Even In The Darkest of Times
8 This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; ~ Matthew 15:8
Lip service is cheap and can be insincere, or at the very least, it can come across as insincere. But when you live a life of gratitude, you will experience the joy of Thanksgiving, and it’ll keep you humble before God because now your mind, your carnal nature, won’t begin to believe or think that it was all you.
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Forget God.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! ~ Psalms 150:6
William Arthur Ward once said, “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” According to God, we are to serve Him (God) with gladness. We are to come into His presence with singing and thanksgiving because it was God who created us in His own image, and He is continuously molding us to be more like Him. We are not self-made people.
We are the sheep of His pasture. He loves us and cares for us, and He is faithful even when we are unfaithful, and all He wants is our obedience and our gratitude. Our thanks. Therefore, we should give thanks to God for all He has done for us and for who He is. But you know what? God wants us to take it a step higher.
He wants us to not only give thanks to Him but to live a life of gratitude. He wants us to live like we are thankful for life. Thankful for the things we enjoy. Thankful for the things we take for granted, like family and close friends. Thankful for the food we eat. Jesus never ate one bite of food without giving thanks. Should we do any less? Peace. Love. Go Forth and Live a Life of Gratitude.
Every year we celebrate Thanksgiving with family, friends, and food, but is there more to it? What exactly is thanksgiving, and why is it important to be thankful? Join Reverend Jenny Yates as he opens our eyes to the importance of giving thanks in his message, The Joy of Thanksgiving.
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with singing! 3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. 4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name! 5 For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.
Psalms 100:1-5
4 Then he appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the Lord, to invoke, to thank, and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel. 5 Asaph was the chief, and second to him were Zechariah, Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel, who were to play harps and lyres; Asaph was to sound the cymbals, 6 and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests were to blow trumpets regularly before the ark of the covenant of God. 7 Then on that day David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the Lord by Asaph and his brothers.
1 Chronicles 16:4-7
Back to Special Occasion Messages?
17 And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. 18 And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” 20 And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” 22 And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.” ~ 1 Samuel 15:17-23
We all know the saying, “It is often easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission,” but is this the Truth? From the moment that Saul disobeyed the LORD and then tried to make it up to the LORD by making a sacrifice, things went from bad to worse. Saul was like a lot of us today. We think that because God loves us and He shows us grace that it’s better to live our lives in fear of the unforgiving world instead of the forgiving God.
Like Saul, every time we sin and just think we can ask for forgiveness after, we fail to realize that we can’t receive forgiveness without the shedding of innocent blood. Could this be why rebellion is the sin of divination? Because we treat shedding the blood of the innocent as a magic potion that erases all of our sins instead of what it truly is, a sacrifice. Obedience is better than sacrifice, not because God wants mindless robots following Him but because He doesn’t want the shedding of innocent blood.
When we begin to get used to living in sin with the idea of just asking for forgiveness later, we’re spitting on the innocent blood that has to be shed for our forgiveness. The innocent blood that was shed 2,000 years ago on calvary. We have to stop treating the precious blood of Jesus as if it was a magic potion that can just wash away our mistakes so we can live our lives however we want and start treating it as it is. It is the very embodiment of true love, for God Himself poured out His own blood that we might be saved. This isn’t a gift we should take advantage of, but that should be revered. A gift that should fill us with praise and thanksgiving for our God.
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Obey Over Sacrifice.
10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” ~ Luke 2:10–14
I just want to remind you of the good news of great joy, for today, we celebrate the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ, who was born 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem, the city of David.
Let’s not get bogged down on the day or the month but let us celebrate and be glad that our LORD got off of His throne to come to this earth to die a vicious and horrible death, to save His people, whosoever will, from their sins.
This tiny little baby, wrapped in swaddling cloths, and lying in a manger, because there was no room for Him in the inn, was the sacrificial Lamb of God, destined to be sacrificed, to take away the sins of the world.
So, celebrate this Christmas, the remembrance of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World. Accept His free gift, and rejoice that you have eternal life. Merry Christmas.
Dear Heavenly Father, I come to You this Christmas morning, giving thanks that little baby Jesus did not stay a baby but grew up to become the Savior of the world. Bless all of Your dear Children this Christmas day and help us to remember the real and true meaning of Christmas. In the name of Jesus, I pray, amen.
14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, 15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. ~ Psalms 50:14–15
If we are thankful and express our thanks and we perform our vows, God said we can call upon Him in the day of trouble, and what? And He will deliver you, and you, in turn, will glorify Him. God wants to be glorified, but He also wants to bless you. He wants to heal you.
Are you in a day of trouble? Your trouble could be medical issues. You might have gotten a bad report from your doctor. I declare to you right now that Jesus paid for our healing with the stripes on His back. The word of God declares that “By His stripes, you are healed!”
So, receive your healing right now! Declare it over your life! Then thank Him for the healing and believe that you are healed in Jesus’ name. Don’t allow doubt to sneak in and keep you from your healing. Thank God for your healing until you receive it. Speak the things that are not as if they were.
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Declare Your Thanksgiving.
24 This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. ~ Psalms 118:24
God has created a day which He has called today; He has blessed it, and He has given it to us. He expects us to receive it with glad hearts and thankful spirits. If we aren’t thankful, we are then spurning the things of God. And God considers that to be a grievous offense.
So, as you celebrate this Thanksgiving, remember that all good things come down from the Father of lights. Jesus has purchased everything you need for peace, for healing, and for salvation, and He is offering it all to you, freed of charge.
Thank God for what He has done and all that He’s given you.
Father, help us to have thankful hearts and grateful spirits. Help to never take any of your blessings and/or gifts for granted. Teach us to always have thanksgiving in our hearts. In Jesus’ name, amen.
18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Paul didn’t say to be thankful for all things but in all things. We might have been in a bad car accident, but praise the LORD, we are thankful that we are all fine and no causalities. We find the good in bad situations. Without thankfulness, bad situations will take hold of us, and grief, fear, depression, anger, and every other negative emotion will consume us until we are a slave to them.
That’s why God’s will for us is to be thankful and grateful. That’s why He has incorporated all of the benefits in that one little action or attitude. That of being Thankful/Grateful. So that we can never be lost to the darkness but instead grow in His precious and holy light.
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Find the Good.
22 Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver! 23 The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God! ~ Psalms 50:22–23
Did you get that? God said, “Mark this!” Meaning, listen up. Take note. This is serious. He says I want you to know that the one who offers a thanksgiving sacrifice glorifies me. Oh, but brother Kenny, we don’t sacrifice anymore, remember?
We might not offer animal sacrifice anymore, but we offer spiritual sacrifices still.
The word tô·ḏā(h)): means a confession of thankfulness, i.e., to speak works of personal praise. Or sing a song of thanksgiving. Or to give an expression of the character or acts of a person. To praise or to extol.
You don’t have to kill an animal and sprinkle its blood on an altar in order to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Be thankful in your hearts, and it will be expressive in your words, and you will receive the benefits of being thankful.
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Remember Your Thanksgiving Sacrifice.
14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, 15and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. ~ Psalms 50:14–15
God has called us to be thankful, and if He has called us to be thankful, He expects us to be thankful. Not when we feel like it. Not when we want to. Not even only when we receive something or when everything is going the way it should.
We are to be continually thankful all of the time and in all things. We don’t necessarily have to be thankful for the situation during the situation. But we have to be thankful in the situation regardless of how bad it is because when we offer this sacrifice of thanksgiving and then call upon His name, God will rescue us. He will deliver you.
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Offer Your Thanksgiving.
