A Lifesong of Thankfulness

(From “A Stained-Glass Window“.)

This is the manuscript from a sermon I wrote for my homiletics class. It’s based off of Colossians 3:12-17. There was a lot more I wanted to do with it, but it’s limited to 30 minutes so I kept it simple. It’s entitled “A Lifesong of Thankfulness”.

During my current stage of life, being an unmarried bachelor for now, I don’t really cook. From time to time over the past few years I’ve tried baking and cooking things. I learned that there are certain things that work when baking – various ingredients that one can add to the mix – and they really help the recipe to do the job. One time I was having some difficulties with an omelet I was cooking. It was much flatter than I wanted it to be, so I decided I’d add something that had been of great assistance in some of my baking experience. That ingredient was baking soda. I figured adding this ingredient would give my eggs some extra volume and fluffiness. Never, ever, ever try this. I’ve never tasted eggs which such unique flavoring and texture, nor will I again.

So what was the problem? I’d moved from baking bread-based delicacies in the oven to cooking raw chicken embryos on a skillet – this was a major categorical shift. There’s a huge difference between baking in an oven and cooking on a stove. There’s also a big difference between bread products and eggs. When I moved from baking to frying on a skillet, it became necessary to take on a new approach. It required different tools, different recipes and ingredients, different techniques and tactics. The omelet suffered because of my failure to understand this difference. It looked fine, though it didn’t fluff up like I wanted it to. It tasted somewhat like a pancake, but not just any pancake – it was a rubbery and bouncy pancake.

If we are Christians, we’ve crossed over into new territory. We have a new life in Christ. Paul, writing to the Colossian believers, commanded them to live differently because of this same new life. Just like me moving from baking in the oven to cooking on the stove, the Colossians were to live in a completely new way than they had before. Before they were thankless, prideful and self-absorbed. Now things had to be different.

We all have some sense of entitlement. Because humanity is often so naturally self-absorbed it also naturally focuses upon self and to what oneself is entitled. This breeds thanklessness, pride, and many other traits of the old self – the sin nature. As Christians, we’ve been redeemed from the power and penalty of sin. We’ve been given a new identity. A categorical shift has taken place. We’ve been moved from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love – yet sometimes we carry over the practices and mentalities of the old into the new, and it changes our appearance. Anybody who gets a “taste” of us might know immediately that something isn’t adding up when we fail to live out the calling of this new life we’ve been given. While the old self is thankless, prideful and self-absorbed, our new life requires a thankful, upward focus on Christ that is demonstrated in our thankful new behavior towards others.

This afternoon we’ll find ourselves in Colossians chapter three, verses twelve through seventeen. Please go ahead and open your Bibles to this text of Scripture. Before we jump into this section it will prove helpful to understand Paul’s line of thought and the context upon which the legs of this portion of the letter stands.

Starting from the beginning of this letter, Paul has expressed thankfulness for the Colossians’ faith and love springing from their hope in the Gospel. He has prayed that they would walk worthy of God and please Him by continually growing by His strength. In that discussion he emphasized both his thankfulness to God and his joy. He then explained that all things have been created by, through, and for Jesus Christ. It is through this same power and person of Christ – being God himself – that the Colossians had been redeemed, forgiven of sin, and reconciled to God. He explains that these truths are the Gospel of which he has become a minister. Paul has described his ministry as one that desires to make plain the mystery that all are now equal in Christ, that the ground is level at the cross, and how it was his desire to see Christians encouraged, knit together in love, thankful, and understanding. Paul gave three warnings concerning the false teachings the Colossian church faced and in summation he exhorts them explaining that Christ’s person and work are more than sufficient and they have no need to cling to the elementary principles of the world.

That’s when we come to chapter three. Because of the sufficiency of Christ and his magnificent work on the believer’s behalf, one’s life – as one now walks on this earth – is to be different. Paul describes how the believer, having died with Christ and raised in his resurrection, is to set his mind on “things above”, not on temporal things of the earth. The believer’s new identity should bring a new focus and change the direction in which our lives are aimed. Just like me in the kitchen, this shift to a new identity comes with a new recipe book, fresh ingredients, and new instructions. It requires different tools and a different technique – a different way of doing things – of living.

