Thanks unto the Lord, for he is good for his mercy and earth
forever. Psalm 104.
Enter into his gates with Thanksgiving and into his courts
with praise. Be thankful unto him, and bless
his name. You go ahead and turn to 1st
Thessalonian chapter 5 and verse #18 First Thessalonian is 5/18.
It says in everything. Give thanks for this is the will
of God and Christ Jesus concerning you.
I want you to notice the first part of verse #18.
It says in everything. Give thanks.
And now I know what you're thinking tonight.
You're saying to yourself, is he really going to preach a message
about being thankful this far away from Thanksgiving?
And yes, I am. Because I believe we as
Christians need to be thankful all year around, not just during
Thanksgiving time. We have so much to be thankful
for. Let's pray.
Dear Jesus, I pray that you would just be with these next
few minutes. Father.
I pray that you would bless me as I speak.
Father, give me the words to say.
Father, I just pray that you would give us a good rest of the
night and just stay my pray. Amen.
And as a Christian, one of the first things that pops into my
head when we're talking about being thankful, one of the first
things that comes to my mind is being thankful for our
salvation. Do you realize tonight that if
we're saved, we have a home in heaven and that we get to spend
eternity with Jesus? Now that should make us
thankful, if not anything else? I could stop right there and not
even preach, just being thankful for our salvation, knowing for
for sure that we have a home in heaven.
One day turning your Bibles to Luke, chapter #17, Luke 17, and
we're going to be looking at verses 11 through 19, they say.
And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed
through to the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men
that were levers which stood afar off.
And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have no
have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said to
them, go show yourselves unto the priest.
And it came to pass as they went, they were cleansed.
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back
and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face
at his feet. And that here it is giving him
thanks, as he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, were
there not ten cleanse. But where are the 9:00 They are
not found that return to give Gore to God save this stranger.
And he said in him Arise, go thy way, thy faith that made the
whole What do we see here? In verses 11 through 19 we see
this leopard that came to Jesus and then left being made, that
was left being healed, and he was thankful because of what
Jesus had done in his life so many times.
I think there's too many Christians that have forgotten
what Jesus has done their life. They've forgotten that he's
saved them from an eternity of hell and that he's given them a
home in heaven. And this past year of college,
my RA would go on team visitation with the youth group
at Temple Baptist Church. And I remember him coming back
to the dorm after going to soul Went in that day.
And they came back and they were able to have a good conversation
with this woman at her house and they were able to actually give
her the gospel and leader to Christ.
And I remember him telling us the story.
This is what he was emphasizing. He was emphasizing how thankful
she was after she accepted Jesus Christ.
She was saying, just thank you, thank you, Thank you for coming
to my house and giving me this opportunity.
And I think we can. We must never lose our
thankfulness for our salvation #1.
Be thankful for your salvation. Night #2 Be thankful for the
word of God. Just the freedom we have in this
country to carry a Bible freely and wake up in the morning and
read our Bible is something that I think we take for granted too
often. We didn't have to smuggle our
Bibles into church tonight. We didn't have to hide our
Bibles on the way to church tonight.
We were able to come in here freely with the word of God.
I remember a few years ago my mom would remember probably
better than I did. But there was a missionary that
came to our church. I think he was from China and he
showed us this video of all these little Chinese children
and they were receiving Bibles for the very first time.
And as they were getting these Bibles, as he was showing us
this video, it made me almost emotional just seeing the tears
from these kids faces as they received the Bible for the first
time and just hugging it. They were kissing it.
They were saying thank you, thank you, thank you.
And they were truly thankful for the word of God.
And I think many times today in America we've lost that, we've
lost our thankfulness for the word of God and we take it for
granted. So often, many times, I think we
take it for granted the word of God because we have forgotten
its power. Turn to Hebrews chapter 4,
Hebrews chapter 4, and verse 12. Hebrews 412 says.
For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any
two edges, sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit and of joints, of the joints and marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart as we read
this first, and if we really study this first, we're going to
find that the word of God is powerful, isn't it?
We're going to find that there's nothing more powerful in this
world than the word of God. And I'm preaching to myself
tonight. How many times do I wake up in
the morning and instead of reading my Bible like I should,
I get up because I'm too tired and I go to work.
I go do this, I go do that. I go play this sport.
I go play that sport. I go hang out with this friend
and that friend instead of taking the time that I need to
in my Bible. We must always be thankful for
the word of God and not take it for granted #1.
We have to be thankful for your salvation #2 Be thankful for the
Bible #3 Be thankful for your church.
I'm so thankful for churches like my home church, Gilgrove
Baptist Church, and Mount Victory where I can come and
receive encouragement every single night or not every single
night but Monday or Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday morning,
Sunday night and Wednesday night.
There we go. Finally got it out.
I'm so thankful for it. Turn your Bibles.
The Hebrews chapter 10. A few chapters over Hebrews
chapter 10, Hebrews 10 and verse 24 and 25 is what we're going to
be looking at. It says, and let us consider one
another to provoke until love and to good works.
