Beginning today, we are turning our attention to the book of 1 Thessalonians. Now, 1 Thessalonians is one of 13 of what we call Pauline Epistles, which means it's one of 13 letters in the Bible in the New Testament authored by the Apostle Paul. And it's also one of the Apostle Paul's earliest letters too, perhaps his second just after Galatians. As well as one of the earliest books in the whole of the New Testament, perhaps only Galatians and James preceding it chronologically.

Well, that being said, our study this morning takes us to the opening verses of that book, 1 Thessalonians, where we'll be studying 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5.

1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace.
2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.

1 Thessalonians 1:1-5, ESV

In the weeks after Lorri and me, my wife got married 12 years ago this July, I recall that one of the more stressful responsibilities in the weeks following our wedding were the vast amount of thank you notes that had to be written. You see, as our very kind families and friends flooded us over the months leading up to our wedding and then after our wedding with gift after gift from our registry. Well, I was reminded early on from people who knew better than I that we had to keep track, careful track of all of the gifts and who sent each gift and then respond within a reasonable period of time with a thank you note. Apparently, there was even a certain period of time, according to all of the etiquette books, which I didn't read, but others told me about after the wedding, that you had to write those notes and send out those notes. If you let that period of time lapse and you sent out your thank you notes after that period of time, or you didn't send them out at all. Well, the wedding gurus, they told you that was incredibly rude and in very, very poor taste.

Now, formalities like that, of course, have their place. It's generally in good taste, I think, to express our gratitude for gifts received through the use of things like thank you notes. When we do that, we're often thankful genuinely so for what other people have gifted us or have done for us. But the problem is that sometimes the act of giving thanks is little more than a formality. More often the act of giving thanks is restricted only to those times when we receive something tangible.

The challenge from the Scriptures is that we would cultivate a different kind of approach to thanksgiving. That we would cultivate a kind of thanksgiving, that one goes beyond mere formality, a kind of thanksgiving that wells up from the depths of our soul. Then, second, that we would also be more attuned to the heavenly gifts that belong to us right now in Christ and learn to cultivate at all times continuously profound thanksgiving for those substantive things that pertain to the Kingdom of God that belong to you and me in Christ right now. Rather than our common approach, which is to sit in bitterness or discontentness or sadness over the tangible things that we lack.

Understand that when we turn to the Scriptures, one of the unmistakable expressions we find virtually everywhere is that of thanksgiving and gratitude. When we turn to the Psalms, as we did a little earlier this morning, we hear both expressions and commands of thanksgiving repeatedly. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul opens nearly every one of his letters, with a few exceptions, with grand expressions of thanksgiving, much like we find in our text today.

This issue of thanksgiving, and specifically the lack thereof, is so important that earlier in one of Paul's epistles, in the book of Romans, in the opening chapter of Romans, Paul identifies ingratitude or thanklessness as one of the fundamental sins of humanity. In fact, theologian Michael Horton has written that, "The essence of sin can be summarized by in gratitude." Thanksgiving, then, is the inseparable response that belongs to the people of God.

As we turn to the text before us, we see that for Paul, thanksgiving was no mere formality. Nor was it conditioned only by some material or tangible benefit or gift that he received. It was for him the appropriate and necessary and inevitable heartfelt response in recognition of the grace of God.

Friends, if we're to cultivate a similar kind or the same kind of thanksgiving that the Scriptures would have us do as Paul does in the passage before us. Well, that means we have to turn our eyes away from our frequent obsession with what we lack and learn instead to appreciate the grace of God in our lives. Grace that persists in our highs and lows, and grace that demands a response that goes well beyond formality.

Our big idea this morning accordingly is this cultivate thanksgiving. That's our big idea.

As we study this passage, we'll do it in three parts, which you can see if you grab one of those sermon worksheets. The first is we'll see how to cultivate thanksgiving through prayer. Second, how we are called to cultivate thanksgiving by reflecting on fruit. Then third, how we're called to cultivate thanksgiving by knowing the route.
1. Cultivate Thanksgiving Through Prayer
2. Cultivate Thanksgiving by Reflecting on Fruit
3. Cultivate Thanksgiving by Knowing the Root

Cultivate Thanksgiving Through Prayer

So let's start off with this first point, cultivate thanksgiving through prayer. So we hear the Apostle Paul again, he's the author of the letter before us. We hear him at this in this opening passage release, this deluge of thanksgiving. But that prompts the understandable question what was it exactly that prompted the Apostle Paul in this circumstance to give such profound thanks that he does, beginning in verse two?

