All right, I want to talk to you for a few minutes here. And I want to give you a scripture or two. I'm going to read Psalm 105, verse 1. I'm going to read Psalm 35, verse 18. I'm going to just talk to you for just a few minutes here about how thankful am I. How thankful are you? Now, don't look at your neighbor and say, how thankful are ye? No, just get your mirror. I think we ought to just get a bunch of mirrors and just give them to everybody when we preach so we all look at ourself in the mirror instead of at one or nothing. You used to call that pitchfork religion. Just over your shoulder, hey. If people don't do that, oh my goodness, you ought to see what I see from here. I see people elbowing each other and pointing. It's always that way. I've seen wives elbow their husbands. I think he broke his rib elbowing him so hard. You listen to the preacher? They'll say that to you. Listen to that preacher. I've heard them say that. We all ought to listen to the preaching ourselves. And there's something real important here, being thankful. It is a very important thing. You can't pray if you ain't thankful. If you don't have a grateful heart, you can't pray to God and have him hear you. I mean, you can pray like the Catholics and everybody else does. Hail Mary, full of grace. Just repeat your little prayer, but it ain't going no farther than the ceiling. If you want to pray to God, you enter into his gates. Oh give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the people. I want you to get something tonight, we're to be thankful people. Well, there's two meanings here and I want you to get the difference and there's also two applications and I want you to get that too. We're to be thankful to God, sure, but we're to be thankful to one another also. We're to be thankful to the other people in our life. that subtract from themselves to give us. You know, we're blessed by God, for sure, but we're blessed by other people. And I'll try to get ahead of myself, I ain't care for heaven and earth, but Psalm 35, verse 18, he's, Solomon said this, I will give thee thanks in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much people. All right, now I want you to understand a thing or two here, and I'm gonna read it out of the dictionary. Thanks means generally an expression of gratitude, an acknowledgment made to express a sense of favor or kindness received. Listen, gratitude is the feeling or sentiment excited by kindness. Thanks are the expression of that sentiment. Giving thanks without a grateful heart is hypocrisy. It's fake, phony junk. The important thing is that you have a heart that is grateful. But that's not enough. You're not giving thanks and you're not thankful just because you feel gratitude. Giving thanks is expressing that gratitude that's real in your heart. Now, that's what the Bible teaches here about this whole deal. Toward God, toward others. We're living in a day when everything's down the tubes, boy. I mean, morality, dignity, any kind of, you know, just plain old civility and manners and politeness is gone. You ought to say thank you. You ought to say thank you to everybody that does anything for you. You go out and eat, the waitress brings you something, you ought to say thank you. You ought to not be demanding. You ought to show gratitude by saying thank you and being real about it. They're just working. They're just a poor person working like you are. And I see people, I've seen preachers be as mean as the devil to waitresses and demanding and rude and it just makes me angry. I don't wanna even be with them. I don't wanna be with nobody that's gonna do that. Besides, that's a bad idea. Treat somebody that's fixing your food that way. I'm telling you, you're dumb. You better be nice to them people. They get even, they'll get even with you. But do you understand that thanks is the expression of the gratitude that you feel in your heart. Gratitude is a sentiment, a feeling, an emotion. It's something in here. That you, when you realize that somebody gave, somebody gave, sacrificed. Somebody gave of themselves. Somebody went out of their way. Somebody did something for you. And you feel gratitude about it. Then you say, thank you. I appreciate it. We do that to God, we do that to other people. Now thanksgiving is the rendering of thanks for good received. It's the act of rendering thanks or expressing gratitude, expressing gratitude for favors or mercies. Every creature of God is good, nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving. 1st Timothy 4, verse 1. Thanksgiving is a public celebration of divine goodness, also a day set apart for religious services, especially to acknowledge the goodness of God, either in any remarkable deliverance from calamities or danger, or in the ordinary dispensation of His bounties. The practice of appointing an annual Thanksgiving originated in New England, the dictionary says. Well, we all know about that, don't we? I hope you younger people know about that. When I was in school, we learned about the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving. Now everything's vilified, and the pilgrims are bad guys, and they were Puritans, and they should hate them. What a bunch of junk. They were godly. people. God-fearing people. And they didn't massacre the Indians. They were friends with the Indians. They came here to win the Indians to God. That was their purpose for coming here. You can read it in their writings. That's what their purpose was. They wanted to escape the persecution. But they felt that it was just God's way of getting them here where they could reach the heathen, these savages who were lost without God and didn't know anything about it. They gave thanks because God had brought them through. It's a thing that people... I was reading there today about whenever Nehemiah and all of them came back and they were rebuilding Jerusalem, they set companies of people at every certain place. And you know what their job was? give thanks. They thought it was really important. I read, I followed that back through, and it was a prophecy that God had promised in the law, that when they were brought