BIRTHDAY SKETCH

TO GIVE THANKS TO GOD

Luke 17:11-19

Introduction:

We have a great and wonderful God, a good and powerful God, who fills us with favors and mercies.
every day, every day. A God, who has not dealt with us according to our iniquities, nor has He
paid according to our sins. Therefore, we have many great reasons and very powerful motives
for which to be and to feel grateful to our good God and Heavenly Father.

I. What is giving thanks?

Giving thanks is the turning back (then one of them, seeing that he had been healed, returned, glorifying God
in a loud voice (v15) or to reciprocate with expressions or actions towards someone who has done us a favor, or has...
provided help or has done us good; when someone gifts us something, we approach them with a
a smile or a hug or with words of gratitude and the more valuable the gift, favor, or help is
The more we receive, the greater our gratitude for the one who gives it to us.

And it is those actions and expressions that we give or do when we recognize the gesture and kindness of
someone for with us, those who make us be grateful and the lack of them makes us be bad
grateful.

Now, giving thanks to God is the response of a humble heart, a heart that does not forget and that
recognizes the wonderful blessings that God gives him. Giving or saying thank you is part of education,
but for us giving thanks to God must be a devotion. Every child of God must be
grateful, we must express gratitude to God with our lips, we must bless his name and give him
Thanksgiving. (Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Ps. 103:1)
Ensure that all your life, that all your being, is a thanksgiving to God, let us not forget that
We have many reasons to give thanks.

Giving thanks is not done simply or only with words, but also with actions, and I believe
Honestly, many children of God lack that.

II. Why should we give thanks to God?

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! 2 Cor 9:15

If we started to list all the reasons to thank God, our list would never end.
For life, health, food, for His sacrifice, for rescuing us from sin, from the devil, from death, for the
gift of being called their children, by their Spirit, their grace, by their presence, by their eternal love, by their
goodness, because He is good, because He has given us great and powerful privileges, He has made us princes and
priests, he guards us from all evil, he has given us victory, he has made us free and more than conquerors, etc.
etc. etc.)
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

All of us who are children of God should be aware of all the favors and of all the
the mercies that God gives us, but unfortunately it is not so, sometimes we live without the understanding of what
God does in us and for us, not to mention what He has already done and what He will still do. Can you
List one by one the blessings, favors, and mercies that God has given you today? Without
count what you have done for your family, now list what you have done in gratitude to God today. I know that
We can never, no matter how much or all that we do, repay God for what he does for us, never.
we can!, we will be eternally indebted, but we can be grateful and be thankful for the
eternity.
Oh, if we only knew the gift of God and who it is that gives it to us!

III. Why do we often not give thanks to God? Is it because we are not grateful?

Have you stopped to think whether you are thankful to God or not? One of the reasons why we are not...
We are grateful precisely for the lack of knowledge of all the things that God does for us.

If we knew, and God has told me this several times, if you really knew what God did.
and he does and will still do for us, which is what He has given us and who we are to Him, we would all be
days, all the time on our knees worshiping and thanking Him. If we were truly aware,
knowing of his work through us and in us, we should be grateful. Let us learn to recognize all the
God's works in our lives, because many times we expect surprising things, miracles.
wonderful and we are so looking forward to it, that we don't realize that God is already acting so
subtly and habitually we make the mistake of assuming facts as logical or natural and not
we give glory to God, we do not give thanks because we think it happened because it had to happen or because
It was obvious or logical that it would happen, and we do not realize the extraordinary miracle that God made so that
happened.

God was not in the Fire, nor in the whirlwind nor in the earthquake when He spoke to Elijah in the cave, He
was in the peaceful whistle, of a soft wind. "Acknowledge him in all your ways and he will make your paths straight.
paths

Another reason is that we are forgetful, that is, we forget what God does ("Blesses,
My soul, bless the Lord, and do not forget any of his benefits" Psalm 103:2) But what happens? We forget and far away
to thank, what we do is murmur. God spoke to Israel and said: ('Take care not to forget about
The Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Dt 6:12) And this was the first thing He did
Israel forgot the great wonders that Jehovah did for them, to free them, He opened the Red Sea.
they all passed through dry, they saw with their own eyes that wonderful scene, they saw the column of fire and
they received the shade that the cloud provided them during the day and if that weren't enough, it gave them water to drink from a rock
and I fed them with bread from heaven, the manna. And they never gave thanks, what they did was murmur and they said:
We should have stayed in Egypt, here we will die, we have nothing else to eat, just imagine.
they were fed up with the manna, a unique and amazing thing, but it was not enough for them. And that happens to us
We too, sometimes we are wishing and thinking so much about what we do not have that we cannot see what we do have.
wonderful that God has given us, we spend time lamenting over such absurd things, because he
the neighbor has more or has what we want, because things don't turn out the way we want and we are not
happy, we do not let others be so, due to our murmuring, which is very unpleasant for God.

