back to indexBerean Community Church Regional Thanksgiving Service 2024
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♪ All glory and honor, all power and praise ♪ 00:03:11.860 |
♪ All glory and honor, all power and praise ♪ 00:04:28.860 |
♪ All glory and honor, all power and praise ♪ 00:10:02.860 |
♪ Oh, I give my life for the glory of Your name ♪ 00:16:07.860 |
♪ All Your promises, all Your promises are yes and amen ♪ 00:16:13.860 |
♪ All Your promises, all Your promises are yes and amen ♪ 00:22:38.860 |
♪ Who else commands all the hosts of heaven? ♪ 00:22:50.860 |
♪ Who else can whisper when darkness trembles? ♪ 00:23:42.860 |
Hope you enjoyed the meal that you had together 00:23:45.860 |
and you were able to share in the Thanksgiving Feast 00:24:00.860 |
so that we can have the more tight-knit community, 00:24:09.860 |
Tonight, we're going to be spending just a little bit of time 00:24:16.860 |
and afterwards, there will be a brief time of sharing 00:24:21.860 |
and then we'll move into some singing together. 00:24:25.860 |
Heavenly Father, we thank You for drawing us together. 00:24:29.860 |
Lord, for those of us who already know each other 00:24:31.860 |
and especially for those we were just able to meet, 00:24:35.860 |
God, I pray that our hearts would overflow together 00:24:42.860 |
in the way that we would speak to each other, 00:24:46.860 |
And Father, that it would be something that we treasure, 00:24:50.860 |
God, that we are marked by being joyful people. 00:24:53.860 |
And so, Lord, as we sing these praises to You, 00:24:55.860 |
we do pray that You'd be honored, You'd be glorified, 00:25:10.860 |
♪ The mystery of the cross I cannot comprehend ♪ 00:25:35.860 |
♪ You, the perfect Holy One, I trust Your Son ♪ 00:26:29.860 |
♪ By Your perfect sacrifice I've been brought near ♪ 00:26:41.860 |
♪ You're pouring out the riches of Your glorious grace ♪ 00:33:26.860 |
to our Thanksgiving annual dinner that we do. 00:33:34.860 |
and the season to remember, even as was preached today, 00:33:39.860 |
Why it is that we have so much to have a great gratitude over 00:33:43.860 |
and as we're eating, as we're spending company 00:33:46.860 |
with each other, I hope that that is what ultimately 00:33:49.860 |
kind of overwhelms us, to be thankful as believers. 00:33:52.860 |
Even as we're singing, the first song that we sang 00:33:55.860 |
talked about the gratitude, that we're saying thank you 00:34:09.860 |
where it says, "What then shall we say to these things? 00:34:18.860 |
"how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" 00:34:30.860 |
that we're so thankful to God for what He has given to us. 00:34:52.860 |
In James 1:17, it says, "Every good thing given 00:35:00.860 |
"with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. 00:35:19.860 |
He can only exercise this giving in accordance 00:35:24.860 |
So tonight, we'll go through two main things, 00:35:38.860 |
So why are we not perpetually grateful people 00:35:44.860 |
So our first point here is that we are not grateful 00:36:20.860 |
to kind of look into why they might be crying. 00:36:55.860 |
In essence, one is saying that, "I deserve it. 00:37:03.860 |
And sadly, we look much more like this crying child 00:37:08.860 |
We confuse our desires and see them as needs, 00:37:21.860 |
So we could go down a laundry list of things. 00:37:28.860 |
We have to be honest with self and our hearts. 00:37:46.860 |
I need to have control, then comes into the picture. 00:37:49.860 |
In our relationships, I need to be respected. 00:37:55.860 |
There are many things that our hearts might demand 00:37:58.860 |
as something that we deserve, as something that we need, 00:38:12.860 |
All of these things are when we confuse desires and needs. 00:38:18.860 |
And just like this child back here, the two-- 00:38:30.860 |
we're saying, "I need, I must have, I deserve." 00:38:38.860 |
If you can imagine any person who's just incredibly entitled, 00:38:42.860 |
if you've come across anybody that just feels so entitled 00:38:48.860 |
you can see a person who confuses desires and needs, 00:38:52.860 |
that they're saying, essentially, "I deserve these things. 00:38:59.860 |
"I'll do whatever I need to do with my words, 00:39:01.860 |
"with my behavior to manipulate the situation," 00:39:04.860 |
versus if you've come across a genuinely humble 00:39:08.860 |
They can desire, but they'll be grateful when they receive. 00:39:15.860 |
Needs are something that we cannot do without. 00:39:22.860 |
So when we're talking about, "I need something," 00:39:47.860 |
"according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus." 00:39:58.860 |
there is nothing that we can complain about ever again. 00:40:07.860 |
And so there's nothing that we can be grumbling 00:40:12.860 |
Just as we might look at those children and say, 00:40:21.860 |
and for them to be weeping because they don't have something more. 00:40:36.860 |
present-day circumstance then doesn't dictate our contentment. 00:40:42.860 |
"Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content 00:40:54.860 |
"I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, 00:40:57.860 |
"both of having abundance and suffering need." 00:41:08.860 |
And on the flip side, you can come across somebody 00:41:10.860 |
who has so little, and yet they are so content. 00:41:14.860 |
So it has very little to do with that present circumstance. 00:41:22.860 |
and witnessed how sometimes Christians around the world 00:41:24.860 |
have so little in comparison to what we have, 00:41:28.860 |
and yet because they have Christ, the same Christ we have, 00:41:48.860 |
