An Attitude of Gratitude

Well, good morning.

Um, my name is Jonah Faulkner.

I'm the student and pastor for our Wandergo campus, and just want to say first of all, welcome.

Um, thank you for being here.

Um, there's a lot of people here, and I know that we're getting to celebrate a lot of um incredible things this morning.

So if maybe this is your first time or second time here, we're so glad that you're here um and that you chose um to worship with us.

So um this morning we are continuing our series that we started uh last week called Thankful Through It.

Um Thankful Through It.

Um before we get there, I want to kind of I want to talk about how crazy and also how awesome and how much we take for granted um modern medicine, right?

I want you to think about how really insane modern medicine is, and I have an example of that in my pocket.

I know you're not supposed to carry pills around in your pocket outside of a container, but I got a little pill here.

Does anybody know what this is?

It's not Nikeel.

It's Ivy Provence, it's Abvil.

This is Abvil.

Um, Advil is insane, okay?

When you think about how crazy this little pill is, I promise this is Abvil, by the way.

I know this does not look good whatsoever, but this is this is Abvil.

I want you to think about how small this little pill is compared to the size of our body.

Um, compared to the size of what that pill is.

I'm gonna put that down and not hold it any longer, but I want you to think about how small that is compared to our bodies and how that little pill has the ability to bring healing to our body.

Um, and not only does it have the ability to bring healing to our body, but it has this weird ability to figure out whatever it is that needs healing, that needs relief or comfort or whatever it is, and it brings it.

So if you have a headache, somehow that little pill knows how to how to fix your headache.

If you got a sore back, um somehow that little pill can bring relief to your sore back.

If you have a fever, somehow that little pill can bring relief to um that fever.

It's insane that just by taking one of those pills or um two or six, however many you really want to take, I guess, um what it what it can do, um, especially again compared to the size of the body that that is bringing healing and relief too.

And I'll never be blown away by how much healing and relief Advil brings, and I probably take too many of them as it is, but um it's crazy to think about.

And I will say that you know, kind of the one downside of of Advil or maybe just medicine in general is that usually it's temporary, it brings this temporary um relief, and in just a few hours you gotta pop a couple more of them to bring that uh for the pain to kind of go away again.

But um I say all this to say that this morning we're gonna we're gonna look at some scripture um that that I think doesn't just have you know this ability to to bring healing temporarily, but it but it has the ability to bring permanent healing, um, and not just in a physical sense, but in a deep spiritual sense, it has an ability to bring permanent healing um to the deepest parts of our souls.

Um to it has uh the ability to bring healing to our spiritual health, um our our our minds, our souls, um, our hearts.

It has this innate ability to bring healing.

And similar to Abvil, this little passage of scripture that we're about to read and kind of spend most of our morning in, um, compared to the entirety of the Bible, it's it's tiny.

Um so small that it almost seems insignificant, that it um you can almost just kind of skip right over it and keep moving along.

Um, but what I want us to see is that this this passage of scripture, it it has power, it packs a punch to it.

I believe it has the capability, like I said, to bring healing to the deepest parts of our souls, and not just this temporary healing that will only last a couple hours, but healing that will last for the rest of our time here on earth and then carry over into our time in eternity with the person of Jesus.

This portion of scripture, it's just three small verses that in all honesty just seem to be crammed in by the Apostle Paul as he's finishing out this letter to the to the people in Thessalonia.

Um, and it's in the the towards the end of the book, the very last chapter, and he's saying all these different things.

It's literally like he's just cramming a bunch of ideas out onto the paper to finish this letter off.

And then he writes these three verses in 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18.

And he says this He says, Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

So, like I said, we're in this the middle of this three-week series called Thinking Through It.

And last week Russ talked about the culture that we live in that's just characterized by selfishness, that's character characterized by um just ungratefulness.

But he talked about how as followers of Jesus we are called to be grateful, and he talked about how much power there is found in just the two simple words of thank you, and how those words have power to kind of change um the environment of our families, the culture that we live in, um, whether it is said to others or even if it's just us saying it to God.

