Thanksgiving to God's Promises

God's Promises

Thanking God in Adversity

I want to talk about 3 Powerful Promises we can be thankful for:

Forgiveness

Usability

Salvation / Eternity in Heaven

God Promises us Forgiveness:

Love Moved First

What does that mean?

John 3:16

An indescribable, unfathomable love… a love that one day we'll know when we come face to face with our Lord…

His love searches us:

· Jesus doesn't wait for us to find a way to Him…

· He knocks on our hearts, during different circumstances in life…

· His Relentless Grace – reminds us of God's faithfulness in the face of our lack of faith.

· He knows our Pains, addictions, struggles, hurts, loved ones we've lost.

· Jesus can take your hand and pull you out of the darkness, but are you ready?

· That darkness can be anything… any Hurt, Habit or Hang Up

What are you struggling with today?

· Resentment, Unforgiveness, Anger, an addiction?

What are you:

· afraid of letting go today?

· What is destroying you right now?

· What's tearing apart your marriage today?

· Jesus pulled me out of the darkness, He broke the chains and now I'm free.

· I'm not the person I want to be, but in not the person I use to be …

· But I live to tell the story… My story… What's your story, about the God who rescues.

· If you don't have on, today you start you story… the start of your testimony starts today.

·

It started:

· Throne – Manger

· Manger – to the Grave

· The cross is proof that God's Love, made the first move.

· An unimaginable love

How many of us remember where and when Jesus found us?

· Think back to that day…and cling on to that day and never let it go.

· Let that be the start of a beautiful testimony that glorifies God.

God Forgives us: as far East is to West

· The Sea of Forgetfulness… That's where our sins go…

· We remember, people remember, but God doesn't.

· Hope and Healing - that comes from God's Forgiveness

· How many times have we felt overwhelmed by the weight of past mistakes and the inability to forgive ourselves?

· The battle we have within ourselves, the struggle we must let go of past mistakes and move forward in our faith …

· The cross:

- The Old Rugged Cross

- Is where our Forgiveness starts.

-

- "Number of hairs on our heads"

- The God who created a billion stars and a trillion galaxies,

- The God who created all the plants, animals, insects, and birds

- The God who gave the oceans boundaries

- knows my name…and He knows your name.

- And He formed us into his image.

- His image.

- We were created to lean on God through his son Jesus Christ

1 Peter 3:18

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.

If you don't cherish your justification, your forgiveness, and your eternal lifebecause they get you to God, you need to deal with Him more deeply.

John Piper

God didn't have to put His son on the cross… God didn't have to forgive us. but He chose to.

Paul wrote in Ephesians:

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.

* God's forgiveness is a product of His grace

- He has been gracious to forgive us, and expects us to pay it forward

* When we truly grasp the sacrifice Jesus made, and the love God has to forgive us,

- Our genuine faith is illustrated in the way we forgive ourselves and each other.

· Our faith will show.

What does your faith look like today?

Psalm 103:12

As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Do you know how far that is?

- It's from one scard hand to another …

-

· We can't live by what we feel, but by the truth His word reveals.

· And most of the time, were not holding onto Jesus, but He's holding onto us.

· Faith and surrender come into play here ….

· The sea that sometimes we forget about...

Promise of Usability

· I'm too old or not smart enough for Christ to use.

· He already knows your strengths, weaknesses, your age, He knows what your capable of…

· We can often be hard on ourselves and prevent the full blessings of God from being revealed.

My Battles:

· Myself.

· I'm not worthy…

· Preparing a message… doubt settles in…

· I'm not the smartest person, I don't know the Bible how I should, I have struggles within.

· Then this message comes to mind:

Matthew 4:19

Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."

· He doesn't say follow me and I will assign you tasks you think you're knowledgeable of.

· Christ is clearly promising that if we just follow Him, He will do the work in us …

· He will lead the transformation: all we need to do is follow.

