In his sermon, 'Children of Light Should Rejoice, Pray, and Give Thanks,' Jason Dohm explores the life patterns fitting for 'children of light,' as outlined in 1 Thessalonians 5. He explains that Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy present a model of life for those appointed to salvation and not wrath, emphasizing the transformation from darkness to light. The sermon stresses how believers should relate to leaders and others both inside and outside the church, advocating for differentiated approaches based on circumstances. Dohm emphasizes the interconnectedness of rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks, arguing that these practices are interdependent and rooted in a deep understanding of God. Rejoicing should not be based on circumstances but rooted in a joy found in the Lord. Praying without ceasing reflects an ongoing faith and dependence on God, drawing from examples like Nehemiah and the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18. Thanksgiving, as a central theme in the Bible, must be practiced in all circumstances, reflecting a trust in God's sovereign plan. Ultimately, these practices contribute to the believer's sanctification and demonstrate a God-centered life, urging believers to assess their spiritual growth and consistently engage in faith-building practices.

The title of the sermon this morning is, Children of Light Should Rejoice, Pray, and Give Thanks. The sermon is almost as long as the sermon text. Sorry about that. The context of all of this begins at the beginning of chapter 5, where Paul and Silvanus and Timothy establish that there is a pattern of life that is fitting for the children of light. They establish that there are some who deserve wrath, but they are not appointed to wrath.

God snatches them back from the wrath that they deserve, and they are actually appointed to salvation. They are taken out of darkness and brought into a kingdom of light and they become children of light. And that there are patterns of life that are fitting for these children. So that the things that are appropriate for walking in darkness aren't appropriate for these children of light anymore. And what we should find is that over time as we walk with the Lord is that we're having these patterns of light, things that are consistent with being the Lord's, more firmly established.

And so the things that are fitting for us are the things that we walk in. They begin by saying, it's fitting for the children of light to relate to their leaders in the Lord in a certain way. That's verse 12 and 13. We're the people of God. There's a pattern of relating to the leaders that God gives us that is fitting.

It is fitting for the children of light to relate to certain ones in certain ways, both inside and outside the church. That was last week's text, verses 14 and 15. In other words, we're not to be, as the Lord's people, one-trick ponies, where we always relate to everyone the same way. No. The unruly should be warned.

And the faint hearted should be comforted. You shouldn't be comforting the unruly. And you shouldn't be warning the faint hearted that There are people in different places in life, in different circumstances, and we need to treat them differently. It's fitting for the children of light to learn how to treat certain ones in certain ways, both inside the church and outside the church. Now in this week's text, it's fitting for the children of light to cultivate certain habits regarding how we relate to God.

So it was relating to leaders and then it was relating to others inside and outside the church. And now it's habits in how we relate to God. So as we go to the text, let's go to the text with prayer. Our God, those of us who have repented and believe the Gospel have such a desire that the patterns of our life would be fitting to be your children, as dear children that we would imitate you. We would learn to think like our Father in heaven and speak like Jesus.

To conduct ourselves in a way that fits walking in light, not in darkness. Please help us God. Please help us to change. Please help us to turn. Please help us to grow and become like Christ.

We long for Christlikeness. God, I thank you for your Word that week after week you are bringing us into a text that puts pressure on us. And press us into this mold of Christ-likeness. May it be so today. Would you please send your Spirit to work in our hearts in a mighty way to help press home these truths, we pray in Jesus' name.

Before we get right into the text, I have two introductory comments. A lot like last week, I wanted to build a framework to kind of hang the truths of the text on so that we made sure we were thinking about them in the right way. These introductory comments are sort of like that. Here's the first one. It's wrong to take any of these three things in isolation.

We're to rejoice, we're to pray, we're to give thanks. You can't think of this as an a la carte menu, where I'll take a little of that, but none of this, and a heap of this. That's not how these work. These are friends that travel together. That's why they are mentioned together.

If you look through Paul's writings, you are going to see these three things, rejoicing and praying and giving thanks, mentioned in the same breath over and over again. So that should tell us something. That should tell us that they are interdependent and they are interrelated. They are connected to each other. They are meant to be connected to each other.