back from captivity, they would be thankful. And they were. They would give thanks, God said. And yes, they did. They thought it was really important. They, so important that they stationed groups of men and people at gates. And that's what they did. They just gave thanks. Thank God. Thank God we're back. Thank God for providing for us, for protecting us, for delivering us from bondage and bringing us back home. People are thankful when they've really been under the gun. When you're delivered from big trouble, you're just thankful. I watched, did y'all watch that video they had on the news of that North Korean guy that defected and ran? Did you watch, anybody watch that? I'll bet you, now that old boy probably, I'm just guessing, but I'd say chances are he don't know God or nothing, but I'll bet you that he is thankful to be out of that hell and into a place where somebody's taking care of him. He ran that jeep as hard as he could go until he crashed it, and then he jumped out and ran, and they was shooting at him all the time. And he made it. But he laid on the ground for a few hours before the South Koreans got up there and drug him off and took care of him. But he lived. They shot him five times, but he lived. You know, that's why Nehemiah thought it was Important to be thankful that they were back in Jerusalem. It was a mess. Wasn't nothing like it was. And it was a terrible mess. Burned out, got like a dump. Stunk, no doubt. But they were thankful and giving thanks. Now gratitude is an emotion of the heart. Excited by a favor or benefit received. A sentiment of kindness or goodwill towards a benefactor. Thankfulness. Gratitude is thankfulness. Gratitude is an agreeable emotion consisting in or accompanied with goodwill to a benefactor. When you are grateful, you feel good towards the one who gave you that kindness, did that good for you, showed you a mercy, delivered you from trouble. You feel good toward them. I'm trying to call it to mind. I read it also said the love of God is the most sublime gratitude. Think about that. Sublime is beautiful. It's the most beautiful form of gratitude, the love of God. We love Him because He first loved us. It's gratitude. And therefore, it ought to be expressed with thanksgiving. All right, and it's a disposition to make a suitable return of benefits or services. I'm reading out of the dictionary here. Now, what that means, if you didn't catch it there, it means that you have a desire to return the good to them, to do them good, to repay them. Somebody does something good for you, if you're right, you have a desire to pay them back. To do something good for them. or when no return can be made with a desire to see the benefactor prosperous and happy. Gratitude is a virtue of the highest excellence and it implies a feeling and a generous heart and a proper sense of duty. All right, gratitude ought to be the disposition of our heart then. None of us deserve anything. We don't deserve anything. We don't deserve another meal to eat. Why do we, you know, everybody's got a right now to everything, but we don't really deserve it. You tell me why you deserve another sunrise. Why do you deserve another breath of air? Why do you deserve anything? We don't. But we're blessed beyond measure. We really are. We here tonight, you know, we all think we're poor. Oh, it's just because we're sublime and so ignorant and so willingly ignorant of how the rest of humanity is living tonight. We just live in an illusion. Mission trips are good because it gives you a chance to see how the rest of the world and other people live. It's a sobering thing. And it's something that's good because it leaves a mark on your soul that you never forget. I remember looking at people living in cardboard boxes. Literally. That's where they lived. That was their home. And you just don't forget that stuff. And then when you get to complaining or feeling like you're mistreated, all I got to do is just think about some of those folks that I've seen, talked to, I know their names. I mean, then I think, my house is warmer. It don't matter. You know, we'll get by somehow or another. I mean, and we always do. We're blessed beyond measure, but we don't deserve a thing. How can we be unthankful then? Pretty evil, it's pretty wicked, it's pretty unlovable for us to be ungrateful then, isn't it? There's certainly no reason that we should be blessed as we are while the great majority of the human race is enduring every form of suffering and want, and yet we're here tonight and we don't got enough food cooked for tomorrow to feed an army. That's right. And we got more than we can possibly eat tomorrow. And most of the world don't even know where their next meal is coming from. Have you ever known anybody that lived that way, I mean daily lived that way, that they didn't know where they were going to get the next meal from. I have. I've known people like that. They really, literally had nothing to get it with, didn't have any means, didn't know where they were going to get any, and not know where they was going to get the next meal. But we do, don't we? It's already cooking. It's already ready. And then tomorrow morning, we're going to get up and cook a bunch more. Then we're going to come over here and cook some more while we're here. Then we're just going to eat it. And I hope that before we do, you stop and give thanks to God for the provision. Give thanks to those who work to prepare it. Give thanks to those who spent their money to buy it. We ought to be thankful. But we got to be grateful before we can be thankful. So we got to work on the heart before we just work on this form of habit of saying thank you. That's good, but that ain't where it lies. If you're really grateful, somehow we got to get it through our thick heads and our hard hearts. What it is to be grateful. and have gratitude for what we have, instead of complaining about what we don't have. She read me a thing this morning, that old book we had over here the other night, y'all seen that? I showed you, Seth, a thing. It's a book, found a date in it, it's from 1888, is that when it was? And it's a