Alright, so we're going to do something different. Everyone's going to stand up for the first song.
There is clapping involved. So, praise ye the Lord, clap, clap. Got it?
Molly will help you. Let me get that.
Thank ye the Lord, thank ye the Lord, thank ye the Lord, God and God.
Jesus is born, Jesus is born, Jesus is born forever.
Thank ye the Lord, thank ye the Lord, thank ye the Lord, God and God.
Alright, you can be seated for just a second. Very, very quick opening announcements and we're going to pray together.
We're going to jump right back into praise God. This service is all about our gratitude and thanks to this reward of the Lord.
God has done many, many things. I think we're going to hear about some of those things today.
So the way it will go, if you haven't looked at your bulletin yet, which I don't have on my hand, so not everybody does.
I have one on their hand. Is after each song throughout the middle part of the service, there will be an opportunity for you to share what you have created, what you have done and so on.
Some of the kids already have a planned time for that and so it's going to be like that. So it's all of us together talking about how grateful we are and thanking the Lord for the various things that he's done.
It's a thankfulness service. Okay. Reminder that we do have the Christmas parade coming up. It's Saturday, December 3rd.
So we will be in the Christmas parade. The food block out that time if you're able to do so.
And the Christmas parade just starts right over here behind Waite Stadium. We line up in that general area.
Last year we were what? First float, I think first. Close to the fire ground. Near first. And we had a major scene.
So great opportunity to witness what Christmas is really about. And we do have a lot of candy to throw and we'll be people to pass out flyers to every person in the crowd.
And you have the opportunity to say Merry Christmas and God bless you and so on if you're comfortable with doing something like that.
And so we usually have a couple on each side of the street and we barely keep up.
So let's pray together and let's remember how thankful we should be toward God. He has blessed us immensely.
Even in these days. The days may be evil but our God is good. Let's pray.
Father in heaven you are an awesome God. You are an amazing creator God.
You spoke into existence everything when there was nothing. Then you made man in your own image.
You made us to represent you on the earth. And then sin entered in. Man fell. Man did wrong.
Then you sent your Son to save our souls. To die on the cross and raise again. To prove there is newness of life and trusting in Jesus Christ.
There is resurrection power. The same resurrection power that brought him back to life is the same resurrection power that's in us today.
And you did that and we have every reason to be thankful. Lord we praise you today.
We ask you to govern this service. To guide us and watch over us as we focus ourselves on one primary aspect.
One important part of being your followers of being your children. And that is our gratitude towards you.
Thank you for all the hands that prepared the food. It's across the hall.
And we can already kind of smell it. We're drifting this way. By the time we're done worshiping and giving you all proper place today.
We'll be able to smell it probably pretty fully. And we'll be pretty ready to eat.
But Lord more important than the food. More important than the time of fellowship together.
More important than whatever may come next. For folks that have got to go on and get to learn something that's really important later today.
Is this time set aside for you. For your glory. For your honor. For your praise. It all belongs to you.
All the glory. All the honor. All the praise. Your kingdom and your power are yours.
And we recognize that today. You govern us in Jesus name. Amen.
I'm trading my power. I'm trading my days. I'm laying them down to the dry of the floor.
I'm trading my patience. I'm trading my days. I'm laying them down to the dry of the floor.
I'm laying them down to the dry of the floor. Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Amen.
I am restless. I'm trapped in the cure of my madness. I'm down with life's destruction. I am lost beyond my control. I'm running till I'm drawn. I am destroyed. I'm being left free.
So the sorrow we left for tonight destroys my free of the morning. I'm trading my power. I'm trading my days. I'm laying them down to the dry of the floor.
I'm trading my patience. I'm trading my days. I'm laying them down to the dry of the floor.
Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Yes Lord. Oh I'm 그만.
I'm draining my sorrows
I'm eternally grateful
I'm not saying that I'm always upset, but I just love life.
Just watching God's creation, you can look up, you can see the skies, you can see rainbows.
I'm not even like a nature person, it's just so awesome to see what the Creator has done.
Or when you see people accomplish things, or just when kids begin to talk.
I mean anything you can do, even in the worst circumstances, like things just don't look good.
You can just look, I always say you have to look for good sometimes.
You don't always get to look for it, but there's so much pain and destruction and stuff out there,
so much darkness, but you will find light, you will find hope.
You may not look very far for something to be hurtful or wrong, but you will find truth and love and hopefulness.
The first thing I want to do is thank God.
And I was just thinking about this, is that God, people said God was born, He created people.
No, God was not born, God is a creator.
God had love and hope and truth in His heart, not really a heart, but like our heart would beat in passion.
And He just said, I'm going to create something.
And just like when we create something, in our minds it may look beautiful,
even my stick people could look cool, but like it just on paper didn't look right.
But God said, it is good, I did it, this is amazing.
God creates the stars and sky and the rainbows and the land and the water,
we all know the six days of creation, creates all this and the Trinity itself, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
I am eternally grateful for the first thing is that God created everything from His Spirit.
And so what I am so thankful, I'm going to say it many times, I'm just thankful for what God has created.
So that's the first thing I'm going to say, is just thankful for what God has created.
Amen. All right, anybody else?
All right, Ana, come here.
Okay, so we wanted to show you our paintings that we did.
You can see them over here.
I don't dare pick them up because I might cause a domino effect.
But if you look, you'll notice that the paintings spell out the word thank you.
And our thanks are really to God.
And so I'll point to you, tell me what it's for.
Okay, we've got T.
Okay, you've got to start, when you're thankful to God, you really got to know God without the cross.
If our sins weren't paid for, we would be separated from God for eternity.
That's just a reality. So praise God for the cross.
Some of these will get a little hokey in a minute, but okay.
You've got H? Heaven.
Yes, we're very grateful for heaven.
Sometimes when we look at our lives and we face difficulty, we think, oh man, I'm saved, but I'm going through some yucky stuff.
But you have to remember, the really good stuff, no matter how good life gets, the really good stuff comes after this life.
Where there will be no more tears.
And if there even would be a tear, God himself will wipe it from our mind.
So we are grateful for heaven. That's our reference.
We work, it's not iconoclast D, if you know what that means.
We're not trying to blaspheme or anything. That's not actually heaven.
That's just to remind us of heaven.
Okay, we're not trying to paint a picture of heaven.
Okay, we've got A?
Angels.
Okay, we've got angels.
You might not be able to see it very well, but you see the earth up here.
You see these continents on the earth?
She painted those herself.
So you are living on North America right now. It's right there on the earth.
And she painted North America.
Okay?
And we are grateful for angels.
We mustn't forget, no matter whether you face evil spirits or demons.
Even though, if you believe demonology, the best you understand,
one third of the angels fell and became evil spirits and demons.
Even though that's so, that still means there are twice as many angels
as there are evil spirits and demons.
And they're watching over us.
And I've personally probably met some.
I don't know for sure. I won't know until I get to heaven.
Don't fail to entertain strangers.
Because by doing so, some have entertained angels.
Okay? Awesome. Grateful for angels. Next.
Noah.
Noah. We forget about Noah.
Aren't you grateful for great-great-granddad Noah?
