Ron Dunn Podcast - Things To Be Thankful For

Episode Date: May 29, 2019

From the sermon series "That I May Know Him"

Amen. I thank the choir and Jet for the music tonight. And it's good to be in church again. I haven't been in church in about seven months. And you get to where you miss the fellowship of the saints. And being together with God's people there's something renovating about that, invigorating and so it's good to be in church again

and we appreciate North Irving Baptist Church for letting us use their building and it is, Pastor this is what a real church looks like at least the building.

And so we're grateful for it and appreciate it very much. Well, I want you to open your Bibles tonight to the book of Philippians, chapter 1. The book of Philippians, chapter 1. As I mentioned yesterday, during these times we have together, I'm going to be speaking out of the book of Philippians. In the months that I was laid up, I found great delight in this letter because it is so practical and because Paul seems to be writing to people like us, like me. And I found great encouragement as well as exhortation and conviction out of this letter. And so I want to share with you some of the things that God shared with me as I read and studied this letter. Paul writing to the church at Philippi, he says in verse 3, chapter 1, verse 3, and we'll read through the 8th verse, verses 3 through 8. He says to the Philippians,

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Christ Jesus. For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel

you all are partakers of grace with me for God is my witness how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. You know, you can tell a lot about a person, about what he's thankful for. It is an index to a person's character, the things for which he gives thanks. I remember some years ago I was visiting a young lady in the hospital who had been diagnosed with cancer.

Her mother was there and as we visited her mother said to me, you know it's times like these when you learn what is really important in life. And most of us have to go through some kind of difficulty or trial before we really learn the things that are important in life. It's amazing how the things that we once thought were important just kind of become non-existence as we focus on things that really are important. And so what a person is thankful for is an index to where they've been and what kind of person they are. And Paul was a thankful man. One of the things about the letters of Paul, they all are filled with thanksgiving. Paul was a man of gratitude and he found in every place

to be thankful for what God had done in his life and in the life of others. You can tell what kind of person Paul was for the things that he was thankful for. You know, when we gather together around Thanksgiving, why, we always give thanks. We're supposed to. At least that's what the Word implies. And we thank God for our health, and we thank God for our family,

and we thank God, you know, that things are going well and that the business is going well and that we thank God, you know, for the food. And that's good. Those things are all important. And yet there come times in our lives when When our focus is turned in another direction. And I think as I read the letter of Paul, it seemed that Paul was learning the things that were important in his life. Like I said yesterday, he became certain that his goal, his ultimate life goal was to know him. And Paul was making progress, and it's encouraging to me that even the great apostle Paul could make progress in the Christian life, that he had never

come to the point where he thought he had arrived, but there was always growth in his life, always progress in his life. And to me, as I read the book of Philippians, it seemed to me here was a man in dire circumstances, and maybe because of those dire circumstances, was learning the things that were most important in his life. The thing about, one of the things that I've noticed about Paul is that he prayed in strange places. He didn't pray only at church or he didn't pray only at home. Here he is praying in jail. Now, if you can be in jail

and call it grace, then you've come a long way in your Christian life. And so Paul here is praying and he's praying in jail. And he's not praying that to get out. He's not praying that the Lord would deliver him. Not praying that at all. He's praying for other things.

Basically, he is in a thanksgiving mode. And so I want to talk to you tonight about things worth being thankful for. Things worth being thankful for. Things worth being thankful for. And I have to confess that during the months that I have been sick, and especially those months when I lay helpless in bed, Kay and I talked about it many times, how suddenly other things didn't seem as important as they had before. And we began to focus on the things that were really important. So I think Paul refers to about three things here that I would call things that are worth

being thankful for. First of all, we're thankful for the friends we have in the faith. For the friends that we have in the faith. Notice Paul says in verse 3, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in every prayer for you all. Now the word remembrance there is unusual because while it doesn't come out in our English translations, in every prayer for you all. Now the word remembrance there is unusual because while

it doesn't come out in our English translations, in the Greek text there is a definite article before the word remembrance. Literally he's saying, I thank my God in all the remembrance. And that article indicates the totality of remembrance. In other words, as he looks back on it, he sees his ministry at Philippi, and as a whole, he's thankful for every one of them. Now, you cannot always be thankful for every little incident. You cannot always be grateful for every person there, But he says as he looks back upon it, as he looks back upon it in his memory, he says the totality of the whole thing is I thank God for all of you, even those that maybe gave me a little problem when I was there, and even those who right now are trying to stir up some problems. Yet in the totality of it all, I thank God. You see, Paul viewed things

in the totality of what they were, not just in the incidentals of things. He viewed God's work in its totality. He always had that kind of view. And I know that Kay and I have said to ourselves many times, with all the things that have fallen to us in our life, yet we always come back and say, we've had a good life. We've had a good life. God has been good to us. And while there are things in my own life that I wish had not happened and that I have a hard time being grateful for,

yet when I look at it in the totality of life, I can say, thank God for it. And that's what Paul is doing as he looks back. And you find the combination here of memory and gratitude. As he looks back, he is thankful for everything. Sort of like rowing a rowboat. Have you ever done that? I don't mean with a motor. I mean you get in a rowboat and it's just you and you have two oars. The interesting thing about rowing a boat is that you're looking backwards while you're moving forward. And that's exactly what Paul was having, the experience he was having. That he was looking back and in looking back he was moving forward. And many times in the Christian life we move forward with God by looking back upon the things that he has done.

