Entering 2025 with Thanksgiving | Pr Alvin Keng

You're listening to a message to go from axt church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

You know, if you remember my last how many do

you remember my last message here? If you were here,

la remember anybody here or scared now?

Sorry? No, no, no.

The Christmas message the one that I share about next

year one?

Anybody remember? Not baggages? Okay? What was it?

What was the title? What was the title? Yeah, don't

carry your luggage baggage to next year?

Okay?

And what are the baggages that you know people can

actually carry through the following year? Anybody can emerge shout

out if you can remember any of the baggages Worry

some more, disappointment, pride, anger anymore. I hope you guys

remember man, addiction, unforgiveness. Okay, I hope you guys remember.

If you don't remember, please go and listen to the

message again. As we are going to a new year.

Of course, I was thinking about it the other day.

Actually a new year.

There's no difference last if you think about it. The

year is just a time that men said so that

we have a concept of time.

But actually everything's the same.

There's no sudden magic that all new Year means everything

will change, right, cor right, things will be the same.

The sun is gonna go up, come down, You're gonna

have night. Maybe it's gonna be a bit hotter, maybe

the weather's gonna change a little bit. There's no other

significance to it, right in actual physical form, corn not.

Some of you might not agree with me.

It's fine, okay, But technically if you talk to a scientist,

he'll say, no difference are just because you go from

thirty first of December twenty twenty four to first of

January twenty thirty five is going to magically change.

Everything actually is still going to be the same, but actually.

There is a change. Can I Can I give you

this perspective? Because why do we need new years? Have

I thought about it before? Why do we need new

Of course we need to know when it's Chinese New

Year and when it's Hari Raya and we can plan

our holidays, right. Oh, No, we need new years so

that we will refresh our leave. You know, my last year,

the leaf right I used up until I overuse if

you get what I mean. I had to take some

unpaid leaves because I had some emergencies, you know. Uh uh,

and of course that was not fun. But you know,

is that because of why we need to you, Oh, no,

we need a new year so that we can start

the academic year, doctor Jason Corn. And I'm not then

very hard for students to study. And I know the

government is trying to slowly shift things back to January,

you know, if I'm not mistaken. I was talking to

my neighbor. His son is going to primary school, and

he said that they're going to start school in February

this year. I think last year was March. And of

course we all know why if you didn't know why, right,

and I'm talking about government schools, Like, hey, you didn't

know why there was a shift? Was because when COVID hit,

nobody was ready and they had to push bush, push,

and they were scrambling, and that's why it was a delay.

Of course, for those of you who go to international school,

you won't feel it. For those of you who don't

go to school, you like, you won't feel it. Okay,

Then you're like, how come you're having SPM in like

January one? Such a weird timing or in different timing,

But that's that's that's what happened, right, So I don't

really know what is the significance or non significance of

the new year is to you. But I am actually

thankful that we have a new year. And I explained

to you why okay, because it is a chance for

us to close a chapter and to open another chapter

in our lives. Do you know that closing and opening

chapters are important, right? Because if not, then that's that's

there's going to be no end. That's going to mean

no end if it's pain, pain, pain all the way.

But when there's a closure and there's the closing of

a chapter, then we can look forward to different things.

We can look forward to new things, we can look forward.

It's actually a like I said, Physically, there's no change.

The sun is going to come up, sun is going

to go down. There's no change. But there is a

change in us. There is a change in the way

or there can be a change in the way we

look at things.

Corner.

There can be a change. Or you might be like,

oh no, no different. My house is the same, my

car is the same. Maybe they say I'll buy a

new car. My job is the same, my boss is

the same. I wish my bossul change. I mean I

don't know, right, But seasons are actually things that are

important for us. You'll catch that because if we don't

have any indicator of season, indicator of chapter, indicator of change,

then really life is pointless, lah because you you don't.

You can't look forward to any closure. You can't look

forward to any new beginnings. You can't look forward. And

you know this why I'm saying, look forward, not look backward,

look forward. Why is there a new year because we

look forward? You know Chinese New Year?

Okay? Why do you know why they celebrate lunar new year?

You know why not? And anybody want to guess all

your historians, doctor Jason, none of you know. Are you serious?

You're you're serious? You really don't know. Oh my goodness,

only remember a power. Okay, let me give you my assumption,

which I think is correct. The lunar New Year is

celebrated to celebrate harvests. Every time there's a new year,

Harry gawai amatan, it is to celebrate the harvest, meaning

celebrate You don't celebrate harvests, mean not because if you

study out history, right, actually, majority of human civilization survives

on agriculture. Okay, so we actually rely on seasons. We

rely on the sun, we rely on the rain, we

rely on all these seasons things. Of course you're in LaSure, right,

malasure god only. Well, we've got four seasons of sola.

It's hot, hotter, wet, wetter. Okay, that's the four seasons.

We have no other season, right, But we rely on it,

and it is so significant the harvest that we actually

celebrate it. Your catch that, right, So we celebrate New

Year Chinese ya because of that, okay, And of course there.

Are different reasons. I will actually Encuriree.

You go and find out why you celebrate different things,

because if not, it's gonna be pointless. If not, we're

gonna start well, I guess, not realizing why we celebrate

different things. But when we understand why, then we can

understand the significance.

Then you will know how to appreciate it better.

