Philippians (Lesson 44)

All right, here we go again.

I'm Brother James, and I greet you as always in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

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In Philippians 4 and verse number 4, the Bible says, rejoice in the Lord always.

And again I say rejoice.

The Bible says in Philippians 4 and verse number 6, in everything with thanksgiving.

And so on the program today, here's what here's what we're going to do.

We're going to spend a little time looking at examples or situations wherein men were thankful, and we're going to learn a little bit about rejoicing and a little bit about thanksgiving.

And I suppose if there's anything that's lacking, it's thanks to God.

In fact, have you ever considered in Romans chapter number one the list of all the terrible sins of the flesh is all a result of men not being thanked full, full of thanks to God?

Okay, let's um let's go to Nehemiah.

Let's go to Nehemiah chapter eleven, book of Nehemiah and chapter number eleven, and then we'll run some other references from there.

We've heard lessons and Bible studies and sermons on the different sacrifices.

Here the nation of Israel is gathering together to offer sacrifices to God.

Now we may have heard a little bit teaching briefly, touching upon the feast days, but I suppose that in our minds, when we think of the Old Testament and people worshiping, what comes to mind is a dead animal burning on a fire on an altar.

That tends to be our approach to what they did in those days.

We get that because we are using, for the most part, the Old Testament to support the New Testament gospel.

That is, we say, back in Old Testament times they offered these animals as sacrifices, but now in the New Testament time we have Jesus.

And that's true, but because that's our emphasis, just about all we ever hear about Jewish or Hebrew worship had to do with offering animals.

Yet the book of Nehemiah, the book of Chronicles, some places in Samuel, and then principally in the book of Psalms, there are entire chapters in the Old Testament devoted to how people worship God, and how people sing to God, and how instruments are used in praising and worshiping God.

And if we actually take the time to read the Old Testament carefully and pay attention to what we're reading, there is far more in the Old Testament about the people gathering together to sing praises to God than there are passages about people coming to kill animals and offer them to God.

Animal sacrifice was just a very small part of what people did when they assembled together.

For example, the Bible teaches in the book of Leviticus about this feast day and that feast day and another feast day, and some of those feast days ran eight days.

They didn't get together with a family and eat a meal like you do on a Sunday afternoon.

They got together from one Saturday and stayed all the way through the other Saturday and sang praise to God, played instruments in praise to God, heard messages about God's goodness, listened to ministers proclaim the blessings of the Lord and read from the scriptures together, and then they gave thanks to God.

It was a literally a camp meeting.

They sat around the table and they worshiped God.

They praised the Lord.

It wasn't just killing animals.

Now wouldn't you think it's strange?

Wouldn't you think it's strange if you came to a church and all they did was give money?

Now I know I know some of you have been in churches, some of you may be in a church where it seems like all the people do is give money, or at least they are told to give money or pleaded with to give money.

But you know and I know that in this New Testament day, while we have brief moments in our worship where we sacrificially give to God, that is a very, very small part of what goes on when we assemble.

Now, Nehemiah 11, let's start at verse 16.

Nehemiah 11, verse 16, and Shabbat and Josebad, of the chief of the Levites, had the oversight of the outward business of the house of God.

Nehemiah 11:16

And Mataniah, the son of Micah, the son of Zabdi, the son of Asaph, was the principal to begin the thanksgiving in prayer.

And Bakbukiah, the second among his brethren, and Abda the son of Shemua, the son of Galal, the son of Judith.

So here are three men identified in their duty.

When the people assembled and gathered together, these men were to begin the activities to set the tone for the meeting by offering a prayer of thanksgiving to God.

The whole mood of these feast days was established at the outset.

It was to be a time of thanksgiving to God.

A time of thanksgiving to God.

Now, from Nehemiah we look back at Philippians four and verse number four.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

And again I say rejoice.

Verse number six, be careful, full of care for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

Let your requests be made known unto God.

I'm telling you we ought to start our prayer with thanksgiving and keep thanking God, and it would it would surprise you to find out if we spend enough time, thank you, God, for this, thank you, God for that, thank you, God over here, thank you, God over there, thank you in the morning, thank you in the afternoon.

A lot of our prayers about I want, I want, I want, gimme, gimme, gimme, would disappear.

We would realize that God has done so much for us and God has been so good to us that we just need to spend a little time occupied with all the good things He's already given before we start into asking for anything more.

And so this man in Nehemiah, when the people came together, he was the principal to begin the thanksgiving in prayer.

Not to begin prayer, but to begin the thanksgiving in prayer.

I don't know how much you pray, I really don't.

I'll bet everyone listening to my voice right now, including including me, I bet we'd all say we don't pray enough.

But however, no matter how much you pray, I'm telling you it would dramatically change your prayer life and your life as a whole.

If you would start thanking God instead of asking God, if we would spend our time telling God how thankful we are for what he's already done, instead of tacking one more thing you want him to do to the bottom of your prayer list, it would change everything.

