"Give Thanks to the Lord For..." By Brother Parrish Lee November 24th,
2013
Now,
that is a sight to see: So
many young
people, going to learn more about what the Lord means to their lives. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s a beautiful thing;
it’s something that
can be taken for granted. This
will
establish a foundation for them for the rest of their lives. When they go through
something that they
don’t understand, we’ve got parents, we’ve got brothers and sisters,
and, in
there, there’s scriptural teaching.
Good
morning, saints! Giving honor to God who is the
head of our lives. Our
Maker, our Creator, the Giver of all good
and perfect gifts. He
Who does that
which we could not ask; Who far exceeds our little mental capacity. He Who is faithful beyond
all that we know,
and beyond all that we’ve come to think, that same God, giving honor to
Him. Giving honor
to all those who have
gone on before us, before all of us.
The
ones who have established the ways, from the apostles, all the way down
to those
in this ministry: Those
who birthed it,
those who nurtured it, and helped see it where it is today. And, giving honor to all
of y’all. Giving
honor to all of y’all who have come to
today to present yourselves before God that He might be that help... Giving honor to y’all.
This is the month of
thankfulness—being thankful. Today’s
message is going to be just a little different. I’m
going to open in prayer, and then I’m
going to be turning over the mike.
If you could bow your heads with
me: Lord, we have
so much to come and be
welcome into Your presence and to be thankful for.
Lord, if we were to count the blessings that
You have given us, Lord, who could number them, for they are as the
sand by the
sea. Lord, we come
before you as Your
children as Your sons and daughters, as Your servants, God, to say
thank
you. We ask that
You continue to lead
us, guide us, and help us to all that You have fro us.
Let us never be the ones to step up to the
plate and say, “No, that’s not for me.”
God, make us strong, make us more adherent, and make
us more teaching,
more honest, more sincere in all the things that you’ve called us to do. Bless those that are going
to come and mount
the pulpit to talk to us, God, to bless us with things that You’ve
added into
their lives. As we
present ourselves, we
turn this over to You, and we say all of this in Jesus’ name, and
everyone
said, “Amen.”
As I said, it’s going to be a little
different, and I’m sure that some of y’all are saying,
“A-a-a-a-a-a-a-amen!” What
we’d like to ask,
we’d like to ask several families to come.
The first one is Kenny and Abbey. Ken
says that his wife is having a migraine, I
believe that he can explain it better than I can.
After him, I’d like to ask Mike and Norma, if
they could come and share. After
that,
then Laygoze and
Ken:
I think that’s my fault, that wife thing. I didn’t even know, and
she didn’t know, that
she was supposed to come and share this morning, because I got it
through a
text message on Friday night, so that was my good-up.
This morning, I want to say, Ken Ray, it’s
good to see you here. You
were here for
us when we were in one of the most difficult times of the church’s
history: the
transition, when a lot of people left and went to a different state. You were here for us, and
don’t underestimate
the value of that, and how you kept us together during that time, and
you’ve
helped us grow. Because
of you, and your
labors, and your wife’s labors, is why we’re here today. We just wanted to give you
thanks for that
and let you know that.
This
morning, when it comes to Thanksgiving, I think of Pastor Paine, who is
a man
who is always thankful. He
has taught us
to be thankful. I
try to pattern my life
after that, as well. Thanksgiving
is
something that is not tied to your inventory or your circumstances;
it’s a way
of life, and that transitions into to your faith.
How can you pray to God and ask for something
if you’re not thankful for something that God has already given you,
and God
has shown you? You
know, that’s how God increases
our faith, by blessing us and leading us, and, therefore, we know that
when we
pray, we’re going to receive an answer, whether it’s the answer we want
or
not. It’s through
God and it’s through
His faithfulness. I
know, for myself,
when I get down, and I get depressed, and I just start worrying about
things, I
start thanking God. When
I start
thanking God for what He’s done, it reminds me of what he will do. I don’t know, at the
present time, what He
will do, but I know that He will bring the victory—as Jesse always
says, God’s
always right on time. For
myself, if I
give it to God, God will melt that away, like He does the morning
dew—you know,
the wetness on the ground. By
the middle
of the day, when everything clears up, and it looks like it’s going to
be a bad
day or a tough day. So,
when you give
God thanks, God changes all that.
