There's all these sorts of different traditions that I hear about. And one of the ones I hear about most often, especially on Thanksgiving, is where everybody's around the table, and they go around the table and give something they're thankful for, right? You guys have all heard of that. Maybe some of you guys even do that. I've seen it a couple times.

And you know, as great as it is to be thankful for those things and go around, when I see it, I kind of see people kind of stop. And they get on the spot and they have to like, “Oh man, what am I thankful for?” And they have to like quick think of something. And it's usually generic, like health or family. And it's good to be happy for health, and it's good to be thankful for family.

But the problem becomes when you have to think about it really hard, and you're on the spot, and you have to come up with something really fast, almost like it's something that you only think about what you're thankful for once a year, when you're really presented with it. And that's not a problem. See, the world teaches that type of thanksgiving, but the Bible teaches a different thanksgiving.

Pastor Janeth, on Wednesday, had gone over a lot about thankfulness, and I'm going to be going over a lot of it too today. And I promise I'm not copying off of her. I had this written before service, but it's just that God is speaking the same thing today.

When I see people going around and giving thanksgiving, it's almost like they're comparing themselves to others. They're saying, “I'm glad. I saw a homeless guy on the streets the other day. I'm glad. I'm so thankful I'm not like him, and I'm not in the same situation.” Or you see somebody who's really sick, and they say, “Oh, you know, I saw that guy was sick. That's horrible. I'm so thankful that I'm not like them.”

You see, but that's the world's type of thanksgiving. That's not the thankfulness that the Bible teaches. The Bible never compares to anyone else around you besides God.

You see, when we pass a homeless person on the street, somebody homeless on the street, the world teaches, “Oh, you know, good job. You're not like them.” But the Bible teaches you're supposed to be exactly like them, but yet God interceded on your behalf. Yet you're supposed to be just as broken as anyone else. Amen.

Yet God did something different with you. So you look to God and you say, “God, thank You so much that although I deserve to be like all these people I'm surrounded with—though I go to work and I see the heartbroken and I see the despair and I see the depression and I see all of that stuff—I should be that man, God. Yet You did something different with me. Lord, thank You so much. Thank You, Lord, for You have saved me.”

That's—there's power in that. There's power in that type of thanksgiving. And we need to look to that type of thanksgiving today. Not to the comparing type of thanksgiving, but to the “God, You did something for me” type of thanksgiving.

We need to know that that type of thanksgiving comes from somewhere. We can't just pull it out of the air, and that's what everybody tries to do. When they're confronted with thanksgiving, they have to pull it out of the air. They have to think really hard, and they're on the spot, and they have to go back and say, “Well, I'm glad I'm not like this,” or “I'm glad I'm not like that.”

But no, the thankfulness in the Bible lives with you every single day. And there's a reason for that. It's because it comes from different places. We, as God's children, need to know what we are thankful for and where that thankfulness comes from, because it is the power and the fuel for Christian living.

So the first thing is thankfulness is birthed from grace. Thankfulness is birthed from grace. So what is grace if we look at grace in the Bible? If you define it, grace is the unmerited favor of God that you have no reason or right to. That's like the Webster's Dictionary kind of definition, right?

If you look at God—God, we need to understand God today—God is 100% just, right? 100% just. So God, if you think about our courtrooms and our judicial system, it is all based on what we have seen in God's kingdom and in Heaven. We have based our whole country's judicial system off of that.

So if you think for us, for every crime, there's a punishment. For everything we do wrong, there's an equal punishment to every single crime throughout all of our law. And it's the same exact way for God. You see, God has a—there's a crime and there's a punishment. The crime is sin. And what does the Bible say the punishment for sin is? That the wages of sin are death, right? A spiritual death, a physical death. It's death all around. That is the crime and punishment.

And God, being 100% just, being the Judge of all things, being on His throne, looking down and judging mankind, there is only one punishment for us, for our sin. But God, in all of His love—you ever hear the courtroom, right? They try to find loopholes to get you off, right, to get you out of trouble. Well, God, He purposely made a provision. God, in all of His love, there's no way He could give you something you did not deserve. There's no way you could get off the hook unless God gave a provision.

And that provision was named Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Son of God that He sent down. Amen? Amen. He sent Him down out of His love so that you could receive what you did not deserve. And grace is the only reason that we today are able to receive salvation.

