Give Thanks - Kingdom Thankfulness

I had a thought about tonight and I'm like, well, I'm gonna go

pray. So I took off and went and

prayed for a little bit longer and then came back and then

Marshall, like, what do you have?

And I'm like, we'll see, you know?

Amen. And then I told her it's thought

I have. She says, you know, I was

thinking that, too. Well, you know, she's thinking

that, too, that I'm thinking, hmm, that might be a good

thought then. Not because my wife's the Holy

Ghost for me, but sometimes she will, you know, kind of near,

you know, navigate some things that she senses, too.

And as a result of that, you're like, yeah, I could do that.

Now, it's not like I haven't talked about this earlier this

week because it kind of came up in my spirit on Monday, but I'm

going to expound a little bit more here tonight and I am going

to talk about thankfulness, Amen.

I mean, tomorrow you understand that the the national holiday

for the United States for Thanksgiving was originally, who

was it, Anila that did this? 1789 George Washington.

George Washington, six months into his presidency, declared a

national day of Thanksgiving. Now, this is what it looked like

in its original intent, prayer and fasting.

So somewhere between 17 what, 89 to 2024 we went from no food and

prayer. To food, more food and more

food, right. And the the prayer is typically

father, thank you for this food that we're about to receive all

of this stretch my stomach today because it is the one day that

you allow it in the calendar, right, everybody all right, but

that was the original intent. You know, a lot of times, you

know, when you don't go back again, there's another little

thing that, you know, it's a joke, but not a joke, right.

Just about traditions is that this one particular lady, you

know, she went and cut her Turkey in half, you know, and

put it in two pans and put it in the oven.

They're like, you know, why are you splitting away?

Well, my, you know, grandmother, you know, our family did all the

time. So they are well, the the ovens

were smaller back then. The Turkey couldn't go in.

So that's why they had to cut in half.

But they're larger today, so you don't have to do that.

So they were keeping a tradition, not knowing why,

right? And so sometimes what we do is,

again, with us an original intent concerning the Word of

God is that a lot of times, you know, the word can move in a

direction sometimes. And if we're not in it, you

know, from Genesis 11 to Revelations 2221, then we can

see things in a particular light that it was never intended to be

seen. So it's very important for us to

stay with the word. And again, if we were actually,

you know, celebrating Thanksgiving Day in the United

States, says George Washington, our first president desired,

then Thursday would have been a no mill day.

Now that doesn't mean Friday wouldn't be open season right?

And it's not like we don't get both days anyway.

So we could bring it back and do prayer and fasting on Thursday

and then show up on Wednesday. The good news is the food would

be our be cheaper on Friday to buy for that meal.

OK, are y'all y'all are in food comatose right now.

Now I, I will leave early tonight if you Amen will.

And let me just say this way, the only reason I preach as long

as I do is because you do not talk back, you know, because if

I think you're not getting it, we're going to do another

example, you know, and I've got at least have at least 25% to

get it before I leave. Now you know the secret, the pot

game we played last night. Now, I'm not talking about

smoking pot. I was talking about a different

game that had a pot that was part of it and you had to figure

out the pot game. And you know, I didn't do very

good, Mackenzie. I mean, well, Mackenzie didn't

either. She didn't do very good either.

Neither did Macy, but I think Macy figured it out before I

did. Or at least someone told her

because she was it often and didn't know why.

All right. And I'm like, why?

But now I know why. It's obvious why.

OK, see, this is how it works. Turn over to Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 5:20

5, verse 20. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 20.

Ephesians 5:20

You know, I mean, obviously there's quite a few churches

that don't even do service on Wednesday night.

And so let me just help set the record straight for anyone who

says I don't understand why Pastor Earl always does service.

Well, you understand, the Bible is very clear that those who are

my family are those who do the will of the Father.

And there are people within our congregation that actually do

not have any natural family. All they have is their spiritual

family. And so you know #1 it would be a

disservice to my family if I didn't want to assemble with

them #1 #2 it'll be a disservice to not want to assemble with my

father when he has called us to do so right now.

At the end of the day, oh man, we've missed that.

We should have recorded it. That was awesome.

Richie's in the house, Miss Davies in the house.

We're so excited they're here, but but that's why we do that.