Well, to answer that question, we actually have to step back for a moment, and we have to go back to the book of Acts and briefly trace the events that led Paul to write 1 Thessalonians in the first place. You see back in the Book of Acts, in Acts chapter 17, during Paul's so-called second missionary journey. You see during Paul's life, he made a total of three missionary journeys, which were basically these preaching and church planning circuits around the Mediterranean world. So during the second one of these, he together with two other friends or companions, one by the name of Sylvanus and the other by the name of Timothy, came to this town called Thessalonica.

Now, Thessalonica was an important city in modern day Greece. It had an important seaport on the Aegean Sea and an important road that cut through the city. It was a city, in short, that had a whole lot of influence in the Greco-Roman world. According to Acts chapter 17, when Paul arrived in the city of Thessalonica, well, he got to work, as was his custom, sharing the gospel in the local synagogue. We find very quickly that his ministry bore fruit. Over a relatively short period of time, sharing the gospel in Thessalonica a week in and week out, perhaps for only a month, some Jews and even more non-Jews, that is, Gentiles, were persuaded by the Gospel that he preached. They put their faith in Jesus Christ and with that, this young church and this influential city of Thessalonica was established.

As it often happened in the ministry of Paul, as these local churches get off the ground and begin to grow, well, opposition emerges. In the case of his stay in Thessalonica, as soon as the Jewish leaders begin to see Paul's gospel ministry flourish, well they very quickly incite a riot. Which eventually forces Paul to flee the city of Thessalonica to another city called Athens, which maybe you know quite well in Greece today. His two companions, Silvanus and Timothy, followed shortly behind.

But while Paul's in Athens ministering now in a very different context, he grows concerned for the church back in Thessalonica. Did the Jewish leaders who drove him and his companions out target the little church next? Is the church still enduring after they left? Are they growing in their understanding of the gospel or have they quickly abandoned the gospel that Paul labored to preach among them?

Well, with these questions and other questions perhaps, swirling in Paul's mind and weighing down his heart, he decides while he's in Athens to send Timothy back to Thessalonica to check in on the young church while he heads to yet another town called Corinth. It's while Paul is in Corinth, perhaps only six months following his stay in Thessalonica, that Timothy returns back to Paul and informs him that this little church in Thessalonica was in fact doing quite well.

Now they, like every other church, including our own, had issues, to be sure. And like most churches in the first century world, they had to deal with some level of persecution, but they're enduring and they're growing in their faith. This is what leads Paul to write the book before us and to sound this note of profound thanksgiving that he does when 1 Thessalonians opens.

Again after a brief introduction, what we call a brief salutation in verse one, Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica. "We", that is Silvanus, Timothy and Paul, "We give thanks to God always for all of you." Now, presumably from the time Paul left Thessalonica to the point when Timothy, some six months later, returns with his encouraging report, Paul and his companions had been thankful. They've been thankful that the Lord granted them the opportunity to participate in gospel ministry among the people in Thessalonica. Thankful that when they were there, at least it seemed that the gospel was producing fruit. Now, Paul might have been worried and anxious before Timothy reports back, but once Timothy reports back that thanksgiving abounds even more. Now that he returns and they learn that the church was thriving, this attitude of thanksgiving spills out into ink as Paul enthusiastically pens what he does in these opening verses.

Notice in the text before us that this attitude of thankfulness that Paul expresses wasn't just an attitude. Instead, it was an attitude that was nurtured by and expressed in prayer. The picture that we have here in our text is that of Paul and Timothy and Sylvanus meeting each day for prayer. Actually, they probably met several times during the day for formal prayer because as a former Jew, it would have been a common practice to pray formally at least three times a day. In the course of their frequent daily formal prayers, the picture here is that they're offering prayers of thanksgiving for the church, remembering the church in Thessalonica through prayer.

Now in a moment, Paul is going to reveal a little bit of what was in Timothy's report that prompted this opening burst of thanksgiving. But for now, in these opening two verses, specifically in verse two, notice this connection that Paul draws between thanksgiving and prayer. You see, if we find ourselves in a place where thanksgiving becomes little more than a formality. If thanksgiving for us isn't a regular impulse that leaps from the heart, and if we cynically assume that we have very little to be thankful for as the people of God, well then, it's worth examining, I think, the quality of our prayer lives. Greg Biehl writes this, "We will have a thankful attitude to the degree that we have a prayerful attitude. We will give thanks to the extent that we prayerfully consider God's grace." I think Biehl's right on that.

