The Power of God for Salvation: A Life Lived in Thankfulness to God

Good morning. Open your Bibles to Psalm 50, please. To the 50th Psalm. Psalm 50, a psalm of Asaph. The mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

Our God comes. He does not keep silence. Before him is a devouring fire. Around him a mighty storm. He calls to the heavens above and to the earth that he may judge his people. Gather to me my faithful ones who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Salem. Hear, O my people, and I will speak. O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you.

Your burnt offerings are continually before me. I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness is mine. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and perform your vows to the Most High and call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you shall glorify me. But to the wicked, God says, what right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? for you hate discipline and you cast my words behind you if you see a thief you are pleased with him and you keep the company company with adulterers you give your mouth free reign for evil and your tongue frames deceit you sit and speak against your brother you slander your own mother's son these things you have done and i have been silent you thought that i was one like yourself but now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you. Mark this, then you who forget God, lest I tear you apart and there be none to deliver.

The one who offers thanksgiving as a sacrifice glorifies me. To one who orders his way rightly, I will show the salvation of God. Oh God in heaven, as we talked about last week and as we're looking at this week, how important it is for our hearts to be full of gratitude and thanksgiving. Lord, it is very much a foundational thing that we must establish before we can do anything, God, that you enjoy.

God in heaven, our hearts must be full of gratitude because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. The sacrifice that he has enabled for us to be near to you. This reality needs to shake us each day of our lives. It cannot be a truth that we remember at one time professing and then forgetting. but rather the truth of Jesus Christ and him sacrificed and given to us for our righteousness.

It needs to produce in us a gratitude of thanksgiving that places itself out in proper worship. So I pray, God, that as yet last week we celebrated justification by faith alone and the power of salvation therein, we would now see that it places itself out in our sanctification and our worship. This gratitude that you have done this great work for us.

And may it result, Lord, in a further celebration in our own hearts. For I know, me personally and those before me, we struggle with hearts of gratitude. So let it find its center in Jesus Christ and him crucified. And may that be the word preached today. And may our hearts and minds and ears be open to it. In Jesus' name, amen.

So last week we started the sermon with how man, if you remember, how man loves displays of power and how there's just something in us in which we love to see power displayed. and to see it before us. And I attached it to how God has made us. It's really rooted in being made by God to behold his power, right, in creation, wrath, and salvation. We were meant to look at the power revealed in those things and marvel.

That's how we started last week's sermon. And this week I want to detail how when we are given power, right, when we are given power from an outside source, we typically have a great desire to use it, right? So not only do we have a great love and joy of displaying powers revealed, but we also, when we are given power, we have this great desire within us to use this power.

And that reminds me of yesterday was a very important and good day for the Beebe household, for me in particular. In 2020, well, that is because we lost power and I got to use my generator. And see, that's important for me because in 2020, when everything was kind of going chaotic, you know, that was quite the year. And it looked like the world was probably going to end pretty soon.

I didn't want to overreact, but I also didn't like the idea that if I lost power for too long, I wouldn't be able to flush my toilet too long, you know. Being on a well, you need electricity to get that sucker up. You know, from the city, I wasn't used to that. You always had water. But in the country, you got to have electricity. So I wanted a generator that in case if certain people get too crazy, I could have power for a little bit.

And so we got one on a good deal in which we could run most of the house, if not all the house, if our power goes out. And so I got it all excited. I, you know, got it hooked up to our propane tank that's the size of a football field, you know, and so it can last forever. And I just needed the power to go out so I could use the thing, you know. I was like, man, just totally on my thumbs It just I want it to go out And so when it went out yesterday I got pretty excited but it uses fuel and I can waste fuel I like okay we can just if it comes back on a little bit I don need to use it So just calm down.

Don't pull it out yet. And I told myself, it went out around two, and I said, if it's still out by the time Sarah needs to start making dinner, then I will fire it on. So I'm waiting, you know, five o'clock, she starts making dinner. and it was supposed to come on at 5 so I was a little worried it would come on prior but 5 o'clock comes around and it gets pushed to 8pm and I was like alright so I fire it up and it was a good time I loved it, I loved having that power to be able to bring it on and have the whole house run while Sarah's making dinner and everything it's just great having that power at my hands to dispose it as I will fortunately the fun had to end and the power came on around an hour later but nevertheless it was a good day for us.

