Transcription
Praise the Lord, everybody! Standing together in the house of the Lord. Let's lift our hands together and get gobs and praise in the house. Could we give God some praise in this place today? Would you lift your hands and worship Him? Jesus, dear Lord, I'm grateful for the goodness and the mercy of God. I'm thankful, Lord, for Your anointing, Your power, and Your authority. I'm asking You to baptize this house today. Reign in the tabernacle. We need the glory of God to reign in this place. We're here to lift You up, God. I want You to know I'm in this house to lift up and magnify the name of Jesus in the beauty of holiness. Would you give the Lord a good handclap of praise all across this building? Would you clap your hands? Come on, clap your hands together. Magnify the Lord with me. Let's exalt His name. Does anybody believe He's good? Hallelujah! God bless you. You can be seated if you need to. Worship together and let's have church today in Jesus' name.
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Holy Spirit, open up the heavens. Pour Your Spirit out like a mighty wind. Blow through this house. Open up the heavens for Your Spirit.
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Somebody, let it rain!
[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Today!
[Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Me!
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Let it rain and let it rain. Let it rain. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Somebody shout for joy! Hallelujah! The scripture says, shout for joy! Hallelujah! Shout unto the Lord! Hallelujah! Wow, it feels good in the house of the Lord today. Hallelujah! Anybody agree it feels good in the house?
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Hallelujah! God bless you. You can make your way back to your seat.
Isaiah 42 and 11 instructs to shout from the top of the mountains. It says, "Shout from the tops of the mountains." But just a couple of chapters later in Isaiah 44, Brother Craft, it says from the, it says from the lower parts of the earth to shout. All right, now we got, we got the mountaintops covered. We know how to, how to shout from the mountains. I don't know what gate, what, what on life's gauge. I don't know where you're at today. I don't know if you're on the mountaintop. I don't know if you're in the pit, the lower parts of the earth. But I'm telling you, there's a, there's a little secret hidden in scripture that instructs us if we will shout. Now, I know it don't make sense. Uh, the praise team's getting ready to come back. And I know, I know the thing is, when God gets ready to go to war, He started handing out trumpets. He started handing out pitchers and lamps. You know, we, our flesh thinks that He should have been handing out machine guns and, you know, all kind of military equipment. But He don't operate like we operate. And I'm telling you, one of the most powerful weapons that we have today, Sister Bailey, is our voice. He tells us to shout for joy. Shout unto the Lord. Hallelujah! If somebody will lift your voice today, whether you're on the mountaintop or you're in the pit. You see, here they come. They're coming. I want to say this one thing, but it confuses the enemy. Has anybody ever seen someone going through something? I'm telling you, you're wondering how they're even holding it together. Maybe they lost a very close loved one. Maybe their marriage is falling apart. Has anybody ever seen them get around the front and just start shouting? I'm telling you, it's the most powerful thing you can do. I don't know what's going on in your life today, but I'm telling you that you can get the victory right here in this house. You can get the victory right here around this altar. Hallelujah! It's your day. It's your day. Hallelujah! Let's lift our voices to heaven today in Jesus' name.
Lord, I'm thankful for the blood. It came streaming down for me. But I'm thankful for the blood. When I think of Calvary, and if it had not been for Jesus, I don't know where I would be. If it had not been the mercy and the blood shed for me. Lord, I'm thankful for the blood. It came streaming down for me.
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And if it had not been for mercy and the blood He shed for me. Lord, I'm thankful for the blood. It came streaming down. Lord, I'm thankful for.
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For me. If it hadn't been.
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Yes.
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Oh.
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Just to save me.
[Applause] Thank you.
[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Thank you.
Hallelujah! All across this house, let's give Him a handclap of appreciation for that love.
[Applause] Thank you, Jesus. Anyone thankful for what He's done? Anyone thankful for what He's done for you? Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus. God bless you. You can make your way back to your seat.
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Hallelujah! The ushers are getting ready to help us. As you reach in and get your ties and your offerings, I want to remind you that you can, you can reach down and turn on Facebook just for a moment. You can reach over to YouTube and you can share this livestream because you never know who that you might touch, who you might reach with the word of God today. I heard an elder preacher just a few days ago. He told a story, and it's not a long story. Just give me just a couple of moments, but I want to tell it today as the ushers get ready to to receive the the tithes and offerings. He said he was driving around his city and he came up on this house, this beautiful house that had these beautiful flowers all around, all around the front of the house. And he just automatically pulled in the driveway. And these flowers, the beauty of them, attracted him. And he got out of his car. He didn't know the person that lived in the house. And he got out and he looked at these flowers. And the elderly lady came out and she was just, she was just hollering at him like, "What are you doing out in my yard? What's, what's going on? You know, what are you doing?" And he said, "I'm sorry, I just, I just noticed these beautiful flowers and I just had to stop and take a look at them." And she, she tried to shoo him on off and she said, "Get out of here, you know, just, just go." And he almost said, "I almost got in my car." And she said, "Hey, hey," she said, "Do you really like these flowers?" And he said, "Of course I do. I wouldn't have pulled in here and got out." She said, "Come here and let me tell you something." She said, "Do you want flowers like this?" And he said, "Yes, ma'am." She said, "Well, let me tell you what you do." She said, "You water the flowers and you cut the weeds." And she said, "You never get it mixed up." She said, "Don't you ever get that mixed up." She said, "You water the flowers and you cut the weeds, and that's how you have beautiful flowers like this." And I thought about every time we come to the house of God, every time we give of our ties and our offering, every time we do something for the kingdom of God, we're watering those flowers. We're cutting the weeds. I'm telling you, I don't want to get my priorities mixed up. It's so easy to get caught up in the cares of this life and and the riches of this world and and our jobs and our businesses. And, you know, and I never want to get to the point where I'm faithful to my, my business or my job, and but it's okay to not be faithful to the house of God. I'm telling you, that's where we get it mixed up. But every time we, we, we bring our family to this house, and every time we give of our, our time and our finances, and everything we do for the kingdom, we're watering those flowers. I'm telling you, water the flowers and cut the weeds, and don't ever get it mixed up. I'm telling you, that is powerful if we apply that to our lives.
Let's stand. Give you the opportunity to be blessed. How many love to, uh, include God in your finances? Hey, it's, it's one of those secret weapons. It's one of those weapons that He uses that this world does not, does not understand. They can't comprehend giving like this. And I'm telling you, it's a, it's a blessing to be able to give. God, I ask You to bless this congregation. Bless this offering. Use it for Your furtherance. Use it for Your kingdom. We ask You to bless in Jesus' name. God bless you as you march and bring your tithes and your offering. Choir, you can go ahead and assemble after you give.
