We worship you, oh we bless you, Lord. We worship you, holy, holy, holy. Blessed are our hearts, for the goodness of God is inside of you. Amen.
Let's just take a moment right now and give Him thanks. He is worthy. He's worthy of all of our praise. He's worthy of us honoring Him.
Father, we just want to say thank you. Thank you, Lord, for all those good gifts and those perfect gifts that you've given to us. You've given us everything that pertains to life and godliness. We thank you for that.
We have access to the heavenly realm. We have access to the treasure that you placed inside of us. We have hope, we have faith, we have you as the anchor of our soul, so that no matter what the storm is, we are anchored in you.
We just want to say thank you for your promise. Thank you for the hope that we have in you. Today, we choose to acknowledge you in all of our ways and let you direct our paths. We do all that in the name of Jesus, and everybody said, "Amen."
You can be seated. Thank you, Father. What a great day to be alive! This is the time of remembering what we have to be thankful for.
Now, you know here we do things a little bit different. Every day is Thanksgiving Day. Every day is Christmas. Every day is Easter. Every day is Resurrection Day. Every day we celebrate the Lord's birth. Every day we are thankful for all that He's done for us.
So, you know, for the world, we're kind of getting together and giving thanks, but as a nation, we're giving thanks for our freedom. I think it's good to acknowledge that we still have freedom. We don't know how long that'll last, but our freedom is not in this world anyway; our freedom is in Jesus Christ. Amen.
In whom the Son makes free, he's free indeed. Wow, that's good!
Alright, we're going to be... let me make a few announcements real quick. First of all, we're going to have our holiday lunch after the service today, and you're going to enjoy that. The Fellowship Hall looks beautiful, and the most beautiful thing in the Fellowship Hall is these little pieces of turkey.
I haven't tried the ham yet, but I snuck a piece of turkey. I just went in, you know, I came in and said, "My stomach is just empty. I haven't had anything to eat. I need a bite of something." So I grabbed a piece of turkey. I'm going to tell you, it's worth hanging around for. It's going to be good!
So we'll have a time of fellowship and enjoy that. Make sure you remember this coming Wednesday evening, we're dismissing our service. We encourage you to spend time with your family, your friends, and whatever you eat for Thanksgiving, just enjoy it.
We used to do fried turkeys all the time. I mean, you know, we did the fried turkey thing. Remember when they first came out? The fried turkey was a popular thing with the propane tank and the oil and the big bucket? After turkey every year, after Thanksgiving, we would always watch videos of people's houses catching on fire and blowing up. Real time of Thanksgiving!
Well, we have to be wise in doing all that, but we were thankful when they came out with the electric turkey fryer. Then we got to spill grease inside the house instead of outside the house. Family times, making memories, it's all good.
I kind of reached the point that I don't really care what I eat for Thanksgiving as long as I get to eat. We changed from Christmas. We, as a family, we stopped doing turkey on Thanksgiving and Christmas. So at Christmas time, we would have enchiladas and fried chicken. What a combination! Enchiladas and fried chicken!
Because Anita would just ask each of the boys, "What do you want for your Christmas meal?" Each one of them wanted something different. One of them wanted dressing because he's addicted to the dressing she made. So for Christmas, we would have dressing without the turkey. We would have sour cream enchiladas because that's what one of the other boys loved. And then another one loved fried chicken. So that was our Christmas meal.
Make the most of every moment. Amen.
Alright, so have a good time this week and celebrate all the things you've got to be thankful for. We're going to be talking about some of those here today.
Alright, let me give you this information. We want to have a little contest. Yesterday was so fun. The car show was amazing! We had 32 cars, I believe, showed up and had an amazing time just looking at all these old classic vehicles and going down memory lane. It was good.
Then we had the lawnmower races, and I see we have a couple of winners here from the lawnmower race. Sylvester, stand up! And David, stand up! These guys won in the lawnmower race yesterday. Give them a great big hand! That's awesome!
If you've never seen a lawnmower race, you haven't even lived yet! I didn't know until three years ago that a lawnmower race even existed. I'm telling you, we had a great time yesterday. So thank you to all those that helped, and Brother Roy and the men and the ladies that just kind of helped put all that together. We thank you for your service.
Wow, okay, here's the contest we want to have. Now we are approaching the Christmas season. I mean, if you realize that, yeah, I mean just like that, it's here.
So, I am the chairman of the Salvation Army board, so I feel a need to help out in this situation. It's time for bell ringers! How many of you have served in the past as a bell ringer for the Salvation Army? Raise your hand. You have? Alright, so you know the fun in that. You know, I mean, that is just a blast to stand there dressed up like Santa Claus or whatever and watch people put money in the bucket.
Some of them come by with such joy; they're just happy it's Christmas time, and they love to just give something. Then some come up, they're just so sour, "Bah humbug!" and they'll still put money in regretfully, you know, because they think it's expected of them.
