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Amen. All right, keep your place there in 2 Timothy 3. We'll get there in just a minute. So here we're going to take a break from our study in the book of Acts and talk a little bit about Thanksgiving coming up. So we're having a long weekend, of course, celebrating Thanksgiving. And it's interesting because in 2 Timothy 3, we're going to focus on the first few verses here. But in 2 Timothy 3, we see kind of a long list of pretty serious sins at the beginning of this chapter. Let's go ahead and just look at it and see what we can take from this this evening. The Bible says in verse number 1, it says, this know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come. So of course, we know, and I'm not going to re-preach this, but we know that we are in the last days. You know, we're not in the end times, but we're in the last days. I mean, even Jesus said that at his time, we're in the last days, meaning, I've preached on this before, meaning the last half of whatever time we have left on this earth. We're in the last days, perilous times. It says, you know, dangerous times. And then it kind of gives us some detail on why these times are going to be dangerous. It says in verse number 2, it says, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away. So it gives us this kind of this description of these clues of what men are going to be like in these last days. And like, boy, can't we see that, you know, today in these last days. We see these very serious sins listed out here in the first few verses of 2 Timothy chapter 3. But what we're going to focus in on is up there in verse number 2, where the word unthankful is used. And it says, you know, that these men are, you know, men are going to be in the last days like all these wicked things and enlisted amongst those things is unthankful. Now it's interesting in the Bible because when we think about Thanksgiving and just being thankful in our lives, the word thankful is used just a couple times. I think maybe I've studied it a couple of years ago. It's just it doesn't come up very much in the Bible. It's maybe one or two or three times in the Bible. Unthankful comes up also, you know, one or two times in the Bible. But even though those words are used very little in the Bible, this is one of those times, obviously, this thankful and unthankful word. It is a main theme in the Bible. And it's a main theme in the Bible, something that is very serious. So as we move into Thanksgiving, let's first do a little Bible study on this theme of being unthankful in the Bible because it comes up over and over. And I couldn't give you all the examples of people that are unthankful in the Bible. I just pulled out a few obvious examples for you tonight. And let's look at just unthankfulness and what that means, what that means for the people that we're looking at in the Bible here, and then what that could mean for us in our lives if we became or if we were unthankful. And I hate to break you, but I can guarantee you that in many places in your life you are unthankful tonight. But we want to make sure that we put that in check in our lives because it's not a small thing. Even though that word is used just a few times, just a handful of times, it is a main theme that has very serious consequences in the Bible. So turn, if you would, to Ruth chapter number one. Even though those words are not used very much, the theme itself and the philosophy of the sin of unthankfulness, as it's listed as a very serious sin in 2 Timothy chapter 3, is very serious. I mean, think about it. It's listed, being unthankful is listed with things like without natural affection, with things like fears, with things, you know, just people that are violent, people that are reprobate, people that are, you know, just the worst type of people, you know, just unsaved people that have rejected God, rejected the gospel, and unthankful is used, you know, next to those types of sins. All right, so look, let's look at some examples of people that were unthankful in the Bible. Look at Ruth chapter 1. So in Ruth, we see the story of a woman named Naomi, who at the beginning of the chapter, of course, she loses a lot. She loses her husband, and then she loses her two sons as they had moved into this foreign land, and then she decides to go home. And she goes home, she goes back to Bethlehem, and look at verse 19 in Ruth chapter 1. So they too, now, of course, Ruth, who was her daughter-in-law, her sons had died, and one of the daughter-in-laws, this woman named Ruth decides to go with her. And in verse number 19, she goes back to Bethlehem. So the two went until they came to Bethlehem, and it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and said, is this Naomi? And she said unto them, call me not Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty had dealt very bitterly with me. And went out full, I went out full, this is Naomi speaking, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me Naomi, seeing that the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? So this is a woman that's pretty down right here. She comes back to her hometown after being in this foreign land and having lost her husband and her two sons, and she comes back and they ask her, hey, what's going on? And she's like, I'm empty, I'm done, I have nothing. But what you have to ask yourself, go back to verse number 16. Is it true that she was empty? Is it true that she really had nothing? Look at verse number 16 of Ruth chapter 1. She said, I went out full and the Lord brought me home again empty. Look at verse 16. And Ruth said, this is her daughter-in-law, she said to her daughter-in-laws after her