Thanksgiving Sunday Service

Everything I Need, My Father Has It

And all of the beauty I don’t have to wonder I know what you do, so why would I wear it all faithful to fly everything I need, everything I need, my father has it, my father has it, everything all time, the Lord will provide for my father has it, my father has it, yes, he does, oh he’s been so good to us lacking for nothing fear of tomorrow, and what it will be if I have you I have enough will send it by yes it will everything I need, everything I need for my father has it, my father has it every single time the Lord will provide for my father has it, my father has it, yes, he does, for we give it to the day, oh seek first the kingdom and its treasures, everything else will be headed, all that I’m needed, always singing now.

I know the Lord will provide, oh yes, he will, yes, he will. I king and his treasures, everything else will be had it, I’m still with it, yes, we will. He gives us blessing up on blessing. I skipped the delay. Who I know the Lord will provide Yes. Everything I need. Everything I need. Who my father has it? Who my father has it? The Lord will provide. Who my father has it? Who my father has it? Oh, everything I need. Everything I need. Who my father has it? Who my father has it? The Lord will provide. Who my father has it? Oh seat first the kingdom. Can his treasures? Everything else needed will be. Oh, did I meet it? See you with all you got. I know the Lord will provide. He gives us blessings of blessings. I still believe. Who I know the Lord will provide. Who I know the Lord will provide. Who I know the Lord will provide. Oh, he’s been so good. Oh, we thank you, Lord.

More Than I Deserve

Why are you so good to me? You must see the treasure hidden invention. This is more than I deserve. This is more than I deserve. Overwhelming grace, I could never. This is more than I did. In the morning, I will see you love me. I will bless your name. It’s amazing when I think of the way you save me. Every breath I breathe is for your breath. You call me from the grave and told me from dirt, and you love me first. You call me from the grave and call me from the dirt. I love how you love me first. In the morning, I will sing how you love me. In the evening, I will place your name. Every breath I breathe is for your grave. We praise you, Lord.

Oh, How Great the Love of the Father

Oh, how great the love of the Father. Oh, how great the gift of the Son. Oh, how great the power of Jesus. What a save. What a save. Oh, how great the love of the Father. Oh, how great the gift of the Son. Oh, how great the power of Jesus. What a savor. What a savor. Oh, how great the love of the Father. Oh, how great the gift of the Son. Oh, how great the power of Jesus. What a savior. What a savior. I was love of the sin and you found me. Hallelujah, you saved my soul. I was dead in God and you raised me. What a savior, what a miracle, what a miracle, what a miracle, what a morning. I will sing of how you love me in me. I will bless your name. Every breath I breathe is for your grave. Oh, we praise your Lord. Such a worthy father.

Faithful Then, Faithful Now

Oh how great the love of the Father. Oh how great the gift of the Son. Oh how great the power of Jesus. What a savior. What a savior. I was lost in sin and you found me. Hallelujah, you save my soul. I was dead in God and you raised me. What a miracle. What a miracle. What a miracle. What a miracle. What a miracle. What a miracle. Thank you, Jesus. Well come on, we’re not done praising him yet. We got another song for you. Come on. Are you ready for a space for his faithful next. Oh mercy with the morning sun. Hopefully, I am hanging by a thread. Oh, every time I look for it, I find your faithfulness again. Oh yes, we do. Oh water in the will the nails. Oh my defeat in the lion’s day. Oh, every time I look for it, I find your faithfulness again. Oh yes, we do. Who we sick, faithful dead, faithful now. You never run out, oh faithfulness, faithfulness. Oh faithfulness, faithful dead love that held him to the cross till he paid the price for all my sin. A temporary truth was sealed by stone. But he couldn’t keep the day. Oh he could Oh now that he has one good day. Oh tell me what’s in possible for him. Cause if the Lord my God is on my side, then who could be lucky? Oh, there’s no one Cause he is faithful then, faithful now. You never run out. Oh faithfulness, faithfulness, oh faithfulness, faithful now, you never run out of faithfulness, faithfulness, oh you are faithfulness, faithful now. You never run out of faithfulness, faithfulness, oh faithfulness, faithful now, you never run out of faithfulness, faithful day, yes, you never run out, you never run out, you never run, never run out of it, you never run out, you never run, never run out of it, you never run out, you never run, never run out, you never run out, you never run, never run out of it for the things you’ve done, for the things to come for the breath in my lungs, oh thank you, Jesus, for the things you did, for the things to come for the breath in my lungs, always thank you, Jesus, for the things you do, for the things to come, for the breath in my lungs, oh thank you, Jesus, for the things you done, for the things you come, for the breath in my mouth, oh thank you, Jesus You are faithful in, faithful now, you never run out of faithfulness, faithfulness, faithful now, you never run out of faithfulness, faithfulness. Amen.

Thanksgiving and Gratitude

I’m thankful for breath in my lungs. How about you? For some of us, that really means more than it does others. But if you’ve ever been short of breath, you’re really grateful for extra breath. Amen. Amen. Hey, turn to someone and say, you look great today, and you can take your seats. Amen. Welcome to one of our favorite, favorite services that we have all year. No flirting. Just tell them that they look great. This is one of our very favorite services all year. We get to come together this Sunday before Thanksgiving week and testify and give stories, tell of all the things that God has done, and you’re going to hear some wonderful things, small and great.

I just want to plant this seed into your heart before we receive offering this morning. That whatever you hear today, and that there will be glorious stories, I’m sure, because God is always glorious. But remember this, that whatever you story you hear from a brother or a sister this morning about the things that God has done for them and in their lives. Remember this that the power of God that was at work for them and in their lives is still here, and it’s still at work as they testify to what God has done. That power is still available for you and I to reach up, lay hold of, and bring it into our own lives. Isn’t that awesome? Because he was faithful then and he is faithful now, and his miracles never cease. Amen, church. Amen.

