Now, let's take our Bibles, please, and turn to Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Ephesians, and chapter number 5, please. We're going to depart from our series on the sayings of the Savior, and I want to talk with you about my favorite subject, one of them at least, and that is Thanksgiving, giving thanks. Now, giving thanks is not only biblical, it's healthy. It's good for your mind and it's good for your emotions. It is good for your whole consciousness. Good for your body to be a thankful person. So if you can't find any other reason to be thankful, do it because it's good for you. It's right to be thankful. But my observation, I've been working with people since I was a teenager, various stages. It seems to me that it's natural and it's easy to be sour and negative, to become a complainer, to be down in the mouth. The philosophy that says if I didn't have bad luck, I'd have no luck at all seemed pretty easy to adopt. Murphy's Law, if something can go wrong, it will. I assure you, if you look for it, you'll find it, and it'll find you, if you want to live like that. And you can live a long time like that, but I'll tell you, there won't be many people who'll be glad that you did. So it's not good to live that way. Now God's children, and that's who we're concerned about, the way of God's children is to live with a thanksgiving frame of mind. For grace believers, Thanksgiving isn't just a day. It's a way of thinking. It's a way of believing. It's a way of living. So I want you to look at one verse here in Ephesians 5, what Paul said in verse number 20. Ephesians 5 and verse number 20. Did you find it? He said, giving, so that's an active verb, giving thanks, continuous action, giving thanks always for all things. unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Predestination, providence, knows there is a God behind everything. We know that there is a God who is working out His will in all things. Now Paul knew many valleys, he certainly did. When he wrote this, do you know where he was? He was in prison in Rome. Couldn't leave, couldn't go out. It wasn't as bad as it was going to become. He was going to have a worse prison in a few years. But he still is bound up. He's been guarded by soldiers, so he can't get away. He knows something about some valleys. And yet he says, giving thanks always for all things. Now I want to ask you something. Is there anything other than all ways and all things? What else is there besides all ways and all things? Is there anything else? No. That's it. Give thanks always for all things, even your valleys and your hilltops, so that Paul could say, we know that all things are working together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. Even things that seem to be bad to you, your health, accidents, financial problems, being mistreated by someone else, all things are working together for good. That particular thing may not be good, but it's working together for good. Therefore, give thanks always for all things. So when you gather with your loved ones this coming Thursday, you should know that giving thanks has a long and rich history. On Thursday, our little group will come together Michael, and Tara, Deanna, and Seth, they'll be there. We'll have to have lots of food because Seth is an eater, I'm telling you the truth. We'll have to have more than one turkey for him. But he'll be there, they'll come, Troy and Connie will come, and everything will smell so good. Connie will have been cooking from the day before. She fixes traditional things, tries to fix Thanksgiving like I grew up on. She grew up on a little bit different, but she's really nice and she fixes a Thanksgiving like I was used to. And so Thanksgiving, I mean, it has to be the best week of the year. How could there be a better week than Thanksgiving week? You get at least one day off. I used to get two or three days off. Now I'll have to work these three days just to get there and then I'll have to work on Friday again. I can't believe it that I'm in that state in life. I'm too old to be working like that. I know it but nevertheless and it won't be long that it's that'll change I hope but nevertheless we'll have that day off we'll all gather together and it won't matter if it's cold or if it's warm if it's snowing or raining we'll all be together and we'll have our Thanksgiving Day together. Well, we're not the first ones by any means. The early settlers of our shores that came here under the leadership of their second governor, Bradford, recognized the place and the prominence of Thanksgiving. They came from England and England had every fall a festival and that included Thanksgiving. And that festival actually came from the Old Testament because in the Old Testament God had instructed Moses to instruct the people. to have an annual feast in the fall they call the Feast of Tabernacles. Here's what he said in Exodus 23, and the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of thy labors which thou hast sown in the field, And the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year when thou dost gather all thy labors into the field. And so, even all the way down to the coming to the time of Christ, people would gather together, they would bring a tent, so they were campers. and they would come with their tents, and they would set them up in September, and across that valley, it would be lit up with lights in their tents, and they would stay for a week, and they would have their Feast of Tabernacles, and that's what it was. It was the most popular