It's a danger, it's a risk to separate them out and treat them like an a la carte menu as if you're just ordering up a little of this but none of that. No, that's not how these things work. They're interdependent. If you take a link out of this chain, you find yourself with no chain at all. If you neglect one of these things, you find that the other two suffer.

The flip side of that is true also, because they are interrelated and interdependent. If you really grow in one of these areas, you'll find these other two areas coming along alongside it. So there's a good side of that as well. Here's the second introductory comment. These are all rooted in God.

These are commands, they are things for us to do. But if you just reduce it to that, like just more, do this, this, and this, create an acronym so you'll remember it, and it'll be top of mind, I think we'll be lost there. We need to keep the connection with God. Meaning, these things aren't a psychological trick where you trick your brain to adopt a sunnier disposition. This isn't a psychological stunt where you teach your brain a trick that makes you have happier thoughts more often.

This has to do with God and understanding God and having a grand vision of God. This is grounded in a right view of God that has us rejoicing in Him and seeing Him as the one who can answer our prayers, and seeing Him as one who has brought so many good things into our lives, so it would be unthinkable to us that we wouldn't count our blessings. They are rooted in God, it's not a psychological trick. Get you to think happier thoughts. These three things, rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks, are to reflect walking closely with the Lord.

They are rooted in God. If you want these things in abundance in your life, you have to walk closely with the Lord. This is really what we are being called to in these three things. Verse 16, Rejoice always. Rejoice is a word that means to feel or to show great joy or delight.

To feel or to show great joy or delight. So we have three commands here in our sermon text. Rejoice, pray, give thanks. But each one of them is amplified by a modifying word or phrase. So you have the thing that's commanded but it's strengthened.

The command is strengthened by a modifying word or phrase. It's not just rejoice but it's rejoice always. It's not just pray, it's pray without ceasing. It's not just give thanks, it's in everything give thanks. So for each one of these three commands, these are to be a matter of perpetual habit.

That's what's set before us here. These three wonderful commands, but they're amplified, they're strengthened. They're to be a matter of perpetual habit. In this verse, with this verse, verse 16, Rejoice Always, the Reformation Heritage Study Bible, has a note that says, Rejoicing is a fruit of the Spirit. The Spirit of God should be producing this in our lives.

But it is also a Christian duty. If it is just a fruit of the Spirit, you might just hang around to see if the Spirit produces any of it. But it's stronger than that. It's a command of God. It is a Christian duty.

We are obligated to rejoice. We are obligated to feel or show great joy or delight. If we don't, we're to be blamed. We're guilty. Now, here's the question.

Who has a life that causes you to feel or to show great joy or delight all the time? Who's got that life? And how can we swap? Where the circumstances of your life just have you feeling and showing great joy every minute of every day. Who has that life?

So by asking that question and answering it, nobody has that life where our circumstances have us feeling that way all the time, means that this can't be rooted in circumstances. You are going to have circumstances that wage war against feeling and showing delight and joy. Here is the key to unlocking this. In Philippians 4 verse 4, Paul is the author of Philippians, Paul adds three words. In 1 Thessalonians 5, our sermon text, we've got, Rejoice always.

In Philippians 4 verse 4, he separates them and inserts three words in between them. He says, Rejoice in the Lord always. He gives us the key to unlock how we can rejoice even though nobody has the life that will always have their circumstances leading them into feeling and showing joy and delight. It's rooted in the Lord. It's a joy in the Lord that allows it to be an ongoing habit that doesn't depend on circumstances and what life is putting on my plate today.

Here's what Matthew Henry says, If we do rejoice in God, we may do that ever more. In Him our joy will be full, and it is our fault if we have not a continual feast. Matthew Henry looks at rejoicing in the Lord always, and He says, if you don't have a continual feast, it's your own fault. Because God is there as a continual feast for His people. So you hook your joy to the circumstances, then your joy will do whatever according to whatever life puts on your plate today.

Some days will be great, some days will be horrible, and many days will be a little above. But if you hook your joy to the Lord, you have a continual feast because that is what the Lord is to His people. He is a continual feast. So it's your own fault, and it's my own fault, if we can't rejoice always. It means you can rejoice right in the middle of the worst, hardest, most troubling circumstances you can rejoice.

