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

The night is coming, work for the sunny new. Fill Friday's hours with labor, rest come sure and soon. Give every flying minute something to keep in store. Work for the night is coming, when that works no more. Work for the night is coming, under the sunset skies. While their branches are glowing, work for daylight flies. Work till the last gleam faded, faded to shine no more. Work for the night is gone, when that's worth is gone. Sewing in the moorings, sewing seams of kindness. Sewing in the loom tight and the dewy, waiting for the harvest. At the time of ringing, we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves. Ringing in the sheaves, ringing in the sheaves. We shall come rejoicing, ringing in the sheaves. Ringing in the sheaves, ringing in the sheaves. We shall come rejoicing, ringing in the sheaves. Sewing in the sunshine, sewing in the shadows, Going forth was weeping, slowing for the master. But the lost have seen our spirit of decrease. We might be victorious, but we shall not rejoice, in bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves. We shall not rejoice, in bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves. We shall not rejoice, in bringing in the sheaves. I will sing of my Redeemer. His name is God, who's love to me. On the proof of rising summer of the first He said, Let me sing, sing, oh sing, the time is here. With his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my process. In the dead he gave me free. Good evening, everyone. Merry Christmas. Thank you all for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. Looks like almost everybody's already sitting down. So if we can go ahead and grab a hymnal, we'll start this evening off in song number 429, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Song 429. Hark the Herald Angels Sing, number 429. Let's sing it all together on the first. Hark the Herald Angels Sing, glory to the newborn King. Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. Joyful all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies. With angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem. Hark the Herald Angels Sing, glory to the newborn King. Christ my highest and adored, Christ the everlasting Lord. Late in time behold him come, offspring of a virgin's womb. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see, hailed incarnate deity. Pleased with men, with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. Hark the Herald Angels Sing, glory to the newborn King. Hail the heaven, Lord, Prince of Peace. Hail the Son of Righteousness. Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings. While he lays his glory by, born that man no more may die. Born to praise the sons of earth, born to give a second birth. Hark the Herald Angels Sing, glory to the newborn King. Come, these our evasions come, fixing us like humble home. Christ the moment concrete see, whose in us the serpent's head. Adam's likeness now effaced, saved thine image in its place. Take an Adam from above, reinstate us in thy love. Hark the Herald Angels Sing, glory to the newborn King. Excellent singing everybody, let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church. We thank you for this wonderful day, for the gift of your Son. Lord, please fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit. Help him to preach in edifying sermons. We can walk out better Christians. Then we came in for your honor and glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, next up, you should have a handout in your white handouts. If you don't have one, go ahead and raise your hand. We're just saying, O Holy Night. I hear from a lot of people that this is their favorite. So I want to hear you all really loudly. O Holy Night, on first. O Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior's birth. Long may the world in sin and error pining till he appeared. And the soul felt its birth. The thrill of good, the weary world rejoices. For yonder breaks the new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees. O hear the angel voices. O night divine, O night when Christ was born. O night, O Holy Night, O night divine. Led by the light of day, so really beaming with glowing hearts who find his cradle to stay. Over the world, a star is smoothly gleaming. Now came the wise men from Orient land. The King of kings, they thus in lowly danger in all our trials, born to be our friend. He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger. Behold your King, behold him, lowly man. Behold your King, behold him, lowly man. Truly he taught us love for one another, his law is done and his gospel is peace. Chains he shall break, the servant is our brother. And in his name, all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy, in grateful chorus raise we. With all our hearts we praise his holy name. Christ is the Lord, oh praise his name forever. His power and glory evermore proclaim. Excellent singing everyone. Merry Christmas, thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. We have a few bulletins, so if you can share with somebody, but if you'd like one you can lift up your hand and we'll hand out some bulletins, if you didn't already get one. Matthew chapter 28 verse 5, we are memorizing that passage, and this evening since we're doing our Christmas cookie bake-off, I guess you can double dip, you get ice cream and cookies, and so we'll definitely have you in a merry spirit, all right? Also on the inside we have our service and soul winning times as well as church stats. If you have any soul winning maps make sure you're always turning those into our bins, we'll greatly appreciate that. We have a list of expecting ladies, please be in prayer for our expecting ladies list. We also have a prayer list, I'm going to come right back to this. On the back we have the note about the Christmas cookie bake-off. If you brought cookies for our event this evening, but you did not fill out a cup for the voting, you can go ahead and do that right now. So if you didn't already fill out a cup for the cookies, you can do that just so that we have those. As soon as the service is over, I'll come right up, and I'll just make a few more quick announcements about the cookies specifically. We are going to be having a cookie fellowship immediately following our service. Everyone is welcome to participate, we should have milk and soft drinks, as well as a lot of awesome cookies that you guys have made for us. Thank you so much for being here and for letting us have that cookie bake-off. Also, our final song of the evening is going to be a candlelight song, and so we're going to dim the lights, and we are going to pass out candles to everybody, and we'll have the song leader start with that light, and he's going to pass it off, and then we're going to pass it around in the sanctuary, just so you are aware that will be happening for our final song this evening. We have been going through the book of Matthew, but just since it is Christmas Day, I'm preaching a different message just tonight, but we'll pick up Matthew chapter number six, God willing, next Wednesday, and so if you'd like to join us for the Bible study, we have that on Wednesday nights. Also, January 1st is going to be a special service as well. We're going to have a men's popcorn preaching night, as well as a pizza fellowship immediately following, so if you'd like to join us for the first, and if you are a man that's 18 and older and you'd like to preach a sermon, you just need to wear a button-up shirt and tie, prepare about a five-minute sermon, and we'll just do some popcorn preaching that evening. January 11th and 12th is an event that I wanted to already put in the bulletin, but I was invited by Pastor Reyes of Spring Crest Baptist Church to come out and preach for them on the 12th, and so we're also hosting a soul-winning event the day before. It's going to be at their church where we're going to meet at 9 a.m., go out for a couple hours of soul-winning, have lunch, and then go out for again in the afternoon for a couple hours. We're going to have a fellowship event. It's in Houston. It's kind of the north side of Houston, and so I just want to put that on your radar, and we have a ton of events and things scheduled for next year, but I'll probably wait until Sunday or maybe a little bit further to just give you kind of a whole rundown of the list, but we've had a great year this year, and next year we're going to go even harder, and so you know the Bahamas missions trip is coming back next year. I'm planning on possibly a cruise missions trip. Is anybody interested in a cruise missions trip? Okay, all right, so we're going to try and plan something for that. Also, Brother Evangelist Duncan Urbanic is going to be coming back to the states in March, and is going to be preaching for us, and then we're also going to be starting a new ministry in the Philippines with Evangelist Urbanic, but I'm going to let him give a lot of those details, and so he'll be visiting with us for a couple weeks in March, and then also we're going to probably have our spring recital for kids. We're thinking about doing a kids choir for the Easter services and kids choir for Christmas next year. We're trying to plan on doing some Christmas CD album stuff. We've got a lot of small town soul-winning events scheduled. We're going to be going back to Shreveport. We also are going to try and do one in Oklahoma, kind of halfway between us and Anchor, and try to do a soul-winning event there. I'm really excited about Lancaster, because it's actually only like 20 or 25 minutes from us, and it looks like a really receptive area that we haven't hit before, so we're gonna have a soul-winning marathon out there, probably Mansfield. I'm thinking there's actually a couple other ones that I had. We're going to be having the FBBF again next year, so we'll have our Firebreathing Baptist Fellowship Conference. We have got a jam-packed, exciting future for next year, and so it's never been a great, never been a better time to be a part of a steadfast Baptist church. Also, we're trying to get maybe our soul-winning documentary done and accomplished by 2025, and so we'll put that out there. We've got a lot of great stuff, and I really appreciate you guys celebrating with us on Christmas and being part of this church so that we can do a lot of these fun things. It's very special to me and my family, and you never know on a Christmas day how many people are going to come out, but we're really full tonight. A lot of people