You know, again, there's just family members that this is

their gathering. And so we do that.

That's why we choose to do it. We love the Lord.

You know, I don't, you know, for those that don't, they don't, I

don't care, doesn't bother me, but that's why I do it.

It's because of the relationship that I have on my father and

them with the church. And so that's our purpose for

doing that. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 20

Ephesians 5:20

says this. Always giving thanks for all

things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the

Father. So notice we should always be

giving thanks. How about how often or when

always giving thanks for how many things, for all things,

even the trials and tribulations, Sure, because they

just make you stronger anyway, right?

Because it's just the season. It's just something you're going

to go through in the 1st place. Now they don't feel good, but

ultimately you're going to pass through.

Always give me thanks for all things in the name of the Lord

Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.

So we need to be people that are of Thanksgiving and again

tomorrow, you know, we take time with our natural family or

wherever you're celebrating this per SE.

You know, it would behoove us to stop long enough to say, hey,

you know, let's give some thanks concerning the things God has

done for us. All right, First Thessalonians

516 to 18 says this. Rejoice always.

These are challenging things that at different stages of our

life, obviously, but rejoice always, pray without ceasing in

everything. Give.

Give what? Give thanks for.

This is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Well, I don't know God's will for my life.

Give thanks. Pray without ceasing.

Rejoice always. Well, let's start there if we

can get those down now, can you literally pray without ceasing?

It just means to be in an attitude of prayer or

conversation with the Lord. Obviously you cannot just talk

to God and never talk to anyone else because that's not how you

wouldn't be effective in the earth.

OK, But you can always have an attitude of open communication

with the Father, much like your text threads with people that

you're talking to now. OK, rejoicing always, because

again I say rejoice. Paul reminds us of this.

We want to be because really, no matter what we're going through,

it's not bad compared to those that are outside the Kingdom

because we have hope. So all those things should put

us in a position where we are always in a constant attitude of

Thanksgiving. OK Philippians chapter 4, verse

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

six and seven says this. Be anxious for nothing or no

thing, right? But in everything by prayer and

supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be known, be

made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all

comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ

Jesus. I took this 2 verses here with

our staff Monday and asked a series of questions or ask them

to share things they were thankful for.

First thing I asked is what are you thankful concerning God,

Just God? And then I said what are you

thankful concerning the vision God placed you in, which is

Anchor Faith Church, their own staff?

What is that? OK and so we went around the

table, you know, and people expressed that, but I want you

to see something here. It says be anxious for nothing.

So we shouldn't be anxious or worried, OK, but in everything

by prayer and supplication. How with Thanksgiving Now I

think a lot of times people do verse 6 this way, be anxious for

nothing. Well, let's go back, be anxious

and in everything by prayer and supplication, let your request

be known to God. I think that's how a lot of

people pray. Now we know the world prays that

way, but there are there can be a lot of believers that can pray

this way can be where they're anxious because you can just

hear it in the conversation. They're anxious or they're

worried about something, worried what's going on in their life,

all that. And what do they do?

They're and they're worried. They're praying.

So in their worry, they are praying.

Now, I'm not going to tell you that you can't have anxiety or

that you couldn't sense, you know, worry.

However, you have to capture that.

You have to take captive those things, OK?

These are things that come against us to try to hinder the

effectiveness of our prayers or to eliminate our faith.

OK. And so he says, listen, we are

not to be anxious, which means we shouldn't be in a state of

worry when we pray. All right?

I guess we're staying a little bit longer.

Joe, if you found yourself worried about a situation and

you go to God in prayer, you're already positionally wrong.

Now you say, well, I wasn't God and God is a merciful God.

He's merciful. So there are things when I was

obeyed that God did for me out of his kindness, not because I

was strictly in faith or strictly doing it in Revelation

knowledge. Let me give you a case in point.

The one guy comes to Jesus and says Jesus, if you're willing,

you can heal me. And the Lord says I am.

Now he didn't come in faith, He came really asking a question.

He had doubts and the Lord, what did he do?

Answered his doubts, says I am and healed him.

OK. Now from there that can become a

learning point for this person to know God is and I can be

confident that He is. So if I ever come up with any

symptoms or have some challenges physically again, God's will is

to heal me and my position when I come to Him.

