You are called to shift your focus from your own shortcomings to the sufficiency of Jesus' sacrifice. When you face moments of lack or anxiety, choose to offer your 'not enough' to God with a heart of thanksgiving. Trust that His grace is sufficient to turn your scarcity into abundance.
Bart Stamper, would you come forward? Y'all give Bart a "big old hand". You're standing. Many are standing. Some of you don't know why you're standing.
This man is a disciple maker. He's a mighty man of God, world traveling speaker, but also an elder in this church that God has used mightily and multiplied in many men and families in this church. And it's an honor to have him here. And he's preaching today, and I'm excited to take notes, see what happens.
I'll have microphone too. You may be seated. *Communion*. Felt like we were supposed to start with communion today. And at Real Church, you know, if you've been here at least 1 service, we like Todd said, we typically do this in small groups where we lead our families.
We encourage you to realize what this really means. But we haven't said this recently. Pastor David says, probably long story. I'll I'll get back to that. When I was when I was when I was growing up, I grew up in church.
Many of you heard me tell my story. Was I had a drug problem as a kid. I was drugged to church on Sunday morning, drugged to church on Sunday night, drugged to church on Tuesday night, drugged church on Thursday night. I had a drug problem. But we didn't do communion every single week.
It was something that was special that we did once or twice a year. But it was the least attended service of the whole year. Why would you why would that be, Bart? Well, in first Corinthians, Paul talks about taking *communion* unworthily. And if you take it unworthily, you're bringing judgment upon yourself and even early death, he says.
And who wants to take this unworthily? What? No, but no hands. So we were taught incorrectly because that meant, boy, if you have any sin in your life, sin that you haven't confessed, sin that you don't even know is there, you're taking this unworthily. And nobody wants to do that.
So the few that would come on *communion* weekend, man, I mean, we would come to the offer and we would pray and we'd ball and squall and repent and ask God forgive us and forgive us and forgive us and forgive us and forgive us. So we could be so worthy to take this. Now, I don't know if any of you relate to that. If it's 1 person, it's worth taking 5 minutes to understand. *2 Corinthians-5:21*, my identity, it's on his tattoo.
He that knew no sin became sin. That's Jesus. Jesus became sin so that we become the **righteousness of God**. We become in right standing with God because of what Jesus did for us. You know, I'm not gonna get get have a microphone and not talk about righteousness a little bit.
To realize in the tabernacle of Moses, 1 of the things is they had is they had a labor of water and it when you would look into it, it was a reflection. And when you looked into it, you would see Jesus. You didn't see yourself. Right? It was pointing to Jesus.
And so when we take communion today, we're not looking at ourselves, we're not looking at, do I deserve this? Am I good enough? Do I have sin in my life? We're looking at what Jesus did and we recognize and we're giving thanks for what he did for us. And he became sin so that I become righteous.
He takes my *sin* life and the consequences of my life and he gives me the benefits of his perfect life. Who won in that scenario? Right? Side note, obviously, there's sin in your life and you know you've done something stupid and you've you've chosen yourself instead of him, we want to repent. Right?
I'm not making light of that. But we understand it's I don't take this because I'm worthy. I take this because Jesus is worthy. Right? And they all make fun of me, especially this 1 right there.
I say it every week when I do communion. Abraham and God made a covenant in the old testament and God kept his end of the covenant throughout history. He's always kept his end of the covenant and man would try and fail, try and fail over and over and over and over, and they could not could could not keep their end of the covenant. We could not keep as man, we could not keep the covenant. So God in his infinite mercy decides, send his son, robe himself in flesh and come and keep our end of the covenant as man also.
So not only does he keep the covenant his half, but he also fulfilled our half. And the coolest thing, the first time I heard this was probably 15 years ago and it clicked with me. When Jesus is at the last supper and he breaks bread and he talks about the bread and then he break he gives the blood, the juice, and he talks about it. He only says 1 thing that we're supposed to do. Everything is what he has done and we supposed to do 1 thing.
He says, remember. Remember. What are we remembering? We're remembering that we could not do this. It was not a cape.
We were not capable of following the law and being good enough and being worthy. But he did it all. He kept his end of the *covenant* and he keeps our end of the covenant. And today, we just remember. I'm gonna talk about gratitude, *gratefulness*, thanksgiving.
