The Power of Thanks - Leaders' Talks

Hey, I'm Steve Holt, the senior pastor of the Rev at Chapel Hills.

This is the Rev Podcast.

Thanks for joining us.

My heart is to empower you to change the world.

I hope this message impacts you.

Here now is our guest speaker.

So I kind of was wrestling a little bit with this message, honestly.

All this week I've been uh you know asking the Lord um, you know, kind of why he would uh give me this message to share, but I really sensed in my spirit that the Lord wanted me to speak um today on the power of thanks.

Um in Worship Academy, um I spend a whole uh several weeks on um praise theology, we do worship theology, um, which by the way are two different things.

You know that that praise is is different than worship, right?

Because I've gone to churches, big churches, and asked the worship leader, like, what's the difference between praise and what's the difference between worship?

And sometimes they'll say stuff like, well, you know, worship's kind of slow and praise is kind of fast.

I'm like, no, no, no, there's a little bit more to it than that.

Like, there's the Bible actually has a whole lot to say about um praise and worship.

But here's the thing: in the Old Testament, there was basically three houses that were built.

Houses that God um wanted built.

The first one was the tabernacle of Moses, the second was the temple of Solomon, who uh David wanted to build that temple and didn't end up building it.

The Lord said, Your son's gonna build it.

And then they also had the tent of David.

And um, but in the Mosaic Tabernacle, there was basically a doorway into the presence of the Lord.

And do you know what that doorway was?

It was the gate of thanksgiving.

You ever heard this song?

I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart.

I will enter.

See, you know it.

I will say this is the day of the Lord.

Remember those boom chick songs?

I will rejoice.

He has made me glad.

So, um, before I I kind of explain that, let me just tell you a little story.

Um when me and my wife uh first got married, we lived two years in my uh in with her parents while I finished college.

And then um when we kind of were getting to the end of my college time, we were living with her parents, and um she came to me one day and she said, babe, she said, I really believe that that when we move out um of this house, when you graduate from college, that we're gonna move into a new house, like an actual house.

And I said, Well, I have I'm probably gonna have to get a job first.

Um, and if I've just graduated from college, I'm not sure what the pay's gonna be.

Um an apartment might be nice too.

And she's like, nope.

She's like, we're moving out, we're going into a new house.

She said, I'm praying for it, I'm believing for it.

And I was just like, okay, I'm not gonna tell you no, but um it's gonna be, it's gonna take a miracle, let's put it that way.

And so, sure enough, um I graduated from from college, uh, ended up working at uh my my dad's church, and um made a whopping salary, let me tell you.

And so um it was it wasn't a lot, let's just put it that way.

And uh, but we had these these series of services where we had a special speaker in, and um kind of like we do at the beginning of the year, you know, um, and where we have several consecutive nights, this was one of those kind of uh things, and we had this special speaker in, and uh I had just finished leading worship, this is 20 some years ago, just leading worship.

My wife was singing next to me, and I went down off the stage, and the uh the special speaker um said, Hey, hey, you guys back there.

He said, Uh, can I can I uh talk to you for a second?

So we're like, uh yeah?

And he and he said, I feel like the Lord gave me a prophetic word for you.

Um He said, I see you in a new house.

And he said, It's already in the making, in fact.

He said, uh everything's gonna fall into place, you're not gonna have to try to make it all, like work it out and strategize.

Um he said, but yeah, I see you in a dwelling place, um, and it's beautiful.

And he and then right before we sat down, he said, in fact, I I want to tell you again, I feel like the Lord's saying it's already in the making.

And we're walking back to our seat, and my wife goes like this.

What did I tell you?

We're moving into a new house.

So that this special speaker did not know that we actually, the next day, that was Sunday, on Monday, had an appointment with our loan officer, and um just to kind of find out what our options were.

And so we sat down with him and he said, Yeah, well, just tell me a little bit about what you make, your financial situation.

So I got a piece of paper and I wrote it down and I turned it over and slid it across the desk, and he looked at it, and then he laughed and laughed.

And he said, Here's the deal, guys.

You don't you don't make enough um to qualify for you know any of the houses uh you know here in this city.

Um so I mean I don't know what we're gonna do.

And um uh, you know, but the the dollars and the cents just aren't there.

Then he kind of paused for a minute and he said, but would you be open to moving uh like or or living about 10, 15 minutes away in this other community?

And he named the community, and my wife said, That's the community I want to live in.

And he's like, Really?

He goes, they have a first-time home buyers program there.

There's a special development that they made.

And he said, I think with these numbers that we can maybe qualify you.

He said, Do you want to go go see it?

I said, Yeah, let's go see it.

