"A Theology of Thanks" James 1:17-18 Sunday Evening Worship Service

I invite you to turn in your Bibles to James chapter one.

James one, and that's where we'll be tonight.

Just two verses to encourage our hearts to look at the goodness of God to us.

I want to begin by reading our text.

James 1, verses 17 and 18.

James 1:17

Look there.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of fresh fruits of his creatures.

Pray with me.

Father, we ask that as we attend to your word this evening, yet again, that you give us ears to hear and hearts open to your truth.

Help us this evening to grasp anew your goodness to us.

And may your word, by the power of the Spirit, do a work in our lives to make us a trusting and thankful people.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

I want you to recall an experience that maybe some of you have had, or maybe you've seen this on a video on the internet at Christmas or at the birthday, maybe of a family member, when you gave or you received a very special gift.

Now this gift is in an unassuming box that has a suspicious weight to it.

Under the occasion-appropriate gift wrap, there is, of course, a suspicious layer of duct tape.

Inside that box, which is of course the empty box of the latest and greatest gaming console that you went to too many best buys to get out of the dumpster, is another box and another box and another box and more duct tape and some saran wrap, probably.

And suspiciously, as the recipient unwraps that gift, you're filming with your phone.

And alas, inside the last box, a rock.

Or a phone book, or that unwanted white elephant gift that keeps getting passed around your family.

We have all probably given or received or seen a video of this kind of prank gift.

And because you're the sweet person and loving person that you are, afterward, of course, you give the real, actual gift to the person, and all is well.

Matthew 7 picks up on this instinct in all of us, even after the best prank gift ever.

Jesus talks about how we all have this instinct to give good gifts.

But it's important what comes after in the logic.

Matthew 7, Jesus says this which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone.

Or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent.

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him?

This evening, James draws from this truth in his half-brother Jesus' great sermon in James chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

And God knows that we need this reminder, this glance at his goodness.

We need to pause and acknowledge the God who gives all things good.

The one who so generously and graciously guides us with his good gifts along the trail of life, not with meager breadcrumbs, but with five coarse meals of his infinite goodness and kindness to us.

If only we would just notice.

Our hearts are not naturally drawn to thanksgiving toward God unless it's late November.

We've gotten used to the paradigm of working hard for all that is good in our lives, down to the dollar and cent.

And in fact, we've even installed it into our theology, in our thinking, right?

After all, isn't that stewardship?

And isn't good stewardship in principle rewarded by God?

And so we've got it down to a line of code that runs one for one, effort with blessing, effort with blessing.

And so we work hard, and life is good.

And so I guess God is good, right?

We've got the cart before the horse there.

And our sense of entitlement and thanklessness may be one of the ugliest and most pervasive sins of omission in our lives, this sort of ignorant yet outright rebellion against our good and generous King.

Our cup continually floweth over, even at a church like this, I can tell.

But our hearts don't overflow with thanksgiving like they should.

We live in a land of plenty, and yet we're too busy gorging ourselves to notice the hand of God pouring out his blessing in our lives.

At best, we may thank him generally before meals, but we do it half-heartedly and with one eye open.

The Epistle of James as a whole is a high-definition display of what true faith looks like.

How true saving faith is a faith that is lived out, it is real, it is evident.

And this evening, these two verses are a poignant reminder that true faith acknowledges God's blessings and responds in trust and thankfulness.

So let's look at three truths about the goodness of God that drive us toward trust and thankfulness.

First, in verse 17, let's look at the truth that God is the source of all good things.

God is the source of all good things.

Look again at verse 17.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

Here in the beginning of verse 17, we see this truth plainly.

God is the source of all that is good.

He is the fount of every blessing.

Now, in the verses directly before this, James talks about the inner workings of sin and temptation.

And he points out that we have a tendency to blame God in our moments of temptation.

We have a propensity for shifting the blame away from ourselves.

And that's why I believe verse 16 is sort of shared between the section before and the section that we're looking at tonight.

