Praise the Lord! I think in stanza two, it says ‘the whole world is God’s feet; (it says) praise and thanks are His fruits’. Today brethren, we are here to offer God thanks, to offer God our praise for all that He has done for us.
I shared with the workers and ministers this morning that we are what we are today all by His grace. We are not standing on account of our righteousness, we are not standing on account of our prayers, neither are we standing on account of our fasting, but one thing has kept us standing and that is the mercy of God; He said I will show mercy unto whom I will show mercy, and of course compassion to whom I will show compassion, because of that this morning, I just want us to go before the Lord individually, let’s just worship Him from the depths of our hearts, let us pour out our hearts in appreciation of all that God has done for us.
Do you know within January 1st to date, a lot has happened? Quite a lot has happened but here we are standing, and sometimes we have this sanctimonious disposition as if we are here because we are the best of humans, we are the best of Christians all over; let’s thank God for all that He has done for us, what you have gone through and survived, some people went through 10% of it and today they have been forgotten. Let’s just appreciate Him, let’s thank Him, let’s commit to our God in praise this morning, in Jesus mighty name we have worshipped.
Almighty Father we want to say thank You this morning; from the bottom of our hearts, with all our being, we declare our praise this morning, thank You for all that You have done for us; thank You for the steady and progressive journey into the year 2024, thank You for the first day, thank You for the first week, thank You for the first month, thank You for seeing us through, thank You for blessing us, thank You for shielding us, thank You for defending us, and Lord Almighty God, thank You for providing for us, and more importantly, thank You for keeping us alive.
Thank You for the second month, thank You for the journey of the first few days, thank You because You that has begun the good work, You are more than capable of seeing us through, accept our praises in the name of Jesus Christ.
Father, we have come here today to do one business, just one business, and that business is a business of praise, and so we ask of You Lord that You will accept us and You will accept our worship today in Jesus name.
Father we know that it is in praising You, it is in our appreciation that we will receive more, therefore Lord as we declare our praise this morning for all that You have done for us in the past, on behalf of ourselves, our children, our family, our members and even our mission and the country altogether, we trust that You will treat us nice, You will do more good for us and You will glorify Your name.
We ask Lord that Your Spirit will come along with us, You will take control of everything, and at the end of everything today, all of us will have value for our time and Your name alone will be exalted forever.
I want to thank You on behalf of Your children who have been faithful in the payments of their tithes and the giving of their offerings, Lord we pray that in blessing You will bless them in Jesus name; unto them oh Lord shall be speedy fulfillment of Your promises in the name of Jesus, and for those who have not received the grace Lord Almighty God, in Your own supernatural way, encounter them in Jesus name, and Lord Almighty we pray that the benefits of it will not be lost on them in Jesus name.
For those who have no job, my Lord and my Father I pray that in Your own supernatural way Lord, before this month runs out, surprise them in Jesus name. Thank You Father because you have answered, everyone that will partake in today’s service, either virtually or physically, my Lord and my Father let them be blessed in Jesus name. Thank You because it is done, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed.
Good morning church and happy new month to every one of you. We bless the Almighty once again for this opportunity to stand before you this morning, and I would like to also thank you on behalf of all of us for honoring us and honoring God with your presence, because without you we will not be here, we are here because you are there, so we appreciate you very profoundly and we pray that God will continue to bless you all in Jesus name.
Thank you for all that you do, and in the same vein I would like to appeal to us, in line with the vision 2032 that you should always endeavor to bring people to the presence of God, invite them and the Lord will bless you mightily in Jesus name.
Let me also say this that the Sunday school of today, lesson 23 with the title ‘Spiritual Maturity’ is already on all our platforms, I want to implore you to check it out because I have the feeling that you will be blessed, there is no way you will listen to it and will not be blessed, and it will also provide you the basis for evaluation, you will be able to evaluate yourself where you are as far as your relationship with God is concern, and the same vein it will help us to make some necessary corrections where we discover that we are failing.
Spiritual Maturity, I recommend it, it’s on our platform and of course it’s on the website, the Lord will bless you mightily in Jesus name.
Praise the Lord! We just want to give you what the chef will call to you an appetizer, the real meal will come from our father in the Lord; you know they said the big masquerade dances last, so what we want to give you is just to whet your appetite but I can assure you that it is very important for your spiritual wellbeing and even for your physical wellbeing and the Lord will bless you mightily in Jesus name.
