SPEAKER_01: The word of God today comes from the book of First Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: And we are reading this from the easy to read version of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Easy to read version of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And we have a program in collaboration with Bible League, International Discipleship Program, where those who probably you don't have a Bible and you would like to have a personal Bible.
SPEAKER_01: We have a program that takes us through a discipleship series.
SPEAKER_01: And part of what you receive during that discipleship series is a Bible, a full Bible, an easy-to-read version.
SPEAKER_01: We are already doing a pilot with the talking hands.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh and our brother why is your name disappearing?
SPEAKER_01: Shout it.
SPEAKER_01: Our brother Felix is uh uh part of the maturity team and is coordinating us in that program.
SPEAKER_01: If you would like to register for such a program, please go to the connect tent.
SPEAKER_01: One verse.
SPEAKER_01: Let's read it together uh using this ERV version.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever happens, always be thankful.
SPEAKER_01: This is how God wants you to live in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let's take that again.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever happens, always be thankful.
SPEAKER_01: This is how God wants you to live in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the word of God, and God's people say, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I invite you to have your seats in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Allow me to also acknowledge my kate.
SPEAKER_01: My kate is in the house today, and we thank God for my kate, my wife, and actually my entire family is in the house today.
SPEAKER_01: So those are my our daughters.
SPEAKER_01: At the far end, we have our firstborn Joki, then followed by Nduta, and then we have our thirdborn Nyakeo.
SPEAKER_01: And we bless the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: This is a great, a great team behind me.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you.
SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you, when you see a man with daughters, when you see a man with daughters, do not underestimate his wealth capacity.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm not saying anything, I'm just saying when you see a man with daughters, do not underestimate what his wealth capacity.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yeah, so that's that's enough for now.
SPEAKER_01: You know now, you know.
SPEAKER_01: If you didn't know, you know.
SPEAKER_01: I I bring to us briefly a message titled Thanksgiving Whatever Happens.
SPEAKER_01: Thanksgiving whatever happens, and when I was reflecting on this one verse, I know and I am very much alive to the fact that it is dangerous to build theology on one verse, it is dangerous to even build doctrine on one verse.
SPEAKER_01: But I dare say, because I am also in that space, that there are some Bible verses that are a whole theology in themselves.
SPEAKER_01: That when you read that Bible verse, for example, when Jesus said, This is the first commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your mind, and he said, This is the first commandment.
SPEAKER_01: And the second one he said, and love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And and and then he says, This sums up all the law and the prophets, is a whole theology.
SPEAKER_01: In short, if you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your mind, with all that you have, and then you love your neighbor as yourself, you do not need to worry of any other commandment.
SPEAKER_01: You have fulfilled Genesis chapter 1 to Revelation, chapter, to the last chapter of uh the book of Revelation, a whole theology.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 1, uh chapter 3, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_01: In that one verse, we have the whole theology of redemption in it.
SPEAKER_01: If you read John chapter 1 and Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1, and Genesis uh chapter chapter 1, verse 1 again, it talks about in the beginning God.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you are going to study the theology of God, the ex whether God exists or he doesn't exist, whether he was created or he was not created, by just reading that one verse, you have the entire theology of who God is.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to submit to us this afternoon, brothers and sisters, that in this one verse that says, Whatever happens, always be thankful.
SPEAKER_01: This is how God wants you to live in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In it, we have the entire package of the theology of thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: That if we are going to learn anything about thanksgiving, it can be unpacked from this very uh verse.
SPEAKER_01: And today, as we gather for uh to celebrate and to give thanks to the Lord, we are not doing this because everything went the way we planned in the course of the year, at least up to now.
SPEAKER_01: We are not giving thanks because every prayer we made was answered exactly the way we desired, at least until now.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, we are not even giving thanks because everything that we had in the course of the year was pare after pare.
SPEAKER_01: There were moments of pain, there were moments of struggle, there were moments of challenges.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to submit to us that from this one verse, we are invited to give thanks to God because He alone is worthy of our thanksgiving at all times.
SPEAKER_01: You know, when I was in school, there are some teachers who would punish us, or rather, was it punishing or disciplining?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you will not know the difference, sometimes you will not even know when they got personal, but anyway, in in all that, there are some teachers who will give us some beating, and then they say, we say thank you, and I can assure you that that thank you was never from the heart, and they insisted you say thank you with a smile.
