Pause, Give Thanks – The Power of Giving Thanks
Pause, Give Thanks
Together Church | Pastor Brandon Werner
November 30, 2025 | Series: The Power of Giving Thanks
Thanksgiving Service 2025
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to our annual Thanksgiving service at Together Church!
*Hope you had a wonderful time pausing to give thanks…*
This service has become one of my favorite traditions in our church. It is GOOD to PAUSE, recognize what God has done, and GIVE THANKS.
Our failure to pause and give God thanks does not change God! God is always good, and God is always working, whether we stop and recognize it or not.
Jesus said it this way…
John 5:17b
“My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
If we do not PAUSE to thank God, it doesn’t change God… but it does change us!
When we pause to thank God, thanksgiving helps us see what God is doing all around us. If we do not stop to give God thanks, we miss out on the opportunity to recognize what God is doing and to benefit from gratitude as we worship Him.
Pausing to give God thanks is very important to God!
Throughout scripture, God gave several commands and instructions to intentional interrupt the daily grind so that His people would turn their hearts to Him, remember His goodness, and worship Him.
In scripture,
- God gave His people feasts – reminders to depend on Him.
- God instructed His people to build monuments – reminders of His mighty works.
- God gave His people a Sabbath – a call to pause and depend on Him.
- God gave His people psalms and hymns to sing together – expressions of gratefulness and worship to the Lord.
- God gave His people prophets – leaders who called them back to Him when they drifted away.
- God gave His people rituals, like sacrifices and offerings and assemblies – physical ways to remember His mercies.
- God gave them His law – stories and commands to anchor their lives in Him.
Disrupting their everyday lives with remembrance & thanksgiving.
It is good to PAUSE and give God thanks! It is pleasing to the Lord.
But it is far too easy for us to behave like the nine lepers Jesus’ healed… the ones who went on their way, never stopping to give God thanks.
God wants us to be like the ONE healed leper of the ten…
The one who paused, turned around, and returned to Jesus; giving thanks to God for what He had done.
When that leper returned, Jesus was honored.
But who was the greatest benefactor of that one man’s decision to pause and give God thanks? It was that former leper! His decision to be pause and be grateful brought Him closer to Jesus.
That’s what this Thanksgiving service is really about…
We are not just pausing to focus on the good things God has done. By pausing to give thanks, we are allowing the Lord to use the virtue of gratitude to usher us into His presence and draw us closer to Him.
Hopefully, over the past two weeks in this series on gratitude and over the Thanksgiving holiday, you’ve already been drawing closer to the Lord though Thanksgiving.
But today is special. It is our opportunity to COLLECTIVELY recognize the goodness of our God and to allow thanksgiving to draw us closer to Him!
The Bible celebrates the practice of thanksgiving in the assembly!
Psalm 111:1-2
Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,
in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the Lord,
studied by all who delight in them.
The WORKS of the Lord are great because THE LORD IS GREAT AND GREATLY TO BE PRAISED!
Notice the practice of GIVING THANKS TO THE LORD in the COMPANY of the upright and in the CONGREGATION of God’s people! God wants us to come together, pause, recognize His goodness, and give Him thanks!
And I love that last line…
The great works of the Lord are STUDIED by all who DELIGHT in them.
That’s what we are going to do this morning…
We will PAUSE to STUDY the great works of the Lord and what He has done in and through His Church at Together Church this past year. As we recognize His mighty works, our desire is that God would use the practice of thanksgiving to usher us into His presence and draw us closer to Him.
Are you ready? Let’s give thanks to the Lord together!
BODY
This morning, we PAUSE to give thanks to God for what He has done!
- And we thank the Lord that He is adding to our number!
“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor, labor in vain.”
“Upon this Rock I will build MY Church…”
For many years, members of our church have prayed that God would add to our church from the north, south, east, and west… those who are being saved and who can join us in His work.
And God is answering our prayers!
That prayer came from what we see God doing in the first church in…
Acts 2:46-47
46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
God added to their number DAY BY DAY… and our prayer is, “God, do it again in us!”
And God is answering that prayer…
- Since 2021, the average attendance of our Sunday morning services has grown by 67%!
- This year, we have already celebrated 30 baptisms together! (And since January, 2022, we have celebrated 114 baptisms at TC!)
- In the past 8 weeks, our church has added 2 new small groups!
Those are just a few ways God is answering our prayers and adding to our number day by day. It’s not about us, it is about the Lord and His Kingdom!
