Father Almighty, the God of grace, the God of love, the God from whom all blessings flow, unto You we have come today with our grateful hearts. Thank You for all that You have done for us, thank You for taking us through the first eight months of this year, thank You for blessing us, thank You for keeping us healthy, thank You because we can move our legs, thank You because we can move our hands, thank You because we can eat, thank You because we can visit the toilet, thank You because by ourselves we came this morning, thank You for all that You have done for us.
If we have a billion of tongues, they are not enough to glorify You because You have done so much for us, it’s by Your grace that we are standing, the devil never wish that we see a day like this but thank You for frustrating the agenda of the enemies, thank You for giving us hope, thank You for giving us peace, thank You for joy, accept our praises in Jesus name.
Thank You because unto You we have come to return all the glory to You, we ask of You this morning that You will accept us and accept our gratitude.
We 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 You will not stop to bless them. And for those who have not received the grace, we ask Lord that You will touch their hearts, You will open up the windows of heavens and You release Your blessings upon them all. Let our service today be valuedriven, let it be value adding and let our lives not remain the same, in Jesus name we have prayed.
Good morning church, happy new month of September to you all. Unto us it shall be a month of great accomplishment, every little effort will give you monumental results in the mighty name of Jesus, nothing will die in your hands this month.This is the beginning of ember months, I pray that ember months will yield you results, nothing shall be missing but there will be additions – joy, peace, favor, breakthrough, fulfillment, will all be added to your life. As a matter of fact, your life this month and beyond will showcase God’sgreatn ess and goodness in every respect in Jesus mighty name.
Tomorrow by the grace of God, we will gather here by 6:30 to pray as usual, and the theme for tomorrow is Defeating the Philistines. When you talk about the Philistines you talk about the enemies of God’s people, those things that will not allow you to have peace, those things that will not allow you to be where God wants you to be, the Lord will take care of them in Jesus name. The text is 1st Samuel 7: 1- 15, I look forward to seeing every one of you so that as we lift up our voices in prayer together, the Lord will bless us in Jesus name.
Next week Saturday is our Family Fun day; we had the first edition of it in 2019, it was a big one and our plan was to have it continuously every year but unfortunately COVID came and threw spanners into works, so ever since then it has been suspended until we felt that the time has come for us to get our groove back. So, come next Saturday at Chrisland High School along Hakeem Dickson, we’ll be congregating together.
Now let me tell you, everybody has to be there; I want to thank individuals that have given us money but officially I have also released money in millions and we must get value for our money.
They say all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so let’s just create fum, let’s use the opportunity to bond, there will be several games and all the rest. Let’s come and unwind, and God Almighty will bless us in Jesus name.
[Bitthday Celebration]
As usual, we want to serve you with a fresh first course while we await the main dish from our father in the Lord, Pastor E.A Adeboye, but before he comes, let’s quickly open to the book of Luke 17: 11 – 19. “And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: 13and they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. 14And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that as they went, they were cleansed. 15And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God. 16And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
17And Jesus answering said, were there not 10 cleansed? But where are the nine? 18There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. 19And he said unto him, arise, go thy way: thy faith has made thee whole. My prayer for everyone under the influence of my voice this morning is that your praise and gratefulness today will grant you wholeness in every aspect of your life in the mighty name of Jesus.
Very quickly I’ll be talking to us on the message that I titled “The Value of Gratefulness”. Gratefulness as we all know is about expressing our gratitude, and gratitude is a powerful force in the life of a believer. As a matter of fact, gratitude is more than saying thank you; is a spiritual posture that recognizes God as the source of every good and perfect gift; you’ll recall James 1:17 says that every good and perfect gift comes from above, so gratitude is a spiritual force that recognizes God as the source of every goodness.
Now in our text, Jesus healed ten lepers but only one returned to give thanks, and this account reveals that while many receive blessings, only a few return to honor the giver. The grateful leper as captured in our text, a Samaritan, otherwise known as a stranger, not only received physical healing like others, but he also received something more, he received wholeness. I pray once again this morning for every one of you here that in addition to all the blessings of today, you will receive wholeness in the name of Jesus.