For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor did they give thanks, but they became
they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened" Ro 1:21 Let us learn, beloved, to
Do not forget that without God we are less than nothing, we are nothing without Him. Let us not forget that He is the one who provides.
All things, through Him all things exist and all is for Him. Let us not forget any favor from God no matter how small.
small that you see, because God does not do small things, but if it is little for your eye, be thankful for that little
So then, learn to see the great things that God does for you and be grateful. Let’s not make the
same error as Israel let us not forget who God is and what He does for us, He took us out of slavery of
sin and of the world and has made us free, let us not prefer to go back, rather let us be grateful and
Let us value all the goodness that God does for us, because He doesn't have to do it but He does.
because it has pleased him, because it is in his heart to do us good. Because ("By the mercy of the Lord,
we have not been consumed, because their mercies never failed") Lam 3:22 Let us learn to be
thankful at all times, for everything and in everything. The word says in 1 Thess. 5:18 'Give thanks in everything, because '
this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus

Another reason we do not thank God is because we do not believe in Him, we believe more in the enemy than in Him.
God himself.

Why does God tell you: I am with you until the end, I will not leave you nor forsake you, I am the one who keeps you,
Who supported you with my right hand, do not fear, you can do everything in me, your house your family is in my
hands, but then Satan comes and starts telling you in your mind you can't, you're alone, no one is
with you, you are a failure, you will not be able to against me, evil will come and will reach you and yours and you instead of
rebuke him and tell him what God has said to you, you start to listen to him more, to believe in his lies and to
depressing yourself, filling yourself with sadness and resentments that do not do you good, and you begin to live in the devil's lie.
for not believing God who has told you that He has a different, true, glorious, and victorious life for you.

We created God because 'God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent...'
Num 23:19 if He has said it, He will do it. Let us live not by sight but by faith.

IV. How can we be thankful or give thanks to God?

The best way to do it is as the Spirit says.

1. Expressions: opening our lips, our mouth expressing beautiful words, sentences, praises.
Always expressing gratitude to God becomes praise. Heb 13:15 'therefore let us always offer to
God, through Him, a sacrifice of lips that confess his name

And praise is powerful, and the enemy Satan knows this very well, that is why he does many things to
take away the praise from our lips, because when a people praises God, wonderful things happen,
It was with praise that the walls of Jericho fell, with praise to God the chains break, the ground trembles
land, battles are won, victory is obtained, the enemy flees. Praise from the heart, in spirit and in
truth, it is what God desires, because He seeks such worshipers, become one of them. Let's open
Our lips with complete freedom and let us express to our God and Lord all the gratitude of our heart.
Because He is waiting for it from you and me.

2. Actions: giving thanks is to do, it is to act. It is to stop doing evil, it is to completely surrender to
God all areas of our life, is to give God all the glory, all the control of our being completely,
spirit, soul, and body. Thanksgiving is doing God's will and not ours. In Romans 12:1 it says 'thus
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
pleasing to God, which is your rational worship" is to leave a specific time without interruptions, without
distraction, for God, giving thanks is a surrender, it is a commitment, both the monetary offering and
the offering of our life is an act of thanksgiving.

Conclusion:

Let us not be like the nine indifferent and ungrateful lepers. Let us live pleasing and being.
Grateful to God, every day, all day, at all times and in all places.

God bless you.

Psalm 100.

First preached by Father Diego Teh Reyes, in the congregation “God is here”
Lepán, municipality of Tecoh, Yuc; on Saturday, January 24, 2015, at 7:00 PM, due to the action of
Thanks offered by the parents of Febe Yaritza, for her birthday and baptism.

INTRODUCTION:

Our text for today tells us: 'Enter His gates with thanksgiving', and the rest of the
Psalms tells us that we must show God through our attitudes that we are grateful.
He for all his blessings. / What are the attitudes with which we must demonstrate to God that
Are we truly grateful to Him for His blessings? / Through a simple observation
from the words of Psalm 100, we will find what such attitudes must be, which are evidently
they are attitudes that are present in our hearts, and undoubtedly in the hearts of the parents of
Febe Yaritza.

The first attitude with which we must show our gratitude to God is:

I.- RECOGNIZING HIM AS OUR CREATOR.

