GROVE WOMEN LIVE // Summer Song Vol. 3 // Week 8

Eighth of our summer song series.

This is our last week together for the series.

Um, don't know if we'll do it another summer.

Didn't even know the first summer that we did the song series, the summer song series that it would be received the way that it was.

And here we are on our third summer doing it, which I just love.

Um, I love digging in to these songs and just getting um just looking at the words and just seeing the truth and just the message behind them that maybe we wouldn't normally focus on as we're singing them in worship, just because there's just, you know, we have the melody, we have the rhythm, and we have all parts of the song.

But just to be able just to break these songs apart, just to look at the words, for me, it's been very meaningful.

And I know today I'm probably chancing it being outside because we've got a storm moving in.

So hopefully the weather channel app that I have on my phone said that rain's not supposed to come in until about 8 45.

But if something would happen and it would start raining, we'll just head inside quickly and just readjust and go from there.

But I always love as much as we can just to be outside, um, just in nature, just to, you know, hear the birds and um just, you know, just see the sun and the clouds in the sky, just as we um just do our summertime.

I just think for me personally, it just adds a lot to it.

So if we have to head inside, we will do that.

Hopefully that's not gonna happen.

So before we get into our song this week, let's just open up in prayer and then we're gonna get right to it.

Dear God, we just pray um right now as we spend these next couple minutes together that you would just um just clear our minds, give us just peace and just calmness as we um just hear scripture and we just learn more about you.

I just pray, dear God, that you would just give us ears to hear what you want us to hear.

And we just pray that you would bless our time together in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So our song this week is God, I'm just grateful.

And when I'm reading the lyrics of the song, a couple things come to mind, but the thing I cannot get past is just the phrase, God, I'm just grateful for you.

And when I just think about that, honestly, it's conviction, it's convicting to me.

Um, because I'm like, how often do I really just thank God and am grateful for him for being who he is?

And, you know, I think we, you know how I feel.

If you've been here any amount of time, you know how I feel about having a heart of gratitude and just having that mindset.

To me, that just changes everything in life when you just have that mindset, just to look for those things that you're grateful for.

But to me, this is on a whole different level.

This is saying, God, I'm grateful for you.

And so it just made me think, what am I grateful for?

And I know that, you know, most people would say, Well, he's God.

That's what you're grateful for.

But I think we have to dig deeper.

There's just more to that.

Any friend that I have, anybody that I have a close relationship with, I can tell you why I'm grateful for them.

It might be a friend who was always there for me.

It might be a friend who makes me laugh, it might be a friend who just brings the party every time they're around.

It might be a friend that I know that I can share anything with, just the loyalty of friends.

So there's always reasons why we are grateful for people.

And I want us to look at that today.

And some of these we're gonna find within this within the song.

Others are just ones that just have been on my mind the past couple days that I've written down.

And all of these we're gonna look at scripture because I want everyone to realize this isn't just what I think.

And and Missy does the same thing when she's on.

It's not just what she thinks.

This is actually in God's word.

So if you looked at my Bible right now, you would see all the stickies that I've got on here just marking the scriptures that we're gonna look at, because I think that's very important that we see it's not just something I say, it's just not my opinion, but it's actually in God's word.

So the first one, um, I'm grateful for God because He is my Savior and my Redeemer.

And we even see this thought in the song, which um really the first verse is just the gospel.

So it says this there was no way until you made one.

And that right there sums up the the situation that we're in before we come to know Jesus.

There is no way, there is no way out of what, um, out of the sin that we're in.

There's no way for us to even spend eternity with him.

There's just no way until he made one.

And he did make one when God sent Jesus on earth and he was crucified, buried, rose again, and his crucifixion, he took all of our sins upon him.

So that was the way.

That's how he made one.

And then it says, grace upon grace, hallelujah.

And and just grace, just the grace that he gives us all the time.

Um, grace is us um getting what we don't deserve.

And just to be able to spend eternity with him, just for someone to die for our sins, that that is grace.

It says, even though I don't deserve it, which we don't, you did it.

Even though I couldn't earn it, which we can't, there's no way we can earn it.

We can't do enough good deeds in life to earn it because we're still sinners.

Even though I couldn't earn it, you give it.

And and God is just, he is our redeemer, he's our savior, and he continually um forgives us over and over and over again when we come to him and we confess and we ask forgiveness.

There's another um line in the song, which I love.

And in fact, I had an experience with this last week, one that I know of.

There may have been more, but this is one that just comes to mind.

And the line is you give me chance after chance after chance.

