MESSAGE
FROM THE
WORD
DEVELOPING A THANKFUL HEART
Colossians 1:3
SERIES: Colossians Message # 3
There are many characteristics that are attractive to people. If you are dating, if you are trying to instill in your children proper actions, if you are seeking to teach someone who has not grown up in a Christian home, there are qualities that are desirous to acquire. Such traits as kindness, patience, punctuality, hard work, and wisdom are ones to have. There are also traits that are not desired. Anger, selfishness, and laziness are ones to avoid. There is probably no trait that is uglier than that of ingratitude. There is something wonderful about someone who receives a gift and responds in a grateful manner.
Our Lord even pointed this out. We read, LUKE 17:11-19 You can almost feel it in the words of Christ how disappointed He was that the nine lepers did not stop to show their gratitude. How different was the Psalmist. We read, PSALM 100 When you arrive for the church service, do you come with an attitude of “God what are you going to do for me”? Or, do you come with an attitude of “Praise God from whom all blessings flow”! It makes all the difference in the world how we live life once we decide whether we will be thankful or ungrateful.
As we come to our sermon in Colossians, we come to a passage on gratitude. Why should we be grateful, what makes us grateful and how do we express our gratitude are all important subjects. Paul writes, COLOSSIANS 1:3-8 This is not an easy passage to outline, because Paul is primarily sharing his heart with them. He is not trying to organize his thoughts logically; he is just trying to express his feelings to those who have touched his life. We are going to divide this passage into three simple thoughts. We will see the requirement, the receiver, and the response.
FIRST, WE SEE THE REQUIREMENT. It says, ‘WE GIVE THANKS TO GOD…” It should be normal for Christians to be grateful. We read, 1 THES. I am not alone in seeing a thankful heart as critical. Paul wrote that being grateful is a part of God’s will for our life. I have people ask me all the time how to find the will of God for their life. One way is to find a verse which tells us what God’s will is. God’s will is for His people to be thankful. I did a word study on this passage and found out something very interesting. It is the word, “Euchristeo”. We derive our word “Eucharist” from this word. The Eucharist is the emblems that are used in the Lord’s Supper. How does this fit? It is very simple. As we gather around the Lord’s Supper, what do we do? We are told in Luke’s gospel, LUKE 22:14-20 The Lord’s Supper is all about our giving thanks to God for all He has done for us, especially His sacrifice on the cross to bring about the forgiveness of sins.
Think about this for a moment. Why are people ungrateful? In most cases it is because they feel they have been short changed. They think they deserve one thing and they get less. Several years ago I had the privilege of appearing on a television game show, entitled “
What should be compared? We should compare what we have with what we deserve. This is where the Lord’s Supper really fits in, because it is around the Communion Table that we understand we deserve God’s judgment. When we understand we deserve to pay for the penalty of our sins and Christ took them instead, our instinctive response will be, “GOD THANK YOU”. What is it for which you are grateful?
SECOND, WE SEE THE RECEIVER. Who should receive our gratitude? Paul tells us, “WE GIVE THANKS TO GOD…” This does not imply that we do not act grateful to those around us. My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer several months ago. You cannot imagine how grateful we are to the multitudes of people who have sent flowers, mailed cards, brought in meals, provided fellowship and given to our medical fund. When we think of God’s work in our life, we are thankful. Thankfulness is a constant theme in this book. We read, COLOSSIANS 1:12; 2:7; ,17; 4:2 It is seen in other books as well. We read HEBREWS 13:15,16;
There is a very important concept in this passage. If you browse down to verse 3 you read, “SINCE WE HEARD…” This lets us know that there are two reasons for us to be thankful. We should be thankful to God for all that He has done for us. Think for a moment of God’s blessings in your life.
Then, we should be thankful for what God is doing in the lives of others. There are times when we go through dry periods. We don’t see God doing much in our life. Those can be difficult times. However, if we are sensitive, we will see God doing great things in those around us. Nicki and I were having lunch at a local restaurant several weeks back and we saw a lady that used to live across the street from us. We had shared with her on many occasions but she was a cultural Jew and not interested in spiritual things. Our girls had decided to do a Bible play and her daughter came over to let us know that she would not be able to participate because she was Jewish. Nicki talked to her for a moment and asked, “did you know that Jesus was a Jew”? This caught her off guard and she didn’t quite know how to respond. They moved away and then she went through a divorce. She had recently remarried and then she stated, “did you know that I have become a Christian”? We were floored by her statement. We had prayed for her on several occasions, but were shocked when God actually came through.
