In the sermon 'Three Habits for Fullness of Life,' Gary Duff explores three biblical disciplines from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, and giving thanks in all circumstances. These habits are essential for experiencing the fullness of life promised by Jesus. Using the Apostle Paul's example from the Epistle to the Philippians, Duff emphasizes the importance of joy, even in suffering, and the need to pray continually. He addresses common obstacles to prayer, such as busyness and lack of eloquence, and encourages believers to cultivate gratitude as a response to God's sovereign grace. The sermon highlights that these practices are interconnected and vital for spiritual growth and endurance in times of trial, ultimately glorifying God and fostering a joyful, prayerful, and thankful community.

Dear family, dear Texas family, if you would open in the scriptures to 1st Thessalonians, looking at chapter 5 verses 16 through 18, this is kind of the organizing text for the sermon, It's a natural three-point sermon. This is the Word of God. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything, give thanks.

For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. And verse 19 says, do not quench the spirit. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we do come before you. We rejoice that as your people we can hear your word and we can rejoice in it together.

Lord, this is your living word. And we are your people, your children, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Oh Lord, we pray that you would fill us with your spirit that we might understand and apply your precious word and grow as obedient disciples, as living sacrifices. For we ask this in the name of our Savior, and our Lord, and our King, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Please be seated. Today I'd like to share some thoughts about three habits. I'm going to call them habits, principles, disciplines. Actually, it's what they are, biblical disciplines. And I'd like to share these because I believe that they cause believers to know more of the fullness that we have, promised to us in the Lord Jesus Christ, that He gives us.

Fullness is in Him. And He said to His disciples, He said, I have come that they, that we might have life and have it abundantly. And so I believe these are three well-known principles. And yet I think it's important for us to encourage each other and exhort each other in these because we can kind of forget or say, yes, I know those verses, but not apply them. And they are meant to be applied.

So these three verses from 1 Thessalonians 5 are three of about 19 commands in the section of verses that it comes from in that letter, in that epistle, verses 12 through 22. There are a lot of commands in this section. And they call us to do the will of God, of course. That is how we know the fullness of joy. And we're to be obedient to His commands, and we're to apply all of them all the time, of course, by the grace of God.

So we're always learning of that. And in this first letter to the Thessalonians, we can read about the suffering of the church in Thessalonica. And they were suffering. And we can learn of their persecution. And even of their sadness when people had died.

And they were sad because of what happens to those people. And they were concerned. So Paul knew that they needed to hear again and be reminded that Jesus is coming and he's coming back and they needed to have that hope and comfort in that for the people who had already gone ahead but also Paul knew that they needed to be called to do the things which help them to endure in times of suffering. And these are at least three of those that we're looking at today. There is comfort and obedience to the commands of the living God, of course.

So they needed to hear the commands which would help them to not lose heart. And so do we. So first of all rejoice always. One of the best examples of this rejoicing is in the Epistle to the Philippians. And so I would like to just go very quickly through the letter to the Philippians.

So if you'd open to the Philippians, the book of Philippians. And while you're doing that, I'd just like to say Sherry and I are very thankful to be back in our Texas home, with our Texas church. And we're very thankful for you. Didn't expect it would be quite so damp. But, and we come from the land of drought.

We've had a decade of drought. And all this rain looks great to me, but probably not to you so much. But we're thankful to be here, and Phil, I know, is very grateful. He's had some health issues. I believe you've all been praying for Phil.

But he and Kathy will be here, Lord willing, this coming, the next Sunday. And he is looking forward to that. He's been wanting to come here for some time. Okay, so looking at the book of Philippians, in this epistle, it's a prison epistle, and likely Paul wrote this from prison in Rome, but it sure doesn't seem like it was penned by a man who was in prison. Because it's all about joy.

It's all about rejoicing. It's the key word of this letter. It's used at least 16 times, joy or rejoicing in this letter. And Paul is an example, I believe, of rejoicing, of praying constantly, and of giving thanks in all circumstances. And so I'd like to highlight a few verses.

So open to chapter 1, verses 3 and 4, if you look at that. Paul said, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making requests for you all with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. So Paul was very joyful as he remembered this dear church, very dear to Him. He loved them greatly. And as He prayed for them, even though He was in prison.

And so He was joyful in that place. Whenever He thought of them, it was with thankfulness, it says. It was with joy. And whenever he prayed for them, which I believe was often, was with joy. And dear family, if we are not praying for each other, we are missing, I believe, the joy of seeing the Lord work in each other's lives.