But in a similar way, this week our big idea is this is that there is power in an attitude of gratitude.

There's power in an attitude of gratitude.

And I know that it's cliche, um, but the reality is you'll probably remember it when you leave here.

Um, you'll remember that phrase attitude of gratitude.

But I want to what I want us to see is that there's power in that.

There's true biblical power in that.

Specifically, we're going to be talking about three different ways that we that we see the power of gratitude actually play out in our lives.

The first way is we'll see that it has power, like I said, to bring healing to our souls.

And then there's also power to experience God in our lives in incredible ways.

And then the third way is that there's power to influence the people around us.

But before we get there, I want to go back to those three verses and just kind of look at what an what an attitude of gratitude actually looks like.

And I want to go back to those verses I read where Paul says, Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

And as I mentioned earlier, even though these verses they're short and um they're so tiny compared to the entirety of Scripture, but I do think they hold such great significance.

And I think this is because it shows us the power that's found in gratitude, the power that's found in thanksgiving in all things.

An attitude of gratitude, it's one that's always rejoicing, it's constantly praying, and it's giving thanks in everything.

And to really understand what this looks like, and and to even understand what Scripture is commanding us to do, and knowing that these verses aren't just good for a coffee cup, but it's actually God commanding us to do these things, to rejoice always, to pray constantly, to give thanks in all things.

But um, to really understand what that means and what scripture is commanding us to do, I want to make an important distinction.

And I want us to notice that that in this passage, in these verses, we're not commanded to give thanks for everything.

What we're called to do is to give thanks in everything through the person of Jesus.

And I think this preposition is very important.

Ruth Bell Graham, um, she says this.

She says, We can't always give thanks for everything, but we can always give thanks in everything.

And what I mean by this is I'm not really sure God's word is encouraging, encouraging us to be thankful for everything, to be thankful for all the evil that happens in this world, to be thankful for all the brokenness, all the pain, all the sorrow that people might experience in this world.

What I think Paul and God's word is commanding us to do is to be thankful in the midst of all those things, to be thankful in the midst of every circumstance that we might find ourselves in, trusting that God is working out all those things for the good of those who love him.

Um, to get maybe give you an example for this, I'll tell you some things that I'm not thankful for.

Okay.

Um, the biggest one currently, right now in my life, is I'm not thankful for um the cost of a house.

Okay?

Housing costs and prices are ridiculous right now, and I'm not very thankful for it if I'm being honest.

And I know some of y'all are thankful because you're selling a house that you've had for 10 years and it's worth double the amount of money you paid for it.

So you're thankful.

You're you're praising God.

God, you are good, you're gracious.

Um, and if you're one of those people, I really am.

I'm happy for you, and I'm happy that God's providing for you.

Um, my encouragement is is to if you are selling your house, um, we got this thing called Four Generations going on, and it is a great place to invest um your money.

It is an investment.

Um I'm I'm kidding.

Um, but but in a real sense, um I I genuinely am not super thankful for the housing market right now.

I'm not I'm not thankful for how difficult it is to get to get a house.

But here's what I am thankful for.

I'm thankful that in the midst of this season of life that is full of uncertainty, that's full of, if I'm being honest, just full of a lot of doubts, a lot of anxiety, a lot of worry.

Um, I'm so thankful that I still serve a God who's faithful.

A God that's in control, a God that has never failed to put a roof over mine and my wife's um heads.

And even if he does, I know that he's still gonna provide in other ways.

I'm thankful that even in the midst of this season of life, God is still in control and he is yet to fail us.

And I'm full faith believe that he never will.

He never will fail.

Another example, I'm not thankful for sickness.

I'm not thankful for disease.

I'm not thankful for the pain that death produces in the life of other people, but I'm thankful that in sickness and in death there is hope for eternal healing in life through the person of Jesus.