· Example…

I love the quote Pau Washer says…it reminds me of me…

They're has never been great men of God except for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ …

There are only weak and pitiful men of a mighty God.

Every trial, very mountain, everything that is presented before us, that we simply cannot overcome…

Has one specific design…to show us our weakness, to empty us of our wisdom, to empty us of our carnal strength,

To empty us of any gifts, suppose we have and to draw our life and strength from Jesus Christ…

· Christ promise… that if we just follow Him, He will do the work in us …

· He will use us to be fishers of men.

· He will use our good, our bad and our ugly to reach souls, do His work and glorify Him if we are obedient…

Promise of Salvation / Eternity in Heaven

John 6:37

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.

Revelation 3:20

If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him, and he with Me.

In both versus Jesus is letting His children (you and I) know that if we come to Him, He will never drive us away.

These verses share the promise of salvation.

Earthly Preparations:

· Invest money, so we can retire comfortably.

· Write wills, so their children are taken care of when they're gone.

· Life insurance.

· Weekly plans, or calendar our future activities.

· All this planning is good…

· But we have a better plan and promise from God.

John 14:16

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

· Jesus said, "I will come back "

· He is preparing a place for us in Heaven.

· When He is ready, we will be with Him in that place.

· We will see Jesus again an spend forever worshipping Him.

· We have peace knowing we have a home being prepared by our Jesus.

· He is making himself known and declaring that when we follow HIM, we will never be alone.

Judgement day:

· Sit with Jesus

· I will see my son…You will see your loved ones.

Thanksgiving in Adversity:

Adversity:

difficulties; misfortune

When Everything is fine

· It's one thing to be grateful when.

everything is going your way, but when everything is not going.

your way

What is your response?

· sometimes we justify our wrong attitude,

our ugly attitude, our ungrateful spirit by saying.

"If God is so good, why did this to happen to me!" if God is so good, why did He take_________? "

I'm sure a lot of us can fill in the blank

· A relative

· A Brother

· A Mother

· A Son

· Even a marriage

· So instead of rejoicing and praising God and thanking Him.

for whom He is and what He has done for you…

· we let our doubts scatter our thoughts of thanksgiving.

· But today I want you to listen very carefully because I want to

talk to you about why you should be a grateful person:

- for what God is doing in your life?

So please turn to 1 Thessalonians Chapter 5 14:18

Paul is ending the epistle by saying 3 things:

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

There's a Triad here...

Triad- a union or group of 3

And He says 3 things:

1) "Rejoice always "

Is that going to be easy? No!

2) The he says, "Pray without Ceasing "

Is that easy? Not really

3) The he says, "In everything give thanks "

In Everything? In Everything…

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

So, if you'll notice in verse 18.

· He says, "In everything give thanks."

Now save that scripture, we'll come back to it right now, to discuss it...

Now please turn to Ephesians 5:20

giving thanks always for all things to God the Father

Now hold it right there.

Let's put them side by side...,

"In everything give thanks" "Always giving thanks for all things."

Confusion:

· if you're one of those persons who's not a believer,

not a Christian, you'd say,

"See, there's no way I could be a Christian if I have to give thanks for everything."

Even as Christians, some of us still say this:

... But tonight, I hope the Holy Spirit touches your heart and changes your mind…

So, let's clarify something.

When Paul said in this passage,

"Always giving thanks for all

things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,"

But hang on:

I can't ask God- or give thanks for things that are totally

inconsistent with the nature of God.

For example,

· Let's say your son or your husband dies …

· Does God expect you to be happy and thankful for that?

No

· Another example: you find out a family member has a few weeks months to live because he has Cirrhosis of the liver and kidney failure or maybe even cancer.

Does God expect you to be grateful for that?

No.

· And so, then, when Paul says in this.

fifth chapter of Thessalonians,

He says, "In everything give thanks."

In every circumstance, give thanks, for what?

- That He's my Savior, my Lord, my Master, my God.

