Thanksgiving

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December 8th, two Sundays from today,

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we are gonna have a Springhouse Christmas party

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and it's gonna be great and we want you to be here, okay?

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So here's what's going on.

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We are gonna have regular service.

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It's actually gonna be the 12.

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The 12 is gonna move in here,

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but it'll be a regular service in the nine o'clock hour.

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And then at 1030, we have a special guest

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who's gonna come and do some things for us

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that you won't wanna miss in the 1030 gathering.

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And then immediately following that from 12 to two,

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we're gonna feed you lunch, we've got games, prizes,

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all types of things in store for you.

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A rock climb, it's gonna be really great.

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It's time for us to fellowship and hang out

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and be together.

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One of the reasons we do this is because

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who loves to be so busy during this season?

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Anybody just love packing their calendar

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and every night being full, right?

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One of the reasons, that was a big laugh.

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Was that Vonda?

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Okay, it was, she has not ashamed, right?

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Here's the thing.

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I know Vonda doesn't like packing her calendar out.

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But what we do is instead of having

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42 different Christmas parties

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for all the ministries you're connected to,

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we just do it all in one day and we all do it together.

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And we have a great time.

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Does that sound good?

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So December 8th, bring a friend,

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we're gonna have plenty of food.

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It's gonna be a great time.

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I want you to be a part of that.

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And then our annual Carols by Candlelight

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is going to be on Friday, December 22nd, 20th.

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It's on a Friday this year.

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We traditionally do it on Wednesday.

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It's moving to a Friday this year.

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Make plans to be a part of that.

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Man, it just, it's part of the year

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that really sets in getting slot in to Christmas Day.

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All right, so with no further ado,

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I want to, we're gonna, Thanksgiving is Thursday.

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I think that's happening, right?

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And Pastor Will Sevier is gonna come

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bring the word this morning.

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Would you guys welcome Pastor Will?

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What a day!

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It's good to be up here.

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So praise the Lord.

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Would you stand?

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Stretch your feet, get ready to vocalize.

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This is, you might be surprised to know,

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this is my favorite part of the service each week.

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When I was a kid, I have memories

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of reading scripture together and also singing together

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when there's not a sound system

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and you can hear all the voices

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and there's something powerful about that.

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And that's what I love about getting

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to read God's word together.

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God's word, there's a lot of things that I might say today

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that are finite and some of them might even be problematic.

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You can just let those go.

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But you know, God's word cannot return void.

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So let's read together.

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We're gonna read from, where's my little,

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I knew I had it.

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Also, I'm new at this.

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So if I make a fool of myself trying to click the next thing

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all the others are so good at it.

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They're like ahead of time and they're making it happen.

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But we're gonna read together from Matthew,

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from Matthew's gospel.

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And then following that up, we will read a short section

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from Paul's first epistle to the church at Thessalonica.

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So read with me.

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Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee.

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Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down.

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Great crowds came to him,

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bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled,

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the mute and many others and laid them at his feet.

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And he healed them.

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The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking,

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the crippled made well, the lame walking

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and the blind seeing.

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And they praised the God of Israel.

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Jesus called his disciples to him and said,

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"I have compassion for these people.

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They have already been with me three days

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and have nothing to eat.

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I do not want to send them away hungry

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or they may collapse on the way."

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His disciples answered, "Where could we get enough bread

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in this remote place to feed such a crowd?

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How many loaves do you have?" Jesus asked.

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"Seven," they replied, "and a few small fish."

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He told the crowd to sit down on the ground.

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Then he took the seven loaves and the fish.

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And when he had given thanks,

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he broke them and gave them to the disciples.

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And they in turn to the people,

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they all ate and were satisfied.

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Afterward, the disciples picked up seven basketfuls

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of broken pieces that were left over.

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And we urge you, brothers and sisters,

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warn those who are idle and disruptive.

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Encourage the disheartened.

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Help the weak.

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Be patient with everyone.

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Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong,

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but always strive to do what is good for each other

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and for everyone else.

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Rejoice always, pray continually,

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give thanks in all circumstances,

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for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

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Father, I thank you for your word.

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It has power.

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It brings about change in our lives.

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And Lord, I ask that you speak to us

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and that we would be not just hearers,

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but hearers and doers,

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hearers in allowing your word to take a deep root in us.

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In Jesus' name, amen.

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You may be seated.

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Amen.

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Does this hurt anything if I move a little closer?

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Is that okay?