So it is Thanksgiving week, and you know this. I I don’t know if we’re still teaching this to kids in school or not, but you can go on Wikipedia and find out about the very rich history of Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday. It’s been celebrated in one form or other since the inception of the United States of America. And in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the official proclamation that we still function from today, that the fourth Thursday of the month of November would be set aside as a national day to give thanks to Almighty God. Yes. That you and I we dare not let it pass us by. Oh, it could. There’s plenty that we could say is right in front of us that we’re not thankful for. But we step past that and we remind ourselves of all of the goodness and the graciousness and the kindness of God to us as a nation, but to us as individuals.

And it’s important that we not just let that day go as another day. There’s power when a nation comes together and focuses their eyes and their thanksgiving towards Almighty God. And our nation is in great need of that. We’re Christians. We’re Christ followers. And Christ followers don’t just observe a day of Thanksgiving. We will observe the day, yes. But we also live a life of Thanksgiving. And if you read through particularly your New Testament, over and over, we’re instructed, we’re encouraged, we’re reminded to give thanks, give thanks, give thanks. In fact, in the book of Ephesians and the message paraphrase, it says that thanksgiving is actually the dialect of the Christian, it’s our language, it’s what comes to mind first.

Griping or Gratitude

And here’s something that we notice also throughout the scripture. We always have a choice, and we go one or two ways. We either go to griping or we go to gratitude. Oh, yeah, there’s a scale in between. But the more you and I lean towards griping, and it is the national pastime. It is. Oversized bow on it, and that will be our Christmas present. I don’t want that. Okay, just to be clear. No. We’re not waiting for something to be grateful for. We’re grateful for who God is and what he has done for us already. Amen, church. And so I think that we express that gratitude. We choose it. It’s a choice. We choose it. We step over the griping and we choose the gratitude. We choose saying thank you.

And we do it several ways. One way we do it is by our speech. We we verbally and intentionally choose to thank God for who he is and for specific blessings that he has released to each and every one of us. We do have breath in our lungs today. Yes. We could get out of bed today. There are so many things that we step over, step past the griping and choose, and we say it out loud, and we say it specifically to God. We also sing it, and we’ve been doing that together. There’s just something so joyful about coming together and focusing our affection and our attention on God the Father and singing back to Him with gratitude for who He is. It sparks within us that thing that is like Him and encourages us to look not just receive his generosity, but to let it pass back through us and out of us to other people.

And so we generously bring all the time, we generously bring a tithe, an offering in Thanksgiving to God for what he has put within our hands. And then we do special things, extra things. When God does something extra for me, I want to do something extra for someone else in the name of God. Amen. And so I just want to remind you that today for us, in addition to preparing Thanksgiving week and Thanksgiving Day, that we also kick off today Christmas outreach. You’re like, I’m not ready for Christmas. It’s here. But it’s the reindeers are gonna roll right over your head, or you’re gonna start singing oh holy night, one or the other.

Christmas Outreach

And so we every year we’ve we have done this for over 40 years in some form. We look for people within our own community, within our own faith community, but within our own city that are in difficult days, and we do what we can. We pull the resources we have, and we do what we can to make sure that they don’t come to Christmas without something there as a blessing for them. Last year you guys went over the top, as you always do. We we help families within our own church here, but we also reach out into our community towards, especially towards children, and children that for one reason or another are not living with their parents.

For years we’ve partnered with New Mexico Boys and Girls Ranch. We’ve partnered with For the One, with women, and some of them have children who used to be victims of human trafficking, but are no longer victims of human trafficking. This year, in addition to that, we’re we’re partnering with Albuquerque Christian Children’s Home. And so there are 39 kids at New Mexico Boys and Girls Ranch this year. It’s the most, the highest number that we’ve ever worked with them towards. Out in the foyer when you leave today, there are tags on Christmas trees that you can partner with us. And you can take a tag, you can donate some money, you can do it on your on the app, Christmas Outreach, whatever comes in designated Christmas outreach, it’s going to one of those places. Everything that comes in goes right back out.

And it’s happening fast this year because Thanksgiving is later than normal. And so we have just a few days really to gather, to gather things that will help, that will be a blessing to 17 adults and a total of 68 kids. I think we can do it. Do you think we can do it? I do know this that I couldn’t do it on my own. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do something for 17 adults and 68 kids on my own. But together, oh, together, we’ll be able to do the biggest, grandest blessing that will result in even more gratitude towards God. I’m in. Are you in? Let’s do it together, church.

So host team is going to come past containers. If you want to give this morning, you can earmark on an envelope Christmas Outreach. It’s going there. You can go on the app. There’s actually a space that you can designate giving to Christmas Outreach. You can go to the foyer. You can look at a tag. You can see some of actually, truthfully, some of the things that the kids from New Mexico Boys and Girls Ranch ask for is heartbreaking. None of my kids ever ask for tide for Christmas, but those kids did. And we can do something that will help mend that heart. Can we pray?

Father, we thank you this morning. We just stop. We direct our heart, our mind, our affections towards you. And we say, we are grateful. So very grateful to you because you have been faithful to us and so so generous. And so, Lord, together as a church family, we take on this opportunity with great joy to take what is in our hands and use it to bless you, use it to expand the preaching of the gospel and use it to bless these children and these families that are in very difficult circumstances right now. Lord, I thank you that you open up our hearts to them the same way your heart is already open, and you cause us to do something that will cause great gratitude to abound to your name in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen, church, host team, help them.

