Well, well, if you were here last week,

you will know that we've begun a new series of sermons on thankfulness. And so we continue that this morning
and can I particularly just direct your attention to Colossians 2 and pick it up with me at verse 6. Therefore, as
you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as
you were taught abounding in thanksgiving.

And so there's that interesting little phrase, abounding in thanksgiving. It's just one of those little phrases that
when you're reading the Bible, you read over really and you don't take too much time to consider what it means.
And I mean, after all, surely he's not saying that we're to be abounding in thanksgiving.

Our culture has about a million responses to that suggestion. Things like, doesn't he realise that I'm too short?
Doesn't he realise that I'm not as pretty as I might be? Doesn't he realise I have a sick relative? Doesn't he
know about my physical problems? Doesn't he know that my grandparents were oppressed serfs? How can I be
abounding in thanksgiving when I have so many,

I lack in privilege to such an extent? But there it is, staring back at us from the pages of Colossians chapter 2,
abounding in thanksgiving. Now, of course, you might say, well, some are more disposed to thankfulness than
others. And you will know the saying,

I'm sure, that an optimist sees the glass half full. A pessimist sees the glass half empty. I've got that right.
And the opportunist drinks the water while they're arguing over the glass. And the optometrist says, we all
need more glasses. And on that joke goes. But I don't think Paul is talking here about a disposition.

I mean, I'm sure it might be easier in some ways for an optimist than a pessimist. But he's saying that this will
be the mark of a person who has received Christ Jesus as Lord. They will be people who are abounding in
thanksgiving. And that's certainly not the mindset of the culture that surrounds us at this current stage.

Many people have made the observation that we live in an entitled culture. And particularly, people have
noticed that of millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996. And they have observed the formula for
bringing up a group of people who are entitled.

What do you do? Well, you make sure that that group of people were told from a young age that they can have
anything in life. You make sure that that group from a young age is told that they can do anything and be
anything. Some of them got into classes and sporting teams, not because they deserved to be there, but
because their parents complained.

If their grades were bad, it was, well, it was the teacher's job. They should have been picked for the school
play. They should have been picked for the school team. If they participate in a race, they deserve a medal no
matter where they came. They should be allowed to come late to the church camp.

They should be allowed to do what they like and on it goes. And so there's the recipe, I guess. And no one was
surprised in hindsight when that group grew up believing two things about themselves. One, they should be
allowed to have whatever it is that they want. And two, they should not have to have anything in their life that
is remotely difficult. They were considered to be entitled.

But I think we'd be wrong to think for a moment that that is just a good description of the millennials. It's as
much a description of our culture and it's as much a description of the air that we all breathe in current Australia.
We breathe the air of an entitlement culture. I should be able to have whatever it is that I want.

I should not have to have anything in my life that is difficult or hard. And put those two things together and the
most distinguishing mark of entitled people is that they are simply never ever thankful. And that can be true of
Christians as well, although there is, I think, an extra dimension to it and an ugliness to entitlement in
Christians in that when you see it in Christians,

what they are doing is they're putting God on trial and then finding him guilty. It is God who has failed to
deliver the life that I wanted to live. It is God who has failed to give me the good things that I wanted and he
has given me instead bad. I deserve better than this. God, you are on trial and I have found you wanting. And
so we come back to these words from Colossians chapter two.
 Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, established in
the faith just as you were taught, abounding, abounding in thanksgiving. How did we get there in a culture that
says you should be allowed to have whatever you want and not have to be thankful, a culture that says you
should not have anything in your life that is difficult or hard? How,

when those things don't turn out or even when they do turn out, do we be people, are we people that are bound
in thanksgiving? And this morning can I suggest three things and take us to a number of different places in the
scriptures. Let me suggest three things. Number one, we will be people full of thankfulness when we're
convinced that number one, everything we have comes from Jesus as a gift.