Ephesians 2:8–9, “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no man can boast.”

You see the reason the world is never truly thankful is because they have rejected God's grace. It's because they have gone against God's grace. Everything that they have—everything in the world that a man has—they can accredit it to themselves. They can pat themselves on the back and say, “Good job. You're not like them,” or “You did better than them,” or “You did better than her,” or “You're not as bad off as them,” and it's all about self.

This is why the world's thankfulness only goes as far as comparing to others. But the Christian—the Christian lives in grace every single day. They know that nothing they did deserves anything that they have. They know there is no way, not by works, that they can receive salvation. But it was 100% the love of God that made a provision for me so I did not have to be under the wrath of God, but that God can lift me up and into the Heavens.

To know that grace today, to know that grace will 100% of the time produce thanksgiving. 100% of the time. And that's why we have to understand God's grace, right? Grace is how a holy, holy God can come and be connected to a sinful, sinful people. God's grace did it for us. That is the reason we can be saved.

And this is not a one-time act. Grace didn't happen once. Every time we sin, every time we wake up and do something, and there's some unintentional sin inside of our hearts that we do, God's grace abounds in our lives. You see, grace is working on us every single day.

When I woke up this morning and I did something, I had to go to say, “Oh God, I'm so sorry I did that.” And He says, “Kris, it's okay. My grace is on you.” Not that it's an excuse to sin, but it is that grace is the way that makes a way for us to go on the process of salvation, the walk of salvation.

God's grace did it for me. He did it for me yesterday, and He did it for me the day before, and He'll do it again for me tomorrow. So if grace is abounding every single day, if grace is saving me every single day, how much more should thanksgiving be arising in my heart? Amen?

You know, one of the things I really love about even the RLTI class, and just getting into theology in general, is it really teaches you a progression of events, right? Like Pastor Janeth went over the process of salvation, right? His sacrifice leads to B, to C, to D, and there's just a progression of events.

Always a natural human reaction to what somebody does for you as sacrifice. And really, when you get into the class and into different theology, it gives you just a deep understanding of the progression of what happens. For me, it's great because I can see where I lack, right? “Oh, I'm good here, good here, up. But right here at part C, I'm lacking a little bit and I got to work there.” It gives you an understanding of it.

So for example, if you look at the progression of this: Jesus Christ, right, He died on the cross for His children's sin. From that, His children are received by the grace of God. From that, His children are thankful for the grace. And from that, many things happen. But most importantly, change happens. Change happens.

You see, this type of change that I'm talking about, if it just relied on you, it would never happen. People try to change all the time. They go to therapy, and they go to counseling, and they go to turn to medicine, and they turn to drugs, and they turn to all sorts of things to change and not be the same. But I'll tell you, this type of change that I'm talking about, it cannot be done by man's will alone.

There has to be something inside of the heart of a man to cause them to change, something that's motivating them. And I'll tell you today that thankfulness has to be the thing to motivate you. And thankfulness, it stops us from sinning.

We cannot be thankful for the sacrifice of God and yet continue to sin and live against Him. It's impossible. Pastor Janeth gave a great example of that and it stuck with me ever since she said it a couple weeks ago.

She said, you're driving down the road, right? You're speeding. All of a sudden you get pulled over on the side of the road, and they pull you over—you know you're speeding, caught red-handed—but you know you can't get another ticket or your insurance is going to drop you, right? So you're really worried.

The cop comes up and takes your information and hands it back to you and says, “Have a nice day.” They cut you a break, right? You should have received the ticket, yet they cut you a break. So what happens? What do you do at that point? You don't step on the gas and spin your tires and take off, right? You don't do that because that would be ridiculous, because you're so thankful that you did not receive what you were supposed to receive.

And it's the same thing in the Kingdom of God. For me, I had—you guys ever have one of those times where you know you deserve something, but you're praying it doesn't happen? You know, for me, the other day that happened.

Me and Pastor Jerry and Steven went out, and they said, “You're going to close your garage door?” And I said, “No, I'll be, you know, we'll be right back,”. So we left and we ended up going out way longer than I thought we were going to be out. So my whole ride home, I'm thinking, “Oh, man, it's dark out. My garage door is open. I have brand new packages not even open right next to the garage door.”

