(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now today I want to preach about the subject of being thankful, giving thanks, because of course the holiday that's coming up on Thursday is Thanksgiving. Now a lot of people think that it's wrong to celebrate holidays. And they have this idea that Christmas is wrong, Thanksgiving is wrong, Easter is wrong, the Fourth of July is wrong, and basically the Jehovah's Witnesses are one that are big on this. They think it's wrong to even celebrate your birthday. Now personally I do not think it's wrong to celebrate holidays. Now I don't think that we should be celebrating Halloween and dressing up as all these wicked things and celebrating death and dying and fear and evil. I don't think that we should be believing in Santa Claus and doing all that because Santa Claus is basically like a substitute for God who knows when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows whether you've been good or bad, he'll be good for goodness sake. That's like he sees you when you're sleeping, that's a little creepy when you think about it. My wife was telling me how in Germany they used to scare her when she was a kid, and it was creepy she said around December. So they'd basically say, oh I just saw Santa looking through the window and he sees you being naughty. And kids take this seriously and they were scared of Santa Claus. Like he's this peeping tongue outside the door. And obviously Santa Claus and all this stuff, we don't do that, we don't teach our kids about Santa Claus, we teach them about Jesus Christ and God. And in the Old Testament there's a principle of God's people celebrating holidays. All throughout the Old Testament God instituted many holidays. And in these holidays the Bible says that they would exchange gifts, they would send portions one to the other, they would feast and eat great meals, and they would take a break from their job, they would take some days off from work, maybe a week off, and be with the family, be with the church, and they would do all these things in the Old Testament. And so there's definitely a biblical principle of God telling us to take a rest, have a feast, have a holiday, and so forth. Now in the New Testament we don't celebrate these holidays of the Old Testament because those ordinances, according to this chapter, those ordinances were nailed to Jesus' cross. The Bible says that the meats and the drinks and the divers washings, the offerings and sacrifices were a figure for the time then present. But Christ being come and High Priest of better things to come, we don't observe those things anymore according to Hebrews chapter 9 and 10. We basically therefore celebrate things that have to do with the Bible, that have to do with the New Testament. We don't celebrate Yom Kippur, which I believe is the Day of Atonement, because Jesus has already paid for our atonement, so we basically have a holiday to celebrate the birth of Christ. And people will cast stones at it and say, you know, oh well Jesus wasn't really born on December 25th. Well I'm sure he wasn't. You know, everybody knows he was born on tax time, everybody knows that's April 15th, right? No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, we should celebrate Christmas on April 15th, right, because they were going to pay their taxes. But we don't know when he was born, that's not the point. It's just a day that's been chosen, and we don't do any pagan rituals or anything. We basically just eat ham because we're celebrating the fact, thank God, we're not in the Old Testament, you know, so that's why we eat ham, because now we can eat pork. So we eat ham, we eat mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, stuffing, we feast, and we celebrate the birth of Christ. What could be wrong with that? Nothing. What's wrong with on Thanksgiving, having a turkey, mashed potatoes, corn? But see, there are people out there who want to, it's like God doesn't have enough rules in the Bible. So they want to add a bunch of stuff, you know, they want to add all these things where we're not going to celebrate Christmas. And people have said to me, like, that I have lost all credibility as a preacher, and they'll never listen to anything I say because I celebrate Christmas with my family. And again, I don't want to go into it this morning, I've preached a whole sermon on why we celebrate Christmas, and proved wrong every point of those who say that it's wrong to celebrate the birth of Christ and enjoy Christmas and Thanksgiving and Easter and all these different things. And, you know, on Easter we're not celebrating the bunny and all, you know, it's basically just a day that we just celebrate the resurrection of Christ. And we celebrate that every Sunday anyway, so what's the big deal? It doesn't matter. We don't paint, you know, Easter eggs and stuff, because everybody knows that a rabbit is a mammal and does not lay eggs, okay? But anyway, that's not the point. I got to get off that subject, I got to get in a sermon here. But I want to talk about this morning the subject of Thanksgiving, of giving thanks, because a lot of people say, Happy Turkey Day, or, oh, it's all about the football, right? Oh, isn't there some big football game? It's used to irritate me when I was a kid. I'd want to spend time with my family. I'd want to hang out with my uncle and my grandfather and talk to them, these people that I love that I can get to see off, and they're all glued to the sofa watching some football game. And, you know, everybody's so into the game or the parade and the food. And, you know, the food's great, but wait a minute. The whole point of Thanksgiving is to stop and be thankful to who? To God. To acknowledge God. And we ought not to go through this Thursday and call it a Thanksgiving if we're not going to acknowledge God. That's who we're thankful to, because in reality, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and coming down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. And so the Bible teaches that everything we have came from God. And so we're not just being thankful to our parents, and we ought to be thankful to our parents. We're not just being thankful to our friends, to our church, to our loved ones. We ought to stop and primarily give thanks to God, who richly giveth us all things to enjoy, the Bible says. And when we eat that great meal, we ought to acknowledge the fact that throughout history and even today in other parts of the world, there are people who don't have enough to eat, that are starving, that are struggling to eat, and we have this decadent meal laid out on the table of all the best foods, the gravy, the mashed potatoes, and we can have as much as we want. When was the last time you were at a Thanksgiving dinner and somebody said, sorry, the turkey's gone? Sorry, there's no more mashed potatoes. Now in my house we always ran out of corn, but that was the only thing we ever ran out of, was the corn. Finally we'd go to the store with my mom and start putting bags of corn in the cart and saying, mom, more corn! But honestly, you don't