Overflowing Thankfulness

INTRO:

Welcome to Living Hope Church

Next week we are kicking off a new Sermon Series called, “Come to Worship.”

We will be looking at what it looks like to worship the Lord.

Invite someone, make plans to join us.

Speaking of making plans… Make plans to be at our Christmas Eve Service.

2pm, 3:30pm, 5:00pm

We really need several volunteers to help make it a great service for all that will be attending those services

if you can help, sign up on our connection card.

Wrapping up our “Overflow” sermon series

Over the past several weeks we have spoken on...

Overflowing Love

Overflowing Hope

Overflowing Blessings

Today’s sermon title is, “Overflowing Thankfulness.”

The Key to having overflowing Love, Hope, Blessings, & Thankfulness is the overflowing presence of God in our lives!

We need more of Him!

This sermon series will end today… But don’t let your pursuit of God’s overflowing presence in your life. Spend more time with Him today than you did yesterday.

Repeat that each day and you will see God begin to put His overflowing Love, Hope, Blessings, and Thankfulness in your life!

So let’s jump into today’s sermon...

Grab your Bibles and turn with me to Colossians 2:6.

As you are turning there:

Thanksgiving is this week.

It’s a great holiday to remind us of all the things we are thankful for.

Almost all of us will take some time to reflect on the year and recognize the things that we are thankful for.

I know for me, there are many things I am thankful for this year.

And it’s not just Thanksgiving that we take time to be thankful.

Many of us will have different times throughout the years that we will pause and be thankful.

But… As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to be overflowing with thankfulness.

Our thankfulness should not be sporadic or inspired by a holiday.

As Followers of Christ, Thankfulness should be overflowing each and every moment in our lives.

Not fake or weird thankfulness...

But Genuine Thankfulness!

Thankfulness towards our Loving Savior and Lord.

Any one here thankful today?

Glad to hear it! This morning we are going to discover 2 major factors in how we can have overflowing thankfulness.

Will you stand for the reading of God’s Word with me, please.

Colossians 2:6–7 NIV

6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

PRAYER

SERMON

If we are to be people overflowing with thankfulness, two major factors need to be true in our lives.

1. Receive Christ Jesus as Lord.

Pay close attention to what this verse just said.

Colossians 2:6 NIV

6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,

There is a vast difference in receiving Christ Jesus as your Savior and receiving Him as your Lord.

Let me help you understand it this way.

I heard a preacher say it this way:

“King Saul of the Old Testament loved the boy David when he saved him from Goliath, but he hated David when David was anointed king in his place – in other words when David would take over his throne.”

Church, it’s easy and attractive to accept Jesus as your Savior, for who wouldn’t want their sins forgiven and to go to heaven?

But what about Jesus as Lord? Are we willing to get off our thrones and let Jesus be Lord of our lives?

One of the main reasons many Christians are not overflowing with Thankfulness is because they haven’t truly allowed Christ to be their Lord.

And sadly that’s partly the Church’s fault...

Too often we ‘sell’ the gospel as the way out of sin, the way to escape hell, the way to enjoy all the blessings of God.

We make It sound attractive and amazing.

But we haven’t presented the whole gospel.

We’ve pushed and promoted Jesus as Savior, but failed to say that He must also be Lord.

As true followers of Christ… Our lives become His, His to rule as He chooses.

Have you received Jesus Christ as your Lord?

Have you placed Him on the throne of your life? Does He rule in your actions & your choices?

Choose today to place Him as Lord in your life!

Let’s look at the second major factor we need in our lives to be people of Overflowing Thankfulness.

2. Continue to live your life in Him.

Colossians 2:6 NIV

6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,

Too often, how Christians begin their relationship with Christ is not how they continue.

The fervency of our love for Jesus, our passion for the gospel, our urgency for sharing the good news; these things often decline as the years go by.

In the Book of Revelation, the church in Ephesus had to hear a hard judgment against it.

Revelation 2:4–5 NIV

4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

Now Church...

There are several reasons why the love that Christians once had can diminish.

Trials and Tribulations

Temptations

Persecutions

Disappointment

Distractions

Weariness

Becoming Casual in our faith

etc...

As you can see, there are a lot of reasons so many followers of Christ don’t live at the level or keep to the standards with which they began in the faith.

It’s understandable, but it’s also unacceptable.

God doesn’t give discounta on discipleship for long-term service.

There is no retirement from the obligations of the gospel.

As we have received Christ, so we are to go on living in Him.

Without lessening our efforts and passion!

and Without decreasing in our love towards Him!

Colossians 2:7 shares how we can do this...

continue to live your lives in him,

Colossians 2:7 NIV

7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Three ways to continue living our lives in Him:

a. Rooted & Built Up in Him

Be firmly rooted in Him and Him alone!

And then Grow by feeding on His Word alone!

b. Strengthened in the faith

Stepping out in faith regularly strengthens you in your relationship with Christ.

Many of us don’t stretch ourselves in faith… We are waiting for God to give us faith…

Faith grows when you choose to put faith in the promises of God and you step out even when you can’t see it in the natural yet.

That’s another sermon for another day...

Then we get one more instruction to continue living our lives in Him...

c. Overflowing with Thankfulness

Receiving Jesus Christ as your Lord and continuing to Live in Him are major factors in having overflowing Thankfulness...

But it’s also an intentional choice to be Thankful that helps you to grow your Thankfulness.

Each day and no matter what we are facing… we need to take a moment and be intentionally thankful for who God is and what He has done for us!

In the next few versus in Colossians 2, Paul gives us several reasons why we need to be Thankful.

As I read these versus… I want you to respond this morning.

I don’t want you to just listen and be silent.

As I read… If you are thankful… Say Something!

Colossians 2:9–15 NIV

9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

CLOSING:

Please stand with me as I close...

ALTAR CALL:

As followers of Christ we can live with an overflowing thankfulness.

Overflowing Thankfulness today, tomorrow, and each day that follows for the rest of our lives.

And this morning we want to give everyone that opportunity.

Close your eyes, and bow your heads...

If you are not a follower of Jesus Christ but you would life for Him to save you from your sins and hell, and you would like to make Him Lord of your life… With no one looking, will you raise your hand?

PRAYER OF SALVATION

Doer’s not just hearers… So let’s choose to show our thankfulness by praising Him... (Endless Praise)