And seeing the grace of prayer in this congregation. I know you are doing that. And I urge you, continue in that good work. As much as prayer can be an effort, of course, it's dying to self. It takes time.

It is a part of the joy that the Lord wants us to experience as we pray for each other. And if you're lacking in joy, one suggestion might be that you're simply not praying for your brothers and sisters as much as you could. Verses 16 through 18. Let's move on. Some indeed preach Christ, even from envy and strife.

And some also from goodwill. The former preach Christ from selfish ambition not Sincerely supposing to add to my afflict the affliction to my chains But the latter out of love knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel what then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And in this I rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice, he said.

So Paul rejoiced that Christ was being preached, even though There was rivalry there, there was competition, there was selfish ambition in the midst of that. He rejoiced that the gospel of Christ was being preached in every way. And we can rejoice, dear family, that we can hear the good news, certainly every Lord's Day, and see it in the table. And may the Lord keep us from selfish ambition and competition. May the Lord keep you from that, from competing in a way to bring attention to yourself.

Because frankly, I believe it sucks the joy out of a congregation, out of the body. So let's rejoice as each individual and each family shares in the gospel, in the variety of ways that they've been given to, that they've been gifted to do so. Let's rejoice in that. We don't all have to do it the same. Praise God for the variety in the body of Christ.

Okay, verses 25 and 26. Paul said, and being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith. That Your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again." So Paul here rejoiced that he would be remaining in the flesh to be able to serve them, this family that he loved, and to build up his dearly loved brethren in Philippi. And he had said just previously to this, to live as Christ and to die as gain And he knew that they would rejoice to see him again also He knew that they loved him and they would rejoice in his presence And this shows the joy of fellowship, I believe, that Paul had with them, and how he really missed them when he was absent. He was absent from them.

And he missed them. He longed to be with them. This is something like I know you already have here, when you go away and you come back and, ah, I missed you so much. You know, the joy of fellowship, you know, I see it in every church actually in the CPC. And of course, I miss my family back home, but I love being here too.

So, I'm thankful. I'm joyful. And so, I rejoice in that longing, that joy of fellowship that we have in the Spirit. Chapter 2, verses 1 and 2. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

So Paul asked them to, in a sense, fulfill my joy. I already have a lot of joy in you, with you, but fulfill it, In other words, to make Him joyful, even more joyful, by becoming more like Christ, by being unified in Christ, by growing in Christlikeness. And there is great joy, dear family, in being like-minded, having the same love for each other, being of one accord and of one mind. And I think what Art shared this morning indicated to me that a big event like putting on a presbytery causes us to grow. And you have been blessed.

I know you have been blessed in that. And I rejoice to be a part of what you have done through this assembly. So this unity is a great source of joy, but disunity and divisiveness, again, sucks joy out of each of us. And may the Lord make you one who rejoices, and may he make us as he prayed for us in John 17 united in joy with one another chapter 2 verses 17 and 18 Paul said yes if and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith I am glad and rejoice with you all for the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me So again Paul was rejoicing that he could suffer and he could possibly die for them, that he would sacrifice himself for them. He's glad to do that.

He's being poured out for them. And it was a joyful thing for him to be poured out. And then he encourages them to rejoice in his sufferings as he was rejoicing in them himself. And if they were to come to suffer in the same way, to also rejoice in that, is what he was saying. Verse 28.

Therefore I sent Him, that is Epaphroditus. I sent Epaphroditus the more eagerly, that when you see Him again, you may rejoice, and I may be less sorrowful. So, he dearly loved Epaphroditus. Epaphroditus was necessary in Paul's life. He was a great encouragement.

But Paul sent him, Paul sent him because he knew that the Philippians would rejoice. He wanted them to rejoice and he did something sacrificial in order to increase their joy. He knew that, they knew that Epaphroditus had been sick, that he'd almost died. And so Paul made this decision to send Epaphroditus to give them joy, even though he was blessed to have him near. And I guess I would ask the question here in terms of application.

Do we think that way? Do we make decisions that way? Do we realize that increasing the joy of others will increase ours, of course? And do we actively seek to increase the joy of others by being sacrificial? Question for application.