There's something about when we have power, when we have the ability, there's something in us that we want to use it. We want to display it. We want to display it ourselves. And for those of you who believe in Christ Jesus, the power of God for salvation has been given to you. Remember, we talked about that. That God reveals his power to save in Jesus.

That he would justify you and make you righteous based off of Jesus' righteousness and his work on the cross. And so for those of you who believe in Jesus, the power of God for salvation has been revealed to you and given to you as a gift because of the work of Jesus. And we talked a lot about, to look at that, Romans 3, if you remember. Remember Romans 3, 21 through 28.

We talked a lot about how Romans 1 going into 3, how we are saved by grace through faith alone, right? It is from faith for faith. And what is this faith looking at that would forgive a sinner like I? Well, we saw that it's because Jesus is that powerful, right? And we saw that in Romans 3, right, in which Jesus has died for sinners, right? That his work has accomplished your righteousness and the power that's behind that.

And so salvation is all an act of God's power to make you right with him based off of the power of Jesus, not based off of your works, not based off your ability to keep the law, but rather it is a power displayed for you to behold and also to receive. as a gift. But it's very interesting that Paul ends chapter 3 by this statement in verse 31 of Romans, do we then overthrow the law by this faith? Do we then disregard the law and say, well, I'm not saved by the law.

It's not saved by keeping the works of the law. So I can just do away with it. It doesn't matter. By the way, that's exactly what Paul was accused of with this salvation by grace through faith alone stuff. So he says, no, that's not the case at all. By no means on the contrary we are the ones who are actually actually able to uphold the law because of this free grace so we can see that we have passively received this power of salvation and with this powerful gift received you need to have a great desire for it to display itself and upholding the works of the law or revealing the power of god and salvation that he would change you and able to keep the law for salvation to save you and then you would be one in which you lovingly and willingly and want to obey God and salvation.

With this powerful gift received, you need to have a great desire, bigger than anything else, to use it, to display it. We see in Revelation 19 this display too. Revelation 19, 6 through 8. Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters, like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, Hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted to her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. So you see, we have been made ready by the Lamb, right? It was granted to the church to be made ready by the work of Jesus Christ to give us pure clothes that he has given to us by his bloody clothes.

And we see that the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. So it plays itself out in our righteous deeds because of what God has done in salvation. So again, the whole purpose of God revealing the power of God in salvation and justifying you, declaring you righteous, is that then you would reveal this power in the way that you live from then on in sanctification.

The power of God is revealed in justification to declare you righteous so that you would show his power in your sanctified life, in your holy living, in your upholding of the law because of what he has done for you in free grace. You see, when we have been given such power by God and being made righteous by a gift, it should be everything within us as Christians to say, and now I want to show that. I want to show the power of this to the world in my holy living, in my sanctification.

So the million-dollar question for us then, after we talked about justification, as we're talking about the power of God and sanctification, is how do I use this powerful gift of salvation? How do I do that? A lie we fall into is God needs my works, and so I must rely upon my power to now work. It's just like the power or the lie of Satan, that you can be right with God by your own work, and that lie continues even for the Christian in the battle that now that I've been made right by his work, I then show God's power by my own work.

I rely upon my own abilities. It's a similar lie. The truth is, just as your justification is the display of God's power to save, just as justification is a display of God power to save not man so your progressive sanctification is the display of God power to save as well The justification, the one-time act when God declares you to be righteous, and the progressive sanctification in your life thereafter, in which you now live a life devoted to God as you grow in the identity of Jesus.

So just as your justification is a display of God's power to save, so your progressive sanctification is a display of God's power to save as well. The former, the justification, is a passive gift for you to receive, as we talked about last week. The latter, the progressive sanctification, is something you actively do. You need to be hard at work in your sanctification. not by your own power though are you hard at work as if god needs it but with a heart full of gratitude for the gift received we must understand that your ability to live a sanctified life comes by the spirit as you are grateful as you are thankful for what has been done for you at justification if your life lived for the lord is not in gratitude and thankfulness for what the power of God's in salvation and justification is done for you, then you can be sure that you are living a life without a proper foundation and it is not something that God does not desire.