Like if you think about the new Year, I think

we won't if we really think about New Year, okay,

and the chance of us to press the reset button

in our life. You know new year resolutions. We have that,

and of course we joke that, oh, you know, new

year resolution. Once the new year happens, then generally everybody's

in the gym fabry or see less and less and

so on and so far flaw okay, but they don't

celebrate the one or two percent they actually stick on

because of the new the resolution. Do you realize that

we generalize things? So are we gonna be the general

people here?

Or are we going to be the one or two percent?

Are we gonna be the ones that, Oh, let me

set a newer resolution and then I don't follow after that,

you know, because of different things. Or am I gonna

be the one that will take the opportunity the word

is opportunity to set something new in my life life,

to set a new habit in my life, to stop

making excuse us, and to start taking responsibility and executing

what I want to achieve. Your catch there not right.

I haven't even thought about my message yet, but.

I just want to encourage us.

Why is it so significant when we enter into a

new year. That's my challenge for us this morning. The

last message was talking about baggages. If you carry your

baggage and you go into the new year, then you'll

be wondering why the whole year I've been dragging my feet. Well,

you've got a lot of baggage in your life. That's

the reality of life.

Right.

If we continue to carry the baggage, then it's going

to be heavy. But do you know you can not

need to carry the baggage. You want to find out

all you're go and listen to the message today. I

want to encourage us to enter twenty twenty five with thanksgiving,

thanksgiving in our hearts towards God. The key verse if

Psalms hundred okay, you can turn that. Psalms hundred four

to five says, enter into his gates with thanksgiving and

into his courtse with praise, be thankful to him and

bless his name. For the Lord is good, his mercy

is everlasting, and it's truth and yours to all generations.

You know this word.

Thanksgiving for Christians well? Or more like I learn about worship.

When I learn about worship, I learn about giving God thanks.

Do you know it's very hard to worship God if

you're not thankful to him?

A bit hard? Right?

Do you know it's a bit hard to praise someone

and say compliments to someone when you're not thankful to

that person? Is he easy to praise someone when you're

angry at that person. Is he easy to praise someone

when you are not happy with that person, when you

don't forgive that person when you're bitter.

Not easy.

In fact, it's not even honest, a bit hard for you,

you know, right for me? Or so if to to

really compliment someone, if I have an issue with a person, Cora,

it's a practical right. So it is important for us

that when we come to God we give thanks. And again,

when you think about giving thanks, it's not just all killer,

just thank you God, Thank you God, you know, or

you know sometimes I've heard no last time when I

was seeing very interesting and maybe it's a culture thing.

Okay.

I remember I was a home leader of the Seggy

Homes and we have all of African brothers, right, and

I notice I noticed that every time we say.

Hey, anybody got any testimony to share?

And of course sometimes we great testimonies, right like oh

you know, it's a healing testimony. It's like terminal illness

and it's very power. Actually, friends, can I tell you,

as long as God is working your life, there's no

big or small testimony. It just shows that God is real,

He's working in your life. It doesn't matter or not

you get healed from cancer or it doesn't matter not

whether he you know, provides something for you in your

life that you know.

Is from him.

Can I say this, Packing don't counter. I know a

lot of us pray for parking, but Packing don't come. Okay,

those extent okay, But I find it way interesting because

every time we open up and a lot of like

African brothers, you know, and I don't know, it's just brothers.

Daniel don't do it, okay, but I know the others

do you know, and they will.

Say, oh, I've got a testimony. I've got a testimony.

It's very interesting. I've got a testimony.

I know.

I want to thank God for my life and for

giving me breath to breathe and for giving me that.

I'm like, okay, thanks so much for thanks, And then

in the next half an hour it's like that. No,

it's very interesting, right, and it's good. It's actually good

if you, well, I guess, if you really are that

reflective of life all the time, and if you constantly

give thanks to God for giving you know, the oxygen

to breathe, I mean, if you're at that person a

great lat you know, don't just say for the sake

of saying it, but really really mean it right.

And the thing about.

Being having thanksgiving in our hearts is that it keeps

us let me, let me say this way. It gives

us perspective, you're catching it not. It gives us a

good perspective on different things. It gives us a good

perspective on our lives. It gives us a good perspective

on God. It gives us a good perspective on where

we are at when we can give thanks, because you

can only give thanks if you reflect. It's rare I

have to give thanks for something that have not happened yet.

It is easy to give thanks for stuff that has

already happened. And the question always is can we remember

and can we take note of the good things that

has happened for us?

That is the question.

Because a person that's not thankful, no matter what happens

in the person's life, no matter how good things are

in a person's life, you will never be able to

get thank you from a person. You'll see the difference,

vast difference, vast difference. And we all understand it's because

you know we've been treated that way before. Right, How

will you feel if you do everything for a person,

you know. And I've got a story to tell, and

I've shared this story before about how I was a

teen leader and I took care of a teenager and

the teenagers quite well to do. And I stay in

Clang that time, you know, not earning a lot of money.

But every time got teen event, I will fetch this

teenager stays in where I currently stay, got to the communing,

I will swing by from Clang half an hour, pick

the person up, go to church, bring for any event consistently.

And of course when you take care of the teenager,

you'll go all out. Okay uh and and and for

four years I took care of this young man, right.

And of course this young.

