Thanksgiving Service 2025

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Sermon Transcription: thanksgiving service

I have a word for you today as we celebrate giving thanks to the Lord for all that he has done. You just heard some of the praise reports that are sent in online as we have our prayer service every Tuesday. A prayer service that truly goes around the world and is, um, people participate from around the world, and we receive prayer requests from absolutely every place that you can imagine. And in a very significant way, our, if you will, cozy and small church is allowed to be a part of such a big network of simply praying to Jesus and seeing the most unlikely situations turned around, sicknesses healed. We've had some here in the house. They were not in the list, but you know who you are. Um, we've seen people that never liked to come to the prayer services. You know, Leonard Ravenhill, whom in some ways I do look up to. He's long gone and with the Lord now, but he always used to say, "If you want to know how popular a church is, you go on Sunday morning. If you want to know how popular the pastor is, you go to the teaching service." In our case, that's on Friday. And if you want to know how popular God is, you go to the prayer meeting.

Now, I'm here to tell you that there's some truth to that statement, but I've never seen God take offense with people that don't like him very much. He has a way of loving them to the place where they should be instead of giving them instructions about how they should be getting there in their own strength. That's always how I've seen him treat me. That's always how I've seen him treat others. And we had somebody that had been struggling with sickness for such a long time, never took the time to come to the prayer meeting, show up to a Sunday service. They didn't pray. They were just healed while they were sitting under the word. And I want to encourage you that the Lord is not looking for you to make some kind of a contribution spiritually speaking to somehow then unlock his willingness to do a miracle in your life or somehow unlock his willingness to do healing in your life. He already has that payment. That payment was provided by Jesus. That payment will always be enough for every single thing the Father desires in our lives. What he invites us to do is to believe that the cross is enough.

Even if I'm going through difficulty, even if I'm doing wrong, in every situation in my life, I'm invited by heaven. I'm challenged to believe that the cross is enough for the Father. He's not looking for my repentance to be something impressive. He's not looking for my prayers to be a certain length. He's not looking for my turning from evil things and starting to do good things to just pile up to heaven where, you know, I've done so much ministry and then God starts to move in a special way. It's not true. It's the cross or it's nothing. And the Lord always invites us to believe that the cross is enough. Here's the title for this Thanksgiving Sunday. We do not lose heart. We do not lose heart. Now, unfortunately, I think that every person in this place has met someone in your life who has lost heart. And as easy as it is to sometimes forget about people, the interaction with that type of person is not easy to forget because when you meet someone that has lost heart, it is very memorable. It's quite impressive.

When you meet someone that has lost heart, you can tell their motivation is gone. You meet someone at the job who has lost heart. They're just doing the bare minimum. They're just punching a ticket. They're just trying to get the job done and get home. There's no motivation anymore. They're not there to build no company. They're not there because they're excited about what they get to do with their day. They have lost their motivation. A person who has lost heart is also often shut down. This is a person that has stopped choosing passion. Often you've heard it said, "I've lost my passion." You can't lose your passion. Passion is something you choose. Passion is not an emotion that happens to you. It's not a feeling that happens to you. Passion is something we can choose. Just like we can choose anger. Anger doesn't happen to you either. Nobody can make you angry. Just let that settle in for a second. You've said it many times, "Oh, you make me angry." No, nobody can make you angry. When I do or fill you the same exact way, you can give me grace. You don't get upset. You choose to not get angry. And when your spouse forgets to be on time or your spouse forgets to turn off the oven or your sp—Oh, you can blow up like that. You choose who you're angry with and when. It's nobody making you angry. We choose to be angry. Passion works the same way.

All the Hispanics in the room, they know they are good at choosing passion. Amen. Now, they can be quiet and they can be timid. They have to choose to do that. But a lot of people are not good at choosing passion. And when a person has lost heart, the way that the Bible speaks of people having heart or losing heart, that is one of the ways that you can see they do not choose passion anymore. Everything begins to mellow out in their life. Everything becomes the same shade and before you know it, they are living, if I can call it that, a black and white TV kind of life. Some of us remember what that's like. I actually had a black and white TV early on in my life. That betrays a little bit what age I am, but I remember what that is like. And a lot of people when they lose heart, life becomes that way. The color is disappearing out of life. The passion is disappearing out of life. And people become shut down in their passion. They become shut down in their excitement. They become shut down in their emotions. They become blend in so many different ways. And ultimately, a person who has lost heart develops feelings of giving up.

