Hallelujah. Amen. Probably ought to meditate on that a while. Right? Well, God has been good to us. I'll say this, I know he's been good to us, but I'm very aware he's been good to me. See those girls up there singing? Seeing my family here. Seeing you here. God's been good. We could spend a lot of time complaining about what we don't have and all the ailments of life. But when we do that, we're ungrateful. And I think I'm just gonna, I think I've just decided until Jesus comes, I'll turn 55 on my birthday, Brother Shane, And I think I've just decided until Jesus comes or I'm in the grave, I'm just gonna enjoy this thing, right? I'd hate to think that, well, God has saved me, Brother Jimmy, given me eternal life, and I'm gonna grumble and complain about all that God's given. He's been good to me. And I'm grateful, and I appreciate you being here. Thank you, ladies. Appreciate all that's going on here. And I appreciate you. We were talking about, This morning I was talking with someone, they were talking about our, uh, our, our staff and, and the ministry leaders. And, and, uh, we did like an organizational chart to show the people who are over different ministries. And they said, just think 23 years ago, you've got more people on this piece of paper than you had in the whole church. You think about what God's done over the years, and as you walk in here and see what God's done, and you go down there and see what God's done, and you see those buses running, see what God's done, you see our missionaries and see what God's done. It's amazing to think that a holy God would do anything nice for us. I deserve nothing, but he's been real good to me, been good to you. I want you to turn to Job chapter 10 this morning, Job chapter 10. And, uh, we're trying to, uh, stay along the theme again. I mentioned this last week. I know this is Thanksgiving and I know we say, well, you ought to be thankful all year round. Well, we should, shouldn't we? I mean, we ought to be thankful every single day, but oftentimes we need to be reminded. And I'm glad that we have set aside at least a day, right, a month, whatever you want to call it, to remind us. But this morning I want you to think about a few things. And Job chapter 10, as you study Job, you know Job's life. I mentioned it last week, I think, that Satan goes to God and God says, hey, listen, just out of the blue, He said, now where have you been? He said, I've been going to and fro, right? He didn't ask about Job, but all of a sudden God looks at him and says, have you considered my servant Job? And he said, pretty much, listen, the only reason he's faithful to you is because of all that you've done. You've put a hedge of protection around him. And if you remove that, he'll curse you to your face. Right? And he said, well, go ahead and do it. Now I don't know about you, I don't wanna be in that category. I'm gonna be honest with you, I wanna serve God and I want him to look at me and go, you know, well done, good and faithful servant, but I don't think I really want my name to come up in that type conversation where he says, hey, have you considered him? Go ahead and take all his children and all the things he has and later on, he takes his health, right? His wife turns on him and now we come to the portion of Job where his friends, right? his encouragers, those that ought to be on his side come to him and boy, they hang around for a little while and they're just kind of like, Job, listen, we don't even want to say anything. And then all of a sudden, how many of you have friends like this? Well, probably the reason you're going through this is. And it's amazing to me that when it's you going through the trial, we'll look at ourself and we'll go, the reason I'm going through this trial is I live so close to God. But when someone else is going through a trial, then we'll say, well, God must be trying to get their attention or God's judging them. We don't know why God allows things to happen in our life. We do know that it is to make us more like Christ. In chapter 10, Job is answering his critics, and we get down to verse number 12, and out of the whole chapter of chapter nine and 10, this one verse caught my attention, because here's what he said. He said, thou hast granted me life. You ever thought about that, that the fact that you're here, the fact that you're breathing, the fact that you walked in here this morning is granted by God, The fact that you're not in the grave, as I do this funeral this afternoon, he just lost his wife a few months ago, and now the Lord's taken his life. You ever thought that that could be you and me? God allows you to live. And listen, you can do it all right. You can eat everything healthy, you can eat exercise, you can never smoke, never drink, do all those things, and God can still take your life. And so Job says this in verse 12, thou