I mean, he's great-great-great-great-great-great, right?
But there were only eight people that survived the flood,
which means we are all related.
It doesn't matter your skin color, your background, your culture,
what nation you came from.
We are all related back through Noah.
Praise God that the ark was built
and that he didn't wipe out humanity because that's where our DNA comes from.
Unfortunately, it's also where our flesh nature comes from, where our sin comes from.
But Noah was an archetype of Jesus.
He was teaching people in his day about Jesus.
And you know what? They didn't listen.
And they drowned.
Except for him and his seven others. Okay?
And then we've got K.
King of kings.
King of kings. So this is...
I would never deign to paint a picture of Jesus,
but this is Jesus' feet and his rose right here. Okay?
So I wouldn't want to try to paint his face because
I don't know what he looked like. Nobody knows what he looked like.
And we're not really supposed to do that.
But that's his feet and that's our crowns.
Cast at his feet.
You remember Jesus is the king of kings.
That means you are a king, or me. Right?
He is the king of kings.
That means we are heirs and joint heirs with him.
We get everything.
And all the work that we do is like jewels in our crown.
Those crowns are not for us to collect or keep or even share in this lifetime.
They are for us to cast at the feet of Jesus.
Because he is the king of kings.
And then this one is one of my favorites.
It's for you.
Why? For you.
We are thankful for you.
If you look right there, that's a picture of you right there.
You can look at it like that.
Each of you. That's a picture of you right there.
Okay? And then, O.
Love.
Yes. O for love.
Now I think that's kind of weird, right?
But have you ever seen people say, I love you, and they just put a heart?
So that's...
O is for love. For the heart and love.
And so we love and we are grateful to be loved.
And I want to say to you that without knowing Jesus,
I don't think I would have ever really known love.
My life was not in a very loving place before I knew Jesus.
Even though I had people who loved me the best they knew how.
Always.
But I didn't really understand love.
And I don't know that I understand it now, but I'm getting a little bit more of it each day.
And I'm very grateful for love.
And Ariana is too.
And the last one is you, and that's for?
Unity.
And all of us, every single one of us, have the same opportunity to come to Jesus Christ
through the saving graces of our God.
And we become united as one person.
And I will take your hand.
And I will shake the hand of a leper.
I would shake the hand of a man who prepared raw meat.
I was just asking to wash his hands first, right?
But anyway, we can be hand in hand together, unified.
And when the church is unified, the church grows.
That's what Ephesians 4 says.
We all exercise our gifts and work together.
That's when we grow up and can know the true will of God and His purpose
and what He's trying to do.
And so the church united, and that's the local church.
Don't be confused.
There's another church that's united elsewhere.
And they're using all their gifts and they're growing up too.
But our church is growing up together in unity and becoming more and more like Jesus.
That's why we're the whole body of Christ, and He is our head.
And all together it says, thank you.
Amen.
Okay, again, we're ready.
What do we got?
Dan.
Yes, sir.
So not only is it important to be thankful, especially in this season when we're coming up on the celebration of the sacrifice Jesus made for us
and time to get together with family and be thankful for all those that we have around us and everything.
It's also important to remember the benefits of being thankful.
Not only to others around you, but to yourself and to your health.
So the Harvard Medical Journal published an article about the internal benefits of being thankful.
So it says, the word gratitude is derived from the Latin word gratia, pronouncing it right, which means grace, graciousness, or gratefulness, depending on the context.
In some ways, gratitude encompasses all of these meanings.
Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible.
With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives. In the process, people usually recognize that the source of the goodness lies at least partially outside themselves.
As a result, being grateful also helps people connect to something larger than themselves as individuals, whether to other people, nature, or a higher power.
So being thankful for what you have and what you've been blessed with and everything else can help you establish a stronger bond with the Lord.
In positive psychology and research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness.
Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build stronger relationships.
So gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences.
When you're thankful for something that's going good in your life, that feeling of thanksgiving or thankfulness compounds the next time you're going to feel gratitude for something.
And I think that's how God structured the world, because he wants people to be thankful and grateful for what they've received.
And it just kind of makes it easier to be more and more thankful in the future if you continue to practice thanksgiving.
I remember when I was little, my parents used to say, and the Spirit just brought the speck of mine as we were speaking,
they used to say, my grandfather would give me something or my grandmother would give me something, and they said, if you don't say thank you first, then it won't taste as good.
And based on what you just read, that's true. If you receive something, you will not enjoy it as much if you are not first grateful for it.
Medical science just backed up what you're doing.
That is powerful. That's the first time that's ever happened. My mother is a wonderful woman. She's got some crazy theories, but man, that's powerful. That's good stuff.
All right. Anybody else?
I remember when I was a small child, I felt down my milk or whatever I was drinking and pulled my cup up.
One day my mom showed a lot of indignation toward that. She was like, you could say, you can ask for milk, or whatever.
I remember the first time I left, I realized that my mom needed some appreciation for what she did. She did step out of her tent and sent her heart, which she did, but she's human too.
I was thinking today, I can think of all kinds of things to be thankful for. We should be thankful for everything, even the past that I had with Justin.
God works for all those who are sickly, but Christ, all things work for our good, so we should be thankful for all things. Instead, I was thinking about what's on the other end from being thankful.
What comes to my mind is entitledness. I was starting to become entitled when I had my cup of milk, instead of being thankful. The world will do whatever it is, but those are the powers of Christ.
How many times do we act entitled? I'm a good person, I don't mistreat anybody. I come to church, I give money, I do all this stuff, so God should bless me for it.
When we come up to God and bless me, we do those things because we're thankful to God for what He's done for us. We don't deserve it. He doesn't need us. We'll be God, whether we're sick or not.
So, thankfulness is where we need to be. If you're not thankful for the things that are going on in your life, and your heart's not in the right place, you need the justice. You need to be thankful for what you've done for you.
So, don't be the entitled person, be the thankful person.
Would you give a voice to the opportunity for prayer for us today?
Thank you Lord for what you've done for us. Thank you for the position you put us in. Thank you for your son.
Lord, thanks is a small word, but it comes to so much. As the Lord, we are as little as we are.
In the meantime, we can find out that we've lived a couple of months in Philly. Thank you for what you've given us. Family, friends, place to live, place to work.
Thank you for all you've been doing for us. Thank you Lord for giving us this time to give. Bless us as we do give, and let's hold our cup over here.
Thank you that we can give. Just a portion of back of what you've given for us.
Thank you.
Alright kids, grab your canvas and come on up.
Kyler and Carson, you can come up and hold someone else's and we'll walk.
Kyler, come here.
Give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks to the Holy One. Give thanks because He's human. Jesus Christ, His Son.
And now, let the weak say, I am strong. Let the poor say, I am rich. Because the Lord has tried to hurt.
Give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks to the Holy One. Give thanks because He's human. Jesus Christ, His Son.
Do any of you want to share some of the things that you wrote on there?
Go ahead, Arianna. Turn around and show them.
I'm thankful for my mom, dad, my two dogs, Snowball and Stone, Jason, David, Zoe, Anna, and God, and Jesus, and the Bible.
