Corporate Gratitude

Our scripture reading this morning is found in the book of Colossians, chapter 3.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

I will read uh verses uh 12 through 17.

So I encourage you to turn there.

We'll spend uh most of our time there in this passage, in this chapter.

Uh if you don't have a Bible with you, you can find uh a Bible there in the pew right in the front of you.

There should be one, and you can turn to page 984 and uh follow along as I read Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

Verse 12 put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against 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.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your heart to God.

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

This is God's word.

This morning I have a question I want us to think about.

How do you do what you can't do?

In this passage in Colossians chapter 3, in verse 15, we are given a command.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

We're given a command at the end of verse 15, be thankful.

And it is in the imperative for those who know languages, it's in the voice of a command.

It is telling you to do something.

Well, how do you do what you can't do?

We're commanded to be thankful.

We should have an attitude of gratitude.

But I have a little problem.

Um I I tend to be critical and judgmental and cynical and sarcastic.

Can any of you relate?

Okay.

A few of you.

How many how many can't admit their sins?

Okay, never mind.

Um so I read this, I read this passage, and I look at my heart, and I realize I can't change my heart.

I can't tell myself to do what I can't do.

Uh it's like telling yourself to be happy.

Just saying be happy doesn't make you happy.

In fact, it probably makes you more unhappy because then you realize how unhappy you are not being happy.

Um, you so what alternatives do we have?

What other things do we do?

If we can't, by an act of the will, decide to change our hearts to be thankful, and yet we're commanded to be thankful, what do we do?

We maybe we'll tell ourselves we're thankful anyway, and we might have some surface-level thanks, but we know in the depths of our heart that isn't really where we are.

We can try to act thankful and even say thankful things, but that doesn't change our hearts.

So what do you do?

I think some of the wrong things we do, but we probably all go there often, is we fake it.

And we pretend we're something we're not.

Um, a friend of mine likes to say we try to fake it till we make it.

And we think if we act that way long enough that somehow by just uh the sheer act of doing it, that somehow that's going to have a transformational effect in our hearts, and yet we find that it doesn't work at the depth that we need it to.

Or we, in a, in a bit of honesty, we look at ourselves and realize we're not where we're supposed to be.

We realize the commands that God gives us and we look at our hearts and we realize we're not there, and sometimes it leads us to despair.

We realize that uh we fall short and we begin to despair of this uh this divide, this disparity between where we are and where we're supposed to be.

Is there another option?

In this passage, Paul commands us to be thankful.

It's right there in verse 15.

Um we we may miss the full weight of it, but the point is that it's not an option for the believer.

So what do we do?

What makes it even worse is that he again challenges us to be thankful in the next two verses and in chapter 4, verse 2.

Notice what he says in verse 15, and be thankful, and then in verse 16, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

In verse 17, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

And then in chapter 4, verse 2, continuing steadfast in prayer, being watchful in it with thankfulness.

There's other comments here in Colossians as well about being thankful.

But life is hard.

Whether you're a 14, 15-year-old freshman, whether you're a graduating senior from college, whether you're a stay-at-home mom with kids, whether you're working in a factory or the corner office or you're retired in your golden years, life is hard.

In the midst of struggling to pay bills and you can't make ends meet, having sick children facing terminal illnesses that are getting progressively worse, struggling with ongoing temptations and battles that you don't even want to admit to yourself, let alone tell others, life is hard, and yet we're called to be thankful.

How do we do it?

How do you do what you can't do?

Well, this morning it's my desire to show you three things as we study this passage.

Uh, first of all, uh, how the solution to our dilemma on thankfulness, and truly in all things, but speaking particularly on thankfulness, how the solution to our dilemma on thankfulness begins with the gospel.

Secondly, that there's a depth of thankfulness that only comes through the church.

And then finally, thankfulness is the inevitable result of a worshiping heart, uh, considering all these other things first.

So let's explore this morning and try to answer the question: how do we do, be thankful, what we cannot do?

Change our hearts to be thankful.

Well, first of all, I mentioned the solution to our dilemma begins with the gospel.

I think most of us as Christians don't think to begin here.

And let me explain what I mean, and I put myself in this same category.

I think most of us don't begin to think about it uh first with the gospel.

Think of what the message of the gospel is.

The message of the gospel is that you are in a place that you completely are unable to change.

You are sinners before a holy God, and there is nothing that you can do to change that reality in and of yourselves.

