Transcript

Good morning. Good morning. What is up, East? Gators and extended family that might have gotten dragged here this morning against your will. I'm happy to see y'all.

Y'all. I got some bad news for you, though. I prayed this morning before I came to church. I said, God, I know that it's probably going to be a light. People are traveling.

People are recovering from the holidays. I know it's going to be a light crew. Just make sure to bring the broken ones, the really broken ones this morning. So I got bad news for you guys. You're it.

There's a bunch of you. Actually, there's a lot more broken people than I thought there were. I am not the normal pastor if you don't. If you're. If you're new here or just visiting.

I'm not the normal pastor. Pastor Gary, he is away doing something. I'm not actually sure what he's doing. I think he's probably hanging out with his family for sure, but he might be up in Virginia. But whatever the case, he asked me a couple of weeks ago if I could cover him, and so here I am.

I'm covering him. Adam. Welcome to all of y'all. Welcome to the gathering place, or as we in the gathering place, know the cool service and welcome anybody that's streaming online. Somebody after the first service, they said you should preach on tv, which I've never gotten that one before, but I guess maybe this is a piece of that.

Although the only preachers that I ever hear about that preached on TV stole a bunch of people's money. So I don't know if. I don't know if that was a compliment or if maybe I was supposed to set the boat right on that one, but. So how many of y'all are fighting up a weight class this morning? How many of y'all after Thanksgiving dinner are not looking to get on a scale anytime soon?

So we did just get through Thanksgiving, and so that's what we're going to talk about this morning. Next week, we're going to start a sermon series about the three gifts that were given to Jesus as a baby. But right now, we're talking about Thanksgiving. We're still on Thanksgiving. We hadn't quite got all the Christmas decorations up yet, so we'll stay in Thanksgiving for a little bit.

So we're going to talk about Thanksgiving, but we're going to talk about it a little bit different than maybe we sometimes do Thanksgiving. So we're going to get into that. One of the big, big parts about Thanksgiving is the food. This is a very American thing. I think that's a good thing.

Thanksgiving is an American holiday. Specifically. I've got some international friends or whatever, and they don't really understand why I'm not at work this past week. I'm happy to not be at work this past week. But Thanksgiving is an American thing.

But it's the idea of coming together for a meal like a feast of celebration, a feast of Thanksgiving, that is not an American idea. That's a God idea that has been happening since way, way, way, way, way back. There's a bunch of the Old Testament that we're the followers of Christ or the followers of God. Children of God, children of Abraham are commanded to get together and have feasts of celebration, feast of thanksgiving. So that's been happening forever.

Food, I think, is a very important thing to people. I think God knows that to the extent that on Jesus last day before being crucified, what was he doing? He was eating with his guys. And so I think there's. If you know, you know, if you want to get into somebody's heart, bring them into your family, bring them into your home and feed them.

It's a universal thing. I think maybe just on an instinctual level, we all understand that if we're eaten, everything's all right. If we're eating, we're not getting chased by a lion, Nobody's eating and running from a cheetah. If you're sitting down and just hanging out and eating, then life's pretty good. And so I think that's one of the reasons why food is a big part of Thanksgiving.

So we do have some unique in America, apparently we have some unique desserts that happen. This is a Google trend search uniquely searched pies. So I do want to point out this is uniquely searched pies in the past 30 days. So this isn't necessarily necessarily what is the most popular in that spot. And I'll start by citing North Carolina and for my Tennessee kids.

For North Carolina and Tennessee, buttermilk pie, y'all. I was born in North Carolina and I growed up in North Carolina, and I'm still in North Carolina. I have never heard of buttermilk pie once. That's a pancake.

So that's. So don't hold any of these desserts against the state, because they might not necessarily, but they are definitely something that when people from not the state got there and somebody asked them, hey, y'all want some buttermilk pie? They went, what in the world is buttermilk pie? Go up one state, we get to Virginia. Coconut pie.

I disagree. I'm gonna come in with a hot take. Coconut. Gross. Coconut's not good.

Coconut's not good. And I'll prove it. If I gave you a bowl of coconut and a bowl of. Have you ever cut, like, PVC pipe with a chop saw? The sawdust stuff that flies off and gets gooped up in the back.