And ladies, just think about that.

How many chances has God given us?

He continually just redeems us and sanctifies us and transforms our lives by giving us chance after chance after chance.

Last week I was um the Holy Spirit convicted me about something, something that I needed to be doing.

And the very next day, this opportunity was presented to me and I didn't take advantage of it.

And, you know, I know God has forgiven me for not taking advantage of that, and I know he will give me other chances.

Um, but that chance I probably will not get back.

And so I probably missed a blessing there, but I can rest assured that he wants to continue to work in my life.

So he is going to give me chance after chance after chance.

And I love that because it's not um that we accept Christ and it's a one-time thing, it's a continual thing.

We're continually given chances.

He's continually working in our lives to transform us.

And I want to read Ephesians 1:7 to you.

Ephesians 1:7

I love this verse.

It says, He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his son and forgave our sins.

And that's exactly what the song is saying.

He purchased our freedom and gave us our sins.

We can't earn it.

There's nothing we can do.

We definitely don't deserve it.

But because he is our redeeming and our savior, we get to spend eternity with him and our sins are forgiven.

So that's one thing about God.

That's one attribute, that's one characteristic that I am very grateful for.

Another one is that he is always with me.

And I know I've even mentioned this on here before.

That's just so important to me to know that I do not do life alone.

And so in the song, we see the phrase, who am I that you keep me on your mind?

And ladies, just think about it.

There's people that we have on our mind, but we have limited ability to have, we don't have everyone on our mind.

Everyone in our lives we may have on in our mind at one time or another, but God always has us on our mind.

We're always right there in the forefront of his mind.

And then the song goes on to say, All my life, you've been right here by my side.

And some of us may feel like we go through life alone.

And even if you're not going through life alone, you feel at times that you're the only one going through the situation that you're going through, but you're not, because God is always there with us.

Just like the song says, He's always by our side, and he always has us in his mind.

We're never ever going to do life alone.

And in the book of Deuteronomy, um, chapter 31, verse 6.

Let me get that here.

It says this.

It says, So be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, and do not panic before them.

For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you.

He will neither fail you nor abandon you.

And probably any other person that we have in our life, it's not maybe that they failed us, knowingly they didn't fail us, but probably there was a time that we're like, I wish they would have been there, or I wish I could talk to them right now.

But right here it says that God is not going to fail us and he's never going to abandon us.

And that's a promise that we definitely can hold on to.

Another thing I'm grateful for God for is that he doesn't change.

And I know I've mentioned this on here before because this is a big one for me, that he doesn't change.

The God that we had yesterday is the same God today, and it's the same God that's going to be in the future.

You know, with us ladies, sometimes our family may not know what version of us they're going to get each day when we get up.

Some of us may get up on the wrong side of the bed.

We may have had trouble sleeping, whatever the case may be.

But they're just like, oh, what kind of version are am I going to get of you today?

And you can, you probably know people like this that you're like, oh, you know, maybe it's someone at work and you're like, when I go in today, I'm going to kind of see what kind of mood they're in.

And then, you know, we can see how the day's going to go.

But with God, we never have to think that way.

We never have to think, what version of God am I going to get?

Because He is the same yesterday and today and forever.

And a couple verses I want to read that go along with that.

One is Malachi.

We don't hear a lot from Malachi, but this is in Malachi chapter three, verse six.

It says this, I am the Lord and I do not change.

So right there it says right out, I am the Lord, I do not change.

That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed.

So here, this was just a message to the children of Israel.

This is Malachi, one of the Old Testament prophets, and he's saying, and God's saying, I am the Lord, I never change.

Says it right there.

And then in Hebrews chapter 13, verse 8.

Hebrews 13:8

And this is probably a verse that you're very familiar with, or you've seen it maybe on a plaque or crossed it somewhere.

But it says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He never, ever changes.

We don't ever have to worry about what kind of God we're going to get today.

What is the mood going to be?

What have I done to make God mad?

Or what have I done to please him?

We don't ever have to worry about that because he is the same God yesterday and today and forever.

So, you know, I think about how society changes.

I think about how our cultures have changed.

I even think about how governments have changed.

I don't know about you all, depending on your age, but when I was in school, countries that we studied in world geography are not even countries today.

Or countries that are there today were not even countries, they weren't even thought of when I was in school.

So so many things in life changes, but God never ever changes.

Another thing I am grateful for is that God is my guide.

And when I think about um just life in general, sometimes I wish, you know, I wish I had, you know, somebody to direct me, somebody to tell me what to do, where to go.

