It's one of my favorite songs. You ever thought about this? The verse, if the ocean, basically saying we're full of ink, and everyone was a scribe by trade, you still could not describe how much God loves us. That's amazing. And I know this, I know me. I don't know you, but I know me. It would be hard. If God knows all about me that I know about me, It's hard to imagine he would love me. I don't know all about you. I love you. But I know this, his love is without measure. God's been really good to us. Again, appreciate you being here this morning. I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 9. 2 Corinthians chapter 9. And again, if we did not get a chance to shake your hand, here's what I'll do. I'll stand right out the door and I'll shake your hand on the way out if you'll come out that way. And I'd be honored to shake your hand, say hello to you. But again, once a year, I at least like to go down there. And here's the thing. And next week, Brother Seth and Miss Holly will be with us. Their first Sunday here, their last Sunday at their church in West Virginia is today. And so y'all pray for them. But those Spanish folks down there, those kids down there, you know what? I'm their pastor, too. And so once in a while they need to see my face just like you. They may not want to, but they need to, right? And so I appreciate you affording me the opportunity to do that. And thank you. As we come to this time of the year, I love Thanksgiving. I think it's important. I know that again, I've grown up in the Baptist church my whole life. Many of you have, and we'll take this time of the year, we'll say, well, We ought to be thankful. And I know, listen, I know people say, well, you ought to be thankful every day. Agree with you, but are you? I mean, what we should and what we actually do may not be the same thing. So I'm at least thankful that we have a time of the year that reminds us that we are to be thankful. And I'm grateful that God gives us a book. to remind us of all the things we're to be thankful for. Now you're here today and, and we could probably spend an hour of all the things that are wrong. But I, I would, I would say this, we ought to be a grateful people because of all that God's done for us. So, so here's what I want to do is we look at 2 Corinthians chapter nine, verse 15. Uh, and, and we're going to look at much of that chapter. Um, I think it's important. Uh, to do this and now, uh, would, could we do this? Brother Eddie, would, would you tell me, and again, I'm going to ask this throughout the month and here's what I don't want. I don't want to hear 17 hours of all the things that are wrong with you. I want to know one thing that you're thankful for. Brother Eddie, tell me one thing you're thankful for. Amen. Brother Barry, what are you thankful for? Amen. See, there's two things right there. If you'll focus on the things that God's done for you and not all the things the world has done to you, what will happen is you'll become a grateful people. And I will too. So the Bible said in 2 Corinthians 9, verse 15, notice what, what Paul writes to the church at Corinth. He said, thanks. Be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Now you'll notice that does not say gifts plural. It says gift. And, and the reason for that, he's, he's really talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, but we'll see that Paul is writing to Christians and you'll look at chapter nine about this thing of giving. Now, you say, preacher, I didn't come to hear a message about giving. Well, then you ought to thank God that I really am not concerned about that, because we're gonna talk about the God of heaven giving to you. Amen? I mean, when you look at the Bible, the Bible said, for God so loved the world that he gave. He's a giver, and he sets forth that example in this scripture. And Paul says, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift, right? Jesus Christ is a gift to mankind. And so Paul is writing to Christians in chapter 9 about giving. In verse 6 he said, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he which sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Aren't you glad that God does not sow sparingly? As a matter of fact, God gave us the very best that heaven had in the person of Jesus Christ. And then also, in verse 7, the Bible said, Every man according as he purpose in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity of God, for God loveth the cheerful giver. So as a matter of fact, we get the whole concept of faith promise giving from chapter 9 of 2 Corinthians. And so he shows the biblical principle of sowing and reaping. Today, may I say this, if you sow sparingly, you'll reap sparingly. If you sow bountifully, you'll reap bountifully. If you sow sparingly unto the things of God, guess what? That's what you're gonna get. The Bible said to have friends, you gotta do what? Show yourself friendly. You ever thought the reason you don't have any friends is because you're not friendly? Amen. You ever thought? And so the principles in the Word of God over and over and over are the same thing. If you sow this way, this is what you get. And it's amazing to