It's not
Good evening, everyone. Merry Christmas. Thank you all for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church
Looks like almost everybody's already sitting down. So if we can go ahead and grab a hymnal
We'll start this evening off in song number 429
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Song 429
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Number four, 29, sing it all together on the first.
Hard the harem angel sing,
Glory to the newborn King.
Peace on earth at mercy mile,
God and sinners rank inside.
Joy.
Excellent singing everybody. Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word prayer.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for step fast Baptist church. We thank you for this
wonderful day, for the gift of your Son Lord. Please feel Pastor Shelley with
your Holy Spirit. Help them to preach and edifying sermons. We can walk out
better Christians. Then we came in for your honor and glory. It's in Jesus' name we
pray. Amen. All right next up you should have a handout in your white handouts. If
I hear from a lot of people that this is their favorite.
So I want to hear you all really loudly.
Oh, holy night, on the first.
Oh, holy night, the stars are brightly shining.
Merry Christmas. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
We have a few bulletins, so if you can share with somebody,
but if you'd like one, you can lift up your hand and we'll hand out some bulletins
if you didn't already get one.
Matthew, chapter 28, verse 5, we are memorizing that passage.
And this evening, since we're doing our Christmas cookie bake-off,
I guess you can double dip. You can get ice cream and cookies.
And so we'll definitely have you in a merry spirit. All right?
Also on the inside we have our service and soul winning times as well as church stats
If you have any soul winning maps make sure you're always turning those into our bins. We'll greatly appreciate that
We have a list of expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for our expecting ladies list
We also have a prayer list. I'm gonna come right back to this on the back
We have the note about the Christmas cookie bake off if you brought cookies at to for our
Event this evening, but you did not fill out a cup
for the voting, you can go ahead and do that right now.
So if you didn't already fill out a cup for the cookies,
you can do that just so that we have those.
As soon as the service is over, all come right up,
and I'll just make a few more quick announcements
about the cookies specifically.
And we are gonna be having a cookie fellowship
immediately following our service.
Everyone is welcome to participate.
We should have milk and
and soft drinks, as well as a lot of awesome cookies
that you guys have made for us.
And so thank you so much for being here
and for letting us have that cookie bake off.
Also, our final song of the evening is going to be a candlelight song and so we're going
to dim the lights and we are going to pass out candles to everybody and we'll have the
song leader start with that light and he's going to pass it off and then we're going
to pass it around in the sanctuary just so you are aware that will be happening.
for our final song this evening.
We have been going through the book of Matthew,
but just since it is Christmas day,
I'm preaching a different message just tonight,
but we'll pick up Matthew chapter number six, God willing.
Next Wednesday, and so if you'd like to join us
for the Bible study, we have that on Wednesday nights.
Also, January 1st is gonna be a special service as well.
We're gonna have a men's popcorn preaching night,
as well as a pizza fellowship immediately following.
So if you'd like to join us for the first,
are a man that's 18 and older and you'd like to preach a sermon you just need to
wear a button-up shirt and tie prepare about a five minute sermon and we'll
just do some popcorn preaching that evening. January 11th and 12th
is a event that I wanted to already put the bullets in,
but I was invited by Pastor Reyes,
the Springcrest Baptist Church, to come out
and preach for them on the 12th.
And so we're also hosting a soul-winning event the day before.
It's going to be at their church where we're going to meet at 9 a.m.
Go out for a couple hours of soul-winning, have lunch,
and then go out for again in the afternoon for a couple hours.
We're going to have a fellowship event.
It's in Houston.
It's kind of the north side of Houston.
And so I just want to put that on your radar.
And we have a ton of events and things scheduled for next year,
but I'll probably wait until Sunday or maybe a little bit further to just give you kind of a whole rundown of the list.
But we've had a great year this year.
And next year, we're going to go even harder.
And so the Bahamas missions trip is coming back next year.
I'm planning on possibly a cruise missions trip.
Is anybody interested in a cruise missions trip?
OK, all right.
So we're going to try and plan something for that.
Also, brother.
Our evangelist Duncan Urbanic is going to be coming back to the States in March and is going to be preaching for us.
And then we're also going to be starting a new ministry in the Philippines with evangelist Urbanic,
but I'm going to let him give a lot of those details.
And so he'll be visiting with us for a couple of weeks in March.
And then also we're going to probably have our spring recital for kids.
We're thinking about doing a kids choir for the Easter services and kids choir for Christmas next.
year. We're trying to plan on doing some CD, Christmas CD album stuff. We've got a
lot of small town soul winning events scheduled. We're gonna be going to back
to Shreveport. We also are gonna try and do one in Oklahoma kind of halfway
between us and Anchor and try to do a soul winning event there. I'm really
excited about Lancaster because it's actually only like 20 or 25 minutes from
us and it looks like a really receptive area that we haven't hit before. So we're
I'm thinking there's actually a couple other ones that I had. We're going to be having the FBBF again next year.
So we'll have our Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship Conference.
And so we have got a jammed pack.
exciting future for next year.
And so it's never been a great,
never been a better time to be a part
of a Stifast Baptist Church.
Also, we're trying to get maybe our soul-winning documentary
done and accomplished by 2025.
And so we'll put that out there.
And so we've got a lot of great stuff.
And I really appreciate you guys
celebrating with us on Christmas
and being part of this church
so that we can do a lot of these fun things.
It's very special to me and my family.
On a Christmas day, how many people are gonna come out,
but we're really full tonight.
A lot of people out here, and I really appreciate you guys
celebrating Christmas with me
and celebrating with our family.
And we're here to really just celebrate
the Lord Jesus Christ.
I do wanna still go through our prayer list,
like we normally do on Wednesday nights.
So we'll go ahead and kinda walk through this quickly,
and then we'll pray as a church.
Here on the list, we've been continuing to pray
for several people here for the name's grandmother.
And also, if you'd add to your prayer list, pray for Charlotte, Ms. Charlotte as well, who's also recovering from sickness.
Pray for the Carlson's mother, Rebecca. Also, if you'd pray for the Miller's friend.
Her mother is struggling with cancer.
If you please pray for Mr. Scott,
he's been struggling with cancer.
Also their mother, Miss Grace, with nerve pain.
If you didn't pray for the Garcia's daughter, Miss Krista,
who's also pregnant, it's very exciting.
Also praying for Brother Tony for his health.
We've been praying for the Foley's for his fiance
and their visa process.
We've been praying for Brother Alex and his work.
We've been praying for the Warner's brother,
Chalmer, who had a knee injury.
We've been praying for recovery
for their hand as his grandmother.
We've been praying for the Good Winds friend, Ms. Sarah, for a recovery for surgery.
Also, we've been praying for Brother Nick's mother, praying for her salvation.
We're praying for Brother Wallach's brother who had an emergency surgery.
I think the surgery went really well, but just continue to pray for his recovery.
Also praying for Brother Stewart for sickness.
his father-in-law, and he's actually also a Baptist pastor, and so if you'd be in prayer for
him and some treatments that he's going through. I also know just a lot of people have been sick
this season. She's been kind of a crazy season for a lot of people, so just be in prayer for
everybody they'd recover. But we're going to go ahead and say a quick word of prayer as a church
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this day.
Thank you for the gift of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and that we could come here and sing praises
unto your son's name and to your name.
I pray that you would just bless this time,
and I pray that you would just be with all these ladies
who are expecting, and we just thank you so much
for the miracle of pregnancy and childbirth.
I pray that you'd just be with them.
Please bless these ladies.
Please bless these children.
I pray that you give them a timely birth.
I pray that you'd also bless those that have recently given birth.
You'd bless their children and their development.
I pray that you'd also help those that we've been praying for.
They've been struggling with cancer and various illnesses and sickness.
Please comfort these people.
Please give them grace.
If possible, give them a miracle and just give them full health and recovery.
I pray that you would just come alongside them so that they wouldn't feel lonely.