Man had also a health issue apparently has a hole

in the heart or something like that basically cannot get

to except except that it's confirmed pain one. Right of course,

in my mind, I'm like, I don't know real or not,

but we've seen it happen a few times. Just imagine

now worshipping halfway and the person things no, and then

of course, but I'm the person that's taking care of course,

everybody look at me. I'm like, oh, I have to

try and figure out what to do. Do I give CPR,

do I carry the person deside? I don't know if

to go and ask the parent and I have to

connect the parent and imagine, after all that you've done,

after all that I've done for this young person, and

because of one of two things that happened, you know,

uh uh one or two things that happened, this person

say I want to change howdle, I want to change discipler. Okay,

And of course leaders we all talk loud, we're like,

you know, of course not my discipler means and als

and I'm totally fine. Guys, can I can I let

you know that when you serve the lotner, you serve

the lot it's not about this person's mind. I really no, No,

it's you when you serve the lort right? Can I

teach you something? If you serve God, do it unto him.

Don't do it until doctor Jason, don't do it unto

your dream ting leader, don't do it unto your homes leader.

Because if you do it unto men, you will expect

something from men. But when you serve God, you do

it until God, then you expect from God. And whatever

man does to you, okay, let buy guns to bay guns. Right,

that's a good way to live. That's a good principle

to have, because then men will disappoint you.

Trust me.

And so what happened was the leaders talk and we say, okay, fine,

since this person and we don't know why. I know,

we're like, why person want to change?

Okay? And we had to set down.

We had to set on me the supposedly new hot leader,

and then the pastor as well, you.

Know of the teens ministry at time, and these.

Young young man and we sat down and we said, okay,

if you want to change, it's fine.

You know, it's okay.

And of course later we knew why la okay, the

other had leader, you know, take the boys out for

the holiday. Yeah, different things like okay, anyway, let's not

go there. I won't go to them into it. And

what happened was the and and and we had to

sit down. You know what, the person sit in the

sit down? So why do you want to change your disciple?

Why do you want to change your Hoddle? Word for word?

I'm not perfect, I am perfect. I'm not necessarily paraphrasing her.

Because Elvin didn't do anything for me at all. Elvin

didn't do anything.

For me at Now, can I be honest with you?

It hurtler, It hurt, It hurt. It was tough, it

hurt right for those days in my my hodder. You know, okay,

I will go all on. So when someone says that,

you're like, okay, it hurt and yeah that happened. How

do you be thankful?

Oh? Thank God? You know.

Hard right when you go through tough stuff like that. Okay,

I can I give you the good thing that happened

after that? God had to deal with me because you know,

I always have this Internet conversation and go on. I

was like, okay, God, how you know? I mean this situation?

What do I do? What do you do?

Are you still there? Can you lead me? And I

remember asking God this question.

You know something, you have the internet dialogue and you

don't expect an answer, but you get an answer anyway.

And I had this Internet dialog and say, God, is

it worth it?

Is it worth it.

Not to disciple someone? Give the person everything suffer? No,

I got no patrol money. You know I have to

fresh disperson. But you know every day go out teenager?

How to eat? You want to take them out for

one on one. You have to pay for me and

Ma core or not. Of course we don't go like

super expensive fly you know, but still not cheap, right.

I think God was teaching me to have kids are

then I was not married yet and I said, God,

is it worth it? Four years? And Lisa, you have

an indicator? I know you tooose started people? Or this person?

I know, can you know, give some form of arrow?

I then I invest You know, sometimes as humans we

think we think that we do that. No, I invest

in this person because this person I know, whever ion friends,

if we operate like that now, if we operate like

that now, please don't because God never God never looked

at you and say this one got arrow iron, not

before I die for your since and we need to

be more like Jesus.

Right.

So so there was investment, and you know God told me.

See I didn't expect it. Answer now, Oh God, is

it worth it?

Four years? Is it worth it? Is this worth it?

You know?

God said Judas is scared, was a disciple of mine.

Wow?

Ouch, okay, God, Jesus, you cannot be tray before I

cannot be tray one time. I guess I'm becoming more

like Ula. I will do it all over again. I

will and I have fla. Okay, I have done it

all over again. Thanksgiving, friends, Thanksgiving. I've got my battles, Cass,

and speaking to some of you here who may have

been hurt, who may be going through a tough time

wholly self, maybe yourself in church. Maybe you've been disappointed

by men, maybe been disappointed by leaders. I have my

own battles, Cass, friends, I have my own stories that

I don't openly share with everybody, right, but I'm still

so thankful to God for putting me where I'm at,

for giving me the opportunities, opportunities I'm at, forgiving me

that one lesson about you know, so if you ever

wondered whether Pastor Elvin will be willing to go all

out and even get betrayed and still continue serving, well,

no need to wonder.

He's done it once. Oh am I going to disappoint him?

It's okay.

So that sometimes when I talk to people, I'll say,

don't worry, just share me of problems. Nothing you say

is going to surprise me anymore day, because I've been

beaten enough, right, stumped on enough, suffered enough not as

much as Jesus last pathe country enough to know that

life is not perfect. Do you know why I'm still

so well adjusted? Because I know how to be thankful.

And my encouragement to you today is, as we look

forward to twenty twenty five, can we be thankful to

twenty twenty four?

So what is thanksgiving? Well? In the Hebrew word thanksgiving

is torder, okay.

It means confession, praise, giving praise to God, thanksgiving. In

songs of liturgy, worship hims of praise, we say, just now,

come let us adore him, Come, let us adore him.

How many of us sang that song with conviction?

How many of us really sang that song because we

mean it, not just because or you know, it's a

part of the program. I'm a Christian. I you sing, No,

are we really giving thanks to God? Sometimes it's hard?

