The Therapy of Thanksgiving 11/28/2021 9 AM

What a wonderful presence of the Lord right now. Amen. Praise God. So thankful for the Lord giving brother Jury a safe trip to Africa and effective ministry there. I know that in a week like this, there are all kinds of things going on in people's lives, sickness and challenges, and people that struggle with circumstances that they faced in their life. And and then those of us and those of you who have overcome those things by the blood of the lamb, by the word of our testimony, through the grace of God, we have much to be thankful for. Amen. That God is a good God. Let's thank him again for his goodness and mercy. I love you, Jesus. Amen. Amen. If you'd please open your Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 1, verse 18. [Music] Brother Brandon Cen called early this morning, sick with the flu. But I'm thankful that his brother, brother Isaac, is here. his brother Jerry mentioned earlier and able to fill in for his brother. Not quite as good as Brandon, but you're doing really good. The inside joke is that, you know, Isaac's is always a little better than Brandon. So, in case you think I was just dissing him, that's our that's our inside joke. Amen. If you're watching Brandon, that's for you. Romans chapter 1 verse 18. I'm glad to be in God's house. Amen. I'm glad for the salvation of my soul. I appreciate your prayers for my mom, Sister Cooper's mom. She's in the hospital. She's not in a very good spot. We spent a lot of time with her this week, but I'm grateful the Lord has given me such great parents in my life, and mom has been a tremendous stalwart, faithful person. And at 90 years of age and lots of health challenges, I'm thankful. Amen. And I refuse to be any other way or see it any other way than we serve a good God. Amen. Romans chapter 1 verse 18. For the wrath of God, isn't that a good way to start reading the Bible on Thanksgiving week? For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them in their conscience. For God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him, God revealed in conscience and now God revealed in nature. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made. even his eternal power and godhead. So that they, this is referring to pagan people, they are without excuse. Because that when they knew God through conscience, through nature, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Amen. Romans 1 shows the moral decay of the ungrateful. And I want to contrast the disease of ingratitude with the therapy of thanksgiving. Amen. Let's worship the Lord before we're seated. I feel your presence. I thank you, Lord, for your mercy and goodness. I thank you Lord. I thank you Lord today. Amen. God bless you. Please be seated. Not to be dramatic, but this past Monday night, I had worked pretty late and uh was in bed dozing off, almost asleep. when from out of nowhere I was probably pondering this week and this Sunday and the title of this message just came to me and I didn't really want to get back up but I knew I would be like Nebuchadnezzar that if I did not jot this down or type it up that I would forget the dream or forget the idea that the Lord had dropped in my heart. The therapy of thanksgiving. Therapy is a treatment that's intended to relieve or heal a disorder. The dictionary says it's a treatment that helps someone feel better, grow stronger, especially after an illness. Therapy can be for your body to help it heal after an illness or accident. talking to Jimmy Townsen this week. He's been in occupational therapy and physical therapy to cope with, you know, this paralysis of his lower body from his accident. Therapy can be for your mind like a checkup from the neckup, right? Can help you recover from trauma. It can help you develop healthy attitudes and patterns of thinking. Therapy can be spiritual to bring true wholeness through and through every dimension of your life. That was the prayer of the Apostle Paul for the Christians in Thessalonica. 1 Thessalonians 5:23. And the very God of peace sanctify you holy or through and through. Amen. And I pray God, he said, that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless until the coming of the Lord. In apostolic circles, we talk about holiness, but we should never neglect wholeness. Amen. The God of peace can make you whole as well as making you holy. If you're spiritually or emotionally wounded, the Lord is your healer. Amen. Today, I feel to minister the word of God to give insight that God can give spiritual help to bring us toward wholeness. Now, if you will admit it, you don't have to say amen to what I'm getting ready to say. If you'll admit it, we're all just a little messed up. Or a lot messed up. You can be in denial if you want. All layer liars will have their part in the lake of fire, right? Some people are a lot messed up. And isn't all because of their own decisions. Maybe it's things that have happened to him that have them that have hurt them. Amen. The Bible said that we are complete in Jesus Christ, complete in Christ. So that would indicate to me that without him, we are incomplete. It is impossible for you to be whole are complete in yourself. You don't have that ability. It is only in Jesus Christ that you who may be a little or a whole lot messed up can find