Show Notes
Colossians 3:17
Pastor Stephen Lauer
Covenant OPC 8/2/2026 PM
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Our glorious God and our King.
[00:00:03] What a wonderful thing it is for us to live in your kingdom. And we thank you that it is not by our works, by anything that we do, that we are saved.
[00:00:15] But it is by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, our King, who gave himself for us, to purchase us and make us his own, to deliver us out of the kingdom of darkness and to bring us into his kingdom, a place of light, of goodness.
[00:00:33] O Lord our God, we ask then that now, by your word and spirit, you would reign in our hearts.
[00:00:40] We confess that we still have sinful tendencies and desires, and we need you to come and squash those to extend your reign to yet a little bit more of our heart.
[00:00:55] That our desires would be for your.
[00:00:58] That our mind would be set on the things above, most especially Jesus, our Savior.
[00:01:04] That we, out of love and desire to please and serve him, and out of thanksgiving, we might give our hearts and our very lives in service to him.
[00:01:14] O Lord our God, we ask that you would hear us for Jesus sake and work in us by the power of your Spirit.
[00:01:20] In Jesus name we ask. Amen.
[00:01:25] And now we're going to turn to Colossians 3, Colossians 3.
[00:01:34] I'm going to read beginning in verse 12 through verse 17, and we'll focus on verse 17 in our message.
[00:01:45] Hear God's word. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience bearing with one another. And if anyone has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
[00:02:11] And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
[00:02:18] And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.
[00:02:26] And be thankful.
[00:02:30] Let the word of Christ dwell in you, richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
[00:02:42] And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Giving thanks to God the Father through him.
[00:02:54] Please be seated.
[00:03:03] Sermon text is verse 17. There, that last verse. Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Giving thanks to God the Father through him.
[00:03:18] Well, there's a few children out there, little children.
[00:03:21] If someone gives you a gift, or maybe you're at the table and a dinner table and someone passes you a bowl of ice cream or piece of pie for dessert, what does your mommy always say to you? Or your daddy maybe, remember to say thank you right if someone does something nice for you, kind for you, we're taught to say thank you.
[00:03:53] And if you're a little child, you probably hear that a lot. And grownups, well, at least speaking for myself, grownups, we should hear that more often ourselves.
[00:04:04] We all need to learn to be thankful. Grateful.
[00:04:10] Are you grateful? Are you thankful?
[00:04:14] The Bible teaches us that every person is to be thankful. And Christians especially are supposed to be thankful, according to this verse, all the time, whatever you do, everything, giving thanks to God the Father, everything is to be done in giving thanks.
[00:04:34] So I want to look this evening at Paul's teaching on learning about thankfulness in all things.
[00:04:41] We're going to just walk through the verse here, pretty much one word, one phrase at a time.
[00:04:48] First, we're going to look at this all things business where he's kind of insistent about everything is to be done in thanks.
[00:04:56] Secondly, this curious phrase that we're doing everything in the name of Jesus, that if we're to be able to do it with thanks, we have to do it in the name of Jesus.
[00:05:06] And finally, perhaps a bit of why or how it is that we can do something even as we give thanks. Usually we give thanks because people do things for us. But here he says we're to do things with Thanksgiving.
[00:05:22] So all things in the name and giving thanks.
[00:05:27] The Holy Spirit here, through the Apostle Paul is emphatic.
[00:05:32] He underscores it. He gets the highlighter pen out, however you want to put it, that everything we do is to be done in the name of Jesus with thanks.
[00:05:43] And he's so emphatic about it in the original language that it's almost a little difficult to bring it out in the English.
[00:05:55] Our English translation reads nicely, smoothly, whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything.
[00:06:01] But it only gets like two of the everything's in.
[00:06:05] If I were to kind of bring this out really awkwardly, it would read something like this in everything you do, whatever you might do, do all those things, whatever they happen to be, in the name of Jesus. With Thanksgiving.
[00:06:25] He says it three times in three different ways. Everything, all things, whatever you might do. Okay, pretty obvious everything a Christian is supposed to do is to be done for Jesus.
[00:06:40] And with Thanksgiving, nothing is to be left out. There's nothing that we're not to do with, with Thanksgiving, in the name of Jesus.
