Gratitude or Grumbling
Download MP3If you would, open your Bibles to 1st Thessalonians chapter 5. We're gonna take a little break from Acts, and we're gonna look at Thanksgiving. Christmas music began playing on 965, about 3 weeks ago, which means it's almost Thanksgiving.
Jeffrey Heine:I've
Joel Brooks:got a lot of Thanksgiving memories, and I'm sure that you do too. There's certain smells you associate with Thanksgiving, certain foods, certain crazy uncles or aunts, certain people. I used to play football, tag football every Thanksgiving, but one of my most vivid Thanksgiving memories that I have is of sitting at, sitting at the table, and I was with all of these older relatives that I didn't even know I was related to them. I just had to take my parents' word for it. And, right across from me was my great aunt Louise.
Joel Brooks:Aunt Louise was she was under 5 feet tall. She was rather large, and, very, very country and poor. And I remember that when we finished eating our meal, we had honey baked ham and she looked around and she saw how we had all cut off the fat. And she goes, y'all aren't gonna eat the fat? I'm like, no.
Joel Brooks:And so she she passed her plate and we we piled her plate up filled with the honey ham fat And across from me, she didn't have any teeth and she slurped down all of the fat in front of me at thanksgiving. And I remember feeling very very sick as some of you are just hearing this story and I was turning green, I was like, I had to go and had to run to the bathroom. And and to this day, Thanksgiving still has this mixture of joy and nausea. And it probably has that for you too. There's a joy that comes with thanksgiving and getting to see some of your family, but then the stress and the nausea that comes with maybe a little too much extended family time.
Joel Brooks:Anyway, I needed to hear about a theology of thanks this week, and I thought some of you might as well. And so we're gonna look at that in first Thessalonians chapter 5. I'll begin reading at verse 16. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing.
Joel Brooks:Give thanks in all circumstances. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. This is the word of the lord. If you would pray with me. Father, I pray we would indeed give thanks in all circumstances, and that would begin here tonight.
Joel Brooks:We would give thanks to you. I pray that we would rejoice in the grace that you have lavished upon us. Lord, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. Lord, your words would remain and they would change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. So we just read that we are to give thanks in all circumstances. All circumstances. It's a pretty all encompassing statement, isn't it? And Paul doesn't just say, give thanks.
Joel Brooks:Because he knows then we might have some wiggle room around it. It's almost as if he consulted some lawyers and and thought, how can I make this watertight? It's like, give thanks in all circumstances. No exceptions. The Greek word for all there means all, just in case you're wondering.
Joel Brooks:For circumstances, it means circumstances. This means that when things are going well, you're supposed to give thanks. And when things are not going so well, you're supposed to give thanks. It means when you're sitting down at a 4 star restaurant with this beautiful spread in front of you, you are supposed to give thanks. And when you are reheating the last week's meatloaf in the microwave, you give thanks.
Joel Brooks:It means that when you are in love and you feel like you are floating and you're walking on air, you give thanks. And it means when you've had your heart broken, and your boyfriend or girlfriend broke up with you via text, you give thanks. It means when you get a promotion and you get a raise, you give thanks. And it means that when you were passed over for that promotion and maybe the intern that you used to have got it over you, you still give thanks. You give thanks when your children obey you, and you give thanks when your children fight you on every single thing.
Joel Brooks:You give thanks when you are healthy or when your body fails you. Give thanks in all circumstances. You know, when I was reading this this week, I thought, well, you know, that was Paul's first letter that he wrote. 1st Thessalonians is the first letter that he ever wrote and so maybe he's young, naive, idealistic. Certainly, as he goes through life, that that's gonna kinda beat him down and you realize you can't actually thank God in all circumstances.
Joel Brooks:But then you find later in life, after over a decade of imprisonments and beatings, Paul says this, in Colossians. He says, and whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks. It's almost like he wanted to make it more ironclad. It's now not just in all circumstances. It's and in whatever you do, in word or indeed, do everything.
Joel Brooks:In the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks. Right before this, he says that we are to be a people who abound in thanksgiving. In Ephesians 5, also a letter that came much later, Paul would write, give thanks always and give thanks for everything to God the father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul wrote that while in prison. We give thanks in all circumstances.
Joel Brooks:Now the fact that we have to be told to give thanks so often that Paul has to keep reminding us to give thanks, it must mean that this is something that doesn't natural come naturally to us. We must not be naturally predisposed to to want to give thanks and so Paul has to keep telling us this and it's true. This doesn't come naturally to us. Anybody here like writing thank you notes? Anyone?