I understand, right. It is a thanksgiving choir or procession,

thank offering, sacrifice of thanksgiving, or confession. Let me give

you another translation, because this when you study the root

word of thanksgiving. I didn't write it here, but it's

something else, okay. And it's the next one. An extension

of the hand. You know, we raise up my hands

an extension of the hands, yes, sign or worship.

Yes, sign of surrender, right adoration.

Come let us adore him specifically acchoir worship us confession, thanksgiving.

It is a sacrifice of praise. Why is it called

sacrifice of praise? Because we have to sacrifice our pride,

sacrifice our problems, sacrifice our perception of where we're at

right now to give thanks to the Lord. It is

sacrificing of ourself to give thanks to the Lord. Next Thanksgiving,

I wonder if we are catching anything. So thanksgiving is

praise and it's confession. Can we confidently say God, I

thank you for this problem? I thank you for this

difficult boss, I thank you for this.

Issue that I had. God, I thank you. Let me

give you a tip being thankful.

It is a choice and it is a skill that

you have to develop, friends, because you need to actually

look for what you can be thankful for. And can

I tell you that it's harder to look for what

you can be thankful for, and it's easier to look.

For what is going wrong?

Come from one? Can I be honest? You and I

talk a bit about my renovations. People ask me now

oh your renovations are and now can I tell you

it was supposed to be done last month? If you

ask me now for sell me, how's your renovations? Well,

I hope fingers crossed. I hope mid of January. I

hope I really want or two delay city. And in

the thing about delay is this delay that delay everything delay?

Now the new dadline is before CNY.

I hope.

I hope my wife say mass. There are many things

I can complain about, but I choose to give thanks.

I was telling my wife the other day, Wow, I

look at my house. I'm like, wow, I cannot imagine.

I don't feel like my kitchen. Man, it feels start

a different. You know, yesterday I was just cleaning up everything.

I because there's the lay.

Yeah, I don't wait.

So I opened up the curtain, blood, the plastic, and

I was like wiping everything, cleaning everything, scraping everything. Later

later today, I'm gonna go and try to wipe out

all the pain. You know, you might be asked the

workers to do it. I mean, I don't think they

can do it as better as me, because it's miyema right,

So I'll do it anyway, but I give thanks to God.

I give thanks to God for what he's provided me.

Is it perfect? No, it's not perfect. Friends.

Do I wish I have a million dollar kitchen? Well,

it's not million dollars. Thank God, you're not no money

to pay for it. But I'm thankful. I'm thankful that

God provided. I'm thankful that after ten years staying there,

we are finally we did it or we're doing it.

You know, I'm thankful. I'm thankful for different things that

happened and different things that didn't happen. You know, I've

learned learned to is a learning thing. I've learned to

thank God love for the bad things. I've learned to

do that. I've learned to thank God for the bad

things that don't happen, because things that don't happen or

things that happened badly teaches me lessons. And actually it's

very valuable now because those lessons you remember.

One. But if we don't have the perspective to see.

Then we will not see it. Then life is always horrible.

There's nothing to give thanks for. Can I share with

you something that just happened to me very recently. I

was a really discouraged because I found out a news

that like, oh, man, you know, got me into the

whole brain space of like, oh why did this have

to happen to me?

You know, But God, I serve you, right, I sacrifice,

I gave more.

It felt like I was exploited and I was very discouraged,

just for five minutes, vanilla, but this after years of discouragement.

So I can like, you know, and you know when

you are discouraged, And do you know that God will

speak to you? And do you know that it's your

choice whether you want to listen not. That's I say,

five minutes on em because I went spirality and then

got a enemy. Hey, Elvin, look at your new kitchen,

Look at your kids, look at your wife.

Look at how great your life is. Now. Look at

what I provided for you.

You have a house to stay, you have two cars,

you can go for holiday. Yes, fine, financially you may

not be in the best of place, but it's okay.

Look at how I provided for you in ways that

you cannot imagine.

See, these are things that I've got.

I go through and immediately I'm like, okay, yep, God,

I know this is a bump, but it doesn't define

what has happened? Can we come to that place? Friends?

Do you know that it's very freeing when you can

come to the place of giving thanks Because to be

really honest, if you want to complain about things, are

can find one very easy to find awai and don't

have girlfriend yet? Iahai, I don't have boyfriend yet. I

wai is stay in this place that is so I

Hawaii in my family at this.

You can I until the you know, the cows come

home right.

And you will keep finding it because if you want

to find problems, you can find it. One can one

very easy to find on if you want to find problems,

you also can find one. You know, extremer Why the

band's so smaller? Why no drums are why nor? Why

the lights like that now? Why is it so cooler?

Why is it so hot now? Do you know that

if you want to complain, you can complain? Can I

share you something just now? Didn't feel the drum beat right?

So we like we like didn't feel right? Do you

know I give thanks to God for for extreme tam

this morning. We've got the ass guitarists and keyboard KEYBOARDI

is around man, they were able to make it wrong.

Even with a two piece band. No, how wonderful that is.

You see if you can, if you if your eyes

are looking at the good, you're always find the good.

At the same time, if your eyes are looking at

the bad, you always find the bad. It doesn't matter

twenty four. What is the good you can find? What

is the good you can find? It doesn't matter where

you're at. Am Malaysia, friends, Malaysia is an awesome country.

My father was in the hospital for two weeks. You

know how much my.