Indeed, thanksgiving becomes the cornerstone of our inner reflection of what Jesus Christ has done for us that produces a proper sanctified life. To be full of gratitude, thanksgiving it's a major exhortation from Paul for those who have been saved by grace through faith alone and we'll kind of get to that Thanksgiving is a major exhortation from Paul for those who have been saved by grace through faith alone Thanksgiving is the main point here in Psalm 50 where we are at and it's also a holiday there's a holiday centered on it in just two and a half weeks so with this one stone I am killing three birds Do you realize that? Psalm 50 was like right around the corner.

And I was like, man, it's right there. It's about Thanksgiving. And to me, sanctification is all found in Thanksgiving, as Paul details. So I was like, hey, let's go for it. And so this is the topic of discussion for this Lord's Day. And we see it as a topic of discussion here in Psalm 50.

Beginning in Psalm 50, we see a common theme that we've already detailed last week, that we talked about last week. You see that at the beginning of it, it's declaring God's perfection and his righteous beauty. Look at verse 6. It's a good summation. The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is Judge Selah. Notice the righteous and beautiful character of who God is in verses 1 and 2.

The mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting out of Zion, the perfection of beauty. God shines forth. from his creation. Remember, that was a common theme that we talked about in Romans. Remember, whenever God reveals his beautiful power in creation, right, as righteous, and yet God reveals his wrath because man does not respond to that beauty in creation the way that they should.

Remember Romans 1.20, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made so they are without excuse god reveals himself to be a righteous beautiful wonderful awesome powerful everything good god and his creation and we see that being kind of uh spoken of here in psalm 50 the mighty one the god the lord god the lord speaks and summons the earth from the rising of its sun to its setting right creation out of zion the perfection of beauty god shines forth Again, the heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. You see, God is being lifted up as being beautiful and awesome in his creation, displays of his righteous power. But remember, as we talked about, man responds to such power without worship, so God's wrath is revealed.

And we see that here in Psalm 50 as well. In verse 3, our God comes. He does not keep silence. before him is a devouring fire around him a mighty tempest or a mighty storm you see why is it so important that god does not keep silent because he's dealing with a world that does not that does not give him the proper worship that he deserves and what it's saying is that god does not let that go on he must answer that because he is righteous and perfect and good and so he does not keep silent.

In fact, it says that he is a devouring fire. When you think of a fire, it needs fuel. It needs things. It needs fuel for it to rage on. Well, God is looked at here as a devouring fire. What is his fuel?

What is the fire that continues? What does it feed off of? Sin. God is a holy God, righteous in all his ways, and he devours sin. Where sin is, he meets it and he ends it. and kind of as detailed as him being a mighty storm. It's a terrifying thing as we talked about God's wrath, that he would meet sin with his wrath, and it's like a storm.

It's a fire that consumes. So again, you have God showing his power in creation, righteous and beautiful. You have man's response is not proper and is sinful, and so God is displayed as a wrathful God, a devouring fire consuming his adversaries and his enemies. This is the same theme, if you remember, that we talked about last week. And again, the same thing we talked about last week The only way we can avoid wrath is by what God shows his power of salvation in sacrifice in Jesus Christ in his work of sacrifice right And here we get the same imagery in 4 and 5 The psalmist says, he calls to the heavens above and to the earth that he may judge he has a people.

How does he have a people? Well, he says, gather to me my faithful ones who made a covenant with me by sacrifice. you see so the only way that someone cannot be consumed by fire right by god's holy wrath is that we would approach him by sacrifice that's the only way we can have communion with this holy god who hates sin as we are sinners so we can only approach him by sacrifice and so he says gather these people i have something to say to them in light of all the world watching i have something to say to them those who have made a covenant with me those who have come close to me or those who i came close to by sacrifice, he says. I think he's talking about the sacrifice that was made in Exodus 24, 3-8.

The initial sacrifice that Moses had in which he threw the blood on the covenant of the testimony of the tabernacle. And that was the sacrifice that got things going that God would be with them in their wanderings. It is the sacrifice. The way that God drew near to Israel was by sacrifice. And so he says, call those people to me who I am not consuming by my fire because they have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.

But Israel could enjoy God's presence in the promised land by sacrifice. That's the only way. Because of their sin, he would not be with them. And their ability to stay in the promised land was through a daily life of sacrifice, which will be important later on. we'll see so in order to be together with god as they wandered they had to have the sacrifice and they had to daily sacrifice morning and evening to continue to enjoy life with god in the promised land and it was at this daily sacrifice part that god had an issue with his people there was a problem and we see the problem here in seven as he draws out as he says this is the issue I have.

