The Power of Thanksgiving _Pt 4

<p>Friday 4th December 2020</p> <p>Hello and a lovely Friday to you in the name of Jesus.</p> <p>We are still talking about The Power of Thanksgiving.</p> <p>Thanksgiving has the power to change things and make things happen for us.</p> <p>We will read today from the book of John 11: 39 - 44 (NLT)</p> <p>39 “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them.</p> <p>But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”</p> <p>40 Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?”</p> <p>41 So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me.</p> <p>42 You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.”</p> <p>43 Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”</p> <p>Even in the face of death, the power of thanksgiving can change things.</p> <p>This year 2020 has been a challenging year in so many ways; death, losses and all sorts of painful thing has happened. And as we move gradually to the end of this year, it is easy to say, just like Martha did, “we give up” It's easy to say “let’s shut everything down” and just go out in pain, sorrow”. But, in the face of all that, Jesus said “don’t shut down the thing yet, open it up, roll away the stone, a miracle can still happen. The lady, Martha said “Lord, it's already a dead issue. He's been dead for 4 days”. You too might have said "things have been so bad in the last 4 weeks, 4 months, 4years; or the last quarter of the year has been so bad". In spite of that Jesus said, “open it up again and if you believe, you will see the glory of God”.</p> <p>What did God do afterwards?</p> <p>When they gave him a chance by opening up the grave (situation), what did Jesus do? He looked up and said “Father, I thank you!” He didn