go to Thanksgiving and run out, you're having turkey sandwiches for a week. Because we live in abundance and blessing of God in America, we ought to be thankful for that. But let me start by showing you this, look at Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter number 1 talks about being unthankful. Romans chapter number 1, because it's interesting, when I was growing up, and this chapter of Romans 1 is famous for basically preaching against homosexuality, it's probably the most hard-hitting chapter that just really hits the homos heart. And they hate this one. Who was it that was telling me, was it you? Brother Garrett was telling me that his dad was part of a Lutheran church, and they went to this big conference discussing the fact that the Lutherans are ordaining sodomites, homosexuals, queers, as ministers in the Lutheran church, as pastors and preachers. And they just made this change, the ECLA or ELCA, whatever it's called, a couple months ago just made this change. And they went to this conference where they were all going to supposedly discuss it, but when his dad, who was in vehement opposition to this, got to the conference where they were supposedly having a discussion, turned out the only people that were doing the talking were the ones who were for the homosexuals, and the other people didn't even get a chance to talk. And basically they sat there, and he got up, this guy got up, and he said, he went through every passage in the Bible about them, and he tried to explain it away. He started Leviticus 2013, where it says that if a man lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. He said they shall surely be put to death, their blood shall be upon them. He read that scripture and he said, well here's the only reason why. It's only because God wanted them to multiply so much, you know, that they wouldn't waste anything on that. I mean, what kind of perverted, sick interpretation? And he went through and each verse just made stuff up, just garbage, just both. And Garrett's dad is sitting there thinking, this is ridiculous, this is garbage. But he said that the one scripture that they didn't touch is Romans chapter 1. You know, that's the one that they don't want. Because they want to say, oh that was the Old Testament, that was back then. Back then this, back then that. Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday and today and forever. And they want to say, oh that's Old Testament, that's Old Testament. Oh the whole book of Psalms is Old Testament, the whole Genesis is Old Testament. And they don't want to acknowledge God's laws. And Jesus said, think not that I've come to destroy the law of the prophets, I came not to destroy the law of the fulfilled. He said it's easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one shot or one tittle of the law to pass to all be fulfilled. There were a few physical ordinances that were specifically removed, but other than that, God's laws stand today, my friend. And they wouldn't touch Romans 1. And finally his dad, I think, brought up Romans 1. You know, because it was the one thing that they didn't touch. Because it's so hard hitting and it's right there in the epistles of Paul in the New Testament, plain to see. And I remember when I was a child, people didn't even talk about homosexuality because it was a non-issue. Even when I was, I'm a very young man, even when I was a child, it was so disgusting that it was just unmentioned, unnamed. But I remember my dad just told me one thing when I was a little kid, he told us one thing. He said, according to the Bible, and he's basing this on Romans 1, he said, according to the Bible, that is just the final stage of depravity. He said, man is on a downward spiral. He said, wicked people, evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, the Bible says. Mankind is on a downward spiral as a society and as an individual, the unbeliever is on a downward spiral as he goes into sin. And my dad told me that it was the final stage of depravity. And I believe he's right. And he got it from this chapter. That's the only thing that he explained to me about it. Other things I learned, doctrines, I learned from studying the Bible myself later on. But if that's the final stage of depravity, where does it start? Where does the downward spiral begin? Well, look at Romans chapter 1 and verse 18. I'll show you where it begins. Where does the degeneration of America begin? Where does the degeneration of a society begin? It says in verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Verse 19, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. And in verse 21, we begin the downward spiral. He says, because that when they knew God... Now it doesn't mean they were saved. It's just like I say, well, I know Sean, I know Garrett. It's just they know him. They're aware of him. They hold the truth. They know that he exists. And he says, because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God. What's the next phrase say? Neither were thankful. That's the first step. The first step is that they have all of God's creation, all of nature, to show them that God is real, to show them what God is like. And they looked at it, and they knew God. They understood that there is a God, but they did not acknowledge Him as God. Neither were thankful. That was the first step. Where did it take them next? It said next, they became vain in their imaginations, in verse 21, and their foolish heart was darkened. Then professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to a corruptible man, and to birds and a four-footed beast and creepy things. This is your idolatry. This is worshipping statues of animals and human beings. This is your golden calf from Exodus. And it goes down this downward spiral. They get worse and worse and worse. Then they get into fornication. They get it as a society. And it gets worse and worse until the bottom line is sodomy. That's the last state. But where did it start? Unthankfulness. You see, being unthankful is a sin. Why is it a sin? Because any time you disobey God's command, look at 1 Thessalonians 5 toward the end of the New Testament. The definition of sin, according to 1 John, is that sin is the transgression of the law. Sin, according to the Bible, is when God commands you to do something and you don't do it. Or if God commands you not to do something and you do it, you have transgressed to God's law. You've crossed the line of what He told you to do. That is what sin is. Look at 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 18 to see the commandment of God. It says, In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. So it's a command of God to give thanks in everything. Now it doesn't just say be thankful. See, thankful would be a condition of your heart. That in your heart you feel thankful, but He said, give thanks. That's an action of basically stopping and getting on your knees and thanking God with your mouth. This isn't just be thankful. This is give thanks to God. