Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - In Everything Give Thanks

Episode Date: November 22, 2023

In this episode, Jonny Ardavanis examines the biblical theme of gratitude. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “in everything give thanks for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” In this episode, Jonny will survey:The grounds of our thankfulness;The fruit of our thankfulness The hindrances to our thankfulnessWatch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey folks, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. In this episode, I want to look at the biblical imperative to be thankful. 1 Thessalonians 5, 16-18 says, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is, watch this, God's will for you in Christ Jesus. God's will for your life does not need to be found, it needs to be obeyed. And gratitude is God's revealed will for your life. And it is, as we will soon observe, Christianity 101.

We need to examine this subject in greater detail. So without further ado, let's dial in. I want to read this quote for you. It says, quote, we have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown, but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten this gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our own hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success,

we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It has seemed fit to me and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent father who dwells in the heavens. Signed, Abraham Lincoln, October 3rd, 1863. What a unique thing and really a powerful thing to hear from an American president that he's calling on people to remember God and to be thankful to God because we've become intoxicated with unbroken success and we've become too self-sufficient, too proud, and therefore we need to fall on our knees and thank God. The holiday we celebrate

this week, Thanksgiving, was implemented in really the way we celebrate it today, 160 years ago. But the idea of gratitude is not a cultural construct. It's a biblical reality. It is, as we will soon observe, the distinguishing mark of a genuine believer. Now, if I was going to ask you to imagine a high school jock, what image comes to your mind? Maybe it's a big guy with a letterman jacket on or someone like Biff from Back to the Future or Troy Bolton. You have a certain image that comes to your mind. If I told you to imagine an 80s rock star, a certain style of dress or hair or demeanor would likely come to your mind. And it's not just in the way that we dress. If I told you to imagine a southerner, a certain accent would also come to your mind.

All that to say that there are certain distinguishing characteristics that make it easy to identify an individual. And the same is true for the Christian. There are key distinguishers and spiritual birthmarks that make them stand out in the world in which they live. And one of the predominant birthmarks and hallmarks of a Christian is that of thankfulness. In the verse we have already examined, 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18 says, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. In verse 16, that command, rejoice always, is two words, and yet it is significant in regards to its scope and limitations. Understand this, that if you're a Christian, there is no caveat attached here.

You are to rejoice always. Furthermore, it says that we are to be thankful in all circumstances, not thankful for all circumstances, but thankful in all circumstances. And this thankfulness is described as an imperative command for the believer because it's so foreign and non-instinctive to the natural mind. Now, I have a little daughter, as many of you know, and I don't have to teach her to say mine or give me or I want, but I do need the teacher to say thank you because it's foreign to the natural mind and heart. The human instinct is thanklessness, not thankfulness. We ask so much, but we pray so little. We are so ready to grumble, but so slow to express gratitude. Now, the Bible recognizes ingratitude as a distinguishing

mark of an unbeliever in numerous passages throughout the scripture. Just listen to Romans one in verse 20. It says, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made. So they are without excuse for even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks in the midst of this list of people that suppress the truth and unrighteousness. And then in second Timothy three, we'll see another list of people that deny God and don't know God and reject God. It says there in second Timothy three, that in the last days, men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents. Then watch this ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips

without self-control, brutal haters of good. In the midst of a list that includes arrogant haters of good, they're sandwiched in the middle, is ungrateful. The unbeliever does not know the giver of all good things and they don't express gratitude to him because they are blind. The unsaved person goes through life disappointed, bitter, complaining, jealous, coveting, and chippy and edgy and ungrateful. They may even have the appearance of gratitude, but it is never directed towards the giver, meaning that someone can be eating a meal in a restaurant and say compliments to the chef, but they don't know the creator who gives the chef all of his or her ingredients.

You remember that there is a story in the New Testament where there were 10 lepers that Jesus healed, but only one of them returns to give thanks to Jesus. And he was the one who received not only physical healing, but the salvation of his soul. And the unbeliever is like those nine other thankless lepers who received anything and everything good from God and yet don't respond

with gratitude. For the believer, however, even though thankfulness is the logical response of the redeemed, the command that scripture gives to be thankful always serves to indicate that as long as we are in the flesh, there is still this gravitational pull towards ingratitude. And yet this imperative in scripture is so important because if you're a Christian, you need to understand that the defining characteristic of those who have been saved by God is that they are grateful regardless of the circumstance. Watch a familiar chain of verses. In Colossians 2 verse 6, it says, therefore, as you have received, pause there for a moment, that Greek word for received

