Take your Bible and open with me to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. The book of Colossians in most Bibles is very, very thin. It's only about two or three pages, so it's towards the very back, very back of the Bible. Colossians chapter 3. We're going to really be looking at this morning, sort of the first chunk of chapter 3, verses 1 through 17. But I'm just going to read for us verse 17. Colossians 3, 17. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Let's pray. What a blessing, what a gift to wake up this morning, to be able to go to church, to hold our own personal copy of the divinely inspired revelation of the infinite and eternal and only God. We thank You, Lord, that You love Your people. We thank You that You instruct us, that You give us Your Word as a lamp unto our feet. on a very dark path and a very gloomy night. We ask this morning, Holy Spirit, that you would open the eyes of our hearts, that as we have a cultural moment to reflect on, giving thanks that we would do so focused on the object of what you have said about Thanksgiving. And may we relate that to our time and place, our life, our hearts, and all that you've done. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thursday's coming. Thursday approaches. For some of us, that's a bit of a mixed sort of thing. Some of us like Thursday, some of us love turkey. Some of us wonder why we still eat turkey. Some of us love getting together with family. Some of us dread getting together with family. Whether you like it or not, Thursday is approaching. It's interesting, some families, they just do the whole Thanksgiving part of Thanksgiving very differently. Some of us come, ready to eat, ready to catch up. And we all know we're thankful, so why do we gotta talk about it, right? We're here to really just see each other, that's the point. Others of us, it's a little more intentional, it's a little more thoughtful, a little more planned, like, hey, okay, everybody, let's just say one thing we're thankful for this year. Everybody slices the pie a bit differently. We all know we should be thankful, though. It's just kind of difficult for most of us to reflect on that. You know, we've got traffic to beat. We've got stuffing to put in the oven. We've got gravy to make sure it's the right thickness and it's not too salty. We've got grandma coming over and she needs a lot of help getting inside. There's a lot of things on your mind that make you so busy that it's hard to actually be thankful on Thanksgiving. But as Christians, we know it's the case. We know we should be a thankful people. It's obvious to us, but we sometimes forget the basis for why. It's not that it's totally forgotten, but it's not always crystal clear why we should be thankful. And so this morning I've taken us to Colossians 3 because the Apostle Paul makes it really, really clear. He says this, or the big idea of what he's getting at is this. Give thanks to God in everything. And he's going to tell us two reasons why. They're sort of hidden, not hidden, but they're contained within the verses we just read. Give thanks to God in everything. The first reason why is it's because it's who you are. which sounds a little funny at first, but number one, give thanks to God in everything because it's who you are, and number two, because what God has done. Two reasons, who you are, and second, what God has done. I'm going to try to keep this sermon a little more tight this morning. We got baptisms, member receptions, vows to be read. We got a lot of stuff going on a little bit later, so we're going to try to keep it a little shorter, a little tighter. But hopefully we'll be able to walk away seeing clearly what the Bible teaches on Thanksgiving. The Apostle Paul begins in verses 1-3 of Colossians 3 saying this, If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. The Apostle begins this whole section by saying, hey, if you have been united to Jesus, that means the old you has died and the new you has risen. And that means your location of where you belong, the sort of true home for you, has actually changed. This world that has fallen and broken and still messy with sin and pain and suffering, this is no longer the realm to which you most truly belong. Now you actually belong in heaven. Now your real home is beyond the pale of this reality in the greater, truer, more substantial world of heavenly life. And he says, if the old self, the old you who belonged to this world is dead, then that means the decisions, the words, the actions, now must change because you have changed. And if the new you is now alive and belongs to the heavenly realm, that means the new you and its decisions and actions and lifestyle needs to change and look a lot more like the heavenly life. The earthly life of a slave to brokenness, mistakes, not being able to do what you know you should do, and not being able to stop doing the things you know you shouldn't do, the shackles of that slavery have been broken. If you used to be an unceasing liar, You no longer have to be an unceasing liar. If you used to be constantly furious, heartless, greedy, self or other destructive, no longer are you enslaved or bound to that life. The new humanity has come. And so too, if you belong to the world of heaven now, you are free to live like somebody in heaven, full of love, full of joy, full of other oriented actions and decisions. In nature, we see this sort of transformation in caterpillars and butterflies. Many of you I know love to garden. We got a pretty decent milkweed going now in the back of my house. It's not, you know, it's probably yay high. Not a lot of caterpillars lately, so the flowers are getting up, you know. But hey, we can see there's a transformation that takes place. The old life looks like a little green larva with 16 legs nibbling on leaves stuck to the ground, right? But once they get in that chrysalis, once they pop out and the new person comes out, they're flying. Life looks different. Their sphere of where they live looks different. Everything has changed. So too for you and I. And so Paul says, I'm going to read verses 5, I'm going to read a few verses. Verse 5, 7 through 8, and then 12, if you want to jump around with me. In light of this, he says this, Compassion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. In these two you once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth. Jumping down to verse 12. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience. Put off, put on. The old self must be taken out. The new self must be replacing and put on. In Paul's little logic of his metaphor of clothing, You have to put something off and put something on. You can't just go naked. You can't just put it off. You can't just stop being angry. You can't just stop being greedy. The new Christian doesn't just look like a not sinful earthly person. The new Christian, in addition to that, looks like a new humanity, heavenly, being. Putting off and putting on. As I was thinking about this, imagine if you found somebody, knew a friend who once was homeless. Many of us actually have people like this, right? They had a season where they were going through substance abuse or something crazy, right? And they actually were homeless for a time. Raggedy, Clothes just are deteriorating. The body odor is so thick, it reaches sort of new heights you have never understood as a human being. But this person, they're so used to living homeless, they don't even smell themselves anymore, right? And somehow God has worked, brought them a job, they get stable life, and now they're going to work every day. They're wearing clean clothes. Things are different. They have a place to shower and a place to sleep. Now imagine if that homeless person wants to start putting on, formerly homeless person, wants to get out those old rags with the old smells and put them back on. Doesn't make sense, does it? The new self and the new clothes and the new life are where you belong. Paul here, with his whole idea of new self, old self, is actually tapping into a story in the Bible that's even much bigger than just your actions. He's actually tapping into a story that goes all the way back to the very beginning of creation. Adam and Eve. The old self, the old clothes, the old life, the earthly broken existence are all connected to the first human race rooted in Adam. Broken, God rejecting, fallen. But he says the new self, that's rooted in the second Adam. This is actually the structure of Paul's thought that he's using here. The second and greater Adam, the new humanity. which is in somebody named Jesus Christ. He comes as a representative to kick off and begin a new human race that is beyond and outside of the brokenness, the frailty, the mistakes, the dirtiness of this world and this life caused by the first Adam. So why am I getting into all this? I thought this was a Thanksgiving sermon. We're getting into like Adam and heaven and what's going on here, right? Well, this is all the basis, the background, the foundation for Paul's command to give thanks. Read with me verses 15 through 17. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with Thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word and deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God. Now that's interesting. In the putting off and the putting on, the one thing he mentions three times is thankfulness. Now he definitely highlights key things, forgiveness, love. I'm not saying thankfulness is more central or more important, but it is, in fact, the only thing he says three times in this list of what it means to be the new humanity, what it means to put on heavenly life and actions and mindsets and thoughts. Thankfulness is very important to Paul. The question is why. Well, if you think about it, his whole structure of thought, new humanity, and the beginning of that new humanity comes in the person of Jesus. And if you read the gospel accounts, you find that Jesus is actually a very, very thankful human being. When God comes as a human being, he's constantly filled with thanksgiving, which should be instructive to us as not-so-perfect human beings still living, learning how to be heavenly in that sense. Jesus you see in Mark chapter 8, before food, before a meal, gives thanks like often we do. We see Jesus in Matthew 11, we actually just talked about this last week, thanking God for revealing truth to those who are babes and unwise and seen as foolish and weak in this world and hiding his revelation from those who are arrogant and proud. We see Jesus thanking God for hearing his prayer. Right before he raises Lazarus, he says, Lord, I thank you that you listen to me and that you hear my petition and my request. And I'm praying not just to speak to you, but also as a testimony to those here. They will know it's you who have raised this man from the dead. The attitude of thanksgiving, the heavenly value of thanksgiving is most embodied in Jesus, the man from heaven. True humanity gives thanks. And I was considering this. You get to heaven, if we could just take a glimpse of heaven right now. I bet you they're very, very thankful. No pain, no suffering, no fear, no death, no scarcity, perfect love, life, vitality, and joy. Very, very thankful, I would imagine. But for us still down here, we have a wardrobe choice every single day. Every day you're confronted with the question, what am I going to wear? What am I going to take off? What am I going to take on? I don't know if you're like me, sometimes I wake