At the end of it all. And we were maxed out in
our residential capacity. And things were really
good. And so when God called us to Sweden. It
was a surprise to us. To say the least. I became
very close with the missionary. That I worked
with in Scotland. Brother Robert Kelly. And Brother
Kelly at the time was overseeing much of Scandinavia.
And in Scandinavia, especially Sweden, there
were a lot of issues that were starting to crop
up. And he was sharing with me over coffee one
Tuesday what was happening in the country of
Sweden the weekend before. And leaders were leaving
the church. The saints were looking around not
knowing what was going on. And finally that Sunday
before. the pastor of both churches, there's
only two United Pentecostal churches in all of
Sweden, and the pastor of both of those churches
got up on that Sunday and resigned unexpectedly.
They were working hard with him, trying to keep
it all together, but he resigned. And so Brother
Kelly was sharing this with me over coffee, and
I listened to him. With a sympathetic ear, obviously,
but there was nothing in that conversation where
I felt like I needed to get involved, you know.
I didn't have a Nehemiah moment where I just
began to pray and fast and go before the Lord
of Heaven for this country who was in need. You
know, it was probably more along the lines of
thoughts and prayers, you know, like, we're just
going to have to pray about that, brother, you
know. You know, and I was going to get up from
that conversation and go about my business, you
know. But on my way to my business that afternoon,
the Lord spoke to me as I was on my way back
to the Bible college after that conversation.
And he said, you need to go. And it was a shocker
for me because this wasn't a voice of the Lord
that I had really heard up to that point in time.
It was so unique and so clear to me. You know,
the skies didn't open, but I knew that God was
speaking. And so when I got back to the Bible
school, I began to pray about it. And the more
I prayed about it, the more I was very convinced
that God was speaking in that moment. And the
only way I can tell you is if you know, you know.
OK, if God has spoken to you and you just know
it, you just know it. All right. And and so I
kept praying about it, however, for about 10
days. I wanted to make sure I really knew that
this wasn't just, you know, the coffee talking.
And I was really excited about the idea of, you
know, an adventure or something. And I continued
to pray. And after about 10 days or so, I shared
it with my wife and my wife looked at me and
said, well. I'm not surprised because about five
days ago during prayer meeting, God gave me a
burden for Stockholm and for Sweden. And so we
knew that God was talking. And then the leaders,
our leaders started calling our other leaders.
Amen. They getting on the phone and saying, you
need to send the Fulmers to Sweden. And it seemed
like God was coming from so many different directions
to confirm his voice in this situation. And quite
frankly, we needed it. All right. Because not
only were we happy, Sweden wasn't a country that
was on our radar at all. It wasn't a country
that was interesting to us. Maybe like you. Maybe
you're like Sweden. I'm not really sure what
that is. Is that what the Alps are? Many people
don't know where Sweden actually is. Or that
there are two countries named Sweden and Switzerland.
They're two different countries. You'd be surprised
at how many people don't know that. It gets even
harder when you put it into Spanish. It's Suiza
and Suecia. It's really, really confusing. But
they are two different countries with two different
languages and cultures and people. But we had
no idea what this country would have in store
for us. We had no idea about the culture, not
really. We had no idea what the cities were like.
We had no clue about this. As a matter of fact,
I remember when I was like a teenager. Back in
the day when you had to go to the library and
rent documentaries. Praise the Lord. This was
before YouTube and every other thing that we
can watch things on. I'd go to the library and
I think I'd work my way through everything else.
And now I was finally at the documentary section.
And I was looking at a documentary about Scandinavia.
I remember a teenager doing this. I was really
bored. But I remember from that documentary.
Clear as day. I saw Copenhagen and I was like,
that looks like a cool city. Let's go there.
I'd like to try that one day. But I saw Sweden
and I was like, I'm good. I've seen all I need
to see. And so I say all this to say that this
was not on the radar for us. We were surprised
when God called us to Sweden. And so we had the
challenge then to find out what this country
was that God was sending us to. Amen. And so
we get on Google and we start to look. Google,
and tell us about Sweden, Google. And the picture
that Google began to paint about Sweden was not
a pretty one. I've already mentioned we only
have two United Pentecostal churches in the whole
country. They're separated by about three and
a half hours from one another. And then I look
at the Christian sort of scene in Sweden. What
is the makeup in this country? And almost 11
million people in the country and only 1 % are
practicing believers. And so I look at that and
I'm thinking, man, I don't know. And I look down
at my two -year -old and my four -year -old and
I'm like, God, you know, where are you sending
us? What is this place that you are taking us
to? And God gave us a word. He challenged us
to trust him and to go and believing that he
was going to take care of our family, believing
that he was going to bring revival, believing
that he was going to do a work, even if it seemed
like it was impossible at the time. As a matter
of fact, our last deputation scripture that God
gave us, in our travels was from Ezekiel in the
valley of dry bones. And can these bones live?