Brother had to pay? Sixtealing git on lee? Where too fine?

Where too fine? Oh? Your public health care horribula? Wait

so long? You have to wit? I had to wit.

I had to wait it ours in the emergency place,

no proper places sit.

Why God?

Other people sicker than me, so I have to stand there.

My father is there, I'm standing. Everyone else is sick.

But two weeks in a hospital sixty bucks? Are you

willing to stand eight hours for that? I am? And

the doctors were really good or very frustrating. They don't

immediately tell me what's happening, but they're taking care of

my dad really well. I was so difficult to see him,

you know, only two hours this time four hours, this

time very difficult. The security guards are not helpful at all. No,

they're actually very nice if you talk to them properly. La,

you don't talk to them properly, you see whether they're

nice or not. So actually is them u us. They

have to take care so many crazy people, know, yeah,

really they a lot of people.

They are crazy in the hospital. I'm not give me

the sick ones. I'm talking about the non sick ones.

Friends, What can we give thanks to God for in

twenty twenty four? That's my encouragement for us this morning.

What can we Oh yeah, maybe very difficult, right, it's okay.

Can I give you two scriptures that hopefully will encourage

you someone will? Seven One says, oh, give thanks to

the Lord, for he is good, He's mercy and yours forever.

I'm not sure that any of us here will be

able to come to this place of thanking God for

his mercy until we come to.

A near death experience. Today.

It's the twenty nine of December twenty twenty three.

Last year, I just survived.

I used to word survive, I just survived a stent operation,

and I just survive the ic you I used the

word survivor the time I was ignorant. Now I realized

that it's not so. I thank God for the one

year that I had. I know it's a running joeler

into gym right now. Well, I don't want to go

back to the hospital. He's that simple. I thank God

every day. I thank God for having a gym my office.

I've been working in my office for six years. The

gym is there every day.

I never go.

I didn't have to pay for it. Now we started

a fee. I have to pay for it now, but

I thank God for it. Why wasn't I thankful even

though I had it for six years? Have we asked

ourself that question? Why are we not thankful even though

whatever that we have has been until there's a change

or perspective, Then we start getting thankful.

Friends? Do you want to wait until God has to

change your perspective?

Not fun? No, not fun at all. I think we

need to start learning to be thankful.

Man.

Can we just give thanks to the God? Give thanks

to the Lord because he is good and his mercy

really is forever, his mercy on our lives. No friends,

James one seventeen says, every good gift and Every perfect

gift is from a birth and comes down from the

father right of lights, with whom there is no fickleness,

neither shadow of turning. I tell you the wonderful thing

about our godder is that there's no maybe. Let me

think about it. Imagine now, if you're praying to God

and he say, lookas let me pray about it. Versa

pray to pray to him. God answered, that's his answer

to you, let me pray about it first. But why

is that our answer? Sometimes to a lot of things?

Thank God, he's left. He's just yes or no.

No.

Do you know you're ask him for something you shouldn't get?

He will say Noah, Then you're not happy you asking

for something that you should get. He'll say yes, isn't

it good? Thank God, God, you didn't say maybe. I'm

not sure. Let's think about it. Fifty to fifty, let's

roll the dice. God doesn't do that. He's not fickle.

Who are the ficker ones on this earth? We are

the figure ones. One minute, one protona. Next minute, see

a nicer car, one a nicer car, then see a

nicer house on a nicer house. Then go on Instagram

and see ah Switzerland and go Switzerland. Hey, I thought

your dream was to go New Zealand. No, no, no, no,

Switzerland is better. The who are the figure ones? We

are the figure ones?

Friends. I understand this because I also go through it.

One minute? Is this? One minut? Is that?

Thank God he's not fickal? So what is the opposite

of thanksgiving? Well, I give you some words? Okay, don't don't,

don't feel out? Okay, just some.

Words ungrateful, unhappy.

And forgiving, stressed out, depress, complaining, comparing. Can I give

you also some warnings and maybe you can help me this.

Let's do be your Bible study. Okay.

Songs of Solomon to fifteen Okay, can you turn to that?

Turn to that?

Maybe get a doctor Jason to read that song. So

Solomon to fifteen? Uh, John ten ten? Okay, John ten ten,

let me see. I'll get Evan to do John ten ten.

And then first Bitter five eight, First Bitter five eight.

Let me get Judy to do first Bitter five eight songs.

So Solomon to fifteen, Pradier, Yeah, catch all the foxes,

those Twitter foxes before they ruin the vineyard of love,

for the great vines are blossoming.

Okay, catch all the foxes. Next is Evan. Okay, so

mental no, no, can all the foxes?

John ten ten The tieth does not come except to

steal and to kill, and to destroy.

I've come that they may have life, and that they

may have it more abundantly. Okay, let's go to the

finals verse, and then let me give you a bit

of a caution.

First, bitter five, be sober minded, Be watchful your adversary.

The devil proll around like a roaring lion seeking someone

to devol.

You call that? Okay, what does it all mean?

Passe alvin Well in Songs of Solomon, of course it's

talking about you know, you can read the whole chapter two.

It's about a lover and the lover saying, hey, you know,

let's watch out for the little foxes because our vineyard,

I mean, it's all how to say, it's all uh

bahassa okay, uh huh.

Idioms yeah, idioms. Uh.

It's very it's very yeah, it's very descriptive. Okay, vineyard.

Our vineyard is full of grapes. So when you let

the foxes in, what happened eat the grapes?