Another significant way God is adding to our church is through new people joining our church. There have been a total of 31 people who have joined our church family this year! If you are one of those new members or partners, would you stand so we can visually see how God is adding to our number?
Another significant way God is adding to our number is through the addition of new leaders serving in new roles. We reached out to those new leaders and asked them to be ready for this part of the service. Let’s put the names up of our new leaders who have joined our leadership level team this year alone!
Next Sunday business meeting: Sean (trustee), Lance (deacon), Austin (deacon), Chad (elder).
Again, this is just the tip of the iceberg; only a snapshot of ways God is answering our prayers and adding to our number day by day. So, we pause, and we give thanks to God for His mighty works.
And, this morning, we pause to give thanks to God for…
- The new visions He is causing to flourish!
Many of you will recall that, earlier this year, we had our first ever Vision Night at Together Church.
On that night, we shared a few new visions God was stirring in our church. God has already been bringing those visions about…
- We just completed our first semester of Wednesday night classes, and engagement exceeded expectations!
- Three excellent classes were offered by capable instructors.
- More than 70 people participated, representing over 800 manhours of intentional learning and biblical training!
- We successfully launched the new TC Podcast for disciple-makers!
- The Podcast focuses on difficult issues and common questions that arise in discipleship relationships.
- We’re already in our second season with 15 episodes available.
- Dennah reported that Podcast engagement has already had more than 200 hours watch time and has gained 80 new subscribers since our launch.
- This Podcast is already becoming a great resource for disciple-makers both inside and outside our church.
- Progress is being made on the launch of a new private school for elementary children in our church!
- If you recall, at Vision Night, we celebrated two emerging leaders: Marisa Mitchel and Josiah Rippetoe.
- These leaders are working together towards a vision of starting a new school that will meet on our campus called Eden Academy.
- Since Vision Night, these leaders have successfully…
- Formed a Board of Directors
- Written a Constitution and Bylaws
- Hosted regular workshops to serve the community and garnish interest in the school
- Recruited several families inside and outside our church to participate and volunteer
- Made progress in structuring the organization so it qualifies for education tax credits and scholarship funds
- Started some fundraising
- Secured the support of our elders, deacons, and trustees to work towards the establishment of this school
- And are very close to filing with the IRS as an official non-profit organization!
- Their aim is to open the school by the fall semester in 2027. That’s a God-sized ambition.
- Our prayer is that this school will be used by the Lord to provide a quality and accessible Christian education for both families in our church and in this community.
- We are still early in the process… as more work is done, we will be sure to give more updates.
- But could we celebrate how God is already using these new leaders to make incredible progress in a God-sized vision?
- Shortly after sharing the need at Vision Night, we hired Stephen Dellinger to be our new Small Group & Connections Pastor!
- This hire demonstrates our commitment to God’s vision for our church: creating relational environments where disciples of Jesus are made.
- As you would expect in any new job, Pastor Stephen spent the first few months training and acclimating to the role.
- Recently, he’s been firing on all cylinders.
- He organized and led DXP: our most important corporate training in relationship & disciple-making.
- He’s guided two groups through a recent branch and is helping us prepare to launch a third new group this December.
- He has led the charge in connections and in helping people join our church family.
- He is writing our curriculum and providing incredible leadership for our coaches and small group leaders.
- He’s building new systems to help our church make sure we identify new people and help them get connected to discipleship in a group & places to serve.
- He is identifying new small group leaders and plans to take a group through the RLDTM this spring!
- God has blessed our church with ALIGNMENT in our commitment to work as a team to make disciples of Jesus:
- Did you know 75% of our church is already actively participating in a small group? That’s unheard of!
- The number is hire if you narrow in on our voting members… 82% of our voting members are actively engaged in a small group.
- Those numbers reflect something special about what God is doing in our church. The national average is 44%!
These things don’t happen by accident. They are all indicators of efforts from several intentional leaders working together to fulfill the mission God has given us.
Pastor Stephen is at the helm of what’s happening… and I’m very excited about the work he’s accomplished and what he’s planning for next year.
That said, I know Pastor Stephen would be the first to encourage us to give all the praise to God.
“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor, labor in vain.”
What is happening is all because of the Lord. He deserves the praise!
Stephen would also want us to recognize an essential team of leaders in our church; they are the ones making all this possible. In fact, right now, Pastor Stephen is going to come and lead us to give thanks to the Lord for the Small Group Leaders He has blessed us with at Together Church, and if you are a Small Group Leader, make your way forward at this time.