That should give us a thought about what this joy really is. This is not giddiness. You're not going to be able to be giddy through life's hardest, most difficult, most troubling circumstances. But you can have joy because the Lord is a continual feast for His people. Christ is a bottomless well of joy.

You can dip into that well every day, every minute of every day, and you never touch it. The water level never goes down. You think, what's down there? Well, whatever it is, we can't touch it with all of our cumulative need. We can just keep dipping and keep dipping and keep dipping, and there's as much there as there was when we dipped the very first time.

That's the well of joy that Christ is to His people. So what we are being taught is that God expects the Christian to be able to maintain perspective. No matter the circumstances, Christians have one eye on the big picture. So life is going to bring you little pictures every day. If you have your blinders on and can't see outside them, you are going to be focused on the difficulties that life put on your plate today, and it will rob you of your joy.

We are being pulled away from that by this command to rejoice always, to unhook our joy from the circumstances of life, and to hook our joy to Christ and his bottomless well that we can keep dipping out of. What is the big picture for a child of light? You are redeemed. You know what you deserve? You know what your sins earn you?

Before a holy God? All that is swept away. And your eternity is secure. There is nothing that can move your eternity off of eternal joy in the presence of the Lord. So no matter what happens in these short days of this life, the end point for the child of light is eternal joy in the presence of the Lord.

And, there's a sovereign God who's putting all these circumstances on your plate. It's not life putting these circumstances on your plate. It's a sovereign God who knows what he's doing, and who has His glory and your good in mind in all of them. So when the little picture is really dark, the big picture, if you keep one eye on the big picture, you're seeing eternal joy in the presence of the Lord, and you're seeing a sovereign God who's actually bringing you these dark times for His own purposes that are for your good. It's so that you'll grow and flourish spiritually.

God's not trying to make His children shrivel up spiritually. He's making them grow and flourish spiritually. And you know you. And if God only brought you sunshine and chirping birds all the time, you wouldn't grow a bit. You'd be so proud of how you orchestrated the perfect life.

You'd pat yourself on the back, you'd take all the credit, and you'd never grow at all. You'd be a spiritual midget. So would I. So God brings these things into our lives to stretch us, and challenge us, and make us grow, and strip us from that independence that we are always clinging to. It's actually His goodness that puts these things on our plate.

These circumstances that are difficult. Here's a perfect example of rejoicing always, even when the circumstances don't really call for it. Listen to Acts chapter 5. I'm probably going to read it before you can get there. Just listen to Acts chapter 5 verses 40 and 41.

The apostles had been preaching in the temple. They were arrested. An angel let them out. They go back, they're preaching in the temple, and they've been arrested again for a second time. And Gamaliel has actually, this Pharisee, has actually just come to their defense and said, leave them alone.

If they're not from God, it will all end. If they are from God, you'll be fighting against God. And This is where we pick it up in Acts 5 verses 40 and 41. And they, the council, agreed with him, Gamaliel. When they had called for the apostles and beaten them, They commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.

So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. They had just been imprisoned twice, rebuked, told not to preach anymore, and beaten. What's their reaction to this? The sky is falling. No, the sky is not falling for the disciples.

They are rejoicing that they have been counted worthy to suffer like Jesus suffered and to be used by Him to advance His kingdom, they are rejoicing. This is just what Jesus taught them to do. This is one of the encouraging times when the disciples actually do what He taught them to do. Turn to Matthew chapter 5. See, Jesus teaches them this.

So encouraging to go to Acts chapter 5 and then see. They can do it. They can really rejoice when they are persecuted. Matthew chapter 5 verses 10 through 12. This is the end of the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew chapter 5 beginning in verse 10. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Jesus is teaching us to rejoice even in the face of persecution and ill treatment. What does he tell us to do?

He says, for great is your reward in heaven. It's one eye on the big picture. It's one eye on an eternity of joy in his presence, secured and immovable. So when we're persecuted and they lie about us, we can rejoice. And so the apostles did in Acts chapter 5.

