Perspective shapes your reality

And that's what we're going to talk about this morning.

Before we get into that though, I am going to ask the Guatemala

team to come on up. Those that are still here from

the Guatemala team, they are leaving next Saturday.

They're going to be stuffed full of Turkey and then they're going

to head out. And so we want to, we don't want

them just to go. We want to send them.

We want to bless them. So I'm going to have once you

guys stand up, we're going to, we're going to pray that God

will use them and bless them. And Tom, would you grab that

that mic there and I'm going to have you pray over them.

So this is, this is not a spectator sport around here.

We send people, we want to bless them.

We're going to we're going to bless them as a house.

We're going to just ask God to use them powerfully.

We're behind them. Scriptures clear.

It says how can they hear unless someone goes and how can they go

unless they're sent? So they're not just going,

they're being sent. All right, so let's let's pray.

And Tom, if you want to lead us. Sure.

Well, Father, we thank you, Lord, for these that have said,

Lord here, Father, we thank you for the work that you've put in

front of them. Lord that the calling that you

have on their lives to serve in Guatemala, all the souls that

will be saved, we call them forth now in Jesus name.

We thank you for all the healings.

Lord, Your word says miracles, signs and wonders will follow

those that believe. Father, I thank you for these

believers that you're sending down to Guatemala and I thank

you Lord for all the souls of be turned to the Kingdom.

We give you all the glory, honor and praise in the name above all

names. We pray the name of Jesus Christ

of Nazareth, the one who was, who is, and who is coming again.

Amen. Amen.

Thank you, Tom. All right, they're going to be

going and doing VBS for how many kids?

Four days of VBS, Four days of VBS, 200 kids, 200 kids.

So they need a lot of prayer. Well, this is not just some

token prayer. They need 200 kids for four

days. So bless you guys.

We'll be yes, yes. So man, I'm, I'm just excited.

I appreciate these guys jumping in and doing this.

That's awesome and God is good. OK, let's get into the word.

I, I got away a couple for a few days this week and just to pray

and seek the Lord and there's some things the Lord's been

churning in my heart and some things I wanted to share, but I

really feel like I need to hold off on that.

We'll, we'll be getting into that in the days to come, but I

feel like we need to set ourselves up this morning for

Thanksgiving. We're we're going into this

season. Isn't it a wonderful thing that

we live in a nation that sets aside a day to give thanks?

You know, gratitude. Giving thanks is an act of

humility. It's an admission that, hey, we,

we've been recipients of things that we didn't deserve, that God

has given us things and that we need him.

And so Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday.

Premeditated gluttony. Hallelujah.

So I'm going to smoke a big old 22 LB Turkey and it's I'm going

to double smoke a ham. Anybody hungry as I talk like

that? So we're, we're, it's going to

be a good time. We're going to host like 25 to

30 people and we'll eat and then we will lay down.

Amen. He maketh me lie down in green

pastures. In my case, he maketh me lie

down on a big old burgundy lazy boy.

Hallelujah. I just felt the anointing when I

said that. All right, so, but we're going

to, we're going to receive communion this morning.

But before we do that, I want to look at this whole thing of

Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving is not a day.

It's not an idea, it's a mindset and it's a lens through which we

look at life. It's a it's a way in which we

interact with life. Gratitude, Thanksgiving is a

crucial posture of our heart. And in fact, it is actually the

culmination of grace in our life.

You know we're saved by grace, right?

We all know that we're saved by grace.

When I was a new believer, I really wrestled with this,

wondering about this whole thing.

We're saved by grace and we're saved by faith.

And I was like, Lord, which is it?

And the answer was, uh huh. You ever seen that picture of

Michelangelo painted of it's God floating in the air and his

fingers coming down, and then man is floating in the air and

his fingers going up and it's a picture of grace and faith.

It's heaven invading earth. God reaches down.

God's finger towards man is grace.

Man's finger towards God is faith, and everything that we

get from God is by grace, but it comes through faith.

So the divine side is God gives us his grace.

So we're going to look at what that word means, but there's

also a response that we have, and that response is faith.

And at the foundation of faith is a conviction that God is

good. That is the foundation you could

do. Let's look at this.

There's a three legged stool, if you will, or there's three ideas

about God that you must buy off on in order for God to be

airtight and you to surrender your life to him.

We know that God is all powerful.

He's omnipotent, He's all powerful.

That's great. That's awesome if, but if that's

all there was, that'd be a pretty scary proposition.

God is also omniscient. He knows everything.

