Hey, I want us to do something. Can we pray for a few moments? Because I want God to do something unexpected among us. I really want him to deliver some people from anxiety and depression.
I want him to break through and set some captives free. Can we just pray for a few moments that the Spirit of God will use the Word of God to unleash the people of God? Hey, stand with me right now. Just lift up your hands and lift up your voices. And let's just call him the name of the Lord right now. Father, Father, you're doing something in this place.
It's bigger than we can imagine. Father, it's more marvelous than we can imagine you're doing something here. Father, my heart breaks a little bit this morning because I've got some brothers and sisters dealing with addictions and anxiety and depression and competition.
And, Father, let's just not live in this abundant life. So, God, I pray that you'll take the seed of your Word and combine it with the power of your Holy Spirit. And I pray right now you will do something amazing among us in the name of Jesus and for the glory of Jesus. And the people of God said amen. Thank you.
You can be seated. Now, there's some sermons I preach at you. There's some sermons I preach at us. In other words, I'm preaching to myself this morning. This is one of those spiritual disciplines I got to do better on, you've got to do better on.
So, this is a message preached to cross assembly, but it's also a message preached to Chad Harvey. Let's go back to high school biology. Have you all heard of this term, a symbiotic relationship? You've heard of that? You know what a symbiotic relationship is?
A symbiotic relationship is a relationship where both organisms benefit. Like, look at this picture of this cow. I remember seeing this when I was a little kid driving through years ago. I saw these little birds, egrets, on top of these cows. And I was like, why is the cows not eating the birds?
Well, they're really not eating the birds because this is a symbiotic relationship. The cows are covered with ticks. They need the ticks off of them.
It irritates their skin. The birds are hungry. So, they get on top of the cows and they eat the ticks. And so, the birds are fed and the cows get the ticks off of them.
That's a symbiotic relationship. I was reading this past week about this fish. It's called the remora fish. The remora fish, you've seen a picture of this, they will attach themselves to sharks and they basically do the same thing. They eat all these little parasites that gather on the sharks. And so, the shark benefits because the parasites and the irritants are being picked off by this fish. The remora fish is benefited because the shark protects them from other species. The shark gives them a free ride.
They get something to eat. That's a symbiotic relationship. Both organisms are benefiting. I've said this to myself for years. The discipline of gratitude and thanking God, that is the ultimate spiritual symbiotic relationship.
Here's what I mean by that. The father loves it when his people acknowledge that he is the giver of every good and perfect gift. The father loves it when you come into his presence and you thank him for what he's done for you.
The father benefits. He loves that. And God is so good. That's how good and gracious God is. God turns around and a discipline that is directed toward God, God turns that around and he blesses us.
That's a symbiotic relationship. God is blessed through the thanksgiving of his people. We are blessed through this discipline of thanksgiving. How are we blessed?
We're going to hit that today. But I want you to look, if you would, at Luke 17. This is the ultimate act of thanksgiving by a human being to the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke chapter 17 verse 11 says this, as Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria. As he entered a village there, 10 men with leprosy stood at a distance crying out, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. He looked at them.
Here's what he did. Here's all Jesus said to these lepers. Go show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy. One, one, one of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus shouting, praise God. And he fell to the ground at Jesus's feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, didn't I heal 10 men?
Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner? Now, again, in our political climate, he didn't mean this so far, how we say here in down south, this foreigner, he didn't mean it in a disparaging way. What he meant was this person is not even part of God's covenant people of Israel. And yet he recognizes God and the Messiah sent by God, Jesus Christ.
And he said to the man, stand up and go. Your faith has healed you. Leprosy, we read about this in the Bible, and we don't understand just how bad this was. Leprosy was a horrendous disease. Some scholars believe that leprosy actually started in Egypt. They've actually found mummies, they've uncovered these mummies, and some of these mummies had leprosy. It was a horrendous, horrendous disease.
In fact, here's how one person described it. It's caused by bacteria, and that bacteria, the leprosy bacteria anesthetizes the body. The bacteria can destroy the eyes causing blindness. Leprosy then penetrates the teeth so they fall out. The leprosy penetrates all the bodily organs and affects the larynx, so one winds up with a weak and raspy voice. The skin loses its original color, becomes thick, glossy, and scaly.
