This weekend I will be starting a mini-series entitled “We Have Much To Thank God For”. This mini-series was inspired from our Wednesday night bible study lesson taught by Pastor Payne out of John MacArthur’s book “The Master’s Plan For The Church – The Internal Structure: THANKFULNESS”.
The point of these sermons is to challenge our membership to become thankful Christians based on things eternal and not on earthly temporal things. I believe the thankfulness of your heart will dictate your worship life and style. Therefore, if we worship primarily for houses, cars, a new job, a promotion, winning the lottery, a good marriage, well behaved children, etc then our worship life/style is exciting and wonderful. The flipside is that when things in life take a turn for the worse our worship life becomes dull, stagnant, un-exciting, and boring. We come to church with our heads hung low, heart heavy, and an unrealistic expectation of the pastor to preach something to make you feel good. Or, expect the choir to sing a song that makes you feel good. What a waste of time!
I want the members of our church to be true sincere worshippers that worships God with a heart of thanksgiving based on things of eternal significance.
I resist the temptation to preach on the goodness, grace, and mercy of God because I believe we, Christians, minimize God’s goodness, grace, and mercy to deliverance from trials, struggles, and pain. However, the passages I’ve selected will in one way or another cover all three (3).
Mini-series sermon outline:
- We have much to be thankful for in DANIEL 2:23 - Wisdom and Strength
"I thank You and praise You, O God of my fathers; You have given me wisdom and might, And have now made known to me what we asked of You, For You have made known to us the king's demand."
- We have much to be thankful for in Romans 1:8 – Be thankful for those who hang in there
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.
- We have much to be thankful for in Romans 6:17-18 – Changed Lives
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
- We have much to be thankful for in 1 Corinthians 15:57 – Victory over death
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
- We have much to be thankful for in Revelations 11:15-17 – The Return of Christ
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.
May God create within us a heart of thankfulness on things eternal!
