Finding Gratitude Beyond the Blessing

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Well, my name is Russ.

If I'm one, if I haven't met you, maybe you're here for the first or second time.

I want to say welcome to Church of the Grove.

I'm one of the pastors here, and we are excited that you're with us today.

We'd love to meet you personally, and and and I try to be out front as you as you exit.

So please, please uh feel free to come by and introduce yourself.

I'd love to always put a name of the face, and and sometimes I need that that to happen a couple of times so I can remember remember names.

I try to do pretty well.

Um couple of things.

If you've got if you want to go ahead and be prepared, we're gonna be in Luke chapter 17.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 17 as we conclude this series on thinking through it.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

Uh a couple of things that are very important.

Um Monty shared a couple of specific things to pray for as we move through this process.

Uh very thankful for our city, and and um, and so we've got a couple of important meetings coming up with them, and and God opened a huge door this week, and I I'll look forward to telling that story um in its entirety at some point.

Uh, but I do need to mention a couple of things that happened during this time of the year.

Um, and and for you to be praying about it and be be looking for um in your email box.

Uh your if you are a covenant family member, uh we that this is the time of the year that we establish and put together our new budgets for 2025.

And so just be praying over that.

And then on um uh December 8th, we we have what we call our annual business meeting, and so we don't dismiss anybody at the end of the services because it lasts about three to five minutes, and it's it's extremely fast and quick, uh, which is a blessing, um, because um I'm um business meetings are not my favorite thing in the world, uh, and so the there's a very distinct reason that we do it the way we do it uh to get through it.

Um you'll notice one other thing that that will be coming to you, if especially if you give uh recurring uh gifts through uh through electronic means, and so we're uh we're being forced.

It's not not something we we we we like, but uh we're changing platforms from we give to subsplash.

Now that doesn't mean a lot to you, but when I tell you that we will save a substantial amount of money next year um over uh what what we've been spending, it it is going to be a blessing.

The key is for you to make sure that you you do take the steps to move your reoccurring gifts from uh from the old platform to the new platform.

And let me tell you something.

A lot of you can or maybe new, and you say, Russ, we we haven't really started giving yet, or maybe we've given some.

Um this is a great opportunity to set up recurring gifts.

And the the reason we do reoccurring gifts is you don't think about it, you don't forget to write a check.

You it's just it's just automatic it's automatic.

And and we we say this all the time.

We we tend to automate what is important to us.

We tend to automate what is important, and so those are a couple things uh that I want you to know.

And then this is huge.

December 7th, um, December 7th is Saturday.

That's shot with a hero.

I think that's two weeks from yesterday.

And so that's our ministry uh to children and uniformed heroes in our community.

And so uh we we identify children through the social workers counselors, we partner them with uniformed heroes, firefighters, law enforcement, um, ENTs.

Uh we've even had people you know in the medical field wear scrubs, and and and you want to be a hero, I think this year, uh this this was exciting to me.

We've got a a sports team, and I I I I I can't remember.

Does anybody know who I'm talking about?

Which sports team is gonna come?

They're gonna wear their uniforms and they're gonna shop with kids.

Um, anybody remember telling me that?

I think it's a girls' basketball team.

And I can't remember which team, so I won't guess.

But isn't that cool?

Isn't that cool?

These girls will come, they want to come and be a part, they're gonna wear their uniforms and they're gonna jump in.

And so we need people, we need an army of people.

A lot of you already signed up, but it but you already planning to sign up, but got drop by the table and sign up.

Sign up to be a part.

Uh, we we need people that can rap.

And I don't mean yo yo, you know, yo yo, what's up?

Your mama, your daddy, your greasy great.

No, I'm you know, I I can rap, but I won't.

But but wrapping gifts, wrapping gifts.

So, um, and uh, and then and then um some of your heroes, some of you here today, and you are a firefighter, a law enforcement.

Anybody raise your hand if you serve in one of those areas of capacity?

Raise your hand, Donald.

That's you.

That's you.

That's it.

Disobedient, hear a command from the Lord.