If I gave you a bowl of both, you could not tell the difference. It's wild coconut. Now I'm out. But then the one that wins them. So you know how buck wild this one is.

In the legend over here, they got one color's fruit and one color's custard. I don't know what that is. Savory. Nobody knows what that is. Chocolate and nuts.

We all can get that one. And then there's one. This other. Where the people that were making the legend were just like, I don't even know what this is. Pennsylvania.

What is shoo fly pie? What are you doing? Shoo fly pie. That is a mess. I actually.

I did learn in case any of you. So you don't have to gum up the Google and make North Carolina turn into Shoo Fly Pie search. Don't do that. Somebody from Pennsylvania. It's apparently from Dutch country, Pennsylvania.

It's like a pecan piece, but it's not pecans in it. It's like a molasses pie. Apparently they said, it's like a pecan pie, but they said pecan. Which, by the way, I'm gonna throw another hot take. That's not right.

Pecan. That's pecan. That's pecan. It actually is pecan. By the way, the etymology is algonquin, and it comes from the word bagon.

I looked it up in your face. People say pecan. An honorable mention. In the middle Kansas. Frito chili pie.

They just crumble up fritos on it. I would expect that from their neighbor Colorado, not from Kansas. Kansas. What are y'all doing? So we get some crazy food, some nutty food.

But the good thing is when we're feasting means we got a lot of food. That's a good thing. So that's a reason to be grateful for. I think that's another reason why food is a comfort level that adds it to us. But this is not actually an American idea.

This idea of coming together as a feast of Thanksgiving. This is a God idea. In fact, one of the founders, the very first elected leader that we had as a unified nation. November 26, 1789. George Washington, in a proclamation, he wrote this.

I recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God. So that's the part, unfortunately, that as America, we have slowly, slowly, slowly stripped God away from most of the celebrations that we have, especially celebrations where family will come together because we don't want to stumble on anybody's toes. We're more than happy to weigh into the presidential debate and get everybody mad, but we're not super interested in getting into the religious conversation necessarily. And so we forget that even Thanksgiving, the American holiday, Thanksgiving was set apart to be a celebration to be grateful for the many and signal favors of Almighty God. So maybe you have a tradition.

It's a good tradition. I've been a part of it. I've been to houses where you go around the table and everybody says something that they're thankful for. That's a cool tradition. Probably the majority of those things are earthly, temporal, temporary, material things.

I'm glad for, you know, family, glad for health. Health is a good thing to be happy for. It's a temporary thing. Glad, you know, for all this food, for the hands that cook this food. You know, some kids might be happy for toys or whatever.

We rarely are outwardly grateful to the Almighty God. And so I want to take this time to point our Thanksgiving to the one that gives us anything to be thankful for. I want to take this time to turn our hearts of thanksgiving to the Spirit by which we are given things to be grateful for. Thanksgiving is not just something to celebrate on one day. We have a reason to be thankful every day inte infinitum.

And so in Psalm 9, King David writes about how he wills himself to be grateful to the Lord with all of his heart. We can be grateful to the Lord with our hearts. We can choose that. It's a choice that we can make. How do we do that?

We're going to be given three decisions in this text. If you want to go ahead and start getting there. If you've got an old fashioned biblical device and it's going to take you a second Psalm 91:2. If you've got a new one, just say Siri, open Psalm 9.

If you don't know where Psalm 9 is. I learned this back when I was a young lad in Presbyterian school. If you open the Bible in the middle, apparently you hit Psalms. But I don't ever hit Psalms. I always hit the prophets after the Psalms.

So that's what they told me. But I think they might have had a bigger thing in the back of their Bible because I always land in the prophets. Psalm 91:2. I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.

I will be glad and exult in you. I will sing praise to your name. O Most High God, bless the reading of his Word. Amen.

So we're given three decisions to make on how to choose to be thankful with all of our heart. The first one is, remember God's wonderful deeds. Remember God's wonderful deeds. Be conscious about God's wonderful deeds, the incredible things that God has done for you. Because the thing about joy, the thing about Thanksgiving, it comes out of joy.

