Thankful Living

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Thankful Living. He will be reading out of Colossians 3:15-17.

Grace and thankfulness go together and we can recognize that God is calling us to obey this command of letting the Word of Christ dwell in us richly and that we’re to do it with thankfullness, not begrudgingly, but rather as a devoted and grateful soul to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want to wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. I know we are not quite there but in a few days we’re going to be celebrating Thanksgiving. And of course at this time we have to talk about thankful living.

Today we are going be in Colossians chapter 3 verse 15 through 17. And we will learn how the Bible teaches us to the Christians who are thankful. It’s easy to be discouraged. Its easy be complaining.

its always easier to see the negative than it is the positive. But let’s look into God’s word and see how it guides us into a thankful lifestyle. If you have your Bible this morning, I want you to join me in Colossians chapter 3, verse 15 through 17, and our message this morning is Thankful Living.

I’d like you consider a question this morning. How do you obey the commands of the Bible? Do you grudgingly obey? Or perhaps you obey because you’re afraid of punishment? Or do you obey the Word of God with thanksgiving?

There are 138 verses in the Bible that deal with Thanksgiving, and we are called to pursue in our life a life of being thankful. But God not only calls us to be a thankful people, but He calls to live up to the standard to which He has laid out in His Word.

And this is the key to our thankful living. That we are not only obedient to God, but that we also are thankful as we have the joy of following God’s glorious path for us. Now the Apostle Paul in our text today gives us three commands and scriptures on how to live thankfully.

but he also teaches us how to obey those commands in a way that brings glory to God. I want you to note with me this passage of Scripture which is very familiar hopefully to all of you in Colossians 3 verse 15 let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which also you were called in one body and I I want you to note that phrase, be thankful.

Verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you, richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Some translations say with thankfulness in our hearts, to Lord, verse 17.

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus and there’s that phrase again giving thanks to God the Father through him. How do we live a thankful life? Well very simply the Apostle teaches us first that we have to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts but it doesn’t just stop there he reminds us that as we are striving to obey this command that we are to be thankful in striving to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts.

Now it’s interesting this word rule is a unique word in the Bible because it has the idea of an umpire. The Bible says let that peace -of -Christ rule in your heart and it is the ideal of the piece of God presiding as an or as a judge, or directing and controlling your heart as you’re making decisions, as your dealing with life, as are dealing the circumstances of life.

That we are called to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. I want you to think about that. One of the rules Terry and I have is that if we’re gonna make a big purchase, A, it always has to be an agreement together.

Either one of us has the right to veto. But the second thing is that we’re always going to make sure that have peace in our hearts before we make the decision. And there have been times we maybe had to get a vehicle or something like that and people will say, well, if you don’t buy it right now, Mike, if don get it, the sale’s off tomorrow.

Terry and I many times just walked away and said, we don’ feel peace about it. And we feel like this is the write purchase for us. And so that is idea what I’m trying to say is we are letting the peace of Christ Rule, in our hearts, we’re letting the peace of Christ direct our hearts and to control our heart and to preside as a judge of what decisions and how we should respond in life.

Jesus gave us a promise. In the Gospel of John chapter 14 verse 27, he told his disciples, peace I leave with you. My peace, I give unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto you let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid how is the peace of Christ experienced in our life well I think it begins with being thankful thanksgiving is an amazing medicine in your life when we are thankful our worries cease complaining disappears peace comes into our hearts.

When we learn to be thankful, we’re on the way to being joyful, contented, and biblical people. Thankfulness spares us from being critical. It spears us from angry. If the focus of your life is always on the negativity, and it’s always what you’re upset about, or the problem people in your life, then it’s no wonder that you’re depressed and defeated and angry at the world.

But listen to what the Apostle teaches us, that the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus. There may have been times that you have felt like you were losing your mind and maybe you felt like the world is so messed up and may be things going on in your own family are so frustrating that you thought your heart would be crushed.

But listen, here’s what the Bible says, that the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, meaning it’s beyond human logic, it is beyond our full ability to grasp, but this great peace -of -God that is promised to us from Christ will guard your hearts and your mind through Christ Jesus.

And that’s where thanksgiving Thanksgiving comes in because thanksgiving is a marvelous healing power. It is soothing quality to the people of God who learn to habitually display it in their life. The Bible teaches us in Isaiah 26 .3, that will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed or whose minds is focused on thee because he trusteth in thee.

The key is this, that my focus needs to be upon Christ. Remember church, I told you at the outset that wherever you’re looking is where you are going. And so if you were looking at problems, if your are looking at negative people in your life, if are you looking in the past, holding on to grudges, then that’s where your headed in you spirit.

