All right, Psalm 92, verse number one.
It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.
Title for the sermon tonight is,
it is a good thing to give thanks.
It is a good thing to give thanks.
So I'm not going to preach
any groundbreaking sermon tonight.
I just want to make sure that we definitely give thanks.
The reason we are saying so many hymns
that had thankfulness toward our Lord God
is just to remember that it's because of him
that we can even celebrate seven years here tonight.
I can't believe how quick it's gone.
In some ways, it feels like longer than seven years.
In some ways, it feels like I only moved from Sydney
a couple of years ago to start this church.
And there's been good times, there's been some hard times,
but every single time the Lord's been there
to guide us, direct us.
And I do want to thank the Lord, of course, tonight.
I do want to thank our guest preacher for tomorrow
for bringing his family here,
driving seven hours to be part of the seven year anniversary.
Thank you for the other visitors that we have here
from Blessed Up Baptist Church
and other friends of our ministry.
For our church members as well,
I appreciate you guys and your support.
Some of you have been in this church from the very beginning
when we first started the church.
And just like Pastor Gary shared, meeting in a shed.
Yes, we had to meet in a shed for a period of time.
And I remember just sweating,
just the heat and the humidity of the Sunshine Coast
not being something I was used to.
And my shirt and my clothes just being drenched.
I mean, it kind of, if you don't know,
I wasn't acclimatized and I just looked like
I went for a swim and I'm preaching in my wet clothes
because it just sweats, it's all it was.
And we're stuck in the shed and I'm always wondering,
Lord, you're gonna provide us a better meeting place,
a better building.
And of course, the Lord God provided this building
that we're still in, about a year into our ministry.
And we thank God for everything that he's given us.
And this building was being utilized
by a charismatic Pentecostal church.
And I often, I share this with you guys,
I often think about how when God led the Israelites
into the promised land, that he told the Israelites
they won't need to build, they won't need to build cities.
It's all gonna be there.
They just have to make sure they just go in,
they wipe out the enemies and that's what happened.
You know, the Lord ran off the Pentecostals,
they left us their chairs, they left us their equipment,
they left us the stage, they left us the air conditioning.
I mean, we've replaced all of that over years
as things broke down.
But of course, God gave us everything we needed
to be able to feel like we're meeting
in a proper church place and our God's been so great.
Let me just read verse number one again.
It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord.
I wanna do a good thing tonight.
I wanna give our Lord thanks.
And it says, and to sing praises unto thy name,
O Most High.
And of course, that's how we started the service
by singing praises unto the name of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ.
So like I said, the title of the sermon tonight is,
it is a good thing to give thanks.
Can you drop down in the same chapter to verse number 13?
It says, those that be planted in the house of the Lord
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
You know, we get an instruction right here.
How can we flourish as believers?
How can we flourish as God's people?
How can we make sure that tomorrow
we're still serving the Lord?
And that five years from now,
we're still walking in the paths of the Lord
and we're faithful toward Him.
It tells us we need to be planted in the house of the Lord.
And I'm speaking to my church members
for New Life Baptist Church brethren.
I hope over the seven years you can say,
I've learned something.
I'm a little more like Christ today than I...
Man, if you say to me, pastor, I'm less like Christ.
Seven years into it, I'm failing somehow as a pastor.
You know, guiding and teaching and directing.
But I hope you can say, I've learned some things, pastor.
You know, I've grown more in my love for the Lord.
And I hope so, I hope you can say, man,
I've been planted at New Life Baptist Church
and I'm flourishing in the courts of our God.
And my, you know, obviously I don't have to tell you
that verse speaks for itself.
If you want to flourish as a believer,
if you want to flourish as a Christian,
if you want to flourish in your faith,
you've got to be in the house of the Lord.
Brethren, if you ever have to leave this,
look, the Sunshine Coast, I realize,
over seven years, our church has grown
and then shrunk and it's grown and shrunk.
Sunshine Coast is a bit of a turnover area.
And so it makes sense that our church
is a bit of a turnover church.
But if you ever find yourself not under this pastor,
if you find yourself one day,
your life takes you somewhere else,
please be ensured, please ensure yourself.
Please, you know, just if you do anything,
plant yourself in a good, independent,
fundamental Baptist Church.
Please, plant yourself in a church
that's preaching from the King James Bible.
Plant yourself in a church that is preaching
the true and clear gospel without corruption.
Make sure you're in a church that encourages you to preach
and share the gospel to the lost and dying world.
And I tell you, you can continue to flourish,
even if you don't continue being part
of New Life Baptist Church.
Can you come with me to Second Corinthians?
Second Corinthians, we've got a few verses
to go through tonight.
Second Corinthians, chapter nine.
There are many things that we can be thankful for.