You can't work harder, you can't do anything to change or save yourselves.

That you are spiritually dead, you're insensitive to the things of God, you're aliens, you're strangers, you're enemies, there is nothing that you can do that we are lost, hopeless, and helpless.

That is the state of affairs, that is the reality of who we are apart from Christ.

There's nothing that we can do to change who we are.

We're lost and hopeless and helpless.

And the gospel tells us that God did in Christ for us what we could not do for ourselves.

That God sent his son, because of his great love for us, sent his son to die on the cross, to pay the full penalty for all of our sins, to rise again on the third day, to ascend into heaven, seated at the right hand of God, so that all who place their faith in Christ receive full, free forgiveness, pardon.

They are brought into God's family and called his sons and daughters, his children.

That we've been set apart as God's holy people, that he has placed his love upon us, that we are truly the object of his affection.

Now that's the gospel.

That's the message of our complete inability to change our circumstances and God's provision to do what we can't do.

But we forget how that relates to the rest of our Christian lives.

We think and we know that the gospel is to get in the front door of Christianity, so to speak, to be forgiven, to begin a relationship with God, but every day of our lives ought to center around the message of the gospel, not just the first day.

But we don't understand how the gospel applied to our lives does what we can't do.

And so we begin with the gospel, but then we think the rest of our Christian lives is our working at it.

Is our effort, is our hard work.

We know that the Christian life begins by grace, and we know that eternity is all by grace, but somehow in our minds, and we may not say this verbally, but there's something within us that thinks right here and now, between salvation and our death or glorification or resurrection, that right now it's all about our hard work.

And if we work harder or hard enough, then we can effect change in our lives.

And so we tell ourselves that if we try harder, if we exert more willpower, if we do more, if we believe more fervently, if we pray more, if we read our Bibles more, if we go to church more, if we come up with a strategy that somehow, through all of these efforts, our hearts will change.

And then we find when in the quietness of the moment, we look at ourselves and we realize that that isn't happening.

Now, all of these things are good things.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't believe and we shouldn't pray and we shouldn't read our Bibles and go to church and all these things.

That's not what I'm saying, but I am saying that when we place our hopes in these things to change our hearts in and of themselves, we're missing the gospel.

See, this is what the Apostle Paul chastised the Galatians when he said in Galatians chapter 3, verse 3 Are you so foolish having begun by the Spirit?

Galatians 3:3

Are you now being perfected by the flesh?

The Apostle Paul spends most of this chapter in chapter 3 pointing out the implications of the gospel.

Look at the beginning of chapter 3, and let me just highlight what Paul says about who you are in Christ, about what God has done objectively in your lives through no effort or work of your own.

In verse 1, he says, You have been raised with Christ.

And then notice again in verse 1, he says that you are been raised with Christ, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

The implication of this is that you are in Christ, and Paul is explicit about this in Ephesians chapter 2, that you are in Christ and that you have been raised with Christ, and you are seated with Christ in the heavenlies.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 6.

Ephesians 2:6

In verse 3, he reminds us that you have died.

You have died with Christ.

Says, for you have died.

And notice that he says your life is hidden with Christ in God.

That when you came to Christ, you were united with Christ in his death and in his resurrection, in his ascension, and that you are united with Christ by faith.

You have died with Christ, you have raised with Christ, you are seated with Christ, your life is hidden with Christ in God.

And then look at what he says in verse 4.

When Christ, who is your life, appears.

So he says that you have died with Christ, you have been raised with Christ, you're seated with Christ, and Christ is your life.

The totality of your life is centered around the person and the work of Christ.

Christ is your life.

He is all of your hope.

He goes on and talks about some practical applications of this, and then in verse 8 or verse 9, he says, You have put off, you have put off the old self with this practices and have put on the new self.

He said that at the moment of conversion there was this new reality that the power of sin has been broken, the penalty of sin has been paid, and it is as if you were that you put off this old self and you have put on the new self, that you are now clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and you have been given a new nature.

Notice what he says in verse 11.

He says there is not Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave-free, but Christ is all and in all.

He says here that there are no distinctions based on race, based on class, based on ethnicity, based on status, that everyone is equally in Christ, that everyone stands at the foot of the cross, equal with one another.

There are no second-class citizens in the kingdom of God.

We are all equally forgiven.

We are all equally accepted.

We are all in the beloved, we are all his children.

And so then in verse 12, he can call us God's chosen ones.

That we have been chosen by God.