They're all synonymous to me. We're going to be thankful. We're gonna remember what he did with thanksgiving in our heart. If you take the bread, the wafer. The bible says that he was whipped and beaten to the point that he was not recognizable as a man.
Couple weeks ago, Moriah did an amazing job of giving us a vision of what that crucifixion looked like. And we could only understand this much of what really happened without being there. But his body was broken for our healing. By his stripes, we were healed. It's actually past tense.
We were healed. Today, you are healed. Doctor Leon, a couple weeks ago, talked about when he takes communion, he looks at the bread and he sees the brokenness in his body that needs repair, needs healing. He looks at it and he sees that. And so I just encourage you right now to look at this bread, this wafer, and see the broken body of Jesus, but see where you're broken and you need healing.
Thank you, Jesus, for being our healer. We give you thanksgiving. We give you honor and praise for what you did. We remember, but we remember we're healed because of what you did. Take the bread.
The blood. The juice that we take is representing the **precious blood** of Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. I didn't do anything to deserve this. It's his love. It's his mercy.
It's his grace. I get to walk in *righteousness* because of what he did on the cross, the blood that was sacrificed for me and for you, for forgiveness of sin. God, I just thank you. I thank you Jesus for what you did for me. I remember today and I will always wanna have thanksgiving on my lips for you.
Take the blood. I don't know how many of you have spoken here or somewhere else. But for me in my process, when I start studying, I start trying to listen to what God wants to say, 1 thing seems to be very common. I have about 2 hours worth of stuff to say typically. And I got 22 minutes, but I'm not gonna hurry.
I can promise you that. I had a long list of thank yous. I won't go through. Thank you Dixie for being my most beautiful wife, the best wife in the world. Everybody else gets to have the second best wife.
Y'all hope you get to find her if you haven't. Thank you pastor David. David has been 1 of the most influential people in my life. I'm I'm literally here because of you today. Words that just don't express.
It makes me cry every time I think about David and everything he's done for me. Thank you. I love you. I told this story to the guys on Wednesday night when I was coming back from Africa. I was on a plane and almost everybody spoke French and I don't speak French.
Sorry. So it was really difficult to share Jesus when I speak English and they speak French. And so it was frustrating but I was on an airplane for 16 hours and I was sitting on a on on a on my seat, the guy next to me spoke no English. He was sleeping and I was like, okay, what am I supposed to do for 16 hours? I pulled my phone out and I was throw scrolling through some old podcast from Bethel actually and it I found 1 from Chris Valentin a couple years ago and it was on gratitude.
And so I started listening to this podcast and he says, a couple of 3 years ago, during COVID, he had a dream and you know dreams are they're bigger. Things happen bigger in a dream than in reality. Right? They're just a little bit big. And he says, I was in this dream and I had this huge syringe and it was stuck in my arm, but on the side of it, it said gratitude.
And he says, I woke up and he's like, what in the world is that God? And he says, I just inoculated you with gratitude. And he's like, okay, what does that mean? He says, you had several deadly diseases. Chris was like, okay, now I'm worried.
He said, don't don't be worried, don't be worried. I inoculated you and these diseases will never have an effect on you. The diseases, I'll I'll write I'll read them to you. He said, he had deadly diseases of entitlement, bitterness, resentment, apathy, anger, unforgiveness, jealousy, competition, pride, arrogance, conceit, and suspicion. That's a pretty good list, And he's like, I've got all these things.
He said, don't worry about it. I inoculated you with gratitude. Gratitude is actually what keeps those roots of the seed that the Satan has thrown into your life. Gratitude actually keeps them from growing. They never get a hold and they actually never are a problem ever again as long as you continue in thankfulness and gratitude.
I just believe that if it happens for Chris, he wants to do it for us. When we understand every single 1 of us, we have places in our life that the devil would love to throw seeds that aren't part of our identity. And any area of these that we are looking at that we realize, oh no, no, no, no, I don't want that. I need to have a thankful heart. I need to make sure that I'm speaking thanksgiving in this area.
Right? Because gratitude, thanks thankfulness, thanksgiving is what helps us become inoculated and that those seeds can't grow in our life. Now, I know if I had time, we did it in dream team and I was gonna do it today, but if we would go around the room and say, man, thank you Jesus for, 1 word. We could sit here all day long and talk about being thankful. Right?