Now changes from this set of doubt initially to now more

confidence. So you understand an initial way

in our, as we grow in the things of God that we did initially,

God because he's such a good father.

Just like in the natural, we change our children's diapers,

we feed them, we dress them, We do this for a season because we

love them. We are showing kindness, we have

compassion because they're not yet able to do it themselves,

but we're training them to ultimately be able to do it.

And when they do it, we rejoice more because they have learned

something. And if they go backwards and

come at 7 years old and say, would you change my clothes for

me, we would be like, go change your own clothes, OK?

We would say this is not normal. So we would never expect a child

of what we do for them as a baby to stay with them at 25.

So the Lord is progressing us and He's teaching us that there

are things that we are to grow and do.

And so just because it worked one way in the beginning doesn't

mean that's God's way of doing it successfully for the one

that's maturing. It's really important because a

lot of times people will have an experience with God in their

infancy and try to carry that same experience to maturity.

But God doesn't. He's teaching you now that

you're mature, this is how it's done.

So again, you may have been extremely worried about a

situation, prayed to God, you know, cried out for him, and in

his compassion He can extend an answer.

All the while training you on how you can come out of those

emotional States and seeming helplessness in a moment to

where you can come boldly before the throne of grace in a time of

need and ask without worry. Because then believers can get

frustrated as God is trying to take them from infancy over to

maturity. And they're like, but when I

was, you know, first got pointed, this is how it worked.

Well, God expects you to be in his word, to continue to grow so

that you can learn how it actually does work.

And then you can walk in the light of that.

Hallelujah. OK, I'll give you another quick

example again. He fed the Israelites in the

wilderness with manas, not because they were hungry, but

they were hungry. But that was not why.

It tells us why I gave you mana, so that you would learn that man

shall not eat or live by bread alone, but out of every word

that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

And when they crossed into the promised land and ate the fruit

that was there, manna stopped. Now if that whole group would

have come in and say, where's the manna, we're going to starve

to death. No, man.

And the Lord's like the fruit is before you go get it, you're not

living that way anymore. So we we can't have manna

prayers when the man is gone. OK, So he says be anxious for

nothing. So the position we are to take

when we go to prayer is to not be anxious.

We need to settle, get the worry out.

And I'm going to show you how to get the worry out.

And it says, so be anxious for nothing, right?

It goes on to say, but in everything by prayer and

supplication. And here it is.

This is how you get the worry out with Thanksgiving because

the minute you start thanking the Lord and you understand

there's a lot to be thankful for.

I mean we just start with thank you Lord, that you saved me

'cause I was destined for eternal separation.

Oh, thank you Lord. Thank you Lord.

I mean just start there. Then you can thank you that

you've helped get my mind it. Thank you If just say if you had

addictions, I mean anything that he has already.

Thank you that you have delivered me.

I mean there are so many things now.

Then let's get off you and say thank you for the air that we

breathe. I don't know.

I do not even have to think about oxygen.

You have provided it. Wow, you are amazing.

Thank you. Thank you for the sun in the

sky. Thank you for the moon.

I mean that you could just start talking about creation.

I mean, there's so many things you could start thanking him

for. And when you do, then worry

starts to dissipate. When I was praying today, I, I

decided, OK, let me check and see where the ocean is because

there's a lot of sand on our current beach right now.

Because where I live, there's a lot of the coquina rock and

sometimes it's only rock and then other times it's sand.

It's like it just changes every day.

You, you just never know what you're going to get when you get

down there. And so I went out, the tide was

out enough. We had a lot of sand.

I could actually walk on it like it was a beach kind of cool.

And so I'm like, I'm going to do my prayer walk on ocean because

it looked like it almost looked like the Keys at least like

Jupiter a little bit. It was pretty clear.

Not a lot of Sam was I'm like, man, this is nice.

But then you just kind of look out and then my prayer like,

thank you, Lord, that you're bigger than this ocean.

Think about that. I mean, it's just some simple

thing. What am I going to worry about?

By your words, you said stop here.

That's pretty amazing. I mean, I'm thankful that you

put a boundary here. I'm thankful.

