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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor November
24, 2002 To
the holy and faithful brothers
in Christ at Colosse:
Grace
and peace to you from God our
Father. For
this reason, since the day we
heard about you, we have not
stopped praying for you and
asking God to fill you with
the knowledge of his will
through all spiritual wisdom
and understanding. And we pray
this in order that you may
live a life worthy of the Lord
and may please him in every
way: bearing fruit in every
good work, growing in the
knowledge of God, being
strengthened with all power
according to his glorious
might so that you may have
great endurance and patience,
and joyfully giving
thanks to the
Father, who has qualified you
to share in the inheritance of
the saints in the kingdom of
light. For he has rescued us
from the dominion of darkness
and brought us into the
kingdom of the Son he loves,
in whom we have redemption,
the forgiveness of
sins. Paul
refers to "joyfully giving
thanks." When I read that I
thought, "How else could you give
thanks, except joyfully or with a
grateful heart? Then I
remembered: In
Matthew 15: 8-9, Jesus says that
Isaiah was right when he
said, So
one can give thanks, praise to
God, repeat the Lord's Prayer,
and the Apostles' Creed, all with
the lips, not with the
heart. We
know that God isn't fooled by
deceptive words from our mouths.
He looks to the heart. That's why
Paul says joyfully
give thanks -- not out of
obligation, not out of the good
feeling that comes from being
materially comfortable, but out
of the joy of the Lord, which
along with God's love is shed
abroad in hearts by Holy
Spirit. The
Apostle Paul was a thankful man
-- if fact he was probably one of
most thankful people who ever
lived. Just read his
letters! In
1 Thessalonians 5:18, he urges us
to "give thanks in all
circumstances." He
said he had been in danger
everywhere, from all kinds of
things. In
2 Corinthians 4:8-9, he writes
that he was "hard pressed on
every side, but not crushed;
persecuted but not abandoned;
struck down but not
destroyed." Paul
might get knocked down, but was
never knocked out. He always in
the fight --and he says we thank
God "who always leads us in
triumphal procession in Jesus
Christ" (2 Cor. 14). All
the flak did not obscure the
truth. Look back at verses 12-14
of our opening text in Colossians
1: Paul's
thanksgiving sprang from grateful
heart, not from the circumstances
of his life. Momentary failures
and set backs didn't bother him.
He knew the power of
resurrection. He knew that what
men or the devil meant for evil,
God meant for good. What
was the basis of Paul's
victorious, grateful perspective
on life? Two things. First,
Paul knew sin's deceptive power
and the weakness of his own
flesh. As one writer put it, "We
never know how far humanity fell
until we start the start climb
back." Paul
knew the depths of sin -- even
though he wasn't a "bad" guy, in
the sense of being immoral.
Indeed, in Philippians 3 he gives
an account of his life. We learn
from that account that he was a
fine, upstanding individual,
seeking to serve God. He
describes himself a a Jew born of
the tribe of Benjamin. He was
circumcised on 8th day, according
to the law. He became a Pharisee,
which meant that he strictly
observed the law of God. He was
-- as far as the law and
legalistic righteousness were
concerned --
faultless. But
Paul -- or as he was know then,
Saul of Tarsus -- was deceived.
In the name of God he was working
against God. He persecuted the
Church. He had believers put in
prison. Indeed, he helped murder
them -- all in the name of
God! Yes,
Paul knew the depths of the
deceptive power of sin. He
realized that he was capable of
most anything. He knew he
couldn't depend on his own
righteousness to get to heaven.
He knew what it was to be lost
without even knowing it. He knew
the deceptive power of
sin. The
second thing Paul knew the power
of God's grace. In 1 Corinthians
15:8-10 he writes this about
Jesus: Paul
knew the unsearchable riches of
God's grace. That's why he could
write: And
also: That's
why he considered: That's
why he could maintain that in all
suffering and
tribulation, That's
why Paul was persuaded Paul
knew that God had delivered him
from sin and death from which he
could not deliver himself, and
that God would preserve him
blameless until the final day
when eternity is revealed. His
joyful thanksgiving wasn't rooted
in circumstances but in the
reality that God had qualified
him to share in an eternal,
unfading inheritance! He
knew his life had been redeemed,
his sins had been forgiven! He
knew God had called him out of
the kingdom of darkness into the
Kingdom of the Son He
loves! Job
said these words, but they sum up
well the attitude of Paul toward
God: "Though he slay me yet will
hope in him" (Job
13:15). We're
a lot like Saul of Tarsus, aren't
we? Good guys. Many of us have
been in church most of our lives;
we've tried to do right; never
done anything real
bad. So
let me ask you: Is your
thanksgiving because you've got
it so good, when in your heart
you really believe you're just
enjoying fruit of your own labor?