So it's fun to be a bell ringer, and a lot of times you get to help people that are in need because they have problems and they start talking. I mean, it's amazing! They'll just start talking to you because you look like Santa Claus. They'll just start talking to you, and then you get to pray with them and help them. So it's a good ministry to be involved in.
So I'm going to encourage everybody to do this. I want you to make note right now. Just get your phone out. I want you to type in this address, this website. It's simply spelled with these three words: register to ring. Register to ring.com.
You can go on that website and you can set a time to be a bell ringer at different locations all over town. You can pick your location and your time to serve. I try to kind of watch the weather myself. Last year when we did it, it was like 15 degrees, the wind was blowing.
So we said, "Okay, what time of day is it going to be the warmest?" And that's when we chose to do it. But it was fun! So I'm going to encourage you to go there.
Now, as a local body, we're going to do something special. I'm going to ask you to keep track of the hours that you serve as a bell ringer. Every time you serve, I'm going to ask you to send me a text. We'll send this out in GroupMe so you'll have it. If you don't have my number, you can ask for it; I'll give it to you.
For every time you serve, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, whatever it may be, I think just use 2-hour slots. I'm going to ask you to let me know, and I am going to give a prize to the person in this church that works the most hours as a bell ringer.
Okay, and here's the prize: it's going to be a steak dinner for two at McDonald's. No, it will be... I'm going to give you a steak dinner for two. The person that serves the most hours as a bell ringer.
Y'all take a note: register to ring.com. Then I'm going to have a little personal contest with Kelly Krenshaw and his church and see which one of us serves the most, and we're going to have fun doing that this year.
It is an amazing ministry! The Salvation Army serves meals to people every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, anywhere from 100 to 150 people every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for lunch. It is such a great ministry, an amazing opportunity to bless people, help people, minister to people.
So we're going to help support that in doing all this. So keep that in mind, and let's just have fun this Christmas season. God is a good God! Amen!
Let's stand together. We're going to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to be the teacher today. If the Holy Spirit teaches, then we receive something that makes us free. If you just hear me say a bunch of words, it doesn't change anything or anybody.
But we've got to allow the Holy Spirit to minister to our hearts. We are living in a time when we need Him. We need Him today more than we have ever needed Him before because this is the time of the end. This is the time of trouble. This is the time of sorrow.
It's a day when the world is living in anxiety and fear, but that doesn't have to apply to the church because we are the church, and we are the light in the darkness. Amen!
But let's ask the Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts today.
Father, we just come before you with open arms, prepared to hear and prepared to receive what you have to offer us today. We choose, Lord, to know you because we know that in knowing you, we can receive the strength, the wisdom, the knowledge, the understanding that we need to walk in victory in this life and overcome in every circumstance.
So help us today to focus our attention off of ourselves and focus our attention upon you so that we can learn how to live in you and move in you and have our being in you, so that we can acknowledge you in all of our ways, so you can direct our paths.
So, Father, we just ask you today to give us ears to hear, give us understanding, and may the words that we hear enter into our spirit. May they be planted deep into our heart as a seed that will produce a great harvest.
Father, we just thank you right now for speaking to our hearts and changing our lives, and we do it all in Jesus' name. If you agree with that, you can say, "Amen."
Amen! You can be seated.
I began last week, before Bishop was here, a series simply entitled "From the Manger to the Mansion," and I'm going to be continuing that throughout the month of December. But today, being the Sunday before Thanksgiving, I want to just kind of veer off of that for a little bit and talk about what we have to be thankful for and how we can praise our way through every circumstance.
There are so many stories in the Word about the benefits of praise, and so we're going to look at those here in just a moment. My title is just simply going to be "The Sign of Thanksgiving."
Before we get into that, I want to share with you my life rules for last week and this week. Rule number 46 says, "Don't ask God to change others if you're not willing to change yourself." If you don't have that already written down, put it somewhere.
Don't ask God to change others if you're not willing to change yourself. You see, this would heal every marriage, just that simple. Because you see, marital problems come when we're trying to fix the other person. We find fault with everything that they're doing wrong.
But when we do our part to do what's right, God heals. God restores. Everybody would just stop asking God to fix everybody else and let Him work in our own hearts. Life would be good.
So don't ask God to change others if you're not willing to change yourself.
Now, life rule number 47, that's for this week: "The words you speak while you're going through a trial is the display of the level of faith you're walking in." Some people just don't like this one. I don't necessarily like it, but it's a good rule.
The words you speak while you're going through a trial is the display of the level of faith you're walking in. You see, we get involved in our religious routine and all of our religious experience, and we talk about faith. We have our prayer meetings, and we pray a lot, and we talk about faith, and we quote the Word, and we prophesy things, and we say things.
But we really don't know what our faith is like until we go through a trial. We really don't know what we believe until we experience something that is totally contrary to what we believe.
