Give Thanks In Every Situation

[Music] open your Bibles with me into first thessalonians at chapter number five first thessalonians at chapter five verses 16 17 and verse number 18 rejoice evermore pray without ceasing in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you thank you you may be seated the grass withers and the flower fades with the word of our God shall stand forever give thanks in every situation give thanks in every situation I want to submit to us this morning brothers and sisters that you worship out of your experience I was watching television this morning and I saw it I'm sure 10 to 15 times but the commercial jumped out at me this morning it's a commercial about a patch for cigarette smokers it's a it's a NicoDerm patch to aid persons who are trying to quit smoking and the commercial went on with all whatever they had to say about the NicoDerm CQ and and whatever the its qualities and properties and all of that but the commercial ends by saying for every great why that's a great how for every great why that's a great how why do you come to church on Sunday morning why do you get up every week and come to the same place and sit in the same pew next are the same people listen to the same preacher go to the same Sunday School class every week without fail you you worship morn of your experience tribulation the Bible says worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and that hope does not make us a shame because the love of God is shed abroad in our heart the only way to properly worship the only way to truly worship is out of what you've been through you can tell somebody else's testimony but it's not your testimony you can preach somebody else's sermon but it's not your sermon come on help me if you can you can pretend to care on like you see somebody else caring on on Sunday morning but if it's not borne out of your experience it's false and fake phony and untrue but but when God has been real good to you when God has really brought you out your worship takes a kind of different kind of flavor a different kind of turn because there's no longer just repetition it's no longer routine it's no longer just showing up now that you know why you get excited about how I know why I worship but Paul teaches us how to worship he says rejoice evermore always be rejoicing always be excited always be enthusiastic always rejoice always full of joy pray continuously without ceasing in everything not for everything but in everything I'm not grateful for cancer but I'm grateful in that situation I wish I had somebody to help me I'm not grateful for my heartache but I'm thankful in the midst of my situation I'm not grateful for the storm but I praise God in the midst of my storm and in this in this group of three exhortations Paul leaves the habits that characterize the Christians relationship to God the first of those characteristics is praise verse number 16 verse number 16 leads us into praise rejoice for evermore the Apostle never encourages believers to deny that adversity brings sadness and grief Romans chapter 12 and verse 15 tells us to rejoice with those who rejoice but to weep also with those who weep but to recognize that in the midst of the most agonizing situations the presence of God through his spirit can infuse the soul with hope and the heart with joy joy joy not happiness but joy because happiness is contingent upon what's happening but joy is in spite of what's happening rather than sisters you mean you may notice about some people that they are not always smiling and always jumping up and down and they're not always they're not always boolean and and floating on air because everybody does not have that personality of just being effervescent and and just always springing up that's that's not everybody's personality and to look at that you would think that the people are coarse and cold but but life has a way of tempering you talk back to me if you can I don't I don't I don't bake but I watch the Food Channel and I watch those people who bake and cook on the Food Channel and whenever that's a mixture that that requires our eggs to be put in that mixture a warm mixture the eggs have to be put in slowly to temper the mixture or you scramble the eggs you'll mess up the end result if you put it in too quickly somebody sees where I'm trying to go here so you have to temper the eggs you have to pour a little bit of the warm mixture into the egg to get it acclimated to the temperature of what you're about to pour it into because you don't want to just put the cold eggs in there because you'll scramble the eggs in that hot mixture that that's the way God deals with us as it relates to our joy God mixes enough trouble with enough happiness to fill us with contentment and joy because we are not always jumping up and down because we know that maybe around the corner is something we're not expecting but if it comes our faith has been tempered a jar it has been made complete because we are not happy always but we're always full of joy and brothers and sisters happiness comes and goes but joy shows in your facial expression joy shows in your handshake jars shows up and everything around you is falling apart you still come to church you still hold your head up you still give God your best hallelujah it does not matter who's sitting next to you what anybody thinks of if God has been good to you your joy springs up the scripture says in the life relievers the believers were not to display the dispassionate indifference of the Stoics they were not to grasp the impersonal naturalism of the neo-platonists they were not to hold to the sterile academic approach to life of the skeptics they could not fall prey to the rigorous idealism of the cynics nor the eat drink and be merry philosophy of the Epicureans the church was unique in its Proclamation that joy what else was at the heart of its face and if you do not have real lasting joy I seriously question your commitment to the Lord Jesus because nobody can come to Jesus and be saved and leave the same way you came but that's something about that name there's something wonderful about that name that just Sunday morning gets me excited I was raised with old folks and my old people in my family all of them are