Here it is right here, not forsaking the assembling of
ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another and so much the more as he see the day approaching.
Now more than ever, we need the church in America.
We need a place where we can come just for a few hours and
get away from the world. Get get away from the filth and
the junk that we all day on the world and come and sit down and
hear the word of God preached and hear the and sing praise
unto God. It's one of the most I'm it's
one of the things I'm most thankful for especially as a
college student. You go busy all week one test 1
class to go to another thing another this another that and
but I'm so thankful for the nights that I can just go to
church and just be reminded who God is and that he's going to
take care of us. We need to be thankful for the
church. I think one of the reasons
people are leaving the church is because they weren't truly
thankful for it when they were in the church.
We always need to be thankful for our church #4.
This is for the young people. So young people, I'm going to
pick on y'all for a little while, so, but I think it's also
for the adults to be be thankful for your parents.
The Bible still says to honor your parents the last time I
checked, young person and I don't do it as much as I should
and I don't do it as often as I should.
But many young people nowadays are not being thankful for their
parents. Your parents have done so much
for you. They've given you clothes,
They've given you food on your table.
They've given you a house to live in.
They have you in a good church tonight.
They want what's best for you and don't complain if your
parents have rules for you and boundaries for you, man, be
thankful for that. I'm thankful growing up in my
parents set certain rules and bound for me that kept me from
doing some of the things that I probably would have done if
those rules weren't there. Don't go home and complain
saying I can't go here. I can't do this, I can't do
that. I can't wear this.
I can't date him. I can't date her.
I can't have this. Your parents rules are not there
to harm you or to hinder you from doing the things you want
to do. They're there to protect you
from doing the things that you want to do.
Be thankful for your parents. And my last point tonight is be
thankful for your future and many of your thing.
And how can I be thankful for my future?
Hasn't happened to me yet. I don't know what's in my
future, but if you're saved this morning or this evening, and you
know you're on your way to heaven, that's reason to be
thankful enough. Be thankful that this world is
not our home. What does the song say?
This world is not our home. We're just a passing through.
Our treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
We are going to have eternity with Jesus.
We're going to be able to praise him for eternity.
Turn to Revelation chapter 22. Revelation 22.
And we're going to be reading verses one through 5 Revelation
22, one through 5, he says. And he showed me a pure river of
water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of
God and of the Lamb in the midst of the street of it.
And on either side of the river was there the tree of life,
which bear 12 manner of fruits and yielded her fruit of yielded
her fruit every month. And the leaves of the trees were
from the healing for the healing of the nations.
And there shall be no more curse with the throne of God, and of
the Lamb shall be in it. And his servant shall serve him,
and they shall see his face. And his name shall be in their
foreheads. And there shall be no night
there. And they need no candle neither
light of the sun. For the Lord God giveth them
light. And they shall reign forever.
Be thankful that one day we're going to be in heaven with
Jesus. This world is going to be no
more. We're going to be perfect.
There's going to be no more night.
There's going to be no more sickness.
There's going to be no more pain.
There's going to be no more heartache.
We're going to be able to see our loved ones that have gone on
before us. I'm going to be able to see my
grandpa and my Paul, Paul again. I can't wait to see them.
It's going to be great. I'm going to be able to see
Pastor Brothers one day. He's there and I can just
picture him now. Just waiting for us to get up
there. And it's coming sooner than we
think. Pretty soon the trumpets going
to sound and all of us, they're saved, are going to be raptured
out of this world. We're going to be taking and
meet Jesus in the air. And that's something that I look
forward to. And that's something that I'm
thankful for. He's coming.
Be thankful for our future. So tonight we have Be thankful
for your salvation. Be thankful for the word of God.
Be thankful for your church. Be thankful for your parents,
young people and old people. Be thankful for our future and
everything it brings you back to first Thessalonia Chapter 5,
verse 18 and everything. Give things We have so much to
be thankful for it only. Let's go out here.
Let's go out from here and live thankful lives because of what
Jesus has done for us. Let's pray, Dear Jesus, I pray
that you would just bless these few words that I say, Father.
I pray that you would help us as we go out from here.
Or just help us to be truly thankful, Father, and just
realize that all the stuff that we're going through, Father,
that we have so much to look forward to and so much to be
thankful for. And just thank you for all this
you do for us. And you say, I pray, Amen.
Amen. Let's stand our seats with heads
about and our eyes closed. Took a plate page out of my
playbook when it comes to being thankful year round.
I say that all the time. You know, we we think that only
around Thanksgiving is when you're allowed to talk about
being thankful. But we we need to be thankful
always. And boy, sometimes we forget the
things that we should be thankful for.
And you know what an amazing thing to remember our salvation
and to remember our future and to remember what we have and
what we have in Christ. So the piano is going to play
tonight. And as she does, the invitation
is open. God spoke to your heart to now
you come. Even if you just need to come
and tell the Lord thank you again.
If you're not unthankful, maybe you just need to tell them thank
you again. Great opportunity to do that
tonight.