And as we reflect upon all of that. And you'll notice that Paul says all of you. He doesn't leave anybody out. He says, while moving forward, he says, I thank God for all of you. In other words, he takes the totality of the church and says, I thank God for you. It's not just the individual, but it's the whole thing. Paul has this idea that the church is a family and that all of us must participate. All of us must be together for any one of us to be effective. No one serves God by

himself. There are always those who are friends of the faith who encourage him and help him. There's an interesting statement in Ephesians chapter 3, I believe it is, in verses 17, 18, and 19. He says, So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend, now notice this, with all the saints,

what is the breadth and length and height and depth. And to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. The phrase there, with all the saints. That you may know with all the saints. I do not believe that a single Christian by himself will be able to comprehend all the breadth and all the height and all the depth of the love of God. It takes all the saints together to do that. I've used this illustration before. It's like seeing one of those big and giant redwood trees out in California. And you try yourself to reach around it and you cannot do it. But if you gather some friends and you link hands and after a while then you're able to encircle the entire tree. And there is a chain. And I can look at what I see from my viewpoint

and then I can tell you what I saw and you can tell me what you saw and then he tells the next person, the next person tells him. And by the time that we've gone first circle, we all have seen the breadth and the depth of that tree. And it's the same way with the love of God. One of us alone by ourselves can never comprehend the love of God. It takes all the saints together

as we share with one another our friendship in the faith. That's what it takes for us to understand. Now, if we're really thankful, Paul says, there's two things we'll do about these people. Number one, we will remember them. We will remember them. And I have to tell you

that this was a convicting part of the study for me because my outstanding trait is not remembering. But he says, I thank God for every remembrance of you. If we are really thankful, we will remember people. I'll tell you, it's been one of the great blessings of my life during these days, these months, to receive e-mails from people and letters and cards from people

that I have long since maybe forgotten. But they'll say something like this. They'll say, years ago, you were at some church, and I was there, and we met and visited, and you helped me with a problem. I don't even remember that. But they remembered. And it's encouraging me, encouragement to me,

as people have written and have called and said, I want you to know, I want you to know, we remember what you have done and we remember you. And if you really are thankful for people, you'll remember them. I mean, some of us ought to sit down and write a note tonight to somebody who's been faithful in the gospel, someone who has befriended us, someone who has done something for us, you know, or haven't, but just to write a word and say, I

remember you. If we really are thankful, we will remember them. And the second thing we'll do is we'll pray for them. Now, Paul says, I thank my God and all my remembrance of you always, and that is a participle that means he's always doing this. That's characteristic of his life. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the outstanding habit of your life was that you were always praying? If somebody said your name and said, oh yeah, that's that fellow who's always praying. And that was the way it was with Paul. Always praying with joy in every prayer for you all. In the Greek text, the words with joy come first. In other words, it is with joy that he prays for them.

Why? Well, because he knows that as he prays for them, God's grace is going to succor them. God's love is going to wrap his arms around them. And so it's a joy, it's a joy, he says, to pray for those. And so if we really are thankful for people, we will remember them and we will pray for them and pray for them with joy. And so the first thing that Paul says that we ought to be thankful for is friends in the faith. And I have to say at this point that I am so grateful and so thankful for friends in the faith. I know I would not have come this far and made it this far if it had not been for the encouragement of people who remembered me in hard times.

And I only pray that God will give me the grace to remember all of you who have remembered us. Thankful. I've never been so thankful for friends in the faith. I'm a very private person. I'm not too outgoing. I remember I was preaching in Austin several years ago on Sunday morning on TV. A pastor got up to introduce me, and he said, now, Ron Dunn is a hard fellow to get to know.

I thought, well, that's a good introduction. And it may be. And I've always thought that I really didn't need people. You ever felt that way? That I didn't't need people. Have you ever felt that way? That I didn't really need people. Nobody. I just didn't need people. But I've learned differently.

Oh, how desperately I need people. What would I have done without friends in the faith? What would have happened to us and our family if there had not been friends in the faith. I tell you, one of the things most worth being thankful for is friends in the faith, friends in the gospel.

