Thank you, Jesse. What a joy to be here. And I am thankful for what the Lord is doing in our country and in the Caribbean islands as I travel and teach and preach. You would be hearing Pastor Sam tonight. You need to come out because he has a wonderful testimony, a wonderful message. He got saved under a ministry, trained under a ministry, and he is our administrative pastor now and does a great, great job. Then his wife is here, Savi, and then my wife is here, Shanu, and pray for her. She slipped from the step a little bit and sprained her ankle before we came. We thought she wouldn't make it, but she did, so continue praying for her on that. And as I said, I want to thank this church for supporting us in the ministry over the years. And we are grateful also for Dr. Yankee Arnall. He will be coming in November, that's next month, and he will be doing our church anniversary and teaching in our seminary there. And looking forward to have him here, being a good friend of ours over the years. He went to the same school I went to, all right? But he went before me. And I'm thankful for him and wonderful man of God and his wife, Betty. Looking forward to have them with us. And I want to give you a little report about our ministry quickly. And we started this ministry in 1973 when I graduated. Dr. James Cutter and I graduated around the same time. I don't know if I look that old, but we went back home. We started with the youth ranch in 1976. We started the Kelly Community Bible Church. So we are in ministry 51 years now, and my wife and I have been married for 51 years now. You know, and two wonderful kids and three grandkids. Our eldest grandson, you will get to see him again, Jesse, James, he will be 27. So continue praying for them. And my daughter-in-law, my son, and the others that are involved in church, I want you to pray for them also. We haven't started back the youth ministry as yet after the COVID. We are working on that and God has been bringing some youths back together. So really pray for that. We have at the Kelly Community Bible Church, we have a new auditorium now. You would see it when you come. Real nice. God has blessed us with that. And we have the different ministries in the church. We have Pastor Sam and Sister Savi started what we call the prime timers ministry, 50 years and over. They had several things and activities taking place. I went with one of them just recently, and we invite people from the village who are 50 years and over to come, and they are the one who are responsible. I don't be around with so much with that. But they have reached many, many for the Lord Jesus Christ in that. And also, my wife have the pastor's wife retreat that she conducts, and she works among the pastor's wives there. Sister Savvy, she hand over Sister Savvy, the ladies ministry of the church. And we had a wonderful, wonderful, in fact, ladies ministry. They had it, in fact, last year. When was it, Savi? Right, last year and this year, and you wouldn't believe, we had 300 ladies in that rally. In fact, one of my niece, the one who is our worship singer, and she sing with the worship team, I knew her before she was born. And she spoke and did a tremendous job. Sister Savi is doing a great job with the ladies there. We also have the school, the Trinidad Bible Institute. We have gone online, so I think we have pretty close to 40 students online. And we have the seminary, Solid Rock Theological Seminary Extension. That's our second campus. Our first campus is in India with Dr. Ransit Chiran. And we have Trinidad, the second campus, and we have 55 students there enrolled. And also in Guyana, we have an extension of the seminary there, and we have 20-something students there. We used to have one in St. Lucia when COVID came, that also died out. There are so many graduates that we have all over. We have trained many, many, many pastors now. Five churches started out of Kelly Community Bible Church. I think it's six because my wife and I started one and handed it over to somebody. So, continue praying for us and the ministry there. So much that is happening there. Our job, we are trying to reach people for the Lord Jesus Christ. And we want to thank this church for having a part in the ministry there. This morning, I want to share with you from the Word of God. There's one verse in the Bible, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 18. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful and thankful for your love this morning. We are thankful, Lord, for those who are here and took the time to be here, and those even who couldn't come. We pray, Lord, that if there is any here who have never trusted your Savior, can say, Lord Jesus, the best I know how that I believe that you died, buried, and rose again for my sins. And by simply trusting him as your only Savior, he would save you. Father, we pray for this message that you will prepare the hearts of all to receive this morning. I pray through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, you'll give me the right words to say. If there's any who have never trusted you, Lord, we pray that they will understand this message and trust you. In Jesus' name, amen. My message this morning is giving thanks to the God of the Bible. You might say, well, why I am saying the God of the Bible? We are having some problems now in our country, and I noticed this several years ago. And I don't say, would you trust the Lord as your Savior? I don't say that. I don't say God anymore. All right? I say the God of the Bible. Why? Because there are many ecumenical gods out there, and people are worshiping these gods. I know of one religion there, they call them the Baha'i religion. They are changing, in fact, they are using our lyrics, our