The Heart of Thanksgiving - Part 2 - November 24, 2024

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's

plan for your life. Are you thankful yet?

Yeah. Well, there's something I'm not thankful about, but it's just reality.

And Rich and yo, we understand you're leaving.

Go down south where it's going to be warmer. We're going to miss you.

I just wanted on behalf of the congregation to let you know we love you.

And so I couldn't let this go before talking to you. Rich had a microphone on

earlier. I thought he was going to help me preach today. You still can, brother.

I might need help. Oh, you got the hearing thing. All right.

One of the things I love about Rich I'll miss is Monday morning meetings.

Comes in to get some coffee, and I appreciate those times. I really do.

Well, this morning, I want to continue on the sermon I started two weeks ago

and didn't have time to finish, and so thank you for being gracious enough to

come back and hear part two.

If you missed part one, you can download the Church Center app.

There's a theme here, can you tell?

And on that Church Center app, you can get all the sermons I've preached since

I've been here, I believe, and it'll lead you right to the place you need to go.

If you can't watch a video, you can listen to the podcast of it.

And the greatest thing that my dad loves about this is you can fast forward

through the parts you don't like.

I don't like it, but you can do that. It's a possibility.

Anyway, two weeks ago when we met, we talked about this verse,

a powerful verse, a short verse, but it's very potent, from 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 16 through 18.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18

And I want you to hear the word of the Lord this morning. Rejoice always.

Pray continually. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Lord, your word is powerful.

Your word is mighty, and it cuts us right even to deciphering between the truth and error, Lord.

It cuts us right to the heart. And I pray this morning, as we reminisce and

think about and apply these verses to our life, that, God, you'll be glorified.

Our lives will be changed, and others will be impacted by the good news of your gospel.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Well, two weeks ago, I gave you two points, and I just want to recap those very quickly.

From this passage of Scripture, it starts out saying in verse 16,

rejoice always. And that was the first point, was that if we're going to develop

a heart of gratitude, a heart of thanksgiving, then we are going to need...

To rejoice always. And I said that joy comes from the Holy Spirit of God.

That it's abiding in God's presence where we really experience the joy,

the true joy, lasting joy.

And we know that comes from the hope that we also have in God's Word.

And I encourage you to have joy in all circumstances, whether a team won or team lost,

whether a candidate won or lost, whether you are in a time of prosperity or

time that really wasn't very prosperous,

whether we're talking materially or emotionally or even spiritually,

that you can have joy in all of those circumstances.

And then I encouraged you to count your blessings, to really look and see what

God has done in your life and find practical ways to rejoice.

And I know every week, we have a practical way for you to rejoice when you come

in here, when we gather together, we sing these great songs.

And we have quite the variety of songs that we sing, because guess what?

We are quite the variety of people. Praise the Lord for that, right?

And so we have many ways that we can connect with God through praise and through rejoicing.

Secondly, a couple weeks ago, I told you that you need to pray continually.

And why did I say that? Well, because that's what the Scripture said in verse 17.

Pray continually. Pray without ceasing.

And this was a powerful point because we talked about the importance of persistent

prayer, not giving up in prayer.

That continual prayer builds our relationship with God.

That if we feel afar off from God, we need to check our prayer life because

maybe we haven't been communicating with Him.

Why do I keep pushing the church app, the church center app?

Because it's all about communication. I want you to know what's going on,

and I don't want you to ever feel that you're not in the know,

that you don't know what's going on at that Mountain View Church.

The Church Center app lays it all out there, and so it opens the line of communication for you.

That's why we give out this bulletin every week, because we want you to know what's going on.

When it comes to prayer, God wants us to know what's going on,

and so he wants us to spend that time with him, that time together.

And I encourage you that prayer is not just something you do on a Sunday morning

or before you eat a meal, but prayer is a lifestyle.

You're supposed to continually have this open line of communication with God.

And I know there's barriers to overcome, and I encourage you how to overcome those.

But today I want to hit my third and final point.

And yeah, we'll get it all done today, I promise.

And that is what the scripture says in verse 18. Give thanks in all circumstances,

for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

I want to start out by saying this morning that gratitude is powerful,

that there's a power when it comes to having the Spirit, this heart of thanksgiving,

this heart of gratitude.