Are?

Is the foxes part of the grape, the vineyard no corent.

So similarly, in your family or in your life, if

you allow allowed, because you can get it. If you

allow foxes, foxes, whatever, the foxes is okay to come

into a place that they shouldn't be, what will happen?

Then the vineyard will be destroyed. You've got to be watchful.

And we're talking about it. What has the Bible cautions?

As the devil comes, the thief comes to steal, kill, destroy,

What's the first thing? They steal your joy? And then

it kills things, and then later you are destroyed. Something

is stolen first one or always one, hope, joy, peace.

Your love.

It is stolen. And then it comes to a place

where something is killed. The dream is killed, the purpose

is killed, the why is killed, the desire to serve

God is killed.

And now what happens after that? Destriter nothing.

That's why we've got to be a careful because the

devil goes around looking do you know that you are

not going You know, nobody goes around looking for trouble

and friends. That's why we got to be watchful. We

got to check our hearts. Hey where am I right now?

Am I complaining?

A lot. Check your heart.

There is redemption for you because if you're not careful

and you continue going down that path, you know who

you become. This is why Jesus can look at Peter

and say, get thee behind me, Satan.

You'll catch it or not. It's not that Peter is Satan, no,

but because.

He's influenced by the devil. So what are we influenced?

Do we want to be influenced by the spirit of

God or do we want to be influenced by other things?

We choose? No, do you know that you choose? You choose.

You can't put the responsibity and someone else. Doctor James said,

he's the one. No, no, no, no no.

No matter how tough life gets, our friends, you still choose. No.

I just share you a difficult situation in my life.

I still have to choose. Do I still follow God

or do I give them on everything? It's still a choice, friends,

And of course, if we continue to choose God, he

will continue to make us stronger. If we continue to

choose the right path, he will continue to prosper us.

That's how we prosper. It is our choice. Can I

help pursuit one more thing?

Even as I close, So how can we have a

heart of thanksgiving? Well, the scripture tells us how we

can have a heart of thanksgiving. Collosians three fourteen seventeen

says this, But above all these things, put on love,

which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace

of God rule in your heart. Friends, what is ruling

in your heart? Is it money? Is it your dreams?

Is it your desires? Is it your love? What is

ruling your heart? You know how to see what rules

in your heart?

Very easy?

What takes your brain space most of the time? What

are you making your decisions based on? Is the peace

of God ruling your heart? Or is your business ruling

your heart? Is your career ruling your heart?

Is the peace of God ruling your heart? See?

All the stuff that I mentioned is not batter, don't

get me wrong. Business not bad, career not bad, love,

life not bad, family not bad.

But what rules your heart? What do you allow to

rule your heart? Right?

Let the peace of God rule in your heart, to

which also you will called in one body and be thankful.

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. This

is the second one. So first we got to our motivation.

Who is number one in our life all the time,

even as a married couple. Me and my wife are

very clear, Jesus number one. I'm so sorry, Jess, Jess,

it's not number one. Jesus is number one. An the

same for her because the moment she becomes number one,

everything goes down the drain. But because Christ is number one,

number two, number three, number four, all is also prospering.

And let the Word of Christ, which is also the

Word of God, dwell in our hearts. Why do we

need the Word of God in our lives? Because the reality, friends,

is that you cannot remember everything one. You cannot remember

everything the signs sometimes, so you read God's Word and

we read it again and there's new life that is

breath into it now because it is our guiding book.

That's why we need it is a need, right, How

do we look at the word of God. Let the

Word of Christ.

Join you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another.

Word of God is not just preacher preach and then

you listen. No, friends, word of God is. You have

to go and read yourself. Can I encourage you? You

have to go bed and read yourself, not just listen

to wonderful teachers teaching very dangerous now because the Bible

ready wants us ready, there are false prophets teaching false ideology. Recently,

I was just reading these texts. So apparently there's a

pastor that wanted to in the States like, okay, in

the States are interesting people. So there are still love

fleaf Earth's. You know what fleaff Earth's is, right. People

who believe that Earth Earth is flat until today?

Are some of you? Hear?

Some you might be he okay, don't don't be offended

by this game. You are, but there might be because

they haven't been what they haven't seen. And there was

this pastor who did apparently Pastor Law, who did a

documentary with the American flats with a lot of them

and in I think certain in a certain part of

the world, right, the sun is there twenty four hours one,

you know, in the I think I didn't enough a

supple Sahela right, And he decided they did this whole

documentary to prove to them that the Earth is not flat, right,

so their theory is wrong. So he brought them there

and then they saw and of course, out of the

fifty over of them, some of them of course considered

to change the belief because overwhelming evidence, MA right, overwhelming evidence,

it must be true. But there's a group of them

who still deny even with overwhelming evidence. And of course

there's a psychological reason to it, LA right.

You know.

The way I look at it is if the belief

defines you and it's who you are, it's very hard

to let it go.

If you are proven wrong, you're.

Your catch that So what is the what is the

thing you're fighting against? You're fighting against ideologies. This why

it's very dangerous now in the world. It is all

an opinion. It is all an ideology. You have to

study the word yourself. I have to study the word myself.

I have to test and see that the word is good.

You'll catch that.

That's the encouragement I give to you. Right, That's why,

let God's peace lead us. Let the Word of Christ

dwell in us.

Do well.