At this point, a story comes to mind of something that happened in Jesus's life in the book of Luke. In Luke chapter 17, we read the story where Jesus is one day on this long road to Jerusalem, this long journey to Jerusalem, which occupies the lion's share of the middle part of Luke's Gospel. In the course of Jesus's journey, we learn that he enters into a village, and in that village, he's met by ten lepers. Now, in Jesus day, you may know, to be a leper would be to be socially ostracized. If you were a leper, you were considered unclean. You couldn't live a normal life alongside your neighbors or your family.

So when Jesus enters this village, he comes across these ten lepers who stand at a distance. As unclean folk they don't come near anyone. But they cry out to Jesus, nevertheless, for him to heal them of their leprosy. As Jesus often does in the Gospels, all he has to do is say a word, and the lepers are healed. But in the aftermath of their healing, only one expresses their gratitude. Only one a Samaritan leper at that, someone who was doubly unclean in the eyes of a Jew, returns to Jesus, falls on his face, and gives thanks to God.

Now, the problem isn't that those other nine lepers who were healed aren't thankful, as other people note. It would be hard to make the case that they wouldn't be thankful for how their body and life was turned in such a positive way in just a moment. But the problem was that they didn't express their thanks by returning to the source, by returning to the one who had healed them. In the same way, if we don't turn regularly in prayer to the source of every good and perfect gift. Well, it shouldn't come as a surprise if we find that an attitude of thankfulness is lacking in our hearts.

You see in prayer, we practice our dependence on God, on the source of everything. That's good. We're reminded, especially when we marry word and prayer together of the perfections of the God to whom we pray, and of the grace of God showing to sinners like us. It's in prayer that our thoughts are redirected away from the many things we idolize in this world, but do not have, a reality that often leads to thankless and bitter and restless hearts to the God who has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness. It's in prayer that the Lord lifts up our eyes to consider more substantive spiritual realities, along with people who also have needs. In doing so, the Spirit works on us and makes us like Paul and his companions and the Samaritan leper who expresses grace firsthand, a more thankful people.

Like Paul, thanksgiving is cultivated through prayer. And more specifically, thanksgiving is cultivated as we pray prayers of thanksgiving. As we ask not only for things, but also reflect on what God has given us and give thanks to Him in prayer. I know some of you kids right now are learning the ACTs model in your Sunday school class where we add our adoration confession and then thanksgiving. Praying prayers of thanksgiving is great, and it's a way to also cultivate even greater thanksgiving in our lives. Prayer is an indispensable means of being a thankful people.

Cultivate Thanksgiving by Reflecting on Fruit

Yet, while prayer is one of those indispensable means, when we turn to verse three, we notice that we also cultivate thanksgiving by reflecting on the work of God's Spirit in our lives, too. So this leads to the second point where we are called to cultivate thanksgiving not only through prayer, but also by reflecting on what we're calling fruit.

So when we turn our attention to verse three now, we hear Paul cite the first of what he's going to what's going to amount to two reasons that lead him and his companions to offer the constant prayers of thanksgiving that they offer for the little church in Thessalonica. According to Paul, we read, "They give thanks, (Paul, Timothy Sylvanus), they give thanks because they see that there is visible fruit in the lives of the Christians back in Thessalonica." Fruit that perhaps they saw during their stay in Thessalonica, but fruit that's especially clear now that Timothy has returned with his encouraging report about the church.

So what is this fruit? Well, according to Paul, it's there, "Work of faith, labor, of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." Now, if you're using the English Standard Version, that's a fine translation. There's nothing wrong about that translation. I actually think that the NIV, the New International Version gets this a little bit more precise when we read, "Your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ."

You see, Paul is giving thanks here because there are first identifiable marks in the church's life. There are things like work and labor, endurance, things that both he and Timothy and anyone else can see. We'll talk about what those things are in a moment. But in highlighting these visible marks in the life of the church, Paul's encouraged because he recognizes that this is real fruit in their lives.

You know, later in the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, one of the criticisms that's leveled against a church that's located in Sardis, another town many years after Paul writes 1 Thessalonians, is that that church in the town called Sardis has, "A reputation of being alive, but in actuality, they are dead." In other words, to an outside observer looking at that church in Sardis, many years after Paul writes 1 Thessalonians, they may have appeared to be doing well, but they're not. Yet, when it comes to the church in Thessalonica and Paul's day, they not only have a reputation, a reputation of bearing fruit, but as Paul sees it, the fruit that bursts forth from the branches of their lives is real fruit. It's fruit that's evident of life.