And just remembering when I was um a child growing up, things were so much easier back then because part of the job of our parents or whoever our guardian was was to kind of steer us in the right direction and to guide us.

And um, we didn't really have a lot of decisions to make.

Maybe the the hardest decision we had each day was what we wanted for breakfast or what we wanted to wear to school or things like that, but we didn't have to make those hard decisions.

And as an adult, you do.

So to me, it's just so comforting to know that God is our guide.

And I'm just so, so grateful for that.

In Proverbs 3, 6, probably another verse that you're very familiar with.

You probably a lot of times you hear it with verse 5 too, but I'm just gonna read verse 6.

It says, Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

So just think about that for a minute.

Seek his path and all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

I mean, that pretty well, you know, lays it out right there.

If we seek his will, if we're continually praying and saying, God, please show me what to do.

If we're spending time in his word, if we truly want to do what he wants us to do, if we seek his will, he is gonna show us the right path.

And then also Psalm 119, 105, probably another verse that's gonna be pretty familiar to a lot of people.

It says, Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.

And ladies, just that verse right there, that's just another reason.

And and I know I probably some people think I harp on this, but I just think it's so important.

Another reason why we stay in God's word.

Right here, your word is a lamp to guide my feet.

This God's word is like our guide.

It's our it's our life manual, it's how we can live our life.

It is his words right here.

These are what his words are what's going to guide us, it's going to give us direction.

So we, this is one way.

Now he can use the, you know, the Holy Spirit can nudge us and direct us that way, and and that happens, and that's wonderful.

But right here in his word, these are these are words of guidance and words of direction for our life.

And then one more I want to read in Psalm.

It's Psalm 32, verse 8.

Psalms 32:8

And it says this the Lord says, I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.

I will advise you and watch over you.

And these were words of David, King David, Psalmist David, and he wrote these, but this also applies to our life.

And remember, you know, God is the same yesterday, today, and and tomorrow.

So the God here that was going to, that David knew would direct his path, that's the same God that we have today that is going to direct our path.

So very thankful that God um that God is my guide.

And then I'm also grateful for God's wisdom, that God is wise.

And I don't know about you all, but wisdom is one thing I think I can always use more of.

I can I need wisdom when to speak, when not to speak, when to act, when not to act.

Just all these everyday kinds of things.

And and if you are a parent of an adult child, you know sometimes the wisdom there is not to butt in and not to give your opinion and just prey on things because they are adult children.

And that's one area in my life that um that that I just pray for wisdom.

Like, when do I need to say something?

And and even though I'm not parenting my son anymore, I'm still his parent, and I still, you know, I'm the person that's gonna have his back, and I want the best for him.

So just wisdom in that area.

And if you've got littles, wisdom there, all the decisions that you have to make, like what kind of education are we gonna give them?

Um, where's the best place for our family to live?

Just so many decisions that we have to make.

And God has wisdom, and we want, we want to gain our wisdom from his wisdom.

And so often in our lives, um particularly as women, we can have emotions come into play with choices that we make.

Um, we can have past experiences come into play with choices that we make.

But God's wisdom, none of that applies because he has perfect wisdom.

And there's no way that we can have that perfect wisdom, but we can have his wisdom once again by spending time in his word and just allowing him just to speak to us.

So in the book of Job, um, chapter 12, verse 13.

Let me read that to you.

It says, but true wisdom and power are found in God.

So right there, true wisdom found in God.

We do not have true wisdom.

We have wisdom that's just marred and influenced by so many things in our life.

But true wisdom and power are found in God.

Counsel and understanding are his.

So, right there in the book of Job, that is where we can find true wisdom in God.

That's the only place that we can find it.

The next thing that I'm very grateful for, another characteristics and another attribute of God is truth.

And there's so much just thrown at us today as truth.

But when we think about it, is it really truth or is it someone's own belief?

Is it someone's own opinion?

And that's why I feel so um, I think it's so important for us when Missy or I say something on here, or even when you're sitting in a church service or just a small group, anything, and you hear something, it needs to be backed up by scripture.

So God is truth.

We we know that.

We see it in scripture.

We're gonna look at some verses here in just a little bit.

But the truth that we're told today, the truth, the quote unquote truth that's thrown at us today so often is just opinion.

And let me just give you an example.

A number of years ago, it was probably, I don't know, probably more than 20 years ago, I had a parent when I was teaching in the classroom, I had a parent contact me and say, My son's not doing well in your class because you lose his homework.