It's an idea that it's just somewhere that you live. It's just somewhere where you are. It's just the thing you always are. So it's not a response to a thing. That's happiness.

Happiness is, you know, I saw a TV show, it made me happy. Or, you know, I got to go to the park, it made me happy. It's good to be happy. Happy is a good thing. But the idea of going through life with joy, with Thanksgiving, is.

It's all encompassing. It's bigger than that because God's bigger than that. It's meant to be sung in the valleys, not just on the mountaintops. And so we're going to make some conscious decisions here. The first one we're doing, remember God's wonderful deeds.

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. Now, if you were astute when you were looking through the. When you were reading through the verse just a second ago, you notice that there are four I will statements. So there were four I wills, but only three I will decisions in my what I just told you we were going to do.

So the reason why is not because I am beholden to only have three points. I'm allowed to have four if I want. I chose not to. And the reason why I chose not to is because this first, I will, is the verb in Hebrew is conjugated a little bit differently. So it's an imperfect tense verb.

So it's basically a universal I will. It's kind of like a state of being. So, like, I am six feet tall, I will be six feet tall. I just will be. It's not something that I do specifically.

It just is my state of being. Do I round up a half an inch? I'm not telling you, but it just is the way. It just is how I will be. And so that first verb that I will, there is that.

And so it's kind of saying like I just always am and will be thankful to the Lord with my whole heart. It's not anything done or conscious. It's not a choice to be made. So it just. I can't help but be this thing.

So that's why that one, the I will is treated a little bit differently. It's not intentional. The other ones is a different verb tense, which is the active choosing of. And so that's what the second I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. So that's where we get.

Remember God's wonderful deeds. In case you haven't noticed, the through line, like in all the preaching, if you ever are curious what the points are going to be, we just take the Bible and say those words again. We try not to stray too far from this here book because this here book is true and I'm an idiot. And so y'all don't want me to just make some interpretations. We just, we just say what the words are.

So I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. Remember God's wonderful deeds. That's our. Our first decision to be made. So recount is a specific word if you think about it, like mathematically.

So the word itself means to give a precise value to. To give an exact value to. And if you think about it mathematically, if I count something, I'm pretty sure I know how many there are. But if I recount it now, I know. So you can kind of think of it that way.

I will recount. I will be intentional. I'll go through all of God's wonderful deeds. And then I'll go through them again, nail them down and be very specific, be very precise with the wonderful deeds. And these wonderful deeds are big.

They're really big. So this is one of the things that we kind of. We're going to get into a little bit more on decision, the second decision that we're going to make. But I just want to plant the seed that the wonderful deeds in your life, you might not have even noticed them all, that we have so many things to be one to be, to be thankful for, to be grateful for, and to put out into the world. Look at all the incredible things that God has done for me.

But even I, as smart as I am, guys, I don't see them all. I don't see God things. I don't see them all. And so as much as I can be grateful. And as much as I can give thanks, it's still not enough for what's actually happening.

And that makes me even more grateful.

The idea that somebody might have done something in my life that I didn't even know they did, but it changed the trajectory of my life in a huge way. God has done for everybody in a huge way. Because outside of God, we can't get to God. It doesn't matter that you want to get to God. You can't get to God without God, without God getting us there.

And so even getting away from the small daily blessings that you might get, and even getting away from maybe the bigger blessings that you like, life blessings that you get, and then even getting outside of the idea of there being blessings that you don't necessarily even see, there's this massive blessing that puts it all around the circle of it where God loved you so much that he made a way for you to get to him, that he loved you so much that the bridge that you burned down, he rebuilt. He put it back and he said, come home. He made the incredible sacrifice for me, for silly, dumb me. How nuts is that? That's absolutely incredible.

I will recount all of your wonderful deeds, Father. God in James 1, verse 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like the shifting shadow. God is the same today as he was yesterday, as he was the first day time started and as he was before time started. That one melts my brain. And when time stops that one melts my brain.

God will still be right there in the center of it. And he gives us every good thing. He gives us every good thing, even the ones we don't see. Everything God gives us is good because he's perfect. He's good.