That’s were you headed and your mindset. But if were your focus is upon Jesus Christ, His truth, that I want you to know that the peace that God gives will be a peace that He will implant upon your heart that will help you through this troubled world.

Now how does the Peace of God help us? And how do we manifest this great peace? Well I wanted to give you a few scriptures here that i think will give us some wisdom relating to that. The first one is Romans 8 6 which says to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

That’s the key. Peace with God in the flesh is impossible. We make peace with god when we surrender our hearts and receive him as our Lord and savior, when reject the world and embrace Christ by faith.

When we repent of our sins and believe in the Lord, we make Peace With God. And that is the inception of us experiencing seeing the peace of God every day in our life. But as we travel through this world, though our spirit has been renewed and our Spirit has be saved and we have been made a new person in Christ, we still deal with the flesh.

We still have the battles of the flash. And the devil is continuing to try to draw us back into that old nature, into the carnal way, that fleshly perspective on life, but the Bible says be spiritually minded and that when you are spiritually minded there will be life and peace because the Lord’s peace subdues all selfishness in my heart.

As I focus on him and experience his peace that he subdu’s that fleshly carnal mindedness. Let me give you another verse to consider. Finally brothers Philippians 4 .8 Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever’s just, whatever pure, whatever lovely, whatever commendable.

If there is any excellence, if there’s anything worthy of praise, think about these things. I want you to understand something and this is important for all marriages, it’s important all parents, it is for every life really.

But it something that you have to focus on and that is that people’s lives are the product of their thoughts. People’s lives are the products of thoughts.” What I want to do is think on these things.

I want help my children think of these thing. I what my spouse to thank on this thing, I wanna be the kind of person who is influencing others to think these on things and I do that first by being the example by thinking on the things, not coming home and finding fault in my family, not coming into the house of worship, critical and angry, not showing up at work with negativity, but rather thinking on the things that God has instructed me to think upon.

Because the outcome of my life is the direct result of what I am thinking. And unfortunately too many people are thinking about the wrong things, and as a result it leads to carnality, anxiety, and it leads to anxiety and leads to frustration.

So I want to challenge you that if you are to experience the peace of God in your life, thank on the things that the apostle has just given us as a list. Here’s my final verse to you relating to this point.

Romans 14, 19, let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. To experience the peace of God, I have to have peace with God and that I am fully surrendered to the Lord and receiving Christ as my Savior.

But in addition to experience the Peace of God as a believer, i must do everything that i can to live in peace with others. How about this? Have you noticed that Christians don’t always agree? Have you noticed that sometimes in your family that you don’t always agree?

Have You noticed in marriage sometimes you do not always agree. Yet the Bible tells us that we are to pursue the things which make for peace and the things that may edify one another. You see we have to make a special effort.

When the bible uses the word pursue it is the idea of being intentional. taking the initiative. Pursue the things in all of your relationships. You want to experience the peace of God? Then in All of Your Relationship, pursue the things that bring about peace.

Now look, we’re not going to agree on everything and even in our nation we are not gonna agree about everything. We understand that and you come together for Thanksgiving and you might bring up some things are very controversial and everybody has an pursuing the things which make for peace.

Think about the difference it would make in your relationships or even within our church. If just five people in our Church began to write letters once a week saying, I appreciate you. What difference would it make parents to your children if you left them a note?

Or how about this one? Parents, try this, one send a text message. Not during school, after school. But if you sent them a text message and said, I love you and I appreciate you. I’m thankful. You know, your kids might just fall over and they may not know what to do because they’re used to mom saying, hey, why isn’t your room clean?

You don’t saying it’s easy to rag on our kids. And I’ve not saying that sometimes they don t need to be challenged and motivated and all that wonderful stuff. What I m trying to say to you, what difference would it make in all of our relationships and in our own church family, if we all took time to write a note of appreciation to those that we love.

I want to tell you as a pastor, I just want give testimony to you. During Pastor Appreciation Month, so many of you sent me cards and I appreciate that. It was a blessing to know that you’re appreciated.

So the human heart is designed by God and the Human Heart needs to be appreciated and And it is important for us to show appreciation. And as we do that, we’re letting the peace of Christ rule in our hearts.

Notice the second command in verse 16. Paul is teaching us how to be thankful, how live thankfully, not just during the thanksgiving season, but certainly all year round. But he says in Verse 16, let the word of christ dwell in you richly.

We come to the end of the verse. He says, with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Some translations is already mentioned. It used the word thankfulness. It all depends on the understanding of the article before the Word, but the bottom line is that grace and thankfullness go together.