So when you're going through the trial and you're going through that experience that is so hard, the real you comes out, and it comes out of your heart through your mouth. "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks."
So whatever is in you is what comes out of you when you're in the trial. And I know that sometimes we surprise ourselves by our faith that we have when we're in the trial, and sometimes we surprise ourselves by the doubt we have while we're in a trial.
Because when you listen to what comes out of you, and you go back and pay attention to what you just said, you're going to have to ask yourself, "Is that what I really believe?" Because our emotions sometimes display who we are and what we believe instead of letting the Spirit of God in us display who we are and what we believe.
So kind of keep that rule in mind. That is something that I think we can build on.
Alright, there's your register to ring.com website. It's up there. Make a note of it. Get on there. You can do that right now. It won't bother me. You know, some pastors are bothered when people are on their phones while they're preaching. It doesn't bother me.
I just assume in my mind that you're taking notes and everything's good, or you're texting somebody about how good the sermon is. Yeah, that's what goes on in my mind. Or you're probably saying, "Man, I can't believe this guy! I'll never come back to this church again!" Whatever you want to say, it's up to you.
Alright, the sign of Thanksgiving. When I think about the word "sign," the first thing that comes to my mind is a sign. Drive down the highway, you see the sign out in front of the church. You drive past the bank building, you see the sign in front of the bank building. You go in front of any business anywhere, you'll see usually a sign.
Signs have a lot of importance. They make a statement about what is inside that building or in that business because it is a display. It's identifying who they are and sometimes what they do. Sometimes the signs are misleading, but you find out otherwise when you get in the building.
But most of the time, the sign is put out there so that others can make a connection with who you are. But I also realize that that sign is an identification. It's an identity that displays the intent of the person or the business that put the sign out there.
We put out a banner yesterday about the car show, and it was just something to let people know that we're doing something different. It was a sign for them to say, "This is what's happening. This is what's happening: car show, lawnmower race." Who would have thought, you know?
And so we put out the sign to let others know what is really going on. I think that means something to us as believers. We display signs with our lifestyle. The things that we do, the things that we say, we're letting other people know who we are and what is on the inside of us.
But the sign is also more than just a sign. It now becomes the beginning of a signature. If you go to the bank and you borrow money, they have a line on that contract, and it says, "Sign here."
So instead of it being the noun for sign, it's now the verb: "Do something. Sign here." And when you sign here, you put your signature there, and your signature has a lot of meaning.
In other words, when you sign your name to a contract, you are signing based upon who you are, that you will fulfill that contract based upon your commitment and your past record. You're going to fulfill that contract.
And we have in the Word a statement where the Lord is speaking, and He says that the Lord has exalted His word above His name. Psalm 138, I believe this word says He's exalted His word above His name.
Now, we think of the name of God as that's the name above every name. That name, there's no name any higher than the name of the Lord. His name is exalted. He is lifted up. He is above everything, and that's true. His name has all power, all authority. His name is higher than any other.
But the one with the name has done something, and He said, "I have exalted my word above my name." That simply means that my name is powerful and my name is good because my word is good.
So you see, your name is of no more value than your word. I can say, "I'm going to sign that paper, and I'm going to make those house payments and make those car payments." But if you don't make the payments, then your name becomes worthless compared to your word.
And that's why we have credit scores and stuff, because people sometimes mess up. The authority that you have for your name to be good is based upon the past experience of your word, your promises being good.
We live in a generation where promises don't mean a whole lot anymore. We have people that make promises all the time. They're going to do something, and they never follow through. They just say words that make you feel good in the moment. They say what they think you want to hear, just like politicians. I mean, they make promises, but nothing ever follows through.
God's not that way. God's word is absolute. If God has ever spoken it, it lives and abides forever. His word is true.
So I'm going to look at this scripture in the book of Haggai. Go to Haggai, chapter 2. Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi—it's one of those old books.
Okay, the book of Haggai, chapter 2, and here's the word. Verse number 23 says, "In that day," says the Lord of hosts, "I will take you, Zerubbabel, my servant, Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel," says the Lord, "and I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you," says the Lord of hosts.
I will make you like a signet ring. When I hear that word "signet ring," my first thought goes to the story of the prodigal son, or the forgiven son. If you remember that story, when the prodigal returned, like the guy did Wednesday night at church, you know, when the prodigal returned, the father was there with open arms, ready to receive him.
He was already forgiven before the prodigal ever returned, but he had to return to receive that forgiveness. As the story goes, we find out that the father took his ring off and placed it on his son's hand.
The ring that he gave him was the signature ring, the signet ring. The ring in that time was the seal that was used to sign the signature to any contract or any document, and it simply meant if this signet stamp is on there, whatever is in this document is absolutely true, period.