Now, if you've lost heart, you're already not living by truth anymore. And when you're already not living by truth anymore, it becomes incredibly difficult to deal with temptation not to start to live by your feelings. We feel like working, so we put our bags into it. We feel like stopping, so we want to go home. We feel like switching relationships, so we dump somebody. We feel like giving up on a friendship, so we just stop interacting and putting effort into our friendship with a person. So easily, when we stop living by truth, the door to start living by our feelings is really nearby. It's really easy to find that door and to justify that somehow I don't have to live by the will of God. I don't have to live by what God wants. I can just live by what my feelings want. I just get to satisfy my feelings. Maybe then the bad feelings go away. If I listen to them and I give them some food to eat, they'll stop and they'll quiet down for a minute, and I get to have some peace. So easily, when we stop living by truth, we begin living by our feelings. Now, a person that has lost heart is especially in the danger zone.

But here's what we are going to learn from the Word today: We do not lose heart. And if you say, "I think maybe I've lost some heart or maybe a lot," today I believe you're going to see very clearly how God wants to restore that unto you today. It's not going to be a process. It's going to be an in-the-moment miracle that the Holy Spirit is so willing to do in our lives. Let me read to you 2 Corinthians 3 verse 14, and we're going to go to verse one of chapter 4, starting in verse 14: "But their minds were blinded. For until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament because the veil is taken away in Christ." Now, before you start saying, "Oh, pastor, I'm a New Testament Christian. Old Testament doesn't matter that much," I want you to understand that the Christians these letters were written to only had the Old Testament. If they said, "Oh, pastor, I don't need the Old Testament today because I'm a Jesus-following Jew or I'm a born-again Gentile, whatever it may be, I don't really need the Old Testament," that would have meant the early church had thrown the Bible straight out because all they had was the Old Testament.

So the Word is not telling us that somehow the New Testament believer of our time is totally in love with the New Testament, but they don't really spend time in the Old Testament. No, here the Word is speaking of the difference between someone that still approaches God the Father through the law and through works versus somebody that is now coming to the Father through Christ Jesus. There's a difference, and here it's exemplified. Let me read to you again, verse 14:

"Their minds were blinded." Would you say minds with me? Believing you can do with your mind. Amen. And you have control over your mind. You say it all the time: "Oh, never mind. I'm not coming. I changed my mind. Hey, I've been waiting for you for two hours. Oh, I changed my mind. I got busy at work. I just got to finish some stuff." You can choose with your mind, and you can change things around that first you had a different opinion about. Now you have a whole new one formed in your mind.

But here it says something very powerful about the mind. Your mind can be blind, unable to see. But their minds were blinded. For until this day, the same veil—that's reading like a curtain—remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament. In other words, when they read the Bible, that's what that would have meant to the early Christian: the veil remains unlifted when they read the Bible, when they read the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ.

So here the Word exemplifies to us that there are people that seek to honor God and do believe in God and believe the Messiah is going to come and believe that you can only be made right before the Father through the Messiah, and yet there are things of unbelief in their life that do not allow them to see something in the Bible that you can only see when you come to Jesus with all of your heart. Because the Word says the veil is taken away. That curtain is taken away in Christ.

Verse 15: "But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lays on their heart." What would they do? Every time they would come together in the synagogue or in the temple, they would read the Ten Commandments that Moses had received. Moses was the first one to break them. If you remember the story, he came down the mountain, threw them down, and broke the Ten Commandments. Amen. He was the first real sinner. Then the Lord gives him new Ten Commandments—the same ones but new tablets—which again tells us this story of God's willingness to redeem and restore and Himself make up the difference where we cannot even keep those commandments. But He gives them those ten. And from that moment on, those ten commands, even though there were many, many more commands, those ten held a very special place. And those ten are good. They exemplify the character of the Father.

