If Every Gift Comes from God, Why Thank Anyone Else?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Well, why do we thank anyone?

00:00:07.280 | It's a great question, really.

00:00:08.800 | Candice writes in to ask it.

00:00:11.600 | Here's her question.

00:00:12.960 | Hello, Pastor John and Tony, thank you for this podcast.

00:00:15.320 | It has been a great help to me.

00:00:18.320 | And thanking you two plunges us right into my question.

00:00:23.280 | How can we genuinely thank anyone but God?

00:00:27.080 | If God is sovereign over all things,

00:00:29.120 | what role do people themselves play?

00:00:31.800 | I just listened to APJ 1195,

00:00:34.360 | how does God's sovereignty not violate our decision-making?

00:00:38.160 | But as these truths are new to me,

00:00:39.560 | I think I could really benefit from your answer

00:00:41.240 | to this specific question.

00:00:43.000 | If you go to a restaurant and are served by a waitress,

00:00:46.080 | God gives the waitress all the abilities required

00:00:48.800 | to do her job, the opportunity to do her job,

00:00:51.440 | maybe the willingness to do her work diligently

00:00:54.280 | in her very life and breath and existence.

00:00:57.720 | Since she is working,

00:00:59.040 | it seems right to thank her for her efforts,

00:01:01.600 | but since the Lord gives us everything,

00:01:03.840 | it seems right in another sense only to thank him.

00:01:07.920 | How, Pastor John, do you process this?

00:01:10.880 | Well, I think this is a very good question,

00:01:12.880 | even though some people probably will think

00:01:16.640 | it's totally unnecessary,

00:01:19.160 | since a spirit of thanksgiving

00:01:21.960 | seems like such a healthy trait in a Christian soul.

00:01:25.240 | Why would anybody ever question it?

00:01:27.480 | But one of the reasons why it's such a worthy question

00:01:32.120 | is because, now this is gonna surprise a lot of people,

00:01:36.600 | I'm not aware of any single place in the Bible at all

00:01:41.600 | where one human being explicitly thanks

00:01:47.720 | another human being for anything.

00:01:51.000 | Isn't that amazing?

00:01:52.240 | I mean, I could be wrong.

00:01:53.640 | So if our listeners find an exception to that,

00:01:56.640 | they should write you.

00:01:57.920 | Yep, yep, send us an email.

00:01:59.800 | You can tell them, yeah,

00:02:01.280 | and you can forward it to me if you think they're right.

00:02:04.480 | But that's where I am right now.

00:02:06.080 | So when I hear this question, I say,

00:02:07.560 | yeah, I've gotta come to terms with that.

00:02:10.440 | I know a very godly Christian scholar

00:02:15.440 | who sees that, what I just pointed out,

00:02:18.960 | and he infers that that's his duty.

00:02:23.400 | He does not thank people for anything.

00:02:27.400 | He thanks God for people, and he may tell them that.

00:02:31.600 | So it may seem like an unwarranted question,

00:02:35.640 | but really it's not.

00:02:37.520 | Now, my own conviction and practice

00:02:40.960 | is to say thank you a lot.

00:02:43.160 | I say thank you a lot to a lot of people,

00:02:49.120 | or something like, I really appreciate that,

00:02:52.720 | or you have encouraged me so much, thank you.

00:02:56.440 | Candace is asking the question like this.

00:02:58.960 | Since God is the ultimate giver in the end,

00:03:03.120 | through all things, in all things,

00:03:05.560 | why would it ever be appropriate to thank anyone but God?

00:03:10.560 | So Paul says, from him, through him, to him,

00:03:15.320 | are all things to him be glory forever and ever,

00:03:18.040 | Romans 11:36.

00:03:19.800 | He says in Acts 17.25, God is not served by human hands

00:03:24.280 | as though he needed anything,

00:03:25.880 | because he himself gives life and breath and everything.

00:03:30.880 | So if I'm served well at a restaurant,

00:03:36.640 | God created the server, God gave the breath,

00:03:39.960 | God inclined the heart to courtesy,

00:03:42.800 | God gave everything that makes my meal pleasant,

00:03:45.980 | so God, be thanked, not the waiter,

00:03:49.840 | or the waitress, or the server.

