Most of you, many of you, are aware of the fact that Phyllis and I spent the past week in Australia. I think most of you were aware of that. For those of you who weren't, Phyllis and I went with John and Sharon Fraska to Sydney, Australia and up to Cans Australia to the Great Barrier Week for a trip. And a lot of you might be thinking how does a poor minister from Highland Town get to take a trip like that? Well, that's something else. That's really an amazing thing. And it is an amazing thing. I'm incredibly blessed that we were able to do that. We were able to do that because John owns a carpet business and one of the carpet manufacturing companies offers an incentive program to their dealers and you sell a certain amount of carpet and you get to take a trip. And John and Sharon have been gracious to take Phyllis and I along with him over the past three years to a number of different exotic ports of call and have just really enjoyed ourselves, not only with John and Sharon, but also with the other carpet dealers that we've gotten to know over the past several years. And we have made a number of good friends on these trips. We have a one couple in particular, a midnight couple, that we just immediately felt a real kindred spirit with that they knew the Lord and have enjoyed the trips with them. But also I've gained somewhat of a reputation on these trips because John always introduces me to the other carpet dealers as his flight insurance. That in case the plane goes down he's got the pastor with him to grab hold of his ankles. And so all the other carpet dealers know that I'm a pastor. And it gives us a great opportunity to talk about spiritual things and to talk about the Lord and to have a lot of interesting conversations. And particularly this year because we were not getting back until Saturday evening after about how long was it? We spent about 33 hours traveling yesterday I think. Sharon was telling someone that we had breakfast lunch dinner breakfast and lunch on the plane yesterday all in one day. And so folks were saying, are you going to go back home and preach tomorrow? I said, yeah, I'm going to go back home and preach. Well, what are you going to preach about? And I said, I'm preaching on 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 18. Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Give thanks in all circumstances. And I thought, what a great opportunity for me this week particularly to meditate upon this verse, this passage of Scripture. And to think about all of the ways in which God has so richly blessed me, the way he's blessed my family and he's blessed all of us here at Abbott. You see, a lot of times it takes removing ourselves from our everyday circumstances to get a better perspective on all of the things that we have to be grateful for. One of the ways that happened for me was even being thankful for the beauty of God's creation by removing myself from my typical perspective. When you get into an airplane and you fly at 30,000 feet and every so often out of the window of the plane, catch a glimpse of the ocean. At one point we were flying over the Pacific Ocean and we could see very clearly an island. I never figured out what island it was. It was large enough for us to see from 30,000 feet. And you could see actually the waves crashing white against the shore in the different colors of the water. And it reminded me of the great creative God we have and the power and majesty of his creation. And I was thankful. Another thing that we were very blessed by was being in Australia to see God's creativity in his creation. Australia is a land full of animals that we would never have imagined here in America. We hadn't had them in zoos and other opportunities to see them on television. But to be out in the wild and see these really amazing animals like kangaroos bouncing around on their tails in the wild reminded me again of God's creativity. To see a kidnap, if you've never seen a kidnap, it's an amazing thing to see this animal which I can hardly describe to you a spiny creature which is almost like a mole that digs in the earth we were able to see. To go to the great barrier reef and go underwater and see the amazing different colors of life in the coral and the animals there reminded me of God's amazing creativity. For me also it was a wonderful time to be thankful and to give thanks for my wife. You see quite often again in everyday circumstances we tend to not stop and be as thankful as we should. And running through life with six kids and a busy schedule of homeschooling and sports activities and in regular life and ministry I oftentimes take for granted. One of God's greatest blessings in my life. I said to someone going on a trip like this is like going on a 10 day 24 hour a day date with my wife. It was a wonderful, wonderful opportunity to just fellowship with her and enjoy her presence and to just be together and I'm so grateful for that and thankful for that. And it reminded me of God was so faithful to bring her into my life and the blessing that that has been to me. I was also very thankful this week for our children to be away from them for 10 days again changes your perspective. Makes you very grateful for them makes you grateful to be away but it also makes you very grateful for them and thankful for them and the joy that they are in our lives. I talked to them on the phone several times and I found myself. Getting choked up every time just at how much I missed them and how much I love them and how great fly am to God for their lives and for their health and for the blessing they are to us. Joe and Beth Kelly helped out and watched our kids part of the time. And I don't know if they'll stand up and give test money but others have said they were very good. They behaved themselves well and we're grateful for that. We're grateful for people like Loretta and Joe and Beth and our friends who watched our children again. I'm so thankful to the Lord that he's allowed us to be here in Baltimore where you know my two best friends of 20 years and I understand already cleared up last week who was my best friend. He got that straight but you know as we were as we were going to think about our children being home safe with people that we knew and loved and trusted was a great comfort to us and we realized how blessed we are to have friends like that. To have a friend that can come and preach even if he tells tales out of school I think he did as well and I think I'm supposed to say that I do not smoke crack cocaine. I wanted to clear that up but while we were gone too I was so grateful for our church and our home here in Baltimore. I was so thankful for the blessing that we have of being part of the history and the mission and the ministry of Abbott Memorial Presbyterian Church. I'm overwhelmed at times when I think about all that God has done through the years through