Pastor Janeth has warned me a hundred times to lock my doors and to make sure my doors are closed. I knew what I deserved. So the whole way home, I'm praying. I'm like, “Oh, Lord, let it please be there. Let those things…” I had tools right there. I had all this stuff right there. I was so worried.

When I got home I turned that corner and thank God nothing was missing. You see, I knew better. I make fun of these people at work 24-7 that are surprised when things get stolen when they leave their doors open. I more than anybody have no excuse to do something like that. I knew what I deserved.

You know what now? Every single day since then, guess what I make sure is closed and locked every day. Out of the thankfulness that what should have happened did not happen. Amen?

And that's the grace of God. The grace of God, it'll make you close that door every single time. It'll make you double check your speed to make sure you're not speeding. And it'll make you constantly aware of your sin because you are so thankful that there was a God in Heaven that did not give you what you deserve, but made a provision for you so that you can live.

That grace lives every day, so the thankfulness should be living even higher. You see, this is why sliding or falling off, it just doesn't make sense. It's like praying and then going back to the police station and asking for the ticket. It doesn't make sense. How can you go back to your former ways when you know that you did not get what you deserved?

When you know that God spared you from all of that depression, all of that heartache, all of the death, all of being in the grave—He spared you all from it. There's no going back from that. What more? God has done it all for us.

You know, Christianity is really getting a small understanding. And I just remember the first time it happened to me—getting a small understanding of really the wrath you're under. I remember just having my eyes open just a little bit to really see the spot I was at. And you know what that causes? It causes you to cry out to God and say, “God, I see where I'm at. You know what? I see how holy You are and I see how dirty I am.”

“God, I know that there is a punishment in the future for me, but I know that You can save me from it.” And what you do is you start to pray, and God answers your prayers. He comes in. He rescues you from His wrath. He sets you high above all things in the heavenly realms, high above the turmoil and the pain. You're lifted out of the grave and given His Holy Spirit.

How can we continue to sin? How can we revert back to our former selves? There's no such thing, for the grace of God abounds, and the thankfulness of God rises even higher.

You know, no one has to force themselves to be thankful when you talk about it like that, right? Who has to think and be put in a spot and really think about it? Yet if the grace of God lives with you today, if it's in your heart today, if you wake up in the morning and say, “God, I deserve to die today, yet You have given me something greater,” I promise you the thankfulness of God will see you through the entire day.

It's not like worldly thanksgiving. It doesn't change. It doesn't fade. It’s not that you are thankful one day and then spiteful the next because things aren't going your way? No, thankfulness for His grace is 100% constant every single day.

I don't care if you're making a lot of money or you're making a little money. If things are going great in your family or things are rough. If things are going great for you or it's the hardest time in your life. The thankfulness for God's grace remains and is a constant every single day. Amen. And there's power in that.

I watch movies all the time. I love watching movies. And what is the main character? You never watch a movie about, you know, somebody going to ShopRite and Walmart. You know, it's always something powerful. It's always something that you can't believe that that person did. It always makes you think and imagine how that person could go and do something a normal person wouldn't do.

And there's always motivation behind it. Words like hatred and revenge and justice and fear. These are all powerful words. They're motivators that cause a person to do something a normal person would never do.

Well, I'll tell you today that thankfulness to God is the most powerful to the Christian. It is more powerful than all of those things. Amen. It causes you to do things a normal person would not do.

So when your friends and your family are questioning you, looking at you like you're crazy, “Why do you follow God? Why do you subject yourself to the rules and the laws? Why do you separate yourselves and act differently?” Your answer should be, “Oh, because I am so thankful to the Lord Jesus Christ because I did not receive what I deserved.”

You see, thanksgiving is the fuel that drives the Christian. It is the fuel. It keeps us connected to Him. It keeps Him on top and us on the bottom, and it's the driving force that will not allow you to go backward but continually push you forward.

You see, the truth is that the backslidding Christian is the unthankful Christian. It's the one who has no understanding of their sin. It has no understanding of the grace of God, of what they deserved, yet God offers us a way out.

Psalms 30 says, “you turned my mourning into dancing, you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever”. You see, that's somebody who understands the grace of God. So we see, number one, the thankfulness, it's birthed from grace. Number two, thankfulness comes from knowing His sacrifice. Knowing His sacrifice.