We are God's people, called and set apart by him for him.

And then he says that we are holy and beloved, that we have been set apart, we're positionally holy, we are his, he is ours, he has purchased us, and we are beloved.

That you are the beloved of God, the object of his affection, that he loves you with an everlasting love, that he is not disappointed with you, and he is not angry with you.

You are his beloved.

And then in verse 13, he says that we have been forgiven.

He says, and we'll talk about this a little bit more.

He says, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you.

And we know that we have been forgiven for all of our sins.

That the debt has been paid in full, that there is nothing left for us to pay.

All of our sins have been paid for by Christ in his infinite sacrifice, and no matter how much we have sinned or will sin, it is a finite amount, and the infinite sacrifice of Christ has forgiven and paid for all of the sins in our lives that we have been forgiven for all of our sins in Christ.

That is the good news.

That is the gospel.

That is who you are in Christ.

That is what Christ has done that you cannot do, you did not do, you cannot add to it, you can't take away from it.

It is perfect, it is complete, it is done, it is for you, and this is the right and the privilege of every child of God.

This is true of you if you know Christ.

This is the gospel, this is the good news.

Well, how does this, how does the gospel then create or affect thankfulness?

Now, notice all that, notice the commands here are based on the reality.

In other words, the imperative is based on the indicative.

In other words, the command is based on the reality of what is objectively true about you.

Think of these commands.

Look in verses 12 and 13, and we'll move forward with Thanksgiving.

Look at what he says in verse 12.

He says, uh, put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.

And if one has a complaint against another, forgive each other.

As the Lord has forgiven you, so also you must forgive.

Now notice what he says there.

As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

What is the motivation for these?

What is the motivation for compassion?

What is the motivation for kindness?

We love because he first loved us.

We show mercy because we have received mercy.

We are patient because God has been patient with us.

We forgive because we recognize how much we have been forgiven.

We don't focus on thankfulness, we focus on Christ and the gospel and allow the truth of the love of God to inform and shape our hearts.

Again, think of the gospel.

The message of the gospel is we're powerless to change ourselves.

We why do we think that we have the power to change ourselves?

We we think we have it now, but we realize we didn't have it before.

Um the gospel reminds us that we are weak, sinful people prone to wander.

We are sick, weak, sinful people, and we we still sin.

At least I still sin.

You know, yeah, I've been here five years now, and I keep telling people, I don't know if they realize that they they hired a real sinner that actually sins.

Um still, um, even five years later, I still sin, and and we all still sin.

And we don't have our act together, and as much as we try, we realize we don't have our act together.

But but this is where the gospel comes in.

This is where the message of the gospel, I have no more power today to change my life than I did the moment I came to Christ.

And so, what do I do?

I realize my powerlessness, I realize my weakness, I realize my inability to effect change, and because of that, I go to the only place that I can go, and that is Jesus.

So when I realize, when I come to the end of myself and realize that I can't do what I'm called to do, and I realize that either I despair because I can't do what I can't do, or I fake it and try to convince you that I can do what I know I can't do.

Well, there's another option, and that option is we run to Jesus, we recognize the message of the gospel for right here and right now.

And we run to Jesus and say, God, I can't change my heart, I can't do this, I can't, but God, I'm gonna come to you, I'm gonna focus on you, I'm gonna focus on Jesus, I'm gonna focus on the cross and the implications of the gospel, and I'm gonna go to the gospel and see in the gospel what Christ has done, what I can't do, and meditate on the truth of who God is and who Christ is, and allow you and your word to inform and to shape my heart and my life.

I can't forgive.

But I can go to the cross and I can begin to meditate on the reality of my forgiveness, of the God of holiness who I only deserve justice from, but he gave me mercy.

He gave me what I didn't deserve, and I can focus on the gospel and allow that to begin to inform my heart and soften my heart.

And as I pray and I cry out to Christ, allow the reality of what Christ has done and who he is and his mercy and grace to begin to soften my hardened heart, and so then I begin to see whatever sin was committed against me, how small and frivolous that is compared to all of the sin that I committed against the holy God who has forgiven and chosen to love me.

And so we run to the gospel.

We need to look to Jesus, the cross, and the love of the Father to find the solutions to the problems that we face.

We're called to do what we can't do, and either we despair or we deceive, or else we run to the cross.

And we focus on the gospel and allow God to stir our hearts and our minds through the reality and the truth of what He has done, and allow that to inform us and to shape us.