sons died, she's like, go back to where you came from, go back to Moab, go back to your homes. And Ruth said in verse 16, entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee, for whither thou goest, I will go. And where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God, my God. This is Ruth speaking to Naomi. Where thou diest, will I die. And there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also if ought but death part thee and me. That's pretty amazing right there. Ruth is basically saying, even though, just imagine a daughter-in-law saying this to her mother-in-law after her husband has died, you know, the son of the mother, of the mother-in-law, she's saying, I am with you, I am loyal to you, I will go where you go, I will die where you die. And on top of that, she says, your God is my God, which is, you know, the right God, which is not the God of the Moabites, it is the one true God. Verse number 18, and when she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, you think, then she left speaking unto her. So they too went and came to Bethlehem, and then this is where Naomi gives this speech to the people of Bethlehem saying, I have nothing, I am empty, as Ruth is standing next to her going, I'm here. Can you imagine? I mean, so, I mean, you could say that Naomi's being a little bit unthankful for the fact that Ruth came back with her. And what does Ruth turn out to be? Ruth turns out to be this wonderful, wonderful, the only word in the Bible, the only woman in the Bible that is called a virtuous woman in the Bible is Ruth. She's this hardworking woman, ends up supporting Naomi, ends up marrying Boaz, ends up bringing Naomi's family into the lineage of the Messiah himself. So, Naomi was hardly empty. And you can say, well, she was just focusing on the negative and she was focusing on those things. But the only point I want you to take from this story is focusing on the negative and always looking at the bad things that have happened to you in your life can make you unthankful. That's the only thing that I want you to take from this story. Now let's look at a more serious example of unthankfulness. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 19. So we see from Naomi that just focusing on all the bad things that have happened to you and all that, look, there's definitely bad things that happened to her. Her husband died and then her two sons died. That's an extreme event in somebody's life. But that made her unthankful towards Ruth, this huge blessing that came out of that situation. It's really a Romans 828 situation right there where the Lord just took a bad situation and made just this huge blessing to Naomi and, you know, the whole nation of Israel from that bad situation. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 19. Let's look at King Saul. Let's look at King Saul. King Saul was somebody that was very unthankful in his life, especially at the beginning. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 19 and verse number 4. Now, Jonathan, his son, actually warned him, actually kind of, you know, nicely rebuked him about being unthankful. Now, in 1 Samuel chapter 19, David has just defeated Goliath. Like this just happened. This just happened like a chapter over and already Saul is moved with envy against David. He's just upset that people are liking, you know, David and thinking he's great. So look at verse number 4 of 1 Samuel chapter 19 and look what his son says to him. And his son says, And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father and said unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant against David, because he had not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to thee word very good. Jonathan is reminding him, hey, like two minutes ago, he saved the entire nation. Remember, David basically saved the whole army. He basically saved them from defeat, you know, from the Philistines. Everyone in the army before David came and said he would fight Goliath was afraid. They were terrified, including David's own brothers. Look at verse number 5. Jonathan goes into more detail. He says, For he did put his life in his hand and slew the Philistine, and the Lord wrought a great salvation for all Israel. He's like, Why are you getting upset at this guy? He saved the entire nation. Thou sawest it and didst rejoice. He's like, You were happy five minutes ago. I mean, it wasn't five minutes, but I mean, you were happy. Just right after this happened, you were happy. You were rejoicing about it. Wherefore, then, will thou sin against innocent blood to slay David without a cause? And Saul hearkened. Look, he listened. Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan, and Saul swear, As the Lord liveth, he shall not be slain. And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all those things, and Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as in times past. So he was able to actually reset Saul in that situation. However, we know that Saul quickly fell right back into where he was. But the point I'm trying to get you to understand this led where did this lead with Saul? He reset himself here after getting, you know, kind of reset by his son. But he quickly fell back into that where he just didn't care about what David did. And then he became bitter, and he became envious against David, and eventually it led to all things like him chasing David down, like him murdering people, like him trying to murder David again and again and again, trying to murder his own son. It just, it literally led Saul. It literally led Saul down this road where the Bible says over and over that God started chastising him and punishing him. God gave him this