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. We have to stop and give thanks to God. You see, part of our prayer life, and the word pray means literally to ask for something. You could even say to another human being, I pray thee, fetch me a morsel of bread like Elijah said to the widow. He said, I prayed. He was asking her for something. Well, when you ask God for something, you're praying. But there's not only prayer, there's supplication, there's intercession, and there's giving of thanks. Those are the four parts of you speaking with God. If you didn't ask for anything, then you didn't pray. If you said, you know, oh dear Jesus, thank you for everything that you've given us, and thank you for this wonderful day, and we love you, in Jesus' name, amen. You did not pray, because you never asked Him for anything. But not only should we pray, not only should we make supplication, which is where we're basically trying to bend God's will, we're trying to get God to step in and do something, or change something for us. Or intercession is where we're basically praying on behalf of someone else. And then there's giving of thanks, where we're thanking God. And the Bible says this, be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds to Christ Jesus. So when you go to God and you're asking Him for things, you ought to be thanking Him for the things that He already gave you. Instead of just saying to God, give me, give me, give me, you know, my name's Jimmy, I'll take all you give me, saying to God, hey, I want you to give this to me, but God, thank you for the things that you've already given me. And then we have so much to be thankful for. Look if you would at Colossians, where we were a little earlier, just go back a couple of pages to the left in your Bible. Look at Colossians chapter 2, this is where we started the sermon. And I read this chapter because it kind of mentioned the holidays, where it said, let no man therefore judge you in meat, this is verse 16, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of in holiday. Notice that's one word, holiday. Now it's spelled a little different, it has a Y instead of an I, but basically that's where we get our word, holiday, holy day. Or of the new moon over the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. Look back if you would at verse number 6, it says, as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. And then he said, beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of man, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Now who's ever heard of the expression being spoiled? Ah, he's spoiled. Now what does the word spoiled really mean? Spoiled means ruined. Like for example, if I have food and it's past the expiration date, it's spoiled. It's rotten. It's been ruined. It's decayed. And that's what it means to be spoiled. You've been ruined. And when you're not thankful, you get spoiled. And what does it mean to be spoiled? It means you don't appreciate anything, you can't enjoy everything because you think everything is just coming to you on a silver platter. God said we should be abounding in thanksgiving. He said in verse 2 of chapter 4, continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. And so we ought to be thankful to God. You see, if we were to stop and make a list of all the good things that have happened this year, now I could think of plenty of bad things that happened this year. And if I wanted to, I could make a long list of bad things that happened to me this year. You know, let's see, my business fell apart, you know, I got beaten up, I got thrown in jail, I got electrocuted. You know, I could go down the list, okay, you know, oh yeah, here's the list of all the things that came to me in the mail that were gross, okay, you know, all the hate. I could sit there and wait a minute. God commands me to give thanks in everything. And so if I stopped and thought about it, hey, wait a minute, let's see, the whole year I always had enough food to eat the whole time. I always had warm clothes when it was cold, which was like, what, two days this year? No, I'm just kidding. And then we lived in Phoenix. You know, God always kept me safe, I had clean water to drink, I have a wonderful wife and five wonderful children. I mean, if I stop and think about it, there are so many good things to be thankful for. And if I'm going to sit there and just ask God to give me more and more and more, but I'm not going to take the time and say, hey, thank you God for Faithful Word Baptist Church. Thank you so much that I have a chance to go to this church where I can be with other people who love God, who win souls, who love the Bible, who go out and get people saved, who don't just come on Sunday at some kind of a fashion show, but they actually live the life seven days a week. They're the real deal. Hey, thank God to be able to assemble with a group like this, because a lot of people wish they had friends like this. People would wish that they had the friends that I have. And I have all these great friends. I have this great church that I can be a part of and get in the yoke with and go out and serve God with. Hey, that's something to be thankful for. And part of the reason why people are having such a bad attitude, and they're so down all the time, and they're not rejoicing in the Lord, as the Bible said, and again I say rejoice. This is the day which the Lord has made. We'll rejoice and be glad in it. It's because they're unthankful. Because if we would stop and be thankful, we'd be rejoicing and praising God, and we'd get to the point probably where even if God didn't answer our prayer, we'd still be rejoicing because of all the things He already did. You know, but instead we fixate on the one thing we don't have. It reminds me of Haman in the Bible. Here's a guy who has everything going for him. Haman, the second in command of the king in the book of Esther. Haman, the man to whom when he walked through the streets everyone had to stop what they were doing and literally bow down to him. Haman, the man who had the gold ring, he had ten children, he had all kinds of wealth, he had a fancy house, he had popularity, everybody loved him, but one guy, Mordecai, would not bow down to him. One man, and you know what he said? He said, all of this avails me nothing. My house, my ten children, my wife, my riches, my power, my fame. He said, all of it avails me nothing as long as I see Mordecai and that gate not bow down to me. Doesn't that just show the wicked heart of man? The wicked heart of man that just always wants more. It's never good enough. I've just got to have something else, you know? It's like, well stop and think about it, Haman. You've got ten kids, you've been blessed by God with ten children, you have all this power and wealth and authority and fame and it's not good enough for you? I'll bet you if Mordecai would have bow down to him, he would have found something else to not be happy with. And eventually he lost everything because of the fact that he would not be satisfied, he'd not be thankful for what he had, he'd always have to have more and more and more. I guarantee you that if you could sit down with