I pray that you would help give them...
peace that passes understanding right now. I pray that you would just also bless our friends and
family that are sick, that you'd help them to quickly recover, that you'd help people to be able
to get back into church, and I pray that you'd also just help those who are needing favor with
their jobs, with their work situations. I pray that you would help them. I pray that you'd help
us to have the right attitude and spirit during this month and coming into next year to reach
that we would be able to minister to them.
I pray that you would help us to get the right opportunities
to soften people's hearts.
And I pray that we could have a great harvest
in the following year.
And I pray that you would also just allow our church
to be giving all the glory and honor to your son.
This is his name we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. Go ahead and sing
our third song is Psalm 119. It's in our special handouts and
It's it's gonna be way easier to sing if you use the handout because Psalm 119 has got a lot of verses if you
If you're just using the Bible, but we start in 105
Psalm 119
All right, that's Psalm 119
Sing it out on first
like his church bells.
I am a quick death,
heavy and quick in me.
Oh, for ever, for ever,
once.
Great seeing everybody. As the offering plates are going around would you please turn your
Bibles to Luke chapter number 17. Luke chapter number 17.
Luke chapter 17 the Bible says then said he unto the disciples it is impossible but that
offenses will come but woe unto him through whom they come it were better for him that a millstone
were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea than that he should offend one of these little
ones take heed to yourselves if thy brother trespass against thee rebuke him and if he repent forgive
And if you trespass against these seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn again to the
Saying I repent thou shalt forgive him and the Apostle said unto the Lord increase our faith and
The Lord said if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed
You might say under this sycamine tree be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted in the sea and it should obey you
But which of you having a servant plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him by and by when he has come from the field
Go and sit down to meet and will not rather say unto him make ready wherewith I may sup and guard
Thyself and serve me till I have eaten and drunken and afterward thou shall eat and drink
Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not
So likewise ye when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants
We have done that which was our duty to do
And it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee
And as he entered into a certain village there met him ten ten men that were lepers which stood afar off
And they lifted up their voices and said,
Jesus, master, have mercy on us.
And when he saw them, he said unto them,
go show yourselves unto the priests.
And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed.
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed,
turned back and with a loud voice glorified God
and fell down on his face at his feet,
giving him thanks, and he was a Samaritan.
And Jesus answering said, were there not 10 cleansed,
but where are the nine?
There are not found that return to give glory to God saved this stranger and he said unto him arise go thy way
Thy faith that's made thee whole and
When he was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come
He answered them and said the kingdom of God cometh not with observation
Neither shall they say low here or low there for behold the kingdom of God is within you
And He said unto the disciples, the days will come when ye shall desire to see one of the
days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it.
And they shall say to you, see here, or see there, go not after them, nor follow them.
For as the lightning that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the
other part under heaven, so shall also the Son of Man be in his day.
And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.
They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded, but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
In that day he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come
down to take it away, and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.
Remember Lot's wife, whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever
shall lose his life shall preserve it.
There shall be two men in one bed and the one shall be taken and the other shall be left two women shall be grinding together
The one shall be taken and the other left two men shall be in the field the one shall be taken and the other left
And they answered and said unto him where Lord and he said unto them wheresoever the body is dither
Will the eagles be gathered together? Let's pray dear heavenly father. I want to thank you for
The king of kings coming down being laid in a manger bringing us the free gift of salvation. Thank you for
Such blessings that you've given us
Please help us to give you the glory today, and I pray that you had blessed pastor Shelly as he preaches your word
Please give it give us an edifying sermon and please open our ears to hear in Jesus name
Amen, I want to start back at Luke chapter 17 verse 17 the Bible says in Jesus answering said
Were there not ten cleansed, but where are the nine?
They're not found that return to give glory to God save this stranger.
And...
What I was thinking about in this story is how all ten of these men that were lepers
had received a gift and that gift was healing, was cleansing.
And it's of course to foreshadow the idea of getting saved and how all you have to simply
do is trust the Word of the Lord and you receive salvation.
The Bible says we simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we're saved.
And so God often uses these type of carnal examples to illustrate the spiritual truth
and they needed healing, and they received that healing physically
as a picture of what it's like to be saved, where you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
you receive that spiritual healing as it were.
And what we can kind of glean from the story is, though,
that even though many people will receive the free gift of salvation,
and even though many people received at this time free healing,
very few are willing to say thank you.
We notice just by percentages of the story, 90%,
because nine out of 10, don't even say thank you.
I mean, that's kind of crazy when you think about it.
He says in verse 18,
there are not found that return to give glory to God.
Save this stranger.
Additionally, he's bringing up the stranger, which could be a replacement theology discourse
that we could go on, but I'm not really headed that direction for this sermon.
Really, I really just kind of wanted to focus on this idea of saying thank you or appreciating
the gift that you received, because on Christmas Day, most of us have probably received a gift.
And, of course, if you're saved and in the building you for sure received a gift,
that gift was eternal life through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we have to understand that when we receive a gift, we need to do something.
We need to say thank you.
And so the title of my sermon is simple, when you receive a gift.
When you receive a gift and here's point one say, thanks. It's pretty simple when you receive a gift say, thank you
Say thanks. It's it seems so obvious
It seems so simple, but let me tell you something our world today is not very good at even saying thank you
Our world today is not saying thanks and there's very few people
willing to say thank you to the Lord Jesus Christ even for the gift of salvation.
Think about how many people that you go out to and you minister to,
you preach the gospel, did they get saved at the door? How they never even go to church
one time. They never even just one time return to church and just say
thanks to God. I mean the Lord Jesus Christ had to come to the earth, humble
himself,
go to the cross, go to hell and be risen again for them
to say thank you for what God has done unto them, but that is the reality that very few people today
are willing to say thank you when they receive a gift. But let me tell you something, if you
received a gift today, you better say thank you to the person that gave you a gift. Now go if you
would to Psalm chapter 18. If you're saved, you better say thank you to the Lord Jesus Christ
The Bible makes it clear for the rest of our lives we need to be thanking God and thanking the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation.
The Bible just says this over and over again and repeats it.
I'm just reading, I'm gonna read tons of verses to you as well.
The Bible says, give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the people. The Bible just
explicitly commands us to give thanks unto the Lord.
It also says in 1 Chronicles 16 verse 34, oh give thanks
unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth forever.
Why should you continually give thanks unto the Lord?
Well, because your salvation lasts forever.
So every single day is just another day
that you got that gift of eternal life in a sense
because it never expires.
Therefore, you might as well say thank you
every single day that you have it.
And praise God, you can never lose it.
Praise God that salvation is eternal. Praise God that it's already settled. Praise God that have already been redeemed.
I've already been saved. I've already been sealed under the day of redemption.
And so every day I can say thank you again to God for my salvation.
Psalm 18 verse 46 the Bible says the Lord liveth and
blessed be my rock and let the God of my salvation be exalted.
It is God that avenges me and subdued the people under me.
He delivered me from mine enemies.
Yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me.
Thou hast delivered me from the violent man.
Therefore...
Will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name?"
Notice it says in verse 49,
Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord.
When you receive a gift from God,
therefore means you should, what?
Then give thanks to the Lord for that.
When you're delivered from the enemy, specifically like death and hell,
you should say thanks on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not only that, when He continually delivers us in this life
and from constant enemy, constant persecution, constant affliction,
the Bible says that we are to give thanks unto God and we are to sing praises unto His name.
Have you ever noticed in the Psalms, there's a theme?
There's a theme in the Psalms.
And let me explain what the theme is.
The godly person is being persecuted by countless enemies and then he's constantly delivered and then he's constantly singing praise to God.
I mean that is just, I mean if you read the Psalms, you'll notice a pattern real quick.
Just read the first ten and they're all short.
It is just innumerable enemies, innumerable opposition, constant affliction,
And the psalmist is praising God for the deliverance that he keeps offering him and keeps delivering him.