A Year of Transition

There’s a video testimony for you guys. If you don’t know, this has been a year of transition for me and Jordan, but also for our church as a whole. In September, we were promoted to lead pastors, and that was a tremendously big life event for the church and for the church family. And really, when we first told the church, we had no idea how people would react. Would people leave? Would people cry? Would people boo? Would people write angry emails? I a couple weeks ago I had a lunch with a local pastor, and he told me when he took over, he said the entire church decided to just stop tithing. So, like, we don’t know. We don’t know what’s gonna happen.

But uh for us, we’ve been absolutely blown away at how supportive and patient and generous and full of faith the church family was. We have always believed that God would bring the right people into our lives at the right time to get us to the right place. And that’s exactly what the church family was for us when we were entering into this new season. We believe that God’s grace comes in lots of different forms, and sometimes God’s grace wears shoes and walks into the room because God’s grace takes the form of a person. And so we recognize that in this season of stepping out in faith, God showed us grace by bringing people alongside us to encourage us and to partner with us.

Now I remember the night that we announced the transition, we got home and like we weren’t too sure what to think. And I opened my phone and I had a text from this amazing lady at the church, and she said, You two were handpicked to lead the church. And yeah, I just held on to that. And at those times when my mind was going crazy, and I’m thinking, man, what are we doing? This isn’t gonna work. And the devil’s saying, like, you’re fake and you’re unqualified. I built myself up with those words, man. We are handpicked. We are handpicked. And so, church family, we want to say that we’re grateful for you.

You know, there’s a million different ways that a transition like this could go belly up. But we were determined to not let that happen. And thanks to your character, thanks to your patience, thanks to your commitment, not to a person, but to God. Here we are on the other side of the transition, and we’re not weaker, but we’re actually stronger than we were before. And so listen to me, church. We’re just getting started. There’s far better things ahead than any we leave behind. And so we celebrate where we came from, and we stay rooted in the past, all the while believing that God has greater things in store for us. It’s not about us, it’s about the gospel and this city. And we wouldn’t want to do it without you, and we couldn’t do it without you. So what are Jordan and I thankful for in 2024? Well, one thing is we’re thankful for our church family that showed God’s love to its pastors. And we love you, and we’re thankful for you. Yeah.

Testimonies of Gratitude

Good morning, church family. What a great uh testimony, pastors. God’s good all the time. Good to see you today. And uh we’re gonna in just a few minutes, we’re gonna allow you to begin to stream uh down to the front. Take the mic for a few uh few minutes. We want to always ask that if you’re one of those that takes the time to share today that you just keep it concise, as concise as uh you can, and um that leaves time for everybody else within the given time. We do have a time limit, of course, on service, so within that given time, we get to hear from as as many as we uh as we can. So, Pastor David will have a microphone on this side. I’ll have the microphone on this side. We’ll ask you to come down these aisles and make yourself ready so that uh we we don’t have a lot of dead time in between testimony after testimony.

Can I start though? September the uh 28th, the day before. We had the great uh transition service on Sunday. It was like three between three and four a.m. on Saturday. Yeah, it was Saturday. Did I say Sunday? Saturday, the day before the Sunday service. Um we were awakened with a sound in our bedroom that we had in our house that we’d never been awakened by, never heard before. We have a small intercom speaker uh on our north wall in our bedroom. It’s about six feet from where I am uh in our bed in my bed, and it began to squeal. And uh I would say about a volume nine, a volume ten, we were all sound asleep, and it just of course it just interrupts my good sleep. And I I worked to get out of bed, and I’m thinking, what in the world is this? What is going on? So I managed to get over to the north wall and uh locate the volume button. It’s still dark in our room, and I turn it all the way down, it’s still screeching in the kitchen where the main main unit is. It’s a real simple intercom system when the house was built. It was meant to just save us some space, save us time yelling at one another from one end of the house to the next. We could just press the enter count. We’d hardly ever use it. I’m not sure we have ever used it. Also connected to a uh an electronic magnetic lock to our little small courtyard area to where we could, you know, kind of assess who wants to come in. They could buzz us, we could determine if they come in or not. Anyway, again, as far as we know, that lock has been broken for over 12 years. So we’ve never used this thing, but this thing is going off. So I turn it off. I stumble still to the kitchen. I managed to put some clothes on, get to the kitchen to turn the volume on the other down.

Gordon and Mary Eden are good friends who now live in Buckeye, Arizona, have come in for the event, and they’re staying in our house for the weekend. So they’re in the middle bedroom, and I’m nobody else is awake. Cindy’s waking up to, I get that down, and when I get to that speaker, I I smell uh what I I just thought was an electronic uh fire, electric fire. And you know, if you’ve ever been around an electric fire, how it differs from a fo just a wood fire. There’s no smoke in the house. No fire alarms were going off. Just those speakers. So I turn the corner, the bathroom, guest bathroom, which is adjoining to Gordon and Mary’s bedroom where they’re asleep. I walk into that bathroom and I look up and the exhaust fan is on fire. And the white grill that covers the exhaust fan is melting onto the toilet, onto the bathtub, onto the floor. There’s a hole in the shower curtain. It’s already burned a hole through it, but it didn’t spread. So I’m looking up and I can see that orange glow. And I’m I’m at perfect peace. Just perfect peace. And I I just think, okay, what do I do next? And I said, where is the fire extinguisher? I hadn’t known where that was until about eight weeks prior when I finally cleaned out the garage. We only had one in the house, one in the property, and I wouldn’t have known where it was except I cleaned out the garage eight weeks earlier. I knew exactly where it was. So I went and I grabbed it, and get this. Okay, I’m 70 years old and have never fired one. I have never used, had any use to fire a fire extinguisher. So I I pull the pin, I point it upwards, I pull the trigger on it. It blows out whatever that substance is, and it looks like I got it. And so I do it again just for you know good measure. Now the little bathroom’s filled with this stuff, but it looks like I got it. So I put it down, and I think, okay, what do I want to do next? I’m thinking, I’m just gonna start cleaning up. So I’m down on my knees. Cindy’s come in, she says, What’s happened? I show her what’s happening, and start cleaning up, and while I’m cleaning up the floor and what’s again, what else, wherever else it is, I hear this pop, and I look up and the fire has reignited. So I grab the fire extinguisher again, I pull it up, I point it, I pull the trigger, nothing happens. There’s no pressure left in it. I am still experiencing this amazing peace and soundness of mind. Can somebody thank God with me for that today?