And with all of his faith, he says, Lord, you
know. And so we were in the place of Ezekiel,
but we were encouraged by the word of the Lord
to Ezekiel to prophesy. Just go to prophesy.
Speak life to these bones, and we're going to
see these bones live. And so we went to Sweden.
believing that God was going to do a work. And
quite frankly, I'm so glad to report that when
we got to Sweden, what Google said about Sweden
and what we experienced were two different things.
Amen. Because when we got to Sweden, we found
a country that was hungry for God. We found a
nation that is hungry for the things of God,
especially young people in the country of Sweden.
There is a revival amongst young people, even
so much that the news has begun reporting on
it. State television is reporting on what is
happening amongst young people in Sweden. They're
hungry. And the only thing I can think of is
once they get past all the intellectualism and
pride and arrogance and postmodernism and every
other theory that they've indulged in to get
to the point where they are, they're still left
a hungry soul. of God, longing for communion
with their creator. Look, we are created, amen,
for a specific purpose. We are created to know
God, to walk with him, to serve him, to worship
him, amen, and you can't get that any other way
than the real thing. Amen. And so we're seeing
this happen. It's not uncommon for me to get
texts through to my phone from people connected
to the church who are saying, hey, we prayed
for 18 young people in Stockholm today. We prayed
for 20 in city center today. They're out preaching
the gospel. They're out preaching the word of
God. And young people are coming to these street
preachers and getting prayed for right in the
middle of the biggest city in all of Scandinavia.
Amen. This is what God is doing. Praise God.
But when we got to Sweden, we had all the faith
in the world, and we proclaimed so many things,
but there's a little bit of pressure that comes
with being a missionary. Not only do I have to
report to people like Brother Linder, we have
to report to you. We go around North America,
and we proclaim what God is going to do. We proclaim
what we believe is going to happen when we get
on the field, and then we get there, and we don't
know anybody. Right? We get to a city without
an apostolic church. We don't have any friends.
We don't have any contacts. We're flying blind.
We're in a city that nobody knows anything about
that we can talk to. And all of a sudden, all
that faith has to find somewhere to go. Amen.
We've got to learn a language. We've got to get
our kids in school. We've got to figure out what's
happening on the ground there. And so we continue
to trust God and to believe him. And friends,
can I tell you something today? God took care
of our children. We were worried about him. Amen.
But God looked after them. And what I mean by
that is that... When we moved to Uppsala, the
city of Uppsala, about 45 minutes north of Stockholm,
we didn't know anything about it, but in the
city of Uppsala, there is the largest Christian
school probably in all the country of Sweden,
probably the best Christian school. There aren't
that many of them throughout the entire country,
but we just happened to move to the place where
the best one was. We actually got an apartment
about seven minutes away from this school. We
landed on Sunday. The next day, we had our kids
registered there. Look, all the teachers are
believers. of them, if not all of them, are spirit
-filled believers. Praise God. God is looking
after our kids. We thank God for that. We thank
God for that. Amen. But there is a little bit
of performance pressure that comes with being
a missionary. And so my wife was especially feeling
this, maybe because she writes the newsletters.
I don't know. And about maybe about six months
into this time, she's praying stuff like, God,
how are we going to see revival in Sweden? How
are we going to see a church raised up in this
city? How are we going to see revival in Stockholm?
What are we going to do, Lord? You know, these
kinds of prayers. Amen. They were sincere and
they were heartfelt. And she was feeling the
urgency of this burden, this task that was in
front of us. But she began to pray this. way,
and it was around this time that she became acquainted
with some ladies, some mothers from our kids'
school. And the moms would typically drop off
the kids out in front of the school, and many
times they would chat with one another as their
kids went off and into the school for the day.