Chapter 3, verse 1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, for me to write the same things to you is not tedious but for you it is safe. Again, 16 times at least, it says joy or rejoicing in this in this letter. So he said well I'm gonna say it again anyway even if I am being tedious. So the point in this little section is that I believe we are to rejoice, first of all, in the Lord.

In the Lord, it has to be centered in Him, in who He is, and of course in what He has done. And it is good for us, I believe, in the congregation to often call each other to keep rejoicing. Not in a trite way, of course, from your heart. But we need to encourage each other to continue to rejoice. Look at, I'll refer to this in just a minute, but if you look at the general media, There's not a lot of joy at all there.

Not true joy, not biblical joy, not Christ-like joy. And so it's safe to do this. In this case, be repetitious. It's okay. Be safe.

You can encourage each other to rejoice So let's encourage each other more often to live in joy Chapter 4 verse 1 therefore my beloved and long for brethren my joy and crown so stand fast in the Lord beloved He called him His joy. He really loved them again. He longed to see them and be with them. They were to be His joy and His crown when the Lord returns. Not the meager joy that He had from...

You remember before He was converted, He had a whole list of things that he could have claimed joy in. But he didn't. He knew that was garbage. It was rubbish. And so he was rejoicing as they remained steadfast in the Lord.

They were his children, in a sense. They were his joy because they were His crown. The crown he wanted in the Lord. Part of his reward, in a sense. People were his joy.

The Apostle John said, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. No greater joy, that apostle said. Chapter 4, verse 4, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. He's being tedious.

Praise the Lord. He can't say it enough, so he repeats it. And it is God's clear will that we rejoice, dear family. We rejoice constantly. And it is a clear command.

We shouldn't let situations or people rob us of this joy. Our joy is in the Lord and in His Word. The joy of the Lord is our strength. In His presence there is fullness of joy. So let's repeat this to each other often.

Chapter 4 verse 10 will end with us in Philippians But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished Another reason that he was so joyful in them He rejoiced that they showed their love for him by sending a financial gift And Paul gave himself joyfully to them as he did and for them and they joyfully gave back To him as unto the Lord not to please Paul and may the Lord cause us here to Give of ourselves to each other even more. I believe then you already praise the Lord are doing to continue to grow in being a very joyful church. I am praying that for you. So, how do we become more joyful? I'll just conclude this section with this, a couple of ideas.

First of all, pray. Pray through the Word and according to the Word. We cannot have biblical joy without constantly being in the Word of God. So read through Philippians and remind yourself on why to be joyful, and especially through the Psalms of praise, and sing them, because the Word itself brings joy. Psalm 119, 162 says, I rejoice at your Word as one who finds great treasure.

Think of the biggest treasure to you anyway, whatever that would be, and you find it. Wow, I am so excited. I am so joyful. So come to the word that way. May we be like that.

We come to the word because it is a treasure chest of riches. Jeremiah said this, your words were found and I ate them, and your words became to me the joy and delight of my heart. May that be so here." And so he found the word, Jeremiah did, and he ate it up. He devoured it. It was part of his joy.

He was hungry for it. He rejoiced to have it, and so it became the joy and rejoicing of his heart. Secondly, ask the Lord for joy, even during suffering. Matthew 5, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." So exceedingly glad. They were exceedingly glad.

1 Peter 1 verse 8. And 1 Peter is also a letter written to a church under great suffering. Peter said, by faith you need to do this. You rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. An inexpressible joy.

You can't even... Words do not work. You have that kind of joy. 1 Peter 4 says, Rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy again. Exceeding joy.

And, Dear brothers and sisters, we will suffer. You have suffered. All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 2 Timothy 312. So we have to be ready to suffer, I believe, family.

We have to be ready to suffer, but I think we also must be ready to expect joy from it. I think we don't. To expect joy from it, certainly by the grace of God, by the filling of His Spirit. Third, sing, listen to music, I know you rejoice in music. Shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth, break forth in song, rejoice and sing praises.

Psalm 98, 4. Psalm 71 says, my lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to you. And even if the people around you don't think you have a great voice, it doesn't matter. Sing joyfully. Sing loud.

Sing so the neighbors can hear you. Music is a gift from God to help us express our heart, to express joy in the Lord, our joy in the Lord. But not just any songs I'm talking about here can bring that kind of joy. We talked about this morning and Peter prayed that we would do so in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Act 16, of course, is the situation Paul and Silas were in the Philippian jail.