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Hallelujah! God bless you. You can be seated. As His choir is getting ready, I'd like to, uh, to welcome every guest. We've got a number of guests in this house. Pine Grove, let's make them welcome right now. Thank you for joining us in person. Thank you for joining us online. We are honored that you're with us today. I want to say thank you to Brother Dylan Kraft. He's here with us and his, his buddy from his church, and we're going to hear from them in the second service. We're so glad they're with us. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I'm telling you, you don't have to leave the same way you came today. You don't have to leave the same way you came. Brother Dunn, we, we read that, uh, the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem in the time of King Herod. And these men had come from, the Bible says, from the East. And they had come to worship. And they had, the Bible says, when they seen the baby, they fell and they worshiped, and they presented their gifts. They came in contact with the King of Kings. But what is so interesting as I read this text was they came one way, but the very next verse says they went out another way. Now, I don't, I don't know how you came in today. I don't know what you, you turned your back to in this world. I don't know what was going on in your home. I don't know what you're experiencing on your job. I'm telling you, there's, there's people in this house. There's people here today, I feel it, that's going through some things. And it was everything you could do to get to this place. It took everything you had to, to get dressed. The enemy threw everything he had at you all night long, all morning, but you made it here. You came one way. My goodness, but you're in a place where you don't have to leave the same way you came. There's not many places on this earth that you can do that at, but in the house of God, you can do that. He's here to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. We're living in that day. He's, He's pouring it out liberally. He's ready to change your life. And they're almost there. I think they're almost ready to ready to sing, and I'm done. But I had come across a guy that said, "You know, Jesus had spent 40 days speaking of things pertaining to the kingdom after He had resurrected." And he said, "We don't have nothing." He said, "In those 40 days." And as soon as I read that, I thought, "Oh, yeah, we do." He, he said some stuff. He was talking about, "We don't have scripture and verses and and all these things, the books of the Bible about those 40 days." But we live in a world of false information, and I tell you, you better watch what you read. As soon as I read this, I thought, "You know what? He did say a couple of things." He said, "You go and you wait in Jerusalem." He commanded them. He said, "The Holy Ghost is going to be poured out." He said, "John baptized with water, but you're going to be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." He summed up those 40 days, Brother Jason, and he said, "You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you." You need the Holy Ghost. I need the Holy Ghost. It's not optional. It's in this house, and it can change your life. It's in this house, and it can change your family. Hallelujah! Anybody ready for the Holy Ghost? In Jesus' name, let it fall in this house!
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Hallelujah!
He has overcome. We will not be shaken. We will not be moved. Jesus.
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Oh Lord, we know that You're amongst us.
[Music] [Applause] Here. Jesus.
[Applause] [Music] Jesus.
[Music] [Music] Yes.
[Applause] [Music] Jesus Christ.
[Music] [Music] Is.
[Music] [Applause] By the name of.
[Applause] My Jesus goes before me.
[Applause] [Music] Is.
[Applause] Foreign.
[Applause] [Applause] Is.
[Applause] Me.
[Applause] I am.
[Music] [Applause] Is.
[Music] [Applause] No matter the matter, the situation, my God goes before me.
[Music] [Applause] Is.
[Applause] [Applause] Foreign.
[Applause] Whatever.
[Applause] [Music] I will.
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Is.
[Music] [Applause] [Music] Hallelujah! Come on, let's lift our hands and worship the Lord together.
[Applause] Come on, would you magnify and praise Him all across this building? Let's lift Him up and magnify Him today in the beauty of holiness. Hallelujah! Would you lift your voices in praise to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords? Thank you so much, choir. Thank you, praise team, choir, musicians. Thank you, everyone that's made this service so great and so easy to worship in. We appreciate you. And, uh, if you need to go the restroom or anything like that, please do that now and get back in this tabernacle so that we can focus on the word of the Lord for a few minutes without interruption and without, um, distraction. So if you need to go the restroom or or get a drink of water or anything, right now would be the time to do that quickly. Choir, please return to the tabernacle as quickly as you can. I want to preach today. I know you're standing. I will not leave you standing lengthy. But welcome to every guest that's here. Thank you to each and every guest that's in the house with us today. And I am noticing some of our new ones that are just making their journey with God, or not here today. So those of you who are mentoring them and working with them, and even some that may not be their mentor or working with them, but you know they sit around you or sit beside you, please make an effort to make contact with them. One of the most important things we can do when someone starts their journey with God is make sure they're surrounded by godly people to offset their old friends that want to pull them back into the ways of destruction. Very, very, very important. Philippians chapter 4 for your consideration today. Philippians the fourth chapter and the sixth verse. I'm going to use a lot of scripture today. I want to say welcome to Brother Dylan Kraft. He's preached for us on a couple of occasions here, and we so respect him. Thankful that he's here today, and he's got a guest with him that I'm sure he'll introduce in the second service. We're so glad that they're here with us. And to every guest that's here, we want you to feel very welcome today. Philippians chapter 4, begin reading with verse six. Philippians the fourth chapter and the sixth verse: "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." Verse 7: "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Now, I want you to see here that the formula for peace. I want you to see here that the formula for peace is described in these two verses. How many of you want the peace of God that passes all understanding to keep your heart and your mind? I, I don't know if you realize it, but that's, that's big stuff right there. That's big stuff. This is a promise that there is a way for your mind and your heart to be kept by God in the kind of peace that passes all understanding. I mean, it's either this or Zoloft. It's just up to you. It's either this or Xanax, whichever one. There is a way for your mind and your heart to be kept by God in peace, the kind of peace that passes human understanding. And in the verse before verse six, it tells you how: "Be careful for nothing." Don't spend your life shook up. Stop worrying about everything. It reminds me of a woman one time that asked me prayer for her, her daughter. She said, "My daughter started driving back and forth to college, and I'm so worried about it." And when she leaves, I just start thinking of her being run off the road into a deep ditch, or a car turning upside down and have been covered in water and she can't get out and she's drowning. I said, "Well, my God, don't think about that. Think about her making it to college. Think about, think about her actually getting there. Stop worrying about everything." But in everything, pray. Boy, there's a new idea for you. Pray, supplicate, bring your needs before the Lord, and do it all with thanksgiving and gratitude. Not whining like He never does anything for you. Not whining around like He's never answered a prayer, but with your hands raised, thanking Him for everything He's done for you. Make your needs known to God.