Now, Nehemiah twelve, next chapter, Nehemiah twelve.

And let's let's look at oh verse number eight.

Moreover, the Levites, Jeshua, Benui, Cadmiel, Shereh, Judah, Mataniah, which was over the Thanksgiving, he and his brethren.

Now, churches, good churches, active churches have a lot of outreach.

They have someone who oversees a jail ministry, they have someone who oversees a nursing home ministry, they have someone who oversees a Sunday school department, they have someone who oversees the visitation outreach outreach.

Uh these people, in Nehemiah's day, they were so occupied with giving thanks to God that they had to have overseers to guide and direct the thanksgiving.

And that tells me we're way, way short in this part of worship and praise and enjoying the Lord.

Wouldn't it be something to be in a place where people were so thankful and so appreciative of God that you had to have men to well, instead of a music director to make sure each person got their turn to sing, you had a thanksgiving director to line up the people who wanted to praise God and give thanks to God each time you got together.

Wouldn't that be great?

I'm not being critical.

I'm telling you this is true.

I've been saved a long, long time.

And every service I've ever been in, where the preacher said are there any prayer requests, the requests for physical healing outnumber requests for spiritual improvement fifty to one, and the number of people who want everybody to ask God to give them something outnumber the not the people who want everyone to join them in thanking God for something he's already done.

It's a hundred to one.

I don't care what kind of church you're in, I don't care what the denomination or the structure of the uh of the meeting is like, I'm telling you that's just a fact.

People are far more occupied with what they don't have and asking God for more than they are occupied with what they already have received and thanking God for it.

That's a fact.

Now, look at chapter 12, Nehemiah 12, verse 46.

Nehemiah 12:46

For the days of David, so this is a traditional thing.

It's been going a long time.

For in the days of David and Asaph of old, there were chief singers, chief of the singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.

How about that?

You know people say, they say, Well, you know these Hebrews, they they used to sing those mournful dirges in that minor key.

I'm not buying it.

I don't believe that for a minute.

I read in the Psalms about organs and pipes and cymbals and stringed instruments and taverns and all these instruments offering praise to God, and I don't believe it was all this mournful, slow, dead funeral type music.

I don't believe it.

Now there were songs of lamentation, but few.

There were songs of mourning and despair, but few.

The Bible says they sang songs of praise and thanksgiving unto God.

Look at Psalm 147.

Psalm 147 verse 7 says, Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving.

Psalms 147:7

Sing praise upon the harp unto our God.

Now if you'll check just about every one of these hymns that we have in our hymnal, I hope you have a good, biblical, God honoring, Christian instructing hymnal in your church.

If you'll check just about every one of those hymns, it may not be the theme of the entire entire hymn, but every one of them have a line in there somewhere thanking God for some blessing bestowed upon an unworthy sinner.

That's what the Lord wants, that's what he deserves.

That's what praise is.

It's giving thanks to God.

That's what thanksgiving is, it's giving praise to God.

It's saying I'm not a self man, I'm not a fortunate man, I'm not a privileged man, I'm not a lucky man.

God blessed me.

Come on, scrap all that humanistic talk.

God blesses.

We need to tell people about God so they can know God and He can bless them, and then and then they'll see they're not fortunate, they're not lucky, they're blessed by God.

How about that?

You say, Well, preacher, things aren't going too well in my life, things aren't going too well in our church.

Yeah, that happens.

That happens.

Psalm 69 is about Judas Iscariot betraying Jesus to death.

That was not a happy time.

But in Psalm 69, verse 30, the Bible says, I well, wait a minute, wait a minute.

Psalms 69:30

Verse 14, deliver me out of the mire.

Verse 17, for I am in trouble.

Verse 19, thou hast known my reproach and my shame and my dishonor and mine adversaries.

Verse 20.

Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness, and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none.

Verse 21, they give me also gall for my meat.

What a terrible situation.

What an awful place in which to find yourself, verse thirty.

Same song, verse thirty.

I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.

Isn't that something?

In the prophetic passage, this is Jesus describing how Judah sold him out, describing how his friends forsook him and fled, describing the nation that he had blessed as they cry, crucify him, crucify him.

This is Jesus who is nailed to a cross being given gall to drink, and he says, I will praise the name of God.

I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

Isn't that incredible?

Now when we read in Philippians four about thanksgiving in everything and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keeping your hearts and minds, there's Jesus Christ being betrayed and crucified, and from the depths of his heart offering thanks to God.

Amazing.

Just amazing.

Now, as as regards these sacrifices as an act of thanksgiving to God, the Bible's very clear in Hebrews 10 the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin.

The Bible's very clear in Galatians 2, 16 and 17, the deeds of the law could never justify a man in the sight of God.

It's interesting when you actually read the Bible that instead of just sticking with what some preachers say about the Bible when they're trying to back up their message, you'll find the book of Leviticus to be very interesting.

And you'll find that it lines up with the praises in the Psalms.