And you know, if you live the Christian life, it's going to be the same way,
where you're going to have innumerable enemies, countless adversaries, countless afflictions,
and God's is constantly delivering you, and you're supposed to constantly praise him and say,
thank you for the deliverance. We need to constantly be praising him and singing praises
Can you imagine going to some of these lame, non-denominational churches?
What enemies are they even singing about getting delivered from?
The Starbucks barista getting their coffee order wrong?
I mean, like, I don't even know this non-persecution Christianity.
It's going to be hard for them to sing the Psalms.
And they even get offended at the Psalms.
If you showed them Psalm 139 from our church, they would be offended.
They would think like, how could you ever hate anybody?
There's no one bad enough to ever hate.
How could you ever feel like Psalm 58,
which is on the docket, we're about to start singing that one.
And boy, it's rough.
Break their teeth in their mouth, oh God.
That's what it says.
I'm gonna sing it, okay?
And you know why I'm gonna sing it?
Number one, because it's God's word.
Number two, because it's relevant, all right?
Number three, because I feel it, okay?
And number four, because I want it to happen and you know what, when it happens, I'm going to say thank you to God for doing it.
You know, and some people think the Psalms are gnarly because they are.
Well, you read it correctly.
But you know what, I like the Psalms.
But you know, when you live the Christian life, we are going to go through opposition.
We're going to go through difficulty.
is if we go through strong adversaries, strong affliction,
God delivers us, and then he's like, where are the nine?
And you know, I think there's a lot of people like that.
I think there's people that have been part of our congregation,
part of our church, that have been delivered from enemies,
countlessly, and now my question is, where are the nine?
Where are you? Are you still giving thanks unto the Lord Jesus Christ from having delivered you from the last enemies?
Because you know when you're not thankful sometimes he stops delivering you
Sometimes he stops giving you the deliverance and the grace and the help that you need
You know we need to make sure that we're constantly thanking God and giving him glory and lifting him up
So they'll constantly deliver us because let me know let me tell you something. I know God's delivered us many times
God has been gracious unto us and God has been our helper and God has been our fortress and God has been our rock and
God has given us not only spiritual salvation
He's given us physical salvation and we are to exalt him
We are to set him apart in our hearts and our minds and our service and our worship our worship is to set apart God
You know people love a lot of contemporary music today and I'm not really against the style so much
But when it comes to specifically
The lyrics and the wording it's not exalting and setting apart God the same as the hymns. I
Mean again, I like the style of the hymns better anyways
But I'm just saying like I'm not so much mad about style when it comes to music as much it is the lyrical composition
And when the lyrical composition is not exalting the Lord Jesus Christ and the most God-honoring way,
well, we need to re-evaluate our music.
You know, when I talk to people at the door, I'll often say,
hey, we sing the Psalms and the hymns and spiritual songs because we think it's the most honoring to God.
That's why we sing them.
We're not just singing them because we're sticks in the mud.
We're not just singing them because other people used to.
We're singing them because, show me a better song.
Show me a song that honors God more and I'll sing it.
Show me a song that's giving more thanks under the Lord Jesus Christ. That's more doctrinally sound
That's more in line with the word of God and I'll sing it. But you know what these timeless hymns. It's hard to beat folks
It's hard to beat. I mean the doctrine coming off these pages is better than the NIV
I
Mean this book is often more inspired than the NIV
It's just, it's just King James Bible verses
after King James Bible verses.
And you know what, that's why I love it
because I love God's word.
And we need to be saying thanks unto the Lord
for what he's done and sing praises unto his name.
Look at Psalm 30 and look at verse number three.
Psalm chapter 30, verse number 3,
I love that our church sings the Psalms.
I love that people are willing to learn new music
and practice and play skillfully
and play with a loud noise,
Psalms unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we don't even want them to just be like,
we did it, we want them to be good.
We want them to be something that we can be pleased with and that God will be pleased with.
God wants us to play skillfully and to use our talents for His honor and for His glory.
Psalm 30, look at verse 3.
Thou'st kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit.
Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his,
and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness."
You know, when we talk about salvation,
We don't declare our righteousness, we declare His righteousness for the remission of sins.
And we are to say thanks under the remembrance of His holiness, His righteousness,
because that's what gave us salvation.
His sinless and perfect life, His sacrifice is what gave us that deliverance from what?
From the grave.
From the fact that I will not go down to the pit.
Praise God, I will never go to hell.
Praise God, I'll never descend down into the pit.
What a great thing to remember about God and His holiness.
And now, Lord Jesus Christ was perfect and yet He went for us.
Yet He descended down into the deep.
Yet He was down there suffering the affliction of hell.
The Bible makes it clear that He was not enjoying Himself.
Have you ever read Jonah chapter number two?
Out of the belly of hell cried I.
The Bible makes it clear in Acts chapter number two that it was suffering in affliction and you know what?
He didn't even deserve it. We do
That's something that we could sing in them. Look at verse 10 hero Lord and have mercy upon me Lord be that my helper
Thou has turned for me my morning into dancing. Thou has put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness to the end
That my glory may sing praise to thee and not be silent. Oh Lord my God
I will give thanks unto thee forever
Hey, you know when you're gonna stop saying thanks into God never
We need to say thanks now. We need to say thanks tomorrow. We need to say thanks next year
And then when we die and we go to heaven
We're gonna still be giving thanks unto the Lord Jesus Christ and unto God for the things
He gives us because when you receive a gift you say thanks and
There's not a better gift. I want you to go to Psalm 118
I'm just gonna read a bunch for you. I will give the thanks in the great congregation. I will praise the among much people
I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.
So we thy people and sheep of thy pastor will give thanks, give thee thanks forever.
We will show forth thy praise to all generations.
You know why it's important to say thank you to God every single year?
Because we have new babies every single year.
Because we have new five-year-olds every single year.
because we have new kids getting saved every year,
because we have new kids getting baptized every year,
because we have new teenagers,
because we have new young adults,
because we have new people just being brought in from church.
And we need to say thank you to the Lord Jesus Christ
in the presence of all generations.
We want to teach our children and our grandchildren
and everybody that we are thankful to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, as a grandparent,
you have a great opportunity to administer to your grandchildren.
And I think a lot of grandparents, they look at retirement
and being a grandparent is like an ejection seat
to work or something, right?
Like I'm finally done with kids or something.
But to me, I would think like, wow,
now I have an opportunity to administer even more people.
Now I have grandkids.
And to me, it's even better because you don't have to do
all the dirty labor, the dirty jobs.
You can do all the fun stuff.
You can just have fun, show up and leave.
Hey, you need to change your diaper.
You don't even have to do all that stuff.
No, you could.
I'm not saying you can't.
I mean, you could be helpful.
It would be nice.
You can share all the nice recipes and all the tips and tricks to parenting and everything
like that.
But you really don't have to do necessarily all the sleepless nights.
and all the other hard parts that come along with parenting.
Now you get to enjoy.
But don't be these grandparents that just run away
and hide and say they're done.
No, no, be a grandparent that's actually involved
in your children's lives and your grandchildren's lives.
And there's been a lot of people
who their grandparent was influential in their life.
Who would say my grandparent was pretty influential in my life?
Yeah, look around.
And you know what, even if you didn't have that, you could be that for somebody else.
You could be that for your grandchildren.
Psalm 118, look at verse 1, O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, because his
mercy endureth forever.
Why should I thank God today?
Because his mercy endureth every single day.
So I should say thank you to him.
You never have a day where you can't say thank you unto the Lord Jesus Christ.
But where are the nine?
What are the nine doing? Are the 90% always giving thanks? Probably not.
Look at verse 29, same chapter.
O give thanks on the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth forever.
Sounds like God's trying to get a message clear to us.
Hey, his mercy is gonna last forever. Look at Psalm 119 and verse 62, so it's kind of in the middle.