Verse 16 is, do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

You see, in our blessings, James is showing us here in verses 17 and 18, we have a tendency to forget the goodness of God.

We have a propensity to trace the good in our lives, not to God, but to our own achievement, in our own fruitfulness.

Well, here in verse 17, we see it plainly.

God is the giver of all that is good in our lives.

From the heights of apparent and obvious blessing to the depths of his goodness in trials, whether it is smooth sailing or we are tossed about by waves of trials, God is the source of all good things in each and every situation.

Whether you get the promotion that you wanted or you grow in trust because you get passed over for it.

God is the source of all that is good in each.

Whether you are in the relationship that you wanted, or you grow in contentment because you are single for a little bit longer.

God is the source of all that is good in each.

Whether the experimental treatment works, or it's seemingly back to square one with the doctor again.

God is the source of all that is good in each.

Whatever your station in life, all that is apparently and obviously good now in your life, and all that is good that you cannot right now see as good, and maybe that you will only see as good in hindsight, and some of which even you will only see as good in eternity.

All that is good in your life is from God.

The truth that God is the source of all good things is rooted in his very nature as the creator of all things.

Turn with me to Genesis 1.

It's always a good day to turn to Genesis 1 and see again, even if just briefly, the goodness of God and creation.

Look at Genesis 1 and verse 3, and God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

And look at verse 4.

And God saw that the light was good.

And God separated the light from the darkness.

And then in chapter 1, verse 10, as he formed the dry land and the seas, we see again, and God saw that it was good.

Look at verse 12.

The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit, in which is their seed, each according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good.

And then in verse 18, the sun and the moon and the light from darkness, and God saw that it was good.

And the sea creatures in verse 21, the fish, the birds of the air, and God saw that it was good.

And all the sushi lovers said, Amen as well.

And then in verse 25, the livestock, there you go, steak lovers, and the creeping things, and the beasts of the earth.

And God saw that it was good.

And then God creates man in his own image.

Male and female, he created them.

The very capstone of his creation.

And in verse 31, it was very good.

In creation, all that God spoke into existence is a reflection, a manifestation of his goodness, his own nature as a good God, a good creator.

Now God's goodness is something that we wonder at, and it's helpful, I think, to hear what some godly men say about the goodness of God.

Joel Beakey says this: it's a term that can that can have the sense of ethical or moral uprightness, but often denotes the divine kindness, benevolence, and forgiveness of God.

God exhibited his goodness in the work of creation, and he showers it upon his people so that they marvel at his exceedingly great goodness.

Stephen Charnock says, goodness, the goodness of God is the brightness and loveliness of our majestical creator.

I love that.

Burkhoff says, the goodness of God is the benevolent interest of God toward his creatures.

That's us.

Rooted in creation and extending to all of life, God's goodness is displayed and demonstrated over and over.

And especially we see throughout Scripture, this goodness is manifested to his people.

Think of Israel.

God in his goodness guides them and provides for them and forgives them and disciplines them for their good and loves them faithfully despite their sin.

God's good gifts are evident throughout their history.

Their questioning is answered with quail.

Their murmuring met with manna.

Their whining replied to with water at the rock of Meribah.

God does not spare good gifts from those who are his, and for us, for those who are in Christ.

God's goodness is also and even more so evident.

Back to James.

James here says, every good and perfect gift is from above.

It's literally every good thing given and every perfect gift.

It's two different words here used for gift.

And many translations take it as a compound.

That's how we've memorized it growing up, right?

But it's one word more focused on the act of giving and the other on the gift as an entity.

There's a cross-hatching here, a comprehensiveness to the quality and to the value of this giving.

And it's focused on God's act of giving and of the gifts themselves.

It's a good and perfect gift indeed from the giver of all good things.

You see, the gifts point us to the giver, to God's characteristic generosity.

Just think about James 1.

Look at verse 5.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.

