Thank you, preacher. I tell you, I love that song. I love the fact that our God will reign for all eternity on the throne, amen? And we never have to worry about him being dethroned. No one will vote him off the throne. He will be our God for all eternity. And all those that oppose him will one day kneel before him and call him Jesus Christ. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. I tell you, when I listen to the world and how they mock our God and how they even mock our word, the Bible, when I hear that, I can't help but think that one day they will stop mocking. One day they will see that I was right, amen? Not that I was right, but our God was right. I love it when I'm right. I'm not right very often. Ask my wife, she'll tell you. But I love the fact that I can look at the word of God and I know I'm right because God said it. And I believe it. And I believe what God says. And I so thank you so much for that music. If Brother Halleck and Brother Hefner will just teach me some voice lessons this week, maybe I'll leave here with a better voice, amen? If you have your Bibles tonight, turn with me to Luke chapter number 17. Luke chapter number 17. I did not eat pig slop for lunch this afternoon. Somebody asked me that. I had a good lunch. Amen. You know, folks, I pray that you will pray for your state. I pray that you will pray for your country. If you don't like the way that things are going, then get involved and bring a big biblical value back to your state. I think that's important. You know, just because we're in the last days doesn't mean we need to throw in the towel and just give up. So many people are living that way right now. They think, well, we're in the last days, Brother Mike, so we're just going to wait and let Jesus Christ come back and take us home. Listen, we don't know when that's going to happen. It may happen in my lifetime. I pray it does, because I'm not interested in dying. Amen. I hope and pray that I get a chance to fly. I pray that one day I get a chance to experience the rapture while I'm still alive. But we don't know if it's going to happen in this lifetime. So if that doesn't happen in my lifetime, it doesn't mean that I just throw in the towel and just give up. We need to bring biblical values back to our country. And the way that's going to happen is for Christians to get involved. If you look throughout the scriptures and I'm going to do a series of messages at my church on biblical characters that were involved in government. So many Christians think that we shouldn't get involved in government. We shouldn't get involved in the things of politics because of, because it's wrong, but there are biblical people that you will find that even changed the hearts of Kings that God used. And so, folks, don't let that stop you from getting involved. We need Christians. You know, we think about this every time a presidential election comes up, and this has nothing to do with the message. This is free. You get two messages tonight, amen? So no telling when we're going, hey, I got a shot of expresso this afternoon, so I don't know how long this message is going to last. But you know, when I begin to think about the fact that we were founded upon biblical principles, there were godly men that helped the leaders of this country pin together the documents that built this country. And we've got a devil that's trying to rob us of that. And they're trying to stop us from having a biblical impact. And so many times we as Christians, when a presidential election comes out, what do we do? We start praying and say, oh God, please put the right man in the White House so that we can have a godly nation again. What about our school boards? What about our local government? What about our secretaries and our mayors? What about those people? You see, it's not going to happen just because we have a president in the White House that it's just going to trickle down and everything's going to be hunky-dory. It's going to take us getting involved locally and then bringing those biblical principles, building a biblical foundation so we can once again see a revival happen in America. People ask me all the time, well, brother Mike, do you think that God is finished with America right now? We're still here. So he ain't finished yet. And I believe with all of my heart that revival can still happen in this country. I believe God can turn this country upside down to where he can reign supreme and we can be that influence to the world. You know, we used to be the country that sends out missionaries all over the world. Now it's the other way around. People are sending missionaries. I mean, we've got states who don't even have good Bible-believing churches that are preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I think to myself, I can't believe that is happening in America today. And maybe it's because Christians like us have not gotten involved the way that we should. So I pray that you and I will do our biblical duty. by making sure that we are doing just like God has shown us all throughout the scriptures. Look in the scriptures, you'll find biblical characters that were involved in government that God used. So ask God what God can do through you this year to help your state become another state that says, I'm gonna stand for godly principles. That again, that has nothing to do with the message this evening. But I pray that you understand and you feel my heart tonight when it comes to that. But if you look in Luke chapter number 