The Joyful and Thankful Christian

Well if you would take your Bible, turn back to 2 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, we read those verses earlier, verses 16 to 18. Now I will reference quite a few other scripture, and we will turn to Galatians chapter 5 verses 22 to 23. Those verses are key to what we're going to look at this morning. Now I believe that everyone knows that our Thanksgiving holiday is right upon us. Today is November 24th, and it is 4 days until Thanksgiving Day. Now you may not know this, but Thanksgiving is not a Christian holiday, it's a secular holiday.

Thanksgiving is a national holiday in the United States that is recognized every year on the 4th Thursday of the month. Now for some of you, you look at those things a little different. For some of you, Thanksgiving is a holiday that is recognized as the first Thursday after opening day of gun season for deer. Some of you have thought about it like that, I know you have. Now some of you know this, but the modern celebration of Thanksgiving dates back to the 1860s, and it's really been connected to the English colonists, we know them as the Pilgrims, and their harvest celebration of 1621.

To me, the history and the development of the holiday, it's a very interesting read. I caught up on that this week, earlier in the week. But although Thanksgiving is a secular holiday and not what we would see as a Christian holiday like Christmas, Thanksgiving, expressing thanks, and actually being a thankful Christian is certainly biblical, and it is what our Lord expects. That is what I want us to look at this morning.

I want us to see that God expects us to be joyful and thankful Christians, not only in what we say and do, not only during the Thanksgiving holiday, but God expects us as His people to be joyful and to be a thankful people all the time. That is what we will look at when we study these verses and some of those other verses that I mentioned earlier. So before we get into the message, we need to have a basic understanding of what is taking place here when Paul wrote these verses. I have taught you this well. Context is king. We can never take verses out of their context.

Now obviously this letter was written to the church that was in the city of Thessalonica. And Thessalonica was a very important and wealthy city in the region of Macedonia. Thessalonica was actually the capital of Macedonia and was the center of political and economic activity for the entire region. It was known as the mother of all of Macedonia and the population of the city reached 200,000 people at the time of Paul. And that is a large city. It is bigger than Bogucitta I think. And we clearly see how the church was born in Thessalonica from Acts 16 and 17.

After Paul received the call by God and from God to go into Macedonia, he and his missionary partners went into the district. Of course these things took place during Paul's second missionary journey. And immediately we see that the church was born there in Philippi and after Paul ministered successfully in Philippi, he traveled into Thessalonica and ministered there successfully as well. But only for a short time because the Jews of the city drummed up great resistance to Paul. And from Thessalonica, Paul and his partners went to Berea, then to Athens, and then on down to Corinth.

And when he left Berea for Athens, Acts 17-14 tells us that he left Sylvanus and Timothy there in Berea. And Acts 17-15-16 tells us that they joined Paul later on in Athens. And from there, Timothy was sent back to Thessalonica. And later when Timothy and Sylvanus rejoined Paul in Corinth, as we see in Acts 18-5, Paul wrote to the Thessalonian church after hearing Timothy's report about the church. Now look church, have you figured out the New Testament mission's plan? It's rather simple. The apostles and others went from city to city, evangelizing the lost and organizing those new converts in the churches.

And then they would come back around to those churches again and work to promote local church health. And sometimes letters were written back to those churches to promote local church health. It's real simple. And I'm thankful that that is our philosophy of ministry and the philosophy of ministry and anchor and truth, which is the organization that we are connected with. But a question, what's the point of the letter? Just like many of Paul's letters, basically he was writing to encourage them and to instruct them, even to correct them. But he was especially writing to this church to encourage them.

I will mention a few things that we see in the letter. We see some general encouragement to the church in chapter 1. We see Paul addressing some false accusations in chapter 2. And we see Paul encouraging them in their persecution in the rest of chapter 2, or the end of chapter 2. He was expressing great joy, the great joy that he had for them in the faith. We see that in chapter 2 and chapter 3. He was instructing them in moral purity in chapter 4. And he was condemning and correcting their laziness in chapter 4. He was correcting their wrong view of certain prophetic events in chapter 4 and chapter 5.

