Even In The Storms: How To Be Thankful Even When I Don't Feel Like It

God continually, every day demonstrates his character.

It's his character and not our experiences that should determine our long-term memory.

Our experiences should not be what our memory is based on, but instead God's never-changing, ever faithful character.

This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information, visit GrandProquay.org.

God, the reason you're able to complete your work in us is because we are yours.

And God, when we use that term that Jesus is mine, it almost sounds like an ownership term, but it's not ownership.

It's not anything that we've done, it's nothing that we have given, it's because you have given all.

Jesus, you actually purchased us.

And it's by your willingness and by your grace that we get to say, you are ours.

It's that big mystery that how in the world could the God who created universes love us enough to create us to be in relationship with you.

And God, the only way that we're in a right relationship with you is through your son Jesus.

And so we thank you.

Thank you for the fact that you loved us enough to give.

You've loved us enough to care, to do all that we need to say Christ is mine forevermore.

Now, God, what we say is, your servants are listening, so speak to our hearts and our minds, open up our ears so that we may hear what you have to say to us this morning, and then live it out the way you command.

For it's in your name, Jesus, that we pray these things.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Well, good morning.

My name is Wade Burgess, and as many of you know, I'm the executive pastor here at Grand Parkway.

And from time to time, it's my privilege to be in front of you to bring you God's word.

Um this morning, I as I was preparing for this, I thought about this uh the holiday season that's quickly upon us.

I mean, it's coming.

I think it's like 11, 12 days till Thanksgiving or something.

It's right here among us.

And I thought about Thanksgiving.

Man, that's a time where we're supposed to be thankful, and boy, we're just full of praise and brimming and all that.

And I thought, yeah, I don't know.

That's how I feel this particular time of year.

We we find ourselves, my family and I find ourselves in a kind of a season of first.

We uh we lost both my father-in-law and my dad over the summer.

And so we're having conversations right now around this first holiday that I don't know that I expected that we would have.

Things like, hey, what's your mom gonna do for Thanksgiving?

I don't know what's your mom gonna do for Thanksgiving.

Well, should we do the things that we normally have done?

Should we do everything and that would be good, or is that too painful?

Should we do nothing the same that we do?

So we're kind of in this little bit of a turmoil of how exactly is this thing gonna work, the season of first?

And it occurred to me that there might be many of you going through a season of first.

Maybe like us, you've got a key member of the family that's gone.

Maybe a key member is deployed.

Perhaps that season of first is maybe that first time that we've been separated or divorced, and what does that look like for us?

And how do we go through that?

And in all of that, I wondered, how are we supposed to remain thankful?

Even in the storms that life brings, how is that supposed to look for us?

My guess is many of you are going through a storm, or you see one on the horizon, kind of like that cold front that came through last week.

You could see that thing coming and you're kind of bracing for that.

Maybe a pending surgery or pending test results or a pending layoff, whatever it is.

When the school shooting happens, or an earthquake, or mudslide, or the California wildfires, and we know that we're supposed to be thankful, but ooh, it sure doesn't feel like it.

And this is not a sermon about how did God allow or where was God when.

It's not that.

But this is a sermon today about our responsibility, and I think our consistency.

Our consistency based on the fact that God never changes.

His character is always the same and it's always reliable.

And so we should never change our mind about him and instead continue to grow in our affection for him and our dedication to him and our appreciation for what he's done.

So, how are we to be thankful even when we don't feel like it?

The reason we're not thankful oftentimes, I think, is because God doesn't answer our prayers the way we want him to, and certainly not in the timing that we want him to.

We say, God, this is how I want it, this is when I want it, and to da, and we wait and it doesn't happen.

And then we wait a little longer and it doesn't happen, and we wait a little longer and it doesn't happen.

And then we start saying, Well, how could a God of love allow fill in the blank?

And we think, boy, that God isn't coming through for me.

I wonder if it's because we've got a bad definition of love, a misunderstanding of that definition, and maybe a misunderstanding of God.

The Bible gives us some keys to being thankful even in the storms.

Today I want us to look at four of those keys, and we're gonna look at those through four people of the Bible.

So if you've got your Bibles, you can turn them with me to Job.