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All right, I kind of want the Bible in front of me.

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So who in here remembers what Pastor Justin said

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about bringing a physical Bible to church

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and how he likes it?

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He likes to bring a physical Bible.

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Did that resonate with anybody else?

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This is not a shame thing.

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But if you brought your Bible, can we see it?

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Yeah, this is pretty cool.

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Let's go is right.

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Come on, Pastor.

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Yeah, this is cool.

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So it's not to shame anybody.

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It was just a challenge.

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Challenges are good.

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We should be challenged.

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If you're not being challenged on a regular basis,

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maybe you're not listening.

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Yeah, especially if you take a challenge

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and you study and pray about it on your own,

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and then you'll find that the Holy Spirit does the rest.

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Here I am again, late pushing the button.

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(laughs)

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And I'm not at all saying if you use your phone

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and the app on your phone or an app on a tablet is bad,

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it's really not bad at all.

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In fact, it's a really good thing if you read it.

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But there's a nostalgia for me

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about going to church with my dad.

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And my dad was like, when I was young, a hero to me.

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And so I remember lots of naps during the sermon

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laying my head on his leather.

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And my dad gave me this Bible cover,

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and it's very similar to the one he used to have.

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So that makes me, that's like a connection for me.

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Anyway, some of our most faithful brothers and sisters

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use the app on the phone.

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I do it quite a lot.

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And there's no judgment there.

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And it's just a challenge for you right now

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to dig into the Word on your own.

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And if you're too busy to dig into the Word,

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you should lay something down.

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It's Thanksgiving week.

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Anybody else excited?

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I'm excited.

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This holiday is not a surprise to most of you.

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You're ready for Thursday or you wanna be ready.

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If you're the one cooking,

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raise your hand if you're the one cooking.

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Yeah, there's a lot to do, right?

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There's a lot to do.

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But I tell you, for everyone,

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we're looking forward to the food and I am with you.

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There's lots of Thanksgiving scenes and tropes

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or different things that we have in our mind

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when it comes to Thanksgiving,

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the memories and depictions of Thanksgiving meals.

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But it always involves the food.

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Isn't it great?

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And then gathering around a table or a series of tables,

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spending time with your family, the food.

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Did I say the food?

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Visiting with loved ones.

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Yeah, this is my family.

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The Severes Thanksgiving from last year,

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which, yeah, you can tell which one's me,

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but there's quite a few of us.

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If you looked really close,

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you'd recognize some other people that are in this room.

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But I love my family.

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I won't be able to be there this year

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because what happens with family?

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Sometimes you're in Tennessee

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and this week we're gonna be in South Carolina.

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So that's just part of life and family.

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So this is my family.

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But trying not to talk about politics at the table

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and then finding yourself talking about politics

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at the table.

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The food.

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You know, I am a vegetarian.

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Yeah, I know.

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I know.

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We're gonna leave that.

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You guys can talk about it later.

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But turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, anybody,

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all the pies.

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Having to share a meal

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with that one interesting family member

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that is kind of strange and you don't love so much.

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Of course, if you don't have somebody like that

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in your family, it might be you.

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Listen, I asked my family,

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I learned a long time ago that I was the weird one.

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And yeah, and I just embrace it

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and then it doesn't hurt my feelings one bit.

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Let me give you a few interesting and quirky facts

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about the US holiday of Thanksgiving.

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Much of what we know of the first

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of what we call Thanksgiving as a meal

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on this continent would have been between the pilgrims

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and the natives after the first harvest in 1621.

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Now, this is a relatively recent thing.

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When we read the stories in scripture,

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they're between 2,000 and 6,000 or more years old.

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I mean, it happened a while ago.

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And this first Thanksgiving meal

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that we call it on this continent,

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that's only 403 years ago.

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That's compared comparatively.

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It's kind of a, you know, it's not that long ago.

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The information about this first Thanksgiving

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has grown into legend.

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That's not a bad thing, but sometimes we kind of,

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you know, when you tell a story

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and sometimes by the time you've told it three or four times

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I'm like this, Tisha gives me a hard time.

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That's Tisha right there.

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She's my favorite human.

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I'm embarrassing her.

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I love you very much.

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But yeah, she gives me a hard time about embellishment.

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I get it from my mother and she's amazing.

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So why is that a bad thing?

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But when we tell stories, sometimes they grow a little bit

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and it's not on purpose.

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It just is.

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So what we're fairly sure of from this first,

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it was a harvest and they were grateful for what they had.