So literally that day, I wrote a check for$500 to put down on this lot.

And of course, we walked through the model homes.

The first model home was a whopping 1,011 square feet, three bedrooms.

But then we made the mistake of walking through the one just above that that was about 1,400 square feet, and we walked in, and my wife's eyes lit up with the hardwood floors, and then we walked into the bedroom and she opened up the closet and saw a huge closet.

She said, Oh, babe, she said, This is the one that I I would really want.

I said, babe, listen to me.

I don't think we could afford this one.

They said they're barely gonna qualify us for this little one over here.

And um, she goes, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, I I I know, but I'll be happy with that.

It's a new house.

That was Monday.

On Thursday, um, I got a phone call from the development, and they basically said, Um, we've had a cancellation in one of our houses, and uh it's the one just bigger than yours.

And she elbows me again and said, God knows the desires of my heart.

I want that walk-in closet.

And he said, I think that we can make the money work, we're gonna maybe adjust the interest rates a little bit.

We can there's some wiggle room there.

Um, but here's the thing it's halfway built, and they haven't picked out any of the colors yet, so you get to pick out everything, plus, we're gonna throw in a free fireplace because we can't really remove it, it's already in there, and uh and an electrical package, you get double the sockets and all that.

Um, are you interested?

And said, Yeah, we are, and he said, We can actually get you in before Thanksgiving.

And so, literally, with no furniture, just a bed, we bought this ugly green couch at a garage sale.

We we had a card table in the kitchen, we move into this house, a brand new house, and I'm sitting on my ugly green couch, and she was in the back bedroom, and the Lord asked me this question as clear as day, are you thankful?

And I I you know I answered as best I could.

I said, Yeah, of course I'm thankful.

And then he said it again, are you thankful?

And there was a more serious tone.

And I I remember David how he kind of celebrated the ark of God coming into the city, and I literally jumped up off the couch and began to dance around.

I wasn't in my underwear, okay, like David was.

All right, but I was dancing around and I started shouting.

I said, Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, and I'm rubbing the walls.

I'm like, this is so awesome.

My wife comes out.

She goes, What are you doing?

I said, I'm thanking God.

And just then there was this big window on the front of the house, and some of our neighbors were walking by.

We had no curtains, of course, and they literally turned the other way, and we never got to know those neighbors as long as we lived in that house.

So I'm dancing around and I'm going nuts and going crazy, and finally I'm exhausted, and I plop down on the green couch.

She sits next to me, and then God spoke to me one last time.

And he said, Why would I bless you with more if you're not thankful with what you have now?

And I'm like, is that a scripture I don't know about?

Because I mean, I I'm I'm I'm I'm racing through the Bible thinking, like, okay, God, what are you trying to tell me?

Well, what do you mean by that?

I said, I need scriptural proof about this whole Thanksgiving thing.

Like, like, I this doesn't quite compute yet.

And he took me to the story of the ten lepers and Jesus.

And I'll read this for you.

You can follow along.

Now, on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.

As he was going into a village, ten men, or by say ten, ten men, right?

Who had leprosy met him.

They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, Jesus, master, have pity on us.

By the way, if a leper strolled into the city, they'd be stoned to death.

All right?

It was it was not kosher, it was not lawful for them that because leprosy was so contagious.

So literally, these ten men had lost their lives completely, had to live in an outside community.

They they could not see their family, and their lives are pretty much done.

They were gonna rot to death, basically, out in this other community.

So they heard about Jesus, they come up probably a little too close, and then they just yell from the distance, Jesus, have mercy on us.

When Jesus saw them, he said, Go show yourself to the priest.

And as they went, they were cleansed.

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

He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him.

And he was a Samaritan, which suggests that there were Jews there, but he was a foreigner.

Jesus asked, Were not all ten cleansed?

Where are the other nine?

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

Then he said to him, Rise and go, your faith has made you well.

My brother is a pastor, lives in Dallas, and he always told me, he said, Those who preach the best sermons learn how to ask the best questions.

So I asked myself, why is this story in the Bible?

I mean, it was it was pretty fantastic that Jesus healed the lepers, right?

I mean, it was a miracle.

But I don't I don't see that that's the main point of this story.

You know what I believe the main point of this story is?

One in ten were as thankful as they needed to be.

That's 10%.

So when God told me, he said, why would I bless you with more if you're not even thankful for what you have now?

Maybe God is making a point in this story to say, be thankful.

One in ten.

And by the way, I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart.

Okay, I will enter his courts with praise.

You have to sing the whole thing.

But in the Old Testament, do you realize that the entryway into God's presence was a gate of thanksgiving?