[Applause] God bless you. You can be seated. Would you lift your hands all across the tabernacle right now? Come on, come on. Would you lift your hands? Magnify the Lord. Lift Him up. Come on, give Him some praise right now. I'm going to preach to you here. God, in the name of Jesus, and by the power of the Holy Ghost. God, in the name of Jesus, and by the power of the Holy Ghost. Now, this happens to me from time to time, but I've spent this week preparing to preach for you. Thank you so much, Lauren. You make everything so pleasant when I'm reading my scripture and all that. Thank you for the background music. Sometimes I get started and she don't know when to stop and all that stuff. So much easier. She knows when I read my scripture and pray that it's time to quit. But sometimes I get all anointed and I just start preaching. She don't know whether to pray the whole time or if it's rude just to quit midway through. So thank you. Sometimes when I prepare, God actually lets me preach what I prepare. Last night, I got to talking with Brother Dylan Kraft and the kids about some things. And when I went back to finish my notes late last night to get ready for today, I no longer had any passion for what I'd been studying and preparing to preach today. But everything that was in my spirit was what I talked to them about. And so I went to sleep and I thought, "Well, in the morning, when I wake up, I'll be refocused." When I got up today, I was still focused on what I talked to them about. And so you may call today part two and last week part one. But I want to preach to you for a little bit. And I preached last week about the insanity of sin. I want to talk to you this week about the insanity of ingratitude. I want to talk to you about the fact that the root, and this is a strong statement, but I believe with everything in me, it is an accurate statement, but the root of all sin is ingratitude. Now, I understand that's big. I understand that's bold. I understand that's wild because we want to associate ingratitude as one of those little, those little human faux pas. You know, gratitude, ingratitude, in our minds, getting up there with murder and rape and all the big bad sins. It's just kind of a human nature issue sometimes. We're all ungrateful. But every action in the flesh has a seed in the spirit. We sin in the spirit before we sin in the flesh. The fleshly action, sin, is only the fruit of the seed, sin of the spirit. And I want to convince you today, or at least I want to present to you, that ingratitude has to precede sin. Now, I've preached this before, but I woke up this morning with something totally different on my mind. And let me set the stage for this message by telling you that that every one of us have a garden of our heart. And we end and die. The Bible says it this way. The Bible talks about a garden also, and it says that a, that a, that what you become is as a twig or a branch, and how it is bent. So our Master is a gardener. And every one of us will become whatever we grow in the garden of our heart is what we will become as humans. And really, when it gets right down to it, when it gets right down to it, even though there may be a lot of fruit in our garden, the basis of our garden is either a garden of gratitude or it's a garden of ingratitude. And everything else becomes the fruit of that concept. Are you grateful or are you ungrateful? Because the issues of everything that you deal with will come from whether you have a grateful heart or an ungrateful heart. And see, here's the thing, and and my confirmation came from your illustration today, Brother Forsyth, because ingratitude grows naturally like weeds. You don't have to plant it. You don't have to water it. You don't have to tend to it. It grows naturally, and it will overtake your garden, and it will choke out all gratitude. But gratitude has to be planted, and it has to be fertilized, and it has to be watered, and it has to be dug around, and all ingratitude has to be plucked from the heart. And God, listen to me, are you listening to me? God gives us the tools to do that. And those tools are found in Philippians the fourth chapter and the, in the sixth verse. He says, "Let me tell you how you tend to your garden." You tend to your garden with prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving. That's how you tend your garden. And if, listen to me, listen to me, boy, you got to hear what I'm saying right now. If you're claiming to be a Christian, but you're not properly praying, and you're not worshiping, it is no wonder that you're dealing with ingratitude. And ingratitude has stages. Ingratitude has stages. You have to be turning inward to develop ingratitude. You see, ingratitude grows naturally in your garden. But as your garden starts going to seed, what happens is you self-focus. In other words, you start, stop seeing other people's plights. You can only see your own. You stop seeing other people's position. You can only see your own position. You stop seeing how other people are affected by your actions. You only see the actions you need to take to please self because nobody's doing you right anyhow. Everybody's doing you wrong anyway. You don't have anything to be thankful for. Now, listen to me. Ingratitude turns into self-focus. Are you listening to me? And then self-focus turns into entitlement. I am entitled to some things. I am entitled to be happy. I am entitled to have my own way. Do you say, "Well, Brother Copeland, I, I just don't believe that." Well, then let's go, let's go all the way back to the beginning of time. Let's even jump back further than the garden. Let's talk about what happened to Lucifer in heaven. What happened to Lucifer? The Bible says he was the most beautiful of all God's creation. All you have to do is read Ezekiel 37 and Isaiah 14. And you, both of these chapters describe Lucifer in his beauty. And it describes how God created him with every precious stone of the earth as his covering. It describes how God created his pipes, I believe that was his singing voice. He was the worshiper. He was, he was the, he was only second to God in the glory world. But you think that was enough for Lucifer? Of course not. Because instead of a Lucifer thanking God for all that God had given him, instead of him looking at all of his stones and his pipes and his voice and and where he was, instead of doing that, he started focusing on the fact that he had to sit lower than God. He started focusing on what he didn't have. Listen to the insanity of this. The one thing he didn't have, instead of the thousands of things that he did have that other people didn't have.