As the sickness progresses, the thickened spots become dirty sores and ulcers due to poor blood supply. Fingers drop off or absorb back into the body. Toes and feet fall off.
Eyebrows and eyelashes drop out. By this time, one can see the person in this pitiable condition is truly a leper, and by the touch of the finger, one can feel it, and one can even smell it, for a leper emits a very unpleasant odor from the open sores in his or her body. Now, in Jesus's day, if you contracted leprosy, you were required by law to leave society.
You had to leave your home. At best, you might be able to find some other lepers to hang around with, but you are an outcast, and this is how bad it is. By law, if you're walking down the street as a leper and you see healthy people coming to you, you'd have to scream out, stay away from me. I'm a nasty, filthy leper.
Just stay away from me. Could you imagine the psychological damage that would do to people? And imagine, we don't know who this leper was, but imagine that it hits him in his teenage years when teenagers are sensitive about their looks. And one morning, he wakes up and there's some kind of sore here on his face. And let me say this, we don't have leprosy today, teenagers, okay? So it's probably a pimple, it's probably not leprosy, don't freak out, okay? But in his day, he sees this sore, and another one pops up, and a chill goes through mom and dad. They're like, oh God, God, please, no, no, no, don't let this be leprosy. They take him to doctor after doctor after doctor. They spend everything they have, and finally the doctor says, I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do.
Your son has leprosy. And what was it like to have a family meeting and to bring that kid into the living room, but you got to stay there in the doorway. You can't come in with the rest of the family. Honey, we love you, and we're so sorry, but you got to leave this family.
You can't stay in this home anymore. Could you imagine psychologically what that did to that leper? And we don't know how long he was a leper. But one day, somebody says, you know, I've heard of this guy named Jesus, and they say he's raised the dead and made the lame walk, and maybe he can heal us. And when these lepers see Jesus, they start to cry out, and all Jesus says is, do what the Bible says, go show yourself to the priest. And as this young man is walking toward the priest, some kind of spontaneous auto regeneration takes place. Fingers start to sprout up again. Those sores start to close up. Teeth just start coming back into his body. He looks totally different, and he doesn't go to the priest. He turns right around, and he thanks Jesus for saving him.
There were 10 of them, but only one came back. Now, this is anecdotal experience. I'm just kind of sharing with you what I've seen as a pastor and looking at my own life. I do believe this. I believe there's some kind of connection between that one out of 10 and the body of Christ. I genuinely believe only one out of 10 Christians are truly grateful, thankful people.
The rest of us tend to be self-consumed, whiny, gripey, sad, sick, and sorry. I think only one out of 10 Christians really understand this powerful discipline of gratitude. But I want you to listen to me. This thing, what I'm about to share with you, this concept will absolutely change your life. Now, I'm not preaching this because, I got confused first, is this week, is it this Thursday or next Thursday? No, okay.
Okay, Thanksgiving's coming up. That's not why I'm preaching this sermon. I'm preaching this because this thing, if you'll grab a hold of this, this will absolutely change your life.
And this is not an ancillary spiritual discipline. This is significant. I want to read this to you. First Thessalonians 5 18, you know, people ask me, how do I know God's will for my life?
Do I go to this college or do I go to that college? Do I marry this person? Do I marry that person? How do I know God's will for my life? Well, first of all, it's a very self-centered question. I've said before, the question is not what's God's will for my life. The question is what is God's will and how can I conform my life to his will? Okay, that's number one. But number two, I'm going to give you God's will for your life right now. Y'all ready for it?
You can get this right 100% of the time. Here's God's will for your life. First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 18, in everything give thanks for this is God's will for you. I wonder if we're asking God all these questions about I need your will about college and this and that.
I wonder if God said, why don't you just start with the word of God? You start with what I've already revealed to you. My will for your life is for you to be a grateful, thankful person. Let's start with that and then we can work on that.
So let's start with that and then we can work on this other stuff. That's God's will for your life. In fact, and this is just me, I may have miscounted, but I think I looked through the New Testament and looked at nine prayers of Jesus. Jesus was a praying man. Nine prayers of Jesus.
