Rhythms of Thanks: Part 4
Colossians 3:15-17
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Well, Pastor Chris and I, we love doing this. We get to co-preach to you today. We are wrapping up our Rhythms of Thanks series. So this is a part four of a four-part series. And so far we've covered week one, which is why we give thanks about who God is and what He does. That is the reason why it's not our circumstances. It's not just when we find ourselves in a good season that we praise God for that. It is all the time. And for who He is and what He does. Week two, Pastor Lauren preached on practical rhythms that we can weave into our lives. And just some more habits that we can have of constantly giving thanks. Again, not just when we feel like it, but constantly doing it so that even when we don't, we are still praising God. And then last week we talked about giving thanks in the midst of trials. Some of the hardest things to do is not just giving thanks when things are good, but having that rhythm when things get hard and we have challenges when we suffer, that we are still giving thanks, not for being in hard times, but again, for who He is and that He is with us.
And today we kind of want it as we wrap up our series to focus in more as a corporate togetherness. Because when I look at Scripture, specifically Colossians 3, starting in verse 15, it says this. It says, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you are called to peace and be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, through psalms, hymns, songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
We did this this morning. You guys catch that? We did that this morning in our singing of songs. Sometimes as a pastor you get asked, "Why do we do karaoke at church?" You've probably never thought of it that way before. But it's group karaoke, right? And we're here all singing together. Why? Because we are to give thanks together. It's a worshiping all collectively. We are all members of one body, as the Scripture says. We don't live life in isolation. We are created for community. We are created for relationships. We are created to live with one another. And I think one of the greatest lies from Satan is that he tells people, "You can do this Christianity thing on your own." It's one of the strongest lies from the pit of hell. That you can do this whole Jesus thing on your own. You can listen to podcasts. You can listen to a sermon online. You can have your little personal Spotify playlist of worship. And yes, there are elements of that as we worship together, or we worship individually, and we grow in our relationship with Christ. There's another level that God desires for each of us as we step into living this life out in community. We're not created to live life alone. And gospel community is the glue that holds our Christianity walked together. And when we step outside of that, we lose a beautiful gift that God has given to us. We truly do. I love what it says in verse 16. It says, "Let the message of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts." You can't do that by yourself. You can't. You just can't do that by yourself. It is one of the main reasons why we gather each and every week to encourage each other, to worship with one another, to give thanks in community as we enter into the pinnacle of our earthly relationships. This is a beautiful gift that God has given us this side of heaven. And when we live life without that, we don't have a full picture of the life that Jesus Christ desires for us to live.
So we were prepping this week. We asked the question, "So where in Scripture do we see this? Where in Scripture is it supported that this is a community event, this giving thanks and this rhythm of thanks?" And so I did some studying this week, and I found three aspects of communal thanksgiving that stand out and inform us of how we should live today. So the first one is that communal thanksgiving stemmed from a communal experience. Communal thanksgiving stemmed from a communal experience. I think of in the Old Testament, Exodus 15, after Israel had gone through the parted Red Sea, it was something they all did. And on the other side, they all give thanks. So it's something they all experienced, and they all praise God. Or I think of 1 Chronicles 16, where David is leading the people in thanksgiving because the Ark of the Covenant has returned. And it says in verse 34, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever." I'm sure you guys are familiar with that. It's been put into many songs that we sing. But again, that is all of Israel experiencing something, and then they are all giving thanks together. Number two, communal thanksgiving occurred around community practices. We talk about rhythms and seasons that we experience together as a church. Well, Israel, too, had rhythms and seasons and instituted feast days that they would practice. And so they had built-in calendar communal thanksgiving rituals and feasts that God ordained and said, "This is going to be important in your life, that you need to regularly give praise." And so I'm going to put it in, and it's going to be around food. Much of what we're doing today, we're going to be around food, and we're going to be giving thanks.
Another one of those practices was singing, as Pastor Chris said. So many songs are individual songs that the author wrote to say, "This is how I feel." But there are also songs that were made to be sung by the whole of Israel altogether. Psalm 95, 100, 107, 118 are just some of them. But all these songs were meant to be sung by the congregation, almost like songs that we used to have. If you grew up in church and you used to sing a song in the round where the men would sing one part and the women would sing one part, you can't do that by yourself. You need other people to sing that with you. That's how these songs were meant to be sung. So to have community practices involved in our rhythms is important. The third thing is communal thanksgiving was a witness to the world. There's a time in the Old Testament when Israel is returning to land, and they're building up the walls in Ezra and Nehemiah, and they're rebuilding everything. And as different phases get completed, they stop and they sing and they praise God. And it says, "With praise and thanksgiving," this is Ezra 3, "they sang to the Lord, 'He is good, his love toward Israel endures forever.' And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, and the sound was heard far away." Or in Nehemiah it says, "The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away." The people beyond the walls of Israel, beyond Israel, could hear Israel praising God, whether through song or shouting praises. Also in Acts 2, when we get to the New Testament and the early church, it says in Acts 2:42, "They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people, and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." And there is no doubt that this is how the gospel spreads so quickly, is that the people outside of those gatherings were starting to hear and wonder, "What is happening over there?" The world around the church, around believers, saw praise and thanksgiving. They saw these rhythms being practiced. So scripture is full of insight of having communal rhythms of thanks and praise.