feast and festival of that time, ever since the captivity, going back to roughly 500, when they were taken captive by the Babylonians, down to 400, When they came home, that rough period of time, that had been the most honored time So they would then gather their fruits and their grain, and it would remind them, that's what it was for, to remind them of the spiritual harvest, past and present, that was to come. And Christ honored this feast of the harvest in John 37 when it says, So the best day of all was the last day. Now, there was plenty to drink there. But if any man thirst, let him come to me and to drink. He's not talking about physical drink, is he? He's talking about spiritual drink. Let him come to me and to drink. Well, the pilgrims that arrived on our shores in the year 1620 knew about that. And in the fall of 1621, they had the first Thanksgiving. And then when George Washington was the president, he proclaimed the first Thanksgiving to be a time for us to enjoy and then sort of it's missed and hit and miss here a little bit there through our history. But we uniquely in our country have our own Thanksgiving, but it's traced back to the scriptures and to our forefathers. And so it's a very honored time that we come together. So I want to talk with you a little bit. about Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, I would say to you, is a disposition of the mind. Do you know what the root word for Thanksgiving is? So you can scratch your head and you can think about it if you want to, but I'll just go ahead and tell you. The word for Thanksgiving is the word charis, is the root word, giving, grace, giving, grace, and that's charis. So we get the word grace from that word, and then they put a preposition on the beginning of it. and that would be you, and that's good, and so that became thanksgiving. So good giving and thanksgiving. So throughout the Old Testament and into the New Testament, giving is, thanksgiving is spoken of. What thanksgiving is, is it's being gracious back to the one who's been gracious to you. So that's why we are thankful to God. For example, David was a thankful man. He said, so we thy people and the sheep of thy pasture will give thanks forever and we will show forth thy praise to all generations. And in Psalm 100, enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good, and his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations. David was a thankful man. Daniel was a thankful man. Daniel had been dislocated from Jerusalem over to Babylon, and yet when he saw that God had blessed him, I won't read all of it, but he simply said, I thank thee and I praise thee in Daniel 2 and verse 19. Peter was a thankful man in the New Testament. He said, for this is thank-worthy, talking about God's salvation, for this is thank-worthy, if because of conscience toward God, one doth endure sorrows, meaning because of the gospel. John the Apostle was a thankful man, the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. He said, we give thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and which was, and which are to come, because thou hast taken of thee to great power, and thou hast reigned." That's in 1117. Now I want you to look up a couple of verses with me. I want to show you that Jesus himself was thankful. So I want you to take your Bible, and I want you to look back with me to the book of Matthew, and look in chapter 11. In chapter 11. I know that you know this phrase, but do you know that it's here and do you know what comes before it? What is famous here is that he says, come unto me and I'll give you rest. But look what he says before that in Matthew 25, or Matthew 11 rather, verse 25. And he prays to the Father, and look what he said in verse 25, 11-25 of Matthew, I thank Thee, first thing out of his mouth as he prays, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise." Now, who would the wise be? Well, that would be the self-righteous people that he's been talking about before this. I won't go back and look at them, but that's what he means. You've hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and you've revealed them unto babes, unto people who didn't know they were wise. You have revealed them unto people who have been humbled. Even so, Father, so it seemed right in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knows the Father, and no man knows the Son, but the Father. Neither knows any man the Father, save the Son. But notice this then, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal. So he doesn't reveal himself to everyone. But he reveals himself to the ones that he pleases, and then they see and know the Father. He says then in verse 28, come unto me. Who is it that he says come unto me? Come unto me all to whom I Reveal, that's who will come. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. You're burdened over your sin, you're heavy laden over your sin. Though those that are wise and prudent back up here, it's not them. But those of you that God's put it in your heart, come unto me. Verse 29, take my yoke upon you, learn of me, for I'm meek and lowly at heart, and you'll find rest in your souls, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. What did Jesus begin with? I thank Thee, Father. He was a thankful man, the thankful God-man upon this earth. I want you to look to something else in Matthew 15. I'm just giving you a little example to show you that he was thankful. Look in Matthew 15, and toward the end of this chapter, he's been preaching And there is a multitude that he says, I have compassion on the multitude, in verse 32. And they've been now following after me for three days. And they're hungry, and I know they are. So we're going to feed them. And so the disciples said to him, well, Lord, it's a long ways to the store. We're out here in the wilderness. I don't see how in the world we're going to feed these people. And Jesus said, well, what food do you have? Do you have a little bit of bread? Tell me about it. And they said, well, we have seven, in verse 34, 1534, we have seven loaves of bread and we have a few little fish that somebody has brought. So Jesus said to them, command everybody to be seated. So they were seated. And then it says in verse 36 that he took the seven loaves and the few little fish. What was the first thing he did? See it in verse 36? What's the first thing he did? He gave thanks. He said, I thank you, Father, for this little bit of fish and for these few loaves. I thank you for that. It's just a little, but I'll make it much. And he took it, and he broke the bread into pieces, and he gave it to the disciples. And the disciples went out to the multitude. Now there they go out. All of them had just little bitty bites of bread, little bitty bites of fish. But as they passed it out, every time they passed it out, there was more. Didn't give it to them all at once. And we're told that there were 5,000 men there. Well, if there were 5,000 men, there were probably Another 5,000 women. If you have two children per family, and there's probably more than that, you know, we have small families. They had big families. It's estimated there were at least 20,000 people there. A lot of people. But they, every time they reached in, took out a little bit of bread, took out a little bit of fish. There was more bread and there was more fish. What did he begin with? I thank thee, Father. So even though you have little, learn to be thankful. Learn to be thankful. Thank God for what you have. Then I want you to look with me. It gets worse than that. I want you to look with me to the Gospel of John. I'll tell you why it gets worse. Because he went from a little to nothing. Look in John 11. In John 11, you have the story of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. What happened to Lazarus? He died. What did they do with him? Put him in a grave. What did they do with the grave? They covered it up with a stone. Covered it up with a stone. He's dead. He didn't have a little to work with. He had nothing to work with. Not a few fish. Not a little bit of bread. No life. Not a will to make a decision with. Not a mind to think with. He had nothing. But look what he says in verse 41. They took away the stone. Where the stone was laid, Jesus lifted up His eyes. And what was the first thing He said? Father, I thank Thee. I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me. Before He even spoke, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And in verse 43, he said, Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus came out of there, must have been a sight really, because his feet would have been wrapped, and his arms would have been wrapped, and he had come out of there walking, just hobbling out of there. His sister said, don't do it, Lord, he'll stink. Lazarus, come forth. And he brought him forth. You and I have nothing to bring. We have nothing to offer. But I say to you, learn to be thankful. We're not going to turn and read it, but you remember that in Matthew 26, where Jesus is about to give out the elements of the Lord's table, the bread and the wine, it says, He took the cup and what does it say? He gave thanks. First thing He did, He gave thanks. Jesus was a thankful man. And Paul understood that because when he recited this to the congregation in Corinth and told them about how they're to observe the Lord's table, he recited those very words about being thankful. We read it a little while ago, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Are you a complainer? Stop it. Just stop it. You have a hard time? Everybody has a hard time. You don't feel good? A lot of us don't feel good. Stop your complaining. Stop your whining. Be thankful. We're bound to give thanks always to God. And knowing the Gospel of God's sovereign grace, Giving thanks is ever in our hearts and upon our lips. Now I want you to turn with me and I want you to look at one verse before I stop. Probably the most important verse in all the Bible on Thanksgiving, and it's in Romans chapter 6. Naturally, you would say, David, you would find a verse in Romans where it'd be your favorite verse on Thanksgiving. Well, look at it. See what you think. Romans 6. That'd be good if you knew what had gone before, and I won't try to rehearse it. But he's told them that God was just to condemn and God was just to justify. When he goes into chapter 6, he's telling them there's nothing that you brought to the table. But look what he said in verse 17. But God, be thanked, you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine. which delivered you. Now listen to me. If salvation resulted from you opening your heart, thank yourself. If salvation resulted from the placement of your faith, thank yourself. If salvation resulted in some condition, any condition, even a part of a condition that you fulfilled, thank yourself. But if salvation resulted from Christ's obedience unto death, from Christ establishing righteousness, from God accepting righteousness, and God imputing righteousness at the cross altogether outside of you, then what? No reason to thank yourself, thank