That's awesome. But the real kicker, the good

thing, the foundation of it all is He is loving.

He is good. He wants what's best for us.

So the way this lays out, God wants what's best for us.

He knows what's best for us, and He's able to bring it about once

we understand that we would have to be insane for a moment not to

surrender to Him, because God knows everything.

There's an old saying that God's will is what you would want if

you knew all the facts. God knows it all.

We don't, he knows it all. And so when we understand that,

then we, we say, Lord, I, I, I defer to you.

You're, you're omniscient, you know everything.

But not only that, God is able to, to, to pull it off.

And here's the, there's the foundation.

He really wants what's best for you.

He is good. And that is the foundation of

faith. Matter of fact, when you

struggle with your surrender, and we all have, when you

struggle with your surrender, it's because at one of those

those attributes you're, you're struggling with, you're thinking

and maybe God doesn't know. You ever wondered, Well, God, I,

I know you mean well. You think how ludicrous that is.

I know you mean well, but you don't really understand.

That is a ludicrous statement. He became human being and walked

among us so he could, he could be touched with the feeling of

arm infirmities. Jesus knows better than we do

and so he knows what's best. He has the power to pull it off.

Sometimes we struggle with that. God, I don't know if you can do

this one, He is all powerful. He can move heaven and earth to

get you to where you need to go. But here's the good news that

because if those were the only two realities, if he knew

everything and he's all powerful, that's a scary

proposition. If he's not good, if he doesn't

want what's best for me, that is a terrifying reality that an all

powerful, all knowing God is out there, but he is an out out for

my good. Hebrews Chapter 11, verse 6, it

Hebrews 11:6

says this without faith. It is.

I think it's verse 6. Without faith it is impossible

to please God, for all who believe him must believe two

things, that He exists. It's not good enough just to

believe that Jesus exists. God exists.

The demons believe that and tremble, but they don't

surrender to Him. The second truth there is this

and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

And when you realize that, that's where things get good.

It was about 3 years ago on a Sunday morning, I woke up to the

Lord speaking that very strongly to me.

That verse, just that line of that verse, I am the rewarder.

And it's so struck me. I, I mean, I've read that verse

for many years. I've been walking with the Lord

over 40 years. I was raised in church.

I'd heard that a million times, but I never thought about how

God refers he he. That was a self-imposed title.

It was a a self description by God himself.

God says to you I am a rewarder. That kind of tweaks our theology

because again, we're saved by grace through faith.

And we have, we want to emphasize the grace side that

it's all by grace. And it is even our faith is an

act of grace that God has extended to us, the ability to

see Him for who he is. Faith is simply recognizing God

for who he is. And once you see him for who he

is, then you want to surrender to Him.

And when you struggle in your faith, it's because you have a

misconception of who God really is.

And so the it's all grace. But if we're not careful, we

get, we get a little squeamish when we begin to talk about

faith, when we look at scriptures like your faith has

healed you, We look at this thing of God being a rewarder.

If you look in in Hebrews Chapter 11, it's called the Hall

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

of faith of the faith chapter. And it get lists, all these

great men and women of faith and how they did great exploits.

And again and again you'll see this idea it says and they were

commended for their faith. They were commended.

There is a commendation from heaven towards those who have

faith. God has reduced this whole thing

called a relationship with him, what we call Christianity.

He's reduced this whole thing. The one way in the door in is

faith. You ever wondered why that was?

Maybe I'm weird, but when I first got saved, I, I remember

having this conversation with the Lord and I, I didn't want to

voice it because I felt like this is not good to think.

But I'm thinking, Lord, you know, is it a little

unreasonable for you to reduce it all to faith?

And isn't it kind of self-centered that I got to

believe in you before I get in? Why do you take it so personal?

You know why God takes it so personal?

Because it is your faith. Is your estimation of His

faithfulness or His integrity, Your surrender is an expression

of who you really think He is. Is he trustworthy?

It is a personal statement. Now the good thing about God is

He reveals some of His faithfulness and as we put our

faith in Him, we grow in faith. He doesn't demand great faith.

He said you have a faith of the mustard seed.

If you can start there, I will grow your faith.

But we have to be convinced that God is the rewarder.

Do you really believe that? Do you believe that God commends

some and some don't receive a commendation?

And what it's what it's based upon is your faith, your

estimation, your, your, what's the word I'm looking for?

Your, your, your summation. This is who I think you are.

That's what God will judge us on.