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And they gave, they gave what they had

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when they ate together and they gave thanks to God.

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And apparently they did not eat turkey.

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President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving

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a national holiday in 1863.

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Think about what was happening during that time.

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There are four towns in the United States

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that are named Turkey.

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Yeah, yeah.

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And apparently some of us are from not far from here

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or have lived there and yeah,

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Turkey Creek, Arizona, Turkey Creek, Louisiana,

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Turkey, North Carolina.

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You ever been there?

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Haven't.

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And the alliterative Turkey, Texas,

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which Texas is kind of shaped like a turkey, right?

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The feathers and all that.

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It works.

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It works.

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My friend Melanie always called her,

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referred to her sons as turkeys when they were growing up.

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And she would, yeah, you've heard this, haven't you?

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She would say he may be a turkey, but he's my turkey.

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Very funny.

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The tradition of football on Thanksgiving day,

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it began only 13 years after Lincoln declared the holiday.

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And they were collegiate games of course.

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And professional football started in 1920

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on Thanksgiving day.

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It's kind of neat.

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Most of us eat.

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We spend time with those who are important to us.

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We might even carry some gratitude in our heart,

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but for the most part,

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we don't actually observe Thanksgiving.

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We get together and eat.

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And most often we don't actually give thanks.

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So that's my challenge today.

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I really thought I was going somewhere else

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about halfway through the week.

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And then the Lord kind of rocked the boat

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and I'm going in this direction.

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And I was going to focus a little bit on, you know,

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how thankful we are for what we've walked through

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as a family.

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And then I realized the story's not supposed to be about me

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and about us.

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It's supposed to be about the Lord

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and his challenge for us today.

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So that's my challenge.

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Sometimes we forget the giving part of Thanksgiving.

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It's a word of action.

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It shouldn't be just a noun.

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We should make it a verb.

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Now, Ben, are you in the room?

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Mr. Dudley, I do not teach grammar.

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Anybody else in here teach grammar?

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Anybody teach?

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I do not teach grammar.

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But think about it like this.

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If you change Thanksgiving from a noun to a verb,

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it might add some nuance to your week.

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Yesterday was the Pelphrey Thanksgiving in Calhoun, Georgia.

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And I can't help but think about Tisha's Pawpaw.

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So I'm going to tell you a story.

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And by the way, I have a story for everything.

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So please forgive me.

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Pawpaw's name was Bradley Pelphrey.

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And he's with the Lord.

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He's been deceased now for over 11 years.

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But one Thanksgiving meal,

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after I'd been in the family a little bit,

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Tisha knows this story

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'cause I tell the same stories over and over again.

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And she was there too.

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He asked me to pray over the Thanksgiving meal.

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And it was like,

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it was like finally being accepted into the Pelphrey family.

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It was amazing.

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And so I wanted to do it right.

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I wanted to bring,

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Justin, I wanted to bring the prayer.

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I wanted to, you know, come on.

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So I prayed this elaborate prayer.

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And when I got to the amen, he had this look.

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(congregation laughing)

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And he was like, we're ready to eat.

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So not all of us are gifted with short prayers.

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And Tisha's brother, Jason,

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has given me a hard time about it ever since.

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And it actually took a while

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before they asked me to pray again.

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So that is the truth.

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You might think that I'm an interesting choice

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to speak to you this week on Thanksgiving.

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And not just because of what Pastor Justin

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has said about my stories.

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And if you don't know this,

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I have to tell it again because it's worth it.

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Were we in the wings?

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I think we were in the wings.

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And I'm trying to, and I said,

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I was telling him a story and it was, I was in it.

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You know, it had, you know, a story has a beginning,

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a middle and an end.

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And it has a, it's supposed to have a punch.

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It's supposed to get you somewhere.

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And you're like, oh, that's why he told me the story.

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And so I get all the way to the end

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and I think, oh yeah, oh yeah.

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And he looks at me and he goes, man,

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that was a long walk for a short glass of water.

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(congregation laughing)

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And that's a, listen, that's a really funny way of saying,

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I really wanted to listen to your story,

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but afterward I don't think it was worth my time.

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(congregation laughing)

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I have, listen, I have served the local church,

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not just here, but other places.

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And I, for decades, and I studied the scriptures in school

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and I've studied ever since.

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And I do carry, you know, God's word in my heart, you know?

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And so maybe I'm not that strange of a person,

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but you don't see me up here that often.