is paralimbano, and it's an aorist indicative active verb. And it means this. It means something that's happened in the past, but that has ongoing results in your life. So Paul says, therefore, as you have received, that's past tense, but it's still going to produce future fruit. He says, received Christ Jesus, the Lord. So walk in him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed. And then watch this. And it says an overflowing with gratitude. This verb in Greek for overflowing means to gush. This is so important that if you're a Christian, you are to gush with gratitude. It is possible for a believer to be

ungrateful, but it is wildly incongruous and contradictory for a Christian to be thankless. Colossians 3.16 says, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching, admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to him, to God the Father. Colossians 4 says, devote yourself to prayer with thanksgiving. Question for you, how do you measure the depth and degree of the transformation that has taken place in your heart? The answer would be, how grateful are you? In this episode, I want to look at nine reasons

you ought to be grateful, regardless of the circumstance. Now, not every circumstance in your life is conducive to praise. In my own life, the last couple of weeks have been extremely difficult. There's been some challenging things that my wife and I are walking through. And yet the command in scripture to rejoice always and to be grateful in all circumstances

has no footnote attached where it says, except if you're walking through X, Y, and Z. It's true for all believers for all time in every season. Now, one thing before we begin to jump into some of these reasons, this command to be thankful in every circumstance can only be obeyed by one type of person. And it's at the end of 1 Thessalonians 5.18. It says, And everything gives thanks, for this is God's will for you. Then watch this. In Christ Jesus, there is absolutely zero power to be thankful in all circumstances if Jesus Christ is not in you. But if he is, then you have the power to live in obedience

to this command, to rejoice always and to be thankful in all circumstances. But there's also these truths that God gives you to anchor your life in when your circumstances are difficult and when your seasons are troubling. The first of which, God is sovereign. God is sovereign. God is in control of everything that is happening in your life. And if you don't believe this,

you cannot possibly be grateful in adverse circumstances. But the scripture teaches that the sparrow that falls, the tire that pops, the white blood cell, the demotion, the promotion, the ACL, and the CEO, everything in your life is under the sovereign orchestration of your heavenly father. Now, two quick remarks in this regard. One, if you cannot rest in God's sovereignty, you will find it very difficult to rejoice in his love. Because God's love, the value of it, will be diminished if it's not tethered to the reality that God is the supreme being, an authoritative creator and king over all of creation. Secondly, you will never be able to be grateful for God's providential hand if you do not remember the good that he is working all things towards in your life.

Remember Romans 8, 28 says that God is working everything out for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. But maybe you've walked through seasons in your life that are difficult and you're wondering how on earth could I give thanks for this? Well, you need to remember the good that God is working all things towards. And Romans 8 29 tells us what that good is. It says there that those whom God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed into the image of his son. Meaning that God's great plan for your life is not a plan of prosperity and ease and comfort necessarily. It's a plan by which he is going to use even the difficult things in your life, the dark colors and the deep knots to conform and transform you into the image of his son, Jesus Christ. So if you've ever wondered, how can my broken car, broken body, broken dream,

and broken relationship be good? It's only good when you understand that he's using those difficult circumstances to transform you into the image of Jesus. And if that's not your chief ambition, and if that's not your goal and aim to be like Jesus, then you will find it very difficult to rejoice in trouble. The second reason for why you ought to be grateful in every circumstance is that God forgives sin. In Ephesians 1.7, it says, in him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. In Psalm 32, David says, how blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sin is covered. It says in Psalm 103 that God removes our sin as far as the east is from the west. Listen, if God has forgiven you of your sin,

your greatest need in life has already been met. And if you are not regularly thanking God for his forgiveness, you have reason to pause and contemplate how stagnant you are in your own Christian life. Because when slaves are freed, when the lost are found, when the dead come back to life, and when the debtor is delivered, they do not go on living neglectful and forgetful of their former condition. Every heart is prone to wonder. So we need to remember that one of the greatest reasons we have to be grateful is that God has forgiven us, not of most of our sin, but of every sin if we have placed our faith in

Jesus Christ. Third, we have to be thankful for God's love. In Psalm 106, verse 1, it says, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his loving kindness is everlasting. The next Psalm, Psalm 107, begins in the same way. It says, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his loving kindness is everlasting. And this love of God is soul satisfying. It's been demonstrated at Calvary. It's an objective fact, but it's also in a subjective experience.

In Psalm 63, David says, because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips will praise you. Maybe you're walking through a season of pain and difficulty in this moment and you're wondering, how can I give thanks to God at a time like this? Well, if you're a Christian, the love of God is being directed at you this very moment. And this love is an objective reality that has been demonstrated at Calvary. But it's also a subjective experience that David says satisfies your soul. Gary Gaiety was the third baseman for the Minnesota Twins. And he said in 1987 that winning the World Series was the greatest thrill in the world.

