So why does it seem that we are so quick to complain and at the same time slow in gratitude? I mean as after all as a group we North Americans are the freest, safest, richest, most comfortable, and most thoroughly entertained humans in the history of mankind. And yet we complain and at least seem ungrateful. There you go. We aren't the only ones. If you have read much of the Bible you'll see that God's people have complained pretty much throughout. You remember when God brought Israel, his people, through the Red Sea, miraculously parting the sea, Moses leading Israel through the waters and then enveloping the armies of Egypt that followed them. And they sang, sing to the Lord for he is triumph gloriously the horse and rider he has thrown into the sea. But it didn't last long. The very next chapter. They set out from Elam and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of sin which is between Elam and Sinai. And on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt and the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the people of Israel said to them, would that we have died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by pots of meat and ate bread to the full. We have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Now, never mind that none of that was true. They didn't sit by pots of meat in Egypt. They didn't eat bread till they were full. They were driven as slaves with very little to eat. Backbreaking work. And just the previous chapter they were singing praises to God for finally ending their slavery. As a matter of fact, when it comes to the Ten Commandments, what's the first verse of chapter 20? I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. And they were thankful for a minute. I've seen this pattern with my own children. As parents, we want our children to be grateful. And we lament the fact that they don't often seem grateful. And matter of fact, often they seem ungrateful and unthankful. I've had that experience with my own kids. For those of you who don't know, Tracy and I had six children. The youngest is now 24 and lives in Tucson, Arizona with his sister lives there as well and one of our grandchildren. But when they weren't out of the house, when they were all with us, we would have experiences sometimes where we would do something for them. Something they really wanted to do, like going to a movie. There was a place called Movies 8 in Indianapolis, Indiana, where we lived. And on the way to the movie, one of the kids broke out in a song. It was Dan, I think he said, Dad is great. Takes us to Movies 8. But on the way home from that event, or any other event, whether it be a movie or a sporting event or something huge like an amusement park or Disney World, on the way home from that event, you'd hear these words or similar words. Dad, can we fill in the blank, do something else? Now remember, we just got done doing something that they were grateful for, or at least seemed so. Now if I answer no, I would hear this. Dad, we never do anything fun. You always say no. This is right after the movie or the amusement park or the sporting event or Disney World or whatever it is. Similar to the Israelites, they're freed from their slavery. In the very next chapter, they're complaining about being freed from their slavery. In my mind and sometimes out loud, I'm saying, why can't you just be grateful for the things you just got? I should say in fairness that before he moved to Tucson, Sam did a good job of expressing thanks for seemingly normal things. I would go grocery shopping and bring the groceries home and he would say, thanks for getting all this. But sometimes grandparents are even more aware of their kids complaining, even if they're unaware of their own. I remember my dad saying about one of our boys, he just doesn't have any idea what he's been given, why I would have given anything to do some of the things he gets to do. One comedian famously said, we walked to school five miles in the snow uphill both ways. And when we got home, we got a little bowl of gruel and we were grateful to get it. One sitcom, the Seinfeld show even mocked our propensity for complaining when one of the characters in the show invented a holiday called Festivus, where the main feature was the airing of grievances from the year before. While we can make light of it and find humor in it, sometimes God is not pleased with complaining and grumbling and he makes that very clear. In Numbers 11, it says the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes. And when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. Then the people cried out to Moses and Moses prayed to the Lord and the fire died down. James chapter five, do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. You see that? Complaining, grumbling against your brother, your mother, your father, your sister, your husband, your wife, your friends, even sometimes your enemies will be judged. So instead of a spirit of complaining, what does God want us to cultivate in our own hearts? From our passage in Colossians chapter three, he mentions being thankful three times at the end of verse 15 and be thankful. Verse 16, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Verse 17, giving thanks to God the Father seems very important to the Lord and to that we are marked by gratefulness. So let's look at three areas of thankfulness. First, thankfulness for the body, thankfulness for the word and worship, and then finally, thankfulness for Jesus. Thankfulness for the body, put on then God's chosen ones, as God chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate, hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Bearing with one another, if one has a complaint against one another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. As Ephesians one tells us, we are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. We are holy, set apart. That's what the word holy means. It means to be set apart. It means to be a saint, to be sanctified. We are beloved, loved by God, deeply, passionately, thoroughly, like a bridegroom for his bride, like a parent for a child, like the closest of friends. We've talked about it before, but Isaiah 62 says, as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you. Because these things are true of how God sees us, Paul says these things should