17, You know, when thinking about revival, I believe Christians need a revival of thankfulness. Now, we have a lot of Christians that talk the talk, but walking the walk is a total different life. People want to be thankful in the way that they talk about going to heaven. I'm thankful that I'm going to heaven. but their life doesn't prove a true thankful heart. And so I believe that if we as Christians want to have a true thankful heart, then we will need a revival of thankfulness. Thankfulness breeds a servant's heart. Thankfulness breeds a giving heart. Thankfulness breeds a worship-filled life. When we're thankful, when we are living a life of thankfulness, then we will serve. The pastor won't ask us to serve. We'll already ask him, what can I do to serve? When we have a thankful life, then we'll already be given. We won't have to be asked, can you give, can you give? We'll already be doing that. When we have a thankful life, then we'll love the way that we're supposed to love. We'll love the unsaved. We'll try to reach them with the gospel. We'll love each other. We won't wear each other down. We will do what God wants us to do by living the kind of life and being a thankful heart. And in this passage of scripture we see a man that had to be thankful. So look in chapter 17 of the book of Luke. And we're going to begin looking in verse number 11. And it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem. Now he is Jesus Christ. This is Jesus Christ. He's here on this earth physically. And I thank God that He was here physically, amen. And I thank God that He had a ministry while He was on this earth. Jesus Christ was on this earth for 33 years, not for Himself, not to build a business, not to build a lifestyle. but to actually do be a servant for you and me. And so I see here that Jesus Christ is doing that very thing. And so in verse number 11 it says, And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off. The Bible says there in verse number 13, and they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. I want to preach a message tonight entitled, The Revival of Thankfulness. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for letting me preach tonight, Lord. Lord, I know that, Lord, we have so many people that are just talking. We're not living a life of thankfulness. And Lord, maybe it's because we just don't realize what we have. Lord, if you've given us salvation, you've already given us more than we deserve. But God, you've given us in this nation so much more. Lord, you've given us so many opportunities just to even have the Holy Scriptures in our hands, and we've got multiple copies of it in our homes. Lord, many places can't say that. You've given us the freedom to be able to come in a place like this and just worship you. Not everybody can say that. So Father, tonight I pray that you will prick our hearts. Lord, I pray that when we leave here, we will want to act upon your love by saying we want to live a life to say thank you for what you've so graciously done for us. Father, we love you. We praise you in Jesus' name, amen. If you look first of all in verse number 11 and 12, you see the disease that seemed hopeless. Here we see that there was a leprosy. This was a leprosy that was a terrible, awful disease. I was studying leprosy and I found out many things about leprosy. Back in the biblical times, it attacks the nervous system. It eats at the flesh. In fact, sometimes your limbs would literally fall off after a certain period of time because you had leprosy. This was a time, a lot of times when people heard the leprosy term or a doctor had told them that they had leprosy, it was like a death sentence. Nobody wanted this disease. Nobody wanted this disease in their life. It stole everything from them. It made them stop working. It made them stop being with their family. In fact, if you start to look in the scriptures, you'll find that there was a place called the City of Lepers. And every time somebody was told that they have leprosy, then what would happen? They would take those people and they would put them in their own city and they would isolate them. They would isolate them away from everyone else. And so they would be amongst the rest of the people that had leprosy. And so the Bible would talk about how every time somebody would get close to them that had no leprosy, if they were clean, if they didn't have leprosy, if they were to get anywhere close, those people that had leprosy They had to call out and say, unclean, unclean. Why? Because they didn't want anyone else to get that terrible, awful disease called leprosy. Now, when I look at this passage and I start looking at this, this leprosy, I realized it destroyed a lot of things for those people. It destroyed relationships. They didn't get a chance to spend any more time with their family. They couldn't be at home on a holiday and just spend time with their family because they were being isolated because of this leprosy. It destroyed careers. They couldn't continue the career that they had. If they had a business, it didn't matter because they had this terrible, awful disease called leprosy. It destroyed their families. They didn't get a chance to build their families anymore, so they didn't get a chance to do that, so they destroyed their families. Leprosy took a lot away from the people. And here we see 10 men who was involved in that very thing that had that terrible, awful disease called leprosy. Folks, we talked about it this morning about sin in