I don't know much about the world. I know there's friendship in the world, but I tell you, I don't believe it compares to the friendship among believers in Christ Jesus. There is a friendship there that reaches down. People have done things for us that have just struck us dumb. We just can't believe it. And people that we didn't even know.

And tonight, I want to praise God and give God thanks for you who have been friends in the faith. You've been such an encouragement to us. And I want to remember you and pray for you with joy. Well, there's a second thing Paul says we're to be thankful for,

and that is we can be thankful for the fellowship in the gospel. Well, these friends who share and participate in the gospel. Look at verse 5. He says, the reason I'm always praying for you with joy is in view of your participation, your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. From the very first when I was with you and founded that church at Philippi until this present day, he says, you have been a participant with me in the gospel. And there are three things that they did.

First of all, they shared in the support of the gospel. And there are three things that they did. First of all, they shared in the support of the gospel. They shared in the support of the gospel. I want you to go back to chapter 4 in Philippians and look at verses 15, 16, and 17. He says, you yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, but you alone. Now this may sound like a commercial for the love offering, but I want you to know that it isn't. Lord, speak to them in this moment. For even in Thessalonica, you sent a gift more than once for my needs. I read that once when I was in revival. And I said, you know, even after Paul left the church, they kept sending him love offerings.

But they didn't catch on. They were dull of hearing, carnal people. Now, Paul says, even when I was in Macedonia, even in Thessalonica, long gone from you, yet you sent me gifts. You sent whatever it was I needed, and basically it was money. Now, notice in verse 17, he says, not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. In other words, Paul says, I'm giving thanks. I thank God for your support in the gospel. Time and time again, you sent to me and met my needs. But the reason I'm thankful is

not because of the gift that I wanted, the gift. But what I'm thankful for is that you will share in the triumphs and in the ministry that I have. And it'll be laid to your account. And when we get to heaven, when you get to heaven, God will show you your account book. And you say, well, I didn't know I had that much in there. Well, I tell you what, I'd like to receive a bank statement one day that showed I had about a thousand dollars more than I thought I had in there. It'll never happen. It may show I have a thousand000 less. But won't it be wonderful to get to heaven and God shows you your account book and man, you've got more in there than you ever dreamed. You say, where'd that come from?

And God will say, every time you gave to the support of the gospel, you shared in the results of that preaching of the gospel. Every time Paul won someone to Christ, you shared in that. That didn't just go to Paul's credit. That went to your credit also. And I remember when I was pastor of MacArthur

and I would go off in a meeting, I'd have people would say to me that they feel like that they as a church were sharing in a meeting, I'd have people would say to me that they feel like that they as a church were sharing in that meeting. That whatever happened in that meeting, whatever God did in that meeting, that they were participants in it. They weren't just sitting here by themselves and I was off on my own, but they were participating in that ministry and sharing in that ministry. I tell you what, email has transformed society. But I got an interesting email the other day. A girl whose family, their family used to belong to this church.

Faithful, faithful members. She was just a little girl while I was pastor. And then they moved off to another state. I got a letter from her the other day. And she said, I was just a little girl. You probably think I didn't take in much and hear much, but I did. And here's how she phrased it. She said, I am one of your fruit. And she said, I'm married to a preacher and we

pastor a church. And she said, Brother Don, that church is one of your fruit. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that good? That you plant a seed in a person's life. And 20, 30 years later, they are ministering to others. And it's you ministering to them. That's part of your fruit. So he's thankful for the support of the gospel. He's thankful also for their support in the spread, their share in the spread of the gospel. He's thankful also for their support in the spread, their share in the spread of the gospel. They had a part in sharing the spread of the gospel. Look at verse 7. For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart. Since both

in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. They shared in the spread of the gospel. But that's all I'm going to say about that because I've got more sermon than I have time. But he was thankful because they shared in the sufferings of the gospel. Notice in verse 7 again. He says, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. You all are partakers of grace with me. He said, you shared my suffering.

Well, you can't say this anymore without people laughing because it's been ruined. But basically, what they were saying to Paul was, I feel your pain. And I've received cards and letters from people who literally themselves have been hurting because we were hurting. I mean, they share in the suffering. We're all one body, and when one part of the body hurts, the whole body hurts.

God forbid that we should ever be so cold and indifferent and self-centered that we have no feeling. And no concern. When a member of our body. Is in pain. And suffering. And in need.

And in hurt. We'll all feel it. And that's what they did. And Paul. There in prison. And those Philippians. They were feeling his pain. And they were sharing in his sufferings.