Carson, what's something that you're thankful for?
Just tell us. What are you thankful for?
Tommy, are you ready with the song?
I have a song. You can go sit down. Thank you.
I'm going to play a song for you. Sorry, not sorry. It's a country song. If you don't like it, that's fine.
I don't like all the music either.
This song just reminds us to be thankful for the things that maybe we're normally not thankful for.
Mommy!
I'm thankful for the things that maybe we're normally not thankful for.
So we put down our forks and bowed our heads. Didn't you pray the strangest prayer ever said? I want to thank you, Lord, for the noise of children as well as the dogs.
They closed the scanner and all the world fell. My husband wore a hat all the time. He drank and he'd been tired all night.
He had a little baby in his kitchen. He was dirty dishes.
We all got a real still and quiet. Daddy asked none of you, all right. She said their name doesn't wrong.
Noisy kids, happy kids, slamming doors just between little war and money and hope. Your long hours and those dishes and the sake.
You need your job and enough to eat. So I'm going to thank you, Lord, for the noise of children.
It's all right. It just repeats the chorus.
So anyways, it's just a reminder to be thankful for the things that maybe you're not thankful for.
When your kids are really making you mad and this happens to me, sometimes I just get so frustrated.
I have to stop and thank God that my children are walking and talking and healthy.
And that is enough to be thankful for even when you think things are falling apart, even when your job is really stressing you out.
But what if you didn't have that job or that income? So just remember to be thankful for things that God gave you, even when they're hard.
Amen.
When we meet again, we have come to this place.
What you do, God will bless the embrace.
It is you, we are told.
It is you, that's the phrase that I'm told.
It is you, that's Jesus.
Holy, holy is our God Almighty.
Holy, holy is His name, oh yeah.
Holy, holy is our God Almighty.
Holy, holy is His name, oh yeah.
Holy, holy is our God Almighty.
Holy, holy is His name, oh yeah.
It is you, we are told.
It is you, that's the phrase that I'm told.
It is you, that's the wind of my hand.
When you meet us here, we'll see you come one day.
When you meet again, we'll come to this place.
What you do, God will bless the embrace.
It is you, that's the word.
It is you, that's the power.
Holy, holy is the word that makes me glad.
It is you, it is you.
Holy, holy is our God Almighty.
Holy, holy is His name, oh yeah.
Holy, holy is our God Almighty.
Holy, holy is His name, oh yeah.
And He is the God that has brought on your day.
And He will make this place of your love, see and pray.
And He is the God that has brought on your day.
And He will make this place of your love, see and pray.
You're here for joy, you're here for peace, you're here for peace.
It is you, only you.
Next to the last gap, so if you're holding back, now is the time.
Alright, Jason, go.
So as I've been listening through all the Thanksgiving stuff that's been going on today,
it gives me the mind that Thanksgiving shouldn't just be on the 24th.
Thanksgiving should not be when the church says it's supposed to be.
Thanksgiving should be every single day.
We should devote ourselves to thank the Lord for all that we have and all that we can gain.
And it's more than you think.
It's said that all humans have 99.9% of DNA.
That 1% is what we should be thankful for because that's what makes us different from everybody else in the world.
No one else can have that 0.1% that we have.
There's a verse in the Bible that I found, Philippians 4.6,
Don't worry about anything but in everything through prayer and presentation with Thanksgiving present,
present your request to God.
That saying, we need to give our thanks not just to our family, not just to our friends,
not one more thing before, but to the Lord.
Amen.
I think he's got it.
Alright, who else?
She says she is thankful for water.
Water was created by God.
Water appears in the Bible 777 times.
You can't live without water.
Water, just like you can't live without God, water smooths edges over sometimes just like God does with us.
Water cleans away dirt just like Jesus cleans away our dirt.
Water exposes things just like God exposes things in our lives that need taking care of.
If we're having trouble, we've got one more time here in a minute.
Anybody else?
I'll say something while she's doing something.
One of the things I've always been thankful for in my life is obviously my kids, my wife, my job, everything.
The things God blessed me with on a daily basis.
But also I'm thankful for the hard times because in those hard times it helps us, I guess,
realize more of how good the good times really are.
Because something that I was teaching you a couple weeks back is if you had a life where nothing ever went wrong
and everything was good, how much harder would it be to actually thank God for what you have?
And when things are bad and you feel like you're down and out and then you get pulled out of that by some means,
by however, it makes you open your eyes more to the awesome things that God can do in your life.
When you're down and you're bottom lowest point that you can still come out of that and still have a relationship with God.
Even though in the past we've cursed His name, we've lied, cheated, we stole, whatever.
The fact is that even in those down times, God still loves us and God still cares for us.
I think if we miss that point, even in our bad times, God's still there, it will make it so much harder for us to believe that God's there in good times.
Well said. You ready?
Okay. So I used the color purple. Not the movie. I didn't think it was the color purple. I love the color purple.
I did use some of my favorite verses actually. I'm going to use my children in these. Hopefully you can read these.
Alicia, could you read that verse?
Peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus, Philippians 4.7.
So I think when I was raising Alicia, it was the first time I really understood the peace of past understanding.
That bowl is an amazing thing and sometimes life is very, very full of turmoil and then that peace of God comes over you at a time when it really shouldn't.
That's just amazing to me.
You? Malia?
We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him. First John 5.20.
Understanding. Sometimes things just make sense and they shouldn't.
One thing about Malia that I absolutely love, we walk a lot at night and we can talk about anything.
We talk about our jobs, our kids, our families, whatever. She does accounting. I have a lot of financial in my job and she gets some of the stuff that I struggle with.
I get some of the stuff that she struggles with and that's just amazing.
Aaron?
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice.
I love that verse. I love that song. It's probably my oldest favorite song.
One of my favorite memories of Aaron growing up is Aaron played video games. A lot of kids played video games.
Aaron's computer was in the dining room. At the time we were not doing computers in the rooms and they didn't all carry phones in their pockets.
A lot of kids, you ask them to do things and they're playing a video game and they're like, oh mom, man, or they just ignore you.
Aaron didn't do that. Aaron would be, if anything, it would be, can I finish this real quick? Or he'd just go, I'll do it like that.
He'd run up and do it and then run back.
He didn't give me grief and I just rejoice. It's just an amazing little thing.
I'll always say, respectful of that.
Alright. P. Harden.
Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
Ephesians 6.
Ephesians 6.10
The power of Arden's eyesight is not what he's seen.
Arden has always been very strong, very opinionated.
Sometimes he struggled with that, not relating well to kids his own age, but just the strength of his opinions and his confidence has just always been amazing to me.
Ariaan.
Forgot so love the world that he knew of his brother and his son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3.16
Only one left with good eyesight.
Hey!
I'm sorry, I almost forgot.
John 3.16, it's just a verse that really just says everything and Ariaan, she was our little blessing and she's very amazing and she loves the Lord and she just brings so much joy and love for our lives and sometimes it's incredible to me.
Which brings us to E. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never fails.
Having this family and this church family and just the life that I have behind there is so much love, I don't know how I can stand it all. It's overwhelming and it's amazing.