words in our song, then they're changing the name to Bahá'u'lláh instead of the true and living God. Also, when you say Lord, they have Lord Krishna, they have Lord Shiva, and they don't understand the true and living God. So we have to make sure we tell them who is the true and living God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why I'm saying here, in everything give thanks, giving thanks to the God of the Bible. Let me say this, can we give thanks for the hurricane? You know, there's a lot of things we're going to look at this morning. The Christian way of life is one of thanksgiving. I would go a little further and say not only thanksgiving, but thanksliving. We who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ do not need a reminder to give thanks. Our hearts are filled with thanksgiving. Our hearts cry from the depths of our being. Thank you, Lord, for all that you have done for us. Throughout the Scriptures, we see the people of God were a people who give thanks unto the Lord, and it is still the same today. And I know next month, November, is your Thanksgiving time. I am going to use a lot of Scripture this morning. We are people who serve the Almighty God of the Bible with the heart of thanksgiving. We stand in respect of His holy and mighty power. We ask the Lord the question, what is man? that thou art mindful of him, his great love for us can never be fully comprehend." You know, you think about our true and living God. Our God is a loving God. There are many religions don't have love in them. I believe if they had love in them that we wouldn't have what's happening in the Middle East today. Nobody don't have that love. The Bible tells us here that the God of the Bible cares for us. We are very small and He is very great. He created us and He took on the form of a human being and came on earth and made a complete payment for our sins. And when you trust Him as your only personal Savior, the Bible tells us we'll become His child, He will become our Father. John 1, 12, as many as receive Him, to them give us the authority to become the children of God. So in this message this morning, I'm going to review many things we as Christians should be thankful for. One, we are most thankful for our salvation. Only through the Lord Jesus Christ as our only Savior. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 9 and verse 15, tongues beat unto God for His unspeakable gift. The Bible tells us the wages of sin is what? But the gift of God is eternal life only through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." 1 John 3, 1. Not everyone, always remember this, not everyone is a child of God. You go to these many religions today and they will tell you, everybody is God's children. No. Only we are all God's creation, but only those who have trusted and received him as savior The Bible tells us that everyone is God's creation. Our sins are forgiven We are redeemed. We just sang the song redeemed by the blood of the lamb By nothing else Redeemed by the blood of the lamb words can Never describe our gratitude for what the Lord has done in saving our soul. We have access into God's presence through Jesus Christ. Let us therefore come boldly onto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. You see, that's why we need to be thankful for God. Do we thank God for our salvation? I hope we do. because salvation is a gift of God. You may be here this morning and you're not sure where you're going when you die. You know, we have a lot of people like that, don't know for sure. I never forget one time a man came in my office and I asked him, I said, if something were to happen when you were to die, where would you go? He said, I don't know, but I don't believe in God and I don't believe in the Bible. So I said to him, I said, well, for every cause there is an effect, and for every effect there is a cause. For building, you must be a builder. For painting, you must be a painter. For creation, you must be a creator, which happened to be God. He still didn't want to listen to me. I went on for half an hour trying to share with him. And then finally I said, you don't believe in God and you don't believe in the Bible. It's a shame, your name is written in the Bible. He said, no way, my name is not written in this Bible. So I took my Bible and I opened the Psalms 14 one, I said, read it. A fool have said in his heart there is no God. You see, there is a God. And you and I know that. The true and living God whom we worship. And God says here that all have sinned. Let me check that out, this. How many of you have never told a lie in your life? Raise your hand. No, I didn't, all right? I can't point my finger at you. I have three pointed back at me. God says all have sinned. I remember when I was a little boy and somebody took me to a Sunday school. in a Presbyterian church, and the teacher was saying, good boys go to heaven and bad boys go in hell. So I always like to ask question, that's how you learn. I said, ma'am, if good boys go to heaven and bad boys go in hell, where does the girls go? Well, you see, the thing is this, all have sinned. Every one of us have done something wrong. And God says the payment for sin is debt. If we have to pay for this, we'll be separated from God in hell forever. Thank God he made a provision. And he said, I will send my only son, who was perfect, without sin, to make that payment for you. Died, buried, and rose again, 1 Corinthians 15, 1 and 3. And so that we can have eternal life. I know you have never seen this before. Let this left hand represent you and me. My wallet represents sin. All have sin, every one of us. How do we get rid of that sin? Take things and put it up? No, it wouldn't help. The Bible tells us all have sin. My