And he says in verse 7, hear all my people and I will speak. Oh Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. He says, and this is my issue. It's not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you. Again, continual sacrifices they would do each day because your burnt offerings, he says, are continually before me.

So he's saying, I'm not angry. I'm not upset at you for failing to do your daily sacrifices as you're supposed to do. In fact, you are doing them. They're daily before me. But it is how they're doing it. You get what I'm saying?

It's not that they're doing what they're supposed to do. But they're doing it in a way that God does not like. And they're doing it in a way in which the world around them sacrificed to their gods. The pagan cultures around them sacrificed to their gods with blood, with animals, as if God or their God needed it. Okay? This is a typical pagan, non-Christian, non-biblical way of understanding our God or God above, is that he needs our worship.

That, in fact, a lot of pagans around them, God literally ate and consumed the sacrifice to live. And thank God for proper scriptural understanding that our God is self-sufficient. He doesn't need anything from anyone he created, not because he needed. And so here, though, we see that they were doing the daily sacrifices as they were supposed to, but they were doing it in a way like the world in which God needed those sacrifices.

And God does not like that. He says in verse 8, Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you, because your burnt offerings or sacrifices are continually before me. You're doing them. but nevertheless i'm not going to accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds well those were proper animals to sacrifice basis i'm not going to accept it i'm not going to take it it's not going to be good to me i'm not going to appreciate it because he says for every beast of the forest is mine the cattle on a thousand hills in other words all the hills of the earth all the animals.

They're all mine. So you can't sacrifice in a way in which I need it. Or it's like, man, I'm really glad you brought that bowl because I was running empty. They're all mine. Where you got your animals to sacrifice, you got it from my location, from my place, from my sovereignty. You got it from me.

You can't sacrifice as if I need it, as if I'm gained by it, as if I need it to live. It's all mine anyways. He says, for every beast of the forest is mine. The cattle on a thousand hills. It's just an infinite amount of hills. I know all the birds of the hills and all that moves in the field.

It's all mine. I could give me anything that I need when it's all mine to begin with. Your sacrifices to me each day is not rooted in my need of it because I don't need it. That's huge. He kind of compounds it in the next verses. He says, let's just say I was hungry.

Let's just say somehow possible I could be hungry, right? I could be as God in need. Let's just say for the hay of it that I was hungry. He says, even if I was, I wouldn't even tell you. I wouldn't need to tell you. You wouldn't be up to my level to where I would tell you such a thing.

I wouldn't tell you? For the world and its fullness, it's mine. I mean, yes, rhetorically, do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? And the answer is no. God is not like us. in need of food and drink. He is not.

We are needy. He is not. We do not sacrifice to him as if he is in need of those sacrifices. So again, the Israelites, they were doing as they were supposed to be doing, right? That's not the issue. They were given the daily sacrifices.

Sacrifice is what made them able to be close to God, but yet they were doing it in a way in which God says, I do not like. They were doing it in a way as if God needs this. We can't fall into anything like that, can we? We can't fall into a mode of worship, as we talked about last week, when it's not as we'll see with a heart of gratitude, but it's because in some way or the other, God just wants me so bad to go to church and worship him.

Please do it. I need it. I said, I'm not going to accept that worship, that sacrifice because I don't need it. Don't give it to me as if I do. What is the answer in verse 14? Don't do it like that, but rather offer to God, offer me a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Right? Do that sacrifice, but underlying it, it needs to be this great thankfulness within your heart. As you provide that animal sacrifice, you need to do it not like I need it, but because you are so overwhelmed with thanksgiving for me. And then he says, built off of that foundation of thanksgiving, then you are to, he says in verse 14, perform your vows to the most high.

To perform your vows to the most high means to act in a way that you should act, right? When God has done something for you, then in response we vow to him, I shall do this in light of what you have done. So he says, your actions, your work in light of what I've done, right, needs to be with the basis of overwhelming gratitude and thanksgiving to me.