It is so important to note here that we're not talking about living in denial. This does not require us to check our brains at the door and to act like everything's pleasant. That's not what's being asked of us here. We're not being asked to live in denial and pretend like bad things aren't bad. We're being asked to live in the shadow of the big picture.

That's all. One eye on heaven. Heaven is secured for the children of light. It's an immovable reward and it will make the short days of this life pale. These will be to us in eternity momentary afflictions that aren't worthy to be compared with the joy that was waiting for us.

That's what the hymn, It is Well with My Soul, is all about. God is going to bring storms into your life, and you are not going to understand them often. And it can be well with your soul. Your soul can flourish and grow right in the middle of it. That's verse 16.

Rejoice always. Verse 17. Pray without ceasing. Now we've got a much longer verse. We went from two words to three words.

Pray without ceasing. Again, this is rooted in God. How do we know that? Well, we know that what's being called for is rooted in God because many people who don't know God pray. There's a world full of people praying, but not to the God of the Bible.

So, we're not being called to good habits. We're being called to faith in God. This is less about a good habit and more about who God is, the God of the Bible is. Jesus tells us who He is in Matthew 7. So, you might still be in Matthew 5, just flip over to Matthew 7.

This is why we should pray without ceasing. Jesus gives us an answer to that question. Why should we pray without ceasing? Why should we bother? Jesus tells us and it's grounded on who God is.

Matthew chapter 7, I'll read verses 7 through 11. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Or what man is there among you who if his son asks for bread will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will he give him a serpent? If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Jesus looks around at the parents and says, even you evil parents are predisposed to give good gifts to your children. And God is actually good.

How much more predisposed to give good is God than you evil parents who have every bent towards sin in your nature. God has none of that and when His children come to Him for bread He doesn't hand them a stone. When his children come to him for a fish, he doesn't hand them a serpent. That's not how God is. He's good and he always hears the prayers of his people.

And he has a bent to. Our bent in our nature is towards sin and rebellion. God has a bent too. It's to grant the requests of His people. He has a bias towards giving a good reply to your request.

So He says, ask and seek and knock. See how good I am as a father. So not only should we pray without ceasing, but we have every enticement to pray without ceasing. God doesn't always cease promises. But He set the enticements out there to make us a praying people.

He just sets our self-interest out there. It's a beautiful thing when your self-interest lines up with the commands of God. Here it is. You can serve yourself on this one. Now, how in the world do we pray without ceasing?

I think we learned something about this from Nehemiah. When we were studying Nehemiah, in Nehemiah chapter 1, Nehemiah is the king's cupbearer. He's in the capital city of this pagan empire. And a report comes to him from Jerusalem that they're in distress in Jerusalem. And he's so grieved by this.

And here's what we read in Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 4. So it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days. I was fasting and praying before the God of Heaven. This is one thing we learn about prayer, that God would have us setting aside times to go away and to fast and to pray and to make this part of the pattern and routine of our life. That's what he's doing here.

This is a period of days, this is not spontaneous prayer. This is Nehemiah being grieved and knowing that God is the one who can answer those prayers. God is the only one who is going to change what is happening in Jerusalem. So, he goes aside to pray. That is one kind of prayer.

Going aside to pray. We get something though very different in chapter two. In chapter two, he's doing his job. He's bearing the cup. The king, for the first time ever, the text says, is the first time this has happened.

The king looks him in the face and sees he has a sad face. So the king asks him, why are you sad? Here's what it says in chapter 2 verse 4. Then the king said to me, What do you request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.

This is a different kind of prayer. He's not going aside to pray. Nehemiah, what do you want? Okay, give me a few days, King. You know, I can go aside and pray.

That's not what's happening in chapter 2, verse 4. In the seconds between when he's asked by the king and when he responds in the seconds, how many seconds can it be? Not very many I don't think. He doesn't read that way in the text. He lifts his prayer to God.

He has a need that he didn't anticipate, and he doesn't have much time to respond, but he doesn't want to respond until he's asked God and prayed about it to God. So that's how he spends the seconds before he responds. It's a different kind of prayer. So there is Matthew chapter 6 verse 6 prayer where we go into a room and we close the door and we go aside and pray to our Father in secret. But there is also ongoing spontaneous prayer where something hits today's plate that we didn't anticipate, and we don't dare take a step without praying to God.