It can't not be good. So we approach God with a heart of Thanksgiving. In Psalm 100. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him.

Bless his name, for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

Philippians 4 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise. Think of these things. So in your life right now, let's be intentional. Let's make the choice right now. You know what?

Going forward, I'm going to look at every good thing. I'm going to look at every blessing that I have. I'm going to Be grateful for every little thing that I get. Because the truth be told, if you boil it all the way down, I've done nothing, I've accomplished nothing, there's nothing that I can be grateful to me for. Because even the things that I have accomplished that somebody might attribute to me, I was only able to do them because I was given a talent for it.

I was only able to do them because I was given a drive for it. I was only able to do them because I was put around people that supported me in it or taught me how to do it, or any myriad different reasons why the things, anything that I could say, I did this thing and it was good. It was given to me by God. And so every single thing that I could possibly celebrate it was given to me by God.

Being joyful, being thankful, just living this abundant. All my heart. I'm thankful for all of my heart. The very first line, I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, my entire heart. Everything that I can give thanks with, I give thanks with.

Living that way is not based on circumstances. So I can live that way when I'm heavy. In fact, if I live that way when the world seems against me, then the world seems a good bit smaller. The hard things seem a lot more attainable. If when I'm down, I'm grateful for all the incredible things that I have, but I'm blessed with the knowledge to know that all of the great things, the incredible things that I have, are not all the great things, the incredible things I will ever have.

That God's going to continue to bless me. And that God has already blessed me with an incredible, incredible gift of eternal life with him. Imperfection that I didn't earn.

So how incredible is that? To just walk through life? Just take a second, make a quick laundry list of the things you have to be grateful for. Maybe when you woke up this morning, you were feeling a little heavy. Maybe you had to spend some time with family at Thanksgiving and you don't much care for your family.

I'm blessed. My in laws are awesome. I love my in laws. So if you don't like your in laws, you're doing it wrong. My in laws are dope.

And I'm not saying that just because they're sitting over there.

I'm incredibly blessed. But maybe you're not blessed in that particular way. Maybe you got some egr in laws, some extra grace required in laws, but that gives you an opportunity to grow closer to them. So just whatever it is you're grateful for, take A second. But then acknowledge that that thing is just a small piece of evidence to a much greater reason to be grateful that you were given that incredible blessing by God, the creator of the universe.

How mind numbing is that? The creator of the universe cares about you enough to bless you. And that gets us to our second decision that we can make. Rejoice in God's perfect character. Rejoice in God's perfect character.

I will be glad and exult in you. Be glad we can all understand. Exult, weird word. They mean the same thing. So if you want to throw exult around in your normal everyday vernacular, exult, be glad, it's the same thing.

It's a synonym. It basically means the same thing.

So we are grateful, we're happy, we're rejoicing, but we have reason to rejoice. And that is, and this is nutty, this is insane to me, the creator of the universe, the controller of all things, the power outside. So actually let's real quick go through a laundry list of some of the stuff that God actually is and then we'll try to wrap our head around that God is the creator of everything. He's the creator of everything. So, town of Wilson, North Carolina with a T.

The town of Wilson, North Carolina is in the state of North Carolina, which is in America, which is on the Earth, which the Earth is really big. I don't know if you guys have ever flown to the other side of the Earth. It takes so long and you're going so fast. And that is very, very small compared to the solar system. And that is very, very small because compared to the Milky Way galaxy and that is very, very small compared to keep going out.

And now we've gotten into mind numbing size and all of that sits on the workshop bench of the Father God. That he's outside of all of that. He is so incredible that he is outside of time. I don't even know what that means. But for God, yesterday and tomorrow are the same thing.

I'm looking forward to one day God getting to explain that one to me. But for now I can rejoice in knowing that that guy has got my back, that that guy loves me. And that's mind numbing to itself. That's another thing that God is, He's the creator, He's a sustainer. So that the universe, like the world works yesterday the same way it works, it's going to work tomorrow.