And we can recognize that God is calling us to obey this command of letting the the world of Christ dwell in us richly and that we’re to do it with thankfulness, not begrudgingly, not, well, I have to it, or I’m afraid if I don’t, I might get in trouble, but rather as a devoted and grateful soul to the Lord Jesus Christ, we strive to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly.

Now I wanna share with you how you do that. I want you to write these three things down because I think they’re so powerful in your life, but they are so simplistic. Many Christians miss out on the simplicity of the faith and you know they’re trying to come up with all these special formulas and they are trying to came up all the special steps.

But let me give you three simple ways to let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Number one, you’re not going to believe it but by singing. By singing, look at the text again. Look at what he says.

We are teaching, we are admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Did you know that music plays an important role in your spiritual vitality? That music play an import role on the New Testament?

The early church incorporated worship songs regularly in their gathering corporately together as a family of God. We are called to sing with grace and it’s the idea to sing, with gratitude and with thanksgiving in our hearts, to the Lord.

And he tells us that in are singing, we are accomplishing some important tasks. One is that we’re teaching. Did you know that music is supposed to teach? Music is supposed teach. It’s not just an emotional experience, but rather it is a experience where we are letting the truths of Christ to dwell in us richly.

We are dwelling on the Word of Christ dwelling in as rich and as we come together as a family of God we sing the songs. We want them to be a teaching tool. They are admonishing. Did you know that when we sing together in our classes, our Bible studies, or even corporately together here in the family, that we’re admonish one another.

Here’s That’s what the word admonish means, to put in mind, to bring to your attention. How about this, aren’t many of us forgetful? Yes, we are forget full, we find ourselves and that’s why I have to make a list every day of what I need to get done and I check those things off.

And I remember when people say they wanna have a chance to meet with me or they want to ask if I would take care of something for them, I tell them please send me an email because I’ll forget because that is the way life is.

But here’s what I want you to understand is when we come together We’re realigning our hearts as we sing together the great biblical songs and we are lining our heart as God is teaching us how great he is and We are admonishing each other as the family of God.

We our reminding each, other putting to our attention What and how wonderful and faithful our God? Is I, want, you, to stay with me in this text he tells us the three categories of music Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

That’s really the three categories. Psalm are the songs that were written by the psalmist, and they come directly out of the scriptures. You see, I think many churches make the mistake. They want it to be a certain style.

They just want to it be just a type of song. And I just think that we need to remember that the Bible wants it to more blended. And the bible teaches us that we’re to sing songs that come directly out of the Word of God.

And then you’ll note also in verse 16 that they’re hymns. Now please, again, let’s be a little bit more thoughtful about this relating to, it’s not your hymn book that you see in the pew, but he’s talking about the type of song, songs that teach us about God, whether the song was written 200 years ago or the The song was written yesterday.

If it teaches us about who God is, it is a song, it’s a hymn. We think about that great hym, how great thou art. And then we think of Chris Tomblin, who is great songwriter in our day, and he has taught us our God, how Great our god is.

And so we look at these songs and we say, what do these song teach us? Do they teach about God? When they’re teaching us about the nature of God. the attributes of God, the abilities of God. These songs are called hymns, but I want you to see the next category, and that is spiritual songs.

Now spiritual songs our testimony songs, they are songs that reflect about God’s great work within us. Now I’m getting ready to rock your world, how about that? You guys don’t sound too excited, but here’s the thing, did you know Amazing Grace is not a hymn, but it is a spiritual song.

It is the testimony song of John Newton of how God brought him out of sin and out of the slave trade world and saved his soul gloriously and this grace has worked so effectively in his heart that he is singing praise and worship to God.

Now you would tell any average Christian they might fight you on that. How dare Why do you say that Amazing Grace is not a hymn? Because people allow that word hym to be a defining word in their spirituality.

And what I’m trying to say is that you’re really missing it. You’re misunderstanding what God wants us to do. Doesn’t matter whether a song is sung or written today or yesterday or a hundred years ago.

What matters is the content of the song. Is it teaching us about God? Well, it’s a him. Does the words come directly out of the scripture? It’s a Psalms. Is it a song that gives testimony to the greatness of our God and what He has done in us and through us, and around us?

it is a spiritual song. Now we have different styles. Some of you like bluegrass. some of you, like something a little bit harder. And some of, you liked Southern. It doesn’t matter. All that is not the issue.

You and I just can’t imagine and understand why Christians allow those things to define their maturity. Whether you like Southern gospel or contemporary Christian is about like to me whether you like apple pie or cherry pie.

And you know what I’d say to that? Again, I’m going to make you upset but big whippy -dippy do. I mean if you liked Southern Gospel, big wippy dippy do! If you’d like contemporary Christians, Big Whippy Dippy Do!