preacher, Talmadge, wrote this book about just God through life, it's, you know. But he wrote a little thing in there about talking to this guy, and this guy, he said, I was seeing God in everything I was talking about, you know, what a blessing and how God, and everything he said, that guy was negative. All he was was a grumbler and a complainer. He was ungrateful, he was unthankful, and all he did was murmur and complain. So that's the way a lot of people are. You see why God got so upset with Israel? with their murmuring? Because what does murmuring indicate? You're ungrateful and you're not thankful. Any kind of complaining means you're unthankful, you're ungrateful. Think about that. I remember old brother Stads, he'd come to church and I'd say, how are you brother Stads? And he said, oh, can't complain, can't complain. That was what he'd always say. I remember people I've known in my life that I never heard them complain. I've thought about it. Did I ever hear them complain? Can't remember if I did. I know some people I can. There's some people though that I can't say that about. Complain a lot. Never happy. You know why you're not happy? Because you're not grateful. I'm telling you, a grateful person is going to be a happy person. They're going to be grateful for everything. And they're going to count all their blessings, all the little things of their life. And the fact that they're even alive, they're going to be grateful for that. I mean, you realize some of these people we asked prayer for tonight. Now, don't you know that they're going to be thankful and grateful just to be alive a year from now? Forget about everything else. Forget about the car breaking down. Forget about all the troubles and things in life. Just to be alive. Be thankful. Be grateful and give thanks. Well, the blessings that form the foundation, I just want to hit two kind of points here and then we'll be done. Blessings that form the foundation of our lives now were bought for us by someone else, not us. I'm talking about the blessings we enjoy were paid for by our ancestors, not us. Their blood, their sweat, their tears, their lives, were poured out to purchase the blessings that we enjoy today of life. I'm talking about our country we live in, even as such as it is. They gave us a great country. They sure did. The generation of World War II, they're called the greatest generation. I kind of believe they probably were. They didn't give us the world we got now. Now that's been squandered. But they did give us a world. Not just them, but go on before them. The generations before them. You know, they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. And they did it for their posterity. And do you know what they had to pay? They had to pay with their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. They sure did. It'd do you good, it'd do a bunch of these liberal goofballs good to do some studying on the 55 men, is that what it was, signed the Declaration of Independence? And what happened to them? They paid what they pledged. And they didn't do it for themselves. They did it for their children and their grandchildren and for you and me. And that's why we got a country. Otherwise we wouldn't even have one. I mean, we live in this country and we complain about it a lot. And we are concerned about it a lot because it's in a bad mess. But would you rather live in North Korea tonight? Would you rather live in China? Would you rather live in Iraq or Iran or Turkey or Saudi Arabia or Egypt or Uganda or Kenya? No, I believe I'd rather live here. But the only reason we got what we got is because they paid the price for it. We haven't. We haven't done anything except just soak it up. Consume it upon our lust. Take it for granted. They gave us a great country. What it has become is our doing, not theirs. The prosperity that we enjoy. Oh my, I see this a lot. Now I'm talking about prosperity physically and I'm talking about prosperity spiritually. We don't have a thing spiritually. We wouldn't have nothing if it hadn't been for some people that paid a great price before us to deliver the faith to us that was once delivered to the saints. Yes, sir. I owe a great debt to the people before. I am grateful to the people who stuck it out and stayed faithful through all these years and the ups and downs and the persecution and the apostasy. Thank God for the people who can stand through the apostasy that we're in now. So I'm grateful for that. Our prosperity physically, the fact that we've, you know, the cars and the houses and the clothes and the comfort and the luxury and the abundance that we enjoy is because of those people that worked back then. Did you ever see how they used to work? Daylight to dark. hard labor. That used to be everybody's life. They built this country. The people that built these roads you drive on, the people that invented the things that makes your life so much easier and all that, boy listen, they had a lot rougher life back then than we do now. We've been a kid and all these, Daniel going to work in the sawmill and everybody How hard it is, oh my goodness. Ain't nothing to compare with how it used to be. My grandpas told me different times about how they, when they were clearing the land over there for Wapapela Lake, that they had a, it was just like a double tree with a pair of tongs on it and him and his brother drug logs out of the woods just like a horse. big ones. That was their job. They had a truck at one time, and they had to back down through there, and there were stobs everywhere, and they couldn't get tires for the truck, and they ruined their tires and all that. And if they complained about it, the boss just said, if you don't want to do it, just get out of the way. There's ten people standing in line for your job already. They were starving to death and had to do it. Well, that's how come we've got the abundance we've got now. And if we need something, we just go get it. Man, I remember 35, 40 years ago when we were, we didn't buy new tires. We didn't buy new parts, did we? If something broke. We went and bought used tires. We went and bought army tires. off of