Thankful In All Things Part 4-" The People In Our Lives" Series

“Thankful in all things”

Part 4

November 2018

“The people in our lives”

Today is the last of our sermons in the short thankful series

In the weeks to come we will be studying the Christmas story, it’s components and the significance of the story to our lives

But for today we need to focus on thanks

In fact

Every day in the life of a believer should be a day of thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for

Everything we have, have had or ever will have is a gift from God

Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 5 :16-18

The theme for this series

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

Always be joyful

Never stop praying

Be thankful in all circumstances

Profound words inspired by the Holy Sprit

Written down by the apostle Paul

That if taken to heart

Applied to our lives

Are transforming

Let me repeat them just so you can drink deeply of these words

Always be joyful

Never stop praying

Be thankful in all circumstances

During the month of November, we have focused on just a few of the thousands or million things we have to be thankful for

God’s love, mercy and grace

The gift of salvation

Deliverance from the pits of our lives

We have heard words from our friends

Brother and sisters that tied directly with these themes and we have also

Heard the words of great me of the bible

Isaiah

Jeremiah

The Psalmist

And in the words of those who stood before you

And those who have passed before us

We saw many things in our own lives that we are or need to be thankful for

The last of the topics in this series

Is thankfulness for the people God puts in our lives

This includes

Family

Friends

Acquaintances

Co- workers

And even people who push your buttons

God has gifted us with the chance to interact with other people

He has given us the chance to impact their lives and have our own lives impacted

He has given us the ability to show or be shown the love of Jesus in the people who cross our paths

And today this is our focus

I have asked Cody Young to come up and share just a bit of testimony with you in this area this morning

Cody Young testimony

Cody as you heard had the chance though God’s mercy

Though his grace

Though his love

Because of the salvation he received and the deliverance from the pits he found himself in

To impact his family for Jesus

And his story is or can be our stories as well

Listen to me

If you are here this morning and Know Jesus as your savior

Someone

At some theme in your life cared enough about you

About your soul

To tell you about Jesus

And if you are saved

And still breathing

You too can pass o n the blessings

Share with others

Show them the love you have been shown

God put’s many people in our lives

Believers

Unbelievers

Those that have and show love and those who don’t

Those who are affable and those who are obstinate

Those we desire to / long to be around

And those we sometimes try to avoid

Listen to me

I get this

We all have those we want to be around and those we would prefer to pass on by

But

God tells us though his word that we are to be thankful for all of them

First, I want you to think of your very favorite person

And vow to pray for them

That one is easy, right

Now think of the person who is on the other end of that curve

The one who the very though of makes un holy thoughts enter your mind

Now vow to pray for them as well

This one is not so easy

But it is transforming

If done with the proper heart

Because it releases you from anger, bitterness, unforgiveness and so many other things

It is also transforming because it pleases God

As I was studying and praying about today’s sermon

I kept asking myself

How can I show

How can we show thanks to God for the people he places in our lives?

And the first and obvious answer is bow our heads close our eyes and just thank him in prayer

But this just stops at words

And we all know words without action is worthless

So, the next thing is that we show our thankfulness by our love

Treat people, with love and respect

Refrain from judging others

Look at each other through the lens of our Jesus glasses