It's in the Old Testament.

If not, the text will come up on the screen behind me.

But the first thing that I wanted to look at related to how are we thankful, even when we don't feel like it, is we've got to understand that the master is in control.

Now, if you know anything about the book of Job, you know it's a it's a about 34 chapters or so of the story of a guy who's extremely wealthy, very well off.

I mean, he's got land and property and holdings, he's got cattle and camels and goats, and I mean, he is loaded.

He also has adult kids that he's raised, he and his wife, and these kids are great, and they're all well and healthy.

And in fact, God says that Job is really a servant of his with all the confidence.

He said, Job is somebody I can count on.

Job is consistently showing what he believes about God.

He's sacrificing, he's praying, he's doing all the right things.

Satan comes along and kind of nudges God and says, Hey, God, I bet Job isn't going to be as thankful if he didn't have all that stuff.

And God says, All right, I'll tell you what, devil, here's what we'll do.

I'll let you do anything to him you want except kill him, and let's see what happens.

Satan doesn't waste a minute.

He attacks Job in every way.

Job's got a servant comes running to him almost breathless.

Job, you'll never guess what happened.

Lightning struck and it killed all the herds that we have.

I mean, they're wiped out.

I don't know what happened.

And the very minute that servant is finishing, here comes another.

Job, you'll never guess.

Oh my gosh, we've gotten taken over.

This is, and then here comes another one, and he says, Job, you'll never guess what happened.

A high wind came up and it collapsed the house where all your kids were, killed them all.

And then Job gets a disease.

And in all this, his friends come along, friends in quotes perhaps.

His friends come along and say, Job, you must have sinned.

You must have done something to cause this.

I mean, what'd you do?

Oh my gosh, you got to turn from that.

Even his wife says, Job, you should just curse God and die.

This is horrible.

Job has a response for them and for us.

This is Job chapter 12.

Job 12 · chapter mention

Now I recognize it comes early in the book of Job, but I think it's a great picture for how Job feels related to the master is in control.

This is Job responding to his friends, and he's talking about God here.

This is chapter 12, starting in verse 10.

Isaiah 12 · chapter mention

In his hand is the life of every creature, in the breath of all mankind.

Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food?

Is not wisdom found among the aged?

Does not long life bring understanding?

To God belongs wisdom and power, counsel and understanding.

All are his.

What he tears down cannot be rebuilt.

The man he imprisons cannot be released.

If he holds back the waters, there is drought.

If he lets them loose, they devastate the land.

To him belong strength and victory, both deceived and deceiver are his.

He leads counselors away, stripped, and makes fools of judges.

He takes off the shackles put on by kings and ties a loincloth around their waist.

He leads priests away, stripped, and overthrows men long established.

He silences the lips of trusted advisors and takes away the discernment of elders.

He pours contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty.

He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into the light.

He sends them wandering through a trackless waste.

They grope in darkness with no light.

I'm not asking myself, God, where are you in all this when it's all going wrong?

Instead, Job is saying, I know exactly where he is.

He's in control.

Job describes a deep hurt, and if you continue to read through that, I mean, Job is in such a way he is tearing his clothes, he's sitting pretty much in ash that he's poured on himself.

He's got some broken pottery that he's scraping his skin with.

I mean, he is in it.

And he's not faking his feeling about how thankful he is that the master is in control, but he is genuinely saying, God, I am hurting to the depth of my core, but I'm not dissuaded about your character.

And I'm not dissuaded that you are in charge.

So how do we, like Job, believe that the master is in control?

Well, I think Job demonstrates it by number one, surrendering the outcome.

Job surrenders the outcome to God.

He says, God, whatever you bring, I am going to trust you.

Whatever you do, I'm going to trust that.

I think a lot of times we do just the opposite.

We're like, okay, God, you're not really doing it the way I thought you should, so I'm going to help you along here.

If that's all right, God, I got it.

You take it easy.

No, you've probably got other things to do.

Let me do it.

And we don't surrender to control.

Now, speaking of control, we also see that Job, I think, kind of gives up control.

Now, don't get that misunderstood with giving up.

Job does not give up, but he does give up control.

