In this sermon, the preacher discusses the dangers of forgetting God and becoming prideful in one's own achievements. He emphasizes the importance of gratitude and acknowledges his own shortcomings in showing gratitude. The preacher references 2 Timothy 3:1-2, which talks about the perilous times of the end. He also reflects on God's mercy and the gift of life, reminding listeners that every breath is a gift from God.

Today I'm going to preach on the depths of gratitude and the theme is be thankful. The first thing I'd like to say off the bat before we pray is that it does not help to go up to people and say I'm very very thankful for what you've been to me and what you've done for me in my life and then smack them in the face. Now that would be a lot of fun, I'd love to do that, to walk up to you and say thank you so much and then smack you, but it wouldn't be gratitude. You gratitude is not just saying the words I thank you, but being grateful and in my life I love when I read Spurgeon, I cry sometimes reading many of his sermons and one of the things that makes me cry is not what he says, which is great answers to spiritual problems in people's lives, but what makes me cry is his honesty because he often starts sermons on depression or sermons on fear or sermons on other topics and says this is a sermon I need for myself because I fail in this area and the answers I'm giving you are answers for me that I have to apply daily in my life and I'm not perfect and so I'd just like to say from the start if I look at the sermon and there's times I've said thank you to people and I have not shown that gratitude as I should and sometimes I've been pretty nasty so this is a sermon for Roy Daniel. This morning like I mentioned we're going to look at the depths of gratitude and I asked you to open up your bibles to 2 Timothy 3 verse 1 and 2 and many of you will know that those this portion of scripture is talking about the end times and it says that these end times are perilous times in other words they are very dangerous times there in verse 1 2 Timothy 3 verse 1 this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come very very dangerous times will come and then it goes on to tell us why these times are very dangerous and something that might be surprising to some people out there is it does not mention ISIS it doesn't mention anything of that nature that makes many people out there say that we are living in dangerous times it mentions spiritual things and it says for men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous and boasters I don't like it when politicians say look what I've done proud blasphemous disobedient to parents and this is like never before we're living in a time when young people and older people are disobedient and dishonoring to their parents and in these words unthankful and unholy and so it goes on and I'd like to hone in on one word of these many things that make the end times very dangerous spiritually and the one word I'd like to hone in on is the word unthankful because we are living in a time before Jesus Christ comes that is probably the most unthankful time in history and God says this not me the end times will be perilous and people will be unthankful now I'd like to look at man's gratitude before we go over to what God expects of us in the area of thankfulness because you've got to understand there was a guy in South Africa his name was Mr. Finneymore he brought my great great great something granny to the Lord he started 13 churches at the same time he loved the word he used to shake with excitement at over the age of 90 years old when he got a chance to witness to a soul and I loved him before he died and he used to say that man can get from one to six but he can't get to because seven is the number of perfection and this is in the area of salvation you can either be a drunkard and you can be sleeping around and you can be looking at pornography and killing people and that's one or you can really climb up the ladder of what man can do without God and you can become very good and give all your money to church and attend every prayer meeting and sing all the hymns and at the end of the day you've only reached number six without Christ and you fall short of the glory of God and you'd land up in hell for eternity if you died like that but it's the same in the area of thankfulness there is the lowest thankfulness of man without Christ and there's the highest we can reach of thanking or being thankful and being grateful without Christ and yet it's not reaching what God wants for us as Christians and I'd like to look at this let's first look at the lowest thankfulness in Luke chapter 18 verse 11 we find this this is a false gratitude that is thankful for what I am compared to other people morally who are more sinful in our eyes and we read there in Luke chapter 18 verse 11 the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself God I thank thee that I am not as other men are extortionists unjust adulterers or even as this publican I thank you that I'm not as bad as him that's the lowest form of thankfulness that we can have outside of Christ the thankfulness that looks down on others and thinks I'm good and thank you God that I'm not as bad as he is it's a bit like uh I don't know if let's think brother Roy he's a good looking person um he got a good name too let's just say he went to the mirror and he was looking in the mirror and he said thank you God that I am not as bad looking as the other people at this camp that would be an example of that the lowest form of man's thankfulness but the highest form of man's thankfulness is actually what many Christians consider the highest form of thankfulness they think this is what thankfulness is in God's eyes and that's when we are grateful compared to the less fortunate when we are grateful compared to those who are less fortunate than us and all of you know the old saying it's a very famous saying in fact that I was I complained about not having shoes until I saw someone without feet and that's what I'm talking about you're grateful in light of what other people have that are less fortunate than you and this is the highest form of gratitude but the highest form of gratitude outside of Christ as I've mentioned already falls way short of what God expects of us as Christians and I just like to before we get into that look at a few examples of the highest form of gratitude outside of Christ and we'll start with a Christian family now in South Africa in April this year there was a lady and this lady was 38 years old and she was on heroin and she that's drugs heavy drugs and she had a little nine-year-old child and this nine-year-old child a boy was abused and so on so a social worker came I think that's a welfare worker in America I don't like them and she came in that there was a law case and she took that child away from its mother and basically held it in safety at her own house but the mother was allowed under the law to visit her child and so she went to her child and while the social worker wasn't looking