our life. We talked about how sin can rob us of having revival in our hearts. Let me tell you something, I'm gonna say it again, over and over and over again. Sin will destroy your relationships. Sin will destroy the will of God in your life. He will destroy the blessings that God wants to bestow upon you and I. And we must understand, that is a problem. And so here, these men saw that there was a problem in their life and it looked like it was hopeless. I can't imagine as I was beginning to think about all those people in the city of lepers, I can't imagine the conversations that they probably had. I can't imagine the smell of death that was all around them. It was a terrible, awful disease. And I thank God that we have a cure for that, don't you? I thank God we don't have to worry about leprosy. But I see here that these men, they had this terrible, awful disease called leprosy. And then you get to verse number 13, and we begin to see the desperate cry. They lifted up their voice and they said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Here they came to the realization that they had a problem. Nobody had to tell them that they had a problem. I'm sure they felt the pain and suffering of leprosy. They saw it on their bodies. They knew that it was there. Maybe they could see it in their arms or legs. I don't know. But they had leprosy to the point where they knew it. And they realized there was a problem. They realized that they needed a cure. They probably talked about it amongst themselves. Boy, I pray that one day I get a chance to feel. I get a chance to feel again. I get a chance to be healed of this terrible, awful disease called leprosy. They were not in denial anymore. They knew there was a problem. And so here we see this desperate cry. They saw Jesus come into the mix. And in verse number 13, and the Bible says, and they lifted up their voices. He said Jesus master have mercy on us now. I don't believe this was a whisper I believe that they cried out with a very loud voice as loud as they could So you have these men these ten lepers there are far off and all of a sudden they start to cry They start to cry out to Jesus. They start to cry out to the one that they knew that could heal them. I And so what did they say? They didn't say, Jesus, could you go find somebody that can get us some medicine to cure us? No, the Bible is very specific there. They said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. You know what they were doing is? They were admitting that they knew who could heal their bodies. Books, let me tell you something. I am so thankful tonight that I know that Jesus Christ healed me for all eternity by saving my never-dying soul. He healed me of all that sin. I thank God tonight that I can truly say that Jesus Christ is a great healer. There are people out there that don't even know that. There are people in this world. They don't know that Jesus heals and I'm not talking about when people put their hands These so-called preachers put their hands on people and say they heal. I think that's of the devil I don't see that. I don't see that in the scriptures We see that we need they need to know there's a healing power of the Holy Spirit of God that can change their life for all eternity And here we see that these men, they had this desperate cry, and they cried out, they said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And so here in verse number 14, Jesus Christ is about to answer them. Now I'll begin to think, but I'll never forget, one of the first times I ever read this passage of scripture, I like to think ahead. Anybody else like to do that? I mean, our minds, some of us preachers, we go really fast. Me and your preachers, our minds go really, really fast. In fact, even in the middle of the night, But I remember just reading through this passage and I've already got the end of the story in my mind. I've already got the idea of what this is going to be like. And so in my mind, I was thinking, well, Jesus is going to tell him to go. He's going to do something. Maybe he's going to get some dirt off the ground and he's going to spit in it and he's going to go over and he's going to put it all over him. Or maybe he's going to wave his hands over him or he's going to maybe say he's going to look at him and say, OK, leprosy, go away. You know, that was what I was thinking. And so here are these 10 lepers, they're probably thinking the same thing like I was. What is Jesus gonna say? Here Jesus is standing there. They knew that Jesus Christ had the power to heal. And look at what Jesus Christ told them to do. Look at this passage. It says in verse number 14, and when he saw them, he said unto them, go show yourselves unto the priest. Now, can you imagine these 10 lepers? They know biblical. They know what it was like in the Bible. They know what they had to do when they had leprosy, when they got a chance to get cured of the leprosy. They knew what they had to do. And so with leprosy, you don't go before the priest. Because if you begin to go before the priest and the priest was to see you far off and you still got leprosy, he's not gonna say, oh, come on in, let me see how things are going with you. No, that's not the way it's gonna work. So honestly, if you look at this from a humanistic point of view, it didn't make sense. Well, let me tell you something, God works beyond our human ways. His thoughts are higher than ours. His ways are higher than ours. And so sometimes God may ask us to do something in our