has granted me life and favor and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit. Amen. There's three things he mentions here that we really, if you've got nothing else in life and we're honest, we all have more than that, right? I mean, I say this often, most of our problems are first world problems. It's not that we're trying to find food. It's not that we're trying to find something to put on our back. We're complaining because, you know, Black Friday's coming up and the discounts aren't enough, right? Or we go to the restaurant, and they didn't kick, you know, I like my steak, you know, not quite bleeding, but I don't want it overdone, and they cooked it too long, and we'll say, yeah, I can't eat this, you have to take it. That's the kind of problems most of us have, right? Here's Job, Job is in pretty bad shape, and so it's easy to find deficiencies in life. It's amazing to me, we never look at people that have less than us and say, God, thank you. Oftentimes we find people that have more than us and say, God, why can't I have that? Right, so when we think of the many things that we would like to have more of, some would say money, health, prosperity, whatever it is, the Bible does tell us that godliness with contentment is great gain. And so the word content means to be satisfied, watch this, with where, who, and what. Just to be satisfied. I'm owed nothing, right? And all of a sudden, Brother Jimmy, when I get that mindset, I'm owed nothing by God than everything that God gives me. Can we be honest this morning? The only thing that God really owes us, the wages of sin is death. The only thing God really owes us is death. And that's not fiscal death, that's eternal death in a place called hell because we're all sinners. So anything that we're not this morning, I'm looking at folks, you're still alive, breathing. You know what? We all have something to be thankful for. And so this morning, how do we have a content life? How do we count our blessings? In Job 10, 12, we're reminded of three things we can be thankful for, three areas of life we can count our blessings. Number one, he deals with the gift of life. And by the way, may I say this? It is a gift. Life is a gift. Who would have ever thought we'd get to the place where we're debating whether life is a gift or not? Well, you know, life starts at the moment a child is born, not at conception. No, not according to the Bible. Who would have ever thought that we're trying to figure out when life is? Who would have ever thought, by the way, if you go to certain parts of the world, just neighbors to the north, they're debating on whether or not it's ethical to end someone's life. Amen. Yeah. Well, you say, that's terrible, preacher. Hey, guess what? We're not far behind, by the way. We need to understand that life is a gift. God granted you life and you ought to use it for his glory, amen? So a couple things, we ought to be thankful for life. When's the last time you got up and said, God, I just want to thank you I'm alive? I'll tell you this, if you've ever laid on a hospital bed, amen? If you've ever got to the place where they didn't know if you're gonna live or die, you know what? You'll be grateful for life. Amen. See, the fact is God gave me life. When I was in my mother's womb, God gave me life. When I was not even in my mother's womb, it was God's plan for me to have life and you to have life. Life is given by God. The life that you have is given by God. And God sustains my life. This morning when I got up, listen, the reason I drew my first breath when I got up is because God granted that to me. And the reason I'm here today is because God granted me life. And the reason you're here, you didn't do anything to deserve it, God grants it to you. Can I say something? That's something to be thankful for this morning. Not only that, God has a plan for my life. I'm sad, Brother Jeff, I'm sad that people do not understand that God is so particular, that He has a plan for everybody's life. Isn't that amazing? God cares so much for you. He didn't just throw you on this earth and say, figure it out. He's got a plan for your life. Well, I don't know about that preacher. I've messed my life up. Yeah, but aren't you glad you serve a God of second chances and a God of third chances and a God of grace and a God of mercy and a God that doesn't give up on you? Listen, you may have given up on you and the world may have given up on you, but God's not giving up on you. See, I'm thankful for life. Also in this, I'm thankful for my life. You know, when I was growing up, I was not grateful for my life. Brother Shane, I'd look at other people and their parents had more money and they had nicer cars. You know what I look at now? I got a good life. I got a good wife, I got good children, I got a great church to pastor. Listen, God's been good to me and he's