SPEAKER_01: Teachers, you know, there are people who can insist that you you you you thank them, but I can I can attest that it is not all the time we thank everyone, there are people we don't thank, and we probably have reasons, but if there is someone we can thank in all seasons of life, there are some seasons in life that husbands don't thank their wives, there are some seasons in life that wives don't thank their husbands, there are even seasons in life that children don't thank their parents.
SPEAKER_01: But if there is one whom we can thank in all seasons of life, this is God.
SPEAKER_01: You can thank him when you're happy, you can thank him when you're sad, you can thank him when you are celebrating, you can thank him when you're mourning, you can thank him when you're in pain, but you can also thank him when you are in good health.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why Paul then sums this and says, Whatever happens, always be thankful.
SPEAKER_01: And when I think about this, it must take something more than the natural human state to enter into a realm of thanksgiving, whatever happens.
SPEAKER_01: It is not in the human capacity, in fact, it is not even easy.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it is not even practical, but we have reason why we can thank God always.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to share with us three things why we can be thankful all the time, whatever happens.
SPEAKER_01: The first one, we can be thankful all the time, whatever happens, because God never changes.
SPEAKER_01: The second one is that we can be thankful all the times because God never hides himself from us.
SPEAKER_01: God is always revealing himself to us, but we can also be thankful to God at all times, whatever happens, because God never stops doing good.
SPEAKER_01: He is always in the business of doing good.
SPEAKER_01: And so, going to the first point, God's unchanging nature is the foundation of our thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: As a child of God, if you're going to give thanks in in January and you give thanks in the month of February and March and April, and you continue in that way, irregardless of what has happened in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And today you come into the house of the Lord and you enter with thanksgiving and joy and praise to his name with a song of worship and a song of praise and a heart that is full of gratitude, and a face that has a smile, and it is not a plastic smile.
SPEAKER_01: It is because of the fact that God has been unchanging in your life.
SPEAKER_01: That one nature of God that he doesn't change is the foundation upon which our hearts can give thanks at all times.
SPEAKER_01: When Paul is writing to the church at the Salonica, this was a young church.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it is a church that he had planted, he had gone and ministered there, and some people believed, and he was chased out of the city, and a great persecution broke into that city, and the believers there were highly persecuted.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul is saying, in these circumstances, in the situations that you are in, whatever you are going through, Paul was not writing to a people who are merry-making.
SPEAKER_01: Paul was not writing to a people who had all great testimonies of fun and joy.
SPEAKER_01: He was writing to a people under persecution, but he was telling them that even in persecution, God requires of you that you maintain and and embody an attitude of thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: The only thing that can keep you giving thanks in all situations is when you think of God and you know of God in his unchanging nature.
SPEAKER_01: It is when you are convinced in your heart that God is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore.
SPEAKER_01: It is when you are convinced in your heart that even if everyone else hates you, God loves you.
SPEAKER_01: It is when you are convinced in your heart that even if it doesn't matter how low you have fallen, this God still loves you.
SPEAKER_01: It is when you are convinced in your heart that it doesn't matter how dark the night is, he will never leave you nor forsake you.
SPEAKER_01: He does not change.
SPEAKER_01: It is when you know his nature is that even if he has not yet healed me, that this disease, his name is the God who heals all my diseases.
SPEAKER_01: That is his nature.
SPEAKER_01: It is not about what he has done for me, it is about who he is, that he is God Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: It is when you know that he is your father, it is when you know that you are not an illegitimate child, that he loves you, he calls you his own.
SPEAKER_01: It is when you know though there are things that have become impossible in my life, there is nothing that is impossible with him.
SPEAKER_01: You know that he doesn't change.
SPEAKER_01: It is when you know that this is the God who keeps his promises from generation to generation, he has remained faithful as his nature.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the Bible says that sometimes we are faithless, but he remains faithful because that is his nature.
SPEAKER_01: No wonder we say that God is good.
SPEAKER_01: God is good, and all the time this God has been good in January when it was difficult for you, he remained good.
SPEAKER_01: He was good in February when people deserted you, he remained good.
