From His Heart

Guest (Male): Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, we're going to encourage you to be thankful.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Thanksgiving. Why is that so important? Because it honors God, because it expresses true faith and because it witnesses to the world. When you're grateful, when you're thankful, when the bottom drops out in your life and you do what Job did and you say, "Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there. God doesn't owe me anything. Everything I have is a gift from God. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord because breath in your lungs is a gift from God. God doesn't owe you anything. He doesn't owe me anything." He deserves our honor. He deserves our thanks because He is so good.

Guest (Male): Is it even possible for you and me to shine for Christ amid trying times and difficult days? That's what we're going to find out today on this edition of From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. The message is entitled "Doom, Gloom, and the Radiant Christian." Pastor Jeff is about to point out three directives found in God's Word that will enable you to let others truly see Jesus in you. We hope your Thanksgiving Day and weekend are being a blessing to you. And if you want to listen again to these lessons, part one and part two, you can easily do that when you go to fromhisheart.org, just click the listen link. Right now, open your Bible to the book of First Thessalonians. Here's Pastor Jeff to begin the lesson entitled "Doom, Gloom, and a Radiant Christian."

Dr. Jeff Schreve: God has called us to shine for Christ. He's called us to glorify Him. He's called us to be filled with the joy of the Lord. The question is, how do you do that? How can you, how can I, shine for Christ as Stephen did in trying times and difficult days? Is that even possible? The answer is yes. Stephen is proof that it's possible.

And the Lord gives us the formula, so to speak, the commands that we are to fulfill that will enable us to really shine for Christ. And so in First Thessalonians chapter 5, the Apostle Paul by inspiration the Holy Spirit says this to them, "Rejoice always," verse 16. "Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." Three directives that Paul gave to the Thessalonians, that God through Paul gave to the Thessalonians, that God through Paul is giving to you and giving to me. Directive number one says, "Rejoice always." We can make the choice to rejoice.

You can, I can, we can, any Christian can. You can make the choice to rejoice. See, rejoicing in the Lord is a choice. Rejoice always or as it says in the Amplified, "Rejoice always and delight in your faith." Notice, First Thessalonians 5:16 does not say, "Be happy always." Big difference between "rejoice always" and "be happy always." What's the difference? We can't always be happy, but we can always rejoice. Big difference.

Can't always be happy. Why? Because happiness is based on happenings. It's based on happenstance, it's based on circumstances. And when the happenings are good, you're happy. When the happenings are bad, you're unhappy. When the happenings are terrible, you're terribly unhappy. It's different from rejoicing. We can't always be happy, but we can always choose to rejoice. It's exactly what it says in James chapter one. "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance."

Now remember this about circumstances. Circumstances, happenstances, those are the same things. Circumstances change often, but the Lord never changes. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice. You can rejoice in the Lord because you know that God is good and God loves me, and God works all things together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose. Hey, I don't know what's going on in your life, but God does.

God is not asleep at the switch. God is not saying, "Oh man, I didn't know this was happening to you." God knows everything. Nothing comes into your life or into my life that doesn't first filter through His fingers of love. So we can make the choice even in the midst of pain, in the midst of suffering, we can make the choice to rejoice. Second directive. We can pray about all our troubles. "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing."

That word without ceasing, it's one word in the Greek. It was used outside of the Bible to refer to a persistent hacking cough. Somebody that has that, that doesn't mean you're coughing every second of every day, but it means it's always there. That's what it means to pray without ceasing. It means that you're all the time connected to the Lord, that at any moment that you can call upon His name. And we can have confidence that God will answer as we pray.

Now, here's what I've found about God when it relates to prayer. From our perspective, God seems to move very slowly. Why is that? One of the reasons is, God longs for fellowship. We long for our prayers to be answered and God longs to spend time with us. God can answer prayers just like this if He wanted to, but He wants the time with us. And so God, in that sense, He's slow to answer, maybe from our perspective, because He longs to hear from us.

But here's the other thing that we have to remember, is that God is at work. And so we pray about a situation, well, God is working in us through the difficulties. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And so God is using situations and circumstances, difficulties in us. And so God works on the person, God works on the problem, God works on the place. Maybe there's a place involved. God works on the particulars. Maybe there's some other people involved.

And so that that stuff takes time. Here's the thing though. When the Lord works all the particulars out, when He works in the person, He works in the place, works in the problem, works in the particulars, then God moves rapidly. Have you found that to be true? It's like nothing, nothing, nothing, boom, it comes. That's the way God works. And I don't know what you're dealing with. Let me tell you something about prayer. Prayer doesn't need to be your last resort.