granted me my life. And my life is unique and your life is unique. Your life is not like anybody else's and God designed it. He made you a vessel of honor to bring glory to him in your unique way. Listen, you know what is amazing to me? I watch Hannah play the piano, I watch Brother Dennis play the piano, Natalie played the other night. These girls are playing the flute. I can do none of that. I mean, it's like I got two clubs on the end of my arms, right? I would scare y'all and y'all would run out of here if I tried to do that. But God knew that about me. Brother Jimmy, he said, hey, you stay away from that. You stay behind the pulpit, you preach, but don't you go over there and mess with that thing. That's okay, I don't have to be that. See, when you start getting comfortable, and the world says stuff like, well, you need to be comfortable in your own skin. No, you need to be comfortable in your unique life that God has made for you, and God wants to use you for his glory and his honor. That's what you ought to be grateful for. I hear people say, well, I don't want to, you know, I'm glad for all the things I've gone through in my life, it makes me who I am. I'm not, some of the stuff was dumb decisions that I made. And God could have shaped my life to make it what he wanted to be without me making dumb mistakes. Never, listen to me church, never be grateful for sin in your life. So I'm thankful for my life because it is unique, it is designed for me and God has been good in my life. I don't want Job's life. Listen, I looked into Job's life. By the way, he's got a book of the Bible named after him. I'm okay with not having a book of the Bible named after me if I don't have to go through what Job went through. Right? Amen. When we get to heaven, I don't have to be one of the great preachers. I'm okay with that. God's given me my unique life. And I'm also thankful not only for life and for my life, but I'm thankful for eternal life. Let me help you with something. Because here's what I think messes people up. Brother Ray, when we got saved, that's when our eternal life started. See, a lot of folks say, well, when I get to heaven and I get eternal life, I got it now. When I got born again, not only did Jesus come to live inside of me, I'm in Him. I'm as safe now as I'm ever gonna be. That's gonna get better once we get out of here. But I've got eternal life. I'm not gonna die. I might die a physical death. I'll be transported from here to there. I would probably call that, Brother Dennis, more of a graduation than a death. But listen, don't look, well, one day when I have eternal life. Listen, you got it now. Amen. And the day I bowed my head, April 21st, 1996, and asked Jesus to be my Savior, you know what he did? He saved me. And from that point on, there was no condemnation attached to me. So I'm grateful, listen, I don't know what, I'm gonna give you something. I don't know if this shutdown's ever gonna end. And can I tell you why? Because there's a bunch of idiots in Washington, D.C. I don't care if they got an R or D by their name. They're holding you hostage because they can't get along. But can I say this? That doesn't affect what's going on in heaven. Right? That doesn't affect my life. It affects my state down here, but it doesn't affect my life. Cause see, I'm content in Jesus Christ. So understand that he gives life here, but also for eternity. And the moment I got saved, my life is eternal with him. Hallelujah. I'm as good as saved right now. I mean, it's like I'm in heaven. And you know what? You can have heaven on earth. And it doesn't have anything to do with a house or a car. It doesn't have anything to do with the earthly possessions of this world. It has to do with a contentment of Jesus Christ. So Job said, number one, I'm thankful that he granted me life. Number two, the granting of favor. Now notice what he said, thou hast granted me life and favor. That's pretty awesome. When you think about this, it's amazing to me how because someone has some fame on this earth, right, people, they'll lose their mind to gain favor with them. A politician, a sports star, a, you know, whoever. I mean, they'll do anything. They talk to me. Anybody remember this guy named Elvis Presley? Remember him? You'd watch him, he'd have those concerts, and those women, he would walk by them and they would faint. And I'm like, what's he putting on them? Right? But they were so whatever, because it was Elvis, that they fainted. And I thought, man, I ain't never been like, right? You say, well, but you ain't been around. I know some pretty important people, believe it or not. But I'm just saying, they're just people, right? And so, but it's like, well, we'll do anything, Brother Johnny, it's like we'll change who we are, change our personality, change the way we act around people. You know what? To gain their favor. I