So we pray to God right there on the spot. No one hears it. It's not audible, but we tremble at the thought of saying a word without praying. And there's also corporate prayer, which we see up one side and down the other in the book of Acts where the people of God are coming together and joining their hearts in one accord to pray. There are different kinds of prayer.

But the point is that the Lord's people keep coming back and keep coming back and keep coming back and keep coming back and they're never done with prayer. They don't cease. I think another good description of this is found in Luke chapter 18. So please turn to Luke chapter 18. It is a very predictable place to go, but I can't resist the temptation to go here.

I think it's a very good text to help us understand what it means to pray without ceasing. Luke chapter 18. I'll be reading verses 1 through 8. Luke chapter 18 verse 1, Then he, Jesus, spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. So you see the connection with praying without ceasing.

He was saying, there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, get justice for me for my adversary. And He would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her. Lest by her continual coming she weary me. Then the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said, and shall God not avenge his own elect to cry out day and night to him though he bears long with them?

I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? This is so much like the text we just saw in Matthew where he says, okay, here's an evil father. They like to give good things to their children. How much more will God, who is good, like to give good gifts to his children?

Now there is an evil judge. But he is not about to deny this widow because she keeps coming and he's worried that she's going to suck the life out of him. He compares to this evil judge and says, if an evil judge is like that, God is not evil. God is predisposed to be good to you. If you keep coming, will He keep sending you away empty handed?

No. And he actually says it's a matter of faith. It's a matter of faith. Do you believe that God is that way towards his people so that you keep coming. Here in this text we have praying with ceasing in view.

I come, I pray, God didn't give me what I asked for, I stopped praying. And that's set forward as wicked in Luke 18. Without faith, that's what that is. When we come and we have something, this is not just for our pleasures. James talks about that.

If you pray just to get something for your own pleasures, don't expect much from that exercise. That's what the book of James says. So we're not talking about that. We're talking about praying appropriate things that are consistent with what God has revealed in His Word. When we pray those things and God doesn't answer it, and we just stop praying, it shows we didn't have faith to start with.

We didn't have faith to start with. We didn't believe that God is disposed to do good to His people. We didn't really believe he would do it anyway. It's faithless prayer. Paul calls this continuing steadfastly in prayer in Romans chapter 12 verse 12.

This is just more on pray without ceasing. Romans 12, 12. He calls it continuing stead fastly in prayer. That doesn't sound like one and done. That doesn't sound like pray, no answer, no more prayer.

No. That sounds like, pray, no answer, pray harder, no answer, pray, no answer. This can go on for a while. Anybody who's walked with the Lord for a while knows this can go on for a while, but we shouldn't stop praying. We should pray without ceasing.

This doesn't mean that we pray every minute of every day. You can't hold a job if you do that. But it does mean that we're never done with prayer. We keep going. We're ready every moment.

Life puts something on our plate. God puts something on our plate. And we're afraid to take a step without praying. God wants us to be that way. Keep going back, we keep going back, we keep going back.

Verse 18, first part of it, in everything give thanks. The ESV and the NIV render it a little differently. Give thanks in all circumstances. They're both good translations. So, in everything give thanks, or give thanks in all circumstances.

It means essentially the same thing. You can see here how interdependent and interrelated with rejoicing and praying this giving of thanks is. In other words, how do you give thanks? You normally give it to God in prayer. We thank God in prayer.

We give thanks before every meal. That's an example. That's one of the main vehicles for our giving thanks is prayer. So they are interrelated and interdependent. We often give thanks because we can see the big picture.

We see that God is a bottomless well of rejoicing, and so we are just full of thanksgiving all the time. This is not a separate category. These are connected categories that depend on each other. Giving thanks is a central theme of the biggest book in the Bible. There are 150 Psalms.

