This article, The Power of a Thankful Sermon, is written to provide inspiration in helping you craft a message on being thankful or the benefits of thanksgiving. You can use this to create a sermon on thanksgiving and anything related to giving thanks from the heart.
Introduction
One of the biggest human responses to anything being done is the show of appreciation and gratitude. Before one can show gratitude and appreciation appropriately, the heart must be aligned with that agenda.
If you do not have a thankful heart, it would be extremely difficult to show appreciation to God and people when they do things for you.
There are so many benefits that are attached to being thankful as we will see from scriptures very soon. Today’s sermon on the power of a thankful heart is going to show us the need for thanksgiving, the dangers of failing to have a thankful heart, and why we must always be full of thanksgiving to God.
Objective
The objective of this sermon is to help the believer to understand the need for a thankful heart and how to cultivate one.
Scripture Focus
Psalm 92:1
From our anchor scripture, the Bible declares that it is a good thing to give thanks to God. This is all the indication we need to know that God wants us to always give him thanks.
The truth though is that we can never fully give God thanks except we have a thankful heart. Let’s see a few scriptures about what the Bible says on a thankful heart.
What Does the Bible Say About a Thankful Heart?
From the following scriptures, we can see what the Bible says about having a thankful heart:
- Psalm 9:1-2
- Psalm 28:7
- Psalm 100:4-5
- Romans 1:21
- Philippians 4:6
- Colossians 3:15
- 1 Thessalonians 5:18
All of these scriptures point us to the fact that having a thankful heart is important for being grateful. We will not be able to give thanks to God or sing His praises as Psalms put it.
Before we go into why it is important to have a thankful heart, let us look at what it means to have a thankful heart.
What Does it Mean to Have a Thankful Heart?
There are three things to point out about what it means to have a thankful heart. They include:
- Having a thankful heart means having a heart that recognizes the things that God has done for you
- It is having a heart that responds on the basis of a recognition with words of thanksgiving and appreciation.
- It is having a heart that sings of the praises of God for who He is and the things He has done for us
This is essentially what it means to have a thankful heart. You recognize what God has done for you – how He has preserved you, how He has kept your family, provided and supplied for your needs, healed you or your children, and much more.
It is on the basis of what He has done and not just physically but also the spiritual blessings that He brings our way and the sacrifice of His son Jesus. All of these are the basis for which we should have a thankful heart and offer thanksgiving to God.
That’s what Psalm 103:2 talks about.
Why is it Important to Have a Thankful Heart?
There are several reasons why it is important to have a thankful heart. The following are some of the reasons for us to be thankful:
A thankful heart creates room for more (Luke 9:16-17 AMP)
The story of the feeding of 5000 men excluding women and children is a popular one. It is nothing short of a miracle and for me it is completely mind-blowing.
How can five loaves of bread and two fishes multiply beyond economic and mathematical understanding to feed 5000 men? Women and children were not counted but you reckon they’d be more.
This miracle happened on the basis of thanksgiving. When you read Luke 9:16-17, the Bible tells us that Jesus took the five loaves of bread and fish and gave thanks.
After giving thanks, the bread began to multiply. Trying to explain this miracle is impossible but then it happened because there was someone who recognized the power of a thankful heart.
A thankful heart brings perfection (Luke 17:17-19 KJV)
We are also familiar with the story of the ten lepers and how Jesus asked them to go and show themselves to the priest which brought about their healing.
One of them upon realizing that they had been healed, returned to Jesus and was full of appreciation. The scripture then says that Jesus told him he had been made whole. This clearly shows that when we are grateful, perfection takes place.
If you want to see perfection in your life, you should be thankful to God.
A thankful heart causes supply (Psalm 67:5-6 KJV)
The focus scripture for this point clearly says when we are thankful, the Earth will yield her increase. It clearly indicates that when we are thankful, everything on the Earth is forced to produce for us.
If we want to make things work for us, then we must be thankful for the things that God has done for us.
The Earth yielding her supply does not work for farmers or does in agriculture alone. Provided you are sewing into the Earth, either as an artisan, a 9-5, or what have you, the Earth is not permitted to be unfruitful to you as long as you have a thankful heart.
If you want to experience fruitfulness, then be thankful.
A thankful heart provokes the blessing (Psalm 67:5-6 KJV)
God blesses where He sees thanks. If you can thank God for the things He has done already, He is going to do more.
The verse we just saw says that God will bless us when we praise His name. A thankful heart provokes the Blessing of God and there are so many things that the Blessing of God does for us that we cannot fully capture in this sermon, maybe in another sermon on the Blessing.
How to Have a Thankful Heart
Having seen the importance or power of a thankful heart, what can you do to make your heart one?
- Think of everything God has done for you (Psalm 103:2). When you think about the things God has done for you, except you are ungrateful, you will see reasons to be thankful
- Always meditate on the things that God has done for you and not allow the devil to blindside you with the things you are still waiting for
- Get a journal and write out every blessing, miracle, favor, help, and assistance you have enjoyed in your life. Write as many as you can remember.
- Be full of worship to God
- Make it a habit to thank God each day (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
Conclusion
I believe that you have been blessed reading through this sermon notes on The Power of a Thankful Heart. It is my earnest desire that God breathes on all that you have read and that you become inspired to craft a powerful sermon for your congregation.