 Amen. So keep your place in 1 Samuel chapter 2. We're going to look at the first part of the chapter. We're going to look at a certain prayer here in the Bible, Hanna's prayer specifically tonight. So in this series we're talking about prayer. Now I think that this series is super important as we've seen from the first couple of sermons already. I believe it's important how we pray. I believe it's important the things that we pray for and how we approach the Lord and how we have hearts towards the Lord when we pray. I believe that that is something that will determine how our prayers, how God receives our prayers. And we can see that in the Bible and there's definitely some patterns that we can see with how people pray in the Bible that I hope that you notice. But go back, you're in 1 Samuel chapter 2. There's actually two prayers from Hanna in the Bible. So let's go back to 1 Samuel chapter 1 and just do a little bit of a recap because we're going to see in Hanna's first prayer, we're going to see some patterns that we've already been talking about as she does some things here in her first prayer that kind of reiterate what we've already talked about. Now Hanna, Hanna's a very good prayer. She's very good at prayer. She gives some really smart prayers. She does things in a very good way. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 1 in verse number 5. So look at Hanna has a problem and she's coming to the Lord. Remember the last sermon we're talking about where we need God to intervene for us, a certain prayer where things are going a certain way and we need God to intervene. We need God, we don't like the way things are going to turn out so we're praying to God to change things, to intervene for us. Look at verse number 5 of 1 Samuel chapter 1. This is Hanna's first prayer. But under Hanna he gave a worthy portion for he loved Hanna, but the Lord had shut up her womb. It's talking about this man and his two wives and Hanna was one of these wives and her adversary, the other wife, also provoked her sore. This is why having more than one wife never works out in the Bible. There's a reason God said to not do this because it just never worked out. So this other woman is making fun of her and she could have children and Hanna could not so she was giving her a hard time for her to make her fret because the Lord had shut up her womb. And as he did so year by year when she went up to the house of the Lord so she provoked her, therefore she wept and did not eat. Then said Elkinot, her husband to her, Hanna, why weepest thou, and why eatest thou not, and why is thy heart grieved? Am not I better to thee than ten sons? So she's unable to have children but she happens to be the favorite wife and he's saying why am I not good enough for you and the other wife is just being nasty and making fun of her and just giving her a hard time because she can't have children. You can see like the rivalry here, like one is the favorite, one has the children and they're just like, you know, she's coming at Hanna. Look at verse number nine. So Hanna rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest, after they had drunk, like they drank water, not that they were drunk. Okay, I mean everyone thinks that the word drunk in the Bible means people were drinking alcohol, which is crazy. But anyway, they drank something, whatever they drank. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by the post of the temple of the Lord and she was in bitterness of soul, meaning she was extremely depressed. She was down and prayed unto the Lord in a web source. So now Hanna prays and she says, she vowed a vow and said, oh Lord of hosts, if thou will indeed look upon the infliction of thine handmaid and remember me and not forget thine handmaid but we'll give thy handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life and there shall no razor come upon his head. She's talking about a Nazarite vow and it came to pass when as she continued praying before the Lord that Eli marked her mouth. So Hanna does things here. Hanna does things that we've already talked about. She addresses the Lord properly. First of all, she says, oh Lord of hosts, she addresses, she doesn't say, hey God, you know, she addresses the Lord with respect. We've already talked about this. And then it's super important that we understand this enough to have to review it. It's important that you understand this but she needs God to intervene for us. She's asking God to intervene. So what does she do? She gives cases on how God intervening will affect the kingdom of heaven. See? She doesn't just say, hey God, I want a baby. She says, God, give me a child. She says, oh Lord of hosts, give me a child. Why, how will that, what does God care about? He cares about advancing the kingdom of heaven on earth. And this is Hanna's super smart prayer right here. She goes above and beyond by the way. She doesn't just say, hey my child will serve you. She like vows that she will just give this child to the service of the Lord. But all that to be said, she points out what is in it for the kingdom of heaven to the Lord. In verse number 11, she doesn't just say, give me a child so this woman will stop making fun of me. She addresses how it will help the Lord himself. She says, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life. I mean how is God going to say no to that? She gives a reason that God should answer this prayer. Super smart, super smart lady here. And