Every one of those nine prayers I looked at, do you know how they started out? He was thanking God. John chapter 11, he's just about to raise Lazarus from the dead. He's about to raise this man up. Jesus prays to God. And do you know how Jesus starts his prayer? Here's what he says, I thank you, Father. So I want you to understand what I'm saying here.
This is not, again, an ancillary spiritual discipline. You and I get a hold of this thing, it's going to change your life. And I love what Jesus says to this man who comes back and thanks to the Lord Jesus. Verse 19, Jesus says to the leper, literally, I think your translation says your faith has healed you.
Literally, here's what it says. Your faith has saved you. Sometimes we use the word saved that means salvation. I'm saved from hell. I was going to go to hell, now I'm going to heaven. I've been saved.
Okay, I get that. But saved can also mean delivered, set free. And based on the word of God, I'm telling you, you and I become people who stop griping and complaining and become people of gratitude. It will save us. It will deliver us.
What will it deliver us from? Jot this down. Number one, gratitude. And I'm going to tell you what I mean by a lifestyle of gratitude in a few minutes because, okay, well, how do I do this?
I'm gonna tell you how to do it in just a second. But gratitude, number one, jot this down. It saves you from what? Saves you from comparison and competitiveness. I'm gonna tell you one of the reasons we're so miserable.
You ready? We look around at other people and we say, why don't I have what he has? Why don't I drive what she drives?
Why does my kids not behave like her kids? See, we compare ourselves to others. Gratitude rescues us from that. We realize God has been so good to me.
He's been better to me than I deserve. I don't care about everybody else. I just care about what God's done for me. Thank you, Father.
It saves us from that. Now, some of y'all dealing with things I didn't have to deal with, you know, when I was younger, and that's social media. Social media, it puts you in this endless trap of comparison and competition, and that's why a lot of us are miserable. In fact, studies have shown people who spend a lot of time on social media, they are more depressed than the rest of the population, and a big part of that is you're looking at everybody else's life and you're like, why can't my life be like that? Now, I'm gonna tell you a little dirty secret here. Most of that stuff is fake.
Their life ain't that good. Did you know that? I remember, I think I've shared this with you before. It was a little while back. This lady, I saw her Facebook post. Had her husband and beautiful kids, and I had a professional photographer, and the husband's there in the middle of the picture, and the lady put, she put like, this man right here. My lover, my friend, my confidant, my reason for living, I thank God every day for you. I looked at it, I said, darlin', isn't that the lady that sat with us three days before in a coffee shop and told us what a scoundrel this guy was, how he's cheated on her again?
She's about to leave his sorry tale, and now she's telling the whole world. But see, here's the problem. Y'all looked at that, and you said, I wish my husband was like that. I wish my kids were like that.
See, you start to compete and compare. Here's one thing I want you to understand, one thing I've learned as a pastor, pastor, we are all messed up people. We have all, all of us have our issues. Our families all have issues. None of our families are perfect, and when I start thanking God for what he's done for me, it breaks that competition thing.
You with me on that? That's huge. Secondly, gratitude, the discipline of thanksgiving. Let me say this, I love this great story. Heard this story one time of a farmer, and his farmer looked around, and he saw other farmers who had farms he thought were nicer than his. He'd been living on the same farm all his life. It was a good farm, but this farmer with passing years had gotten tired of his farm. He longed for a change, something better.
Every day he found a new reason for criticizing his old farm. Finally, the farmer decided to sell his property, and he listed the farm with a real estate broker who promptly prepared a sales advertisement. This real estate broker, as one might expect, emphasized all of the farm's advantages, ideal location, modern equipment, healthy stock, acres of fertile ground, etc. So this real estate agent writes up about this farm, and before placing the ad online, the realtor called the farmer and read the copy to him for his approval. When he had finished reading this description of the farm that he's about to put online to sell, the farmer cried out, hold everything. I've changed my mind.
I'm not gonna sell. I've been looking for a place like that all my life. You start listing out God's goodness and you realize, I live a good life. God's really good to me.