I mean, it doesn't take long. And what am I going to worry

about? I mean, this is just one planet

out of the universe, right? It's like, wow, how amazing is

this? So with Thanksgiving, it

eliminates your anxiousness so that when you're in prayer,

you're letting your requesting to be made known to God.

And notice, thankfulness is something really powerful

because it will cause verse 7 to kick in because if you're only

anxious when you pray and ask God, you're not going to have

verse 7 because there's many people that come to work still

full of worry, anxiety, stressing about stuff.

And you're like, what's wrong? Well, you know, did you?

Well, yeah, I've been praying to God.

Well, then why is the peace of God not in manifestation?

Well, I just don't know how it's going to happen.

Well, this peace goes beyond all comprehension.

You'll get over the peace that you don't care.

It's like whatever, he's got it because I've made the request.

I've only given him his word back.

I've only sung cocainus to him that he told me to say in the

1st place he's got to do it right.

And so it surpasses all comprehension.

Then guess what would the guess what the peace of God will do

then it's going to guard your heart and your mind.

That means your mom won't dip back in to worry.

Because you know, you have what you, you have prayed for,

because you've prayed for in faith, without, without

anxiousness, without unbelief, without doubt, without wavering,

you know, right. So Thanksgiving is a real

powerful thing, very powerful. So much so that it's dangerous

to not be thankful. Now let's just be honest and

I'll be honest with myself. I'm like man, I I should do

better at having a regiment of just thankfulness conversations

with God or I just like because it says enter into his courts

right. Is that right is that may it may

not be a house into his gates with Thanksgiving his course

with praise. OK, so Thanksgiving because

you'll praise him when you, when you're full of Thanksgiving

because you're, you're acknowledging all these things

he's done because #1 he's not forgotten you, He cares for you.

He'll said he'll never leave you nor forsake you.

How awesome's that OK, but there's a danger for not giving

thanks. We can see this in Romans

Romans 1:20

chapter 1, verses 20 and 21. It says this for since the

creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his

eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen.

So this is not even like, I mean, it's it's, it manifests,

it's seen. I mean, this is so the world

knows people cut off from God. Their spirit man is is dead to

God, you know. So for them moving to faith

should be easy because they get to move to faith-based upon what

they see. So it says for the sense of

creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his

eternal power, divine nature have been clearly seen being

understood through what has been made so that they are without

they're without excuse. Look at verse 21 for even though

they they what they knew now that doesn't necessarily imply

that they were born of God. It could, but it doesn't

necessarily but they acknowledge there is a God.

Again, the guys that discovered the DNA strand, when they saw

the complexity, they're like, there's no way, no way.

They immediately abandoned that we came through evolution.

They abandoned it. Now, they did not go to Jesus

Christ, the Son of God, and give their lives to him, but they

knew there had had to be an outside force, something else.

There's no way this could ever come to pass by chance cannot do

it. OK, so they had to acknowledge

there's some kind of God, higher power, something.

So again, for they for even though they knew God, they did

not what honor him as God or or what give thanks or give thanks.

So honor and giving thanks kind of go hand in hand because when

you honor somebody, you'll be thankful.

Notice if people aren't being thankful for you, they're

probably not honoring you when they lose their

thankfulness. This is why Paul wrote in many

of his letters he says I'm thankful for you, I'm thankful

for you. And I think it would do us all

good here in Saint Augustine to make sure we do that for each

other more then when you see, you know what?

I just wanted you to know I'm thankful for you.

I'm thankful for you when you picked your children up tonight.

I just, I just want you to know I'm thankful for you.

I'm thankful 'cause aren't we thankful?

You know, when you go to pick up your teenager, I just want you

to know I'm thankful for you. Thankful, right?

Because if you can't be thankful for someone, that means you're

losing honor for something. So they didn't honor God, and as

a result of no honor, then they don't think Hallelujah.

So what happened then when they lost the honor and quit

thanking? It says they became futile in

their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened.

That's that's pretty rough. Look at the amplified classic of

verse 21 says because they they knew or I'm going to read it to

you because they knew and recognize him as God.

They did not honor and glorify him as God or give him thanks,

But instead they became futile and godless in their thinking

with vain imaginations, a foolish reasonings and stupid

speculations and their senseless minds were darkened.

So what's that tell us? The minute we lose thankfulness,

we can start losing our mind. You start losing your mom when

you start losing your thankfulness, right?

