The Force Behind The Win

Open your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. We'll read through to verse 16 and 18.

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verses 16 through 18.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18

Paul tells us from the word of the Lord, verse 16, he says, Rejoice evermore.

Pray without ceasing.

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.

Concerning you. Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and in everything,

somebody say everything,

give thanks for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

I've had the opportunity to talk to many individuals, especially those in the

body of Christ, and I've sensed in my heart, in my conversations with people

that there have been a lot of defeat.

A lot of the body of Christ feels defeated.

Life is hard. Life is hard on our emotions. Life is hard on our heart.

Life is hard on our body. Life is hard.

And in my conversations with people, I'm sensing there's a heaviness on people.

People are going through things, whether it be marital issues,

whether it be financial issues, whether it be relational issues,

whether it be physical issues,

whether it be issues in your family, mom and dad, son, daughter,

brother, sister, whatever the case may be.

There's a lot going on in our life and really in the body of Christ.

Some people feel stuck, feel like they can't move forward.

Some people feel buried in their circumstances, like they will never get out

of their circumstances.

Some people are overwhelmed in situations and in problems and in difficulties.

Maybe it's debt, whatever it may be.

People feel overwhelmed. People feel invisible.

People feel insignificant, and they feel defeated. Right?

And as I was spending time with the Lord, with this in mind,

the Lord gave me a message for you today.

Those of you that are feeling this way, those of you that are going through

different things, and truth be told, if you're not going through something,

you are about to go through something.

Okay, let me just tell you the truth. You're either in the middle of something

or you are headed right into something.

And so all of us go through things. We go through difficulties.

We do it very privately and secretly. We don't tell anybody what we're going through.

And I think those days are over. I think we do need to tell people what we're

going through and get some help and get some support, get some prayer support, get some agreement.

Let somebody know what you're going through. Don't try to carry it all by yourself.

And so we are going through different things and different obstacles and challenges.

Life is hard on the heart.

Life is hard on the soul. Life is hard on our minds, and it's difficult sometimes.

And the Lord told me something, a message for you today. And I love it here

in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 16.

1 Thessalonians 5:16

The first thing he says here is he says, rejoice evermore or rejoice always.

That simply means to find reasons to celebrate,

to look for reasons to celebrate, to really take time and write down and look

for and discover reasons to celebrate.

Number two, he says, pray without ceasing.

That means we are to have a conversation with our father nonstop.

We don't have broken relationship with him, so we might as well talk to him

nonstop throughout the day, conversating with him, listening to him.

Talking to him, reading his word. You're like, pastor, how can I do that out today?

You have a spirit and your spirit can talk to God all throughout the day.

You don't even have to mumble words out of your mouth while your spirit is talking to God. Amen.

Throughout the day, I just talk to God. Lord, what do you want me to do here? What should I say here?

How should I respond to this? What do you have me to do here?

And when you talk to God all day, I believe it leads into number three and what

we're going to talk about today. He says, and in everything,

give thanks, for this is the will of God for you.

So we see the will of God completely defined for you right now.

It's to give thanks in everything.

The scriptures doesn't say give thanks for everything.

Let me say it again. We don't give thanks for everything. Some things are not

of God, and we should not give thanks for them.

But Scripture tells us that we are to give thanks in everything.

In everything we're involved in, we are to give thanks. So number one,

find reasons to celebrate.

Number two, continuously talk to God throughout the day.

Number three, in everything, give thanks.

In the late 90s, I was driving a red two-door Civic hatchback,

stick shift, and man, I had some 10s in the back.

I had it. It was booming back then. I was a young man, okay? I was a young man, okay?

And I had some 10s in the back, and you turned it on, man, that hatchback was

just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

And I go down the road, I'm like, that little hatchback making all that noise,

but that was me, right? I enjoyed some good music and some good bass in the back of that hatchback.

And the Lord told me to believe him for a better vehicle.

Now, let me tell you, first of all, how I got this hatchback.