just about gone but being raised with old people I had that kind of excitement about Sunday morning they started getting ready on Friday I wish I had somebody to help me here my grandmother would put all her clothes out on Friday and if something needed to be ironed she'd iron it on Saturday and most of her cooking was done on Saturday night because Sunday was the Lord's Day we were going to church at early in the morning service and then going to Sunday school and then growing the eleven o'clock service and then going to be ypu at five o'clock on Sunday afternoon and then stand for night service that was church all day long and wore you out we just got through reading the responses reading my zeal wears me out and when you really give God your best praise it wears you out I don't understand you Christians who leave here fresh and jumping up after service is over I'm tired after I get through praising God cuz I'm coming to give God my best hallelujah I want to leave it all on the field I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus singing and praying with my walking and talking with my mind stayed on Jesus I don't come to church to spectate because real worship is not a spectator sport I come to church to participate to give God my best mind my best hallelujah I come to raise my hand I come to open my mouth because this may be my last [Applause] rejoice forever more that's the first exhortation in this trilogy of exhortations the second is in verse number 17 pray without ceasing I've been trying to get to this all the morning the first the first is rejoice that should be praised in giving thanks in every situation but secondly giving thanks in every situation that should be prayer pray continually praise continuing I'm gonna give you an example of that in just a minute prayer was not to be limited to prescribed hours but should rather be a common and constant element in our daily life here's what praise and pray without ceasing means it does not mean to walk around everywhere you go [Music] even I'm doing this Old Glory how about my my my Sasha that that's not what that means that's that's not at all what that mean here is what it means you ready to pray without ceasing it's the picture of a person with an intermittent coughs you're not coughing all day but that's a tickle in the back of your throat that every once in a while and cough is possible you're not coughing all day a coffee has come up at any minute you're not praying all day but if you need it is right in the back of your throat you're not praised in all day but when God let something come your way a praise just jumps up right away it's right in the back of your hallelujah thank you Jesus it's always in the back of your throat and people who know you know not to come around you on your job talking about the Lord you trying to make me lose my job don't call my job telling me how good the Lord is don't call me while I'm cooking telling me what the Lord has done for you you try to make me burn up my food God's been just that good to you and no matter where you are it just comes up cuz it's in the back of your throat likewise just like praise and prayer is like an intermittent coughs in the back of your throat there are some things that are cough suppressants [Music] [Applause] plan is a cough suppressant hatred suppresses your praise coughs judgmental spirits is a cough suppressant envy is a cough suppressant last is a cough suppressant God wants to get appraised out of you but you gotta get some other stuff out of you and is there anybody here know that your praise has been perfected because of what you've been through I need about two or three believers here whose faith whose praise has been perfected by the storms you've been through mother but a mess you've got yourself in and by the mess God got you out of and then by the mess God kept you from getting in somebody ought to help me here you're not good here you're not this morning here good and careful and God is keeping you because you're so righteous the only reason you have a step in it yet it's because of God's mercy I wish I had a witness here but I need a real worship round me the real praise are here who's not here praise Him because you got it all together you're not praying and praising because everything in your life is coming of roses you just know that at any minute but praise can come up [Applause] and listen if it's real it'll happen in the car [Applause] it'll happen and Luby's it'll happen sitting in the house by yourself it don't even have to be send them all you just go look in your closet and see how God has blessed you that's enough for thank you Jesus get behind the wheel of that car and remember when you didn't have one thank you Jesus come on in this church with people to hug you and love you and remember when you felt by yourself thank you sit down to your table to eat a meal and look at your pax-rn see you got canned goods that you have an open and people in Baton Rouge wish somebody would just give them some thank you was there anybody here got a praise in the back of your throat then don't let anybody suppress you'll have a loo you [Applause] and then finally verse number 18 verse number 18 in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you thankfulness is the opposite of complaining thankfulness is the opposite of complaining I could complain but I won't I used to complain but I won't I need to complain but I won't cuz when I put my blessings on the side of my complaints the balance of the scale is tilted always in my direction [Applause] someone ought to help me preaching my blessings fire our way by complete the Israelites had more to be thankful for than any peoples in the Bible yet they were guilty of doing the moose complaining and like no other nation in Scripture they watched God move on their behalf I mean I'm not talking about the herd I'm not talking about the second generation that was in the promised land I'm talking about the generation that left Egypt if anybody should have been praising God it should have been that crowd because they saw God work miracle [Applause] they saw God open the Red Sea and he loved them so much he wouldn't let him get their feet muddy they went over on dry ground and the enemies