Arise in Gratitude

All right, then. Are you ready?

Am I? I don't know. God is

so faithful and he is so good, and I am excited about the word that

he has today. You guys doing good this morning? Does it seem like

I'm really close here for a minute? Yeah. Would you rather that I

go up here? Oh, good. Because I was just going to be right over here

and talk to you a little.

I am excited about the Word. We are still in the arise

portion of the series that we've been in, and it is all

about those moments or those

seasons in our life where God begins to draw us

to step up in some areas. You know, has God ever done that

to you? Gone. You know, this is good. This is good. But you know what?

I've got more for you, and I would like you to step up just a

little bit in this because I have more for. For you

and in God. That is always the case. I was sharing

earlier. You know, it doesn't matter how many times you read the. Well,

it does matter how many times you read the Bible. But I will say,

regardless of how many times you read the Bible, read the

Word, there's always something new. There's always

something that makes you go, wait a minute, was that there before? You know,

was there really always a book of Genesis? You know, Anyway,

anyway, I love that he continues to open his word

to us, and that's my prayer this morning, is that he would open his

word to us. We do have some visitors in the house.

I am Barbie Laughlin. I'm the executive

pastor here, and I've had the honor and privilege of serving in

this house for almost 30 years.

You know, I think I need to sit down now that I've said that out

loud. Actually, you know, the goodness of God thing, I was sitting here

just a second ago and had the most poignant, sweetest

moment because I'm sitting here as people are walking up

for communion, and I hear these two voices, and they are

the most beautiful voices in the world to me. And I rarely get to hear

them together. And it was Pastor Ronnie and Pastor Wayne who were

in front of one another in the aisle. And I'm like, oh, God, I've

been so blessed. I've been so blessed. And we are

so blessed by what God has done and continue and by who

he is. So we are going to jump into the Word and see what

he has for us this morning. You know, what's interesting is

that I can study and I can plan,

and I really have no clue what's going to happen when I get

up here. Which is good, because all I want to do is follow

the Holy Spirit and follow his leading. I want to study, and then I just

want to see where he takes us. Are y' all cool with that?

Okay. Because if you said no, we were in big trouble. So we're going to

stand up and we're going to get into the Word. And I will tell you,

these scriptures may seem random, but they're not,

or they weren't in my office, and I

don't believe they will be by the end of this time together. So if we

could read together. And God said,

let there be lights in the vault of the sky to

separate the day from the night, and let them sit

as signs to mark sacred times and days and

years. That last line. Let them serve as

signs to mark sacred times and days

and years. Okay, now we're gonna jump over

into Genesis a little further. Then

Moses said to him, if your presence does not go

with us, do not send us up from here. How

will anyone know that you are pleased with me and

with your. Unless you go with us? What

else will distinguish me and your people from all

the other people on the face of the earth?

And the Lord said to Moses, I will do the

very thing you have asked because I am pleased with

you and I know you by name. Then

Moses said, now show me your glory.

And the Lord said, I. I will cause all my

goodness to pass in front of you, and I will

proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.

Father. God, I thank you so much for your word.

I thank you so much for your

word. It truly is a light in our

path. It's a lamp unto our feet. I thank you, Father,

that you alone have the words of wisdom, the words of life. And

so, Father, thank you. Thank you for giving that to us.

I pray our hearts are attentive to you and what you have to say today,

Lord, not me. Let my stuff fall in your stand in

Jesus name. And they all said, amen.

Amen. I have read Genesis so many times

as have you, and for some reason, it just

hit me as I was reading this passage when it

said that there would be lights in the

expanse of the heaven. This was day four. That there would

be lights in the expanse of the heaven, and that they would mark

the sacred days. They would mark the sacred

days. And there are a lot of ways we can go with this, but I'm

just gonna sit here with this for a minute. You know, when you.

Last night, did any of y' all go outside Last night, any

of you close to, have you been

outside in the last month? Did

you happen to see that it gets dark in the evenings?