He's really good. Second thing that gratitude saves us from is it saves us from depression. Robert Emmons, professor at University of California at Davis, UC Davis, is the world's foremost authority on gratitude, and he says this. Professor Emmons says, quote, in several studies, depression has been shown to be strongly inversely related to gratitude. In other words, the more grateful a person is, the less depressed that person will be.
The more depressed that person is, the less likely they are to go around feeling thankful for life. I want you to start trying. I'm not saying flush your medications, okay, but I want you to try this. Start trying to do what I'm about to share with you. Be a more grateful person.
It took your medications a little while to work, get in your system. Why don't you start being grateful and give it a little bit of time and let that get in your system and see if it breaks your depression. Gratitude saves us.
It saves us from competitiveness. It saves us from depression. Gratitude saves us from addictions. Multiple addiction, I'm talking about secular, multiple secular addiction recovery programs integrate gratitude to their recovery program. India symbols of God, the Pentecostal Church, and in Christianity, we actually have a recovering group called Adult and Teen Challenge.
Have you heard of that before? They have studied Adult and Teen Challenge, and it is probably the most effective addiction recovery organization in the world. They integrate a lot of things, but two things stand out to me. Number one, they integrate the power of the Holy Spirit. They say, man, how are you supposed to break all these addictions without the power of the Holy Ghost? They emphasize the power of the Holy Spirit. I love that. And secondly, they talk about gratitude, being grateful for what God's done.
I don't understand how that works, but there's something about gratitude that breaks addictions. The National Institutes of Health, I got it. I tell you, that's the government. I don't believe in the government. This is one thing about passing a bunch of right-wingers. Y'all don't trust the government. Okay, I get it.
It's the government, but sometimes they get it right. So the National Institute of Health, they did a study from 2015, and they said, quote, anecdotal evidence suggests there is a strong association between gratitude and recovery. So whether you're addicted to alcohol, pornography, drugs, I would suggest integrating this discipline of gratitude into whatever you're trying to use to break through this thing. There's something powerful about that in breaking addictions. So gratitude saves us.
It saves us from competitiveness. Gratitude saves us from depression. Gratitude saves us from addictions.
Look at this. Gratitude saves us from sickness. A November 23, 2010 Wall Street Journal article said this, quote, a growing body of research suggests that maintaining an attitude of gratitude can improve psychological, emotional, and even physical well-being. Adults who frequently feel grateful have more energy, more optimism, more social connections, and more happiness than those who do not feel grateful, according to studies conducted over the past decade. They are less likely to be depressed, envious, greedy, or alcoholics.
They earn more money, they sleep more soundly, they exercise more regularly, and they have a greater resistance to viral infections. That's interesting, isn't it? Hey, life and death, Proverbs says, is in the power of the tongue. You go around grumbling about how life is unfair and you're a victim, nobody likes me, why is God not good? You use your tongue in that way, you're gonna be a miserable person. I'm getting convicted of this. Like lately, my wife will ask me, she was like, what's going on, how you doing? I'm like, well, I'm getting old and tired. Well, you start saying I'm old and tired after a while.
You know how you're gonna feel? You're gonna feel old and tired because life and death are in the power of the tongue. And I used to make fun of Pentecostals like this. You ever heard one of these old time Pentecostals that you'd ask them, how you doing? You remember some of the old stymers that say I'm blessed and highly favored. Did you ever hear somebody say that? How you doing? Blessed and highly favored.
I just kind of laugh at that. But how's that, that's better than how you doing? Well, I got this little sickness and I hope it's not COVID. I hope COVID is not going back around again because I got the shot. And Fauci said, if I got the shot, I wouldn't get sick. I hate the government.
They lie all the time. What's better, that or blessed and highly favored? And so I just think there's power in speaking gratitude. Look, I'm not a Creflo, Copeland, whatever, but I am a Bible man.
And that Bible says very clearly that the words I speak actually have power. And so gratitude saves us from sickness. It saves us from anxiety.
I was talking to a Christian. I'm gonna say this. I've never seen so much anxiety in all my life. I'm not picking on you, but I'm not worried about outside right now. I'm worried about y'all. Not worried, concerned.