Thankful that when someone's struggling with a disease, I can look them in the eyes with full confidence and say, hey, God's in control and he's got a plan for you, and he wants to invite you in to spend eternity with him at something that will make any pain, any sickness that you experience here on earth just pale in comparison to the glory that is waiting for you in heaven.

I'm not thankful for injustice that takes place in this world, but I'm thankful that in the midst of the unjust and cruel world that we live in, we serve a God who is just and the justifier, the one that brings justice, but also the one that invites us in to be justified through the person of Jesus and promises us to restore all things perfectly and bring perfect justice.

I'm not thankful for sin.

There's there comes a point where like it there's such a deep hatred for sin, sometimes it feels like my my blood is boiling because I hate I hate my sin.

I hate seeing other people enslaved to sin.

I hate sin.

I'm not thankful for sin, but I'm so thankful that in the midst of my sin, one that that Christ died for me and he gave his life for me, but also that he empowers, he offers hope, he offers this promise that we have victory through him.

I'm thankful that in the midst of my sin and even in the sin of other people, that that we have victory in the person of Jesus.

So this is just kind of examples that we can't always, and I don't think we're always supposed to give thanks for everything.

We're not supposed to put on this fake smile and and have this shallow gratitude.

It's deep.

It's not giving thanks for everything, it's giving thanks in the midst of everything by the power of the Holy Spirit and understanding that our gratitude is found in a person and not the things we have or this the circumstances that we find ourselves in.

And this gives us a glimpse of what this attitude of gratitude looks like, and more importantly, it gives us a glimpse of why, why this should be something that is our lives are characterized by, why we should be people who are characterized by gratitude and thanksgiving in all things, because we are in Christ and this is God's will for us.

So, as I mentioned earlier, kind of the rest of um the sermon is about the power that comes from this, the power that happens when we live this out, when we rejoice always, we pray constantly, we give thanks in all things.

What happens?

And like I mentioned, there's three different ways that I think the power that comes from gratitude plays out in our life.

And the first part is that it brings healing to the deepest parts of our souls.

An attitude of gratitude brings healing to our souls.

And scripture reveals um to us that gratitude is related to kind of spiritual health in in two different ways.

And since we're talking about healing, we'll kind of use this medical analogy that gratitude acts as a thermometer and also the medicine.

Gratitude acts as the thermometer and also the medicine.

What I mean by this is that gratitude acts as a thermometer for our spiritual health.

When we look at the gratitude of our life, how thankful we are, how much we rejoice, um, how often we pray and give thanks to the Lord.

When we look at that, it tells us a lot about our spiritual health.

It tells us a lot about the health of our souls and our minds and our hearts.

It will give us glimpses of what might be off or wrong in our life, and maybe even show us areas that are off or wrong or disobedient in our life.

Gratitude, it's such a reliable indicator of our spiritual health because it is the natural response, the natural response to personally understanding and receiving God's grace in our life.

In other words, if we are living in and strengthened by God's grace on a daily basis, then gratitude will be present regardless of what our circumstances in life look like.

So we can use gratitude as this thermometer or gauge for the for the health of our souls, for our spiritual health, our relationship with the Lord.

But it also acts as the medicine because it brings healing to your soul.

Gratitude, it brings healing.

It brings healing to brokenness and depression and anxiety and worry.

It brings healing to your soul.

And what we must realize is that Paul is not just telling us to change our emotions or feelings, but Paul is calling us to choose to rejoice and thank God on the basis of truth and faith that He is in control, regardless of how we feel in the moment.

So Paul's not just encouraging us to change our emotions and our feelings that are here today and gone the next, but he's calling us to choose faith.

He's calling us to choose trust in the truth of God's word.

The reality is that if we wait until we feel grateful to thank God, you will feel less and less grateful and you will never thank God.

But if you choose to thank God on the basis of truth, regardless of how you feel, you will naturally feel more and more grateful and more grateful more often.

It is in this way that gratitude acts as medicine and it brings healing to our souls.

