"The Promise and Power of a Thankful Heart” Part 3 - Pastor Greg Addison - Nov. 26, 2023

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

Man, thank you guys for that last song.

That's incredible, isn't it?

And that is our testimony when we know Jesus as our Savior.

As we can close out the month of November and our Thanksgiving weekend, we're going to continue in our sermon series on the importance of Thanksgiving.

We've been talking about the promise and the power of Thanksgiving, and I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Philippians chapter four.

And as we close out this part, I want to talk about the interplay between praying and asking and thanksgiving today.

This is an incredible verse.

It was one of our verses this summer, and it's such a rich verse.

One sermon doesn't do it enough good.

And so as we were talking about Thanksgiving, I thought this was incredibly important.

It's great to finish out Thanksgiving.

And as I mentioned earlier, next week we begin Christmas.

And so next week would be a great Sunday for you to invite someone from your love list or someone that you work with to church.

We'll be doing a big music, heavy music, Christmas musical, music Sunday next week.

Choir will really be showing out as they've done today.

And so it'll be a great Sunday for you to bring someone and be a part.

But let's talk about here this morning as we finish out this study.

Let's talk about the importance and the power of giving thanks as a part of our prayers.

In Philippians chapter 4, Paul is finishing out a letter here to the churches in the city of Philippi, and he just kind of pulls this last letter and gives it the here we go, we're going to close out with all these thoughts.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

And in verse 6 of Philippians chapter 4, he says this don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, I love the version that says, which passes all understanding.

It is a peace that is so supernatural, it impacts and protects our hearts in a way that nothing else on earth does.

And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought or understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Now, this is a great, uh, it's such a great verse in so many ways, but I really want to focus on this part of how thanks are a part of our prayer life.

It's so important because often when we think about prayer, we just think about what we're coming to the Lord to ask about.

Lord, I need you to do this.

Lord, we want revival in the River Valley.

Lord, do this in our church.

Lord, these are my friends that are sick, and I need you to heal them.

Lord, we need you to provide.

Lord, I need wisdom on this decision.

And we come and we just ask and we ask and we ask.

And a lot of times we just we just ask because we think we're supposed to, or a lot of times we ask out of a panic.

We've not been in that close of a prayer time in relationship with the Lord, and now we're like, ugh, life, and you know, now, Lord, please, I need you to intervene here.

There's another part of this that's really interesting.

One of the questions that we get often as pastors is this question.

People ask, well, Pastor, if God knows everything and he sees my heart, then why do I have to ask him for that?

Because he already knows.

I mean, isn't that sort of redundant or strange or waste time?

And a lot of folks ask that question, especially new believers or folks who are, God has stirred them to a greater depth in their prayer life, and they're as they're working through that thinking, we already know, so why am I supposed to ask about it?

What does that mean?

Well, I think there is an importance to understand what's happening with us as we ask.

But it's also important to understand that without a pattern of thanksgiving as we've been talking about this month, without that habit and that foundation of thanksgiving, it makes it all the more difficult for us to even ask.

So let me give you three truths from this verse this morning.

And the first one is this thanksgiving, when we're giving thanks, it moves us beyond our human struggles.

It moves us beyond our human struggles.

Look at what he says.

He says, Don't worry about anything.

But in everything, in every circumstance, in every moment, in every question, in every need, we are not supposed to worry, but we're supposed to pray.

And then look at the last part of verse 7, this promise which he gives, and the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

And so that tells us something about the nature of who we are.

That when we find ourselves in a circumstance, absent this ability to go to the Lord and to trust him with our requests, then we struggle.

We worry, we doubt.

We doubt in a way that affects our heart, that it becomes a perspective of life.

It is a part of being human.

And God says, listen, it's important that you know you can bring your requests to me, but I need you to bring them to me so that I can create a sense of presence and peace for you because your heart needs to be guarded from this human condition of doubt, worry, and struggle.

You see how those are put together?

Now, why does that happen for us?

Well, I say this often to a lot of folks.

They'll come in and they'll say, Pastor Man, I'm in this circumstance and this is hard.

And I'll say, I know it's hard.

And they'll say, I'm not sure, I'm not, I'm not sure I'm prepared to deal with this.

And I'll say, Well, I know you're not prepared to deal with this.

And they're like, I thought you were supposed to be encouraging.

You know, you're telling me I'm not prepared.

Well, listen, here it is.

We were built to live in the Garden of Eden.

We weren't meant to go through all this mess.

We were meant to live in the presence of God in this beautiful place and do all these things.

We weren't meant to deal with death and struggle and people killing each other and all kinds of craziness and can't provide and identity issues and all this other business.

