Thank You Lord

The Faith Community of Saint Sabina, October 10, 2010,  11:15am service, the Reverend Father Dr. Michael Louis Pfleger sermon

When you are going through stuff, you can praise God even in the midst of your struggles.

You can praise God. God I will give you some glory.

I will praise him all by myself. The praise is automatic. It will burst out of you. Thank you Lord Jesus I give you glory.

When you get to that place, when you have that kind of praise, you don’t need anyone to validate you.

You give God praise just because you want to praise him. You will break protocol, rubrics and everything else.

You will get to a point in your life where if nobody else will praise him you will praise him.

If it had not been for God…I’m one of them. What’s so interesting is that there are still people who look upon praise with that cynical eye.

You ought to have some control, some self respect, some dignity.

Is there anybody who has had a but for God experience. You will start to open your mouth and praise him.

When you have a but for God experience that picked you up when life was trying to wipe you out, you will know that God is good and his goodness eclipses the badness of what I’m going through.

I will bless the Lord at all times. I will give him glory. Psalm 107 begins with two words…give thanks…we give thanks when someone has done something for you.

When someone has brought you a gift. It warrants a response.

Now unfortunately we live in a day where there are a whole lot of ungrateful folks. They just take things for granted.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, enter his courts with praise. He’s done some stuff for me.

God told Joshua and the Israelites when they came out of the river, build an altar right here.

When you come through some stuff, God wants you to remember that you did not do this on your own.

By the blood of Jesus I am still here. Thank you God.

Children aren’t real grateful. They just expect. You are suppose to do this for me.

Adolescents start to become a little more grateful, just a little. Then they become demonic. They just throw the clothes around that you bought. You sacrificed so they can have something.

When they pay for it they take better care of it and guard it.

Jesus came to me when I couldn’t get to him. If you knew the cost, you would understand why I am so grateful and why I am so thankful.

 It was the goodness of God for me to get here this morning. The goodness of God makes me say thank you.

When you are lying in the bed just say thank you. Somebody didn’t get up this morning. You ought to be grateful.

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good (and his mercy endures forever). It is not about a circumstance or situation, its his character. Its not about something he’s done, it’s his character.

God is good. When you get to that point, He is good. All things work together for the good of those that love the Lord. He is good. That’s his nature.

He woke me up. That’s his nature. Job is blessed in the end. When Job is going through, Job could still declare that he knows his redeemer.

We can see the goodness of God because it’s personal. My praise is personal. We take getting up in the morning personal.

We thank God for whatever we have. We thank God for things that we take for granted and complain about.

His mercy, his love endures forever. God loves me and gives me mercy with all my stuff.

Some of us have a little bit of truth and can confess to some stuff going on in my life.

God still loves me. How can God still love us with all the junk still in us. God recognizes the potential in us when others don’t see it.

 God sees stuff in me. He sees my potential, my possibility.

 Imagine if we begin to look at each other with the same love that God has for us.

God loves me so much. God loves me in the pit and in the good places.

 God doesn’t have mood swings. We humans have mood swings. We try to figure out what changed from yesterday to make us feel this way now.

I am so glad God doesn’t have mood swings. God loves us unconditionally. He gives me mercy, everlasting to everlasting, because he sees the potential.

 God’s got enough love to love me until I get it right. Give thanks because he has done stuff for me.

His mercy has done stuff for me. Let the redeemed of the Lord, say so. He has redeemed them from the hand of the foe.

I was in the devil’s hand. I was born into sin in this world. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

 When someone is lost at sea, it is a rescue, and then it becomes a recovery. I am so glad that God didn’t stop rescuing me.

If you have been redeemed by him then there is a responsibility to say so. We can fool people,but neighbor, I don’t look like what I have been through, nor am I where I want to be, but thank God I am not where I was.

Behind this perfume and behind this smile is a person with a story that most people don’t know about. Don’t be fooled. Everybody has a story.

 But God redeemed me. My past was trying to kill my future but God redeemed me. He redeemed me.

 That’s why I have to open my mouth. The text says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

Let the devil know that you are not intimidated.

 No more shackles, no more chains, no more bondage, I am free. Freedom. I love you, I love you , I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you I love you, I love you I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you...there is no end to it.


Psalm 107

BOOK V : Psalms 107-150

1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;

his love endures forever.

2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say this—

those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,

3 those he gathered from the lands,

from east and west, from north and south. [a]

4 Some wandered in desert wastelands,

finding no way to a city where they could settle.

5 They were hungry and thirsty,

and their lives ebbed away.

6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,

and he delivered them from their distress.

7 He led them by a straight way

to a city where they could settle.

8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love

and his wonderful deeds for men,

9 for he satisfies the thirsty

and fills the hungry with good things.

10 Some sat in darkness and the de