Anybody else real quick?
Okay, point eight.
So, when we talk about video games, everybody thinks I hate video games.
The thing about video games is that in real life you can't just hit a save and continue.
You know, you won't always win the battle. Sometimes you fail. Sometimes you know it's not always victorious and you have to move on.
You can't go back to the same level and try it again. It's not the way life works. Life continues on no matter what.
And so I was just thinking about, even in the Garden of Eden when Adonim sinned before God, God didn't fail, the Lord Jesus didn't fail, and the Holy Spirit didn't fail.
But I call it merciful judgment because that day when they sinned, just like we sinned before God, God was merciful on us.
He could have condemned us forever, but He condemned us, broke the Spirit, we lost our spirit's connection between God, and physically we were dying.
But we could have physically been dead. Just like Moses said, let me show you, show me your glory, I've got to see how beautiful you are.
You're like, no, if you see me you'll die. I don't want you to die. You're not ready yet because we had to be saved.
And so what I thank God for is that merciful judgment throughout the whole Bible, throughout all history, not just the Bible, just people literally trying to be the next king, to be the one that could save the kingdom, save the world.
Everyone fails except the one incumbent and only son, Jesus, the Messiah, the King of Kings, is the only one that can live this life absolutely pure, holy, true, and righteous.
That He would be the sacrifice at the cross. So that He would rise again and rise everybody that would come to know Him and save them as well.
And so what I was just thinking about, we were just talking about Tuesday about the Lord's Day. And this is the Lord's Day.
Because Sunday God rested on the seventh because He could just look back. Why is Sunday the Lord's Day? I'm not saying it is the Lord's Day, but why could it be the Lord's Day?
Here's what I was thinking about, because that Sunday God could finally look and say, someone saved humanity. Someone saved my people. I don't have to do anything today.
I can just look back at this day and say, victory is mine again. I am victorious because my son gloriously saved everyone through the death and resurrection of me.
That is the Lord's Day. And this is what I want to finish with. What are we saved from? One, we are saved from ourselves.
Saved from foolishness, our own unrighteousness, our own wickedness.
By what it says in 1 John, we have an advocate. So we can ask God for forgiveness. We can ask God to help us, to change us.
I always say the only person you can really work on is yourself. You can't change anybody if you want to. The only person that can change is you.
What did God save us from? Death itself. We were physically dying. I know if you are young you don't see it, but people do die. People do suffer.
But saved from suffering and death. We are not going to die today. We will, but it doesn't last. Not even for a minute, an hour. It's just a little bit and then we will be present with the Lord.
What else did he save us from? Eternal death. To be forsaken by God, to be under his wrath because anybody knows that, Dad, if you do something wrong, you are in the corner until that time is up.
And you have to pay every penny back to God. You have to pay everything back because you decided that you can save yourself, but only God can save you.
So these are things that we were saved from. And I just wanted to share real quick just a side note about angels.
And I don't want to get into it, but when I was a little kid, I called on angels to save me from some of the most, you guys wouldn't believe me if I said, the most ferocious nightmares of my entire life.
You know they say physically, mentally, if a person dies in a dream that they will die for real. I was killed every single day in every one of my dreams.
Three months straight, I watched myself be killed by monsters, demons, whatever, I asked God to help me. I didn't understand what I was doing, but angels, I won't tell you what happened, but basically those nightmares went away.
But I've seen things that most people don't see and there's greater testimonies and miracles and many things that people see every day.
So I'm just thankful for God showing up early in my life. He was already there, but showing up when I didn't even know who he was.
And if I get a chance, I'll share the third scenario.
Alright, we've got one more song, one more sharing opportunity, so if you're pulled back, the next chance is the last chance. Alright? She's okay.
Oh Lord my God, if you I'd burn my home.
If you would find my dreams.
I'd be the same to you.
Oh Lord my God, if you I'd give my everything.
Oh Lord my God, if you I'd give my life.
If you, if you I'd find my peace.
If you, if you I'd find my strength.
If you, if you I'd give my food and drink.
If you, if you I'd give my life.
Okay, this is it. This is our last window of opportunity to share what you're thankful for.
So I've been thinking a lot the past two weeks, as we've been told, to bring, and I made a cute little word search thing and I'm up at home.
Obviously I'm thankful for everybody in the building. I'm thankful for all the little things in my life.
But the one thing I really wanted to share was my husband. Two years ago when we first started dating, he would ask me every Sunday, come to church.
I was always a professing Christian, I always believed, but I never practiced. I never prayed regularly. I never went to church or anything like that.
I had a bad experience with it. I never wanted to go back. And every single Sunday, come to church with me. Come to church with me.
And one day I told him, stop asking me. I don't want to go. And he said, I'm not going to stop asking you.
He said, regardless if you want to go or not, he said I won't stop asking. And he didn't. And eventually I was like, fine, I'll go.
And I loved it. And I had a great first experience and I loved teaching kids and I still do.
It's one of my favorite things about coming every Sunday. And I love the sermons and I love everything about it.
And I just keep thinking, if he would have stopped asking, I may not have ever got the courage to go.
And I probably wouldn't be here today. So I'm very, very thankful for my husband and his resilience in our marriage.
And I am thankful for all the people.
Amen. And you heard her. She loves the sermons.
Anybody else?
This is sort of the last minute sermon I've thought of right now because it's happenable.
So often, you know, I teach Sunday school. I deal with the kids around the church a lot.
They're in here. We know they are because they make themselves known, which is frustrating often.
But I think that there's a joy to be found in that.
Luke 18, 16 and 17, let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God, proof of the point, like a little child will never enter it.
And so, I mean, we have a we really have a duty and they have to be here because if they're not, what are we doing?
Unfortunately, a lot of places they're not. We're very blessed.
So I think about stewardship a lot. It's kind of my area.
Just sort of using the blessings and all these things that we're grateful for that God has given us.
And this was a lesson that came to me in a song, as they frequently do.
And so I am grateful for the fact that my husband listens to music that I've never heard in my house because this is a song then he's going to recognize that I would not have otherwise heard.
And I'm just going to read the chorus to you. It got stuck in my head. It's very repetitive, very fun.
But the chorus is simple and it goes like this. It says, bless me, bless me, bless me, God indeed.
Death has been defeated. He is our victory.
Bless me, bless me, God not just for me, but so everyone around me can have everything they need.
I think in this service. Yeah, I'll send you a link for that.
But it's very catchy and it got stuck in my head. And it just it got to me in that we are grateful for all these things and gratitude.
It should be our state of being. It should be our normal.
But there's an extension to that. That is, what do we do with that? Where do we direct it?
And I think we direct it to giving those blessings to others and to using them for that purpose. And let's give them a reason to be grateful.
Yep. Wow. Good stuff. All right, here we go.
Something that I usually don't like sharing is I'm really, I would say, grateful for my wife.
But there's much bigger reasons for it. And it goes along with the little bit of what Kate was saying, too.
The fact that when me and her first got together, I absolutely despised everything about church.
I hated church. I hated coming.
We've had countless arguments about church and the way it's supposed to be.
