Thanksgiving Special: The Lord is in this place!

Pastor-Teacher
John Farley
Thanksgiving Special
Wednesday,
November 24, 2010

Thanksgiving Special: The Lord is in this place!

some form of the words “thanks, thankful, thanksgiving” is found 169 times in 162 verses in the NAS translation of the Bible.

You all know that you are supposed to be thankful. You all know that gratitude is a virtue, a good thing.

We have so much and yet we are often not thankful, at least not to the degree that we continually reflect on it, and express our gratitude to the Lord and to other people.

My strong desire is that you gain the blessing of possessing a grateful heart.
It is one of the greatest manifestations of spiritual growth, and one of the keys to contentment and happiness in this life.

He’s the Jacob in the title for our God when our God says that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Jacob, the swindler and deceiver: what you become when you lack gratitude to the Lord. You become self- absorbed, selfish, lying, never satisfied, complaining.

Gen 28:16
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, " Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it."

Jacob would get to be 130 years old and still not really appreciate how the Lord had worked in his life for his benefit.

It took the Lord going right to that place of death and working His miracles, something Jacob never expected.

It took a lifetime of God’s hammering away at Jacob for Jacob to realize the significance of God’s promises to him and the truth of his words all those years earlier.

As great as this promise is that Jacob received from the Lord, you and I as church age believers have received EVEN GREATER PROMISES!

We suffer from the same spiritual disease that Jacob had.

Gen 28:16
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, " Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it."

You can’t give thanks for something when you do not even recognize that you have it.

Psa 103:14
For He Himself knows our frame;
He is mindful that we are but dust.

When was Thanksgiving first established as a permanent national holiday?

America had 80 years of unimaginable growth and prosperity....
But it took a horrific civil war to make us truly thankful.

Love the people God has given you like they’re gone... while they’re still here.

Don’t wait until there is civil war before you develop a grateful heart.

The two great powers are His word, and disaster.

He knows your comings and your goings, your good days and your bad days, and He wants to be there for you - especially on your bad ones.

HE IS THERE, just ahead of you, and His desire is to lead you, always, to the rich feeding grounds and the quiet waters.

Gratitude is what happens when God has your attention.

Take your ingratitude, run to your Father, and He will get the Holy Spirit to give you a prescription from His Word that will cure it.

Thankfulness is a mental and/or a verbal expression of one’s acknowledgement and appreciation of God’s person, His grace, His blessings, and His sovereign work in one’s life and in the world.

charizomai which comes from charis meaning “grace”, Eph 5:20

Homologeo meaning “to confess, to acknowledge, to give thanks” as in Heb 13:15.

The first step in being thankful for anything or anyone is to acknowledge their presence!

Thankfulness is a response to the grace of God at work in our lives.

Gratitude cannot even begin until something that is worthy of thanksgiving is truly appreciated.

The way to build a heart of gratitude is to let the word of God minister to you.

The person of Christ.

Our so-great salvation that we can never lose.

Our adoption as God’s children.

The truth we have learned this year from God’s word.

The other members of the Royal Family God has brought into our lives to help us.


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