As a matter of fact, when the Spirit of God comes to live in your heart, without even trying, you'll start to see that your life begins to line up with those commands without you even trying. You're being changed from glory to glory. And you're being made into a person that, in their actions, in their words, even in their mind, is more and more like the Father. And those Ten Commandments become an encouragement to us because we begin to see, "Wow, God is really changing me. I'm not even trying to keep this stuff to try and be good enough for God. He's doing something so powerful inside of me. Certain things I don't want to do anymore. When I talk to a person a certain way, I kind of feel bad right away and I want to fix it and make up and say sorry. Never used to have that before."

But even to this day, in other words, even though Jesus has already come and died and rose again, there are still people that have something over their heart. When Moses is read, a veil lays on their heart. In other words, when they read the Ten Commandments, all they can see is that they're not good enough. When they read the Ten Commandments, that veil is not taken away in Christ. They still feel guilty. They still feel dirty. They still cannot testify because they still feel shame from the things that they have done wrong or the things that they have wrongly committed. That veil is not taken away yet. Verse 16: Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, that veil, the veil is taken away. Now, the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Now, this is not a liberty that says, "Oh, thank God, no Ten Commandments anymore for me." This is a liberty that when the Spirit of God comes to live inside of you, you are no longer trying to serve God to become good enough for Him to somehow fulfill these Ten Commandments, if I please possibly could, to somehow become a man that maybe the doors of heaven would open when I die. It's a different kind of liberty.

Your life has already been paid for. Your life has already been justified and made righteous before the Father. Now He sends His Spirit to make you walk in such a way that people say, "Hey, I used to know you. You're so changed by now. You're so set free. You're so able to forgive. What has happened to you? What has happened to your life?" It's a liberty where we get to walk away from sin without it still having power over us, without it holding any strength over us. And even when we make poor choices or we fail, we're not guilty again. We're set free to learn to walk in such a way that we can contribute to other people's freedom. We no longer have to try and figure out our own freedom. Jesus worried about that, and He now sends us in liberty into this world to worry about other people's freedom, to worry about the liberty, the freedom, the restoration of others.

Verse 18: But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Therefore, since we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. We do not lose heart. The Word says, since we have this ministry, what ministry? That's the ministry of verse 18. We all—the veil has been taken away. We can see Jesus when we read the Bible. Doesn't matter if you read the Old or the New Testament. We can see Him on almost every single page. We can see Him, and all of a sudden, that Word becomes a mirror in our life, and it shines right back at us, and it's doing a work. It's doing a work in my mind. It's doing a work in my heart, and it is transforming me from glory to glory because the Spirit brings me into that liberty. That's the ministry I'm called to. If you're not sure what ministry is yours, the Word tells you right here. This is your ministry. It's your ministry to just come to Jesus every morning, to talk to Him a bit, to read a bit about what He says about Himself. And He promises, when you look unto Me, what is going to happen to you is a transforming work. And that transforming work is going to cause a lifestyle where you do not lose heart. You're not going to lose your motivation. You're not going to be all depressed and have no purpose in life. You're not going to become shut down, and you're not going to struggle with giving up, because you're not going to lose heart. You have this ministry.

All I do is present myself to the Lord daily. He has my heart. He has my schedule. I give Him my future. I seek to know Him on the pages of this Word. And so many of you know, sometimes one verse is all it takes to mess you up real good. Amen. Amen. In every situation, He invites us to Himself. He invites us to come to Him and just talk to Him. You don't need to know about what. Just come and begin to speak to Him. Take some time to spend with Him. Take some time to look into His Word. And He says, "You're going to have a ministry. You're going to have a full-time ministry. You're going to be changed because people are watching your life. And I'm going to do a transformation in your life that is going to be noticed. I'm going to be setting you free from glory to glory. The Spirit is going to walk you into that freedom that only Christ can reveal and Christ can bring."