out here, and I really appreciate you guys celebrating Christmas with me and celebrating with our family, and we're here to really just celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ. I do want to still go through our prayer list like we normally do on Wednesday nights, so we'll go ahead and kind of walk through this quickly, and then we'll pray as a church. Here on the list, we've been continuing to pray for several people here for the name's grandmother, and also, if you'd add to your prayer list, pray for Charlotte, Miss Charlotte as well, who's also recovering from sickness. Pray for the Carlson's mother, Rebecca. Also, if you'd pray for the Miller's friend, her mother is struggling with cancer. If you please pray for Mr. Scott, he's been struggling with cancer. Also, their mother, Miss Grace with nerve pain. If you've been praying for the Garcia's daughter, Miss Krista, who's also pregnant, it's very exciting. Also, praying for brother Tony for his health. We've been praying for the Foley's for his fiance and their visa process. We've been praying for brother Alex and his work. We've been praying for the Warner's brother, Chalmer, who had a knee injury. We've been praying for recovery for their hand as his grandmother. We've been praying for the Goodwin's friend, Miss Sarah, from recovery for surgery. Also, if you've been praying for brother Nick's mother, praying for her salvation. We're praying for brother Wallach's brother, who had an emergency surgery. I think the surgery went really well, but just continue to pray for his recovery. Also, praying for brother Stuart for sickness. And then also, the Absol's were praying for his father-in-law, and he's actually also a Baptist pastor. And so, if you'd been in prayer for him and some treatments that he's going through. I also know just a lot of people have been sick this season. It's been kind of a crazy season for a lot of people, so just be in prayer for everybody that recover. But we're going to go ahead and say a quick word of prayer as a church family. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this day. Thank you for the gift of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we could come here and sing praises unto your son's name, and to your name. I pray that you would just bless this time, and I pray that you would just be with all these ladies who are expecting, and we just thank you so much for the miracle of pregnancy and childbirth. I pray that you'd just be with them. Please bless these ladies. Please bless these children. I pray that you give them a timely birth. I pray that you'd also bless those that have recently given birth, that you bless their children and their development. I pray that you'd also help those that we've been praying for that have been struggling with cancer and various illnesses and sickness. Please comfort these people. Please give them grace. If possible, give them a miracle, and just give them full health and recovery. I pray that you would just come alongside them so that they wouldn't feel lonely. I pray that you would help give them peace that passes understanding right now. I pray that you would just also bless our friends and family that are sick, that you would help them to quickly recover, that you'd help people to be able to get back into church, and I pray that you would also just help those who are needing favor with their jobs, with their work situations. I pray that you would help them. I pray that you would help us to have the right attitude and spirit during this month and coming into the next year to reach the lost, our loved ones, the hard cases, that we would be able to minister to them. I pray that you would help us to get the right opportunities to soften people's hearts. And I pray that we could have a great harvest in the following year. And I pray that you would also just allow our church to be giving all the glory and honor to your sons as his name we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. Go ahead and sing. Our third song is Psalm 119. It's in our special handouts. And it's going to be way easier to sing if you use the handout because Psalm 119 has got a lot of verses if you're just using the Bible. But we start in 105. Psalm 119. All right, that's Psalm 119. Let's sing it out on first. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. Great singing, everybody. As the offering plates are going around, would you please turn your Bibles to Luke, chapter number 17. Luke, chapter number 17. Luke, chapter 17. The Bible says then said he unto the disciples, it is impossible but that offenses will come, but woe unto him through whom they come. It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves. If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him. And if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day, turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. And the apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say unto this sycamine tree, be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted in the sea, and it should obey you. But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by when he has come from the field, go and sit down to meet, and will not rather say unto him, make ready wherewith I may sup and gird thyself and serve me till I have eaten and drunken. And afterward, thou shalt eat and drink. Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I tro not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our duty to do. And it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him 10 men that were lepers, which stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, were there not 10 cleansed, but where are the nine? There are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, arise, go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole. And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say lo here or lo there, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you. And he said unto the disciples, the days will come when you shall desire to see one of the days of the son of man and you shall not see it. And they shall say to you, see here or see there, go not after them nor follow them. For as the lightning that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven, so shall also the son of man be in his day. But first, must he suffer many things and be rejected of this generation. And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, also as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the son of man is revealed. In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away. And he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. I tell you in that night, there shall be two men in one bed, and the one shall be taken and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together, the one shall be taken and the other left. Two men shall be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left. And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, I want to thank you for the king of kings coming down, being laid in a manger, bringing us the free gift of salvation. Thank you for such blessings that you've given us. Please help us to give you the glory today. And I pray that you would bless Pastor Shelley as he preaches your word. Please give us an edifying sermon and please open our ears to hear in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I want to start back at Luke chapter 17 verse 17. The Bible says, And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? They are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger. And what I was thinking about in this story is how all ten of these men that were lepers had received a gift. And that gift was healing, was cleansing. And it's, of course, to foreshadow the idea of getting saved and how all you have to simply do is trust the word of the Lord and you receive salvation. The Bible says we simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we're saved. And so God often uses these type of carnal examples to illustrate the spiritual truth, where many people were sick and they needed healing and they received that healing physically as a picture of what it's like to be saved, where you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you receive that spiritual healing, as it were. And what we can kind of glean from the story is, though, that even though many people will receive the free gift of salvation, and even though many people received at this time free healing, very few are willing to say thank you. We notice just by percentages of this story, 90%, because 9 out of 10 don't even say thank you. I mean, that's kind of crazy when you think about it. He says in verse 18, they are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger. Additionally, he's bringing up the stranger, which could be a replacement theology discourse that we could go on, but I'm not really headed that direction for this sermon. Really, I really just kind of wanted to focus on this idea of saying thank you or appreciating the gift that you received, because on Christmas Day, most of us have probably received a gift. And of course, if you're saved and in the building, you for sure received a gift. That gift was eternal life through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have to understand that when we receive a gift, we need to do something. We need to say thank you. And so the title of my sermon is simple. When you receive a gift, when you receive a gift, and here's point one, say thanks. It's pretty simple. When you receive a gift, say thank you, say thanks. It seems so obvious. It seems so simple, but let me tell you something. Our world today is not very good at even saying thank you. Our world today is not saying thanks. And there's very few people willing to say thank you to the Lord Jesus Christ, even for the gift of salvation. Think about how many people that you go out to and you minister to, you preach the gospel till they get saved at the door, how they never even go to church one time. They never even just one time return to church and just say thanks to God. I mean, the Lord Jesus Christ had to come to the earth, humble himself, go to the cross, go to hell, and be risen again for them. And they can't even go to church once to say thank you for what God has done unto them. But that is the reality that very few people today are willing to say thank you when they receive a gift. But let me tell you something. If you received a gift today, you better say thank you to the person that gave you a gift. Now go if you would to Psalm chapter 18. If you're saved, you better say thank you to the Lord Jesus Christ for the gift of eternal life. And not just one time. The Bible makes it clear for the rest of our lives, we need to be thanking God and thanking the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation. The Bible just says this over and over again and repeats it. I'm just reading, I'm gonna read tons of verses to you as well. The Bible says, give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. The Bible just explicitly commands us to give thanks unto the Lord. It also says in first Chronicles 16 verse 34. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth forever. Why should you continually give thanks unto the Lord? Well, because your salvation lasts forever. So every single day is just another day that you got that gift of eternal life in a sense, because it never expires. Therefore, you might as well say thank you every single day that you have it. And praise God, you can never lose it. Praise God that salvation is eternal. Praise God that it's already settled. Praise God that I've already been redeemed. I've already been saved. I've already been sealed under the day of redemption. And so every day I can say thank you again to God for my salvation. Psalm 18 verse 46, the Bible says, the Lord liveth and blessed be my rock and let the God of my salvation be exalted. It is God that avenges me and subdued the people under me. He delivered me from mine enemies. Thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me. Thou has delivered me from the violent man. Therefore, will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen and sing praises unto thy name? Notice it says in verse 49, therefore, will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord. When you receive a gift from God, therefore means you should what? Then give thanks to the Lord for that. When you're delivered from the enemy, specifically like death and hell, you should say thanks unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only that, when he continually delivers us in this life and from constant enemy, constant persecution, constant affliction, the Bible says that we are to give thanks unto God and we are to sing praises unto his name. Have you ever noticed in the Psalms, there's a theme. There's a theme in the Psalms. And let me explain what the theme is. The godly person is being persecuted by countless enemies. And then he's constantly delivered. And then he's constantly singing praise to God. I mean, if you read the Psalms, you'll notice a pattern real quick. Just read the first 10 and they're all short. It is just innumerable enemies, innumerable opposition, constant affliction. And the Psalmist is praising God for the deliverance that he keeps offering him and keeps delivering him. If you live the Christian life, it's going to be the same way. Where you're going to have innumerable enemies, countless adversaries, countless afflictions, and God's just constantly delivering you. And you're supposed to constantly praise him and say thank you for the deliverance. We need to constantly be praising him and singing praises unto him. And that's why I love singing the Psalms because they're so relevant. Can you imagine going to some of these lame non-denominational churches? What enemies are they even singing about getting delivered from? The Starbucks barista getting their coffee order wrong? I don't even know this non-persecution Christianity. It's going to be hard for them to sing the Psalms. And they even get offended at the Psalms. If you showed them Psalm 139 from our church, they would be offended. They would think, how could you ever hate anybody? There's no one bad enough to ever hate. Or how could you ever feel like Psalm 58, which is on the docket. We're about to start singing that one. And boy, it's rough. Break their teeth in their mouth, oh God. That's what it says. I'm going to sing it, okay? And you know why I'm going to sing it? Number one, because it's God's word. Number two, because it's relevant, all right? Number three, because I feel it, okay? And number four, because I want it to happen. And you know what, when it happens, I'm going to say thank you to God for doing it. You know, and some people think the Psalms are gnarly because they are. You read it correctly. But you know what, I like the Psalms. But you know, when you live the Christian life, we are going to go through opposition. We're going to go through difficulty. But here would be the shame, is if we go through strong adversaries, strong affliction, God delivers us. And then he's like, where are the nine? And you know, I think there's a lot of people like that. I think there's people that have been part of our congregation, part of our church, that have been delivered from enemies, countlessly. And now my question is, where are the nine? Where are you? Are you still giving thanks unto the Lord Jesus Christ from having delivered you from the last enemies? Because you know, when you're not thankful, sometimes he stops delivering you. Sometimes he stops giving you the deliverance and the grace and the help that you need. You know, we need to make sure that we're constantly thanking God and giving him glory and lifting him up so that he'll constantly deliver us. Because let me tell you something, I know God's delivered us many times, and God has been gracious unto us, and God has been our helper, and God has been our fortress, and God has been our rock, and God has given us not only spiritual salvation, he's given us physical salvation, and we are to exalt him. We are to set him apart in our hearts, in our minds, in our service, in our worship. Our worship is to set apart God. You know, people love a lot of contemporary music today. I'm not really against the style so much, but when it comes to specifically the lyrics and the wording, it's not exalting and setting apart God the same as the hymns. I mean, again, I like the style of the hymns better anyways, but I'm just saying like, I'm not so much mad about style when it comes to music as much as it is the lyrical composition. And when the lyrical composition is not exalting the Lord Jesus Christ and the most God-honoring way, well, we need to reevaluate our music. You know, when I talk to people at the door, I'll often say, hey, we sing the Psalms and the hymns and spiritual songs because we think it's the most honoring to God. That's why we sing them. We're not just singing them because they're sticks in the mud. We're not just singing them because other people used to. We're singing them because show me a better song. Show me a song that honors God more and I'll sing it. Show me a song that's giving more thanks under the Lord Jesus Christ, that's more doctrinally sound, that's more in line with the word of God, and I'll sing it. But you know what? These timeless hymns, it's hard to beat, folks. It's hard to beat. I mean, the doctrine coming off these pages is better than the NIV. I mean, this book is often more inspired than the NIV. It's just King James Bible verses after King James Bible verses. And you know what? That's why I love it because I love God's word. And we need to be saying thanks unto the Lord for what he's done and sing praise unto his name. Look at Psalm 30 and look at verse number three. Psalm chapter 30, verse number three. I love that our church sings the Psalms. I love that people are willing to learn new music and practice and play skillfully and play with a loud noise. Psalms unto the Lord Jesus Christ. And we don't even want them to just be like we did it. We want them to be good. We want them to be something that we can be pleased with and that God will be pleased with. God wants us to play skillfully and to use our talents for his honor and for his glory. Psalm 30, look at verse three. Oh Lord, thou has brought up my soul from the grave. Thou has kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit. Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. You know, when we talk about salvation, we don't declare our righteousness. We declare his righteousness for the remission of sins. And we are to say thanks under the remembrance of his holiness, his righteousness, because that's what gave us salvation. His sinless and perfect life. His sacrifice is what gave us that deliverance from what? From the grave. From the fact that I will not go down to the pit. Praise God, I will never go to hell. Praise God, I'll never descend down into the pit. What a great thing to remember about God and his holiness and how the Lord Jesus Christ was perfect and yet he went for us. Yet he descended down into the deep. Yet he was down there suffering the affliction of hell. The Bible makes it clear that he was not enjoying himself. Have you ever read Jonah chapter number two? Out of the belly of hell cried I. The Bible makes it clear in Acts chapter number two that it was suffering and affliction. And you know what? He didn't even deserve it. We do. That's something that we could sing in them. Look at verse 10. Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me, Lord. Be thou my helper. Thou hast turned from me my morning into dancing. Thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness to the end that my glory may sing praise to thee and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee forever. Hey, you know when you're going to stop saying thanks unto God? Never. We need to say thanks now. We need to say thanks tomorrow. We need to say thanks next year. And then when we die and we go to heaven, we're going to still be giving thanks unto the Lord Jesus Christ and unto God for the things he gives us. Because when you receive a gift, you say thanks. And there's not a better gift. I want you to go to Psalm 118. I'm just going to read a bunch for you. I will give thee thanks in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much people. I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify him with thanksgiving. So we thy people and sheep of thy pastor will give thanks, give thee thanks forever. We will show forth thy praise to all generations. You know why it's important to say thank you to God every single year? Because we have new babies every single year. Because we have new five-year-olds every single year. Because we have new kids getting saved every year. Because we have new kids getting baptized every year. Because we have new teenagers. Because we have new young adults. Because we have new people just being brought in from church. And we need to say thank you to the Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of all generations. We want to teach our children and our grandchildren and everybody that we are thankful to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, as a grandparent, you have a great opportunity to minister to your grandchildren. And I think a lot of grandparents, they look at retirement and being a grandparent as like an ejection seat to work or something. Like I'm finally done with kids or something. But to me, I would think like, wow, now I have an opportunity to minister even more people. Now I have grandkids. And to me, it's even better because you don't have to do all the dirty labor, the dirty jobs. You can do all the fun stuff. You can just have fun, show up, and leave. Hey, you need to change your diaper. You don't even have to do all that stuff. No, you could. I'm not saying you can't. I mean, you could be helpful. It'd be nice. You can share all the nice recipes and all the tips and tricks to parenting and everything like that. But you really don't have to do necessarily all the sleepless nights and all the other hard parts that come along with parenting. Now you get to enjoy. But don't be these grandparents that just run away and hide and say they're done. No, no, be a grandparent that's actually involved in your children's lives and your grandchildren's lives. And there's been a lot of people who their grandparent was influential in their life. Who would say my grandparent was pretty influential in my life? Look around. And you know what? Even if you didn't have that, you could be that for somebody else. You could be that for your grandchildren. Psalm 118, look at verse one. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for He is good, because His mercy endureth forever. Why should I thank God today? Because His mercy endures every single day. So I should say thank you to Him. You never have a day where you can't say thank you unto the Lord Jesus Christ. But where are the nine? What are the nine doing? Are the 90% always giving thanks? Probably not. Look at verse 29, same chapter. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. Sounds like God's trying to get a message clear to us. Hey, His mercy is going to last forever. Look at Psalm 119 and verse 62. So it's kind of in the middle. Verse 62 says, at midnight I will rise to give thanks unto Thee because of Thy righteous judgment. This guy is so thankful. He wakes up in the middle of the night and, you know, maybe he had to use the bathroom. Maybe he had to get a drink of water. You know, my kids, it's always they have to get lip chaps. I don't know. What in the world is this? This is what we call basically, you know, they want to get something like Blistex or something. That's what we call that lip chaps. I don't even know why that name. It probably makes no sense to anybody else, but whose kids want Blistex or something in the night? Okay, my kids are unique. All right, it's weird, but, you know, there's a lot of reasons why you might have to get up in the middle of the night, but this guy's like, hey, I'm still alive. I'm still kicking. It's midnight. I'm going to give thanks unto God. Why? Because that should be our attitude. Should just be an attitude. We're just constantly saying thank you to God for everything that we have. You just, you wake up in the middle of the night. Thank you. Sing praise. I mean, there's a great story in Acts chapter number 16 where Paul and Silas at midnight are singing praises unto God and thanking God, and then he just breaks the chains. There's never a bad time to praise God. It's not like only at church. You're not at church at midnight. Well, hopefully not. All right, he's at home. He's in his bed. He's with his children. He's coming out of sleep because notice it says at midnight I will rise. This guy was sleeping. He was asleep. And he's like, hey, I got out of bed. I'm going to make sure to thank God. That's what we should do. Go to Psalm 136. The Bible says, let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto him with Psalms. The Bible says in Psalm 100, enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. We should come to church to be thankful to God and to bless God and to bless his name and to glorify him. We're here for God. We're here for the Lord Jesus Christ. This is Christmas where we're celebrating Christ. Now, again, it's very easy to think of Christmas as what presents you're going to get and all the fun you're going to have, the great meals, the great fellowship, the great time. And there's nothing wrong with celebrating with family and friends and enjoying all the things that God's given you. But just say thank you to God for it. Say thank you to God for the presents that you get today. Say thank you to God for the wife that you have. Say thank you to God for the husband that you have. Say thank you to God for the children that you have. Say thank you to God for the parents that you have. Say thank you to God for the grandparents and the extended family and the friends that you have. Say thank you to God for the meals that you got to have. Say thank you to God that you got time off today probably and a lot of us got paid time off. you got paid to open presents think about that welcome to America you don't live in communism where you don't get paid for working where you don't get presents where you don't get time off we're not gonna celebrate Christmas in a communist nation you know why because communism is anti-christ you don't have the freedom to worship the Lord Jesus Christ in a communist hellhole you live in America where you get to praise the Lord Jesus Christ and you get time off you live in America where Sunday is set apart as a holy day where people are expected to go to church where the highway is cleared off for the most part I mean a lot of us live pretty far from the church I am so thankful that Sunday it's not busy isn't that nice I mean you come on a Wednesday and you don't praise God it's Christmas because nobody was out driving to church today it was nice but normally on a Wednesday boy it's rough you coming from all over it could take an hour it could take an hour and a half it could take two hours there are some people that probably drive almost two hours sometimes to come to church and you know what praise God for Sunday being set apart you know you should say thank you to God whereas some people would say I have to drive 25 minutes to church huh you should be thankful you get the opportunity to drive 25 minutes to church and not just any church a great church because you know what this group of people are special and you know what churches it's people it's not a building it's not we don't have the nicest building in fact we're you know probably on the bottom of the list okay we don't necessarily have the best things from a carnal perspective we're not five minutes from your house we don't have necessarily everything in the budget of other bigger churches but you know what I'm really thankful for this building because I love it and I love the carnal things that God's given us but I'm not coming here for the carnal things I'm coming here for the spiritual things and boy find me a better group of people you're not gonna find in this area this is a great group of people and you should be thankful that you can come to a church that has been purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ you should be thankful for a church where the vast majority of us are saved you should be thankful for a church that's King James only you should be thankful for a church that has so many people dedicating themselves to play music up here there was a lot of times were we saying acapella there were a lot of times where it's just me and the trumpet and I was very thankful with the trumpet it was great but it was just the Trump I mean it's been years and me just like kind of like begging you know or nagging one of the two you know people like hey you want to come up here and play and you know praise God for a lot of the young youthful people that have decided to dedicate themselves and come up here and play I guess they're not as embarrassed as all you adults out there okay because there's some adults out here that can play and they just won't do it all right but praise God for the children that'll do it praise God for them that'll step up to the occasion you know what praise God and thank God that we have consistent pianists because I just love the piano so much and I love all the other instruments and you know what we should be thanking God for what we have we should be thanking God for what he's given us when someone gives us a gift we say thank you and you know we should look at these things as gifts you know the Bible calls pastors and evangelists and teachers in the Bible gifts it calls them gifts and you know what if you have a good pastor a good evangelist a good deacon a good one it's a wonderful gift and you should say thank you to God for that what does Psalm 136 say verse 1 Oh give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth forever look at verse 2 Oh give thanks unto the God of God's for his mercy endureth forever look at verse 3 Oh give thanks to the Lord of Lords for his mercy endureth forever look at verse 26 Oh give thanks unto the God of heaven for his mercy endureth forever praise God that salvation lasts forever and praise God that it's coming from the God of God the Lord of Lords the God of heaven there's not a higher authority there's not a greater authority because you know we could get mercy from a lower level judge a lower level God a lower level ruler and it wouldn't matter when the higher one overrules that when the higher court rules but you know what the highest court has already ruled and his mercy endureth forever praise God that's the God that we worship go to the New Testament go to Matthew chapter number 11 I want to look at some New Testament mentions here point one simple and I'm just gonna hammer it in when you receive a gift say thank you and I think a lot of us just forget how many gifts were actually given I think a lot of us have forgotten all the things that we have how much of a blessing and how much God has given us and how gracious he's been unto us and especially us that live in America we get to live very privileged and special lives because God has been very favorable to us now of course there's other great places to live in the world there's cool places but I'm just saying I'm very thankful to be an American I'm very thankful to live in Texas I'm very thankful to live in the Dallas Fort Worth area because I think