Lord, without any kind of unrealistic expectations. Lord, our expectations are fully, fully realized in Jesus. There's nothing that's unrealistic about you, Lord. Everything about you that is holy and good and right and pure, everything, Lord, that we would ever hope for in a Redeemer and in a Savior is found in you, Jesus. We are not disappointed in you. We're fully excited about you. Our hearts, Lord, are just melted by your presence and by your love. We are continually grateful, Lord, for what you've done. And Lord, it's not just what you've done, it's who you are. For us to just to begin to think about the God of heaven coming and dying for us so that we could have life. Lord, I pray that you would fill our hearts with such gratitude moment by moment, every single day, every minute of every day, that our hearts would overflow with thanksgiving because of who you are and what you've done. And God, what you're doing in us, you're changing us. Your word declares that you're changing us, Lord, from glory to glory by your spirit. You're making us more and more like you, Jesus, so that we can resemble you in your beauty. God, we all need a makeover, and you're doing it well. Thank you, Lord. I pray, Father, that you'd help me to articulate those things that are important, that would bless your people, But most of all, we bless your heart. And so, God, we give you this time. We pray for the kids back in the back and the teachers. We're so grateful for those teachers, Lord. They serve and they study, they prepare, they come in here ready to teach your little ones, Lord. And we ask that you would bless them for that in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right. I want us to think about today because today is the Sunday before Thanksgiving, you know, Usually we talk about Thanksgiving around Thanksgiving time. Usually we talk about the virgin birth about when? Around Christmas, you know. New Year's, you always talk about starting over again, you know, right? How many of you wanna always start over again? Some of us every other day. But I want you to think about something, and I'm gonna try to articulate it if I can, that by nature, And this is true throughout the history of mankind. By nature, mankind is unthankful. By nature. In other words, left to ourselves, without any kind of promptings or instruction, we naturally move into unthankfulness, ingratitude. I don't know if you've thought about this, but children, do not say thank you out of the blue. When you give a child a gift for Christmas or any time, when you give them something, they don't naturally say thank you. They're excited about what that gift is, whatever it might be. You give them a candy bar or a toy truck or whatever it might be, a doll, it makes no difference. They're excited about that, but they don't naturally say thank you to you. They get so wrapped up in the gift that they spend all their time with the gift and they really ignore the giver. They have to be instructed. How many of you with your kids, you sat down with them, somebody would give them something or you know, a relative or somebody would give them something and you had to actually say, say thank you. Tell them thank you. You know why? Because it's not in us naturally. As a matter of fact, it is so not in us that it is a picture of the lostness of mankind. From beginning to end, ingratitude or unthankfulness, let's put it that way, is part of the nature of mankind. I want us to look at two scriptures first. I want us to just look at Romans chapter one. and we'll read about verse 20. I may have you pull it up there for me. Romans 1.20, and we'll be going to 21. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen. Talking about his invisible attributes, it's talking about God. Since the very creation, God's attributes, what he's like, have been clearly seen, even though they're invisible. You can't see God. Scripture says no man has seen God at any time, but the sun has revealed him. But this invisible God has let his attributes, what he's like, to be clearly seen. You can look around. All you have to do is look at a snowflake. And you can see God is a God who has creative abilities that are so immense that not one snowflake is like another one. Not one. None of you are alike. There's not another one like you in all the world. Now I know they've got doppelgangers or whatever they're called that look alike, say look like you, but it's not you. You've got unique cells, Your genome is so different than everybody else's. So, but his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things which are made. That's talking about creation understands that God exists. Do you realize that the rocks understand that God exists? You say, well, what does a rock know? Jesus said, if we would not praise him, the rocks would cry out. The very creation all around us understands that God is God, that he is the maker of all things. Now they may not, the trees may not understand it like us, but guess what? Somehow in his immense wisdom, he's made all things to know that he is. And so they're understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. so that they are without excuse. So the Scripture says that people are without excuse, that God has revealed Himself in so many different ways that there's no excuse for not knowing God is. But go on to the next verse of Scripture, verse 22, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were they What? Thankful. But their foolish hearts, but