I'm concerned that in this body, there's so many people dealing with anxiety and I'm not here to fuss at you. I'm just saying something weird is going on in our society. I don't know if it started during the COVID thing when everybody got a spirit of fear. I don't know what's going on. There is a spirit of fear and anxiety. Have y'all felt this? Can you sense this?
It's just taken over. I was just a couple months ago preaching in another place, another city. And this lady came up and talked to me. She's a Christian, but she's the vice president in the public school system. She wants to be salt and light in the public school system. This Christian vice principal told me, it's like in a middle school. She said, Chad, I've got 800 students in this middle school. Basically 800 out of 800 are dealing with intense anxiety. She said, I don't know what's going on.
I'm not sure. And I know you attack this in different ways. I'm not just saying this one thing is the panacea. You do this, your anxiety will be over with. But I do think this is a significant part of attacking anxiety.
Philippians 4 verse 6. Be anxious for what? Nothing. But in what?
Everything. By prayer and petition, let your requests be made known to God. I just left something out right there.
What did I leave out? By prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Now some of y'all got the prayer and petition part right. Problem comes, I pray.
Challenge comes, I pray. You got the prayer part right. But if you're going to bake the cake, you got to use all the ingredients.
You can't leave out the eggs too. Prayer and petition with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God. And then Paul says this, you do this, the peace of God that you can't even explain or understand is going to guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. There's something about thanksgiving. A 2023 report from the National Institute of Health, they did a meta-analysis of 64 clinical trials. They came to the conclusion that gratitude did indeed alleviate anxiety.
You understand this? They looked at 64 different studies and they said, now, there is something powerful about gratitude in breaking anxiety. Chad, why are you bringing up a secular study? Because I always think it's beautiful when secular society finally catches up with the Bible, don't you?
And you do a quick Google of this. Google something like gratitude anxiety studies, and you come up with things like this. There's a 2003 study that says gratitude alleviated anxiety. 2012 study, Chinese researchers say gratitude alleviates anxiety. A study out of the University of Pennsylvania, gratitude alleviates anxiety.
Study out of the University of Miami, gratitude alleviates anxiety. I was reading about a lady in a counseling program in a major university. She studied me in a counselor, okay? And she says, I thought I was having asthma attacks.
I go to the doctor. He said, you're not having asthma attacks, you're having panic attacks. She said, how am I supposed to study to become a counselor to help people deal with anxiety when I can't deal with anxiety? She said, I worried about everything.
She said, I started reading some of these studies. I began to discover the power of gratitude and my panic attack went away. The theory is the part of the brain called the hypothalamus that regulates anxiety, the hypothalamus is stimulated by gratitude. And there's another theory that says the part of the brain where you worry is also the part of the brain that that formulates gratitude. So gratitude and anxiety cannot coexist in the same part of the brain. You are either grateful or you're anxious but you can't be both. Any way you want to slice it, Paul says right there, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.
Now I don't understand the dynamics behind that. Why is it, Philippians 4-6, that gratitude alleviates anxiety? I have a sneaking suspicion that when I'm thankful, okay, now watch this, when I'm thankful, I'm remembering this time God is good to me. That time he delivered me. God helped me through this. God helped me through that. And I think my brain now says, wait a second, if that God who helped me then and then and then and blessed me here and blessed me there, if he did that in the past, he's going to help me through this current crisis right now. It alleviates anxiety. Here's my question. How do you, how do you integrate thanksgiving into your life? Okay, I see the Bible's clear on this. Science is clear on this. The discipline of gratitude will change my life.
How do I do it? See, I used to be really big on, you know, New Year's Day. I'd make resolutions.
January 1st, 2023. As of this day, I will never again, blah, blah, blah. I am making a new commitment and they usually last about two days. Am I the only person on that? I did this one time. I was listening to a sermon. I can't, I think it was a Chuck Swindoll sermon.
Maybe it's David Jeremiah, one of these guys. I was listening to a sermon. And as Preacher said, here's what you got to do. You got to form a gratitude list. List out all the things you are grateful for.
Make a big list and start every single day going over that list. So I said, I'm doing it. And I sat down and I had this long, I just thank God for all, I wrote it all out, a long list. And I said, as of this day, oh Lord, every day for the rest of my life, I will begin my day going through this gratitude list.