wanna be in their good graces, right? But it's amazing to me, we get around the Lord and you know what they'll say? Well, he's just gonna have to accept me the way I am. I think I'd be more worried about what he thinks than what everybody else thinks, wouldn't you? But see, Here's what he's saying. Job said, he's granted me life and he's granted me faith. What's that mean? Well, he's granted me his grace. I don't think sometimes we hear that, we sing amazing grace and we sing it all the time and it's just like, yeah, amazing grace, we know. God's grace, infinite grace, matchless grace. Do you get that? What grace really is? God's unmerited favor given to you. If I gave you, you know, I don't have a lot, that's fine, but if I gave you something you didn't deserve, I'd hope you'd be grateful. The day we live in, who knows, right? But you think, you know, if the church did something for you, you'd say, man, I sure am grateful, I didn't deserve that. But there's only so much we can do. You're talking about a God that owns everything, that has created everything, that has access to everything and he's given you his, not my unmerited favor, his unmerited favor. You better get on that, meditate on it. He has unlimited resources and God says you have access to what you need through me. And so he has amazing grace, he has infinite grace. Infinite without end. I don't have a lot in the bank, but I know this at the end. I mean, how many know this? Sometimes the month runs out before the bank account does. That's called limited funds. God has no limits. The Bible said he can take all the waters, put them right there. Brother Tim Johnson reminded me of this. It was years ago. I don't remember who it was preaching. He took that little portion of scripture where the Bible said, watch this, and he made the stars also. Like, hey, he did all this, and when you look up in the heavens and you see all the handiwork of God, and he made that also. Like, hey, he got it done, right? Wasn't a huge feat for God because of who he is. You ever thought about how infinite God's grace and how infinite his power is that, and now that because you know him as your personal savior, that is what you have. I'm just saying we ought to be a grateful people because of his grace, but also because of his adoption. See, we don't understand this as much today, but if you go back and study the culture, here's how this thing would work. I'm probably gonna need somebody to hold my mule a minute. See, because what would happen is they would have these servants that nobody wanted on this auction block and the ruler would go by and look at them and say, I think I want him. And he didn't drag him in, Brother Shane, what he'd do is he would spend time with that servant and he would bring him in the household and he would raise that servant as one of his own. And that servant would choose him as he chose the servant. And he became part of the family. And man, may I say that's exactly what salvation is. You were a servant to sin and the God of heaven came by your way that day and saw you on the slave block of sin and chose you and convicted your heart and wanted you and you looked at him and said, I'll choose him. You say, do you believe in the free will of man? 100% amen. Do you believe in the sovereignty of God? Absolutely. You don't have to believe in one or the other. You can believe in both. He chose me, I chose him, hallelujah. And may I say it's been the best, woo, it's been the best decision of my life, brother. So this morning, understand that God has granted you life and he's granted you favor. He's given you stuff nobody else has. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. What he's done for you on this side of eternity is nothing to compare. Paul the apostle said this, the half hasn't been told. And if you study the writings of Paul, he was not much for messing up words. Paul said, I don't even have the words. You know how I know heaven's gonna be wonderful? Because God does all things well. And then his security. Well, I sure am glad I know that I'm secure in Christ. I'm not secure in being a Baptist and I'm not secure in my baptism and I'm not secure in my, my little, uh, uh, you know, uh, being a church member, I'm secure in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And I've got, the Bible said that I'm sealed to the day of redemption. I've got the Holy Spirit inside of me right now. And if you're born again, you do too, by the way. So we're sealed. And then finally, number three, the Bible said that he's granted me life and favor and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit. Now I want to say, give you three things and we're done this morning. Number one, I'm grateful for the advent of Christ. What do you mean by that? We're getting ready in a few weeks to celebrate the birth of Christ. Right? And it's not