But secondly, this can't be done in isolation.

This can't be done in isolation.

The solution begins with the Gospel, but it can't be done in isolation.

There's a depth of thankfulness, I'll say that here.

Depth of transformation that only comes through the church, that only comes through God's people, that only comes through the body.

What do I mean when I use the word church?

I said that there's a depth of transformation that only comes through the church.

Well, what do I mean when I use the word church?

Church is not this building.

You know, we we, I think in our we're we're um uh imprecise with our language sometimes.

We talk about church, and the first thing that comes to mind is this building.

This building is not the church.

This building is a meeting house.

Uh we we call this a sanctuary.

This place is no more holy than McDonald's.

It really isn't.

God is everywhere.

Um, we we use this terminology imprecisely.

The church is not a building.

If this building burnt down tomorrow, the church of Jesus Christ would continue unabated, unhindered, because the church is not a building.

The church is God's people.

It is you and me.

We are the church, God's people are the church, and what we're reminded of here is that we need each other.

We don't go to church, we are the church.

We gather together as God's people, as the church.

Maybe we should use uh the that we're the new community or the assembly of God's people or the body of Christ.

That's who we are.

That is the church.

It is you and me, it is all those who've trusted in Christ.

Now, notice what what we what we see here is all of these things are done in community.

Um, you know, you you are compassionate to other people, uh, you're kind to other people.

Humility is demonstrated before other people, meekness and patience, bearing with one another.

You can only bear with people when you're with people.

Uh you put up with people, you you you overlook their mistakes and their shortcomings and their and their sins because God has forgiven you.

And and all of this is done in community and putting on love, which binds us together.

Again, this community of being bound together and the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, and all of your hearts.

It's plural there, verse 15, into which you were all called into one body and be thankful.

All of these are done corporately.

There is a corporate thrust to our faith.

And I think in, especially in North America, as Christians, we we think that Christianity is me and Jesus.

And and and the church may be nice and it may be good, but it's not necessary, it's not vital.

Well, I would submit to you that it is necessary and it is vital, and it is central to God's purpose because he has called out a people to himself.

And we need each other.

Um we we need each other even just to see how sinful we are.

Um, you know, before I was married, I I was pretty good.

Um I've mentioned this before, and and I I thought I had my spiritual act together pretty well.

Um then I married Jen and everything went downhill.

So she was she was such a bad influence on me.

No, no.

She is the best thing that's happened to me by far.

Um but what did happen?

Well, when I was single, I rarely got irritated, I rarely got frustrated, uh, angry when I was by myself.

Um but as soon as I got married, all of these things came out.

Now, did Jen make me more sinful?

No, of course not.

Did I even become more sinful?

No.

But the reality was those sinful attitudes and dispositions were always there, but when I was in relationship with somebody else, that friction begins to reveal the true reality of my heart.

And suddenly I begin to see what was always there but lie dormant because it just didn't have an opportunity to express itself.

But as soon as I'm in relationship with somebody else, it begins to come out.

And I begin to see parts of my heart that I didn't even know existed.

And that's part of the growth of the Christian life.

We need each other.

Um, when we're in relationship with one another, God uses each other to uh to challenge us when we have to deal with other people.

Uh, and and also God uses each other to speak into one another's lives.

You know, I tell people I have a lot of blind spots, I just don't know what any of them are.

It's true, I don't know what any of them are, I can't see any of them.

And and why I need to be in community is because I need other people who are around me, who are close enough to me, who see me and know me, and who love me enough to be able to speak into my life and to tell me the things that I need to hear, but I can't see.

And we need people to speak into our lives.

And what's amazing is, and I don't know how this works exactly, and I've thought about it a lot, um, you can tell yourself something, and I've seen this in my own life time and time and time again.

Uh you read the Bible and you know biblical truth, and you tell yourself something, and for for whatever reason, and we could go into a lot of spiritual, psychological, emotional, relational dynamics and all of this, and I don't know exactly in the matrix of how God does this, but I could tell myself something ten times, and for whatever reason, it just seems to stay on the surface of my life, and then somebody else comes along and says the exact same thing that I've been telling myself, and for some reason God takes that and impresses it so much deeper on my heart than when I was just saying it to myself, and that's what God does.

And thankfulness, finally, is the inevitable result of a worshiping heart.

We we we don't use God to become thankful people.

God's the end and our goal.