So where do we see this? Well, again, notice in verse three that what Paul connects these visible marks with, he connects their work with faith, their labor with love, their endurance with hope. That triad, faith, love and hope. A triad that Paul references elsewhere in letters he writes, and a triad that John Calvin says is a brief definition of true Christianity are the things that are undergirding and animating the visible works that he sees. It's what marks what he and Timothy see as real fruit that's juicy and flavorful, rather than that artificial plastic fruit that's hollow on the inside that we might keep on our coffee tables.

So what exactly is this fruit that he sees and then gives thanks for thanks for? Well, in the first, we read about the work produced by faith. Now, Paul, perhaps when he references this work, he could be looking to things like evangelism. We'll hear later that the church is kind of evangelistic. Or they're hospitable, they're hospitality or any other good work that was evident to an outside observer. But whatever that work was, we noticed that it was prompted by faith. In other words, as Paul gives, gives thanks for the active ministry of the church and the spiritual lives of the believers in the church as they appear to be pursuing holiness. He gives thanks that these works, whatever they were, are the fruit of a life of faith. Understand the church in Thessalonica, they don't work, they don't pursue holiness, they don't pursue hospitality because they think that God is going to love them more, that they do. Rather, it's this fruit that is results from faith.

Something similar could be said about the second pair in the triad, this so called labor of love. Now this word translated labor in the text is quite close in meaning to what we find translated earlier as work. But it probably gets the idea that the church willingly loves and serves those in their community and those in their church body in a costly manner. They continue to minister the Gospel, even when that involves suffering or hardship. Do they labor because they think God's going to love them more? Absolutely not. Notice that their labor is also the fruit of something stirring deeper within them, namely love. It's not their love for others that's in view, but rather God's love for them. They recognize that they've been loved first, specifically through the suffering servant of Jesus Christ, which then propels them outward to endure suffering as servants of those in their midst.

Then finally, we come across the steadfastness of hope. This small, fledgling church in Thessalonica, as Paul receives his report from Timothy in 50 A.D., is apparently standing firm in their newly acquired convictions. Anyone outside observer can see that they're standing firm. But why do they stand firm? Well, they stand firm because they trust that there's something better awaiting them in the end. They stand firm because of the hope that steadfastness is grounded upon.

You see, it's this fruit and the underlying gospel realities that produce this fruit, which leads Paul to radiate this profound and heartfelt thanksgiving. He sees visible marks that the Spirit is active among this church, and he celebrates that an outpost for the Kingdom of God is enduring and burning brightly in this influential city of Thessalonica.

Though this visible fruit prompts his thanksgiving, he also doesn't reflect these realities for his own benefit either. You see, thanksgiving can be infectious. In giving thanks, as he does in verse three, his desire is that the church would be more attentive to the fruit in their lives. Then consequently more thankful for how God is at work among them.

Some of you may know or have heard of the story of Billy Beane, the general manager, actually, I think now the former general manager of the Oakland Athletics and his pioneering approach to statistical analysis in Major League Baseball in the early 2000s. There was a book about his approach called Moneyball and then later a movie adaptation about a decade ago with the same name. Well, anyway, Beane's whole approach of the general manager of a baseball team that couldn't come close to competing with some of the biggest spenders in baseball was to get a competitive edge over those teams, like the evil New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, not by outspending those other teams, which he couldn't do, but by being smarter than those teams.

So he and his staff would do these deep dives into player statistics. They would carefully examine the stats to see where players thrived and where they didn't, and then they would put each player in the best possible position to succeed. Even if it meant telling the player that what they think they're good at, they're actually not and they need to start playing this way rather than that way if they really want to help their team thrive and win. In the process this approach went against so many of the unspoken rules of baseball in the day. They used players in ways that no other team had thought to use them, but in the end, their approach was incredibly successful.

Well, in a similar manner, Paul implicitly challenges the church and Thessalonica, including us today, to cultivate thanksgiving by turning our eyes away from those things that we tend to obsess over, don't have, and in the process stir within us such discontentedness and bitterness, and instead to focus on spiritual realities. Realities that the world by and large overlooks, doesn't value, but realities that are far more important for us to thrive the way we were designed to thrive. In the process of recognizing the manifestation of that spiritual fruit in our lives, of being spiritually attuned to the things that matter, we also learn to cultivate thanksgiving ourselves.