And the prisoners were listening to them as they sang. He was scourged, he was put in stocks, and they're singing. Well, number four, get around others, hang around others who have a habit of being joyful, frankly. Romans 12, 15 says, rejoice with those who rejoice. You should do that.

I read a sermon, and I'm sorry I can't remember it was a long time ago, but it came to mind and I can't remember to whom to attribute it. So I could just say Peter, but I don't know. But this is the quote from that sermon. A joyful Christian is a walking advertisement for the validity of his faith. A joyful Christian now is a walking advertisement for the validity of his faith.

And joy, of course, is a fruit of the Spirit. So as Christians mature in general, so should that joy bubble out of them. And thus the expression of their faith and their outreach, their testimony. So does your joy make you a walking advertisement for the Lord? Last of all, serve.

Serve with joy and give. It greatly increases our joy as we do that. It's more blessed to give than to receive. In 2 Corinthians 8, we see that the Macedonian Church knew a great joy in their affliction. And in that time of very great affliction, it said, in a great trial of affliction, The abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality.

They were as liberal, and it might have been like the widow's might, but they were liberal. And in that, they were so joyful, it abounded, it overflowed. And all these actions, by the way, are to bring glory to the Lord, and to bring us to the Lord. Who is the Lord of joy? In His presence again, there's fullness of joy.

Our greatest joy is really to be near Him, and to know Him, and to serve Him. He is our ultimate joy. Second, let's look at the second main part, where to pray without ceasing. Charles Spurgeon said, pray without ceasing because the Lord never ceases to love you, never ceases to bless you, never ceases to regard you as his child. How can we not pray with joy?

So without ceasing basically means that having begun, having begun as a Christian, actually for Christians Praying is like breathing So having begun you never basically stop But you always continue you always continue to grow there should be no real or at least lengthy decline in the habit of prayer. I'll mention that again in just a minute. Paul said in Ephesians 1, 16, I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. This is part of his life. He prayed all the time.

First Thessalonians chapter 3 verses 9 and 10 actually connects joy and prayer and thanksgiving. And the apostle Paul said, for what thanks can we render to God for you? For all the joy with which we rejoice for your sake before our God, night and day, praying exceedingly that we may see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith." And so it's helpful to ask, what causes me, what causes us, to cease praying? It's helpful. It's realistic.

We know we should pray, dear family. We know we need to. We know we can. Praise God we can. Come boldly to the throne of grace by the blood of Jesus at any time.

Praise God. So it's helpful to ask a few things here. A few possibilities. I'll just throw these out. There are others.

Maybe you just think, well, I'm not eloquent. I really don't know what to pray. I'll give another suggestion in a second. Maybe. Or you just don't try.

You don't really start. So inertia has set in and you know, it hasn't become a developed habit. It must become so. Or you procrastinate. It's easy to procrastinate and to get busy.

And to excuse it. To allow intrusions in fact. To crowd it out. Maybe you're just busy, you don't want to stop doing what you're doing, you don't want to take the mental time it takes to pray, it takes conscious effort, it takes energy, yes. But may it be so from the Spirit.

Basically, it could be you're simply not in the Word consistently. So you don't know how to pray and you don't know what to pray, because that's how we find out how to do that. I would also suggest you might ask, is my relationship with the Lord, has it become distant? So you don't have a longing to pray. It's the Lord of life.

The Lord who gives you joy. Or last one, It's possible you're harboring sin. You have unrepentant sin, and you're just not confessing. This is one aspect of prayer. So on this verse, Spurgeon wrote again, when joy and prayer are married, their firstborn child is gratitude.

The result of joy and prayer are gratitude. It should just come out. You can't stop it. These three, rejoicing, prayer, and thankfulness are connected. So we can always be joyful and always be thankful, I believe, if we are always praying.

If you are joyful and praying, the natural result will be gratitude and thankfulness. If you are struggling with being thankful, consider that your joyfulness and your prayer life, you need to come to the Lord with those and ask Him for grace. Gerald Spurgeon also said, we are to pray about everything. And with every prayer, we must blend our thanksgivings. Hence, it follows that we ought always to be in a thankful condition of heart.