It's an amazing thing. And what He wants to do is

reveal His faithfulness so you can grow your faith.

But we have to embrace this thing called faith that says God

is good. And that's where this thing

begins. That is the threshold of the

Kingdom. In fact, eternal life and

eternal damnation are both. There's one door in to both.

One it's faith and the other is unbelief over the one it says

God is good. It's a beautiful ornate marble,

you know, door and over is carved beautifully.

God is good. And as you walk through that,

you enter eternal life. And here's what we need to

understand. That is not a someday thing.

It's a right now thing because you are already, if you are born

again, you are already you have already entered eternal life and

the powers of the age to come are bleeding back into the

present and they will overtake your life.

But they only come through faith.

In fact, the measure of the Kingdom of God that invades your

life is based upon the the measure of your faith.

And it's not some earning thing. It's a matter of humility and

saying, God, I need you to reveal yourself.

I need to understand these things about you.

I want to grow in my estimation of you.

I want to see you for who you are.

And Lord, when I'm struggling and I feel like man, I don't

know if I can trust you and this this seems like it's

contradicting your word, what I'm going through.

See, everyone of us have faith and unbelief.

We all have that. We get to choose who we point

our faith towards and who we get to choose.

We choose who we're going to point our unbelief towards.

You see, you can say, God, I'm looking at this and this doesn't

line up with your word. So I'm going to point my faith

at myself and my unbelief towards you, and I'm going to

hold you at a distance because I trust me more than you.

Or we can look at circumstances because who who can admit that

there's times where what you're going through seems to

contradict what you're promised in the word.

There's that fight of faith. And it's like, man, I hear all

these promises, but I'm not seeing them.

There's no movement in my life. I need a miracle.

And in those moments, that's your truest expression of who

you think he is comes to the surface.

It's not what you say in worship in an air conditioned room on

cushy pews, great music mix. Thank you, Jason, all that

That's that's not where that's not your purest worship.

Your purest worship is when everything's falling down around

your ears. Will you still stand and say,

God, I know this, I, I, things are not going like I, I thought,

but I'm going to point my unbelief towards me.

I'm going to suspend my judgement.

I don't understand. It's above my pay grade.

But I know this. You are good.

And we focus on him. We pour in our faith towards

him. It's like binoculars.

You know, when you're a kid, you'd get binoculars.

You'd look and you'd, you'd look at things and things would get

bigger. How many of you were weird like

me? You'd flip them around and you'd

look through the big end and you'd look and everything looks

far away. In a very real sense, unbelief

is like flipping your binoculars around and you're looking

through the long you're You're viewing God through your

circumstances rather than viewing your circumstances

through God. And when you do that, God

becomes very, very small and distant.

It's not reality, but that's what fills your vision and so we

have to have this thing of God is good and I'm going to place

my trust in him. I'm going to decide every one of

us has a measure of faith. Will you exercise it to begin to

grow it? Because you're what I'm saying

is this, that your conviction that God is good is the

foundation of gratitude. Gratitude is not an idea, it's a

mindset. It's a lens through which you

evaluate all of life. And when you do that, it be you

begin to see things differently. When you look through the lens

of gratitude, you see the blessing of God everywhere, even

in the midst of tragedy. But if you look through the

lenses of cynical unbelief, you begin to accuse God and agree

with the narrative of the enemy. I'm telling you, you will find

plenty of evidence to that truth, to, to that lie.

Rather, you're, you're going to find plenty of things to back

that up. It all depends on the lenses you

look through. And so this, this idea of

gratitude is really, it's, it's one of the primary evidences

that you're walking in faith. We said again, one of the

primary evidences that you are walking in faith in God is that

you are walking in gratitude. Because when you're walking in

ingratitude, you're accusing God of abandoning you.

You're accusing God of making mistakes, and it's a very, very

serious thing. It was unbelief, and that

manifested in complaining, which is exactly the opposite of

praise. It's using your mouth to accuse

God. It's using your mouth to say

God, you made a mistake, you blew it.

And when we do that, we attract an entire world, an entire

reality to us. God inhabits the praises of his

people and the enemy inhabits the complaining of God's people

and that both God and the devil bring their world with them.

And your mindset actually cultivates the world in which

you live. I know you've all seen it in

different, different scenarios, but I've talked to people

actually raised in the same home, same parents, same tragic

circumstances. And one walks in the blessing of

God and, and they're blessed and they're, they're thriving in

life. And the other is their life is a

train wreck. And you ask them both

separately, why, why, Why is your life such a train wreck?