And the last time, whenever that might have been, did you

notice that there were stars in the

sky in the expanse of the heavens? Well, this

tells me that they are still marking sacred times,

that they're still marking sacred times. And that as

long as those stars are there and the lights are

there, God's doing stuff. God's doing

things. Because, see, here's what this says. Sacred,

regarded as holy and entitled to reverence or set

apart for a specific and elevated purpose. Dedicated and

consecrated, hallowed, directly associated with

deity and worship.

So if there are stars in the sky

and there are lights in the expanse of the heaven,

there are holy things happening. There

are sacred things happening. There are moments that

are entitled to reverence as the Lord unfolds them.

There are days that are appointed in your life for

specific purpose, and they're still being

marked by the expanse, the lights in the heavens. See,

here's my revelation, my day for revelation. The reason it's a day for

revelation is because that's the day that it was created. My day

for revelation is this is as long as there are lights in the vault of

the sky, we are marking and standing

witness to sacred seasons and appointed and

holy times. We are marking

those seasons. And I see the Lord in my life.

It seems like there is just such a keen awareness these

days. And they're not easy days, but there's this keen awareness,

there's this keen calling in my spirit to pay

attention. To pay attention. Not to social

media, not to NBC and ABC and FOX

News, but to pay attention to what God is

doing in the earth, to pay attention to

what he is accomplishing in the earth. It's like

I asked him. I'm like, lord, what is this? Because it's been going on for

several years, but, Lord, what is this? And

he is teaching my spirit

to stand witness. And he is

calling his people to stand witness

to what he is doing in the earth. And it isn't. There's an

element of witnesses. Like, go and be witnesses.

Absolutely. You go and you share the gospel. You go and share

the message of Christ. But there's also an element to

witness, to be aware and to see what God

is doing in the earth, what God is doing in these moments

in your life, what he's trying to do, to teach you.

Because he's always trying to teach you to be

aware and to be awake. Here's the thing. In seasons of

witness. And trust me, whether you know it or not, you are

in one because you are called to see what

God is doing and to be aware and to grasp it

so that not only can we witness it, but we can be a part of

what he's doing in the earth and seasons of

witness. Elroy, the God who sees

me and the God who sees you

is teaching you to see him in

what you're doing. Now, listen, I understand there's a passage of scripture that

says no man can see God and live. Okay,

I get that, and that's not what I'm saying, but I am

saying you can see him.

You can see him. It's, you know, the old thing. You

cannot see the wind, but you can feel its effects.

You can know that God is moving in a

moment if you are aware and see, he's getting

me in these seasons to understand the

sacred nature of where you're walking right now.

Today. Today. Now, see, there are things that you

know. Don't jump. Don't jump

where you're walking today. Where you are walking today is

in the season of Witness, when we begin to understand

the sacred privilege of standing witness. Under the lights,

God births a heart of gratitude for even the things we

once found impossible to look upon. He

begins to show us the collateral beauty of things. When the

ashes are still ashes, you can see the beauty that

will come from them because of the faithfulness of God and the

gratitude that it can birth in your spirit.

I am a

blessed, blessed woman. I am

a blessed woman. God has given me the best

husband. He gave me exactly what I needed. He

gave me three children. I have 11

grandchildren. And those moments in my life have

marked me. Those have been sacred moments.

I remember holding each of my children.

I remember holding James, Aaron for the first time and being

scared out of my mind. God, are you sure you can

trust me with this? Probably not, but anyway.

And I remember staying up all night that first night in

the hospital because I didn't know I was going to need my sleep later anyway.

But I remember staying up and being in that bed and

holding him for the first time in my

arms and being overwhelmed

with how precious and holy and

sacred that moment was. I remember

holding each of my grandchildren for the first

time and how precious that was and how everything

in you shifts at that moment. But

equally as precious was in that same

hospital, in that same hospital,

I would crawl into bed with my mother and hold her

for the last time.

Just as sacred, just as

holy, One was exceeding joy

and one was exceeding pain. But equally as

sacred, these moments that God entrusts us with

in our life, if we just look for the beauty

in those moments, see, we can spend

our life looking for the miraculous

and only seeing God in the. I stood right over here

several years ago, and I was standing over here, and it was an

altar gathering like we do, and a young lady came up,

and as soon as she came up, she started to weep.

