Thanksliving (North OC)

Wow.

Look at that.

What a warm Welcome to North O.

C.

Man, I know these guys have probably been working on that all week.

Thank you guys.

Uh, well guys, it's great to be with you all.

For those who don't know who I am, my name is Kyle Lounsberry.

Along with my wife, Jasmine Lounsberry.

We lead our campus ministry here in Orange County.

And we are so grateful to be here.

Amen?

Um, let's see if this works.

There is a picture of our family.

We have a newborn named Luca.

Luca Lounsberry, for those who haven't met him.

He is there in the back with my wife.

Feel free to go back there and say hi.

Uh, we are so grateful for truly just the support.

And the, the meals from some of you from the, the barbers and the barons

and the halls and many of you just pouring out and loving us, we're so

grateful, um, for your guys support.

During Jasmine's pregnancy and even during the birth of our baby boy and a

few weeks, uh, of him being a newborn.

And it's been a great time, lots of fun.

And we're so grateful to be able to be back and serving and

being able to speak here today.

I'm so grateful.

So thank you guys.

I just want to personally thank the Norto's.

You have a special place in our hearts and we truly are grateful.

For all that you've done for our family.

Amen.

So thank you guys.

Love you guys.

Yes.

Love you.

Um, for those who don't know, we actually recently transitioned to the Central

OC Ministry down in Irvine to help with our campus ministry at UC Irvine and

some of the surrounding schools there.

And that's been a lot of fun.

Um, but quick update, we haven't physically moved down there yet.

So I'm still 10 minutes away here in Brea.

So that was an awesome drive this morning.

Not having to go all the way down to Irvine.

But, uh, what I will say is that we actually found a place and we'll be

moving in the middle of December.

Um, so we're very excited and grateful and looking forward to that.

So campus, I'll be needing your help moving.

Okay, Evan?

Alright.

Um, so that'll be an awesome time.

You know, this past week we all celebrated, well most of us

probably celebrated Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is an amazing holiday.

You know, in my family, my great grandfather, my dad's dad, uh, it's

really the only holiday he celebrates.

He's not religious, he's an atheist, he doesn't really like Christmas or Easter,

um, but he loves Thanksgiving because it brings the whole family together and it's

an opportunity to be able to give thanks for how much we have been blessed with.

And that's one holiday that has a special place in my heart.

So this past weekend we went up to Uh, Pismo Beach area and we got to celebrate

Thanksgiving with my great grandpa and, uh, my dad's side of the family.

That was a great time bringing the little one up there and showing

him off to the whole family.

Um, so hopefully you had a great Thanksgiving.

Um, what I will say is last week Marcel started a two part series,

uh, on the idea of giving thanks.

Last week they, you guys, uh, you guys discussed how Thanksgiving's

more than just a turkey, right?

More than a turkey.

And this week, we're going to talk a little bit more into

this idea of giving thanks.

I want to share here the definition Marcel brought up.

And I love this because it's the expression of gratitude, right?

So I'm going to use the word gratitude quite often today.

And so if you hear that, it's interchangeable with

this idea of giving thanks.

But it's especially great to God.

Amen?

And when we give thanks, it's something we can do to our Lord Jesus.

And he also mentioned how giving thanks is important to God.

It's something that, as Christians, is very vital for our

spirituality, to give thanks to God, because it's important to Him.

And so today, Marcel mentioned this last week, but today we're going to

be talking about how living thanks...

is important to God.

And so the title of today's message is, thanks, living.

Alright?

Not just giving it, but also living it.

Amen?

You with me?

So let's go ahead, let's say a word of prayer, and we'll jump

into God's word this morning.

Lord, thank you so much for this time to be able to worship you.

So grateful for my family here in the North O.

C.

and being able to see people who have just been amazing disciples and

so faithful to you for many years.

Thank you so much for the family that we've been able to develop here.

Uh, Jasmine and I just being here for a few short years in the north and building

the relationships we've got to build.

God, I'm so eternally grateful for how much you've blessed us.

And God, I pray that this morning as we read your word, as we talk through

this idea of living out our thanks and living out our gratitude, God, that

we can truly have a heart of humility.

Have a heart of desiring to please you with our lives.

We love you.

Please speak through me this morning that it's not me speaking, rather it's you.

We love you and thank you in Jesus name.

Amen.

Alright.

Today we're gonna turn again to the book of Leviticus.

Alright.

Marcel mentioned Leviticus last week.

I'm not gonna hang out in this chapter too long because then I would just get lost.

Alright.