Paul explains how we are still “works in progress”, and so we must continually work out our salvation as we put to death our old ways – sin. Our bodies and lives can be tools of righteousness or instruments caught in the vices of sin. After listing the vices of the old way of life, before Christ, Paul then addresses the Colossians as God’s chosen ones and gives them a sampling of what the new life should look like as we actively put on the new practices of our new self. Colossians three verse twelve and following state this:

So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

This afternoon as we take a look into this portion of Paul’s letter, I want us to understand that as we live out this new life in Christ, having put on the new self being renewed in Christ’s image, we must demonstrate our thankful heart in how we treat other people. We must show our thankfulness to God in everything we do with and for one another. Paul prescribed three ways that this should be worked out as we consider our relationships with other Christians. We must be thankful as we interact with other members, as we teach and admonish each other in music, and as we do everything else, seeking to do so in the name of Jesus.

So first, as Christians we must show thankfulness by the way we treat other believers. Being holy and beloved, there is a calling to put on new characteristics such as compassion and humility, forgiving one another. Paul identifies them as “God’s chosen ones”. In verse twelve he says, “So (or therefore) as those who have been chosen by God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentles and patience.” He first points out that God took the initiative in creating their new identity and graciously bringing them to Him. They are “holy”, being set apart, and “beloved”, not only by God but by Paul as well. As I mentioned just a bit ago, Paul calls the Colossians to put off the ways of the old self. As part of their new identity they are to put on the new self and all that comes with it. He tells them to put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, courtesy, and patience. He further calls them to forgive one another in verse thirteen. The culmination of these characteristics is discovered in verse fourteen, wherein he commands, “Beyond (or above) all these thing put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” Above and beyond anything else Paul commands them to put on and show love, the perfect bond of unity. This is what bonds the community together. Paul does not tell them this because they have not loved or because they don’t know what love is. When we look at his opening statements he explains how thankful he is for them because of what he’s heard about them. He’s heard about their love for all of the saints and their “love in the Spirit.” Now he is reminding them to continue in that love, to not let that love grow stale. Love is so important. Love is the “perfect bond of unity” that holds the rest of it together.

Most houses today have some form of lap siding, and because of the price of cedar there’s a couple substitute that most builders use. They are both a kind of a composite board. The first is referred to as “LP” siding. When this product made, manufacturers take wood fibers and compress them together into the form of a siding board. Builders and homeowners swiftly learned that this product had a multitude of problems. Within just a few seasons it would start to become compromised. I’ve been a professional painter for most of my life and I worked in management for Sherwin-Williams for several years – during that time I have seen all of those problems over and over again. I’ve seen the bottom edges of the board fan out like a deck of cards. I’ve seen mushrooms growing out of those same spots. I’ve seen all sorts of related problems, and sanding, priming and slapping paint on surface of these things does not solve the problem. LP siding is weak not just because of all of the individual fibers, but because nothing really bonds them together. If given the chance, cold and wet weather will immediately start separating the fibers, pulling apart and breaking down the integrity of the board since there’s no bond of unity to hold them all together. More recently a newer second product started replacing LP siding in the market.

The second product is called hardiplank. This stuff is made of the same fiber materials as LP siding but its intermixed with a form of cement. They take lots and lots of the same loose wood fibers and cram them together very tightly with some cement intermixed throughout. It’s really tough stuff, and very heavy. It still needs to be painted, but regardless of protective coatings, the bonding agents that tie the fibers together seem to hold through even the toughest weather conditions. This product is much more effective than the LP product, again not due to its fibers but due to the bond of unity in the cement.
That’s kind of how love works. We are all individual members of one composite body and through our identity with this body we are one. To maintain our harmony we must relate to each other with the characteristics of this new life, and the perfect bond of unity is like the cement in the hardiplank – that perfect bond of unity. Love: It holds us all together. But none of these things will happen if we’re not thankful for one another. Paul told the Colossians that they need to be thankful as they let the peace of Christ rule in their hearts. He reminds them that they have been called into one body, and because they are all part of one body they must be a peace with each other. The same goes for us as well. The peace that comes from knowing Christ should characterize our relationships with other people.