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So that's why it's a little strange.

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But I worked in music ministry for 20 years.

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And then for the last few years,

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I've served as your arts outreach pastor.

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But in those two decades, I was also for many years

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working on hundreds of productions in theater.

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And for over 50 of those productions,

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I was an actor on the stage.

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And those two parallel ministries,

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and I use that word with purpose,

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but those two parallel ministries

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is what brought me here to this appointment

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as your arts outreach pastor.

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And I do so under the leadership of Pastor Kevin

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and Pastor Barbie.

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And in 2016, Pastor Ronnie Meek asked me

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to pray about coming on staff.

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And so Tisha and I started praying about that.

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And some of you may not realize that Pastor Ronnie Meek

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is one of the finest actors around.

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And he's one of the finest actors I ever worked with.

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And I've worked with Tony winners,

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Tony-nominated actors, Grammy winners.

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I've worked with some very talented people,

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and he is absolutely incredible.

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And I was talking to Michael Frazier

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not long after I came on staff,

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and we were backstage and just discussing.

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And we were discussing a message that I saw online

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where this minister was sharing with his congregation.

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And I know sometimes when we take somebody's words

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out of context, we weren't in that room.

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I'm not, this is not degrading at all

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what this pastor said or anything,

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but this is what he said to his congregation.

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And I was watching, and this minister said,

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"Your local pastors are not professional actors."

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And I said, "Speak for your own church."

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(congregation laughing)

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Now, the point that teacher was saying is true.

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Your pastors are not pretending to believe in something

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that they don't believe and hold dear deep within.

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And I've seen that over the past eight years,

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seen different ones of your staff members

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walking through very difficulties,

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very many difficult things,

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and still holding true and holding to the Lord.

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And I heard Kevin say one time,

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"I don't know how people do it without the Lord."

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And I believe that, and I hold to that.

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Today, I'll share with you what the Lord's dealing with me.

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Some of my favorite pastors have all said,

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had this in common, that they teach on what the Lord

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is teaching them.

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So what that means for you is you're in for it.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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So I wanna share three main thoughts today,

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and they all kind of center around this one statement.

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We must learn to give thanks in all circumstances.

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Now, naturally in the flesh, we're complainers.

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We get bitter.

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We get downhearted.

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We become self-absorbed.

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We think that we are the center of our story.

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Like Justin said last week, you are not the center

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of your story.

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I love how Pastor Wayne gives us a direction

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to touch your hand to your head like this and say,

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"Engage."

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Remember that?

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I love that 'cause he wants us to think,

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and he wants us to allow the Lord to speak to us

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and bring our thoughts into alignment

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for what God wants to tell us.

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Well, to put it lightly, I'm not sure the material

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I have for you today is quite as heady as that.

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So if you'll put your hands over your heart,

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and if it's still beating, say, "Thank you, Lord."

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We must learn to give thanks or we will become bitter.

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Bitterness, it doesn't seem to be able to hold

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the same place in us as thankfulness or gratitude.

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When one of them will choke the other one out.

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Does that make sense?

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Saying thanks or thank you can be a throwaway, a courtesy.

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Oh, thanks.

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You know, we don't even think about it.

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Many times it's sarcastic.

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I tell a story about when I was in high school,

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and John, John, are you here?

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John, my brother, who's one of my favorite people

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in the world, he finds the humor in everything.

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So I think he'll love this.

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If you don't know my brother John well enough to know,

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he is incredibly funny.

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Well, I was in high school and I found this dessert

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in the refrigerator that had the name Penny on it.

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Now, listen, my older sister had finished college.

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I'm in high school.

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She had finished college and she was back home

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maybe for a few days or for a few months

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just finding her footing and finding a job,

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that kind of thing.

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And Penny would always write her name

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on something that was hers.

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She would write her name on her Mountain Dew.

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She would write her name on a dessert

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or something she saved for later.

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And I can neither confirm nor deny that it was I

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who ate that incredible and tasty dessert.

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But when she found it missing, she said, thanks a lot

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to the whole household 'cause she didn't,

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I wasn't gonna give up that information.

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Anyway, what information?

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But actually giving thanks is way more than a token phrase.

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With bitterness, it sets in deep.

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And how often in the flesh we lose sight

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of the blessings of the Lord and the favor of God

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only to see the negatives and to focus on that.

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I think about after the Exodus,

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how the Hebrews so quickly said, take us back to slavery

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just 'cause they were missing a meal.