Ephesians 5: 18 – 20, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”; 1st Chronicles 16: 34, “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever”.
By the grace of God this morning, I will be talking to us on the topic that I’ve decided to call “Gratefulness”. Gratefulness is gratitude or thankfulness; it is a warm and deep appreciation for the kindness received.
I choose to speak on this subject matter today being a thanksgiving service day because just like the acquisition of most virtues, you cannot instantly become thankful or grateful without habitually practicing it. In other words, for you to get to the point of constant gratefulness, it’s something that you must cultivate the habit.
In learning theory, we were told that continuous repetition of an action improves your experience and your grasp of that process, and I’m talking because gratefulness is a virtue, and if you have it, you will agree that it will work for you, and if you don’t have it, you will know a lot of things that you will miss out on, but my prayer is that today, if you don’t have it, God will give you the grace to imbibe it in the name of Jesus.
Gratefulness is an act that must be intentionally developed and nurtured. We were told in the scripture that everything good in our life comes from God, according to James 1: 17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”.
And I want to say this morning that we will grow closer to God when we understand this fact and wholeheartedly embrace it; when you understand the virtue of gratefulness, and of course you are able to embrace it, you’ll find out that you will be closer to God than ever before. And cultivating this habit can help us become more grateful, there is no way you cultivate it that you will not become grateful, and these habits that we need to cultivate so that we can become more grateful in life are:
Number one: regular practice of gratefulness. We were told in the Book of Ephesians 5: 20 that we should always give thanks to God, it says “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”; you’ll find out that here is not an advice but it’s more or less a commandment that you must as a matter of fact give thanks to God in all things, and all things means all things.
We should cultivate the habit of expressing gratitude to God and to people around us from time to time. Thankfulness rather than criticism should be our default position; we find out today that as against gratitude, the default position of many of us is criticism, we criticize this, we criticize that, we play the ostrich game just like one of our Sunday schools some few weeks back, we pass the ball, we don’t look inward, we always look for somebody to hold responsible for our challenge(s).
Thankfulness rather than criticism should be our default position; when you see something good in your life, point it out, be like David, when you see something wonderful, point it out and thank God for it, we all complain most of the time, rather, always responding to your own complain or complaining by finding the things to be grateful for even right in your own situations.
Things may not be as good as you want them to be, but the fact remains that you were not the same way you were last year, you were not the same way you were last month; your net worth is improving, your health by the special grace of God, you may not have the best of it, but when you thank God for the measure of where you are, He will perfect your healing rather than looking for ways to complain, to look for someone to blame and this and that, and this attitude helps to reset our brain to be as proficient, as recognizing the good in your life as you identify the bad, not only identify the challenges, also make effort to identify the good things that God has done for us.
Some of the things that we don’t like at all, it’s a mindset thing, many of us have a negative mindset that we don’t want to see anything good coming from a particular person or a particular situation, we are driven by our greed and whatever, so because of that, we are unable to actually point out some of the other good things that God has done for us.
Number two: express gratitude regardless of the situation. Regardless of your situation, regardless of what is happening, you need to express gratitude. Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to give thanks in all circumstances, (he said) because that is the will of God for their lives, that is 1st Thessalonians 5: 18, it says “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you”.
If we believe the word of God, then it must be total, we should not embrace a section of it and say look, we’ve got nothing with this other section of it; he said in everything, give thanks; when life is rosy, give thanks, when it’s in the other way round, give thanks, when dollar is 150 to a naira, give thanks and when naira has gone to 1,500 or whatever to a dollar, give thanks.
What I know is that if it pleases God, what you need to do per time, you will do it regardless of what the race are saying, whether there is a flotation or no flotation, what will be will be, if it is your time to build your house, somehow God will build your house for you, so we must learn to give thanks to God in all situations, why? Because we never see the full picture and that is the truth, we can’t look at every situation and clearly understand what is happening.
The Bible tells us in Deuteronomy 29: 29, it said the secret things belong to God, “ The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law”. The things that are revealed to you, the things that you are privileged to know are just for you and your children, but there are things that you will never get to know, there are things that will never get revealed to you, and if it’s not going to be revealed to you, why must you kill yourself about it? Why don’t you run with what you have?
Appreciate what you have by faith, because the Bible says the just shall live by faith. In Isaiah 55: 9, it says “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts”; what else do you need? As heaven is higher than the earth, so His ways are higher than your ways and my ways, and His thoughts than our thoughts.
