Well, this morning is a Thanksgiving message. So we're going to set First Timothy aside for one week and then we'll come back to it. This week is Thanksgiving week. And after that, the Christmas season begins. Two holidays that our nation celebrates. Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I have to say, I love them both. I love them both. I love everything about them. The pilgrims, the Indians, the manger, the angels, the wise men.

So when it comes to these two holidays, we as Christians get it. These days are full of meaning for us, full of worship, full of wonder for us that non-Christians miss. They celebrate these days too, they get the day off usually for these days as well, but they celebrate it as kind of an empty husk. They don't quite know what to do. they celebrate it as outsiders looking in.

And so I've been hearing for a long time people celebrating Turkey Day. I hear more and more people celebrating Friendsgiving. That's a somewhat new one for me. And of course, there's a million and one ways to celebrate Christmas without Christ.

But as I was pondering these holidays and the messages for these holidays this year, I was thinking Thanksgiving is about gratitude. Of course. And Christmas is about gift giving. And I mean that not just the gifts that we give to our family and to our loved ones and our friends. I'm sure the kids are looking forward to some gifts already this year, but also all those things are a reflection of the gift of Christmas, which is Christ himself, the child in a manger that we're celebrating his birth. He's the gift of God and he's bringing the gift of salvation.

And so Christmas is about gift giving. So Thanksgiving, gratitude, Christmas, gift giving. And I wanted to find a verse or a passage that combined both of those and related those together. The gift giving of Christmas with the gratitude of Thanksgiving. And I think I found one. It's a really simple one. If you blink, you're gonna miss it, but I'll have you turn there. I'd like you to look at it. Second Corinthians, chapter nine, verse 15, and actually we'll be looking at a bunch of verses in this Thanksgiving message, but I'd like to start with this one. I'd like this one to be emblazoned on your memory. If you remember this message, I'd like you to remember this passage.

So, Second Corinthians, chapter nine, and verse 15, and it says this very simply. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. So there's the gratitude for Thanksgiving. Thanks be to God, the first half of it. Happy Thanksgiving. And then there's the Christmas part of it, for his indescribable gift. And so that's Merry Christmas. Maybe I'm the first one to tell you that. This year, both of those together. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.

This comes at the end of two chapters that demonstrate that the Christian life and our fellowship with one another is full of giving to each other in all kinds of various concrete ways. And Paul is talking to the Corinthians about other people, other Christians giving, and he's trying to spur on their own giving for the contribution to the churches in Jerusalem that he's making it. And he, in the midst of that discussion, he shows that all of it rests on the primary gift of God, his gift-giving, the gift of Christ, who was rich and became poor for our sakes so that we would become rich. And all of that giving reflects the giving of Christ for us and rests on it, the whole framework of all that giving and the thanksgiving that goes along with it rests on the gift of Christ. And so when he's finished, I think it's hard is maybe just kind of caught up in the beauty of it. That's kind of typical of Paul, the way that he writes. He kind of expresses his emotion. He's very expressive and expresses some of the emotion that he kind of works up in writing and the Holy Spirit is working as he's writing it. And so he just expresses out of the overflow of his heart, an expression of gratitude for God, for all of this giving.

Thanks be to God. for his indescribable gift. What gift is he talking about? Well, it doesn't say, it's singular, it's one gift. So most commentators will say it's probably just, it's the gift of salvation that he's talking about, that undergirds all of Christian giving, or it's the gift of Christ himself. And so he calls it, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift, because it's so wonderful. that human words aren't able to describe it, aren't able to capture it completely. So thanks be to God for his gift that it can't really be put in human words because it's so other than what we normally talk about or have words for. It's his indescribable gift.

Okay, so that's our main verse. And I'd like you to think about the orchestra. I'm sure you've been. Before they play, they do this weird thing where a note plays, one single note, and I read about this, and it's an oboe, I didn't know that. It's an oboe that plays, there must be a reason for that, that's the fixed note. And then the other instruments come in, and it sounds a little chaotic, and they tune their instrument to that one note. so that they're all tuned to that. Or maybe you've seen somebody with a guitar and they'll take out a device and play a note and then they'll do the strings and it's ding ding ding ding, you know, and they try to get it to the right note. Maybe it's flat, maybe it's sharp, and then they get it to the right note.

