Thankful part 2

Note the Thankful banner in the background.... Looks a little smaller on a gym wall, than on the wall in your house! 

These are from the first lesson. The children worked with their small groups to look up the verses, and to create a bigger second banner with attributes of God to be thankful for!

Part Two of the lesson

Review from last week, being THANKFUL:  

• WHO we are thankful to and WHY we are thankful to God. 
• We will define the word THANKFUL and look at truths about WHO God is using an acrostic (as the children work in small groups to synthesize from the Bible characteristics of God.)
• We will review that to be thankful to God for Who He is, we must know Him personally.  

Last week, we focused on God being : Truth, Help, Above, Never ending, King of Kings, Faithful Forgiver, Unsearchable, Love

Why are we thankful for each of these characteristics of God? 

Because that is what it means to give thanks or praise God- saying Praise the Lord is remembering we need to praise Him, but it’s NOT praising Him. We praise Him by sharing who God is. 

Let’s practice:

God is good.  (say it slow and sad)

God is good (say it soft )

God is Good (say it with joy or a jump or an !)

It matters WHAT I say and it matters HOWI say it! 

In Psalm 113 we are taught HOW to give thanks/praise to God.  We need to do it for His character, in public, and with excitement boasting of His Goodness and Grace sharing the truth and how I see it in my life! 

So today we are going to practice!

In your groups- look at our letters or what you know of the CHARACTERISTICS of who God is or His promises from Sunday School  look at the reasons WHY these are characteristics to thank God for.  Then practice sharing how YOU know this is true. 

T is for Truth.  God’s Word is true, I am thankful that God speaks to ME in His Word.  (and I need to say that not as a tired, sad person, but as a person who is SOOOO happy, excited that the TRUTH of God is known to me!)

If we really want to praise God… we must… do it..here’s the HOW….

Stated with integrity (truth, honesty, honor)

The Bible tells us we need to offer thanks to God.  Psalm 113

Background info:

Hallelujah means Praise the Lord.  But saying “Hallelujah” is just saying Praise the Lord—it’s really not offering praise to the Lord. 

Halle is the command to praise and jah- YAH, YAYWEH- the Lord

Praise means- to excitedly boast (like when your team wins, when you get something you really want like a new toy, trip, etc.)  

How do we excitedly boast? Let's act it out....

concepts adapted from a sermon by Dr. James VanDine, Asbury Community Chapel, November 2012.   His exogesis from Dr. Ronald Allen's book And I will Praise Him