Thankful in All Things
November 2018 sermon series on Thanks
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
Today we are going to begin a short series on thankfulness
November is the month of the year when the bulk of the American people stop to give thanks for al they have received
Unfortunately
Thanksgiving
A day set apart
To give thanks, honor and glory to God
Has become just as commonly called
Turkey Day
A day to gorge on delicious food
A day to sit and watch game after game on the boob tube
Or a day to begin the insane sport of combat Christmas shopping as the retailers host unusually low prices
In an effort to get back to the basics of Thanks giving
Over the next 4 weeks we will be looking at various scriptures on thanks
We have so much to be thankful for
In fact, everything we have
Everything we will ever have
Comes from God
The very breath in our lungs
The life in our bodies
Are a gift from God?
Who loves us
And has shown mercy on us
I encourage each of you over the next month
To consider your blessings
To reflect on God’s kindness
And to remember to give him the thanks he deservers
To mold this series into a manageable offering
I have chosen through prayer and study to focus on 4 areas of Thanks that we should all have and have in common
The first area that we will look at today id thankfulness for God’s love and mercy
The next area we will study is thankfulness for our salvation
Next is thankfulness for deliverance
And the last week we will look at thankfulness in blessings primarily in the people God places in our lives
With that being said
I am deviating from my normal operating procedures
And have asked specific people to give a testimony that directly relates to each topic of thankfulness
As you listen to these true stories
Let the Love of God wash over you
And remember what he has done for you
And give thanks
Linda Monk Testimony
I asked Linda to share her story with each of you this morning
Because
Although her story could easily fit into all 4 weeks lessons
Their story is a story of
The Love
The Grace
And the mercy of God
And it is God who gets the glory
The theme for the series is 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
But the lesson today comes from
Psalm 100
The author of this psalm in unknown
And even though we don’t know his name
And can’t see his face
We hear the praise in his words
And if we apply then to our lives
They can easily become
Our praise
Our words
Psalm 100
1 Shout with joy to the LORD, all the earth!
2 Worship the LORD with gladness.
Come before him, singing with joy.
3 Acknowledge that the LORD is God!
He made us, and we are his.[a]
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and his faithfulness continues to each generation.
Verse 1
Shout with Joy
God wants us to holler out his mercy and his grace
Many people
Will yell and scream at a football game
Or Rodeo
And never utter a peep in church
Or worse never share the joy they have in words of any type
God wants us to shout his praises
He has shown us mercy
We are all sinners
All of us
Some saved by grace
Others still lost
But all have received mercy
How so, you may ask
Listen to me
We are all sinners
And the penalty for sin is death
Apart from Jesus we must pay the penalty ourselves
Yeah, I get that preacher
If I know Jesus I have received his mercy
But you said
All
Saved and unsaved have received mercy
Listen to me
If the penalty for sin is death
And we are all sinners
Some saved
Some lost
And we sinned
And we are still here
That is God’s mercy
God would be well within his rights
Well within his character
To punish sin immediately
One sin
And zap
Your out of here
One sin and you set your eternity
And it begins now
But
God
In his mercy
Does not want any to be lost
So, he waits
What this means is this
If you have accepted Christ as savior
You have received God’s eternal mercy
Not because you deserved it
Not because you are good
But because he is
But if you have not accepted Christ
You are also a recipient of his mercy
He sent Jesus to die for you
In his mercy to give you the opportunity of eternal life
You can choose
He gives us free will
But the offer of eternal mercy is available to all
You have the chance to change God’s temporary mercy into eternal mercy
What do you mean by this preacher you may ask?
If you are not a believer and you are still breathing air
You are a recipient of God’s temporary Mercy
But that temporary mercy expires at death
There are no second chances
You must
must
Must
Receive salvation on this side of the grave
To receive the eternal mercy that God desires to give you
Verse 2
Worship the LORD with gladness.
Come before him, singing with joy.
We are called to worship
And we do that in many ways
As Lou preached last week
We come to church to worship
Not to be seen
Not to fellowship with each other
Not to check off some imaginary list
But to worship the King of Kings
The Lord of Lords
To worship
Thank God we have the ability to do that
Many in the world do not have that privilege
They worship in the dark
Hidden in some back room
In a basement
We can worship as we please
Where we please
But
Always a but right
We sometimes don’t do this with gladness
What I mean is this
We treat worship as some type of obligation
As drudgery
We should worship with praises
In joy
That means happiness
Singing at least in our hearts about God’s love and mercy
And giving thanks in all things
Verse 3
3 Acknowledge that the LORD is God!
He made us, and we are his.[a]
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
So how do we worship
How do we praise
How do we show our thanks?
Acknowledge that the Lord is Good
The Lord is love
The Lord is mercy
The Lord is grace
The Lord is right and true and just
The Lord is patient and kind
If you are saved
Remember what you were saved from
Remember where you were
And remember how God in his love
In hi mercy
In his grace
Sent his son into this evil wicked world to rescue you
Ans in doing so acknowledge that he and he alone is God
And because of his Son
We have been given the right to become his children
Non-saved
Lost
This is one of the first steps to receiving the eternal mercy of God as well
Acknowledge that he is God
Acknowledge that sin has separated you from God eternally
And cry out for the love
For the mercy
For the grace he wants to shower on you
And become his child
Listen to me
When we become his children
We as the bible says many times
Become his sheep
What this means is
He
Protects us
Provides for us
Gave his life for us
And accepts us into the herd
Those outside the herd
Are goats
And at the judgement
God’s word says he will separate the sheep (his children, believers)
From the goats (the children of the devil, non-believers)
And to put this in a cowboy way
His sheep he will take to green pastures
Lead them beside still waters and give them peace
The goats to the slaughter house where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth
A place where the suffering
The torment never ends
Listen to me
This place
Hell
Was never meant for man
God created this place for Satan and his fallen angels
God wants no person to experience the realities of Hell
So, in his mercy
in his grace
though his love
he gave his son to give us a way out
give us a way to become children of light instead of children of darkness
Verse 4
For the LORD is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and his faithfulness continues to each generation.
The Lord is Good
Al the time
His love endures forever
And his faithfulness is passed down to our kids
And their kids
And their kids
For as long as Jesus tarries
This is what we must be thankful for
Thank God for his love
It is his love that saves us
It is his love that delivers us
It is his love that holds us and grows us and carries us to eternity
It is his love that causes him to pour out his mercy upon us
Mercy is getting something you don’t deserve
We don’t deserve God’s love
We don’t deserve his kindness
We don’t deserve his salvation
We don’t deserve anything other than death
And thank God that in his mercy through his love
I have received his compassion
And his grace
Grace is not getting what we do deserve
We all are sinners
We all deserve to be separated from our creator for all of eternity
But God in his Grace
Have been give a bridge
A way to cross that canyon of sin
And be reunited with God
Thanks God for his love- daily
Moment by moment
That God for his mercy
Daily
Minuet by minuet
Thank God for his grace
Constantly
Give thanks in everything
At all times and all occasions
And remember
It is only by his grace that you have been saved
Non-believers here
Today
You need to get down on your knees and thank God
For his love
It is by his love that air still flows through your lungs
Thanks God for his mercy
It is by his mercy that you are still here
Still have the chance to change your eternity
And it is by his grace that you too can be saved
Love
Mercy
Grace
Love
Mercy
And Grace
John 3:16
For God so loved the world That he gave his one and only son ----- Love
So that whoso ever believes in him will not perish—Mercy
But Have everlasting life- Grace
Close from the heart
pray