And she said, I went to the doctor this week, and I'm having

twins, but there's no membrane between

them. They're conjoined twins. And I said, you

know what? I don't know what God has planned here. I don't know what he

has planned here, but I know that he's good. So we're going to

pray and we're going to trust him. And about three

weeks later, I'm standing in the exact same spot, and I see her

come through the back doors, and she comes down and she goes, I went to

the doctor. There's a membrane.

She said, there's a membrane. And then about. Oh, I don't know,

about four months. No, about a year and four months. Because they were

toddlers, and the back doors open, and

she's got a little boy, one by each hand. She said, I just wanted you

to see him. We serve a God of the

miraculous. Absolutely, we serve a God of the

miraculous, but we don't spend our lives waiting on the miraculous.

What we do is spend our lives day after day after day after day,

watching God's goodness, God's goodness.

And so I'm like, lord, I don't know what's going on with me, Lord,

it's like, I'm just seeing you and all of these things. What are you

doing? And he took me to Genesis

33. And I'm like, what? Genesis 33.

I will cause my goodness to pass in front of you,

and I will proclaim my name. And I'm like, okay, okay,

okay. But you know what's really cool

is that Moses didn't ask him if he

could see his goodness. Moses asked him, can I see your glory?

It's two different words. And the Holy

Spirit just went, all your life, you were

raised as a glory girl. You responded

to me in moves that went this way or went

that way. And this is how you expect to see me, is in those

specific moves. But I'm gonna take you from being a glory

girl who has to have a different kind of manifestation

to understand that my presence is right there. I am going

to teach you, train your heart

to Be aware of my goodness. To be aware

of my goodness. Oh, Jesus, help me.

Gratitude disciplines our hearts to judge a moment

only after finding him in it.

Lord, how can I be grateful in this? This is hard. This is

painful, Lord, this is not what I expected. This

feels like suffering, Lord. But all

the while, if you look for him,

if you will look for him, you will see things.

I just. I have just. I've just never

ever been as aware of the goodness of God

as I am these days. And they're hard days. You

look around in the world and you're like, God, where are you? That's the

appropriate question. Because he wants you to find him, because he

is there. Then if your heart is going, God, where are you? Where are you

in this? Dig in deeper. Spend some more time

with him. Get on your face in the room with nothing

going on and talk to him. Because, see, there are these

preachers.

Hiding behind keyboards

with imacs in front of them who are

preaching a gospel of distraction. And you know what really

makes me mad is everything they say is, oh, you could have more.

If you will just do this like and follow, like and follow. If

you will like and follow, then you can make $70,000 in four and

a half minutes and your life will be different. And what it's teaching

us is that what you have is not enough. What

God has provided for you is not enough. And so there's

this constant longing for more. And media is telling us

that we're doing it wrong. Do it the way they say to do it. We

don't have enough, so we have to do it. You know, you'll have more if

you don't. Passive income. You don't wanna work for it. You want the passive income.

And the whole thing, the whole thing

is a distraction from the fact that God has been good to you.

God has provided everything you need. He

has opened his hand according to scripture

and provided for you, supplied everything that you

need. And the enemy wants us to be so distracted and

so busy trying to gain more that we do not appreciate

what is right, right in the room with us.

Gratitude. An awareness of God and His work

that allows us to be grateful. And I'm like, lord, what is this thing

you're doing? You know, I know it's a spiritual occurrence

thing that you're waking me up, Lord. And he gave me this.

Did you know that there is such a thing?

To actively see God's hand, to

witness his work and stand witness. There's that word, witness

to what he is doing in the Space and in the moment

to stand witness to what he is doing. This literally

means God, give me eyes to see, Lord. Give me an

understanding of what I'm looking at, but give me eyes

that see you. And when that happens, there's

this gratitude thing that begins to well up. When I first read

that, doesn't that seem like a transformer's name to you?

I want to see that one transform.