she took a syringe and in that syringe that needle syringe thing she put half of it filled with a heroin and half of it was filled with ant poison and she put it under the child's cushion and she said to that child listen I'm going to go and kill myself and I know that you hate the fact that you've taken away from me and that was true that child loved its mother in spite of the abuse because that was his only security in life at nine years old and he said I'm going to go home and I'm going to kill myself and I'm going to go to heaven and I want you to kill yourself take that syringe poke yourself when I'm gone and you'll go to heaven and you'll be with me and so that mother went home and she syringed herself and she almost died but she survived and that little boy thinking that he was going to heaven to be with his mother for eternity took that syringe stuck himself and died you know when I when I when I see stories like this is a true story in South Africa I just think of that song the very first time I ever came to America I remember in New York there was a song the the the Christians sang at this one conference I thank you God for a Christian family because compared to families like that in their millions out there oh how wondrous that we have a father and mother or even people in our life that want to teach us the bible that want to live for God though they fail at times in South Africa and you might have heard this before but they are child prostitutes at the age of two months old two months old they sell little baby boys to to become prostitutes and they start off by French kissing full-grown women for money they are little boys at five years old not just one case but I've seen this before you can hang them up like this and they like like jelly and there's nothing wrong with them they can't talk at the age of five they've got no muscle structure their bones are hardly a maid and and you can hang them up like this and there's nothing genetically wrong with them there's no disease that they have the only thing that's wrong with them is that their parents put them through so much stress that their body started to eat itself and they became jelly at the age of five I thank you God for a Christian family I often ask myself the question and I take it as a dead serious question it's not one of those hypothetical nice things to say because I'm a why was I not born in India in some hill where they'd never heard the name of Jesus Christ and I have met people like that and they grow and many of them never hear the name of Jesus and they die and they go to hell and they never have a conference like this and they never have a church to go to and they never have a Bible why did God let me be born in Keith Daniel's family where I got spankings when I was wrong why was he so kind to me why did I hear the Bible as a child and my dad sang me to sleep with hymns why why why nothing good in me trust me it was God's mercy just to be alive is a gift in South Africa in our mission we've got 55 million people in our country and and each district has of five ten million people has a family and sometimes a family under them and a few single workers that that go out and preach all over and one of these people years back he was a lovely Christian and he was known as they call him the Israelite and whom is no guile like Nathaniel because he was transparent he was what he was and he lived for God and he lived to preach and he was married to a lovely godly woman and I can guarantee you in South Africa there are plenty of sinners they're witch doctors there are churches of three million people where every single pastor of that so-called church is a witch doctor in disguise the Zionist church ZCC's and yet in this country full of sinners there was a man who came out of a prison and after being years in prison he said to the prison warden you're never going to see me alive again because he was going out to kill himself and at the same time kill somebody and so he drove down the road and went as fast as he could and in our country which has so many witch doctors and so many sinners the highest rape capital rape per capita country in the world and he found this person out of that 55 million people and he slammed into him and he killed let me ask a simple question why are you alive why am I alive is because I'm a good missionary because I'm going out and souls need to be saved it's because there aren't other sinners that could be killed it's God's mercy I have a friend I went to Bible college with he was a lovely guy he used to he came out of the world was sleeping around doing a whole lot of stuff but he got wonderfully saved he became a wonderful preacher had a wonderful wife and he used to preach his heart out and cried tears for Christ and then one day they struggled actually to have a children and afterwards he'd left our mission he became a pastor of a church he left that he went into secular work and I met him at a wedding and he had his child his first child that God gave him and he looked at me with bitterness in his eyes because it was a down syndrome child and he said to me all these years I've struggled to have children and eventually God gives me a child and he gave me this a while later I met him again he sat in front of me he said Roy you know God's done something in my heart God's done something in my heart he's taken this child that I despised and I was so cross with God for giving it to me and he's given me love for this child it's my pride it's my joy it's what I live for for Christ and then through Christ this child wasn't that wonderful do you know a very short time after that he was in a car accident with his wife and he was like Michael Schumacher out in a coma for several months and then he died he never got to see the next child which was a perfect child and I asked myself the question why would God after this guy give him love for the child so he can be there for his child and then straight after God gave him that love God kills him let me ask you a simple question why are you alive because you're there for other people because you deserve it it's God's mercy it's God's mercy but you see even though this is very touching and it's the truth we should be grateful compared to those who are less fortunate there is a limitation there are in fact limitations in the height and weaknesses in the height of man's thankfulness being thankful for those that are less fortunate and I'd like to look at three of them first of all first of all if our thanks is compared only to those who are less fortunate out there then there must be someone out there who is the least fortunate of all men who doesn't have to be thankful that's the first thing if our thanks is only compared to those who are less fortunate to us then there must be someone out there who's the least fortunate of all people on earth who doesn't have to be thankful because there's no one less fortunate than him secondly this thankfulness is by degrees if I must be thankful compared to people who are less fortunate than me then he who is less fortunate