Count Your Blessings

Introduction

Good morning!!!

Are we blessed!!

Are there guests this morning!! We welcome you all with the love of the Lord.

(

(smile)

It takes 37 muscles to frown. And 22 muscles to smile. So Smile.

Some will dispute this, but regardless, it’s really nice to see some one who smile rather than someone who frowns at you.

(show picture of some one smiling and frowning and then sammy’s smile)

For those who feels good inside, who sees nice things happening in their lives that there is something to celebrate about, you would see them smile and be so happy about it. But for those who acknowledges Jesus in their lives as Lord and Savior, well, there’s more behind that smile.

Why do we smile?

Coz something good happened in our life?

Coz somebody just smiled at us?

So basically when we smile it is the immediate reaction to something that made us feel better.

Likewise, when we experience God’s goodness, our reaction should be we should be grateful, thankful.

Our theme for the month is COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

Psalm 103:1–5 NKJV

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, 4 Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

PRAYER

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS Thomas Obediah Chisholm was born in a log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky in 1866. He received his education in a little country schoolhouse, and at age 16 began teaching there. He was saved at age 27, and with no college or seminary training was ordained to the Methodist ministry at age 36. He served as a Methodist minister for a year, but ill health made it impossible for him to continue. He moved to Vineland, New Jersey, where he opened an insurance office. Always interested in poetry, Chisholm wrote hundreds of poems during his lifetime. inspired him to write the text for “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” Those verses read, “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”

Chisholm experienced that faithfulness. He suffered ill health most of his adult life, and never made much money, but he said, “God has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care which have filled me with astonishing gratefulness.”

We have never met Chisholm, but now we know him from the testimony of his life through that great Hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness”

Because of his illness he never enjoyed his adult life, never made much money, but even though it’s a tragedy, he still recognizes God’s hand of care - he counted every blessings he has in spite of.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and sometimes people just remember this day because of tradition. My prayer today is that we will also be reminded to count our blessings not only during Thanksgiving day, but all through out the year.

You know somehow, generally speaking, we all have the tendency to have a short memory when it comes to remembering God’s blessing.

Psalm 103:2 NKJV

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:

In 1897 Johnson Oatman wrote his most beloved hymn of all, “Count Your Blessings.” Listen closely to the beautiful lines of this song:

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed, When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Refrain: Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God has done! Count your blessings, name them one by one, *Count your many blessings, see what God has done. [*And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.]

While on a short-term missions trip, Pastor Jack Hinton was leading worship at a leper colony on the island of Tobago. A woman who had been facing away from the pulpit turned around.

"It was the most hideous face I had ever seen," Hinton said. "The woman's nose and ears were entirely gone. She lifted a fingerless hand in the air and asked, 'Can we sing Count Your Many Blessings?' "

Overcome with emotion, Hinton left the service. He was followed by a team member who said, "I guess you'll never be able to sing that song again."

"Yes I will," he replied, "but I'll never sing it the same way."

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and our scripture for today will give us a perspective on how we can

This woman, though seen by Pastor Hinton as being in an awful condition, still have the heart of singing the song Count your Blessing.

Minister Reggie A. Braziel, Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina said:

In our scripture today, which can be found in: Says:

Do you spend more time counting your problems than counting your blessings? If so, that would probably explain why you are discouraged and miserably unhappy all the time.

discouraged and miserably unhappy all the time.

Psalm 103:1–5 NKJV

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, 4 Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

In our scripture for today I’d like us to focus on the five wonderful blessings we should be thankful for.

Psalm 103:1–5 NLT

1 Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. 2 Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me. 3 He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. 4 He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. 5 He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!

Let me pray first.

We smile when we see a

says: A psalm of David.

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

How do we count our blessings? We thank the Lord!!!

says: A psalm of David.

Today in our text David reminds of some of the wonderful blessings that we tend to overlook in our lives.

I’m reading from the NLT version

Psalm 103:1 NLT

1 Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.

says: A psalm of David.

1. Be thankful, for God accepts who we are

He says in verse 1:

II. Remember what He has done for you

Let all that I am praise the Lord:

III. Relentlessly

All that I am - Like whoever he is, he’s not really a good person, he orchestrated the death of Uriah, so he can sleep with his wife Bathsheba…he’s really not a good role model when it comes to this kind of thing, but he said

“Let all that I am praise the Lord -doesn’t matter who you are or whatever you have done, or wherever you are at right now in your life, God only looks at the heart. That’s why he then said :

“with my whole heart, I praise his holy name”

1 Samuel 16:7 NLT

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Psalm 103:5 NLT

5 He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!

So as we come to the Lord, let nothing stop us, He is looking at the sincerity of our hearts.

(Look for the most bad person who turned his life to Jesus)

2. Be thankful for all the good things He does for you.

Psalm

Psalm 103:2 NLT

2 Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me.

Every time during the Life Group I ask how is everybody, how was the past days to them since we last see each other. I’m kinda like drawing from everybody what were the things they have experienced during the week and just blurt it out with excitement and share it to everybody!

But when that happens everyone began to be quiet!

- re enact time : everyone is talking and all of a sudden when asked to share - you can hear a pin drop

- same when in a circle, then appoints some to pray.

Kidding aside,

Be thankful

How does this truth relate to the suffering we experience? Does it mean we are to be thankful when a young mother dies of cancer? Does it mean you should give thanks when you lose your job? Does it mean we should rejoice when a couple suffers the anguish of multiple miscarriages?