Cindy says, Well, what are we gonna do? I said, Well, we’re gonna call the fire department. So they call we they called the fire department, her and Mary. By then, Gordon and Mary are up and they’re wondering what what is going on, and here it is, and here’s our situation. And so Gordon’s saying, Do you have any water? I said, I can’t I don’t have water hose to reach this. So uh we’re waiting on the fire department to get there. They’re coming, they’re using an old GPS that doesn’t know how to get from over this side of the arroy to our side. So Cindy’s having to give them directions. We’re waving at them across the arroy. They make it, they’re beautiful people, wonderful people. They just had bad maps or bad GPS. So they get there. I mean, it’s again, it’s early morning, fire trucks, lights, no siren. Thank God they turn that off. But lights everywhere, the ladder truck checks the roof. They come into the house, they say, What’s going on? I said, It’s right here. He walks in, the fire fire marshal walks in. He’s looking the wrong direction. He’s looking here and he’s shooting with his heat device, and it shows everything’s okay. So he’s coming out of the bathroom saying, Everything’s okay. And I said, It’s not okay. I said, Turn this way, look this way. He walks to the other side of the bathroom and he looks up, uses that instrument to measure the heat, and he knows there’s fire. And so they get to work, and I am just thankful still that they didn’t just go in and start ripping things apart and blowing things up with water. They came in there, they took care of it. In fact, they only opened an area 30 by 27. And took took out the burning insulation, put a little water on it, he said, and then they waited to make sure nothing else would happen. They were checking wiring for us and the like. And finally, about an hour and a half later, I think they called it an all-clear. We talked a little bit more. We thanked them. Thank God for them. And then uh we’ve got a party that night we’ve got to get ready for. So again, we’re just now, we’re just trying to absorb what just happened. First time we’ve ever had a structure fire.

And um I call a friend who’s an electrician, he’s been a member of our church for years and years and years. I give him a call and I say, Can you just come and put your eyes on this and just make sure everything’s safe? We’ve got a party tonight. If you don’t have time, I understand. But please, if you have any time, can you just stop by and see if you can help? So a little time passes, seems like forever, but it’s a small amount of time. I get a text back from him. He’s coming. He comes, listen to this. He comes to talk about grace with legs, grace with feet. He comes, he looks at our the burned area, determines that all of it is bad, needs to be replaced. We can’t do anything with that area. Well, he goes out, he says, I’ll be back in a few minutes. Guess what he did? He went out, he bought what was necessary. He came and he replaced everything that afternoon, including the exhaust fan. And Gordon got up later, just put garbage bags, good use for garbage bags, garbage bags around the hole, taped it to keep everything away. And so that’s taken care of. And we’re just rejoicing. We can now fully turn our attention to welcoming guests into our house that night and getting ready for a great celebration.

But it didn’t end there. It took a little a week or so. We had some traveling to do. We got back. We needed repair done, obviously. Dana came out, Dana Iford right here. Grace with feet. Full-bodied grace. I said same thing to him. Can you come and look at the repair of the sheetrock? Which he’s an expert at, a real expert at matching texture. And he’s done some repair for us in the past. He came out, he looked at it, he says, I don’t think I can do everything, but this is what needs to be done. And I asked him what repairs needed to be done before he could do his work. And so I was able to actually get up and do those repairs. He was he came back a little bit later. He put the uh finishing touches on the sheet rock. Six weeks later, 42 days, you can’t tell there was a fire in our house. And guess how much it cost? Because he won’t take my money, and Steve still won’t take my money. It cost a little less than a hundred dollars to repair all of that that needed repairing. God clearly, you know, again, we had fire alarms that never went off in the house because there was no smoke. It was contained from the ceiling to the roof. So, I mean, there was one six feet across the hall, and it didn’t go off. The only thing that went off was an intercom system that was not wired to be a smoke alarm of any kind. I believe in miracles. God could have put his. Here’s the thing, and I, and I’m dying. But you know, if if somehow though that intercom system shorted out and it went off, let me tell you this. It’s working. That would have damaged the system. It’s working the way it worked before. It’s not opening the gate. It didn’t do that for 12 years. But we’ve still got AMFM radio. We still have the ability to talk room to room, one end of the house to the other. My only explanation was that there are ministering spirits sent. They have a command to take care of all of us. And that night that alarm went off and woke us up. And we’re okay, and the house is okay, and it costs less than a hundred dollars to fix. And I am just ready to shout. Thank God for his listen, thank God for his presence. Right? His presence, his protection, and his provision. Say them out loud with me. His presence, his protection, and his provision. God is good all the time. Amen. All right. David, did you take your we’re ready to hear from you this morning? I just didn’t want to, I didn’t want to take a lot of time, but I I wanted to go ahead and share this with you this morning to get things started. David shared some things by video, other we shared in song. So we were ready to hear from you this morning. So again, as you know, you’re ready in your heart, go ahead and step up to an aisle here, and then we’ll take you one by one. We’ll alternate if that’s the case. Okay?