evil spirit, and if you read the story of Saul after this point, it reads like he went insane. It reads like he went crazy, but he was just, he was tormented by this evil spirit from the Lord. This is punishment from the Lord for not obeying God, and it reads like he literally went crazy. Where did it start though? Where did it start? It all started with what? Before the bitterness, before the envy, before everything. What did Jonathan point out first? He said, he said he wrought a great salvation for Israel. Thou sawest it and didst rejoice. What he was saying to Saul was you were thankful, and now you are not. It began all this torment and literal like just insanity from Saul. It began with unthankfulness. It began with just not appreciating what David had done, and from there came the envy. From there came the insecurity. From there came the bitterness. From there came the wrath. Then it just went, it just, he just kept ramping it up and up, and he's just murdering priests. He's murdering. He's just murdering anybody that he needs to murder, trying to even murder his own son just to kill David, but it all started with unthankfulness. It all started with unthankfulness. Turn to 2 Chronicles 24. 2 Chronicles 24. 2 Chronicles 24. I'll see another example. Well, maybe not worse. It's hard to come up with an example that's worse than Saul, but another very serious situation of unthankfulness. In 2 Chronicles 24, we see the story of Joash. Now, Joash was a young boy who was saved by this priest. If you remember, Athaliah, she took over the kingdom, and she slew all the blood royal. She slew all her son's children. She slew all her grandchildren so there would be no one to be king, and Joash was saved by this priest, Jehoiada. Jehoiada raised Joash, and then he eventually got Joash to be king, and he put him on the throne, and Joash was a good king, but look at verse number 20 of 2 Chronicles 24. As soon as Jehoiada dies, Joash, he goes bad. He goes, and he starts listening to the wrong people, and he starts doing evil things, and now Jehoiada the priest had a son who comes and tries to rebuke Joash for doing the wicked things that he's doing. Look at verse number 20. It says, and the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest. Remember, Jehoiada basically raised Joash. He basically was there, raising him. He protected him, and then he put him on the throne. The Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? Because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath forsaken you. So here's a man of God standing up and just telling Joash how it is. He's like, you go against God. God's going to go against you, and it's not going to go well. Look at verse 21. And they conspired against him and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord. So Joash commands that Jehoiada's son Zechariah is killed. Thus Joash the king, now look at this, why did he do that? Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said the Lord look upon it and require it. So Joash, who was saved by this man, who was raised in many ways by this man, this man, Joiada was his spiritual leader. Joiada dies, and he ends up killing his own son. And the Bible says that the start of that the spark of that was because he just he was not thankful for what Jehoiada did. He remembered not. He was what? He was unthankful. Are you starting to see like how serious unthankfulness actually is? I mean unthankfulness, you think like, oh, you know, somebody didn't say thank you or something. No, it leads to these terrible, terrible things in the Bible. It's very serious things stem from it. Turn to Romans chapter one, turn to Romans chapter one. I mean, unthankfulness itself, when we think about raising kids, and we'll talk about that in just a few minutes. But it really, I mean, it really seems like a small thing, you know, to just not be as thankful as we should. And all of us are guilty of that in many different places in our lives. But I just need you to understand the seriousness of this sin. Look at Romans chapter one, Romans chapter one, of course, talking about these people that, you know, rejected the Lord, they changed the truth of God, they turned into reprobates and all that, talking about the unnaturalness and all this, and just like explaining about all the wicked unnatural perversion that we see today. But look at the very beginning of Romans chapter one, the very beginning of that process. Where did it start? Look at verse number 21. It says, because that this is the beginning of this process where these people, they turn against God, they reject God. And finally, God is like, I'm done with you. I reject you. You know, this is how people become reprobate, rejected from God. Look at verse number 21. It says, that when they knew God, they glorified him, not as God. So they knew who God was. They believed that there was God. They just didn't give him any credit for, they didn't worship him as God. They didn't think he should be over them or whatever. And then look what it says. Neither were what? Neither were thankful. But instead, instead, so they're unthankful people, but instead they became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. You can see how people that start out unthankful head down some pretty serious roads in their lives. This is talking about people that literally rejected God, but they were first unthankful. So look, being thankful, being thankful folks, as we approach Thanksgiving, being thankful is a constant battle. It's a constant fight of the flesh that we have to be thankful and to guess what? To remain thankful for things in your life. Many times, like Naomi, we want to focus on negative things in our lives. And you say, well, you know, bad things, bad things happened to her. And you could say the same thing about yourself. You could say, you know what? Bad things happened to me. Maybe you look back at a year that you had, and you're just like, you know what? Bad things happened this year. But maybe you should start thinking about, you know, by looking at all those bad things that happened to you, you're actually being unthankful about the good things that are in your life. When you start looking at it that way, you know, through the eyes of Naomi, and then not wanting to be unthankful, like some of these examples we've seen in the Bible. Look, turn to 1 Samuel chapter 31. Naomi was not left empty. There is, I don't care what bad has happened to you, there are blessings in your life that you should be thankful for. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 31. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 31. 1 Samuel chapter 31. So this is the death of Saul. 1 Samuel chapter 31 is the death of Saul. And if you remember back in 1 Samuel chapter 11, I believe it is, the Ammonites were coming up against this city of Jabesh Gilead. And they basically had the place surrounded, and they had the people, I mean, the man of Jabesh Gilead came out, and they're like, we surrender, and what are terms for our surrender? And basically the king of the Ammonites said, I'm going to cut out all your right eyes. I'm going to, you know, then you're going to be my servants. And then this word got out to the nation, and everyone was just, they were in tears, and they were weeping, and they were crying. What's going to happen? And then Saul rises up. Saul rises up, and he gathers the whole nation, and he goes and he saves the people in this city. He defeats the army, and that's when everybody's just like, this is our king right here in 1 Samuel chapter 11. So after that battle happens, after he is made king, after 1 Samuel chapter 11, he saves, he wins this great battle. He saves these people from this wicked torture that was going to happen to them. He saves them, and then he just lives this wicked life as a king. He is an absolute failure as a leader of the nation of Israel. You know, reading the story of Saul and his reign is like, it's like watching a train wreck in slow motion. He does all the wrong things. He doesn't listen to the Lord. He gets lifted up. He does evil, wicked things, including murder. But look at verse number 11 of 1 Samuel chapter 31. Then, of course, God judges Saul. God says, because you've been this king, I'm killing you. I'm taking you off this earth. He sends Samuel back to tell Saul, tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Saul's still going to be in heaven, but God's like, you're done living on this earth. It wasn't enough that God took the kingdom from Saul. God finally got so fed up with this guy. You talk about the chastisement of God. Then he just says, you're done. I'm taking you off this earth. He sends an army against him. Then, of course, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago. Saul saw the army coming. He didn't want to be abused by the army, and he killed himself. He committed suicide. He killed himself. And you know what? They did abuse him after he was dead. They abused his body. They cut off his head. They cut off the head of his sons, and they hung him from the wall of the city, of this Philistine city. But look at verse number 11 of verse 31. And when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul, what did they do to him? They desecrated his body in this way. All the valiant men arose. All the brave men, all the warriors of this city, they get up and they went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan and came to Jabesh and burnt them there. These men from Jabesh Gilead, even though Saul was a wicked king, he had a wicked rule. He was not a good king by anybody's standards. These men from Jabesh Gilead, they remembered what Saul had done for them. And guess what? They were thankful enough to go and risk their own lives to give Saul a decent or a, you know, take care of his body in this way so it wouldn't be displayed and desecrated on this Philistine's wall. So look, they were thankful. They were thankful. They were kind of like, I don't want to compare these men to Naomi. I'm kind of being hard on Naomi here just from one, I'm just using one example, but basically they took all the bad things that Saul did and you know what they did? They just focused on the good. They just focused on that thing that he had done. You know what? We're thankful for him and we are going to take care of this even at risk of our own lives. We're thankful for what he did to us. They were still thankful. They were still thankful. So we need to remain thankful in our lives. We want to keep away from unthankfulness and always be thankful. You know, this is just something that we always need to remind ourselves of. And guess what? We need to be teaching this to our kids. If you only take one thing away from this sermon tonight, it's that thankfulness and the opposite of it, which is unthankfulness. Unthankfulness is a gateway sin to terrible things. If you only take one thing away from this sermon tonight, that's what I want you to take away from is just unthankfulness itself is a gateway to disaster. It is a gateway to horrible sin. It is a gateway, really, it's a gateway to a cursed life. It's a gateway to a cursed life. And you see that with these examples that I gave you with Saul and with Joash in the Bible. So we need to teach our kids, first of all, to be thankful for things in their life. Look from the small things, from the small things. Like if you go