In gratitude, it brings peace into the areas of your life where there is no peace.

Philippians, Philippians 4, 6 and 7 says this.

Paul says, Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

This is the healing that rejoicing always and praying constantly and giving thanks in all things.

This is the healing that it brings.

A peace that surpasses all understanding, a peace that will guard your heart and your mind in the person of Jesus Christ.

This is what an attitude of gratitude looks like, and this is what it can do for the well-being of your soul.

It can bring healing to your soul.

But not only healing to your own soul, but I also believe that gratitude invites the power of God into your life.

It invites the presence of God into your life in new and powerful ways.

I want to look at a story of gratitude and praise really from Acts 16 and before kind of leading up to the passage I'm about to read.

The Apostle Paul and Silas, again, this is in Acts 16, they they cast out this demon from a slave girl, free her from that, and you would think that people would be happy about that, but actually the masters and kind of everyone in that area got a little angry because this this slave girl has property that's money to them.

And Paul and Silas had taken that away.

So they get angry.

Um they start um uh kind of this mob rises up against Paul and Silas for setting this girl young girl free.

They strip them, they beat them with rods, and then they throw Paul and Silas in prison for setting this girl free from a demon.

And they're sent to the inner dungeon, and their feet are clamped in stocks, and then this is kind of where we'll pick up the story in Acts 16, verse 25.

Acts 16:25

Says about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the jail were shaken, and immediately all the doors were open, and everyone's chains came loose.

When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison standing open, he drew his sword and was going to kill himself, since he thought the prisoners had escaped.

But Paul called out in a loud voice, Don't harm yourself, because we are all here.

The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

He escorted them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

Some of y'all, this is a side note, some of y'all are walking in here this morning asking that question.

And you may have not asked it out loud because you're nervous or scared to talk to somebody about it, but deep in your soul, you're asking that question, what is it?

What do I got to do to be saved?

What does it mean to come to know and and believe in the person of Jesus?

What must I do to be saved?

And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.

And they spoke the the word of the Lord to him along with everyone in the in his house, and he took them the same hour of the night, washed their wounds, and right away he and all his family were baptized.

He brought them into his house, set a meal before them, and rejoiced because he had come to believe in God with his entire household.

This is an insane story.

It's crazy.

But what we see in the story is that an attitude of gratitude, it invites the presence of God into our lives, wherever we may find ourselves, whatever situation we may find ourselves in.

This story, it begins with Paul and Silas sitting in a jail cell, and it ends with Paul and Silas sitting in the jailer's home after they had believed in the person of Jesus, been baptized, and now they're enjoying a meal together.

How did they how did they get there?

How did that event and all those things transpire so quickly and completely out of the blue?

I believe it started with their gratitude.

As I read the story, there's a couple things I consider.

And the first thing is this is there a possibility that the prayers and praise of Paul and Silas played a role in God rescuing them from the prison in a mighty way, and then also played a role in the salvation of this jailer and his entire family.

And I believe it does.

I think you would be insane if you read this story and didn't think that their worship and their gratitude played a role in what God did in this story.

John 9 31 says that we know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshipper worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.

So this this verse it promises us that if we worship him and we do God's will, which we just learned from 1 Thessalonians, doing God's will is rejoicing always, praying constantly, giving thanks in all things, if we do these things, then God listens to us.

He draws near, he his presence is just overflowed into our life.

Therefore, I fully believe that God heard Paul and Silas in prison and he answered them in a mighty way.

But there's also another thing that I think we should consider as we read this story, and it's the question of do you think Paul and Silas would have continued to worship in gratitude, even if God didn't rescue them from the prison?

And I think the answer to that, again, is absolutely.

Absolutely they would.

So let me say that again.

I'm not so sure that these things would have happened in the absence of Paul and Silas's gratitude.

But I know Paul and Silas's gratitude would have continued to be there even if God did not rescue them in the way that he did.

And I think this brings us back to what a true attitude of gratitude looks like.