The vows we do to God, right? We do vows as well. We perform things in keeping with the salvation that we've been given, right? And he says, if it is not driven by thanksgiving, it is worthless. We don't do what we do to God because he needs it, but we do it because we are full of gratitude for what he has done. In fact, he says in verse 15, call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you shall glorify me.

See, he flips the tables, doesn't he? Stop sacrificing to me like I need it. Instead, you need to be needy, right? You see what he's saying there? Cry out to me in your need and I will deliver you. And that's how you'll see salvation.

Don't you dare act like I'm the needy one here. You are the needy one, and show that, and you will see salvation. So he flips the tables completely and says, do not worship, do not sacrifice in a way in which I need it. Rather, you be needy, cry out to me in your need, I will deliver you, you will glorify me, and you will then worship me in light of this with thanksgiving.

That is proper worship. That is how we are to worship our God. But notice, as he goes on, in verses 16 to 21 i i really think what what he's saying here is he says a lack of gratitude in one season of life will create a season of sin in the next if you locate your personal sin that you're struggling with right now and you kind of go back to the root you're going to find a heart that lacks thanksgiving to god you see what i'm saying if you follow that to its root you're going to see it results in something they're showing some kind of lack of thanksgiving to your god and so we see here that a worship that fails to have thanksgiving as its foundation for what god has done for you will result in sin in the next he says in verses 16 to 21 he says but to the wicked god says what right do you even have to recite my law or take my covenant on your lips.

He says, you hate discipline and you cast my words behind you. If you see a thief, instead of stopping him or working against him, you are pleased with him and you keep company with adulterers, with sinners. You give your mouth free reign, he says in verse 19, for evil and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your own brother. You slander your own mother's son he says these things you've done and i've been silent and in my silence you thought that i was one of like yourself but now i rebuke you and lay the charge before you and so he has this summary statement in light of this right in light of their thankless worship in light of their thankless sacrifice in light of their practice of sin in light because of their thanklessness.

He says in verse 22, it's almost like a summation. He says, mark this, then you, who forget God, lest I tear you apart and there will be none to deliver. No more covenant for you. No more togetherness with God No more sacrifice He says the one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice this is the one who glorifies me To one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God I will reveal the power of God in salvation.

The one who sacrifices with thanksgiving. Now. we like Israel see God's powerful salvation revealed by sacrifice right in order for us to be together with God we need a sacrifice just like Israel did but our sacrifice is a better sacrifice of Israel as we've been talking about in Hebrews Israel was promised many promises of a land, of prosperity in the land, they had those promises. And in order to be together with God in those promises in the land, they needed sacrifice and they needed a daily sacrifice of a heart full of gratitude for God's provision for them.

But see, we as the new covenant members, as the fulfilled Israel, we have greater promises, don't we? We have a greater sacrifice, don't we? Like Israel, we come together with God for these greater promises by sacrifice. That's a sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord. And with that great sacrifice provided for us, we are to have a heart of gratitude of thanksgiving that shows itself in our daily lives and in our daily sacrifices as well.

You see, as Israel had daily sacrifices that they were to do each day that God rejected because they were not doing it with thanksgiving, we have our daily sacrifices that we give each day too. And no, I'm not about to set up an altar with animal worship. What is our daily sacrifice? What is our daily sacrifice that we are to give with thanksgiving as well?

Yes, you had it right. It is Romans 12, verse 1. Romans 12, verse 1. Turn there with me, please. Romans 12, verse 1. We, like Israel, are to live within this salvation, this great sacrifice of Jesus Christ in which we receive all the blessings and promises of the new covenant with our own daily sacrifices as well and we see that in Romans 12.1 I appeal to you therefore therefore is an all-encompassing word based off of everything that Jesus Christ has done for you in his sacrifice I appeal to you because of that brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship.

So we are to have our daily sacrifices and that sacrifice is a living sacrifice in which we're not slaughtering ourselves on the altar but rather we stay alive and we say all my life everything about me is for God now. I am God's. Just like that sacrifice is burnt up and consumed and it's God's. So we are consumed by God. My whole life is for Him now not myself not for satan not for the world but it is for christ everything about me in light of what he has done for me is now a sacrifice to him i will do what he says period and he goes on to say in verse 2 do not be therefore conformed to this world so if that's the case if that's the christian's reality right that's what they are to do each day is to be a living sacrifice this is our spiritual worship he says don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Now if you remember, I think he's alluding to earlier in Romans, do not be conformed to this world. Don't do what the world does. Remember in Israel, the pagans, they worshiped God as if he needed it, not with a heart full of gratitude. And remember what Paul says with what the world does in Romans 1 that we went over last week in Romans 1.21. What does the world do?