than me um has can be or should be less thankful than me and so some people should be more thankful than other people which is not the truth lastly number three if we measure thankfulness only by people that are less fortunate than us then the more we achieve the more we achieve without God obviously intervening to help the less thankful we'll be in that area because we will think deep down I did some of the work and I'd like to illustrate that so that you understand it if you have a little baby and this baby is dying and you come together a few Christians and you pray for this child and you call out to God and God does a miracle and that little child does not die then the natural response will be I'm grateful God it's obvious that you intervene that you did this and you're the one that we should be thankful to but let's just say we don't have a baby dying we have a field like that in the old days and you're going to be a farmer and you decide to buy that field and to make it a farm and you find that there's stones in the ground and for years you take your hands and your hours in that sun that's out there and you take the stones out of the ground day by day hour by hour and eventually you get to the point of you've laid out irrigation and got water there that your little plants are growing there will be something in you less gratitude or less full of gratitude naturally in the heart of mankind when you have done what you consider most of the work it's just natural and God warned against this God in scripture knew that this is the natural tendency of man's sinful heart and so he warned against it again and again we find one of these instances in Deuteronomy 8 verse 12 to 14 and verse 17 where Moses looking forward to when the people of Israel would be in Canaan he said lest when thou has eaten and art full and has built goodly houses and dwelt therein verse 13 thy herds and thy flocks multiply and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied verse 14 then thy heart be lifted up and now forget the Lord thy God which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage and then verse 17 these tragic words and now say in thine heart my power and mine might of mine hand hath gotten me of this wealth my power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me of this wealth so you've got houses and you got lands and you got riches and you remember the fact that you were the one who plowed the field and you were the one who watered the ground and you were the one who put the seed in the ground and therefore you get to the point we said it was my hands that did this and God says that's wrong without me no matter how much effort you put in it was my gift 1 Samuel 30 verse 23 we see that David understood this principle when it came to Ziklag and he'd come back and seen that the that the city where his wife and his wives of those people and possession were and it was burnt to the ground he obviously went after them i'm not going to tell you the whole story and eventually he got them back he had to fight with his fight with 400 of his men 200 or so stayed behind but this is the the point some of them when they came back to the brook where of the men had stayed because they were too tired they said we shouldn't share all the spoil with these people they didn't do anything and David answered you should not do so my brethren with that which the Lord listen to these words hath given us David had to take his own feet and his own tired legs and some of them couldn't even make it and go after these people David had to take his own spear his own sword and his own shield and fight these people and yet after all the fighting and all the walking he recognized it wasn't me no matter what I've done it's God no matter how much effort you put into anything in life you cannot take one ounce or one drop of the glory and you've got to be thankful but I'd like to in light of this a dig a little deeper a little deeper than just be thankful compared to people that are less fortunate than you and the first and this isn't the depths of gratitude by the way we're just going to dig a little deeper first let's just go deeper than that though the height of man's thankfulness outside of Jesus Christ being thankful compared to the less fortunate and let's start with hell you see every single sinner and every Christian outside of the righteousness of Christ and outside of the merit of Christ nothing to do with us we deserve hell that's what we deserve we deserve nothing but hell and so every single thing in life that we have is a gift of God we don't deserve it and it's God's gift and therefore we should be thankful of it for it even if there are people who are more fortunate or less fortunate us that is not the issue every single thing that we have in life we should be thankful for because in light of deserving hell we deserve nothing and therefore everything is a gift Ecclesiastes 12 verse 6 says whatever the silver cord be loosed Fanny Crosby wrote the song at one day the silver cord will break to a sinner to a sinner to breathe is a gift of God the fact that you as a sinner can breathe is God's gift you don't deserve it you should be in the flames of hell for eternity and yet God lets you live we read this or shall we say um in Jonathan Edwards uh sermon famous sermon hands of an angry God he talked of that thin thread of grace called life whereby God holds us over hell and at any moment it's in his hands he can cut that cord and if you don't know Jesus Christ you will fall into the flames of hell for eternity Jonathan Edwards talked of a thin layer of ground over which we tread daily and underneath this this thin crust there is hell for eternity and in one moment God can open it up and you can die and go to hell for eternity the fact that you breathe is a gift of God but I'd like to go a little deeper than that let's dig very deep let's dig very deep yes it's true that every single one of us outside of Christ deserves hell that nothing of our own merit can deserve heaven that every single thing in life is a gift in light of that but let's go back in time a little bit to to a time when there was no sin when people did not deserve hell and let's ask the question why did people have to be grateful then Satan and Adam before they both fell did not have people that were usually less fortunate than them yes they were the crown of God's creation in many ways as Adam was but it's not like there were people walking around without feet and they could say look I have no shoes but he's got no feet I must be grateful neither could they look around them and say well you know and look at themselves and say I deserve hell because they weren't sinners yet and in light of the fact that I deserve hell and I deserve nothing but hell I must be very grateful for anything that I have why did they have to be grateful there was no sins disease suffering or death that they can compare themselves to less fortunate people in that way there was no hell that they deserved why did they have to be grateful Satan in Ezekiel 28 we read in