I want to talk to you about someone you probably have a hard time liking: yourself.

A lot of people find it easier to have mercy on other people than to forgive themselves. A lot of the time, they struggle with dealing with who they are. But one thing a person must realize before they are able to go where God wants to take them is that they are not an accident.

You are just as precious as everyone else. You are just as important as everyone else. You are just as loved by God as everyone else in the world.

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The past is gone, the future is not here yet, and that’s why right now is called the present. Because it’s a gift. God lives in your now. 2 Corinthians 6:2. 1 Peter 2:10. Genesis 1:27.

Psalms 139:13-14. Jeremiah 29:11. Psalms 100:3. Ephesians 2:10.

A person must realize that they have to live in the NOW. God cannot help a person in their now when all they want to do is live in the past and worry about their future. They are too busy worrying about what they did or didn’t do or worrying about what will happen, and they aren’t existing in their now. A Christian cannot undo their past, but it’s under the blood. A Christian may not know what the future holds, but it’s in God’s hands. The Christian must let go of the past and the worries of the future and enjoy God now.

Be you.

Right now, God wants your life to be a witness to someone. You may not be some famous, old-time preacher or singer, but you are the best you that God could make. A Christian should not want to walk or talk like someone else. They should want to be who God has called them to be. We will never succeed if we are trying to be like someone else. But if a person will be themselves, they can go all the way with God and make a difference in people’s lives.

This is your NOW. What are you going to do with it?

John 6:9. You may look at yourself and wonder what you have to give. People may look at you and think that you don’t have enough to help somebody, but if God put it in your life, it’s enough to make a difference. If God has given a person fish and loaves, they should not try to give others a hamburger or a steak. A person should witness to others with what they have and not try to act like someone else. God has given you enough to make a difference in the lives of those He will put you in contact with. John 6:12. Not only has God given you enough to help those you are reaching for but there will also be leftovers that will touch other people. What you have is enough because you also have God.

Give God your best NOW.

1 Samuel 17:37-39. People will try to put things in your head, telling you that you have to do things a certain way and telling you that what you have (such as testimony, background, or sermon) is not enough. They may tell you that you need to dress it up. Saul wasn’t David, and David wasn’t Saul. God did not call David to be like Saul and put on his armor. He called David to be the best David he could be.

1 Samuel 17:50. When you are in need of more, God will make it available. But He will not add more until you’ve used what you have already. David didn’t need a sword until he knocked Goliath down with the sling. A person cannot use what they wish they had or even what they want. They have to use what God has trusted them with.

God has given you a shout of worship.

Joshua came upon the walls of Jericho and what he had was enough: a march and a shout. The pressures of life and the world long to steal your shout. Go ahead and shout the name of Jesus to let the enemy know you haven’t lost your shout! Hallelujah! Joshua 6:20. I believe there is a place in worship where cancers will fall off and addictions will break.

When the people shouted, the walls fell flat. If you will shout, you won’t have to crawl out of your storm. If you shout, God will flatten out some things and get your obstacles out of your face. Shout and you will walk out of your trials.

You are not a failure, and your best life is not behind you. You’re not a loser and you are not going under. You are the apple of God’s eye. His banner over you is love. God wants you to live in the NOW. He wants you to get up and be happy now. He wants you to walk in victory now. He wants to restore you and help you now.

This is your NOW. What are you going to do with it?

— Pastor Anthony Wynn

There have been many sermons preached on Thanksgiving, and with so many messages, it can be hard to find a different way to approach the topic.

I had been rereading the story of the Pilgrims and reviewing their history, and I had this question: Why were they thankful?

They had no Walmart, cars, air conditioning, no Lowe’s to buy tools at, no electricity, shopping malls, paved roads, cellphones, hospitals, nice homes, refrigerators, and no microwaves. Why were they thankful?

The storms they faced were frightful. There was hardly any food. A lot of settlers became sick, and many didn’t recover. Over half of the company died. When Spring rolled around, the wheat seeds they had brought from Europe wouldn’t grow in the stony soil. When their supplies wore out, their sponsors across the sea refused to replenish them. The first time the Pilgrims sent a shipment of goods to England, it was seized by pirates.

What did they have to be thankful for?

Let me tell you a secret to happiness: gratitude.

If you find a happy person, you have found someone who is thankful. Most people tend to think that being unhappy leads to complaining, when really, it’s complaining that leads to a lack of happiness. With everything that has gone on and is still going on in the world today, sometimes we could bring ourselves to wonder what we have to be thankful for.

Psalms 100:3. Psalms 95:6. John 1:3. God made us. He woke us up this morning and spared our lives. We owe Him some thanks for that.

1 Thessalonians 5:18. When we find ourselves overwhelmed with worries and burdened about tomorrow, we should thank God and should praise Him for who He is and for His promise to never leave nor forsake us.

Hebrews 13:15. Hosea 14:2. Now, Hosea was in the old covenant, and back then a person had to bring offerings dripping blood to the Lord. But Hosea was telling people here that there was coming a day when they wouldn’t have to bring a pigeon or ram. In that day, all that would be needed was the calves of their lips, which is to say, the sacrifice of their praise unto Him.