I don’t have no issue with it, I like a blend of it all. I refuse to be so narrow -minded in my music appreciation that I can’t appreciate the giftedness of people in different styles. I think that you’re actually limiting and putting a lid on your spiritual life.

But I want to challenge you to let singing be a way that you let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. How do I let Let the word of Christ dwell on me richly through Scripture. You note again back in our text in verse 16, he says to let the Word of Christ well, which is the idea to live, to be at home richley, which means abundantly, extravagantly.

Here’s what I want you to remember. The power of God is released in your life as you allow God’s Word to dominate nature life. As you allow the Word of God to be saturated in your life, then you are letting the word of Christ dwell on you richly.

Now, how do I make sure that Scripture is an important part of my life? I think every day you ought to read, study the Bible. And there’s so many good technological things out there. We don’t need to go through them all, but there are no excuses.

We are blessed in many ways to have the availability of Gods Word to us. But I also want to encourage you to get involved in a Sunday school class or a Bible study class, or some kind of a small group where you as fellow believers are studying the Word of God together in the community of faith.

And you let the word of Christ dwell in you richly when you come together corporately, letting the world of god to be taught in your life as we do it together as a family of God. So here’s a question to consider.

How deeply embedded in your heart is God’s Word? Now, I told you that we can do that through singing, Scripture, but let me tell you another way that you can let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.

And that’s what I call supplication or prayer. Believe it or not, in prayer, you could let The Word Of Christ well in you, richley. Let me teach you a powerful principle. I can’t go in deep, I’ve taught it before to the church, especially in our Bible studies and Wednesday nights and things like that, but learning to pray the scriptures, opening the Bible, look at the great prayers in the bible, and transitioning those prayers into your personal prayer request to God, going through the book of Psalms and those great Psalm of adoration and exaltation to Christ taking the scriptures and just reading through those scriptures as a prayer unto God Praising him you can let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you learn to supplicate and pray The scriptures now my third and final point we’ve been talking about how to live Thankfully and we just been tracking through the commands.

We got to let The Peace of God rule in our hearts We have to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly. We’re doing it all with thanksgiving. Look at verse 17, whatever you do, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And what does he say at the end of the verse? Giving thanks to God. You see, how do you obey the commands of God? Are you doing it thankfully? Or are you doing it grudgingly? Now, here’s what this passage, this command is teaching us, that all that we do whether we are They’re working at a business, working in the home, even working in a church.

Wherever we might find ourselves, that all that we are doing is really a spiritual act of worship to God. We like to compartmentalize our life as a Christian. We’d like say, well, this is my church life.

This is what I do at the church, This what do I at my job, This What I Do at home. This Is What do when I go have fun on vacation, whatever. Listen to me. I want you to understand that it all comes together.

It is like a mighty river in your heart and what he is teaching us, whatever we do, in word or deed, do it in the name of the Lord, Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him. The Bible teaches us in Ephesians 6 .7, with good will, doing service as to the lord, not to men.

everything that I do, everything I say, it’s all for Him. It’s through Him, because of Him.” Hebrews 13, 15 tells us that through him then, let’s continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips praising His name.

You see, I’m to be praising God in whatever I am to do. I’ll be thankful to Him in what I will do.” You say, well, I don’t like sweeping the floor. I Don’t Like vacuuming the carpet. I Dont Like cleaning the bathrooms.

I dont like changing the diapers. I dont like these menial tasks in my life. But did you know that everything that you do in the smallest, my nudist detail is an act of worship to God. We come, we worship God, we praise Him, we use our giftedness for God and the family of God But that same attitude needs to be adopted in everything that we say and everything that We do for the rest of our lives.

So the questions to consider this morning, are you living peacefully with God? Are you leaving peacefully with others? Do you allow the word of Christ to dominate your life each day? is everything you do worthy to be done in the name of Jesus Christ.

As you and I carry out these commands that are so simplistic in the Scriptures, let us not forget what the Apostle has taught us after each command. With Thanksgiving, with grace, us with thanksgiving.

May all of our hearts be devoted to thankful living from this day forward. As you have already learned, living thankfully is not just a seasonal time that we just take time to give thanks, but rather it is something we’re to do every day as believers.

And most of all, we can all be thankful of Our salvation. Christ has awakened our heart and He has drawn given us new life in Jesus Christ, what a blessing it is that God has transformed our life. And so even if we find our life filled with trials and troubles, we are most grateful that, God, has saved us, delivered us from hell, and is now promised for us the hope of eternal life through Jesus, Christ in a place that is called heaven.

So I hope that your heart is set on being thankful and that you’re committed to not just being grateful now, but even through the rest of the year and the beginning of the New Year, and that God would give you a spirit of gratefulness for the days that are ahead.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.