It's a miracle how I got this hatchback.

And one reason I tell you these stories is because if God can do it for me, he can do it for you.

I'm probably 20, 2021. Before that, I drove a Honda CRX.

How many remember those CRXs, those little two-door CRX?

That's what I drove. I paid $1,500 cash for it when I first got going.

And then I wanted to upgrade and get a better car, I went into a car lot,

and they would not finance me, all right? You don't have enough credit.

You are not approved, okay? And then my parents, who are very wise individuals,

they didn't co-sign for me, and that was very wise on their part, right?

I typically believe if these people want to loan you money, they want to loan you money.

And if they don't loan you money, that means there's something about your situation they don't trust.

So let me give you some advice. Don't co-sign for anybody. If the loan people

don't trust them, you don't trust them. I don't care if you birth them.

Are you listening to me today? And Scripture also tells us do not co-sign.

Very clear in Scripture, don't

co-sign. So my parents were following scripture. They did not co-sign.

But the owner of this car lot, I went to a Toyota car lot.

It was sort of not a big Toyota car lot. It was a sort of small Toyota lot, family-owned lot.

All they had were Toyos. And at the time, I wanted a RAV4. That RAV4 had just

come out. And you know what that is, a little SUV.

And I could get nowhere near a RAV4, okay?

Matter of fact, I could get nothing on the car lot, all right?

But the owner, I end up talking the owner, and he says, man, I really like you.

I said, great. You know, let me get one of these cars here.

I like you too, you know. And he says, I do, but the finance people will not approve you.

I said, okay, can we do something? He's like, there's nothing I can do.

He said, but I like you.

He says, I'm going to give you this car, and it was the hatchback,

two-door hatchback Civic.

I'm going to give you this car, and I'm going to finance it personally.

Now, I didn't really understand what he was doing until I got a little older.

He personally gave me the car, and he put his integrity and character and risked

his money for me, and I made him payments back in his name.

So I had the car, and by the favor of God, I made him payments back.

And right towards the end, when I made the last, because I was keeping up with

the payments, by the way, when I made the last one, he did.

He sent me the title, glory to God. and then he passed away right after that.

He passed away right after that, but he sent me the title of the car.

And so the favor of God was on me to get that red hatchback.

I enjoyed it, but the Lord started dealing with me about believing him for a better car.

It's okay to believe God for a better vehicle, for a better home,

for a better whatever, ice, air fryer, whatever it is that you need.

It's okay to believe God for this. He said, I want you to start believing me for a better vehicle.

And so I said, okay. I said, well, that means I need to put my vehicle for sale, right?

So I put my vehicle up for sale. Now, this is before Facebook, all right?

Before Instagram, this is all about white pages.

And how many remember those days, right? It's all about that.

So he said, put it for sale. And the company I worked for had a marketplace

sort of, I don't even know what you call it. You could put your items there

for sale and other people, other employees could purchase it.

So I put my car on there. And I threw a high number out there for the car.

Like, you know, I don't know why. I just did.

And that same day, someone contacted me. I want to see the car.

When? I want to see it today.

Okay, I work in this side of the organization. Come. They met me.

I want to buy the car today.

And I was like, well, wait a minute. that I'm not gonna have a car.

If I do that, and I remember calling my dad. My dad said, sell it now.

He's like, if they want to pay full price for it, sell it now.

I said, so they handed me the money.

I mean, that transaction went fast. And so here I am now. I don't even have a car.

And I was believing God for a new car to pay cash for this new car.

And so they gave me the money. I don't have a car. I actually went seven weeks

without a car, and I have a full-time

job, but I'm believing God to find a car that I can pay cash with.

So I had a little money saved up, plus the sale of this car,

and I want to pay cash for my next car.

And many of you think I may have saved money by not having a car seven weeks.

That is false. I was filling up everybody's tank because they were picking me

up, taking me to work, and let me fill up your tank, you know,

and taking me home, and I'm catching rods.