He does it by knowing there's a greater authority in charge besides him.

The third thing I think Job recognizes that we see there, just in the in that early on, we see that he recognizes there might be a greater purpose.

When we're going through storms, I think we ought to be asking, why?

We certainly should be seeking.

What is it that God has planned?

God, what are you trying to do in this?

What are you showing me in that?

And we should recognize there's a greater purpose despite our understanding.

And that's really our point.

Our comprehension should not be determined by how we feel, how it went.

Did we understand it?

Therefore, that dictates our level of faith.

Our comprehension should not be necessarily dictating how we feel about the master being in control.

We should just trust that.

That should be a pillar of faith that we are anchored to.

Now, I thought about that related to raising kids, and I thought, you know, I've not been around a lot of kids, but the few that I've been around, they will always take the easy way out.

Have you ever noticed?

It's kind of, I think it's in our nature.

We do that some.

You know what we give them a choice and we say, hey, would you like this or that?

They always take the easy way.

And I was reminded about uh, so I'm I'm a freshman in high school, and uh it's starting to get to the end of the year, and uh it's time to choose your electives for next year.

And uh, I went to such a big high school, we had 72 graduate.

I was in the top 72 of my class.

But uh so you had to choose these electives, and I only had two to choose from.

Because I played basketball, I got PE, that was one of them, and then I could choose another.

And they even narrow it down for you.

They're so concerned in my high school about your decision making, they only give you two, okay, to choose from.

And so it was typing or it was shop.

So I went home and I said, Dad, I'm gonna take shop next year.

And he said, No, you're gonna take typing.

I'm like, maybe you didn't hear me.

I said, I was gonna take shop because I don't want to take typing.

He's like, Yeah, you're you're gonna take typing.

And I'm like, huh, I don't think I am.

So about August 26th of my sophomore year, I was in typing class.

Um and I I relented.

I said yes because I wanted to survive to my junior year, but uh so so we're in typing class, and my typing teacher was one that uh look, for the first two weeks I was in there, it was a hunt and peck fest.

I mean, I am like, where is the she carried a yardstick and she would walk up and down the rows and she would wrap your knuckles if you looked down at your hands while you were typing?

I'm talking about from day one.

I'm like, I hadn't even been in front of a typewriter.

I don't even know where things are.

Pow! My thing, I thought I'd been in a bar fight, my knuckles were so bruised up by the time I got through with those first two weeks.

Now, here's my point in that.

My dad knew that there was a greater purpose.

Do you know I've used typing just about, as much as I hate to admit it, I've used it almost all the time since then.

You know I've never missed not knowing how to weld.

That's not a that's not a story about a welder.

That's a story about he recognized there was a greater purpose.

He knew there was something bigger that I needed, despite my comfort, despite what I wanted.

That's the idea of the master is in control.

That's the idea of surrendering the outcome, giving up control, but also believing there's a greater purpose.

And we've got to be willing not to see the greater purpose this side of heaven.

We've got to be willing to expect a greater reward.

And that greater reward sometimes will not come until eternity.

The second key that I believe the Bible tells us about how to be thankful even when we don't feel like it, is we've got to have a long-term memory.

We're gonna stay in the Old Testament.

We're gonna flip back, though, to the second book of the Old Testament.

Now, a lot has happened between Genesis and Exodus 32 here, where I'm gonna read.

Um, God has uh has chosen the Israelites.

He has said, I am going to make you my people.

You are going to be a nation that everyone will know from here on out.

Uh but I think the Bible is full of people with memory problems.

Okay?

Uh you can read anywhere in there and see this.

And certainly the Israelites have got to be the worst short-term memory people in history.

Here's what happens: the Israelites have been uh placed in captivity by God.

He's disciplining them, and he puts them in slavery with Egypt for about 400 years.

And the Israelites are constantly calling, God, how long are you gonna save us?

When are you gonna come for us?

God responds to those cries and he says, Okay, it's time to turn my people loose.

And he responds by demonstrating that he is in control with these 10 awesome miracles, these ten plagues, each one worse than the other, demonstrating he is God, and I mean he's showing it to them.