It's not based on our circumstances or even what God or does not do in our life when it comes to earthly things, but gratitude is based on the person and presence of God in our life, in the midst of whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.

And I believe that when we live in gratitude, we are inviting God's presence into our lives in a rich and meaningful way, so that he can do something that only he can do in our circumstances and in our lives.

So not only does gratitude bring healing to our own souls, not only does it welcome in the presence of God in our lives and in, I believe, ways that we have never experienced before apart from gratitude, but I also think gratitude it influences the people around us.

It has the power to influence our relationships with other people.

When we live in gratitude, I believe we fulfill what Jesus said in Matthew 5 when he tells his disciples that they are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

This is Matthew 5, 13 through 16, and this is Jesus preaching the Sermon on the Mount to His disciples.

And he looks at him and says, You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty?

It's no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

You are the light of the world.

A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.

No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand and it gives light for all who are in the house.

Same way, let your light shine before others.

Why so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven?

So I think from this, we we can see that in an attitude of gratitude, it influences the people around us.

It's in it's contagious.

Other people catch on to it, they see it.

When we live in gratitude, I believe that we are living as the salt of the earth.

Salt was used for multiple different reasons, just kind of as it is today.

But one of the main ways that salt was used was to preserve food, um, but also just bring flavor to food and when it was cooked.

We all love we all love salt.

You know that when you sit down at a Mexican restaurant and those chips come out, what's the first thing you reach for?

The salt, right?

You gotta flavor up those chips.

And then I I I think our gratitude, it it acts in a similar way.

In one sense, it it acts as this preservative to the people around us.

Because if we're being honest, the people in this world that don't know Jesus, they are decaying.

They're dying.

They're they're hopeless, they they have nothing to live for, nothing to strive for.

Some of you may be in that boat.

That might be how you're feeling walking in to this auditorium this morning.

But the people around us, they're just decaying.

And it's our responsibility as followers of Jesus to bring some life, to preserve them, to point them to the true hope, the true meaning of this life.

And rather than just going along with the cynicism of other people and the culture that we live in, when we live in gratitude, we preserve this joy and this hope for other people.

And along with that, when we live in gratitude, I believe that we also just bring flavor to our relationships with other people.

We all know some sticks in the mud, right?

That they don't have gratitude.

They're not thankful, they're not, they're not rejoicing ever.

And they're just there's there's sticks in the mud.

But as followers of Jesus, I don't think it's it's good if that's how we're characterized, because we should be full of gratitude.

We should bring flavor and excitement and energy and hope into the relationships that we have with other people.

When other people are with us and they have conversations with us, they should leave feeling full of hope rather than feeling drained.

We should bring some flavor into the relationships that we have.

But I also think that gratitude helps us be the light of the world.

And I think when you look at light and and even compare it with darkness, everything is drawn towards light.

Everything is drawn towards light.

You take insects and and bugs, for example, it could be pitch black outside, but as soon as you turn a light on, there's bugs everywhere, right?

The little the little mosquito things, I think those are awesome and cruel at the same time, but it's because mosquitoes are drawn towards the light.

They they can't help but just be drawn towards that.

And I think in the same way, when we when we live in gratitude, when we have this attitude of gratitude, other people will be drawn towards that.

We live in a broken world that is dark, and people are drawn towards something that looks different than the things they are constantly surrounded by.

And one of the things people are drawn towards is gratitude.

When people see our gratitude, they see something different, something that intrigues them, something that makes them curious, something that they want so desperately for their own lives, even if they're afraid to admit it.

A.

W.

Tozer says this the people of God ought to be the happiest people in all the world.

The people of God ought to be the happiest people in all the world.

People should be coming to us constantly and asking for the source of our joy and our delight.

When we live in gratitude, I believe it causes people to ask about the source of our joy and our delight.

It causes people to be curious, to be intrigued by the way we live, the way we talk, the way we treat other people, and above all, the way that we worship God.

And what this does is it presents us this opportunity to tell them what our source is.