look, serve him did he. This is Samuel that we're talking about here. This was the last judge that we're talking about here. The last judge before the first king of Israel. So that's the first thing. Look, the first thing that you need to understand is address the Lord properly, but if you're asking for something, explain to God. This is all review. Explain to God how that will help the kingdom of heaven. You say, well, you know, you can't think of a reason. You have something that you want from God and you want to pray from God and you can't think of a reason and you could spin that to make it benefit the kingdom of heaven. Well, now you're into James chapter 4 and verse number 3 where maybe if you ask and you're not getting, you're asking a miss. So it's a good filter for us on the things that we ask for. How can this benefit the kingdom of heaven? And then when we do have something that will benefit the kingdom of heaven, hey, tell God that in your prayer. Tell God that in your prayer. So look, I hope this series, before we even start the sermon, I hope this series is changing how you pray. I mean, it should. I mean, it should change how you pray. Think about the things that you're asking for. Address the Lord with respect and tell God how these things, him answering this prayer, will affect his kingdom on this earth. Okay? Now go back to chapter 2. Let's look at Hannah's second prayer. Hannah's second prayer, her prayer was answered. She was with child, she was thankful. So Hannah's second prayer is a prayer of thanksgiving to God. Now I want to look at her second prayer and since she's such a great prayer giver or such a great prayer giver, I want to look at some attributes of a thankful person this evening from Hannah's second prayer. So many times, first of all, just to say this, many times we pray, many times we have our prayers answered and we literally move on without being thankful. We need to be very careful about that. So just the fact that Hannah's prayer, her second prayer exists in the first place, shows us that she is a thankful person. So it's not, and by the way, she doesn't just say, hey, thank you God, we actually see the attributes of someone who is a thankful person. So we're going to look at the attributes of someone who's thankful and how that person shows thankfulness. Okay, and I'm going to show you some patterns tonight, hopefully, where you can see a person that's thankful, you can see a person that is thankful and you'll see some characteristics of a thankful person and how they show that thankfulness and then we'll also see in the Bible how you can see some characteristics of people who are unthankful. All from Hannah's prayer, okay? So look, I mean, just, I mean, why be thankful? I mean, just put yourself in God's shoes here for a second. Not God's shoes, maybe put yourself in a position of someone that gives somebody something. Put yourself in the position you've all been in this position, you know, you give somebody something, somebody needs something of you, they ask something of you, whether it's a service or help or whatever and you do that, you go and you help them with that thing, you give them that thing, you do something for them, they take it, they're happy and they don't even acknowledge that you did anything. I mean, think about that. You know, what that does and you say, you know, well, I didn't do that, you know, I didn't do that thing to receive any praise or to receive anything back, which is good, you shouldn't. You should just give freely of your time and your energies and your gifts, whatever those things are. However, just think about this for a second. How likely are you to do that same thing for that person in the future? Now that's how important being thankful to the Lord is, because are we going to be like these people that, you know, I mean, think about how old you are right now. I'm 44. And, you know, do you just ask for the Lord like, you know, stuff in your life like one time? Or do you have to keep coming to God in prayer, you know, to ask him to intervene for you again and again and again? Look, it's going to be a lifelong thing where you're going to have to ask for the Lord to intervene for you. It's probably best that we get this thing right. So, he's not like, yeah, last time, the last time you were un-thankful. Okay, so let's look at Hannah. Let's look at Hannah. Let's look at some characteristics of someone who is thankful. Let's look at how she shows thankfulness. Look at verse number one of 1 Samuel chapter 2. So basically verse number one through verse number, I think it's 10, is Hannah's prayer. And that's what we're going to look at this evening. And Hannah prayed. Here she prays again. Do you rejoice in the Lord? My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies because I rejoice in thy salvation. So, this woman is super joyful and she is super thankful to the Lord. And what does she go back to? She goes back to the basics here. You know, so that's just a, just kind of an overall note. Do you rejoice in your salvation? Do you rejoice in the salvation, it's my salvation. Do you rejoice in God's salvation that he gave you freely? Can you really have a bad day if you're always thankful for the fact that you're saved? Think about that. I think that's something that, you know, maybe the longer that we're saved, we take that for granted the most. But she just, she goes right back to the basics and says, you know, I'm glad that I'm saved. I'm