And then now here in verse 17, everything that is good is from this good God.

I think the only proper response is like the response of the psalmist in Psalm 145 The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you.

And then later in that psalm, the eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.

You open your hand, you satisfy the desire of every living thing.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.

The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call on him in truth.

He fulfills the desire of those who fear him.

He also hears their cry and saves them.

The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.

And then the psalmist says in the last verse of that psalm: My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

What a model for us to acknowledge the kind hand of God in giving us everything good in our lives.

I wonder when the last time is that you wrote a thank you card.

Some of the more mature folks in the audience did one just before the service and slipped it to the pastors.

Others of you are kind of thinking, oh what?

Because if you're like me, usually what will suffice, or at least what we think, is just a little text message, right, on the text machine.

T H X.

That's good enough, right?

There's something about thank you cards, though, that slow us down and get us to think a little bit about what the next word is that we'd like to say.

Maybe it's the hand cramp from writing for the first time in a couple of weeks, but it gets us to think a little bit.

There's something authentic and earnest and old school cool about thank you cards.

There's something gratifying and gratitude-inducing about a pen hitting paper, especially if it's a felt-tip pen, right, Ryan?

A thank you card is a humble, thoughtful gesture of appreciation.

And I think that's a picture for how we should think about the goodness of God in our lives.

In view of the goodness of God, the only right response for those who know Him is to give thanks.

Deliberate worship.

In our lives, there must be, Emmanuel, significant moments where we stop and think in a thank you card kind of way about how God has been good to us.

There must be authentic and earnest appreciation to God, the giver of all that is good.

Just think about your prayers to the Lord.

How do you thank him?

Christian, your prayers ought not to be vain repetitions that give lip service to God for his good gifts, but rather cognizant, heartfelt, specific rehearsals of God's goodness to you.

Radiant worship to the giver of all things good.

There's a second truth we need to see here in James chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

It's also in verse 17.

And it's the truth that God is unchangingly good.

God is unchangingly good.

You see, that every good and perfect gift is from Him, is based on the foundation of who He is.

He is not only the source of all good things, He Himself is good.

Look again there at verse 17.

Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

The reality that he gives good and perfect gifts stems from the truth that he is unchangingly good.

He is unswervingly, unflinchingly, unfailingly good.

And it's simple truth that he is.

It's so easy to pass over.

Here James says that God is the Father of lights.

The Father of lights.

God, who on the very first day of creation said, Let there be light, and there was light, and he saw.

That the light was good.

It's that same God.

God who on the fourth day created the sun and the moon and the stars.

And he saw that what he spoke into being was good.

This is the God, James says, the Father of lights, who from day one until even now is the source of all that is good.

Now, this is a view of God that involves not just his generous giving of good, it also involves his moral goodness.

I think of 1 John 1.5, God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

And so this idea of God as the Father of lights illustrates this unchanging goodness of God, both his benevolence and his moral goodness.

And with God, James says, there is no variation or shadow due to change.

You see, while the sun and the moon and the stars that he created orbit and shift and change, the light of the sun affecting the growth of the flora and fauna of this earth, the waxing and waning of the moon, causing the ocean's tides to ebb and flow.

With the father of lights, there is no such variation or shifting shadow.

He is constant.

He is unchanging.

You know this because you're well taught.

This is what we call the immutability of God.

His unchangeable, constant nature.

Not just that he does not change, he cannot change.

It is his very nature to be the same yesterday and today and forevermore.

He is unchangeably and constantly the ultimate source and standard of all that is good.

Everybody's least favorite day, perhaps next to next to tax day, is daylight savings.

Pick your poison.

Spring forward, fall back.

It's coming up, and I'm not sure which one it is.

Just be ready.

There's something about farmers as the original reason, I think.

And uh I'm from California, so we talk a lot about government deception when we talk about daylight savings.

Uh whatever it is, I think it's a great political platform for 2028.

Uh Francis Daylight Savings 2028.

Let's go for it.