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And the prophet Amos says this,

Speaker: 00:22:49

do horses run on rocky crags?

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Does one plow the sea with the oxen?

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You've turned justice into poison

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and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness.

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We can do that if we allow it.

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We can change that bitterness.

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We can change.

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Luke told us in a story in Acts,

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and I believe we covered this earlier this year,

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Simon the sorcerer.

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Does anybody remember where the sorcerer saw that Peter

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had been performing miracles in Jesus' name?

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And he said, why don't I give you money

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and you show me how to do those miracles?

Speaker: 00:23:35

And Peter, have you ever gotten like righteous anger in you?

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Like this, you can just picture Peter

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'cause the words he uses is just like out.

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He just rebukes the guy like this, rebuke.

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Have you ever been rebuked?

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Ha ha, I have been rebuked.

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She's smiling.

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Listen, it's not fun, but how you respond

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to the rebuke is so much more important

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than what you said or how you stepped in it.

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Is that, okay, all right.

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So here's what Peter says to him.

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He says, may your money perish with you

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because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money.

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You have no part or share in this ministry

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because your heart is not right before God.

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Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord

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in the hope that he may forgive you

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for having such a thought in your heart.

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For I see that you are full of bitterness

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and captive to sin.

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Can you picture Simon's eyes?

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You know what he says?

Speaker: 00:24:44

He says, pray to the Lord for me

Speaker: 00:24:47

so that nothing you've just said will happen to me.

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If you have those Bibles,

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or even if you have an app or a tablet,

Speaker: 00:24:59

turn to Ephesians 4, 30 through 32.

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Ephesians 4, lots of you can quote this.

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It's fun to hear the pages turn.

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All right, I'm gonna read it from the NIV.

Speaker: 00:25:16

If you're there, say I'm there.

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And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God

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with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

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Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger,

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brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

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Be kind and compassionate to one another,

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forgiving each other just as in Christ, God forgave you.

Speaker: 00:25:45

What I find interesting in this set of verses

Speaker: 00:25:52

is that Paul makes a point to say,

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hey, let me tell you who I'm talking to right now.

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I'm talking about the believers who are saved

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and searching after and living for God, right?

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I'm talking about with whom you were sealed

Speaker: 00:26:11

for the day of redemption.

Speaker: 00:26:13

You guys who are saved, true believers, right?

Speaker: 00:26:16

And then what does he say?

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Get rid of the bitterness.

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So my question to that is, can you be a believer

Speaker: 00:26:23

and fallen after God and find yourself with bitterness?

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Yeah, yeah you can.

Speaker: 00:26:30

It's right there in the scripture.

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So yeah, this, excuse me, I just got off.

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I fell off the horse, you'll have to bear with me.

Speaker: 00:26:40

I'm gonna get back on there.

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So yeah, bitterness, it can set in, right?

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It's a daily thing that we have to lay down our flesh,

Speaker: 00:26:53

take up our cross and look to the Lord.

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When I was a child, I was a terrible human.

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And I would often argue and instigate issues

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with my siblings.

Speaker: 00:27:05

So many times that my mother would quote this last verse

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at the end of her rope, like she would like close her eyes

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and put her hands up like this.

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And she was quoting in the, yeah, you saw,

Speaker: 00:27:16

you've seen it, John.

Speaker: 00:27:17

And she's quoting from the King's English, okay?

Speaker: 00:27:20

King James version, she says, "Be ye kind one to another,

Speaker: 00:27:24

tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God,

Speaker: 00:27:29

for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you."

Speaker: 00:27:31

And that's still in me just because of how many times

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I heard her quoting.

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And I think about that, I'm like, maybe for those offspring

Speaker: 00:27:43

I've got sitting back there with Tisha,

Speaker: 00:27:46

maybe I should be quoting more scripture for them.

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Maybe they'll have it with them.

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Makes me thankful for junior Bible quiz

Speaker: 00:27:55

and teen Bible quiz.

Speaker: 00:27:57

We have to learn to give thanks

Speaker: 00:28:01

or we will become disheartened.

Speaker: 00:28:02

So the first one is we will become bitter

Speaker: 00:28:05

if we don't learn to give thanks.

Speaker: 00:28:07

And I'm convinced that the two things,

Speaker: 00:28:09

one chokes the other one out.

Speaker: 00:28:10

So if we choose to give thanks in all circumstances,

Speaker: 00:28:13

the bitterness will go away.

