28 December 2025: Reflecting on 2025 with Thanksgiving

Welcome to the podcast of the White Church in Adelaide, South

Australia. We're going to be just talking a

little about a little bit about Thanksgiving this morning, but

not we're not just going to talk about Thanksgiving.

We're going to talk about things that we're thankful for that

God's done over the last year. So 2025 is coming to an end and

I started by reading this scripture.

I'm going to read it again. It says enter into His gates

with Thanksgiving and into His thoughts.

Sorry, into His courts with praise, Be thankful to Him and

bless His name. So we want to do that for a

moment this morning. We want to look to the Lord and

to the things that He has done in 2025 because God's done

amazing things in our midst and it's easy to overlook those

things and just move on to another year because the the

years roll pass pretty fast, don't they?

So you know, like before we get into 2026, I just want to for us

together to be thankful for what God's done.

We've seen some growth in 2025. We've seen some people come.

We've seen our eldership team double.

I think it feels like longer since these guys came on as

elders, doesn't it? But that was this, that was

2025. And so God's did amazing things

2025, He's growing the church, he's establishing leaders.

I think that's wonderful. I'm, I'm really excited about

that. I hope you guys are excited

about that because it's an amazing thing.

But we've seen our community group, we've doubled that.

It sounds crazy when you've got 1 and you become two, you're

like, wow, we've doubled. So I'm sort of being, you know,

I'm being a little funny, but that's a good thing.

It's an amazing thing that now that we're gathering in two

different places and we're believing for this, for this

coming year, 2026, that we're going to see some more of that.

We're going to see another home open up and, and people

gathering there and, and growing and unpacking scripture and, you

know, being together throughout the week.

This is all very important stuff.

We started our our men's connect this year.

That's been very fruitful, has been good.

You guys have enjoyed it. It's been good for us.

It's been good for us as men. We've been coming together,

we've been unpacking his word, we've been learning and we've

been fellowshipping. We've been enjoying each other

and that's a very powerful thing.

So that's something that we started this, this year, this

space that we've opened up here. We did that this year.

You know, we're meeting with these doors closed and now we've

opened this up. It's just a nicer space.

We don't have people knocking on the door and no one even knows

that they're there. That's a good thing, right?

So that's just something that came to mind.

You know, that God's just opened up some space for us to meet.

We, we baptize double the amount of people this year that we did

last year. Again, I'm being silly, but it's

like we baptize 2 people this year and we baptize Tony the

year before. And so let's just keep trusting

and believing that we're going to continue to see growth, you

know, more so than just double. I don't know, these, these,

these things are in God's hands, right?

We're just going to serve him faithfully.

We're going to be thankful, we're going to praise him and

we're going to trust that God's going to continue to add because

he, because he is and he does we with our food hampers, our, our

food ministry, we estimated that it was over 800 grocery bags

that we gave away this year. 800 is a lot, right?

Like, and when you see these grocery bags, like they're, they

are stacked, you know, like they're, it's pretty amazing

that we've been able to do this. You know, we're partnering with

hands and feet and they're supplying food and we're, we're

supporting them. We're donating, We're making

sure that that ministry continues to move forward

because it's important, you know, it's getting food to

people that are in need. But 800 food hampers.

I just think about the amazing thing that God's doing through

this small local church. We are a small gathering of

people, but to be able to give, you know, food in in abundance

to people that need it, that's a very special thing.

And it just makes me think that, you know, reminds me that God

takes care of the community through the local church.

We've got a small footprint in that, but there's many other

local churches in this city. There's there's many churches in

Adelaide and beyond that. God is doing amazing things

through the church. He is making sure that people

that are in need are taken care of through the church.

And Lord God, we thank you that you're doing that.

We thank you, Lord, that your eyes are open to the cries of

the needy and that you take care of people, Lord.

And we thank you, Lord, that we can be a part of the church,

your hands and your feet, Lord, that that are committed to, to,

to stepping out and to being used by you, God.

It's a very special thing, Lord. We don't take that for granted.

We just don't move on to another year, Lord.

We say thank you that we can be a part of your church and that

we can be active in taking care of people around us, Lord, Thank

you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord. We've we were able this year to

build some relationship into the Philippines.

I was privileged to go with Josh and the guys over to the

Philippines this year and connect with some of these some

of the passes and that there. And as you guys know, there was,

you know, some it was a typhoon because it's called a typhoon

there, isn't it? You know, that caused a lot of

damage in the Philippines just recently.