minds. It don't make sense. Well, let me tell you something. God's not making a mistake. When he asks us to do something that doesn't make sense, he's not gonna make a mistake to where he has to go back and do it all over again or do a do-over. No, that's not the way God works. He knows exactly what to do. He knows exactly the instruction to give us. All we gotta do is just be obedient even when we don't understand. And I look at this and I go, wow. So Jesus, you're telling them to go show yourself to the priest. Okay, 10 men, what are you gonna do now? So they had to make a decision. What are we going to do? Are we going to look at Jesus and say, um, do you see this? I've got leprosy all over me. The priest ain't gonna let me in. He's not gonna wanna see me. So why in the world would you? They could have argued with Jesus. And so look at what the 10 men did there. And the Bible says there, and it came to pass at the end of verse 14, and it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. Now it's interesting, when Jesus said that, they were not immediately cleansed. You know why? Because it was gonna take a step of faith for them to be cleansed. So guess what happened? This is exciting. I can't wait to get to heaven. I'm going to say, Lord, could you just get that that movie reel going and just show me how all this did? Because I want to see this happen. I want to visually see all of this, the parting of the Jordan, all that stuff. I want to see all that. But I can't imagine is as these 10 men, they're going to make a decision. What am I going to do? Am I going to listen to Jesus? Even though it doesn't make any sense, am I gonna go ahead and head on towards the priest? Or am I gonna go back to the city lepers and talk about the fact, well, I don't think Jesus even knows what he's talking about. So what does the Bible says? It says, as they went, so guess what that means? So the first step, guess what? They started to get cleansed. Can you imagine? I mean, they were in pain and suffering. All right, let leprosy. I've studied leprosy. There ain't nothing good about leprosy. They knew they had it. So here they are. And all of a sudden, as they went, can you imagine they're starting to get healed and that leprosy is going away? Maybe they started to get more energy. Maybe they started to look at it. It was going away. And as they went to the priest, guess what the Bible says they were I'm like, my goodness, that would have been amazing to see, but it would have also been amazing to experience. Man, I'm not saying I would ever want leprosy, but if I did have it, that'd be the time I'd want it. Because I wanna feel what it's like to be able to know that as I'm walking, it's all going away and it's all the power of God. It wasn't a spell, it was the power of God as to why they were being healed of that. So I'm thinking to myself, man, can you imagine those 10 men as they're on their way to the priest and they're talking about, man, look, I can go back to work. We can go back to our families. We can go back to life. We can get everything back. This is awesome. This is amazing. I began to think, wow, man, if I had known that Jesus Christ did that for me, man, my heart would be overwhelmed with thankfulness. But then I began to look at how many people came back to say thank you. And I want you to look at this very carefully. In this passage, look at verse number 15. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face and his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. Oh, he had a joyful heart. He had a humble spirit. In fact, he fell at the feet of Jesus Christ and began to worship him while he was thankful for what Jesus did for him. And I looked at that, and I was like, wow, OK, there's one. All right, rest of the nine have got to be behind them. They've got to be behind them ready, because I would be thanking God, rejoicing, worshiping. I'd be jumping up and down. I'd be all excited that I got rid of this. And so I'm looking, and I'm anticipating, and I'm waiting. But guess what? The nine didn't show up. The nine didn't turn back and say, oh, thank you, Jesus, for just getting rid of this leprosy. Thank you, Jesus, for giving my life back. Thank you, Jesus, for allowing me to go back to work. Thank you, Jesus, for allowing me to go back to my family. Thank you, Jesus, and begin to worship him. They didn't do that. Only one did. And the Bible says in verse number 17, and Jesus answering said, were there not 10 cleansed? Now this wasn't a question that Jesus was trying to get information, okay? He already knew. Our God always knows everything. So it's not like Jesus was trying to get information because he didn't know. I believe this was the heart of God speaking right here. Because he began to look at this and he, were there not 10 cleansed? But where are the nine? They're not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. I mean, I looked at this divided response and I asked myself, I said, what in the world is going on? Why did they forget? Why were they not thankful? And then I begin to look at our lives today. You know why we don't have Christians that go to church? They're not thankful for the life that God's given them. You know why we don't have Christians giving the way they're supposed to give? You know why we don't have Christians surrendering to full-time ministry anymore? Because they are not thankful for the life, the eternal life that God has given to us. Oh, we're gonna worship God when we get to heaven. And