Verse 62 says, at midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee,
because of thy righteous judgment.
This guy is so thankful, he wakes up in the middle of the night,
and you know, maybe he had to use the bathroom,
maybe he had to get a drink of water.
You know, my kids, it's always, they have to get lipchaps.
I don't know, what in the world is this?
This is what we call, basically, you know,
they wanna get something like BlistEx or something.
That's what we call that, lipchaps.
I don't even know why that name.
It probably makes no sense to anybody else, but.
Whose kids want BlistEx or something in the middle of the night?
Okay, my kids are unique.
All right, it's weird.
But you know, there's a lot of reasons
why you might have to get up in the middle of the night.
But this guy's like, hey, I'm still alive, I'm still kicking, it's midnight, I'm going to give thanks unto God.
Why? Because that should be our attitude to just be an attitude where we're just constantly saying thank you to God for everything that we have.
You just, you wake up in the middle of the night, thank you, sing praise.
I mean, there's a great story in Acts chapter number 16 where Paul and Silas at midnight are singing praises unto God and thanking God and then he just breaks the chains.
There's never a bad time to praise God. It's not like only at church. You're not at church at midnight. Well, hopefully not. All right
He's he's at home. He's in his bed. He's with his children
He's he's coming out of sleep because notice it says that midnight. I will rise this guy was sleeping
He was in he was asleep and he's like, hey, I got out of bed. I'm gonna make sure to thank God
That's what we should do
Go to Psalm
136
The Bible says, let us come before His presence with Thanksgiving and make a joyful noise
unto Him with Psalms.
The Bible says in Psalm 100, enter into His gates with Thanksgiving and into His courts
with praise.
Be thankful unto Him and bless His name.
We should come to church to be thankful to God and to bless God and to bless His name
and to glorify Him.
We're here for God.
We're here for the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is Christmas where we're celebrating Christ.
Think of Christmas as what presents you're going to get
and all the fun you're going to have, the great meals,
the great fellowship, the great time, and there's nothing wrong with celebrating with family and friends
and enjoying all the things that God's given you, but just say thank you to God for it.
Say thank you to God for the presents that you get today.
Say thank you to God for the wife that you have say thank you to God for the husband that you have
Say thank you to God for the children that you have say thank you to God for the parents that you have
Say thank you to God for the grandparents and the extended family and the friends that you have
Say thank you to God for the meals that you got to have say thank you to God that you had a time
You got you got time off today probably and a lot of us got paid time off
You got paid
To open presents
Think about that. Welcome to America. You don't live in communism, where you don't get paid for working.
Where you don't get presents, where you don't get time off, where you're not going to celebrate Christmas in a communist nation.
You know why? Because communism is anti-Christ. You don't have the freedom to worship the Lord Jesus Christ in a communist hellhole.
You live in America, where you get to praise the Lord Jesus Christ and you get time off.
You live in America where Sunday is set apart as a holy day where people are expected to go to church
Where the highway is cleared off for the most part. I mean a lot of us live pretty far from the church. I
Am so thankful that Sunday. It's not busy. Isn't that nice?
I mean you come on a Wednesday and you don't praise God. It's Christmas because nobody was out driving to church today
It was nice, but normally on a Wednesday boy, it's rough. You coming from all over it could take an hour
It could take an hour and a half. It could take two hours
There are some people that probably drive almost two hours sometimes to come to church and you know what praise God for Sunday being set apart
You know you should say thank you to God whereas some people would say I have to drive 25 minutes to church
You should be thankful you get the opportunity to drive 25 minutes to church
And not just any church, a great church because you know what, this group of people are special.
And you know what church is? It's people. It's not a building. We don't have the nicest building.
In fact, we're probably on the bottom of the list, okay?
We don't necessarily have the best things from a carnal perspective.
We're not five minutes from your house. We don't have necessarily everything in the budget of other bigger churches.
And I love the the carnal things that God's given us, but I'm not coming here for the carnal things
I'm coming here for the spiritual things and boy find me a better group of people you're not gonna find in this area
This is a great group of people and you should be thankful that you can come to a church
That has been purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ
You should be thankful for a church where the vast majority of us are saved
You should be thankful for a church that's King James only you should be thankful for a church
That has so many people dedicating themselves to play music up here. There was a lot of times where we sing a cappella
There were a lot of times where it's just me and the trumpet
And I was very thankful with the trumpet because it's great
But it was just the Trump, I mean it's been years and me just like kind of like begging
You know or nagging one of the two, you know people like hey
You want to come up here and play and you know praise God for a lot of the young youthful people that have decided to dedicate
Themselves and come up here and play I guess they're not as embarrassed as all you adults out there
Okay, because there's some adults out here that can play and they just won't do it
All right, but praise God for the children that'll do it
Praise God for them that'll step up to the occasion.
You know what, praise God and thank God that we have consistent pianists
because I just love the piano so much.
And I love all the other instruments.
And you know what, we should be thanking God for what we have.
We should be thanking God for what He's given us.
When someone gives us a gift, we say thank you.
And you know, we should look at these things as gifts.
You know the Bible calls pastors and evangelists and teachers in the Bible?
Gifts.
It calls them gifts and you know what if you have a good pastor, a good evangelist, a good
deacon, a good one, it's a wonderful gift and you should say thank you to God for that.
What does Psalm 136 say?
Verse 1, O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth forever.
Look at verse 2.
O give thanks unto the God of gods for his mercy endureth forever.
Look at verse 3.
O give thanks to the Lord of lords for his mercy endureth forever.
O give thanks unto the God of heaven, for his mercy endureth forever.
Praise God that salvation lasts forever, and praise God that it's coming from the God
of God, the Lord of lords, the God of heaven.
There's not a higher authority, there's not a greater authority.
Because you know we could get mercy from a lower level judge, a lower level God, a lower
level ruler, and it wouldn't matter when the higher one overrules that.
When the higher court rules, but you know what? The highest court has already ruled and his mercy endures forever
praise God
That's the God that we worship go to the New Testament go to Matthew chapter number 11. I want to look at some New Testament mentions here
Point one simple and I'm just gonna hammer it in
When you receive a gift say thank you, and I think a lot of us just forget how many gifts were actually given
I think a lot of us have forgotten all the things that we have,
how much of a blessing and how much God has given us,
and how gracious He's been unto us, and especially us that live in America.
We get to live very privileged and special lives.
because God has been very favorable to us and of course there's other great places to live in the world there's cool places
But I'm just saying I'm very thankful to be an American. I'm very thankful to live in Texas
I'm very thankful to live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area because I think that it's a very special place to live and I love it
And if you know me, I am always praising this area. Maybe to a fault, okay, but that's because I'm so thankful that I get to live here
I get to live in one of the coolest places.
I get to live, I love the weather here.
I love the church here.
I love the soul winning here.
I mean, it's just, there's so many great reasons
to live here.
And it's Texas.
I mean, it's not like one of these lesser known states.
Cause you ask a lot of people, you'd be like,
hey, can you draw on a map where Iowa is?
Unless you're from that region,
a lot of people probably wouldn't be able to do it.
You you name some of these and I'm not trying to dog on Iowa. I'm just saying like you know if you said where's Texas?
Everybody knows where Texas is
It's like some of these smaller New England colonies and stuff
I mean you'd be confused between Pennsylvania and Massachusetts
You know you got into the Midwest and it's like it's all just lines on a paper. You don't even know what it is
Anymore, Kansas. It's like somewhere
But we live in Texas, great history, great food.
I mean I love living here and you know what we should be thankful for what God has given
us.
We should be thankful of course for the spiritual blessings God has given us and this is what
I notice in Jesus Christ's ministry pretty much any time he gets a chance to just pray
or say something.