Reminds me of that hymn, Come Thou Fount, of every blessing that we sing, that's the first line. And the second line is, tune my heart to sing thy grace. Tune my heart to sing thy grace. So think of this verse, this really simple verse that I just read this morning. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. That's the one note, that's the oboe playing, just a clear note. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. And our purpose this morning is to tune our hearts to that same expression of thanksgiving. so that we say it just as simply, just as purely as Paul did when he felt it here. Thanks be to God from the heart for his indescribable gifts, gift.

So let me give you this morning three truths you need to understand in order to have gratitude in your hearts. And the first is this, in order for this, to be your note in order to tune your hearts to this note, to have true gratitude in your heart, you need to know that God gives gifts to you freely.

God gives gifts to you freely, freely. And I wanna start with the most important gift that God gives, which is salvation. And God is very clear that he wants this gift, this salvation understood as a gift. And he wants it understood as a gift that is given freely.

So let's go to the book briefly where this is explained probably maybe the most clearly it's in Romans. And just listen, just listen to some of these verses to catch the emphasis here. This is in the midst of Paul comparing and contrasting what came to us through Adam with what came to us through Christ. And so he says this, the free gift is not like the transgression. This is Romans 5.15. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound to the many.

The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For on the one hand, the judgment arose from the one transgression resulting in condemnation. But on the other hand, the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reign through the one. Much more, those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.

Now there's a whole lot that can be said about those verses and I won't say it, but I hope you hear just over and over again, it's like a drumbeat. He wants you to understand that the salvation that comes to you comes to you as a gift. And it comes to you as a free gift. And that's not just there in Romans, it's all over the place. Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death, But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. If you take someone through Romans, maybe an unbeliever, maybe you'll have opportunity to take an unbeliever through Romans. That's a great, great thing if that can happen. But you'll find yourself in explaining Romans to them, coming back to this again and again. That the righteousness of Christ is received as a gift. The salvation offered through Christ is received as a gift. You'll find yourself going over maybe two truths. How hopeless of sinners we are, that's one. and then how that salvation is received as a gift, and those actually go together. You'll understand the one when you understand the other, but you'll come to that again and again in Romans because it's so important to the Lord that salvation is received as a gift given to us freely.

Not only does the Bible say that God gives us salvation, but it says that he gives it a certain way, a certain way, And that is freely. That's the point that I'm making here. He gives it freely. And so there's a word that is used in scripture. It's one word. It's an adverb. If you'll remember, it describes the kind of action. And so he not only says that he gives salvation to us, but in a number of places, he used this word with it to say he gives it freely. freely. He gives it freely. It's one word. It's usually translated in scripture as freely or sometimes it's translated as a phrase like as a gift or without pay. In other words, God gives this salvation not for any kind of exchange of something valuable. but he gives it freely, asking nothing in return or no bargain from it.

So let me just show you a couple of places where this word, it's kind of a special word that goes with this, is given. One is in Matthew chapter 10, verse eight, where the Lord is just giving some quick instructions to his disciples. And he says to them, freely you received. He's talking about the way in which they're to do ministry and he's teaching them how God gives to them, how they received. He gives freely. He's given to you disciples with no pay. He's given to you freely, and so that's the way you're to minister. When you minister to someone, don't wait until they pay you for something. Don't wait until you see they have something to give back to you, but minister to them freely. It's a match, and it's the same word that's used twice there. Freely you've received, freely give.

Or Romans chapter three, and verse 23, where this word is almost redundant, the way that it's used, but it gives an emphasis. Verse 24, actually. Being justified, and here's the word, as a gift, freely. And then it says, by his grace, which is almost redundant. It almost means the same thing. Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus.

In the book of Revelation, the Lord Jesus, who's returned and who's bringing all of history to its conclusion and bringing in the new heavens and new earth still remembers the way in which he gives. Revelation chapter 21 and verse six. Then he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of water of life. Okay, he says he's gonna give. We've said that, but then he uses this word, without cost. I give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life freely. Not for an exchange of something, but simply freely. He gives freely.