He was addressing tension in the congregation in chapter 5. And at the end of chapter 5, he was giving some basic but much needed teaching and instruction that pertained to basic Christian living. And it is out of these concluding verses that pertained to basic Christian living that we have the verses before us. But I want us to see Paul's heart in these things. I want us to see Paul's heart and how much he loved these believers and how he viewed these believers. In these last verses in chapter 5, Paul was all about addressing the brothers and the sisters in the church. The King James uses the word brethren.

It is interesting to see how many times Paul addressed them as brothers or brethren in first Thessalonians and the second letter, second Thessalonians. In the English Standard Version, we see that Paul addressed the brothers over 20 times. Now look at chapter 5 with me. Look at verse 12, verse 14 and verse 25. What do we see in verse 12? We ask you brothers. Then verse 14, and we urge you brothers. And then verse 25, he says, "Brothers pray for us." And then verse 26, "Greet all of the brothers." Now why do I make that point? This language shows us Paul's heart and his love for these believers. They were family. And I say that to say this.

Here in verses 12 to 28, Paul gave these believers that he saw as brothers and sisters the family of God, his family. He gave them some much needed basic instruction. And here in verses 16 to 18, Paul called these brothers and these sisters to be joyful and thankful Christians as God's people. As the family of God, he called them to be joyful and thankful Christians. Now before we get into these verses in this teaching, we must see that as members of Grace Life Church in Brookhaven, we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are the family of God here on earth.

We are no longer strangers and aliens, outsiders without rights of kingdom citizenship. But you are fellow citizens with the saints, God's people, and we are members of God's household. And we are the family of Ephesians 2.19 and the amplified that I've amplified a little. And yes, God is dealing with us as individual believers, but we cannot see our personal responsibilities as believers divorced from our responsibilities in God's household and our spiritual family, which is our church.

And we must see that our calling and responsibilities to live as a born again believer is tied to and cannot be divorced from our brothers and sisters in Christ, those around us, even this morning. I'll give you an example. Think about our earthly families. Do we have responsibilities to our earthly families? Does how we live good and bad, does how we live affect our earthly family? Well, it is the same for our church family. Now let's get started in our verses and let's see our call from God to be joyful and thankful Christians. That's the title of the message, the joyful and thankful Christian. Let's go back to our verses.

Paul says, verse 16, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." Now out of these verses, we will see three commands and they are very short, but I'll tell you, there is a lot of meat on these bones and honestly, there are a lot of things that I could say and I would like to say, but we just don't have the time. So number one, I want us to see the call to rejoice always. That's right there in verse 16, it's obvious, the call to rejoice always.

Now there is quite a lot we need to see here and we will, but in working to understand what it means to rejoice always, I believe that there are three things we must see. First, what Christian joy is not, what Christian joy is not. Christian joy is not to be confused with happiness. This is a God given emotion that can be and often is determined by external circumstances and experiences. But Christian or biblical joy is much different. Christian joy is not determined by external circumstances and experiences.

As a matter of fact, the Christian joy that we see in the scriptures cannot be negatively affected by external circumstances and experiences. Now yes, a believer can allow external circumstances and experiences to eat away at and even to sour their joy, but a believer who is living the spirit-filled, spirit-controlled life will possess joy in and through any and all external circumstances and experiences. As a matter of fact, negative circumstances, negative experiences, even the greatest of trials will cause Christian joy to grow and to mature in the spirit-filled, spirit-controlled believer.

Now we will circle back to some of these things when we see more of what Christian joy is. But second, I want us to see the source of this joy, the source of this joy. Now there is no better verse, there are no better verses to show us the source of Christian joy than Galatians 5, Galatians chapter 5 verses 22 to 23. Here's where I want you to turn over to those verses and put your eyes on them. Verse 22, Paul says, "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such things there is no law." Now I want to read those verses in the Amplified.

Listen to how the Amplified states it. "But the fruit of the spirit, the result of his presence within us, is love, unselfish concern for others, joy or inner peace, patience, not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." Now here we see that the fruit or that which is born out of a believer is the spirit and certain manifestations of the spirit. Just like an apple tree bears apples and a pear tree bears pears, the spirit bears certain fruit in the believer. But we must see how this works.

When one comes to saving faith in Christ, they are baptized or spiritually immersed in the Christ. We see this in 1 Corinthians 12, 13. Paul says, "For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free. We are all made to drink of one spirit." That's the Holy Spirit. We see the same thing in Galatians 2, 27. Paul says here, "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Simply this is what this means. When one comes to saving faith in Christ, that man, that woman, that young person is spiritually immersed or spiritually baptized in the Christ.

