A principle that will change your life. Let's talk about it on this edition of Key Life. Hello, this is Mike Kelly, and that was Steve Brown. Life isn't a dress reversal, and that's why this program, Key Life, is around. Honest, practical, and sweet, smart Bible teaching for the business of living. Thanks, Mike. If you had a Bible, you might want to keep it there. I'll be referring to a number of different passages. Today is Thanksgiving. If you've been listening to Key Life much, you're aware that we've been going through the Old Testament doing an Old Testament survey going book by book. And I said at the beginning that it was going to be quite long, and that sometimes we were going to take a break. And we'll do that around Christmas, and we did it for some other things, but we always came back to it because I want to get through the entire Old Testament. Well, today is Thanksgiving. And you know this may be my favorite day. Now it's not that I don't see that Christmas and Easter are important, but Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny haven't gotten, I mean, there is nobody who brings the turkey. You don't have a Christmas buzzer who brings the turkey or anything. I mean, and it's not kind of a big sales kind of thing, and nobody's pushing things because nobody wants to do it. And the reason Christians do it and do it right is because we understand something that is very important. This is not a holiday that's been taken over by everybody, and then turned into something. It's not. When you say the word Thanksgiving, you mean Thanksgiving. I have a friend, and I like him a lot. He was an atheist for a lot of years, and he's recently become a really strong believer. But one of the things that got him thinking was when his little boy was born. And I said to him, listen, what, and he was so pleased. I mean, he was just, I mean, he was just overwhelmed with the glory of it. And I said, you know, a problem with you and my children were born. I was thankful, and I knew who to thank. You're thankful, and you don't have anybody to thank. And he thought about that, and he said, you know, that's true. There's something in my heart that wants to think whatever, something, what I thank God. If you're a Christian, if you're a believer, you know what Thanksgiving is. It's something that ought to be happening every day of the year. But today's a special day, a Thanksgiving special, and I thought I would talk to you a little bit about Thanksgiving. So if you have a Bible, you're not so busy with the turkey and stuff, turn to 1 Thessalonians 518. I'm going to read you something that will seem really, really strange at first. But if you think about it, and that's what we're going to do, it could really change your life. Listen to what Paul says. This is in 1 Thessalonians 517, they're 18, or of 1617 or 18, rejoice always. Now write off the bat. That seems crazy. I mean, maybe you're going through a divorce, maybe you have a tragedy in your family. Maybe this is the first Thanksgiving that you had without somebody that you loved because they've gone home to be with the Lord. Maybe this is kind of a sad time. What do you mean, rejoice always, or it gets worse? Pray without ceasing. And then Paul says in everything, no exception. There's no addendum. There's no little star there with some kind of reference at the bottom of the page except in really bad things. Paul says in everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. God says, and he commands that we be thankful in everything. Now that's hard sometimes, and I know that. It's hard sometimes to bow our heads and say, Father, I don't understand this, but I thank you for it. You know Romans 8. Romans 8.28 says that everything, and there's no exception, works together for good to those who love God, and are called according to His purpose. That means that whatever's happening in your life right now, even if it's painful has a purpose for the kingdom, a purpose for good, and a purpose for your good, even if you don't understand it. The Thanksgiving to which Paul calls us is a realization and an affirmation and a witness that there is a God, and that God's in charge of everything, and that God is in charge of your life and everything that's going on in your life right now. I love the Psalms because you can always go there to find something appropriate about Thanksgiving. Listen to Psalm 92. It is good to get thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to your name almost high, to declare your loving kindness in the morning and your faithfulness every night, and then probably a Psalm that you memorized when you were a child. If you've been a church person all your life, it's the 100th Psalm, and it's short, but it is a powerful Psalm. Listen to these words. Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all your lands. Serve the Lord with gladness, again, the rejoicing thing, again, come before His presence was singing. Know that the Lord, He is God. It is He who has made us and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture, enter into His gates with Thanksgiving, and then do His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and His truth endures to all generations. You find it throughout the Bible, and sometimes it seems crazy and weird. It says that we are to get thanks in every circumstance of our lives. Now we have a lot where it's easy to be thankful. Today I'm with my family. Today we'll have a good meal or had a good meal, depending on where you're listening to this. Today we live in a country where we're free. We can speak our mind out without losing our heads. We have friends. We have churches. We have freedom of religion. There's so much about which to be thankful, but what if it's really hard right now? What if the rooms are really deep and what if you don't have much you don't think to be thankful for? We ought to be thankful anyway because of Romans 8.28, but let me tell you another reason. You ought to be thankful and you ought to praise God simply because He is God, and He is worthy, and He is good, and He is good all the time. I remember one time in Miami when my wife and I were going shopping and downtown Miami and had a car accident. Now the policeman didn't think so, but we proved it in court. It was the lady's fault. It wasn't mine. I was turning properly left on a turn signal, and a lady rammed into the side of me and said, how could you? And because she was trying the policeman to listen to her, and I got the citation. But we went to court generally to say, all right, you pay the fine. Try to get the car fixed and argue with your insurance company. But I went to court and got a change. I don't want you to know. I was spitting. How could she do this? I was so angry. I couldn't. I mean the car had been hit on the side. It was hurt pretty bad. It was obvious the lady who hit me wasn't hurt, and we weren't dying, but it was a fairly new car. And I wasn't happy with that. And I was spitting and doing all male ego things. You know what happened? I looked over and in the driver's seat set my wife. Now I would have appreciated it if she had at least expressed a bit of anger in support of her beloved husband. I would have been very appreciative if she had said, how could that woman do that to us? I would have been very appreciative if she had shown a bit of disconcercion about what I had just gone through. You know what she did? Her head was bowed, and she was praying, and she said, Lord, I don't understand this. But Romans 8.28 is true, and I know you're good, and you're good all the time. So I praise you, and I thank you, even for this. She taught me a lesson there, and I haven't learned it very well, but that is that in every circumstances we are to give things. You say, well, Steve, you said at the beginning of the broadcast, you were going to give us a principle that would change our lives. Let me read it to you. It's from Philippians 4, and I'm going to start reading at the 4th verse, where Paul does it again, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say, rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to all men, the Lord is of hand. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication. With Thanksgiving, let your request be known to God, and here it comes, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. As you know, and maybe I've told you, I do a liturgy each morning in my own devotional time with the Lord. I'm a very early riser, and I go through some of the ancient prayers because I find them strangely comforting, and the liturgy helps do. There's a place in the liturgy that I use where you thank God for the circumstances of your life, and you name them, and so I name all the bad stuff that's happening to me, and I say, God, I don't understand this, but I thank you for it. Then I often pray, and this isn't in the liturgy, Lord, I'm doing this by faith because I don't understand it. Would you do me a favor, and would you when something bad happens, remind me at the time, go at the time, I would give you praise and thanksgiving, I've been praying that for over two years now, and sometimes, sometimes when I'm sensitive and quiet enough, the Holy Spirit will remind me when bad stuff happens, at key life, or I got a critical letter or people are upset, or I lose somebody I love, or somebody says bad things about me, sometimes and there's stuff a lot worse than that. As the Holy Spirit reminds me, you ask the Lord to ask to give you the power, to thank God for every circumstance from your heart and not just by faith, so do it right now, and when I do it, there's a strange sort of peace that descends. It's a peace that comes from Him because I'm leaning and trusting on Him that He should be praised, and that He is good, and He's good all the time. You think about that? I'm in. Hey, listen, if you don't have the full magazine, I'd love this entity, you free. There's some Christmas themes here, how to be Christmas to the world, I wrote that. Pete Owlonson, my pastor, wrote a wonderful piece called, as the men of the church go, so goes the church. My tenoraries there, a question and answer column, devotional focus information on our upcoming pooped pastors conference, a lot of special resources to get you in those you love home, with freedom and joy and faithfulness to Christ as your crowning achievement. If you'd like the magazine free, give us a call, 1-800-keylife, 24 hours a day, or you can write key life, post office box 5,000, Mateline Florida, 327-94, or key life, Canada post office box 321-5-0, Cambridge Ontario in 3H5 and 3, or you can email us at Steve at p-life.org. And listen, if you're going to help us financially, I sure would appreciate it. This is a very expensive ministry, and it scares me to death, and only a few of you are able to help us financially, pray about it. If God leads you to do that, be as generous as you can, you can charge it on your Master's Card Visa, discover cards, put a contribution in your envelope, and for any contribution of any size when you request it, I'll send you the cassette, the assets of rupees. Hey listen, I got a gold key life, it's a listener-supported production of key life network.