Gratitude and thanksgiving to God is a very important exercise. It is something that all of us ought to do. But it is not only just a day of thanksgiving, the Bible also tells us that thanksgiving is something that ought to be an attitude of our heart. Notice back in Psalm 100 and verse 4, it says, "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name."

The Bible tells us that we should have the attitude of gratitude. In I Thessalonians 5:18 the Bible says, "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." One of the most healthy, fulfilling things you can ever do is to express your thanksgiving unto God. A thankful heart is a happy heart. It is emotionally and psychologically one of the greatest things you can do to be a thankful and a grateful person.

Psalm 103 - a Psalm of thanksgiving. As you read Psalm 103 you will find that there is not a word of complaint in the entire Psalm. You will find that there is no selfishness expressed anywhere in this Psalm. "Bless the Lord, o my soul..." Two times in the first two verses he does this. Four times in the last four verses he says, "Bless the Lord, o my soul." It begins by expressing thanksgiving to God. It also closes by expressing thanksgiving to God.

I want us, as we approach Thanksgiving, to talk about this matter of being forever thankful unto God. I want to show you some reasons why we can be thankful to God and why we can express our thanksgiving to Him. Maybe you have had a difficult week. Maybe things haven't gone real well with you this week. Maybe you have had some reversals and some problems and some hardships this week. I want to say to you that in spite of all those things, there are many things for which you can thank God this morning

Preeminence means surpassing all others. Superior over all others. Jesus is not like anyone or anything else. He is the miracle worker. He is the lion of the tribe of Judah. He is our life. He is life eternal. He is our helper. He is the mighty God and everlasting Father. He is our way maker. He is our king. He is our defender. He is our friend. He is our creator. He is our Lord. He is our master. He is our Savior. He is our advocate. He is our strength. He is our joy. He is our peace. Jesus is everything to us and He should be prominate in our lives. He is certainly the preiminate person in the Bible. The Bible is all about Jesus. So how important should He be in our lives?

Everybody wants a piece of Jerusalem called the world’s holy city. It is the city of God. The Muslims want it. The Palestinians want it. The Jews want it. The Christians claim it. It’s enemies want to destroy the Jews so that they can have Jerusalem for their own. But what is so great about Jerusalem? It has no great impressive buildings. It is not a huge city at all. It has no shipping port. It has no great river running through it. Is actually built on a hill which is unusual for a city. It has no natural resources. It is not a financial mecca. It is not a great manufacturing center. It is not a population center with only 882,000 people. It does have a history unlike any city. It is called an international city. Everyone claims it. But God’s chosen people Israel are described and attached to this city forever by the Bible. Many of the great stories of the Bible center around this city. Jesus walked these streets. Jesus has promised to come back and rule and reign from this city in the future. The problem is that the world does not agree with the Bible concerning Israel. The Muslims claim her because Jerusalem is their holy city. The world is always focused on Israel despite is tininess and seemingly unimportance it is the most important city in the world today.

We have many great blessings in life. We get married. The birth of Children. The birth of Grand children. The purchase of a home. A new car. We get baptized. We graduate high school maybe college. We get a good job. Retirement is a blessing. Vacations are a blessing. Family times and holidays are blessings. UK wins a national championship and on and on we go. But by far and it cannot compare with any blessings of life is the one blessing that really matters. If you don’t have this blessing then all these others mean nothing.

Romans 4:7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

Romans 4:8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

God moved a King to allow His people to rebuild the Temple. God then called and motivated a man named Ezra and God made provision for Ezra to complete the work.

God will call you. God will motivate you and God will make provision for you to complete the work He gives you to do.

The power behind a powerful 18 Wheeler is under the hood. The power behind a great ship is in the engine room. The power behind a home is at the electric company. The power behind a great basketball team is the pregame meal. Seriously. If you eat candy and pop tarts you will fizzle out end the 2nd half. We must have power to live the Christian life. It takes power to live for Christ each day when our flesh is our enemy, the devil is our enemy, the world is our enemy and religion is our enemy. How did Paul get His power to conquer the world for Christ?

God has enemies. The people of God wanted to build a wall of protection around Jerusalem. They did it with God's help in just 52 days. Their enemies harassed them the entire time. The enemies were dumbfounded when the wall was built and they had to admit that God helped them.

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 How To Have Peace With God

11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; 12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

Intro: There are some people that are pedal to the metal people. I am not a pedal to the metal preacher. I know some that are. Nothing wrong with that unless they expect YOU to be like THEM. And that is the problem. Not everyone is a leader and not every leader is a type A personality. If everyone is climbing the mountain, who is at the base camp supplying and planning the ascent to the top? If everyone is on the front lines who is in the back holding down the fort? Today I want to encourage you the church in these last days to be who you are not what someone else expects you to be. Be true to your God and your Lord Jesus Christ and you will find yourself. We get some good sound advice from the apostle Paul. Paul was a former type “A” personality. He was super serious and studious Jew. He learned from Gamailiel. He was super smart and super motivated to defend his Jewish faith. He sought out Christians wherever he could find them to put their faith out of business. But after this type A, pedal to the metal guy met Christ on the Damascus road the first thing he did was sit still for three days in blindness. God has to slow us down to get our attention. That’s why it’s so important to have a “quiet” time each day. A time of bible reading and prayer. Where we get alone and quiet before God. No TV, NO kids, No music, no distractions just you and God. When Jesus got Paul alone and quiet He started a great work in his life. He found peace in His life.

I can’t tell you how many church growth books and programs I have seen. They are everywhere. We have church growth experts in our convention. We have church planters……. and church waterers and Church harvesters it seems like. It is very confusing and mostly silly. How does a church grow. Well according to the New Testament it grows only one way.

As a child I dreamed of super hero’s. I wanted to be one. Today I still love Super hero movies. We all would like to have super strength like the Hulk, or Superman. But the Bible has the story of a real life super human with super power. His power was super Strength. His power was given to Him by God’s Spirit. This is not a fantasy. This is real. It really happened. I know there are some very strong men in the world. I know that there have been some amazing feats of strength done in this world. But none like Samson. There has been no mortal ever like Samson. None before or none after. But someone came after Him that would be a true superman. He would not display His super strength but He could move mountains. He did not kill anyone but He could have destroyed everyone on earth. He chose to give Himself for us…..instead of using His super power for Himself. He declined to save Himself in order to save everyone on earth.