But if it wasn't for her nagging and nagging about it, I wouldn't be here.
And I don't think I give her enough appreciation for nagging like that.
I think I usually call her more annoying because, let's be honest, who likes to be nagged about stuff?
But it made me realize that there are certain things in life, just in general, that we need to be more persistent on.
And to touch a little bit of what Artem was saying, too, with the children in our church.
We are extremely blessed to have such young kids.
And it's crazy because I've been to church before where the kids aren't a part of anything.
They're not allowed to be a part of anything. They're pretty much forgotten about.
And when I started coming here, I had kids of my own and seen all the little kids.
And we are so blessed to have these little kids.
And it brings back to the old saying, it takes a village to raise a child.
And so many times it seems like that village has died, where it's not so much a village that raises a child anymore.
It's a single mother or a single father, or sometimes it's not the parents at all.
And especially in our neighborhood, we have so many kids in our neighborhood where it takes a village to raise them.
And it takes so much more than that because not only are we supposed to be that village to raise the children,
but we're supposed to be that village to show them the grace of God.
And we're supposed to show them that we're not being naggy because that's just what grownups do.
We're nagging them and telling them this stuff because this is stuff that is going to change their life forever.
And I've told the youth group this many times.
I was like, I don't want to see them wait until they're 21, 22 years old to finally make that decision to be like,
you know, there's got to be something more to life than living the life I'm living and finally come to Christ.
Because I feel it is so much harder to get out of your old ways the older you get.
So the longer you wait, the longer you keep pushing God away, the harder it's going to be to keep living for God.
Because those old things are going to be so new still.
So I guess in a nutshell, I just I'm thankful for the nagging of my wife to make sure stuff gets done.
Because it makes me realize that stuff has to get done whether I want to or not.
And I've told this to my kids many times. Just because you don't want to doesn't mean it can go away.
So we have an obligation as a church to keep nagging people about the love of God and the power of Christ.
So we have to be that annoying person in everyone's life.
Like, hey, you know, there's this great God out here that is reaching down for you,
that wants you, that loves you more than you can ever imagine.
And we have to keep nagging them about it because eventually God might pull them out and say, you know,
here's what I can do. And he'll show them like he showed me and he showed Caitlin that there are more than there's so much more to life with God than without.
Thank you so much. Anyone else?
I don't like talking to crowds.
I like to look back, back in my life, every once in a while, I just pick out the things that God has done for me and got me to where I am now.
Right now I'm the happiest. I have a great job. I love I have two beautiful children.
I have a beautiful wife. And I always like to think that I like to call it like God's behind the scene.
How stuff like you don't realize that he does. But you go back and look at it.
It's clear that it's that it's God's will.
Like back when my wife made the first movie, she doesn't talk to anybody ever.
That was one clear like when a few years ago, I weighed 300 pounds and God gave me the motivation to lose all that weight.
And because I lost all that weight, I'm able to do the job I am doing now, which I love that because I mean HVAC is I love just being able to see the smiles on people's faces when we finally turn the heat on her.
I gave my gave my mom AC and she hasn't had AC in 20 years.
So the fact that she texted me 20 times that night saying this finally able to sleep without sweating those moments and these moments where he's jumping all over me.
I love it. I love it all.
Well said. Well done.
Anybody else?
Last never last but just want to celebrate God, the church and everyone.
When I was 23 years old, you guys always heard it, but it's still like the first day of my life.
Here I am going to Catholic Church, nothing against the church, nothing against anyone.
Always believed in God, always loved God. He's probably the only person I ever had in my life or something that made me feel close to somebody.
And the seven year old man witnesses in me and tells me that there's no way to heaven only through Jesus.
There's no hope and only through Jesus.
And I don't know if I believed him, but when I left that that song that vacuum cleaner didn't sell, but having that moment, I went to my ninety five dollars Dakota and I cried out, said, You're real.
Come into my life. If you really did die on that cross and you rose again, then I believe, I believe, I believe.
I started to weep. I weep many tears, but this is weeping. I've cried many, many tears. Weeping like I was just weeping uncontrollably.
I asked God, why was that weeping? I don't know if you guys remember me saying this, but God said, I've been waiting to tell this to you for a long, long time.
All the years that God could have shared it with me because it was not at the right time, was at the right moment.
Or just because all that was going on that God still rescued me and shared that with me.
I have great news for you. And so I just want to thank this church of such a joy meeting all you guys and the different gifts that we have.
And I've said it before, just when we see what's going on in this church, God sees all the churches, even today that we're here on Sunday in different countries, the past, the present and the future to come.
He even sees the future church. And so I just got to say, I just thank God and for everyone.
You think about even the good, the bad and the ugly. Just think about this. And this is just for God alone.
But he even gave people the knowledge, the brain capacity to carve out that cross.
I mean, God even shared how they would learn to execute and hurt people and that I will use that. That's what's going to bring me death so that I can give everyone life again.
I mean, God uses everyone and everything for His glory. Nothing is wasted by God. Nobody is wasted.
And kids, I just want to encourage you, if you didn't share today, I want to let you know that that's not what this is about.
It's not about if you got up here or if you shared something that even means anything.
Just people had to say something. But I just want to let you know you're equally important as anybody else.
Whether you share, whether you say something, everybody is important. Everybody has something to bring to the table.
I'm closing this. This is in the book of Exodus. One of the greatest lines I've ever heard. We may never hear it again because I only heard it one time.
Moses tells everybody, bring all that you can to the temple so that we can see what we can have to make this temple.
Some brought gold, some brought flowers, some brought money, some brought ribbons or whatever.
Whatever they could bring. Everybody brought something. And most of it was from Egypt. They didn't pillage it. Egypt gave it to them.
They didn't go and ransack them. The Egyptians said, here take it, take it, get out of here. We know who God is. I don't want it. If you can't have it all, just forget it.
Just take it, get out of here. God has miraculously, it's not a great miracle, but it really was.
Every son, everything died there. They're like, just get out of here. The fear of God is real. The love, just get out of here. We don't want nothing to do with him.
That's all they had. And they brought it to the temple. And Moses finally says, hey, wait. We have enough.
That was one of the greatest lines that's ever been said in the Bible. We have enough. We don't need anymore.
That means everybody has something to place at the table. I encourage you, encourage me, and I'm thankful that we can do it.
Keep bringing it to the table until God says, whoa, we have enough.
Wow. All right. Are we done? Get it up.
Go.
So I've heard a lot about what we're thankful for and why we should be thankful.
But how do you show thankfulness? How do you show gratitude? And I need a volunteer.
First one up here gets a volunteer. Jason, how do you show thankfulness?
T-H-A-N-K-F-U-L.
Very good. That's how you spell thankfulness. How do you show it?
You show it by showing what you think that you love the most and that it's what you think your heart might desire.
Okay.
So I'm going to do something. All right. And you just do what you're going to do. Okay?
There you go.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
How do you show thankfulness to God?
You show thankfulness to God by showing thankfulness to the spirit and sharing his word with everybody else.
Okay. Very good. You can go sit down. Anybody else? How do you show thankfulness? Caleb?