And at that time, the Holy Spirit of God comes to dwell within the believer. Paul tells us this fact in Romans 8 and 9. He says, "You, however, are not in the flesh." Now what does he mean by that? He means you are not unconverted. You are not in your sin. He says, "You, however, are not in the flesh but in the spirit. If in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him." And as a result of the Holy Spirit being in the believer, the fruit of the Spirit is born out in the believer. Another way of saying it is this.

The result of the Spirit being in the believer is that the fruit and fruits of the Spirit are made manifest in and through that believer. Again, just like an apple tree will bear apples. A pear tree will bear pears. The born again believer will bear the fruit and the fruits of the Spirit of God in their life. What a question. What is the fruit of the Spirit? Notice the fruit of the Spirit as seen in Galatians 5, 22-23, we read those verses, has to do with the character of the believer. This has to do with what is inside the believer which determines who they are and that is made manifest in what the believer does.

And notice one part of the fruit, the spirit of joy. And notice the meaning of joy. John MacArthur says, and I'm quoting, "Joy is a happiness based on unchanging divine promises and eternal spiritual realities." He goes on to say, "Joy is not the result of favorable circumstances but occurs even when those circumstances are the most painful and severe." And he goes on to say, "Joy is a gift from God." John Piper says, "Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul." I like that.

"Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul produced by the Holy Spirit." But if joy is a gift from God and it is, and if joy is a part of the fruit of the Spirit and it is, then how in the world can Paul command the believer to rejoice always as seen here in verse 16? This phrase, "Rejoice always" in the original, it literally means at all times, "Be rejoicing." So here we see the command to rejoice always at all times. He says, "Be rejoicing." Now I don't know if this helps you but this helps me. Let me give you a spiritual, scriptural example that's really parallel to what we see here.

In his teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said in Matthew 5, 43 and 44, and I'm quoting the verse, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Well how can a believer, even the best of believers, how can a believer love their enemies and those who even persecute them, how can a believer do this? Think about it. What is the opposite of what we want to do? Simply this is an act of the will. This is a choice.

This is an act of the will and it is impossible because one of the manifestations of the spirit that is born out of the believer is love. Let me repeat that because we need to see that. This is an act of the will and this is possible because one of the manifestations of the fruit of the spirit that is born out in the believer is love. So the believer must choose to love their enemies and those who even persecute them. And that is possible because of a work of the Spirit of God in the believer producing the fruit of a God-like love, which is what we call Christian love. And it is the same with rejoice always.

The believer is to at all times and in any and every circumstance rejoice and be joyful, going back to the source of Christian joy. This can only come from one source. Christian joy and rejoicing always and in all things can only come from a work of the Spirit in the life. This is a manifestation of the Spirit of God in the life. Piper defines Christian love by saying, Christian joy by saying, "Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul produced by the Spirit." MacArthur says this joy is a gift from God.

Well, in borrowing that language from them, we must see that Christian joy is not an emotion that is determined by external circumstances and experiences. It is a gift from God and a good feeling in the soul of a person produced by the Spirit of God. And it is commanded by God and it is expected by God in the life of every believer. So we have seen what Christian joy is not. We have seen the source of Christian joy and in all those things we have seen what joy is, Christian joy is. Now personally, I define Christian joy by saying, Christian joy is an inner happiness in the very spirit and soul of a person.

It is produced by work of the Spirit and it is a part of the fruit of the Spirit in the believer's heart, mind and life. It is a gift and it is also a commandment. God expects believers to be joyful, to cultivate joy and to rejoice in all things all the time no matter what. A few questions here. Are you a joyful Christian or are you negative, a glass, half empty complaining Christian? You need to think about that. Now I am not talking about how you act and what you say when you are at church. Are you a joyful Christian or are you a negative Nancy? Are you a glass, half empty Christian? I know some, their glass is lower than half.

Are you a complaining Christian? Do you rejoice always in all circumstances even when it takes a lot of prayer, even when it takes a lot of study of God's Word? Do you fight and work hard to be a joyful Christian no matter what or do you sulk into depression and get the mully grubs? You know what the mully grubs are? Look brother, look sister, I love you, I am your pastor. Remember Paul's intimate language earlier? We are family. We are not just members of Grace Life Church.

