Character Matters // Gratitude // Pastor TW Bailey

And you know, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Psalm 100, you know, but thanksgiving, being thankful. You know, I've went back and looked up and I could remember, you know, history sometimes, some things I remember, some things I couldn't, but just a little bit of history about thanksgiving and what we're going to be looking at. You know, as you know, pilgrims came to America to make their home here in the wilderness and they came to this country looking for freedom to worship God.

That's what we have right now. We still have freedom to worship God. You know, they had their first harvest in 1621. Plymouth, Massachusetts, the fall of 1621, a little handful of devoted people in the midst of many dangers and great hardships. There was famine and so many things they went through. A lot of people died in the trip and a lot of people died of starvation. But you know, a handful got together through all the hardships and they set aside a time with Indians and pilgrims, as you know, and they set aside a time to thank God for his blessing, thanking God for what he had done.

They gave thanks and they feasted on what they have. And Lincoln appointed the last Thursday in November in 1864 as a day of thanksgiving and we still do that to the day. You know, the world a lot of times, when it comes to it, they go from Halloween, they jump right over to Christmas, they skip thanksgiving all together. You know, because thanksgiving doesn't sell stuff.

They're all about selling. You know, and sometimes as a nation, we forget to be thankful. And you know, when someone does something for you, you say what? You say what? Okay, I just want to make sure that you understood that.

You heard me. I know as a young kid, and I may have shared this before, but as a young kid, I would go over to my Uncle Bud and my Aunt Lois and they lived right beside us, you know, and I'd go over and borrow something from him. And he said, you can borrow it, but you take care of it and you bring it back.

I said, yes sir. Now Bud was one of those uncles. He didn't have to touch you.

He had eyes that could kill you and you thought he was going to kill you if he looked at you that particular way. So I always did. I walked on thin ice with Uncle Bud. But I can remember I'd go over and I'd carry it back. I said, Bud, I brought it back. And I was excited. I'd walk out the door and he'd say, oh, thank you for borrowing my stuff. I was like, oh, wait a minute, thank you for letting me borrow it.

He did that all the time. What was he trying to teach me to be thankful? To make sure that we say thank you for those who have done for us, for those who share, for those who are blessing to us.

And you know what? As believers, we have the most in this world to be thankful for, don't we? We should be the most thankful people in all the world of what God has done for us. But so many times we are forgetful and we're not thankful. Here in Psalm 100, it's a Psalm that you're very familiar with.

But it's a reminder to us all. You know, in Psalm 94 through 100, it's a series of Psalms. And here through the Psalms, it's a song of celebration. You know, I could almost hear, if you've been around any kind of Jewish churches and so forth, they do a lot of singing. And a lot of times they will sing through the Psalms. Now, I'm not going to sing through it because I want you to stay and listen to the message.

But you know what? It was a song. And this was sort of like the Hallelujah Chorus in Psalm 100. This was the top of the thing that I equated with the Hallelujah Chorus. That it concludes this series from Psalm 94 through Psalm 100. As you look at the Psalm, you may have it committed to memory. But he calls us to do two things here in Psalm 100. Just two simple things.

Now, I like to keep it short and simple because the more things it is, the less I can remember, the older I get. So just two simple things he calls us to do. First of all, he calls us to praise him. He calls us to praise the Lord. The psalmist says that we need to praise the Lord.

And I hope that you as your family had an opportunity to do that in your home this week. And he also calls us to be thankful. To be thankful.

Look with me. We're going to read through the Psalm and then we'll go back and look at the verses. Look at Psalm 100 starting at verse number 1. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness.

Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he that hath made us.

And not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. For the Lord is good.

His mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations. Bow with me for prayer if you would please. Heavenly Father, God we thank you for the word of God. We thank you, Lord, that you remind us through your Scriptures about what we need to do. Lord, just a reminder here that we're called to praise you.

We're called to give you thanks for what you do for us. God, I pray that you would speak to hearts, Lord, that you would draw us close to you. Lord, help us to be thankful people. As children of God, we have the very most to be thankful for. And Lord, as we come through a season of thanksgiving, Lord, may it not just be one day a year that on thanksgiving we give thanks for your goodness, but Lord, may every day, throughout the day, we give you thanks for what you do for each and every one of us. God, have your will and your way in each heart and life and we'll praise you and thank you for it in Christ's name.

Amen. Here in verses one through three, he calls us to praise him. Now, we've had an opportunity here this morning to praise the Lord through Psalm. There are many, many different ways, but here in verse number one, he says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord.