For although, in Romans 1.21, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. So they lacked gratitude, they lacked thanksgiving, and they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. So instead of their thinking, their understanding of God and creation and who he is caused them to be overwhelmed with gratitude to God and service to him.

Instead, they became useless in their thinking and they lacked gratitude. And Paul says in Romans 12 too, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. No longer futile, no longer worthless in your mind and your thinking, but rather your mind and your thinking become consumed with gratitude to God. No longer thankless, and we find all sorts of excuses to not serve God in our thanklessness like the pagan does, but rather our heads, our minds, are renewed after the image of Christ in which we live a life of thanksgiving to God.

This is the engine that runs our service and our worship to God, is that we are overwhelmed with gratitude that he has created us and recreated us in Christ. And so our daily sacrifice, our daily service and worship is driven by a mind that overwhelmed by gratitude to our God And if it is not then there is no way our daily sacrifices are going to be something that God is pleased with We can go through the motions We are very good at that. I am very good at that.

And we can put on good faces for each other, like Christians should do. And we can paint ourselves up very well. But to God, that is all the more despicable. To him, if it's not done with a heart of gratitude to what Jesus has done for you in justification to displaying his power therein, if you are not serving in the realm of thanksgiving for that, then you are not displaying the power of God for salvation in your sanctification.

Thankfulness. A life of thanksgiving, I think, becomes a major, major exhortation by Paul in his letters. In fact, it's a good exercise for you to go through the scriptures and see all the times that we're told to be thankful. All the times we're told not to grumble. All the times we're told not to murmur, but rather to have gratitude in our hearts for who and what God has done.

Ephesians 5, 15-21. Philippians 2, 14-18. Philippians 4, 4-7. Colossians 3, 14-17. 1 Thessalonians 5, 16-18, to name a few. and the one I want to actually turn to and start to finish with is Colossians 2. Colossians 2.

6 through 7. Which Paul right into the Colossians says, therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, What does that mean? As you've received Jesus, as you've placed your faith upon him, as you have been justified in what Christ has done, as you have received the benefits of the sacrifice of our Lord in which he brings unrighteous sinners to the righteous God, as that miraculous display of God's power has been received by you through faith, so walk in him. it is not maybe get around to walking to him it is this is what just organically happens in the believer when you have received the power of God for salvation you have a desire to use that power of God for salvation in your life to display it to walk in Christ he says rooted and built up in him and established in the faith see the root of that the the workings of that is found in faith in Jesus Christ and rooted in that just as you were taught and then it shows itself abounding in thanksgiving that flower will not do what it's supposed to do if it's not rooted in faith and it will not abound in beauty and thanksgiving now you look at a flower coming up in spring and in the summer doesn't it look like it's just full of thanksgiving as it just looks beautiful in all its ways right it just looks like it's praising God for the sun and when it's wet from the dew of the rain and of the morning, it just looks like it's so full of gratitude and thanksgiving.

It's rooted in life. And so, beloved, as you are rooted in your faith, it must show itself in a life of thanksgiving to God as you are alive because of him. If your actions are not rooted in thanksgiving because of what Jesus has done, you will not look like the beautiful flower of the springtime and summer, but rather in its more depressing state in late fall and early winter. no see part of our worship our worship in total is to be done with a heart of gratitude and if that is not there then we can be assured that the power of god for salvation is not being revealed and sanctification in our lives thankfulness for what christ has done and justification if gratitude or thanksgiving is so essential to your sanctification so if gratitude or thanksgiving is so essential to your sanctification your progressive sanctification your daily living out your life if that is so essential how dare we allow complaining murmuring and grumbling being an acceptable sin right think about that how much we allow that to be something that's kind of cute we can kind of laugh at a little bit but if that truly is the bread and butter right the foundation of your service to the lord is rooted in thankfulness for what christ has done and justification if that really is that how dare us treat a murmuring heart a complaining heart a grumbling heart as if it's one of those acceptable things that we do if we vote democrat we stone those people but if we have a murmuring heart no or oh then that's okay i'm getting my analogy mixed up then that's okay this is a foundational way that we are to approach our god and gratitude for what he has done in christ and we cannot treat it as if it something that we can wink an eye at And it begins with me in the morning when I complaining about having to get out of bed That's just where my head goes to when I think, am I a murmuring person?