Let me ask you to contemplate just for a moment. What are you thankful to God for? Maybe more importantly, who are you thankful to God for? Who is in your life for which you are eternally grateful? Have you thanked God for them? Have you thanked them for their influence in your life? Maybe they feel like they are in a dry period and your reminding them of how important they are to you may be a big encouragement in their life.
THIRD, WE SEE THE RESPONSE. Because we are thankful to God, what should our response be? Paul wanted these believers to know that because he was thankful to God, he would be, “PRAYING ALWAYS FOR YOU…” How many of you have ever seen prayer as a response to being thankful? We think of prayer in many ways. We pray when we have a need. We pray when others have a need. The Bible calls that intercession. We pray thanksgiving prayers when God does a neat thing in our life. However, we don’t often think of praying for those who we hear are doing well.
Let’s spend some time on prayer. We read, LUKE 11:1-8 Some of you may not be familiar with this condensed version of what is known as The Lord’s Prayer. Luke gives us some historical background. Jesus was constantly going off to a corner and praying. We read MARK This is the busiest day in the life of our Lord. Knowing that, He went off to pray. This was a similar instance. His disciples found Him just as He finished His time with God. They noticed something was different about Jesus. When Jesus prayed, something happened. The loaves were multiplied, the sick were healed, the dead were raised and miracles took place. The disciples came to Jesus and said they wanted to pray like that. Here is something important to remember. The disciples were not asking Jesus to teach them to pray. They prayed. They were Jews. Prayer was a part of their daily life. The issue wasn’t to pray or not pray. The issue was to pray so that power was released or not.
All religions pray. The issue is that God wants us to pray so that His power is released. Jesus then gave them the keys to prayer. We are going to study the Lord’s Prayer when we finish Colossians. Then we have this little story that illustrates effective prayer. Most people miss the meaning of this simple story. In so doing they miss the power of prayer.
A man had come to the end of his day and he had put his family to bed. Suddenly he heard a knock at the door. His neighbor was there and he was desperate. It seems he had run out of food and a friend had just shown up to visit. There was nothing more embarrassing that to have someone visit and have nothing to give them in way of hospitality. So, he snuck out the back door, raced to his friend’s house and asked for help. Notice the response. Because he continued to pound on the door, the man gave him the bread in order to keep him from waking up his family. In the story, the man in the house is God. We are knocking on the door and asking for help. Here is the key. If you get this, you will understand the purpose of prayer. If you miss this, prayer will be a rote routine.
When the man was knocking on the door, what was he seeking? Many of you might think he was seeking bread. He wasn’t. He was seeking to meet the needs of his friend. At that particular time, his friend needed something to eat. Bread was what was asked for, but what if the man had come to the door and said all I have is cheese and roast beef. That would have met his need also.
When we go to the Lord in prayer, we often get caught up in the minor details like the bread and forget to pray for the real needs of people. This is why we need to leave room for God’s sovereign work. You may see someone in need and begin to pray for their finances. You do that because you notice that they are not able to pay their bills. However, as you begin to pray for their financial needs God may prompt you to pray for a deeper need which is what is causing the financial needs. You might begin to pray for the neighbor kids because they are out of control. As you pray for that, you will be lead to pray for mom and dad because it is their problems which are the cause of the kid’s reactions.
You do not know the real needs of those you are praying for. You begin to pray for their car which broke and suddenly an opening into their soul is revealed which allows you to pray for a real need in their life. Each week we pray for the requests listed by our people. Most of those needs are important, but often superficial. The reason for this is because we tend not to reveal our real needs in a crowd. However, as you pray for those in your sphere of influence, God will open up a little crack into what is their true need.