verse 2 every precious stone was thy covering tablets and like pipes were prepared in the end the day that thou was created that was the anointed cherub that covereth it talks of his beauty and his brightness he talks of him being wise being beautiful like precious stones having musical instruments in his heart this was Satan before he fell he was in Eden and yet then we read the words I will ascend above the heights of the clouds as I 14 verse 14 I will be like the most high you know what Satan what happens here I'm not going to go through his entire fall but I'll say this instead of being grateful for what he had he became proudly ungrateful for what he did not have and did not deserve and what what was not lawfully his to have that's called covetousness when you desire that which is not lawfully yours to have instead of being grateful for what he had he became ungrateful in light of what he did not have and became covetous for that which legally he may not have and he fell Adam in Eden this is absolutely amazing I've I've never seen anything like it in history imagine for a moment that a very rich person I don't know how many of you know a very rich person but imagine a very rich person came to you Donald Trump became a Christian he was nice and he came up to you and he said listen I'm going to give you a little mansion down here and you're going to have servants and they're going to massage your feet I don't know what that feels like too much but they're going to massage your feet every day give you breakfast in bed you're going to have your own personal doctor they're going to make sure there's no diseases in the whole place they're going to scrub it clean every single day you're going to have whatever food you want at any time you want it you'll have your own professional person who helps you to exercise it's going to be awesome we'll even I don't have a television at home but we even turn the television on for you so you don't even have to press buttons now I don't know if there was a person sitting out there who had this happen to them I don't think that's ever happened before but let's just say it did imagine someone came up to you and I know the argument is it's very bad for you because to be lazy can hurt you spiritually but let's just say someone came up to you on a normal natural level and he said to you listen the guy who's done to this to you hates you he's terrible terrible you should be ungrateful for what he's done most sane people would say get out I'm not leaving this place just because you say he hates me you have to give me some proof but that's exactly what satan did to adam and eve he came to people who were in paradise there was no sin no sickness no disease no suffering and he came to people who were in perfection and he convinced them he convinced them that god who had done this for them was not good and that was his argument in genesis 3 verse 1 yeah hath god said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden he was trying to make god who had given them a paradise look bad and for them to become ungrateful towards him satan and adam fell through ungratitude and they sinned but i have to ask a question again why did they have to be grateful why did they have to be grateful they did not have people less fortunate than them in a very great way who were suffering in a terrifying way that they could say hey i should be grateful compared to that guy they did not deserve hell and so uh they had to realize the fact that in light of the fact they deserve hell i should be grateful for everything i have it's a gift of god why did they have to be grateful you see before sin and suffering men had to be grateful for a very simple reason and it's a reason that exists today still he is the creator and i am the creation he is the creator and i am the creation and because he is the creator and i am the creation he owns me and he owns everything in creation and he can do with me and what is in creation whatever he wants to and he has that right and everything I have in life before I deserved hell before there were less fortunate people than me was a gift of God because it's not my property to do with as I will we read this in Psalm 24 verse 1 the psalm of David the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof you read this in a few portions of scripture and then his words and they that dwell therein in other words us we were God's property before Jesus died on the cross that's why he can judge sinners because that he's property he could have put us before there was sin he could have put us on a desert island and allow us to shrivel up and die and he'd be righteous because we are his property you can do with us as he wants and therefore every single good thing that is ever given to us in life no matter what it is no matter how much we work for it is a gift of God and we need to be grateful for it and glorify God through this we are the Potter he is the clay he owns us twice by right of creator and by right of redemption he said you're bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit which are God's and we see this in the Old Testament to that the firstborn when Jesus bought them by the blood of the lamb on the doorpost at Passover they were his property not their own property Jeremiah 18 verse 6 behold as the clay is in the potter's hand so are ye in my hand I'd like to ask a few questions in light of the fact that before sin came along and we deserved hell before there were less fortunate people than us God owned us and he still owns us and can do with us as you wish wishes and first question do you have a nice voice to sing somebody out there no matter how much time you spend practicing to have to make your voice nice and no matter how much better you are than other people you don't own that voice God says in Psalm 12 is for we have said without tongue we will prevail our lips our own who is Lord over us God says your voice is not your own property your very lips are God's property you have a business oh you spend years studying you got a degree how many years did you not take an effort that you take in planning and you sat down with pieces of paper and advice from others and and you've built up your business and all the effort you put in I'm not saying that it's wrong to not be lazy but Habakkuk 1 verse 16 says this word therefore they sacrifice unto their net and burn insect unto their drag because by them their portion is fat and their meat plenteous you know what they are doing these people look at their business they fishermen and they look at their nets and instead of being thankful to God you put the fish in the sea and they gave them the ability and the means to make a net and use it to get fish they are thankful to their business and many times to themselves for making that business and they worship their nets it's in the Bible and they're not thankful to God who made and gave the fish how many of you took part in building the Suez Canal what's the one in between South America that's not the Suez Canal that's about Egypt Panama how many of you