healing and wholeness to be like Jesus Christ. To not hobble through life trying to get to heaven. To not have every relationship shaded and jaded and messed up because of stuff that's gone on in your life or is going on in your head right now that is affecting your you. Amen. in your attitudes, in your relationships, people in your relationship with God. Our habits of thinking are not always healthy. And the way we think affects the way we live and it definitely affects the way we interact with other people. It affects our view of God. Our attitudes affect how we respond to life when it doesn't measure up to our expectations. Amen. Now your first step toward God is repentance. Amen. You agree with that? The Bible is very clear. Repent and be baptized every one of you. Repentance is something that God will not do for you. But I believe when a person truly repents and in the Bible that original word, the Greek word for repentance, metaninoi means a change of mind. Pardon me. It's a change of mind. Amen. You have to change your own mind towards sin, toward God. You've got to make an about face. Amen. In some countries, when they say repent, the soldiers turn around. That's what it means, an about face. It's a change of mind away from sin and toward God. It's a change of heart, mind, and life direction. But repentance is not just for sinners coming to God for the very first time. We need to do a lot of repenting in our life. When we sin, we should quickly turn to God and turn away from sin, confessing and forsaking our sins. Amen. But we need to repent again and again. And I mean that in the context of changing our mind. Amen. Don't get set in your ways and become brittle in your thinking and an old codger or a young codger who can't change. Amen. Amen. Just kind of let that soak in a little bit because repentance is important in your life. It's important in my life. But I have to change my mind. I have to align my attitudes with God's point of view in life and not see everything through the lens of disappointment and hurt and everything that's gone wrong. Amen. A person who has a good attitude can't say that everything's been perfect for them. And a p a person who has a bad attitude can't say that it is a result of all the bad things that have happened in their life. Amen. Amen. You cannot control the circumstances of your life, but you can always be in control of your attitude. Amen. No one can cause you to have a bad attitude. And you're the only one who can choose to have a good attitude. When you change your mind, when you change your thinking, then I believe it gives God permission to come in and give you the strength that you need and the healing you need and the grace that you need to forgive those who have hurt you and to overcome all the stuff that's happened in your life. Hallelujah. Amen. Repent. Changing your mind to align yourself with God. at the heart of our spiritual, emotional, and to a large degree our physical health is the way you view God. Sickness and disease, I recognize, are a fact of life. It is appointed unto man once to die. We're all going to eventually pass away if the Lord does not come quickly, and you'll probably die from something or with something. I know there are people in the Bible uh that Moses, his natural force was not abaded and he died. And there are people who pull their feet up in the bed and and they just decided it was time to go and the Lord took them away. But but most people they're going to contract something or develop something and you're going to die with something and I don't think it should be a shock that people get sick. And God all of a sudden turned his back on you when you got a gray hair or lost a hair. Our bodies are subject to sickness and death. But there's a proven correlation between your attitudes, your emotions, and physical issues. our resilience. And by resilience, and I've taught on this several years ago, the ability to bounce back, our resilience, that ability to bounce back is affected largely by our attitudes. Amen. I know people there are people in this church that have experienced unspeakable grief in their lives, but they refuse to live in the valley of the shadow of death. They've chosen to walk through it and come out on the other side knowing that the Lord was with them. Amen. One preacher said here some time ago, he said, "I don't look like what I've been through." I like that. As we were worshiping, I opened my Bible to the book of Ruth. I thought about Ruth who she and her husband and Ic and her children Malon and Chilon. They they left Bethlehem of Judah during a time of famine. Things were really bad there. And they went down to Sojourn in Moab. And while they were there, her husband died. her sons married Moabitas women and and then Melon and Chileon died and later uh Mo Ruth comes back uh with her mother-in-law Naomi and as Naomi approaches the city the people look at her and they they try to recognize her and they say is this Naomi it's been a long time Naomi you look like what you've been through. We don't know what you've been through, but you look different. And and Naomi says this, "Call me not Naomi. Do not call me Naomi, but call me Mara," which means bitter. She They said, "The Lord has dealt very bitterly with me." She said, "I went out full." Now, she