We are going to continue looking at Thanksgiving and this is Thanksgiving part two. Let's go the Lord in prayer, shall we? O Lord God, this is your holy word. We are your servants. Give us understanding that we might know your testimonies. You have prayed, O Lord, sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. Use your holy, eternal, inerrant written word to set us apart this day to your service and to your glory. Show us now great and mighty things which we do not know. The sower sows the word. Let not your word go out and return empty, but accomplish that purpose for which you are bringing us together and for which you are sending it out. Protect us from Satan, Lord, who will snatch your word. Protect us from a wrong reaction to difficulties and discouragements and persecutions which make our hearts hard and unresponsive to your word. Protect us, Lord, from the world's cares and the delight of wealth and the passion of other interests which enter in and choke the word, making it fruitless. Rather give us good soil, O Lord. Plow now the hard ground of our hearts, that your sown word would send roots downward and bear fruit upwards. Unshield now the sword of your spirit, O Lord. cut to the dividing point of bone and marrow, soul and spirit. Judge now the thoughts and intention of each heart gathered here. Spread your word before us as a banquet table, O Lord. Grant grace that we can eat of the rich meat and drink of the sweet milk of the great doctrines of your word. give us the heart of the prophet who cried to you thy words were found and i did eat them and thy words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart from call by thy name oh lord god of hosts oh lord we live in a dark and a wicked age Broad is the way and many are on it which leads to destruction. Make your word a lamp to our feet. Make your word a light to our path. Show us that narrow way that you would have us run. And Lord, as we run in the paths of your commandments, enlarge our hearts that in loving you we might be more obedient to your written word. Drop your word against our lives as a plumb line, O Lord. Grant grace that we might see how we deviate from its high and holy purposes. Make your word to us a mirror, O Lord. Grant grace that we might not be as those who look and go away and forget, but make us active doers, not forgetful listeners of your holy word. O Lord, because of our fealty to you, Because of our undying love and devotion to your Son, our resurrected Savior, we pledge to you this day our total submission to your holy, eternal, inerrant written word, and we pledge to you our unquestioning obedience to all of its commands. In the name of our Lord and Resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Amen. Well... Okay, Bishan, we will... Yes, we will look at the second session now on Thanksgiving. One of the aspects in my prayer notebook on Thanksgiving, and I should have received the notes. One of the... Oh, you know what? Hold on. So, we will look at the importance of centering our thanksgiving on the person of Christ, not just upon ourselves. Now you'll notice here from my prayer notebook here, it says, number 11 says, God the Son, Jesus, quote, consider him. That's from Hebrews 12.3, for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself. So, Since God the Holy Spirit exhorts us to be meditating upon the work of Christ while he was on earth, then we should also be thanking him. irrespective of our current circumstances and how we feel about them we can always be thankful for the sacrifice of Christ and in these meditations and thanksgivings our own circumstances seem inconsequential by comparison inconsequential and that is very important that we understand and realize that when we reflect on Christ and understand what He has done for us, all other things pale in comparison in terms of any difficulties we may have. And so we're able to thank God. We can say, well, I'm having a hard day, nothing is going right, I don't feel well, I just don't feel like thanking God. Well, when we reflect on what Christ has done for us, we have plenty to thank Him for. It's like if you were invited to go to a banquet that's being given in honor of your wife. And they said, now you will go first and we would like you to share some of the ways in which you are thankful for your wife. And you get down and you say, well, I've really had a hard day today. I don't feel thankful. I'm not going to say anything. How would she feel about that? That would be devastating to her. And yet, just because we've had a hard day, many of us don't think of anything that we can be thankful for. But that's not true. Irrespective of the difficulties you may have had that day, you can reflect back on christ and all he's done for you just like irrespective of how difficult your day was in terms of uh... uh... the circumstances when you got to the banquet there was still plenty of things to look back on and be thankful for in terms of your wife john one three four All things came into being through him and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life and the life was the light of men. Now I would