SPEAKER_01: He was good in March when you are going through a struggle and a pain, he remains good.
SPEAKER_01: This God has remained good even in the month of May, and in the month of June, and in the month of July, in the month of August, in the month of October, and this month he remains to be good.
SPEAKER_01: And I declare to you in Jesus' name that even in December he will remain to be good.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, some things did not happen the way we expected them to happen.
SPEAKER_01: Some deals did not go through.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, let me tell you, some deals were stolen right at your face.
SPEAKER_01: But he says, That which I have in store for them that I love, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has perceived.
SPEAKER_01: Though that deal did not materialize, he still has something in store for you.
SPEAKER_01: He has not changed.
SPEAKER_01: Some things pushed you down, but God remained faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Give thanks to him.
SPEAKER_01: Some things were but for a moment, but God remains to be eternal.
SPEAKER_01: Give thanks to him.
SPEAKER_01: Some people actually gave up on you this year.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have, I don't know whether there is somebody with that unfortunate testimony that some people gave up on you this year.
SPEAKER_01: I am here to tell you that you have something to thank God for because God has not given up on you.
SPEAKER_01: God will never give up on you.
SPEAKER_01: Some people deserted you this year, but God has never left you.
SPEAKER_01: Some people left your WhatsApp group, but God has always been in that WhatsApp group.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, he is the admin in that WhatsApp group.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one who admits those who need to be there.
SPEAKER_01: And he's also the one who releases those who must go.
SPEAKER_01: He is the chief admin.
SPEAKER_01: He never changes.
SPEAKER_01: You know, there are some people that we think they must be in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I am here to disappoint you.
SPEAKER_01: There are some people God has been deleting from your life.
SPEAKER_01: Allow him to delete them because they have been changing from one season to another.
SPEAKER_01: Cling to the one who does not change.
SPEAKER_01: His name is God.
SPEAKER_01: You lost some things this year, but he held you.
SPEAKER_01: You know, some of us, when we look at our lives, one of the things I am very sure, I am certain, based on the life that I lived before Christ, you know, carried me through, some of us are not supposed to be alive.
SPEAKER_01: We are supposed to have been buried long ago and forgotten.
SPEAKER_01: Probably even worse still, without children, at least without somebody you can they can say his father was this.
SPEAKER_01: But because this God is unchanging, he found us in our circumstances, he brought us from our situations, he picked us from our villages, he picked us from where we had been left, and he brought us to his glory, and that's why today we are shining.
SPEAKER_01: Not because of our villages, not because of the people we knew, but because there has been an unchanging God in the equation of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know whether I have somebody with that testimony that you can say, oh, up to this point, it is the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And senior pastor introduced another terminology to us this year.
SPEAKER_01: Akatwambia mumbu ninani.
SPEAKER_01: Mungbu ninani.
SPEAKER_01: If it were not for the Lord who does not change, we will have nothing to give thanks.
SPEAKER_01: But secondly, not only are we giving thanks because of the unchanging nature of God, but we are giving thanks because of God's revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Thanksgiving grows from what we know about God.
SPEAKER_01: Your level of thankfulness isabu is it wasn't perpendicularly.
SPEAKER_01: There was something about is proportionally.
SPEAKER_01: It is proportionally.
SPEAKER_01: You remember those uh inverse uh whatever relationships of uh of what of uh what are they called?
SPEAKER_01: Variables.
SPEAKER_01: Glory.
SPEAKER_01: So so so your level of thankfulness is proportional to your knowledge of who God is, your level of thankfulness grows day by day, depending on whom you know or how much you know this God.
SPEAKER_01: Let that sink for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: But let me also bring another statement: this God delights to reveal himself to you.
SPEAKER_01: His delight is that you may know him.
SPEAKER_01: And when you read through the scriptures, the many things that God did for the children of Israel, almost in everything, God would end with a statement that says, so that they may know that I am their God.
SPEAKER_01: Ever read that statement in the journey of the children of Israel?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he the Lord brought all these ten plagues in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: Why did he do that?
SPEAKER_01: So that they may know, so that his children may know that he is God.
SPEAKER_01: God desires and delights to reveal himself to you.
SPEAKER_01: And two very key ways in which God reveals himself to you is that he reveals himself to us through his word.