And because of these relationships and because of,

you know, God opening a door for us to be there, you know, we're

able to reach out to these people and say, hey, how are you

guys doing? Is everyone OK?

And luckily, the people that you know, from these churches that

we visited, they were all fine, but they were like rallying up

support to go and take care of the people that lost everything,

that were hungry. And so we were able to, you

know, donate some money to that cause.

And I've got a bunch of photos and videos and stuff that these

guys sent to us that don't worry about that.

Now I'm going to post it in our, in our, in our group chat for

the church so that you guys can see, you know, just lines of

people just receiving bags of food and, and just pictures of

like these, you know, the places where they live, you know, just

completely just swamped and, and knocked over.

So thank you, God, thank you for the opportunity to sow into the

nations and to take care of the needs of people way beyond where

we are. And do you see how amazing that

is that God's done that, that he would make connection between us

here in Adelaide and pastors and leaders in churches on the other

side of the world. And, and now we can just pick up

a phone and we can say, Hey, is there anything we can do?

And they say we're, we're, you know, we're getting funds

together to buy food and we go, cool, we're in, isn't that

amazing? God is good.

He makes sure that that he takes care of the needs of people all

around the world. And you know, I'm believing that

this coming year, 2026, that God's going to open more doors

for us to do these things and for many of us to get over

there. It's not just me.

Can I say that? Like for us in this room and

fathers that are going to listen that couldn't be here today, you

can come to these things. You know, you can get a passport

and you can come along and you can go and make a difference in

other nations. And it's important that you do,

you know, take advantage of the opportunities to go along and

and make some connections and hear where God's perhaps calling

you. You know, God might be calling

you to the nations. Can I just say God is calling

you to the nations, God's calling us to the nations and

that you know what that means? That means that you've got to go

to the nations. And so when there's

opportunities to go, we should go.

And so, you know, I, I say all that just to say, start praying

now and start saying, Lord, I'm available here.

I am, send me because God will open doors for us to go into the

nations because this is what he's, this is what he's about.

This is what we're called to do when God calls the church to do

something, God makes sure that there's open doors for us to go

and do that. Amen.

Cool. I heard an Amen from you,

Michael. That means that you're going to

you're going somewhere in 2026. Awesome.

Awesome. There we go.

It's it is over. You go Tasmania.

Awesome. So obviously we had our Weld

equipped this year. That was a big deal.

You know, that was 10 years in the making.

That was a wonderful time. That's a big deal.

We got to be together with the greater church again.

Like there's going to be a an Australia equipment and AUS

equip coming up next year. This is another one of those

things guys, come along, be a part of it.

You know, don't make excuses like just come and gather with

the church, broader than just this local congregation, broader

than just the churches of Adelaide.

We can be together with churches from around Australia.

That's happening. Isn't that wonderful?

Really good opportunity to come and be a part of that.

So I'd encourage us to all do that.

We've had much Apostolic input. In 2025.

We had guys come from our city. We had Josh come, we, he might

have been one of the only ones from our city.

Anyway, Josh Bench came. That was wonderful.

We enjoyed that. We had Paul and Nicole come.

We had Jimmy and Maria come. This is all just this, this last

year. And we had Bruce and Myra from

South Africa. We had Joel and his brothers

come and be a part of, of, of Sunday with us to minister in

and to, for us to hear what God's doing around the world.

We're going to see more of that this coming year.

We've, we've got someone special coming.

Ty's going to be with us in January for a couple of weeks.

And so come 18th and 25th, he will be with us.

And so that's, these are very key times.

These are special times. Put them in your diary,

remember, will it come and be here?

This is a very important time to be and it's coming up real fast,

which I, which is why I mentioned it just now.

And you know, there's, I'm sure there's many other highlights

that you guys can think of as we close out this year.

We had our Christmas community lunch on Thursday and for us

that we're here, Peter, you were here.

Did you enjoy that? Man, It's wonderful, so good.

And so you know that that's a really wonderful thing that we,

that God did that we could be a part of in serving our community

again. There's just such need when we

can like set up, you know, 90 chairs in here and fill this

space that that means that there's need in our city.

That's what this is like Christmas Day, right?

Can I just say that, you know, we had God provided, you know,

people that could come and serve.

You know, we had people from outside our context.