So the word "signet," the Hebrew word "signet," is the word "signature" or "seal." So let's read this this way then: "In that day," says the Lord of hosts, "I will take you, Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel," says the Lord, "and I will make you like a signature, for I have chosen you," says the Lord of hosts.
Why would He make Zerubbabel a signature, or one that can sign and seal and place His seal of approval? That's an interesting thought.
Let's find out who Zerubbabel is. Zerubbabel, his name—let's look at his name. Let's look at what his name means, and then we're going to find out a little bit more about who he is. His name in the Hebrew is taken from two words, and one of them is the word "Babel" or the word "confusion."
Anybody in confusion? Somebody said, "What state are you in?" I'm in the state of confusion. That's where we are sometimes.
So the first part... the second part of his name is the word "Babel," which simply means confusion. Wow! If you're in confusion, then that is a pretty good step toward deception, because when you're confused, you don't know how to make the right decision. You're not for sure what is right and what is wrong. Kind of the state of the human race today.
But Zerubbabel was the son of Shealtiel. Shealtiel, his name means "I have asked God." I have asked God.
And so what happens now when Shealtiel asks God? We find Zerubbabel was born, but it wasn't Babel; it was Zerubbabel. The first part means "to come out."
So what Zerubbabel represents to us is someone that has the ability to come out of confusion, to come out of deception, to come out of turmoil.
Alright, are you getting it so far? So now then we've got this understanding that Zerubbabel, his name is important, but now then the Lord has done something with him, and He has made him the signature. He has made him the one that can sign His name. He is the authority.
Well, let's look at what God does with signatures. Let's go to Revelation, chapter 3. Revelation, chapter 3. God does some things with signatures.
Verse 12 says, "To him that overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. And I will write on him..." Have you ever thought about God writing on you?
"I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of Heaven from my God, and I will write on him my new name." Wow!
So God has a signature, and He's going to write a name that is His name on you.
Alright, you with me? Go back to Haggai, chapter 2, verse 1. Haggai, chapter 2, verse 1. "In the seventh month, in the twelfth day of the month, the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 'Speak now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people.'"
Now, alright, we're not going to divide these two. There's a long series about these two men, but I want us just to focus on Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel.
Look at his position. He is the governor of Judah. Does anybody know anything about Judah? Judah, we find the Hebrew word for Judah is "to celebrate," or it comes from the root word that simply means "to worship with extended hands."
So now then we find Zerubbabel is the leader of Judah. The tribe of Judah are the ones—remember in the battle, they were sent out first just to praise and to worship.
I want us to get this message in our spirit in this season when the world is giving thanks and we're thinking about trying to find something good in the world to give thanks about. We need to focus our attention on the answer to our victory.
The answer to our victory is bringing our lives into a discipline and subjecting our flesh and crucifying our will to the point that we are willing and able, in the midst of turmoil, to offer a sacrifice of praise to God.
Jehoshaphat just sent out the praisers, and because of praise, the enemy fled. If you look at a lot of people in the world, we find this experience. We find people that went through a lot of struggles, a lot of problems.
You know, and we find a guy like Joseph. Joseph, you know, he was in the pit, and he went from there to the prison. Then from there, he went to the palace, and he grew in his authority.
The reason he grew in his authority is because he kept his focus. Did y'all hear that statement? He grew in his authority because he kept his focus.
While he was in the pit, his brothers sold him. They took him to Egypt, and while he was there, he ended up, through a false accusation, spending 13 years in prison. And while he was in prison, he kept his focus.
If you know the story, he was brought out of prison, and he was made the ruler, the second in authority as a ruler in Egypt. Wow!
Most of us never get past the pit because while we're in the pit, we are complaining about the ones that put us there.
There is a principle that applies to praise. As a result of Joseph's attitude—he's a type of Jesus—his attitude was, "No matter what I go through, I'm still going to believe who God is. No matter what I experience in this life, I'm still going to give Him honor, and I'm going to praise Him. I'm going to keep my focus upon Him."
Because in reality, in the pit and the prison, God was still ordering his steps. Yeah, that's what we don't like. I don't like the orders that take me to prison.
But see, the end result was he was being processed in life for a position of power and authority to help the children of Israel. But he didn't know exactly how that was going to happen. He just kept his focus in the middle of the pit and the middle of the prison until he got to the palace.
Some of y'all are in the pit right now. Some of you can say, "My life is pits." Some of us can say, "I'm in prison." I mean, I'm in bondage. I mean, there's nothing I can do. I have no freedom to do anything I want to do. Everything is falling in around me.
What God is saying to you today is keep your focus on Him and learn the principle of praising Him in the middle of your storm.
Because we're going to find this guy, Zerubbabel, as the leader of Judah, the praisers. He was actually, you know, the leader of the praise team. He was the one that, no matter what's going on in the building, he said, "Let's look at Him."
No matter what's going on in your world, when you came into the house today, the praise leader is saying, "Let's look at Him."
