November 2021 Thanksgiving Service

Sunday Service (7^th November 2021)

Title: Be Thankful.

Ministering: Rev. Ebenezer Olawuyi

 

Today is a day of thanksgiving. If you are alive and you are not praising and serving God, you are not fulfilling the purpose of your existence. Psalm 150:6 says: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”  God created you and He kept you alive because He wants you to praise Him. He wants you to show forth the praises of Him who had saved you and had called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.

God wants you to spend every second, every minute, every hour and every moment of your days, praising Him. In fact, the Bible says we should do it always. Ephesians 5:20: “In everything, give thanks to God…” Give thanks to Him, always, for all things. Anytime you have opportunities, thank Him. Psalm 92. A brutish man does not know, neither does a fool understand.

I visited someone in the hospital recently and I was informed that the man was on oxygen. The family of the man, on the second day, told the medical personnel to put off the oxygen because the hospital bills were becoming burdensome. Why? Because the bill for each day is 17,000 naira!!  For two days, 34,000 naira!!

How much did you pay for the oxygen of yesterday? Calculate the number of years and multiply it by 17,000. A 20-year-old man would have spent 124,100,000 naira for oxygen! The older you are, the more you are indebted to God, because you can NEVER! pay your debts. Your prayers end on earth, because there is a cup in heaven where all your prayers are entering, but your thanksgiving does not end on earth, it continues to eternity. Even in heaven you will still be thanking Him because you can never pay for what God has done for you. God is the maintainer of your kidneys. If a man’s kidney fails and the person has to be on dialysis, at some point the kidney will reject dialysis treatment. A single session of dialysis is 20,000 naira and for a week you will spend between 80 to 120,000 naira to keep you alive and to excrete all the waste and toxins in the body, if not, your head and legs will be swollen.

You eat and drink and then you pass out the waste and toxins. It may look and feel ordinary, but there is someone behind the process. You cannot pay for it, that’s why He says that you should thank Him every time. You have heard about the insecurity in Nigeria and you are aware that being are also being kidnapped, even within the town. Give thanks to God for your safety.

Psalm 32:10 “Many sorrows shall surround the wicked, but they that trust the Lord, mercy shall encompass him round about.” If God will open your eyes, you will see that you are not ordinary. Do you know how many arrows that has been shot to you? The Lord turned them away. If you will pay for it, you cannot pay throughout your life on earth. You owe God thanksgiving throughout your days. It is a command. You must praise and thank Him. That is why God gets angry with those who do not thank and praise Him.

One of the ways to block blessings and opportunities is when you refuse to thank Him. Those who praise God, He shows them pleasant surprises. The Bible tells us in 2Chronicle 20, at a stage, the situation was looking bleak and hopeless and they began to praise Him and suddenly, the Lord sent ambushes against the enemies who had come against Judah and they were defeated. They did not raise up anything to fight and yet, their enemies were levelled. God gave them a surprise! The blessing was just too much. I pity people who do not understand.

The truth is you may not be where you want to be, but the fact is that you are not where you used to be. This month, let’s thank Him.  Do you think it is ordinary that you can move your body? It’s not. A lot of us take many things for granted. We have 24 hours in a day. Out of those hours, how many times do you praise God? That’s why the scripture says, “Do not be drunk with wine when in excess but be filled with the spirit. Singing to yourself in psalms and in hymns and in spiritual songs with thankfulness in your heart to God.” Stop complaining and murmuring, instead thank Him.

Only the living will praise Him here on earth. When we get there, we will praise Him. Because it is not possible for anybody to live without Him. Ecclesiastes 9:11. The race of life is not for the fastest runner, the brave people do not usually win the battles of life, the wise people are usually not rich, intelligent people do not usually make a living, even capable people do not usually rise to the top.

It takes God to be at the right place and at the right time. Your steps are ordered. The Bible says that, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.” You must be grateful. For a man to labour and harvest the glory of his work and to enjoy it, it’s the blessing of the Lord. God said that, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy on. I will have compassion on who I will have compassion on.”

Always give thanks to God and do not take what you think as little things and ordinary for granted. God is the architect of our lives. One of the ways to be grateful to God is to give your life to Him. That is the best way to say you are grateful. Always ask God to live His life through you.