We are family, the family of God and I have to tell you that if you do not have joy, if you do not and cannot rejoice in all things then you are not spirit filled and spirit controlled like you think you are. So the call to be joyful and to rejoice in all things. Then number two, I want us to see the call to pray without ceasing. Now before we get into what this continuous prayer is, we need to see how this continuous prayer is connected to Christian joy, Christian joy being biblical joy.

You see the believer that is always rejoicing because he or she is joyful, that is the belief that will be prayerful and the believer that is prayerful and continuous in prayer like we see here in verse 17. They will be joyful and always rejoicing. These two are connected but a question, which comes first or where does it start? I'll come to that, so hold on to that thought but let's jump into this continuous prayer. Two things, first this word prayer. Now this is simple, the word Paul used here was and is the most common word for prayer used in the New Testament and it encompasses every part of prayer.

This speaks of submission to God in prayer, in great humility. This speaks of confession of sin to God in prayer. This speaks of bringing petitions or requests to God in prayer. This speaks of making intercession for others to God in prayer. This speaks of offering praise to God in prayer. This speaks of offering thanks and thanksgiving to God in prayer. So Paul was and is speaking of any and all kinds of prayer being offered up to God by the believer and I think that we can see easily what this means. But second, this prayer without ceasing. Now to see what this is, we have to see what this is not.

This is not some kind of nonstop praying like we see in a monastery with a monk and he's got a shaved head, that kind of thing. We may not have seen that in real life but we probably have seen those things on television or in movies. But this simply refers to uninterrupted communion with God. This speaks of a constant and continual habit of prayer and reoccurring prayer. Warren Wiersby uses the example of an old telephone to express this kind of prayer. Anybody remember those old telephones where you had the hook and you put the receiver on the hook? Maybe your grandmother has one of those.

But if you had the phone off the hook, that meant what? That there was an open line. Some of you are probably thinking, "Oh, our pastor is old. I don't even know what that is. Let's go do a little research." Well, in applying that imagery here, we are to constantly maintain an open line to God in prayer. The prayer line is to always be off the hook. So we always have an open line. But a question, what does this look like? We should pray in verbalized prayer all throughout our daily lives. Every now and then, often, sometimes every minute of every day, sometimes every second of every day. And we should have special times of prayer daily.

And we should have special places of prayer set aside for prayer. So this is a call to continual prayer, perpetual prayer. This is a call and a command to prayer and to a prayer life of continual and constant prayer. And this is many things. This is a hard attitude. This is a discipline which requires discipline. This is a labor of love. This is a continual connection with God in great submission and humility in prayer, confessing sin, bringing petitions, making intercession, offering praise and thanksgiving. But remember how this is connected to Christian joy and always rejoicing.

The believer that is always rejoicing because he or she is joyful, that is the believer that will be prayerful and is always prayerful. And the believer that is prayerful and continuous in prayer will be joyful and always rejoicing. But which one comes first? Prayer. Communion with God comes first. And that is because Christian joy and the commandment and call to rejoice always is totally connected to the spirit-filled, spirit-controlled life. Those things cannot be divorced. And prayer is the key to the spirit-filled life. And the spirit-filled life is the key to prayer.

And this life and lifestyle is the key to Christian joy and always rejoicing in all things. Now your pastor is asking you, and I want you to be honest, how is your prayer life? Do you have daily times of prayer? Do you have a place of prayer? Are you out of balance here? Do you study and listen to podcasts and such but your prayer life is hit and miss? You hit it hard when times of trouble come. But you miss and miss often when things are better. Does that describe you? Now look brother, look sister, listen to your pastor here.

If you are not joyful, if you are not a joyful believer who rejoices in all things, then that tells me that your prayer life is struggling and it may be terrible. Remember what comes first. Prayer. That's why our Lord put these two together. So the call to pray and to be prayerful all the time without ceasing. And then number three, the call to thanksgiving in all things. We see this in verse 18. The call to thanksgiving in all things. Now this third command and calling is linked to all that we've seen. And we will tie all these things together. But we need to see this third command for what it is. Two things. First, the call to thanksgiving.