Hallelujah. You know, and, and have you been

around individuals? I'm sure you've not done this.

You know, we're like, man, that's stupid.

But anyone that's called someone stupid and you've been around

them that have called them stupid, see whether or not the

people they're calling stupid are thankful people.

Because the minute you do not recognize that there's something

others out there that are there to help and support you and you

remain thankful for it, then you're going to think you're the

only one. And you'll become the victim of

everything. And then you'll complain about

everybody. Hallelujah.

And then they'll only turn their thankfulness to money, say Amen

anyway. All right, Colossians chapter 3,

Colossians 3:15–17

verse 15 to 17. Let's just be thankful.

So let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts again.

Do we want, how do we have this peace is because number one,

we're not worried. We have no anxiety.

We have no anxiety because we know we can go to God with our

prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving.

We're thanking Him, we acknowledge him, we understand

who he is. We are super thankful for him.

I'm thankful that He hears me when I pray.

And you know what, I love some of the greatest times of my

prayer time and Him hearing me is when he hears me and he says,

don't think you're going to be able to ask that way.

When he gives me course correction in my thinking on how

to navigate. That's good.

Now, Laura, how do you want me to handle this situation 'cause

you know, in your scripture, based upon some scenarios, we

could go this way or that way. And he said, well, I want you to

go this way. And I said, well, thank you for

letting me know. Because then when you know, you

know you're doing it his way, which is the righteous way,

right, Man, that's good. And man, at the end of the day,

you just want to be righteous. You want to be doing

righteousness. Hallelujah.

Now, that doesn't mean you're not already the righteousness of

God in Christ. I'm saying you're handling the

situation the way God says to do it.

And that is the righteous way. He says seek first the Kingdom

of God and his righteousness. It's his way of doing it.

Holla. When I do it his way, then I can

get his result. I may not get everyone out,

there's acknowledgement of that, but I will get his ultimate

result because I'm doing it his way.

All right. So let the peace of Christ rule

in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and

be, be. What are you thankful for the

body you're in? You know, I, I would surmise

that many people have, have come out of the assembling of the

church and the, and, and the first step towards exiting is

they quit being thankful 'cause I mean, I could walk around this

room real easy and say, tell me about the first time you came

because I hear those conversations because people

usually come, right, Pastor, I'm so thankful for the word here or

I'm so thankful for, you know, this, the, the worship or I'm so

thankful for and that, you know, so and so that's here at this

church And, and I'm so thankful that we do Dada and there's all

that. But the minute they quit being

thankful, well, then all of a sudden it, it becomes less

necessary. And it's really just a, a matter

of just let me stop and think of all that God's done.

But then when you do that, you're like, man, I'm thankful.

Now, that doesn't mean God cannot call you to another

assembly or God can't move you on to other things.

I mean, God's God, he can do whatever he wants to do with

you. You're his children.

But the point is, is that you should never lose your

thankfulness. And a lot of people who are

disconnected have technically lost their thing because when

you talk to them about church or the local body and assembling

and being active, most of the time they're not thankful.

They're critical, complaining and hurt by the church.

But that hurt could have been self-inflicted because they lost

their thankfulness. So I said, let the peace of

Christ rule in your hearts to which you were called in one

body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly

dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing

one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Now this one, may you know, you know, touch some, some people

here when I say this. But if you have a hard time

singing during praise time, could we have lost our

thankfulness? Because we are all to sing,

right? We're to sing.

We're to sing praises. And again, I don't care if you

don't sound good. See, you can sing where it

comes, where you can hear it enough, and we know the Lord

hears it, but there's power in your words.

You know, praises are not thoughts.

Praises are released sound waves.

Amen. Aren't you glad that on the day,

on the 7th day, the seventh time around, that when they blew the

trumpet, the Israelites didn't say, well, I don't shout really.

Well, I'll just, we'll think it, we'll think loud.

We'll, we'll scream loud in our heads.

Let's try that together. Everybody just scream real loud

in your head. I can hear Brittany now.

I'm kidding, I'm kidding, you know I'm kidding.

