Proud to be TJ's man

It should go without saying that Christians are commanded to give thanks.

(1 Thessalonians 5:18 (ESV) ¹⁸  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Ephesians 5:20 (ESV) ²⁰  giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But this is where the rub comes. Even in those times when we should feel like giving thanks we can neglect to do so because of our own sin:

Deuteronomy 6:10-12 (ESV) ¹⁰  “And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, ¹¹  and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, ¹²  then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Such forgetfulness can have serious consequences:

Deuteronomy 28:47-48 (ESV) ⁴⁷  Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, ⁴⁸  therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.

Romans 1:20-21 (ESV) ²⁰  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹  For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 

But these commands to continually give thanks become even more problematic to us on those occasions when God’s blessing is not immediately apparent. To take an extreme example, how can we give thanks when we read that a terrorist group has just attacked a Christian school and kidnapped several hundred school girls?

How do the Scriptures enable us to think biblically and thus to thank God when such an atrocity or tragedy occurs? The answer is much more complex than what will be suggested in the next few sentences; but let us at least make a start by pointing out how biblical thinking responds to the evils of this world.

First, we can thank God that the Bible squares with reality, so that the atrocities of this world should not come as a surprise to us (so-called prosperity preachers will struggle here). 

The Bible begins with the creation of a perfect world, but by the third chapter it is describing the fall of man and its devastating repercussions for the world in which we live; affirmed over and over again.

Romans 8:18-25 (ESV) ¹⁸  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. ¹⁹  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope ²¹  that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²²  For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. ²³  And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴  For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? ²⁵  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Man’s sin is never minimized, as we see in Romans 3:10-18 (ESV) ¹⁰  as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; ¹¹  no one understands; no one seeks for God. ¹²  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” ¹³  “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” ¹⁴  “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” ¹⁵  “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ¹⁶  in their paths are ruin and misery, ¹⁷  and the way of peace they have not known.” ¹⁸  “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

What we see going on in the world is what we should expect from reading the Bible. An accurate diagnosis is foundational to an adequate remedy, and for the Bible’s accurate diagnosis we can give thanks.

Second, we can give thanks to God for revealing to us that our sin and the brokenness of our world is not something that we can remedy.

Romans 3:19-20 (ESV) ¹⁹  Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. ²⁰  For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin

Third, we can give thanks to God because He provided the solution for our sin and its disastrous consequences.

(Romans 3:21-26 (ESV) ²¹  But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— ²²  the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: ²³  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴  and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵  whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. ²⁶  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Titus 3:3-7 (ESV) ³  For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. ⁴  But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, ⁵  he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, ⁶  whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷  so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

God sent His Son into this world as the perfect God-man, who died in the sinner’s place, bearing the penalty for his sin. In exchange for our sin and condemnation He offers us His righteousness and the gift of eternal life. Jesus is the cure for the consequences of sin for all who will receive His gift of salvation.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (ESV) ¹⁷  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ¹⁸  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹  that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Fourth, we can give thanks that Jesus is coming to this earth once again, this time to punish evil doers, to put away sin, and to establish a kingdom in which righteousness dwells.

2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 (ESV) ⁶  since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, ⁷  and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels ⁸  in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹  They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, ¹⁰  when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

Fifth, we can give thanks that God is sovereign over all creation, and over all heavenly and earthly powers

John 16:11 (ESV) ¹¹  concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

Colossians 2:13-15 (ESV) ¹³  And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, ¹⁴  by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵  He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Sixth, we can give thanks that our God is a God who “causes all things to work together for good.”

Romans 8:28 (ESV) ²⁸  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.) and thus He even uses the sinful acts of men to ultimately achieve His good and perfect purposes. 

We see that with the sins of Joseph’s brothers.

 (Genesis 50:20 (ESV) ²⁰  As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Seventh, we can give thanks that our God is mindful of the sufferings of those who are innocent, and that He will always do that which is right.

(Genesis 18:25 (ESV) ²⁵  Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”

God’s wrath abides on those who are stumbling blocks to “little ones”

Matthew 18:5-7 (ESV) ⁵  “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, ⁶  but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. ⁷  “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!

Eighth, we can give thanks that our struggles with the success of the wicked is one with which other saints have wrestled.

Psalm 73:1-28 (ESV)  Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. ²  But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. ³  For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. ⁴  For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. ⁵  They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.

¹⁰  Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them. ¹¹  And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” ¹²  Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.

¹³  All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. ¹⁴  For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.

¹⁶  But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, ¹⁷  until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. ¹⁸  Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. ¹⁹  How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!

