Why we appreciate God in Thanksgiving

Messages for December 2016: Our Month of Gratitude and Praise

Ps.92:1-2; Philippians 4:6-7; Ps.100:4; Lk.17:12-19; 1Thess.5:18 & Heb.10:35-36

Message for Sunday the 11^th of December 2016

Theme: Understanding the power in Appreciating the Lord

Topic: Why we appreciate God in Thanksgiving

Introduction: We learn from Ps.103:7 the distinction between Moses and the children of Israel. We must have wondered why several times, just after seeing the act of God, the children of Israel would immediately begin to provoke God with their murmuring and complaining. Then we wonder whether they are learning anything or not. This situation persisted until God had to eliminate an entire generation for their ingratitude.

The distinction between Moses and the children of Israel was that Moses knew the ways of God whereas the children of Israel merely knew his acts. The result was that Moses could command his acts at will. The children of Israel on the other hand never saw a way out of their challenges until Moses who knew the ways of God helped them out. A major way of God we shall therefore be looking at today is the way of gratitude which would enable us command his acts and not fall prey like the children of Israel.

Why we must be thankful to God:

We must therefore be thankful to God for the following reasons:

1.     Thanksgiving is a good thing and therefore not being thankful is a bad thing. God is good and can only be associated with good things. See Ex.34:6; Ps.92:1-2.

2.     Thanksgiving takes you from a request zone to a request free zone because whatever you are thankful for appreciates and causes God to show you more favour. See the example of the story of the ten lepers in Lk.17:12-19.

3.     It is doing God’s will and when we do God’s will, we are blessed. See 1Thess.5:18; Heb.10:35-36; Jos.1:8 and Jas.1:22-25.

4.     It is the means by which we secure heaven’s attention. See Ps.100:4 and Philippians 4:6.

Lessons from the grateful ex leper in Lk.17:12-19

1.     Ten of them came for help from the Lord and all ten followed the Lord’s instruction to go and show themselves to the priests and make the legal sacrifices as required by the Law of Moses. They all obeyed to go but were cleansed on the way there.

2.     When he saw he was cleansed, he paused to go and give thanks to the Lord. His thanksgiving was so loud as to draw the attention of the Lord to bring Him to a standstill.

3.     The Lord asked if he was the only one cleansed and why the others did not do likewise. This shows that God wants us to be thankful in this way. Many of us postpone sharing our testimonies of God’s goodness. This is not what God wants from us.

4.     The man was a Samaritan and therefore not in covenant like the other nine who we can infer from the Lord’s statement that they were Jews. The Lord referred to him as “this stranger”. Meaning the others were not strangers. They took God for granted and became too grounded to be thankful.

5.     Unlike the other nine ex lepers who were merely cleansed, the faith of this man expressed through thanksgiving made him whole. The implication is that he was left with no evidence that he was ever a leper! God gave him a brand new life.

With this, we shall bring our message for today to a close here. Meanwhile someone may be reading this who has just come to terms with his or her ingratitude in not receiving the gospel in spite of all the attempts of the Lord to reach him or her over the years and is now willing to act on this challenge by giving his or her life to Christ in appreciation of the Lord’s Calvary trip for him or her. You can do so right away by saying the following prayer out loud in faith and you will be born again and experience more and more reasons to be thankful on a dialing basis:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.