Make a joyful noise. Now, we joke about that and I've heard people saying, I've said myself, you know, I make a joyful noise unto the Lord. You know, some of us sing better than others. We have many up here that share their talents. They share their gift of singing. And we are blessed with a lot of people who have that gift of singing.

But not all of us have that gift. But I'm grateful. He says, make a joyful noise. Actually, the word noise can also be translated make a joyful shout unto the Lord. And then he says, all ye lands. What was the Psalmist doing?

He says, as the people of Israel, as the people of God, we all have something that we can shout praise for what he's done for each and every one of us. I'm reminded, I believe it was on Friday, I was coming home from my in-laws and I knew that my team, which you know, my team is different from Pastor Josh's team. I pulled for the light blue team.

He pulled for the dark blue team. But on Friday, it was difficult. You know, because we were doing things with my in-laws and eating and talking and you know, and part of me is like, I wonder what's going on with the game here.

My mind was slipping a little bit that way. So we get in the car, we were heading back. I turn on the radio and I'm listening to Carolina play football on the radio.

You know, because I couldn't see it. Well, my wife said, I need to stop at Walgreens to get some medicine. Okay, we'll stop at Walgreens. So we stop at Walgreens, I'm listening to it on the radio. But I also realized that Carolina basketball is playing at the same time. So on my phone, I pull up Carolina basketball, I'm watching them play basketball. I'm listening to the radio for Carolina football. And you know what, I'm going back and forth. I'm listening and I'm looking. And then every time I would hear a shout, I'm thinking, hey, maybe that's good.

Maybe that's good for my team. The shout was a shout of exclamation. The shout was something that was good that was happening. But in the end, I didn't get to do much shouting. Because we lost both games. It was a bad day.

We lost both of them. You know, there were other teams who were shouting. NC State was shouting. I know there was a certain young man in here if he's around here that is going there.

He's really happy. I thought about him. But you know what, it talks about the shout. I know I was sitting there in the car and the football game was going back and forth, back and forth. And we finally scored. I thought we had a chance to tie it up. I sounded like, yes, we got a touchdown.

And then they threw a flag and had to get, I mean, they did something, took it away. We got it again. I mean, I'm sitting there talking to my radio. You know, I'm not shouting, but I'm exuberating.

I'm cheering on my teams. But it's sort of what here the psalmist says. We need to be able to shout.

And I'm not saying you've got to scream out. But you know what, if I can cheer for my team, I should also be willing to cheer for what God has done for me. To say, amen, what God has done for me. To give God the glory, to praise him. He said, I want all the lands to praise the Lord. And you know, I'm grateful that we can praise him. You know, here as he speaks of two things, and you may have heard this, I don't know if you've heard this or not, but you know, we're talking about praising the Lord. And we're talking about being thankful to the Lord. But you know, a praising heart is also a thankful heart. And as well as a thankful heart should also be a praising heart.

To me, they go hand in hand. If I am praising God, I'm going to thank him for what he's done for me. If I have a thankful heart, I will always strive to praise him for what he has done for me and for my life, for you and for your life. Do we praise him? He says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all you lands. And then he says, not only should we praise him because of what he's done for us, because of he's given us salvation, because of what he did for us upon the cross of Calvary, we should always praise him. But then look what he says in verse number two. Not only should we praise him because of what he's done, but with that praise, we should also be willing, verse two, serve the Lord with gladness.

Have a happy heart when you serve the Lord. You know, and I'm not saying all of us are made different. You know, you have those who are more vocal in their praise. Amen. And you have others who may shout within their heart.

We're all made different. I'm not saying we all need to praise the Lord the same. We're going to praise him different.

You know, there are times when I'm sitting down there and God just begins to squeeze on my heart and my praise is coming through tears at times. We all praise him in different ways. He said, praise the Lord because of all he's done for us. He said, all the people, all the lands, but then are we serving the Lord with gladness? Here this morning, there's been multiple opportunities that the Lord has given us to serve him. There's been many people who've been serving him, maybe outward you've seen him, but other people have been serving back behind the scenes. You know what, always serving the Lord with gladness.

Is there a job in your life, a place of service that you have called your own? That you know what, when I come, I'm ready to do what God's called me to do and I want to do it with gladness. And that's what we all should desire to do. Now I'm not saying that everybody wants to get up here. Not everybody wants to get up here. I didn't even want to get up here. When God called me, it's like, Lord, you've called the wrong number. You know, I was never one who wanted to be up front.