And then Revelation chapter 22, verse 17. The spirit and the bride, that's the church, say come. Talks about how we beckon, we invite others to come. The spirit and the bride say come and let the one who hears say come. That's the new convert. He joins us in inviting others. And let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who wishes take the water of life. Freely, take the water of life, my translation says without cost. And it's that same word for freely.

So there's a contrast in scripture with receiving as a gift. That's what I've been trying to show from a number of different places. It's like a drumbeat in scripture. There's a contrast in scripture with receiving as a gift. The contrast is with receiving as what is due to you. as what is owed. Those are two different ways of receiving. You can receive something freely, which is given to you as a gift, or you can receive something as what is due. You've done something to deserve it. You've got something to exchange, to offer it, and scripture contrasts those things.

We've already had the wages of sin is death. You get what is due from sin. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, and so that's the other way. Or also, Romans chapter four, Verse four and five. Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. That's the other way to receive. But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. And so the other way to receive is to not work, not do anything to exchange with God, but believe that he's the gift giver, the free gift giver, and that's the way in which you are saved.

So it's contrasted with receiving what is your due, and specifically receiving wages, receiving wages. And that's the kind of receiving when you get a paycheck, when you get a paycheck. And this is why this is so important. If you're to have a grateful heart, that you need to understand that God gives to you and that he gives to you freely. That his giving to you is not like a paycheck. And here's the reason why. What do you do when you get a paycheck? What do you say when you get a paycheck? Maybe you get it every Friday, if you're part of the workforce, or every other Friday, or every month. Maybe it's automatically deposited into your bank account. And what do you say when you get it? Just think about it and give an honest answer. And the answer is nothing. You don't say anything when you get your paycheck. You're glad to have a job. You're glad to have it. You're glad that the payment went through. It's a nice feeling when you've got it in your hands at the end of the week. But there's nothing to say. There's nothing to say. You might, maybe from time to time, thank your employer, I suppose, for providing a job for you, but you might not. You might not, and that's okay. It doesn't mean you're an ungrateful person if you don't say thank you or don't say thank you after every time that you get a paycheck to your employer. Why? Because your paycheck is not given as a gift. It's given as what is due to you.

Now, what do you say when you get a gift, even a small one, even a small gift. Say somebody comes to you and say, I got this for you. Merry Christmas. Here's the gift for you. And what you say is, Thank you, thank you. Just automatically, gratitude comes, oh, thank you for thinking of me and giving me this gift. Or if they're not there, when you open the gift, you sit down and you write a thank you note to them and you send it off in the mail. A gift brings about Gratitude, even if it's a small gift, even if it's one one thousandth in value of your paycheck, it gets a thank you every time. And the reason for that is because it's given to you not as what is your due, but it's given to you as a gift. It's given to you freely.

If you don't understand God is a free giver to you. You may be many things towards him, but you'll never be thankful towards Him until you understand that His gifts to you are given to you freely. When you understand that He gives to you freely, that emphasis of scripture, when you really grasp that, and it's hard to grasp. We are wired, even in our pride, to fight against that, to fight to the very last drop against that. But when you understand what scripture says and believe what scripture says about God's gift to you, that he gives it to you freely, and there's a wonder in that, you actually have gratitude in your heart when that finally gets through.

And let me add one other thing to that. When you receive something as your due, like a paycheck, It's not personal. It's mechanical. In fact, it's just a calculation, like for your employer. How many hours did this person work? Boom, there it is. And there's the correct calculation that gives you what is due. It's often done by machine. Computers are very capable of that, and even before computers became sophisticated, it was done by a little machine, I think, where there's a punch card. In fact, I can remember working and having a little machine, a clock. You'd punch in, and I can't remember exactly how it worked, but it would punch out a piece of paper with the time on it. It's very impersonal. A machine can do it and can do it easily.

A gift, on the other hand, is personal. A gift is, when it's done well, uniquely suited to you by someone who knows you. And it can't be done by a machine. And so you understand God's, when you understand God's gift to you, you relate to him personally, and you'll never relate to him personally until you understand his gift to you. I can remember my grandfather, and I can hear him emphasizing this, the importance of having a personal relationship with God. I can remember just the emphasis in his voice, perhaps you can too, in that the importance of having a personal relationship with God, sometimes that's given as a gift, what an evangelical is. Someone who has a personal relationship with God, and I think that's not quite as clear as it could be. Evangelical, a gospel person, is someone who receives salvation as a gift, someone as a free gift. But it goes together with a personal relationship with God. It's when you understand that you receive salvation as a free gift that you have a personal relationship with God. 