took part in that nobody that's terrifying I know a lot of people died many years back when they built that but you know in the Bible in Ezekiel 29 verse 3 God takes exception with Pharaoh king of Egypt because he says these words that the great dragon that's Pharaoh said of the now there's my river is mine own and I've made it for myself and God looked down and said no that river that's flying through your land that gives you prosperity in farming and so many other things it's not your property it's my property and you better give glory to me you don't claim it for yourself just because you spend time irrigating the ground with it you get promoted at work oh I studied I got a degree other people didn't spend three years getting a degree you know Psalm 75 verse 6 and 7 says for promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south but God is the judge he put it down one and set it up another that's the Bible I read you know I cried a few days back in this one pastor's home when my wife got her spousal permit to go back to South Africa and be with me when David I read last night was separated from his two wives I only have one luckily from his two wives there's it like he held to the point that he couldn't howl anymore there was no howling in him that's what it says he he was extremely emotional and I don't like the idea of being split from my wife just because I can't get a permit they haven't so that because split people at the border you come with your children lots of court cases you arrive at the border they say you go that way back in a plane you go this way and they split you they almost did that to us a few times but I could say you know I had a little bit to do with this I wasn't lazy and sat at home I actually got in the car and I drove all the way to Chicago from Missouri and I went to the embassy and I waited and I sat in front of them I gave them my paperwork in South Africa I spent a lot of time going and getting police clearances in America getting an FBI clearance and it's a little process you have to go through going to doctors going to getting tests for TB and all these different things I went through that process and eventually after a few months of preparation I wrote Daniel got in the car and I wrote Daniel drove up to Chicago and I wrote Daniel went to the center of town and I went up these stairs and I stood in front of that place God didn't send an angel down to do it for me and I gave that paperwork over and a few days back I got my wife's spousal permit so she can spend another two years with me it was nothing to do with me though I did that little work I've done more than that in South Africa and been rejected and had to leave the country on short notice else they'd banned me ten years two to ten years from my own country my wife and had to on short notice find three thousand dollars which I didn't have at the time to fly my wife out of the country I've been rejected when I did all that before and I know with all my heart that when it happens when actually these officials give you that piece of paper it was not it was not me it was God I know that with all my heart you know earlier this year I went through about seven hours eventually ten hours of sitting with a newborn baby a few days old probably two days old and we were going through this long queues very hot line sorry we came to the front of home affairs in South Africa got the government we needed a birth certificate and we didn't get that birth certificate we wouldn't be able to get passports dual citizenship you name it to be able to travel whole lot of things that we had to do and you can only get it in one place in South Africa near where you born so I couldn't travel in preach or anything and I came after seven hours with my wife waiting through those lines and I came to the front and then look my wife in the face and they said you are a criminal and they were not kind they said we don't even have time to you to work on this we sat down for another three hours we came to the front they gave us two minutes and told her she's a criminal I said what you mean she's a criminal she said they said she never entered the country this baby was never born yet we're not giving any paperwork to me I remember three weeks it took we found a lawyer we did a whole lot of stuff because she had done absolutely nothing wrong they when they do wrong our government they blame you it's a nice government it's a good test of not getting bitter by the way but I'll tell you one thing I am NOT a perfect human being there's times my dad had to say through the ten years yes there's times people can be horrible to me and I just love them but there's times I feel like a failure emotionally not in getting across to them but just thinking I can't take it at that time I had about ten things I had to face that I had to get done and I had to preach shortly after that about a thousand miles away that I had to drive to with my wife a new child and I had to prepare for two conferences of hundreds and hundreds of people 10 or 11 messages 13 messages and I'm not one of those guys you can just arrive and preach I just honest on that I looked at my wife and I felt like a failure and I cried eventually with all the things we had to do through the hours and hours every day of phoning and phoning that never answer the phone for hours and hours and hours going across wherever you could to get this sort of I said I don't have time for this I need to be preparing for these messages and I failed and I even got cross and I felt like the biggest failure on earth I thought how can I go and preach I remember I came to those conferences and I looked to God for mercy not because there's anything good in me I was just one little failure because he's merciful and God came in those conferences one person stood up there was hundreds and they packed out that place that thought no we're coming because I was preaching they packed the place out people who had struggled I'd seen them at conferences for year after year after year and they'd never met with God they were just struggling and struggling they totally were set free suicide case got totally set free in front of my eyes many many people were just radically meeting with God people were talking about it for for months afterwards the suicide case a condom me yesterday morning asking me about Bible Christians on a so wonderful that it met with God one person came to me and said Roy there must have been prayer for this conference it's just so obvious that God came and the God was working there must have been extreme amount of prayer do I look at that and think that I can preach I preach at the same conference grounds a few months earlier and people were making excuses for my sermons they were saying he's English forgive him and then I preached at the same conference of the same type of people a few months later and God came but it's a gift it's God's mercy you know this year God gave me a car seven seats a new car I've been driving around I enjoyed very much old car 30 years old 1983 if it rains it gets this