And one of these mornings, she began to talk
to a couple of these ladies that she had become
acquainted with and started to become friends
with, and one of them was sharing her testimony
with the other. And she just began to cry and
weep as she was giving her testimony of what
had happened. She kept saying these words. saying,
God woke me up. God woke me up. God woke me up.
God woke me up. And come to find out what had
happened in her life is that she was at a prayer
meeting and she became drunk in the spirit. All
right. She was so overwhelmed by the spirit of
God that she just became inebriated by it. Hallelujah.
And I don't know if you're familiar with that
or not, but. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. She
began to laugh and to laugh and to laugh, so
much so that they had to call her husband to
come and pick her up and take her home because
she couldn't drive her car home. She laughed
all through the night. She laughed until the
next day. And she was just so grateful because
she knew that she was different. God had done
something in her life. And so they invited my
wife to a prayer meeting, and she obliged to
go. And one of her new friends began to give
a disclaimer on the way there. She said, hey,
I'm not really sure what you're familiar with.
I don't know what you're used to, what your Christian
experience is. but we pray a little bit differently
at our prayer meetings sometimes, and she probably
went through a list of things, but one of the
things she said is, we speak in other tongues,
and I don't want you to be afraid. Are you okay
with that? And my wife looked at her, and she's
like, everything is fine. Everything is good.
So she gets to the prayer meeting, however, and
she walks in and there's something like 40 women
who are gathered together in this home and they're
all praying and they're seeking the face of God.
Ages 16 to over 60 from churches all over the
city of Uppsala. Some of them didn't even attend
church at this time. And she sees what's going
on here and she's feeling like she's walking
into the book of Acts. Amen. And so she just
begins to pray. And as she's praying, she begins
to feel hands on her head and on her shoulders
and on her feet. And she opens her eyes and one
of these ladies looks at her and says, God has
brought you here. God brought you to this place
to help us. You have things that we need. You
have things that we're praying for. Amen. And
God has brought you to this place. Amen. To bless
us. Praise God. Amen. God is working. God is
moving. You know, it was after this prayer meeting
that God spoke to my wife and said, hey, you
didn't do that. You didn't do that. I did this.
Amen. I'm the one that's going to do the work.
I'm the one that is going to make this thing
happen. So you don't worry about that. Praise
God. So we come to understand that God is the
one doing the work. And we've got to know it.
Amen. We've got to know it. You've got to know
it right here. And there's this song, Waymaker.
And we sing that song. I think you've probably
sang it so many times that you forget what you're
even saying anymore. But the song says, even
when I don't feel it, you're moving, you're working.
Amen. Even when I don't see it, you're working.
You never stop working. You never, ever, ever
stop working. Hallelujah. And that's so true,
church. We can join with God in what he is doing
wherever he's doing it. That's got to be our
prayer. You know, the Bible calls us to be co
-laborers with him. Co -laborers with him. Not
just employees, amen, not apprentices or spectators,
but co -laborers with him. And one thing I know
about this person that I am working with is that
he's not lazy. Amen. He shows up. He clocks in.
He never clocks out. All right. He just keeps
going and going and going. When I'm calling out
sick, he's still working. When I'm sleeping in,
he's still working. When I don't know what's
going on, amen, he's hard at work. Praise God.
When I'm scrolling Instagram, amen, taking a
long lunch, okay, he is still working diligently
and doing things. And so we have the opportunity
to be a part of what God is doing. Amen. I'm
so grateful for it. One more story about God
doing the work, okay? I'm going to move quickly
here tonight. Amen. There's another story. If
you want to put that picture up. There's a young
man. Yep, there we go. This is Arthur, okay?
Arthur's 15 years old. He's raised by an atheist
father and an agnostic mother in a country where
1 % of the people are believers. He's got no
friends he can talk to about what's going on
in his heart, but Arthur is laying in bed at
night, and he's praying. No reason he should
be praying this way, but he's praying, God, I
have to get saved. I don't even know what that
means, but I got to get it. I have to figure
out what that means. Lord, won't you tell me?
Archer has got nobody he can talk to in his life.
So Archer does what any 15 year old is going
to do at that point in time. He's going to go
on YouTube and he's going to say, OK, YouTube,
lay it on me. How do I get saved? And so YouTube
started taking in the pictures of street preachers
and videos of street preachers. And from that
initial surge, somehow God's hand guided Arthur
all the way to our digital doorstep to where
we were able to make contact with him and start
talking to him. And Arthur wanted to be baptized
in Jesus' name. Arthur lives five hours on the
other side of the country. Arthur lives in the
second largest city in Sweden, in Gothenburg.
