GR8FUL

i'm so thankful to be in the house of the lord tonight oh god i tell you that worship service was awesome thank you for leading us you may be seated so in first thessalonians 5 the apostle paul directs our attention to some spiritual exercises that will make us strong in the lord in these short yet powerful commands we're challenged to live our lives in a very specific and intentional manner that will allow us to conform to the will of god he starts in first thessalonians 5 15 and he says see that none render evil for evil unto any man but ever follow that which is good both among yourselves and to all men the very next verse 16 rejoice evermore now i would never was a bible quizzer but that's my kind of verse if i was a bible quizzer jesus swept maybe a few coming after this but rejoice ever more the first thing that we should do is follow

you know to follow after good is that we should rejoice constantly paul addresses this subject multiple times throughout his letters it's the dominant theme of philippians where he tells us rejoice in the lord always again i say rejoice and in second corinthians 6 10 he teaches that there's no contradiction in rejoicing when we sorrow he lets us know that it's possible for us to do both rejoice and yet sorrow nehemiah in the old testament reminds us that the joy of the lord is your strength the joy of the lord is your strength joy and rejoicing evermore is a mark of someone who has experienced god's transforming grace and he goes on the next one in verse 17 pray without ceasing there's a connection between verse 16 and verse 17 for unceasing prayer will almost always produce a joyful heart can you agree with that unceasing prayer will almost

always produce a joyful heart a heart full of joy is a result of a heart that's free of burdens a heart that's free of burden is a heart that's comforted by our prayers the next verse verse 18 he says in everything give thanks for this is the will of god in christ jesus concerning you we're challenged to give thanks in every situation that life presents us paul even goes on later in that verse there and says that this is the will of god for us so if you've ever wondered what is the will of god for my life well in everything give thanks verse 19 he goes on quench not the spirit the word quench means to put out to quench the spirit literally means that you're going to extinguish or stifle or restrain or stop god's work in your lives paul tells you hey don't do that quench not the spirit verse 20 despise not prophesying another way of saying

this is to honor the preaching of the word of god the preaching of the word of god is something that convinces us and it convicts us verse 21 he goes on prove all things hold fast to that which is good we should live wisely weighing all things and holding on to the good we should discern all things for not everything that is labeled spiritual comes from god not everything that is labeled inspirational comes from god once we have put those things to the test paul reminds us that we're to continually hold fast to that which is good which also lets us know that we're to let go conversely of those that are not good paul tells us to cling to and never let go of the good when you discover something that's good from god you should guard it and keep it song of solomon 2 15 were warned about the little foxes that can sneak into the vineyard and spoil

the vines solomon's warning us about little things that may come in unaware we're not noticing those things so paul reminds us prove all things discern all things hold fast to that which is good the good things of god are not to be held lightly in our hands we're to hold fast they're not to be held flippantly just oh i'm going to hold on to this and maybe i'll have it later no we're to hold fast to that which is good according to first thessalonians 5 21 22 abstain from all appearance of evil abstain it's a strong word it means to restrain yourself from doing or enjoying something after we've proven all things and held fast to that which is good paul tells us we are to stay away from evil we're to abstain from every appearance of evil but it's in verse 18 that i want to focus my talk tonight in everything give thanks for this is the will

of god in christ jesus concerning you tonight i want to speak about being grateful or thankful as a spiritual discipline in our lives so have you ever tried to figure out when you're maybe driving down the road what those vanity plates say on the back of some of the cars you know they have those group of letters maybe a number it kind of means something trying to figure that out well i made one of those for my title slide tonight and i'm hoping that it's pretty easy to figure out grateful right and for some of the younger folks or those who have not been to missouri for a while this is what the license plates look like when i was a little boy except where i'm from there were mainly trucks so there was a bl6 that went right above the middle of the top there right but grateful i want to talk about gratefulness it can be defined as showing and

expressing a feeling of thankfulness or appreciation grateful thankful almost interchangeable there's a power behind a mindset of gratitude and thankfulness it's a choice that we make in our life our life is influenced when we make that choice by an attitude of gratefulness your view on life is influenced by your attitude if you have a positive attitude you likely have a positive out view on life right let me encourage you to have an attitude of thankfulness for the blessings and the benefits that come from god and his creation so what can we be grateful for right well we can be grateful in all things as first thessalonians 5 18 says in everything give thanks for this is the will of god in christ jesus concerning you paul said in every thing give thanks this is perhaps one of the most difficult commands for us to obey in the bible because

