The Churches Thankfulness
Let the church be the church • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 8 viewsThe church is the body of Christ through which he lives and continues his redemptive mission. “Let the Church Be the Church” is the suggested theme for five Sunday morning messages on the life and ministry of the church.
Notes
Transcript
The Christian Life
12 Therefore, God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 accepting one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. 14 Above all, put on love—the perfect bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of the Messiah, to which you were also called in one body, control your hearts. Be thankful. 16 Let the message about the Messiah dwell richly among you, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
The Holy Bible: Holman Christian Standard Version. 2009. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
Text: “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful” (Col. 3:15).
Scripture Reading: Colossians 3:12–16”
Introduction
Putting on the new self is described in Colossians 3. Hiding in this chapter is a precious statement. It is found in verse 15: “. . . and be thankful.”
Of all people on earth, Christians have the most for which to be thankful. Thankfulness is to be a way of life for us.
When we are thankful, we will be especially thankful for three things.
We should be thankful for simple things.
We should be thankful for suffering .
We should be thankful for spiritual things.
I. We should be thankful for simple things.
What are simple things?
The dictionary says that something “simple” is “easy to understand or do; not difficult:.” The simple things, then, are the things we tend to overlook or to which we grow accustomed.
They are things we see every day, yet they truly count. They are the most apparent things, the everyday provisions of life. They are the “bread” kind of things. Jesus gave thanks for bread.
Matthew 15:36 says, “And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks.”
II. We should be thankful for suffering.
Suffering touches every life at some time.
Even today as you read your newspaper, you will likely read of a death somewhere, a fire at someone’s house, a death-dealing earthquake somewhere on earth, or a tragedy taking many lives. How do we respond to suffering?
Jesus set the example for us all: “And he took the cup and gave thanks” (Matt. 26:27). He thanked his heavenly Father for “the cup” of his suffering, for the offering of his body in death and the pouring out of his blood in sacrifice. In other words, he thanked his Father for his suffering, crucifixion, and death. How courageous and heroic that was!
Our way is to complain about the hard things in life. And sometimes the will of God may lead to hardships. It takes love and surrender to say to him, “Thy will be done!” It takes drawing a bigger circle around life and its circumstances to give him thanks.
III. We should be thankful for spiritual things.
We are so rich, not necessarily in material things but in spiritual. Let us be thankful for these riches:
A. Salvation. We have experienced spiritual deliverance—past, present, and future. “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (Rom. 7:25).
B. Christian fellowship. “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you” (Phil. 1:3).
C. Dynamic Christian faith. “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world” (Rom. 1:8). This is witnessing faith. This is a church with victorious faith.
D. Answers to prayer. “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me” (John 11:41–42 NIV).
Conclusion
What a privilege we have to be thankful! Exercise that privilege daily and as often as needed. This is how God’s peace can rule in your heart and how your Christian life can be fully lived. Be thankful!”
Excerpt From
The Zondervan 2025 Pastor's Annual
T. T. Crabtree
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-zondervan-2025-pastors-annual/id6471223673
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