There's a big difference. I need you guys to understand. There's a big difference between knowing about God's sacrifice to knowing His sacrifice. Every Christmas, every Easter, people flock to churches, right? They're packed. You can't find a seat in the house. And they'll all tell you about how Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins and on the third day was raised again. They'll all tell you about it. But then the rest of the year, you'll see people go and live exactly how they were living.

You see, a lot of people know about Jesus' sacrifice. But very few know it personally. To know His sacrifice, you have to know Who sacrificed for you. To know the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you have to know Jesus Christ. You can only be thankful for something that you're intimately involved in, that you have a part in. For example, I've been watching the news lately, right? And it's crazy. Watching everything in Ferguson and the riots and things being burned down and protests across the whole country. And my mouth is just open as I'm watching and I can't believe it.

But you know what happens the second I hit the off button on my TV? It begins to fade. Before I know it, I'm caught up in something I'm doing. I'm going to Walmart. I'm doing my thing until I'm so wrapped up in my own thing I'm not even thinking about it anymore. Why? I'm just an observer. I'm not involved in any way. I'm just watching it on the news.

You see, no person who is in Ferguson right now going through all the riots will ever say, “No, the person on the news knows what's going on better than I do.” There's no such thing because they are involved. And it's the same thing with God.

There are those who can turn it off and it'll fade eventually as they get involved in their own things. And there are those who are intimately involved, who have a part of it, who are dealing with it every single day, and who know it inside of their heart of hearts. They know Jesus who has sacrificed Himself for them – He lives with them, and is working with them every day.

You see, the Word of God and His sacrifice, they come alive when you come to know the man, Jesus Christ. They come alive. You come to respect Him. You come to learn His teachings personally. You actually learn the personality of God—what He would say, what He would do in any situation. You come to know Him as a Man, a Leader, a Healer, a King, a Prophet, and finally a Savior. There's a difference between knowing about the sacrifice and knowing His sacrifice. Those who know it have experienced it and it is impacting their life every single day.

You see, as great as understanding grace is, as awesome as grace is, it's just a part. It's just a part of His overall sacrifice of what He did on the cross. There's more to it. There's what it cost, the suffering, the price He paid for it, the temptation He endured, how He was sinless, the victory He had on the cross over Satan, and the freedom it grants us.

You see, each one of those parts are just pieces of the puzzle that make up the sacrifice, the overall sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. The more we understand each piece, the more revelation we have of it, the more godly we can live out of the thanksgiving that comes from each piece.

You see, there's revelation of each piece. Every single part, you go deeper and deeper. Yesterday I might have a revelation of what it cost Him, but tomorrow I might have a revelation of the freedom that it brings me. And every single time, every single piece that you get, thanksgiving in your heart rises up. And it rises up in your heart. It causes praise. It causes worship. It causes all sorts of joy inside of your heart.

2 Corinthians 5, “For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again.” You know, see the thanksgiving that comes from knowing His sacrifice, it causes something inside of the heart. It produces something. It produces thanksgiving. And it is a necessity for our daily walk.

Everybody thinks thanksgiving is just something nice to do. You should say thanks when somebody gives you something, right? It's the polite thing to do. But I'm saying it's more than polite. It is a necessity for the Christian walk every single day.

Love compels us, right? For Christ, love compels us. The thanksgiving for that love—knowing what He did on the cross, knowing the sacrifice—it compels us that we should no longer live for ourselves, but for Him who died for us and was raised again.

Thanksgiving gives you the power not only to revert to your former selves, but also to live a godly life. You see, every time the sin wants to rise, every time the flesh rises inside of us, and it craves the desires of the flesh, and it's causing you and it's leading you into temptation, every time it rises up, guess what should be right next to it? The thanksgiving of God.

We think about how Jesus denied His flesh even unto death. Even unto the cross, He denied His flesh. So you say, “Jesus, if You did it to death, then You can do it inside of me.” And the thankfulness arises from that. So every time sin rises up, guess what? Thankfulness is right there, right above it, ready to squash it down. Thankfulness for His sacrifice. Amen.

You see, to deny the flesh over and over and over again on just will alone, it's impossible. And that's what everybody tries to do. It's impossible. You will eventually fail. But to have something driving you—to have thankfulness for the sacrifice on the cross driving you every single day—trying to live up to the sacrifice that was made for you.