So with that in mind, let me ask you this. If you confess Christ, where do you see fruit in your life? When you reflect on your own story, on your own discipleship, do you notice ways in which you've become over the years, slowly and painfully, and of course, never perfectly, a kinder person, a more patient person, or a more loving person? Do you desire and actively live out your faith through works like hospitality? Are you enduring in the hope of what awaits us at the end of the age? You see, one of the ways we cultivate thanksgiving, according to Paul, is by examining the quality of our spiritual lives, by taking stock of how the Lord is very much active in our lives in Christ, by cultivating real fruit among us through a life of repentance and faith.

Perhaps after reflecting on your own life, you come to the realization that perhaps this fruit is nonexistent or maybe artificial fruit. If that's the case it may mean that you haven't put your faith in Christ, that you don't know the love of Christ, and that you have no ultimate hope at present. If that's the case, the exhortation of our passage would be to cultivate thanksgiving by first recognizing the gift of Jesus Christ. Reject the idols that are suffocating a heart of profound thanksgiving and embrace the one who gives us the true satisfaction that the human heart craves.

Cultivate Thanksgiving by Knowing the Root

As Paul continues in this larger discourse of thanksgiving, he points out next that this spiritual fruit, a close examination of which should prompt thanksgiving, is actually evidence of deeper theological realities, a reflection on those which also prompts thanksgiving. So this leads to the third point, cultivate thanksgiving by knowing the root.

Now when we turn to verses 4 through 5, which is the which is the focal point of this next point. Notice that Paul now looks beneath the soil, as it were. In fact, he goes all the way back to the seed of the tree, to continue this metaphor. Now he fleshes out the theological implications, the deeply ingrained theological implications, that must be true given the report that he sees. In other words, if it's really the case, which it is, that the church in Thessalonica is exhibiting real fruit. Well, then, according to Paul, that's evidence that the church is loved by God and chosen by God.

Now, these descriptions are titles of great dignity and honor. Likewise, even the title church, which Paul ascribed to this small band of believers in Thessalonica back in verse one is a title of honor, that's far more significant than we may think, and we'll talk about that in a moment. It's these realities, these titles, this identity, which belongs to the church, which leads Paul, the church he hopes, and also us to cultivate greater thanksgiving.

Now, a few years ago, there was a rather lighthearted story in the news that I can remember about this seemingly average American, this dude from Maryland, who took one of those DNA tests offered by one of those online services to figure out his genealogy and ancestry. When the results were returned, he discovered that he was actually royalty. He was a prince from the West African nation of Benin. So with this newly discovered status that, hey, I'm a prince, he flew across the world to Benin, where he was promptly crowned a prince, and he participated in a festival that was held by the country in his honor. Some story.

Now, just as the revelation of royalty changed so much for this average American. The discovery here that we are vested with such a dignified status in Christ, likewise, ought to change our whole disposition. So much so that the kind of thanksgiving that leaps from Paul's heart would leap from ours as well. So let's look at what Paul tells the church and us about our royal and dignified status in Christ.

For one thing, he tells us back in verse one that insofar as we belong to Christ and connect ourselves with a local expression of His people, we are the church. Now, this might seem like such a basic thing to say that it's not even worth highlighting. But keep in mind that this word in verse one translated the church is the same word that was used in the Greek version of the Old Testament, which many Jews throughout the Mediterranean world who didn't know Hebrew read and engage with. In the Septuagint, which is the name of that Greek translation, this word church is used to describe the gathered congregation of Israel. You see, in calling this congregation and Thessalonica, the church, a congregation that was predominantly made up of non-ethnic Jews, of Gentiles, that was a significant thing to claim. Because Paul is telling his readers that they are now part of the one people of God, the ancient people of God, that they are, in fact the renewed Israel of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Similarly, when Paul tells the church in verse four that they are loved by God and chosen by God, he's calling to mind things that were also attributed to Israel in the Old Testament. Now, on the one hand, to make the claim that they are loved by God would have been a startling statement to the vast majority of people reading this and the church of Thessalonica who were converts from paganism. Because in the ancient world, if you were a pagan who believed in the many gods, one thing that the gods didn't do was love you and one thing that you didn't do was love the gods. It was more of this tenuous contract between two parties than anything else.

In view of the Old Testament, this claim that they are loved by God and chosen by God taps into significant texts that were used in the Old Testament to describe the Lord's relationship with Israel. Particularly the in the book of Deuteronomy 7:6-8. Where there the Lord declared to Israel this, "He said to Israel, there you are, a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord, your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any of the people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you for you are the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh King of Egypt." The same is now said of the church in Thessalonica, and the same, brothers and sisters, is true of us too. Understand that if you belong to Christ and His body, you belong to a historic and royal people.