We weren't meant to do that.

We were meant to be in God's presence because we were sinless and he is holy, and he made us to live in this place and he made us to be successful.

The Bible says he put Adam and Eve in the garden, he told them to be fruitful and multiply.

Then when Adam sinned by allowing that serpent to tempt he and Eve and allowing Eve to eat that fruit, the Bible says, look, Adam, this is gonna be your life now because of sin.

You are going to spend the rest of your days toiling by the sweat of your brow in unfertile ground that's only gonna give you thorns and thistles, and then you're gonna die and be buried and become dust just like the dust you came from.

Well, there's a great picture of life, isn't it?

That gets you excited about the future.

Hey, great.

I'm looking forward to that.

Yay! I mean, that we weren't meant to live that way.

We were meant to be fruitful and multiply and live in the garden.

We were meant to live in the presence of God, to see him without hindrance.

The Bible says that God came and walked with Adam in the cool of the day.

I mean, he would spend time with him personally.

They spend time in the garden hanging out, naming the animals together.

I mean, they're like being together.

And now we are separated by sin, by time, and by space.

We have this struggle in life now because our lives were tainted, our hearts are broken, our future is gone, death, illness, sickness is a part of it.

We live in a world that is struggling with the taint of sin.

We live with sinners all around us everywhere.

I mean, that's the life we have now.

And so that life in our human struggle and in our human weaknesses is going to cause us to have difficulty.

It's going to cause us to, I don't know where this is going to go.

It's going to cause us to have fear.

I don't know what's going to happen to me.

I'm not going to do that, that's going to hurt.

I'm not going to do that, that's going to put us in danger.

I mean, we live in all the mess of this.

And it creates human weakness in us.

In Romans chapter 8, in a verse there about prayer, the Bible says this that in our weakness, we do not even know how to pray as we ought to.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

But the Holy Spirit comes and helps us and guides us in our weaknesses.

You see, in our human condition, left to ourselves, we are going to worry, be anxious, be fretful.

We're going to worry about what's happening.

We're going to worry about what might happen.

We're going to worry about what's not happening.

My mom, her spiritual gift is worry.

My dad used to tell us all the time: if your mama doesn't have something to worry about, she's worried about what she doesn't know to worry about.

I mean, that's the human condition, and we struggle with that.

And because of that, our reaction often is to turn into the situation and the worry.

It certainly works to lengthen the sense of God's presence from us.

You see, we were meant to walk with him in the day and interact personally and face to face.

And sin has separated us from the Lord.

And now we don't have that comforting sense of his presence and protection.

We know we're separated from him.

And since we live in that condition of being separated from him, then this works to lengthen that divide that seems to exist.

Now, even when you come and you give your life to Christ as your Savior and you trust him as your Savior, we still spend the rest of our life here on this earth trying to understand the position that we have in Christ as having been saved and in his presence.

And there are times that we struggle and we think he may not be there.

There are times that we doubt.

There are new levels of situations that we face and we're afraid of those and we wonder about those and we're not sure if God can handle that or not.

It's a new place in our relationship.

And this worry will still work to create a sense of separation from Him if we're not careful, if we don't understand how to deal with our humanness.

And so He says, listen, the response to that is you bring your requests to the Lord with thanksgiving.

And you see, when we are thankful and creating the habit of thanksgiving, it works directly against that sense of fear, of worry, of uncertainty and doubt, and it removes that sense of separation.

When I can come to the Lord and say, Lord, thank you that you're always there to hear my prayers.

When I'm building that thanksgiving, man, the space between him and I shrink.

And the intimacy increases.

When I'm thankful for who God is and I'm worshiping him and I'm saying, Lord, man, thank you that you save me and thank you that you have me and thank you that you love me.

Why wouldn't I now go from worry to trust?

Because I'm approaching His this thankfulness.

But it is an intentional act, as we've talked about.

I have to be intentional to build Thanksgiving into my life.

Again, there is no separation or dichotomy or category of this is prayer and this is thanksgiving and I'm praying, I'm not doing things, I'm not gonna.

No, they have to work together.

This sense of anxiety and fear will bleed over into our prayer requests if we're not careful.

How many times have you heard this?

Man, I've been in hospitals, I've been praying for people who are sick.

Y'all, God heals.

Did you know that?

God heals.

God still heals.

And He heals in a lot of ways.

He heals miraculously still today.

He heals through doctors and medicine and the time that we live in and the ways that they can help us do those things.

But here's what we have: we have churches and people and believers who are afraid of that, or they're afraid that if they ask for that and it doesn't happen, somehow that reveals something about their faith or reveals something about God or whatever.