But the goodness of God to be able to see it. And as

they said a few times, we get so distracted that we don't

see it. And as the Lord began to shift that in me,

this was what I felt like. He told me our prayers need to shift from

show me your glory to allow me to stand witness to your

goodness. Allow me to stand witness

to your goodness. To the goodness of the

Lord. Well, what does that even mean, goodness of

God? The tool of God. It includes his beauty. Can

you look at ashes and go, I see the potential beauty here.

I see what you can do in this moment.

His fairness, his joy. That joy

that you get when there's no reason for you to be

happy, but there's something on the inside of you that still cries

out, God is good and he is faithful and we will survive this.

And if not, I get to live with you forever.

He'll either keep us here or take us out. And my mama used to always

say, you can't threaten me with heaven.

The goodness of God. That we would see the

goodness of God. You know, David had a life, you

know. Yeah, he did, Connie.

And you had a life. Good, the bad and the

ugly. We all got a history and we all got a future in him. Amen.

Cause that's what his word says. The goodness of God. We can see the

goodness of God. And I think about David and his failures

and his falls and him drooling against the wall while he

was literally holding Goliath's sword.

Makes. Anyway, it's a long story. We'll get into it somet.

But his life story was crazy. Yet he was still known

to be a man after God's heart. Why?

Because he knew the goodness of God. He knew

the goodness of God. This is what I remain confident of. This

I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of

the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart

and wait for the Lord.

Sometimes it's not immediate. Sometimes all you see is the

crash instead of the people crawling out of the car.

Sometimes all you see is the immediacy of the moment and your

breath catches and you don't know what to do in that moment. Can

I encourage you be still and know that he's God and

give him a minute to wait. This word right here, when it says wait for

the Lord, it literally means lay down.

Lay down and wait on me.

Just lay down. See, we can wait about this long. And I know

this because I've stood behind some of you in the checkout counter. Anyway,

you can wait about this long. What if he asks you to just

stretch out? What if he asks you to just wait in that for

just a little bit? What if he says, just wait on

me until you see his hand? Because, see, even when he took

Moses, he didn't just. He went and he put him in the cleft of

a rock and put his hand over him, and he could

only see him from one angle. Sometimes you just

gotta move around a little bit to catch the right angle

to see what you need to see in that moment. But I

ask you this. Like David, Hardships, blessings, and

all people throwing stones at him. Conviction, losing child.

Are you confident that you will see his goodness?

Some of you are in a mess, Some of you are struggling, Some of you

are in broken places. You're having a hard time. And

are you confident underneath, underneath,

like, physical stress, underneath those moments where you're not really

figuring out, is there something on the inside of you that says, God, I will

see your goodness. I will see your goodness, and I'll

wait for it. Are you looking for it? Are you looking for it?

Or is the problem all you can see?

Is the issue all you can see? Or are you looking for

him in it?

Has your heart shifted to that of one who

witnesses the sacred? Has your heart shifted to that,

to me? There are three heart postures when you. You can know you're standing

as a witness on the planet. There are three heart postures, and I think there

are three cries in our heart, and they are this.

I need to see God.

I need to see God in this.

I need your presence, God, I need to see you

in this situation. I need to see you

in this situation. And then you move

from that to go, I will, I will.

I will see you, God, in this God, I trust you, God.

I know what your word says. I can't see it yet, but I will see

you in this situation. And then there's the victorious part

that goes, ha, I've seen him.

I see your hand in this, God. It took a while.

I had to lay there for a while, but I see your hand. I

finally see your hand. But the issue Is so often

we need to see him. We cry out, I will see him. But when we

do see him, we don't tell anybody. We don't tell

anybody. Do you know what God did? Do you

have any idea how he met me in this moment? I

thought I was going to die, but I didn't. God met

me there. I have seen God. See, there's a before,

during, and after in all of it. And each of you sit in one of

those right now. Some of you need to see God in your

situation. You need to know that he is there. And some of

you need to allow faith to arise and go, okay, God, I am confident,

shaky, but I'm confident that I'm going to see you in this.

And, Lord, after we've sussed this out and I can

figure it out in you, I'm going to tell everybody what you did.