What it does when we think about what gratitude or having the spirit of thanksgiving

does, it causes a shift in our life.

It causes something to happen within us when we take the focus off of our problems

and we start to focus upon the blessing that God is giving, has given, or wants to give to us.

Something changes within us. I love what it says in Philippians 4,

Philippians 4:6

verses 6 and 7. Do not be anxious about anything.

It's pretty cut and dried, right? But in everything, through prayer and petition

and with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts

and your minds in Christ Jesus.

This passage is talking about a shift that goes on within yourself.

When you commit to not worrying, not being anxious, not focusing on your problems,

but rather turning to God. How? Again, through prayer.

Through prayer. With petitions saying, God, I feel anxious about this.

God, I have this need and I don't know how it's going to be met.

God, I have this person in my life that needs to know Jesus.

And I feel powerless. I can't do anything about it, but I've got to give it

to you because, God, I know you can handle it.

God, I know you know the solution, or I know that you'll just be with me as

I go through this valley of the shadow of death, whatever it might be.

There's a shift that takes place when we commit not to focusing on the problem,

but focusing on the blessing that's available to us that can come.

In this passage, the blessing that comes to us is peace.

Not just like peace, brother, you know, not just being chill all the time, but a peace.

An irene, a shalom that comes over so everything starts to work as it should work in the right way.

Because it's according to God's plan and everything begins to flow as God has intended for it to.

It's that peace that the scripture says passes all understanding.

Like it's incomprehensible almost. You don't know why you're feeling peace when

you should be going crazy inside.

But it's because you turn that over to God. and in faith and by faith,

you're trusting him that he's going to take care of it.

You know, there's been some interesting research done.

I've got the notes on it here, that there's a benefit of gratitude,

not just spiritually, although there definitely is, but the benefits of gratitude

that it has on your emotional and your mental health.

Check this out. I'll go through them quickly, I promise.

The first benefit is an improved mood. Research has been done to show that regularly

practicing gratitude can increase your overall happiness and your life satisfaction.

It reduces the symptoms of depression and, as the scripture said, anxiety.

So you've got an improved mood when you start to focus on God's blessing and

not just on the situation, the circumstances, or the problem at hand.

Research has also shown that you have an enhanced resilience when you choose

to be a person of gratitude.

People who are grateful tend to be more resilient. They bounce back quicker.

Why? Because they focus on the positive and don't get down in the dumps in just the negative.

So the resilience that you have, some people naturally have it.

Nothing can knock them down.

It just seems like they're Ashton Gentee out there running and no one can stop them.

If you're a Boise State fan, you get the reference.

Not even an elbow injury, it seems, can stop that guy. You're just resilient.

You bounce back. And when you trust the Lord, you bounce back from things that get you down.

You don't spiral down. You have a power.

Because you're a person of gratitude, you're turning that stuff over to God.

Another benefit here is better relationships. When you express gratitude,

you can strengthen the relationships because you foster positive feelings for

those around you and with those around you.

Think about it. You don't want to hang out with people who are down in the dumps all the time.

You don't want to hang out with people that just have the rain cloud falling

them all the time. You want to help them get rid of that rain cloud and see

the sun that's out there.

So if you think about it, when we think about the benefit from being grateful,

you got better relationships.

Folks, you got better relationships with your spouse.

Oh, chicken tetrazzini again. All right.

We don't have chicken tetrazzini in our house But I heard on a TV show once,

Don't give me no chicken tetrazzini I don't even know what it is But I'd be

thankful still Someone said it's yummy So I can get down with that Or do we

say thank you for preparing this honey Oh Chicken again I thank you.

I'm talking about being sincere, okay? Maybe I wouldn't be so much,

but when you hang out with others, when you want to build relationship,

there's a gratitude that needs to be shared with one another,

not just with one another, but for one another.

And I hope that you understand from this pastor to you where you're sitting

this morning that I'm so grateful that you are here.

I'm genuinely excited when we come together.

I won't say it's like game day, but this is where it's at. when we get to worship God together.

I'm grateful that I get to see some of you all week. That's awesome.

But when I get to see some of you that I don't get to see every week and we

get to gather together, ah, it's like a little slice of heaven this side of eternity. It really is.