And I'm not the Lord, but I'm his representative today.

And so thank you.

Thank you.

Standing up.

I there's I can't high five of you if you're standing up.

Um anybody else?

Come on, Michael.

Yeah, so if you, and I know some of you guys work, have to work, but based on your uh dates and your calendars, all that.

If you can't be there, you recruit two guys in your place.

So uh that's how many it'll take.

Um and so I got these little cards.

And so if you are lying to me and didn't raise your hand, um uh, but but you know somebody, um, and I know all of you know somebody that serves in law enforcement or something.

You've been pulled over once or twice, and and so some of you are uh uh you know you have friends.

So I got pulled over four times in one month, no lie.

So, and I didn't get a ticket.

Out of those four times, I did not get a ticket.

I'm telling you, if you walk with God, God blesses you.

Hey, I'm in a good mood today.

I'm in a good mood.

And so I am so thankful for all I'm thankful.

I'm thankful when I you know what this week is?

Anyone know what this week is?

Come on.

Do y'all not know what this week is?

Y'all are preparing.

Some of you are not gonna eat today or tomorrow or Tuesday or Wednesday so you can eat more on Thursday, right?

Some of you are gonna what?

Pat, you're gonna eat every day like it's normal and then eat twice as much on Thursday.

That praise the Lord, man.

Go uh go for it.

Well, you stretch out, you put you you stretch out the stomach so you can eat more.

Um anyway, it's Thanksgiving.

It's Thanksgiving this week.

And so my grandmother used to gather us in her house, and this was such a precious memory.

She would gather us in her house, and um and and and we would kind of roll our eyes because we knew what she was doing.

Okay, here it comes.

But she would lead us and she would sing it.

She would sing it.

I can't sing it, but but it's it's a it's an old hymn and and and and part of the chorus, refrain, however you want to call it, it's count your blessings.

You'll say it with me.

Name them one by one.

Count your blessings, see what God hath done.

Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings, see what God hath done.

And so when we come this week, I hope it's more than a meal.

I hope it's more than a family gathering with people that you basically have to tolerate.

I hope it's more than than you know, uh just an event.

I hope it's more than just your favorite fruit foods.

I hope it's more than just the the fried turkey.

I hope it's more and Lord, Lord, forgive me if I'm sinning, but I hope it's more than sweet potato souffle.

Because sweet potato souffle is so heavenly.

You got and and you got you got the sweet potato souffle part, and then some people like to put little crunchy stuff on the top, man, and that's so good.

Some people like to put marshmallows on top, and that is so good.

I don't care what you put on top, it's good.

And so we we get we have all these things, but really, is it a day of thanksgiving?

Is it a day of blessing?

Is it a day that we can really, really stop and really think, how has God blessed us?

And I'm telling you, there is healing in gratitude, there is power in gratitude.

God can do miracles when we come to him with a heart of gratitude.

We have a national holiday of thanksgiving, but really are we going to come and are we gonna give thanks to the one who is worthy of giving thanks to?

You see, the big idea for today is this as we finish this series, gratitude is the doorway to a deeper relationship with God.

Gratitude is the doorway to a deeper relationship with God, and that's our goal.

Our goal is not just to squeak into heaven, repeat a prayer, fill out a card, walk down an aisle, all those things are important.

Our goal is to grow in our relationship with Jesus.

Our goal is to grow as a disciple.

Our goal is to close, walk closer with Jesus.

And so one of the steps, one of the doorways for that is to walk through the doorway of gratitude, is to say thank you.

We talked about that the first week.

These two words will change your life.

It'll change the culture of workplace, it'll change the culture of a marriage, it'll change the culture of a home, it'll change the culture of relationships with your mother and father, your extended family, is to say the words thank you.

Gratitude is the doorway to a deeper relationship with God.

And so this morning we're looking at this story where you've got um ten lepers.

What is a leper?

Leprosy is a terrible, terrible disease.

Still, still uh it is still a disease that affects people on our planet today.

There are communities.

And they're there they're far.