It needs to be your first stop on the road to help. It needs to be the first thing you do, I do, when difficulties come, when problems come. We immediately pray about it. You hear about something and you don't say, well, we immediately need to go to the doctor, we immediately need to go to the lawyer, we immediately need to go to the counselor. We immediately need to call on the wonderful counselor. We need to call upon God.

I heard about a lady, she was talking to her girlfriend. She was talking about a problem that she had. And she said, "Oh, this problem is so great." She said, "I have tried everything to find a solution to this problem, and nothing has worked. All that's left for me to do is pray." And her friend said, "Oh no, has it come to that? That's all you have left is to pray. Prayer is just a last resort. Oh, I've tried everything else, I guess we should pray." No, pray first. That's the first stop on the road to help. We pray and we call upon the Lord.

You read about Moses and Moses' life. You know, Moses is a great example of a man who spent time with God. He would go into the tent of meeting, He would spend time with God, and God would speak to him, the Scripture says, face to face as a man speaks to his friend. And when Moses would come out of the meetings with God, his face would shine. Like Stephen's face was like the face of an angel. Moses' face would shine and the glory of God would be on his face. Well, when Moses would encounter a difficulty, what you read about Moses is that he would fall on his face to call upon God.

They're talking about stringing Moses up. "We're going to go back to Egypt. Let's get rid of Moses and appoint a new leader and go back to Egypt." How did Moses respond to that? He would fall on his face to pray. And God would respond to him and God would intervene for him. Hey, listen. We can make the choice to rejoice. Rejoice always.

We can pray about all our troubles and cast our burden on the Lord, knowing that He'll sustain us and knowing that God cares about us, casting all your anxiety upon Him, knowing that He cares for you. And then directive number three, we can choose to be thankful and grateful. In everything, verse 18 says, "In everything give thanks." For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. In everything give thanks. Notice that it does not say for everything give thanks. It says in everything give thanks.

For this is God's will that in everything that happens to you, you give thanks to Him. It's very similar to verse 16. Rejoice always, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Bad things happen, terrible things happen. Crimes take place. People are abused physically, emotionally, mentally, sexually. Are you thanking God for that? No, you're thanking God in that. In that.

Because that's a bad thing and the Lord would say that's a bad thing. But in that, I still thank God because I know that God is over it all. And so, in everything, I can give thanks. Now think about the opposite of giving thanks. You know, we have synonyms and we also have antonyms. Antonym is an opposite word. Do you know what the antonym is for Thanksgiving and thankfulness? The antonym is ingratitude. Ingratitude. Ingratitude is a terrible, horrible sin.

The sin of being an ingrate. The sin of not being thankful. Did you know that ingratitude, that you could make the case that not only is ingratitude a corrupting sin, but ingratitude is the original sin. The very first sin that was ever committed, it wasn't by Eve in the Garden. It was by Lucifer. Lucifer, the highest angel that God made.

Ezekiel chapter 28 tells us that Lucifer was the guardian angel of God. The Bible indicates that Lucifer had some kind of a musical quality about him, this angel Lucifer. And that when the saints the the the angels would gather to worship God, that Lucifer would lead the worship, and the worship would come from the angels, and it would come through Lucifer in this musical quality about his creation, and it would go to God. He had such a high position.

This is what it says about him in Isaiah chapter 14. See, the question, why did God make the devil? He didn't make the devil. He made Lucifer a beautiful angel, the most beautiful of all. This is what the Lord says, "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart, 'I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.'"

Yeah, you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest pit, depths of the pit. What was going on with Lucifer? We say, well, his sin was the sin of pride. Well, what led to his sin of pride? His sin of ingratitude. "I'm not happy just being the number one angel. I want to be God." Are you ungrateful in your life?

I was going through a hard time a number of years ago, and I remember Wayne MacDill, who was my preaching professor, he and his wife came to visit from North Carolina. And his wife Sharon, very insightful, she's kind of quiet, but when she speaks, she's like E.F. Hutton, you need to listen. And she said to me, she was hearing me explain the difficulties I was going through. And she heard him different from the way I was hearing them. She heard him as grumbling, griping, whining, complaining. And she said, "Jeff, I know a whole lot of pastors who would love to trade places with you."

Convicting. Convicting. Man, was I being ungrateful for what God had given me, where God had placed me? Did you know in Romans chapter one where the Lord says of those people who deserve His wrath and who receive His wrath, "They did not, even though they knew God and knew not in a personal saving relationship, but knew about God. Even though they knew about God, they did not honor Him as God or give Him thanks. And they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools." They didn't honor God. They didn't give Him thanks. They were ungrateful.