we're gonna be thankful for it when we get to heaven. But would to God it be great If we got thankful right this very moment for the eternal life that Jesus Christ gave us. The eternal life that Jesus Christ gave us. He didn't let us just borrow it. He gave it to us for all eternity. He gave us a mansion in heaven. I mean, some people say, well, it's not really a mansion. Oh, it's a mansion. My Bible says mansion, so I believe it's a mansion, amen. My God can make a mansion. He doesn't have to make a little apartment complex. My God is bigger than that. My God is greater than that. So when it says mansion, it's a mansion, amen. And in that mansion, I don't have to fix no windows, amen. I don't have to fix no doors, amen. I don't have to worry about the air conditioning not working. I don't have to worry about the heat not working. I don't have to worry about me and my wife arguing over the air conditioner heat, temperature. It's going to be perfect. It's going to be amazing. There's no more pain. Anybody dealing with pain? There's no more suffering. There's no more problems anymore. I ain't trying to get a bus to go to heaven tonight, but I tell you one thing, if Jesus Christ came right now, I wouldn't argue at all. I'd be putting my arms around him saying, thank you, Jesus. Thank you that I know that this place, I get a home in heaven for all eternity. Nobody's going to kick me out of heaven. Amen. It's all because of what Jesus Christ did. So I look at this and I can't help but think, well, why were these nine not thankful? Why did they forget? Well, maybe they forgot. because they didn't spend enough time about God. They didn't spend enough time with God. You know, folks, I think that we can forget and we cannot be thankful because we don't spend enough time with God throughout the week. You see, we spend time with Him on a Sunday. We spend time with Him on a revival service. We spend time with Him on a Wednesday. But folks, we just don't spend enough time with Him. Oh, we give Him leftovers. Oh, we give Him 30 minutes maybe a day of our time if we do that. Somebody asked me a long time ago, Brother Mike, do you like getting up early in the morning? No, I don't. I'm not a huge morning person. I'm one of these people, I don't like to get up in the morning, but I do, I get up early in the mornings. And I had a teenager ask me many years ago, they said, Brother Mike, why do you get up early in the morning to do your devotions? And I told him, I said, listen, I know that as an adult, there are some things I'm gonna face that may be tough that day. So why not start my day with the one that already knows what I'm gonna go through that day? You see, I was trying to teach the young people that it's important to spend time with God in the morning, but it's also important to spend God in the afternoon. It's also important to spend time with God in the evening. Why? Because it means something to us. You see, a thankful heart will want to spend time with God. A thankful heart will not want to give God the leftovers, will not say, well, God, here's my calendar for the day. Let me see how I can pencil you in. Oh, no, we'll say, okay, God, here's what I wanna do for you today. And here's how I want you to be a part of my life today. Here's how I wanna spend some time with you today. And it becomes more real to us than food, than water. It's something that we can't live without. We get up thinking about the scriptures. We get up thinking about God. We go throughout our day and we think about God. We start to go to bed and we think about God because we're not giving God the leftovers anymore. Christian, are you giving God the leftovers tonight? Are you at home giving God just a little bit? Are you giving them seven days a week? Are you just giving them just what's left over in your life? That's not showing a thankful heart if you are. When I start to get convicted about that, I was realizing I'm not showing the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm thankful for the life that he's given me when I'm giving them the leftovers. So why would I forget? Maybe it's because I'm not spending enough time with God. Why would I forget? Maybe something else has my love. Have you ever thought about that? The Bible says you can't love one and love the other two at the same time. The Bible says you'll either love the one or hate the other. So there's something in our life that if it's not God, then something else is taking the place of that. And we're looking at God at that time saying, Lord, I just, I don't want you in my life right now. And I began to think about that. And I was like, I don't want to ever put anything in the place of my God. I don't want God to ever look at me and say, I love something more than God. I love God more than my life. I love God more than my family. I love God more than the money that I might have or the cars or the houses or this earth. I love God with all of my heart. And Christian, we need to show God, not just talk about it, but we need to show God with our life and say, thank you, Jesus, for the life that you've given to me. See what I'm doing, Lord? I'm doing as much as I can. I'm trying to strive to do what you want me to do. So why would we forget? Maybe we're not spending enough time with God. Maybe there's something else that's taking our love for Him. Maybe it's just we're not thankful because we forgot. We forgot what we were saved from. You know, I started to think, and I wrote down a lot, but I started to think