Can I say one thing? Hey, the problem with uh starting with two preachers with testimonies is we’re giving you guys the impression that the testimonies are supposed to be as long. If they they could be short. If you got 30 seconds, it’s fantastic. You ain’t got any time to fill. There’s plenty of things. I said a really bad example. And so did I. So yeah, it was fantastic. That’s right. Okay. Good morning, everybody. Um, so I’ll keep it short and sweet. But um almost exactly a year ago, I came into this church um as somebody that was broken, praying for death, um, not wanting to live anymore, drug addiction had taken over my life. And almost a year to uh just in a couple days, I’ll be free of the chains that bound me. And all glory be to God. Uh I have my life back. I have all of you, and without all of you, I wouldn’t be able to walk in my path with Jesus. This church is my life, and I’m just so grateful to be here. Thank you.

Um, I’m Nicole, and um, so for the first eight years of my life, I was in a very abusive situation with my biological father. And it last it led me to be diagnosed with PTSD when I was only nine years old. And um starting this year, I have had nights where I have not had nightmares. I have had nights where I have gone just and had a full nightmare-free night, which is really huge because when I was little, I would have up to six nightmares a night. Um, I can go by streets where I used to have panic attacks and feel very free. And ever since I started going to this church, I’ve had people in community that have led me and prayed with me and talked me through some of my panic attacks, talk me through some of my night. There are people that pray for me every night, and I am just so thankful for everybody and every person that’s been here for me. Thank you, so sweet. Really good.

Hi, everybody. I’m Inga or Ingrid. I’m gonna read mine. I hope it won’t take as long as no just kidding. Please don’t touch this on the side. I can that actually minister to me. So I’m thankful for Jesus, this amazing church, and the pastors and the worship team and all the members of this church. First of all, um, this January, my family faced an unexpected shocking and surprising difficulty with one of my family members’ held. And I was so thankful that I could just get a hold of our pastors immediately to pray for me and my family and for healing, but for guidance for the medical teams involved and for comfort from the Holy Spirit. I’m standing here today to say that I know Jesus, the prayers of our pastors and members of this church have helped my family this year in so many ways, and that my family member is doing well with the treatment they’re getting and also has drawn so much closer to Jesus, which is another answer to prayer. So thank you. Thank you. Who wants to do the honors.

Hi. Um, so this is my family. And um last Christmas, yeah, last Christmas, um, my mother uh was really ill, and um she had to go to the hospital, and she was in the hospital for two months, so she didn’t come back until like February of the following year. And um, well, um, it was the first time that I had to pretty much take care of everything. Um I take care of my sister, we both take care of her, we’re her caregivers, and um well, anyways, it was just um uh a lot that we had to uh deal with, and um you want to say something, mom? Yes, definitely. Um I am so grateful because I was in a position where I’ve never thought I would ever be. Um because I’m the mother who takes care of her children, and there’s no other way around it. So for me to feel so frail and so depleted of energy, and to feel that they wanted to take me to the hospital because I was in terror. I didn’t, I was not eating, I wasn’t even able to pray. I was so different, and I was trying to explain what was happening to me. Uh, and I was able with the with Jesus and the prayers of pastors, Pastor Shirley, um, Pastor Cindy. We were able, they were able, they didn’t know how to disclose to me that I needed to be in the hospital. So they contacted a friend, a Christian friend that I met here in Believer Center to make it happen that I would go to the hospital voluntarily that wouldn’t have happened. That was challenging for me. Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I want to say something. Um, but um, okay, okay, okay. Um, to make it a story short, she’s a miracle, and God helped us to take care of her and all the other things while she was in the hospital, so it’s it’s a miracle, yeah. We can do other things. And the last thing I want to say is that believer center, this is a place of miracles. This is a place of healing. Just put your faith in the healing that comes from Jesus Christ, and there’s no way. There’s no way that healing will not take place. Wow. Who is this good looking young lady? This is my sister, Holly. His much older sister, he always says. Even if they don’t know they’re they’re bringing healing. And um both of my daughters received um life-saving medical care, really. I’m thankful for the time that we live in, for the medicines we have. Um I’m thankful that we were born in this time, in this place. Um, I’m thankful for my dad’s health. He had a medical thing this year too, and that he’s here right now. We weren’t sure um if he was gonna be okay, and he is, and um so I’m sorry to cry, but I’m just thankful for everything in my life, um, my family, this place, and um all of you, and that’s all.

Hi, I’m Daria Butenko. Uh, I don’t think any of you know me. I’m sorry for my English if it’s bad because I’m not native English speaker. Uh I’m here first time. I’m from Ukraine. I’m from Donetsk region of Ukraine, uh, where war said it uh in 2014. First of all, of course, I’m grateful to be here uh as soon as I’m displaced by the word person. But uh this certain week, this time, I’m really grateful uh for Mora family uh because they took me for this week to leave. I don’t have anybody in uh United States of America, and I needed to leave somewhere this week. And I’m really grateful that I have a place to be, and I’m really grateful for people who here in this world ready to help and ready to support us. Thank you so much. So sweet. Wow, Ukraine. I’m thankful. I want to praise the Lord for his goodness and kindness and healing. About a year and a half ago, I had my first colonoscopy at 67, and they found can uh rectal cancer. Uh I had to have surgery, radiation, chemotherapy. But I praise the Lord that uh I’ve been cancer-free for a year. Sweet Sarah.