It lasted two days and I got bored and I didn't do it. And so, how do you do this thing? How do you integrate gratitude into your life? Do you do the... Let me get you a couple of verses here. 1 Thessalonians 5, 18. In everything, give thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 5, 20. Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Father. Hebrews 13, 15. Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise.
Here's what the Bible is saying. This isn't a list that you go through at the beginning of the day. Watch this. Gratitude needs to be integrated into every waking hour of your life. As you are living your life, you integrate gratitude into that. Does that make sense?
The list thing may work for you. It didn't work for me. Here's how I integrate this discipline of gratitude into my life. When I wake up, I said, Lord, thank you for another day.
I think I read somewhere 25,000 people didn't make it through the night. Thank you for this day, God. It's a new day. It's chilly outside and I can hear my HVAC run. I just take two seconds. God, thank you for that HVAC.
I didn't deserve it, didn't earn it, but thank you for that HVAC, oh God. I sit down for breakfast and I used to eat 12 eggs a day. That was my breakfast.
Now that I'm getting older, I'm cutting back at it. I eat eight eggs a day. So as I'm eating these eggs, I just take a second.
I say, God, the stats say 10,000 people died of starvation yesterday. And I'm sitting here eating this food. God, thank you for the food you've given me. I go into the sink and I turn on the water to brush my teeth and I say, God, thank you for running water.
I remember going to Ethiopia one time and seeing these poor ladies carrying water things on their head a quarter of a mile to get water from the whale to their family. And Father, I just turn this little handle and water comes out. God, thank you. You see what I'm doing?
I'm not going through a list. As I'm going throughout my day, I'm just thanking God. I drive through Raleigh and I look at the skyline and I say, God, thank you for letting me live in Raleigh.
It's consistently ranked as one of the best places in America to live. God, you are allowing me to live in the best place in the best country in the entire world. Father, thank you.
That took two seconds. When's the last time you took a breath and thanked God for that breath? We take 23,000 breaths every single day. When was the last time you just thanked God for that breath?
The process of inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide is incredibly complicated. I get to church and I park my truck and I say, oh, God, I'm driving a 2014 truck. That thing is 10 years old. I bet that pastor down the road, I bet he has a nicer truck than I do. No, God, thank you for this truck that you've given me. And thank you for this church that I'm allowed to pastor. I shouldn't be pastoring this church.
There's smarter men, better leaders. God, I don't know why I thank you for this church. You see what I'm doing in church? I am integrating thanksgiving into my life.
I'm not going through a list. I'm thanking God. I get home at night and I open the door and I see the picture of my family on the wall and I walk by that and I just say, God, thank you for that family.
I love that family. I got a great wife, great kids. Church, here's what's going to happen. As you start to integrate this discipline of gratitude into your day-to-day life, you're going to see God do some incredible things. He's going to heal you of anxiety and depression and competition. He's going to give you a contentment, a calmness, a peace.
When you start understanding how great God is, it changes your life. Beloved, in all things, not for all things. My child died. Am I supposed to thank God for that? Not for all things, in all things.
Jedi, my wife left me. Am I supposed to thank God for that? Not for all things, in all things. As you live your life, you thank God for his goodness. Some of y'all here today, you say, I have nothing to thank God for. The finances aren't good.
The marriage isn't good. I may be laid off tomorrow. Things aren't going well, Chad. I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, but I really can't think of anything to thank God for right now.
How about this? You are headed for a devil's hell for all eternity and God sent his son, Jesus Christ, into this earth. And every sin that would send you to hell, he died on the cross for. He rescued you from hell. He's prepared a home for you. And when he's done finishing that home, he's coming back to take you to be with him.
I'd say that's something to be thankful for, don't you, church? In fact, you've heard me say this before. God created this beautiful, beautiful universe in six literal days. And it's a pretty astounding universe, isn't it? He's been waiting. Look at me. He's been working on your home for 2,000 years. What must that home be like? You got a lot to be thankful for.