used army tires off of the military trucks and put on the log truck to try to keep it going. If something broke, we welded it, we fixed it, we cobbled it somehow or another to keep going. Now, we don't do that now. We don't do that now. If it breaks, get a new one. And if it breaks, take it somewhere and let somebody else work on it and fix it for us. Big difference. I know there's a big difference. But somebody paid the price for all this luxury and ease that we enjoy. Are we thankful? Are we grateful? That's the big question. Are we grateful? Do we feel anything for what was handed to us out of the labor and the suffering and the sacrifice of those before us? We're not hungry and we're not destitute. We don't even know what it is to be hungry. Or do we? Do we? No. I mean, the first little twinge of wanting anything, you just go get it. Go get something to eat it. I mean, you ain't going to go hungry. And back, here we go, I'm going to tell some more stories, but Grandpa told me a lot of times about During the Depression, I think Grandma was expecting the first child, and she saw a vein of sausages in the store. It cost a nickel for a can of them. They didn't have the money to buy them. She cried. Couldn't buy a nickel's worth of vein of sausages. Well, now, I'll tell you what, and I ain't putting it down or nothing here, but Elizabeth, our astronaut, is expecting, and I'll bet you that if she wants something, she'll get it. Don't you reckon? We all do. All of us do. If we want something, we get it. I mean, we're gonna have it. It don't matter what. If we get a notion in our mind we want something, we're gonna get it. If we have to borrow the money, if we have to sell something, we're gonna get it. Amen. Well, y'all quiet as mice. The goodly heritage that identifies us as who we are. It's a great blessing to be able to look back upon your ancestors and know that they were honorable people. And I'm talking about us as a country. You see what they're doing, what this big campaign is about. I don't know if any, I don't know how many of you really are up on what's going on. They're destroying our goodly heritage. They're making bad people of the good people that gave us all this. They're calling good evil, an evil good. And they're trying to erase it all and they're getting it done. They're making this generation of young people hate our country. They've made all of us, I mean, when they can take somebody like Robert E. Lee, he was probably, if he wasn't the most, he was one of the most honorable men who have ever lived and had anything to do with serving this country. That is absolutely the truth. And it's all on the record. It is indisputable. But they get on the news and they've made him a villain. And what they're doing is taking away our goodly heritage. You ought to be ashamed for being white. How's that not racism? I think you ought to be ashamed. I don't care if you're black or red or what color you are or gay or any other kind of pervert. I think you ought to be ashamed for trying to villainize the people that gave you the privilege and the right and the freedom to do whatever you want to do. They gave us a goodly heritage. Are we grateful? I am. I'm grateful for their memory. I'm grateful for Robert E. Lee's memory. I'm grateful for somebody who wrote down what he said that he didn't write down what he said. I'm grateful. I'm grateful the record's still there. I'm grateful for not only him, but for many, many others, and for the people of God who left their mark to show us who we were, who we are. I mean, you ever think about living in another country where your ancestors ran naked in the jungle and they were headhunters and murderers and cannibals and lived like animals and never did anything worthy of anything more than an animal? How would you feel with that kind of heritage? Ain't no wonder it's hard to bring them up out of that. I mean, man, you gotta have something to look to that has made you what you are. Well, I'm thankful, I'm grateful for them. A land where the gospel and the Bible can be freely preached and taught. That's what they gave us, and it was not at any low cost either. The churches. which stand as reminders of who our ancestors were and the God they believed in. I mean, I'm thankful about that. It don't matter where you go in this country, there's churches everywhere. Some of them is old and fallen in and nobody goes there anymore, but I'll tell you what they are. They are a memorial and a reminder of what this country was and who our ancestors were. They didn't build churches to keep hay in. They built churches to worship God in. That's why there's so many of them. Obama said this ain't no Christian country. Well, if he'd have drove around a little bit, he'd have to acknowledge he's Made a dumb statement right there. It most certainly has been. The churches are a testimony to that fact. Whether they're empty now or not, they're everywhere. Everywhere. It's not just one here and there, they are everywhere. The blessings that we enjoy from day to day, right now, are paid for by somebody besides ourselves also. I said, we don't deserve a thing. Did you earn your blessings? Is that the way you feel about it? Well, then you don't know what blessings are. Blessings come from others. Blessings. And, you know, let me say these things first, and then I want to say something else. But somebody prepares our meals for us every day. Is that right? Do we give thanks for that? Do we give thanks for them? Do we ever thank them? Are you even grateful about it? Do you ever think about it? Or is it just like feeding the dog? You just put it down there and here he comes. That's why we stop, if you're a Christian, you stop before you eat and you give thanks. You don't just sit down and eat like an animal. Amen. Someone made it possible for us to have a job, to earn a living, to take care of our family. Do we give thanks for them? Do we ever thank them? That's the way you ought to feel about it. They're not your enemy. I mean, they're part of the blessing of your life. Where would you be if you didn't have a job? And that's another thing about our ancestors, that's