stop and thank God for those things. There was the true light which came into the world which enlightens every man. He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. he came into his own and those who were his own did not receive him so I would put a tick mark by that in my prayer notebook and that would be my thanksgiving on Jesus for that day the next day I would be at Philippians 2, 6-8. Who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. So, day number two, a tick mark by that. So you see, I don't necessarily, I won't necessarily thank God every day for everything, every aspect of Jesus' ministry to me. But I will work my way through over a period of time. I will work my way through these passages on Jesus and make sure I'm thanking God for him. I have Isaiah 52, 14 through Isaiah 53, 12, and I've broken them down into series of meditations. Why Isaiah 52, 14 through 33. So I would put a tick mark there. just as many were astonished at you, my people, so his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. Thus he will sprinkle many nations, kings will shut their mouths on account of him, for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand. who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him. nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like one whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him." So, I would spend some time thanking God for that. And then four through seven. Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried. So I would thank God for that. See, God, Jesus, is worthy to be thanked for his time here on earth and what he suffered for us. Every day, not just Easter. Then I go to Isaiah 53, 8 through 10, and I would meditate upon these passages and thank God for them. So you see, this would be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And then when I got to the bottom, I would come back to the top and put a second tick mark by it. And I would just work my way through these passages. Now these are the passages that I came up with. You might have others that you want to add to them. That's fine. Other passages on what Jesus did for us. Then we have, I have a list of his ministry to us. And I will mention each one of these. during the prayer time. His pre-existence is emptying himself, his virgin birth, earthly life and ministry, hunger, thirst, fatigue, humiliation, voluntarily giving himself up as a sacrifice, bodily suffering, shed blood, substitutionary death on the cross, burial, resurrection, ascension, eternal reign, continuing ministry, imminent return, judgment to come, and rule endowment. So I will want to make sure that I'm thanking Jesus for these things. Now, you can do as I did before by putting a tick mark by each one or you can just go through it at about the pace I just did and just thank God every day for those aspects of Jesus' ministry. Then I thank God for the ministry of the Holy Spirit, calling, comfort, the empowerment to teach the word, filling, gifts, that he glorifies Jesus, his graces indwelling, illumination of the written word, inspiration of the written word, his instruction, leadership, power, the fact that the power, the call to repentance and faith in Christ, power, conviction of sin, power to written witness. sanctifying work, the fact that we are sealed in the Holy Spirit, we can never lose our salvation. So I'll thank God for this. Then God the Father. Now we've already meditated extensively on his attributes, haven't we? So we will touch on these passages and then the fact that God is one, He is sovereign. He is loving. He gave us his son. He gave us the Holy Spirit and he chose us and called us to Jesus. So I want to thank God for that. Thank you for that every day. Then the word of God. So, you see, you have the option of doing a tick mark on each one and lingering over it, or just mentioning these things to God. And you don't have to feel like you have to labor over these things and spend 10 or 15 minutes over each one. You could go just walk into your wife and say to her, you know, I was thinking about how thankful I am. You fix the meals for me. You keep the house so clean. You take such good care of yourself. You watch over the children while I'm away. You instruct them. I never worry that you will be unfaithful to me. You see, your wife would appreciate that, wouldn't she? You don't have to give her the topic and then spend 10 minutes under the topic. And we have to remember that when we are spending time thanking God, that has to do with our interpersonal relationship with God. Now, if you thank your wife for fixing a good meal, your first night home after the honeymoon, do you ever have to thank her again? No, you don't, do you? Just thank her one time. You can say, you know, I really thank you for the meal, and if I ever become unthankful, I'll let you know. No, you're gonna thank her every day if you're a good husband, are you? So you don't have to worry that you've said this all before and you need to find new things. Now, you can find new things, but God is happy every day just to be thanked. So we're going to thank him for the word of God. Psalm 119, 