Prayed for our July birthday celebrants.
Welcome to the Good News Aces, where we rejoice and praise in any language we can!
Communion – Rempson – We remember Christ’s sacrifice, and His love. We remember our freedom – freedom FROM sin and TO righteousness.
Giving – Jandel – We tend to trust what we can see, but in giving, we trust in the Lord. I have been given to, so I give!
Last Sunday:
We talked about how we’ve made changes in the council, and we’ve decided to derive all of our positions and our papers on one unifying value: ‘Christ-Centered Living’.
Once, the greatest commandments were to love God with all our hearts, and to love others as we love ourselves.
From one perspective we can see Christ centered living is our believing in Jesus Christ (who is the personification of God loving us with all His heart), and to love others as He loves us.
Believing in Jesus Christ is (1) understanding that as He died, so we died, and we are no longer alive to sin and doomed to death, and (2) receiving the Holy Spirit and enjoying the presence of the Creator of all things, for us, not against us, in us as we are in Him, now and for all time and beyond time.
Loving others as He loves us is to respect others as He respects us, holding others in high esteem as He holds us in high esteem. Loving others as He loves us is to be at peace with each other, admonishing, encouraging, helping each other from the same love He has for us.
We can also draw further from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 that Christ-centered Living can also lead to rejoicing in the Lord, praying without ceasing, giving thanks in all circumstances. Christ-centered Living is holding fast to what is good and abstaining from every form of evil.
For lack of time I gave all of us a reason to rejoice always – and that is, as it was advised by Christ, and prescribed by Paul: We rejoice, and again we rejoice because our names are written in the book of life.
We rejoice in victory, defeat, loss, gain, in plenty and in nothing, in life, in death, in sickness and in health, because we have salvation through Christ, marked and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Isaiah 53:10-11
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2
Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see our salvation, and rejoice. He endured the cross for us – we were the joy set before Him.
Times like this I also remember Christ as the Good Shepherd who raised us up on His shoulders, and encouraged the rest of the village to rejoice because He found us.
Jesus rejoiced in our salvation – Let us rejoice, and again I say rejoice, because our names are written in the book of Life!
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Psalms 51:12
Today, we jump forward a bit and talk about where Paul told the Thessalonians: ‘…in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for us‘
Thankfulness is not just a feeling but is demonstrated in actionable steps in life guided by Scripture, leading to peace and strengthened faith. Paul’s exhortation in 1 Thessalonians is foundational: “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing… For this is the will of God for us.”
The Power of Thankfulness
32 Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” 33 And the disciples said to him, “Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?” 34 And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” 35 And directing the crowd to sit down on the ground, 36 he took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 37 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over. Matthew 15:32-37
Compassion goes beyond intimidation.
(1) Thankfulness precedes breakthroughs, and comes from breakthroughs.
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” John 11:33-44
Compassion disregards shallow details.
Faith allows us to direct out focus. Faith prepares us to behold the glory of God.
(2) Gratitude precedes peace, revival and resurrection. Gratitude comes from peace, revival and resurrection.
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”1 Corinthians 11:23-24
Whether it’s godly sorrow or the goodness of God that leads us to repentance, we give thanks either way.
(3) Gratitude precedes salvation. Gratitude comes from salvation.
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:12-17
Gratitude and thankfulness works in us, and works around us.
It’s not an emotion. It’s one of the many things we’re brought to do naturally.
We give thanks as an action and a reaction.
It may not always be easy, but the act of giving thanks is a powerful step towards God’s peace and strength within us. Encourage small steps like expressing gratitude during communal prayers or writing down things to appreciate each day as part of spiritual discipline (Colossians 3:16-17).
Thankfulness brings us to praise, and in praise, we give thanks.
Cite the worship as an example – We were singing ‘salamat’, before we naturally sang, ‘sa lahat ng panahon, Diyos ka sa amin’.
Our faithfulness in giving thanks is a reward in itself as behold Jesus’ example—the ultimate model of gratitude.
We continued our series on Christ-centered living, this time focusing on gratitude and thankfulness.
We touched base on how compassion drives us beyond intimidation and inconvenience. Our God-given desire to help others trumps our own comfort.
Thankfulness precedes breakthroughs, revelations, and even our salvation. And it works the other way around. In breakthrough, in revelations, and when we remember our salvation, we could not help but give thanks.
Rejoicing and thankfulness come together. When you thank God, you’re naturally rejoicing. When you rejoice, you’ll find yourself thanking God.
Trust God in rejoicing, and all the while thanking Him. Flow with the Holy Spirit – rejoicing and gratitude come naturally to those in the body of Christ.
Yeah, we more or less went through the sequence… As always, could be better, but could be worse. Let’s keep learning, let’s keep practicing, let’s keep striving to get better.
To God be all the glory! Halleluyah!
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
Leave a comment