Jim Van Gelderen: I’m podcasting from Sumter, South Carolina. We are about to finish our final night of War of Special Forces, and we’re excited about that. We’ve seen several saved this week. It’s been an encouragement. In fact, today in chapel, I asked the young people, about 120 students, how many of you got saved three years ago at War of Special Forces?

And I was so encouraged with the hands that were raised, more hands than I could count, in just a quick minute, or quick second, actually, and I know that we’re into the double digits. And I’m certainly excited to see young people who got saved three years ago still unashamed to raise their hands and say, I got saved at the War of Special Forces. So you pray for us as we continue on in our ministry in Christian schools. We certainly wanna see not only kids saved, but see young people stirred in their own hearts to serve the Lord. In 1996, on our very first tour, we came to Sumter, South Carolina.

So it’s kind of fun to be back. We’ve come on a regular basis here. And it’s exciting not only to see the Gospel to the sinner impact hearts, but the Gospel to the saint. When you see that young people get ahold of the fact that Jesus didn’t come just to save us from the penalty of sin, but from the power of sin. Well anyway, I wanna share something with you here on this podcast from a verse of Scripture you’re probably familiar with.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”. I want us to focus on just a word here at the beginning, the word in. You know, notice it did not say for. There is a difference between the word or the preposition in and the preposition for. If the Bible had said for everything give thanks, that means we’d have to give thanks for things that are sinful.

But He didn’t say that. There are some things we can’t thank God for. You can’t thank God for somebody making a sinful choice, whether it’s you or someone else. You can’t thank God for the times you’ve made poor choices to look at things you shouldn’t look at, or to hear things you shouldn’t hear, or to go places you shouldn’t go, or to say things you should not say. You can’t thank God for those things, but you can sure thank God that in those things, he can take even your failures to teach you, admonish you, and show you a better way that through his power and strength there is victory.

He is victory. So we can thank God in everything but we can’t thank God for everything. You can’t thank God for a father that walks out of your life. You can’t thank God for a sibling sin that brings great duress and pressure to your family. You can’t thank God for perhaps a parent that makes a terrible sinful choice that causes difficulty in the family.

Maybe a pastor who has to leave the ministry because of a sinful choice that brings a lot of pressure and shame and reproach on the family and you can’t necessarily thank God for sinful choices. God doesn’t tempt us with evil. He’s not behind our sinful choices, but hallelujah, you can thank God that in even our sinful choices or other sinful choices that affect our lives, that God is big enough, powerful enough, wise enough to take those things and work them together for good. Yes, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God. Now notice the next word, in Christ Jesus.

Do you know friends, we’re in union with Jesus Christ. So when things happen in our lives, maybe other people make sinful choices, or even circumstances go crazy, or there’s just things that come from the hand of God that clearly we say God allowed that, maybe an accident or an illness. In those things, friends, we can say, okay, this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. Where is it the will of God? In Christ Jesus.

You and I are in union with Jesus Christ. And by the time anything gets to us, God is working it together for good. It becomes His will. It’s kinda like Joseph, when he said about his brother’s sinful choice, you meant it for evil, God meant it for good. Yes, friends, there are times when people mean stuff for evil, but God is already working it together for good.

He foresaw it, he knew what was going to happen, and he in his divine eternality, wisdom, omnipotence, and his love for us, he is working those things together for good. But it is in Christ Jesus that is where it’s the will of God. Because you and I, when we get saved, Jesus moves in, and that inner part of us, our spirit, becomes regenerated. Now we are in Christ, and Christ is in us. And that union with Jesus Christ is a remarkable union.

So can I say that God is always working things together for good, you know what limits him? Our unbelief. And that’s why it’s important for us to get on board with what God’s doing. And saying, God, I do believe that you’re doing good things. I thank you that in this situation that brought pain into my life, that you know what’s going on.

There’s something that is, you’re working together for your will to be accomplished in my life. It is really a step of faith when we have a flat tire. And believe me, on the road over the years, I’ve had a lot of them. My first reaction is not to praise God. But God says it really should be in everything.

Even a flat tire, I can say, OK, thank you, God. If I knew everything, I would pick the flat tire, because you do know everything. We can thank God in everything. We give thanks in everything. It’s the will of God in Christ Jesus.

And thank God that in Jesus Christ we can be assured that His will is done when He’s in control, when we’re walking in the Spirit, when we’re in union with Him, practically so, depending on and trusting Him. And friends, I wanna encourage you that really our life is a life of faith. Bad things happen, people make sinful choices, things are said and done that are hurtful, things are said and done that sometimes may even cause us a lot of duress. But it’s in those moments where we really have to trust God. Okay, God in everything you say give thanks.

So thank you, thank you that in this situation where this person said or did this, that your will is going to be accomplished. You’re gonna work it together for good. Although what they did was not good, they meant it for evil. You are going to mean it for good. You’re gonna work it together for good.

Friends, it’s faith. That’s the key to the Christian life, is to live in a moment by moment dependence on Jesus Christ. And so I want to encourage you, what are the things you’re going through? You say, preacher, I’m having a hard time thanking God for them. Well, maybe you should shift gears and thank God that in everything, in other words, in these circumstances, in these difficulties, in these situations that you would never have chosen, maybe an illness, sometimes circumstances can just be difficult, illness or health problems.

And you just have to say, okay God, this is not what I would have chosen. But you’re in control. And I know that your will is what you’re after, what your goal is in my life. So I can thank you that in these situations, you are accomplishing your will. You’re working bad things together to accomplish your purpose.

And that’s the great thing about it. Sometimes I say about the life of Joseph, you can trust God to take other people’s sinful activities and choices that God had nothing to do with. But you can trust that God can take those, work them together for good in your life without having anything to do with those sinful choices. God certainly doesn’t have anything to do with people when they make choices to sin. As I mentioned, He does not tempt us with evil, but hallelujah, nothing takes God by surprise.

When people make sinful choices that affect our life, God is right there saying, “Thank Me in these things. Thank Me, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.” God’s will is that we maintain a grateful attitude about everything—in everything, I should say—because that’s a step of faith. That’s believing God when there would not be a human reason to be thankful. You can thank God in your parents’ health problems. You can thank God in financial reversals.

You can thank God in people saying and doing things that are hurtful. You can thank God in family problems that are painful. The Bible says in everything we should give thanks. This is God’s will in Christ Jesus. The key is it’s in Christ Jesus.

It’s Jesus that makes it all work. He’s the one that’s the powerful one. That’s why we can in everything give thanks. Well, I hope this will just encourage you. We’re not too far from Thanksgiving.

And I hope it will encourage you in your walk with God and just to be moment by moment in that attitude of looking upward, trusting Him. And that’s what really total dependence is. And of course that’s total surrender because we want His will.