Well, what would you expect from the child of an alcoholic who

was beaten by their parents and all this stuff?

And they're saying, well, of course my life's a train wreck.

I'm a victim of these circumstances.

You ask the other person raised in the same home, how is it

you're so blessed? Well, man, you don't realize

where I came from. And God rescued me.

God was so good to me. He extended the hand of mercy

towards me. What would you expect from

someone that was shown such mercy?

Same circumstances, different lenses, and they live in two

different worlds. You literally create a world

with your belief system. So much so See, gratitude is

both a psychological and a spiritual reality.

There is a psychological element to gratitude that, even apart

from God, is a powerful thing. That's why you'll hear atheists

talk about the power of positive thinking, and sometimes

believers get squeamish. Oh, that's that's New Age.

No, it isn't. It's the way God's wired things.

No, you're not going to. You're not going to enter into

the full blessing of God with that unless you sign off on him

being good. But positive thinking is nothing

more and nothing less than looking for the positive around

you. And the fact is what depending

on the channel you want to tune into, you're going to find an

abundance of evidence and frequencies to tune into, and

you're going to find validation for what you've decided to

believe. And so this whole thing of faith

and the goodness of God is crucial.

And one of the primary expressions of that is, are you

a grateful person or are you a complainer?

Now, the fact is, some personalities have a little more

tendency than others. But don't let that let you off

the hook because you still, regardless of whether you have a

personality propensity or whatever you want to say towards

that, the fact is you're still going to live in the world that

you create with your own mind. I know that sounds New age, but

I'm telling you the what you believe, you will receive what

you if you're believing that everything is against you, then

you will adopt an attitude of a victim and life will happen to

you and you'll live under that. And if you believe that God is

good, you'll begin to recognize his moving and you actually

cultivate that very thing through your gratitude.

Cultivation through appreciation is a very real spiritual

dynamic. We said again, cultivation

through appreciation is a very real spiritual dynamic.

The children of Israel, they complained about what God didn't

give them. He delivered them out of Egypt,

drowned in the most powerful army on in the world right

before their eyes after they plundered it without ever

lifting a sword. They walk out wealthy, fat, and

they're in the wilderness and they start complaining because

they don't have garlic anymore. Wait, brother.

See. And it's it's the mindset.

But then you got Caleb and Joshua had a totally different

mindset. So I'm telling you, this thing

is, this is not some minor thing or, oh, you know that.

Yeah. I need to adjust my attitude.

No, listen, this thing is crucial.

It is do or die. If you don't have the right

attitude. If you don't cultivate an

attitude of gratitude, it will actually sabotage your life.

Gratitude is actually the fruit of grace.

It's it's grace matured. It's the final stage of grace.

It's it's the full maturation, the full fruition of grace in

your life. We're saved by grace.

We receive that when we get saved.

But as we cultivate that, eventually it will manifest

itself in gratitude. And if it doesn't, you'll

actually destroy your own faith. What I mean by that, it's an

interesting study. If you look at the word, the

Greek word grace, it's chorus, CHARIS.

So we get the word charismatic. Charismatic.

I say that, you know, if you speak Greek, you never have to

clear your throat because you just talk and it does it for

you. It's chorus.

The root word of that is char, CHAR, which is joy.

And then chorus is grace, which is fascinating.

There's a whole, there's a whole lot of stuff in that we don't

have time to get into. But the fact is this word chorus

had a history of development. It evolved.

It had several different layers of meaning that evolved over

time, all of it predating the writing of the New Testament.

And so when Paul is searching for a word to communicate this

power that God extends to us and, and make no mistake, grace

is the power of God. Second Corinthians chapter 12,

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

Paul said this, he's asking God, God, I've got this thorn in my

flesh. This, this, this messenger of

Satan buffeting me and he's saying, God, would you lift this

off? And the Lord said, I've allowed

this because I've got to keep you low so I can keep giving you

great revelation. How many of you want great

revelation? Get ready for a wild ride.

Let me read you. So I was thinking about this

yesterday and it I remembered this one time we had a guy, Joel

Budd. Some of you remember Joel and

Linda. Joel was preaching for US1 time

I was sitting on the front row and the well he was preaching.

I don't know what he was preaching about.

The Lord began to speak to me and I just wrote down what he

said. You be a judge.

Whether this was from God or not.

This is what he told me. He said persistence is key to

understanding. Many get offended by living out

of limited understanding, but refuse to press in for insight.