out to a restaurant with your kids and somebody brings them a glass, a drink, they should say thank you. They should know to be thankful because look, every kid that is in this church and every kid that we know is very blessed in their life. But look, I believe that kids can be blessed in their life and they can also be thankful for those things. You can raise your kids to be thankful. Your kids should say thank you when you do things for them. When they get, you know, a present or a gift from somebody, they should be saying thank you. They should be, because it teaches them that somebody did something for them that they didn't have to do. They should never start to expect things. They should never expect to be taken to a fun place. They should never expect to be taken to a restaurant. They should never expect to get money for things. They should never expect gifts for things. They should always be thankful for those things. And look, with kids, it just takes reminding constantly. Did you say thank you? Did you say thank you for that? It's just a constant thing that you have to constantly be on them for. But guess what? If you're constantly on them to just say those words thank you over and over and over again, they will become thankful people. They will become thankful adults. I mean, because look, to become unthankful, someone who expects things, expects things to be done for them, to be given to them, is really to become a ruined person. I mean, this is like, this is America today. This is America today. I mean, this new generation that's being raised that is, you know what, I deserve things. I deserve to have things done for me. Anything that I don't have, somebody should give to me. Anything wrong that has happened to me, it's somebody else's fault. You know, it all starts, all of that starts, all that welfare mentality, that laziness that, you know, as the Bible would call it, just being the slothfulness. There's such a wick that's in it. You know what it starts with? It starts with being unthankful. That's the gateway sin to all these terrible things. So we need to teach unthankfulness. I'm a big, I've said this before, I'll say it again. I love repetition. Repeat things to your kids again and again and again, and they will end up being thankful people. But look, ultimately, you want to talk about, you know, we're talking about getting a soda at a restaurant, but you know what, ultimately being thankful translates into? It translates into having good relationships, because if you're a thankful person, you will have good relationships in your life. I mean, an unthankful person is going to have a hard time having friends, having long-term relationships. What is the definition of a marriage? It's a long-term relationship. This is how important it is to raise young people that are thankful for every little thing and not thinking that they deserve things. Guess what? Guess what else is a relationship? Don't you want your kids to have a relationship with the Lord? You know, look, being unthankful, we saw it in Romans chapter 1, being unthankful, an individual that starts out just being an unthankful person could lead that individual to the point, I mean, forget becoming a reprobate, it could lead them to the point where they never get saved. Because if you appreciate nothing, just like the people in Romans chapter 1, they didn't appreciate God. If you appreciate God, you're not going to, if you don't appreciate God, if you're unthankful to the Lord, you're certainly not going to care what he did for you. Look, it'll affect, you know, salvation. You know, people that are extremely unthankful, you know, the darkest outcome is that they don't get saved and they turn on God, which is, you know, it could lead somebody, it could lead somebody to never seek the Lord if they're not a thankful person. Let me just give you some things as adults that we should be thankful for. Turn to Proverbs chapter 14. Turn to Proverbs chapter 14. As adults, I was just thinking about what am I thankful for? You know, what am I thankful for coming up this Thanksgiving? You know, some things that I'm thankful for that I feel like are being lost today. Proverbs 14, look at verse number 23. So look, just drive that thankfulness again and again and again into your kids because it's going to affect them for the rest of their lives. If you can raise kids that appreciate and are thankful for their parents, for their church, for the things in their life, they're going to be appreciative and thankful to God. Look at Proverbs 14 and verse number 23. The Bible says, here's something I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for labor. You're like, what? The Bible says in all labor there is profit, but the talk of the lips tendeth only to pennery. Well, this would be one. First of all, labor's got a bad rap today. Nobody appreciates labor anymore. But again, this one would be easy. This one would be easy to just focus on the negative, wouldn't it? Just be like, oh man, I'm too busy. Oh man, that was hard. Oh man, it's just really, I just like work is crazy. You know, work is really stressful this week. But you know what? I'm thankful for labor. I'm thankful that I can support my family. You should be thankful for that. You should be thankful for, you know what the guy with two arms and two legs standing on the corner with a sign saying, give me money. You know what he is? He's unthankful. He's unthankful. He's unthankful because he's not thankful for his labor. Why? How do I know that? Because he's not using it. He's taking a gift that God gave him and he's throwing it on the ground and he's stomping on it and he's just asking for people just to give him