Joel Brooks:I saw somebody half raise their hand, and I just wanna say you're a liar. Like, there there is there is not a person here who likes writing thank you notes. A matter of fact, one of the things that I started doing in recent years, when Lauren and I would give wedding presents to people, as part of the present to the people, I would go ahead and get an envelope, a thank you note, pre address it, pre stamp it, and write a thank you note to myself. And I would include it as part of the gift. And I would put it in there and it would say something like, dear mister and missus Brooks, thank you so much for this toaster.
Joel Brooks:How did you know that I wanted this? It's the best toaster ever. It perfectly browns the bread and it does waffles deliciously. This has literally changed my life. Thank you.
Joel Brooks:Thank you. Thank you so much. Sincerely. And then I leave it blank because at least they have to make it personal with a signature. But all I have to do is sign it, fold it, put it in.
Joel Brooks:I cannot tell you how many husbands have found me the following week going, that was the best part of the gift. Thank you. Thank you. But this isn't something that comes naturally to us. It's something we have to learn to give thanks.
Joel Brooks:Margaret Visser, she wrote a book called, The Gift of Thanks, in which she talks about this. And she says that, children have to be taught a lot of different social expressions. They have to be taught to say hello. They have to be taught to say goodbye, and they have to be taught to say thank you. And so every parent has to teach these things to children.
Joel Brooks:They don't come out of the womb knowing these things. And and what she said was, after you teach your children these things, you still have to remind them. And you have to remind a child to say hello 28% of the time. You have to remind a child to say goodbye 31% of the time, and you have to remind them to say thank you 51% of the time. Learning to say thank you is one of the harder things we have to remember.
Joel Brooks:And she said that most children learn to say thank you way before they ever learn what it actually means. It's something that they grow into after learning to say it. So what does thank you mean? We're commanded to be thankful in every circumstance. So so what does it mean to be thankful?
Joel Brooks:Let me give you a definition. Thanksgiving is the joyful recognition that what we have received comes to us by the grace of God. Thanksgiving is the joyful recognition that what we have received comes to us by the grace of God. It's an acknowledgment of grace. You actually see this more clearly in the Greek language, in the word thanksgiving itself.
Joel Brooks:The word for grace in Greek is karys. The word for thanksgiving is eucharis, Eucharist. So embedded in thanksgiving itself is this idea of grace that we acknowledge grace. And this is why a few days from now, you'll be sitting down at the thanksgiving table and one of you is going to be asked to say grace. Have you ever wondered that?
Joel Brooks:That's just such an unusual expression to say grace. That's what we call the prayer. But but, yes, to say a prayer of thanksgiving is to acknowledge that you are here and everything in front of you is there because of grace. All the food that's before you is due to God's grace. All the family and friendships you have are due to God's grace.
Joel Brooks:The roof you have over your over your head is due to his grace. This is why Paul says this in 2nd Corinthians. If you put the verse up here. In 2nd Corinthians 4:15, Paul writes this. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.
Joel Brooks:Here Paul is, he's saying that the reason I go through everything I go through, all the suffering I go through, is that I might extend grace to you. Because the more grace that is extended to you, the more thanksgiving there is. And that gives God glory. Grace leads to thanksgiving, which leads to God's glory. Now I feel like I do need to to address this about the word thanksgiving or thankful.
Joel Brooks:And once once I say this, you're gonna start noticing this everywhere. All throughout our culture, people are gonna say that they are thankful. They're just they're just so thankful. They're thankful for the home they have. They're thankful for their friends.
Joel Brooks:They're thankful for their health. Thankful for their life. But I want you to notice that most people don't give an object to their thanks. And they treat the word thankful the same that you would use the word lucky. I'm just lucky, or I thank my lucky stars.
Joel Brooks:That's not what's being talked about here. Thankful has an object. We're thankful to Jesus. We're thankful to God for what he has given us. You cannot just be thankful in a vacuum.
Joel Brooks:You're not just lucky people. We don't use the word thankful that way. Thankful is an expression of praise as when we acknowledge the grace that has come to us from God. So thanks is the joyful recognition of grace. So what is the opposite of thanks?
Joel Brooks:The opposite of thanks is complaining, or the biblical word for it is grumbling. I love that word grumbling. It's, onomatopoeia. It's it's, which I had no idea how to spell. I mean, I kept getting the the red underline constantly.
Joel Brooks:Alright? But grumble, it it all you have to do is hear the word, and you know what it means. It's like, you know, how's the weather outside? Grumble. I mean, it's just grumble.
