Giving Thanks

Date: 29 November 2008
Speaker: Pastor Tan Ye Peng
Venue: City Harvest Church

Ephesians 1:15-16
Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:

Thanking God:

1) Love.

2 Thessalonians 1:3
We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other,

What you do not guard, you lose.

2) Generosity.

John 16:21
A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.

2 Corinthians 9:6-8
But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

The more you give, the more you receive. Its is more blessed to give than to receive. God is a giver, not a taker. Nobody can outgive Him.

3) Faith.

James 2:17
Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Romans 1:8
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

Faith is action done. Without faith, it is impossible to seek Him.

4) Vision.

Isaiah 43:18
“ Do not remember the former things,
Nor consider the things of old.

Thanking God for the past, looking forward to the future.

5) Love for the lost.

Matthew 18:19-20
“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”