CURRENT SERIES
Thanks Giving
Nov. 26, 2017
— LifeWay Moments —
— LifeNotes —
• You don’t need a lot of words from God. You just need a word from God.
• The more we get thanksgiving in our heart, God shows us the vision of the future.
• Vision: forecast; future
• God’s forecast for everyone is to be saved
In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
— 1 Thessalonians 5:18 NKJV
“Show me a person that is not thankful, I’ll show you a person that walks in defeat. Show me a person that is thankful, it doesn’t matter what is going on in their life, and it was just like they won the lottery. … It’s all about an attitude, it’s all about a thought. We don’t give God thanks for everything that happens, because some things we’re not thankful happened. But we give God thanks that He gets us through it.”
— Pastor Danny
Every time we think of you, we thank God for you. Day and night you’re in our prayers as we call to mind your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope in following our Master, Jesus Christ, before God our Father. It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much but also has put His hand on you for something special. When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn’t just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions.
— 1 Thessalonians 1:2-4 MSG
• You don’t just wake up with a thankful heart. You have to put it on. You have to reach in and find it.
• If you are thankful, you won’t just expect things to happen. You will be grateful when they do. Don’t take things for granted.
• When you give thanks for the little things, it creates a thankful heart. Then there is no limit to what God can do.
• Don’t deny God’s power to save you, heal you and deliver you.
• Find 5 or 6 things to be thankful for, and it will change things.
• God’s got something special for you. Get close to Him and he will show you what that is. God called you for something special.
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all he has done.
— Philippians 4:6 NLT
• Turn worries into prayers. God’s grace is not there for the things you are worrying about. God’s grace won’t show up until you are going through stuff, so you are wasting your time worrying about things that haven’t even happened.
• Why do we beg God for things that He said we already have? We just need to receive them.
• When we become thankful, we open ourselves to hear the things God has for us. When we murmur and complain, we can’t hear God because He is not in that.
“The password into everything for God is thanksgiving. It opens the doors to everything.”
— Pastor Danny
• Thanksgiving is not just something we say, there is absolute power behind it.
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
— Philippians 4:8 NLT
• Fix: 1. to repair or mend. 2. To make fast, firm or stable
• There is nothing wrong with having wrong thoughts. There is something wrong with not trying to change wrong thoughts.
• The only thing that should change your thoughts should be a God idea, not a good idea
• Take your thoughts captive. Don’t beat yourself up for having them, but taking them captive empowers us to change them. We need to train ourselves to fix bad thoughts.
Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me — everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.
— Philippians 4:8 NLT
• We fix our thoughts on the cross of Christ, that He has done everything for us. That will open the door for us to receive what He has for us.
Life lesson
The pre-vision is thanks giving. The vision is what comes from the thanks giving.