Audio Have you ever “sought God’s will”? Have you ever prayed for God to show you or make known to you His will? It is a noble aim, for who among does not wish to live our lives in accordance with God’s will. A problem arises, however, when we come down to how we go about seeking God’s will, or how we expect God to make it known. Often times, we expect God to make His will known by some sign or some experience or emotion. At times, perhaps, we expect others to inform us of what God’s will is. It is as though we believe that God has hidden His will away from us, and expects us to go on some odyssean quest to find it, not unlike some mythological adventure to lay hands on the Holy Grail. What this amounts to, in fact, is a mistaken notion of who our God is. He is not hiding His will from us, but rather desires to guide us in the doing of His will. And this is why He has revealed Himself and His will to us plainly in His Word, the Bible. Everything that the Bible says “do,” it is God’s will for us to do. Everything that the Bible says, “do not do,” it is God’s will for us not to do it! Now let us not be like the rich young ruler, to whom Jesus said, “Keep the commandments,” and he responded, “Which ones?” When Jesus began to enumerate them, the young man said, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?” (Matt 19:16-22). If we say, “Well, I am waiting for God to let me know what His will is,” the answer is that He has told you in His Word. And if we say, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?”, then we lie to ourselves and to God. The fact of the matter is that we have our hands full with the doing and not doing of what is plainly stated in Scripture, and if we will but obey His Word, we will find ourselves actually doing His will as His providence directs our lives. Even if we reduce it down to the two greatest commandments of loving God and loving our neighbor, beyond this, we are free in Christ to follow the desires of our hearts. In 1 Thessalonians 5, we find a passage in which several aspects of God’s will for our lives are spelled out specifically. It includes encouraging one another, appreciating those who labor for the Lord, living in peace with one another. It also includes admonishing the unruly, helping the weak, and showing patience to all; not repaying evil with evil, but always seeking the good of others. In verses 16-17, Paul says, “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing.” And then in verse 18, he says, “in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” His will encompasses all these things, and others which are set forth in Scripture, but today – on the Sunday preceding Thanksgiving – I want to focus our attention on this singular aspect of God’s will for His people: “In everything give thanks.” I. What does it mean to “give thanks”? One of the greatest demonstrations of thanksgiving in the Bible is found in Luke 17. There we read about ten lepers “who stood at a distance” as Jesus passed by. They cried out to Him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” And Jesus did just that. He spoke, and they were healed of their disease. As they went away from Him, one “turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him.” Jesus said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine – where are they?” (Luke 17:11-19). We all find ourselves somewhere in that story. All of us are like those lepers. We have nothing in and of ourselves to commend ourselves to God or for which to boast before men. Anything and everything we have comes to us from God’s gracious hand. And so, we are ever recipients before Him. Moments ago in this service, we collected an offering. In that moment, perhaps you thought, “I am a giver. I am giving what is mine to God.” No, for what we give to God is but a portion of what He first has given to us. So we are always the receiver, even in our giving. Now, there are some who, like the one leper in the story, who r