They don't get out of sight of the city and they start complaining, God, you bring us out here to kill us?

I mean, we had it better in Egypt.

I don't know why we weren't here.

Why are we doing that?

That may sound like someone you live with, but I'm just saying that then God says, All right, we'll do one better.

I will part the Red Sea.

About a million people walk through on dry ground, they don't even get a toe wet.

And then it's not very long after, literally days after.

And the Israelites are like, hey, where's Moses the leader?

Well, for 40 days he's been on the mountain communion with God.

Oh, I think we need something to worship.

Really?

You just got freed from 400 years of oppression and slavery.

You just walked on dry ground.

Of course.

Of course, you don't remember who God is and what he's done.

From Genesis to Judges and beyond, the Bible is loaded with repeat offenders related to short-term memory.

But one of the pillars of faith, Moses, who God chooses to lead his people, Moses demonstrates a long-term memory.

Let me read Exodus 32.

We're going to start in verse 7.

Now, what's happened is the people have just made the golden calf to worship.

Moses is on the mountain with God, and this is what happens.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Go down, because your people whom you brought up out of Egypt have become corrupt.

They've been quick to turn away from what I commanded them, and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf.

They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it, and have said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.

I've seen these people, the Lord said to Moses, and they are a stiff-necked people.

Now leave me alone, so that my anger may burn against them, that I may destroy them.

Then I'll make you, Moses, into a great nation.

But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God.

O Lord, he said, Why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

Why should the Egyptians be able to say it was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth?

Turn from your fierce anger.

Relent and do not bring disaster on your people.

Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self, I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.

Moses demonstrates a long-term memory by referring back to a promise that Moses really had nothing to do with.

This is generations before, but he knows about it because generation after generation they've been telling these stories about these pillars of faith, how God came to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and said, I'm gonna make a great nation out of you.

Now, some of you might be thinking, well, you know what?

I'll be honest, I don't really have that long of a life that has history.

Maybe I'm pretty new to faith, or maybe I don't have a faith yet at all.

Maybe I'm still kind of working through that.

I don't know that I really understand drawing all the way back, and what does that mean, having a long-term memory?

What I would challenge you with is what about just considering just your life?

Just the very breath of life that you have?

What about food or shelter or clothes?

Would we not be able to say, just in that, man, God, you've been good to me.

I would also tell you that the God of the Old Testament is still our God.

We too get to call on Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, not because we're Jewish, but because we're those same descendants.

The God of the Old Testament is still our God.

And we get this benefit.

We also get to point to Jesus, the cross, and salvation.

Do we need anything more than that?

But yet God continues to give us more.

He continues to tell his story in the life of every believer.

God continually, every day demonstrates his character.

Speaking of his character, it's his character and not our experiences that should determine our long-term memory.

Does that make sense?

Our experiences should not be what our memory is based on, but instead God's never-changing, ever faithful character.

That's what Moses was drawing on.

Moses was saying, God, I know this isn't who you are.

I know you could burn them down right now, but hang on.

You brought them out for a purpose, and I've got a long-term memory, and I want to respond in that.

If you want to practice having a long-term memory, here's just one thing that I wanted to share with you.

Start a journal.

A prayer journal, a blessing journal, whatever, whatever you want to call it.

Start a journal and just jot down a few things that God has done for you.

A few things that you've been praying about.

I would encourage you to write those down and then just look back to it from time to time and see what has God done with that.

There's a lady in our church, she prayed for 40 years that her husband would be saved, that he would come to faith.

40 years.

I mean, you would think at 39, she's like, I guess it's just not meant for you to be saved, right?

But instead, she continued.

And I promise you, right now, she looks back on that and goes, Oh, don't give up.

Don't give up.

Don't give up on the dream that you feel like God has placed inside of you.

Don't give up on the prodigal that you raised.

Don't give up on any of that.

Have a long term memory for how good God is.

The more we're looking for God in God's Involvement, the more we're going to see it.

We have got to practice to look toward that involvement.

So my son graduates high school last year.

In the spring leading up to that, he's trying to figure out where he's going to go to college.

And we're talking about that, and we said, okay, Alex, you got to stay in Texas.

That's a rule, got to stay there.