I'm not going to be at work today. Can you pick me up? And I had strangers picking me up.

I mean, it was juggling, right, to get from point A to point B.

And then people would want to hang out. Let's go to the movies.

Tamika, I don't have a car. Can you come get me?

We'll come get you, okay? Let me put some gas in your tank.

And so I actually spent more money not having a car than having a car.

But during this period of time, I am believing to find a car,

but I want to pay cash for it.

And we're looking here, and we're looking there, and we're looking.

We're going around looking, and finally this particular time,

we're in the white pages again, and somebody was selling a Honda Accord.

And in case you can't see, I've always purchased Hondas until recently.

I still like Honda, by the way, and Honda, send me some money for saying that.

Okay, and so we went on the white pages.

Somebody was selling a Honda Accord, and they were selling it,

I remember at this time, for $9,000. I didn't have $9,000. I had $6,000.

And they were selling from nine. I called my dad. He said, I'll go with you.

And my dad, you know, he took his friend on his hip because we're going to the

hood, right? The address said it was the hood.

He was like, I'm taking something with me. I said, okay, come on. We go.

And, man, there's this beautiful Honda Accord. Four-door, 1996, all black.

Oh, it was really, really nice. I said, Dad, that's the car I want.

And he said, well, let's negotiate. And so they said they want 9,000 Well,

this particular people we're negotiating with Could not speak English.

And so we needed an interpreter. And we saw a little 12-year-old over here just

playing in the street. Come on over here.

He came, interpret for us. So he began to interpret. He spoke Spanish.

We spoke English. And he was interpreting back and forth.

And they wanted $9,000. We wanted $9,000. And it was a nice car.

And so we're like, well, can you go to $7,000? I don't have $7,000,

but we're trying to get to $7,000. You know, I don't know why we said that because

we didn't even have $7,000. Okay?

Can we get? Finally, my dad does this. He pulls out because we had all the good.

We were fully expecting to buy.

We had all the cash in our pocket. He pulls out all these hundreds.

He goes, I've got $6,000 and it's falling all on the ground.

And I'm like, oh my goodness, we got to pick all this up.

I just want to get rid of this money right now. If you want it,

I'll give it to you. If not, I'm just leaving.

They were like, oh, oh, whoa, whoa. You got hundreds here? Yeah.

So we'll take the $6,000. So we gave, no, actually we had 60, $600.

We bought for $6,500, and we

gave $100 to the 12-year-old. And so we left that, and we gave him $100.

And then, so we buy the car. And man, we drive off in the car.

We'd already test drove and all that good stuff. We drive off,

and that car brought me to Charlotte, actually, as well.

I drove that car to Charlotte, ended up selling it and getting an Acura,

which is part of the Honda family, but yeah, Honda sent me some money.

And so I said all that to say during the whole process of me not having a car,

every single day I begin to thank God for providing a car for me.

Thank you, Lord, for my new car.

Thank you, Lord, for my new vehicle. Thank you, Lord, for my new car.

Now, I didn't have a car, but in everything, you give thanks.

I didn't say, when I'm going to get me a car, I wish I had a car,

I wish I had, oh my gosh, was taking a car so long.

No, I began to thank the Lord every day.

Thank you, Lord, today's the day that I get my new car.

I will wake up in the morning, thank you, Lord, that today is the day I receive and see my new car.

And I did it every single day.

One of the powerful practices that causes us to win is Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is showing, expressing, and demonstrating appreciation to God.

Gratefulness is feeling appreciation. I feel a certain way, and that feeling

is called being grateful.

But when you begin to express and show and demonstrate and give the appreciation,

we now are operating in thanksgiving.

And there is power when we talk about thanksgiving.

In Psalms 22 verse 3, Scripture tells us God inhabits the praises or the thanksgiving of his people.

Psalms 22:3

Like you can bring God literally on the scene when you begin to thank him right

in the middle of your obstacles, right in the middle of your lack,

right in the middle of your situation,

right in the middle of your pain, when you begin to thank God right in the middle

of it, it literally, that thanksgiving literally brings God on the scene.