about the manger. It's not about, you know, Santa Claus's and trees. I'll be honest with you, time out. Some of you may not like this. I like Christmas. I like the whole thing. I'm not a Santa Claus dude, but man, I'm tell you what, we watch Christmas movies and I like the cookies and I like the food, and I think it's fantastic. You say, well, I don't like it. Well, then you keep that on your end. You with me? But don't get so caught up in all that that you miss what we're celebrating. Right? We're celebrating the miracle. Listen to what I'm saying here. By the way, I want to be very specific. We're celebrating the virgin birth. Not the birth of a child to a young woman. We're celebrating a virgin birth. That God loved mankind so much that he sent his son to be born of a virgin to live a sinless life for 33 and a half years down an old rugged cross in your place so you could go to heaven. So God came to save men. Can we hang there just a minute? the God of heaven loved you enough that he took on human flesh to die for you and to die as you so you could live as a son of God. That's pretty amazing. I'm glad, and you know what? When he got here, man said, yeah, we're not really that impressed with him. You know what they're saying today? We're just really not that impressed with him. You ready for this? You know what the church is saying today? We're just not really that impressed with him. Amen. You know, we just wanna come, put in our hour, do the time clock, leave me alone, Jesus, till next time. I don't know what you got, man. That ain't how I'm doing it. I'm gonna enjoy it. You know what I watched last night for three quarters? I watched my football team get shellacked. Shellacked. I didn't watch fourth quarter. I'm like, I couldn't do it. But I'd hate to know, man. I'd get more excited, a bunch of grown men running up down a field, trying to get a piece of leather across a line, that I'd get more excited about that than I would Jesus. Amen. Listen, I know the Bible said this, truth, but there's also something called spirit. And see the advent of Christ, he visited man to save mankind. That ought to do a little something for you. Well, I said a prayer when I was seven years old preacher and I've been saved and I've just never been the same. I hope you got something better than that. He's been good to me. So the advent of Christ, but also the access by the Spirit, we had the Holy Spirit, so we have him interceding for us. Aren't you glad? Listen, I don't wanna go to... The Spirit of God is life. Right? Can I? Amen? I mean, we can read that scripture and you can read it like a textbook if you want to, but if I read that thing and it's reading from Genesis to Revelation and it's all talking about Jesus, do you do realize the Bible, the author is the Holy Spirit of God? Well, right here, you know, preacher, now John wrote that book. No, he did not. He penned it down, but God wrote that thing. There ought to be some life in it. There ought to be some life in our singing. There ought to be some life in it. I don't want to go hear a preacher that's acting like he's given a stock market report. If he can't get a little excited about what he's doing, praise God. Amen. So there's the advent of Christ, but also there's the access of the Spirit. Aren't you glad God has put his very Spirit inside of you to connect you with God? He's our advocate. He intercedes for us. He talks to God for us, but he talks to us for God. And then thirdly, the availability by the word. Now let me say this just so we're clear. We have God's inspired. I have no problem with that. If you've got a problem with this being the inspired God breathed word, You got a big problem. Because if you can't believe all of it, you can't believe any of it. But it's also the preserved Word. I don't need new versions and updates and renditions. I still believe the King James is the Bible for the English-speaking people. You say, well, if you had a 1611, you couldn't read it. I got it in my office, I can read it just fine. Read it just fine. Maybe the letters are a little different, but it was written on a sixth grade level. So maybe that says more about our education system than the Bible. So it's the inspired, God-breathed, preserved, he's kept it for us today, infallible, there's no errors in it. If you can't trust this thing right here, you can't trust nothing. What about the Constitution? Love it, but man wrote it. See, God wrote this thing. So you say, well preacher, how do I know that when I got saved, I really got saved? Not I felt it. Listen, I felt it, praise God. But there's times I didn't feel it, right? There's times I don't feel saved. There's times I look in the mirror and go, how in the world, if you're saved by the grace of God, can you do that thing? And it's not based on my feeling. It's not based on my action. It's based on what Jesus