be true of us toward each other. Toward each other we should have compassionate hearts. Toward each other kindness and humility, meekness and patience. Bearing with one another, if anyone has a complaint, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive. Compassionate hearts means tenderness toward another person, especially to relieve sorrow and want. Humility is lowliness and meekness. Patience means being patient and enduring evil. We have trouble being patient and enduring irritations, much less evil. Patience means slowness of avenging injuries. It means long suffering, forbearance, clemency. Forgiving as the Lord has forgiven you. Now that's a hard one to reckon with. In Matthew 18, Jesus told a parable about forgiveness in response to Peter's question. Verse 21, Peter came up to him and said, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him as many as seven times? Now Peter thought he was being extra righteous because the Pharisees had taught you had to forgive three times. That was going above and beyond three times. Peter doubled it and added one seven times. He thought he's being extra forgiving. But Jesus said, I did not say to you seven times, but seventy seven times. Other translations say seventy times seven. The idea is it was to be never ending. So he told this parable, he said, therefore the kingdom of heaven might be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with the servants when he began to settle. One was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. Ten thousand talents, not just interject here. Ten thousand talents is like forty lifetimes, fifty lifetimes of money. There is no way that somebody could ever pay that back. And really probably the only way to get that far into debt is if you work for the government. And so this person owed the king ten thousand talents. He had misappropriated funds in all likelihood. It is a parable. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold and his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees imploring him, have patience with me and I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. Now what Jesus is telling us here is this is the father's relationship to us. We owe him beyond imagining for our debt of sin. And in Christ he's forgiven us. But this is how we tend to be. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. And seizing him, he began to choke him saying, pay what you owe. So this fellow servant fell down and pleaded, have patience with me and I will pay you. But he refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed. Then his master summoned him and said, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And you should not have had mercy on a fellow servant as I had mercy on you. And in his anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. This is the killer. So also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Not just your brother, your sister, your mother, your father, your wife, your husband, your friend, even your enemies. About a month ago we saw an example of this. I don't know if you followed what happened after Charlie Kirk was killed in the United States. There was an enormous memorial service and his wife said in front of all the people in front of all the world that she forgave the man who killed him. I can't imagine what that would be like to have that come out of your heart. But Peter apparently took the words of Jesus to heart because in his first epistle he wrote, chapter one, Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but imperishable through the living and abiding word of God, forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. It's when we are convinced of the enormity of God's forgiveness of us that we are able to from the heart forgive others. Unless you know the depth of your sin, you can't know the greatness of salvation and the price God paid to obtain it. Only then will you find yourself being thankful from the heart, thankful for the body. As different as some of us are, people attend church here from Africa, Korea, Vietnam, China, Brazil, Pakistan, even from the USA and from all places Ontario. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which you were called in one body and be thankful. The word is eucharisto, it means grateful, pleasing, mindful of benefits, thankful, full of thanks for one another. Can you say that? Can you say that you're full of thanks for your fellow Christians, for the body of believers to which you belong, for the leaders God has given you, even for your pastor? If you're not, what do you do? If you're honest with yourself and you say, I'm not thankful, I don't have thankfulness in my heart, what do you do? Paul says, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. If both the scriptures and the wisdom of the secular world say that we should cultivate contentment, peace and thankfulness, why is it so difficult and when we get it, why does it seem so short lived? There are two kinds of peace and contentment. One is circumstantial, it comes from the world, it's momentary, comes from the outside, it doesn't last, the other peace is not subject to circumstances. One minister, Tim Keller, used pride and prejudice to illustrate this principle. He said near the end of the book there's a scene where one of Lizzie Bennet's sisters is getting married and says to Lizzie, I wish you could find a man and be happy like me. Lizzie Bennet's response is very interesting, not what you might expect, it's not the traditional response that would say, oh yes, if I have a man, unless I have a man, I cannot be happy. That's been updated. Remember Dean Martin's song, everybody loves somebody sometime. You're nothing until somebody loves you. But neither is it the modern response which says, how dare you, I don't need a man to make me happy. Listen to what she says, if you were to give me 40 such men, I would never be as happy as you, unless I have your disposition, your goodness, I will not have your happiness. Do you see what she's saying? Thankfulness is a condition of the heart, it's not determined by circumstances. So many people are ungrateful, disconsented with their spouses, their job, their kids, their families, because they imagine that those people, those circumstances are the cause of their unhappiness and ingratitude. If I would have married a different woman, I would be successful and happy. If I would have married a different man, I would have the life I dreamed of. But that's not what the scriptures teach. Your main problem is not any of these things. Your main problem is that wherever you go, there you are. You can spend the rest of your life looking for peace and contentment circumstantially, but you will not find it, or at least not for long, and therefore you will not be truly thankful. Circumstances may be the cause, occasion of our unhappiness, but they're never the cause of it. The cause is there is something wrong with our hearts. What is this peace? It's active. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. This isn't circumstantial, it's a power, it's active. It holds sway. The word bravuto is only used one time here in the entire New Testament. The word rule means to march around the ramparts of your hearts. Paul explains in Philippians, do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. So it's active, it rules from within. Jesus in John 14 said, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives to you. Let your hearts be troubled, let them neither be afraid. You can't develop this peace, you can't earn it. It comes from being united with Christ. Most of us have to live a while to learn how completely we are ruled by our circumstances. But there's another kind of peace, a permanent peace. A peace that's bigger and stronger and deeper than your circumstances. And when the peace of Christ marches around the ramparts of your heart, then you can be thankful for your fellow believers. Secondly, we're to be thankful for the word and worship. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. To dwell in, to inhabit, to be fixed mentally. It's like saying, you have taken up residence in me to dwell richly, largely, abundantly. Of course, if the word of Christ is going to dwell in you richly, there needs to be an introduction. There needs to be an opening, an invitation. We saw a couple of weeks ago, behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me. We need to feed on his word. Nourish our souls with his word. Read it, memorize it, meditate on it. Turn it over in our minds. Mull it over. Let it work its way into our hearts and minds every day. It's what Paul describes in Romans 12. If I appeal to you brothers by the mercies of God, I'm sorry, I appeal to you brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of the mind that by testing you may discern what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. What kind of sacrifice is he talking about? The one sacrifice is Jesus on the cross for our sins and that's the only sacrifice. Hebrews chapter 11 tells us, chapter 10, excuse me. So what's he talking about? Psalm 116 says, I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord, which is your spiritual service. Now, the ESV, the New American Standard, the NIV all say that. I think in this case they're wrong and the King James Version has it right. It says your reasonable service because the word is logikos. So it's only logical. It's only logical that in light of what God has done for us, that we would present ourselves to him as a living and holy sacrifice, which is our reasonable worship. Don't be conformed. That happens naturally. It sounds, some of it's harmless. I think I've shared with you before, when I was my first couple of years at university, the styles were different than they are today. We had platform shoes. I remember wearing shoes with heels this tall. Now, at the time I was almost 6'3", I'm barely 6'2 now. Heels like that, so that made me close to 6'5". I had bell-bottom pants, belts this wide, shirts with prints like clouds or birds on them, puffy sleeves, long hair. I'll show you a picture there sometime if you're interested. But that's what everybody was doing. We were conforming. That was the style. That's how we looked. To that degree, conforming is somewhat harmless. But if you're conforming to the world morally, in terms of your beliefs, in terms of how they view eternity, it's like being on a down escalator. You don't have to do anything when you're on a down escalator. You will arrive at the bottom. But you're to be transformed, not conformed, transformed by the renewing of your mind, teaching and admonishing one another. The idea is to put into mind instruction or warning. We can be thankful for the word because it's Christ's word which gives us life. And we should be thankful for the worship, the opportunity to come here every Sunday and sing psalms in Him and spiritual psalms with thankfulness in your hearts to God. The combination of learning the word and singing with thankfulness is a description of Christian worship that we do here every Sunday. But you can do it and you should do it at home with your family. You should do it in family worship. You should do it by yourself. But here, being gathered together on the Lord's Day is the primary meaning. Finally, and most important, we should be thankful for Jesus. All of this that I've said up till now is meaningless without Jesus. Jesus is everything to a Christian and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Charles Spurgeon was an influential Baptist minister in England in the mid 1800s and he said this, If Christ is not all to you, He's nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part savior of men. If He be something, He must be everything. And if He is not everything, He's nothing to you. If Jesus rose from the dead, and He did, then everything He said must be true and should be believed and obeyed. Because He lived the perfect life in your place, He died the death you and I deserved in our place, and He rose from the dead and is seated on the right hand of the Father, and He will come to judge the world. Jesus rose from the dead that everything that He said must be true and should be believed and obeyed. If He didn't rise from the dead, don't bother. But He did. He lived in our place, He died in our place and prepares for us a place in heaven. And for that, we should be thankful beyond expressing. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we pray that You would bless the rest of our day, that this time that we gather together in thanksgiving would be glorifying to You. We pray that You would take this Word and burn it into our hearts. In Jesus' name, Amen.