And so thanksgiving is the opportunity that we have to express our appreciation unto God.

I wrote some things down here that I want you to hear.

You have the power to choose whether or not to be thankful.

You have the power to choose whether or not to be thankful because the truth

of the matter is there is no space between being thankful and being unthankful.

There is no in-between ground. Well, I'm somewhere in the middle.

I'm not thankful, but I'm not unthankful. There's no such thing as being in

the middle. You're either thankful, and if you're not thankful, you're unthankful.

And thankfulness is showing, demonstrating, giving, and expressing appreciation to God.

Thankfulness takes your eyes off of what's wrong.

During that season when I didn't have a car, it was difficult.

It was really difficult, but because of the power of thanksgiving,

my eyes were taken off of my situation and put back on him and allow him,

as Rose said in the testimony, to work behind the scenes. Come on, somebody say amen.

Thankfulness says thank you regardless of your circumstances.

I don't care what circumstance you're involved in. Thankfulness says thank you

regardless of your circumstances.

And if a thank you is on your lips, then you can be sure that appreciation is working in your heart.

If a thank you is on your lips, you can be sure that appreciation is working

in your heart. And here's the truth.

This is the God honest truth.

You cannot be depressed and thankful at the same time.

You cannot be at simultaneously. You cannot be thankful and depressed at the very same time.

And so, thankfulness is what causes miracles to take place in your life.

Thankfulness precedes miracles happening in your life.

In 2 Chronicles chapter 20, there's an army coming against Jehoshaphat,

2 Chronicles 20 · chapter mention

and this army was coming, not just one, multiple armies were coming against

them to overthrow them, to take over.

And Jehoshaphat prayed and he fasted and he sought the Lord and he told the

people, I need the praisers.

I need the people that say thank you. I need the ones that want to bless the

Lord to go out first. I need them to go out in the natural.

You never send praisers out in front of the military when they have weapons

of warfare. You don't send the praisers out.

But Jehoshaphat knew that if we can thank God before we leave this place,

there's a miracle that can take place in my life.

And they didn't even have to fight in that battle because they simply praised

and thanked God beforehand and the miracle took place and they beat each other

up. Come on, somebody say amen.

Thankfulness takes your eyes off what's wrong.

And there is no such thing as Thanksgiving unexpressed.

Now, you can have gratitude and you don't express it, but no one will know that

you're thankful unless you express it.

So there's no such thing as having thanksgiving unexpressed.

No such thing. In our home, Stacy does a wonderful job of cooking,

and it's one of the reasons I married her.

Don't tell her that, but it's one of the reasons I married her because she was

an amazing cook, and she cooks very well every night and she,

out of the kindness of her heart, there's no, I'm not making her do any of this.

She makes my plate and every single time I tell her, thank you.

I don't want her to wonder if I appreciate it or not. I don't want her to guess.

I want her to know that I appreciate you making my plate.

Thank you. And I'll tell her this is the best dinner. She said,

you line, and I'll say, this is the best dinner tonight that I've had.

Hallelujah. Somebody say, thank you. Silent Thanksgiving is no Thanksgiving.

Silent Thanksgiving is no Thanksgiving. And ask yourself this question,

how is your unthankfulness affecting other people?

How is your unthankfulness affecting other people.

One of my desires is to raise children to be honest, to be hardworking, and to be thankful.

And as they grow up and to have a great adult relationship with them as they grow up.

But when they leave the Alexander home, they're going to be honest people.

They're going to be hardworking people, and they're going to be thankful people.

That's one of our visions in raising our children.

This is what they're going to, yes, they're going to have a relationship with

the Lord, but they're going to be honest, they're going to be thankful,

and they're going to be hardworking because I believe thankfulness is the force behind victory.

If you're not experiencing victory, consider your level of thanksgiving.