the way they felt about it. They were grateful to have a job. I mean, if a job couldn't be had, you'd be thankful to have any kind of job. I've told you before, but man, I've seen people begging. I mean, down there in Mexico, I've had them beg me more than once. I mean, many times. Beg me for something to do. A job. Give them a job. Shovel some dirt. Dig a hole. Do something to make some money. Guy came by the welder one day pushing a welder down the street. They do that kind of stuff. Packing on the gate. You got anything that needs welding around here? I said, well, yeah. Matter of fact, I do. We had a gate and it had a latch on it and it was broke or something. So he brought his welder in. I said, well, what do you need? You need 220? You need 110? He said, either one will work. So I said, well. All right. So he just wanted to know where the box was, and he didn't have no plug on his welder or nothing. He just took the ends of the wires, and he stuck them in the fuse box there, and he had his welder going. He welded. He was there for, I can't remember for sure, but it seemed like it was an hour and a half, fooling with that. Charged me $3. I think I gave him a little more than that, but you know what he's done? working because he didn't have no job. Had to eat. Probably had kids at home that had to be fed. So think about it next time you're complaining and grumbling about your job and these low-down lousy people. Be thankful. They could just say, hey bud, you hit the road. Ain't somebody else wanting your job? We don't like your complaining and your unthankful and ungrateful attitude anyway, bye. Ought to be grateful. Amen, I don't care if it's amen or not, it's true. Children who have parents. And you know what, it'd help you at work if you'd just say thank you once in a while. If you'd show them you're glad, grateful. Might improve the relationship a lot. Now, children who have parents that look after them and try to make sure they grow up are blessed more than most children in this world. Do you ever give thanks to God for your parents? Do you ever thank God for your job? Do you ever thank God for the people that take care of you and feed you every day, make your meals for you, wash your clothes, do whatever they do to help you and to look after you? Do you ever thank? Do you children ever thank God for your parents? Do you ever thank them for loving you and providing for you and for sacrificing of themselves for you? Has it ever dawned upon you that you wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for them? And has it ever dawned on you that you wouldn't have survived the first week of your life if it weren't for them? And then furthermore, you wouldn't have survived the last 15, 20 years, whatever it is, if it hadn't been for them. You don't know how many times they've kept you from dying and hurting. And it's their lifelong task is to keep you from hurting. You ever say thank you mom and dad? We're far too interested in what others might be taking from us and not nearly as interested as we should be in what other people do for us. You ought to count your blessings. Count what other people do for you. Count the little things they do for you. People who go to church have somebody who's interested in their spiritual welfare and sacrifices of themselves to provide spiritual encouragement and spiritual nourishment for your soul. And I'm not talking just about the preacher. If you go to church, and it's a church that's worth anything, he's not the only one that cares about you. And he's not the only one that tries to help you. And he's not the only one that prays for you. But do you ever say thank you to the people of God that you're associated with? Do you ever say thank you? Do you feel any gratitude at all for the sacrifice, for the work, for the effort, for the cost that's put in to what you get from the Lord at church or anywhere else? Do you ever thank the Lord for them? Do you ever thank them also? Wonder how many of you thank God for the church? Thank God for the Word of God here. If you have somebody who loves you, boy, that's a great blessing. You ought to say to them once in a while, thank you for loving me. Because I'll tell you what, I'll bet you, I'll bet you sometimes you're not very lovable. Reckon? If you got somebody that loves you, you ought to thank God for it and you ought to thank them for it. Whatever has been added to you as a person through the agency of another person is a great blessing of life. for which we should give thanks to God and to that person who was the means of its addition to our life. Have you ever went and thanked somebody for something that they did or they said or that happened years ago when you didn't even realize what was happening at the moment? They did something for you. They said something to you. Have you ever went back and thanked them years later? All the blessings of life come from someone else in our life or from God himself. Very simple message here what I'm trying to get across to you tonight. All the blessings of life come from God or from somebody else. All the blessings are from God. He's the source of all blessings. Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from above, from the Father of lights. Everything that is good in our life came from God. But, how does God bless our lives? Through other people. Almost always. It's somebody else involved. Now you've got to think about that. I mean, if you just keep that in mind and you analyze every good thing that happens to you, every good thing that comes your way, everything you learn that helps you, everything that's added to your life, if you look, God used somebody to get it to you. So, we're to be thankful to God for it, but don't forget to be thankful to the people God used to put it there. Also, we're leaving out part of it if we're not expressing thanks to them also. If we're not thankful people, I mean, you can't be a thankful person to God without everybody else knowing you're a thankful, grateful person also. If you really thank God, then you'll thank other people also. You won't just grab it and run. You won't just grab