We we we wanna practice gratitude. We wanna practice gratitude and I think that's super important. So in any area that you're struggling, consciously renew the mind with gratitude. Gratitude actually pushes back any offense and it creates this pathway to hear God more clearly. Have you ever felt like you're in a season where, man, I just don't hear God speaking at all?
We've all gone through that. Right? There are moments in time and just seasons like, just don't seem to hear God talk to me very loud right now. I don't hear him very often. Can I offer a suggestion?
Are you being thankful? Do you have *gratefulness* on your mouth, in your words? It's a big deal. It's a big deal because when you start cultivating this decision of *gratitude*, It's almost like the world becomes quiet and you step into this area that God just starts speaking and you hear him so, wow, God's speaking so No, he's actually been speaking the whole time. He didn't just start speaking, he's been speaking all the time.
You're not being able to hear because we don't have *gratitude*. We're listening to the grumbling and the complaining and the fear and we're letting that be a louder voice than the gratitude that we have. The gratitude is what opens your ears to hear God speak. Not my notes. Everybody stand up just a second.
Whatever that looks like, whatever that sounds like for you, I just want you to be able to take 30 seconds in your own words, just pray. God, thank you for this. I thank you for that. I thank you because you love me. I thank you for whatever that is coming into your mind right now.
I just want you to take a second and I just want you to pray. Pray out loud. We're not we're not shy. God, we just thank you that you love us. Thank you that you're our provider.
Thank you that you're our healer. We thank you that you're always looking out for us and that we want to have grateful hearts and a grateful mouth and a grateful *gratefulness* on our lips every single day, every single moment. God, I wanna hear your voice and I thank you that I get to hear your voice when I have a heart of gratitude. Help me to in every aspect of my life, in any area that I'm struggling in, help me to make sure that I have gratitude for you. We thank you for this, God.
We thank you for this, In Jesus name. Jesus name, you may be seated. Spiritual calisthenics. Up, down, up, down, up, down. *Philippians-4:6*.
So often fear robs us from hearing God's voice when we need to hear it the most. Philippians-4:6 says, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Everybody say, thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. Let your request be known to God.
Now, give me the next *scripture*. This one's Stamper chapter 3 verse 12. Thanksgiving is the Prozac of the spirit. That's not in your Bibles. That's my Bible.
When we understand *thankfulness* changes everything. You can't have *anxiety* and thankfulness. A couple weeks ago, 10 days ago, Adam I don't know where there he is. Adam posted on Facebook, there was a study that said, you can't be anxious and thankful at the same time. I didn't know anything about that so I actually took a little time.
I went back to Google. We've researched. Me and Google had a really good little session here. There are 64 different studies that says, you cannot be anxious and grateful at the same time. Isn't that interesting?
Yeah. It says the brain cannot simultaneously experience the state of anxiety and gratitude as they are physiologically incompatible and activate different emotional responses. Gratitude triggers the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the "rest and digest", while anxiety triggers the fight or flight response, making it impossible for them both to be active at the same time. That's interesting. Thank you, captain obvious.
If you're being anxious, I have the solution. It's right there, Philippians-4:6. *Thankfulness*. Thankfulness. Thankfulness.
*Thankfulness*. Just went through thanksgiving season. I think most of us were conscious about giving thankful thankfulness for everything that was in our life. Right? But do we give him thanks for everything?
The bible says, in everything give thanks. First *1 Thessalonians-3:16* I think. So, in everything give thanks. Now, when you look up everything in the Greek, guess what? It means everything.
It does not say in almost everything give thanks. Give thanks for what you're really thankful for but anything that's not good in your life, don't give thanks for that. Romans, we quoted a lot. Romans says, in all things work together for good for those that love him and call according to his purpose. He makes all things good for those that love him and call to his purpose.
I love him. You love him? Yeah. You called to his purpose? So who is that talking to?
Every single 1 of us. Right? All things work together for good and then we just said, in everything give thanks. The the issue is we're really good at taking and I'm thankful for my family. I'm thankful for the job that you've given me.
I thank you for my kids that you've given me. I thank you for for the things that I'm I'm proud of. I thank you for my church family. I thank you Right? We're we're really good here.
But over here, there's this problem. There's an anxiety. There's something that happened that's not good. A flat tire. I lost a job and in this area, I struggle to give thanks.
Nowhere in the bible does it say to we're we're thankful for evil. That's not what it says. But in evil, we're thankful. It's a heart. It's a position of the heart that we focus on him.
