in your relationships with
people. But ain't it weird how people
can gather together in a setting like this, sometimes for 25,
30, 40 years, and there be such love and unity and peace, and
it's just a blessing from the Lord. So we're bound to give
thanks to God for each other. Look, if you would, at Ephesians
1. Ephesians 1. We'll start. We'll start verse one and just
read down. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of
God, to the saints that are in Ephesus, and to the faithful
in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you, and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love. Let
me just stop. That's the same thing Paul just said in Thessalonians,
that we are to give thanks for being chosen in Christ, right? Okay? So he's talking about our
being chosen for the foundation of the world. So he's talking
about this before he gets to what I wanna actually read. That's
why I wanted to back up here so you can see that it's tied
not only in Thessalonians, but in Ephesians. having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Okay. in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches
of his grace, wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom
and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will,
according to the good pleasure which he had purposed in himself,
that in the dispensation of the fullness of time he might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven
and which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first
trusted in Christ. in whom ye also trusted, after
that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of
His glory. Wherefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in
the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, verse 16, cease
not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers,
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and
the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what
the riches of the glory of his inheritance and the saints and
what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe
according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought
in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at
his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality
and power and might and dominion and every name that is named
not only in this world but also in that which is to come and
hath put all things under his feet and gave to him to be the
head over all things to the church which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all." So we see here that Paul ties
again the salvation of the saints to giving thanks to God. Wherefore,
I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love
unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making
mention of you in my prayers. So Paul, in his prayer time,
gave thanks to God for the people who were given faith in Christ. So this kind of ties in with
what we just read and what he said in Thessalonians, that we
are bound to give thanks to God for their salvation and for their
faith in Christ and for, also here, the love unto all the saints. You know, that always wells up
In me, whenever I see the children of grace show love towards one
another, whenever we go to Bible conferences, whenever we go to
Fifth Saturday meetings, whenever we go visit places and we see
the love of the saints towards each other, it just, it really,
it blesses my heart to see that love and that care and that forethought
to hey you know let me do this for this person or let me look
out for that person or have you checked on this person have you
talked with this person what a wonderful praise to hear this
person and what God has done in their life you know whatever
the case might be just to see the love under the saints and
so Paul here is saying that he ceases not so we're bound to
give things and we should cease not giving things Uh, and so,
uh, as I've said before, in times past, whenever talking about
prayer and about Thanksgiving is, it seems to me that, uh,
those people say, well, I never can think of anything to pray
for. Well, we know a few things here that the Lord's told us
that we can pray for. We can pray number one for each other. I
mean, we can always pray about that and pray and thank God for
the salvation of each other. Look if you would at Philippians
chapter 1. So we see there that it seems
to me that Paul was saying or at least alluding to the Holy
Spirit through Paul was alluding to the fact that there should
be some concerted effort some thoughtfulness in prayer, right?
How can I be bound to give thanks to you all, to God for you always,
and how can I cease not to thank God for you in my prayers if
I don't think about those things, right? If that's not on my mind,
if that's not kind of a planned, you know, I need to pray for
this person. Well, also, there is the spontaneity
of giving thanks that we find. Look at Philippians chapter 1,
verse 1. Paul and Timotheus, the servants
of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at
Philippi with the bishops and deacons, grace be unto you and
peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, I
thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer
of mine for you all making request with joy for your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident
of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Even as it is
meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in
my heart, inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the defense and
confirmation of the gospel, ye are partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly
I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. In this I pray
that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and
in all judgment, that you may approve things that are excellent,
that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ."
And I'll just stop there. It goes on, but I'll stop right
there. Paul says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of
you. So that tends to lead me to think
that, you know, there may be times that we may not remember,
but every time I do remember, I'm gonna pray for you. So there
seems to be a spontaneous remembrance that we might have. There's a
concerted, you know, I know some people are down on people making
prayer lists, you know, we used to make a prayer list and everybody
that had things that they'd like prayed about, you know, we'd
make that list. Well, it wasn't to be cold, you
know, we just have a list to go down and pray for. It's a
reminder to us all, you know, sometimes we make mention of
things to pray about and, you know, we leave here and get busy
in our everyday lives and sometimes things slip out of mind and you
know we forget about that. Now that again now let me just
say that doesn't mean because we didn't pray for something
that oh no God's not going to be able to work now or God ain't
going to be able to do whatever it was we were going to pray
for. You know God doesn't do things based upon our prayer
but he gives us over to prayer based upon the things he's bringing
us through and teaching us. Prayer is more for us than it
is for God, really, you know. Whenever we pray and if God answers
prayer, it isn't because we prayed it, It's because he had already
purposed it and brought us to pray about that. So again, that
we might find our dependency upon him. If I'm praying for
brother Larry about any certain circumstance, I'm praying for
him knowing that I can't do anything about it. Nobody else can do
anything about it. Ultimately it's God who is gonna have to
decree that this be the case. And if I pray in God's will,
then it will be done. That doesn't mean if I pray in
God's will and he agrees with that, then he's gonna do it.