You couldn't access the presence of God unless you walked in with thanksgiving.

Here's what I've learned in my journey all those years ago.

God expects a thankful heart.

Let me say it one more time.

God expects you to be thankful.

Jesus looked at the one and he said, This, where are the other nine?

Why are you the only one who came back to thank me?

If you read between the lines, you see that Jesus expected a thankful heart.

Here's the other thing.

No thanks, no gate.

Jesus said, I am the door.

I am the door.

Do you realize that that nine people ran off back to their lives and missed an encounter with the Son of God?

They missed their Messiah because they were so excited to go back and didn't even stop to say thank you.

They could have come back.

Who knows?

They could have been one of his disciples, an apostle even.

But they missed their chance because they were not thankful.

By the way, this is this is not this is not my equation.

This is God's formula.

This is God's formula.

Most theologians believe that that is the foundational scripture for entering into his presence.

It's being thankful.

So I'm going to ask you this question.

Have you ever found yourself feeling void of God's presence?

I mean, even I'm in the midst of worship sometimes.

I'm going to be very, very vulnerable right now.

And I'll be like, I can't help it sometimes.

I love you, Lord, I love you, Lord.

Did I close the garage this morning?

I wonder what we're going to eat for lunch later.

I mean, I mean, everybody does it.

Our minds wonder.

We're not perfect worshipers.

But here's the thing.

If you're finding yourself reaching out to God and never experiencing or feeling his presence, I wonder if maybe you've lost your Thanksgiving.

But there's good news though.

Guess what?

Thanksgiving can be taught.

When my kids went to a birthday party, and they would get a gift from one of their friends.

As a parent, I would always hit him on the back of the butt, send them over.

Hey, go tell Johnny.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So genuine, right?

So thankful.

Kids.

You know the one word you don't need to teach kids mine?

Yeah?

That's the one word you never have to.

But the one word you do have to teach them is thanks.

Teach them to be thankful.

So that that way they can experience the presence of God.

That they can know.

Still to this day, my kids, we we we have lived a life of thanksgiving.

Ever since that encounter in that house, we have we have always made a conscious decision that we're going to be thankful.

And not just the good things.

I'm talking about the hard times, the difficult things.

I wonder if sometimes when we're not thankful for that journey through the trials, if if because we're not thankful, we we don't invite God's presence into that situation.

I wonder if we actually embraced thankfulness, even in the midst of like Paul did.

I thank you for hardships and I thank you for persecution and I thank you for all these.

Why?

Because he was inviting God's presence into the situation with him.

Remember Paul and and uh saw uh Paul and Barnabas in jail, singing and praising God, and then all of a sudden the prison doors opened?

They invited the presence of God into their situation, their difficulty.

Can we get down where the rubber meets the road?

Is this challenging to you?

Is this okay?

I hope you're being challenged.

Because it it challenges us all the time.

We have to return sometimes to our thankfulness.

But I remember when we were dating, um, I was uh in high school choir class and in walked this beautiful Hispanic beauty.

And I literally, the first time I laid eyes on her, um, thought to myself, I'm gonna marry that girl.

Um, and then for six months she wouldn't hardly talk to me.

I mean, I literally could not get her on the phone.

Um, but I I I had a secret recipe.

I became friends with all her friends and then started showing up places.

It was it was it was brilliant.

I God must have known.

And then I called up her dad, um, not her, called up her dad, um and asked if I could ask her to my conversation.

Company Christmas party.

And he said, It's okay with me if she wants to go.

So then he went and told her, you know, I just got a call from this guy named Brian Ming who wants to take you, and um, and she said yes.

And then guess what?

Like three or four dates later, she held my hand.

And then we kept holding hands.

And then a while after that, she actually let me kiss her.

Getting crazy in church today, right?

We're not going any further, okay?

But we talked for hours on the phone.

Remember those long chords that you could wind all around the house?

Just day to day a bunch of us, huh?

And we I'd I'd go to my room, she'd go to her room with those long cords, and we just talk for hours.

I couldn't believe that this girl wanted to spend time with me and actually get to know me.

And I was crazy about her.

Then marriage happens.

And I've been a pastor long enough to know.

Usually when I sit down and counsel with somebody who is completely at their wit's end, I almost think that this isn't gonna work.

Because they literally may be living under the same house or the same roof, but have no appreciation for each other and no common ground anymore.

How did it get there?

How did it get there?

Well, let me tell you, here's the progression.

When we're dating, when we're in a first in a relationship, they're in the honeymoon, first kids.

Man, we're so thankful.

I couldn't believe she'd actually hold my hand and kiss me, and then say yes to marry me.

But what happens if we're not careful?