Speaker: 00:28:15

Well, so will the disheartenment, okay?

Speaker: 00:28:18

Have you ever known someone who has given up?

Speaker: 00:28:21

Pastor Kevin spoke on this just a few weeks ago.

Speaker: 00:28:26

Remember the towels?

Speaker: 00:28:28

Have you ever been there?

Speaker: 00:28:29

I have.

Speaker: 00:28:30

I remembered those moments when I held that towel up.

Speaker: 00:28:34

And I know many of you have as well.

Speaker: 00:28:37

I'm not good at it, sorry, forgive me.

Speaker: 00:28:43

Okay, so when you're disheartened, you don't care anymore.

Speaker: 00:28:47

You get cold, you lose your compassion,

Speaker: 00:28:52

you lose your heart for others.

Speaker: 00:28:55

Remember that story that Pastor Bruce shared with Kevin

Speaker: 00:28:59

about the water.

Speaker: 00:29:01

You have a water and the Holy Spirit has called you

Speaker: 00:29:04

to take that water to someone.

Speaker: 00:29:06

And when you go, there are people and needs all around

Speaker: 00:29:10

while you've been called to take the water to that person

Speaker: 00:29:13

and you take the water.

Speaker: 00:29:14

This is not what I'm talking about.

Speaker: 00:29:16

I'm talking about when God has given you water to give away

Speaker: 00:29:19

and you're not listening and you hold onto that water

Speaker: 00:29:23

and insert whatever.

Speaker: 00:29:26

Might I suggest that if you aren't doing something

Speaker: 00:29:31

for someone else on a regular basis,

Speaker: 00:29:33

then you're allowing yourself to become blind

Speaker: 00:29:36

to the needs around you.

Speaker: 00:29:37

There's a story that I read about this week.

Speaker: 00:29:45

In the fall of 1929, this is the year

Speaker: 00:29:49

of the great stock market crash

Speaker: 00:29:53

that started the Great Depression.

Speaker: 00:29:54

And there were these pastors who met together

Speaker: 00:29:58

on a weekly basis and they were talking about

Speaker: 00:30:01

what do we, what can we do,

Speaker: 00:30:03

how should we address Thanksgiving this year

Speaker: 00:30:07

with all of this financial devastation

Speaker: 00:30:10

and people losing everything?

Speaker: 00:30:13

And we do not, we're kind of pretty far removed

Speaker: 00:30:18

from the Great Depression now.

Speaker: 00:30:19

We don't have an internal memory of that.

Speaker: 00:30:23

But all of us in this room, our grandparents

Speaker: 00:30:26

and great-grandparents had a connection

Speaker: 00:30:28

to the Great Depression in some way.

Speaker: 00:30:30

My granddaddy who lived through the Depression era,

Speaker: 00:30:36

he used to tell this story that gave us,

Speaker: 00:30:41

gave the children an idea of what the Great Depression

Speaker: 00:30:43

was like.

Speaker: 00:30:44

There was a man who was traveling through West Tennessee

Speaker: 00:30:47

and it was in the 30s.

Speaker: 00:30:49

So he had a car and it broke down.

Speaker: 00:30:52

There's nothing you can do for a while.

Speaker: 00:30:54

You know, you have to get to a town.

Speaker: 00:30:56

And he was in between towns and he walked,

Speaker: 00:30:58

it was getting, starting to get dark.

Speaker: 00:31:00

He walked to the next farmhouse

Speaker: 00:31:01

and he knocked on the farmhouse

Speaker: 00:31:03

and the farmer came to the door and he said,

Speaker: 00:31:05

"Listen, do you mind if I just stay the night in your barn?

Speaker: 00:31:08

My car broke down."

Speaker: 00:31:10

And the farmer would have none of it.

Speaker: 00:31:13

Invited him in, he said,

Speaker: 00:31:14

"Come in and wash up and eat with us."

Speaker: 00:31:16

And he sits down to eat and the farmer said,

Speaker: 00:31:21

"Would you like some turnip greens?"

Speaker: 00:31:23

And he says, "No, thank you.

Speaker: 00:31:25

I don't care for turnip greens."

Speaker: 00:31:28

The farmer paused for a moment and said,

Speaker: 00:31:31

"Would you like some salt and pepper?"

Speaker: 00:31:33

That helped us.

Speaker: 00:31:38

It helped us realize, oh, they had what they had.

Speaker: 00:31:41

You ate what you could get.

Speaker: 00:31:43

Okay, back to the pastor's meeting, 1929.