full of water we've been trying for years spent hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars taken into places to fix and when it rains it just pulls up with water and we needed a new car as someone at this conference and another person somewhere else helped me and I got a car and I remember a guy with this car you know this car is an air-conditioner so I can now go to a desert place Namibia South Africa and I can preach I couldn't do that before I wanted to I long to go there but you can't take a baby babies to a country that has searing heat no air conditioner and it's six hours between town sometimes and I went to this Christian and I remember coming to this Christian and I had this car that we drove and this lady looked at me lovely Christian and she said something excuse me that I don't blame her for but it's not the truth she said Roy you deserve this car I didn't argue with her but I went home and I can tell you one thing I did not deserve that car I know how I feel at times I know how there's other missionaries who right now there's a mission in South Africa who've helped me so much through life spiritually he has another car that works for four months and he is way more godly than I'll ever be it's God's gift nothing that I can look at and say well I have preached and I prepared and I drive around therefore I deserve a car no it's God's mercy you know what amazes me when I fail and I can tell you about many victories if I talk about my when I was unsaved all my sin I didn't ever sleep around or do drugs or anything like that but if I talk about it people think well is that all you ever did because you emphasize it just be truthful to people but I can also talk about the tree houses we built in the soccer balls we kicked and all the fun we had you know and the and the windows we smashed and the water balloons we threw it was awesome but you know when I fail emotionally especially when things just build up you've been traveling traveling traveling and things build up I remember things that just would amaze me and it was to do with God's mercy and there's two things that amazed me I would sit my wife and I said Jerusalem I failed and I am a failure and I'd cry and I'd know that this that this we need money at that time for something that has to be paid we've got monthly cost and I think why on earth would God answer me I mean I jolly well deserve not to get money for the next ten years and I just come to God's mercy often not expecting anything and as I prayed failure though I was there would be SMS a text message on my phone and it was the exact amount that I needed and I would weep because I wasn't just saying thank you God you faithful and thank you God you this no thank you God you merciful merciful to a person who fails and at that moment you showed yourself true not just when I'm victorious like many of the other times and there's other times when I said to my wife I wasn't cross with her I was just cross that I got so tired and somehow I don't know what to do this this this I'm not an angry person by the way they actually put me with other people who are depressed because they say I'm always happy but I got cross with my my jolly or she call it keys you got so tired at times going from country to country to country and I just needed sleep I said I feel like smacking this set of keys and that's worse than Donald Trump it must be and by the way I've been through all I built these anger control management whatever I know all the messages of S and Davis you know but it's nothing to do with that now I look at this I said to my wife why would God use me I feel like a failure and then I come to a place and a person if we yes has been in sin God comes and he radically saves that person so many times this happen is after I failed and not just failed and probably said it's nothing but I came to God for mercy not deserving anything and then he uses me mightily to bring a drunkard to the law so many times the Bible says do all to the glory of God verse that I used to struggle with it as I grew up what does it mean therefore whether he eat or drink or whatsoever you do do all to the glory of God when I was a young Christian 12 years back I read that and I honestly wondered what does this mean and the reason I wondered was because I you know I felt spirituals when you pray spirituals when you sing him spirituals when you're telling people about Jesus how when you eating can you be glorifying God do you have to sing hymns with your mouthful I don't know what I have to do and that's just being honest I had no idea as a young Christian and I didn't realize that to give glory is to give thanks and to be thankful and it's hard for some people to be thankful for their food you know why because they went to work so many hours a week 40 hours a week they have to work in those 40 hours got a paycheck they went to the shop and with their paycheck for what they worked they bought food and therefore that food on the table does not feel like a baby that's dying and you cry to God and God heals the baby no it's my paycheck that did that but thank you God anyway Oh brother to give thanks to God to give glory to God is no matter how much you work for it you realize it's God that gave it Jesus break and thank God we read this in Ecclesiastes 3 verse 13 if that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of his labor it is the gift of God God says food is his gift it's not what we work for every good gift James 1 verse 17 and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness near the shadow of turning that's easy to be thankful in time of need but then we forget what God has done in the good times forget forget that's a theme in the Bible Jesus asked the question in Luke chapter 17 verse 17 when he healed ten lepers he asked the question when only one turned back knelt down and cried out in thankfulness he asked the question where are the nine he asked Adam who where art thou after ingratitude for what he had he took which was not rightfully his to take where are the nine in verse 15 it said he glorified God this one person verse 16 he thanked him you know how you can glorify God is when you truly thankful not just lip service to God but you realize that everything is a gift even before you deserve hell and therefore everything you have you should be thankful for and show gratitude for and that glorifies God no matter what you have this morning I was thinking as I was praying to God God it's a gift that I can pray to you and I was just so thankful Joseph in prison yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head but think of me when it is well with thee and then it says these words yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph but forget him the children of Israel judges 838 and the children of Israel remembered not the Lord their God who had delivered them Jewish the king killed the priest's son Zachariah who had done him so good and said these words he remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done him but slew his son that's a cry Israelites