Donald Trump today and ask him, what is your greatest aspiration in life? What do you want to do with your life? He'd just say, just get more. You know, I mean, he'd be honest with you. He'd say, I want to get more. I want more money. I want more buildings, more power, more fame, more, more, more. And he's never going to have enough. And you're never going to have enough either until you just stop and learn, as Paul said, in whatsoever state I am. He said, I've learned. It didn't come naturally to him. He said, I've learned in whatsoever state I am, there with to be content. He said, I've learned. You know, if you're in the state of Arizona, for example, I'm just kidding. But I've learned in whatever state I am, you know, Arizona, be content. And it's easy to be content in Arizona because Arizona is a great state. But basically he's saying in whatever condition I'm in, I've learned to be content. I know both how to be a base and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me. Get the context of that verse. He's talking about being content, being able to go through any situation, any trial and praise God for it. There's the man who was writing that, the book of Philippians, from a jail cell. He sat in the jail cell in Acts 16 with it chained up to a guard on one side and the other. And in the middle of the night, he was singing praises to God. He was thanking God, praising the Lord. And that's why that jailer probably got saved. That could have been part of the reason why. He got saved when he saw these guys that were thanking and praising God. He wanted to know more about what they believe and how to be saved and what they were preaching. And then they preached him that great statement of believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He got saved, he got baptized and so forth. And then he put him back in jail in the rascal. But anyway, the point is...man, I want to go off on that whole story because that's such a great story, but I don't want to digress with my sermon. We'll say that for another sermon. But the point is that if we'd be more thankful, it would change our spirit, it would change our attitude. If we would wake up in the morning and instead of...do you ever get around people and they're just like...you ask them, hey, how you doing? Well, it's Monday. You know what I'm talking about. Hey, how you doing, buddy? Well, I'm hanging in there. You know, it's Thursday. Only two more days till the weekend, you know. I mean, is that how your life is? I mean, I thank God that I'm happy on Monday and happy on Tuesday. You know, I just...I'm just content with my life, you know. And sometimes I'm not happy. Obviously, things go wrong and I get angry and upset just like you do with all the ups and downs. Let me tell you something. I'm not just going to sit there and just grumble and grudge because if I'm not, you know, a great America, I'm just not having fun. And my whole life is just a countdown to the next great America trip or the next trip to the lake or the next time out on the boat or something. You know, you kind of learn to just be content and happy and thankful that you have food to eat, that you have a job to go to. There are tons of people who would love to go work at your job that are unemployed right now. They'd love to be doing your job no matter how crummy it is. There are people right now who would love to do your job because they're sitting in a nursing home and they're bored out of their mind. They would think that your job was exciting even though you think it's boring. And it's all relative. And so you just ought to be thankful especially in this economy when people are just struggling to even get by. Thank God for any job that you have, any source of income you have because I can name for you a ton of people that wish they had any job. They're trying to get a job and they're struggling and they're basically not able to even pay their bills. And then we complain because we didn't get to go on another three-week vacation this year or something. We have to stop and be thankful and not be that spoiled. And by the way, children, let me just preach to the children for a little while. When it's time for dinner, when it's time for lunch, don't complain about the food. Are you listening to me, children? You ought to thank Mom and thank God for the food that's in front of you instead of being this picky eater. Oh, I don't like that. You know, oh, this isn't good. I don't like this. You know, turning your nose up at quality food that Mom gave. Thank God for a mom that's cooking you food instead of sticking a TV dinner in front of your face or taking you to McDonald's every day. And you know what, kids? You'd probably think it was cool if Mom took you to McDonald's every day and bought you a happy meal, but you're going to get sick and die eating like that. Okay? Thank God that Mom's shoving nutritious food in front of you, fruits and vegetables, which God made, by the way, to nourish you and to give you the vitamins and minerals. And you complain about it, you whine and say, oh, this doesn't tickle my taste bud just right. Don't live to eat, eat to live. The Bible says that we should eat for strength and not for drunkenness, not just a gluttony of just filling our faces with food because it tickles our taste bud. You know, we have to enjoy the food that we eat, but we have to be thankful to God, thankful to our mother, thankful to Dad if he's cooking the food. Not in my house, but if Dad's cooking you food. Be thankful and don't be a brat. And you know what? We've had a time where one of my kids basically said something disparaging about the meal. They went to their room and did not eat the meal. And then it's amazing how when the next meal came around, the attitude was so different. You know, because it's amazing when six hours, you know, after lunch, without eating any lunch, all of a sudden when you come to dinner, everything looks good. You know, and that's, you know, some of you children, that's what you need. Somebody to basically tell you to skip lunch so that then when dinner rolls around, you'll love it and you'll thank God for it and thank your parents for it. But today we're spoiled because we have too much abundance in some cases. And it's not the abundance that's the problem. It's not being thankful for the abundance of all things. And then we basically turn our nose up at good food. Look at 2 Corinthians 9. 2 Corinthians 9. 2 Corinthians 9. And you know what? Those that are not thankful, I believe that God will do the same thing. Because we've seen this throughout the investment, what he did with each other in Israel. Just as my child who basically turned his nose up at a good meal, he had to do without in order to learn to be content with that food. God did the same thing with the children of Israel in the Old Testament. They had all this abundance. They had all these blessings of good things. God had to take it away from them for a while in order for them to appreciate it and get their mind right. Look at 2 Corinthians 9. 