Because all of us together here, gathered together on this day at this time,

may never happen again in the same way that it's happening now.

And so we just have something special to praise the Lord about and to celebrate

in our relationships with one another.

And so do you get this? That when you have a heart of gratitude,

it affects your mind and your heart, just like the Scripture said.

There's this peace that happens. As the other parts of the Scripture passage

said, when we submit our prayers continuously, we're able to rejoice always.

Well, there's a few more, and I'll just hit them really quickly.

We have a reduced stress when we're people of gratitude.

It increases our self-esteem when we have a heart of gratitude,

when we're people of gratitude. It even increases or improves our physical health.

Grateful individuals often report a better physical health, including fewer

aches and pains, praise the Lord, better sleep quality, and most important,

lower blood pressure. Hallelujah.

Why? We're not stressed about everything. There's a benefit to being people of gratitude.

Last but not least, there's an enhanced mental strength.

Because you know that, hey, I'm going through a hard time right now,

but it's not got the final say.

I'm going through some serious stuff, but I know throughout all eternity and

time that it's not the final thing that's going to happen to me,

that God's still got a plan, that even God is going with me through the yucky

stuff, and he's going to be there when we're celebrating together.

And so we've got this mental strength. Gratitude can powerfully change your

life is what I'm to say, when you trust him, when you can focus not on your

problems, but on the blessings that God brings.

There's a couple examples of this in the Bible, and it shows us that we can

be thankful in difficult times when times are tough.

The first one I'd like to come across and share with you just a quick passage is from Job.

Job 1, 20 and 21, when we think about a guy that fell on hard times,

not just any guy, but a guy that was righteous, a guy that had everything going

for him, a guy that prospered in the Bible, but yet the Lord allowed him to

be tested and he lost everything,

everything, except the nagging wife. Yeah.

That's not a sermon for today. I'm just telling you the reality of what the scripture says, okay?

Hey, guys, you're supposed to be thankful for a nagging wife anyway.

And ladies, you're probably not that nagging wife. When we go back to point

one, you practice gratitude for one another, right? But here's what the scripture says in Job.

At this, Job got up and he tore his robe and he shaved his head.

Then he fell to the ground in worship and said, naked I came from my mother's

womb and naked I will depart.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised.

Even in the midst of losing everything that he had,

everything that made him what he was in his stature, to the world's eyes,

he still had the wherewithal to praise the Lord, to give thanks to,

as the Scripture said, rejoice always.

Man, I don't know, if I were in his position, would I be bitter?

Would I be, of course, mourning, which I'm sure that he was.

There he was in his robe with his sackcloth and ashes. And there's another man

in the Bible, and that's Daniel.

Daniel was persecuted because of his faith in God.

It was a targeted persecution, if I could say it that way.

It wasn't just some random thing where there was a law that was passed,

and then, oh, yeah, it just happens to include you.

Daniel was one who from the outset followed God. In the midst of the king's

courts, he followed God.

Here in his older age, he continued to follow God.

And here's the scheme, if it's a little bit longer than the last passage,

but from Daniel chapter 6, verses 7 through 10.

Daniel 6:7–10

The scripture says, The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisors,

and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce

the decree that anyone who prays to any god or man during the next 30 days, except you, O king,

shall be thrown into the lion's den.

Now, O king, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered

in accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.

And verse 9 says, so King Darius put the decree in writing.

Now, when Daniel learned the decree had been published, He went home to his

upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem.

Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his

God, just as he had done before.

This was his practice. No matter what the law said, no matter what the edict

of the king said, it was not going to interrupt Daniel's worship of God.

More so, it was not going to interrupt his giving thanks to God,

his gratitude toward God.

Well, if you go to Sunday school, if you've grown up or you've read the Bible,

you know what became of that.

Daniel was arrested. He was thrown into the lion's den, but guess what? He was not devoured.

The dude slept with lions there in the midst of the den, and nothing happened to him.

When we think about the power of this, the power of gratitude,

this gave Daniel even more reason to pray, gave Daniel even more reason to be

grateful because of what God had done in sparing his life.

I don't know if a lot of us are blessed to be like Job or blessed to be like

Daniel. There's several other examples.

We read the Psalms. We think about King David's life. There's great examples in there too.