But we have a great consolation in Jeremiah 29: 11, He says “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end”. We can only know God is at work in these situations and working them out for our good in His glory according to Romans 8: 28, it says “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose”.\
If you have been called according to His purpose, then you can be rest assured that all things will work together for you; everything will work in your favor. It’s our year of divine turnaround, and by the grace of God whether the devil likes it or not, whether you also believe it or not, things will turnaround in your favor in the name of Jesus.
Number three: thank God for His presence regardless of your circumstances. He is redeeming the situation and sustaining us through it; on our own, we focus on our current situation but when we rise above the situation, when we purposefully look for what God is doing in the middle of it, it is better for us.
A man of God said, ‘perhaps it takes a purer faith to praise God for unrealized blessings than do for those who will enjoy or those who will enjoy now’. The just (the Bible says) shall live by faith, but that man said it’s like it takes a purer faith for us to really understand, and that should not be the scenario at all.
Number four: praise God when all is well. You may think this is obvious, but it is critical we do it; many a times we are conditioned to believe that life will go well for us, so when things are falling in places for us, you don’t care; when things are working, we forget God; when we sleep and wake up, we think it’s by our power; when life runs smoothly, we don’t tend to see this as God’s gift to us.
The Bible tells us in the Book of Lamentations 3: 22 & 23, it says “It is of the Lord‘s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not”. I was telling them during the workers/ Ministers meeting this morning that I attended a meeting in the cause of this last week and after the meeting, three obituaries announcements were made and I was really shocked that within the short period of the year, January to – today is 4th, quite a number of people have passed.
I read about a young man, 36 years old, who went to work the previous day, came back, no sign of ill-health, nothing, went to bed, he slept, he never woke up the following morning. There are many of us, we complain, my car is not good, but you have a car; there are many of us, we complain, where I live is too small, you have a shelter over your head; go to under the Ajah bridge, go to Marina, go to Iddo.
There was a day I needed to pass through that place in the night, it was another life altogether, in fact they have television under Iddo bridge, it’s something you can confirm.
So many of us get so agitated, we get so worried that when things are good, we don’t even remember to say thank You, it is only when things are not right that we come, fast and pray and we give God ultimatum, may God forgive those of you that have been giving God ultimatum.
Many of you forget God’s protection, we forget about God’s guidance, we forget about provision, we forget about safety, do you know in Lagos, people get kidnapped? People get killed in Lagos, how many times have you travelled along Lagos-Ibadan expressway? The same place people get kidnapped, people get killed, but most times, we don’t relay these things to heart. I pray today in the name of Jesus that God Almighty will give you that sense of gratefulness in the name of Jesus Christ.
We must learn to see how bad experiences can produce positive outcomes, it’s also very important. A lot of the negative situations, bad situations we find ourselves are so designed to take us to the next level. 2nd Corinthians 4: 17 says for our period of light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
Some of those challenges you have, some of those situations are designed to take you to the next level.
We must learn from Joseph, we must learn from Peter. Joseph said you met it for evil, but the Lord has turneth it for good so that life can be saved. Peter has toiled all night, with frustration and mystery, but there was a divine intervention at the end of the day that actually superseded what he would have gained if he had even made it initially.
So brethren, don’t ever think that the problem is the end of everything; there is this saying that it is not over until it is over, and I can assure you that according to the word of God, it says weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. By the grace of God, you will overcome your situations in the mighty name of Jesus.
Number five: learning to see past trials through eternity perspective enables us to be more thankful during the times of struggle. And the scriptures that I gave to you, 2nd Corinthians 4: 17 is still very apt in this matter, it says “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”; what else do you want?
After the darkest of the night cometh the dawn of a new day; I can assure you that it doesn’t matter what you are going through, just be purposeful in appreciating God and at the end of the day, everything will end in praise for you in Jesus name.
So make gratefulness or gratitude a part of your interaction with other people. Gratitude or gratefulness should impact both our relationship with God and relationship with other people. A man of God said to appreciate means to raise in value; when you appreciate, you raise the value, and that is not only true of things, it’s also true of people, when you appreciate somebody, you literally raise their value, and we ought to appreciate people because it also increases their self worth and joyfulness.