That’s
what Thanksgiving means to me today, more than anything else, just give
God
thanks, and God will turn it around.
Norma:
Good morning, church.
Parrish
asked us to come and share about Thanksgiving.
Many things came to my mind, one, that I never
celebrated Thanksgiving
before, when I was younger. I’m
thankful
for many, many things. When
I was
thinking about it, I thought about how my boy has been singing all week
a song
that he likes, that we play in the car almost every morning when we
take him to
go to classes. The
only part that he
sings is, “Nothing but the blood.”
Even
when he’s singing, just that one phrase, and I’m thinking, “Nothing but
the
blood of Jesus.” I
am grateful that we
can go to God anytime, that He is there for us no matter what. This Thanksgiving I want
to be grateful for
those things.
Mike:
I’m grateful for so many thing.
I
pray with our kids at night, and I always start with giving thanks for
all
these things. It’s
the same thing, day
after day. I feel
like it sounds so
generic, but I’m really thankful for God, for His person, for His truth. All our needs are taken
care of; my family is
doing good. My kids
are healthy; they’re
well. They love
God; I don’t know if
they really know what that means yet, but they express it in different
ways. They learn
from all of you and the
people that teach them and, hopefully, from their friends. I’m not good at this. I’m just very thankful for
God’s goodness,
and I thank Him for everything. It’s
like magic, but it’s not magic: God
is
everything.
Lorraine: When Laygoze told me that
we had been asked
to do this, I thought about everything, making some notes; I did some
reading,
did more than a bit of worrying, but, you know, I had to wait for God
and just
come to pick me up. It
was about being
thankful. There’s
so much to be thankful
for, from a little girl from
Laygoze: Thank God.
I’ve heard so many good things, and I know what
God’s done for me. I
love my wife, and I thank God for my wife,
my family, and my friends. You’ve
got to
think, way back, before we were even seen, God saw us.
He made a man in His image, and He gave up
His only begotten Son fro our redemption.
I’m thankful for that.
Ever since
then, God has been in a man’s body; He’s supplied everything a man can
need. When man
needed food, he had
that. He supplies
all our needs. Whatever
we needed, God supplied it. There’s
no reason not to be thankful to God.
They say God is a man, you know, but without
God, what could we do? I
thank God for
this ministry. I
thank God for the
sisters and brothers in this ministry.
Like my wife said, God has brought us each a mighty,
mighty long
way. Maybe further
than most. I was a
streeter, I was a street-fighter, I
did this, I did that, God never even bothered that.
Now, I don’t even think about that no more;
it seems like that never happened, because I’ve been delivered form
that. God’s been so
good! When God has
been that good to you, you can’t
help but stand up and say it. On
behalf
of my wife, we love you. Congregation,
we love you as God’s children.
Amen. I
actually thought y’all were going to take
longer. What a
message from our brothers
and sisters! Every
one of us could come
up here and testify about what we are thankful for.
Saints, that is the message today.
No, I do not have a whole lot to add, I just
have a little bit. What
a message! What a
message, Brother Kenny, Brother Mike,
Sister Norma, Brother Laygoze, Sister Lorraine…
How beautiful that, before God, you could testify as
to what He’s
done.
The Scripture for the month: Ephesians
5:20
Giving thanks always for all things unto God
and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; So what do we have to be thankful for? The title of the message
is, “Give Thanks to
the Lord For…” You
know, Brother
Malcolm, the way the songs went, and, Andy worked it out, and Chris had
requested, “Give Thanks to the Lord, for He Is Good.”
We sang that two Sundays in a row.
People could say, in the flesh you could say,
“That’s getting kind of redundant,” but, like you said, Mike, I get to
thanking
God for the same thing all the time, because I’m still thankful for it! I haven’t stopped being
thankful for it. We’re
thankful for waking up this morning in
our right mind. Getting
to walk across
the floor. Getting
to work and having a
job. I haven’t
stopped being thankful
for that, so I have to say, “Thank you, Jesus!”