And so they approach this healing and they go, Lord, man, if it's your will, if it's your will, you know what that is for a lot of believers?

That's just a big old asterisk we put on there because we're really not sure that God would or could do that.

But when I am grateful for a powerful God, and I'm grateful for a God who answers, then I can come to Him and I'm not worried about what the answer is because I can trust Him and His character and who He is, and I can pray with abandon.

Lord, I need you to heal my friend, mom, dad, kid, well, whoever it is.

But you're still okay with the answer.

You don't have to put an asterisk that hides your doubt on it because you are grateful for a God that you can trust, whatever the answer is.

Thanksgiving changes our doubts, it changes that human weakness and perspective when I come and I'm grateful for Him.

Well, how does that work?

If Thanksgiving is what removes that doubt for us, then truth number two is this.

If truth number one is truth moves us beyond our human struggles, then truth number two is Thanksgiving builds our faith in Jesus.

It creates that sense of I can trust Him, I can believe in Him, I do know that He works.

Now listen, you cannot build that kind of trust in all of a sudden I have this terrible thing I'm afraid of and start to pray over it.

God step in and do this.

To have faith in that moment, you have built in your life a foundation of giving thanks.

It is an integral part of what we pray and do in our time with Him.

Every prayer should begin with, thank you for being a God who answers prayer, and thank you that you love us, and thank you that this is your character.

Listen to what he says.

Let your requests be made known to God.

When we ask that question, why do I have to pray about it if God already knows?

It's because he wants you to know he cares.

He wants you to know you can bring that to him.

This is a part of his character that he needs us to understand.

As we are building this sense of walking with him, we were separated in the garden because of sin.

We were separated in our lives because of that.

Even when we get saved and we trust Christ as our Savior, we're still learning how to walk in that relationship.

And he says, listen, I want you to be grateful and gratefully bring your prayer requests to me because I need you, Greg, to learn that's who I am.

That I love you and that I'm open, and that I am yours, and that I'm always here for you.

It's one thing to think that and to sort of know it's there, but it's another thing to come to the Lord and say, Lord, thank you for letting me be here.

Lord, I don't know what to do with this.

I am so grateful that I can bring this to you and give it to you.

Thank you that I can let my requests be made known to you because you care.

I mean, look at the context of the loving picture of God that we have in this moment.

Let your requests be made known to God.

Even the way he says that, he says, look, I want you to come and give them to me.

I want you to share it with me.

I want you to bring it into my presence.

And then he promises the peace of God.

It is the response of God to get when we give him our requests, it surpasses every understanding and it will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Man, when I bring that request to him, he wants me to bring it.

He is waiting for me to bring it, and he has a response to it of peace and his presence alongside with whatever answer he gives to that prayer.

And it is in giving thanks to the Lord that that's who he is, and that's what he does, that it gives us a sense of trust that fights against the doubt that comes in our human condition.

Now, this is important.

When we think about giving thanks, most of the time, and I'm guilty of this, most of the time, okay, I'm gonna make up a list of thanksgiving.

I've asked you to kind of do that.

We've talked about doing that journal.

And so even when I started my journal, Lord, I'm thankful for this, I'm thankful for this, I'm thankful for things like thankful that we're healthy, I'm thankful for my wife, and I'm thankful for my kids, and I'm thankful for our church, and you know, I'm doing all the kind of things.

Well, what happens if one of those gifts of God changes?

I'm thankful for my health.

And then I visited the doctor, and he says, Your diet is so bad.

You eat so many cookies and milkshake, you now have diabetes or whatever.

Am I still thankful?

Circumstances have changed.

I'm thankful for my job.

I'm thankful that I had the honor of being the pastor here.

I'm thankful that I'm called to ministry.

I'm thankful for that.

Listen, I've had times when the job was hard.

I had jobs I had to leave.

You're thankful for your job, and you go in next week, and because the economy is terrible, they have a reduction in force.

Are you still thankful?

Do you still have a trust in the Lord?

You see, it's so important that our understanding as believers is that what we are thankful for, we are not thankful for the gifts of God, we are thankful for the person of God.

We are not merely thankful for what Jesus does in our lives, but we are thankful for the person of Jesus Himself.

We are thankful for who he is, we are thankful for his character, we are thankful that he is trustworthy.

So, regardless of what the circumstances that I am in might be, regardless of what those are, I can still be thankful because I am thankful for the person of Jesus and I can trust him however this plays out.

And whatever this situation is, I can bring this request to him and I can give it to him and I can trust him with it, regardless of where I am.

And that is something that is built intentionally and specifically in our lives.