Joel Brooks:You have a good day? How was school? Grumble. I mean, it's just you under you understand what it is. Grumble.
Joel Brooks:It's a it's a complaint. And yet Paul tells us this in Philippians 2. It's there in your your worship guide. That we are to do all things without grumbling or disputing. I mean, once again, it's like you got some lawyers around.
Joel Brooks:He's like, I don't wanna tell people just not to grumble. How can I make this ironclad? You gotta say, do all things. Do all things without grumbling. You are to drive without grumbling.
Joel Brooks:You are to eat without grumbling. You are to go to school or go to work without grumbling. You are to talk, to your co workers or about your boss without grumbling. You're to talk about your neighbors without grumbling. Talk about politics with your family without grumbling.
Joel Brooks:Let let me ask you a question. When was the last time you complained? When was the last time? Was it a month ago? Was a month ago your last complaint?
Joel Brooks:Was it a week ago? Was it a day ago was the last time you complained? Did some of you complain driving here? Like, was that your last complaint? It it literally was like 30 minutes ago.
Joel Brooks:I know for the morning service when they hit the, the marathon blocking every road, I think half of every person who came complained, but when is the last time you've complained? The truth is we're a complaining people. We grumble all the time. Have you ever opened up your refrigerator that is stock full full of food, and you have complained, there's just nothing to eat. Or you opened up your closet that is full of all these clothes and you said, I've just got nothing to wear.
Joel Brooks:Or you've turned on the TV in which there's over 200 channels and you're like, there is nothing on TV. How many of you have flown in an airplane in which I mean, if you think about it, you're literally thousands of feet in the air traveling 100 of miles per hour. You're looking down at the clouds, and you complain that they didn't have diet Doctor Pepper for you. Like, we complain over everything. When we have free time, we complain that we are bored.
Joel Brooks:When we don't have any free time, we complain that we are too busy and that our plate is full. When it's summer, we complain it's too hot. When it's winter, we complain it's too cold. When the weather is perfect, we say, well, you know it's not gonna last. Fall's the shortest season here in Birmingham.
Joel Brooks:When we get asked a a specific question from somebody about how we're doing, and not just a general, but how are you doing in this area? We complain that people are in our business. And then when nobody asks us these questions, we complain that no one cares. No one cares what's going on in my life. We complain that we never get to see our family.
Joel Brooks:After this week, we will complain that we saw them way too much. We're a complaining people. We can actually do all things with grumbling. There's not an area in our life that that's off limits for us to grumble about, and we can complain in every circumstance. And the reason we could do that is because complaining is not dependent upon any circumstance, just like giving thanks is not dependent upon any circumstance.
Joel Brooks:Our circumstances have nothing to do with whether we complain or whether we give thanks. As a matter of fact, one of the things I've noticed is that the more prosperous we are, the more we tend to grumble and complain. Seems like thanksgiving seems to arise out of poverty, not prosperity. Jesus said this in Matthew 12. Said, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.
Joel Brooks:And what this means is when we complain, we need to stop and lean into it. And we need to ask a question. What's going on in my heart that makes me say such things? What's going on in my heart that makes me grumble so much? What's going on in my heart that makes me complain the way I complain?
Joel Brooks:I mean, I even complain about people who complain. I mean, how many of you have done that? I can't just be around that person. All they do is complain. And, like, we don't see the irony in that statement.
Joel Brooks:So so what's going on? What's churning in here in my heart to which the overflow of it comes out as complaint? So don't waste your complaint, ask these questions. And what we're gonna find is that complaining reveals to us one of one of 2 things that are happening in our hearts. And the first is this, when we complain, we complain because we think we deserve better.
Joel Brooks:We think we deserve better. If we were beyond be honest, we would say that, gosh. The reason for my complaint is God is not giving me what I rightly deserve. He's not giving me what I deserve. Think back to the last thing you complained about.
Joel Brooks:Think way back whenever that was, that last thing you complained about. What did that complaint say about what you thought at that moment you deserved? What did it say? As I look back over the last month or so of complaints for me, apparently, I believe that I deserve to never have to wait in line, ever. I believe that, I deserve to never lack anything.
Joel Brooks:That I deserve, when I'm driving, to always have the right of way, and that everyone must yield to me. That I deserve to have the people who I voted for in the election win and others be happy about it. I believe that I deserve exercise to be easy and for my body not to fail me. I deserve to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving the way that I want it with the foods I like. At the time I want to celebrate it, who in their right mind celebrates thanksgiving at 2 o'clock or 3 o'clock in the afternoon?