But we're gonna look at one passage here in the book of Leviticus, chapter 22.

Leviticus 22 · chapter mention

Alright.

In verse 29, it says, When you sacrifice a vain offering to the

Lord, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf.

It must be in that same day.

Leave none of it till morning.

I am the Lord.

So why am I bringing this up?

You know, the book of Leviticus is about the Jewish law, right?

There's tons of laws in there.

I believe there's over 600 laws.

This specific passage is describing and talking about a vanquish offering.

That in this time there was an opportunity for, for the Jews to

be able to vanquish God through an offering, through a sacrifice.

But what we see here that I think is really unique is the, the phrasing that it

says, that, uh, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf.

Who here has ever received a gift before?

Okay, all of us received a gift, right?

Who here has ever received a gift that you're like, I don't

really have any use for this?

Or I don't really like this?

Some of us?

Okay, yeah.

So when you receive that gift, you're kind of like, Okay, thank you.

Right?

But it has no use for you.

You with me?

Well, if there's a sacrifice or an offering that's useful, or that is,

excuse me, accepted by God, Wouldn't you think there could be an offering or

a sacrifice that isn't accepted by God?

Right?

That's an observation here.

A vain offering that is acceptable to God means that there can

be one that is unacceptable.

So we're going to look a little bit into this today and what that might mean.

But I think it's important we draw from that scripture this idea

that God looks for a specific...

Thanks.

Specific gratitude in the way we live our lives.

He's looking for something in our hearts.

He's looking for something the way that we live.

You with me?

And there's a cool parallel passage that we're going to focus

in on today in the New Testament.

Turn with me in your Bibles, if you will, to Luke chapter 17.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

Alright?

Many of you know this passage, Luke chapter 17, verse 11.

Luke 17:11

We're going to pick up here.

And it reads, He's now on his way to Jerusalem.

Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.

As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him.

They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice,

Jesus, Master, have pity on us.

When he saw them, he said, Go show yourselves to the priests, and they went.

They were cleansed.

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back praising God in a loud voice.

He threw himself at Jesus feet and thanked him.

And he was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, We're not all ten cleansed?

Where are the other nine?

Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?

Then he said to him, Rise.

Go.

Your faith has made you well.

Alright.

So let's paint the picture here for a second.

We have this really cool passage where we see ten men with leprosy.

Now, leprosy was a horrible skin disease that, in that time, if you

had that disease, you were outcasted.

You had to stay away.

Think of social distancing times ten, right?

You were gone, you could not interact with anybody.

Most of you know this, right?

But that's what leprosy was.

And so, ten of them, let's look back, ten of them come to Jesus with

leprosy, and it says they stood at a distance, and they yelled out to him.

Jesus, Master.

They reference him as Master.

It's interesting.

Have pity on us.

Asking for pity.

And when he saw them, he said, go show yourselves to the priests.

He says, go get cleansed.

And as they went, they were cleansed.

So, here's an observation.

These guys go, based on their faith that Jesus told them to go.

Because they could have gone and nothing happened.

But they decide, you know what, we're going to trust you, Lord.

We're going to trust you, Jesus.

They call him Master.

They reference him as Master.

The Lord.

Okay, we're going to go.

And they go, and they're healed.

They're cleansed.

Cleansed from their horrible skin disease.

I was going to put a picture up there, but it's just too graphic.

Alright, I wasn't going to put it up there because I was like, this is really bad.

They get healed.

But only one of them returns.

Only one of the ten.

That's ten percent.

Comes back and praises God.

Says he came back praising God in a loud voice.

He threw himself at Jesus feet.

On his knees, praising Jesus.

Thanking Him.

Now think about this.

Imagine if you were that leper.

Imagine if for years you had this horrible skin disease.

This horrible ailment that outcasted you.

You had no friends.

Your only friends were other lepers.

First, imagine what you would be feeling for all those years.

Imagine the pain, imagine the suffering, imagine the loneliness.

Now think about the joy he must have felt when he was healed.

He takes himself, he goes over to Jesus, and he kisses his feet, thank you.

He expresses his gratitude with true, genuine action.

And I believe, brothers and sisters, that this morning, as we think through

what it means to live a life of gratitude, that it has to be genuine.

It has to have a response of, man, this is my heart, this, thank you, Lord.

The other nine, they took it for granted.

The other nine, they ran off, they're like, we're healed,

we can go do whatever we want.

But the one said, no.

It's because of you.

Immediately, he made the connection, this is only possible because of Jesus.

And I think for, for some of us, we may not realize that we, it's essential

to express our gratitude to God.