How I show thankfulness is like you could give gifts to some people.
Okay. Anybody else? How do you show thankfulness?
Say thank you.
Okay. Very good.
How do you show thankfulness to God?
I mean, challenge.
Praise, baby.
Praise. Yes. Very good.
Serve.
I have two answers.
You can go ahead and take it again.
Say it the same way you say it to other people. Say it out loud. Thank you.
Very good. All right. That's pretty much all I had. I just wanted to make sure we had all the bases covered.
Thank you, sir. All right. You got a lot of it. All right. Awesome. Okay. Anybody else? All right. We're going to do...
Go.
I'm just sitting here thinking. Thanks for remembering. Just I was, I think it was three weeks ago over here I was in West Virginia for a job.
I was going to take Sunday off. So it was only like five miles from where me and my family, especially Michael, he was in the Army.
He was in the cabin. And we was, I was only about five miles from there where we were in the cabin.
But I seen so much more that we could have seen while we was there that we concentrated in one area where an icon would work at that time.
Anyway, I was in some of the same places in the back and I was like 300 feet above the Valley River up on a lookout point.
And I was just, I'm so thankful for the way he made me to see the things that I've seen, the experiences of things that I've done.
I have my family with me to experience the same things, have them involved with me to do things, serve.
Now, I love the story. I ain't going to tell it, but we made each other work.
And then, my wife started helping me do stuff. And the kids were born with my big old list.
He helped me do things. And Liz helped me do things. And Carrie helped me do things.
And now they got their families. And it's kind of funny to me, but all of them are kind of anti-cafe.
And I'm still doing it, and I'm still seeing it, and I'm still experiencing it.
Because, I don't know why, after the moment I retire, I'm so tired of work, but that job is kind of low, kind of deep.
And I'm just so thankful for that right now. It's a good word, a very good word.
What else?
Hurry up. We're waiting on you. Go, go, go.
Okay. Hurry up, go grab your sister. So, I've been blessed with five kids. Me and my wife have the four, as you guys know.
And, so, a lot of the times, this little guy right here gets left out of a lot of stuff because he doesn't live with me.
But, what I've noticed a lot about raising the kids is every one of them has their own personalities, and they're all different.
But sometimes this one right here, like I said, this one right here gets left out of a lot of things because he doesn't live with me for previous reasons.
But having him join our family has been a great lesson.
And I was a horrible person when he was born. I was a very mean person.
And that's another reason why I think my wife, because she pulled me out of it. She helped pull me out of it.
And the grace of God made me a new person, and it made me be able to have that relationship with all of my kids, including this one.
And having him be a part of the family has brought a lot of stress, but it's also brought a lot of joy.
And I'm just so thankful that God allowed me to actually start building that relationship with all of my kids, and not leaving him out and just having him a part of our life.
It's great because I'm watching them all grow now, and they're all becoming better people.
Just like I said, it's just been so grateful to have good, healthy kids, even though there are times where kids obviously they annoy their grandma,
they push your buttons, they get on your nerves, and sometimes you just want them to go away.
But every day I'm just grateful that all of my kids are here, and I'm able to be with them.
Like I said, sometimes I feel bad because he gets left out a lot, but he's just as much a part of this family as everyone else.
And I just want them to know that I love them, and I thank God every day for that. God, just be the strength to be a dad.
Amen. You boys keep raising your dad who grew up in Venice.
Let's praise the Lord.
Is it working real quick? Yep.
I just wanted to shout out to my beautiful ex Alicia, and also to my step girls Sophia and Mackenzie, 22 and 14,
and then also to my kids Naomi, not the youngest, my oldest, but she'll always be my baby girl at 10,
Nehemiah at 7, and Sam at 4, and they're about to go 5 and 11 here soon, and then Nehemiah will be 8 soon.
The one thing I thank God for is that no matter what I've seen and what I've done, and the good, the bad, and the ugly,
no matter how much inspiration people can be, by the grace of God only I can be their dad.
They've seen me as dad, and that's amazing. I'll always be their dad.
Just a shout out to my kids.
I'm a little worried about you, but I'll stay on the line.
Some say you're just a private. Some say you're a whine.
Some say you're just a mess. But I'll say you are God, you are my God.
And I will shout to save you from all fear. And I will let you get you all night.
And no one will know you're pregnant. You are my God, I will shout to you.
I'm a little worried about you, but I'll stay on the line.
Some say you're just a private. Some say you're a whine.
Some say you're a whine.
I know that it's hard to say it. You gave your life for me.
And I will shout to save you from all fear. And I will let you get you all night.
And no one will know you're pregnant. You are my God, I will shout to save you from all fear.
And I will let you get you all night. And I will shout to save you from all fear.
And as I live, I'll let life pass on to me.
As I live, I'll let life pass on to me.
Jesus, I'll decide to live a life that shouts your name.
Jesus, our God, our God, your name Live like the shots of fame
Alright, praise God, I've been given the special task of delivering a sermonette, which is not my forte, because I like to talk a long time when I start talking about the Lord.
But, that being said, that's what we're going to do. You see the title on the board? It's Stacking Up. You know what stacking up looks like, right?
I happen to like poker chips. I don't really play poker. I have played poker on a couple of occasions just for fun. I don't think I've ever actually gambled at poker.
These are poker chips. And these are poker chips. Isn't that an awesome sound? I think it's like the sound effect of playing poker. It's probably why they play poker. It isn't to win the money, they just want to stack the chips.
I just love stacking things. Alright, I don't know, I'm a weird person. I get it. So grab your Bibles if you would, and go with me to Psalm 19.
And let's talk about stacking things up. Thank you. This is God's Word. I'm excited about God's Word. We didn't talk a lot about being thankful for God's Word.
And we could have gone on and on. I bet we could have just gone on and on. I'm so grateful for God's Word. I'm grateful for our church and the ministry of Jesus in us and so on.
I want to read to you from Psalm 19, and then we're going to look at this in an interesting light.
And we'll use another passage of Scripture before we're done, and then that's it. It's going to go by pretty fast because it's a sermonette. So hang on, here we go.
In Psalm 19 it says this, The heavens are telling of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands.
So in other words, when you look up, you can see things about God. The glory means the light that's shined on. It's revealing God.
Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
In other words, as the days go on, as they are stacking up, they are giving us a better and better picture, the history of our life, the memories that you've made, the events, like Ricky said beautifully, very poetically put.
As you look back at the steps and how you got there, and you might be going through it, and the day, the greatest thing ever happened to you might be one of the greatest days of your life, maybe? You might go, man, that was a hard day, and it was really going terrible, whatever.
And then all of a sudden, boom, in the middle of that struggle or darkness came that one ray of light, and you missed it then.
But now you look back a couple years later and you see it. As these days stack up, they pour forth speech. Night to night reveals knowledge.
3 says, there is no speech, nor are there words. You're looking for an obvious, open talking, like the sky just rains down words on you, and you're told what to do, or what it's like, or what you should do next, or what to be grateful for.
You're waiting for that. But there's not words to it. That's what he's saying.
And he says, their voice is not heard. Their line, what they're teaching, the whole teaching has gone out through all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world.