the ministry of this church. And you've heard the stories I don't need to retell them today but just God's amazing providence and bringing us here and confirming in our hearts his call for us to labor here in Highland Town. While I was away and as I thought about and meditated on this verse giving thanks for all things I was reminded of my parents and just the great blessing I've had in my life. Godly parents who loved me and prayed for me and who taught me God's word and who encouraged me in my call to ministry and particularly at this time for my mother's health and just God's protection of her. She went through this recent bout with breast cancer and how she's doing so well now and I'm encouraged and thankful to God for all these things. So you see that over the course of 10 days on our trip I had much to be thankful for. I have much to be thankful for every day of my life but particularly with a different perspective I was reminded of God's gracious blessings in my life. And so as we enter into this week of Thanksgiving and as I challenge you with a verse like 1 Thessalonians 5-18, give thanks in all circumstances for this as God's will in Christ Jesus. I can hear some of you saying now well easy for you to say if I've been to Australia all week last week I'd be thankful too. If I'd been scuba diving in a great very hurry if I'd be thankful if I had friends who came and watched six kids of mine and did all these I'd be thankful too. It's easy for you to be thankful and I will readily admit that I have been richly and abundantly blessed and the circumstances of my life lend themselves to a thankful and a grateful heart. But this morning I want to challenge you because the scriptures are full of warnings to us against forgetting the fact that God is the author of all these things, that God is the giver of every good and perfect gift. And it's at times like this that we need to be thankful and to be reminded of God's great blessings in our lives. Deuteronomy chapter 8, God is speaking to the children of Israel and he's saying to them when you get into the land that I'm about to give to you, you need to remember these things. Listen to these verses of Deuteronomy chapter 8. And when your herds and your flocks grow large and your silver and gold and crease and all you have is multiplied. Then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery. You may say to yourself, my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me. But remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth and so confirms his covenant which he swore to your forefathers as it is today. God is saying very clearly to his people that day and he says to us, when your life is full of blessing, when your life is full of prosperity, when you're experiencing all the good things of life. Don't start thinking that it's because you're so good looking. Don't start thinking it's because you're so smart. Don't begin to imagine that it's because you've worked so hard that all of these things have come your way. Remember, remember that it's the work of the Lord your God. I think Arnie said to you last week and talking about overcoming some of the struggles with sin that it's during times in your life where there's clarity. During times in your life where you're experiencing rich, intimate fellowship with God that you need to destroy the idols that would steal that love and affection that you have for God. And I would say to us this morning that it's during times of blessing, it's during times of intimacy with God, it's during times where we're experiencing all of the goodness of God in our lives that we need to remember to be thankful, that we need to cultivate in our lives a spirit of gratitude. Because God calls us not only to be grateful during these times, but He calls us as our passage this morning tells us to be grateful, to be thankful in all circumstances. We need to remember, as Jane said in James chapter 1 verse 17, every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heaven and lights who does not change like shifting shadows.
Paul's message to the Thessalonians was, God is in control, God is responsible for all things and we are to be thankful not just when times are good, not just when we're going to Australia, but in every and all circumstances, very important for us to realize what I want you to hear this morning is that our gratitude to God, our thankfulness should never depend upon whether or not we're experiencing blessing in our lives. Our gratitude does not depend upon our circumstances and this is a hard lesson for us to learn and it's a hard thing for us to do. How do we go about being thankful and grateful to God even under the worst of conditions in the worst situations? I was encouraged this week as I read a quote from Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry is most well known in the church for his commentary of the entire Bible. It's one of the most widely used commentaries in the church, but Matthew Henry at one point in his life was robbed. Circumstance that none of us would probably want to find ourselves in, but this is what he wrote in his diary after having been robbed. He said, let me be thankful. First, because I was never robbed before. Second, because although they took my wallet, they did not take my life. Third, because although they took my all, it was not much. And fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed. You see, Matthew Henry looked at the circumstances and he examined them in the light of God's word. He examined them in light of all of God's blessing in his life. And he broke down the circumstance to such a way that he could see the blessings of God in spite of his circumstances. The Bible illustrates this perspective very clearly in James chapter 1. Let me read this to you from the living Bible. James chapter 1 verses 2 through 4. Dear friends, is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy. For when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow. So let it grow. And don't try to squirm out of your problems. For when your patience is finally in full bloom, then you will be ready for anything. Strong and character, full and complete. I've seen this illustrated in so many ways, but one of the most powerful ways it was illustrated to me in my own life was through my father. You see, I don't know how many of you know, but when I was growing up, my father was not a pastor. He was a very successful businessman. And he had a job as a chief executive of a large corporation. And the world looked at him as a very successful, prosperous man. But at the height of his success, it was all taken away from him in one day. It was fired from his job really because he was a man of faith and integrity. And he found himself without employment. He found himself not knowing what he would do in the middle of life, not having any idea what his next step would be. And