right hand represents the Lord Jesus Christ. If we want to have fellowship with Christ, something is separating us is sin. The only thing that can get rid of that is the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ said He will come and pay for this sin. John 3.16, almost everybody know that. For God so loved the world, you and me, that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who died, buried, and rose again for our sin, that whosoever, not join the church, not only behave, but only believe. Whosoever believe, the moment you believe, we take all the sin, pay for it, how much you have to pay for? None. What kind of life He gave us? Eternal life. How long is eternal life? Forever. When do we have it? The moment we trust the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. And when we die, with this eternal life, heaven will be our home. That's how we know for sure. You know, there's a lot of people don't know that. So the other thing we need to be thankful about is we are thankful for our eternal future, which I just shared, eternal life. That is our victory in the Lord Jesus Christ given to us. But thanks be to God, which give us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ, given thanks unto the Father. and made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints. That's one thing that we're going to have. God says we're going to inherit those things, just like the Lord Jesus Christ, because this world is not our home. People try to accumulate as much as they can here, and they die and leave it for people to fight over. I remember one time, somebody had to read a will, and wherever there's a will, there's a relative. They read the will, and when all the relatives sat there, and this man's will was, being of sound mind, I spend every cent I had. 1 Peter 1, verse 4, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, unfaded, not away, reserved in heaven. Boy, this is reserved in heaven for you and I, and God will not lie. We need to be thankful for our future. You know, that's one thing that you and I who are saved, who have trusted Jesus Christ as Savior, we can know where we're going when we die. There's a lot of people who don't know that. And you know, these people who don't know, they are very insecure. And there's a lot of them who believe you can lose your eternal life. They're also insecure. I remember a young lady came in class after my brother taught on salvation. And she came up to me and she said, Dr. Boodram, you know, I don't believe what Dr. Calab said. I said, what did he say? He said, well, once saved, always saved. And I said, yes, true. She said, well, I don't believe that. I said, okay, let me take your Bible and turn to John 3, 16. And I said, I want you to read it. or let me read it instead and follow me as I read. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have life until you sin again. Oh no, no, that's not there. I said, is that in your mind? He said, no, it's not in mine. And I said, how long is eternal life? Forever. When do you have it? The moment you trust Christ as Savior. When you die, where would you go? Heaven. Oh, I can't wait to go and show my pastor this. I said, OK, go ahead. Well, you know, we people, we need to thank God for that. Also, totally, we need to thank God for the spiritual blessing. and the wisdom that we have in Jesus Christ. Blessed be God the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, who had blessed us with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places. Giving thanks always for all the things unto God the Father, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus. You know, God gave us so much. God gave us, you know, everything we have. I always say this, that all that we have doesn't belong to us. It belongs to God. But He wants us to be good stewards of how we take care of it, how we manage it. We have a lot of crazy things happening in the world today. I had a, we were, a good friend of ours, he's the one that helped us start in the Bible Institute, in Trinidad Bible Institute. So we went to visit him, he has prostate cancer and he's doing some chemo now. And he said when he went to do his chemo and his tests and everything, he had to fill out a form. And the woman started asking him questions what to write in the form. All right, so I asked him his name, his date of birth and everything, and she said, I have one question. I hate to ask you this, but I have to. Have you decided what is your gender? He said, since I was born, I am so thankful that my mother told me I was a boy. We have some problems today, real problems. And it's sad when you think about some of these things. Our Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 2.14, now thanks be to God, which always caused us to triumph in Jesus Christ and make it manifest the savor of his knowledge in every place. James tells us in chapter 1 and verse 5, if anyone lack wisdom, Let him ask who? God. He is the one that give us liberally. He is the one that give us all this wisdom. People are not asking God for God's wisdom. They want to have their own wisdom. And I'll tell you, it's sad. Yes, we know that we have all kind of technology now. Now everything now we're seeing that the Bible tells in the last days, my knowledge shall increase. Robots doing everything now. Robots assembling cars and a lot of things they're doing now. Just the other day, they had to make a decision. This robot went into this tall building and threw himself down and commit suicide. They want to know what caused that. You think about that today, that all this knowledge and they still don't have the knowledge. that God wanted them to have, because they refuse it. It's sad. America is not America anymore. See what's happening today. And Bob reminded me this morning when he was teaching Sunday school, I don't believe in politics. Polly means many and tick mean blood-sucking animals. Well, we have to be careful, but we know what's going on. Yes, we have to support. Yes, we support the right thing, all right, right. We see here, God give us wisdom. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. God tells us that. Fourthly, we are thankful for the opportunity to fellowship with Him every day. Let me tell you this, my friend. You and I should be thankful for that. Every time we get up in the morning, we should thank the Lord. You should thank the Lord for, I mean, a building like this where you can come and fellowship You know, I had a missionary friend from Africa when I went to this conference in Georgian Fellowship Bible Church a long time ago. They don't have the conference anymore. But I'll tell you this, that he told me this. He said, Dr. Boodram, we only worship six months out of the year. We don't have a building. We have so many people, so we have to go under the trees. In the first six months of the year, it's dry. In the second six months of the year, it's waterlogged. You can't go there. And they are thankful. There are a lot of people today who don't have the kind of facilities that we have. We should be thankful. And yet, some of them won't come to church. Yes, they make all kinds of excuses. I remember one lady said, she's not going back to church yet, she doesn't like the way that Pastor Combs is here. I hope it wasn't Pastor Jesse, you know. But, you know, people make all kinds of excuses. The Bible tells us, enter into the gates with thanksgiving and onto the courts with praises. Be thankful unto him and bless his holy name. This verse truly is an invitation to worship. It is not the worship that the modern day professing churches advocate. You go to some churches today and you know, they have what they call now, rock, Christian rock. Let me tell you, the only rock I know is Rock of Ages cleft for me. That's the one I know. All these things is crazy. There's a lot of demonic things out there. I was in Athens, Georgia. I remember when Dr. Anki Anil was the pastor of that church, and he asked me to speak. I was in that area. We were going to India, and at the same time, it had the 9-11 and I had to, we couldn't fly anymore to go there, so he asked me to speak and the lady came up to me and she said, Dr. Budra, my daughter is 14 years old, she don't want to go to school, she don't want to come to church, she don't want to hear about God. Could you come and talk with her?" I said, okay. I went that day and guess what happened? I can't remember who she was now, but I remember that day when I went there, she wasn't there. So the mother said, I'm sorry you came so far and she's not there. I said, well, could I see her room? She said, okay, as I walk in that room, I could feel, now I deal with a lot of these demonic things, I can feel the demonic forces in that room. There were pictures on the wall, not supposed to be there. And there were music, demonic music, not supposed to be there. There were books like Harry Potter, not supposed to be there. My friend, I am telling you what's happening. I'm dealing with this back home right now. And I told the mother, if you want back your daughter, here's a prayer. Dr. Sitchoan wrote a prayer on demonic things and how we can deliver. And we keep that, and I give it to her. I said, take this prayer, read it, take all these things and burn it. And she said, I can't do that. I said, you don't want back your daughter. Two weeks after what she called me, she said, I got back my daughter. Let me tell you what's happening now. You see, in America right now, there's a lot of demonic forces all over. All these people came and they're bringing all these things. And people are embracing them. Prepare yourself, my friend. It's not going to get better. It's going to get worse. So your job and my job is to share the gospel so people can trust Christ as Savior and God will deliver them from those things. It's happening out there. All right? We see here it's important to enter His gates with thanksgiving. We need to care for those people out there. I can give you stories about all these things, you know, how people, what happened, how they have trusted the Lord. My wife and I went one day, her sister said, her friend has a daughter, she is 16 years old and weighs 95 pounds. I went to her, she said she's sick, she was lying on the bed. And as I walk in, my wife and I walk in the room, her mom and her sister put together probably weighed about 400 pounds and she lift them up like that. And my wife grabbed my arm and said, let's get out of here. I said, no, I began to pray. Plead the blood, overcome them by the blood of the lamb and the word of God and pray. So I saw her. When she opened her eyes, she said, what are you doing here? I said, I heard you're sick. I come to pray with you. I share the gospel. She trusted the Lord. Today she's delivered in church now. You see, all these things, my friend, is happening out there now. That's why we need to give thanks to God for what we have. The courts of the Lord is the privilege only given to the saints, you and I who have trusted Him. We come praising Him, not in flesh, but in the Spirit. Blessed be the Lord who have done the great things for us. He said in Psalm 69 and verse 30, I will praise the name of God with a song and magnify Him with thanksgiving. And number five, we are thankful for the opportunity to serve the Lord. Oh, what a joy to see that. Let me say, only one life to live and it will soon be past. And only what is done for Christ would last. That's why an opportunity to serve the Lord. I gave up many things because the Lord didn't want me there. When I was in Bible College in Miami, I could have stayed and be a millionaire. When I was working for this company, this guy wanted to adopt me as his son, didn't have any children. I said no. I gave up cricket and turned down to come to Florida Bible College. I went back home, and many, many things that I offered to man, just like the devil did with Christ. And I'll tell you, I said no. One of the things I want you as believers, we have to learn to say no to certain things. People don't. And I said, no, and that's why God have us here today. That's why we have that ministry here today. That's why so many people today are preaching a clear gospel message now. It's important. Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling. According, not according to our works, but according to His purpose and grace. You know, you ever ask yourself, Why did God have me here? Why did God save me? He has a purpose for you. There are some people you can reach that I can't reach. And there are some people I can reach that you cannot reach for the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't be afraid. Share the gospel. The gospel is the power of God and the salvation. I share it with people all the time. I see what God has done. Thankful, number six, thankful for our families, our children, and our fellow brethren. You know, last week, Sunday, I preached a message. You can go to YouTube and KCBC online and you can get it. How to reach the hearts of the next generation. I am so concerned now what that next generation going to be like. You see the generation we're living in? When I grew up, one of the things that we had to learn to respect and to love our parents, respect the elders, you don't have that much anymore. Even in the churches, you don't have that much. because this generation is a gimme, gimme generation. What you have is mine. They don't want to work for anything. It's a serious thing, my friend. And I pray that we can bring up children the way they should. When I was in high school, one of my teachers, in fact, the principal, he was a believer in the Lord. I didn't know that until afterwards when I spoke with him and asked him, I said, Mr. Murray, how it is that you are almost 80 years old and you're very, very sharp minded, very agile, and you're very educated? He said, son, come let me show you something. He took his Bible and he opened it. Ephesians 6, 1. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right, that your days may be long. I'll never forget that. My father was an alcoholic. I never at once rebuked him. I prayed for him. You know I prayed for him, and he got, one day he got a heart attack. gave up his smoking, he used to smoke too, and gave up his alcohol, trusted the Lord. Thank God. He trusted the Lord after 15 years. My mother trusted the Lord after 10 years. My mother-in-law trusted the Lord after 25 years. And do you know my sister-in-laws and them, my wife's sisters and them, it was last year, they trusted the Lord. After so long, they got baptized. You know, this is what it's all about. Love them, care for them, don't do the things what they're doing. And it's important. I told my mother-in-law and father-in-law, I said, I will not come to you Hindu prayers, but I'll do anything scripturally for you. They hated me after that, but they came to know the Lord. Very important, your family. The Bible tells us, our brothers and sisters. I remember even playing cricket, I have led a lot of people to the Lord. who comprise the body of Christ, who comprise the body of Christ is our children, our family, our brethren. We are thankful that God, we can worship the true and living God. According to what the Bible tells us, we can learn to bear one another burdens. The Christian lifestyle is getting compromised now. You and I need to come back where it's supposed to be. Look at the kind of, yes, technology is great. I don't have a problem with it. But the word of God does not change. It stays there. The gospel does not change. Because I'm sure, you know, and how many of you would like to go back to your old typewriter with the ribbon in it to type? You wouldn't like that, all right? Technology is great. Let's use technology. When we had the COVID, Pastor Sam and I, we were thinking, what are we going to do about the school? We went and we paid for Zoom, and we have it on Zoom now. And we have students from Guyana, students from, we have one of them from the States, and we have from St. Lucia. and in our own country, Trinidad and Tobago. And I'll tell you, this is rich and more. So it was good. So we need to be thankful. Are we thankful for our family? Let me tell you what's happening today. Families don't care about one another. They're fighting one another. And for property, for money, they're fighting. You know what, some of you know what I'm talking about. You see, my friend, we need to build back that relationship of love, caring for one another. I don't know about here, but I remember in our country, when the neighbor, let's say the hurricane fell, came and mashed up their home and other things. When that happened, people would laugh and say, it's good for you. You needed that. Now they would say that. But a long time ago, they would come and help you. Long ago. We are missing that kind of love now. Love is not what you give to people. You can give them a nice car, a nice home. It's love how you treat that person. And it all starts from the head, the husband, the wife. And that's where the problem is today. Marriage is not found on television. It's found in the word of God. The Bible. And it's three that makes a marriage. The husband, the wife, not the mother-in-law, but the Lord Jesus Christ. The blueprint of