They're far uh they're fewer and fewer and and and harder to find them.

But there are communities, if you know where to look around the world, where where lepers live in community because they know they can't be around people that they might spread it with.

And so in the culture of the day of Jesus, it it was it was just part of the culture is command, and especially when you think about the religious, uh, religious implications.

If you were a leper and you were going to encounter other people that you might spread that disease to, um, you would you would yell out something when you came into proximity with those people, and you would yell out unclean, unclean, unclean.

And it would be a warning, stay away from us.

If you come closer, you have the danger or the possibility, the potential of you contracting this this terrible disease, and leper leprosy uh has it is a disease that eats away at skin, and sometimes you can't you can't feel it.

It it ruins some of the nerve endings where you can't feel pain.

And so a lot of people will burn themselves with leprosy, or they'll injure themselves, and they're even unaware because the uh the the pain, they can't feel the pain because of those nerve endings being damaged by the disease leprosy.

And it's just the disgusting.

It's the disgusting disease.

There are sores, there's oozing.

I mean, it's you you could you could imagine and you can certainly look all that up yourself, but but but there there were there were spiritual and religious implications.

Not only were you considered um uh diseased, but you were considered as someone who was cursed or or or certainly less than blessed.

And so there's physical and spiritual implications that go with that.

Someone who carried the disease of leprosy, they could not fellowship.

They could not enjoy worship in community.

They have they were forced to live in isolation or in a community of isolation with other people who were dealing with the same the same disease.

And so what do we see?

What do we see out of there's these ten lepers, ten individual lepers that cross paths with Jesus.

They cross paths in Luke chapter 17.

Luke 17 · chapter mention

And you see Jesus do something miraculous, something that we would all want if we were suffering, or if we were hurting.

Jesus gives them a command.

If they follow through with that command, there is a promise healing on the other side of that command, on the other side of obedience.

There's a fulfillment of a promise.

And there's a spiritual principle there on the other side of obedience, there's the fulfillment of a promise.

My pastor used to say, Ike Rikert, he said, he said, You want to be blessed in your life?

Blessing.

Blessing is a doorway, the doorway of blessing swings on tiny hinges called obedience.

And so you want to walk through the door blessing, then you obey.

Jesus gives some command.

And here's what we see.

Here's four um four four principles, four observations that that go with this this understanding of gratitude being the doorway to a deeper relationship with God.

Uh the first one is this grace given, gratitude grows.

Grace given, gratitude grows.

Where there is grace given, gratitude should grow.

Here we go, Luke chapter 17, verses 11 through 14.

Luke 17:11–14

As Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, now if you if you were looking at a map of Palestine, Jesus is traveling south from the area of Galilee, Nazareth, area where that would have been known as his hometown.

He was known as the Nazarene, Jesus of Nazareth.

He later established his kind of operation out of Capernaum, which was on which is on the coast of the Sea of Galilee.

And so Jesus is traveling.

Um and and as Jesus continued on toward Jerusalem, he reached the border between Galilee and Samaria.

And so they were uh, you know, it was a group of people that were not accepted in in normal Jewish life.

Verse 12, as he entered, as Jesus entered a village there, ten men with leprosy stood at a distance, crying out, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

I wonder if they had yelled unclean.

I wonder if they were far away enough that they didn't have to yell unclean, but whatever it was, they knew who this man was and they called out to him because they know he has power.

He is a special person.

He looked at them and said, Go show yourselves to the priest.

He didn't declare that they were healed, but he knew that the culture, and Jesus, listen, God always works in the context of the culture in which we live.

That's why we study the culture of the Bible in which it was written, which Jesus lived, and depending on the time period, we we need to know context, we need to know the culture, and so culture changes.

God doesn't change, but it in that in that culture it was it was it was expected if you had a hideous sickness that would cause you to be separated and isolated from living with other people, you would have to go show yourself to the religious leaders of the day, and they would grant you, uh they would declare you to be healed, and they would grant you the ability to move back into relationships and community with people that were not suffering the same disease.