Sometimes we receive so much in our lives, we receive healing, we receive counsel,

we receive advice, we receive joy, we receive forgiveness of sins, but we still

live a life taking things for granted.

We still live lives not expressing our heart to God.

You with me?

I know I can be this way.

And what we can see from this passage is that a response

of gratitude glorifies God.

It is glorifying to God.

It's not just a thank you.

It's not just a nice gift.

It glorifies Him.

It honors Him.

It makes Him the main character in the story and not you.

Jesus was honored by that one man.

And he ends up saving this man's soul.

It says that your faith has made you well.

Saves his soul because of his faith and his gratitude in response

to what Jesus did in his life.

You with me?

So I want to ask you this question this morning.

How do we respond when Jesus does miracles in our lives?

Are we grateful?

Do we respond with gratitude or do we just blow it off or

say, Oh, it's just coincidence.

Or, oh, that just happens to people.

Or, are we full of gratitude?

Do we have a response of, Man, I just want to beg you and thank you, Lord,

for what you've done in my life.

Sometimes we can be unaware, let's be honest for a second, of the good

things God is doing in our lives.

Sometimes we're just totally unaware, we're aloof to it.

God is doing miracles amongst our lives today.

But we don't even realize it sometimes.

Either, one, we're just disconnected from it, we're not really realizing

that it's God working there, or...

We choose not to believe that it's God.

We choose not to believe or, or, or accredit it to God.

Are you, this morning, unaware of the good things God's doing in your life

or in the lives of people around you?

I think it's important we, we get in touch and get in tune with what

God's doing so that we can live a life of thanks and gratitude to Him.

Amen?

We must live lives full of gratitude.

You know, something starts to happen in our hearts In our lives, in our minds,

when we have a mentality of gratitude.

You with me?

Uh, I'm sure there's tons of studies.

I think Marcel brought it up last week that, that it's, it changes your mind.

When you're grateful, when you're praying to God, when you're thanking

God, when you're thinking about how much God is doing in your life, you

start having a very positive outlook.

You start having an optimistic mentality.

You start having a faithful mentality.

You start thinking about things from a, God point of view rather

than a worldly point of view.

You with me?

And you know what starts to happen in our hearts?

We become Servants.

We start to give.

We want to help people.

We want to spread what God's doing in our lives.

We want to share the good news about Christ.

We want to share what God's doing in our lives.

We become givers rather than takers.

And we start realizing life's not really about me.

It's not about myself anymore.

It's not about how good I look, or how much money I make, or

what it is I, I'm always doing.

It's not about me, but we desire to serve and give for Christ.

Amen?

You know, when we live thankful lives, we desire to give and serve.

Let's live lives full of gratitude.

So that way we can also pass on to others what God has passed on to us.

But, here's the, the reality.

When we lack gratitude, We take things for granted and become selfish.

Just what happens.

We take things for granted.

We become selfish.

It's all about us.

You know, lately I've been hearing this analogy going around different

churches and even in our fellowship and it's a great analogy that I think

is so practical and helpful for us to truly apply this type of heart.

Amen?

Being a new father, my son's not here yet, but eventually he's going to start

wearing a bib when he eats, right?

Right now he's just eating milk.

But eventually he'll start wearing a bib so that way when he makes a

mess, it doesn't get on his clothes, it gets on his bib, you with me?

So here's a bib, right?

Feed me!

Well, sometimes in our lives as Christians, we like to wear the bib.

We like to come to church wearing a bib.

Feed me.

Give to me.

Consumer mentality.

You with me?

We, we put on a bib mentality.

I do this all the time.

What can I receive?

Right?

What can I get?

You know, I'll share.

This past week, we got home from Thanksgiving.

It was a long drive.

Pismo Beach.

Four hour drive home.

We got home Thursday night.

It was late.

And our son was, his sleep schedule was very off because we're traveling all day.

Right?

And we get home, and my wife is amazing.

Alright, let me just say this first.

My wife is an amazing mother, an amazing servant.

She, she embodies this mentality.

Okay?

Not the bib mentality, but the mentality of a servant.

Right?

I embody the mentality of a bib.

Okay?

If I'm just being honest.

And we get home, it's like 11.

30 and I'm wiped.

I'm tired.

She even drove some of the way.

Um, she's just amazing.

We get home, and she's like, Hey, can you just help me stay up and take care

of him, burp him, let's get him to sleep.

And I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'll help.

Well, twenty minutes later, I'm passed out.

On the bed.

And she, obviously, she's mad.