it and never say thank you. It's one of the things that really stands out to me. I've said it before, and I don't like saying negative things like this, but we've given a lot of money away as a church since we started 10 years ago, almost. I don't know how many times we've given people $500 at a time. They were in need, you know, things, they were sickness, death in the family, house burned down, one thing and another, you know, different things like that. Do you know how many people we've got a thank you from so far? None. Not a one of them that we've gave that amount of money to has ever said thank you. How about that? I guess we'll just quit then. We ain't going to do it no more. I tell you what, if they won't even say thank you, well, we ain't going to do it no more. I'm just saying don't you be that way. When we went to the mission field, when we went to the board, that was one of the things they taught us, and they were right. They said acknowledge every gift promptly. Everything that anybody does for you, everything that anybody gives you as far as money or support or any kind of gift. If they take you out for supper, if they do anything for you, say thank you. Well, that's right. That is just right. That's good for everybody. That ain't just for missionaries. Because a lot of missionaries don't do that. They just grab it and run. We did that one year, we saved a little primary boy's Sunday school class I was teaching. For months, we gathered money, they're little coins every week, and we saved it up and had a hundred and some dollars to give to the missionary. When I handed it to him, told him where it come from, he just grabbed his wallet, opened it up, put it in the wallet, said, thank you. That was it. No, never sent nothing to the boys to say, thank you boys, that'll be a great help, we appreciate it. No gratitude in the heart. That's why there's no thanksgiving from the lips. We shouldn't be that way. The amount of light in our heart can be gauged by how much gratitude we feel toward God and toward others for the blessings in our life. Really? You ain't got much light in your heart. if you don't feel much gratitude. If you don't ever, you know, and man, it ought to be a daily thing when you just ponder your home, your family, the blessings of life, and how good God's been to you, and you don't look up to God and say, oh, thank you. And really feel it in your heart, man. There ain't much light in there. I mean, it's the very basic thing. If God's saved you, if you know God at all, You're going to be grateful to God that you ain't in hell right now. That he was patient and long-suffering and merciful enough with you to let you still be living and enjoying the blessings of life that came from him. Ingratitude is abhorred by God and by all people. There's not a person on this earth that likes it. There's not a person on this earth that looks at it indifferently. Ingratitude is offensive and abhorrent to all people and to God. Romans chapter 1 verse 21 says, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful. Man, right out of the gate. When you depart from God, that's the first, one of the first symptoms is you are not thankful. I got it coming. I just want my fair share. Heard that the other day. I just want my fair share. I want what's coming to me. but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was dark. Boy, you're headed for the dark. Ain't much light in your heart, if any, if you're not grateful. All right, we're to give thanks always to God and to others through whom our blessings come. Give it thanks always. In everything, give thanks. In everything, give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Y'all ever read that in the Bible? That's the will of God, give thanks in everything. Bad things, good things, just thank God. He's doing you good, He's doing you right. When it's all over, you'll see that what you thought was bad, He meant for good. Gratitude, I mean the Bible's clear that we're to give thanks, not just be grateful. Now see, it's important, that's important. It's gotta be in the heart. But if it's just in the heart, that ain't it either. Can't just go around feeling grateful. Giving thanks is doing something about it. Giving thanks is the expression of what's in your heart. Gratitude is the feeling, thanksgiving is the expression of that feeling. True gratitude wishes to repay the kindness. Sincere thanksgiving is the best way to repay it. You hear me? That's how you get into God's presence, thanksgiving. Boy, that is payment enough. For anybody that does anything for anybody out of the goodness of their heart, showing kindness and all that, just a grateful heart. That's all God ever wants from us. He don't give us something, loan it, and say, now I want it back. Now you're going to pay me back. I'm giving this to you, so you give back to me. All he's wanting is your heart to be grateful. Because that's love. He knows you love him if you're really grateful. and full of gratitude toward him. It's a great blessing to the giver to know that his giving and sacrifice was not wasted on an ungrateful heart. Amen. Now y'all understand what thanksgiving is, what gratitude is, how that thanksgiving springs from gratitude. Just saying thanks without anything in the heart is of little value, really. A showing of gratitude, it's how you say thanks. You know, I've watched people like in a restaurant, and they may say, thanks, but it's not, it's just a word. It's different when you look at the person and you say, thank you. And they sense a sincerity about it from the heart, see? Makes all the difference. I love you. Yeah, you tell your wife, yeah, I love you. How much does that satisfy her? No, no. They want more than that. What do they want to know? They want to know it's coming from the heart. They want some feeling with it. Better learn that, guys. Everybody's that way. All of us men are that way, too, in this matter here. If you give to somebody and they're really grateful, man, that's payment enough. People coming begging down there, I just keep thinking about it. It'll just be in me forevermore, forevermore. I remember the different reactions that people gave when you give them something. Give some people something and they're just jolly and grab it and go. Other people are truly grateful. You can tell the difference. Gladly. It makes you glad to give to a grateful heart. It makes you almost wish you hadn't done it when they're ungrateful. Amen. All right. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. And to sing praises unto thy name O Most High. All right. I appreciate everybody listening. I hope it'll help you to what we're doing tomorrow and what tomorrow's about. Be thankful for your life. Be thankful for those in your life. Which ones of them would you want to do without? Be thankful. Amen. All right, let's bow. Father, we thank you for the Word of God. Thank you for this little thing, Lord, we've been talking about. My, my. So important. This little thing of being grateful and giving thanks. would change the spirit of any church, change the spirit of any home. It would change the whole reputation of somebody and the spirit that they project around them. So important that we have a heart that is grateful. And Lord, if we'd just be right with God, I know that we'll have a grateful heart. God's people are thankful people, because they realize they don't deserve a thing. And if they got what they deserved, they'd be in hell right now with no hope. But we do have hope, and we're still here because of your mercy, your kindness, and your goodness to us. And you gave yourself for us, sinners, that we might be saved, delivered out of that terrible mess we got ourself into. Pray you to help us, Lord, tomorrow to be, to not just make it a show or anything, but Lord, help us to have thankful hearts and always, not just tomorrow. I pray tomorrow to be a beginning of a different way of looking at things and a different way of thinking for us all. And help us to be more thankful in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right, now, it ain't that late. Is anybody here got anything you want to say about being thankful? Anything you want to thank God for? Yeah, I do. Along the line of what you said, we really should be thankful for each other and let each other know how much that we are thankful for them. Because whenever they're not there and you want to tell them, you realize just how much they're meant to you. We don't have insurance of anybody being here next year. We just don't know. No, that's for sure. Last year, this night, Granny was sitting there, and I'm sure she said something. I get caught up in the little hurt feelings and drama and everyday annoyances. And it's so petty that, I mean, on a normal day basis, when I think of Granny, I don't think of all the times that she drove me absolutely insane. And the 11 years that she lived in the house with us. I think of her making us chocolate gravy and being her mom. And her standing on the porch every time I come up the driveway. and if everybody would just get past all the nonsense that they hold grudges against everybody and it's honestly nonsense because if you can't work it out and you can't get past it and forgive and love one another then I don't believe you have anything real. I just don't. A heart that knows God is going to be thankful. Sometimes God has to grind us You know, I preach this to you all the time, but that's the truth now. Sometimes God has to get you down and rub your nose in the dirt to make you understand. That's another thing in that book. You should be grateful that he does. Be grateful for even the hard times in your life because those are the ones that show you what's important and what's right and what's good. If you didn't care, you'd just be like a parent who didn't spank you or make you see what needs to be done and do the right thing. If you didn't care, where would we be? It's the hard things in life that teaches us the most important things in life. I looked in my journal. A year ago today, Gary and Elizabeth told us they were expecting another baby. I suppose that's who's crying back there. He's made his presence known that he is here, you know, another little life. We lost one, we gained one. I remember her coming to me in the nursery Wednesday night and telling me that she was pregnant and just bawling her eyes out because I wasn't. I'm thankful for that, to have a family around. Well, no matter how bad life is for you in whatever aspect, You can always just look around you and find somebody that's got it a whole lot worse, and that'll make you be thankful. One of the girls I work with, she put on Facebook today that around the holidays it really brings out the grievance of having a broken family. Yes. Nope, that's a big deal, too. Well, that's just another blessing, see, that came from somebody else. I mean, it ain't easy to stay married in the day we're living in and to keep a home and Like somebody has to pay a price. And so we ought to be thankful that, you know, what does that song say? He said, thank you, dad, for loving my mom. I said, what did the song say? For loving mom. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Somebody he pays for. You know, I'm really unthankful for my family. You know, for my parents, and that they want to do what's right, and that they influence us in a way that is a good Christian way. I'm thankful that they're going to see God's will, my love. Amen. Yep, you keep a soft heart and God will use you and be thankful for your folks. Very important, that's a big plus. If you're just thankful for mom and dad and the family. Where you get in trouble is when you start in thinking they're your enemies and they're the problem in your life and they're the ones gonna cause you trouble. Always know and believe that you ain't got no better friends in this world than mom and dad. It's very easy to honor your mother and your father when you acknowledge the fact that they, or that you are grateful. It's very easy to be thankful. You know what you said about being grateful first and being thankful for something. You can be thankful for lots of things, just like you said, saying thank you, yeah, I appreciate that you did that, but being grateful, you