me as Christians, and we say we're Bible believers, that when God actually delivers on His promise, we find it amazing, right? I mean, when God does what He says He'll do, we go, well I can't believe He did that, right? Now, that's great on the positive side of it, but when it comes on the negative side, and then we'll point our finger to God and we'll say, God, I can't believe you allowed this to happen to me. Well, when we understand the grace of God, we'll understand it's amazing God doesn't allow more stuff to happen to us. And so three times in the latter verses of this scripture, the word thanksgiving or thanks is mentioned in our Bible. So it seems two things we learn. God is the original giver and a thankful person is a given person. Amen? So we have to understand God is the original giver, and number two, God loves people that are thankful in their giving and in their receiving. And so may I say this? That one way we show God what we appreciate Him is in our worship. Amen? And so as we reflect on this time of the year, all that God has given to us, let us give back to Him our praise and our thanksgiving. That's what this time of the year is all about. I like turkey, by the way, and I like dressing, praise God, that's good stuff. But this whole time of the year is about giving thanks to God. And so we want to look here, if we're gonna give thanks to God, we have to understand that God is the original giver and God will always give more to us than we could ever give back to him. So number one, I want you to see this thankful giving. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in verse eight to nine. I want you to see his ability to give. The Bible said in verse eight, and God is able to make, notice this word, all grace, abound toward you. That ye always having all sufficiency in what? All things may abound to every good work. So understand this, number one is his ability that God gives this, all grace. Now that word all means all, amen? That God is withholding nothing back from us. that God is not giving. You know, we think, well, you know what? God doesn't love me. He's withholding good things from me. Listen, it's amazing that God would give us anything. But may I say this? I was telling the teenagers today, they had, Brother Jose had a visiting preacher and he taught the teen class today. And I said, you know what's amazing to me? I said, as young people, what we want is fun. I mean, you can get kids, you go bowling or you ax throwing or whatever, man, they'll sign me up. But you take them to a youth revival, it's like, well, I don't want to go to that, that ain't fun. May I say this? I've had more fun serving God than I ever did serving the devil. Why? Because God does not withhold good things from us. Amen. I mean, I'm talking about the shame being all in. Amen. I'm not talking about part of it. I'm not talking about back and forth. Sometimes serve God in and out, back and forth. I'm talking about when you're all in, God does not withhold good things from you. All grace, all of God's unmerited favor. Do you realize this is available to you this morning? God doesn't care where you have been, where you came from. He doesn't care how dirty your sin life is. He already knows about it. Yet He's offering all the grace that He has to you. God's unmerited favor is available to each one of us this very morning if we'll accept it. He withholds nothing from us for our good. May I say this? God's kept me out of a bunch of messes I've tried to get myself in. Amen? But I'll tell you what, there's something else he's done. He's allowed me to get myself in some messes because I would not adhere to the warning signs he's given me. So number one, his ability is that he gives all grace. And this morning, he will not withhold anything from you if you'll come to him. Not only all grace, he's all sufficient. Notice the Bible said, all grace abound toward you that ye will always all having all sufficiency. I remember years ago when God called me to preach. Brother Foy, I did not think I could do this. I thought, man, I'm not Bobby Robertson. I'm not Lee Robertson. I'm not Noah Fry. And I'm not these men. But God knew exactly who I was. And Brother Harley, he's given me exactly what I need to be the pastor of this church. Amen. And that's good enough. He's sufficient for whatever he gives you or whatever he wants in your life. God is sufficient in giving you what you need. Now that word sufficient does not mean just enough. That means he never runs out. Amen. I'm glad that he can give to you and you and you and me and the fountain never runs dry. Amen. I'm glad that God is the giver of perfect gifts and has all the resources to never run out of what you need. When you pray to Him, guess what? We can all pray at the same time. God knows what we need and God can answer every prayer and He does all things well so He's all sufficient in His giving. Amen. Listen, it's one thing for me to say, you know what? You come to me and say, listen, preacher, I really need some help here. I need you to help me pay my house off. Well, I'd love to do that, but I don't have the money to do it. Do you? It's one thing to want to be