went out in a time of famine. But now, in reflection, she looks back on how things were when she left. And even though it was a famine, she had a husband and she had sons. And then she said, "Now the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why call me Naomi? Call me bitter." She was affected by what she went through. But what she didn't know is that God's hand was on her because of her daughter-in-law Ruth. She would be in the lineage of Jesus Christ. Amen. You've got to make up your mind that no matter what I go through, I will not be bitter. I will not be empowered. I will not look like what I've been through. [Applause] Hallelujah. When we're thankful, thank thanksgiving is more than a holiday, more than a word. It is a perspective. It is a point of view. Naomi could have been thankful that she came back home. She could have been thankful that Ruth decided to come with her even though Orpha decided to stay, she took her mother-in-law's advice and stayed in Moab. Amen. But Ruth came with her and Naomi instead of seeing that God did bring her home and did give her a companion in her daughter-in-law and through Ruth a baby would be born who would be you know in the lineage of Jesus Christ. She she couldn't know all that and she allowed her circumstances to mark her as a bitter person that God must not have loved her that God had dealt bitterly with her because of the adverse circumstances of her life. Thanksgiving is more than a holiday. It's a point of view. Say it again. And when we are thankful, we find healing and therapy for our souls. Amen. Few years ago, I I preached on a Wednesday night Bible study was from a quote by brother JT Pew when I I ran into him one day and I said, "Brother Pew, how are you doing?" And in his West Texas draw, he intentionally said, "Brother John's, I don't hate nobody. That's in the archives if you'd like to go listen to the message. I don't hate nobody. See, attitudes of hatred, unforgiveness lead to bitterness. Not only is that a sin, but it's debilitating for you. It's not therapeutic at all. It's destructive. Your outlook, your attitudes are powerful to shape you in every way. Amen. You have to make up your mind to not act like and look like what you've been through. Amen. And gratitude, ingratitude, being unthankful is not healthy in any way. And it's not even the biblical way to view life does not. Being ungrateful certainly doesn't lead to wholeness. Doesn't make you more spiritual. Guess what? It doesn't make you more likable. Doesn't really make things better because you're bitter, gripy, negative. I know you don't know you are, but someone does. Ask them. There's something else. If you live thinking you deserve anything, if you know me, you know I'm not too wild about the word deserve. I think it's a setup for disappointment. If you think you deserve this or that, you're probably going to live ungrateful and disappointed all your life. Amen. You wanting a Corvette, you got a Chevet. If you still remember sevets, oh yeah, if you think you're entitled to anything, something God or life or the government or your family, they owe you something like the prodal son who said, "Give me my inheritance." And when he lost it all, he came back and he said to his dad, "Make me." That's a right attitude. Instead of give me, make me. Amen. If you think you've paid your dues and you ought to get paid back, you might be setting yourself up to be ungrateful and angry at life and people and even God himself. All right? Being thankful to God creates a clear focus on God instead of your circumstances. Hallelujah. You can't always control your circumstances as I said earlier, but you can always control your attitude. Gratitude doesn't change your circumstances. It changes you. Amen. Doesn't change those years in Moab, but it changes the way you come back to Bethlehem. It changes the way you view the hand of God that you did not even know was working in your life. Even when you can't see him, he's working. Amen. [Applause] Thanksgiving is therapy. It helps you heal and overcome adversity. Gratitude looks up to God and in looking up. Thanksgiving also lifts you up as you look up to God. 1 Thessalonians 5:18, the Apostle Paul, in everything. Two words in the King James, in everything give thanks. Now, I know it doesn't say for everything. You can nuance that any way you want, but in everything give thanks. For this is the will of God. If you want to know the will of God for your life, get grateful. Amen. In everything, give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Hallelujah. Now, that's pretty simple, isn't it? Not anybody not understand that? Like, did that go over anyone's head? I don't think so. You don't have to be a rocket surgeon. I love mixed metaphors in case you think I misspoke. And you don't have to be a genius to know the will of God in everything to give thanks. It's the will of God concerning you. It may be difficult to be thankful for everything. Amen. I talked mentioned my mom earlier. I'm not thankful for the help that my mom is in, but I can find many things to be thankful for in this circumstance. Amen. And I may have to even look back a little bit to be thankful. But I may have to look ahead to heaven to be thankful. But but you can find a way to be thankful. You cannot change