Well. There's a last thing that Paul says we ought to be thankful for. And that's for our future with Christ. Look at verse 6. He says, for I am confident. Now, I don't want to sound like a grammar book, but this is so important. That's a perfect tense participle, and it literally means to be convinced,

to be persuaded, to be absolutely certain, and that's the way it is. Paul says, I always have been, am now, and always will be. I am convinced of this very thing. What? That he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. That's one of my favorite verses. That's a verse that I lean on a lot of times. When it looks like I'm not going to make it and God has abandoned me, I go back to Philippians

1, 6. Being convinced, being persuaded of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will do what? Will perfect it, will carry it through to completion is the idea, until the day of Jesus Christ. I tell you folks, God doesn't begin something and then leave it unfinished. If God begun a good work in you, friend, he will carry it through to the very end. And you're going to be perfect and just like Jesus whether you want to or not. Now, let me just say several things. This is a good work. He calls it a good work. Why does he call it a good work? It's an unusual way of expressing salvation. A good work.

It's because the goodest thing that can happen to a person is to be saved. The best thing that can ever happen to a person is that he might know Christ. I was watching, what was I watching? Something on TV. And this fellow was given an award. Oh, I watched the Kentucky Derby. Well, you know, it was part of it. And the one who won, whatever his strange name was,

they presented a big trophy to the owner. And I remember laying there in bed watching that. And that owner said, this is the greatest thing that could ever happen to a person. And I thought to myself, oh, dear friend, I'm so sorry you feel that way. You ought to be pitied. Winning a trophy is not the greatest thing

that happened to a person. The greatest thing that happened to a person is to come to Jesus Christ. It's a good work. It's also God's work. Notice it says, He began a good work in you. He began a good work in you. Paul's belief in election comes through all the time. God did it. You didn't begin it. You didn't decide one day, well, I think I'll change my life. I think I'll become a Christian.

You didn't decide that one day. Oh, you said, yes, I did. Yes, I did. One day it came upon me that I needed to be saved. Oh, listen, friend, you were simply responding to what God had already done in your life. God initiates it. God initiates it. We're not saved by our faith. We're saved through faith.

We're saved by grace, God's grace, and we receive it through faith. Even that faith is given to us of God. Friends, it's all of God. No one of us will ever be in heaven taking credit for any part of our salvation. It is all of God. It's God's work. It's God's work. But it's a growing work too. He says he will perform it. He will perfect it. He will carry it through until completion, until the day of Christ. You see, when I got saved, there was a period in my life that was a dot. But out of that dot, there ought to be a long linear line. In other words, you're not finished when you're saved. You're just beginning.

When God saves a person, he's just clearing the platform so he can build a temple of the Holy Ghost on that. And so he's growing. It's a growing work. Every day, God is working in your life. You say, oh, God hasn't worked in my life today. Yes, he has. I can't see it. No, but I tell you what.

You're in that rowboat and you're looking back and you begin to see things. Things at the time that you hated, maybe cursed, and despised. But time and distance has focused your memory. And you see now that it was God who was there. And it was God who was there. I'll tell you what has made all the difference to us and our family in the things that have happened. We have not seen this as the work of the devil. I got some letters saying the devil's doing this, the devil's after you.

We have not seen this as the work of the devil. We've seen this as the work of God. It is God's work. And in that rowboat, you look backwards, and suddenly you see things in a different perspective. At the time, at the time, you were too close to them to recognize what they were. They looked only bad.

They looked only tragic. But now, as you look back upon them, you just, you see how God used them and how God had you in that place. Why did God put me here? Why did God put me here? And you look back and you remember you met somebody there that enriched your life and God used that as a stepping stone

to a greater level of service. You look back upon those things. Oh, it may be right now that you can't see God anywhere in your life. You just don't see God anywhere in your life. But I guarantee you one of these days, if you'll roll that boat and look backwards, you'll see that God was everywhere. And that's how you move forward, friends.

You move forward by looking back upon His gracious works and giving Him thanks. It's a growing work. But the best thing of all is it's a guaranteed work. He said He will carry it through until the day of redemption. I don't, you know, care what happens. It doesn't matter what happens. It doesn't matter how the devil may assail me. Or how the world may attack me. I tell you what, I'm a finished product in the eyes of God. Nothing's going to happen that's going to steal that work from me.

Isn't that wonderful? I've got some diplomas on my wall. You might be interested to know that I have a diploma from a university that I graduated from OBU. And they gave me that because I was smart. And I've got another diploma from Southwestern Seminary. As a matter of fact, I've got two diplomas from Southwestern Seminary. And they gave me those because I was smart. You know, they can never take those from me. I've dumbed down a lot since then. I don't think I could go back and start all over and ever make the grade. But no matter how dumb I've gotten,

they can never come and take those diplomas away from me. They're mine. God began a good work in me. And I've failed so much. But I tell you what, you can't take that away from me he is going to carry it through until completion and as imperfect as I am tonight

as I stand before you one day all of us will be made perfect that's guaranteed if he has ever started the good work in you, friend, he's going to complete it. And the best thing that can ever happen to a person is to be saved. Oh, this is worth being thankful for.

Oh, this is what's worth being thankful for. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages,

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