able to do something, it's another to have the means and the ability to do it. And may I say this, that whatever God has promised in His Word, He 100% always has the ability and the resources to do exactly what He says He'll do. He always has enough and His supply never ends or runs out. It's an endless supply to everyone at all times. That's amazing to me. Listen, everything we know, Brother Johnny, runs out. I mean, if you keep digging in to the resource long enough, it runs out, but not with God. Hallelujah. He's all sufficient. So his ability is that it's all grace. It's all sufficient. Notice this next thing in all things. Can I help you with something? You know, what's limiting what God's doing in your life? You. What God's doing in my life, what's hindering? Me. What God wants to do in this church, what hinders it? Us. Not his ability, not his power. If the Bible is true, then what he's saying is God is able to make all grace abound toward you. Am I looking at some ewes? I'm a you. Brother Ken, are you a you? Where are you? I ain't talking about sheep either. Well, I guess I am really if you're... Right? That ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work. Now notice that last part of that verse. He didn't say he gave it to you to waste. He didn't say he gave it to you to do whatever you want to. He said he gave you all these things for good work. He gives us the ability and He gives us the resources and He gives us all things with all sufficiency, with all grace. Why? For His glory, for His work, for what He wants to get done in our life. And so this morning I'm thankful that we serve a God with the ability that in His ability it's all grace and it's all sufficient and all things. Hallelujah, what a God we serve. That's why I'm thankful. Do you realize that in order to save me, he had to shed every bit of blood he had? In order to save you, he had to shed, God withheld nothing from you and gave the best so that you could go to heaven. Now tell me why we're not grateful people. Brother Matt, tell me why we sit in church with our lip poked out. Amen. Man, we deserve nothing God's given us. And yet if we're not careful, you know what I say all the time? Most of what we complain and gripe about are first world problems. We got plenty to eat. You say, well, preacher, you don't understand, my alternator went out of my car, man. You don't understand how bad I got it. Do you realize that you got an alternator, hallelujah? I mean, there's places where people are riding 17 people on a bicycle, but you got an alternator that went out. My internet, can you believe my internet went out? Can I say this? Boys, that's enough. Can I say this? There's a time when there wasn't no internet. There's a time when you dialed up. Amen? Praise God. Well, preacher of the air condition went out in the auditorium. Praise God, aren't you glad we got air condition? Hallelujah, I'm saying that all the problems we got in this world are first world problems that we're griping about. So number one is his ability, number two is his administration. Look at verse number 10. Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food. Notice what he's saying, that he ministereth seed And he ministers bread for your food and then he multiplies your seed sown and increase the fruit of your righteousness. Now, what is he saying? Well, he's showing his ability, but also his administration. What do you mean by that, preacher? Well, he ministers the seed. You say, well, preacher, you don't understand. I'm a self-made man. I pulled myself up by my bootstraps, and I've done it all by myself. No, you haven't. May I say this? You ought to thank God you're not a raven lunatic in a padded room somewhere that he gave you the very ability to do what you're doing. He is a God that gives. He gives us the seed and He gives us the supply of seed and the ability to sow. Amen. Well, may I say this? From seed to bread, it is all of God. From seed to bread, it's all God. I got nothing to brag about. You got nothing to brag. It's all God. It makes you grateful when you realize that without God, you couldn't even got up this morning. How many enjoyed your extra hour of sleep? Boy, I wish I'd have got extra. I woke up earlier. I'm like, what in the world am I doing, right? Then I tried to lay back down. You know what? Didn't work for me. But you know what, if God would not have allowed me to, I wouldn't have got up this morning. Right? I mean, if God wouldn't have stepped in and caused my heart to beat this morning, you know what, I wouldn't have got up this morning. Praise God. With all that God has going on in this universe, He was aware of me enough to say, you know what, I'm gonna make sure his heart's pumping this morning. Glory to God. I'm just saying that we ought to be so grateful to the very minutest thing that we would say even the very seed that we had to sow, God has provided for us. He's not only a minister of the seed, he's a multiplier of the fruit. Notice what the Bible said, he said, increase the fruits of your righteousness. Hey, the Lord does all things well. You know what, I'm looking across this auditorium. You know what, I'm grateful. Listen, I'm