they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. So from the very beginning, people have not been thankful. In the garden, think about this. In the garden, Adam and Eve had everything they could ever possibly want. but they weren't thankful. There was something they wanted that they couldn't have. I want you to think of this. Their ingratitude for what they had was really a foundation for the enemy to work and play on their life. When we're ungrateful for what God has given to us, it sets us up for failure. That's why the instruction in the scripture over and over and over again is be thankful, be thankful, be thankful. Now, it's because we don't naturally apply thankfulness to our lives. We have to be instructed from the time we're little, but we have to be instructed by God. because our hearts naturally go towards ingratitude. We're always seeking something other than what God has provided already. But when we focus on what God has done and what he has provided for us, and we are grateful for it, our hearts begin to grow and expand. And knowing who God is more and more, and being able to worship Him more clearly, more concisely, being able to give our hearts more purely to Him. And so when it says their foolish hearts were darkened, notice that it says, nor were thankful. They weren't thankful. Now go to 2 Timothy for just a minute. 2 Timothy chapter two, oh chapter three. Chapter, 2 Timothy chapter three, verses one and two. 2nd Timothy 3, 1 and 2. Now, Paul is giving a description of the last days. This is a description of what the last days before the return of Christ, what they're going to be like. Okay? And when I say what these last days are gonna be like, there's an intensity to these things. It's not like this is the first time these things have come on the scene, but there's a multiplication of it. There's an intensifying of it. And so what Paul says, but know this, that in the last days, perilous times shall come or will come. When the word, and I've shared this before, perilous, is a word that is used, it's the same word that's used for the demoniac that was uncontrollable. He could not be tamed. He could not be controlled. He couldn't be chained down. It was like there was no restraining the demoniac that's described in the gospels. Well, that same word that's used for that demoniac is the word that's used for perilous. It's uncontrollable times. You just can't wrap your head around it. You can't get anything to hold it back. It's just coming at you like a freight train. and it's dangerous. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Now remember I said this is kind of a multiplication of things. It's not just that people will be unthankful. Unthankfulness will explode. This idea of people loving money, loving stuff more than loving God or loving people. This idea of they'll be lovers of themselves. It's all about me. This will grow more and more intense. It's kind of like dandelions in the summertime out in your yard. It's like you got one and all of a sudden you've got these little things with the fuzz balls on them or whatever they are and they're going all over the place. And then you've got dandelions every place. You can't get rid of them. They're just multiplied and multiplied and multiplied. I know Kim Long can take care of that. I know that. But these things, there's nothing that can take care of it. There's nothing that's gonna stop the progression of the wickedness of man. There's nothing that's gonna hold it back. It's just gonna get worse and worse. But this one thing of unthankfulness, think about it, how unthankful people are. And so if you're going to walk with the Lord, if you're going to find strength in God, if you're gonna give your heart totally to the Lord, you're gonna have to find things And when I say find things, you're going to have to be insightful of how to look for what God's done, because it doesn't come natural. It does not come natural. That's why the instruction over and over again in the scripture is give thanks. In everything give thanks, because this is the will of God in Christ concerning you. Over and over again, we're instructed. And when we look at Psalms, like in Psalm 100, talks about entering into his gates with thanksgiving. If you're going to come into the presence of God, it has to be with a heart of gratitude. It can't be with a heart of complaint and displeasure and griping and grumbling. If we're going to come into the presence of God, if we're going to have him in our midst right here at CCF, It's gonna be because there's something in us that is just blooming. It is a recognition of who He is, what He's done, what He is currently accomplishing, and what He's going to do because He's promised that He will fulfill His purposes in the earth. So, one of the things that I notice in this psalm, if we go back to the psalm for just a minute, It says this in Psalm 100 verse 4, enter into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name. Bless his name. For the Lord is good. How many times have we sat down and just said, I mean, just really sat and contemplated, Lord, you're good. and here's how you're good. How is he good to you? How is God good to you? I'm gonna give you a number of scriptures and I'm just thoughts on it, but it's something for you to do as a, I don't wanna say homework, cause that sounds like you're in school, but you know, Jesus, do you realize that Jesus gave homework? How many of you know that? Jesus gave homework. Remember the rich