Everything we have comes from Jesus as a gift. Do you remember back in Acts 17 when Paul is preaching and
he says the God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in
temples built by hands and he's not served by human hands as if he needed everything because he gives all men
life and breath and everything else.

Okay, there's a summary. He's given you life and breath and everything else. See, what is it that you have that
has not been given to you today by Jesus Christ? What about the 20,000 breaths of air that you will take today?

What about your lunch? What about your clothes, your car, your hands, your ears, your feet, your eyes?
What about your skills, your mind, your loves, your passions, your desires? What do you have that you have
not been given by Jesus Christ?

And for instance, if every moment of your life is a moment in which you are experiencing Jesus' goodness to
you in that very moment in the things that he has provided that you exist for another second, you look back on
past providences of Jesus, you look forward to future providences and in every instant of time you live because
of the gift to the Lord Jesus to you down to the very

micro things that are happening unbeknownst to you within your body that allow you to continue to exist. So is
there any room when you realise that for thankfulness? Do you think there's any room you think when you
come to realise every moment comes from Jesus? And do you see the world that way? Do you see yourself that
way? And part of the problem is we don't lift our eyes very high. We see at this level and not at sort of this
level and it becomes even starker.

So Paul in at the beginning of Romans sort of makes a comparison is speaking about the unbeliever and he
says, for although they knew God, he says they neither glorified God and we all say, yeah, yeah, I get that and
he says, nor did they give thanks. They didn't glorify God and we all agree but we find that they don't. One of
the marks of an unbeliever is they don't thank God.

They're not thankful. When was the last time that you were just thankful? Because Jesus has been wonderfully
good to you in the instant and in the moment of your existence and I'm not even talking about the big things yet.
We'll get to the big things. I'm just talking about the little things when God provides you with a new friendship,

when he blesses you with a warm jumper on a winter's day, when he renews a broken relationship that you
thought was lost, when you sleep through the night and you don't even have to get up to go to the toilet and you
just wake up and think, I just slept all night. When your pillow was soft, when you eat a roast dinner and
dessert is tiramisu and so you throw the roast dinner out and just eat the tiramisu.

When you feel that breeze, the warm breeze that tells you that the spring is coming, when your eyelids blink
again to provide exactly the right moisture that your eyes need for the next couple of seconds. When was the
last time you just said thank you or are we entitled to all that? The problem is we don't lift our eyes very high.

We see the medicine that heals. We don't see the God behind you. We see the money that buys but we don't
see the God who gives. We see the niceness and so why wouldn't people be friends with us? We don't see the
God who provides friendship. The wonderful Lord who stands behind it all and here's the Apostle Paul in a
world in which there are no painkillers and no Panadol and he says abound in thanksgiving.

We'll be people full of thankfulness when we're convinced that everything comes from Jesus as a gift. Okay,
there's the first thing. These things are all related and they sort of just build on each other so if this sounds a bit
too similar, just hang with me for a bit. So second thing, we'll be people full of thankfulness when we see
Jesus'
gift of hardship. As I said at the beginning, entitlement assumes that life should be easy and we will only be
thankful when it is. Entitlement refuses to praise a God who would bring suffering and so when suffering
comes, we grow bitter and angry. When suffering comes,

we become self-centered and complain. When suffering comes, we just become perhaps morbid and resign
ourselves to that's the way things are and suffering comes, we write that angry email or we send that angry text.
When suffering comes, we escape dulling the pain with alcohol or books or hobbies. And Paul says, no, the
mark of a believer is that you're abound in thanksgiving and you ask how is that possible in hardship?

You know, I think that when you read the Bible enough, you realize that quite possibly it's the case that there
are some things that we simply will never ever, ever learn apart from hardship and heartache. We simply do not
seem to be able to learn how truly wonderful Jesus is apart from hardship,

apart from the times in which he takes things away. You learn things in hardship that you simply never learn
when life is easy. When a Christian loses everything, family, freedoms, blessings, and in the middle of all of
that discovers that Jesus is the greatest treasure and they cannot lose him,

it seems that that is the only mechanism by which we can learn those things. And they praise the Lord in that
moment in a way they've never praised him before. Charles Spurgeon used to say that there are many birds that
sing sweet songs in the light of day, but the bird that sings from the darkness that sings the sweetest song. It's
the nightingale who sing, whose song is the sweetest.