That it's not our job, it's not our money, it's not our house, it's not our car, it's the person of Jesus.

It's the life that we have in Christ.

And when this happens, when people are drawn towards our gratitude and they ask about the source of joy and delight, the the greatest opportunity that it presents is what Jesus talked about in Matthew 5.

That they would see this, they would see our good works, they would see our gratitude, and they would come to glorify God themselves.

They would come to know Jesus themselves, they would come to live in gratitude themselves, that they would come to live out God's will for their life rather than their own.

And I believe that when we live in gratitude, it has this power to influence the lives of people around us and then even change just the temperature and the environment of the culture that we live in.

So I want us to see that this is God's will for your life.

This is God's plan, his desire for your life is gratitude, to enjoy him.

The Westminster Catechism says that the chief end of man is to glorify and enjoy God forever.

That's what it means, I believe, to follow Jesus, to be a child, a son, or a daughter of God.

It's just to glorify him and then enjoy him for the rest of your life, for all of eternity.

And an attitude of gratitude, that's that's what makes it possible.

That's what God is calling you to do, to enjoy him, to depend upon him in prayer, to give thanks to him in everything.

And when we live in this way, we'll experience healing in our life in our own lives, we'll welcome in the presence and power of God into our lives, and it will impact the lives of other people for the glory and the honor and praise of God.

So I want to end this morning just by sharing a story that I that I think shows the power of gratitude.

Um it's it's kind of long.

Um, there's some words in here, to be honest, I don't know how to pronounce, but we're doing our best, okay?

Um, but as I read this story, I want you to try to try to pay attention, try to focus.

If you've zoned out and you're thinking about what you're eating for lunch, just come back to me for just a little bit and listen, listen to this story because it's powerful.

It's powerful, and it shows how much power is found in gratitude.

So it goes like this Horatio G.

Spafford, he was a prominent lawyer and businessman in Chicago in the late 19th century.

And he was known not only for his professional success, but also for his faith and his generosity.

And Spafford and his wife Anna were active in their church, and he was a close friend of the famous evangelist D.L.

Moody.

In 1871, the Spaffords faced the first of several tragic events.

The Great Chicago Fire swept through the city, destroying many buildings, including much of Spafford's real estate and investments.

Despite their financial loss, Spafford continued to focus on his faith and helping others working alongside Moody and other Christian leaders to help rebuild the city and support those in need.

Then, in 1873, Spafford decided to take his family on a vacation to Europe, where he also planned to join Moody on an evangelistic tour in England.

However, at the last minute, business concerns delayed his departure, and he sent his wife Anna and their four daughters, Annie, Maggie, Bessie, and Tanita ahead on the steamship SS Villa de Havre, promising to join them soon.

On November 22nd, 1873, tragedy struck when the Ville de Havre collided with another vessel, the Loch Ern, in the Atlantic Ocean.

Within minutes, the ship sank and 226 of the passengers drowned.

Among them were Spafford's four daughters.

Miraculously, Anna Spafford survived and was later rescued by another ship.

Upon reaching safety in Cardiff Wells, Anna sent a telegram to her husband with a heartbreaking message, saved alone, what shall I do?

When Horatio received the telegram, he immediately set out for England to be with his grieving wife.

During the journey, as a ship passed near the area where his daughters had perished, Spafford was overwhelmed with grief.

Yet he found comfort in his faith.

It was during this voyage that he composed the hymn, It Is Well With My Soul.

The hymn's lyrics reflect a profound sense of peace and trust in God, despite overwhelming sorrow.

And it goes like this When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrow is like sea billows roll, whatever my lot.

Sorry.

Whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well.

It is well with my soul.

And when you read the story, you see you see the gratitude.

Um, you see the power that's that's found in the gratitude and the faith of someone else.

And you begin to see what it can do in your life, the healing that it can bring to you, the the power it has to welcome in the presence of God, the power it has to influence people hundreds of years later.