Romans 1:21, this is such a powerful verse. “For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God”, nor what? “Gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

You see, this verse is crazy, because it's not talking about Joe Schmo in the world. It's not talking about the guy in a different country that's never heard the Word of God. No, it's talking to the Church. It's talking to me. It's talking to you. It says, “For although they knew God,” they knew God. They had seen God. Eventually it goes on to say that they had seen the glory of the immortal God, yet exchanged it for idols. You see, these people had known God. They had seen God.

And it says they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him. It puts those two things right next to each other. It says they didn't give Him glory for who He was, nor gave thanks for who He was or what they had received. And what happened? Depravity happened. I need you guys to understand that the ones who are not thankful, depravity comes on the mind. “Because of this, their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Futile means wasted or pointless.

So because of that—because they were unthankful—their thoughts become untamed and undirected. They were not trying to live a life pleasing for God. They were not thankful in their hearts and living out their life in thankfulness every single day. So their foolish hearts led them astray into the snares of sin.

The unthankful ones are the ones who don't acknowledge God, nor where their breath comes from. And what happens to the mind? It begins to get twisted. All of a sudden, what was not okay yesterday becomes okay today. All of a sudden, the Word of God you knew yesterday becomes twisted to justify something wrong today.

All of a sudden, you can't see straight. You can't hear God. You can't know God. So you're making up stuff in your head to try to grasp onto straws so you can hold on to God. This is what happens to the unthankful. Their minds begin to deteriorate and their hearts become darkened. And that's the truth.

You see, thanksgiving is a necessity for the Christian. It is a necessity for our daily walk to keep us connected to Him. It puts God on top. What are you doing in thanking God for His sacrifice? You are saying, “God, there is a higher authority.” You are thanking a God that is above you. That you are acknowledging that there is someone, a higher authority from you, and that all good things come from Him.

Being thankful takes you off of the throne of your own heart. We love to sit on that throne. But being thankful takes you off the throne and gives God the seat of authority in your life. Without that, we set ourselves up as gods. We become the gods. We rule. We do what we want. Our will goes. We become the highest and everything good that we have comes from us.

You know, me and Jessica sometimes will flip through the channels and we'll see these celebrities on TV. And I'm just flabbergasted off of the depravity of the mind of some of these people. The other day we were listening to an actor, one of the big actors in Hollywood. And he was saying his theology, he believes he can control time. And he was serious. He was dead serious. Face stone. Yeah, I control time.

So you see that. And you see all the drug addiction and the mental illness and the rehab and all of that stuff. Why is that? Because they're gods. Because they're worshipped as gods, because they're gods inside of their own heart, because they acknowledge no authority above themselves.

You see, no man is meant to be a god. Nor can no man handle being a god except the Lord Jesus Christ. It deteriorates the mind because there is no thanksgiving, there is no acknowledgement of a higher authority, and there is no knowledge of the sacrifice on the cross.

But knowing His sacrifice—living in His sacrifice—it keeps you grounded. High school kids, when you're in school and everything is dragging you the other way and everything's pulling you under the way, thanksgiving to God keeps your feet grounded in reality. Amen.

People when you go out to the world or even how you view yourself—all of it—thanksgiving to God puts God on the throne and keeps your feet grounded in truth. And you know what it does? It causes you to strive for something greater. It causes you to strive to live up to that sacrifice.

You know, I think about a parent who sends their kid to college and works three, four jobs, and works every single night late, and saves every single penny to send their kid to college, and works for years and years and years. What happens when that kid goes to college? Do they walk in and blow it off? Or do they know that it was not cheap to get in there, and they strive to live up to the sacrifice that was made for them?

It's the same thing in the church. To know His sacrifice, to know what He did on the cross—do you know that He didn't die for anybody else besides you? He went to the cross and died for you so that you can live.

Guess what it does? It causes thanksgiving to arise in your heart, and it causes you to strive for greatness. It causes you to strive to live up to the sacrifice that was made for you. Things change when that happens. Your prayers change. They go from being selfish to kingdom-minded. The Word changes from an obligation to an opportunity. Your worship changes from just a nice thing to do, from just a chance to give a small thanksgiving—a thankfulness to God—and to raise Him up. Everything changes.