for the next several years, my dad tried in many ways to pursue other paths, other career paths. He tried buying businesses. He tried working in other jobs. And all of it seemed to be at a dead end. And in all of this time, in all of these circumstances, I never heard my father once grumble against God. I never heard him once complain about his circumstances. But I saw him every day in an every way praying and giving thanks to God for the blessings of his life and asking God to show him how these circumstances were to be used in his life to bring about God's good. And now you all know that my dad is a pastor. And it was through these circumstances and through much prayer and through the encouragement of the church that after several years, God led my father back into the ministry. And he's now serving as the pastor of a church. And we've been able to see, because of these very difficult and hard circumstances, that God directed him and moved him back to the place that he had for him to be. And he's using him now in a very powerful way in ministry again. He didn't complain. He didn't get angry with God, but he was grateful in the circumstances he was in. And that's what James is saying to us in this passage. He's saying, be thankful even when you have troubles, because good things can come from them. There's always a higher purpose. We know that when we quote the very familiar passage Romans 8.8, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, those who recall according to his purpose. Oftentimes we look at our circumstances and we think there's nothing to be thankful for here. But God is in control. God is sovereign and he tells us to be thankful in all circumstances. Another story that's one of my favorites comes from a book that my parents read to us when we were growing up. I'm sure many of you have read it as well. The story of Cory 10 Boom, the hiding place. There's one particular story in that book about when Cory and her sister Betsy were taken to the horrible concentration camp Ravensbrook. When they arrived at this concentration camp, they were put into a dormitory that was so infested with fleas that they didn't think they would be able to survive the fleas. But they began to stop and gather some of the women there in their dormitory for prayer. And Betsy said to Cory that day, let's pray and give thanks to God for the circumstances we find ourselves in. And Cory very honestly said, I can give thanks to God for a lot of things but I can't thank him for these fleas. Betsy said, Cory, where to give thanks for all of them. And so very grudgingly Cory gave thanks to God for all things including the fleas. Like went on in Ravensbrook and surprisingly the women found themselves free from continued watchful eyes of the guards. And they were able quite freely to have Bible studies with the women that they had in their dormitory. For a long time they wondered about it. Why were they given such freedom? Why were the guards allowing them to exercise their, to have their Bible study and to pray together with these women? Several months later they learned that the guards didn't come to the dormitory and didn't stop the Bible study because of the fleas. It wouldn't come into the dormitory because of the fleas. Betsy had said, give thanks in all circumstances. Cory did so grudgingly and it wasn't until later that she saw very clearly how God had used what she saw as a burden as an inconvenience even as a curse to bring about his good. Reminds me of Habakkuk, chapter 3, verses 17 through 19. Habakkuk has this to say, though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vine. Though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pin and no cattle in the stalls yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior. The sovereign Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He enables me to go on the rough and dangerous heights. You see, Habakkuk believed in God's miraculous ability to take the worst circumstances and make the best of it. To enable us to see God is our Savior. God is the sovereign Lord. God is the one who gives us strength. Habakkuk had an intimate relationship with God and you see, I think that's the key. We can only be grateful to God for the circumstances of our lives when we truly have a deep abiding intimate relationship with Him. And that only comes to the person of His Son Jesus Christ. You see, it's like the story and Luke of the woman who came to the house of the Pharisee when Jesus was there for dinner and anointed Jesus' feet with the expensive perfume washed his feet with her hair. And Simon the Pharisee looked disdainfully upon her and said to Jesus, how can you even allow this woman to touch you? He actually didn't say it. He thought it in his head. And Jesus said, knowing Simon's thoughts, Simon, who do you think loves more? One who has been forgiven little or one who has been forgiven much? And Simon rightly said, the one who has been forgiven much. We see the love, the response of gratitude to those who have come to know the great love of God through the person of Jesus Christ. You've ever trusted in Christ and you know what I'm talking about. The glorious message of the gospel, the cross of Christ that gives us life, gives us the ability to be grateful in every circumstance. If you find yourself having a hard time being grateful, if you find yourself full of grumbling and complaining spirit, look to the cross. Remember the gospel. Remember the message that God is offering you life. He's offering you the blessing of eternal life through His Son Jesus Christ. And when you understand that and when you embrace that, when you come into that deep and abiding relationship, you'll be able to like her back, rejoice even when there's no sheep in the pen, no fruit on the vine, no cattle in the stalls, you'll be able to rejoice in the Lord. You'll be able like Betsy Tenboom to give thanks, even for the fleas. You'll be grateful to God in all circumstances. I would encourage you this week to take time to meditate upon all the blessings of God in your life. Give thanks to Him in worship Him. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I thank you. I thank you so much for the blessings of my life. I thank you so much for what you've done in the person of your Son Jesus Christ. I thank you for saving me. I thank you for calling me and drawing me to yourself for working in my heart to give me a new heart. I thank you for the blessings of my life, my wife, my children, my parents, my friends, my family, this church, the people of this church. For the opportunity to be a part of your work in this world, Lord God, I am grateful and I give you thanks this morning. I pray Heavenly Father that you would give each of us here all of us grateful, thankful heart. Help us to see your blessings and to rejoice in them. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.