We will begin by observing the words that say, "Acknowledge that the Lord is God; He made us, and...
not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture” (Psalm 100:3). A
Throughout the history of humanity, it has been difficult for human beings to recognize that
Jehovah is God, for there are those who even doubt his existence, and there are those who, despite the fact that they ...
They reject its existence by deciding to omit the obedience that He asks for. As a result, beings...
Humans, throughout history, have created gods based on their own regions and cultures.
imaginary ones that they have worshipped because they do not want to acknowledge that Jehovah is God.

Additionally, those who do not recognize Him as God cannot accept that 'He made us, and not
we to ourselves,” and even theories have been developed such as the one of evolution that the
human being comes from a millennia-long process of evolution from the monkey, resulting in the version in the
what we are today. But for those of us who acknowledge that Jehovah is God, we also recognize that He is
our Creator, and therefore He has the right to receive our honor and gratitude as the one who
Today not only does Febe have parents, but also each one of us.

The second attitude with which we must show our gratitude to God is:
II.- SERVING HIM WITH JOY.

Psalm 100, exhorting every person, especially those who belong to His people,
it says: "Serve the Lord with gladness;..." (Psalm 100:2). This is another of the attitudes with which
we must show God that we are grateful to Him. To serve, not out of obligation or enslavement,
but voluntarily, not with laziness, complaints, sloth, etc... but 'with joy'. There are those who do it
they do it with joy, but there are those who barely offer the slightest of their service to God, without
be willing to serve you in greater things that require time, strength, distance, etc... They lack
joy, because they are not convinced that Jehovah is the only and true God who blesses them
every day of their lives.

Sometimes, we act like children who, when given the order to do something
responsibility at home, they show their unwillingness to obey their parents, and if they obey, they do not
necessarily with joy. God does not want this type of children in his people. God wants a service
personal that is not in competition with others, but a manifestation of a personal life
of constant worship through our actions. That is why a life of service to God with
Joy is a way of expressing gratitude for the endless blessings we receive daily, right?
only in our families, like when a family member has another birthday, like it is the
case of Febe on this day; but also for her infinite spiritual blessings with which He us
keeps in his saving grace.

The third attitude with which we can show our gratitude to God is:

III. REJOICING IN HIS PRESENCE.

Another exhortation we find in this Psalm is: "Come before his presence with
joy" (Psalm 100:2b). The worshiper of the time of the author of this psalm, when they came to the sanctuary
from Jerusalem, he was sure that he was going to meet God there, and that was reason enough for him to be
with Him with joy, for the worshiper does not deserve to be before God but deserves to be
struck by the glory of God's holiness, he was treated with mercy and remained alive
in front of His presence. How can one not be in front of Him with joy! If you attend a funeral without
doubt that would reflect some sorrow or sadness on her face. If you were in front of an illustrious person or
famous shaking hands, no doubt you will look into their eyes and share with them your best
smiles. If you were faced with a criminal, you would feel fear and surely even wish for and do
do everything possible to distance yourself from their presence. But since you as a worshipper find yourself
before the presence of God who mercifully preserves your life, you have reasons
sufficient to manifest before Him not only a symptom of joy, but a rejoicing, or
sea, a deep joy.

Today, just like in the past there in the Israelite tabernacle, and then in the temple of Jerusalem, the
presence of God although not manifested to human visibility as it happened with the cloud of glory
of God who was over those sacred places, should be equally exterminating for us in
the present, but the merits of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ have brought us a
abundant and greater divine mercy than that which the Israelites had. God's love for us
It should also be reason for us to rejoice in his presence.
 CONCLUSION: Beloved brothers, I am going to talk to you about a woman who, like every good mother,
family, who was rushing to achieve all the daily goals they had set for themselves, had
a medical appointment with the specialist, to which I was arriving late; so in the middle of my hurry, I did not
she found a good place to park, so, anxious, she raised her prayer to the sky, saying:
"Lord, please, perform the miracle of providing for me a place to park..." He had just finished
to pronounce that, when a car started to come out of its space, leaving the best spot free, in front of the
Which, she hurried to add... "Forget it, Sir, I've already found one!"[1]Instead of thanking God for the
having had a place to park, the woman attributed the outcome to her skill in
search. Similarly to that woman, sometimes or maybe many times, believers tend not to
be appropriately thankful to God when we have been blessed by God's grace.

On this occasion of Thanksgiving that Febe Yaritza's parents share with us,
let's analyze, each one personally if we are having attitudes of gratitude towards God, or
we are having attitudes of arrogance thinking that it is our own efforts that bring us
They make it possible to achieve what we have every day. God expects us all to be grateful people: 1.-
Recognizing Him as our Creator; 2.- Serving Him with joy; and 3.- Rejoicing in His
presence.