thankful to look across here, Brother Jerry. There's time when there's, man, we'd been happy to have a handful of people. And look at the, and now you go down there and there's a children's ministry with probably 30, 40 kids down there. There's a Spanish ministry with probably 40 or 50 down there. And we ought to thank God. Sometimes we forget what too many months ago, too many years ago, you know what? They were saying you couldn't come in a place like this. You'll get the cooties. Right? Thank God. Man, listen, I'm grateful for online. I know Brother Jimmy's watching. I'm sure Brother Jimmy's saying, listen, I'm grateful we got an online service. But I'll guarantee you this, he'll say, it's nothing like sitting right there. Something about being around God's people. Why? Well, I'll tell you why. Because God created us to need each other and to fellowship. Man, there's nothing like God's people. I've been around the world's people. I like God's people, man. This is my folks right here. And so he's a multiplier of the fruit. He multiplies the seed we sow. Man, you know what's exciting about missions? Talking about missions last month. It's not just about the monetary gift you give. It's the fact that that money is going to help someone go to a place of this world you cannot go and share the gospel. And then when people get saved, you know what happens? God said, that goes on your account, by the way. God didn't call me to Paraguay. Man, after I heard about all them steaks they ate down there, it made me want to go visit. But God didn't call me to Paraguay. But I'm glad the Pardo family's going, and I'm glad we can partner with them, get involved in what God's doing. Amen? So understand that God multiplies the seed we sow, but he also multiplies the fruit produced out of it. You know what? Somebody gets saved, it didn't have anything to do with me. We say, well, we're soul winners. No, you're not really. What we are is proclaimers. God does the saving. So this morning, may I say this, that he could get glory thanksgiving. That's why he does it. He wants us to give him glory and thanksgiving. That's why, that's why this time of the year, you know what we ought to, and I know, listen, people have lost loved ones and it's, Every year, same thing, Brother Shane. I understand when you don't have someone you love here, this time of the year is difficult. Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not making light of that. We've all lost loved ones. It's difficult. But let's take time. If we're not careful, we'll forget how good God's been to us. This morning, thank God for His grace. And so we're looking at he's the multiplier of fruit. He does it so he can get glory. And then number three, look at verse 13 to 16, his abundance. The Bible said, wiles by the experiment of this ministration, they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ and for your liberal distribution unto them. unto all men, and by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you. Then he says this in verse 15, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Well, here's what he's saying. He's again focusing on his grace. Listen, if you'll ever get to the place that you stop feeling entitled to stuff, you're just not entitled. Here's what people say. I just want to get what I deserve. You better be careful praying like that Because here's the thing according to the Bible what you and I deserve is is to be in a place called hell The Bible said for the wages of sin is death That's what we deserve. You say well, I don't agree with that preacher because my sin are not that bad It didn't say big sin, little sin. It said the wages of sin. Every sin you've ever committed, whether it's to tell a lie, or murder, or adultery, or if you've got bitterness in your heart, or unforgiveness, every single sin, Brother Sean, everyone has the same sentence of death. It doesn't matter how big it is. The sentence is the same for every sin, death. And it's not just talking about fiscal death, it's talking about spiritual death. The wages of sin is death. The payment for it is death. But the gift of God is eternal life. What gift? That unspeakable gift he's talking to us about right there. Hallelujah. Listen, I love you church, but I got one son. I wouldn't give him to die for any of you. Don't be offended. That's my boy. I wouldn't give him to die for anybody. But God loved you enough that he sent his son to die for you. How about that? I don't understand that kind of love. Man, sometimes it's hard for us to love people that love us. Isn't that right? Think about it. Some of the people we hurt the most are the people that love us the most. Right? But man, they hung Jesus on the cross. And he looked up to heaven. He said, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. They don't know who they're crucifying. Right? They don't know how much I love them. And he's doing the same thing today. Right? Today he's offering you salvation. And there's going to be some people that are going to walk out of here today and say, you know, I preach all that's good, but I'm fine. Listen. Listen, I got my bills paid and I got good health. We're