1 Thess 5:16 Rejoice always; 17 pray without ceasing; 18 in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus to you-ward.
Romans 1;21 because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened

In the Old Testament sacrificial system there were, sin offerings. Sin offerings were designed to be brought by the people as constant reminders of their sinfulness, constant reminders of the ongoing need for forgiveness, the ongoing need for atonement, the ongoing need for cleansing, the ongoing need for penitence, the ongoing need for righteousness. Every time they brought a sin offering, and they did it often throughout the year, they were reminded of how sinful they were and how desperately they needed to be made fully and completely righteous.

But the Old Testament ceremonial system included not only sacrificial offerings that were meant to remind people of their sins, but also what were called thank offerings, or peace offerings.

They’re described in Leviticus seven. They were reminders that the people continually needed to be thankful to God for all His merciful and gracious provisions for their spiritual and physical needs, but they were to come and, also show gratitude to God.

Lev 7:11 And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace-offerings, which one shall offer unto Jehovah. 12 If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour soaked.
15 And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace-offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his oblation.

As Christians, we don’t have a sacrificial system anymore and we don’t have any thank offerings or sometimes called peace offerings so that we are celebrating the goodness of God toward us because we have a relationship with Him, we have peace. We just need to be thankful.

Are you thankful when you don’t get what you want, what about what you deserve?

John 17:41So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou heardest me. 42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the mounting pressures of various kinds gathering around it, and he wants to stabilize those believers he has come to love so much, even as he thanks God for them.

He cannot visit them; he’s in jail. So he writes to them. Indeed, his imprisonment must have given his letter added weight. What a person says when incarcerated and facing the possibility of death is likely to be given a little more attention than what might otherwise be the case. So what does he tell the Philippians as he receives some of their news and as he delivers to them some basics for believers? What does he then tell us by his Spirit through these words 2,000 years later?

Php 3:1 thank my God upon all my remembrance of you, 4always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you all making my supplication with joy, 5 for your fellowship in furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now; 6being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Phil 3: 1. “Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.” There are several other instances of joy as a theme in this book. 4:4. “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”

Paul is concerned for the church in Philippi. He founded it in AD 51 or 52, and he visited it after that at least twice before writing this letter. Now the apostle is writing from prison, probably in Rome, probably about AD 61; that would make the church about 10 years old. Paul can see

“I thank my God every time I remember you.” Now in fact the expression in the original is ambiguous. It could be, “I thank my God every time I remember you,” or it could be, “I thank my God every time you remember me.” Both actually make quite a lot of sense in the context. And as I’ve studied this over the years (I’ve taught Philippians in Greek I don’t know how many times to how many generations), I keep waffling back and forth because I can’t decide.

Both make quite a lot of sense, actually. “I thank my God every time I remember you.” You’ve been such an encouragement to me in the faith, I watch your witness, I watch your generosity, I am so grateful. (We’ll come to some of the evidences of that shortly.) Or, “I thank God every time you remember me,” because after all, it was the Philippians who were the first to supply support for Paul and his team as he moved down the Greek peninsula. Either way, it’s not just who remembers whom that is the important issue.

Notice what he says, “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now …”

This partnership, this fellowship, not only the money they sent which enabled Paul to put aside his leather-making trade, his leather-working trade, and give full time to the ministry but also their prayers for him, their own evangelistic zeal in promoting the gospel in Philippi, their commitment to the local church, their letters back and forth, the reception of Paul’s emissaries.

Here, the writer to the Hebrews is talking about those Jews who escaped from slavery in Egypt but then died in the desert before entering into the Promised Land. They had received enough grace to escape from but not enough grace to get into. And now the writer says, “Don’t be like that,” because we have been made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfastly to the end.

Think, for example, of the parable of the sower reported in Mark 4 and Matthew 13. One of the categories of soil is rocky ground. Rocky ground in Palestine meant ground with a limestone bedrock not far under a thin layer of topsoil. As the seed falls into the ground, that thin layer of topsoil warms up the fastest in the spring in the early rains. So the seed germinates fastest. It seems to be the most productive of the lot.

Eph 5:20–21 giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; .

There are two classes of people in the world, those that take things for granted, and those who take things with gratitude.

The word grace and the word gratitude come from the same root. People who are grateful people have seen the grace of God. They are not thoughtless people they are thankful people.

Resolve always to rejoice in the Lord. Of course, Paul himself was a good example of what he was advocating. As he wrote this, he was in prison. He was not in a chalet in the south of France or paddling in the water off the beaches of Tenerife or even vacationing in Northern Ireland. He was imprisoned. There is a sense in which in the light of the sweep of Scripture this exhortation ought to be so obvious as scarcely to be needed. Surely every redeemed person will want to rejoice.

To us has been given forgiveness of sins. Imagine forgiveness of all of our sins before the God who is our judge. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the down payment of the promised inheritance, the fellowship of brothers and sisters in Christ. Have you ever noticed in our local churches that there is often a disproportionate number of misfits? Have you ever noticed that? Do you know why?

Because for all of our sins and faults (which, God help us, are many), the church is still the most openhearted organization in the universe. Wear the misfits in your church as a badge of pride, of thankfulness to God, as a sign of grace. We have so much to be thankful for. To us has been given the promises of God which finally issue a resurrection existence in the new heaven and the new earth.

If our hearts fail to respond with joy and gratitude when we think of the most fundamental Christian truths, I am sure it is because we have not really grasped the depth of the abyss of our own self-focus, our own sinful natures, our own danger apart from him. Nor have we glimpsed the splendor of the height to which we have been raised and the immeasurable glory of the prospect still to come.