There are people who God has given that calling to, but there's others that all throughout this day, there's been people serving the Lord. And you know what, we need to allow sometime our face to know what's in our heart is we have joy within our heart. You know, there's a lady sitting over this side over here that I think the world of, I call him Ms. Sparkplug, and she's got joy in her heart and you know what, she wants you to see it. And I love that about her.

I love the heart that she has. And so many of you, you serve the Lord and you've come in here today and you've done it with gladness and God desires each and every one of us to serve the Lord with gladness, whatever it's been, whatever job. And you know, there's so many different jobs. If I begin to mention the different tasks or ministries, I may leave somebody out. But whatever God has allowed you to do, whether it's in your Bible fellowship, whatever it's been, we need to serve the Lord.

He's reminded us not only to praise him, but we need to serve the Lord with gladness. He says, come before his presence with singing. You know, I need to sit up front. I like sitting up front. But there's a reason why I like to sit up front because, I don't know if I've been diagnosed with this, but as adult ADD, my mind can jump 10 different directions.

So I like to sit up front so I have less distractions around me. But you know what, when I'm singing, I want to hear the words. Because I want the Lord to minister to my heart through the words of the song. And he says, come before his presence. Here the psalmist says, when I come before his presence, I want to do it with the heart that's singing to him. Now, it doesn't matter about what you're singing. It doesn't matter to him the sound of your voice.

It's what's in the heart that God desires for each and every one of us to have. That we sing, that we come before his presence, that we praise him with our words. I tell people, I don't care what you sound like. It doesn't matter the sound of your voice. You know what, we need to sing with a joyful heart. And you know what, I love to hear the congregation when it sings.

I love those who get up here and who can sing and use their gifts. But you know what, it's about all of us coming together as a church, all you lands, all the congregation, the believers, not only to serve the Lord God, but come before his presence with singing. That's why singing is important. Now, singing is not the most important. What does singing do? I believe that singing prepares my heart for the message that God has for me and for you. You know, I've told Pastor Josh many times, I said, man, I had to roll my, you're stepping all over my toes.

Is it him doing it? It's the Spirit of God working in my heart. He wants to work in your heart.

He wants to work in my heart, but we have to have a heart that's open to him. And he says that we ought to praise God more. We ought to worship God more and we ought to sing to him. Sometime I'm sitting in the car, I'll be sitting in the stoplight and a song gets on me and I'm singing out and they're probably looking like, that dude's lost it. Who in the world is he singing to?

I'm in there by myself. But you know what, me and the Lord just having a good old time just singing. And it may not sound good, but the Lord ain't listening to my sound or my voice. What's he listening to? His child singing from the heart.

And I decided, I don't always do that. None of us always have a heartfelt on every single word, but God squeezes my heart. And God wants us to sing before his presence. You know why?

Look at what he says. Look at verse three, because he says, know ye. He says, do you know? Know ye that the Lord, he is God. And I can see the psalmist, we don't know exactly who, it could have been David, we don't know exactly who wrote the psalm.

But I can see David, whoever, whoever God led to write this. He says, know ye. All the lands know ye. Believers, all ye know. Know ye that the Lord, he is God. And it is he that hath made us. You know what? He created me. He created you.

And you know what? You're fearful and wonderfully made. And you know, the older I get, as many of you have asked about my wife, Michelle, and you know, I appreciate the prayers.

Y'all have reached out, y'all have texted and called, and I appreciate everything that was done, all the prayers that went up. But you know, this verse come to light in a way that I haven't seen in my own life, in such a personal way in these last years. But he says, know ye that the Lord, he is God and he that has made us.

He is our creator and he gives us life. And he said, and we are not ourselves. We're not in control. You're not in control, and I'm not in control.

God's in control. Well, Thursday night, we had supper and Michelle said, my stomach's not feeling right, I'm going to go in here and lay down. Well, about two and a half hours or so later, she said, I don't know, something's wrong, we need to go to the emergency room. Well, my wife wants to go to the emergency room, it's not something simple. I said, okay, we'll go. We went over to Clemens. I'm thinking the way she was hurting, I think, man, she may have a kidney stone.

I know all about that, you know. They got her in, took us three hours, as you know, emergency rooms take a while at times. And so we're sitting there, waiting and waiting and waiting. Finally, they called her back and we got to go back and they begin to give her some fluids like they normally do, you know, when you're going to the ER, could have been, you know, dehydrated somewhat, begin to get fluids. About 30 minutes later, she begins to cough. I said, you okay?