glad and I'm thankful that I'm saved. Look at verse number two. Then look what she does. Then look what she does. This is super important in women of the Bible that are great men and women in the Bible, and I think of Daniel first when I think of this characteristics. But they all do this. They all do this. The first thing that she does. Look at verse number two. There is none, underlined none in your Bible if you don't mind writing in your Bible. There is none holy as the Lord. There is none beside thee. And there is any rock, neither is there any rock like our God. Three times she gives God all the credit right here. She says, there's nobody else like you. There's nobody else like you. And then she said, there's no rock like our God. She gives all the credit to the Lord. She just gives all that credit to the Lord. Now look at verse number two. So look, that's the first thing you need to realize. In your life, anything good that, I mean, I don't care if it's something that you prayed for or something that just you were blessed with. You need to just give all the credit to the Lord. You're like, yeah, but I just had this great idea. Look, that came from the Lord. All good things come from the Lord. So you just need to give that credit to the Lord right away all the time. Look at verse number three. All the greats of the Bible do that. And guess what? Just like I said, if, you know, that's why God kept doing things for them. Because God never has to worry. Somebody like Hannah here. Somebody like Hannah who God just did something great for, credit to God. All the credit. She's like, there's nobody else. There's none. Only rock. Everything. God. The only time, look, God's just like, he never has to worry about her stealing the credit. He never has to worry about her going off and saying, you know what, I did that. Something else in Hannah's life where maybe down the road a year, two years, three years or whatever, she needs something else or he gives her something. He never has to worry. And people are like, Hannah, that's really awesome. He never has to worry about her stealing the credit. Somebody like that has this attitude, being like, yeah, I am pretty awesome. So look, Hannah gives all the credit to the Lord. All the greats do this. All the greats. Look at verse number three. Now Hannah goes into, you know, now we see why in verse number three. You see why Hannah was so easily able to just give all the credit to the Lord. Now Hannah gives a great treatise here about humility in the next few verses. It's one of the best in the Bible in my opinion. Look at verse number three. Talk no more. She says, talk no more exceedingly proudly. Now she's kind of giving, you know, she's kind of, she's praying, but she's kind of giving an example of why we should be humble. Talk no more exceedingly proudly. Let not arrogance come out of your mouth. For the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions our way. She gives all the credit to the Lord. She gives, and demonstrates her humility here. Go to James chapter four and verse number six. Go to James chapter four and verse number six. Hannah is not a proud person. She is not a proud person. You don't see her and you kind of see this in chapter one when this other woman, this other wife is like coming after her and beating her down. You can see the meekness of Hannah because Hannah's not fighting back against this. Hannah's soul is just she's got bitterness of soul and she's just being beaten down by this woman. But look God sees that meekness and that humility and God just rewards Hannah for that. Look at James four and look at verse number six. The Bible says, but he giveth more grace wherefore he had said God resisteth the proud but giveth grace unto the humble. What that means is that God is going to just just be abundantly merciful and graceful and give you things you don't deserve if you are humble. If you are humble and if you're proud the other side of it God will resist you. He won't give you grace. So you want favor from God? Be humble. That's what we're learning from Hannah here. Of all the things in your life of all the things in your life to be afraid of I think pride is better be up there as one of the top at least. Pride. Because pride will just destroy people. I mean it's getting old to see pride in my life. It's getting old to watch pride destroy people. To be honest with you. Look at first Samuel chapter two go back and look at verse number four. Now Hannah gives us a lesson on humility in verse number four and verse number five. Look what she says in first Samuel chapter two and verse number four. She's going to give us a lesson on how humility works so we see that God gives abundantly graceful to those who are humble and he resists. He holds back his grace from those that are proud. But look what she says here. Look at verse number four. She says the bows of the mighty men are broken and they that stumbled are girded with strength. Notice the dichotomy here. She's giving us in these next two or three verses. She's giving us some proverbs here. If you notice how proverbs is written she's saying the mighty men are broken. She's not the ones that are stumbled are strengthened. She's telling us how humility works she's telling us how humility works and how pride works. So the first part is the bows of the mighty men are broken and then the humble part would be they that stumbled are girded with strength. I mean these are strong men and