Take your Bibles with me and turn to... Take your Bibles with me and turn to 1 Thessalonians 5. I Thessalonians 5.

In a moment I'm going to turn the microphone over to you, and as is our tradition, let you have a turn talking and thanking God. Everyone should have something they are thankful for and tonight is your chance to share that.

But I do want to give you a quick message tonight - just five minutes of so - from 1 Thessalonians. Are you there? Let's read verses 16-18.

[!bible] 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 - KJV 16. Rejoice evermore. 17. Pray without ceasing. 18. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

In almost all of Paul's letters, he wraps it up by giving some words of admonition to the people he's writing to. IN this one, he was writing to the church at Thessolonica, and he wraps it up by sharing some practical commands on how to live the Christian life.

In this passage, Paul gives us a bunch of short, punchy phrases and in these verses, we have three that go together.

But the thing I think is the most interesting in these verses is the end, where Paul says "for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

A lot of people get all wrapped up into a ball about the will of God. "What is the will of God for me? What should I be doing?"

Some people put out the proverbial fleece all the time, asking God to give them a sign of what they are supposed to do and they see everything as a sign. Some people do this thing where they flip through their Bibles and open some random passage and they are like - this is where God is going to direct me on His will.

(That can be dangerous. You might turn to Ezekiel and think God is directing you to lay down naked for a couple of years and not move. Don't know what you would do with that.)

But a lot of people get worked up about God's will. Here is what I believe: I think 90% of God's will for you is just found in faithfully living out the Bible.
Maybe 3% of God's will for you is found through your God-given authority. Maybe another 2% is found in circumstances. (It's probably not God's will for any of us to be professional athletes - because God didn't just give us those talents.) And the other 5% is your desires.

If you are living by the Bible, if you are right with the authorities God has put in your life, and if you aren't tryin to do something ridiculous and impossible - than do whatever God has put on your heart. But do it without reservation. Do it fully. Be convinced in your own mind.

A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Now, I say all of that to tell you this - God here tells us through the apostle Paul what His general will is for your life. Whatever else God's will is for you - it's going to include three things here. (You ready for them?)

1. God wants you to live a joyful life.

The verse says "rejoice evermore."

Some people think that to be spiritual is to be miserable. That the holier you are the more you will look like you had sour milk on your corn flakes. But the scripture teaches the opposite - God wants us to be joyful.

The Bible tells us things like "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine" (Prov. 17:22) and "the joy of the Lord is your strength." (Nehemiah 8:10)

God wants you to live a happy, joyful life. Christians should be some of the happiest people in the world, because our joy isn't based on our circumstances, but based in the grace of an unchanging God.

Now, don't get this wrong. This isn't saying "I want to run away with my secretary - God wants me to be happy right??" No - the secret to true joy is living for the Lord and following His word and not falling for lies like that that promise happiness and bring shame and pain.

God wants us to live a joyful life, that is part of His will for us.

Look at the second thing:

2. God wants you to live a prayerful life.

Verse 17 says Pray without ceasing.

This doesn't mean that you should literally be praying all the time. Like, you aren't disobeying this verse if you fall asleep or go watch your kids play a basketball game.

What it means is that your life should be characterized by regular, spontaneous, persistent prayer.

Do you know that you are allowed to pray when you aren't at church, sitting around the table or going to bed at night? You can pray anywhere and anytime.

I always think of Nehemiah when I think of this. Nehemiah was called before the king with a heavy heart and the Bible tells us he communed with God in his heart. In the moment, he prayed to God.

How many times have you prayed today?

• When you were walking into work this morning - did you pray "Lord, help me to be a good witness today?"
• When you were fussing with your kids today - did you pray? "Lord, give me patience."
• When you heard about someones misfortune today - did you pray? "Lord, please help them."

You don't have to be obvious about it - but you should be praying all the time.

God wants us to live joyfully and God wants us to live prayerfully - that is God's will for your life.

There is one more thing...

3. God wants you to live a thankful life.

Verse 18 says "In everything give thanks."

Just like you should be rejoicing all the time and praying all the time, you should be thanking God all the time, no matter what the circumstances of your life are.

Notice, it doesn't say "for everything give thanks" but "in everything give thanks." No matter what you are going through, there is always something to praise God for. There is always something to thank Him for.

And God loves it when we are thankful. I recently read an interesting verse - Hebrews 13:15

[!bible] Hebrews 13:15 - KJV 15. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

We don't think about offering sacrifices very often - thats more of an Old Testament thing - but there is one sacrifice God wants us Christians to make - it's a sweet smelling savor to him just like the Old Testament offerings - "the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name."

So that is what I want to invite you to do tonight - give the sacrifice of praise. Thank God for something. And then when you leave - keep thanking Him. Live in the attitude of gratitude. Live thankful.

Let's pray and then we'll let everyone take a turn giving thanks tonight.