A Spirit of Thankfulness – Part 3: Thankfulness is an Expression

Glory to His name Glory to His name

Bear to my heart what's the blood of God

Glory to His name

Glory to His name

Glory to His name

Bear to my heart what's the blood of God

Glory to His name

Father God we are so thankful for the blood of Your Son Jesus

and the sacrifice that He made on the cross for us to have a relationship with You and to be here today

And Lord as we just sang glory to His name

That is the reason and purpose that every single one of us exists

It's the reason You created us, it's the reason You formed us in our mother's womb is to bring glory to Your name

And so Father as we come before You today to worship and to sing and to pray and to read Your word

I pray that all that is said and done today would bring glory to You

That You would be the one that's lifted up and exalted

That You would be the one that is praised

That You would be the one that is truly thanked for all that You've done and all that You're going to do in our lives

And Father as we meet together and we are able to have this service Lord we are reminded of the many people that we love and care about that aren't able to be here today

So Lord we lift up our shut-ins to You

We lift up our people who are struggling with physical things and just ask that You would touch them and speak to them in powerful ways

Father we pray for Ms. Crystal this morning as she's still recovering from her surgery and Ms. Tammy Scruggs as well

Lord just ask that You would touch their bodies and help them just so thankful to see Ms. Judy this morning

And pray that You continue to be with her

And Father as Mr. Quay and Ms. Gale has some stuff done this week

We just pray that You would touch them and be with their doctors and everyone involved

Lord we are forever a needy people

Every one of us in our own ways are weak and unable

But Lord You are more than able

Father You are strong You are powerful and You are bigger than anything that's in this world that stands against us