they're broken. Look at verse number five. They that have hired themselves they that were full they that were full you see another another same type of verse in verse number five they that were full hired themselves out for bread. These people had abundance they had everything now they're like they're working they're working for pennies they're working for their bread quite a flip there and then they were they were hungry ceased so there was those that were hungry and they're just no longer hungry but we see that they that were full and got prideful now they're working for pennies the bible is saying here and then look at this next one so that the baron 7 and she that have many children is waxed people now she references the other she references this other wife she says you know she's referencing that type of person she's saying you know the person that's born many children it was all prideful and puffed up she's like now they're you know they're they're baron that person is baron and she that have many children is waxed people you know what she's trying to explain here she's trying to explain she's trying to explain how quickly God can turn the tables. That's what she's explaining in these two verses. She's saying how quickly the pride, the prideful, can be brought low. So you think you're super powerful. You think you're super successful. You think you've got everything together. And then you get prideful. And just like that is what Hannah is saying. That can be flipped on its head. And then on the flip side of that she's saying the humble, the humble can be raised up just as quickly. Just like that. The Lord can just raise up the humble. From the barren to having children, to have many children as waxed people. Both ways God can change things very quickly. And then verse number six. He says the Lord killeth and maketh alive. He bring down to the grave and bringeth up. So first of all, in verse number four and verse number five, Hannah demonstrates just the power of the Lord to resist the proud and give grace to the humble. And then vice versa. You know how he just abundantly gives grace and then he can just take everything away from somebody that's prideful. How quickly God can turn the tides. That's a lesson that we always need to remember in our lives. And then in verse number six, she starts acknowledging how powerful God is. In verse number six. She says the Lord killeth and maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. She's like God can do anything. Verse number seven. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. He raises up the poor out of the dust and lifteth the beggar up from the dung hill to set him among princes. And to make them inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the lords and he hath set the world upon them. He can do anything he wants and it's going to be measured in levels of humility versus pride. Is what Hannah is teaching us here in this prayer. And then she says he will keep the feet of the saints and the wicked shall be silent in darkness for by strength shall no man prevail. So it's, again, just acknowledging the power of God. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven he shall thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth and he shall give strength unto his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. Now here's something we can't do in our prayer. She throws in a messianic prophecy here. So we can't really do that in our prayers. But it just shows you how much, I mean just the fact that God gave that prophecy to Hannah. It shows you how much God favored this woman. You know, and he favored her because of her character. First of all, the way she addressed him. The way she prayed to him in chapter one. The way she acknowledged that she wanted something. But it would also, she would make sure that the kingdom of heaven was benefited from that thing. She wasn't a selfish person. And then just her great humility that she shows. And then she gives a demonstration of that humility just acknowledging the power of God to be able to do anything. This is a very, very faithful person here that we're dealing with. And he gives her a messianic prophecy about Jesus in verse number ten. Now, turn to 2 Timothy chapter three. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter three. So I'll show you in the Bible that, so what do we see from Hannah's prayer? The thankfulness and how thankfulness and how much credit she gives to God. We see that that thankfulness is directly proportional to humility. So how thankful you will be in your life, it is directly proportional to how humble you are. So if you see somebody, I'll show you in 2 Timothy chapter three, the flip side of this is true as well. Look at 2 Timothy chapter three in verse number two. So what do we see? We see humbleness equals thankfulness. Humbleness equals thankful. So you're wondering, you're like, all right. Because look, here's the thing. It's hard to tell who's really humble sometimes. Because a lot of people, a lot of people feign humility. A lot of people, they think they're really great, but they tell you, oh, I'm nothing and I'm just trying to serve and I just want to serve and all this, but they're really very prideful. So how could we tell truly who is humble? I mean, first of all, the Lord knows. The Lord knows, but for us, this is just something to note, right? That thankfulness equals humility. They go together. They go together. One comes with