And so if you don't understand that God gives to you, If you don't take that as seriously as scripture does, not only will you never be thankful to him and have a grateful heart, but you'll also never know him personally. You'll know him mechanically. You'll know him as from a distance. That was Israel's mistake. They had a zeal for God, but they missed the gift when it came. They wanted to know God, but not as a gift giver. but as a giver of what is due. They insisted on knowing him in that way, and so they missed him. They missed his gift when it came. 

God wants to be known as a gift giver. And in fact, that's the only way that he wants to be known. He refuses to be known in any other way. When someone tries to know him as something other than a gift giver, through the gift of his son, he hides himself from them. And why is that? Why is that? Well, I'll try to trace it all the way back to maybe the most profound reason is that salvation shows a glimpse of what God is like eternally in himself before he even created. 

And so God, before he even created, he existed as the triune God in which the father was delighted to give to the son. the Son delighted to give to the Spirit, the Spirit delighted to give to the Father, and so on. And the persons of the Trinity gave to one another, not as what is due to the other person. Here's what I have to give to the other person because they deserve it, but freely, lavishly. The persons of the Trinity give to one another eternally because they want to give to one another, freely to one another. That's the life by which God overflows to us as well. And he's determined to be known. That's the reason why he's determined to be known in no other way. 

So in order for you to have a grateful heart, in order for you to tune your heart to this note that we're all trying to tune our hearts to, thanks be to God. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. You need to know that God gives his gifts to you freely. 

Secondly, you need to know this. You need to know this. that God gives his gifts to you continually. Continually. Look at James chapter one. This is a great passage of scripture for Thanksgiving. James chapter one, and I'll read verse 16 and 17. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. It's an interesting title for God that's given in this passage, the Father of Lights, the Father of Lights. And the lights that he's referring to are stars. It's clear where he talks about no variation or shifting shadow, I'll talk about that in just a second. But it's related to the stars, that's the illustration that he's given, and he's the father of them. So it doesn't just say he's the creator of lights, that would also be true. but he's the father of lights. In other words, the lights that he created, the stars, in some way, they kind of share in his character, like they're sons of his, in a way, except in one way, they're less perfect than their father, and that's what's given of him, the father of lights. 

In him, there's no variation, or there's no shifting shadow. What he's talking about there is that stars, even on a cloudless night, Twinkle. In fact, there's a song about that, isn't there? They twinkle, and probably with our city lights, it's too subtle to see, but if you can get away from the city lights, you can see it easily, that the lights vary. They do exactly what he's talking about that the Lord doesn't do. There's no variation or shifting shadow. 

Why? I had to look this up. But it's our atmosphere. It's our atmosphere that makes the stars twinkle. The temperature in our atmosphere is uneven. So there's pockets of cold and there's pockets of warmth relative to each other in our atmosphere. And when the light shines through that, it bends the light. and it makes the light appear blurry and it makes it move around and appear sort of smudgy. So this is why the astronomers, they send the Hubble telescope or the James Webb telescope out into space. It's not like they're trying to get closer to the stars. They're not getting that much closer, but they're getting out of our atmosphere so they can take a picture and it's clear because space is uniform with its temperature. And so they want to get away from the twinkling of the stars. 

So the stars twinkle, they shine a light, but the light, as we see it, it moves around, it changes. The way that God the Father is, the way that He shines His light, especially in this aspect of giving every good thing and every perfect gift that comes down from above, with Him, with the Father of lights, there's no variation or shifting shadow. If God gives a gift to you in Christ, and He gives it to you freely, He never stops. He never stops giving. That light of giving a perfect gift to you, it keeps on shining and there's no twinkling. There's no changing of it. There's no time that anything passes across it or obstructs his gift giving to you. It hasn't stopped yet. and it never will for all of eternity. 