In other words, you're, you're, you're chugging along as a

believer and all of a sudden there's hardship and you're not

it's it's not lining up something the the dots aren't

connecting like God, I'm I'm trying to be faithful, but this

is happening. What's going on?

And rather than going to Him and really asking those questions

and assuming that my understanding is limited and

Lord, this is what it feels like, but I know that can't be

true because you're good. So I'm coming to you and I want

you to show me what's underneath this thing so I can connect the

dots. The Lord told me He said a lot

of people end up just getting offended.

They check out rather than pressing in for insight.

I would propose to you that often your greatest revelations

are right under your greatest frustrations, and that

frustration is actually the catalyst to cause you to press

in the very frustration that gets some people turn their back

on God, say when friends like that who needs enemies because

they have the wrong lenses on and they don't really believe

God is good. They trust in themselves more

than his omniscience, and they check out.

But for those who really believe that God is good, you go through

a hard time and it's like, man, this is frustrating.

This something isn't connecting. Something's not right.

If we'll cry unto the Lord, he'll hear our cry and he'll

begin to give us insight so that we can understand what's going

on underneath the surface. So again, I say to you, do you

really want great revelation? Because if you want great

revelation, then get ready for some frustration.

Frustration is one of God's primary tools in the life of the

believer. Romans 8 says we are subjected

to frustration in hope. And then he says, and people

don't hope for what they already have.

Matter of fact, it's the hope that's frustrating because the

hope knows, oh, there's a possibility there's God wants me

to, I have this hope, but yet I also have this experience that's

not lining up with my hope and my belief and my promise.

And that that tension there is what frustration is all about.

But that frustration, if you look in Romans 8:00, that

becomes the fuel of your intercession.

You begin to cry out to Him, and those who have great revelation

have had great frustration. And if you begin to know the

ways of God, you realize, OK, what God is doing is he's

drawing me into circumstances that don't make sense so that

I'll turn to him. I'll cry out, and this will

become the platform upon which he gives me a better revelation

of Him. I'm going to grow and you cannot

grow in God without that dynamic.

So God draws us in. So listen to what he's what

what? This is the Scripture I'm

telling you. This is what the Lord spoke to

me. You'd be a judge.

The this is the next thing you told me.

The answers you are longing for are available to you if you will

press in for them. Much of what you long to

understand is too precious to be shared with the heart that has a

little interest. Your pursuit carries a value

system that cherishes the find. The pursuit itself raises the

value of the treasure. And then.

This is interesting. I'd never thought of this

before, but this is what he said to me.

Buried treasure is more valuable than mere gold because of the

expense of unearthing it. The market value raises with the

story of the pursuit. The investment of unearthing it

is folded into the value placed upon the treasure.

It becomes part of the equation. In other words, if you have a

pound of gold, which is worth some money right now, you got a

pound of gold. That's worth what a pound of

gold is. But if you've got a pound of

gold, the blooms, I think that's what they're called, and they

were part of some famous pirate treasure that was discovered.

Them though our pieces of gold are worth more because of the

story behind it. And the fact is, easy money

spends easy. If God were to give you

everything that you wanted very easily, you wouldn't value it.

But as God, God's a good steward.

This is the next thing he told me.

Listen to this. This is he said.

I long to reveal more to you. But the value system to carry it

must be in place. The pursuit, the investment,

creates an internal value system which will steward the treasure

I long to give you. I will not throw pearls to those

who cannot understand their value.

I am too good a steward. And So what he was saying to me

is that it was it was actually the pursuit of these things and

the frustration of the circumstances that became the

platform for him to reveal these things.

Those things were necessary because they created within me a

value system. And if everything came easy,

easy money spends easy. You ever see someone win the

lottery or something? Easy money spends easy.

But a guy that has to work his tail off, get up early, come

home late, dirty, worn out, falls into bed, only to do it

again the next day, that money spends a whole lot harder than

the easy money. And the revelation that God is a

good father. He's, he's really good.

He wants to reveal things, but he's also a very wise father and

he knows he can't just give you everything easily because you

won't value it. And So what he does is he draws

us into a circumstance. The circumstance creates a need

that there's, it requires a fresh revelation.

And then he's just waiting for you to ask.

And what he was telling me is what happens in those

circumstances. Many of us get frustrated, we

get offended. God, why'd you allow this?

When in reality, he's a really good father.

He knows what he's doing. He wants to draw you in and give

you a revelation that will cause you to be able to overcome in

that situation. This whole thing of gratitude is

the lens through which you evaluate circumstances.