I want to give thanks to God today. I um here a while back, uh, we went through a lot of things, me and Shinee, and I had my house to flood three times with uh uh feces in it. It was really bad. We cleaned that up, and it happened again. We cleaned it up, and by this time I had a son that came down from uh San Diego. So he runs over and he says, I’m gonna help you guys to clean up. Well, when he got in the house, he says, Mom, you can’t mess with this. You need to get out because you can get sick. So I took his advice. Um, I got out of the house and everything, and we called some people out, and they came out and they cleaned up the house. So I suffered with uh with the house for seven years trying to get the mold out and trying to get people to fix it. So finally we got that done, and then um I had um I had three children and I have lost two. I had two grandkids, and I have lost one. And you know, I looked up and I said, Lord, what do I do? You know, it’s hard when you go through things, and me and Sinee were so close that I just thought I couldn’t make it. But you know, the Lord uh spoke to me and says, Um, you got to go on. Think about the good things that’s happened in your life, and I began to think about the good things, how God, where he had brought me from. You know that song that sings how faithful God is. You know, he was faithful to me from the time I was born all the way up until I am now. And I can’t, I just can’t thank him enough. Hallelujah. My heart is just full of joy, and you know, I look back and think about what a good woman Sinee was. That’s a lot to be thankful for. She never drank, she never dated. She never did anything but go to Bible studies. And whenever she was that wasn’t at home, she’d call and say, Mom, I’ll be late. She’d call me mama. I’ll be late because I’m at a Bible study. You want me to pick you up so you can come. So we would go there, and you know, she was just a wonderful person. And she never gave me any trouble, you know. But I just thank God today. I couldn’t sit back there and just not tell the people what a good uh uh woman she was, and the things that I went through in my life. I cooked a Christmas dinner on hot plates because my kitchen was messed up. So you know, uh God has brought me through all these things, and I am truly thankful this morning, and I love the people in this church. If it hadn’t been for you guys holding me up, calling me, all coming and just give me a hug and tell me I’m sorry about your granddaughter. That just means so much to me. So, you know, this morning my heart is bubbling over with joy, and I just thank God this morning, and that’s all I can do is give him my praise, my honor, hallelujah, his glory, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. That’s one of my heroes right there walking away. Okay.

Um, I’m just so grateful for so many things. And one thing that happened this year that was like a big thing for me was my whole life I’ve dealt with back pain in one way or another. It’s um been like chronic. Like I don’t remember it ever being different. Um and so this year I decided to go to physical therapy, and um in March I had a functional capacity um evaluation. Um and I scored apparently in the late 40s for what they called a disability scale. Um and I was like in constant pain, and um it wasn’t uncommon that I couldn’t stand long or walk for four places or feel really painful, so um around two months in I went in for another um evaluation after working with a physical therapist for a while, and I was somewhere around 25% then, so it was improving. Um felt like things were changing, but then just a month later I wasn’t able to keep going. So um I put it all on pause, and during that break I was supposed to keep working on it, but I didn’t. So it like felt like everything like went back to how it was, and I was gonna have to keep fighting to keep it that way and like keep on it and stuff. Um but uh during that time it wasn’t uncommon that I would like just have a hard time holding myself up. I would have a hard time breathing because it was like difficult and I’d be hunched over, and my sciatic nerve had been pinched like nonstop, which was super painful and made it hard to sleep. Um and my neck was really hurting. Um, and it made it to where I just felt sick. Um, but finally I was able to schedule another appointment to return um on October 9th. But October 8th, God decided to do something special. Um, I was in a youth service and I was stretching out my hands, praying for the students. And I was just in pain, so I was like, I’m sitting down. I can’t do this anymore. But my sister-in-law came over and she was encouraging me to treat this prayer like a battle, and when we’re in a battle, we stand. And so I’m like, all right, I’m just gonna pray that God would help give me strength to be able to stand. But he answered that in a way that I was not expecting. Um and so she started uh coming over to me and telling me that she believed that God was um telling me that I was going to be healed fully of all of my back pain and the shoulder pain, the neck pain, the pain that was going down my legs and stuff, and um she started praying for me, and I was having a hard time believing it at first. Uh but then my spine started feeling stiffer and stronger, and God just answered it in a way that I really was not expecting. Um so that next day I went in for the physical therapy appointment and they did another evaluation. Uh and remind you, before I had been in so much pain that it was like hard to do anything. But I went in and they did the evaluation, and I scored a six percent on that. And the man, the man didn’t even believe. He the man doing the evaluation couldn’t even believe. He was like, you had to have been doing your physical therapy exercises, there’s just no way. But I literally had not been, so it just was awesome to see how God just healed me and how now I can sit comfortably and walk comfortably and do things normally, and it’s just awesome. So thank you. Wow. What’s your name?

Hi, everybody, so my name’s Aveah. I just got out of an abusive relationship. Um, so hopefully you all can be part of my my healing journey. But I really want to give thanks to my dad because he’s been there no matter what. So I love you, Dad. But hopefully, you guys could be part of my healing journey that starts today. So thank you. We will be. We will be. Happy to be. Um yeah, so uh hi, my name’s James. I actually was back on camera one. Uh, but I really felt that the Lord had um wanted me to come and share what I think is actually a very different testimony. Um, so as many of you know, I work at a charter school, and I’ve been there for this is my uh seventh year, and I work in leadership and I have for a long time. And last year I was a school leader, so effectively I was a principal over uh all of secondary at one of our campuses, and we got a lot of our data back, and I was actually asked to shift from that position, a position I really loved, and to step into like a very different department. And it was hard, right? Like I I could tell the Lord was like saying that this was the right thing to do, but it was stepping from something that I had like a huge love for, and I knew how it was impacting kids into something that was was uncertain, and so as I have stepped from that into um a math director role over all of grades seven through twelve across both campuses, it it’s come to my realization that the reason that the Lord has allowed me to do that is that now I have a foot in both campuses, and so that I have authority now, not on one campus, but on two, and I found my way that through the different interventions, the different things we’re doing, I’m actually working with kids grades three through twelve. And so that the Lord has actually shifted me in a place where I now have directly impact the lives of more kids, and I can pray for and intercede for kids who I didn’t know before. And I I realized that in this season where everything is so easily seen and easily measured, metrics is a fantastic word of the day, is that it’s so hard to understand what a promotion is when it doesn’t go laterally up. But I want to say that like it’s super important to consider how God is positioning you. Like I think that the testimony that you should be hearing from everybody today is that God has called people into your life for a specific time and a specific purpose, and He’s called you to do something, and just be willing and obedient. That’s all.