I can pick on Brittany though. So when I get when Brittany and

Todd get to the house, it's next level, right 'cause they feed

off each other's sound waves. It's like Brittany and start

talking and Todd will eat her sound waves and then echo them

out at a higher volume and then Brittany will eat his sound

waves and then reciprocate it. Now I'm going to be honest with

you. I think Todd usually is the

loudest. Now Caius is going to be the

next one. He's a pretty big champion.

So do you see what I'm saying? I mean, you do not have the

title. It's over here with the

Fouchaise, their next level. All right, My point is this

thankfulness. I mean, I don't sing great.

I've said this for years to Marcus.

I said, I said, man, Marcus makes me sound good.

I sound really good with Marcus. It's true.

Now when I sing by myself, I don't sound great.

But when he sing and I sing, bro, I don't know why that is,

but I sound better. It's so true, it was true.

Now we have a lot of females up here and I'm, you know, kind of

dying to be honest with you because y'all are at a next

level, you know, and I don't sing that high so I'm having to

get low, but I still sing nonetheless.

Amen. I still sing nonetheless.

All right, so we have to be thankful.

Then verse 17, whatever you do in Word and deed do all in the

name of the Lord Jesus giving through him to God the Father.

So Thanksgiving should be something we're doing every day,

not just around November, right? They get even though I'm

ministering it at this particular time, I think it

maybe it can make an impression in US so that we are more apt to

move that forward. And here's the thing, if we are

going to care for one another in the body, because again,

Colossians says in verse 16 that we with all wisdom teaching and

admonishing 1 and admonishing one another.

Do you understand? I'm going to minister on this

next year. I've told my wife multiple times

I'm going to minister on a negative mind because in our

world, most people's minds are negative, which means anything

happening, they filter it through a negative lens.

Am I in trouble? Why?

Why do you think you're in trouble?

Why does that come out that way? You know what's your why do you

think I have a problem? Why are you wired that way?

Why are you taking every piece of information as if it's

negative? First, we need to fix that.

OK, so, but it says to admonish. OK, we understand.

And an admonishment is trying to make sure you don't get in the

wrong place. So if you're having a negative

confession about something, you're not ending with the Lord.

If you're just talking about your situation and never come

but the Lord. I mean, I don't care if you give

me the facts, but give me a but somewhere.

And if you're not giving me a but God and a real but God, not

like but God and you don't really mean but God, but you're

saying that religiously because you don't want to hear me now,

But I want to monish you because I would much rather you admonish

me that if I was only saying things negative or in a

complaint or or with no hope or only what I'm going through.

Because I really what happens when people get in that

position? They just want you to sympathize

with them and while they're in there, the pity party we could

call that I don't like pity parties.

Those are not fun parties. Those parties are never fun.

OK, so you know you want to be able to modest and say hey, but

the Lord and say things that are and don't take that as a

negative. Take that as praise God.

He's put family around me that wants to, wants me to speak

life. Hallelujah.

You know, the reason why we failed to remain thankful is

because we failed to keep big pictures.

We failed to keep the big picture.

I mean, David Mackie and I, we've been together for how many

years now, 16 years. And we've had challenges.

Now, not technically, personally, but there's things

that have been associated with our lives that have been

challenges. But there's one thing we keep

big picture, big picture. He knows me big picture, not

from an isolated situation. And same thing I know David, big

picture, big picture. So when he's dealing with stuff,

when things are going on in his life or things happening in my

life, if I'm hearing about his life and he's hearing about my

life, you know, when people lie about his life, just like people

lie about my life. But we know each other on a big

picture. And because we know each other

on big picture, it allows us to maintain thankfulness and then

encourage each other through those times.

But yet we can also be honest enough to say you doing all

right and honest enough say, look, I'm praying for you.

I know you got it because it's big picture, because we're

genuinely thankful for the relationship we have.

Amen For the Lord and my part, OK, Amen.

But we're thankful, you know, and the enemy always wants to

come in and get you to focus on the wrong stuff and rob you of

your thankfulness, Rob you of that.

But man, if you always say thankful, then I don't care what

you go through. I don't care what opposition can

come, especially ones that you may esteem and realize, wait a

minute, how are they? Why are they treating me like

this? Why are they acting like that?

But if you maintain thankfulness, then you'll even

come through that. No problem, No problem.

It's easy. OK.