And I want to remind you tonight,
many things that you can be thankful for.
You know, I don't know what you're going through
in your life tonight.
I don't know if you're, you know,
you might be here physically and you know,
many times we can be physically at church,
but within we're a little bit far from the Lord.
Within we might be feeling a little bit lonely.
Within we might be feeling a little faithless,
you know, a little discouraged,
a little uncomfortable within.
And I want to remind you that tonight
you've got so many things to be thankful to God about.
There are so many things in your life
that you're blessed with
and you ought to be able to say, God, just thank you
for the great things you've done in my life.
And we see here in Second Corinthians, chapter nine,
verse number 15, an easy one, it says here,
thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
Brethren, if there's anything that you can be thankful for,
it's the unspeakable gift of your salvation.
You know, what does Romans 6 23 say?
For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Look, let's start with the most obvious one
that we can be thankful for.
You have, if you're saved,
if you put your faith and trust on Christ alone,
you know that you have eternal life tonight.
You know that if the Lord says,
this is your last day on the earth
and it closes your eyes in this temporary life,
you're going to open your spiritual eyes
and you're going to be with Jesus Christ immediately.
You know, I assume like Lazarus, taken up by an angel,
taken into heaven, taken into,
and you see Abraham and you see other believers,
you see the godly that you read about in the Bible,
maybe you see your loved ones,
and then you set your eyes on Jesus Christ, your savior.
You can be thankful for this unspeakable gift.
You know, sometimes someone might do something nice to you.
You know, you probably say, look,
I don't have enough words to express my appreciation.
In many ways, when I look at the decorations here tonight,
I don't have enough words to express my appreciation
for the work that's being done here.
But that's what the unspeakable gift is,
is we just, there's not enough words.
Then we can't thank him enough.
We can't praise him enough
for the salvation that he's given us through Christ Jesus.
Can you come with me to Ephesians chapter one,
Ephesians chapter one?
So we can be thankful for God's unspeakable gifts.
And I hope tonight you can say,
Pastor, I am truly thankful for that gift.
And I know what life is like.
I know life throws all kinds of curve balls at you,
and you get distracted,
and you have all kinds of tribulations and trials in life.
And sometimes, let's be honest,
we forget about the unspeakable gift.
We get caught up in the troubles and the problems
and the turmoil that we face.
And you know, we lose sight of the fact that
we have truly nothing to worry about.
We have our home in heaven.
We have eternity with God.
He's not gonna judge me for my sins.
Those sins were paid for by Jesus Christ, my Savior.
So we can thank God for the unspeakable gift.
What else can we thank God for?
In Ephesians chapter one, Ephesians chapter one,
verse number 15, Ephesians chapter one, verse number 15,
the Bible reads,
Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith
in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints,
cease not to give thanks for you,
making mention of you in my prayers.
This is the apostle Paul writing to the Ephesian church.
He says, I've heard about your faith.
I've heard about your love unto all the saints.
Look, unto all the saints.
He's heard about not just that you love
New Life Baptist Church,
or that you love Blessed Hope Baptist Church.
He says, I've heard about your love to crown Baptist Church.
I've heard about your love to other brethren
in other places of Australia.
I've heard of your love in Fiji.
I've heard of your love in other places in this world,
your love for the brethren.
And brethren, when he hears about that in verse number 16,
he says, I cease not to give thanks for you.
And brethren, I want that to be true in my heart.
I mean, maybe I'm dropping the ball here,
but I truly am thankful for the members of this church.
You're a real encouragement to me.
You helped me to get motivated.
When you come to church,
I'm motivated to preach a sermon
on the influence and power of the Holy Spirit of God.
You know, when you show love toward me and my family,
just, you know, I just can't help myself,
but I just want to be a blessing unto you.
You know, we obviously, we want to thank God,
but you know, I thank God for you,
for your love, for your faith,
for your encouragement to me.
You know, pastors need encouragement.
Do you need encouragement, brother Gary?
Pastors need encouragement from time to time.
And I thank you for the encouragement that you are
to me and to my family and to our lives.
But the Bible says, cease not to give thanks for you.
Cease not.
Every day, I ought to be thankful to God
for the brothers and sisters the Lord has given me.
Make a mention of you in my prayers.
So when I think about you guys,
and I think about, you know, brother Jason
and sister Clarissa coming all the way from Melbourne
and you know, sister Di and Carol,
driving all the way from Raymond Terrace.
Have I got it right finally, right?
And sorry if I'm missing anybody else here,
but when I think about, it doesn't matter.
Even if you've driven five minutes to be at church today,
I ought to be thankful, right?
And then when I remember you and I say,
Lord, thank you for my brothers that you've given me.