Daylight savings uh affects our sleep and our mood.

And we, at least in California, where we're a little less polite on the road, we lose our ability to drive properly.

We all, as the forest creatures that we are, uh before a storm, act a little bit funny.

Something ain't right.

Daylight savings is our futile human attempt to compensate for the changes in the amount of daylight between the seasons.

With God, the Father of lights, the one who put the lights in place, who is himself light.

We need not adjust for, we need not compensate for, we need not account for any variation or shifting, as if he would be good to us in one moment and then against us in the next.

No, he does not change, he does not waver, he is always good.

Now there are times, friends, when it's harder to believe that God is good.

When you can't see that God is good over the situation that you're facing.

But that is not because God is not good.

It's because the trial or temptation you face is obscuring the goodness of God.

The only suitable response to the truth we see here in James 1.17, that God does not shift or change in his goodness toward us, is to stop and to realize that we must thank him for that, but also that we can and we must trust him in any and every circumstance.

We can run to him because he will not change, and he is always good to us when we face trials and temptations.

We have a heavenly father who is unchangingly good.

And because God is unchangingly good, you can trust him in every changing situation.

Because God's goodness is unwavering, you can run to him in unwavering trust.

God is always good, and so we ought to always trust him.

There's a third and final truth we can glean from this great passage, and it's in verse 18.

It's the truth that God is the giver of the best gift.

God is the giver of the best gift.

Finally, here in verse 18, we see and we respond in thankfulness and trust because God is the giver of the very best gift and it's new life in him.

Look again at verse 18.

Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

I think this verse is an underrated gospel verse for us to be reminded of the very best gift that God has given us.

Here we see what theologians would call the new birth.

That's what we call it.

And it's the truth that God has brought us forth.

Think back to the imagery in verse 15.

Look there, then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

It's the same word there, uh brings forth.

And so James is drawing an obvious contrast here in these sections between that which our desires bring forth and that which God brings forth.

You see, our desires bring forth sin and ultimately spiritual death.

But here in our passage, God brings forth all that is good, the very best of which is that he brings us forth to new life in him.

This is regeneration, the new birth.

This is what Jesus teaches Nicodemus in John 3 in their little late-night QA.

You and I have a shared experience.

Our pastors get up on the stage in the evening service and do a little QA, right?

You do it.

My pastor, Pastor John, often so graciously receives a question, and I'm sure Jesse does this too.

And it's a it's a question.

Not always the best one.

Don't be that person, by the way.

But the my pastor, and I'm sure Jesse does this too, is so gracious, right?

You know what you mean to ask is, and then a profound answer, and a gracious answer, right?

And that's what Jesus does with Nicodemus.

He says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

And that's Jesus' answer to Nicodemus, who is looking to add to his effectiveness as the teacher of Israel.

He wants whatever it is that Jesus has.

And Jesus instead says, You don't need to add something more.

You don't need to add more things or keep up with more rituals or regulations or religiosity.

There instead must be a radical change in your inward reality, Nicodemus, and you cannot accomplish it yourself.

You must be born again.

Now, you may be here tonight thinking like Nicodemus that going to church or the right kind of church or doing certain things is what you must add to your already busy life to get right with God.

But the truth here is you must be born again, and God must do that for you.

You see, I realize I'm the guest preacher and I'm I'm I'm I'm your visitor, I'm your guest, but uh if you're here and you don't know uh this Jesus who says you must be born again, you gotta know that you and I, and every other human on this planet in all of history has the same problem, and it's the problem of sin before a holy God.

Uh yet that holy God is so gracious that he sent his son Jesus to live a perfect life and to die a sinner's death, so that we might be brought forth by the word of truth, that we might have new life in him.

And that offer is open to you if you don't know Christ tonight.

Talk to one of the pastors and uh learn more and submit your life to Christ even tonight.

Now, if you're a Christian, this new birth is the very best of all the good gifts that the infinitely good God has given to you.