It needs to be in us right because it teaches

us wisdom and monishing one another in psalms and hymns

and spiritual songs, right, singing with grace in your hearts

to the Lord, and whatever you do in world of

this is also another important thing.

How to be thankful.

Is everything that we do in word or deed's done

in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God,

the Father true Him.

Okay, let me give you this perspective when you work.

There's another scripture in the Bible that says, when you

work until men do it until God. You'll catch that. Right,

it's something we teach as well. What does it mean

that when we work? Yes, we work for salary, Yes,

we're working for a boss. Yes, all these things. And

sometimes the boss is nice, sometimes the boss is not nice.

Sometimes the company is signed, sometimes the company is not nice.

But in reality, the way we work should be unto God,

especially if we pray and ask God for the job.

That means our friends.

If the job suddenly become horrible, suddenly don't become the

perfect job anymore, Suddenly there's challenge.

Oh God's not here suddenly is that it?

Or because God plays me here and I need to

do this job unto him? How am I doing this

job despite the circumstance?

Okay?

Having said that, right, will there be times where God

will shift you, Yes, if you are walking with him.

But the reality it doesn't change your attitude to work.

That When we do things, I mean I'm just talking

about work, okay. When we do things, everything serving not

just come to ches. You do until God, no friends,

your whole life, everything in word or deed, do it

in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks

to God, the Father true Him. You know, when we

are able to live like this, right then I think

we can give thanks because everything God touches. But if

we don't live like this, THENNA is going to be

all this word compartmentalize. My chest friends is my chest friends,

my office friends, my office friends, we all do different things.

My my campus friends, my camper friends all separate, everything separate.

My family is my family. Oh, my family is so tough.

I don't think I can ever bring Jesus and become,

you know, forgiving in my family.

Because so hard. Oh. You know, my my campust friends

are like that.

If I don't hang out with them and I don't

do these things, they think I'm square.

They will think I'm you know, Jesus free friends. The

scripture is very clear, do everything.

In the name of Christ. How is our conduct beyond

the church walls? How is our conduct on a day today?

How is our conduct when we talk to our family.

And then we go to God and say, God, are

you actually not himan a? We chose, We chose to

compat menalize. We told God, God, don't touch THISA don't

touch THISA God anything manistreet can my job?

You weren't my No?

No, please please don't't no, no no, don't don't don't

touch this. God is mine, friends, No wonder is hot.

It's very hard to comparmentalize life, very hard.

Amen.

Ephesians five seventeen twenty says, therefore, do not be unwise,

but understand what the will of the Lord is.

And do not be drunk with wine, in.

Which is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit, speaking

to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

singing and making melody in your heart.

To I like this, making melodies in my heart. I

think that's a song.

Right, Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father,

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to

one another in the fear of the Lord first that

Slonius five eighteen. In everything, give thanks for this is

the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you in

everything means not just in the good times, but in

the bad times as well.

Amen. Amen, easy to say, how to do guys? I understand? Right?

Can we still see God's hand with us in the

bad times?

Like I said, I've come to learn that when bad

things happen in my life, I will immediately go to

God and say, God, what's happening?

You know, God, what do I need to learn?

If anything you learn, I will apologize to away and

learn it straight away. If I brought myself in this situation,

I'm sorry. I will learn as fast as I can

because I don't like pain, you know? Or God, are

you doing something else here? Because just because it doesn't

go according to my plan doesn't necessarily mean it's.

Going to be bad.

Just because there's going to be a delay doesn't necessarily

mean it's going to be bad.

Sometimes it's just it just means we're not ready.

In fact, for those of you who are well, I

guess a little bit more mature you will understand and

you'll see in life enough that if you give someone

what they want, then they are not ready to receive.

They will destroy themselves. Not correct. We all see it.

So the question is not what I want? When the

question is am I ready to receive?

That is always a question I ask myself, Am I

ready to receive this lot? If not yet? Okay, I

want to get ready. Am I ready for the relationship?

If not yet?

Now am I I want to get myself ready? Am

I ready to have kids? Evaluate Lord? If not yet?

Because really, when the Lord gives.

You a GIF, then you are ready. And if you

feel you're not ready, well don't worry. You'll be fine.

Of course you got it ready. Whatever it is, I

guess catching something. Can we still see God move in

our lives?

Yes?

Sometimes some of the things that we go through their trouble.

I will say, terry pasaana Okay, I tell you that.

How many times I tarry passala and I look back

a I do that right?

But it's okay. God can still move.

He can Because the question I always ask myself is God,

are you still with me? There's so much mess happening here.

God are used to with me? And I try to

look for him. That's that's the important part. I try

and look for him. What can I see? What can

I see? I still remember when we're going through a

difficult period in this church, and someone asked me this question.

But Silvin, how do you feel? I'm like, what do

you mean everybody is leaving? That's a question now, And

I'm like, uh, I said, okay, number one, Not everybody's leaving.

Maybe a lot of people that you're close to are

deciding to move or not. Fine, but God has told

me to see the good and I have to share

this person. Look, people are still getting safe, you know,

homes are still being planted, people are still experiencing God

in their lives.

How can you tell me that God is not here?

And yes, you might not be able.

To see it because you're not looking for it. But

I'm always looking for whether God is still around or not.

I'm always looking for whether God is in that ministry

or in that person's life.

I'm always looking for that.

And when I can find it, I can thank God

and say God, thank You're still there. Yes, might not

be the best, but because You're still there, I know

this person will be.

Okay.