that were tracking them when they got in the midst of the sea the same see that opened for Israel closed on the Egyptian and the dead bodies of Pharaoh's army washed up on the seashore Miriam Moses sister got a tambourine and saying God is a man of war he's fought many battles he's never lost one and Jehovah is his name they saw that and then when they got hungry God rained food bread from heaven they saw that and then they started complaining that it wouldn't know meat with the bread must have been some of our people in that trial and God sent quail a delicacy in a restaurant right now to eat with that manner and then they complain that they're gonna have nothing to wash it down the way God told Moses speak to the rock somehow to help you preach and sweet water flowed some Arak they saw that their sandals would not wear out [Music] they wore the same clothes for a year and they would not wear and if anybody should have been praising God it was the children of issue but let's not be too hard on Israel there's some Israelites in here called African Americans if anybody ought to be praising God it ought to be people of color haven't got a witness here you saw Bull Connor you saw those dogs that they stick down those children you saw those fire hoses that they let off on those children you saw the back door Jim Crow segregation and Gayle uncle and boy you saw how they'd be I would just be humanized us as a people but through all of that I said through all of that God brought us through and you mean to tell me you sitting down in this church looking around at us wondering what we are hiring about wondering what all this noise is about I'll tell you what this noise is about I'm grateful I said I'm grateful I said I'm great cuz he brought me out never got a witness here he made a way out of no way he did some things for me that I didn't even ask him for so I'm going to come here every time I get a chance and rejoice over his goodness I'm gonna shout over his blessings and I need somebody who's not embarrassed to help me testify but God is a good God God is a merciful God God is a faithful God God is worthy to be praised and if you don't want to praise him i'ma praise Him by myself if I'm the only one we mops you if I'm the only one in my section I'm gonna lift my voice cuz I'm going to rejoice forevermore cuz I don't know when trouble is gonna come my way I don't know when sickness is gonna come my way I don't know when hardship is gonna come my way so I've always got something in the back of my throat thank you thank you thank you thank you you've been umbrella for me you've been a father for me you've been a sister and a brother for me is there anybody here know God been keeping you if the Lord made a wave for you right now would be a good time to catch up on your please if God has opened the door for you now would be a pretty good time to catch up on your hallelujah if the Lord been do it to you why don't you grab somebody I said I got a praise for you thank you Jesus thank you Lord you brought me some remaining love the way you put food on my table thank you Lord you put clothes on my back thank you Jesus I got some rather sleep tonight thank you Jesus you raised a friends-and-family for me thank you Jesus why don't you have somebody that what you encourage somebody tell them rejoice for evermore tell them pray without ceasing tell them in everything give thanks if this is the will of God and Christ Jesus is there anybody here who knows what I'm talking about he's a rock in a weary land a shelter in a time of storm a friend when you're friendless red when you hundred he died didn't he die her son the Merlin's he bit me get up thank you Jesus thank you Jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] give thanks in every situation give thanks and everything not for everything but that word end means in the midst of everything while you are surrounded by everything give things and brothers and sisters here is the shout here's what the here's the place where you need to shout you can shout your way through your problem God you haven't worked it out yet but I'm a live proleptic Lee God you hadn't made a way yet but I believe you can God you haven't opened the door yet but I'm still knocking God you have not done it yet but that don't mean you're not gonna do it because you may not tell me when I want you to but if my heart is right if I rejoice ever move and pray without ceasing and in everything just thank you thank you thank you is always caught in the back of my throat it's always got the possibility of coming up thank you sometimes I do it at the wrong place sometimes I do it at the wrong time and people think that I'm inappropriate but you don't know what the Lord has brought me through you don't know how many storms God has quieted in my life you don't know how many tears God has dried for me how dare you [Music] [Applause] not let me get it out cuz sometimes Sunday morning a enough time for me to get it out I need some more time to get it out I got to I got to get in the car I got to get to the house I got to get where I can get comfortable and tell God thank you for all you've done for me and not just what he's done for me but for who he is he is my savior he is my stronghold he is my refuge and strength a very present help in the time of truck brothers and sisters I would lift up my eyes to the hill where does my help come from my help comes from the Lord who made the heavens and the earth he will not suffer even my foot to be moved behold he that keepeth thee will not slumber behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep the Lord is my keeper the Lord is the shade upon my right hand the Sun will not smite me by day nor the moon by night for the Lord shall preserve me from all evil he he shall preserve my soul he shall preserve my going out and my coming in from this time forth and even forevermore he that dwelleth in the secret place for the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty I will say of the Lord he is my refuge and my fortress my god in him will I put my trust [Music]

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Id: 8sLdRy0CwQQ

Length: 36min 51sec (2211 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 19 2018