She said, I don't know. And coughing and coughing and coughing. I said, honey, you may be allergic to what they gave you. They gave her morphine and something for nausea. And about maybe 10 minutes or so later, nurse comes rolling in there.

And then the doctor comes in and she's coughing. And this is about 2 o'clock in the morning, you know. And of course, I'm concerned, I'm praying. We had prayers like I do with so many of you. I mean, but that time I'm husband, not associate pastor, I'm not. But you know what?

We're still dependent upon the God who created us. Well, after about 30 minutes, then the room got full. And it was about six or seven people. I said, Mr. Bailey, could you step out? It got real, real fast.

And you know, I know who's in control. They said, I stepped outside, they closed the curtain, and they began to work on her. The fluid was going into her lungs. She was aspirated. They had to put on a BiPAP machine. And I didn't know what was going to happen. You know, and they didn't know what was going on. And I was standing out there in the room, just me, and just God.

He's the creator. And I began to pray. Not outwardly, I was standing there by myself, physically.

But you know what? Spiritually, my Heavenly Father was right there with me. And you know, I began to pray.

I said, God, I don't know what's going on. But God, you do. And God, I pray for your touch upon her, because she's your child.

She's my wife, and I love her with all my heart. But God, you're in control. And God, I'm trusting you.

Lord, would you give wisdom to these doctors so they know what to do? But God, ultimately, it's in your will. And I left it with Him. I had some fear in my heart, I'll be honest. But after I prayed, the peace of God took over. And God said, it's going to be okay. He didn't say it to me verbally, but He gave me a peace in my heart.

Why? Because He is the one. He says, know the Lord, He is God.

It is He who hath made us, and we not ourselves. I had nothing to do with it. I would have done anything I could have done to help her.

I would have pulled out one of my own lungs and gave it to her if I would have helped her. But I was not in control. God was. And He showed Himself powerful. And He showed Himself faithful.

And I am grateful, because you know what? We are His people. Look what He says in the verse number 3. He says, we are His people. We belong to Him. She's His child.

She may be my wife, but she's His child. And I'm grateful that God answered. God did, what did He do?

He owns us. What is 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20? Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own.

For you will borrow the price. Therefore glorify God in your body, in your spirit, which are God's. We belong to Him. I don't belong to myself. You don't belong to yourself. If you know God is your Savior, you belong to Him.

You are His child. And you know what? As a child of God, and He owns us, He has done everything for us. That's what 1 Corinthians says there.

We've been bought with a price. And you know what? I strive to give Him glory. In the hard times. And that was hard. And it's not near as hard as what some of you have gone through.

But I dare say that many of you have experienced that same thing. When God takes over, and does for you what only God can do, and no one else may see it. And God is in control because we belong to Him. Romans 12 says that we are to be a living sacrifice. We're to present our bodies to Him. Why? Because He's bought us. And He's, as it says in verse number 3, not only is He, are we His people, we belong to Him.

Why? Because He is God. He has made us. And we are not in control. God is in control.

And there are things, you know what? We should not just praise Him when things are going good. We also need to praise Him when we're out of control, and God's in control.

We've got to give Him praise in the good times, but we've also got to give Him praise in the bad times. Because what is God doing? God is working things out for His glory.

God had a purpose and a plan. And He says that not only are we His people, but He says we're the sheep of His pasture. I don't know if you've seen this, but I went through there in Psalm 100, and the pronoun His is used throughout the Psalm, I believe seven different times. We belong to Him. We are His. We are His people.

He said we're coming to His presence, part of verse number two and verse three. And He said we're the sheep of His pasture. He leads our life. He had a plan. He had a purpose. He was leading us in the direction. We didn't know which direction God was leading, but God had a purpose.

And God was leading us. He said we're the sheep of His pasture. You know, I'm reminded, if you go back and look at John chapter 10, throughout the chapter here where Jesus says He's the Good Shepherd. Jesus is the door of the sheep, or to enter in. Jesus lays down His life for the sheep. He goes on to say, He said, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

Jesus gives them eternal life, and Jesus gives the sheep eternal protection. God had a planned purpose I didn't know anything about. And I'm grateful that God was in control.

And you know what? I give Him the praise for that. It's not easy to praise Him in the hard times.

It's easy to praise Him when things are going your way. But we also need to be reminded about what God allows in our life. We still need to praise Him because we belong to Him.