that it's a very special place to live and I love it and if you know me I am always praising this area maybe to a fault okay but that's because I'm so thankful that I get to live here I get to live in one of the coolest places I get to live I love the weather here I love the church here I love the soul winning here I mean it's just there's so many great reasons to live here and it's Texas I mean it's not like one of these lesser-known states because you ask a lot of people you'd be like hey can you draw on a map where Iowa is unless you're from that region a lot of people probably wouldn't be able to do it you you name some of these and I'm not trying to dog on Iowa I'm just saying like you know if you said where's Texas everybody knows where Texas is it's like some of these smaller New England colonies and stuff I mean you'd be confused between Pennsylvania and Massachusetts you know you got into the Midwest it's like it's all just lines on a paper you don't know what it is anymore Kansas it's like somewhere you but we live in Texas great history great food I mean I love living here and you know what we should be thankful for what God has given us we should be thankful of course for the spiritual blessings God's given us and this is what I noticed in Jesus Christ ministry pretty much any time he gets a chance to just pray or say something he's just always giving thanks for whatever yes like wherever he's at whatever's going on he just makes sure to say thank you look what it says in verse 25 Matthew chapter 11 verse 25 at that time Jesus answered and said I think the Oh Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou has hid these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes now this is a funny prayer to me because he's basically like he's like saying I'm thanking you God that these people don't understand the Bible like think about he's like I'm so glad I'm so thankful that these arrogant pricks don't understand the Bible that these jerks that these prideful snobbish theologians can't understand the things of the Bible and that people that are simple people that are very uneducated they understand the great wisdom of the Word of God he's thanking God for that and if you can thank God for that I'm thinking that it's off the charts what you can thank God for like I mean if you're thanking God for people being stupid then you know I mean basically I'm thinking like everything's on the table right I mean that's what he's doing go to chapter 15 go to verse 36 any time that something happens Jesus is saying thank you you know hey I'm so glad that this arrogant snobbish Calvinist doesn't understand the Bible and that this plumber over here understands it that's what he's saying and it's probably because you know prideful people just rub us the wrong way rubs God the wrong way it rubs the Holy Spirit the wrong way and so he likes the humble person over the prideful person regardless of their education regardless of their intellect regardless of how much studying they've done and you know what why would you be thankful for that because not of us are not all of us are born studious not all of us are born having a high intellect and what it shows is that God is not a respecter of persons you know what it shows that God loves even the simple God loves people that are not very educated God loves people wherever they're at as long as they'll humble themselves and trust in his word God will reveal unto them great wisdom and great truths in the Bible and they can be smarter than the smartest person in the world you can be much smarter and much wiser than Jordan Peterson if you'll just believe the Bible then Richard Dawkins then many of these theologians even many of the Catholic Church fathers you'll be much wiser than them st. Augustine or st. Augustine have you want to say I don't care it's all done hey you can be so much more wise than you know the the father of the Catholic Church if you just believe the Bible and that's something to thank God for thank you that we don't have to read 5,000 books in order to understand the wisdom of God thank you that I don't have to read the entire Talmud or something praise God I don't have to go to some seminary for eight years to understand the Bible praise God that I can just believe the Bible and be filled with the Holy Spirit of God and that the Holy Ghost can guide me into all truth with none of my own wisdom and knowledge on the table God can just open my mind and reveal great wisdom and truth to me if I'll just humble myself and just give him the praise and give him the honor give him the glory and you know what you know I gives it to simple people because they're more likely to say thank you than the smart guy because the smart guy I'll be like look how smart I am look how wise I am of course I figured it out but the problem is the smart guy didn't figure it out the simple guy figured out and you know what Jesus said I think the Matthew 15 verse 36 and he took the seven loaves and the fishes and gave thanks what's the first thing he does when he has the meal he gives thanks you know this was a miracle he's feeding five thousand he's feeding a couple thousand like four thousand another it's basically a repeat the story happens two different times he feeds two different large groups of people but you know what he does before the miracle he says thanks he says thank you hey you know what when you have a meal you should say thanks go to Matthew 26 hey when you receive a gift say thanks what is the Lord's Prayer give us this day our daily bread you know what we just look at food is like something that we got ourselves or by our own power our own might or own wisdom or whatever but we should look at every meal as a gift from God every meal because frankly speaking we hardly did anything to contribute to the meal sitting before us there was somebody else that grew it there was somebody else that planted it there was someone else that nurtured it there was someone else that pulled that calf out of its mother there was someone else that fed that calf and then took it to the fattening yard okay and they fattened that calf and then they went and took him to the finishing yard and then the finishing yard took him to the slaughterhouse and then some machine shoved a rod in its head it was still alive and then it drained all the blood and then they diced it all up then they had to put it in plastic packing then it is in the packing house then they packed it then the packer sent it to some distributing warehouse then distributing the warehouse sent it to a grocery store then some kid on an app went and delivered it to my house and then my wife put it in the oven and cooked it it was really really good and then I ate it and I'm thinking like there was so many people involved that were not me for me to enjoy this delicious meal I should say thank you that I got to eat this beef I should say thank you that I got to eat this bread I mean how many of you have planted wheat this year you should say thank you for the bread you get to eat and let me say this even if you planted wheat it was God that rained on that wheat it was God that allowed the nutrients in that soil to cause those seeds to germinate and to bring forth into spring into bud and to bring forth a harvest and it was God that held back the hail and held back the locust and held back the devourer for your sake so that that crop would come to fruition it was God that gave you a capitalistic society to where you could go to the grocery store and have virtually any kind of food that you want it's God that allows the supply chain of America to provide us with so many opportunities for food and all these things and and we just simply simply just think like oh food just it's just automatic no it's not automatic it's a gift and you know you do with gifts you say thanks you should say thank you for every single meal that you get what does it say in Matthew 26 verse 27 he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying drink ye all of it hey when they're having the Lord's Supper what does the Lord Jesus Christ do first says thanks hey we should follow Christ's example and we should say thanks when we get something from God go to Acts chapter 27 go to action 27 I want us to be a thankful Church nothing is more embarrassing than when people are given so many things and instead of saying thank you they complain you know and we we fellowship with other people sometimes we go to other events please do not be one of these people that shows up at another church's event and instead of saying thank you for the meals and the lodging and the transportation all the stuff they give you you're complaining about it you're complaining about the oh I don't want to eat there I don't want to go here I don't like this transportation no you should be saying thank you saying thank you to these things you know it's embarrassing when people aren't saying thank you for the things that they're given and they're just complaining about it and having a bad attitude about it we should be a thankful group of people we are Christians we have been given eternal life we should be the one the ten percent the one not the nine where are the nine complaining doing their own thing selfish no we should be saying thank you you need to get in a habit of saying thank you all the time saying thank you not only to God but to everyone in your life but we're focusing here on God because we have to realize that's the first person to think and that's where everything's coming from anyways now look at Acts chapter 27 look at verse 34 this is the Apostle Paul wherefore I pray you to take some meat for this is for your health for there shall not in hair fall from the head of any of you and when he had thus spoken he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all and when he had broken he began to eat what did the Apostle Paul do he said thank you before he had his meal before he ate hey that's a good pattern that we're seeing it are we he's saying thank you go to Romans chapter 1 go to Romans chapter 1 thankfulness is an attribute of a Christian it's one as a disciple it's one as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ murmurs and complainers are people that God got mad at in the wilderness and destroyed and you'll notice the Bible teaching a very interesting pattern godly people say thank you ungodly people don't say thank you let me prove this to you now Romans chapter number one look at verse eight first says first I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all they