I've had several friends from Europe over the years mock me for thinking, as an American, I'm part of a historical nation when our country is only 250 years old. They've ingested or maybe seriously, I don't know, have made the claim that what we call history is very recent in comparison with the grand history of Europe. Now, I hope we all recognize that they have no idea what they're talking about. But in all seriousness, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we join a royal people, a holy nation that goes back to people like David and Abraham. In fact, the Apostle Paul tells us exactly that when he writes in another letter in Galatians verse 3:29, "If you are Christ, if you belong to Christ Jesus, you are then Abraham's offspring and heirs." That's a royal title, heirs, according to the promise.

More than that, know that if you trust in Christ and if you see fruit in your life, not perfect fruit, but fruit, nevertheless, know that before any decision you ever made, you were chosen by God. Now this bold claim taps into what we in theological lingo call unconditional election. That means that if you love God and if you trust in Christ, know that you belong to a historical people of God, a royal people of God. Yes. But also know that you didn't make the first move. God didn't foresee that you would believe in him at some point in history and then set his love upon you. Not at all. Rather, if you trust in Christ and if you're bearing fruit at present, that's because the Lord has chosen you before the foundation of the Earth for no other reason than His sovereign choice.

Now, this is, to be sure, a topic that leads to many questions and has led many to introspective consternation. But what this truth shouldn't do for us isn't lead us in that direction, but rather should lead us to rest in the honor that's bestowed upon us as God's beloved and chosen. Then ultimately cultivate within us hearts of profound thanksgiving for who we are in Christ.

Well as Paul closes out the first part of this great thanksgiving passage in verse five. He reminds the church in verse five of yet one more mark they can look to, to assure, to be assured that they have been claimed by Christ. If you recall in verse three, he mentioned that fruit that was evident in our lives. But now in verse five, he reminds them of what they experienced, what they encountered when they heard the preached word. He reminds them that when the gospel came to them from the mouth of an apostle, presumably from his own mouth some six months earlier in Thessalonica, it was accompanied by the Holy Spirit. Who took that word and planted it deep within their hearts. Paul gives thanks because he sees here that his preaching wasn't in vain, that they received Paul and his companions as ministers of the Gospel, and more than that, that they were changed by God's Word.

Friends, if you question whether or not you are loved by God, whether or not God has chosen you and set his love upon you. A good place to start would be to ask yourself, how do you respond to God's word? Do you take the word of God seriously? Does it change the way you think about yourself and about God and about his world? Are you convicted by it, comforted by it, and are you growing in spiritual maturity through it? If you can truly answer that question with a yes, of course never perfectly, but with a yes. Well, then, be assured that even in your sin, even in your doubts, the Spirit is at work. And that's something for which we all give thanks.

So, as we prepare to close, I want to leave us with this closing thought. Root out bitterness and autonomy by sharpening your spiritual senses. Unfortunately, it's not our habit to give thanks. Thanksgiving, as we talked about in the opening, is often just a formality. When we perceive things are quite poor in our lives, we don't imagine that there's anything to give thanks for. Then when things are going quite well in our lives, we don't often pause and recognize in thanksgiving the one from whom every good and perfect gift flows.

Rather than our thanksgiving or lack thereof, being predicated on those things that we can see with our eyes, things that ebb and flow, the Apostle Paul would have us be more attuned to the unchanging spiritual realities in our lives. Then to cultivate thanksgiving by taking stock of what's always true of us in Christ. So if you struggle with thanksgiving, as we all do, sharpen your spiritual senses. Take seriously what the Bible declares about who we are in Christ. Then cultivate thanksgiving accordingly.

Pray with me. Father, you have given us every reason in Christ to be a thankful people. In fact, as creatures, those who have been created, in the image of God, we have every reason to be a thankful people. When we look out in the world and we see how you have provided through general revelation in all of these various ways, through your common grace, how you've given water to water the ground to eventually spring up crops all around the world. You feed us; you shelter us. There's so much to give thanks for. Then even more so, Lord, when we consider that in Christ, we are royalty, part of a holy people, a holy nation, a people beloved and chosen by God. Lord, these things ought to prompt thanksgiving. So we pray that where our hearts are not disposed to thankfulness, that you, by your Spirit, would turn us to cultivate a spirit of thanksgiving. That you would help us to be a more thankful people based on what you have done, based on who you are, and based on who we are eternally in you. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.