your circumstances, but you can change your attitude. Amen. So look up to God and say, "Thank you, Lord." Amen. So let me talk to you about the Romans. Romans, the book of Romans is a theological and literary masterpiece. The first three chapters, Paul, inspired by the Holy Ghost, is like a prosecuting attorney who brings all the world into the courtroom. And God, he he declares them guilty before God. Romans 3:19. Now, we know that whatsoever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped. any self-righteous person that's Jewish, any pagan person who thinks that they get off free, they don't. The Bible said that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Paul is walking them through to the plan of salvation. But you have to know you're lost before you know you need to be saved. You need to know you're guilty before you can know that Jesus paid the price for your innocence and deliverance. Hallelujah. So Romans 1 chapter 1 begins with this Paul arguing. He begins this argument by addressing people who had no religious background. Pagan people. It's a fascinating chapter and it chronicles the decline of pagan people who deny the existence of God. Paul sets up this passage by saying, as I read earlier, that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now, you may think he's talking about people who hold a Bible or hold some religious affiliation, but but he is not. He's talking about people who did not grow up Jewish, who had no background in Christianity or Judaism. He said in verse 19, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. God gave them a conscience. For God has showed it unto them. He's shown his nature to them. Now, while these people didn't have a Bible, they did have a conscience. And they could have cultivated that conscience and pursued God. But instead, Paul describes people who seared their conscience or walked away from God. They didn't have the history of the Old Testament, the law, and the background, the the temple synagogues, but they did have equal access to nature. They could see every sunrise the Jews saw. They could see every sunset. They could see the constellations of the heavens. They knew that there was a God because of heaven. Verse 20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. The created world reveals the creator. The intelligent design demands that there was a designer. And what does creation reveal? Even his eternal power and godhead. Paul said, "So that they, these pagan people who didn't have a Bible, didn't have a religious background, they are without excuse." They're without an excuse. Psalm 19 tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork. That day unto day utter speech and night under night to gives knowledge. There is no place the writer of Psalm 19 said where their speech the speech of creation than their language where their voice is not heard. When God reveals himself through our conscience and through nature, it's called general revelation. That the general knowledge that there is a God and you must seek him. Paul told the pagans in Acts 17 that there is a God that you should feel after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us. General revelation is not enough to save you, but it is enough to spur you toward a knowledge of God. General revelation is enough to condemn you for not seeking a God that you see in creation. Paul said that they are without excuse. Then Paul begins to describe the downward moral spiral that they went on and is predictable through through history. Doesn't mean that everyone will go to the extent of sin as these people did, but Paul describes it in Romans chapter 1. I'll summarize this, but but maybe you should go back as homework and reread Romans 1 again. Paul said their minds became dark and confused. They claimed to be wise, but actually became foolish. Instead of worshiping the living God, they worshiped idols that they made with their own hands. And as a result of that decision to not retain God in their knowledge, the Bible said God gave them up. He abandoned them. It wasn't just that they drifted away, but because they decided to not recognize God, not acknowledge him, then God kind of gave them a shove down the path toward being reprobate. They became grossly immoral. The Bible said they did degrading things with other people's bodies. I won't be too graphic as graphic as the Bible, but he talks about that women with women and men with men committed perverted sins. Not just natural sins, but sins that were a perversion of the creative order of a man and a woman in a marriage relationship. Because he says they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking to do things that should never be done. That's where they went. And if you look back to see what was the root cause of this moral decline, there really two causes and one stems from the other. It says in Romans 1:21, not on the screens, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. I've already established how did they know God? They knew him in their conscience. He created them in his likeness after his image. They knew God in creation, but instead of seeing God in the sun, they chose to worship the sun. Instead of seeing God in the constellations of stars, they worship stars. Instead of seeing God in the creation of the