God. Thank God. If there's any part of it, you're receiving it. That's what I came to understand about many of the sovereign grace men. They would say some of the things I just said, and then they would say, you receive it. You're receiving it has nothing to do with it. He did it, you're thankful for it, but you had nothing to do with it. You embrace it as true, but you had nothing to do with it. Why? Because it was done altogether outside of you. Now keep your place there, but I want you to look back to chapter 5. In chapter 5, verse 21, this is that passage where he described this imputation of righteousness comparing it to the imputation of sin. So just like sin was imputed in connection with the disobedience of the first Adam, righteousness was imputed in connection with the obedience of the last Adam, and that's Christ. And then what did Paul call that? He gave that a name. He gave that very act a name, and you know what he called it? Look at verse 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness. What did he call it? He called it grace. That's grace. Salvation by grace is God doing all of the saving. Christ did all of the obeying, God did all of the justifying. So when you come to verse 17, God bethinked. That's why I say it's the best verse, the most wonderful verse, the most succinct verse in all of the Bible concerning thanksgiving. God bethinked. You were the servants of sin. That's His way of referring to you in your original state. Legally condemned, morally depraved, spiritually Disabled you were servants literally that word servant is do lost slave you were slaves You were bound to that estate you couldn't do anything about it You were what he called in another place the natural man, and you were bound to it You had no will to get out of it. You had no mind to get out of it. You had no heart to get out of it. You were a slave to it. That's what he means. God be thanked. You were the servants of sin. But then he gives two verbs here. You know how you have to like the verbs, the action words. You obeyed, so the first word is the word obeyed, and the second word is the word delivered. Let me talk about those just a minute. The word obey is a word that means to hear. It has a preposition added at the beginning, so it intensifies it. And it means to hear so effectually that you obey. You hear it so effectually that you obey. And then the word deliver is a word that means to, it means to give, and it has a word beside it, but it's literally translated here, it's the way it should be, but God be thanked that you were servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine, this is the way it should be, if you want to write it down, it's okay, to which you were delivered. That form of doctrine to which you were delivered. Now, you have to make a decision. That's why I talk about the two verbs. You have to make a decision. You have to, when you come to this verse. And the decision you have to make is, which came first? Being delivered or the obedience from the heart? Which came first? If you hold to free will and a system of free will, then you believe that your obeying came first. You believe that you obeyed and it resulted in you being delivered from the state that you were bound to. Of course, then that goes squarely in the face of what he means when he says being slaves to sin. So again, if that is so, if what came first was your obeying, then what should you do? You should thank yourself. You should thank yourself. But if you being delivered came first and then you obeyed, then what should you do? Thank God. It's that simple. It's that simple. And you have to make a decision. I don't care how you want to approach it. You could try to hide your head in the sand, but you've made a decision if you've done that. You've made the decision that you're not going to think about, because what does he say here? You have obeyed. Where? From the heart. From the heart. So the heart represents the inner man. From the heart. You've obeyed from the heart. For with the heart, man does what? He believes. That's what he said in Romans 10. So it's all from the heart. God be thanked, you were servants of sin. You've obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. Which came first? Your being delivered. That's what came first. And if He doesn't deliver you to His sovereign grace, To his definition of grace, not my definition, his definition of grace, you cannot be thankful from the heart. You can't believe from the heart, you can't be thankful from the heart. He says that form of doctrine, he means that which is settled and which is true, that form of doctrine. It's doctrine. It's teaching. It's something that is settled and it is true. Well, there's more that I could talk about here, more that I have written down, but let me close out with saying this. Thank God for your family. Thank God for the means that you have, big or small. Thank God for the health that you enjoy. Most of all, thank God for the knowledge that you do possess of His salvation. Humility promotes salvation. That's why Paul said, What does self-righteousness do? It perverts thanksgiving. Therefore in Luke, Chapter 18, Jesus spoke a parable, and he spoke to them who thought that they were righteous, and to despise others, and what did they say? They said, I thank thee, God, that I am not as other men. Thanksgiving. You can't get away from it. You're going to be thankful one way or the other. You're either going to be thankful to God, or you're going to be thankful to yourself. That's it. That's it.