Remember to Thank God || Pastor Aaron Levy

Welcome to the ALC Podcast. Here at ALC, we seek the loss,

teach the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you're encouraged by

this week's message. Hey, if we haven't met, my name is Aaron,

and I get the honor of leading our Pomona campus who's also having fresh

star service right now. Our campus is thriving and growing in thanks for your

generosity, we're able to have our Pomona campus and future campuses to come.

Before I get started, I want to thank our lead pastor, Pastor Adam,

and our founding pastor, Pastor Diego for giving me an opportunity to be

in their poolpit. I counted an honor to be able to communicate the gosp

but we can give it up for our leaders. Have a phenomenal church with

phenomenal leaders. I'm gonna pray and then I want you to help me solve

a family dispute so heavily. Father, I thank you so much that on

this Thanksgiving Eve we said we're going to be in your work and we're gonna

get our hearts ready. Now as we continue to thank you, Lord,

get me out of the way. I thank you that your world will convict

and strengthen and encourage in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen, all right,

all right, Hey, Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and my wife and I were

having a debate on what pie to have at the house. So she woke

me up this morning and she said, I'm going to the store to get

this pie. I'm not gonna tell you which pie it is. What I'm

gonna do online is put some some pictures on the screen and one gotta go.

You guys, ready, Okay, let's put these pies on the screen.

Now. I think it's obvious that one has to go and faith there

will be pie on the screen. Oh, it's on this screen, hey,

Online, if you zoom in, there's Pete Cobbler, sweet potato Pie,

pumpkin pie, or pecan pie. Now wait, hold on, hold

on on, Rancho, Rancho, on the count of three. In unity,

we're gonna share. Which one gotta go? One man, This altar

call is gonna be great tonight. Okay, one, two, three,

Yes, pumpkin pie. Gotta go. Only see black people clapping, ha

ha. My wife said this morning, I'm gonna get up and get some

pumpkin pie. And I walk up. I was like, ew, I

said, at least get sweet potato pie. But I'm gonna say the best

Thanksgiving dessert of all time peach coppler second versus banana pudding. Yeah, yeah,

yeah, here's its vent out of footing. Okay, my wife and

I compromise. We probably won't have either. But hey, if you have

your Bibles, if you could stand with me, please for the reading of

scripture. The scripture is gonna be on the screen. The title of tonight's

message is remember to thank God, Remember to thank God. We're gonna be

in Philippians, chapter one, verse three through ten. Just a little bit

of context. This little four chapter book is called the Joy Book. But

Paul wrote it while he was in prison. So he's writing a letter while

he's in prison, encouraging others. And we're gonna read it right now,

starting at verse three, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you.

If you take notes in your Bible, you're underlining all your underlining remembrance

of you. I thank God in all my remembrance of you. Always in

every prayer, first time it says prayer of mind for you all all again,

making my prayer prayer again with joy because of your partnership in the Gospel

from the first day until now. And I am sure of this that He

who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day

of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you

all because I hold you in my heart, for you are all again partakers

with me and grace, both in my imprisonment and in my defense in confirmation

of the Gospel. For God is my witness. How I yearn for you

all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer third time

that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so

that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for

the day of Christ. Use this word God to strengthen us. In Jesus'

name, Amen, you may be seated. I got three points to share

tonight. The first point is thinking changes your thinking. Thinking changes you're thinking.

Look at what Paul says in the very beginning. I thank God in

all my remembrance of you. Is that even possible. I'm married. I

have a lot of memories. I have a lot of things I remember about

my wife. I work, I have a lot of things I remember about

employees and bosses. But Paul challenges us to say, I thank God in

all my remembrance of you. There may be some people that you're on the

fence of inviting to your Thanksgiving party tomorrow. That's why it said all so

if you're on the fence, you may want to include them because this may

be an opportunity for you to minister to them tomorrow as you get filled with

God's left time tonight. But thinking changes your thinking, and I want to

give you an example of that. My daughter plays softball, my middle child.

She's twelve years old. And if I can be honest and shame the

devil, she's not the best on the team, but we have goals,

and she has three goals this past season. It was to improve her batting.