the other. Look at 2 Timothy chapter three in verse number two. And to prove that, look at this. Look at the opposite of this. The Bible here is talking about men and what will happen in perilous times. For men shall be lovers of their own selves. Cupidists, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient, all bad things, right? Some of these things are repeated. I mean, these things are so bad here that a lot of these same attributes, a lot of these same characteristics are repeated at the end of Romans chapter one. When we're talking about literal reprobates, literal people that hate God, that are just turned against God and God has just literally just given them up. He's just given them over. A lot of those same attributes are in this sentence right here. And it says, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, all unthankful. You see that? Look, there's no accidents in the Bible. Proud and thankful go together, too. So just as we see humility and thankful, Hannah, the definition of Hannah. If there is two words that I would use to describe Hannah in the Bible, it is humble and thankful. And we see the exact opposite of that in 2 Timothy chapter three, in verse number two, where we see someone that's proud along with all these other horrible things, many of them very wicked, evil attributes, they're also unthankful. So look, this isn't being unthankful. All that to say this, being prideful is something we always need to be watching out for and because that will make us unthankful, we will also be unthankful. Turn to Luke chapter 17. Let's talk about just being thankful. You say, I am thankful. I'm thankful all the time, but here's the thing. We need to show that we're thankful. It's not enough to just be, oh, I'm thankful. Have you ever had this conversation with your spouse? You're like, I feel like you don't appreciate me. Sometimes spouses, whether it be the husband or the wife, they feel like, you know, the other spouse doesn't appreciate them. And the other spouse is like, many times, he's like, what are you talking about? I'm very thankful for you, but the problem is not that they don't feel thankful, it's that they don't show that thankfulness. So it's important that we show thankfulness in our lives. I'll prove it to you. Look at Luke chapter 17, look at verse number 11. Look at verse number 11. And it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem, Jesus, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And he entered into a certain village. There met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. Hey, they're speaking with respect. You know, they're praying with respect here to Jesus. And when he saw them, he said to them, go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. He healed them all ten and one of them. When he saw that he was healed, turned back with a loud voice, what did he do? He did what Hannah did. He did what Hannah did. He went and he said, look at me, look at all awesome I look. Woo, I'm good looking. No, he's like glorified God. He glorified Jesus. Again, proof that Jesus is God right here. Here's another one in the Bible. And fell down on his face at his feet. He glorified God at his feet. You know, Jesus being God, right? Giving him thanks and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answered said, what was the first thing Jesus brought up here? You think it's a big deal? You think it's a big deal that we give credit to God, that we give glory to God? What's the first thing Jesus brings up? He's like, where are the other ones? He's like, why are only you here? Look what he says. And Jesus has it. Were there not ten cleansed, but where are the nine? They are not found, they are not found that return to give what? Glory to God. Save this stranger. You think it's a big deal that God gets all the glory? How do you get saved? Think about that. Why is salvation that way? Why can't it be like, man, Jesus what he did on the cross, like that death, burial and resurrection thing, that was super good. That was like, I'm like, that's like 90% my way to heaven. Like, but I gotta be good. I gotta live my best life now. I gotta do that. Look, that's not salvation. Why? Because you're stealing glory from God. And God demands glory. God demands, what? He demands all the glory. So this guy wasn't like, oh man, you know, I'm pretty good, but thanks for helping me out for the rest of that. You know, he's just like, he gave all glory to God. And look, Jesus proves here that God demands the glory. He demands the glory. And he said in him, rise, go thy way, thy faith have made thee whole. So what's the first thing? I mean, talking about his salvation there. Okay, talking about his salvation there. The first thing that Jesus brings up is where are the other ones? Because they didn't give glory to God. So look, the first thing is that you better be thankful. And you know, you say, well maybe they were gonna come back tomorrow and say thank you. But here's the thing. It needs to be done right away. You need, if you are thankful for something, you need to show that thankfulness right away. It's not an accident. It's not an accident that as soon as chapter one and 1 Samuel 1 is over, and Hannah has her prayer answered that immediately it goes into her prayer of thankfulness. That's not an accident. It's showing that right away she gives that glory to God. Right away she is showing thankfulness. So look, I mean, the thing is like delaying thankfulness