STEPHEN SHARES (Katherine Keys)
- Prepare people to “express what’s already in their hearts” through celebration
- Invite leaders forward
- Celebrate / give charge / pray
Great job, Pastor Stephen.
So, today, we pause to give God thanks for the visions He is stirring and bringing about in and through our church! Specifically the Wednesday Night Classes, the Podcast launch, Eden Academy, and the hiring of Pastor Stephen to be our Small Group & Connections Pastor.
Next, collectively, we pause to give God thanks for…
- Unique works He is doing through specific ministries in our church!
Let’s start by talking about the ministries to…
- TC Kids & Students
Recently, in a staff meeting, I heard one of our team members give a report. They shared that the ratio of adults to children in our church was well above average.
That caught my attention! So, we did some digging…
We discovered that the national average for children gathered for Sunday morning services is about 13% of the congregation.
At Together Church, God has blessed us with 25%! That is just about double the national average!
That excited me. It tells me some things about our church.
It tells me…
- God is adding families with children to our church.
- Our church loves children and believes children are a blessing from the Lord.
- We are committed to invest in children and raise up the next generation of Christ-followers.
Recently, our church hired Paige Miller to provide leadership with our TC Kids. She is working with a capable team of directors and has big plans to continue to strengthen the children’s ministry next year.
And Nick Perkins stepped into the role as the director of The FOUR12… our youth group for middle school and high school students.
These leaders are doing an incredible job focusing on shepherding the next generation to follow Jesus.
You know what else this statistic tells me?
Our church is blessed with a unique challenge when it comes to recruiting volunteers! (EXPLAIN IT.)
That is certainly a challenge, but I believe we’re up to the challenge. This need isn’t met generally, it is met one person at a time as each of us says “yes” to the Lord and makes investments in our kids. Would you be willing to say yes and get involved in leading in TC Kids or in The FOUR12? If you would, see Paige or Nick.
But what an incredible blessing! We pause to give God thanks for the many students and children He is adding to our church.
But that’s not all. We also want to give thanks to the Lord for the work He is doing through…
- School Clubs (Fish Club & Bible Club)
In case you’re not aware, Together Church has a longstanding ministry to students on public school campuses in the southside. Together, we’ve been reaching the lost and making disciples on school campuses since the late 90s.
This year, we’ve continued to accelerate our efforts on school campuses through our internship program.
Currently, we have one club director and three club interns serving on our team. Together, these leaders are hosting six school clubs a week!
Five of these clubs are called Fish Clubs. Fish Clubs are geared to reach middle school and high school students on campus. These clubs…
- Focus on sharing the gospel.
- Provide a place for believers to gather on campus.
- Teach biblical truths to students in public schools.
- Help students effectively reach their friends for Christ.
School Clubs are having a profound impact. This fall semester alone, we’ve already engaged over 230 students in club meetings, shared the gospel, and seen 24 decisions for Christ!
Those numbers are exciting, but what is even more exciting is when we remember each of those numbers represents an INDIVIDUAL LIFE being changed by Jesus.
Individuals like Landon Tidwell.
Landon connected with Fish Club in his high school called Pathways over a year ago.
After attending for a while, he deepened friendships with Christians on his school campus. About a year ago, Landon started attending our church. Earlier this year, Landon made a profession of faith in Jesus by being baptized at Together Church!
Landon was a senior in high school when he was baptized. After graduation, he moved to Stillwater to attend Oklahoma State University.
Because of Landon’s connection to Fish Club, God had already done an incredible work in his life. He was saved, baptized, and growing as a disciple of Jesus.
But the impact of Fish Club didn’t start there.
Our church leadership reached out to leaders at the BCM at OSU and put Landon in touch with Jesse Brewster who serves on staff there. When Landon left our community, he immediately connected with a new community of believers and had people helping him grow in his walk with Jesus and find a local church.
Landon’s family lives in the metro, and Landon has already made several trips back. When he does, he has frequently visited our church.
That’s just one of dozens of stories we could share about how God is using campus clubs to reach students with the gospel and help them grow as disciples of Jesus.
Fish Clubs are going strong this year, but there’s another exciting thing happening in school clubs…
This semester, our church relaunched our first Bible Club since COVID!
Bible Club is an after school program for elementary school children in public schools.
Our church has a history of hosting Bible Clubs; but COVID and other challenges killed those efforts for a while.
Thanks to the leadership of our school club team, and a strategic partnership with an incredible ministry called In The Gap, our church worked together to relaunch a Bible Club this fall!
Katherine Werner is heading up that team as the intern overseeing the program. They’ve seen new children connect to the club just about every week! To keep up with the growing demand, their team will need more volunteers to come and serve.