I thought that quote was very short and succinct, 00:42:04.860 |
that can come out of the mouth of a Christian. 00:42:09.860 |
Contentment is something we have to shoot for 00:42:24.860 |
"since we will be focusing more on what we do have, 00:42:30.860 |
"But contentment is more than focusing on what we have. 00:42:32.860 |
"It is focusing on the fact that all we do have, 00:42:50.860 |
that can come out of the mouth of the believer. 00:43:01.860 |
And this is our second point, our last point. 00:43:17.860 |
when you think of these two questions that I have up here, 00:43:30.860 |
as quick as we can, that it is God that is our greatest need. 00:43:35.860 |
And if we were to answer the second question, 00:43:39.860 |
then we would say God is our greatest desire. 00:43:46.860 |
Both of these questions have already been answered for the Christian, 00:43:50.860 |
and it's true to us, and we say amen to this, 00:44:02.860 |
Needs and desires converge in this place with God, 00:44:19.860 |
and it is His desire to give all of Himself to us. 00:44:24.860 |
It's this idea of abide that we've talked about. 00:44:33.860 |
"he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 00:44:38.860 |
"Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. 00:44:43.860 |
"If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, 00:44:45.860 |
"just as I have kept my Father's commandments, 00:44:48.860 |
"These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you 00:44:55.860 |
All of this is going to be found in our communion with the Lord, 00:45:00.860 |
that He is our desire, that He is our contentment, 00:45:04.860 |
He is our need, He is everything that we can want and have. 00:45:15.860 |
This passage shows us that all that we desire is found in God, 00:45:24.860 |
There is nothing else that can be done to us. 00:45:30.860 |
And as believers, we would communally say amen to that. 00:45:36.860 |
Tonight, I hope that we can remember that together. 00:45:39.860 |
J.I. Packer says, "We need to discover all over again 00:45:44.860 |
"as it was to the godly Israelites who wrote the Psalms, 00:45:47.860 |
"and that the habit of celebrating the greatness and graciousness of God 00:45:51.860 |
"yields an endless flow of thankfulness, joy, and zeal." 00:45:56.860 |
So we're going to go through some discussion questions tonight, 00:46:02.860 |
and ask yourself all throughout, "Am I a content child 00:46:11.860 |
"who understands the great gift of salvation that has been given, 00:46:17.860 |
"and that then we are able to understand that God is not somebody 00:46:24.860 |
"He will not withhold anything good from us." 00:46:27.860 |
And so while many things ultimately is going to be realized in the kingdom, 00:46:32.860 |
that today, all that we have, events up and down, good or bad, 00:46:38.860 |
are good gifts from our God, and so we can be joyful. 00:46:45.860 |
Hebrews 13.5 says, "Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, 00:46:51.860 |
"For he himself has said, 'I will never desert you, 00:46:56.860 |
Notice that he doesn't say here that he will give more money. 00:47:00.860 |
Although he can, he says, "I will never desert you. 00:47:07.860 |
Colossians 3.15 says, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, 00:47:10.860 |
"to which indeed you are called in one body, and be thankful. 00:47:12.860 |
"Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, 00:47:15.860 |
"giving thanks through him to God the Father." 00:47:18.860 |
Our gratitude is going to be a testimony to the world. 00:47:24.860 |
To any unbeliever, our gratitude shows how precious God is. 00:47:28.860 |
If we are not content with God, if we are grumbling and complaining, 00:47:36.860 |
We're called to be content people, and that's our light. 00:47:40.860 |
So I conclude with Psalm 23.1, and it's just the first part of this verse, 00:47:45.860 |
where it says, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." 00:47:52.860 |
It's not going around to people just preaching this. 00:48:02.860 |
There is nothing more that can be added to me, 00:48:06.860 |
That is going to cause in me any kind of shifting. 00:48:09.860 |
And so when we are struggling and wrestling with these things, 00:48:17.860 |
and especially tonight as we discuss these things, 00:48:19.860 |
I hope that our hearts can come together in this kind of gratitude. 00:48:23.860 |
Reminding each other, pushing each other, regardless of wherever we are, 00:48:27.860 |
whether we're in a time of abounding or a time of need, 00:48:36.860 |
Heavenly Father, God, wherever we are here in Southern California, 00:48:42.860 |
I pray that it is your people who are going to be raising worship to you, 00:48:50.860 |
that we will remind each other of how great you are, 00:48:56.860 |
that you are our shepherd and we have nothing that we want. 00:49:00.860 |
God, please, I know that we are so grumbling and complaining. 00:49:11.860 |
Open our eyes to see what a great gift we have in you. 00:49:17.860 |
Teach us again to open our mouths only to worship, 00:49:24.860 |
and that your church then would be a great testimony, witness, and light 00:49:28.860 |
to the incredible value and preciousness of the great God that we serve. 00:49:35.860 |
Thank you that you gave us tonight to be able to, with a smaller group, 00:49:40.860 |
and we pray for genuine fellowship and communion now. 00:49:46.860 |
There should be some discussion questions provided to everybody, 00:49:49.860 |
so go ahead and go through that however the group see fit. 00:49:54.860 |
So we hope that you have an enjoyable rest of the night.