Yes. And we're thankful knowing that all things work together for good. And to the to the degree that you believe Romans-8 that it's set where we really believe all things work together for good. All things work together for good. To the degree that you believe that is to the degree that you can take all of this evil over here and be thankful in it.
That's right. If you only can be thankful over here for all the good things in your life, there's something over here that has an influence that's not supposed to be there in your life. You're listening to the negative, you're listening to the *evil* and not making the understanding click in your brain. You need to renew your mind to Romans-8. All things work together for good and when we really believe that, we can stand in all of the junk over here and be thankful for that.
That's right.
The bible says, we enter into his "gates with thanksgiving" into his "courts with praise". We're talking about there David's talking about the tabernacle of Moses. There is an outer court. There is the holy place and then there's the holy of holy. Right?
So the goal when we talk about praying, we wanna get into the holy of holy. Right? We wanna be in his presence. I didn't get a very loud amen. I thought there you go.
Thank you. If that's the goal and he says we enter with enter into his gates with thanksgiving into his courts with praise, there's no way to get to the holy of holies. There's no way to get to his *presence* without starting going through the gates. That's good. Mhmm.
Of praise.
That's right. Come on. Hallelujah.
Thanksfulness. Yeah. It's truly we understand. We're switching our thought process to go back to understand Romans-8. All things work together for good.
And when we really believe that, No matter what situation I'm in, I wanna be in his presence and I wanna enter into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise. I don't have anywhere close to enough time to to explain it, but you know the story well. If you don't, go read it. I think it's John-11, where Jesus feeds the 5,000. It's an amazing story.
It's where Jesus sees all of these people and he asked the disciples, where are you gonna go how are gonna feed them? And it says he actually knew before he even asked. And he's like, they would take a half a year's wage to be able to feed them, Jesus. What are you talking about? We don't have the way to You need to send them away.
He says, no. Find out what we have. And they come back and he says, we have 5 loaves and 2 small fishes. But what is that compared to the many? What does Jesus do?
He says, first he says, bring it to me. In my hands, it's not very much. In his hands, it's "more than enough". But what does he do? And I think it's it's very important to recognize the the the principle that he taught us here and it's throughout all of scripture.
But this specific story, what does he do? He takes not enough and he gives thanks.
That's right. He
doesn't have enough. It's 5 little loaves and 2 little fishies. That's "heaven's happy meal". But in his hands, he holds it up, believe, and gives thanks for not having enough. And then he breaks and gives to the disciples, the disciples start to disperse it to the people.
And you know the story. Everybody eats and they have 12 baskets that they take up after the fact. In any area of your life, this is how we're gonna finish today. In any area of your life that you feel like you don't have enough, instead of standing over here being mad and frustrated and anxious and worrying, no. We're gonna go back to we understand all things work together for good.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna believe that so much that I'm gonna say, God, I don't know how you're gonna make this good but I'm excited to see how you're gonna make this good. And I'm gonna hold up **not having enough** and I'm gonna thank you for what you have given me knowing it's not enough but knowing that I'm placing it in your hands and you can provide and you can make it good. You can make it good.
Do you believe that today? Yes. I mean that's the promise. That's a covenant that God makes with us. All things work together for good.
In any time that you're struggling with anxiety, fear, just trepidation, remember gratitude. Thanksgiving is my solution. This is my solution. I haven't said anything today that you haven't heard multiple times, but I hope in some way it connects to your spirit to realize God loves you and in everything you can give thanks. Again, not in all not in some of the things, but in all things, give thanks and realizing what is not enough, I hold up to you today, Jesus.
Not having enough, I still give it to you and I thank you for what you've done and what you're going to do. With that heart, I can promise you the "fear leaves", the anxiety leaves, and what he will provide is more than enough. Again, let's let's have the ministry altar team come forward. Everybody can stand. In a room of this size, of this many people, there are issues, there are needs, there are things that you need God's help on.
It's logical. I just feel like today, guys and gals in the altar right here, they wanna partner with you to speak over you, *gratefulness* and thanksgiving. You're bringing not enough. Whatever the situation, if it's money, if it's relationships, if it's physical, if it's something that someone's hurt you, things that were evil that was things that were meant for evil, but God is going to turn all things, gonna make all things good. It inoculates you.
If that's you, I just encourage you to come, get prayer, hold up not enough. Trusting that he has everything that you need to go along with your not enough. The answer is gratitude.