You know, some of you guys have lived in broken homes
and you might have mothers and fathers
that you don't speak to.
You might have siblings that you don't get along with,
but God has given us brothers and sisters in the Lord.
You know, it's so amazing that I can walk
into the average independent fundamental Baptist church
and I can feel like I'm at home.
I can feel like I know you, I love you,
you're my brother, you're my sister.
You know, you're upholding, you love the Lord
and you're saved and that's a wonderful thing
that we can be this way and love this way
that we have a spiritual family.
We have a heavenly father.
And so we ought to be thankful for our brothers and sisters,
not just at this church, but the brothers and sisters,
the Lord has allowed us to meet, you know,
in the ministries that our church has contributed in.
Can you come with me to First Timothy chapter one?
I have many things to be thankful for tonight
and I just want to remind you, like I said,
I want to talk to those that might not be feeling
a little bit thankful,
might be feeling a little bit exhausted in the faith.
And I just want to encourage you,
we've done so many great things in seven years
of our church and again, we're not some mega church.
You know, we've never cracked a hundred members.
We've never cracked that number,
but we've done things as a church
that even the biggest churches have not yet done.
We've done great things for the Lord
and I'm thankful for you.
But you know, even though we've done some great things
for the Lord, I want to show you here
in First Timothy chapter one,
First Timothy chapter one, verse number 12.
First Timothy chapter one, verse 12.
First Timothy chapter one, verse number 12.
Paul writes, and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord,
look, who have enabled me for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry.
And then he says this about himself,
who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious,
but I obtain mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
What else can we be thankful for?
He says, he thanks Jesus Christ our Lord,
who have enabled me.
Brethren, we ought to be thankful
because God has enabled us to serve.
He gives us the ability.
Brother Oliver, song leading before the service,
before the sermon, you know who enabled him to do that?
The Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, when you go and knock a door
and you know that this is unusual,
some random stranger knocking on
another random stranger's door, surely this is not right.
This is not normal in the eyes of the world,
but I'm able to knock doors
and I'm able to care for that lost soul.
I'm able to give them the gospel
and lead them to understand the need
to put their faith on the savior, Lord Jesus Christ.
You know who has enabled you to do that?
Jesus Christ.
You ought to be thankful for the enabling
that God has given you.
Man, I never would have imagined in my life
that I'd ever be a pastor, let alone preach a sermon.
I don't even want you to see my early sermons
at Victory Baptist Church.
You know, I cringe when I look at those sermons,
but God's enabled me.
And we ought to be thankful for the enabling that,
I mean, these decorations, again,
I appreciate the sisters for doing this,
but you know who enabled you, it's Jesus Christ.
It's our Lord God that's enabled you
to have an eye for the decorations
and the colors and the effort that you've put in
to make this a special anniversary.
You know, the service,
we have cleaners that clean this building.
It's not always what you do that is visible,
but there are many things that happen behind the scenes.
You know, the enabling, the driving.
How many hours did it take to get here, brother?
12 hours.
You know who enabled brother Daniel to drive here?
Jesus.
Gave him the enabling to drive here
to be part of this weekend celebrations.
We ought to be thankful that it's the Lord God
that enables us.
This helps us.
This helps us to stomach the pride and the ego
and look at me, look what I've done,
look what I've achieved.
I mean, great that you've achieved some things,
but you need to remember,
be thankful it's God who enabled you to do those things.
That takes down the pride and just reminds us,
man, we're so thankful for a God that loves us.
To serve him.
And we know it's like,
we know that the treasures are being laid up in heaven.
That's the best part of it all.
I mean, we get to enjoy the fellowship
and company together tonight,
but I can't like,
you know, the treasures the Lord's adding up in heaven.
You know, the service,
the food that was prepared by the ladies today,
the fun and games that were prepared,
all of this service for fun and enjoyment and fellowship,
all of these things,
the Lord God is going to reward us when he comes back.
And I can't wait,
but remember it's he who enables us
to be able to do these works.
And we ought to be thankful for that.
Can you come with me to Matthew 11, Matthew 11.
Matthew 11.
Matthew 11, verse number 25.
Matthew 11, 25.
Now this one's really important for me as a preacher
or anyone that gets up to preach.
This is surely something
that we ought to be thankful to God about.
It says in Matthew 11, 25.
So who's thanking the father here?
Jesus.
And then he says these words,
Lord of heaven and earth,
because thou has hid these things
from the wise and prudent
and have revealed them unto babes.
Brethren, God has revealed his word to babes.
Okay, you know who's preaching to you tonight?
It's not Elon Musk.
Okay, it's not Donald Trump.
It's Pastor Kevin from Cabramatta.
Or from Canley Vale, wherever I grew up, right?
It's Pastor Kevin who fumbles his words, right?
