Topic: TRUE MARK OF THANKSGIVING
Text: Psalms 100:1-4
Speaker: Pst. Precious Akingbade

Date: 2^nd October 2022

Psalms 100:1-4 (MSG)

¹ On your feet now – applaud God!

² Bring a gift of laughter, sing yourselves into his presence.

³ Know this: God is God, and God, God. He made us; we didn’t make him. We’re his people, his well-tended sheep.

⁴ Enter with the password: “Thank you!” Make yourselves at home, talking praise. Thank him. Worship him.

INTRODUCTION

Only someone insightful and thoughtful will be praiseful and thankful.

What are the true marks of thanksgiving?

1. A mark of thanksgiving is an indication of a growing Christian lifestyle: a Christian lifestyle is a lifestyle that is flourishing we have a good example in David, the more he thanked God, the more God was blessing him (Psalms 119:62, Psalms 55:17, Psalms 119:164). Thanksgiving should not be fixed but it should be forever practiced as it is done in heaven (Revelation 4:8, Psalm 34:1-4). The more you thank God and live a praiseful life, the more you keep growing.

• The mark of thanksgiving is an indication of giving Christian life: God gave us a template and that template can be found in John 3:16A, Acts 20:35. We give out of love in appreciation for living, thanksgiving is an expression of loving thanks-living and of course, the reason is that He gave His beloved son to shed His blood for our sin, now the blessing of salvation through the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ if it is quantified in money, we are done for because some people would have bought everything, some will even hoard it for poor people not to be able to afford to buy and of course, the blessings of this dimension in the remission of sin can be seen in Isaiah 64:6, Psalms 130:3, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Romans 5:8 and for this reasons, we need to thank God.

• Another mark of thanksgiving shows a glowing Christian lifestyle: to glow is to produce light and to shine, now something Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 2:18 (Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.), in our environment, we have so much darkness that could have hindered us from manifesting, there are so many issues of life that could have swallowed our destiny but God did not allow us. It is disorderliness for a Child of God to be living a low life.

• A mark of thanksgiving shows that we are living a graceful Christian life: one major inheritance we have in Christ is redemption and that’s why we need to thank God because what was lost in Eden in Adam was restored in Christ in the new testament, therefore, our error in Adam is covered by the blood and our effort in Christ is colored because as Christians we are now living a redeemed, restored, ransomed, raised, radical, re-empowered and not a reduced life, Romans 5:17 tells us that we died in Adam but in Christ Jesus, we were raised and we are the epitome of the grace of God.

• A mark of thanksgiving shows a grateful Christian lifestyle: a grateful life is a life full of appreciation, appreciation is an application for acceleration, and it is an appreciation of God that leads to an appreciation of man because God compels men to bless appreciative people especially. When you live a life of thanksgiving, there is no how God will not compel men to bless you. Let’s continue to live a grateful life that whatever we might be going through, let’s continue to thank God (Habakkuk 3:17-19). The life of Job is a living testimony, despite what he was going through he never sinned (Job 42:10) and everything he lost was given back to him double.

• A mark of thanksgiving shows a glorious Christian lifestyle: your glory is the star of your destiny, at infant Herod, wanted to kill Jesus and he failed. Your glory is what magnetizes favor unto you. So many times the devil had planned something bad for you but Proverbs 11:8 replaced it.

• Gladness: we experience joy when we thank God; many things around us can provoke depression, but He gave us joy and pleasure (Revelation 4:11, Psalm 8:4).

• Giftedness of God: we need to thank God for the giftedness of God which He has given us freely.

Conclusion:

Thanks, givers can never be tied to the same spot because thanksgiving is a lift, it can lift somebody from the healing position to a wholesome newest position (Luke 17:11-19).