Yeah, if we can just get that mindset in our lives every moment of every day—Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday—when we get here Sunday, we'll already be praising.
But He wants us in the problem to get our attention off of the stuff and get our eyes on Him. Because what happens now when you are praising Him, you are stepping into a realm of authority.
Because what happened with Joseph? He became the leader. He became the one that was in charge. Now then, what happened with Zerubbabel? God says to him, "Because you are a leader of praise, I'm going to take my ring, my signature, I'm going to give it to you, and whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven."
Whatever authority you need to be an overcomer in this life, He said, "I'm giving you my authority." And it happens because of praise.
When you worship me, I intervene. I move into the situation. He lives, He dwells, He abides in the praises of His people.
Wow! The book of Isaiah, chapter 60, verse 18, the word says, "Violence shall no longer be heard in your land, neither wasting nor destruction within your borders."
Now we're talking about Israel right now. We understand what's going on there right now, but this is a prophetic word that is still true.
"Violence shall no longer be heard in your land, neither wasting nor destruction within your borders." And we can take that, and you can apply that to your individual life right now.
There may be destruction, there may be warfare, there may be problems and situations that are out of control, but this word is still for you. He says, "Violence shall no longer be heard in your land. There is a better day coming for you."
"Neither wasting nor destruction within your borders." But look at what He says: "But you shall call your walls salvation and your gates praise."
When you understand the house of God, we'll find out He's the one that builds the house, right? We are simply lively stones built up a spiritual habitation for God. We are the rocks in the wall because of His salvation.
There we have been established. We've been set in place by Him, and the house of God is the place of His presence. But the word here says that we call His house, the walls of His house, are simply called salvation.
We are in the house because we are born again. We live in the presence of God because we are born again. We live in Him, and He lives in us because we are born again. We've been saved by His grace and by His mercy.
But then He attaches something else. The walls of your house have a place that is called the gates.
Now, in the Old Covenant times, what would happen? All the elders of the city, they would gather at the gates. They would gather at the gates of the city, and they would make decisions for the betterment of the city.
The gates then became the seat of authority. It was the seat of rulership. It was a place that direction was given for the city, the gates.
But also, we've got to realize that that same gate is the place where the enemy comes. Because the enemy can't get through the walls, but they can sometimes find a weakness in the gate and tear down the gates, or they can intervene in the authority and the rulers of the gates and cause disturbances and division in the rulership, and they can come in through the gates.
So God has given us a word about when the enemy comes in like a flood, there needs to be something inside of us that raises an authority so that he cannot enter the gate.
And the thing that we use at the gates is this word: I'm going to call your wall salvation, but He said, "I want your gates to be identified as praise."
Is there anybody here? The enemy is out there, and he is mad. He's come to steal from you. He's come to kill you. He's come to destroy you. That's his job.
Some of you may be letting him do it. I'm telling you today, stop it! Don't let him do it! He's a liar, and he has been defeated.
And if you think he has authority over you, you need to find out what God did for you. Jesus paid the price. He's rendered him powerless. He's given you the keys of the kingdom, and the key that you have today is this word called praise.
You can be the ruler of Judah. You can be the overcomer. You can lead yourself, your home, your family into victory by getting a revelation of the goodness of God and praising Him in spite of what's going on around you.
He'll change your situation.
So now the gates... well, let me just throw this out here real quick because this is something to remember. In Isaiah 60:18, He says, "He'll call your walls salvation and your gates praise."
Now that word "salvation" is connected to Joshua, and the word "praise" is connected to Zerubbabel.
And we'll find later, which we'll get into at some point in the future, maybe, there are going to be two witnesses that stand beside the olive tree, and it is Joshua and Zerubbabel: salvation and praise.
It's the place of the anointing. It's the place of complete victory. Do we understand that? It's in His presence the anointing flows as a result of us praising Him.
No matter what, praise is the connection that moves Heaven to Earth because praise is the display of faith.
If it's what I said in my life rule today, praise is our display of faith. "Lord, I'm going to praise you no matter what it looks like. I'm going to give thanks to you in the midst of my sorrow. I'm going to experience the joy of the Lord as my strength when I'm going through the deepest, darkest trial of my life."
Why? Because there's an enemy on the other side of this wall that wants to destroy me, but all I see is who you are, and I'm going to stand at the gate, and I'm going to give you praise in the midst of every struggle.
That's God's plan for our life, and that's what our Thanksgiving should be all about.
So there's a place now we can understand that there is a signature of God. It's the sign of Thanksgiving. It is God signing His name. He has now said, "Okay, I'm going to give you my signature. Take it!"
God has placed in your hand, on your hand, the seal to be victorious in every trial in this life. Are you going to go through trial? Yeah, a bunch of them. You're going to have problems? Yeah, a bunch of them. Tribulation? Yeah, a bunch of them.
But He said, "Be of good cheer! I've given you my signature. I've given you my signature."