How you look at your spouse, how you look at your children, how you look at your household—it all changes when you filter it through the sacrifice of God on the cross. Knowing His sacrifice today, it causes thanksgiving. Thanksgiving that will not allow you to go backwards. And thanksgiving that gives you the power to live godly lives. To push you forward into the heavenly realms.

So that thankfulness comes from grace. Thankfulness is birthed from His sacrifice. And finally, thankfulness comes from knowing His promises. From knowing His promise.

Me and Bob Munchel used to joke all the time. I used to tell him, you know, when I was younger, I used to say, there's milestones in your life that you go through, right? There's milestones. When you turn 13, you're a teenager. That's a big deal. When you turn 17, you get your license. 18, you're considered an adult. 21, you get all your rights. What's after that?

I used to say to Bob, it's all pretty much downhill from there. The next milestone is one foot in the grave. The truth is that the Christian, we look forward to the promise of God. We look forward to a great milestone—not our death, but what comes after our death.

You see, there is a promise that is the motivation of the Christian that we should be looking forward to every day. That promise is a promise of eternal life. The promise of no suffering, no heartbrokenness, no depravity, nothing. It's the promise of the glorification of our bodies and living with God in Heaven for all time.

You see, we look forward to the promise of God. The Bible says that our lives are like a mist – Here one second, gone the next. What is 80 years compared to eternity? What is that short amount of time compared to all eternity with God? And it's the Christian's job—it's our job—to think constantly about the promise that is to come. It should be laying upon our hearts knowing that our lives are here one second. I can walk out of this building and get hit by a car, but it's okay because I will wake up and I will be in Heaven with my God.

We need to live in celebration and thanksgiving of the coming promise that God has promised to His children. Looking forward to it constantly. Not getting caught up in our earthly bodies, but knowing that we are aliens here and there is a mansion set up for us in Heaven.

To know that promise, it causes things in our earthly lives. It causes us to overcome. Thanksgiving for the promise of what is to come causes you to overcome today. What do I mean when I say overcome? Well, there's many things that we can overcome here on earth. I'll give you guys some examples. How about fear over death? Fear of death. I see people all the time, some people can't even leave their houses because of how scared they are to die. They will not even walk outside because of the fear that they have over the unknown.

So you look at somebody like that and then you listen to this verse, “For we believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.” All of a sudden, that fear over death—you're scared to death, right? Scared of death and to death. Thankfulness for that promise arises inside of your heart. And it gives you the fuel not only to get over that fear, but to overcome that fear—to never live again held down by the fear of death because you know what is coming, for you know what is awaiting you in Heaven. Amen.

All of a sudden, you're living a life of thanksgiving to God for the rest because it's only 80 years. Or how about family? I know, especially with teenagers—especially with those teenagers—it can be hard sometimes to uphold the law of God in your household, right? I know, I know it's tough, but why do we do it? What is the motivation?

Acts 2:39, “The promise is for you and your children, and for all those who are far off, for all whom the Lord God will call.” You see, why do we uphold? Why do we overcome, even though it can be difficult in our households, to uphold the law of God? Because we know what we're leaving your children.

It's not a struggle. It's not a hardship. No, it is the glory. It is so awesome. We should be upholding the law in our households every day with joy and thanksgiving. Amen? We don't uphold the law to uphold the law. We uphold the law because we know what we're leaving our children, what we're leaving the next generation. We know that we're leaving an inheritance—that the promise is not only for you, but it is for those who will come after you.

So we uphold the law in thanksgiving, as hard as it can be sometimes, I understand. But we uphold it in thanksgiving knowing the inheritance that we're leaving. Or how about forgiveness? I run into this probably more than anything. People who are just bogged down by unforgiveness. Who have done things in their lives. They know they deserve a punishment. That punishment lives over their heads. It's a weight upon their shoulders. And they live every day with it holding them down.

Can you imagine holding the burden of your sin for years and years and years? And then this promise: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

To know that people live with years and years with that weight of sin, knowing there's a punishment that they deserve that is going to come. But what happens when the promise of God comes? What happens when you receive His sacrifice and all of a sudden your eyes are opened up? You see not destruction ahead of you. You see not death ahead of you, but you see the glory of God awaiting you in Heaven. You see a mansion set up in the heavenly realms for you.

