This short sermon on thanksgiving is about the power of giving thanks and how to live a life of thanksgiving that will provoke unending blessings.
Text: “O give thanks unto the LORD; for [he is] good: for his mercy [endureth] forever”. –Psalm 136:1 [KJV]
Give Thanks
This is a scripture that we know so well and there have been several songs that we have that also depict the same scripture that I have read. “O give thanks unto the Lord; for [he is] good: for his mercy [endureth] forever”.
One of the questions that I would have loved to ask each and every one of us is “What is the most important thing in life?" And being such as we are seated if we are to answer that question, there would be several types of answers. Some will actually say my own most important thing is to be wealthy. Some will say my most important thing is to have political power. Others that will be very, very conservative would say that the most important thing is to be saved and go to Heaven.
The most important thing is to give thanks. The Psalm I just read to us is the Psalm of David and it said to all “O give thanks unto the Lord”. It is saying unto everyone because he had been there. He knows what it means to offer thanksgiving unto the Lord. And it said gives thanks unto God not for any other reason but for what; He is good and His mercy endureth forever. Powerful Sermon with Bible Verses on Gratitude Brings Prosperity
You know it is very easy to give thanks and testimonies to appreciate God particularly when everything is rosy. When things are working as planned when things are going very well for us. It is easier to give thanks; it’s easy to share testimonies when the prayer you prayed has been answered. When you just got a new job or a new promotion or your child did very well in school.
There are several good things that happen to us and it becomes very easy to give thanks; very easy to share our testimonies but it is difficult to thank God when things are not going as planned. For a lot of us, it is more difficult to thank when things are not going as planned. Those are times when we looked around and you don’t know how to thank God because the situation around us makes us wonder if God has forgotten us.
A lot do not see the reason to thank God in those situations but I want to let you know the Bible says we should give thanks irrespective of the situation and the circumstance we are passing through or we find ourselves.
In I Thessalonians 5:18, the Bible said to us there, in everything, gives thanks. That means it includes when things are going good and when things are moving as planned however it also includes when things are not going as you planned them. It also includes when you are going from a bad situation to the worst situation. The Scripture is not telling us to give thanks for those situations rather it says even in those situations. Even in the unpalatable situation, you are passing through, it says we should do what, give thanks.
You prayed so hard and you thought July was going to be your month of complete testimony and it didn’t happen, the Lord said, give thanks. You prayed for a job, applied and even got the interview, you did all you could think you would be invited and it wasn’t so, the Bible says even in those situations, God still remains God, it says, give thanks. It says this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning each and every one of us.
Our life is expected to be just one continuous song of praise and thanksgiving irrespective of the situation we found ourselves. And that is why David said in that scripture, O give thanks. It didn’t say when you just got a new job; for the Lord is good. O give thanks when you just had a baby, no it says that is the will of God whether things are going well or things are not going well. I want to let you know that the man who wrote the Psalm that says to give thanks knows what he is talking about. He has explored the secret of giving God thanks and he found out that; that is where our victory lies.
There is a deep secret to giving the Lord thanks and praises and David understood the principles perfectly. And that is why he was not begging, it was a command; O give thanks. It doesn’t matter what situation you are in. It says God is good and His mercy endureth forever. Oh, give thanks that is what it is saying. No wonder in Psalm 34:1 it is the same David who said, “I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise [shall] continually [be] in my mouth”. Whether I have food to eat, when I don’t have food to eat; or when I just come into an accident, it says I will bless the Lord at all times and His praise shall continually be in my mouth. The same man wrote the Psalm in Psalm 103:1-5. “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, [bless] his holy name”. And he began to share with us some of the things that money cannot buy. Some of the things that are general to those who are in good and those who are in bad situations. It says why, bless the LORD, because He forgives all our iniquities; heals all our diseases. He redeemed our life from destruction; crowning it with loving kindness and tender mercies. It says He satisfies our mouth with good things; so that our youth is renewed like the eagle.
So David learns to praise God regardless of circumstances. In Psalm 57:7, he came to a conclusion, he said, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give you praise”. You will agree with me that David was somebody who had a lot of problems too. David was actually somebody who was a nobody; who God brought out from the miry clay and set his feet on the solid rock. David was a zero, but God made him somebody. There were several in the Bible that we can relate to their parents and their great-grandfathers. People like Isaac say the God of Abraham that the man tour the line of his father but for David, it was not so. He came out from the bush. Nobody heard the name of his father before. We only heard the name of his father because of himself.
We heard the name of David’s father just because God was merciful to David. And so he knew what it meant to be in a bad situation. He knew what it meant to be in an unpalatable situation yet he said, I will bless the Lord at all times regardless of the circumstances he faced. And I want to let you know that out of 150 Psalms that had been given to us in the Bible, David wrote 69 of them.
He praised God so much that God said, this is a man after my own heart. In fact in Heaven, the name of David is highly respected regardless of the fact that he had bad situations. Even in Heaven, his name is respected, when they called, they say He is the key of David. There is a key that is named after David. They say Jesus Christ is the one that is holding the key of David. The Lord even named a city after David; the city of David.
It was because of David that God told us that there are different kinds of mercy. And He called one, sure mercies of David. Then by the time Jesus came, they didn’t call him any other name but Jesus the son of David. So there is a secret to praise. There is a secret in thanksgivings that this man knew and said; O give thanks unto the Lord.
Culled from the message “Give Thanks” preached by Pastor Gbenga Adegbite.
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