So he says in the next verse, the kind of gift that God gives towards us or his attitude towards us, in the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures. That shows his will towards us. salvation. It's that he saved us. It's that he brought us forth by the word of his truth so that we would be a first fruits among his salvation. And in salvation, he's shown himself at least once to be a gift giver to you of a good and a perfect gift. And what James is saying here with this kind of memorable illustration of him being the father of lights is that's what he's like to all the time. He's the giver of good and perfect gifts that never stop. 

Romans chapter eight and verse 32 says this. He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? There's that free giving. He freely gave his own son, that same light is still shining. He's freely give, that's the way he is in all things, is the same way that he was in that. Or 1 Corinthians chapter two and verse 12 says this. Now we have received not the spirit of the worlds, but the spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. We've been given a spirit that's totally opposite to the world. It's a totally opposite kind of wisdom. It's the wisdom of the cross. You have to be foolish in the wisdom of the world in order to have this kind of wisdom. And when we receive that kind of wisdom, we receive the spirit who's from God. And what he does is he shows us that all of life is according to that same gift. He shows us the things that are freely given to us by God.

It's interesting, thanksgiving and having a thankful attitude, having a heart of gratitude towards God is commanded in Scripture over and over again. And an emphasis that comes out in the commands of Scripture is that we're to be thankful at all times. We're to be thankful continuously.

1 Thessalonians 5. Verse 16 says, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. Or Hebrews chapter 13 verse five and 16, sorry. Yeah, 15 and 16. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing for with such sacrifices God is pleased. It's a continual offering that God is pleased with, a continual offering of thanksgiving.

Colossians chapter three and verse 17. Whatever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. It's continuous there. It's everything that we do. Ephesians chapter five and verse 20, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.

So your Thanksgiving, is to be continuous, why? Because his gift giving never stops. Continuous thanksgiving is the match for a gift giver with whom there's no variation and there's no shadow of turning. And so our thankfulness is to be not just for salvation, but it's to be thankfulness in all things.

There's a song that we sing sometimes at Trinity. This would be good for us to sing at our fellowship meal for our prayer, and I won't sing it, but it's, we thank thee, Lord, for Jesus Christ and for the blood he shed. We thank thee for his risen life and for our daily bread. And that's a great song. a great picture of this continual giving. We thank you for what you've given us in Christ, for the blood that shed for us, and it opens up a whole door to continual thankfulness. We thank you for our daily bread. That's the way in which all blessings in life are to be received, is with thankfulness to the Lord, in fact, especially food. is that way.

First Timothy chapter four, verse four and five, for everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude. For it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer. And he's talking about foods. He's talking about those who forbid foods. And he says, no, you're to take in all the food that the Lord has given to us. But it's good for us when it's received with gratitude. And so we're to be thankful even for our food.

So what are you to be thankful for this Thanksgiving? Everything. You'll be thankful continuously for it. Food is a gift. It's right that we should be thankful for our food. Our nation is a gift to us. The nation is God's idea. God's the one who separates nations, makes nations, appoints the land to nations, and our nation, it's a wonderful nation. It's a gift that God has given to us. 

The beauty of creation. is a gift that God continually gives us. We live in an especially beautiful part of the world, and the older I get, I appreciate it more and more. And I think as Christians, we should appreciate it. because we not only appreciate the beauty of creation, but we know the giver of creation, and we know it's intended. It's given to us as a gift, and so we're to be thankful for that. 

We ourselves are a gift to one another. Scripture tells us that, that we are given to one another, not just as a random collection of people that we happen to bump shoulders with or end up in the same church together. We're actually given as gifts to one another. When you understand that God gives each other as gifts to one another, then we're able to be thankful for one another. 

Your circumstances, your circumstances, exactly as they are, including the things that you'd rather were different, including the trials, including the tribulations, including the disappointments, including the hardships, are good and perfect gifts. And they come to you not mechanically, not because God has set up an algorithm that if you give certain inputs into this, he oversees that you'll get certain outputs. And so that's why you're in the circumstance that you're in. 

No, the circumstances that you are in are given as a good and perfect gift that comes down from the Father of Lights, with whom there's no variation or shadow of turning. He's not any different in giving those circumstances to you exactly the way that they are. and he hasn't given Christ to you because that's the light that's shining on you. It's the giver of every good and perfect gift. And so the circumstances that you find yourself in haven't come to you mechanically, like the clockmaker God who sets up rules and then backs away from it so that everybody just gets according to as if they're part of a machine that he's set up. 