No, if I'm praying and that was what God's will was, it will
be done. See, Abraham could have prayed
for Sodom. over and over and over and over
and over again in dust and ashes. He could have rent his clothes.
He could have fasted for 40 days. He could have put on sackcloth
and ashes. He could have rolled in dung.
He could have done all these things and prayed to God unceasingly,
but it was God's will that Sodom and Gomorrah be destroyed. And
all the little talks that he had with God about how about
30, how about 40, you know, and whittling it all down. You know,
that wasn't changing God's mind. God wasn't saying, okay, well,
if you do this, oh, well, okay, if you do this, well, okay, if
you do this. No, God had planned to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah,
and he taught Abraham something in that, and the fact is, is
there was no one righteous in that city except for Lot. And you think, well, I didn't
think Lot was righteous. Hebrews said he was. Hebrews
said he was. Abraham didn't change God's mind,
but his praying brought Abraham into
an understanding with God, to see God at work. And that's what
praying does for us. And so there's a concerted thing
that we do, whether it's write down a prayer list, whether it's
keep mental track, if you can, and pray for things. And then
there's times here, sometimes I'm driving down the road and
I haven't even been thinking about this, that or the other.
And then all of a sudden the Lord brings something to my memory
about something and causes me to pray for that. Hadn't even been thinking about
it. Hadn't even maybe been around somebody. Hadn't even talked
to them. Didn't know nothing about it.
And all of a sudden, the Lord brings to my mind, hey, remember
old so-and-so? He was struggling with this or
struggling with that about a year ago. Brings to my mind that. The Lord brings us to those things.
And so I think maybe that might be what Paul's talking about
here. Sometimes there's a spontaneity that comes to our mind. And so
in every prayer, Let us be diligent about praying for those who are
brought to our mind, who are in the fellowship, as he says
here, the fellowship of the gospel. A couple more here that let's look
at, and we'll be done for today. Look at Ephesians 5.20. How are we to give thanks whenever
we do give thanks to the Lord? How are we to give thanks? He says in verse 20, giving thanks
always for good things unto God. Is that what it says,
Zach? Nope. He says, giving thanks for spiritual
things, for positive things, for beneficial
things, for healthy things. Now he says, giving thanks always
for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Giving thanks always for all
things. Well, it takes a pretty good
hit whenever we start complaining and we're reminded of this, we're
to give thanks always for all things. If we are given to do
this by the Holy Spirit, there'd be a lot less complaining. If there would be a little more
thanksgiving in all things and finding the thanksgiving, I know
it's not a psychological thing. The psychological people have
stolen it, but it's actually a biblical thing. Think on positive
things. Find the silver lining in the
cloud. Well, actually, the Bible has
actually taught it before any psychological person has made
a mess of it. They get it because the Bible
says that we are to think on things that are pure, things
that are holy, things that are right. The Bible says that whenever
we give thanks, that we're to give thanks for all things. We
can find something to be thankful for, even in hard times, even
in bad times, even in the hardest of hardships, we can find something
thankful, if not anything, that the Lord has spared your life
through whatever he's brought you through. There's something
there. Again, I'm reminded of the old
guy that used to always be positive in my grandpa's church over here
in Pitcher. And the old guy that died that
nobody in town liked, and they thought, well, if anybody He
ain't going to be able to say anything good about it. It's
going to be this guy. And I asked him what he thought about that
guy. He said, well, he sure was a good whistler. See, sometimes we, it's easier
for us to find the negative things about everybody and not take
as much time to thank God for the positive things that we see.
And I just pray that the Lord might make us all that way. We
all are guilty of that. I could probably, if I asked
for a raise of hands, if we're honest, We all are bent that
direction. So we are to pray always for
all things unto God the Father. But how are we to pray in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ? We are to give thanks for all
things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. You kids wonder
why whenever you hear The adults pray and how we've taught you
to pray whenever we pray and we say in Jesus name we pray.
In the Lord's name we pray or in your name we pray. We pray
that because God has in his authority given us access to his throne
to boldly come before his throne and to make petitions to him
and to give us a place to come and pray to our God. We don't have to pray to an idol.