Hi, good morning. My name is Arisel, and about like six or seven months ago, my boyfriend and I broke up of five years. Um it’s been a good journey. I learned a lot about myself. Um, but I was at the lowest point of my life, and I felt like since he was a big part of my life, I thought I lost everything, like my will to live, and I was just going through it. So I was telling Constanza about it, and she was telling me, or she invited me to go to uh church youth on Tuesday, and um I went on Tuesday, and I feel like God entered my life, and mentally I just felt like um at peace with everything that happened. Um I just want to say thank you, Constanza, for doing that to me. Um, we weren’t really close as friends until I started coming to church more often. Um I just want to say thank you for the community for also helping me through my journey. Um that’s all I can really say. Thank you so much.

Hi, so my name is Vanessa. Um, my family has been experiencing some hard times the past month, like really bad. Um just a lot of negative things had happened to us in my life, and that I found you know, prayer. Um, we actually have I have of my son’s friend, which I call him my son too. Um he brought us to this church, so this is my third Sunday coming, and it’s been good because I feel like God’s mercy and his blessings have helped us see the light. Get back out in the right path. Um, we were tired of having nothing but bad misfortune happened to us, and that we finally turned our hearts to him, realizing that the bad times in life needed to happen in order for us to see God’s love, mercy and bless things that happen a gift to us, um, but also to those people that walked into our lives and showed us this church. Um, I also always felt that I was alone, but I had started seeing God everywhere. Um, little signs. Um, you know, God is everywhere, he gives us signs, and it’s just proof for his love that he does not leave us alone and he’s always gonna be with us.

My name’s Jonathan. Uh about this past year I really struggled with uh alcohol. Um I’ve become a slave to the bottle, and you know, you really can’t serve two masters. Um but I’ve now you know gained peace that surpasses all understanding, you know. I’m approaching five months over. And uh just thankful, you know, I’m thankful to God, I’m thankful to people that that support and give out their wisdom and make it easier for me on my journey. So thank you.

Well, good morning. My name is Seth Cook. I wasn’t planning on coming down here, but hearing other people talk about their things got me thinking about mine. And let’s see, where do I start with this? So, about a little over a year ago, I I don’t know, something happened. It wasn’t that big a deal, but I entered into a depressive period that has only gotten worse with time, where I’m believing that something I’ve done has messed with where my future is heading regarding what God has in store for me, because I I don’t know, I’ve prayed about it, and the way things are looking right now don’t align with what I think they should be. But I I’m thankful today for the pastors at this church and the way God uh has helped me through them. Because I don’t know, for one, David, he did a series um you are still strong, and that one was a big help to me and where I was in my head, and even besides that, just about every message I’ve heard since things got really bad, have been building me up and helping me with getting grasp back on where I’m supposed to be. And Javi back here said something about uh in one of his messages about making uh plans with God and scheduling time to be with him. So recently I’ve been trying to talk with him every day, which hasn’t been perfect. I’ve it it was for a little while, and it has been getting better. Yeah, I I’ve been getting closer to God and more happy with where I am and more solid on where my future is going. So thank you to David, thank you to Javi, thank you to Jordan, to everyone here who has helped me through their I mean indirectly through their words and advice, and thank you. That’s all I have to say. Okay.

Hi, my name is Elizabeth. That is my son. Um, I just I’m thankful for where he’s at. I just wanna um encourage anyone who’s going through chronic illnesses. Um in sixth grade, I originally was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but they didn’t do MRIs back then. Um I’m old. Um so when he was probably in second grade, he’s 22 right now, I was re-diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Um went through periods of time where even my husband and my kids had to help me get my pants on, off. I could not get my leg into a car. I had to lift it up to pull it into the car with me. I could not walk. I used a cane. Um, I tried every MS medication there was known at that time, even chemotherapy, which I was allergic to, so I would have to leave my family for three days, go into the hospital, get the chemotherapy with epinephrine, you know, taped to the wall. Um, and it was a three-day process to make sure I didn’t rebound from the anaphylactic shock. Um I have been diagnosed with five autoimmune diseases recently, one of those last year, which is not with my nice little pale Caucasian face gets. It’s usually what they call silk silk row. Um, it’s very rare. One in a hundred and seventy-five thousand people get diagnosed with it. Hi, but I still thank God because I’m still walking, I’m still moving. Um, I was diagnosed after um all the going to the hospital DMS with stage three breast cancer. As of October thirty thirtieth, I am 10 years free of stage three breast cancer. I could not even finish all um the treatment because I was anaphylactically allergic to the chemotherapy and um the other stage of treatment. I only did six out of the 12, and I had a doctor that was so negative that was like, Well, that’s not gonna quantify um you being free of cancer. And so I left him because I’m like, you’re not gonna speak negatively over my life. And even when I went in to have the surgery um for the cancer, I had an anesthesiologist telling me, well, you know, this is a rough surgery. You’re gonna relapse with your MS. I said, but I’m not. She goes, no, no, you don’t understand me. You can relapse. It’s it’s really gonna be rough on your body. I said, but I won’t. She goes, you’re not understanding me. I said, no, you’re under not understanding me. Before I go under, you need to be in agreement with me that I will not relapse. And I literally was in a 10-hour surgery and was up at 6 a.m. the next day and said, I want to go home. And they said, Well, you need to stay 24 hours. I said, No, I want to go home. And I went home. And here I am with all these things. So anybody who is facing chronic illness, just keep your eyes on God. Don’t give up. Um, when when you feel overwhelmed, and trust me, there’s been times where I was mad at God. I’m like, really, God, you gave, you know, I have MS. Now I get breast cancer. What the heck? You know, can I catch a break? And but God has been faithful to me each and every time, and he will never fail me. So I just want to encourage anybody who keeps getting the diagnosis and keeps getting the waves coming over them. Don’t give up. Keep looking up. Thank you. Yeah.