Speaker: 00:31:49

So that was just a little insight,

Speaker: 00:31:51

reminds you of the Great Depression.

Speaker: 00:31:53

Many of the pastors suggested that it would be an insult

Speaker: 00:31:56

to their congregations to focus on Thanksgiving

Speaker: 00:31:58

during such a difficult time.

Speaker: 00:32:00

One pastor opposed this notion

Speaker: 00:32:03

after many of the others had said,

Speaker: 00:32:05

"Well, let's just not even mention it."

Speaker: 00:32:07

And he said that this was the time

Speaker: 00:32:11

to get into proper perspective

Speaker: 00:32:13

and to give thanks for blessings that are always present,

Speaker: 00:32:16

blessings that seem to get suppressed

Speaker: 00:32:18

when we're in times of hardship.

Speaker: 00:32:20

And that resonated with the other pastors.

Speaker: 00:32:23

The most intense moments of thankfulness

Speaker: 00:32:27

are not found in times of plenty.

Speaker: 00:32:29

They're find when great difficulties abound.

Speaker: 00:32:33

We must learn to give thanks

Speaker: 00:32:36

or we will become self-centered.

Speaker: 00:32:38

If you let yourself, you will be the center of your story.

Speaker: 00:32:45

If you are the most important person in your story,

Speaker: 00:32:49

you've gotten it wrong.

Speaker: 00:32:50

How many times did Jesus warn us about that?

Speaker: 00:32:54

Teaching us to be outward focused, do things for others.

Speaker: 00:33:00

A little bit of homework.

Speaker: 00:33:01

Look through just the Sermon on the Mount

Speaker: 00:33:04

and count the amount of times that Jesus warns us

Speaker: 00:33:06

to be outward focused.

Speaker: 00:33:09

Much of the Beatitudes are outward focused.

Speaker: 00:33:12

Whoever sets aside the least of these

Speaker: 00:33:13

is the least in the kingdom.

Speaker: 00:33:15

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Speaker: 00:33:17

Let your light so shine before others.

Speaker: 00:33:19

Love your enemies.

Speaker: 00:33:20

Pray for those who persecute you.

Speaker: 00:33:22

Give to others in secret.

Speaker: 00:33:25

Forgive others.

Speaker: 00:33:26

And that's just from one sermon of our Lord.

Speaker: 00:33:30

Think back to the story of the first Thanksgiving

Speaker: 00:33:34

with the pilgrims and the natives.

Speaker: 00:33:36

No matter how apocryphal some of those details may be,

Speaker: 00:33:39

many of those details are quite dire.

Speaker: 00:33:42

The pilgrims had traveled here

Speaker: 00:33:43

in search of religious freedom.

Speaker: 00:33:45

And by that point, half of them had already died.

Speaker: 00:33:48

So put yourself in the story.

Speaker: 00:33:50

Think of that first meager harvest.

Speaker: 00:33:54

Half your family has died.

Speaker: 00:33:56

There's no way to return to Europe, even if you wanted to.

Speaker: 00:33:59

And things are so difficult

Speaker: 00:34:01

that you don't know who's gonna live

Speaker: 00:34:02

through the coming winter.

Speaker: 00:34:04

And what did they do?

Speaker: 00:34:07

They gave.

Speaker: 00:34:08

They shared.

Speaker: 00:34:09

They gave.

Speaker: 00:34:10

They gave thanks.

Speaker: 00:34:13

Thanks to God.

Speaker: 00:34:15

Think of President Lincoln and the choice

Speaker: 00:34:18

to declare the national holiday of Thanksgiving in 1863

Speaker: 00:34:22

in the middle of the Civil War,

Speaker: 00:34:24

when the country was in the middle of losing

Speaker: 00:34:26

over 600,000 men in battle,

Speaker: 00:34:29

which is more than the country lost

Speaker: 00:34:30

in World War I and II combined.

Speaker: 00:34:33

In that conflict, he chose for the country

Speaker: 00:34:36

to give thanks to God.

Speaker: 00:34:38

Remember what Paul said,

Speaker: 00:34:39

"Give thanks in all circumstances."

Speaker: 00:34:43

We typically give thanks quickly when things are good

Speaker: 00:34:46

and when we have obvious blessings in favor.

Speaker: 00:34:48

But what about the times when our circumstances are dire?

Speaker: 00:34:52

What about when those who are close to us pass away?