stuff. That's why people that give somebody like that, somebody that gives somebody money with two arms and two legs that has labor, you're hurting him. You're hurting that person. You are doing something wrong, according to the Bible, because that is an unthankful person. The first thing that they need to do is they need to be thankful for their labor. Labor's got a bad rap today. It was like, oh man, that job's hard. That job's hard work. Hard work is good. Hard work is good. Labor is good. The Bible says in all labor there is profit. And guess what? Guess what? I'm glad that I can labor. I'm glad that I can support my family. But you know what I'm really glad that I can do? I'm glad I can labor for the Lord. I'm glad that I can go and I can walk up and down the streets. I'm glad that I can do all the things that the church needs and I'm glad that I can help out wherever things need to be helped out. I'm glad that I can use my, I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful no matter how things are going in my life. And this is how you should be too. You should be, there's so many people out there flailing around that don't know where they're going or why they're going where they're going. They have no idea the direction that they're headed. They have no idea the direction that they should go. Here we know. We know. We're here to serve God with our labor with this life that we have. And I'm so thankful that I can do it for another year or another day or however God allows me to be able to serve Him with my labor. I'm thankful for a church that I can take my family to. A lot of people don't have that. A lot of people, whether it's their fault or wherever, you know, a lot of people just, they don't have a church that preaches the Word of God where they can take their family, where they can use their labor to serve the Lord with their lives. A lot of people don't have that. I'm thankful for that. And you know what? Here's the funny thing. This church and our thank, you know, this blessing that is this church, whether we have a bad time or a good time or you're in a valley or a peak in your life, it's always here. Whether or not, you know, we're going through some weird time in our country like COVID or, you know, you're having a good year or a bad year in your own mind, the church is here. Be thankful for that. That doesn't change. You know, I'm thankful for a church family. I'm thankful for a church family. You should be thankful for your church family too. Look, as clown world gets worse and worse out there, I am thankful for like-minded believers. I'm thankful for a place that we can get together and we can study the Word of God and we can be edified through the Word of God. We can exhort one another. Maybe someone's having a bad time when somebody else is a little bit stronger. Maybe, you know, somebody's confused about some things, needs some sharpening here or there. Maybe, you know, I mean, but this is the whole idea of a church family. And guess what? The kids in the church family, I'm thankful for them too. I mean, the kids, you kids are so important to this church. You have no idea. You kids are so important to this church. Why? You're important for the other kids. You're important because, I mean, you're kind of the whole goal, kids. I hate to break it to you. You know, I don't want to make you feel all self- important, but you're kind of the next generation, which is kind of the whole point of the whole thing. So we can keep this thing going. So you can keep this labor for the Lord going for another generation. This is how important the kids are in this church. I'm so thankful for that. I can't tell you how happy it makes me when I see a bunch of kids running around here, you know, not causing trouble, but I mean, you know, doing whatever they're doing. It just makes me very happy. I'm very thankful for that. And you should be thankful for that too. Look, you kids have a lot of effect on, you make the adults happy. Let me tell you that. All right? You make the adults in this church very happy. I can see it, I can see it on people's faces. So all the adults here, we're all thankful for the kids. Kids, you should be thankful for the adults and your parents as well. You know what else I'm thankful for? I'm thankful for this church building. I will never stop being thankful for this church building. But guess what? You know what? I'm also thankful for the old church building. You all kind of laugh and chuckle and I think about the old church building and some of the things that we all had to go through there and all that, but you know what? That building was a blessing and that building, you know, it served that purpose for that time. But you know what? You know what? Another blessing of that old church building was, is it will always make me appreciate this place. I mean, where we can go outside and the kids have an area to play, we can barbecue, we can play basketball. I will, I will, that will never get old to me. I will never allow that to get old to me. That's why I had to clean up all that stuff at that old building. You know, you're doing stuff like that and you're wondering why you're going through things like that in your life and you're like, why in the world would God put me through this again and again and again, and this is why. Because I will never stop appreciating a place like this. It's just a building, but it's just, it's a great place. It's perfect for us and I'm so thankful for that. Guess what? Here's another thing you should be thankful for. You should be thankful for your family. Men and women, you should be thankful. You should be thankful for your husband. You should be thankful for your