And then look at verse four and five. Not only are we to praise Him, but we are to thank Him. We are to thank Him.

We've come through Thanksgiving. This is considered a psalm of praise or a psalm of thanksgiving. Our heart should be thankful.

Our heart should be praising of Him. In verse four and five here, He says, look at verse four with me. He says, Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Here, and if you look at the two phrases, the word, as He says, enter into His gates with thanksgiving and to His courts. The gates there, my mind goes back to when we were there in Israel there and in Jerusalem there, there at the Wailing Wall, you walked into a large gate, a huge gate. You walked in, and then you walked into the courts. And it sort of has the idea that we walk in there as we worship Him. I've got to get into the gates to get to Him. I've got to get into the courts to get to His presence. It was a symbol for them to worship God at His place of worship.

But you know what? It also tells me that I also have a place in my heart. That there, when no one else knew, outside that room, people walking around, they didn't know I was entered into His presence. But I went into His gates, and I went into His courts, and I wanted to praise Him. And Lord knew I had a need, and I brought it before Him. And I'm grateful there that God had the wisdom to give to them to do what He had to do.

God had a plan and a purpose. I didn't know what that was. You know, honestly, I didn't know if that was going to be the last time I saw her. We don't know that. None of us know that.

We're not guaranteed another moment. But I'm grateful that God, and there in that moment, I reached out, I called out to Him, and there, as my Heavenly Father, He listened to my petitions. And I'm grateful there at 2 o'clock in the morning, 2, 3, and 4 o'clock in the morning, no one else is around, but God was there with us in our presence. And no matter where you're at and what you're going through, God is there. James 1-5, and I tried to practice what James 1-5 says, if any of you like wisdom, let him ask of God.

They give it to all men liberally, and it shall be given him. I wasn't praying for wisdom, because they weren't asking me questions. They were just telling me what was going on. I was praying for wisdom for those doctors, those nurses, to know how they could help my precious wife. How they could be the hands and feet of God as they did what God had called them to do. Because I realize, James also says in verse 17 of chapter 1, every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above.

It comes from the Father life, which is no variables near the shadow of turning. God had a plan. And I'm grateful that we can enter his gates with thanksgiving, we can enter his courts with praise. I hope that you've done that already today. That we've had an opportunity to bow before him, that we've spent time with him, and we've entered to the courts, the gates of thanksgiving, and the courts of praise.

Because God desires to do a work in each of our lives. When's the last time you thanked him? I've tried to do this this week, thinking of thanksgiving, and I've shared this with you before, but sometime when we're praying, what does it end up being? Lord, we need this. Lord, we need this. And Lord, we have this, and we have that.

But you know what? This week I've tried to not ask the Lord for anything. Now I did ask him that night. But I said, Lord, thank you. And I just tried to thank him for all of his goodness. And I can't begin to remember all the things that God has done for me. But it reminds me that I need to be thankful for what God has done for me.

You need to be thankful for what God has done for you. It doesn't mean that life's always going to be easy. We're going to have hardships.

There's going to be difficult times. But we are to give him thanks, and we are to praise him for what he allows in our lives. It ain't always the easiest thing to do, but it's the best thing to do for each and every one of us.

I want you to look with me. He says, Enter his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. And that's a challenge for each and every one of us, to bless his name, to give him thanks, to praise him for what he's done for us. You know, if all he ever done is saved us, whenever you trusted Christ as Savior, we have enough to praise him and thank him for all of eternity. But God doesn't just stop with just that, does he? He continues to bless us and minister to our needs and give us that which we need.

And I'm grateful for that. But look what he says here in verse number five. Verse number five here tells us why we can do in verse number one. Verse number five says, For the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations. He gives us here three things that we should be able to make a joyful shout unto the Lord. Verse number five first of all says, For the Lord is good.

He says that very same phrase in 106 verse 1, 118 verse 1, 125 verse 3, 136 verse 1, 145 verse 9, just in the psalmist alone. God is good. The Lord is good, isn't he?

He's good. God is good all the time. All the time God is good. And that is true through good or bad. God is still good. And I'm grateful that God is good and that God is good all the time to us.

Because as we're told in Romans 8 28, I know this is Pastor Fletcher, one of his favorite verses. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and to them who are called according to his purpose. God had a purpose and a plan. You know, when we went into that ER that night, we were thinking something abdominal, possibly kidney stone.

God had a different plan. We had no idea that she was in congestive heart failure. And her heart was only working at a 25% ejection fraction.