Who sometimes can't articulate grammatically properly
in everything that he says.
The Pastor Kevin that messes up,
says the wrong things from time to time
because the brain doesn't work as fast as the mouth
and things like that, right?
But the thing is, God has revealed his word,
his instructions, his laws to the babes
and not to the wise and the prudent.
And Jesus says, I thank you, Father, for doing that.
I thank you for using a common everyday person,
a baby, a babe, right?
To know your words.
We ought to be thankful to God
for revealing the truth in God's word.
The truth in God's word.
I mean, there's a lot of information.
We live in the information age, right?
There's a lot of knowledge out there.
There's a lot of great achievements
that's been done by man.
But the greatest thing that you'll ever learn
is what's contained in God's word.
And we ought to be thankful
that God's given us these instructions.
I mean, we know what the future holds.
We don't need to go to some fortune teller
and we don't need to create a time machine
to see what happens in the future.
We know Christ is coming back.
We know he's going to establish a millennial kingdom.
We know that one day God's gonna create a new heaven
and a new earth.
We know that one day we're gonna have resurrected bodies
that will never sin.
Amazing, we know the future.
How do we know the future?
Because we know God's word and that's the truth.
And we know the past.
The scientists and the school teachers,
they're still talking about the big bang.
And we're like, what's stupidity?
God created everything in six days, don't you know?
We know that God's revealed that unto babes.
You know, we're not the professors
and the scientists of this world
and they're so-called the knowledgeable ones,
but God has revealed his truth unto babes.
We ought to be thankful that God has revealed his truth
in his word to you and I.
Aren't you thankful for that truth?
I mean, what's contained in God's word is vastly superior
to what you'll learn in any university,
any place of education,
even greater than what you'll learn in the Bible college.
Well, God's word is higher than all of that knowledge.
And boy, it's a blessing to walk according to his ways.
We have to be thankful that God has revealed
his truth in his word.
Can you come with me to Romans chapter one?
Romans chapter one, please.
Romans chapter one.
We have a lot of things to be thankful to God about.
So once again, Paul is writing here to the Romans,
the Roman believers.
And he says this in Romans chapter one, verse number eight.
And this one's really applicable for us in this year
as a church.
But Romans chapter one, verse eight says,
first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all
that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
He says, I thank God that your faith, you Roman believers,
is spoken about throughout the whole world.
Brethren, here we are on the Sunshine Coast.
I believe the most beautiful place on all the earth,
such a beautiful place the Sunshine Coast is.
And we might want to be just comfortable,
beautiful coastline, beautiful beaches,
beautiful hinterland,
less traffic than the average big city out there, right?
And we can really appreciate and just say,
let's just stay here.
Let's just focus on the Sunshine Coast.
But this year, we've gone to the Philippines.
This year, we've gone to Fiji.
We've recently come back from Melbourne.
And you know what is being spoken,
not for the whole world, but a lot of the world,
is the faith of New Life Baptist Church,
the faith of Blessed Hope Baptist Church as well
for those that were part of it.
Our faith is spoken about throughout the whole world.
We've been able to go to other countries,
very receptive countries,
and to show people their need for Jesus Christ.
I mean, that is impressive for a church our size,
to be able to do that, to be equipped by God
and to be able to speak of our faith
in these other places in the world.
I'm thankful that God has utilized us here locally
on the sunny coast, and he's utilized us in other places
in the Melbins.
You know, I'm thankful that God has utilized us
in the Philippines and in Fiji.
And I don't say that to boast.
I mean, we're boasting of Christ Jesus.
We're thankful to him, you know?
And we ought to be thankful that we've been able,
God's utilized us.
He sent us, right, to go to these places.
He's equipped us.
You know, he's given us the finances.
He's given us the resources.
He's given us a time off work to be able to get out there
to other places and express our faith.
You know, our faith is being spoken of
in other places of this world,
because you're willing to say, you know, Lord, send me.
I'm willing to get out there.
I'm willing to show my faith, express my faith,
and to lead people to Jesus Christ.
We ought to be thankful for mission trips,
things alike, things of this nature.
And I never would have thought we'd be doing two
and maybe three, if you want to count Melbourne,
you know, in one year.
When it hasn't been sometimes the greatest year,
there's been some challenges this year as well.
But it seems like when there are challenges,
the Lord just gives us more to do,
to be focused on what's important, his kingdom,
his righteousness, winning souls, serving him,
putting first his kingdom and his righteousness.
Can you come with me to Colossians chapter three?
Colossians chapter three, please.
Colossians chapter three.
Colossians chapter three, verse number 15.
Colossians chapter three.
Colossians chapter three and verse number 15.