[Applause] I mean, that was the host of heaven. That wasn't covered in the jewels from, of every precious jewel of the earth. There was an entire host of angels that was not made as beautiful as he. And instead of walking around saying, "Look at what God's given me. Look at the position God's putting me in. Look at how He's blessed me." He got focused on the fact that God, "I don't get to sit in Your seat." Ingratitude grew wild in his heart, and he did not pluck it out. Ingratitude grew wild in his spirit, and he did not weed it. He did not replace it with gratitude of thanksgiving. He didn't nurture gratitude. And finally, it turned so inward that he quit even seeing the other angels. All he could see was himself, how he was mistreated. Somebody said, "That's insane." Oh, is it? I wonder if you've ever been there. I wonder if I've ever been there. I wonder if I have ever let ingratitude so overtake my garden that I stopped seeing everybody else's plights, and I became so self-focused that all I could think about day and night is I wasn't being done right. And finally, that thing crystallized, and it cultivated into the most extreme case of narcissism that this world has ever seen. Just go back and read it. The most extreme case of narcissism. As Lucifer declares in two verses, he says, "I," five times. You know why? Because "I" is all he could see. He couldn't see the thousands of other angels that were around him. He couldn't see them going back and forth praising and worshiping God and doing the things that they were supposed to be doing. And he says, "I will lift myself up." "I," if nobody else is going to do it, then I'll do it. If God's not going to give me my due, then I'll take it for myself. If God's not going to recognize who and what I am and elevate me, then I'll elevate myself. If all these angels can't appreciate me and go to God for me and tell Him how great I am, that I'll just take what belongs to me." You got to hear me today. Let me just tell you, you, you need to be real careful. This, this is so important right here. You need to be real careful of ingratitude so overtaking you. You need to be able to stand back and look at yourself in the mirror and reflect when you reach the point that every time that things happen in your life, it's someone else's fault. Because when you reach the point that every time something happens in your life, it's other people, "Well, people just don't like me." "Well, well, people are just rising." "Well, people are just, they just don't appreciate me." "What will, well, they're just starting a coup against me." "I'm just not liked in my office. I'm just not liked. I'm just not a preacher." When you start that, I'm going to tell you, you're, listen to me, you're traveling down a road that if that crystallizes, then there's no hope for you. Because you can't repent if you're never wrong. If you can never admit that you're wrong, if you can never just simply say, "You know what? I messed up." If it's always got to be that people are rising against you, people are setting you up, people are overthrowing you, other people are doing you wrong, it's other people's fault. "Nobody likes me. Everybody hates me." Guess I'll go eat worms. If that, if that is your go-to response, then all God, then the only thing that can happen is you get kicked out. Because you can't repent. The first step to repentance is saying, "This is my fault. I did this. I messed up. This is nobody's fault but mine. I take ownership of this." And you know what? If people don't like me, maybe I'm doing something to make them not like me. If people are upset with me, maybe I'm creating that environment. And the bottom line is, I can't fix other people anyway, but I can work on me. I work on my attitude. I can work on my spirit. Man, is anybody hearing me preach today? If everything is everybody else's fault, then there is no remedy. And narcissism is born of entitlement, and entitlement is born of ingratitude, and it is the ruination of everything we have. Let me tell you, gratitude, ingratitude is the great destroyer. Let me read you a few things, uh, right, right quick before I go on. That didn't come from religion. It came from Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy. This is a, right, this is from a class on law, ethics, and public policy at Notre Dame College. "Gratitude affects how a person conceives the world and expects others to behave. It increases interpersonal receptivity. It seeps into one's being and eventually affects all perception and disposition pervasively." One half-century earlier than this writing, famed sociologist George Simmel declared that gratitude is the moral memory of mankind. If every grateful action, he went on to say, were suddenly eliminated, society would implode. Whatever you're in search of, peace of mind, prosperity, health, love, it is waiting for you only if you're willing to receive it in gratitude. Elsewhere, the same author referred to gratitude as the most passionate, transformative force in the cosmos. Another time, the same author wrote, "One of the most empowering, healing, dynamic instruments of conscious vital to demonstrating the life experience of one desires is gratitude. It is the key to abundance, prosperity, fulfillment, and unlocks the fullness of life." They didn't get that out of the Bible. They got that out of studying society. Gratitude holds life together, and ingratitude picks your pocket and strips you and robs you of everything precious. And once you get grateful, it's too late. So we went all the way back to the, to the, to, to heaven. Now let's go to the first words in our Bible, and Eve are in the garden. The garden is filled with trees and vines and plants. I'm sure everything we enjoy today that we have to get from around the world because of different climates grew in that garden. And while in this imperfect world, there's certain things we can't grow in certain locations, every thing grew in that garden. Everything beautiful and precious and lovely that we can receive from a plant or a tree grew in that garden. And the, the, the book literally opens with Adam and Eve walking and talking with God in the cool of the evening, realizing that they are His crea, that He is their Creator, realizing that all of these good gifts come from the Father of lights, in whom there is no shadow of turning. They've got a relationship with Him. They're walking and talking and visiting with Him in the cool of the evening. In the midst of all of this, Eve could have coconuts, pomegranates, olives, berries, different kinds of berries, grapes, muscadines, scuppernongs, anything she wants, strawberries, mangoes, bananas, apples, oranges, anything she wants. She's just got to go to a certain section of the garden, and there's all different kinds. They're waiting on her. Anything she wants. If she wants spaghetti, she just goes to the spaghetti tree. Anything that she could want. I had to wake some of y'all up. Some of y'all were asleep. You still didn't get it. I don't mean to put you to sleep today. What I'm preaching to you is so vitally important.
[Applause] And so we say, we, we say that different sins were the first sin. But before the first sin actually took place, something took place in Eve's heart, and it was, it had to have been the seed of ingratitude. Because with tens of thousands of fruit trees that she could be eating from, why on earth was she standing gazing into the one tree that she couldn't have? I'm going to tell you why, because ingratitude had begun in her heart. And instead of her dancing through the all the trees and singing about all the trees that she could have, she should have been dancing through that garden singing, "Grapes and berries and oranges, oh my!" But she wasn't. She's standing gazing into the one tree that she could not have. And buddy, Lucifer recognized that spirit. And the same thing that caused him to fall, he used on Eve. "Did the Lord say, 'You mean He's withholding something from you?'" You see, that's what got him. He wanted God's throne. "You mean God's telling you you can't have something?" Does that sound anything like your life? You can get so upset about the one thing you want that you don't have, instead of turning and looking at all the things that God's given you. And most of the time, the reason God holds something from us is because it's going to destroy us. I, I could tell many stories, and I won't. I'm just going to tell one. But there was a lady with several kids that did not have a car and a van. And the church came and picked her up and brought her to church every service. And she never missed a service. She had people in her family that took her to the grocery store, took her grocery shopping, made sure her kids got to school. And this went on for years. She never missed a service. She was one of the, her pastor would say, she was one of those faithful people that went to their church. Our children were getting older, they were becoming teenagers, they were getting involved in things in the church, choir and youth and all that kind of stuff. And a man in the church got blessed and went and bought himself a brand new car. And when he went in to trade in his used car, he thought about that sweet lady. And thought, "You know what? I don't need the two or three thousand they're gonna give me for this car. The two or three thousand I would get for this car and trade-in is insignificant and the benefit it would be to that little widow with those kids." And so he took that car with the keys and gifted that little widow that car. That Sunday, for the first Sunday in years, she missed church because instead of going to church, she took her blessing and used it to go see family members out of town. And the Sunday after that, you know, she took her children on vacation. You know, they never had a vacation before because they didn't have a car. And then the week after that, she took them to see other relatives that they hadn't seen in years. And the end result is is that her blessing became the curse that destroyed her and her family. If God is not letting you have something, it's not best to let gratitude turn into narcissism and rise up and take it for yourself. I'm going to go back and revisit last Sunday's message because I don't think some of you got it. Bathsheba is bathing. She's not there to seduce David. She didn't take her clothes off or reveal herself to seduce the king. She was just taking a bath. And you know what? The most effective way to take a bath is take your clothes off. David was not on his veranda to commit adultery with Bathsheba. He was up there because the pressures of life had driven him to go out on the veranda and just take a break, just go out there and kill an evening. And in that lifted up position, you see, here's the deal. When Bathsheba or her husband or whoever built that place where she bathed, built it, no one could see into her bathing spot. But as the kingdom grew and God blessed David, he kept adding onto his palace until finally God's blessings lifted him into a position that he could see into a place no one else could see. And he used that lofty position that God had gave him to sin instead of be thankful. I'm going to tell you, there's some people that can't afford to be blessed because as soon as God blesses them, instead of them worshiping and thanking God, they will use the blessings to destroy their world.