What does it cause? It causes you to overcome and it causes thanksgiving. You see, amen. We need to know the prize, church. We need to know the prize. James 1:12, “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”

It causes us to overcome. Thanksgiving, keeping your eyes on the prize, knowing what's ahead of you, knowing what is awaiting you in Heaven—it causes you to live a thankful life. It causes you to overcome any obstacle in your way. It causes you not to be held down by sin every day, but live in thanksgiving and joy and praise of a God who is waiting for you in Heaven.

Ask any person in a race, right, when they're running the race and their legs are burning and they don't think they can get another breath in, but they see the finish line. They see the end prize. They see the trophy waiting for them. They dig deep and they can find something that they didn't even know they had in them, to push through and to get to the finish line. It causes them to run harder, push more, and it's the same thing for us.

Knowing the prize that is awaiting us in Heaven causes you to run harder and push more. It causes you to overcome. Knowing the prize, seeing the trophy, seeing the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ awaiting for us, it causes you to just go that extra mile that you didn't think you had in you.

Really looking at it like a crown you do not deserve, right? Like the grace of God. When those things meet—the grace, His sacrifice, and knowing what is ahead—when those meet, how much thanksgiving should be pouring out of our hearts every single day? Having that mindset, knowing what awaits you, and striving for greatness in Christ.

Isaiah 12, “Give praise to the Lord. Proclaim His name. Make known among the nations what He has done and proclaim that His name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for He has done glorious things. Let this be known in all the world.”

You see, there should be a thanksgiving that arises. There should be joy that arises in the heart. There should be praise on your lips and on your hands and on your feet. And there should be clapping. There should be joy out of the thanksgiving of God. Amen?

You see, there's an excitement that comes with this. There's an excitement with knowing what's in Heaven. I read the Bible and I read about the woman at the well, right? Or the man before the Sanhedrin. What did they say? “I don't know who the man was, but all I know is that I'm blind and now I can see.” Or the woman at the well, “Come see this man who told me every bad thing I ever did.”

There was an excitement not only for what they had experienced, but they knew that their life had taken a turn. They knew that their future had changed. They were looking ahead and there was an excitement that comes from it.

One of the things we tell our kids all the time is nobody likes a boring Jesus. Nobody likes a boring Jesus. Why? And Jesus is portrayed as boring all across the country as a boring thing to do on Sunday morning. But how could it possibly be boring? How could there not be excitement? How could there not be thanksgiving pouring out of your heart every single day when you know that there is a God who has rescued you and is awaiting you in Heaven?

Our lives should be lives of thanksgiving every single day. I look at the martyrs and I look through the people in other countries who go even to death to God, or who drive themselves through mud just so they can get to a little group of people huddled over a Bible just to read a little bit of the Word. Why do they do it? What could cause a man to do something like that?

Hebrews 11, “If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had the opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”

They're looking forward to what is to come. They're looking forward to Heaven. What could cause a man to go through all that pain, all that suffering, just to read a little bit of the Word? Because they—if it says here—“Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one.”

If they had been looking to their circumstances, if they had been looking to where they had come from, they would have had the opportunity to go back. But because they were looking forward, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. I love that. They were longing for a better country.

We too have to be longing for a better country, looking forward to the heavenly promise that is awaiting us. Don't live surrounded by your circumstance. Don't live with your feet glued to the ground because you look around you and all you see is darkness. Instead, look up, look ahead, look to Who is awaiting you. Amen? That's what God is calling for His people.

He's calling for thanksgiving to arise on this day. And I know Pastor Janeth went over it, and I know I'm going over it again, but it is so important. Thanksgiving is the fuel that drives the Christian. We do not stop. We continue to overcome. What is 80 years on this earth? What is 80 years compared to an eternity with God?

And I'll tell you, God is calling for a heart of thanksgiving today. He's calling for us to go back to thanksgiving. He's calling for us not to stay the same, not to be bogged down by circumstance, not to be only looking around us, but to be looking forward, to be looking to His sacrifice, and to be looking to the grace of God that we did not receive what we deserved. It is the fuel for the Christian.