young ruler came to Jesus. He asked the question, what do I have to do to be saved or to have eternal life? And Jesus said, okay, let me give you some homework. We don't think of it that way, but let me give you some homework. I want you to take everything that you've got and go and sell it and give all that that you had to the poor. And then you come and follow me. So go, sell, give, come and follow me. Homework. And it says that he went away sad. This rich young man turned around and he went away sad because he was very rich and he was young and he was a ruler. He had authority, he had power, he had money, he had all kinds of things. Everything you would want as a young person, this guy had. But Jesus said, here's your homework. You do that, then you come follow me. And by the way, he says, when the guy went away, I want you to think of this. Now y'all are familiar with the passage I'm talking about? Okay, I want to be sure you are. When he gave this young man something to do, and the guy went away, Jesus, as Scripture says, Jesus looked at him and loved him. He loved him. but he didn't run after him and say, I can see you didn't like that plan, so let me give you plan B. This would be another way that you could do it. He didn't do that because he knew that this young man had an idol in his life. His idol was what he possessed. And instead of recognizing that here's the son of God in front of me and he is offering to me eternal life, he liked what he had and he wasn't thankful for what God was willing to give him. He was content with what he had. Now, homework for you and for me, I would encourage you this week to make a list, just every day make a list of at least ten things, ten things, I had five up but ten things, ten things that you are grateful for. And I mean really grateful. Ponder them, not just like, well, Lord, thank you for the food that we have on the table today. Ponder it. Think about the fact that most of us will be celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday. And we'll give thanks at the table like we normally do. But think about what would your life be like if you lived in some places around the world? where in sub-Sahara Africa, where they don't have food, North Korea. Think about what you have before you and what you, what is, God has blessed us to be in a nation. Now you say, well, why would God put us here, some people in other parts of the world? That's up to God to know. But the fact is we're here, they're there. To whom much is given, finish the sentence for me. Much is required. When God has given us much, we have a stewardship responsibility to give. But the first thing that we have to give is our hearts and thankfulness to God. If our hearts aren't thankful, what will happen is we will be absorbed with stuff, we'll be absorbed with It could be people, it could be possessions. We can be absorbed with all kinds of things. But if we're not thankful, our heart automatically, by default, goes away from God. That's the default setting for humankind. It's part of the sinful nature. It's part of the way that we are. And so if you want to stay close to the Lord, I encourage you to make this a practice of sitting down and giving yourself time to reflect. What is it that I am thankful for? What are the things that God's brought into my life? The relationships, the people that have touched my life. What about the challenges? When was the last time that you had a challenge? I mean, a big challenge, something that you didn't know how you were gonna face it. And you stopped and just said, thank you, God. See, usually when we have challenges, the first thing we do is we either fret or we worry, or we try to figure them out ourselves, or we do call out to God in prayer, help God. But when was the last time you faced a challenge that was huge? And the first thing that you did was, thank you, Lord. You know what this is for. I have no idea right now. But because I belong to you, and you've promised that you are truly working all things together for good to those that love you, to those who are called according to your purpose, I know that this situation, however it looks right now, it's under your control. I can face it. I can face it with an assurance, with victory, with a sense of, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I know what your word has told me. I know the power that lives within me. I know what you've put in me by your Holy Spirit. And I thank you that right now this challenge is something that's going to bring you glory as I walk with you. Thankfulness is a key to the Christian life. It really is. And I don't mean some secret key. It's just, it's not secret. God's put it out there plainly for us. It's not a secret. I just wrote down a number of scriptures. So what I want to do is I want to do a 10 minute exercise with you. 10 minute exercise. Will you do that with me? Okay. Huh? Did you have a choice? You could have said no. I don't think any of you do this, but I'm going to give you something to be thankful for. And then I want some of you, whoever wants to just, You know what popcorn testimonies are? I want you to just give one thing. I don't wanna have a sermon, but one thing that you're thankful for, that you recognize that you're really thankful for, and that I want you to give praise to God, you know? Okay, so I want you to know, that God is thinking about me and he's thinking about you. Here's where I go to. Psalm 139, 17, how precious also are your thoughts to me. Oh