Kingdom Refocus Part 1 by Pastor Philip Olubakin: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

An Attitude of Gratitude

Today is Thanksgiving service, so before returning to the theme of the year, Kingdom, let's focus on giving God thanks.

Psalm 124:1-6

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up alive. Then the waters had overwhelmed us, and the stream had gone over our soul. Blessed be the Lord who had not given us as a prey to their teeth.

When you thank God like this, you thank God for the battles you saw and won, and for the battles you didn't even see, because you don't know what the enemy was planning. People are angry against you for no reason, offended just by you looking good. Why were the brothers of Joseph angry with him? He was just having great dreams. Your enemies will not overpower you.

Psalm 124:7

Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler, the snare is broken, and we are escaped.

My testimony is not that I didn't go through anything, my testimony is that I went through it and I came out. I didn't die in it. Things were bad, but God saw me through it.

Psalm 103:1-6

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things.

It is the forgetful soul that is ungrateful, the soul that forgets that God is the one who woke you this morning. Nobody here can wake himself up. Sleeping and waking is underrated, it is a miracle. Some people have slept and did not wake up.

He forgave your iniquities, that's your salvation. He healed your diseases, you can sit, you can stand, you can stretch your hands. Everything in your body is working on its own, your heart is beating, your blood is flowing, and it is God.

Gratitude is a permanent attitude you must maintain. No matter what has happened, think of the worst case. I've lost money, I've done investments that crashed, but I've not died. Where there is life there is hope. No matter what you have lost, if you are alive, you can get it back.

The blessing is in what is left. In an accident, the argument is not about who is right, but who is left. What can you gather from what you have left? God will never leave you without a seed to begin your life again. When he destroyed the world, he left Noah and his family, something with which to start again.

Lamentations 3:22-23

It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not, they are new every morning, great is his faithfulness.

Four things we are thanking God for

1. The grace to see this year. Not everybody who started the year with us is still here. Some have finished their assignment and lived well, and it is not for all of us to live forever. It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed.

2. Safety to go out and come back. To go out and come back in this country is a testimony. On a day I was travelling from Lagos, I was delayed for hours by traffic and became angry, complaining bitterly the whole way. Later I learned that a tanker had fallen on the road ahead and over twenty people had died. I knelt down and apologized to God. Many people would have preferred to arrive late rather than not arrive at all.

   Psalm 91:1-3

   He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

   It's God that secured your life. We are not better than the people it happened to, we are just favored, we are just helped.

3. Provision despite rising costs. When my wife and I married in 2012, a bag of rice was 8,000 naira, now it's about 70,000. Yet everyone here has food in your mouth, you are not starving. Some of you didn't know how you were going to pay your rent, but somehow you have paid it every month this year.

   Philippians 4:19

   My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory.

4. Good health. After God, I believe health is the most important thing, before wealth and family. It doesn't matter how much you have, if you are not healthy you cannot enjoy it. One single medical crisis can drown all your savings. People have sold everything they had and still died. But look at you: you can sleep without drugs, you can stand without assistance. Satan's major distraction is to take your eyes off what is working and put them on what is not, but what is working is far more important than what is not.

Satan's major distraction is to take your eyes off everything that is working and put your eyes on the things that are not. Take your eyes off the business that's not working and put them on the brain that is working, the kidneys that are working. Not everyone made it. Not everyone that went out came back alive.