And when those situations arise in our life, if we're

ungrateful, it's indicative of a false narrative we've bought

into about God. We believe something wrong about

Him, and it sabotages our ability to receive from Him.

And so God wants to, he, he wants to stretch us, He wants to

grow us. He longs to give us greater and

greater revelation of himself. The fact is, I'm, I'm telling

you, you cannot grow spiritually without more revelation.

Your growth is equal to the revelation that you carry.

Now you can, you can have knowledge and not grow, but you

can't grow without knowledge. You can be a person that just

has a lot of head knowledge, but you're not applying it.

But if you really want to grow in God, he's going to bring you

through circumstances and if you learn to run to him.

What I really wanted to preach on this morning, I got pulled

back into Psalm 63 this week. Oh my goodness, that thing just

destroyed me all over again. And I was so struck by David.

David had a habit throughout his life.

When crisis hit, he didn't try to strategize.

Prayer wasn't the last thing. The first thing he did is said

God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek thee.

My soul thirsts, my flesh faints for you, so I have seen you in

your sanctuary. I have beheld your power and

your glory. David knew I am thirsty.

My circumstances is placing a demand of me and I know where to

find the water. He would always go to God's

presence. And if we will have that value

system, if we will realize He is the truth, He is the key to

unlock the life that God wants to release to you.

But too often, that's the last thing we do.

And what I'm telling you is that at the foundation of that whole

process, that when you go through trials and every one of

us has gone through them, if you don't have that foundation that

God is good, then you are in danger of being offended and

withdrawing from Him. And the very trial that was to

be a pathway to promotion actually becomes a hindrance and

it derails you. You become just another story of

a believer who was once walking with the Lord but got offended.

You and I already live in eternity.

First, John's very clear the the apostle John in in in his gospel

and in his epistles. He's the one that really unpacks

this idea of eternal life and he talks about how eternal life,

we've already entered into it. It's it's they who believe in

him shall never die. They will live forever.

We're already living. We're we're accessing the powers

of the age to come, Hebrews 11 says, But those powers are also

invading here and the Kingdom of God is breaking in and we're

experiencing that in the now. But the way, the avenue, the way

to receive that is through faith, and faith at its

foundation is just the conviction that God is good.

He can be trusted. I don't understand what all this

is, but I know God is good and I know He wants what's best.

He can do it and He knows it. So all I got to do is I got to

go to him and ask him and get in his face until I have a

breakthrough. And when you believe that, if

you can grab onto that one thing.

That was David's secret. I was worshipping this morning

and I was just telling the Lord I said, God, it is an amazing

thing. You are such a covenant God that

Jesus is referred to as the son of David and the root of Jesse,

this tremendously dysfunctional family.

And Jesus said that's the one I'm going to identify with.

I so love this guy David that the son of God himself calls him

his son and he rules from his throne.

Isn't that amazing? I hope that makes you a little

jealous, because it sure does. Me, man, I'm like, I want in on

that. I, I, I don't care what you

think, but I want him to say I want to identify with a guy like

that. I see what's in Dave Olson's

heart and I'm going to identify with, I'm going to, I'm going to

move in and I'm going to release things to him because his heart

is after me. The secret of David's life was

that when crisis hit, even the crises of his own making, he

would hightail it to the secret place.

God, you are my God. I know you're good.

You, your steadfast love is better than life.

And he would find the answers. This is the secret to life.

It's not all the strategizing. Oh, that's good, but that's

secondary. The real thing is are you going

to him? Do you believe he has your best

in mind? That's the key.

OK, we've got to receive community.

Let me read something to you really quick here.

I I I felt this morning that it's like gratitude is an armor

of defense that will deflect the attacks of the enemy because it

it it refuses it, it deflects the false narrative the enemy

tries to feed to us. OK, where is it at?

Man? I can't believe this.

OK, I've shared this with you before.

This is something else. The Lord spoke to me a number of

years ago, and I've read it, but I think it bears repeating.

I'm just going to read through it because we got to hurry here.

Gratitude and ingratitude are to your history what hope and

despair are to your destiny. Ingratitude cries there's

nothing good in my past. Well, despair bemoans, there's

nothing good in my future. You see what I'm saying?

They gratitude breeds hope, Ingratitude breeds despair.

OK, man, I was going to go through this etymology of the

word chorus and I forgot to. OK, real quick here.

Initially, chorus meant a drawing power.

We use it that way. We'll say, oh, that girl, she

skated with such grace. What do we mean?