But the point is there's things to be thankful for no matter what circumstance

that we're in, no matter how dire, no matter how ugly.

It may take a little bit of searching to find them.

But in the midst of that, you can still, boy, you can still find something to be grateful to God for.

And I want to talk to you as we close in this last point, how to cultivate an

attitude of gratitude, because I believe that's what Job had.

I believe that's what Daniel had. I believe that's what the Apostle Paul had

when he wrote that letter that we read just a little snippet of today to the

church at Thessalonica.

I believe there was this gratitude that he had, that was his attitude,

the way that he reacted to things.

I read this last week as part of our invocation, as part of our service,

Colossians 3, 15 through 17.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body,

you were called to peace and be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another

with all wisdom, And as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,

with gratitude in your hearts to God, and whatever you do, whether in word or

deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

What we see is that Jesus and what Jesus has done is to be the source of our gratitude.

When we can sing a song like we sang this morning, there's only one king that has ever come,

to be born as a baby, to grow up, to live among us, to live as us,

and then give up his life for us, to live a pure, a sinless, a spotless life.

What kind of gratitude does that put in your heart? It comes from Jesus,

the source of our gratitude.

When we read through the Gospels and we see everything that Jesus did,

going and healing people.

When he goes and he feeds people, when he goes out amongst the people and ministers

and serves, when he tells the religious higher-ups, this is what it's supposed

to be and you guys are wrong.

Boy, that throws him for a loop. Jesus stood up for the misunderstood,

for those that were truly trying to seek God versus those that had made their

own way to God, which really wasn't the way.

When we think about the power that Jesus is the source of our gratitude.

Paul says in all this, do it all in the name of the Lord, giving thanks to God

the Father through Jesus.

There's a power when we praise, you guys. I know we can't open up the heavens

and see the spiritual realms per se, but I think when the church is praising,

boy, the demons are trembling.

I think when the church is praising God and giving glory to God for Jesus,

that it shakes the heavens.

And I just don't mean about this congregation. Imagine all the congregations

throughout the world that are lifting their praise to God. How powerful is that?

Folks, there's a power in that gratitude that you give. So I just want to encourage

you to practice gratitude.

For some, it's easier than others just the way God made you.

You could find some beauty on the ugliest day.

But others of us, it's hard. And so here's some practical things to help you

out. 10 of them, and I'll go through them quick.

First, keep a gratitude journal.

And you know that God does something good in your life. Write it down.

I'm finding as I'm aging, there's things I need to write down.

If you ever go in my office, you'll see sticky notes everywhere.

I just got to remember what the sticky note's about, right? After I write it down.

But if you write gratitude on your journal or your sticky note,

you'll remember that's something to praise the Lord about.

How about this? Secondly, start and end your day with gratitude.

When you first wake up in the morning and say, Lord, thank you.

All my aches and pains even. Lord, thank you.

Lord, I've awoken this day. You've given me another day to serve you.

Lord, thank you for what lies ahead of me. And just go through that process

of thinking things you can praise the Lord for.

It sets the tone for what kind of day you're going to have.

But do it before you even sit up out of bed, because then the aches and pains

come, and you can still praise the Lord through it. and for it.

And then when you lay down to go to bed that night, in your mind or out loud,

maybe even with your spouse, just say, God, thank you for what happened today.

Thank you, Lord, for this, for that, for the beautiful sunrise,

the beautiful sunset I got to witness. Thank you, Lord.

You know, when we start and end with gratitude, we don't know,

tomorrow's not promised to us.

Today wasn't even promised to us fully, but we're here and in the moment,

we're going to experience the grace and the glory and the loveliness of God.

And so when you wake up with gratitude, you say, God, whatever happens today, I'm ready.

And when you go to bed, Lord, if I enter into eternity, I'm going to be grateful

for all that you did for me today.

All right. I said quickly, that wasn't quickly. So here's number three.

Number three, express gratitude to others.

Man, go to Walmart, get you a little cheap thing of those thank you notes,

or just write it down. Write someone a thank you note.

People email or text these days, but even what Open Heart ministry has taught me.

People still like to get cards. They still like to get mail,

especially younger people, children.

Send them a note. Say, hey, I'm so grateful for you.

