THANKFULNESS

SUNDAY SERVICE JAN 31ST 2016 BY REV. OWEN WAFULA Thanksgiving has two parts: Thanks: We come to thank God Give: We come to give back to God So we come into the presence of God to do both. If you don’t do so the devil can easily redirect you and you get an ungrateful heart. You henceforth start blaming others and complaining. This is not from God. A discontented person becomes the devils target. There are things the devil makes them look attractive and if you have an ungrateful heart, you fall prey. Its always good to remember to give thanks. No one can give thanks if they have a short memory. If you give someone something and they cant remember, they can never say thank you. And if they come next time, since they dint remember to say thank you, you may not give them. There are people with short memories that they cant remember what god has done for them 1 Chronicles 16:1-36 Points to note on Good thankfulness 1. Remember what God has done The Israelites at the red sea forgot what God had done. Moses told them the Lord who had brought them out of Egypt would deliver them. God has seen you through 2015, what is it that is making you afraid in 2016? He shall surely see you through. God made a way through the red sea, they got to the desert, no food, no water and they started murmuring again for they had a short memory. We are alive today because God has kept us. Remember what God has done for other people. Dissatisfaction comes the moment we shift attention from what we have to what we don’t have, when you stop thinking of things you have to things you don’t have. Numbers 11:4-6 When God gives us something, He protects it but when man gives us something, that has an end. Though the Israelites had manna (food of the angels) they still complained and longed for food they ate in Egypt. They forgot that they had to pay for it with hard labour. Learn to be careful. 2. Telling others about what God has done Give a personal testimony of what God has done. For the bible tells us they overcame by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. 1 Chronicles 16:8-9, Psalms 105:1-4, Leviticus 7:2 Chronicles 16:8-9, Psalms 105:1-4, Leviticus 7:28-38 You have to personally bring the sacrifice to the Lord. By that you will be publicly declaring what God has done. Take time to personally communicate your thanks to God and others who have done you good. 3. Show God’s glory to others 1 Chronicles 16:10,24-25,28,29-34 Publish His glorious deeds among the nations. God has done us a lot that we need to tell others, people will get saved Acts 3:4-13 Peter took the opportunity to publicize the glorious God. If you are grateful to what God has done, show His glory to other people. Giving praise and gratitude brings glory to God for we have been created to glorify Him. 4. Offering gifts of self, time and resources Romans 12:1 You yourself become a sacrifice to God Hannah asked for a son and promised to give the child to God. She lived to fulfill her promise Most people make vows but never fulfill them. Lets give ourselves, time as a sacrifice to God. For theres no valuable thing we can give to someone other than time. If God quantifies what he does for us, even if we sell our whole generation we can never pay back. There will be no great overflow until we are thankful to God Proverbs 3:9, 1 Chronicles 29:9, Exodus 25:5 1Chronicles 16:8-9, 29,37 5. Give offerings of resources God has blessed us with material things. Share them and serve the Lord with gratitude.

Sunday service 17th Jan 2016 Pastor Owen Wafula Galatians 2:20, 5:24 - When Jesus hung on the cross, he did away with the old man. The flesh was crucified. - Those who are with Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passion and desire. - The man of sin does not live in us. He was settled once and for all. Jesus Christ becomes our new man, he becomes everything. This is what God expects from us as His children. He becomes our king and the work of a king is to rule or control his domain. Indeed if He is Lord in our lives, what He declares happens - We struggle because we do not know who we are. We fall in to sin because we do not know what dwell in us, we don’t know who is in control of our lives, we are attracted by simple things the devil holds n this leads us into sin. - However along with this dwelling in our lives, the natural man is in us, the self in us. We love ourselves; we want the best for ourselves. The natural person remains even when the old man is done away with, the free will to choose what we want to do. - Self exists in every Christian. David was to be in the battlefield but saw a naked woman , the natural man comes up and orders the lady to be brought. He had pleased God, He worshipped, loved God but look at what he did, self choosing to do what he wants to do. All of us choose to do things because we want to them, it is my choice. The natural person is there. God did away with the sinful man but the natural person is there. This is what God encounters in us. Once we get saved God faces away the natural man and starts dealing with the sinful man. - When we get to the point of asking God what He wants us to do, we are about to be saints. - Case study: Jacob - Jacob knew the intention of God in his life because the mother knew it. The bible says the older shall serve the younger. But these people took it upon themselves to do what God had planned to do. Most of us don’t wait for God to show us how to do things but we take it and do as our strength. Saul was to go to war but went against the will of God. He became inpatient, the self in him pushed him to light the fire, Smuel came in saw what saul had done and asked him what have u done? Haven’t you been instructed? And he said Samuel you had delayed and the philistines were approaching, Self can drive us against God. Saul did the right thing but he was not the one to do it. It is the self, natural man that pushed him. We find proud in natural man. - Jacob and his mother did the will of God but in the wrong way. We need to be careful so that we don’t fall victim of this. Jacob almost lost his life because of doing things the wrong way. - God does not only hate sin but the natural person. The devil tested jesus in three areas. Jesus was not a sinner though. He had mastered the natural person in him, he did not give in. These are same areas that Christians are tested. - Our eyes are attracted to things, that’s the natural man - God’s dealing with us on the natural man area areas God deals with 2corinthians 13:14 - God is confronting the natural person in us to bring us to the position of weakness that Christmas so that we can give our natural person to him for Him to take full control. - By us choosing to forgive people may appear weakness in the eyes of people but before God it is great power. The position we take may appear weak but we are strong in the Lord. This is because we have given full control to the Lord. We allow Him to work on our behalf and men will see that we are strong. There’s not point to proof because our Lord proved it on the cross and that is enough. - Most times we plan and do things without consulting God. The natural man is progressively incapacitated until he seems dead when we read and act on the word of God. This is where we no longer live but Christ lives. - In Antioch, where people were first called Christians, the faithful ones were abused “these small Christ’s” because they lived like Christ and that’s why they were called Christians. Today we feel proud to be called Christians yet it cost people lives in the past. - Jacob went through so much until he was giving up. He was going to meet his brother Esau and dint know what would come out. God touched him and he changed both physically and spiritually. He became a completely different person for God to use. - Why would God touch us this way?? Paul teaches us that we are in Christ and Christ in us. We invite Christ publicly when we got saved; Christ brings a difference in our lives. The reality in the outside affects the inside. - What happens to us like loving people we never expected, it’s not by our work but by the Holy spirit. When you allow Christ to do that, he will do it. The spirit brings discipline in you through outwards circumstances that lead formation of Christ in us. He works in us and allows Christ’s character to form in us - Galatians 4:19 - When Christ is formed inside us we will automatically reflect his character. There will be no struggle, so that we live a life that is in a new sense derived from him. - Once Christ is formed inside me, the life that I live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God. The time we are living is the time of the Holy Spirit. Everything that God does is by His Spirit. He brings the character of Christ to be formed in us. Hebrews 12:5-11 - God disciplines those he loves for our own good and we become partakers of His holiness. For He says be Holy for I am Holy. For without Holiness no man shall see God. We have to attain the discipline of God to attain his character of Holiness so that it can be revealed in us.