[00:06:51] Now, just to keep underscoring, emphasizing what Paul is emphasizing, sometimes we say that everything and we mean it kind of like an exaggeration or a generalization, right? You might say we had a really great trip it was a good vacation.
[00:07:09] Well, it was a week long. You don't mean that every single moment of that vacation was good. Maybe you woke up and felt a little iffy one morning or it was a little hot in the sun. One day on the beach, you got a headache. But overall you had a really great vacation. Right. Paul's not using the all and everything here in that way and kind of like a. Well, most of the time be giving thanks.
[00:07:33] He wants to make it really clear that there's nothing in the Christian life, nothing all day long and all night long. There's nothing that is to be left out.
[00:07:44] Everything is to be done in the name of Jesus with thanksgiving.
[00:07:49] Why is he so emphatic? Why is it so comprehensive? Why is it universal that everything needs to be accompanied with thanks?
[00:08:00] Before we knew Jesus and we're going to kind of bounce around the Book of Colossians here. Before we knew Jesus. Back to chapter one, verse 13.
[00:08:10] Christians were in the domain of darkness. We were in the kingdom, the realm of darkness, ruled by the Prince of darkness.
[00:08:22] And that was a place where there was no giving thanks to God the Father through Christ Jesus. In other words, our former life was characterized by complete and utter ingratitude to God our Creator.
[00:08:41] We did nothing in thanksgiving.
[00:08:44] The Apostle Paul says about those who don't know God, who are in rebellion against him, those who are not his people.
[00:08:54] He says this in Romans 1:21. Although they knew God, that is, they knew about Him.
[00:09:00] They. They did not glorify him as God.
[00:09:03] Nor were they thankful that before we knew God in Jesus Christ and were saved by him, when we were in that domain of darkness, one of the chief accusations that God had against us is that we were ungrateful. We did not give thanks to Him.
[00:09:27] Not only were we ungrateful to our Creator, but we were in disobedience to God.
[00:09:36] Chapter three, verse six of Colossians says that the wrath of God is against the sons of disobedience because of all of the sinful things that we do. We were sons of disobedience. We were children of the devil.
[00:09:50] God was not our Father.
[00:09:53] We were against Him. No thankfulness, no goodness.
[00:09:58] But this changed. He delivered us from the domain of darkness. And the Lord Jesus the King came and changed the Christian.
[00:10:08] And what was it that changed the Christian?
[00:10:11] How did Jesus bring the Christian out of the devil's kingdom and into God's kingdom, out of the realm of darkness and into the place of light?
[00:10:20] Gratitude and thankfulness.
[00:10:23] As you read the letter to the Colossians.
[00:10:25] The thing that Jesus did is that he died and rose. And if you know the story of the gospel, that's the heart of it. Jesus came and he died, and he rose in the death of Jesus. Colossians Chapter two. We read that God.
[00:10:39] Chapter one. We read that God reconciled sinners to God, having made peace through the blood of. Of the cross.
[00:10:48] Jesus came and died for the sins of his people, that he might make peace between God and sinners.
[00:10:57] All who have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior are forgiven. They have peace through the blood of the cross.
[00:11:07] Jesus death, but also his resurrection.
[00:11:11] Chapter 1, verse 18 says that Jesus is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. He went and he died for sinners to reconcile them with the Father. But then he rose. And in his resurrection, Jesus became the head. The beginning of a new people, a new kingdom, a new creation, a new realm in which death doesn't reign, darkness doesn't reign, there's light and. And life and thanksgiving.
[00:11:46] Jesus brings people out of darkness and in gratitude and into a place of worship and praise and thanksgiving.
[00:11:56] This is a place where the Christian can live his whole life in thanksgiving and praise to God. He lived. We used to live our whole lives in rebellion and ingratitude, and now we can live them in joyful thanksgiving.
[00:12:11] Why is Paul so emphatic that everything you do all day long is to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, with thanksgiving?
[00:12:21] It's because you now live in a place where you can worship and praise God. You live under a new king, where there is gratefulness and gratitude.
[00:12:34] Everything we do must be done in the name of Jesus and with thanks to God, because Jesus saved us from ingratitude and from disobedience. That's what's behind.
[00:12:46] That's the old man. It's dead on the cross. Jesus has remade you. He's resurrected you. Chapter two, verse one says that you, the Christian, are raised up with Christ through your union with him. You have a new life, his new life.