Like we all woke up and got ready based on a bunch of rules of physics that we don't really Necessarily, even understand. But, like, tomorrow, when you wake up and try to throw your shirt on, gravity will still pull it down over your body. And like, if you squirm this one particular way to get into this one outfit, like, it'll still get on your body. Like, the physics of just daily life work. Because Father God didn't just make something, but he made it in a way that it doesn't break down.

He made it perfectly too. How crazy is that? And then, and this is the mad leap, this is insane to me. He cared about me. He cares about you specifically.

He cares about you. He loves you. Whoever you are, whoever you are in the gathering place. It's weird to me to look that way for the gathering places, that way. But the camera, I gotta go through that.

Hey, Gathering place, if you're online, if you're watching, he loves you. He loves you specifically. He loves you uniquely. He loves you more than anybody in your life. Loves you.

The Creator and sustainer of the universe loves me enough to sacrifice for me to get me to Him.

He is Grace. It doesn't matter what I've done. He doesn't throw me away. It doesn't matter what you've done. He hasn't thrown you away.

He wants you just like you are. He bought me when I was broken. He didn't buy this dope version of me. That's now, y'all. He bought the weird, messed up, hateful version of me.

If you're trying to fix yourself before you get right with God, stop. You're not going to do it. If you could have fixed yourself, you'd have done it last week and you know it. And even if you do figure it out a couple of days next week, you'll mess it up again. God doesn't want the fixed version of you.

He wants the perfect version of you that he made.

The Creator of the cosmos loves me that much, Forgives me that much. That is nuts to me. That's so insane.

But even all of these things, take a second and personalize it for you. What is he to you specifically? He is all those things outside of you. But just take a moment and make a list of what God is for you.

When you've got that list, put it on your heart that every day you can rejoice in the blessings that God has given you and how incredible God is for you. Psalm 16. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness and joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

You make known to me the path of life.

Psalm 4, Pastor Jonathan. There's a translation of the Bible called the Message, and it is buck wild. And he loves to throw these things in here. And every time I read them, I can't, not in my brain, hear it with a Cajun accent. My stepmom is Cajun, and I can't read these.

I'm going to try not to do a Cajun accent with this. But if it happens, that's why. Why is everyone hungry for more, more, more. They say more, more. And I have God's more than enough.

That's actually written correctly, by the way, the way it's sitting here. I didn't mess it up. I have God's more than enough. More joy in one ordinary day than they get in all their shopping sprees at day's end. I'm ready for sound sleep for you.

God have put my life back together. That's a crazy, crazy way to say A very, a very good statement. I've got more than enough every single day. It doesn't matter what Bill Gates owns. He ain't happier than me.

He's just not. It doesn't matter what. Fill in the blank. Mark Wahlberg. Not throwing shade at Mark Wahlberg.

I don't know anything about him, but he's not happier than me. I promise. He's not happier than me. He might be as happy than me. I hope he is, but he's not happier.

People that have 26 houses, I got more than them. People that got real dope cars, I got more than them.

I got God's perfect love.

More than that, I've got God's perfect sacrifice.

I've got a God that loves me enough. This is. Take a second. Take inventory. Especially you guys that have kids, I'm sure there are some days that you wish your kids would go away from your presence, but if truth be told, when they're out of your presence, you like them quite a bit.

Like, you have a unique. There's a unique relationship. And I don't, you know, I don't think it's a bad choice to choose not to have kids. I think that's fine. If you don't want kids, I think that's fine.

And so maybe it's annoying to hear if you're a person that doesn't have kids or has chosen not to have kids, but it's a different experience, right? If you have a kid, you just feel differently about that particular human than you do any other human on earth. It's just a different thing that if you Got kids. You know what I'm talking about. Now, how many of you, if you don't have kids, take the most important person in your life?

Maybe it's a parent, maybe it's a friend, maybe it's whatever it is. How many of you would sacrifice that person's life for the life of a convicted murderer? That's such a bonkers. And yet God, the creator of a universe, loved me so much that he was willing to sacrifice his only son for me. For you.

I am loved that much. How can I not rejoice?

And that gets us to the third decision we can make. Sing praise to God's beautiful name Sing praise to God's Beautiful Name Verse 2. I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. Sing praise. So I've got.