Hey, you can still call people and text people and email people,

but just express gratitude to others, especially when you've been blessed by them.

Fourth, you can create a gratitude jar. If a journal is not your thing,

create a jar, get a mason jar, slap a note on it that says gratitude jar.

And every time something happens, rip a piece of paper, write the good thing

that happened and shove it in that jar. And then when you have a bad day,

go grab the gratitude jar.

Open that puppy up and start reading those slips of paper of what God has done,

what others have done to bless you.

It's a practical way to focus our minds back on Philippians chapter 4,

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

6, and 7, to focus not on the problem or not on the circumstance,

but to focus on the blessing and the grace and the love of God.

Number five, practice mindfulness. That just means practice being in the moment.

Hey, there's one thing I hate, and this is something the Lord has worked on

me on and continues to. I hate standing in line. I hate waiting.

I hate it. It's for a person that always has to be doing something or always

wants to do something. I hate waiting in line.

Oh, yesterday, Melanie was joking with me. We got up early. We wanted to bless

our family with some good donuts. And so we drove all the way to Caldwell.

And then we drove somewhere else, Home Depot.

And there's a store there that I guess it's a really cheap store.

You go in and for 50 cents, you get all this stuff.

And she said, oh, let's go to that store. I'm looking at the line.

I'm like, nope, I'm not going where that store is.

It's the old Kmart in Nampa. I'm not going there.

And then when we got out of Home Depot, the line was even longer.

I said, whew, good thing we didn't line up there. Of course,

I'm sorry, honey, we didn't get to go to that store.

But at the same time, mindfulness in the moment, we had a good time together,

getting donuts. We had a good time together going to Home Depot.

We did get our Christmas tree early. We haven't set it up. I'm kind of like Zach Sheetz.

It's Advents after Thanksgiving, you know, Christmas time. So I just started

a debate. We'll have that later.

I better go to number six, set daily reminders. Hey, you've got your cell phone.

Set the reminder when it comes on, make it say, be grateful or thank the Lord

or praise the Lord or, you know, Just set your reminder there.

That's a practical way to help you.

Number seven, make gratitude part of your meals, even in public.

Take time out to thank the Lord for providing the food that you've been given.

It's just a practical way, an easy way. Doesn't matter where you're at, just thank the Lord.

Number eight, reflect on the positives before bed. I talked about that a minute

ago. Number nine, focus on gratitude in difficult situations.

Try to find some aspect in something that's very ugly, something that's very

dark that you can praise the Lord about.

And last but not least, number 10, share your gratitude.

Whatever God has done for you, share that with others. You can't go wrong.

You can't go wrong when you want to share something good with somebody else.

When we think about what it means to be grateful or how to cultivate that heart

of gratitude, that heart of thankfulness, we go back to the passage here in 1 Thessalonians again.

Remember, the Scripture says, To rejoice always, to pray without ceasing,

and to give thanks in all circumstances. Why?

Because this is the will of God.

God's plan for you is to be a person of gratitude.

God's plan for you is to be a person that reflects his goodness to others.

And I pray that you will live out these principles, not just one day out of

the year, but every day out of the year, even into the Christmas season.

And God will help us to cultivate that in our hearts.

May God bless you. I'll just say early, happy Thanksgiving for the day,

but happy Thanksgiving every day, because God is always doing something.

And give that praise, glory, and honor to God.

Be thankful. Let me pray with you. We have a song and then a benediction.

Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you, Lord,

for all that you've done this morning.

Lord, in our worship time, Father, thank you for touching me with your spirit

today. is I thought about all the gratitude I have in my own heart,

my own life, for what you've done in my family, Lord, in me,

the transformation that takes place.

God, we give you praise, honor, and glory because that's just not my testimony.

It's the testimony probably of just about everyone in here. And those that it's

not their testimony, it will be their testimony.

And so, God, we just thank you. Lord, thank you so much for how you're working

in our lives, in our congregation, Lord, in our communities.

Lord, may we always continue to give you thanks And on Thursday,

when we share a meal together with others, we just pray, Lord,

that we will be mindful in that moment that it's a great day to give thanks

because, God, you've done so much for us.

Father, bless the church, I pray this week. It's in Jesus' name I ask. Amen.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon, as well as other sermons, and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.