This was the peak of his fame and fortune. But he writes this, Then, in 1988, I came to know Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord of my life. Believe me, friend, the World Series was great, but nothing compares to the thrill of having a personal relationship with God through Jesus and knowing that you have your name written in the record books of eternal, everlasting life. Listen, God loves you. And for this, you ought to be immensely grateful.

The fourth reason why you ought to be grateful is for the truth of God's word. In 1 Thessalonians 2.13, Paul says, And we also thank God continually, because when you receive the truth of God's word. In 1 Thessalonians 2.13, Paul says, and we also thank God continually because when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.

Listen, we have the truth of God's word. And for this, we ought to be incessantly grateful. In John 6, there's a scene where Jesus says some difficult things and many of his so-called followers begin to leave and depart from him. And Jesus looks at the 12 and asked them, are you going to leave me as well? And Peter answers Jesus and says, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Understand this, that in God's word, we find everything we need to know about God himself and about his plan for salvation, how you can be forgiven of your sin. Maybe there's a Bible sitting around you. Maybe it's in your car. Maybe it's in your trunk. Maybe it's on your bed or your desk, I want you to understand something about the Bible that you possess. Nearly every single person that was involved in the process of

translating your English Bible was martyred. And most of those who were martyred were burned at the stake. William Tyndale, who was the key figure in the translation process, once said, I will cause a boy who drives a plow to know more of the scriptures than the Pope. He was strangled and then burnt to death. John Rogers, who was also instrumental in the translation process, wrote a poem to his wife and to his kids before he also was burnt at the stake. And he said, as walked to the stake that what I have preached with my lips, I now seal with my blood. I told my church on Sunday, Stonebridge Bible in Franklin, Tennessee, that I will never forget watching the video of the underground Chinese church opening up a smuggled

suitcase of Bibles. The joy that was on their faces, tears were running down their cheeks as they held in their hands for the first time their own copy of God's precious word. There's a lot of things that you ought to be grateful for in this season. And at the top of the list is the Bible itself. Can I ask you, are you grateful for God's word? And if you say and think you are, is that gratitude tangibly evidenced by your commitment to God's truth? So that's number four. Number five, you ought to be grateful for God's people. In Ephesians 1.16, I want you to notice a theme here. I'm going to give you a few verses. In Ephesians 116, Paul says,

I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. In 1 Thessalonians 1, 2, Paul says, We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers. Philemon 1, 4, I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers. Philippians 1, 3, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. 1 Corinthians 1.4, I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you in Christ Jesus. I could go on and on and on, but I need you to understand a theme.

Believers are grateful for fellow believers, and believers are thankful for those who are within their own local church. Listen, if you're a Christian, you do have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but it is not an exclusive one. It is a corporate one. If you're a child of God, you have been adopted into the family of God. And that means you also have other brothers and sisters that all share one common father. One of the reasons why you ought to be grateful

is for those whom you share life with in the body of Christ. Number six, you ought to be grateful for the promise of heaven, for the promise of heaven. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, 16 and 17, for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

As we look not to the things that are seen, but to things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. What he's saying here is this. Listen, you may be going through really difficult things in this life. But Paul says, when you look back on these things in a billion years from now, when you're in glory, they will be light momentary affliction. And every trial and every trouble and every pain and every difficulty in your life, Paul says, is preparing you for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Paul says in Philippians 3.20, our citizenship is in heaven. And from it, we await

a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body into his glorious body. It says in Revelation 21.4, that one day God is going to wipe away every tear from your eye and death shall be no more. There will be no mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore for all these former things are passed away. Can I ask you, are you facing loneliness, trouble, pain, whether that be physical or relational? Then rejoice in this. This world is not your home.

You are made to be in the presence of God, and one day you will be in his presence without any fear of ever being removed. You will be safe and secure in the arms of your heavenly Father. Seven, you ought to be thankful for God's provision, for God's provision. Philippians 4.19 says,

and my God will meet all of your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Maybe you're worried about your needs. You see the rise of inflation and interest rates and you wonder about how you're gonna send your kids to college or how you're gonna to pay for your own college, listen here. God provides for the ravens.

He provides for the larks and the lilies. And the scripture says, He is going to provide all of your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus. Some of you are looking for a job. Some of you are looking for a spouse. I want you to understand, God's going to provide your needs. Number eight, you can thank God for his faithfulness.

In Psalm 92 verse one, it says, it is good to give thanks to God to declare his loving kindness in the morning and his faithfulness at night. I love the lyrics of the great hymn, great is thy faithfulness, which says great is thy faithfulness Thy Faithfulness, which says, Great is Thy Faithfulness, O God my Father.