For example, Psalm 107, verse 21, oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men, and let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoicing.

Psalms 107:21

Look, this call for sacrifice is an act of thanksgiving, not an attempt to buy salvation.

Psalm 116, verse 12, What shall I render unto the Lord?

Psalms 116:12

For all his benefits toward me, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.

Where's the sacrifice?

There's not one that's good enough.

So I'll just call upon the name of the Lord.

Verse 14, I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

O Lord, truly I am thy servant, I am thy servant, the son of thine handmaid, thou hast loosed my bonds, verse 17.

I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord.

Now sacrifice is not a big deal if you're occupied with what God has done for you.

If you're trying to buy your way into heaven, it's pretty hard to squeeze a hundred dollars out of you.

But if God has made you a joint heir with Jesus Christ, has freely given you all things, what's a hundred bucks for a God like that?

Here, take two.

See, it's about the starting point.

The sacrifice of thanksgiving was one gladly and freely offered, without murmuring, without complaint, without reservation, because after all, what was one sorry bullet when God had loosed the bonds of my sin?

Psalm 100, verse 1, make a joyful noise unto the Lord.

Psalms 100:1

All ye lands.

Verse 2, serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing.

Know ye that the Lord He is God, it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves, we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving.

And into His courts with praise.

Be thankful unto Him and bless His name, for the Lord is good.

His mercy is everlasting, His truth endureth to all generations.

You know what God said?

Don't start with killing the animal.

We're looking at the Old Testament now.

Start with thanking me.

Start with praising me.

Start with singing to me.

Start with an occupation with me.

Don't make it about sacrifice, make it about me.

Psalm ninety five, one, O come.

Let us sing unto the Lord, let us make a joyful noise unto the rock of our salvation.

People come to our church and they say, People are so exuberant there, they sing loud.

It's not always harmonious, it's not always the most melodious, but uh well we weren't singing to you.

We're singing praise to God, and we're giving it all we've got.

If you can shout touch down when you get together, we can shout empty tomb when we get together.

Psalm ninety five, two, let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

I don't think it was dead, dry music that was used back in Old Testament times.

I think happy people who were happy to know the Lord sang happily.

And thanked God and rejoiced in God.

Psalm 26, verse 6, I will wash mine hands in innocency, so will I compass thine altar, O Lord, that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving all thy wondrous works.

Psalms 26:6

I'm telling you, those animal sacrifices were secondary.

They were given by men who loved God and were glad to give to God the key to the worship, the key to the assembling was thanksgiving.

How about you, my friend?

Do you see nothing more than the offering plate?

Do you see nothing more than the few dollars you're called upon to give?

Or is that is that just something that sort of slipped in in the midst of all your worship of a God who is worthy?

Leviticus seven, verse eleven.

And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he shall offer unto the Lord, if he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with a sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes and so forth.

Verse 26 of Leviticus 22.

The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, When a bullock or a sheep or a goat is brought forth, gives the time requirements, gives the requirements for what type of animal is to be given, verse 29, and when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the Lord, offer it at your own will.

Hey, if God was making those people offer sacrifices to stay out of hell, it wouldn't be an offering of their own will.

They would be offering or else.

But God said, Hey, bring it or don't bring it, it's not going to change me.

You can bring it or not bring it.

I'm still going to be God on my throne.

But if you get a mind that say thank you, here's the instruction regarding the bullock or the lamb, or the turtle dove, or the meal, it's your own free will.

But it's a an offering of thanksgiving.

Do you see that?

Now, my friend, I'm I'm concerned.

When we read this verse, rejoice in the Lord always, Philippians 4 4, and again I say rejoice, I'm concerned because I don't do that.

It bothers me, it really does, it bothers me that God has been so good to me, and yet in large measure I am not as genuinely and consistently thankful as I should be.

That bothers me.

Does it bother you that after all God has done for you, that really it takes a lot less to get you griping and complaining than it does to get you rejoicing and worshiping?

Let's just be fair about it.

And this book of Philippians, from start to finish, telling us how to deny self, to deny fleshy lusts, to deny our own personal longing for self-satisfaction and self-gratification, calls upon us to rejoice in the Lord all way, in every way, every situation, every circumstance, every trial, every trouble, every blessing, every good thing.

Why is it that we find it so easy to express our discontent and so hard to express our satisfaction?

It is because we are entirely too occupied with self and not occupied enough with our Lord and Savior.

Now you know that's true, I know that's true, but why don't we today take to heart this biblical admonition, yea, moreover, this biblical command to rejoice in the Lord.

Now we've had joy at some time in our life, all of us have.

We have enjoyed the blessings and benefits of God and the life that He provides at some time or another.

We all have.

What we need to do is just re up that joy.

Get our heart, our mind back to the place where we are happy with God, happy about what God has done, and don't mind expressing it.

In fact, can't help but express it.

That's where we need to be, my friend.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

And again I say, rejoice.

God's worthy, He's deserving.

Amen and amen.

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