up in the morning and I forget what I had on the night before and it's like, man, how did I, I don't remember having this when I went to bed. And that's sort of the thing that happens. It's like every day we wake up with this sort of default old man mentality that we, again, need to, where did this come from? Yes, I need to take this off and I need to put that on. Discontent, envy, wrath. Those old garments from the old self love to just sneak up and get back on your body when you don't realize it. It's interesting, there's some statistics I read this week that children under seven are almost never thankful naturally when they receive a gift. You know, they're just, they're kids. They're thinking about themselves. They're learning. They don't understand the value of things that are given them. They don't know how difficult it is, how fortunate they are. And as they get older, I think it's around after age 10, that's when they realize and they see, hey, I need to be a little more thankful. Hey, this took somebody to work hard to get me this gift. And I need to at least appreciate to some extent. And that's all of us naturally not giving thanks the way we should. What will we put on? What will we put off? I wrote down here, I need to strip my I'm a big deal t-shirt and put on the humbly thankful hoodie, wearing the clothes of heaven and gratitude. So point number one, why give thanks to God and everything? It's because it's who you are. That is your identity. New humanity belong to heaven in Jesus, the most thankful person ever. It is who you are. That's why you give thanks. Point number two, why? But also it's because God gives you everything. I'll repeat verse 17. In whatever you do, in word and deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God. In whatever, in everything, give thanks. The question, again, is why? Why in everything? That's a very universal, comprehensive command. The brother of Jesus wrote a letter to the churches and the diaspora, the Jews and the Gentiles, and he said this, You give thanks in everything because it's from God that you have received everything. It's very simple, isn't it? Always thankful because from God is everything. We think about Him as our maker, think of Him as our rescuer, think of Him as our perfecter. Every aspect of who you are and your existence comes because of God's generosity and His love. As your maker, I love sunsets. About two or three weeks ago, I can't remember, there was just this outrageously good sunset. And it lasted for like 15, 20 minutes. It was really long. All the kind of strange stratosphere, I don't know what you call them, the special clouds, right, were just right. And the like hot pink, fiery red, deep, deep orange, the yellows, all that was there, right? And that is a gorgeous, beautiful piece of artwork in the heavens because God. He is the maker of those things. He's the maker of the beautiful ocean and the waves and all the things that we love in nature. He's the maker of things like a good, perfect, medium-rare ribeye steak with a horseradish sauce that has all the flavor but none of the bitterness, right, and good sauteed onions. Those are all gifts from the maker. The fact that you can grab a five-ounce piece of metal, silicon, or no, no, yeah, silicon and glass and have it basically be a supercomputer to do anything you could ever imagine is because God is amazing. He makes us makers like him to develop and create and craft culture. Those are all blessings and gifts from God. The very breath in your lungs, the reason you woke up, all because of God. But not just the maker, he's also the rescuer. That first Adam we talked about, the very first human being, rejected Him. And therefore, plunged all of us, everybody who came from Him, into a God rejecting life, mind, and heart. And yet, God says, I want them. I love them. I will bring them back to Myself. Even though Adam, in what he did, deserves death. in what we've done deserving death. He says, I will become killable. I will become breakable. I, the eternal, unchanging, infinite God, will become a killable creature so that I can save and rescue the world that I love. And He does that. Comes as Jesus Christ in the flesh, lives the life that we cannot live, obeys where we have failed, and is thankful in all the ways that we have been thankless. And then He suffers in our place. goes to the cross, not just nailed, not just beaten, not just spit on, not just mocked or whipped, crown of thorns hammered into his scalp, but more than all those things, he takes on all the wrath of God. The separation from the fountain of life for you, for me. The very things that we earned, he takes on out of love for us. And then he rises from the grave, wins and obtains a life that is indestructible, a life that is meant for heaven, a life that will not end, that doesn't get sick or old, doesn't need medication, doesn't at all get sad or weary, a life untasted, untouched in this world, yet begun in those who love him. And friends, That rescue mission carried out is the great, glorious, good news of Christianity. That he has done all this, though he made you, he still rescues you all to help and save and love you. And all he says is, come, turn away from your sins, trust in me, and I will give you eternal life that you have never imagined. Maker, rescuer, but also perfecter. It's easy to think I have a lot to be thankful for in this life. But what's interesting is the majority of which we will be thankful for is yet to come. Heaven on earth does not end. Life with God does not cease. His blessings, His work in you, His gifts to you, they have barely just begun. And so if you think, I should be thankful now, think of how thankful you will be in the future. He is not just the maker