about all the different things that I've been saved from. You know, when I began to think about hell and death, you know, I began to think about the fact that without Jesus, there's some things I would miss out on. And I'm telling you, when I went through this list, my heart was broken. My heart was broken because, folks, I, too, have been distracted by the world. I, too, have gone in other directions when I need to be focused on Jesus Christ, when I need to be focused on the will of Almighty God, when I need to be showing God with my life that I'm thankful for it. I began to think about the fact that at death, if I didn't have Jesus, there'd be no Jesus to guide me through death. Fear would be the thing that would be in my life for all eternity. Evil would be my new God. Fear would be there for all eternity. Pain and suffering would never stop. Darkness and gnashing of teeth would go on for all eternity. You'd never see God as your savior. After the great white throne judgment, I'd never see God or heaven again or loved ones that are saved. I deal with all of this darkness for all eternity. I mean, that sounds horrible, but guess what? I don't have to worry about any of that. I don't have to worry about the darkness. I don't have to worry about the pain. I don't have to worry about hell. I don't have to worry about the lake of fire. I don't have to worry about standing before God in the great white throne judgment. I don't have to worry about that all because of Jesus Christ that had mercy upon me. I'm not going to give my testimony tonight cause I'm gonna do it tomorrow. in the teen class, but I tell you, when I got saved at the age of 16, my life changed for all eternity. And I tell you, I've not been as thankful as I need to be. Anybody else been there before? I haven't been as thankful. I haven't had a servant's heart. I've let the world distract me. I've let my flesh distract me. I've let the pleasures of this world distract me to the point to where when I'm going through life, I'm not saying, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Oh, it comes out of my mouth once in a while, but my life isn't showing it. So I ask you the same question that I ask myself. Is my life proving that I am thankful for what Jesus Christ did for me? You see, when I'm thankful, then I'll be willing to do whatever God wants me to do. When I'm thankful, I'll have a heart that is open to revival. When I'm thankful, I'll be willing to go beyond what God normally would want me to do. I would be willing to go beyond what my bubble is around me. I'll be able to go on beyond my comfort zone to be able to say, yes, Lord, because I want to continue to say, thank you, Jesus, with my life. Thank you, Jesus, with my life. Thank you, Jesus, with my life. So everywhere I go, I'm saying, thank you, Jesus, with my life. Everything that I'm saying is saying, thank you, Jesus, with my life. Everything that I'm doing is saying, thank you, Jesus, for everything that you've done for me. You see, when I get to heaven, guess what? I'm going to say, thank you, Jesus, for all eternity. I'm gonna worship him for all eternity. I'm gonna sing with an angelic voice. I'm gonna have angelic hair. I know it, I know it is. We are brother, we're gonna have angelic hair. And I'm gonna rejoice with him for all eternity. But folks, will anything change? I still got salvation while I'm on this earth. So why not start saying thank you now? When Brandon was a little boy, I remember I had been introduced to the Dollar Tree. I know you got the home office here, I think it is. The Dollar Tree was one of my favorite stores back then. I was on a very, very, very, very, very limited budget. It was just me, Kelly, and Brand at that time. But I'll never forget as he was getting older and I saw the dollar tree I thought to myself well a dollar that's not all that much So I'd go in there and I go in there and I think to myself. I'm gonna get Brandon a toy It's only a dollar so it's not gonna cost me that much And so I went in there and I found this stuff called Mundo. Anybody know what Mundo is? You know, it was there's a few of you that Mundo is I mean it was crazy stuff But boy, I tell you I got it And I went home and I said, Hey, Brandon, I said, he was just a little tight. And I went up to him. I said, Hey, Brandon, I got you some moon dough from the store, from the Dollar Tree. He's looked at me. He says, Oh, thank you, daddy. I mean, I mean, his eyes lit up. I mean, I felt like the best, you know, you get those shirts for Father's Day that says best dad in the world. Well, right then I didn't need a shirt. I knew I was the best dad in the world. I was like, oh my goodness. This is amazing. He's so thankful this so you know what I did the next week I got another dollar out of my paycheck and I went over to the Dollar Tree I got him a little matchbox car and at that time they had him on sale. So I got one for 75 cents So I thought to myself, well, I'm not trying to be cheap, but I know he's gonna like this But I at least get it on sale So I went home and I took that matchbox car and I said, hey Brandon, I got you a toy, honey And so I gave it to him. He looked at me. He says, oh, this is the best present ever And I was like, this is amazing. And I know some of you are thinking, he's just playing you because he just wants stuff. But I'll tell you one thing, the heart of this father was so overwhelmed because he was thankful for what he had gotten from me, that guess what I wanted to do? I wanted to