[Applause] They didn't have the money or the wherewithal to do it before, but as soon as God gives it to them, instead of them using it to bless the kingdom of God, they use it to plant a bomb in their life that destroys everything in their world. And that's what David did. That one sin of his lifted up position would reverberate through his family all the way down to his grandkids, his great-grandchildren. I don't want to get off subject, but he said, "You mean there's something you want that God won't give you? You mean there's something you want that God won't let you have? What kind of God is He?" You know, it's an amazing thing to me, and it doesn't matter if it's pedophilia, same-sex marriage, homosexuality, robbing a bank, it doesn't matter what the sin is. It is an amazing thing to me that a narcissist, self-centered, ungrateful person can calculatedly say, "No one's going to agree with what I do," but they go do it anyway. And then everybody's wrong that don't cater to them. "Oh, you mean you wanted the money that was in Citizen's Bank? I'm so sorry we were withholding it from you. Of course, we're not gonna put you in jail. All you wanted was a little money that was in that vault." But in, in self-centeredness and ingratitude, people want to go do things that they know is against society. They know it's against morality. And then if anybody says anything, "You judgmental bigot!" You knew before you did it what it was going to cause. The reason we do, the reason that they respond that way is because they quit seeing anyone else. There is an insanity that comes with ingratitude that causes you to have a skewed view of the world, and it is the platform for sin. I, I want to submit to you that had Eve not gotten ungrateful for the whole of the garden, she would have never been in a position to be lured into sin by the enemy. I'm not, I'm going to say it again because you didn't get that. I'm going to say that Eve not became ungrateful for the life that God had given her and all the good gifts that she did have, she would have never been in position for Lucifer to lure her into rebelling against God.
[Applause] Ingratitude put her under that tree, and Lucifer recognized it because he'd been there. And then he go, he takes her down the very journey that cost him heaven. "You mean God's withholding something from you? You poor, pitiful thing. If you want same-sex marriage, that's what you deserve. It's your right. If you want to enter into pedophilia with a young child, that should be your right. You should, anything you want shouldn't be withheld from you. What kind of God do you serve that you would want something He wouldn't give you?" Ingratitude, excuse our view. You got to do what any, listen to me, anytime it comes from the devil in your thoughts, or it comes from a, from a supposed friend, you just gotta do what's best for you. You just, you just gotta do what makes you happy. You, you just got to forget other people and think about yourself. Is that the message of Jehovah? Is that not an antithesis of what God said? Let me tell you what God said. Here's what God said in Mark, in the book of Mark. Where'd I write it down? I'll get it. I didn't write it down. But all three, you know what I believe, if I'm not mistaken, it's in Mark, maybe the 13th chapter. I didn't write it down. Mark 13:14, somewhere in there. But all through all of the four Gospels, three of them record the occasion when the disciples asked the Master, "What is the greatest commandment?" And He, He ties two of them together. And He says, "On these hinge or swing. They're the linchpin for all the others." Because if you've got these two, you've got the right attitude for the other commandments. And if you don't have these two, you can't obey any of them. And that's number one: You can't become your own God. You can't only focus on your own desires. You can't just ask yourself, "What do I want?" The first commandment is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and mind. So His desires are more important than your wishes. And then number two: Love your neighbors, those around you, as you love yourself. And if you can get those two, the other, the other ones, they just fall into place. You don't even have to worry about them. Because ingratitude, are you listening to me? Ingratitude shrinks your worldview until all you can see is poor little me and what I want and how I'm being treated. And it is to the exclusion of God. It is to the exclusion of how your feelings and how your actions affect others. You're only interested in me. And so Lucifer says, "You mean, you mean God don't want you to eat of this tree?" And then he changes it. It's not because God's protecting you. You know what this concept is true of? Parents trying to do with their children. This concept is true of a pastor trying to lead people to glory. And it's true of God trying to keep people out of hell. Lucifer switches it around to where the things that's being withheld are not for your protection, that's so that you can't lift yourself up where the other people are. So kids say, "Well, you're just trying to control me because you're a control freak." No, I'm trying to protect you. "He don't want you to eat of this tree because if you eat of this tree, you'll be a god. You can call your own shots. Then you can do what you want to do. Then you can be a god unto yourself." Then Eve fell for it. She ate of the fruit of the tree and saw that it was good for food. She gave it to her husband, and they died. Listen to me, they died that day to all submission to authority, which would bring their death. What I'm preaching to you is, it all started, are you listening to me? It all started with ingratitude. Eve had she been grateful, would have never been in that position anyway. Where did this message come from? Let me tell you right quick. I'm going to start drawing to a close. Several years ago, I had a dream. Sin started breaking out in this church. I was so concerned about it. I went to, I fell asleep weeping and crying over the condition of some people in this church. This was probably 12 years ago. I don't know if it was a dream, I don't know a division. I do not know what it was except that I saw in, in the middle of, halfway between wake and sleep, I saw a vision or a dream. Had a dream of a tree. And I noticed the first thing I noticed about this tree, because in the beginning of the vision or dream, I was at quite a distance from it, was that there was several different kinds of fruit hanging on that tree. And I couldn't figure that out, Brother Jason Davidson, because trees, you bear one type of fruit. And I was very intrigued by that. And as I moved closer to the tree, I could tell that something was written on the tree or on the, on the fruit. And I started realizing that each type of fruit represented a different type of sin. There was bitterness, anger, jealousy, adultery, fornication, all these different kind of fruit that represented different sins. And I still couldn't figure out what God was trying to show me or tell me. And then I backed away from the tree, and suddenly I could see underground, and there's a long taproot, and there was something written on that taproot, and when I got close to the taproot, it said, "Ingratitude." God was showing me that ingratitude was feeding all of the sins that was being produced on that tree. When I got up, I got my Bible and I started searching. And ingratitude was not even a word in the Bible because it comprises a spirit more than an action. Are you listening to me? The actions that come out of it are unthankfulness, unholiness. Romans 1 and 25. Romans 1 and 25. Can we look at that? Because here's the deal, are you listening to me? Ingra, let me tell you what's at the root of ingratitude. All you care about is yourself. Ingratitude means that you've become your own God. You don't care what other people are doing for you. You don't care what God's done for you. All you're interested in is poor little.