and the redeemer, he is also the perfecter. His plans for you are endless, his gifts to you will not cease, therefore your thanksgiving in all things will only get greater and greater as the gifts from the giver compound. I want to be clear though, for us as Christians, we give thanks because we've already been given the gifts. We give thanks because He has rescued us. We give thanks because we are now saved. The deal is sealed. It's done. And that's why we are so thankful. And that's important to state because it's in contrast to other ways of religion. Every other religion, in some sense, is working off the model that you do more to get good with God. I was looking at Islam a little bit this week, right? And with Islam, you are right with Allah from a combination of Allah's mercy, your faith, and your good deeds. And thankfulness is a very important ingredient of your good deeds. Thankfulness to Allah for the things that he's done, for why Allah will let you into heaven. And so you have to be thankful to be long to heavenly life. But for Christians, it's different. We're thankful because it's finished and we already belong to heavenly life. It's nothing that we could earn and the thankfulness does not make us more right with God. We're thankful because we've already been fully made right with God. So we thank God in all because he gives all. And the greater fact is this, not just that he's given us everything generously, but we didn't deserve it. And we were his enemies that he made into his friends and his family. So what about Thursday? Thursday, you don't know what it's going to be like. Could be smooth. Could be great food. Could be a lot of people. Could be a few people. Could be arguments and tension. Could be very easy. Could be substantial conversations. Could be shallow. You don't know yet. You're not there. But how should we think about Thursday and our thankfulness? I think all of us, again, are going to know we should be thankful and all of us are going to have reasons to be thankful. Christian, non-Christian, atheist, agnostic, whatever, right? Family, job, roof over our heads, food. We all have reasons to be thankful. I mentioned this last year. The real difference is who are you thanking? Who are you giving thanks to? It's one thing to be thankful because of gifts, but who are you saying thanks to? That's gonna be the big distinction on Thursday. Many of us have wonderful neighbors who at times seem like they're better people than us, and they're not even Christians. In fact, they're often godless in the sense of spiritually vague, just kind of generally spiritually interested people. And we're really thankful for them. They're often very, very good neighbors still. But the fact is, they have gratitude without any object. They know they've been given many, many gifts. They know there's so many reasons, so many things they've benefited from, but they just don't know who to thank. You often find them saying, hey, yeah, I've had good parents. I didn't deserve. God, I've had things about my personality and my skills that were just naturally inborn, I didn't earn. The drive I have, the time and place I was born, the personality, all these things are stuff I didn't merit, right? They just were kind of dropped onto me. And I've benefited from that in my life. But there is nobody to say thank you to. And so they'll often say things like, thank you, universe, thank you, life, because there's this urge to say thank you, somebody. But there's nobody behind the curtain. Absentee, benefactor, nobody behind the desk that made the decision for them to be blessed. And so for them, it often hinges on disposition, cosmic humility, these sort of languages that you've maybe seen before. And here's the thing. I agree. It's possible to say thank you, or I should say to be thankful when you're given a gift and you don't know who gave it to you, right? Wake up one morning, got a brand new 65-inch TV on your front door. You've been wanting that because Super Bowl's coming, right? And it doesn't say who sent it, right? I'm going to be pretty thankful. Like, that's nice. Whoever you are, thank you very much. But I think a question to think about is just because you have benefited doesn't necessarily mean it's a gift. Just because you benefit from something doesn't mean it's truly a gift if it's random, impersonal, and chance. I'm not so sure it would be considered a gift even though it's helpful to you. But I want to say this, if it is from a person, if it came with intent, if it was from love to serve you and help you, I think at the very least, whoever you are, it deepens your appreciation, your gratitude, and your thankfulness. In my words to somebody, if it was one of my neighbors, I have great neighbors, really great neighbors, One of them that has this sort of disposition, I would say this, hey, you have the urge to say thanks because it really did come from somebody that loves you. You have this sort of desire to give gratitude to a person because there is a person who gave all these things out of love for you. Common grace, love, and care. So be thankful on Thursday. And if you get the chance, people start talking about what they're thankful for. If you have the courage, maybe ask them, who are you thankful to? Not just what are you thankful for? And if you're wondering, well, where do I begin to become more thankful? What are the things I should start thinking about doing more often to just foster a thankfulness beyond Thursday? Here's six things to think about. One, consider the great gifts that you have and that the things that you still want that could lead you to discontentment or envy or jealousy, whatever. Remember, those are often the most transient of things. If it's the 65-inch screen