Now I never heard that terminology. You know, especially your heart function. Supposed to be 55 plus.

Hers was at 20 to 25. And when they gave her all the fluids, it flooded her lungs. And you know what? But you know what? God gave this, the pain here, to show us something else that could have been even greater. And I give God the glory for that pain there, even though it wasn't fun. But yet it showed what needed to be shown. God had a greater purpose.

And you know what? When God allows things in your life, he has a purpose for it. That's what Romans 8 28. He said we know that all things, he didn't say just the good things, all things whether good or bad, they're going to work together for good to them that love God.

I'm not saying it's always easy to enjoy the bad things. But sometimes God allows us to see just like he did in our situation, something that was bad led to something that was good. And God was showing his way. And I'm grateful for it because he says not only that the Lord is good, but he says the second thing in verse number five, the Lord is good, but his mercy is everlasting. His mercy is eternal. His mercy is forever. It endureth.

It's everlasting. Psalm 118, listen to what Psalm 118 verse one, oh, give thanks unto the Lord for he is good because his mercy endureth forever. Let Israel now say that his mercy endureth forever. Let the house of Aaron now say that his mercy endureth forever. Let them now that feel the Lord say that his mercy endureth forever.

Guess what? His mercy endureth forever. And the Psalmist continued to repeat it. He says he could have just said, hey, everybody, his mercy endures forever. And God is merciful to us. And I am grateful for his mercy. The Lord is good. The Lord is merciful. But then he says in the verse number five, and his truth endureth to all generations. I'm grateful that you go all the way back. He said his truth endureth to all generations.

What is that? From Adam and Eve until the last person, God's truth will stand. The word of God will stand true.

His truth endureth to all generations. You look at man's truth. Man's truth is constantly back and forth all over. But God's truth stays the same. And if it's between believing what man says and believing what this book says, you better believe the book. The book will be right.

Man will be wrong. And I'm grateful that his truth endureth to all generations. A verse that you know well. We've used it many, many times.

You've heard it many times. John 14, 6. Jesus said to them, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man cometh the Father but by me. It has a definite article which has the idea of I am the one and only way. I am the one and only truth. And I'm the one and only life.

And you can't get it apart from me. I'm the only way. And I'm grateful that his truth, he says in John 17, 17, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.

Malachi 3, 6 says, for I am the Lord, I change not. The God that the psalmist was praising, the God that the psalmist was giving thanks is the same God that you and I serve today. And it's the same God that you and I are called to not only to praise him, but also to thank him. And we have a lot to praise him about. We have a lot to thank him about.

And we never do it enough. But it's a reminder to me and to each of us that I am called to praise him and I am called to thank him. And may I do it until my last dying breath. And that should be a prayer of each of our hearts.

Bow with me in prayer if you would please. Heavenly Father, God I'm grateful. I'm grateful for the eternal truth, the word of God. And Lord I am grateful that Lord that we have an opportunity to read the precious word of God, to be reminded here today that I am to praise you both good and bad. I'm to give you glory for the good times and for the bad times. And Lord I'm to thank you for both. And Lord as we have set aside here in this country a time of thanksgiving. But Lord may us as believers never fail to daily praise your name.

To daily thank you for your goodness because we belong to you. And Lord I have preached to the believers here today. But Lord I remember a day that I walked into a church thinking I was saved.

And realized I didn't know you as my personal Lord and Savior. And Lord if a person will come to know you and realize that they are sinners. And Lord confess their sins to you.

And Lord call out to the God of heaven. Lord you will forgive them their sins. And Lord you will save them.

Lord you promised that. And for that I will praise you and I will thank you for all of eternity. Because Lord you never gave up on me. And Lord you have not given up on anyone who still has a breath in their body. God you desire for all to come to know repentance. Because you are the only one that we can find true salvation in. But Lord help us. Lord if there is someone here that has not done that. Lord may today be the day that they trust you as their Savior.

Lord may today they come forward and Lord we can have someone take them by the side and open God's word and show them how they can know Christ as their Savior. But Lord for those of us who do know you. Lord I'm grateful Lord that we have so much to praise you for. We have so much to thank you for. And God I'm grateful that you are our heavenly Father. And Lord you listen to the sound of our voice as a shepherd takes care of his sheep. You're our great shepherd. And Lord you're loving and tenderly taking care of each and every one of us. So God work in each heart here as we have this invitation. Speak to us Lord. Do our work as only you can. And we'll praise you and thank you for what you do. In Christ's name we ask it. Amen.