it seems kind of absurd right you want me to you know there's probably got to be a mistake here and yet there isn't because it says in everything give thanks we must take the verse as a whole right we have to see what the rest of the story is paul harvey would say because finishing the verse we discover that for in giving thanks in everything it's the will of god in our lives note we are to give thanks in all things not for all things right you want me to say thank you that my you know father or my loved one or my mother died you want me to say thank you that my loved one is in the hospital dealing with symptoms of a dreaded disease or you want me to say thank you lord for losing my job no that's not what it says right it says in everything give thanks we're to give thanks in all things not for all things we can be grateful and we can be

thankful in all things that we encounter in both positive and negative through life we're to be thankful in everything romans 8 28 says and we know that all things again here we are with all things work together for good to them that what that love god and to them that are what who are called according to his purpose how comforting is it to know that we can learn that god embraces us so tenderly and he turns to our advantage everything that befalls us imagine the amount of faith it takes for a child of god to say thank you in everything we can rest knowing that god he has our back and he helps us in the greatest moments of our not in our lives when we're in need we can truly give thanks in everything we can be grateful for healing in our lives right in 2016 my family we've we faced a need it was on june 18th 2016.

it was a great day our daughter abigail was on the beginner quiz team here at apc and and they had just finished a fantastic day at the missouri district finals they were on their way to nationals the bqt nabqt i left something out there sorry they were on their way to nationals in branson and they were ecstatic they were ready to celebrate have a good time so we did like we would you know do to celebrate we went out to eat as pentecostals and we celebrated with the team had a good time with them and this was the day before father's day in 2016 so we we had a last minute gift that we needed for one of our dads so we ran over to south county mall my wife and my children and i and sarah ran in she couldn't find something so i had to run in and find it and then something weird happened sarah started having these weird symptoms take place we

thought she was having a stroke like literally we thought she was having a stroke her side of her body went numb she couldn't move she could barely talk and i rushed her to the hospital i'm not a speeder but i was that day and they checked her out they gave her a you know tried to give her all this medicine to help her out for having a stroke and and they were like they said well it's not a stroke but instead it's a diagnosis of a complex migraine with neurological symptoms and as a result for those of you who may not remember five years ago this is what happened to her hand she was it just withered up i mean one one morning she woke up and then it just basically stayed that way for days and it stayed that way for weeks and we we had weekly visits with chiropractors with primary care physicians with neurologists and none of those folks could

help us out we were living with you know crippling effects of this because as a mom she really couldn't do some of the things that she normally would do we went to nationals like this and we we were praying in the altar and thought there'd be a healing but there wasn't you know however you know in this church over in that area right there 44 days later the lord showed up in this room and he healed my wife in this sanctuary on a sunday morning and that's what it looked like the very next that day when we walked out of service her hand was healed you can have gratitude and thankfulness for healing in your life i want to encourage you to be grateful for god's healings you know this coming saturday will be five years that the lord healed my wife with her hand and i am so thankful and i am i mean i literally thank god every day for that healing

because it you know it changed our life and i want to encourage you and i know you have similar testimonies in your own families in your own life of god healing you or healing someone that you know or a loved one and i encourage you celebrate and be grateful for the healings that god has performed in our lives allow me to invite you to show that gratitude and that thankfulness to god continually because it's something worthy of extending our gratitude and our thankfulness to the lord he paid a price for each and every one of those healings you know isaiah 53 4 and 5 says this surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of god and afflicted but he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed

it's through those stripes that we get our healing and i want to encourage you you know what jesus bore our griefs he carried our sorrows he was wounded for our transgressions but he was also through those stripes brought healing into your life in philippians 4 6 we read be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto god we can bring our requests to god church with thanksgiving and we can know that he is faithful to hear us he may not answer on the timing that we're looking for he may make you wait 44 days he may make you wake 44 weeks 44 months 44 years but he's faithful to hear you he's faithful enough to bring healing into your life he's not too busy to hear our needs he's not up there spinning the world like a person spins plates to try to keep him from falling

down no he is attentive and ready to listen to our needs so give him thanksgiving for healings in your life give him thanksgiving for healings in your loved ones because he deserves it right we can be grateful for salvation in our lives colossians 1 12 says this giving thanks unto the father which hath made us meet and this word means you know able or qualified to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and light who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son in whom we have redemption through his blood and even the forgiveness of sins we can give god thanks for salvation right that's the greatest miracle of all that's the healing of our souls right we can allow use gratitude and allow us to tighten our grip onto the love of jesus and know that you know what he's going to take

care of us and he will tighten that hug right back onto us and show and give salvation to us salvation is the greatest miracle in our lives paul tells us that we have a hope for redemption in those verses and that we also have forgiveness through god's salvations lamentations 3 22 tells us it is of the lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not they are new every morning great is thy faithfulness the lord is my portion saith my soul therefore i will hope in him we can come to god with humility for the unmerited grace and mercy that he extends to us and know fully that we don't deserve it but yet we get it through his salvation those mercies are new every morning i want to encourage you be thankful for that be thankful for god's salvation be grateful for the salvation of the lord the psalmist said surely goodness