God, how great is the sum of them. God is thinking about you. He has his mind on you. He has his mind on me. And his thoughts towards us are precious. In other words, they're very valuable, folks. Now, give me a testimony. What are you thankful for? Back in the back. Well, amen, praise God. You know, there are times in those difficult things that we gain from and praise the Lord from that and he gets glory from it. Okay, how about this one? Psalm 56, nine, this I know that God is for me. Do you know that God is for you? He's not against you. Listen, it says in Romans 8, 31, What shall we then say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? You ever get the feeling, man, everybody's against me. No, not everybody. It could be everybody on this world, but if God is for you, that's a lot. God is for you. He wants you to be blessed. He wants you to walk in strength. He wants you to walk in a way that is, healthy for you. When I say healthy, I'm talking about that your soul is at peace. I'm not necessarily talking about physical health. I do, I believe in God, that God heals. God heals in all different kinds of ways. But God also, at times, does not heal. And for his own reasons. Can you give God thanks even when you're going through difficult times? And those kinds of times, kind of like what you were talking about. So, but God is for you. And if God's for you, who can be against you? Now, somebody else. Somebody else. Quickly. Oh, Dale. God to give us fellowship when we're kind of stuck in a place, or not stuck necessarily, but when you're in a place. How about this one? I'm gonna give you another one. Psalm 103, 12. Bless the Lord oh my soul. Can anybody finish that up? All that is within me bless his holy name. It says he removes or he forgives all our sins, our transgressions. God forgives our sins. Now I want you to think of this for just a minute. People will hold things against you. There are some people that have tasted of the grace of God. They understand what grace is all about. They understand what mercy is about. And because they understand and they've received it, they're able to give it. People who walk with the Lord can give grace and mercy because they are walking with a God of grace and mercy. But people who don't know the Lord, they don't know what forgiveness is all about. And so therefore they cannot forgive you. If you've offended them, hurt them, said something wrong, you're canceled and there's no reprieve. How many of you found that out at times? You get somebody, you say the wrong thing or say it in the wrong way or whatever, and all of a sudden you're the scum of the earth and there's no redemption. That's because that's the sinful heart of man. But the heart of the Lord is this. He forgives all your sins. He cast them as far as the east is from the west. That's the beautiful thing about the Lord. And you know, I'm glad that God's got his compass right. You know what I mean by that? Think about this. God says he cast our sin as far as the east is from the west. There's no end to that. If you go from North to South, there's an end. When you go up to the North, once you hit the North, you're starting to head South. There's an end to it. And when you get to the South, there's an end to it. Right? But God cast our sin as far as the East is from the West, you never get to the end of it. It's endless. That's the mercy and the goodness of our God. That whatever we've done, wherever we've been in our life, no matter what our past has been, Jesus took it. He died for it. His blood washes us clean. We're made whole in Christ. We don't have to walk around with all this baggage on our back of what we've done. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. So gratefulness, oh God, I'm so grateful. that I don't have to live with my past hanging on to me. I'm free in Christ. I've shared with you, yesterday was our anniversary, 56 years. Somebody forgot to get a card for the other person. I'm not gonna mention who. Somebody forgot to get flowers for the other person. I'm not gonna mention who. You thought it was her that forgot, right? No, I didn't forget. I bought a card, I really did. I bought a card before her birthday, which is in April. I bought two cards, one for her birthday, the upcoming birthday, for this coming year. And I thought I bought an anniversary card. I bought two birthday cards. So I went to pull it out and of course it's like, so much for preparation, right? But I got takeout, Chinese just for her. And we're going to a concert just for her. No, but what does that have to do with Thanksgiving? We've shared our testimony here before. Our first eight years of marriage were hell on earth. I mean, there's no way that we should have survived it. I mean, really, honestly, folks, there's no way that we should have survived it. We should have been gone, separated and divorced. But God in his mercy allowed us and helped us to get back together. We were separated for eight months. He gave us grace that we didn't deserve grace. Grace is never deserved, it's not earned. He gave us grace to walk through that time and to rebuild a marriage. And for that, I am so grateful. You know, eight years, yeah, it was miserable, but the rest, God has blessed us in so many ways. And so, you know, if we look back and we could complain about the first eight years forever, but instead we look at the grace of God, look at the goodness of God. So I guess what I want to do is encourage you. I really do want to