11. It says, being enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. See, when we're enriched, when we get blessed, when we get these bountiful things, it should cause us to give thanks to God. And if it doesn't, I'm going to tell you something. God will take it away from you if you're not appreciative of him. All throughout the Old Testament he did. He gave them abundance of all things and they would not serve him. They would not worship the Lord. They went after other gods. I was just reading this in my Bible reading essay. Now, they would not worship God in abundance. And he said in the book of Deuteronomy, he said, so therefore you're going to go to another country captive and you're going to serve me in hunger and in nakedness. He said, you wouldn't serve me when you were bold. You wouldn't be thankful to me when you had everything on a silver platter. Well, now you're going to do without and then you'll learn to think. And they did. They went to that other country and they worshiped God and they were sorry for what they had done. But why do we have to go through that? We should let these bountiful blessings cause us to give thanks so we don't have to go through that. Because it would be better if we just got it right the first time and thanked God in the abundance so that God doesn't have to take things away from us before we begin to appreciate him. Turn back to chapter 4 in 2 Corinthians. Look at chapter 4. You say, oh Pastor Anderson, you don't know how messed up my life is. I don't have anything to be thankful for. And yet, as messed up as your finances are, many people would just love to have your health. Think about that. The Bible says, remember when the devil was trying to tempt Job and he went before God and accused Job to God. And God took away everything Job had because Satan moved him against him without cause. And God allowed everything to be taken away from him. And he lost all his money, all his kids, everything. And remember what the devil said to God? He said, well hey, all that a man hath will he give for his own health. I'm paraphrasing. And he said, but touch now his body and he'll curse deep with thy faces. And then remember when they took it to the next level was when basically Job was covered in boils head to toe and had to scrape himself with a potchoe. And that's when Job really began to break down. Because after he lost all his material goods, he basically just said, naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return that the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. But once he's covered in boils head to toe and scratching and the pus and the oozing, I mean just the filthy condition of his body, that's when he began to curse and wish that he was going to die and all these things. Because that's the worst thing in this world my friend is to go through physical torment. And yet you're so upset about your finances when there are other people who would just love to have your health. Because they're suffering these horrible infections or they're in a hospital bed somewhere or they're dying somewhere or they're locked up somewhere and they're cooped up enough. They would just love to breathe the fresh air that you're going to breathe when you walk out that door and walk with strong legs and get in the car with a strong body and go eat good food. Hey, there are other people who would wish to have your health even though your finances are messed up. So why don't you just be thankful that God is giving you health if you have health. You say, oh, but you know my family situation, my marriage is messed up or my children are messed up or whatever. But look, you've got your health or you've got your finances or whatever. Unless it's all going wrong for you, I don't know what you're saying, right? I mean no matter how bad this life is, okay, let's say your finances are messed up, your health is messed up, you don't have any friends, you're ugly, I'm just kidding. Go down the list. I guarantee you, you're not even saved, you're going to go to hell, well get saved for crying out loud because you need something going for you. But everybody here that I know of is saved as far as I know. If you're not saved, then talk to somebody after the service, they can show you how to be saved. But I'm pretty sure that everybody here is saved that I know. And let me tell you something, no matter how bad your life is, you're going to spend eternity in heaven in a perfect place. I mean, so what? This life is a vapor that appears for a little time in the band. So wait, if you have nothing else to thank God for, if you have no food to thank Him for, no money to thank Him for, no car to thank Him for, no house to thank Him for, no wife to thank Him for, no husband to thank Him for, no children to thank Him for, no job to thank Him for, thank Him for dying on the cross for your sins, for shedding His blood on the cross, for descending into hell for three days and three nights, for doing all that because He loves you, why don't you thank Him for sacrificing Himself on the cross? Why don't you thank Him for living a perfect life for 33 years, tempted in all points like as we are, and yet without sin, for being in agony and torment, hunger, thirst, weariness, fatigue, getting on His knees and praying to God with such earnestness that sweat dropped from His face like drops of blood begging God not to have to go through the torment of dying for our sins. Begging for the opportunity not to go through God's wrath and be punished for the sins of mankind. Why don't you be thankful and say, God, thank you for doing that so that me, I, a sinful creature, someone who sins every single day, even when I want to do good, the Bible says evil is present with me in Romans 7, that's what Paul said. Oh wretched man that I am, wish to deliver me from the body of this debt. He said I wish I could do good but I find that sin is with me in my body and every thought that we have is tainted, is not perfect. We live according to the flesh daily, we mess up, we sin, we do wrong, we're selfish, and yet God has prepared for us a perfect place for all eternity, to rule and reign with Him. We don't deserve that. We ought to thank God for that, that we can live in a perfect place. Thank God that we can live forever. Thank God that all our sins will be forgiven and forgotten as far as the east is from the west, so far as God separated us from our sins that our sins will not even be mentioned to us. Thank God for His forgiveness. Thank God for His mercy and doers forever. Thank God that no matter how bad we fall into sin, He has already forgiven us, it's already been washed in the blood, it's already been paid for by Jesus Christ. Thank God for it, even if nothing is going right in your life, you're going to spend eternity in heaven. Look at verse 14 of 2 Corinthians 4, it says knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with for all things are for your sakes. Now that's pretty good. All things are for your sakes. Think about how much God does for us. He created all the angels, according to the Bible, as ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. The whole