Now this word give thanks in the original. This means to be grateful, to give or express thanks even to feel thankful. And this was not a new thought for Paul at all. In Ephesians 5.20 he called the Ephesian believers to do the very same thing. Listen to Ephesians 5 verse 18 to 20. Paul says, "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit." He taught you thoroughly on what it means to be Spirit-filled.

But notice, addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with our heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And notice how Paul connects this. Always giving thanks with the Spirit-filled life. He commanded them to be filled and always be allowing themselves to be filled with the Spirit. And then the rest was to be an outflow of the Spirit-filled life. And giving thanks always was and is a part of that life.

So here in Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 18 we see that Paul called and commanded these believers to be thankful and to express and give thanks. And then second, the call to thanksgiving and all things. Here he simply says, "In everything give thanks." But notice a detail here. Maybe you underline this in your Bible. In the original the verse does not say, "For everything give thanks." The verse does not say, "Because of everything give thanks." It reads, "In everything give thanks." So what that means is this, while the believer is in any and all circumstances in life, they are to give thanks, no matter the trials, no matter the tribulation, no matter the test or the number of tests, no matter the persecution, no matter the probation, in or in the middle of all things the believer is to be thankful and to express thankfulness.

Again, listen to our Ephesians verses and see if that part of the verse and verses does not have a ring to it now. "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery." That means that is all kinds of sin and sinfulness. But be filled with the Spirit. And notice the outflow addressing one another in Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Christ or Jesus Christ. Now that leads me to a question that we must answer, folks.

Why does God command us and expect us to be grateful and express thankfulness in everything? Why? Why does God command us and expect us to be grateful and to express thankfulness in everything? Well God tells us why in the scripture in Romans 8, 28 in the beginning of verse 29. Notice what Paul says here, "And we know that for those who love God," that's the true believer now, "all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose, for those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son." So this tells us why.

Simply for the true believer, those who love God, God works out all things for good for those who were called by God according to His purpose and purposes. And this is a part of God working all things for good so as to conform us into the image of His Son. So if that is the case, and it is, in all things we are to be grateful and to express gratitude and thankfulness because God has ordained all things for our good for His purpose and for His glory. And look, two things. A believer being thankful in their very being and expressing that thankfulness in everything is at the heart of two things.

First, this is at the heart of what it means to be a believer. This is at the heart of what it means to be a true born again believer. Second, this is at the heart of what we see as the spirit-filled, spirit-controlled life. So this call and command to be thankful and to express gratitude and thankfulness in everything. But notice how this thankfulness in all things is connected with Christian joy and prayer without ceasing. You see, the believer that is always rejoicing because he or she is joyful, that is the believer that will be prayerful.

And the believer that is prayerful and continuous in prayer like we see in verse 17, they will be joyful and always rejoicing. And as a result, flowing out of that heart, out of that mind, out of that life, they will be thankful and they will learn that in and through all things to be thankful and to express gratitude and thankfulness. Now again, many of you look at me and say, "You're my pastor. I love you. You're brothers and sisters. Are you thankful or are you ungrateful? Are you negative? Are you complaining all the time? Do you always have the molly grubs? You might say, "Pastor, you just don't understand.

You just don't understand what I went through." You might say, "Pastor, you don't understand how they hurt me. You don't understand how I'm disappointed. You don't understand how things didn't work out." You might say, "Pastor, you don't understand." Look folks, God gives no excuses, sister. God makes no exceptions, brother. The call, the command to thanksgiving in all things. Now notice at the end of verse 18, Paul says that this is God's will for all of us in Christ.

This rejoicing always and delighting in your faith, this unceasing and persistent prayer in every situation no matter the circumstances, being thankful and continuously giving thanks to God. This is God's will for you and for me. This is God's will for all of us. Now question, if we know something to be God's will and we minimize it, ignore it or even disobey it, are we not sinning against God's will and God Himself? Yes, that needs to be repeated. If we know something to be God's will and we minimize that, ignore that, even disobey that, are we not sinning against God's will and God? Yes.