Whatever he asks like wherever he's at whatever's going on. He just makes sure to say thank you
Look what it says in verse 25 Matthew chapter 11 verse 25 at that time Jesus answered and said I
thank the oh father
Lord of heaven and earth
Because thou has hid these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes now
This is a funny prayer to me
Because he's basically like he's like saying I'm thanking you God that these people don't understand the Bible
Like, think about it. He's like, I'm so glad, I'm so thankful that these arrogant pricks don't understand the Bible.
That these jerks, that these prideful, snobbish theologians can't understand the things of the Bible.
And that people that are simple, people that are very uneducated, they understand the great wisdom of the Word of God.
He's thanking God for that. And if you can thank God for that, I'm thinking that it's off the charts what you can thank God for.
I mean, if you're thanking God for people being stupid, then, you know, I mean, basically,
I'm thinking like everything's on the table, right?
I mean, that's what he's doing.
Go to chapter 15, go to verse 36.
Any time that something happens, Jesus is just saying, thank you.
You know?
Hey, I'm so glad that this arrogant, snobbish Calvinist doesn't understand the Bible, and
that this plumber over here understands it.
That's what he's saying.
And it's probably because, you know,
prideful people just rub us the wrong way.
Rubs God the wrong way.
They rub the Holy Spirit the wrong way.
And so he likes the humble person
over the prideful person,
regardless of their education,
regardless of their intellect,
regardless of how much studying they've done.
And you know what?
Why would you be thankful for that?
Because not all of us are born studious,
not all of us are born having a high intellect.
And what it shows is that God is not a respecter of persons.
You know what it shows?
That God loves even the simple.
God loves people that are not very educated.
God loves people wherever they're at.
As long as they'll humble themselves and trust in His Word,
God will reveal unto them great wisdom and great truths in the Bible.
And they can be smarter than the smartest person in the world.
You can be much smarter and much wiser than Jordan Peterson,
if you'll just believe the Bible.
than many of these theologians even, many of the Catholic Church fathers,
you'll be much wiser than them.
St. Augustine or St. Augustine, however you want to say, I don't care, it's all done.
Hey, you can be so much more wise than, you know, the father of the Catholic Church,
if you just believe the Bible.
and that's something to thank God for.
Thank you that we don't have to read 5,000 books
in order to understand the wisdom of God.
Thank you that I don't have to read the entire Talmud or something.
Praise God, I don't have to go to some seminary
for eight years to understand the Bible.
Praise God that I can just believe the Bible
and be filled with the Holy Spirit of God
and that the Holy Ghost can guide me into all truth
with none of my own wisdom and knowledge on the table.
God can just open my mind and reveal great wisdom and truth to me if I'll just humble myself and just give him the
Praise and give him the honor and give him the glory and you know what you know
I gives it to simple people because they're more likely to say thank you than the smart guy because the smart guy
I'll be like look how smart I am
Look how wise I am of course I figured it out
But the problem is the smart guy didn't figure it out
The simple guy figured out and you know what Jesus said I thank thee
Matthew 15 verse 36, and he took the seven loaves and the fishes and gave thanks.
What's the first thing he does when he has the meal?
He gives thanks.
You know, this was a miracle.
He's feeding 5,000.
He's feeding a couple thousand, like 4,000 and another, it's basically a repeat.
The story happens two different times.
He feeds two different large groups of people, but you know what he does?
He says thank you and you know what when you have a meal you should say thanks
Go to Matthew 26. Hey, when you receive a gift say thanks. What is the Lord's Prayer? Give us this day our daily bread
You know what you should we just look at food is like
Something that we got ourselves or by our own power our own might or own wisdom or whatever
But we should look at every meal as a gift from God
Every meal because frankly speaking we hardly did anything to contribute to the meal sitting before us
There was somebody else that grew it, there was somebody else that planted it,
there was someone else that nurtured it, there was someone else that pulled that calf out of its mother,
there was someone else that fed that calf, and then took it to the fattening yard, okay,
and they fattened that calf, and then they went and took them to the finishing yard,
and then the finishing yard took them to the slaughterhouse, and then some machine shoved a rod in its head,
And then they diced it all up.
Then they had to put it in plastic packing.
Then they had to send it to the packing house.
Then they packed it.
Then the packer sent it to some distributing warehouse.
Then distributing the warehouse sent it to a grocery store.
Then some kid on an app went and delivered it to my house.
And then my wife put it in the oven and cooked it.
It was really, really good.
And then I ate it.
And I'm thinking like,
there was so many people involved that were not me.
For me to enjoy this delicious meal. I should say thank you that I got to eat this beef. I
Should thank you that I got to eat this bread. I mean how many of you have planted wheat this year?
You should say thank you for the bread you get to eat
And let me say this, even if you planted wheat, it was God that reigned on that wheat.
It was God that allowed the nutrients in that soil to cause those seeds to germinate,
and to bring forth and to spring and to bud and to bring forth a harvest.
And it was God that held back the hail and held back the locusts and held back the devourer.
for your sake, so that that crop would come to fruition. It was God that gave you a
capitalistic society to where you could go to the grocery store and have virtually any kind of food that you want.
It's God that allows the supply chain of the America to provide us with so many opportunities
for food and all these things and we just simply just think like, oh food
just it's just automatic. No, it's not automatic.
It's a gift and you know what you do with gifts? You say thanks. You should say thank you for every single meal that you get
What does it say in Matthew 26 verse 27? He took the cup and gave thanks and
Gave it to them saying drinky all of it. Hey when they're having the Lord supper. What does the Lord Jesus Christ do first?
Says thanks
Hey, we should follow Christ's example and we should say thanks
when we get something from God. Go to Acts chapter 27, go to Acts chapter 27.
I want us to be a thankful church.
Nothing is more embarrassing
than when people are given so many things
and instead of saying thank you, they complain.
You know, and we
fellowship with other people, sometimes we go to other events. Please do not be
one of these people.
That shows up at another church's event and instead of saying thank you for the meals and the lodging and the transportation
All the stuff they give you you're complaining about it
You're complaining about the oh, I don't want to eat there. I don't want to go here. I don't like this transportation
No, you should be saying thank you
She's saying thank you to these things. You know what? It's embarrassing
When people aren't saying thank you for the things that they're given and they're just complaining about it and having a bad attitude about it
We should be a thankful group of people we are Christians. We have been given eternal life
We should be the one the ten percent the one not the nine
Where are the nine?
Complaining doing their own thing selfish. No, we should be saying thank you
You need to get in a habit of saying thank you all the time
Saying thank you not only to God but to everyone in your life
But we're focusing here on God because we have to realize that's the first person to thank and that's where everything's coming from anyways
Now, look at Acts chapter 27, look at verse 34, this is the Apostle Paul.
Wherefore I pray you to take some meat, for this is for your health, for there shall not
in hair fall from the head of any of you.
And when he had thus spoken, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of
them all, and when he had broken it, he began to eat.
What did the Apostle Paul do?
He said, thank you, before he had his meal, before he ate.
Hey, that's a good pattern that we're seeing, aren't we?
He's saying thank you.
Go to Romans chapter number one.
Thankfulness is an attribute of a Christian.
It's one as a disciple, it's one as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Murmurs and complainers are people that God got mad at in the wilderness and destroyed.
And you'll notice the Bible teaching a very interesting pattern.
Godly people say thank you, ungodly people don't say thank you.
Let me prove this to you.
Now, Romans chapter number one, look at verse eight first.
It says, first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all,
that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
So the apostle Paul is constantly thanking God
for the church at Rome, for the Romans.
Look at verse 21.
Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God.
Neither were thankful.
Did you notice that one of the attributes of being a reprobate,
of being someone that hates God,
is someone that was not thankful for the things that God did for them?
They're not thankful for their life, they're not thankful for their parents,
they're not thankful for the free gift of salvation, they're not thankful for their food,
they're not thankful for anything, and in fact they don't even want to retain God in their own knowledge
and you know what, God gives them over to a reprobate mind,
because they weren't thankful. And you know what, we need to teach our children to be thankful.
If you got presents today kids, you better say thank you.