purpose of creating the angels was for mankind. Why did He form this whole earth? The Bible says in Isaiah, He formed it to be inhabited. Why did He create the animals so that we could have dominion over them? He said, I've given them to be meat for you. Why did He create the plants to be food for us, to give us the oxygen that we breathe? Why did God create all these different things? All things are for your sakes. Behold what manner of love the Father bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. It says right here, for all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. Now who's ever heard the word redundant? Put up your hand. Redundant. What does it mean to be redundant? What does it mean to be redundant? It means basically you're saying the same thing again. Basically I said it once and I'm saying the exact same thing again. That's what it means to be redundant, right? Now that's a word that almost everybody in America has probably used or heard. But we probably haven't heard the word that it came from which is redound. To redound is the verb. Redundant is the adjective that comes from the word redound. Watch what he says here. He says, for all things are for your sakes that the abundant grace, what's that abundant grace talking about? You know, talking about the grace of God who's bringing salvation to all men. That the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. Basically it's saying that through the repetition of us praising God for His grace, talking about His saving grace of saving us by faith alone, through grace not of works that sinning man should boast, by that repetition of being redundant with it. Of just saying it again and again. I mean isn't it a little redundant? We go out door to door, we tell the same story over and over again about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. But he said through us being thankful for that and thanking God for it and repeating it over and over again, it can redound to the glory of God he said. By us going out and repeating it and thanking God, saying thank God for my salvation. Thank God we're saved by grace through faith. It'll redound to the glory of God for which cause, same thought is continued in verse 16, for which cause we faint not. See, thankfulness will cause you not to faint, he's saying, in your soul when you're redounding, when you're repeating the same story over and over again, preaching the gospel to every creature, if you're thankful for it, he said, you'll faint not. If you're not thankful then you'll basically just say, well I'm saved, so to hell with everybody else. And that's basically, you know you say, oh I can't believe you say that. I can't believe that that's what 99% of Baptist churches actually do. You're mad that I'm saying it facetiously? You're mad that I'm saying it just sarcastically? When in reality, they ought to put that on the sign? You know these little cute signs that all these Baptist churches have with their little marquee, with the little clever, you know, what are some of the dumb, let's have a little open forum here. Let's get this off our chest this morning. What are some of the dumb little things that you've seen on these signs? The little cute little, come on Zuse, you've got to know some of these. What are some of these cute little things, you know, prevent truth decay, attend this Sunday, you know instead of like prevent tooth decay, ah, ah, ah, ah. Where are they, come on, help me out. You think Phoenix is hot. Yeah, you think Phoenix is hot, you know, whatever. And then they have these other ones that say like, you know, S blank N-D-A-Y, the only thing missing is U. You know, like the U is, you know all these dumb little, you know, in reality, all of those churches, those marquees, if we were to take 99% of them, you know that 99% of Baptist churches are not winning souls. You know they're not outgoing and preaching the gospel, you know they're not baptizing converts. They might baptize somebody once in a blue by accident, you know, but somebody just grew up in the church and got to a certain age and it's time to baptize them. Okay, but you know, don't lie to me, you know that 99% of these Baptist churches are not out preaching the gospel, they're not out winning souls. Otherwise they'd be knocking on our doors. The amount of them that are in Tempe, they'd be knocking on our doors. And they don't knock on our doors. Faithful word comes in and I say to the door again and again and again, okay. And so, you know, we get people complaining because we knocked it too many times. But the point is that most churches are not out giving the gospel. What they ought to put is, hey, we're saved so to hell with everybody else. That's what they ought to put. Because that's the reality of their church. But you see, if we're thankful that God saved us, how are we going to show that gratitude? The Bible says here that the best way to bring glory to God is to redound that message throughout the world. To preach the gospel to every creature. If we're glad that we're saved, if it's good enough for us, it ought to be good enough for somebody else. And if we're so thankful that Jesus died on the cross, then how about this? We wouldn't want any of His bloodshed to be in vain. I mean, if we really appreciate something, let's say I came to you and I said, here, I've made you this ice cream cone. I've bought the ice cream, I've put all the toppings on and I made this for you. And you said, oh, wow, thanks. Let's say you took two bites of it and threw it in the trash. You know, what's the matter? I said, didn't you like it? Yeah, I liked it. Okay, well, you took two bites, you threw it in the trash. Why'd you waste? Well, that's all I wanted, two bites. Would you say that he's really thankful if I made him something really nice and he took two bites and threw it away? Okay, now wait a minute. If you're thankful for something, you don't want it to be wasted. If he was really thankful that he'd eaten the whole thing or if he couldn't finish it, he'd probably put it in the freezer for later and enjoy it later because he knew that I wanted him to enjoy the whole thing. Well, it's the same thing with God. Think about this. If we really are thankful for the fact that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, that he went through all that pain and suffering and agony, that he poured out his soul unto death, if we really were thankful for that, we wouldn't want any of that to go to waste. And let me tell you something, it's going to waste when people are not hearing the Gospel that could have been saved, that could have believed on Jesus. His blood, because the Bible says that the word preached is not profitable unless it's mixed with faith and them that hear it. Well faith comes up by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If we're not out preaching the Gospel and people aren't hearing the message, all kinds of people are going to hell. Jesus already did all the work and we're letting his work go to waste. Do you understand what I'm saying? He already paid the price for their sins. He shed