And we’re gonna make these uh two, the last two. If you snoozed, you losed. Love you. Uh hi everybody. My name is Taylor. And um uh first of all, I gotta say I’m grateful for Jehovah God and Jesus. Um I grew up fast and furious, I’ve done so many things, um, but I’ve always stayed true to Jesus. And he, as my wife says, Boy, God has his hand on you. Because all the things that I’ve gone through, um, I couldn’t have done it without him. I’m grateful for the Believers Center because um in seventh or eighth grade, my daughter Ariana came to us and said, I don’t believe in God. I am an atheist, it’s science, um, I don’t want to do it anymore. And we were heartbroken. Um, a year later, she met a boy who was coming to this church, and because of Javi, directly praise him because um my daughter is now a Jesus freak. She is she loves God, she loves God so much, she preaches to us. You guys gotta get right with God. And the best thing about it is I’m grateful uh to God because I know now she’s gonna raise her kids in the way of God. And I’m grateful to all of you for that. So thank you. God bless.

So uh, for all you guys who don’t know me, besides being the camera guy, my name is Kiazi Romero. Um, I’ve been attending this church for about two years, and um I just remember when obviously two years ago, when I was looking for a church, I was nervous. Um as most of you know a little bit of my testimony. I grew up in church. Church is all I ever known. And so trying to find a uh I guess a small community but with big ambition was kind of nerve-wracking. And this church was totally fulfilled that. I love that everyone knows each other, everyone’s checking on each other, and um I’m I’m gonna get a little emotional, like Hoppy says, when you get 30, you just get emotional. And I’m it’s like you’re 20, you’re a tough guy, and now you’re just like, oh my god, you know, but it’s just the grace of God just working on you, you know. And I just I thank you all, and um I know he has more goals for me this year, and uh, we’re gonna finish strong. And I just like I said, I just want to thank you all, and I love you all guys. Beautiful. He’s quite the barber. If you’re ever wondering who does David’s hair, it’d be Kyosi.

Uh well, man, you know, we we know we could do this for hours and hours, but we uh the reason that we do this, and I just want to share real quick and then we’ll get on to the next part is uh as I’ve taught, uh expressing gratitude to God doesn’t just build your faith, it builds the faith of those that are around you. And so, you know, I I don’t know if you think about this, but this coming uh Thursday, a lot of you will be with family, some of you will be with friends. Um maybe even just a phone call, whatever. But I I I want to say this that I think it’s an appropriate time to go into Thursday, whatever that would look like for you. Maybe it’s watching football or a parade, eating food, eating pie. Uh, one thing that we want to challenge you to do is to deliberately in some way express your gratitude to God in front of other people. As you probably you go to go to a family, you’re not always sure exactly what you can do to help. And one thing that you can do is to be grateful to God in front of them.

We actually see this in the life of Jesus that when he goes and uh he’s about to raise his best friend Lazarus from the dead. Uh he the first thing he does is he gives thanks to God. And then he says this he says, I thank you that you hear me. And then he says, But I know that you always hear me, but I’m just saying it so that the people around me will believe. Jesus says that. And so that’s something that you can do too. So whatever you got going this uh this week, just want to encourage you. Try in whatever way you can, small ways, maybe it’s a text, maybe it’s a phone call, maybe it’s uh before you eat, you could say a prayer, but just deliberately spend a minute expressing gratitude because God has been good to all of us. And we want to say how grateful we are to you as a church. Man, this church is uh for me, it’s it’s God and my family and this church. This this church has been the place where I’ve lived my life and I’ve grown. I want to say how grateful we are uh for all of you, all your faith that you have uh and continue to bring uh into this church. And so, man, we love you so much. We believe uh God’s best for you. We believe that this week is gonna be fantastic. We come against the spirit of fighting over politics in the name of Jesus. Uh just love you so much.

We’ve got some uh video announcements, and then we are gonna get back into worship just for one final song, uh, and then you guys will be dismissed. Sure do love you. God bless our way of being a blessing to those in need in our community and so this year there’s 61 tags on the tree and this is gonna be helping PCA families for the one the Albuquerque Christian children’s home and the NM Boys and girls ranches so all you gotta do is after service head out to the foyer pick up a tag and you can bring your gifts back by December 10th we hope you consider being a part of our Christmas outreach this year and our next announcement is there is no service this Tuesday spend a little extra time with your family spend a little time getting ready for all that turkey and we will see you here next Sunday all right well that is all the announcements I have for you so why don’t you stand up on your feet and let’s get back into worship come on what a great service we have we’re gonna end it worshiping God this morning come on we’re gonna worship him everything I need my father has he seen good my father has me my father has me everything I need everything I need my father has it my father has me for my father has in my father speakers the kingdom in the treasure. Everything else will be all that I’m needed. Oh, I know the Lord will provide. Yes, he will. I know my God’s not empty. He gives us blessings. Oh that I’ll need it. Oh, I know the Lord will provide. Yes, he will. I know the Lord will provide. Yes, he will. Oh, I know the Lord will provide. Yes, he will. Come on, we just want to thank you so much for being a part of our Thanksgiving service. Giving God some praise and honor this morning. We will see you guys next Sunday. No service Tuesday. You guys are displaced.