What's the signature? Refocus off of the problem and praise Him. Because praise becomes God saying, "When you praise me, I am agreeing with my covenant. I'm agreeing with you in what I've said about your trial. I'm agreeing with you that you are more than a conqueror. I'm agreeing with you that you are an overcomer, that you are not defeated by a defeated devil."
I'm agreeing. When you praise God, He's agreeing with you, and that's the signature that says you are not defeated by a defeated devil.
In this world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer because He has overcome the world. The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus said, "I really don't care what he came to do because I have come that you might have life and have life more abundantly."
So what do you want to focus on? Well, the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Boy, he's been after me all week. I mean, the devil is just at work in my life. The devil's trying to destroy me and my family. He's trying to steal my job, trying to steal my money. The devil is just the devil, the devil, the devil.
FYI, see, the problem is, as religious people, when we have a failure, it's so easy just to blame it on the devil, and there's no accountability on our part. "The devil did it!"
But what God wants us to understand is that that devil that you are blaming everything on, Jesus defeated him 2,000 years ago.
And so if he is a defeated devil, why am I letting him defeat me? The only way he can defeat me is because of my lack of faith in what Jesus did for me.
So I'm saying, "The devil's doing all this to me." I'm here to tell you that you are more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus. I'm here to tell you that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
I'm here to tell you the covenant of God signed His name to your problem. The covenant of God says that you are the head, you're not the tail. You are above, you're not beneath. You are blessed. You are not cursed. You're blessed coming in, you're blessed going out.
Doesn't matter which way the devil goes, you're blessed because that's our covenant with Him.
Now we base our blessing upon our feelings and our emotions and our experiences, but God says, "No, your blessing is not the stuff you have or the things you go through. Your blessing is knowing me and knowing that you are more than a conqueror and you're going to come through with victory."
Amen! Y'all need to calm down. Y'all are getting me worked up!
Alright, let's go to Psalm 100. Let's look at some things that we can do to sign this name. David said it like this: Psalm 100, verse 4 says, "Let's enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Let's be thankful to Him and bless His name."
Now doesn't that feel better than saying, "Well, the devil's just after me"? Doesn't that feel better than complaining about all the things that are wrong in your life?
See, what happens with people—and it happens even more as we get older—now when I was a young man, I'd sit around the table with my dad and a lot of older people, and I'd listen to them talk. Every one of them had some type of ailment they were complaining about.
You know, "I had to go to the doctor last week, and you know, I've got this pain in my shoulder, and you know, I've got this thing that's going on. It's been going, and every time I move a certain way, it hurts."
And then another would say, "Yeah, I've got this pain in my leg. Every time that I get out of bed, it hurts."
And then after a while, they start talking about all their surgeries they've been through, and then they talk about how, "You know, my surgery was worse than yours."
And you know, I started saying those days, "You know, I'm not sure I want to get old."
My dad gave me some wise advice when I was a young man. He'd get up in the mornings, and he'd hurt, you know, and his bones would pop and crack, and he'd have to move around a little bit so he could get motivated.
He said to me one day, "Son, whatever you do, don't get old."
I thought, "Well, what's my choice?" He said, "Just die young."
I said, "I think I'll just go and get old. It's worth it!"
So now what we do, we focus on those things that are messed up in our bodies and our families and our world around us, and we listen to the news, and that's all we can regurgitate is the news that we're hearing.
I'm here to tell you there's a better way to live! There's a better way to live, and it's signing the signature of God to every experience in our life.
Give Him praise! Lift Him up! Be the Zerubbabel! Be the praise leader, and let God give you authority in the situations of your life. Amen!
Psalm 95:2 says, "Let's come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song."
With music and song, shout to the Lord! Shout joyfully to Him with psalms! Let's give Him praise in the middle of the struggle because you'll confuse the devil for sure.
He says, "What is wrong with you? You've got these problems. Why are you praising me?"
I've had people confront me with my praise in the past. I've had them say, "How can you be so happy? Don't you know what you're going through?"
And I said, "Yeah, I know exactly what I'm going through." Doesn't mean I'm happy, but it does mean that I'm going to have joy! Amen!
And there's a big difference.
Colossians 3:17 says, "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed..." Listen to this command now: "Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." The nature, the character—that's the name.
"Do all in the nature and the character of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."
You know what that means? It means whatever you do with your mouth or your actions, do it all in the nature of Jesus, giving thanks to God because of Jesus.
Alright, let me just see if I can explain that a little bit better. It simply says, "Whatever you do." And you know, I don't know if you know what that means, but that means whatever!
I don't know if I can get you to comprehend this word "whatever" means whatever!
You know, that's some people respond to when they're going through problems they don't like. They just say, "Whatever."
No, it's not that "whatever." It's "whatever."
Whatever you do! Wow!
How could my life be so good that no matter what I'm doing and what I'm saying, I can give thanks to God?