Me, there's something I want, and people won't let me have it. What happens? You change the truth of God into a lie. You don't worship Him as God anymore. You're worshiping your own wishes. Is God? It's the original sin. Are you? Oh God, are you listening to me? It's the original sin. Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature? Who is the creature? It's me! Me! All that matters is what I want. My God, are you hearing me? Preach right now! All that matters is what I want, and it doesn't matter if I tear up my family, if I destroy my home, if I wrecked the church.
How in the world could a grateful pastor commit adultery? How could a pastor that has people that love him and adore him and pay their tithes to him and cook him meals? And how in the world could he plant the bomb of adultery in that church and rip that church apart and split that church? I'm going to tell you why. Because he's worshiping the creature more than the Creator. What he wants has become more important than that's all he can see. He's not thankful for his church. He's not thankful for his family. He's not thankful for his children. Oh, you're not hearing me preach today.
How can a how can a child in a home rise up against their their parents that has fed them and clothed them and paid their light bill and paid their water bill and helped them get their first car and set up at night and help them do their homework? How in the world? Because somewhere, what they want so overclouds their mind that ingratitude grows wild while gratitude is choked out. Oh my God. Hey, I understand. I understand. I understand you. It's hard to jump up and shout to this kind of preaching, but I'm preaching to you today. Put it back up there. Romans 1:25. "And worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."
Next verse. Verse 26. "For this cause God gave them up to vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is unnatural." Verse 27. "And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense." You know what this is saying? All the horrible sins in this world comes from ingratitude of someone that forgets a God that shed his blood, a God that gave his life on the cross. All they know is what they want. What they want. It doesn't matter who it hurts. It doesn't matter who they have to step on.
Let's go back to verse 24. Romans 1 and 24. We're going to move on. "Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their bodies between themselves." Verse 25. "Did I miss it? I missed it somewhere there. Maybe it's 23." "And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man..." Anyway, it says the reason all this happened. Are you listening to me? Is because they were unthankful. It's somewhere there. You'll find it. Let's look at Second Timothy 3 and 2. I understand that usually in this first service, we're running and shouting. There it is. "For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy."
And I want to tell you the reason these go together like this is because after 30 years of pastoring, I can tell you that people always become unthankful before they become unholy. It is a lack of gratitude for the blood of Jesus, the cross of Calvary, the church and its gospel, an altar in which you can repent, Sunday school teachers, people to hold you accountable, people that love you, people that have pulled you up the mountain, people that gave you a place to step when you didn't have a place to step, people that helped you arise to where you are. You got to become unthankful for all of that [Applause] before you can sin.
I'm a man just like every man in this house, and I'm going to admit something for the sake of this ma- this message that I wouldn't admit at any other time. But I'm going to tell you, the pressures of pastoring have got to me at times. The pressures of pastoring have got to me at times until I felt sorry for myself. And I've done just what they're talking about. I start thinking about, "Well, I deserve this, and I deserve that. I don't deserve, after what I've done, to be put through. I don't deserve to be talked to like I don't deserve to be treated the way I've been treated." And boy, when you start going down that road, and I'm telling you, in times that my head wasn't on straight, I've got up two or three o'clock in the morning, walked in my daughter's rooms and looked at them laying there in the bed when they were just children. I said, "God, thank you for my babies. Thank you for my girls. Thank you they were born with perfect little hands and perfect little feet and minds like a steel trout that can get a hold of concepts and understanding. Thank you that they love me and you've given me a wonderful home. Don't ever let their daddy do anything that would hurt them. Don't ever let my own narcissism and my own self-centeredness cause me to do something stupid that would wreck my family beyond that. God, thank you for the blood that you shed. Thank you for the cross of Calvary that gave me an altar where I can repent. And if there's anything I'm going through, God, I know it's for my shaping, not from my destruction. And if there's anything I'm facing, it's probably because of my own mouth and my own actions. Let me learn not become bitter [Applause]."
God, the truth of the matter is, I've created most of my own storms, and I've been the creation of most of my own problems. Let me learn not blame others and become bitter. Well, I'm going to tell you, somebody in this place better get a hold of what I'm saying right now. Immaturity will destroy you. It always seeks for someone else to hang the blame on because you can never be wrong. But I'm going to tell you, we create our own storms. We create our own problems most of the time. It's not other people. And we've got our prayers got to be, "God, let me learn. Let me learn and become wise. Find wisdom on the tables of my heart. Let me see myself for what I am and be big enough to say, 'I'm wrong,' and I apologize."
Let me tell you something. Let me tell this church something right now. Satan is such a liar that we think if we admit that we're wrong and we apologize, that it knocks us down. When the truth of the matter is, a man that makes a mistake and is man enough to say, "I did it. I'm sorry. I will you help me?" usually winds up respected more than before he ever made the mistake. His response garners respect. And a person that won't admit their faults when everybody knows it only demeans themselves further, and it further adds to their demise. I'm preaching to you today. You can blame others and get bitter, or you can take it on the chin and get better. It's all up to you. The choice is within your hands. But I'm telling you, everything we do is born of gratitude or ingratitude. And I'm going to tell you this: all sin starts with ingratitude, a willingness to look at the one or two things you don't like in your life instead of focusing on all the blessed, wonderful things that God has given you. And admitting, David, that maybe the reason God don't bless you to add another level on your palace is because he knows you'll use it to destroy your world.