If for nothing else, you thank God for Jesus. 2 a.m. on September 8th, 1860, a steamship called the Lady Elgin was wrecked off the shores of Lake Michigan. A young college student at Northwestern University named Edward Spencer, he watched the whole thing happen. He plunged into the frigid water, swam out, rescued one person, brought him to shore. He was injured by the wreckage, but young Edward Spencer jumped right back in that water, pulled a second person out and a third person.
People tried to stop him when he got back on the shore, but he couldn't be stopped. He kept jumping back in the water and saving person after person. He finally rescued 17 people and then collapsed on the shore.
Up to that point, young Edward Spencer had been healthy and robust. But after that night, his health was broken for good. A young man spent the rest of his life as an invalid in a wheelchair. Years after rescuing those 17 people and having his health broken and being confined to a wheelchair, somebody interviewed him and they asked him what he remembered about that night. Here's what he said, here's what he said, quote, of the 17 people I saved, not one ever thanked me.
He risked his life, he broke his health, nobody ever thanked him. Folks, God's been a good guy to us. He's given you a church that loves you, church family.
You're here in a climate controlled room. You're here in America where it's safe to praise the Lord Jesus and worship the Lord Jesus. He's given you, he's been so good to you. But the biggest thing God's done for us is sent his son and that young 33 year old man rescued us, pulled us out of a devil's hell at the cost of his life.
I'm overwhelmed with gratitude right now in this place. He's been so good to me. If he's been good to you, would you stand with me right now?
And let's do this. Let's don't ask him for anything right now. The election's over, you can stop praying about that.
Let's just, let's stop asking him for anything for the next few moments. And can you lift up your hands and lift up your heart and lift up your voice and just start thanking God. Say something like this, you know, Father, thank you. That divorce 30 years ago, I didn't think I was going to be able to make it, but God, you pulled me through that divorce.
Father, that cancer diagnosis, I thought this was it. I didn't know if I was going to make it and yet I'm still here. Father God, you have been so good to me. I was a wicked hellbound sinner and you saved me through your son Jesus Christ.
You are a good God. Right now, wherever you're at, just start thanking God in this place. Would you do that? Lift your hands and lift your voice and don't just say thank you God. Start thanking him for some specific things he's done, he's given you, thank him right now.
Would you do that? Don't look at me, look at him. Just thank him. Thank you, Father. Thank you for saving me from that sin. Thank you, my brothers and sisters. Thank you, Father, for adopting me as your child.
Thank you. Thank you, God. You know, God loves to reveal himself using different names and one of the ways that God revealed himself is he gives himself this name. I am Jehovah Jireh. I'm the God who provides for you.
You don't have to worry about going hungry. You don't have to worry about, I'm Jehovah Jireh. You're my child. I'm going to take care of you. Can we lift our voices right now and let's not sing this song. Let's pray this song to Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides for us. Every circumstance, Jireh, you are enough. And if he dresses the lilies with beauty and splendor, how much more will he clothe you? How much more will he clothe you if he watches over every sparrow? How much more does he love you? How much more does he love you if he dresses the lilies with beauty and splendor? How much more will he clothe you?
And how much more will he clothe you if he watches over every sparrow? How much more does he love you? How much more does he love you? How much more does he love you?
How much more does he love you? Jireh, you are enough. Jireh, you are enough.
And I will be content in every circumstance. Jireh, you are enough. Hey, church, let me ask you something. How many of your needs will God supply according to your riches in Christ Jesus? How many of them? All of them. How many times have we seen the righteous forsaken or God's children begging for bread?
Never. Jehovah Jireh was, is, is to come. You're resting in the palm of his hand.
He is for you, not against you. We ought to be the most joyful, happy, grateful people in all the world. And in the Old Testament, God basically said this. I know my people sometimes get up, beat up during the week.
They get knocked down during the week. And every now and then, my people need to be reminded of just how much they mean to me. That's why in the Old Testament, God said to the priest, put your hand over God's people and just say this to them. Which is Hebrew for, church, the Lord bless you. The Lord keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And the Lord turn his countenance to you and give you shalom, peace, wholeness, mind, body, soul, spirit in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit we pray. Amen and Amen. God bless you blessed ones. Go change this world for Jesus Christ.