See, this biblical word for "not losing heart"—to lose heart, if you look in the original text—means to grow weak, and it means to wear out. And there are so many things that will come at you in this life that will try to make you weak in your love for the Lord, in your love for others, in your ability to love your enemies, in your ability to forgive, as Veronica was testifying about. There's so many things that the enemy and life will try to throw at you in this world to try and weaken your heart, that you may lose heart, that you may give up, that you may wear out. How many of you have been in those seasons where it's just like life is trying to wear you out, and it's trying to grind you down? But the Word tells you and I: we do not lose heart. We have a different ministry. We don't have the ministry of losing heart. We have a ministry that simply says, "All you do is be a vessel. All I'm called to do is present myself to Jesus and to the living Word." And the Spirit changes us from glory to glory. That's my ministry. It's not a set of commands anymore. It's not a set of instructions necessarily anymore. Jesus says, "Give yourself to Me. This is the ministry I'm giving you. I'm going to send My Spirit." He's going to put you on display for all to see. "I'm going to be changing you. That's your ministry. Let the people come to you and ask questions. They'll start to wonder about who treats you this well? Who is your God? How can I get to know Him? Why is He doing these things for you?"

Let me take you to verse 13 of chapter 4: And since we have the same Spirit of faith, according to what is written, 'I believed, and therefore I spoke,' we also believe, and therefore we speak.

Knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace having spread through the many may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Therefore, we do not lose heart. There you have it again: Therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. The Word tells you and I right there in verse 15 that all things are for your sakes. In other words, everything God has ever done is because He is for you. It is for your sake. Everything God has ever done is to make sure that you would have freedom even on this side of eternity. Everything God has ever done is to make sure that you would have hope when you come with your prayer request before Him. Everything God has ever done is to make sure that you would get to know Him and you would know His voice. Everything God has ever written in this Word, He had it put in there so that it would build you up and strengthen you and begin to transform you when the Holy Spirit causes that Word to come alive. And He brings it into your heart from glory to glory, changing you so that you may live out your ministry.

Everything God has ever done is for your sakes. That it may produce what? What does the Word say? That it may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. In other words, my ministry is to be changed by the Holy Spirit. He does the work, but it's my ministry. This is how I serve my generation. But what it produces is a sound of thanksgiving in me and all around me. So that there's a continual sacrifice of praise and worship and adoration being lifted up to heaven for that work the Holy Spirit is doing in my life. Who paid for that work? Jesus. Who gets the glory? Jesus. Who do we worship? Jesus. Who do we sing about? Jesus Christ. It is for thanksgiving's sake that God has done every single thing for your sake because it's your ministry to be changed while everybody's watching, to be brought into freedom while everybody's watching, to be able to forgive, like Veronica spoke about, even though unspeakable sins have been committed against you. Your heart has not grown weak. Your heart has not been worn out.

Something has happened, and you did not lose heart. Instead, a power was found, and people take note of it and say, "I need that kind of strength. I need that kind of power." All of a sudden, thanksgiving rises to heaven.

Verse 16: Therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. Therefore, we do not lose heart. In more simple English, it would say: Because of this, we do not lose heart. Because of what? Because everything God does is for my sake. Everything God has ever done is for me, not against me. It causes thanksgiving. And something happens inside of me that causes me to never lose heart. Something happens inside of me. The Word says, "We're being renewed on the inside day by day." In other words, I may be growing older, and this body is not saved. It's still going to die on this earth. It's still going to be put off. It's still going to pass away. The outward man is perishing, but something is happening inside of me. I'm being renewed day by day. People may do horrible things to me, but Jesus causes something to happen on the inside of me. It's being renewed. It's being healed. It's being restored. And my story is not defined by sin, my own or other people's sin.

I'm being renewed on the inside, and a sound of thanksgiving, a sound of glory, makes its way to heaven because I have a ministry, and it is not to lose heart. It is a ministry that says: I am called to just be changed. All I do is show up and say good morning to the Lord. Read a couple of verses if I'm busy. I try to read some more if I have the time. But I seek Him in the Word. I talk to Him in the morning. And somehow, some way, He allows me to walk out my ministry. I'm being changed. My hurts are being changed into testimonies. My character flaws are being changed into blessings to the people around me. Everything is being changed in my life.