It captured our attention. It was beautiful.

We wanted to watch it. It's grace we we use it that

way. And that was the initial meaning

of chorus. Over time it developed to also

the a feeling of pity and a drawing and a a a feeling of

sympathy. So the best way to probably give

an illustration would be you're a wealthy person sitting in your

big armchair. You got your TV tray with all

your food, like you got your big Turkey leg and the fire's going

and you're warm and you're. And you look out your window and

down the long lane of your mansion in the snowy Dr. sits a

homeless guy right leaning against the gate.

And he's shivering. And he has a little sign.

We'll work for food. And you feel sympathy.

You feel compassion. And that was called grace.

But it didn't stop there. Over time, it became the the

wealthy person. You pick up that Turkey leg, you

get one of your big fur blankets and some other supplies.

And you go down and you say, hey, listen, I saw you.

I saw you shivering. I want to give you this blanket.

Here's here's some food and here's some money.

I want you to get yourself a hotel tonight.

And the concrete meeting of their need itself was great.

So here, This is why this is important.

Because when Jesus looked at us, he didn't just look at us from

afar and have pity on us and say, oh, I feel bad for matter

of fact, I'm going to wipe out their debt.

They don't owe me anything. Problem is, I'm still homeless.

I'm still cold. I can't help myself.

Jesus didn't just look from afar.

He literally got up from his throne, took on human flesh,

came down and met my need again. Grace is power.

He gave me power, not just not to know, not just wiping out my

debt, but He gave me power to become all he called me to be.

So the grace of God begins to live within us.

And that was chorus. It was grace.

But here's the catch. The, there was a final

development of this word and eventually it became also the

feeling of gratitude in the recipient towards their

benefactor. And he would feel grace.

He'd look up, thank you so much. I can't, I thought no one cared.

And he's got that blanket on me. He's got that Turkey leg and

he's so grateful. He expresses his gratitude.

That gratitude was car, as it was called, grace.

And we still use it that way. At my house, we're going to have

about 25 to 30 people there and we're going to say grace.

And at my place, there's going to be a lot of preachers

probably. And so who knows how long that

prayer is going to be because we're going to say grace and

we're going to thank God. See, here's the thing, Grace,

this is that the final stage of grace.

This is why I say when you are grateful, it's the fruition,

it's the maturation, it's the zenith of the grace of God in

your life. And if you're not grateful, it's

because something has been stifled.

What you receive from Him has failed to be returned to Him in

the form of gratitude. There's a reason that when we're

worshipping, all of a sudden the gifts began to break up.

Why is that? Because those grace gifts, when

we continue the flow we've been receiving and receiving, we get

here corporately and we return it back to Him.

And all of a sudden there's a fresh flow of grace and see

people who are grateful that have gratitude.

There's a continual flow that God can give more and they're

sending it back to them. And that literally becomes a

lens through which they evaluate everything in life, and they're

looking for some hint of His goodness.

And where other people are seeing reasons to be

discouraged, they're seeing, they're seeing goodness all

over. Oh, look at what God did, this

little thing, this little thing, and you actually begin to have

breakthrough based upon that. Here's the thing, the fruit of

grace, the gratitude of yesterday's breakthrough

actually be contains the seeds for tomorrow's breakthrough.

That fruit has seeds in it. Your gratitude, my gratitude

today for yesterday's breakthrough actually creates

within me a hope for the future. And I began to cultivate that.

And it creates an entirely different mindset and an

entirely different world I live in.

And that's true of all of us. See, you can live in heaven or

you can live in hell right now. No, there are literal places,

and we will geographically move there one day.

But the fact is, both of them are bleeding into the present

right now. And the danger is, is that as

believers, we can actually cultivate Hell's narrative in

our life by agreeing with it and being cynical and complaining.

And it's because we're fighting against who God really is, and

we're agreeing with the lie of the enemy from way back in the

garden. God can't be trusted.

I better take matters into my own hands.

How's that worked out for us? And so gratitude is so

important. This is not some side issue,

some little thing, or one day a year that we honor this thing.

It must be a lens through which we look at life.

It's an armor of defense. It is the fruit of grace.

It's the mark of maturity in your life.

If you are not a grateful person, I love you, but because

I love you as your pastor, I'm telling you, grow up.

You have to get the right lenses on.

You've got to begin to see even the little seeds.

So often what we do is we destroy tomorrow's crop because

we curse it. And it's, it's, it's just in

that embryonic form, those little seedlings coming up and

we're wanting a harvest. We're wanting to plant a seed

one day and eat the apple the next day.