Understanding our unity, we must be thankful to God for the privilege of being part of this body as we exercise these characteristics of the new self. Without this thankfulness, no peace, love, forgiveness or humility will ever take place.

So what does this thankfulness look like? This thankfulness expresses itself in thanks for the unity we have in being part of one body. When I was down in Oregon for my college studies and the year thereafter at Western Seminary, I was never able to plug into a local church for ministry or even fellowship. I found that now, being part of a church family, I find that this thankfulness is quite overwhelming as I recognize the community of believers I belong to. God has called all of us into a relationship not only with Him but also with each other. Part of how this thankfulness is shown is by how we treat those with whom He has made us one body. Do we show compassion, humility, gentleness, kindness and forgiveness to one another? When someone wrongs you, how long does it take you to go to that person and forgive him? Do you go to other people first and complain? Do you consider the needs of other people, laying down your own imagined importance for the sake of someone else in need? Do you “weep with those who weep”, showing compassion for the pain and struggles of others? This can be as simple as letting someone know that you’ve been praying for them or as involved as becoming a really good friend to them, being with them during their times of distress and actually “being there”, not just saying that you’ll “be there” for them.

Not only must we be thankful in the way we treat each other in our day to day dealings with other believers, but we must also be thankful as we teach and admonish each other in song. That leads to the second way in which we can express our thankfulness for each other.

As Christians, we must show thankfulness as we teach and admonish one another through music. Let’s look at verse sixteen again. Paul says this: “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” We must let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. Teaching and admonishing each other will accomplish this mission. Paul’s command is to teach and admonish one another in all wisdom. Paul unpacks an instrumental tool for their mutual teaching and admonishment: Music. Yes, there is a direct imperative to use music and singing not only for encouragement or praise but also teaching doctrine and the word about Christ, the Gospel and more. One of the major ways this idea of teaching and admonishing one another is carried out is through music.

This must be done with all wisdom. For many people, music in our church services has just become another perfunctory ritual. It’s just “something we do”. It’s often seen as filler and the average individual is more concerned with the style and the instrumentality rather than the creed, theology and meaning behind the words they let slip between their lips. We can sometimes fall into the rhythm (pun intended) of seeing as just music.

Paul tells the Colossians that they must let the “word of Christ” dwell in them richly. The “word of Christ” is most likely the word about Christ and the message about him. As the word of Christ dwells in us richly it should do several things. It should convey our fundamental faith about God and pass it on. It should foster fruits of the faith. It should filter all aspects of life – family, jobs, relationships, politics – through our faith in Christ. It should cause us to seek to grow spiritually. It should nurture faith in community.

For many now, worship through music becomes a time when God is supposed to meet our needs, rather than a time in which we admonish and teach one another and give glory to God. When it fails to do what we want it to do for us, we say “We got nothing out of it,” and I ask, what then is the point? This response of “getting nothing” seems to be the response of a selfish and thankless heart, not a selfless attitude seeking to serve others and singing in one’s heart to God. As we sing to each other we are to sing in our hearts to God – we are to do so with thankfulness. This worship through music and this aspect of church community is to be done with thankfulness. This is the second admonition to be thankful within as many verses. The emphasis becomes clear that a changed life, changed by the power of the Gospel of Christ, is a thankful life.