encourage you. Make it a practice to order up your thanksgiving to God, not just in some hit and miss way, but practice a disciplined life of thankfulness. of gratitude to God because he's done more for us than we can ever begin. We could not number up to him. There's not enough words. There's not enough sentences for us to really adequately or accurately give to him the glory that he deserves. God is great and greatly to be praised. And I would encourage you, read through the Psalms, read through Psalm 107. Go home and read through Psalm 107 and look at what it talks about giving thanks to God. Um, but so many things we have to be thankful for. So I've got time for one more and then we're going to. Okay, men, you can stand, you can stand up, Sue. Men, I'm going to become like Barry. No, I wouldn't do that to the men. Go ahead. Hang on, hang on, give me sound, give me sound because she's not gonna get through this. You've never made anything quick as possible. There's a story behind this, okay? Sue was in our wedding 56 years ago. Sherry was in her wedding. So we got a long history. We can kid each other this way because there's deep love between us, okay? Keep it short. It's not on. Okay. Can you hear me now? I went home from church and the fire alarm was on. And when I went in, my house was completely black with smoke. So much I couldn't see anything. So I left, called the fire department. They came and everything that you own, everything that you own, even in your spices, the black smoke goes into everything. We had to get rid of everything. And God gave me such grace and such peace. I looked back on it afterwards and I thought, how come I didn't freak out, just totally freak out? It was like, what do I do now? And so it began. And you can ask Sherry and Wayne, it's just like. That was such a miracle, because what happened was, I did have really good insurance, which helps. But the fire inspector came afterwards and checked everything out. And what had happened, it was a surge, power surge that came through the house and everything that was plugged in was ruined. everything electrical, and my furnace, water softener, refrigerators, everything. But when the fire inspector came, he said, it started in the, unit where my TV was and everything that was in there like your VHS player or whatever it was. But the fire burned and burned and burned and burned up the back of the unit and then it went out. And the fire inspector said, Mrs. Ferry, we don't see this. Your house could have burned down. So I was very grateful and in the meantime I was blessed with everything new, everything. And my wedding album is saved, so Sherry is in that, so I have that too. But I realized what God did. I'm a widow, and he replaced everything that I needed and gave me more. And he also gave me peace. Amen. Amen. Mike, can you boot it out or belt it out? OK. And you're more than a dot you're a Kings kid Amen, thank you for sharing guys Well, we need to pray because if we did do have a business meeting unfortunately, no fortunately we get to do business and There's fellowship set up in the back. There's some food back there. But we're going to be back in here at 1130. So at 1130, we'll be back in here for the business meeting. It will be short. We only have one item on the agenda. So that would be the budget for this year. So why don't you stand with me? Jordan, I'm going to ask you to dismiss us in prayer. How about that? Yeah, sure. Come on up. You may not get any feedback that way. We do want to come into your court and praise, and we want to honor you with all that we have, Lord. So I pray that we would go away today in a heart of thankfulness, a heart of honoring you, and a heart of praise, that you would be the one that would be made much of, that you would be the one that we would glorify. that we are running after, and I just thank you for a wonderful day like today, Lord. I pray that this week, we would think upon you, we would honor you, we would just put our thoughts fully into you, Jesus, that we can be thankful to a God who is here, who is saving us, and is bringing us closer to himself. So I thank you, Jesus, you just ask all these things in your wonderful name, amen. Amen, amen. Fellowship in the back, I beg your. Yeah. Come on up, Bill. Why don't you just extend your hand to Bill? Lift your hand towards him. Father, I want to thank you for this man. Together, we thank you for him, for Tony, for the influence and impact that they have on the kingdom of God, the way that you've used them. And Lord, we pray that as he goes into the surgery tomorrow, that you would guard and protect his body. every part of him, Father. Keep him safe. We thank you for doctors. We thank you for people that can minister those things, Lord, that go beyond our very imaginations, Father, the way that you've created them to think and to do surgeries and to help people. For that, we're grateful. But above all, Lord, for your hand, we pray that you bring swift healing. And Lord, we're not afraid to even ask you that before he even goes through that surgery, that you would heal him. that as the doctor begins to work, he sees something that's so outstanding, he says, I don't understand it, don't know this can't be, but it must be a miracle. Lord, we ask that you do a miracle in Bill's life. And so, Father, we present this to you. You say, make our requests known to you, and that's what we do. We pray that you guard and protect him now, Father, in Jesus' name, amen and amen.