So Lord we come to You today and we come humbly at Your feet

And Lord I pray that we would rest in Your shadow

And allow You to be the God that we claim that You are

To let You be in control

To let You work and move

To truly surrender ourselves to Your will and Your ways

Father we love You and we come humbly before You today

And we ask all this in Jesus' precious and holy name

And all God's people said

Amen, you may be seated

We've been talking about having a spirit of thankfulness over the past few weeks

And today we're continuing on with that

I want to read to you from Colossians chapter 2 verses 6 through 7

Colossians 2:6–7

As Paul talks about our freedom that we have in Jesus Christ

And he starts off in verse 6 and says

And now, just as You accepted Christ Jesus as Your Lord

You must continue to follow Him

And I want to emphasize that You must continue to follow Him

Verse 7 says, let Your roots grow down into Him

And let Your lives be built on Him

So everything that we are

Our roots must grow down into Christ

And our lives must be built on Him

And Paul continues on to say, then Your faith will grow strong

In the truth that You were taught

And You will overflow with thankfulness

And so for the past couple weeks

We started off talking about how thankfulness is a tool

It's this practical thing that God has given us

That we can use it and apply it in our lives

To grow closer to Him, to approach Him, to worship Him

It's a very tangible thing

It takes a little bit of effort

It takes a little bit of mindfulness

To get to the point where we are giving thanks to God

Approaching Him with thanks

And not just approaching Him with a wish list

Like we do a lot of times

The other thing is that we talked about

Thankfulness is an attitude

And when we got to reading the definitions of an attitude

It's the way in which we posture ourselves before God

And before everything else

We set ourselves up in a way

We are consciously making the decision

To posture ourselves in a way

That no matter what comes

No matter what stimuli

No matter whether it's good or bad

We are prepared to give thanks to our Heavenly Father

And it's easier to give thanks in the good times

Sometimes we forget

And we get caught up in the moment

But it's easier to give thanks in the good times

And so whether it's good or it's bad

When it's hard to give thanks

That we position ourselves

In a way

We posture ourselves in a way

That enables us to give thanks to God

That we are prepared to do that

As we continue on

I want to encourage you this morning

That as you continue to follow Christ

I think that's really important

We remember that focused passage this morning

As we continue to follow Christ

Things get easier

You know God has designed us

As people

In a very unique way

That as we do something

Over and over again

As we are repetitive

As we are conditioning ourselves

That whether it's through our mental memory

Or through our physical memory

That even our body

Our muscles develop memory

That when you do something enough

It becomes natural

And spiritually speaking

It's the same way

As we continue to follow Christ

It moves from just being a tool

And just being an attitude

In which you're kind of putting forth

A little bit of effort in that

To follow God

And approach Him in the way that you should

And posture yourself in a way

To be responsive

The way that God has called us to be

To where it becomes an expression

Of who you are

And that's the goal

The goal should be for us

To move from this idea of

Okay we have this tool

And we're having to purposefully use this tool

And we have our attitudes

But we're having to purposefully

Be mindful of our attitudes

In a way that's preparing us to be thankful

And then eventually get to the point

Where we are just naturally thankful

Because it's becoming part of who we are

And so thankfulness as a believer

Should eventually become an expression

Of who you are in Jesus Christ

That He is changing you

He's shaping you

He's molding you

And as you express thankfulness

As a tool

And thankfulness through your attitude

That eventually you express thankfulness

Because it becomes part of who you are

And you don't have to think about it anymore

It's not an effort

And it's amazing to watch people

Who are really good at their craft

You ever watch somebody who is just amazing at something

And they just do it effortlessly

It's because they have absolutely devoted themselves

To that thing

It becomes part of who they are

And it becomes an expression of who they are

And as believers in Jesus Christ

We are called to become more and more like Jesus

And as we walk with Him

As we follow Him

We will become more and more like Him

So I wanted to get the definitions of expression

I thought last week it was good to realize

Like all the various definitions of attitude

And how that can apply to us spiritually

So here's some definitions of expression

There's seven of them this morning

The first one that Merriam Webster gives us

Is an act, process, or instance

Of representing in a medium

And I had to look up what that means as medium

So basically a medium is just a way or means

Of doing or saying something

And so to just give you a simple explanation

As believers

When our thankfulness becomes an expression

Of who we are

We are able to speak, act, or respond

In a way that shows thankfulness

It's just a way of living

You don't have to say I'm thankful or thank you

The way that you live, the way that you act

The way that you respond in any way

Gives you the ability to communicate

Thankfulness to people around you

Definition number two

Expression is something that manifests, embodies

Or symbolizes something else

So when we are thankful

Thankfulness is an expression to show

What Christ has done within us

Thankfulness symbolizes something

That God has been doing

And is continuing to do in your life

It's evidence of what God is doing in you

When it becomes an expression

When it becomes naturally a part of who you are

It's an example