Is there a correlation between giving thanks and victory? I'm glad you asked that.

Is there a correlation between giving thanks and victory?

1 Corinthians 15, 57 says it this way, but thanks be to God,

which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice it's thanks to God, which, what gives us the victory? Thanks to God.

Thanks to God will give us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14 now

thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph in Christ.

Thanks be unto God, not sometimes, not half the time, but all the time will

cause you and I to triumph in Christ.

It's thanks unto God that causes this triumph.

So there is a correlation between giving thanks and victory because giving thanks

to God causes you to triumph.

Somebody say amen. Amen. Giving thanks to God gives you victory. Say amen to that.

Giving thanks to God demonstrates faith in God's ability to bring victory even

before the battle is won.

Giving thanks demonstrates faith in God's ability to bring victory even before the battle is won.

Look at Mark chapter 8 and we'll read through verses 1 through 9.

Mark 8 · chapter mention

Mark chapter 8 verses 1 through 9.

Mark 8:1–9

Watch this. In those days, the multitude being very great and having nothing

to eat, there's a problem here, a lot of people and they're hungry.

Jesus called his disciples and said to him, to them, I have compassion on the

multitude because they have now continued with me three days and they're starving.

They have nothing to eat.

If I send them away hungry to their own houses, they will pass out on the way.

For some of them have come from afar.

Look at verse four. Then his disciples answered, how can one satisfy these people

with bread here in the wilderness?

He asked them, how many loaves do you have? They said seven.

Verse six, so he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground and he took

the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to his disciples

are set before them and they set them before the multitude.

They also had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said to them also,

he said to set them also before them. Look at verse 8.

So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large packets of leftovers, fragments.

And verse 9, and those who had eaten were about 4,000, and he sent them away.

Now, here's what I want you to notice. There are 4,000 men plus women and children.

They only counted the men back then. So we have more than 4,000 people here.

They have seven loaves of bread. Just think of wonder bread.

You remember wonder bread?

Seven loaves of wonder bread is not going to feed over 4,000 people.

And they have a few small fish. It's not going to feed over 4,000 people.

But the first thing Jesus did was he took the seven loaves, which was insufficient.

Not enough to get the job done, and he became thankful for it.

Can you be thankful for something that's insignificant, that's insufficient,

that appears insignificant, I should say, or is insufficient for what the issue is?

You know you can have a million dollars in the bank and be unthankful because you need $20 million?

And you could be literally unthankful for the million that you do have in the bank?

You could have $100 in the bank right now and you need $1,500 and be unthankful

for the $100 when you need $1,500.

Something is not nothing. And if you will take this principle from Jesus and

become thankful for the insufficiency.

Lord, I need $1,500. All I have is $100. I thank you for this $100.

I have $100 in the bank, and I thank you for this $100.

I give you praise because I could have less than this $100, but I thank you, Lord, that I have $100.

And I love what Jesus did in this passage. Not only did he thank God for the

insufficient bread and fish, but then he blessed it.

And that word blessed means to command to multiply.

He looked at that, those loaves and fish, and then he said, I command you to multiply in my name.

In Jesus name, I command you to multiply. And so instead of being insufficient

or a feeling in significant about the insufficiency.

Begin to get thankful for it. But I thank you, Lord, that this small little

bit that I have is more than I had before. Come on, somebody say amen to that.

And lately, I've been getting to thank God. There's some big things that the

Lord wants us to do together, wants us to accomplish, and some dreams of mine

that have been deposited on the inside.

Instead of me grumbling and complaining about, well, how long it's going to

take? Well, maybe it'll never happen. Well, maybe I didn't hear from God correctly.

Well, maybe God is a liar. I know he says he's not, but maybe he is because it's not happening.

No, no, no. I switch all that, and I start getting thankful for what he has done for me.

Father, I thank you that I'm not where I used to be.

I may not be where I want to be. Come on, somebody help me with this.

But I'm not where I used to be.