What are the real needs we should be praying for? Jesus gave us those needs in the Lord’s Prayer. For sake of clarity, I want us to look at the more complete version in Matthew 6. This is probably the most well known passage in the New Testament. However, because we know the words does not mean we understand the principles. Let me give you in just a few minutes the true needs over which we can pray for people. We read, MATTHEW 6:9-13 There are six distinct needs mentioned by Jesus in these few verses.
The first need is our parentage. What does it mean to have God as our Father? We live in a culture that believes in the fatherhood of all humans. God is the father of everyone and all roads lead to Heaven. The only problem with that is it isn’t true. This is why Jesus said JOHN 14:6 God is the Father of those who trust in Him. When someone shares a need with you, you can turn that around and begin to pray that they would yield the control of their life to God and become His child.
The second need is to have their priorities in line. In their minds, their priorities are pretty clear. They need to get a good job, buy a home in a nice neighborhood, have a couple of children and make sure their children are enrolled in the right schools. God has a set of different priorities. None of those issues are wrong. Jobs, home, family and education are all important. However, they are not the highest priority; they are means to get to their priorities. Jesus lists three priorities.
The first priority is worship. When we pray, “HALLOWED BE THY NAME” we are asking that God’s name be the held up high. That is what we do in worship. We seek to exalt and glorify God.
The second priority is evangelism. That is what we want when we ask that “THY KINGDOM COME”. This is a concept that is difficult for us to grasp because we live in a democracy. In a dictatorship or a monarchy, the Kingdom represents the rule and influence of the king. We want everyone to come under the authority of King Jesus. Centuries ago, many made the mistake of forcing people to acknowledge Christ or die. This cannot be forced. This is why we seek to persuade people.
The third priority is service. Another name could be obedience. “THY WILL BE DONE” is how Jesus stated it. Not my will do we seek, by His will. When He speaks, we respond. When we are told, we do. We serve Him, not ourselves.
The third need is provision. It is a command to pray for “OUR DAILY BREAD”. It is not a sin to pray for a job or a financial need. We are told to do so. Notice, though, we are to pray for our needs not our surplus. We don’t pray for a mansion, we pray for a roof over our head. Jesus was not alone in this. Paul wrote, 1 TIMOTHY 6:8-10 We pray for our needs and not wealth. If God gives us wealth, we use it for His glory.
The fourth need is a pardon. When we study this passage later, we will take two weeks on this section. There are few people who do not understand they need to be forgiven by God. Far more miss that they need to also forgive others. This presents us with the need, that we always be open to forgiveness. It could be received from God, or it could be extended to our enemies. Our nation is desperately in need of understanding the incredible forgiveness of God. Suicide, drugs, alcohol, alienation, and promiscuity are all consequences of failing to receive God’s forgiveness or extending forgiveness to others.
The fifth need is protection. This mostly deals with the spiritual dimension, but it could go beyond that. God does not tempt us, but he does protect us. This is one of the responsibilities of our conscience, to keep us away from tempting situations. It is also one of the responsibilities of the angelic host, to protect those who will inherit salvation.
Finally, the last need is a purpose. Beginning in September, we are going to spend seven weeks on this subject as we participate in the 40 Days of Purpose program. In a nutshell it is this, “THINE IS THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER AND THE GLORY”. In short, our purpose is to live our life for Him.
Bring all this into our prayer life. Someone shares with you a need and you run it through this grid. Pray for their stated request, but then go beyond and ask what their real need is. Are they outside the family of God and in need of a Father? Are their priorities all messed up? Are they mishandling the provisions God has given to them? Are they refusing God’s forgiveness? Or, are they harboring bitterness against someone else? Are they leaving their spiritual life unprotected? Are they involved in activities that are opening themselves up to demonic forces? Are they living lives of self centeredness? This begins to allow you to pry a little into their heart and God may then open up the shell just a little to let you in.
A poet once wrote, “most men live lives of quite desperation”. God does not want you to live a life of desperation, but of meaning. It begins with a grateful heart. An individual who is thankful will rarely live a meaningless life. It focuses on God which gives a stable foundation to life. It manifests itself in praying for others in a way that sees powerful results.
This message is from the teaching ministry of Glen Jackson, pastor of the Faith Christian Church, in
