Things I’m Thankful For
Thanksgiving Sunday Message by Senior Pastor Dr. Bill Rains | November 23, 2025
Father, we thank You for everything—every blessing, every trial, every soul in this room, every breath we take. May we never lose the wonder of being saved and the privilege of serving You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
On Sunday, November 23, 2025, Pastor Bill Rains stands with tears streaming down his cheeks and preaches from the simple yet profound command of 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” The longer he walks with Jesus, the more the tears flow. With heartfelt passion, he lists four things he is profoundly thankful for—and challenges every believer to do the same.
1. I’m Thankful That I’m Saved
Pastor Rains recalls the first verse he ever learned as a boy in the hills of Kentucky—John 3:16: the greatest God, with the greatest love, for the greatest sinners, gave the greatest sacrifice, that we might receive the greatest gift—everlasting life. He still marvels that the Creator of the universe thought of “little old me.” A preacher was sent (Romans 10:14), put his arm around a boy’s shoulder, and said, “God loves you and wants to save you.” That day changed eternity. “To know when I close my eyes in death, I’ll open them in glory—that’s the most wonderful thing in the world.”
2. I’m Thankful for Eternal Security
Not only saved—but kept forever. “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28). Pastor Rains thunders: “If you could get lost after you got saved—you would. And I’d be leading the line to hell!” God’s hand measured the oceans and spanned the heavens (Isaiah 40); no one—not even you—can jump out. A lost man once told him, “If God’s not big enough to keep me, He’s not big enough to save me.” He got saved—and he was exactly right.
3. I’m Thankful for the Privilege to Serve the Lord
At 74, nearing 50 years of preaching and 47 years pastoring Mission Baptist Church, Pastor Rains is still overwhelmed that God called him—the first in his family lineage—to preach. “No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God” (Hebrews 5:4). It’s not education or talent—it’s Emmanuel, God with us. He left the best job in Cincinnati because God’s Word was “a fire shut up in my bones” (Jeremiah 20:9). He walks the aisles thanking musicians, ushers, soul-winners, his wife of 56 years—“I’d wash every one of your feet if I could.” The privilege to serve Jesus is the highest honor on earth.
4. I’m Thankful for My Fellow Servants
Paul thanked God for every church—Corinthians included! Pastor Rains thanks God for every soul at Mission Baptist. He names them, hugs them, cries over them. Some have moved away yet still mail tithe checks after 25 years. Some battle sickness yet still serve. “You have come into the kingdom for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). Every person God has brought through these doors—from the newest visitor to the ones now in glory—has been a blessing. “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.”
“In every thing give thanks.”
Thank God you’re saved.
Thank God you’re kept.
Thank God you get to serve.
Thank God for one another.
Pastor Rains closes with tears and an altar call: “Some of you ought to hit this altar and thank God you’re saved and going to heaven—and that you didn’t get lost, because if you could have, you would have!” On this Thanksgiving Sunday, may gratitude flood every heart at Mission Baptist Church.