Or signifies what God has been or is doing

Point number three

Many of you have heard an expression

As a significant word or a phrase

Thankfulness is a powerful word

Thank you is a powerful word

That becomes even more powerful

In obscure circumstances

I don't know about you guys

But I kind of talked about this a little bit

With the kids

You know you raise kids

And you do all these things for your kids

And a lot of times you wonder

Do they even know

Do they even understand

And every once in a while

Like you'll do something for them

And they'll come up with like

This very genuine loving thank you

Like this great appreciation in this moment

And in that moment

It gives you so much energy

And love and the desire to do even more

And so for thankfulness to be this expression

That when we just express it audibly

It becomes this powerful way

To show what God is doing

Definition number four

It gets a little nerdy in these last few

A mathematical or logical symbol

Or meaningful combination of symbols

Thankfulness is a sign

Of the additional and multiplication powers

Of the work of God

Disdetectable in your life

You know as God is working and moving

It's not just

It may feel really slow in the beginning

You may not be able to see or feel

Or you feel like you're struggling through these moments

Early on in your relationship with God

But then it's amazing how all of a sudden

It's like it moves from addition to multiplication

And you begin to see God doing like

Amazing and wonderful things

And it's not that God hasn't been doing them all along

But you get to the point in your life

In your relationship with Him

Where you begin to see so much more

That you just didn't see before

Because God has opened up your eyes

And it enables us to be more thankful

In those processes

Definition number five

The detectable effect of a gene

And not genes that you wear but genetics

When you talk about the expression of something

It's the expression of something that is there

That's part of who you are

Part of the DNA that makes up

Who you are as a human being

And one of the wonderful things about God is

It doesn't matter who you were before

Or what family you come from

Or what genetics are in your body

Or whether it's nature versus nurture

That has brought you to the point where you are today

That we survey God who is powerful enough

To rewrite the DNA of our hearts

To make us new creations

And as He makes us new creations

And as He fills us with His Spirit

With Himself

The expression of what is within us

That makes up the very fabric

Of who we are spiritually speaking

Begins to be expressed outward

Definition number six

A mode means or use of significant

Representation or symbolism

Thankfulness is an identifying marker

Of who truly belongs to Christ

And who doesn't

Guys, I'm going to say this this morning

You may agree with it, you may not

I find it very hard to believe

That someone could claim faith in Jesus Christ

And truly belong to Him

And not have thankfulness in their lives

That's a strong statement

We're going to read a little bit of Scripture here in a minute

Kind of affirms that

But that's a strong statement

But I stand by it

It's very hard for me to believe that anyone could belong to Christ

And not have thankfulness within them

To be a part of who they are

Because if you truly understood

What Jesus Christ did for you

You have no choice but to be thankful for that

Despite anything else that happens in the world

Definition number seven, last one

An act of pressing out

And this goes back to that focus passage

Where it says as you grow in Christ

As you continue to follow Him

As your roots grow down deep in Him

And you become more like Him

Thankfulness will overflow from within you

And so as Christ changes who we are

Through the power of His Spirit

As we become more thankful

Thankfulness becomes to overflow

It comes out, it oozes out of who we are

It is an act of pressing outward

And so you don't even have to say it

You don't have to say I'm thankful

Or thank you or anything like that

A lot of times just what you do

And who you are and how you act

And how you respond and how you carry yourself

As a follower of Jesus Christ

Exemplifies the thankfulness that lives within your heart

Because it's part of who you are

And it is overflowing out of you

And we talked about that last week

About how thankfulness is one of those things

That it gives you energy

It gives to you, it gives to other people

It doesn't drain from you

And so it's one of those resources that comes from Christ

That is overflowing

It never ends, it's an infinite source

Of energy and worship

And praise to our Heavenly Father

So, three short points this morning

Because I've already talked a lot

Point number one

Thankfulness results when we continue to follow

This is so important for us as believers

When you look at our focus passage

Paul said, and now just as you accept it Christ Jesus says your Lord

You must continue to follow him

The saddest part about so many people

Who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior

Is that we think that whenever we go into this relationship with Jesus

That all of a sudden everything is just going to be perfect

And God's going to lay the red carpet out

And we're going to stroll through life

And we're just going to dance along the way

And nothing's going to come

Nothing's going to trip us up

And there's going to be no difficulties

And everything that's happened in the past

That we did, the decisions that we made

That has hindered us before

Will just magically be gone

And that's just not true

So many people commit their lives to Christ

In moments of desperation

Frustration

Being in these moments where they realize

I'm not in control

I can't handle this

I can't do this

And so I need a God

I need something bigger than me

To move in this situation

And in those moments we're willing to surrender to Christ

But then as we move throughout this life

Life is still hard

Right?

This is where we should be saying Amen

Alright?