And it says, as they went, they were cleansed of their leprosy.

Hallelujah.

Hey, go show yourself to the priest.

There is a command, on the other side of that command, there's a fulfillment of a promise.

And so obedience, doorway to blessing, swings on tiny little hinges, called obedience.

And so they had to obey to experience this blessing.

So they're cleansed of their leprosy.

And so uh Jesus, Jesus is traveling on this journey toward Jerusalem where he would have ultimately taken part in worship and and and and and and ultimately he would have given himself up.

He is going to sacrifice himself.

And so this journey to the cross is juxtaposed with this intersection of these ten lepers.

Jesus decides to show mercy.

Jesus offers healing.

Jesus offers grace.

Jesus offers life change.

And so the healing of the lepers is it exemplifies how God's grace meets us in our affliction and it transforms our life.

You want to be transformed?

Don't we want to experience the presence of God?

Don't we want to experience his life-giving transformation?

Don't we want to experience salvation?

Don't we want to experience God's grace?

Don't we want to experience God's presence?

God's goodness?

And so he encourages.

There's this encouraging gratitude that opens our eyes to what God can do, what God will do, what God has already done, and what God is doing.

Sometimes we just gotta open our eyes and we've gotta, we've gotta counter blessings and name them one by one.

Last week, Jonah, that's one of one of Jonah's uh action points was hey, hey, journal, right now, verbally say, I am so thankful for.

And you fill in the blank.

Anybody wants to share something they're thankful for?

Shell it out.

Marriage?

Miriam, oh Miriam, your granddaughter.

I'm I'm assuming a granddaughter, right?

Yeah, you're yeah.

Miriam, man, what a miracle, Miriam.

Absolutely.

15 days into Nikki, man.

And we dedicated her last week.

She's right here.

She was right here.

I'm so glad you shared that, Pat, because it's been I've been wondering the whole time, man, are you really thankful?

You know, just just thanks for cleaning that up, man.

I appreciate it.

Somebody else yell.

Healing.

Healing.

You know, I'm thankful for healing.

Man, look at this.

Look at this.

As far as I can go.

Now, I can take my other hand and do this, and it doesn't hurt.

Now I can't keep it up there.

But I I I mean, I'm on, I'm, I'm, I'm on the right, I'm moving in the right direction.

Healing, healing.

My body is healing.

I feel, I told somebody this week, I I mean, some of you have been through surgery, and it's just, man, I I I just feel like myself in the last two or three weeks.

Even preaching for those first several weeks, I didn't feel like myself.

And some of you thought, well, we know this stuff.

But one one or two more.

What are you thankful for?

All right.

Let's one I who said it right back here.

Salvation.

Family.

Dedication to the word.

Oh, well, thank you.

My dedication to the word.

Well, I well, thank you.

I I've been taught that.

That's what I believe.

That's my faith.

That's my faith based on the word of God.

That's all we got.

What else?

Man, I'm thankful for the word.

Friends, community, relationship.

Absolutely.

There's so much.

There's so much to be thankful for.

And so grace giving, gratitude grows.

The psalmist says in Psalm 34, 18, the Lord is close to the brokenhearted.

He rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

And so God, Jesus comes to bring healing to those who are crushed.

And we see it in the life of these ten lepers.

And then, but but let's look, let's keep continuing the story.

We also see this gratitude returns grace.

Gratitude returns grace.

When we are recipients of grace, then we become, and we understand it, and we are we are um we we are appropriately thankful, then we become conduits of grace.

We become people that grace flows through.

Verse 15.

He says, one of them.

When he saw that he was healed, one of them.

How many were healed?

How many experienced healing from Jesus?

Ten.

Ten.

How many?

What does it say in the top, just beginning of verse 15?

One.

This is a bit heartbreaking to me.

It's a bit sad to me.

But it's indicative of probably what is true.

And very often, for a group of people that have been impacted by the Lord, often it's few of us that worship appropriately, that are thankful appropriately, that express appropriately our gratefulness and our gratitude.

But here's what it says: one of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus shouting, Praise God.