The Bible says in Colossians 3, 15,
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts,
to the which also ye are called in one body,
look at this, and be ye thankful.
Brethren, you've been called,
I'm talking about the members here
of New Life Baptist Church.
You've been called in one body.
The one body, the church here is New Life Baptist Church
for you that live in this area, okay?
The Bible says, be ye thankful
that you've been called into this one body.
I hope you're thankful for New Life Baptist Church.
I'm not talking about just our brothers and sisters here,
I'm talking about the fact that we have the body of Christ
operating here on the sunny coast.
Some of you have traveled from Japan and China
to be part of this, like you guys are crazy.
But I'm thankful, I'm thankful that God has moved you
and put you in this one body.
And then he continues in verse number 16.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,
teaching and admonishing one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
That's of course meeting in church,
gathering together in this one body, verse number 17.
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, look at this,
giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
I wanna thank God for New Life Baptist Church.
I wanna thank God for the body
that he's put here on the sunny coast
for allowing me to be part of it,
for allowing me to be the pastor of this church.
And I hope I've been a good pastor, I hope so, I hope so.
I know I'm not a perfect man, I know I got plenty of flaws,
but I hope I've been a hope and a blessing
to you and your families.
I'm thankful for this church, I'm thankful for you,
I'm thankful for what God has done here.
I can't believe it, I can't believe it's seven years.
It blows my mind, you know, when I thought about coming here
and packing our bags and moving up here, I was like,
I don't know if you remember Christina,
where's my wife, at the back.
And I was like, I don't know if we're gonna last two years,
let's see how we go, let's see what happens.
It's not easy, but of course it's God
that's allowed it to happen for seven years.
Wow, praise God, I'm thankful for this body
that God's put me in, you know,
for the different people that I've come across.
Sometimes I might connect with some people
better than others, just because of the nature
of where we are in life and our interests and all that.
But I just want you to know that I love and appreciate
each one of you, honestly.
If I have other families that have left our church
over the years and they're listening tonight,
I love them, I'm thankful for them, truly I am,
that God has allowed them to be part of the body
of the years that we've been here.
And, you know, they're always welcome to return
and be part of this church and to fellowship
and, you know, if God moves them to be part of this church,
be part of this one body, I just praise Him
and I thank the Lord, I thank God.
It's something that I can be thankful for,
for this specific church here on the Sunshine Coast,
New Life Baptist Church.
Can you come with me to 1 Timothy 4,
1 Timothy 4, 1 Timothy 4.
We've got some pizzas on the way, guys.
It is Pizza Hut, I hope you don't mind.
Okay, Pizza Hut, all right, Pizza Hut, on the way,
maybe in, what time is it now?
Maybe in about 10 minutes, 20 minutes,
we should have some pizzas delivered here.
And I say, pastor, you know, Pizza Hut, though, you know,
like, we want the good stuff.
You want the good stuff, make sure you give your tithes.
As we work our way up, you know,
we've gotta afford the good stuff.
But regardless of what it is,
that's why we have this verse here, right?
1 Timothy 4, verse number 4.
For every creature of God is good
and nothing to be refused,
if it be received with thanksgiving,
for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
Hey, let's be thankful God for the food that we have.
Thankful God for the dinner
we're gonna share after the service tonight.
Thankful for God for the lunch
we were able to share today as well.
And the morning tea that we'll have
and the breakfast you have, Reverend, thank God.
You know, when Christ is asked how to pray,
his disciples ask him, can you teach us how to pray?
And Jesus Christ says, you know,
to pray for your daily bread, your daily bread.
You know, we're so spoiled in Australia.
We don't pray for our daily bread.
You just open the pantry, you got the bread there.
Like, you know, you got a full fridge,
you got a full pantry, you know,
and when your full fridge and your full pantry,
when the pantry and fridge are empty,
you just drive a few kilometres
and there's a full shopping centre,
a Coles or a Woolworths, you know,
but there are some places in the world
that don't know if they're gonna eat today
or they're gonna eat tomorrow.
They don't know if there's gonna be a meal on the table.
They have no idea.
And Jesus says, we ought to be praying for our daily bread.
So I'm thankful that we live in Australia.
It's not something we have to stress about normally.
If we miss a meal, it's probably good for us anyway.
So we don't know if it eats.
All right, but you know, I want you to remember that.
The fact that, man, we live in a society, a Western world,
it can be bad because we have a lot of comforts
that, you know, prevents us from really, you know,
serving the Lord to our fullest.
We get really comfortable to be lazy
and laid back, laid back odds is, you know,
but you know, the fact that we have food
that we've been able to nourish ourselves
and no one looks there.
No one looks like they're malnutrition.
No one looks like they're skinny and not eating.
Everyone looks like they're pretty well fed.