No, your circumstance come to you personally. They're unique to you. Nobody else is in the circumstances that you're in. They're unique to you because they're a gift to you. They're a gift of love to you that comes from his own hand. 

One memorable thing from Dr. Tackett being here that I hope you'll never forget, and I won't either, is talking about your script and the irritation that comes when somebody steps on your script. And I can't remember if he made, he probably did make this point as well, but it's actually a huge blessing. when God steps on your script, you have a script in life, I'd like my life to go a certain way, and God steps on that script because he's got one that's much better for you, and it's actually a blessing, it's actually a gift that comes from his hand, kind of a strange blessing, but it's a blessing that comes from him when he steps on that script, and it gives you a totally different script than the one that you had, his own plan for you. 

And so this is why One theologian used an especially bold phrase when he called our conversion, when he called Christian conversion, a conversion to the world. And what does he mean by that? It's kind of a shocking thing to say, but what he means by it is it's a conversion to the world as it actually is. The world as it actually is is that all creatures, all created things are acting as God's messengers that are pushing you, that are pulling you, that are beckoning you into a deeper relationship with Christ and to a more personal relationship with Christ. Paul talks about that in a passage we've already looked at about the foolishness of the cross and the wisdom of the cross. You have to become a fool in the wisdom of the world in order to become wise. But in the midst of saying that, he talks about this world as it actually is.

1 Corinthians chapter 3. And verse 21, so then let no one boast in men for all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come. All things belong to you and you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God. All things belong to you because they come to you as Christ's gift to you and to draw you closer to himself. And when you become a Christian, When you become wise, according to the wisdom of the cross, you start to actually see the world that way, as all things belong to you. All things come to you as a gift from his hand. All things belong to you, and you belong to Christ.

Before you're saved, you're like Saul. It's hard for you to kick against the goats. Those created things are drawing him towards Christ like a cattle prod. That's what it's referring to, and Paul's kicking against them. But after you're saved, you're reconciled to it. You actually understand it, how it works, and you know what it's for. You know the meaning of it all. You're not a stranger in that world anymore. And so the things that happen, both large and small, happen in order to draw you closer to Christ. And when you understand that, you're able to say, thanks be to God. Thanks be to God from the heart for his indescribable gift.

Well, in order to have a thankful heart, in order to tune your heart to that oboe that's playing, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. You must understand that God gives his gifts to you freely. He gives his gifts to you freely. He gives his gifts to you continually. And the third thing to understand is this, we'll do this just briefly. is that thankfulness opens up a world of holiness. Thankfulness opens up a world of holiness. Only a Christian can be truly thankful. Only a Christian can really celebrate Thanksgiving and get what it actually is for. Because only a Christian understands that God's gifts come to him freely, come to him continuously and personally. And when you understand that and give thanks to God for that, it opens up a world of nearness. to God, so that you live close to Him and it opens up a world of glad obedience to Him.

Or let me say it a different way, let me say it negatively. Thankfulness protects from sin. Thankfulness protects from sin. And scripture speaks of this, Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 3. Immorality or any impurity or greed must not be even named among you as is proper among saints. And there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting which are not fitting, but rather Giving of thanks, giving of thanks. There's the giving of thanks and it's a substitute for a number of different sins that are mentioned. Immorality, impurity, greed. Don't even have a hint of those things but instead of those things, instead of occupying yourself with those sins, occupy yourself instead with giving of thanks because they don't go together. Immorality, impurity, greed doesn't go together with a thankful heart. It's hard to be thankful and sinful at the same time, to say to the Lord, thank you for your gift to me. Thanks be to God for your indescribable gift. And then at the same time say, I resent you. I rebel against you. And so thankfulness is itself a protection from sin.

There's a number of sins in this passage that are mentioned that are replaced by thankfulness. Perhaps the sin that you're struggling with and you can't seem to get a grip on it, it's because it can only be replaced by thankfulness. It's when you're thankful to the Lord that you really have a substitute for that sin.