SPEAKER_01: That as we continually read the word of God, we come across statements like he is Ebenezer.
SPEAKER_01: And you realize that I am not walking alone.
SPEAKER_01: Even in the month of November, Ebenezer is by my side.
SPEAKER_01: And there is a singer who sang, Umba litume toka, Namahali tu me fika Diomana nina tambua.
SPEAKER_01: Kwaambawewe ni Ebeneza Kwa uwe so wanguswa uwe so Mahalini mefika meme.
SPEAKER_01: A chani kusukuru meni nifike mahalini mefika.
SPEAKER_01: My shanimwe.
SPEAKER_01: How do you discover this Ebenezer?
SPEAKER_01: It is not by relying on the things that are happening around you, it is by reading his word and knowing, yes, his name is Ebenezer.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: He is the Lord who heals all our diseases.
SPEAKER_01: How do you know that he is with you?
SPEAKER_01: Because when you read his word, he says, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
SPEAKER_01: David walks with the Lord in his life and he discovers and gives a testimony, and he says, I was young, but now I am old.
SPEAKER_01: I have never seen the righteous being forsaken.
SPEAKER_01: I have not seen their children begging for bread because there is a Jehovah in heaven, and his name is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides all our needs.
SPEAKER_01: He meets all our needs.
SPEAKER_01: It is not about the things that he has done, it is about the revelation of his word.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which can never be shaken.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore, when you are walking through the storms of life, you are able to stand up and say, I am one who has put my trust in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so this storm that has come will not shake me.
SPEAKER_01: I am going to shake this storm.
SPEAKER_01: I am going to go through it because I have one who is on my side and he is dependable.
SPEAKER_01: The word of God.
SPEAKER_01: It is the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: It is the word of God that will reveal to you that God will bless your children so that you are not walking in worry.
SPEAKER_01: You walk in the assurance of the word of God that says that the children of the righteous shall be mighty in the land.
SPEAKER_01: And I know God is faithful to that word.
SPEAKER_01: And so I am not worried about these three girls.
SPEAKER_01: All I have done is commit them to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, one of the things that happened this year is that finally the last one got born again.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Jesus, come into my life.
SPEAKER_01: Now, some of you may say she is only five years old.
SPEAKER_01: All I know is that she is a saint, she is a child of God.
SPEAKER_01: She has been saved by the same blood that saved me.
SPEAKER_01: She has been redeemed by the same blood that redeemed me.
SPEAKER_01: She has been made whole by the same blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that saved me.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, she will be sustained by the same blood that has sustained me over the years.
SPEAKER_01: Because this God has revealed Himself in His Word.
SPEAKER_01: I have many things to thank God for.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know whether I have people with a testimony.
SPEAKER_01: We have something to thank God.
SPEAKER_01: It is through his word that we realize I was blind, but now I can see.
SPEAKER_01: I was lost, but now I am found.
SPEAKER_01: It is through his word that we will be reminded.
SPEAKER_01: You know this verse in the book of Matthew, chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: It talks about uh uh uh this this the birds of the air, and it says, the birds of the air, they do not do what they do not sow, they do not reap.
SPEAKER_01: Even the animals out there, they do not sow, they do not reap.
SPEAKER_01: But come back to that passage that says that the birds of the air do not sow, they do not reap.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what it says next?
SPEAKER_01: Get that passage for us.
SPEAKER_01: It should be Matthew chapter 6, verse um verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: Give us that passage.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see something, Matthew chapter 6, verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.
SPEAKER_01: Is not life more important or rather more than food, and the body more than clothes?
SPEAKER_01: And then it goes on to say, look at the birds of the air, they do not sow, they do not reap, they do not store anything in buns, and then it says something very important.
SPEAKER_01: Yet, my heavenly father feeds them, yet my heavenly, it's not my uncle, it is not, it is not my cousin, it is not my boss, it is not the government.
SPEAKER_01: My heavenly father feeds them such that they lack nothing, and then it goes on to say, uh, are you not much more valuable than they?
SPEAKER_01: You know, your father has enough resources to feed all the birds of the air.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to imagine how many birds do we have in this world?