Actually, where's my friend, Ethan? Where are
you at? Is he here? There he is. Praise the Lord.
Amen. He works for Volvo in Gothenburg. Praise
the Lord. Amen. God bless you, sir. Amen. That's
a good man right there. Amen. But he's living
all the way in Gothenburg where they make Volvo,
by the way. Amen. And Arthur, there's no apostolic
church within three hours of Arthur to attend.
Nowhere. Not in Norway, not in Denmark, not in
Sweden, not within three hours of him. And so
I baptized Arthur in Jesus' name, and now Arthur
wants to be a preacher, but Arthur doesn't even
have a church to go to except for online. Amen.
And so we need to pray, church. Jesus said, look,
I have never experienced a situation where Jesus'
words rang more true, where the harvest is white,
but the laborers are few. And so he gave a prayer
request, and I'm giving that same prayer request
here tonight. Pray the Lord of the harvest. Pray
with us the Lord of the harvest, that he would
send forth laborers. Into his harvest. Because
friends we need it. And God is already beginning
to answer this prayer. We have aimers who are
coming. We have people. I'm hearing of individuals
who are feeling a calling to Sweden. Just coming
out of the woodwork. No contact with them at
all before. But people are being drawn by the
spirit of God. To come and help us in this country.
And we thank God for that. But we need more.
We need seasoned leaders to come and help us.
Train leaders in the country. We need people
to come alongside of us. And raise up the next
generation. We just had our first person licensed
in the local church. church there in Stockholm
where I pastor now. Amen. We thank God for the
one, but we're believing for more. Amen. We got
connected in a partnership with Harvest Bible
College in Scotland, and we've just graduated
our first graduates this past summer. Amen. It's
just a handful, just a couple from Sweden. Amen.
But we're believing for more. Praise God. We're
believing for more. You know, Elijah prayed and
it stopped raining. And then he prayed again
for it to rain. And he had to pray a few times
for the rain to start coming. Hallelujah. And
for a long time it's not been raining in Sweden.
Amen. But we start praying for the rain over
and over and over again. And we start seeing
the cloud the size of a man's hand. We know that
the rain is coming. And we see it happening right
now in Sweden. And so we're excited to get back.
We were excited to get back before we ever left.
Amen. And one of the things that we're really
excited about is developing a little project
that we have further. You know, before we ever
went to Sweden, the last time we started, well,
we were in Tennessee, and God gave us a vision
of starting a coffee company when we went to
Sweden. And I know that's really wild. You want
to be a missionary. Why are you talking about
starting a coffee company? Well, I didn't know,
okay? But I just believed that the Lord was speaking.
Global Missions told us, we think that's too
much money. I said, well, okay. And so I put
it on the shelf. Amen. But once we got there,
we started having connections and building a
network in the city that we live in, in Uppsala.
Many of those people from the prayer meeting,
we got involved in their lives and became leaders.
close friends with many of them, but also they
look to us as leaders in their lives. And they
wanted to start having worship with us and start
to have events with us. And so we started doing
live worship out in the countryside just outside
the city center in Uppsala. And they wanted us
to do the fika, bro. They wanted us to take care
of that. If you want to put that picture up of
the coffee bike there. And so in preparation
for these events, we started looking around and
trying to get prepared to serve hundreds and
hundreds because we believed that's what we were
going to do. So we found in the midst of that
searching, we found a coffee company that was
for sale down in Stockholm. We took half of our
savings and we threw it at this coffee company
and said, you know what, Lord, we're just going
to put skin in the game. We believe that you're
in this. And so we bought this coffee company
and began to serve, amen, many, many people in
these ministry events that we were doing in the
summers. Amen. But when we go back to Sweden,
the goal is to open a cafe space in the city
of Uppsala that can serve as a church location
that will serve for Bible studies and for prayer
meetings and for eventually Sunday services.
Look, Uppsala is the fourth largest city in Sweden,
about 45 minutes north of Stockholm, as I've
already mentioned. Between these two cities,
there's something like 25 or 30 percent of the
population living there. And we have one apostolic
church. We need another. And that's what we're
doing with this cafe location. Amen. So we believe
that God is going to use this for his glory.