And we got the Texas Tomorrow Fund, so we got to use that.

You can't really go anywhere.

And he says, Uh oh, I'll do you one even better.

Mom's cooking is so good, and I like the way laundry is done here.

I'll stay in the city.

So we said, okay, terrific.

We stopped at me being his roommate.

But uh, so he stays.

He says, okay, I'm gonna go to U of H or HBU.

I'm gonna choose one of those.

I'm gonna apply to those, see what happens.

And uh I said, okay, that sounds great.

We'll be praying about that.

Let's pray about oh God, where do you want him to go?

And so we started praying.

And um, it wasn't very long after we started considering that that all these things started coming up about HBU.

Man, we'd be, I don't know, we'd be in the grocery store and bump into somebody, and they'd, oh, HBU, yeah, well, I tell you, my butcher went to HBU.

It's awesome.

He loved the place.

And our neighbors have friends that came down and met with Alex and told him all about it.

I mean, he goes to the dentist, by the way.

Now, sidebar, I don't know how dentists understand what you're saying when your mouth is open.

I don't know if that's what they teach them in dental school, but the dentist has got Alex and he's got his mouth open.

Alex, where are you thinking about going to school?

HBU?

That's all man, I went there.

I mean, his dentist is going nuts about it.

Everything we looked at was pointing to him going to HBU.

So we, oh, okay, and there's there's there's one.

And so, and so we get ready, he enrolls in classes, they send me the invoice, and I thought, let's wait a minute.

We I don't, we might, you know what, Alex, that may have been the devil.

I'm not sure.

Let's be careful about that.

And so, by the way, it was so bad that I called the tomorrow phone and they're like, do what?

Um, so my point is, everything that we were praying, everything was pointing to him making that decision.

And then when we made it, and it starts getting tight, right?

It starts kind of time to pay the piper.

Then I'm the one that's going, I'm not so sure about that.

And my wife is reminding me, matter of fact, she had to just not long ago.

As I'm about to go to bed, it kind of hits me.

How are we gonna pay for this?

I mean, is one semester good enough?

Can we homeschool after this?

And uh, and she said, Wait, weren't you believing that God was orchestrating, kind of pointing him to that?

I said, Yeah, absolutely.

She said, You don't think he knows math?

You don't think he's figured out how he's gonna pay for that?

I think that's a lot of us.

We forget how good God is.

We forget the very nature that he just brought us through the Red Sea in a sense, and then we're like, I don't know where God is.

Really?

Are you forgetting that much about that?

And look, it's not just when we're in need.

Even the Israelites, the stiff-necked people, they could remember God when they were in need.

Man, I mean, you can read story after story.

The minute the Israelites got in need, it was, oh God, no, no, you're the one, boy.

We're we're with you.

I believe we do well to remember God's faithfulness and presence and blessings, no matter the storm, in the good times and in the bad times, consistently relying on a consistent character.

By the way, Moses was so sure of God's character and God's decision-making ability, that when God comes to him and says, Moses, you've been leading this 1.2 million people for about 40 years, you've got at least one gray hair because of it, you're not gonna get into the promised land.

The whole reason you were here, so you thought, and you're not gonna make it.

You know, we have no record of Moses' reaction.

He and complaining and stomping his feet and about how unfair that is, and for 40 years I've been leading these people.

Instead, Moses is saying, God, you know best.

God, I trust you.

I trust your decision-making ability.

Why did he do that?

Because from a long-term history, Moses said, I can rely on you because I know the master is in charge.

I believe Moses also knew our third key, but for that we're going to turn to the New Testament.

So if you have your Bibles, flip over to 2 Corinthians.

Now, this is a letter written to the Corinthians by Paul.

In fact, it's at 2 1, obviously, in Paul is a staunch supporter of the gospel.

Paul has dedicated pretty much his adult life after being converted, that this great conversion story, Paul is dedicated to the spread of the gospel.

And I think Paul gives us an indication as to what that third key to being thankful no matter what, even in the storms.

It's that short-term circumstances should not determine thankfulness.

Paul writes this letter and he's kind of combating some of them that are saying, Yeah, I'm not sure, Paul, it's kind of getting hard.