And I thank you that I've made some progress.

I'm going to celebrate progress right now because I've made progress.

And although I may have wanted to lose five pounds, I only lost one.

Thank you, Lord, that one pound was lost. Somebody say amen to that.

Thank you, Lord, that I may not have exactly what I need, but I've got more

than I've ever had before. Somebody say amen to that.

When you begin to open up your mouth and cultivate a lifestyle of thanksgiving,

you will begin to see things multiply in your life.

You'll begin to see things added unto in your life because you're bringing God

on the scene and your thanksgiving is causing you to win.

It's causing you to bring miracles on the scene when you begin to thank God.

Somebody say, thank you, Lord.

Somebody say it again. Thank you, Lord.

Say it one more time. Thank you, Lord.

I'm thinking about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and they had a beautiful

scenery and food galore and all types of food all around.

And instead of being thankful for all of the food and provision that God so

graciously provided for them, they thought about this one particular thing they didn't have.

This one tree the Lord said, don't eat of.

That's all they focused on was what they didn't have. And they focused on,

well, we don't, we lack this tree and we lack what's on this tree.

Now, granted, they got everything else they want.

It's all available, but they're thinking about this one tree the Lord said don't

eat. And that tree began to tempt them.

Now, Satan was on that tree as well as a snake and began to tempt them.

And then they began to say, well, you know what?

The Lord said we shouldn't eat it or even touch it. Well, first of all,

the Lord didn't say anything about touching the tree.

That was added by Eve. And then people say, well, if it wasn't for Eve,

then, you know, we'd be in a better place.

No, Adam knew exactly what was going on.

When she grabbed that fruit and took it to him, he should have said,

I rebuke that in Jesus' name. But he said, I want to keep peace in my home.

Got quiet on that, but that's what he said He said, I don't want to hear her mouth.

So I'm going to go ahead and participate in that And a lot of men,

I'm talking to you Have disobeyed God For the sake of keeping peace in the home,

I'm not going to disobey God,

Stacey, you're going to have to sit tight This is what the Lord said Come on

somebody, say amen to that Now it got quiet, I knew I'm going to be a hearty

amen Some of y'all sitting by your wives like, oh, Lord.

Now she understands that I'm seeking the Lord and I'm praying.

She sees me praying. She sees me reading the word.

She sees me endeavoring to do what's right so she can trust me.

If you're drinking alcohol and cussing and spitting and ain't in your Bible,

your wife ain't going to trust you.

Okay? If you're cheating and talking to other people and all that,

she ain't going to trust you.

Are you listening to me? But if you're endeavoring to do what's right She'll

trust you and say, babe, this is what the Lord's saying And this is what Adam

should have said We're not going to eat that fruit Okay?

Now you can eat it Because I don't control you This ain't my message,

but somebody needs to hear this You can eat that But I'm not going to eat it,

Because I don't control I don't control She's a grown woman I have no control

of her She can do what she wants She can do what she wants.

I'm trying to lead and influence and guide and direct and show a way,

but I can't control anybody.

If I was Adam, I would have said, now you can eat that, but I'm not because

God told us not to eat it, right?

But instead he said, I need to keep peace in the home.

I just, I don't want to hear nobody's mouth. Let me go ahead and eat this.

And if they just stayed thankful for all of the other provision made available

to them and only considered, look at all the good that's happening around me.

I've been challenging myself over the last several weeks because I have so much

that I can complain about. And so do you.

So much I can grumble and complain about. We all do.

And I've been challenging myself. But Devon, look at all the good happening.

Why are you frustrated about this one little thing?

Why is that taking your sleep away when you got all this good happening?

Why are you concerned about what that person feels, thinks, or says,

or this and that, when all these other people love you and appreciate you?

Why are you thinking about this one area of your life and it's causing you to waste your life?

Because if you waste your time, you're wasting your life.

If something is wasting your time, it's wasting your life and you cannot get your time back.

You can get your money back. If you lose money, you can get your money back.

