Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!

By way of introducing tonight's article, keep in mind that the Bible INSTRUCTS us with many scriptures to be people of THANKSGIVING. The New Testament in particular encourages our GRATITUDE and listed below once again are highlighted summaries of the ten verses selected at the beginning of this series to illustrate how the Word emphasizes the idea of being GRATEFUL to God as a matter of ongoing lifestyle:  

1 Corinthians 15:57 - Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Christ.

2 Corinthians 2:14 - Thanks be to God who always causes us to triumph in Christ.

Ephesians 5:20 - Give thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:12 - Give thanks to the Father for the inheritance we have received.

Colossians 2:7 - We are to be firmly rooted in Christ, established in our faith and overflowing with thanksgiving.

Colossians 3:17 - In all that we do we are to do it in the name of Jesus giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

Colossians 4:2 - We are to devote ourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 - It is God's WILL for us who are in Christ that we give thanks for everything.

1 Timothy 4:4 - Everything created by God is good and should be received with thanksgiving.

Hebrews 13:15 - Let us continually give thanks to the name of Jesus.

Now throughout the series we've been making the point that being THANKFUL is for our own good. God isn't pushing us to be grateful as some religious act to make us be submissive to His authority, although certainly He's worthy of THANKSGIVING on that basis. But Believers need to get the REVELATION that God IS "agape" LOVE (1 John 4:8) and that everything He does comes out of that context. It's not just that He's a being who loves others or that by nature He's a loving individual. No, "agape" LOVE is His essence; He can't be separated from that special kind of LOVE because that's what He IS and by definition the "agape" kind of LOVE from the Greek language can NEVER be self-serving. Therefore, whatever INSTRUCTIONS the Word gives us are ALWAYS there for our own good, something we'll ALWAYS benefit from and be blessed by if we'll just take note of the INSTRUCTIONS and try to obey. Every single time we choose to ignore or disobey a biblical INSTRUCTION or try to circumvent a biblical principle of life, we lose an opportunity to RECEIVE a consequential benefit, an empowerment, a GRACE that's flowing out of God's "agape" LOVE.

Why is this so important? It's because Christian life is about choosing between TRUSTING God and relying on our own strengths and abilities. TRUST is synonymous with FAITH and without FAITH it's impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Why? It's because the alternative is to TRUST in oneself, to trust in our natural Flesh nature which is the part of us that's limited to the five physical senses, the part that's still unredeemed and corrupted and that's absolutely devoid of God's knowledge and wisdom. A lot of Believers, probably MOST, live primarily out of their Flesh nature and because of that they're often called CARNAL Christians. The word CARNAL simply means to rely on the five physical senses and those five physical senses will ALWAYS take us back to the World systems for our solutions instead of to the Kingdom of God. The only way to get solutions from the Kingdom of God is by FAITH; our natural abilities don't work in there because God doesn't want us TRUSTING in our natural abilities instead of Him. The BLESSING of Abraham comes to us ONLY by FAITH (Galatians 3:15-29) and God has created us to be joined to and dependent upon Him by FAITH instead of going off on our own where we'll ALWAYS find an undesirable result that's way less than God's best.

Connecting to Thanksgiving

Let's connect this back to THANKSGIVING by using the Israelites in the wilderness again as our example just as Scripture INSTRUCTS us to (1 Corinthians 10:11). As we do this keep in mind that the descendants of Jacob had been in slavery in Egypt for more than four hundred years when the Lord sent Moses to Pharaoh to begin the process of delivering them from their bondage. The people had cried out to God for deliverance and He heard them (Exodus 2:23-25) calling on Moses to be His representative. In the course of that deliverance God performed at least twelve major miracles including the burning bush and the parting of the Red Sea to get the Israelites out of bondage and on their way to the Promised Land where they were to take up new residence. It was an eleven-day trip from the Red Sea to the Promised Land but instead it turned out to be a 40-year journey in the wilderness that none of the adults over the age of 20 at the time of their deliverance from Egypt would survive. Why did this happen and why is this example so important for today's Christian?