Praise God.

He comes back.

It might be inconveniencing, it might be out of his way.

It might have been completely just out of the ordinary.

But he comes back.

It says he even shows gratitude by physically responding.

Verse 16, he fell to the ground at Jesus' feet, thanking him for what he has done.

And you know what?

This man was a Samaritan.

He's not a Jewish person.

He's an outcast to the Jewish people.

He's the half-breed.

He worships at the false temple.

But there's something about Jesus that he recognizes.

There's something about Jesus that he wants to, that he's drawn to.

He comes back.

He comes back.

And it's a beautiful picture of how we are moved to act, not just to say, but to act, to respond physically.

Gratitude returns grace.

There's power in gratitude.

It speaks volumes.

The leper's actions demonstrate a profound understanding of God's grace and this genuine relationship that Christ wants to establish with those that He heals and saves and makes whole.

And so gratitude becomes an act of faith that acknowledges the blesser, not just the blessings.

See, we like the blessings.

Let me show you my blessings.

Let me show you my new blessing.

Let me show you my new house.

Let me show you my new car.

Let me show you my new you fill in the blank.

And sometimes we focus on what we're blessed with rather than the one who is the giver of the blessing.

And it's the blesser.

And that's what leads us into a deeper spiritual walk.

And God opens doors of insight when we pursue him, thank him, and say, Give me more, give me more.

Jesus.

Charles Spurgeon said this.

He said, Faith is taking God at His word and acting upon it, for the word of a king is as sure as the bond of a millionaire.

Any millionaires in here?

Because if you are, I want to buy your lunch.

Any millionaires in here?

Any rich people in here?

One one one rich person.

There's a few rich people.

Hey, by the way, if you live in America, you're all rich.

Okay?

Can I just clarify how many rich people we got in here?

Alright.

So show me the money.

I'll tell y'all that.

Listen, we got, we, I got good news and bad news.

Good news is we got more than enough money to build that building out there.

Bad news is some of y'all are hanging on to it a little too long.

And so we're gonna we're gonna make it.

I'm kidding.

There he goes.

All right.

So so so we see gratitude.

Gratitude is is the doorway of a deeper relationship with God.

So gratitude.

Um grace given, gratitude grows, gratitude returns grace, and thirdly, gratitude deepens discipleship.

Verse 17, Jesus asked, didn't I heal ten men?

Isn't that interesting?

Jesus said, Hey, didn't I heal ten men?

I see one that's come back.

Didn't I heal ten?

Where are the other nine?

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

He's like, he's not even a Jewish.

He's not even a, he's not even, you know, uh a Jewish in the eyes of Jewish people.

He is a foreigner, he is a refugee.

He might be an immigrant.

And Jesus said to the man, stand up and go.

Your faith has healed you.

And sometimes we need to we need to be reminded of what it is to take a step of action to show our gratitude.

It might be, it might be standing in worship, it might be, listen, some of you Baptists might need to raise your hands and thank God.

You know, some of our songs and the Bible says, raise your holy hands to the Lord.

It doesn't say fold them up under your armpits.

It says, raise them and worship.

We maybe we need to come to the altar.

Maybe we need to say thank you out loud.

Maybe we need to sing, sing that song, and instead of listening, let's sing with our team and worship.

And here's something I found.

You know that familiarity breeds contempt.

We can become so familiar with some of the great blessings that God provides that it's just common to us.

And I think we're guilty of that every day.

And every day we ought to wake up.

The sun has come up.

He promised it would come up.

He said it would come up.

He said, you know, there are new blessings for us every day.

And so so gratitude deepens our discipleship.

It helps us to grow in our faith.

And so, Psalm 107, 89 says, let them praise the Lord for his great love and for the wonderful things he has done for them, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.

You think about that this Thursday or Friday or Saturday, some of you have already had some of your Thanksgiving meals, but every time you put that sweet potato souffle in your mouth, you say, God, thank you.

Thank you.

And I know I hear you chuckle.

But that's it sounds silly.

But you know what?