Since we are to pray without ceasing and are not to pray without thanksgiving it is clear that we ought to be always ready to give thanks unto the Lord at all times and I urge you I encourage you memorize this first I encourage you apply Colossians 4 to continue earnestly in prayer being vigilant in it with thanksgiving Philippians 4 6 you all know but in everything we're to bring to the Lord by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. And let our requests be made known to him. So to pray without ceasing means, of course, not just in regular formal times of prayer. Praise God you have those here. And sometimes it's hard to overcome praying in public.

But again, it's a great blessing for the saints as you learn to do that. But it means praying without ceasing means often that we will be praying, I believe, also without words. It's a cry from our heart. Also, we will need to pray wherever we are, not in a formal position or place. So, basically as we breathe without ceasing, so we must pray without ceasing.

Bottom line. Ephesians 6, I believe One of the most powerful weapons in our battle gear is prayer. It's one of the weapons of warfare that the Lord has given us. And we must exercise that the other weapons aren't so effective. We must be praying.

Ephesians 6, 18 says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance and supplication for the saints." So praying always with all prayer and supplications. It's at the list of the battle gear. At the end of the list, but it's not, I believe, it's primary. Pray without ceasing, for the enemy works incessantly. So One reason we must pray without ceasing is because of the incessant attacks of our enemy.

So let's pray, dear family, Individually and for each other and with each other our third third part were to give thanks in everything Psalm 68 verse 19 Says blessed be the Lord who daily loads us with benefits. He daily loads us with benefits. And Psalm 103 actually commands us, forget not all his benefits. It's easy for us to forget. We forget very easily, it turns out.

So the optimist says, my cup is half full. The pessimist says, my cup is half empty. The child of God says, my cup runs over. Amen. So giving thanks means we are aware of, and we're appreciative of, God's overflowing sovereign grace in our lives.

On a daily basis though. On a daily basis. He daily loads us with benefits, it says. Keep a list. I mean, There are so many, and we are so lax in acknowledging those to the Lord of Grace.

Psalm 107, four times it says, Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men, and to me. And oh, that I would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and his wonderful works to me and to my family and to this church." Paul said to the Ephesians, "'I do not cease to give thanks for you, he said, making mention of you in my prayers. So we should be bringing each other before the throne of grace, and giving thanks for each other, for one another. Some in our church take the church directory, and they just keep going through that regularly. Just never stop, basically.

Pray for all the names in there. And I think that's a good practice. In Ephesians 5, Paul said, Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns, in spiritual songs, singing, and making melody in your heart to the Lord. And then verse 20 says, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's pretty substantive.

For all things, always. Actually, always for all things. And so as we are filled with the Spirit, we will sing. We will give thanks always for all things to God our Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ. He will be glorified in that.

And I believe we won't be able to stop giving thanks. It won't be possible for us. Ask the Holy Spirit to make you a thankful person, as I am praying that you will be a thankful church, even more so. Psalm 95 verse 2 says, Let us come before His presence with Thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

So we're to come into His presence with thanksgiving even in the hardest of times. In fact, probably in those times it's the best thing to do in the hardest of times. Giving thanks in those times really changes I believe how you deal with the whole situation, how you deal with what you're facing. Just a few examples to close. Have you ever noticed, there are many testimonies of Christians who you cannot imagine what they are going through, the severity of what they have faced in their lives.

One of them is, and I read this all the time in the voice of the martyrs, other stories of martyrs. But this one, I'm probably going to mispronounce this name. I think you'll know who I am talking about. His name is Nick Vujicic. And he was born without arms and legs.

But he has an amazing testimony. He has a ministry called Life Without Limbs. Go to that, It will open your eyes. But he said this. I never met a thankful person who was bitter, or a bitter person who was thankful.

And There's no sense of bitterness in anything I've ever seen of him. Only joy. And we sang a song this morning, Now Thank We All Our God. Now that was in 1636. That song was written by Martin Rinkert.

And he had become a deacon. This is in Germany. And he had become a deacon at the age of 31. And he faithfully served his flock all the years. And actually, the time that he was serving was what, most of it was during the 30 years war.

A horrific time. If you've ever read of what the thirty years war was for any of the sides, it's indescribable horror. And most of both sides died. And so, he did not die, but it turns out, okay, there was a plague, there was a plague at that time. Then there was a famine.

There's almost no food. There is a total economic collapse. And at this time, most of his friends and family and members of his relatives had died. His wife had died. All the pastors of that town, I think it was a sizable town, had died.