164. Seven times a day I praise you. Because of what? Your righteous ordinances. See that? Psalm 119, 164. Many liberals say that conservatives worship the Bible as a fourth member of the Trinity. And we say, we love the Bible. And they say, no, you shouldn't love a book. You might love, if your wife wrote a book, you would love her, but you wouldn't love her book. You would just appreciate it. If it was her biography, you would enjoy it, but you wouldn't love the book. You would just love your wife. So these Christians who are conservative Christians who say they love the Bible, they've made it a fourth member of the Trinity. No, that's not true. The Word of God is to be loved as the inspired words of the third member of the Trinity. as imparting to us the divine words of all three members, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Both the voice and the commands of God are inseparable from God himself. Therefore, we are to love the holy, eternal, inerrant written word of God. And I always tell people, you don't have to be more holy than God the Holy Spirit. You don't have to be more conscientious than God the Holy Spirit. If God the Holy Spirit in Psalm 119.97 teaches us to pray, how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day, then we don't have to worry about thanking God for the word of God and saying that we love the word of God, do we? It's not like any other book. Psalm 119, 165, those who love your law have great peace. Nothing causes them to stumble. And that's true. If we love the word of God, if we trust it, then that results in great peace in our heart. Now, if we say how I love your law, it's my meditation day and night. If we say to our wife, I love the dinner you made for me. In fact, I took a little container of it and put it in the refrigerator and took it with me to work so I can enjoy it throughout the day. Now, that would be a very nice thing to say to her, wouldn't it? And then she said, well, what did you like best? The carrots? No, I didn't fix carrots. The fish? No, I didn't fix fish. So, to tell your wife you love her cooking, but not to eat it, she'll find that out, won't she? and to tell God that we love his law. It's our meditation day and night. But it's not our meditation day and night. God knows that. If we can't fool our wife, we for sure cannot fool God. Turn with me, if you would, to Jeremiah. And we are going to look at Jeremiah 15 verse 16 would you read that please Jeremiah 15 16 your words were found and I ate them and your words became to me a joy and a delight of my heart. For I am called by your name, O Lord God of hosts." Yeah, and we are called. We are sons of God. And He has given us His word, and it should be the delight of our heart. Look at 1 Timothy 4, verse 6. 1 Timothy 4 verse 6 says if you put these things before the brothers you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. We spend time in God's Word throughout our day and are blessed by God's Word. It's our spiritual food. It's our spiritual food. So, we thank God for that, we thank Him for His Word, but to thank Him for His Word and not to have it with us and be meditating on it throughout the day, God knows that, doesn't He? Just as our wife can know, well, I really enjoyed the meal you prepared for me. Well, what did you enjoy about it? Well, if we can't tell her what she fixed for us, then she's going to know that immediately. How much more the God of Heaven, who knows all things, for us to thank Him for His Word, but not be in the Word. So we thank God for his word that accomplishes its purpose. It's alive and active. It's authoritative. It's creative power. It's dynamic. It empowers. It is eternal. It is holy. It is without error, inerrant. It is inspired. It instructs. It judges. It is perfect, powerful, and pure. It is the revelation of God. It sanctifies. It is spiritual. It is spiritual food. It is spiritual light. It is the sword of the Spirit. It tests us. It is unbroken and cannot be broken. It is the Word of God and it is given to us in written form. So we can thank God for that. that we love his law and we are thankful for him giving it to us. We thank God for prayer. Psalm 116, one and two, I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my supplications. Because he has inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call upon him as long as I live. And one of the things when I have a young Christian and I'm discipling him and I'm teaching him to have a quiet time. One of the things I'll say is we're going to read the passage and ask God to speak to us. That he would tell us something he wants us to know or be or do. And then they'll read the scripture and then I'll say, okay, write it down. And then I'll say, now, what did God say to you? Well, see, two things are going to happen then. One is, from their earliest infancy as a Christian, they are associating God speaking to them and the written word. The other thing is that God the Holy Spirit says that the conviction that God hears our supplications creates a love for God, doesn't He? I love the Lord because He hears. And that's one of the things we want to stress. We don't