What shall we do to be thankful?

On this Thanksgiving morning, what can we do to stimulate our hearts to gratitude if we are feeling discouraged or unthankful? Thomas Watson answers: “A gracious soul is thankful and rejoices that he is drawn nearer to God, though it may be by the cords of affliction.…When God has a rod in his hand, a […]

Believers have cause for thankfulness

“See what cause the saints have to be frequent in the work of thanksgiving. In this Christians are defective; though they are much in supplication, yet little in gratulation. We meet many Christians who have tears in their eyes, and complaints in their mouths; but there are few with their harps in their hands, who […]

What is Gratitude?

What is gratitude? It’s more than only saying, “thank you” for blessings received, as John Piper explains: …gratitude that is pleasing to God is not first a delight in the benefits God gives (though that will be part of it). True gratitude must be rooted in something else that comes firstnamely, a delight in the […]

God is Good

God is good. So says Psalm 100:5. And Psalm 73:1. And Psalms 34:8, 100:5, 135:3, and 145:9. And the prophets also speak of God’s goodness in Jeremiah 33:11, Lamentations 3:25, and Nahum 1:7. Jesus also affirms the goodness of God (and at the same time asserts His own deity, Mt. 19:17). To say that God […]

Sermon: Give Thanks

Give ThanksPsalm 100November 20, 2022 We live in difficult days (has there ever been a time in the world when we couldn’t say that?). People are trying to define the exact nature of our troubles; one theologian has observed that social observers and politicians and others have called our time, “the age of anxiety, the […]

With every memory, giving thanks

The New Testament both exhorts its readers to give thanks and exemplifies the giving of thanks. Gratitude is a common attribute of the sanctified believer (in part because it is so unlike the natural man). Of all the things that might be said about giving thanks, I want to draw attention to two characteristics of […]

God’s provision for sexual temptation

It is no revelation to say that we live in a sexually-provocative culture. The clothing and entertainment industries are highly sexualized, romance novels with sensational covers abound, advertisers use sex to sell virtually every category of product, news programs are filled with sexual content that would have been considered inappropriate for airing a generation ago, […]

Sermon: Thankful Hearts Giving Thanks

Thankful Hearts Giving Thanks Colossians 3:15-17 November 22, 2020 Rudyard Kipling is one of the most well-known British writers from the 19th and 20th centuries. He penned many poems and such classic stories as How the Leopard Got His Spots and The Jungle Book. His writing made him famous and wealthy. A newspaper reporter approached […]

Today is a day for thankfulness

Today is a day for thankfulness. Every day is a day for thankfulness. Every circumstance is a time for thankfulness. That’s not my opinion. My (personal and fleshly) opinion is that most days are for grumbling, complaining, disputing, and arguing. I do not naturally gravitate to thankfulness. I naturally move towards ingratitude and discontentment. But […]

Sermon: Thanking God for the Past…

Thanking God for the Past; Trusting God for the Future Philippians 1:3-11 June 14, 2020 Sometimes it is hard to give thanks for the circumstances and people of our past. That’s not just true in the past three months, but it’s also true of life in general — illness, unexpected deaths, financial hardship (poverty), broken […]

Coronavirus and gratitude

Here is a short ministry update from Grace Bible Church, and a few thoughts about gratitude during Covid-19:

After the wedding…I’m thankful

“…in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thess. 5:18; NASB) As believers, we know that we are to give thanks always — in all circumstances, at all times, for all people. There are sometimes when that is easier than at other times. The past few weeks has […]

Giving Thanks for 40 years of God’s Faithfulness

This past week, we gave thanks to the Lord as a congregation for His faithfulness to us over the 40 years of the church’s existence. A large amount of time, energy, and financial resources went into that celebration. Is it legitimate to do something like that celebration? Why should we be overt in our expression […]

Sermon: We Give Thanks to God

We Give Thanks to God Colossians 1:3-8 August 11, 2019 A tremendous amount of effort has gone into acknowledging GBC’s 40th anniversary. Hours and hours in planning, interviewing, designing logos, phone calling, ordering (food and shirts and…), setting up tables and chairs, mowing, marking parking, and more. Is it worth the effort? Is there value […]

The Lord, Our Help — for 40 years (and counting)

Much of life is ordinary and routine. Get up in the morning, get a cup of coffee, get the kids ready for school, go to work, come home, pay bills or mow the lawn, go to bed. Get up. Repeat. But periodically, circumstances change unexpectedly, and unusually joyful events are interjected into our lives. Babies […]