We had a couple of lovely ladies serving in the kitchen and well,

there's a few. There was, I think there was

probably four or five before four people from, you know,

outside of this church that came Christmas Day guys, they came

and they served and they were a part of it and they had a great

time. They really enjoyed it.

I said we want to come back next year and serve again, right?

Thank you. We had the CEO of the centre

come to help tidy up, right. So this lady and I think she was

the ex CEO as well. Yeah, she just had it.

OK, So one of the, the, the lady that was the CEO was handing

over to the new CEO. Both these ladies came and they

came in and they said we're just here to help back up.

And so they just, they just got, I didn't even get a chance to

really say hello. They were picking up tape like

plates and stuff before I even had a chance, you know.

So they came, this is like the, the ones that run this centre.

They saw the value in what was happening here and, and they,

they just sort of, I think they said to each other, they were

just with each other and after Christmas or whatever, after

their meal or whatever, what, what should we go?

Sure, let's go. So in they came and I was really

touched by that. They just got on with it.

They sort of disappeared without sort of saying goodbye.

They weren't in it for themselves.

They just wanted to come and be a part of this and make sure

that we had everything that we needed.

And I think that God serves the hearts of people, whether these

are people that know him, you know, personally like us, that

serve him as we do, You know that God can stir the heart of

any single person, right? And he did.

We see it in Scripture. God would stir the heart of the

kings. He would stir the hearts of

people all the time, and they would do his will.

And so, you know, when we're praying and we're saying, Lord,

you know, please help us to be able to do this.

Well, God just start stirring hearts of people and they just

come. And so, you know, I'm just

believing in 2026, guys, we got to be like, I'm stirring our

faith, right? That God can stir the hearts of

people and bring them in, you know, So when we're praying and

when we're saying, Lord, you know, from the north and the

South and the east and the West, give them up and release them,

we got to pray that with faith. We're going to pray that knowing

that God can do that and God does that.

And maybe we should just take a moment right now to pray that.

Can we do that, please? Could we just stand to our feet,

please? Let's just pray that through

Lord God, we thank you that you are the one that stirs the

hearts of the people and Lord in, in, in alignment with your

word. Lord, we call them in, Lord,

from the north and the South and the east and the West, we say

give them up. We say release them.

We say let them come. Let them come into your Kingdom.

Let them come into your church. Let them come into the, the

wonderful things that you are doing around this community and

around this city and way beyond that God.

So we do call them in and and we stand, Lord, faithfully on your

word that says that you can and will do this.

And we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, your son, Amen, Amen.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

All right, well, I'm, I'm thankful for, you know, like

where Bianca talked about being enlarged and stuff like that.

We've been tested this year. Things have been hard, hey, like

just hard, like trying to and lead a church and trying to know

how to do that. And all these things.

We've been tested. We've been, it hasn't always

been easy, but I'm thankful to God for stretching for, for

making things, making us have to rise up and overcome because

he's setting us up for the future.

And that's for, for us personally, but that's for all

of us. You know, things aren't always

easy. Things are generally hard, but

that's a good thing. If if you.

Yeah. But if.

OK, let me just clarify if you've got a good eye, right?

If you understand that that God chastens those who he loves,

that God puts obstacles in your way, that you're going to have

to trust him to overcome that he's going to have to make more,

more of you than you are right now.

When you understand that you can look back at the year that's

gone and you could go, thank you, Lord, thank you for the

things that you've put in front of me that I've had to overcome.

And, you know, we should be doing that.

I think that this year and as it comes to an end, we should

reflect back on the year that we've had.

We should look at, you know, I was talking to Craig this

morning. You should look at the choices

that you've made. You should look at the, the, the

things that have happened in your life and, you know, ask God

to reveal, you know, why have these things happened?

What all of these things just reflect and say, Lord, help me

to become the man or the woman that you've called me to be.

Help me to not waste any of the, the season that's just passed

and any of the little adjustments and any of the

things that need to change in me and through me.

Lord, help me and make the changes.

You know, what about the words that God spoken to us?

You know, we, we sit and we hear God's word regularly.

You read it for yourself and things stand out to you and you

write it down and you put it in your heart or he puts it in your

heart. Have you been faithful with it?

Like are you doing something with it?

I just think about, you know, for me, I even just a few weeks

ago, I think about Dudley's preach on the blood of Jesus.

I it's just become a part of my prayer life more so than it ever

has before and it's powerful. I pray it when I put my boys to

sleep. I prayed over my house.

I prayed over myself, over my body.