natural world, they worship trees and rocks and animals and they worship people. They created deities of their own. That's the root cause of it all. That when they knew God, they decided, you know, that kind of God is a demanding God. Uhoh. He wants holiness. He wants you to live by his moral code without even knowing exactly what that moral code was. The Bible speaks of people, but they didn't have a Bible, but they had a conscience and they did things that were right because they knew it was right. Inherently, they knew it, but not them. They knew God and they did not acknowledge him as God. So, so they just shut God out of their consciousness, pretended he wasn't there when they knew he was there. And then the second thing that grew out of that is they were not thankful. Now, this is logical and it makes perfect sense that if you don't want a God who demands obedience to him and he would reveal himself in his word, we know specifically the nature of God because we have a a Bible. But without a Bible, they knew that God was morally pure and that God was a God of order. And they chose to deny that God is the source of all things. Amen. So then Romans 1:21 on the screens, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful. Now this makes sense because if I say thank you, I'm acknowledging a giver and a gift. If I have the gift of life, maybe if you are an evolutionist and you don't believe in the existence of God, you think it just all happened. So there's no thankfulness because there's no source. You did it by your own intellect, ability. You evolved into the person that you are today over billions of years or whatever. So why say thank you when there's no one to thank? They could not allow themselves to believe in God because if they believed in God, he would call them to living a morally straight life. And by denying God, they were led to a morally reprobate life of gross immorality of every kind. Neither were thankful. Thankful for what? Thankful that God is the source of all life and health and every good thing. Something as simple as pausing to thank God for the food that you are about to eat. Don't trivialize saying a blessing over your food. I know you may pray for the groceries when you bring them in or when they're delivered, but why don't you just pause long enough to teach your family that everything we have and everything we are came from somewhere, came from a source higher, better, more pure than we are. And we thank God. We are thankful to the Lord. Hallelujah. Paul said, "In the last days, perilous times will come. Men will be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphe, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy." It's interesting that unthankful is in that list of really bad sins, right? But unthankfulness is a root problem. Un thankth thankfulness is is not acknowledging the giver or the gift. I know people used to pray for the offering. Thank you for the gift and the giver. But we thank God that he is the giver of every good and perfect gift. Amen. from Romans 1, you can make an assertion to think about and come to grips with that the result of every kind of sin that Paul named there was a result of going back to denying the existence of God and not being thankful to him and for everything he's given. So that consciousness that erases the knowledge of God and refuses to be thankful now gives permission to do any unspeakable thing ever. But in this passage, there's more. Not just those horrible moral sins, but but Paul later, verses 28 through32 gives more. And I'll just summarize them. Wickedness of every kind, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, gossip, backbiters, hating God, insolent, proud, boastful, inventors of new ways of sinning. That's an interesting phrase. disobeyed parents, refuse to understand, break their promises. They're heartless. They have no mercy. They know that God's justice requires that those who do these things should die. Not only do they do them, they encourage others to do the same. That's where Romans 1 goes. But being unthankful sets you on a path away from God and toward a world of sin and a world of hurt. That's the consequences of ingratitude of being unthankful. So, so what is this therapy of thanksgiving? Why that? But I think it's very clear in the Bible that if you want to be whole, if you want to have healthy attitudes, if you want to be in a right relationship with God, gratitude, thankfulness is not an option. It's not an accessory to living. It is a core part of our faith that either leads you toward God or away from him. That either makes you bitter if you're ungrateful or better if you're thankful. Amen. It makes you a more endearing person if you've got an attitude of gratitude if you're thankful to the Lord. Amen. If you're Thank God for who he is and what he's done. It changes everything in your life. It sets you free from the stress, from the prison of unrealistic expectations. It allows you to trust God in every circumstance of life. When you expect a million and only get a thousand, you're going to battle ungratefulness. You expect to be first and finish last, you can still be grateful that you are in the race at all. When your Black Friday sale sells that item out before you buy it, you can be grateful for the money you saved. I'm