love God because he answers. We love God because he listens to us. And he listens to us as if we are the only Christian in all creation. You're sitting at your desk and you get a phone call and it's the president. And he said, you know, I was noticing on your Facebook page, you know, that you seem to be a very spiritual man. And, uh, I just want you to know that I'm going to give you my, uh, private number. Please don't share it with anybody. And anytime you have any thoughts, anytime you want to ask me any questions about what's going on in the nation, my decisions, I want you to feel free to call me. And then you say to him, well, to tell you the truth, I want the street in front of my house to be widened and paved. He says, well, you know, I actually I don't have the authority to do that. I would encourage you to talk to your local council at your state about that. You say, well, if you're not going to do everything I ask you, then I don't want to talk to you. Well, that would be supremely selfish, wouldn't it? We love God because he listens to us. If the president said we could call him any time, day or night, that would be so humbling, wouldn't it? We would be almost afraid to take him up for it, but God is encouraging us to talk to him anytime, day and night. He treats us as if we were the only Christian on the face of the earth. Turn with me to Hebrews. We're going to look at Hebrews four. verse 16. Would you read that Bishop? Let us then with confidence throw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Yeah, so we can approach God anytime we want 24-7 as if we are the only Christian on the face of the earth. If that is not enough for us, then we can't be pleased. I have on here that I do not love God because he answers my prayers, but rather because he would be willing to listen to me, to spend time with me. I allow him to speak from the word and then I speak to him. But I want to make sure that when I come before God into the presence, that it is not simply to ask for things, but I want to do some serious thanksgiving. Not just flippantly tell him a few things off the top of my head, but really be thankful. There's a number of people who minister with parachurch ministries, not just the Navigators, but other ministries where they do fundraising, that I only hear from them once a year. And that's when they want money. Then I never hear from them again. In fact, when I see their name on the printout on my cell phone, I don't even want to answer. But I will answer, and they give me their little talk, and then they all say, and what can I be praying for you? Well, I appreciate them saying that, but I know the phone call is not to pray for me. The phone call is to raise money for me. One of the things I do on Tuesdays is I call, for two hours I call my donors and don't ask them for anything. I'll just say from two o'clock, from seven o'clock to nine o'clock, I just say, how can I be praying for you? And that's it. And then I pray with them and then I say goodbye. And when the phone rings and they see my name, they don't think, Oh, it's John. I only hear from him, him when he wants money, because that's not true. I know my donors. I appreciate the sacrifices they're making. And the least I can do is to be praying for them and to thank them on a regular basis. Well, How much more should we go into the presence of God on a regular basis and be thanking him for things? And one of the things I thank him for is prayer, that God would act on my behalf, that I can boldly approach him, that he can bring calm and comfort into my life, that through prayers I can be empowered. The prayer of intercession. both here in Houston and on the mission fields of the world, that I would have the privilege of doing that. That through prayer God will lead me, that he will listen to me, the miracles he has done, entering into his presence, experiencing his power, that God will reason together with me in my prayers, that he withhold that he refreshes me. Now look at this next one. What does it say there? Withholds. That he does not answer all my prayers. If God answered all my prayers, my prayers would have to be perfect, wouldn't they? Yes, sir. If I thought God was going to automatically answer all my prayers, I would be afraid to pray. What if it's not God's will? What if by this happening, something else happens, something else happens, and then all the way down the line, many people are kept from hearing the gospel or from being blessed because I broke the chain by God doing something for me that wasn't His will. So it is a great comfort to me that my prayers don't have to be perfect. I want God to teach me the meaning of unanswered prayer. If God doesn't answer a prayer, why? How can I grow? How can I understand? How can I learn? That's why I can pray without fear. I thank God that He does not heal everyone I pray that He will heal. If by faith God answers my prayers and heals everyone that I pray for, then I'm going to keep everyone I know out of heaven, aren't I? Because you go to heaven by organ failure. either by trauma or disease or by wear and tear. And if by faith God is going to heal