Joel Brooks:It's the worst part. What are you supposed to do all day? Not have lunch, not have dinners? Like, have it at noon, have it at dinner, but my family does it at 2 or 3. They should bend to my needs.
Joel Brooks:I deserve, apparently, to get what I want when I want it, and I deserve to have other people read my mind without me having to say what I want when I want it. So apparently, if you were to boil it all down, my complaining shows that I think I deserve to be treated like God. I deserve to be treated like God. But to think that I deserve any of these things creates in me a posture that is completely resistant to grace. A deserving posture is a posture resistant to grace.
Joel Brooks:It's an opposition to grace. The truth is the only thing that I deserve is judgment and hell, and everything that comes my way is a gift of God's grace. There's only one person who has ever walked this earth who truly didn't get what he deserved, and that was Jesus. Jesus who deserved every blessing that heaven and earth could bestow on him, instead received every curse from hell. He was the only one who was treated differently than he deserved.
Joel Brooks:And the reason he did this was so that grace might come to us. Alright. Let's look at the second thing that our complaining reveals about our hearts. The first is that we think we deserve better, and the second is we think we know better. We think we know better than God.
Joel Brooks:It would have been better if I had gotten the promotion. It would have been better if I had actually found a spouse and got married. It would have been better if I had children that were not that difficult. It would have been better if I had not gotten so sick. And and we have this attitude, and and although we believe that God is good and that God is sovereign, when it comes to certain areas of our life, what we think is God might have been well intentioned, but he got it wrong.
Joel Brooks:And that we actually know better than him. And he should listen to us, and that comes out in the form of complaining. A thankful heart understands that God knows what we need more than we actually know what we need. We might think we know what we need, but we don't. God knows, and he gives it to us.
Joel Brooks:And sometimes, it looks like it's just suffering for no reason. Sometimes, it looks like an incredible blessing, but everything that the Lord gives to us is for our good, and it's a gift of grace. And so a thankful heart learns to trust in the sovereign goodness of God, and could be happy knowing that God's in control because God knows better. Oh, one of the first memories I have actually, it might be the first memory I have. I was a a small child.
Joel Brooks:It was I was in the car. I think my family was traveling on vacation, and we would usually leave early in the morning way before the sun got up and so it was dark outside, and I was curled up in a little ball at my mom's feet in the passenger seat, or the the floor of the passenger seat. It was legal back then. There was no seat belt laws. It was a lot easier to travel.
Joel Brooks:I mean, and so I was just in a ball there and and the memory I have is that, of course, was dark. I can feel the heat of the engine, there and the floorboards. I could hear the engine because it was a diesel. And I could hear the rain. It was pouring down rain.
Joel Brooks:It actually sounded like somebody was just dropping marbles, like all on the roof. It was raining so hard, but I remember feeling so warm and so safe. And I would just drift in and out of sleep. And I was warm and safe because I had complete and total confidence, not my control, but that my dad was driving. That is the closest.
Joel Brooks:It's the closest thing I have ever experienced to Jesus being in the hull of the ship in the midst of that incredible storm in which everybody else thought they were drowning, in which he was asleep, safe, warm, fine, because he knew his father was in control. And I look at the rest of my life when I when I grew up after this, that all my fear and all my anxiety has come when I have tried to claim control over my own life, instead of trusting that God knows better, and I should rejoice and be thankful that he's in control. And perhaps that's you. You realize that the more control you try to have, quote control, the more anxious you are, the more fearful you are. But the more you can just acknowledge, God, you're in control and you know better than me, the more peace and joy comes flooding in.
Joel Brooks:And make no mistake, we're we're after peace, and we're after joy and being thankful here. Let me ask you this, have you ever met a joyful complainer or a peaceful complainer? Anyone ever met somebody who complains all the time who's not anxious? Anyone ever met anybody who complains all the time yet they're really joyful? No, complaining robs you of joy.
Joel Brooks:Alright? Grumbling robs you of joy. I want you to look back again at first Thessalonians 5 16. You're gonna see how joy is is part of what Paul is talking about here. He gives 3 commands, rejoice or have joy always.
Joel Brooks:Once again, he doesn't say rejoice, but rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Not just pray, but pray without ceasing, and then give thanks in all circumstances. Now I want you to know that all of those are interlocked. You cannot have one of those without having the other 2.
Joel Brooks:You cannot rejoice always. You cannot be full with joy unless you're praying without ceasing, and you are thankful in every circumstance. And you can't pray without ceasing without being filled with incredible joy and also being really thankful. And you can't be a very thankful person without being filled with joy and constant prayer. These things are like a 3 legged stool, holding up your life.