It was to always have a positive attitude no matter what, and it

was to steal eight bases. Now, I as a father would always be

right by the dugout with my phone every time she's up to bat, and

I would be nervous as a father because I felt the pressure she felt when

she was up to bat, and time after time after time, I would

see her strike out and We would tell her on the way to the game,

it doesn't matter if you hit a home run or if it doesn't matter

if you strike out. I'm gonna cheer for you, and I want you

to cheer as well when you walk to the dugout. That's the test of

success. So I would always be by the dugout and I would be clapping

for her whether she struck out or got on base. But there would be

times where she would strike out and right there I'm clapping for her and she

won't even look at me. So after the game, we're on the way

home and I talked to her and I said, hey, I was cheering

you on. Why didn't you look at me? She said, I was

ashamed because of how I did. Now she's twelve, But I don't know

if that ever leaves us with our challenge in front of crowds, to perform

in front of people, and when we have unmat expectations of ourselves, we

have shame. So in that moment, I said, well, did you

pray? She said, yeah, I prayed. Now I asked her two

discipleship questions. The first one, what did you pray people? I pray,

Maybe you pray wrong? What did you pray? Here's what she said.

I pray. I said, God, let me have a home run

in Jesus name, Amen. And he didn't hear my prayer. Second prayer

because thanking. Second question, because thanking changes your thinking. What could you

thank God for in your strikeout? So let me help you faith. Let's

thank God that he's teaching you perseverance because you may not play softball for the

rest of your life, but for the rest of your life, you're going

to be in front of crowds and you may strike out, whether financially,

whether relationally, whatever that looks like. And if you could hold your head

high go into the dugout, you could hold your head high go into an

interview. So let's thank God that he's teaching you perseverance. Let's thank God

that he's given us opportunities for self control. So it's all about if I

thank God, it will change what I think about my situation. What gets

in the way of that is when I have unmet expectations of myself. And

sometimes we got to ask God, God, are we aligned this season on

what our goals are? Because notice my daughter's prayers weren't in alignment with her

goals, And sometimes we go to God because we're in front of a crowd

and we want to impress the crowd. But in private, we have goals

with our Father. And let that be an encouragement. Whether you feel like

you're striking out right now, realign your goals with God, because thinking changes

your thinking. Now. Sometimes it's unmet expectations we have of ourselves, but

you know it's harder unmet expectations of others. Have people failed you, have

people let you down? Because Paul is saying, I thank God in all

my remembrance of you, that's that's a mature thinking, and that's a discipleship

verse. And I would encourage all of us to be around people that are

more mature in us, much more mature than us, so when we get

a scripture like that, they can share from credibility what we're striving to get

to. Reminds me of my runs with Pastor Diego. For three years every

Wednesday, I ran with Pastor Diego and I believe it catapulted my biblical manhood.

And during COVID there was one time we were about to open the church

and we're running and he says, erin just no I am never shutting the

church doors again. And I'm like, yeah, we never shutting the church

doors again. Erin, Yeah, We're gonna suffer for the gospel. Yeah,

we will suffer for the gospel. Even if they bring the media cruise.

We'll preach in front of them, even if they bring the media cruise.

And if they send us to jail, we'll go together. I said,

let me talk to hr. I don't know if this is that included,

but sometimes when you're around people that are more mature than you would challenge

your thinking. So if you're ever in a dark space, get around more

mature believers that can give some credibility on how they thank God in tough situations

and what they're willing to endure in tough situations, because thinking changes your thinking.

So I thank God in all my remembrance of you. How do you

do that? I thank you that you asked Isaiah, chapter forty three,

verse twenty five. We have to think about how God treats us, and

as disciples, we strive to treat others how God treats us. So Isaiah

forty three, twenty five says, I am he who blocks out your transgressions

for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. There are

things that we talk to God about in our past that God has already chosen

not to remember. And God challenges us to have that level of thinking when

we're put down, when we're betrayed, when we're allied on. I'm not

belitting anything you've gone through, but i am magnifying the power of God that

if he chooses not to remember your sin, that he can empower you to

choose that you would choose not to remember other people's sins. Thinking changes your

thinking. So marriage tip, if you want to succeed in marriage, have

a short term memory and have a PhD in forgiveness. Here's the reason why.