So sing praise. So I've got this theory. It's an idea. This is not biblical. So I'm gonna spout some non biblical stuff real quick.

But I think it's still right. I think that heaven language is music. Like I think that language in heaven is music. And I don't quite really know what that means, but music is universal. You can have music with no words and it can still make you cry or it can still make you happy.

And I think that heaven translates that way universally. And so that's why I think some of this language I will sing praise and the psalms, a lot of them are songs. I think music is an important aspect of worship. We were just singing a while ago. I'm blessed to be on the worship team.

And so I get to sometimes just be up here and just take a quiet second and just listen to you guys sing. And it's so moving to me when I get that opportunity to just listen to you guys sing and worship my God, my ABBA father, and to know that you worship him the same as me, it just warms my heart.

I don't know if I would have the same feeling if you were all just talking, if you were saying the exact same words but just saying them, I don't think it would move me the same way. And so I think that's where what this Sing Praise it is, you know, Sing. Some of you are fortunate. The double edged sword of me being blessed enough to be on the worship team is I also always, always, always have a worship song on loop in my head, which is a good thing. I'd like to be able to switch it up every now and then.

But it's always whatever the song we're doing the next Sunday is. And then once we get done with that when I go home and immediately download the next Sundays into my brain. But I am blessed with it. When I wake up in the morning, whatever that song is starts me up. I know that some of you probably your morning ritual is wake up, get to bed, maybe start brushing teeth, throw some worship music on, get started.

Some of you maybe when you get in the car, you listen to worship music. So I think worship music does have a place, but I think here it's got a broader implication and application. That music helps me to understand and that is to sing praise in that universal heaven language. To always just emote, to just always go through my life as though I'm singing as though music is playing all the time. And I think if we go through life that way, it does an incredible thing.

It does a very important thing. And that important thing is the people around you notice. The people around you notice. Even if you're only singing in your heart and in your head, you walk through life differently. And then the people that don't have that music, they see it and they want that thing, whatever that thing.

What has that guy got? What's that lady got? Emoting this praise, emoting this music.

Not necessarily reciting Bible verses at people or putting post it note of Bible verses. And by the way, if you're in a corporate environment and you do post it, note a Bible verse and you have it, please live in a way that that Bible verse reflects. My biggest pet peeve is People with 86 post it Notes of Bible verses everywhere or like Bible verses on their neck or whatever. And then they're like just not good people mean people. If you're going to emote God, really emote God.

If you're going to sing God's praise, really sing God's praise.

Psalm 66, verse 2. Sing the glory of his name, make his praise glorious.

Not Let me tell you about God. God's awesome. You know what I mean? There's a big difference between the idea of singing the glory of God, singing his praise and then just like telling somebody else all the good stuff is happening in your life that can land wrong sometimes.

But the idea that the good things that are happening in my life is evidence that there's more than this is evidence that the stuff that you're struggling with, there's a different way to go about it that hurts way less, that's got some use. Sing God's glory. Sing the glory of God's name. In Habakkuk 3, even though the fig trees have no blossoms We've all been there, right? Fig trees have no blossoms.

There are no grapes on the vine. Even though the olive crops fail and the fields lie empty and barren. Even though the flocks die in the fields and the cattle barns are empty. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. So maybe you're not farmers.

Statistically, we're in rural North Carolina. So a good handful of you got gardens at least some of you got some chickens. Maybe one or two of you got a cow or a horse. So all that's dead. The fields are empty.

There's no food. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will sing the praise of God. Let me hit you with this. Song in the valley is more beautiful than song on the mountaintop. Song in a valley resonates off the walls.

Everybody in the valley can hear it. Song on a mountaintop is still song, but only the person on the mountaintop can hear it. And it's gone. So when you are walking through your life, it's good to sing when you're on the mountaintop too. But don't only sing when you're on the mountaintop.

Sing when you're walking and you know you're walking down into the valley. And sing when you're at your lowest. Because the truth of the matter is the person that hears your voice singing can only hear your voice singing if they're in the valley with you.

And that is the person that needs to hear it the most. So as you go through life, sing praise to God's beautiful name. Always, always, always.

