How many times, I wonder, have people come to me for counsel as they have earnestly sought God’s will for their lives? Right now, Karen and I are the ones earnestly seeking God’s will for us as we finish up the work here and set our eyes on what is next.

We want to know God’s will … that inscrutable mystery, that chronic uncertainty. And yet right in our text, in words that are easy to understand, we have God’s will spelled out (v. 18): “this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” No mystery, no uncertainty. This is God’s will.

What is God’s will? “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Here in the second part of the Church Member’s Checklist (if you missed the first part, click the link on our website to listen to last Sunday’s sermon) is God’s will clearly stated.

We have seen this once before, in chapter 4, so I want to remind you of what we learned then. We cannot expect God to reveal the hidden parts of his will for us if we are ignoring the revealed parts of his will. We cannot hope to learn his will for us personally when we are flouting his will for us corporately. We cannot presume upon God to reveal his will when we have big decisions to make if we are not acting on the small things we already know he wants us to do.

In verses 16 through 18, a particular aspect of God’s will is plainly revealed. If you are a follower of Jesus, what we have here is God’s will for you. If you want to be in God’s perfect will for your life, this is the perfect place to start.

Before we look at verse 16 though, I want to note a change in the church member’s checklist. In verses 12-15, the checklist is about relationships within the church – relationships between church members and their leaders and among church members generally. Starting in verse 16, the checklist transitions to the church member’s relationship with God in personal life and in corporate worship. Paul understood that a healthy church member has healthy relationships both with God and others.

Now let’s look at verse 16. Paul writes, “Rejoice always.” In English, when we want to say that something happens in all places, we use the word “everywhere.” It’s springing up everywhere! Why is it that when we want to say that something happens at all times, we don’t say, “everywhen”? The Greeks did. The word we have translated “always” is composed of two roots: every and when.

It is God’s will that we rejoice during every when of our lives. When we’ve landed our dream job. When we hate going to work. When we’ve completed our first ever marathon. When we can no longer cross the room without the help of a walker. When people applaud our accomplishments. When people ignore or even criticize our best efforts.It is God’s will that we rejoice everywhen.

What does that mean? Must I be happy even when things go wrong, when I’ve been misused, when my spouse has died?

That is an odd and interesting question? Must I be happy even when things go wrong? Why do we think of it that way rather than, Could I be happy even when things go wrong? Someone might object: “But if I’m not happy, I can’t simply tell myself to be happy. That doesn’t work. So, how can I rejoice? What does that even mean?”

The word translated “rejoice” has a range of meanings. For example, it is the common word used in greetings and is sometimes translated, “welcome.” When Jesus first saw the disciples after the resurrection, this is the word he used. The KJV translates, “Hail!” The NIV renders it, “Greetings!”

Perhaps one component of rejoicing everywhen has to do with welcoming each new event in our lives. We are not running from them; we are meeting them head-on in the certain knowledge that God will see us through. He will use this – whatever it is – for our good. Yes, we may hurt physically or emotionally or financially – we know that – but we cannot lose. God will use whatever is happening – even our deaths – to make us “mature and complete, lacking nothing.” He will conform us to the image of his Son. Our ultimate happiness depends on nothing else.

I think a high percentage of our misery in life comes from our belief that this thing that is going to happen will be too much for us. We fear it. Dread it. Our anticipation of the future makes the present miserable.

But if we were to welcome each new event in our lives with the attitude that we cannot lose, that we will be more than conquerors, that our capacity for happiness will be enlarged when this is over, our lives would be turned upside down. This is not the power of positive thinking; this is the joy of believing in the God and Father of Jesus Christ.

Some people not only don’t rejoice everywhen; they grumble everywhen. They complain about the presence of a vapor trail in a glorious sunset. They complain about the crying baby in an inspiring worship service. They find what is not right, even in situations that are full of hope and promise. Their attitude is inside out. That could describe me at many points in my past life. I don’t want it to describe me in my future life. I want to stop asking “Must I be happy even when things go wrong?” and start asking, “May I be happy even when things go wrong?”

