Before we come to the Lord's table, I invite
you to open the Word of God with me to 1 Thessalonians
5, verses 16 through 18. Rejoice always, pray
without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for
this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. We
easily become the victims of our moods, don't
we? Our reactions, our disappointments, our ambitions
are often governed by what's happening to us
externally. But God wants us to learn to base
our lives on the internal and eternal realities,
not the external and temporal ones. God has provided
for us to be victors instead of victims. The
kind of life I'm talking about this morning is
an infectious kind of life. To be known for hope,
enthusiasm, and authenticity is appealing to
everyone, and frankly, it's an uncommon way to
live. In the three short, terse verses that are
before us in our text today, God summarizes what
our duty to Him is as Christians in the midst
of varying and changing circumstances of life.
He says that our duty to him is to be joyful,
to be prayerful, and to be thankful. When one
is characterized that way, it produces delight
in the life. This is not difficult duty. This
is wonderful duty. And God orders it of us because
it makes such an adventure out of life. to live
this way. He says in the first place, be joyful
without limitation. Rejoice always. Someone has
said the uniqueness of Christian joy lies in
its emergence under the most adverse circumstances.
You can trace that truth in scripture. Think,
for example, of the apostles. In the times when
they were suffering persecution, and the scripture
clearly says that they went out from the presence
of those who had persecuted them with joy because
they were counted worthy to suffer shame for
the name of Jesus. Or do you remember the Apostle
Paul and Silas after they had been cruelly beaten
and thrown into jail? because they preached Christ
in Philippi. And that night around 12 o 'clock
the scriptures tell us that they were singing
hymns and praising God in their cells and it
says the prisoners heard them. There weren't
too many hymn singings like that at midnight
in that jail. This was pretty unusual for them
to be joyful. especially after being so cruelly
treated. Paul's exhortation to the Philippians
fits with this. He says, rejoice always, and
again I say, rejoice. Struggles, disappointments,
and demands that come to all of us can ruin our
days. They are joy embezzlers. But the solution
is not to try to avoid struggles because we'll
spend the rest of our lives doing that unsuccessfully.
The solution is not found in denying disappointments
for their part of life, nor is the solution found
in ignoring demands because we all live with
them. But the solution is found in choosing as
an act of our wills to express a joyful attitude
in the face of these things. It's a matter of
how we choose to face life's struggles, disappointments,
and demands. This joy of Jesus Christ that we
can choose to experience is a joy that cannot
be contained. I think of Scrooge after his ghostly
encounters. Most of the movies depict Dickens'
character rightly as being exuberant. His joy
could not be contained after the change in his
attitude. Well, true Christian joy is something
like that. It cannot be bottled up. It has to
be expressed. People who are joyful are pursued
by other people because their spirit lightens
the load of others. Chuck Swindoll says, such
people display a well -developed sense of humor,
an optimistic outlook on life, and a light -hearted
spirit. Isn't that great? Is that the way you're
living? We all like to be around people like
this. A well -developed sense of humor, an optimistic
outlook on life, a light -hearted spirit. Christian
joy is, of course, the fruit of the Holy Spirit,
and we can choose to experience it only when
we are yielded to the Lordship of Jesus Christ
and His Spirit is thus empowering us internally.
Then this joy can be known. So I want to exhort
all of us today not to permit our circumstances
to become thieves, to rob us of our joy in Christ.
Let's choose to exchange the spirit of heaviness
for a garment of praise. This joy we're talking
about is not blind optimism, but rather is an
inner delight in God and in His dealings with
us. The Bible says that God loves a joyful giver.
He also loves a joyful, cheerful servant. And
Nehemiah tells us that the joy of the Lord is
your strength. Therefore, rejoice without limitation.
And then he says, be prayerful without cessation.