his blood and then we're letting that go to waste. We're saying, well the part that's for me, I'll take that, but the rest of it, you know, hey, you're on your own. No. If God committed to us the ministry of reconciliation, that's what he asked us to do. He says, hey, I've saved you, now I want you to go out and preach the word so that others can be saved too, so that my sacrifice won't be, none of it will be in vain. So that everybody will hear the truth. And so if we really are thankful, the Bible says we'll faint not. He said in verse number, let me find my place here, verse number 16, he said, for this cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, keep in mind, here's a guy who's been through a lot of afflictions. He's been beaten, he's been whipped 39 times on five different occasions, 39 strikes, he's been beaten with robs thrice, he's been shipwrecked, he's been through all these things, he calls it his light affliction. Now, being beaten with robs three times and five times beaten with a whip, scourged, is a light affliction. I think probably, you know, your boss at work would probably be a light affliction, you know, or the fact that, you know, you had to eat, you know, spaghetti on five different nights in a row is probably a light affliction, okay, or whatever, whatever the case may be, I don't know. And he says, worketh our light affliction, which is but for a moment, you know, this light is like a moment, he said, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal, for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, and how it's not made with hands eternal, whatever, he said, we're going to heaven. We can go through any affliction, and we'll thank God for his grace, because we want the glory of God to redound to the salvation of others. We're not going to faint, we're not going to say it's too hard, our outward man might perish, but our inward man is renewed day by day, and we'll keep on going for the salvation of other souls. Look, if you would, at Ephesians chapter one, go forward in your Bible toward the end of the Bible, a few pages. Ephesians chapter one, look at verse fifteen, it says in Ephesians one fifteen, 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. Well, that's another thing we ought to be thankful for, each other in this church, those that get saved, those who serve God with us, we ought to sit there and get in our prayer time, and I'm not just up here, you know, out here, it might sound like I am, I'm not just up here rattling my cage, I want you to stop and listen to what I'm saying. You ought to go and get on your knees, and I'm not saying figuratively speaking, I'm saying you need to literally get on your knees and do what Paul said right here in verse fifteen. What did he say to do in verse sixteen? He said, cease not to give thanks for you, and then he gets more specific, making mention of you in my prayers. That's a specific mention, not just saying, well thank God for everybody in church, praise the Lord for them. No, he's saying, hey, thank God for brother Brett. I know this is hard, don't I just, no I'm just kidding. But anyway, thank God, this is going to take a lot of faith, no I'm just kidding. But anyway, he's saying by name. He said to Timothy, he said, without ceasing making mention of thee in my prayers. And he used thee, which is the singular, not you, the plural, he used the singular thee. He said, I mentioned thee specifically Timothy. I said, thank God for Timothy, bless him. I mean, you ought to be praying down the list. Thank God. And you wonder why people are sometimes maybe taken from us or whatever. Did you ever thank God that they were a part of our church? Oh man, I'm so sorry to see so and so go. But when did you ever thank God that they were a part of our church in the first place? Now all of a sudden they're gone. You appreciate them, you wish they were there. But did you appreciate them while they're here? Did you thank God for them by name as you went down the list and say, hey, thank God for so and so being a part of our church. Thank God for brother so and so. Thank God for sister so and so. Thank God for him. Thank God for him. By name. That's what God told you to do. That's what he said right here. He said, don't cease to give thanks for the people that you love in church by name. Go down the list. Sometimes I'll just go through, I just kind of picture the odd torrent and I'll just go through each person just thanking God for them. You say, are you praying for them? Well see, that's another thing. I might pray for people, but this is separate than praying for them. This is just thanking God for them. This is just saying thank you for this person being a part of our church. Thank you for everything they've done for me. Thank you for the fellowship that I've had with them. Thank you for the work that they're doing for you, Lord. Thank you for making them a part of Faithful Word. You've got to do that. You've got to thank them by name. I've got a whole big list of verses here. I don't want to go through all of them for sake of time. I'll just read a few from Psalms. He said, surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name. The upright shall dwell in thy presence. God says if you're righteous, you're a person who constantly thanks God. He's saying you'll surely, certainly be giving thanks to God if you're a righteous person. Psalm 136.1, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good for his mercy endureth forever. Psalm 119.61, the bands of the wicked have robbed me, but I've not forgotten my law. At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. When was the last time you got up at midnight and thanked God for his righteous judgment? That's what David said in Psalm 119. On and on. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good because his mercy endureth forever is repeated many many times throughout the book of Psalms. It's one of the primary things we should be thankful for. But the last place we'll turn is this, 2 Timothy 3. 2 Timothy 3, and remember we were talking about that downward spiral a little bit earlier in Romans 1. He said this, this know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. Perilous means dangerous. For men shall be lovers of their own selves. Did you get that? Men shall be lovers of their own selves. Coveges, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, and what's the next word? Unthankful. Unholy. Unthankful. This is a sin. And it's something that we need to beware of, that we don't, especially as children, children struggle with this the most. Why? Because children are too young to understand where the food came from. Why is it that children sit in front of that meal and turn their nose at it and don't care? Because they don't know the work that dad went through to make the money to pay for that meal. And he sacrificed and sweat and toiled and strove to provide that food. Why did they turn their nose? Because they don't understand the sacrifice that mom made instead of just throwing in a banquet or those little banquet frozen meals or TV dinner