SPEAKER_01: Do you know there are so many species of birds you have never seen, and in your lifetime you may never see them.
SPEAKER_01: Those birds, he feeds them every morning.
SPEAKER_01: They wake up every morning and they have food.
SPEAKER_01: They are not fed by your uncle.
SPEAKER_01: They are, I don't know whether you are getting the revelation, they are fed by your father who is in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, You are much more valuable.
SPEAKER_01: I am speaking to somebody who doesn't know that they are much more valuable, and I declare to you now, you are much more valuable than a cow, you are much more valuable than the birds of the air, you are much more valuable than the wild animals that we go out there to view.
SPEAKER_01: You are much more valuable because your heavenly father is your provider.
SPEAKER_01: I have something to thank God for.
SPEAKER_01: But God has also revealed Himself through His presence.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus told his disciples that I'm not going to leave you as orphans, I am going to send a helper.
SPEAKER_01: January, you are walking with a helper.
SPEAKER_01: You may not have discerned it, you may not have known it, but what has carried you through from January to this moment is the helper.
SPEAKER_01: You had a comforter in the moment of pain, there was a comforter right next to you.
SPEAKER_01: Even when you were disserted, he remained with you.
SPEAKER_01: In times when you needed wisdom, there was a counselor who was always close by your side.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the Bible says that is anyone lacking wisdom, let him ask.
SPEAKER_01: Because there is a counselor who gives us wisdom for the moment.
SPEAKER_01: There has always been an advocate who has always been by your side.
SPEAKER_01: This advocate is standing in the gap for you.
SPEAKER_01: You have never been alone, you have always had a companion, the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: If only you knew how much God protected you, if only you knew the arrows that were sent your direction, and this God kept you safe from those arrows, if only you knew how many haters surrounded you, and this God covered you from their malice, if only you knew how many people wished you destruction, but God continued to say, I'm lifting you from one glory to another.
SPEAKER_01: If only you knew how many enemies surrounded you, and yet he placed a table before you in the presence of your enemies, so that they can know there is a God by your side.
SPEAKER_01: God is on your side.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I have something to thank God for.
SPEAKER_01: He has been on my side.
SPEAKER_01: But finally, not only are we going to thank God because of his unchanging nature, not only are we going to thank him because of his revelation of himself to us, but we are also going to thank God because of his works.
SPEAKER_01: God's works.
SPEAKER_01: And God's works, they bring forth an overflow of thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God is always doing good.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to get that revelation that God is always doing good.
SPEAKER_01: Let's let's look.
SPEAKER_01: At Romans chapter 8, verse 28, and see what is happening there, even as I bring this to a close.
SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter 8, verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, and we know this is Paul making a declaration, and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, those who have been called according to his purposes.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, God has been doing good, not in some things.
SPEAKER_01: Even in the things that we can categorize as not good.
SPEAKER_01: God was working out something for you.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you love him.
SPEAKER_01: Do we have people here who love God?
SPEAKER_01: Do we have people who love God?
SPEAKER_01: God reciprocates that love by doing good in every situation for your life.
SPEAKER_01: You know there are some people who don't know how to reciprocate love.
SPEAKER_01: You love them diagonally, they still don't see.
SPEAKER_01: You love them horizontally, they still don't see.
SPEAKER_01: You love them in a secular manner.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Felicity is here, our family pastor.
SPEAKER_01: She will tell you all those kinds of loves.
SPEAKER_01: But they still don't reciprocate.
SPEAKER_01: But we who love our God, we who are called according to his purposes, he is always working good through all situations.
SPEAKER_01: God is always at work, even when we don't feel him, God is at work.
SPEAKER_01: Even sometimes when we do not acknowledge him, he does not stop moving in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: God cannot do evil, and there are people who have struggled with them.
SPEAKER_01: Why is there evil in the world?
SPEAKER_01: Yet we are saying we have a good God.
SPEAKER_01: God exercises his sovereignty even in evil.
SPEAKER_01: There are things for sure we will not understand, we will not see the goodness of what is it that is good in this, but in the heavenly places, because the Bible says, For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, to that belief of his plans.
SPEAKER_01: You know, God tells the children of Israel that for the next seventy years you are going into exile.
SPEAKER_01: And until the 70 years are done, you are not coming out of that thing called exile.