The Bible says we ought to be thankful
for even the food that we eat, you know?
Be thankful, you know, when we share tonight
and we gather together and eat.
Be thankful for the breakfast you have tomorrow morning.
Remember, just as you eat that, just try to remember,
I ought to be thankful.
I should be thanking my Lord God
before I partake of this food
because he's given me the daily bread.
Can you come with me to Hebrews 13?
Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13.
Boy, don't we have a lot of things
to be thankful to God about?
There's no need to whine or complain and get discouraged.
And when that happens, which is common
because that's just common part of the failure of man,
we should remind ourselves what we need to be thankful for.
And I forget, I forget, I forget to be thankful.
And so it's good to come around an anniversary
and look, it's just another day, really, right?
It's just another time to serve the Lord,
but I want to pause and really celebrate our anniversaries
because it allows us to think back over the years,
what God has done in our lives and truly shown thanks.
He's a good God.
He's a wonderful God.
He deserves our thanksgiving.
Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13, verse number 15.
By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually.
That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.
You know, there is a sacrifice that God wants us to give.
We're not talking about the Old Testament sacrifices
of the goats and the lambs and the bulls and all of that,
those practices of the old covenant.
No, the practice that God wants us to follow,
a sacrifice that he wants us to give.
And those are the praise, the praise of our lips,
the fruit of our lips.
And I thank you for our church.
One thing I've definitely seen, I'm really thankful,
is the way you guys sing.
Like over the years,
like I remember just starting the church, right?
2017, and I'm song leading and no one knows the songs.
And I'm trying my best to be a song leader.
And it was, look, we did our best.
I think we did our best, but it wasn't that great
compared to how it is today.
And I strongly encourage, like, if there's an opportunity,
I'll speak to the adults here.
If you ever have an opportunity to just walk
into the office, there's no privacy there.
You know, it's a church office.
While the song service is happening,
I'm just telling you the acoustics of this building,
for whatever reason, it just sounds so awesome
up there in that office when you guys sing.
Like, it's amazing.
It's like the sound gets trapped in there
and bounces around in the walls, but it just sounds so good.
And I'm thankful for that.
Our church is just improving in our praises, in our singing,
you know, in the leading of our song leaders.
I mean, these are things we're thankful for.
God wants us to praise Him with our lips.
Please remember to, you know, and I'm at fault,
but you know, try to make sure you're at church on time.
You know, you don't only give attention
and focus to the sermon.
God wants us to be focused and attentive to the singing.
Praising Him, that's our chance to learn some songs.
And you want to make sure that your lips
is in sync with your heart,
that your heart is right with God.
You know, even if your voice isn't the best singing voice,
I want to make sure that your heart is in the right place,
that you sing from your heart.
You just love the Lord.
You thank the Lord.
You want to praise the Lord.
You say, Lord, even if my singing,
my voice is not the best voice out there,
you know, I just want you to know how much I love you.
And I'm just going to lift it up and sing loud to you.
You know, we can thank God with our praises.
And I thank God that He allows us to even sing praises
to Him.
I can't wait to be in heaven.
Could you imagine in heaven with all believers
of all time?
We have like wonderful musicians like David
and great songwriters like Solomon
and like every believer, right?
You turn one side and there's Samson singing alongside,
right?
And you turn this way and there's Abraham.
And then you look over there,
oh, it's the apostle Paul.
And then you look over there,
oh, it's pastor Kevin, ah, whatever.
And then you're like,
oh, we can sing praises all together to the Lord.
And like, how wonderful is it going to sound in heaven?
With the angels, just thanking Him for the God that He is,
for saving us, for loving us, for teaching us,
for allowing us to just thank Him.
And there's something wonderful about praising
and thanking the Lord.
It does good for the soul, does good for your life.
It helps us, you know, to refocus, you know,
instead of being always distracted
with the things that keep us down.
And, you know, I just encourage you,
if you're struggling in your faith,
if you're going through some hardships
on tribulation right now,
just start praising the Lord.
It'll change your life, it'll change your heart.
He gives us this wonderful opportunity to praise Him.
Can you come with me to Romans chapter six,
Romans chapter six, Romans chapter six and verse number 17.
Romans chapter six and verse number 17.
What else can we thank God for?
Well, you know, before you were saved,
when you were in an unsaved condition,
that your works of righteousness, the Bible says,
were like filthy rags.
We truly, when you're unsaved, you really can't do anything.
I mean, you can do good in the sight of man,
but God knows that our goodness is filthy rags.
They don't, you know, line up to His righteousness.
Well, the Bible says here in Romans 6, 17, Romans 6, 17,
but God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin,
but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine,
which was delivered you.
Being then, sorry, being then made free from sin,
look at this, you became the servants of righteousness.