Because it is easy to thank the Lord in times of plenty, and we can so easily be fair weather thankfulness
people, but it's the praise that comes in the darkness of night when your world is falling apart around you that is
the sweetest praise to the ear of Jesus. When he takes everything away and through the tears you see him and
you're thankful.

I don't know another way to learn it. I don't know that there is another way. It's hard sometimes to see
heartache as a gift. Do you notice Paul he starts he says you know verse six there he said therefore as you see
receive Jesus Christ the Lord.

The technical word the Lord. If you are a Jew that rang lots of bells for you is Lord. Go into the Old
Testament and go to a place like Habakkuk. And Habakkuk learns that the Lord is going to send an ungodly
nation to destroy Israel and he can't understand why God was going to do that. He can't get it.

And in the middle of it all he stands on a big truth that holds him up a little bit like those massive tufts of grass
in a quagmire and he's surrounded by what seems to be utter disaster and he stands on and he tells us he stands
on the fact that he says the sovereign Lord is my strength. That's what he says. Sovereign Lord sovereign he
says he knows that God is sovereign.

That means he's the God who brings all things in control of all things. He knows that there'll be no fruit on the
fig tree and no grapes on the vine and the olive vines and the fields are not going to produce fruit. There'll be no
sheep in the stalls because the God of the universe who is sovereign who is Lord who rules all things is going to
bring Babylon in to attack and pillage the land and it's because of God that there will be no abundance of good
things.

It is from God's hand that the suffering comes. The Lord who is sovereign but he doesn't just say the sovereign
is my strength. But that's at least part of it for a moment and if you don't at least cling there then when the day
of darkness comes then you'll have no strength to be thankful

and you will not rejoice in the Lord in the midst of suffering when you may be bitter but you won't rejoice. Our
strength comes when we know that it's not the will of your or the whim of your enemies. It's not the will or the
whim of Satan that has brought these things into your life. It is a gift from the hand of the sovereign Christ but
as I said that's only half of what he says.

He says the sovereign Lord is my strength and it's the Lord in capitals L-O-R-D all in capitals which means it's
the name Yahweh. It's the personal name that God gives to his people. It's the sovereign Yahweh and it's sort
of hard to express just how significant that name is or how shocking it is or the privilege that they had in being
able to use it.
I remember years ago when I was sitting in a church listening to a sermon and I was so shocked to learn of what
Abba, not the band but that phrase in chapter eight of Romans, Abba father means that when you cry out says
Paul in Romans eight you cry out Abba father and such a personal phrase and it means something like daddy
dearest and I was shocked to think we'd be able to say that to a sovereign God.

It's an astounding thing. The sovereign Lord of all would say when my people pray say Abba father daddy
dearest and Yahweh means a number of things that's least one of the things it means is they belong to a God
who is personal and close and loves his people and gives them the privilege of being able to call him personally.

In other words what is happening to Habakkuk is not an accident, it's not a mistake and it's not the whim of evil
man but it's the design of a sovereign loving father and that's where he stands and so it's big deal when it says
therefore as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord whatever Jesus gives you or whatever Jesus takes away from you

it comes to you from the hands of a sovereign Lord who is too wise and too loving to make a mistake with the
care of of his people if you want to be people who are full of thankfulness then stand there the Lord who loves
us intends for us to learn to trust him in hardship and heartache

and there seems to be only one way to do that and that is to go through it okay okay we will be people full of
thankfulness when we are convinced that everything we have comes from Jesus of the gift we'll be people full of
thankfulness when we see Jesus gift of hardship thirdly we'll be people full of thankfulness when we see that
Jesus is the gift