Speaker: 00:34:55

What about when we share our faith

Speaker: 00:34:58

with someone we love and it is rejected?

Speaker: 00:35:01

What about when we lose our job?

Speaker: 00:35:03

What about when we pray for healing

Speaker: 00:35:05

and the Lord chooses to walk us through that sickness?

Speaker: 00:35:09

What about when our surroundings aren't lining up

Speaker: 00:35:12

with our hopes and our dreams?

Speaker: 00:35:13

Perhaps the Apostle Paul is not saying to give thanks

Speaker: 00:35:21

for all your circumstances.

Speaker: 00:35:24

Perhaps he's saying to give thanks in all circumstances.

Speaker: 00:35:29

You can be a believer, saved, born-again Christian,

Speaker: 00:35:33

and still walk around with a negative attitude,

Speaker: 00:35:36

with bitterness, complaining,

Speaker: 00:35:39

thinking you're the center of the story.

Speaker: 00:35:41

And when I say this, I'm saying this to all of us,

Speaker: 00:35:46

myself included, but I just want you to know

Speaker: 00:35:50

some of us walk around with blinders on.

Speaker: 00:35:52

It's a blind spot.

Speaker: 00:35:57

And we're thinking of the other people

Speaker: 00:35:59

that Will must be talking about and not ourselves.

Speaker: 00:36:02

It's actually up to you.

Speaker: 00:36:09

I really like what Justin said last week.

Speaker: 00:36:14

We're not the center of the story.

Speaker: 00:36:16

He is.

Speaker: 00:36:17

We're grafted into his family because of his great love.

Speaker: 00:36:19

The choice is yours.

Speaker: 00:36:20

My mother would say, she's a coach,

Speaker: 00:36:22

the ball is in your court.

Speaker: 00:36:25

You need to allow the Spirit of God

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to change you from the inside out.

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Your life in the kingdom begins when you believe, right?

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When you make that choice.

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And then you remain here in the land of the living

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for whatever amount of time,

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but eternity for you has begun.

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So you can choose to walk in anger and hatred

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and bigotry and complaining,

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or you can choose to live a life of giving thanks.

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Now, how does this happen?

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What do we do about this?

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And I'm gonna say some things

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that are gonna sound pretty duh,

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but we call them spiritual disciplines.

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It's how you grow as an eternal being

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while you're right here in the land of the living.

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Spiritual disciplines.

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I'll list three.

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Spending time reading God's word.

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Spending time in prayer.

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At the feet.

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Spending time in fellowship with other believers.

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Now, what's the recurring theme?

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It takes time.

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If you ever tell yourself,

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oh, I don't have time for that,

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you need to lay something down.

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I lost one of my best friends last year,

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and Danny taught me a lot.

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Yeah, you guys come on out.

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Oh, you're already out, okay.

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I'm so good at this.

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And losing Danny was tough,

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but in this last year plus,

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as I remember the things that he told me over the years,

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one time afterward, he had been running the lyrics,

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and he came down after the service.

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I went over there and I was talking to him,

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and I said, man, I meant to call you back during the week,

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but I had so much going on, I didn't have time.

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And he said, well, you make time for what's important.

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(gentle music)

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If these three things aren't a core of who you are,

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then you're being discipled by something or someone else.

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The enemy is sly.

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'Cause you are being discipled,

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even if you don't realize it.

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And only godly spiritual disciplines

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will change who you are for the better.

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I'm asking you to be challenged

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with the giving part of Thanksgiving.

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I want you to pray about it.

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I'm not telling you exactly what it means for you.

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I want you to pray about it.

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In the feeding of the 4,000 that we read,

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Jesus gave thanks.

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And in giving thanks for what,

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in giving thanks for what we have been blessed with,

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God takes it and multiplies it

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to go so much further than it would have been

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if we had kept it for ourselves.

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If you remember one thing from today,

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I want you to remember this quote from Dr. Timothy Keller.

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And it's one thing to be grateful,

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it's another to give thanks.

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Gratitude is what you feel.

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Thanksgiving is what you do.

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Would you stand?

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It's less of an altar call type situation.

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It's more of a you've been challenged, you have homework.

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This is a go home and do things, okay?

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But if you have prayer needs this morning,

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there are elders in the room who are gonna come forward,

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are able to pray for you.

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It's very important that we're there

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for each other spiritually.

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So these that are here that are ready to pray with you

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will stand there with you and pray with you.

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If you're going through a difficult time,

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please come forward.