marriage is right here in the word of God, not on the television. You look at the bold and beautiful, you become young and reckless, you end up in general hospital, and those were the days of your life. No. It's in the word of God. I can tell you, my wife and I have been married for 51 years. Wonderful marriage. Do we have problems? Yes, but how you handle it is important. It's important how you handle it. If you see a fly in a baby's head, you don't take an ax to kill it. And we have so many people don't know how to handle it today. That love, it all comes back from there. I remember my daughter said to me, she said, Daddy, if I have to get married, which she did, and she said, Daddy, if I'm going to get married, I want to get married to a man who treat, how you treat mommy, that's the kind of man I want. I want him to treat me like that too. We have to set that example. Be there for our children, all right? The Bible tells us to be thankful for our family. And let the peace of God rule your hearts to be thankful. We see here, by one spirit, we are all baptized into one body. The Bible tells us that when we trust the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, we are baptized, identified into the body of Christ. And then we see here, the Bible says, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 9, but as such in the brotherly love, we need not, I write unto you, ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. How you treat one another, that's love. Even children, how do children spell love? T-I-M-E. I wrote a booklet on Christian parenting, and one of my big phrase inside here I have is, amazing how parents obey their children. Oh, you didn't hear what I said. We are thankful for the necessities such as food and clothing and shelter. We are thankful for the provision that God has provided for us in providing income that is necessary in which we live in this world. The Lord provides and supply our needs and not our greeds. 2 John tells us, Beloved, I wish, verse 2 said, Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health and even in thy soul prosperous. Romans 14.6, he that regardeth a day, regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth the Lord, and doeth not regard it, he that eateth, eateth unto the Lord. You know what it's saying here? Whatever we do, it should bring honor and glory to the Lord. When something happens, never say this, why me, Lord? How many of you have said that? I've said it, I know. I don't say it anymore. I don't say, why me, Lord? Because the why belongs to God. What belongs to us? Lord, what it is you're trying to teach me from this? How can I use it to help others? How can I use it to give you the glory? I can give you a lot of Bible characters. Remember Joseph? Joseph then said, why me, Lord? He went on, all that. You see, when you're in the will of the Lord, and you know that God is going to guide you, direct you, and you're going to be happy. When you're out of the will, you know, being in the will of the Lord is happy where you are and what you're doing. And I am happy where I am and doing what God wants me to do. The Lord Jesus, when he was on earth, always give thanks to the Father in heaven. In Christ, we have the same privilege of giving thanks to the Father in heaven. John 6, 11, and Jesus took loaves, and when he had given thanks, distributed the disciples to them and set them down, and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. been enriching everything to all bountifulness, which caused it through us thanksgiving to God. Are we thankful for our families, for our food, for what God provided for us, for a place of worship, our family, most of all? Well, as I conclude, being thankful is a commandment. Being thankful is a commandment in Scripture. And for the Christian who have trusted Jesus Christ as Savior, should be thankful is a way of life. It flows from our hearts. No matter what one may be going through, at the moment, there is always something to be thankful for. continue in prayer and watch, in the same with thanksgiving, that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of the wondrous works that God hath done in us. As we have therefore received Jesus Christ the Lord, so we should walk in him, Colossians 2, 6 and 7, rooted and build it up in him and establishing the faith as he have been taught, abounding, daring with thanksgiving. I hope this morning that we can think differently about thanksgiving now. Everything give thanks, everything. You know, I have seen where God, certain things happen in my life and God had a purpose for it. He has a purpose. Just like in Joseph's life, he had a purpose for Joseph. He sees way over there that we can't see. And I pray this morning that we can thank God for all that we have, for our family, for our work, for our job, for our church, for our fellowship, our friends, family. I pray we can do that. Pastor Jesse. close this morning. Just want to remind you that we here at Calvary love to support our missionaries because of this right here. You hear messages like what Dr. Boodram just gave, and you're reminded of things that are basic, right? Everything that he said, we already knew. The problem is we drift from those things. Because of circumstances, because of people, because of times, we start to worry. There's something that he said that resonates with me right now because of the effect of Pastor Freddie Coyle. He said, it's not our job to ask why, It's our job to ask what. Remember, he just said that. And I remember Freddy, when he was diagnosed with his brain cancer, he created a little three-letter acronym, W-I-N. And it stood for What's Important Now. And of course, you look at someone like Pastor Freddy and you see the thriving