It is God’s will that we would give thanks in every thing. This attitude of gratefulness for what the Lord is doing releases us into a life of joy. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Speaker(s): Pastor Steven Scibelli
Sermon # 11374
6:30 PM on 11/26/2017

P. Scibelli

1 Thes. Beyond a holiday, thanksgiving is a holy doctrine and holy day. Every day is an opportunity to give thanks. Grace, CHARIS, thanksgiving is the results of good grace. It’s continually. EU and CHARIS for grace and TIA. Continually receiving grace and having thanksgiving.

1 Thes. 5:18 How many ever asked a question what is the will of God? What is the will of God? I’m going to show it to you in the Bible. What’s the last two words? Concerning you. It speaks about having an attitude of gratitude in response to grace. What an opportunity to thank God. I thank God this ministry has 644 affiliated churches around the world in 80 countries. 644 churches over these 40 years. Reproduction in churches and planting churches. 115 churches in India. I said in five years every church can plant a church. Every one bring one. A lot of people have programs to help a church to grow. So many books on church growth. I think there’s only one that I’m holding in my hand. In the year 2018, what if everybody brought one person to Christ? Could you pray this prayer in the month of December and January everyone pray for one and everyone bring one. A thousand people with two services combined. We will still have our outreaches and reaching out on different days of the week. Can you imagine if every person said God, would you give me one person this year? If everybody could bring a person to Christ and to church. This is the pattern we used in Africa. We’ve seen this been blessed by God. One time we did photo Sunday but you had to come to take your photo and next week come back for your photo. We had 120 visitors on photo Sunday. I preached a message, how does God picture you? We preached on Mt. 4:4 and come to church and get a loaf of bread. “Those aren’t the right way to do things.” Why don’t you go to Africa…

I love this verse. 7 wills of God we will talk about at the rap tonight. The perfect, permissive, operational, directive will, geographical will. There’s these different wills of God. Contrast to the will of Satan, the will of the osn and the will of the world. THELEMA the MA means it is the result of something, the result of God himself.

vs. 18. Why does it have to say me there? Concerning us. To give thanks. To be a person that has thanksgiving. I was speaking to someone in a disruptive country and they were saying thank God for the trial, the situation, the dictatorship. Thank God for tanks being around. It wasn’t southern Africa either. I was so built up by what they were saying. Let’s be real. I’ll live in truth. I was in the country of Qatar sitting in a Kentucky Fried Chicken and a guy handcuffed me because I gave out a gospel tract. I was with P. John Shermer and he said I have been working here 10 years and nothing has happened to me. I’m with you and we’re in jail. They love to interrogate you to break you. I’m going to determine how long you are going to jail for, the man said. I can’t say I wasn’t a little bit concerned. I can’t say I gave thanks at that point. The guy said can you come in the back room. He pulls out a piece of paper from his wallet. He said when I was in Detroit, someone gave me one of these. I’m letting you go. P. Murello can tell you what happened to us in the country of Jordan. They kept us for a couple – they let him go and kept me. Was I thankful? Not necessarily. I was thankful for the inside lane on 95 tonight. Coming to the church there are two or three lanes this way. I can’t believe how people drive. I couldn’t even see people when they went by me. That’s how fast they were going. The inside lane can lead you to the break down lane. This is the will of God concerning you. As P. Schaller said it, we are not thankful for everything but in everything. I’m not going to ask for certain things. Keep my name out of this when you are doing this prayer for Job.

Paul is the one who keeps talking about thanksgiving and he went through incredible things in 2 Cor 11:18 through 12:10. Forty things he named he was in and he was talking about thanksgiving. Be careful or anxious for nothing but with everything prayer and thanksgiving let your request be known to God. He’s locked up in prison and he has thanksgiving. When we let God put this in our heart through the Spirit and the Word, God can add so many things to our life if we are thankful for the basics. I won’t be satisfied till I get this or I want that. Aren’t you thankful you are born again? Ever read about hell in the Scriptures? I am so thankful I am not going there. Aren’t you thankful you are born again, saved, have an eternal purpose. We have an eternal purpose. I’m thankful I have a church. I’m thankful I have a church. I came 40 years ago. You think you’re going to get me out of here? You’ve got to try. Many people in other churches around the world, you should be thankful for your church. I say keep going. I’m thankful I have a church. I’m thankful for my wife. Even if you have someone in a marriage and things aren’t going well, how about being thankful. This is the will of God. Ever meet critical, analyzing people and the first thing they do is analyze and criticize. There’s no thanksgiving at all.