[00:13:02] That's you. You're a new creature, a part of a new creation, a new realm. And that new realm is one of thanksgiving and praise.
[00:13:13] So everything, in word or in deed, all things are to be done in Thanksgiving.
[00:13:22] Colossians 2. 6. As you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, your new Master, so walk in him.
[00:13:29] What does that include? We didn't read a whole. But if you go back and you start reading at the beginning of chapter three, verse one, and you read all the way down here to verse 17, Paul describes the whole person from the inside out.
[00:13:44] Everything includes your inner life.
[00:13:47] Your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions, your desires. All of those are now to be changed and transformed and characterized by thanksgiving.
[00:13:57] How you speak to others, to each other.
[00:14:01] Your words are to be transformed and characterized by Thanksgiving. Accompanied with thanksgiving, your family relationship, trips. Looking forward, if you read the next chapter, the rest of the chapter, and the first part of the next chapter, the relationship between the husband and the wife, the parents and the children, the master and the slave, all of these are transformed by Christ and his saving work. And so everything you do in every one of your relationships is to be in the name of Christ, with thanksgiving.
[00:14:35] Now, that means Paul's setting a really high standard for the Christian right. That's a high bar. Everything you do all day long in the name of Jesus, with thankfulness, that's a high standard. If there's something you contemplate doing and you can't do it with thanksgiving, Paul saying, don't do that thing and go find something else to do.
[00:15:03] Feeling grumpy? Want to yell at your wife, your kids, can you do that in the name of Jesus with thanksgiving?
[00:15:12] I can't do that. I mean, I do things like that, but I can't do that the way Paul's calling me to live my life here.
[00:15:20] You see the bar that he set for us, but it's a really good one right now. He doesn't just tell us that we're to do all things.
[00:15:30] He adds an encouragement. We're to do all things with thanksgiving in the name of the Lord Jesus.
[00:15:39] There's a high standard, but he gives us the greatest encouragement possible.
[00:15:45] All things are to be done in the name of Jesus.
[00:15:50] Christians have a special relationship with the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, don't we?
[00:15:56] If you're a Christian, you know where I'm going.
[00:16:01] You bear the name of Jesus. Christians are little Christs, that sense. But in an even more profound sense, a Christian is one who's been baptized in the name of Jesus and in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We're baptized into the name.
[00:16:21] We walk around with his name on us in baptism.
[00:16:25] What does that name do for us?
[00:16:29] It points to our salvation for sure, right?
[00:16:33] There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12, 1 Corinthians 6:11. You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. The name that you bear, the name of The Lord Jesus Christ points you to your Savior, that you were saved in him. It points you to that transition out of darkness and into light, out of the old kingdom and into the new under Christ.
[00:17:10] But here he doesn't say that you're baptized or that you're to do everything in the name of Jesus.
[00:17:15] He says you're to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.
[00:17:21] He points us to the lordship or the kingship of Jesus Christ.
[00:17:28] The name by which you are to do everything, in which you are to do everything is the name of your king, your new king, your master, the Christian is the servant. Jesus is the king.
[00:17:42] We are his servants. And like a king's servants, we wear his uniform, his livery. You might say if you go to the house of the King of England, his servants wear his livery uniforms that show that they work for and serve the King.
[00:18:00] And everywhere those servants go, people know that they serve the King of the realm.
[00:18:08] Servants are to do everything as servants of their master.
[00:18:15] They don't do things for themselves, they do them for their King.
[00:18:20] The lordship of Jesus Christ is what's first in view here when it says that we are to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.
[00:18:32] So as you go to do everything with thanksgiving, this really high bar, what does it mean to do it in the name of the Lord Jesus?
[00:18:42] First, it means that you are commissioned by Jesus.
[00:18:48] He is sending you out to live your life as his servant. Commissioned by Him. What does it mean to be commissioned? It means to be sent out under Jesus authority.
[00:18:59] You're sent out serving Him.
[00:19:03] He's our master. We obey Him.
[00:19:06] He gives us commands.
[00:19:09] We do them in his name under his authority. Under his orders, he sends you out into the world with orders.
[00:19:21] Go, be good employees.
[00:19:23] Go love your neighbor.