It might be unconventional, but we believe that
God is in it. Amen? And so we're going to see
great things happen in the midst of that. So
we want to invite you to be a part of that. You're
already supporting us monthly, but if you want
to give toward this, you can give toward our
evangelism project. Our evangelism project is
a big umbrella project that covers everything
from printing leaflets, amen, 7 ,000 of them
perhaps, Brother Linder, amen, all the way to
renting facilities, okay, and everything kind
of in between to help us win the nation of Sweden.
Thank you so much for all that you do for the
kingdom of God. Thank you so much, amen, for
your support for over 15 years at this point.
We could not be more grateful to you. Amen. God
bless you. And I do want to get into the word
of the Lord today. I know that it is your Thanksgiving
service. And we have so much to be thankful for
here tonight. Praise God. And I love Thanksgiving
because it's a time that we can come together
and begin to reflect and begin to think. about
all the things that we have in our lives that
so often we don't think about or we take for
granted and we don't really, really, really think
about and meditate on. And sometimes those things
become, they lose their luster in our minds and
we become sort of ungrateful for those things
in our lives. So I thank God for times where
we can set aside remembrances. And God did this
even for the children of Israel, didn't he? He
did it in the Passover. Jesus did it in what
we call communion, the Lord's Supper. always
this remembrance that we're putting before us
because there's a danger for us to forget. Amen.
There's a danger for us to forget. I thank God
for the song that we sang in the very beginning
of this service because I believe it speaks to
what the Lord has led me to speak on this evening.
The psalmist said this. It was David. He said,
Bless the Lord. In Psalm 103, verse number 1.
Oh, my soul. and all that is within me. Bless
his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits. I'm reading in the
ESV, sorry, didn't I? Who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases, who redeems your
life from the pit, who crowns you. with steadfast
love and mercy. Bless the Lord, O my soul. You
know, when I read this psalm, I'm immediately
struck by the first several verses of it. He
goes on and he elaborates and he starts to sort
of expound on the ways that we can bless the
Lord. But in the very beginning of this psalm,
I believe that David sets the tone for the entire
thing. Bless the Lord. I look at this and I see
David commanding his soul to do something. This
is not necessarily an encouragement to anybody
else at this point. This is a command to his
own soul. Amen. David is commanding himself to
bless the Lord. Every part of me. You know, when
man was created, he was created from the dust
and God breathed the spirit into him and he became,
the Bible says, a living soul. And so when David
looks at this, he's saying everything that God
has made, every part of me, you need to bless
the Lord today. All that is within me, bless
his holy name. Hallelujah. And David is very
intentional to do this because he follows up
that verse saying, forget not all his benefits.
David understands there is a danger. In forgetting.
So, don't forget what God has done for you. So,
you've got to remember what it is that he has
accomplished for you. You see, David understands
something. Everything that's happened in the
history of his people, every bad thing that has
happened in the history of Israel began with
somebody forgetting the goodness of God. It began
with the Israelites forgetting what God had accomplished
for them and delivering them from evil and remembering
only, if you can recall from Exodus, the leaks.
And the cucumbers and the onions and the things
that they ate. I think they might have even said
watermelons. I can't remember. Amen. I don't
know what else. The spaghetti, the meatballs.
I have no idea what else they were thinking about.
For me, if I'm thinking about things to remember
from the place where I was in bondage, it's not
going to be leeks. It's not going to be cucumbers.
It's not going to be melons. Praise the Lord.
Amen. No, no. It's going to be other things.
But these children of Israel had forgotten so
much. to the point where they only remembered
things that were only okay, and they esteemed
them greater than the things that God had done
in their lives. Friends, David understood something
about the power of forgetfulness. Amen. He had
the logs. He had all the books of Moses. He looked
at it, and he, like us, probably screamed every
time he read throughout the book of Exodus. You
ever been like that? You're reading through the
book of Exodus, and you're just like, I can't
believe you're doing this again. Oh, my goodness.
When are you going to learn? It wasn't that long
ago that he did this for you. What is your problem?
David understood that they are but dust. And
he continues in that psalm. I'm not going to
read it all tonight, but he understands something
here. He understands that God knows that we are
dust. He understands our frame. But God has blessed
us with so much. He continues to tell us what
God has done. He says he heals. Our diseases.