Life is still hard

And it gets harder the older you get in different ways

It gets easier in some ways

But then it gets harder in other ways

And the situations you thought were really big deals back then

Were big deals

But now they're not big deals anymore

Because you made it through

But you know

But life gets tough

And a lot of people give up

And they say

Lord I didn't sign up for this

I thought that you were going to work all this stuff

I thought you were going to do this

I thought this was going to be

This was not part of the plan

And I'm not willing to keep following

If this is not

If this is the way life is going to be

And people give up

But we have to continue to follow

Christ in our lives

In order to see the fruits

From our relationship with Him

And that commitment

It's a tough journey

But it gets better

And the longer you follow Christ

The more you become like Him

This is why Paul says

You must continue to follow Him

Because the longer we follow

The more we become like Him

The more thankfulness we'll have

The more joy we'll have

But you got to stick it out

In John chapter 10 verses 26 through 28

John 10:26–28

As Jesus was speaking to the people

And He was addressing a certain group of people

He says

But you don't believe me

Because you are not my sheep

My sheep listen to my voice

I know them

And they follow me

I give them eternal life

And they will never perish

No one can snatch them away from me

As Jesus is talking to these people

He's saying

Look, if you're mine

You know my voice

And you're going to listen to me

And you're going to follow me

We cannot give up in following Jesus Christ

We have to stick that out

We have to stay with Him

And follow Him

Even when things get tough and hard

Even when things don't go the way that we want them to be

And just have faith to know

That God's going to see us through

He's doing something amazing in this

One of the most fascinating things about Scripture

Is when you see God doing the most miracles

When He's doing the greatest things

It's always during the most difficult and worst times

You think about the time that Jesus Christ came on this earth

And He started performing the degree

It was a terrible time on earth

There was a lot of heartache and pain and sorrow

And the life expectancy was really low

There was a lot of sickness and diseases

And a lot of injustice during this time

He comes at one of the worst times in human history

God does some of His greatest works during the most difficult times

And so we have to be committed in our lives

And Lord I may not understand this right now

I may not know what's going on

I don't like this right now

But Lord help me to keep following you

Because I've been told that it gets better

I've been told that on the other side of this

I'll see how you've been working and moving

So help me to keep following you

Help me to stay faithful during this time

And sadly there's a lot of people who never got to experience

And see the work that God did during those hard times

They never got to see the miracles that God can do in that moment

Point number two

Thankfulness results when our roots grow deep

Thankfulness results when our roots grow deep

And as we continue to follow these roots

As the scripture told us in the beginning

Must grow deep in Christ and our lives

And everything that we are must be built on Him

You know when you think about plants

It's an amazing thing

I don't have a great understanding of plants

I actually don't even like plants

We joke a lot of times like

We feel really bad because people give us plants as presents

And we kill them by accident

We don't do it on purpose

But we're not good with them

But they're really fascinating

And you just think about a tree

And you think about what the roots of a tree does

And you think about how amazingly huge

Trees can get

And you see everything that's out of the ground

And how big it is and how much weight that is

And how difficult it is to manage

And I think everybody's got a little more conscious of trees

After Helene this last fall

But it's amazing at how huge

And heavy and the life that they support

And roots keep that thing anchored down

That even on a good calm day

As much weight and mass is there

The roots keep that thing in place

And then whenever the storms come

That it can still keep it anchored in its place

And hold it together

You know, after Helene last year

I've cut a lot of trees since that time

You know, every tree that I cut for someone

Every single one of them

Not on one of them was healthy

They may have looked healthy, but they weren't

They would have water damage and rot

Somewhere in the tree

They would have ants in the tree

Or they would be reaching to the point

Where they had just reached their maturity

And they were beginning at the first stages

Of the death of the tree

Because trees have life cycles too

Or they were in a spot where the roots

They were on an embankment

And the roots weren't as stable as they could be

If they were in a good location

Every one of them had something wrong

Because what you see is

You go out and look

And there's still millions of trees still standing

They're all still there

Because they were healthy

And they made it through the storm

Another thing is that roots absorb

The water and the nutrients

That the tree will need to grow

And live and survive in the coming days

You know, that's your life

You think about what it means to be rooted in Christ

If you want to be healthy and strong and anchored

And not pushed over and swayed in the storms of life

Be anchored in Christ

If you want to be alive and to be nourished

And receive everything that you need

To make it through this life

Be rooted in Jesus Christ

Let your roots grow deep in Him

Let your life be built on Him

Another thing that roots do

For various plants is to store food

You know, it doesn't always rain

When it should, right?

Y'all ever go through that process?