[00:19:27] Go love your wife and lay down your life for her.
[00:19:32] Treat your children well. Fathers, children, obey and be respectful to your parents.
[00:19:42] And you know, the list goes on.
[00:19:47] Everything that you do, you are to do in the name of Jesus. Commissioned by him, obedient to him, sent out, operating under his orders as his servants, his agents, representing him, doing everything for Him.
[00:20:06] You are commissioned, and so you are to do everything in his name as his servants.
[00:20:12] Secondly, to do everything in his name doesn't just mean that we're his servants under his authority, commissioned, we are to do everything that we do by his power.
[00:20:26] Now, it's encouraging to think about serving King Jesus in everything that we do.
[00:20:32] But it's even more encouraging than when we're told that we're to do it in his name, meaning by his power, by his authority.
[00:20:43] The name of Jesus is a powerful name.
[00:20:49] As his servants, Jesus empowers you to serve Him.
[00:20:55] It was by faith in Jesus name that Peter and John healed the lame man in the temple.
[00:21:02] Remember, he wanted silver and gold, he wanted alms. They said, we don't have silver and gold, but what we have, we give to you.
[00:21:11] He takes his hand and he says, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. In other words, by his power and authority, I raise you up and heal you.
[00:21:25] Jesus name is a powerful name.
[00:21:27] At His Name one day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess all of Jesus rebels, not just his people, but everyone who rebelled against him and persisted in rebelling against him.
[00:21:40] Everyone will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord. That is a powerful name.
[00:21:49] It's the Name that carries the power of salvation.
[00:21:54] It's only by Jesus name that men can be saved.
[00:21:58] That is a name that is a power unmatched.
[00:22:04] And Jesus commands you to do everything with thanksgiving to God the Father, in his name, that is, by his authority, by his power, not by your own. And consider this.
[00:22:16] When servants are commissioned, they act not under their own authority, but under the authority of their master. When a king sends his servants out to do this or to do that action in his kingdom, they act under the authority of the king.
[00:22:31] And that's what Jesus is doing here. He's not just commissioning you, he's saying, you act by My power, in My name.
[00:22:41] As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord. Lord, so walk in Him.
[00:22:49] Not walk by yourself, not walk by your own power, but walk in him that is in union with Him.
[00:22:56] By his power, by his saving might, walk in Him.
[00:23:04] Jesus talks about it this way in the Gospel of John. He says, I am the vine and you are the branches.
[00:23:12] Abide in me, because apart from Me, you can do nothing.
[00:23:20] Trust in Him.
[00:23:22] Everything you do, do in his name, that is, do trusting in him, relying on him and his strength.
[00:23:28] What does he say a couple chapters later, in Ephesians? I'm sorry, in the end of Ephesians, he talks about spiritual warfare. And Paul says, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God and do battle and fight for Him. Not in yourself, not in your own power, not in your strength, but by his might. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Apart from him, you can do nothing. But in him, abiding in him, you can do everything he calls you to.
[00:24:06] So do everything in the Name of Jesus, commissioned by his authority, serving him, and by his power and might.
[00:24:14] But thirdly, you do everything in the name of Jesus when you do it for Jesus sake.
[00:24:23] When you do everything that you do for his honor and his glory. And that's what servants are called to do. They serve their Master. They serve his good. They serve his honor.
[00:24:33] We do everything for Him.
[00:24:36] Jesus saved us from a life of slavery to sin, serving ourselves, serving the Evil One.
[00:24:42] He brought us into his kingdom, and now we serve Him.
[00:24:46] And everything we do, we're to do for him, for his honor.
[00:24:52] Kings servants don't serve for themselves. They serve for the honor and glory of their king. King.
[00:25:01] So to do everything in the name of Jesus is to do everything for Him.
[00:25:07] Can you devote something to Jesus in service? Then do it. Can you say something in service to Jesus and for his honor and glory? Then say it. If you can't, then don't.
[00:25:22] Second Thessalonians 1, verse 11 and 12. Therefore, we also pray always for you, verse 12. That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you was the first question and answer of our shorter catechism. Was man's chief end. To glorify God, to do everything, everything that we do in word or in deed, in the name of Jesus, that is for his glory. We're to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus with thanksgiving.
