Praising Him for What He has Done Already

This past Sunday marked the 7th annual Friends and Family Day at Kingsville Church of Christ. This is typically a joyous occasion in which old friends reunite and family members return home. The members of this small church always go above and beyond in setting this annual September worship service up and it is just a great time all around. Filled with praise, fellowship, and God's word it is easy to recognize the Lord's presence at this annual worship service. Our church went from having only 20 in attendance the previous Wednesday night to bordering on maximum capacity at this time of worship Sunday. It was great.

This year the elders of the Kingsville Church of Christ decided to allow the many young men in our congregation lead the worship service. While I relish getting to hear our normal preachers at Kingsville and initially voiced that opinion I also looked forward to getting to serve with the many other Christian men of Kingsville who I love and admire. While we devoted most of this service to songs of praise and Psalms of praise, the speaking portion was divided into three sections in which myself and two other men would briefly speak on three different subjects: Praising God for what He has done, praising God for what He is doing, and praising God for what He is going to do.

When asked which portion I would like to speak on I quickly jumped at the opportunity to talk about what God has done. I would like to share my thoughts that I spoke below. I hope you can find something in this that you can stop and quickly thank God for. Let us remember that there would be no hope for us today without what God has already done.

I Praise Him For What He Has Done

I praise you God for choosing me to be able to see your merciful love.

I praise you God for choosing me to be snatched from the bondage of sin and agony more than one time in my life.

I praise you God for placing me in the midst of Christians who have been redeemed from the same snares.

I praise you God for your law which so perfectly and painfully reveals our sins to us.

I praise you God for allowing us to survive the sins and horrible deeds that we have committed in order to be able to share your love with others.

I praise you God for your apostles and for giving us the account of their sacrifices shouldered so that we may understand what living in your service truly means.

I praise you God for Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaiah, David, and Solomon and for giving us the chance to learn from their mistakes and triumphs.

I praise you God for giving me time on this beautiful planet Earth that you created for us.

I praise you God for husbands and wives and your beautifully flawless system of marriage.

I praise you God for your system of children and parents and your perfect creations that you allow us to take credit for as parents.

I praise you God for those Christian men and women who have come and gone before us and for the wisdom, guidance, and Christian work ethic you led them to impart upon us.

I praise you God for your bride the church and for those who You have personally called out to be her living body.

I praise you God for the elders and deacons who have led your church for so many years before today and for the wonderful system of leadership you authored for your church.

I praise you God for the giving us the gift of the Lord’s Supper in which we remember Your Son’s death.

I praise you God for the gift of prayer in which we can communicate openly and freely with your might.

I praise you God for the gift of baptism in which through the combination of the water and your Holy Word, our sins are washed away.

Praise you God, Praise you Father, Praise you Almighty Creator.

I praise you God for the life your Son lived, shedding his deity to put on a rotting human flesh.

I praise you God for the life Christ lived and the message of hope which He brought to this Earth while being despised and hated by those who believed they knew anything of the fullness of your love.

I praise you God for allowing Christ to be betrayed.

I praise you God for allowing Christ to endure a mockery called a trial before Pilate.

I praise you God for His stripes, His torment, His torn flesh, and total abandonment by the very mankind who He came to save.

I praise you God for the cross, the nails which pierced Christ’s flesh and bone, the bloody crown of thorns, and the utter distress which Christ felt as He paid a price for my, for our sins, a debt He did not owe.

I praise you God for “It is finished.”

I praise you God for rolling the stone away and for Christ’s final defeat of Satan as he ripped the bonds of death away.

I praise you God for the Great Commission.

I praise you God for your gospel and I praise you God for letting us so proudly proclaim In you and Your Son’s Holy names that no man can have any hope, any knowledge, any peace without the pure and true gospel.

These are but a few things that you have done Father, thank you.

Praise God.