Let me read to you verse 17 and 18: For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but we look at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. I love it when the Word tells me that other things are being put to work by God. I am not as faithful as you like to believe I am. I am not as great as I often think myself I am. I will probably mess up virtually anything God puts in my hands. But the Word tells us in various places that God puts other things to work so that we don't have to do the work. He tells us in Romans 8:28, "All things, all things, situations, hurts, good things, bad things, whatever it may be," He says, "All things work together for the good of those that love Him and are called according to His purpose."

He tells us, "The moment you become my son, the moment you become my daughter, life will be difficult. Persecution may come, but you have a purpose. And for that purpose, everything in your life, I'm going to turn it around. It's going to have to work for the benefit of that purpose. You have a purpose. And I'm putting other things to work for it." Here He tells us again in verse 17: "For our light affliction, the difficulties of life, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." In other words, none of the challenges of this life are going to be wasted when you give your life to Jesus. When you turn to Him with all of your heart, all those afflictions, every challenge and difficulty you will ever face, God puts it to work so that you don't have to do the work. You just get to come to Jesus and present yourself. And the Holy Spirit is tasked to do the work inside of you and change you from glory to glory.

All you do is show up and say, "Lord, I'm here. Good morning, Lord. Lord, would you fill my heart today? Would you teach me something from the Word today, Lord?" And He says, "Okay, I'm going to put My Spirit to work in you. Go ahead about your day. Watch people. Make sure people see you because I'm doing a work in you. I'm changing you. I'm transforming you."

And there come the afflictions, difficulties, hurts, negativity, people saying hurtful stuff, sickness, pain, whatever it may be. And there God, "Oh, well, let me put all of that to work as well." It's all going to work. And it's going to cause glory to increase. It's going to exceedingly increase the weight of the glory that your life is going to bring to Christ Jesus and His name.

Every single difficulty that we go through, every single challenge we face, God immediately puts it to work.

Verse 18: "While we do not look at the things which are seen, but that the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal."

Any pressure that you'll ever go through in life, God always puts it to work to cause more and more glory. And we turn our eyes to Jesus. Now you and I have not physically seen Jesus, but we can see Him with the eyes of our heart. The Word doesn't tell us to look at invisible things if we cannot look at invisible things. It's speaking of the eyes of our heart. We take our natural eyes off of everything that's happening and we turn the eyes of our heart to Christ Jesus. And all of a sudden, when we do it, all of a sudden, when we turn the eyes of the eyes of our heart wholeheartedly to Christ Jesus, wounds begin to turn to testimony. Brokenness begins to turn into a song in our life. Hopelessness begins to turn into a story of forgiveness and redemption.

And people that were defeated, people that had lost heart, develop a song, develop a life that says, "God is doing something inside of me, and I cannot lose heart." And it's not me that has to do it. The Holy Spirit was sent upon my life, and I just take things to prayer, and somehow I leave different out of that place.

I seek for answers in the Word, and when I put it down, my situation seems to have changed, or my heart seems to have changed. And every day there's something the Lord is doing because I actually am called into ministry. I actually have a ministry. And when I present myself to Christ Jesus, I become changed. That's my ministry for all to see: that someone like this can be changed by God, that wounds like these can be changed by God, that pasts like mine can be changed by God, that hurts like yours can be changed by God. That is your ministry, church.

It's not your work. You don't have to be the one to do it. All you do is wholeheartedly come to Jesus and say, "Me too, Jesus. Give me that ministry. I'll show up. I can love on You. I can come and try to read one verse in the morning. I can come to prayer and just talk to You, Lord. I can do those things. Would You give me that ministry where You do all the work? Where everything I ever go through, Lord God, it's all put to work, and I am set free to simply come to You, to simply turn from my unbelief and trust You, to live in joy, to live in peace, to live a life of worship, to live a life free of concern and worry and fear, and to live in the presence of my God for all to see that God is able to change a story like mine."