It's like, one of the funniest things

I thought about church whenever I first started

Is all the old people's like

Lord, pray for rain

We need rain

And then it rains too much

Everybody's like

Pray the rain will stop

We got too much rain

I'm like, let's pray for an appropriate amount of rain

And it never rains enough when you need it to

And it never stops raining when you want it to

It's like, there's all kinds of these weird conditions

But roots have this amazing thing about them

This amazing quality

Where they can store up the nutrients we need

So that the plant or the tree or whatever it is

Can survive when the conditions above ground

Are not what would be ideal

You are walking through a world

Where the conditions around you in your life

Are very seldomly going to be ideal

There will be seasons

Where it will be like the perfect amount of rain

The perfect amount of sunshine

You will stroll through those seasons

Like man, life is great

And it's easy to be thankful in those moments

And then you will hit dry seasons

Where there's no rain

You will hit seasons where there's too much rain

And you wish it'd stop raining

You're going to hit seasons where the wind's blowing

And it's scary and storms come

There's going to be all kinds of stuff

But the roots that you have that grow in Jesus Christ

No matter what is going on around you

In your circumstances

In nature

The roots that you have in Jesus Christ

Can sustain you through anything that comes

Roots also transport those same resources

To the rest of the tree

Giving it life

You know, it's amazing to watch plants grow too

Because they will naturally shed things of themselves

That is not useful or producing

Farmers will hurry this process along with the pruning process

Of different trees and plants

But naturally you can walk through the woods

And you can see it

Every tree that grows in the woods

It might be huge

And have these big huge limbs and lots of leaves and stuff

But then down below the canopy

You'll see all the limbs dying and shedding

They're not getting sunlight

They're not getting life

And the tree automatically begins cutting it off

When you are rooted in Jesus Christ

One of the most amazing things about those roots is

Is that He will nourish you

In every aspect of your life

That is healthy and good in producing fruit

And He will continue to nourish that

And then the things that aren't producing fruit

The things that aren't beneficial to you

It'll cut that off

And you'll start wanting to shed those things

You'll want to start getting rid of those things

Because if you don't

What will they do?

It'll cause you to die

So there's a shedding process that takes place

As the roots transport

And it's amazing how a tree can do that

This plant that doesn't have a brain

Can send all the nutrients to exactly where it needs to go

And then take it away and begin to shed

All the things that's not producing anything

And the last thing which I think is really cool is

Roots prevent erosion

One of the greatest things about plants

Trees is that the roots that they have with them

Hold the soil together

And keeps everything stable

For everything else around to benefit from it

And you as a believer in Jesus Christ

You have the ability

That if you have a healthy root system in Christ

That everyone else around you will benefit from you

Being a stable presence

And holding it together

Because you are rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ

Even though they may not be

And that is a testimony

That you can't fake it

You can't use that tool

Enough under your own strength

You can't position yourself

In a way

In an attitude to give thankfulness

That becomes part of who you are

In Jesus Christ

And that's why it's so important

That we allow Him

To be the Lord of our life

And to continue to walk with Him

In Ephesians chapter 4 verse 15

Ephesians 4:15

It says,

Instead we will speak the truth in love

Growing in every way

More and more like Christ

Who is the head of His body, the church

As believers

You and I are called

To grow in Jesus Christ

And as we grow in Him

We are to become more and more like Him

We look like Him

We act like Him

We talk like Him

We become more like Him

As we follow Him

Is a natural expression

Of the way that we follow Him

Point number 3, last one

Thankfulness results when our faith grows

You know, it's really hard

In the beginning

As you follow Christ

To trust it

It's really hard to trust it

Whenever things come up that are unfortunate

And negative things happen in our life

To just trust that God's got this

That He's going to walk us through this

That He's going to take care of all this

It's really hard to trust that

But as you walk with Christ

And as you follow Him

And as the years go

And if you're young this morning

You say, oh gosh, it's going to take years

Yes, it's going to take years

But the cool thing about getting old is

Is that years get really fast

And before you know it, you're looking back

And a lot of years have passed

And the Lord has done a lot of work in your life

Which is to His glory

And so

As your faith grows in Christ

As you continue to follow Him

You will see God do things in your life

And you will have witnessed Him

Carry you through those moments

And to guide you through those things

And it will help you

To have more and more faith in Him

And it stinks because you would think

Like man, it would be nice if we could just have faith

No, faith is something that has to grow

Faith is something that has to

We got to put in our time

We got to continue to follow

We got to continue to trust

We have to go through hard and difficult times

For our faith to grow

To be able to trust God to know

That He's going to take care of it

And that's why in James chapter 1 verses 2-3

James 1:2–3

When the Apostle James wrote

Dear brothers and sisters

When troubles of any kind come your way

Consider it an opportunity for great joy

For you know that when your faith is tested

Your endurance has a chance to grow

And that's exactly why when you look at this passage of Scripture

As a Christian

You can begin to understand

What the Apostle James was talking about

In this moment

Because if you're just somebody of the world

Or if you haven't put your faith in Jesus Christ yet

You're looking at this guy like

He's an idiot

He is crazy

What kind of person is going to be thankful

And joyful when hard times come

And when troubles come our way

That's not normal is it

And I don't know about you guys

But I don't like hard times either

You know I was talking to a lady the other day

Said you know

Her and her husband is going to a difficult time

He's really sick

And she's like you know

She's like don't pray for patience

If you pray for patience

The Lord will just

Really put it on you until you become patient

And we want our faith to grow

And we're just like

Faith grows the most here in the most difficult times

Our relationship with God grows the most here in the most difficult times

And so it really puts in perspective

What's the most important thing in your life

Is the most important thing in your life for you to be comfortable

Or is the most important thing for your life for you to grow close with Jesus Christ