Brethren, gratitude opens the door for a deeper encounter with God, and the act of returning to give thanks shows faith, it shows humility, it shows reverence, and that distinguished the Samaritan from others. In today contemporary work and personal life, gratitude is a key that unlocks more of God’s favor, and when we cultivate the habits of thanksgiving, we move from just receiving miracles to walking in what I call enduring transformation.
Therefore, the value and the immeasurable impact of having a grateful heart includes number one (there are many of them but for the sake of time I’ll just take a few and if Jesus tarries we’ll conclude it by next month), gratitude is a response of faith. Praise the Lord. Gratitude acknowledges the miracle and the miracle worker; it reveals the heart behind the healing according to Luke 17: 15 – 16.
It says, “And one of them, where he saw that he was healed, turned back, (he did not continue with the journey, immediately he paused and made a U-turn, and the Bible says) and with a loud voice he glorified God. 16He fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.” Look, brethren, we owe God gratitude, God does not actually deal with us on the strength of our righteousness or unrighteousness, God does not discriminate. The Jews, His own people, they never came back, they took it for granted.
And that is the attitude with very many of us when people treat you nice, because of the sense of entitlement that is so strong, we feel that it is our right. Only one came back, glorified God with a loud voice. And I want to say here that this is not just a mere ritual, but rather it was what I call the outpouring of faith in Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving or gratitude completes our testimony. Revelation 12:11 says, “And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony”. Returning to thank God sees the miracle and declares God’s power publicly; one came back and said I have been healed, I have received it, he testified, others saw but the nine others that would have reinforced his testimonies were nowhere to be found. I beg you this morning that you should make your mind not to be like one of the nine.
I’d also like to add this morning that gratitude is a form or an act of worship according to Psalm 95: 2 & 3. It says let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. 3For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
There’s a song we used to sing, ‘all other gods, they are the works of men, You are the only God, there is none like You’. Thanksgiving is an act of worship, for the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods. The Samaritan leper fell on his face at Jesus feet giving Him thanksgiving that led to worship.
Brethren, you cannot just receive and not acknowledge your blessings; there are many of us that are robbing ourselves of blessings even before our fellow men. Yoruba has a saing that yinni yinni, ko le se ‘mi ni; somebody gave you something, you took it and went away, ordinary text message to say I received this thing with a grateful heart, you will not do it, meanwhile, next week you are coming back as if he’s your treasurer. Every act of giving is a sacrifice because there are more than a thousand ways to channel the same blessing, we must learn to acknowledge blessings.
I know a man (I will not mention his name), everybody is complaining, it doesn’t matter what you send to him, no acknowledgement, he feels that he is right, but ko si bibiire ninu e (there’s no dignity in it). If you are well brought up, in fact, one of the things parents of the older days did, they will start to teach their children, when somebody gives you something, they say thank you; if it’s a baby girl, they will start teaching her how to kneel down; if it’s a boy, they start teaching you how to prostrate, how many of us are still teaching our children?
There are many of us today, education has become a crisis, education has become a curse, meanwhile is supposed to be a blessing, the basic virtues that ought to have been inculcated into our children, because of modernization, so your son will collect something, in fact you dare not collect anything from my mom standing like that, you will get a hot slap and your eyes will turn you; and woe betide you if anybody gives you something you will not come home and say somebody gave me something; today you want to give some of these children things they turn their left hands to you, do you know it’s an aberration, culturally, because if you travel abroad they can use any hand to collect anything, if it’s possible they can use leg, but is against our culture.
Sometimes there are some parts of our culture that are good that we should not let go, we should project, but today, because you have little education, because you have access to America, access to Canada, you allow your children to … My son was talking to me the other time, I said ‘look, calm down, stop that, talk gently’, I will not use my money to buy – because you know their own accent is very fast, my own accent can’t be fast; I said look calm down, talk to me properly, I’m an Ondo man, let me hear what you are saying properly.