Php 4:6 he says always. Eph 5:20 thankful always for all things. Col 3:17.

In Luke 17 there were ten lepers and they came and Jesus told them go to the priest. This is in the Mosaic Law. He told them to go. One came back and fell on his face giving thanks to God. The one who told them to go to the priest said where are the nine? Only this one returned giving thanks to God and glorifying God. Giving thanks to God is to glorify God. Maybe out of ten people maybe only one is thankful. I don’t know. Ss thankful.

A thankful person is not critical or analytical or grumpy. Walking around as a big old grump. See what happened to gas prices? Thank God you have a car to buy gas for. See what happened to the price of a loaf of bread? Thank God you can eat. Thank you, God. Being thankful for friendship and relationship and thankful we have a Bible. You know how many are born again and do not have a Bible? All through China and behind certain curtains, certain places. One time a person asked me what happened after Acts 17. I only have up to Acts 17. Can you find me a Bible? I’m thankful I have a Bible, but I never read it. Then you’re not thankful then. Are we thankful we can pray? God hears our prayers. I’m thankful I can pray. I can pray to God. I’m thankful that God loves me. That God gives me grace. That God is faithful. God has won a victory over the devil, the world and the osn. Are you thankful for your students in your Christian school? The teacher is thankful to have a class to meet in…being tankful. I need more money. Be thankful for what you got. There’s always those kind of people. I didn’t get a raise! I’m so sad for you. Thankful. Do you know what these kids are like? Be thankful that God gave you children. He gave them to you. Be thankful for the city we live in. I’m thankful for the city of Baltimore, for Maryland, for the U.S. Are you with me?

I go to Africa and I’m thankful people attempt to make spaghetti sauce when I arrive in their village! One time I was in a village, the one where I tried to give away Kathy Ryan. The chief had 17 wives and never saw a woman with red hair and he kept pointing to her! I kept pointing to her! I was playing a little game. I was very thankful I had a guy sitting next to me. The guy came with a special meal. I looked in the pot and saw whiskers. I realized it was a great delicacy that they only gave to those from other countries. The guy next to me ate it before the chief looked. Did you like it? I said yes. I was in a certain country and brought a piece of meat and a loaf of bread and I was going to make an Italian grinder. I tried to bite it, and it didn’t bite. I went back to where I bought it and asked, who is this? There’s something unusual about this meat. Thank you that I could bring it back and leave it there. What an opportunity we have.

If one day there was no church and we could never meet again…if this was gone, it’s amazing when something is removed, how thankful that which I was never thankful for I am living in thanksgiving for. Look at the person next to you. Are they awake?

1 Tim 1:12 Paul said I thank God for it was given to me, committed to me, the glorious Gospel. I thank God he put me in the ministry. He keeps saying he thanks God. The test isn’t going away but I could have a bad attitude about the test going away by having an attitude of thanksgiving. When Jesus came to the tomb of Lazarus, he prayed to his Father and said I thank you Father you hear my prayers. He knew he was going to raise his friend Lazarus.

He thanked his Father in Mt. 11:24-25. I thank you you have given your wisdom to babes. God gives us his wisdom in every situation. We have a word from God. Nine go and one comes back. He is not only healed physically but delivered spiritually.

We are going to pray for people who are sick and can be sick physically, mentally and be in a place where they can be delivered. Some have never laughed for years. Sometimes you look at people’s faces and it looks like concrete. God wants us to have joy. The joy of the Lord is our strength. I’m not talking about something artificial only. I’m thankful. How come the pastor doesn’t talk about this, how come this, how come that? Just be thankful you can come to church rather than figure out what you think should take place in the church. I thank God for P. Ron Swingle. I came to Baltimore in 1993 and had no place to stay. He opened up his basement for me. I was thankful you put a roof over my head. It was free and he’s trying to collect now! You’re not going to get it because you’re going to live in thanksgiving! Maybe if he said no to that, maybe I would never have come. Thank you God. Thank you for every trial. In it, I can have thanksgiving. You can have an attitude of thanksgiving in it and that’s when Satan flees.

2 Cor 4:15 all things are for your sake….are eternal. Thanksgiving redounding. Thank you, God. Thank you for what is going on in the marriage, for what is taking place in the family. Thank you when I look at the check book. This is the will of God. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

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