not making a case for mediocrity or low goals. I'm setting the bar high today for thankfulness that will heal your attitude. It will heal your spirit, it will change your life. Amen. If you'll become thankful that there is a God who loves you, there is a God who saved you, there is a God who gives every good and perfect gift. Hallelujah. Thanksgiving focus on focuses on the giver more than the gift. But I know many of you are already planning Christmas. You're already thinking about what you want to get. I'm glad for those of you who are thinking about what you want to give. I I know you're aware that I I jokingly call myself a recovering perfectionist. I'm not recovering, but I'm trying. I'm not in therapy. I'm having the therapy of Thanksgiving. So whether I try or not, I have really high expectations of myself more than anything or anyone. So, I've had to learn that when life when I expect life to be 10 and it's a two that I'm going to say, you know, thank you, Lord. I did my best. I didn't do my best, but tomorrow's another day. And thank you, Lord, for allowing me to be here to do what I do and to be in a right relationship with you. when everything else goes wrong. I thank you that my name is written in heaven and on the worst day I will ever face. No one can pluck me out of your hands. That I have a hope of heaven. That I'm living this life the best that I can. And I'm going to thank you and acknowledge you in my life. [Applause] Thanksgiving frees you to trust God. When life makes no sense, it keeps you from charging God foolishly as Job was tempted to do. And you are thankful to God. You're you're doing more than just saying thankful. You're realizing that you're not self-made, that we are here because of the blessings of God. When you're thankful, you acknowledge that there is a good God who created you in your image and teaches you to look up. I taught on this recently, but James 1:17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. It cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Contrast James 1:17 with Romans 1:21, those who were not thankful. And you can see that the trajectory of your life is shaped in great part by the way you see God and your attitude toward life. When you're thankful, you truly believe what we say often from Romans 8:28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose. Now, I know that we can't objectively say that everything is good. But I believe with all of my heart that all things work together for good if you love God and you are the called according to his purpose. For we know that it is God who is working in us to will and to do with his good pleasure. Hallelujah. So when life goes wrong, it seems that nothing is working for you. Why don't you get a hold of yourself and look up toward God. When all hades breaks loose in your life, you can still rejoice that your name is written in heaven. you can still rejoice that he's given you life and breath and all things. Amen. And for those of you who are watching online or in the house and you've never been filled with the spirit or you haven't been for a long long time, I've never seen anyone receive the Holy Ghost crying. I've never seen someone receive the Holy Ghost while they were just apologizing to God. Repentance is your first step toward God. And after you repent, you should be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. But after that, you should begin to thank God and praise God that he died on the cross for your sins. That he gave you the opportunity to repent and to be filled with the spirit. Amen. On the day of Pentecost, the Bible said they heard them speak with tongues the wonderful works of God. They were thanking God, bragging on God. They were boasting of his greatness. If you'll look up to God and you'll thank him, you'll be filled with the spirit and joy and peace that is past understanding. Why don't you stand and try it really right now and say, "I love you, Jesus." That's it. Lift your voice to him. Why don't you let gratitude fill your spirit today? [Applause] That's it. shouted from the top and just with all of your heart, would you express gratefulness to him? Let it come from deep in your soul right now. There's something breaking on the inside of you who have been struggling with anger, struggling with bitterness, struggling with questions about your life. Why don't you thank God right now and let that break in you and let the glory of God come to you right now? Let's worship him a little while right now. I want you to get a breakthrough in your spirit. [Applause] Hallelujah. [Applause] Hallelujah. [Music] Hallelujah. [Music] [Applause] Hallelujah. [Music] [Applause] Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord. If you're able, I'd like for you to please begin to make your way to the altar area, the front of our church. I grew up on a song. Many of you did. Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord. Thank you Lord for giving to me thy great salvation so full and free. I thank the Lord that no matter what goes on in our lives, no matter the challenges that we face that we can choose to see God in life's difficulties. Remember Romans 1, they denied the existence of God. They just shoved him out. But we can accept and acknowledge the existence of God. Not just generically that he's there somewhere out there, but he's ever present. Amen. We acknowledge that. And in acknowledging him, we can say, "Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, So right now would be a good time to repent of your sins or change your mind about your lot in life as some people say or the hand that you've been dealt in life. whatever expression you want to use. [Music] Has being bitter made circumstances better? Has being better bitter made you better? Of course not. And I know most of you are not bitter. But I've learned that you can look down and be bound, or you can look up and be set free. If you need a little therapy today, why don't you try the therapy of thanksgiving, an attitude adjustment? Let's just thank the Lord right now that he loved us and he gave himself for us. It doesn't mean that everything is perfect in our life. just means that we recognize that God is always good and that he is always my savior. I love you Jesus. I thank you Lord that you are my savior. I thank you Lord for being my provider. Thank you Lord for being the healer of all our diseases. I thank you Lord that you have given comfort in sorrow. I thank you, Lord, that you've been my help in time of need. I thank you, Lord, that you've been my shelter in storms. I thank you, Lord, that you've been my strong tower that I can run to and be safe. I thank you, Lord, that there is a rock that is higher than I. I thank you, Lord, that you've been my friend that sticks closer than a brother. I thank you that you're my Lord and you're my God. Thank him right now. Would you thank him right now? Oh, hallelujah. I echo the words of the Psalmist. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy name, oh most high, to show forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night. Praise ye the Lord. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for he is he is good and his mercy endureth forever. At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgment. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. [Music] Let's worship the Lord a while. If you've never had the privilege of being baptized in water in the name of Jesus Christ, it would be our honor to baptize you today in the name of the Lord. [Music] Thank you Jesus. He has washed me wide. Thank you Jesus. You have saved my life. Draw me from the darkness to glor. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus for the blood of life. Thank you Jesus. He has washed me white. Thank you Jesus. You have saved my life. Brought me from the darkness into glorious light. There is nothing stronger than the one working power [Music] [Applause] [Music] sons and daughters. We are ransom by our world. [Music] There is nothing stronger than the wonderworking power of [Applause] that we are above the There is nothing stronger than the wonder working power of God. [Applause] And all the sons and daughters we are above through the Thank you Jesus for the blood of Thank you Jesus wash me wine. Thank you Jesus. You have saved my life. Brought me the darkness into the glorious. [Music] Amen. Now I want to speak to a group of people here right now. Have heard this message and you got it. You got it. But right now, your natural response is to beat yourself up because you didn't get it yesterday or that you struggle with gratitude. [Music] Church, what we do here is to help lift people to a better perspective, right? So, you shouldn't feel guilty that you saw something you needed, that God is administering spiritual therapy to you right now. And beating yourself up is counterproductive. It hasn't helped you in the past. It's certainly not helping you right now. [Music] Amen. And if you need to repent of sins or change your mind about the way you've seen life and viewed your circumstances and certainly you need to do that. Sometimes it takes a little while not for just to say it but to really get it. We have to say it over and over. We blame God, blame people, blame ourselves for everything that has not gone according to plans or our expectations. [Music] But look at you here, you are today watching online standing in the altar acknowledging that there is a God and that he is good. So why don't we just thank him? Thank him for insight and understanding. Thank him for enlightening us and lifting us and loving us in spite of our flaws. Oh, I love you, Jesus, that you loved us even when we were dead in sins. [Music] Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. I trust that you've had a good week this past week. But if you haven't, I hope today helped you reflect differently on this past week. And I trust that when you walk out the door today that you will set a guard at your mouth, that you'll stop yourself [Music] instead of road rage. Thank God you're stuck in traffic and you get to listen to your Bible a little longer. It's what I told myself the other night when I was in the Taco Bell fast food drive-thru for 25 minutes. Look how many more chapters of Romans I've been able to listen to because they are so slow. [Music] Thank you Jesus. Amen. It's a choice. So, make that choice. God bless you. Don't go to Taco Bell. It's not good for you. God cannot bless the taco. Have a great day. I love you. Fellowship with one another. If you've not been baptized, let us baptize you in Jesus name. [Music]