Pray without ceasing. Why do you think that prayer
is next in this list? Perhaps it is because prayer
is the means for us to deal with our heavy circumstances.
the disappointments and the struggles and so
on. Prayer is our means by which we're able to
release our burdens to God so that we no longer
have to carry them. That's a privilege that every
child of God can enjoy. In northern Italy, about
610 AD, there was a pious monk who had been baking
bread and he had some dough left over and so
he formed that dough into thin pencil -like rolls
and then he twisted them into little figures
representing children with their arms folded
in prayer. He then coated those pieces of bread
with syrup and salt and put them in the oven
along with the loaves that he was baking. And
when they came out, they proved to be very appetizing,
and so he got an idea. He did not want simply
to give away these morsels for no purpose, and
so he promised boys and girls who would memorize
their Bible verses and lessons from catechism
that they could have one of these morsels. And
because he intended to give them as a little
reward, he called them that in his language,
pretiola. from which we get our word pretzel.
So the next time you eat a pretzel, remember
that it reminds you that we can fold our hands
in prayer at any time to God. What a special
privilege that is. Pray without ceasing. But
how do we do that? Are we to stay on our knees
all day long? Well, of course, that would be
silly to think that way. Pray without ceasing
is not uninterrupted praying. It is not continuously
occurring, but it's constantly recurring prayer.
The same word is used in the original of a hacking
cough, which is, yes, that's right. Thank you
for illustrating that. A hacking cough is not
a very pleasant thing to have to put up with.
But it brings to us the idea of urgency, something
that you just do spontaneously because you feel
is necessary. We ought to pray in the same manner.
A few weeks ago a friend and I were driving from
Chicago back to the Twin Cities. We encountered
a snowstorm all the way from Chicago up through
Tomah. It became obvious we were going to be
late getting back to the Twin Cities and his
wife was to meet us at a certain place at a certain
time. And so, because we had borrowed the car
of a friend, which has a cellular telephone in
it, as we were driving up the interstate through
the snowstorm, we punched in just a few numbers
into that telephone, and it wasn't but a few
seconds until we had his wife on the telephone
as we were driving up the interstate. Absolutely
amazing to me. I mean, I can't figure out yet
how airplanes fly. I still can't figure out how
you do this. and you talk to somebody and theoretically
we could talk to somebody on the other side of
the world as we're driving along the interstate.
They tell us in a few years that technology will
be advanced enough that every one of us will
have the opportunity to buy a telephone that
we can carry with us and we'll be assigned a
personal number. It'll be about the size of a
pack of cigarettes, if you'll pardon me, they
say. You'll be able to carry it in your pocket
and pull it out and make a telephone call from
wherever you are. On the other hand, people will
be able to reach you wherever you are. The point
is that you'll be able to make a phone call whenever
you desire to do it, and that's the privilege
of prayer, folks. We can be prayerful without
cessation. Throughout the course of the day,
we can frequently lift our thoughts and our words
to God. Robert Thomas says, whether words are
uttered or not. Lifting the heart to God while
one is occupied with miscellaneous duties is
the vital thing. Verbalized prayer will be spontaneous
and will punctuate one's daily schedule as it
did in Paul's writings. I like the idea of punctuate.
Punctuate your day with prayer, says the apostle.
Then he says, be thankful without hesitation.
In everything, give thanks. Clarence McCartney,
a famous preacher of another generation, used
to tell the story of two men who were walking
through a field one day, and they spotted as
they were walking through the field an enraged
bull. And noticing the two men, he instantly
darted toward them, and they began running toward
the nearest fence. Well, the bull was in hot
pursuit of the two men. So terrified, one shouted
to the other, John, put up a prayer, we're in
for it. And John answered back and said, I can't,
I've never made a public prayer in my life. Well
said, his friend, you must, the bull's catching
up to us. And so John panted, all right, I'll
say the only prayer I know, the one that our
father used to repeat at the table. Oh Lord,
for what we were about to receive, make us truly
thankful. In everything, give thanks, says the
scripture. Whatever develops, however happenings
may be combined, whoever calls or drops by, wherever
you may be living or wherever you may be transferred,
whatever conditions may occur, without hesitation,
we are to receive all of these with a grateful
heart. That's easy to do, of course, when the
bull isn't chasing you, when your conditions
are pleasant and prosperous, but it's not easy
to do when you are in the midst of pain and disappointment
or limitation and sometimes even routine. But
gratitude is always the right attitude for the
child of God. In the Bible, God tells us he is
always and persistently working for our good.