As a part of our prayer life, there should always be a part where we are working through, I am thankful for Jesus and who he is in my life.

In our time of studying Scripture, when you're in your quiet time or your time alone with the Lord and you're searching the scriptures and you're reading through your daily passage or whatever it is you're doing, there should always be a part of that study.

It is not an academic exercise or homework.

It is something to draw you closer to the Lord.

And in every passage of Scripture, there should be something in that scripture that calls to my heart and says, Man, I am, I have seen God as that person in my life, and I'm grateful for him.

I am, I see that's who God is.

And I'm so grateful that that's who he is.

Lord, thank you for being that person in my life.

And when you have built that discipline and built that focus in your life, you have built a foundation of trust that when you now face this circumstance, you don't respond out of human weakness, you respond out of faith and trust in Jesus because you have built that trust and understanding in who He is.

You can only do that through Scripture.

Let me just take this book of Philippians here real quick and just show you a couple examples of how it works.

I used my Sunday school group this morning as a research class.

They don't know I did that, so right now they're about mad at me and they're wondering what is he gonna do.

I'm not gonna call you out, folks.

It's good.

Here's what we did I gave I put them in groups of three and I put them in a in a discussion group where they could talk, and I gave one group chapter two and one group chapter three and one group chapter four of Philippians, because that's the book that Paul's writing in here, and he's telling us to be thankful.

And I said, Okay, you guys just Discuss for a few minutes and give me something out of each chapter about the Lord that you're thankful for.

It was incredible.

In just a few minutes, here's what they did.

In chapter 2, they told us this.

Look over with me and kind of do this real quick.

Philippians chapter 2, verse 1.

Philippians 2:1

He asks this rhetorical question: if there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, if those things are in Jesus, and they said, Praise God, those are all in Jesus.

And my relationship with Him, He is encouraging.

There is fellowship with Him.

And then they took verses 5 through 11, and they said, We are so grateful for the person of Jesus because that is the magnitude of my salvation.

Verse 7 as an example.

In verse 8, he humbled himself to become obedient to the point of death, even to death on the cross.

That is who Jesus is for us.

I am so grateful that Jesus himself stepped out of heaven and humbled himself to take on my sin and die for me there.

Okay, now you have a situation you're worried about, and you have been thankful for how much Jesus loves you and the encouragement that is in your life.

It's a different animal to bring that request to him now when you've been thankful for that.

When you see how much Jesus loves you, when you see how he has humbled himself and he put our needs for forgiveness above his needs of holiness as God, and he became a servant and died for us on the cross, that is the Jesus I am grateful I get to bring my prayer requests to.

And when you're grateful for that, it changes your prayer requests.

Look in chapter 3.

Here's what my people told me in chapter 3.

He says in verse 3, he begins to talk about who he was before he was saved.

Verse 3, he was a Jew of Jews, right?

But he says, we are because we are saved, we are the ones who serve by the Spirit of God, and we boast in Christ Jesus, and we do not put any confidence in the flesh.

Because we are saved by Jesus, it does not matter who you are or who you were or who you could have been, because your identity rests in Jesus.

He goes on to talk about his identity as a Jew of Jews, and he had held all the law, and he was a Pharisee and all that kind of stuff.

But then he says in verse 7, but everything that was gained to me I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.

More than that, I consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing knowledge, the surpassing value of knowing Christ my Lord.

He says in verse 9, to be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.

Your position as having been saved is secure in the person of Jesus.

It doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter where you came from, it doesn't matter what your background is, it doesn't matter if it was good or if it was bad, it doesn't matter if you were rich or you were poor, it doesn't matter if you were good when you were a kid, it doesn't matter if you just got out of prison, it doesn't matter where you are, it doesn't matter what you've done.

When you give your life to Jesus and He pays the price for your sins, you are put in the position of having the righteousness of God because of the work of Jesus Christ.

That is the position that we have as a believer.

And now I find myself in a difficult position, and this was bad in the job, or this was bad in the family, or I've gotten this medical report.

But you know what?

That medical report does not define me.

I am a blood-bought son of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

And when Jesus looks down and sees me out of heaven, he sees the righteousness of God that I am cloaked in because he is my savior.

If that is who you are, don't you dare worry about anything.

You bring that request to Jesus and you bring it with confidence and you bring it with freedom.

But you don't own that trust if you've not spent time working through that truth.

In chapter 4, they talked about the provision of God.

A verse that we all love.

It was another one of our verses as a church family.

He says in verse 13, I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.

I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.

Look in verse 19.

My God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ.

Man, if I've spent time praising the Lord saying, Lord, thank you that your strength is so powerful, it is made strong in my weakness.

Lord, I am so grateful.