are for the faith is spoken of throughout the whole world so the Apostle Paul is constantly thanking God for the church at Rome for the Romans look at verse 21 because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful did you notice that one of the attributes of being a reprobate of being someone that hates God is someone that was not thankful for the things that God did for them they're not thankful for their life they're not thankful for their parrots they're not thankful for the free gift of salvation they're not thankful for their food they're not thankful for anything and in fact they don't want to retain God in their own knowledge and you know what God gives them over to a reprobate mind because they weren't thankful and you know what we need to teach our children to be thankful if you got presents today kids you better say thank you first to God and then secondly to your parents and if you think you know in Santa Claus and that's a different story talk to parents about that right Romans chapter number six go there Romans chapter number six I never understood the whole Santa Claus dialogue too much because I I ruined it for other kids when I was in school I always told everybody the truth about that but I just remember saying like isn't it weird that everybody gets you presents but your parents on Christmas and I was like the whole trade just doesn't even make sense okay plus I also caught my parents whenever you know the kids so Romans chapter number six look at verse 17 but God be thanked that you were the servants of sin but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you notice God should be thanked that we're no longer the servants of sin that were saved and how were we saved we obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine you know I saw this Catholic post and it was like salvation by works is better than salvation by doctrine well even if it was better it doesn't matter because the only thing that matters is what's true and salvation by works just doesn't save you even if you thought about because they were saying well but if salvation is by works even if we're wrong we still help somebody oh okay but here's the problem the Catholic Church doesn't help anybody I mean what what is it the Catholic Church doing I mean I've never you know how many times I've been helped by a Catholic I can't I can't think of any there was never this time where I'm just like randomly just walking down the street at Catholics like hey I'm gonna help you today cuz I'm Catholic it just never happened in fact the only time I can remember like Catholic specifically is them inviting me to keggers at their church to get drunk how is that helping me how's that now look I know people in my life personally that are Catholic and they're very nice people they're very kind I like Catholic people but let me just explain something to you they're not just magically doing all these special works that other normal people aren't either I've met Indian people that worship all kinds of gods and they were nice I've met people that are Calvinists and they were nice I've met people that are Methodists that are nice I've met people that were atheists and were nice to me but you know what being nice is not the works of God you know it's the works of God the Word of God telling someone how to escape hell and you know what a Catholics never told me how to escape how if a Catholic truly believed salvation was by works wouldn't they come up to me and say hey you need to do some works buddy because I want you to go to heaven a Catholic has never told me how to go to heaven even if it was by works why wouldn't you tell them that they're not telling anybody because they don't even know they're going to heaven knock on a Catholic's door knock on people's door no I'm thankful that I'm saved by doctrine and I'm so glad it wasn't by works because we wouldn't be able to do the works anyways I'm so glad it's by just believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and that's what doctrine me doctrine is a belief I believe in Jesus he saved me that's how I was escaped from a servant of sin look at Romans chapter 8 verse 24 Romans chapter number 8 verse 24 hey when I received the gift of salvation I said thank you and I should say thank you every single day of my life not only have I been saved I've been given all kinds of things and I need to say thank you to God every single day Romans chapter 8 verse 24 the Bible says a wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin how many times is it possible to thank God in this one epistle and just the same epistle he's thanking God over and over and over and over that should be our attitude we should be a person that's just constantly thanking God and let me ask you this question how many times have you thanked God today be honest with yourself this sermon is not about other people it's about you how many times today have you thanked God did you thank God when you woke up this morning did you thank God for the presidency you got today have you thanked God for your spouse today have you thanked God for your children today have you thanked God for your job today have you thanked God for this church have you thanked God for the things in your life or are you thinking about yourself today and then will ask, where are the nine? Go over to Ephesians chapter 1. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift. We need to be thanking God even more for our salvation, for his unspeakable gift and what he's given us. And when I say, saying thank you, I want to be really clear. I'm saying with your mouth you verbally and audibly say thank you. I'm not saying, like some people get weird about this. They're like, I say thank you by showing up. No, no, no. We're talking about actually opening your mouth and your lips and allowing the air to flow out and making a sentence saying thank you. You should say thank you. Don't think that you're saying thank you to people when you're not saying thank you. Well, I burped after the meal. No, no, no. You say thank you. We need to get in the habit of constantly saying the words thank you. Thank you to the people in our lives. That should be in our vocabulary. That should be something that we're constantly doing. Don't think, like, well, I thought it. No, say it. Say it. You know, this is not about the sermon. It's different. You should also be saying I love you to the people that you love, too, in your life. Not just thinking it or showing it. You should say it. We need to be saying it. We need to be using our mouth. Why did God give you a mouth? You know why God even gave you a mouth is so that you could actually open it and say thank you and say I love you and say the things that are actually meaningful? And you know what? God likes them. They're free will offerings of the mouth. They're free will offerings of the lips. We don't offer animal sacrifices. We don't offer the incense and all the things in the Old Testament. You know what we offer? We offer the praise and the sacrifices of our lips by opening our mouths and telling God thank you. We need to do that. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 15. Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Notice what the Apostle Paul is saying. When I get on my knees and I pray, I'm saying thank you to God for you existing. Well, I don't even know how long the Apostle Paul's prayer list is, but it's got to be long because he's got a lot of churches. He's got a lot of people. He's got a lot of things. But you know what? He is just constantly saying thank you. Notice what he said. This is what he said. He's ceasing not to give thanks, meaning he's just so thankful for these people and his life. Here's a question. Have you even one time ever said thank you to God for your brothers and sisters in Christ for your church? Are you even thanking God for the people in your life? I mean, I wonder if you would get along with people in this room more if you were actually thanking God for them every once in a while. I wonder if you would let things go if you were actually thanking God for having people in your life. And you know, we all have our own quirks and we're all kind of weird and some people get along better with others, but if we were just to take a random hundred people out in this world and all get together, boy, you wouldn't like them at all. You should be thankful. I mean, the weirdest person in this room is still so much more normal than just the average person outside these walls. And I think that we get hyper focused on our differences. We get hyper focused on the uniqueness. We don't realize that we're like 99.999% similar and like .001% different, and then people want to just still make a big deal about that .001 or something. And it's like we should rather be just thanking God constantly for one another and for our church. Look at verse 17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being lightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance and the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come and has put all things under His feet and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. Now, this is interesting. This is like a sentence. This is like a super long sentence. And what was the point? He's thanking God for the church at Ephesus, and He wants God to notice in verse 17, give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him. He wants them to understand the Bible and be filled with all the knowledge of the Word of God. And then in verse 18, so they would understand, they would realize what the Bible is teaching. They would understand the greatness of God. They would understand the working of God. That they would recognize the gospel. They would recognize the power and the majesty that's been given in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that they would realize that He is the head of the church and that what the church is, is it's us which are the body. And notice the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. One person cannot truly embody all the majesty, glory, and wonder of the Lord Jesus Christ. One person cannot truly model or example all of the great things about God. What He uses, He uses all of us. And through all of us, we all have our tiny part in showing some of the wisdom and glory and majesty of God. Because we're all different parts of the body. So some of us are showing the charity of God. Some of us are showing the ministry of God. Some of us are showing the preaching of God's Word. Some are showing the humility of