We're so thankful at first, but then time passes and we become very, very familiar.

And then what happens after that is not only are we very familiar, but we also start comparing and we learn that their weaknesses drive us crazy, and some of the things they say.

When we first got married, she couldn't cook, and my mom was a great cook.

Um, now she's a great cook.

But I was like, Where's the food around here?

She's like, Can we just go grab a burger?

Uh and you learn some of those idiosyncrasies, and not all of it's bad.

I'm just saying it becomes very, very familiar, and if we're not careful, we start becoming unsatisfied and pointing out the things that we don't like instead of focusing on the things that we do like.

And then if we're not careful, number four, we start to take them for granted.

And there's just a separation that happens.

And where did this begin?

Where did this begin?

Because we were so thankful they even gave us the time of day at first.

But when the thankfulness starts to wane and we become unthankful, the presence of God also starts to slip out the back door, too.

And how many knows that any marriage that's going to work is going to have Jesus in the midst of it at the center?

Alright?

Same thing happens with churches.

We come in to a new church, and we're like, man, this is the most amazing place ever.

Pastor Steve's the greatest preacher I've ever heard.

And the music, that worship leader.

I mean, and and we're out in the hall in the lobby, and we're everybody's so friendly, and everybody's so nice, and then time passes, and you know, that he didn't even shake my hand today.

And, you know, the worship we were out of tune, you know, quite a bit.

And if we're not careful, we become very familiar with not just the strengths of the church, but maybe the weaknesses.

You know, I don't know, I don't like the music's too loud, or you know, they don't sing enough of hill song, or um, you know.

And if we're not careful, we start to lose our thankfulness and we go down this progression to the point where it's, and then people say, Oh, we'll just find another church.

And guess what?

You it's gonna be great for a year there too, until we lose our thank Thanksgiving for that appreciation.

Is this making any sense?

An unthankful heart complains about what it doesn't have instead of being thankful for what it does have.

So I was at a church in Fresno, a good pastor friend of mine, um, and uh he invited me in and he wanted me to do some songs uh at the beginning of the service, and then he um they did some announcements and some things, and then he got up to preach.

And so uh he uh he he kind of in between he said, he goes, I don't know why they can't get the screen right and the words right.

Said, I don't know what's going on back there, but every time we sing, like the words pop up two seconds late, and and nobody knows the words to sing to the song.

So then I get up and I'm preaching this um message on Thanksgiving.

And um he came to me literally with tears in his eyes at after the sermon was done, and he we went out to eat afterwards.

He goes, Brian, I was so angry.

He said, I I knew you were gonna be here, and I wanted everything to go perfect and us to be on point and everything, and it just wasn't going that way.

And then he said, During your sermon, I looked back to the sound booth and where they ran the projection, and I saw, I don't even remember her name.

He said, I just couldn't believe it.

He said, That lady used to live in a tractor and was bound by drugs, prostitution, I mean, was one of the roughest people our church has ever reached.

And she is back there.

And it's it's exactly what you said.

It's so easy to become a nitpick and become unsatisfied, not thankful that her life has been completely turned upside down and right with God now.

And she's back there serving the Lord on the PowerPoint.

And he said, Man, I'm so convicted.

And I'm I'm just gonna be honest with you.

It's so easy to go there.

Even with uh as uh pastoral staff or leadership, because you guys drive us crazy sometimes.

You don't show up sometimes, and but when you first came, we're like, oh, they're awesome and everything, but then what happens?

Time passes, and then we become familiar with your weaknesses, just like you're familiar with our weaknesses.

And the presence of God just slowly dissipates.

So I'm just I really felt like today what the Lord wanted me to focus on was just asking the question, are you thankful?

Are you thankful?

Are you thankful for what you have now?

Not what you want.

But I was so cut to the heart when I realized, and God is gracious, God continues to bless.

But I wonder sometimes if we miss out on things, because we walk the progression to unthankfulness.

You thankful for that job you have?

Thankful for your family, even the strained relationships, thankful for your church, thankful for your wife, husband, your kids that are crazy, doing whatever they want out.

Why don't we focus on the good and be thankful and invite his presence in with us?

Hey, thanks for listening to the Road Podcast.

It's been my joy to be a part of your life today.

And you know, that's part of what we do here at The Road, and this is what I do in having this road podcast, is to empower people to change their world.

My passion and desire is that you would take God's word through the power of the Holy Spirit and make that relevant for your life.

You know, the reality is that God has placed your life here on this earth to make a difference.

And if you'd like more information about how to grow in Christ, if you need prayer, if you want more equipping in different areas of your life, go to thero.org.

God bless you.