This is where our signature sometimes becomes a sacrifice, and that's why He said, "Make a sacrifice of praise to the Lord."
You may not feel like it, but whatever you do in word or deed, He said, "Do it all in the nature of Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."
And then we've got this great, great verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:18. "In everything..." See, it's so easy to not do these things if we just ignore these scriptures.
You see, if you weren't here today to hear this, you may not remember this tomorrow because you wouldn't have known about it.
But when whatever you go through tomorrow, just give thanks. Why? It's God's seal that His covenant is going to work for you no matter what.
It's God's seal. His will is going to be done no matter what. Praise is you agreeing with His word.
So He said, "In everything give thanks." Now we know the scripture comes from the word where He says, "Pray without ceasing. Rejoice all the time. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. And in everything give thanks."
Wow! What world does He live in? He's trying to live in your world and change your way of looking at your world.
"Rejoice?" No, I'll do it. I'll do it November the third, fourth Thursday of November. What is it we do? Thanksgiving? Fourth Thursday? I don't know when it is.
Fourth Thursday of November, I'll give thanks. Yeah, no! He says, "In everything, at all times!"
I can't do that in the natural. I don't do that in my flesh. I don't do that in my own feelings and my emotions and my thoughts and my imagination.
But in Him, I can do all things. And because of Him, I will do praise and thanksgiving and honor to Him in my circumstance—not because of them, but in them.
God can use them to produce His will in me.
And everything give thanks! That's the will of God! That's the will of God for you! Give thanks!
Wow! Psalm 107:1 says, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good."
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! Wow! What a way to live, church!
You know, when they dedicated the temple, Solomon got everything in order. Everybody, all the furniture, all the praises, everybody was set up. Everything was perfect.
And Solomon prayed, and he made an end of praying, and the people fell on their face and they began to cry out these words: "For the Lord is good! His mercy endures forever!"
And then they cried it out again: "For the Lord, He is good! And His mercy endures forever!"
And again, "The Lord, He is good! And His mercy endures forever!"
The word says that when Solomon made an end of praying, the glory of the Lord filled the house. And when the glory of the Lord filled the house, all they could say was, "He's good! And His mercy is forever!"
Now I want you to kind of get that picture because this fits with this message and this theme today.
The children of Israel in that day, everything was done by the law. Everything had to be in order. Every piece of furniture, all the priests had to offer their sacrifice. Everything had to be just exactly right by the law.
The temple was built. You know, David wanted to build it, but he didn't get to. God said, "I'd rather have that temple of David anyway, that tabernacle, than this temple."
But anyway, they built the temple, and it was beautiful—the most expensive, elaborate building ever.
And they come to the time of the dedication, and they got everything in order. I mean, they've got the order of service down. They've got everything just the way it's supposed to be.
And Solomon prays, and he made an end of praying. There's a word in that: he made an end of praying.
Sometimes we need to stop praying and just start obeying.
Okay? Sometimes we just pray too much because we're praying out of our own feelings instead of praying the will of God.
So he made an end to praying, and the Bible says the glory of the Lord filled the temple, and they all fell on their face and began to cry out.
And here's what happened: when the glory of God moved in, they got a revelation of a new covenant God.
This was God's intent for humanity. They got the revelation of what was going to happen after Jesus became the sacrifice.
They got a revelation that God wasn't just a God of rules and regulations and laws and ordinances and feasts. He's a God of mercy, and He's a good God!
So all they could see in all the order, all the ritual, everything now was messed up. All of their plans to make everything perfect didn't matter anymore.
All they realized was God is good, and His mercy endures forever.
Now, church, when you get through going through all of your religious routine and all of your ritual to try to make yourself feel good, you need to get the revelation: God's good, and He's merciful, and His loving kindness and His tender mercies are brand new every morning.
Psalm 136:1 says, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His mercy endures forever."
Psalm 107:1 says, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever."
If you go to Psalm 119, you'll find the word of the Lord declares that His mercy is good forever, forever, forever, and forever. His loving kindness and His tender mercies are brand new every morning.
Alright, here's God's command now. Go to Ephesians, chapter 5.
"Giving thanks always..." When that guy, you're driving down the highway, you're doing 70 miles an hour, hopefully, and there's about six cars in the lane in front of you, and they're all doing about the same speed.
And then this guy comes around you, pulls in front of you, and slams on his brakes. Alright, this is going to be a little difficult: giving thanks always.
So what we did, we bought a car that's got adaptable cruise control. So when the guy comes in front of me and slams on his brakes, my car stops automatically. I don't have to worry about it, so I can still give thanks.
But if you have to be quick on the brake and do it yourself, you may not want to be giving thanks at that time.
Yeah, give thanks that you didn't run over him, and give thanks that you haven't killed yourself in the process of trying to get even with him.
Find something to give thanks for because this is a word that is a life-giving word. Learn how to be thankful in every circumstance of life.