God's Word. We all have our different gifts. We all have our different roles. But it takes the whole body working together and unified to explain and experience the glory of God. And He's saying, I'm constantly praying for you guys that we would all be filled with the Spirit of God. That we would all have the wisdom of God. That we would all have the understanding of God. So that we could better glorify the Lord Jesus Christ when the body is working together in the fullness. And He's saying, I'm constantly thanking God for you guys because you're a special church. And you know what? The only way for God to be glorified is through a body of believers, not through one man. Because one man cannot glorify God on his own. We need the body of Christ. We need all the believers. We need the pastors and the evangelists and the deacons and the teachers. And we know it. We need the women and the children. And we need the soul winning captains. And we need the musicians. And we need the song leaders. And we need everybody that fills in the church to experience the whole body. To experience the fullness that we can of Christ. And that's what we are saying thanks for. Thank you God that we have more people in this church. That we have the knees and the elbows and the ears and all the different parts of the body. Even the parts which we don't think is that comely. And that God bestows so much more glory and honor on the uncomly parts. The Bible is telling us that we need church and we should be thanking God for church. Go over to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. I'm just going to read some more verses for you. 1 Thessalonians 5 and everything give thanks. And everything give thanks. And everything give thanks for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus is concerning you. The Bible just says literally everything give thank you. Everything. 1 Timothy 2 I exhort therefore that first of all supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men. 1 Timothy 4 verse 4 for every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving. Praise God we are in the New Testament and I said thank you this morning for the bacon that I had. Oh man it was good. I could smell the bacon all the way back from my bedroom. And I just get a text from my wife breakfast is ready. I just get to walk out and just get to enjoy perfectly cooked bacon. It probably took an hour or so to cook good bacon. You know it was wonderful. But you know what I did before I ate it? I said thank you. I said thank you to God and I said thank you to her. I didn't thank the pig but you know maybe he did his part right? Hey every creature of God is good the pig was good. Revelation 11 says saying we give thee thanks oh Lord God Almighty which art and was and art to come because thou has taken to thee thy great power and has reigned. We should thank God that he reigns. And that's kind of an interesting thing to think about but think about it. I'm so glad that God is ruling and not someone else. I'm so glad that God has taken the responsibility. God has taken the time and the effort and the energy and the focus and all of the woes that come with ruling and leading and he's put it upon himself and that he's ruling. I'm so glad he just he didn't just say you know what I'm kind of tired of all this. Let's just let the devil you know run things for a while. Let's let Joe Biden run things for a while. Okay let's let Allah run things for a little while. No no I'm so glad that God's reigning. I'm so glad that he is the one that's taking because you know what being a leader is hard work. And boy think about all the sorrow he has to go through. Think about all the rejection he has to go through. Think about all the people he has to punish. Think about all the judgments he has to constantly deliver. Think about how many times he had to repent with Israel and constantly beg them to get things right and they wouldn't and they rejected him and they committed adultery against him spiritually speaking and they constantly were going after their other lovers and spitting in his face and thinking about all these things but he just keeps ruling. He keeps raining. He keeps doing what's right. And you know thank you God for ruling and reigning. Thank you God for keeping the universe intact. Thank you God for not just destroying all of us. There was a point in time when God took to Moses and he's like hey I'm just going to wipe everybody out and start over again. I mean you know he could have done that and not even spared Noah. Couldn't he have? Couldn't he have said no these humans aren't that great. Bye. No he spared Noah didn't he? No he spared the children of Israel. No he spared us and he spared our parents and he spared our grandparents and he allowed us to just keep living. You know what thank you God for doing that. God could have just sent us all to hell and just been like I'm done with these people. We didn't deserve it. We still don't deserve it. And you know what thank you God for ruling and reigning. And that's what we're going to do in heaven is we're going to constantly be thanking God for ruling and reigning. But make sure you're also thanking other people not just God. Thank your mom and dad. Children if you haven't said thank you to your parents for Christmas today you need to say thank you to them. You need to say thank you to those in church who you've ministered to. You need to thank people that have loved on you and done good unto you. If someone's helped you you should go tell that person thank you. You should tell your friends thank you for being your friend. Because some of you are hard to be friends with. I mean you know we all like to think that we're great. We're not all that great. Sometimes someone's a better friend to you than you are to them aren't they? You should say thank you to your friends. You know you should say thank you to your boss for giving you a job and giving you work. Being a boss being a manager owning companies owning business stuff today is hard. It's hard work there's a lot of pressure. The government's putting all kinds of pressure on them. Inflation's hitting them just as hard. You know you should be thankful to the fact that you have a job. So many people just complain about the job they have. You should say thank you for the job that you have. Point one is simple. When you receive a gift say thanks. I think we all need to do a better job of that. Here's the second thing you need to do. When someone gives you a gift use the gift. Pretty simple sermon. Hey if someone gives you a gift say thanks. What's the second thing you need to do? Use it. Now look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 1. We then as workers together with them beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain. What is the point in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6? It's that okay you got saved great but let's do something with that. Don't just let the grace of God do nothing in your life. Use the grace of God to now do something. Why don't you preach the gospel? Why don't you go to church? Why don't you do something spiritual in your life and don't let it just all go in vain all be meaningless in a sense. You do something with what God has given you. Use the gift that he gave you. He gave you the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit. He gave you the Holy Ghost. Use the Holy Ghost. I mean if you don't open your Bible how are you going to use the Holy Ghost that he gave you? Because the Holy Ghost brings into remembrance all things whatsoever Christ commanded you but let me tell you something when you don't have the Bible there's nothing for the Holy Ghost to remind you of. Hey use the gift of the Holy Ghost. Use the gift of the King James Bible. I mean think about how much grace God gave us to give us the King James Bible. Use it. There's been people throughout history you know there's a Bible museum that I went to in Houston for when we were recording and not everything gets in the movies. I mean there's so much stuff that doesn't make it in movies but this is one of the coolest things. There's like a stool or there's like a piece of furniture. It just looks like a normal piece of furniture and then you pick it up underneath it has a Bible taped to it because there was times when it's illegal to read the Bible so you know what they had to do? They had to literally glue a Bible underneath a little stool or some piece of furniture so that they could flip it over if the government or the cops came by just so they wouldn't catch them reading the Bible. I mean you just have these things laying out everywhere. If the cops came you'd be in trouble. I mean there's Bibles everywhere right? There's Bible verses on the wall. These people had to literally pull a stool over just to read the Word of God. Don't let this be in vain that you have so much access to this thing. Don't let this go to the dust. Don't let this just be killed by the dust mite. Read it. Open it up and use it. Go out and preach the Gospel. I hope it wears away from soul winning not from collecting dust. Go over to 1 Peter 4 that's the last place I want to go in the Bible. Hey when you get a gift use it. Hey I got the gift of eternal life. I can't go to hell so you know what I should do? I should spend the rest of my days trying to drag as many people out of hell with me. The Bible says others save with fear pulling them out of the fire. I can't go to hell so I should just do everything I can. It's kind of like playing with infinite lives in a sense or something. Playing a video game where you can't die or something. Now again I can die physically but I'm just saying I can't die and go to hell so I should go ahead and risk it all because the worst thing that can happen is I die. I mean the worst thing that can happen is I get tortured or something right? It always comforts me that I can't be tortured every single way I've learned because I'll die by some of them. So I can't get all of them. You know because sometimes if you read Fox's Book of Martyrs you're like wow that one's terrible, this one's horrible, this one's awful and then I'm like well they can't all work. You can't be burned to death and drowned. They both can't happen. So the worst thing is they destroy my body but they can't destroy my soul. My soul has already been delivered and I need to use the gift that God has given me. I need to go out and preach the gospel to a lost and dying world. Someone needs to make a difference. Someone needs to say thank you for the gift of eternal life and