Do you give thanks with your lips
while your heart is far from God?
Prosperity
can be a good thing, but
sometimes it can make us immune
to the truth of Gods word. We
don't really come to grips with
the the fact "that we all, like
sheep, have gone astray" (Isaiah
53:6). We don't face the hard
truth that "all have sinned and
fallen short of glory of God"
(Romans 3:23). But
friends, it's difficult to
experience the heights of God's
forgiving love until you've
comprehended the depths of human
sin. Don't
misunderstand, you don't have to
commit all manner of sin to know
it's power and ugliness. We just
need to believe what the Word of
God reveals to us, and what the
testimonies of countless people
affirm. My
friends, there is only one thing
I know of, for which we can all
continually give thanks to God,
whether we be weak or strong,
rich or poor. It is the one thing
no one can deserve, earn, or buy:
the gift of salvation God has
offered us in Jesus Christ. That
is the true basis of our
thanksgiving. As
we sing our closing hymn, let the
weak stand and say I'm strong in
Christ. Let the poor stand and
say I'm rich in Christ. And let
those who are strong and the rich
from the standpoint of this world
stand and say, "I consider
everything a loss compared to
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for
whose sake I have lost all
things" (Philippians
3:8). Let
us all rejoice and give thanks to
God with grateful hearts, for
what he has done for us. He has
qualified us to share in eternity
through Jesus Christ. If
you can't do that because you
don't know Jesus Christ as your
Savior, I pray that you'll come
to this altar and receive your
inheritance. Don't bring anything
with you. You can't buy or earn
this inheritance, and you don't
deserve it. But because God loves
you and for the sake of His Son,
He will give you eternal life as
a free gift, if you'll just give
your life to Him. Joyfully
give thanks -- with a grateful
heart.
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
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A
GATEWAY SERMON
Give
thanks with a grateful heart
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
Paul,
an apostle of Christ Jesus by
the will of God, and Timothy
our brother,
We always thank God, the
Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, when we pray for you,
because we have heard of your
faith in Christ Jesus and of
the love you have for all the
saints -- the faith and love
that spring from the hope that
is stored up for you in heaven
and that you have already
heard about in the word of
truth, the gospel that has
come to you. All over the
world this gospel is bearing
fruit and growing, just as it
has been doing among you since
the day you heard it and
understood God's grace in all
its truth. You learned it from
Epaphras, our dear fellow
servant, who is a faithful
minister of Christ on our
behalf, and who also told us
of your love in the Spirit.
Usually at Thanksgiving we focus
on thanking God for the material
possessions we have, for those
things that make life more
comfortable.
We should do that -- everything
we have has come from God -- but
I want thankfulness to get to a
deeper level in our lives, and
that's what I want to talk with
you about today.
"These
people honor Me with their
lips, but their hearts are far
from me. They worship me in
vain; their teachings are but
rules taught by men."
The
example of Paul
For you who don't know of Paul's
life listen to what he had to be
thankful for: flogged five times;
beaten with rods three times;
stoned and left for dead once;
shipwrecked three times. He spent
one day and night on the open
sea.
...giving
thanks to the Father, who has
qualified you to share in the
inheritance of the saints in
the kingdom of light. For he
has rescued us from the
dominion of darkness and
brought us into the kingdom of
the Son he loves, in whom we
have redemption, the
forgiveness of sins.
Sin
and grace...and
last of all he appeared to me
also as one abnormally born.
For I am the least of the
Apostles, I don't deserve to
be called an Apostle, because
I persecuted the church. But
by the grace of God I am what
I am.
For
it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith -- and
this not from yourselves, it
is the gift of God -- not by
works, so that no one can
boast. (Ephesians
2:8-9)
But
God demonstrates his own love
for us in this: while we were
yet sinners Christ died for us
(Romans 5:8).
...everything
a loss compared to the
surpassing greatness of
knowing Christ Jesus his Lord,
for whose sake [he]
had lost all things"
(Philippians 3:8).
...we
are more than conquerors
through him who loved us
(Romans 8:36-37).
...that
neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the
future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us
from the love of God that is
in Christ Jesus our Lord
(Romans 8:38-39).
Facing the
truth
The
gift of God
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
021124a: Give Thanks With a
Grateful Heart.
©
2002 Gerald R.
Varnado