at the Red Sea Psalm 106 verse 7 they remembered not the multitude of his mercies but provoked him at the sea people forget what God has done when times are going good and they're not thankful and we do this to people too there's a person in South Africa there's a person in South Africa his name is Peter Schultz he's in his 80s and when he preaches this guy now in South Africa we don't have much homeschooling we have public schools 99% of the public school is when I was a public school got drunk every weekend and slept around that was it and I remember getting a whole group of these public schoolers together who did not have a long concentration span and this preacher my dad knows him very well when he preaches God comes so often and he would stand up in front of those public schoolers and they would weep they would cry as he broke open the word and kindness and tenderness and love to them he's the reason with my dad and especially God that I am in full-time service their lives but there was a Baptist minister and this Baptist minister for 20 years he had not met Peter Schultz and he was walking along a beach believe it or of all places and he saw this old 80-something year old preacher walking towards him he thought but that's Peter Schultz and so he walked up to him and he was weeping that's not Peter Schultz he was weeping the Baptist minister and he said listen I want to tell you something 20 years back your ministry touched my life it changed me and this old preacher who had been used of God for so many years in so many places so many souls have been saved he wept because somebody bothered to be thankful because somebody bothered to say thank you Jesus asked us to remember he says in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 25 concerning the Lord's table this do as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me and he took the cup and gave thanks you know this is not a ritual this is a remembrance not just that we remember oh dear father I remember that Jesus died and that his blood was shed and the body was broken no it's a remembrance in the sense that you not just saying thank you but you being grateful for what for the fact that Jesus died for what God did you know so many people have gotten over being saved so many people sit in churches and they're not on fire anymore and they're not excited about the Word of God and they don't want to give our tracks unless it's just you know us versus them this whole evangelism story and I have Christ he doesn't the Muslims are evil let's go and try evangelism and make them like us no it's I'm a sinner saved by grace I was a sinner and God saved me by grace and I don't deserve anything and I'm coming to these sinners and I want them to have what I have out of gratitude to the Savior who saved me not us versus them Calvary I'd like to ask a question as we come to the end of the sermon why do we do projects for God why do we witness those of us who truly Christians not just doing it very synthetically so the people can see us or traditionally or because we don't want to go to hell why do we witness to people why do we study our Bible read it and stand up for truth you know many people used to do that after they got saved and then slowly they do less and they're less excited about it I'll tell you why number one because life has become busy that's probably the number one especially in America where we have to concentrate our entire life on living a more comfortable life being there for our family and just basically getting through life surviving and doing a little bit better every day and it just fills up our life projects have failed number two you start something for God and after a while when you expected a thousand souls to get saved it doesn't happen overnight and you start to get less excited about doing things for God people aren't so excited at the beginning they look at things you're doing they say well brother that's absolutely wonderful because of what they saying you excited because they excited and therefore it's easier for you to feed off the excitement and then great men who made you excited about their projects failed you there are people across America now pastors leaders of organizations who have greatly failed and they used to be excited about their projects and you used to get excited because of their projects for God and then they failed they sinned and now you think why should I be excited about projects that guy was excited and he was a sinner and then you failed there's some failure you have in life and because of that you feel what's the use of being on fire for God and there's a simple little question I have to ask for every person like that has lost his fire why were you on fire in the first place I'll tell you why I was on fire when I got saved there was a despised little hill in history little hill where Jesus died and I got saved at that hill I got forgiven for my sins and because of grace and because I was saved I was thankful I would do anything for God that's why I read my Bible that's why I witnessed it wasn't because there were people that told me my projects were wonderful it wasn't because I had time you made time when you're grateful it wasn't because all Christians out there never failed it was because of that little cross where Jesus died where I found mercy and I was grateful 1 John 4 verse 9 we love him because he first loved us Luke 7 verse 47 that sinner who came to Jesus her sins she had an alabaster box she she she wept and she used her hair to wipe his feet and he says her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much but to him little is forgiven the same love it little one man stood up in front of me once and he said Roy and to us as a group I slept around and he wept I got drunk I did terrifying things he killed people when Jesus saved me I I was forgiven much therefore I loved much said you religious people you don't love much I said rubbish if you as a religious person growing up in a conservative Christian home compare yourself to God and know what it is your sin is as a religious person how evil it is then when you get saved you will love much because you have been forgiven much and if you didn't love much you weren't saved you see so many people and this is the culmination of this sermon so many people compare themselves to others they've never got to the point where they see themselves deserving nothing but hell compared to who God is because there's something in them of comparing themselves to others but they read in the Bible that it says you're going to hell and they don't really see that they deserve it but they see the Bible says it and they don't want to go to hell so they want to take it to heaven so they say a prayer and I did this a few times in my life before I truly got saved almost at the age of 19 20 I said a prayer I don't want to go to hell the Bible says I'm going to hell or Jesus died that's wonderful so Jesus please come into my life as a ticket to get to heaven and there was no fruit no fruit you know it makes me afraid it makes me fearful to