And look, for some of you, your great sin is not drunkenness. For some of you, your great sin is not pornography. For some of you, your great sin is not committing adultery. Your great sin is not being a joyful and a thankful believer who rejoices in all things. Your great sin is not being thankful and giving thanks to God in all things. Look, brother, look sister, joyless Christianity and never being joyful in life, thankless Christianity and never being thankful in life in all things like we've seen here in our study. This will be a cancer in your home. I've seen it. This will alienate your children.

This will hinder and possibly ruin your ability to evangelize your children. This will build a wall between you and your spouse. This will suck the life and the vitality out of you and it'll suck the life and vitality out of your home and eventually it'll suck the life and the vitality out of people around you in this room. Now at this time, I want to quickly show us two things that can, will, and do diminish, erode and even sour our Christian joy and thankfulness like we've seen here in our study. First, simply allowing sin in our life.

If we read on down in our verses here in Thessalonians to verse 19, we see that Paul says, "Do not quench the spirit." And in Ephesians 4.20 he says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God." And what we need to see here is this, allowing sin in the life quenches and grieves the spirit and that hinders the believer in living the spirit-filled, spirit-controlled life. And if Christian joy and thankfulness like we've been seeing here this morning emanates from us and is tied to the spirit of God in the spirit-filled life, then sin and sinfulness diminishes, erodes, and even sours Christian joy and thankfulness.

Look brothers and sisters, what sin or sins do you have in your life that is diminishing, eroding, and even souring your joy and thankfulness? You see right now, I've got one word written there in my notes, well really two, "Holy Spirit." This is where the Holy Spirit of God is working in you. What sin or sins do you have in your life? Maybe no one knows. And those things are diminishing, eroding, and they are souring your joy and your thankfulness. Some of you need some help there. Some of you need counseling. Some of you need to go to your small group leader and sit down.

Some of you need to go to a brother, brother or brother, sister or sister, and you need to be honest and get some help with that sin or sins. Second, refusing to embrace trials in the life. James 1, 2 to 4 says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." And what we need to see here is this. God ordains trials of various kinds for His people, both positive trials and negative trials.

The spirit-filled, spirit-controlled believer is to embrace all trials with joy because those trials test the believer in the believer's faith. But look, this testing is not to see what the believer will do. God already knows what you will do. This is a testing and a proving and a refining. This testing from trials of various kinds is meant to bring about Christian maturity. And brother or sister, let me ask you, do you refuse to embrace trial? Oh, you'll take the positive trial, but you reject the negative trials? If you do, then you are not a joyful and thankful Christian. There is no way.

You know how you can know if you refuse to embrace a trial and trial? You know how you can know if you refuse? If you never move on from a trial. There are some of you here you've been stuck in a perpetual trial for years. That tells me you've not embraced it. If you never have victory in a particular trial, there are some of you here you're in a trial and it's produced perpetual defeat. If that trial haunts you and consumes you, now there is a legitimate time where a trial will consume you. I get it. But what I'm trying to show you is this. We are to have victory in a trial. We are to move on from a trial.

We are not to allow a trial to consume us and to haunt us. Again, Holy Spirit. This is where we need the Holy Spirit of God to work in our lives. And I'll tell you, some of you need some help here. Some of you need to go to the closest sister, the closest brother and be honest and ask them, force them to be honest with you. Do you know there are some brothers and sisters who may not look at you and be honest because they're afraid of what you may say? Small group leader, mature man, a woman in the church here. If someone comes up and asks you about these things, will you be honest? Now in closing, our Thanksgiving holiday is right upon us.

Today is November the 24th and it's four days until Thanksgiving. I'm excited for various reasons. We will have some time off work. We'll visit with family. We'll spend some time with grandparents, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews. We will eat and we'll probably eat and we'll probably continue to eat. We'll watch a little football. Maybe we'll do a little deer hunting. But we will do what we do at Thanksgiving. But look church, we should be a joyful and thankful Christian as individual believers. But as a whole, we should be a church full of joyful and thankful believers. That's the title of the message, the joyful, thankful Christian.

Not just at Thanksgiving, but all the time. And tonight at our Thanksgiving fellowship, we're going to hear three testimonies from believers who will express their joy and their thankfulness in certain areas of their lives that pertain to your life. And then next week, I will share some things, some specific things that I'm very thankful for and this will bless you and edify you and grow you. So let's pray and commit these things to the Spirit of God to work these things out in us according to our individual need and also our corporate need.