Galatians chapter five, verse 16 says, Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. So it tells you how to not carry out the desire of the flesh. It's to walk by the Spirit. It's to walk controlled by the Spirit. That's the way to be self-controlled, is actually to be controlled by the Spirit.

But how can you walk by the Spirit? if there's no gratitude. That's the whole atmosphere that the Spirit brings. It's an atmosphere of gratitude to God for his giving to you. And so to walk by the Spirit is to walk in gratitude. Gratitude is the on-ramp to all the other virtues of the Christian life, including giving to others. You have something to give to others when you're walking in thankfulness to the Lord.

And so this is one reason why you're to bring a thankful heart with you. to church on Sunday. You're to have it every day, but we bring it in a special way together at church every Sunday, a thankful heart. And this is spoken of in scripture, Colossians chapter three. And verse 16 says, let the word of Christ dwell richly within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

And so we come together, we sing together, and we're to do it with thankful hearts to one another, because in a way, it's a beginning of godliness. The Bible tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If you want to be wise, you need to have a fear of the Lord of the universe. In one sense, thankfulness is the beginning of fear. And I'm thinking of a specific passage when I say that it's Psalm 130 and verse 4, which says, but there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared.

In other words, if you want to really fear the Lord, you must first receive from him forgiveness that's freely offered in Christ. And then you'll be able to actually have a fear of the Lord that leads to godliness. And so for these reasons, I think that thankfulness is not depicted in scripture as sort of the crown of the godly life. Like when you figure out everything else and you're doing it well as a Christian, then maybe then you can work on having a heart of gratitude to the Lord.

That's not the way it's presented in scripture. It's really the prerequisite for the virtues that we're commanded to, the other virtues of the Christian life. It's at the beginning of the Christian life. It's more like, I'm not gonna get anything else right in the Christian life and be pleasing to the Lord unless I first have a thankful heart and relate to him with a thankful heart.

And so a thankful heart on the journey of life is something that you can't afford to leave behind. So it's Thanksgiving week, it's Thanksgiving week, the beginning of it. It's coming up to the day that our nation, of all things, has set aside to say we're gonna recommend that people take the day off in order to get this right. in order to get Thanksgiving right. And so let me ask you the all-important question this Thanksgiving week, and that is, is your heart tuned, is your heart tuned to what we read at the beginning from the Apostle Paul, the expression of genuine thanksgiving that came from his heart? Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. Is that what your heart is saying? That's the note, that's the pure note that goes out, and that's what, Us, the orchestra, that's what we're to match and to be tuned with that.

If your heart isn't tuned to that thankfulness, why? Why is it not? Is it because God is not a gift giver who gives freely to you? Well, he is. He is a free gift giver. That's what he offers to everyone in the gospel, is I will forgive your sins for free, not because of something you've achieved, not because of something that you've accomplished. In fact, you have to abandon all that and trust only in him. Come to me only as a sinner and I will freely wash away your sins, wash away the guilt of your sins and set you free from the power of your sins.

So if you don't have a thankful heart, why? Is it because God doesn't give to you continuously? He does, He does. With Him, there's no variation. There's no shifting shadow and He gives to you every good and perfect gift continually, both now and for all eternity. Is it because you think a thankful heart won't help you? It will help you. It will help you. It will open the door to victory in every other aspect of the Christian life, a thankful heart.

And so nothing is more important and nothing is more timely this Thanksgiving season than to check your heart. Check your heart. Is it tuned? Is it tuned to this pure note of thankfulness that's playing? And then ask God to give you a continual grateful heart. to reconcile you to the reality of his gift giving and to tune your heart to sing his grace.

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for who you are. And we thank you that you are a gift giver, that you've designed salvation to show us, that you give freely according to your nature towards us. And amazingly, you've included us in this. And you've required that we recognize that you are a gift giver to us, that you give freely according to your grace, and it is your glory to give freely to us. We thank you that you give continuously to us, that you don't stop, but that you give even in the difficult things of this life. And we thank you that this Thanksgiving opens up a door to every aspect of the Christian life. It's seen and given through a thankfulness. And so Father, we pray that you'd give us thankful hearts. Pray that you'd open our hearts to be truly thankful to you and especially this Thanksgiving season. And we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.