All of them. Amen. He heals the disease of our
mind. He heals the disease of our body. He heals
the disease that cripples us and impedes us in
so many ways. He heals us. Not only does He heal
us, He forgives us. Amen. And He doesn't forgive
just in part. He forgives all our iniquity. He
forgives it. Amen. From the first and to the
last. The psalm continues and says he moves it.
This is where David says he moves it. As far
as the east is from the west, he has removed
our iniquity from us. Amen. This is the God that
we are serving. And David is saying, bless this
Lord, oh my soul. You better not forget what
he's done. You better not forget what he's accomplished
in your life. You know, this reveals something
to me. David understood that he had received
something from God. He understood that he had
gotten something that he did not deserve. Amen.
David reveals that in these words. There's power,
church, in reminding ourselves of the dynamic
that we have in the relationship with God that
we are walking with. This dynamic of a recipient.
We have received, amen, God's goodness. We have
received, amen, his grace. We have received his
loving kindness and his mercy. And friends, we
don't deserve a single ounce of it. You know,
the Bible writer said, by grace you are saved.
And that not of yourselves, hallelujah, it is
the gift of God. Amen. We are saved by his grace.
Amen. David understood this. And he said it like
this. I was sick and he healed me. I was a slave
to sin, and he forgave me. Amen. You know, the
contrast to this is what we see in our society
today. So much of what we see in the society
that we live in right now, the Bible predicted
it long ago. He said there's a generation coming
that is marked, and one of the key things in
this generation is ingratitude. To be ungrateful
is a marker of this generation. This is a generation
that has forgotten God and become completely
entitled. Paul spoke of it when he wrote these
words to Timothy. He says, but understand this,
that in the last days there will come times of
difficulty. For people will be lovers of self,
lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive. disobedient
to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless,
unappeasable, slanderous, without self -control,
brutal, not loving God. Come on. You been on
Instagram lately? Hallelujah. This is our world.
Having the appearance of godliness or piety or
goodness, amen, but denying. It's power. But
right in the middle of that list, friends, we
don't want to miss it, was ungrateful. It's a
marker of this generation and a generation that
has walked away from God. But to be a grateful
generation is to be a generation who loves God
above self. Gratitude, amen, will lead to a proper
estimation of ourselves, church. When we are
grateful, we see ourselves as we ought to be.
Amen. In contrast to their arrogance and to their
pride. As a matter of fact, to be grateful is
to be holy. You know, Paul said it one more time
like this in Romans chapter 12, verse 1. I appeal
to you. I beseech thee, brethren. Amen. By the
mercies of God. I switched it up on you, bro.
I beseech thee. by the mercies of God, because
of his goodness, because of what he has done
in your life, because of his faithfulness, because
of what he's accomplished on Calvary, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. I love that verse, especially the end.
where it says it's your reasonable service. You
know what that word is in the Greek? I'm not
a Greek scholar, but I looked that one up one
time. What's that mean? It's logikos, and I'm
saying that completely wrong. And that's okay,
because I'm a man that was born in Virginia and
raised in Virginia, North Carolina. And I said
it just like you're going to say it. But it doesn't
take a whole lot to figure out what logikos means.
Logical. It's the only thing that makes sense.
Another version, another translation says your
rational service. When we understand what God
has done, the only response is to lay my life
down with a heart of gratitude. Amen. With thanksgiving.
With a complete and total surrender to him. Amen.
Because he is worthy. of it all. But friends,
if we forget what he has done. Hallelujah. If
we forget what God has accomplished, we're never
going to do it. Amen, church. So I think it's
right today, our rational response today, the
logical outcome of our understanding here today
is to worship him and to become grateful to him.
You see, when we understand that God has redeemed
us, we come with grateful hearts. We understand
that love that he has poured out on us, truly
understand it. The only logical response is to
say, Lord, here is my life, everything. I have
is yours. Hallelujah. Amen. And friends, there
is a blessing in that gratitude. Hallelujah.
There is abundance in that gratitude. God comes
down and he begins to dwell among that kind of
gratitude. You see, as we start to scour our
mind and the word of God and our memories, we
begin to realize he's been better to me than
I could ever possibly deserve. Hallelujah. Amen.
And if you don't quite feel it, amen, you can
And join with the psalmist and say, bless the
Lord, oh my soul. Amen. Somebody needs to say,
hallelujah, God. I'm sorry I've forgotten what
it is you've done. But I'm going to grab my soul,
amen, to the altar. And I'm going to bless your
holy name because you're worthy of all. the glory.
