Being THANKFUL towards Leaders Thankfulness towards Leaders, Authorities, Elders and Parents comes with Respect and Honour. Like God said in the Bible, Honour your Mother and Father, obey them. Colossians 3:20 ESV Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord You may disagree based on certain situations, believing that your parents or other authorities are not deserving of honour or respect. However, regardless of what you believe God sincerely urges you to not only honour or respect your parents but also other authorities in your life. (Eg. Pastors, teachers, police, government, etc.) God has placed them as authorities in our lives and requires us to love and respect them regardless of how they perform (eg. David and King Saul). I Samuel 18-26

This topic was recently brought up, if you do not remember well it was the day we took communion. Some might probably say if we spoke about this before then why are we doing it again, well because it’s essential, and we want to beat it in your heads. Though there are ten commandments does not means we can ignore one and do the others or ignore two and continuing doing the rest. They are all on equal levels, all important and expected to be followed.

Pastor Michael and his wife sister Debra should be so dear to us. Sure we’re going to make mistake, there will be times in our life when we will mess up, and I’m pretty sure God and both Pastor and his wife are aware of that, but it should never stop us from being thankful and grateful, from showing gratitude, love, honor and respect toward our leaders. They have been such a great impact in our lives. They have truly open the knowledge of God to us. I’m pretty sure most of you guys no more than you knew a few years ago of God, before you met them. For myself I can definitely say I know much more now than I did before, in my previous life and it’s because of them. They have done so much for you in the past few years, for myself it’s been months, but it’s still a crazy amount. I had never really met two people who could really be in my life like pastor Michael and Sister Debra. They are like a second mother and father and for that we should really be thankful, because to this day we do not know where we would be without truly receiving God’s Word or truly knowing Him. We might have been taking in by this world that have nothing, not even one good thing to give to us, and that’s how important His Word is and I believe he specifically picked Pastor Michael and Sister Debra to deliver the news to us and as we progress in life, we can be a teacher to many others, because we have been prepared by God and also them.

I usually think when I look at this world about all the fighting, killing and suicides going on. I consider myself very blessed, because I was truly introduced to God. I know now with Jesus I can face what’s to come tomorrow. And I know for myself that life can be taken away like that, just in a snap of a finger and at time I would ask myself where I would be if I was to die today or tomorrow, if I’m going to make it to heaven or sadly hell. I realized with all these death regarding these young children, life is indeed short, to short to be wasting it away with this world. So take God’s Word, take the people who give it to you and give thanks to the Lord, because we should consider ourselves truly fortunate to have people like these to say thank you to.

As it said in: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 NLT Dear Brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. 1 Timothy 5:17 ESV Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. Romans 13:1 NLT Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God,

1 Timothy 2:1-6 NLT I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. Hebrews 13: 17 NLT Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.