What is our perspective? Friends? I want to encourage us.

Can we enter next to next year with thanksgiving our hearts?

Second Corinthians nine eleven says you will be enriched in

every way so that you can be generous on every

occasion and true us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving

to God. God will enrich us and enable us to

be generous. And when we are generous, others would give

thanks to God. No, sometimes people think about generosity as abundance.

You got abundance and general. Yes, true, but I've seen

the most generous people are are the people who don't

have a lot. The most generous I've seen in my

life are other people who it's very funny or no,

when I say do you have a lot now, they

don't have abundance. They have enough for themselves, but they

have a little bit extra and they are the most

generous people. Friends. Can I encourage you be generous today?

Because when you're generous, you can be thankful. Do you

know when you are not? It's very hard to be

thankful when you're not generous.

Be general.

And when I say generous, of course you wisdom. Now

don't like, oh no, I give everything, No, be generous.

Then you realize, wow, I'm able to afford this. I

can afford this, I have a house, I have this,

I have that. I can bless someone with the little

that I have because God bless me Philippians six four

six seven says, do not be anxious about everything. But

in every situation I'm entering really maybe extra you and

come up by prayers and petition, with thanksgiving, prison your

request to God, and the peace of God, which transcends

all understanding, will go our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

You know, trusting God is.

A very big part of thanksgiving, very big part. It

is a very big part, and having a relationship with

Him will determine how much we trust him. A lot

of things that I'm sharing you in my personal life

as well. It is because of the relationship that have

caused me to grow and learn. You know, I mean,

I'm not super human, our friends, can I be honest

with you? I have my down days, I have days

where difficult, but I'm thanking God because with every challenge

I overcome. No, I'm I'm I don't know that I

appreciate message before, but there's a message bring my heart

about overcoming. You know what is God calling us to

do in this world? Is it just calling us to Yes,

he has a purpose and no, but do you know

that you have the power of overcoming in your life?

You know that Christ overcome the greatest difficulty he from

the day. No friends, no one can do that. Nobody

has claimed to do that. Only Jesus. Him being able

to rose from the data proves to us that He

can do much more in our lives. And if you

are called to be follow us of Christ, then I

want to encourage you. Hey, whatever challenge you've had in

the past, you can overcome. You can overcome.

Amen.

Thanksgiving is such a simple and powerful posture we can

have that won't just save us from so much trouble

in the future, but also help us live a peaceful

and stress to real life having stressed being stress trae is.

I mean, yes, don't worry and all right, But sometimes

just saying don't worry it's not enough, right friends, Sometimes

just that, hey, can you think about all the good

things that God has done already? Thanksgiving also gives us

an important perspective on our lives and relationship with God

and Christ. So my last question for us is what

can we give thanks to God for from twenty twenty four?

For us, first, let's look at the past.

God twenty two and four, how has he been? Yes,

got all the problems? Let's not talk about that yes,

is there is there?

Okay? But what the good have we? Are we able

to see the good? Are we able to see the

good in the midst of all the problems?

Someone told me, uh that you know. I shared a

testimony about how I had a very difficult Friday when

my dad was in the hospital. There were different miscommunications

and I went and see my dad and my wife

for two hours and end up the two hours became

like eight hours and there were like a lot being

dong with the doctor.

And out of anger? Can I see? Out of anger?

I went and looked for a dialysis center for him. Okay,

and God provided, I've heard how you know, when you

want to get a lass in Malaysia, it's not easy,

you know, even any place, you have to book in

advance and wait for open store. And of course open

store doesn't mean good thing. Open what means the person

no longer there, and it can take months or years

to get a proper slot. I just went to inquire

friends and there was a slot on the spot. Of

course for someone like me, I've never done it before.

I'm like, it doesn't mean But when you hear other

people say, actually, that's close to impossible now, that tells

me like, okay, God, it was a reminder to me

and okay, God, stressful day, had to do a lot

of crazy things. But thank you for providing you are

still here. Thank you for showing me that you're still around,

because then I have the confidence to move forward and

I can give thanks to you, even though it was challenging.

Being thankful, how.

To say it gives us perspective. It doesn't matter how

we feel, friends, we can see be thankful, and actually

being thankful helps us with how we feel a little bit.

And we're not being ignorant. No, we're just speaking truth coronas,

we're just beaking truth because God cast for everyone here.

Let's look back twenty three and four. After this this,

what's going to happen extreme is gonna lead us to

the song. I want to encourage all you here to

just create an author No, we talk about that, but

really it's between you and God. I can't do anything

for your friends besides praying for you and encouraging you.

And you know, maybe like Joe say, invite you over maccan,

you know, but some of these things you have to

do yourself. Can I encourage you to just say Lord,

Please show me where I can be thankful for last year.

Give me that perspective, Give me things that I can

hold on as my testimony for twenty twenty four.

So that I can write it down. Write it down, Lord,

I thank you for this disease is.

And from there can you walk into twenty twenty five

expecting God to do more for you, Expecting God to

do more despite where you're at, Expecting God to do

more right, walking into twenty twenty five with thanksgiving as

well in our hearts and the peace of God, knowing

that twenty twenty five will be a better year. Hit

And that is the significance of a new year, new beginnings,

new adventures, also new problems, but new testimonies of overcoming

the problems. Amazing right how God is worth, He's good,

and He's mercy and just forever.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit as Church Org. We

are also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that

this week is going to be a good week, a

hit for you. God bless