ministry, The outreach ability, he was able to affect ministries nationally, internationally. And then you have a brain cancer diagnosis. And you would rightfully, if you're in a position of self-centeredness, you come to the conclusion, why me? We're looking at that in our community right now. Some of us, even in our neighborhoods, we saw a tree fall on someone's house and not on our house. And we can even look at something like that and say, you know, why me? Why was I spared? The way you get to that why and the what is a shift of perspective. We need to stop looking at ourselves, and as the Bible says, we need to esteem each other better than themselves. You look to the person to your left, you look to the person to your right, and you say, what can I do for you? How can I help you in some way? And I think if we had more of that, Life would not only be more joyful, but it would also have so much more purpose than it does right now. The purpose now is get your supplies, get your stuff, be ready for your family. Well, what about the others? What about people who have none? And we think about that in the sense of prepping for a hurricane, but what about the gospel? Well, my family's saved, and that's all that I'm responsible for, you know? You know, you've probably been living next to people for as long as there's been some people in your family, and yet they haven't heard the gospel? How does that happen? We're focused on ourselves. So I want to thank Dr. Boudreaux. Let's give him another round of applause. He did an excellent job. Tonight, you're going to hear his administrative pastor, Pastor Sam. And listen, folks, I'm not trying to plug that service. I'm just telling you the way that it is. You need to be here for that. He's going to go over his testimony. And the first time I ever heard it, it was in a missions conference. And I thought, that could be a film. It could be a production, the way that he was led to Christ and the circumstances around his life. And then to know that he's a product of somebody just preaching the gospel clearly, and now is in a role that is very important, heavily relied upon, I think you would agree. you realize how the simple gospel can lead to these complex results. I love it, and I want to encourage you to be here tonight. We do have Awana tonight. We do have our evening service. I'm going to be going on vacation starting tomorrow, and I'll be back the following Monday. I believe Dr. Arnold will be doing the services next Sunday. Blake Formanek, who's a student of the Bible College, will be doing the devotional, the prayer meeting on Wednesday night. I encourage you to be here. And if you do have any kind of needs as a result of the hurricane, make sure you communicate to the church. We'll see what we can do, getting people out there, supplies, whatever needs to be done. You don't have to suffer in those things alone. But just like I said, what's important now, the most important thing that we can know today before we walk out of those doors is that when we die, we will be absent from the body and present with the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're here today and you don't have that assurance, you're sitting here in the quietness of your mind and you're saying, I don't know that I would go to heaven when I die, then this is something for you. It is so very important to see what the Bible has said about assurance of eternal life. If this hand represents you and me, I'm going to let this block of sin represent sin. I'll put it on top of my hand because the Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God, he loves us very much, but he hates our sin. This sin separates us from him. In order to get to heaven, you have to be absolutely perfect. And this is where definitions start to matter. Just like people are confused on basic things today, people are very confused on what it means to be perfect. Some will say perfection is a standard of things done to the best of one's ability. I talked to a man, he came down from Ohio about three years ago, and he wanted to be baptized by Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold. He had come to faith in Christ, but he said before he got saved, he thought grace was God filling in what he could not do. He thought that he was gonna do the very best, lead his family, love his children, take care of all of his responsibilities, go to church, be a good person, and whatever he fell short of, God would meet the rest. That's a grace plus works definition. But he was sincere in that definition. And it was the first time I'd ever heard somebody talk about the sincerity of their deception. You have to be absolutely perfect, meaning no sin at all. Not from this moment forward, I'm going to be sinless, good luck. But all the sin that you had before you decided you were going to become sinless, that has to be paid. God is a holy and righteous judge. There must be a payment for sin. He does not simply look at you and say, hey, you and I are buddies, get on out of this courtroom. Somebody's got to have the payment of sin put on them. You want to get to heaven, you have to be sinless without any of that sin. But we've all got sin. The wages of sin is death, eternal separation from God in a literal fire burning hell. Many theologians have gone back and forth about what's the worst thing about hell, the eternal flames, the darkness. Jude describes it as wandering stars. Or is it the separation from God, the only one who ever could do something about that condition? I think if we think long enough and hard enough about it, we realize the severity and the threat of hell is serious, if we can even put it in that definition. The wages of sin is death. It's not good works. It's not religious deeds. It's