give him more. Let me tell you something about our heavenly father. Our heavenly father does desire to give us things, to bless us. And I ain't talking about this prosperity religion. I'm talking about blessing us. True, honest, godly blessings in our life. And so folks, maybe we just need to take some time to be thankful for what he's given us right now. You see, we complain about what we don't have. It's really easy to do that, isn't it? Oh God, you ain't give me enough money. Oh God, you've given such and such and sister such and such and brother such and such so much more than me. How dare you give them more? And I'm such a godly person. Why don't you give me more? Oh, you look at me like I'm crazy. Oh, you've done it too. You've argued like that too. I mean, I think about that and I think about the fact that God has given us so much. We should be thankful for what we have right this very moment. So if we are thankful, for what God has given to us now. Just think to what God can do for us, even in the future. You see, is he worth it? Is Jesus Christ worth it? Do we want to be the nine that just sat there and they just kept on going? Or do we want to be the one that realizes what we've been saved from? We realized what we could have. We could have experienced hell. We could have experienced torment. We could have experienced suffering. We could have experienced pain, but we don't have to worry about all that. Because of what Jesus Christ did for us Are you truly thankful to where Jesus Christ will look at your life in my life and say there is a there is a child That says thank you with their life So maybe tonight, in order to have any revival in your heart, in your life, you've gotta have a revival of thankfulness. Because if we show God that we're thankful, then God will bless us, God will use us, God will show us what he wants in our life, and he will do things that are beyond our imagination. Why do you believe that, brother Mike? Because I serve the great God. I serve the one who made the stars. I serve the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. I serve the great creator of this soul. I serve the great creator of this body. I serve the great creator, the almighty God that will sit on the throne for all eternity. So I know he can do it. I know that he can serve, he can help me. I know that he can bless me, but maybe he's waiting for us to say, thank you with our life. Lord, we've seen so much. And Lord, we don't want to be like the nine. But Lord, I'm afraid that most Christians in this world, even in our country, in our state, maybe even in our town, most Christians are not thankful. Lord, maybe it's because we've forgotten. what we've been saved from. And Lord, tonight, maybe we just need to just praise your holy name. Maybe we just need to say thank you. Lord, it's easy to ask for things. Lord, maybe we just need to thank you. With every head bowed and every eye closed, you know, many years ago, a pastor challenged me when we were talking about thankfulness of a heart. And he said, Brother Mike, I challenge you to do this, and I'm gonna challenge you to do this tonight. I challenge you to pray and just start thanking God for everything that you've got. Don't ask Him for anything. Just start thanking Him. And I'm telling you, when I sat at that altar and I began to thank God for things, I'll never forget. It was hard, because I wanted to revert back to asking. But then I stopped myself, and I started listing all the things. And I'll tell you, when I was on that altar and I was praying, and I started thanking God for what He gave me, Tears started coming down my face, and I realized He's given me more than I deserve. Christian, I hope and pray that's your heart tonight. So when we have this invitation time, why don't you just praise God tonight? Why don't you just say, thank you, Jesus, for what you've given to me? Forgive me for just complaining. Thank you for what you've given me. You've given me a church that I can come to. You've given me a pastor. You've given me your holy word of God. You've given me a place. You've given me salvation. You've given me life. Maybe we just need to say thank you. Lord, I pray with all of my heart tonight, Lord, that we as a congregation here tonight, we in this auditorium, We that are listening to this message will live a life that says, thank you. Lord, I know one day we'll be in heaven and we'll be able to put our arms around you and say, thank you. But Lord, we don't want to, we don't want to wait till then. Lord, may tonight be the night that we have a revival of thankfulness in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. If you would stand with me, our eyes closed, heads bowed. Mr. Pianist plays. God's spoken to your heart, we encourage you to come. I believe as you read about revivals of the past, you'll see that when God moves in hearts and revival takes place, there is a great renewal of gratitude. And there is a great expression of thanksgiving. We live in a world that is discontented. And sadly, that same spirit creeps into the church. It's easy for us to become envious of the world, to not be thankful for what God's given to us. the the Let's sing a chorus, a verse and chorus of great is thy faithfulness. I think we all know it. Let's sing together. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not. As thou hast been, thou forever wilt be. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I have needed, thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.