How are you doing so far in the church member’s checklist? Can you put an x in the “rejoice always” box? Would you like to?

The next item on the checklist, verse 17, is “pray continually.” How can anyone put an x in that box? Continually? Can I really pray when I am deep in conversation with someone? What about when I am watching the Tigers – or must I give up watching the Tigers? (That might not be a bad idea if you are serious about putting an X in the “rejoice always” box.) Can I pray when I am asleep? How can anyone pray continually?

I have read devotional writers who believe that a person can be in an attitude of prayer at all times, when they are conversing, working, driving, even sleeping. I think that is intriguing and would like to know more about it, but Paul does not say, “Be in an attitude of prayer continually,” and I doubt that is what he meant.

The word the NIV translates “continually” could be literally rendered, “without leaving off.” I think that Paul is telling the Thessalonians, “Don’t give up on your prayers. Don’t have gaps where you go days or weeks or months without praying. Don’t get so busy that you leave off praying.”

It might help us to imagine Paul telling husbands and wives, “Don’t leave off talking to each other.” Husbands and wives can get so busy with life – with work, and kids, and projects – that they go weeks without having a real conversation. Impediments in their relationship can cause them to stop talking. That can go on for months or even years. Saying, “Don’t forget to pick the kids up from practice” is not a real conversation. Couples who live this way have left off talking.

Couples in a healthy relationship don’t talk nonstop, but neither do they get into the habit of not talking. Likewise, here: Paul wants these Christ followers to avoid the habit of not talking to God. The King James captured the thought by translating, “Pray without ceasing,” which just means, “Don’t leave off praying.”

Can you put a check in that box? Or have you left off praying for a few days, maybe for a few weeks, or maybe a few years?

The next item on the checklist is to “give thanks in all circumstances.” The King James, sticking close to the original language, translated, “in everything give thanks.” Not “for everything give thanks” (although Paul comes very close to saying that in his letter to the Ephesians), but “in everything.” But even with that change, is that possible?

I officiated a memorial service yesterday for a woman who died earlier in the week. She was deeply loved by her family. Does God really expect Christians to give thanks in a circumstance like that? Yes, I think he does.

But should a Christian give thanks in circumstances like that? Aren’t there circumstances in which they should be fighting instead of giving thanks? Fighting illness, fighting injustice, fighting foolishness? But this is not an either/or situation. If a fight is called for, give thanks while you fight. The best fighters are those who rejoice in the struggle, who pray as they contend, who give thanks while the battle rages.

Once again: we are not told to give thanks for all circumstances. Jesus was upset at the death of his friend Lazarus. He certainly didn’t give thanks for Lazarus’s death, but he did thank God while he stood at his friend’s grave. How could he do that? He could do it because of what he knew about God.

We’ll look at what he knew in just a moment, but first notice that rejoicing always, praying without ceasing, and giving thanks in all circumstances is God’s will in Christ Jesus. God intends Jesus’s people to do these things that other people do not do and don’t want to do. God intends for us to be different, to rejoice in the battle, to give thanks at the graveside. He wants us to be “children of God without blemish though [we] live in a crooked and perverse society, in which [we] shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15). We don’t shine as lights by being like everyone else.

Jesus rejoiced in the battle, he didn’t leave off praying even when his Father did not do what he wanted (think of his prayer in the garden), and he gave thanks even in bitter circumstances. He could do this because he had confidence in his Father that we do not yet have. He understood that his Father was immediately present in what was happening. He knew that his Father would bring good even out of evil. He knew that he was safe in his Father’s care. He knew that death would not, and could not, stop him. He knew that all things work together for good for people who love his Father and are called according to his purpose.

Most people go through life rejoicing when their desires are realized and complaining when they are not. For them, everything is a matter of chance. It is bad luck when things go wrong, good luck when things go right. Jesus didn’t live in that world. He lived in a God-bathed world.[1]

But he also lived, just as we do, in a sin-sullied world, where many things go wrong. But when they did, Jesus knew his Father was immediately present and was making all things work for good. That confidence – there is a word for that: faith – enabled him to live above the world. He could endure the cross because he knew that joy was set before him (Hebrews 12:2).