in your life means that you aren't. That's how people, that's how people will take it. And look, that's how God's gonna take it too. Jesus was like, right away, where are the other ones? Where are the nine? So don't delay it. Show it. I mean, the guy, think about it. This guy showed it. Did he not? The one leper showed it. He traveled all the way back to where Jesus was. He traveled. He did something. He showed his thankfulness. It's the same thing with your wife. It's the same thing with your husband. They're not gonna beat up on husbands or wives here. I'll beat up on both of them at the same time. But the point is, it's not enough for you to feel, oh, I said it worked. I'm like, oh, so thankful for my wife as I said it worked by myself. That does my wife nothing. Okay, that does, and then I go home and it's just like business as usual all the time. But I go to work and I'm by myself in a corner at work. I'm like, oh, so thankful. But I do nothing for her. I say nothing to her. I don't ever do anything nice for her. Look, I'm thankful. Look, you gotta show it. You gotta show it or there's no point. It's the same thing with your husband. You just appreciate your husband, all this, but you gotta show him that you're thankful. Otherwise, he's not gonna know. He's not gonna know. Okay, so look, it's the same thing with friends. It's the same thing with friends. It's the same thing with all your personal relationships in your life. I just find this, there's a statistic that I check once a year and it's getting worse and worse and worse. This stat is like this. You know that 25% of people, you've heard me say this before, 25% of people, I think it's like under 40. But 25% of adults under 40 have no friends. Think about that. Like one out of four people has zero friends. Okay? Now two-thirds of people, now this is getting much, much worse. Like 10 years ago, it was double this in the other way. But it's getting much, much worse. Two-thirds of people say they have two or less close friends. Okay, now I think, I think as a Bible-believing Christian, I think that this number is much worse than, actually turn to Proverbs chapter 18 and I'll just prove it to you. We'll just take a tangent here for a second. But I think it's much worse than two because what the world defines as a close friend is not what we would define as a close friend. Okay, but look, go to Proverbs chapter 18. Go to Proverbs chapter 18. Look at the last part of the verse. We've read this many times but I want to look at the last part of this verse. It says, a man that has friends must show himself friendly. Okay, I get that. But look at the last part. It says, and there's a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. So the Bible here is saying that, you know, yeah, if you want friends you need to be friendly. I get that. We've talked about that. But the Bible here is saying that there's different kinds of friends. The Bible here is saying that you might have some friends that are closer than other friends. And a close friend is one that sticks with you, that sticks by you. Now look, I would argue that these secular close friends that are in this two-thirds number, I mean really, what do people, I mean think about people that you know out in the world that are involved with, what do they involve? I mean, people are friends with people because they buy the same brand of motorcycle. I mean, is that like a close friend? I'm like, oh, we're really good friends because we went to the same store to buy a motorcycle. You know, it's silly. But I mean, there's all these silly little things. But look, we have friends here that are very close friends. Like look, we have all this in common. That's a lot. That's like the depth of everything that we have this in common. So look, that's a huge benefit to us that you have such close friends. And all that to say this, nobody has this. Nobody has this. And it's getting worse and worse and worse. I mean, a quarter of people, no friends. What are you doing? What do you do with your time? I suppose you just watch TV all the time or whatever, right? I personally don't like being alone. So I would never be in that 25% group. But the point is this, all that to say this, back to the sermon, you should be thankful for your friends. You should be thankful for your friends. And you shouldn't sit in a corner by yourself and be like, oh, thankful for my friends. You should show your friends that you're thankful. That's all I'm saying. Just like you need to show your wife. You need to show your husband. You need to show them that appreciation by, you know, doing things. You know, doing things for them. So that's how you will get closer and closer to your friends. Because being unthankful is not somewhere you want to be in your friendships. It's not somewhere you want to be in your marriage. It's definitely not somewhere you want to be with the Lord. Okay? Being an unthankful person. I mean, quite frankly, being unthankful, if you get to the point, you become a proud person and you literally, you don't even feel that thankfulness and you're just a proud person. You're not thankful for everything. Why? Think about that for a second. Why are proud people unthankful? It makes sense, right? Because let's say that I'm a proud person. Let's say that I'm just welled up with pride. Why would that make me unthankful? Well, it would make me unthankful because what do I need anybody for? I'm super awesome. I mean, you should