I want to tell everybody what you did. When with a pure heart,

we ask to see his goodness in our situation, he gives us

glimpses of a greater work in that moment. And the lens through

which we see life changes and gratitude

awakens. Things look different. Things look

different. Pastor Wayne was sharing about this in one of our flow

meetings. It looks different. The lens that you

wear, the lens that you allow the Holy Spirit to

flesh out life for you, changes

with gratitude. With gratitude. When you begin

to look and see everything you have instead of everything you do not have.

When you begin to see the potential of the moment instead of what the moment

looks like at that time. Because see, gratitude

trains your heart to see the goodness of God. What does

that say? Trains our heart to see the goodness of God

regardless of our circumstances. Listen, gratitude is

not a moment. Gratitude is not standing and going.

I thank you, Lord. Gratitude is a lifestyle.

It is a place that we plant ourself and decide to

live a grateful life instead of having a

dissatisfied, unfulfilled heart all the time.

So what do you do? What do you do? What is our

instruction? What do you mean? It's an act of obedience. It's a lifestyle.

It is a choice. It is an act of obedience. Well,

rejoice always. Pray continually.

Give thanks. When?

In just the ones you like. In the easy

ones. In the ones that involve ice cream.

Those are easier. I will give you that. Give thanks in

all circumstances. For what? This is

God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do you know

how many times we get the question, what's God's will for my life?

What? Start here, start here,

Start here and see. David saw the goodness of the Lord. You've

seen the goodness of the Lord. We have all stood witness to the goodness of

the Lord, or we would not be sitting here today. His

faithfulness has brought you to this place at this time.

And we are all still standing under the

expanse of the stars in the skies. There's still

that canopy above us, witnessing sacred moments. And we are beginning

the opportunity and the privilege to stand with them and

witness the sacred in the earth. If we will just do

it. If we will just do it.

He's been good to me. And, you know,

I was thinking about. I shared this

many years ago, but there is one instance,

you know, those sacred times, it says that they are marked,

that they would mark sacred times. I believe there's something in

our own spirits that mark sacred times,

things that happen in our life. And I had one

many years ago. I will never forget it. Ever

forget it. It is etched into the

eternity on my soul. It is etched there. And

it was. Many of you all know, and a lot of you don't,

because there's a lot of new people. But I had

a niece who was diagnosed with leukemia when she

was almost three years old. And this was back 25, 30 years ago,

when the prognosis was not

good, when you were diagnosed with this.

And I had the awesome privilege and

opportunity of attending her wedding later in life because God was

so faithful. But there was this moment in that process

that marked me. I don't know that I

have ever or will ever see

gratitude in the same way again.

My sister Angie, I don't know if she's. Lord,

my sister, she's younger, 15 months younger than I am. And Heather was her

daughter and is her daughter. And

they. I have to tell you, I am just going to say this.

When Angie was young, she was very emotional.

She was the youngest of the family. Do I need to say anymore?

She was the youngest child, and she was a little spoiled.

You know, I got that on good authority my own. And.

And she was beautiful, little princess girl. And actually, she is still

beautiful, but she was very emotional. And

later in life, she just stopped.

Stopped. And one day I asked her,

I said, I don't understand what's going on. You

know, what happened? And she said, well,

Heather had gone in for another spinal tap. And

my understanding is that those are extremely painful.

And she said, I was sitting beside the bed holding

her hand, and she said. Heather looked at her and

said, mommy, if you won't cry, I won't.

And from that moment forward,

their deal was, we're going to be strong

we're going to walk through this. And from that

moment forward, if there were

tears in her life, I didn't see them.

And then flash forward, they walked through everything

together. And God was so faithful and he was so good, but it was a

journey. And we're sitting in a cabin in North

Carolina, in the woods of North Carolina. I know. Cause I got lost going

there anyway. And we've had a day and we've had the

dinner and the families all come in, but everybody's gone to their own cabins

and everybody's doing their own thing. And the only. It's quiet.

And I'm sitting on the sofa with Heather, my niece, and

Angie's sitting in a chair across the room. And

Angie, in her way, I just. She is an amazing woman.

She just goes, okay, let's do this.