Because if Paul is saying, I thank God in all my remembrance of

you, then there's certain things that we'll just choose not to remember. But

let's be real, there are some things that we can't remember. So what

do you do with those pastor? Man, I'm glad you asked. Let's

go to point two because renewing changes how you remember. There's certain things we

can choose not to remember, but we're not God. There's certain things will

always remember. But if we renew our minds every day with God. It'll

change our perspective in how we remember what took place. Pastor John was up

here talking about eight years ago, and I knew he had God's anointing when

he was quoting King James. God changeth not. So that was some reflection

of saying life. God has really restored and renewed my situation. And he

came from a pure heart. And I believe that that could be for all

of us if we reflect over the years. Yes it happened, Yes it's

stung, but God would change that stinging to a story. You want to

think about, how if you're going through a hard situation right now, how

do I want to describe the situation in five years? How would I want

to describe this situation to my children when they get married. Because renewing changes

how we remember. Romans Chapter twelve is a good example of that. One

through two. It says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers,

by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy

acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to

this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by

testing your discern what is the will of God? What is good, acceptable,

and perfect. Just because you're Christian doesn't mean that you think healthy.

Just because you're Christian doesn't mean that you're in the will of God. God

will save us from our sins, but that doesn't mean we're always saved from

our thoughts. It's our responsibility to renew our mind every morning so we would

know what's good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. God's mercies are

new every morning. We have mercies we've never met yet. But a lot

of times we can't get his new mercies because we got our old mindsets,

remembering what happened in the past, staying stuck in that. Lamentations three nineteen

through twenty four gives us some perspective about that. This is a chapter of

somebody reflecting in grief. They say, remember my affliction and my wanderings.

The woman would the gall just poetically describing how low they are. My soul

continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. Sometimes our thinking impacts our

body, our thinking impacts our posture. But this like to mine, remember

something else, and therefore I have hope. Hope is ali the stepfast love

of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end. They

are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion.

Notice how when they started remembering differently, they focus on the Lord,

not based upon that person. They remembered the affliction, they remembered the situation,

but in that the Lord is with me. So when I come out

of that situation, I still know that God is good. That's why in

Philippians Chapter one, verse seven, Paul can say, it is right for

me to feel this way about you. Have you ever not known how to

feel? Have you ever not known? Okay? Should I stay? Should

I go? Should I give him a passion? I do? If you

look at Paul being in God's presence through prayer, making his prayer with joy,

He's convinced it's right that I feel this way. And sometimes we're led

by our feelings. Paul, being led by God's presence, is able to

say, hey, I have the right posture because I've been in God's presence.

That's why we got to be very mindful of who we hanger around with

decision making, because there are some people that would have told Paul, you

stupid, You shouldn't feel that way about them. They disrespected you. You're

in prison and they're not sending you any gifts. But he said, it's

right for me to feel this way about you. Why because he's an assignment

from God. Why because he's in God's a good, acceptable, and perfect

will. When you renew your mind every morning, even if you're in a

prison, you can still consider and help others because thinking changes your thinking and

renewing changes how you remember when you pross your emotions. Let's try processing them

to God first. But before we process how we feel to God, how

about we start by thanking God for the error and our lungs to even talk

to him. And if we start with gratitude to God, it'll help our

filtering and how we process to God. Anybody that has hurt you, anybody

that you're in the forgiveness journey, with my encouragement, put them with you

in the presence of God, and be honest with God about how you feel.

And the more you're honest with God, how about how you feel in

that person, It'll help you over time to give you a compassion if you

see their eyeballs, because God will remind you how He's forgiven you. This

is not say be their best friend. This is not saying Okay, it's

gonna be skittles for the rest of our lives. But it is say I

I have a peace of mind. It is say I have freedom of thought.

So if we were new our minds on a daily basis, it'll change

how we remember the events. Have you ever been around of a person when

they're talking about an event they were perfect and everybody else they were bad and

I was just perfect and I was the perfect one, but they were bad.

Take that narrative in God's presence and God is God is the master of

humility in a gentle way. And we can't if we can't lie to God

and continue to perpetuate our story and our impression to God, if we're really

in His word, because that's what we saw in lamentations. Remember how I

feel, Remember my affliction, remember my gall And God says, let me

give you another thought to remember as well. My mercies are new every morning,

So though you're in a tough space, I got new mercies for you

for that. And that's why, to conclude, prayer changes our perspective.

Prayer changes our perspective. Many times we want prayer to change our situation.

What I'm learning in this season in my Christianity is prayer actually changes me more

than it changes my situation. Prayer is more about my soul than the situation.