be thankful that you're hanging out with me, quite frankly, because I'm so great. This is the attitude of the proud person. And this is why a proud person is unthankful. Because there's nothing to be thankful for. If you're welled up with pride, people should be thankful for me, quite frankly. I'm so awesome, you all should be thankful that I take the time to talk to you. That's a proud person. And that's why they're unthankful, because there's no need for thankfulness in the heart of a proud person. But guess what? Being unthankful, I think being unthankful is one of the things that can ruin a person. I mean, just think about the things that we see today. Think about people that you know that literally just complain about everything. I mean, have you met somebody that just complains about everything? This is an unthankful person. They complain about everything. You know, the simplest, I guess the simplest demonstration of this is someone who's just like a rage driver. Someone that's just a rage driver. They're just like, idiot, idiot! You know, they're yelling at everybody for delaying it on a light for a second or looking at a phone or whatever. You shouldn't text and drive. The point is, you know, a rage driver's a proud person. He's like, I'm a better driver than you. You know, but look, they complain. They become a very negative person. And they're unappreciative of things. I mean, personally, I think it's one of the worst things that could happen to a man. You know, I mean, a woman as well. But this is why welfare is so dangerous, by the way. This is why welfare is so dangerous. It's not just because it keeps people from working. Okay? It's not just because it takes money from those that are working and gives it to those that aren't. It's not, it's because it creates unthankful people. It ruins people. It ruins them. People, it creates people that think that they're owed a living. Look, soul winners. Go out and talk to some homeless people. You will be shocked. They're actually very proud people. I'm not going to blanket statement the whole thing. But I came, when I came to California and I started soul winning like all the time, I'm just like, I'm going to get, this is going to be so easy to get these people saved. There's some of the hardest people to get saved. I'm saying that I've never gotten them saved, but you know why the number one reason is? It's because they're proud. You're like, how could they be proud? They're proud. I remember talking to this guy who was like literally at a park and he was, because that was kind of one of our tricks that we had at Verity. If we had kind of an unreceptive area, we'd just swing by a park sometimes. They're generally pretty receptive, right? They're generally pretty receptive because you've got a bunch of people kind of just hanging around, not really doing anything. So we just go and get some salvations at a park. Well, here is this guy living out of his van in this park. And I'm like, all right, you know this guy's not, he's literally doing nothing. Literally just laying in the back of his van, staring at the top, the ceiling of his van. And I'm like, I'm going to go get this guy saved. I have never met such a prideful person in my entire life. This guy, he's telling me about the philosophies of life. He's telling me about what the Bible is, where it came from. This guy was just lecturing me about, he had it all figured out. I'm like, man, you're living in a van that doesn't even run, that has three wheels on it. I'm like, how could you possibly be prideful? And then he asked me for money. And then gets mad when I don't give him money. Look, it doesn't make any sense, but this is what pride will do to you. It'll make you completely unthankful. You think people are just, you know, you just have to give me money. They think they deserve it. They think they deserve it. But pride will just ruin you. It'll make you unthankful. It'll wreck you as a person. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. I mean, it's one of the worst things that could ever happen to you, is to become unthankful. It'll ruin a man. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 3 in verse 13. So for us, let's just remember this. Let's just remember this. Look, this is a simple message from Hannah here. But the problem is this. It's such a simple message, but pride sneaks up on people. Pride sneaks up on people, especially when good things start happening to you. If good things start happening to you, pretty soon you're like, I got it figured out. I got this thing figured out, man. Look at me. It's very easy for even the Christian to get like that. Look, even spiritual things can make you piteful. I've read the Bible so many times. What could you tell me about anything? I know the Bible. Look, spiritual things can make you piteful. Any pride is bad. Any pride is bad. Look at Ecclesiastes 3.13. And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. Here's the thing. I'm happy. I'm happy that this church, everybody I'm talking to right now has been taken care of in the last two or three years. You have been taken care of when other people weren't. You've gone through hard times and the Lord's just looking out for you. I mean, the Lord's just plowing a path for you. I can see that as the pastor of this church from the perspective that I am. God is looking out for the people in this church. But here's the thing. And guess what? There's nothing wrong with being successful. There's nothing wrong with, oh man, I grew my business X amount this year. And oh man, you know, things are really going well. There's nothing wrong with that. Hey, we get to move to a better neighborhood. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that. Praise God for it as long as last part of this verse. As long as you realize that everything that happens to you is the gift of God. Well, you know, the reason I have that this business grew so much is because I made these three decisions. God gave you those decisions. God gave you that wisdom. God gave you everything good that has ever happened to you. Every good gift is from God. Look, it is as long as you realize, look, enjoy your life because as an American you are spoiled, you're rich, you're everything. Enjoy it all. But it is all the gift of God. It is all the gift of God. Look, it could all go away tomorrow by some wicked thing or some wicked person or whatever and just be like, whoa, I'm glad I had it for the time that I had it. Just remember that as long as you always realize that every single good thing that happens to you, every single monetary thing that happens to you, every single thing, whatever that happens to you, and look, give the God his portion. Don't be stealing from God either. But the point is, and you recognize that everything that happens to you is the gift of God, you won't get prideful. You won't get prideful. You're just like, I'm just, I'm nothing. It's just, it's just thank God that, you know, I'm just going to keep working. I'm going to keep working and proving to God. It's kind of a concept. You see this? I'm going to keep proving to God that blessing me and having me around is worth it for what? For the kingdom of God. Not for me. I mean, you get blessings from the Lord and you'll leave the Lord. What's God going to do? I mean, come on. You're all parents in here. What would you do? You keep giving your kids stuff and they can just keep appreciating it less and less and less. You're going to correct that mistake. As a parent and God is a much better parent than us. Go to James chapter 1 of verse 17. James chapter 1 in verse 17. I kind of already said this, but let's read it. James chapter 1 in verse number 17. I have a note in my Bible talking about, James chapter 1 verse 17 is written by Ecclesiastes 3, 13 in my Bible. Look at James chapter 1 in verse 17. It says, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variable-ness, neither shadow of turning. So look, enjoy. So those two verses go very well together. Teaching you that anything good that happens in your life, anything that builds you up or anything positive that's happening to you, you must always, I've met successful people. I knew successful people that I was very close to that today are very wealthy people and they have said, the Lord doesn't put food on my table. And look, they're not saved and all that, but look, that is not true. That is not true. For us, every good gift comes from God and we must always remember that and it'll keep us from being prideful. It'll keep us humble like Hannah. And guess what? It'll keep us thankful. It'll keep us thankful. And we'll want to show God. We'll want to show the church. We'll want to show our friends. We'll want to show our spouses. Our spouses. Look, here's the thing. Like having a great marriage is maybe one of the biggest blessings on the earth. I mean, our salvation's great, but on this earth, one of the biggest blessings that we could have is a great marriage. So if you're not married, look forward to that. If you are married and you're like, ah, you know, be thankful. Show thankfulness and it will get greater every day. Just show thankfulness for your spouse. Because that's a great, you know what? Your marriage, you know what? That's a good gift. That's a good gift. And that came from God. You know, tell your wife, you know what? Here's a gift. Why? Because God provided you for me. I'm thankful to God, and I'm going to show that thankfulness by giving you a gift. You know, show it. Show it. This is a problem with men. You know, I will pick on the men here. This is a problem with men. Men aren't overly emotional sometimes. Men are more tucked in than women. Women are much more like out there with their emotions. Men, well, many times, they'll just get sewed down and, you know, maybe I'm speaking about myself a little bit here. But men will just get grinding and working through this life and they won't forget to do these things. They'll feel it, but maybe they'll forget to show their wife or forget to tell their wife and forget to show that thankfulness to the people in their lives. You know, so that's, I think that's more of a struggle for men. But ultimately, ultimately, we want to always remain thankful to the Lord. Okay? And we need to show it. We need to show it. We need to go back. We need to travel back like the leper did. We need to serve. We need to do. Right? I mean, that's just like this morning. What's the problem with the Christian today? What's the problem with everything in your life? We can sit here and we can know everything here, but we have to do. And that's what you have to do. You have to show God that thankfulness. So Hannah, it's just such a great woman in the Bible, just a humble woman, a thankful woman, a great example of how to show God that you're thankful and shows us the tie between thankfulness and true humility. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.