But when we worship God and we see his great love and mercy and kindness, God begins to stir within our hearts gratitude to him.

Look at just briefly, and I'll just summarize here what Paul says in verses 15 through 17.

We've kind of walked through the whole chapter.

Um, he says, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

Now, commentator's debate is this the peace of Christ objectively, or is the peace that's a settled reality because of the objective uh reality?

And I think it's both.

Uh we because we have the peace with Christ, we can experience that calm confidence that God is in control, that the world hasn't slipped out of his fingers, that he knows what is good for us, that he is working things out for good.

And we can allow the reality of our relationship with Christ to govern and guide our relationships with others.

And so uh the word here for um that's translated, rule, is a word that means to guide or to govern, to umpire, uh, to arbitrate.

Uh and it's in the context again of relationships, because he says to which you are indeed called in one body.

And so he's talking about us corporately as a church, that as we recognize the reality of our relationship with Christ and the peace that Christ gives us through that relationship, that that becomes what governs and guides how we relate to one another, how we interact with one another, and we maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.

And we're thankful.

Because we don't focus on ourselves, and we because and because we don't focus on one another, because we focus on Christ, he begins to stir within us thankfulness and we can express that.

Well, then he says in verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

Now again, commentators debate is this the word about Christ, namely the Old Testament scriptures, or is this the word of Christ, his message that he gave while on earth?

And I think although that might be a good academic discussion, the reality is that it really makes no practical difference because if you understand the Old Testament rightly, it is about the gospel and Christ, and everything that Christ said pointed to himself and the cross.

And notice what he says here.

He says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

And he tells us how to do that, teaching and admonishing one another.

Uh teaching of speaking the truth of God's word, and admonishing has the word of challenge.

And there are times when we need to be challenged by one another by God's word.

Uh in love, we speak the truth in love, and better is open rebuke than love that's concealed, and that uh as we're in relationship with one another, in community with one another, that we we teach one another and we challenge one another, we admonish one another, we gently encourage and challenge each other by God's word.

And then he says, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and again, there's an overlap to these words.

Uh generally, commentators say psalms are probably the Old Testament songs, particularly the songs of David, hymns, uh New Testament songs written about Christ, and spiritual songs were more spontaneous, spirit-led choruses.

Uh, and again, there's a lot of overlap to these words, so it's not a place to be dogmatic.

But all types of singing, and singing of God's word.

There's theological content to it.

Singing of God's word is part of the teaching and admonishing one another.

And as we focus on God and as we worship God and recognize the gospel through his word, again, thankfulness is stirred within our hearts.

And so he says, with thanksgiving in your hearts to God.

And then finally he says, Do everything in the name of Jesus.

Verse 15, let the word of Christ dwell in you.

Verse uh 15, let the peace of Christ rule in you.

16, let the word of Christ dwell in you.

And now 17, uh, let the name of Christ, he says, and whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And the name represents the totality of the person in his character.

Uh let the name of the Lord Jesus do everything in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

So that in everything that we do, we focus on Christ.

We do everything for Christ.

We recognize everything we have is by him.

Everything that we have is a gift from him.

And so then, while we live our lives, we need to recognize Thanksgiving is not just the last Thursday of November.

It's not a holiday that we celebrate once a year.

But thanksgiving ought to increasingly be the reality of our hearts as we focus on the gospel and the person of Christ and allow the message of the gospel in all of its fullness to impact and penetrate our hearts and our minds and allow that truth and that reality to stir within us a response of gratitude.

We cannot in ourselves be thankful, but we can run to the one who has done it all and be reminded of his goodness and allow his goodness to inform and influence our hearts, and so that God, by his grace, does and enables us to be what we cannot be and will never be in and of ourselves, and that is thankful people.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the gospel.

The gospel is the beginning of the Christian life.

Lord, help us to realize the gospel is every day of the Christian life, that every admonition, every command that we read in your word, that we are powerless to implement it in our lives in a way that pleases you, apart from the gospel.

And that we don't have the strength within ourselves, that we are weak, as Paul said, that he is weak, but when he is weak, your strength is made manifest in his weakness.

And so, Lord, may we be willing to embrace our weakness so that we run to you and cry out to Jesus and that you do in our lives what we can't do.

And may we recognize our forgiveness and your love, and may the gospel inform us and motivate us.

And so, Lord, this Thanksgiving may we look to you and may you continue to do your work in our hearts.

We pray in Christ's name.

Amen.