Just as Eric sang in that incredible song in the choir with him, listen, I am so glad that I have overcome who I was and what happened by the love and mercy of God and the power of the blood of Jesus Christ.

There is nothing that will crush me or separate me from God or change my position and who I am.

My God, He gives me the strength that I can face whatever it is.

Now, it looks different to say, Lord, I am so grateful that I don't have to do this on my own, that I can do anything in your strength.

And so, Lord, man, I come and here I am, and here's my request.

And I believe you can handle it.

You see, when you have spent time building thanks, it moves you past your human struggles and it moves you into a place of trust.

And then the third truth is this Thanksgiving creates an understanding of his presence.

I want to end with that because I've built that in the other messages, and it's so important.

It is so important we understand that God never leaves you, he is always with you.

And this beautiful promise at the end of this, if we are giving thanks and in thanksgiving our prayers to him, it moves us past the doubt and struggle of our humanness.

It helps us build a trust in Jesus that we bring those requests to him and we leave them there at his feet.

And the Bible says, and the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

In Christ Jesus.

It's important you understand that.

In him.

It is in our relationship with him.

It is in our position that he saved us to, it is in his blood that covered us and bought us and his sacrifice for us.

It creates that relationship.

And you are always in the presence of God, whether you feel like it or not.

But it is when you are praising him and you are giving thanks to him, and you are saying, thank you for this who you are, and thank you for what you do, and thank you for this character trait, and thank you that you never change, and thank you that you love me, and thank you that you want me to bring these requests to you, and thank you that you answer prayer, and thank you that you have the strength, and thank you that you provide for me always, and thank you for the position that I have, not because I deserve it, because of what Jesus has done for me, Lord.

Thank you for that.

And because of all that, I give this to you, and that has drawn us into his presence, and it creates for us a sense of his presence.

We don't need to try to convince him to be there with us.

He is with you if you are saved.

But we have to understand he is there.

It helps us know I am held by him.

When I feel that sense of peace, I can let go of that thing that I gave to him and now rest in him.

Because he's got it.

If I'm just pleading so many times, we bring this thing to Jesus and we go, Lord, I need you to do this.

Lord, I need you to do this.

Lord, I need you to do this.

And he's like, will you just leave it with me?

But no, I'm I'm worrying.

I'm comfortable in my worry.

And so I just want to keep asking for it all the time.

And listen, there's nothing wrong with pleading with the Lord.

Understand?

There's nothing wrong with repeating prayer requests to him.

What the issue is, is I keep asking because I'm holding on to it and I never let it go.

It is when I'm thankful in those petitions that I can say, Lord, thank you that I can give you this.

Don't you ever bow your heads as we close this morning?

All of this begins as I walk through those scriptures in Philippians with an understanding that I can trust Jesus.

And trusting Jesus and entering into a relationship begins first with the very first prayer request and the very first statement of thanks.

Lord, I know I'm a sinner, and my sin has to be dealt with.

And Jesus, I am thankful that just as we read in chapter two, you humbled yourself, you stepped out of heaven, you took my sin, and you died on the cross and paid the price for my sin.

Thank you.

That's what trusting in Jesus as your Savior means in a very real way.

The Bible tells us how to make that decision.

If I will confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, if I will come and surrender my life to Him and trust Him with my life and everything and the truth of who I am and my future and my salvation and everything else.

And you will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you believe that He stepped out of heaven, He died on the cross for your sins, He paid the price for your sins, He rose again to conquer death and sin.

And you believe that happened, and you believe the effect of that was to save you, that is when you trust Him and say, Thank you for saving me.

If you've never prayed that first prayer asking for salvation and saying thank you for saving me, in just a moment, God's people are going to stand and sing.

This is an opportunity for you to come and to give your life to Christ.

We'll have ministers at the head of our aisles, somebody in the balcony.

If you want someone to pray with, if you want to learn more about what that is, if you have questions, if you want to pray right now, whatever it is, we are here for you.

Come.

If you're at home, if you're watching on the internet, you can do this where you are.

You can contact us through the information.

We will help you just as much as if you were in the room.

But this morning I want you to know that you can come to Jesus because of who he is and how much he loves you.

And that begins with salvation.

I'm gonna pray.

God's people are gonna stand and sing.

And if you need Jesus, we're gonna invite you to come.

Lord, we love you and we thank you that this is who you are.

And we ask that you move and speak to people today because we are grateful that that is who you are and what you do.

And you want us to bring our sin to you, our doubts to you, our worries to you.

You want us to bring our lives to you.

And I pray this morning, if there's someone who needs to be saved, they will come and give their life to you.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.