I told you they're all similar they sort of build on each other you know that story of the treasure in the field and
you know the pearl of great value you know two men first is sort of a finder walks into a field with a shovel
starts digging finds a great treasure left by pirates someone who forgot

to put their money in the bank and he digs up the great treasure and in that moment he knows that he needs to do
everything to get the field and he does and he gets the field and he gets the treasure well the second man who's
the seeker and he's a trader in pearls and

he's looking for that perfect pearl now the one that is perfectly round and pure and no tint of yellow and he finds
it and he knows that he needs to do everything he can to get it and so he sells all his other pearls and he gains the
great treasure and in the end I think it doesn't matter which sort of person you are whether you're a seeker or a
finder what Jesus is saying that is that you find him and that you do everything you can to get him because he's
the treasure isn't it when we forget that that we're most likely to be to not be thankful I mean if I asked you if I
said to you count count your blessings this morning what would be the ones that you would count I mean you
might say well my good health if you've got it that might be a blessing I say my loyal friends if you have them
and that would be a blessing you might say my loving children if you have them that might be a blessing might
say good food and you could go on couldn't you when Paul counts his blessings beginning of Ephesians he starts
with the fact

that in love God chose you to be holy and blameless and predestined you to be his son or his daughter you think
about that are you loved by a mere person out there well bigger than that you've been loved by the living God of
heaven and earth who before he put a single star

in its place he chose you to be not just a creature not just a servant but to be a son or a daughter of the living
God you think that's a blessing and he counts the blessing of being redeemed by the blood of Jesus so that when
you put your head on the pillow each night you know that if you were to die before you but a savior who has
wiped out every sin and every evil thought and every bad action all paid for and full and he counts the blessings
that has been lavished with wisdom and understanding so that you understand the gospel and you understand the
things of God and you understand the things of life so that you understand things that the greatest minds in this
world have understood not because you're clever but because God's given you the ability to understand what he's
doing in this world and Paul keeps counting his blessings and he says I've been sealed you've been sealed by the
Holy Spirit and that is God's Spirit has come and possessed you and is changing you to make you more like
Christ and so that you're never ever ever alone and he'll keep you and hold you with certainty to the day in
which he brings you to be with him in heaven where are your real blessings

you have a treasure that is beyond imagination and the treasure is the Lord Jesus Christ I mean how can we ever
not be thankful when we know those things in 1992 a friend of mine gave a series of lectures at um on
Christianity to a group of students in Oxford University and on the last evening before my friend spoke a young
man in a to a short microphone and he told this his story and he said I have I have been in this wheelchair since I
was eight it was the result of a family car accident however that is of no importance he said although it sounds
he says he says I'm studying arts at this university but once again that is of little importance he said although and
it sounds a bit strange he said he said I stand before you tonight as he sits in his wheelchair totally forgiven the
death of Jesus was enough for my every sin and that is important and he said the only other thing I want to say is
that Christ has been so good to me that I want to spend the rest of my life giving thanks and and serving him he's
more precious than health he's more precious than your heartache he's more precious than your family and your
freedom he is the treasure let's pray

Amen Heavenly Father we confess that we live in a world in which we are told over and over again that we
ought to only be happy when we have all that we want and there are no heartaches or hardships in our life and
Lord you tell us that is the recipe for disaster so Lord give us different eyes to see what is true and right and
give us different different hearts help us to see that everything we have comes as a wonderful gift from the Lord
Jesus Christ help us to be full of thankfulness when we see the gift of heartache and hardship and through

tears that we might be thankful for we know that you are a loving father who is training and changing us to see
what is of value and help us most of all we pray so fix our eyes on the treasure that Jesus is that there is not a
day that we don't wake up full of thanks that we belong to him and that we know him and that we are loved by
him we pray in Christ's precious name

amen okay voice and