First to God and then secondly to your parents.
And if you think, you know, in Santa Claus,
and that's a different story,
you talked to your parents about that, all right.
Romance chapter number six, go there.
Romance chapter number six.
I never understood the whole Santa Claus dialogue too much
because I ruined it for other kids.
When I was in school,
I always told everybody the truth about that.
But I just remember saying like,
isn't it weird that everybody gets you presents
but your parents on Christmas?
And I was like the whole straight doesn't even make sense. Okay, plus I also caught my parents whenever, you know, I was a kid so
Romans chapter number six look at verse 17
But God be thanked that you were the servants of sin
But you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Notice God should be thanked that we're no longer the servants of sin that were saved.
And how were we saved?
We obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine.
You know I saw this Catholic post and it was like salvation by works is better than salvation
by doctrine.
Well even if it was better it doesn't matter because the only thing that matters is what's
salvation by works just doesn't save you even if you thought about it because
they were saying well but if salvation is by works even if we're wrong we still
help somebody oh okay but here's the problem the Catholic Church doesn't
help anybody I mean what what is it the Catholic Church doing I mean I've never
you know how many times I've been helped by a Catholic I can't I can't think of
any there was never this time where I'm just like randomly just walking down the
It just never happened.
In fact, the only time I can remember like Catholics specifically is them inviting me
to keggers at their church to get drunk.
How is that helping me?
Now look, I know people in my life personally that are Catholic and they're very nice people.
They're very kind.
I like Catholic people.
But let me just explain something to you.
They're not just magically doing all these special works that other normal people aren't
I've met Indian people that worship all kinds of gods and they were nice.
I've met people that are Calvinists and they were nice.
I've met people that are Methodists that are nice.
I've met people that were atheists and were nice to me.
But you know what? Being nice is not the works of God.
You know what's the works of God? The Word of God.
Telling someone how to escape hell.
And you know what? A Catholic's never told me how to escape hell.
If a Catholic truly believed salvation was by works,
wouldn't they come up to me and say,
hey, you need to do some works, buddy,
because I want you to go to heaven?
A Catholic has never told me how to go to heaven.
Even if it was by works, why wouldn't you tell them that?
They're not telling anybody
because they don't even know they're going to heaven.
Knock on a Catholic's door.
Knock on people's door.
No, I'm thankful that I'm saved by doctrine and I'm so glad it wasn't by works because we wouldn't be able to do the works
Anyways, I'm so glad it's by just believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and that's what doctrine me doctrines is belief
I believe in Jesus. He saved me. That's how I was escaped from a servant of sin. Look at Romans chapter 8 verse 24
Romans chapter number 8 verse 24
Hey, when I received the gift of salvation, I said thank you and I should say thank you every single day of my life
Not only have I been saved, I've been given all kinds of things, and I need to say thank you to God every single day.
Romans chapter 8 verse 24, the Bible says,
Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
How many times is it possible I'm going to thank God in this one epistle?
And just the same epistle, he's thanking God over and over and over and over again.
That should be our attitude.
We should be a person that's just constantly thanking God.
And let me ask you this question.
How many times have you thanked God today?
Be honest with yourself.
This sermon is not about other people, it's about you.
How many times today have you thanked God?
Did you thank God when you woke up this morning?
Did you thank God for the presence that you got today?
Have you thanked God for your spouse today?
Have you thanked God for your children today?
Have you thanked God for your job today?
Have you thanked God for this church?
Have you thanked God for the things in your life?
Or are you thinking about yourself today?
And then we'll ask, where are the nine?
The overview of Ephesians chapter one.
But thanks be to God, which giveeth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.
We need to be thanking God even more for our salvation, for his unspeakable gift and what he's given us.
And when I say, saying thank you, I want to be really clear.
I'm saying with your mouth, you verbally and audibly say thank you.
I'm not saying it, like some people get weird about this, they're like, I say thank you
by showing up.
No, no, no.
We're talking about actually opening your mouth and your lips and allowing the air to
flow out and making a sentence saying thank you.
You should say thank you.
Don't think that you're saying thank you to people when you're not saying thank you.
Well, I burped after the meal.
No, no, no.
You say thank you.
You know, we need to get in the habit of constantly saying the words, thank you.
Thank you to the people in our lives.
That should be in our vocabulary.
That should be something that we're constantly doing.
Don't think like, well, I thought it.
No, say it.
Say it.
You know, this is not about the sermon.
It's different.
But you should also be saying, I love you to the people that you love too in your life.
Not just...
Not just thinking it or or showing it. You should say it. We need to be saying it
We need to be using our why did God give you a mouth?
You know why God even gave you a mouth is so that you could actually open it and say thank you
and say, I love you, and say the things that are actually meaningful.
And you know what? God likes them.
They're free will offerings of the mouth.
They're free will offerings of the lips.
We don't offer animal sacrifices.
We don't offer the incense and all the things of the Old Testament.
You know what we offer?
We offer the praise and the sacrifices of our lips.
by opening our mouths and telling God, thank you.
We need to do that.
Ephesians chapter one, verse 15,
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.
Notice what the apostle Paul is saying.
When I get on my knees and I pray,
I'm saying thank you to God for you existing.
Well, I don't even know how long
the apostle Paul's prayer list is,
Because he's got a lot of churches, he's got a lot of people, he's got a lot of things.
But you know what?
He is just constantly saying, thank you.
Notice what he said.
This is what he said.
He's ceasing not to give thanks, meaning he's just always, he's just so thankful for these
people and his life.
Here's a question.
Have you even one time ever said thank you to God for your brothers and sisters in Christ,
for your church?
Are you even thanking God for the people in your life?
I mean, I wonder if you would get along with people
in this room more if you were actually thanking God
for them every once in a while.
I wonder if you would let things go
if you're actually thanking God
for having people in your life.
And you know, we all have our own quirks
and we're all kind of weird
and some people get along better with others.
But if we were just to take a random hundred people
out in this world and all get together,
boy, you wouldn't like them at all.
You should be thankful. I mean the weirdest person in this room is still so much more normal than just the average person outside these walls
And I think that we get hyper focused on our differences
We get hyper focused on on the uniqueness
We don't realize that we're like 99.999 percent similar and like point zero zero one percent different
And then people want to just still make a big deal about that point zero zero one or something
And it's like we should rather be just thanking God constantly for one another and for our church.
Look at verse 17.
according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead
and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and
might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which
is to come and has put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things
to the church which is his body, the fullness.
of him that filleth all in all.
Now this is interesting, this is like a sentence.
This is like a super long sentence.
And what was the point?
He's thanking God for the church at Evisus
and he wants God to notice in verse 17,
give him a spirit of wisdom and revelation
and the knowledge of him.
He wants them to understand the Bible
and be filled with all the knowledge of the word of God.
And then in verse 18, so they would understand.
They would realize what the Bible's teaching, okay?
They would understand the greatness of God.
They would understand the working of God.
That they would recognize the gospel.
They would recognize the power and the majesty that's been given of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that they would realize that He is the head of the church
and that what the church is, is it's us, which are the body.
And notice the fullness of Him that filled all and all.
One person cannot truly embody all the majesty, glory, and wonder of the Lord Jesus Christ.
One person cannot truly model or example all of the great things about God.
And through all of us, we all have our tiny part in showing some of the wisdom and glory and majesty of God,
because we're all different parts of the body.
So some of us are showing the charity of God, some of us are showing the ministry of God,
some of us are showing the preaching of God's Word, some are showing the humility of God's Word.
We all have our different gifts, we all have our different roles,
to explain and experience the glory of God.
And he's saying, I'm constantly praying for you guys
that we would all be filled with the Spirit of God,
that we'd all have the wisdom of God,
that we'd all have the understanding of God,
so that we could better glorify the Lord Jesus Christ
when the body is working together in the fullness.
And he's saying I'm constantly thanking God for you guys because you're a special church.