wife. You know what? Don't ever get used to each other. This is a tough one. This is a tough one. I've been married for 23 years. Some of you, you know, married longer and less time than that, but here's the thing. You just, you live with somebody day to day. My wife and I were just talking about this yesterday. You live with somebody day to day and maybe you forget how you're speaking to them. Maybe you, maybe you're too casual. Maybe, you know, you don't, you don't, you don't act like you're thankful enough to them, but I tell you what, if my wife was gone tomorrow, oh boy, I'd be a train wreck and, you know, you can, men think about that with your wives as well. You know, if your, if your spouse was no longer there anymore, you know, I mean, be thankful for your husband and your wife, you know, and as the husband, as he supports the family, the wife should never get used to him. The wife should just never take him for granted because you know what? That's the beginning. That's the start of unthankfulness. You know, and as a husband comes home and as he sees things just always taken care of, just always squared away. The kids, always good. The education, always going right. Everything's just, just like, I'm telling you, it's completely out of my mind, like I don't stress about it at all ever, but I should never take that for granted. Why? Because that's the beginning. That's the start of unthankfulness and that could lead to, you know, bad things like, you know, the wife could be like, why, why doesn't he say, you know, nicer things? Why doesn't he say thank you enough? And why doesn't he, you know, do nicer things? Because he's just taking it for granted, probably. Because she's taking it for granted, he's taking it for granted. It's, it's the start of unthankfulness. Don't let that creep into your marriage. Don't let that creep into the people in your house. Don't take your kids for granted. Kids, don't take your parents for granted. You know, be thankful for every single day that you have with these people that you love the most. You know, I mean, this relationship with Ruth and Naomi, I mean, I just think about, I already kind of said this, but I kind of think about how Ruth must have been feeling as Naomi was telling everybody she's empty and she's just focusing on the negative. Think about that also. Think about that also, men, if you're just a negative person, or women, if you're a negative person. Think about, you know, as a woman, maybe you're just having a bad week, or a bad month, or a bad two months, or whatever it is, and you're just negative and focusing on the negative. Guess what? There's people standing next to you going like, hey, like Ruth, like hey, what about us? It could be taken as unthankfulness. The husband, same thing. You're just having, you're stressed out at work, things aren't going well, maybe finances this year weren't as good as last year, or whatever. Let me tell you something, as you get older, there's going to be good financial years, and there's going to be ones that aren't as good. That's just the way it is. But if you're always finding the negative things, look, here's the thing, if you're a busy laborious person, I don't care if you're a woman or a man, if you're a busy laborious person, you're gonna have a lot of balls up in the air, and some are going to be going good, and some are going to be going bad. That's just the way it is. Maybe some years, two-thirds of the balls you have in the air are not doing so well, and one-third are, but if you just focus on the negative all the time, people around you are going to look at that as unthankful, that you're starting to be unthankful. It's going to affect people. So be thankful. Look, no matter how bad my day is, or how bad whatever it is, I should always be thankful for my wife. I should always be thankful for my children, because if something outside of that happens, and all of a sudden it just seems like I don't appreciate them anymore, that affects them. That affects, this is why unthankfulness, this is why it's so important to teach this to your kids, and just drive this thankfulness idea home, because it affects relationships. I tell you what, a husband that appreciates a wife, and is thankful for a wife every day, and then a wife that also appreciates her husband, and is thankful for him every day, I'll tell you what, that's going to be a good marriage, and then that's centered on the Bible, that's going to be a good marriage. That's going to be a great, loving relationship. So I appreciate my family. I'm thankful for my family. You know what, and here's the thing, at the end of the day, we could go on and on and on about things that we should be thankful for, just count the blessings in your life, but at the end of the day, you're saved. I'm thankful for the fact that I'm saved. I'm thankful for the fact that I can serve the Lord with whatever time He gives me in my life. I'm thankful for the fact that my life will have no end. Don't ever get used to that. Don't ever take your salvation for granted. I mean, when you look at it from that perspective, like, hey, you know, I have eternal life. Could anything really be going wrong at that point? And I know this is a tough perspective to always have all the time, but the point is, don't ever be unthankful for what Jesus Christ did for you. That should always be your fallback position. Like, if everything else is going wrong, you are saved, and nothing is ever going to change the fact that you are saved. And look, that is ultimately always something to be thankful for, no matter what is going on. Let's eat some pie. Stay thankful in your life. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.