So again, we want to admonish one another.

One way we admonish each other. And thankfulness is that, you

know, we encourage you to, hey, you can, whatever the case may

be. And what should we say is

thanks. Thank you.

Thank you for stopping me from being in this position.

Thank you for acknowledging. Thank you for being honest.

Enough with me. Let me evaluate.

Amen. All right, last set of

Scripture, we're doing pretty good.

First Corinthians 1/4 through 9 says it this way.

I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which

was given you in Christ Jesus. And man, I could say that about

everyone here at Anchor Faith Church.

I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which

was given you in Christ Jesus. Now, here's the thing about the

grace of God-given you. You have to activate it by

faith. Without faith, grace is not

activated. But here's the thing, you have

grace, you have grace, you have grace.

I'm thankful that the Lord always lets me see you in

Christ. I'm thankful for that.

Because anytime I speak to anyone in the church or know

anything about a situation, about what's going on in their

lives, I only see them one way in Christ.

Because even in the situation they may be in, and it could be

in the flesh, well, that can change and be back in Christ.

Hallelujah, I said. Hallelujah, verse five, that in

everything you are enriched in Him, in all speech and all

knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed

in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting

eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also

confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord

Jesus Christ. Look at this progression here.

God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with

his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. So notice Paul is saying, look,

I'm thankful to God for the grace of God in your life.

And because of that, know this, you're enriched in him and all

speech and knowledge. The testimony of Christ is

confirmed in you. I mean, it's obvious to see the

grace of God in all of your lives.

And God is showing you to our community, to your families this

weekend, to extended family, the grace of God in your life.

And aren't you glad for the grace?

The grace is amazing. The grace will cause you to

function and operate in ways that you never could do in the

natural never. That empowering grace He gives

you #1 after you're born again, the undeserved grace just to get

you into the Kingdom, then the empowering grace to keep you out

of, keep you to keep, to keep sin at Bay.

Because now you do. You can avoid it or stop it at

temptations door. You can't stop temptation from

coming, but you can stop it from becoming sin and crossing the

threshold of temptation because grace has empowered you to do

that. Then the grace on your life with

the anointing that God's called you in the body, the fit that

you are. So you understand, it's not

novel words when we say, man, thanks for serving there because

we have the awareness of how much better the ministry is

because of the grace in your life, in its deployment in that

area. And don't ever sell out or take

the thought in your own mind of what you're doing is menial.

Never do that. Let me tell you this.

It's not even menial to be in the body and not yet deployed

somewhere because God is, is strengthening you and growing

you for deployment. I mean, we just, you know, did a

Veteran's Day a few weeks ago. And you understand, you can, in

fact, Hannah has enlisted in the Marines.

She's in delay entry, OK. And so she's going to go off to

basic training. But before, at this point, if we

go to war, I technically do not want Hannah with me now because

she's not yet been trained. She's in, but she's not trained.

And any of our veterans who've gone into war, you don't want

someone who just raised their hand and has never picked up a

weapon. I mean, technically you're in

our unit, but you have not been. That's that's tough.

I mean, yes, you may have owned the uniform, you may have sworn

in, you may be Uncle Sam's, but you are not yet trained for

battle. Right now you are biggest

liability. Now you get offended at that.

And it'd be like who you think you are talking to me, right?

Well, I'm talking to an untrained Marine right now, but

training's coming so you don't don't ever be unthankful for

your training because your training is what makes you

equipped for when we get in to certain battles.

But then also it gets you trained for the assignment of

your deployment. Hallelujah.

And you know, I remember when I was in AIT, I was ready to

leave, but you know, training was still in process.

Doesn't matter what I wanted to do, you're in.

You have to finish the course. And I'm glad you finished the

course because when you finish the course, then the next

assignment can take place. And then and the reality is

different aspects of what God's asking us to do has different

layers of training. I mean, the MOSI was in, had an

extension. I thought it went into

linguistics. Is that right how you say that?

Which is languages? I had tested well enough to do

so well, but I didn't pick that one.

But that was a two year school, a lot longer than my, you know,

6 month AIT. The electronic training wasn't

that long, so the requirement was different.

Hallelujah. So we're thankful for the grace

of God concerning you. Amen.

Are you thankful?