I'm done. But I'm not going to preach the problem without preaching the answer. And because it's 1:36, I'm not going to take time for it. But let me tell you, the two things: prayer and praise. Prayer and worship. The two. I'm sorry, I said that wrong. The two things are the two things that is the prescription to the answer is prayer and worship. Because both of those things are, you listen to me, both of those things force you to get your focus off yourself. Now, let me tell you the right kind of prayer. Let me ask you, what you call prayer? Whining ain't prayer. I don't care if you're whining to your mommy or you're whining to your daddy. I'm amazed at these 50-year-old men that's still going and whining to their 70-year-old mama. It doesn't matter if you're whining to your mommy, you're whining to your daddy, are you whining to God? Whining's not prayer because you're still self-focused. You're still fascinating on self. The disciples said, "Lord, teach us to pray." He says, "All right, this is how you do it. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, not man. Thy kingdom come, not my kingdom. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. God, don't do my will, do Your will in my life." Prayer focus. It forces you to get your focus off yourself, and it forces you to get your focus on God and what He wants. And let me tell you, God is always others conscious. The answer to the insanity of ingratitude that will destroy your world. Let me tell you something. If you stay ungrateful, your world's going to come apart. I, I got to say that again. If you stay ungrateful, if you remain ungrateful, you're going to tear your world of pieces. Ingratitude is the great destroyer. It rips, it tears, it breaks, it destroys relationships, it destroys homes, it destroys marriages, it destroys children. And it is prayer. Prayer is the first key that when you kneel, listen to me. I can't count the times I've walked down that center aisle right there, the center aisle, and the other building, the center aisle, the building for that, the center aisle, the building before that, with my feelings hurt and my feathers ruffled and nobody was doing me right and everybody was against me. Come on, somebody. You know, I forget that my marriage is still together. My bills are paid. Come on. I didn't walk to the parking lot. I pulled up my car. It had air conditioning in the- if I came to pray in the summer, it had air conditioning in the summer. If I came to pray in the winter, I pulled up here warm because I had heat. I ain't thinking about all that. I'm thinking about the one or two things that ain't going right in my life. I get out of that car and walk across the parking lot. I walk up the steps. I didn't do it on a walker. I didn't do it in a wheelchair. I didn't do it in an electric wheelchair. I didn't come in on a cane. You're not hearing me. But I'm still dragging my tracks out with my bottom lip. I walk up that aisle just a little bit overweight because I've been eating anything I wanted. You're not hearing me preach. I got a family that loves me. I got a church that loved me. I got girls that love me. But I think my world's coming to be in my mind because of the insanity of ingratitude. I don't think I can live another day if the one or two little things I'm just not happy. Oh, you ain't hearing me preach. You ain't hearing me preach. I'm gonna tell you, we need, we need some songwriters again to write songs like, "When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all He's done for me, my soul cries." Be seated. I gotta move on. Thank you for your response.
Listen to me. Listen to me. Let me tell you what that song indicates. That song indicates that the response is absolutely involuntary. The song indicates that it's not something I do, it's something that erupts. Oh, you're not hearing me preach right now. When I think of the voluntary thing I did is I made myself think about the goodness of Jesus instead of my problems. The voluntary thing I did is I make myself think about the goodness of God instead of what I don't like. When I think of the goodness of Jesus, that's voluntary. And then the involuntary happens. When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all He's done for me, it just happens. My soul cries out. It just erupts. It's like a volcano. My soul, hallelujah, thank God for saving me. Be seated. Who did He save me from? He saved me from myself. He saved me from my own insanity. He saved me from my own mental delusion. He saved me from my own narcissism and pride. I forget that I've ate what I've wanted to eat and drove a good car with air conditioning and heat and the clothes I got on don't have holes in the knees. I can't use it as an example because some of y'all wear them on purpose. You talk about the insanity of sin. You can buy the good pair for forty dollars or the ripped up, tore up pair for 140. And y'all go for the ripped up, tore up pair. Sin is insane. I got on good clothes. My shoes don't have holes in the soles. I walk through the back door of my own accord for the most part. I'm in my right mind, other than the insanity of my own narcissism, because I can't look at the ten thousand blessings that God's given me. I gotta focus on that one tree in the middle of the garden that God said, "I ain't letting you have that right now. I can't let you have that yet." [Applause] If I give you that, you won't use it to elevate me, you'll use it to destroy yourself. It'll plant an infernal bomb in your family that will destroy every generation from now to eternity.
I walk down those aisles and kneel and pray, and I'm going to tell you, in those moments, I can't see a loving wife. I can't see loving children. I can't see the blessings that God's given me. All I can see is my poor pitiful self in a little more advancement or a little more praise or a little more pride that I want to add and stack up on what I already have. I just can't be happy. I just can't be fulfilled. Like, like, like life is about happiness. Let me tell you something. Life isn't about happiness. Life's about joy. And those are two complete different things. Eating a sugary bowl of ice cream will make you happy, and it may also give you a heart attack. But pleasing God will bring you joy, and it may not always involve the things you want to do most. Marriages break up because of the message that I'm preaching right now because you go into the marriage asking yourself, "How can I make her happy?" and you come out of the marriage saying, "She don't make me happy." Well, if you would go back to focusing on what you were focusing on when the marriage started, if you were adding up all the ways that you could make her happy instead of all the ways she don't make you happy, I think my mic's off. The marriage didn't change because she's sorry. The marriage changed because you moved your focus to self-centeredness, and it's all about me, and it's all about what I want, and I don't care what I destroy or step on to get there. There is an insanity to ingratitude. When I think of the goodness of Jesus, I'm done.
But when I get up out of that altar, prayer has opened up my worldview, and all of a sudden, I'm not just seeing me anymore. I'm seeing God, and He's high and lifted up, and His train fills the temple. And the angels around His throne are saying, "Holy, holy, holy art Thou, Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of Your glory." And all of a sudden, I see His will, and I see His desires. And you can't see God without seeing others because that's what God loves more than anything else. And I start seeing my family, and I start seeing my children, and I start seeing those that believe in me, and I start seeing those that lean on me. And I say, "Oh my God, have mercy. How in the world? How in the world can someone that has people looking to them sin? How can we not feel the effects of what we do on those who are taking shade under our spiritual branches?" There's just some things more important. I'm done.
But there's just some things. Musicians, come. There's just some things more important than my immoral or my fleshly or my carnal desires for advancement and pride. My last point: worship. What does worship do? When I worship, you see, when I'm focused in ingratitude and narcissism and self-centeredness, I become huge and big. I become a god unto myself. And my wishes and my desires are so huge and they're so large that other people, what other people think, even what God thinks or what the church is, becomes so little and insignificant that it does not matter. That's the only way people can sin. Because when you look at people from the right perspective, you say, "How could they do that to their church? How could they do that to their Sunday school class? How in the world can you do that when you're a part of an assembly?" Because when you- ingratitude so focuses you on yourself that you and your own desire becomes so huge that everything else becomes so insignificant that it doesn't even matter.