I don't know about this.

Paul says, Really?

Really?

You want to talk about hard?

Let me tell you.

Chapter 11, this starts in verse 23.

About halfway down in 23, Paul says, I have worked much harder, been imprisoned more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.

Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.

Three times I was beaten with rods.

Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked.

I spent a night and a day in the open sea.

And I have been constantly on the move.

I've been in danger from the rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in danger from the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false brothers.

I have labored and toiled and have gone without sleep.

I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food.

I've been cold and naked.

Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

Paul does not allow short-term circumstances, really any circumstance, to dissuade him from what he's doing.

I think if any of that were us, about the third time we were beaten, you know, about 20 lashes, we're like, you know what?

I don't know that this is God's will.

Maybe we ought to stop that.

You know, thank you for showing me I should go in a different direction.

Instead, Paul is going through this, and it's my opinion that Paul, every time he went through it, is like, yes, God, I am right where you wanted me to be.

I think that's a lot of us.

When it gets hard, we're right where God wants us to be, but we fail to realize it.

We think that the immediate circumstance really is the dictation for what's going on, and instead we ought to be thinking that's a short-term circumstance.

Think about it this way: if we considered time as we know it compared to eternity, if you considered life, 75, 80, 100 years of life compared to eternity, you would quickly say, absolutely, life is short term, right?

Compared to that.

Oh, you better believe it.

But instead, what do we do?

We're worried about tomorrow instead of eternity.

And let me just point out here, in case you're thinking, well, wait, are you telling us to be thankful no matter what?

Yes.

Are you telling us to fake it?

No.

Have you ever been around people that no matter whatever they're going through, they're like, I'm too blessed to be stressed.

And you're like, uh, really?

Because that doesn't look right.

They're going through hard times and they're like, well, God doesn't make a mountain, I can't climb.

And I get the sentiment behind that.

I get what they're saying.

Hey, I'm going to push through and do that.

Um, you know, I thought about, we knew a family back home and they had a uh a tree go through their house.

And uh I thought, man, that thing tore that house up.

And then I thought about this and I wondered, were they coming out of the rubble going, well, I guess God wanted me in a hotel tonight.

So uh look at that.

Guys, I think we've got to be real careful that we don't sort of fake thankfulness, because when we do, I think we we have the danger of ruining God's reputation.

Instead, we ought to demonstrate thankfulness as a genuine heart move.

Now we recognize thankfulness is not based on circumstance, but on God's character.

It's certainly okay to say, God, this is hard.

I promise you, in that shipwreck, Paul was saying, God, I feel like I'm right where I need to be.

But also, it'd be all right if you'd get me out of this.

Absolutely, it's fine to tell God exactly how you feel.

God, this is hard.

God, I'm not sure I can sustain any longer in this.

But it is not okay not to still recognize there is a thankfulness that comes, this peace.

I still feel hard, bad, whatever, but there's a peace that comes with my understanding that the master's in control based on my long-term memory and short-term circumstances.

Now you might be thinking, hey, you know what?

I've not had a significant death in the family.

I've not really had it hard.

I mean, my life's been pretty easy.

I've not had a health scare, I've not had really any issues.

But if I were honest, I would say, you know, I just don't feel very thankful.

When I get up and go to work tomorrow, I don't feel very thankful.

When I get up and go to school tomorrow, I don't really feel very thankful.

When I'm trying to raise these heathen kids of mine, I don't feel really very thankful.

You know, you might be thinking, well, I got this boss at work, it's a new boss, and man, is he a jerk.

I cannot believe that they promoted the one guy I didn't want to report to, and they did.

And then I go home and I tell my wife, oh boy, you wouldn't believe it down there.

I mean, that that place, and she's like, hey, you ought to be thankful you got a job.

And then you tell your friends, oh boy, you wouldn't believe how tough I have it.

And they're like, hey, people without jobs don't have that problem.

And you're like, uh, what?

Maybe God's just wanting you to realize the purpose that He's called you to.

Maybe when it gets difficult, that's exactly when we ought to be saying, Oh, God, what are you doing here?

Our default, God, can you get me out of it?