The Bible is saying here that as we serve righteousness,
instead of serving sin, right?
Instead of in the flesh,
just chasing the sinful desires that we have.
We know that God has given us the new man,
the spirit of God within us, right?
The revived spirit, the born against spirits,
well by that spirit, we are now servants of righteousness.
And Paul says, we ought to thank God
that we can serve righteousness.
We ought to thank God that we can do good
in the sight of the Lord.
That truly brethren, when we do righteousness
as a believer, like I shared with you before,
those treasures are laid up for us in heaven.
He's going to reward us when Christ comes back.
He's gonna give us these beautiful rewards
for the work of righteousness that we have done.
It's amazing.
He says, we ought to thank God for that.
Because right now, whatever the unbeliever does,
whatever Mother Teresa did, valued nothing,
he counted for nothing in eternity
because she died and she's in hell right now
because she didn't have a faith solely on Christ alone.
But you do.
You're not some Mother Teresa, but you're saved.
And when you do works of righteousness,
they count for eternity.
And Paul says, we ought to be thankful for that.
All right, instead of our life being vain and empty
and without hope and without direction,
without profit, everything we do,
as long as we're doing it in the new man,
that matters for eternity.
And Paul says, man, we better be thankful for that.
He thanks God that we're no longer servants of sin,
but servants of righteousness.
You're there in Romans, come with me to Romans 14.
Romans 14, verse number five.
One of my favorite topics, Christian liberty.
The Bible says in Romans 14, verse five,
one man esteemeth one day above another,
another esteemeth every day alike.
Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Right now, I'm esteeming today and tomorrow.
You know, seven years, woo hoo!
But some of you might be, ah, another,
it's just another day passed, that's okay.
Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
There's liberty.
Okay, we can live and we can think
and we can operate a little differently one from another.
Okay, it's not a cult.
You don't have to follow me and everything that I do
and how I live and it's gonna create
crazy strange Christians if you do that, okay?
And then it continues in verse number six.
He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord.
And he that regardeth not the day to the Lord,
he doth not regard it.
He that eateth, eateth to the Lord,
for he giveth God thanks.
And he that eateth not to the Lord,
he eateth not and giveth God thanks.
We're talking about Thanksgiving.
It is a good thing to give thanks.
And one thing I am thankful for is Christian liberty.
We don't have to esteem one day alike.
We don't have to eat the same foods, okay?
We don't have to live the same life.
You guys know what the boundaries are.
You know, the laws of God, we are not to commit sin.
I will never teach you to commit sin, all right?
But as long as you stay within those boundaries,
God gives us so much liberty to live out our lives.
And the craziest thing that I've seen in churches
is we've gotta be like the pastor.
And I'm telling you, it creates crazy people,
cult-like people.
God's given us liberty to live our lives.
My wife is not like any other wife here.
And me as a husband, I'm not like any other husband here.
My kids are not like any other kids here.
We're all different.
We all have different personalities.
We all have different preferences
and hobbies that we enjoy.
We all have different emotional reactions,
different things in life.
We all work, men, different hours, different days.
We all have different sized bank accounts.
God has truly given us liberty, and I love liberty.
If someone comes up to me, Pastor Kevin,
you need to do it like this, why?
Because church around the corner does it like that.
Why?
Because pastor over there doesn't like that, why?
It doesn't matter how another church or another pastor
or another family does it.
As long as we're not sinning against the Lord,
he gives us liberty.
I'm thankful for Christian liberty.
I truly am.
Because I find the most interesting people to talk to
are the people that are most different to me.
If you're just like me,
you believe every doctrine just like me,
you raise your kids just like me,
you homeschool your kids like my wife homeschooled our kids.
It's like a boring conversation.
It's like there's nothing to share.
There's nothing different to explore.
The people that are most different
are usually the most interesting people to me.
I get to learn different things.
I love Christian liberty,
and I want you to love Christian liberty
and never force another family or another person
to think or be or eat or esteem one day like you do,
if they don't want to.
It doesn't matter.
I love Christian liberty.
I'm thankful for Christian liberty.
Can you come with me to Psalm 30, please?
Psalm 30.
We're almost done.
I've got two more things that we can be thankful for.
Psalm 30.
Coming back to our Lord God.
Psalm 30, verse number four.
It says,
Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his,
and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
Give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
The Bible says we ought to be thankful
that we have a holy God, his holiness.
The word holy means to be set apart.
You know, our God is unlike anything
that you can lay your eyes on on this earth.
He is separated.
He is without sin.
He is always righteous.
He is always right.
His judgments are pure.
His light in him is no darkness at all.
Our Lord God is holy.
And we ought to be thankful for that.
And our God is not the creation of a man.
He's not some idol that a man created.