That's your call, church. If you would stand with me for a moment, I want to read to you verse 16 of chapter 3: Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. If you are in a place today spiritually speaking where you say, "I don't know for sure that every single one of my sins has been paid for and has been washed away." If you don't know for sure, if you are still ashamed to share some of the things you've done wrong in your life, if you still feel guilt for some of the things that you have done, or maybe even things that have been done to you, I'm telling you now, when the veil is taken away in Christ, the Spirit of liberty takes you into a liberty that doesn't leave any room for you to stay shackled up in shame or to stay shackled up in any kind of discouragement. The Holy Spirit wants to bring that freedom to you. He is willing to take away that veil, but it is taken away in Christ. If it's not taken away, that means you still believe that when you do good, God notices it. And when you do bad, God gets upset. If you still believe that, you are invited to turn from your unbelief and to believe in the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross speaks this: the Father only cares about what Jesus has done.

Because of the track record of Jesus, because of the sacrifice of Jesus, because of the obedience of Jesus, anyone that wholeheartedly believes in Him will receive everything that technically Jesus paid for. It's unfair. It's called grace. You don't get what you deserve. You get what Jesus deserved. Even though He got all of your sin and He had to pay the price to fulfill the justice of God. If you say that veil has to be taken off your eyes, I can't fully see Jesus over my own situation or my life, in just a moment I'm going to ask you to come to the front because I would love to pray with you. I also want to read to you chapter 4, verse 13: And since we have the same Spirit of faith, according to what is written, 'I believed, and therefore I spoke,' we also believe, and therefore we speak.

There's some of you here, you've stopped speaking what you believe. Now, we don't try to brainwash ourselves, and we don't try to create our own reality, and all of that stuff is nonsense. We're people of the truth. Amen. But we are not people that obey our feelings. We are not people that speak our feelings. We are people that believe the truth that the Son of God has brought us into, and be what we believe, we speak. And some of you, you're struggling with losing heart. You're struggling with feeling like your faith is growing a little weak, or your effort for the kingdom is growing a little weak, or you're being worn out. Your spouse is wearing you out. Your work, your job is wearing you out. Whatever it may be in your life, you're feeling like you're being worn out, like you're barely holding on to just keep going. Giving up becomes an option.

Have you stopped speaking what you believe? Just like passion, you can choose what you let out of your mouth. And I believe the Spirit is calling us to be a people that speak of thanksgiving. "Lord God, I have so much to give thanks for today. Lord, I'm going to thank You that Jesus paid the price even though I feel bad about myself right now. I thank You that You have made a way for me to be a part of the kingdom. Even though I don't feel worthy at all, Lord, I thank You that You have paid the price for me to receive the promised Holy Spirit. Even though I feel I still got to pray until I'm blue in the face before You will give me the Holy Spirit. I thank You, God, that I don't have to work to somehow be approved by You. Even though my feelings are lying about it, Father, Lord God, I believed, and therefore I spoke. I'm going to be a person of truth."

So I want to challenge you today: if you say, "The Spirit needs to more fully take the veil away off of my eyes. I need to see my own forgiveness, my own healing and restoration, the kind of healing Veronica was speaking of, I don't know it in my heart. I don't know if I could do that."

If that is you, or if you say, "I need to start speaking truth again. I've been complaining. I've been negative. I've been growing weak. I've been feeling like I've been wearing out. I stopped speaking. I believed, and therefore I spoke. We also believe, and therefore speak." And then the Word says afterwards: We do not lose heart. If you want to come to this altar so that I can pray with you, I want to invite you to come forward at this time so that we can pray that the veil may be taken away and we can pray and make a resolve in prayer that says, "Lord, when I show up to spend time with You, when I read Your truth and I believe You, I'm going to let it come out of my mouth. I'm going to let it come out daily. Lord, fill my mouth and let it pour out. Let the truth pour out, Lord God, that I may not lose heart, that I may be a man, a woman that does not grow weary, that does not grow weak, but that can truly testify I'm being renewed day by day. Somehow, God is doing something on the inside. He's renewing stuff day by day. He's changing it. He's causing me to walk in my ministry." If that is your desire, online and in person, I want to pray with you.

-Pastor Stan Mons