[00:25:57] To do so is to not do everything, those things by our own power, for our own sake, under our own authority. Rather, it's to do them all, serving our Master, by His power and for his glory.
[00:26:15] Well, that's pretty comprehensive, hopefully encouraging that he doesn't call you to serve him by your own strength, but he calls you to serve him by his grace and mercy.
[00:26:30] But he adds one more thing, that you're to do all of this in his name, giving thanks to God the Father through him, that is, through Jesus Christ.
[00:26:41] You're to do everything you do all day long with thanksgiving.
[00:26:48] How does this fit in? I mean, thanksgiving is great. A life of ingratitude. That sounds miserable. We know it, we feel it. But how do I thank God in everything that I do?
[00:27:00] In fact, normally we thank people for the things they do for us.
[00:27:05] But here he says, you do these things and do them with thanksgiving.
[00:27:11] What does it mean to give thanks? It means to respond. In this case, it really does mean to respond to God and what he has done for us as creatures. We respond to God, making us, giving us life, giving us good blessings. When it rains. We thank God our Creator, right.
[00:27:29] And it's an act of worship and praise.
[00:27:31] It's a creaturely duty even we're called to give thanks to God all day long simply because he is and he made us.
[00:27:42] But Paul's driving at something more here.
[00:27:47] I think the answer here maybe to what you may be wondering, we may be wondering, wrestling with how do we give thanks all day long?
[00:27:55] It's connected with the doing.
[00:28:00] What are you giving thanks for?
[00:28:05] When are you giving thanks? You're to give thanks while you're doing all of these things, living your whole life in Jesus name.
[00:28:16] The praise and thanksgiving is connected to what we're doing all day long.
[00:28:21] You get up in the morning, you get ready to go to work.
[00:28:25] You're giving thanks in response to the things that you're thinking about, the things that you're doing.
[00:28:33] You're caring for your children.
[00:28:35] There's thanksgiving that's to be connected there.
[00:28:40] Why? What?
[00:28:41] Let's press it just a little bit more.
[00:28:45] All of our life is to be lived doing all these things, but at the same time giving thanks to God relative to or about the things that we're doing.
[00:28:58] If thanksgiving has to do with responding to God and his goodness to us, that means that all day long as we're serving others, we're taking care of ourselves, we're doing all these things.
[00:29:11] We are to be continually evaluating God's mercy and kindness and goodness to us in our life all day long. God is being good to you all day long. He has gifted you with wonderful things.
[00:29:29] He's given you a family, a spouse, children. He's given you talents.
[00:29:36] You're able to work and ply a trade. Maybe you work serving others.
[00:29:42] You use your mind to build things, your hands to build and fix things. These are all good, wonderful things.
[00:29:49] And now not only do you have all of these good creaturely gifts, but you have them. And you now, by the grace of God, are enabled by the power of Jesus to devote all of them to in service to God, not in rebellion, not in ingratitude. But you can devote and give all of these things to God.
[00:30:12] That's something to give thanks for.
[00:30:15] I now have a life I can live in grace, in the kingdom of light, the kingdom of the Son, of His love, a place of favor and mercy, a wonderful place. A I get to serve my God here.
[00:30:31] All of these good things you get to do are things to give thanks for.
[00:30:39] We are to be thankful to God that we can do all of these things in the name of Jesus. Maybe that's the simplest Way to think about it. You can do them as God's servants. You can do them by his grace and power. And. And you can do them now, something you never could do, never wanted to do before. You can now live your life by God's grace and power to the glory of King Jesus.
[00:31:05] That ought to lead us to thank him all day long.
[00:31:10] If we really grasp what he's saying here, all that's going to come out of our mouths and our hearts is thanksgiving. Now, I know I'm a sinner. I don't do that. So don't look at me. Look at what God is saying in His Word, what He's pointing you to.
[00:31:24] God has empowered you to live your lives by the grace of Christ, by His reign, his kingship in your life, to now live in a way that pleases him, to live in a way that's good, that's worthy of thanks.
[00:31:42] Before you disobeyed God, he was angry with you.
[00:31:45] Now Paul prays this for you, dear Christian.
[00:31:49] He prays that you would walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power. That's his prayer back in chapter one, verse ten.
[00:32:08] That's how Paul opened this letter.