But Horatio, he did the unthinkable, he was able to live out the command that we see in 1 Thessalonians 5 to rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything.

For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

This is God's will for your life, it's God's will for mine, and it's not just good advice to slap on a coffee mug, it's an invitation to live in peace that surpasses all understanding.

So my prayer is that you would just simply leave here understanding the power that's found in gratitude.

That you would see the lifelessness, the death, how much cynicism will just drain your soul, and then you would see the power of gratitude in comparison to that.

You would understand what Christ has done for you and understand that you have a reason to be thankful in the midst of whatever you may be walking through.

You have such a valid reason to be thankful, to rejoice, to praise God in all circumstances, and that this gratitude would bring healing to your soul, it would invite the presence of God into your life, and it would influence the people around you.

So, as we respond, the the few questions are how can you cultivate this attitude in your life?

How can you make gratitude something that you're just characterized by, you're known by?

What do you need to take to the Lord in prayer?

Maybe that's just something you're you're wrestling with now.

What do you need to take to the Lord in prayer?

Maybe a practical way to practice this personally.

Um Nathan had kind of mentioned this doing this in search circle as well, but just this practice of from now until Thanksgiving, it's 12 days away, of just keeping this gratitude journal.

Of one, you know, I do think, I know I mentioned earlier, it's not necessarily giving thanks for everything, but I do think we're supposed to give thanks for it for things that God's done for us, the things He's done in our life.

So maybe it's it's writing down the things that you are thankful for.

But then it's also wrestling and writing out what it looks like to give thanks to God in the midst of everything, in all circumstances, all situations.

Maybe in your gratitude journal, part of it is just writing out prayers that are full of thanksgiving, but they're also making your request known to God, knowing that when you fear him, you obey him, you you walk in his will, he listens to you, hears you.

So maybe a practical way for you to practice this is just a gratitude journal from now until Thanksgiving 12 days.

But then what about even us as God's church?

How can we as a church create this culture of gratitude?

How can we rejoice and pray and give thanks in such a way that it would produce fruit for generations to come?

How can we use gratitude as an opportunity to encourage one another and encourage brothers and sisters in the church?

But also, how can we use gratitude to just be this flame that draws the lost people in our community in?

How can we use gratitude and praise and worship and prayer as a way to draw in lost people in our community like a moth is drawn into a flame?

So as we respond in worship, um our team's gonna lead us in the hymn, it is will.

And as I lead us, I just I want I want you, I want everyone to respond just by obeying the command given in 1 Thessalonians 5.

And there's a few different ways to do that.

It may look different for everybody, but maybe you just need to rejoice.

As our team leads us in worship, maybe you just need to you just need to rejoice, you need to worship.

Let your voice be heard.

Actually sing and sing loudly because God is He's so worthy of praise, He's so worthy of our worship and so worthy for us to rejoice and say, It is well with my soul.

It's well with my soul.

Maybe some of you need to pray.

You might be in a season of life where gratitude just seems impossible.

Everything I've talked about up to this point seems like it's out of reach, it's out of the picture, it's impossible for you.

But the reality is that one, it kind of is impossible apart from Christ.

If you're in Christ, you have this opportunity to lay your burdens down at his feet.

You have this opportunity to take all your worries, all your anxieties, and hand them over to the Lord in prayer.

So maybe you just need to pray.

My encouragement is to pray and bring the things before the Lord so that you may experience the peace that he provides.

And then lastly, some of you may just need to give thanks.

Maybe just spend some time reflecting on the faithfulness of God throughout your life and give thanks in everything, in everything that he has done for you.

So, whatever it looks like for you, um, the encouragement is just to respond in gratitude, respond in gratitude towards the Lord.

So I'm gonna pray for us, and our team is gonna lead us.

Um, God, you are so worthy of our praise, you're worthy of our worship, um, you're worthy of our thanksgiving.

Um, and just during this time, I just pray that it would be filled with gratitude, that it would be filled with um worship, that that honors.