So then we ask the question, "What does that look like for us today?" What is this kind of like, we read from the Old Testament and the New Testament, we see that example, what does that mean today? 2025, Spring Valley Church, Rocklin, Roseville, Northern California, what does that look like? Well, we see this modeling as a church is this amazing gift that communal thanksgiving is actually a gift to the next generation. We have multiple generations in this room gathered together, and we're going to have, when we move to baptism, actually the kids are going to come back in with us because we want to celebrate together as a gift with one another. And I love what it says in Psalm 79. It says, "Then we, your people, the sheep of your pasture, will thank you forever. We will declare your praise to generation after generation." Communal thanksgiving is an echo into eternity. This isn't something that is just here right now in this moment, but it is a gift that we can pass on. Again, we don't do this in isolation. This isn't just a singular moment, but it is a rippling effect. You ever throw a rock into a lake or a body of water? Those ripples, they continue to go out and go out and go out and go out. That is how our communal praise goes forward. Just like Andre said, it is a witness to the world. And today we get to celebrate with those being baptized, celebrating and seeing their thankful hearts for the salvation that they have accepted and received through Jesus Christ. Baptism is a thanksgiving party that we all get to experience together. And here's the reality for us as Christ followers. We are going to give thanks in eternity forever. You guys ever think about that? It says this in Revelation 19:6-7. It says, "Then I heard something that sounded like a vast multitude, like the boom of many pounding waves, like the roar of mighty peals of thunder, saying, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord your God, the Almighty, the omnipotent, ruler of all reigns, let us rejoice and shout for joy. Let us give thanks or give Him glory and honor.'" This is the image that John receives of eternity, of everybody gathering around the throne in heaven praising God. See, our communal thanksgiving is actually practice. It's our practice for what we are going to do for all of eternity. Our hearts of gratitude and praise here on earth is practice. Practice makes—okay, let me try that again. Let me try that again. You weren't ready for it. You weren't—no, it's okay. It's okay. Practice makes— perfect! We have just a short time to learn how to give thanks and praise and gratitude in community so that when we get to heaven, we're ready to praise God. Practice.
So as we wrap up this Rhythm of Thanks series, hope you guys have enjoyed. I hope you've used these gratitude calendars each day, risen up to the challenge to read a Scripture and write something down that you're thankful for. But we need to ask ourselves individually, but also collectively, as will we be individuals together, a community marked by gratitude? Will we be a church that when people come and see us and interact with us, maybe visit on a Sunday morning, maybe run into us at Bel Air or at the mall shopping, they go, "Don't you go to that little church that's in the back of that business complex behind Primo's Pizza? Aren't you behind Edwin's?" Like, "Yeah, I am." He's like, "You guys are always so grateful. You always have glad and sincere and gratitude in your heart. Why?" And as we live that out, we show to the world around us who Jesus is. Because communal thanksgiving begins in our own hearts. We have to individually commit and say daily, "I am going to be grateful for today." That no matter what comes, I'm not going to complain. We sang a song about that last week. That we will live out our gratitude every single day. Will people see us living on the daily a rhythm of gratitude and thankfulness? Or will they see angry, bitter, hard-hearted people? Will they see people who just can find the worst in the world at any single moment? If it was up for me, I would make the choice for everybody. I would say I'd rather be grateful. Because bitterness in our heart left unchecked takes us to a real bad place. So which community would you rather be a part of? A bitter, hard-hearted, or a grateful, thankful community of believers? So how can we further step into gratitude each and every day, acknowledging who God is and giving witness to the world around us, and practicing our thankful praise before we get to heaven for eternity? That's what we have to answer.
Let's go ahead and pray one more time. God, thank you for your word that encourages us, that exhorts us to live a life of gratitude. God, thank you for the examples that we see of giving thanks as a community. Yes, we individually want to be people who are grateful to you and praising you, but we also want that to be true of our church, of this body of believers. That that would be one of our core values, our strongest characteristics that people see, even outside these walls, that that would be known of us. That we are a church that praises you and gives thanks. So God, I pray that you would do the work through your spirit in us to make that true, continue to transform us, make us more like you. And as you do that individually, that you would transform this church as a whole, to be a church that glorifies you in all situations, that praises you no matter what is happening, and gives thanks in all seasons of life. We pray this in your name. Amen.