all organ failure, then the only people in heaven are the ones without faith. But by faith we go to heaven. We don't stay out of heaven by faith. And so we can thank God if we pray for someone's healing and they're not healed, but they go to heaven. Has something bad happened? No, and we can thank God that he did not answer our prayer and that this person got to get to go to heaven before us. I know they are not. Do you think when someone enters heaven they are angry at God because God didn't heal them? No, they're not, are they? They're praising God that he did not heal them and that they are in heaven. So we can praise God too. I mean, if they're praising God, we can praise God, can't we? Now we're going to be experiencing sorrow because of the separation. Because of COVID, I haven't seen Amika, I haven't seen you men for over two years. Well, because of the COVID lockdown. Well, I feel sorrow for that, but I'm not grieving. You know, I'm excited that I can minister over Zoom. I'm excited that I can bless your ministries materially, but I'm not grieving. Sorrow for the separation, but no despair. And we can experience sorrow for the separation when we have someone who we esteem or love and they go to heaven before us, but we don't despair. I told my sister at my mother's funeral, the thing that was difficult about my mother's funeral is I was sad and she was happy. I would love for her to come back, be raised from the dead. She would have none of it. Are you crazy? I'm never going back. If some angel came and said, well, they're praying you'll be raised for the dead. So she would say, they need to read their Bible. I'm in heaven. I will never go back. No, go away. Leave me alone. I'm at the marriage feast of the lamb. I'm worshiping Jesus. You know better than this. So we can be thankful when our prayers are not answered because of the sovereignty of God. So, we are excited that God does not answer our prayers because it frees us to present our requests before Him. If God answers every prayer, who's in charge? We are in charge. Yeah, just like if your job is to keep your children happy and you must say yes to their every request, who's in charge? The child is. But we are not in charge. God is in charge. Then I have, see what this says? Ministry. And then I have some, I've left this blank so you could write some things down that God has allowed you to do in terms of the ministry. Romans 11 29 says his gifts and calling are irrevocable and God has given you gifts and a calling to a ministry and you want to reflect on some things that God has allowed you to do and God has blessed you to do and you want to make sure that God knows that you are thankful for this Many people are unthankful for their ministry. Why isn't it bigger? Why aren't more people receiving Christ? Why haven't I been asked to publish a book? Why Why don't more people come to my meetings? Why? And the why's go on. Why, why, why, why? Turn to Deuteronomy 5.24. We should always be thankful to God for however our ministry looks. What does that passage say? And you said, Behold, the Lord our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and man still live. Yeah! It should be enough for us that we can read the Bible and not burst into flames as we take in the holy, eternal, inerrant words of God. That should be enough for us. It should be enough for us that we can minister to anybody. Look at John 6, verse 66. What does that say? All right, Uncle John. John 6 is the sixth. After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So did Jesus become bitter? No. I don't think I want to do this. I'm only going to do the ministry if these crowds follow me. What about 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 10 and 11? 2 Timothy 4 10 and 11 states For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica, Christos has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. Luke alone is with me. Well, no, no, no, unless I can have the biggest campus ministry, unless I can, my church is the biggest church in the city. Unless, unless, unless, I'm going to be unthankful to God. God, why aren't you blessing me? Then we look at somebody else's ministry and we covet instead of thanking God for their ministry. People ask me, how can I enjoy heaven if there are going to be people in heaven with more rewards than I have? How can I enjoy heaven? Well, you won't have that covetous heart that is evidenced in that statement. You will rejoice in the blessing of your brother or sister in Christ there in heaven. You will rejoice that they have a bigger mansion and that their mansion is filled with more gold and silver and precious stones than yours is. You'll be happy for them. You will praise God for them and you will be praising Jesus. So we thank God for our ministry and we thank God for the ministries of other people. Then what about the luxuries and possessions that God has lavished upon us? What does Psalm 103-2 say? Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of his benefits. Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. You know, you're not living in a basement in Kiev right now. wondering if you are going to be incinerated, are you? And you are not living in a prison in Saudi Arabia or the Middle East or Northern Nigeria, wondering if you're going to be beheaded, are you? And your wife is faithful to you, aren't you? Isn't she? So you're not having to, in humiliation, contact your pastor, contact your ministry leader and say, my wife has left me for another man. You live a very rich and full life. Now, because of the decisions I made, when I think of my peers who I went to college with and high school with, I would say just about all of them live at a higher standard materially than I do. Almost all of them. The only ones that don't are the ones who fell into grievous sin like alcohol and drugs. But all those who pursued a career after their education all live better than me. But one thing is unique about the life that God has blessed me with is my wife is faithful. And many of them, not all, but many have been divorced and remarried. And all four of my children are walking with God. And they are happy if some of their children become Christians. And we have a wonderful life together, Eleanor and I. It's more simple, but it's wonderful. And many of my friends, even though their wife is with them, it's not a pleasurable life because there is tension and resentment. or they're married and they're alone. Their wife has her own ministries, her own pursuits, her own calling. I praise God that Eleanor views her highest calling in life to be my helpmate. That's very humbling to me. I want to be a gracious steward of that. So, we all have luxuries and possessions. A minister once told me that all of the ministers he knew that fell into immorality, it began with feeling unthankful and ungrateful for what God had done for them. Nothing good happens to me. Everything good happens to other people. How come nothing good ever happens to me and then Satan brings a woman into their life so that they can feel good about themselves? Well, you know how you avoid that? Every day you have things that you can thank God for in the ministry and you can thank God for all the things he's done for you. You know one of the things I thank God for is the aging process. Now you don't get to put that in yours, do you? What you have in yours, where I put the aging process, is 2 Timothy 2.22. so flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. So you thank God that in your youth you have co-laborers with like vision, that they are there with you, hitting it on campus, coming to church, going to staff meetings, that you are excited and thankful for that. And so you can thank God for that. Well, for me, Hebrews 13, 7 says, Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. And so I think back, and I have these men, Jim Downing, John Crawford, Gene Moore, Wyman Mitchell. He was a youth minister who led me to Christ. One of the things I do is I thank you Lord that I was raised up in an era when youth ministers and college ministers called young men to aspire to be grown men as opposed to today when grown youth ministers and grown college ministers aspire to be young men. And so I don't have any aspirations of being young. It's like cultural assimilation. What are the odds are that I can ever be mistaken for a Nigerian when I visit Lagos? Zero, isn't it? And men who try to act and behave like college students just look silly. Just like I would look if I tried to look like a Nigerian. So I thank God for signposts to heaven, eyesight, gray hair, balding, physique, wrinkles, stamina, that I would accept my limitations with grace. I'm 70 years old. And I thank God that as I lose my hair, as I need stronger glasses, as my skin wrinkles, as I have less strength, I begin having limitations in things I can do. Those are signposts to heaven. It's kind of like when I'm driving up to see our daughter in Arkansas. It's about a seven-hour drive, and it says this town, this town, this town. Then finally I see a signpost that says Hot Springs, 100 kilometers. Ah, now there's hope, isn't there? Yes, sir. I remember one time I drove from Lagos to Jaws with Udabong Edamida and his family. And it just seemed like we were always seeing these different cities we were going through. And then finally we saw the signpost, Jaws, 50 kilometers. Ah! Now I was able to get excited. Well, We can get excited with these signposts to heaven. So I thank God for that. I thank God that I was preserved to continue ministering. Joshua 24, 17, for the Lord our God is he who bought us, brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who dig these great signs in our sight and preserved us through all the way. And I thank God that I'm 70 years old and God has preserved me. I entered the disciple-making ministry in 1971. I entered the full-time Christian ministry in 1976. It's now 2022, and I thank the Lord that He has preserved me. Job 10-12, and your care has preserved my spirit. not just that God has preserved me physically, but He has maintained me spiritually. 2 Peter 2.5 And did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness. 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 and 24. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he who calls you and he will bring it to pass. And I thank God for preserving me. You can thank Bishan, you can thank Bami, of guys who when they were first getting involved in the ministry and how excited they were, but where are they now? Even perhaps older men who were navigator staff or pastors, but where are they now? But God has preserved you. and you should thank him. Now being full time in the ministry is not part of God's preservation because Paul was in and out, wasn't he? Sometimes he was a tent maker, sometimes he received a nice gift like the one from Philippi and was able to put away his tent making trade and do the ministry full time. So, some people God preserves them to do the ministry full time all their lives, but even when we have a vocation a tent making vocation. If we still want to make disciples, God has preserved us and we can thank him for that. And I have a list in this empty space here on my prayer notebook of times when either physically or spiritually It could have been a calamity, but God preserved me. You know one way God preserved me? When we drove from Lagos to Jaws. You know what we began passing on the side of the road? Burnt out cars, burnt out buses. That can be a dangerous drive, can't it? And I praise God, God preserved me. And I would encourage you to list some ways that God has preserved you. And then you thank God for that. I thank God for his mercies every day. God does not deal with me as my sins deserve. Not in the area of quiet time, scripture memory, bible reading, message preparation. Fifty years of ministry is a long time and there are a number of times when I have struggled with consistency. But you know what God wants from us? Because he's a merciful God. Turn to Proverbs 24.16. Now in spiritual disciplines, I have struggled. I've never stumbled or had to repent from any form of sexual immorality. I've been faithful to my wife and not even gone near another woman. Our 47 years of marriage. Bishan, read Proverbs 24, 16 please. For the righteous falls seven times and rises again But the wicked stumble in times of calamity. Yeah, what do the righteous and the wicked have in common here? They both stumble. Yes. Not stumbling. That job has been taken. That was Jesus Christ. But God wants, what God wants from us is repentance. And God is merciful. That's why I signed all my correspondence, 2 Corinthians 4.1. Could you read that? Please, Bami? 2 Corinthians 4.1. Therefore, as we have this ministry... 2 Corinthians 4.1. Okay, Bami? Yes. Good. 2 Corinthians 4.1, Bami. 4.1, okay. Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, you do not lose heart. Yeah. I don't have to be perfect during the ministry. Because God is merciful. God's mercy is us not receiving what we deserve, which is the judgment of God. Romans 11.29 says His gifts and calling are irrevocable. And if God was not merciful, we would all have lost our spiritual gifts, we would all have lost our calling, ministry calling long ago. But God is merciful and I thank Him for His mercy. I don't have to ask God to be merciful, do I? That is one of his divine attributes. So I thank him for his mercy. I thank him for his graces, that which he bestows on us. I don't receive what I've earned, but I receive what I do not deserve in terms of God's blessing. None of us have earned our ministry position. None of us have earned the right to teach the Bible. None of us have earned the right to witness to other people. None of us earned the right to have a wife and children. Those were the graces of God. And so I thank Him. Another thing I have down here is let me not be complaining and fearful about that which I have no control and whose outcome God has not revealed, while at the same time being unthankful and neglectful of that which the Lord has blessed me." Psalm 116, 7, "...return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you." All that God has done. All that God is doing. The expectation of God's future acts. All the fun I've had in life. All the laughter. God has dealt bountifully with me, and number 23 here keeps me focused. Don't be worrying about things I don't have control over and that which I do not know the result. God hasn't revealed it. What? Well, at the same time being unthankful for all the things He's blessed me with. And then I have areas of thought. I end up singing some hymns of thanksgiving, which I've listed here for you. So, that brings us back to the very beginning. Not thankful that I have anything, but thankful that God would give me anything. Thankful that He would even listen to me. who is wise, let him give heed to these things and consider the loving kindness of the Lord." Psalm 107, 43. Lamentations 3, 39. Why should any living mortal or any man offer complaint in view of their sins? So we should not be complaining. Remember what this is? No whining zone. Children whine and complain because they don't realize how wonderful they have it with a Christian father and mother. But let's be more mature in our relationship with God than they are. May God add His blessing to His Holy Word. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.