William George Jordan, essayist and lecturer of yesteryear, said this, "Ingratitude is a crime more despicable than revenge, which is only returning evil for evil, while ingratitude returns evil for good." Do you do that? You return God's, you take God's goodness and return evil? Do you whine and gripe and complain about everything under the sun? Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit.

Oh, we whine and gripe about so many things. I'm talking to myself. Ingratitude, a terrible sin. Now, Thanksgiving. In everything give thanks. Thanksgiving, why is that so important? Because it honors God, because it expresses true faith, and because it witnesses to the world. When you're grateful, when you're thankful, when the bottom drops out in your life and you do what Job did and you say, "Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there. God doesn't owe me anything. Everything I have is a gift from God. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord because breath in your lungs is a gift from God. God doesn't owe you anything. He doesn't owe me anything." He deserves our honor. He deserves our thanks because He is so good. You have much to praise the Lord about. You have much to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving honors God and expresses true faith. Lord, I know you're over this. And it witnesses to the world. When Paul and Silas went to Philippi and preached the gospel, and then had an encounter with a demon-possessed girl and cast the demon out of this girl, then the masters who owned this slave girl, they saw that their hope of profit was gone because she had an ability to make money for them, and they got mad at Paul and Silas for what they did. And so they ended up turning the crowd against them and Paul and Silas were beaten and they were bloodied, and they were arrested, and they were put into the inner prison, and their feet were put in the stocks, and it was miserable, and it was painful, and it was hard.

And why were they there? For committing a crime? No, for preaching Jesus and Him crucified, and Him raised from the dead. That's why they were there. They didn't do anything wrong. And it says, "And about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening." And God responded to the praise and to the gratitude and to the thanksgiving, and He sent an earthquake that opened the prison doors and caused all the chains to fall off. And what happened as a result of that? That jailer and his family were saved.

God uses thanksgiving as a witness to the world. And hey, people, when they see you being thankful, even though everything difficult and hard and traumatic is coming into your life, when you're still praising God, when you're still thankful, man, that does something. People, they take note and they say, "There's something to that person's Christianity. There's a reality about that because if those things were happening to me, I couldn't take it." And yet there, joyful and they're trusting God.

Some years ago, Debbie and I went to King of Prussia, Pennsylvania for a Family Life Weekend to Remember marriage conference. And we would always get excited about going to those and we're praying about, "God, use us in the lives of these people." And we'd go to different places. We'd never been to the King of Prussia, but in Pennsylvania, we'd never been there before. So we went up on a Wednesday night and so we could spend all day Thursday kind of sightseeing, and then Friday you get ready for the conference. And then it's Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday, and it's just intense.

And so that's what we were planning to do. Well, we get off the airplane and we get our bags and we go to get in the taxi. And the cab driver had all the luggage, or so I thought. We get to the hotel. I'm unloading our bags and I said, "Well, where's my carry-on bag?" The guy's like, "I don't know. I I took all the bags that were there." I said, "No, my carry-on bag was right there." He said, "I didn't see it." I said to Debbie, "Debbie, did you take it?" She said, "I didn't take it." I said, "Well, I didn't take it."

So I said, "That bag had all my notes for the weekend. I'm supposed to speak for five hours, and I have all my notes in that bag." And so I called the airport, "Hey, I left this black bag there. Did did you see it?" "No, we didn't see it." I said, "Holy cow, this is not good." And I remembered James chapter one, "Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials." I said, "God, thank you that I lost all my notes." And I just I was, it was a like a crisis of belief. What are you going to do? Because I'd have to reconstruct everything. Thursday was out the window. I was going to be spending all day Thursday trying to come up and remember all these things that I had written down.

And so I just said, "Well, I'm going to I'm going to praise the Lord, and I'm going to trust Him. I'm going to put this in the joy column. God is going to use this for good." And Debbie and I went and had dinner that Wednesday night. And we were both kind of shell-shocked a little bit, but we're just going to trust God. I gave my number to the airport just in case somebody turned that in. Well, in my bag I had some business cards. And this lady sent me an email. Said, "I have your bag." And "If you give me so much money, I will re-" No, she didn't do that. She could have held it hostage, she didn't do that.

She says, "I I accidentally got your bag." She said, "Would you like it back?" I said, "Yes." "Where are you? I'll I'll go I'll get on a plane and fly to you to get the bag." And she said, "No, I'm only about 30 minutes away. I'll come to you." And so she came to me and brought me my bag. Listen, God begins to work when we begin to thank Him, and praise Him, and trust Him, no matter what.

Guest (Male): Our prayer is that God will