“Giving Credit to God in All Things” By Chris Ulrich October 25th,
2009 This message had three parts: 1.
What does
it mean to give credit to God? 2.
Why don’t
people want to give credit to
God? 3.
It doesn’t cost
anything to give credit to
God, but, what’s in it for me? What does it mean to give
credit to God? Luke
17:12-18 Jesus
healed ten lepers,
but only one returned to give thanks.
In Jesus’ day, there were some that
came for the fishes and the loaves, but there were some that sought Him
with a
whole heart. Granted,
there are people
with physical needs, and we shouldn’t ignore those needs. To give credit to God for
meeting our needs
means being thankful and keeping His commandments. John
14:15 If
ye love me, keep my
commandments.
The world is getting worse, but
Jesus warned us about that. Titus
2:11-14 …grace…hath
appeared to all
men…
There are some people who have
suffered a lot in this world; they have endured the worst tragedies
imaginable. Some of
those people are the
most generous and loving people. I
didn’t have a lot of difficult situations, but God dealt with me to get
right. The grace of
God is the promise
of eternal life. That
is open to
everyone. Ecclesiastes
11:8 …remember
the days of darkness;
for they shall be many…
Nobody goes through this life
unscathed. Why don’t people
want to give credit to God? Jeremiah
2:32 …My
people have forgotten Me
days without number.
This was an admonition to Psalms
10:1-4 …God
is not in all his
thoughts…the pride of his countenance… No matter what anybody else does, I’m still going to live this life. Wickedness will still be here, but I’m going to strive to be the man that God wants me to be. Some examples of people not giving God credit: Acts
12:21-23 Herod
gave not God the
glory and was eaten of worms. In Ecclesiastes 8:11, it says that God’s judgment is not executed speedily, but this would be the exception. We should thank God for the good and the bad. Daniel
4:18, 22, 27-37 … Daniel (whose Babylonian name was Belteshazzar) warned Nebuchadnezzar, and the king was able to avoid judgment for one year, but eventually his pride got the better of him, and God showed Nebuchadnezzar His power, and the king gave God the credit at the end. The point is that the Word of God is not some fairytale, it is real. Micah
6:6-8 …do
justly, … love mercy, and
to walk humbly with thy God? There are too few churches that really preach the Truth. It’s not wrong to thank people or to pay compliments; in fact, we Christians probably say thanks and offer compliments to other people much more than they do to us (but we don’t keep score). Ecclesiastes
12:13-14 …
God shall bring every work
into judgment… Matthew
12:36 …every
idle word will be
considered in judgment.
It is important that we thank
God for what He has done for us, praise God for who He is, and give
credit to
God for His grace and mercy. It doesn’t cost anything to give credit to God, but, what’s in it for me? Luke
6:35 …He
is kind unto the
unthankful… Although He will not be particularly kind at judgment, in this life, He will give them every chance to repent. I tried to read the Bible before I came to know God, but it just didn’t make sense to me. It wasn’t until I had a desire to truly understand, and, even then, I had to accept that I wasn’t going to understand every little thing. You don’t have to understand the whole Bible. God values us as human beings. Matthew
10:27-32 …ye
are of more value than
many sparrows. God knows that we have busy lives, but, there is a reward for giving Him credit. 1
Corinthians 2:9 …Eye
hath not seen,
nor ear heard… the things which God hath prepared for them that love
him. Proverbs
4:18 We
make progress… Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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