²⁰  Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. ²¹  When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, ²²  I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. ²³  Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. ²⁴  You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. ²⁵  Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. ²⁶  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. ²⁷  For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. ²⁸  But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

This give us instruction as to how we should handle our adversities.

Ninth, we can give thanks for the character of our God, which assures us of His mercy and kind intentions, and informs us that His desire is that men be saved, rather than to face eternal judgment.

Exodus 34:6-7 (ESV) ⁶  The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, ⁷  keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Ezekiel 18:23 (ESV) ²³  Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?

2 Peter 3:9 (ESV)  ⁹  The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

One of Philip Bliss’s beautiful hymns contains the words,

Man of sorrows, what a name, For the Son of God who came, Ruined sinners to reclaim! Hallelujah, what a Savior!

The hymn writer borrowed his description of Christ from Isaiah, who predicted that the Messiah would be “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3).

There is no record in Scripture of Jesus’ laughing, but there are numerous accounts of His grieving, His sadness, and even His weeping:

• He wept at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:35)
• He wept over Jerusalem at the time of His triumphal entry (Luke 19:41).

    Matthew 26:36-46 reveals three aspects of Jesus’ striving in the garden: His sorrow, His supplication, and His strength. And in clear contrast to their Lord’s unremitting struggle we see also the disciples’ indifferent lethargy

Sorrow

³⁶  Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”
³⁷  He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.
³⁸  Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

 “Jesus had often met there with His disciples,” and it was that fact that enabled Judas to find Him so easily later that night (John 18:2).

Luke 22:42-71 (NIV) ⁴²  “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” ⁴³  An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. ⁴⁴  And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

 2 Corinthians 5: 21 (NIV)  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Hebrews 5:7 (NIV)  During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

 Supplication

³⁹  Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
⁴⁰  Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter.
⁴¹  “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
⁴²  He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
⁴³  When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy.
⁴⁴  So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
⁴⁵  Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting?

 “I lay down My life that I may take it again,” He explained to the unbelieving Pharisees “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:17-18).

As always with Jesus, the determining consideration was God’s will. “I did not speak on My own initiative,” He declared, “but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say and what to speak” (John 12:49; cf. 14:31; 17:8).

The need for spiritual vigilance is not occasional but constant. Jesus was warning His disciples to be discerning enough to know they were in spiritual warfare and to be prepared by God to resist the adversary. He was warning them of the danger of self-confidence, which produces spiritual drowsiness.

 Strength

Matthew 26:45-46 (NIV) ^{Mt 45 (NIV)}  Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴⁶  Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

With the courage of invincibility, Jesus had made the ultimate and final act of commitment to His heavenly Father, who He knew would raise Him from the dead on the third day. As He moved toward the crowd who came to arrest Him, He also resolutely moved toward the cross. “For the joy set before Him [He] endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb. 12:2).

Matthew 26:36-46 gives the pattern and sequence of spiritual tragedy, which may be summarized in the words: confidence, sleep, temptation, sin, and disaster.

• Self-confidence always opens the door to temptation. The first step of a believer’s falling into sin is false confidence that he is able to be faithful to the Lord in his own power. Like the disciples on the Mount of Olives, he is certain he would never forsake Christ or compromise His Word.
• Following self-confidence comes sleep, representing indifference to evil and lack of moral and spiritual vigilance. The sleeping believer has little concern for what he reads or listens to, even when it is clearly unchristian and debasing.
• The third step is temptation, which Satan’s system is constantly ready to place in the way of God’s people. As with Jesus, the temptation appeals to one’s personal rights and calls for rebellion against God.
• The fourth step is sin, because a believer who is spiritually self-confident, who is indifferent to sin, and who does not turn to the Lord for help will inevitably fall into sin. No person, not even a Christian, has the capacity within himself to withstand Satan and avoid sin.
• The fifth and final stage in the sequence is disaster. Just as temptation that is not resisted in God’s power always leads to sin, sin that is not confessed and cleansed leads to spiritual tragedy.

But this passage also contains the pattern for spiritual victory, manifested and exemplified by Jesus. The way of victory rather than tragic defeat:

• confidence in God rather than self
• moral and spiritual vigilance rather than indifference
• resisting temptation in God’s power rather than in our own
• and holding to obedience rather than to the rebellion of sin. 

Worry has become an obsession in our modern world. A look at the self-help section in any bookstore will reveal its prevalence. Hospitals and waiting rooms are filled with people who have physical problems caused by overwhelming anxiety. In addition, there are many people whose lives are disrupted or made unenjoyable because of paralyzing fear.

Christians like to hide their worry by labeling it Christian concern. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is intensely practical. He deals with this practical problem of anxiety. If he taught about it, that means he cares about it.