Because when you look at James and he writes this

He gave up everything to follow Christ

He followed him

And then he died for him

He literally died for the name of Jesus

And his faith in Jesus Christ

James experienced something

That most of the people in the world

Will never experience because

The evidence that he saw in Jesus Christ

Was enough for him to lay down his physical life for him

And we get scared

We think man I don't want life to get hard

I want to grow with Christ

But I don't want to go through hard times

I don't want family members to get sick

And I don't want people that I love to die

And I don't want to lose my job

And I don't want to struggle financially

And I don't want this

And I don't want to struggle my health

And we go back and we're afraid of what God will allow to come into our life

And nobody who's not crazy is going to say

Lord bring it on

I'm ready

That's crazy

And so we don't wish for those things to come into our life

But when they do come

Because we live in a broken world

And they're going to come

Whether you wish them to come or not

They're going to come

And what James is saying is when they do come

Don't get frustrated

Don't get aggravated

Be joyful because this is going to be an opportunity for you to see

How amazing God can work and move

And whenever this season of pain is over with

You're going to be able to look back and see how faithful God was in that

And so the next time something comes along

It's much easier to have faith than be joyful to know

This stinks right now

But God's got this

This stinks right now

But I know Lord can take care of this

You look at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

These three young men who were unwilling to budge before the king

And you think about how much they had to believe in this

How much they had to believe in God

When the king asked them

You think your God's going to save you from the fiery furnace?

You think your God can rescue you?

And their response is

We do not need to defend ourselves before you, O King

Our God whom we serve is able to save us

But even if He doesn't

We want to make it clear to you that we will never serve your gods

Or worship the gold statue that you have set up

Even if

The mindset and the commitment

Of the people that we read about in Scripture that we're supposed to be following

Is so far above and beyond what most of us are willing to give and understand

That these three young men believed in this enough said

Look, we believe He's able but even if He don't

It's not going to happen

We're committed

We're going to continue to follow

And if they weren't willing to say, King

No matter what happens, we're not going to do this

If they would not have went into that furnace

They would have never experienced what it was like to be rescued from the fire

And that's something that we've got to remind ourselves of as believers

If we're not willing to go into the fire

We're never going to experience what it's like to be rescued from it

If we're not willing to put ourselves on the line for the name of Jesus Christ

We're never going to experience what it's like to be rescued in His name either

That is something that we have to commit ourselves to

To follow and to put our faith in

Second Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18

2 Corinthians 3:18

Paul wrote, so all of us who have had that veil removed

Can see and reflect the glory of the Lord

And the Lord who is the Spirit makes us more and more like Him

As we are changed into His glorious image

This morning, as unique and wonderful as you have been made

The desire of God is for you to be made into the image of Christ

When His Son died on the cross for our sins

He did not do that so that we could keep on being who we are

He did that so He could come into our hearts and lives

And make us new

That as we continue to follow Him we become more and more like Him

And as we become more and more like Him

You won't have to be so mindful or thoughtful about expressing thanks to God

It will become part of who you are

It will become an expression of who you have become in Jesus Christ

Because of the work that He's done in our lives

But we have to decide whether or not we're going to let Him do the work

Am I going to keep following?

Am I going to keep surrendering?

Am I going to keep allowing God working and moving in my life?

Let's pray

Father God, thank You for another opportunity

To read Your Word, to pray, to gather with one another

And Lord, this morning

The things that we talk about and the things that we read of, they're not easy

Lord, these are not easy passages to take and to run with

Lord, this is the hard part

Lord, this is where we have to step out in faith and trust in You and believe in You

And to continue to follow You even when things aren't exactly the way that we want them to be

Lord, I pray that You would help us to find the strength and courage to believe in You and trust in You

Lord, to stay the course, to keep following, to keep allowing You to form us into Your image

And one day, as we come down the road

We'll be able to express thanks because it's part of who we are

And it won't matter the situation, it won't matter the circumstances, it won't matter

Whatever's going on around us in our lives

We will have hope and joy and peace in Jesus Christ

That the rest of the world will not be able to understand

Even if this whole world around us falls apart and gets blown away

Lord, we have a life that is infinitely better than anything we could ever imagine or dream of now

And as we share in Your death, Lord, we also get to share in Your glory and in Your eternal life

Help us to remember that

We love You, we ask all this in Jesus' name, Amen