00:03:52.440 | And of course, that's true, God did give everything,

00:03:57.440 | and God should be thanked.

00:04:00.440 | In all of our thankfulness,

00:04:03.320 | we should have God ultimately in mind

00:04:06.520 | as the giver and sustainer and the providential guide

00:04:10.120 | in every good that happens to us,

00:04:12.600 | indeed, every bad thing that happens to us,

00:04:15.240 | which God turns for good if we're Christians,

00:04:18.520 | which is why Paul says, by the way,

00:04:20.160 | give thanks in all circumstances, 1 Thessalonians 5.18,

00:04:25.160 | and give thanks for all things, Ephesians 5.20.

00:04:30.520 | But here's why I don't think any of those truths

00:04:36.700 | means we should not thank other people for benefits

00:04:41.800 | which we receive through their hands.

00:04:44.640 | I think we all would agree that human beings

00:04:49.640 | become instruments in the hands of God

00:04:53.600 | for doing many good things that God wants done.

00:04:57.800 | So for example, Jesus says about Paul

00:05:01.840 | when he commissioned him,

00:05:03.440 | he is a chosen instrument of mine

00:05:08.080 | to carry my name before the Gentiles,

00:05:11.360 | and the kings, and the children of Israel.

00:05:13.800 | That's Acts 9.15.

00:05:16.040 | And then he says to Paul,

00:05:18.600 | I am sending you to open their eyes.

00:05:22.840 | I'm sending you, you, to open their eyes

00:05:27.440 | so that they may turn from darkness to light

00:05:29.840 | and from the power of Satan to God,

00:05:31.740 | that they may receive forgiveness of sins.

00:05:33.680 | That's Acts 26.18.

00:05:35.540 | And of course, this is the way God has worked

00:05:41.060 | ever since the beginning.

00:05:43.040 | He gives commandments, he gives promises,

00:05:45.480 | he gives warnings, he gives help.

00:05:47.960 | But there is no doubt that human beings

00:05:52.240 | are God's primary created instrument

00:05:56.960 | for accomplishing in the world what he wants done.

00:06:01.200 | So the question becomes,

00:06:03.240 | how does God think about our instrumentality?

00:06:07.540 | What status does the instrument itself, us,

00:06:13.540 | have in God's hands?

00:06:15.820 | Can the instrument in God's hands be called good,

00:06:20.380 | or praiseworthy, or faithful, or obedient, or pleasing?

00:06:25.380 | Does God view the instruments in his hands

00:06:31.620 | as proper recipients of his rewards,

00:06:36.000 | his commendation, his praise?

00:06:39.100 | And if God does view the instruments in his hands

00:06:42.500 | as fitting recipients of his own commendation

00:06:45.860 | and rewards and praise, then what should our attitude

00:06:50.360 | and response towards those human instruments be?

00:06:55.260 | Well, the Bible is very clear

00:06:58.220 | that God is the rewarder of those who seek him.

00:07:02.340 | Several times Jesus said that the Father will reward us

00:07:05.820 | for acting certain ways, Matthew 6.

00:07:08.620 | Great will be your reward in heaven

00:07:10.700 | for enduring persecution, Matthew 5.12.

00:07:14.500 | Time after time we are told God rewards us

00:07:18.900 | for the good that we do, Ephesians 6.8.

00:07:22.220 | Amazing statement.

00:07:23.580 | Whatever good anyone does,

00:07:26.540 | this he will receive back from the Lord.

00:07:30.220 | Wow.

00:07:31.380 | And even more than reward,

00:07:33.260 | Paul says that we'll all receive our commendation,

00:07:37.500 | and literally the word is praise from God.

00:07:42.460 | That's just almost unfathomable.

00:07:44.860 | C.S. Lewis calls it the weight of glory

00:07:47.660 | that we would ever hear, well done, well done.

00:07:50.980 | How could God speak such a thing to a worm like me, right?