But let me tell you what worship does. Just a few minutes of lifting your hands and worshiping Him. God becomes so big, and His kingdom becomes so large. Oh, you're not hearing me preach right now. His kingdom. That's why when the Bible says that we praise, we magnify the Lord. David said, "Come, magnify the Lord with me." Because if you don't magnify the Lord, you'll magnify yourself. [Applause] If you don't magnify the Lord, your own desires and your own wishes and your own advancement will be magnified. But when I magnify the Lord, all of a sudden, Him and others and souls and a lost world become so big that I become so small and insignificant in exchange that all I can do is bow on my knees and cry, "Holy." I bow on my knees and cry, "Holy, holy is the Lord God in majesty." And all of a sudden, the insanity moves, and gratitude replaces ingratitude, and I'm centered again. That's why I can't do without the church. Stand together. Lift your hands. All over this building. Everybody here reaching out right now. Come on, everybody here. Would you lift your hands and magnify the Lord with me? Come on. Will you do that? Will you do that? Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. The Holy Ghost is here. Come on. The Holy Ghost is here. Come on. Lift your voices all across this building. All across this building. Lifting your voice. Come on. Would you praise the Lord? Would you magnify the Lord with me right now? Come on. I'm asking everybody to lift your voices all across this tabernacle. Come on. That's it. That's it. Let me hear you all the way on this platform, from all the way back under the balcony. I want to hear your voice up here magnifying the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Come on. Would you worship Him? [Music] Come on. Would you worship the Lord with me right now? [Music] Come on. Come on. Come on. The Holy Ghost is here. [Music] Come on. The Holy Ghost is here right now. [Music] Eyes closed. Hands raised. I wonder how many of you need the favor of God in your world. I wonder how many of you need the favor of God in your life. I wonder how many of you need God to favor what you're doing. You need Him to favor your family, your business, your home, your marriage. What you need worse than anything is not for your spouse to straighten up, but for the favor of God to come into your home. Oh, you didn't hear what I said right then. To every marriage in this house that's struggling, what you need is not for your spouse to straighten up and act right. What you need is the favor of God to come into your marriage, in your home, and your family. [Music] Lift your hands and reach out right now. [Music] Brother Copeland, how do I weed my garden? Listen to me. You weed your garden of ingratitude in prayer. And then the way you nurture and water and and and and fertilize gratitude is in worship. That's how prayer and worship work together. You weed out all the ingratitude when you pray, and then you fertilize and water gratitude in worship. I'm going to open these altars right now, and I'm, I'm telling you, from every young man in this house that's struggling in their own relationship, to every girl that's struggling maybe with relationships with your parents, to every marriage, to every man and woman in this house, you need to come and lift your hands and say, "God, deliver me from the insanity of ingratitude and fill my heart with thanksgiving and gratitude today." Would you do that? Would you come right now? Come with your hands raised. Come on. God wants to fill somebody with the Holy Ghost today. God wants to change somebody's world in this house right now. Come on, everybody here reaching out, reaching out. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Holy Ghost. Holy Ghost. Would you lift your voices? Would you pray with somebody around you? Come on. I mean what I'm preaching right now to every child, to every husband, to every grandpa, every grandma. I preached to you today. God, deliver me from the insanity of ingratitude. God, put a grateful heart in my spirit. When I think of the goodness of Jesus, when I think- God, don't let me forget all Your benefits. Listen, that's what the writer of Psalms said. He said, "And forget not all of His benefits." God, help me remember the goodness and the graciousness of God. Though I hope you've taken this message as seriously as you should have. [Music] Listen to me just a moment because I'm about to walk out of this pulpit. I hope you've taken this message as seriously as you should have. If you don't, you will reap the benefits of it or the lack thereof. I'm telling you, there's nothing we need any more than a baptism of godly gratitude and godly gratefulness. Would you lift your hands and say, "God, help me pluck every ingratitude out of my spirit and baptize me with the gratitude of Jesus Christ." When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all He's done for me, my soul cries out, "Hallelujah." Come on, let your soul cry today. Let your soul cry out today. Everybody reaching. [Music] For the out, it came streaming down for me. Lord, I'm thankful for the blood. When I think of Calvary, if it had not been for Jesus, I don't know where I would be. If it had not been from mercy, oh, the blood just said for me. I'm thankful for it. It came streaming down for me. Lord, I'm thankful for your blood. When I think of Calvary, if it had not been for you, Jesus, where would I be? And if it had not been for your mercy, for the blood you shed for me. See, your blood, it made the difference. Gave the world redemption's plan. There is no greater love in this love. You laid your life down. Come on, reach out to Him right now. Praise Him together. Come on, magnify the Lord. [Music] Could you worship Him together right now? [Music] My God. [Music] Jesus. That's it. Come on. The Holy Ghost is here. I got a lot of reasons to be thankful. I got a lot of reasons to have gratitude. [Music] Yes, Lord. I don't know where I would be if it hadn't been for mercy. Oh, and the blood just had for me. Oh, and Lord, I'm thankful. Oh, and I'm grateful. [Music] It came streaming down for me. Lord, I'm thankful for the blood. When I think of Calvary, and if it had not been for Jesus, I don't know where I would be, or if it hadn't been for mercy, and the blood you shared for me. See, that blood made the difference. Gave the world redemption's plan. There's no greater love in this love. You laid your life down for referrals. Come on. God's not done. Praise Him. Would you praise Him together? [Music] Would you magnify Him from the bottom of your heart? [Applause] My God. Have mercy. [Music] Lord. [Music] For your. [Music] Why don't you lift your voices and thank God for a moment here? Come on, without the aid of any singing or anything like that, just lift your voices. Would you let God hear your voice? Come on. Would you? Would you begin to list some things that you're grateful for? Your family, your children, your home, everything around you. I'm grateful, God. I'm grateful, God. [Music] I'm grateful, God. [Music] God, I'm so thankful for what You've done for me. I'm thankful what You've given me. I'm thankful, Lord. Thankful, Lord. [Music] Don't just raise your hand just to raise it, but I wonder if how many of you could raise your hand and say, "I've been, I feel like I've been changed by this today. I think I'm going to see my world differently." [Music] I love you with all my heart. [Music] Thank you for those who prayed so beautifully in these altars today. Please don't forget Sunday school at 3 o'clock. Sunday school right here at 3 o'clock. 3 o'clock. The ladies have prepared next door. The ladies have worked very hard to make sure there's a meal next door to all of our guests. Please join us at that meal. Thank you for being here. Be with us. Eat with us. Fellowship with us. And we'll be right back here at 3 o'clock for Sunday school. God bless you in Jesus' name.