What happens without thanksgiving, just like a car without fuel, we're really going nowhere. But God is pushing us forward today. So as these guys even begin to play, I'm going to ask that we even just take a second, right? I know God wants to speak. God's going to speak, and I know He does, but He wants to speak about really what He's done. He doesn't want to even talk about you right now. He wants to talk about Him. He wants to talk about what He did on the cross. He wants to talk about His grace. He wants to talk about His Heaven, and He wants to talk about the place He has prepared.

So ask Him: after all the things in our past, where should we be today? Where would we be without Him? How has God's grace abounded in your life? How have we received what we have received today—what we did not deserve? Oh God, You sacrificed all so that we could live. You gave it all up, God, so that we could live. Your sacrifice—it's abounding in my life, God. Yes, God. There was a cost, Jesus. There was a cost that You paid in Your flesh, God. There was a cost that You paid with Your blood so that we could live.

You went to the cross, God, with the crown of thorns on Your head. Why, God? Why did You not cry out, Lord? Why did You not stop it? Why did You not call the angels down to stop it, Lord, if not for us, if not so that we could live? All the temptation You endured, Lord—all of the temptation that You endured—where You could have stopped it: 40 days without eating, and You could have turned the rock into bread. You could have stopped all the suffering. All the temptation of what You could have done, Lord, yet You didn't, so that we too could be delivered from temptation.

Lord, You were sinless. You did not deserve what You received. For us, God, we receive something greater that we did not deserve. We deserve death, but we receive something greater. You deserve something great, yet receive death, for You are sinless. Yet for us, God, You went to the cross.

And oh God, the victory that You had that day. The victory that You had that day, Jesus. The victory over death. The victory over the grave. The victory over Hell so that we too could have victory. Oh God, we live in freedom today because of Your sacrifice. We live in thanksgiving today because of Your sacrifice. We are not held down. We are not—we do not have a grave awaiting us, God, but we have a mansion in Heaven awaiting us – all because of what You did. All because You went to the cross. All because, God, You suffered for us, Jesus, so that we would not receive what we deserve, yet we have a heavenly promise awaiting us, God.

Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, God. Lord, let my lips proclaim thanksgiving to You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord, for what You did. Thank You for dying for me. Thank You for suffering for me. Lord, may my life be a life of thanksgiving.

Call my heart back, God. Call my heart back to thanksgiving. Call it back to the beginning, Jesus. Call it back to a heart of thanksgiving that lives striving to live up to the sacrifice that You made for me.

Oh God, let me not look at my circumstance. Let me not look at my surroundings, but let me look forward to You, God. Oh, praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus, who died for me. Praise You, Jesus, who went to the cross for me. Praise You, Jesus, who suffered so that I could be free. Praise You, Jesus, who went to the grave—so I didn’t have to – Praise You, Jesus, who is lifted high so that I could be lifted high. Praise You, Jesus, who broke the power of sin so that I could break the power of sin in my life. Oh praise You God of Heaven! Praise You, Jesus Christ – Son of God! Praise You, Lord! Hallelujah!

How can I repay You, God? How can I repay the Lord? Yes, Lord. How can I repay you for all You've done, God? Burnt offerings and sacrifices I do not require. But what is He looking for? He's looking for a heart of thanksgiving. One who doesn't act out of obedience just to act out of obedience, but who acts out of the thanksgiving of what He has done, and acts out of the thanksgiving that they have received—not what they deserved, but what God called to be—and thanksgiving, the promise that is awaiting them in Heaven. Amen? Amen.

So Lord, we just thank You so much, God, for all You have done, Lord. For the sacrifice on the cross, for giving us not what we deserve, Jesus, but letting Your grace abound, God. Lord, let us live a life of thanksgiving this day, God. Let our lives be lives of thanksgiving, God, and may it reach the Heavens and be an offering unto You, God. Hallelujah to the Lord! Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! The Lord is looking for a people, and I charge you, the people of God, to go live a life pleasing of God that comes from the thanksgiving inside of your heart. Let that be the motivation every day. Let the motivation of thanksgiving, not only on Thanksgiving, not only during the holidays, but all year long. May it motivate you into godliness. May it move you into sacrifice. May it be the reason for your obedience. May it push you further and further towards Heaven. Amen.

So let's just give God a shout of thanksgiving. Lord, we thank You, Lord! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Jesus. Hallelujah. Amen. Bless one another. And wherever you go, be saying thank You, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Greet one another.