Thankfulness

Pastor Jonathan Kwon

Thankfulness

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This morning we’re going tackle an issue that plagues the American people more so than any other types of people in the world. The issue that plagues American people, like you and me, is thanklessness. Or to put it in the positive negative—complaining. I love to hate on people who complain. It’s my number 1 pet peeve and people know about it. They know because I give them a look, and the look I give them is, “if you don’t stop now, I’ll hit you with the first heavy object I’ll find.” This is me being ungrateful and complaining with thanklessness though. I try to sing praises to God, only to learn that God was testing me and I failed because it was very unloving of me. Let’s open our Bibles to James 5.

⁹ Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. ¹⁰ As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹ Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. ¹² But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. (James 5:9-12)

So let me start by trying to refresh your memories as to where we left off last week: God comes just in time for us to reap a harvest in our lives. Remember that? We learned that we have to do everything that we can humanly do and then just wait for it… That’s right, and when we do everything that we can humanly do, then we reap the harvest that God brings into our lives. James then jumps into verse 9. He doesn’t even start a new paragraph.

Check it out, he says in verse 8: You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. And then continues into verse 9 as if they are the same connected thought: Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. The connection is that the “judge” is coming and He’s “standing at the door.”

I know James probably had no idea of this but this is an allusion to Revelation 3:14-22. It’s a pretty gangster passage. Let’s go there really quickly. ¹⁵ “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. ¹⁷ For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. ¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. ¹⁹ Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. ²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. ²¹ The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. ²² He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” (Revelation 3:15-22)

I hope there is no question that the judge James is referring to is Jesus. The Judge in Revelations is Jesus. Jesus is coming and James knows it. He’s living his life in the 1^st century like Jesus is coming. 21 centuries later, the question is, are we living like Jesus is coming? I’m not going to even begin to ask why we aren’t. But I will ask this of all of you today, because we’re not living like Jesus is coming and he’s knocking on our doors, what are we doing instead? That is simple, we are living thankless lives and are lukewarm with everything that we do. I’m saying this because I don’t remember the last time I was passionate about anything I do in my life. But I do remember the last time I grumbled against somebody because who they were and what they were doing didn’t quite work for me. I’m sure you all can say something similar as well. You can’t remember the last thing you were passionate for and if you do, you don’t recollect when you followed up on it. Moreover, you do remember, quite vividly, how thankless you are because the people around you made your life hell. Am I right? Let’s go back to James 5.

James says the judge is at the door and so don’t grumble against one another. The word grumble in the context James is not simply complaining under your breath or complaining outloud. It also includes the sighing in between sentences and silences we have when surrounded by other people. James is talking about a psychological aspect of our being because sighs are grumbles and sighs are associated with a negative mood—a sign of disappointment, defeat, frustration, boredom, and longing toward people and ourselves. The judge is going to ask why the face? Why the complaints? What’s so wrong with your life that you are verbalizing a reset by sighing?

Keep reading, verse 10. ¹⁰ As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹ Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. I know some of you have been racking your brains and going deep into yourselves to figure out why I said what I said about us being passionless and fireless. You may even be asking yourselves why you feel lackluster in your endeavors.

Why you’ve been “stuck” in the muck of life for so long that this is your norm and there is no making you thankful for the life you have. If you’re there in that place, I know where you are because I’m there every other day myself because I’m human like you are. I’m telling you this because I recognize that feeling thanklessness is natural, but it shouldn’t be the norm. We need to understand that the reason patience is about endurance toward doing everything you can possibly do while waiting for God is because life is meant to weigh down on you. It is supposed to make you suffer and become impatient. For those of us who are there where we’re on the ropes of life, we need to look at Job.

¹³ Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, ¹⁴ and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, ¹⁵ and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁶ While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁷ While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁸ While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, ¹⁹ and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” ²⁰ Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. ²¹ And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:13-21)

Here’s the point of Job’s story: He doesn’t do anything wrong. He had no reason to suffer the way he had to suffer. There was no point to his suffering because in verse 22, which is not shared on the screen, it says, “in all of this, Job did not sin against God.” I want you to see it with your own eyes because I want you to know that sometimes life throws you a curve ball and it’s something we need to endure in patience. Meaning we have to throw everything we have into it to continue on in life. More than that, we have to be passionate about overcoming it and conquering it because the judge is at the door and is knocking so that He can eat with us and give us a seat with God. I think this is the greatest promise for all of us. The point James wants to make to 1^st world Christ followers is that we need to be hungry and on fire and burning up with passion for something and even if life does throw us a crazy elbow and a punch in the face, we need to patiently endure. I can’t tell you why it rained fire from the skies, nor can I tell you why innocent people were met by natural tragedies and calamities. What I can tell you is that after all that news Job received about what was going on, look at verse 20.

²⁰ Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. ²¹ And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

This is brilliant. Job worshipped. He was thankful to God for what he was given, what he lost and through it all, “blessed be the name of the Lord.” We need to live in a posture of thankfulness for our lives. If what we do best is complain and grumble, then we’ve missed out on the point of our lives. If we’re not passionate about anything in life and kind of just coast along, then we’ve missed out on the point of our lives. We’re exactly where we are in life so that we can put faith to action. We are called to put our faith in Jesus Christ into action in our lives because our God is alive and he reigns. We need to be thankful that our God lives. I want us to know that every facet of life reflects God waiting at the door for us as He knocks for our attention to live passionately hot for His mission and His will be done here on this earth. We pray that every week during the Lord’s Prayer. This is where I want to wrap up in verse 12.

¹² But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. Here’s what this verse means, because for some of us it may seem a little out of context. But this directly correlates to what I just said that we should live passionately hot for God’s mission and will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven. Some of us get passionate and it’s good, but don’t get carried away with your passion except to lay down everything that you can possibly do in faith and in action in the name of Jesus, then lay it all out there. You don’t have the ability within yourself to control anything outside of yourself and so don’t try to control it because it’s not yours to control, it’s God, so let Him worry about it. Jesus saves us so that we can have passion in life to do all that we can in faith to act with our lives. This is why we’re always thankful.

This is why the Apostle Paul says in verse 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” When we put everything that we are and have and can do toward the passion God gave to us, then whatever may come our way, we are thankful that we live in the name of God and for His glory. We as Americans complain a whole lot. It’s annoying, trust me.

Our prayer lives should not be complaints of dissatisfaction; they should be passionate cries of worship to God to bring heaven here on earth. In faith, we do everything in our power to do so and watch the Judge knocking at the door of our lives because He’s about to do the incredible through us.