We think that we are in charge, and so of course we cannot rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances. Jesus knew that his heavenly Father is in charge. Such confidence in God makes all the difference. Faith, as John says in his first letter, is the victory that overcomes the world (1 John 5:4).

The apostle Paul understood this to an impressive degree. He understood what God has done through Christ’s death and the giving of his Spirit. He had experienced the “power of the gospel” in his own life. And so, Paul was always rejoicing, even when he was sorrowful (2 Corinthians 6:10). He could sing after being beaten and incarcerated. He could give thanks onboard a sinking ship in a raging storm (see Acts 27:35). He knew – not just in his head but in his heart, in his experience – what Jesus knew: that God is present and will make all things work for good for those who love him, those called according to his purpose.

This heart knowledge – this faith – is the thread that connects the three commands we just looked at: rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances. To try to do these things when you don’t believe what Jesus and Paul believed is simply impossible. To do these things when you believe it’s all up to you is pure misery. Joy, gratitude, and a constant connection to God are the result of believing the good news. Faith really is “the victory.”

That faith is in God, who through Jesus saved us from our sins and altered our future and through the Spirit is with us and alters our present. If you don’t have that faith, you cannot have the life described in these verses. You won’t, for example, slip into prayer as Paul so often did and does again in verses 23 and 24. For Paul, prayer was as natural as breathing. He believed his God was right there with him. Of course, he would talk to him.

If you don’t have faith, you only can rejoice when things are going well, certainly not everywhen. And when things go wrong, you will complain; your life will be grumbling without ceasing.

It doesn’t have to be that way. But it will only be otherwise to the degree that you believe (with your heart and not just your head) in the God Paul trusted, the God and Father Jesus knew.

Look at Paul’s prayer in verses 23 and 24. These verses have encouraged me more than I can express. They are full of hope. “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”

The God of peace. Apart from him, there is no lasting peace. “The God of peace sanctify you through and through.” Paul understood that there is more to us on the inside than on the outside – far more. Our unhappiness, lack of peace, and grumbling ingratitude come from the inside. And so, we urgently need to be sanctified – that is, every part of our vast interior needs to be brought under the loving authority of God.

It is a vast interior, a spacetime of the soul. Whatever has happened to us or through us years ago is still there and it all needs to be brought under the Lordship of Jesus. That is what the process of sanctification is about. But if I really am bigger on the inside than on the outside, if there are nooks and crannies of the soul I know nothing about, how can I be sanctified? And if that is what it takes to rejoice always, to pray without ceasing, to give thanks in every circumstance, what hope is there that I will ever be capable of these things?

There would be no hope…if it all depended on me. But this glorious work of sanctifying us – of bringing our vast selves entirely under the loving authority of God – is not all up to me. I didn’t start it. God did. I can’t finish it. God will. What I can do is cooperate with it.

Paul says, “The God of peace himself” – “himself” is very emphatic in Greek, putting all the weight on God – “sanctify you through and through.” That includes your body, soul, and spirit—all the dimensions of your vast being. How does he carry on this great work? Much of that remains a mystery, but where he carries it on is clear. He carries it on in real life: our relationships, our jobs, our recreation, our trials, our successes, our victories, and our failures.

God – Jesus taught us this and we must fight to remember it – is not somewhere far away, only paying attention when we need help or, as some people think, when we mess up. He is here. He is involved. He is at work around us and in us, even when we do not see it.

It is not all up to us. Look at verse 24: “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” He will do it, but I have the opportunity of cooperating with him. Cooperating with him begins when I trust him. It continues as I trust him. It concludes when I see him—and Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight.

Today, you may feel like you are caught between a rock and a hard place, between the hammer and the anvil. But if you belong to Jesus, you are kept between the nail-pierced hands of the Savior. You will be alright. You will be better than alright. Rejoice. Pray without ceasing. In everything – even in this – give thanks.

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[1] Dallas Willard’s phrase from The Divine Conspiracy, chapter 3.