We don't have to pray to a prophet. We don't have to pray to a preacher. We don't have to pray. We don't
have to go see the Catholics. You have to go to the priest
and you pray and you offer up these things to the priest and
then he, on your behalf, supposedly goes to God. Or they pray to
Mary and on behalf of you, Mary delivers those messages to God.
But the Bible says that that ain't what is supposed to be
done. There's only one mediator between God and man, and that's
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it's in his name that
we can come before God and pray. And when we do come, we come
in his name because he has given us that right to come. We don't come like Job tried
to come to press our case. We come in his name because he
has given us right to come. We have been purchased, we have
been bought, and we have been given airship, and that gives
us right only by His name to come. It doesn't give us right
because of anything in and of ourselves. So we come to God
and give thanks for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, I just made mention about this being in God's will,
but if you look back again in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, We know that we are to pray in
the will of God. You think, well, how do you know
the will of God? Well, we don't. We don't know necessarily. Now,
there are things in scripture that God gives us that are his
will, but we don't always know what God's will is in the circumstance.
Do I know what God's will is for the Phillips when they leave
this place? Well, they plan to go home, right? Something might
happen on the way home. Something might happen to us.
We plan to do whatever we might do going here. Well, who knows,
man? The Lord may give me a cardiac
arrest, and I may end up in the hospital for months. Who knows?
We don't know those things. So we don't know the will of
God, but we are given to pray and the Lord gives us directions
on things to pray about and brings to us, again, spontaneity brings
those things to mind that we should pray about. And so we
pray those things and we pray that they be in the will. Even
Jesus told us, this is how you should pray. Not my will be done,
but thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I'm bringing
these petitions and all these petitions that I'm bringing to
you, I pray not my will, but your will be done. So if your
will is not what I just prayed, your will be done. But here we
see that God says it is the will of God that you give thanks.
Look at verse 18 or excuse me, verse 16 says, rejoice evermore,
pray without ceasing. That's the third time Paul has
mentioned a continuity of prayer. Pray without ceasing in everything,
a couple of times now that he has said everything, in everything
give thanks for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning
you. Now, like I just said, we don't
know a lot of things about what God's will is for everything,
but we know one thing, he just revealed one thing that is his
will, is that we give thanks for all things. This is the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Okay, so we ought to give
thanks. Now I mentioned last week that I've been reading through the
book of Revelation And matter of fact, I was reading through
chapters 6 and 7 this morning. And if you'll turn to Revelation
chapter 7. Look with me down at verse 9. we'll see that Thanksgiving is
the theme of heaven. Verse 9 says, And this I beheld,
in low a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations
and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before the throne and before
the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. and cried with a loud voice saying,
Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the
Lamb. And all the angels stood round
about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and
fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying,
Amen, blessing, and glory, and wisdom, here it is, and thanksgiving,
and honor, and power, and might be unto our God, forever and
ever, Amen. And one of the elders answered
and said unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes,
and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou
knowest. And he said unto me, These are they which came out
of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they before the
throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple, and
he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They
shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall
the sun light on them nor any heat. For the lamb which is in
the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them
unto living fountains of water, and God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. Thanksgiving is gonna be a theme
in heaven. As I mentioned in reading through
Revelation, we see three things, thanksgiving and praise and honor
and glory. Let's see, blessing, glory, wisdom,
thanksgiving, honor, power, and might for God as creator and
his creation. Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might unto God for being our Redeemer. And blessing, and glory, and
wisdom, and thanksgiving, honor, and power, and might to God for
His sovereignty, for His control of all things. Those are the
three themes of our thanksgiving and our worship in heaven. And
it says here that Thanksgiving is going to be a part of what
we do in heaven. Forever. And ever. And ever. And ever. And to me it seems
as if we have now the life of Christ in us, yet still fettered
in this fleshly body of sin, but yet still have that life
in us, that a child of grace who once Departed from this earthly
tent and put on that supernatural tent and begins the eternity
of worship if Thanksgiving is part of that life that will be
experienced there Then it will be evident here Maybe not always
when Paul says ceasing I Don't think that Paul was 24 hours
a day seven days a week always praying and But he meant that
at every opportune time that he had to pray for somebody or
someone, whatever the Lord brought to his mind, he gave thanks to
the Lord and prayed for that. So we should be a thankful people.
That ought to be the demeanor. the life that the child of grace
expresses. Now, we'll stop right there.
There's a few things that I'd like to show that we are told
to pray for in the scripture, and we'll pick that up, Lord
willing, maybe next Lord's Day. Anybody got anything that you'd
like to add, any brothers, anything that you'd like to add to that
or anything else that the Lord's laid on your heart? All right.