Joel Brooks:You wanna be filled with joy and prayer and thanksgiving day all interlock together. It's how we receive grace here. Jesus, Jesus, of course, who understood this, he he gave thanks to his father throughout his life. I wanna close by just pointing out 2 occasions that Jesus gave thanks. The first is in every gospel.
Joel Brooks:It's the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. It's the only miracle outside of the resurrection that's in all 4 gospels. And, and so what you you learn from that right at the start is this is something that's extremely important to God and to the gospel writers. And if you remember the story about Jesus feeding the 5,000, Jesus is in a very remote isolated place, and 5,000 people come out there to be with him. And that's just counting the men, so it's more likely 15 to 20000 people total.
Joel Brooks:You're out there in a very remote place. There's no restaurants, there's no grocery stores. I mean, you're out in the boondocks there and they sit all day hearing Jesus teach And at the end of the day, Jesus can't just dismiss them because they're probably gonna faint on their way home. They're famished. And so he looks at Philip and says, why don't you feed them?
Joel Brooks:I mean, poor Philip. Like, he could have picked on any of them. For some reason, he chose Philip. And, can you imagine Philip looking at 20,000 people and, like, yeah. But to Philip's credit, he does go around and he looks for food.
Joel Brooks:I mean, he's gotta act like he's trying and, and he he finds a little boy who has 2 sardines and 5 biscuits and so he brings these 2 sardines and 5 biscuits to Jesus. And I love it. Jesus looks at this, this little teeny bit that God has now provided for him, And he looks out, and he thinks, this is nothing compared to the need in front of me. Nothing. But then he raises it up, and it says he gave thanks.
Joel Brooks:The word there is Eucharist. He broke the bread, and he gave thanks. And he received grace, and because he received grace there, everyone received it. And what God gave him was sufficient for all, although it didn't look like it at first, and he kept giving and giving and giving. Fast forward a little bit and it's a very similar circumstance.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is now with his disciples in the upper room and it's had another meal, The Passover. The Passover, I don't know if you're aware of this, is actually the closest thing that we have to our thanksgiving. In many ways, these meals are very similar to one another. Because it's a time where are you're gathering together with with family and with extended family. You don't you never didn't have Passover by yourself.
Joel Brooks:So it was a gathering of a group of people and then there were different sights and smells and tastes that were to evoke a memory to which you would give thanks. That's what thanksgiving is. I mean, you're gonna gather together with all of these different people, and and there's gonna be sights and smells and tastes that are gonna evoke memories. I mean I'm gonna look and the moment I see you know the green bean casserole with the, the crispy onions on top, I know when I see that and I smell that, Aunt Red's here. You know, I can look around.
Joel Brooks:Alright, Aunt Red's here, or if I see her I know that that dish is waiting. And so the meal just it evokes all of these memories of of people and family, and it produces in us this thanksgiving. And so it was similar here. They remember God's salvation. They were thankful for it in the course of this meal.
Joel Brooks:And what we read is that Jesus, he got the bread, and he lifted it up. And we read in Luke 22, and it says, and he gave thanks, and he broke it. Once again, the word there is Eucharist. It's the reason we call the bread and the wine here at the Lord's supper. We call it the eucharist.
Joel Brooks:We call it the thanksgiving, because this is the ultimate thing that we are thankful for. When Christ gave his body and his blood, in which we never have to doubt his goodness towards us. We never have to doubt his love for us when it comes to approaching this table. So we do remember the night that Jesus was betrayed in which he took bread and he broke it. He gave thanks, and he broke it.
Joel Brooks:And he said, this is my body given for you. In the same way, he took the cup and he said, this is my blood, poured out for the forgiveness of many. Hear me. We have a lot of things to be thankful for. I grew up singing that, Baptist hymn, Count Your Many Blessings, named them 1 by 1.
Joel Brooks:And you could just go on and on and name all your blessings. But it all starts here. It all starts here. We are forgiven. We have eternal life.
Joel Brooks:We are co heirs with Christ. We have a glorious inheritance waiting for us. We get to be called and treated as children of God because of this table here. Christ giving his own body and his blood. And so I pray that as we approach this table tonight, we would indeed give thanks.
Joel Brooks:If you would, pray with me. Our father, we do give you thanks. We thank you for the Eucharist that's here, the bread and the wine, and how as we taste the bread and we drink the wine, it evokes all of our senses in order for us to remember your work on the cross. And when we remember, we give thanks. Father, as we partake in communion, we ask that you would indeed commune with us.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