Our default should be, God, what are you doing?

Oh, let me learn what you need to.

Let teach me what you want to, and let me be that instrument that you want me to be.

If your thankfulness is short-lived based only on who you report to at work, or if you were popular at school last week, or the number in your bank account, then be careful that short-term memory syndrome hasn't set in.

And let me just say this kind of a PS to that.

Um, it's been my experience that if you bail out during the difficulty, here's what happens.

Two things happen.

Number one, I believe it takes you longer to get through them.

Because I think God's shaping us.

And so you bailed out of that one, there's going to be another.

The Bible tells us there's going to be hard times.

We've got to be ready for that.

It will test our faith.

And I think the second thing that happens when we bail out a difficulty sooner than we should, sooner than we're all the way through that, is the victory getting through it is not as sweet.

The fourth key to being thankful, even when we don't feel like it, is to pray.

Now, if you're thinking, well, wait, that kind of seems pretty easy.

That's a no-brainer, pray.

Yeah, I mean, is that the best one you got?

Is that the fourth one?

Well, let me read to you who actually did that.

This comes from Matthew chapter four, just two verses, verses one and two.

I was drawn to this.

I was reading uh David Paulison's book, Safe and Sound.

And in the book he says that prayer is how we express our living dependence on God and how we rely on God's power for the help we need.

Living dependence and relying on power.

That's what he says prayer is.

Take a look at Matthew chapter 4, verses 1 and 2.

Matthew 4:1

Now, this is Jesus right before he's about to start his ministry, and it says this then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry.

I can see the look on your face.

You're thinking, wait, that didn't say anything about prayer.

Are you kidding me?

All the references in the Bible about prayer, and you choose those two verses, don't even have the word prayer in them.

Here's what I know about Jesus.

I promise you, he was not sitting around for those 40 days waiting to get hungry.

Jesus knew why he was out there.

He knew what was coming.

Just like we do.

We know it's coming.

We don't know what maybe, but we know something's coming.

If you read the four gospels, you absolutely understand that Jesus was praying all the time.

He was praying during stressful times, like in the garden when they came to get him for his crucifixion.

He was praying before he ministered to people, after he ministered.

He was praying before and after meals, he was praying before and after miracles, he was praying all the time.

This is Jesus, by the way.

We won't get into it, but Jesus is fully God and fully man, had all the power.

You're telling me anybody that had an excuse not to pray would be him, and he's praying as fervently as he was?

I guarantee you he was praying right here, right before he knew what was coming.

Now, if you're wondering, well, how do you pray?

I'm not sure about that.

I mean, uh I hear people do it, and I'm not exactly, I just encourage you, you can pray out louder in your mind's own voice.

You can tell God what you're going through.

You say, God, this is what I'm dealing with.

God, this is how I'm feeling.

God, this is where I am.

Here's the crazy thing about prayer.

It's not only calling on the power of God, it actually, the more you do it, aligns your heart with the will of God.

Now, prayer will start by, hey, this is my to-do list, hey God, you can really help me out here.

Nothing wrong with that.

But the more we pray, the more we commune with God, the more we have this relationship, this intimacy with Him, we move from just asking about us, for us, to God, what do you want?

God, how is it that you want me to live?

That's what prayer does.

It's our living dependence on God.

It's relying on his power to help us, but it's also aligning our hearts to his will.

When the ultimate storm, death, comes.

Will you be able to give thanks?

For you know that you confessed with your mouth and you believed with your heart.

That Jesus is the Son of God, that he came to give us a right relationship with a holy creator.

I will not fear the shadow of death, the shadow of a bad boss, the shadow of whatever.

Because I know God is with me.

His word, his presence, his love, and his character comfort me.

And I'll be able to say, I will dwell in the presence of God for all time.

Here's how I want to end our service this morning.

I I want to give you about five questions to consider.

That may seem like a lot.

This Sunday is our community group Sunday.

It's where all over uh town we are meeting in home groups tonight.

And these are some questions you can explore.

But I want to give you five of these, and I want you to think about them.

Clyde's gonna come up, he's gonna play and sing over us.

I'll pray and we'll close.

But I want you to ask, how does your life reflect who you believe is in control?