not talking about being good on this side of eternity. See, the average lifespan on this earth is about 80 years, right? If you live 80 years, you've lived really 76, 77 years. So if you live 80 years, you hate to say it this way, but you're kind of on borrowed time. Right? I mean, if you're over like 75, man, you ought to look up and say, thank you, Lord. Get up every day. Hey, but here's the thing. You take 100 years. Let's just take 100. Oldest man in the Bible was who? Methuselah? How old was he? 960 some years old? Is that right? Let's just say 900 years old, right? You say, man, that's a long time. Well, yeah, except for the fact when you look at the scope of eternity, right, that's not even a dot. I mean, when you look at 900 years in the scope of eternity, that's not even a dot on the page. Now you look at your life, and man, I've lived 54 years, I'm like, if I lived 75, I'm planning to live to be like 125 at least. Right? I've come to realize this, probably not going to pastor a Baptist church and live to be 125. Right? But, whatever, however long I live, that's a blip compared to eternity. So, if the only thing I look at, listen, I'm going somewhere, hang with me. I'm ahead of schedule. If the only thing I'm focused on is this life, my 75, 80 years of this life, and I'm not worried about eternity and I want to get all I can in this life and be happy and have it easy in this life, you know what's going to happen? Most likely in eternity is when you're going to pay. Right? If you won't focus on eternity, And you say, well, preacher, I'd get saved, but then I'd have to give up X, Y, Z. What are you giving up? I'd have to give up going out and drinking and partying. Oh, that's terrible. So you're not going to waste your money on alcohol. You're not going to wake up in your own vomiting field. You're not going to wake up in places you don't even know how you got there. You're not going to wake up and not even know what you did the night before. afraid of giving up? Right? Where's the trade-off, man? You don't get it, preacher. I do get it. I'd have to give up my drugs. Listen, you don't have to give up nothing. When God gets better to you than what that is, see? I'll have to come to church. You don't have to. You'll get to. See? I'll have to change my life. You get to. See, that's the difference. When I think of what God did for me, what a privilege it is to serve Him. Amen? What a privilege it was to come to church this morning. It wasn't always easy. So when I look at his abundance of what God's given me, I have to think about his grace. That if all I do is focus on this life, I miss the grace of God. All God does is grace. Here's what I'm going to say. He's way up here. You and I are way down here. So it's his grace. But then in verse 15, it's his gift. He says, thanks be unto God. Verse 11, being enriched in everything to all bountifulness which causes through us thanksgiving to God. Verse 12, the administration of the service not only supplied the one of the saint, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God. And then again, verse 15, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Well, what's that gift? Jesus. See, all this other stuff, he talks about the gifts of God. Verse 15, he's talking about the gift of God, which is Jesus Christ. And all his goodness points to Christ. You know why he does all these things and gives us all these good things? Because he's trying to show us that the greatest, goodest gift, you like that word, goodest gift, that he ever gave was not food, and it wasn't shelter, and it wasn't a job, and it wasn't health. The greatest gift God ever gave was Jesus Christ. And if you can't see the goodness of God in these other things, right? If all we ever think about is how we're not getting X, Y, Z, what happens is we'll miss the goodness of God in the gift of Jesus Christ. So we have much to be thankful for. Brother Shane, if I didn't have anything else in this world, if I had Jesus Christ, I ought to be thankful. If I didn't have a house, if I didn't have a car, if I didn't have clothes, if I didn't have help, if I had Jesus Christ, I should be thankful because He's enough. When we stop getting our eyes off of this, when we stop getting our eyes on this world and get it on the next, we'll realize that Jesus Christ is enough. And we can be thankful for God's unspeakable gift. And you know who ought to be the most thankful? Those that know him. You know who are usually the least thankful? Those that have known him the longest. Hey, listen, I've been doing this a little while. You get somebody, Brother John, they just get saved, man, they're excited about the things of God. The longer they've been saved, it's like, right? Brother Ken, it's like being married. When people first get married, it's the greatest thing, right? Oh, my wife's so wonderful. She does everything. She cooks for me. She cleans. Oh, my husband's so good. He does X, Y, Z. But the longer they do that, you know what happens? We get used to it. Right? Get used to it. Stop saying thank you. Stop praising them for what they do. Well, we do the same thing with God. We get in here. Yep. It's good. Hey, choir. Good