It's just there and it's just what I'm going to say that just

an an example of when God highlights something to in here

now, then you've got to apply it.

You've got to do something with it.

And So what are the things that God spoken to you over the last

year? And are you applying it to your

life? Because God doesn't highlight

things to you for no reason, but you could just do nothing with

it. And I'm guilty of that at times

as well. And so This is why we just think

about the year. Think about the things that have

happened. Think about the things that have

tripped you up, that have caused you to shy away or pull back or

whatever and say, you know, this this coming year, Lord, like I'm

not going to allow those things to trip me up anymore.

I've learned my lesson. I'm, I'm listening, Lord, and

I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, overcome these things

because these things are coming again.

Like something that tripped you up last year, it's probably

going to show its head again this coming year.

But you got to be prepared, right?

And the way that you were prepared is you acknowledge it.

And you say that thing tripped me up.

But no, Lord, I'm not going to allow that thing to trip me up

again. I'm I'm running after you this

time, Lord, I'm going to keep my feet.

And you know, the word of God says that he's the lamp to our

feet. So he's going to make sure that

he enlightens the way for you not to stumble and fall.

He is a good God. You're amazing, God.

Lord. Thank you, Lord.

All right, so Thanksgiving, like it's so important we've done,

you know, we've sat and we've just thought about the things

that we can be thankful for to God.

You know, we, we read this morning that Thanksgiving opens

up, you know, it's it through Thanksgiving, we enter into

God's presence and it's true. And so thankful people

experience the life of God more so than people that aren't.

Is that true? I think it is.

I think that when I'm thankful to God, even in hard times, that

the Spirit of God stirs in me and I feel closer to him again.

And so we've got to live this way, guys.

But there's a flip side to Thanksgiving.

You know what it is? People that complain a lot,

think about people that complain a lot, they're generally not

happy people. There's a reason for this

because when you're thankful, especially to God, like when

you're thankful to God, it stirs joy and peace and life.

But when you're constantly complaining in life also it's

doing is highlighting the things that you're unhappy with.

So you have put like centre stage the things that bring you

down and you're just rehearsing it and talking about it over and

over again. And so it's almost like the

opposite of being thankful to just complain and to whine.

That sounds harsh, doesn't it? But I, I, I say that because I'm

trying to help us because I can complain at times as well,

right? And it doesn't make me feel

good. It just makes me feel heavy,

right. So when you're, when you're

thankful, think about Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving means that you're giving thanks.

Like have you ever thought about that Thanksgiving?

Or is it just a word that's Thanksgiving?

It just means I'm thankful. It's actually that you give

thanks. We give thanks to God.

We're giving something of that out of our hearts, out of

ourselves. Complaining is not doing that.

Complaining is like trying to get something from someone,

right? When I, when I, if I'm

complaining, I'm trying to get some sympathy.

I'm trying to get someone to say, Oh, it's OK, or I'm trying

to get a result. I'm trying to get some.

If I complain to my wife and say, Oh gosh, there's, jeez,

there's, there's a lot of clothes around on the floor,

then I'm trying to get her to clean them up.

But this is not the way to do this, right?

Like you clean them up, be thankful that you've got a wife,

right? Like, do you see how you can

shift the way that you live? You know, sorry to do that to it

and just open up our our home space to you guys.

But but it's true, right? Like there's a way of living

where you can live thankful no matter what's around you, right?

Or you could just walk around complaining.

And again, complaining is just just being empty and wishing

that something would change or that you would get something

right. And Luke 645 says out of the

abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

So when you're thankful, when you're, when you, when you give

thanks, that means that there's thankfulness in your heart.

That means that you're giving something that's really good out

of your own heart, right? And when you're complaining,

what, what is in your heart? What is in the heart of someone

that finds fault in everything? And just, you know, like I

haven't seen you for a while and you just want to tell me about

all the challenges that are in your life.

You know, what's in your heart? Is there thankfulness in here or

is there just heaviness? I say this to try and help us

because we don't have to live in that place of heaviness.

We can live in Thanksgiving and have peace and have joy.

Just think about the words that you speak to people, right?

Like when someone comes up to you and says, how are you doing?

What comes out of your mouth? Oh, man, I'm really tired.

I've had a hard week, you know, I do that sometimes.

It's just sometimes you're just overwhelmed, right?

But we've got to think about the words that come out of our mouth

because it reveals to us the position of our heart.