[00:32:11] People who are now enabled by the grace of God and His power to live lives pleasing to to God.
[00:32:20] So when do you give thanks?
[00:32:23] You can now eat food to the glory of God. Whatever you do in word or indeed whether you eat or drink, do it all to the glory of God. Simplest thing, eating food. You can open your meal with thanks. And we do that, right? What's going on there?
[00:32:44] I can now eat food and be pleasing to God as I'm doing this. Now. That may sound silly, but that's what God made us to do and we never used to do it. You see, you start your workday. Thank God that you can work. Thank God that there are people you can go out and serve and make things for and do things for.
[00:33:07] You have children to care for.
[00:33:09] I know it's hard. They're hard because they're little sinners and you're a sinner caring for them.
[00:33:15] But what a wonderful gift you now have to raise these children for God all day long. Everything can be a living sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.
[00:33:35] What and how do you give thanks?
[00:33:37] There's something of it, but it gets better.
[00:33:42] That's pretty wonderful.
[00:33:44] Who are you to give thanks to?
[00:33:47] Let's finish rounding this out.
[00:33:50] He says that you're to do everything in the name of Jesus. Giving thanks to God the Father.
[00:33:59] Your life now has purpose.
[00:34:02] You're now devoting your life serving not the Prince of Darkness, not that miserable sin that you were enslaved to on the inside. You're now giving thanks to God the Father, who set you free in His Son.
[00:34:17] You're his child.
[00:34:19] He loves you. He's pleased with you. And so you direct your whole life now in thanks to your Father.
[00:34:31] He's not done.
[00:34:32] That's wonderful. But he says that you do so through.
[00:34:37] Through him, through Jesus.
[00:34:43] This is the Gospel.
[00:34:45] This is good news for sinners.
[00:34:49] You can now live a life by the power of God that pleases the Father because you offer it all up to him through Jesus, His Son.
[00:35:04] You're not accepted because of your goodness or your greatness. Yes, your life is still tainted and filled with sin.
[00:35:11] But God assures you that everything that you do in the name of Jesus with thanksgiving, God receives. Why?
[00:35:18] Because he receives you in Jesus. His. His Son.
[00:35:22] Your living sacrifice of thanksgiving is received not because of anything you do or because of who you are. It's received solely by the Father, because of the work of Jesus, because He died to cancel out and remove all of those sins, to wash all of that away so that all that's left is Jesus.
[00:35:45] And the Father receives everything you do in Jesus and because of his righteousness.
[00:35:51] And how can you know he'll receive you? Because His Son died and he put his sins on His Son, and then he raised his son from the dead to show that he received His Son's sacrifice.
[00:36:03] How can you know that everything you do all day long in the name of Jesus with thanksgiving will be received?
[00:36:10] Because Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, and because he's received His Son, he receives you.
[00:36:19] Therefore, by Jesus, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks in his name.
[00:36:32] Children struggle to remember to give thanks when they're given thanks when they're given dessert, right? It's something we all have to learn.
[00:36:40] But God in Christ has made a way for us to live a life of thanksgiving.
[00:36:46] And it isn't just this life now.
[00:36:50] It's the eternity that you have to look forward to.
[00:36:54] The picture that's given us of the throne room of God in heaven is that everyone and everything around God, the living creatures, the 24 elders, and all the myriads of angels and the marriage of the saints have gone before us. We what are they all doing?
[00:37:11] They're spending eternity giving praise and thanks to God. And because Jesus is there and he saved you, you know that is what you have to look forward to. Let's pray.
[00:37:21] Our gracious God and our Savior, how we rejoice that though we are unworthy, that though our lives are full of sin, that we continue not to give you thanks, but all the time, yet you are merciful and that you, having delivered us from the domain of darkness, are continuing to deliver us from indwelling sin, to remove all of that ingratitude and in its place show us Jesus and his love and your mercy and compassion to us in him, so that being drawn to him, having our minds fixed upon him and fixed upon the things above where Jesus is seated in heaven, we may be drawn to devote our lives to you. Lord God, we ask that you would grant us more of this grace that we might live lives that truly obey what you call us to here, not out of a desire to be saved or accepted, but because you have saved and accepted us. Help us to learn of this joyful thanksgiving and sacrifice of praise to your glory. Amen.