think of how many hundreds and hundreds thousands of people across the world sitting in churches all over they've done this they've said a prayer oh well let me think there's many reasons you can come to God and have a false foundation you're not really coming to God you just want a ticket to get to heaven you want God to take your troubles away you don't want to feel out when everybody else is seeking God you wanted to fill that void in your heart that you feel empty you want God for every reason but the reason he came which is to save you from your sins and then you say a prayer and you place yourself on a false foundation and guess what whatever's around you you think well I better become so if you're in a liberal church now that you're on this false foundation without fruit we allowed a sin and party that's wonderful praise the Lord I'm a Christian if you're in a conservative church where they preach the Word of God they are so many young people and older people who are they put themselves on a false foundation and there's no fruit they take it to heaven they've got they said a prayer and what do they do they become like the people around them oh they're conservative or to fill in at this place I better do conservative things old hymns might even go and hand out a tract or two but there's no fruit you're in a experiential church where they have lots of experiences well I'd better have these experiences so after your false foundation you start to have experiences emotional you have all the emotions but there's no fruit let me just say this you're not saved by thanks you're not saved by thanks the onset to this problem is not to start saying okay now I'm gonna thank God thank you God for this thank you God for that thank you for the church I'm in thank you God for everything on it thanks doesn't save you neither after you say by thanking God are you gonna experience God through the things you thank God for there's an era out there pushed across the world millions of books sold on those topics there's a cross where Jesus died and a person who died he rose again that person saves you and when you say you experience God through the same thing that saved you Jesus Christ he rose again as a Christian and because he saved you and because you experience God through his time you thankful and you thank God for that I'd like to end up with a song my grandfather was called my grandfather was my dad's side used to drink a lot before he got saved some said he was a drunkard but Jesus saved them when Jesus saved me smashed every bottle his name was Jack Daniel and I read a little song thinking about that I'm not gonna sing it because I want you to be thankful for the message it goes like this I once was a drunkard who thought he was good I sent my family through hell on earth my pride kept me back from the foot of the cross but Jesus was seeking his sheep that was lost how could a king die for a slave how can creation deserve what he paid all of grace salvation so free but offered with pierced hands to me all of grace salvation so free but over the cost offered with pierced hands for me and my appeal is simple I'm not going to ask you to come to the front or anything like that but I'd like to make a twofold appeal to your hearts for this camp number one you might be one of those people who does not have the fruit that the Bible speaks about will explain that a bit more later in this camp and you have got your ticket to heaven you think by accepting Jesus Christ because you didn't want to get to hell but you never understood that you deserve nothing but hell you didn't come at understanding that you came with something of your own goodness not understanding that you're evil deserving hell for eternity and so it wasn't the greatest gift when you received Jesus Christ into your life you stood into a false foundation you added liberalism experientialism or conservatism or emotionalism and there's no fruit and you became like the people around you in many ways you spoke the same language the answer is simple there's an old rugged cross and you will flee to that if you understand that you deserve nothing else but hell and the only hope is the merit of Christ I remember that day when I got saved there was nothing else I could turn to but that old rugged cross in Jesus but secondly there might be many of you and some of you have lost your fire it has got busy life you do worry about what people think and the fact that they're not excited there are people who have failed in your faith yourself perhaps let me tell you the answer let's get back to that thing that helped you in the first place the thing that made you thankful in the first place get back to that cross and make right with God be restored in Jesus Christ based on what he did at Calvary as a Christian and then be thankful and show your thanks let us pray father I know that this is the second message of this conference my dad preached last night I believe in soul winning and thank you for that message and there are many messages to come and we do ask that you'll be there in every single one and speak to our hearts but God I ask for today that you would help that in this busy life where the seed of God's Word can be plucked away by Satan so easily even in Christians lives when our focus should be totally and utterly on the end when you say something we should respond to it because we love you so easily Satan plucks away the word I ask you to help us to remember this truth that that the lowest form of thanks is to compare ourselves to others and feel we good the highest form of things outside of Jesus Christ is to compare ourselves to those are less fortunate and be thankful but we don't need a Bible for that or even to be a Christian help us to realize that no matter how fortunate or unfortunate we are even if we were the least fortunate person on earth to breathe is a gift of God but everything we have in light of hell we deserve nothing but hell and everything is a gift but even before that because you the Creator and we the creation everything that we have is a gift and we should be grateful and show our gratitude towards you and then thank you for that thing which should make us ultimately the greatest gratitude that we could ever have is that God gave to those who deserve nothing but hell he gave his son to die we deserve the opposite and yet you gave your most precious possession to your enemies and help us to be grateful for this and never get over being saved if we saved if we not saved to come not compared to other people for a ticket to heaven but to come to that old rugged cross in Jesus Christ realizing we deserve nothing but hell fleeing from our life of sin and feeling fleeing to Jesus our only hope and in one moment getting something to be ultimately thankful for the rest of our lives for when we need God through Jesus Christ and I ask all this that you will not let us go until we find thee if we unsaved to be saved if there are those who need to be restored that they will not let this go but that they will seek thy face in Jesus Christ