song. I'm blessed. I wish you'd been where I was sitting and saw some of your faces while that choir sang, I'm blessed. You didn't look like you was blessed. Somebody looked like you was in pain. Right? I hope the choir was singing like they were being blessed, not like they were in pain. That'd be bad. See, when all of a sudden we start getting grateful, It changes your perspective of things, right? It changes who we are. That's what this time of the year is about. This shouldn't be the only time we're thankful. But can I ask you something? You just have to answer for yourself. You say we should be thankful, but have you been? Brother Shane, I haven't. There's been times I've been very ungrateful, right? I mean, sometimes I look, brother Tim, and I'm like, you know, God, I don't get this stuff, right? I mean, I still have some issues from this surgery I had, and I'm like, God, I ought to be better by now. I mean, I'm up here trying to serve you. The least you could do is make me well enough where I don't have to go through some stuff, right? But I could not be here. I could have been something wrong with the surgery and I could be paralyzed or I could be in a mental hospital. You see what I'm saying? I got to be real careful too. Preachers are not immune from being ungrateful. But I want to leave you with this. Two things. If you don't know Him as your Savior, the greatest thing you can do today is come to know Him as your Savior. In just a minute, we're going to give an invitation. We're going to bow our heads. We'll have some altar workers up here if you don't know. Say, I don't really know what that means to be a saved preacher. Well, we can just show you from the Bible, from this. We don't have a little Baptist handbook back here. We just got a Bible. And we're going to say, this is what the Bible said about how you can know that you're on your way to heaven. That, to me, that's the best manual we got. Right? I mean, I may say something, you may say something, but this is what God said. But here's the other thing. This time of the year, I wonder if we as God's people could be a little more grateful. I wonder what we'd see if we were more grateful. I wonder what kind of blessings God would look down and go, you know what? That's some grateful people down there. I think I'm going to pour a little extra on him. You say you believe that? Sure do. Why would he not, right? So, you look in your heart, if you're a born-again Christian, if you've accepted Christ as your Savior, I want you to ask yourself this question, am I really grateful? If you're not a Christian, I want you to ask yourself this, if I died, Where would I spend eternity? I think I'd go to heaven, preacher. But what are you basing that on? I'm a good person. No, no, the Bible said there's none righteous, no, not one. See, if you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, you don't meet the standard, right? For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So it doesn't matter if you come a little short or a lot short, if you don't make it to the other side, then you're doomed, right? So during this invitation you just have to let God speak to your heart. You've got to do business with God. I can't do it for you and you can't do it for me. But this is a time for you and God to do business. So let's stand together all over the auditorium. Bow our heads, close our eyes. No one's looking around. People are making their way to the altar. I want to ask you if you're grateful. If you're here today and you've never trusted Jesus as your personal Savior, here's what I want you to do. I want you to slip your hand up and say, Pastor, I want you to pray for me. If I die today, I'm not sure I'd go to heaven. Thank you. I see your hand. Is there another? If I die today, I'm not sure I'd go to heaven, Preacher. I want you to pray for me. Is there another? Father, I thank you for dealing with hearts already this morning. Some have raised their hand, others have not. But every person in here knows the condition of their heart. I pray that during this invitation you would deal with each one of us. For those that raised their hand, I lift them up to you. Pray, God, that you would just give them the confidence to step out so they can learn from the Bible how to be saved. You do in this invitation time what you will. We'll thank you and praise you. Heads are bowed. There's many on the altar. You come. If you raised your hand or you did not and you say, Preacher, I want to know. I want to know how I can go to heaven. One of these altar workers can take you off in this room over here. Just by yourself. Nobody but you and them. Just show you how you can know. But see, God, you gotta take a step. You gotta make a decision. You mind the Lord. Second question, are you really grateful? Anybody can say they're grateful, right? Our kids all the time, I'm grateful, I'm grateful Jesus said this, he said if you love me, keep my commandments, that's how we show him we're grateful We just follow him, obey him father I love you thank you for what you've done here in the service thank you for every decision that's been made for you in Jesus name we pray amen