Therefore, in everything we can be thankful.
To live this way, he says, is to live in the
will of God. There are some aspects of the will
of God that we have a hard time figuring out,
but we need not doubt regarding being joyful,
prayerful, and thankful. because that is always
the will of God, and to live otherwise is to
miss the will of God. And the fact is that you
and I can live this way. If we couldn't, he wouldn't
have told us to. We are in Christ Jesus, you
see, if we're saved. If we have trusted the Lord
Jesus Christ, As our Lord and Savior, then we
can choose to live this way in Him, because we
have the internal resources of the Holy Spirit
to do it. We can be transformed in our attitudes
so that instead of grumbling we are thankful.
We can be changed so that instead of being constantly
anxious, we learn to be prayerful. We can be
changed so that instead of being discouraged
and depressed, we long to be joyful in the Lord.
Of course, the secret is that if we're going
to be changed, the Holy Spirit has to be in charge.
He comes to the point of being in charge when
we have confessed our sins and our hearts are
therefore clean. We have surrendered without
any reservation, and we have intentionally resolved
to follow Jesus Christ. There can be no doubt
about it that when a person has met those conditions,
the Holy Spirit will release the power of God
in that person's life to be obedient and to be
transformed. To choose to live as we've been
commanded is an expression of faith. that we
believe at least two things about God. First
of all, that God is sovereign, and secondly,
that he is good. I can be joyful today because
God is bigger than my problems, and whatever
they are, he is using them for good. Therefore
I can be joyful. I can be prayerful. because
God is able to change my circumstances or to
preserve me in them so that his best for me is
realized. I can be thankful because God controls
what comes into my life and he will fashion it
to accomplish my good and his glory. You see,
to choose to live this way is an act of faith
that God is sovereign and that he's good. And
failure to live this way is an act of unbelief.
What a way to live. What a way to live. Our duty
to God. And it makes such a difference when we
choose to live this way. Robert Thomas says,
the true victories in life are won by Christians
who are joyful, prayerful, thankful. I remind
you to think of the Lord Jesus before he went
to the cross, indeed the very night before he
went to the cross when he instituted this supper
that we are about to partake of this morning,
this Lord's Supper. The Lord Jesus that evening
was filled with joy. He knew what was but hours
away, but he was filled with joy, and he said
to his disciples, my joy may be in you." John
15. He says to them, be of good cheer. You can
see the smile on his face as he exhorts them.
On that evening the Lord Jesus was prayerful
because he went to a garden, the scriptures tell
us, and there he prayed to his Heavenly Father.
and the Lord Jesus was thankful. He took the
cup and He took the bread and He gave thanks
because He knew exactly what the bread and the
cup stood for and He gave thanks to God for the
sacrifice for the sins of mankind. The Lord Jesus
lived this way and you and I can live this way
too. Let's come to the Lord's table today. in
the will of God. Yielded to the Holy Spirit,
our sins confessed, and choosing by the power
of God's Spirit within us to be joyful, to be
prayerful, and to be thankful like Jesus was.
Let's bow together, please. Father, so teach
us to live. Forgive us when we are grumblers,
when we see the dark side of things, and we allow
negative thinking to dominate us. Forgive us
for our proud independence and feeling to pray
and ignoring you throughout our days. Institute
within each one of us a new desire this morning.
that by the Holy Spirit we might live victoriously
over our circumstances and not as victims of
them. With our heads bowed, I wonder if you would
like to talk to God just for another minute or
so about that. I'm going to ask those who are
serving to join me in the front. Let's prepare
our hearts to partake of the Lord's table.