And I say, my goodness, look at my murmuring soul. It even started as I murmured my way out of bed. such a sin of a murmuring heart causes us to start doing our living sacrifice as if god needs it we're not here because we're in gratitude to god we're here because god just demands it from us and he needs it from us but no instead we are to remind ourselves of the gospel remind ourselves of jesus christ and what he has done to make us right with him and this is to produce a heart of thanksgiving. What happens when that doesn't happen?

What happens when your heart is not full of thanksgiving and gratitude? We are to be thankful anyways. A lot of times thanksgiving begins with your emotions not caught up yet, but you are to decide, I am to be thankful, so therefore God, I thank you for what you have done in Jesus Christ. And I pray, God, that you'll allow my heart to follow soon. We do not just give in to the flesh and kind of go about our day as a zombie, thankless.

But rather, we know that this is the very means that God uses for our sanctification to display the power of salvation that I would do worship in a way that he likes. And so therefore, God, as you wake up in the morning and you're filled with thanklessness, you say, God, forgive me that I would treat your son in such a way, fill my heart with raptures of joy and thanksgiving that he would forgive a sinner like me. And let my heart be so overwhelmed by this that my actions produce this in keeping with this reality here.

Do not be okay with thanklessness. Do not be okay with going about your job complaining about it instead of being amazed that he would give you a way to provide for your family, for those around you, even if you think it's for a few less dollars than what you deserve. Beloved, there's every area of our life God deserves thanksgiving, especially in Jesus Christ.

And as we set that in place, everything else falls into place. But as our thankfulness in Christ is not in place, everything else is on a train wreck of murmuring-ness. Well, that's a loud one. You will always hear that one. You will not miss that ringtone. That's a good one.

So may our hearts be full of gratitude. And we are going to, to end this, this is our first Lord's Day of enjoying the supper in which we, Lord willing, would do it weekly as what the elders are convicted is the most biblical thing if it is an act of worship then why wouldn't we partake of it every time we come together right if this is an ordained act of worship that God has given us in his sacrament why wouldn't we then participate in this every day and one of the biggest pushback is because then we will take it for granted then as we do it each Lord's day it'll just be something that we always do and we'll take it for granted. And what does that then provide you with?

A reason to repent and say, God, help me to be thankful for this instead of murmuring about it. Because if we're taking the Lord's Supper for granted because we're doing it every Lord's Day, guess what else we're taking for granted? My sermon, which I know it wasn't the best, but come on. Singing, praying. What else are we taking for granted if we're taking the Lord's Supper for granted?

So, beloved, instead of saying, man, this is going to cause this. Instead it's, hey God, this is going to be something in which God is going to show me my need to repent and be thankful instead. God in heaven, there are many reasons to be thankful. There are this beautiful thing that you've done for each one of us in this room that you've given us life.

That is our physical life in which you watched over us all night and we woke up breathing your air and seeing your beautiful creation. But God, we know that in our sinful state we will take that as the world does and we'll find fault with you and with everything and we'll be murmurers. I'm so thankful, Lord, that because of what Jesus Christ has done and his sacrificial work and bringing it to bear upon our souls by sacrifice that we can come to you forgiven and we can come to you with a changed heart, a renewed mind, in which no longer are we murmurers and grumblers, but rather we are people of thanksgiving because of what Jesus has done.

Lord, I pray that every one of us here would celebrate the gospel, that each day we wouldn't grow tired of it, and when we are tired of it, we would repent and turn to you and ask you to fill our hearts more with great worship and thanksgiving for what Jesus has done. Lord, let us not grow weary and tired of speaking of the works of Jesus. For this is the anthem in eternity, and may it start and begin to be the anthem in our own lives today.

That Jesus Christ came as a righteous sacrifice. He's at the right hand of the Father, and he intercedes for us even now as we speak. Oh, may our souls be joyful for that. And may we celebrate that even now as we engage in the Lord's Supper. May you be praised from now all the way into eternity with our grateful hearts. In Jesus' name, amen.