I haven’t stopped being thankful for having food to
eat; being able to
lay down in a bed, getting some sleep.
I
haven’t stopped being thankful, so I have to thank Him for that, too. I haven’t stopped being
thankful for my
brothers and sisters, Brother Mike, Brother Rob, Sister Norma, Sister
Lorraine… I have
not stopped being
thankful to You, Jesus, for all that You have given to us, every day.
I
want to go over a little something in the Book of Psalms. David said: Psalms
107:1
O
give thanks unto the LORD, for he is
good: for his mercy endureth for
ever. Psalms
118:29
O give thanks unto the LORD;
for he is good: for his
mercy endureth for ever. Psalms
136:1
O give thanks unto the LORD;
for he is good: for his
mercy endureth for ever.
If you have any one of those verse
in your Bible, let’s read it together:
O
give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good:
for His mercy endureth forever.
Isn’t that marvelous?
He couldn’t say it enough!
So David said two things, two things over and
over and over again. These
are not the only
three places where he said that. He
said
it nine times! He
said it nine places in
the Bible; nine places! But,
this needs
to be a short message, so… Nine
places,
that he names these two specific things!
O give thanks unto the Lord… why? for He is good,
and, what else? His
mercy endureth forever. Anybody
here had
a taste of God’s mercy? I
know Go forgave
us, last week. Some
of us, I know we got
saved a long time ago. For
me, it was
thirty years ago. God
forgave me of my
sins, thirty years ago. And
twenty-nine
years ago. And
twenty-eight. He
forgave me of my sins three years ago.
He forgave me of my sins last week.
Hallelujah! He
forgave me for my
sins yesterday. Mercy
just keeps coming,
flowing from
Your mercy, Lord…
Laygoze, you said, you know, it was like it
was never there, because God made it so real, so powerful. Sometimes when we meet
people now, they say,
“Oh, this guy…” or,
“This lady must have
been a Christian all their life!”
That’s
how thorough that blood is. Nothing
like
it. That’s how
powerful it is. You
know, a lot of times, when you get a
sickness, you get some medication…
There’s always some sort of reminder that you had
this thing. It
ain’t that way when you come to Jesus and
He washes the sin away. Sin;
sin! He washes sin
away! Put your
finger on sin; try to identify
it. Have a curse on
your diction, and
let God take it away. You
forget, you
forget what it was before, because He’s that good.
We just want to say, thank you, Lord. Thank you, thank you,
thank you, thank
you.
So, give thanks to the lord for…
We could each name plenty of things.
We could each—and, saints, we have to make
mention of what we’re thankful for.
Yes,
we have to tell it. We
have to tell the
number one—I can’t really say person—but the number one that we have to
tell it
to is the Lord Himself. If
you say,
“What about waking up in a right mind this morning?
What about walking cross the floor?
What about food?
That’s just the general stuff, you know?” When we were younger, we had
to learn some
lessons, so, people that wanted us to grow up right, whether they were
parents
or teachers or whatever, they would try to teach us, make us get the
point. Sometimes it
would be on a test,
and you would get a grade on it, and you would have to take it over if
you got
an ‘F.’ With
parents, if you don’t get
the lesson right, you might have a whole different type of taking it
over. There might
be a completely different
challenge on re-learning that lesson.
Was that politically correct enough?
Where I come from—I’m not going to say that, I think
I got the gist
across. The point
of the matter is,
don’t let God have to teach you that lesson over, because we refused to
learn
it the first time. didn't
understand
that we could be equipped to have a better life for ourselves. “But I
don’t
need to be thankful for waking up in the morning; I don’t need to be
thankful
for food to eat; I don’t need to thankful for walking across the floor…” Oh?
Talk to Brother Job. In one inkling, while they were
talking, lost
everything he had. Lost
everything he
had. Yes, God
intended to bless him,
but, there was a lesson to be learned.
