As we are entering the season of Thanksgiving, we will focus on why we, as God's people, live a life of thanksgiving.
Thessalonians 5:16-18,
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Psalm 100:4-5
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. 5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 95:1-7
Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. 3 For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.
Thanksgiving is...
1. Attitude
2. Mark
3. Lifestyle
Thessalonians 5:16-18,
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Reasons for Thanksgiving
1. His Personhood: we give thanks for who He is.
2. His Promise: we give thanks for what He promises
3. His Providence: we give thanks for what He has done, is doing and will do.
Expressions of Thanksgiving
1. Praise
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs
2. Presence
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
3. Practice
I Samuel 15:22
To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
Galatians 5:6 The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.