Alright?

She's mad at me, cause I'm being selfish.

And, you know, I end up waking up briefly and she's like, Thanks for nothing.

Like, you're not even helping me.

I was like, oh man.

So I'm like, okay, how can I help?

How can I help?

Like, you want me to throw away his diaper?

So I go throw away the diaper.

But she's already mad at me and I already, I already lost, right?

And so then, you know, finally gets to sleep.

It's like 12.

30am.

She was up for an extra hour.

And, uh, the next morning I'm like, Oh man, she's gonna be mad at me.

She didn't sleep.

So luckily, I, I feel like I somewhat redeemed myself, you

can ask her if I did or not.

I got up with him when he first woke up, took him out of the room, burped him,

let him nap a little bit more, and, you know, let her sleep for a couple hours.

But I was being selfish, alright?

I was taking on the bib mentality.

Brothers and sisters, we gotta take on the apron mentality.

We gotta put on the apron.

We put on the apron when we're full of gratitude for Christ.

For what God's doing in our lives.

We want to go up to church to serve.

We want to hang out with each other to serve one another.

During family group or Bible talks or whatever it is, we're here to

serve and give to one another.

We're going to serve the community because we are so filled with

the gratitude God has given us.

How much God has given us.

We're full of this gratitude.

And so we desire, at your service, how can I give to you?

Campus students, how can we give?

Yeah, I'm going to call you out.

You're my ministry.

We talk to you all the time.

How can we serve one another?

How can we serve our parents?

How can we serve our families?

We've got to take on this heart and this mentality because the Bible says that the

greatest among you is the servant of all.

In fact, it says the slave of all.

Jesus wants us to take on the mentality, the heart of a servant.

This is how we ought to act.

This is the mentality we ought to take on.

And there's a huge difference.

So I want us to imagine for a second, imagine the impact, and I,

I do want to just say, our church is full of apron servants, amen?

Tons of you serve, getting here this morning, seeing the kids kingdom workers

serving, getting here early, setting up for our kids, seeing the welcome

booth, the worship team, the AV team, people serve, not just on Sunday,

but throughout the whole week, amen?

So we have many servants, but imagine if all of us...

Took on this heart and this mentality to put on the apron and think about the

impact we could have in our community.

Just for a second, think about it.

Imagine how you might feel if you show up and you don't have to serve all the time

because so many people are serving you.

It's just this big cycle of serving and giving.

That's awesome.

That's special.

That's something that God is glorified by.

Amen?

And that's how we ought to live our lives.

When we have a serving mindset, it glorifies God and

it encourages the fellowship.

It encourages others.

So why should we serve and give to God out of gratitude?

Why should we do it?

God deserves our best.

God deserves our best.

Amen?

He deserves our best in everything we do.

God deserves the best.

He doesn't deserve the leftovers.

He deserves the best.

Romans 12 verse 1.

Romans 12:1

It says, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy.

For a second, just think about that.

The mercy God's given us, in view of that, offer your bodies as a living

sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true and proper worship.

In view of God's mercy.

Again, we're accrediting this to God.

It's because of God.

That we live this way.

It's because of God that we have gratitude.

It's because of God we are doing the things we're doing.

So, therefore, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.

Jesus sacrificed his life for all of us.

For our sins.

Well, let's offer our lives as a daily living sacrifice.

So, what is that going to mean for you?

What does it mean to offer yourself to God on a daily basis?

as a living sacrifice.

We talked earlier about a sacrifice that's acceptable to God.

Right?

Well, an acceptable sacrifice for our lives is to do it every day.

Denying myself.

Carrying my cross.

What can I give up to honor God?

What can I maybe not spend as much time doing to help serve others?

To serve God?

You with me?

Giving God our best.

It requires sacrifice.

We can't just give God our best and just like, poof, here it is God, took no work.

No, giving God our best requires sacrifice.

It requires it.

We have to sacrifice daily to give God our best.

You with me?

So maybe for some of us, maybe for some of the newer Christians, or people who have

been disciples or Christians for a long time, maybe we've gotten out of the habit

or out of the practice of just the basics.

Just the simplest, simple little things that we know draw us nearer to God.

Maybe that's a prayer time.

Maybe that's, for some of us, we know getting out of the house and praying

helps us connect better to God, but we've been too lazy, or we've been too busy,

or we haven't really prioritized that, so we're just praying quickly in our homes.

That's a small little sacrifice you can apply just like that.

We've got to require, our best requires sacrifice.

We have to sacrifice in our lives for Christ.

Amen?