The situation could be the complete same, but through my prayer and presence

of God, I can have peace. It's a lot easier for the situation

to change. But if I want to grow, I gotta change. Here's

one of the ways that God challenged me the change. I did not know

how to pray at all. So God to say, well, it's because

when everybody, when everybody else is praying, you don't listen. It's because

you're not reading the Bible of other prayers. So there's some people, well

I don't really pray in public. Well just listen in public for a season,

listen to We have prayer every Saturday, not this Saturday because of Thanksgiving,

but we have prayer online on Fridays. We have prayer generally on Saturdays

where you could just be in the room and see the posture of prayer warriors

that are a part of your family. And what we do is we look

at the scriptures, we pray corporately, we pray individually, and what it

does it grows our prayer life. It helps us to have more of an

intimate relationship with God. What helps us to thank God in the midst of

terrible things. So to conclude, I want to share one of my favorite

psalms. It's Psalm thirty four, and can we just squeeze it a little

bit before we close? You guys, okay, if we do that,

I want I think I think you should be on the screen. What I've

attempted to do online as a Christian is to win prove my prayer life.

I read the prayer of other leaders that go through situations. Since God is

the same yesterday, today, and forever more. If I'm struggling with fear

or shame, or if I'm struggling with my character, I can look at

other people and how God was faithful to them, but also how honest they

can be with God. So that's what we're gonna do right now in Psalm

thirty four, and what I will encourage us to do if for your own

homework, because I won't have time to do it today. If you look

at Psalm thirty four is so many times there's a word that starts with the

letter T and it's just how I memorize the Bible. That these teas take

me down a journey with God. So you guys down to do that with

me. Okay. So online, anytime you see a word with it that

starts with the tea, just type it with me. I will bless the

Lord at all times? How do I? Let me? Let me?

Let me? Okay, I will bless the Lord at all times? There's

that word all again. His praise shall continually be in my mouth? What

is continually in your mouth? Let's be practical your tongue. So think about

it. If I'm ready to bless the Lord at all times, his prayer

shall continually be in my mouth. That means my tongue should always be ready

to praise God and bless others. But my tongue is connected to my thoughts

in my heart. That's why it goes to the next one, my soul.

My soul makes his boast in the Lord. Let the humble here and

be glad. A lot of times. The reason why we don't have things

nice to say on our tongue because we're not humble enough in those tough situations.

So we want to bless the Lord at all times. And our tongue

needs to be ready to do that. Why because I'm I'm gonna focus on

my soul care instead of my situation. It's saying my soul will make boast

in the Lord. It's not saying I'm gonna boast in the Lord because of

my situation. A lot of times we want to praise God and thank God

when things are going well. The Psalmist here is saying, I have the

ability to praise God at all times with my tongue because my soul is humble

enough to reflect and say that God is good. So when he does that,

he says, Oh, magnify the Lord with me. What Pastor John

said in Psalm sixty nine thirty. Let us exalt his name together. There

will be times where you do not feel like having praise on your tongue.

That's why I'm inviting you to come to prayer, so you can do it

together with other people. You're not alone. When you start this Christian journey,

it feels like you're on top of the world. Anybody get baptized recently

this Wednesday and is here by show of hand praise God. Let's give them

a round of applause. Thank you, for being here. Thank you for

continuing your discipleship journey. But notice as they're focusing on their soul care,

they're trying to do things together now all right, After that, we go

to verse four. Verse four is all about the testimony. Verse four through

seven. It says, I sought the Lord and he answered me past tense,

and he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him

are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. So if we continue,

please, if we have a testimony to share together with other people, our

tongue will be more healthy. To bless God at all times. Is when

we get to ourselves that our thought puts us in a situation where we remember

with the wrong perspective, stay together in community when you're going through a hard

time. Amen, look at his posture. He's humble. This poor man

cried, The Lord heard and saved out out of all of his troubles.

The testimony is, yeah, I did have fear, I did have shame,

but I gave that to the Lord, and the Lord delivered me from

all my troubles. Notice how Paul kept saying all all because when you reflect

in God's presence, all the things that you're dealing with. God can heal

and deal with If we continue here, the Angel of the Lord En camps

around those who fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that

the Lord is good. You want to change what's on your tongue. Taste

and see that the Lord is good. How do I taste and see that

the Lord is good? I try to get in His word when I don't

feel like it. Why because I do it together with other believers. Prayer

changes your perspective. If David can do it, we can do it.