And she looks over at Heather and she says,

you know, when I got pregnant with you, I so wanted

a little girl. I so wanted a little girl. But we didn't find

out. And I would have been happy with whatever, but we so wanted a little

girl. And she said, and when you were born, your voice was so

deep that when you cried, I didn't know.

And. And your daddy said, you got your girl,

you got your girl. And she said, I was the

most grateful woman on the planet.

And she said, and then I got to enjoy you.

And we, you know, we played. We had our life until you were

two and we sat in front of that doctor and the doctor

gave their news. And she said all I could remember, said, I

remember Mama would always say,

don't ask God for everything, lest you seem ungrateful for what you

have. And she said, so all I did

was say, God, can I see her turn three?

Can I see her turn three? And she said,

you turned three and I was the most grateful

woman on the planet. I was the most grateful

woman planet. And she said.

So I just said, God, can I see her turn four?

And she said, we spent the year and I watched you turn

four. And before she could get the words out of her

mouth, Heather, who's sitting beside me, this 27

year old gets up and runs across the room and climbs

into her mother's lap and tucks her head in.

And she said, I was so grateful, she said,

and you turned five. And she said, but here's the thing, she said, I never,

I would have never even imagined this

day. I couldn't let my heart go there to go. God, can I

see her get married? Can I see her grow up? She said, every

single day of your life. I have been

grateful. I have been grateful for. For every

moment that we've had together. And all I could think was, oh, I

shouldn't be here. This is such a private moment. Why am I here? But I

couldn't move and I wasn't gonna leave. And I was like. It was the

most beautiful thing in the world because I knew my s. You

know what? I have always known and loved my sister. But I

think I saw her for the first time to go. She

has lived on that razor's edge between

not knowing what God was gonna do or not do and trusting

him and just asking for. Because she knew the goodness of God that

surrounded her life on a daily basis.

Sometimes all we're doing is asking for more and we can't see and

be grateful for what we have today. To

live in a posture of gratitude, to go God,

to be able to sit in that room and watch someone

that we didn't know what was going to happen. To watch her marry Chris,

who is crazy in to have.

She's got a baby now. She's got a little boy. And God

just was so amazing through all

of it. But it's the attitude,

that posture of gratitude that my

sister taught me, it's not about all of that. It's about

this and it's about now, and it's about what God has done

in your life. Everybody's waiting on this big thing.

You're the big thing. God is the big thing. This moment now is all that

we're promised. We know that. So to live in gratitude

for what he has done and all that he's doing. And

I honestly say with David, what shall

I return to the Lord? What shall I return

to the Lord? For all his goodness to me.

For all his goodness to me.

I ran across this thing and I thought, lord, this is so.

This is so. If I were

little. Actually, that's not an excuse. We can do it.

You'll see. But to go, Lord, I want this heart

of gratitude. I want this to be

how I worship you. This is what I want to do,

to return to the Lord all his goodness. And I want you

to pay attention to the ancillary things in this video I'm getting

ready to share with you. Because the beautiful part of it is, is that if

I learn. If I learn to see and appreciate the goodness

of God, I can teach my children to see and appreciate the goodness of

God. And if you will, it will be perpetuated through the generations

and the changes that come. So I'm gonna Ask them to take the

lights down and crank this up for me, if you would.

You can. Go ahead. Start us up there, Jonathan.

Here's the thing that's in

all of us. We lost it somewhere along the

way, but it's there.

Grandma and Grandpa are encouraging you. Mama's singing in the

background. Do that for your babies. Do that

for your babies. You know, this week, actually, last night,

Rowan and Norin was gonna watch Kung Fu Panda.

And in the beginning, at one point it says, you know,

you must bow to your master. At which Rowan looks up and says,

I don't bow to anyone but the Lord Jesus Christ.

And Nora said, pass the ketchup.

You win. Some guys, there

should be something in our hearts that testifies to the

goodness of God as we stand witness to all

he has done. And so we're going to stand for just a second, and we

are going to sing. And I'm going to ask you to take just one

moment and think of one thing

and be grateful. And we're going to sing. We're going to sing like he

sings. We're going to lift our hands. I'd like to see some feet

moving, if possible. We are going to declare the goodness of God. Let's

go. Let's.