And giving of thanks is a central theme. If you go and you look at Psalm 107, Psalm 118, Psalm 136, you have an identical two sentences repeated over and over again in those Psalms. Three Psalms, 107, 118, 136. And you see exactly with zero variation, two sentences repeated within each of those Psalms. Listen to the two sentences.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. You'll find those two sentences multiple times in each one of those three Psalms. Oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good. For his mercy endures forever. For his mercy endures forever.

This is a great place to start in terms of in everything give thanks or give thanks in every circumstance. Again, it's rooted in God. Why do we give thanks? Because God is good. He is good.

And His mercy endures forever. So there are many demonstrations of the goodness of God and the mercy of God in our lives, but it all comes back to the same foundations. He's good. He's merciful. He doesn't deal with us as our sins deserve.

So again, if you have the baseline in your mind, I deserve this, but God's given me that. Then, you have all this difference between the two to pull from in terms of giving thanks. I don't know of a better place to go here than Romans 8, so please turn to Romans 8. Romans 8. Here's your bedrock for Thanksgiving in Romans 8.

I'd like to read verses 28-32. Romans chapter 8 verse 28, Paul writes, And We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called, whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified, These He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things." So like rejoicing must be free from immediate circumstances. You don't tie your rejoicing to immediate circumstances. Giving thanks in all circumstances requires that we also look beyond the circumstances sometimes. We're giving thanks for all circumstances, in all circumstances, but we're looking beyond the circumstances.

Here in Romans chapter 8, the first thing we are told is that God is working all things together for our good. The good things and the bad things. He is working them together for our good. The second thing that we're told is that we're given a question. The question is this, is God for us?

You need to know that. Is God for you? And it's answered by the cross. This is what Paul tells us. If you need to know if God's for you, you just look to the cross.

It tells you everything you need to know. How could God give up his son and then not be for you in the circumstances of life? If God sent his only son and he was pleased to crush him to free you from the penalty of your sins, how then would he withhold the lesser things from you? That's the argument in Romans 8. It answers the question, is God for us?

With a resounding yes, look to the cross. Of course God is for us. Finally, the Nelson Study Bible has a note that says this, and I think it's important. It says, not thanks for everything, But thanks in everything. There's a distinction.

We don't give thanks for our sin. God thank you that I'm sinning the same sin again. No. We give thanks in everything. God, thank you for the work of Christ that though I'm sinning this sin again, there is a way for me to be cleansed, for me to be reconciled.

We're not thankful for evil done against me. God, thank you that I am being slandered. We should very well say, God, thank you for sustaining me in my slander. Thank you for using this slander to humble me. We give thanks in everything.

Finally, the second half of verse 18. Persisting in these things is God's will for you. Persisting in rejoicing, persisting in praying, persisting in giving thanks is God's will for you. Here's the exact words of the text, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. So our translators have punctuated the sentence this way.

First command comma, second command comma, third command comma, semicolon. So first, second, third, semicolon, This is the will of God for you. So our translators think that The best way to understand this is all three things are the will of God for you. Grammatically. That's true.

Now, why is anyone in Christ? Why are you in Christ? Why would God be willing to pay such a high price? Here's the answer. Here's the answer.

To transform a grumbling radically independent thankless people to put himself on display to glorify himself. This is the will of God. He takes a grumbling people, children of darkness, and he makes them rejoice always. Those are the two poles. You can't get further apart than those things.

He takes the grumbling people who are never satisfied, and he makes them into a people who rejoice always. Over time, not overnight, over time, He takes the people who are radically independent, and He transforms them into a people who pray without ceasing, who wouldn't think of speaking a word without bringing this to God. God. He takes a thankless people who attribute every good thing to themselves and can't see the good in anything that doesn't serve their immediate needs and he makes them into a people who in everything give thanks in order to show himself mighty and bring himself glory. This is the will of God.

So often we think about the will of God in terms of should I take the job in Charlotte? Should I move to be near my parents? And those are real decisions in life and God really does have a will in those things. But the bigger things are clearly and infallibly given to us in His Word. I'm saying those are the little things in life, honestly.