or throwing in a Maruchan cup of noodles. Oh mom, thank you for giving us shrimp flavor. We've been eating chicken for the last month, you know? Thank you for giving us beef Maruchan. They don't understand and comprehend. In many cases, kids would be just as happy with that ramen. I mean, when I was a kid, I ate ramen like every day. I thought it was great. Because I didn't understand the difference. And children sometimes don't understand how much went into giving them quality food. And so they're not thankful for it. And so the more as we grow up as Christians, if we're babes in Christ, we probably don't fully understand everything God's done for us. But as we mature and grow up in Christ, we start to realize, hey, wait a minute, this is what Jesus went through to bring me salvation. This is what God does for me every day. Oh really, all these things that I thought other people were doing for me was actually God that was blessing me all along. And then we're going to start to be thankful. We're going to start to praise God for it and rejoice in it. And then we won't, and then we'll be content. Instead of worrying so much about what we don't have, we'll be thankful for what we do have. And you know, as we get into this holiday on Thursday, you may not be one of those types of families where you all hold hands around the table and everybody says what they're thankful for. Everybody has their own different things. Our families never really liked that. But there are different families that have different traditions and traditions are a good thing. If you have a tradition about this or that or the other for being thankful. But whatever your family does, whatever other people do, you ought to verbally open your mouth and thank God. And thank God to other people. And say, hey, you know what, God has been good to me and I'm thankful for it. Here's all the things that God's done for me this year. And verbalize that to someone else. Let it redound. And then you ought to get on your knees and directly thank God. And let that be what Thursday is about for you. Have fun and eat the turkey. Have a good time with family. I think God wants you to do that too. That's a principle in the Bible as well. That he wants us to rejoice and enjoy our family, enjoy our food and so forth. But why don't you make it about Jesus? Keep the holiday Thanksgiving about Jesus and about the things that he's done for us. And then when you get into the Christmas season, don't become greedy. Don't give out your calculator and say, well, you know, I want to make sure that I get more than I give. And I actually see people say, well, I'm just going to break even, they said. You know, I'm going to spend $250. I'm going to get $250 worth of stuff. This is like a break even. You know what, that's wrong. You know what, tear up your wish list, your cupboard list. Get off this, you know, get off your registries and your gift list and your wish list and this and that. Why don't you just say, you know what, I expect nothing because I'm content with such things as I have. And then when somebody gives you a gift, I never expect a gift. When somebody gives me a gift, I praise God for it. I'm thankful for it and it's something extra. It's a bonus. It's a blessing. Because remember the words of our Lord, which said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. It's more blessed to give than to receive. You'll get more joy out of giving something this year than out of everything you're going to get. Why don't you, instead of making a wish list, why don't you make a list of all the things you want to give people? And just don't even think about what you're going to get. Just pretend, pretend like you're going to get nothing. And just make it all about what you're going to give other people and you'll have a much happier Christmas. Because everything you get will be a bonus. It will be like a surprise. Oh wow, cool. Instead of just, oh wow, this isn't exactly what I wanted. I wanted the new iPhone, but I wanted a different color. I wanted the G1, but I didn't want brown. I wanted white. Oh, this isn't exactly the jacket that I wanted. This is so last year. Would you get this on clearance? You know what I mean? Oh, where's the gift receipt? Let's finish it out. Because I'm going to get something that I really want. A Christmas sweater? I think I'd like a video game. Bad idea. We need to stop and say, it's not about me. It's about celebrating things that matter, like giving thanks, like the birth of Jesus Christ, and it's about giving and just being content with what you already have. You know what? If you don't get anything for Christmas, you have a lot. I don't care who you are listening to my voice right now. If you get a lump of coal in your stocking, you still have a lot to be thankful for. So don't sit there and worry about it and fret about it. Just put it out of your mind and focus on others this year. And don't get caught up in all the commercial stupid. I'm to the point where I almost hate Christmas. I like Christmas if it's celebrated right, but I hate Christmas music. It drives me insane. I'm not talking about Harp the Herald Angel Singing. I love that music. But I hate this stupid rocking around the Christmas tree and Santa this and dashing through the snow. That music drives me insane. And I work in department stores all day and I listen to it all day long and it just makes me crazy. It makes me ugh. What's that? Yeah, because it gets you in the buying mode, you know? All that dumb stuff. And you know what makes me even madder? And my song is already over, I'm just ranting right now. You know what makes me even more upset? Is to hear these sleazy singers, these sleazy female singers singing the hymns that I like about Christmas in a real sensual way. You know what I mean? They're singing about Jesus, they're singing Joy to the World, they're singing O Holy Night, they're singing Harp the Herald Angel Singing, they're singing O God All Ye Faithful. And that's when I wish that they would just sing Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree. Because I don't want to hear some ungodly, unsaved person singing in a sensual way, which is just so blasphemous of God's word. You know, when they're singing about Jesus in a sensual way, it makes me sick. And so don't let it become the world's Christmas. Because that's what the world's Christmas is all about. It's all about Mariah Carey or whatever getting up and singing in a sensual way to hymns. It's all about Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree with Santa and all this, the reindeer and Rudolph. It's all about, my name's Jimmy, I take all you give me, sorry Jimmy. But it's all about all this, you know, me, me, me, fun, fun. Don't let that be your Christmas. Let your Christmas be, I'm going to be in church three times a week because I love Jesus. Not, oh well, you know, I'm too busy with the holidays to have time for soul winning in church. It's going to have to go on the back burner. Hey, make it about God and others and the Bible. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.