Historically, some of the most fruitful work in our community for the gospel has come through school clubs. God has shaped our church through the impact for His Kingdom being made through those clubs! For example…
- Bethany married Marcus Sanchez… a former Fish Club student!
- Joseph Ruckel married Julisia… a former Fish Club student! Julisia has served for years as a director in TC Kids.
- Dylan Holiman is a deacon candidate… and he was a Fish Club student!
- Gema Sarabia connected with our church through Bible Club when she was in elementary school. She’s now in Rachael and I’s small group.
Not only have we seen people saved, but God has shaped our church and our leadership through school clubs.
And you can be part. There are opportunities to volunteer, serve, and give to help make these clubs happen.
Bethany Sanchez is full-time on our church staff and is the director of school clubs. If the Lord is moving your heart to get involved, see Bethany!
God is working through these school clubs. Can we thank the Lord together for what He is doing?
We also want to thank the Lord for the unique impact being made through a new ministry in our church called…
- Movement (Young Adults)
Movement is a ministry to young adults, seniors in high school and above. By God’s grace, and through the sacrificial leadership of the Wrights, Robinsons, and Gennings, it is also the fastest growing ministry at Together Church in 2025.
The vision for Movement was a ministry that would make a significant investment in the lives of young adults leaving high school and help them root their lives in Christ.
For a while, Movement was moving slow. They met for months in the living room of Seth and Alex Wright. In March, they had a meeting with only eight young adults.
The leadership of Movement was grateful for what God was already doing, but they believed He had bigger plans in mind.
So, they gathered to pray and brainstorm. Collectively, they correctly discerned that this generation is hungry for truth. They want something deep, something real, something that has stood the test of time.
For many in this generation, gone are the days of goofy youth games and shallow lessons. They are itching to go deeper with the Lord.
So, the leaders of Movement decided it was God’s will for them to press into that need. Each week, they began to take on meaty, challenging Bible doctrines and help students apply them to their daily lives.
God has blessed those efforts. Since that meeting in March with eight young adults, God has added to their number in significant ways! And He specifically used Angie, a former Fish Club student, as a primary bringer to invite others to come and see what God was doing.
This month, Movement gathered for their Friendsgiving… and there were 72 people in attendance! And they were missing a few from their group!
Not only has God been adding to Movement, He’s using Movement to add to our church. Several from Movement have been baptized this year, have joined our church this year, have started coming on Sundays, have joined small groups, and are serving, volunteering, and giving in our church.
All this in 8 months!
If our Sunday services grew at the same rate as Movement has grow in the past eight months, we would have nearly 2000 people in our church by the 4th of July.
God is doing something special in Movement. But it isn’t about the numbers. It’s about young adults like…
- We got to go to Africa together this year… I was blessed. God is doing an incredible work in his life… and he’s bold about it! This fall, Jack joined our church as a member. He’s now being discipled and following the Lord in ways he wouldn’t have imagined only a few months ago.
- Bianca, who was baptized this year and has found community and love during a year of grief and loss.
- Marcus and Bethany, who are working together to start a new small group this December that will specifically engage more students from Movement in discipleship relationships.
Again, only the tip of the iceberg; a snapshot of what God is doing.
I’m so excited about what God is doing both in the children and student ministries of our church and in this new ministry to young adults. Both are critical!
EXPLAIN
- High school ministry is critical!
- We raise them up and many will be sent out.
- Young adult ministry is also critical!
- Place for those who are raised up and stay connected.
- But also a place where those students who are launching out from other places can connect as the Lord leads them here!
Pastor Jerry came to our church forty years ago. At that time or shortly after, people like Lance and Cindy Perkins or Greg and Kim Werner connected to our church… they were the Movement Young Adults of that era! Think of all the incredible ways God has blessed our church and used couples like these over the course of decades.
I believe some of the people connecting to Movement now will be the future leaders and primary contributors in our church.
God is doing an awesome thing through this new ministry called Movement. Can we celebrate what He is doing through that ministry?
Before we move on, there’s one more specific ministry in our church that I want us to pause and give thanks to God for the unique ways He is working. That ministry is our…
- TC Seniors
Pastor Jerry and his wife, Saundra, lead our TC Senior ministry. Our seniors start young here, beginning at age 55.
55 seems to be a bit of a theme here this year! Consider this…
- There are 55 total TC Seniors in our church, ages 55 and older.
- This year, 55% of our giving to the general budget has come from our TC Seniors!