He's not some God that Muhammad created in his mind.
Or what's the Mormon guy?
Joseph Smith created in his mind
some God of their imagination.
Or some God of some image or some gold or wood
that people look up to.
Or some golden calf.
I'm glad our God is not the universe.
People say, oh, God's everything.
God's the tree and God's the sky.
And you are God.
No.
Man, if we're God,
I don't want to worship this God.
This world is going like, I don't know,
at the brink of World War Three, potentially, who knows?
This is God?
No.
My God is holy.
He's true.
He's pure.
He's righteous.
He loves me.
And he's my father.
Man, our God is holy.
Very different to what man can create
thinking of who God ought to be.
A God of extreme love, a God of extreme hate.
But always righteous and always true and always pure.
You know, and we remember who just God is.
It is holiness.
The Bible says we ought to give thanks for that.
God, thank you for being different to me.
Thank you for being different to this world
because there's no hope in my flesh.
There's no hope in this world.
There's no hope in the governments of this world.
There's no hope in man.
What's man gonna do?
But our hope ought to be on God, our holy God.
Set apart, he loves us.
Man, what a great God we serve.
One more passage, please.
First Thessalonians, First Thessalonians chapter five.
First Thessalonians chapter five.
And I could go on and on and on.
You know that, right?
Just do a word search for thanks.
This sermon can just go on and on and on, all right?
There's plenty of things to be thankful to God about.
But, so let me just summarize it all
in this one last passage, please.
In First Thessalonians chapter five.
First Thessalonians chapter five and verse number 18.
First Thessalonians,
just in case you're not very thankful tonight,
the Bible says in First Thessalonians 5, 18.
In everything, give thanks.
For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
You come up to me, pastor,
what is the will of God in my life?
Well, God's will is to give thanks in everything.
In everything, give thanks.
For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Now you know what God's will is for you in your life.
You've worked it out.
Didn't take long.
We open up the Bible.
What's God's will for me?
To give thanks in everything.
Give thanks that we're meeting here tonight.
Give thanks for your family.
Give thanks for the clothes that you wear.
Give thanks for the food that you eat.
Give thanks for the friends you have.
Give thanks, even if you grew up in a broken home
and you don't know your family,
give thanks for the family that God has given you.
Give God thanks for your life
that you can even breathe tonight.
If you wake up and you're still alive in the morning,
give God thanks for the new day that he's given you.
If you're able to sleep on a bed or on a pillow,
give God thanks for the pillow.
If you're able to snuggle up to your wife
or a wife to her husband tonight,
give God thanks for your spouse.
If you have children, give God thanks for your children.
If you have shoes, socks, if you have a car,
if you have a road that you can drive on,
if you have water that you can drink, right?
Whatever you have.
If you have a dollar in the bank account
or a thousand dollars or a million dollars
in the bank account, give God thanks in everything.
Every good gift coming from the Father above.
Man, if you are able to just look at life
and you say, Lord, man,
I'm going through tribulation right now.
I'm going through problems right now, Lord.
And you start feeling downcast
and you remind yourself, what is God's will in my life?
To give God thanks in everything.
Oh man, I've got to give God thanks for my tribulation.
I've got to give God thanks for my sickness
that I'm suffering with right now.
Well, I tell you brethren, just being thanksgiving to God,
being thankful to God, God will just encourage you,
motivate, give you great joy in life.
You'll be a different person.
I'm telling you, right?
I mean, it's life-changing to just turn around and say,
God, everything that happens in life,
I'm going to give you thanks.
You crash your car, it's a write-off.
You give God thanks, because now I can get a new car.
Maybe God wants me to have another vehicle.
Thank you, Lord.
If you have a write-off accident
and you still live to tell the tale,
thank God that you're still okay.
Man, really, when you look at life,
what are you not, like think about the things we whine
and complain about.
Is it worth it?
Oh, I wish I had this, I wish I had that.
I wish New Life Baptist Church had a better building.
That's me sometimes.
And then you're like, oh no, hold on,
God's will is to be thankful for everything.
I'm thankful for everything.
I'm thankful tonight because I'm reminding myself
and I want to remind you tonight,
be thankful to God in everything.
Anyway, title of the sermon was,
it is a good thing to give thanks.
It is a good thing to give thanks.
And I hope I've encouraged you or to reminded you tonight,
all the things, I want you to go home tonight.
I want you to lay your head on your pillow tonight
and say, God, thank you.
Thank you for everything that you've given me in life.
And I truly believe God's going to bless you
and bless our church.
That he's going to give our church another seven years.
You know, that we can be a blessing continually
to bless our Baptist Church and to crown Baptist Church
and to brethren all across this land.
If we remember to give God thanks in everything.
Let's pray.