And this is really important when we've, when we talk about

coming into God's presence and coming before the Lord, because

are you positioning your heart, you know, in a way that is

honouring to God, You know, because if I just come in and I

just say, you know, oh God, why do all these things always have

to happen? And, and why can't you just do

this? Is that honouring to our Lord?

Of course, it's not. We want to position our hearts

of Thanksgiving. Lord, I thank you that I'm

alive. I thank you that you've sent

your son. I thank you that even though my

life is really difficult right now and I, I don't feel like

being thankful, I can be thankful because you are a good

God. Do you see what this does?

It changes the way that you live.

Now I'm a father and when my boys come to me and complain to

try and get something, what is my response going to be?

I can tell you right now my response is not going to be

favourable. Like when my boys come to me and

say, Dad, you know, like I'm so hungry.

I'm just like, I just look at him and I just go, that's nice,

right? I'm training them.

They're just kids, right? But I'm training them just to

come to me and say, you know, just to ask nicely, say, Dad,

can I please have some food or whatever, You know, like, it's

just, I don't want to give my kids, you know, out of a heart

of complaining, right? And I think about that for

myself because when my boys come, when they're thankful,

like we gave Levi a gift for Christmas, he was so thankful.

And it was like melting my heart, right?

He was just like, and he just kept saying it.

He just kept saying, Oh my gosh, I'm so thankful.

Thank you so much for giving me this gift.

And like, Hillary's tearing up. Like it's just like it melts the

heart of a father when children come to them to him and say, Oh,

thank you, God, how much more our heavenly Father, who we've

got all things to be thankful for.

You know, that's the Father's heart that when we come to him

and we're truly thankful for everything that he's done for

everything that he is the father's heart, I'm sure would

melt for his children and A and a father that that whose

children are thankful. Oh, like that father wants to

give more to those children. And we know that our Father in

heaven is an abundant God that doesn't want to hold anything

back from His children. James 117 says every good gift

and every perfect gift is from above.

Did you hear what that said? Every good gift and every

perfect gift is from above. And it comes down from the

Father of lights, in whom there is no variation or shadow of

turning. Our God gives good gifts to His

children. Luke 1232 says.

Do not fear little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure

to give you the Kingdom. Isn't that amazing that it gives

God pleasure for His children to receive the Kingdom from Him?

I think that's amazing. I think that that would that

stirs faithfulness in me when I pray to the to the Lord and I

say, Lord, thank you that you are the God that's building your

church. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you

are building, that you are adding that that you are the God

that grows. That fruitfulness is of you.

You know, there's faithfulness in that.

There's faith that stirs in here.

So I will bring this to a close in a moment.

We're actually going to bring the kids back in, in, in a SEC.

Yeah, maybe in a couple of minutes.

But yeah, we're going to have communion together.

And the kids have, I think they've got like something that

they want to give to us. So cool.

We've got much to be thankful for for 2025, but you know,

2026, let's just be thankful that we're a part of maybe just

go grab the kids now, please. That way that we can be a part

of his Kingdom, a part of his church.

Like that's the greatest thing that we could be thankful for.

Could we grab the communion too, please?

And so, you know, we're going to take communion in in a moment.

If we just get all that out, we'll bring the kids out and

they can say what they would like to say to us.

And then we're just going to be thankful together, you know, for

the greatest thing. You know, we've, we've, we've

spoken about a lot of things that we're thankful for

throughout the year, things that God's done in and through the

church, things that we're thankful that God's done in US

personally and as a people. What is the greatest thing that

we could be thankful to God for? Our salvation for the gospel,

the greatest gift, Jesus Christ our Lord, that thing, that

thing, that one we will be thankful for forevermore.

You know Jesus, it says that Jesus is the Lamb that was slain

before the foundation of the earth.

Jesus, he, he has always been worthy of praise for that thing

that he was planning to do for the gospel.

The gospel has been in motion, set in place by God before the

foundation of the world. It's a very special thing.

I believe and I and I believe this, this, this is true, right?

That for all eternity the Lamb that was slain will be glorified

and praised and worshipped for what he has done, for who he is.

Isn't that wonderful, that thing there, the Gospel, Jesus Christ,

that is the thing that we are most grateful for because

outside of that, we would have nothing.

We would have nothing, right? We have hope and we have.

Our eternity is sewn up with you.

Thank you for joining us for today's message.

For more information about The Way Church, please visit

[email protected] dot AU.

Have a blessed day.