TV, if it's the new car, if it's the new house, if it's the whatever. Remember, the great gifts that you have, especially in Christ, are eternal, unfading, where moth nor rust can destroy. And that's a basis for eternal thanksgiving. Number two, I was reading some of the Puritans, a guy named Richard Baxter this week, and he says this, do not promise yourself too much beforehand. And I thought that was a really brilliant line. One way to help yourself be more thankful is not to promise yourself this wonderful and amazing life. The, hey, I know I'm going to have this one day, and I know I'm going to live on the beach, and I know I'm going to be this and this and this, and my kids are going to be perfect, and I'm going to have this in my career. He's like, hey, just take it easy. Remember, God is God. Be faithful. Know He's going to work. Seek first the kingdom. He will provide everything you need. But don't start getting into lofty. It's not wrong to dream, but it's one thing to dream and it's another thing to promise yourself. This will be me or I will die. A recipe for a lack of thankfulness, certainly. Three, do not compare yourself with others. You know, as you're walking up to Thanksgiving, don't be looking at their new car, right? Wondering when you're going to get the new car. The Apostle Paul says, It is not right for you to compare yourselves amongst yourselves. Because why? It fosters envy, and covetousness, and jealousy, and that destroys relationships, destroys your thanksgiving. Number four, do not be consumed by the comforts of this life. God is a God who made material things. He gave us bodies for a reason, didn't He? The resurrection is not just of the soul, but of the body for a reason. The world to come will be physical, yes. Heaven meets earth. It's not ethereal spirit stuff. We have real bodies in a real world with a real life that doesn't end. But the comforts of this life, the physical things of this world, are just that. They're gifts and comforts. They're not the essence and the aim of everything. And so do not love those gifts and those comforts more than you love the gift giver himself. Number five, avoid a high view of self and merits. I thought that was a brilliant line too. If you're Bill Gates, and somebody gives you a $10,000 check, and they're like, hey, I love you, and this is, this is all the money I got, but hey, this is to serve you. For Bill Gates, he might say thanks, but it's gonna be a lot less meaningful to the rich, well, formerly richest man in the world to receive a $10,000 check, because he has a very high view of himself. Doesn't mean much to him, doesn't need it much, But if you give that $10,000 check to the guy who's trying to get out of homelessness and get the job so that he can get on his feet, rent a room for six months, get a new wardrobe, get a car and car insurance, and you're like, hey, here is your golden ticket to the life that you know you need to live. And I want to do this to bless you because I care for you. That thankfulness is going to be a lot different. And hopefully the person who's homeless will have a more accurate view of themselves and say, hey, this is a big deal. I am not great and amazing. I'm very, very thankful. So number five, avoid a high view of yourself and your merits. Finally, six, remember you know the gift giver. That should be the most thankfulness producing thing we have in our pocket. Not just the many gifts that he's given that are good, but we know the gift giver himself. It's one thing to marvel at a sunset. It's another thing to know the person who designed and brings forth the sunset day after day after day. The designer and the maker of the sunset is unthinkably greater and more beautiful than the sunset itself. And that's the God and King that we love. Okay, and you're thinking maybe this, well, hey, I'm not thankful. These things are really hard for me. I've got a problem. What do I do? Two questions for you, just real briefly. One, ask yourself, am I living a truly God-centered life? Because if I'm really thinking about God and loving Him and considering Him and praying and enjoying Him, I'll begin to see these things naturally. He is working. These are gifts. I am loved. And so that's the first question. Am I really living a God-centered life? And two, has the gospel of God really saturated my heart? That not only have I had all these gifts, but I was his enemy and he came and died and rose for me. And that is something that can never be changed. And if I have been added to his family, I cannot be taken out. He is faithful even when I am faithless. Am I living a God-centered life? And has the gospel really saturated my heart? So, hey, the problem is we all know we're called to be thankful. We just sometimes forget why. First reason is it's who you are in Jesus as the new humanity belonging to the realm of heaven. Very thankful. Second, it's because what God has done. We thank Him in everything because He has given us everything. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, you are the great giver of life. We thank you for church. We thank you for Thanksgiving. A great and wonderful meal. Amazing opportunity to love our neighbor, care for our family, to just be a light. to be your hands and feet in their life, Lord. May we be good representatives of Jesus. May we be like Jesus on Thursday. May we be able to ask thoughtful, loving, gentle questions to help point people to you. And Lord, may you bless us. May you help us. May we really learn how to be thankful. May we put on Christ, the new humanity, the heavenly life. May we put off the old, thankless, discontent, jealous, envious old man. We need your help in that, Holy Spirit. Give us the strength. Through Jesus we pray, in His name. Amen.