Leviticus 7:11-12. God is the King of Kings and a person should never come into His presence without an offering. In the old covenant, it had to be a blood sacrifice. But we are in the New Covenant, and under the New Covenant our praise, our thanksgiving, is a sacrifice.

At the time that Jesus overturned the tables at the temple, people were buying animals to sacrifice. Jesus didn’t want people using their money to buy a sacrifice that they never got attached to. Jesus wanted the people to realize that the lamb they were sacrificing had a heartbeat and wanted to have a life. Jesus wanted the people to know that it wasn’t their money that bought the sacrifice, it was the blood of that little lamb.

2,000 years ago, the Lamb of God walked up a hill called Calvary and was wounded for our transgressions, and He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes, we were healed. Hebrews 9:7,12,24. He is our High Priest and the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. There will never again be a need for a natural sacrifice. He deserves our sacrifice.

Colossians 3:15,17. Colossians 4:2. Philippians 4:6. I’ve been really trying to work on this in my prayer life. At times when I come to the Lord with a lost soul to pray for, I like to praise Him when I pray for them and say, “Thank you, Lord, that they are still alive and there’s still hope that they can be saved.”

What do we have to be thankful for?

We should be thankful our sins have been washed away, thankful that we are forgiven. If our heart stops today, we can know that we are on our way to a land where the roses never fade, and no twilight shadows deepen. We will be on our way to a land with no night or darkness. 1 Corinthians 5:17. Romans 8:1. Raise your hands and praise the Lord because your past has been blotted out. You are a new creature in Christ and your past is erased!

Those Pilgrims buried half of their own and suffered for months, but still, they instituted a day of thanks after all of that. How much better are our conditions than theirs? As a whole, let’s kick the devil in the head and give up the complaining attitude. Being unthankful is one step away from being unholy. Complaining is like a garment, and we need to take it off and throw it aside.

We should be thankful that Jesus never changes.

James 1:17. Jesus is the First, the Last, the Beginning, and the End. He changes not, and He’s everywhere. He’s God in Athens, Tennessee, and God in China at the same time. He was, is, and is to come. Revelation 1:8. Isaiah 44:6.

We ought to be thankful that Jesus loves us.

Romans 5:8. Jesus didn’t wait until we got saved or got the Holy Ghost to love us. He loves people even if they have a needle in their arm or a bottle in their hand. We should be thankful that Jesus loves us even in our worst times. Isaiah 53:6.

Let us not wait until Thanksgiving to be thankful. Let’s start today, right now, at this very moment, and give the Lord some gratitude for all He’s done, all He is doing, and all He will do for us. Praise the Lord!!!

Psalms 100:4.

— Pastor Anthony Wynn

2 Peter 1:5-9

This passage of Scripture is not talking about lost people. It’s referring to carnal church people. At one time, there was a passion in these people and a desire to love the Lord, but they let that passion, that burden, slip away and they forgot that they had been purged from their sins.

Most of us are familiar with the term ‘amnesia.’ When a person has amnesia, for a time they will forget things such as their name, where they came from, who they used to be, or what happened to them. Most of the time it is temporary.

If there is natural amnesia, then is there spiritual amnesia?

Can a person be truly born again and have an experience with the Lord, then forget that experience? Apparently, that’s what Peter is saying in the passage of Scripture I listed above.

Forgetting God’s goodness will push you away from church, prayer, and your commitment to the Lord. It creates a spiritual emptiness that the enemy will try to fill with other things.

Our generation is working tirelessly to water down the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The powers of Hell are working overtime to push us toward humanism and make sure we allow anything and everything. Messages are posted everywhere and are being slipped into TV shows, even kid’s cartoons.

We have to remember; God is still God, and the Bible is still right.

Here are a few things we have to be diligent to remember.

Don’t forget you are growing even if it doesn’t seem like it.

If we aren’t careful, we may forget how much we have progressed spiritually in the Lord. Remember that even though it may not look like you are growing, you are. You are growing just by staying in church. You are growing just by keeping the enemy under your feet. Ephesians 4:15. You can’t compare the rate of your growth with someone else’s. Perhaps some people have conquered other things faster than others, but God is working on all of us. If you stay discouraged all the time because you feel like you’re not growing in the Lord, it will take all your peace and victory.

Don’t forget God’s ways.

Proverbs 3:1-2. If we just honor God’s word, He will give us long life and peace. Jeremiah 2:32. Deuteronomy 8:18-19. If we forget God, our life will fall apart in a minute.

I believe that sometimes people forget how rotten they were before God saved them.

They forget where God has brought them from and now that they are in church and doing good, they look down on anyone else that isn’t where they are. If it wasn’t for the grace of God, some of us would be in prison or even a cemetery. I know that if it hadn’t been for the mercy of God, I would have died a long time ago. 2 Peter 2:20-22.

Sometimes, we forget that it’s not just us and the devil.

Sometimes, when the devil is working really hard to destroy us, we can forget that it’s not just us and the devil. There is a great, big God involved in this picture. There is the Eternal Creator that loves us and is walking with us and fighting for us.

You are a child of God. Don’t forget He has great plans for you and your life. Stay in His presence and remember most of all that He loves you more than you could ever imagine!

To watch the sermon click here.

— Pastor Anthony Wynn