How do we show thankfulness in this context? What exactly does that look like? Out of all the times and places one could hear groans on any given morning, the most likely may be our church auditoriums before the church service begins when people glance at their bulletins and handouts to see what songs are on the schedule. It’s really easy to get fed up when we have to sing the same songs over and over again, or when we don’t like the style in which a song is played or the instruments that accompany it. It’s easy to get frustrated by the tempo, or the dress of the praise team, or many different related issues surrounding the idea of music in our church services. I find that I, myself, sometimes fall into this category. At our church I’m the primary guitarist and I play just about any time there’s a Sunday morning or evening worship service. There are songs that I enjoy playing and there are songs that I do not. There are songs that are boring and repetitive to me as a guitarist. I find that I usually fail to focus on the most important aspect of the music, namely the lyrics. If songs are to be used to teach and admonish one another, then truly the lyrics are of great importance and I need to remember that what I do as I strum the strings is only an accompaniment to the teaching and admonition the words are meant to bring. Am I thankful for the privilege to teach and admonish through music? Am I letting the word about Christ, the Gospel, dwell in me and dwell in my richly during these times? Can I honestly say that as I play my guitar that I am strumming thankfully to help others worship God, and that I am strumming the song in my heart to God as well, being thankful to serve Him? What about you? Can you honestly say that you are thankful as you participate in worship through music, whatever capacity you may fulfill as we teach and admonish one another in song? I challenge you this: Regardless of how you feel about the music at your church, thank the people who are involved in it. This might mean thanking the electric guitarist for his commitment to play every Sunday, even if you’re opposed to the style. Telling him that you appreciate his effort to do his part in teaching and admonishing others will go a long way and will help us to become “knit together in love.” Here’s another idea: Smile. Nothing will be more dampening to the spirits of the praise team members or song leader than staring back at a bunch of frowning faces more befitting a funeral march than a call to praise. Be conscientious of how you present yourself and your attitude in the presence of others. Remember that your thankfulness ought first be found in your thankfulness to God, not to people. Be thankful to God for the privilege of being part of the body of Christ. Be thankful that you have the freedom to worship Him, to do so with others, and to have to opportunity to worship freely and openly without persecution. Your thankfulness, or lack thereof, will be reflected in how you interact with others around you. Be thankful for the opportunity to worship corporately and to teach and admonish other believers, and show your thankfulness by your words to others involved.

So according to Paul, we must not only be thankful in our dealings with one another through music or other circumstances, but we must be thankful in all things because of whom we serve. The third way we must show our thankfulness for one another is this:
As Christians, we must show thankfulness in everything that we do, seeing that we ought to do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to come to a point where we measure our conduct and ask ourselves if in whatever we do or say we can do so in the name of Jesus. In verse seventeen Paul says this: “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” No matter what one is doing, everything ought to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, from serving in the church to drinking orange juice. This ought to bring us to question every thought and action in our life. “Is what I am doing or thinking something that I can attach the name of Jesus to?” There’s a fairly popular song by Casting Crowns called “Lifesong”. We sing it from time to time in our church and some of the lyrics go like this:

Empty hands held high- such small sacrifice. If not joined with my life, I sing in vain tonight. May the words I say and the things I do make my lifesong sing – bring a smile to you. Let my lifesong sing to You….I want to sign your name to the end of this day knowing that my heart was true. Let my lifesong sing to You.

The lyrics essentially state the following: If we say that we love God and are willing to make sacrifices to live for Him, yet our actions don’t back it up, our words are worthless. We should live every day as if it’s a blank document, and as we fill it out by the way we live that day – how we speak, how we treat people, and what we think – we should ask ourselves if we’d be willing to sign Jesus’ name at the bottom as if He approves of the way we’ve lived that day.

At the same time, we are to do everything thankfully, giving thanks to God through (or on account of, because of) Jesus Christ. When we do anything we must thank God through Jesus Christ. As Christians, we have the privilege of being able to say “no” to sin. We have the ability, thanks to God, to walk lives that are pleasing to Him. Therefore in all that we do, we should be thanking God for the pleasure and privilege we have to walk in newness of life, free from the power and penalty of sin.

The final verse in this section of Paul’s argument reinforces the emphasis of what he’s already stressed. Everything we do, including our treatment of other believers and the teaching and admonishment we give through music, is to be done thankfully and in the name of Jesus. If you are a Christian, a believer and follower of Christ, a categorical shift has taken place in your life. Your life has been changed tremendously. With that change should come a change in action and attitude. Thankless pride is characteristic of the old self, among many vices we are called to mortify and put off, and it has no place in the Christian life. Thankfulness ought to characterize everything that we do. Just ask and consider your own actions – are you known for you thankfulness or thanklessness? Paul’s emphasis is more than intentionally obvious – The call to the Christian life is a call to thankful living. To be thankful means to show that thankfulness; true thankfulness is born out in action. Over the course of this week, think about someone who is teaching and admonishing you through the musical worship at your church, or another Christian you know who could use some compassion, and speak with them or write them a note thanking them for their participation in the body of Christ. Let them know you appreciate them – even do something for them. Don’t let it stop with words, for as Christians, we must show our thankfulness to God in everything we do through the way do all things with, alongside, and for one another.