And you know what? The only way for God to be glorified is through a body of believers, not through one man.
Because one man cannot glorify God on his own.
We need the body of Christ, we need all the believers, we need the pastors and the evangelists and the deacons and the teachers
and we know it, we need the women and the children and we need the soul-winning captains and we need the musicians
and we need the song leaders and we need everybody that fills in the church to experience the whole body,
to experience the fullness that we can of Christ.
And that's what we are saying thanks for.
Thank you God that we have more people in this church
that we have the knees and the elbows and the ears
and all the different parts of the body.
Even the parts to which we don't think is that comely
and that God bestows so much more glory and honor
on the uncomely parts.
The Bible is telling us that we need church
and we should be thanking God for church.
Go over to 2 Corinthians 6.
I'm just going to read some more verses for you.
First Thessalonians 5, and everything give thanks, and everything give thanks, and everything
give thanks for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus is concerning you.
The Bible just says literally everything give thank you, everything.
First Timothy 2, I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions,
1 Timothy 4 verse 4, for every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused, if it be received with Thanksgiving.
Praise God, we're in the New Testament, and I said thank you this morning for the bacon that I had.
Oh man, it was good. I could smell the bacon all the way back from my bedroom.
And I just get a text from my wife, breakfast is ready.
I just get to walk out and just get to enjoy
perfectly cooked bacon.
Probably took an hour or so to cook good bacon.
It was wonderful.
But you know what I did before I ate it?
Said thank you.
I said thank you to God, and I said thank you to her.
I didn't thank the pig, but maybe he did his part, right?
Hey, every creature of God is good.
The pig was good.
Revelation 11 says saying we give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art and was an
art to come, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and it's reigned.
We should thank God that he reigns.
And that's kind of an interesting thing to think about, but think about it.
I'm so glad that God is ruling and not someone else.
I'm so glad that God has taken the responsibility,
God has taken the time and the effort and the energy
and the focus and all of the woes that come with ruling and leading
and he's put it upon himself and that he's ruling. I'm so glad he just
he didn't just say you know what I'm kind of tired of all this let's just let the
devil
you know run things for a while. Let's
let's let Joe Biden run things for a while.
Okay, let's, let's let Allah run things for a little while. No, no, I'm so glad that God's
reigning. I'm so glad that he is the one that's taking charge because you know what, being a leader is hard work.
And boy, think about all the sorrow he has to go through.
Think about all the rejection he has to go through.
Think about all the people he has to punish.
Think about all the judgments he has to constantly deliver.
Think about how many times he had to repent with Israel
and constantly beg them to get things right
and they wouldn't, and they rejected him
and they committed adultery against him spiritually speaking
and they constantly were going after their other lovers
and spitting in his face and thinking about all these things.
But he just keeps drooling, he keeps raining,
he keeps doing what's right.
And you know, thank you God for ruling and raining.
Thank you God for keeping the universe intact.
Thank you God for not just destroying all of us.
There was a point in time when God took to Moses and he's like,
hey, I'm just going to wipe everybody out and start over again.
I mean, you know, he could have done that and not even spared Noah.
Couldn't you? Couldn't you have said, no, these humans aren't that great.
Bye. No, he spared Noah, didn't he?
No, he spared the children of Israel.
No, he spared us, and he spared our parents,
and he spared our grandparents,
and he allowed us to just keep living.
You know what, thank you God for doing that.
God could have just sent us all to hell
and just been like, I'm done with these people.
We didn't deserve it.
We still don't deserve it.
And you know what, thank you God for ruling and reigning.
And that's what we're gonna do in heaven
is we're gonna constantly be thanking God
for ruling and reigning.
But make sure you're also thanking other people,
not just God.
Thank your mom and dad. Children, if you haven't said thank you to your parents for Christmas today,
you need to say thank you to them.
You need to say thank you to those in church who you've ministered to.
You need to thank people that have loved on you and done good unto you. If someone's helped you, you should go tell that person
thank you. You should tell your friends thank you for being your friend.
Because some of you are hard to be friends with.
I mean, you know, we all like to think that we're great.
We're not all that great sometimes someone's a better friend to you than you are to them, aren't they?
You should they thank you to your friends, you know, you should say thank you to your boss
For giving you a job
And giving you work
Being a boss being a manager owning companies owning business of the day is hard. It's hard work
There's a lot of pressure the government's putting all kinds of pressure on them
Inflation is hitting them just as hard.
You should be thankful to the fact that you have a job.
So many people just complain about the job they have.
You should say thank you for the job that you have.
Point one is simple.
When you receive a gift, say thanks.
I think we all need to do a better job of that.
Here's the second thing you need to do.
When someone gives you a gift, use the gift.
Pretty simple sermon.
Hey, if someone gives you a gift, say thanks.
What's the second thing you do?
Now look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 1,
we then as workers together with them beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain.
What is the point in 2nd Corinthians chapter number 6?
It's that, okay, you got saved, great, but let's do something with that.
Don't just let the grace of God do nothing in your life.
Use the grace of God to now do something.
Why don't you preach the gospel?
Why don't you go to church?
Why don't you do something spiritual in your life?
And don't let it just all go in vain, all be meaningless in a sense.
You do something with what God has given you.
Use the gift that He gave you.
He gave you the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit!
He gave you the Holy Ghost. Use the Holy Ghost!
I mean, if you don't open your Bible, how are you going to use the Holy Ghost that He gave you?
Because the Holy Ghost brings into remembrance all things, what's ever Christ commanded you.
But let me tell you something, when you don't have the Bible, there's nothing for the Holy Ghost to remind you of.
Hey, use the gift of the Holy Ghost. Use the gift of the King James Bible.
If God gave, I mean, think about how much grace God gave us to give us the King James Bible, use it.
There's been people throughout history. You know, there's a Bible museum.
That I went to in Houston for when we were recording and not everything gets in the movies
I mean there's so much stuff that doesn't make it in the movies, but this is one of the coolest things
There's like a stool
Or there's like a piece of furniture
It just looks like a normal piece of furniture and then you pick it up underneath it. It has a Bible take to it
Because there was times when it's illegal to read the Bible
So, you know what they had to do? They had to literally glue a Bible underneath a little
stool or some piece of furniture so that they could flip it over if the government or the
cops came by just so they wouldn't catch them reading the Bible. I mean, you just have these
things laying out everywhere. If the cops came, you'd be in trouble, okay? There's just
Bible, I mean, there's Bibles everywhere, right? There's Bible verses on the wall!
Don't let this be in vain that you have so much access to this thing.
Don't let this go to the dust.
Don't let this just be killed by the dust might.
Read it.
Open it up and use it.
Go out and preach the gospel.
I hope it wears away from soul winning, not from collecting dust.
Go view the first Peter 4.
It's the last place I want to go in the Bible.
Hey, when you get a gift, use it.
Hey, I got the gift of eternal life, I can't go to hell.
So you know what I should do?
I should spend the rest of my days trying to drag as many people out of hell with me.
I mean, the Bible says others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.
You know, we should try to get...
I mean, I can't go to hell.
So I should just do everything I mean like it's kind of like playing with infinite lives in a sense or something
You're like playing a video game where you can't die or something now again
I can die physically, but I'm just saying like I can't die and go to hell
So I should you know go ahead and risk it all because the worst thing that can happen is I die
I mean, the worst thing that happened is I get tortured or something, right?
And it always comforts me that I can't be tortured every single way I've learned, okay?
Because I'll die by some of them, right?
So I can't get all of them, you know, because sometimes if you read like, if you read like
Fox's book of martyrs, you're like, wow, that one's terrible, this one's horrible,
this one's awful, and then I'm like, well, they can't all work, okay?
You can't be burned to death and drowned, okay?
Like, they both can't happen.
But they can't destroy my soul.
My soul has already been delivered and I need to use the gift that God has given me.
I need to go out and preach the gospel to a lost and dying world.