not promising to do better and expecting God to do the rest. Someone has to die. Someone has to shed their blood to pay for that sin. I can't die for you, you can't die for me. We need a Savior, amen? And there is a Savior, capital S, and his name is Jesus Christ. This hand represents Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. He's fully God and he's fully man. And what God did as a demonstration of his love for us is he sent Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, living a perfect life, having no sin of himself, but Jesus went to the cross. For God so loved the world, that's you and me, that he gave his only begotten Son, that's Jesus Christ, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That's the gospel message. We don't hear gospel very much, but can I tell you all the people that are knocking on your door? with Spectrum, Frontier, all those emails you get about AT&T can give you a better rate, you could accurately say they have a gospel for you. We could say, we could call it the gospel of Spectrum, the gospel of Frontier files at your door, right? What does the word gospel mean? It means good news. Do you see how that's an accurate description of what you just heard? You have heard good news this morning, amen? that God loves you, but pastor my condition, doesn't matter, loves you anyway, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And people get tied in a not so tight on that word believe. What does it mean? It means to simply trust, to rely upon. Like you trusted in the fact that 4811 George Road would have a service at 1030 this morning, You didn't check, you didn't fact check or verify, you came in and then you sat down on these pews, you didn't inspect, you just simply had faith that that would hold you up, that there would be a service here this morning. So our faith must be in Christ, that He is who He claimed to be, amen? The only begotten Son of God, that He is the only one who is able to pay for sin and that He in fact did pay for your sin. That is the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. And once you have eternal life, it's a certain kind of life, it lasts forever. How long is that? Do me a favor when you're going to bed tonight, stare at that ceiling, whether it's a slick ceiling or a popcorn ceiling, and I want you to think about the idea of eternity. Something never-ending. We don't understand it, folks. In three minutes, this service will end. At some point, it will be 12, and we will go from the morning to the afternoon, amen? Can you imagine if it was morning forever? You would start thinking, when is something going to change? It's hard for us to put our mind around that definition of eternal, but by definition, it is without end. And that's the kind of life that has been given to you the moment that you believe. You say, Pastor, do I have to prepare for this? Do I have to be ready to give my life? Do I have to be ready to change my life? No, you don't. Those things will come as you yield yourself to the Lord. But you want to know that you're going to heaven when you die? You simply need to just be ready to put your trust to rely upon Jesus Christ. Amen? And once you do, you are saved forever. I'd like to give an invitation. If you would bow your heads, please, and close your eyes, nobody looking around. If you're here this morning and you say, Pastor, can I tell you that when I walked in this morning, I was not sure that I was going to go to heaven upon my death. Pastor, I thought I was good enough. I thought I had enough religious deeds and intention to save me, but I now see that the wages of sin is death. I can't be good enough. And so, Pastor, I would like you to pray for me because I have changed my mind this morning. I was trusting in myself or my religion to get me to heaven, but now I am putting my trust in Jesus Christ. And as he has promised eternal life, so I now have eternal life because I have believed on him. Now I ask for your heads to be bowed and your eyes to be closed. And I say that from the position of maybe one of you here this morning. Maybe that's you, you have just changed your mind and put your trust in Jesus Christ. The lack of assurance you had but when you walked in here has now been satisfied because you believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, shed his blood to pay for your sin. If that's you this morning, I want to pray for you. I ask for heads to be bowed and eyes to be closed so that we can keep the privacy of this moment. But there are many people who are praying for you. And it would be of the greatest encouragement to see if somebody trusted Christ this morning. So if you would, just simply slip up your hand. Raising your hand doesn't save you. We don't keep tally of these things. It just lets us know that what was said this morning made sense to you and you put your trust in Jesus Christ. Yes, I see you. God bless you. Thank you for being here this morning. Is there anybody else? Raising your hand doesn't save you, it just communicates. Somebody got saved today. To those of you who have already put your trust in Jesus Christ, we have so many things to be thankful for as a believer. One of those things being the promise that the Lord is coming back. We have less time now than we did yesterday. Be busy about the Father's work. We're here to help you. If you're suffering right now, if you're going through difficulties, if things are hard, reach out. Let us know, and we will do the best that we can to come alongside you. Please support Blake on Wednesday night, Dr. Arnold in the services next Sunday. Be here. It's important. Pray for these men. Father, thank you for the opportunity that we have to serve you. In Jesus' name, we pray these things.