Now, I think each one of us on a quiz or something, we'd bubble in if we were multiple choice, the right answer here.

But I just wonder, how does your life tell us what you believe is in control?

How often are you persuaded by circumstance?

What does your prayer life look like?

Is it circumstance or is it confession?

And when you suffer, how do you respond?

Think about those as Clyde plays.

God, it's uh we recognize that when we're in the storms, that's when we need you.

And we can be thankful even in the midst of that.

But Lord, what we also pray that you remind us is in the good times and in the bad, we don't forget you.

We're not a short-term memory people.

And we certainly don't let circumstances dictate how we feel about you because your character is not dictated by circumstance.

Thank you, God, that you allow us to incite the power of the Almighty through prayer.

And Lord, what we pray is that our lives will reflect that we believe you, the Master, is in control.

Lord, what we pray is that our lives will confess your character and it will not be dictated by circumstance.

Lord, let us, like Paul, when we suffer, let us suffer well for the gospel.

For the world needs to know there is more than the temporary, there is the permanent of eternity.

And it's a relationship with you that allows us that.

Thank you.

We love you and we pray these things in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Well, thank you for being here this morning.

Um, if you're our guest and you've had a chance to fill out the connection card on the seat back in front of you, you can drop that in one of those wooden boxes on your way out.

Uh, I wanted to make you aware of a few things going on in the life of our church.

Give your attention to the video screen.

We'll give you some announcements, and then I'll come back and give you two more I wanted to make you aware of.

It's time for everyone to sing and for every heart to prepare him room.

If your child is interested in singing in this year's Advent Kids Choir, head to Grandparkway.org/slash events to register.

Put on your favorite pair of pajamas and get ready for this year's Family Christmas.

We'll have games, the Christmas story, the second annual gingerbread house contest, cookie decorating, crafts, a photo booth, Christmas movies, train rides, and lots of hot chocolate and pancakes.

Register online at grandparkway.org/slash events.

If you're new, be sure and check out our website at grandparkway.org.

If you're on social media, you can find us there too.

Just uh two more announcements, one immediate and one a little bit in the future.

The immediate one is this Tuesday is our men's breakfast at 6 a.m.

at the warehouse, which is our student building at the back of our campus.

Men, this is free to you.

We'll have uh breakfast from Whataburger, we'll have a message, and then we'll spend some time in some tables just discussing some questions from that message, praying together, and then we'll get out of there by 7.

So join us for that if you can.

The second announcement is a little bit more long term, it comes up February the 7th.

It'll just be from 6 to 9 p.m., but it's our night to shine.

This is what we're doing to uh put on a prom for people with special needs.

It's for ages 14 and up.

Uh we're expecting about 150 special guests that night.

What we need for that is 150 buddies that go with them, and we're doing all kinds of things.

One, we're having a respite out at the warehouse where we will provide dinner, massages, and just kind of a break for the families of our special guests.

We're also gonna have limbo rides here on campus.

We literally will have a red carpet, uh, flash bulbs will go off.

I mean, this thing is going to be a party.

Uh, I told the first service that if you're a card-carrying Baptist, you can check that at the door.

We're gonna have a dance floor in the back, okay?

So get ready for that.

Um then, so we need a variety of assistance.

We need food service, we need people to just be around, we need people in the kids' building where we'll have a uh sensory deprivation room in case that's needed by some of our special guests.

We're gonna need dance floor hosts.

We also are gonna just need some muscle.

We're going to take this room uh and have dinner and tables here.

And then while the event's going on, we're gonna flip this back into an auditorium where Neil will give a brief gospel message and then we will crown every special guest so that they will be queen or king of that particular night.

And so this is gonna be a real special time.

We want to make sure that you're aware of it now because during Advent we don't do announcements, and so we want you to be uh aware of this.

You can register to be a volunteer, or if you know someone with a special need that would like to participate in that night, you can also register through our website.

All right, well, stand to your feet.

I want to speak a blessing over you and we'll be dismissed.

Hold out your hands.

Your God has not forgotten you.

And he's certainly not forgotten who he is.

Let's live remembering who we are in light of him.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.