The Jews themselves were very familiar with this attitude to life. It was the teaching of the great Rabbis that a man ought to meet life with a combination of prudence and serenity. They insisted, for instance, that every man must teach his son a trade, for, they said, not to teach him a trade was to teach him to steal. That is to say, they believed in taking all the necessary steps for the prudent handling of life. But at the same time, they said, “He who has a loaf in his basket, and who says, ‘What will I eat tomorrow?’ is a man of little faith.”

Jesus said that worry is sinful. We may dignify worry by calling it by some other name—concern, burden, a cross to bear—but the results are still the same. Instead of helping us live longer, anxiety only makes life shorter (Matt. 6:27). The Greek word translated take no thought literally means “to be drawn in different directions.” Worry pulls us apart. Until man interferes, everything in nature works together, because all of nature trusts God. Man, however, is pulled apart because he tries to live his own life by depending on material wealth.

God feeds the birds and clothes the lilies. He will feed and clothe us. It is our “little faith” that hinders Him from working as He would. He has great blessings for us if only we will yield to Him and live for the riches that last forever.

^{Mt 25 (NIV)}  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

There is plenty to worry about (v. 25).

There is no shortage of potential items to worry about. Jesus mentions several matters of common concern.

1. Life 2. Health 3. Possessions

We could add our own list of concerns.

1. Accidents 2. Aging 3. Weather    4. Criticism

In these ten verses Jesus sets out seven different arguments and defenses against worry.

• He begins by pointing out (verse 25) that God gave us life….surely we can trust him for the lesser things.
• Jesus goes on to speak about the birds (verse 26). ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 
• There is no worry in their lives, no attempt to pile up goods for an unforeseen and unforeseeable future; and yet their lives go on. The point that Jesus is making is not that the birds do not work; it has been said that no one works harder than the average sparrow to make a living; the point that he is making is that they do not worry.
• ²⁷ Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? In verse 27, Jesus goes on to prove that worry is in any event is useless…no man by worrying can add the shortest space to his life; and that meaning is more likely.
• ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Jesus goes on to speak about the flowers (verses 28-30), and he speaks about them as one who loved them. If God gives such beauty to a short-lived flower, how much more will he care for man?
• ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
• Jesus goes on to advance a very fundamental argument against worry. Worry, he says, is characteristic of a heathen, and not of one who knows what God is like (verse 32). Worry is essentially distrust of God.
• Jesus goes on to advance two ways in which to defeat worry. The first is to seek first, to concentrate upon, the Kingdom of God. Worry is banished when God becomes the dominating power of our lives.
• Jesus says that worry can be defeated when we acquire the art of living one day at a time (verse 34).
• ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

• We worry over things we cannot control…usually do not happen…cause us to lose joy of the day…act as if we do not know God.

  Worry is a futile thing It’s something like a rocking chair, It will keep you occupied But it won’t get you anywhere.

  It ain’t no use putting up your umbrella till it rains. Alice Caldwell Rice

  It is distrust of God to be troubled about what is to come; impatience against God to be troubled with what is present; and anger at God to be troubled for what is past. Simon Patrick (1625–1707)

  Read from Psalm 37:1-40 (NIV) …note the word ‘fret’ and apply to the verses

A mother overheard her son’s little six-year-old friend ask why babies are spanked when they are born. The youngster replied, “To get them used to it.”

From the human point of view, life appears futile; and it is easy for us to get pessimistic. The Jewish writer Sholom Aleichem once described life as “a blister on top of a tumor, and a boil on top of that.” You can almost feel that definition!

The American poet Carl Sandburg compared life to “an onion—you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.” And British playwright George Bernard Shaw said that life was “a series of inspired follies.”

What a relief to turn from these pessimistic views and hear Jesus Christ say, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Or to read Paul’s majestic declaration, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58).

Do you have a dream? You need one. Dreams give hope. They display a powerful image of what life can be. Has your dream been shattered? Worse yet, has your dream turned into a nightmare and come true? For all of us dreamers, there is hope.

We need to find meaning and purpose! It gives us daily direction. It gives us worth.

Life is “not in vain” if it is lived according to the will of God! This mind-set makes all the difference! It gives us a focus as we wake each morning and begin pondering the new day. It makes calculation easier when we wonder what lies ahead – and helps erase those things past, over which we no longer have control.

A little girl was working very hard and could not be induced to stop and rest. This was before the day of electric lights. When asked, “Why do you not stop and rest?” she replied, “I have just one little candle, and it will soon be burned out. I wish to do what I can while the candle burns.” So it is with us. Our little day will soon be gone. May we do what we can while the candle burns.