and mercy shall follow me and i'm thankful for that you know i it's it's a prayer gratitude that i give every day i thank the lord for his for his goodness and his mercy and this grace that follows after us because without that you know i'm i'm susceptible to all kinds of traps right we can place our hope in jesus christ for salvation we can have faith that god will save us through believing in him repentance of our sins and deciding to turn away from that life of sin and turn towards god we he will save us through baptism in jesus name for the remission of our sins and you know what his word promises that we will be filled with the gift of the holy ghost evidence by speaking in other tongues as the spirit gives the utterance be thankful for salvation how many remembers the night they were baptized in jesus name right how many remembers the

night that they received the baptism of the holy ghost it was life-changing right thank god for that every day give him the praise he deserves for salvation because we know we have hope in jesus christ he's changed us he's brought us through and he has carried us up to this point and he will continue to save us right he will continue to save us until the one day the final day when we get to walk into heaven and be with him for eternity i'm very thankful for salvation and the positive impact that it's had on my life and the way that we treat people we can be grateful for the church colossians 3 15 says and let the peace of god rule in your hearts to the which also you are called in one body and be ye thankful we can show thankfulness to god's church in many ways the church doesn't replace the home when it comes to teaching it's a supplement

to that right i think we all believe that however we can be thankful that the church has wonderful teachers self-excluded wonderful teachers that are here week after week that help teach our children in children's church right to help teach and minister throughout the week to meet the needs of the community to help teach our youth every week i'm thankful for the church right this is not just a social club for me i don't know about you all but this is not just a social club for me because i can meet millions of people out in st louis anywhere and you know have a good time socially but instead this is a place that i come for edification this is a place where i come for the iron to sharpen iron right this is a place that i come for correction i'm thankful for the church apc i'm thankful for the church that we're part of globally i feel like

that being a part of something as large as we're a part of is fantastic in that we're not alone we don't have to be concerned about kind of how you know the the prophet of old saying well i'm the only one and you know i've got king ahab and all them against me and i'm by myself i wanted to worry about that because we're part of something greater than that and he was too but he just didn't realize it right but i'm telling you you can be thankful for the church we learn a lot about jesus christ here in the church we learn how to become disciples of jesus here in the church and i'm thankful for that i'm thankful that we can come and have a corporate worship with fellow believers there's something about i mean yes you can have a time of worship in your car and many great things can happen i've had that happen you can have a great time of worship

at your couch or whatever and yes god can touch you and god can do things in your life but there's something about being in this room with this fellow body of believers can i get an amen there's something about being in this room and then when the spirit of god falls on us and begins to work and begins to to empower the body of christ paul talks about it in first corinthians he said that there's a manifestation of the spirit that's being given to all so that we can help each other out when we come in here and we begin to worship god and the spirit begins to move because it's the same spirit that we all have it's here to help heal the body it's here to help minister to the body and you can't just get that by yourself somewhere you can't we can minister to each other through the power of the holy ghost when we're together gratefulness for the

church will help foster unity in the church let me encourage you don't only just attend services at apc but connect connect with god that's what we came here to do right we come here pastor uses the term a god encounter have that when you come it's possible if you can't feel god in this place i don't know where you can fill him and i'll be honest with you come have that god encounter there's amazing opportunities here in this place every week week after week for you to to have that connection with the body and with the god of the universe take advantage of that it can literally change your life right when we're all together it gives us an opportunity to thank god for his mighty acts first chronicles 16 7 tells us the story it says then on that day david delivered first this psalm to thank the lord and to the hand of asaph and his brethren

give thanks unto the lord call upon his name make known his deeds among the people sing unto him sing psalms unto him talk ye of all his wondrous works glory ye glory ye in his holy name let the heart of them rejoice that seek the lord we can give thanks to god for his mighty and wondrous works folks for the mighty acts that he performs just like they did here in the fir in the book of first chronicles they gave thanks to god and they talked about the mighty and wondrous acts that god was performing we can be grateful just because it's a good thing to be grateful it's a good thing to show your gratitude psalms 92 1 says this it's a good thing to give thanks unto the lord and to sing praises unto thy name o most high to show forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night upon an instrument of ten strings and upon

us the psaltery upon the harp with the solemn sound for thou lord has made me glad through thy work i will triumph in the works of thy hands o lord how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep it's a good thing to give thanks to the lord and sing praises to his name we can be grateful and thankful that god shows us his faithfulness every night as that scripture says and that he has kept us throughout all the day we can show gratitude and thankfulness for his loving kindness that he gives us every morning and we can be grateful for the very air that we breathe i believe that we can be thankful for the life god has given us genesis 2 7 says this and the lord god formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul when god breathed that first breath of air into adam after