God
is the giver of all good and perfect gifts (James 1:17), and, because
of that,
Job was able to say, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him…” (Job
13:15) So, we want
to be able to come
before His presence with thanksgiving and enter into His courts with
praise (Psalms
100:4). We've all
seen people—we know
people, and some of are those people—have it demonstrated to us; we
might have
a wonderful job, and then find out that our company is going to be
downsizing,
or we might have a wonderful business, and find out that the climate
has changed. Just
check out Blockbuster or Best Buy or
Office Depot or… Even now, it’s Dominick’s.
So many of them.
Should you pray
for your jobs? Yes! Yes!
Should you pray for your business? Absolutely! Should you pray for your
families? 100%, yes! Should
you thank God for them? Yes,
yes, yes! We have
to get to the place where we take out
time to do specifically that. We
take
out time, we set time—it’s up to you how much time, where, when, how,
but we
have to take time to thank Him. God,
You
are good. So, we
ant to make a point
of—you’ve ever heard of counting your blessings?
You have to make a point, sometimes, of
counting out the things that you are thankful for: your blessings. And, my next-to-the-last
scripture: Psalms
139:13-18
For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast
covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that
my soul knoweth right well. My
substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest
parts of the earth. Thine
eyes did see
my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which
in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How
precious also are thy thoughts
unto me, 0 God! how great is the sum of them! If
I should count them, they are more in number than
the sand: when I
awake, I am still with thee.
“For
thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.” You know, Laygoze, he
says, you could almost
testify you think maybe He done forgave you for more than everybody
else. You know
personally about yours—I would like
to beg to differ. I
think I could give
you a run for your money on that one, bro.
David said, “I’m not even going to start there; I’m
going to start from
when I was formed in sin, and shapen in iniquity (Psalms 51:5); from
the very
beginning, I needed God.” That’s
what
David said. And
here he says (in verse
14), “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made:
marvellous are thy works; and that
my soul knoweth right well. My
substance was not hid from thee, when I
was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the
lowest parts of the
earth. Thine eyes
did see my substance,
yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written…” God, you’ve got the count
of me down to the
last grip, to the last iota, to the last point…
You know it all!
You’ve got it
all there! “When as
yet there was none
of them. How
precious also are thy
thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!”
How great, Lord, how great is the sun of all
of the things that You want to bless us with?
How great is the sum?
In verse
18, “If I should count them…” If
I
should count them, not just what He has
done, but what He wants to do for
us. What He wants
to do for us. If we
could count them, “…they are more in
number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.” Here is our victory: When I awake, I am still
with You,
Jesus. You didn’t
leave me; no matter
what state it was, You never left.
When
I awake, whether it’s from sleep or from something crazy going on in my
life… When I awake,
no matter what the
cry was, no matter the drudgery it was; when I awake from a situation,
or even
a crazy relationship… When
I awake, You
are still with me, God, through everything.
Should we tell people what we’re
thankful for? Should we tell people about our
blessings? Absolutely, when the
opportunity presents itself, absolutely!
Should we let people know? Absolutely!
Should we publish it? Absolutely!
As the opportunity presents itself.
We don’t want to quench the Spirit, but it’s God
that opens the doors,
not us ourselves. Amen. 1 Thessalonians
5:18 In every thing give
thanks: for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you.
Should I give thanks when I get in
my vehicle? Amen. Should
I give thanks
when somebody gives me something that I don’t want? Amen. At least they thought
about you to give it to
you. Should I give
thanks when somebody
says something that don’t really make me happy? amen, you were able to
hear
it. Now you know
how to pray. Should
I give thanks when I get that second
piece of sweet potato pie? For
me, it’s
the fourth piece, but, if I get a second piece, I’m happy; if I get a
third,
I’m still happy; if I get a fourth, then, amen,
I’m happy! In
everything—in everything,
saints, give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning us.
Our wish and prayer is for everyone to
have a wonderful Thanksgiving season, to be able to have a wonderful
meal, and
a wonderful encounter with family, friends, whoever, but, most of all,
have a
wonderful time with our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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