SPEAKER_01: You are not the Babylonians, but in that I know the plans I have for you, and that's why he tells them, in that land, because I know the plans I have for you, marry and get married.
SPEAKER_01: Because as it prospers, you will prosper.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I know the plans I have for you.
SPEAKER_01: What is your situation today?
SPEAKER_01: Turn to the Lord and say, In this situation, I know you have a plan.
SPEAKER_01: I may not know it, I may not understand it, I may not even discern it, but I know you have a plan.
SPEAKER_01: Throughout this year, God answered your prayers.
SPEAKER_01: Throughout this year, God fought your battles.
SPEAKER_01: Throughout this year, God gave you new masses every morning.
SPEAKER_01: Throughout this year, you were supplied for, because God was your supplier.
SPEAKER_01: Through this year, God prevented you from all manner of dangers.
SPEAKER_01: Through this year, God opened opportunities for you.
SPEAKER_01: Through this year, God gave you strength, and that's why you are here today to say thank you, Papa.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, King of Kings.
SPEAKER_01: Because you have always been doing God.
SPEAKER_01: Even in the things that you thought they were delays, God was preparing you, and God is still preparing you.
SPEAKER_01: Even in the things that you thought that they were setbacks, God is using them to set you up for his glory in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Even in the things that you thought that you had lost, God was giving you a lesson about himself.
SPEAKER_01: Seek out the lesson.
SPEAKER_01: Yesterday we we were somewhere with my wife, and as we were going back home, we were just thinking, look at where we have come from.
SPEAKER_01: And we were not always like this.
SPEAKER_01: We have come from somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: And and we were just reflecting.
SPEAKER_01: And we were thinking, you know, when we began, she always reminds me that the first time she saw me, she saw me with a bicycle, a black member.
SPEAKER_01: What she didn't know is that I was not even in the category of Reverend Ambrose.
SPEAKER_01: That one was a borrowed one, Percy.
SPEAKER_01: It was not even mine.
SPEAKER_01: But see what the Lord has done.
SPEAKER_01: And we were asking ourselves, have we seen the goodness of the Lord in our lives?
SPEAKER_01: We may not be where we think we should be, but we are where God wants us to be in this season.
SPEAKER_01: And we know that God is not yet done with us, and that's why we have purpose to continue tolerating one another, to continue accommodating one another, to continue loving one another, because we want to be witnesses of what God will do in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God is in the business of doing good.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, let me submit to us as I bring this to a close that these three aspects are all embodied in the complete work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus went to that cross, when he walked and carried the burden and the Lord of the cross, it is in that that we can see the unchanging nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: That the word of God tells us that while we were sinners, this God who is always loving, He sent His Son to die on the cross for us.
SPEAKER_01: The unchanging nature of God, that while we were enemies of the cross, he reconciled us to himself through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so we can approach this table because even if you don't have anything else to thank God for, you can thank him for the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and his resurrection, because it is a demonstration of his great love for you.
SPEAKER_01: You're wondering, does God love me?
SPEAKER_01: Remind yourself, yes, he does, because Christ died on the cross for me.
SPEAKER_01: But not only did Jesus die on the cross for us to demonstrate God's unchanging nature, but he also came to this earth so that whoever has seen the son has seen the father.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever has received the son has received the father.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever has believed in the son has believed in the father.
SPEAKER_01: Because God revealed himself through his son, so that we can say we have beheld him, we have seen him, we have seen the father, because Jesus is the full revelation of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: That on the cross he demonstrated his highest good, he demonstrated his highest love, he demonstrated his highest provision, he demonstrated his highest reward.
SPEAKER_01: There is nothing that we can get better in this life than the gift that comes through the death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It is not the material things of this world, it is not even good health, it is not many friends, it is not anything else, but knowing that I am redeemed, knowing that I am forgiven, knowing that I am a child of God, knowing that my eternity is secured in the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that I do not have any debts, because my debt has been paid on the cross of Jesus Christ, knowing that I am not walking in sickness, because by the stripes of Jesus Christ I was healed, I have been made whole, knowing that I am not walking in blindness, because in Jesus I have seen the light and I have seen the light shine in my life, knowing that I am not walking in weakness, because in Jesus Christ I am made strong, knowing that I am not walking in misery, because he took away my misery and gave me the gift of his glory, knowing that I am not walking in shame, because on that cross Jesus took away my shame.