forming him from the dust of the ground he started a dependency relationship with man when we receive the breath of life every time we breathe we depend on god to fill our lungs with air and give us life-sustaining existence we depend on god to extend our life with each and every breath and with each breath we're given a chance to do something with that i suggest we show a little gratitude and thankfulness to god for giving us another opportunity to live for him we are literally depending on god in that moment but it's at this point that we have to depend on god and release it too we take the breath but we have to depend on him and release the air back to him we're relinquishing that life-giving air from our lungs and giving it back to god as a thank you each moment we excel we're telling god i'm depending on you to give me my next breath

of life we have an opportunity to show our gratitude for the very air that we breathe i didn't know that we were going to be singing the song that we sang tonight but i mean isn't it wonderful that it's his breath and our lungs that we get to pour out our praise to god isn't it wonderful that we have the opportunity to show thanks and give gratitude back to him every time we breathe sister christie if you come paul reminds us again in ephesians 5 20 that giving thanks always for all things unto god and the father in the name of our lord jesus christ we can give god thanks for all things in my research in preparing this service i learned that each morning most observant jews awaken and recite a morning prayer that begins with the words mode ani which means literally how grateful i am they believe in starting their day with gratitude to god

they believe that gratitude brings happiness into their life with the same happiness that we appreciate the good memories and the good moments in our lives we should also appreciate those moments which may be not so good at first sight think of your difficult times in your life your sorrows your problems your losses that have gone that you've gone through but you overcame all those moments you survived you're here with god on your side those with the grateful mindset tend to see the message in the mess they tend to see the light in the darkness when we're grateful the good gets better the tidal slide looks like a vanity plate yeah i thought it was neat i thought it was cool but people who get vanity plates do that to remind them of things right they get vanity plate to remind and i'm now just be with me and separate the whole vanity pride

thing okay but they they get those plates to help them remember something number one it identifies their car at walmart but number two it allows them a reminder every time they look at that or other people look at that that that means something that identifies that plate with that car or that person in high school mine said adam 99 on it because i graduated in 1999. this one says great full and it's a show-me state it's got missouri in there but it also says dec in the top left corner and that stands for december and the 80 stands for a year right well that's the year and the month that i was born because i want to have the mindset of gratefulness i want to every time i go and get in my car to see that license plate and know that i can have thankfulness as my mindset because yeah maybe not for everything that i experience and go through but

i know that in everything i can give thanks to god you know stand with me you have to pardon my second personal reference but i was raised in pentecost all my life i've been blessed to go to a few different churches before i came to st louis and i had different pastors that would speak into my life in the past and i have fantastic pastor or leadership in the my present but one of my pastors from my youth was known for his songwriting abilities he was it was one of those songs that was very simple but it had a a powerful message associated with it call me nostalgic call me a fan of history or maybe i just heard the song so much growing up that i could probably sing and or play i'll save you the singing but maybe play the song without even thinking about it because it's been seared into my brain and hopefully my heart but it goes like this

it says thanks thanks i give you thanks for all that you've done i am so blessed my soul has found rest o lord i give you thanks not everyone knows the verses but one of the verses goes thank you lord for the strength that you give to carry on through life's toils and tests in the worst and the best i'm not ever left alone you're always right beside me you hear me every time i pray since i first began you've been my dearest friend and i give you all the praise then it says thanks thanks i give you thanks for all you've done i'm so blessed my soul has found rest o lord i give you thanks verse 2 says i thank you this moment and i will continually each day i live the grace that you give i'm blessed abundantly i can't forget that moment in my life you've made such a change since the spirit came i'm not the same and i want to give you the praise

thanks thanks i give you thanks for all you've done i am so blessed my soul has found rest o lord i give you thanks in everything give thanks it's simple and i've already read the lyrics so you probably caught on to the chorus but would you sing this chorus with them a few times and maybe talk to god about how much you appreciate him maybe you can share your thankfulness for gratitude for him being with you always for his healing power in your life for his salvation and the promise that we have of heaven or for his church that he's allowed us to be a part of or maybe you want to thank god because it's just a good thing to give thanks to the lord and to praise him for his mighty acts or lastly you can share your gratitude and thankfulness for the air that we breathe in god's sustaining power because i thank you in this moment so would you

sing the song with them maybe for i am so blessed my soul has i give you this i am so blessed i give you this a time or two all just one more time let it be an anthem from your heart of thanksgiving to our god oh we're so blessed i am so blessed my soul has found rest i give you that and all across this sanctuary would you thou out your heart of thanks to him lord we thank you sincerely for all that you have done your healings and salvation the mercy and grace you've shown your love and compassion and your faithfulness we thank you amen amen