You know a typical Yoruba man, even in our English we convert it from Yoruba, that’s why we speak very slowly so that we don’t make mistake, because we have to convert either from Ijebu or Oyo, but because somebody has a better accent, I didn’t go to the nursery school, we went to primary school and my own primary school was different, we went with our pocket stock with garri and groundnut and all the rest, today before this one, they have their breakfast with custard, they have sandwiches and the likes, so it’s part of what is making them to speak better English. Let somebody shout hallelujah!
What I’m trying to say here is that we must teach our children the value of appreciation, acknowledgement, when you treat them nice because it starts from that level. If you see a child that is not well brought up, he will grow up to become a bad adult; when you see a child that lacks home training, he will grow up to become a toxic adult and they become a problem to their community. We must learn to acknowledge whatever blessing we have received.
Now next is the fact that faith expressed through gratitude honors God, Romans 4:20. The Bible says he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; that scripture was talking about Abraham, he was steadfast and was not weak in faith but grew in strength. Well, we thank God in faith, we glorify Him for what He has done and trust Him for what He will yet do.
When you read 1 Samuel 1:27-28, you will find out the example of Hannah. Hannah returned to Shiloh to give thanks after receiving her son Samuel, and she dedicated him back to the Lord. She prayed, God answered her, after the baby was born, she took the baby back to Shiloh, the source, and Samuel was rededicated to God.
Shall we rise on our feet, I will stop there, like I said, it’s a long one so we’ll continue from there next time. I told you that gratitude expressed in faith and by faith honors God, whatever honors God always triggers blessing. You cannot honor God or do something that honors God and God will not react, and guess what, God owes no man anything. Praise the Lord!
If there is a problem, if there is a gap, the problem is with us, and that’s why I want to give you this opportunity to talk to God this morning and ask God, Father, if there’s anything in my life today that will not make my gratitude to honor You, Father, please take it away. Whether it is doubt, whether it is sin, whether it is disobedience, whatever it is, I want You to help me cry to God on behalf of yourself that Father, whatsoever that will not allow my gratitude to bring You honor today, Father, please take it away in the name of Jesus.
I have come to offer my sacrifice of praise today, Lord, let it bring You honor in the name of Jesus, let my worship bring You honor in the mighty name of Jesus. And Lord, as we honor You today with our gratitude, we pray that You will bless us with wholeness that we will not go back the same way we came in the mighty name of Jesus.
Open your mouth and pray to God. If you are here, you have not encountered God because God will not accept the praise and worship of a sinner, the only praise and worship God will accept is the praise and worship of someone that has a relationship with Him. So if you are here today you have not given your life to Christ, why don’t you pray to God, Father, I’m here today, I want to strike a relationship with You, I don’t want to go back home the same way I came; forgive my sin, I cannot help myself, but Lord Almighty, please rise up for my help, forgive my sin, let Your mercy cover for me in the name of Jesus.
Banish unrighteousness from my life in the name of Jesus. The Bible says if we say we have no sins, we deceive ourselves; the biggest lie a man can tell is to say he’s a righteous man, but thank God for the overriding power of God’s mercy. Pray to God that God will avail you His mercy, in Jesus mighty name we have worshiped.
[Altar call]
Father in heaven, we want to say thankYou; thank You for Your word that You have sent to us and thank You for Your children that have embraced Your word, Father Almighty, please forgive their unrighteousness in the name of Jesus; overlook their past in the name of Jesus. Let the overriding power of Your mercy triumph over judgment in their lives, let today mark the beginning of a new beginning.
And for the rest of us here, Father in the name of Jesus, as we offer our gratitude to You today, we pray that it will bring You honor, it will bring You glory in the mighty name of Jesus. And Lord Almighty God, as You are being honored and glorified, we ask that You’ll bless us with wholeness.
We pray that none of us will go back home the same way we came today, let today mark the beginning of newness in our lives. Let it mark the beginning of enlargement and of blessing now and forever more, in Jesus mighty name we have prayed.