That He brought you forth by the word of truth.

It's a beautiful reality that you and I share if if you know Christ.

Now we don't have time to get fully into it, but this being born again in John 3 and here in James 1 involves two ideas throughout scripture.

It's the idea of God's cleansing or washing of our uncleanness and sin in Ezekiel 36.

Uh, and it's also involving God's giving of his spirit to dwell in us, also in Ezekiel and uh in John 14 and Romans 8 and other passages as well.

The important thing to know from James here in verse 18 of chapter 1 is that James says, This work is of his own will.

It's not of us, it's all of God's work.

It's of his own initiative.

No one told him what to do.

He didn't pull regeneration out of the suggestion box.

This work is of his own will.

I love what John 1 says, but to all who did receive him, he who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

It's so important for us to consider the grace in this.

That God, by his washing of your uncleanness and his giving of his spirit to you, he brought you forth to life.

And Emmanuel, that is more cause for trust, more cause for thankfulness.

And he did so by the word of truth.

Isn't that how it works?

A faithful Sunday school teacher or youth leader who answered all your silly little questions?

Or that friend who patiently took you through John or 1 John, the faithful preaching of the man of God as you wrestled with turmoil in your heart that one summer, so many summers ago.

God is the one who through these people and through his word brought us forth to life.

Life in Him.

At the end of verse 18, James shows us the purpose of all of this, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

This term first fruits is uh it finds its roots in God's law in Exodus, that God's people were to bring the best of their crop in their offering to Yahweh.

And so we are, in James's view, the best and also the first product of God's eternal, righteous reign over all things as the good creator.

And as human beings created in the image of God to be the capstone of creation, we are the premier examples of God's goodness.

And so we demonstrate what it is to be a new creation, to have a new nature, new desires, and a new love for the good God that created all things and gives us all good gifts.

It's in this way that we are a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

We are, as the creation groans in eager longing.

We are with our lives a foretaste of a new creation.

We are in our new life in him a sneak peek of the new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells perfectly.

And what a grace it is to be this kind of first fruits.

Friends, to be born again into this kind of life that we have in Him is the very best gift of all of God's good gifts to us.

And yet somehow, by God's kindness, by God's goodness, that new birth leads us to a life in Christ that is full of more instances of his goodness, grace upon grace from the Father of Lights.

What beautiful truth here tonight in James 1.

God's people destroy their idols in this passage, and they begin to wholeheartedly seek Yahweh.

And God's people gather at Mizpah to confess their sin, and Samuel offers a sacrifice.

And while Samuel is sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines attack.

And in 1 Samuel 7, verse 10 is all the action that we need to know.

1 Samuel 7:10

But Yahweh thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel.

After the dust settles in thankfulness, Samuel puts up a memorial stone, a stone of remembrance to the Lord for his goodness that day and his strength against the Philistine army, and Samuel calls it Ebenezer, a stone of help, a stone commemorating God's supernatural help against the Philistines.

And so every time God's people would pass by Mizpa, they would see the stone and remember God's goodness to them.

Emmanuel, we have so much occasion in our lives to raise an Ebenezer, to memorialize God's goodness to us in every good and perfect gift, every sign of God's providence and trials, every mark of his goodness in our lives, would we in thankfulness and trust raise an Ebenezer so that in our lives we would be able to look back and be reminded of all of the instances of God's goodness to us.

Emmanuel, in view of God's goodness to us, from new life in Him to every good gift he so richly provides in our lives, let us respond in trust and thankfulness.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for your word.

Your word is truth.

And in your word tonight, we've seen the reminder to be thankful to you, O good God, and to trust you, O good God.

And so we pause and we remember all of the goodness that you've shown in our lives, from new life in Christ to every good gift that you give to us.

We thank you for Jesus and his uh life-changing work on the cross, and it's the very best gift that you have given us.

And so we thank you, and it's in his name we pray.

Amen.

And now, from parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to tms.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.