Lord

- I don't understand why You allowed this to happen,

but in the midst of this

- I'm going to give You thanks because.

You'll help me to survive, that you'll help me get through this Lord…

- You'll help me to be able to bear the pain.

- To get through the sorrow, heartache, and the loss and all the adversity

I feel in my heart.

I'm going to thank You that You'll be with me in it.

I'm not thanking God for what happened.

That's not what Paul's talking about

- He's talking about our relationship with Him.

That we can give thanks for whatever God allows in our life because of who Christ is within us.

· Whatever He allows in our life, He will turn it for good...

"God causes all things to work together for good."

"To those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose."

· Even the biggest pain, the biggest heartache, addiction, He will turn for our good.

Do we always understand that? No.

At least not in the moment… In the moment we feel the world is falling on top of us

- We feel the walls crushing in on us.

- We feel our heart being ripped apart.

- We feel that void in our soul…

- We feel alone.

But He didn't say we had to understand it.

Does Jesus hurt when I hurt?

What's the shortest verse in the bible?

Jesus wept…

There are 3 times in the Bible that Jesus wept… personally I think He wept a lot more times … Jesus weeps today for us when we hurt.

1) He wept at the grave of Lazarus.

2) He wept at Gethsemane the night before Calvary.

3) He wept over the city of Jerusalem, when He saw that Jerusalem was rejecting Him as the Savior

How we weep, our Savior weeps…

Let's Reflect…

What has God promised me in the midst of this?

How is He going to work in this situation, or circumstance?

When you begin your day aware that Jesus is with you:

- that He's living on the inside of you,

- that no matter what happens during the day,

- it'll happen in the presence of an all-loving,

- omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, Holy God.

Jesus is with you....

What could be finer than that?

Let's be honest… Sometimes, were like really God?

Talk about the last 3 years of loss…

Well, how does God think about that?

Here's how God thinks about it.

- I know your hurt, I know your pain, I know your suffering,

- I know when you tell Me that it's okay.

- that's only words because that's all you're capable of saying right now.

I can thank Him no matter what.

- I can thank Him with my lips,

- until I can thank Him with my heart, my soul, my spirit, my very being.

It all counts with Him because He understands.

the depth of our hurt.

The reason I know:

· why is because He understood what Jesus was

feeling when He was stretched out on a cross and crying out,

"My God, My God, Why have You forsaken me?"

When I think about that… I think about He understands.

He understood His Son.

He'll understand you and me.

We can say.

"Thank You, God, for difficult times," there's something about

our witness, about our testimony that changes.

God knows what each believer needs, and His peace is customized for every moment of life …

Jesus says:

I am the Resurrection.

What is the Resurrection?

Something that has died.

Why did God allow something in your world to die?

A son, a husband, a marriage, a job…

So, you can experience Resurrection.

Because once you experience Resurrection, you have a personal experience with God….

God let Lazarus die, because He wanted them to see the Resurrection.

Suppose God is allowing me to go through this on purpose…

If you believe you would see the glory of God.

What stone do you God to move?

What's my point of action?

It may not make sense.

But He's always with us.

In closing:

· If Jesus hasn't found you and you haven't found Jesus … Today is the day…

· If you are hurting inside, and your tired…and you want to surrender it all to Jesus. Today is the day.

· If you're ready to start your journey with Jesus and you don't know how… Today is the day.

· If you're broken right now and can't find a way out. I'll pray with you.

· If you feel like crying and leaving it here tonight…. I'll pray with you.

· If the Holy Spirit is tugging at you heart tonight… Don't fight it and surrender.

· Tonight, we surrender our pains, our hurts, and our hearts.

· Let's get right with God…let's get right with His son.

· As you hurt… Jesus hurts with you …

· As tears run down your eyes right now, Jesus weeps with you… and feels your pain.

· But He walks towards us with open arms and scared hands…

· It's time we walk towards Him…