I will become.

Here's what David says.

I'll he David danced until his clothes fell off.

Thank God that you're you we don't ask that of pastors today.

Come on, let's just get started.

That's awful.

Awful fault.

But David says, I will become even more undignified than this.

They're fussing at him.

His wife's fussing at him.

She's disgusted with him.

He says, I'll come even more undignified than this.

I'll I'll dance.

I'll dance, man.

We're gonna turn it loose.

My niece is over here, she's like, no, please.

And finally, gratitude unveils the kingdom.

Gratitude unveils the kingdom.

God, God, gratitude invites, gratitude releases.

Verse 20, one day the Pharisees asked Jesus, When will the kingdom of God come?

And Jesus replied, The kingdom of God can't be detected by visible signs.

You won't be able to say, Here it is, it's over there.

For the kingdom of God is already among you.

The kingdom of God is among you.

The presence of Jesus is here.

He wants to touch you, he wants to heal you, he wants to bring peace to your life.

He wants you to be changed from the inside out.

We are transformed by the renewing of our minds, Paul says to the church in Rome.

And so consider how Jesus speaks of God's kingdom being in our midst.

And the kingdom is manifest when we live with gratitude.

Those two words, thank you.

Thank you.

And so listen, sometimes that is a witness to somebody.

Sometimes that is you offering an opportunity for God to enter into a conversation where it may not happen otherwise.

G.K.

Chesterton, a great writer, an apologist, a theologian, he says gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

So there are times that we even think.

How can I thank God in these circumstances?

How can I thank God because I've had a diagnosis?

How can I thank God because I've I'm experiencing financial ruin?

How can I thank God because uh of my family feels like it's being pulled apart?

How can I thank God because uh of this or that?

And it makes me think of uh of this champion of the faith.

Her name is Corey Tinboom.

Some of you know her name, and she uh she wrote her uh her her memoirs called The Hiding Place that was made into a movie.

And she was a Dutch Christian, a follower of Jesus, and her family during during World War II, they had decided that they would open up their home and they would bring in uh Jewish people that were being taken to concentration camps.

And and of course, they were living in fear that they would be discovered at any time, and they and they finally were.

And they were arrested, and so Corey Tim Boom and her family, some of her family members are sent, they were sent to a concentration, concentration camp.

And so she she is sent to a place called Ravensbrook, and it was horrific.

It was a women's concentration cramp.

They're crammed in, overcrowded, into these overcrowded barracks, forced into hard, difficult labor, treated with cruelty by uh the awful Nazi guards.

There's disease, malnutrition, and and of course hopelessness, and and it was just an awful, awful thing.

And so but Corey Kinboom and her sister Betsy smuggled in a small Bible where they could lead Bible study and and and secret worship services in the barracks to bring a bit of comfort and hope in the midst of all the misery to their fellow princers uh prisoners.

And so uh when Corey and Betsy arrived at their barracks, they were appalled by how filthy, how ugly, how dirty.

And one of the things that that tormented them while they were living in those barracks were fleas.

They had these straw-filled mats that they would sleep on, and these these straw-filled mats were infested with fleas.

Now, can you imagine how awful?

I mean, some of you won't even go stay in a regular hotel or motel because of bed bugs.

I mean, you're you you know, you're like my wife.

First thing you do when you go in is nobody touch anything.

You know, and you pull back and you look.

But I may imagine being tormented in a concentration camp.

You've hard-forced labor, Nazis treating you awfully.

A concentration camp with women.

So you can imagine probably some of the atrocities that are taking place.

And fleas.

On top of everything else, fleas.

They were they were they were just miserable under these terrible circumstances.

But Betsy, Betsy, her sister, she's unshaken.

And she reminds Corey of the verse that they've been reading recently.

And it's Thessalonians 5.18.

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

Give thanks in all circumstances, give thanks for fleas.

Absolutely.

Because of the fleas, the camp guards would not dare enter into their barracks because they didn't want to have to mess with those fleas.

And so Betsy turns to her sister Corey Timbo and she says, Corey, what a blessing.