One of the most amazing lessons that I learned when Anita left this life, and Kim shared the same thing when Mike left her, they went on to heaven, was the amazing strength involved in being more grateful than sad.
Yes, it's sad. Yes, you mourn. Yes, you grieve. It's a loss. But in the midst of the loss, there is an ability to connect with the goodness of God and find His goodness in the land of the living and be grateful for what you had and still be grateful for what you have and are going to have.
The sadness comes, but you can live a life being more grateful than sad. You can live a life where you take the sorrows of life and let the joy of the Lord overwhelm your sorrow.
That's called the fruit of the Spirit, and that comes out of a relationship with Him where we're connected with Him completely.
Wow! Always giving thanks for all things to the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then Psalm 147:7 says this: "Sing to the Lord with grateful praise, with grateful hearts. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving. Sing praise on a harp to our God."
Find something to use to make a joyful noise unto the Lord! Make a joyful noise!
Now, I like that scripture because a noise is simply any sound, whether it be pleasant or unpleasant to the ear. It's just a sound, so we all qualify!
We can make a joyful noise! You may not be on the praise team to do it, but you can still make a joyful noise!
Let the joy that is in you come out of you because that is the lifestyle of living in victory—the signature of God in every situation.
Hebrews 13:15 says, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God."
And what is that? That is the fruit of our lips. The fruit of our lips—that's this part right here.
The mouth is called the sword, the authority that has—it's a weapon. This mouth is your weapon. It's a two-edged sword. It can be—it's a weapon of life and death.
In the weapon, He said, "Let this weapon produce praise, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name."
One more verse: Psalm 28:7. "The Lord is my strength and my shield." The Lord is my strength and my shield. That's part of the armor, the shield of faith.
That's who He is. "My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song, I will praise Him."
Give thanks to the Lord! He is good, and His mercy endures forever! Amen!
Let's stand together. I don't know what you're going through, but if you're living in the same world I'm living in, I'm sure you're going through something.
We have struggles. We have problems. We have relationships that are problems. We have situations in our life that may be negative.
But in the midst of all of it, we have a weapon that can lift us up above the trial. The trial may be there, but we have our heads above. We're able to see clearly. We can soar above the storm like the eagle does.
And I love to watch birds flying south for the winter. I love to see the geese. You know, they'll be cackling, and when you hear them cackle, it's time to look up because there's something happening.
They'll just be flying in this V formation, and all of a sudden, they'll just stop and start cackling. And you find them all just—they just start circling around in a circle.
And while you're watching them circle, you see what they're doing? They're climbing higher and higher and higher. That's interesting!
I mean, they're in the middle of a flight, and all of a sudden, they get caught up in a thermal unit, a storm, so to speak, where the air is twisting and turning.
And instead of fighting against it, they just rest, and they just start cackling, and they just start going higher and higher and higher.
And after a little bit, the storm is over, and they just take off in their formation, flying again. Keep on going!
Now that's a message to the church! Don't use the storms to destroy you and send you to the ground. Use the storms to something to rest in and let God raise you up higher so you can make the rest of the journey.
Amen! And so what they've learned—somehow, God's nature in them is better than a lot of humans. They've learned how to rest in the storm and let the storm carry them higher.
I believe God is speaking into our hearts today. Simply stop fighting the things that hurt you and let your praise heal you because that's God's plan for your life.
Let's be Zerubbabel. Let's let God give us His signature, and with that authority we have, we can be more than conquerors through Christ Jesus. Amen!
Let's just agree together in prayer.
Father, we acknowledge you today. We acknowledge who you are. We acknowledge your word. We acknowledge your will in our lives.
Lord, we've gathered together today in a world—here in the midst of outside of these walls, a world that's in turmoil, a world that has no hope and no direction outside of you.
But Lord, we've come together today to hear from you, and we receive what you've spoken to our hearts.
If there be anyone in this room that is in the middle of that turmoil, I just speak the peace of God that passes all understanding to their heart right now.
Let the mind of Christ be in them. May they readjust their focus away from the struggle and put their focus on you and who you are.
And let all of us from this moment forward let praise rise from our hearts and from our lips in the circumstances of this life.
May there be praise for who you are, and we look for and we find the goodness of God in the land of the living.
So Lord, in this season when the world is giving thanks, Lord, we choose to make it a lifestyle commitment from this day forward to give thanks for what you've done, for what you're going to do, and for what you are doing in our lives.
Thank you for speaking to our hearts. May we look to you. If there be anything in us that needs to be changed, that we need to repent of, Father, we give it to you right now.
We turn our hearts from ourselves to you. We receive your love, your mercy, and your forgiveness. And with that, we also receive your joy.
And we do it all in Jesus' name. And everybody said, "Amen."
Amen! God bless you! We love you! Thank you for...
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on Nov 21, 2023