The Bible says that the Israelites quickly FORGOT about God's power even after all those miracles (Psalm 78:42). As a result they refused to TRUST Him to sustain them there which led to grumbling and complaining which in turn produced INGRATITUDE for what God had done and was continuing to do for them. They even wanted to go back into slavery rather than having to TRUST God (Exodus 16:3). Your first reaction might be to think that had you been in their place you would never have FORGOTTEN God's power. But the Truth is God's still performing miracles today 3,500 years later individually and generally yet most of them either go unnoticed or are quickly FORGOTTEN when we're faced with the next trial. We too FORGET how God delivered us out of our last storm and have trouble TRUSTING that flowing out of His "agape" LOVE He'll show up again and again to lead us out of ALL our wildernesses. If our loss of memory is severe enough we'll readily resort to our Flesh for deliverance and sustenance just as the Israelites did and the result will be a longer stay in the storm because on our own we're absolutely incapable of finding the correct way out.

What would have happened had the Israelites focused on being GRATEFUL for their past deliverance from Egypt instead of being UNGRATEFUL for the circumstances of their new trials? Being THANKFUL for what God has done in the past helps us REMEMBER His power and to TRUST that He'll show up again to help us. It's an unfortunate characteristic of man's unredeemed Flesh nature to FORGET everything God does because it can't be assessed by the five physical senses. So it needs a lot of help to REMEMBER those things and the way to do that is by cultivating a lifestyle based on being frequently and continuously GRATEFUL. We can command our Flesh to REMEMBER past miracles by THANKING God at every opportunity for the SPECIFIC things He's already done for us and it wouldn't be a bad idea to write those things down so we can look at them frequently and REMEMBER.

Connecting to Faith

In sum, REMEMBERING God's past power will help us TRUST Him for deliverance from our present and future challenges of life. In other words THANKSGIVING helps us to develop increasingly stronger FAITH which is required in order to receive GRACE defined as the undeserved favor and empowerment of God. We need these things to be victorious in life and they're not available by the Flesh or in the World systems. They're only available by the Spirit flowing out of the Kingdom of God.

The Bible says that the New Testament Believer is supposed to live by FAITH (Romans 1:17) and that we're to be led through life by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14). But how can we do that successfully if we're people of weak FAITH? Many Christians these days are folks with weak FAITH who've FORGOTTEN God's miracles in their lives. You can begin to change that picture by focusing on becoming GRATEFUL to God and refusing to FORGET His power. Combine that with HEARING the Word of God with understanding (by studying and meditating on it) and your FAITH will become powerful enough to change your circumstances and replace defeat, sickness and insufficiency with VICTORY in every area of life. God has VICTORY for His people because He IS "agape" LOVE and desires only the best for His creation. Any theology to the contrary should be discarded, disregarded and disannulled. God LOVES you, end of story!

Thanks for dropping by tonight. We'll be looking for you again next Sunday evening, on June 10 and we hope you'll continue to join us each week as we continue to study the subject of THANKSGIVING. Until then may God bless you and your family with every spiritual blessing in the Name of Jesus (Ephesians 1:3).

Sinners' Prayer

If you've never invited Jesus to be the Lord of your life, you need to and you can do it today just by saying out loud the following simple prayer:

Jesus I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.

If you were sincere as you prayed this prayer, God has already come into your life and you are a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.

And, when you get a chance have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer today and believing what you said:

Romans 10:9

2 Corinthians 5:17

Ephesians 2:8

Prayer Requests

If you have a Prayer Request, please connect to the Link below and follow the promptings. The PLN staff members pray over Prayer Requests every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM eastern time. Agree with us for God to answer your petition.

http://www.creditcounseling.net/prayer-request.aspx

Donations

If you've been edified by Prosperous Life Newsletter, you may want to consider making a SEED FAITH offering to support the Ministry (Galatians 6:6-7). God has instructed us to simply provide folks with an opportunity to sow seed into good ground so in due season you'll be eligible to reap a harvest and the rest is up to you as the Spirit leads. For your information PLN is a nonprofit gift to the Body of Christ so your financial offerings will usually be tax deductible (consult your tax advisor). Just go to the secure Shopping Cart on the Cornerstone web site by connecting through the following link. We appreciate your support and generosity.

http://www.creditcounseling.net/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1

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