- Now, bump it up to 60: 60% of our TC Seniors are actively volunteering in leadership or service roles in our church!
- Many serve despite serious hardships with their health or other factors.
Beyond these numbers, our TC Seniors are active in so many other ways:
- Our seniors are the most faithful to make hospital visits.
- They are among our most faithful to attend and bring gifts to wedding and baby showers.
- The majority of our TC Seniors are active and faithfully investing in discipleship through their small group.
- Many are incredible hosts… like the Manis’ hosting over 50 young adults from Movement for volleyball and a cookout!
- And they set an incredible example of how to love others and honor Jesus… like the way Lance and Cindy are currently sacrificing to provide end of life care in their home for Lance’s mom, Dotty.
Again, this is just the tip of the iceberg. What is happening at Together Church would not be possible without the contributions be made by our TC Seniors. So, we pause and give thanks to the Lord for what He is doing in and through them!
Let’s hear it for our incredible TC Seniors!
Before we conclude, I want us to give thanks to the Lord for one more way that God is working in and through our church. Let’s PAUSE and give God thanks for…
- His provision through the generosity of His people.
Everything we’ve celebrated so far would not be possible without the generosity and sacrificial giving among God’s people.
We heard this a couple weeks ago in a sermon on generosity…
- God doesn’t need your money; but, He invites you to align your heart with His through generous giving.
- God doesn’t need your money; but, by design, the mandate does.
Giving is an incredible blessing from the Lord.
Through giving, God’s people can immediately engage in Kingdom work. If you have given this year, you have played a part in everything we have paused to thank God for this morning… and much more!
And, as we saw in that sermon, God is a generous rewarded of those who give… and He rewards in proportion to your faith. Do you want a big harvest? Sow bountifully. God guarantees you will reap according to what you sow.
Your giving fuels everything we’ve celebrated today and even more: the ministries, staff, leadership, the space we use, and more. But it doesn’t stop here. Through giving, what God is doing is bigger than us!
Our church sets aside a percentage of every gift to invest in local and global ministries that are devoted to sharing the gospel and making disciples.
We also allow our people to give to specific ministries through our church so that we can collectively advance the Kingdom through the local church.
This year alone, because of your generosity, God has allowed our church to collectively invest $97,380.71 in local and global missions!
What God is doing is bigger than us!
Some of you have the gift of giving. If that is you, I want you to know that you can talk to me about giving. I would be happy to sit down with you, share with you more ways to fuel Kingdom work through generosity, and help you steward that gift.
The work God is doing through our church is being fueled by radical generosity. Let’s pause and give thanks to the Lord for how He is using your giving and for every single person who has given this year!
CONCLUSION
Let me bring us full circle…
It is GOOD for us to PAUSE, reflect, remember what God has done, and collectively give thanks to the Lord!
Psalm 111:1-2
Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,
in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the Lord,
studied by all who delight in them.
This morning, we have STUDIED and DELIGHTED in the works of the Lord. We have taken time to reflect; identifying threads of what God has been doing in and through this local body of believers together.
INVITATION
And now, how should you respond?
Remember: God uses gratitude to draw us closer to Him… we are the primary benefactors of gratefulness!
Through Thanksgiving, the Lord is stirring hearts. How is He stirring yours? God’s Word says every member of the body is indispensable… God wants to engage you in His work!
Perhaps He is leading you through this message:
- Are there people He wants you to invite or to share the gospel with as He continues to add to our number day by day?
- Are you one of the 25% of the people not yet connected to a disciple-making small group? Is He calling you to connect?
- Is God confirming for you right now that you need to be baptized or you need to join this local church?
- Is He stirring your heart to get involved in these visions and ministries He is causing to grow and flourish in our church?
- Say you want to talk to Paige, Nick, or Bethany about student or children’s ministry. Or let us know another ministry you want to engage in.
- Perhaps the Lord is prompting you right now to start giving or to increase what you are giving to fuel the work He has called us to do.
How is the Lord leading you?
There’s a Connect Card in front of you or a QR code to that will take you to our Connect Card on your phone.
Scan that code or grab that card.
Now, ask the Lord how He wants to use Thanksgiving to stir your heart and align you with His work. Then, write it down on that card. Submit the card online or drop your card in this box.
Pastor Stephen and our connections team will review those cards this week and follow up with you.
Church is a team sport.
We are all members of His body.
It is His work… He invites us to partake!
To make sure remember that this is all because of Christ, we are going to close this service with COMMUNION. (Ask those serving at the tables to come forward at this time.)