Now, first of all, I gave out one homework assignment a week.

Um, they got it on Monday, it was due on Friday.

I have done that for years.

I didn't do a lot of daily homework just because of the work that we did in class.

And so, anyway, she came in um for a meeting and she's like, You're losing his homework.

And I said, I'm not losing it.

He's not turning it in.

And she's like, but he goes up to his room every day and works on homework.

And so that right there, you know, just kind of gave me a clue as to what was going on.

And I said, Have you seen him work on the homework?

And she's like, No, but he goes up there and he does it every day.

Now, I believe he was up there doing something, but he was not doing his math homework.

So she already had this perceived um, like she knew in her mind this perceived thought that he was up there doing his homework because he said that that um he had.

And then throughout our conversation, it comes out that school was such a negative influence on her, just such a negative experience.

So here she's being told one thing that I did my homework.

She knows what a negative experience school was on her.

So now her quote-unquote truth is that I have lost her son's homework.

And we were able to work it out.

And, you know, the the son was in there and he admitted that, you know, no, he's not doing his homework.

But she believed that that was her truth.

But just because she believed it, based on what she was told and her past experience, did not make it truth.

So just because someone says something, it could be an opinion, but it's not truth.

And today, so much of that is happening in our lives.

We're just being bombarded with all these quote unquote truths that are.

Not truth.

So let's just look at a couple of examples in um of what truth is in scripture.

And that first thing we're going to look at is John 14, chapter 14, verse 6.

And it says this, and this is one that you'll also recognize.

Jesus told him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.

So Jesus said right there, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

And then Psalm 119, verse 160, it says, The very essence of your words is truth.

Psalms 119:160

All your just regulations will stand forever.

So just think about what that said.

The very essence of your words.

So it's not even what the words are, but just the essence of God's word are truth.

So anything that that would come out of his mouth, anything that he would say would be truth.

I mean, how wonder if we could say that about ourselves?

And we may try to be as truthful as possible, but sometimes we say things that aren't true un even unknowingly.

But here, just the essence of God's word is truth.

So I am very grateful that I serve a God who is truth, because that's something we very much lack in society today.

And then the very last thing, and this is one that I have become more and more grateful for that God is the older I get because I find that it's something that I need more and more in my life.

And I'm grateful that God is a place of rest.

And lady, ladies, I don't know where you are in life, but I'm in a part of my life that my mind has a hard time turning off.

And I know a number of weeks ago, Missy had mentioned that she was tired one Tuesday morning when she was doing the live because she hadn't had a lot of sleep.

And I think for many of us at a certain age, sleep is something that just doesn't come very easily to us.

And um so often we just need that place of rest, sometimes physically, like sleep, but also just mentally and emotionally.

Sometimes I just need for my mind to turn off.

I just need that place of rest.

And I'm learning more and more how God is that place of rest, how I can lean into him, and I can take it if it's fear or anxiety or just the unknown, and I can take those off and I can just lay those at his feet, turn those over to him and find a place of rest.

Now, I will say this it's not like I turn them over one time and then that's it, everything's good to go.

No, it's a constant, at least for me, it's the constant action of just giving those to God and just turning those over to him.

So he definitely is a place of rest.

And a couple verses to share for that.

One is 2 Samuel, and we're gonna be back in the time of David again.

2 Samuel chapter 22, verse 3, and this is what it says.

2 Samuel 22:3

And this is a song of praise that David wrote um toward God, what he said about God.

It said, My God is my rock in whom I shall find protection.

He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety.

I mean, how wonderful to have a place of safety.

He is my refuge, my savior, the one who saves me from violence.

And if you know anything about um the life of David, he was on the run for a long time from King Saul.

Saul was trying to kill him, and um, David was on the run for his life.

And here, just the fact that he knew that God was his safe place, that God was his refuge.

And ladies, we have that too.

God is our safe place and he is our refuge.

And then, last scripture for the day, Philippians 4, and I want to read verses seven to nine.

It says, Then you will experience God's peace, which is what we want, which exceeds anything we can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds if as you live in Christ Jesus.

So, right there, that peace, our minds that go, go, go, go, go, and they don't stop.

And we're always having something on our mind.

And not that it even has to necessarily turn into fear or anxiety, but our minds are just are just going all the time.

Here it says he will guard our hearts and our minds.

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing.

Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable, and right and pure and lovely and admirable.

Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me, everything you heard from me and saw me doing, then the God of peace will be with you.

So he is our God of peace, but there are some things that we have to put into practice that we have to do too.