did and what he says in this book. And may I say today that if you're saved by the grace of God, you ought to enjoy the things of God, but understand that the spirit of God never contradicts the word of God. God loved you enough, he gave you his word. That's a loving God. So this morning, you'll just count your blessings. And if you can still sit there after all that and you say, Preacher, I ain't got nothing to be thankful for. If you'll come to the altar, we'll pray over you. Because you've missed the whole thing, praise God. I promise you, you got something to be grateful for this morning. You say, preacher, I don't know that I'm going to heaven when I die. May I say this? We can show you how and fix that this morning. You don't have to walk out of here not knowing where you'll spend eternity. You say, preacher, I just, man, I've had some rough times in life. You know what? I understand. But there's a God in heaven that cares about you. And if you'll come, he said this, that you could cast all your burdens on him. because he cares for you. You can get on this altar. You can stay here all day if you want to. He'll never leave you. I'll finish with this. Could you maybe get on the altar this morning and just thank God for something? When you pray, could you just, instead of first going right into it saying, here God, I need to start asking you for some, what about not asking him for anything? What about just thanking him for some stuff? Because can I tell you this? Are you listening to what I'm saying? There's somebody that would love to have the life that you got. Oh no. I tell you what, I'd love to have their life preacher. Maybe. But there's somebody who'd love to have your life. So before you get all down in the mouth about how bad you got it, somebody's got it worse. You say, I don't know. I'll tell you what you do. You're here this morning, praise God. You call Miss Treva Groves. Be my guest. She's watching by way of internet. I've talked to her several times since she's been diagnosed with cancer, been treated for it, You know what she keeps saying? I really wish I could get back to church. I sure miss church. I wish I wasn't going through all this, all this medicine where my immune system's not, so I'd get back to church. Right? You say, well, you don't understand how bad my family is. I tell you what, I'm going this afternoon. I'm going to go put a man in the ground. His two daughters gonna be there. Just put their mom in the ground a few months ago. You think they'd like to have, if you got your mom and dad here, you think they'd like to have theirs back? You got something to be grateful for. Where is it? Is it Nigeria? All those Christians being killed? Hey, we got, America's not a great place But I got to walk in here and nobody shot at me. Right? We got some problems we gotta fix. But ain't nobody shoot at me this morning. Right? Got something to be thankful for. God's been good. Let's stand together all over the auditorium. Thank you for your attention this morning. Let's bow our heads. The altar's open. Brother Dennis has come to the piano. Heads bowed, eyes are closed. If you're here this morning, you've never trusted Jesus as your Savior, why don't you do this? Would you say, pastor, would you pray for me? If I died today, I'm not sure I'd go to heaven. I just desire your prayer. Would you come? Would you slip your hand up, preacher? I don't know if I'd go to heaven if I died. Would you pray? Thank you. Is there someone else? Someone else? Father, thank you for the precious soul raised their hand That took courage. Now I pray, God, that you give them the courage to step out so we can take them and show them how they can know they're on their way to heaven. The altars are full this morning. We, Father, just want to thank you for being good to us. May we all be mindful of that thing which, God, you have blessed us with in Jesus' name. Let's keep our heads bowed. If you raised your hand or you didn't this morning, if you don't know how to be saved, we'll show you from the Bible. Maybe God laid something on your heart, you want to just get on the altar and thank him for it. Be a good time to do it. Say, I don't do that, preacher. I don't go to the altar. It won't hurt you. If you want to know how you can get to heaven, if you'll come, we'll show you. Amen Yes, Lord Yes, Lord. For making me whole, thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy great salvation, so rich and free. Father, I love you. Thank you for what you've done in our midst today. We're unworthy of it, but we are grateful. You've been good to us, been good to our church. We want to thank you for it. Continue to bless and we'll continue to give you the glory. We just pray, Father, that in the days ahead, we'd be ever mindful of you and all your many benefits. Thank you for loving us. In Jesus' name, we do pray. Amen.