Tasting God means I'm experiencing pain, but I'm going to experience God's presence through

it. Continuing on for the sake of time. It's those who take refuge

to him. Oh fear the Lord. You his saints, for those who

fear Him have no lack. Let's go all the way down to a verse

eleven. Let's go to verse eleven. Come on, children, listen to

me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Here's the perspective.

Once you've tasted and seeing that the Lord is good. Once you're together

in community, now we can teach the next generation how God is faithful.

The whole perspective in prayer changing us is that it's no longer about us,

It's about our kids. It's about the next generation. So I'm going through

a situation, but a mistake. Together in community, we're gonna share our

testimonies, and it's gonna taste that God is good, and we could teach

our kids that God is good. What are we teaching our kids? Keep

your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. I remember I would

tell my kids, hey, you gotta clean your room. Hey, why

isn't your room clean? And God convicted me. I'm not allowed to tell

my kids to clean their room anymore until they see my room clean. Because

we teach the next generation through example, not just through words. So if

we're gonna taste and see that the Lord is good, our kids should be

able to see our situations and our decisions changing. This is just a squeezing

Psalm thirty four to give us an understanding that, Hey, if we don't

know how to pray, we can get in God's word and we can see

that. Hey, here's just another creative way that I could try to learn

the scriptures. But please don't try to do this on your own. To

conclude here was look at the last verses, turn away from evil and do

good, Seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are

towards the righteous, and his ears are toward their cry. To conclude tonight,

you may be in a situation where Thanksgiving is tomorrow, but you may

feel like you don't have much to thank God for. You may be in

a situation that's so complex you don't know which way to turn. What I've

tried to do is say God sees you, and if we give that situation

to God, it'll give him an opportunity to change our perspective. And then

from him changing our perspective, it'll change how we see it, making us

more grateful. But the only way that we could start down that journey is

if we have a relationship with Jesus. I know that from experience, because

I was an expert at church but did not know Jesus at all. I

knew how to do Easter plays, I knew how to be a first tenor,

I knew the usher codes, but God did not have God's word in

my heart. My values were not biblical. They were all rooted in what

I wanted now, I believe the majority of us are here and we're on

our way to heaven because you're on a service the night before Thanksgiving, But

that doesn't make us exempt from needing to grow in our discipleship journey. I

don't want to assume that everybody in here is saved, because if you were

to asked me all the way up to the age of thirty two, yeah,

I'm saved because I knew church and I knew a couple of verses.

But I'm here to tell you tonight the start line of Christianity is forgiveness.

And if we're having a hard time forgiving others or forgiving ourselves for what we've

done or what's been done to us, what if we try giving it to

the Lord and say, God, I'm having a hard time right now.

But I want to try a relationship with you because I've heard this all my

life, that you died on the cross for my sins, but I haven't

chosen the values that help me to walk in that. So here's what I

want us to do online. I want you to lock into me. If

you're in rancho, I'd love for you to close your eyes. Have you

started your discipleship journey with Jesus. Do you know that you're truly forgiven?

Are you walking in freedom? God loves you as is He's kept you.

You made it to another Thanksgiving. There's so many people that haven't. But

tomorrow's not promised. And I want to just offer you spiritual life insurance.

And what that means is when you die, you will be reunited with God

the Father. How because Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins,

and if you confess him as your Lord and your savior, you will be

saved too. But let me be honest with you, this is not just

about a decision for when you die. This is the decision for how you

conduct your life going forward. And there's some of you that have made that

decision years ago that I'm gonna make Jesus my savior and Lord. And we

started our discipleship journey, but we stop walking. Some of us started walking

in the wrong direction. Some of us feel stuck. This prayer is for

you as well, that on this Thanksgiving Eve, that you're going to change

your perspective through prayer and then you're either going to give your life to Jesus

Christ and start this discipleship journey, or you're going to continue this discipleship journey,

and it starts with this prayer. So I love everybody in our Rancho

community to repeat this prayer after me, to encourage those that are praying this

prayer for the first time to give their life to Jesus or to continue their

relationship with Jesus online. I want you to look at me as we pray

this prayer and repeat after me. Say, Dear Lord Jesus, I thank

you for loving me as is. From this moment forward. You're my savior

and my Lord. I believe I'm forgiven because you died on the cross and

resurrected. God. Teach me to trust you, help me to be in

your word, keep me in community in Jesus name, we pray. We

really hope you enjoyed the message, and if you said yes to Jesus,

we just want to say congratulations and give you a free devotional to help you

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