Thank God for being able to get your money back. Praise God.

Maybe not from that person, but

you go work a little overtime shift or whatever and get your money back.

But you're not going to get no time back. So the time wasters,

I started thinking, that's wasting my life.

I don't want my life wasted. And why am I considering, well,

this hurts, and let me think all about this hurting.

I don't have enough for this.

I don't have a husband. and I don't have a nice job.

I'm still driving this raggedy car, and my parents don't talk to me,

and I just don't have any friends. My husband doesn't love me,

and my wife just, you know, she doesn't tell me I look good.

All this stuff you're thinking about, and all this other stuff is going good.

You got health in your bones. Praise God. You have a job. You're making money. Glory to God.

People really love you, but the devil's telling you they don't love you.

Your wife really loves you, your husband really loves you, but they're telling you don't.

Your friends love you, they do, but the devil's telling you don't.

You think about the one person that said all that, and you get distracted.

By what the devil wants you to get distracted about when you should literally

only be thankful for all the things that he's already done for you.

And if you want to go a little higher in faith, begin to be thankful for things

that haven't happened yet.

Before Zai, who's here today from college, we begin to thank God that she got

a full ride scholarship before she even graduated in eighth grade.

Thank you, Lord. I was going to get a full-ride scholarship to college,

any scholarship of her, a college of her choice.

She's going to get a scholarship. We begin to thank God for it,

begin to thank Him for it. It didn't even happen yet.

Now, she had to put in a lot of hard work, but we begin to thank God for it.

Next thing you know, she gets accepted into 13 colleges, glory to God.

Yes, and she got a chance to pick the one she wanted to go to. Hallelujah.

Where did it start? Thanking the Lord before it even happened.

One, I think it's Marvin Sapp, has a song that says, praise him in advance.

Thank him in advance. I just begin to thank God in advance.

Thank you, Lord. In the year 2030, the house is going to be paid off.

Listen, that's not what the schedule, that's not what the amortization schedule

says, But I'm thanking the Lord within five years before it even happens.

That's called, you know what that's called? Faith.

Faith literally is, I believe I receive it before I see it.

That's what faith is. I have it now.

Before I see it, I have it right now. That's what faith's all about.

And thanksgiving is the indicator that you are in faith. Come on, somebody say amen.

Now, real quick, watch this real quick, and I'll wrap this up.

Philippians chapter 4, verse 6, Philippians chapter 4, verse 6,

Philippians 4:6 Philippians 4:6

the Apostle Paul tells us again, under the unction of the Holy Spirit,

be anxious for nothing, but in everything, somebody shout everything,

By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

What does that mean? Giving thanks to God reduces anxiety and builds confidence.

You want to reduce your anxiety?

Begin to be thankful unto God. It reduces your anxiety and it builds your confidence.

Giving thanks to God shifts your focus from problems to the one who holds the solution.

Giving thanks to God shifts your focus from problems to the one who holds the solution.

And when you focus on what you have to be thankful for, you will persist through

difficulties and achieve victory.

It's initiated by focusing on what you have to be thankful for.

It will give you the endurance to persist through difficulties and achieve victory.

And so in this verse, let's put it on the screen one more time,

Philippians 4, verse 6, last time on the screen. It says, be anxious for nothing.

Philippians 4:6

Don't have a care in the world about anything.

But in everything by prayer, conversation with God, listening and speaking,

you should do more listening than you do speaking in prayer,

and supplication, which is request.

So, conversating with God, not worried about anything, and supplication.

And then we do that with thanksgiving, our requests are going to be made known

to God, and the next verse says, and the peace of God will pass all of your understanding.

When we want victory

in our life And when we feel like

we're stuck We feel defeated We

feel like we're in a challenge that we cannot overcome

We feel like we're in the middle of an obstacle That we cannot overcome We need

to begin to invoke the power of thanksgiving The power of thanksgiving will

cause you to win in every area of your life.

This is how you experience true life.