The big things in life is what is the disposition of our hearts towards God? Is it a grumbling disposition, or a disposition that rejoices? Is it a radically independent disposition, or is it a radically dependent disposition that wouldn't dare speak a word without praying. Is it a thankless disposition or is it a disposition that sees God at work in everything and can give Him thanks for His sustaining power? This is the will of God, your sanctification.

Remember we saw that in chapter four verse three. It's the first place in 1 Thessalonians that we saw the will of God mentioned. This is the will of God, your sanctification. This is all about your sanctification. Learning to rejoice always, learning to pray without ceasing, learning to in everything give thanks is central to your sanctification.

It has to do with your disposition towards your God. Sanctification touches every part of life that these three are some of those parts of life. Here's the bottom line. Here's really the conclusion of the matter. This is about the God-centered life.

These are the marks of a God-centered life. If you're still predominantly man-centered, you can't do these things. Your life's not marked by these things. The more God-centered our lives become, the more we're marked by our rejoicing, our praying, our giving thanks. So applications, I have two.

And they are the obvious ones. The first is Assess, where am I? No one has arrived. If we had Adonirond Judson here, the famous missionary, and we had given him another century or so to be sanctified, and he was among us, He would need to assess where he is and he would be finding that he had much room to grow. So we have to ask ourselves, am I a frequent grumbler?

And then just be honest about the grumbling. Circumstances are inanimate objects. You don't grumble against circumstances. You know that. You grumble against God.

So am I a frequent grumbler, or am I always rejoicing? Am I learning to always rejoice? That tells us a lot about our sanctification, how it's going. Am I still very independent? Or am I one who prays without ceasing?

Each one of these is a scale, a continuum. You will not find yourself on the always rejoicing point. You will not find yourself at the praise without ceasing point. Hopefully, We will find ourselves growing towards that point. Do I go through life oblivious to the goodness of God?

I can't even recognize it when it happens. Or am I learning to give thanks in all circumstances? That's the first thing. Just assess. Realize that you have these continuums between what we were in a kingdom of darkness and what we ought to be in a kingdom of light, if we are children of light, and that we need to grow in learning to rejoice and to pray and to give thanks.

Just look for grumbling and independence and obliviousness to the goodness of God and the things that God has brought into your life. Secondly, after we assess we've got to figure out how we're going to grow. Here's what I would say about that. We should consistently give ourselves to the things that magnify God and shrink the world. There are things that make God loom large.

Give yourself to those things. There are things that make the world seem like nothing. Okay, give yourself to those things. We talk about these all the time. They are the ordinary means of grace.

Maybe there is no magic to this. Here is one we did recently in the dome house. We read the book of Daniel. He went into the lion's den again. He came out again.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the furnace again. And they were joined again by one like the Son of Man, who shone like the sun. And they came out not even smelling like smoke again. These are things that make God magnified, loom large. They make the world nothing.

They make the kings of the world nothing. Read the book of Daniel. And then Ezekiel is next. That's not true. It's the other way around.

Never mind. Scratch that. Take that out of the tape. The point is, there's faith builders in every book of the Bible. If we give ourselves to the study of Scripture before God, You can read the scripture very unprofitably by the way, but if we give ourselves to reading the scripture before God, it grows our faith.

He looms larger and everything else shrinks. You should do that. Communion with Christ in prayer makes God loom larger and the world shrink. Our corporate worship, if we engage in it with our hearts and our affections, makes God loom large and the world shrink. We should strive for rejoicing always, and praying without ceasing, and in everything giving thanks.

But I'm saying that a lot of that striving has to be indirect, meaning it results from the things that make God loom large. You can focus on Rejoicing and praying and giving thanks. I'm not saying we shouldn't do that. I'm just saying a great way to get at these things is to Walk closely with God and We find ourselves rejoicing more and we find ourselves praying more and we find ourselves giving thanks more. It's an indirect way to get there.

God, I thank you for your word, and I do pray that you would transform us. We know there's grumbling in our hearts. We know there's radical independence in our hearts. We know that there's such thanklessness in our hearts. We also know that we are different than we used to be.

And we know that you have transforming power. And we're praying, O God, that you would transform us. Speed it up, Lord. Please come. Where we're resisting you, put your finger on it, Lord.

Change us. Glorify Christ among us, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.