SPEAKER_01: And I am walking as a free man.
SPEAKER_01: I am not walking in chains.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I may be in debt, but I am not in chains.
SPEAKER_01: I may be struggling with material things, but I am not in chains.
SPEAKER_01: That sickness you have has not chained you.
SPEAKER_01: Your heart can still rejoice in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That job loss that happened in the course of this year, it is not meant to take you back.
SPEAKER_01: It is a setup of greater things that the Lord has in store for you.
SPEAKER_01: That relationship that broke in the course of the year, He is the God who mends relationships.
SPEAKER_01: And because He has reconciled you to the Father, He is giving you even better, more fruitful relationships, even in the month of December, so that you can glorify His name in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: I hope you're convicted that you have something to thank God for.
SPEAKER_01: In a moment, my brother, kindly uh uh take care of this.
SPEAKER_01: As we celebrate the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, you have something to thank God for.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you came into the house of the Lord and your heart was in pain.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to know that he remains to be the healer, the Lord who heals all our diseases.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you came into the house of the Lord and you are feeling lonely.
SPEAKER_01: I want to remind you, he is the friend who sticks closer than a brother.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you came into the house of the Lord and you are worried, what will tomorrow look like?
SPEAKER_01: I am here to encourage you.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one who holds tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Tomorrow is in his hands, and you are in his hands.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to deliver that tomorrow for you.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Just take a moment and thank the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Raise a thanksgiving to the King of Kings.
SPEAKER_01: Thank this God for his unchanging nature.
SPEAKER_01: He is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore.
SPEAKER_01: Thank him for the revelations through his word that he has made in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Thank him for the things that he has done, the things that you know, the things that you don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But thank him because you believe all through and through, he has been doing good.
SPEAKER_01: He has been doing good.
SPEAKER_01: I have good news for you that he has been doing good and he continues to do good.
SPEAKER_01: Even to Parklands Baptist Church, he continues to do good.
SPEAKER_01: He is a good God.
SPEAKER_01: You are a good God.
SPEAKER_01: We bless you, we glorify you.
SPEAKER_01: The word of God says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 23, for I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.
SPEAKER_01: So the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread.
SPEAKER_01: And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.
SPEAKER_01: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_01: Let me invite you now to break the fast seal so that you can have access to the bread.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for your broken body, the body that was broken on the cross for us.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that he took bread, and after giving thanks, he broke it, and he served it in the full sight of each one of them.
SPEAKER_01: Just to say, I am doing the highest good that you can think of, that I am offering my own body for you and for your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And he therefore encouraged them to partake together with joy.
SPEAKER_01: Today we are doing this with thanksgiving, and so in Jesus' name, let's partake his body together with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, in the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
SPEAKER_01: Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_01: For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
SPEAKER_01: The death that has given us redemption, the highest level of love and sacrifice that you can ever receive.
SPEAKER_01: And so, with thanksgiving, let's receive the cup together in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody celebrate the King of Kings and the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we are finishing the month of November strong in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: That what has been impossible will be possible in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: We are entering into a new space in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Oh come on, somebody, we are entering a space of celebration.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, somebody, let's celebrate Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let's celebrate Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let the enemy know that you have something to thank God for.
SPEAKER_01: Let him know that you have something to thank God for.
SPEAKER_01: Throughout this week, we continue with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: If you have something that you want to bring into the house of the Lord, this altar remains open from today until Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Come with it, even in the course of the week, and just place it here at the altar.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody is going to attend to it.
SPEAKER_01: But above all, the King of Kings will be glorified by your thanksgiving uh gift in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And so you are marching into this week from strength to strength on Monday, from glory to glory on Tuesday, from favor to favor on Wednesday, from victory to victory on Thursday.
SPEAKER_01: You are raising your level of praise on Friday.
SPEAKER_01: Because on Saturday you are hosting the King of Kings for thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: And Sunday you shall be right here to say, Come and see what the Lord has done.
SPEAKER_01: It is wonderful in my eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forevermore.
SPEAKER_01: And God's children say, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you.