And it doesn't work that way. The Kingdom of God cultivate is

is a cultivation process. And as we cultivate things,

there comes a time where we're always living in a harvest and

always planting seed and always living in a harvest and always

planting seed. But we've got to start with that

faith that says, God, you are good.

And what's gone into the ground, this yesterday's victory is the

seedbed for tomorrow's victory. There's a reason when David

looked at Goliath, he said, you know what?

Yesterday I killed a lion. I got a bearskin rug in my tent.

I got a lion's head over the mantle in my house, and Goliath

is next. I can take that boy.

Why? Why do I believe I can do

something in the future? Because I have proof of it in

the past. That was gratitude.

So let's go ahead and stand. If you don't have your communion

element, just raise your hand and the ushers will bring that.

Well, they're coming psychologically and spiritually.

Gratitude and hope are intimately connected.

The same mindset that appreciates the positive in your

past will naturally expect the same for your future.

But the negative corollary is true as well.

The mindset that refuses to acknowledge the positive things

that have happened to you in the past will fail to recognize any

possibility of it in the future. Breeding despair, you'll

actually reject it as it's arriving.

If you practice gratitude, it will inadvertently cultivate

hope. Put on the lenses of

thankfulness. They are the key to seeing the

blessings that lie in the future.

Gratitude and hope are rooted in the goodness of God, the

conviction that God's character is benevolent and kind and

actively involved in rewarding those who do right and punishing

those who do wrong. And it all comes from your view

of God. All right, lift up your bread

here. Remember how we said Jesus is

the wealthy mansion dweller who had it all, and we were the

frail, shivering, homeless one at the end of the drive?

He didn't just look out and say, ah man, I feel bad for him.

Boy, this Turkey's good. He got up, took on human flesh,

and dwelt among us. It was his grace, and he

imparted to us his victory. Jesus, we thank you for this

prophetic token of your incarnation, that you shared our

frailty, our humanity. You know temptation more than we

do because everyone of us succumb to it.

You were the only one who resisted to the end and broke

the back of temptation. Jesus, we thank you.

We receive your body this morning.

Jesus, we thank you for your blood.

Leviticus says that the life is in the blood.

The life that's in this blood is a life that has fulfilled every

righteous requirement that God had for man.

It says in Hebrews that once made perfect, Jesus became the

source of eternal salvation. It also says that he suffered or

he was perfected by the things he suffered.

He was born innocent but had to go through every test that you

and I failed. There is not a temptation you've

ever faced that Jesus didn't conquer.

You say well wait a minute, you know he never had to deal with

Internet porn. He dealt with the underlying

temptation of that very thing. He was enticed by the enemy.

He passed the test. He was made perfect.

What's in this cup is a life that has fulfilled every

requirement that God had for men except one.

Your faith. So Jesus, we thank you for the

price you paid. We thank you, Lord, that you

passed the test. You refuse to satisfy fleshly

desires for our sake, for the Father's sake.

Lord, we thank You that when you were on the cross spilling your

blood, we were on your mind. For the joy of us set before

you, You endured. Let's receive it.

Hallelujah. Let's lift our hands to the

Lord. Just lift your hands to the Lord

for a moment. Father, we thank you, We bless

you, Lord, we thank you, your goodness towards us.

Lord, oh Jesus. Lord, I ask that you would open

the eyes of our understanding to a greater revelation of you.

And Lord, I ask that the the theme of our heart would be, God

is good, God is good. Hallelujah.

I'm going to ask the ministry team to come forward.

If you need prayer this morning, the altars are open.

If you need to get right with the Lord, this is the day to do

it. If you if you're here to this

morning and and you need to get right with God, it might be

something you've done in the past, you've walked away or it's

something you've never done. If that's you, just raise your

hand high. We want to pray for you this

morning. You need to get right with the

Lord. Amen.

Anybody else, you need to get right with the Lord this

morning. Listen, don't leave here without

doing that. No one's going to judge you.

We've all had to walk that that out, man.

It's a thing to rejoice about. Anybody else you need to get

right with the Lord. Listen, if that's you, those of

you that raise your hand, come forward as we close.

Lord, we thank you for your grace.

Lord, I ask that you'd bless each one of these.

Lord, as we gather with friends and family, Lord, and we

celebrate Thanksgiving, Lord, we ask that your presence would

abide with us in Jesus name, Amen.

Hey, I love you. Have a great week.