In them he, that's God, has placed a tent for the sun.
We'll stop there with this tech. Now normally I'd probably go through and read all the way through, but we'll skip down to then verse 7, and it says, the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.
What I'm asking is, do you see how the psalmist goes right from this is all of creation and the days are stacking up and showing us the truth about God, to talking about God's word?
Don't miss that. This is the same psalm. There's no break. This is not a different story or a different song or a different prayer.
He's saying, the knowledge is there. It's being declared throughout all the earth. And then he goes on to say, the law of the Lord is perfect.
In other words, it's complete, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure. That means it's solid, steadfast, it's built, rock hard.
Making wise the simple. That's about new life, something new, something different. It's come in. I get it. I understand.
Verse 8, the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true. They are righteous altogether.
They are more desirable than gold. Yes? Than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
This is all the written word, the teachings of God's word. Better than all of these things.
Verse 11 says, moreover by them thy servant is warned. In other words, I get it. I am corrected and directed by God's word.
In keeping them, there is great reward. When you do what the Bible teaches you to do, there is great benefits that come out of that.
Have you ever heard of L. Ron Hubbard's book Dianetics? One of the New York Times bestsellers. I think by now it's sold like a billion copies.
He based that entire series, a two book, three book series, and the billions of copies he sold on one proverb from the Bible. One.
God's word is, the benefits of it are amazing. Verse 12 says, who can discern his errors? Can I figure out what's wrong with me?
He says, acquit me of my hidden faults. In other words, find me not guilty Lord of my hidden faults.
Also keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins. That's when I do things I know I shouldn't do.
Let those things not rule over me. Then I shall be blameless and I shall be acquitted or found not guilty of great transgression.
And then 14 says, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord my rock and my Redeemer.
Do you think the psalmist understood what God was doing? The days are a message.
You can go through a day, it can be the hardest day you've ever gone through, and all you want to do is forget it.
Let me say to you, don't. The days are a message. You can go through a day that's really good.
And you're like, yay, me, I did good, I got a trophy, I got a prize, I had fun, I laughed my heart out, whatever.
And then a few days later you have a rough one and you're kind of like, well I'm kind of forgetting that joyful day.
Don't. The days are a message. God is conveying something powerful and amazing that must not be missed by the stacking up of days.
The days are also a test. The test is will you respond to the message of the days in an appropriate way?
Will you answer back God when he asks you? Think of like Job after all the suffering he went through and he lost everything.
And then he's like, God, this is giving me my chance to talk to God, I just want to ask God.
And then when God comes to Job, what does he say? He says, can you answer these questions?
Not what questions would you ask me, Job, but can you answer these questions?
And he goes on to say, who created the stars? How was this done? Do you get it? Do you really get it?
You would ask me, is what he says. The days are a test of how you'll respond.
The message is simply this. It is an appeal. It is come love God. God loves you. Come love God back the way he loves us.
It is a promise. I will give you all. Not I will give you one more day or a little more riches or a little more health.
God does sometimes bless people with things like he pulls their life altogether out of shambles or he provides them with the money that they need at just the right time.
Those blessings happen, but that's not the blessing. The blessing is not that I will give you another day or a better benefit for this day or for the next day,
but I will literally give you all. All of it. The days then stacked reveal God's nature.
If you look at Romans chapter 1, if you're following along in your Bibles, I encourage you to do that. You don't have to, but if you look at Romans chapter 1.
Romans chapter 1 beginning in verse 18 says this. He says, this is Paul writing to the church at Rome. This is written to the church in Rome.
For the wrath of God, and wrath is not anger, it's opposition. People always make wrath out to be like, oh he's mad at me or whatever. It's not that.
God's not really mad at anybody. Wrath is opposing someone's course. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppresses the truth and unrighteousness.
So people are doing that, they're suppressing the truth by doing bad things. The truth what? The message of God, come love God, I will give you all.
And God's nature, they're suppressing that by the way they're behaving and their unrighteousness. And God's wrath is against them.
Because that which is known about God is evident within them. In other words, they already can know this. They already can see it. The message is already clear.
For God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen.
Everything about God can clearly be seen, being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse.
There's no excuse to not respond to this message. Come love God, I will give you all in God's nature that is present in creation.
21 says, for even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile, that means without any good benefit, in their speculations.
They were thinking about things that were worthless. And their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools. And they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God. Nothing can ever be wrong with God, done wrong with God.
God can't be hurt. He is God. And the incorruptible God, his glory, the light that should have been shined on him, they exchanged that for an image in the form of corruptible man.
And they were going after people, or they built statuettes of people, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and crawling creatures.
So many are wrapped up in the day to day, what's going on right now, and they don't see it. They're not getting it.
The message of God is being delivered by the day, piece after piece after piece, stacking it up. Here's more about God.
Here's what God wants you to know. God loves you. God wants you to love him back. It's being stacked up day after day, but they don't get it because they are pursuing the other things that are good in life.
Oftentimes they're good things, but they're wrapped up in that. But there is a solution.
Paul knew there was a solution. If you go back to right before the verses we just read in Romans 1-16, it says, he wanted to come, and he says, I want to come and share the gospel with you.
And he says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
So everybody that believes in Jesus, everybody that believes in God through Jesus, the gospel contains the power, and that's explosive changing power.
That word there is dunamis in the Greek. It's the same place that we get our word for dynamite.
Boom! The power is in the gospel for everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
In 17 he says, for in it the righteousness of God, that's how right God is, who God really is, is revealed.
See, it already existed, but it's made clear. It was being covered over or people were being blind by what they're doing day to day, getting wrapped up in the various things of this life.
But the gospel reveals it from faith to faith as it is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith.
God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, and that's not a time thing, not a history date, it's not like you were a sinner before you were born,
but God demonstrated His love toward us that while we were yet sinners doing the things that God would not want us to do,
and He was opposing us because our unrighteousness was disguising the truth, while that was still going on, Jesus came and died for people.
The work of the Father that Jesus said, this is what He said the work of the Father is, believe in the one whom He has sent.
Paul wrote, believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that He is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved. That's it.
And Jesus said to a man who came and claimed to be, or could really claim to be very, very holy, he was fasting two days a week, memorizing whole parts of the Bible.
Going around preaching the truth to everybody, going to all these different synagogues, telling them all about God, and He said, unless you be born again, you will not see the Kingdom of God.
See the days were stacking up, that's what days do, and some days were better than others, and in His case, His days were looking pretty darn good,
but Jesus said, unless you be born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is that person, place, or thing in which it rules.
In other words, it is the message that's being delivered every day in creation. We are grateful for our lives, most grateful, should be most grateful for our lives,
because our lives are an ongoing, consistent, constant letter of love from God. He loves you.
You're still here today because He has a purpose for your life. You're right here in this moment in time because God wants to do something amazing for you and in you, and let's say, by you.
But the days are stacking up, and people get lost up in that, one after another, each revealing its own little piece of God and God's incredible nature,
but it's so easy to get blinded by dealing with the factors of each day, even desiring the things that you see.