We can worship and open our Bible without fear of any consequences.

The guards hate the fleas, and we hate them too.

But what a blessing they are because we can worship without fear of consequences.

You thank God for fleas.

And you probably you think, what is it?

What is your flea today?

What is it?

What is the flea in your life that is making you miserable?

That will keep you from really saying thank you, Jesus.

And you need to identify those fleas and you need to thank God for them because on the other side of that thanksgiving, which is an act of obedience, is blessing.

On the other side of that action, on the other side of that obedience, is the doorway into blessing and the fulfillment of God's promises.

So Corey was incredulous.

How could we possibly be thankful for something so miserable as fleas?

But Betsy persisted.

And so they prayed and they thanked God.

Over time, Corey and Betsy noticed something unusual.

The guards never entered into those barracks, and they were free to share the Word of God, free to worship God as they wanted to, because the guards refused to enter the flea-infested barracks.

I'm telling you, the enemy wants to ruin your life, but there's some areas that the enemy doesn't want to walk into your life because you you've made a mess of your own life, but because you've made a mess, the doorway to God's blessing is through your next step of obedience.

Thank you, Jesus.

Even for the things that seem like fleas to me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Gratitude is the doorway to a deeper relationship with Jesus.

And so I want to encourage you to thank.

Thank the Lord today.

And I want to encourage you maybe to take an action step.

It may be to take out a journal and write down a list of a few things you're thankful for.

It may be to come to the altar and you'll say, you know what?

I can it it it is just as significant when you sit in that seat or stand right over there.

But if I read this scripture, it is our actions.

It is a physical response sometimes that opens that doorway for us to experience the blessing that God wants us to experience as we thank Him for all circumstances in our life.

And so that's really what this is.

As we move into this week of thanksgiving, can we be a people who are genuinely thankful in all circumstances?

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for your goodness.

We thank you for the way that you pour out your spirit.

We thank you.

Lord, I thank you.

I think last week I thank you for those wet footprints that I saw in the hallway, and those wet footprints represent the fact that somebody stepped into our baptismal waters and we get to celebrate new life.

Lord, I thank you.

Lord, I thank you for marks that are on our walls, marks on our sheetrock that are representative of the fact that you've blessed our church with children, and they can run in church and they can get loud in church.

And I love that because they are here and they are a blessing.

Lord, I thank you.

I thank you.

I thank you for some of the things that we have to endure that aren't so pleasant.

But in when we see the end, if we can see the end of the story, we know that we can thank you in all circumstances because even in the difficult circumstances, you have a blessing for us in it.

Lord, I pray for healing.

God, I pray for those of us that feel like lepers or we are dealing with a physical illness or disease.

God, we pray for healing.

God, we pray for that touch, that same touch that Jesus provided when he told the lepers to go show themselves to the priest.

May we have the same faith.

But may we be people that are like that one leper that's willing to come back, not just say thank you, but to throw himself at the feet of Jesus and to worship.

And God, thank you that gratitude, gratitude has the power to deepen our relationship with you.

And so, God, change us.

Thank you for a church that loves you.

Thank you for a church that loves people.

Thank you for men and women that are raising their children to love Jesus.

Thank you for for our staff that serve tirelessly.

Thank you for men that were here Friday and yesterday, and many that stayed all night and provided meals for so many people.

God, pour out your blessing upon them.

God, thank you for just so many blessings.

And for those that are hurting and suffering, Lord, we I know it sounds strange, but thank you for thank you for the trials and tribulations, because even though we may not know it right now in the moment on the other side of that challenge, those fleas, it's freedom.

It's freedom to worship, it's freedom to walk in your presence, it's freedom to encourage one another.

And may we be a people, a people that seek revival, that seek your presence, that seek transformation.

Lord, even on the other side of an election, we know that that change does not come through ballots, bombs, or bullets.

Change comes through the transforming power of Jesus in our life.

We pray that you would work.

May we be a people of gratitude.

May we be a people that sing about it, but also live it.

It's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.