Thanking God in all things does not mean that we thank God for evil. Rather, we are to thank God in the midst of all things.

Genesis 5:20 NKJV

20 So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died.

Genesis 50:20 NKJV

20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.

In a single day, Job lost 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 donkeys. On the same day, Job’s seven sons and three daughters were killed when the house in which they were gathered collapsed. When Job was informed of these tragedies, he could have said, “The Lord gave, and Satan has taken away!” Instead, Job declared, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord”().

Be thankful to God for all the things that comes our way.

3. Be thankful to God for He forgave our sins and heals our diseases.

Psalm 103:3 NKJV

3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,

We are not perfect

We are not perfect, nobody is! The moment we say that we won’t fall into sin, that’s the very moment Satan will move his way in. Yes he is defeated, yes he was conquered when Christ was crucified and was raised from the dead, but the problem is not with Satan, the problem is with us, sometimes we deliberately choose sin over the truth that we are more than conquerors in Christ.

As we thank God for forgiving our sins, let’s strive more to go the extra mile in living out a life expected from us as His disciple.

Next part of verse 3 says

4. “Be thankful to God for healing our diseases.”

Luke 17:11–19 NKJV

11 Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. 12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. 17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

Luke 17:

Are we that one who came back to thank and glorify the Lord or are we among the other 9 guys who never looked back, not even has given the thought of thanking Jesus!

Or sometimes, we really don’t believe that God can do it!!

and we remain faithless and skeptical all our lives.

share experience with Tramo Kid

Matthew 13:58 NKJV

58 Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

Matthew 13:55–58 NLT

55 Then they scoffed, “He’s just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. 56 All his sisters live right here among us. Where did he learn all these things?” 57 And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.” 58 And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.

Matthew 13:55

Matthew 13:50–58 NLT

50 throwing the wicked into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 51 Do you understand all these things?” “Yes,” they said, “we do.” 52 Then he added, “Every teacher of religious law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a homeowner who brings from his storeroom new gems of truth as well as old.” 53 When Jesus had finished telling these stories and illustrations, he left that part of the country. 54 He returned to Nazareth, his hometown. When he taught there in the synagogue, everyone was amazed and said, “Where does he get this wisdom and the power to do miracles?” 55 Then they scoffed, “He’s just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. 56 All his sisters live right here among us. Where did he learn all these things?” 57 And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.” 58 And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.

Matthew 13:54–58 NLT

54 He returned to Nazareth, his hometown. When he taught there in the synagogue, everyone was amazed and said, “Where does he get this wisdom and the power to do miracles?” 55 Then they scoffed, “He’s just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. 56 All his sisters live right here among us. Where did he learn all these things?” 57 And they were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. Then Jesus told them, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.” 58 And so he did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief.

5. Be thankful to God for redeeming your life from destruction

The word destruction here does not pertain to - wreckage or ruin or demolition, the word destruction in Hebrew is Abaddon - the realm of the dead.

God did not just redeemed our life from ruin or mess or the ugliness of life due to wrong decisions, but God through Jesus literally snatched us from the certainty of eternal death! You see if there is eternal life, there is also eternal death!

Mark 9:35 NLT

35 He sat down, called the twelve disciples over to him, and said, “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.”

Mark 9:45 NLT

45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one foot than to be thrown into hell with two feet.

Mark 9:48 NLT

48 ‘where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out.’

If life eternal is full of bliss, eternal death is full of agony. Imagine you are already dead but you still feel the maggots wiggling in and out of your ear!

So thank the Lord each minute, each second of the day for saving us!!!

6. Be thankful to God for crowning us with lovingkindness and tender mercies

And it’s shape is? - Round.

The word crown here is a metaphor, and in Hebrew is Qal, which means “surround”.

And surround is like when you wanted to hear your tv via surround sound, that means you can hear the sound in every direction, in the same way, the verse is literally telling us that we are surrounded by God’s loving kindness and tender mercies everyday! where ever we go, what ever situation we are in in our life, we will experience his lovingkindness and tender mercies.

The word lovingkindness is also translated as - Steadfast love, compassion.

tender mercies?

Lamentations 3:

Lamentations 3:22–23 NLT

22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. 23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

Our life span is brief, there’s a beginning and an end:

James 4:14

James 4:14 NLT

14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.

But God’s encompassing love is everlasting, it will never end.

7. Be thankful to God for satisfying our mouth with Good things

There is nothing on earth that can satisfy us like God, not money, not material possession, not anything.

Horse

If we are looking for something that can satisfy our cravings, only Jesus can fill that void.

(other versions: who satisfies your life .....who satisfies your years

Psalm 103:5 NASB95

5 Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

WK

The last part of the the verse - so that your your youth is renewed like the eagles’s

This verse part of the verse tells is connected to the truth that God satisfies us and by His provision, we believers retains a youthful vigor, like that of an eagle.

Isaiah 40:31 NASB95

31 Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

Proverbs 4:20–22 NASB95

20 My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them And health to all their body.

Proverbs 40

8. Be thankful to God for He renews our body

Conclusion

1. Be thankful, for God accepts who we are

2. Be thankful for all the good things He does for you.

3. Be thankful to God for He forgave our sins

4. and heals our diseases.

5. Be thankful to God for redeeming your life from destruction

6. Be thankful to God for crowning us with lovingkindness and tender mercies

7. Be thankful to God for satisfying our mouth with Good things

8. Be thankful to God for He renews our body