go out there and preach the gospel to a lost and dying world. This is Christmas where we celebrate Christ and what he did for us and you know what Christ's mission was? To come here and live a perfect life and then to die. To actually be tortured. To actually suffer for us and I'm supposed to follow in his footstep and be a partaker of his sufferings is what the Bible says. That's what I'm supposed to do is I'm supposed to use my life for his honor and for his glory not for my own selfish ambition and selfish gain and selfish pleasure. But you know what? You can do whatever you want. I mean there's going to be a lot of Christians who are going to say, where are the nine? You know what the right thing to do is when you get a gift? Use it. God did not save you so that you could just go drink cherry lemonade and play video games and watch movies until you die. Now if you want to do those things I'm for you but let's also do something for God too. Let's also be willing to make some sack. Let's say thank you for that stuff and let's use the gift that he gave us. Let's go soul winning. And you know what? 2025, let's go soul winning harder than we've ever gone before. You know what's the best way to say thank you to God for what he's given us in this church and this group of people? It's just to not just say thank you is to actually use the gift that he gave us and say thank you God so much for this church. Thank you so much for the tracts. Thank you so much for the soul winning material. Thank you so much for the soul winning opportunities. I'm going to go out there and I'm going to preach the gospel and I'm going to try and save as many people as I can next year. Who cares what we've done in the past? It's over. The present is what matters. Let us do even more for Christ and 2025 than we've ever done before. For his honor and for his glory. What does the Bible say in 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 8? And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging as every man hath received the gift even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. God has given you a job. You are now a steward. He has given you the gospel. You are an owner of the gospel. You are a partaker of the gospel. You are a light bearer. You are one that has the light that you could share with others. You have the cure. You have the cure to the disease of death and hell. You are someone that is responsible. You are a literal servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and you are in possession of the greatest gift that you could ever give someone. But here's my question. Will you give it? Will you use it? You've been given this special superpower of giving. You are a dispenser of eternal life. You can literally open up your mouth and make known the mystery of the gospel. You are a revealer of secrets like Daniel. You are someone that raises people from the dead like Elijah. You are someone that can go out and share the bright and shining light. You are a voice out in the wilderness like John the Baptist. You are someone that can go and make a difference in someone's life. Will you use the gift that God has given you? If you are saved, you have the best gift that you could ever give. And in Christmas we like to give gifts. But let me tell you something. We can give this gift every single day of our lives. And we need to be a dispenser of the gospel. And when you have a gift, use it. We need to make sure that we are the good steward. Be a good steward. What a shame for all the people that have been given this gift of eternal life, have been given this gift of the knowledge and the wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ and they shared it with no one. Prayer of the nine. We need to take the soul winning opportunities we have and use them. We need to say thank you to God for giving us them and we need to use them. And not only just salvation, everything. Be thankful to God for what you have but use it. The wife that you have, use it. The children that go God has given you, raise them. Love them. Teach them. Train them. The church you have, go to it. Go to it. Love it. Serve in it. The brothers and sisters in Christ you have, minister to them. Love them. Pray for them. Do good to them. And if you get a gift for Christmas, hey if someone gives you a shirt, wear it. Someone buys you something, use it. If someone gives you a gift, do something with it. Don't just hide it under a bushel. Hey if someone makes you a meal, eat it. If someone baked you a cookie, eat it. Now here's some just practical tips, okay? When you're going down a buffet line, only take what you're going to consume because it's not very good use to take gifts and not use them. I mean how would you feel if you said, hey Pastor Shelley, I baked you some cookies. And I'm like, oh thanks. I take a bunch of them and I just throw them in the trash. But a lot of people at an event like this, they're going to take a bunch of cookies and then they're going to throw them in the trash. Actually a lot of people are going to take cookies and leave them out everywhere and someone else will have to throw them in the trash for them, okay? But you know, when someone's offering you food, you know, and you're serving your children, you're serving other people, you should only take what you will for sure consume. Especially because you can almost always go back for more. It's so much easier to get more than it is to put it back. And so, you know, just practical tips. Hey, if you go to someone's house and they have you over for dinner, put on your plate what you will for sure consume. Put what your children will for sure consume. And it's okay if it's a small portion because you can always get more. And here's the best part about this trip, this tip. If it doesn't taste good, you don't have to eat that much. It's so much more awkward when you put a whole bunch on your plate and then you're like, oh, okay. Wish I hadn't put that on my plate. Okay. You just put a small portion and then if it's not good, you just eat it anyways. And if it's great, you're like, I want more. Can I get some more? And then they feel really good about themselves. Okay. You make someone feel even more awkward and you just like load up your plate and you take one bite and then try it again. Okay. Because, you know, like if it was just a small portion, I could probably just man it up. But because it's so much, I'm just going to be rude at that point. You know what I mean? And I'm just saying that's not the right way to receive a gift. Hey, when someone gives you a gift, say thanks and use it. There's so many applications we could make for this sermon. But I hope that you will tonight, if you haven't said thanks, take some time. It doesn't have to be, it could be anywhere. It could be in the car, when you use the bathroom, when you're in the bed. Just take some time and say thank you to God. Please say thank you to God for the things that he's given you. And the people in your life that have done something for you, that you see, say thank you. If there's someone that's not here, call your mom, call your dad, call somebody, say thank you to them. And whatever gifts that you've been given, please use them. If you can speak Spanish, please use it to give the gospel. If you have money and you can go to foreign countries and preach the gospel, consider using some of your money to preach the gospel. If you've been given a great church, please use it. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for what you've given us. Thank you so much for the gift of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that when we do this candlelight service, we would recognize that we're receiving a gift of the light of the gospel and a metaphor and that we would share with others, not only just for this ritual and not only for this tradition, but as a representative of what we want to do when we go out and preach the gospel. We want to share the gospel with others and get other people saved. And the only way for that light to spread is for us to share it with others. I pray that we would recognize you for all the gifts that you've given us. Thank you so much for this church and for these people. Thank you so much for all the blessings you've given us. Thank you so much for all the deliverances you've given us. Thank you for this year. I pray that you would just help us next year to do even greater works for your honor and for your glory. I pray that you would help us to use the gifts that you've given us. And I pray that we would just be a more thankful group of people that would be more pleasing unto you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. For our last song, we're going to do song number 431, Silent Night. Song 431. On the first. Gotcha. So he's handing out all the candles first. Okay. Okay. Four. Four twenty seven. Four twenty seven. Four twenty seven. Four twenty seven. Four twenty seven. Four twenty seven. Four twenty seven. Four twenty seven. All right. Everybody ready? I'm going to light the first candle. All right. Everybody ready? Four hundred and thirty one. On the first. Three. Three. Oh. Shepherds. At the. Oh. Three. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Jesus. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Excellent singing. So I'm just going to make a few quick announcements and we'll turn the lights back on. So we are having our Christmas cookie bake off. So immediately following the service, you can go in here to our fellowship room. And there should be drinks, sodas, milk, everything, and then cookies. After it's been probably about at least 15, 20 minutes, everybody's gone through the line at least once. And then we'll hand out beads for everybody to vote. And so we're going to actually let everybody vote. There is signs posted in there of what the beads represent, but you're voting in three different categories. Best tasting, best decorated, and then most creative. You only get one color bead each. So you get one green, one red, one silver, and you can put them in any cups that you want. Give it all three in one cup, one in three different cups, everything like that. So if you have a question, you can ask me. My tip is just make sure, again, I would only get the few cookies that you think are the best tasting. Just to try and sample, maybe share with your family at first, because you can always go back through the line anyways. But thank you guys so much for coming. Please stick around and have some cookies with us. God bless and Merry Christmas. Turn on the lights.