Hebrews 13. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come through him. Then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

A sacrifice of praise to God when we don't have the protection of a city or when we're walking into an enemy city. A sacrifice of praise to God that we live sacrificially the same way he did we walk sacrificially the same way he walked. That the people can see our reflection of God's real light. That people can hear the incredible message that Jesus brought to us. That God hasn't forgotten us.

He has not forgotten you. He's reaching out his hand.

Praise God. Sing praise always.

So as you walk through the next year of your life, next 10 years of your life, whatever it is, walk through it with joy. Walk through it with thanksgiving. But not just appreciation, and not just happiness, but endless, all encompassing joy, thanksgiving. And do that by choosing these three things. To remember God's deeds in your life.

To remember God's deed throughout history. To know that, that there is nothing God can't do. He's proved it so many times. So whatever it is that it's too big in your life, just look at the evidence that God's bigger than that thing and let it go. And be joyful.

Rejoice in God to know that God made the creator. He's the creator of everything. He's so big, he's so powerful. But he still loves you. Specifically, he still loves you.

You like you actual just you. That's nuts.

Go through joy. Go through life with joy, knowing the Creator. God is also Abba. Father.

And sing praise to his name with your mouth words, sure, but with your whole life, with your heart, with every action that you do, sing the praise of God. Because I got unfortunate news. We're walking through a very dark, scared world and we're only mirrors. So how you orient your mirror specifically changes how you can light the world. Amen.

Let's pray. Father God, thank you for today. Thank you for these incredible walls and this incredible roof to keep out the cold that we get to worship you today in comfort. But Father God, help us to be a follower. Help us to be a child that would worship you in the rain, that would worship you in the cold, in the hot, in the humid, in the pollen.

Father God, help us to be your children, your body outside of the comfort of these walls. Father God, thank you for being a God that is worth praising. Thank you for being a God that gives us something to be thankful for. Thank you for being a God that gives us the ultimate gift of eternal life with you perfection. Thank you for being a God that's so loving that you made a way.

Thank you for God that's being a God that's so big that you lift all fear. And if you're hearing my voice right now and you don't know that God, I've got incredible news that God is right there with you. That God's hand is outstretched and he's just waiting for you to take it. The work's already been done, the sacrifice has already been made. And all it takes to have the kingdom of heaven, the bounty of heaven is just to pray to him.

Father God, I'm a sinner. I've done terrible things and you know, I've done terrible things, and I'm a bad person. I've done things that I'm ashamed of, and I can't undo them. I wish I could. But thank you for loving me anyway.

I know that the sacrifice that you made takes my uncleanliness away. It removes my sin and trades me for the perfection of your son, who sacrificed himself for me. Jesus, I love you. Thank you for making that sacrifice. I accept your gift.

I accept your sacrifice. I want to follow you. I want to walk in the light of God.

If you pray that prayer, welcome to family. That's incredible news.

Or maybe you follow God a long time, but you feel a little distant. Father God, I've been running from you. I've been intentionally not doing that thing you told me to do. Father God, I know that any distance that I've put between us is all on me. And I just want to get back to you.

Father God, help me get back to you. Help me get back to the way we used to be. Before I started hiding, before I ran away. And if you pray that prayer, congratulations. Welcome back.

Welcome back home. We love you. If you're doing well. Father God, thank you for the incredible gifts you've given me. Thank you for the blessings that you've put into my life.

Help me to see them even more and help me to sing about them in a way that people would want what I have. Help me to serve you. Give me a new challenge, and then give me the strength to overcome that challenge. Father God, I'm ready. I'm here.

I'm ready to go to war for you. Point me to the battlefield. Father God, thank you so much for being an incredible, incredible God. For being a God that's worthy of praise. But thank you even more for being a God that is so loving that I get to call you my daddy.

And I get to call you my Abba. Father, thank you for all the gifts that you've given me in my life. Thank you for all the gifts that you've given this church body. But help us to praise you when we're in the valley. Help us to sing your song when we're in the trenches.

Help us to reflect your light into the world that needs you so, so, so much right now. We love you. Amen.