I’ve said it times and times again, when somebody has treated you nice and you go to him or her and say thank you very much, you have increased his self worth and joyfulness, he will be very happy compared to when you treat somebody nice and he never bothers to look at you and say thank you. Make it a regular practice to say thank you to people in your life.
I want to beg us, let’s be practical about it, and often time, I find out that those who don’t show gratitude are the closest people to us. Husbands hardly appreciate their wives, some wives hardly appreciate their husbands, it’s never enough, they’ll tell you I’m Oliver Twist, I want more; even in wanting more, appreciation will give you more. Children to parents, they believe its daddy’s responsibility to pay their school fees, where is it written?
Whether in the constitution of federal republic of Nigeria or not, where is it written that the father must pay the children’s school fees? Even in the Bible, it says train a child the way he should go, it did not say we should train a child to university, so when somebody struggles to send you to school, the man must be appreciated.
And for parents, you have children that are doing well, they dignify your effort, they dignify your investment, necessity is placed on you to appreciate them. Gratefulness must be part and parcel of us.
One of the problems we have in our contemporary society today is this lack of gratefulness; there is a serious sense of entitlement. I’ve said this before, there was no time (to the best of my knowledge) that I gave my parents money and they will count it in my presence; today you give people money, they open the envelope, it’s entitlement, it’s evil; somebody gives you an envelope, right in his presence you open it, the question is that is he owing you? Whatever they give you, you take and say thank you.
Whoever is doing it, it doesn’t matter your status, it doesn’t matter – it is evil. Then my parents will not take my money from me, take my brother’s and share with me what my brother gave to them or what I gave to them with my brother, they keep everybody and they will appreciate us equally. Many of you will call, Olumide, see what you sent to me; look at what Kola has sent to me, you are knocking their heads and you are sowing a seed of discord; it is entitlement per excellence, and entitlement is opposite gratefulness.
While gratefulness opens the door, entitlement shuts the door against you; even when you are in a position to exert pressure and to make them do what – they will do it grudgingly, and once it is done grudgingly, whatever you have carries no blessing.
So as I try to round up, I want to beg us, tap into the strength gratitude provides today, gratefulness has enormous strength, tap into it today. Gratefulness is a superpower, it makes what is not enough to become more than enough; gratefulness is also a test of perseverance; you are expecting 10,000, you get 1,000, you take it and you thank God for it, it’s a test of perseverance.
It enables us to see past our experiences and embrace how God is moving. Not only are grateful people able to draw strength from gratitude, but they are also able to empower or influence others with their orientation.
So this morning I want to ask, how many of us would like to register our gratefulness to God for all that He has done for us? How many of you would like to register your gratefulness to God for all that He has done for you? And the reason is because the life you have signposts God’s goodness because that same life could have been taken away from you.
So this morning I want us to rise on our feet as we offer our thanks and praise to God for all that He has done for us. The hymn we sang says the world is God’s own feet, thanks and praise is the fruits thereof.
So today we have come to offer the fruits of our lips unto God in appreciation of all that He has done, so I want you to take a song of your choice very quickly and worship God; tell God that you are grateful for all that He has done for us, but if you are here you have not given your life to Christ, you need to bear in mind that the sacrifice of a sinner is an abomination unto the Lord according to Proverbs 15: 8, it says the sacrifice of a sinner is an abomination unto the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight.
So I want us to appreciate God, I want us to bless God for all that He has done for us, magnify His holy name.
[Altar call]
Father in heaven once again we just want to say thank You; thank You for Your word that has come freely from Your throne, You have spoken to us Lord today, You have challenged us on the need for us to cultivate a grateful heart, as we have heard Your word today, my Lord and my Father, let Your Spirit be impressive in the name of Jesus Christ.
And Lord Almighty God, let that same heart of gratitude be engraved in each and every of our heart today in Jesus name. And as we continue to show gratitude, we pray that every door that has been shut against us shall be flung open in Jesus name. And for Your children who have boldly stepped forward to declare their allegiance to You, to declare their loyalty, to step out of sin and to say Lord, we want to run with You, Lord please receive them unto Yourself in Jesus name; let Your blood wipe away their past in Jesus name, and from today, let Your mercy be overwhelming upon their life, thank You Father because You have answered.
As we continue in this service, Father Lord please continue with us in Jesus name, accept us today and accept our worship in Jesus name. And we pray that at the end of everything today, You will take all the glory, in Jesus wonderful name we have prayed.