And just looking at this song, just thinking, okay, God, here the song says, I'm just grateful for you.

But why am I grateful for you?

And ladies, just let's take some time over the next week.

And maybe it just becomes a habit that you just think, God, why am I grateful for you?

And and I've listed seven things that I'm thankful for God about.

And so often in my prayers, and this is another place of conviction for me, I'll thank God for his love and for his grace and his mercy.

And and it seems like it's just kind of the same things over and over, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Like we need to praise God and thank him for those things.

But God's so much more than that.

And there's just so many more things, so many ways our lives are impacted by his attributes and characteristics that we need to thank him for.

So, in closing, I'm gonna kind of give you an exercise that you might want to try.

I did this with my small group, oh gosh, it's been probably three or four years ago.

And this is not anything that comes from me.

This is um something that actually I heard on a podcast.

Um, but it's just it's so good.

And I've done it physically, like I'm gonna um explain to you all, but I also have done it just being outside or just taking a walk.

And and and I just go through this, and it's just a great way to remember God's attributes and just to remember why we're grateful, remember why we're grateful for him.

So when we sing the song, God, I'm just grateful for you, we need to know why we're grateful for him, not just to say it, because there's so many ways that God is good to us and so many things that we have to be grateful for when it comes to God's character.

So here's what I would challenge you to do.

And it's and it's um something that may take a little bit of time, but I think it'll be worth your time.

So take a piece of notebook paper or any paper, it doesn't have to be notebook paper, and down the margin, just letter it A, B, C, D, E, F, G, so A to Z.

So every letter of the alphabet, you're going um to label that.

And then for A, you are going to write an attribute of God that you're thankful for.

So A could be Almighty.

You're thankful that God is Almighty.

So then you would put Almighty.

For B, think about why you're what you're thankful for for God that starts with a B.

And maybe it's blessings, maybe because of the blessings he gives us, which are numerous.

God gives us all kinds of blessings.

And then maybe C, you're thankful because He's a compassionate God.

And so you would just go down the list and just write down what I'm grateful for God.

So the next time we see God, I'm just grateful for you, you've already got a list of things that you're grateful for God, things that are his attributes and characteristics.

Now, if you want to go even a step further, here's what I would challenge you to do.

So for see if you put compassion, find a scripture that says that God is compassionate.

And there are many.

You could Google them, you can look in a concordance, many different ways that you can find those.

Probably Googling them would be the easiest.

And maybe write that scripture reference right by that.

So that the next time that you're really going through something and you're looking at your list, you're like, oh my gosh, God is compassionate.

He does care about me.

And you can read that scripture and hopefully that will be encouragement to you.

So I would I would suggest that that maybe be something that um that you want to do this week, just to make that list A to Z and write down those characteristics of God.

And then if you want to go that step further, go find a scripture reference that goes with that characteristic of God.

And ladies, I'm telling you, just doing that, just your outlook is going to be different.

It's going, you're gonna the next time we sing the song, or just in any song that we sing about God, you're gonna be thinking, oh, this is a characteristic of God.

This is an attribute of God.

Um, and you're just gonna be able to focus on that.

And then you may even want to do another list, um, list number two, maybe that they have different attributes because the attributes of God, I mean, we just don't even have time to go through all of them.

There's just they're numerous.

But I think that would be um great to do, and you can do like I do sometimes if I'm out for a walk.

I'll just start with A and I'll say, God, I'm so grateful that you're and then I'll list an A word or a B word.

And you can do it however you want to do it.

But anyway, just a suggestion.

Um, I think that might be very encouraging to you, and just to see um why we are grateful for God and how good He is.

So, ladies, last week, like I said, this is our last week.

I'm glad we made it through this time without any rain.

We will be back um, I'm thinking maybe in three weeks.

I'm not really for sure about that, but Missy will come on and she'll let us know when we're gonna be back together again.

So um let's close our time together and let's close this series together with prayer.

Dear God, um thank you so much for this time together.

And thank you for these ladies, whether they're listening now or they'll listen later or on the podcast.

We're just so grateful um that we're able to use this platform and just share about you.

And dear God, I just um just thank you for the God that you are.

And we looked at some some ways that we're grateful for you today, but there's just numerous.

And I just pray that anyone who is listening that they will continually keep on their mind what a good God you are and how great you are, and just how much that we have to be thankful for.

I just pray that you would um just give us a great day today.

Watch over us, keep us safe.

We love you, and we're just so thankful that you are our God and just so grateful for all that you are.

In Jesus' name, amen.