There were very few people left to even go to bury these people. And it turned out he served at thousands of burials. It was estimated that he had a part in, which means maybe he arranged it, but he had a part in burying over 4, 000 people. Brothers and sisters, that song he wrote begins this way. Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices, who wondrous things has done, in whom his world rejoices, who from our mother's arms has blessed us on our way, with countless gifts of love and still is ours today.

And everything gives thanks. So Matthew Henry, last example, Matthew Henry wrote the Puritan. He wrote this. He was robbed at a time when, a lot of times when you're robbed, you don't survive. But he wrote this.

I thank the first because I was never robbed before. Second, Because although they took my purse, they did not take my life. Third, although they took my all, it was not so much. And fourth, because it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed. He was grateful for God's grace in his life.

So these examples remind us, dear family, that God gives us grace to be thankful in very tough situations. Even when you can't even communicate what That is to you. And another person doesn't understand it, but the Lord certainly does. Praise God. In order to bless the Lord, O my soul, we tell ourselves, bless the Lord O my soul, for getting out all His benefits.

So how can we be more thankful? Just a few thoughts. Before you pray and eat, I know there's some in our church who have made it a habit to go around the table, or maybe the next day someone else. But they're always bringing up reasons to give thanks in the family. Somehow, they figure that out.

And so I believe what they're trying to do is develop a culture of thanksgiving of thankfulness of gratefulness So when the children rise up that is what they desire to do. It's a habit They've learned to be thankful And so just a suggestion there. I would say be careful of what you watch on the news. I don't know how that would increase your thankfulness, except to know that the Lord will remove all evil. And He is dealing with it.

But when you see what's going on, and the decisions that are made, and the pain that those decisions have, that were foisted upon us many, many times, the pain that it causes. And yet, we've been commanded to be thankful. So watch that. You know, Psalm 112, David said, he was not afraid of evil tidings. Some versions say bad news.

He was not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. And he was thankful in the midst of his suffering too. Pray, occupy your mind with your blessings rather than other things. And ask people to help you develop a habit of thankfulness.

Give them permission to say, wow, you're kind of critical today, you're kind of negative. What's happening? Who else is going to do that, but each other we need to do that into in each other's lives, so pray help those With less like I said before serve and they will be thankful and so will you and I believe never start a day and Probably never end a day when you are not thanking the Lord for His work of salvation in your life. That He redeemed you. He paid.

He gave His life for you. He shed his blood for you. There's a RC Sproul. He used to have a thing called Ask RC, and you could send in questions. So one of the questions that was asked to him one time was, if you could go back in time, RC, what would you tell 18-year-old you?

Now, this is interesting. Of all the things he could say said cultivate gratitude so he said put to death grumbling and he said I persuaded the path to future blessing follows on the trail of giving thanks for past blessings we like our fathers before us he said are given to forgetting to taking grace for granted to believing we are due more than we have already been given. We probably never have the guts to say that, but we can think it. And then he said, like our fathers before us, we are wrong in that. Gratitude is its own reward, as no one has ever been truly grateful and truly unhappy.

That's what R.C. Said, Probably near the end of his life. So thankfulness is a growing characteristic of the people of God who are aware, excuse me, of the sovereignty of God and the providence of God. Because God is their treasure and they trust Him. They trust His Word.

They are learning that He is their portion and their inheritance. So you can rejoice because He is sovereign. So all three of these commands, by the way, are possible as you realize the sovereignty of God. You can rejoice because he is sovereign. Sovereign, the Almighty God.

You can pray and trust his sovereignty. And you can be thankful that His sovereign will is for your good. It is good and acceptable and perfect, says in Hebrews. So, to live fully in your calling, in other words, to have the abundant life that Jesus said is possible in Him as children of the King. Do not quench the spirit, dear family, by joylessness, or by prayerlessness, or by thanklessness.

May it not be so. But develop, I pray, the lifelong habit of joyfulness, unceasing prayer, and thankfulness. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we are so greatly blessed we don't even comprehend it. Lord, you daily load us with benefits.

We rejoice even this morning. How many benefits have we experienced in this fellowship? And Lord, we have been called into your family. We have been forgiven. And yet we are so weak in being thankful and joyful.

Oh Lord, forgive us and give us grace to obey these commands that each person here in this, your church would rejoice in the Lord. Would be moved to pray as we have never prayed before maybe, and that we would be a thankful people, all to the glory of your name. And we do ask this in the name of Jesus Christ and because of our redemption in Him. Amen.