You want the day to be a certain thing. You're trying to force a certain outcome,
or you're continuing to long for something, feeling broken, mourning over events that didn't go the way you wanted them to go.
And all of that is getting wrapped up in the day. We even say this, we say, a wise man saves for a rainy day. That's not true.
Now, there's nothing wrong with saving money. I'm not saying you shouldn't do that, but a wise man doesn't save for a rainy day. That's wrong.
A wise man submits both the sunny day and the rainy day into God's care, because you can save for a rainy day,
and the day before it rains, something happens that takes all your money away. And what are you going to do on a rainy day then?
The wise man submits both the sunny and the rainy day to God as God continues to share with us his incredible nature.
This is a poem written by, sort of a poem, written by an anonymous author, and it's called Exit the Frat.
It says, days are filled with good that makes us rejoice.
Days are filled with rough times, and we may rage at the top of our voice, or cry till we think we'll run dry.
Now, let me tell you why. Days are revealing, revealing the power of God, the majesty of God, the creativity of God,
the love of God, the eternal nature of God, the gentle care of God, the justice of God, and the grace of God.
But the list goes on. And so wrapped up in the maelstrom are many humans, I'm sorry, many humans have become,
they have joined the rejoicing, raging, railing, crying, collecting fraternity.
And they relish in it, though they have exchanged it for eternity.
The days keep stacking up, one on top another, as God is revealing some additional part of his personality.
But Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel. I am not ashamed of the gospel.
For I understand that the gospel has the power to reveal the loving, caring nature of God.
And the days stacked up go into the gospel and come out as eternity.
How many days are there in eternity?
Eternity is forever. God is literally witnessing to you daily saying, I love you,
and I want to do something incredible in you, and for you, and by you, and I want to bring you to live with me
for an eternity in heaven when that time on earth is through.
Don't you understand? This is the eternal commission that we have been given.
God's message of love and the declaration of the gospel through the events of everyday lives.
When you do well and you say, yeah, that's me, that's not declaring God.
God might use it to declare in someone else's life, because he might say, yeah, you see how he's arrogant?
Only God is really holy like he's making himself out to be.
And God will still get his glory in the end when people who cry out, Lord, Lord,
but they didn't love him and follow his commands will be sent away because they're told,
get away from me, I never knew you.
When people who show up, this is why people who show up for people in prison,
people who show up for the hungry, people who show up to care about others,
this is why he will call them his own and he will bring them home.
If they have claimed the name of the Lord Jesus, believe in their heart,
confess that he is Lord and God raised him from the dead,
and begin to live accordingly, then daily they will by their actions and the things they do,
they will add to the testimony of God.
They will become part of the testimony of God, showing his incredible grace and his incredible nature.
We can look back over our lives and we can be grateful for those days,
but I submit to you, and some people said this, we can be grateful for the good days and the bad days too.
Now the truth is, we'll probably never unravel that mess in our lifetime.
You would never get to the point of fully understanding God,
if you could measure each day, figure out how it stacks up, how it connects, dot to dot,
man this is dot number 40 million and one, I'm going over here and you're still drawing the lines
and trying to connect it all together, but at the cross, Jesus made this part possible.
Believe in God, believe in God and accept him in your life through Jesus Christ his son,
and in that moment, just as he said to that very holy man,
who stacked all of his days so wonderfully and thought he had it all under control,
he said you must be born again, and in that moment, you will be born again.
And then when you're born again, like many people were able to do today,
we begin to get it, we begin to see pieces and how they connect and the dots and how I wound up here
and how I fell in love with so and so or how I got a broken heart here
or how my health went south or how my health miraculously became okay
and it all starts to connect and we understand, but the more important part is this,
that God wants to convey this message to me and to you today and will, if you say no.
This is the blessing R.J. said, you've got to be grateful for nagging, right?
God is the perfect nagger. He loves you.
He's waiting patiently for you to surrender your life to him.
If you've already done that, then you know he is constantly there encouraging you
and kind of pushing you in the right direction, building you up and gifting you
and working on that kind of thing, but he's like that for those who won't accept him too.
He's always there.
The Holy Spirit came to bring conviction to all men, not just the believers.
And you know, if you're listening to me today, and you can look back
and see the points in your life where God has said to you, I love you.
I want you. I want you to be part of my family.
I want to forgive every wrong you've ever done.
And I want you to trade your days, your limited assortment, 120 years maximum probably
365 days plus 30 leap years, right?
Your limited assortment of days. I want you to trade those to me.
I want you to go all in, all your stacked up days, all the ones I gave you,
and trade them for eternity.
Would you? Will you? Are you?
We're going to sing a little closing hymn now, a hymn of invitation.
This is your opportunity to ask yourself, okay, do I feel it in my heart that God is calling me?
Can I believe that he sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for me
and resurrected him on the third day?
That because he died for me, that I now can live for him.
Can I believe that?
And if you can, then you make a public decision by raising your hand
or by coming forward to the front of the room and saying, this is me.
From now on, I am living for Jesus.
Was it scary when I did it? Absolutely.
But I also knew I couldn't not.
Because I knew God had called me.
And when somebody like that calls, you answer.
So I'm asking you to answer.
If you're here today and you would say, I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior,
but I have not lived as if he was my Lord,
don't be the most pitiable of all.
The most pitiable of all would be the one who thinks he's saved,
and arrives there to find out he's not.
That would be terrible.
Instead, say, OK, God, I know you love me,
and I know you're calling me, and I know you want me,
and I want you to.
For the Lord that I am, and I live for you from now on,
the best I know how.
And yeah, mistakes will happen.
But let me not be trapped by presumptuous sins.
In other words, don't let me be trapped by those things that I do,
even though I know they're wrong.
They'll set me free.
I will acquit you today.
Again, I pray you'll come forward.
Everybody else, stand where you are.
If you would, if you're not able to stand for some reason, that's fine too.
But if you would, stand and stand with us.
Nothing less than a turn.
He is on the line for every person in the room.
Are you all in?
Have you surrendered your days?
I ask you to do that today.
God loves you.
He's calling you.
I want you to stand in the front and back.
As we sing, as the Lord is calling on your heart to respond in some way,
do that today.
Oh God, you are my God,
and I will ever praise you.
Oh God, you are my God,
and I will ever praise you.
I will sing you in the morning,
and I will learn to walk in your ways.
Step by step you'll lead me,
and I will fill you up my days.
Oh God, you are my God,
and I will ever praise you.
Oh God, you are my God,
and I will ever praise you.
I will sing you in the morning,
and I will learn to walk in your ways.
Step by step you'll lead me,
and I will fill you up my days.
And step by step you'll lead me,
and I will fill you up my days.
And...
Lord, prepare me to be sanctuary,
to a brand holy child and child,
with thanksgiving,
and we'll live in sanctuary for you.
Lord, prepare me to be sanctuary,
pure and holy,
stride and true,
with thanksgiving,
I'll be a living
sanctuary for you.
Lord, prepare me to be sanctuary,
pure and holy,
stride and true,
with thanksgiving,
I'll be a living
sanctuary for you.
With thanksgiving,
I'll be a living
sanctuary for you.