00:07:55.660 | So even though everything good that we do

00:07:59.900 | is enabled by God, it is sustained by God,

00:08:02.900 | it is made useful by God,

00:08:05.100 | nevertheless, God has graciously chosen

00:08:08.860 | to look upon obedient instruments in his hands

00:08:12.100 | as pleasing to him and fitting recipients

00:08:14.980 | of his rewards and commendation.

00:08:16.860 | So my heart inclination is to say

00:08:21.540 | if God Almighty, in infinite perfection

00:08:25.620 | and having no need whatsoever,

00:08:29.140 | can look with favor and reward and commendation

00:08:32.060 | and praise upon the imperfect work of his people,

00:08:35.540 | might it not be fitting that I would look upon

00:08:39.180 | human instruments in his hand

00:08:41.860 | with a humble sense of expressed, glad indebtedness?

00:08:46.860 | And that would be my definition of thankfulness,

00:08:51.220 | expressed, glad indebtedness

00:08:56.220 | to them for their instrumentality

00:09:00.220 | in mediating to me good from God.

00:09:04.100 | God should always be, in my mind, the ultimate giver,

00:09:08.900 | and he gets thanks in everything, for everything,

00:09:12.580 | but the role of instruments in his hands is an amazing role,

00:09:17.540 | and I am put in debt to that instrument as well as to God.

00:09:22.540 | If something good happens to me

00:09:25.860 | because of another person's instrumentality

00:09:28.980 | in the hand of God, I am glad,

00:09:31.660 | and the mixture of gladness and a sense of indebtedness

00:09:37.780 | is what I call thankfulness.

00:09:41.780 | It belongs ultimately to God continually,

00:09:45.580 | and I think it is fitting that this gladness find expression

00:09:50.580 | toward the morally responsible human instruments

00:09:55.140 | in God's hands as well.

00:09:58.060 | In a sense, an expression of thankfulness

00:10:01.780 | is simply an expression of humility.

00:10:04.980 | It says, "I have become your debtor,

00:10:08.740 | and I don't resent it as though you made me a welfare case.

00:10:12.440 | I receive it, and I am glad for it,

00:10:16.300 | and I want you to know that my gladness

00:10:19.580 | is owing in part to you and what you've done."

00:10:24.500 | So, in conclusion, I would say,

00:10:28.300 | as long as we are not detracting from God

00:10:32.660 | and we're acknowledging him behind

00:10:35.740 | and in everything that comes to us,

00:10:38.500 | then thanking other people for the benefits they give us

00:10:42.820 | is a fitting, humble expression of our glad indebtedness.

00:10:47.820 | - Amen, thank you, Pastor John.

00:10:51.660 | And that mention of Acts 26, verses 17 to 18

00:10:55.580 | that you just made is quite a startling text

00:10:58.060 | to meditate on in this line of thinking.

00:11:00.540 | The resurrected Christ appeared to Paul

00:11:03.900 | and commissioned him to the Gentiles

00:11:05.740 | in order to open the eyes of unbelievers to the gospel.

00:11:09.940 | It's a stunning commission,

00:11:11.560 | and one we've talked about on this podcast

00:11:13.360 | in ABJ episodes 841, 1209, and 1344.

00:11:18.780 | It's stunning, episodes 841, 1209, and 1344,

00:11:23.780 | if you want to dwell on that text more fully.

00:11:26.780 | Thank you for joining us today.

00:11:27.740 | You can ask a question of your own,

00:11:29.340 | search our growing archive and find those episodes,

00:11:32.020 | or subscribe to the podcast,

00:11:33.220 | all at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:11:37.180 | Well, why did God need part of Adam to make Eve

00:11:41.440 | when he made Adam from dust?

00:11:43.860 | It's a Bible question from a female listener to the podcast,

00:11:46.180 | another really good one from you,

00:11:47.580 | and it's up next time.

00:11:49.260 | I'm your host Tony Rehnke.

00:11:50.300 | We'll see you back here on Monday.

00:11:52.120 | Have a great weekend,

00:11:53.180 | and keep sending in those great Bible questions.

00:11:56.700 | We'll see you Monday.

00:11:57.740 | (upbeat music)

00:12:00.320 | (upbeat music)

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If Every Gift Comes from God, Why Thank Anyone Else?

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