might. You know, God could have not let me have parents and grandparents that are godly and, you know, like even my grandparents. I feel the same amount of honor to my grandparents as I do my parents. As much, if not more, to you guys for doing what you do. I really feel the way. Amen. Thank you. Amen. I don't know, I'm thankful for all the things that you're always thankful and grateful for. My family and the church. But I do, I tell you what I'm thankful for this year. More than anything. I'm thankful for being able to look at my life and know that God is working in my life. in ways that other people don't know, don't see, don't care, a lot of times don't care, don't believe, whatever. But I know God is working in my mind and in my life. And, you know, I'm glad and I'm thankful that my happiness doesn't come from the things that I have or that I did in this world. You know, blessings from God are They're nice, and they sure do make life a whole lot better. But, you know, the Bible says the rain falls on the just and the unjust. You know, His blessings, He gives that sinner, Brad, that's cursing His name, just as much as He gives me, Brad. And so, to acknowledge that it's a blessing from the Lord, that's true, it is. But you know, there have been things, I've lived a whole lot of my life, really, I don't know if I, I always felt like I wasn't trying to prove nothing to nobody, but I was. I could see that battle. A lot of it was just trying to prove it to myself that I could get this, or get that, or accomplish this, or that deal. And there was a lot of things that I would ask God to help me with, and all this stuff, thinking that having it, or accomplishing that, or getting that, or adding that to my life, would bring me happiness. And it's, you know, you've heard everybody say, things don't bring happiness. But it's funny, because most everyone spends their entire life pursuing things. It doesn't matter if it's cars, or land, or trucks, or whatever. It doesn't matter. I mean, people spend their whole life pursuing stuff, thinking that it's going to make them feel fulfilled and happy. And there's things that God has given me that I've always wanted. And I think that the true reason He gave them to me was so that I could see that they do not bring happiness. You know, there's things that, I don't know, if I would have waited on the Lord to give them to me in His times, they would have brought me some joy. But because I squeezed it so hard, He wouldn't have had to give it to me. trying to, you know, feel like it would make me feel accomplished or whatever. And it didn't. You know, not until I got to know the Lord a little bit. And I'm just glad that my source, the joy of the Lord is my strength. And so my source of happiness isn't from the things I have, or even my circumstances. And you know, that's a lesson that I get to learn all the time. There are a lot of things like that. I feel very humbled and unworthy for him to even acknowledge that, well, it's just thankful that he cares enough about me to work with my mom and show me where I'm going and, you know, show me in his words stuff that I just, he just adds to me through stuff like that. And I enjoy true happiness. I'm thankful for what I do for work. The more I look around, the more I'm aware of the fact that almost nobody gets to do. I'm not talking about what I do, I'm saying being at home. I'm around my kids all the time. And in the last several years, well, the last three years, I've been able to be home. I've been made aware of just how absent I've always been mentally and spiritually in my family. I'm thankful to the Lord, even if it's just for a season of my life. I'm thankful that He's let me be home with my family. Yep, great blessing. Sure is. There's a lot of things like that that you just go around and around and take another lap around Mount Sinai until you've learned your lesson. Amen. Everybody just needs to learn to be content. with whatever and whatsoever state we're in, we learn to be content. It's our life. And I think Seth said something to me the other day about it, but I've told them so many times, you know, if you don't like the way things are, just hang on. It'll change soon. Life's always changing. Whatever the circumstances are right now, it won't be that way. Someday, it won't be that way. And I'll tell you something else. You look back on just like what Esther was talking about, Granny. It's that way with everything. Your memory has this little deal like God made it this way. You don't really remember. You might remember some bad things, but they don't have the bite and the bitterness to them that they did when it was happening. What you remember from the past is good for the most part. It's just not what is your first remembrance when you think of them. It's not like, oh, she threatened to whip me when I was fifteen, you know, for backtalking. Well, that's how people think about the good old days, you know, back when you didn't have electricity and you had an outhouse and you had to draw water out of the well and chop wood and cook on a wood stove and all that. And they think, man, them was the good old days. That's how you do that thing. So what you've done today and how you're living and the blessings that you're enjoying today is going to be tomorrow's good memories. And when you get old, your memory will be your minister or your tormentor. So be thankful today for what you have. The people that are in your life, just be thankful. Help you get over the rough spots. Through the troubles and the wants and the afflictions and the conflicts and all of that, you get a whole lot better if you have a grateful heart and live thankful and content. Amen. Anybody else? Real quick, we're gonna have to go. All right, let's have our prayer and we'll be dismissed. Father, thank you for service tonight. Thank you for those who had something to say and give thanks. Pray you get us home safely now. Watch over us, help us to rest. Bless the day tomorrow. Help us, Lord, to have a good day together and to go away blessed and health in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right. Dismissed.