In Everything Give Thanks

Way back in the fall of 1999, when I first came to Erindale, I preached a series of messages on who God is, and what He is like. Each week, we focused on one of the attributes of God – his omnipresence; his omnipotence; his self-sufficiency; his holiness, and so on. And our purpose in that study was not to fill our heads with facts about God, but to develop a heart for God. Because I am convinced that to know God – to truly know Him as He is – is to love him. When we understand who God really is, we are attracted to him; our hearts are filled with love for him.

The reason that we don’t love God is that we don’t really know him. Oh, we think that we know him; we think we know what He is like, but what we really have in our heads is a distorted image of God – a caricature of God that we’ve have made up for ourselves. Some of us may have received our caricature of God from someplace else – perhaps our parents gave it to us, or our culture, or even our church upbringing. A lot of people are struggling with a caricature of God that they received from their own religious training.

And so we think that we know God, but what we have is a caricature of him – a caricature that falls pitifully far short of what God is really like; a caricature that we do not find attractive, or awesome, or exciting, or inspiring. Our caricature of God is that he is someone whom we would just as soon avoid and not get too close to. And that is tragic, because that is not the real God we are responding to; it is just our own faulty image of God.

Okay, so how do we get an accurate picture of God? Where do we go to find out what God is really like? We go to the Bible, because the Bible is God’s autobiography – it’s his self-disclosure of what he is like to us.

In the Bible, we find God telling us one thing about himself over and over and over again. This is what I call the most important attribute of God – it is that God is sovereign. He is in complete control over everything that happens both inside and outside the universe. And therefore, he is in complete control over everything that happens to you and me.

• “I am God and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me.” Isaiah 46:9.

  • God’s control is not limited by the competition; there is no competition

• The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. Psalm 135:6

  • God’s control is not limited by space or geography; there isn’t anyplace we could ever go where he isn’t in charge

• …the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. Psalm 33:11

  • God’s control is not limited by time; his plans stand firm forever

Why is this the most important attribute of God? Because it is foundational to our having a relationship of trust with him. If I am not convinced in my heart of hearts that God is in control over everything that happens in my world and in my life, then I don’t really believe that God is God. He is something less than God if he is not sovereign.

Now having said that, there’s another important truth that we need to know about God; it is that God is good. He is not bad, He is not wicked, He is not cruel, He is not grumpy or mean or spiteful. God is good. And that itself is good news! Think how terrifying life would be if we believed that God was in complete control, and we also believed that he was mean and cruel?

This, in fact, is how some people live their whole lives. They believe that God is all-powerful and sovereign, but they believe that he is a nasty God. So they live their lives afraid of Him. They are looking for ways to appease God – to hopefully avoid becoming the target of his wrath, his anger, his bad-temper.

But no, this is a caricature; the real God in the Bible tells us that He is good…

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Psalm 34:8

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100:5

Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Psalm 135:3

It is very important that we get this truth nailed down in our lives, because we live in a world where there are a lot of bad things happening. There is hatred, suffering, poverty, crime, unspeakable evil, pain, and heartache. And sooner or later, it touches our lives on a personal level. We find that evil, pain, and suffering invades our lives either through the deliberate actions of others, or simply through circumstances.

What should our response be? Well, if we believe that God is in control, and if we believe that God is good, there can only be one logical response. Somehow, in some way, we’ve got to be able to say that in His divine wisdom, God is going to take what to me is evil and turn it around so that it ultimately works out to be good.

And I go to the Bible to see if this is the right response and sure enough – there it is…

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Rom. 8:28

You see, God has a plan for us – a plan to redeem us, and to make us new people, and to ultimately bring us home to heaven to be with him forever. And everything that happens to us in this life becomes part of that plan.

Everything – that means the things that we have control over, such as our choices of what career to pursue, where to live, who to marry. But it also includes the things that happen to us that we have no control over – such as our parents, our physical features, our upbringing, our medical condition, and all the seemingly random accidents or coincidences that happen to us that are totally beyond our control. In all these things, God works for our good because He is sovereign and He is good.

So what are we to do in the midst of our circumstances?

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

“In all circumstances” means just that - “in everything”. So whether we find ourselves in good circumstances, or in terrible circumstances, our response is to be the same: Give thanks.

Because when we give thanks, we are telling God that we believe that He is in control and that He is good.

We may not understand the circumstances we find ourselves in. We may not have any idea how God could ever bring any good out of it. Our hearts may be breaking with pain and our eyes filled with tears. But when we give thanks in that situation, we are proclaiming to the world that our God is great enough and good enough to be able to turn even that awful situation into something good.

I have two dear friends who have modeled that truth. They live in Buffalo, New York, where he is a chef and she is a teachers aide. We’ve known each other for 20 years, dating back to when I served as an Associate Pastor in Buffalo, at the church they attend.

They have four kids – two daughters and two sons – who are about the same age as our kids. Through the years, our two families have enjoyed great times together at Family Bible conferences in the summer on Lake Canandaigua or just hanging out together cheering for the Buffalo Bills. One of our sons and their older son were especially good buddies while we lived in Buffalo.

When their oldest daughter graduated from high school, she enrolled at a Bible college in Phoenix, Arizona, along with a girlfriend from the youth group in Buffalo. During her sophomore year there, her brother saved up enough money to fly down to Arizona to spend the American Thanksgiving holiday with his big sister.

On Thanksgiving eve, the three of them piled into her friend’s car to head up to Las Vegas to spend Thanksgiving with their cousins who lived there. Somewhere that night, out on a lonely stretch of highway in the desert, her friend lost control of the car. The car rolled and flipped. Brother and sister were thrown from the vehicle. Both of them were killed instantly. Their friend survived.

And so it was that early on Thanksgiving morning just three years ago, my two friends received a phone call that every parent dreads. Two of their precious children were gone.

What was it like to experience that? How could anyone give thanks in the midst of a tragedy like that? I’ve asked them to join us today to talk about it. So I am going to ask them to come to the front and I am going to let them tell their story.

(the couple to front)

1. As you look back on the days leading up to the accident, was God doing anything to prepare you for what was about to happen?

2. What was your first reaction on hearing the news?

3. How did God help you in the days immediately following the accident?

4. Did God bring any specific Scriptures to your mind during this time?

5. Did you ever find yourself getting angry with God over what happened?

6. Does Romans 8:28 still make sense to you?

7. It has now been almost 3 years since the accident. Has it gotten easier or harder?

8. Do you still find it takes an effort to thank God for what happened?

9. As Christians, you have gone through perhaps the worst experience any parent could face: the experience of losing your children. Aren’t Christians supposed to be immune from such awful experiences?

10. What would you say to someone who is afraid that God might allow something awful to happen to him or her if they give Him control of their life?

When we give thanks in all circumstances, we are saying, “God is powerful and God is good”.