God, never let me forget what you've accomplished
for me on the cross of Calvary. God, never let
me forget what you did for me when I came to
you, oh Lord. Hallelujah. Amen. You begin to
feel a little bit lighter. Amen. You begin to
feel that weight just begin to leave. Hallelujah.
Gratitude begins to leak just a little bit, and
then it begins to trickle, and then it begins
to flow, and quite frankly, God is going to respond
to that grateful heart here tonight, church.
Amen. When we remember what he has done and we
begin to praise him, there's something irresistible
to God about that kind of praise. God inhabits
these kinds of praise and I believe he wants
to inhabit those praises here tonight, church.
Amen. Amen. We're going to have an opportunity
to do that in just a second. We're going to gather
around this altar here tonight and we're just
going to thank God together as the body of Christ.
Amen. And it's going to be beautiful. But I want
to share with you as we close this evening a
story about a service from my teenage years.
I was very young in the church. I came into church
really when I was about 16 years old. And I had
only been in church for a few years. And it was
on a midweek service, perhaps just like this.
And the worship, we had just a small church,
just a handful of us there, maybe 15, 20 people.
All right. We all knew each other real well.
And it was a big routine for us. Right. And then
the song leader got up that evening. His name
was Willis. Hallelujah. You didn't need to know
that. But I thought it added a little bit of
color to this story. Amen. His name was Willis.
And Willis was up there and he was singing to
the Lord. And there wasn't anything particularly
dynamic about the song he was singing. But he
just started singing. Oh, ain't God good to give
us so many blessings undeserving. That's what
we are. You ought to praise him. Love him and
thank him a little more today and a whole lot
more tomorrow. Right? And that's the whole song.
If there's more lyrics to that song, I don't
know them. But we sang it and we sang it and
we sang it. And I remember I was sitting on the
altar, or not the altar, but the usher pew in
the very back of the service. And Willis and
I, we caught eyes with one another. And it was
something that was happening in that service.
That collective gratitude just started spinning
in that house. Amen. And people started thinking
about, oh, yeah, amen. God has been good to me.
Oh, hallelujah. He's been better to me than I
deserve. Oh, I ought to praise the Lord. Amen.
I ought to just get a hold of something here
today. God really, look, there's only 20 of us
here tonight. Amen. I think I can praise him
a little bit. And friends, can I tell you something?
Something began to shift in that atmosphere.
I could see it on his face, and I could feel
it in my heart. The same thing was happening
at the same time. God moved in like a flood in
a way that I have never felt before or since
through the tragedy of that. Amen. But God just
began to flow in that house, and he just began
to pour out his spirit on people, and people
who had just been so dignified in the past. Man,
I saw them do things that night. That I never
would have imagined. But they were praising the
Lord. Amen. Because they got a hold of something.
And something got a hold of them. Praise God.
You know what it was? It was a little bit of
gratitude. But God's presence came down in that
place. Amen. And began to bless those people
as they pour back their thanks to Him. Church,
God wants to do that for you here tonight. Amen.
Now, you might not have the same experience tonight
that Willis and I did. I hope we do. Praise the
Lord. But what we can do is we can gather and
we can say, God, you've been so good to me. God,
maybe I don't feel it tonight. God, maybe I was
coming here to, you know, just get here and get
this done today. And I'm going to enjoy my family
for the rest of this week, whatever it is. But
why don't we take a moment here tonight, church?
Amen. And just lift our hands to the Lord. Amen.
And say, God. You've been so good to me. Why
don't we just stand today? Why don't we just
start to gather into this altar this evening?
Amen. Hallelujah, Jesus. Hallelujah, Jesus. Come
on, maybe it's been a little while since you've
done this, but we can reach back in our memories.
Maybe you don't feel like God has done anything
for you real recently. Maybe you've just gotten
used to what he's doing. But I want you to reach
back to when he touched you. I want you to reach
back to when he saved you. I want you to reach
back and say, God, oh, my soul. Oh, my soul.
Bless the Lord. He saved me. He healed me. He
saved my marriage. He changed my children's life.
He gave me a job. He gave me a place to live.
He gave me, amen, joy unspeakable and full of
glory. Hallelujah. He redeemed my soul. Hallelujah.
He broke the bondage in my life. God, we thank
you in this house. We thank you in this house,
oh God.