I want to share one last example here.

That I think is really key.

And Marcel, I'm going to credit this one to Marcel.

This is a good one.

Imagine on Thanksgiving, this past Thursday, you had your whole family over.

You showed up.

You know, you, you, you know, planned this out.

You even sent an invite out.

And you've never really hosted your house, but you're like, I'm

having the whole family over.

In fact, I'm going to bring some friends over.

People who, you know, whose families live far.

I'm going to have the whole crew at the house.

Right?

I'm sure many of you did that.

But imagine if you did that, and for Thanksgiving dinner, you

laid out yesterday's leftovers.

Imagine.

Say, alright guys, this is turkey I made last week.

It's been sitting in the fridge.

You know, I actually chewed up the carrots for you guys, and then spit it out.

I grabbed some of the salad out of the trash and threw it on there.

Like, the leftovers, right?

Imagine if that's what you served your guests.

How would they be feeling?

They will walk out that house so fast, you'll be like, this guy's crazy.

There's no way, right?

Because that's not your best.

That's not how we give, that's not what we give God.

We don't give God our leftovers.

What do we do?

We give Him our best.

We lay out the whole spread.

We get the nice silverware out of the cabinet.

We get the plates.

We don't just get paper plates.

We go and we buy the porcelain plates, or whatever they call it.

Did I get that right?

Okay, China plates.

We brine the turkey.

24 hours.

Maybe 48 for some of you.

We put in the extra effort.

We think through how it smells in the house.

We think through all the things, because it's our best for God.

We want to give our best to God.

Not our leftovers.

Not our second.

Our absolute best.

You with me?

Church, how can we give our best to God?

As we walk out of this building today.

What are the ways we're going to be able to start giving our best?

Maybe you are giving your best in one area, but in another area you're like,

Oh, I know, I don't really want to.

It's going to take more time and effort.

How can we give our best?

Living sacrifice.

We're called to be living sacrifices for Christ.

What can we do to improve God's kingdom with one another?

Let's give our best to Him.

Amen?

Giving God our best, it requires sacrifice.

Let's not give them our leftovers.

Let's give them the best feast we can possibly provide.

So we've got to put in time.

We've got to put in effort.

It's going to take a lot of soul searching for some of us.

And we put in thought into how we serve and give to God.

Amen?

And so let's get real practical here.

Let's look at some action steps.

Alright?

Some action steps are key here.

Let's think about the ways you maybe have worn a bit.

What are some of the ways that you have this selfish mindset, where

you're wearing a bib, maybe when you wear that bib, it makes you critical.

Maybe you just start pointing out all the flaws because you're only consuming.

What are the ways that you've been wearing a bib?

Another one is, I think it's important we commit as a church.

What's one new serving opportunity?

What's one way I can put on the apron?

Alright, it can be something small, it can be something big.

Wherever God is convicting your heart, how can you...

Commit to one new serving opportunity.

And lastly, I want you to share with a friend one way you can give God your best.

One way you can start improving and giving God your best.

In your own times with Him, whether it's in your servitude, whether it's in your

relationships, whatever it is, what's one way you can give God your best?

And please, let's share it with one another to have some accountability.

Amen?

You know, as we are closing out today, we're going to go ahead

and be taking the communion here.

And as we take the Communion, we read that scripture in Romans 12 that talks about

how we have to be a living sacrifice.

Well, we know that the greatest sacrifice in all of humankind,

mankind, is the sacrifice of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins.

Amen?

And so as we pray, as we reflect, and as we take the Communion, let's

remember that the sacrifice that Jesus gave for our lives prompts

us, out of gratitude, to live.

Sacrificially in our lives.

Let's pray.

God, thank you so much for this morning, and this time, to be able

to worship you, to be able to think about living a life full of gratitude.

God, that, our gratitude isn't just a lip service, isn't just something we say,

but it's something we actually live out.

That our gratitude for you, for the blessings you've given us, For many

things that you've given us, God, I pray that that gratitude urges us

to live a life full of sacrifice.

To live a life that's giving our best to you.

To live a life that's not putting on the bib and consuming, God, but it's

putting on the apron and serving.

Giving to you.

And Lord, I pray that this morning, as we think through even some of the action

steps in our lives, that we are motivated by your Son, Jesus, dying on the cross.

That we're not doing this just because...

I'm up here telling us to do it, but we want to, we want to

truly apply these things because we're motivated by the cross.

We're moved by the love you've shown us.

And God, I pray that we can live our lives in devotion to you always.

In Jesus name I pray, Amen.