Someone needs to make a difference.
Someone needs to say thank you for the gift of eternal life and go out there and preach the gospel to a lost and dying world.
This is Christmas where he celebrate Christ and what he did for us.
And you know what Christ's mission was?
To come here and live a perfect life and then to die.
to actually be tortured, to actually suffer for us.
And I'm supposed to follow in his footsteps
and be a partaker of his sufferings, is what the Bible says.
That's what I'm supposed to do is I'm supposed to use my life
for his honor and for his glory,
not for my own selfish ambition and selfish gain and selfish pleasure.
But you know what, you can do whatever you want.
I mean, there's going to be a lot of Christians we're going to say,
You know what the right thing to do is when you get a gift use it
God did not save you so that you could just go
drink cherry lemonade
And play video games and watch movies until you die
Now if you want to do those things I'm for you, but let's also do something for God, too
Let's also be willing to make some sack. Let's say thank you for that stuff and let's use the gift that he gave us
Let's go soul winning
And you know what, 2025, let's go soul-winning harder than we've ever gone before.
You know it's the best way to say thank you to God for what He's given us in this church
and this group of people.
It's just to not just say thank you, it's to actually use the gift that He gave us
and say thank you God so much for this church, thank you so much for the tracks, thank you
so much for the soul-winning material, thank you so much for the soul-winning opportunities.
I'm going to go out there and I'm going to preach the gospel and I'm going to try and
Who cares what we've done in the past?
It's over.
The present is what matters.
Let us do even more for Christ in 2025 than we've ever done before.
For His honor and for His glory.
What does the Bible say in 1 Peter 4 verse 8?
And above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover
the multitude of sins.
Use hospitality one to another without grudging, as every man hath received the gift.
Even so, minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
God has given you a job. You are now a steward. He has given you the gospel.
You are an owner of the gospel. You are a partaker of the gospel. You are a light bearer.
You are one that has the light that you could share with others. You have the cure.
You have the cure to the disease of death and hell.
You are someone that is responsible. You are a literal servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and you are in possession of
the greatest gift that you could ever give someone. But here's my question. Will you give it? Will you use it?
You've been given this special
superpower of giving. You are a dispenser of eternal life.
You can literally open up your mouth and make known the mystery of the gospel. You are a veeler of secrets like Daniel.
You are someone that raises people from the dead like Elijah
You are someone that can go out and share the bright and shining light
You're a voice out in the wilderness like John the Baptist. You are someone that can go and make a difference in someone's life
Will you use the gift that God has given you if you are saved you have the best gift that you could ever give and
In Christmas we like to give gifts, but let me tell you something we can give this gift every single day of our lives
And we need to be a dispenser of the gospel.
And when you have a gift, use it.
We need to make sure that we are the good steward.
Be a good steward.
What a shame for all the people that have been given this gift of eternal life,
have been given this gift of the knowledge and the wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and they shared it with no one.
Her or the nine?
use them. We say thank you to God for giving us them and we need to use them.
And not only just salvation, everything. Be thankful to God for what you have but
use it. The wife that you have, use it. The children that God has given you, raise
them, love them, teach them, train them. The church you have, go to it. Go to it.
The brothers and sisters in Christ you have, minister to them, love them, pray for them, do good to them.
And if you get a gift for Christmas, hey, if someone gives you a shirt, wear it.
Someone buys you something, use it.
If someone gives you a gift, do something with it.
Don't just hide it under a bushel.
Hey, if someone makes you a meal, eat it.
Now, here's some just practical tips, okay?
When you're going down a buffet line,
only take what you're going to consume,
because it's not very good use to take gifts and not use them.
I mean, how would you feel if you said,
hey, Pastor Shelley, I baked you some cookies?
And I'm like, oh, thanks.
I take a bunch of them, and I just throw them in the trash.
But a lot of people at an event like this,
they're going to take a bunch of cookies.
and then they're gonna throw them the trash.
Actually, a lot of people are gonna take cookies
and leave them out everywhere,
and someone else will have to throw them the trash for them.
Okay, but you know, when someone's offering you food,
you know, and you're serving your children,
you're serving other people,
you should only take what you will for sure consume,
especially because you can almost always go back for more.
It's so much easier to get more
than it is to put it back.
And so, you know, just practical tips.
Hey, if you go to someone's house
and they have you over for dinner,
put on your plate what you will for sure consume.
Put what your children will for sure consume and it's okay
If it's a small portion because you can always get more and here's here's the best part about this trip this tip
If it doesn't taste good, you don't have to eat that much
It's so much more awkward when you put a whole bunch on your plate, and then you're like, oh, okay
Wish I hadn't put that on my plate, okay?
You just put a small portion and then if it's not good you just eat it anyways, and if it's great
You're like I want more can I get some more and then they feel really good about themselves
Okay, it you make someone feel even more awkward and you just like load up your plate and you take one bite
And then you never try it again. Okay, because you know like if it was just a small portion
I could probably just man it up, but because it's so much
I mean like I'm just not even gonna I'm just gonna be rude at that point. You know what? I mean
And I'm just saying that's not the that's not the right way to receive a gift
Hey when someone gives you a gift say thanks and use it. There's so many applications we could make for this sermon
But I hope that you will tonight, if you haven't said thanks,
take some time.
It doesn't have to be, you know, it could be anywhere.
It could be in the car, when you use the bathroom,
when you're in the bed.
Just take some time and say thank you to God.
Please say thank you to God for the things that He's given you.
And the people in your life that have done something for you that you see, say thank you.
If there's someone that's not here, call your mom, call your dad, call somebody, say thank you to them.
And whatever gifts that you've been given, please use them.
If you can speak Spanish, please use it to give the gospel.
If you have money and you can go to foreign countries and preach the gospel consider using some of your money to preach the gospel
If you've been given a great church, please use it
Let's close in prayer
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for what you've given us. Thank you so much for the gift of your son the Lord Jesus Christ
I pray that when we do this candlelight service we would recognize that we're receiving a gift of the light of the gospel and a metaphor and that we would share it with others, not only just for this ritual and not only for this tradition, but as a representative of what we want to do when we go out and preach the gospel, that we want to share the gospel with others and get other people saved.
Recognize you for all the gifts that you've given us.
Thank you so much for this church and for these people.
Thank you so much for all the blessings you've given us.
Thank you so much for all the deliverances you've given us.
Thank you for this year.
I pray that you would just help us next year
to do even greater works for your honor and for your glory.
I pray that you would help us to use the gifts that you've given us.
And I pray that we would just be a more thankful group of people
that would be more pleasing unto you.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
So you can get seven.
For our last song, we're gonna do song number 431.
Silent Night.
Song 431.
["On the First"]
On the first.
Gotcha.
So he's handing out all the candles first.
Just let them play our middle song.
Okay, you guys can play number four, four twenty-seven, four twenty-seven.
Everybody ready?
I'm gonna light the first candle.
All right, everybody ready?
431 on the first.
Silent.
So I'm just gonna make a few quick announcements
and we'll turn the lights back on.
So we are having our Christmas cookie bake off,
so immediately following the service,
you can go in here into our fellowship room
and there should be drinks, sodas, milk, everything,
and then cookies.
After it's been probably about at least 15, 20 minutes,
everybody's gone through the line at least once.
Then, we'll hand out beads for everybody to vote, and so we're going to actually let
everybody vote.
There is signs posted in there of what the beads represent, but you're voting in three
different categories, best tasting, best decorated, and then most creative.
You only get one colored bead each.
One red one silver and you can put them in any cups that you like but all three in one cup
One and three different cups everything like that
So if you have a question you can ask me my tip is just make sure again
I would only get the few cookies that you think are the best tasting just to try and sample
Maybe share with your family at first because you can always go back through the line anyways
But thank you guys so much for coming. Please stick around and have some cookies with us
God bless and Merry Christmas, and turn on the lights.