There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not. As Thou has been, Thou forever will be. I'm so thankful that my standing before God isn't dependent upon my standing before God, meaning that my security in Christ is not because I hold myself in the Father's hand, but because the Father holds me in His hand because He's a faithful God. Number nine, you can be thankful for the fact that God hears and answers prayer.

In Psalm 6, verse 9, it says, The Lord has heard my plea. The Lord accepts my prayer. I love this verse. In Isaiah 65, verse 24, it says, Before, this is God speaking, Before they call, I will answer. And while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

God answers and hears our prayer. And for this reason alone, we ought to be grateful. This week in my own life, I can attest to the fact that God hears when his people pray. So these are the reasons you ought to be thankful. And this is not an exhaustive list. It's just a few things that you ought to be thankful for. And to cap it all off, you ought to be thankful

for the fact that the gospel is true and real, that Jesus died for your sin. He rose for your justification. And one day, he's coming back. Now, I want to briefly just talk about the fruit of thanksgiving, the fruit of thanksgiving. How does a thankful life change us? Well, it produces a sense of peace in our hearts. In Philippians 4, 6, it says, be anxious for nothing, but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And then the

peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Meaning that thankfulness doesn't just, isn't just a command we need to obey. Thankfulness is a mechanism by which we are changed. It not only produces peace. It says in Ephesians five that it produces purity. It says, don't talk filthy. Don't joke crudely, but rather give thanks. So thankfulness produces peace. It produces purity. And then one other thing I want to talk about here is it produces influence. Do you want to be a salt and a light in a dark and decaying world? Well, then listen to Paul in Philippians 2, 14 and 15.

He says, One of the surest indicators of your Christian influence and testimony in a world of sin is how grateful you are in a world of sin is how grateful you are in a world of grumblers. Paul says, do not grumble, do not complain. And contrarily, scripture tells us that we are to be thankful. And when the Christian is thankful and grateful against the backdrop of grumbling and complaining, the world looks at you and wonders, what's different about you? So it's one of the fruits of thanksgiving is that we are influential for the name of Jesus Christ. Now, as we close, what are some of the hindrances

to gratitude, the obstacles to thanksgiving? Well, number one would be circumstances, right? Because not every circumstance is conducive to praise. And yet the scripture tells us we're to rejoice always and in everything give thanks. Remember, he rejoice always and in everything give thanks remember he doesn't say for everything give thanks he says in everything meaning that there is always a reason for why we ought to be grateful even when the situation we find ourself in we're not thankful for in of itself secondly one of the hindrances to gratitude is doubt it's going to be difficult for you to thank god for his love, for his forgiveness, for your future home in heaven if you doubt whether or not you truly belong to him.

Listen, it's not God's will for your life that you wander around in ambiguity questioning whether or not you belong to him. God wants you to know without a shadow of a doubt that you are truly saved. Peter says, make your calling and election sure. Because if you doubt whether you're a Christian or not, it's going to be very difficult for you to anchor in the precious, comforting, and powerful truths that produce gratitude in a genuine Christian. The third hindrance to gratitude would be spiritual starvation. If you're not feeding your minds with truth, and if you're not reflecting and meditating and saturating in the truths of the gospel and of Jesus Christ, you're going to lose sight of the very things that ought to produce and cultivate thankfulness within your heart. Lastly, one of the hindrances to gratitude would be distraction. We are not

compelled to be grateful when we distract and deviate our minds from deep contemplation. You have to think in order to be thankful, but often in our ever-moving, over-scheduled lives, busyness mutes beauty and distracts our minds and numbs our hearts. And when we fail to consider and contemplate God's goodness, we will cease to be thankful and will instead become cynical and Maybe you're wondering, well, I want to grow in this area, but how can I become more thankful? Well, I think one of the first steps forward is to understand the verse that comes immediately prior to Paul's imperative in 1 Thessalonians 5.18, which is found in 1 Thessalonians 5.17. Sandwiched between these two imperatives, to rejoice always and in everything give thanks, there is these three simple words, pray without ceasing. We need to pray and ask that God would help us to live in obedience to this command,

to be thankful even when we don't feel thankful. Because remember, thankfulness is not just a feeling. It is a decision of the will enabled by God's Holy Spirit. God gives you a command, be thankful in every circumstance. And you know what's encouraging? Because it's a command that God gives, you possess the power in Christ Jesus to live in obedience to his word. Well, I'd love to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving to those of you who are listening in the United States. And for everyone else,

this command from scripture is equally relevant to you. Be grateful, be thankful, and stay dialed in.